Final Nyx rework suggestion

[Zoh_Veldae]

As many may have realized, with Zephyr's most recent rework, Nyx is now the sole most underused Warframe in the game and for good reason. Her kit is almost unusable in vast majority of gameplay, her theme of "mind control" is done better by other frames and she simply doesn't feel fun to play as in general.

In here I will detail my suggestion for a rework to rectify all these issues.

I will even provide actual numbers and calculations, as this will be the last rework suggestion I'm posting for some time.

Passive Ability: (keep as is)

-Nyx' current passive ability is already relevant and effective in gameplay, no further changes are required.

1st Ability: Mind Control (Reworked)
    Use to permanently take control of target enemy. The enemy will still take damage by allied attacks but take reduced damage from enemy attacks while also moving and attacking faster than they normally could. Can be recast on more targets, but energy cost will increase based on the number of currently controlled enemies.

    Cost: 25 energy
        Strength: +20/40/60/80% enemy damage resistance and speed boost of controlled enemies
        Duration: +60/80/100/120% additional energy cost (rounded down) per controlled enemy
        Range: 20/40/50/60m
        
    Augment Mod: Mind Freak (Reworked)
            Every 10/8/6/4 enemies killed by Nyx personally will allow the next Mind Control to be cast at no energy cost.

-As Nyx is the "mind control"-frame, her theme should feel more pronounced in her kit. However, currently other warframes, such as Revenant, Xaku and (to a degree) Nekros do this better and more efficiently that her, despite that not being their main theme. With this rework, Nyx will have a lot more flexibility and prominence in the "mind control" department while also allowing her own mind controlled enemies to function uniquely from other warframe's. Mind controlled enemies will no longer be invincible or gain any damage bonuses from being shot at while being controlled, but will have a degree of resistance to other enemy attacks. This will allow the controlled enemies to be easily disposable should the player deem necessary while maintaining some utility if kept alive. The additional energy cost calculations are done so that a max ranked Nyx with no mods will be able to keep control of up to 7 enemies at once, to stay in line with the seemingly universal limit of all warframes that can mind control enemies. However, this number will be easily customized with Efficiency, Duration and Max Energy mods all at the player's own discretion. In addition, the augment mod will grant further freedom of use to the ability while also incentivizing players to stay active in battle.

2nd Ability: Telekinetic Throw (New Ability)
    Nyx will telekinetically grab all item drops around herself and shoot them as projectiles against nearby enemies. Damage type will depend on the item drop. After hitting enemies, items will be automatically collected by Nyx. Mind Controlled enemies will not be affected by this ability.

    Cost: 50 Energy
        Strength: 150/300/400/600 damage (Puncture damage for item drops, Slash damage for credits, Impact damage for ammo drops)
        Range: 15/20/22/25m

        Augment Mod: Snatching Telekinesis (New mod)
    Enemies within range of the ability will have a 10/30/50/60% chance of being disarmed and their weapons also becoming item projectiles (damage type will match the enemy's own).

-This new 2nd ability will be replacing her old "Psychic Bolts" ability. In my opinion, that particular ability felt slightly off in her kit overall and is mostly inefficient to use during gameplay in its current iteration. This new ability aims to stay within her "psychic" theme and provide relevant utility to the type of game that Warframe is. The damage numbers are set to be slightly stronger than Ash's Shuriken ability, as they will be similar in how they work, because of the additional steps and requirements for this ability to be used. The automatic collection of item drops used will only take effect if they actually hit enemies, making the ability usable during combat but not abusable as a cheap item collecting effect. The augment mod is also changed completely here as the old would simply overlap its effects with the rest of Nyx' kit. In order to preserve Nyx' own mind controlled enemies from being unwittingly killed, this and all other abilities will not affect them, be it with damage or effects. As an aside, this ability should become the new Subsumed Helminth ability provided by subsuming a Nyx warframe, as her Mind Control ability is now far, far too intrinsic to her kit and theme to just let anyone take it for free.
            
3rd Ability: Chaos (Additional effects)
    [in addition to existing ability] enemies will have their defenses reduced by 20/40/60/80%. Enemies without defenses will instead be slowed. Mind Controlled enemies will not be affected by this ability.

-This ability is already useful enough as it is, the only addition would be to reduce the armor/shields of affected enemies similar to how her current Psychic Bolts ability does. When applied to Chaos instead, the effect will be far more useful than on Psychic Bolts, even if it needs a slight nerf for balance.

4th Ability: Absorb (Leave as is)
    [in addition] Mind Controlled enemies will not be affected by this ability.

-Once again, this ability is already useful as is and has been worked on to what I believe is an acceptable state. The only addition would be to allow Nyx' Mind Controlled enemies to be unaffected by it.

And that is my suggestion. I would additionally suggest to not only improve enemy A.I. but also allow enemy vs enemy damage to be dealt as % damage instead of the standard damage calculation as it is currently, as that can be observed to be less than effective more often than not.

Digital Extremes is more than welcome to use all or parts of this suggestion in their Warframe projects.

Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

[(PSN)LoisGordils]

2 hours ago, Zoh_Veldae said:

4th Ability: Absorb (Leave as is)

Nope. Absorb should have an innate damage multiplier that scales with power strength 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

Chaos should work like Xakus Accuse and actually CC the enemies instead of just reducing enemy FoV like it does now.

I like the idea of the 2, but there’s also a big risk of it being really really bad. Since 90% of the time your Warframe is picking up the loot. It doesn’t make much sense for an ability that requires loot to be effective. You’re kind of making the augment mandatory for the ability to be reliable. Even then the damage is probably too low as well.

Absorb is awful. It’s change to using the damage types put into it did literally nothing for its performance. And on the flip side people use it’s augment to turn it into one of the worst tank abilities in the game. Seriously there is no excuse for an ability as bad as Absorb to restrict movement as much as it does.

 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

1 hour ago, (PSN)LoisGordils said:

Nope. Absorb should have an innate damage multiplier that scales with power strength 

And the multiplier needs to be something like 50 at the bare minimum.

[Zoh_Veldae]

2 hours ago, (PSN)LoisGordils said:

Nope. Absorb should have an innate damage multiplier that scales with power strength 

Yeah sounds good, anything to help is welcome.

[Zoh_Veldae]

7 hours ago, (XBOX)GearsMatrix301 said:

Chaos should work like Xakus Accuse and actually CC the enemies instead of just reducing enemy FoV like it does now.

I like the idea of the 2, but there’s also a big risk of it being really really bad. Since 90% of the time your Warframe is picking up the loot. It doesn’t make much sense for an ability that requires loot to be effective. You’re kind of making the augment mandatory for the ability to be reliable. Even then the damage is probably too low as well.

Absorb is awful. It’s change to using the damage types put into it did literally nothing for its performance. And on the flip side people use it’s augment to turn it into one of the worst tank abilities in the game. Seriously there is no excuse for an ability as bad as Absorb to restrict movement as much as it does.

 

Possibly yes, but then the ability wouldn't fit the theme of the frame as well.

Mirage's Sleight of Hand with the Explosive Legerdemain augment is a good example of an ability that utilizes loot as ammunition and still works effectively, so the precedent is there. And abilities having mandatory augments isn't exactly new, off the top of my head I can recall Nekro's Despoil and Ember's Exothermic but there's bound to be more.

And yes, Absorb could use some tweaks to just make it mobile by default, but it still works alright. What I'm trying to highlight here are her 1st and 2nd abilities that simply aren't effective and more often than not are only useful as slots for Subsuming abilities.

[Electropuncher]

Nyx's real problem is that any theme she had was lost to time, and that her mechanics assume that Warframes and enemies are equivalent in power level. They're also really clunky, and I think that each of her abilities are literally done better by another frame. Revenant's Entrall is a better Mind Control, Ash's Seeking Shuriken doesn't fall off when you cast it again, Ember's Fire Blast can radially destroy armor, Xaku's Accuse does what Chaos wants to do, Hildryn's Aegis Storm also removes enemies from the fight while generating energy energy, Titania's Lantern can pull enemies towards another one to cause a big AOE, and Wukong's Defy is a great invincibility that makes you stronger. Serious question: what does Nyx do that no other frame does? The only thing I can think of is that she's 20% harder to shoot at? And even Xaku has 25% evasion. 

I think you have an interesting rework, but Absorb is literally the worst ability in the game and is the core thing of her kit that I would change.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

7 hours ago, Zoh_Veldae said:

Possibly yes, but then the ability wouldn't fit the theme of the frame as well.

Mirage's Sleight of Hand with the Explosive Legerdemain augment is a good example of an ability that utilizes loot as ammunition and still works effectively, so the precedent is there. And abilities having mandatory augments isn't exactly new, off the top of my head I can recall Nekro's Despoil and Ember's Exothermic but there's bound to be more.

And yes, Absorb could use some tweaks to just make it mobile by default, but it still works alright. What I'm trying to highlight here are her 1st and 2nd abilities that simply aren't effective and more often than not are only useful as slots for Subsuming abilities.

It’s literally just what Chaos does except actually CCs the enemies. IDK how that’s not theme accurate. CC needs to either completely disable enemies ability to attack you, or group them up. Chaos does neither of that. 

I have never actually seen A Mirage that uses the sleight of hand mod effectively. Despoil and exothermic aren’t mandatory, they just make the abilities better. What I’m saying is that the way your ability works at base sounds so bad while the augment sounds so much better I’m asking why you’re even bothering with the base function to begin with? Get rid of the loot grabbing and just have Nyx steal and throw guns. It can still have all the same effects of the rest of your idea. And you can even get the bonus of having it scale with enemy level. So yeah letting her steal guns at base is a far better idea than her picking up loot.

No, if DE is going to have dealing damage as part of what Absorb does then that has to be made actually good as well. The change they made to it was terrible because most of the time enemies are dealing damage types that they resist. So to just reflect those back to them isn’t doing you any favors.

Honestly, Absorb in its entirety is just better off being replaced. Something simple yet cool and effective. Like letting her charge an attack that deals true damage to all enemies affected by her abilities and when they die their heads blow up.