My take on Focus 3.0 - Including an all new "Umbra" school!

[Azamagon]

The problems I see with focus:

• Focus lenses are tedious to utilize, due to limitting your loadouts.
• The cost-penalties which exist on some nodes are 100% a no-no, since you can't lower your rank. These are all removed, but the affected nodes are rebalanced with that in consideration (if it's even needed)
• Zenurik's on-demand energy has made the other schools less desirable. Personally, I don't find this a problem with Zenurik, but rather with the other schools offfering no energyboosting at all, even if that can be done thematically on each.
  • Energy probably needs an overhaul, but for now, I feel the energy additions I've suggested for the other schools could potentially be fun to use and make Zenurik feel less "go-to", even if Zenurik would still remain as a very strong school.
• Some schools have kind of unfitting effects (Confusion is bad for stealth, unfitting to Naramon's "rogue" design - Invisibility fits better for Naramon's potentially "stealthy" style, rather than the tanky style of Unairu) or are generally quite underwhelming overall.
  • My general opinion of the schools can be summarized like this:
    • Zenurik - This "Wizard" school is very useful overall, with good Warframe boosting and useful CC.
    • Unairu and Madurai - Don't offer much for general gameplay, nor do I feel that their respective "Tank"/"Warrior" design intentions really shine through enough
    • Naramon - This "Rogue" school is almost entirely about the combo delay of Power Spike, while the other nodes are generally underwhelming
    • Vazarin - This "Healer" school is quite decent, but could still see improvements.

So, all that said, let's get down to fixing these things!

General changes:

• Lenses are no longer necessary to gain Focus points. Instead, once you have unlocked your Operator, ANY excess affinity goes into a general Focus point pool
  • From the general Focus point pool, you can then fuel points towards ANY school of your choosing!
• Lenses are now consumable items, used similarly to Radiant/Brilliant/Synthetic Eidolon Shards to gain a flat amount of Focus points.
  • However, Radiant/Brilliant/Synthetic Eidolon Shards now grants points towards the general Focus point pool, while Lenses only give points towards their specific schools.
• Base conversion rate is now doubled, and Convergence Orbs (the yellow glowing things) now only grant 4x the bonus (instead of 8x).
• The Melee Combo Counter now decays while out of combat by 50 points every few seconds, instead of depleting completely - The reason for this change is because currently, if you have some combo efficiency, you are incentivized to keep using heavy attacks (even just swinging at air) when the combo timer is running low, so you only lose X combo points, instead of ALL of them. And that just feels weird to me.
  • This makes the Naramon Power Spike effect less "necessary" for melee quality, but the school also get much needed improvements to its other nodes so it still is a good and powerful school.

NARAMON

Spoiler

Described by DE as the "Rogue" tree, I personally feel it has too much emphasis on melee prowess (don't misunderstand me, that's still good). Thus, while there's still melee-oriented bonuses, more emphasis has been added towards being stealthy, playing skillfully and around "Knowing the Enemy", as per its description. Basicly, made more "ninja"-like, if you will. And to that end, I'd like to suggest adding a bit more flavourtext to the description

Current description: This discipline focused on Knowing the Enemy, and the tacticians of Naramon believed that to truly understand a foe would confer the greatest advantage upon a warrior.

New description: This discipline focused on Knowing the Enemy, and the tacticians of Naramon believed that to truly understand a foe would confer the greatest advantage upon a warrior. Their skillful and unexpected attacks were a true testament to their beliefs.

• Passive 1 - Affinity Spike - Grants +5/10/15/20/25/30% XP (from any source) and 1/2/3/4/5/6% flat crit & statuschance against enemies who are fully scanned in the Codex. Works for both Operator and Warframe.
• Passive 2 - Power Spike Unrelenting Spike - Melee Combo Counter now decays while out of combat by 20/15/10/5 points every few seconds, and increase Heavy Attack efficiency by 15/30/45/60% (Old effect of Zenurik's Inner Might added here)
• Passive 3 (NEW!) - Sudden Spike - Increases finisher damage, weakpoint damage and damage against unalerted enemies by 15/25/35/50%. Killing enemies with finishers, with weakspot-kills or who are unalerted grants you 1/2/3/5 energy. Works for both Operator and Warframe
• Blast 1 - Disorienting Blast Mind Blast - Enemies struck by Void Blast are alert-reset and unable to become alerted in any way for 4/5/6/8 sec. An enemy struck by Void Blast for the first time also has 100/135/170/200% chance to be added to Codex (i.e. Chance for 2x scans!)
  • Note: This "mindnumbing" effect greatly synergizes with Sudden Spike's bonuses (damage bonus to unalerted enemies AND energy gain from killing unalerted enemies both apply to these Mind Blasted victims)
• Blast 2 - Disarming Blast Spike Blast - Shoots instantaneous void tendrils to enemies in front of you within the reach of Void Blast + 1/2/3/4 meters. The spikes have a 25/50/75/100% chance to disarm struck enemies and deal damage equal to 50/100/150/200% of your Void Blast's damage, split 50/50 as Void damage and Finisher (True) damage.
  • Note: The void tendrils also applies Mind Blast's effects
• Dash 1 - Executing Dash - Void Dash now stuns enemies and permanently opens them up for finishers. Increases the width of Void Dash by 3/6/9/12m. Also, the Void Dash no longer alerts enemies it hits.
  • Note: No longer increases finisher damage, as this was moved to the Sudden Spike passive instead.
• Dash 2 - Surging Dash Cloaking Dash - After using Void Dash, you gain a cloaking aura for 4/5/6/7/8/10 seconds with a radius of 6/7/8/9/10/12 meters, which renders you and all allies within its radius invisible. Invisibility briefly breaks upon loud weapon useage (a la Ivara's Prowl). Aura locates to your Warframe, when swapping to it.
• Voidmode 1 - Void Stalker - No longer has an energy penalty. Increases your critchance by 10/15/20/25% over 2 seconds with all weapons, 2x benefit for melee. Degrades over 30 seconds when leaving Void Mode or whenever leaving Cloaking Dash's invisibility (i.e. staying invisible with Cloaking Dash helps to pause the degradation).
• Voidmode 2 - Void Hunter - No longer has an energy penalty. Reveals enemies within 20/30/40/50 meters and removes 25/50/75/100% of Voidmode's speed penalty. Revealrange degrades over 30 seconds when leaving Void Mode or whenever leaving Cloaking Dash's invisibility (i.e. staying invisible with Cloaking Dash helps to pause the degradation).
• Waybound 1 - Mind Step - Unchanged
• Waybound 2 - Mind Sprint - Unchanged
• Waybound 3 (NEW!) - Mind Grace - Grants +10/20/30/40% increased slide distance and reduced slide friction for Operator

 

VAZARIN

Spoiler

Designed as a Protector/Healer school, it does its job fairly well. Changes are mostly anti-clunk and minor improvements. Its description could do with a change however, here's my suggestion:

Current description: They trained to Counter the Enemy, and move with an opponent's attacks in order to nullify them. They maintained constant awareness in order to defend against all aggression.

New description: They trained to Negate the Enemy, and move with an opponent's attacks in order to nullify them, further bolstered by techniques to recuperate their allies that might have come to harm. They maintained constant awareness in order to defend against all aggression.

• Passive 1 - Mending Unity - Increase affinity radius by 10/15/20/25 meters and restores 0,5/1/1,5/2 health per second for yourself (works for both Operator and Warframe) and all allies within affinity range
• Passive 2 - Mending Soul - The next 1/2/3/4 revives are instantaneous (for the Warframe and Operator each, for a total of max 8), and when all charges are spent, gain +25/50/75/100% reviving speed.
• Passive 3 (NEW!) - Mending Spirit - Grants 0,25/0,5/0,75/1 ”Spirit” (similar to the syndicate effects like Justice etc). Upon gaining 1000 affinity, a shockwave occurs, restoring 100/150/200/250 health and (over)shields for yourself and all allies in affinity range. Also, the shockwave restores 10/20/30/40 energy for yourself only. Has a 25/20/15/10 second cooldown.
  • Note: Spirt "points" are gained wether you use the Operator or the Warframe, and the points are shared between forms. Also, the shockwave restores health/shields/energy for both your Operator and Warframe, if they are both caught in the shockwave.
• Blast 1 - Guardian Shell - Void Blast produces a 250/500/750/1000/1250/1500 health barrier in front of you, which lingers until destroyed (and swaps over to the Warframe when switching). Holding down Void Blast strengthens the shield further, spending energy to block every 150/200/250/300/350/400 damage dealt to the barrier.
  • Note 1: If holding down Void Blast, the energy-per-X-damage effect takes priority. When you release the button, the static-health barrier is placed afterwards.
  • Note 2: Recasting Void Blast before a barrier is destroyed repairs the health barrier to full health.
• Blast 2 - Guardian Blast - No longer has an energy penalty. Restores 50/100/150/200 (over)shields to allies within 15/20/25/30 meters of the Operator.
• Dash 1 - Protective Dash - Unchanged
• Dash 2 - Sonic Dash - Unchanged, but the shockwave of Sonic Dash now also applies the effects of Protective Dash on allies if they are hit by the shockwave.
• Voidmode 1 - Void Regen - No longer has an energy penalty. Restores 4/8/16/25 health to your Operator and all allies within affinity range (including your own Warframe).
• Voidmode 2 - Void Aegis - No longer has an energy penalty. Grows a 5/8/10/12 meter radius shield over 5 seconds. Shield protects against ranged attacks and slows down enemies inside it by 10/15/20/25%. Shield lingers after leaving Void Mode, for 0,75/1,0/1,25/1,5 seconds per second spent in Void Mode. Max linger time is 3/4/5/6 seconds.
• Waybound 1 - Enduring Tides - Unchanged
• Waybound 2 - Rejuvenating Tides - Unchanged
• Waybound 3 (NEW!) - Cleansing Tides - Reduces all status effect durations on the Operator by 10/20/30/40/50/60%

 

UNAIRU

Spoiler

Designed as a Tanking/CC school of sorts, it does its job somewhat poorly. Changes and additions are made to more emphasize the "Outlasting" aspect of the school. The description of the school fits very well to describe a tanky and sustaining style though, so the description is left unchanged.

Description: This discipline focused on Knowing the Enemy, and the tacticians of Naramon believed that to truly understand a foe would confer the greatest advantage upon a warrior.

• Passive 1 - Void Spines - Reflects 5/15/25/50/75/100% of damage taken back to the attacker. Also grants 10/20/30/40/50/60 flat armor. Works for both Operator and Warframe.
• Passive 2 - Stone Skin Void Endurance - Grants you 2/4/6/8 healthregeneration and ammo mutation equivalent to a rank 0/1/2/3 ammo mutation mod. Healthregen works for both Operator and Warframe, ammomutation only applies to your Warframe
• Passive 3 (NEW!) - Void Absorbtion - Convert 5/10/15/20% of damage on health to energy (basicly, a lesser "Rage/Hunter Adenaline"). Works for both Operator and Warframe, and also energy-converts with Void Chrysalis' health.
• Blast 1 - Magnetic Blast Gaia Blast - "Magnetizes" enemies for 4/6/8/10 seconds (similar to the current effect), and enemies struck by Void Blast permanently have a 50/100/150/200% chance to drop a health orb on death.
• Blast 2 - Unairu Wisp - Void Blast summons (100% of the time) a Wisp which lasts for 10/15/20/25 seconds. The Wisp tightly tethers up to 2/3/4/5 enemies who gets within 7/8/10/12 meters of the Wisp. The Wisp can also be picked up by Operators to increase their damage by 20/40/60/100% for 3/6/9/12 seconds.
  • Note 1: The Wisp now glows rather brightly (with your energy colour), and is shot out similar to a Simulor Orb, floating in the air similarly (doesn't fall to the ground anymore)
  • Note 2: The tether mechanic is continuous/retroactive, capable of pulling in enemies whenever one enters the grabbing-radius. Also, if the max grab-cap has been reached, and a tethered enemy dies, a new enemy can then be tethered.
  • Note 3: Enemies dragged in by the tethers also gets the health-orb debuff from Gaia Blast
  • Note 4: The tethering effect does not ragdoll enemies, it simple "slides" them in towards the centre.
• Dash 1 - Sundering Dash - Using Void Dash through an enemy will reduce their armor by 10/20/30/40/50/75%, or their shields by 10/20/30/40/50/75% if they have no armor.
• Dash 2 - Crippling Dash - No longer displaces enemies struck by Void Dash, but it instead staggers them (causes an Impact-proc) and leaves a paralyzing dust in its wake. The dust covers the entire length of the dash, is 1/2/3/4 meters wider than the dash, and the dust lingers for 2/3/4/5 seconds. Whenever an enemy touches the dust, they are petrified for 3/5/7/9 seconds.
  • Note: The dust would have very low opacity, glowing lightly with your energy colour, as to not obstruct vision.
• Voidmode 1 - Void Shadow - No longer has an energy penalty. Grants 50/60/70/80% damage reduction to allies within 15/20/25/30 meter radius while in Void Mode.
  • Note: Yes, the invisibility effect is removed (or rather, was more or less moved to Naramon, in its new Cloaking Dash effect)
• Voidmode 2 - Void Chrysalis - No longer has an energy penalty, and heavily reworked: Every second in Void Mode builds up 100/150/200/250 "Chrysalis Skin" (capped at 300/450/600/750 skin). This works like a protective barrier, taking damage after shields, but before health. Chrysalis Skin loses 1 of its health every second when outside of Void Mode. The Chrysalis Skin effect transfers to your Warframe when swapping to it. Its health works for both Void Spines (reflection and armor) and Void Absorbtion (damage-taken-to-energy)!
• Waybound 1 - Basilisk Scales - Unchanged
• Waybound 2 - Basilisk Gaze - Increases the radius of Void Blast by 25/50/75/100% (up from 15/30/45/60%)
• Waybound 3 (NEW!) - Basilisk Stance - Operator knockdown recovery is 25/50/75/100/125/150% faster

 

ZENURIK

Spoiler

This school seems to be designed as a "Wizard" school, emphasizing mainly energy restoration and CC. It does this role decently well for the most part, while its description is... not entirely clear about its potential? So, some mild changes / addition to the description felt in order.

Current description: They believed the clearest path to victory was to Dominate the Enemy. They sought to choke an opponent of all resources; that sheer strength could erase any resistance.

New description: They believed the clearest path to victory was to Dominate the Enemy. They sought to choke an opponent of all resources; that the sheer arcane strength gifted to them from the Void could erase any resistance.

• Passive 1 - Energy Pulse - Unchanged
• Passive 2 - Inner Might - Grants +5/10/15/20 initial points to the melee combo counter and +5/10/15/20% max energy (for both Operator and Warframe - stacks additively with mods like Flow)
  • Note 1: Was so heavily changed, because the heavy melee efficiency was moved over to Naramon
  • Note 2: The energy for the Operator only applies to the "spell" energy, not the Amp energy.
• Passive 3 (NEW!) - Void Anomaly - Grants 2,5/5/7,5/10/12,5/15% evasion. Works for both Operator and Warframe
• Blast 1 - Temporal Blast - Unchanged
• Blast 2 - Voltaic Blast - Unchanged, but enemies struck by Voltaic Blast are now also affected by Temporal Blast
• Dash 1 - Energizing Dash - Unchanged
• Dash 2 - Lightning Dash - No longer has an energy penalty. The lightning-strikes now have a 100% Electric status chance. Otherwise, unchanged.
• Voidmode 1 - Void Static - No longer has an energy penalty. When in Void Mode, emits a pulse that deals 200/300/400/500 damage/second to enemies within 8/10/12/15 meters, while also removing 3/6/9/12% of their max armor/shields on each pulse (capped at 9/18/27/36%). Does not deal damage to unalerted enemies (but still depletes their armor/shields)
• Voidmode 2 - Void Singularity - No longer has an energy penalty. Otherwise, unchanged.
• Waybound 1 - Void Siphon - Unchanged
• Waybound 2 - Void Flow - Unchanged
• Waybound 3 (NEW!) - Void Stream - Grants 10/20/30/40m loot radar as Operator

 

MADURAI

Spoiler

This seems to be the aggressive "Warrior" school, mostly oriented to boost the Operator's damage output. While the idea is nice, that falls flat really hard, really fast since ... well, it's too focused on boosting the OPERATOR. So, to strengthen this school potential, it gets loads of buffs - stuff which also helps boost the Warframe.

Description: They followed the path of Engage The Enemy. Their swift, uncompromising onslaught, holding nothing back and recklessly attacking their foes, could vanquish an opponent before he had the chance to steel himself. Speed and savagery characterized this school.

• Passive 1 - Phoenix Talons - Increases physical damage dealt by 10/15/20/25% and any damage dealt with the Operator's abilities (i.e. everything which is not the Amp) also permanently erodes X base armor/shield from enemies.
• Passive 2 - Phoenix Spirit - Increases elemental damage dealt by 10/15/20/25% and increases your movement speed (both Operator and Warframe) by 2,5/5/7,5/10%
• Passive 3 (NEW!) - Phoenix Heart - Every 20/16/12/8 kills you do grants you 1 energy per second for 5 seconds. Duration is stackable. Works for both Operator and Warframe (the buff is applied to both of them simultaneously)
• Blast 1 - Flame Blast - Void Blast releases a ball of fire which explodes 0,3 seconds after impact. It deals 100/200/300/400% of Void Blast's damage, dealt evenly as Void, Finisher and Heat damage. Has a 100/166/233/300% Heat status-chance and also causes enemies to suffer 10/20/30/40% more damage taken from all sources, for 6/8/10/12 seconds.
• Blast 2 - Rising Blast - Increases the damage of Void Blast and Flame Blast by 50/100/150/200%. Can now charge Void Blast, which amplifies Void Blast's and Flame Blast's damage by up to 300%, their radius by up to 100% and Flame Blast's damage-amplification effect and duration by up to 150% (which means a max damage amp of 25/50/75/100%).
• Dash 1 - Blazing Dash - Void Dash leaves a trail of fire that deals 100/200/300/400/600/800 damage/second, lingering for 3/6/9/12/12/14 seconds. Void Dash will now stun enemies instead of displacing them, and the fire trail has a 10/15/20/25/35/50% chance to trigger a Heat-proc. The fire trail is 1/2/3/4 meters wider than the Void Dash itself.
  • Note: This stun no longer opens enemies to finishers (the ability to open enemies to finishers was moved to Void Radiance)
• Dash 2 - Meteoric Dash - Increases the damage of Void Dash and Blazing Dash by 50/100/150/200 (per tick, for Blazing Dash), and increases the status duration and status chance of Blazing Dash's fire trail by 25/50/75/100%.
  • Note: This means that when both Blazing Dash and Meteoric Dash are maxed, the fire trail has guaranteed Heat-procs on every damage-tick!
• Voidmode 1 - Void Radiance - No longer has an energy penalty. Upon leaving Void Mode, you blind all enemies within 6 meters, for 3/4/5/6 seconds. Every second spent in Void Mode increases the blind's radius by +0,5/1/1,5/2m radius and its duration by +1 second. Max range is 7,5/9/10,5/12m and max duration is 6/7/8/9 sec (both caps are always achieved by staying in Void Mode for 3 seconds, for all ranks).
  • Note: Now opens enemies to finishers (instead of Blazing Dash)
• Voidmode 2 - Void Strike - No longer has an energy penalty. Now applies to Flame/Rising Blast (since it already consumes their charges). One charge now applies to all projectiles with multishot (like shotguns etc).
• Waybound 1 - Inner Gaze - Unchanged
• Waybound 2 - Eternal Gaze - Unchanged
• Waybound 3 (NEW!) - Piercing Grace - Grants 10/20/30/40m enemy radar as Operator

 

UMBRA

Spoiler

Description: They combined their powers to Flank the Enemy, gathering the most elite warriors to subdue their foes. They believed that with strategical teamwork and by cunningly covering the battlefield comes the best results, in particular against the unrelenting threats of the Sentients.

This school would be unlocked when you finish The Sacrifice quest.

Basicly, it's a school to use both as a way to give "umbral sentience" to any Warframe (similar to Excalibur Umbra) and to give means towards emphasizing this cooperation - and not just between your Warframe/Operator, but also for your teammates! Furthermore, it also delves into confusion and Operator clones, to give that "covering the battelfield" kind of feel.

Note that it's still kind of Work-In-Progress though.

• Passive 1 - Umbral Sentience - Causes your Warframe to move around and attack on its own when using the Operator. When using the Operator, the Warframe also restores 1/2/3/4 energy per second
  • Note: All the rules which applies to Excalibur Umbra, also applies to any other Warframe which has gained sentience from this passive
• Passive 2 - Umbral Synergy - Dealing damage with the Operator increases all (not just your own) Warframes' damage dealt to that target by 10/15/20/30/40/50% (permanently) and vice versa (Your Warframe deals damage= All Operators deal more damage to that target)
• Passive 3 - Umbral Reach - Increases the effective range of your weapons, for both Warframe (all weapons) and Operator (Amps and Void Beam), in various ways:
  • Melee range: +0,1/0,2/0,3/0,4 meters
  • Beam range: +1/2/3/4 meters - also applies to any weapon with otherwise limitted range
  • Projectile speed: +5/10/15/20%
  • Blast radius: +2,5/5/7,5/10%
• Blast 1 - Binding Blast - All enemies struck by Void Blast are linked together, sharing 15/25/35/50% of all their damage taken with one another for 8/10/12/15 seconds.
• Blast 2 - Commanding Blast - Your Warframe will be ordered to attack the enemies you cast Void Blast on, while also increasing the Warframe's movement speed by 25/50/75/100% and attackspeed (melee and ranged) by 15/25/35/50% while attacking these targets
• Dash 1 - Replicating Dash - Void Dashing leaves up to 1/2/3/4 Operator holograms in your wake, for up to 8/10/12/15 seconds. Each one has 50/65/80/100% of the Operator's health (and potential shields), stay still and shoot with their amps at nearby enemies, each dealing 5% of the Operator's damage. Max 1/2/3/4 holograms can exist at once (creating  new holograms after the max amount has been met removes the oldest ones first)
  • Note 1: The holograms are created behind you, on the path your travel with your Dash. If you don't travel enough distance, no / fewer holograms may spawn.
  • Note 2: If these holograms deal damage to an enemy, they trigger Umbral Synergy! Their amps also benefit from Umbral Reach, just like you do
• Dash 2 - Flanking Dash - The holograms from Replicating Dash have their damage output increased to 10/15/20/25%, and every kill you make (as Operator or Warframe), increases the duration of the clones by 0,25/0,5/0,75/1 second (but never past 2x their original max duration, i.e. 16/20/24/30 seconds).
• Voidmode 1 - Void Cover - Upon leaving Void Mode, you create two small 3-meter radius domes of shadows - one which follows the Operator and one which follows the Warframe, (and stays active even when swapping to the Warframe), which blocks enemies' line of sight for 2 seconds. Every second spent in Void Mode increases the domes' duration by 1/1,5/2/3 seconds (capped bonus at 3/4,5/6/9 seconds, for a total duration of 5/6,5/8/11 seconds, and these caps are always achieved by staying in Void Mode for 3 seconds, for all ranks)
  • Note: The dome is almost entirely seethrough, as to not obstruct your vision.
• Voidmode 2 - Void Madness - Upon leaving Void Mode, you confuse all enemies within 6 meters, for 3/4/5/6 seconds. Every second spent in Void Mode increases the confusion's radius by +0,5/1/1,5/2m radius and its duration by +1 second. Max range is 7,5/9/10,5/12m and max duration is 6/7/8/9 sec (both caps are always achieved by staying in Void Mode for 3 seconds, for all ranks).
• Waybound 1 - Shadow Wings - Grants 20/40/60/80% reduced gravity while aiming (basicly, aimglide for Operators)
• Waybound 2 - Shadow Grasp - Grants +2/4/6/8/10/12 meter vacuum for the Operator. This vacuum-extension does NOT pick up Energy Orbs or Health Orbs.
• Waybound 3 - Shadow Connection - Transference static time reduced by 5/10/15/20/25/30 seconds (Note: This applies to your Warframe though, not the Operator)

 

Feedback on this would be lovely!

[JimmuTanno88]

Sounds great, especially the umbra tree, frame sentience is an absolute yes. 👍

[Redfeather75]

Oh am I understanding your focus gain system right?

When I earn affinity it goes into a xp pool. And if I go into my focus screen and manually add the general xp to a specific school it'll net me more focus depending on how many lenses I used in that school?

That sounds really nice.

[Slayer-.]

Sounds interesting.

Hmm Umbra Focus Tree, I'd max that out straight away I'd say, with the millions and millions of spare points sitting around. 

 

[Azamagon]

14 hours ago, JimmuTanno88 said:

Sounds great, especially the umbra tree, frame sentience is an absolute yes. 👍

Glad you liked it!

What do you think of the particular effects for the Umbra school's nodes? Anything particular that you like more, or like less?

13 hours ago, Redfeather75 said:

Oh am I understanding your focus gain system right?

When I earn affinity it goes into a xp pool. And if I go into my focus screen and manually add the general xp to a specific school it'll net me more focus depending on how many lenses I used in that school?

That sounds really nice.

Ah sorry, I explained very poorly what I meant.

How it works currently:

• You equip lenses to gain Focus points towards X school
• You can do "Focus Conversion" of Radiant/Brilliant/Synthetic Eidolon Shards, consuming them to fuel focus a flat amount of points towards X school

How I meant it to be changed:

• When you gain excess XP, without any lenses needed, it gets converted to a general focus point pool (rather than to a specific school)
• You can do "Focus Conversion" of Radiant/Brilliant/Synthetic Eidolon Shards, consuming them to fuel a flat amount of focus points, but now towards the general focus point pool (rather than to a specific school)
• From the general focus point pool, you can then distribute points towards a specific school of choosing
• Lenses can also be used for "Focus Conversion", consuming the Lenses to fuel a flat amount of focus points - however, they only grant points towards their specific school (i.e. a Zenurik Lens only grants Zenurik focus points)

That's the boring idea I had :P

Your idea could probably work too - as long as it would have retroactive effects. However, it makes getting multiple lenses less needed. I still want Lenses to be something you want to get in great quantities, so they feel less "diluting".

7 hours ago, Slayer-. said:

Sounds interesting.

Hmm Umbra Focus Tree, I'd max that out straight away I'd say, with the millions and millions of spare points sitting around. 

 

Hehe, wouldn't a lot of us? ;)

[smashedwookie]

This look really nice, really like the fact you found a way for all school to have a form of energy regen. Most of the changes you're suggesting also don't really seem to lead to stupid amount of power creep. Some of those 3rd waybound would also be nice to have just for general QoL.

Now If only DE could look at this...

[Azamagon]

3 minutes ago, smashedwookie said:

This look really nice, really like the fact you found a way for all school to have a form of energy regen. Most of the changes you're suggesting also don't really seem to lead to stupid amount of power creep. Some of those 3rd waybound would also be nice to have just for general QoL.

Now If only DE could look at this...

Oh wow, this was EXACTLY the intention with the changes - Add thematic energy regen to all schools (even if Zenurik is likely still the "best" one due to being more on demand), polish them overall to fit their themes better, all while avoiding too much power creep.

Thanks for this comment, I really appreciate it! ^_^

[smashedwookie]

From the way game is currently played Naramon might be the weakest energy regen amongst what you are suggesting. Not quite sure about Umbra but that one could turn out ok with other operator abilities.

[Soy77]

I didn't read the whole thing.

I don't need to.

Halfway reading it, i already decide that it seems like a good idea, and most probably better than the mess we have right now.

I mostly agree that these "schools" are confusing. Everybody knows that Gryffindor are the brave knights and Slytherin are the sneaky bunch, I'm over 1000 hours in warframe but never bothered to learn what unairu teaches or what vazarin are known for. Their skills doesn't explain anything either.

I think it's still possible for warframe to just rework the whole stupid operator skill trees. Give us back our millions of focus like they did with intrinsics and let us respec.

[Azamagon]

2 hours ago, smashedwookie said:

From the way game is currently played Naramon might be the weakest energy regen amongst what you are suggesting. Not quite sure about Umbra but that one could turn out ok with other operator abilities.

I can see what you mean - but there's a hidden combo here:

Mind Blast a bunch of enemies = They are now unaware about their surroundings for up to 8 seconds (I need to clarify this better). Kill them in any way = Up to 5 energy per target killed. That can sorta work as a quick energybooster in some of the speedier missions, no doubt.

[smashedwookie]

yeah you probably have a few hidden gems like that one that i did not notice on first read.

[0_The_F00l]

Looks interesting ,

some of the abilities feel a little too strong though.

Maybe tweak them to be noticeable but not obviously a replacement of existing mods.

[Azamagon]

Just now, 0_The_F00l said:

Looks interesting ,

some of the abilities feel a little too strong though.

Maybe tweak them to be noticeable but not obviously a replacement of existing mods.

Which ones would you consider to be a little too strong? People have quite different opinions in that regard, so it'd be nice to hear some specifics for this! ^_^

[0_The_F00l]

24 minutes ago, Azamagon said:

Which ones would you consider to be a little too strong? People have quite different opinions in that regard, so it'd be nice to hear some specifics for this! ^_^

Vazarin mending spirit for one , considering how easy it can get to reach 1000 affinity it could be an exploitable shieldgate and health regen mechanic unless you put a cooldown on it.

Unairu void absorption and void chrysalis synergy would effectively make it infinite energy at all times , maybe sandwich the chrysalis between shields and health to avoid exploitation.

The whole of umbra school feels overpowered , maybe not independently as abilities but due to its many many synergies with other waybounds and considering you are making all frames sentient which is a big can of worms by itself. And I don't quite see a thematic consistency , what exactly is the core theme ? Maybe some sort of vulnerability and resistance manipulation to counter the sentient adaptability would be more apt.

P.s. But I do love the concepts , I had initiated a similar discussion quite some time back with similar points.

[AuroraSonicBoom]

I promise you that ain't going to happen. Focus will remain where it is until Duviri Paradox releases. Would I like to see some buffs and nerfs? Sure, but as it stands right now the system is mostly fine.

[(PSN)drpunk-yo]

Props for the thought put into this but don't we just all switch from Zenurik to Madurai? Energy AND damage. We all switch to solo though to stop anyone kill stealing AND energy stealing lol.

But yeah, I'm assuming everyone cares or uses the system as little as I do but considering I don't think I've seen anything other than an energizing dash ring from another player then it seems a fair assumption to make. I would've thought I'd've seen at least one other player temporal blast a disruption target during sortie by now, but nope. Not yet. Passives or energizing dash.

Despite the hate it'd get my system would probably start with scrapping energizing dash instead of giving it a form in each school.

 

[(PSN)ErydisTheLucario]

I can see that alot of people agree, and I do too.. or I would if I didn't ready ignore the boring system we currently have. For me personally, it would be another system for me to ignore BUT, I do see the benefits for a better system, and this has a good outline for such a thing.

[Azamagon]

4 hours ago, AuroraSonicBoom said:

I promise you that ain't going to happen. Focus will remain where it is until Duviri Paradox releases.

Well, I don't mind waiting until Duviri Paradox for Focus-rebalancing. As long as they do it properly.

Spoiler

Would I like to see some buffs and nerfs? Sure, but as it stands right now the system is mostly fine.

I strongly disagreed. The 2 biggest reasons for that are:

1) Penalties on the nodes are a 100% no-no, since you can't undo them. For something that takes quite an effort to level up, feeling compelled to NOT use a lot of the nodes shouldn't be a thing. Even Zenurik users find themselves disabling - or not even levelling - Lightning Dash, Void Static and Void Singularity due to this. And that's in the arguably best school! This really indicates a poor system at hand.

2) Zenurik is overwhelmingly popular (paraphrased from the devs when they were dealing with Focus' statistics), due to it being so generally useful, unlike the other schools' far more niched uses. Only Vazarin and argubaly Naramon have any semblance of competition, but are still far off.

So again - I strongly disagreed with you here. It's in dire need of fixing.

[Azamagon]

2 hours ago, (PSN)drpunk-yo said:

Props for the thought put into this but don't we just all switch from Zenurik to Madurai? Energy AND damage. We all switch to solo though to stop anyone kill stealing AND energy stealing lol.

But yeah, I'm assuming everyone cares or uses the system as little as I do but considering I don't think I've seen anything other than an energizing dash ring from another player then it seems a fair assumption to make. I would've thought I'd've seen at least one other player temporal blast a disruption target during sortie by now, but nope. Not yet. Passives or energizing dash.

Despite the hate it'd get my system would probably start with scrapping energizing dash instead of giving it a form in each school.

 

Thanks ^_^

Switching from Zenurik to Madurai would be a tough call for some, I bet. While Madurai offers damage and some energy, Zenurik provides on demand energy and more of it (both from Energy Pulse and Energizing Dash).
The "soloing" part... hmmm, basing it on kills is maybe not so great after all huh - even though it fits Madurai's theme? It could sadly probably lead to some ragey moments. Maybe just a plain, weak energy regen (think Energy Siphon) would work better instead?

I personally Temporal Blast disruption targets basicly ALL THE TIME! Maybe they don't even know that it works?

Personally, I wouldn't hate Energizing Dash going away, but only if there was a base energyregen on all Warframes. I can even see both existing (base regen and the dash, I mean), but then the E-Dash would need a nerf, something which I don't think people would really be too angry about if base regen was added at the same time.

Base regen + nerfing E-Dash is probably smarter in the long run - but making up these thematic nodes was too much fun :P

[Azamagon]

21 hours ago, 0_The_F00l said:

1) Vazarin mending spirit for one , considering how easy it can get to reach 1000 affinity it could be an exploitable shieldgate and health regen mechanic unless you put a cooldown on it.

2) Unairu void absorption and void chrysalis synergy would effectively make it infinite energy at all times , maybe sandwich the chrysalis between shields and health to avoid exploitation.

3) The whole of umbra school feels overpowered , maybe not independently as abilities but due to its many many synergies with other waybounds and considering you are making all frames sentient which is a big can of worms by itself. And I don't quite see a thematic consistency , what exactly is the core theme ? Maybe some sort of vulnerability and resistance manipulation to counter the sentient adaptability would be more apt.

4) P.s. But I do love the concepts , I had initiated a similar discussion quite some time back with similar points.

1) Oh shoot, I forgot about that entirely! The syndicate-blasts have cooldowns tied to their buff-durations, and my idea doesn't have a duration to its benefits so I missed that entirely. Good call, will definitely add a cooldown on it!

2) Infinite, in a sense, yes - but it requires getting attacked which is already putting you in danger. Nontheless, sandwiching it between shields and health is probably a really good idea, yeah, as it's less safe (since there's no shieldgating to help you out during the "Rage"-conversion). I might add that right away too!

3) Hmmm, interesting. Never thought the Umbra school would seem overpowered personally (I thought it seemed underwhelming at first lol).

The thematic consistency is maybe a tad harder to pin down than the other schools. I guess you can see it like this:

• Madurai - Warrior - Raw combat strength. Think Excalibur.
• Zenurik - Wizard - Spellcasting versatility. Think Volt.
• Naramon - Rogue - Sneaky prowess. Think Ash.
• Vazarin - Healer - Restorative functions. Think Trinity.
• Unairu - Tank - Endurance and artrition. Think Nidus.
• Umbra - Mesmer or Puppeteer - Confusion, teamwork (particularly between Operator and Warframe) and small-army-tactics. Think Nyx.

Good point about vulnerability and resistance manipulation though, might add something with that in there instead of something else. Although I guess that's indirectly there already, since the school highly encourages active and repeated use of the Operator (which gives more time to use the "resistance reset" via your Operator's void-attacks)

4) Awesome, thanks. And excellent feedback btw, really helpful! ^_^

[Azamagon]

1 hour ago, (PSN)ErydisTheLucario said:

I can see that alot of people agree, and I do too.. or I would if I didn't ready ignore the boring system we currently have. For me personally, it would be another system for me to ignore BUT, I do see the benefits for a better system, and this has a good outline for such a thing.

Thanks :)

But I'd at least encourage you to test out the schools a little bit, they are certainly helpful, even if niched at times.

 

[JimmuTanno88]

On 2021-05-31 at 6:46 AM, Azamagon said:

What do you think of the particular effects for the Umbra school's nodes? Anything particular that you like more, or like less?

Just the general synergies between frame and operator, would actually encourage using the operator more as opposed to flinging it around for energy/benefits like the current system works.

[vanaukas]

12 hours ago, AuroraSonicBoom said:

I promise you that ain't going to happen. Focus will remain where it is until Duviri Paradox releases. Would I like to see some buffs and nerfs? Sure, but as it stands right now the system is mostly fine.

All my hopes for an improved operator gameplay relies on that key moment of Duviri paradox introduction. I see that milestone as a continuation on TSD, TWW and TS. I'm even more excited about that rather than the new war conclusion or continuation

[Azamagon]

On 2021-06-02 at 1:14 AM, JimmuTanno88 said:

Just the general synergies between frame and operator, would actually encourage using the operator more as opposed to flinging it around for energy/benefits like the current system works.

Yup, that was the point :)

On 2021-06-02 at 1:27 AM, vanaukas said:

All my hopes for an improved operator gameplay relies on that key moment of Duviri paradox introduction. I see that milestone as a continuation on TSD, TWW and TS. I'm even more excited about that rather than the new war conclusion or continuation

I just hope they don't forget about the Focus schools for Duviri Paradox >_>