Gotta Go Fast! Now I'll Go Super-Volt! - A Volt Rework

[Yg-Dosst]

First off you'd be AMAZED at how effective Volt would be with only minor Nit-picky changes to how the side-effects of the side-mechanics effecting Volt's abilities.

So I'm not going to be one of THOSE guys and suggest one of his abilities be trashed.

That'd honestly cause more complaints asking for the old Volt, rather then removing complaints.

Plus nothing is more entertaining or unique about the "Volt, Blue Horseman of the Apocalypse, Wielder of the Synapse" than Electric Shield's interaction with the Synapse.

Let's get started:

Keep in mind thus is supposed to keep the core functionality of Volt at heart, and not meant to completely obliterate Volt's purpose in yet another [insert Ability] 2.0 fiasco.

1) - Shock:

• Give it a 30° Homing cone. Make it so that Pin-point aim isn't required, and people will be able to not incidentally waste their energy.

• When hitting an enemy it should chain out a second time possibly even hitting the original target, each enemy hit by the first chain should chain out to others as if they were hit by the original cast.

(I.E. unranked hits one enemy, then two others, then four more (two from each man hit by the first chain; Level 3 should hit the first target, then chain to 5, then chain to a total of 25 more, possibly even to people already being hit by one or more chains.) Currently Lighting chaining is just a watered-down version of AOE damage, and not akin to the standards of "Chain Lighting" in any game. If Nova's ult chains and can reflect damage exponentially, then why doesn't Volt's Shock?

• Make it give a Guaranteed stun to ALL enemies, Rather then just a chance. Electric damage as a whole DOES NOT need to to this, JUST Volt's abilites.

Damage is fine. It's the same as Ember's fireball and it's DOT. And if proper chaining is implemented, then it will match the DOT's damage too. Keep in mind Damage 2.0 is coming out, and Electrical Damage is going to be (relatively) a lot stronger.

2) - Speed:

• Make it amplified by Ability power. If +150% speed makes it a little crazy and ends up clipping people through terrain etc. then stealth nerf it to where Power Strength mods and the helm only work at half or less effectiveness. I'm sure nobody will complain about not clipping through walls.

• Other then that it's Fine as is, making it a Team-buff was the proper thing to do, so they can actually keep up with your gloriousness.

• Needs moar Sanic the Hejehoog quotes.

3) - Electric Sheild:

• Widen it to be at least a 180° to 240° Arced Shield. Enemies are smart enough to flank in this game and move from cover to cover. Only covering one direction, and only being able to get the damage buff by firing at one cluster of enemies.

• AND/OR Make it move and turn with Volt. If you turn to face an enemy, the shield should move with your aim to block the bullets and give you cover. This would also make sure you ALWAYS get the damage amp on every bullet you fire through it. I actually like this idea better, because him having both speed and an ability that drops a stationary shield is more contradictory then a Scotch-Korean.

• Damage bonus is Amplified by Power Strength. Exceptions can be made for the Synapse if necessary, as it already gets the post-massage happy ending.

• Stop advertising Volt as an "Alternative to Gunplay" because this ability is glorious and people suggesting it gets removed need to rethink their priorities.

4) - Overload:

• Guaranteed chance of stunning all enemies regardless of faction.

• Enemies that walk into your ult in-progress should also affected and stunned, just with as many ticks of damage as is left in in the duration of the ult. This will outright prevent melee enemies or toxic ancients from walking into his ult while he's fragile and hitting/killing him.

• Double/Triple/Quadruple the amount of ticks per second. This is the only ability that truly needs a base damage buff, because it is entirely useless in Grineer asteroids. Electronics Bonus damage should be a rare treat or increased effectiveness against the corpus, not a "Lights are mandatory to do any damage" situation.

• The Orb blocks enemies Bullets/Lasers/Rockets/Grenades/Napalm Missiles/etc. as it expands. If walls of his electricity are proven to stop bullets, then why shouldn't an expanding Orb of it stop them also? This also solves Volt's problem of being forced to stand in a full force Napalm Aura for 4 seconds.

• Speed up the Chaining of Electricity when electronics are broken. It's pretty slow, especially for electricity. And especially compared to the speed Nova's ult chains at.

The length of the Animation itself and the duration of the ability is fine. Peoples problems stem NOT from the length of the animation, but rather the fact that you're vulnerble doing it. Blocking bullets and stunning EVERYONE regardless of how late they show up for the party is a solution to his vulnerability and is a MUCH better and more thematic solution then some of the other cheesy suggestions of buffing his armor or making him invulnerable during the animation. These would also have the benefits of helping fend off the enemies from his teammates further reinforcing his role of a squishy nuker that is protective of his allies.

Like a Final Fantasy White Mage without the heals (Don't tell me that Holy and Aero weren't brokenly OP nukes. Haste and Protect were also ridiculous.)

In Conclusion

People tend to overlook these little Nit-picky details and just ask for abilities to be thrown away or give them massive unnecessary damage buffs because they seem to not see the minute workings in the game's core mechanics and operations like I do.

And while this is a big list of things to implement or fix. Some of them being rather difficult to implement and possibly buggy like the Shield following Volt, they're things that needs to be fixed to Make Volt as viable as other nukers like Saryn, Nova, Ember, etc.

Volt starts to die off in effectiveness past Mars, even at level 30, so long as you aren't Cheesing enemies with the Synapse.

That's sad.

That's really sad.

So of course there's going to be things to fix.

There's going to be a LOT of things to fix.

I mean, for Christ's sake, that's not even a proper chaining mechanic on Shock. YES there's going to be a lot of Hard stuff to fix.

But you know what? That just means that more people are going to buy him if he ends up good because of this.

Also buff the J-3 if that'll give you more encouragement to fix Volt. I can live without the Neural Sensors.

People might buy those too. But fix Volt anyways.

Edited November 2, 2013 by Yg-Dosst

[LegacyOfLamb]

Good idea's, it would also be interesting IMO if you would be able to hold down the "1" key and have the ability to charge up the shock.

[Skynin]

How to play Volt: Push 2 and go twerk!

[Yg-Dosst]

Good idea's, it would also be interesting IMO if you would be able to hold down the "1" key and have the ability to charge up the shock.

Well, I use "Mouse Wheel Up" for My first ability so I don't have to take my hand off of WASD and the mouse.

Plus charge and toggle abilities don't seem like they're going to be in the game any time soon.

[Skynin]

Shock - not fun to use, incredible weak as well.
Speed - best of all. Good for melee and shooting, avoiding bullets and travels
Shield - don't know why it's here. Should be changed as you said. Sometimes interesting to use, but don't cost waste power on this mostly. Can be replaced. Damage and accuracy bonuses are good.
Overload - Bad thing. Should be replaced with something else.

Half of his abilities makes Volt's users to stay in one place without any move (cover behind shield, Overload-Jesus stance)
Very weird.

Volt need higher base speed also. And full rework.

[Jandor]

I said this in the other Volt thread, shield should hover in front of volt and do electric damage and knock down enemies it comes into contact with. I want to use Volt as a big fast battering ram.

[Yg-Dosst]

I said this in the other Volt thread, shield should hover in front of volt and do electric damage and knock down enemies it comes into contact with. I want to use Volt as a big fast battering ram.

 

Making the Shield follow him is pretty much the only way to make Volt not have contradictory abilities.

Speed tells that you to basically rush mindlessly through the level.

While electric shield requires you to stand in one spot but is still terrible for defense.

 

Also isn't there a mod already in the game that does something like that? Retribution?