Valkyr Rework Fan Concept

[LunaticBaku]

Hello World

I am a humble Valkyr main, and even I must admit that Valkyr isn't exactly the best. I've spent some time brainstorming ideas to improve her. Naturally this would be a rework on the scale of Wukong, Ember, Vauban, and so on. I will start by going over the problems with Valkyr's current abilities with basic solutions, and afterwards present my more crazy ideas.

 

Ripline:

It's a single target ability in a hoard based game. The devs themselves admitted how that doesn't when they talked about the Wukong rework. However, making the ability better is quite simple in concept. When showing off Deimos during I think one of the tennocons, they showed and infested picking up a different infested and throwing it as a weapon. Make ripline do that: grab an enemy and have Valkyr throw the target in the direction the player is facing. Upon impacting an enemy or a wall/the ground, an AoE knockdown effect happens, with the size being dependent on ability range. For animations, ques can be taken from Spider-man on PS4 and/or Miles Morales. Naturally the ability would keep its grapple hook quality when not used on a target, because it's harmless fun.

 

Since the throwing of enemies by enemies wasn't implemented from what I've seen, so either the devs thought it didn't fit or it was too difficult to implement. If the latter, there are other ways of using Ripline, such as a flail type attack. Same basic effect as what was said above, just without grabbing an enemy first and no way of keeping the grappling hook.

 

War cry:

Valkyr's best ability ability by far, but not without problems. The problem being that the ability is at odds with itself. In order to maximize the buff portion of it, you build for duration, but in order to get the most of the debuff portion, you need as little duration as possible, as the ability cannot be recast. The best way to make this better would be to remove the debuff portion entirely and increase the base duration of the ability, because even if you build duration, you need the eternal war augment in order to get the duration beyond 40 seconds.

 

Paralysis: 

Valkyr's worst ability in my opinion. A short range stun that doesn't last long. Best to replace it entirely.

 

Hysteria: 

The famous ability that makes her completely immune to damage. Given the changes it has seen over the years, I get the feeling that this ability is not meant to be relied upon. Valkyr is not a "press 4 and win" frame like some others, and I agree that this is how it should be. To that end, I suggest tying her 4 to a meter that only fills when she takes damage, filling based on the amount of damage received. The more this gauge fills, the more Damage Resistance she gains, up to 50% when the gauge is full. When her 4 is activated, her current DR is doubled until the ability ends, either by reactivating it or when the gauge fully depletes. I feel like this adds a nice risk/reward system to using her 4, as the longer you use it, the weaker you will be coming out of it. For those who don't want to be weakened after coming out, the enraged augment works well. It could remove the gauge drain at the cost of putting the ability on a cooldown.

 

 

Well, that covers all the basics. Time to get CRAZY :D

 

I propose we replace war-cry entirely. With what, you ask?

 

Shock collar: Alad's "disciplinary measures" activate, giving Valkyr a shock, but instead of weakening her, she uses the electricity to empower her. After the cast, it increases her melee attack speed, movement speed, and the duration increases whenever she gets a melee kill. The new augment will give these buffs to anyone who enters a radius around her, based on range, and for a duration after they leave. Think of it like one of Wisp's flowers. The reason I want to replace Valkyr screaming with an electric collar is because it would help get Valkyr's theme across better. She's a prisoner, an unwilling experiment that refused to be broken, an animal that refused to be broken by her captor. Turning something that was used to hinder her as a method of empowerment fits better than her just screaming. And yes, Shock Collar would replace War Cry in the Helminth system.

 

I've had a few ideas for a replacement with Paralysis. The most safe option is to just make the current scream better, instead of stunning it ragdolls enemies and sends them flying. Another idea is to make her 3 an ability that is a remnant of what she was before. An ability that Gersemi would have. The Gersemi skin reminds me of a classic imp, so perhaps something along those lines? Perhaps something along the lines of the Zam spell line from Dragon Quest? Alternatively, a friend of mine would like to learn in to the "valkyrie" part that her name suggests, so perhaps throwing a magical exploding spear of energy? To any who bothers to read this, consider this a free space. Feel free to come up with your own suggestions. Though no matter what it ends up being, I feel a more supportive move would fit best

 

No, there is nothing radical to say about Ripline. It fits Valkyr's theme very well.

 

Hysteria..... Other warframes have since cornered the market when it comes to claws, and I have considered options to replace them: Summoning an array of magical spears she controls with claw-like hand motions, dual wielding riplines, or even just causing explosions with unstable power. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that the claws fit Valkyr the best. A person taking more and more abuse until she can take no more and the beast is unleashed upon the fools that didn't know when to run away.

 

There is one more aspect I definitely want to be included in a new Valkyr: a long lasting taunt. This can be included in Shock Collar (the taunt would not be in the helmenth version), her new 3, or even to be made into her new passive. Why a taunt? It wraps everything I see Valkyr is in a nice little bow. Valkyr is feral, yes, but she's a hunted animal. A beast the Corpus want sedated and submissive, and if not that, dead. Valkyr is far more than just rage. She is fear. She is hatred. She is the desire to survive at any cost. And in the hands of the Tenno, she is the desire to make sure no one ever suffers like that again. Forever scarred, but never broken. Pain and suffering forged into a blade to smite the wicked and protect the innocent, and to that end, when I play Valkyr, I want to take as much abuse as possible. I can take it better than any other warframe. Better to hunt Valkyr than her friends. Valkyr knows the pain better than any, and she knows how to survive it better, too. Am I reading too much into an angy gorl? Is this too dramatic for what is one of the worst frames in the game? Probably, but it is still how I feel about my favorite frame in the game.

 

So to summarize:

 

Give her a taunt with a long duration in some capacity

make Ripline an AoE ability by letting her throw things

Remove War Cry's debuffs and boost the base duration

Replace Paralysis with something entirely new

Tie Hysteria to a meter, and make using the ability a double edged sword

 

Thank you for reading. Please share this with your friends. As you have probably figured out, I am quite passionate about this cat, and if this post gets enough attention, maybe DE will take a look at Valkyr? Probably not, but a man can dream :P