(hopefully easy) Yareli QoL suggestions + augment suggestion

[Gemore]

I saw some similar posts but believe I had some additional things to offer

 

I really like Yareli and wanted to share some thoughts on QoL changes that could be made that are hopefully low effort for DE. Not really focusing on balance because frankly I feel ill equipped to offer thoughts there. I also have some augment ideas I'll list at the end.

Aiming
Probably the one I personally care about the most. Yareli on Merulina can't aim directly up or down. I think it would really help her in the tighter space but vertical rooms in maps - especially when you want to jump above enemies to do sick tricks.

Plague Star
Temporary issue, but Merulina seems to.. kinda just break when you use her on the big blob (clips through it, can't move across it properly). She's not really meta but it is worth pointing out as there are objects in various places that have the same kind of issue (some terrain in RJ for example)

Pipes
Pipes (like the ones on mercury) are quite hard to get into without dismounting. When you do get in you are kind of camera/movement locked. I think the latter is ok but getting in could be helped with a slightly smaller collision box. It also relates too..

Minimum Jump Height
I think a smaller minimum jump height would help using Merulina on a lot of maps. Having jump height be more controlled by how long the jump button is held down would be really appreciated.

Subsumed skills on Merulina
Skills subsumed can't be used on Merulina. I'm sure for some this makes sense, but Roar can't be used? It's a pain to hop on and off again to use skills, and it costs additional energy.

Doors
It's not on all maps, but some planets have Grinneer or Corpus doors that kill all Merulina movement. You can still move through the door it just slows you down to a crawl briefly - feels like you are bumping your head into the top of the door. Example of this found on Venus - E Gate

Pickups/Interactions
A number of things that require the use button (such as Mobile Defense) also dismount me - sometimes even doing both with 1 button press. I think this could be solved by having a separate bind for Merulina? Not sure the best solution but I have dismounted when I didn't want to quite a lot.

Merulina Armor
This one I'm not sure about, but I've noticed when I jump above enemies Merulina seems to die much faster. My suspicion is that armor of Yareli does not apply to Merulina. I think it probably should as it would help encourage (or at least not punish) jumping around doing tricks like an idiot.

Merulina Mods
Also not sure about this one. I -think- it would be cool to mod Merulina with kdrive mods so we can customize its performance? I don't think it should be required for Merulina to be strong, just for options like 'quick jump charge'

Merulina boost into aiming into boosting delay

When you swap between boosting on Merulina and aiming on Merulina there is a weird delay you run into that prevents boosting again for a second or two. It would be a bit smoother if there was no delay, like when warframes start sprinting.

That's it for my QoL ideas/issues. As for the augment

(Inspired Trick)
Doing a combo trick on Merulina gives allies within 40m a Critical Chance buff

Doesn't have to be CC but any kind of party buff for engaging with the k-drive mechanic I think would be really cool. I think with the right numbers she might even have a place in things like the Eidolon meta, especially if the CC or CD buff affected Operators.

That's it, thanks for reading

[Pizza-Cat-Of-Legend]

i like the augment idea, though not necessarily for the crit chance buff but for the trick idea since as of now, doing tricks on merulina is useless.

[(PSN)CommanderC2121]

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

I saw some similar posts but believe I had some additional things to offer

 

I really like Yareli and wanted to share some thoughts on QoL changes that could be made that are hopefully low effort for DE. Not really focusing on balance because frankly I feel ill equipped to offer thoughts there. I also have some augment ideas I'll list at the end.

Aiming
Probably the one I personally care about the most. Yareli on Merulina can't aim directly up or down. I think it would really help her in the tighter space but vertical rooms in maps - especially when you want to jump above enemies to do sick tricks.

I agree this should change. Being restricted in aiming is already bad when your control is effectively on ice. 

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

Plague Star
Temporary issue, but Merulina seems to.. kinda just break when you use her on the big blob (clips through it, can't move across it properly). She's not really meta but it is worth pointing out as there are objects in various places that have the same kind of issue (some terrain in RJ for example)

Pipes
Pipes (like the ones on mercury) are quite hard to get into without dismounting. When you do get in you are kind of camera/movement locked. I think the latter is ok but getting in could be helped with a slightly smaller collision box. It also relates too..

Minimum Jump Height
I think a smaller minimum jump height would help using Merulina on a lot of maps. Having jump height be more controlled by how long the jump button is held down would be really appreciated.

Subsumed skills on Merulina
Skills subsumed can't be used on Merulina. I'm sure for some this makes sense, but Roar can't be used? It's a pain to hop on and off again to use skills, and it costs additional energy.

 

DE stated that the reason they couldnt do this was an animation issue. While Yareli is on Merulina she gets locked out of most animations, and designing her to work with every subsumable ability would take too much time and coding work to be viable. 

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

Doors
It's not on all maps, but some planets have Grinneer or Corpus doors that kill all Merulina movement. You can still move through the door it just slows you down to a crawl briefly - feels like you are bumping your head into the top of the door. Example of this found on Venus - E Gate

Pickups/Interactions
A number of things that require the use button (such as Mobile Defense) also dismount me - sometimes even doing both with 1 button press. I think this could be solved by having a separate bind for Merulina? Not sure the best solution but I have dismounted when I didn't want to quite a lot.

That seems like a good idea

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

Merulina Armor
This one I'm not sure about, but I've noticed when I jump above enemies Merulina seems to die much faster. My suspicion is that armor of Yareli does not apply to Merulina. I think it probably should as it would help encourage (or at least not punish) jumping around doing tricks like an idiot.

It may also be that merulina has a larger hitbox, but that is normally mitigated while on the floor. It is possible however damage dealt to merulina is not reduced in the same way damage is dealt to yareli, and if so that should change

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

Merulina Mods
Also not sure about this one. I -think- it would be cool to mod Merulina with kdrive mods so we can customize its performance? I don't think it should be required for Merulina to be strong, just for options like 'quick jump charge'

Yes

13 hours ago, Gemore said:

Merulina boost into aiming into boosting delay

When you swap between boosting on Merulina and aiming on Merulina there is a weird delay you run into that prevents boosting again for a second or two. It would be a bit smoother if there was no delay, like when warframes start sprinting.

That's it for my QoL ideas/issues. As for the augment

(Inspired Trick)
Doing a combo trick on Merulina gives allies within 40m a Critical Chance buff

Doesn't have to be CC but any kind of party buff for engaging with the k-drive mechanic I think would be really cool. I think with the right numbers she might even have a place in things like the Eidolon meta, especially if the CC or CD buff affected Operators.

That's it, thanks for reading

I dont mind this augment idea, although depending on the crit buff you may want to add an extra bonus to it

[x570Belmont]

None of the supposed changes I've seen for Yareli tackle her core problem: Her lack of kit synergy and her lack of scaling.

 

Her 4 can "scale" but it does it in the most backwards way I've ever seen, by enemy count. It also does innate cold damage. This doesn't synergize with her kit at all.

 

My friends and I have thrown around ideas between us on how to bring Yareli up to snuff as easily as possible without doing a full rework:

 

PASSIVE: Change the passive from a +200% crit chance increase buff to a *flat* +50% crit chance buff (I.E. not factoring in 200% into the existing damage formula as it does currently, but just adds the flat +50% after the crit chance is fully calculated). This would help the restrictive nature of the various secondaries the player is forced to use due to Merulina and would function like a slightly better version of Arcane Avenger.

 

SEA SNARES: The bubbles need to not break from coming into contact with surfaces. CC abilities that don't offer a debuff to enemies/buff to the warframe should not have a Line of Sight requirement, period. Also, base 75 energy at normal 100% efficiency for the maximum 15 bubbles is on the high side. A rework to a cost of 15/30/45 energy (15 energy per 5 bubbles) would be much more in line for an ability that is PURELY CC. Added synergy should be that Sea Snared enemies get passively pulled towards any Riptides within range of them, and if an enemy that is sea snared is pulled into a Riptide, they have a % of armor stripped based on Power Strength.

 

MERULINA: A few proposed ideas.

-Allow Merulina's remaining HP to be added as Armor to Yareli if the player chooses to dismount.

-The helminth ability problem can be easily solved. Instead of adding every single casting animation, just create a generic "Helminth" cast animation for Yareli's use on Merlina. Make it a hand wave or something that be cycled for the cast cycle duration of whatever ability is subsumed. This only requires 1 animation to be created, as opposed to 1 per Helminth ability.

-Fix. Vacuum. Bugs. 

-If DE is willing to go the extra mile, why not allow Merulina to alter the use of abilities via the "hold" option to offer more unique aspects? For example, aqua blades can be thrown to orbit a stationary riptide while on Merulina. Riptide can be channeled and dragged behind Merulina as sort of a vacuum for enemies. Though this is a bit more work, having unique options while on Merulina would incentivize more people to actually use Merulina and not just Helminth it away. 

 

AQUA BLADES: Just add scaling versus enemy level. That's all this skill needs. 

 

RIPTIDE: A simple fix to riptide is to allow it to absorb weapon status types via shooting it, just like Zephyr's tornados. Then it can absorb a status type to compliment whatever loadout the player is running, such as absorbing viral to synergize with the slash damage of Aqua Blades.