[Warframe Critique] Rhino: The Stampede Ability Known as Rhino Charge

[FoxFX]

^{The following critique is based from the perspective of a PC player.}

 

WHAT IS DONE RIGHT WITH RHINO

• Sporting an all-round great sustainability and one of the top offensive group support abilities in the game
• A famous pick for the next Warframe for newer players to choose
• Rhino Stomp serves as a quick albeit expensive AOE stun
  • Unlike Caliban's Sentient Wrath that is cheaper and has a a similar effect, cannot work on Eximus Units with the Overguard, Rhino's Stomp which costs more and has not enemy limit can affect Eximus with Overguard
• Roar will always serve as a top Subsume ability as one of the few kits that improve both Weapon Damage and Ability Damage

 

WHAT FEELS WRONG ABOUT RHINO

• Rhino will always be a sturdy tank of a Warframe, but to maximize the defensive capabilities Rhino has, he does require heavily on his Augments
  • With Ironclad Charge, it prepares a reset-able Armor boost dependent on enemies hit to maximize the Armor gained and any future Iron Skin buffer amount
  • Reinforcing Stomp allows Rhino's Iron Skin to recover up to its current max based on enemy hit
  • In case Iron Skin is low, you would need Iron Shrapnel to discard on command and setup a brand new Iron Skin
• Rhino Charge:
  • To gain the most Armor buff from this ability requires the Augment (which is a multiplicative Armor bonus) where there are other abilities that don't require an Augment or extra Mod Space for is usually Subsumed over:
    • Elemental Ward
    • Defy
    • Parasitic Armor
  • The Augment while could gain some high value of Armor suffers on several accounts:
    • The Armor gained is dependent on the amount of enemies hit
    • The Armor you gain does not stack from a second cast of Ironclad Charge
    • The range of Rhino Charge's hitbox is rather tricky to notice without some visual aid
  • Synergy:
    • Despite the synergy it has with Iron Skin and Rhino Stomp, both seemingly designed to let Rhino Charge deal more damage, the damage for Rhino Charge is extremely subpar
  • Rhino Charge Combo System
    • Meant to improve the damage and the cost, but is starting to fail on its execution
      • Needing to constantly push the button to continuously charge can be a bit stressful
      • The combo damage bonus does little help in terms of striking power especially since it is meant to feel like an "iron stampede"
    • Not to mention, Rhino doesn't have as much Energy to rely on the multiple casts of Rhino Charge as a traverse option nor as a quick offensive option

 

THE MAIN TOPIC ON THIS CRITIQUE: RHINO CHARGE

Rhino will always remain a strong Warframe choice, but in terms of synergy with his abilities, I feel they fall a bit flat. This also brings to focus on some problems I see with Rhino Charge.

For this particular article, I am going to focus most of my thoughts on how Rhino Charge could be improved if possible in the future.

 

 

[Suggestion #1] Switch the Augment Effects of Ironclad Charge and Reinforcing Stomp

• Let Reinforcing Stomp instead of recover Iron Skin for Rhino gain Ironclad Charge's effect giving it the ability to gain Armor
  • With Stomp having no cap in how many enemies it can hit, this could effectively be a great option to consider as long as the duration of the Armor buff is increased due to the Energy Cost of Rhino's Stomp
  • With Rhino Charge's Augment recovering Iron Skin each hit, ti can serve as a cheaper and a better consistent feeling option to maintain the defenses Rhino has. It can make Rhino Charge better serve as a niche ability to keep around.

[Suggestion #2] Improving Damage & Synergy for Rhino Charge with options [Removing Combo System]

Following options presented are to better justify the synergy Rhino Charge has with Iron Skin and Rhino Stomp.

• Option #1: Make Rhino Charge's damage improve based on Enemy Level
• Option #2: Make any damage taken to Rhino's Shields, Health, and/or Iron Skin store a multiplicative buffer for the damage of the next Rhino Charge activated
• Option #3: Despite Iron Shrapnel having a similar gimmick, you can have holding down Iron Charge to sacrifice a portion of Iron Skin to greatly improve the damage of Iron Skin based on XX% of the Iron Skin sacrificed

 

[Suggestion #3] Visual Indicator

• Giving it a similar treatment that Nidus' Virulence has, let holding down the ability show a visual indicator of the width and the length of Rhino's Iron Charge AOE

 

[Optional Suggestion] Giving Rhino Charge a Gauss Mach Rush treatment

• It does not have to be as fast as Gauss's, but you could have it accelerate to a max speed while it is held ONLY that you won't be able to steer Rhino Charge

 

[Optional Suggestion] Damage Type for base and Iron-Skined Rhino Charge

• Can keep the Impact for base Rhino Charge, but perhaps let Iron-Skin'd Rhino Charge perhaps have equal IPS distributions. Considering that Iron Skin is like a shrapnel of skin that can either puncture and/or cut

 

OTHER RHINO SUGGESTIONS

1. Let casting Iron Skin also offer Rhino a temporary Threat Level buff: Could assist in gaining more Iron Skin and help Rhino function as a tank
2. Add a slight increase to Rhino's Base Energy: If you wish to keep the combo system, Rhino should have a bit more Energy to compensate for the repetitive button activations
3. Change Roar's Range to Affinity Range: Roar at base is non-recast without the Augment. Let it have its effect be Affinity-ranged much like Trinity's Blessing
4. Give Iron Skin a UI to show how much of the protective buffer was created and what remains

 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Rhino will always be considered a strong contender as a Warframe, though I feel the synergy for his abilities, especially in terms of Rhino Charge to make it feel like a damaging ability, lacks severely. He feels like a Warframe with two great supportive abilities, a quick stun ability, and a low-damage feeling attack slapped into a frame.

Though this analysis is more of a concern for Rhino's Charge meant to be something that can deal damage with the Synergy slapped into it.

 

• What are your thoughts on Rhino Charge in the current game?
• Is there a different synergy effect you would like to explore with Rhino Charge?
• What is your thoughts on Rhino's passive?

[CosoMalvadoNG]

hace 35 minutos, FoxFX dijo:

• Rhino Stomp serves as a quick albeit expensive AOE stun
  
  • Unlike Caliban's Sentient Wrath that is cheaper and has a a similar effect, cannot work on Eximus Units with the Overguard, Rhino's Stomp which costs more and has not enemy limit can affect Eximus with Overguard

 

I would say that the only similarity of the 2 skills is that they lift the enemies.

Rhino Stomp:

Cita

 

 Strength: 150 / 300 / 500 / 800 ( Blast damage)

 Duration: 3 / 4 / 5 / 8 s

 Range: 15 / 18 / 22 / 25 m

Misc: 80% / 90% / 95% / 97.5% (slow

 

Sentient Wrath:

Cita

 

Strength: 6 / 8 / 12 / 16 (max targets)
250 / 500 / 750 / 1,000 ( Impact damage)
15 / 20 / 25 / 35 % (damage vulnerability)

 Duration:4 / 6 / 8 / 10 s

 Range:10 / 14 / 18 / 22 m

 Misc:~10 m/s (projectile speed)

 

Comparison:
 

[YikersDikers]

I wouldn't mind Reinforcing Stomp giving armour instead of Ironclad Charge. Would make it easier and more streamline to stack the armour. 

[FoxFX]

I'd like to see some reflections on Rhino Charge at the current state of the game. Mostly on how it feels compared to the rest of Rhino's kit.

When it came to naming conventions of Rhino's abilities, I always felt that the names for his abilities felt too uninspired. With names like "Rhino Charge" and "Rhino Stomp," felt like they were just one word slapped with the Warfram's name at the front.

 

I wanted to know how it would feel if Rhino Charge was renamed to "Stampede."

[(PSN)Daikon177]

On 2022-10-03 at 3:08 PM, FoxFX said:

 

• What is your thoughts on Rhino's passive?

It's annoying and useless. 

Would much rather it have something to boost armor and/or power strength

[FoxFX]

On 2022-10-04 at 4:43 PM, (PSN)Daikon177 said:

It's annoying and useless. 

Would much rather it have something to boost armor and/or power strength

Understandable. My brief take on Warframe passives is either to make a passive ability that matches the mechanics, playstyle, and/or theme of the Warframe itself.

With Rhino being themed as a..."rhino"...I get that some part of his gimmick is meant to feel like one heavy tank that can take the damage and still run through enemies.

[(PSN)Daikon177]

15 minutes ago, FoxFX said:

Understandable. My brief take on Warframe passives is either to make a passive ability that matches the mechanics, playstyle, and/or theme of the Warframe itself.

With Rhino being themed as a..."rhino"...I get that some part of his gimmick is meant to feel like one heavy tank that can take the damage and still run through enemies.

It's just lazy, they slapped heavy impact onto him (which no one uses) and called it good. Feels more like a joke than anything.

[(PSN)Daikon177]

18 minutes ago, FoxFX said:

Understandable. My brief take on Warframe passives is either to make a passive ability that matches the mechanics, playstyle, and/or theme of the Warframe itself.

With Rhino being themed as a..."rhino"...I get that some part of his gimmick is meant to feel like one heavy tank that can take the damage and still run through enemies.

If they made it like a mini stomp effect with like 1/3 or 1/2 of the normal range then that would make more sense and be more useful but not by much