Early thoughts of what should happen in companion rework

[TheLastRockstar]

So, from what i heard on devstream 172... DE mentioned something about reworking companions, and i really think it's something that they should've had done sooner... But i'm happy that they are working on it now because currently there are only 3 meta companions (Panzer vulpa/smeeta/carrier), not sure what will happen on the rework but i am gonna say some stuff that in my opinion should happen

 

Companion invulnerability on ressurection (this is an issue i've had for a while... I already forgot if it happens to warframes reviving warframes but i know it happens when you do the wake-up animation on res... However for companions, they are very easy target after being revived because they will always do an barking animation when fully ressurected... Never giving them time to avoid damage at least on solo runs)

A.I fixes (a very well known one, your normal companion tries to go for a target but never deals any damage... And even if it does, it will remain always inactive and probably taking more damage outside your view... Specially kubrows because they need "Hunter Command" to remain active... What i recommend that they change is that companions should always stay by the warframe or operator and only attack when they are in range or if hunter command is active)

Buffed mods (None of the non-meta companions and sentinels have great utility compared to the meta ones, even on hounds and moas [note: i dont own any moas so idk how they perform] and since there are so many companions... It would be a good time to revisit them, like Chesa kubrow getting some charges on it's retrieve ability or a guaranteed extra drop considering it's ability is outclassed by Sahasa kubrow)

Increased survivality (not sure if they should look up into this, but it would be nice if companions had some sort of minor health/armor scaling per enemy level because you always have to ressurect them at higher levels without affecting lower levels that much...)

 

Again, i dont know what will happen in the companion rework... But i really hope it fixes the major issues that most of the companion have and bring bad companions to the meta or add more of them to the list

[(PSN)Onder6099]

Major issue with Companions is: Players simply don´t know and are not willing to sacrifice anything to make them strong.

[AntifreezeUnder0]

I mean 1 fix removing the infinite respawn of vulpa would even out playing field. But players would prefer having that mechanic for all pets. 

But as above mentioned people dont want to sacrifice meta build to favour pet survivability.

Like companions(kubrows/predasites/kavats/vulpas) Can be revived from bleed out stats, brought to your side and have full hp via 1 cast of master summons. But why bother using that over nourish, gloom, breach surge, xata whisper, roar and other meta picks...

Then there are problem with frames, like frames with low hp, shield or ammor stats gains survivability via abilities, but it does not help pets with link mods. 

Picking face tank frame like grendel,  inaros or hildryn or chorma and probably some others sometimes give more survivability to pet, via link mods.

Then again the inconsistenty of link mods. Like companions, moa`s and hounds. That helps to their survivability up to point. If sentinels had same options to get them, they atleast would gain more survivability chance. And would not require too much of rework.

And if helminth charger could utilize mecha mods... oh boy.

And then we come back to dmg output... Sometimes the melee attacks of pets(kubrows, kavats,  predasites, vulpas) are bit of a joke. 10 times swiping or just playing animation of attack and it does 0 dmg. Even if you can get the 100+% status chance via mecha set it will take 3 to 5 attacks to see status proc to appear. Which leads to think that range need to increase of melee attack or have guarantee hits.  This is where sentinel weapons are having edge, atleast some picks do well spreading status and help with dmg. And are guaranteed.

Moa arent that bad either but they get cons of both worlds. Their precepts arent that great, and get the dumb ai pathing or random stuck in place untill tele to you, which leads to bleed out more often that not. 

Although tractor beam moa , with precept which give 3k shields is one of great picks to float arround,Also they have anti grav array, which give 40% higher jumps! But its more for dumb fun play. And they dont offer that much of meta need, like free viral spread without worrying to keep pet alive , or free buffs and willing to also not care about keeping it alive.

If anything just give sentinels link mods and they be good enough.

 Making pets too good would start to open doors to more afk plays, which would lead to nerfs and the cycle would start all over again.

 

 

[TheLastRockstar]

1 hour ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

But as above mentioned people dont want to sacrifice meta build to favour pet survivabil

 

My opinion may be different because i actually dont really use anything else than the link mods or build them like the pros do... But what i've meant in my post is to make companions less annoying to be taking care for in the scenarios where they would mostly die, and i'm not really trying to say that they should be immortal or deal absurd amount of damage... Only to at least to increase their utility a little bit (outside of the already mentioned panzer) with the AI changes for some mods like hunter or synth

Edited July 2, 2023 by (NSW)Furro777

[quxier]

5 hours ago, (NSW)Furro777 said:

 

Companion invulnerability on ressurection (this is an issue i've had for a while... I already forgot if it happens to warframes reviving warframes but i know it happens when you do the wake-up animation on res... However for companions, they are very easy target after being revived because they will always do an barking animation when fully ressurected... Never giving them time to avoid damage at least on solo runs)

Yeah, they should be immortal AT LEAST for some time after reviving.

5 hours ago, (NSW)Furro777 said:

 

A.I fixes (a very well known one, your normal companion tries to go for a target but never deals any damage... And even if it does, it will remain always inactive and probably taking more damage outside your view... Specially kubrows because they need "Hunter Command" to remain active... What i recommend that they change is that companions should always stay by the warframe or operator and only attack when they are in range or if hunter command is active)

AI should avoid lethal danger & heal somehow. It's stupid that some Carrier survived hundreds if not thousands years but dies just because  IT STANDING STILL TAKING DAMAGE while I'm in OP.

3 hours ago, (PSN)Onder6099 said:

Major issue with Companions is: Players simply don´t know and are not willing to sacrifice anything to make them strong.

1 hour ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

But as above mentioned people dont want to sacrifice meta build to favour pet survivability.

Like companions(kubrows/predasites/kavats/vulpas) Can be revived from bleed out stats, brought to your side and have full hp via 1 cast of master summons. But why bother using that over nourish, gloom, breach surge, xata whisper, roar and other meta picks...

Then there are problem with frames, like frames with low hp, shield or ammor stats gains survivability via abilities, but it does not help pets with link mods. 

Picking face tank frame like grendel,  inaros or hildryn or chorma and probably some others sometimes give more survivability to pet, via link mods.

All this leads to "checklist situation". Not always but you need few different things:

- survival

- energy

- damage

- ammo

- vacum, crates destroy etc

- companion survivality

- and probably few more but I've forgotten.

So for those needs you can go pick frame for good survivality, Carier for ammo & craters destroying, Helminth for energy etc. What you end up is some pretty boring setup. What happens when you change something? All of sudden your companion dies because frame is different.

Not sure about others but I'm not willing to change my "personal maid" that is just looter helper, ammo conversion & some few features every time I change frame. Frame survivality, ammo, looting (vacum, crates destorying, radar), energy and probably some other should be available for all gear, not just selected few. Helminth shouldn't be used to fix broken companion's survivality.

2 hours ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

 

 Making pets too good would start to open doors to more afk plays, which would lead to nerfs and the cycle would start all over again.

Then make supporting & attacking companion. Maybe equip 2 companions. Supporting is immortal. Attacking is mortal but can be revived OR auto-revived after short time (with some immortality phase).

- Supporting will help with ammo, vacuum, looting, aim glide, jump height, hp regen etc.

- Attacking will... attack, proc viral, shoot, etc.

 

 

[AntifreezeUnder0]

3 minutes ago, quxier said:

Then make supporting & attacking companion. Maybe equip 2 companions. Supporting is immortal. Attacking is mortal but can be revived OR auto-revived after short time (with some immortality phase).

- Supporting will help with ammo, vacuum, looting, aim glide, jump height, hp regen etc.

- Attacking will... attack, proc viral, shoot, etc.

 

Everything is situational. Make 1 hybrid which gives all of the good stuff and it be used. Like give me smeeta predasite. Which gives buffs of kavat and ability to use mecha set. :) 

But in general if companions/sentinels/robotics got a way to get to 1k armor and 2k hp w/o link mods it would fix things in survivability department.

Else things again would become easy. Like if carrier with ammo drops become immortal then aoe nerf was pointless... or if ammo drops where overwhelming in general it would kill th eneed for carrier. 

And if take away smeeta the buff or adarza the crits none would use them, take away vulpas viral spread and people would use it for mod stick same as now.

Pretty much there should be more focus on buffing survivability of sentinels, not the pets(kubrow/kavat/predasite/vulpahyla). 

But then again we also need to remember game does not like us to start doing things too easy and get too much of a loot so having trade offs is a must. Which again just end up as things are currently there are select few picks worthy of picking up for longterm use and then few untill you have scanned everything.

[(PSN)IndianChiefJeff]

Here's a small fix: Separate modding for survival & damage mods on pets. You can mod individual weapons & Sentinels/MOAs already, why isn't there something similar in place for pets? Even the Railjack Plexus has 3 different categories for modding: Integrated, Battle & Tactical. You cannot tell me that they're unable do create a Pet & Claw category for the sake of modding.

[quxier]

59 minutes ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

 

But in general if companions/sentinels/robotics got a way to get to 1k armor and 2k hp w/o link mods it would fix things in survivability department.

Not if they just stand and take damage. The problem isn't (at least not for most content) EHP but stupid AI. I can survive "just fine" with my maneuvers (e.g. rolls gives 75% debuff, moving from target makes them hits you less etc) but companion (sentinel) won't do it.

1 hour ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

Else things again would become easy. Like if carrier with ammo drops become immortal then aoe nerf was pointless... or if ammo drops where overwhelming in general it would kill th eneed for carrier. 

1. Carrier isn't only ammo. It's about looting as well. I don't go with explosives or slams all the time so Carrier destroying "containers" is good thing.

2. Even with Carrier I still cannot spam AoE bows mindlessly.

3. If we could get not randomly ammo and whole looting situation then I would be fine to ditch it.

1 hour ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

And if take away smeeta the buff or adarza the crits none would use them, take away vulpas viral spread and people would use it for mod stick same as now.

No one is taking those buffs. I'm suggesting to divide for survi/support and damage. If I can use 1 then I would use immortal/support one. If I can use 2 I would pick something depending on needs.

1 hour ago, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

But then again we also need to remember game does not like us to start doing things too easy and get too much of a loot so having trade offs is a must. Which again just end up as things are currently there are select few picks worthy of picking up for longterm use and then few untill you have scanned everything.

Just because game likes it, doesn't mean it's good. I don't do Index because it's SUPER CUMBERSOME to walk to "index thing" and pick it. Game has still many things from old era. It was ok at that time. Now it's not so great.

[IvaraQT]

On 2023-07-02 at 2:01 AM, AntifreezeUnder0 said:

Making pets too good would start to open doors to more afk plays, which would lead to nerfs and the cycle would start all over again.

If warframe players hated the grind that much they would either use bots or just stop playing the game.  Most of the really good loot is from higher tier missions where non status sentinel weapon are useless.

[Venefik]

 Funny how even some of the tankiest frames cannot rely solely on raw hp and armor and yet forum goblins are really going around trying to mock others with 'git gud' card while talking about npcs with base stats of a plastic cup.

 Like...the devs agree that the system needs a rework. They have bloody announced an upcoming rework. If the majority of people say pets are bad, if devs announce a rework/buff round and yet you still think you are in the right... you do you.

 

[wirecard]

... well imo in current state pets are kinda ok-ish, but sentinels just need a reliable way of repair (primed regen -> will shorten respawn delay or something, instead of working just 3x per mission). reviving sentinels reliably via 3x parazon stab may work in solo vs grineer (corpus not so much because parazon stab threshold only applies to health), in team mission not that good too because teammates may kill before you successfully stab three guys within time. only way so far i could rely on a dethcube conveniently priming enemies and making use of its energy drop augment, was a wisp melee dps, using protea repair dispensary augment for convenience (yeah 60s cooldown not moddable sucks so i also use backup parazon with revive mod, mercy stab speed and energy on mercy). so basically the playstyle is to bounce around and press e. works on wisp due to passive allowing quick swap between invis and visibility. doesnt work on other invisibility frames due to sentinels not attacking while being invisible. may be difficult on frames without invisibility due to enemies constantly blowing it up. very niche, but tbh i really like taking my setup to levelcap disruption, even in current condition.

 

i think a maxed primed regen shortening respawn delay to 10s would do a great job for a rework. guess it would incentivise a greater amount of players considering sentinels an option to choose.

 

[Venefik]

10 hours ago, wirecard said:

... well imo in current state pets are kinda ok-ish, but sentinels just need a reliable way of repair (primed regen -> will shorten respawn delay or something, instead of working just 3x per mission). reviving sentinels reliably via 3x parazon stab may work in solo vs grineer (corpus not so much because parazon stab threshold only applies to health), in team mission not that good too because teammates may kill before you successfully stab three guys within time. only way so far i could rely on a dethcube conveniently priming enemies and making use of its energy drop augment, was a wisp melee dps, using protea repair dispensary augment for convenience (yeah 60s cooldown not moddable sucks so i also use backup parazon with revive mod, mercy stab speed and energy on mercy). so basically the playstyle is to bounce around and press e. works on wisp due to passive allowing quick swap between invis and visibility. doesnt work on other invisibility frames due to sentinels not attacking while being invisible. may be difficult on frames without invisibility due to enemies constantly blowing it up. very niche, but tbh i really like taking my setup to levelcap disruption, even in current condition.

 

i think a maxed primed regen shortening respawn delay to 10s would do a great job for a rework. guess it would incentivise a greater amount of players considering sentinels an option to choose.

 

 The issue with making revives spammable while not touching their numbers directly is that it only means they'll die more often. What pets need is linear survivability through levels, by taking non-scaling damage from enemies. That means the same heavy gunner will take the same time to kill your pets, from level 1 to level cap. Players should not have this as it directly impacts difficulty and is a no-brainer (revenant), but pets don't have anywhere near as much power as we do, so it isn't too much of a problem to enable them to ignore enemy damage scaling.

 Then, a little adjust to their base stats and available mods and how they work, and voila. Pets that aren't super annoying or squishy to keep, and you can now choose whatever you like.

 But to the OP, meta is on a whole different problem. There is no way to solve this without changing Charm, otherwise Smeeta will always be the best option for when farming boostable resources. They could remove the resource boost from Charm and improve it's other buffs and how the ability works to be on par with Cat's Eye, but lots of people would be mad at that and Smeeta would probably drop from the top to the bottom.

[(PSN)Zyxur]

I miss using sentinels.

1 fix could be taking the time gating off the mod to do mercy kills to revive the sentinel or....

2 There is a universal drop chance of dropping like a repair kit fragment and you could have a certain amount and build repair kits in your foundry for the gear wheel to revive your sentinel.

Primed regen could still be applicable if you run out of repair kits.

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

for me, i know that i like to have sexy crits on...sometimes super low base crit chance weapons. so a moa with 6 vigilante mods on its sentinel weapon is nice. or, of course adarza kavat. both super fun when combined with arcane avenger. or even smeeta for the rare time 200% crit chance buff happens (really fun to all of a sudden be getting orange crits with some weapon that only has 5% base crit chance).

But, their survivability just makes it miserable to use them with low health stat warframes on steel path. lavos, atlas & of course inaros are okay (grendel i imagine too), but anybody else sucks.

 

medi pet kit & loyal companion can give pets 2 minute bleed out timer, but it still feels whack that they go down 1 second after you pick them up. or, making you feel bad when your teammates are wasting time reviving them as soon as they drop.

 

My changes would be:

definitely giving sentinels a better method for revives.

& the operator-mode thing, that makes enemies just rip sentinels apart instantly as soon as we're in operator mode, being changed would be nice too. giving sentinels 'link mods' could be a nice idea or, just increase the numbers on their health, armor, shields mods.

lastly (& this is more apparent on low levels, than steel path or something) please stop letting sentinels get hit by AOE damage that was aimed at us (our warframe). like, okay...a grineer bombard rocket hitting us, damaging our sentinel, that's fine. but for the love of god...corpus enemies that fire some kind of weapon, (can't remember exactly, but...its definitely a thing) hurting our sentinel, when we're the ones getting shot. that's not necessary. maybe it is indeed an aoe weapon, but it's FAR from being a rocket launcher or something. it's AOE size looks like 0.00002 meters. Oh, & 1 more thing, when we get an electric status effect on us, for the love of the man in the wall, stop making it be on our sentinel as well, he didn't get hit by it, I did. Sentinels survivability is 1 extreme or another. either the enemies never damage them, or instantly evaporate them (even as low as level 30 enemies. a new player walking into fortuna will see just how fast your sentinel instant-dies).

 

for pets, like i said, with inaros they have 10, 000 hp & pretty much only die after not being healed for several minutes, or stand right in front of a grineer 'scorch'. only being healed from melee weapons kind of sucks. the heal is also ridiculously more than they ever need haha. maybe they could restore 1% hp on your gun kills. 4% for headshot kills. something...because all the problems of pets survivability near-instantly vanish if you just swing your sword. but, sometimes i want to use guns, maaan.

 

lastly: I've found lately that, panzer vulpaphyla (& even more so, moas) survive significantly better than kubrows or kavats. Why? because they stay beside me! while panzer does go out & stand in front of enemies at times...while he uses his viral spores, he does so from range. & moa, just stays beside me shooting. every time I bring out adarza, i just see her health plummeting cuz she's standing in the middle of crowds of enemies & eximus units.

Smeeta...kind of falls in the middle. where, if she's invisible (with her unique mod) then her health is fine. but as soon as she doesn't have it active & decides to go scratch the enemies feet from right in front of them...1000's of health lost in seconds.

maybe a nice change for melee attack based pets could be that their claws/bites could be given 'range' like our melee weapons. that way they could stand a little closer to us instead of in the middle of 6 enemies.

OR, it seems our warframe generates significantly more 'threat' from enemies than our sentinel ever does. well, why not give the same thing to pets? its not like them attacking an enemy for 17 damage, without that enemy shooting them back is ever going to make any kind of difference. In fact, more damage on our warframe will actually increase the level of danger that *we are in* so, more challenge. plus the enemies would stop facing away from us to look at our pet, making headshots so annoying to try to hit...which would be sublime.

 

for offense & utility:

some companions already have either a niche or interesting/cool effect. if their survivability/revivability was better, i think lots of people would be willing to use an adarza kavat (& we're talking about, without an inaros, grendel or hildryn), a moa, the predasites (because they look like entei from pokemon) or some of the kubrows.

the companions that you wouldn't use even if they were reliable to not give you headaches worrying about them dying...need some help. I'll separate my thoughts into a different post. a 'companion' rework, but...not talking about their survivability. DE will take care of that already, we know. so, I'd instead like to talk about increasing their utility, crowd control, buffs they give us, debuffs they give the enemies & offense.

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Brian_with_a_Buh
realizing that saying "'spoler-mode'" is kind of a moot thing to do at this point lol

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

Oh! btw, thought of a great idea.

change companions to no longer have a bleed out timer at all. instead when they die, they change into their puppy/kitten forms & still follow you around. they'll still provide vacuum & radar, but will no longer attack or be able to use their abilities. they are invulnerable during this time. after a set duration, they grow back up into their normal selves. medi-pet kit & loyal companion can just be changed to reduce this 'grow back up' duration. maybe even changed to actually reward your gameplay.

like...

[new loyal companion mod]

getting a kill reduces the 'grow back up' timer of your companion by 1 second.

headshot kill reduces the timer by 5 seconds instead.

[new medi-pet kit mod]

+6 heal rate per second (unchanged. but, maybe could be increased a bit)

your companion now starts with 72% hp & 72% shield when he returns to his grown up form, instead of the default 12% hp & 12% shield.

 

this way, DE can put the models that they already built for kubrow puppies & kavat kittys to use. not sure if predasite & vulpaphyla's have puppy forms but, if they do great. if they don't...maybe just give the vulpaphyla reincarnation mods, to predasite's aswell.

i'm pretty sure moa's don't have a baby form...but...what if when a moa dies, it becomes a sentinel! then 'grows back up' into its moa form. or, just make cute little baby moa's. you can use the models of those 'minima moas' that JUNO sniper crewman spawn from their electrical spawn pads. those little guys are adorable.

for sentinels...I have no clue. they just really need a complete rework of their revive system. the parazon mod & protea's augment are NOT ENOUGH. I toy with the idea of using different pets from time to time. kubrows, moas, kavats, predasites. the "revive me" "revive me" thing is annoying, but...not the end of the world. sentinels? HA, that's a funny joke. wouldn't even use djinn. You think I'm gonna go 90 seconds without vacuum & radar? yeeeah right. The 30 seconds for vulpaphyla's gets on my nerves. The only times I ever equip a sentinel is:

Ivara prowling through the entire mission (usually carrier box opening)

or any sentinel for 'spare parts' argon crystal farming. which...sentinel dying is literally the goal lol. usually use oxylus with no health or armor mods at all.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Brian_with_a_Buh

[Nhyx-Athena]

Hi,

According to me it could be great use pets abilities when we want it work. One or two primary abilities, not more, bind in our keyboard. Not all abilities, from modding, are available with that I think, but many are. For example MOA's AOE shield that reduce projectile speed and reduce damage of those projectiles. , and more, I don't remember all the abilities, just the one I was thinking first.

 

Some things maybe should be  good in all compagnons, but for me it's better if it's not like this. For energy for example. There is so many source of energy, so put energy recover for all pets is not a good idea. Pet choice must keep for our own reasons and preferences, and situationnal of course (I play Djinn with my bubble Nyx- I play mecha Kubrow when I'm tired having static gameplay with she).

At least I'm sure DE will build something good. They are not out of great ideas.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Nhyx-Athena

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

companion mods rework

I want to take a look at the pets' mods, because if DE does make them have better survivability & less annoying revivability, then...we're still only going to use like 5 pets. I want to increase the utility of all of them.

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neutralize -> current: kubrow bites the hand of an enemy within 20m, causes them to drop their weapon.

its fine. not amazing but whatever. don't know if it permanently disarms them, but it should do that at least.

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retrieve -> current: Kubrow has 45% chance to scavenge additional loot from a fallen enemy or containers within 30m, every 10s.

increase the 45% chance. its on a 10 second cooldown after all. how about 75%? at least.

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Hunt -> current: The kubrow charges ahead to attack an enemy, dealing 160 Damage to all in its path.

the problem with all these 'charges the enemy' mods, is that they send the enemy to the moon. which is absolutely hilarious, yes. but, doesn't help me kill that enemy.
a knock down instead, would be better. maybe even...the enemy becomes open to ground finishers & stays on the ground for 2 seconds.

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stalk -> current: The kubrow cloaks itself and its master to stalk down its prey when they are within 24m.

1 of the best. I love that abilities don't break the invis. many an elite sanctuary onslaught have i done with saryn & huras kubrow (ruffles)   :)

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howl -> current: The kubrow cries out with a blood-curdling howl that strikes fear into 15 enemies within 24m for 16s.

fine, i guess. the problem is that once you get further into the game...you're not going to use this. this mod is just not good enough to take up space & capacity in your kubrows loadout. i guess, good for new & early game players. duration, range & number of targets are all great, at least.

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protect -> current: The kubrow comes to the defense of its master, replenishing their shields by 300.

actually good. the 300 shield not being percentage based can actually be very useful in certain situations (shield gate tanking, decaying dragon key, warframes with high base shields). 5 second cooldown (according to wiki) isn't too bad either. 1 of the good ones, all though situational.

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dig -> current: The kubrow sniffs out buried objects and digs them up.
+270% Success Chance

okay. great for new players.
maybe make it give an energy orb significantly more often than health or ammo.

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ferocity -> current: Allows the Kubrow to use Finisher attacks on an enemy.
+120% Finisher Damage

ohhh boy, companions are just not used for damage. if this was changed to:
kubrow designates a target, that target takes +120% finisher damage.
it would be better. Ivara prowling through missions would really appreciate this, for trying to 1 shot stealth kill eximus. niche, admittedly, but at least desirable, compared to current effect.

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savagery -> current: Allows the Kubrow to use Finisher attacks on an enemy.
+120% Finisher Damage

duplicate of 'ferocity' but for a different kubrow breed. hmmm...how to change this, how to change this. maybe something like this:
kubrow knocks down an enemy, that enemy takes 120% increased damage for a short time.
little better at least. will actually come up in combat more than the original effect.

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Unleashed -> current: The kubrow grapples a VIP target within 60m, forcing them to the ground.

insanely situational, of course. make it work on more targets (any that can be the VIP target in a capture mission). give it a 10 second duration (considering it has a 10s cooldown). yeah, that's pretty much it. useful to newer players, when those capture targets start getting more annoying in missions further in the star-chart.

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proboscis -> current: Helminth Charger whips a proboscis out at an enemy within 30m, pulling them back and dealing 100 damage.

just increase that damage please. 100 is nothing & i think it's pretty darn rare for people to mod for damage increasing on pets (except sentinel weapons). maybe give the enemies hit a viral status effect?

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strain eruption -> current: Maggots explode on death, dealing 4% of an enemy's current Health as Corrosive Damage to any enemy within 8m.
Set effect: The Helminth Charger grows cysts every X seconds that erupt every 25 seconds to spawn a maggot that seeks out and attacks enemies.

perfectly fine.

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strain fever -> current: Helminth Charger gains +30% Damage per Cyst.
Set effect: strain

again...this 30% number is waaay too low. 100% would still be forgettable for crying out loud. fine, in design, just needs bigger numbers. or, helminth charger needs better base damage.

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trample -> current: The Helminth Charger rushes an enemy, dealing 160 Damage to all in its path.

another 'charges an enemy' mod. same ragdoll to the moon problem. just knockdown the enemies instead. & increase the damage dealt (to set it apart from the kubrow mods that are so similar). how about 1600 damage? it's got an 8 second cooldown (wiki) so, i don't think this is too crazy. maybe just 800 damage instead, if DE thinks this will flip the meta of warframe completely upside down lol.

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acidic spittle -> current: Every 5s spit acidic tar at an enemy within 30m, blinding them for 12s and dealing 120 Corrosive Damage.

sure, why not. 12 seconds is a long blind. maybe a squidge more damage. predasites need help, not this mod, it's fine.

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latric mycelium -> current: Release a trail of spores every 8s that heal the companion and its allies for 300 health over 5s.

hmmm...well, i guess it's good design wise. maybe just slightly bigger numbers & a shorter cooldown. also, if it heals over 5 seconds, either that heal needs to be a lot bigger of an amount, or just make the heal instant or 'over 1 second'. & affect defense objectives too, maybe.

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endoparasitic vector -> current: Transmit an endoparasite to an enemy within 30m. Tentacles spawn from it, clinging to enemies within 5m slowing them as they move further from the parasite, and dealing 20 Viral Damage/sec over 5s.

wow, actually good. procs viral & even heat (wiki) status effects on the enemies. I mean, its fine. wouldn't change a thing. this is the kind of mod i like to see out of DE. super creative    :)

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anabolic pollination -> current: Release a cloud of spores that persists for 6s increasing Toxin Damage by +100%.

okay, pretty good. longer duration, shorter cooldown (wiki says 16s) would be nice. also, if your predasite would come stand beside you, when he does it would be nice. other than that, its fine.

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Infectious bite -> current: A Finisher Attack that deals +200% Finisher Damage and infects the target with a Virus that grows 4 volatile pustules that react to damage.

causes a viral proc (wiki) so that's nice. the pustules absorb damage & then burst after 3 seconds. the finisher damage thing, as usual is completely ignorable. I'd like to see this changed to still store the damage but, instead blow up in a 10 meter radius, damaging all enemies. i don't think that would be too crazy, since enemy armor would still reduce the damage to those other guys. also...3 seconds, i don't know. something about that time feels weird to me. should it be shorter...? i don't know. interesting mod, at least. would be great against bosses...which is sadly exactly where I imagine it doesn't work    :(
maybe it works on acolytes, i don't know.

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paralytic spores -> current: Charge an enemy within 30m dealing 160 damage and releasing spores that stun enemies within 16m for 3s, leaving them open to Finisher Attacks.

get rid of the rag-dolling them to the moon, as usual. honestly pretty good. I'd increase the duration of how long their open to finishers. not the stun, but at least the finisher vulnerability time.

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fetch -> current: 13.5m Companion Gather-Link. Detects and collects items, including mods.

its fine

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scavenge -> current: +90% chance for the pet to pry open a locked locker.

just make your pet do it faster, so you don't have to stand at the locker for ages waiting for him to get there. also...would be absolutely wonderful, if the pet would just open the locker, instead of you having to. also, also...if there are no enemies around or maybe if your invisible with no enemies alerted...would be REALLY NICE if the pet would just go do this on his own to nearby lockers. kind of like a different box opener carrier option you know? better for ayatan stars, than resources. with this mod equipped, you're pet could even mark ayatan sculptures if you get within 5 meters of them, but don't notice it sitting there.

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bite -> current:
+330% Critical Chance
+220% Critical Damage

gives kubrows almost 10x crit damage. too bad, they only have 43% crit chance with this. maybe their base crit chance could be increased a tad, so this mod could actually have some crit chance to increase. kavats are fine, getting to 86% crit chance & 6.4x crit damage. the only thing this mod really needs...is to be more common haha. & maybe pets damage could be increased a bit. that, or give us more mods to put in, to increase pets' damage.

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all of the 60% element 60% status chance mods are fine. maybe a bit too rare, if anything.

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hunter command -> current: Applying a Slash Status to an enemy causes the Companion to attack them for 6s.
set effect: Companions gain X% additional damage to targets affected by a Slash status effect.

okay, if this caused the pet to use his special abilities on the designated enemy (if applicable) that would be great. the set bonus at max, gives +150% damage. of course, nowhere near enough. if it was 1000% damage...then, okay, maybe we have something here.

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hunter recovery -> current: +30% Companion Lifesteal-Link
set effect: hunter

they just deal way too little damage, to heal you. it'd be better off, if they healed themselves with this mod (damage would still be too low though). don't know how this could be changed. maybe if pets get buffed to actually deal decent damage this will be okay. also, 30% is probably far too low.

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hunter synergy -> current: +30% Critical Chance-Link
set effect: hunter

one of the few good mods. funny enough, gives *SYNERGY* between warframe & pet. i think this is fine. there are other mods that are soooooo much worse, that need help.

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maul -> current: +330% Melee Damage

either increase the 330%, or reduce the ridiculous 14 drain. or just increase the pets' base damage.

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mecha overdrive -> current: +60% Status-Link
+90% Status Duration
mecha recharge -> current: Killing a Marked Enemy grants +60% Armor for 20s for each enemy within 30m.

set effect: Your Companion marks a target every X seconds for X seconds. Killing the marked target spreads any status effects on the target to all other nearby enemies within X meters.

they're fine. set effect is fine too. maybe change them to be a 'penjaga' polarity instead. lower drain too, maybe. that way they'd actually be included in builds more often.

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pack leader -> current: heals your pet by a percentage of the damage you deal with melee attacks. +36% lifesteal-link

1 of the few pet mods where the numbers are fine. borderline too much lol. only on melee, sucks. i like to use guns. I don't want to have to babysit my pet. just like people hated babysitting their combo count when using pseudo exalted weapons (remember that whole xoris nerf community discontentment) . maybe a saryn 'toxic lash' style +12% lifesteal-link, tripled for melee weapons. or just make 2 mods. this one & a +6% lifesteal-link with guns mod. You can only equip 1 or the other.

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hastened deflection -> current: +90% Shield Recharge

fine. i hope pets have a shield gate. i think i read a long time ago that sentinels do.

====================================================================================

link armor -> current: +110% armor link
link health -> current: +165% health link
link shields -> current: +110% shield link

so, all of these work great...If you're inaros. if your frame only has 300-900 health, these mods are near worthless on anything higher than level 30. because remember, most pets are melee attackers & they stand right in the middle of crowds of enemies & eximus. I don't know how to fix this. anything will just continue the same, "they survive if you're inaros better than they do if you're another frame" kind of thing.
maybe that's okay? I mean if my pet had like 4500 hp when i was squishy banshee (without vitality mods) that would be okay. 12, 000+ with frames like ash (450 base hp) with a maxed umbral vitality (& a umbral fiber & intensify, giving +770% health), I'd absolutely use that on steel path. i guess inaros giving them 40, 000 hp would just be a goofy thing. i don't know.
maybe the link mods should just be removed & instead pets should have the same sentinel health, armor & shield mods. i know, i know...sounds awful. most people want sentinels to have the pet link mods lol. but, if those sentinel mods just had way higher numbers (maybe not crazy high for sentinels specifically, since sentinels don't get shot as much as pets)...then they'd be fine.
instead of changing link mods to just give 500, 800, 1000% link. why not just have them increase the pets base health, armor or shields by a decent chunk. +500%? Something, anything. then, they'd be as tanky whether you're inaros with 9000 hp, or banshee with 300.

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shelter -> current: Creates a shield with 600 Health around the player when they are reviving fallen allies.

its fine, just increase the 600 to much higher, so it can be an option on steel path. don't know how they'd do this...
it would be weird if it had 60, 000 when you're a brand new player on earth.

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animal instinct -> current: +30 Loot Radar
+18 Enemy Radar

fine. maybe a bit too high drain.

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all right, I'm going to go eat. I'll post this, to hopefully spark some discussion/ideas. I'll get to the kavat/vulpaphyla, moa & sentinel mods at a later time.

so long...farewell...auf wiedersehen, good bye-eye-eye

Edited September 29, 2023 by Brian_with_a_Buh
always gotta close your brackets :P

[Vaml77]

I think DE should reduce the number of sentries in the game. And pass on some functions to a kind of "helminth" for pets....

I would like to be able to have a robotic pet from the "sisters" with all the kavat buffs.

[CrownOfShadows]

Honestly, just their intended fixes are all we really need, so long as they include sentinels.

Survivability is ok once you actually invest in them. My smeeta NEVER dies (although kavats have more survival options than the others, and I'm a melee user). Sentinels are the exception. Even fully invested they still die, increased base stats on sentinels is something really needed, or link style mods.

Other new mods would be welcome, it's a pretty small selection - so long as they're interesting utility.

We don't need more damage on companions though. What - we don't do enough damage on our own? lol

 

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

4 minutes ago, CrownOfShadows said:

Honestly, just their intended fixes are all we really need, so long as they include sentinels.

Survivability is ok once you actually invest in them. My smeeta NEVER dies (although kavats have more survival options than the others, and I'm a melee user). Sentinels are the exception. Even fully invested they still die, increased base stats on sentinels is something really needed, or link style mods.

Other new mods would be welcome, it's a pretty small selection - so long as they're interesting utility.

We don't need more damage on companions though. What - we don't do enough damage on our own? lol

 

i agree we don't need more damage from our companions...it just sucks that their damage is so low, because a ton of their mods are for their damage. but, the base damage is so low, it's wasted.

I agree that, when using melee...pets are borderline immortal lol. but, with guns...ooo boy, thats where you really see how often they die. it's like when i was trying to teach a new player about vazarin dash & right away I said, "hey! what do you think this is? no, no, no...put your melee weapon away, hold a gun. you can't just stand there blocking all the damage, that doesn't count lol".

i agree new mods would be welcome. just went through & read the moa pet mods. wow...so few    :(

they're also not locked to specific moas...which is okay i guess. but, kind of sucks that all 4 moas, are just 1 moa at that point. feels like a waste.

[CrownOfShadows]

4 hours ago, Brian_with_a_Buh said:

Oh! btw, thought of a great idea.

change companions to no longer have a bleed out timer at all. instead when they die, they change into their puppy/kitten forms & still follow you around. they'll still provide vacuum & radar, but will no longer attack or be able to use their abilities. they are invulnerable during this time. after a set duration, they grow back up into their normal selves. medi-pet kit & loyal companion can just be changed to reduce this 'grow back up' duration. maybe even changed to actually reward your gameplay.

like...

[new loyal companion mod]

getting a kill reduces the 'grow back up' timer of your companion by 1 second.

headshot kill reduces the timer by 5 seconds instead.

[new medi-pet kit mod]

+6 heal rate per second (unchanged. but, maybe could be increased a bit)

your companion now starts with 72% hp & 72% shield when he returns to his grown up form, instead of the default 12% hp & 12% shield.

 

this way, DE can put the models that they already built for kubrow puppies & kavat kittys to use. not sure if predasite & vulpaphyla's have puppy forms but, if they do great. if they don't...maybe just give the vulpaphyla reincarnation mods, to predasite's aswell.

i'm pretty sure moa's don't have a baby form...but...what if when a moa dies, it becomes a sentinel! then 'grows back up' into its moa form. or, just make cute little baby moa's. you can use the models of those 'minima moas' that JUNO sniper crewman spawn from their electrical spawn pads. those little guys are adorable.

for sentinels...I have no clue. they just really need a complete rework of their revive system. the parazon mod & protea's augment are NOT ENOUGH. I toy with the idea of using different pets from time to time. kubrows, moas, kavats, predasites. the "revive me" "revive me" thing is annoying, but...not the end of the world. sentinels? HA, that's a funny joke. wouldn't even use djinn. You think I'm gonna go 90 seconds without vacuum & radar? yeeeah right. The 30 seconds for vulpaphyla's gets on my nerves. The only times I ever equip a sentinel is:

Ivara prowling through the entire mission (usually carrier box opening)

or any sentinel for 'spare parts' argon crystal farming. which...sentinel dying is literally the goal lol. usually use oxylus with no health or armor mods at all.

 

 

These are great ideas

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

Am i the contrarian?

i don't want sentinel health, armor & shield mods to be changed to 'link' mods like the pet ones.

I want the opposite. i want pet link mods to be changed to the sentinel style ones.

 

I'm tired of playing Inaros, or lavos/atlas with waaay too much health & armor investment, so my pet won't die on steel path. I'd rather have the sentinel style mods but, just with way higher numbers. the armor mod is 110%, but sentinels have god awful base armor compared to warframes. so, that could be upped to...at least 200%. the health mod is 220%. throw this to like 770% & i'll be happy. getting pets to have 4000 health is what i want. inaros gets them to ~13, 000 for crying out loud.

would be nice for their health (& armor, shields) to actually be separated from my frame.

when i play i dont know...banshee for example. & i put all offensive mods on her, except for prime sure footed & +90% shield recharge. Then, just use vazarin dash shield gating for survival, it sucks that my pet has 350 HP & armor that's giving it like 20% damage reduction. Would gladly take sentinel style mods (buffed to higher numbers) giving me a pet that has 4000 health & armor giving it like 65% damage reduction.

 

what do you Tenno think? Am I crazy? ...love Inaros btw, but sucks being locked into him if i dont wanna use a vulpaphyla. adarza is awesome! especially with arcane avenger. +105% flat crit chance? YUM

Edited September 28, 2023 by Brian_with_a_Buh

[Brian_with_a_Buh]

Thank you, kindly Crownofshadows    :D