Oberon Resworn - Tweaks and Re-tuning

[Varzy]

Longtime Oberon fan here, back to theorycraft. In this thread I'm proposing/musing on some updates to bring Oberon's kit in-line with more recent frames. Sevagoth, Qorvex, and Citrine in particular as well as new arcanes really show what more modern support tanks can do, and I'd like nothing more than have Oberon enjoy a bigger slice of that pie.

The goal here isn't to propose new abilities or radical shifts in how his kit works -- just buffs and re-tuning to help make him more impactful and interesting to play, and give him more flexibility in terms of potential builds. This includes a proposed new passive, since his old one is practically obsolete now that companions have been reworked.

All the numbers and stats below are just suggestions to give people an idea of the power level he could be at. Oberon is usually aiming for at least 200% power strength, which is something to consider if you have any feedback about damage or percentages I've proposed.

Key Features/TLDR:

• Passive turns health orbs into bonus armor.
• Smite taunts enemies into targeting each other, improving the defensive aspects of Radiation status effects. Also, explosions.
• Hallowed Ground spreads enemy status effects, and can be hold-cast to create a personal patch that moves with you.
• Renewal works alongside new passive to grant bonus lives.
• Reckoning has heightened damage and makes survivors extremely vulnerable.

 

Still interested? Here's the details:

 

Oberon Resworn

Passive: Enemies affected by Radiation status effects have a small chance to drop Health Orbs on death. Collecting Health Orbs grants 5 additional armor, up to 500 (scales with Power Strength). A disciple of destruction and restoration, Oberon smites the wicked, and clads himself in their life energy.

Reasoning: Oberon has an odd relationship with Health Orbs, being able to generate them with his 4th, but not really needing them due to Renewal. This passive gives Oberon increased interaction with mods and arcanes such as Equilibrium and Arcane Blessing and further improves his survivability.

1 - Smite:

• Affected enemies (including targets struck by smaller damage orbs) 'Taunt' enemies, becoming their targets.
• Enemies hit by the initial cast will explode on death, dealing radiation damage +20% of their total health (scales with Power Str) within 6m and emitting a second burst of small damage orbs.
  • Enemies not killed within 3 seconds will instead explode for half damage.
• Enemies hit by small damage orbs will explode immediately, dealing radiation damage + 10% of their total health (scales with Power Str).
  • Enemies damaged by explosions or orbs will gain Impact, Puncture, and Radiation procs.
  • Enemies damaged by explosions also Taunt enemies.

Reasoning: Smite was passable in the days of Fireball and Shock, but modern 1st abilities are more dynamic. Adding a Taunt effect on the main target helps improve the defensive abilities of the Radiation status effect, and some AoE damage helps make his abilities worth casting. Forced procs open up enemies to Mercy kills, bonus damage, and the chance to drop health orbs.

2 - Hallowed Ground:

• Enemies killed atop Hallowed Ground have a 15% chance to spread half their status effects to other enemies atop the Hallowed Ground. Affected by Power Strength.
• Melee attacks on Hallowed Ground have a 20% chance to strike all affected enemies.
• QOL: Press to cast normally, hold to create a 3m radius patch at Oberon's feet that moves with him.
  • Ability Synergy: While atop Hallowed Ground, enemies targeted by Smite or Reckoning are Silenced for 10s.

Reasoning: Hallowed Ground is already decent, but its stationary nature has often been a weakness. With the increase in on-demand status resistance, upgrading this skill to follow Oberon helps him keep pace with frames such as Qorvex and Pillage-subsumed allies. (Ideally it would leave a trail behind him similar to Nezha's 1st ability, for the aesthetic).

Additionally, sharing status effects among enemies has been a powerful damaging effect in the past, and incentivizes using the stationary field's larger range. Finally, adding a Silence effect to enemies damaged by Oberon's skills gives him further utility and fits into his paladin theme.

3 - Renewal:

• Passive Ability Synergy: Upon taking lethal damage while Renewal is active, lose 50% stockpiled armor from Oberon's passive and gain 50% health, on a 40s cooldown. Only Oberon benefits from this effect.
• QOL: Renewal initial cast range is Affinity range and follows Oberon.
• QOL Energy management tweaks: Limit total targets to 10, allowing healing of squad + companions + defence target and/or personal summon. Exclude ally summons.

Reasoning: Renewal is in a solid place, but it feels bad to suddenly be healing a crowd of phantoms, especially since his means of energy regeneration are much more limited. Let Nekros manage their own energy pools and end this interaction -- perhaps an Augment could be introduced to patch in the mechanic for those who feel strongly about teaming up with summoners.

Additionally, granted a perk of Phoenix Renewal to his standard kit, with a twist. Phoenix Renewal will still have a role, granting an additional extra life and extra lives to the team. I played with the idea of Iron Renewal granting 20% Damage Reduction instead of bonus armor, scaling with Power Strength and temporarily increasing on Health orb pickup, but this might intrude on Citrine's niche a little too much.

4 - Reckoning:

• Increase damage, and double damage against enemies affected by Radiation.
• Any damage Oberon takes during the cast animation is redirected to affected enemies.
• Enemies that survive are ignited by radiant flames for 10s, taking high Radiation damage over time and increasing their vulnerability to all damage.
  • Ignited enemies have a 50% chance to drop a Health orb on death.
  • Ignited enemies can spread the effect to other enemies, and on death have a chance to spread to all enemies on Hallowed Ground.
• Strips Shields and Armor by 25% by default, which doubles while cast atop Hallowed Ground.
  • Ability Synergy: Affected enemies atop Hallowed Ground now forcibly drop Health Orbs (including Hallowed Reckoning pools).
  • Ability Synergy: Casting Smite on ignited enemies immediately triggers Smite's explosion.

Reasoning: Reckoning's armor strip helped make it relevant after years of being terrible, but it still has serious problems. The damage is low, the energy cost is high, and needing enemies to hit your HG make armor strip unreliable - especially with Hallowed Reckoning increasing the range beyond HG's normal range. Instead, the key benefits of armor strip will apply as long as Oberon is standing on Hallowed Ground, and now affects shields.

In addition, increasing the damage and applying a vulnerability debuff to survivors helps give Reckoning a purpose beyond armor stripping, and it synergizes with his passive nicely. These enhancements should make it feel like the iconic capstone it should be.

 

Thanks for reading, hopefully you've enjoyed my ideas. I'm definitely interested in people's thoughts about my suggested changes.

[AsffluffyZ]

Sounds pretty good

[Raarsi]

Looks good, although I feel like Smite might need a name change to Convert or something with that taunt effect.

[Squippit]

I'm largely content with Oberon as is. My main complaints are not having 360 degree range default for Hallowed Ground, necessitating a double cast to cover an objective; and Renewal's zone being invisible and unable to be regained if you've lost it via falling in a pit/getting nullified. I'm content with the new passive upgrade to include sentinels, and Smite Infusion already makes Smite valuable. His 4 is hella clunky, if I was gonna change something significantly, it would be that. But I just subsume Dispensary over it so nbd.