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Warframe Concept: Karsus - The Archwizard


Enderluck
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Hi, I have been working on this Warframe concept for a while: Karsus - The Archwizard, and think now it is time to share it. You will realize that this Warframe is inspired by Dungeon and Dragons as you will notice by his name and the name of all his abilities. The art was created using IA.

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Master of the arcane secrets, Karsus dedicated his life to studying the void. He taps into ancient Runes to craft powerful spells, bolstering allies and sundering foes.

Codex

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Manipulator of the realm of magic, his spells can reshape reality itself.
This is Karsus, the archmage, the void's wizard. Dedicated to his studies, he unleashes the secrets of the arcane.
Magic Missiles throw void projectiles that seek nearby enemies making them vulnerable to damage and affecting them with channeled Runes. Enemies spread the marks on death while storing Runes for your future usage. Tap this ability to quickly channel a Madurai Rune on the next ability cast.
Circle of Power marks the ground to hinder enemies' defenses while bolstering allies' abilities, including Karsus' Runes. Both allies and enemies are affected by channeled Runes. Tap this ability to quickly channel a Naramon Rune on the next ability cast.
Glyph of Warding provides damage reduction and the benefits of channeled Runes to allies within the Affinity Range while sharing Karkus' passive Runes with them. Tap this ability to quickly channel a Vazarin Rune on the next ability cast.
Behold the true power of magic Tenno. Wand of Wonders summons Karsus's exalted weapon which is fueled with his stored Runes. It fires powerful Void Blasts or channels a piercing Beam of pure Void by holding the fire button. Using secondary attack will create an area of effect explosion that immobilizes enemies. These attacks are empowered by the Runes consumed when casting and reloading it. Tap this ability to quickly channel an Umbra Rune which can be combined with other Runes for new effects on the next ability cast.

Review his studies to understand the true power of the Void. Will you continue his work, Tenno?

Lotus

An in-depth explanation of all abilities is on the next page.

Edited by Enderluck
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Using multiple pages got bugged so here is the "next page".

Wikia Introduction

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Capable of casting a large variety of spells, Karsus is never caught off-guard. His ancient runes can hinder enemy strengths and exploit their weaknesses while bolstering allies' strength and covering their weak spots, before unleashing destructive spells if needed. His studies were discovered in Update [x].

Karsus' Stats

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His Health, Armor and Speed are quite low, but his Shields and Energy are quite high as he is an expert magician.

The polarities can be represented as:
|--|Z|--|--|
|M|--|V|--|
|--|N|--|--|
As you can see, they form a lovely diamond shape.

Passive: Spellcasting

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Explanation of Rune's Mechanic: Channeling, Activating, Storing and Spending
Similar to Lavos, each ability can be used to empower all his abilities. However, there are quite a few differences.

  1. Tap and Hold: While Lavos can tap to activate an ability and hold to channel an "imbued element", Karsus instead tap to channel a "rune" and hold to activate an ability. This is because Karsus abilities have a longer duration and he really benefits from channeling Runes, which means that channeling runes should be as easy and fast as possible.
  2. 3 Runes: While Lavos can channel up to 2 imbued elements which automatically combine, Karsus can channel up to 3 Runes and they almost don't combine (explained later). Karsus can't channel the same Rune twice at the same time (except if the Rune was used to create a new Rune due to combining them, explained later).
  3. Energy Cost: While Lavos can channel his imbued elements freely, channeling a Rune costs 15 energy [affected by Ability Efficiency].
  4. Cleaning the Runes: While Lavos can only clean his "mixing vial" (imbued elements) upon using an ability, Karsus can roll backwards to remove all current channeled runes restoring his energy spent on them (similar to Volt rolling backwards to remove the benefit of his Speed ability).
  5. Storing Runes: While Lavos simply cleans his "mixing vial" upon using an ability (obviously empowering that ability with the imbued elements), Karsus not only empowers the ability but also stores the Runes he just used to increase the powers of its passive and allowing him to spend those stored Runes later.

Karsus can only store up to 25 of each Rune. As with Lavos, replacing an ability with the Helminth will make Karsus unavailable to channel the Rune associated with that ability. Visually:

  • Channeled Runes can be seen below the aiming reticule, in some fancy hud similar to Harrow's Penance which shows the healing numbers below the reticle.
  • Stored Runes can be seen at the bottom right of the screen in the normal place other fancy hud appear such as Hydroid's Plunder, Nidus' stacks, Saryn's Spores, etc. There are 7 Runes so the hud should have the shape of a 7-point start with each Rune number in each point. This hud is a little bit more separated from the right of the screen, cause that space will be needed later.

Explanation of each Rune Passive Benefits (the actual passive ability)
There are 7 Runes: four basic Runes, Madurai, Naramon, Vazarin, and Umbra, and there are combined Runes, Unairu, Zerunik, and Pengaja. Each Rune provides a passive bonus based on how many Runes he has. These benefits won't appear at the left of the health bar because the percentage bonus of these effects is 1% by each Rune he has stored, therefore, the fancy hud that shows how many stored Runes he has of each type also shows the bonus amount of each Rune.

  • Madurai: 1% chance to enhance Critical Hits for each Madurai Rune stored.
  • Unairu: When taking lethal damage, become invulnerable for 3 seconds and regain 1% of his maximum Health and Shield every second for each Unariru Rune stored. This effect has 60 seconds cooldown and won't trigger if he has 0 Unairu runes.
  • Naramon: +1% Maneuver Speed for each Naramon Rune stored.
  • Zerunik: +1% Casting Speed for each Zerunik Rune stored.
  • Vazarin: +1% Shield Gate Duration for each Vazarin Rune stored.
  • Pengaja: '+1% Health and Energy Orbs effectivity for each Pengaja Rune stored. The effectivity means the amount of Health or Energy Provided. It doesn't affect the bonus provided by the Equilibrium mod.
  • Umbra: +1% Status Effect Durations for each Umbra Rune stored.

1st Ability: Magic Missile

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Explanation of the Ability
Tap to spend 15 energy [affected by Ability Efficiency] and channel a Madurai Rune.
Hold to throw 1|2|2|3 missiles that seek the closest enemies within 30|40|50|60m [x Ability Range] and a 90º angle of the aiming reticle, marking them to take 20|25|30|35% [x Ability Strength] additional damage for 9|11|13|15s [x Ability Duration]. If a target dies while affected, the target bursts into 1|2|2|3 missiles that will repeat this process, directing toward the closest enemies within 16|19|22|25m [x Ability Range] and marking them for 9|11|13|15s [x Ability Duration]. This can repeat infinite times as long as the enemy dies within the duration of being marked. If this ability was empowered with one or more Runes and a target dies, there is a 25% [x Ability Strength] chance to "collect" and store one random Rune from the target. (ei: the target was affected with a Madurai and Vazarin Rune, there is a 25% chance of storing one of them, randomly].

The missiles will ignore enemies that are already marked, unless the missiles were casted with higher Ability Strength or with different Runes that the ones the enemies already have, in which case the new missiles will replace the effect of the old ones.

Visually, enemies will have this ability icon above their heads (similar to the mark of Hydroid's passive), and also the icon of any channeled Rune at the moment of using the ability.

This ability count as a Buff & Debuff type and is disabled by the Nul Comba.

Benefits of the Runes
Basic Runes apply passive debuffs to enemies, Madurai and Umbra makes them take more damage while Naramon and Zerunik makes them weaker. Combined Runes trigger their benefits when the enemy die.

  • Madurai: "+20|25|30|35% Critical Chance."
    Attacks against the enemy have a +20|25|30|35% Critical Chance (additive after mods, like Harrow's Covenant).
  • Unairu: "11.6|23.3|23.3|35% Damage on Death."
    When the enemy dies, the missiles that burst from its corpse will deal 11.6|23.3|23.3|35% of the target maximum Health and Shields as Void damage (the damage is distributed among all the projectiles).
  • Naramon: "-35|40|45|50% Accuracy Penalty."
    The enemy has a -35|40|45|50% Accuracy penalty.
  • Zerunik: "9|11|13|15% Energy Orb Chance on Death."
    When the enemy dies, there is a 9|11|13|15% chance of dropping an Energy Orb.
  • Vazarin: "-20|25|30|35% Damage Penalty."
    The enemy has a -20|25|30|35% Damage penalty.
  • Pengaja: "20|25|30|35% Health Orb Chance on Death."
    When the enemy dies, there is a 20|25|30|35% chance of dropping a Health Orb.
  • Umbra: "+20|25|30|35% Bleeding Chance."
    Attacks against the enemy have a +20|25|30|35% chance of putting a Bleeding (Slashing) status effect (like Garuda's Seeking Talons).

As you can read, none of the effects are affected by mods. At the moment to cast Magic Missile with one or more channeled Runes, at the bottom left of the screen will appear some text (one line per channeled Rune) that will describe the type of benefit added to the ability (similar to how Harrow's Thurible shows in the same position the energy bestowed each time he gets a kill). The text is the one that appears in quotes and italics.

As a Helminth Ability
When this ability is subsumed, tapping it would create the missiles. Holding it would do nothing. You can't channel a Madurai Rune with it, and this ability would obviously be unable to benefit from Runes or store Runes.

2nd Ability: Circle of Power

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Explanation of the Ability
Tap to spend 15 energy [affected by Ability Efficiency] and channel a Naramon Rune.
Hold to place a rune on the ground for 13|15|17|20s [x Ability Duration] that affects all allies and enemies within 13|15|17|20m. Enemies in the area lose 50% of their maximum Armor and Shields while allies gain 5|10|15|20% [x Ability Strength] Ability Strength (additive with mods). Enemies regain their Armor and Shield instantaneously upon leaving the area or when the ability ends. The effects of your Runes in all your abilities (except your passive) are increased by the Ability Strength bonus. The Ability Strength bonus and the Runes effectivity bonus only apply for abilities cast while inside the Area, and the effect remains for all the ability duration even if Circle of Power ends or if the ally leaves the area (as Equinox's Provoke).

Casting Circle of Power while inside another Circle of Power won't increase the Ability Strength/Runes Effectivity Bonus, but it will increase the Armor/Shield removal and also increase the effect of any Rune you channeled when casting Circle of Power.

Visually, the circle has a heptagram on the ground, and if you used Runes to empower it, the runes will appear at the edges of the circle and are constantly repeated all over the perimeter, and also at the lines that form the heptagram.

This ability count as a Buff & Debuff type and is disabled by the Nul Comba.

Benefits from Runes
Basic Runes apply debuffs to enemies, Madurai and Umbra makes them take more damage while Naramon and Vazarin make them weaker. Combined Runes apply benefits to allies.

  • Madurai: "+20|25|30|35% Critical Damage."
    Critical hits against the enemies deal +20|25|30|35% additional damage (multiplicatively to the total critical damage, similar to Volt's Electric Shield).
  • Unairu: "+175|200|225|250 Armor."
    Allies gain +175|200|225|250 Armor.
  • Naramon: "20|25|30|35% Chance to Stagger."
  • Attacks against enemies have a 20|25|30|35% chance to stagger the enemy, applying a single Impact status effect.
  • Zerunik: "2|2.5|3|3.5 Energy/s."
    Allies regain 2|2.5|3|3.5 energy every second. Doesn't work if the ally is using a channeling ability (similar to any other ability that grants energy).
  • Vazarin: "20|25|30|35% Slow."
    Enemies have their speed reduced by 20|25|30|35%.
  • Pengaja: "+20|25|30|35 Shield/s."
    Allies regain 20|25|30|35 Shield every second. Can overflow into Overshields. This effect is desactivated while Shields are at 0 (similar to Caliban's Lethal Progeny).
  • Umbra: "2|3|4|5% Health Lose/s."
    Enemies lose 2|3|4|5 of their Maximum Health every second.

As you can read, none of the effects are affected by mods. At the moment to cast Circle of Power with one or more channeled Runes, at the bottom left of the screen will appear some text (one line per channeled Rune) that will describe the type of benefit added to the ability (similar to how Harrow's Thurible shows in the same position the energy bestowed each time he gets a kill). The text is the one that appears in quotes and italics.

3rd Ability: Glyph of Warding

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Explanation of the Ability
Tap to spend 15 energy [affected by Ability Efficiency] and channel a Vazarin Rune.
Hold to place a Rune in every ally within Affinity Range, making them take 40|50|60|66% [x Ability Strength] (capped at 75%) less damage. If an ally leaves your Affinity Range they lose the benefit and if an ally enters within your Affinity Range they automatically gain the benefits. While an ally is affected, they also gain the benefits of your passive Spellcasting (they gain the benefits that you get by storing Runes). The passive ability from Unairu Rune that allows you to prevent death with a 60 second cooldown has its cooldown shared with all allies. This means that if one allie dies and Unairu Rune prevents its death, all allies enter in cooldown (a thing that doesn't happened with Oberon's Phoenix Renewal).

Vissually, allies are surrounded by your energy color and above their heads you can see icons of the Runes you used to empower this ability, if any. Allies can see at the left of their Health bar the icons of each of the buffs and the percentage of them, which means that they will see a lot of different icons, kind of as if playing with an ally Octavia.

This ability count as a Buff & Debuff type and is disabled by the Nul Comba.

Benefits from Runes
Basic Runes apply passive buffs to allies while combined Runes apply effects that triggers by being attacked.

  • Madurai: "+35|40|45|50% Reload Speed."
    Allies increase their reload speed by 35|40|45|50% (additive with mods).
  • Unairu: "+50|65|80|100% Damage Reflection."
    Allies reflect attacks back to their attackers, dealing 25|50|75|100% of the damage.
  • Naramon: "+10|15|20|25 Movement Speed."
    Allies increase their speed by 10|15|20|25% (additive with mods, be aware that Volt's Speed is instead multiplicative).
  • Zerunik: "1|1.5|2|2.5% Damage to Energy Conversion."
    Allies gain 1|1.5|2|2.5% of the damage taken as Energy. This works even while using channeling abilities.
  • Vazarin: "-35|40|45|50% Shield Recharge Delay."
    Allies reduce their Shield Recharge Delay by 35|40|45|50% (additive with mods).
  • Pengaja: "+20|25|30|35% Dodge Chance."
    Allies have a 20|25|30|35% chance of completely ignoring damage every time they are attacked.
  • Umbra: "1|1.5|2|2.5% Health Drain."
    Allies regain 1|1.5|2|2.5% of the damage done as Health.

As you can read, none of the effects are affected by mods. At the moment to cast Glyph of Warding with one or more channeled Runes, at the bottom left of the screen will appear some text (one line per channeled Rune) that will describe the type of benefit added to the ability (similar to how Harrow's Thurible shows in the same position the energy bestowed each time he gets a kill). The text is the one that appears in quotes and italics.

4th Ability: Wand of Wonders

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Explanation of the Ability
If there are no channeled Runes, tap to spend 15 energy [affected by Ability Efficiency] and channel an Umbra Rune. If there are channeled Runes, tap to freely combine it with the previous Rune. Madurai combines into Unairu, Naramon combines into Zerunik, and Vazarin combines into Pengaja. If there is a combined Rune and an Umbra Rune and you channel again another Umbra Rune (even if you already have 3 Runes which is the maximum allowed), the previously combined Rune freely becomes again in the original Rune (Unairu -> Madurai, Zernuik -> Naramon, Pengaja -> Vazarin), as the game understand that you didn't want to combine it (you might remember that I told at the start that you can't have more than once of each Rune at the same time, so why the player would want to channel again the same Rune if it isn't to tell the game that it didn't want to combine it in the first place).
Hold to summon an exalted speargun with is configurable with mods in your arsenal and already has an Orokin Catalyst (as any other exalted weapon). It uses any mod that a speargun (such as Scourge) could normally use (I think Rifle mods). While you are holding the Wand of Wonders, the passive effects of your Spellcasting passive ability are doubled (only for you, which means that you won't share the improved effect to your allies while using Glyph of Warding). If you cast Wand of Wonders but then hold a different weapon, this bonus isn't applied. Similar to Ivara's Exalted Bow, this weapon doesn't consume energy passively, instead, it consumes 3 random stored Runes when you cast it and every time you reload ammo.

This ability count as a Buff & Debuff type and is disabled by the Nul Comba.

Basic Stats:

Spoiler

Ammo: 40 [affected by weapon mods].
Reload Time: 1.5s [affected by weapon mods] (and consumes 3 random stored Runes). You can force the weapon to reload ammo even when you are at full ammo (explained later).
Noise: This weapon is quite noisy.

Blast Attack (Left Mouse Button quick tap):

Spoiler

Damage: 100|200|300|400 Void Damage [x Ability Strength] [affected by weapon mods].
Mode: Semi-automatic.
Fire Rate: 1/s [affected by weapon mods].
Ammo consumed per shot: 5 ammo.
Blast Radius: 5m [affected by weapon mods].
Critical Chance: 30% [affected by weapon mods].
Critical Damage Multiplier: x3 [affected by weapon mods].
Status Chance: 15% [affected by weapon mods].
Projectile Speed: 50m/s [affected by weapon mods].
Punch Through: 0m.
Accuracy: 100 [affected by weapon mods].

Beam Attack (Left Mouse Buttom hold):

Spoiler

Damage: 20|40|60|80 Void Damage [x Ability Strength] [affected by weapon mods].
Mode: Automatic.
Charge time to start the beam: 1s [affected by fire rate weapon mods]. If you tap the button, it shoots as normal. If you hold the button, it creates the beam instead.
Fire Rate: 10/s [affected by weapon mods].
Ammo consumed per tick: 1 ammo.
Beam Range: 40m [affected by weapon mods].
Beam Width: 0.5m.
Critical Chance: 20% [affected by weapon mods].
Critical Damage Multiplier: x2 [affected by weapon mods].
Status Chance: 40% [affected by weapon mods].
Punch Through: 1m [affected by weapon mods].
Projectile Speed: Hit-scan.

Right Mouse Buttom apply a x1.25 Zoom [affected by weapon mods].

AoE Attack (Middle Mouse Button):

Spoiler

Damage: 20|40|60|80 Void Damage [x Ability Strength] [affected by weapon mods] per ammo consumed.
Ammo Consumed: All remaining ammo.
Radius: 4|6|8|10m [x Ability Range] around you.
Critical Chance: 5% [affected by weapon mods].
Critical Multiplier: x2  [affected by weapon mods].
Status Chance: 100% [affected by weapon mods].
Pre-casting time: 0.5s.
Post-casting time: 0.6s.
If you tap the Middle Mouse Button, this explosion will knockdown all enemies. If you hold it instead by 1.5s, all enemies will be Lifted instead.
Lift Duration: 4|6|8|10s [x Ability Duration].
Visually, you hit the ground with the speargun.

Concentrated AoE Attack (Middle Mouse Buttom while using Zoom from Right Mouse Buttom).

Spoiler

Damage: 20|40|60|80 Void Damage [x Ability Strength] [affected by weapon mods] per ammo consumed.
Ammo Consumed: Half remaining ammo.
Size: 10|13|16|20m x 3m line [x Ability Range] in the direction you aim.
Critical Chance: 5% [affected by weapon mods].
Critical Multiplier: x2  [affected by weapon mods].
Status Chance: 100% [affected by weapon mods].
Pre-casting time: 0.3s.
Post-casting time: 0.3s.
If you tap the Middle Mouse Button, this explosion will knockdown all enemies. If you hold it instead by 1.5s, all enemies will be Lifted instead.
Lift Duration: 4|6|8|10s [x Ability Duration].
Visually, you wave you speargun as if you make some kind of melee attack and suddenly all the ground in the direction you aim will create this void explosion.

Synergies with all other Abilities
As expected, this wizards' spells become stronger while he channels with magical staff.

  • Attacking with Wand of Wonders an enemy marked with Magic Missile will make the target create a Magic Missile that will strike a random enemy and spread the effect. There is a 1s cooldown for this effect. Damage overtime from status effects won't trigger this. The damage from Magic Missile' Unairu Rune won't active for this missiles.
  • Attacking with Wand of Wonders while inside the Circle of Power will give you a 50% ammo efficiency.
  • Reloading ammo from Wand of Wonders while being affected with Glyph of Warding grants you 10 [x Ability Strength] Overguard for each stored Rune. Each time you reload ammo, the Overguard is refresh if the new would be higher, instead of stacking.

Benefits from Runes
Basic Runes grant elemental damage while combined Runes grant physical damage. Something different from all other abilities of Karsus is that if you activate Wand of Wonders while having channeled Runes, those channeled Runes won't be consumed and used to empower your abilities as it would normally happen with his other abilities. Instead, Wand of Wonders will consume those Runes from the stored Runes rather than consuming 3 random Runes. The channeled Runes will still be channeled allowing you to use them for your next ability used. This also works when reloading  Wand of Wonders, allowing you to choose which Runes it will consume from the stored Runes instead of being chosen randomly.

  • Madurai: "+35|40|45|50% Fire Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Fire Damage [additive with elemental mods].
  • Unairu: "+35|40|45|50% Slashing Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Slashing Damage [additive with physical mods].
  • Naramon: +35|40|45|50% Electricity Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Electricity Damage [additive with elemental mods].
  • Zerunik: "+35|40|45|50% Piercing Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Piercing Damage [additive with physical mods].
  • Vazarin: "+35|40|45|50% Cold Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Cold Damage [additive with elemental mods].
  • Pengaja: "+35|40|45|50% Impact Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Impact Damage [additive with physical mods].
  • Umbra: "+35|40|45|50% Toxin Damage."
    Your Wand of Wonders gains +35|40|45|50% Toxin Damage [additive with elemental mods].

Elemental Runes: These elemental damages will combine with each other but won't combine with the elemental damages Wand of Wonder could have due to mods, effectively allowing you to have for example Fire and Gas at the same time, or Corrosive and Viral at the same time. Therefore, what does means "additive with elemental mods"? If your weapon has fire and you use a Madurai Rune, both will stack additively. If your weapon has Gas and you use a Madurai Rune, they won't stack, but the fire damage of the Madurai Rune will be applied similarly to an elemental mod, which means multiplicatively to the base damage of Wand of Wonders after applying Ability Strength and after applying base damage mods.
Physical Runes: If you know about physical mods, you might be wondering how they can be additive with physical mods and be useful if Wand of Wonders deals no physical damage at all. These bonuses will apply multiplicatively to the base damage of Wand of Wonders after applying Ability Strength and after applying base damage mods. However, if Wand of Wonder was equipped with a physical damage mod, that mod effect would be additively added to the bonus damage of the Rune.

As you can read, none of the effects are affected by mods. At the moment to cast Wand of Wonders and when you relaod its ammo, at the bottom left of the screen will appear some text (one line per Rune) that will describe the damage types added to the ability (similar to how Harrow's Thurible shows in the same position the energy bestowed each time he gets a kill). The text is the one that appears in quotes and italics. If there are two or more Basic (Elemental) Runes, their lines will combine describing the combined damage type. For example, if you are a 30th level Karsus and have a Madurai, Vazarin and Zerunik Rune, you will have one line that mentions "+50% Piercing Damage." and one line that mentions "+100% Explosive Damage."

Augments, tips and final thoughts on the next page.

Edited by Enderluck
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Augments:

Rune Mastery (Passive)
You can now channel up to 4 Runes at the same time and store 2|3|4|5 additional Runes of each type.

Spoiler

Allowing you to channel a 4th Rune increase your combinations and opportunities to enhance your abilities. Wand of Wonders will now consume 4 random Runes (effectively increasing its cost but also its damage).
Increasing the maximum Runes you can store increases the maximum effectivity of each of the Spellcasting passives from 25% to 30%.

Spellplague (Magic Missils)
When the target dies, the missiles have a 35|40|45|50% [x Ability Strength] chance to transfer all status effects.

Spoiler

Specially useful to combine with Wand of Wonders as it allows you to create any status effect and then spread it with Magic Missile. Also, good with Magic Missiles's Umbra Rune as it can apply the Bleeding status effect and Circle of Power's Naramon Rune as it can apply the Stagger status effect. Status that causes damage can cause a chain reaction if they kill the enemy, as the enemy will create missiles when it dies that will spread the status effect.
Missiles created by the synergy among Magic Missile and Wand of Wonder won't spread status effects, only the missiles created when a target dies can spread status effects.

Ritual Casting (Circle of Power)
Every 5|4|3|2 Runes you active inside the Circle of Power, you automatically channel a Koneski Rune for free that has the effect of two random Runes.

Spoiler

If you are an old player, you can remember that Koneski Runes were the one used for Fusion Core mods. The effect of Koneski Runes is equal to two random Runes that you didn't already channeled. Koneski Runes can't be stored. If you cast Wand of Wonders or reload its ammo while having a channeled Koneski Rune, the game will read that rune as two random runes, effectively increasing the cost and damage of Wand of Wonders.

Runic Shield (Glyph of Warding)
50|65|80|100% to consume a Rune and resist a status effect. Also, additively increases the damage reduction by 2|3|4|5% [x Ability Strength].

Spoiler

Be aware that if you or your allies are heavily attacked, you might spend too many Runes too quickly.

The damage reduction bonus is applied additively and can surpass the damage reduction cap. The formula is: [Glyph of Warding's damage reduction x Ability Strength] capped at 75% + Runic Shield's damage reduction x Ability Strength. For example, at 30th Karsus level, 3rd Runic Shield level and with Intentify at 3rd level, the total damage reduction would be 66% x (1 + 30%) capped at 75% + 5% x (1 + 30%) = 75% + 6.5% = 81.5. With 200% Ability Strength you can reach 85% and with 300% you can reach 90% (same as Citrine's Preserving Shell with 225%). Probably, this should be hardcapped at 90% damage reduction to prevent broken stuff if you have an ally Equinox with Peaceful Provocation and an ally Nidus with Parasytic Link.

Blood Magic (Wand of Wonders)
Every 6|5|4|3 Eximius units you kill you automatically channel a Universal Rune for free with every Rune effect.

Spoiler

At the very moment you channel a Universal Rune, all your other channeled Runes are removed and you regain their energy cost. This rune has the effect of every Rune. If you reload Wand of Wonders while having a channeled Universal Rune, you will spend one of each Rune (effectively increasing its cost and damage). Elemental Runes will be combined randomly.

Tips:

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Warframes show tips in the ability section. Here are some tips.

  1. Channeling an Umbra Rune as the first Rune prevents it from combining.
  2. Channeling an Umbra Rune while already having an Umbra Rune will convert a Combined Rune to its original state if any.
  3. Rolling backward will clean all your channeled Runes and restore their Energy cost.
  4. Keep high your Stored Rune amount for higher benefits and use Wand of Wonder to double them or Glyph of Warding to share them.
  5. Use Wand of Wonders to spread Magic Missile easily.
  6. Use Circle of Power to increase the effect of your Runes and reduce the cost of attacking with Wand of Wonders.
  7. Madurai and Umbra Rune tend to be more offensive-focused while Vazarin and Pengaja tend to be more defensive-focused.
  8. Combine Runes from multiple different abilities to create a powerful combination.

Final Thoughts
Do I think this Warframe is strong? Yes, I do. Do I think it is overpowered? No, I don't. Nowadays Warframes are capable of doing multiple things at the same time (like Wisp or Styanax) and are really strong (like Gauss or Revenant's Mesmer Skin with Mesmer Shield or Saryn's Spores). You can't channel more than 3 Runes at the same type which means that you can't stack all its effects simultaneously (and each Rune cost energy). Runes effects aren't directly affected by Ability Strength, instead, they are only affected by Circle of Power buff which means their scaling is much slower. For example, with 100% Ability Strength, Magic Missiles' Madurai Rune adds a +35% Critical Chance or +42% if you are inside the Circle of Power. If you have 200% Ability Strength, it will still be +35% normally, or +49% while inside the Circle of Power. With 300%, it will be +35% normally or +56% while inside the Circle of Power. This prevents your Rune from reaching very high numbers.

Edited by Enderluck
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Really impressive concept, very refined, balanced very well, and very unique take on a caster/wizard theme. The only real issue I see is the rune buffs on each ability, they might be a bit much for the average the player to fully understand and grasp. I know myself I would end up gravitating to the 3 basic rune that do the most for me and ignore the other 4. I'm not 100% sure what to suggest as a fix, but something I think should be kept in mind if you decide to refine this concept more.

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I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I also thought about reducing the number of different Runes to 4 (so basically removing the ability to combine Runes). Probably the runes would be Madurai, Vazarin, Naramon, and Zerunik. The only problem is that Unairu (from Focus system) wouldn't be represented.

Currently, there are 7 Runes and you can use up to 3 at the same time (all of them must be different). I might change it to:
- 4 Runes and you can use up to 2 at the same time, but you can stack the same rune to increase its effect or add new benefits.
- 3 Runes (1st, 2nd and 3rd ability) and you can use only 2 runes at the same time, and then when you cast 4 it creates an effect based on the 2 previous runes used, kind of similar to Dante (the new warframe from the last devsteam). I'm still not sure. I don't want to copy Dante, but the idea seems interesting. 3 runes and 2 at the same time allow up to 6 combinations (9 if order matters).

The idea of 3 Runes is nice. Maybe the Runes are "offensive", "tactical" and "defensive". You can combine 2 offensive into Madurai, 2 defensive into Vazarin, 2 tactical into Naramon, an offensive and a defensive into Unairu, an offensive and a tactical into Zerunik, and a defensive and a tactical into Pengaja. The problem is that I loved the idea of elemental damage for Wand of Wonders and now with this system I wouldn't be able to do that.

Also, maybe instead of reducing the number of Runes, I could make Runes only affect Wand of Wonder (like Dante) instead of each ability (like Lavos). There are many different ways to simplify it, so I still need to think about it before posting a complete revision. Also, a different approach might be to completely forgo about warframe's polarities and instead create new runes...

Maybe, If I simplify the runes, I should modify the abilities to be more instantaneous instead of having long durations so that you cast them more frequently to gather more Runes. For example, Glyph of Warding could give Overguard instead of damage reduction.

Edited by Enderluck
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I think a really interesting, and probably broken, take on the runes relation to the polarities would be your equipped mods and forma. It would be a very unique kit that takes what we already have in game, and flips it on its head a little bit. Like if I use an umbra forma I get a special passive bonus, say bleed chance on all abilities, and if I polarized madurai I recieve a different passive bonus. This would be a really cool way to make the kit more versatile in build options beyond regular modding.

I like the idea of collecting runes from enemies killed with abilities, but what if instead it would reward runes according to the mods equipped (ie having mostly Naramon mods would increase the chance of receiving naramon runes). This way it would make it easier to reach max on your runes without having to do a bunch of combinations, and now limit the pool of runes you can be rewarded from kills. This also plays into the dnd aspect of the frame with some degree of randomness.

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