Buff/mini rework for Nova

[Azchenon]

Nova is a versatile warframe who can hold her own in a vast variety of situations and content. Her interaction with duration and strength (including negative) mods allows intersting build variety.

However, she is not without her issues. Despite not being in as bad a state as, say, Caliban, she still could use a buff to make her kit more cohesive, stremlined, and more fluid.

Specifically, while her 1 and 4 are pretty much perfect versions of themselves, her passive is lackluster, her 2 is the Go-To subsume slot, and her 3 can feel a bit finnicky and has some anti-synergy with the way she is built.

This rework aims to fix those issues by reworking Nova's 2, 3 and passive into abilities with the same goal, but with better scaling, QoL, as well as better supporting her role as a self sufficient and explosive weapons platform.

Let's start with the 3 : Wormhole.

Wormhole is a very potent movement ability. While playing Nova, I have found it a lot more obtrusive than other movement abilities like Vial Rush, Mach Rush, or even Wil-O-Wisp.

Also, it has the issue of being Nova's only ability where going negative range is bad. The range becomes too short to justify the cost, which kinda sucks. I also find that the charge-based mechanic is a bit annoying and inconsistent.

Lastly, I would like to make this ability do more on its own, give it more use cases and make it open up more gameplans.

I have two separate ways to change this ability. The first is almost strictly a numbers buff, the second is a more advanced overhaul that keeps the portal and the core function of the ability, but with a twist in how it is used for more fluidity.

First way to rework Wormhole :

- Base cast speed increased

- Hold down 3 to instantly traverse the portal when it appears, regardless of the direction you were moving in.

- Range is now unaffected by mod and will now always be 50 meters.

This is more than enough to make the ability good. The second version makes it a bit different but hopefully more engaging, cooler, etc : 

Second way to rework Wormhole :

- Wormhole may be activated in one of two ways : Tap 3 to activate/Tap again to deactivate ; Hold 3 to activate/Release to deactivate (Think of it like Wisp's 2). The difference between the two is that the held version causes Nova to traverse the portal instantly.

- While activated, Nova becomes invulnerable and the player assumes control over the arrival point of the portal. 

- While controlling the arrival point of the portal, the player may move in all three dimensions at a fixed, high speed with no acceleration.

- Deactivating places the arrival point at the players current location. The portal is created at Nova's location when activating. The arrival point forms another portal, facing whichever direction the player was facing when deactivating. The portals are connected, entering one will teleport you 1 meter in front of the other, with your momentum upon entrance, in the direction the portal is facing.

- (Optional) Energy cost changed from 75E to a rapid rate, something like 12E/s. This drain is affected by duration and efficiency, as always.

This fixes the range problem and makes it more fluid, like, a lot. It also lets you do the Rhino drop from the New War cinematic.

In either case : (for both versions)

- Now collect all items within a Vacuum range of the trajectory when traversing the portal.

- Now knock all enemies down within 5 meter distance of the trajectory when traversing the portal.

- Portal lifetime is now stricty duration based with no charges restriction, it lasts 10 seconds unmodded at rank 30.

- Portals can still be traversed by bullets and allied NPCs. This, however, will not cause the new sweeping knockdown.

 

Wormhole is now a fluid ability that allows for crowd control, is no longer impeded by negative range, and allows for even more versatility.

Let us now turn our attention to Nova's 2 : Antimatter Drop. 

Antimatter drop started out as one of the weirdest, but also one of the most powerful abilities in the game. At the time, dealing 200K damage in an area of effect was simply unheard of. Since then however, power creep for both warframes and enemies has left the ability outclassed by other damage options, such as "pseudo-exalts", or options that are more reliable, and smoother to apply, such as Protea's turrets (which can deal comparable amounts of damage with way less setup). Overall, Antimatter Drop feels clunky and slow, and the reward, while good at lower levels, is often not worth the investment there ; and it is insufficient at higher levels.

Not all is bad however. From a design perspective, I especially like that the fact that the explosion radius is unaffected by range, thus preventing an anti-synergy with narrow-minded, and the idea of pushing single-target weapons to the next level by allowing them to deal damage in a large AoE.

The goal is to make the ability more fluid and allowing it to scale better in higher levels, while amplifyig the "Single Target turns into AoE" fantasy.

Changes to Antimatter Drop : 

- The Orb now follows Nova around, similar to Mirage's Prism Guard, instead of being a slow moving projectile. It now lasts for a duration of 17 seconds unmodded at rank 30.

- The Orb stores all damage inflicted by Nova's primary and secondary weapons to enemy units, including critical hits and headshot multipliers, as well as ability buffs, but not damage over time effects. Damage is counted ONCE per bullet : damage dealt with punch through, as well as beam chain damage, is NOT counted. Explosion damage is NOT counted. (If a weapon as a direct hit and an explosion, the direct hit will count, but the explosion will not.)

- Absorbed damage caps at 100 000, and is converted to radiation. The 8* multiplier is removed. Enemy damage no longer counts towards charging the orb. Base Orb damage stays the same.

- Once the duration ends, or when the player decides to reactivate the ability, the orb shoots forward at a relatively high speed, comparable to that of a Grimoire Primary fire projectile.

- The orb detonates on impact with anything, dealing the stored damage to all enemies in 15 meters + 1m per active Null Star.

- While the player Aims/Scopes in the direction of the orb, it stops moving. If the player successfully shoots the orb with their primary/secondary weapon, the orb becomes unstable and collapses at its current location after 0.25 seconds, exploding and dealing damage in a wide area.

      - Damage dealt is : 100% of stored damage * ability strength * (1/1000) * Damage recieved by the final shot on the orb, with the possibility to critically strike and always counting as a headshot.

A well built Kuva Chakkhurr can easily deal over 15 000 damage on a headshot crit. Assuming an ability strength of 100%, the damage stored would be mutiplied by 15( = 15 000 / 1000) before being applied in an AoE. (I wanted to say this to justify the 1/1000 which may look strange by itslef).

      - AoE radius is : 15m + 1m per active Null Star. Nova can room clear now.

 

Antimatter drop is now way less obtrusive to use, deals excellent damage in a very large radius, and even complements Nova's antimatter/quantum physics theme (with the detail that the orb stops moving when you look aim at it, haha electrons)

Finally, lets look at Nova's passive. Currently, it is an AoE shockwave of a 6 meter radius dealing 250 blast damage with no scaling whatsoever upon getting knocked down. 

This is quite underwhelming. Primed sure footed eliminates both this passive and the need for it. The radius is unworkable, and so is the damage. On top of that, Revenant has a better version of this passive, triggering on shield break and with a very slightly better range (I won't comment on the damage, as it is negligeable in either case). I am more than happy to leave the passive to Revenant, because he doesn't need a buff at all. Lets now change Nova's passive into something that fits her role.

New passive : "Unstable Charge"

Upon completing a reload, Nova emits a shockwave that deals 250 blast damage and knocks down all enemies within a radius of 6 + (3*Reload Speed) meters. The longer the reload, the bigger the AoE. Reload speed is counted in seconds. For the Kuva Chakkhurr, the radius becomes 15.9 meters, which is reasonably big.

 

Results!

Wormhole is more fluid, applies crowd control and collects items.

Antimatter drop now properly scales at high levels and is less obtrusive in gameplay.

Nova now has a passive that reliably applies crowd control.

What do you all think ? Is this good enough to make knightmare frame call Nova broken ? Let me know !

(pablo please notice me)

[Vorspeis]

The main problem with nova is that she has an augment for the 4th ability, which does not give anything for her

[Enderluck]

En 28/2/2024 a las 11:53, Vorspeis dijo:

The main problem with nova is that she has an augment for the 4th ability, which does not give anything for her

Nova has a damage reduction based on the number of Null Star she has. After casting that ability, she can't recast it unless all of them are spent. That means, that if she loses one of the stars, she no longer has maximized their damage reduction and so she needs to quickly spend them all to be able to recast it again. This forces you to have low range to avoid losing them or having Neutron Star mod to be able to recast the ability to spend all of them and so be able to recast it to be full again. Molecular Fission allows you to regain Null Stars without needing to spend them all. It is quite nice cause it gives you a very easy and reliable way to passively regain the stars as you spend them.

[AegidiusF]

il y a 50 minutes, Enderluck a dit :

Nova has a damage reduction based on the number of Null Star she has. After casting that ability, she can't recast it unless all of them are spent. That means, that if she loses one of the stars, she no longer has maximized their damage reduction and so she needs to quickly spend them all to be able to recast it again. This forces you to have low range to avoid losing them or having Neutron Star mod to be able to recast the ability to spend all of them and so be able to recast it to be full again. Molecular Fission allows you to regain Null Stars without needing to spend them all. It is quite nice cause it gives you a very easy and reliable way to passively regain the stars as you spend them.

I totally agree. I just can't play Nova without this augment.

Before a rework, they should fix Nova's abilities, specially her 2nd, whose absorption multiplier is currently scaling with power strength, even though the game itself says it doesn't.