A few suggestions for a reworked Limbo

[Greysmog]

A fully comprehensive Limbo Rework, I'll put it here in case anyone enjoys it.

1) The Rift (Passive)
- Enemies and allies now have a much more obvious flickering effect when in the Rift, and a top hat icon above their head for further clarity (with a number next to it for the charge amount). All color is removed when in a Rifted area.
- The Rift no longer offers invulnerability, but now becomes a 90% DR passive ability (50% for allies) with a set amount of charges like Mesmer Skin. You will be pulled into the Rift when your Shields break, giving a flat 1 second increase to your invulnerability time and removing one charge. If you die while you have a charge, you will be instantly revived with all charges being removed with low health (the death guard has a 60 second cooldown for allies and a 30 second cooldown for Limbo).
- Rift "charges" are restored slowly over 15 seconds while Limbo or allies are in the Rift, or have them directly replenished by Banish. The cap is 3.
- The Rift no longer limits Limbo's attacks or ally fire to either plane. Rifted enemies can be damaged by you in reality, and Rifted enemies can damage you.
- The Rift is now more of a status effect than a plane switch, which we'll just call "Rifted", it has a duration of 10 seconds and increases Status Chance by a flat 50%.

- Limbo's Dodge now affects allies and enemies in a set 20 meter radius around him and applies the Rifted effect, leaving behind a portal as per usual that will also do this for a short time. This cannot refresh the Rifted effect.

2) Banish
- A physical "wave" is added to Banish for visual clarity.
- Now only applies the Rifted status to allies and enemies, replenishing any charges for allies in the radius and refreshing the status effect on enemies.
- Banish now has a more consistent Knockdown, visually creating a "pop" effect when an enemy has been hit.
- Hold-Cast now casts Banish in a circular AoE.

- The Rift Haven Augment now gives Limbo and his allies additional Rifted "charges", doubling the cap to 6.

3) Stasis 
- Now fully pauses enemies for a much shorter period, with a continuous strong slow effect that gets weaker as the duration expires. 
- Fully stops the Rifted status effect from counting down, and then slows the timer, prompting more consistent casting. Also halts any current status timers and slows them down as well. 

4) Rift Surge

- Increases all Rift effects for a brief period, increasing the Status Chance buff, the duration of the Rifted status effect, decreases your Rifted "charge" replenishment time, increases the Rifted invulnerability time and decreases the death guard cooldown.

- Rift Surge now becomes a channeled ability, draining 2.5 Energy every second and instantly applying the surge effect to any enemies that are Rifted. The drain increases by 10% per second (up to a cap of 100%) and decreases by 5% for every enemy death.

- Enemies and allies that are Rifted both receive the surge visual effect, and killing enemies affected boosts Ability Cast time by 50% for Limbo and allies for the remaining duration.

- The surge effect does not disappear when an enemy is Rifted through alternative means as it does currently (such as Banish), persisting until the enemy is killed.

- Spreads the Rifted status effect on death or on Banish cast to any enemies or allies in the radius. Allies and Limbo receive a timer reduction on Rift "charges" for each enemy killed within a 10 meter radius, but this does not refresh the Rifted status.

- The Rift Torrent Augment now loses the buff slowly, decaying over time instead of instantly disappearing. The buff is instead replenished partially for every Surged enemy.

 

5) Cataclysm

- Now has a much smaller core on the inside, telling players how small it will be on collapse and making it so Nullifiers must touch it in order to deactivate Cataclysm. 

- Cataclysm slowly pulls enemies to its center along its edge as it collapses, so no more baddies are left behind. It does not pull enemies if spammed.

- The Stagger from the initial cast becomes a Knockdown if enemies are already Rifted.

- Cataclysm now causes Status Effects to spread to nearby enemies that have the Rifted status within its radius, Rift Surge increases the chance for a short period.

Edited April 3 by Greysmog

[Mazifet]

2 hours ago, Greysmog said:

The Rift no longer offers invulnerability, but now becomes a 90% DR ability

[Greysmog]

28 minutes ago, Mazifet said:

[Numerounius]

This isn't that bad of a suggestion. Even knocks of my main gripe with Limbo with the rift being an active griefing tool vs. various gamemodes by changing the main mechanic of Rift.

 

Having more sources of DR isn't necessarily a bad thing. Could probably get into the same problem with Overguard currently if its allowed to stack though.

And that is my main point of criticism is how much Overguard is baked into this "rework", which I'm not going to be pleased about if I have to read dozens of reworks in the future that all mention Overguard. Overguard should be limited at most to one ability (that isn't the helminth one) if it is going to included as a point of a rework. The actual effects sounds good but having Overguard as the main mechanic sours it. Just remove Overguard altogether from this rework suggestion you have a solid base without it.

[Greysmog]

5 minutes ago, Numerounius said:

This isn't that bad of a suggestion. Even knocks of my main gripe with Limbo with the rift being an active griefing tool vs. various gamemodes by changing the main mechanic of Rift.

 

Having more sources of DR isn't necessarily a bad thing. Could probably get into the same problem with Overguard currently if its allowed to stack though.

And that is my main point of criticism is how much Overguard is baked into this "rework", which I'm not going to be pleased about if I have to read dozens of reworks in the future that all mention Overguard. Overguard should be limited at most to one ability (that isn't the helminth one) if it is going to included as a point of a rework. The actual effects sounds good but having Overguard as the main mechanic sours it. Just remove Overguard altogether from this rework suggestion you have a solid base without it.

I did originally plan to have it be based around Shield, or more specifically, Shield Regen Delay and Regeneration Rate similar to Gauss's Passive but for the whole team. I've also jumped between that idea or just making Rifted increase the invulnerability time of things like Shield Break or Overguard Break for instance by a static amount.

The main reason I settled on Overguard for now was mostly because it had what I wanted from a Shield set of buffs, but it lacked the weakness to Toxin and had a shorter invulnerability time. Which to clarify for Limbo specifically, was moreso to give him temporary invulnerability with tiny amounts of Overguard that just regenerated fairly quickly (which did technically stack, but only through the Augment as it is his Passive). Since I still personally feel he should have the idea of the Rift offering protection baked into his kit, and invulnerability with it, just more as an "oh crud" safety net that you could only replenish by constantly casting and killing.

Though yeah, I do understand that seeing Overguard in everything is pretty lame, and seeing something relating to Shield Replenishment is even lamer. I think I'll change it to Rifted just increasing invulnerability windows by default, since I honestly like that idea more now that I think about it.