Mesa Rework

[PlNKWithAnL]

Now, before you shout to the heavens that Mesa is good already and doesn't need a rework, let me offer my opinion on her.

Yes, Mesa is a good frame. My problem is that I believe she is boring. Casting a few buffs and toggling your Exalt to wave the cursor around the screen is not fun in my opinion. Mesa suffers from a massive lack of interactivity in her design. So I had the idea to rework her. Not a nerf but a sweeping change in function to make her more interactive and fun, while keeping that gunslinger spirit her design showcases so well.

 

The general idea here is to make Mesa an omni-weapons platform. She makes her equipped guns better, can use two at once, and can dispatch enemies en masse with her Peacemakers, in a different way to their current function.

A rough draft of a Mesa Rework

 

Passive: Mesa grants a bonus to her equipped weapon based on its category:

Rifle: 2m Punch Through, 20% increased Rate of Fire

Sniper Rifle: 3m explosion on headshots. Enemies damaged by this explosion increase Sniper Combo. (For the Sniper class weapons that already explode, this radius stacks with whatever radius the weapon has already.)

Bow: 30% Draw Time reduction (Stacking additively with the bow's modded RoF) and 30% additional ammo

Shotgun: 30% Reload Speed, 50% spread reduction

Single Secondary: 50% final multiplicative damage and infinite ammo for 3s on equip

Dual Wield Secondary: 30% Rate of Fire, 50% decreased recoil

 

 

1.

Gunslinger's Trance

Mesa focuses her mind and her gun. The shots Mesa fires will now have a chance to chain to nearby enemies, with a reduction in damage per chain. Headshots guarantee this effect and will not reduce damage on the first chain. AoE weapons instead gain decreased falloff and a small bonus to their explosion radius. Chaining Beam Weapons gain reduced damage penalty and increased chain distance.

 

notes: Chain distance scales on range, chance is a static 50%, damage penalty scales down on strength, capping at 60% per chained shot. (placed this damage penalty between Atomos and Kuva Nukor's chain penalty values.)

 

2.

Unchanged (to prevent bad things for helminth'd SG frames)

notes: I really don't wanna try and "fix" an ability that's a very popular helminth slot, possibly ruining it for the frames that have it subsumed on.

 

3.

Pale Rider

Mesa channels the Void to bring forth a phantom of her equipped Primary or Secondary. This phantom gun floats alongside her and fires alongside her own weapon but has limited ammo and will dissipate if it runs out, or its duration expires. The phantom gun benefits from any applicable bonuses from Gunslinger's Trance and her passive.

 

notes: The phantom will not change if Mesa swaps weapons. This allows for interesting combos with both her equipped guns firing at once (which hopefully will not break the game) Recasting it will once again summon a phantom of her equipped weapon with fresh ammo. Mesa's phantom gun Ammo is a percentage of the weapon's equipped max ammo. Evolved Incarnon weapons get a percentage of their incarnon magazine. This % scales up on Strength, capping out at 40%. Phantom guns do not need to reload.

This ability and her passive would have a UI element to denote which passive(s) are active for Mesa's weapons and how much ammo her phantom gun has left. Perhaps a revolver cylinder with the 6 shots representing 1/6th of the phantom's ammo, emptying the cylinders as it drains ammo. Behind or next to that would be gun icons showing mesa's current weapon passive(s).

 

4.

Fistful of Dollars

Mesa equips her Peacemakers and draws her prey down. Aiming at enemies will mark them, preferring any headshot and weakspot the enemy has. Upon reactivating the ability, Mesa takes up a stance and fires at all marked enemies in quick succession, dealing massive damage. Peacemaker's Rate of Fire and Mesa's Ability Duration determine how fast she dispatches marked targets. If Pale Rider is active, two pairs of Peacemakers will fire at marked enemies. If Gunslinger's Trance is active, all Peacemaker shots will chain once, with no damage penalty.

notes: Yeah this is literally blade storm but with a true exalt. Peacemakers will now have infinite terrain and body punch through as a base, stopping at the marked target. This allows for 4 to function as intended.

 

I'm happy to hear feedback on these ideas. The goal here is to change how Mesa works and plays, not to nerf her into the ground.

 

 

[Chewarette]

Well, you admit yourself  that your proposal for Peacemakers' replacement is literally Blade Storm. You know what's terribly bad in Ash's design ? Blade Storm.

[PlNKWithAnL]

2 minutes ago, Chewarette said:

Well, you admit yourself  that your proposal for Peacemakers' replacement is literally Blade Storm. You know what's terribly bad in Ash's design ? Blade Storm.

I would hope in this execution of the idea that Mesa could build in a way that makes her 4 casts much quicker than bladestorm is. This is why I  explicitly mentioning scaling how fast she takes her shots on marked targets.

[Petergeist00]

3 hours ago, PlNKWithAnL said:

Yeah this is literally blade storm

Let's not ruin another warframe like they did with Ash.

3 hours ago, PlNKWithAnL said:

Yes, Mesa is a good frame. My problem is that I believe she is boring.

She is boring for you. She just doesn't fit your playstyle, find something else to play.

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"

[PlNKWithAnL]

15 hours ago, Petergeist00 said:

Let's not ruin another warframe like they did with Ash.

She is boring for you. She just doesn't fit your playstyle, find something else to play.

"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"

Making 4 a bladestorm-like ability was the middle ground that I could find between the existing Regulators, I very much do not like, and getting rid of what is otherwise a crucial part of Mesa's identity. I'd be happy to hear ideas on how to make Peacemaker a more interesting ability to use than it is currently, instead of just "This is bad because it's like bladestorm". This entire rework draft is meant to mold Mesa into something I would enjoy more and whom I think is a better frame to play than existing Mesa. I've outlined by belief that Mesa is not a healthy design because she just casts her buffs and waves her exalt around. This just makes a dull frame, no matter how effective she is. Just saying "if you don't like her, don't use her" is not constructive criticism, it's dismissal. It's not like I'm a designer at DE putting this on Pablo's desk, I'm just a guy putting an idea on the forums.

[Petergeist00]

13 hours ago, PlNKWithAnL said:

I'd be happy to hear ideas on how to make Peacemaker a more interesting ability to use than it is currently

no need for that as it is perfect for the concept of the warframe itself, Peacemaker satisfy the Gunslinger power fantasy and the 2nd and 3rd ability complements it.
also how it works is already interesting, it allows the players to decide to keep shooting and getting higher damage but you need to be more accurate or resetting the ability to lower the damage and getting more range. it gives players agency and is also simple enough to understand it while playing it without guides or reading the ability itself. it is good design.
 

13 hours ago, PlNKWithAnL said:

This just makes a dull frame, no matter how effective she is

This is your subjective opinion.

 

13 hours ago, PlNKWithAnL said:

"if you don't like her, don't use her" is not constructive criticism, it's dismissal.

i usually don't say that, but in this case it's clear that you have a problem with Mesa's playstyle, there are more than 40 warframes, find something else, do not ask for reworks in the feedback section of the forum just because you find one of the most played warframes (that means Mesa is fun to play and comfortable for most players and at any levels) boring.