Ideas for a Chroma rework

[(PSN)EmperorBlastoff]

                   Chroma has been in a underpowered state for quite some time. Which is all due to how outdated his kit has become , and as the game evolves and other frames get buffs and reworks. Chroma has been left in dust not getting any kind of change. In fact his kit hasn't really gotten any relevant change in the  last 9 years of his release. So as frames like Hydroid and Inaros got their reworks, I think it's reasonable for Chroma to be the next frame to get a major rework. Here are my suggestions on how he should be reworked.

 

     New Passive: Chroma's current passive Dragons flight is more of a cosmetic feature than really a passive. Also having an extra bullet and midair jump isn't really that special to begin with. So I will give him a  new Passive  Status Retaliation. Chroma has a 25% chance to inflict a random status effects on nearby enemies when damaged. Is this the most creative passive no I think are better ideas for a Chroma passive, but it's the best I could think of.

 

New First Ability: Chromas Spectrial Scream is one of the weakest first abilities a frame can have. Not only does it have no scaling damage, it's slow, and the status effects it produces are pathetic. Compared to similar abilities like Voruna's Fangs of Raksh and Lavos's Ophidian bite, it doesn't even come close to the amount of status effects they  produce in one cast. Oh yeah it also drains energy, Which is why I am replacing it with Elemental Fury. Once activated Chroma will be able to give melee weapons increased elemental damage, similar to Kullervo's Wrathful Advance but with elemental damage and no teleport feature. The amount of elemental damage will be scale with power, with just 200% power strength giving you a 215%  elemental damage buff. Duration obviously makes the effect last longer. Chroma will also have the ability to cycle through and choose any of the common elemental damage types (Electric, Toxin, Cold, and Heat) and use them. Now this is when things get spicy, Chroma can also combine two of the common elemental damage types to get combined elements like (Viral, Corrosive, Radiation, Gas, and Magnetic) and use them as well. But combine elements will cost more energy, and you can only have one combined element type active. This ability can make Chroma a very good melee wielding frame, and with the right melee build and the new Tennokai, Chroma can quite literary destroy high level content.

 

Second Ability Changes: The second ability Elemental Ward at first seems like a decent survivabilty and support tool but in practice its pretty overwhelming for Chroma. First you cant recast the ability like on other support abilities, so your force to wait till the duration to end to recast it. Two you can only use one buff at a time so you can't use it at its full potential. Three most of the buffs kinda suck., for example the heat buff only gives you extra health but no healing. Which isn't good especially in steel path because extra health with no healing, armor, and Shield gating isn't gonna mean S#&$ to a Steelpath enemies. While the cold and electric buffs are decent, but like I said you can't use two buffs at the same time, and the worst of them all is the toxin buff. Having extra reload and holster speed is situational and most Chroma players rarely use it, unless they are using it in Eidolon hunt. since Elemental Ward is Chroma's subsume you can just slap it on other frames like Wisp or Trinity and get better results than on Chroma. I would keep Elemental ward but make some changes like making it recast able and being able to use two buffs instead of just one. I will also give changes to the buffs by giving them special effects. The Heat Buff will  give Chroma extra health and also extra healing like Wisp's motes. The Electric Buff will give extra shields as well as extra energy regeneration, The Cold Buff would still give extra armor but it will also give out a slow moving aura similar to that of Sevagoth's gloom, and  finally the Toxin Buff will give extra ammo and ammo capacity to guns. You can only use two buffs at once, but just having just two should be enough survivabilty.

 

Third Ability Changes: Vex Armor since Chroma's release has been his greatest strength but it is also Chroma's biggest weakness. This is due to how you gain vex armor, you have to take damage to get the buffs. Against normal level enemies this wouldn't be a problem, but against Steelpath and high level content this is an issue because as enemy level gets higher so does their damage. This makes building vex armor very risky, because if you take too much damage no armor buff is gonna save you from dying. So to fix this I would make it so instead of taking damage for vex armor, instead Chroma sacrifices half his health and shields. I say sacrifice not reduce since you can just cast Chroma's 2 to get that health and shields back, giving Chroma more synergy.

 

New Fourth Ability: Chroma's  Effigy has always been an unreliable power. It debuffs Chroma by removing the armor buff from vex armor, drastically decreasing Chroma's survivability by a lot for minor 20% movement speed which is useless. The sentry doesn't hold up either not only is its damage comparable to that of a water gun, its stationary and doesn't move at all. And if your running a Blind rage Chroma with no efficiency the sentry would drain all of your energy in seconds, making it a liability for Chroma. Unless you are using it for profit taker credit farms  this ability just sucks in general so I'm replacing it with Rising Dragon. Chroma will spread his wings and be able to actually fly like a dragon similar to how Zephyr can fly, while in this flying state Chroma can only use guns. But if he casts his one he can breathe out an elemental status projectile that spreads status in a large area of effect, allowing Chroma to effectively spread status effects.

 

My Thoughts and Conclusion: So this is how I would rework Chroma. If you have any suggestions or ideas please send me your feedback and Pablo if you see this please rework Chroma he deserves it.

 

[Nerthiril]

I’m 50/50 on this fix idea. It does have merit but there are edits I’d do. Going down the list:

34 minutes ago, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New Passive: Chroma's current passive Dragons flight is more of a cosmetic feature than really a passive. Also having an extra bullet and midair jump isn't really that special to begin with. So I will give him a  new Passive  Status Retaliation. Chroma has a 25% chance to inflict a random status effects on nearby enemies when damaged. Is this the most creative passive no I think are better ideas for a Chroma passive, but it's the best I could think of.

Completely agree with you on the passive. It feels like something you’d slap on just as a filler passive while you fix something that was broken or to hold it over till you give the frame the proper passive. Yet chroma has it and still has it for years. Status retaliation is nice when their primary ability relies on getting damaged.

37 minutes ago, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New First Ability: Chromas Spectrial Scream is one of the weakest first abilities a frame can have. Not only does it have no scaling damage, it's slow, and the status effects it produces are pathetic. Compared to similar abilities like Voruna's Fangs of Raksh and Lavos's Ophidian bite, it doesn't even come close to the amount of status effects they  produce in one cast. Oh yeah it also drains energy, Which is why I am replacing it with Elemental Fury. Once activated Chroma will be able to give melee weapons increased elemental damage, similar to Kullervo's Wrathful Advance but with elemental damage and no teleport feature. The amount of elemental damage will be scale with power, with just 200% power strength giving you a 215%  elemental damage buff. Duration obviously makes the effect last longer. Chroma will also have the ability to cycle through and choose any of the common elemental damage types (Electric, Toxin, Cold, and Heat) and use them. Now this is when things get spicy, Chroma can also combine two of the common elemental damage types to get combined elements like (Viral, Corrosive, Radiation, Gas, and Magnetic) and use them as well. But combine elements will cost more energy, and you can only have one combined element type active. This ability can make Chroma a very good melee wielding frame, and with the right melee build and the new Tennokai, Chroma can quite literary destroy high level content.

This is another good point but it’s also where my ideas start to differ. I don’t like the idea that their ability only will effect melee. We already have multiple melee frames (like kullervo as mentioned and voruna) and the second issue is turning it into another melee frame will unless it brings something different (which it doesn’t) will leave it in the same place it is right now. People will just use Kullervo for crit and raw damage melee, and voruna for status and CO. Chroma is special because its buffs are universal. Buffing their guns and melee alongside their abilities damage. Making the first ability just a melee damage and status buff would just not stand out. Also it’s treading on the toes of larvos with the combined elements. Chroma should be the master of (base) elements. While larvos the alchemist should be the master of combining them. Tho don’t have as much issue with this as spectral scream. Another issue is no frame has more than one damage buff ability. That’s why you can only replace eclipse with roar with vex armor. You are prohibited from replacing any other ability. Giving chroma 2 damage buff abilities would make them stand out. In a bad way. People will complain at de asking why chroma can get 2 damage buffs. Maybe instead of spectral scream as it is it can be this:

Spectral Scream: Chroma lets out a roar infused with elemental might staggering and inflicting status on enemies caught in the blast. Secondary effect changes based on what element is equipped: 
Heat: A flash of fire Blind enemies for 3 seconds

Electric: Electric tendrils latch onto nearby allies instantly starting a boosted shield recharge

Cold: Instantly Freezes nearby enemies

Toxin: Toxin drips from chroma and enemies hit by the blast creating toxic pools underneath them.

With chroma’s new guardian armor augment they now have a nieche as a Paladin (Support/Tank) this will also augment that role giving them some desperately needed CC (Cold and heat), some desperately needed aoe damage (Toxin), and another means to support the team (Electric) also makes it so it works more like elemental ward in that it isn’t just a change of elements. But it’s actually a change in effect too.

54 minutes ago, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

Second Ability Changes: The second ability Elemental Ward at first seems like a decent survivabilty and support tool but in practice its pretty overwhelming for Chroma. First you cant recast the ability like on other support abilities, so your force to wait till the duration to end to recast it. Two you can only use one buff at a time so you can't use it at its full potential. Three most of the buffs kinda suck., for example the heat buff only gives you extra health but no healing. Which isn't good especially in steel path because extra health with no healing, armor, and Shield gating isn't gonna mean S#&$ to a Steelpath enemies. While the cold and electric buffs are decent, but like I said you can't use two buffs at the same time, and the worst of them all is the toxin buff. Having extra reload and holster speed is situational and most Chroma players rarely use it, unless they are using it in Eidolon hunt. since Elemental Ward is Chroma's subsume you can just slap it on other frames like Wisp or Trinity and get better results than on Chroma. I would keep Elemental ward but make some changes like making it recast able and being able to use two buffs instead of just one. I will also give changes to the buffs by giving them special effects. The Heat Buff will  give Chroma extra health and also extra healing like Wisp's motes. The Electric Buff will give extra shields as well as extra energy regeneration, The Cold Buff would still give extra armor but it will also give out a slow moving aura similar to that of Sevagoth's gloom, and  finally the Toxin Buff will give extra ammo and ammo capacity to guns. You can only use two buffs at once, but just having just two should be enough survivabilty.

This is the first I’d say is actually fine. No comments here just a good idea to make Ele ward more useful and consistent.

56 minutes ago, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

Third Ability Changes: Vex Armor since Chroma's release has been his greatest strength but it is also Chroma's biggest weakness. This is due to how you gain vex armor, you have to take damage to get the buffs. Against normal level enemies this wouldn't be a problem, but against Steelpath and high level content this is an issue because as enemy level gets higher so does their damage. This makes building vex armor very risky, because if you take too much damage no armor buff is gonna save you from dying. So to fix this I would make it so instead of taking damage for vex armor, instead Chroma sacrifices half his health and shields. I say sacrifice not reduce since you can just cast Chroma's 2 to get that health and shields back, giving Chroma more synergy.

Honestly this is the change I have the biggest gripe with. With guardian armor existing solely to make getting VA easier (And the confirmed change that now ranged attacks will stack fury and melee for scorn) this change is no longer needed. I’d even protest the change without Guardian armor existing. It just turns it into another roar/eclipse style buff of cast it for full effect. And honestly if this change went through it’ll get nerfed guaranteed. Making it in an even more sorry state than it is rn. Especially since you can just keep recasting the buff once you have it at max. Also guardian armor can’t kill you. Only drop to 1 hp. Meaning if you stay out of sight from the enemies but have like Vaz focus for more aff range you can easily get max fury in seconds without risk of dying. Honestly a better change in my opinion since I keep mentioning it so much. Make guardian armor part of Vex armor. It’s such a crucial augment for chroma in high levels if you want to not die trying to stack VA. Ig it does kinda make sense for such a strong power to be costing a mod slot.

1 hour ago, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New Fourth Ability: Chroma's  Effigy has always been an unreliable power. It debuffs Chroma by removing the armor buff from vex armor, drastically decreasing Chroma's survivability by a lot for minor 20% movement speed which is useless. The sentry doesn't hold up either not only is its damage comparable to that of a water gun, its stationary and doesn't move at all. And if your running a Blind rage Chroma with no efficiency the sentry would drain all of your energy in seconds, making it a liability for Chroma. Unless you are using it for profit taker credit farms  this ability just sucks in general so I'm replacing it with Rising Dragon. Chroma will spread his wings and be able to actually fly like a dragon similar to how Zephyr can fly, while in this flying state Chroma can only use guns. But if he casts his one he can breathe out an elemental status projectile that spreads status in a large area of effect, allowing Chroma to effectively spread status effects.

Another very valid point. Effegy is usually the subsume unless PT farm. But I do take issue with the edit. Once again it’s exclusively for a single type of weapons. This time guns. Titania can fly and has both guns and melee so why can’t chroma. And I do like the edit to one to compensate for the lacking melee weapon but feel like chroma should at least be able to claw or use melee weapons too. They are basically a dragon afterall. But before I get ahead of myself like I just mentioned. Titania. This is very similar to their 4 except with a chroma twist. I personally cannot really think of one myself at the moment but I feel like chroma should start to lean into the paladin style of gameplay they are adopting.
 

all in all these are pretty nice changes but not really what chroma needs for the most part. Feel like if he became a Paladin frame he would see a lot of success as the first one of that type. Most are either support or tanking (often with a bit of dps to help compensate so they don’t fall off in high level play (rhino)) Chroma being a Paladin would mean they can get into content that other supports can’t due to being too squishy. Or relying on their teammates too much.

[Nerthiril]

After reading more posts someone mentioned how Vex armor’s range was horrid especially compared to guardian armor meaning you can’t reliably protect your team. And with most range mods to actually make them a support frame taking away from tankyness or power str they suggested that Vex armor should be aff range too. Meaning no need to slot overextended or stretch to get enough range for it to be worthwhile on anything other than a defense mission. Which would be a very welcome buff to VA cause a lot of time it’s me running around trying to follow people so they don’t outspeed the VA buff and wind up suddenly nuked by their massive drop in armor. This can also be applied to elemental ward too. Would maybe make a good passive in combination with something else. But better if it was baked into the abilities

 

[DarkBlueSeaDragon]

Spoiler

On 2024-04-06 at 12:44 AM, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New Passive: Chroma's current passive Dragons flight is more of a cosmetic feature than really a passive. Also having an extra bullet and midair jump isn't really that special to begin with. So I will give him a  new Passive  Status Retaliation. Chroma has a 25% chance to inflict a random status effects on nearby enemies when damaged. Is this the most creative passive no I think are better ideas for a Chroma passive, but it's the best I could think of.

On 2024-04-06 at 2:01 AM, Nerthiril said:

Completely agree with you on the passive. It feels like something you’d slap on just as a filler passive while you fix something that was broken or to hold it over till you give the frame the proper passive. Yet chroma has it and still has it for years. Status retaliation is nice when their primary ability relies on getting damaged.

 

I do understand why people don't like Dragon's fight as a passive, but what I don't understand is why it's not being preserved anywhere else because as a bonus it is amazing; I strapped it to Vex Armor because I think being so angry you fly is a very funny concept. As a passive, Status Retaliation sounds like something I wouldn't mind, however I'm not sure if it should stagger or not as that could get in the way of building Vex Armor; but at the same time save you from death when trying to build it's buffs.

Spoiler

On 2024-04-06 at 12:44 AM, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New First Ability: Chromas Spectrial Scream is one of the weakest first abilities a frame can have. Not only does it have no scaling damage, it's slow, and the status effects it produces are pathetic. Compared to similar abilities like Voruna's Fangs of Raksh and Lavos's Ophidian bite, it doesn't even come close to the amount of status effects they  produce in one cast. Oh yeah it also drains energy, Which is why I am replacing it with Elemental Fury. Once activated Chroma will be able to give melee weapons increased elemental damage, similar to Kullervo's Wrathful Advance but with elemental damage and no teleport feature. The amount of elemental damage will be scale with power, with just 200% power strength giving you a 215%  elemental damage buff. Duration obviously makes the effect last longer. Chroma will also have the ability to cycle through and choose any of the common elemental damage types (Electric, Toxin, Cold, and Heat) and use them. Now this is when things get spicy, Chroma can also combine two of the common elemental damage types to get combined elements like (Viral, Corrosive, Radiation, Gas, and Magnetic) and use them as well. But combine elements will cost more energy, and you can only have one combined element type active. This ability can make Chroma a very good melee wielding frame, and with the right melee build and the new Tennokai, Chroma can quite literary destroy high level content.

On 2024-04-06 at 2:01 AM, Nerthiril said:

This is another good point but it’s also where my ideas start to differ. I don’t like the idea that their ability only will effect melee. We already have multiple melee frames (like kullervo as mentioned and voruna) and the second issue is turning it into another melee frame will unless it brings something different (which it doesn’t) will leave it in the same place it is right now. People will just use Kullervo for crit and raw damage melee, and voruna for status and CO. Chroma is special because its buffs are universal. Buffing their guns and melee alongside their abilities damage. Making the first ability just a melee damage and status buff would just not stand out. Also it’s treading on the toes of larvos with the combined elements. Chroma should be the master of (base) elements. While larvos the alchemist should be the master of combining them. Tho don’t have as much issue with this as spectral scream. Another issue is no frame has more than one damage buff ability. That’s why you can only replace eclipse with roar with vex armor. You are prohibited from replacing any other ability. Giving chroma 2 damage buff abilities would make them stand out. In a bad way. People will complain at de asking why chroma can get 2 damage buffs. Maybe instead of spectral scream as it is it can be this:

Spectral Scream: Chroma lets out a roar infused with elemental might staggering and inflicting status on enemies caught in the blast. Secondary effect changes based on what element is equipped: 
Heat: A flash of fire Blind enemies for 3 seconds

Electric: Electric tendrils latch onto nearby allies instantly starting a boosted shield recharge

Cold: Instantly Freezes nearby enemies

Toxin: Toxin drips from chroma and enemies hit by the blast creating toxic pools underneath them.

With chroma’s new guardian armor augment they now have a nieche as a Paladin (Support/Tank) this will also augment that role giving them some desperately needed CC (Cold and heat), some desperately needed aoe damage (Toxin), and another means to support the team (Electric) also makes it so it works more like elemental ward in that it isn’t just a change of elements. But it’s actually a change in effect too.

 

If at 200% strength you get 215% of you selected element then that's a 100% increase at base, I think that is a little large for a 1 so I propose it start ~45% around where Hydroid's Plunder is. Limiting it to melee is a big bummer when Vex armor does both it and range.

A change into a CC ability for Spectral scream is a welcome one more then another damage boost (we have plenty), and a great selection of effects too! Chroma was sold as a base elemental dragon, I agree that he should not be able to combine elements. A augment like Ice Wave Impudence to make a elemental pool around Chroma for even more CC I'd like to forward.

On 2024-04-06 at 12:44 AM, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

Second Ability Changes: The second ability Elemental Ward at first seems like a decent survivabilty and support tool but in practice its pretty overwhelming for Chroma. First you cant recast the ability like on other support abilities, so your force to wait till the duration to end to recast it. Two you can only use one buff at a time so you can't use it at its full potential. Three most of the buffs kinda suck., for example the heat buff only gives you extra health but no healing. Which isn't good especially in steel path because extra health with no healing, armor, and Shield gating isn't gonna mean S#&$ to a Steelpath enemies. While the cold and electric buffs are decent, but like I said you can't use two buffs at the same time, and the worst of them all is the toxin buff. Having extra reload and holster speed is situational and most Chroma players rarely use it, unless they are using it in Eidolon hunt. since Elemental Ward is Chroma's subsume you can just slap it on other frames like Wisp or Trinity and get better results than on Chroma. I would keep Elemental ward but make some changes like making it recast able and being able to use two buffs instead of just one. I will also give changes to the buffs by giving them special effects. The Heat Buff will  give Chroma extra health and also extra healing like Wisp's motes. The Electric Buff will give extra shields as well as extra energy regeneration, The Cold Buff would still give extra armor but it will also give out a slow moving aura similar to that of Sevagoth's gloom, and  finally the Toxin Buff will give extra ammo and ammo capacity to guns. You can only use two buffs at once, but just having just two should be enough survivabilty.

Being recast-able would be a godsend, Two wards I agree to be a good number to keep in your head during play. Extra health regen on its own may not be enough but I STRONGLY agree that it should be present. Giving Chroma a form of energy regen is a cool idea! Elemental Ward already has a status aura, Cold status slows on its own; admittedly it needs to be turned up by orders of magnitude but I mean it is there. Vex Armor already gives a ton of armor so I think Cold should grant raw DR.

Spoiler

On 2024-04-06 at 12:44 AM, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

Third Ability Changes: Vex Armor since Chroma's release has been his greatest strength but it is also Chroma's biggest weakness. This is due to how you gain vex armor, you have to take damage to get the buffs. Against normal level enemies this wouldn't be a problem, but against Steelpath and high level content this is an issue because as enemy level gets higher so does their damage. This makes building vex armor very risky, because if you take too much damage no armor buff is gonna save you from dying. So to fix this I would make it so instead of taking damage for vex armor, instead Chroma sacrifices half his health and shields. I say sacrifice not reduce since you can just cast Chroma's 2 to get that health and shields back, giving Chroma more synergy.

Having Vex Armor build though taking damage and now getting kills has been what gave it its own identity, changing it to work like a more aggressive Pillage or whichever one sacrifices shields for armor doesn't sound like a good change to me. It also doesn't really jive with the word "Vex" a term for anger not self harm

On 2024-04-06 at 12:44 AM, (PSN)EmperorBlastoff said:

New Fourth Ability: Chroma's  Effigy has always been an unreliable power. It debuffs Chroma by removing the armor buff from vex armor, drastically decreasing Chroma's survivability by a lot for minor 20% movement speed which is useless. The sentry doesn't hold up either not only is its damage comparable to that of a water gun, its stationary and doesn't move at all. And if your running a Blind rage Chroma with no efficiency the sentry would drain all of your energy in seconds, making it a liability for Chroma. Unless you are using it for profit taker credit farms  this ability just sucks in general so I'm replacing it with Rising Dragon. Chroma will spread his wings and be able to actually fly like a dragon similar to how Zephyr can fly, while in this flying state Chroma can only use guns. But if he casts his one he can breathe out an elemental status projectile that spreads status in a large area of effect, allowing Chroma to effectively spread status effects.

I agree that Effigy has been unimpressive and unreliable for anything, not enough to be a 4. The armor cut should not be there, or should scale inversely with strength making it not as bad; the speed boost should also scale with strength as the effigy gets heavier as you get stronger. Rising Dragon sounds cool, but why limit it to ranged weapons? Does rocketing down with a slam attack to smite some poor fool not sound cool to you? I don't know how Zephyr flies but I think Chroma should keep his extra jump and bullet jump (the passive says he gets both so he should keep both) and reset aimglide and jumps on kills. The extra effect on Spectral Scream is a good idea, I like it.

On 2024-04-06 at 2:01 AM, Nerthiril said:

all in all these are pretty nice changes but not really what chroma needs for the most part. Feel like if he became a Paladin frame he would see a lot of success as the first one of that type. Most are either support or tanking (often with a bit of dps to help compensate so they don’t fall off in high level play (rhino)) Chroma being a Paladin would mean they can get into content that other supports can’t due to being too squishy. Or relying on their teammates too much.

New niche for my boy! lets add Oberon to the list of paladins because he came before lol.