2 Tweaks to make Temporal Anchor at least more palatable (+coping with a good'ol rework suggestion)

[Yulfan]

First a bit of context:

Protea is not my main warframe, but she has always been my go-to choice for Netracells. This game mode is quite stationary, so i like using Temporal Anchor and simply spamming Grenade Fan and Blaze Artillery like there is no tomorrow _{and just watch the world burn}. And with the Temporal Erosion augment, being able to armor strip passively with both is the cherry on top.

Recently, the addition of the Temporal Artillery augment broadened my horizon. Now, i can bring my hell dispenser everywhere with me and let it 360° no scope everything daring to be alive in my vicinity. I replaced Dispensary with the good'ol Nourish, spec a bit more on Duration and i was good to go. And what a blast! This is so fun to fight along side this turret and watch it shooting left and right! The extra duration give more breathing room for all abilities, and i have more incentive to juggle with her power strength passive for each of them. The 20x cap on the shoulder turret is forgettable in the end, since what i lose in power, i gain it back in firing duration. And i can still cast more turrets if i want my cooking extra crispy (ok, no more puns).

So, Temporal Anchor. Yes, it's a pain to manage. For 90% of this game content where you only go forward, the rewind is actually a punition. So if you are a bit late or the game decide to not register the held button (because another action is running or whatever), you are up for a Rewind of Shame (at least you can hop out with the Operator, but still…). I made the choice to deal with it since i gain more fun out of it, but it's still a bummer. And on top of that, i never had any use for the temporal implosion when it expire since it's so impratical. I saw videos and guides on how to use it to nuke groups of enemies, but what for? Why running around enemies for a delayed big aoe when i can just turret them to death? Too much micro-management for the same result. Really for me, Temporal Anchor as it is right now is simply an enabler for the other funnier and more rewarding parts of Protea's kit, and a safety net if i screw up.

 

Alright, end of context. Now, the suggestions:

 

After using this setup with both augments for a while during all kinds of missions, there is 2 main gripes that could be solved very easily:

• First, the audio clue 1.5 seconds before the timer expire is way too short. When you are throwing shield grenades, slash grenades, turrets, shooting, jumping, dodging and everything else, this ticking is panic-inducing and a fun-killer. Increasing it to 3 or even 5 seconds before rewind would be way more manageable and wouldn't causes so many heart attacks.
• Second, and it has certainly been asked lots of times, this ability would benefit A LOT from the option to swap Tap/Hold. Same reasons as before: during actual gameplay when you are tapping and clicking all the time, holding the button feels bad. It's no coincidence that almost everyone swaps tap/hold for Protea's 1: tapping a button is faster, so you set it for the most desirable version of the ability. And as Temporal Anchor is right now, the most desirable action when this ability is running is to cancel it when the rewind is near. If we could tap to cancel the rewind instead of hold, it would flow way more naturally without awkward latencies (double tap to cancel and recast it for example).

One value to tweak and one QoL to add. As you can see, two changes very easy to do for DE. With only this, i think Temporal Anchor in its actual state would be way easier to use in regular gameplay scenarios.

 

Beyond that, if a light rework could be considered, here is how i would view it:

Once again, being forced back to our initial position is definitely the main reason this ability is so disregarded. This is the main problem that needs to be addressed. That's why i would keep everything: the rewind, the stats restoration, the temporal explosion, everything. But i would change how these things behave and are used, as well as adding a few things:

• First, when you cast the ability, it does everything as usual: save position and stats values.
• Then if you let it run out, the Temporal Anchor dissipate. No rewind, no implosion, no refund. Nothing to gain, nothing to lose.
• But if you use the ability again at any point before it runs out, here is what happen:
  1. Tap, and the anchor is brought back to you (new). Hold, and you are brought back to the anchor (like now).
  2. For both, the afterimages unleashes all recorded damages when the ability is released (like now).
  3. The hold/rewind produce an implosion sucking enemies in (like now), the tap/forward produce an explosion launching enemies out (new).
  4. For both, the temporal implosion/explosion is produced at your position after a delay:
     • After rewinding at the saved position during the hold/rewind. You are invulnerable during that time (like now).
     • After all afterimages are brought back to you during the tap/forward. You are invulnerable during that time and can only move in slow motion (new).
  5. The hold/rewind enjoy the stats refund and status cleansing (like now) but the tap/forward doesn't.
  6. For both, tapping during the rewind or the forward will cancel them. The rewind keep its benefits (stats refund, status cleansing), the implosion still group enemies and the explosion still scatter them, but both inflict only the amount of damages retrieved before the cancellation (new).
  7. If you are killed, you are brought back to the anchor with stats refunded apart from health (restored to 5%) and knocked down without any implosion (like now).

And here you have it. I think this suggestion address the different problems of usability Temporal Anchor has. I tried to give incentives to manually release it for both cases while trying to keep the hold/rewind a bit more attractive than the tap/forward by letting it keep the exclusivity of its effects (stats refund, status cleansing, grouping). If it's still too unbalanced between the two, i was also thinking of depriving the tap/forward of the invincibility state. The short time in slow motion would become a dangerous state, and the player would have to juge if the aoe damage is worth the risk or to simply let the ability run out.

 

I'm sure there is very little chance that my suggested rework will have any chance of catching the eye of anyone at DE, but i'm at least hoping that both tweaks can be implemented. In my opinion, these 2 tweaks are the bare minimum to make this ability easier to use and a bit more attractive.

Edited September 10 by Yulfan
Typo (again)