Warframe Concept: Zoa

[Vargras]

Time and time again, concepts pop up of an Infested warframe, each of them usually marred by one thing or another. In many instances, they're little more than a combination of rehashed existing skills (namely Saryn and Nekros skills), and bring nothing to the table other than the idea of being Infested. I decided to challenge myself and see if I could do it better, and with a little bit of flair in the process.

 

All abilities are subject to change, and can and will be tweaked based upon feedback.

 

Zoa Overview

Named after protozoa, simple organisms that can range from symbiotic, to parasitic, to predatory, Zoa is an Infested-themed warframe who has decided to fight fire with fire. Rather than actually being Infested, Zoa instead takes the Technocyte virus and uses it to aid himself and his allies, acting as a caster and support... with a twist.

 

Stats

Level 1/Level 30

Health: 200/600

Shield: 0/0

Armor: 100

Energy: 0/0

 

Reasoning: I can already see that confused look on your face: No shields and no energy, yet extremely high health and above-average armor? Zoa is unique in that, in a first, his abilities cost health. To compensate for both this and having zero shields, Zoa will also be capable of extremely rapid health regeneration, about on par with a fully powered up Oberon's Renewal (though this is subject to change). In addition, his skills will also be able to amplify his own regeneration, further boosting him to new heights. Players will have to be especially careful, however -- with no shields to help protect him, Zoa is completely reliant upon his own health, self-healing, and the healing of others. Try to use a skill during the wrong moment in combat, and you may find yourself on the floor. Abilities will also not consume static amounts of health, and will instead consume a percentage of maximum health, meaning that players will not be able to simply stack health until they can spam abilities forever. If Zoa does not have enough health to use an ability, they ability will "fizzle" and fail to cast.

 

Why a male frame? Because Saryn is already the poison lady, and to make an infested/technocyte lady starts to encroach on her territory.

 

Abilities

 

Parasitic Growth - 20% Health

Infects the target with the Technocyte virus, leeching health and causing hemorrhaging. Infecting the target with multiple parasitic growths will cause increasing amounts of slash damage, while also reducing the amount of health stolen.

 

Reasoning: A basic ability that gives Zoa additional self-healing, allowing him to cast more abilities while also causing slash damage to the target. Parasitic Growth may be stacked to cause even more slash damage, but doing so will also reduce the amount of health Zoa receives, allowing the player to choose between spreading multiple Parasitic Growths for high self-healing (but low damage), or to stack several on a high priority target for high damage (but low self-healing).

 

Virulence - 35% Health

Increases the transmission rate of any existing Parasitic Growths or Infests, spreading them to additional nearby enemies at half strength.

 

Reasoning: Health is a precious resource for Zoa, and it won't always be possible for him to apply his abilities to very many targets. That's where Virulence comes in. With a single button press, all Parasitic Growths and Infests will jump to additional nearby enemies, increasing the number of infected targets. Enemies infected in this way will receive the effects at half strength, to prevent players from simply stacking a ton of Parasitic Growths on one target, spreading it, and watching everything die. Parasitic Growth will do 50% less damage and give 50% less healing, and Infest will last half as long as normal.

 

Infest - 50% Health

Zoa sends out a particularly virulent strain of the Technocyte virus, clouding the targets mind and manipulating them to further spread the infection. Infected targets are Confused and move at increased speed, spreading the infection if they melee another enemy. Nearby non-infected enemies have a chance to enter a state of Panic.

 

Reasoning: Zoa's "Oh !*@%" button. Completely intended as nothing more than a CC, as it does no damage. Parasitic infections in the real world are completely capable of altering the host's behavior, so as to facilitate further infection. Infest has the potential to lockdown entire groups of enemies if properly used, but even if they're more spread out, the chance of causing Panic in non-infected enemies can still get them in the end.

 

Symbiosis - 75% Health

Zoa forms a symbiotic link with surrounding allies for the next 10 seconds. While linked, any damage dealt to allies is instead given to Zoa. Damage received in this manner amplifies his health regeneration and all healing received from other sources.

 

Reasoning: Zoa's ultimate consumes a whopping 75% of his maximum health, leaving him in the danger zone every time it's used. With proper usage and planning, however, Zoa can end up with some truly massive amounts of self-healing (both from his self-regeneration and from other sources), allowing him to use his other abilities much more often without the inherent risk of killing himself in the process. Whether you want to lock down an entire room with multiple Infests, or deal massive damage to a boss by stacking several Parasitic Growths in rapid succession, Symbiosis can let you do just that. Exactly what you do is entirely up the situation, and to you.

 

Please leave all thoughts and comments below. This is very much a WIP, and all values and abilities are subject to change (I had to really dig through some pages on parasites before I could come up with abilities that sounded good, had the potential for good and rewarding play, and also fit the theme).

Edited January 8, 2014 by Vargras

[EDeN153]

This is pretty cool.

[immolator1001]

I think using health is a cool ideas but he should get an armor boost. I would also say change the skills from a percent cost to a set cost so boosting health would increase his "energy" pool. Overall he looks like good CC and his skills could be used in interesting combinations, only problem is that 2 and 3 are useless without 1 making that necessary.

[Vargras]

I think using health is a cool ideas but he should get an armor boost. I would also say change the skills from a percent cost to a set cost so boosting health would increase his "energy" pool. Overall he looks like good CC and his skills could be used in interesting combinations, only problem is that 2 and 3 are useless without 1 making that necessary.

Some points:

 

1. His armor was originally set at 120, and I felt this might be a bit too high for someone meant to be a caster and support (Rhino, by comparison, is 190).

2. I also thought of having it being static amounts of health, but that runs into a current problem with the game, in that with +energy max and +power efficiency mods, players can freely spam their ultimate abilities with very little downsides. By making it percentage-based, I want players to have to choose between whether or not using an ability at a given time is really a good idea, instead of just mindlessly pressing buttons.

3. 2 and 3 aren't wholly useless. Zoa would have passive health regen, to still allow him to use abilities without Parasitic Growth. It would certainly allow him to use more abilities more often, though.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Vargras

[Marshall]

-1 for no visual illustration; +1 for idea

[Imaru]

Having innate health regen would be WAY OP. If you just throw on a shade and hang out you could have literally no worries in a firefight. The no energy thing is also contradictory. One of the most important things in Warframe is that you have to find the resources in mission to cast an ability. Also, the abilities use percentages of health. I'm not sure what you meant by this, but it looks to me like if he had 100 health (for easy math) Infest would cost 50 health. Then you immediately re-cast before he regens any health. Either this kills Zoa or uses only 25 health. Either is game breaking. The first makes it him in-viable as you can't recast with any regularity (imagine if you couldn't recast Shock frequently). The second is even more OP: The game REWARDS you for spamming by making it easier to cast. I  grant that it has risk involved, but the lack of shields and energy is the innate flaw of this idea.

[Vargras]

Having innate health regen would be WAY OP. If you just throw on a shade and hang out you could have literally no worries in a firefight. The no energy thing is also contradictory. One of the most important things in Warframe is that you have to find the resources in mission to cast an ability. Also, the abilities use percentages of health. I'm not sure what you meant by this, but it looks to me like if he had 100 health (for easy math) Infest would cost 50 health. Then you immediately re-cast before he regens any health. Either this kills Zoa or uses only 25 health. Either is game breaking. The first makes it him in-viable as you can't recast with any regularity (imagine if you couldn't recast Shock frequently). The second is even more OP: The game REWARDS you for spamming by making it easier to cast. I  grant that it has risk involved, but the lack of shields and energy is the innate flaw of this idea.

In the current state of the game, "health tanking"--that is, having very little shields and really only having armor and health as defenses--isn't viable. For an example of that, look at Valkyr. Without her ult, she simply falls over dead in high level play. Some sort of self-healing mechanic is needed to compensate for the lack of shields, and health and armor alone won't cut it (unless armor gets fixed soon). With abilities costing health instead of energy, this becomes mandatory. Energy itself isn't much of an issue when you have an Energy Siphon in the party (or four).

 

in regards to the ability costs: the abilities consume a percentage of maximum health, not current (like what Valkyr's Paralysis does with her shields). If it were up to me, abilities would "fizzle" if Zoa did not have enough health to cast them. They simply would not work at all. Gameplay would require players to manage Zoa's self-healing in order to further cast additional abilities. Good play would be rewarded with letting you use more abilities.

 

What you said in regards to Shade and simply sitting in stealth is definitely a valid point, however. Thanks for mentioning it.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Vargras

[AmatsuNoir]

You have an interesting idea going but the health tanking idea kinda falls apart with the current mechanics of the game. Now about him being an infected warframe i think your idea is kinda more of a plague type. If you look at the infected they can act as one entity or many but they attack with just a brute force or a swarm  now a good example of an infected warframe is RedSkittlez's Typhus or Locuts warframe granted he hasn't given him all powers he has only one. But I suggest looking at his and how the warframe and the body of the person within have both become one symbiotic entity.

[Vargras]

You have an interesting idea going but the health tanking idea kinda falls apart with the current mechanics of the game. Now about him being an infected warframe i think your idea is kinda more of a plague type. If you look at the infected they can act as one entity or many but they attack with just a brute force or a swarm  now a good example of an infected warframe is RedSkittlez's Typhus or Locuts warframe granted he hasn't given him all powers he has only one. But I suggest looking at his and how the warframe and the body of the person within have both become one symbiotic entity.

Zoa wasn't meant to be an actual Infested warframe (since certain codex entries clearly state that infested allies are simply killed), but is just Infested-themed. I'm also aware that health tanking doesn't work in the current state of the game, which is why I included the passive health-regeneration.

[AmatsuNoir]

So its a warframe with an infested theme so its infested so its a parasite that can also have a symbiotic relatonship? 

Even with the passive health regen it wouldn't really matter cause of the health loss would be greater but its all depends on how much he gets back. Even if hes given it. It would make him alittle over powered.

The technocyte virus is in the game if you were around with J-3 golem he states that we are made from them. 

• "Why do you destroy us? We are your flesh."(Warframe Wiki, J-3 Golem)
  

And also if you look at Darksector which is speculated to b the father to this game Hayden Tenno had a symbiotic relation to the virus when he was given it even after he tried to destroy it. it changed when he donned on the Proto armor of course.

 

I'm sorry to be saying a lot of this but its a good idea just not executed right.

[Cobalt313]

I like the idea behind this but I don't know how well casting from HP could be implemented. I personally would suggest planning alternate stats to account for still having an energy bar, but overall neat concept either way.

[Rekkou]

Wondering what kind of build this guy will have. Cause he won't be needing Streamline, Flow or Fleeting Expertise.  He will need equilibrium, but since he has no energy then he can't pick energy orb at all?

[PookieNumnums]

Problem: Scaling

 

Why? With every initial parasite, it only does half dmg as the infestation spreads which means Zoa would have to near drain his health to cast enough that a spreading infestation would actually hurt some high lvl enemies.  (which is backwards because he relies on his health and the more paracites the less health he gets)

 

i really like Zoa however and would like to see something to that extent.

 

parasitic growth:

 

should not give back health.

 

Maybe if the the growths did damage, but also a status chance/ crit chance multiplier (x 2 / +10 crit)  to incoming damage on contageous targets. Stackable, is dot,  and reduce the cost from 20% (limit 5 with no health regen because 5x20=100) to 10%.(limit ten with no health regen because 10x10=100).

 

 

virulence:

 

should have a set number of spreads, (1, 2, 4). spreads mulitply dmg (x 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3), Increases duration of growths (% 10, 25, 40,).

existing buffs/debuffs become contageous. When the original infected host dies, or the duration expires, that outbreak should die off. Infection should spread by proximity not melee. Affects all parasitic growths in action. This way it works well on tight mobs, or large rooms full of little clusters.

cost: 20% health

 

 

Infest:

 

should be cast on one target, and cause any infected in play via growth/virulence to rush/agro that target.

should last a duration. should increase dmg recieved by target. should increase dmg given by infested/infected subjects.

If the infested target dies before infested duration runs out, the infected subjects should attack whatever is closest (which will usually be the horde that swarms the target).

 

cost 50% health

 

 

parasitic empathy ( symbiosis)

 

lasts ten seconds, an active aura that links with any enemy in range, and all dmg recieved by them is also given to Zoa as health, for 10 seconds.

this way he can play solo, cast it, and fill up his health as he kills things with his weapons, in between casting his other powers.

 

cost 75%

 

 

 

these are just some ideas that id throw out if mynki was like 'hey guys, zoa frame~~'

take it with a grain of salt. i hope my counter ideas help you fine tune this great suggestion for a frame.

Edited January 11, 2014 by T4LCOMX

[Barda1]

One lote thing: Aren't Tenno allready infected? ALL of them? That is why we have the suits made by the Orokin from the start?