Frost: Right Direction At Least

[Volt_Cruelerz]

At least he isn't a one-trick pony where one ability compensates for overall mediocrity.  Now that his other problems are more exposed, perhaps this can be of more use to refining him.

 

The following was a part of one my megathreads.  The below section was a proposed rework for Frost.  Given that Frost is the flavor-of-the-day for frame balance, I've dug it up.  Assume all abilities are left as-is in every regard unless a given mechanic is specified as being changed.

 

Freeze **

Change: AoE that freezes all enemies within 1/2/3/4 meters of the target for 2/3/4/5 seconds or until 10%/20%/30%/40% of their health has been dealt as damage.  Bosses unfreeze upon taking any damage and elites unfreeze upon taking half the standard amount of damage.

Explanation: this gives Frost very reliable crowd control by bringing a small section of the battlefield to a grinding halt.

Projected Rating: 4

 

Ice Wave **

Change: leaves behind an icy trail that causes enemies that walk over it to be chilled and 40% wider than it is currently.  Chilling path remains for 5/7/9/11 seconds after being spawned.  Allies can slide 70% further when on the chilled path

Explanation: this gives Frost a good way to slow the advance of a line of enemies as well as a team movement ability to a certain extent

Projected Rating: 4

 

Snow Globe *****

Change: snow globe is no longer invincible but rather becomes a series of ice plates in the shape of a dome.  If an ice plate receives too much damage from enemy forces, it will shatter, leaving a hole.  Dome is composed of 7 plates, each having 500/1000/2000/3000 health.  Each unshattered plate will regenerate 10% of its maximum health per second; when under fire, a given plate will regenerate at 3.3% of its maximum health per second.  Globe rotates around its vertical axis at 2/2.1/2.2/2.3/2.4 RPM to help distribute damage.

Explanation: I know I'll get raged at for this, but right now, SG is no different from the old Bastille except that it is for use against different factions.  It artificially extends the ability of a team to survive in defense simply because they are invulnerable inside it and it practically mandates that a Frost come along.  This change gives Frost the chance to defend his allies provided that the team is responsible.  Take care of the globe and it will take care of you.

Projected Rating: 4

 

Avalanche ***

Change: ragdoll-throws any affected enemies.  They become frozen to whatever surface they land on for 3/4/5/6 seconds.  After this, they will slowly unfreeze, bodypart by bodypart (in randomized order, though always starting with the head).  Another bodypart is unfrozen every 3/4/5/6 seconds.  Both legs must be unfrozen to walk, right arm must be unfrozen to fire, both arms must be unfrozen to reload, applicable body part must be unfrozen to cast abilities (so Shockwave MOAS need their legs unfrozen to stomp you while a Toxic Ancient needs its torso unfrozen for its poison aura)

Explanation: personally, I'm very fond of this and think this gives a nice and unique form of CC to Frost so his abilities aren't all the same form of enemy disruption.

Projected Rating: 4

 

I see Frost as being a tanky CC mage.  Low on the damage, high on the utility.  Invincibility Globe had to go.  In the grand scheme of things for balance and difficulty, it had to die.  I still say, however, that what I posted months ago would work quite well.  It would give him a ton of utility and make his play much more intelligent.

 

I'm not saying it's the only viable set of abilities.  I've heard good alternatives to Freeze for instance where it is an AoE cone in front of Frost.  That could work too.  Even so, I feel like Snow Globe needs more than a health bar.  It needs something to promote intelligent defensive play.  Maybe (based on what I've seen in other threads) have Freeze able to repair the individual plates in a pinch.  One shot of Freeze restores 40% of a plate's health or something.  Idk.

 

 

I think the following are things we can all agree on that could improve Frost:

 

1. Freeze needs a better AoE

2. Ice Wave is redundant with Avalanche

3. Snow Globe if nothing else needs an indicator of how much health it has left.

4. Frost has serious mobility issues.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Volt_Cruelerz

[Angius]

He used to be one-trick pony, now he is no-trick pony

EOT

[Blazer-X]

Well, its certainly one way to look at it. As sore as I am over the issue (even though I've long stopped using Frost for better frames), it does help expose just how weak he is without it. Rhino went through a similar transformation with the original Iron Skin nerf revealing his lack of utility. I can only hope that Frost will eventually go through the same treatment, even if Snow Globe never gets buffed back to its original power.

[Rafarix]

Frost is just going through the "Rhino Phrase" right now.

 

Eventually DE will fix Frost to be a solid frame like Rhino.

[MandoKarla]

If Ice Wave loses all it's damage, I'm against it. Freeze, sure, that sounds good.

[KijaJouteh]

Nah, Frost needs no health for Snow globe. Duration based was fine, it made it possible to have a change in high level defense. I tried a t3 defense last night with Frost, and it was horrible. We need a good defensive frame, bring up Nyx? She's too flimsy to last long, but Chaos is now the best defensive ability in the game. 

[-Pearl-]

I like the snowglobe change. It seems really cool.

 

I like Ice Wave as it us though, unless Frost suddenly turns into a surfer and uses Ice Wave and conjures an Ice Surf Board to ride it on.

[Volt_Cruelerz]

Nah, Frost needs no health for Snow globe. Duration based was fine, it made it possible to have a change in high level defense. I tried a t3 defense last night with Frost, and it was horrible. We need a good defensive frame, bring up Nyx? She's too flimsy to last long, but Chaos is now the best defensive ability in the game. 

Chaos was always the best defensive ability in the game.  It's just not fun which is why few people do Chaos-defense which basically amounts to "wait until the enemies kill each other."

[Oizen]

Icewave does damage?

 

Since when?

 

I thought it just tickled the enemies a bit.

[Ohmlink]

Damage issues are more of an issue with powers not scaling AT ALL, which affects all frames to a degree. Corrupted mods help a bit for some powers while they break other powers.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Ohmlink

[Duk282]

Avalanche is amazing now. 

 

Snowglobe having a timer and hit points is kind of a bummer -I think the timer should go. 

 

Freeze is still useless: either make it hit scan or increase the area of effect by 1000%. It is still impossible to hit stuff with this skill. Even at point blank range -because it is a projectile -sometimes it still misses.The skill should not be about damage (that's what ice wave and avalanche are for). It should be able to freeze multiple foes for a decent amount of time and inflict a tiny amount of damage or increase the damage the targets take. 

 

There was a game in the 90's called Mortal Kombat that featured a character called subzero -that is what we want. 

Edited February 6, 2014 by Duk282

[Blazer-X]

For logical reasons, Snow Globe timer cannot go (as cool as the idea is), because players have no way of destroying them  if there is no shooting. Imagine laying a billion of those in infested missions. The amount of lag, both on the slow, and on the game, will be atrocious.

[tris1]

to many con's for about 0 pro's

[Volt_Cruelerz]

For logical reasons, Snow Globe timer cannot go (as cool as the idea is), because players have no way of destroying them  if there is no shooting. Imagine laying a billion of those in infested missions. The amount of lag, both on the slow, and on the game, will be atrocious.

And the fact that trolls could abuse it to no end by forcing you to melee to actually kill enemies.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Volt_Cruelerz

[Ohmlink]

Last I tried I think Snow Globe is affected by friendly fire, not entirely sure since it wasn't a controlled environment and some random npc could have killed it as soon as i started shooting at it.