Honus, The Berserk Warrior [Wip-Art Coming Soon!]

[Galactix]

Honus ("hoe-nus") is a pure bred warrior from the deep voids of space. Everything from the microfibers of his suit to the visor on his helm has been designed for old-fashioned, lightweight, combat with anything he can get his hands on (though he prefers spears cuz' he's cool like that). He is a fairly light frame, nothing too flashy - a more simplistic look as a matter of fact. The aspect that sets him apart from other frames, however, is that Honus has an incredibly large fury inside him and can use this to fuel his abilities rather than the normal energy pool (will cover this below).

 

His stats are as follows:

Health: 85

Fury: 100

Armor: 75

Shield Cap: 100

Sprint Speed: 1.2

Stamina: 80

 

The name Honus comes from the roman god Honos, who represented chivalry, victory, and honor in combat and on the battlefield. I decided on Honus instead of Ares because...well...it's a bit mainstream - plus it's already the name of a mission on Mars.

 

 

SKILLS

 

Phase Burst

Honus phase-dashes towards a single enemy target, disappearing for a brief moment due to high speeds, and then reappearing in front of his target, focusing all of his fury into his fist. Using his inertia and focused power, Honus swings his fist down on to the enemy, slamming it to the ground and creating a small radial shockwave.

 

Furia

Honus focuses his fury into his fists, increasing all melee damage and melee status chance until the skill is cancelled (toggle ability on/off). While active, however, Honus' fury will decrease rapidly, and if Honus has no fury left, the ability will end automatically.

 

Perforate

Honus focuses a huge amount of fury into his arms, then slams the ground, erupting dozens of spear/lance-shaped spikes, dealing moderate damage to anything in the area around Honus. Enemies pierced by the spears/lances will also have an armor debuff activated on them for a short time, if not killed by the ability.

 

Berserk

Honus unlocks his true nature and uses all of his fury to ascend beyond his limitations. Drained to 0, Honus emits all of his fury around his body, giving him a massive increase in all damage types (except for his own abilities) as well as a huge increase in armor, making Honus almost impervious to incoming bullet fire. However, during Berserk mode Honus loses a huge amount of mobility, and is left at a crawling pace due to the incredible amount of fury being emitted. Honus also emits a small ring of burning rage around his feet, dealing small damage to anything close by.

 

 

FURY MECHANIC

 

"Fury" is what fuels Honus in combat, and is a replacement for energy in Honus compared to other frames. Fury is generated only from receiving or dealing damage to enemies. However, be very cautious; Honus' fury will decrease slowly while he is not in combat. This allows players to prioritize combat and what abilities to use when, considering that the abilities will drain Honus' fury very quickly if not used frugally.

 

 

ABILITY COORDINATION

 

Honus' abilities are meant to be used with one another, not just as individual abilities. For example, Phase Burst can be used as a quick gap closer to counter-act Honus' extremely poor movement speed during Berserk. Here's another: Honus Phase Burst's into a small cluster of 3 to 4 enemies, knocking them down, and then Perforates the area, dealing damage to all of them and lowering their armor rating. Or, if you really want to get into it, Honus can Phase Burst into a large group of baddies, knocking most of them down, then activate Berserk mode - then you don't have to worry about movement too much from Berserk (unless the enemies run away from you after they get up)

 

 

Inspiration from Tuna's spartan-frame design: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Tuna-350936838

[Siubijeni]

So it's a Warframe that uses the Barbarian mechanic from Diablo III?

 

I'm not sure that's such a good idea. The energy system is tried and true to Warframe, and balancing anything else in comparison to it could be difficult. It's not even directly comparable to D3, because in D3 every class has a unique resource... but Honus would be the only one with anything different. That disparity makes it even harder to balance, comparatively. It's for that same reason that I would advise avoiding toggled abilities.

 

As for the abilities themselves, however:

-Phase Burst is interesting, but possibly too powerful for a first ability. It depends upon how much damage and how large a shockwave you intended it to create. If the damage is negligible, the knockdown effect would be fair if applied in a modest AoE, but you certainly wouldn't get away with anything very big. Not when you teleport to your target, especially.

-Passing over the fact that it's a toggled ability, it seems alright. Increasing melee status chance is an interesting effect, something the other melee-oriented frames do not yet do, so it's novel enough.

-The armor debuff is a cool effect, but you'd have to be careful about the size of the AoE for sure.

-Berserk isn't really a good name for the effect, but I like it. Perhaps "Implacable?" Anyway, a damage and armor increase is far better than the limited invincibility Valkyr gets, and would certainly require more skill than the aforementioned frame. And the movement limitation is a very interesting counter, potentially better than a melee limitation.