Swappable Abilities And Warframe Passives - Some Ideas

[Pretzellis]

I'm gonna go ahead and hightail off of a quip from Livestream #22 about how warframes might be able to use any other warframe ability in the future. What also got me thinking was the idea (from Zephyr) of all frames having a passive that more or less defines it.

Probably (obviously), if we were able to swap abilities between frames willy-nilly, each frame would completely lose his/her identity altogether if he/she did not have an all-encompassing passive – a passive that defined his/her play-style and character.

So, I dabbled in the idea a bit and came up with complex passives for every frame. There are two parts of the passive for each: one for abilities and one for general gameplay. Both are meant to fundamentally separate each frame from the rest.

Note that these passives are MEANT to be powerful. They are supposed to convey the feel of Excalibur, for example, without necessarily needing his "default" abilities (even Slash Dash). The special parts if these passives do not work on bosses unless otherwise specified.

(There are 18 frames overall, so this post will be long. Sorry about that.)

Ash:

Hidden Blades - All abilities will deal and proc Slash damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Shadowdancer - When damaged and without shields, Ash will turn invisible briefly. In this state, he will sense, teleport to, and kill an enemy (if there is one) and then teleport back to his original location. This passive is on a short cooldown.

Banshee:

Wave Dilation - All abilities cast are silent from a distance and loud enough to stagger enemies up close.

Death Note - Banshee infuses all of her attacks with sound energy that deals additional Impact damage. This damage is minimal at close range and at long range. However, these sound pulses will converge a certain distance away from Banshee (usually medium range) into a node where enemies will take immense damage from them. Enemies at that distance are passively highlighted.

Ember:

Unleashed Flame - All abilities will deal and proc Heat damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Sunwraith - Ember can store 50% more energy. At max energy, she can choose consume all energy to temporarily become a living embodiment of flame, gaining movement speed, full health and shields, a persistent, damaging fire aura, and a guaranteed Heat damage proc on all weapons. Damage is affected by energy consumed. This passive is on a very long cooldown.

 

Excalibur:

Steelbourne: All abilities give Excalibur's melee weapon a temporary boost to damage, critical strike chance, and critical damage when used. Effect does not stack.

Duelist - upon blocking an attack with a melee weapon, Excalibur will instantly counterattack and kill the attacker. This effect also works against ranged weapons if the enemy is close enough.

Frost:

Frozen Domain - All abilities will deal and proc Cold damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Glacial Heart - Frost gains armour as his health decreases. If his health reaches zero, he will freeze into a large pillar of ice, becoming invulnerable and slowing nearby enemies considerably. If any enemies stay within the radius of the slow for the full duration, Frost will resurrect, killing the enemies and gaining health back based on the number of enemies killed. This passive is on a very long cooldown.

Loki:

Deception - Abilities will confuse affected enemies, reducing their awareness.

Fleeting Mist - Loki can move through enemies. He also passively draws less attention.

Mag:

Magnetokinesis - Abilities lock targets in place if cast on enemies and remove all crowd control effects if cast on allies.

Cling - Mag uses less stamina when parkouring. She may also choose to become stationary during a wallrun or wall climb.

Nekros:

Soul Shatter - All damaging abilities used will shear away a portion of the target's soul, dealing a small amount of extra "true" damage (damage subject to no penalties or bonuses depending on enemy type).

Reaper - Nekros collects the souls of those he kills. He gains extra shield strength and power strength depending on how many souls he has harvested (up to a cap).

Nova:

Molecular Deconstruction - Abilities deal more damage with successive hits, up to a cap. Every third ability used within four seconds will deal a massive amount of extra Radiation damage.

Unstable - Damage to Nova's health will cause small but powerful explosions to occur throughout her body which deal more damage to enemies the lower health she has.

Nyx:

Mental Extension - All abilities will delve deeper into enemy minds with each use. Sufficient affection via abilities will cause targets to do random behaviors which benefit the Tenno cause (attacking allies, hacking terminals, turning off alarms, triggering life support, etc.).

Hypnotic Presence - The mere presence of Nyx near (close to) enemies will eventually cause them to ally with her and fight their old allies.

Oberon:

Holy Fervor - All abilities will deal and proc Radiation damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Vanguard - Nearby allies of Oberon are granted a small shield over their regular shields which will recharge after 10 seconds of not taking damage.

Rhino:

Dominus - All offensive abilities will apply the Blast damage proc on enemies. All defensive (self-buffing) abilities briefly grant Rhino immunity to crowd control.

Stampede - Rhino has 50% more stamina. Additionally, he can sprint through enemies, knocking them down.

Saryn:

Bioweapon - All abilities will deal and proc Toxin damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Scourge Herald - when Saryn kills an enemy in any way, its corpse remains for a time. Living enemies near the corpse have a chance to contract a disease which will permanently reduce their health, armour, accuracy, and speed. More corpses in an area increases the effect of the disease when it spreads. There is a maximum number of corpses which can be in one area at a time.

Trinity:

Sage - All abilities cast will replenish nearby allied shields based on their cost.

Cycle of Life - When near Trinity, allies will gain small amounts of energy when enemies die.

Valkyr:

Blood Wrath - Damaging an enemy with an ability grants bonus melee attack speed and bonus "true" damage with melee attacks. This bonus attack speed can stack up to a cap.

Queen of Rage - Valkyr stores damage taken to her health in a level bar. Capping this bar will catapult Valkyr into a higher state of rage, granting her drastically increased ability damage, increased ability cost, and increased armour until the mission ends. She can ascend through up to five states of wrath.

Vauban:

Reverse-Engineer - If an ability will deal damage, it will also buff Vauban with extra weapon damage based on the damage type of the ability. If an ability will buff or support (apply CC for) Vauban, it will also cost less energy. If an ability both deals damage and buffs/supports Vauban, he granted both accompanying effects but at half the magnitude.

Drone Master - Vauban can have two Sentinels. The other Sentinel has halved health, shields, damage, and mod slots, but can still use sentinel ability and damage mods.

Volt:

Electron Infusion - All abilities will deal and proc Electricity damage in addition to their normal damage type.

Charged - Volt passively collects 50% more energy from all sources. Additionally, he has a small lightning aura which grows in size and damage the more energy he has.

Zephyr:

Eye of the Storm - Multiple damaging abilities cast close to a single target will create a cyclone. This cyclone ragdolls enemies and adopts new damage types in the same way that Tornado's cyclones do. This passive has a medium-length cooldown.

Like the Wind - Zephyr can stay in the air longer and maintain more control in the air. In addition, her abilities deal more damage and cost less energy while she is airbourne.

 

I'm not one for balancing, so the power of these passives might not match all others.  It's the concept I really care about, anyways.  Let me know what you guys think!  

Edited February 18, 2014 by -CM-MetaMeta

[Pavelord]

so, for example if frost equips slash and dash, because of his frozen domain slash and dash will deal ice damage and proc?

[Pretzellis]

Yeah. It will deal that on top of Slash Dash's base damage type.

[Spriggs]

I don't know about switching powers, seems like it would be hard to do with some of the frames' powers, but the passives seem like something that would work pretty well with the Focus they were talking about.

[Pretzellis]

Definitely. However, with Focus, I really think that they'd be able to to this kind of mixing and matching with abilities without losing each waframe's core identity. Besides, they said they have the tech. They're probably testing it.

[Spriggs]

Well, it would certainly be interesting to see how they pull it off. The dev team got awfully defensive when DERebecca brought up power-switching in the latest Dev-stream, so it's possible she brought up some spoilers they didn't want getting out yet.

[Pretzellis]

Yeah, It'd be a huge change. I'd definitely look forward to it, though. And you're right... DERebecca was quite insistent with this topic. Seeing as Zephyr now has a passive anyways, it might seem that they want to go down this route. Here's hoping for the return of skill trees in addition to the mod card system.

And, passives. I really think Warframe would benefit from having more skills to play around with per frame.