Ash And Melee 2.0

[Neyd]

The Situation

I have been in love with Ash for a long time but unfortunately the poor little bugger seems to be less loved by large portions of the community since he is not that often sought after when grouping.

 

Now I do the reasons why people prefer their teammates to play one-button Novas, Frosts and Vaubans and I do not wish to rain on their parade...

 

...but! I see some potential for Ash to get some nice Mojo going (and hopefully the well deserved infamy that comes with it) when Melee 2.0 hits. Right now one of the things that make Ash rather "meh" in comparison to other offensive Warframes is that his Blade Storm takes rather long and while being the most awesome ability of them all visually (my opinion) it does really seem rather lackluster compared to the plethora of "press one button - everything dies" abilities out there

 

My Idea

I do not want Ash to AoE the living s**t out of every mission, there are already other Frames for this role. What I would love to see is Blade Storm remaining as it is but somehow gaining more viability. And today's Devstream has presented me with an idea:

Now if I understood Geoff correctly landing multi-hit combos will multiply the damage of following attacks once Melee 2.0 is deployed. So if Blade Storm were to function as some kind of "hit primer" that boosts up your damage multiplier this could really make Ash the close quarters beast he deserves to be. Just my two cents

 

[NetSlayer]

Solid idea.

[Aure7]

My only problem with him was the fact that bladestorm registers only the enemies in your line of sight. It really should be an ability that searches an area around you, behind walls and everything else.

[Hrodgrim]

Damn good idea, however, Ash also needs a better power where Teleport is (free aim teleport DE pls), and Shuriken needs a 100% proc chance for whatever debuff suits it.

[Orbister]

sounds good, and regarding people hating ash, people will hate anything, they hate Oberon for "bouncing" enemies and making them hard to hit shoot at... even though the skill will kill them... and they are also hating frost now, for whatever reasons, for the haters to be happy we all should be playing Rhinos... 

[(PSN)GR13V4NC3]

There are so many threads devoted to the overhaul of the most ninja of space ninjas and they are all pretty good. I myself, have one or two and have commented on most of the others. The general consensus seems to be that...

 

Teleport needs to be free aim and cheap. Possibly adding in a stealth damage multiplier on one or few enemies if the move is used in such a way.

 

Shuriken just needs to be revamped to do true serrated blade damage and have either a bleed proc or some kind of other damage multiplier.

 

Smoke Screen is the one move that most feel is fine the way it is, but would like if it had more utility, like cloaking any teammates that are within its cast range, enabling easier revivals when a mate is down or just a quick means of escaping a barrage of attacks. I personally agree with this change and have recommended it myself.

 

The infamous Blade Storm: This is the move of great debate. Some agree with its current inception, others think it needs to go in toto. I tend to lean towards the latter. In my mind, as the Shinobi/Ninja Gaiden of the frames, he should have a like move that enables him to destroy a single heavy target with impunity or man-handle a very small group with ease. My main issue with his move is that it is not player controlled. You cannot guide his actions during the cast, he just does his thing while I go get a soda or take a leak (in that way, it is useful). On top of this, it is a very high cost to energy when used (and doesn't work for the highest level of enemies as it is damage capped) and anyone who plays Ash, regularly, knows that without energy, you die. Vanishing has more uses than just offense. But I digress.

 

I prefer changing his ultimate to be a Valkyr esk move that is similar to Hysteria but not exactly the same. It would more focus on him utilizing his full Chi energy and maximizing his physical output to levels beyond that of any other warframe. Emblazoned with chi energy, he would move so fast as to be hovering off the ground and in whatever direction he propels himself a chorus line of shadow versions would follow and meld back into him whenever he stopped (just a visual, they don't attack). This is a common sight in any Shinobi/Ninja Gaiden game and the DEvs (Steve) actually mentioned their affinity/inspiration coming from these classic franchises. His attack speed would also be incredibly fast, to the point where he is attacking and parrying simultaneously (helped by use of his hidden wrist blades for the move), so as to be virtually invulnerable but only from the front. So it would attack like a super ninja-ie version of Valkyr's Hysteria with the (controllable) movement style of Excalibur's Slash Dash, but the sliding wouldn't stop until the duration of the move is over. Almost like Ash on ice skates holding a spinning mountain drill, shredding everything in his path until the move ends (whatever duration, enhanced by mods, that makes sense). So if something was harder to kill the move would take more time on attacking it but continue on after until the duration is exhausted. That is pretty much it. Simple, effective and rather fitting.

 

*On a side note, I also think it would be cool if we could use his hidden blades proactively, especially with the new equipping of melee weapons and the changes it makes in melee 2.0-3.0 or whatever they are calling it now. A cool bonus would be if it allowed the Ash user to have a 2nd secondary because he would have the carry room. But this is just a suggestion.*

Edited March 8, 2014 by (PS4)GR13V4NC3

[Thaumatos]

I'm of the school of thought that it shouldn't be called Blade Storm.

 

It really boggles my mind that it's called something it isn't.

 

With Stealth 2.0...whenever that comes...it would prove to be the ultimate assassin button.  Until that day, Blade Storm will continue to be an out of place ability in both name and function.

[CasuLL]

great idea id say. Would have been nice if Ash have his own exclusive weapon >.< or a cosmetic costumization of his blade storm weapons.

[Neyd]

There are so many threads devoted to the overhaul of the most ninja of space ninjas and they are all pretty good. I myself, have one or two and have commented on most of the others. The general consensus seems to be that...

 

Teleport needs to be free aim and cheap. Possibly adding in a stealth damage multiplier on one or few enemies if the move is used in such a way.

 

Shuriken just needs to be revamped to do true serrated blade damage and have either a bleed proc or some kind of other damage multiplier.

 

Smoke Screen is the one move that most feel is fine the way it is, but would like if it had more utility, like cloaking any teammates that are within its cast range, enabling easier revivals when a mate is down or just a quick means of escaping a barrage of attacks. I personally agree with this change and have recommended it myself.

 

The infamous Blade Storm: This is the move of great debate. Some agree with its current inception, others think it needs to go in toto. I tend to lean towards the latter. In my mind, as the Shinobi/Ninja Gaiden of the frames, he should have a like move that enables him to destroy a single heavy target with impunity or man-handle a very small group with ease. My main issue with his move is that it is not player controlled. You cannot guide his actions during the cast, he just does his thing while I go get a soda or take a leak (in that way, it is useful). On top of this, it is a very high cost to energy when used (and doesn't work for the highest level of enemies as it is damage capped) and anyone who plays Ash, regularly, knows that without energy, you die. Vanishing has more uses than just offense. But I digress.

 

I prefer changing his ultimate to be a Valkyr esk move that is similar to Hysteria but not exactly the same. It would more focus on him utilizing his full Chi energy and maximizing his physical output to levels behind that of any other warframe. Emblazoned with chi energy, he would move so fast as to be hovering off the ground and in whatever direction he propels himself a chorus line of shadow versions would follow and meld back into him whenever he stopped (just a visual, they don't attack). This is a common sight in any Shinobi/Ninja Gaiden game and the DEvs (Steve) actually mentioned their affinity/inspiration coming from these classic franchises. His attack speed would also be incredibly fast, to the point where he is attacking and parrying simultaneously (helped by use of his hidden wrist blades for the move), so as to be virtually invulnerable but only from the front. So it would attack like a super ninja-ie version of Valkyr's Hysteria with the (controllable) movement style of Excalibur's Slash Dash, but the sliding wouldn't stop until the duration of the move is over. Almost like Ash on ice skates holding a spinning mountain drill, shredding everything in his path until the move ends (whatever duration, enhanced by mods, that makes sense). So if something was harder to kill the move would take more time on attacking it but continue on after until the duration is exhausted. That is pretty much it. Simple, effective and rather fitting.

 

*On a side note, I also think it would be cool if we could use his hidden blades proactively, especially with the new equipping of melee weapons and the changes it makes in melee 2.0-3.0 or whatever they are calling it now. A cool bonus would be if it allowed the Ash user to have a 2nd secondary because he would have the carry room. But this is just a suggestion.*

There is plenty of truth in here and while I see room for improvement among the abilities 1-3 I chose to focus on his ult because that's where I see some really low hanging fruit that could be harvested by DE with little to no effort at all considering Melee 2.0 and all.

Using the wrist blades proactively would be an alternative as you said valkyresque but making him faster for a short period of time and thus enabling him to ramp up his combo count so that he could unleash the pain even after the blades have retracted (provided he can keep the combo going). This could potentially enable him to become that crazy single target assassin you spoke of by just being able to keep the damage multipliers going. 

 

What I was going for both in my original vision and this is just utilizing what Melee 2.0 seems to offer just like any other Frame could, only slightly better.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Neyd

[HAYABU5A]

they should make ash THE MELEE warframe 

give him crazy bonuses to melee mechanics