Set Me On Fire, Ember! (Or, How Combination Powers Can Work, And A Large Amount Of Proposed Combos)

[8bit_Ghost]

This is a continuation of this post here: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/192696-there-shouldnt-be-an-i-in-team-and-heres-how-to-fix-that-or-what-to-be-done-about-the-incompatibility-of-warframes/?view=findpost&p=2239712, which talks about how Warframe can benefit from combining powers, as well as how these can operate into kill assists. This post here talks about the power combination aspect of it, and will get a bit technical.

 

Also, if you havent noticed already, all of the starting posts in this 5-part thread have titles that operate as "Making a slightly odd and maybe inflammatory statement! (and here, saying what's actually going on in the topic)". If these bother you, I'm sorry, as it was a primary way to get people hooked onto the ride that is this 5-post thread. Hopefully at this point, though, you've found it interesting enough to stick it to the end.

 

Anyways, onto the main point of this topic: Combination Powers and my proposed system.

 

Now, we can't have every single power in the game combine. Even though there are indeed so many powers that could be used, it's a bit too much, but each power will have its own unique way of affecting at least ONE power from a different Warframe, or their power can be affected by at least ONE other Warframe. And with that, I shall state the first part of how this mechanic works.

 

There are two types of Warframe power categories, which can be slightly extended to the Warframe itself as well. There are Affecting powers, and Affected powers. In relation to the frames, there are Affectors, Affecteds, and Versatile frames. This sounds like it's going to make players choose some frames over the other already, but wait until you read a bit more.

 

So to start off, let's begin looking at Excalibur, Loki, Mag and Rhino, the starter four. I will mention that I am going to be buffing/nerfing some through my process but hopefully these combination powers will make your judgement of the changes be less critical.

 

Excalibur:

Excalibur's powers are primarily Affected with one Affecting.

 

His first power, Slash Dash, is affected by certain elemental powers that he passes through. These include Snow Globe, Fire Blast, and Electric Shield, giving him extra elemental power. It is also affected by Volt's Speed Boost (more on that when I reach Volt).

 

His second power, Radial Blind, is affecting towards Banshee's Silence (they are both affecting and affected in a way), and also affects Nyx's Chaos, making enemies enter a blind rage that makes them use only melee weapons (if Loki's Radial Disarm is already in effect, then this power stuns them for a longer period of time).

 

Super Jump is primarily affected. It is affected by Volt's Speed Boost (once again, more in a bit)

 

Radial Javelin is affected by Bullet Attractor (as we already know how it does), Snow Globe and Fire Blast both give this power an element (impossible to really do effectively with Electric Shield), and enemies affected by Accelerant or Freeze take extra damage.

 

That's just Excalibur. Now onto the next ones.

 

Loki:

Loki's powers are both Affected and Affecting.

 

His first power, Decoy, gets a new mechanic and a buff. Decoy can now be elementally charged with Venom (or attacking with Contagion), all of Ember's powers except Accelerant, Shock and Overload, and all of Frost's powers except Snow Globe. These are just some of the basic ones, as any power that does elemental damage will affect Decoy (including Tesla, Shield Polarize, and Smite). Once elementally charged, the Decoy will detonate upon death, inflicting whatever element it is charged with upon enemies nearby. This is best used in conjunction with Radial Disarm as it brings enemies closer.

 

Invisibilty gets a bit of a nerf. Duration and stealth damage stay, but stealth damage is only applied to enemies after 5 seconds from activation (I mean, the enemy just saw you vanish. It's not like it doesnt know you're still somewhere). Stealth damage is applied immediately if enemies did not see you previously, or if Silence is applied.

 

Switch Teleport has no new affecting or affected effect. It can be used to bring charged Decoys closer to enemies, though.

 

Radial Disarm has some unique Affecting and Affected abilities. As mentioned with Excalibur's Radial Blind, it can stun enemies if Radial Blind is used afterwards. In conjunction with Terrify or Battle Cry, it paralyzes enemies completely. When used with Blade Storm, enemies will be paralyzed once marked with Ash's power.

 

Mag:

Mag is both Affecting and Affected.

 

Pull does not affect any powers nor is it affected.

 

Shield Polarize will charge anything stationary that is chargeable with magnetic damage effect. When used in conjunction with Trinity's Blessing, it will drain the health of enemies affected by Shield Polarize for a few seconds.

 

Bullet Attractor can be charged with Elemental attacks as well as will suck in all projectile powers, absorbing the elements they carry.

 

Crush can be combined with Oberon's Reckoning, causing enemies that are thrown down while still held in the air by Crush to detonate with a 50/50 chance of magnetic or radioactive energy, similar to the blast radius of Antimatter Prime.

 

Rhino:

Rhino is primarily Affected.

 

Rhino Charge gains all the boosts that Slash Dash does.

 

Iron Skin gets a bit of a nerf, reducing its strength by 1/3. Iron Skin can now be elementally charged to detonate by ally powers, so that when it depletes, enemies nearby will be hit by a shockwave of elemental energy. This encourages the player to run through a Fire Blast, Snow Globe, or Electric Shield to deal damage with the detonation. Can also be hit with Smite, Tesla, and Shield Polarize as well as other elemental powers.

 

Roar now can be used in conjunction with Terrify and Battle Cry to paralyze enemies, but the other powers need to be in effect first.

 

Rhino Stomp can be used in combination with Reckoning to smash suspended enemies to the ground and create massive shockwaves that will knock over nearby enemies.

 

As a final aside, although Volt's powers aren't added here, I should mention that I decided that Volt's Speed Boost should affect mobility powers by extending travel distance by a decent amount.

This means that Slash Dash and Rhino Charge would go further. This can also be applied to Super Jump, Rip Line, Tail Wind, and the homing speed of Hysteria.

 

That's it for this post, for now. These were difficult to come up with but the ideas are clear. I will add four more at a time to this post at later times, for I need a break on coming up with these. I will make my next post about how Kill Assists will affect the game next.

 

Edit: Remember that these are propositions and are mostly designed to show you how they would work. In excecution, if DE took this idea, it would probably come out differently or even have more or less happening per power.

Edited March 10, 2014 by 8bit_Ghost

[DJ_Redwire]

It's an interesting concept but the more I read into it the more meh I feel about it. Maybe if it were significantly more limited in what powers can be affected, affect, and so forth, a system like this would be less cumbersome. And since generic warframe powers are on the horizon, I feel as if this system won't really have a niche in the game.

 

Nonetheless I like your ideas and I think they're solid.

[8bit_Ghost]

It's an interesting concept but the more I read into it the more meh I feel about it. Maybe if it were significantly more limited in what powers can be affected, affect, and so forth, a system like this would be less cumbersome. And since generic warframe powers are on the horizon, I feel as if this system won't really have a niche in the game.

 

Nonetheless I like your ideas and I think they're solid.

I understand your doubts, and to be honest, combination powers isn't the main focus of my recent tangents today. I was beginning to feel a bit meh as well thinking about every single little thing and detail with powers and it was getting a bit tricky. I'll take a break before getting onto the most important part of this stuff.

 

Glad you like my ideas, though.

[seren77]

This is pretty much exactly how guild wars 2 works. I'm hoping DE can think of something original. This will just end making the frames more powerful and the game even easier.

 

High end guild wars 2 play (guild vs guild) ended up being doing nothing but skill combos to provide infinite healing, shields, buffs/debuffs

[patrizl001]

zephyr's tornadoes change properties if they're hit with an element. so ember can make fire tornadoes, frost can make freeze tornadoes, etc.

[Llyssa]

mm. One that would be cool is pull+iron skin creating a decoy. Otherwise, reading your suggestions, yeah, they're kinda "meh". These are mostly generic "make it do damage" things, which, honestly, is boring. Also, teh nerfs.

[Tulzscha]

Moved to the proper section.