Can We Take A Moment For Silence?

[Celionis]

I couldn't help but notice that Banshee is a very underrated and hardly mentioned frame. Of course there will be more popular frames due to having been easier to get, but I hate to see nothing happening with Banshee while all the changes go to the more popular frames such as Ember, Frost, Vaubon, etc.

 

My main concern, though, comes from the ability, Silence. The main reason I believe that Banshee is hated upon so much is due to Silence being........not as useful as it could be. I wanted to prove that Silence could be made into quite a useful ability, but was sorely disappointed at what REALLY made it useless; the success rate at which the ability procs on enemies.

 

I built my new Banshee to use mainly Silence, and couldn't help but notice that, when I used Silence, it seemed to do nothing. I saw that only one enemy within the range of my ability had my energy glow around it, and there were quite a few enemies within my range.

 

On top of Silence not procing on enemies, the cooldown timer makes it seem even less useful by not being able to assure all enemies are under the effects in order to make it a viable stealth option.

 

I know this may be an old topic, but after hearing on the stream about how ability problems are usually dealt with quickly, I could not help but wonder what was going to happen with Banshee. This has been an issue for a while, and I hope to see it visited in the near future.

[SALE94]

Why she didnt die, and she is on list for rework from what i hear.

 

Also silence will be either changed or replaced.

Edited March 21, 2014 by SALE94

[LukeAura]

Silence is supposedly going to become useful in stealth 2.0. 
Any alerted enemies aren't affected by silence, might have been your problem. 
Banshee's problems extend well beyond silence though.

[Celionis]

I used it on the very first group of enemies I ran into on matches. Nothing was alerted.

[Davoodoo]

Silence is supposedly going to become useful in stealth 2.0. 

Any alerted enemies aren't affected by silence, might have been your problem. 

Banshee's problems extend well beyond silence though.

I really hope that you meant stealth 1.0 cause what we have now is stealth 0.1

Its unviable and devs dont work to make it viable

Edited March 21, 2014 by Davoodoo

[Kalenath]

I really hope that you meant stealth 1.0 cause what we have now is stealth 0.1

Its unviable and devs dont work to make it viable

 

Ah, so the ability to TURN OFF alarms when the enemy sound them isn't a good thing from a stealth point of view. Good to know.

[ExplodingStars]

Silence is supposedly going to become useful in stealth 2.0. 

Any alerted enemies aren't affected by silence, might have been your problem. 

Banshee's problems extend well beyond silence though.

My doubts that a Stealth work would happen increased in U9 when Nova appeared and currently I have little hope left for Stealth 2. ... I mean 1.0

But I digress

 

Silence is certainly not Banshee's only problem. Her entire skillset should be looked at for improvements particularly her Ult and Sonic Boom

[Davoodoo]

Ah, so the ability to TURN OFF alarms when the enemy sound them isn't a good thing from a stealth point of view. Good to know.

Its only logical thing to do when you actually must shoot arc traps and its largely advised to shoot energy drained doors.

Not everyone have stealth mods(bandaid fix), even less ppl pack them and forcing them to bring bow or throwing knifes for stealth is bad idea. Silence doesnt always prevent sound too. 

For one advantage we got one disadvantage.

 

Stealth is still unrewarding and buggy, in short unviable.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Davoodoo

[Kalenath]

Its only logical thing to do when you actually must shoot arc traps and its largely advised to shoot energy drained doors.

Not everyone have stealth mods(bandaid fix), even less ppl pack them and forcing them to bring bow or throwing knifes for stealth is bad idea. Silence doesnt always prevent sound too. 

For one advantage we got one disadvantage.

 

Stealth is still unrewarding and buggy, in short unviable.

 

Well... I have been told.

 

I guess when my clan and I do stealth runs through missions we are just fooling ourselves when we do exterminations and captures without a single alarm going off. Oh well.

 

You know better than me how I play, so why should I even bother to reply to you anymore?

Edited March 21, 2014 by Kalenath

[Davoodoo]

Well... I have been told.

 

I guess when my clan and I do stealth runs through missions we are just fooling ourselves when we do exterminations and captures without a single alarm going off. Oh well.

 

You know better than me how I play, so why should I even bother to reply to you anymore?

I can clear t3 exterminate using only melee, will you consider melee viable then??

 

Both stealth and melee is unrewarding and not viable, fact ths you can work it out doesnt mean that rushing through enemies, putting 1-2 bullets in each isnt better idea than using melee or trying to move unseen.

 

By unviable i mean using stealth not only takes longer, its more risky, its more difficult and you actually lose rewards by doing so

Edited March 21, 2014 by Davoodoo

[Edgedemon]

only problem i see with silence its it consumes too much energy for its effect, and has a cool down for what should be a spamable ability

[Soluh]

I play banshee almost exclusively, and in my opinion Sonic Boom, Sonar and Sound Quake all work perfectly fine.

 

Sonic Boom has knockback/knockdown and a very respectable range.

Sonar gives as we all know gives a great damage boost.

Sound Quake stunlocks all enemies within its extremely large radius for its duration, and deals good damage at "lower" levels.

 

You might note that i've not mentioned Silence, that's because i've never used it. in likely over 200 hours of playing as banshee I've not even slotted silence once. It takes up too many mod points and from what i've heard is unreliable in its effect.

[LunarWind]

Both stealth and melee is unrewarding and not viable, fact ths you can work it out doesnt mean that rushing through enemies, putting 1-2 bullets in each isnt better idea than using melee or trying to move unseen.

 

By unviable i mean using stealth not only takes longer, its more risky, its more difficult and you actually lose rewards by doing so

 

You do a good job of pointing out the flaws with Stealth Gameplay.

It takes a long time, much longer than pure violence.

You get fewer rewards because you kill fewer enemies.

It's much more difficult and skill/thought intensive.

 

BUT WAIT

 

You forgot something: Fun

Running a mission with the goal of never being seen can be immensely Fun, which is an aspect of this game many people seem to have forgotten exists. Some of us do not run missions for rewards or progression, but for that most ethereal experience of enjoying the moment.

 

Viability? That's a horrible word used by people who seem to be incapable of recognizing that efficiency IS NOT the reason video games were invented.

Can you enjoy Efficiency? Yes! And if you do, then get to it!

But many of us do not find pleasure in knowing that we are earning the maximum amount of affinity/credits/mods/whatever that we can possibly earn.

And for some of those people, for me at least, there is stealth-play as an alternative.

 

Banshee's Silence is currently broken.

It's intent seems to be allowing conflict without raising the alarm, but the way it works does not promote this use.

It now affects nearby enemies causing them to ignore the sounds of murder and gunfire coming from mere meters away.

That makes it useless against enemies on the other side of a room or around a corner than you don't see, and honestly if you're close enough to use Silence on someone, you could have just "Silenced" them using a melee weapon.

 

How it should could work: Affects all nearby allies, causing them to emit no sound when using weapons or powers.

That way, casting Silence would allow Banshee and her Tenno cell to fire-at-will and fling their fireballs/antimatter/lightning bolts willy-nilly without worrying about alarming the poor soon-to-be-murder-victims standing across the hall.

[Noble_Cactus]

We've "forgotten" fun because the game does not reward it. Why not make this "fun" gameplay and make it rewarding as well?

 

Efficiency may not be what most video games are made with in mind, but they are a way of playing the game. To some people, that is fun. Fun is not limited to your definition of the word.

 

Also that Silence rework sounds completely broken with a max efficiency build with Energy Siphon. Banshee devotes her entire moveset to buffing Silence while the rest of her teammates do the rest of the work... whee.

[LunarWind]

 

Also that Silence rework sounds completely broken with a max efficiency build with Energy Siphon. Banshee devotes her entire moveset to buffing Silence while the rest of her teammates do the rest of the work... whee.

 

Now wait just one minute sir.

What makes that bad?

 

Having a banshee who is built around stealth gameplay, acting as a sort of 'conduit' for her cell to operate in silence?

That sounds like a valuable build that rewards team-work and planning.

 

As for your other comments, I agree that there cannot exist one solid definition of "fun".

Some people only really enjoy obtaining the best gear and knowing they are equipped to the nines in the most badass weaponry in the game.

Others enjoy going solo with non-forma'd non-potatoe'd equipment into a level 30 mission, knowing that if they try to fight their way to the end, the only end they find will be their own. A style in which stealth and avoidance is paramount.

 

However, you cannot say that the game does not reward "fun" gameplay.

Fun is the reward!

 

Playing in a style which you find entertaining, whether that be overly difficult and rewardless stealth runs or super-speed ultra-forma'd-soma murder sprees, Fun is its own reward.

 

I was just putting forward that calling stealth "Not Viable" was a rather silly attitude, sense "Viability" only really matters in a competitive setting where Victory, not fun, is the desired outcome.

[Noble_Cactus]

True. Then again, when something is fun I -personally- like to see some kind of symbol that represents the fruits of my effort,s be it affinity, better drops, or so on. We have different conceptions of fun so I'll just leave it at that. Though I will admit that doing a long survival just for the sake of doing a long survival is rather fulfilling for me.

 

As to why I say that's a bad thing, yes, it does allow Banshee to be a conduit for her other teammates actions. But that can be said for most team buffs, and Sonar acts as a conduit for different roles. And it's the same kind of trap Nekros falls into. Spamming Desecrate over and over is really, really boring.