Ideas To Make Ash Viable Regardless Of Level

[Rakosta_Kai]

Let me start off by saying that Ash is one of my favorite frames and I still have fun running around on him to this day.

He suffers from scaling issues when faced with higher tiered content and has a bit of trouble bringing something to groups though. The primary goals with my ideas are to address those two things.

 

Ash is an assassination frame who's abilities are melee in orientation.

He's also one of the more energy efficient frames in that his first 3 skills are all low in energy cost. This allows him to be a high movement frame with the defensive option of an invisibility skill.

 

His issues are that two of his skills scale poorly due to being DPS based, Teleport is close-targeted which forces limited use. Teleport, when successful, staggers nearby enemies, but leaves Ash vulnerable as the animation keeps him from capitalizing on the stagger period.

 

My suggestions for Ash would be to:

Make some mild changes to both Smokescreen and Shuriken.

Remove Teleport from the skill bar, make some small changes to it, and make it a cooldown function for both Smokescreen and Shuriken.

Add a status proc to Blade Storm.

Add an entirely new ability.

 

I know... it sounds like a lot, but the changes I am suggesting, except the last one,are actually quite mild.

 

For the sake of these changes let's assume Teleport does some new things:

It's open targeted

It's sets off a point blank AOE (PbAOE)  knockdown similar to a melee jump slam. The slam can do no damage( or could benefit from Heavy Impact) and has the same chance to be resisted that a current melee jump slam has.

It has a half second cool down, costs what it does now, and has no flip animation attached to it.

 

Skill 1:Shuriken

Shuriken is a nifty skill on it's own, but scales poorly as does most DPS abilities. The goal for it would be to add a bit of utility and give it a small increase in damage.

The changes I'd suggest to it would be to:

Give it a guaranteed slash proc on any target it hits or allow it to throw one extra Shuriken at max rank than it does now (max rank would be a new total of 3)

To increase delay between uses to about 2 seconds.

Attempting to use Shuriken during that delay period activates Teleport.

Teleport would act as described above.

 

A change to Shuriken of this type makes it useful at all levels and increases Ash's ability to take the fight directly to enemies in melee.

 

Skill 2:Smokescreen

Smokescreen is an excellent short duration ability and scales well at all levels.

The only change I'd suggest would be to:

Using the Smokescreen ability while Smokescreen is active activates Teleport.

Teleport would act as described above.

 

Skill 3: Bladestorm:

The only change to this skill I would request is that each attack in Bladestorm add a guaranteed slash proc

 

Skill 4: Master's Circle (this skill needs a ton of polish)

While the rest of Ash's ability set stresses movement. This ability stresses the exact opposite.

Master's Circle sets a circle where Ash is standing and places him in a state of hyper awareness while taunting some enemies to attack him in melee.

Block and Parry are active and enhanced while in this circle.

Smokescreen,Teleport, and Bladestorm are disabled while in this circle.

He is immune to Knockdown effects during this period but can still take damage.

While he can be hit with ranged weapons, he has a chance to reflect/deflect damage taken back.

Allies receive a % max energy boost that only lasts for the duration of the ability.

Any enemies killed inside the circle return a percentage of health to the team.

Enemies are compelled to fight Ash inside the circle.

 

This last skill is messy... Any help to clean the idea up is appreciated truly.

 

I feel like this change in Ash's ability set would make him a bit more formidable by emphasizing single target DPS with some knockdown and movement utility.

The #4 would set him up as a short term energy and/or rejuvenation battery, and a short term stationary avoidance or reflection tank. What I don't want is it to be over-powered or a straight rehash of other frame's skills.

 

 

Feel free to post your thoughts. I am open to any constructive criticism.

Thanks for your time.

 

[VKhaun]

TP->Smokescreen stacked for range/efficiency (increases stun radius on the smokescreen) is some amazing gameplay that is quite viable at high levels. I plan to use him that way a lot once Melee 2.0 comes out. I just hope they work out the details of interrupting enemies. Too often I stun something and it continues to charge and shield slam me, or radial slam the ground, or whatever else.

 

If they made smokescreen not affected by duration so people couldn't try to make it into a gimp version of invisibility, suddenly people would have to think about him instead of just comparing him to Loki. Shuriken needs utility like other #1's, and IMO TP should fully restore the shields of an ally if you TP to them, or something supportive like that.

 

My 2¢ anyway.

[Papa_Nuk_Nuk]

How about removing the target from Teleport, and if teleing to an emeny, add an attack? 

[Rakosta_Kai]

How about removing the target from Teleport, and if teleing to an emeny, add an attack? 

That's what I mean by open targeted. The Teleport wouldn't have an attack but a small AOE Knockdown instead. The goal is to enhance utility in melee range.

[Rakosta_Kai]

TP->Smokescreen stacked for range/efficiency (increases stun radius on the smokescreen) is some amazing gameplay that is quite viable at high levels. I plan to use him that way a lot once Melee 2.0 comes out. I just hope they work out the details of interrupting enemies. Too often I stun something and it continues to charge and shield slam me, or radial slam the ground, or whatever else.

 

If they made smokescreen not affected by duration so people couldn't try to make it into a gimp version of invisibility, suddenly people would have to think about him instead of just comparing him to Loki. Shuriken needs utility like other #1's, and IMO TP should fully restore the shields of an ally if you TP to them, or something supportive like that.

 

My 2¢ anyway.

We are thinking along the same lines.

That's exactly why I have it set up that way in my description.

Smoke screen and Shuriken are gateways to using Teleport, if you need it.

Teleport, on its' own and in its' current form, really doesn't warrant a skill slot. It's highly situational and rather limiting when a situation would warrant it.

As a secondary effect though, it would be incredible.

Imagine:

Two enemies in sight, but on opposite sides of the room... Ash Smokescreens and stealth-kills the first enemy then teleports to the 2nd which procs a KD. Finisher applied. Enemy gets up, but is hurt. Smokescreen has worn off now but Ash is in range to deal melee damage for the kill. 

That's Ninja

 

Bladestorm is a signature ability and can't be removed. That said though, it's limiting and offers unreliable personal utility in the form of Invincibility during it's duration.

Master's Circle would give the group a short term energy buff and some hp back if needed while pushing Ash into the role of a reflection or avoidance tank.

It would be a risky skill to use and a group would have to support Ash as he wouldn't have the benefits you'd see from the likes of the current tanks.

it would be more like a weak CoH Super Reflexes Tanker or Regen Scrapper. 

He'd take damage but would have to hope that he is killing enough mobs in his circle to keep his hp on point.  In the mean time, he's giving his team that energy to support him and HP if they need it.

To use it by himself, against a room full of enemies, would be a death sentence though. 

[Mi5fit]

   I have a couple of ideas on this.  Someone before had mentioned this, cant remember exactly, about using his ult.  It had ash (the player) staying in one spot while shadow clones of Ash all attack the targeted enemies at once.  Each clone doing one of his ult animations. It would make the ult much faster.  Also Ash would smoke bomb and become invisible during the ult so he would not be targeted for about 2-3 seconds.  It would be as if he was so fast that he hit all of them at near the same time. 

  

   Another idea would be to have his ult do the damage that smoke screen does, with the damage multiplier that you receive from invisibility and current melee weapon.  This way you would make sure that the target dies.  For how slow and limited it is, it needs to deal a heap of damage to be useful on higher levels.  It is an assassination move anyhow.

 

   As for teleport and making it useful, add an attack to it.  Once again you could have the same damage as in smoke screen.  Don't think it would be OP as it would just be a single target attack.  Would be really fun teleporting around and taking out single targets and then teleporting to an ally or to another enemy.  If you didn't have the damage from smoke screen you can just add 100% knockdown with current melee damage included.

 

   Just a thought to improve him and make him even more fun.

[cyberstrok3]

   I have a couple of ideas on this.  Someone before had mentioned this, cant remember exactly, about using his ult.  It had ash (the player) staying in one spot while shadow clones of Ash all attack the targeted enemies at once.  Each clone doing one of his ult animations. It would make the ult much faster.  Also Ash would smoke bomb and become invisible during the ult so he would not be targeted for about 2-3 seconds.  It would be as if he was so fast that he hit all of them at near the same time. 

  

   Another idea would be to have his ult do the damage that smoke screen does, with the damage multiplier that you receive from invisibility and current melee weapon.  This way you would make sure that the target dies.  For how slow and limited it is, it needs to deal a heap of damage to be useful on higher levels.  It is an assassination move anyhow.

 

   As for teleport and making it useful, add an attack to it.  Once again you could have the same damage as in smoke screen.  Don't think it would be OP as it would just be a single target attack.  Would be really fun teleporting around and taking out single targets and then teleporting to an ally or to another enemy.  If you didn't have the damage from smoke screen you can just add 100% knockdown with current melee damage included.

 

   Just a thought to improve him and make him even more fun.

That idea is awesome and really solves the BS problem of being slow.Though i would preffer that Teleport would be open area or what do you call it? (you select where you want to teleport whether its a cryopod or an enemy.like loki's decoy you choose where you place yourself)