Warframe: A Pitch For A Post Update

[Redzerowing]

-Hello everyone, before I begin my discussion I'd like to say I'm Mastery Rank 9 and I've been playing Warframe since early January and have had the opportunity to try out many different frames.

 

Now a discussion for weapons could require another post but as we near Update 13 there are some things I would like to put forward some ideas for the devs and potentially get input from you guys as well. I am by no means a master of balancing nor do I consider myself a pro at this game nor do I suck at to pitch abilities to cover any of my own problems. These are meant to be completely open to change and are purely my opinion, that said let's get onto the meat of this post.

 

1.) Excalibur: This was my first frame and I have taken the time to reactor him and play him now and again and is the main reason I am posting here today. He is considered by the game to be the "new player frame" and to be balanced across the board. However after playing him a lot and considering many of the other frames in the game he just seems to fall short. Let me explain:

Out of the three frames you are given to choose from when you begin Warframe (Excalibur, Mag and Loki) I can say that Excalibur is the weakest of the three when it comes to late game and more difficult missions. While this does solidify the arguement of a beginners frame it's also unfair that while they have abilties that scale well into late game, even Loki and his underrated Radial Disarm Excalibur only really has Radial Blind and Radial Javelin if modded correctly. I would like to propose change to his third ability "Super Jump"

 

Super Jump: This ability is widely considered to be one of the situational or useless abilities in Warframe, especially now that we have Zephyr and Tailwind which is better than this in every way possible even if its only 10 energy. I've done a lot of thinking and have decided what Excalibur really needs is a form of sustain to allow him to stay on the frontlines as is his design. Now I'm not proposing he be as tanky as say Rhino, Frost, or even Zephyr but it would help to cover a weakness. I am proposing one of the following three abilities to take the place of "Super Jump".

 

A.) Sacred Steel: As we near Melee 2.0 I think this would be a great addition to Excalibur's arsenal as a melee based offensive warframe. Much in the same manner as Saryn's Contagion for 50 energy Excalibur could charge his weapon with energy much in the same way presented in the Dev's stream for channeling. However this ability would either be based on time or number of hits. While something you might see on Oberon this is a frame based on the legend of King Arthur, essentially striking enemies with this on your melee weapon would restore a small amount of health/shields say 10-15 a strike. If this seems like it would be too potent especially as something you could spam, then a change could be that you recieve 20-30 health/shield on enemy death at your hands. Levels in this would increase the amount taken per strike/per kill.

 

B.) Aegis/Proto Shield: Another ability to add sustain to Excalibur could be an energy based shield. At the cost of 50 energy you could put up a barrier around your warframe much in the same manner as Rhino's Iron Skin, however this would be a proto shield much in the same way the Corpus troops have. This would be a shield based armor, getting drained away and resisting hits in the same manner, but also having its own individual health bar much like Iron Skin. It could work as having 3-4x Excalibur's shield when you activate it so it would take a little getting used too but could be handy.

Option number two would be a little different. Now for 75 energy untargeted you could deploy an energy shield in "front" of Excalibur that would deflect bullets and missles (likely not fire) back towards random targets much like Zephyr's Turbulence. This would last for 3-4-5-6 seconds and would only protect the direction you're facing in a shield much like Volt's Electric Shield as well as perhaps having the blurring effect to make it slightly more difficult to fire through your own shield. Now this ability could also give Excalibur a bit of group utility, if you are targeting a team mate you could apply an "Aegis" to them and allow them to enjoy the benefits of the reflective shield for a time. While costly modded correctly you could provide a boon for all of your squad mates in a tough situation, of course it wouldnt be fool proof since it does only protect from the front and would take a bit of finesse to use in those situations facing hordes. Leveling this ability would make the shield last longer.

 

C.) Phantom Blades: A bit of an alternative to my earlier abilites built around sustain. For 50 energy you could deploy a ring of spinning swords that would rotate around Excalibur as you move about the tileset. These blades would remain around Excalibur dealing damage to any enemies that pass within their spinning radius, however if the ability is activated again with a target in sight it will be treated as a targetable ability that fires one or all of the blades at the target dealing slash damage. This could be used either as an assistant to melee combat or as a long range attack as an alternative to firing your gun.

 

2. Valkyr: I have very little to say about this Warframe, I don't believe she needs much a change that Melee 2.0 might not fix, and while I have reservations about the usefulness of "Warcry" or "Paralysis" I will say one thing I would like to be changed about her first ability "Ripline". Allow it to rip off the shields of Grineer Shieldlancers, and it will become 100% more useful.

 

3. Oberon: The paladin warframe who just doesnt seem to get enough abilities to make him feel like a paladin. I believe some of the abilities mentioned above for Excalibur could also be applied to Oberon as a replacement for "Hallowed Ground" or "Smite". However I don't have much to say on this warframe other than he felt like a disappointment to me other than his powerful Uber "Reckoning".

 

4. Ash: In my opinion the only thing that needs to change about him is the usefulness of "Teleport", a good change I believe would be if you used Teleport it would move you behind a targeted enemy and any foes shooting at you would do the confused animation much in the same manner as being teleported by a Grineer Commander allowing you to get either a stealth kill or some free hits in before you're spotted.

 

5. Nekros: In my opinion a frame that needs a rework, but he's incredibly useful as a support frame. I would only replace "Soul Punch" with an ability that works like a force choke, suspending an enemy in mid air taking damage for a short time. Higher ranks could grab 2-3-4-5 enemies in a cone in front of him.

 

6. Volt: One of my favorite frames and one I use quite often, the only thing I would change here is added damage to "Shock" and "Overload", namely to his Uber because as it stands right now spamming shock is more useful than spending the 100 energy on "Overload".

 

7. Banshee: A highly underrated frame but in my opinion she needs two changes to see more play.

A. Silence: This is an ability that never sees any use much in the same manner as "Super Jump" and I really hope it's replaced with something more useful, however at this moment I can't think of anything.

B. Sound Quake: All this needs is a return of the invincibility while casting it and it's fine.

 

8. The Infested: Finally I would like to talk about the infested, while the Grineer have been getting a lot of love these past few patches and the Corpus while still under appreciated by the Devs are still a threat there remains the ever so useless Infested.

These enemies are considered by the community to be an absolute joke unless you are being swarmed by a mob of energy draining ancients. I would like to propose two new enemy types be added to their ranks to increase their ability to be a challenge to players as they come in hordes with others.

 

A. Stinger: Taken from Dark Sector, these humanoid enemies would move at a slowish pace but unleash a spread of projectiles much in the same way the Drakgoon Flak Cannon does. These enemies would be considered to be armed with shotguns that do a combination of impact and slash and would be incredibly deadly up close which is normally where most infested like to be.

 

B. Needler/Spitter: This enemy would be a medium speed mutated husk with spines poking out of it. These enemies would be cabable of firing arrow like projectiles that would deal puncture and poison damage to any Tenno struck by it. This is simply just something to add ranged attacks to an otherwise all melee faction and provide a legitimate threat if left alone, the build up of armor reduction from puncture and damage over time from poison would make these enemies very dangerous if not killed quickly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

And that is the end of my long list of ideas for the game, feel free to comment and leave your opinion below if you agree or disagree with me. I would welcome with open arms a discussion with other players, thank you for taking the time to read all of this :)

Edited April 6, 2014 by Redzerowing

[Damageplay]

Some good stuff here!

[Seanjuju]

Well done.

[TheImmortalHotDog]

For the Nekros idea,

 

[Darth Vader gif/img here]

[Dratch]

Other than your nekros tweak, I agree with basically this whole post. Personally I prefer Archwizard's supposed rework (https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/176717-true-necromancer-nekros-theme-revamp/?hl=nekros), but Nekros as he stands is still okay.

[Zhoyzu]

banshee doesnt need invincibility. just dont yolo charge like an idiot into a room and act like its molecular prime.

her ult is fine as is.

[Redzerowing]

banshee doesnt need invincibility. just dont yolo charge like an idiot into a room and act like its molecular prime.

her ult is fine as is.

 

I'm not saying that's what you should do as Banshee. The thing is it's ideal use is in a crowd of enemies and while it has a potent stagger effect along with it's damage it's also incredibly detrimental to be using an AOE like that and be unable to act for the 6+ seconds of channeling required with no way to end it prematurely.

It's not a large room wide quick activation ability like Rhino Stomp, Molecular Prime or Crush and should at least grant some short term invincibility during it's cast time like it was originally unless you have competent team mates with you.

[Redzerowing]

bump :3