[Warframe Concept] Praetor, The Tactical Specter [Assault / Summoner Hybrid] [Requesting Art!]

[ZephyrPhantom]

Utilizing the newly developed Tenno Specter Techology tested against countless allies that have raided the Solar Raids, Praetor is the one-man army personified, able to call upon flawless doppelgangers of those that have fought with him.
Default Coloration : Pure black.
Playstyle : Uses the Tenno Specter technology to create Tenno Specters that act and follow his command, effectively allowing to hang back and reinforce the field while buffing any other allies nearby.
Appearance : A pure black, plain jumpsuit that gives off a soldier-like vibe, similar to the Excalibur Proto Armor given a more "light infantry" like makeover like a Crysis suit (see image) - he's able to take hits, but not as many as his fellow Tenno.

Starting Stats:
Health : 125 (375.0 at rank 30)
Power : 150.0 (225.0 at rank 30)
Armor : 65
Shields : 75 (225 at rank 30)
Sprint Speed : 1.2
Praetor's stats are meant to further emphasize his "light infantry/tactician nature" - his weaker shields and average armor means he doesn't tank well, though his extra health will aid him if he gets into a tight spot. Ideally, you want to hang back and take back of his larger energy pool, while letting the Specters he creates do the dirty work.

Conceptually, Praetor attempts to take the commonly suggested "assault soldier" and "summoner" ideas in Warframe and put an original twist on them using the Tenno Specters to create a lethal and flexible force.

Any Specter summoned by Praetor:
- Never have an Orokin Reactor installed. Any randomly-generated mod builds must thus fit the normal
warframe mod capacity.
- Will follow Praetor around by default, unless he sets a waypoint, in which the Specters will run to that waypoint instead. You can waypoint an ally to have the Specters cover that ally instead.
- In combat, use the same AI they use when they fight Tenno attacking the Dark Sectors.

Ability 1 : Fast Recruit
Power Cost : 35
"Praetor quickly creates a weak Specter to aid him in combat."

Skill #1: Throw a newbie at them!

Praetor creates a randomly generated Tenno Specter with stats and level scaling to match half of Alexandre's current level that lasts for 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds before phasing out. The frame in question will automatically have randomly generated mods attached to itself and the weapons it spawns with, with a maximum of 2 ability mods being able to attached to the generated Specter.

Only the original 8 Tenno can be generated with this move - these Tenno are :
Volt
Frost
Rhino
Excalibur
Trinity
Loki
Ember

Possible Generated Weapons:
Primary : Braton, Burston, Latron, Strun
Secondary : Lato, Aklato, Lex
Melee : Skana, Scindo, Dual Skana

Fast Recruit's duration can be increased by Power Duration mods. Only 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 Fast Recruit(s) can exist on the battlefield at a time.

Essentially, a grunt move that shows what Praetors all about - strengthening the battlefield with more reinforcements.

Ability 2 : Reinforce
Power Cost : 50
"Praetor uses his Specter powers to quickly enhance allies nearby, increasing the effectiveness of drops picked up by the squad."

Praetor emits a radial wave of energy 10 / 15 / 17 / 20 meters wide. Any allies buffed by this ability will have Health/Energy/Ammo pickups become 1.2x/ 1.5x / 1.7x / 2.0x effective, and have a 25% higher chance to find more health/energy/ammo drops from enemies for 7 / 10 / 12 / 15 seconds. This ability will also buff any Specters Praetor has spawned.

Reinforce's duration and length are affected by Power Duration and Range mods.

The smart tactician doesn't rely on brute force alone, and Praetor acknowledges that with this move. It's a great way to get more healing/energy/ammo on the battlefield quickly, especially if the squad is lacking in certain powerful mods like Energy Siphons and Ammo Mutations that would normally do the job for them.

 

Ability 3 : Elite Assault
Power Cost : 75
"Focusing his powers of command, Praetor creates an elite Tenno Specter with offensive-focused capabilities."

Praetor creates a randomly generated Tenno Specter with stats and level scaling to match Praetor's current level that last for 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds before phasing out. The frame in question will automatically have randomly generated mods attached to itself and the weapons it spawns with, with a maximum of 3-4 ability mods being able to attached to the generated Spectre and a minimum of 1 guaranteed ability mod being installed.

Specters generated by Elite Assault focus on heavily offensive attacks at close range - they tend to spawn with high damage close range weapons like shotguns and will use a lot of melee attacks in combination with offensive damage dealing/buff skills.

The Warframes can spawn for Elite Assault are :
Ash
Ember
Excalibur
Frost
Hyrdroid
Oberon
Rhino
Saryn
Valkyr
Volt
Zephyr

Elite Assault's duration can be increased by Power Duration mods.

Ability 4 : Orbital Drop
Power Cost : 150
"Praetor summons a squad of Specter shock troopers that obliterate anything in the immediate vicinity. The immense power required to maintain this ability causes it to overwrite any other Specter that had been previously summoned by Praetor."

Praetor creates 2 / 2 / 3 / 4 Specters that are armed with randomly generated mod builds that scale to his current level that last for 12 / 17 / 20 / 23 seconds before phasing out, with a 7 second cooldown after the timer ends. Any non-Prime Warframe except for Praetor can be generated through this ability.

Unlike Elite Strike, Orbital Drop is not limited by the Praetor's user's Mastery Rank. (the exclusive weapon part still carries over, though.) However, Orbital Drop will immediately remove any Specters you had summoned through Elite Assault, and Elite Assault cannot be cast while this ability lasts.

Orbital Drop's duration can be increased by power Duration mods. The cooldown time cannot be reduced.

Strength in numbers personified - Praetor essentially doubles the size of the squad, but at the cost a huge amount of energy and and shortened timer compared to the more precise Elite Strike and Fast Recruit. The cooldown timer is there to discourage spamming of this ability; with the large energy cost and the disabling of two of your other key moves, this is intended to be more of a "desperation" move that you only use when you really need a lot of extra strength hammered in.

Alternate Equipment :

Leonis Helmet : "Designed after a warrior that predates the Orokin era by countless millenia, the Leonis helmet inspires courage to other Tenno on the battlefield."
Replaces Praetor's default helmet with a helmet similar to that of a Spartan (see image).

Phalanx Syandana : "The solid cape-like drape of this unique Syandana represents Praetor's unwavering faith in the power of military superiority."
Gives Alexandre a long, draping cloak like syandana similar to the one shown in the image below.

================================
Changelog:

-V2 General:

- Name changed from Alexandre to Praetor.

- Spectres -> Specters to be consistent with DE.

Orbital Drop :
-No longer removes Fast Recruit Tenno Spectres.

Elite Assault:

- Replaced Elite Strike, seen below :

 

Ability 3 : Elite Strike
Power Cost : 75
"Focusing his powers of command, Praetor creates an elite Tenno Spectre with a stronger arsenal.."

Alexandre creates a randomly generated Tenno Spectre with stats and level scaling to match Praetor's current level that last for 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds before phasing out. The frame in question will automatically have randomly generated mods attached to itself and the weapons it spawns with, with a maximum of 3-4 ability mods being able to attached to the generated Spectre and a minimum of 1 guaranteed ability mod being installed.

Elite Strike's Warframe pool will draw from the original 8 listed in Fast Recruit + any Warframes you currently own (For example, if I have a Saryn, Praetor has a chance to summon a Saryn spectre in addition to the frames already listed). Only 1 Elite Striker can exist on the battlefield at a time. (The reason I didn't raise the cap to 2 as you rank up the mod is because of how potentially powerful this could be.)

The weapons available to Spectre are determined by the Praetor's user current mastery rank - for example, if the Alexandre user is only Mastery Rank 5, you can't generate a Tenno Spectre using a Soma. Basically, if the Alexandre user can build/use it, it's fair game for Elite Striker's weapon pool. (The Stalker Weapons/Brakk/Detron, Prime Weapons, or Event Exclusives will only be added to the weapon pool if Alexandre's user possesses them.)

Elite Striker's duration can be increased by Power Duration mods.

An "Elite Trooper" type unit, one that offers much more customization than Praetor's first summoning ability since it also takes into consideration what point in the game the user is currently at and what frames they possess.

================================
Alternate Abilities : These abilities are alternatives to Praetor's existing abilities. They can be implemented as separate mods if desired.

Ability 3b : Elite Guard
Power Cost : 75
"Focusing his powers of command, Praetor creates an elite Tenno Specter with support-focused capabilities."

Praetor creates a randomly generated Tenno Specter with stats and level scaling to match Praetor's current level that last for 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 seconds before phasing out. The frame in question will automatically have randomly generated mods attached to itself and the weapons it spawns with, with a maximum of 3-4 ability mods being able to attached to the generated Spectre and a minimum of 1 guaranteed ability mod being installed.

Specters generated by Elite Guard focus on defensive skills like healing, buffing, and disruptuon and prefer long range attacks - they tend to spawn with weapons that encourage them to stay back like bows, sniper rifles, or the Ogris, and resort to melee/close combat if they must defend a fellow squadmate.

The Warframes can spawn for Elite Guard are :
Banshee
Loki
Nekros
Mag
Nova
Nyx
Trinity
Vauban

Elite Guard's duration can be increased by Power Duration mods.

=================================
Hope you enjoyed this Warframe concept from me, and I'd love to hear feedback!

 

In addition, if anyone would be willing to do art for this frame, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Edited April 16, 2014 by ZephyrPhantom

[Old-Blue]

I don't know man. Seems kinda hokey to me.

[Toddwjp]

while i would love the idea of greek roman inspired warframe ascetically with abiltys based on being a tactician and skilled fighter this seems to be too detailed and lacking in areas for an initial concept. i think you should start with the theme and key traits and discuss them before anything about war frame lore etc.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Toddwjp

[ZephyrPhantom]

while i would love the idea of greek roman inspired warframe ascetically with abiltys based on being a tactician and skilled melee fighter this seems to be too detailed and lacking in areas for an initial concept. i think you should start with the theme and key traits and discuss them before anything about war frame lore etc.

I'm not sure what you mean, but I'll try my best to provide an explanation for line of thought :

 

I had been trying to think of how I could design a good 'soldier'-type Warframe, something that wouldn't end up being the typical "CallofDutyframe" and decided to look to different themes, and eventually settled on making a more tactician/commander-type Warframe.  I wasn't sure how to implement the 'tactics' part of it as first, until I hit upon the realization that we now create artificial Tenno Spectres to defend Solar Rails - if we can use them to combat other Tenno, why not use them to combat the other factions in the game? The rest came together from there, with the idea being Alexandre is the leader commanding his 'squad' of Spectres.

 

Mechanically, this would be a great way to give the Tenno Spectre AI use beyond the Solar Rails - from what I've seen, the AI is very good at adapting to various situations in combat and I think a summoner-type frame would be a great way to put this AI to work in the rest of the game, allowing DE to test more intelligent AI controlled units which could then be a stepping stone to more intelligent enemies.

Edited April 16, 2014 by ZephyrPhantom

[Llyssa]

MM. Skill #1: Throw a newbie at them!

 

Seems pretty nice and well-balanced.

 

Two things:

1: The number one should be allowed to stack with the ult. That allows reinforcements of up to 6 tenno(4 power troops and 2 newbies), and compensates for the fact that he can't actually do much else.

2: The number three should be changed up for variety. Keeping with the theme, but being somewhat different: Have it target an enemy, and summon a tenno(similar to described) that starts off with a heavy channeled melee combo to the target, and continues to either channel melee or spam skills from the frame, as applicable(spams skills until it reaches melee range, then uses melee). Should come with only attack/damage skills(ideally, just #1's), and be limited to frames that have them(no vauban or trinity). Rather than a set duration, it should have a set energy--when the energy is consumed, it vanishes. Should have a chance to drop a health orb based on the kill count it achieves while it lives. This way, Alexandre actually has a variety of moves, rather than just 3 different versions of the same skill.

[ZephyrPhantom]

MM. Skill #1: Throw a newbie at them!

 

Seems pretty nice and well-balanced.

 

Two things:

1: The number one should be allowed to stack with the ult. That allows reinforcements of up to 6 tenno(4 power troops and 2 newbies), and compensates for the fact that he can't actually do much else.

2: The number three should be changed up for variety. Keeping with the theme, but being somewhat different: Have it target an enemy, and summon a tenno(similar to described) that starts off with a heavy channeled melee combo to the target, and continues to either channel melee or spam skills from the frame, as applicable(spams skills until it reaches melee range, then uses melee). Should come with only attack/damage skills(ideally, just #1's), and be limited to frames that have them(no vauban or trinity). Rather than a set duration, it should have a set energy--when the energy is consumed, it vanishes. Should have a chance to drop a health orb based on the kill count it achieves while it lives. This way, Alexandre actually has a variety of moves, rather than just 3 different versions of the same skill.

Haha, that's the perfect way to sum up his #1 in a nutshell! XD

 

Upon further consideration, I agree that Fast Recruit would be fine going alongside Orbital Drop, as the amount of power added is small enough to not change that much.

 

The reworked you proposed for Elite Strike is really cool and it does indeed go a long way towards solving my issue of how to diversity Alexandre's summoning abilities, so thanks for the suggestion! My only issue with it is that it reduces Alexandre's ability to summon support frames (like Trinity as you mentioned) that might also be helpful to the group, but I'll think about it and see how I can make that work out. (The lack of support would be counteracted by his #2 being a support ability of its own, but I'm not sure if i want to limit him to that degree. Possibly considering a 5th ability mod that summons Support frames while the default Elite Strike summons Offensive melee Warframes.)

Edited April 16, 2014 by ZephyrPhantom

[Llyssa]

-snip-

One point: You're underestimating yourself here. There's a 1 in 8 chance that you get a trinity on the #1 skill, and all 8 frames listed sport at least 1 support skill. So, while they'd clearly have issues on usefulness(low rank, small builds, mediocre weapons), they'd still be able to randomly boost the team most of the time, and quite cheaply too.

[EdBazokatone]

I like the idea of a summoner warframe and, being Nekros the only one that can summon things, we could definitely see another one.

 

I like the skills but he must have either a CC or a team buff, something guaranteed to help his team, that doesn't rely on RNG based supportive summons. So maybe his 3 could change to that, making their skills less redundant.

 

Finally... PLEASE, do not name him Alexandre for christ's sake, I wouldn't play with a dude called that.

[ZephyrPhantom]

One point: You're underestimating yourself here. There's a 1 in 8 chance that you get a trinity on the #1 skill, and all 8 frames listed sport at least 1 support skill. So, while they'd clearly have issues on usefulness(low rank, small builds, mediocre weapons), they'd still be able to randomly boost the team most of the time, and quite cheaply too.

 

Noted, thank you for the explanation. I'll most likely implement Elite Assault (the rework version of Elite Strike in the OP) and keep the more defensive oriented Elite Guard (an alternate ability) archived as a possible alternate mod that could given to him.

 

 

I like the idea of a summoner warframe and, being Nekros the only one that can summon things, we could definitely see another one.

 

I like the skills but he must have either a CC or a team buff, something guaranteed to help his team, that doesn't rely on RNG based supportive summons. So maybe his 3 could change to that, making their skills less redundant.

 

Finally... PLEASE, do not name him Alexandre for christ's sake, I wouldn't play with a dude called that.

Hm.... what about the #2 skill? I know that is a team buff, but does he really need more or could his 2 change to something stronger instead? (As far as I'm aware most frames only have one major 'buff' skill of that kind except for Trinity.)

 

And yeah, I know Alexandre is a horrible name, but I'm blanking out on what other names I can use. Trying to think of a better one as a I type. >.<

 

EDIT : Changed name to Praetor, the term for an Ancient Roman military commander I think that should be little better. :)

 

Also, replaced Elite Strike with Elite Assault, the offensive-oriented rework of his ability. I am strongly considering a rework of Reinforce, as well.

 

Changed name Spectre -> Specter, seeing as DE has finally fixed the codex with that spelling.

Edited April 16, 2014 by ZephyrPhantom

[Llyssa]

How is Alexandre a bad name? First thing that came to mind was Alexandre the Great, who 100% fits the theme and suggested styling. Also, why are you taking naming advice from a guy named "edbazokatone"? o.0

[EdBazokatone]

 

Hm.... what about the #2 skill? I know that is a team buff, but does he really need more or could his 2 change to something stronger instead? (As far as I'm aware most frames only have one major 'buff' skill of that kind except for Trinity.)

 

Oh sry about that one, I thought it would buff only his summons, my bad =)

 

How is Alexandre a bad name? First thing that came to mind was Alexandre the Great, who 100% fits the theme and suggested styling. Also, why are you taking naming advice from a guy named "edbazokatone"? o.0

 

It was the first thing that came to everyone's mind, don't worry we all got the historical reference... Still is a person's name, not a fantasy character's name. In a fantasy world... Would you name your character Richard, or would you name it Lionheart?

 

And my nickname has nothing to do with it, it's just a player's nickname. I wouldn't play with a character named EdBazokatone either, because again, would be out of context.

[ZephyrPhantom]

How is Alexandre a bad name? First thing that came to mind was Alexandre the Great, who 100% fits the theme and suggested styling. Also, why are you taking naming advice from a guy named "edbazokatone"? o.0

 

It was the first thing that came to everyone's mind, don't worry we all got the historical reference... Still is a person's name, not a fantasy character's name. In a fantasy world... Would you name your character Richard, or would you name it Lionheart?

 

And my nickname has nothing to do with it, it's just a player's nickname. I wouldn't play with a character named EdBazokatone either, because again, would be out of context.

 

Basically what I was thinking in regards to the name, yeah - it's sort of like Hydroid, which gives me that feel of "cool name, I see how it fits, but there could've been one more fitting" - like, for example, if you called Zephyr "Hawk" instead - it fits, but it's not ideal.

 

If more people really like Alexandre, though, I'm ok with changing it back. :)

[The_Sharp_Demonologist]

I LUV IT! dont really know what else to sya other tan i agree that there should be a Summoner warframe to put those Smart Tenno SPecter to good use.

Maybe get some of that AI to Stalker, he really needs it :/

[ZephyrPhantom]

I LUV IT! dont really know what else to sya other tan i agree that there should be a Summoner warframe to put those Smart Tenno SPecter to good use.

Maybe get some of that AI to Stalker, he really needs it :/

Thanks for the support! I know Stalker already does Melee 2.0, so he's getting there. XD

[Llyssa]

 

 

 

Oh sry about that one, I thought it would buff only his summons, my bad =)

 

 

It was the first thing that came to everyone's mind, don't worry we all got the historical reference... Still is a person's name, not a fantasy character's name. In a fantasy world... Would you name your character Richard, or would you name it Lionheart?

 

And my nickname has nothing to do with it, it's just a player's nickname. I wouldn't play with a character named EdBazokatone either, because again, would be out of context.

 

Richard.

 

And while we're at it, Alexandre.

Ofc, if you like Lionhart as a name, go for it.