Banshee: Tweaks And Some Lovin'

[J-Reyno]

Banshee isn't Miss Popular at Warframe High but I still enjoy playing the frame.... to an extent.  Let's just say that I'm glad she's being looked at for buffs and these are just a few suggestions I've come up with during my time with her.

 

1) Remove Silence.  I honestly feel like the only reason Silence exists is because someone just wanted all of Banshee's powers to start with an "S".  To be frank, I do not see a power like this being appreciably useful in the near or distant future.  It's already incredibly easy to silence weapons to begin with.  Not that you need bother to do so.  In the current stealth missions you can just power through like any normal mission.  Even if stealth were changed in the future to make us actually need to stealth.... Loki still exists, so situational stealth powers on other frames are underwhelming at best. 

 

That said, the effect of silence could/should be merged with Sonar.  So if it ever becomes useful in any capacity it's still there for Banshee to use, but she's not having to sacrifice an ability slot for a personal hush/suppress power.  And she'll be better for it.  It'd also round Sonar out nicely with the ability to track enemies, highlight their weak points, and make it more difficult for them to detect you as you snipe away.

 

2) Give Sonar a countdown on the ability bar.  It's not absolutely necessary but would be a great quality change.  Maybe it's because I'm largely a Nyx player that my eyes tend to wander down to the power bar to check for duration, but all the same, it'd be great.  QOL and all of that.

 

3) Sound Quake.  It'd be nice to be able to cast this at range and have the effect take place at the target's location.  It's not a terrible ability, really.  The CC is nice but it can be a problem that I must CC myself to CC enemies, especially since this is nary a requirement for other warframes with better CC. I'd have less issues with it if she were given another useful power... like the one in my next suggestion....

 

4) New ability to replace Silence: Slapback.  Or Slap Echo.  Or Reverberation.  Basically, Banshee creates a sonic field around a target that will remain around them for a time.  The field blocks all projectiles from the target and, after a delay, redirects those projectiles from within the field back to the target.  So the target takes all of the damage they attempted to dish out while they were effected by this power.

 

For this suggestion, I'd originally thought that she could have a personal field that redirects bullets away from her, but that's pretty much Turbulence.  Then I'd thought that she could create a field around all allies that blocks or redirects projectiles, but that's just Turbulence For Everyone.  So I thought this implementation would be cool.  The delay would be timed and unaffected by power duration, so Banshee can cast the power on multiple targets and effectively neutralize them for a time, while also returning damage.  

 

Alternately, the power could only be cast on a single target at a time, but the damage would  reflect not only to that target, but to enemies within, say a 20m radius at the end of the delay.  It could also have an amplification effect, increasing the damage by 100% or so?  And rather than a delayed blast, perhaps the power might amplify all damage from within the field and distribute it to nearby enemies for the entire duration, rather than one single blow after a delay, since an immediate effect could be more useful in the heat of battle.

 

Either way It'd be a wonderfully scaling utility and more than a fantastic replacement for Silence.

 

So yeah.  That's about it for my suggestions, just a few things I thought could give Banshee more oomph.  Comments always welcome.  Give Banshee some lovin'.

Edited May 6, 2014 by LazarusDark

[locojuan]

that is actually very good!

[HAYABU5A]

i like the removal of silence or even better merged with sonar, that would really suit her as the ranged weapon sniper support assassin frame

your right sonar would definitely benefit from a counter, its important for its tactical use 

 

sound quake not being locked to the player would also be a huge improvement, like you say CCing the enemy at the cost of CCing yourself is not good

[Psycomet]

I don't think they will remove silence. I've tried silence in the rescue missions... it makes you completely invisible unless you start shooting again. Then everyone knows you're there. Invis does a way better job at this. A shield power in its place would be good, but it has to do something with sound.

 

Sound Quake... I agree. For other frames, I can press 3/4 and start reviving a downed teammate. But soundquake I have to count on someone else to revive while I do some CC. Hopefully Banshee will be at the top of the list in the upcoming frame changes.

[J-Reyno]

I don't think they will remove silence. I've tried silence in the rescue missions... it makes you completely invisible unless you start shooting again. Then everyone knows you're there. Invis does a way better job at this. A shield power in its place would be good, but it has to do something with sound.

See, I wasn't really sure how exactly Silence worked.  I tried it during one mission and it seemed to do absolutely nothing.  If it does what you say then that would make sense because I was trying to kill stuff.  I don't know.  Blah.

[HAYABU5A]

See, I wasn't really sure how exactly Silence worked.  I tried it during one mission and it seemed to do absolutely nothing.  If it does what you say then that would make sense because I was trying to kill stuff.  I don't know.  Blah.

i also tried silence during the stealth rescue missions and for me it doesnt work, i could just do the same thing without using silence

yes it did have an effect but it was so useless its just not reliable for any serious stealth work

 

if it gave silence modifiers to all your teammates for a duration, just like the silencer mods, then that might work.. maybe