Volt: What Exactly Is Wrong With Him?

[APBladeX]

Well, there are a couple of reasons to complain about Volt, not that I agree with every one of these:

 

 

• He's slow-ish. While he does have a mobility skill, many people do not like having to rely on an ability to have a proper moving speed (Volt is meant to be a caster and casters are typically faster). I'm not sure where I stand on this issue personally.

   

   

• He was weak before damage 2.0 (Update 11 I think?) and some people keep complaining out of habit. Now, his damage is outstanding against groups due to the proc of the electric element. I guess you could make a point that he is sub-par against smaller groups or individual targets, but that's a pretty good trade off if you ask me (more damage against groups than against individuals). 

   

   

• Most people don't like Electric Shield. Cover isn't all that important most everywhere, and the gimmick with Synapse and Ignis (I think?) doesn't justify the skill for some people. I don't care about Electric Shield. 

   

   

• People feel he isn't a good caster. His 2 bolsters his melee abilities, and melee'ing isn't typically a caster's job. On the other hand, his 3 fosters to gunplay. That contradiction also gave birth to some criticisms about Volt's kit as whole having no synergy.

 

 

 

These are the reasons I can think off of my head. I don't personally care about Volt, he's good enough tho I think his kit lacks synergy, but that hardly matter for me since I'm the kind of person who removes ability polarities. 

His codex entry and market description states that Volt is for players that want an alternative to gunplay. Contradiction over 9000 with the Electric Shield.

[Edgedemon]

most people complain because they take him for a caster due to 2 of his skills being direct damage, but hes more of a balanced frame.

 

only problem i have with him is he does have caster armor, it not  a big deal anyway for medium frames (excalibur/ash/loki) armor wont do much to stop damage either.

[Dalu__Ka]

Opaques shields were already fixed before the hotfix 13.2.4. The current hotfix just made them even more clear. ATM only a quite small portion at the center of the shield is blurry with the brighter colors. Unless aiming while crouching, I doubt that it will cause so much problems.

Yes I know, I just thought it was a funny bug :)

[LascarCapable]

Yes I know, I just thought it was a funny bug :)

 

I though that too at first.

 

...Then I realized that I couldn't see S#&$.

 

And then I screamed... And everything went black. D8

[NoeleVeerod]

Volt is currently my most used Warframe with a 38% score. He feels somewhat lackluster sometimes, but I agree that he needs a lot of time to be used efficiently.

He isn't too easy to use, and his skills might feel just useless in certain situations. But a good user will make it shine anyways, and I can tell that because I spent a lot of time with that Warframe, and it's definitely one I use with no problem now. Anyone being a skilled Volt user will tell you that you can get awesome results.

[RealPandemonium]

His codex entry and market description states that Volt is for players that want an alternative to gunplay. Contradiction over 9000 with the Electric Shield.

That was never accurate.  Most of the codex descriptions of warframes are inaccurate.  

[fatpig84]

That was never accurate.  Most of the codex descriptions of warframes are inaccurate.  

But Loki was correct. :3

[RealPandemonium]

But Loki was correct. :3

You could argue that Loki's effective godmode is more of a crutch for inexperienced players than a tool for advanced players :p

[Shanicus]

-Low damage (same as all the caster frames suffer from - see Ember)
-2 Utility Abilities which don't effect his abilities at all, contradicting the 'Alternative to gun' market angle on him
-Average speed, which means you need to either spam Speed or stick a Rush on him to get the best mobility, and spamming speed can drain energy/disorientate vision

-Good in crowds, but his electrical damage is only 'Eh' at best for damaging enemies and his 4 is unreliable unless there are electronics nearby to power off of.

-Despite having high shields and decent HP, his low armour means he takes HEAPS of damage when those shields go down, and unlike other casters he can't reliably stun enemies when surrounded. Modding can bring his Health/Shields up really high, but that also takes up precious modding space.

 

Volt is an Average-at-best Frame - good if you've got experience with him but nothing to write home about if you've built him fresh out the gate, since he operates as a slightly more range-focused Excalibur in practice. His abilities are alright if all over the place and really rely on either a) having good weapons or b) facing groups of enemies, with spread out enemies or Multiple Heavy Targets being problematic for his ability set.

I think a lot of complaints about Volt also come from earlier - a few patches ago he really sucked, with Electric Shield being his only good ability - Shock had low damage and inconsistent chaining and Overload was essentially a 'I'll stand still for 10 seconds, not damaging any enemies!'. With the tag-line of 'Spell caster for those sick of guns', the fact that his 'spells' sucked really didn't help his public image. As said right now he's an Average Frame, on par with suits like Excalibur, Banshee and Ember.

[RealPandemonium]

-Low damage (same as all the caster frames suffer from - see Ember)

-2 Utility Abilities which don't effect his abilities at all, contradicting the 'Alternative to gun' market angle on him

-Average speed, which means you need to either spam Speed or stick a Rush on him to get the best mobility, and spamming speed can drain energy/disorientate vision

-Good in crowds, but his electrical damage is only 'Eh' at best for damaging enemies and his 4 is unreliable unless there are electronics nearby to power off of.

-Despite having high shields and decent HP, his low armour means he takes HEAPS of damage when those shields go down, and unlike other casters he can't reliably stun enemies when surrounded. Modding can bring his Health/Shields up really high, but that also takes up precious modding space.

-Ember's damage is strong enough to use in T3 Survivals, not sure what you're on about.

-Codex descriptions are seldom accurate

-Coptering is the best mobility and speed is spammable anyway

-Electricity damage is only poor against Grineer and has a useful proc, his 4 is still not that bad for damage and has a crazy useful stun

-His stuns on 4 are reliable and his effective HP pool (with Guardian taken into account) is significantly higher than Excalibur's.  Armor amounts below 150 don't amount to much.  See this post: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/228944-vitality-vs-steel-fiber/?p=2657258

[Cwierz]

He is a rather good frame exempting the fact that electric shield and speed clash with each other.

Its just that power creep hasn't been to kind to many warframes. 

[RealPandemonium]

He is a rather good frame exempting the fact that electric shield and speed clash with each other.

Its just that power creep hasn't been to kind to many warframes. 

Just because you can't use both at once doesn't mean they clash with each other. 

[Cwierz]

Just because you can't use both at once doesn't mean they clash with each other. 

One encourages gunplay and remaining stationary in a defensive position.

The other encourages offensive, mobile, melee combat.

Yes sir, please tell me how these don't clash in the slightest, when you can't mod for both.

Please, I would like to hear this.

Actually never mind.

Don't bother, you will be wrong.

[HansJurgen]

I recently started using Volt more than any other frame because his speed ability makes melee more effective and, well, I REALLY don't want to use Valkyr. Anyway, I often see people saying that volt needs to be buffed but they are never specific about what kind of buff he needs. And during my time using and forma-ing him I haven't found anything wrong with him. He's a good damage dealer and his speed ability benefits the entire team. He even has high sheilds, above 1000 if you mod him right. 

 

So what exactly are people complaining about? I just cant tell what it is about him that people consider to be lacking or insufficient. 

 

 

Don't worry. Once some of the better frames are nerfed, people will turn their attention to frames like Volt, Mag or Hidroid to ask for nerfs.

[HansJurgen]

-Ember's damage is strong enough to use in T3 Survivals, not sure what you're on about.

-Codex descriptions are seldom accurate

-Coptering is the best mobility and speed is spammable anyway

-Electricity damage is only poor against Grineer and has a useful proc, his 4 is still not that bad for damage and has a crazy useful stun

-His stuns on 4 are reliable and his effective HP pool (with Guardian taken into account) is significantly higher than Excalibur's.  Armor amounts below 150 don't amount to much.  See this post: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/228944-vitality-vs-steel-fiber/?p=2657258

 

This is factually incorrect. Electricity is poor vs everything but moas (once their shields are down). Stun (which is buggy and can be resisted, and has a short duration) and chain damage is what it has going for it.

 

Overload is great on low level missions. Vs high level stuff, it is worthless.

[RealPandemonium]

One encourages gunplay and remaining stationary in a defensive position.

The other encourages offensive, mobile, melee combat.

Yes sir, please tell me how these don't clash in the slightest, when you can't mod for both.

Please, I would like to hear this.

Actually never mind.

Don't bother, you will be wrong.

The two have two overlapping properties (effciciency and duration) and Volt can use Speed to quickly reposition and erect a new shield or erect shields to defend numerous points at once.  The defensive benefits of the two abilities can effectively be combined to make Volt less reliant on mods that increase his defensive stats. 

 

This is factually incorrect. Electricity is poor vs everything but moas (once their shields are down). Stun (which is buggy and can be resisted, and has a short duration) and chain damage is what it has going for it.

 

Overload is great on low level missions. Vs high level stuff, it is worthless.

Electricity is ony poor vs armor and especially vs Alloy armor.  It deals full damage to everything else and a little extra to robotics.  Overload's damage is serviceable vs non-Grineer through the 30s and the stun it provides gives you ample time to spray your gun or melee into the crowd to kill the heavier units that might survive the damage. 

[Moderius]

He doesn't really scale very well later on, and his damage type isn't particularly effective against the more dangerous enemies, especially at higher levels. He can hand out stuns, but that's really the limit of it.

 

He's good for regular missions and farming, because he's very efficient and can unload a lot of damage against grouped enemies. I find him fun.

 

I mean, for high-tier content, you're really reduced to just firing through the shield. Which isn't super exciting.

[Moderius]

His codex entry and market description states that Volt is for players that want an alternative to gunplay. Contradiction over 9000 with the Electric Shield.

 

The real problem is his small energy pool. Loki gets more energy.

[HansJurgen]

The two have two overlapping properties (effciciency and duration) and Volt can use Speed to quickly reposition and erect a new shield or erect shields to defend numerous points at once. The defensive benefits of the two abilities can effectively be combined to make Volt less reliant on mods that increase his defensive stats.

Electricity is ony poor vs armor and especially vs Alloy armor. It deals full damage to everything else and a little extra to robotics. Overload's damage is serviceable vs non-Grineer through the 30s and the stun it provides gives you ample time to spray your gun or melee into the crowd to kill the heavier units that might survive the damage.

You are misinterpreting my post.

Dealing flat damage across the board in a game that thrives on maxing everything to godlike levels is not going to cut it. This becomes evident around 20-30 mark survival/defense waves when Volt begins to lag behind other frames.

There are much better elemental damage options available against each faction which come with up to 75% bonus. That's Volt's problem. He is plain average, and there are much better options out there.

On the other hand, mobs and warframes alike badly need rebalance against each other to keep things challenging and interesting (not too hard, and not too easy).

Edited May 12, 2014 by HansJurgen

[RealPandemonium]

You are misinterpreting my post.

Dealing flat damage across the board in a game that thrives on maxing everything to godlike levels is not going to cut it. This becomes evident around 20-30 mark survival/defense waves when Volt begins to lag behind other frames.

There are much better elemental damage options available against each faction which come with up to 75% bonus. That's Volt's problem. He is plain average, and there are much better options out there.

On the other hand, mobs and warframes alike badly need rebalance against each other to keep things challenging and interesting (not too hard, and not too easy).

Infinite content is not the objective of balance.  The overall difficulty curve and the plague of Grineer armor scaling are at issue, not Volt's power level.

[HansJurgen]

Infinite content is not the objective of balance.  The overall difficulty curve and the plague of Grineer armor scaling are at issue, not Volt's power level.

 

 

And what did I say? :)

 

That is exactly what I was criticizing about Warframe's skewed balance.

[Moderius]

And what did I say? :)

 

That is exactly what I was criticizing about Warframe's skewed balance.

 

So why, exactly, are you using it as the basis of your argument?

 

Your argument not being appropriate for the context you put it in doesn't make it a fault of the context itself; in this case, Infinite content. That is a fault of your argument.

 

The only thing skewed in this example is your approach to logic.

[Vargras]

Nothing is really wrong with Volt. Even if he lacks damage in late-game, all of his abilities have utility, meaning he's still a-okay.

 

That's more than can be said for a lot of other frames.

[Moderius]

Nothing is really wrong with Volt. Even if he lacks damage in late-game, all of his abilities have utility, meaning he's still a-okay.

 

That's more than can be said for a lot of other frames.

 

It's still strange that his Energy reserve is so low. Though it may be a balancing point due to his offensive abilities working well with Fleeting Expertise; he's easy to build for efficiency. But his abilities that really benefit the team later on, the speed and the shield, rely on duration, so it's a mixed bag. More base energy wouldn't hurt, at least.

[Axeroix]

His Energy pool is tiny and his Sprint Speed is Disgusting