Nekros: Beating On An Undead Horse

[Ishteen]

Archwizard has made a number of well-articulated (and very controversial) posts on Nekros, and in the spirit of pulping dead horses into glue, I've decided to play off his ideas a bit and introduce my idea of the frame.

 

Before I really go into that first, though, I want to try and meet both audiences halfway: those who like how Nekros performs now, and those who want to see some sort of change. To my understanding, many of those who would prefer to see the frame remain intact feel as such because of two reasons:

• Desecrate. Good arguments have been made against Desecrate; however, seeing as Warframe relies on RNG as a means of retaining players, vehement supporters of the ability will always exist. It makes farming easier, it makes the grind easier, and no one can deny its usefulness in survival missions. The rerolling mechanic of Desecrate, then, will have to carry over to any future iteration of the frame.
   
• Minion master? No thanks. Play styles are generally up to personal taste, but in an action-oriented game like Warframe, running around as a dedicated summoner isn't quite as appealing as it might be in other, slower-paced games. Emphasis is typically made on what the warframe and its loadout can do, not necessarily on what its summoned entities can do. The player should always feel useful as opposed to just sitting back and watching his magic army destroy everything for him.

On the opposing side, we have the following:

• The skill set. Archwizard has made far more thorough arguments in his other posts, so I'll just recap here: Soul Punch is rather lacking and a poor form of CC (especially since it only really affects one target and damage drops off at higher levels, as with all skills); Terrify suffers from "Power in Use" and makes stuff run about willy-nilly; Desecrate is not particularly interactive and relies far too heavily on RNG; and Shadows of the Dead shares the same occasionally dubious AI as your average Grineer peanut gallery. All told, Nekros has three rather mediocre forms of CC when a single good one will do. Only Desecrate stands apart from the rest, and more or less makes the frame when it should really be the other way around.
   
• Long process, low payout. Though Nekros certainly looks badass, many feel that his mediocre stats and the rather lengthy (if not expensive!) process of obtaining him doesn't quite make up for his skills. To this, there are two solutions: Beef him up in the numbers department and/or lower his component costs, or revamp his abilities to deserve those three Orokin Cells and 100K blueprint.

These are the arguments, again to my understanding. (I may, of course, stand to be corrected.) Now - how do I propose to rework Nekros? Well, let's start from the bottom up...

• Necrosis. Archwizard's suggested replacement for Soul Punch is pretty solid, and I don't have much else to add to it. I would, however, like to see the "Power in Use" feature not apply to this skill. In the ever-changing field of battle (cue dramatic drumroll), the player should always have the ability to use Necrosis on another enemy at the cost of killing off the current resurrected unit. This ensures that s/he is not stuck with a measly Grineer Lancer for the entirety of the skill's duration when there are higher-priority targets around, and gives the player agency to use Necrosis as s/he sees fit - placing power back into the player's hands, so to speak.
   

• Terror. Instead of making enemies run off in feigned panic, I feel an accuracy debuff - alongside the current armor reduction - would be appropriate. Terrified opponents will also pull more aggro from Nekros' summoned units, allowing the player to either stick around his nanobot posse or zip off and murder some other people on the opposite side of the room. (Alternatively, if you don't have summons out...pack an Ogris, cast Terror, and go to town.) Lastly, Terror would have a chance to cause enemies to drop additional loot upon death - essentially Desecrate, but without the corpses.
   

• Desecrate. Much like Archwizard's "Soul Feast", but (and this could be just me, granted) "Desecrate" is far less tacky of a name. Nekros will drain and disintegrate corpses within the ability's radius before releasing the combined energy as healing bolts that will quickly track down allied units, including yourself and your summons. Visually it'll look similar to the energy wisp effects found in Torchlight, or maybe the Mako streams of FF7. Desecrated enemies will also be added to Nekros' summon pool for his ultimate, Shadows of the Dead.
   

• Shadows of the Dead. And speaking of the devil - the primary issue with this skill is AI. Usually your shadows won't do a whole lot of damage if they're ducking behind chest-high walls and such. Making these summoned units more aggressive would likely help in addressing that (and making them ethereal to friendlies and their weapon projectiles wouldn't hurt either). I'm personally against having their kills be added to Nekros' summon pool - since you can't directly control your own goons, if they go about murdering a bunch of trash mobs that might bump your cache of Napalms and Heavy Gunners out of rotation. Rather, summon selection should be left entirely to the player's discretion, be it through kills, Necrosis, or Desecrate.

...And that's a wrap. Comments, concerns, constructive criticisms and balance passes? I've got my Flame Repellent on.

 

Edited May 18, 2014 by Ishteen

[(PSN)BeastRex]

Necrosis sounds pretty nice.

Terror would be hella better with that.

Shadows of the Dead could really use that because the shadows can be idiots just like when they were alive.

If Desecrate was like that it would be lovely.

[Xhos]

Yes thank you.

[Ishteen]

A shameless bump for more people to add to the discussion and perhaps bring this to the attention of DE.

[(PSN)CryoPariah]

I feel like Nekros' 'Desecrate' ability is what the 'Spare Parts' mod for Sentinels should do.

[Archwizard]

 

• Necrosis. Archwizard's suggested replacement for Soul Punch is pretty solid, and I don't have much else to add to it. I would, however, like to see the "Power in Use" feature not apply to this skill. In the ever-changing field of battle (cue dramatic drumroll), the player should always have the ability to use Necrosis on another enemy at the cost of killing off the current resurrected unit. This ensures that s/he is not stuck with a measly Grineer Lancer for the entirety of the skill's duration when there are higher-priority targets around, and gives the player agency to use Necrosis as s/he sees fit - placing power back into the player's hands, so to speak.

 

I should point out that when I wrote Necrosis, the idea was that it would have no limit, and the Power In Use would not apply to resurrected units.

 

Two effects, basically.

One is a Viral DoT that has Power In Use attached to it, and indicates that the target is going to become a zombie the instant they die (if it's still up).

The other is the zombification, which clears Power In Use and allows you to cast the DoT again without any effect on the minions already raised. An unlimited number of deteriorating zombies, basically.

 

The version you have up makes it sound more like you have one permanently MC'd pet, which was the major distinction I was trying to make between it and Mind Control.

 

And I thought Soul Feast was cool...

Edited May 19, 2014 by Archwizard

[Dalu__Ka]

My input:

SotD should have unlimited duration, perhaps even with the infamous toggle, and the summoned should follow you like the specters do.

[Charismo]

My input:

SotD should have unlimited duration, perhaps even with the infamous toggle, and the summoned should follow you like the specters do.

 

I'm really surprised they've not made Shadows follow you yet, especially considering that friendly unit in invasion missions now do.

[Ishteen]

My input:

SotD should have unlimited duration, perhaps even with the infamous toggle, and the summoned should follow you like the specters do.

 

The duration and toggle suggestion is interesting, but I'm not too sure what I think of that for the moment. Summons following you, however, is something that should be managed somewhat carefully - one of the (less) vocal complaints about revamping Nekros is turning him into a minion master. My assumption is that players still want to be able to murder things without their goons around to do all the heavy lifting for them - or at the very least, that they don't clutter up the screen. Having shadows track you around as a tight group seems a little too "death ball" to me, but perhaps a looser tether of sorts - that they do follow you, but don't stick around quite as closely and are somewhat spread apart - seems a bit more in line, I think.

 

I should point out that when I wrote Necrosis, the idea was that it would have no limit, and the Power In Use would not apply to resurrected units.

 

Two effects, basically.

One is a Viral DoT that has Power In Use attached to it, and indicates that the target is going to become a zombie the instant they die (if it's still up).

The other is the zombification, which clears Power In Use and allows you to cast the DoT again without any effect on the minions already raised. An unlimited number of deteriorating zombies, basically.

 

The version you have up makes it sound more like you have one permanently MC'd pet, which was the major distinction I was trying to make between it and Mind Control.

 

And I thought Soul Feast was cool...

 

Interesting, I thought Necrosis had "Power in Use" active the whole time - not just for the DoT half of it. Still, this seems to overlap with SotD a little too much - yes, you do indeed need to cast it more often, but it still allows you to flood the map with (granted fragiler) summons. Your point about Mind Control is an excellent one, though.

[Ishteen]

Bump!

 

Now that Oberon's spent his time in the limelight, I figure propping up some Nekros-related threads wouldn't hurt - especially if DE is making the rounds.

[VoidWraith]

Just have a like/upvote. Cause there's really nothing I can say/suggest to improve it anymore than what you've said/pointed out.

[Archwizard]

Bump!

 

Now that Oberon's spent his time in the limelight, I figure propping up some Nekros-related threads wouldn't hurt - especially if DE is making the rounds.

 

To be fair, Banshee was in the limelight for months between "I'm retuning her next!" and finally getting patched up a few weeks ago.