New Ult For Volt: Static

[LordBarcha]

Greetings, Gentlemen.

Volt has been my favorite warframe to play for quite some time now.  He's on the higher end of durability once you stack a redirection mod on him, and all of his really useful abilities amplify the damage or usability of his weapons, meaning that they retain a great deal of utility into higher level content.

The most important thing about Volt is to remember that he really has two build paths, each one revolving around a different key ability.

Path 1: Speed Man.

Volt's 2 ability scales best off of power strength and duration (with a stretch thrown in to keep its range up).  Because it buffs both movement speed and attack speed, it allows those melee combos to come off blindingly fast.  At the same time, it gives you all kinds of crazy mobility..

Path 2: Sniper Man.

Volt's 3 ability is, in my opinion, the best thing in his kit, and scales more or less exclusively from power duration, so I maximize it.  Electric shield is exceptionally versatile.  Personally, I prefer to either use it with the Lanka to eliminate that atrocious travel time, or with the Synapse to give it infinite range (as well as tacking another 2X on the already obscene crit damage).

Regardless of the build path, his 1 ability is among the more useful 1st abilities, because it acts as a readily spammable stun, on top of a damage ability.

But then we get to his 4 (or, as my league terminology insists, his ult), which is borderline unusable.  It has two major flaws.  First, it immobilizes Volt for the duration (4-5ish seconds).  Although enemies within range will also be locked down for that duration, ones outside will often take this opportunity to eat you alive.

Secondly, its horrifically situational usage makes it a pain to use.  Most of its damage comes from being near lights and such, which give you one pulse of damage each.  However, lights quickly run out in defense missions or the like.

Ultimately, Speed Man can't afford to sit still, and Sniper Man doesn't want to be close enough to ult anyway.

An easy fix would be to simply wipe the cast time from it, or to make it a toggleable aura.  However, none of these would make it particularly remarkable, just another damage ability.  In order to have a really defining ult, it needs to give his other abilities cohesion and synergize with them.

This then, would be my proposal for a complete rework of Volt's ult (understand that I'm really not particularly well versed in exact damage, so these numbers are just suggestions).

1. Volt's ult charges up a damage value based on movement (Think of it as building up static electricity).  Moving faster increases the rate of charge.  (The charge rate is unaffected by power strength).  Eventually, it hits a cap (affected by power strength).

2.  The ult can be fired at any time (even if you don't have it fully charged), but its damage is defined by the movement charge.  It is a directed projectile (unlimited range) that travels until it hits either an enemy, or the terrain.  It then detonates (AoE is affected by power range), creating two distinct, conditional effects.

If Volt is within the AoE, it unloads all of the damage at once.  (100% electric proc)

If Volt is not within the AoE, it discharges the damage over a longer period of time (affected by power duration).  The total damage dealt is unchanged, regardless of duration. (75% electric proc chance per second.)

3. Once the cap of damage is reached, Volt gains an aura that discharges excess damage generation to the nearest available target at 50% efficiency. (50% electric proc chance).

Essentially, this bifurcated ult gives both halves of Volt's specialization paths something to use.  Speed Man generates much more damage just for being Speed Man.  Additionally, those electric procs will help you stay in melee range and keep the damage taken down.

Meanwhile, Sniper Man can drop it from afar, and while it will do much less damage (due to his stationary position), it also locks down targets for the duration, allowing you to line up those headshots that much better.

Most importantly, the total damage scales the same as the specialization.  Power strength makes you move faster, while also increasing the maximum damage available.  Power duration increases the lockdown field's duration, while also giving you more mileage on Electric Shield.

 

[XenosInfinity]

Ooh, I like that. It's like playing Kirby with the Electric hat, only with 200% more static death.

[WarOverlord]

[Axeroix]

I love this Idea especially for me who runs a hit and run Volt using the Strun Wraith to one shot enemies and the Twaithers to Have insane burst DPS if anything remotely scary comes up to me and tries to kill me like bosses ( or the Stalker, Harvester and G3) and then My Dual Ichors because speed plus beserker plus Ichors + 3 stacks = constant swirling Tiger

[Awazx]

+1

[Enethor]

Seems cool.

[Azawarau]

Volt is great as is and situational is an ugly tag to stick to his 4 ._.

[LordBarcha]

Volt is great as is and situational is an ugly tag to stick to his 4 ._.

 

Unfortunately, I hold that it fits all too well.  It requires specific environmental conditions to be effective.  That's practically the definition of situational.  Additionally, pure electric is not really a damage type.  I love Volt, and I play him 90% of the time, but it's very telling when you forma your warframe to have three ability slots instead of four.

[Azawarau]

Unfortunately, I hold that it fits all too well.  It requires specific environmental conditions to be effective.  That's practically the definition of situational.  Additionally, pure electric is not really a damage type.  I love Volt, and I play him 90% of the time, but it's very telling when you forma your warframe to have three ability slots instead of four.

His 4 isnt a damage 4

 

Its a stun 4

[LordBarcha]

His 4 isnt a damage 4

 

Its a stun 4

'

Once again, I hold that it's not well made for that.  It only last for five seconds regardless (doesn't scale with duration), and you are parlyzed while it is active, so it's not like it's a reprieve to reload or whatnot.  And also, there are better choices for stuns if you're looking for a stun (looking at you, Vauban)

Edited June 20, 2014 by LordBarcha

[Azawarau]

'

Once again, I hold that it's not well made for that.  It only last for five seconds regardless (doesn't scale with duration), and you are parlyzed while it is active, so it's not like it's a reprieve to reload or whatnot.  And also, there are better choices for stuns if you're looking for a stun (looking at you, Vauban)

Vauban doesnt come fitted ith shield and 1 spam stun though

 

Volts CC isnt as good but has different utility in its place

 

Itd be like me saying why use volts shield when you can frost shield and penta

[J-Reyno]

Volt is weird in that the only power not worth slotting is his ultimate.  He's still a good frame, but it's definitely a disappointment.

 

I'd get behind any change that makes his ult usable.