Various Warframe Buffs

[APBladeX]

As a player of these warframes, I have experienced firsthand the shortcomings I have found in these warframes. If balance is to become a reality in Warframe, certain things need to be buffed. This is not a nerf thread, do not turn it into one. Simply a buff thread only.

Ember

Ember's Overheat made her the tankiest warframe in the game before the rework, adding Accelerant and Fireblast. Overheat itself was overpowered, buffing Ember's skills, mitigating damage dramatically, and giving her an awesome look. Let's look at how to fix Ember in the state she is in now:

Fireball is basically a miniature World On Fire and a rehash of Frost's Freeze. Perhaps we can modify Fireball to perform similar to Hydroid's Tempest Barrage. Something like a ball of fire that crashes down on an opponent, dealing fire AoE damage and staggering effect for melee follow-ups.

Fireblast, replacing it with Overheat will give her damage mitigation and a cool look/vibe, but must be nerfed before being put back in. Overheat used to be able to make Ember basically immortal. Adding a lower damage mitigation rate and attack speed/firerate would make Overheat a powerful asset to Ember's arsenal without making it overpowered.

World On Fire needs to be buffed damage-wise to even be considered an ultimate. Buffing the fire damage, status chance, and area of effect will be essential. Additionally, casting speed needs to be much faster. 

Mag

Mag's Crush is the only thing at fault here. 

Crush is Mag's ultimate, but is not effective. We spend two seconds waving our arms around like idiots casting Crush and then having the enemies targeted take negligible damage. A casting speed buff, damage buff, and a status chance for puncture and impact will make Crush drastically better. You wouldn't want us all spamming Pull, would you?

Saryn

Personally, I think Saryn's faults are in her abilities that are damage over time, limiting her to waiting around for the enemy to drop dead. 

Venom acts like a Contagion, so replacing the names with these two abilities will solve my OCD. On to more serious matters, Venom's negligible damage to one single target is pathetic. Yes, shooting the spore will make it spread to nearby enemies, but the damage is still negligible. Additionally, the spores are very hard to shoot in Warframe's fast paced gameplay and the enemy's constant movement. Making the spores slowly consume the target's body and manifesting it into a toxic and viral explosive charge will give Venom it's proper potential.

Contagion acts like Venom, so replacing the names with these two abilities will solve my OCD. Contagion's negligible channeling of toxin damage into melee weapons is ridiculous. If Contagion could channel a chance of toxin, corrosive, and viral damage into all weapons, then this would be worthy of being considered and ability.

Miasma is the slowest damaging "ultimates" in the game, dealing low damage over time. Dealing corrosive damage, this is mainly only useful against heavily armored Grineer and Infested ancients. Adding Gas, Toxin, and Viral to the damage pool of Miasma will significantly boost the ability's power versus more enemies. Making them all proc at once is just a magnificent dream.

Frost

Frost was always a one-trick pony, but with the back-and-forth nerfing and buffing, Frost stands in an unusual place. 

Freeze should be an AoE attack, dealing cold damage and freezing multiple targets would significantly increase Freeze's place in Frost's arsenal, a power that many polarize out.

Avalanche deals moderate cold damage in a small radius. Buffing the range of Avalanche and the damage along with an additional stagger + stun effect will increase Avalanche's viability drastically.

Volt

Volt's generic Speed ability has been irking me for awhile. He's completely viable, but the recent Electric Shield change may change his gameplay.

Speed's name should be changed to either Surge, Current, or some other combination of words involving electricity without a name as generic as Speed. Seriously, what happened?

Electric Shield should be reverted back to it's original state where it could convert projectile weapon bullets into hit-scan weapons. Keep the larger size. "But size doesn't matter?" WELL IT MATTERS.

Excalibur

Same deal with Volt's Speed. Super Jump is generic. Really?

Super Jump is like the poor man's Tailwind. First off, changing the name is top priority. Super Jump? Could we think of something more creative, like Energized Leap, Bladed Flight, or just something better?

Oberon

By far one of the weaker warframes, Oberon's concept was supposed to be a paladin. His abilities are basically rehashes of old abilities but weaker. 

Smite's projectiles should track enemies down, similar to the Bombard's missles or Volt's Shock. Guaranteed impact and radiation proc would make it even better.

Hallowed Ground could be changed to a radial field of "righteous flames", making it viable in defense missions. Additionally, buffing the damage and status chance would actually make it useful. Most importantly, it should give a supportive bonus to the team within Hallowed Ground's radius. Perhaps an armor buff and slow health regeneration?

Renewal's healing projectiles simply cannot keep up with teammates in Warframe's fast paced gameplay. Making Renewal's effects instantaneous would eliminate this problem. Additionally, it should also buff armor and give a short-term resistance to status effects.

Reckoning is definitely in need of a damage, range, and status buff. Not only is Reckoning's range relatively short, but it's damage cannot kill enemies in mid-level content. Buffing Reckoning's base damage and range will make it more efficient as an ultimate. Additionally, adding a guaranteed status proc of radiation and impact will make it significantly more effective as a form of crowd control if the enemies survive.

Nekros

Only useful for Desecrate, Nekros was supposed to be a manipulator of the dead and living. He doesn't do much manipulating. More like farming. He's a farmer. A farmer. A MANIPULATOR OF THE DEAD AND LIVING IS A FARMER? You should have introduced a rake as a weapon in U10 if that's the case.

Soul Punch should inflict an AoE attack on enemies in close proximity of each other, ragdolling, debuffing armor, and have forced impact proc. 

Terrify should not be limited to one cast per swarm, then having you to chase them down one by one. Instead, replacing Terrify's effects with something more viable would be for the better. Stunning + staggering effects would make this a good pair with melee combat. Enemies would see horrifying illusions that would strike fear into their souls, confusing them and causing them to open fire on anything they set sight on (especially allies) if they aren't yet killed by Nekros reverting to melee combat after Terrify's effects take place. The enemies would not run away in a panic, yet would stand and fight everything in a panic.

Desecrate should remain as it is currently, but have additional effects, such as giving a random shadow version of a desecrated enemy (only one until the shadow version dies off), like a miniature Souls of the Dead. 

Souls of the Dead should resurrect only the most powerful of enemies of the specific faction you are fighting against, not requiring you to kill them first. Additionally, they would have more damage than normal, and help to complete objectives, like the AI of Tenno specters.

 

Well, I think that's everything for now. Feedback/suggestions? It's doubtful, but I hope at least some of these changes make it through sometime in U14+. Please? For the love of Lotus revive Ember and Frost's former glory, strengthen Nekros and Oberon, enhance Mag's power, and for Hek's sake change the names of Saryn's Contagion and Venom, Volt's Speed, and Excalibur's Super Jump. 

EDIT: added spoiler tags to avoid gigantic text walls.

Edited July 10, 2014 by APBladeX

[-CM-Aeon]

How about Terrify makes the Grineer and Corpus see illusions. Rather than running away like madmens they can just fall on the ground seeing hallucinations and crying and begging for mercy. Make it a cc skill much like the Chaos without shooting each other effect. Maybe last it longer but make the range smaller and maybe add "must in vision" effect like radial blind. There you go now you will want to use 2 of your nekros skills instead of one.

[AXCrusnik]

I just have to chime in on my current favorite warframe ability >_> Venom's viral Proc, and it procs quite often, makes it far more useful than it's actual damage does.. and then popping the spores basically turns it into one big AOE Viral proc. Other than a bit of difficulty popping the spores at times... what's not to like?

 

I'd honestly hate for one of the few abilities that actually requires effort in some form other than slapping on mods... to turn into another ability that you just slap on mods, use it, and things die.

 

What I'd rather see for Venom... instead of turning into a bio-bomb ability, keep it the same as it is. Maybe-maybe buff it up, but don't change it's mechanics. Then make Molt actually transfer Saryn's current aggro to the decoy... Many times I use Molt and enemies keep aiming for me. A group of enemies (especially tightly packed groups of melee enemies) surrounding a Molt decoy is SUCH a juicy target for Venom.

Edited July 10, 2014 by AXCrusnik

[Valfunde]

Yes.
-Ember : She is great the way she is. WoF->running like a headless chicken is a terrible strategy, and it is legit that it only works on low level missions. My build with her : Accelerant + Fireball + Ignis (+ Corrosive projection) = I rock even in T4. Overheat was meaningless, a caster is not supposed to be a tank too. Seriously what would you say if we would have a nova with Iron skin ?!

 

-Mag: Crush is definetly mostly a CC ability, Imo. Ok with Natural talent. I still hesitate about keeping it or not on mine. But her main ability is shield polarize, remember it.

 

-Saryn: Venom makes procs viral procs when hit. Do you know what viral proc means ? It removes 50% of the target's life. Definetly powerful and potentially fast vs high level enemies. Contagion is definetly weak compared to Speed or Warcry but I still use it as it is not that bad. But I admit it could use a little buff. About miasma you should learn how it works : the lower your duration is the higher the damages are. A big part of them are not even displayed, that is quite strange but that's how it is. So high power + Fleeting Expertise + Chlora helm (reduction to duration) = 5k+ dmg in a split of a second. Fast enough for me.

 

-Frost: Indeed Freeze could use a bit of love but hey that's not the only warframe with 1 or 2 skippable abilities. Avalanche is good imo. (and snowglobe is not dead!)

 

-Volt: His shield still makes projectile weapons hitscan and removes 1: rang limitation 2: damages falloff (try it and snipe with your brakk <3)

 

-Excal:I don't care. Build Radial Blind and forget that super jump ^^ (I have already tried maxed super jump + fall damages -> ~250 dmg :C )

 

-Nooberon needs to be blended and remade. Just forget Smite and Reckoning. Atm, the best use of Oberon I have found is in defense with boosted and well placed Hallowed grounds and heals.

 

-Nekros: Well he would indeed use some love. Or does he ? I depends on how we see thing. If we consider the amount of ressources his presence can bring, it can be understandable that he is not as strong as others frames. Just that soul punch is nothing more than an almost single target radoll. Terrify is quite a good panic button and Shadow of the dead ... I have two uses of it and none of them is how it was supposed to be : either as a very expensive decoy, or as a way to desecrate again a rare enemy I am farming (i.e : bombards, crewman snipers and so on)