Saryn - The Deadly Tank (Rethinking Warframe Series)

[AlvaroXDM]

Hello everyone! I'll be beginning a series of warframe suggestions, as a way to improve the game and give all gameplay more versatility. The first one in this series is: Saryn!

 

ROLE: Tank

Saryn's role is quite clear to me. While her amazing ultimate allows her to go as a caster frame, her 100 energy doesn't follow that line of thought. Yet, she has amazingly tanky stats health (150) and great armor (155). Due to this, you can clearly see Saryn fit a tankier role. The justification doesn't end here: Molt, is meant to purge statuses debuffs, AND draw enemy fire, increasing Saryn's tankyness even further. Finally, she has Contagion, which, even when underpowered, is clear that it's meant for Saryn to go melee to disintegrate her enemies with toxin. (Personally, I think Miasma's short range is also another hint of her being made to fullfill a tanky role)

 

Let's review all her skills now to fill the desired role:

 

Venom: While this skill is pretty neat, the almost innability to be popped by melee end being a great drawback for our melee build. Yet, it's good for frames to be able to fit several roles, and venom allows Saryn to make good use of her firepower. I don't think this skill would need to be changed, yet, I'm going for a different approach, that will be still good for firearms, as well as melee.

 

While keeping it's first mechanic (and thus, stats - energy, duration, etc) intact (until the popping) - I would modify what happens when you fire at it. When you shoot at it, it should explode, dealing AoE in a moderate range, dealing low viral damage, but slowing enemies and giving high chance to miss. Think of it as a tear gas, BUT with a little bit of venom, just because.

 

With this modification, you could make use of the confusion to rush to your enemies and slice them brutally with your vicious melee attacks. Yet, it would still be usefull for those who enjoy big guns, being able to shoot from afar without taking serious risks.

 

Molt:

Saryn's main tank skill, for the moment, it doesn't really make use of Saryn's exceptional tankyness. I think it should. With base 150/200/250/300 health, Molt should take 50% of Saryn's current HP and use it as health, also, it should use Saryn's current armor, as a way to make real use of her amazing stats.

As for the damage, I would pretty much leave it the same way. Yet, a little bit of confusion in a short range would also make Molt way more attractive.

 

Contagion:

What should be Saryn's bread and butter for melee, can barely make a point. Being extremely expensive, and having a mediocre effect and moderately short duration for it's energy, Contagion's utility barely surpasses the one of Venom.

First of all then, reduce Contagion's energy cost to 35. And increase it's power strenght to 100%. While Toxin already has a status chance, that can be procced to become a really nice AoE skill, I would add that targets killed by Contagion should release a poison cloud similar to the one of Molt when it's destroyed.

 

Result:

The combination of this three skills would make Saryn a deadly melee opponent, with extremely good AoE capabilities, being extremely powerful against infested enemies. Yet, Saryn would still retain her kind of caster frame possibilities. 

 

Miasma:

Finally - Misma. The ultimate stage clearer. To keep this working, and keep it being good for "casters", guns and melee alike, not a lot of modifications should be introduced. I personally think it's ok as it is, yet, I have two ideas for it:

1) Make it similar to Ember's WoF. The Miasma Cloud would follow you around, killing those that get too close. Damage should be increased, but the ticks would be dealt only if you are near Saryn, not as a DoT. And range should be reduced.

2) Make it a toggle effect - with way lower damage and range, so that you can use as a "panic button" when overwhelmed by enemies, or as a damage buff when going melee.

 

Hope you like the suggestions!

[TheEdge]

Saryn is my favorite Warframe to play with, so personally, I don't see anything wrong with her abilities with the exception of Contagion.

Venom is already pretty powerful, creating spores on the enemy which pop and infect nearby enemies if you shoot at the said spores. I haven't tried meleeing them, but if players aren't currently rewarded with meleeing enemies infected with Venom, I'd suggest a simpler fix by increasing the range that Venom can infect when meleed. This skill is pretty powerful on it's own, being her first ability.

 

Molt is pretty much Saryn's equivalent of Loki's Decoy, but much more useful.

Contagion, this is what I have problems with. Despite being her third ability and costing a decent amount to energy, the result is disappointing, IMO. I can't really tell if I am doing anymore damage than my normal melee stats. If anything, I think this power needs to be tweaked (along with Nyx's Psychic bolts, but that's another topic). I'd think it be pretty cool if Contagion gave all three Viral, Corrosive, and Toxic damage at the same time while sticking to the idea of melee, IMO. But regardless, I completely agree that Contagion needs to be reviewed.

Miasma is pretty darn powerful as is. I don't see any problems to it. Hek, I even will argue that it's almost as effective as Rhino Stomp.

 

I don't really see the need of making Saryn AOE-oriented, since Venom and Miasma already fill that gap. Making all her abilities AOE would create a lot of spamming of her abilities, and create a Rhino/Rhino Prime/Nova/Ember/Ash situation (in that their AOE abilites are a little ridiculous and annoying when you're trying to do teamwork, but "that guy" wants all the kills for himself). I really don't want to see her ending up like Rhino, since she I got her when Update 7 was released and have a special bond with her.

TL;DR: I think Saryn is fine as is, with the exception of Contagion.

Edited July 29, 2014 by TheEdge