(Suggestion) Harnessing The Elements, Reworks For Ember, Frost, And Volt

[Xrylene]

If you haven't seen the Warframe spell and mod system rework thread yet, first check that out, as it will explain how these reworks work: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/29091-suggestion-warframe-spell-and-mod-system-rework/

 

One thing to note about the ability sets, is in each case I tried to give a "stealth" type of ability, so that stealth play would be an option with each Warframe, along with encouragement for both ranged and melee play. No energy costs are listed as that would depend largely on how powerful each effect was.

 

Ember:

 

Primary: Fireball or Heat Seeker

 

Fireball:Ember fires a fireball towards the target point, dealing damage and igniting the ground. Attacking enemies trapped in the flame staggers them.

 

Heat Seeker: Ember fires a fireball towards the target point, dealing damage and causing smaller fireballs to home in on burning enemies.

 

 

Offense: Fire Blast or World on Fire

 

Fire Blast: Unchanged, would function the same way as it currently does.

 

World on Fire: Ember deals fire damage in a large radius around herself over time. Enemies that die while under the effect explode in a blaze of fire, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

 

 

Defense: Overheat or Phoenix Flame

 

Overheat: Ember super heats herself, negating the damage from all attacks, but draining her shields.

 

Phoenix Flame: If Ember dies during the duration after casting this, she rises from her ashes with replenished health.

 

 

Utility: Fire Jet or Smoke Spray

 

Fire Jet: Ember jets away from combat, knocking enemies down in the process.

 

Smoke Spray: Hits enemies with a cloud of smoke, temporarily removing their ability to see.

 

 

Attack Passive: Fanning the Flames or Round Ignition

 

Fanning the Flames: Melee swings extend the duration of Embers fire effects nearby.

 

Round Ignition: For a few seconds after casting a spell, Ember's shots have explosive fire damage.

 

 

Survival Passive: Flame Burst or Bullet Disintegration

 

Flame Burst: Upon losing her shields, flame explodes off of Ember, dealing damage and providing brief invulnerability.

 

Bullet Disintegration: Using an ability grants Ember a second of bullet immunity.

 

 

Frost:

 

Primary: Freeze or Ice Bomb

 

Freeze: Freezes enemies in an area solid for a long duration, any attacks made against frozen targets will shatter them, dealing 100% bonus cold damage.

 

Ice Bomb: Frost throws a ball of ice, sticking to the first solid surface it hits, and knocking over any enemies struck. Hitting the ice ball with any attack will cause it to explode, sending out ice shrapnel that damages and briefly freezes enemies solid.

 

 

Offense: Ice Wave or Avalanche

 

Ice Wave: Frost fires a wave of ice, dealing damage to enemies in it's path and freezing any slowed enemies. Frozen enemies can be shattered for bonus cold damage.

 

Avalanche: Projects a far travelling wave of snow and ice, dealing high damage to all enemies hit, slowing them, and pushing them back.

 

 

Defense: Snow Globe or Frost Armour

 

Snow Globe: Unchanged

 

Frost Armour: Ice forms around Frost's body, reducing the damage he takes and granting bonus cold damage to his melee attacks.

 

 

Utility: Blizzard or Ice Slide

 

Blizzard: Frost forms a large blizzard at a location, enemies within the blizzard are blinded and can't see, and if Frost or his allies are within the blizzard they can't be seen.

 

Cold Slide: Frost slides forward, leaving a path if ice behind him. Any enemy that is hit by the slide or steps on the ice path is knocked prone.

 

 

Attack Passive:Icicle Shot or Ice Slash

 

Icicle Shot: After using an ability, Frost's next shot will deal 5% extra frost damage and puncture through enemies.

 

Ice Slash: Charged melee attacks form a blade of ice, extending the range of his charged attacks.

 

 

Survival Passive: Frost Barrier or Shatter

 

Frost Barrier: While Frost blocks, a shield of frost begins to form a short distance in front of him, the shield reduces damage from ranged attacks by an increasing percentage.

 

Shatter: As Frost takes damage, ice explodes off of him dealing damage to enemies and briefly slowing them.

 

 

Volt:

 

Primary: Lightning Bolt or Dual Shock

 

Lightning Bolt: Fires a bolt of lightning in a line, briefly stunning enemies hit and amplifying attacks against them with bonus electric damage.

 

Dual Shock: Electrifies Volt's next two shots, causing them to deal bonus damage. If both shots hit the same enemy, they are stunned, if they hit separate enemies a bolt of lightning forms between them and deals damage to all enemies struck.

 

Offense: Electric Chain or Overload

 

Electric Chain: Volt charges his arms with electricity, causing the next attack made by a ranged or melee weapon to bounce electrical damage to all enemies within a radius of the main target.

 

Overload: After 1 second of gathering electricity, Volt becomes overloaded, causing bolts of lightning to arc off of him to strike nearby foes for a short time. While Overloaded, Volt also has enhanced firing rate.

 

 

Defense: Electrical Wall or Static Shield

 

Electrical Wall: Creates a wall of electricity that blocks enemy projectiles, if Volt or an ally passes through it their shield will instantly recharge and become temporarily super charged, increasing the maximum capacity.

 

Static Shield: Volt channels a potent electrical current into his body, causing stuns and damage to melee attackers for a short time, and temporarily increasing his armour.

 

 

Utility: Lightning Speed or EMP

 

Lightning Speed: Speed, just a slightly changed name.

 

EMP: Fires an EMP, affecting all nearby terminals and security cameras, preventing enemies from sending an alert and preventing lockdown for 30 seconds, when used on a locked down terminal it instantly unlocks.

 

 

Attack Passive: Power Slide or Static Hands

 

Power Slide: Volt deals extra electrical damage with all attacks while sliding.
 

Static Hands: Volts reload speed after using an ability is doubled for a few seconds.

 

 

Survival Passive: Static Charge or Shield Battery

 

Static Charge: Movement regenerates shields by a small percentage.

 

Shield Battery: Using abilities replenishes Volt's shields, this can temporarily overcharge his shields.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Xrylene

[NoOneCares]

YES!!! this is good.

[G3rman]

So you want to take the casters and streamline their abilities more? What makes this system better than what is currently implemented? Right now, you are basically creating your own abilities that you think are more fitting for 'harnessing elements' and sticking them under a label (offense, defense).

 

A lot of it is just cookie cutter mechanics prettied up by changing the element. The casters should not all do the same thing.

[Xrylene]

So you want to take the casters and streamline their abilities more? What makes this system better than what is currently implemented? Right now, you are basically creating your own abilities that you think are more fitting for 'harnessing elements' and sticking them under a label (offense, defense).

 

A lot of it is just cookie cutter mechanics prettied up by changing the element. The casters should not all do the same thing.

 

The goal of this is not to make them do the same thing, but to expand options as well as better mix gameplay. At the moment, there are three issues with the existing system.

 

The first is a lack of customization, which may be partially rectified in the future as DE have talked about adding more abilities to choose from for Warframes, something this attempts to show an example of.

 

The second, is that many abilities don't mesh with the core gameplay, they are often reliant on base damage numbers but compete with rapidly scaling modded weapons. An example of this, is why use Fireball when you can use your Hek and do far more damage and save that energy for something else? The result, is the game feels less like a hybrid class/ability and gun/swordplay game, and more like a gun and swordplay game with some abilities tacked on. A lot of the abilities I suggest are designed to directly interact with gun and swordplay, which acts both to mix them into the gameplay more, and to help avoid the problem of abilities becoming inferior to weapons.

 

The third is redundancy, which is most evident in Ember. We have a resource based system, and so have to make choices on what to spend energy on, and even whether to even bother equipping an ability at all(and my linked suggestion to modify the warframe mod system fixes that). When you have several abilities that do functionally the same thing, in Ember's case AoE damage, you have to decide which ability is most efficient and stick with it to succeed. By dividing the abilities into categories you can at least remove some of the redundancy by offering different options for different occasions.

 

I'd agree they could use some more work, and I'd be open to suggestions, but I'm not the only one to have a cookie cutter ability or two. Just look at the current warframes, almost every one of them has an AoE room clear ult. Either way, the main point is if the game is supposed to be about the Warframes, and not just the weapons, Warframes need work, and this is one approach, which opens up a way to choose between abilities as well as work with, rather than against, the other big focus of the game, the weapons.

Edited April 15, 2013 by Xrylene

[Dawnseeker_Ch]

That is a lot of information to go over.  At first I had to wonder why you'd go through all this effort to change the system, and then i reviewed the warframes I had (Excaliber and frost).  Slash dash is the only ability I ever use, blind i accidentally fused when i was learning how to play the game, super jump is worthless, and why use javelin when slash dash has more ability to hit opponents?  Frost, as I'm learning, can be similar. The only two abilities I've really been using had been snow globe and avalanche.

 

As I said in the other thread, I'm pretty sure that it heavily depends on correct implimentation, but if this could be pulled off, those warframes would be pretty awesome.  Otherwise I'd agree with the other thread in that it would become like WoW and only an "optimal" build is accepted or efficient or whatever.

[KyleDoagan]

Can't help it but, to me honestly, reading that felt like i was reading league of legends patch notes. Warframes have unique abilities such as saryn and banshee. They are extremely fun. 

Though the rework that you explained did have some good abilities, they seemed abit to normal. 

I play volt, and let me tell you, THERE IS NO GREATER SATISFACTION THAN TO RUN INTO 50 MOBS AND USE OVERLOAD AND FEEL THE TERRAIN TREMBLE AT ITS POWER. There is just something about volt that gets me going.

Personally i have not played ember or frost so i cannot comment on what they can/cannot do. But as for volt, i believe that volt is fine the way he is. Maybe buff is shock ability but other than that, i think he is solid.

[NoOneCares]

Can't help it but, to me honestly, reading that felt like i was reading league of legends patch notes. Warframes have unique abilities such as saryn and banshee. They are extremely fun. 

Though the rework that you explained did have some good abilities, they seemed abit to normal. 

I play volt, and let me tell you, THERE IS NO GREATER SATISFACTION THAN TO RUN INTO 50 MOBS AND USE OVERLOAD AND FEEL THE TERRAIN TREMBLE AT ITS POWER. There is just something about volt that gets me going.

Personally i have not played ember or frost so i cannot comment on what they can/cannot do. But as for volt, i believe that volt is fine the way he is. Maybe buff is shock ability but other than that, i think he is solid.

i play volt as my main don't you feel like an impotent penis on everything but corpus being a walking ulti? am i the only person who has a problem with war frames having two out of four ability's about as useful as constipation?