Nekros Rework (With Art)

[Jamescell]

Since Nekros is currently a hot topic thought that I may make a rework for him. Here's my quick 2 cents on him. I haven't spent much time on this and will most likely make a more extensive/well thought out version in the near future. 

 

1.) Soul Punch: Soul Punch should become a free-target AOE that, instead of rag-dolling, gives affected enemies a unique "agony" animation that brings enemies to their knees. Nekros would regain health based on how many enemies were affected and energy for each enemy killed with the ability (the energy regain would have a cap).  

 

I figure it fits since necromancers often have some kind of life-sucking/life-draining ability. It would make the ability marginally more effective and utility oriented while also increasing the thematic accuracy it has to being that of a necromancer. 

 

2.) Terror Totem: Would change this ability into a totem that gives off the terror effect in an AOE, enemies will become terrified and retreat while in the AOE and for a short duration after leaving the AOE. Up to two totems could be cast at once, whenever a new totem is cast while two are already out the oldest totem will be replaced by the new one. 

 

Not sure of the specifics on this one. Totems could have health... or be duration based... or be channeled. 

 

3.) Desecrate: Would affect all enemies nearby in an AOE centered around Nekros, all enemies affected would be "desecrated" taking extra damage when below 50% health and dropping extra loot upon dying. AKA would work the same as now but on living enemies as well, with an extra utility effect. 

 

4.) Exhume: Would allow Nekros to summon Tenno "husks". Weak yet feral Tenno that are fueled by the energy of fallen enemies. The amount of Husks Nekros could summon would be much smaller than the amount that an currently be summoned. Each Husk would be summoned individually, meaning each cast of the ability would only produce one Husk but the overall cost of Exhume would be much lower than SHotD. Husks would use specter AI with altered animations and abilities. Husks would engage enemies in close-combat, tearing foes apart with their claws. Heavy enemies would by overwhelmed and effectively stunned as husks would clamber on and around them, slowly inflicting damage. Husk scaling would be based on enemy level and the amount of enemies that are killed by Nekros and allies. Husks would be stronger than the enemies they are scaling to in the level, and much more agile. The more enemies that are killed the higher the damage output and health of husks becomes. 

 

Husks could either be duration based, be literally fueled by kills, or health based. Or a combination. This is art done by LoveYourEnemy https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1276956_515661691848753_1762145164_o.jpg 

Edited September 28, 2014 by Jamescell

[Guest Tehnoobshow]

Desecrate needs to be removed from Nekros. I don't care what you do with it, give it to a Sentinel or something, but no Warframe should have a loot-based ability.

[Jamescell]

Desecrate needs to be removed from Nekros. I don't care what you do with it, give it to a Sentinel or something, but no Warframe should have a loot-based ability.

Yeah, probably. Just haven't thought about it enough yet. 

[unknow99]

Desecrate needs to be removed from Nekros. I don't care what you do with it, give it to a Sentinel or something, but no Warframe should have a loot-based ability.

The problem is, the majority if not 80% of Nekros users use a build focused on...Yup, you guessed it right.

 

That would unleash a loooot of rage here.

 

If they ever do that, take this with you :

 

 

You'll need it. Really...

[Guest Tehnoobshow]

The problem is, the majority if not 80% of Nekros users use a build focused on...Yup, you guessed it right.

 

That would unleash a loooot of rage here.

 

If they ever do that, take this with you :

 

 

You'll need it. Really...

I've always wondered how Archwizard manages to avoid being flamed though. Maybe it's because he has a Nekros profile pic?

[unknow99]

I've always wondered how Archwizard manages to avoid being flamed though. Maybe it's because he has a Nekros profile pic?

Ooooh now everything seems much clearer... :o

[xontix627]

Desecrate needs to be removed from Nekros. I don't care what you do with it, give it to a Sentinel or something, but no Warframe should have a loot-based ability.

 

What needs to be fixed! *Grits teeth* Is the fact that the other skills are too subpar! Why nerf when you can just buff his other skills?

[ShadowDragon000]

What needs to be fixed! *Grits teeth* Is the fact that the other skills are too subpar! Why nerf when you can just buff his other skills?

 

I agree that his other skills are all useless, but removing desecrate isn't a nerf, it is opening him up to have an actual ability to possibly even let Nekros have a functional kit so that he can have a use other than sitting in a corner hitting 3 until the game is over.

[SgtFlex]

Desecrate has always been a problem, and merging gameplay of warframes with loot RNG isn't a good idea at all. One of the main problems with Survival still exists because Desecrate still exists. There shouldn't be RNG in any sort of gamemode, and no frame should be based on RNG.

 

People have these desecrate builds purely for extended Survival times, which shouldn't be a thing at all, and nekros shouldn't be practically required to get anywhere. Nekros is more of a tool than anything at the moment

 

 

Gonna take a copy of this...

Edited September 28, 2014 by SgtFlex

[Guest Tehnoobshow]

What needs to be fixed! *Grits teeth* Is the fact that the other skills are too subpar! Why nerf when you can just buff his other skills?

 

To quote Archwizard:

At last, we finally come to the discussion of what makes Nekros such a figure of debate.

 

The problem with Nekros is threefold:

 

First, Desecrate seals Nekros into a non-combat niche; it is the only ability that directly affects the metagame. Only a few people want to lose Desecrate, because nobody wants to lose the opportunity to see more loot - and it is of course completely inconceivable that drop tables could be adjusted instead to compensate. As long as drop tables can be altered by players mashing one button over and over, there will be demand for someone to be mashing that button over and over. However - and with full respect to Scott and the rest of the development team, as I expect this will be seen as overstepping my bounds - this is awful design. The skill enforces the idea that one player in each farming or Survival group must make it their job to stand in the back of the room and mash one button repeatedly to counteract the invisible force of RNG so that everyone else can have fun, rather than actually playing the game and having fun themselves. While playing a Nekros, especially on a Survival or Defense map, it is not uncommon to spend the majority of the mission either in the casting animation for Desecrate (alleviated only by Natural Talent, if you've got it), or running between piles of corpses that everyone else made for you to clean up (Embers and Rhinos of the world, this is you).

The worst part is that the ability runs entirely on layers of RNG - Does it drop a health orb this cast? Does it reroll the loot table? What else drops from the loot table? - which compels players to keep using it, not because it's working but because it isn't. Because of the RNG element, it is often likely that even if you're focusing on one corpse, you'll never make it drop anything before it disappears (even if you dump the entire energy pool into it).

To Sheldon's Bucket Argument (which I prefer to call Conservation of Power): should it really apply if the affected system was conceptually flawed to begin with? Reliance on RNG is acceptable in areas that prevent gameplay from getting too repetitive (such as tiles or enemy spawns), but Desecrate makes Nekros' gameplay very repetitive because of its unreliable results. What Nekros needs is either a buff for Desecrate to ALWAYS work (so you have time to do anything else), or a baseline buff to drop tables and a total replacement for Desecrate (the far better solution, to pull Nekros out of the niche and focus on his gameplay rather than metagaming).

 

TL;DR: Desecrate makes Nekros a janitor, not the advertised necromancer. People want Nekros for mods and O2 packs, not compelling gameplay.

 

Second, and the reason why Desecrate has the lowest votes in the poll above, is that his other three "necromantic" abilities are fairly poor overall.

Shadows of the Dead - which has gobs of scaling damage potential and should be the center of the necromancer's arsenal - is instead used as a form of snap aggro-drop and CC because of the poor AI. It also requires that players keep a mental note of every enemy they kill, or even ignore enemies for being 'too weak' for their purposes - and often can't be cast at all, because the player simply can't get enough killing blows of their own.

Terrify locks players out of casting it until all affected enemies (of which there is a cap) are killed - and then makes those enemies disappear. Yes, Chaos locks players out of using it repeatedly too, but the effect practically cycles itself as long as enemies are affected, just like Vauban's or Hydroid's CCs; if you need to cast Terrify again, you have to hide, wait for it to end, and pray the guys you needed to fear the second time don't find you. As a CC, it's a 75 energy skill with the limitations of a 2nd skill; while it may seem like the armor-reduction counters this, the reduction only affects one faction and barely increases damage on its own even at maximum Power Strength - whereas every other source of armor reduction can be stacked over 100% on their own.

Soul Punch is just a gimmick. It's frustrating to cast, it has weak/nigh-invisible/intractable AoE, it only provides a single-target stun as level increases, it adds nothing to Nekros' arsenal - yet it exists anyway, because it has a funny name. If there was one ability on any frame that I'd want removed from the game entirely, it's Soul Punch.

 

I've gone into more depth in one of my own threads recently, which I'll spoiler below to prevent from covering the page in a wall of text.

 

 

Third, Nekros' abilities don't work well together at all. His three CCs supplement each other only insofar as you can cast one while another is on cooldown; meanwhile, all three scatter enemies, making it more difficult to use Desecrate. While two of his skills rely on having a kill count, none of his skills facilitate getting one as level increases. Tying back into Reason #1, Desecrate is only affected by Power Range, a stat it only shares with Terrify - which also has a hard target limit, thereby making it useless if you throw on Overextended to maximize Desecration.

Ideally, a necromancer's arsenal would involve summoning up minions to fight for him, spraying enemies with debuffs and lifedrains to wear them down and increase ally/minion output, and using a little CC to keep enemies off of the caster himself (or to lock them down while they are eaten by zombies). A black mage who supports himself by crippling others and bending their broken bodies to his will.

Nekros... is nothing like that, which I will grant was part of the point with trying to give him Warframe's unique stamp, but it stripped him of much of what makes the necromancer an appealing class to play in games in favor of having one class who could be the Frost of Survivals.

 

As a combination of these factors, you will likely see many players defend Desecrate to their graves. This is an expected side-effect of giving players that extra gamble - they don't have any control over RNG, but they trick themselves into believing they do. It's like hooking a frog up to a potato battery and telling a child they have the power of life and death because they can make it walk. Except in this case, that's what we're literally supposed to do.