Single Target Abilities And Their Energy Costs

[(NSW)123er432]

I have been playing this game for a bit now, have done my research, and have taken into consideration many different abilities, and I have come to the conclusion that (In my opinion) many ability costs are far too high.

 

A PRIME example of this, I think, would be Mag. Three of her four abilities affect one enemy, each skill increasing in energy cost by 25. Then we have her ultimate which is a Gigantic AoE Nuke that kills pretty much every Regular unit in her area. The PROBLEM with this is that, when given the choice, its almost ALWAYS best to just wait for the 100 energy so you can use Crush again. As I have played Mag quite a bit myself, and seen her played a bit less, I have almost never seen her use any of her abilities other than Crush.

 

This, of course, applies to many other frames as well. Ash and Shuriken, Nyx and Mind control (This is even worse due to her Best skill only costing 75, making using her other skills even less likely), and others.

 

My suggestion would be that these abilities that target a single enemy (or ally) with an effect should have a much smaller energy cost. 10-25 energy per cast. This would greatly encourage the casting of these lesser abilities and take away from the monotony of being a one skill wonder like Mag.

 

Thoughts?

[LunarWind]

I use Nyx the most, so I'll comment on Mind Control first.

 

I don't see myself using it more even if the costs was 10 energy.

As it stands, stunning one enemy (that cannot be a boss) is rarely very useful.

The mind controlled unit very rarely does anything other than stand still or walk in slow circles.

 

If the target actually fought for you, I could see myself using this ability in almost every fight, especially if it was only 10 energy.

 

As it stands, Mind Control is the ability that I occasionally use to bug-out an enemy heavy, causing them to stand perfectly still and stop firing at me so I can line up enough head-shots to bring 'em down.

 

Also also, I've been using Volt a lot recently. I've pretty much built him to spam Shock, his single target damage ability for 25 energy.

While I feel like it would be better at 20 energy and with scaling damage (To affect high level enemies similarly to low level ones) it is already a very useful skill.

I have a lot of fun playing Kiliken against the Corpus and using Shock as my go-to long range engagement tool.

That said, I feel like for 25 energy we need more consistent secondary effects (It has a small chance to chain-fire into nearby targets and a small chance for Damage over time) or more single target damage.

[-.SP.-G43riel]

mag's gigantic AoE you say? heh, Volt's overload says hi from distance.

anyway mags ability have it's uses, they are tactical. Polarity, Pull and Attractor  are good  skills, you just don't know how use them properly i'd say as they kinda depend of the situation to be effective, just like most single target abilities do in warframe.

 

Reducing costs won't make someone use it more as you need to know how to use it first. Making ability spam easier than it already is, when using the right mods, goes against the ninja ways of being a tenno that must KNOW how and when to use it's skills.

[LunarWind]

 Polarity, Pull and Attractor  are good  skills, you just don't know how use them properly ..

Aside from Bullet Attractor, I would disagree with you.

 

Pull can be useful against shield lancers, but other than that it's mostly for style. Not saying Style isn't important, but I don't think that "Knowing how to use it" will make Pull an effective and valuable combat skill.

 

Shield Polarity is cool looking at its best, a waste of energy and time at its worst. I hate to be negative about any ability, but this one really doesn't have much going for it. Even with a maxed out mod, it won't restore more shields than a sentinel could, or 20 seconds in cover for that matter.

Shield depletion? Yeah, but by the time the animation plays you could have done just as much shield damage with almost any weapon, melee or ranged.

 

Bullet Attractor is a lot of fun, and sometimes quite useful. Knowing that it causes enemies to shoot themselves if it's on them, and causes enemy fire to also hit them, is key to its use. Also, very few people realize that it causes Excaliburs Radial Javelins to ALL hit whatever Attractor is cast on. This can result in upwards of 13,000 damage on a single target when you have a Mag + Excal combo.

 

In the future, try not to say things like "You just don't know how to sue it" as it sounds insulting. Instead, explain "how to use it" in a polite and informative way.

[(NSW)123er432]

Bullet Attractor is a lot of fun, and sometimes quite useful. Knowing that it causes enemies to shoot themselves if it's on them, and causes enemy fire to also hit them, is key to its use. Also, very few people realize that it causes Excaliburs Radial Javelins to ALL hit whatever Attractor is cast on. This can result in upwards of 13,000 damage on a single target when you have a Mag + Excal combo.

 

I agree that Bullet attractor can be fun, and with Excalibur can destroy pretty much anything, but the fact remains that by waiting for a single orb of energy you can upgrade that Single target skill that does situational damage to Crush, which will probably deal a good amount more damage to even that one single target thanthe damage that would come about because of Bullet attractor.

 

My other gripe with Bullet attractor is that it prevents headshots but that's not really part of this argument.

Edited April 20, 2013 by PumpkinAppearifier

[FluffyBunnySlippers]

I use Nyx the most, so I'll comment on Mind Control first.

 

I don't see myself using it more even if the costs was 10 energy.

As it stands, stunning one enemy (that cannot be a boss) is rarely very useful.

The mind controlled unit very rarely does anything other than stand still or walk in slow circles.

 

If the target actually fought for you, I could see myself using this ability in almost every fight, especially if it was only 10 energy.

 

As it stands, Mind Control is the ability that I occasionally use to bug-out an enemy heavy, causing them to stand perfectly still and stop firing at me so I can line up enough head-shots to bring 'em down.

 

 

I know what you mean, and I'm hoping this is just a bug that will get sorted soon. I actually like mind control if/ when it works and the unit makes some kind of contribution, When all it does is just duck into cover and wait though...meh.

 

Psy Bolts are almost useless at the cost for them though. I rarely bother equipping them simply because I can put those mod points to far better use. A shame really because I love the concept but the cost for it just doesn't justify it over chaos. Personally I think  her skills are the wrong way around, Bolts should be 1 (and low cost), Mind control at 2 bubble at 3 and chaos as ult...it's just that good tbh.

 

Volt on the other hand has a very nice set of tools, I also like shock as a goto single-target "eat this" kind of ability..reduced cost would perhaps bring him in line with his (somewhat misleading) tooltip regarding his "alternate style of play". I was hoping from the tooltip that I'd rarely have to use guns with Volt...mildly disappointing (though I still love him).

[xPraetoriaNx]

mag's gigantic AoE you say? heh, Volt's overload says hi from distance.

 

This.

Mag's Crush has $&*&*#(%&ly low range and damage. It also takes time to cast, so you often use your Crush on, lets say 8 enemies, and by the time Mag finishes dancing, the rest of the team kills atleast 4 of those 8 enemies. People say Volt's uber is OP, well, no it's not. An Uber is supposed to be devastating, that's why it's called Uber, and that's why it consumes more than half of your basic lvl 30 max energy pool to use. But Mag's Crush is not the only ability (either Uber or regular) which needs to be buffed and / or reworked, so we could talk about this all day without reaching a consensus.

[Woolytop]

The reason mag's crush seems so OP is because defense is one of the most popular game modes right now, and obviously a giant AOE nuke is going to seem more useful than any single-target ability in that context.

Mag's crush only does like 1000 damage, and that can be reduced by enemy armor. At upwards of two hundred damage a shot from a hek and the freedom for the team to spray and pray with impunity, plus the chance to combo with an excalibur, bullet attractor can easily outdamage crush.

Pull can be used to yank enemies out of cover, or away from the cryopod and teammates. Alternatively, it can be used to pull teammates out of a bad situation, up a ledge they're having trouble climbing, or get thier bodies to someplace where they can be safely revived.

Polarize... May need some work. Maybe make it so if Mag doesn't have a target, she'll restore her own shields, or have it disable shield regen on a boss for a certain amount of time.

As far as "Why would I use my other abilities when I can save up 100 energy for my ult", again, is an arguement seen from the perspective of defense being the most popular game mode. Energy orbs are everywhere in defense maps, but against say a boss, they're a little harder to come by. Unless you have a Trinity there, you're only going to have the energy you walked into the room with. As it is, no frame has a max energy capacity by default of a number divisible by 100, which is where your first three come in.