Warframe Ability Mods: Coming Changes

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

To be fair, for 30 (60?) days after the change DE should offer a polarity refund option on all warframes.  Simply select the polarity slot with a forma invested and revert it; repeat as needed.  This would at least give players time to adjust to the changes and try to redo all of their builds.

[Icebreccer]

I would also raise my concerns about the 8 remaining mod slots. As you can see my build above which I use for T4S etc. uses all 9 mod slots with my Bastille. Hard to just pick one and leave it behind...

[-S-O-Zod]

Looking forward to this!

[Melos-mevim]

this change will also make frames less customizable than our companions on kubrows and sentinells with enogu hformas you cn have all maxed armor health and shield mods and still have plenty oo room for other stuff, warframes have more essential mods like intensify continuity flow and streamline a swell as redirectio an dvitality so reducign it fro m10 8 menans yo ugo from ahving 4 slots to choose what other stuff oy uwant to put on your frame to jsut 2

[KirukaChan]

I'm okay with this, but I'm also curious how universal Warframe abilities will be affected by this change. Are we going to have a separate little menu thing for choosing our powers?

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

Better idea (not mine):  Remove skills from the drop tables and sell ability mods in the market for credits.

 

Also, for console players using a controller makes specific skills difficult to use due to targeting restrictions.  For example, I use my d-pad to cycle abilities so I can target enemies with abilities like Energy Vampire or Soul Punch and activate them using a bumper.  Now I will have to cycle excessively to switch the active ability as all 4 skills will be available.  In this case having fewer skills is actually a benefit as it saves me time when switching between abilities.  I'm sure that I am not the only player with a similar controller layout.

[zerogear5]

people need to learn to adapt and those who formaed ability slots made a huge mistake. This change improves 90% of the player bases builds and allows more options along with all my abilities.

[Shifted]

I expected this since Steve mentioned the discussion about fusing abilities "irrelevant"

 

Great change.

 

(And the Syndicates are even cooler.)

[Liqier]

Oh cmon !!! since last tactical alert i formed 9 slots on 3 warframes ... and my end game bulids are dead ;/ (frost only snow globe)

 

My ultimate loki ... my love ... gone

Edited October 17, 2014 by Liqier

[JamXmed]

I'm sorry, I just can't sit here and read how stupid some of your arguments are (general public, not all but some of you).

 

I'm going to just sit here and list off some 1 ability builds that are actually acceptable on warframes and/or can be built effectively in the new system.

 

(the stance mod polarity on the end is intentionally there as a mark that the slot will be gone.)

Nova, Positive: http://goo.gl/z1F0sk

Nova, Negative: http://goo.gl/yNi0zP

Nekros, Desecrate Spam: http://goo.gl/U1rpaj

 

That's about it... Seriously, Almost all frames have multiple effective abilities. Now I shall list the frames and abilities that should be maxed with them.

Ash: Smoke Screen, Teleport, Blade Storm (direct upgrade, the fact that you should be going for a bruiser build, in the form of tanky as teleporting poltergeist, there should be no problem. Bonus, you can throw things at people now which is fun)

 

Banshee: Sonic Boom, Sound Quake (personal choice to drop Sonar for spamability and the fact that even with the bonus damage, it's less reliable to deal damage that way so i'd rather opt in for high spam CC)

 

Ember: Fireball, Accelerant (All her abilities are good. either Max them all or max these ones. Just to be clear though, I choose these two as I can spam Fireball while reloading which is nice as it has a 50% proc chance for heat which actually stuns enemies and Accelerant is a nice damage multiplier for Fireball as well as the fact it stuns in a Large AOE that still affects units behind walls (unlike the new radial blind))

 

Excalibur: Considering the changes that are going to happen, All abilities should be run as they all have nice utility, I recommend maxing everything except Radial javalin though, The other 3 abilities will probably have nice synergy in the way you mod them therefore it's an easy choice. I assume that radial javalin will still be CC though and therefore it's utility is still going to be effective even without a power build.

 

Frost: Build him as before minus 1 mod, the addition of being able to use all his other abilities will make him more versatile for more missions.

 

Hydroid: No changes again really, I mean, you should be using all 4 of his abilities anyway so the changes should be a direct buff for him.

 

Loki: Invisibility, Switch Teleport, Radial Disarm (build squishy with high Efficiency, Range and Duration basically. No change, direct buff as you now have 1 extra survivability skill, in the form of decoy, and 1 extra mod space to add whatever mod you feel safe with.

 

Mag: Pull, Shield Polarize (synergy in modding so focus on these 2 abilities. pretty much no change from her current state. still best used against corpus)

 

Mirage: Hall of Mirrors, Eclipse, Prism (straight upgrade as you get an extra slot for your modding needs)

 

Nyx: Mind Control, Chaos, Absorb (build for duration/efficiency and range (that is, pick either duration or efficiency but always range) and this should still be fine. Basically, you are getting access to Mind control again which is a good thing, so long as your team don't kill the target instantly.)

 

Oberon: Smite, Renewel, Reckoning (Direct upgrade, 1 extra mod slot, build for tanky support and make sure you confuse the enemy a lot)

 

Rhino: Iron skin, Roar, Rhino Stomp. (build for tank, power and range. Direct upgrade of 1 extra mod slot. Bonus in the form of rhino charge which should probably be unable to do anything anymore if you are building him right)

 

Saryn: Venom, Molt, Miasma (your choice on either building for Venom or Molt. Almost the same except you want to build for duration in the venom build and efficiency for the molt build.)

 

Trinity: Well of Life, Energy Siphon, Link, Blessing (honestly, the change is a direct buff to trinity, I would build her to focus around Blssing and Energy siphon personally but Well of life will still become effective when built for the other two, link will be a little worse for ware but is still usefull enough to stop you from being knocked down in CQC)

 

Valkyr: Your choice is your own with this one, I'd personally say Hysteria and Warcry but i still love using ripline for mobility. either way, if you build for Hysteria and warcry, Ripline will still have a max range of 25m which is still helpful.

 

Vauban: Bastille, Vortex (Duration, Range and Power. this will allow for vortex to be your go to while bastille is still useful. also, tesla will become a little less trolly but will still be more effective at making rhino into a christmas tree)

 

Volt: Speed, Shock, Electrical shield (build for efficiency, power and duration. With this, it's actually a direct upgrade as honestly, all his abilities have their uses and they all work well with this sort of setup. you are effectively getting a buff of 2 mod spaces)

 

Zephyr: Tail Wind, Turbulence, Tornado (build for Duration, Efficiency and range. direct upgrade with an effective buff of 1 mod space. dive bomb will now be effective in use simply as a way back down fast. not the best ability though and the other 3 abilities will still be superior in all ways.)

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

@zerogear

 

Formaing ability slots is not a huge mistake if you can do basic math.  Think about it... abilities cost 3, 7, 9 and 13.  Most of those are less than a average mod cost (9).  Even worse is that most abilities are simply not worth using as they scale horribly or need a specific build in order to optimize (duration, power strength, etc.).  Name a single frame where all 4 abilities are needed and I guarantee that it is not optimized.  At most a frame needs 3 abilities and even then concessions are made to allow for this, such as a reduced range or less survivability mods.

 

I do agree with your last point though, 90% of the player base is ignorant in terms of how to optimize their builds.  This is mostly due to the in-game interface not providing any necessary stats about the specific abilities, such as how large the radius is, how long an ability lasts, or how power strength increases the damage/bonus, etc.  DE needs to fix this before they worry about having all 4 abilities on every warframe.

[JamXmed]

@zerogear

 

Formaing ability slots is not a huge mistake if you can do basic math.  Think about it... abilities cost 3, 7, 9 and 13.  Most of those are less than a average mod cost (9).  Even worse is that most abilities are simply not worth using as they scale horribly or need a specific build in order to optimize (duration, power strength, etc.).  Name a single frame where all 4 abilities are needed and I guarantee that it is not optimized.  At most a frame needs 3 abilities and even then concessions are made to allow for this, such as a reduced range or less survivability mods.

 

I do agree with your last point though, 90% of the player base is ignorant in terms of how to optimize their builds.  This is mostly due to the in-game interface not providing any necessary stats about the specific abilities, such as how large the radius is, how long an ability lasts, or how power strength increases the damage/bonus, etc.  DE needs to fix this before they worry about having all 4 abilities on every warframe.

Hydroid Benefits from having all 4 abilities on. so does Volt. honestly, there are many that would be effective with all 4 while still only building a build with maybe 2 abilities in mind, which often equates to 8 mods to buff the abilities. You are effectively getting many frames that are getting small buffs by having 2 more, sub par, abilities returned to them.

[superbot34]

i am assuming the abilities themselves still function the same right? and we can still increase the warframe power's stats through mods?

[JamXmed]

i am assuming the abilities themselves still function the same right? and we can still increase the warframe power's stats through mods?

It's all the same except for excalibur who is getting a small rework that will change how he's played completely. other than that, nothing is really gonna change in terms of modding.

[(PSN)Hiero_Glyph]

@JamXmed

 

Hydroid certainly does not need his first ability as it requires duration which none of his other abilities need.  Tempest Barrage is entirely situational as well and requires power strength, unlike Undertow and Tentacle Swarm.  Again, in order to optimize for all 4 abilities you weaken every ability and reduce a frame's survivability.  Besides, DE gave us 3 builds to use, each one should play to a different strength not be generalized.  The phrase 'jack of all trades, master of none' comes to mind when I hear someone argue for using all 4 abilities.

[(PSN)jwernecke]

I see the direction its going and don't hate the idea.  But it will jack up my "Alert" build Ash frame that I now use for nearly everything.  I put 5 formas on him so I could build to speed and mobility and maximizing blade storms damage and radius because I was forgoing shields, armor, health.... It only has one Ability slot.  So in this case as several have stated I'm losing a slot that I specifically forma'd for a specific purpose.  Now that build that I created from the ground up to be perfect to my play style has to be revamped.  Other frames I use this will benefit but my one favorite will be hindered drastically.  To the one dude talking about "how you should setup your warframes...."  You play your warframe and I'll play mine.  I dont care how others set their stuff up because their not playing my game but their own.  

[groznez]

So did quick count of how many ability slots I have formaed and came up with 13 on ten different warframes. If I have to forma and level all those frames again I will consider it quite a $&*^ move on DE's part. Since for me getting forma is not hard or time consuming at all, but leveling warframes to rank 30 multiple times is maybe not hard, but very time consuming.

[CandlesShadow]

My Ash and Saryn are going to suffer, my two favorite frames :C Why not give us 9 mod slots, and an aura slot? I have several other frame builds that only use one ability as well, having all abilities won't mean anything if I am modded for just the one, since certain abilities are effected adversely by things like duration, strength (Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, just to name a few) so having those abilities won't matter to me since I still won't be using them- it's only going to make my builds weaker by taking away a slot I use for mods like sure footed, flow etc. Please address this issue, for those of us with one ability builds. Maybe I'll just end up going elsewhere for my gaming fix... sad, with these changes I may stop playing WF altogether.

Edited October 17, 2014 by CandlesShadow

[DarthBane1]

ABOUT TIME THANK YOU LORD MORE MOD SLOTS!!!! AND NO MORE REJUVINATION DROP!

Edited October 17, 2014 by DarthBane1

[Rapid]

So if you forma a Warframe, it's level gets reset to 0 does the ability levels get reset as well?

[snrd3r]

Seeing as there are so many mods that just don't fit even in the current number of slots (does anyone really use Diamond Skin?) I think there's definitely a case to be made for keeping the extra two slots and removing just the polarities..

[Darzk]

As Meatuchu mentioned, are there any abilities left that benefit from having a lower rank?

Smoke Screen stun build (reduce the lockout)

Silence (for smaller radius stagger)

Bullet Attractor (for smaller bubble with massive +range installed)

MPrime super speed build (smaller but faster than max rank)

Mind Control (shorter can swap targets easier)

Well of Life for nuking with EV

Bounce (single use)

 

Basically, try to do anything creative and you get slapped in the face by DE now. :(

 

 

 

As per 1 ability builds; the biggest problem is that we have mods effecting the same thing, etc OE+Stretch needed for Range. Corrupted mods should get a ~50% buff, and then make them conflict with the base mod for that stat.

 

Etc Vortex build, @ current; Vortex, 2x Range mods, 2x Efficiency mods, 3x Duration mods, leaving room for two ehp mods, usually Redirection and Vitality. After U15, we can only take ONE ehp mod, or we are forced to reduce the effectiveness of our prioritized ability.

[Kachocalvo]

My 2 cents:

 

First of all, I hope that, after the change, we keep the same polarizations than before it started. I mean, as an example, if I have in my Warframe 3D, 3V and 3=, an 1 without polarity ('cause I changed 1= for 1V), I will end with 3D, 3V and 2 unpolarized slots, no matter which = slot I changed.

 

If I end with 3D, 2V and 3 unpolarized slots because "it was the first column the one removed and you polarized a slot on the fifth one, but at least, take this forma", I'll be very upset to be forced to level again to 30.

 

Next - What about if I used a forma to erase the = polarity but did not replace it with a different one? I did it on two warframes so I can have it as a "polivalent" slot, allowing me to use the ability in one build and a different mod in another. As I'm getting 2 unpolarized slots in exchange for my 4=, "unless you have a polarity in one or two of them", I'll get the forma I spent refunded? I mean, the result will be the same, but it costed me a forma for no use now.

Edited October 18, 2014 by Kachocalvo

[(PSN)j232000]

How is this going to affect Conclave ratings?  In most frames, a full set of maxed abilities is 100-200 conclave points; are these going to just go away or be added to the warframe's base cost?

 

I ask this because of Tactical Alerts and whether this will make frames easier or nigh-impossible to use in the low-conclave-limit portion of one of them.

Edited October 18, 2014 by (PS4)j232000

[(PSN)iBoiz]

Some abilities are best to at lower ranks and some frames are really fun to play with only 1 ability.

The changes really should get tweaked.

Also, giving me back my forma is not enough, I spent many days forma'ing my frames and bought boosters couple of times.