Synergy Within Abilities

[MechaKnight]

Since the announcement of Abilities 3.0, I've considered synergy within a single warframe's ability kit to be perhaps the best solution to fixing specific problems within current abilities, as well as innovating new gameplay for our current warframes. Previously, dependency between abilities was seen as negative design because of the possibility of the player not equipping all four of their abilities, rendering the synergy between particular abilities null.

 

Below is a list of warframes and possible synergy within their abilities to solve current outstanding problems, as well as innovate new gameplay within old abilities. This list will grow as all participants within the community come to suggest more synergy to add to this list. That said, it is highly appreciated to contribute new, sensible ideas to this post.

 

Banshee

While Sound Quake is toggled on, Push can be used to increase the damage of Sound Quake for a limited time.

 

Ember

Overheat can come back as a passive ability. The player will simulate actual overheat by constant use of abilities to gradually raise damage reduction. The amount of damage reduction added to the player is dependent on the rate at which abilities are used, as well as which abilities are used. If the player stops using abilities, this damage reduction will gradually be lost. This passive feature can be balanced by a maximum cap for damage reduction, and the degree at which overheat degrades.

 

Accelerant can interact with Fire Storm to increase the chance of enemies catching fire, and giving a custom status which allows these enemies to spread fire amongst others near them.

 

Fire Blast can interact with other abilities.

>If Ember stands within the area of Fire Blast, all of her damage abilities gain increased status chance, damage, and range, transforming Ember into a form of stationary turret.

 

World on Fire can have an alternate function where pressing its key during use would expend more energy in exchange for a new feature, either a flame shell encasing Ember burning enemies near her, or a brief radial flash of fire. This alternate fire will consume more energy on top of the usual cost for World on Fire.

 

Excalibur

Super Jump can trigger alternative behavior in abilities.

>Slash Dash will become a downward blade slam into the ground, causing a shockwave that can stun enemies and deal damage. Extremely high damage will be inflicted upon the single particular enemy Excalibur lands on top of, plunging his sword within the enemy.

 

>Radial Javelin can become Raining Javelin, transforming this previously single-release area-of-effect ability into a damage-over-time ability within a particular area.

 

Radial Blind can create additional behavior in other abilities.

>If the key for Radial Blind is pressed while the player is performing Slash Dash, enemies are blinded within a small area from Excalibur. This effect persists until the dash ends.

>If the key for Radial Blind is pressed while within the animation of Super Jump, Excalibur will glow. Enemies that contact Excalibur on his trip upwards get radiation blinded, radiation status, and catches on fire. These effects will be lost when Excalibur reaches his apex and falls downwards.

 

Frost

Snow Globe can cause different behavior in his offensive abilities.

>If Freeze, Ice Wave, or Avalanche are used while Frost is within his own Snow Globe, they inflict additional slowing status to enemies hit by these abilities.

 

Avalanche can heal Snow Globe by a small amount each time it is used.

 

Mag

Shield Polarize can increase the range and/or duration of Bullet Attractor

 

Nekros

Terrify can cause different behavior in other abilities.

>Soul Punch can do more damage to targets under the effects of Terrify, as well as additional statuses such as slow status, armor reduction, corrosive proc, viral proc, etc.

>Shadows of the Dead shadows deal additional damage to targets under the effect of Terrify.

 

Soul Punch can heal shadow clones from Shadows of the Dead.

 

Nova

Wormhole can carry Antimatter Drop to the wormhole's end destination.

 

Nyx

Psychic Bolts can cause heal targets under the effects of Mind Control, then inflict this amount of damage when it ends.

 

Rhino

Roar can cause different behavior in other abilities.

>Rhino Charge can gain an AoE knockdown effect for the entire duration of the charge.

 

Saryn

Venom can have various interaction with other abilities.

>Can interact with Molt to place Venom spores onto the Molt, causing them to spread upon detonation.

>Can interact with Contagion to pop (spread) one spore per successful impact of the melee weapon anywhere on the opponent's body.

>Venom can stack its effects onto Contagion to make spores appear on targets hit by Contagion that are not already afflicted by Venom.

 

Venom can be spread by area-of-effect damage from Molt and Miasma.

 

Contagion can interact with Molt

>Molt will instantly detonate when hit by the same player with Contagion. Also, Saryn will gain an exoskeleton based on the health value of Molt. It will emanate gas within a range of Saryn's current position, and offer protection.

 

Trinity

Blessing can interact with Well of Life and Energy Vampire.

>Well of Life and Energy Vampire give increased health and energy in an increased range for one pulse when Blessing is cast.

 

Link can interact with Well of life and Energy Vampire.

>If the linked enemy is damaged, this damage is directly converted to health/energy to the linked Trinity.

 

Valkyr

Ripline's deploy and pull speed is increased while under the effects of Warcry and/or Hysteria.

 

When Paralysis is cast under the effects of Hysteria, it gains increased range and damage ability.

>Alternatively, Paralysis can stay the same, and pressing the key for Hysteria while it is already in use will create an attack similar to a more powerful variant of Paralysis, at the cost of energy.

 

Vauban

Bastille can combine with other abilities.

>If a Bounce is launched into a Bastille with enemies trapped within, the Bounce pad will expend one use as it forcefully ejects a random enemy outside of the Bastille.

>If Tesla is thrown within Bastille, it will become charged, inflicting damage over time with status chance to any targets trapped within.

 

Volt

Electric Shield can amplify the damage done by Shock if this ability is cast through the shield. The floor can also be temporarily charged to act as a trap with high chance to stun enemies with a shock for a limited time.

 

Speed can increase the cast speed of Overload.

 

Zephyr

Turbulence can merge with Tail Wind to give an AoE knockdown effect for the duration of the flight.

 

Turbulence can gain an alternate fire.

>If the key for Turbulence is pressed again while the ability is already being used, a knockdown effect applied within a small radius of 2 meters will occur, at the cost of energy.

 

 

Cooperative Synergy

Players have discussed in other threads co-op synergy between different warframes, so it is worthwhile to consider them in this thread.

 

 

Banshee

+Excalibur: Radial Blind

+Mirage: Prism

>Enemies both blinded and deafened are greatly disabled to be much slower and less accurate. Custom accuracy debuff to reduce weapon accuracy by 95%

 

Ember

+Frost: Snow Globe

>If a Fire Ball is thrown through a Snow Globe, it becomes a mass of vapor. This mass of steam can cause damage and knockdown by Blast status within an area. This ability can be balanced by limiting the newly created ball of vapor in range by gravity--as it covers distance, it falls rapidly. It will eventually hit the floor. The ability can also be balanced by simply causing the steam to vanish when a certain distance is achieved.

 

Saryn

+Volt: Shock

>Enemies covered in venom spores when hit by Shock will have all spores pop at once. The enemy will get a 100% granted chance of viral status, and a stack of corrosive status procs, one for each spore found on the enemy at the time.

 

Vauban

+Rhino: Rhino Stomp

> Enemies under the effect of Stomp will have decreased gravity, allowing them to be pulled into Vortexes from greater range.

 

 

 

Disclaimers and Credits:

I take no credit for any of the above suggestions. You may share any of these concepts without contributing any credit to this thread. Please note that any features within this opening post and the thread are unofficial works by fans, and are in no way indicative of what DE will implement or how it is implemented in the future. Any similarity between this thread and other threads previous and future are purely coincidental.

Edited October 19, 2014 by MechaKnight

[MechaKnight]

Reserved for future additions. #1

Edited October 18, 2014 by MechaKnight

[MechaKnight]

Reserved for future additions. #2

Edited October 18, 2014 by MechaKnight

[MechaKnight]

Reserved for future additions. #3 (Final)

[Mcl_Blue]

I like where this is going.

[akira_him]

cool ideas, take my +1

[GinKenshin]

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY +10000000 :D

[Lluid]

All ideas about synergies are interesting, yours fit well with every warframe, well done.

Just one about Banshee : sonar weakness zone size could be increased during her ultimate (so that allies can shoot it easier).

 

However, I'm more interested in synergies between abilities of different warframes. I enjoy mastering my frame, but I enjoy even more cooperation. Do you plan on adding a list of these possibilities ?

 

Here's just examples :

 - Ember's fire ball through Frost's snow globe could transform to a bigger "blast" ball, with AOE damage *4 and knockdown,

 - Enemies suffering Saryn's Venom could lose a good % of their armor (big "corrosive" proc) if attacked by Volt's Shock,

 - Enemies suspended in the air by Rhino's ultimate could be attracted towards Vauban's Vortex from a greater distance,

 - Enemies blinded (by Excalibur, Mirage or Oberon) AND affected by Banshe's silence could become unable to move properly and extremely vulnerable,

 - the list can be pretty long

Edited October 18, 2014 by Lluid

[MechaKnight]

Do you plan on adding a list of these possibilities ?

I can fit that in my main post or place it into a reserved spot. As of now, Abilities 3.0 is a great chance to use synergy within a single warframe to fix outstanding problems and add new gameplay. I can also make a list of co-op synergy later to consider teamwork oriented gameplay. I'm sure it's a great idea so long as we don't consider tilesets and their varying designs too much in this early stage. For example, not every tileset has water so adding water-based synergy probably isn't worth it yet. However, Hydroid synergy is fine, because his water is part of his abilities.

 

Edit: Done. It's in the opening post now.

Edited October 18, 2014 by MechaKnight

[.Czern]

Very good ideas, good work! I hope that at least some of them will be implemented.

you made my hearth warm with Ember passive :*

[JuanPoker]

i would like very much the idea of Cooperative Synergy

[MechaKnight]

Added a few more features to the list based on another idea. What if timer-based abilities with the "ability in use" limitation had an alternate fire, where pressing the same key while the ability is already in effect can produce an additional ability effect at the cost of more energy? Depending on implementation of whether this effect is instant or distributed over time, the additional energy cost will be a flat expense of energy, or a toggle that will last until the ability timer ends.