Niche Mods: The Problem And Hopefully The Solution

[Xiusa]

Have you ever said to yourself "Wow, this Insulation mod will go great on my Warframe!"

 

Me neither. Not only does this mod not help in your typical PvE experience, but it also has a few counterparts that also don't do much.

Granted the Flame Repellent mod CAN be quite useful against those pesky Napalms or perhaps even a Scorch. However, there's nearly no incentive to equip the few niche mods. The only time you'll ever equip these mods is if you really hate those high-leveled Napalm squads that turn the world around you into the fires the Red Veil talk about. This is only applicable to one mod.

 

I do think the mods have potential to be useful. I will cover not only the damage resistance mods, but also mods that are seemingly untouched for other reasons. 

 

I'll start this off by highlighting the damage resistance mods, their problems, and a possible solution.

 

Antitoxin

This mod increases the Toxin resistance of a Warframe by 45% at max rank.

 

While there are more enemies in the game that do deal Toxin damage, this mod is not up to par with its counterparts. The other 3 basic elemental damage reduction mods give up to 60% resistance to their respective types. You want to prepare for some of those nasty Toxic Ancients or perhaps a Venemous Eximus? Toxin clouds released by some other Infestoid? You'll probably want to use Rush instead.

 

A Warframe will still take more damage from Toxin damage even with this mod equipped as their health consists of Flesh (which takes 50% more damage from Toxin damage.)

 

A possible solution to this could be to increase the resistance to at least 60% at max rank (I don't see why not if the other 3 are.)

 

The other three

These three mods are Flame Repellent, Insulation, and Lightning Rod. Each of them give a (at max rank) 60% damage resistance to Heat, Cold, and Electric respectively. Flame Repellent is different from the other two in that it is useful. There are very few things in the PvE aspect of the game that deal Cold damage. One of which is a barrel. The rest are bosses. Electric damage is actually used within enemy ranks among the Corpus on both ends, being the melee Prod Crewmen, and the ranged Sniper Crewmen. The Infested also utilize Electric damage with their Electric Crawlers. A few bosses are also capable of utilizing Electric-based attacks. The problem with the enemies that deal Electric damage is that they are easily avoidable as the Prod Crewmen can act as Little Mac chasing Doc Louis. The same problem persists with the Sniper Crewmen as the Lanka features a fancy projectile. I'd love to say something different about the Electric Crawler but I can't.

 

Currently only Flame Repellent grasps my attention but even then it's not something I would pick over almost any other mod. 

 

A solution? Let the damage resistances follow the same modding principle as their damaging counterparts. Let them mix!

 

Say you have a maxed out Flame Repellent and Insulation on your Warframe:

60% Heat resistance

60% Cold resistance

??% Blast resistance

 

There can only be so little solutions to this as there aren't enough enemies in the game with diverse damage types to justify more solutions. (I'm looking at you, Cold damage.)

 

Another way to go is to give these mods an additional resistance from damage types that branch off from the core damage type. Such as Flame Repellent giving ??% resistance from damage that uses Heat as part of its combination.

 

Other mods

Acrobat, Warm Coat, Diamond Skin (There's a reason why I am putting this here), Heavy Impact, Shield Flux, Provoked, Undying Will

 

Acrobat

I feel like a good change to Acrobat (and wall running in general) would be to include sticking to a wall.

The reduced stamina on wall running is neat, but the picture really set me off. Why can't we stick to walls? I know plenty of mods don't necessarily show off what they do within the picture, but it really got me thinking. Why not add wall clinging and ceiling hanging to the game? It gives us more time to think, position, and pull off those parkour-based moves that I feel I should be seeing a lot more of.

 

Keep the current effects, include +? seconds to wall clinging/ceiling hanging

 

Warm Coat

I don't see much reason to equip this mod as you can't exactly tell when you'll be jumping into a mission that halves your shields. Why not repurpose it? A good way to fix this mod to be useful (as a niche mod) is to change it from its current state to one that reduces the chance of being hit by a status effect.

 

Keep the percentages, change effect to reducing status chance on your Warframe. (Maybe even rename it to Thick Coat.)

 

Diamond Skin

You might be thinking "Why wasn't this included with the other damage reducing mods?"

Well, it's because it can be repurposed into a mod that has a chance to deflect projectiles. Detron Crewmen can be an absolute nightmare, I get it, this mod still has that use to it. Other than that, I don't see a reason to equip this mod unless you're afraid you might get caught out by a laser in the Void. 

 

Reduce percentages, change effect to deflecting projectiles.

 

Heavy Impact

This mod is...

I really don't know. It's a good combo mod for Excalibur's Super Jump and Zephyr's Dive Bomb, but that's about it. While any Warframe is able to utilize this mod, I've never seen anyone use it on any Warframe aside from the two aforementioned ones. A very useful tactic in this game is jump kicks. You jump in the air, slide into an enemy with your foot, and they get knocked down with a small bit of damage. Why not include or repurpose this mod to make it so your jump kicks last longer? I mean, you use your feet and weight for what Heavy Impact does now, why not give it more kick to your kicks?

 

Include or repurpose for increased jump kick potential.

 

Shield Flux

Why is this not the other way around???

If you're taking damage to your shields and on the move, this mod would be perfect to keep your shields up. It will make you want to stop to rest or turn the barrel of your gun towards your enemies. It will actually be a very nice mod to have, as well as give stamina builds a reason to exist.

 

Switch from Shields -> Stamina to Stamina -> Shields

 

Provoked

This mod is only useful while with other players. Yes, I know this game is primarily multiplayer, but there are still solo players out there that will never ever want to use this mod (Though, I don't think many people do to begin with.)

 

Allow this mod to grant use with a lone Tenno.

 

Undying Will

Same deal as Provoked. Purposing this mod to retain its use as a bleedout reduction mod as well as something a solo player could use is a good step.

 

Allow this mod to grant use with a lone Tenno.

 

 

I welcome feedback. Thank you for listening, Tenno.

 

(I think I covered everything I wanted to cover.)

 

:^)

Edited November 15, 2014 by Xiusa

[UndeadGhostWarrior]

TL;DR

 

There is simply no space for these mods. after the update we were left with 2 less slots. i suppose if we were allowed to keep them i would have tried using different mods i have never used before

[letir]

Provoked must work like last stand in Borderlands.

 

You falling down, take +10/15/20/25/30% to HP and Bleedout time and -70/65/60/55/50% to weapon's damage. If you kill someone, you get back on your feet with 15/20/25/30/35% of your HP and shield.

Edited November 15, 2014 by letir

[Xiusa]

TL;DR

 

There is simply no space for these mods. after the update we were left with 2 less slots. i suppose if we were allowed to keep them i would have tried using different mods i have never used before

The idea of a niche mod is that you place it there for a more specific reason and to add diversity among builds. Currently, yes, niche mods are in a terrible spot. Some niche mods (such as Handspring and the new Rapid Resilience mod) are very useful in many situations, as plenty of enemies are capable of being the reason for equipping these mods.

 

 

Provoked must work like last stand in Borderlands.

 

You falling down, take +10/15/20/25/30% to HP and Bleedout time and -70/65/60/55/50% to weapon's damage. If you kill someone, you get back on your feet with 15/20/25/30/35% of your HP and shield.

I actually really like this idea! I wasn't sure what to think of for a purpose for it because I was attempting to touch on the issue that a solo player will never use it.

[Guest]

Acrobat

I feel like a good change to Acrobat (and wall running in general) would be to include sticking to a wall.

The reduced stamina on wall running is neat, but the picture really set me off. Why can't we stick to walls? I know plenty of mods don't necessarily show off what they do within the picture, but it really got me thinking. Why not add wall clinging and ceiling hanging to the game? It gives us more time to think, position, and pull off those parkour-based moves that I feel I should be seeing a lot more of.

 

Keep the current effects, include +? seconds to wall clinging/ceiling hanging

 

Heavy Impact

This mod is...

I really don't know. It's a good combo mod for Excalibur's Super Jump and Zephyr's Dive Bomb, but that's about it. While any Warframe is able to utilize this mod, I've never seen anyone use it on any Warframe aside from the two aforementioned ones. A very useful tactic in this game is jump kicks. You jump in the air, slide into an enemy with your foot, and they get knocked down with a small bit of damage. Why not include or repurpose this mod to make it so your jump kicks last longer? I mean, you use your feet and weight for what Heavy Impact does now, why not give it more kick to your kicks?

 

Include or repurpose for increased jump kick potential.

awyssss