New Skill System Suggestion

[BenHoliday]

I haven't been playing this game very long, but it seems that a discussion of energy and skills crops up fairly often on the forums. I've seen suggestions of an individual cooldown system or other suggestions, usually followed by complaints that the proposed change to the system removes the ability to spam powers against bosses. Complaints of the existing system include that most Frames use only one skill because it is so much more effective per energy than every other skill on that frame (Ex: Why use anything but Iron Skin as a Rhino? Why use anything but Slash Dash as Excalibur?) or that it can slow gameplay by causing players to have to gather energy orbs after a tough fight, as opposed to merely picking up orbs as they advance.

 

I had a suggestion on a separate energy-related thread that I thought was worthwhile, so I thought I would repost it in its own thread for discussion. This suggestion is simple: combine cooldown with energy. Give each skill a recharge time between "free" uses, and require energy only when using the skill while it is still recharging.

 

It would allow us to continue to use powerful abilities as needed against bosses (especially with a Trinity restoring energy) but would also give people a reason to spend mod slots on the less-than-optimal abilities, because so long as they used them less often than their recharge time, they would not be giving up their "uses" of the powerful abilities to use the lesser ones.

 

It would also give us another way to balance abilities rather than just their energy cost. Slash Dash is considerably more useful than Pull (though they have the same energy cost) so perhaps Pull should have a lower recharge time, allowing you to use Pull for "free" more often than Slash Dash. This change could cause weaker abilities to in fact become quite useful without having to significantly alter the existing abilities to bring them all into balance with their energy cost.

 

These changes would (hopefully) cause people to use more varied abilities, but they would not need to loot energy as often except after bosses or large groups of enemies, so players would be less likely to backtrack for energy orbs. We could even reduce the drop rate of energy orbs, the amount restored, or even change how energy is naturally acquired (i.e. other than Artifacts or Energy Link) because people would not need as much energy.

 

It starts as a simple change, but I think it could lead to significantly more varied gameplay, much better skill balance, and more overall diversity between warframes.