New Ideas: Passive Abilities And Warframe Specialization Bonuses

[Phoenix86]

Impressive wall-of-text :O

 

This idea could be implemented somehow using the current artifact system which is a kind of passive system already

[Archangelzz]

Its a good idea, but why not make them warframe specific mods like they are already doing with some weapons. If more room is needed, maybe they could move the warframe abilities to their own slots that dont cost mod points and give warframes 8 regular mod slots.

 

This would give players something more to work for.

they used to do that during closed beta they had warframe specific mods one i remember one was excailber got more shields and melee damage and only he could use that mod

[VoidWraith]

Ok, so Warframe centers around each warframe representing a different class i.e Ash is a Rogue, Frost is a Battlemage, Rhino is a Tank, Saryn is a Warlock, etc.

 

So as long as we're in the realm of MMO fantasy mechanics, why not add passive abilities that unlock as you level up your Warframe? Here's a few ideas:

 

-Rhino-

+Additional damage reduction at regular interval levels (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30)

+Enemies are more likely to target Rhino when he uses his abilities, OR enemies automatically turn their attention to him when he activates Rhino Skin. So basically he generates more threat.

+Any melee weapon he uses automatically bypasses a percentage of an enemies' armor due to the massive strength he puts into his swings. Ex: Instead of taking 33% normal damage, Medium Grineer take 36-45% reduced damage from Rhino's melee instead.

+Redirection and Vitality are 5% more effective when placed in Rhino's polarity slots due to his heavy armor, resilience, and constitution.

+All Mods that add Chance to Stun are 1 to 5% more effective when wielded by Rhino.

+[Added AFTER original post] There is a 1 to 10% chance that a 2H weapon's attack will be uninterruptable, even when Rhino Skin is not active. (This Passive ability will be difficult to unlock [see Warframe Specialization section] as it is a potentially VERY powerful advantage to have.)

+If Rhino takes more than 100 points of Health damage from a single hit, he gains 2 seconds of invulnerability.

 

-Loki-

+Enemies take .5 to 1.5 seconds longer to react to Loki when first spotting him when in an unalerted state.

+Kills made while Invisibility is active extends the duration of Invisibility by 1 to 1.5 seconds, which can stack up to 15 times.

+Cameras take 1.5 seconds longer to enter Alert status when Loki is spotted.

+[Added AFTER original post]  All melee attacks performed have a 0.1% chance MAXIMUM to bypass enemy shields and be instantly fatal. A melee attack performed from behind an enemy has a 0.5% chance to be fatal. A melee attack performed on an enemy in an unalerted state has a 1% chance to be fatal. A melee attack performed from behind an unalerted enemy (not a stealth takedown attack) has a 1.5% chance of being fatal. This does NOT apply to Bosses. While this may seem useless at first, imagine your surprise when a level 45 Ancient Disruptor with full health dies with one hit from your Ceramic Dagger. A nice surprise that will happen once in a LONG while. (To balance this passive, only Level 20-30 1H melee weapons may benefit from this ability)

+If Loki takes more than 125 points of Health damage from a single hit, he gains 3 seconds of Invisiblity.

 

-Volt-

+Ability to recharge a portion of his shields if he interacts with any sort of terminal, even if it doesn't need to be hacked. However, each individual terminal can only be used this way once per mission, and consecutive uses within a certain amount of time is subject to diminishing returns.

+At Affinity level 30, Volt has a chance to emit an AoE electrical charge when his shields are depleted. This AoE effect is a weaker version of his Overload Uber ability, but has a shorter range and reduced damage, but has a 100% chance to stun all enemies in the active radius. This ability has a 2 minute cooldown.

+All Mods that add Electrical damage are 5 to 25% more effective when wielded by Volt.

+Corpus weapons deal 5 to 30% less damage to Volt's shields, as Volt seems to be designed to combat the Corpus.

+[Added AFTER OP] There is a small chance that Volt will regain some energy when hit by Corpus energy weapons (0.5 to 1%) or upon completing a console hack without using a cipher (1 to 3% chance)

+[Added AFTER OP] Using Shock on a console will overload it, and will initiate a lockdown in that area.

+[Added AFTER OP] Using Shock on a locked Storage Locker grants a 25% to overload the system and unlock it.

+[Added AFTER OP] Using Shock to kill a mechanical enemy (Moa, Osprey, Latcher, Roller) will overcharge its systems, granting a chance that it will drop an Energy Orb +50 instead of a +25.

+[Added AFTER OP] Shock has a chance to arc to up to 3 nearby enemies, with each bounce dealing 50% of the original damage. This only works if the enemies are metallic in nature (This includes Corpus Crew because they have metal helmets. The arc will also work with some Grineer because their weapons are metallic.) Grineer that are hit by the arc will drop their weapons and revert to melee [VERY debatable].

+If Volt takes more than 100 points of Health damage in a single hit, he gains 2 seconds of increased speed.

 

-Ember-

+Ember is 25 to 95% resistant to all forms of fire damage. I mean, one of her abilities sets her on fire, and she doesn't take any damage then! Inconsistency alert, DE!

+All mods that add Fire damage are 5 to 25% more effective when wielded by Ember

+Infested deal 5 to 30% less damage to Ember, as she is specially designed to combat them.

+Ancient Disruptors' Energy Drain is only 50% effective versus Ember's Shields and Energy Pool. (I'm not so sure about this one. I think it would make her overpowered on Infested missions.)

+If Ember takes more than 125 points of Health damage in a single hit, she will self-immolate for 5 seconds, dealing the same amount of damage as her second Ability.

 

-Trinity-

+At Affinity level 30, Trinity possesses a Health Regen Aura similar to the Artifact.

+Immunity to Poison damage.

+Bonus melee damage versus Infested.

+Health Orbs are 100 to 300% more effective. This may seem like a lot, but seeing that 100% more than +25 is 50, 300% doesn't seem all that high.

+If Trinity takes more than 125 points of Health damage in a single hit, she will self-heal for 1.5x the amount of damage taken. This can only occur once every 5 minutes.

 

-Mag-

+Reduced Health damage from ballistic projectiles. Mag has a constant aura of magnetism surrounding her that slows the speed of incoming metallic objects. The percentage reduced increases with Affinity level.

+Reduced damage from shrapnel-based explosions, such as Grineer grenades and Latchers, but not exploding barrels, which are mostly extreme heat.

+Mag encases her bullets with a magnetic field, giving them more penetrating power causing them to deal additional AP damage. (Gauss rounds)

+Using Pull on a shattered window when the hull is compromised lowers the [metal] blast shield without the need to override at a console.

+Latchers cannot attach to Mag because of her constant magnetic repulsion.

+If Mag takes more than 100 points of Health damage in a single hit, she will surround herself with a magnetic repulsion field for 3 seconds. This field repels all matter, including bullets, shrapnel, and charged particle projectiles. Infested will be unable to approach.

 

-Saryn-

+Saryn passively deals corrosive damage with her melee attacks. .5% poison damage every 5 Affinity levels.

+Instead of taking damage from poison, Saryn gains health by standing in poisonous vapors or being hit by the aftereffects of a Toxic Ancient. She gains health at the same rate that others lose health when poisoned. This rate does not increase with Affinity Level for the sake of balance.

+Saryn does not take Health damage in a vacuum. She already has deadly poison in her lungs. I don't imagine that a lack of oxygen would affect her much, either.

+At Affinity level 30, Saryn is constantly surrounded by a poisonous aura that deals corrosive damage to enemies within it's radius. Once an enemy has taken a certain amount of damage from this aura, it no longer affects them (this is purely for balance, as this ability could easily be abused).

+If Saryn takes more than 100 points of Health damage in a single hit, she will automatically activate Molt, even if she has insufficient energy, or it isn't equipped. This can only occur once every 3 minutes, and the discarded shell is 50% weaker than the normal one.

 

-Frost-

+Frost does not suffer from reduced shield capacity on Extreme Cold missions. (This is NOT my original idea. Credit goes to Feldgrep. I just thought this idea would get more press here.)

+Frost slowly regenerates energy on Extreme Cold missions, similar to the Artifact ability.

+Frost's abilities are 5 to 20% more efficient (reduced energy cost) on Extreme Cold missions and 3 to 15% more efficient on any mission where snow and ice is present.

+Frost's abilities deal more damage and slow enemies more on missions where snow and ice are present (includes Extreme Cold missions)

+Damage abilities used on or near extreme heat sources (Ex. Ice Wave used on an explosive barrel) will generate an obscuring cloud of steam that forces enemies out of an Alerted state for the duration of the steam cloud, allowing you to perform Stealth Takedowns while in the cloud with impunity.

+On snowy missions, Frost's base armor value is increased 5 to 25%.

+On Extreme Heat missions, Frost is surrounded by a steam cloud that reduces enemy accuracy by 20 to 50% at ranges other than point blank.

+Mods that add Freeze damage have a 5 to 30% increased Slow duration when wielded by Frost.

+If Frost takes more than 100 points of damage in a single hit, he will freeze over, gaining a thick shell of icy armor for 3 seconds that reduces all damage by 90%.

 

 

Now, those are just a FEW ideas, and I know I didn't touch some of the other Warframes. But those examples were to set you up for my next idea: Warframe Specialization Bonuses. You see, those Passive abilities aren't available to you as soon as you acquire a new Warframe. No, no! The more you use a specific Warframe, the more Passive abilities you will unlock! The Passive skills will increase in potency as you gain Affinity, but only when you have used a Warframe enough will the most powerful Passive skills be available. Let me give you an example:

 

You just finished creating the Volt Warframe in the Foundry. It's Unranked. You've never used it in the field, so you have no Affinity with it. Only ONE Passive ability is unlocked: 5% Shield damage reduction vs. Corpus weapons.

Your Login Reward that day gives you enough Warframe Affinity to advance your Volt Frame to level 2 (It's an example. Roll with it.). That is enough to unlock his Passive Ability that allows him to recharge his shields by interfacing with a console. HOWEVER, you still haven't gone into the field with him yet, so that Passive is locked. How do you unlock it? You gain Specialization by meeting certain requirements with a Warframe while on missions. Killing 250 enemies from any faction will be enough to unlock the Shield Recharge Passive. However, in order to unlock the more powerful or specialized Passives, you will need to accomplish certain things. For example, in order to level your Damage Reduction vs. Corpus weapons, you will need to take a certain amount of Shield damage from the Corpus enemies. Let's say you need to unlock Reduction vs Corpus Level 3. That would require you to take maybe 250,000 points of Shield damage from Corpus enemies.   

 

By adding Passive abilities, you would be adding further incentive to specialize in one particular Warframe, and would extend the playability lifetime for each one. Making it so you need to unlock each Passive by meeting certain requirements will also encourage players to stick with one Warframe to master in order to maximize face-wrecking ability before moving on to master the next one.

 

I am open to constructive criticism, but please don't be overly negative. I would like this idea to come to the attention of the Developers, so please help me out by up-voting so they will take notice.

 

saryn: i wouldnt recommend that poison heals her, she deals with poison and probably houses different types of poisons in her frame, so it would make more sense to say shes immune to it. vacuum damage isnt always about whether theres air or not, its also about air pressure, and so forth.

 

mag: the immune to latchers thing.... i wouldnt recommend this either.... as for the shrapnel damage thing... i wouldnt presume to know that the explosion damage is heat/pressure or shrapnel. we dont see the shrapnels flying upon explosion(like mag's crush on the ending animation where you see rock shrapnels flying everywhere).

 

too long to really read through all of them, but generally while i approve and enjoy the idea of passive abilities(not passive base stat increase) upon leveling or what not, try to keep balance in mind. we dont want one overpowering the other and we also want to make this co-op friendly, since the DEs encourage co-op play(hence the dojo/clan thing to encourage small community/society to come together).

Edited June 28, 2013 by VoidWraith