Yet Another Excalibur Ability Rework Proposal

[DietEbolaCola]

This is based upon discussions during and after Devstream 50 aired. I wanted a bit more Dark Sector tie-in & Warframe flavor with our favorite swordsman frame and poster child.

 

It took me a few weeks to finally get around to typing it up. Here is what I came up with. Thanks for reading.

 

ABILITY 1 – ADVANCING SWORDSMAN

 

Description: Excalibur surges forward to strike down enemies in his path.

 

Notes: Renamed version of a reworked Slash Dash. Works the same as described by DE Scott in Devstream 50. A cone-shaped area is used to select enemies that are melee attacked by Excalibur in sequence. Can be toggled off mid-animation, which will also put Excalibur into melee mode. The melee toggle should also work extremely well with the augment below.

 

MASTER SWORDSMAN (Augment): Each enemy hit during Advancing Swordsman increases your melee counter. Renamed version of the Surging Dash augment. Same functionality applied to the Advancing Swordsman as it did to Slash Dash. 

Opinion: I recommend with this augment that Excalibur go into melee mode when Advancing Swordsman finishes its duration, not just when toggled off, for maximum effectiveness.

 

ABILITY 2 – BLIND STRIKE

 

Description: Excalibur channels radiant light through his melee weapon to momentarily blind each target hit. Afflicted enemies can also emit a flash of blinding light upon death.

 

Notes: This is a blind analog to Saryn's toxin-based Contagion ability. Enemies are momentarily blinded while the melee weapon is imbued with light. If they are killed with the melee weapon while it is imbued or if they are killed while they are blinded, then they emit a small Radial Blind style effect. This can be used with thrown melee like the glaive as a ranged attack (shout out to 7grims). It can also be used with a ground slam to hit multiple targets at once. This should work extremely well with the Advancing Swordsman ability 1 listed above as well.

 

ABILITY 2 (ALTERNATE) – BLIND LEAP 

Description: Excalibur launches in the air to emit a bright flash of blinding light.

 

Notes: Combination of Radial Blind & Super Jump (with invisibility removed). Radial Blind portion casts at apex of jump. Benefit of Super Jump mobility plus the utility of Radial Blind. Many Excalibur players jump-cast Radial Blind and Radial Javelin to increase LOS already. However, with charged jumps coming this ability would be obsolete or redundnant (shout out to MysticShimmer for pointing that out), I am moving it down as an alternate ability 2.

 

ABILITY 2 (ALTERNATE) – FLASH BANG

Description: Excalibur tosses out a grenade to momentarily blind targets.

 

Notes: Grenade launches toward wherever targeting reticule is pointed to momentarily blind (and possibly deafen) targets within blast range. 

 

Opinion: This is usually what the community wants as an ability change here due to their familiarity with grenade usage in other games, and so I have begrudgingly included it here for review. However, to set Warframe apart, I believe this functionality would be better suited as a Thunderbolt-style mod, also called Flash Bang, for bows & grenade launchers instead of an Excalibur ability.

 

RADIANT FINISH (Augment): Blinded enemies are open for finishers, taking more damage. Same functionality as the current augment. May need renaming to fit the above Blind Strike (or Blind Leap or Flash Bang if used) naming convention. 

 

ABILITY 3 – SPECTRAL GLAIVES

 

Description: Launches high velocity glaives toward enemies.

 

Notes: Works exactly the same as the current Radial Javelin, except the attack animations shoot out energy glaive models instead of skana javelins. Stun effect also removed due to overlap with Radial Blind utility. 

 

GLAIVESTORM (Augment): Each enemy hit will increase Excalibur's melee damage for a short time. Renamed version of the Furious Javelin augment. This also will add the Stun back in that was removed from Radial Javelin. Everything else is the same. 

 

ELDRITCH GLAIVES (New Augment): Steals elemental properties and pulls drops from slain enemies. I included this as an example of including possible Dark Sector style glaive functionality worked in as a second augment.

 

ABILITY 4 – HAYDEN'S FURY

 

Description: Excalibur launches a tsunami of energy forward with each weapon slash.

 

Notes: This is pretty much the same as described in the Devstream, but with a cool name and another Dark Sector tie-in to draw me in. Excalibur does some melee slashing animations, and those summon giant energy waves to obliterate all that stand in its path.

 

--

 

Edit: With the uncoming charged jumps mechanic being include it makes Blind Leap somewhat redundant or obsolete, so I have added Blind Strike as ability 2 instead based upon community feedback. Now that I have provided more than one alternate ability 2, I have also stuck those behind spoiler tags to make this easier to read.

Edited April 21, 2015 by DietEbolaCola

[-Kryptyk-]

please... no more frame reworks on frames that have already been reworked.  DE already doesn't know what to do with the frames on their current list.  We also don't need more reworks, but rather making things more solid and fluid - getting rid of bugs with current frames and maps and such.  I'd be all for the next big update just being one massive fix for everything - not changing systems or adding effects.  just fixes.

[DietEbolaCola]

please... no more frame reworks on frames that have already been reworked.  DE already doesn't know what to do with the frames on their current list.  We also don't need more reworks, but rather making things more solid and fluid - getting rid of bugs with current frames and maps and such.  I'd be all for the next big update just being one massive fix for everything - not changing systems or adding effects.  just fixes.

 

You can't stand in the way of progress. It is already underway by the devs. Sorry.

 

The OP is a suggestion of a direction they could take it based on the information we have at hand.

 

If there is anything you disagree with or feel should be changed in this particular proposal, please fee free to comment so we can discuss it.

 

Thanks.

[7grims]

U inspired me, how about a blinding glaive, would have the chance to blind more enemies as it bounces trough the room.

[-Kryptyk-]

You can't stand in the way of progress. It is already underway by the devs. Sorry.

 

The OP is a suggestion of a direction they could take it based on the information we have at hand.

 

If there is anything you disagree with or feel should be changed in this particular proposal, please fee free to comment so we can discuss it.

 

Thanks.

define progress.  They've buffed x, nerfed y..... buff y then nerf x.  rework one thing, fix it again, add a new game mode and break everything.... it's a constant pattern.  All I'm saying is that we don't need reworks, just one massive update that really dives into everything that needs to be fixed.  Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea and one that could potentially work, but if things keep getting reworked that have already been reworked, then no "progress" will be made.  

[TheOnlyWarBear]

His description is basically what DE just recently proposed to do with their Poster Boy but with different names.

[Stratego89]

I agree with all of this. +1. I'd love to see more Hayden-esque qualities to Excalibur.

U inspired me, how about a blinding glaive, would have the chance to blind more enemies as it bounces trough the room.

THIS RIGHT HERE. Fits more than a flashbang imo, but either would work.

[DietEbolaCola]

U inspired me, how about a blinding glaive, would have the chance to blind more enemies as it bounces trough the room.

 

That would work well as an awesome straight up glaive mod or augment as well.

 

I'll try to type something up and include that as an alternate ability 2 in the OP. However, that might have an issue of overlap with ability 3 also using glaives. Thoughts?

[Archangelzz]

Sorry bud your idea like all the others will not appear, the devs already have a clear idea of what they want for his revamp.

[DietEbolaCola]

Sorry bud your idea like all the others will not appear, the devs already have a clear idea of what they want for his revamp.

 

Possibly. Either way, at least they'll have cooler names to choose from to describe those abilities and ideas, or it will inspire which direction they are going with it.

Edited April 21, 2015 by DietEbolaCola

[DietEbolaCola]

OP Updated:

 

With the uncoming charged jumps mechanic being include it makes Blind Leap somewhat redundant or obsolete, so I have added Blind Strike as ability 2 instead based upon community feedback (shout out to MysticShimmer & 7grims).

 

Now that I have provided more than one alternate ability 2, I have also stuck those behind spoiler tags to make this easier to read.

[FitzSimmons]

will this kind of post can ever end?

[-Kryptyk-]

will this kind of post can ever end?

probably not

[DietEbolaCola]

will this kind of post can ever end?

 

They will once there is no more passion among the devs and the community for this game. I hope that day never comes.

 

PS. Thanks for the bumping the thread. Maybe more will see it and be constructive with their feedback.

[Thaumatos]

define progress. They've buffed x, nerfed y..... buff y then nerf x.  rework one thing, fix it again, add a new game mode and break everything.... it's a constant pattern. All I'm saying is that we don't need reworks, just one massive update that really dives into everything that needs to be fixed. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea and one that could potentially work, but if things keep getting reworked that have already been reworked, then no "progress" will be made.

This is the exact opposite of how you fix things properly.

You can't change multiple variables and expect a workable answer. The best way is to fix bugs before balancing and then tweak things until they're balanced.

Due to work and time constraints, most game companies elect to make sweeping changes in-house, test them for functionality flaws, and then release them to the public. Then all the new exploits come about because of the difference between limited in-house skill level vs nearly limitless skill levels of the public.

This is the kind of crap you saw with Guild Wars 2. Forget that their "balance" team couldn't draw a straight line with a precision level; they changed way too much and waited 4-6 months between patches which drove most of their competitive base away.

DE's patch timing is perfect for incremental changes.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Thaumatos