[Suggestion] Ancient Distruptors

[Equil1]

I suggest Distruptors should drop accumulative energy orbs. By this I mean they would drop an energy orb on death depending on how much energy they've sapped from players. It would work something like this:

 

No players sapped = No drop

1 player sapped = 25 Energy drop

2 players sapped = 50 Energy drop

3 players sapped = 75 energy drop

 

etc

 

It could also work in a more complicated fasion, e.g it could drop an energy orb that would give 25% of the total energy it's consumed from all players.

 

I came up with this idea just after experiencing how futile and easy it can be for distruptors to take -all- your energy sometimes, I know the best solution is to avoid getting into those situations in the first place, but I feel like this would be a nice addition without horribly unbalancing anything and make it feel more rewarding for taking them down.

 

[wkfire]

3 players sapped = he is real monster xD

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

I always viewed Ancient Disruptors to be the punisher for sloppy play.

 

They are slow and easily avoided unless you don't pay attention.

 

I also always viewed them as a way to "nerf"/counter frames that are reliant or have very good offense/defensive skills by making them unable to use any of them. A Banshee player and my Excalibur Prime were completely decimated when 5 of them attacked us in Palus, Pluto since our energy were taken away.

 

I believe this provides challenge and if killing them gives back guaranteed energy, it wouldn't be as challenging and punishing anymore.

 

Above is my opinion so I would have to disagree with you on this one.

Edited May 14, 2013 by OoKeNnEtHoO

[PaperAlien]

I always viewed Ancient Disruptors to be the punisher for sloppy play.

 

They are slow and easily avoided unless you don't pay attention.

 

I also always viewed them as a way to "nerf"/counter frames that are reliant or have very good offense/defensive skills by making them unable to use any of them. A Banshee player and my Excalibur Prime were completely decimated when 5 of them attacked us in Palus, Pluto since our energy were taken away.

 

I believe this provides challenge and if killing them gives back guaranteed energy, it wouldn't be as challenging and punishing anymore.

 

Above is my opinion so I would have to disagree with you on this one.

My opinion is that sapping all your energy and shields from a single attack is an overkill method of punishment, and the suggestion made here would alleviate that.

[ToeSama]

I don't mind the energy drain so much (and I play a Mag as primary, so that's something), but a total shield drain is a real teeth grinder to me. One stray smack in a high wave defense mission when there's five + of those things around you and you're dead as soon as all the runners get there if you're one of the lower armored suits...

 

The energy drain can stay, but the total shield drain is what really needs to be reworked IMO. Tacking both abilities onto different type of attacks instead of the same attack would be nice, but I could also settle for a shield percentage drain or something like that as well.

[PositronicSpleen]

I thought it would be fitting if it drained shields and/or energy gradually from nearby players, like how Toxic Ancients do direct health damage (that I think ignores armor?).

[Botein]

You can't help but love the "challenge" of disruptors. Heat-seeking insta-rape tentacles that zap all of your shields and energy plus knock you down? What's not to love? I only wish they would also steal my lunch money and push me backwards over another disrupter on all fours behind me, laughing at me the entire time.

Disrupters are the equivalent "challenge" rating of the unpredictable bat-like creatures that fly into your head while you're jumping over a cliff in early platform games.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Botein

[AusDune]

Haha nice post botein. But i always say it could be worse, they could add the mana drain to runners as well =P

[fishworshipper]

I'd be better if their tentacle wasn't lightspeed and homing and shield sapping and energy sapping.

Any 2 of the above is fine, but all 4 is just the game being a $&*^.

[ShockTart]

i honestly think disruptors should be nerfed a bit. they are overpowered, their attack should either sap your sheilds or sap your energy. not both at once

[xection9]

1 hit drain is totally unbalance, we know in defense mission energy is the real deal.

Disruptor is my second annoying/cheap enemy attacks in warframe after the rollers.

[Drakontis]

Quite honestly, I'm on the fence about nerfing disruptors. I know there are ways around their attacks. Staying away from them, using defensive/offensive abilities, Iron Skin tanking. But at the same time, getting hit is almost always a huge problem. And it's aggravating. But it makes you play more carefully, take better care of watching your surroundings and they seem to be the one true threat in the infested's arsenal. When I see infested bouncing off my Rhino, I usually make a joke regarding the futility of their attacks against my now 990 shields. But a disruptor changes that and I HAVE to kill it or risk death because I keep my health a little lower than I probably should. 

[OoKeNnEtHoO]

Quite honestly, I'm on the fence about nerfing disruptors. I know there are ways around their attacks. Staying away from them, using defensive/offensive abilities, Iron Skin tanking. But at the same time, getting hit is almost always a huge problem. And it's aggravating. But it makes you play more carefully, take better care of watching your surroundings and they seem to be the one true threat in the infested's arsenal. When I see infested bouncing off my Rhino, I usually make a joke regarding the futility of their attacks against my now 990 shields. But a disruptor changes that and I HAVE to kill it or risk death because I keep my health a little lower than I probably should. 

 

Agreed.

[Madotsuki]

Admittedly, Ancient Disruptors aren't THAT bad. It is possible to dodge their attacks, freeze mods trivialize them 90% of the time (though freeze mods trivialize ANYTHING melee-based), they have weakspots, you can stunlock them with melee etc. However, I do think it is just really cheap for a single hit to drain players of all shields AND energy. Yeah, it is avoidable, but still the price of getting hit is WAY too high for an attack that has almost no telegraphing, and can hit in the most awkward directions (i.e. in reverse through the Ancients own body to hit the back). Not to mention they ALSO knock you down after draining all of your shields, and have a fast enough attack rate that if you are knocked down, they WILL get a guaranteed second hit.

 

I don't mind their speed, I don't mind their health, I relatively don't mind their spawn rate neither. However, I think Ancient Disruptors really shouldn't be allowed to zap all of your energy in a single hit. All shields, yes, but for energy, make it just a percentage, which starts low and can increase with Disruptor level. At the same time, change their attack so that 1. They can only hit in front of them, and not behind them, so that players will have the option of dodging behind the Disruptors to dodge them. 2. Either decrease their attack rate by introducing a significant telegraph animation, or remove their ability to knock down players, otherwise a single knockdown hit also equals to a guaranteed second hit, which is just cheap. Of course, in return, stuns should have a diminishing returns added to it (both ways) or give both players and enemies a stun immunity period after being stunned recently to prevent Ancients (and players, and bosses) in general getting stunlocked by players.

Edited May 15, 2013 by Madotsuki

[Drakontis]

Removing or reducing stunlocking is an interesting idea, both for enemies and players. 

 

Also, the wonky hits for disruptors I find amusing. 

 

Disruptor chases friendly, I chase disruptor, disruptor swings, hand travels through space and time and smacks me in my silly little face, draining shields and energy. 

[DitsyPixie]

In my opinion they definitely need some work, even if it's just on the visual side. Toxics are easily spotted a mile away but imo disruptors blend in with runners too much - in an hectic situation u can miss one of them in a horde of runners until u get hit. Making them exude black fumes and mb changing their skin to have sth like blistering red spots mixed into a more dark skin would help to spot them early.

Also their attack should not be homing AND ignore collision at the same time. Want to take cover behind some crate? Nope! Damn tentacle homes right through it. Plus if there are some lags it can lead to bizzare moment where you've long dodged out of the way and circled around them and suddently their tentacle makes a U-turn and hits u in the face.. Plus dodging to the side doesn't seem to throw of the homing...

 

tl;dr they at least should make them visually more distinct and change their attack to not ignore collisions but miss side dodges.

[Equil1]

Another idea I had is instead leave distruptors as they are, but for anyone familiar with Dark Souls, add invulnerability frames during your knocked down animation until you're back on your feet. It feels like such a cheap shot when you're knocked down by an Ancient/Leaper that was nowhere near you on your client(Due to lag or what have you) and then have your energy sapped while you're on the ground, unable to retaliate. 

 

Also they're incredibly hard to avoid in groups on the defense map like on Xini, where the pod is on a small platform, there's not much room to roll out of the way of their tentacles without rolling off the edge, which is sub-optimal to say the least, it kind of requires you to be Rhino and pop iron skin or just sacrifice your energy and shields and tank the hits.