Ash, Qol Changes, Tweaks And Interactive Bladestorm

[StonedMakak]

Notice: This is growing into a nice wall of text. More Brainstorming about Bladestorm, check out the updates at the bottom, as we collectively managed to come up with a cool rework idea.  

 

After playing around with the newest Prime (awesome design btw), I remembered why I put Ash on the shelf a while ago. 

 

Just to be clear, numerically he's completely fine. Damage, EHP, survivability and all the rest of min-maxer stuff is right where it should be. What Ash lacks IMHO is beyond just numbers. Things like Smoke Bomb feeling a bit like Invisibility's dumber brother, or Bladestrom putting you in passengers seat, and forcing you to watch a confusing montage of average animations you know all too well.  

 

Here's what I would add to each ability, except for Shuriken which is just fine:

 

Deathblow Passive: All damage dealt by abilities scales with enemies health. In order to to this the current damage would need to start off a bit lower against full-health enemies, say around 75%. Then, per 10% of missing health on the enemy Ash would receive a 15% damage bonus for abilities. 

 

Smoke Screen: Functions exactly the same as now. Additionally, upon casting it leaves behind a cloud of smoke (size affected by range mods) that lasts for 12 seconds (unaffected by duration). Enemies inside receive accuracy penalties against all players, enemies outside receive accuracy penalties when targeting players that are inside the cloud. Augment changes so that players who run through the cloud become invisible, while Ash's invisibility timer gets suspended while he stays in the cloud. 

 

Teleport: Multiple ways of tackling this one. Free aim and faster animation would be best. As an alternative I'd suggest slight buff to finisher portion of the skill - if the finisher is a death blow, Ash gets speed bonus (10-15%) and a smokey effect that makes him harder to target.  

 

Bladestrom: Now I know that many people like the cool cutscenish feel of BS. Not a fan myself but I can understand that. My suggestion is truly non-invasive in this regard: You aim at an enemy and press 4. Ash teleports to him and grabs him (custom animation). Here is when interactive element comes into play:

 

1) You hold LMB, Ash performs Bladestorm in it's current iteration, with clones. 

 

2) You target another enemy and just press LMB. Ash performs a custom finisher on the enemy he currently holds and teleports to the one you targeted. At this point you make your choice again. No clones in this one. Target highlighting would go a long way here. 

 

Option 1 would allow you to put Ash on autopilot to clear weak mobs. Option 2 would take longer to execute, but you have total control over which enemies you want to attack. Useful for finishing off all those Eximus/Heavies who survived the initial nuke from a teammate, no? 

 

All the elements of Bladestorm like invincibility, inability to move freely or shoot, target cap etc. would stay exactly as they are now. Option 2 just allows to pick targets and give the player something to do. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

Update: Option 3 for Bladestorm: Pressing and holding RMB will execute a almost instant Bladestorm: Camera would switch to over-viewing the AoE, and Ash would attack all of his targets in quick succession. Look up Blink Strike on Nightcrawler in Marvel Heroes: 

 

 

Kudos to FelisImpurrator for the idea.

 

Update 2: It was pointed out at some point that Teleport with built in finisher (identical to single BS attack) can very well function as manual version of Bladestorm. What then would we do with ultimate? Maybe something like this:

 

Bladestorm behaves like Blink Strike from the above video. Upon hitting each enemy Ash would deal a fixed amount of damage and inflict a BS specific bleed on each target, both affected by the Deathblow Passive. The bleed would last for 8-10 sec. The current damage Bladestorm deals would be divided between the direct hit and the DoT, with the latter dealing more damage (i.e. 40% upfront, 60% over 8-10 secs). Mobs affected by this bleed can be targeted by Bladestorm again only when it expires (to prevent 4 spam). To compensate, bleed would also inflict a initially strong debuff (speed and/or accuracy penalty) that would grow weaker with each tick of bleed. Against enemies that are below 30% health threshold, all damage would be applied at once with whopping 80% damage bonus from Deathblow Passive. 

 

With this rework, Bladestorm would be an excellent initiator against large crowds, and even better finisher for slaughtering all the bullet sponges, not to mention the scaling potential. If that is not Ninja-Assassin enough, then I don't know what is. 

Edited July 17, 2015 by tisdfogg

[-Amaterasu-]

Think ash should have bladestorm auto refresh enemies if an ally kills an enemy that is marked before you attack it so you don't waste 100 energy on like 2 enemies, your second suggestion for BS fixes this though to some degree.

 

also think rather then invisibility smoke bomb should give a smoke effect similar to mirage that provides a defensive buff and temporarily blinds nearby enemies

 

Like the ideas

[Somi_xD]

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/490432-ash-wants-this/

Take a look at my thoughts i had.
You will see similarities :)

[FelisImpurrator]

Shuriken is fantastic and the augment is excellent utility.

 

Smoke Screen... is honestly in a bad place right now, and your changes sound like a great way to make it viable. Maybe a touch of minimum duration like the Rhino tweaks, but not something insane like 30s.

 

Teleport being free-aim and faster? Yes. I would tentatively suggest making it an auto-finisher or an auto-melee, too (although ideally no enemies save bosses should be totally finisher-immune, ever) - make it a bit more like Blink from Dishonored, which was incredibly badass and supremely useful. Including ledge climbing on target, maybe.

 

My annoyance with it, though, has been twofold - one, that it alerts the enemy you're currently trying to kill. Two, that several times I've ended up facing away from the enemy after teleporting, and the stagger just doesn't last long enough to allow me to turn around.

 

Bladestorm's base effect should be sped up drastically; having played Nightcrawler in Marvel Heroes, who has a similar playstyle but built around the Diablo ARPG format, he has an attack there that is effectively Bladestorm but executed fully in the space of about half a second. Bladestorm could use a camera that stays in place as Ash blinks forward and takes out a pack of enemies, for instance. It should also, at the very least, be able to keep attacking bosses the way it does for heavy enemies that don't die immediately, with diminishing returns for balance but still significant damage.

 

Would like the auto-retarget on Bladestorm, and your 'manual bladestorm' mode sounds quite interesting.

[ShawnV2]

I vote for another Ash Skin ....Ash Prime looks ridiculous.

[StonedMakak]

Shuriken is fantastic and the augment is excellent utility.

 

Smoke Screen... is honestly in a bad place right now, and your changes sound like a great way to make it viable. Maybe a touch of minimum duration like the Rhino tweaks, but not something insane like 30s.

 

Teleport being free-aim and faster? Yes. I would tentatively suggest making it an auto-finisher or an auto-melee, too (although ideally no enemies save bosses should be totally finisher-immune, ever) - make it a bit more like Blink from Dishonored, which was incredibly badass and supremely useful. Including ledge climbing on target, maybe.

 

My annoyance with it, though, has been twofold - one, that it alerts the enemy you're currently trying to kill. Two, that several times I've ended up facing away from the enemy after teleporting, and the stagger just doesn't last long enough to allow me to turn around.

 

Bladestorm's base effect should be sped up drastically; having played Nightcrawler in Marvel Heroes, who has a similar playstyle but built around the Diablo ARPG format, he has an attack there that is effectively Bladestorm but executed fully in the space of about half a second. Bladestorm could use a camera that stays in place as Ash blinks forward and takes out a pack of enemies, for instance. It should also, at the very least, be able to keep attacking bosses the way it does for heavy enemies that don't die immediately, with diminishing returns for balance but still significant damage.

 

Would like the auto-retarget on Bladestorm, and your 'manual bladestorm' mode sounds quite interesting.

 

Oh I'd love to have blink from Dishonored. With same mechanic preferably, where you hold the button and it highlights the place where you will go, when you need that extra precision, and regular tap for quick blink forward.

 

So basically Omnislash as Bladestrom?  I'll add that to the OP, great idea. I still think the ability should have two modes, the original, slow one that people grew used to, also as defensive move, and more interactive/faster one so that doesn't break the flow of combat. 

 

I vote for another Ash Skin ....Ash Prime looks ridiculous.

 

That's very nice but anything about the topic itself? 

Edited July 16, 2015 by tisdfogg

[Volinus7]

Change bladestorm into shuriken-storm because the first one doesn't look like a storm for me.

[FelisImpurrator]

Heh, and remember how if you Blink behind an enemy, Corvo automatically shanks them to death anyway? Bam. Teleport finisher.

 

Ash's theme is "Obvious Fantasy Ninja" anyway, what's a little powers-referencing-other-powers - right?

 

Also, Bladestorm looking like a slow Blink Strike, and how Ash looks in general with magenta smoke, is why I painted my Ash to look like Nightcrawler. The bamfiness felt appropriate.

[S7ORM]

Smoke Screen: Functions exactly the same as now. Additionally, upon casting it leaves behind a cloud of smoke (size affected by range mods) that lasts for 12 seconds (unaffected by duration). Enemies inside receive accuracy penalties against all players, enemies outside receive accuracy penalties when targeting players that are inside the cloud. Augment changes so that players who run through the cloud become invisible, while Ash's invisibility timer gets suspended while he stays in the cloud. 

 

Teleport: Multiple ways of tackling this one. Free aim and faster animation would be best. As an alternative I'd suggest slight buff to finisher portion of the skill - if the finisher is a death blow, Ash gets speed bonus (10-15%) and a smokey effect that makes him harder to target.  

 

Been advocating this for Smoke Bomb forever. I do like the additional "Ash's Invisibility Timer is suspended while in the cloud" part though.

Have to say no to free-aim teleport. It's kind of annoying to directly target an enemy already, and I wouldn't want to accidentally miss them and end up some random place having teleported there. I'd be okay with a suggestion I saw in another thread, where you could teleport into a wall-cling if your target position was 'x' metres above the ground. That way I don't have to worry about accidentally teleporting randomly when aiming at an enemy, but I still have mobility without enemies around.

Your bladestorm idea, is, alright. I can't really think of a way to make bladestorm interesting, so I would support it if it went through, but I'm still looking for a better solution. However, I do have one concern. How long do you have to choose your next target? Because I can see two outcomes here: One, it's too short and people complain (but honestly, they can just use the original method) and Two, it's fairly long, and extends the period of invincibility Ash has (also, doesn't really make sense that the enemy would just kind of sit around waiting for Ash to do something).

[StonedMakak]

Heh, and remember how if you Blink behind an enemy, Corvo automatically shanks them to death anyway? Bam. Teleport finisher.

 

Ash's theme is "Obvious Fantasy Ninja" anyway, what's a little powers-referencing-other-powers - right?

 

Also, Bladestorm looking like a slow Blink Strike, and how Ash looks in general with magenta smoke, is why I painted my Ash to look like Nightcrawler. The bamfiness felt appropriate.

 

Oh yeah, if the finisher is applied automatically with custom animation then Teleport is pure awesome. Ash would literally be Corvo on technocyte virus.  

 

Been advocating this for Smoke Bomb forever. I do like the additional "Ash's Invisibility Timer is suspended while in the cloud" part though.

Have to say no to free-aim teleport. It's kind of annoying to directly target an enemy already, and I wouldn't want to accidentally miss them and end up some random place having teleported there. I'd be okay with a suggestion I saw in another thread, where you could teleport into a wall-cling if your target position was 'x' metres above the ground. That way I don't have to worry about accidentally teleporting randomly when aiming at an enemy, but I still have mobility without enemies around.

Your bladestorm idea, is, alright. I can't really think of a way to make bladestorm interesting, so I would support it if it went through, but I'm still looking for a better solution. However, I do have one concern. How long do you have to choose your next target? Because I can see two outcomes here: One, it's too short and people complain (but honestly, they can just use the original method) and Two, it's fairly long, and extends the period of invincibility Ash has (also, doesn't really make sense that the enemy would just kind of sit around waiting for Ash to do something).

 

The whole free-aim deal hinges on the improvements to targeting system, e.g. a highlight function that either shows a glowing circle on the ground, or outlines the enemy that you're targeting when the button is held, Dishonored-style if you know that game. Otherwise you're right, it would be annoying. Truth be told it already is. 

 

Honestly, the more I think about Bladestrom the more I like the Omnislash idea (Option 3), working alongside the original one for grumpy old timers who grew attached to the slideshow. Interactivity would be nice but as long as the ability doesn't actually kill the flow, I can suffer it to be a radial nuke. 

 

It's funny how the tweaks to Ash's kit are often so similar. The whole community seems to agree on how he can be more ninja, hopefully one day DE will see it too. Until then, there is nothing we can do but spam those threads. 

Edited July 16, 2015 by tisdfogg

[Half-Hero]

I think i proposed a while back, to change the angle at which you see blade storm. Namely to standard 3rd person view, this would give you control to look around while teleporting. Also I don't mean for the camera to teleport to places, but rather smoothly but quickly move from target to target while Ash teleports to them. (kind of ping-pong ish camera effect of new slash dash)

[xLordKogax]

After playing around with the newest Prime (awesome design btw), I remembered why I put Ash on the shelf a while ago. 

 

Just to be clear, numerically he's completely fine. Damage, EHP, survivability and all the rest of min-maxer stuff is right where it should be. What Ash lacks IMHO is beyond just numbers. Things like Smoke Bomb feeling a bit like Invisibility's dumber brother, or Bladestrom putting you in passengers seat, and forcing you to watch a confusing montage of average animations you know all too well.  

 

Here's what I would add to each ability, except for Shuriken which is just fine:

 

Smoke Screen: Functions exactly the same as now. Additionally, upon casting it leaves behind a cloud of smoke (size affected by range mods) that lasts for 12 seconds (unaffected by duration). Enemies inside receive accuracy penalties against all players, enemies outside receive accuracy penalties when targeting players that are inside the cloud. Augment changes so that players who run through the cloud become invisible, while Ash's invisibility timer gets suspended while he stays in the cloud. 

 

Teleport: Multiple ways of tackling this one. Free aim and faster animation would be best. As an alternative I'd suggest slight buff to finisher portion of the skill - if the finisher is a death blow, Ash gets speed bonus (10-15%) and a smokey effect that makes him harder to target.  

 

Bladestrom: Now I know that many people like the cool cutscenish feel of BS. Not a fan myself but I can understand that. My suggestion is truly non-invasive in this regard: You aim at an enemy and press 4. Ash teleports to him and grabs him (custom animation). Here is when interactive element comes into play:

 

1) You hold LMB, Ash performs Bladestorm in it's current iteration, with clones. 

 

2) You target another enemy and just press LMB. Ash performs a custom finisher on the enemy he currently holds and teleports to the one you targeted. At this point you make your choice again. No clones in this one. Target highlighting would go a long way here. 

 

Option 1 would allow you to put Ash on autopilot to clear weak mobs. Option 2 would take longer to execute, but you have total control over which enemies you want to attack. Useful for finishing off all those Eximus/Heavies who survived the initial nuke from a teammate, no? 

 

All the elements of Bladestorm like invincibility, inability to move freely or shoot, target cap etc. would stay exactly as they are now. Option 2 just allows to pick targets and give the player something to do. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

Update: Option 3 for Bladestorm: Pressing and holding RMB will execute a almost instant Bladestorm: Camera would switch to over-viewing the AoE, and Ash would attack all of his targets in quick succession. Look up Blink Strike on Nightcrawler in Marvel Heroes: 

 

 

Kudos to FelisImpurrator for the idea.

 

Wow!

 

Looks similar to something im working on with a Team of friends. 

 

Great Bladestorm idea, but it needs Dismemberment that will add to the Gore plus Slash proc xD

[xLordKogax]

Oh yeah, if the finisher is applied automatically with custom animation then Teleport is pure awesome. Ash would literally be Corvo on technocyte virus.  

 

 

The whole free-aim deal hinges on the improvements to targeting system, e.g. a highlight function that either shows a glowing circle on the ground, or outlines the enemy that you're targeting when the button is held, Dishonored-style if you know that game. Otherwise you're right, it would be annoying. Truth be told it already is. 

 

Honestly, the more I think about Bladestrom the more I like the Omnislash idea (Option 3), working alongside the original one for grumpy old timers who grew attached to the slideshow. Interactivity would be nice but as long as the ability doesn't actually kill the flow, I can suffer it to be a radial nuke. 

 

It's funny how the tweaks to Ash's kit are often so similar. The whole community seems to agree on how he can be more ninja, hopefully one day DE will see it too. Until then, there is nothing we can do but spam those threads. 

 

Omni slash dash cloned bladestorm like a Fused Zed Mark for death and Master Yi Alpha strike

 

Bladestorm  your almost there

 

No people not a copy of Exalted blade, but where Bladestorm needs to be

Camera control and toggle for revives or life support

Interactivity making you press E to attack giving Bladestorm more control for every strike.

Dismemberment for flashy gore and Ninja Swag.

 

This should innovate Bladestorm to be his Ultimate.

 

P.S.Flickering light effect should occur on each enemy being Attacked in his Mark.

After all isnt He an Assassin and Bladestorm does Mark enemies for Death right? XP

Edited July 16, 2015 by ShadowsofKoga

[S7ORM]

Honestly, the more I think about Bladestrom the more I like the Omnislash idea (Option 3), working alongside the original one for grumpy old timers who grew attached to the slideshow. Interactivity would be nice but as long as the ability doesn't actually kill the flow, I can suffer it to be a radial nuke. 

 

It's funny how the tweaks to Ash's kit are often so similar. The whole community seems to agree on how he can be more ninja, hopefully one day DE will see it too. Until then, there is nothing we can do but spam those threads. 

Still in disagreement with that solution. What I'd rather see is Bladestorm removed for a different skill, and Finisher speed be up to par with normal melee speed (at least, for teleport). Then, you could use Teleport+Finisher instead of Bladestorm, which would certainly be more interactive, but you'd also get the space for another skill.

Also, Teleport on Unalerted enemies should not alert them.

[StonedMakak]

Still in disagreement with that solution. What I'd rather see is Bladestorm removed for a different skill, and Finisher speed be up to par with normal melee speed (at least, for teleport). Then, you could use Teleport+Finisher instead of Bladestorm, which would certainly be more interactive, but you'd also get the space for another skill.

Also, Teleport on Unalerted enemies should not alert them.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I like total reworks because they tend to keep it fresh, especially since the game is constantly evolving and abilities simply become obsolete and replaced by new systems. Super Jump is an example of that process. That said, I think that Ash is waiting in line behind few other frames that need a rework badly (hi Nekros!). Hence, the Omnislash could be a quick fix while we wait for the true rework. We tend to give band-aids a lot of flak around here, but truth be told they do come in handy sometimes. 

[S7ORM]

Oh don't get me wrong, I like total reworks because they tend to keep it fresh, especially since the game is constantly evolving and abilities simply become obsolete and replaced by new systems. Super Jump is an example of that process. That said, I think that Ash is waiting in line behind few other frames that need a rework badly (hi Nekros!). Hence, the Omnislash could be a quick fix while we wait for the true rework. We tend to give band-aids a lot of flak around here, but truth be told they do come in handy sometimes. 

In that case, we'd have to tone down the damage from what it is now -- if it's instant, it's instantly recastable.

Currently, the high damage is offset by animation time and the inability to stop the skill. This means enemies can still attack (teammates, defense objectives, etc) and you can't help teammates or get life support in the meantime.

[FelisImpurrator]

In that case, we'd have to tone down the damage from what it is now -- if it's instant, it's instantly recastable.

Currently, the high damage is offset by animation time and the inability to stop the skill. This means enemies can still attack (teammates, defense objectives, etc) and you can't help teammates or get life support in the meantime.

I wouldn't mind that. After all, it still scales with Steel Charge+Power Strength and does finisher damage no matter what. The numbers may not be as insane on a "quick execution" version, but reliability/utility are decent tradeoffs for damage.

 

On another note, Teleport not alerting enemies should absolutely be a part of it. And... what would you replace Bladestorm with? (Heh, BladeS7ORM.)

[S7ORM]

I wouldn't mind that. After all, it still scales with Steel Charge+Power Strength and does finisher damage no matter what. The numbers may not be as insane on a "quick execution" version, but reliability/utility are decent tradeoffs for damage.

 

On another note, Teleport not alerting enemies should absolutely be a part of it. And... what would you replace Bladestorm with? (Heh, BladeS7ORM.)

Ha, nice catch.

I said before I'm not sure what to do with Bladestorm -- I don't normally play Ash (Loki ftw). Were finishers to be sped up significantly, teleport would be able to replace Bladestorm, so it would be reasonable to replace it with something. As to what that is... I don't currently have any ideas to offer.

[Yonm]

This is basically an amalgamation of good ideas already suggested by a lot other people.

 

- Smoke Screen with ACTUAL aoe smoke effect along with invisibility.

- Free-aim teleport

- Interactive blade storm 

 

That being said, it's nice to see them all in the same place. I think this is the exact kit everyone wants Ash to have. All it's missing is giving Shuriken innate punch through (along with incorporating secondary mods for damage, perhaps) so it's actually useful and not just a attack that kills itself by slamming into a wall.

[xLordKogax]

Ha, nice catch.

I said before I'm not sure what to do with Bladestorm -- I don't normally play Ash (Loki ftw). Were finishers to be sped up significantly, teleport would be able to replace Bladestorm, so it would be reasonable to replace it with something. As to what that is... I don't currently have any ideas to offer.

 

I do i have an idea but im no animator anyone care to help i have 2 guys but they are busy and hard to catch lol

[StonedMakak]

In that case, we'd have to tone down the damage from what it is now -- if it's instant, it's instantly recastable.

Currently, the high damage is offset by animation time and the inability to stop the skill. This means enemies can still attack (teammates, defense objectives, etc) and you can't help teammates or get life support in the meantime.

 

Yup definitely, damage would need a nerf. Or maybe not a nerf but adjustment. Assuming that Omnislash idea is a thing, you could move majority of the damage to the Bleed proc (increase the duration to maybe 8-10 sec to spread the damage more), and make enemies that are already affected by it, immune to Bladestorm recast, i.e. you could still spam BS but it would not attack enemies that are affected by the BS bleed (the standard proc would not interfere). You could also couple it with some minor penalty to speed or accuracy for those enemies , to compensate for the fact that damage is not instant, that grows in effect as the bleed is ticking (or the other way around - start as strong debuff and grow weaker).

 

One last thing you could do is give Omnislash a bonus instant damage once the enemies are below certain health threshold. That way Omnislash BS on high-health targets would inflict a powerful DoT and deal respectable damage, while it would be THE skill for finishing low-health targets. I don't thnik we have a DoT-focused Ult (apart from Saryn that is barely a DoT in practice), nor one that deals bonus damage based on health. Ash is the perfect frame to have it, IMHO. 

 

It would make sense from in game perspective too - instead of taking his time to stab each guy multiple times, Ash just slices vital arteries in a blink of an eye, and when enemy is already weakened and exposed, Ash can deliver more devastating blows.  

Edited July 17, 2015 by tisdfogg

[FelisImpurrator]

 

Heh, so I guess that would make it... BLEEDstorm?

 

A way to make player-dealt bleed procs viable in some capacity... I like it. Especially the part that makes it a literal finisher. I like this idea, goes nicely with the assassin theme.

 

Marvel Heroes also had abilities that had a "deathblow" effect for weakened targets. Loads of fun, and that would be very nice on Ash. Although what if his other abilities like Shuriken did that too, scaled with health depletion? Bam, scaling warframe.

 

Still not calling the thing Omnislash, though. Would need to give him spikier hair.

[StonedMakak]

Heh, so I guess that would make it... BLEEDstorm?

 

A way to make player-dealt bleed procs viable in some capacity... I like it. Especially the part that makes it a literal finisher. I like this idea, goes nicely with the assassin theme.

 

Marvel Heroes also had abilities that had a "deathblow" effect for weakened targets. Loads of fun, and that would be very nice on Ash. Although what if his other abilities like Shuriken did that too, scaled with health depletion? Bam, scaling warframe.

 

Still not calling the thing Omnislash, though. Would need to give him spikier hair.

 

 

DoTs in general are virtually non-existent in Warframe, which is a shame as they would add some variety to the way we deal damage. 

 

I like the way you think with deathblows. It would be a unique mechanic for Ash (another thing that is severely lacking in Warframe), and as you say, it would make him scale wonderfully without being stupidly overpowered. I'll add that to the OP if you don't mind.

 

Oh, I'm just using the name as... mental shortcut? Is that how one says it in English? 

 

 

Edited July 17, 2015 by tisdfogg

[S7ORM]

Yup definitely, damage would need a nerf. Or maybe not a nerf but adjustment. Assuming that Omnislash idea is a thing, you could move majority of the damage to the Bleed proc (increase the duration to maybe 8-10 sec to spread the damage more), and make enemies that are already affected by it, immune to Bladestorm recast, i.e. you could still spam BS but it would not attack enemies that are affected by the BS bleed (the standard proc would not interfere). You could also couple it with some minor penalty to speed or accuracy for those enemies , to compensate for the fact that damage is not instant, that grows in effect as the bleed is ticking (or the other way around - start as strong debuff and grow weaker).

 

One last thing you could do is give Omnislash a bonus instant damage once the enemies are below certain health threshold. That way Omnislash BS on high-health targets would inflict a powerful DoT and deal respectable damage, while it would be THE skill for finishing low-health targets. I don't thnik we have a DoT-focused Ult (apart from Saryn that is barely a DoT in practice), nor one that deals bonus damage based on health. Ash is the perfect frame to have it, IMHO. 

 

It would make sense from in game perspective too - instead of taking his time to stab each guy multiple times, Ash just slices vital arteries in a blink of an eye, and when enemy is already weakened and exposed, Ash can deliver more devastating blows.  

I could go for this idea.