Giving Silence More Usability

[(PSN)Cerata_]

Can we please fix silence? Banshee has one of the best kits in the game, but then there's...silence. It doesn't work like it would make sense to. The changes I'm asking for are as follows:

 

1. Make silence a zone where sound simply does not exist. Meaning enemies don't hear anything inside the radius, and enemies don't hear what you're doing outside of the radius. This would FINALLY allow silence to be a viable stealth tool on par with invisibility/smokescreen. 

 

2. Refresh the activation stun every few seconds for the duration of the ability. This gives banshee some (more) nice CC, and would allow her to make better use of savage silence. Perhaps make it scale inversely with duration (higher duration, more frequent stuns)

 

As of right now silence isn't really worth the activation cost unless you're running a really low duration/high range/effeciency build for CC. I'd like to be able to get functionality out of the ability both ways. 

[Flanyr]

I'm definitely behind the first suggestion, It's how I thought the ability worked to begin with, only to quickly find out that essentially just puts earplugs in the enemies within range.

[Aktriaz]

On #1 I completely agree. I really have no idea why it has remained as it is stealth-wise for so long. It is probably the worst stealth ability in the game and has been since it was added.

 

I'm a little iffy about the second suggestion. It's pretty vague, so I can't really get behind it.

 

Silence is actually a really good melee ability with reduced range, making enemies vulnerable as you get close to them. It's a great melee ability once you do this, so I have no complaints.

 

For silence I would suggest rather a passive effect on allies or enemies within the radius of Silence, such as;

 -Reducing enemy armor.

 -Slowing enemies' movement.

 -Decreasing enemy accuracy.

And/or for allies;

 -Removing and preventing eximus auras and status effects.

 -Giving a flat boost to critical chance (such as +15, not 15%)

 -Increasing weapon accuracy.

 

I'm not necessarily suggesting all of these at once, just throwing out ideas that could make Silence more than just a melee power or a mediocre stealth power, and can still be used effectively with increased range.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Actriaz

[Dualstar]

One change ive been thinking about is to give Silence a line of sight restriction.

 

With one, Silence will stun enemies you can actually see and not the ones in the next room that will have recovered from it by the time you get to them.

 

And #1 is pretty much preicisely the other thing i want for Silence.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Dualstar

[Hammahness808]

1. Make silence a zone where sound simply does not exist. Meaning enemies don't hear anything inside the radius, and enemies don't hear what you're doing outside of the radius.

Impossible if you fire anything outside the radius as it won't carry the "silence" with it. It would hit a surface and make noise.

[Echowing]

I just wish silence would actually SILENCE everything in range.  As it is, it just makes it so that everything in an X meter radius cannot hear what you are doing.  If an enemy is X+1 meters away or more, they will hear everything just fine and sound the alarms.  It's a terrible stealth skill, since it can only affect a limited area.

[(PSN)SteampunkJester]

100% agree with #1, that's how it should've worked to begin with.

[Scar.Heart]

Much yes to #1.

One change ive been thinking about is to give Silence a line of sight restriction.

 

With one, Silence will stun enemies you can actually see and not the ones in the next room that will have recovered from it by the time you get to them.

Yes. That will also help.

 

I just wish silence would actually SILENCE everything in range.  As it is, it just makes it so that everything in an X meter radius cannot hear what you are doing.  If an enemy is X+1 meters away or more, they will hear everything just fine and sound the alarms.  It's a terrible stealth skill, since it can only affect a limited area.

Awesome. It wasn't just my imagination then.

[TaylorsContraction]

Yes for the first suggestion, as for second you can build your banshee to do that. Your whole build would have to revolve around the short silence duration as well as your playstyle. I think having that as a meaningful option is good.

[CruelCrow]

IMO it should be even more powerful and useful than Radial Blind. If you can't see, you're in danger, but at least you can try to get around and aim by sound. If the pressure in your ears gets out of whack (it's happened to me a couple times before) you can barely stand because we use hearing to move and balance.

But yeah, it definitely needs more than an outdated 2 second initial stun and a broken noise mechanic.

[(PSN)Chino_Feo_1337]

#1 Reminds me of the cone of silence from get smart. (And it is a pretty good idea)

[RealPandemonium]

We don't need a refreshing stun.  We just need a bandaid to make stealth actually work.