Praetora; The Strategist, The Defender [Original Operator Art Update Nov. 20th]

[Rehtael7]

Updated: 11/20/2016 Added artwork of the ORIGINAL Praetora's operator.

Original Operator Art:

Spoiler

The chap across the table is Ushtar's original operator. They are confirmed close friends.

[ART IS HERE! Everyone direct all praise, love and devotion to Evergreenmind!]

Praetora utilizes her armor to control the battlefield. She can remove it to function as defensive constructs, or wear it for protection.

_{Lore blurb what all the kids seem to be adding to frame concepts these days:}

Spoiler

 

In these times of turmoil, security is a precious commodity. 

Our towers, our havens, our inner-most sanctums... Are in peril.

May I present to you a vault which cannot be forced open...

Beneath sentries laden with our most sophisticated weaponry...

Emplaced behind impenetrable ramparts...

And operated by a calculative genius rivaled only by our long history's foremost Generals...

Praetora is her name. And she will be our bastion.

 

Front without armor/ back with armor:

Spoiler

Stats (At rank 30):

 

Health: 350 400

Shields: 500 (175 With all armor deployed)

Armor: 500 (150 With All armor deployed)

Energy: 150

Mobility: 1.00

Aura Polarity: Vazarin (D)

Innate Polarities: Vazarin, Naramon

Praetora Prime Polarities: Vazarin x2, Naramon

 

Conclave Stats:

Health: 125

Shields 250

Armor 250

Mobility: 0.80

 

Passives:

Heavy Armor: Movement speed is 20% less than normal. All mobility effects <Except for friction, since that would be increased by 15%> are reduced by 15%.

Defender: All melee weapons have 90% block.

Might: With all armor equipped, Praetora gains +50% chance to resist knockdwon.

 

Abilities:

Bolster Morale

Spoiler

Praetora raises her fist, projecting an emblem above it. (The emblem defaults to a Lotus emblem, but may be changed to a clan emblem in the appearance menu.) Nearby allies gain health regeneration, attack faster, reload faster and move faster, nearby enemies are slowed and deal reduced damage. The aura travels with Praetora. The buffs/ debuffs scale with power strength, the range of the buff/ debuff is affected by power range, and the buff/ debuff duration is affected by power duration. Affected by casting speed. Praetora does NOT benefit from the buff herself.

Duration: 30 Seconds.

Range: 15m

Debuff Range: 15m

Buff Range: 25m

Energy Cost: 50

+1 Health Regenerated per second, +10% Melee attack speed, +20% Reload speed, +10% Movement speed

-15% Enemy movement speed, -10% Enemy damage

 

Conclave

Does not slow enemies. {Emblem changes to your team emblem}

Blockade

Spoiler

Praetora removes her leg armor, using it as one-way cover. The ability can be used twice at a time (once for each leg). The health <Shielding> of each blockade scales with her maximum shielding. <Each blockade has 80% of Praetora's maximum shielding (regardless of whether or not other buildings are deployed) and 1 health. The blockade is immune to status effects, including toxic.> The shield Each blockade deployed reduces Praetora's maximum armor by 5% and her maximum shielding by 20%. <When maximum shielding is reduced, the amount removed is preserved as overshielding.> If a blockade is destroyed, Praetora must wait for a cooldown period before her leg armor returns and she is able to redeploy the blockade. Praetora will be able to approach her turret and press the use key to return a Blockade to herself, avoiding a cooldown. Each Blockade's setup time is affected by cast speed. The percent by which the blockade's health scales is affected by power strength. (If the player has leg armor cosmetics, they will appear on the blockade.) <Holding the Second ability button will manually deconstruct both blockades, setting it to half cooldown.>

<Blockade has a shatter-shield effect, reflecting 25% of damage taken back at attackers. This is NOT affected by power strength. See the wiki page for shatter shield if you need specific mechanics.>

Cast time: 1.5 Seconds. (Praetora stamps her foot in front of her, causing her leg piece to snap into place in front of her. This would be done in the style of a finisher, where control is taken away from the player until the animation is complete.)

If Praetora is bleeding out, the blockades are disabled.

Praetora gains 5% Sprint Speed for each Blockade deployed.

Praetora gains 20% Sprint Speed, Slide and Bullet Jump for each Blockade deployed. (Due to her legs no longer being weighed down.)

Energy Cost: 25 <Initial Energy Cost: 5, Energy drain per second while deployed: 0.25 (This does NOT disable Energy Siphon or block Energy Vampire, however this drain amount is not affected by duration, only efficiency.)>

Energy Returned by Retrieval: 10

Conclave

No changes.

Fabricator

Spoiler

Praetora removes her chest armor, deploying it as an pickup generator. The pickups generated restore 1 ammo pickup of each type when collected, 25 health and 25 energy. (Pickups are client-side as to be shared by teammates) (Pickups will use the conclave ammo box model, possibly with recoloring and/or added effects to indicate their additional health and energy.)

The health of the fabricator scales from ONLY power strength. <The fabricator draws enemy fire if it is closer to enemies than any other target.> <The health of the Fabricator is 100 x 2 x Power Strength.> The rate at which pickups are generated is increased by power duration (In order to give duration more purpose). Deploying the fabricator reduces Praetora's armor by 20% and shielding by 15%. <When maximum shielding is reduced, the amount removed is preserved as overshielding.> If the fabricator is destroyed, Praetora must wait for a cooldown period before her chest armor returns and she is able to redeploy the Fabricator. Praetora will be able to approach her Fabricator and press the use key to return the Fabricator to herself, avoiding a cooldown. The Fabricator's setup time is affected by cast speed. (If the player has any chest cosmetic, it appears on the fabricator.) <Holding down the third ability key will deconstruct the fabricator, putting it on half cooldown.>

Cast time: 1.0 seconds. (Praetora cocks back her shoulders, launching the chest piece forward. This would be done in the style of a finisher, where control is taken away from the player until the animation is complete.)

Pickup Generation Rate: 1 pickup every 15 seconds. The duration modifier will be calculated as such:

15 / ( 1 x A ) A=Duration modifier. So let's say that you had a duration increase of 50%, that would be 15 / 1.5 = 10.

If Praetora is bleeding out, the fabricator is disabled.

Praetora gains 10% Sprint speed while the fabricator is deployed.

Praetora gains 20% Wall Latch and Aim Glide while the fabricator is deployed. (Due to her torso no longer being weighted down.)

Energy Cost: 50 <Initial Energy Cost: 50, Energy drain per second while deployed: 0.25 (This does NOT disable Energy Siphon or block Energy Vampire, however this drain amount is not affected by duration, only efficiency.)>

Energy Returned by Retrieval: 20

Conclave

Pickups are no longer client-side. Pickup Generation Rate is now 5 seconds. Pickups ARE team-exclusive. Pickups now restore 20 energy instead of 25.

Pincer Guardian Turret

Spoiler

Praetora removes her back and midsection armor, converting it to a turret which uses her primary weapon. If no weapon is equipped, the turret will default to an unmodded Latron. The turret's health scales off of her maximum armor. <The turret's health is equal to 50% of Praetora's maximum armor, and its armor is equal to Praetora's maximum armor.> Praetora also loses 40% of her armor and 10% of her shielding while the turret is deployed. <When maximum shielding is reduced, the amount removed is preserved as overshielding.> If the turret is killed, Praetora must wait for a cooldown period before her armor returns and she is able to redeploy the turret. Praetora will be able to approach her turret and press the use key to return the turret to herself, avoiding a cooldown penalty. The turret's setup time is affected by cast speed. The percent by which the pincer turret's health scales is affected by power strength. The range of the Pincer Turret is affected by power range. (If the player has a syandana, it will appear on the turret.) <Holding the fourth ability button deconstructs the turret, putting it on half cooldown.>

Range: 35m

Cast time: 1.75 seconds. (Praetora hunches forward, allowing her Pincer Turret to climb off her back and position itself behind her. Praetora unlatches the turret pack from her shoulders, letting it hover into place behind her before extending its legs. This would be done in the style of a finisher, where control is taken away from the player until the animation is complete.)

If Praetora is bleeding out, the turret is disabled.

Praetora gains 10% sprint speed with the Pincer Turret deployed.

Praetora gains 10% Slide and -10% friction with the Pincer Turret deployed. (Due to her back now being less bulky.)

Energy Cost: 100 <Initial Energy Cost: 50, Energy drain per second while deployed: 0.5 (This does NOT disable Energy Siphon or block Energy Vampire, however this drain amount is not affected by duration, only efficiency.)>

Energy Returned by Retrieval: 40

Conclave

Range is now 20m by default. Accuracy is halved (this includes shotgun spread).

Augment Mods:

 

Unbreakable Blockade

Blockade's health scales from both armor and shields combined. <+100% of Praetora's Maximum Armor>

 

Pre-production

Fabricator initially deploys 2 pickups.

 

Fortified Morale Crushing Morale

Bolster Morale is applied to Praetora as well as her allies. For every other ally affected by Bolster Morale, the enemy debuffs multiply.

(+0.5 multiplier for every ally, so -37.5% Enemy speed and -25% Enemy damage when three allied players are in range.)

 

Sniper Turret

The Guardian Turret now hovers up to head-height. Its damage increases by 50%, and its accuracy increases by 25%. The maximum range is increased by 10 meters, and it now has a minimum range of 10 meters.

 

Conclave mod:

 

Vengeful

Destroyed buildings deal 100 explosive damage up to 4 meters.

 

Praetora Prime: The Latron is replaced by a Latron Prime.

 

Praetora's sigils will go on the suit beneath her armor.

Spoiler

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by Rehtael7
Operator artwork!

[(PSN)AnishAnkit]

Nice idea but I think that vauban is already the tactician warframe 

[Rehtael7]

Nice idea but I think that vauban is already the tactician warframe 

He's considered the trapper/ engineer.

All of his abilities are placed traps.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Rehtael7

[(PSN)AnishAnkit]

Huh I guess thats true. Im still confused about his passive of armour and how it affects his abilities. 

[Rehtael7]

Huh I guess thats true. Im still confused about his passive of armour and how it affects his abilities. 

By his passive of armor, do you mean Praetora, who I've expressed as female?

 

It's simple: She has high armor which does down while her armor is deployed. (Because her deployables are made of her armor as I've explained multiple times.)

[Celphied]

Huh, so this is more of a defensive tactical frame, with a team-oriented approach, rather than CC like with Vauban.

 

First thing I noticed though is that Praetora's powers don't feel lined up like the usual 1 to 4.  1 would be the common, quick-use power, but I can't figure out which would be there (maybe Blockade).  I'd think the Pincer Turret could be her '4' power, similar to Chroma's Effigy.  Then the Fabricator and Boost Morale would be her 2 and 3.  With this assumption, I think the offensive capability could be boosted on the Turret, though I'm not sure how.  (I do like the concept of it using your equipped primary)

 

In line with the team-oriented approach, I think 'Boost Morale' does a little too much by having enemy debuffs.  Just having those varied ally buffs would be plenty, in my opinion.  

 

Blockade seems to be her version of the newly introduced Grineer airbags  Blunts, but I don't know if just having slabs of armor would be useful.  I'm not too sure, but maybe some sort of buff while taking cover on the 'safe' side of the Blockade might have better incentive for use. (Kind of like Hallowed Ground with its proc cleanse) So something like temporary Overshields, shield/health regen or something like that.  Or conversely, some debuff effect at enemies that hit or shoot at the Blockades and have a chance to get hit by deflected shots. (Something like Shatter shield)

 

Regardless, fairly interesting concept so far.

[Rehtael7]

Updated.

[Rhekemi]

Still interesting. Upvoted this ages ago.

Yet, the same thing that makes her interesting feels a little gimmicky. When I have more time, I will go in depth.

Keep working on this.

[Rhekemi]

Alright, the defensive tactician.

 

Stats:

Initially, the 500/500 numbers seem incredibly high, but after having read the concept through, I think the logic behind the numbers are sound.

 

Passives: I actually don't think 20% was too high, but without her base sprint speed (you haven't added it), I can't say for sure. The melee weapon block seems good.

 

Praetora's Armor: As I said, Praetora's unique mechanic of removing her armor is a bit gimmicky, though the logic and in-game purpose is clear. I think what bothers me about it is the visual of her actually removing it, placing it on the ground, and having it transform to whatever it needs to be. I think it needs to feel alive and detach on command and deploy (as Chroma's pelt does). 

 

I think you should strongly consider moving away from the orthodox methods a traditional character in a game (like a tactician or engineer) would use to deploy items, and think about Vauban and Chroma's quick deploy mechanics. Set up time dictated by cast speed would be helpful if we know the cast speed. Giving all armor abilities a flat cast speed might help, or all but her ultimate if you feel it should be slower. This supports the game's fast gameplay.

 

I'm also wondering what the base duration of each ability is. I didn't notice any.

 

Bolster Morale: I like this, but there is no reason for this to not affect Praetora. I'd be interested to hear why you think she shouldn't benefit from her own first ability. It's a waste of an augment (to have the buff affect her), and if I'm in a solo mission, my first ability wouldn't affect my gameplay, just enemies. 

 

If you're concerned with balance, Praetora not being OP, then consider other ways to achieve balance. The current handicap is unnecessary.

 

Blockade: Looks good, but needs a little something. Not sure what. Suggestions:

-The shielding Praetora sacrifices should project from her blockades. Imagine an armored core surrounded by shielding/energy.

-The blockades should be able to draw a % of projectile aggro: incoming fire, but not melee, can be absorbed by the blockades.

 

Fabricator: I think this is interesting as a sort of stationary health, ammo, and energy restore station. I thought of one suggestion, but I'll save it for the augment section.

 

Pincer Turret: This is good. Suggestions:

-Don't disable the turret during bleedout. In addition to the Turret helping fire on enemy mobs that downed Praetora, it isn't unorthodox. Ember's WOF runs for the duration of her energy, even when she's bleeding out. Here, Praetora's PT should run for the ability's duration, or until she is revived or dies--at which point it self destructs.

 

All the movement upgrades when armor is deployed look good to me.

 

Augments: 

 

UB looks good.

 

P-P seems kind of useless at only 2 pickups, and only on the initial cast. I think it should double or triple fabrication, but with some balancing off-set to the Fabricator or Praetora.

 

FM, as stated above, this seems useless. If I'm playing Praetora solo, I would feel punished for not having her augment just to buff myself. I think you can come up with a stronger Boolster Morale augment than this.

 

Augment Suggestion - Blowback: All deployed armor explode when destroyed by enemies, dealing blast + [other] damage. 

 

Overall, I like Praetora's concept, and think her design could be very good in the right artist's hands. (You'd need several different sketches: full armor, and art for when armor is deployed.) The game needs more dedicated tacticians. Keep working on this.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rhekemi

[Rehtael7]

Thanks for taking a look at Praetora, Rhekemi! Always interested to see what you think.

I have some concepts in mind for her visuals, but I'm not talented enough to pull it off at the moment.

Going to try to respond to your points as I read them.

 

Base Sprint Speed with the 15% reduction is 0.85

So if that passive weren't there, all of her mobility features (Including sprint) would be 1.0

 

The armor components would be easy to remove and deploy. Think of anything spring-loaded that pops open. The turret piece would be partially motorized. Think of a corpus robot climbing onto your back and acting as a backpack. One tap of a button and it hops off and sets itself up.

I'll plop in the base casting speed now.

 

Deployed armor has no duration, hence the ability to retrieve it. I wanted something that would differ from conventional defensive deployables like Chroma and Frost's snowglobe. As someone who played mainly Engineer in TF2, I enjoy the idea of setting up and maintaining a position (Great for any and all defensive/ survival missions) but still having a function in mobile missions (Her tanky stats and mobile buff.)

 

Yeah, in hindsight, I wonder what I was thinking with Praetora not benefiting from Bolster. I wanted her to be team-play focused. I suppose the benefit she was intended to get from it was the debuff it would apply to nearby enemies.

 

My main idea behind blockades was twofold.

A: Protection from actually dangerous attacks like high-level bombards and riplines from ancients.

B: Added defense for your turret (So it can fire through the shields to extend its lifespan.)

 

I planned for the turret disable simply because I figured that Praetora has such high survivability as is, that something which makes it EVEN EASIER to keep her alive was unneeded. Plus, getting downed would really have some weight to it, so it's not just "Oh, I'm down. Well, my buildings will handle everything." So if teammates are counting on those defenses, suddenly there's a frantic scramble to get her back up, like there would be with a more standard frame. Only those with lasting AoE effects or the like (Such as nova and frost) have that luxury when they go down.

 

I'll probably find a way to work duration into these abilities for the sake of build diversity... Just need to think of a good way that doesn't feel tacked-on.

 

The reason Pre-production would only dispense two is that those two pickups are available client-side, and that would be a fairly significant short-term boost. Any more and spamming the Fabricator would yield more energy than an EV trin.

 

I like the Blowback suggestion, though augments tend to apply to one power in specific, so I'm not sure how to integrate that...

 

Alright, Bolster Morale and its augment have been reworked and spoilers have been inserted to condense the post.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rehtael7

[Rehtael7]

And just realized why that change to Bolster won't work... Give me a bit.

Okay, that should account for power strength mods.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rehtael7

[Rhekemi]

Okay, 15% is fine. She'd be slower than every other 'frame already (at her armored base speed).

 

No duration on deployed armor makes sense, and as long as they deploy fast and she can recover them quickly, it'd be fine. I see the descriptions of deployments you've added. I like. Also like the added numbers and changes to Bolster Morale.

 

I like the idea of defending the turret with blockades, and bombards were exactly what I envisioned when seeing blockades in use in-game.

 

More ideas...what if the blockade is stationary, but the shield it projects (sacrificed from Praetora's shields) swivels to block fire at an angle/along a cone? Just an idea.

 

The logic behind the turret being disabled during bleedout and the pre-production augment seems sound, although I still disagree about the turret.

 

Blowback, I'm not sure either. You could have it augment Blockade, and then Blockade in turn primes/links to any other deployed armor as long as Blockades are deployed and protecting the other armor (like Fabricator or P.Turret). So Fabricator and Turret would only explode upon their destruction if Blockades were down. Without them, abilities 3 and 4 wouldn't explode if destroyed.

 

I'm wondering if you have ideas for benefits of her 500/500 armor and shield when she's not deploying them. Aggro while all armor is on (which, again, transfers to blockades when deployed) might be worth considering.

 

Either that or transfer the power of Praetora's armor into extra melee damage instead of block/damage reflection bonus. (Or split it in half. 45% reflection, 45% melee damage increase.)

 

Essentially, there should be more ways to feel the power of her armor when attacking. I know she's defensive instead of offensive, but it seems a missed opportunity. Are there reasons why you haven't considered this?

 

Just more suggestions. Take what you can, discard the rest.

 

(P.S. Happy to help when I can, and I hated TF2. Could never coordinate with any given team. All I did was die. Anytime I actually got a kill, was a monumental victory. I like that I can actually coordinate with teammates in Warframe and a few other games.)

[Rehtael7]

Well, covering you while you're down is the job of your Kubrow/ Sidearm/ Sentinel. At least, that's my reasoning.

 

I figure that between the ability to buff/ debuff, her massive amount of armor is a pretty unique trait. Her shield-armor-health ratio is the highest of any frame when not using her powers, which to me makes them a junior power of their own.

 

Keep in mind, that something firing your primary weapon while you can still melee/ fire your secondary is a pretty massive boost to your damage output.

 

And TF2 isn't about kills, it's about throwing yourself at the objective.

 

As for the shields, I am trying to think of a buff to them... I think I've got it. There, now blockade has a junior shatter-shield effect.

 

Added spawn rate for pickups.

 

Reworked the defense subtraction values because it only just occurred to me that I had it set to remove 80% shields and 90% armor with all pieces out. That's a bit steep. I toned it down to 70% armor, and 65% shields.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Rehtael7

[Rehtael7]

Added range values to Bolster and Turret, modified more values.

[Rhekemi]

All the points about Praetora being unique without gaining additional bonuses based on her armor/shield are good. I still think you should reconsider additional bonuses that are warranted (due to all her armor being on).

 

Maybe not now, but down the road.

 

I like the additions. All the new numbers seem fine (and I assume they are level 30 numbers), but Bolster Morale feels a little low at 15 meters. An extra 5 to 10 meters added to it would be good.

[Rehtael7]

All the points about Praetora being unique without gaining additional bonuses based on her armor/shield are good. I still think you should reconsider additional bonuses that are warranted (due to all her armor being on).

 

Maybe not now, but down the road.

 

I like the additions. All the new numbers seem fine (and I assume they are level 30 numbers), but Bolster Morale feels a little low at 15 meters. An extra 5 to 10 meters added to it would be good.

Good point. I had the debuff in mind, knowing that few players would NOT use range mods on her. I guess the debuff can have a different range from the buff. And modified. Also, most of the stats I shuffled around are ones in regards to armor/ shield subtraction when removing armor. I want her to be somewhat brittle without it, but I don't want her to be Banshee or something. <Wait for laughter>

 

Okay, I think I've got something to add as a bonus for having all armor equipped.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Rehtael7

[Dragonknight525]

I've got a suggestion for the 1st power as it seems to have a good deal of effects for a 1st tier power, why not give a similar treatment to Ivara's quiver allowing the player to pick the set of effects they want. Either having each selection solely buff/de-buff or having one buff and de-buff paired together.

 

The only other thing I have to add is the frame's stats don't follow the norm, as the 0 level stats come to 116.67 health, 166.67 shields and 116.67 energy.

[Rehtael7]

I've got a suggestion for the 1st power as it seems to have a good deal of effects for a 1st tier power, why not give a similar treatment to Ivara's quiver allowing the player to pick the set of effects they want. Either having each selection solely buff/de-buff or having one buff and de-buff paired together.

 

The only other thing I have to add is the frame's stats don't follow the norm, as the 0 level stats come to 116.67 health, 166.67 shields and 116.67 energy.

My response to rank 0 stats: So what?

 

And the reason why not have the quiver effect, because it's a Choose one:

 

By having to choose, your choices are weaker.

[Rehtael7]

[updated with conclave stats.]

[Rehtael7]

UPDATE: Added energy costs, energy returned on armor retrieval, and changed a value. ALSO: Artwork by evergreenmind coming soon!

[Rhekemi]

Good to hear. :)

[Rehtael7]

Good to hear. :)

Her first sketch was INCREDIBLE. I can't wait to see more from her.

[Rhekemi]

I've no doubt it was! Glad you came around to asking her.

[Muroidea]

Well, can't wait for the art. I kinda like the idea of Praetora using chunks of armor in her abilities, and I imagine it should look quite interesting as well.

[(PSN)Axel_Klauser]

I read through most of this, and I love the idea going on here! a little idea I had that I think was kinda mentioned earlier in the post, was to make the armor feel more alive. Even maybe making it like a living being/companion sort of thing, I think that'd make the character really pop out to people. Really love what you've done so far!! keep it up!