The Main Problems With Contagion And Improvements That Might Fix It.

[IronWolfKnight]

Let's be honest, Contagion is Saryn's worst ability. Many Saryn players including me know this and we were disappointed that Contagion wouldn't be changed in Saryn's upcoming rework. There are three main reasons I can think of why Contagion is a bad ability.

 

One. It's restricted to melee weapons.

 

It's not a great start when you have an ability that only buffs the damage on one specific weapon type especially when it's melee which doesn't scale as well as ranged weapons in late game. What's even worse is if you don't have a melee weapon, Contagion becomes nothing more than a energy sink that does nothing to help you and you might accidentally press it in the middle of a firefight.

 

Two. Its overall effect.

 

All it does is give your melee weapon 75% toxin damage at max rank which is rather lackluster. No other effects to help it stand out or give you anything interesting to work with, just 75% Toxin damage. This ability is very uninspired especially when compared to Saryn's other abilities.

 

Venom can spread Viral spores, Molt creates a decoy which removes status conditions and even though Miasma is currently a uninteresting nuke ability with stun, at least the rework is giving it interesting mechanics to help it stand out upon the rest of the nuking abilities in game.

 

Three. It's a timed ability that cost 75 energy.

 

This is my main gripe with Contagion. I do not get why DE didn't turn it into a toggle-drain ability like Hysteria or Spectral Scream. I don't want to press 3 every 20 seconds to keep its effect active while using Saryn's other abilities since by doing so, I'm going to burn through all my energy.

 

These are my reasons why Contagion is bad. Here's some improvements that might help fix its current problems.

 

One. Make its effect apply to ranged weapons however it only gives them 50% Toxin damage as opposed to 75% on melee. The reason why ranged weapons should only gain 50% Toxin damage is fairly simple: so melee doesn't get completely overshadowed. 

 

Two. Weapons under its effect deal 25% more Toxin damage against targets with Toxin or Viral status conditions. This not only makes it more interesting mechanics wise but it give it better scaling in late game.

 

Three. Make it a toggle-drain ability that costs 25 energy when activating. I think I've already explained why.

 

I hope DE improves Contagion in the future. This ability needs to be tweaked in order for it to be more useful and help it stand out with Saryn other abilities.

[DaftMeat]

Addition: Saryn is not specifically geared for melee and does not possess any form of knockdown resistance.

[Zardbooster]

What really gets me is that the augment for venom is so much better.

It gives an ally 100% bonus toxin damage that can combine with other elements and apply to all weapons, and lasts for 40 seconds, and only costs 25 energy

 

The only thing contaigion has going for it, is that you can cast it on yourself, and it doesn't take up a mod slot.

 

So to summarise, contaigion gives 25% less bonus dmg, only apply to melee, can only help out 1 of 4 members on a team, last only 20 second, being half of venom dose, and costs 3 times more energy to cast.

 

How did this get through a balance pass?

Edited October 18, 2015 by Zardbooster

[IronWolfKnight]

Addition: Saryn is not specifically geared for melee and does not possess any form of knockdown resistance.

 

Yeah I kinda forgot about that.

 

What really gets me is that the augment for venom is so much better.

It gives an ally 100% bonus toxin damage that can combine with other elements and apply to all weapons, and lasts for 40 seconds, and only costs 25 energy

 

The only thing contaigion has going for it, is that you can cast it on yourself, and it doesn't take up a mod slot.

 

So to summarise, contaigion gives 25% less bonus dmg, only apply to melee, can only help out 1 of 4 members on a team, last only 20 second, being half of venom dose, and costs 3 times more energy to cast.

 

How did this get through a balance pass?

 

To be fair, Saryn came out way before Augments were a thing.

[DaftMeat]

The more I think about it, I keep circling around the idea that Saryn should get the Excalibur/Valkyr treatment. Contagion might be better off being changed to be something like Exalted Blade or Hysteria. An ability that makes her more of a melee-only tank, and gives her some better defense/mitigation.

 

 

This is by no means ideal, and honestly I would hate to see her just become a Toxin version of Excalibur, but it is might be something to think about...

[Weltraumfred]

Switch it to drain/toggle, increase damage to 30/60/90/120% and have it generate small radial shockwaves that cause 30/60/90/120% weapon damage as viral damage with a 30% status change, on every strike, in a 10m radius. The radial damage is pretty much irrelevant but you'll have everyone procced in no time.

[RexRgisIocus]

Switch it to drain/toggle, increase damage to 30/60/90/120% and have it generate small radial shockwaves that cause 30/60/90/120% weapon damage as viral damage with a 30% status change, on every strike, in a 10m radius. The radial damage is pretty much irrelevant but you'll have everyone procced in no time.

 

This would scale so awesomely with the new Miasma. But honestly it sounds like it should be an augment.

 

Have the base skill give 50% toxic to all 3 of Saryn's weapons + innate life steal (.2% like the Furis mod for primary and secondary and 5% for melee). The augment could simply proc viral explosions on enemy death dealing no damage but having a forced viral proc in 5m.

 

DoT/Status Regen Tank Saryn please DE.

[AutoPhox]

Id rather have another Saryn cast Venom dose on me than use contagion.

But seriously

To begin to fix contagion, id turn it into a toggle ability, buff the damage to 90%, and add something neat like +30% knockdown recovery speed.

[DaftMeat]

Id rather have another Saryn cast Venom dose on me than use contagion.

But seriously

To begin to fix contagion, id turn it into a toggle ability, buff the damage to 90%, and add something neat like +30% knockdown recovery speed.

 

Maybe make it somewhat like an Adrenalin Boost? Buff damage, buff armor, buff knockdown recovery, buff run speed? As a trade-off, I'd still think it should be melee only (disables firearms, melee/powers only)

Edited October 18, 2015 by DaftMeat