An Unhealthy Analysis And Tweaks Proposal Thread For Equinox

[tnccs215]

Well, I've been thinking about writing this thread for a long, long time. Equinox is, without any doubt, one of my favorite frames. Her aesthetics are unique, her base idea fascinating (for me, at least), and her theorical powers interesting at worst, and fascinating at best (ok, I'm being slightly dramatic, but you get my point).
However, even though she could be an amazing frame in paper, the execution fell short. Not only by herself, but mostly compared to many other frames (not referring, as it is obvious (but good to note this for clarification), for over the top frames). The fact is, for a jack of all trades, she fell hard into the jack of one traid pit, a bit she could easily escape from, with simple changes that should have been implemented from day one.
Before arguing about this, please, read my arguments. Also, for the sake of simplicity (because I do write A LOT), I will present my list of tweaks and changes, and only than my analysis and arguments to support my proposed changes.

Before starting the subject per se, I would like to thank everyone that commented any Equinox related thread on the forums. Most of the ideas I will present are based on yours (and I might give you the credit you deserve, but, for the time, I will try to present this subject).

Proposed changes

Stat changes

--increase Day Aspect base movement speed from 1.0 to 1.15(done????)
--increase Night Aspect armor from 100 to either 200 or 300

 

Passive changes

--increase "equilibrium effect" from 10% to 50%

--Grant a "Energy spike" like effect: Energy orbes consumed will also grant energy for allies within 8 meters (stacks with said focus ability) 

ability changes
metamorphosis changes (unnecessary/optional, but nice)

--remove mitigation over time
--increase Day Aspect bonus movement speed from 0.15 to 0.20/0.30
--increase Night Aspect bonus armor from 250 to 350/400

Rest&Rage changes
--power no longer uncasts after changing Aspect
--both rest and rage are applicable on the same enemy Done! apparently, not being able to do it was a bug. its now fixed:3 (thanks DE)

--Rage is recastable on the same enemy up to 2/3 times

--Rage applies a forced, short impact proc on affected enemies
--Ability Radius increased to 7.5 meters

Pacify&Provoke

Alternative 1

--damage reduction no longer falls of with distance(optional-- depending on the range and multiplier improvements)
--range increased from 16meters to 20/25meters (at least)
--damage reduction improved from 0.5 to 0.4 (debatable)
--increase power strength bonus from 20% to 25/30% (debatable)
--Ability no longer deactivates after metamorphosis. Instead, both effects are active during the 1 second transitioning period (debatable), and after the change of the corresponding ability remains active (I.e., change to night, provoke changes to pacify, and vice-versa)

 

Alternative 2 (a.k.a Pacify Remake)

--Range increased from 16 meters to 20/25 meters

--Pacify will be an ally buffer instead of an enemy nerfer:

--Pacify grants additional X armor to herself and all allies in range (for example, 400)-- affected by power strength

--Drain is based on the number of allies in radius

--Ability no longer deactivates after metamorphosis. Instead, both effects are active during the 1 second transitioning period (debatable), and after the change of the corresponding ability remains active (I.e., change to night, provoke changes to pacify, and vice-versa)

 

Mend&Maim
--Mend applies an instant heal to all friendlies (and self) in upon activation. This heal is an “inverse bleed effect”, being an initial 150 heal(affected by power strength), followed by 6 ticks over 7 seconds that heal 35% of the initial heal value. (Values and duration debatable)
--overhealing results in overshields
--Mend applies a forced blast proc on all enemies that enter aura
--Mend applies a viral proc on all enemies that enter aura (highly debatable)
--Mend nukeheal applies to all friendly Tenno, but at 50% strength if they are outside the aura
--When changing aspects, the ability no longer deactivates. Instead, it changes to the mirror ability (if Day to Night, Maim becomes Mend, and vice-Versa), and 75% of the stored Hp are kept (25% loss)
--Maim looses its impact proc (highly debatable)

Analysis and Arguments

metamorphosis

metamorphosis is, arguably, the heart of Equinox. It is the ability that separates her from every other frame as a duality. While the ability per se is “fine” as it is, it has a lot of potential left unexplored, a potential that fits into the theme of duality and “jack of all trades” that Equinox is. In particular, the tank/glass canon duality.
This set of tweaks explore that potential.

 

Let's start by the most important: the loss of bonus that Equinox is characterized by is, undoubtfully, the characteristic that most hinders her, and not exactly on balancing terms. Fact is, this mitigation makes some of her powers less effective, and others almost irrelevant.

 

Metamorphosis is one of the latter.

 

By removing the mitigation over time, we are automatically presented with newer possibilities: a build focused on duration and strength, before completely unviable when using her, is now a possibility. Think of this as a “selfish build”: you Lose your supportive skills in favor of self buffing. In Night Aspect, with the extra armor, tanking is possible (using the ridiculously narrowed range (due to narrow minded), pacify could be used as an inverted shatter shield: protection against melee attacks). In day form, with the increased speed (now a relevant increase) and the increased weapon damage allow the opposite: a fast, high damaging killing machine.

 

I know some could argue that this would make her overpowered. Except… It really wouldn't. Fact is, the buffs, as they are, barely allow her to reach Loki base speed, and Valkyrs Base armor… and this on the first second of power, when the buffs are at full strength. Even with rush, transient fortitude (Rnk10), Intensify and Blind rage (Rnk8), she barely reaches a Valkyr with a rnk5 steel fiber(and no active powers), and only surpasses Loki with rush by… Barely nothing.
With this tweaks, she could be a decent tank and glass canon, but that's it. Decent. She could never reach the level of Valkyr and Chroma, nor of Loki, Mirage, Nova or Volt. And yet, it would allow a greater exploration of her potential, and would fit enormously well in her duality, jack of all trades theme.

Rest&Rage

Rest&Rage is a very interesting ability, specially the Rest component. I have yet to know any Night user that doesn't use Rest extensively. Couple it with a Covert Lethality dagger, and you have one of the best scaling abilities in the game (and not at all op, since it takes a lot,of time,to kill a whole group of sleeping enemies with finishers).

 

With the advent of Ivara, though, We were presented with the very same ability, with increased range, on a different frame. This let me to consider: new frames are tending for a very balanced build, yet Equinox requires enormous amounts of Power Range to be effective. It is not viable. with that in mind, I propose the increase of the radius, to allow for a more effective build, that can focuse on other factors besides Range.

 

Continuing, while Rest is very effective, Rage, however, falls short, specially since Rest&Rage now uncasts after changing Aspects (extremely hindering the synergy between forms, a synergy that was supposed to exist). Rage, while granting a nice damamge boost, also,gives a (not at all nice) speed increase. It's one of the few double,edged abilities that exist.

 

Fact is, a damage boost is irrelevant at lower levels, while a speed increase is fatal at higher ones. The only use I found with this ability is to multiply Maim damage, and to speed up even more credit farms on dark sectors.

 

This QoL change aims to make this ability a bit more useful. To begin, you can recast it on enemies. A nice trade: More damage, at the expense of more speed. Than, it also staggers enemies for a bit. That way, you have a (although narrow) window of opportunity to deal some damage before they start shooting like Rambo on crack. In the end, Rest, by being appliable on Rage, simply allows a bigger exploration of both forms.

 

Truth is, its not very beneficial to constantly change aspects, not as Equinox is atm; which is quite ironic, since DE said on devstream, and I quote, "a good Equinox player would probably keep changing aspects constantly". This aims to change the power for exactly that.

Pacify&Provoke

Pacify&Provoke... Is a mess. It's simply a mess. Provoke is nice, no doubt. An enormous boost to any damage dealing frame. But pacify... Pacify was beaten down by the Nerf hammer before even being released. It is obvious that, in fear of making it an overpowered defense ability, it was left an almost useless one, that needs an incredibly focused build to be vaguely effective.

 

This is mainly due to the the fall of over distance. It forces the player to build for both enormous values and range and strength, values that cancel,each other (because Overextended...), just to be slightly effective. It is not a good ability, be it by itself, be it compared to other defensive abilities (frost snow globe, while static, cancels any damage and slows enemies, rhino iron skin will get buffed to being even more effective, shatter shield is incredible, and damn easy to max, and Blessing.... Lets not talk about blessing. It's overpowered, but that's not the point.. Lets get back into topic).

However, it goes beyond that.

 

While the power effectiveness is reduced the further the enemy is from you, the energy cost per enemy is not. That is, it costs exactly the same to reduce the damage of an enemy by 1% (because that enemy is on the outskirts of the aura) that to reduce it by 50% (on an enemy right next to you). It goes beyond balancing. Its down right unfair. The more range you poor in in order to compensate for the abilities uneffectiveness, the more you lose, because you are going to have your energy suckd by many more enemies, whose damage is getting barely reduced.

It is not a good power. It is a waste of energy, and Mod Slots.

 

By eliminating the fall off, it becomes instantly more viable. You don't have to focuse on a balance between range and strength, and use it as you prefer. It also becomes more "fair", since an enemy at the outskirts of the power costs as much energy to keep as one right on your face.

 

The damage reduction improvement is simply because 0.5 is not that good to begin with. The increased range is more to help provoke than anything. Warframe is a fast paced game, and only rarely allies stick together. Plus, Day is naturally more mobile than night, being maleficient to prioritize keeping close to friendlies over running around killing enemies.
In the end, keeping the ability active while changing forms aims to do the same as the Rest&Rage change: To make it more beneficial and easier to keep changing aspects.

Mend&Maim

Mend&Maim always grinded my gears a little bit. Not because it is an ineffective ability, but because it is incredibly unbalanced between both forms. It defines Day Aspect as an easy to use, all use nuker, and marks her as easier and more effective to use than Night (with the exception on very high levels, and at the hands of skilled players).

This is because, while Maim provides 2 instant (and extremely useful) benefits plus a final, incredibly scalling nuke; while Mend... Mend provides a heal. Only a heal, and after a long activation, killing, and deactivation.

 

Mend was obvious build at the back of Maim. It possesses the downsides of a powerful ability, but not its upsides. It doesn't provide the CC that should be provided by a defensive aspect (and is provided by the offensive one), and it is only effective when there are few enemies, and the team communicates well.

As a heal, it is very ineffective. Having Life strike ends up costing less time and energy. You can't use it as a "just in case" ability and keep it active until needed, because it costs energy and gives no benefit to keep so, and you can't use it as an "instant use" ability, because it takes too long to use.

 

This changes aim to put it on pair with Maim, or, at least, with other healing abilities.
Since Maim deals Slash damage with forced proc, I thought it would make sense to have an instant, small heal, accompanied by a smaller heal over time. It's a reflexion of a slash damage, and fits very well with Equinox theme of complementary opposites and dualities.

 

The group heal independent of Range is simply to put on pair with other healing abilities. Both Renewal and Blessing are independent of range, and with good reason: Only rarely allies are closed together. And this is a ultimate ability! It makes no sense for a ultimate, expensive ability, focused on healing, barely does so! Even if it is applied to all friendlies has I stated, it would never get close to Blessing, since Blessing is instant (and makes you invincible, but lets not count that broken feature), and renewal... Renewal is a 3. This is a ulimate. It makes sense for them to be paired.
The blast proc is to make it a CC, defensive ability, on pair with Maim itself. Fact is, for an effective heal, you need to do some killing, and while that is made easier on Maim, its very hard with Mend only. The only possible argument against this is because rest exists... However, rest range is narrow, and, ver often, not enough to save you when you are at low health, and in need of a heal.

To end, the values being transmittable between aspects, and the abilities not cancelling. Serve the same as other tweaks: To ensure Equinox is what she was supposed to be: A dynamic frame, that rewards dynamic play. With constant role change.

notes on Mend&Maim proposed augment

When I heard the proposed augment, I was in shock (well, as much as someone can be with a game). The proposed augments increases the power gap between Mend and Maim even more. Indeed, it makes Mend completely irrelevant, Night Equinox even less beneficial over day, and overall it guarantees that Day continues to be more effective than Night.
The proposed augment grants Maim healing abilities that should be default on Mend, while granting Mend the least beneficial effect: A shield recharge (that already exists naturally(!!!)), and a shield depletion on enemies. And shield is the most irrelevant defense line, both for Tenno and enemies: It does not scale with armor, and not all factions have. Indeed, only half of them do. And one of them, not even every enemy.
It is not a balanced augment, not even by far. If healing abilities are to be granted to Maim, damaging abilities (good ones) have to be granted to Mend. Alternatively, any other of the propose augments would serve.

Alternative Changes

For Mend, by hukurokuju5
--When Equinox or Allie within range reaches fatal health values (2 hp), all damage being dealt to the player in question is instead dealt to the Hp pool (think of it as Quickthinking, but done to the stored pool of HP)

 

For Mend, original idea by Leuca, modified mainly by God_is_a_Cat_Girl, and myself

--Mend inforces an intense accuracy reduction on all enemies within the aura (because the night is dark)

That's it for now. I might change this, according to feedback. Thanks for reading, and feel free to discuss and comment the proposals :)

edit history:

[EDIT1]:Tweaked some things, and added Rest&Rage tab.
[EDIT2]:Added Pacify&Provoke tab.
[EDIT3]:Added Mend&Maim tab.
[EDIT4]:Added notes on Mend&Main augment. Think I'm done by now.
[EDIT5]:Alternative change added.

[EDIT6]:Altered some sentences, and updated it a bit. 

5th January of 2016[EDIT7]: scratched speed increase. is this a bug?

Edited January 21, 2016 by tnccs215

[dadaddadada]

Loving points 1 and 5 of pacify/provoke (no damage falloff and cross-metamorphosis).

I think you should sort the points on every ability from more gamechanging (mechanics changes) to less gamechanging (mere stat changes) and try to keep the lists short and things simple.

 

I suggest Mend/Main should not reset the counter on metamorphosis or at least keep like 80% of it.

[tnccs215]

Loving points 1 and 5 of pacify/provoke (no damage falloff and cross-metamorphosis).

I think you should sort the points on every ability from more gamechanging (mechanics changes) to less gamechanging (mere stat changes) and try to keep the lists short and things simple.

I suggest Mend/Main should not reset the counter on metamorphosis or at least keep like 80% of it.

Edited it so metamorphosis is presented as more "optional". Thanks for the feedback, though.

Oh, regarding Mend and Main: Completely forgot to put that XD though I might alter it for 75% or even 50%.

[tnccs215]

[edit]:added rest and rage.

[tnccs215]

[edit]:added pacify&provoke analysis and argument.

[tnccs215]

[edit]:added mend&main analysis and change argument.

[PhynxX]

Equinox also my favorite and my main frame (5 forma)

 

I like ur idea to some extend. Metamorphosis duration really should be remove so i can play as defense or offense like night form has higher armor/health/shield but slow.

[tnccs215]

Loving points 1 and 5 of pacify/provoke (no damage falloff and cross-metamorphosis).

I think you should sort the points on every ability from more gamechanging (mechanics changes) to less gamechanging (mere stat changes) and try to keep the lists short and things simple.

I suggest Mend/Main should not reset the counter on metamorphosis or at least keep like 80% of it.

Tbh I only find the Metamorphosis change to be game changing. Do you have something else in mind? Edited November 24, 2015 by tnccs215

[DarkMutant]

YES!

[Gurpgork]

You have a well earned +1. Although I don't entirely agree with the stacking Rage, the stagger would be very nice. I have no disagreements with the other proposals.

Something I've heard is even making the bonuses from Metamorphosis permanent, but I think you've hit the nail on the head with it. They have different base stats, and the bonuses for a limited time on top of them. These changes would make Equinox the frame she always deserved to be, rather than the one DE was really afraid of making overpowered.

[tnccs215]

You have a well earned +1. Although I don't entirely agree with the stacking Rage, the stagger would be very nice. I have no disagreements with the other proposals.

Something I've heard is even making the bonuses from Metamorphosis permanent, but I think you've hit the nail on the head with it. They have different base stats, and the bonuses for a limited time on top of them. These changes would make Equinox the frame she always deserved to be, rather than the one DE was really afraid of making overpowered.

  

YES!

  

Equinox also my favorite and my main frame (5 forma)

 

I like ur idea to some extend. Metamorphosis duration really should be remove so i can play as defense or offense like night form has higher armor/health/shield but slow.

Thank you all for the positive feedback c: Really makes me feel apreciatted.

Its a shame Equinox isn't a very popular frame, for some reason. Threads regarding her are few and far between (except from me. I'm just nag), and don't get much attention. :/.

[swizzybeatzjamz]

Yes to all this

[Neptlude]

I really think that Metamorphosis buff should be reverse. Day is wearing the heavy bulky armor, which should be the one with shield and armor buff. Night on the other hand has the feathery dress, so should be the one speed and attack buff. And +1 to no more duration time and be a perm passive for forms...

 

The other skill seems to be pretty okay I guess... still Night could do some rework... I finding my self mostly in day form, and barely touching night...

[(PSN)gatehacker00]

Well, I've been thinking about writing this thread for a long, long time. Equinox is, without any doubt, one of my favorite frames. Her aesthetics are unique, her base idea fascinating (for me, at least), and her theorical powers interesting, at best.

However, even though she could be an amazing frame in paper, the execution fell short. Not only by herself, but mostly compared to many other frames (not referring, as it is obvious (but good to note this for clarification), for over the top frames). The fact is, for a jack of all trades, she fell hard into the jack of one traid pit, a bit she could easily escape from, with simple changes that should have been implemented from day one.

Before arguing about this, please, read my arguments. Also, for the sake of simplicity (because I do write A LOT), I will present my list of tweaks and changes, and only than my analysis and arguments to support my proposed changes.

Before starting the subject per se, I would like to thank everyone that commented any Equinox related thread on the forums. Most of the ideas I will present are based on yours (and I might give you the credit you deserve, but, for the time, I will try to present this subject).

Proposed changes

Stat changes

--increase Day Aspect base movement speed from 1.0 to 1.15

--increase Night Aspect armor from 100 to either 200 or 300

ability changes

metamorphosis changes (unnecessary, optional, but nice)

--remove mitigation over time

--increase Day Aspect bonus movement speed from 0.15 to 0.20/0.30

--increase Night Aspect bonus armor from 250 to 350/400

Rest&Rage changes

--power no longer uncasts after changing Aspect

--both rest and rage are applicable on the same enemy like it used to be!

--Rage is recastable on the same enemy up to 2/3 times

--Rage applies a forced, short impact proc on affected enemies

--Ability Radius increased to 7.5 meters

Pacify&Provoke

--damage reduction no longer falls of with distance!!!1!

--range increased from 16meters to 18/20meters

--damage reduction improved from 0.5 to 0.4 (debatable)

--increase power strength bonus from 20% to 25/30% (debatable)

--ability no longer deactivates after metamorphosis. Instead, both effects are active during the 1 second transitioning period (debatable), and after the change of the corresponding ability remains active (I.e., change to night, provoke changes to pacify, and vice-versa)

Mend&Maim

--Mend applies an instant heal to all friendlies (and self) in upon activation. This heal is an “inverse bleed effect”, being an initial 150 heal(affected by power strength), followed by 6 ticks over 7 seconds that heal 35% of the initial heal value. (Values and duration debatable)

--overhealing results in overshields

--Mend applies a forced blast proc on all enemies that enter aura

--Mend applies a viral proc on all enemies that enter aura (highly debatable)

--Mend nukeheal applies to all friendly Tenno, but at 50% strength if they are outside the aura

--When changing aspects, the ability no longer deactivates. Instead, it changes to the mirror ability (if Day to Night, Maim becomes Mend, and vice-Versa), and 75% of the stored Hp are kept (25% loss)

--Maim looses its impact proc (highly debatable)

Analysis and Arguments

metamorphosis

metamorphosis is, arguably, the heart of Equinox. It is the ability that separates her from every other frame as a duality. While the ability per se is “fine” as it is, it has a lot of potential left unexplored, a potential that fits into the theme of duality and “jack of all trades” that Equinox is. In particular, the tank/glass canon duality.

This set of tweaks explore that potential.

Let's start by the most important: the loss of bonus that Equinox is characterized by is, undoubtfully, the characteristic that most hinders her, and not exactly on balancing terms. Fact is, this mitigation makes some of her powers less effective, and others almost irrelevant. Metamorphosis is one of the latter.

By removing the mitigation over time, we are automatically presented with newer possibilities: a build focused on duration and strength, before completely unviable when using her, is now a possibility. Think of this as a “selfish build”: you Lose your supportive skills in favor of self buffing. In Night Aspect, with the extra armor, tanking is possible (using the ridiculously narrowed range (due to narrow minded), pacify could be used as an inverted shatter shield: protection against melee attacks). I'm day form, with the increased speed (now a relevant increase) and the increased weapon damage allow the opposite: a fast, high damaging killing machine.

I know some could argue that this would make her overpowered. Except… It really wouldn't. Fact is, the buffs, as they are, barely allow her to reach Loki base speed, and Valkyrs Base armor… and this on the first second of power, when the buffs are at full strength. Even with rush, transient fortitude (Rnk10), Intensify and Blind rage (Rnk8), she barely reaches a Valkyr with a rnk5 steel fiber(and no active powers), and only surpasses Loki with rush by… Barely nothing.

With this tweaks, she could be a decent tank and glass canon, but that's it. Decent. She could never reach the level of Valkyr and Chroma, nor of Loki, Mirage, Nova or Volt. And yet, it would allow a greater exploration of her potential, and would fit enormously well in her duality, jack of all trades theme.

Rest&Rage

Rest&Rage is a very interesting ability, specially the Rest component. I have yet to know any Night user that doesn't use Rest extensively. Couple it with a Concealed blade dagger, and you have one of the best scaling abilities in the game (and not at all op, since it takes a lot,of time,to kill a whole group of sleeping enemies with finishers).

Rage, however, falls short, specially since Rest&Rage now uncasts after changing Aspects (extremely hindering the synergy between forms, a synergy that was supposed to exist). Rage, while granting a nice damamge boost, also,gives a (not at all nice) speed increase. It's one of the few double,edged abilities that exist.

Fact is, a damage boost is irrelevant at lower levels, while a speed increase is fatal at higher ones. The only use I found with this ability is to multiply Maim damage, and to speed up even more credit farms on dark sectors.

This QoL change aims to make this ability a bit more useful. To begin, you can recast it on enemies. A nice trade: More damage, at the expense of more speed. Than, it also staggers enemies for a bit. That way, you have a (although narrow) window of opportunity to deal some damage before they start shooting like Rambo on crack. In the end, Rest, by being appliable on Rage, simply allows a bigger exploration of both forms. Truth is, its not very beneficial to constantly change aspects, nit as Equinox is atm; which is quite ironic, since DE said on devstream, and I quote, "a good Equinox player would probably keep changing aspects constantly". This aims to change the power for exactly that.

Pacify&Provoke

Pacify&Provoke... Is a mess. It's simply a mess. Provoke is nice, no doubt. An enormous boost to any damage dealing frame. But pacify... Pacify was beaten down by the Nerf hammer before even being released. It is obvious that, in fear of making it an overpowered defense ability, it was left an almost useless one, that needs an incredibly focused build to be vaguely effective.

This is mainly due to the the fall of over distance. It forces the player to build for both enormous values and range and strength, values that cancel,each other (because Overextended...), just to be slightly effective. It is not a good ability, be it by itself, be it compared to other defensive abilities (frost snow globe, while static, cancels any damage and slows enemies, rhino iron skin will get buffed to being even more effective, shatter shield is incredible, and damn easy to max, and Blessing.... Lets not talk about blessing. It's overpowered, but that's not the point.. Lets get back into topic).

By eliminating the fall off, it becomes instantly more viable. You don't have to focuse on a balance between range and strength, and use it as you prefer. It also becomes more "fair", since an enemy at the outskirts of the power costs as much energy to keep as one right on your face.

The damage reduction improvement is simply because 0.5 is not that good to begin with. The increased range is more to help provoke than anything. Warframe is a fast paced game, and only rarely allies stick together. Plus, Day is naturally more mobile than night, being maleficient to prioritize keeping close to friendlies over running around killing enemies.

In the end, keeping the ability active while changing forms aims to do the same as the Rest&Rage change: To make it more beneficial and easier to keep changing aspects.

Mend&Maim

Mend&Maim always grinded my gears a little bit. Not because it is an ineffective ability, but because it is incredibly unbalanced between both forms. It defines Day Aspect as an easy to use, all use nuker, and marks her as easier and more effective to use than Night (with the exception on very high levels, and at the hands of skilled players).

This is because, while Maim provides 2 instant (and extremely useful) benefits plus a final, incredibly scalling nuke; while Mend... Mend provides a heal. Only a heal, and after a long activation, killing, and deactivation.

Mend was obvious build at the back of Maim. It possesses the downsides of a powerful ability, but not its upsides. It doesn't provide the CC that should be provided by a defensive aspect (and is provided by the offensive one), and it is only effective when there are few enemies, and the team communicates well.

As a heal, it is very ineffective. Having Life strike ends up costing less time and energy. You can't use it as a "just in case" ability and keep it active until needed, because it costs energy and gives no benefit to keep so, and you can't use it as an "instant use" ability, because it takes too long to use.

This changes aim to put it on pair with Maim, or, at least, with other healing abilities.

Since Maim deals Slash damage with forced proc, I thought it would make sense to have an instant, small heal, accompanied by a smaller heal over time. It's a reflexion of a slash damage, and fits very well with Equinox theme of complementary opposites and dualities.

The group heal independent of Range is simply to put on pair with other healing abilities. Both Renewal and Blessing are independent of range, and with good reason: Only rarely allies are closed together. And this is a ultimate ability! It makes no sense for a ultimate, expensive ability, focused on healing, barely does so! Even if it is applied to all friendlies has I stated, it would never get close to Blessing, since Blessing is instant (and makes you invincible, but lets not count that broken feature), and renewal... Renewal is a 3. This is a ulimate. It makes sense for them to be paired.

The blast proc is to make it a CC, defensive ability, on pair with Maim itself. Fact is, for an effective heal, you need to do some killing, and while that is made easier on Maim, its very hard with Mend only. The only possible argument against this is because rest exists... However, rest range is narrow, and, ver often, not enough to save you when you are at low health, and in need of a heal.

To end, the values being transmittable between aspects, and the abilities not cancelling. Serve the same as other tweaks: To ensure Equinox is what she was supposed to be: A dynamic frame, that rewards dynamic play. With constant role change.

notes on Mend&Maim proposed augment

When I heard the proposed augment, I was in shock (well, as much as someone can be with a game). The proposed augments increases the power gap between Mend and Maim even more. Indeed, it makes Mend completely irrelevant, Night Equinox even less beneficial over day, and overall it guarantees that Day continues to be more effective than Night.

The proposed augment grants Maim healing abilities that should be default on Mend, while granting Mend the least beneficial effect: A shield recharge (that already exists naturally(!!!)), and a shield depletion on enemies. And shield is the most irrelevant defense line, both for Tenno and enemies: It does not scale with armor, and not all factions have. Indeed, only half of them do. And one of them, not even every enemy.

It is not a balanced augment, not even by far. If healing abilities are to be granted to Maim, damaging abilities (good ones) have to be granted to Mend. Alternatively, any other of the propose augments would serve.

That's it for now. I might change this, according to feedback. Thanks for reading, and feel free to discuss and comment the proposals :)

[EDIT1]:tweaked some things, and added Rest&Rage tab.

[EDIT2]:Added Pacify&Provoke tab.

[EDIT3]:Added Mend&Maim tab.

[EDIT4]:Added notes on Mend&Main augment. Think I'm done by now.

I love everything!!! Definite +1.

[tnccs215]

I really think that Metamorphosis buff should be reverse. Day is wearing the heavy bulky armor, which should be the one with shield and armor buff. Night on the other hand has the feathery dress, so should be the one speed and attack buff. And +1 to no more duration time and be a perm passive for forms...

The other skill seems to be pretty okay I guess... still Night could do some rework... I finding my self mostly in day form, and barely touching night...

Mh... Yeah, I see your point. Day is indeed bulkier, and Night has that flowy dress. However, Day (both the Aspect and day itself) is naturally more connected to activity, energy. She might be bulkier, but its also more athletic, and doesn't have the dress blocking the movements. Night, on the other hand, is more connected to recovery and defense. Ence the extra armor.

But, to be honest, it could be the other aay around. I decided to put it this way mostly because DE already made her like that. Would her have been the opposite, J might have put it has you proposed

Well I focused myself on improving Night. I (and 90% of the players) too feel she falls short compared to day and other frames (on another topic, DarkMutant said on another post:

(...)Night's pacify might be the worst damage migitation skill in the entire game! (...) If night and day were to be released as seperates... night would be a fodder.

Everyone likes Equinox for their ability to adapt... but sadly Night does not adapt as an acceptable Tank/Healer.(...)

However, what frustrates me enormously is that I disagree with you on whether she needs a true rework, because she doesn't. Night problems (with the exception of Mend)are exclusively statistical. The powers themselves (their concept) doesn't need to be altered.what needs to be is the numbers, and this or that limiting factor. See what I mean?

Edited November 25, 2015 by tnccs215

[hukurokuju5]

are there existing numbers for falloff minimums on pacify and maim? falloff and the energy drain are the main reasons why pacify is unusable.

 

maybe mend could have a quickthinking kind of interaction where it somehow cushions lethal damage that other frames in the aura take, SO THAT you can pop the heal.  

 

maybe have overkill damage to allies eat into aura accumulated points so there is a push and pull of tenno kills vs enemy damage

 

 

wow that came out pretty nice LOL

[tnccs215]

are there existing numbers for falloff minimums on pacify and maim? falloff and the energy drain are the main reasons why pacify is unusable.

maybe mend could have a quickthinking kind of interaction where it somehow cushions lethal damage that other frames in the aura take, SO THAT you can pop the heal.

maybe have overkill damage to allies eat into aura accumulated points so there is a push and pull of tenno kills vs enemy damage

wow that came out pretty nice LOL

Oh, I think I see. I've seem some propositions asking for 75% of the damage enemies deal being dealt to the pool instead of to allies, but I didnt put it because that would make pacify redundant. But if you are proposing that the pool acts as a "last resource health", in which the pool starts being "eaten up" when allied health reaches 2... That's actually pretty interesting.

Regarding pacify and maim's fall off, well... Maim's I didn't tried to test, because I didn't feel the need to. With pacify, however, I did. Went to the simulacrum, and spawned a Corrupted heavy gunner, and compared how much time she took to deplete my shields with and without pacify, and at several distances. It was a pain to do, because the bloody gunner DIDNT STOP WALKING FOR A SECOND, so I couldn't measure with precision the distance. However, after some tries, it seemed that a gunner in the outskirts of the aura took as long to kill my shields as if I had pacify deactivated. So I assume it's a direct proportion. I made a post about it a while ago, focused on building pacify with different rnks on overextended (plus max stretch, of course). I'll post the thread in here later.

[tnccs215]

[edit5]: Added hukurokuju5 idea to the post. Found it to be an interesting alternative

[tnccs215]

YES! One of the changes I posted has been adressed! 

Apparently, it was a bug all along, though. Thank god it got adressed.

Also, with the advent of Wukongs' Defy, I might had hukurokuju5 to the initial concept.

(yes, Im also bumping this thread a bit. I'm despicable)

Edited November 25, 2015 by tnccs215

[MotherofHermes]

#night buffs 2015.

[tnccs215]

#night buffs 2015.

Lets make,that an hashtag. Gonna put it every where with the link to this topic.

#buffNight2015

[(PSN)Xewkeryx]

+1 for buffing each half's base stats. The temporary buff Metamorphosis offers is nice and all, but, y'know, it's not like you're switching that much when you're gathering power for your ult

 

Also it'd be great if Pacify/Provoke simply switched to their twin during Metamorphosis, no need to recast, but that's just me

[Volinus7]

All issues about how lackluster this frame was and how it became mr fodder in a month was already discussed in 1-3days after the release but nothing came out of it.

Honestly this frame has potential to be the most fun to play frame.

But right now this frame has all of the contradiction to the gameplay style of warframe.... de doesn't listen to feedback that much.

[tnccs215]

+1 for buffing each half's base stats. The temporary buff Metamorphosis offers is nice and all, but, y'know, it's not like you're switching that much when you're gathering power for your ult

Also it'd be great if Pacify/Provoke simply switched to their twin during Metamorphosis, no need to recast, but that's just me

I know. Thats why I put for a % of the stored hp pool to be transmissable between formas. That way, its possible to store and be dinamic at the same time.

[Neptlude]

I really Hope DE is planning on adjusting Equi in U18 .- . I'll just store in Equi until they adjust her...

Edited November 30, 2015 by Xenosnake