Atlas: Full Feedback [Bugs, Suggestions, Comments]

[Klizard]

Atlas

The most fun I've had with a new frame in some time

 

I picked up Atlas not too long ago and almost instantly fell in love with him. Always had a calling for earth and Ice powers so I've been sticking with Frost till now. While some animations sit interestingly with him considering his build I thoroughly enjoy his boxing body aesthetic. He is rising my favorites ranks this way.

 

Stats

His stats feel good, he has a high use of abilities that justifies his increased energy pool, while his high armor balances out his basic health and shield stats, especially considering none of his abilities currently augment it.

 

Abilities

I'll run this down by each one as I have comments on all of them.

Landslide

This is by far one of my most favorite first abilities I have run across. Slide up and punch a dude in the face with rock fists. Straight and to the point! Plus it combos with itself in rapid succession making it amazing to slide through lines of enemies in corridors! No complaints about this one what-so-ever. +1 Rock Fisting.

 

Bug

The third hit in the combo will ragdoll anything.... ANYTHING, which is great. Though some enemies get broken and their ragdolls get caught in things like Synoid's Stack before they are considered dead. They are then stuck in ragdoll forever. I'm not particularly complaining about this, but I recognize a bug when I see one. Especially if they continue to hang in the air after the stack disappears.

 

Tectonics (Great name)

Pros

Tectonics is something I'm super happy to have, I wanted another frame that can pose actual defense for others or objectives. Tag on top of it that I can block narrow door and pathways is amazing! Pop up a wall and be happy! Plus as a wall, its great! Everything about the initial use of the skill is near perfect for what I believe it is intended to be.

 

Here's where it falls off...

 

Cons

The second use of the skill, which I am deeming the ride, is where this falls off incredibly. The actual ball of rock is amazing but it doesn't go nearly far enough or explode with enough force to be useful most of the time, even when used for that to be its sole purpose. On top of it not going far its damage is laughable, the only real fun thing is the fact that it ragdolls, but even that is only useful when you actually catch an enemy with its short rolling range. They just get up within moments anyhow. It is fine to have a small blast radius but with such little damage, no scaling, and only ragdolling enemies caught in the roll I find I almost never send it out except to give myself a little chuckle. Its not useful enough in real combat.

Also, Atlas getting hit by a nullifier causes it to crumble. While I get it I usually play frost who gets to keep his bubble.

 

Suggestions

I think Tectonics is a great wall, but a terrible rolling rock.

• Take its invulnerability period and add the damage it absorbs to its rolling and explosion damage as well.

   

• Give the explosion at the end the ability to ragdoll enemies caught in the blast with force matching distance from the center of it.

   

• Have the wall or ball only break when IT comes into contact with a nullifier, not when Atlas does.

If the team ever does more with Press and Hold abilities it would be the best to be able to create a bigger wall by holding down the initial press of the button. Increasing all features by however much you hold it by, or just making a second tier wall by holding the button for a few seconds. Boosting all features that way.

 

Overall

I love the emergency wall, Just want to have a more useful boulder as well!

 

Petify

No qualms, no complaints. An incredibly useful skill. Makes chasing synthesis targets a thing of the past!

 

Bugs

Starting petrify while sliding gets you stuck in a slide till it ends and leaves you in a crouched position, also rolling while petrifying enemies is kinda silly, its good to help me get around quickly without ending the skill... but still. Silly.

Also for clients half of the visuals are default and half are my energy color, which I may like more than having it all my color. Make that normal! (May not actually be a bug when I think about it but the inconsistency is apparent)

 

Rumblers

I. Love. The Rumblers.

Yup, that sums it up.

But wait, I still have things to say so...

 

Pros

They can ragdoll enemies on ranged or melee attack which is endlessly hilarious to see, they last forever, they explode on "deactivation", and with my setup they are fast devils to boot. I'm so glad they made me able to alter their speed, they'd still be useful otherwise but this takes the cake.

These guys have helped me out tremendously from picking up allies to keeping annoying loners from ruining my perfect Interception run.

 

Cons

These are some weak cons, mostly nitpicking, but lets see anyway.

• They don't do very much damage. (Though that's not really what I need them for, it always helps)

   

• They only explode on deactivation...

   

• They get hung up on tiny unimportant enemies like leeches or self-detonating rollerballs.

   

• They run head-first into nullifiers.

   

• They crumble when Atlas runs head-first into nullifiers.

Both of the two mentioned just above can be really obnoxious when facing anything corpus-related.

 

Suggestions

• Make them Detonate at the end of their duration as well, I can't be watching that timer constantly to make sure I get it off.

   

• Add the leftover health to the explosion damage! (This is an "ultimate" ability after all, give it some oomph! Besides using them as walking mines would be ungodly expensive, even if we know some people will still do it.)

   

• Have them be nullified only when they come in contact with the nullifiers, not Atlas. So I can rush in and kill him without losing my darn puppets that are likely elsewhere!

   

• Have them throw rocks at nullifiers if the bubble is active or if their target is affected by the nullifier buff. Just because they are puppets doesn't mean they have to run in to impending foolishness! They should be as smart as I "program" them!
   
• Have them ignore tiny insignificant enemies entirely! They don't have time for that nonsense! They must Rumble!

Now there are some more I thought of while playing, these aren't based on any actual problems that the Rumblers have. These are just for fun:

• Give them another ability where they rush an enemy or squad of enemies by rolling a straight line into
  them. I thought of this after watching one roll over a bench, which made my day.
   
• When they jump down from higher up having some impact slam of sorts.
   
• I read on the Building Warframe: Atlas that they had multiple designs on the Rumbler and had trouble choosing one... but why choose? Make the best designs all a part of it and have it pick two of them when using the skill to add some variation to them!
   
• I could go on this thought and give the Rumblers different AI's depending on which one summoned but that's... awesome. Do that. (Kidding?) If not I wouldn't be mad. But still the visual variation would be fun.

 

Visual Suggestion

One minor thing I'd love is having cracks of energy on the stones of all his abilities that represent his current energy color. Would help distinguish between multiple Atlas and also kind of explain why things keep exploding... just sayin'.

 

Thats how I feel about Atlas. He is a fun frame and feels great.

 

As always thank you for taking the time to read my post! Hope you enjoy my input!

Edited January 9, 2016 by Klizard

[AzazelSama]

well not bad,but as for rumblers i think that "Give them another ability where they rush an enemy or squad of enemies by rolling a straight line into
them" would be fun too :)),if they would do that,i might make Atlas my favorite frame,i mean....who dont want to see the ball moving around :D

[Klizard]

More rolling balls = more fun

 

Thats how that math works anywhere! (gross)

[IceColdHawk]

Btw, you can use tectonics INSIDE the cryopod in order to guard it. Doesn't work for explosions and melee attacks but it works for shots. Really nice when the frost is sleeping sometimes ^^. And yeah, landslide is the most hilarious ability in the game. You can literally chuck norris whole enemy waves away with style.