Beware The Depths. Hydroid Rework Idea.

[GTG3000]

So, I've been doing my best to play hydroid last couple of weeks (variety is the spice of life, etc), and I've come to a conclusion that his kit is decent, but lacks quality of life things. Hence, this thread.

 

Passive : Enemies that were affected by hydroids' undertow are unstable, suffering 5% of received damage as finisher for 2 seconds after reappearing.

 

Tempest Barrage

The idea here is to introduce a bit of interliminary CC to the ability with an otherwise long reaction time, by borrowing the mechanic from Ivaras' quiver.

 

 - Single press - Hydroid launches a single projectile for fifth the price, offhand casting.

 

 - Hold - Hydroid targets the barrage. Barrage delay shortened slightly to keep the overall time between cast and first projectile landing same.

 

Tidal Surge

A decent CC/mobility, Tidal Surge severely lacks control. I propose to make it a channel of sorts, allowing it to be prolonged or shortened, as well as controlled.

 

 - First .5 seconds after ability is cast, it can not be interrupted. After that, the wave-form is sustained while the button is pressed, until Hydroid either collides with environment or runs out of power. To give more control, the base speed is lowered, but the wave will now turn towards the cursor, with a turning radius. Every second after the first costs 12 energy.

 

 - The effect of the ability is altered - enemies in a small range, impacted by the wave directly, are carried by it in an undertow state, enemies in twice the range suffer impact damage and proc. Upon ability ending, the enemies are released and knocked down, leaving them open for finishers.

 

 - Can be cast while Undertow is active, holding onto the enemies and cancelling the puddle.

 

Undertow

Being a simple puddle is not too fun.

 

 - Ability now starts at half current range, spreading up to the current range over 5/4/3/2 seconds, and up to 1.5 current range over additional 10/8/6/4, time affected by duration - more duration, shorter time.

 

 - Hydroid can now move while in the ability. Doing so will make ability reverse to the half-size, lower his movement speed severely, as well as incuring power drain penalties, doubling the base drain and draining 1 energy/second for each enemy he carries with him.

 

Tentacle Swarm

Same as barrage, swarm takes a plenty of time to set up, and can miss the enemy completely if the RNGeesus hates your guts. And he does.

 

 - Single press - for fifth the price, Hydroid spawns a single tentacle at the spot of choosing. The tentacle does count up to the limit of 12, and will disappear if you venture too far from it.

 

 - Hold - Hydroid spawns the tentacles as per usual. Using the hold cast removes the precision-spawned tentacles, unless they have an enemy.

[Archforge]

I like your idea for the Tempest Barrage and Tidal Surge (channeling ftw!). However, the passive is not quite like the passives of other warframes. Making it related to his skills may change the other passive abilities of warframes underpowered (and DE won't do that).

I don't like his Undertow skill in general. A whole rework for that skill would be useful although it gives some good cc. You're rework kinda makes it a self utility rather than a team utility since you're focusing on hydroid himself and not on how it will affect team comps.
Finally the tentacle swarm, IF you're a LoL player then you've probably heard of Illaoi. If not then I'll explain. Basically, a swarm of [large] tentacles spawn around you then once you hit a specific enemy, the tentacles would also hit them including the other enemies that will be hit by the length of the tentacles.

[GTG3000]

I like your idea for the Tempest Barrage and Tidal Surge (channeling ftw!). However, the passive is not quite like the passives of other warframes. Making it related to his skills may change the other passive abilities of warframes underpowered (and DE won't do that).

I don't like his Undertow skill in general. A whole rework for that skill would be useful although it gives some good cc. You're rework kinda makes it a self utility rather than a team utility since you're focusing on hydroid himself and not on how it will affect team comps.

Finally the tentacle swarm, IF you're a LoL player then you've probably heard of Illaoi. If not then I'll explain. Basically, a swarm of [large] tentacles spawn around you then once you hit a specific enemy, the tentacles would also hit them including the other enemies that will be hit by the length of the tentacles.

 

Yeah, honestly I did not have any good ideas for the passive. 

 

I don't play much with premade teams at all, but I don't realy see how my undertow changes affect teams too differently - you still get your stationary puddle if you want to, you just can shift it around and get enemies in one spot, which is benefitial for many frames/weapon builds.

 

Moreover, hydroid is just not terribly effective on his own, as well as not being irreplaceable. Making him more fun to play is one of my main concerns.

 

And  I do play LoL. I'm not sure the mechanics would translate all too well, but it could be fun to sic all your tentacles on one enemy. Although it would work better if you could make them hit ground, too.