Dear [DE], about your melee channeling and blocking.

[Aeiroth]

So I went to the Simulacrum out of boredom and decided to do a wee bit of testing and what-not to see if some of the things I've heard and wondered about were true. I started out with builds on weapons you'd never think of and using under-used mods, which to no surprise, is under-used for a reason.

However as I was testing things I decided to see how well blocking actually was in-game. I slapped on Ack & Brunt, used Final Harbringer (Damn sexy stance by the way), and a Zephyr with max Health and Shields. Then I needed a nice helper to murder to face and spawned a level 135 Ballista, whom is known for their wonderful one/two-shot capabilities.

To start off I needed to see how much damage they did when I gladly welcomed a bullet to the face. Unsurprisingly, a Zephyr with 1290 Shields and 1290 Health was dropped to just under 200 Health in a single bullet. Now I reset everything and tried blocking without channeling and lo-and-behold, it only dropped from 1290 Shields to just over 900 Shields. Quite a massive improvement to survivability, which should remind people to keep their guard up when going into a mission with melee-only.

Finally, and the main problem here, blocking while channeling. It is god damned broken. Using the same set-up as before, except this time I was channeling, I prepared myself to be shot in the face yet again. It worked! Zero damage. Then another shot! And I take normal blocking damage?

Yes I did. Because a single bullet drained more than half of my energy. Rather than using a set amount to negate incoming damage, channeled blocking takes a % more depending on how much damage is absorbed. It does make sense in some way as it's similar to blocking in some Action-RPG's that uses a stamina system, which depending on how much damage in received, requires more stamina to block. However, our energy is NOT a replenishable resource in the same way. It takes a lot longer to regain full energy, and since a single bullet takes most of it away at higher levels, it further digs channeling down into it's grave.

Also, Great Swords block the same amount as Sword'n'Boards. The hell is even the point of a shield?

 

TL;DR

Normal blocking -> Do it as often as you can.

Channeled Blocking -> Never ever do it if you value your energy.

[shut]

The current blocking system is absolutely ridiculous and arguably the worst thing that U17 had to offer. At least the stamina system allowed you to block a single entire Ballista bullet without dealing damage or eating all of your energy.

 

I think that blocking with all weapons should always block 100% of bullet damage (and 100% AoE damage as well for Shields), so that it's something melee players can fall back on while their shields recover. The devs seem to be avoiding this like the plague out of fear that it'd be overpowered, but I think it's overpowered in the same way that staying in a far-off room away from enemies is "overpowered". Like, yeah, you're surviving, but you're not doing anything else either.

Bullet-reflecting should come from melee mods (after the "mandatory mod" issue is cleared up) and should scale from melee mods so it doesn't become useless as soon as you leave Mercury. Channeling should simply not affect blocking in any way.

Edited April 7, 2016 by SortaRandom

[-VV-Phantom-Phoenix]

Its pretty strange that channel blocking does not take into account the weapon that's actually blocking. I thought it would be something like depending on the weapon it would block its normal block amount then the remaining damage would be blocked using an efficiency based on the weapon used to channel block.

Personally i never channel or liked channeling, since its basically an energy drain that means you can use less abilities. Some people use life strike but for me at least its the question of whether i use a energy plate or a health plate or a health station. In no situation is the health option the wrong one.

Now the thing about bullet-reflection. it's pointless. In warframe it tends to be that tenno have high damage and low health compared to enemies and enemies have high health and low damage as compared to the tenno.

Ever watch a corrupted heavy gunner fight a arid heavy gunner? A tenno can demolish both of them in an instant but if the spool up they can kill a tenno pretty easily. But that same damage that can destroy a tenno? Its tickle damage on them. when you deflect a bullet back to an enemy it does basically nothing and it makes sense considering there health and the dimage the bullet was initially capable of.

 

( in case of curiosity the corrupted heavy gunner wins that fight by a big margin due to it appearing to have a higher knockback resistance or its bullets having more knockback, hence the arid can not spool up enough while the corrupted can lay into him consistently)

[Magneu]

This needs to be addressed. Channel blocking, and the otherwise (somewhat) useful mods alongside with it are useless in its current state. Nothing like watching a massive energy pool disappear into the ground in less than a second at sortie level.

[AstroLord]

Is channel block will be overpowered if DE make it 5 energy per shot not by damage? (of course more or less than 5 energy if using mods :P )

[ThatOddDeer]

As a melee enthusiast I can agree wholeheartedly with OP's statement about channeling. 

Instead of (rightfully) bashing channeling let's discuss how it can change in the future.  

My idea is to bring a channeling resource bar (think stamina) that is not used by anything else. This bar, separate from energy, will be used to fuel both channel blocking and regular channeling, and alongside the Soon TM confirmed channeling by weapon type changes, and could be affected by un-equiping your primary and/or secondary

Like 50% more channeling fuel and 50% faster channeling fuel regen rate with both unequiped. This makes the channeling mods more likely to be used in our already cramped builds without fear of crushing our energy stores.

[Burnthesteak87]

While Parrying, Energy used in Channeling shouldn't be drawn basing on the damage received but by a percentage of the total over time.

Also it's a mess the damage reflection: If you have Life Strike up, the damage inflicted through parry-reflection is going to heal you thus drawing even more energy, as if you were attacking.

Another technical downside is this: while the damage on Warframes is enormous, the reflected damage on the enemies is pretty ridicle.

Check some idea here:

 

Edited April 14, 2016 by Burnthesteak87

[DarcnyssWolfe]

Channel blocking should be duration based akin the how stamina was. If channeling, block will drain x energy per second regardless of number of shots blocked (5 energy a shot vs 2-3 grakata weild grineer, gg) or damage blocked (current issues). Granted I truly believe channeling as a whole should be as such, would make it far more useful it you CHANNELED energy into your melee like one does a channeled ability, gaining the benefits so long as the energy flow is maintained.

A dream nonetheless...

[B34RM4ST3R]

I think that damage block system should remain as it is but channeling efficiency mods should finally start to affect chanel-blocking energy drain. I think it's the simpliest way to rework this instead of full redo of entire damage formula.

Edited April 15, 2016 by B34RM4ST3R