Warframe Mods: I want to give someting to shield tanks

[Sefyra-Skye]

So shielding and I have a long happy history. Shield build in Mass Effect = Awesome. Protoss player in Starcraft 1 and 2. Advent player in Sins of a Solar Empire.

However, to my dismay, I find that shielding in Warframe is... Lacking. It's not god-awful, but as you wander into Orokin Derelicts, T3s and T4s, shielding is a very high-risk specialization to delve into. In these scenarios, a method of health restoration (Blessing, Life Leech, etc.), combined with a large pool and high armor are pretty much the only ways you want to go for survival. A Volt Prime, while his shields are immense and regen as a result is great (especially with Fast Deflection + Fortitude), one stray toxic proc can end him. High-armored frames like Valkyr, despite having a skill that benefits from shielding (Paralysis), is very much not a common build, as disregarding 600 base armor and taking focus from another skill that restores health but not shields (Hysteria) is not most people's first choice for a build. Pseudo-volt lightning Chroma also gets large benefits to shields, at the cost of his high armor existing mostly as a contingency for broken shields.

As a foreword: I know the name of the game for shield frames is "Just don't get hit, scrub" - that's why this is just a recommendation for those who want an alternate play-style, and I've given thought to balance in terms of cost vs. reward. This is all purely theoretical, If/when such an idea were adopted, I'm sure the specifics would be adjusted.

With all that in mind, I thought up a mod to stick on your Warframe:

Hardened Shields (D-Slot, Drain 7): Applies a flat rate (or a % of base, whichever is larger) of armor to your shield layer, and forces status procs to affect your shield layer, at the cost of lowered regen rate.

My goals with this:

1. To allow high-shield frames like Volt, Zephyr, Frost, et. al., to build shield-oriented tanks at a cost similar to those of health/armor tanks. If the mod takes the larger value between a flat-rate of armor say, 300, or a % of base like 60% to an Valkyr (360), it would apply the percentile 360 to the shielding layer. Still weaker than her HP-Armor pool, but a considerable amount. Meanwhile, Volt at 15 base armor, would be given a flat-rate 300 armor to shields, putting him comfortably next to Frost for armor value.
2. Redirecting status procs to the shield layer will subject the shields to a lot of abuse; if you've built for shields (which you have probably already done if you're investing in this mod), you'll be relying on your capacity and regen to take it all. However given the insane regen of shields when built currently, it's only fair that would take a large hit, so one can't simply hide for 5 seconds and be at maximum capacity again in another 3 seconds.
3. The surprisingly low drain of the mod makes it only slightly more expensive to equip than an HP/Armor setup. You would need to reserve slots for Redirection(14), Vigor(11), Hardened Shields(14), Fast Deflection(9), and Fortitude(9). This is a drain of 50. High-armor frames would also possibly invest in Steel Fiber(14) and Armored Agility(11) to preference, raising the total to 64 or 75, respectively.
   1. In comparison, an HP/Armor build would use Vitality(12), Vigor(11), Steel Fiber(14), Armored Agility(11), totaling 48. The fact that HP/Armor takes fewer slots to build, and at a lower cost is something to consider.
4. Finally, the number of slots consumed to create this setup, next to HP/Armor builds, makes it highly impractical to take both for any sort of ability power or utility, unless you simply want to be an unstoppable bullet sponge and let your guns do the talking.
5. Obviously, the intent is to bolster shields to be your first and last line of defense... It's fair to assume that if you allow your shields to fall, you don't have much of a health pool to catch you. Hardened Shields would not apply armor to your health pool.

That's all I've got for this idea. It's rough around the edges despite clanging around in my head for a while, but it could be fun for those who like stacking that blue number!

Edited May 6, 2016 by Starhowl
Addendum

[(PSN)xX-GunHound-Xx]

I like it! But there's just one thing I'm a little iffy about. This being mod based. And with it being mod based, it's rng based as well sadly.

Being gated behind the congested state of the rng table, will only make it harder for those to actually make their shields an attractive trait to add in to.

If this can just be reworked into a newer and more viable shield scaling system, then this idea will be all the more better, imo. Like proto-shielding. It works similarly to armor, but...you know, with shields.

Amazing concept though.

[EgAlia]

I really like this idea. Feels like it gives more choices on how to mod your Waframe with the flat bonus to your shields etc (if you play frame with low armor). Would personally want more types of these mods in the game with an addition bonus rather than a multiplicative bonus. With a multiplicative bonus, it's only good if that stat was good on your warframe already. With a flat addition bonus you can make really bad stat on a Warframe better. I personally like the idea that you could switch so that stat procs attacks your shield versus your health, I mean you have learned that while playing as Mag for example, toxin and slash procs will be the end of you. Why not give a mod that could counter it, it will take up a mod slot, so players can choose between their powers and their survivability,which I think would be fun.

[Sefyra-Skye]

On 5/6/2016 at 3:58 AM, EgAlia said:

I really like this idea. Feels like it gives more choices on how to mod your Waframe with the flat bonus to your shields etc (if you play frame with low armor). Would personally want more types of these mods in the game with an addition bonus rather than a multiplicative bonus. With a multiplicative bonus, it's only good if that stat was good on your warframe already. With a flat addition bonus you can make really bad stat on a Warframe better. I personally like the idea that you could switch so that stat procs attacks your shield versus your health, I mean you have learned that while playing as Mag for example, toxin and slash procs will be the end of you. Why not give a mod that could counter it, it will take up a mod slot, so players can choose between their powers and their survivability,which I think would be fun.

Hey thanks :) I love the idea of flat rates, too; imagine all the wild specializations you could set up by more effectively covering weaknesses on certain frames? And yes, I think the biggest flaw in shields right now, aside from their overall fragility, is their uselessness against certain statuses. I'd give up everything else if we could just cover that one weakness. Thanks again :)

On 5/6/2016 at 2:54 AM, (PS4)xX-GunHound-Xx said:

I like it! But there's just one thing I'm a little iffy about. This being mod based. And with it being mod based, it's rng based as well sadly.

Being gated behind the congested state of the rng table, will only make it harder for those to actually make their shields an attractive trait to add in to.

If this can just be reworked into a newer and more viable shield scaling system, then this idea will be all the more better, imo. Like proto-shielding. It works similarly to armor, but...you know, with shields.

Amazing concept though.

Thank you :) Unfortunately, the congested state of the loot tables and dependence of RNG in the game is something that runs much deeper than lackluster shields. A thousand and one people have already commented on those issues, but we're at the mercy of DE in that matter. As it stands, the name of the game is slot allocation and grinding :( So, I'm just trying to roll with the punches, currently. Again, thank you for your feedback!

[voltocitygel]

Yes please. Shields need some love. In a futuristic environment such as warframe, the mentality I would have is a) don't get hit b) have protection in case I do get hit (shields) and c) have backup in case those are disabled (armor). 

I think another problem with shield scaling is its damage weaknesses. For example, going into a high level grineer mission, your shields get shredded in half a second, due to the tendency of grineer weapons to deal high impact damage. Contrarily, your shields will last significantly longer in a high level corpus mission, since your shields take less damage from the puncture happy corpus. 

As for toxin: it should certainly pierce shields, I think it always should. But the proc? I think the proc should be a % of max health drained per second, and / or remove enemy toxin scaling.