In Depth Chroma Changes: Full on Rework Suggestions (Updated 6/30/2016)

[Sajochi]

Greetings once more Tenno,

After a long thought process and a discussion with a friend of mine, I have concluded that Chroma needs a full scale rework. Everything should be touched on from his ability mechanics to his visuals due to the upcoming changes to enemy scaling (which are still in the process of being announced). I am an avid Chroma player, spending my time once I unlocked him learning the ins and outs of the dragon master and synergies he has with multiple loadouts. We're going to go as in depth as possible and see what changes can be made to our grand master of the dragon ways.

Let's talk: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Chroma is a DPS Tank allowing him to stay viable throughout all levels of content
• All his abilities fit his theme rather well
• One of the few warframes that can make any weapon useful thanks to one of his abilities
• He is a Dragon Master/Spell Caster

Cons

• His kit is good for solo play, very selfish in a team setting
• Only two of his abilities work well together, the others are lackluster or very niche
• His visuals for one ability has very little variation
• His passive is literally: "He's Chroma"

Ability analysis and Changes

Chroma's kit is one of the more unique ones between frames that aesthetically fit into his theme of being a dragon knight. However, there are glaring issues per ability that need to be addressed before we can say Chroma is ready for the challenges ahead. To keep things focused, I'm going to avoid any and all number values and stick to mechanics. This is mainly due to the upcoming enemy scaling changes and the trend of percentage scaling abilities gaining flat number values.

Passive - Elemental Alignment
Argued as a mechanic more than a passive, this allows Chroma to determine his element based on energy color. This is essentially what makes Chroma, well, Chroma. It may be seen as a strong passive by some, but it's rather restricting and doesn't allow for much in build variety. Chroma should obviously keep this aspect of this passive but gain the following:

• Energy color determines Starting Element (check Elemental Ward Changes)
• Current selected element is applied to bullet jump (see Ice Spring and similar mods)
• Chroma gains an extra jump (Triple jump) while wearing his pelt, with the last jump having increased height
• On the third Jump, Chroma's wings come out and do a massive "flap" to indicate that he got a boosted jump

Spectral Scream
This is one of the more visual pleasing abilities in the game as you're breathing energy like a dragon. The downside is it lacks synergy in Chroma's kit and has a very poor damage falloff towards later content coupled with a sub-par status chance. Not to mention, you're locked into a stance that restricts movement and makes aiming the ability a bit difficult. I, as well as others, propose these changes:

• Gains innate 2m Punch Through
• Counts as a weapon for cases such as Vex Armor weapon buff, or Shooting Gallery Buff
• While Effigy is Active, Chroma can direct attacks by holding the key down while within effigy's attack range (this also makes the point of attack from Effigy as two elemental breaths are a bit overkill)
• No longer comes with a stance lock, allowing Chroma to use the ability freely while airborne. It will still disable weapon attacks.
• Ticks/sec affected by Power Duration. Higher Duration means less ticks, Lower Duration means more ticks. (Thanks to @(PS4)blazinsuby87 for suggestion.)
• Augment: Afterburn
  • No longer fires an elemental projectile (PvE only, conclave stays the same)
  • Leaves patches of elemental damage on any surface Chroma aims for based on duration. Enemies who step on these patches will take the elements proc damage and effects.

Elemental Ward
Chroma's bread to his butter, this ability is one of the essential things to build for. It synergizes extremely well with Vex Armor, and provides a defensive bonus along with an offensive bonus. This ability is gated by Chroma's current passive, however, and only two elements are ever used outside of extreme cases. How about we fix that:

• Now gains an ability switch mechanic
  • Each element can be argued as being it's own ability, which further warrants granting Chroma the ability to swap elements
  • A new casting style should be made, not just for Chroma, but for all frames with an ability switch mechanic
    • Pressing the ability button will open up a secondary hotbar for a few seconds
    • Pressing any of the ability keys (1-4 for PC) will switch to a corresponding ability
    • Hold the cast button to use the ability
    • Have an option in the settings menu to allow it to work in reverse, Hold key to access hotbar, Tap key to use ability
    • This allows for ability switches to work in a fast paced game like warframe
• After swapping elements, Chroma is locked into the casted ward for 15s to prevent unnecessary quick switching. You have to commit to your ward for a bit.You can still swap elements for the sake of Spectral Scream and Effigy.
• Swapping wards is only valid if switching to a new element. You will not be able to refresh the same ward consecutively . This prevents a possible exploit.
• Only one buff can applied at a time. Switching will override the last EW buff Chroma has, as well as any buff his teammates gained
• Other Chromas are under their own EW are not affected by your buff changes
• Toxin ward gains increased fire rate and melee attack speed alongside current buffs to make it the sustained damage buff
• Augment: Everlasting Ward is built into the ability by default
• New Augment: Tempest Release
  • Upon switching element, Chroma releases a radial burst whose damage type is determined by his last element. Each burst has a different effect
    • Heat: Applies knockdown status to all viable enemies in burst
    • Cold: Slows all enemy movement in burst, or freezes enemies solid
    • Electric: Applies a stun to all enemies in burst
    • Toxin: Blinds enemies in burst, or reduces enemy armor
    • Has a fixed range. Is affected by power strength and duration.

Vex Armor
The butter, the ability that allows Chroma to retain viability in the late game, the only way for Chroma to take a stick into battle and win. This is the ability that is prioritized in almost every single build, and for good reason. It gives bonuses for taking damage: more armor for shield damage, more weapon damage for health damage. Pair it with Ice Ward and Quick Thinking + Flow, and you can permatank with your ehp in the billions while dealing insane amounts of dps (personally, my highest damage without using a Tonkor was a 900k red crit on dread). Of course, this is a percentage scaling ability, so the following changes to mechanics are meant for flat value abilities:

• Stacks of Scorn can be gained with overshield
• Retains 15% of accumulated stacks for a few seconds after the initial duration ends. This allows for Chroma to stay in fights with a minor buff while allowing the ability stacking to be refreshed. If no action is taken within this time, the retained stacks are lost as normal.
• While active, gives Chroma additional 25% knockdown resistance
• Augment: Vexing Retaliation will receive no change as it is pretty solid in terms of an augment

Effigy
You know, Effigy is a really cool ability. It's a stationary turret that attacks anything stupid enough to come near it (read: all enemies) and looks good to boot. Now, admit that you also cast this ability to look at Chroma's amazing butt in secret (I know I have). On top of these amazing attributes, Effigy has a chance to double any credit drops from enemies it kills. Easily the best turret, it pays you when it kills. Now we come to the fundamental flaws with this beautiful ability; it can be knocked out of position, the damage isn't reliable later on, the energy drain is a bit much considering it can be casted and do nothing, and it's radial cc scream isn't too relevant. Let's get into some changes that can help to improve this ultimate ability:

• Now counts as a weapon to scale with weapon buffing abilities.
• Now gains all the armor Chroma lost on casting. It has to go somewhere.
• Acts as a stationary EW buff area, but will not receive the buff themselves. This is a godsend in a team setting so Chroma can do Chroma things and the rest of the team will have a reliable area to get a buff.
• Effigy's retains Chroma's current element on cast, and can only be changed with a true cast of EW. This allows Chroma players to swap effigies damage
• Cannot be used as a source for Augment: Tempestv Release
• Immune to any and all displacement effects.
• When casted in the air, Effigy will remain airborne until recalled
• Effigy will only consume energy when attacking and will attack at a faster rate.
• Attack Rate and Ticks/Sec affected by Duration (thanks to @(PS4)blazinsuby87 for suggestion)
• Holding cast key while Effigy is active will cause Effigy to reposition to Chroma's last location
• New Augment: Open to suggestions (I don't have any ideas here and there was very little discussion except for a couple suggestions)

Visuals and Eye Candy

As far as I'm concerned, Chroma looks amazing. These suggestions aren't about his model but about the visuals from casting an ability and much needed clarification on what exactly is going on. Let's start off with his passive. Outside of the small circles on his pelt having a change in color as well as other areas, there really isn't any way to determine what element Chroma has outside of the arsenal unless you've played him long enough. What I suggest is that these circles gain some particle effects, like flames shooting out every so often for heat, or electricity arcing across his body, or gas clouds spewing out a bit. Of course these can be disabled through the settings by turning particles off. I can't really find a picture of what I want and lack the skills to make a mock up.

Adding to passive, on the third jump, Chroma should flap his pelt's wings in a big swoop to indicate that he has hit his third jump.

As for Elemental Ward, the visuals need an update badly. Heat, Electricity, and Toxin have this circle that appears around Chroma's feet but doesn't really give the feeling of being enveloped in an element like Cold. Like the passive, this would be represented with jets of fire coming out for heat instead of the mini flames on passive, maybe a burning trail down Chroma's back. Electricity would shroud Chroma in sparks, more specifically around the shoulders and thighs. Cold should get some love, with shards of ice sticking out around Chroma, preferably along his arms, legs, and head. Toxin should be some kind of ooze that drips off Chroma, more so around the hands, feet, and neck.

As for Effigy, the wings should look different per element. Maybe having the elements symbol in the middle of the wings with a different visual per element around the wings.

That's all I have for now. If anyone else has more suggestions for Chroma, or is artistically talented enough to create some of the visual update concepts, feel free to share. This is a major change from what I had before (Mainly a cleanup and some witty things thrown in). For those that wish, the original post can be found just above the changelog.

 

Spoiler

So I've noticed quite a bit of Chroma talk around the forums and decided to provide yet another set of proposed changes to one of the more interesting frames in the game. I play a lot of this beast during solo void runs and even take him into sorties, pushing him into my most played warframe in the game. I'm actually quite proud of that since Chroma was the reason I decided to come back from a year and a half hiatus that I won't go into confusing details about (it had to do with me forgetting my old account info). I've pondered quite a bit on what Chroma is supposed to be and how to improve his "passive" and his under-looked abilities: Spectral Scream and Effigy.

The Issues At Hand

1. Chroma's mechanic is not a true passive like other warframes. It doesn't provide much in terms of gameplay besides changing elements depending on energy color and only two elements are ever used due to their utility and effects.
2. Spectral Scream is a not usable in most situations. The damage is negligible even with power mods while proc chance is above average. This ability seems like a CC ability in theory but being locked into a slow moving stance makes it not worth using. It is also easily blocked by enemies and structures, and provides no other utility.
3. Vex Armor is a self-buffing ability that pairs well with Elemental Ward (also the major reason why Cold and Heat are mainly used). Although these work in tandem, they are selfish for a co-op game like warframe. Elemental Ward can buff allies if they stay near Chroma, or if Everlasting Ward is equipped, they can utilize the buff no matter where Chroma is after they walk near him once for the remaining duration, which poses another issue itself. Both of these abilities make Chroma a solo-themed frame.
4. Effigy's ability description is misleading. It states it buffs allies while providing  damage with a sentry mechanic. All it does is increase credit drops, making him the king of credit farming, and does moderate DPS that is basically an improved Spectral Scream. Its CC scream is underwhelming and the radial knock back is a gimmick at best.

The Improvements

I've been thinking quite a bit about these. I love Chroma and would like to see him receive the attention he deserves. This is a work in progress that can be improved on by the community.

The True Passive - Putting a couple ideas, one is from the community.

1. Elemental Mastery

• Elemental Status Procs last for 5s longer and are 5% stronger. Decided against this entirely, read the next one.

2. Dragon Ascent (The Community Requested One)

• Chroma has 10% increased Bullet Jump and Aim Glide. Also inflicts an additional 15% of his current element as damage during Bullet Jump. His wings are also visible during glides. can perform an additional jump (3 total)

The first one simply makes Chroma the king of elemental status procs. It applies to procs off weapons and his own abilities to allow for more sustained damage, and to increase the CC effects of Cold, Heat, and Electric procs as well as increase the potency of Toxin procs. This even applies to Radiation, Gas, Explosive, Viral, Corrosive and Magnetic.  Info no longer needed. Here for reference sake.

The second one is a what the majority of the community wants for Chroma, granting him more mobility and providing a reliable source of damage. Any Chroma player knows that remaining stationary is actually bad for a high action game like Warframe, so this would fit somewhat.

Spectral Scream - Fus Roh Dah!

• Now has a cycle mode much like Quiver. Although I generally don't like cloning abilities, it fits more for Chroma's kit than anything else I can think of. Tap to cycle, hold to do the following:
  • Send a stream of elemental energy in a cone 5/7.5/11/15m cone that deals 200/250/300/350 damage per sec (scales with strength) with a 50/65/80/95% status chance.
  • Proposed change to Quiver Mechanic as a whole
    • Tapping Key gives you 3 seconds to select your ability type. Pressing 1-4 will change to the corresponding type
    • For Chroma
      • 1-1 Heat
      • 1-2 Cold
      • 1-3 Electric
      • 1-4 Toxin
    • After 3 seconds, if now second key is pressed, the current element will remain. Holding any key will override the change as well and use that ability instead
      • For example, you tapped 1 to change elements, but remember you need EW, so you hold EW key to cast instead of swapping to Cold. Moved mechanic to Elemental Ward
• Has innate 2m punch through to allow for widespread elemental procing on groups of enemies
• Now counts as a weapon to scale with Vex Armor damage buff. Should make it more appealing to use outright instead of a generic Quiver switch.
• When held down while Effigy is active, Effigy will direct attacks towards Chroma's cursor if Chroma is within Effigy's attack range. 
• No longer locks you into animation and has Ignis-style hit detection. Rain death from above.
• Augment: Afterburn
  • Chroma leaves a patch of elemental energy on any surface he aims at that lasts for 5/10/15/20s that deals 40/60/80/100% of Spectral Screams Initial (before Vex armor buff) Damage with 70/80/90/100% status chance to any enemies that walk through the patches.
  • Affected by power duration.

These changes allows Spectral Scream to be reliable on crowds. BY having the SS count as a weapon, it can scale naturally with weapon buffing abilities like Vex Armor and Shooting Gallery. Afterburn changes gives Chroma the Dragon feel, a more "This is my lair" aspect to him, while providing a fair area of denial that is perfect for team play and solo play.

Elemental Ward - I have the power!

• Now has Quiver-style Mechanic to swap elements with a different casting method
  • Pressing 2 will activate "Elemental Swap." Pressing numbers 1-4 will change to the corresponding element.
    • 2-1 Heat
    • 2-2 Cold
    • 2-3 Electric
    • 2-4 Toxin
  • If no secondary button is pressed within 3s, the current element is maintained.
• All elements have a base 6/8/10/12m range (Affected by power range)
• Toxin now gains increased Fire Rate and Melee Speed with the current Toxin buffs. Allows Toxin to become a consistent damage buff.
• Only one buff can be applied at a time. Can be refreshed ONLY with a new element every 10s (to prevent unnecessary quick switching.) New buff overrides the previous buff to prevent buff stacking.
• Cannot stack with other Chroma buffs (Same as before)
• Augment: Everlasting Ward built in to ability. 
• New Augment: Tempest Release
  • Upon casting Elemental Ward, release a wave of elemental energy 10/15/20/25m that deals 100/200/300/400 damage and has a different effect depending on the last element Chroma had
  • Heat: Knock back enemies to outside the range of the blast
  • Cold: Slow all affected enemies' fire rate and movement for 8s
  • Electric: Stun all affected enemies for 5s 
  • Toxin: Blind all affected enemies for 5s 

Elemental Ward was already a decent ability and had a ton of team play, but before the recent augment it really wasn't useful unless your teammates stood right next to you. The new augment, Everlasting Ward, should just be part of the base ability. The new augment adds a more strategic incentive to switch elements on the fly, giving a nice radial damage dealer with added benefits. The 10s cooldown between switching elements helps keep this augment balanced so no one completely decimates groups with a quick elemental rotation nuke.

As suggested by @Morphic224, EW now gets the new quiver mechanic to give it an added feature and further incentive to switch elements.

Vex Armor - What doesn't kill me...

• Retains 15% of accumulated stacks for 5s after Vex Armor's initial duration wears off. Can be refreshed during this period.
• Gives Chroma 25% increased knockdown resistance.

This one really didn't need much change. Just some QoL changes to help Chroma fit a tank role. Retaining some of the total accumulated allows him to stay in fights longer. Not really fun when you have to take cover before using Vex Armor again.

Effigy - His name is toothless.

• Damage and Armor now scales with Vex Armor buffs. This should help it retain uses in the late game.
• Retains the last element Chroma had when cast.
• Only Drains energy while attacking
• Gains Chroma's missing armor
• Gains an Elemental Ward Aura (does not receive buff) when casted. Does not utilize tempest release functions. Elemental Ward aura swaps elemental damage on cast.
• Immune to knockbacks
• Acts as a platform *not needed, just a QoL idea
• Has higher priority Threat Level to enemies in 20m
• Can be casted Mid-Air, staying afloat at the point of cast directed at Chroma's feet. Chroma will lose his triple jump feature but not his elemental bullet glide.
• Augment: Dragon Nest
  • Spawns 1/2/3/4 drones every 15/12/10/8s that seek out targets and deals 20/25/35/45% of Effigy's total Damage. New Augment needed here

This one includes a lot of things the community has suggested for Effigy in general. Effigy is an amazing ability that summons a dragon to aid us in battle, but it tends to fall short outside of infested defense missions and credit farming. The Vex Armor synergy is to allow for more use late game, and would makes sense thematically since Effigy was once part of Chroma. This also allows Effigy to protect vital areas on missions while Chroma on the front lines doing what he does best: take damage and give it back tenfold. By allowing Effigy to gain an EW aura, you'll be able to further aid allies to grant them an EW buff, since Effigy is more or less in one area for them to head to when needed. In a fast paced game like Warframe, having a stationary haven for allies without hampering your own movement is a must.

Currently debatable: 

• Allowing Chroma to change Effigy's position by holding ability key while Effigy is out, causing it to "fly" to the targeted location and ram enemies it flies into. Credit to @SempaiMint for this suggestion
• Suggested by @(PS4)Snakeboy1990. Instead of summoning his pelt, Chroma becomes a floating dragon and moves around the battlefield. Needs more suggestions to flesh out if this change is more popular.
• @Olianu suggests that Effigy has a larger energy cost, but no longer drains energy in favor of HP (much like a frost globe). When effigy dies, it goes away. Can still be called back when needed. This has some potential.
• @Morphic224 suggests a Dragon Armor style augment for Effigy. This augment would allow Chroma to bind Effigy to an ally, giving them the armor Chroma loses on cast as well as giving consistent damage and protection.

The conclusion

Chroma really needs more love. I hope some of the things I placed here gives you guys some ideas and invokes discussion. As for the stuff asked for countless times, like the bullet glide passive and vex armor change, I'll look around the forums to find the threads that mention them and quote them here. There are a ton of threads for Chroma, so it will take a bit.

Current discussions on Chroma

Changelog

Spoiler

6/28/2016

• Added clarification for EW ward switch
• Removed blind on Tempest Release in terms of Toxin burst. Armor reduction would suffice.

6/27/2016

• Re-did the entire post for increased clarification as well as added suggestion for old posts
• There is now a visuals section that will be updated as soon as I can find what I'm trying to describe in picture form.

6/2/2016

• Moved Quiver mechanic to EW as per @Morphic224's suggestions
• Added Effigy Augment Idea to debate section
• Cleaned up some text to prevent confusion

5/29/2016

• Removed animation lock on SS and added Effigy synergy
• Added effigy being castable mid-air at the cost of extra jump
• reduced jumps on passive from 5 to 3
• Thanks to @Archwizard for their suggestions.

5/27/2016

• Reverted elemental changes for Ew, save for Toxin which is a fire rate/melee speed buff 
  • Correction: Added Buffs alongside current buff stats for more consistent damage in regards to toxin.
• Added @(PS4)Snakeboy1990's transform suggestion under the debatable area
• Added @Olianu Effigy suggestion

5/26/16

• Changed some text in Spectral Scream and Vex Armor to indicate it scales with Vex Armor Damage buff
• Changed some Elemental Ward effects to match current suggestions
• Removed Elemental Mastery due to conflicts with new proposed EW changes

5/24/16

• Added note to Effigy's platform suggestion
• Added clarification on buff stacking for EW. Forgot to write that down initially so apologies to those who where confused.
• I found the discussions
• Added SempaiMint's suggestion for Effigy to be discussed.

5/23/16

• Added Proposed Quiver Mechanic Change to Spectral Scream
• Added percent health damage to Spectral Scream. Number may change.
• Reverted animation lock change on Spectral Scream
• Tuned Augment: Dragon Nest numbers.

5/22/16

• Removed Vex Armor giving Chroma increased Aggro
• Added Effigy only draining energy while attacking

 

Edited June 30, 2016 by CrazyCortex
Added Ticks/Sec suggestion to SS and Effigy

[(PSN)Asdeft]

Didn't you comment some of this on another post? I believe I read it there and agreed, and I still do. Chroma is actually ok, but he is definitely underwhelming right now compared to others. The things here that I think would be absolutely amazing are the elemental swap during the mission to be able to adapt on the fly and the vex armor change so he is not having to lose his stacks all the time and feel super weak. The aim glide with wings and elemental damage passive is incredibly thematic and useful as well. The rest are optional to me and will just be icing on the cake. 

 

Something I want to add though for Spectral Scream: 10-20% of the targets max hp added as bonus damage per tic in the chosen element. Right now the ability feels very high risk and no reward. Being mobile would not fix the lack of actual usefulness in this ability. Chroma really needs to live up to the fantasy he is supposed to invoke and his breath is a major part in that. 

Edited May 22, 2016 by (PS4)Asdeft

[Sajochi]

I usually do comment on Chroma threads, but I figured why not add my two cents as well. 

Toxin already deals percentage health damage per tick, so I think adding additional base percentage damage would make toxin more viable, or the new standard. Not sure where I sit on that suggestion. The removal of the stance makes it feel more like a weapon similar to the ignis, and punch through should help spread the damage around. I'll have to do some number crunching.

[Demlier]

Well all ideas are really amazing only thing i would add to this make spectral scream - bigger range , Effigy - well it's funny that they call this frame dragon when only think what links him with dragon is that 1st for now totaly useless skill. Make it lower to cost with energy this not even eating energy it's like burning it most of all these ideas i love the idea of 1st skill and 3rd when yea he need the thing of more agro for god sake he's a tanky one here.I waiting and hope for those changes in future. P.S sorry for bad english

[(PSN)FriendSharkey]

For me I'd just combine his Vex Armor and Elemental Ward into one power. We all swipe both at the same time as it is when things get crazy. This frees him up for a new power. My suggestion for that opening is another Effigy that is mobile like a Kubrow.

I'd buff his armor and health even more so he's on par with Inaros. This might be an interesting theme for Monster Frames being health driven tanks going forward if De turns its attention to the Werewolf Frame fan concept Furion. 

[Gurpgork]

1 hour ago, (PS4)FriendSharkey said:

For me I'd just combine his Vex Armor and Elemental Ward into one power. We all swipe both at the same time as it is when things get crazy. 

Do you have any idea how ridiculously powerful that would be? Not to mention how it would be overloaded with effects. For example, Toxin Ward would have damage boost + armor boost+ reload speed buff + holster speed buff + % health based toxin procs. That's quite a few things for one ability to do. 

While these abilities are almost always used simultaneously, the interchangeable nature of Elemental Ward and the tremendous power of Vex Armor merit them being on separate keys. 

1 hour ago, (PS4)FriendSharkey said:

My suggestion for that opening is another Effigy that is mobile like a Kubrow.

 

If you want a mobile Effigy, there should be an alternate way to cast Effigy that would allow it to be mobile. That's essentially giving him the same ability twice, which is nonsensical. 

Plus having two different Effigies wouldn't give him anything significant he really needs. 

1 hour ago, (PS4)FriendSharkey said:

I'd buff his armor and health even more so he's on par with Inaros.

Chroma can quite easily get vastly more durable than Inaros. Inaros only beats Chroma as a tank for two reasons: he doesn't need to cast an ability to get the bulk of his EHP, and he has outrageous healing power. However, Chroma benefits far more from healing than Inaros does, since every single hitpoint is potentially thousands of times more valuable for Chroma than it is for Inaros. 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Gurpgork

[Stratego89]

Gonna try to organize my opinions the best I can.

Passive:

• No do not remove his current passive in favor of ANOTHER "quiver" skill set. That functionality is limited to skills that are meant to be used tactically. Chroma isn't a tactic frame. He's a brute strength, strike down his foes, walk through hell and come out singing, RAWR! I'M A MOTHER***** DRAGON! frame. Put his skills with element swap like a quiver and he's going to be incredibly overpowered- and he's already teetering on his cold form if not already there just barely.
• YES give him the new passives you've described. As an ALTERNATIVE. Let him be able to triple, quadruple, quintuple- w/e, jump. EIther a set number of times or as much as he wants. The idea is that after his normal second jump/bullet jump (when he'd normally run out of oomph like any other frame), Chroma has effigy's energy wings deploy and flap to give him another boost. It can cost like 1-5 energy per extra jump, and it can be disabled while effigy is off so it makes sense. (Honestly spectral scream while effigy is off makes no sense as well but that's not really the topic atm).

Spectral Scream:

• Again, ditch the idea of swapping elements mid mission for every single ability. It would not work out for many reasons.
• Yes to punchthrough.
• Yes to the augment change idea (though I'd like to see it still spit a fireball that has 100% status chance and high damage at the end).
• Spectral scream mainly needs a status proc chance and slight damage buff. That's about it. If he was able to run around normally while spitting fire it'd be great but once it's buffed it may not be necessary.
• It'd be cool if we could toggle it (see, this is tactical, this is what I mean) between a WIDE spread to hit lots of enemies and a narrower cone that can hit further away.

Elemental Ward:

• Can't stress it enough and yes I'm going to put it on every point, no swapping between elements mid mission. It'd be bad for his already spammy button pressing, breaking his flow, making him something you have to almost micromanage, among all other reasons listed before.
• Yes to the change to toxin. Whether or not evasion is what I think is the best solution I'm not sure of, but you're definitely on point there for what's wrong with it. it's the ONLY Chroma E Ward element that does NOT buff his survivability in some manner, rather directly or indirectly. That's why it never gets used.
• I agree also on the potential that new augment holds. The current one honestly should just be turned into default. If they took away your ability to re-heal etc with chroma's fire/electric E wards after they've moved out of range, then that buff needs to at least stick around by default. It's lackluster team play if it does not.

Vex Armor:

• Sure ok, 15% or less of his stacks sticking around for a few seconds for a recast to pick it up is a fine idea. I don't see that being very overpowered or anything, mostly QoL and he still is in danger for a moment if he's taking so much of a beating that it's going to matter.
• I don't agree with the aggro draw- why? You'll understand in a moment.

Effigy _{HIS NAME IS TOOTHLESS}:

• I agree with almost everything you said here- save for the multi element related stuff I've shut down over... and over............. and over... throughout this post.
• I believe THIS is the ability that should draw aggro since it puts Chroma in a weakened state. it just works. There's no need for two abilities that draw aggro, that will just make things hard for Chroma to manage. The "takes the armor that Chroma loses" will help it survive that aggro draw.
• I do NOT agree that it needs a damage wind up. It would be ok, but I don't see the need. The damage is actually REALLY good if you're using the right damage type for the faction you're facing.
• I'm not a big fan of the augment, it doesn't really make sense and doesn't really help the ability and in fact detriments it by once again causing aggro confusion, lack of control, and drawing enemies away from the thing trying to kill them.
• You also missed the #1 issue Effigy has that I've never seen ANYONE let go of- and only ever slightly agreed with them until I eventually admitted it is a problem- the energy drain. That energy drain is WAY too high for a stationary turret type ability. If there is energy being wasted waiting for units to come to it- it cannot have such an insane energy cost. There's two ways I can see to go about this.

1. First option is to cut the current drain down by 25-50%. Potentially also reducing the cast cost as that's where most of your energy goes as you tend to move around in this game and want to take it back to you and put it somewhere else frequently.
2. Second option is to once again cut cost of cast and remove the drain per second ENTIRELY- instead making it drain energy whenever it is "active". Active means using it's breath, buffing an ally or yourself (NOT itself) with an elemental ward, flapping it's wings, screeching. Stuff that DOES something. The energy costs can be determined based on the action. Elemental ward would need to be low- flapping it's wings/screeching is very powerful and should be a decent cost. The breath would be a steady high drain like it is now to compensate for the fact that you never lose energy when it's not doing anything. The downsides to this obviously include the energy drain being unpredictable and just being downright complex to code and balance. Option 1 is probably without a doubt the better choice for DE and for Chroma, I just thought I'd offer up an alternative.

[o.0-]

The only detail, that I think could consider an alternative is an Effigy Augment that turns it into a super Sentinel that follows Chroma as sentinels do.

Everything else is more or less along the lines of what I've been thinking will help Chroma.

[(PSN)FriendSharkey]

Having both a Kubrow and a Dragon Effigy that acts like a Kubrow...means two Kubrow on the field of battle. Suddenly Chroma is far mor interesting and dynamic, without ticking off Chroma users who also like their static defensive Effigy. But hey, like Speed Nova and Slowva I'm good with Effigy being determined by modding. Good call.

The rest is just you having a crisis and over a musing. 

 

 

[(XBOX)EntropysAcolyte]

9 hours ago, (PS4)Asdeft said:

Didn't you comment some of this on another post? I believe I read it there and agreed, and I still do. Chroma is actually ok, but he is definitely underwhelming right now compared to others. The things here that I think would be absolutely amazing are the elemental swap during the mission to be able to adapt on the fly and the vex armor change so he is not having to lose his stacks all the time and feel super weak. The aim glide with wings and elemental damage passive is incredibly thematic and useful as well. The rest are optional to me and will just be icing on the cake. 

 

Something I want to add though for Spectral Scream: 10-20% of the targets max hp added as bonus damage per tic in the chosen element. Right now the ability feels very high risk and no reward. Being mobile would not fix the lack of actual usefulness in this ability. Chroma really needs to live up to the fantasy he is supposed to invoke and his breath is a major part in that. 

Well said ?

[Gurpgork]

1 hour ago, Stratego89 said:

Put his skills with element swap like a quiver and he's going to be incredibly overpowered

Why and how would element swapping be overpowered? Ice is just almost always superior to Fire, Electric requires a build with lots of range, and Toxin really only shines for a handful of weapons. Most people would just stay on Ice, only now they could use Ice with any energy color they wanted. Most people would probably never or almost never swap elements. The people who did want to swap, however, would enjoy a little bit more versatility. I don't think making the choice to sacrifice my armor for a reload speed buff would be any more game-breaking mid mission than it would be in the Liset. 

1 hour ago, (PS4)FriendSharkey said:

But hey, like Speed Nova and Slowva I'm good with Effigy being determined by modding. Good call.

I was thinking more along the lines of making tap summon the regular Effigy and holding summon a mobile Effigy that is weaker to compensate for its mobility. But I still don't think a mobile Effigy is necessary. 

1 hour ago, (PS4)FriendSharkey said:

The rest is just you having a crisis and over a musing. 

...What?

Edited May 22, 2016 by Gurpgork

[Stratego89]

16 minutes ago, Gurpgork said:

Why and how would element swapping be overpowered? Ice is just almost always superior to Fire, Electric requires a build with lots of range, and Toxin really only shines for a handful of weapons. Most people would just stay on Ice, only now they could use Ice with any energy color they wanted. Most people would probably never or almost never swap elements. The people who did want to swap, however, would enjoy a little bit more versatility. I don't think making the choice to sacrifice my armor for a reload speed buff would be any more game-breaking mid mission than it would be in the Liset. 

Yes and if you read what all I said, and what all the OP has said, you'd understand that it doesn't matter if Ice is almost always superior to fire, blah blah- because that's a seperate matter. Each of those needs to be balanced out yes- mostly with ice receiving a small nerf and toxin being totally reworked to be USEFUL. That's something else that needs to happen, but it's an entirely seperate issue.

The reason having ALL ELEMENTS in a mission would be overpowered- please tell me you don't honestly not see it? Can you imagine if you were able to swap between those powers at any given time? Frames are limited by their number of abilities. In chroma's case he's limited by the TYPE of his abilities instead. If he could swap between the perfect-defense ice, all-consuming fire, and lelouch-vi-kill-yourself-for-me electric (and whatever toxic ends up getting buffed to) he'll just be too good. There wouldn't really be anyone who could top him in 80% of missions. Versatility isn't just QoL. It's POWER. Raw, unadulterated power that is only limited by a person's ability to tap into it. With quiver and vauban's minelayer each of the powers is very situational and serves a very unique purpose being seperate from the others in the ability's options. Chroma's work in literally every situation without any tactic, any planning, any thinking- and all fit the same role on each element on each skill.

In addition to that, there is the QoL issue I mentioned earlier as well. It's already a total chore playing chroma at times. His 2 AND his 3 are both glorified cooldowns/timers where if you're not casting them the second they go down to bring them back up you're both likely to have issues and also losing a lot of your combat capability. With as much as we already have to press it- can you imagine them having a cycling function as well on EACH ability? It would be hell.

 

I'll have you know too that I'm saying all this having been someone that was very unhappy with the idea of chroma being a rainbow dragon- or rather than to achieve a certain damage type we'd have to use a certain color because as well all know #FashionFrameTrueEndGame and all that. Ofc my problem wasn't having to choose- and we should have to- it was just that I thought it was dumb for it to be controlled by color, and I still believe it should just be something we can select outside of mission rather than being controlled by the color. I know a lot of people would love to use red lightning and become a sith lord or use yellow snow to... well nvm. But you get the point. It's not like I'm just saying "don't do it" just for the sake of not doing it. There's plenty of reasons that it shouldn't happen.

[Sajochi]

Spectral Scream needs to have the switch element function for the following reasons: His mechanic is not a passive. It is extremely limited and makes only two of Chroma's elements viable. Not to mention, Equinox can change forms, gaining completely different abilities, on the fly in missions and her form is determined by energy color. I proposed a change to Elemental Ward that is essentially a cooldown debuff: You have to have the ability up for 10s before you can change the element or EW's duration ends (whichever is shorter), and the new buff overrides the old buff to prevent stacking in this case. This works in tandem with the proposed augment giving a more active approach to elemental ward.

Even though he gains the ability to switch elements, Spectral Scream is kept on a lower damage, high status chance to account for this. It is still functionally the same ability: you have to hold the key to do an elemental breath. The damage type is determined by the element you change to which makes more sense than it does on Vauban, who I might add because it is now relevant, is receiving mixed feelings about minelayer because two of his abilities still overshadow the increased function and the fact that it has zero synergy for his kit. Chroma gains new synergy between abilities, essentially making active choice of how you use your Elemental Ward to benefit your team since it is determined by Spectral Scream, compliments Vex Armor, and gives Effigy more strategic uses. You have to learn about switching elements first since EW is unlocked next, followed by Vex Armor, and finished with Effigy.

I will agree that increasing Aggro with Vex Armor and Effigy can be too much, so I'll remove the aspect off VA so Effigy has a more direct use besides guard an objection. I'm also going to clarify the augment I proposed for effigy: They are projectiles launched every 6 seconds that deal half of Effigy's total damage once, kind of like a bombard missile but shaped like little dragons. I do agree that Effigy needs either a lower energy drain or only drains energy when attacking. I'm not for having Effigy become a moving companion as that doesn't fit the ideal of a dragon. They guarded one place because they are treasure hoarders.

Edited May 22, 2016 by CrazyCortex

[Axalar]

I like all of OP's suggestions. Spectral scream damage scaling with enemy health, being able to switch elements during a mission and giving chroma an actual passive. I would only change it so you tap elemental ward to cicle between elements and hold to activate the ability. Not sure if tapping spectral scream would work since it's a chanelling ability. Also like toxin EW giving evasion as a buff.

[Magneu]

Fantastic ideas, even if it is largely a collection of ideas from threads of days gone past.

Would make Chroma much more fun and useful, and not just be a crazy good tank, but a fun, crazy good tank.

[SempaiMint]

Has anybody played 'Super Smash Bros wii u'? Think of 'Shulk'. This is how you have swapping be apart of a characters. Chroma's second ability could be combined, not with his Vex armor, but with his spectral scream. When he switches he gets a substantial buff that lasts for so long before then doesn't come back until you use another element. AND this doesn't cost energy, but you have to wait for your buff to be gone before it provides a different buff When you hold down the button you would activate his first ability which is how he describes the above. Of course I think they would have to be reworked a little bit so that each one is a little bit more unique and allows for mod set ups that actually allow one to use all of them.

I for one use toxic Chroma all the time, who wants ice when you have reload speed. I like the reload speed mechanic and like how its different than his other tanky colors. Toxic could give reload, holster speed, atk speed for melee, electric could give movement speed and extra energy, fire could give damage(which I wouldn't like, since its too good) or like extra crit damage/status proc duration or something a little less like pure damage, and ice could be his tanky element. Right now all the elements are just about him being tanky, which is good unless you want to play a not tank because there are so many tanky frames already. All of these would be able to transfer to other team mates also.

Quiver is the the most cumbersome ability mechanic I have ever seen. It being on Vauban now is just terrible. I propose that one can change the mechanics of it in a mechanics tab in the ability section in the arsenal. Tact P talks somewhat on this issue. Assuming that the ability keys are on 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1 is the quiver ability, I think the mechanic should change(or can be changed) to pressing/holding 1 activates the quiver ability and pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, changes what your on rather than taking the time to cycle through them. so for instance, on Ivara, instead of cycling how about pressing/holding 1 and you need to put people to sleep so you press 4 to change, OR your team needs to be stealthy so you press 1 and then either pressing or holding 1 to activate it. I would want this set up: pressing the button uses the ability and holding it down changes the ability so you hold it down then press 1, 2, 3, 4 for the ability that you want to use. Others might want something different such as holding the button down to use, and pressing the button to change. But these options should be available to us.

IF there is an extra ability and DE decides to combine the first with the second or the second with the third I would like the empty slot to be used for some type of ability to control his effigy or having his effigy floating somewhere by holding down the effigy(4th) button. Anyways that would be cool.

[Sajochi]

8 hours ago, SempaiMint said:

Has anybody played 'Super Smash Bros wii u'? Think of 'Shulk'. This is how you have swapping be apart of a characters. Chroma's second ability could be combined, not with his Vex armor, but with his spectral scream. When he switches he gets a substantial buff that lasts for so long before then doesn't come back until you use another element. AND this doesn't cost energy, but you have to wait for your buff to be gone before it provides a different buff When you hold down the button you would activate his first ability which is how he describes the above. Of course I think they would have to be reworked a little bit so that each one is a little bit more unique and allows for mod set ups that actually allow one to use all of them.

I for one use toxic Chroma all the time, who wants ice when you have reload speed. I like the reload speed mechanic and like how its different than his other tanky colors. Toxic could give reload, holster speed, atk speed for melee, electric could give movement speed and extra energy, fire could give damage(which I wouldn't like, since its too good) or like extra crit damage/status proc duration or something a little less like pure damage, and ice could be his tanky element. Right now all the elements are just about him being tanky, which is good unless you want to play a not tank because there are so many tanky frames already. All of these would be able to transfer to other team mates also.

Quiver is the the most cumbersome ability mechanic I have ever seen. It being on Vauban now is just terrible. I propose that one can change the mechanics of it in a mechanics tab in the ability section in the arsenal. Tact P talks somewhat on this issue. Assuming that the ability keys are on 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1 is the quiver ability, I think the mechanic should change(or can be changed) to pressing/holding 1 activates the quiver ability and pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, changes what your on rather than taking the time to cycle through them. so for instance, on Ivara, instead of cycling how about pressing/holding 1 and you need to put people to sleep so you press 4 to change, OR your team needs to be stealthy so you press 1 and then either pressing or holding 1 to activate it. I would want this set up: pressing the button uses the ability and holding it down changes the ability so you hold it down then press 1, 2, 3, 4 for the ability that you want to use. Others might want something different such as holding the button down to use, and pressing the button to change. But these options should be available to us.

IF there is an extra ability and DE decides to combine the first with the second or the second with the third I would like the empty slot to be used for some type of ability to control his effigy or having his effigy floating somewhere by holding down the effigy(4th) button. Anyways that would be cool.

This mechanic might work out more. For any toggle/hold ability it should go:

1. Press Ability Key (In this case "1")
2. Press 1-4 to switch between elements
   1. Fire
   2. Cold
   3. Electric
   4. Toxin
3. Hold key to use ability

Even though Spectral Scream is toggle now, there is no reason for the function to change as a hold button to breath X element feature. I imagine it to be like the Ignis in this case, except you don't get animation locked and can use it mid-air. The only thing kept the same is you can't fire your weapon and can't melee attack while holding the key, but you can slide, roll, jump, bullet glide and retain movement in general. Letting go of the key will shut it off for smoother transitions between weapons and abilities. I also prefer it to be on SS only because you need to learn to walk before you can run, or learn to swap elements before you can test your wards. This is mostly a change for new players so they can get used to Chroma's new proposed mechanic. After they master the element switch, using EW and SS would feel natural. Once Vex Armor and Effiy is unlocked, they progress from simple element play to learning when to cast Effigy, switch elements, activate EW, apply procs with SS, and maintain VA. You can still play Chroma in a simple way and use only one element ever (first element determined by energy color), or you can think more strategically (applying cold procs to increase your overall elemental damage, or have two elements at once with effigy and yourself). I really want him to be simple to use, but rewarding to master.

I changed some things in the OP for SS, so feedback is appreciated.

Edited May 23, 2016 by CrazyCortex
Check SS in the OP

[LAWD]

Not bad, love the quiver idea, Chroma could really use that, the fact that the color thing was a passive didn't make sense.

Although the dragon's nest augment seems a bit OP. Why not an augment that for every kill the sentry does, gains back energy to prolong its use. Although that's just from me. 

And I mean abilities should have their downfalls so for him not having to pose as he does when using spectral scream would be also kinda overwhelming. With the dodge-roll mechanic its good enough, all it needs is more movement speed.

[GrimAtrament]

swaping elements mid mission do you know how broken that would be oh im low on hp switch to fire need to reload stwitch to toxic need to do damage to enemies and restore shields switch to electirc

[Magneu]

2 minutes ago, hazerddex said:

swaping elements mid mission do you know how broken that would be oh im low on hp switch to fire need to reload stwitch to toxic need to do damage to enemies and restore shields switch to electirc

Swapping to an element just to reload or heal sounds extremely cumbersome.

A lot of Chromas already go melee, so health is no problem with Life Strike.

Just bullet-jump up to reload in peace.

Shields matter for Chroma besides buffing?...this is new.

[Sajochi]

39 minutes ago, LAWD said:

Not bad, love the quiver idea, Chroma could really use that, the fact that the color thing was a passive didn't make sense.

Although the dragon's nest augment seems a bit OP. Why not an augment that for every kill the sentry does, gains back energy to prolong its use. Although that's just from me. 

And I mean abilities should have their downfalls so for him not having to pose as he does when using spectral scream would be also kinda overwhelming. With the dodge-roll mechanic its good enough, all it needs is more movement speed.

Yeah, gonna change the animation lock back. Hindsight, you know? I think I might tune the numbers for dragon nest to make it fair. If not I'm open to ideas.

15 minutes ago, hazerddex said:

swaping elements mid mission do you know how broken that would be oh im low on hp switch to fire need to reload stwitch to toxic need to do damage to enemies and restore shields switch to electirc

Did you read the cooldown timer for EW? That's a precaution to prevent spam and to prevent buff stacking. You still need to expend the energy for it and get locked in an element for 10s ( I'm about to increase it since people like shouting OP). It's not broken and should have been accessible from the beginning.

Added the changes. Dragon Nest has longer timer and lower damage.

Edited May 23, 2016 by CrazyCortex

[SempaiMint]

16 hours ago, CrazyCortex said:

This mechanic might work out more. For any toggle/hold ability it should go:

1. Press Ability Key (In this case "1")
2. Press 1-4 to switch between elements
   1. Fire
   2. Cold
   3. Electric
   4. Toxin
3. Hold key to use ability

Even though Spectral Scream is toggle now, there is no reason for the function to change as a hold button to breath X element feature. I imagine it to be like the Ignis in this case, except you don't get animation locked and can use it mid-air. The only thing kept the same is you can't fire your weapon and can't melee attack while holding the key, but you can slide, roll, jump, bullet glide and retain movement in general. Letting go of the key will shut it off for smoother transitions between weapons and abilities. I also prefer it to be on SS only because you need to learn to walk before you can run, or learn to swap elements before you can test your wards. This is mostly a change for new players so they can get used to Chroma's new proposed mechanic. After they master the element switch, using EW and SS would feel natural. Once Vex Armor and Effiy is unlocked, they progress from simple element play to learning when to cast Effigy, switch elements, activate EW, apply procs with SS, and maintain VA. You can still play Chroma in a simple way and use only one element ever (first element determined by energy color), or you can think more strategically (applying cold procs to increase your overall elemental damage, or have two elements at once with effigy and yourself). I really want him to be simple to use, but rewarding to master.

I changed some things in the OP for SS, so feedback is appreciated.

Exactly! you totally explained it way simpler :P but because people always want differences

1. Hold Ability Key (In this case "1")
2. Press 1-4 to switch between elements
   1. Fire
   2. Cold
   3. Electric
   4. Toxin
3. Press key to use ability

As for the last part you got a little too deep in there for me, I just like to be thrown into hard mechanics myself XD, But Shulk was my favorite SSBWU character, and I think Spectral Scream may continue to be useless even after the rework hence my unremarkable effort to combine my Shulk like concept with his Spectral Scream haha. In reality I would get rid of Spectral Scream or maybe just make it a hold button on his four ability for a traditionalist persons sake (but id like that hold ability to move the effigy somewhere). Maybe when effigy is active you can move him and you can hold the button down when effigy isn't active to use spectral scream haha im just throwing ideas out here

This came to me after posting but what if they movement of effigy was quick and caused cc, like it flies from one spot to the next and everyone in the way get hit over :O that would be so cool!

Edited May 24, 2016 by SempaiMint

[Cytobel]

Alright, while I might par back on a few of the numbers here and there, as well as say "no" to a platform Effigy (dabbled in game design, and the thought of collision detection on a castable gives me hives), I must generally give a thumbs up.

Chroma has be a chronic underperformer in my eyes, mainly because the possibilities offered by selectable elements were buried under a mountain of niggling little issues reguarding constantly repainting my 'Frame and gear for each mission against different foes.  Having ANY method of swapping elements in his kit is attractive as hell, and finding uses for Spectral Scream and Effigy was a headache as well.

I think some devs need to give this one serious consideration.  There's enough here to consider for a rework to be justified, but lets allow Damage 3.0 to drop first.  No sense reworking damage values 'til enemy scaling has seen that upcoming once-over.

[Sajochi]

20 hours ago, Cytobel said:

Alright, while I might par back on a few of the numbers here and there, as well as say "no" to a platform Effigy (dabbled in game design, and the thought of collision detection on a castable gives me hives), I must generally give a thumbs up.

Chroma has be a chronic underperformer in my eyes, mainly because the possibilities offered by selectable elements were buried under a mountain of niggling little issues reguarding constantly repainting my 'Frame and gear for each mission against different foes.  Having ANY method of swapping elements in his kit is attractive as hell, and finding uses for Spectral Scream and Effigy was a headache as well.

I appreciate the feedback. Effigy already has some collision detection built in when casting but I'm not going to say it will be easy to make Effigy a platform. I may put a little side note that says "not needed, just a QoL idea." The damage numbers are there to provide a clear idea of where I and some other posts in the community want for Chroma. With damage 3.0 having an official Soon^tm stance, it's more engaging in my eyes to have hard numbers to consider for people that want to relay feedback.

20 hours ago, Cytobel said:

 

I think some devs need to give this one serious consideration.  There's enough here to consider for a rework to be justified, but lets allow Damage 3.0 to drop first.  No sense reworking damage values 'til enemy scaling has seen that upcoming once-over.

That's what i'm really hoping for. I know they read feedback from time to time. It's the main reason behind Volt's shield change and Vauban's Minelayer. I just hope this thread doesn't get lost in forums like most posts.

I'm actually going to be hunting those other Chroma threads today and quote them in the OP for the sake of clarity.

@SempaiMint

Quote

As for the last part you got a little too deep in there for me, I just like to be thrown into hard mechanics myself XD, But Shulk was my favorite SSBWU character, and I think Spectral Scream may continue to be useless even after the rework hence my unremarkable effort to combine my Shulk like concept with his Spectral Scream haha. In reality I would get rid of Spectral Scream or maybe just make it a hold button on his four ability for a traditionalist persons sake (but id like that hold ability to move the effigy somewhere). Maybe when effigy is active you can move him and you can hold the button down when effigy isn't active to use spectral scream haha im just throwing ideas out here

This came to me after posting but what if they movement of effigy was quick and caused cc, like it flies from one spot to the next and everyone in the way get hit over :O that would be so cool!

That does sound really cool, making Effigy move when you hold four.  I'm more concerned with pathing on this as that's hard to really convey in third person view games. I'll jazz it up and add it to the OP as that has potential. As for SS, it's kind of Chroma's iconic thing and adding more functionality to it would be "fixing it" in a way. I don't see it as a damage dealer, but a widespread status dealer. Status is pretty useful is applied correctly in this game. I might even suggest buffing the chance to 90% if you guys think that will be a fair tradeoff: low damage but high status potential.

Thread hunting is hard, but I got three that had some things going for them. One is very current.

Edited May 25, 2016 by CrazyCortex

[Gurpgork]

I've been playing some Chroma lately, and a thought hit my mind about Elemental Ward. 

Why should all of the Wards increase survivability? Then you're just ending up with a bunch of abilities that do the same thing in a different way. That's why we have the pure Ice meta on him, because that element is the best for making Chroma a brick wall. 

I think that all of the elements should at least somewhat correspond to the Warframes they come from. For example, Ice could be the most defensive with a splash of crowd control because that's what Frost is like. Fire could get a combination of offense and crowd control, like Ember. Electric could get a little bit of everything, since Volt is a jack of all trades. Toxin could be pure offense, akin to Saryn. 

Then the elements wouldn't all just try to be carbon copies of each other, while all of them would create a distinct playstyle for Chroma. 

Edited May 25, 2016 by Gurpgork