Jump to content
Dante Unbound: Share Bug Reports and Feedback Here! ×

Dev Workshop: Passives, Volt, Mag & More!


[DE]Rebecca
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone,

We're all eager to see our 'other two' starter Warframes have their revisions deployed. Mag and Volt are currently very popular Warframes in terms of average use, which is partially based on their role in the starting lineup, but also based on the potential and fun everyone knows they offer. PC will receive the changes first this week in 18.13.0, which allows us the agility to address any bugs and critical feedback promptly. Console Tenno will receive this list of changes in their next Update.

The following post outlines what you can expect in terms of Passives & Ability revisions - let's get right to it:

 

Volt:

Time to truly make Volt 'an alternative to gunplay' – Warframe Description, 2012.

First, Volt gets a passive (listed below).

Shock remains untouched as 'it’s a pretty great first ability' – [DE]Scott. The love of zapping is eternal.

Speed most noticeably has had its FOV reduced on cast, which should help with motion sickness complaints. Other players in range now get to 'opt-in' to Volt's Speed buff, by activating a pickup that Volt leaves behind on cast. This activation occurs on contact.

Shield will be receiving a graphic overhaul to improve the look of casting, ambient effects, and its effect on projectiles that pass through. Shield now offers strong synergies if Shock is cast through it – it charges the shield with Electric damage which will hurt enemies that come in contact. As a late-addition driven by player demand, Shield can now be picked up with a context action which limits weapon usage and drains energy.

Overload still spreads out from Volt in a wave, and enemies who come into contact are turned into stationary 'Tesla Coils' that arc and zap nearby enemies in range. Damage is dealt to the enemy-turned- Tesla Coil and its targets. Loot crates can also be turned into Coils, but they only have one charge. Casting Shock on Tesla Coil causes an AOE burst.

For comprehensive gameplay of these changes in an earlier iteration, tune into our past Devstreams.

 

 

 

Mag:

Mag's role as a one-trick Corpus pony is controversially discussed. The emergence of high-level Corpus Sorties projected the spotlight on her, and we decided to approach her revision in a way that simply makes all her abilities more engaging in more places.

Mag also gets a passive (listed below).

Pull remains mostly the same as before. If an enemy is magnetized, bonus damage is dealt. Kills have a bonus chance of dropping energy, while cause enemies to experience almost physics-defying deaths.

Magnetize (previously Bullet Attractor) will root the target in place. Damage over time is dealt to all enemies within a set radius, with the amount of damage based on how far from the center of the Magnetized they are. A percentage of the damage of absorbed bullets/projectiles/shrapnel will be used to increase the DOT. Up to 4 targets can be Magnetized at this time.

Polarize now spreads like Nova’s Molecular Prime. Targets with shields will take shield damage, while targets with armour take health damage and a permanent armour debuff. Targets will emit a piece or two of shrapnel which can be used to create synergies with Mag's other abilities.

Crush will now deal bonus damage to magnetized enemies.

For comprehensive gameplay of these changes in an earlier iteration, tune into our past Devstreams.

 

 

 

Passives:

In alphabetical order, here we go!

Ash: Bleed Procs dealt by Ash from any source are 25% deadlier and last 50% longer.

Banshee: All weapons are treated as silent.

Ember: Receiving a Heat Status effect will regenerate energy for the duration of the Status effect (10 energy per second) and increase Power Strength by 35%.

Hydroid: Every Melee Ground-Slam has a 50% chance to lure a Tentacle that will last 15 seconds.  

Limbo*: Holster Speed and Reload Speed is 50% faster while in the Rift, and movement speed increases by 10% while in the Rift.

Loki: 10x Wall-Cling duration!

Mag: Vacuum effect on every Bullet Jump.

Nekros: Enemy death within 10 meters of Nekros regenerates a 5 Health.

Nova: When Nova is knocked down, she will knock down enemies in a 6 meter Radius + deal damage.

Nyx: Enemies affected by any of Nyx's powers have a chance to lay down their weapon ( become disarmed ).

Oberon: All wildlife (neutral or enemy faction) within a 10 meter range of Oberon will become allies and fight for Oberon for 20 seconds.

Trinity: Revive fallen allies faster from further away.

Vauban: Other Warframes within 20 meters give you 25% bonus armour.

Volt: Physical ground-travel distance between attacks causes bonus Electrical damage on next attack.

… & More?

Yes! First, let's talk Mesa:

As you may or may not know, we are making Mesa's personal Peacemaker weapon scale with Secondary Weapon Mods. Peacemaker itself will be tweaked to accommodate for the sudden surge in power that inheriting underlying-Mods introduces.  

We are also making Shooting Gallery be a permanent buff on Mesa when cast, but Allies will still have it rotate.

*And now Limbo:

If we can, we will make more changes to him by tomorrow (cue the coffee machine). His passive is really not something we believe puts him in a place we think is near final. We are considering replacing his 3 (Rift Surge) with something else. Stay tuned!

And everyone else?

With the 18.13 release including all of the above, there are two phases to follow.

The first is practical feedback review. Maybe you're like me and wonder if the quirky fun of Oberon's passive works in practice, or maybe you're sold on that flavour alone. Immersion and style matters just as much as a small stat. Do you believe that everything has to work in all scenarios all the time – if so how far off is the content Warframe offers in being universal? Where do Passives belong – what rules do you think they should follow? Is there room for niche? How deep can a niche go?

Then we move on to bigger Warframe reviews – this includes a detailed look at things that trivializes all content to an extreme.  Please remember that all of the above is subject to change – big or small. Stay tuned for final Update notes.

Take care, Tenno!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by [DE]Megan
Reworded Nova's passive and buffed Vaubans
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm...Shock remains untouched =-/ Not much done with speed... Still forced to secondary...I have many concerns but i'll hold my judgement until tomorrow... 

 

 Seems more like another heavy nerf to me, no more damage to shock/chainlinks/stun duration?  Shock deals 50% less damage to chained enemies with a 2 second stun. No change at all? Speed only provides 2 buffs and for 10 seconds, no synergies or longer duration? No golden lightning or name change to overload?  I will still stay positive despite this 

Edited by Wolfnrun
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For some feedback I already passed along to Rebecca regarding passives:

Quote
  • The declared passive for Nyx is dependent on her casting abilities, essentially just making it part of the ability effect that you can't mod for. The idea of her being able to disarm enemies is a great way to keep her competitive with Loki (especially since Irradiating Disarm), but attaching the effect to her abilities just makes it a waste of an opportunity for a passive, when you could just as easily declare that the disarm is an effect of casting the ability; you still have to push a button to use it either way. Saryn's passive doesn't just apply to statuses caused by her abilities, but any status she inflicts, including by weapons or Syndicate blasts; other passives should be just as versatile.
  • Limbo really shouldn't have a passive that's only active in the Rift, for the same reason as described for Nyx: it would essentially just be adding an effect onto the Rift status, and calling it a passive. Since enabling the Rift status is dependent on Limbo's abilities (ones he doesn't have access to immediately, I might add), it'd be no different from saying that Valkyr's passive is that she's invulnerable... whenever Hysteria's active, or that Loki's passive is that he's invisible... whenever Invisibility's active. He should have a passive that's enabled whenever he's outside the Rift as well as within it, such as increased Evasion at all times as he displaces incoming attacks through the Rift, or the ability to auto-Banish melee attackers to the opposite side of the Rift similarly to Frost. Encouragement to rely on the Rift should come from his abilities; presently the lack of excitement for Limbo is due to poor quality-of-life attached to the Rift.
  • Same as the above two, Chroma's "passive" of swapping elements based on energy color only applies to his abilities; he still has to press a button in order to notice any difference. He should have an additional benefit that isn't dependent on casting an ability - like a resistance to the element he's selected, or maybe some parkour benefits attached to his wings whenever Effigy's disabled.
  • The problem with the suggestion for Oberon to tame wildlife is that it exacerbates (and is the latest symptom of) a long-standing issue with him: Due to the confusion of whether he's supposed to be a Paladin or a Druid, he's sorely ineffective at both roles, as he's overloaded on effects intended to convey both themes. He needs a major rework that will push him toward one or the other, rather than straddling the line between the two. Additionally, the wildlife passive would be equally as niche as having Hydroid gain benefits whenever he's standing in water: It just affects way too few tilesets to even be considered, as the effect would be inconsistent.
    As some alternative suggestions: Oberon blocks additional damage with any melee; blocked attacks have a chance to blind attackers; breaking his shields will blind nearby enemies.

Additionally, Crush really needs more than "does more damage" to be scalable. Presently all it brings to the table, once damage falls off, is a knockdown; it's paltry compared to the effects of other ultimates, and even her other abilities.

I am interested in seeing Rift Surge go, especially if that means its effects could be automatically rolled into his Rift-inducing abilities (a damage bonus whenever Rift Walk is active would be exactly the same - good spot for Rift Torrent, by the way). The idea of a replacement is exciting; there's a high call for him to have some kind of teleport, or perhaps an effect that swaps based on his current Rift state, something less dependent on him being in the Rift to use the effect, while still incentivising it.

Edited by Archwizard
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of the passives are... disappointing. We need passives like Inaros' one. Inaros is the perfect example of a passive well implemented.

Vauban: 25 armor (Vauban Prime) if one of your allies is near you. That's 125 armor instead of 100, now Vauban Prime will have the same armor as Ember Prime! I expected it to be the other way: Vauban gives allies 25% armor. 

Oberon: no words. Instead of giving him something useful to compensate his mediocrity you make him allied of the wild life, which is present in just a couple of tilesets. Why not give him physical procs immunity, or a passive health regeneration to allies? 

Hydroid: again, a mediocre warframe that has his utilities. He could have gotten a proper passive to compensate how lackluster he is, and instead we have some ground finisher passive.

Ember: we need to take damage to make use of her passive, why not add a 90-100% resistance to the fire damage dealt from procs, maintaining the other buffs?

Nekros: stats are just too small. 5 health is nothing and you now it, and 10 metters means near melee range to get any benefit from that. And Nekros is not the kind of warframe that would go close range aginst his enemies.

Edited by residente
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Other players in range now get to 'opt-in' to Volt's Speed buff, by activating a pickup that Volt leaves behind on cast. This activation occurs on contact.

What if Volt is behind everyone when he casts this?  Turning around to see if Volt left behind such a pickup is horrible for movement flow, the opposite of what you want in missions you bring Volt for.  This is a big nerf to Speed.

Would suggest using roll as with Limbo, and build a key/option for being unaffected by such skills in the longer term.

5 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Limbo*: Holster Speed and Reload Speed is 50% faster while in the Rift, and movement speed increases by 10% while in the Rift.

All frames badly need a significant buff to holster speed, with the aura being made an exilus mod.  This will encourage skilful play.

5 hours ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Trinity: Revive fallen allies faster from further away.

Isn't this the same as the Nekros mod?

The rest looks great.  If something doesn't quite work or is OP, please do not leave it for 2 years...

As an urgent tangent, can we have a T5 starting at level 80 whilst we're waiting for Star Map 3.0?  It's been 9 months since the announcement already... 9 months being forced to fight level 35 enemies ...

Edited by Fifield
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Quote

 

Ember: Receiving a Heat Status effect will regenerate energy for the duration of the Status effect (10 energy per second) and increase Power Strength by 35%

Nekros: Enemy death within 10 meters of Nekros regenerates a 5 Health

Vauban: Other Warframes within 10 meters give you 25% bonus armour.

Volt: Physical ground-travel distance between attacks causes bonus Electrical damage on next attack.

 

Waiting intensifies

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Loki Wall-Cling Master Race!

Time for Arcane Arachne!! Well, maybe...

One question about Loki's proposed passive though: Is it added on top of his cling duration with mods like "Patagium" and "Ice Spring"? Or is it unchangeable?

Edited by AEP8FlyBoy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Polarize now spreads like Nova’s Molecular Prime. Targets with shields will take shield damage, while targets with armour take health damage and a permanent armour debuff. Targets will emit a piece or two of shrapnel which can be used to create synergies with Mag's other abilities

 

Does this mean that duration will affect the range, like it does with molecular prime?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Oberon: All wildlife (neutral or enemy faction) within a 10 meter range of Oberon will become allies and fight for Oberon for 20 seconds.

 

 

thank you oh so very very much for giving him the most worthless passive in the game! great for fighting only agaisnt one faction and only on lower level missions, ones so easy you can sleep through them and still win.

 

Seriously DE how was this a good idea? I thought you guys were getting away from frames being only useful against singular factions (case in point the mag rework)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the Devstream where you were showcasing Volt's rework, I think Scott mentioned something about wanting to find a more interesting way to handle Volt's duration for the arc-trap effect rather than just using Duration. Any chance of getting additional details on that? Also:

  1. Will Volt's shield now be subject to scaling on range? It looked larger in the rework preview than in the current live version.
  2. Will Volt's Speed be recastable or can you only drop another "opt in" point once the duration ends? I imagine this could be a major dealbreaker for a lot of players if the speed opt-in cannot be moved / replaced until the full duration is over.
  3. Will Mag's Shield Polarize be affected by Range and Duration the same way Molecular Prime is?
  4. Will Oberon's passive re-apply to targets after moving in and out of range or is it a one-and-done activation?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would personally love to see Volt's speed ability be a channeled ability in which your speed increase is controlled by scrolling the mouse wheel. The faster you go, the more energy per second required. My idea for a new ultimate would again be a channeling ability in which Volt creates a static barrier following in his footsteps and slowly rescinds. Enemies that touch this barrier would become stunned and arc electric damage to nearby enemies. If Volt connects with the end of his electric trail it creates a closed circuit and all enemies within the trail become rapidly struck by bolts of electricity originating from the barrier and passing from one to another. Enemies that die while under this effect explode in an AoE damage burst. The faster you go, the bigger a circuit you can create. 

Edited by ToraTakeri
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Melos-mevim said:

thank you oh so very very much for giving him the most worthless passive in the game! great for fighting only agaisnt one faction and only on lower level missions, ones so easy you can sleep through them and still win.

 

Seriously DE how was this a good idea? I thought you guys were getting away from frames being only useful against singular factions (case in point the mag rework)

If you watched the last devstream you would've seen that they were thinking of adding more Wildlife or Companions to more factions very soon. So, it isn't a pointless passive. At least it won't be very soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Calling it now, increase novas passive range to 10 or 12 meters, or change it so when she gets knockdown, all enemies in a 10 meter radius are affected by an instant molecular prime.

Edited by RIOT
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i definitely feel that passives need to be universal as mentioned in the last paragraph. an example is Oberons passive. thematically it makes sense but in practice, you only would have wildlife encountering mostly grineer (if their hyekka and kubrow summoning counts) and earth and phobos. it is very limiting honestly especially since its only 20 seconds. even if the case was that you are going to add more wildlife in other tilesets/factions, you guys have promised certain wildlife many times in the past with concept art but even those still havent seen the light of day yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Limiting Volts' movable shield to energy consumption and to secondary and melee kinda makes me not want to use it. Players primarily use their primary ( who knew) not much gained from making it movable now. 

The passive doesn't seem very useful or interesting, but would need more context on how it works because which "attack" is the buff applied to and what kind of damage is added?

Also are enemies permanently turned Tesla  until they die? If so very good ability.

Edited by Conestt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

We are also making Shooting Gallery be a permanent buff on Mesa when cast.

*And now Limbo:

If we can, we will make more changes to him by tomorrow (cue the coffee machine). His passive is really not something we believe puts him in a place we think is near final. We are considering replacing his 3 (Rift Surge) with something else. Stay tuned!

\o/

-----

1 hour ago, Fifield said:

Would suggest using roll as with Limbo,

Oh god no.

Rolling is part of traversal in Parkour Mobility 2.0. I have enough trouble with unBanishing myself when travelling as-is.

Edited by Chroia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Nyx: Enemies affected by any of Nyx's powers have a chance to lay down their weapon ( become disarmed ).

Thats not very good DE, if i use Mind Control i always try to get a Enemy with a big fat Weapon like a Bombard. Its a bad idea that i minimize my own power by disarming him. Maybe you can chage it to somtehing like this:

Enemies who was affected by any of Nyx's powers have a chance to lay down their weapon ( become disarmed ), after the powers Duration stopped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slightly disappointed. Passives are situational at best, useless at worst and will hardly have an impact on how I play. I actually get some use out of Rhinos passive for instance, bullet jumping into a crowd knowing they'll be CC'd. 

I don't see myself repeatedly jump slamming my melee as Hydroid, he's far too squishy.

I don't see myself getting set on fire as Ember, there's like 4 enemies in the game that have a chance to do it.

Why would I need silenced weapons as Banshee?

How often are other Warframes within 10m of you, in a game where you can travel that distance in under a second?

Sorry guys, I've liked the passives you made so far, but these are mostly meh imo.

Edited by DeMonkey
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...