Volt Rework Feedback [Post Update 18.13]

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

2 hours ago, OzoneSlayer said:

We are getting stance less weaponless melee soon if you haven't heard :b

I never hear anything!!! :0 what does that mean exactly?....like how you can fight after being captured by the harvester, and then released into a random corpus facility...

[Aquasurge]

5 hours ago, EnderDDT said:

So I did some testing, here are my opinions followed by how I got the data to back them up and what I think needs changed. Overall, I feel that this update was simply too rushed with too little beta testing to iron out the issues. Before he had one or two real issues with each of his abilities other than his #4, and mostly what he needed was some small bug fixes. Now he has multiple issues with all of his abilities, he may even have a major issue or two with his passive which he didn't even HAVE before.

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I like the idea of his passive, a little bonus damage here and there, but the reality of it is less than stellar. Most shots with my charge up weapon gain in the double digits of damage before mitigation, and that is if I am constantly moving and with a slow firing weapon, so really lackluster. It takes over half a minute worth of walking to get up to the 1000 cap, but to keep this in perspective my secondary deals 5 times this much damage per second before crits and procs and isn't built as much as it could be. So, all in all, it isn't worth caring about. I also agree that the passive tries to force him to remain grounded, but see my last sentence about how the damage is too low to care about for why I don't take issue with this aspect.

Mechanically it deals the extra damage as a flat add-on amount that is not modified by weapon mods or power strength and does not combine with other elements. The amount of damage is according to meters moved on the ground at a 1:1 basis. This damage is subject to all forms of mitigation. This was tested by going against a level 50 Desert Skate (mainly because they don't move) and comparing the damage dealt by shooting him in it's top side; first with a single shot with and without the passive, second by adding on a power strength mod to Volt, third with a base damage mod on the weapon, and finally with a single toxin mod on the weapon (if it combined the toxin and electricity would become corrosive damage, witch is far more effective against the enemy). I then used it with shock, both with and without power mods to confirm that it was simply an add on amount there as well. The distance scaling was tested by using frost's snow globe to set a distance and then checking to see how the counter increased over that distance.

What can be done? Lots of people have mentioned having it recharge energy rather than give damage. This would not only help deal with his low energy supply and high energy needs, but also be useful at all points in the game. Another option would be for it to apply to abilities, perhaps with an increase in power strength rather than straight damage, this would also be useful and could be tuned to have the right power level. Having it only charge when he is on the ground is painful in such a high-mobility game as this and seems to punish the player for using that mobility. Personally, I have no problem leaving it as is and blatantly putting Volt's end-game power in other places (assuming that the power is there in his other abilities), but limiting it to ground movement in a game of rocket-jumping space-ninjas is really hurtful.

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Volt's #1 ability, Shock, was given some new interactions but reportedly was mechanically unchanged (asthetically it is supposed to have a new sound). Personally, I didn't notice the sound change so I can't say anything about it. The interactions with his other abilities are theoretically good but need some tweaking. For instance shocking his shield deals damage but skimps out on the all important electric proc and so it falls off in usefulness at the same rate that his shock damage does (very quickly). The interaction with volt's #4 ability is tricky to pin down. It does not increase the duration but seems to bring with it a single extra tick of damage. The problem is that the damage is so low against most enemies and one tick is such a small part of the total amount that it seems to be a waste of an ability. The interactions showed promise but both fell short of being useful.

Concerning the original ability, it was a bit under-powered and somewhat unreliable (especially against ospreys, which were the main target I wanted to take down). Compare this to Mag's Pull: Mag's ability hits a similar or greater number of targets, but reliably deals 300 damage (50% more) a knockdown that results in much longer CC, and leaves enemies open to finishers. Volt's ability regains some damage against tightly clumped groups, but has an unreliable spread. Which one is better is pretty obvious. Or look at Banshee's Sonic Boom, which itself is probably a bit weak: Banshee's ability deals a quarter the damage, but has a similar or greater effective area in most cases, much longer CC, clears enemies away for added safety, and opens enemies up to finishers. The utility when combined with power range can be a powerful "back off" tool; making volt's stun pale in comparison.

Mechanically speaking using it on Volt's Energy Shield (ES) causes it to deal damage in the amount of your shock once a second to enemies that touch it with no proc. I had originally thought there was a proc chance, but no. This was tested by placing multiple energy shields and luring a Desert Skate until he moved into one. On another note, one shock can electrify multiple shields if you aim through them. Furthermore the electrified status persists upon picking the shield up and can damage enemies (albeit for a small amount).

Mechanical interactions with Discharge is that it causes all affected enemies to release an extra tick of damage. This single tick is for a relatively trivial amount if the enemy has any defenses and due to the total damage being spread out over the duration, only a little more than a single shock. Shock does not increase the stun duration. If there is any other interaction, it was not readily apparent. This was tested by shocking a group of skates under the effect of Discharge and leaving them unshocked to measure the duration. I used a smaller group to see the damage it dealt when it went off.

What can be done? The shield interaction really needs to give an electric proc, even if this completely replaces the damage. This would make it viable against mele enemies, including almost every infested (which make up a third of the game's enemies). As for the discharge interaction, something beyond damage would be nice. If all you want is damage then pulling out a weapon is your better option. Also, working on the base abilitys reliability in hitting certain targets (like ospreys and other small foes) is a fix that is badly needed.

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Volt's #2 ability, Speed, has been his one of his signature moves for a very long time. It allowed him mobility, team presence, and was just a whole lot of fun. Most of that has been hurt by the changes, and that makes me sad. His mobility has been reduced a lot. It used to be that his ability made everything faster, allowing him to jump great distances and maneuver like a speed demon. Now only his movement while running/walking speed is affected (and by extension some weapon maneuvers that base their movement on walking/running). No more flying around the level. No more max speed builds where I have fun just trying to stay in control. No more jumping at a faraway enemy to slice into him midair while using my near uncontrollable speed to save me where his defenses will not. And I ask, why?

Furthermore I can't even work with my team effectively on a continual basis. I have one friend who likes using Nezha's flame walk ability and loves getting the speed boost, but having to go back to a specific spot to find a single boost every few seconds is just not worth it. I have another friend who we like to rush through low level tower missions for sport, but going back for every coil or slowing down and following me exactly just makes things awkward. I understand the issue with Speed being hard to control, sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with it and so I play something else; but other times that is EXACTLY why I WANT to play volt over other frames. I also understand about needing an opt out mechanic, I've played with people who had difficulty with it. But punishing all the players who like the ability and use it constantly to help those who don't like it but rarely see it is the wrong way to go about things. Why? The only thing I can think is that the person in charge of the rework was both not a volt player and didn't sit down with one to figure out how to fix the problems.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum except edge grabbing which was done on mercury, apollodorus (because the simulacrum doesn't have any convenient edges to climb) and teammate interactions which were tested on Jupiter, Themisto. Timing was done with a stopwatch and everything was done with a Volt Prime with no ability mods (flow for extra energy was used). I tested the ramp up speed both by visual indicators of movement and a second time by watching his attack speed with a fast mele weapon. I also tested Volt's movement, both with and without speed, for the following maneuvers and abilities: walking, running, jumping, rocket jumping, basic sliding, air sliding (dive-kick), aim gliding, wall climbing, wall running, mele attacking, spin attacking, leap attacking, wall attacking, and weapon reload. Speed affected walking, running, basic jumping, basic sliding, edge grabbing, mele attacking, and weapon reload. To a degree it had an effect on spin attacking, aim gliding, and leap attacking, as the physical movement already in progress carried over to the enhanced speed attack, but the loss of Parkour 2.0 rates of movement speed reduced the functionality of these abilities. It did not affect rocket jumping, air sliding (dive-kick), wall climbing, wall running, and wall attacking. After the initial casting, which did not interrupt movement but did interrupt attacking, the ability took about 1 full second to get to regular power.

The 1 second of delay between the cast end and the recast was removed replaced by at least a full 1 second worth of delay before gaining full power, resulting in that much time of the 10 second base duration being under powered and removing much of the option to use the ability for quick escapes. A spiral pickup is dropped on activation that is immune to carrier vacuum and gives a full duration buff to any allied warframes that pick it up regardless of the time between volt's use and an ally's activation. The pickup disappears when the ability expires. If an ally picks up a coil from a later Speed activation while a previous activation is already going for them then the new pickup is consumed but the new buff is not gained. Otherwise the ally gains all the same bonuses as Volt. The Point of View (PoV) increase was removed for all involved.

What can be done? Revert to the old mechanics as the base, even if that means loosing the reload speed. Make the PoV an "anti-vertigo" option under the visual tab with the default of off. Give an opt-out from speed via the "roll" ability. If the trouble persists than the first step would be to delay allied activation of the ability till they are on the ground, because this would prevent the sudden effects of the ability and would allow for an opt-out if necessary. If an opt-in is viewed as absolutely necessary (this is not a forgone conclusion) than the easiest way would be via the slide command. Remember what was said on the devstream, an opt in needs to be so easy it is a trivial action, going back for a pickup every 10-15 seconds is not trivial. Trying to give an opt-out rather than an opt-in means that allies are not forced to constantly reactivate it, otherwise a change in duration is likely necessary. The easiest solution to this constant bother is to either double or triple the duration while increasing the cost equally; this would still require interaction, but not so constant that it would be aggravating. If the option to triple the duration was taken than that would probably necessitate also switching his Energy Shield and Speed abilities into their opposite slots.

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Volt's Energy Shield seems improved in many ways. The shape is nicer for protecting others, but not quite as nice for protecting just oneself, but this is more than made up for by it blocking explosions. Since explosions are such a big deal in late game play and since they can easily one-shot the squishy Volt who's shield appears right next to him, this was a badly needed change. The reduction in the number of shields has me scratching my head and asking why. If I want to use the 6 shields that it would take to make a perimiter the same size as frost's base unmodded snow-globe and spend the base cost of 300 energy to do so (despite it not protecting as well) than why shouldn't I be able to do so? And yes, it takes 6 shields to shield the same area without covering the top (test it yourself if you don't believe me). If I want to use 8 shields to protect the Tower Defense objective from threats both on the ground floor and upper level (and spend the 400 base energy to do so) than why is that not allowed? If I want to use just 4 to protect a target and still be able to use a couple more to let me safely revive someone, than why is that a problem? The only thing close to an abuse case I know of is stacking shields to double up on the bonus electrical damage, but is a clear Energy-in to Power-out example that could easily be fixed in other ways if that is deemed necessary.

The penalties on picking up the shield are pretty ridiculous. We already have multiple warframes who can hit a key and become immune to everything including damage; Rhino and Nezha gain a shield with no duration, Valkir can take literally any amount of damage for any length of time till her energy runs out (though with some restrictions), Hydroid puddles to become immune to everything, Loki switch teleports to make someone else immune, etc. Having unidirectional immunity that does nothing for the sides, the back, mele, environmental effects, clouds, ground pounds, and a few other things is not so powerful that it requires so many downsides. Weapon restriction why? Slow why? I can understand a power drain, but 5 per second is a crazy amount of drain on top of the original activation cost and duration limit. And then there is the energy drained for movement, why? The amount is far crazier than the already unbelievable cost for just holding the thing, and I'm not even kidding about that.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum. The shield defends against all normal gunfire and rocket explosions but does nothing against ground based attacks (such as moa stomps and lighting the ground on fire), direct targeted abilities (such as the commander teleport), or flamethrower type weapons (such as the Hyekka Master's weapon). Grenades (such as from an Arid Lancer) detonate on contact with the shield but otherwise are treated like other explosions. Normal mele attacks are not stopped but aoe mele attacks might be (requires more testing). This all holds true for both the normal shield and riot shield version. A new shield cannot be deployed while holding the riot shield. The shield can only be picked up from behind but prevents enemy fire from passing through in both directions. Multiple shields stack the damage buff addatively. The damage values are rounded as a group, rather than being rounded individually. Testing of the damage mechanics were done with a lv50 skate, while testing of the other blocking properties were done with a commander, Arid Hellion, Bombard, Hyekka Master, and Napalm at lv20.

Holding the shield drains 5/s as advertised, reducible by duration and efficiency mods, but carrying drains at a much faster rate of .2 per meter, reducible by efficiency and nothing else. Holding the shield does not count as a channeled ability in terms of stopping the Zenurik passive and the Energy Siphon mod. The assertion that it drains according to distance was tested and holds true. For a use with no ability changing mods holding the shield for 10s costs 50 energy, for instance. To judge the cost in terms of distance traveled I used his passive (which was already shown to go up one point for each in-game meter), which showed that the cost was about .2 per meter moved at base efficiency and duration. This calculation seemed to show true over multiple tests and multiple distances ranging from 10, 25, 50, 500, and 997 in-game meters (within error for human reflexes). If there is an interaction with jumping other than the distance moved, or other effects on cost, this test was not designed to find it. Holding the shield was shown to give a 25% slow, tested by finding that I could walk 500m in 20 seconds without the shield but it took me 25 seconds to walk the same distance with it.

To put this in perspective this means that the creating the shield, picking it up, and rushing forward with it for only 10 seconds cost 193 energy. That is raw test data, me doing it without any movement speed mods and reporting back exactly the numbers. Nearly 200 energy in 10 seconds is broken no matter how you look at it.

What to do? First, there seems to be no real reason to limit volt to only 4 shields, especially considering how limited they already are. If the issue of him using multiple shields to buff his damage is seen as a problem than either limit the buff to 4 shields or remember that shield stacking is a limited duration immobile buff that requires a massive amount of energy to stack many of them. Furthermore the limit of 4 stops legitimate uses of the skill, such as protection of a target and other more creative uses. A case could even be made for removing the stacking portion of the buff, but it is much harder to make the case for limiting the number of shields considering their size and other inherent limitations. This ability is no snow globe, and requires 4, 6, 8, or more individual shields to do what 1 snow globe can do; so limiting it to the same number just doesn't make sense.

As for the cost of the riot shield portion of the ability, that needs to be drastically reduced. A cost of something like 2 per second with no increase for movement is entirely practical. At that point carrying the shield for the entire duration will cost the same as a new ability (2/s drain over 25 seconds equals 50 energy, the original casting cost), and will result in a full 100 energy cost total over the duration. Furthermore, considering the limitations that the ability already has (such as a non immunity to a list of effects and a very limited angle of defense and a high total cost to use even with the energy reduction), the other list of restrictions just seem overburdening. Why no primary weapon for a floating shield, and why a slow for a shield made of electricity? Adding in restrictions for no reason just makes everything worse for no reason.

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Volt's #4 ability, discharge, is never going to be about damage without something like percentage based scaling or some other scaling. It simply cannot be because any amount of damage that would be relevant late game game will be stupidly broken early game or even mid game. At least, that is my take on it. The ability would make a workable CC lock down, except for a few things. First, the inconsistency due to the hp cap (which is damage dealt, not received, so armor/resistances negate much of it) means that certain things that should be good for the CC portion simply aren't.  The duration would be good otherwise, but that hp cap ruins it. Second, volt must be on the ground, extremely vulnerable during the casting time, and within an extremely limited range of the enemies he wants to hit for it to be effective. The range would be good if it was not for ground traveling, but ground traveling (combined with the harshness of geometry) kinda ruins that. The ground requirement seems to be due to it's ground traveling, an interesting idea, but can be problematic.  The long period of vulnerability, due to the long casting time and slow spreading of effect, often isn't worth the effect you get from it compared to other options.

Mechanically the ability has a 2 second cast time after which it releases a relatively slow moving wave across the floor but visually shows the same wave release of his old #4 ability. This spread requires him to either be on the floor or wall clinging to work. The wave passes through doors and grates, and has no trouble with railings. Most of the trouble with this type of spread seems to come from the levels not being designed properly for this to work. An easy example is in the simulacrum where the towers are not technically attached to the floor or when standing on the spinning cone looking thing in the Jupiter Thebe mission, such that the wave will not affect enemies that are on the floor regardless of proximity. Another issue with spread is with enemies on multiple elevations in many open rooms. Overall it works well except for specific instances of failure of the level's geometry and when dealing with enemies on other floors.

The charged enemies immediately begin shocking any nearby enemies, and then start harming themselves after 4 seconds if no enemies are present. The ability continues till the time limit or the ability's HP cap is reached. The cap is according to damage delt, not damage received, so things with resistance take significantly less damage. Furthermore the damage cap seems to include not only the direct damage dealt but the electric procs aoe damage from tightly grouped mobs, meaning that against large groups of infested the effect can last as short as 2 seconds. And yes, that is an actual amount of time  The time limit of the effect is 12 seconds at base and volt must wait 4 seconds before recasting, but hitting enemies a second time wastes the effect on them until the previous effect has expired. Volt is immune to knockdowns during the casting but is not immune to damage. This was tested on Jupiter, Thebe and in the simulacrum with Skates, Infested chargers, and Infested runners.

What to do? The damage cap REALLY needs to be removed, even if this means readjusting the damage for the new duration. This one change will immediately fix most of the issues with consistency and reliability. The issue with how vulnerable this makes ability makes you is more difficult to address, considering the method of spread, cast time, and ground requirement. A simple stopgap measure would be to move the initial stun to the beginning of the cast rather than the end, but this still requires him to get grounded in the middle of a group of enemies despite his low defenses and the low spread speed of the ability. A better option would be for Volt to "Fire" his #4 ability similar to Mirage's #4 ability, Prism. Using the firing method would also solve the issue with the range being buggy when as it tries to go around different obstacles.

Finally, "Volt's Discharge" really does sound like we are talking about a pustule or some other infected wound. I'm kinda surprised that this wasn't caught by the beta testers who checked this build for issues. (There were beta testers, right?)

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Overall this update seems rushed and not really well thought out. The changes on volt's abilities positively stink of overreaction. Can anyone at all give any suggestions for another reason why this level of changes were made to an ability with only two real issues that needed resolved (vertigo and no opt-out)? Maybe the programmers felt a deadline crunch and decided to get overly hasty about things? Many aspects of this show a slipshod job was done on the update. Aspects of the ability which should be there, such as range affecting ES carrying distance costs, are missing. Fixing the problem of a missing opt-out mechanic by forcing other players to hunt down a buff every 10 seconds is proof that somebody failed at their job. Including electric procs as part of his #4 ability's damage cap punish players for strategic play. Even the name of his revamped #4 ability is a mistake that SOMEBODY should have caught before it went live.

thank you. i really do appriciate how you tested this scientifically - DE can never argue with science

[Tigercloud]

The minimum changes that should be made to polish Volt after this rework are:

-Remove Speed's .5 second delay. Quality of life issue, but it's still important.

-Make Electric Shield not cost Energy while being held, and reduce the speed reduction. Its duration is a good enough of a limiting factor. As it is, the energy consumption makes it clunky and hard to use, when it should be a viable tactical option at any time.

-Change Speed's opt-in into an opt-out, like Banish. Backflips have been mentioned as a way to do this. Even holding still for something like 2-3 seconds would work.

-Make Shocked Electric Shields do a one-time, 100% Electric proc to any enemy who passes through it. This would give Volt area-denial CC, and would just be wicked fun. As it is, it's a gimmick that is pointless on high-level enemies.

-Allow Discharge to be cast mid-air, like Overload used to.

Still testing the rework, but those are things that will make Volt feel natural to use, rather than a bit clumsy and awkward as he stands now.

[LunarEdge7]

Just gonna put my build here that I use most of the time from now:

http://imgur.com/cO6vHm4

Making good use of Discharge and stunning enemies.

Because of the health dmg cap, you mind as well not focus on strength much.

Counter the high energy drain by using his Current Shield only when your energy is high.

The Speed buff on this is just right for me, imo.

Use Shock when you wanna hold back a few enemies just for a bit.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2016 by LunarEdge7
Spelling..

[Cytobel]

8 hours ago, EnderDDT said:

So I did some testing, here are my opinions followed by how I got the data to back them up and what I think needs changed. Overall, I feel that this update was simply too rushed with too little beta testing to iron out the issues. Before he had one or two real issues with each of his abilities other than his #4, and mostly what he needed was some small bug fixes. Now he has multiple issues with all of his abilities, he may even have a major issue or two with his passive which he didn't even HAVE before.

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I like the idea of his passive, a little bonus damage here and there, but the reality of it is less than stellar. Most shots with my charge up weapon gain in the double digits of damage before mitigation, and that is if I am constantly moving and with a slow firing weapon, so really lackluster. It takes over half a minute worth of walking to get up to the 1000 cap, but to keep this in perspective my secondary deals 5 times this much damage per second before crits and procs and isn't built as much as it could be. So, all in all, it isn't worth caring about. I also agree that the passive tries to force him to remain grounded, but see my last sentence about how the damage is too low to care about for why I don't take issue with this aspect.

Mechanically it deals the extra damage as a flat add-on amount that is not modified by weapon mods or power strength and does not combine with other elements. The amount of damage is according to meters moved on the ground at a 1:1 basis. This damage is subject to all forms of mitigation. This was tested by going against a level 50 Desert Skate (mainly because they don't move) and comparing the damage dealt by shooting him in it's top side; first with a single shot with and without the passive, second by adding on a power strength mod to Volt, third with a base damage mod on the weapon, and finally with a single toxin mod on the weapon (if it combined the toxin and electricity would become corrosive damage, witch is far more effective against the enemy). I then used it with shock, both with and without power mods to confirm that it was simply an add on amount there as well. The distance scaling was tested by using frost's snow globe to set a distance and then checking to see how the counter increased over that distance.

What can be done? Lots of people have mentioned having it recharge energy rather than give damage. This would not only help deal with his low energy supply and high energy needs, but also be useful at all points in the game. Another option would be for it to apply to abilities, perhaps with an increase in power strength rather than straight damage, this would also be useful and could be tuned to have the right power level. Having it only charge when he is on the ground is painful in such a high-mobility game as this and seems to punish the player for using that mobility. Personally, I have no problem leaving it as is and blatantly putting Volt's end-game power in other places (assuming that the power is there in his other abilities), but limiting it to ground movement in a game of rocket-jumping space-ninjas is really hurtful.

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Volt's #1 ability, Shock, was given some new interactions but reportedly was mechanically unchanged (asthetically it is supposed to have a new sound). Personally, I didn't notice the sound change so I can't say anything about it. The interactions with his other abilities are theoretically good but need some tweaking. For instance shocking his shield deals damage but skimps out on the all important electric proc and so it falls off in usefulness at the same rate that his shock damage does (very quickly). The interaction with volt's #4 ability is tricky to pin down. It does not increase the duration but seems to bring with it a single extra tick of damage. The problem is that the damage is so low against most enemies and one tick is such a small part of the total amount that it seems to be a waste of an ability. The interactions showed promise but both fell short of being useful.

Concerning the original ability, it was a bit under-powered and somewhat unreliable (especially against ospreys, which were the main target I wanted to take down). Compare this to Mag's Pull: Mag's ability hits a similar or greater number of targets, but reliably deals 300 damage (50% more) a knockdown that results in much longer CC, and leaves enemies open to finishers. Volt's ability regains some damage against tightly clumped groups, but has an unreliable spread. Which one is better is pretty obvious. Or look at Banshee's Sonic Boom, which itself is probably a bit weak: Banshee's ability deals a quarter the damage, but has a similar or greater effective area in most cases, much longer CC, clears enemies away for added safety, and opens enemies up to finishers. The utility when combined with power range can be a powerful "back off" tool; making volt's stun pale in comparison.

Mechanically speaking using it on Volt's Energy Shield (ES) causes it to deal damage in the amount of your shock once a second to enemies that touch it with no proc. I had originally thought there was a proc chance, but no. This was tested by placing multiple energy shields and luring a Desert Skate until he moved into one. On another note, one shock can electrify multiple shields if you aim through them. Furthermore the electrified status persists upon picking the shield up and can damage enemies (albeit for a small amount).

Mechanical interactions with Discharge is that it causes all affected enemies to release an extra tick of damage. This single tick is for a relatively trivial amount if the enemy has any defenses and due to the total damage being spread out over the duration, only a little more than a single shock. Shock does not increase the stun duration. If there is any other interaction, it was not readily apparent. This was tested by shocking a group of skates under the effect of Discharge and leaving them unshocked to measure the duration. I used a smaller group to see the damage it dealt when it went off.

What can be done? The shield interaction really needs to give an electric proc, even if this completely replaces the damage. This would make it viable against mele enemies, including almost every infested (which make up a third of the game's enemies). As for the discharge interaction, something beyond damage would be nice. If all you want is damage then pulling out a weapon is your better option. Also, working on the base abilitys reliability in hitting certain targets (like ospreys and other small foes) is a fix that is badly needed.

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Volt's #2 ability, Speed, has been his one of his signature moves for a very long time. It allowed him mobility, team presence, and was just a whole lot of fun. Most of that has been hurt by the changes, and that makes me sad. His mobility has been reduced a lot. It used to be that his ability made everything faster, allowing him to jump great distances and maneuver like a speed demon. Now only his movement while running/walking speed is affected (and by extension some weapon maneuvers that base their movement on walking/running). No more flying around the level. No more max speed builds where I have fun just trying to stay in control. No more jumping at a faraway enemy to slice into him midair while using my near uncontrollable speed to save me where his defenses will not. And I ask, why?

Furthermore I can't even work with my team effectively on a continual basis. I have one friend who likes using Nezha's flame walk ability and loves getting the speed boost, but having to go back to a specific spot to find a single boost every few seconds is just not worth it. I have another friend who we like to rush through low level tower missions for sport, but going back for every coil or slowing down and following me exactly just makes things awkward. I understand the issue with Speed being hard to control, sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with it and so I play something else; but other times that is EXACTLY why I WANT to play volt over other frames. I also understand about needing an opt out mechanic, I've played with people who had difficulty with it. But punishing all the players who like the ability and use it constantly to help those who don't like it but rarely see it is the wrong way to go about things. Why? The only thing I can think is that the person in charge of the rework was both not a volt player and didn't sit down with one to figure out how to fix the problems.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum except edge grabbing which was done on mercury, apollodorus (because the simulacrum doesn't have any convenient edges to climb) and teammate interactions which were tested on Jupiter, Themisto. Timing was done with a stopwatch and everything was done with a Volt Prime with no ability mods (flow for extra energy was used). I tested the ramp up speed both by visual indicators of movement and a second time by watching his attack speed with a fast mele weapon. I also tested Volt's movement, both with and without speed, for the following maneuvers and abilities: walking, running, jumping, rocket jumping, basic sliding, air sliding (dive-kick), aim gliding, wall climbing, wall running, mele attacking, spin attacking, leap attacking, wall attacking, and weapon reload. Speed affected walking, running, basic jumping, basic sliding, edge grabbing, mele attacking, and weapon reload. To a degree it had an effect on spin attacking, aim gliding, and leap attacking, as the physical movement already in progress carried over to the enhanced speed attack, but the loss of Parkour 2.0 rates of movement speed reduced the functionality of these abilities. It did not affect rocket jumping, air sliding (dive-kick), wall climbing, wall running, and wall attacking. After the initial casting, which did not interrupt movement but did interrupt attacking, the ability took about 1 full second to get to regular power.

The 1 second of delay between the cast end and the recast was removed replaced by at least a full 1 second worth of delay before gaining full power, resulting in that much time of the 10 second base duration being under powered and removing much of the option to use the ability for quick escapes. A spiral pickup is dropped on activation that is immune to carrier vacuum and gives a full duration buff to any allied warframes that pick it up regardless of the time between volt's use and an ally's activation. The pickup disappears when the ability expires. If an ally picks up a coil from a later Speed activation while a previous activation is already going for them then the new pickup is consumed but the new buff is not gained. Otherwise the ally gains all the same bonuses as Volt. The Point of View (PoV) increase was removed for all involved.

What can be done? Revert to the old mechanics as the base, even if that means loosing the reload speed. Make the PoV an "anti-vertigo" option under the visual tab with the default of off. Give an opt-out from speed via the "roll" ability. If the trouble persists than the first step would be to delay allied activation of the ability till they are on the ground, because this would prevent the sudden effects of the ability and would allow for an opt-out if necessary. If an opt-in is viewed as absolutely necessary (this is not a forgone conclusion) than the easiest way would be via the slide command. Remember what was said on the devstream, an opt in needs to be so easy it is a trivial action, going back for a pickup every 10-15 seconds is not trivial. Trying to give an opt-out rather than an opt-in means that allies are not forced to constantly reactivate it, otherwise a change in duration is likely necessary. The easiest solution to this constant bother is to either double or triple the duration while increasing the cost equally; this would still require interaction, but not so constant that it would be aggravating. If the option to triple the duration was taken than that would probably necessitate also switching his Energy Shield and Speed abilities into their opposite slots.

************************

Volt's Energy Shield seems improved in many ways. The shape is nicer for protecting others, but not quite as nice for protecting just oneself, but this is more than made up for by it blocking explosions. Since explosions are such a big deal in late game play and since they can easily one-shot the squishy Volt who's shield appears right next to him, this was a badly needed change. The reduction in the number of shields has me scratching my head and asking why. If I want to use the 6 shields that it would take to make a perimiter the same size as frost's base unmodded snow-globe and spend the base cost of 300 energy to do so (despite it not protecting as well) than why shouldn't I be able to do so? And yes, it takes 6 shields to shield the same area without covering the top (test it yourself if you don't believe me). If I want to use 8 shields to protect the Tower Defense objective from threats both on the ground floor and upper level (and spend the 400 base energy to do so) than why is that not allowed? If I want to use just 4 to protect a target and still be able to use a couple more to let me safely revive someone, than why is that a problem? The only thing close to an abuse case I know of is stacking shields to double up on the bonus electrical damage, but is a clear Energy-in to Power-out example that could easily be fixed in other ways if that is deemed necessary.

The penalties on picking up the shield are pretty ridiculous. We already have multiple warframes who can hit a key and become immune to everything including damage; Rhino and Nezha gain a shield with no duration, Valkir can take literally any amount of damage for any length of time till her energy runs out (though with some restrictions), Hydroid puddles to become immune to everything, Loki switch teleports to make someone else immune, etc. Having unidirectional immunity that does nothing for the sides, the back, mele, environmental effects, clouds, ground pounds, and a few other things is not so powerful that it requires so many downsides. Weapon restriction why? Slow why? I can understand a power drain, but 5 per second is a crazy amount of drain on top of the original activation cost and duration limit. And then there is the energy drained for movement, why? The amount is far crazier than the already unbelievable cost for just holding the thing, and I'm not even kidding about that.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum. The shield defends against all normal gunfire and rocket explosions but does nothing against ground based attacks (such as moa stomps and lighting the ground on fire), direct targeted abilities (such as the commander teleport), or flamethrower type weapons (such as the Hyekka Master's weapon). Grenades (such as from an Arid Lancer) detonate on contact with the shield but otherwise are treated like other explosions. Normal mele attacks are not stopped but aoe mele attacks might be (requires more testing). This all holds true for both the normal shield and riot shield version. A new shield cannot be deployed while holding the riot shield. The shield can only be picked up from behind but prevents enemy fire from passing through in both directions. Multiple shields stack the damage buff addatively. The damage values are rounded as a group, rather than being rounded individually. Testing of the damage mechanics were done with a lv50 skate, while testing of the other blocking properties were done with a commander, Arid Hellion, Bombard, Hyekka Master, and Napalm at lv20.

Holding the shield drains 5/s as advertised, reducible by duration and efficiency mods, but carrying drains at a much faster rate of .2 per meter, reducible by efficiency and nothing else. Holding the shield does not count as a channeled ability in terms of stopping the Zenurik passive and the Energy Siphon mod. The assertion that it drains according to distance was tested and holds true. For a use with no ability changing mods holding the shield for 10s costs 50 energy, for instance. To judge the cost in terms of distance traveled I used his passive (which was already shown to go up one point for each in-game meter), which showed that the cost was about .2 per meter moved at base efficiency and duration. This calculation seemed to show true over multiple tests and multiple distances ranging from 10, 25, 50, 500, and 997 in-game meters (within error for human reflexes). If there is an interaction with jumping other than the distance moved, or other effects on cost, this test was not designed to find it. Holding the shield was shown to give a 25% slow, tested by finding that I could walk 500m in 20 seconds without the shield but it took me 25 seconds to walk the same distance with it.

To put this in perspective this means that the creating the shield, picking it up, and rushing forward with it for only 10 seconds cost 193 energy. That is raw test data, me doing it without any movement speed mods and reporting back exactly the numbers. Nearly 200 energy in 10 seconds is broken no matter how you look at it.

What to do? First, there seems to be no real reason to limit volt to only 4 shields, especially considering how limited they already are. If the issue of him using multiple shields to buff his damage is seen as a problem than either limit the buff to 4 shields or remember that shield stacking is a limited duration immobile buff that requires a massive amount of energy to stack many of them. Furthermore the limit of 4 stops legitimate uses of the skill, such as protection of a target and other more creative uses. A case could even be made for removing the stacking portion of the buff, but it is much harder to make the case for limiting the number of shields considering their size and other inherent limitations. This ability is no snow globe, and requires 4, 6, 8, or more individual shields to do what 1 snow globe can do; so limiting it to the same number just doesn't make sense.

As for the cost of the riot shield portion of the ability, that needs to be drastically reduced. A cost of something like 2 per second with no increase for movement is entirely practical. At that point carrying the shield for the entire duration will cost the same as a new ability (2/s drain over 25 seconds equals 50 energy, the original casting cost), and will result in a full 100 energy cost total over the duration. Furthermore, considering the limitations that the ability already has (such as a non immunity to a list of effects and a very limited angle of defense and a high total cost to use even with the energy reduction), the other list of restrictions just seem overburdening. Why no primary weapon for a floating shield, and why a slow for a shield made of electricity? Adding in restrictions for no reason just makes everything worse for no reason.

******************************

Volt's #4 ability, discharge, is never going to be about damage without something like percentage based scaling or some other scaling. It simply cannot be because any amount of damage that would be relevant late game game will be stupidly broken early game or even mid game. At least, that is my take on it. The ability would make a workable CC lock down, except for a few things. First, the inconsistency due to the hp cap (which is damage dealt, not received, so armor/resistances negate much of it) means that certain things that should be good for the CC portion simply aren't.  The duration would be good otherwise, but that hp cap ruins it. Second, volt must be on the ground, extremely vulnerable during the casting time, and within an extremely limited range of the enemies he wants to hit for it to be effective. The range would be good if it was not for ground traveling, but ground traveling (combined with the harshness of geometry) kinda ruins that. The ground requirement seems to be due to it's ground traveling, an interesting idea, but can be problematic.  The long period of vulnerability, due to the long casting time and slow spreading of effect, often isn't worth the effect you get from it compared to other options.

Mechanically the ability has a 2 second cast time after which it releases a relatively slow moving wave across the floor but visually shows the same wave release of his old #4 ability. This spread requires him to either be on the floor or wall clinging to work. The wave passes through doors and grates, and has no trouble with railings. Most of the trouble with this type of spread seems to come from the levels not being designed properly for this to work. An easy example is in the simulacrum where the towers are not technically attached to the floor or when standing on the spinning cone looking thing in the Jupiter Thebe mission, such that the wave will not affect enemies that are on the floor regardless of proximity. Another issue with spread is with enemies on multiple elevations in many open rooms. Overall it works well except for specific instances of failure of the level's geometry and when dealing with enemies on other floors.

The charged enemies immediately begin shocking any nearby enemies, and then start harming themselves after 4 seconds if no enemies are present. The ability continues till the time limit or the ability's HP cap is reached. The cap is according to damage delt, not damage received, so things with resistance take significantly less damage. Furthermore the damage cap seems to include not only the direct damage dealt but the electric procs aoe damage from tightly grouped mobs, meaning that against large groups of infested the effect can last as short as 2 seconds. And yes, that is an actual amount of time  The time limit of the effect is 12 seconds at base and volt must wait 4 seconds before recasting, but hitting enemies a second time wastes the effect on them until the previous effect has expired. Volt is immune to knockdowns during the casting but is not immune to damage. This was tested on Jupiter, Thebe and in the simulacrum with Skates, Infested chargers, and Infested runners.

What to do? The damage cap REALLY needs to be removed, even if this means readjusting the damage for the new duration. This one change will immediately fix most of the issues with consistency and reliability. The issue with how vulnerable this makes ability makes you is more difficult to address, considering the method of spread, cast time, and ground requirement. A simple stopgap measure would be to move the initial stun to the beginning of the cast rather than the end, but this still requires him to get grounded in the middle of a group of enemies despite his low defenses and the low spread speed of the ability. A better option would be for Volt to "Fire" his #4 ability similar to Mirage's #4 ability, Prism. Using the firing method would also solve the issue with the range being buggy when as it tries to go around different obstacles.

Finally, "Volt's Discharge" really does sound like we are talking about a pustule or some other infected wound. I'm kinda surprised that this wasn't caught by the beta testers who checked this build for issues. (There were beta testers, right?)

-----------------------------

Overall this update seems rushed and not really well thought out. The changes on volt's abilities positively stink of overreaction. Can anyone at all give any suggestions for another reason why this level of changes were made to an ability with only two real issues that needed resolved (vertigo and no opt-out)? Maybe the programmers felt a deadline crunch and decided to get overly hasty about things? Many aspects of this show a slipshod job was done on the update. Aspects of the ability which should be there, such as range affecting ES carrying distance costs, are missing. Fixing the problem of a missing opt-out mechanic by forcing other players to hunt down a buff every 10 seconds is proof that somebody failed at their job. Including electric procs as part of his #4 ability's damage cap punish players for strategic play. Even the name of his revamped #4 ability is a mistake that SOMEBODY should have caught before it went live.

This.  So much so.

Thank you for detailing your testing method.  My approach was very scattergun.  Repeated survival runs vs Grineer, hive missions at Eris, and a few excavqtions against Corpus.  Oh, and some Tower 3s.  Nothing very serious, but with enough scaling to give me a feel (except for Infested, because they don't hardly scale beyond the Healers [who are kinda BS anyway]) for what different enemies are gonna do to Volt.

I was also just expecting that there was a shock proc on charged shields.  Without that, what's really even the point there?

If the passive fit the way Warframe plays, I'd like it better.  Amazing backstory to it, just not the execution needed imo.

I loathe Speed builds.  I hate feeling like I just have one button, and I can't bring myself to build that way.  That said, Speed is definitely off.  We need a re-envisioned version I think.  Old Speed worked, so I didn't think Speed with better reload speed wouldn't.

The more I use Discharge, the less reliable it feels.  There's something wrong with the way it selects targets, and there's no reason that the CC should be ended early on foes taking damage from other sources (maybe that's a bug).

Shield is now a (non-worthwhile due to exorbitant costs) bimodal skill.  I'd like to see some improvements there.

Shock is the big one for me.  It's "interactions" are a waste of energy and design potential, it's damage is lackluster most of the time, and the pocket CC aspect falls short on the scale.  I'd like to see a charge-up version of this skill that functions slightly differently, with stronger damage and CC.  I'd like to have Ball Lightning on his roster.

[Aquasurge]

47 minutes ago, Cytobel said:

 

Shock is the big one for me.  It's "interactions" are a waste of energy and design potential, it's damage is lackluster most of the time, and the pocket CC aspect falls short on the scale.  I'd like to see a charge-up version of this skill that functions slightly differently, with stronger damage and CC.  I'd like to have Ball Lightning on his roster.

wait, i think i may have come up with something for ball lightning on shock. holding shock throws a lightning javelin (like the predator) that imaples enemies to walls. charging that slightly longer gives volt's javelin 3 electric spheres (or ball lightning) that surrounds the javelin that are sent flying outward when the javelin hits an enemy. Tesla'd enemies upon hit with the javelin will extend the duration of the effect and the ball lightning will turn more enemies into Tesla coils (1 per ball).volt prime's animation should come from the sky as if the spear was thrown from above. would be cool if the ball lightning turned into a storm cloud.......

Edited June 2, 2016 by Aquasurge

[Cytobel]

6 minutes ago, Aquasurge said:

wait, i think i may have come up with something for ball lightning on shock. holding shock throws a lightning javelin (like the predator) that imaples enemies to walls. charging that slightly longer gives volt's javelin 3 electric spheres (or ball lightning) that surrounds the javelin that are sent flying outward when the javelin hits an enemy. Tesla'd enemies upon hit with the javelin will extend the duration of the effect and the ball lightning will turn more enemies into Tesla coils (1 per ball).volt prime's animation should come from the sky as if the spear was thrown from above. would be cool if the ball lightning turned into a storm cloud.......

I know, I know...  I read that post.  It's just...  Ball Lightning.  I've seen this in reality, and it sounds more fearsome to me than any form of javelin.  Just a personal thing, I guess.

[Aquasurge]

6 minutes ago, Cytobel said:

I know, I know...  I read that post.  It's just...  Ball Lightning.  I've seen this in reality, and it sounds more fearsome to me than any form of javelin.  Just a personal thing, I guess.

yeah i guess so. funny thing, the suggestion i had could work the other way round........ ball lightning surrounded by javelins!

lets say you throw 1 ball of lightning that acts like a grenade, and then use the spears to impale high threat level enemies!

Edited June 2, 2016 by Aquasurge

[Toramaru]

8 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

Is that video sped up? Or is that you? I don't care anymore then, that's all I'll need to be doing...forever...

You were practically teleporting...I'm in "shock". I should have watched that video earlier today....

Not sped up, sir. That's what happens when you sacrifice a lot with only Speed in mind. Found that along with Naramon, that was the only way to try and solo end game content with Volt.

The thing is, the rework still didn't address his scalability issues and kept Speed, along with his kit, pretty much the same (aside from ES). They still need a lot of tweaking in order to make it work.

And I don't thing going the damage path is a better idea. The CC path offers much more options and end game access if you considerar him as a whole. Specially melee-wise ;D

But that's in DE hands. Just hoping they considerar end game melee Volt on their tweaking.

[Aquasurge]

here's a vote to discharge's function in game.

http://www.strawpoll.me/10376137 

p.s. i will be making more of these types of polls soon.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Aquasurge

[Kainosh]

[SPEED]

I need faster [Speed] cast.  For some reason it now has 1 second delay before activating. Even in solo. Thats extreemely annoying since i tend to refresh it during melee combat.

And i think players should just be able to set what buffs to receive in the menu. Instead of that "pickup" stuff....Its just really impractical.

[SHIELD]

1 tick of damage is pointless when you cant stack more than 4 of these.

Shocked shield should proc electricity on contact. Once per enemy.

Also, remove pickup prompt and simply add that info to ability description.  Or make it show only [x] . Coz it blocks aim sometimes.

[Cytobel]

2 hours ago, Aquasurge said:

yeah i guess so. funny thing, the suggestion i had could work the other way round........ ball lightning surrounded by javelins!

lets say you throw 1 ball of lightning that acts like a grenade, and then use the spears to impale high threat level enemies!

Yes, yes.  Good. Good.

[Nuclearmouse]

Please fix the FOV by making it an option in menu or something, the high FOV was great both for feel and allowing one to maneuver appropriately during the speed buff. I understand wanting to help people with motion sickness but this is like nerfing a rhythm game to help the deaf, many people with motion sickness would struggle with the parkour in this game already. That said, an option in the menu would satisfy both groups.

[xMaix]

I don't know if anyone said this already but here i go.

Can we have Electric Shield ability like Ivara Quiver or Vauban Minelayer type mechanic? I mean, you can choose between Standard Shield or Personal Shield and cast it. If i play alone is too much time to put the shield and pick it up every time i need it. I think this is a good idea.

Thx for reading

[Soulvengeance]

Would be interesting, at this time though I think most volts are looking at Speed getting fixed first, but i do agree the toggle shield would be interesting.

[EnderDDT]

13 hours ago, Toramaru said:

omG. Well written, and apparently well tested, sir.

Just wondering when did you start? ;D

Anyway, although you extensively tested and explained your results many of the issues found seem to be already on peoples radar.

With slight changes I agree with most of the things you said.

I just like Discharge, it looks nasty, and I believe it should.

I started testing on Sunday. :p The writing actually took more time, once I knew how to do the testing it was all fairly quick.

The issue with the "Discharge" name could easily be fixed by calling it "Static Discharge". Basically the same name, but has a completely different feel to it. Just be careful not to call it "Electric Discharge" because the shortening of it would be unfortunate.

A couple issues that I found that aren't on people's radar yet: Speed affects fewer forms of movement than it did before, I'm kinda surprised more people haven't noticed but the PoV change kinda hides it. Second, his #4 counts electric procs as "part of the ability's damage" leading to extreme inconsistency and a host of other balancing issue. It will be interesting to watch for how long it takes people to notice these things despite the other more glaring and instantly obvious issues that need dealt with.

[Toramaru]

37 minutes ago, EnderDDT said:

I started testing on Sunday. :p The writing actually took more time, once I knew how to do the testing it was all fairly quick.

The issue with the "Discharge" name could easily be fixed by calling it "Static Discharge". Basically the same name, but has a completely different feel to it. Just be careful not to call it "Electric Discharge" because the shortening of it would be unfortunate.

A couple issues that I found that aren't on people's radar yet: Speed affects fewer forms of movement than it did before, I'm kinda surprised more people haven't noticed but the PoV change kinda hides it. Second, his #4 counts electric procs as "part of the ability's damage" leading to extreme inconsistency and a host of other balancing issue. It will be interesting to watch for how long it takes people to notice these things despite the other more glaring and instantly obvious issues that need dealt with.

You did find new shortcomings! Don't know if I should thank you, sir... Just kidding.

But I do like the Discharge, and I think it fits. The point of typing it on Google and having nasty results is invalid, as Google gets the "most popular" first. The wording fits the purpose: you're discharging an electric current, hintting it is somewhat uncontrollable post fact.

Would highly suggest we keep asking DE on more concerning matters!

Not that we haven't, just saying.

Please DE, heed our plea.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Toramaru

[Cytobel]

1 hour ago, Toramaru said:

You did find new shortcomings! Don't know if I should thank you, sir... Just kidding.

But I do like the Discharge, and I think it fits. The point of typing it on Google and having nasty results is invalid, as Google gets the "most popular" first. The wording fits the purpose: you're discharging an electric current, hintting it is somewhat uncontrollable post fact.

Would highly suggest we keep asking DE on more concerning matters!

Not that we haven't, just saying.

Please DE, heed our plea.

Agreed.  As much as I may despise Discharge as a name, there are MANY more important issues at the moment.

[lSwRl]

16 hours ago, EnderDDT said:

So I did some testing, here are my opinions followed by how I got the data to back them up and what I think needs changed. Overall, I feel that this update was simply too rushed with too little beta testing to iron out the issues. Before he had one or two real issues with each of his abilities other than his #4, and mostly what he needed was some small bug fixes. Now he has multiple issues with all of his abilities, he may even have a major issue or two with his passive which he didn't even HAVE before.

-----------------------------

I like the idea of his passive, a little bonus damage here and there, but the reality of it is less than stellar. Most shots with my charge up weapon gain in the double digits of damage before mitigation, and that is if I am constantly moving and with a slow firing weapon, so really lackluster. It takes over half a minute worth of walking to get up to the 1000 cap, but to keep this in perspective my secondary deals 5 times this much damage per second before crits and procs and isn't built as much as it could be. So, all in all, it isn't worth caring about. I also agree that the passive tries to force him to remain grounded, but see my last sentence about how the damage is too low to care about for why I don't take issue with this aspect.

Mechanically it deals the extra damage as a flat add-on amount that is not modified by weapon mods or power strength and does not combine with other elements. The amount of damage is according to meters moved on the ground at a 1:1 basis. This damage is subject to all forms of mitigation. This was tested by going against a level 50 Desert Skate (mainly because they don't move) and comparing the damage dealt by shooting him in it's top side; first with a single shot with and without the passive, second by adding on a power strength mod to Volt, third with a base damage mod on the weapon, and finally with a single toxin mod on the weapon (if it combined the toxin and electricity would become corrosive damage, witch is far more effective against the enemy). I then used it with shock, both with and without power mods to confirm that it was simply an add on amount there as well. The distance scaling was tested by using frost's snow globe to set a distance and then checking to see how the counter increased over that distance.

What can be done? Lots of people have mentioned having it recharge energy rather than give damage. This would not only help deal with his low energy supply and high energy needs, but also be useful at all points in the game. Another option would be for it to apply to abilities, perhaps with an increase in power strength rather than straight damage, this would also be useful and could be tuned to have the right power level. Having it only charge when he is on the ground is painful in such a high-mobility game as this and seems to punish the player for using that mobility. Personally, I have no problem leaving it as is and blatantly putting Volt's end-game power in other places (assuming that the power is there in his other abilities), but limiting it to ground movement in a game of rocket-jumping space-ninjas is really hurtful.

************************

Volt's #1 ability, Shock, was given some new interactions but reportedly was mechanically unchanged (asthetically it is supposed to have a new sound). Personally, I didn't notice the sound change so I can't say anything about it. The interactions with his other abilities are theoretically good but need some tweaking. For instance shocking his shield deals damage but skimps out on the all important electric proc and so it falls off in usefulness at the same rate that his shock damage does (very quickly). The interaction with volt's #4 ability is tricky to pin down. It does not increase the duration but seems to bring with it a single extra tick of damage. The problem is that the damage is so low against most enemies and one tick is such a small part of the total amount that it seems to be a waste of an ability. The interactions showed promise but both fell short of being useful.

Concerning the original ability, it was a bit under-powered and somewhat unreliable (especially against ospreys, which were the main target I wanted to take down). Compare this to Mag's Pull: Mag's ability hits a similar or greater number of targets, but reliably deals 300 damage (50% more) a knockdown that results in much longer CC, and leaves enemies open to finishers. Volt's ability regains some damage against tightly clumped groups, but has an unreliable spread. Which one is better is pretty obvious. Or look at Banshee's Sonic Boom, which itself is probably a bit weak: Banshee's ability deals a quarter the damage, but has a similar or greater effective area in most cases, much longer CC, clears enemies away for added safety, and opens enemies up to finishers. The utility when combined with power range can be a powerful "back off" tool; making volt's stun pale in comparison.

Mechanically speaking using it on Volt's Energy Shield (ES) causes it to deal damage in the amount of your shock once a second to enemies that touch it with no proc. I had originally thought there was a proc chance, but no. This was tested by placing multiple energy shields and luring a Desert Skate until he moved into one. On another note, one shock can electrify multiple shields if you aim through them. Furthermore the electrified status persists upon picking the shield up and can damage enemies (albeit for a small amount).

Mechanical interactions with Discharge is that it causes all affected enemies to release an extra tick of damage. This single tick is for a relatively trivial amount if the enemy has any defenses and due to the total damage being spread out over the duration, only a little more than a single shock. Shock does not increase the stun duration. If there is any other interaction, it was not readily apparent. This was tested by shocking a group of skates under the effect of Discharge and leaving them unshocked to measure the duration. I used a smaller group to see the damage it dealt when it went off.

What can be done? The shield interaction really needs to give an electric proc, even if this completely replaces the damage. This would make it viable against mele enemies, including almost every infested (which make up a third of the game's enemies). As for the discharge interaction, something beyond damage would be nice. If all you want is damage then pulling out a weapon is your better option. Also, working on the base abilitys reliability in hitting certain targets (like ospreys and other small foes) is a fix that is badly needed.

************************

Volt's #2 ability, Speed, has been his one of his signature moves for a very long time. It allowed him mobility, team presence, and was just a whole lot of fun. Most of that has been hurt by the changes, and that makes me sad. His mobility has been reduced a lot. It used to be that his ability made everything faster, allowing him to jump great distances and maneuver like a speed demon. Now only his movement while running/walking speed is affected (and by extension some weapon maneuvers that base their movement on walking/running). No more flying around the level. No more max speed builds where I have fun just trying to stay in control. No more jumping at a faraway enemy to slice into him midair while using my near uncontrollable speed to save me where his defenses will not. And I ask, why?

Furthermore I can't even work with my team effectively on a continual basis. I have one friend who likes using Nezha's flame walk ability and loves getting the speed boost, but having to go back to a specific spot to find a single boost every few seconds is just not worth it. I have another friend who we like to rush through low level tower missions for sport, but going back for every coil or slowing down and following me exactly just makes things awkward. I understand the issue with Speed being hard to control, sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with it and so I play something else; but other times that is EXACTLY why I WANT to play volt over other frames. I also understand about needing an opt out mechanic, I've played with people who had difficulty with it. But punishing all the players who like the ability and use it constantly to help those who don't like it but rarely see it is the wrong way to go about things. Why? The only thing I can think is that the person in charge of the rework was both not a volt player and didn't sit down with one to figure out how to fix the problems.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum except edge grabbing which was done on mercury, apollodorus (because the simulacrum doesn't have any convenient edges to climb) and teammate interactions which were tested on Jupiter, Themisto. Timing was done with a stopwatch and everything was done with a Volt Prime with no ability mods (flow for extra energy was used). I tested the ramp up speed both by visual indicators of movement and a second time by watching his attack speed with a fast mele weapon. I also tested Volt's movement, both with and without speed, for the following maneuvers and abilities: walking, running, jumping, rocket jumping, basic sliding, air sliding (dive-kick), aim gliding, wall climbing, wall running, mele attacking, spin attacking, leap attacking, wall attacking, and weapon reload. Speed affected walking, running, basic jumping, basic sliding, edge grabbing, mele attacking, and weapon reload. To a degree it had an effect on spin attacking, aim gliding, and leap attacking, as the physical movement already in progress carried over to the enhanced speed attack, but the loss of Parkour 2.0 rates of movement speed reduced the functionality of these abilities. It did not affect rocket jumping, air sliding (dive-kick), wall climbing, wall running, and wall attacking. After the initial casting, which did not interrupt movement but did interrupt attacking, the ability took about 1 full second to get to regular power.

The 1 second of delay between the cast end and the recast was removed replaced by at least a full 1 second worth of delay before gaining full power, resulting in that much time of the 10 second base duration being under powered and removing much of the option to use the ability for quick escapes. A spiral pickup is dropped on activation that is immune to carrier vacuum and gives a full duration buff to any allied warframes that pick it up regardless of the time between volt's use and an ally's activation. The pickup disappears when the ability expires. If an ally picks up a coil from a later Speed activation while a previous activation is already going for them then the new pickup is consumed but the new buff is not gained. Otherwise the ally gains all the same bonuses as Volt. The Point of View (PoV) increase was removed for all involved.

What can be done? Revert to the old mechanics as the base, even if that means loosing the reload speed. Make the PoV an "anti-vertigo" option under the visual tab with the default of off. Give an opt-out from speed via the "roll" ability. If the trouble persists than the first step would be to delay allied activation of the ability till they are on the ground, because this would prevent the sudden effects of the ability and would allow for an opt-out if necessary. If an opt-in is viewed as absolutely necessary (this is not a forgone conclusion) than the easiest way would be via the slide command. Remember what was said on the devstream, an opt in needs to be so easy it is a trivial action, going back for a pickup every 10-15 seconds is not trivial. Trying to give an opt-out rather than an opt-in means that allies are not forced to constantly reactivate it, otherwise a change in duration is likely necessary. The easiest solution to this constant bother is to either double or triple the duration while increasing the cost equally; this would still require interaction, but not so constant that it would be aggravating. If the option to triple the duration was taken than that would probably necessitate also switching his Energy Shield and Speed abilities into their opposite slots.

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Volt's Energy Shield seems improved in many ways. The shape is nicer for protecting others, but not quite as nice for protecting just oneself, but this is more than made up for by it blocking explosions. Since explosions are such a big deal in late game play and since they can easily one-shot the squishy Volt who's shield appears right next to him, this was a badly needed change. The reduction in the number of shields has me scratching my head and asking why. If I want to use the 6 shields that it would take to make a perimiter the same size as frost's base unmodded snow-globe and spend the base cost of 300 energy to do so (despite it not protecting as well) than why shouldn't I be able to do so? And yes, it takes 6 shields to shield the same area without covering the top (test it yourself if you don't believe me). If I want to use 8 shields to protect the Tower Defense objective from threats both on the ground floor and upper level (and spend the 400 base energy to do so) than why is that not allowed? If I want to use just 4 to protect a target and still be able to use a couple more to let me safely revive someone, than why is that a problem? The only thing close to an abuse case I know of is stacking shields to double up on the bonus electrical damage, but is a clear Energy-in to Power-out example that could easily be fixed in other ways if that is deemed necessary.

The penalties on picking up the shield are pretty ridiculous. We already have multiple warframes who can hit a key and become immune to everything including damage; Rhino and Nezha gain a shield with no duration, Valkir can take literally any amount of damage for any length of time till her energy runs out (though with some restrictions), Hydroid puddles to become immune to everything, Loki switch teleports to make someone else immune, etc. Having unidirectional immunity that does nothing for the sides, the back, mele, environmental effects, clouds, ground pounds, and a few other things is not so powerful that it requires so many downsides. Weapon restriction why? Slow why? I can understand a power drain, but 5 per second is a crazy amount of drain on top of the original activation cost and duration limit. And then there is the energy drained for movement, why? The amount is far crazier than the already unbelievable cost for just holding the thing, and I'm not even kidding about that.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum. The shield defends against all normal gunfire and rocket explosions but does nothing against ground based attacks (such as moa stomps and lighting the ground on fire), direct targeted abilities (such as the commander teleport), or flamethrower type weapons (such as the Hyekka Master's weapon). Grenades (such as from an Arid Lancer) detonate on contact with the shield but otherwise are treated like other explosions. Normal mele attacks are not stopped but aoe mele attacks might be (requires more testing). This all holds true for both the normal shield and riot shield version. A new shield cannot be deployed while holding the riot shield. The shield can only be picked up from behind but prevents enemy fire from passing through in both directions. Multiple shields stack the damage buff addatively. The damage values are rounded as a group, rather than being rounded individually. Testing of the damage mechanics were done with a lv50 skate, while testing of the other blocking properties were done with a commander, Arid Hellion, Bombard, Hyekka Master, and Napalm at lv20.

Holding the shield drains 5/s as advertised, reducible by duration and efficiency mods, but carrying drains at a much faster rate of .2 per meter, reducible by efficiency and nothing else. Holding the shield does not count as a channeled ability in terms of stopping the Zenurik passive and the Energy Siphon mod. The assertion that it drains according to distance was tested and holds true. For a use with no ability changing mods holding the shield for 10s costs 50 energy, for instance. To judge the cost in terms of distance traveled I used his passive (which was already shown to go up one point for each in-game meter), which showed that the cost was about .2 per meter moved at base efficiency and duration. This calculation seemed to show true over multiple tests and multiple distances ranging from 10, 25, 50, 500, and 997 in-game meters (within error for human reflexes). If there is an interaction with jumping other than the distance moved, or other effects on cost, this test was not designed to find it. Holding the shield was shown to give a 25% slow, tested by finding that I could walk 500m in 20 seconds without the shield but it took me 25 seconds to walk the same distance with it.

To put this in perspective this means that the creating the shield, picking it up, and rushing forward with it for only 10 seconds cost 193 energy. That is raw test data, me doing it without any movement speed mods and reporting back exactly the numbers. Nearly 200 energy in 10 seconds is broken no matter how you look at it.

What to do? First, there seems to be no real reason to limit volt to only 4 shields, especially considering how limited they already are. If the issue of him using multiple shields to buff his damage is seen as a problem than either limit the buff to 4 shields or remember that shield stacking is a limited duration immobile buff that requires a massive amount of energy to stack many of them. Furthermore the limit of 4 stops legitimate uses of the skill, such as protection of a target and other more creative uses. A case could even be made for removing the stacking portion of the buff, but it is much harder to make the case for limiting the number of shields considering their size and other inherent limitations. This ability is no snow globe, and requires 4, 6, 8, or more individual shields to do what 1 snow globe can do; so limiting it to the same number just doesn't make sense.

As for the cost of the riot shield portion of the ability, that needs to be drastically reduced. A cost of something like 2 per second with no increase for movement is entirely practical. At that point carrying the shield for the entire duration will cost the same as a new ability (2/s drain over 25 seconds equals 50 energy, the original casting cost), and will result in a full 100 energy cost total over the duration. Furthermore, considering the limitations that the ability already has (such as a non immunity to a list of effects and a very limited angle of defense and a high total cost to use even with the energy reduction), the other list of restrictions just seem overburdening. Why no primary weapon for a floating shield, and why a slow for a shield made of electricity? Adding in restrictions for no reason just makes everything worse for no reason.

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Volt's #4 ability, discharge, is never going to be about damage without something like percentage based scaling or some other scaling. It simply cannot be because any amount of damage that would be relevant late game game will be stupidly broken early game or even mid game. At least, that is my take on it. The ability would make a workable CC lock down, except for a few things. First, the inconsistency due to the hp cap (which is damage dealt, not received, so armor/resistances negate much of it) means that certain things that should be good for the CC portion simply aren't.  The duration would be good otherwise, but that hp cap ruins it. Second, volt must be on the ground, extremely vulnerable during the casting time, and within an extremely limited range of the enemies he wants to hit for it to be effective. The range would be good if it was not for ground traveling, but ground traveling (combined with the harshness of geometry) kinda ruins that. The ground requirement seems to be due to it's ground traveling, an interesting idea, but can be problematic.  The long period of vulnerability, due to the long casting time and slow spreading of effect, often isn't worth the effect you get from it compared to other options.

Mechanically the ability has a 2 second cast time after which it releases a relatively slow moving wave across the floor but visually shows the same wave release of his old #4 ability. This spread requires him to either be on the floor or wall clinging to work. The wave passes through doors and grates, and has no trouble with railings. Most of the trouble with this type of spread seems to come from the levels not being designed properly for this to work. An easy example is in the simulacrum where the towers are not technically attached to the floor or when standing on the spinning cone looking thing in the Jupiter Thebe mission, such that the wave will not affect enemies that are on the floor regardless of proximity. Another issue with spread is with enemies on multiple elevations in many open rooms. Overall it works well except for specific instances of failure of the level's geometry and when dealing with enemies on other floors.

The charged enemies immediately begin shocking any nearby enemies, and then start harming themselves after 4 seconds if no enemies are present. The ability continues till the time limit or the ability's HP cap is reached. The cap is according to damage delt, not damage received, so things with resistance take significantly less damage. Furthermore the damage cap seems to include not only the direct damage dealt but the electric procs aoe damage from tightly grouped mobs, meaning that against large groups of infested the effect can last as short as 2 seconds. And yes, that is an actual amount of time  The time limit of the effect is 12 seconds at base and volt must wait 4 seconds before recasting, but hitting enemies a second time wastes the effect on them until the previous effect has expired. Volt is immune to knockdowns during the casting but is not immune to damage. This was tested on Jupiter, Thebe and in the simulacrum with Skates, Infested chargers, and Infested runners.

What to do? The damage cap REALLY needs to be removed, even if this means readjusting the damage for the new duration. This one change will immediately fix most of the issues with consistency and reliability. The issue with how vulnerable this makes ability makes you is more difficult to address, considering the method of spread, cast time, and ground requirement. A simple stopgap measure would be to move the initial stun to the beginning of the cast rather than the end, but this still requires him to get grounded in the middle of a group of enemies despite his low defenses and the low spread speed of the ability. A better option would be for Volt to "Fire" his #4 ability similar to Mirage's #4 ability, Prism. Using the firing method would also solve the issue with the range being buggy when as it tries to go around different obstacles.

Finally, "Volt's Discharge" really does sound like we are talking about a pustule or some other infected wound. I'm kinda surprised that this wasn't caught by the beta testers who checked this build for issues. (There were beta testers, right?)

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Overall this update seems rushed and not really well thought out. The changes on volt's abilities positively stink of overreaction. Can anyone at all give any suggestions for another reason why this level of changes were made to an ability with only two real issues that needed resolved (vertigo and no opt-out)? Maybe the programmers felt a deadline crunch and decided to get overly hasty about things? Many aspects of this show a slipshod job was done on the update. Aspects of the ability which should be there, such as range affecting ES carrying distance costs, are missing. Fixing the problem of a missing opt-out mechanic by forcing other players to hunt down a buff every 10 seconds is proof that somebody failed at their job. Including electric procs as part of his #4 ability's damage cap punish players for strategic play. Even the name of his revamped #4 ability is a mistake that SOMEBODY should have caught before it went live.

I couldn't agree more.

[RealPandemonium]

On 6/1/2016 at 8:40 PM, EnderDDT said:

9000 pages of various issues, one generalizing conclusion

I wonder if I make a giant wall of text with paragraphs and dividers, will everyone start congratulating and agreeing with me?  Far from objective, most of this is just restating ability behavior (which you could find on the wiki) and insetting little opinion barbs throughout; what is touted as a "scientific analysis" is actually intensely biased and uses the verbosity of the text as a way of persuading the reader to agree without really breaking it down.  The perception of "having done your research" confers the illusion of authority for many on the forums, but this is quickly exposed for the illusion that it is when posts like this are read by savvy players looking for objective feedback. TL;DR please.  Reading your feedback shouldn't be like auditing your taxes, and gathering upvotes from people who just skim over and decide they agree emotionally is a dirty way to advance your agenda.

Edited June 3, 2016 by RealPandemonium
typos

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

19 minutes ago, RealPandemonium said:

I wonder if I make a giant wall of text with paragraphs and dividers, will everyone start congratulating and agreeing with me?  Far from objective, most of this is just restating ability behavior (which you could find on the wiki) and insetting little opinion barbs throughout; what is touted as a "scientific analysis" is actually intensely biased and uses the verbosity of the text as a way of persuading the reader reader to agree without really breaking it down.  The perception of "having done your research" confers the illusion of authority for many on the forums, but this is quickly exposed for the illusion that it is when posts like this are read by savvy players looking for objective feedback. TL;DR please.  Reading your feedback shouldn't be like auditing your taxes, and gathering upvotes from people who just skim over and decide they agree emotionally is a dirty way to advance your agenda.

I read the whole thing...and yes, a lot of stuff was restated, that tends to happen when you don't look through every reply in a post that is already 20 pages long...And it still felt like a really good read. I'm not sure how you would even test the game in a way that wasn't biased...unless you had multiple people all using the same one build (volt with no mods just relying on base stats) and compiled those results....but I'm not a sciency person, so I'm sure you have your reasons

I'm also sure there are tons of things that have been restated time and time again, in this post, and beyond. I know I am guilty.

Are you saying that they (the wall of text creator)

  ·Did not provide enough evidence?

  ·Did not have the right set up, or perform their tests correctly?

  ·Did not have the right to say anything on the matter?

  ·Let their dog poop in your yard, and now you are going after them on the forums?

[IceColdHawk]

26 minutes ago, RealPandemonium said:

I wonder if I make a giant wall of text with paragraphs and dividers, will everyone start congratulating and agreeing with me?  Far from objective, most of this is just restating ability behavior (which you could find on the wiki) and insetting little opinion barbs throughout; what is touted as a "scientific analysis" is actually intensely biased and uses the verbosity of the text as a way of persuading the reader reader to agree without really breaking it down.  The perception of "having done your research" confers the illusion of authority for many on the forums, but this is quickly exposed for the illusion that it is when posts like this are read by savvy players looking for objective feedback. TL;DR please.  Reading your feedback shouldn't be like auditing your taxes, and gathering upvotes from people who just skim over and decide they agree emotionally is a dirty way to advance your agenda.

Is this a thread about volt feedback or about analyzing the structures of long writings?

Don't get me wrong, i'd also have appreciated a TL;DR very much and/or a shorter text overall. But it doesn't make his arguments obsolete. In fact, he gave some pretty good feedback regarding this and i can only agree about what he said. Most importantly the damage cap of the ult and the overwhelming amount of drawbacks concerning the Riot Shield.

[YagoXiten]

19 minutes ago, IceColdHawk said:

Is this a thread about volt feedback or about analyzing the structures of long writings?

Don't get me wrong, i'd also have appreciated a TL;DR very much and/or a shorter text overall. But it doesn't make his arguments obsolete. In fact, he gave some pretty good feedback regarding this and i can only agree about what he said. Most importantly the damage cap of the ult and the overwhelming amount of drawbacks concerning the Riot Shield.

It definitely isn't a thread on analyzing the structure of long writings, and we should get back on topic. There hasn't been much new discussion going on here lately.

It's not the cap on the damage that matters for Discharge. It's that the CC is tied to the damage.  This prevents it from being reliable, and that is the problem. Whilst it would be nice to have the damage scale up against all enemies, we have weapons to kill things.

[Wolfnrun]

18 hours ago, EnderDDT said:

So I did some testing, here are my opinions followed by how I got the data to back them up and what I think needs changed. Overall, I feel that this update was simply too rushed with too little beta testing to iron out the issues. Before he had one or two real issues with each of his abilities other than his #4, and mostly what he needed was some small bug fixes. Now he has multiple issues with all of his abilities, he may even have a major issue or two with his passive which he didn't even HAVE before.

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I like the idea of his passive, a little bonus damage here and there, but the reality of it is less than stellar. Most shots with my charge up weapon gain in the double digits of damage before mitigation, and that is if I am constantly moving and with a slow firing weapon, so really lackluster. It takes over half a minute worth of walking to get up to the 1000 cap, but to keep this in perspective my secondary deals 5 times this much damage per second before crits and procs and isn't built as much as it could be. So, all in all, it isn't worth caring about. I also agree that the passive tries to force him to remain grounded, but see my last sentence about how the damage is too low to care about for why I don't take issue with this aspect.

Mechanically it deals the extra damage as a flat add-on amount that is not modified by weapon mods or power strength and does not combine with other elements. The amount of damage is according to meters moved on the ground at a 1:1 basis. This damage is subject to all forms of mitigation. This was tested by going against a level 50 Desert Skate (mainly because they don't move) and comparing the damage dealt by shooting him in it's top side; first with a single shot with and without the passive, second by adding on a power strength mod to Volt, third with a base damage mod on the weapon, and finally with a single toxin mod on the weapon (if it combined the toxin and electricity would become corrosive damage, witch is far more effective against the enemy). I then used it with shock, both with and without power mods to confirm that it was simply an add on amount there as well. The distance scaling was tested by using frost's snow globe to set a distance and then checking to see how the counter increased over that distance.

What can be done? Lots of people have mentioned having it recharge energy rather than give damage. This would not only help deal with his low energy supply and high energy needs, but also be useful at all points in the game. Another option would be for it to apply to abilities, perhaps with an increase in power strength rather than straight damage, this would also be useful and could be tuned to have the right power level. Having it only charge when he is on the ground is painful in such a high-mobility game as this and seems to punish the player for using that mobility. Personally, I have no problem leaving it as is and blatantly putting Volt's end-game power in other places (assuming that the power is there in his other abilities), but limiting it to ground movement in a game of rocket-jumping space-ninjas is really hurtful.

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Volt's #1 ability, Shock, was given some new interactions but reportedly was mechanically unchanged (asthetically it is supposed to have a new sound). Personally, I didn't notice the sound change so I can't say anything about it. The interactions with his other abilities are theoretically good but need some tweaking. For instance shocking his shield deals damage but skimps out on the all important electric proc and so it falls off in usefulness at the same rate that his shock damage does (very quickly). The interaction with volt's #4 ability is tricky to pin down. It does not increase the duration but seems to bring with it a single extra tick of damage. The problem is that the damage is so low against most enemies and one tick is such a small part of the total amount that it seems to be a waste of an ability. The interactions showed promise but both fell short of being useful.

Concerning the original ability, it was a bit under-powered and somewhat unreliable (especially against ospreys, which were the main target I wanted to take down). Compare this to Mag's Pull: Mag's ability hits a similar or greater number of targets, but reliably deals 300 damage (50% more) a knockdown that results in much longer CC, and leaves enemies open to finishers. Volt's ability regains some damage against tightly clumped groups, but has an unreliable spread. Which one is better is pretty obvious. Or look at Banshee's Sonic Boom, which itself is probably a bit weak: Banshee's ability deals a quarter the damage, but has a similar or greater effective area in most cases, much longer CC, clears enemies away for added safety, and opens enemies up to finishers. The utility when combined with power range can be a powerful "back off" tool; making volt's stun pale in comparison.

Mechanically speaking using it on Volt's Energy Shield (ES) causes it to deal damage in the amount of your shock once a second to enemies that touch it with no proc. I had originally thought there was a proc chance, but no. This was tested by placing multiple energy shields and luring a Desert Skate until he moved into one. On another note, one shock can electrify multiple shields if you aim through them. Furthermore the electrified status persists upon picking the shield up and can damage enemies (albeit for a small amount).

Mechanical interactions with Discharge is that it causes all affected enemies to release an extra tick of damage. This single tick is for a relatively trivial amount if the enemy has any defenses and due to the total damage being spread out over the duration, only a little more than a single shock. Shock does not increase the stun duration. If there is any other interaction, it was not readily apparent. This was tested by shocking a group of skates under the effect of Discharge and leaving them unshocked to measure the duration. I used a smaller group to see the damage it dealt when it went off.

What can be done? The shield interaction really needs to give an electric proc, even if this completely replaces the damage. This would make it viable against mele enemies, including almost every infested (which make up a third of the game's enemies). As for the discharge interaction, something beyond damage would be nice. If all you want is damage then pulling out a weapon is your better option. Also, working on the base abilitys reliability in hitting certain targets (like ospreys and other small foes) is a fix that is badly needed.

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Volt's #2 ability, Speed, has been his one of his signature moves for a very long time. It allowed him mobility, team presence, and was just a whole lot of fun. Most of that has been hurt by the changes, and that makes me sad. His mobility has been reduced a lot. It used to be that his ability made everything faster, allowing him to jump great distances and maneuver like a speed demon. Now only his movement while running/walking speed is affected (and by extension some weapon maneuvers that base their movement on walking/running). No more flying around the level. No more max speed builds where I have fun just trying to stay in control. No more jumping at a faraway enemy to slice into him midair while using my near uncontrollable speed to save me where his defenses will not. And I ask, why?

Furthermore I can't even work with my team effectively on a continual basis. I have one friend who likes using Nezha's flame walk ability and loves getting the speed boost, but having to go back to a specific spot to find a single boost every few seconds is just not worth it. I have another friend who we like to rush through low level tower missions for sport, but going back for every coil or slowing down and following me exactly just makes things awkward. I understand the issue with Speed being hard to control, sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with it and so I play something else; but other times that is EXACTLY why I WANT to play volt over other frames. I also understand about needing an opt out mechanic, I've played with people who had difficulty with it. But punishing all the players who like the ability and use it constantly to help those who don't like it but rarely see it is the wrong way to go about things. Why? The only thing I can think is that the person in charge of the rework was both not a volt player and didn't sit down with one to figure out how to fix the problems.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum except edge grabbing which was done on mercury, apollodorus (because the simulacrum doesn't have any convenient edges to climb) and teammate interactions which were tested on Jupiter, Themisto. Timing was done with a stopwatch and everything was done with a Volt Prime with no ability mods (flow for extra energy was used). I tested the ramp up speed both by visual indicators of movement and a second time by watching his attack speed with a fast mele weapon. I also tested Volt's movement, both with and without speed, for the following maneuvers and abilities: walking, running, jumping, rocket jumping, basic sliding, air sliding (dive-kick), aim gliding, wall climbing, wall running, mele attacking, spin attacking, leap attacking, wall attacking, and weapon reload. Speed affected walking, running, basic jumping, basic sliding, edge grabbing, mele attacking, and weapon reload. To a degree it had an effect on spin attacking, aim gliding, and leap attacking, as the physical movement already in progress carried over to the enhanced speed attack, but the loss of Parkour 2.0 rates of movement speed reduced the functionality of these abilities. It did not affect rocket jumping, air sliding (dive-kick), wall climbing, wall running, and wall attacking. After the initial casting, which did not interrupt movement but did interrupt attacking, the ability took about 1 full second to get to regular power.

The 1 second of delay between the cast end and the recast was removed replaced by at least a full 1 second worth of delay before gaining full power, resulting in that much time of the 10 second base duration being under powered and removing much of the option to use the ability for quick escapes. A spiral pickup is dropped on activation that is immune to carrier vacuum and gives a full duration buff to any allied warframes that pick it up regardless of the time between volt's use and an ally's activation. The pickup disappears when the ability expires. If an ally picks up a coil from a later Speed activation while a previous activation is already going for them then the new pickup is consumed but the new buff is not gained. Otherwise the ally gains all the same bonuses as Volt. The Point of View (PoV) increase was removed for all involved.

What can be done? Revert to the old mechanics as the base, even if that means loosing the reload speed. Make the PoV an "anti-vertigo" option under the visual tab with the default of off. Give an opt-out from speed via the "roll" ability. If the trouble persists than the first step would be to delay allied activation of the ability till they are on the ground, because this would prevent the sudden effects of the ability and would allow for an opt-out if necessary. If an opt-in is viewed as absolutely necessary (this is not a forgone conclusion) than the easiest way would be via the slide command. Remember what was said on the devstream, an opt in needs to be so easy it is a trivial action, going back for a pickup every 10-15 seconds is not trivial. Trying to give an opt-out rather than an opt-in means that allies are not forced to constantly reactivate it, otherwise a change in duration is likely necessary. The easiest solution to this constant bother is to either double or triple the duration while increasing the cost equally; this would still require interaction, but not so constant that it would be aggravating. If the option to triple the duration was taken than that would probably necessitate also switching his Energy Shield and Speed abilities into their opposite slots.

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Volt's Energy Shield seems improved in many ways. The shape is nicer for protecting others, but not quite as nice for protecting just oneself, but this is more than made up for by it blocking explosions. Since explosions are such a big deal in late game play and since they can easily one-shot the squishy Volt who's shield appears right next to him, this was a badly needed change. The reduction in the number of shields has me scratching my head and asking why. If I want to use the 6 shields that it would take to make a perimiter the same size as frost's base unmodded snow-globe and spend the base cost of 300 energy to do so (despite it not protecting as well) than why shouldn't I be able to do so? And yes, it takes 6 shields to shield the same area without covering the top (test it yourself if you don't believe me). If I want to use 8 shields to protect the Tower Defense objective from threats both on the ground floor and upper level (and spend the 400 base energy to do so) than why is that not allowed? If I want to use just 4 to protect a target and still be able to use a couple more to let me safely revive someone, than why is that a problem? The only thing close to an abuse case I know of is stacking shields to double up on the bonus electrical damage, but is a clear Energy-in to Power-out example that could easily be fixed in other ways if that is deemed necessary.

The penalties on picking up the shield are pretty ridiculous. We already have multiple warframes who can hit a key and become immune to everything including damage; Rhino and Nezha gain a shield with no duration, Valkir can take literally any amount of damage for any length of time till her energy runs out (though with some restrictions), Hydroid puddles to become immune to everything, Loki switch teleports to make someone else immune, etc. Having unidirectional immunity that does nothing for the sides, the back, mele, environmental effects, clouds, ground pounds, and a few other things is not so powerful that it requires so many downsides. Weapon restriction why? Slow why? I can understand a power drain, but 5 per second is a crazy amount of drain on top of the original activation cost and duration limit. And then there is the energy drained for movement, why? The amount is far crazier than the already unbelievable cost for just holding the thing, and I'm not even kidding about that.

Mechanically everything was tested in the simulacrum. The shield defends against all normal gunfire and rocket explosions but does nothing against ground based attacks (such as moa stomps and lighting the ground on fire), direct targeted abilities (such as the commander teleport), or flamethrower type weapons (such as the Hyekka Master's weapon). Grenades (such as from an Arid Lancer) detonate on contact with the shield but otherwise are treated like other explosions. Normal mele attacks are not stopped but aoe mele attacks might be (requires more testing). This all holds true for both the normal shield and riot shield version. A new shield cannot be deployed while holding the riot shield. The shield can only be picked up from behind but prevents enemy fire from passing through in both directions. Multiple shields stack the damage buff addatively. The damage values are rounded as a group, rather than being rounded individually. Testing of the damage mechanics were done with a lv50 skate, while testing of the other blocking properties were done with a commander, Arid Hellion, Bombard, Hyekka Master, and Napalm at lv20.

Holding the shield drains 5/s as advertised, reducible by duration and efficiency mods, but carrying drains at a much faster rate of .2 per meter, reducible by efficiency and nothing else. Holding the shield does not count as a channeled ability in terms of stopping the Zenurik passive and the Energy Siphon mod. The assertion that it drains according to distance was tested and holds true. For a use with no ability changing mods holding the shield for 10s costs 50 energy, for instance. To judge the cost in terms of distance traveled I used his passive (which was already shown to go up one point for each in-game meter), which showed that the cost was about .2 per meter moved at base efficiency and duration. This calculation seemed to show true over multiple tests and multiple distances ranging from 10, 25, 50, 500, and 997 in-game meters (within error for human reflexes). If there is an interaction with jumping other than the distance moved, or other effects on cost, this test was not designed to find it. Holding the shield was shown to give a 25% slow, tested by finding that I could walk 500m in 20 seconds without the shield but it took me 25 seconds to walk the same distance with it.

To put this in perspective this means that the creating the shield, picking it up, and rushing forward with it for only 10 seconds cost 193 energy. That is raw test data, me doing it without any movement speed mods and reporting back exactly the numbers. Nearly 200 energy in 10 seconds is broken no matter how you look at it.

What to do? First, there seems to be no real reason to limit volt to only 4 shields, especially considering how limited they already are. If the issue of him using multiple shields to buff his damage is seen as a problem than either limit the buff to 4 shields or remember that shield stacking is a limited duration immobile buff that requires a massive amount of energy to stack many of them. Furthermore the limit of 4 stops legitimate uses of the skill, such as protection of a target and other more creative uses. A case could even be made for removing the stacking portion of the buff, but it is much harder to make the case for limiting the number of shields considering their size and other inherent limitations. This ability is no snow globe, and requires 4, 6, 8, or more individual shields to do what 1 snow globe can do; so limiting it to the same number just doesn't make sense.

As for the cost of the riot shield portion of the ability, that needs to be drastically reduced. A cost of something like 2 per second with no increase for movement is entirely practical. At that point carrying the shield for the entire duration will cost the same as a new ability (2/s drain over 25 seconds equals 50 energy, the original casting cost), and will result in a full 100 energy cost total over the duration. Furthermore, considering the limitations that the ability already has (such as a non immunity to a list of effects and a very limited angle of defense and a high total cost to use even with the energy reduction), the other list of restrictions just seem overburdening. Why no primary weapon for a floating shield, and why a slow for a shield made of electricity? Adding in restrictions for no reason just makes everything worse for no reason.

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Volt's #4 ability, discharge, is never going to be about damage without something like percentage based scaling or some other scaling. It simply cannot be because any amount of damage that would be relevant late game game will be stupidly broken early game or even mid game. At least, that is my take on it. The ability would make a workable CC lock down, except for a few things. First, the inconsistency due to the hp cap (which is damage dealt, not received, so armor/resistances negate much of it) means that certain things that should be good for the CC portion simply aren't.  The duration would be good otherwise, but that hp cap ruins it. Second, volt must be on the ground, extremely vulnerable during the casting time, and within an extremely limited range of the enemies he wants to hit for it to be effective. The range would be good if it was not for ground traveling, but ground traveling (combined with the harshness of geometry) kinda ruins that. The ground requirement seems to be due to it's ground traveling, an interesting idea, but can be problematic.  The long period of vulnerability, due to the long casting time and slow spreading of effect, often isn't worth the effect you get from it compared to other options.

Mechanically the ability has a 2 second cast time after which it releases a relatively slow moving wave across the floor but visually shows the same wave release of his old #4 ability. This spread requires him to either be on the floor or wall clinging to work. The wave passes through doors and grates, and has no trouble with railings. Most of the trouble with this type of spread seems to come from the levels not being designed properly for this to work. An easy example is in the simulacrum where the towers are not technically attached to the floor or when standing on the spinning cone looking thing in the Jupiter Thebe mission, such that the wave will not affect enemies that are on the floor regardless of proximity. Another issue with spread is with enemies on multiple elevations in many open rooms. Overall it works well except for specific instances of failure of the level's geometry and when dealing with enemies on other floors.

The charged enemies immediately begin shocking any nearby enemies, and then start harming themselves after 4 seconds if no enemies are present. The ability continues till the time limit or the ability's HP cap is reached. The cap is according to damage delt, not damage received, so things with resistance take significantly less damage. Furthermore the damage cap seems to include not only the direct damage dealt but the electric procs aoe damage from tightly grouped mobs, meaning that against large groups of infested the effect can last as short as 2 seconds. And yes, that is an actual amount of time  The time limit of the effect is 12 seconds at base and volt must wait 4 seconds before recasting, but hitting enemies a second time wastes the effect on them until the previous effect has expired. Volt is immune to knockdowns during the casting but is not immune to damage. This was tested on Jupiter, Thebe and in the simulacrum with Skates, Infested chargers, and Infested runners.

What to do? The damage cap REALLY needs to be removed, even if this means readjusting the damage for the new duration. This one change will immediately fix most of the issues with consistency and reliability. The issue with how vulnerable this makes ability makes you is more difficult to address, considering the method of spread, cast time, and ground requirement. A simple stopgap measure would be to move the initial stun to the beginning of the cast rather than the end, but this still requires him to get grounded in the middle of a group of enemies despite his low defenses and the low spread speed of the ability. A better option would be for Volt to "Fire" his #4 ability similar to Mirage's #4 ability, Prism. Using the firing method would also solve the issue with the range being buggy when as it tries to go around different obstacles.

Finally, "Volt's Discharge" really does sound like we are talking about a pustule or some other infected wound. I'm kinda surprised that this wasn't caught by the beta testers who checked this build for issues. (There were beta testers, right?)

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Overall this update seems rushed and not really well thought out. The changes on volt's abilities positively stink of overreaction. Can anyone at all give any suggestions for another reason why this level of changes were made to an ability with only two real issues that needed resolved (vertigo and no opt-out)? Maybe the programmers felt a deadline crunch and decided to get overly hasty about things? Many aspects of this show a slipshod job was done on the update. Aspects of the ability which should be there, such as range affecting ES carrying distance costs, are missing. Fixing the problem of a missing opt-out mechanic by forcing other players to hunt down a buff every 10 seconds is proof that somebody failed at their job. Including electric procs as part of his #4 ability's damage cap punish players for strategic play. Even the name of his revamped #4 ability is a mistake that SOMEBODY should have caught before it went live.

100%%%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know i'm over exaggerating but THIS!!! is TRUE! There needs to be lot's of refinement! Keep pushing guys!!! No more show-off excalibur!  

[Kotsender_Quasimir]

yo fellow volt fans, would you please refrain from quoting EnderDDT's complete post again and again? XD it's getting tiresome to scroll through... thank you! <3

regarding its content: mostly reasonable, don't mind the shield cap that much though and losing reload speed would be sad imo ("we hardly knew ye") but yeah whatevs. i agree the rework is somewhat rough around the edges but i really like the direction they took, still think he already feels better than before. (kinda suprised not more people miss the shield/gun synergies tbqh...)