Volt Rework Feedback [Post Update 18.13]

[Duduminador]

I can't find a relyable synergy or a gameplay pattern for the poor guy... I even tried several combinations with the passive in hopes it had a secret gimmick hidden somewhere, it kinda does, but it's still crap. You can charge the 1k bonus damage into a shock attack, and it'll be a pretty strong one (a lot stronger than what you could have with maxed str), it can be cast on a shield and that shield will have its contact damage added by 1k, also works if that shield is picked up. You can cast Shock through 4 shields and trigger the electric damage bonus, but the +1k will still only apply to one.

Having a free 1k damage early game probably looks great to a starter, but for the people who stick to Warframe, that probably only applies to around 1% of your all warframe gaming time, on solo matches, and people who didn't start with Volt end up skipping this newbie benefit entirely. On top of that, not even a highly formed Volt, prime or not, with all types of sprint boosting mods and abilities is gonna charge that passive neither fast nor often enough to justify using it.

Discharge is simply... a bother, give it range and you'll end up with a short duration effect (regardless of how much duration it has), Take the range away and naturaly the ability suffers from not having range, but ironically the stun lasts (because mobs next to each other will never be so close to trigger the Tesla effect, not depleeting the damage cap before the ability ends). Regardless of how you build for it alone, it will never be maxed, neither in damage, nor in a long lasting cc.

Volt is on a tight corner right now, where the new gimmicks, are technicaly there, helping, but are not worth counting on. If anything the old Builds work better for him, because trying to bother modding for picked shields, shocked electric shields and Discharge only makes him worse.

Edited June 4, 2016 by Duduminador

[Aquasurge]

should the invulnerability phase of Tesla coils be modded for? i think this may solve most of the problems with the lack of inconsistency on discharge.

[Wolfnrun]

Wow, 25 pages... something's gotta give! 

[ElectronX_Core]

12 minutes ago, Wolfnrun said:

Wow, 25 pages... something's gotta give! 

note to self: never leave megathread for more than a day

[Wolfnrun]

22 minutes ago, ElectronX_Core said:

note to self: never leave megathread for more than a day

Which is why it's called a megathread   

[YagoXiten]

I talked to Rebecca and she said she will be play Volt this weekend to add notes. So he will hopefully see some changes next week. I also linked her to my concise feedback post on page fifteen.

[Aquasurge]

7 hours ago, YagoXiten said:

I talked to Rebecca and she said she will be play Volt this weekend to add notes. So he will hopefully see some changes next week. I also linked her to my concise feedback post on page fifteen.

cool! like on next Friday/Saturday or today and tomorrow?  

    

 

 

Edited June 5, 2016 by Aquasurge

[Wolfnrun]

33 minutes ago, YagoXiten said:

I talked to Rebecca and she said she will be play Volt this weekend to add notes. So he will hopefully see some changes next week. I also linked her to my concise feedback post on page fifteen.

YAY!!!  

[JalakBali]

Discharge is just not that useful. It's a poor man's Stomp or Divine Spears simply because it's much slower and not doing anything else useful. It needs more utility if this ult is supposed to be a good CC power. I'd suggest doing a Discharge would pulse at least 3 times. Example: you start a Discharge and it sends a shockwave, same as before, but 2 seconds later, another shockwave from the spot you started it would be discharged again. Then another one the next 2 seconds. Meaning the area you started Discharge on is on lock down for at least the next 6 seconds. Any enemy previously out of range entering this zone would get hit by the second or third shockwave.

 

Add to that: any enemy still being electrified and not yet dead when hit with more Discharge pulses would create an additional electrical explosion, with damage based on the total HP of the enemy affected, in 5 meter radius. The damage and radius of the electrical explosion can be boosted by dumping more Shock on them.

[Wolfnrun]

Every ability needs a buff... let's see what happens this week  (I'm still staying positive!) 

[(PSN)StarDustKillah]

15 hours ago, ElectronX_Core said:

note to self: never leave megathread for more than a day

Yeah I left the forums for about 3 days. I was about 6 pages behind... Well at least this is being discussed. 

[Brasten]

1 hour ago, JalakBali said:

 

Discharge is just not that useful. It's a poor man's Stomp or Divine Spears simply because it's much slower and not doing anything else useful.

 

It's actually a good point to bring up Rhino's Stomp and Nezha's Divine Spears. The core problem of Discharge is that it has inconsistent CC across different factions and even enemy types. As has been noted again and again in this thread.

Stomp is a 25 meter, 8 second hard CC, doing 800 damage (reduced by distance) immediately. It is a fairly fast cast.

Divine Spears is a 19 meter, 12 second hard CC, doing a 1200 damage (total). Has long-ish (2 second) casting time. Bonus: Impaled enemies can be ground finished.

Discharge is a 20 meter, 12 second hard CC, doing 450 damage per second over 8 seconds (3,600 total). Has a medium casting time (1 second), plus short spread out time. Bonus: enemies within 4 meters also take 225 damage per second for 12 seconds (2,700 total). Negative: tightly packed non-armored non-resistant enemies can have the CC broken super fast by spill over damage.

=====

Just compare Level 100 Grineer Elite Lancers vs Corpus Proxies in the Simulacrum and you'll see the difference immediately (and die by proxy), what really needs to be fixed about Discharge. Removing or changing the "Damage" threshold would make the CC consistent based on Duration. Which would bring it in line with Stomp or Divine Spears in terms of CC. Which likely means the damage on Discharge needs to be scaled back or formulate differently. Then again maybe not as Divine Spear opens up Ground Finishers.

 If the "Damage" threshold was change to break just the Tesla Coil damage aspect that could work. Meaning that each Coiled enemy would be hard capped at doing 2,700 total damage to nearby enemies (as it does 3,600 to itself over 8 seconds). As long as the CC Effect doesn't break after the Coil Damage ends, Discharge would be in a much better place. Any duration over 12 seconds (due to mods) would just be CC. Any enemies that take or do more damage to themselves before those 8 seconds are up, just mean the renaming time is CC.

Right now if you have two non-armored non-resistant enemies standing within 4 meters of each other, they take functionally 675 damage a second, against a functional cap of 3100 (due to 900 damage in the first 4 seconds before they start hurting themselves). Which means only about 6 seconds for them to hit their Damage cap, and have the CC broken, 2 seconds sooner than it should. If you had a longer duration through mods, that duration is wasted as a result.

Pack in more enemies and that time gets cut. Somehow get 18+ enemies within 4 meters of each other and you break the CC in 1 second. Fiddle with Power Range and that is even more likely. You can easily see the CC time cut to 2 seconds instead of the full 12. THIS IS THE PROBLEM.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Brasten

[EnderDDT]

15 hours ago, YagoXiten said:

I talked to Rebecca and she said she will be play Volt this weekend to add notes. So he will hopefully see some changes next week. I also linked her to my concise feedback post on page fifteen.

There is a TL/DR version encompassing 23 pages worth (on page 23) that might be good for her to look at too.

[Archwizard]

Personally I find the damage of Discharge to be pretty potent, with a very important condition: The effect relies on arc and burst damage similarly to Molecular Prime, so each individual enemy isn't going to take a lot of damage, but a group of enemies stuck together will. This really isn't much of a downgrade compared to Overload's conditional damage, and at worst it evens out the vast damage spread between Overload with electronics and without.

I'm personally not sure what the main complaints about the ability are beyond "damage" - again, it's an upgrade if you compare to Overload without electronics, and you still have a large amount of CC with the effect - although I admit I may be out of touch because some of the conditions of the ability still seem pretty ambiguous to me. For instance, the damage delay for a single target seems to serve no purpose, and literally everything regarding the effect's damage cap brings questions of what qualifies towards that cap (All damage, or just damage from the ability? Does this include arc damage from other enemies affected by Discharge? Does this include the blast damage from Shock? Does the cap only activate if the target isn't arcing?). As it is an extra ability cost, Shock should always be able to bypass the cap, if it doesn't already.

One thing I've been informed of is that, since Discharge has no line-of-sight restrictions, it's becoming something of a new favorite for CC on Interception maps now that Mirage's effectiveness has diminished in that regard. I'm not saying the effect should have line-of-sight or awareness restrictions (we have a rare few abilities with that left), just that it may need a look if the suggestions to remove that health cap are taken heed of.

At worst, I'd say just change it from flat numbers to health percentages, and/or have it enhance Electric damage while active.

Additional:

• Speed shouldn't have the pickup anymore. Give players an opt-out mechanic rather than an opt-in, like a backflip to end the effect; yes this will annoy the people who prefer the opt-in, but there are a rare few scenarios where a player requires such precision of movement that having Speed will utterly ruin them - not to mention that the blinding FoV was the main reason people declined, which is gone now. The pickup is small and hard to keep track of if you aren't the Volt who dropped it, and unless everyone is marching in single-file through tilesets behind Volt, people will need to backtrack to pick it up if they do see it, which is counterintuitive when you cast the ability in the first place to speed things up (which is annoying in a much greater number of scenarios compared to the alternative).
• Shocked-Electric Shields should have a higher status chance. It doesn't need to be a 100% chance to chain-stun enemies at all times (albeit if it had a higher status chance on the first tick, that wouldn't be objectionable), but adding damage to an environmental effect is pointless without the remote likelihood that enemies will continue to stand in it, and this becomes doubly true with effects like Electric Shield or Fire Blast that affect a very thin/tiny/avoidable area, as opposed to nearly unavoidable effects over a very large area like Soundquake (which, ironically, has a high status chance).
• Picking up an Electric Shield should have lower penalties. Between the upkeep cost, the cost per-meter, the speed reduction, the lockout from Primary weapons, and the fact that Volt basically can't use terminals with it nearby, I legitimately would rather leave my Shields alone. Remove the cost per-meter, at least, since it completely counteracts Volt's passive and the synergy with Speed (they're part of the same kit, you should absolutely be able to use one to game the effect of the other, that's what Synergy is all about), maybe even reduce the base upkeep cost; as a suggestion, instead of the cost per-meter and the speed reduction, perhaps the effect could just have its upkeep cost increase when you're Sprinting?
• Let me cast Discharge while airborne. Casting with momentum and escaping in the same motion was one of the most fun things about Overload, and it's all the more fitting for Volt now that he's got higher emphasis on mobility. Sure the effect travels along the ground, but you aren't even touching the ground during the animation anyway!
  Tangentially related, but I've also had this annoying problem when casting Discharge while running, where if I end up falling into a pothole that teleports you and clears buffs (generally the same pothole, by the pipes on the upper floor of the Ceres Defense map), it consumes the energy from Discharge and cancels the wave in-progress. It doesn't prevent or stop the cast, it just makes the wave freeze where it is, and enemies who step into the wave aren't affected. If the wave is environmental, shouldn't it continue even if I fall into a pothole?
• Increase un-Primed Volt's base energy, and consider ways for him to regenerate his own (which would truly let him be an "alternative to gunplay") or increase his cost-efficiency. Volt is much more of an energy hog following these changes, particularly due to the use of Shock to enhance his other abilities (giving everything but Speed an increase in effective cost); even as Volt Prime, I've gone through about 40 energy pads a day with him since the update, so I can't fathom the nightmare that starting players have been having with him. Further, this could help bridge the vast gap in effectiveness between Volt and Volt Prime.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Archwizard

[(PSN)Silverback73]

1 hour ago, Archwizard said:

Personally I find the damage of Discharge to be pretty potent, with a very important condition: The effect relies on arc and burst damage similarly to Molecular Prime, so each individual enemy isn't going to take a lot of damage, but a group of enemies stuck together will. This really isn't much of a downgrade compared to Overload's conditional damage, and at worst it evens out the vast damage spread between Overload with electronics and without.

I'm personally not sure what the main complaints about the ability are beyond "damage" - again, it's an upgrade if you compare to Overload without electronics, and you still have a large amount of CC with the effect - although I admit I may be out of touch because some of the conditions of the ability still seem pretty ambiguous to me. For instance, the damage delay for a single target seems to serve no purpose, and literally everything regarding the effect's damage cap brings questions of what qualifies towards that cap (All damage, or just damage from the ability? Does this include arc damage from other enemies affected by Discharge? Does this include the blast damage from Shock? Does the cap only activate if the target isn't arcing?). As it is an extra ability cost, Shock should always be able to bypass the cap, if it doesn't already.

One thing I've been informed of is that, since Discharge has no line-of-sight restrictions, it's becoming something of a new favorite for CC on Interception maps now that Mirage's effectiveness has diminished in that regard. I'm not saying the effect should have line-of-sight or awareness restrictions (we have a rare few abilities with that left), just that it may need a look if the suggestions to remove that health cap are taken heed of.

Additional:

• Speed shouldn't have the pickup anymore. Give players an opt-out mechanic rather than an opt-in, like a backflip to end the effect; yes this will annoy the people who prefer the opt-in, but there are a rare few scenarios where a player requires such precision of movement that having Speed will utterly ruin them. The pickup is small and hard to keep track of if you aren't the Volt who dropped it, and unless everyone is marching in single-file through tilesets behind Volt, people will need to backtrack to pick it up if they do see it, which is counterintuitive when you cast the ability in the first place to speed things up (which is annoying in a much greater number of scenarios compared to the alternative).
• Shocked-Electric Shields should have a higher status chance. It doesn't need to be a 100% chance to chain-stun enemies at all times (albeit if it had a higher status chance on the first tick, that wouldn't be objectionable), but adding damage to an environmental effect is pointless without the remote likelihood that enemies will continue to stand in it, and this becomes doubly true with effects like Electric Shield or Fire Blast that affect a very thin line, as opposed to a very large area like Soundquake.
• Picking up an Electric Shield should have lower penalties. Between the upkeep cost, the cost per-meter, the speed reduction, the lockout from Primary weapons, and the fact that Volt basically can't use terminals with it nearby, I legitimately would rather leave my Shields alone. Remove the cost per-meter, at least, since it completely counteracts Volt's passive and the synergy with Speed (they're part of the same kit, you should absolutely be able to use one to game the effect of the other, that's what Synergy is all about); as a suggestion, instead of the cost per-meter and the speed reduction, perhaps the effect could just have its upkeep cost increase when you're Sprinting?
• Let me cast Discharge while airborne. It was one of the most fun things about Overload. 
  Tangentially related, but I've also had this annoying problem when casting Discharge while running, where if I end up falling into a pothole that teleports you and clears buffs (generally the same pothole, by the pipes on the upper floor of the Ceres Defense map), it consumes the energy from Discharge and cancels the wave in-progress. It doesn't prevent or stop the cast, it just makes the wave freeze where it is, and enemies who step into the wave aren't affected. If the wave is environmental, shouldn't it continue even if I fall into a pothole?
• Increase un-Primed Volt's base energy, and consider ways for him to regenerate his own (which would truly let him be an "alternative to gunplay"). Volt is much more of an energy hog following these changes, particularly due to the use of Shock to enhance his other abilities (giving each an increase in effective cost); even as Volt Prime, I've gone through about 40 energy pads a day with him since the update, so I can't fathom the nightmare that starting players have been having with him.

From what I can tell reading between the lines, people see Discharge as a "Sizzle (damage) and Steak (cc)" power, but that ultimately the cut of meat just doesn't measure up (the cc), no matter how good it looks coming out of the oven.

And THAT is Overload all over again...a compromised 4 that sells the sizzle, but disappoints in substance.

Edited June 5, 2016 by (PS4)Silverback73

[Cytobel]

5 hours ago, Archwizard said:

*snip*

I'm personally not sure what the main complaints about the ability are beyond "damage"

*snip*

The irony here is that you covered many of the main complaints rather well in the points summary of your post.

I'd say that you only really missed the common "why should a TACTICAL 'Frame not be able to use it's passive in a tactical fashion" and "electrical damage faces more mitigation than practically every other damage type for less overall return" gripes.

Honestly, Discharge is decent.  With a little QoL and polish (and maybe percentile health damage as was mentioned) it'll be just about good enough to make me totally blank Overload outta mind.  I'd like to see more consistant targeting.  The floor pathing is meant to defeat the ability chaining so well through floors, but it seems ramps stop it quite well too.  Like I said, polishing.

Speed lost something in the air mobility area to gain an almost inconsequential reload speed buff (not a good trade because of how bloody few guns are WORTH the trade and suffer high reload times).  The real hurt is to other players, but personally I am an A******.  I now bullet jump straight up before I hit Speed and let people whine.  For MONTHS I had people alt+F4 out when they so much as saw my Volt, nevermind asking me to NOT use Speed.  This payback amuses a very petty part of me.  It definitely should be switched to an opt-out, rather than an opt-in so that people stop doing what I do.

Shock is where I recommend the most change.  Electric Shield is now a bi-modal skill that has the potential to be useful beyond what old Electric Shield was capable of (once the list of nerfs longer than the whole list of Volt's skills are pruned).  The best thing here is the bi-modal portion.  Granting different options for how the move can be used.  I'd like to see Shock performing different tasks in the kit too.

As a "keystone" ability it really does damn little for the other skills.  Electrifying ES is neat, but I REALLY want to see some decent proc chance there to slow rushing enemies.  There isn't much at all happening when used with Discharge, but that move is probably gonna have this "percentile health damage" thing looked into again, so I'll leave that be for now.

What I want from Shock is a charge-up (hold 1 for a moment) version that has some AoE knockdown.  This would give us possible Finisher opportunities and make the move more valuable in the presence of Ancient Healers.  Also, you could make this "charged Shock" grant better benefits to ES and Discharge.  (Psst!  BALL LIGHTNING)

Electric Shield / Riot Shield will have potential AFTER the unnecessary nerfs are amputated.  If I have to spend as much energy to move the shield 12 steps as it took to originally cast it (without even adding all the other assinine restrictions), then I cannot afford to use this mode.  In a world of push-button immortality, this is just not workable.  Worse, it feels like this could be the answer to Volt's extreme squishiness, but for all the hate built into it.

PLEASE NOTE:  I FULLY support the smaller size of Riot Shield.  If Volt had an animation for "carrying" the Shield, then I'd even feel alright with the main gun restriction.  HOWEVER, the rest of the "mitigating factors" felt like someone was DESPERATELY afraid that this would make Volt into some kind of aggressive, ability-based tactical shield tank-wait, this is what he should be, isn't it?  Please tone back the restrictions and energy cost DE.  There's a duration on the ability for a reason.  Also note that I'm not telling you that ALL the restrictions have to be pulled, but you really should have some Volt players judging what's overkill here.

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

So I got to ranting, AGAIN.  Sorry there Archwizard.

TL;DR, you got most of the points we're harping on about and I'm VERY happy someone else was thinking baseline Volt needs more energy.  I'd just suggest that this rework needs to be FINISHED, and that more points and playtests need to be considered BEFORE then.

EDIT:  Both Speed and the passive are (now) built against the best feature you've added: Parkour 2.0, and I don't understand why this is.

I do recognize that Riot Shield was a very late addition, but given that it has the potential to be the best thing you've ever done for Volt I don't understand why cost-per-meter and a slow were EVER considered.  Like the loss of air speed and the passive, these changes negatively reflect on the most positive aspects of the rework.  These nerfs just reinforce the "build nothing but Speed" logic, rather than present options for alternative modes of play.

I build for a bit of everything I can manage thanks to the requirements for every stat in a Volt build.  Stretch is required for Discharge.  200% Strength is necessary for Speed, Shock, and Discharge.  160%+ Duration is just as necessary for everything BUT Shock, and I run Streamline probably out of habit.  If not for my Arcane Pulse helmet, I wouldn't even manage those Duration numbers.  This build is insane, and it's as close as I can manage to use every skill Volt has.  It works, but only just.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Cytobel
brain made gurgling noises

[SANIC_HEGEHOG]

Discharge feels lame. Can we just add more light sources to areas and bring back overload? It was fun watching S#&$ get detroyed. I mean lightning is supposed to F*** S#&$ up not turn enemies into cute sparkling things

[Wolfnrun]

I think speed needs to do more...Maybe increase damage out put and duration of abilities? I'm not trying to butcher anything here, I feel that there needs to be an ability that benefits all abilities one way or another. Do what's needed but that's how I feel 

[SenorClipClop]

54 minutes ago, Wolfnrun said:

I think speed needs to do more...Maybe increase damage out put and duration of abilities? I'm not trying to butcher anything here, I feel that there needs to be an ability that benefits all abilities one way or another. Do what's needed but that's how I feel 

You mean besides also giving an attack speed and reload speed buff?

[Wolfnrun]

Just now, SenorClipClop said:

You mean besides also giving an attack speed and reload speed buff?

Yes

[(PSN)Silverback73]

2 hours ago, Cytobel said:

The irony here is that you covered many of the main complaints rather well in the points summary of your post.

I'd say that you only really missed the common "why should a TACTICAL 'Frame not be able to use it's passive in a tactical fashion" and "electrical damage faces more mitigation than practically every other damage type for less overall return" gripes.

Honestly, Discharge is decent.  With a little QoL and polish (and maybe percentile health damage as was mentioned) it'll be just about good enough to make me totally blank Overload outta mind.  I'd like to see more consistant targeting.  The floor pathing is meant to defeat the ability chaining so well through floors, but it seems ramps stop it guite well too.  Like I said, polishing.

Speed lost something in the air mobility area to gain an almost inconsequential reload speed buff (not a good trade because of how bloody few guns are WORTH the trade and suffer high reload times).  The real hurt is to other players, but personally I am an A******.  I now bullet jump straight up before I hit Speed and let people whine.  For MONTHS I had people alt+F4 out when they so much as saw my Volt, nevermind asking me to NOT use Speed.  This payback amuses a very petty part of me.  It definitely should be switched to an opt-out, rather than an opt-in so that people stop doing what I do.

Shock is where I recommend the most change.  Electric Shield is now a bi-modal skill that has the potential to be useful beyond what old Electric Shield was capable of (once the list of nerfs longer than the whole list of Volt's skills are pruned).  The best thing here is the bi-modal portion.  Granting different options for how the move can be used.  I'd like to see Shock performing different tasks in the kit too.

As a "keystone" ability it really does damn little for the other skills.  Electrifying ES is neat, but I REALLY want to see some decent proc chance there to slow rushing enemies.  There isn't much at all happening when used with Discharge, but that move is probably gonna have this "percentile health damage" thing looked into again, so I'll leave that befor now.

What I want from Shock is a charge-up (hold 1 for a moment) version that has some AoE knockdown.  This would give us possible Finisher opportunities and make the move more valuable in the presence of Ancient Healers.  Also, you could make this "charged Shock" grant better benefits to ES and Discharge.

Electric Shield / Riot Shield will have potential AFTER the unnecessary ner%&^e is amputated.  If I have to spend as much energy to move the shield 12 steps as it took to originally cast it (without even adding all the other assinine restrictions), then I cannot afford to use this mode.  In a world of push-button immortality, this is just not workable.  Worse, it feels like this could be the answer to Volt's extreme squishiness, but for all the hate built into it.

PLEASE NOTE:  I FULLY support the smaller size of Riot Shield.  If Volt had an animation for "carrying" the Shield, then I'd even feel alright with the main gun restriction.  HOWEVER, the rest of the "mitigating factors" felt like someone was DESPERATELY afraid that this would make Volt into some kind of aggressive, ability-based tactical shield tank-wait, this is what he should be, isn't it?  Please tone back the restrictions and energy cost DE.  There's a duration on the ability for a reason.  Also note that I'm not telling you that ALL the restrictions have to be pulled, but you really should have some Volt players judging what's overkill here.

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

So I got to ranting, AGAIN.  Sorry there Archwizard.

TL;DR, you got most of the points we're harping on about and I'm VERY happy someone else was thinking baseline Volt needs more energy.  I'd just suggest that this rework needs to be FINISHED, and that more points and playtests need to be considered BEFORE then.

I...I love you...

 

Seriously, though, a great post on Volt's current state.

Overload was supposed to be a high damage 4 with some CC...and the damage was inadequate.

Discharge is supposed to be the answer as a high-concept CC 4 with some damage...that results in diluted CC when more units are present????

One inadequate 4 for another???

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by (PS4)Silverback73

[Wolfnrun]

1 hour ago, Cytobel said:

The irony here is that you covered many of the main complaints rather well in the points summary of your post.

I'd say that you only really missed the common "why should a TACTICAL 'Frame not be able to use it's passive in a tactical fashion" and "electrical damage faces more mitigation than practically every other damage type for less overall return" gripes.

Honestly, Discharge is decent.  With a little QoL and polish (and maybe percentile health damage as was mentioned) it'll be just about good enough to make me totally blank Overload outta mind.  I'd like to see more consistant targeting.  The floor pathing is meant to defeat the ability chaining so well through floors, but it seems ramps stop it guite well too.  Like I said, polishing.

Speed lost something in the air mobility area to gain an almost inconsequential reload speed buff (not a good trade because of how bloody few guns are WORTH the trade and suffer high reload times).  The real hurt is to other players, but personally I am an A******.  I now bullet jump straight up before I hit Speed and let people whine.  For MONTHS I had people alt+F4 out when they so much as saw my Volt, nevermind asking me to NOT use Speed.  This payback amuses a very petty part of me.  It definitely should be switched to an opt-out, rather than an opt-in so that people stop doing what I do.

Shock is where I recommend the most change.  Electric Shield is now a bi-modal skill that has the potential to be useful beyond what old Electric Shield was capable of (once the list of nerfs longer than the whole list of Volt's skills are pruned).  The best thing here is the bi-modal portion.  Granting different options for how the move can be used.  I'd like to see Shock performing different tasks in the kit too.

As a "keystone" ability it really does damn little for the other skills.  Electrifying ES is neat, but I REALLY want to see some decent proc chance there to slow rushing enemies.  There isn't much at all happening when used with Discharge, but that move is probably gonna have this "percentile health damage" thing looked into again, so I'll leave that befor now.

What I want from Shock is a charge-up (hold 1 for a moment) version that has some AoE knockdown.  This would give us possible Finisher opportunities and make the move more valuable in the presence of Ancient Healers.  Also, you could make this "charged Shock" grant better benefits to ES and Discharge.

Electric Shield / Riot Shield will have potential AFTER the unnecessary ner%&^e is amputated.  If I have to spend as much energy to move the shield 12 steps as it took to originally cast it (without even adding all the other assinine restrictions), then I cannot afford to use this mode.  In a world of push-button immortality, this is just not workable.  Worse, it feels like this could be the answer to Volt's extreme squishiness, but for all the hate built into it.

PLEASE NOTE:  I FULLY support the smaller size of Riot Shield.  If Volt had an animation for "carrying" the Shield, then I'd even feel alright with the main gun restriction.  HOWEVER, the rest of the "mitigating factors" felt like someone was DESPERATELY afraid that this would make Volt into some kind of aggressive, ability-based tactical shield tank-wait, this is what he should be, isn't it?  Please tone back the restrictions and energy cost DE.  There's a duration on the ability for a reason.  Also note that I'm not telling you that ALL the restrictions have to be pulled, but you really should have some Volt players judging what's overkill here.

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

So I got to ranting, AGAIN.  Sorry there Archwizard.

TL;DR, you got most of the points we're harping on about and I'm VERY happy someone else was thinking baseline Volt needs more energy.  I'd just suggest that this rework needs to be FINISHED, and that more points and playtests need to be considered BEFORE then.

You nailed it 

[Hypernaut1]

i wish his passive was unlimited with diminishing returns

[ElectronX_Core]

6 hours ago, Cytobel said:

The irony here is that you covered many of the main complaints rather well in the points summary of your post.

I'd say that you only really missed the common "why should a TACTICAL 'Frame not be able to use it's passive in a tactical fashion" and "electrical damage faces more mitigation than practically every other damage type for less overall return" gripes.

Honestly, Discharge is decent.  With a little QoL and polish (and maybe percentile health damage as was mentioned) it'll be just about good enough to make me totally blank Overload outta mind.  I'd like to see more consistant targeting.  The floor pathing is meant to defeat the ability chaining so well through floors, but it seems ramps stop it quite well too.  Like I said, polishing.

Speed lost something in the air mobility area to gain an almost inconsequential reload speed buff (not a good trade because of how bloody few guns are WORTH the trade and suffer high reload times).  The real hurt is to other players, but personally I am an A******.  I now bullet jump straight up before I hit Speed and let people whine.  For MONTHS I had people alt+F4 out when they so much as saw my Volt, nevermind asking me to NOT use Speed.  This payback amuses a very petty part of me.  It definitely should be switched to an opt-out, rather than an opt-in so that people stop doing what I do.

Shock is where I recommend the most change.  Electric Shield is now a bi-modal skill that has the potential to be useful beyond what old Electric Shield was capable of (once the list of nerfs longer than the whole list of Volt's skills are pruned).  The best thing here is the bi-modal portion.  Granting different options for how the move can be used.  I'd like to see Shock performing different tasks in the kit too.

As a "keystone" ability it really does damn little for the other skills.  Electrifying ES is neat, but I REALLY want to see some decent proc chance there to slow rushing enemies.  There isn't much at all happening when used with Discharge, but that move is probably gonna have this "percentile health damage" thing looked into again, so I'll leave that be for now.

What I want from Shock is a charge-up (hold 1 for a moment) version that has some AoE knockdown.  This would give us possible Finisher opportunities and make the move more valuable in the presence of Ancient Healers.  Also, you could make this "charged Shock" grant better benefits to ES and Discharge.  (Psst!  BALL LIGHTNING)

Electric Shield / Riot Shield will have potential AFTER the unnecessary nerfs are amputated.  If I have to spend as much energy to move the shield 12 steps as it took to originally cast it (without even adding all the other assinine restrictions), then I cannot afford to use this mode.  In a world of push-button immortality, this is just not workable.  Worse, it feels like this could be the answer to Volt's extreme squishiness, but for all the hate built into it.

PLEASE NOTE:  I FULLY support the smaller size of Riot Shield.  If Volt had an animation for "carrying" the Shield, then I'd even feel alright with the main gun restriction.  HOWEVER, the rest of the "mitigating factors" felt like someone was DESPERATELY afraid that this would make Volt into some kind of aggressive, ability-based tactical shield tank-wait, this is what he should be, isn't it?  Please tone back the restrictions and energy cost DE.  There's a duration on the ability for a reason.  Also note that I'm not telling you that ALL the restrictions have to be pulled, but you really should have some Volt players judging what's overkill here.

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So I got to ranting, AGAIN.  Sorry there Archwizard.

TL;DR, you got most of the points we're harping on about and I'm VERY happy someone else was thinking baseline Volt needs more energy.  I'd just suggest that this rework needs to be FINISHED, and that more points and playtests need to be considered BEFORE then.

EDIT:  Both Speed and the passive are (now) built against the best feature you've added: Parkour 2.0, and I don't understand why this is.

I do recognize that Riot Shield was a very late addition, but given that it has the potential to be the best thing you've ever done for Volt I don't understand why cost-per-meter and a slow were EVER considered.  Like the loss of air speed and the passive, these changes negatively reflect on the most positive aspects of the rework.  These nerfs just reinforce the "build nothing but Speed" logic, rather than present options for alternative modes of play.

I build for a bit of everything I can manage thanks to the requirements for every stat in a Volt build.  Stretch is required for Discharge.  200% Strength is necessary for Speed, Shock, and Discharge.  160%+ Duration is just as necessary for everything BUT Shock, and I run Streamline probably out of habit.  If not for my Arcane Pulse helmet, I wouldn't even manage those Duration numbers.  This build is insane, and it's as close as I can manage to use every skill Volt has.  It works, but only just.

Wow. All the problems that Volt ever had in one post.

[Cytobel]

28 minutes ago, ElectronX_Core said:

Wow. All the problems that Volt ever had in one post.

Rant.  Posts are shorter and more to the point.  I keep ranting about Volt.

I really should hop over to the Mag superthread and sing the song of doom there instead.

Also, I assure you these are just the current issues.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Cytobel