Volt Rework Feedback [Post Update 18.13]

[KaeseSchnitte]

Pablo is working on a new PvE exclusive augment for Electric Shield that feeds absorbed damage into Volt's passive and allows teammates to pick up shields as well. While I absolutely welcome such an augment, I also think that the damage absorption should be a base functionality. Also, if the passive remains capped and triggers with weapon fire, the absorption will be greatly reduced in its effectiveness. Nonetheless, it strikes me how similar some parts of that proposed augment are to...

My Suggestion

 

Edited May 20, 2017 by KaeseSchnitte

[(PSN)CaptainIMalik]

Cool. 

[SigmaBlack]

Sooooooo... I've been told this is the place one comes to deliver suggestions about our beloved "'human' dynamo". I'm sure there will be a lot of ideas that have already been thought and posted, but ven so, I couldn't resist to take the challenge and contribute with a little grain of sand of my own.

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Okay folks, ladies and gents, here is yet another take on how to improve Volt to bring him up to the heights he really deserves as THE Master of the Lightning/Electric element.

First of all, I have to say that I LOVED Volt, both aesthetically and functionally, at the beginning, when I chose him as my first frame (note the past tense). I seriously thought that when leveled up, he would be one hell of a “caster” frame, both electrocuting and exploding everything at hand with awesome lightning bolts, chains and summoning storms to strike and smite down all his enemies.

I realized too late that his skills/abilities where nothing like I supposed them to be, that they were preset to be something much different. I really became disillusioned with him, realizing that I wouldn’t be able to seriously get him to the end of the star chart without suffering and struggling along all the way.

All in all, I was really disappointed to know that the proposed “alternative to gun play” was to be nothing like that whatsoever, that he would never achieve the capacity to actually do that. He was never to be that “elemental/primal force of nature” that he was advertised to be.

After that, I began to think: how could I, in my head, possibly come up with new ideas and ways to make him interesting, fun to play, to really make him a good option of tackling the game without having to depend on a specific build like the way he is now. How I would like him to be to be fun to play and capable of achieving things on his own.

Finally, all my iterations came down to what I’m going to present to you now. The whole concept is based on a fantasy theme: the Elementals, beings made out of pure and raw primal energies and substances, embodiments of the power the planes have over some of the fundamental aspects of creation. We have one for each basic element existent in the game (Ember, Frost, Volt and Saryn), but I cannot force myself to think of Volt as a natural commander of the forces of lightning, and instead seeing him only as a kind of “capacitor” or “dynamo”, a man-made machine only capable of creating and/or harnessing a weak (in comparison) electrical current. This of course deviates from the “Lord of Lightning” theme I want him to play, an all-powerful being who is in command of the all-powerful force of the devastating lightning storms a planetary atmosphere can create.

I hope you all enjoy the ideas, and of course feel free to discuss, contribute, ask and whatever other verb you can think of.

 

Volt, the Elemental Master of Storms

 

- Passive: Superconductor

Volt becomes supercharged with the electromagnetically charged particles of the ground and the atmosphere. Whenever he moves 2 meters/feet (don’t know the measure system the game has), he gets 1 charge/stack, which nets him an increase of +1% Electric damage on his abilities. If moving airborne, the charges/stacks received per same amount of distance traveled are doubled (explanation: there are more charged particles moving up in the atmosphere than in the ground surface). The maximum stored charges/stacks at any given time can’t excess 50 (meaning a net surplus of +50% Electric damage at max). While not moving, the charges begin to fade, lasting 5 seconds (no matter what) before a 10 seconds countdown, at the end of which they expire/fade (and one has to begin charging them up again).

 

- 1st ability: Lightning Bolt - Chain Lightning

I have two different iterations of this ability.

The first one would be a press/hold mechanism, which would in turn determine which ability gets used: you only press the key and the Lightning Bolt we all know and love gets fired; you press AND HOLD the key and the Lightning Bolt will keep being casted, like a channeled current, or more like the name, a Chain Lightning. It would still keep chaining like always, but the change would be that it would now transform to a channeled ability, draining power per second of cast and not a fixed amount. Of course, it would benefit from the new passive. We already have the mechanism for held/indefinite chaining with the Amprex primary weapon, so it would only mean transfer that effect to Volt’s 1. As I thought this ability like his primary means of doing and sustaining damage, it would mean that it can neither have too high a cost nor too high damage capabilities for it not being unbalanced, but still being capable of doing enough for him to consistently make it to the end of every mission having killed everything on his path, even heavy armored units, with just this one.

The second one would be a lot more radical on the take it has: activating the ability by holding down the key for X time would allow it to be equipped like a weapon, effectively negating the ability to hold a weapon of any other type while it’s active, and converting it to some sort of toggle-like ability, just like Excalibur, Valkyr or Wukong’s. Only difference with them would be that it’s no “ultimate” (no 4) and it doesn’t create a weapon, but instead gives him an Amprex-like capability for damage.

Whatever the iteration, I think the cost of the channeled capability shouldn’t exceed the 3 energy cost per second, as it isn’t that strong as, say, Ember’s 4. A little global damage buff would be nice too (no matter if “Bolt” or “Chain” form).

Dedicated Mod: Electrostatic. Enemies hit by the Lightning Bolt - Chain Lightning get a stacking debuff which lowers their Electric resistance by 10% per stack, up to a maximum of 5 stacks (-50% resistance at max). A stack is added every second the target is being damaged by the Chain or every time its hit by a Bolt. The debuff lasts 10 seconds.

 

- 2nd ability: Surge Speed

I like it, and furthermore, it’s part of his core (and only) functionality as of right now. Whenever I see a Volt or Volt Prime tackling the game, it’s always the same: high Duration-high Range (invariably the majority also try to run high Efficiency with the first two) to create massive speed boosts and massive Discharge stun range. But that’s it, it stays in that track and the only other possibility for him is to bring a high-damage weapon to keep up and kill something that’s either too far away to get caught in the Discharge radio or too heavily armored and/or with too much HP to be killed by the ability.

So, back to the ability itself, I would propose for it to stay, with just some minor tweaks to make it fully suited to the kit in mind. First, it wouldn’t kill it to have a base duration of 15 seconds at max (instead of 10 or less), and maybe a reduction of cost. The most important thing would come next: make it so everyone that is affected by this ability becomes totally (would be best) or at least partially invulnerable to slowing conditions, be they environmental or from another source (MOAs yellow-green goo pools, Frost Eximus auras, etc).

Dedicated Mod: Enervating Current. Killing an enemy while affected by Speed Surge resets its duration to maximum and adds 1 second to the count, up to a maximum of +10 seconds.

 

- 3rd ability: Voltaic Shield

This is the most altered ability of my kit, and I changed it because I really think this is the most inconsequential ability he has right now. My version would turn out to be an overlay energy shield over Volt’s form, much like a physical aura, with the property of transforming incoming damage to Energy (resource for casting abilities), and when the Energy bar is full, the excess of damage taken would then go to fuel his Shield (at the left side of Life, the blue pool). For this the ability would have, very much as it has now, a life pool of its own (500-1000-1500-2000 would be my theoretical numbers), which would deplete on a 1:1 ratio with damage taken so as to not overpower the gains over the damage.

This one change is made with a single purpose in mind: sustainability. Thinking about how he would sustain his higher energy usage with the new set of skills (because as a full caster he will be burning energy fast while casting away all the time), and how channeled abilities work (he won’t be able to actively gain energy while attacking unless from orbs), I think this one hits a nice spot for the moments he can and will be hit, promptly recharging him to be able to dish out more damage.

Dedicated Mod: Overcharge. If Volt is under the effect of Voltaic Shield, casting it again before the ability loses all its health will instead deplete all his Shield/Power to recharge nearby allies Shield/Power for the same amount he lost. The core function of the mod would be trading his own sustainability to help his allies sustainability (if Power) or survivability (if Shield).

 

- 4th ability (Ultimate): Terrabolt / Wrath of the Heavens

Here it comes, the grand finale. I wanted to maintain part of the functionality of Discharge, while at the same time turning the ability into his nuke for that one moment when the enemy calls for heavy fire to be dished out. Much like Frost’s Avalanche in a way. While still being able to proc both Electric and Impact status for X time (Electric was thinking along the lines of 10 seconds while Impact at 5 seconds), it would be an AoE ability that would call for a heavy thunderstorm to lash out at the enemies in an area of X meters/feet around Volt, both damaging and procing them while its active (5 to 10 seconds max). The beauty is that even the FX is already available in the game (was thinking about the thunders that fall on Ceres open areas, like on Seimeni). Of course, it would also benefit from the new passive I’ve given him.

Dedicated Mod: Giga Pulse. If Volt is under the influence of Surge Speed when casting his 4th, it consumes it to do double damage; if he’s under the influence of Voltaic Shield, it consumes it to extend both procs for 5 more seconds. If under the influence of both abilities, he consumes both to deliver both effects simultaneously.

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I hope its all understandable and well written. I'll apologize in advance for any mistake I've committed; English is not my native language and so I had to do with what I knew. In any case, just ask and it will be answered :)

Edited May 22, 2017 by SigmaBlack

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

On 5/18/2017 at 5:39 PM, Kotsender_Quasimir said:

i don't believe that has anything to do with popularity but rather with more people feeling volt being well balanced than oberon. because people mostly provide feedback to get things changed to what they think could be better.

while i also think there still are rough edges to be attended to (especially in the qol department): yes.

But i like oberon....am i that out of touch? Yeah, his healing is costly. But if it wasnt, what would be the point of trinities ultimate? Sheilds? Who needs those? His one seems to do just as much damage to lvl 40 enemies as lvl 4 enemies, im not looking to hard or doing math, at least its not fireball. 3rd and 4th good.

Guess what oberon can still do?

He can still cast his ultimate in the air.

His passive was touched up. Still focused on pets, but it was improved.

He got no hard stop limitations thrown in to balance every pisitive thing done for him.

Hes not a training wheel frame destined for use only by beginning tenno.

He doesnt have terrain in game that desplays electricity doing the things his abilities say they do but dont.

He feels complete to play, easier to mod, a better frame. I always liked oberon, but volt was my main because electricity is cool. That was it.

Edited May 22, 2017 by (PS4)WINDMILEYNO
People must just be mad he has no hard cc

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

1 hour ago, SigmaBlack said:

I hope its all understandable and well written. I'll apologize in advance for any mistake I've committed; English is not my native language and so I had to do with what I knew. In any case, just ask and it will be answered :)

I only read the first and passive. I will read more but yes. Yes. 

This massively reduces and even penalizes the camping playstyle forced onto volt from the moment his rework was released. 

That i approve.

Reading continues.

[(PSN)Joshhwwaaaaaa]

I miss the Volt Riot Shield + Kulstar combo but now that it sucks energy down fast it's worthless. It should take no energy to carry it around and other players should be able to pick up the shields too (4 man riot teams). 

OR

Why should Frost be the only one with a bubble shield? Have Volt join Frost in the goodness that is shield bubbles. (For balancing they would probably have to be on the small side.)

Final thoughts:

I'm okay with Volt Speed and Volt Ultimate. (Giving players choices for Volt Speed is good though.)

It would be cool if I could use "Force Lightning" for power 1 by holding it down and the damage ticked up over time and shot out like the Amprex. (Do this for all power 1's really, built in flamethrower for Ember, built in freeze spray for Frost, etc.)

[SigmaBlack]

20 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

I only read the first and passive. I will read more but yes. Yes. 

This massively reduces and even penalizes the camping playstyle forced onto volt from the moment his rework was released. 

That i approve.

Reading continues.

Thank you for taking the time to read it :)

Still waiting for your thoughts on the rest!

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

4 hours ago, SigmaBlack said:

Thank you for taking the time to read it :)

Still waiting for your thoughts on the rest!

We are talking about chain lightning (cool), holding the lightning in your hand (cool) sheild being on volt and giving sheilds (cool) and then the ultimate is a lightning storm attack. This is not against you at all (great idea) but one thing that i will never forgive DE for is ripping off an attack from Cole, and giving it to Vor, not Volt. He does this...mission where you meet ordis...

[Vafthrudnir]

6 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

We are talking about chain lightning (cool), holding the lightning in your hand (cool) sheild being on volt and giving sheilds (cool) and then the ultimate is a lightning storm attack. This is not against you at all (great idea) but one thing that i will never forgive DE for is ripping off an attack from Cole, and giving it to Vor, not Volt. He does this...mission where you meet ordis...

Vor is better than Volt at lightning(and Vauban too, he surpasses Mag at magnetics too).

The electric granades he throws are sick, I'd love them as weapon or ability.

Edited May 23, 2017 by giovanniluca

[FitzSimmons]

4 minutes ago, giovanniluca said:

Vor is better than Volt at lightning(and Vauban too, he surpasses Mag at magnetics too).

vor surpassed loki and ash at teleportation too

[Vafthrudnir]

9 minutes ago, FitzSimmons said:

vor surpassed loki and ash at teleportation too

Also his bubble shield makes him invulnerable and he has clones.

Man warframes suck.

Edited May 23, 2017 by giovanniluca

[RahuHordika]

I think one of the things that DE needs to define and set up for once is his description, for what he is supposed to do.

It seems minor but I think one of the main problems is how split the community is on what they want him to be. To me honestly it would be an important first step for DE to define what they want him to be and then rebalance or rework him based around that concept in mind.

Change (or keep) his description and use that concept as a basis to what changes should be made to him and what role he should fill.

[Inmemoratus]

Makes me sad to see all this hate on Volt. I thought that by now people would have realized he's a lot stronger than before his rework. He's been my go-to frame ever since his remake.

I suspect that a lot of the people who don't think he's strong enough aren't playing Volt Prime. Unfortunately, his non-prime version is way too squishy. Volt Prime can achieve good survivability with Quick Thinking, but standard Volt can't. He has half the energy pool and only 15 armor. He does have a respectable shield but it's not sufficient on its own.

When people say his CC/utility isn't reliable or he's not as focused as other frames, they're not wrong. But I don't see these as problems. To me his true focus is damage output. I usually have highest damage dealt after every mission with him. His utility may be unfocused and unreliable but that's because utility is not his focus. His focus is damage output from Speed or Electric Shield.

He's very good with the right mods and weapons. I have a lot of frames to choose from and I honestly think Volt Prime is one of my top 3 for most of the content.

Another reason I think that the stats are important is that even before his remake the increased stats on Volt Prime + Quick Thinking made him worth it for me. I started with Volt and he was my favorite but as I got new frames I found it hard to see him as viable. After I got Volt Prime he shot to the top of my list. The remake came soon after but in terms of overall effectiveness it wasn't nearly as much of a factor for me. I love the remake in terms of style and mechanics but the bottom line is people won't enjoy a frame if its stats are too weak.

DE, I encourage you to consider buffing Volt's stats to be closer to Volt Prime's stats. Either that or look at his abilities and see what could be done to give him additional survivability. Other frames are far more forgiving in terms of survival, but Volt is squishy so you have to be on point with your E shields and your positioning 100% of the time.

[GeometricBison]

6 hours ago, Inmemoratus said:

Makes me sad to see all this hate on Volt. I thought that by now people would have realized he's a lot stronger than before his rework. He's been my go-to frame ever since his remake.

Hate on Volt? On this thread? Dude, this thread exists because we all love Volt and we want to see him given the proper buffs he needs to at least be on Excalibur's level. The only good thing that came out of the rework was his shield increasing a weapon's critical damage, none of his other problems were addressed. His one doesn't scale with duration and always seems to go where you aren't aiming when you cast it, his 2 is still way too short, his 3 is... well the only real problem with it now is the energy drain on the riot shield, it's way too high, and his 4 is to unreliable and inconsistent. All I want is for a new player to look at Volt as a viable starter rather than second best.

P.S. I use Volt Prime. Weird, huh?

[MudShadow]

the duration on his 2 is short, but that's a positive. Because the ability can be recast on itself. You don't want a long duration it would just lock the player into a speed boost.

The riot shield only uses a lot of energy if you don't have good duration and efficiency. 170 efficiency and 100 duration and the riot shield takes virtually no energy at all.

Discharge could use some tweaking. It's in the same spot as magnetize really in that its casting animation is too long for the amount of dmg/cc it produces.

[GeometricBison]

3 hours ago, MudShadow said:

the duration on his 2 is short, but that's a positive. Because the ability can be recast on itself. You don't want a long duration it would just lock the player into a speed boost.

The riot shield only uses a lot of energy if you don't have good duration and efficiency. 170 efficiency and 100 duration and the riot shield takes virtually no energy at all.

Discharge could use some tweaking. It's in the same spot as magnetize really in that its casting animation is too long for the amount of dmg/cc it produces.

How is it being short a good thing? If you don't want speed don't cast speed, and if it's another Volt in the party casting speed you can backflip out of it.

The riot shield not only slows you done (which makes no sense) but also drains energy as you move. Sure it might not cost much energy with 170% efficiency and 100% duration, but if you take a step or activate speed  to move faster or just move at all, you can kiss your energy goodbye.

Discharge is bad because it's inconsistent due to it's damage cap. I agree with you about the casting animation being too long, but that's not it's only problem.

[Vafthrudnir]

Speed frame, takes shield, goes slow.

And building power strenght increases your energy consumption since you go faster.

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

I want:

To cast discharge in the air.

Better options for modding

At least 5 more seconds on speed

No power cast delays

For volt to get the same work and feed back analysis oberon got

A passive that only deals damage on ability and melee hits, not on primary or secondary.

For tesla coiled enemies to stay on the ground if knocked over instead of getting back up to then shake in place, allowing for finishers. (In fact, tesla coiled targets are incapable of defending themselves, so.....)

For tesla coiled containers to break apart the way circuitry containers do, and be affected by shock, as of now shock does not actually "explode" them.

 For the "explosion" to look more like a disabled grineer arc trap instead of a miniature version of the horrendous visual effect that was on banshees sound quake.

A tesla coiled container to include more of the surrounding environment than just loot crates, as ressource caches and lockers dont count right now.

For tesla coiled enemies to actually shock each other, something closer to how arc traps work.

For Volt to have a real sheild bash like grineer lancers instead of having to run into enemies. And you HAVE to run, as walking towards them does nothing, but moving faster with the sheild takes more energy, so more energy sucking for a not so worthwhile result.

For volt to have only 3 limitations on electric sheild. 

For discharge to leave Volt less vulnerable. Oberon can still cast his ultimate in the air, with means he can always keep moving, which is good because he is squishy, Saryn also can. Ill throw my controller through my tv if i test it out on banshee and find her ultimate is not ground locked. Why is volt limited in this way? A new animation is needed, if not a repeal of the decision to make discharge limited to ground use only.

For Volt to be able to not suck.

[GeometricBison]

18 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

I want:

To cast discharge in the air.

Better options for modding

At least 5 more seconds on speed

No power cast delays

For volt to get the same work and feed back analysis oberon got

A passive that only deals damage on ability and melee hits, not on primary or secondary.

For tesla coiled enemies to stay on the ground if knocked over instead of getting back up to then shake in place, allowing for finishers. (In fact, tesla coiled targets are incapable of defending themselves, so.....)

For tesla coiled containers to break apart the way circuitry containers do, and be affected by shock, as of now shock does not actually "explode" them.

 For the "explosion" to look more like a disabled grineer arc trap instead of a miniature version of the horrendous visual effect that was on banshees sound quake.

A tesla coiled container to include more of the surrounding environment than just loot crates, as ressource caches and lockers dont count right now.

For tesla coiled enemies to actually shock each other, something closer to how arc traps work.

For Volt to have a real sheild bash like grineer lancers instead of having to run into enemies. And you HAVE to run, as walking towards them does nothing, but moving faster with the sheild takes more energy, so more energy sucking for a not so worthwhile result.

For volt to have only 3 limitations on electric sheild. 

For discharge to leave Volt less vulnerable. Oberon can still cast his ultimate in the air, with means he can always keep moving, which is good because he is squishy, Saryn also can. Ill throw my controller through my tv if i test it out on banshee and find her ultimate is not ground locked. Why is volt limited in this way? A new animation is needed, if not a repeal of the decision to make discharge limited to ground use only.

For Volt to be able to not suck.

Everything you just said, yes.

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

7 hours ago, GeometricBison said:

Everything you just said, yes.

Volts rework was almost as dissapointing as M.Knights failed film adaptaption of Atla

[Cryone]

So Shield augment is out. Suddenly it's quite a thing that could change a bit something but nothing. Still kinda dissapointment, yeah it gives you almost instant 1000 bonus damage based on damage absorbtion ecc., but the big problem is that it's still does nothing. Still better have a mod slot for Capacitance.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Cryone

[Vafthrudnir]

Volt is clearly the worst buffer together with Titania, Octavia does everything better(not speed)and does damage too, what's the use of placing a shield if the whole squad goes invisible and the enemies kill themselves.

[Hypernaut1]

The augment shouldn't have a damage cap. I don't see how it would be game breaking, itd only discharged on one shot.

[KiroTheTraveler]

Man in the wall to DE:

Hey kiddo.

[Vafthrudnir]

5 hours ago, CaptainStrawberry said:

Man in the wall to DE:

Oh I see, it's Volt left in the wall because he's abandoned there.