A Proposed Soul Survivor (Nekros) Buff

[Xavier]

tl;dr - Soul Survivor is an augment with more cost than benefit at the moment. We can fix that by increasing the health amount when revived (from 30% to something like 50% or higher).

Hi everyone!

I've been playing a lot of Nekros which has resulted in me brainstorming alternative builds to take advantage of his awesome support potential. The health sustain from his Desecrate is not insubstantial, his Terrify is excellent CC especially with the armor stripping, and his Shadows are both thematic and effective when properly modded. And the additional loot drops is always nice, regardless of whatever build you happen to be running.

However, his "Soul Punch" stands out as an obvious weakness in his kit. The impact damage does not scale well into late game, and the single-target nature of the ability does not lend it well to hoards and hoards of exilus enemies. I think that the augment "Soul Survivor" is an amazing means to help give Nekros' kit viability as a support in late game environments; however, I think that the current implementation of "Soul Survivor" makes its cost outweigh its benefit. Let's take a look at the current cost-benefit analysis: I, as a Nekros player, have to give up a non-exilus mod slot and all of my current energy pool (this is the cost) in order to gain the ability to instantly revive downed allies at 30% of their maximum health at maximum rank (this is the benefit).

If we compare this to something like the New Moon active in the Vazarin focus school, New Moon provides the ability to instantly revive downed allies at no energy cost and without an additional mod equipped after Mending Tides has been cast at least once during the mission. The obvious differences are that New Moon is not available immediately at the start of the mission, access to the ability is gated behind late-game focus farming, and there are a finite amount of revives. However, I think this ability clearly highlights the weaknesses of Nekros' role as a non-desecrate-spam support: I'm incentivized as a Nekros player to simply change my focus school and take advantage of the active available to all warframes rather than use the augment specifically designed to help improve a certain aspect of my kit. If that's the case, then I think this augment is currently failing at contributing to the unique identity that Nekros establishes as a warframe.

My proposition is this: keep the energy cost; I think it's an appropriate mediation to prevent abuse of the augment in extreme circumstances. But increase the percentage of maximum health which allies receive when they are revived. I would love for Soul Survivor to revive at maximum health (100%), but can also see how providing such a buff may blur the niche which Vazarin maintains as the "healer" school. I would argue that a buff of this magnitude would still be balanced out by the cost of the current energy pool and the mod slot, but I'm curious what you guys think as well! However, even a buff to something like half (50%) health would greatly improve the effectiveness of this augment and help establish Nekros' position as a well-rounded support.

Let me know what you guys think (or if there's anyone else out that that plays Nekros for more than just his Desecrate like I do x3).

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P.S. To my fellow Nekros players (all two of you), Mogamu made an excellent video exploring the possibilities of different Nekros builds that I felt would be appropriate to include in this thread. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/mC9bqXK9Y6w

Edited July 1, 2016 by Xavier_Rayne

[TaylorsContraction]

Have you used soul punch? Yes its damage sucks but it is very good cx. It knocks back the enemy and everyone in their flight path. Coupled with fear it makes for a very strong skill.

[ashrah]

i use soul punch a lot high lvl toxin ancient is walking death if come u close ... u go down in sec and soul pounch will save u many times its not about dmg....its utility..

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

Which Focus tree did the same thing, reviving teammates instantly, -for free-?

 

More health would be a good Start i guess... reducing the ridiculous energy cost is hardly avoidable tho.

[ZaneCyber]

More health would be a boon but that's not exactly what makes the skill iffy.

When you revive a teammate, they have a short period of invulnerability as to not go down immediately, Soul Survivor lacks this, often enough the revived target goes back down in second.

The energy cost is fine, since Despoil + Equilibrium is all that is needed in terms of efficiency on Nekros-Kun.

[(PSN)MrNishi]

Soul Punch by itself is fine.

Soul Survivor would be better for me if it soft-homed while ally was down in front of you.

 

Also, I think Nekros would greatly benefit if the Augments were slotted on the abilities they were 'augmenting' rather than consuming a Mod slot.

Despoil is practically a staple mod for Nekros as it works so well with his passive, and if Soul Survivor did not cost a Mod slot, it would weake the Vazarin quick pick-up passive when playing as Nekros.

[Xavier]

11 hours ago, ZaneCyber said:

When you revive a teammate, they have a short period of invulnerability as to not go down immediately, Soul Survivor lacks this, often enough the revived target goes back down in second.

I didn't know that; that feels like it should be in a bug report. Perhaps I'll make a thread there in the future!

6 hours ago, (PS4)MrNishi said:

Also, I think Nekros would greatly benefit if the Augments were slotted on the abilities they were 'augmenting' rather than consuming a Mod slot.

This is one of those things that I think is leading to Damage 3.0 (soon TM). When there are so many this-is-so-good-it's-necessary mods in a build, it severely limits the flexibility and creativity of individual players as well as impeding their ability to create the best build to fit their individualized playstyle. Perhaps we will see the scope of Damage 3.0 extend to warframe modification eventually. But at the pace DE is going, we're in for a long wait...

Edited July 2, 2016 by Xavier_Rayne