Ash, Bladestorm, And Practicality

[Buddlschlumpf]

The same can be said of practically every ultimate in the game (with the exception of miasma)... if we're talking about high level defense (which you seem to be alluding to) the only viable powers are CC skills not direct damage dealing powers

we are talking about any level. On low levels bladestorm is even worse. 1 kill per second is THAT slow if you put some decent mods on any weapon in the game, you can kill faster.

[ROSING]

What I found to be pretty useful synergy is the rhino stomp, of anyone still uses that

When I was on a defense mission, the rhino would suspend the guys and I, the ash, would use bladestorm to mop them up. It worked pretty well.

[Fiaryn]

Bladestorm fix idea: Have the start up have ash hold one hand up for a second before dropping a smoke bomb. Ash disappears for 2-3 seconds, All black smoke clones attack a large amount of enemies with the cool new animations. Everyone wins, visually distinctive while still using the new animations, extremely unique while being on par with the new warframes' powerful abilities. 

 

This is functionally identical to what is in the OP, for the most part.

[Mhak]

Or, you could play a Warframe equally capable of stopping the enemy at or away from the Cryopod. Opportunity costs like this are why the Ash is merely an average, bordering on low tier Warframe. The fact that, by choosing to play an Ash, you are opting not to play a Warframe that is all in all more capable.

 

I also continue to shake my head at the notion that a "tank" is an actual niche in this game. It isn't.

Oh well obviously, of course it goes unspoken for that everybody treats Warframe as an E-sports game, and they don't play it to have fun, they practice to get better. In that line, nobody plays anything except Vaubans, Frosts, Nyxs and Saryns. I wasn't sure why I was bothering to talk about the utility of less-than-optimal warframes, because after all nobody uses them because they are not meta.

 

I sincerely agree with your head-shaking in regards to how warframes cannot tank. Drawing agro away from weaker teammates, protecting objectives or teammates with skills like Snow Globe, having high shields, health, and armor, none of those things coincide with the classical definitions of what a tank is and does. None whatsoever.

[Rabidbluedeath]

I love my bladestom, aside from the animation additions that are coming I don't think it needs much if anything. If I wanted a press 4 to instadeath everything by me like EVERY OTHER FRAME (except trinity and loki) I would play a different frame. I don't know how Ash ended up as "mid bordering on low tier" especially when 99% of people don't know how they were tested. When they test these frames how are they modded? If they are putting stretch on saryn and banshee but not on excal then complaining about his radial blind's lack of range its a worthless test. Bladestorm is a unique ultimate, with different mechanics; a storm of blades, blood and dismemberment. It can be cast on enemies further away than a vauban can throw a vortex im sure, and doesn't jack with team mates. I also don't know why people say it scales horribly. it does 1000 dmg at max, 1300 with focus; I've never had trouble killing anything other than heavies with it. Anyone that says they can do 16,900 damage in ~15 seconds with "decently geared weapons" is on crack, max dmg mods and multi shot isnt "decent" its an endgame fully upgraded weapon. Your also invulnerable while its going off.

Ash's contribution to the team is 13,000-16,900 guaranteed damage in a pretty short amount of time, if the pod dies during that time maybe the rest of your team should be guarding it not off doing who knows what, at any other time I fail to see any downside to it.

 

TLDR: Quit freaking out over what some people voted on then posted bladestorm is fine. 

[Tetsmeha]

To be honest I'd like bladestorm more if it was more like Juggernaut's Omnislash from DOTA

 

[49616E]

I think the teleporting should be so fast you don't really see it happening, like Vergil's super in MvC3

 

On a related note, I pretty much hate all the 4th powers.

 

I like this idea the best!

[Vangate]

Let us be honest, Ash is a typical loner warframe - most of his skills are effective both at long and short range and commonly are equally devastating, he also has excellent mobility, armor and health rating. He is on par with Loki - a trickster, but far more a lethal one.

[lstalri]

After using Ash on some Endless Defense lvl 60+ waves, I kind of gained a new respect for him.  Being able to cast his ulti from far away and being armor ignoring are definite buffs to it compared to other ulti's, however (assides from the bug that you can still take damage on your last hit, and most likely die in 1 hit in most situations when you're actually going to use this ulti) it's actual dps quickly drops off because of the insane cast time.  Definitely an issue that needs to be looked into. 

[DiabolusUrsus]

I have no issue with increasing the speed at which Blade Storm completes, and I think the idea of 'afterimages' is pretty damn cool. I like the idea of Blade Storm feeling like it is so fast you can be in multiple places at once.

However, I cannot agree with the idea that you should make it into something that mirrors every other freaking ultimate ability in the game. Instead of homogenizing ultimates by making Blade Storm function in a similar manner, I'd say a better move would be to alter other ultimates so that they aren't just "MASSIVE AOE BURST DAMAGE, YEAH!"

Have Saryn's Miasma become an infectious plage that deals a bit less overall damage but jumps across targets within a certain distance from each target it infects, and reduce armor ratings by a massive percentage.

Have Banshee's Sound Quake ragdoll enemies in addition to damaging them, rather than just stunning them.

Have Frost's Avalanche actually sweep enemies away, opening up opportunities for grouping them up for execution, or providing defensive breathing room.

Have Rhino's Rhino Stomp disable enemy resistances during their duration.

I don't know, my ideas for changes to Warframe ultimates are probably crap. I don't have anything good for the specifics, and it's completely understandable that AOE burst damage moves are the easiest to generate and implement. However I don't think that building Warframes for the best possible burst damage output and simply trying to out-kill your teammates on each use will make for a very interesting metagame. Other games do that, and it's okay because they are more competitively oriented. Other people are your enemies, not the computer.

With Co-Op focused games like Warframe, I'd rather see ultimate abilities encourage people to think creatively about how they can use Ultimates in conjunction with other actions, be they different abilities, teammates and their abilities, weapons or even the environment to most effectively destroy things.

[S3raph]

Vauban can throw his Vortex so Ash is not the only Frame that can use an ulti as a PBAoE.

 

Vauban can throw his Vortex across a room?? Didn't think so...

[Voidpunker]

I personally think we should keep the long animation. Just add target priority, increase the range, or allow the player to decide who gets a teleporting Ash blade to the face.

[Mainabi]

I personally thin bladestorm should be able to hit the same target 3x or more

[SmokinDice]

I personally thin bladestorm should be able to hit the same target 3x or more

 

THIS.

make it a Juggernaut (DotA) Ultimate.. allow it to hit the same target maybe twice (so it wont one shot bosses) so you can kill late game heavy units. and maybe speed it up juuust a littl and add 2-4 more jumps due to new hit twice mechanic.

[BadPoetry]

I'd prefer just a new animation with a faster cast time and a more effective targeting system. I think Blade Storm is not the problem with Ash. Frankly I only ever use 1 and 4 because any slot I could fill with 2 or 3 could be used for something better or more points to boost 4 to do the job far better. He's a stealth frame with basically no real function in stealth?

The suggestion of afterimages makes me think more like Mach Speed's extra functions in Viewtiful Joe. Boosting to give that ability would be so very fresh.

Edited July 4, 2013 by BadPoetry

[ASH_PRIME]

NO THANKS

Its perhaps the most unique uber in the game..the LAST thing i want is just another lame NUKE Move

the fact that it takes some TIME actually makes it MORE useful not LESS

[Senescence]

Why not turn it into a buff? 
First thing I thought of when I heard blade storm would be getting multiple hits off as quick as possible

So instead of Teleport everywhere and stab,
All other skills would not drain energy while its activated
allowing CC with tele and shuriken
ash would get +2,+4,+6 (etc base on lvl of bladestorm) phantom blade for every strike and increase the range of melee
maybe even add phantom to shurikens too

add smokescreen on activation and the damage issue should be address