BLADESTORM: Does it really NEED to Change?

[Rhaenxys]

He has the problem of old mesa`s peacemaker, his fourth ability requires little to no effort while being rewarding for not doing anything.

Plus the damage potential is extremely absurd, high finisher damage with bleed DoTs (affected by his passive and combo counter), all for pressing a button, there is no argument to justify all of this.

Yeah keep the damage if you want but it should require way more player skill to achieve than just pressing a button, i dont know how people can even defend the current situation with bladestorm.

 

[BlackCoMerc]

Very good thoughts here, both ways.

Myself, I am not opposed to a change, per se.

I am opposed to simply summoning clones and having them kill for you, while you just...wander around. How would that be BETTER and MORE interactive? Alas, it looks like that is what DE wants to do. Which I find incredibly lazy and boring. Hopefully, they will change their mind.

I personally like the idea of an ability like so:

-Ash enters into Bladestorm Mode

-He uses Arm Blades

-Cost is 25 Energy per Strike (yes its high)

-He deals 2000 Finisher damage on every strike (max level), OR damage scales with melee mods, auras and counter combo.

-As part of the stance, he can teleport up to 3m to reach an enemy if needed

-Blocking in this mode reflects projectiles back to their source, dealing 25% of their original damage

-Ash gains +25% movement speed while performing strikes, and is 75% harder to hit while attacking (but not while simply moving around)

-Teleporting to a target while this mode is active, will perform a Finisher on the target (Fatal Teleport would need a rework, yes, I agree)

 

This would be an interactive mode that would preserve his role as Assassin, not a straight up fighter. You toggle it on to kill, not  to duel or fight.

[ashrah]

i played ash a lot on amny builds.....and after u cast blade storm couple times u get bored...some cool rework is ok...  at least for refreshing factor

[Nazrethim]

7 minutes ago, BlackCoMerc said:

Very good thoughts here, both ways.

Myself, I am not opposed to a change, per se.

I am opposed to simply summoning clones and having them kill for you, while you just...wander around. How would that be BETTER and MORE interactive? Alas, it looks like that is what DE wants to do. Which I find incredibly lazy and boring. Hopefully, they will change their mind.

I personally like the idea of an ability like so:

-Ash enters into Bladestorm Mode

-He uses Arm Blades

-Cost is 25 Energy per Strike (yes its high)

-He deals 2000 Finisher damage on every strike (max level), OR damage scales with melee mods, auras and counter combo.

-As part of the stance, he can teleport up to 3m to reach an enemy if needed

-Blocking in this mode reflects projectiles back to their source, dealing 25% of their original damage

-Ash gains +25% movement speed while performing strikes, and is 75% harder to hit while attacking (but not while simply moving around)

-Teleporting to a target while this mode is active, will perform a Finisher on the target (Fatal Teleport would need a rework, yes, I agree)

 

This would be an interactive mode that would preserve his role as Assassin, not a straight up fighter. You toggle it on to kill, not  to duel or fight.

Eliminates his crowd-clearing capabilities and reward E-spam (because everyone will be full efficiency all over again).

The only way to somewhat make Fleeting Expertise an actual gain/lose option is to make Duration a valuable stat, so no toggles.

Compare to my Ash Rework idea:

Spoiler

Hello everyone.

This is a suggestion to rework Ash. I try to aim for these aspects:

- He must keep his theme:

"This is Ash, lethal and elusive. Ash can remain unseen, but his effects on the battlefield can be felt by all. Keep an eye out, Tenno." -Lotus

-The ability set must synergize but at the same time the abilities must not require other abilities to actually work.

- Must be interactive

- Shouldn't require more than a stat tweak to work in Conclave, remaining mechanically the same

- Must be simple to use, but at the same time allow for skilled players some crazy tactical stuff.

4-Bladestorm:

Cost: 100

"Ash goes on a rampage, unleashing the power of his hidden blades and martial fury upon enemies."

Ash enters into Bladestorm stance, consisting of fast and vicious attacks with his hidden blades which inflict deadly Bleed procs on every hit. Finishing an enemy will make Ash summon shadowy copies of himself to execute nearby enemies. Ash gains increased mobility and evasive capabilities while in Bladestorm mode. Bladestorm lasts 20s

- Bladestorm  stats: 100 Slash damage with 20% Crit chance.

- Affected by Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance/Damage and Channeling mods (not affected by Elemental mods and Shadow Debt Event mods)

- 100% Chance to inflict a Bleed proc on hit

- 'Pause' Combo opens enemies to Finisher.

- 'RMB' Combo focus on covering ground for fast maneuvering

- Performing a Finisher to an enemy will spawn 1/2/3/4 shadowy copies of Ash to finish nearby enemies. Copies deal the same damage Ash deals with the Finisher attack and only attack once per Finisher.

-If Ash is affected by Smoke Screen the copies will be invisible and will grant Stealth Kill Affinity buff if they execute unalerted enemies.

-While in Bladestorm Ash gains 20% Sprint, Bulletjump, Wall latch, Aimglide. And Sidespring and Backspring evasive maneuvers are speed up by 50%

- Cannot be canceled manually.

Rising Storm (Augment): While Bladestorm is active: Combo counter duration is increased by 10s and Ash gains 5% attack speed per instance of the Melee Combo Counter.

Conclave:

-60 Slash damage

-Affected by melee mods (including Sword Alone)

-100% chance to inflict a 3s Bleed proc on hit

-While in Bladestorm Ash gains 20% Bulletjump, Wall Latch, Aimglide. And Sidespring and Backspring evasive maneuvers are speed up by 50%

-Lasts 10s

-Ash cannot collect pickups nor cancel Bladestorm manually.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2016 by Nazrethim

[bWild]

People forget that by pressing 4 you achieve nothing because you need a target. You have to watch where the targets are and use the bladestorm on the target where other targets are nearby. It also ports you back to your initial location so using it for interception missions is quiet usefull. It is not like other ultimates are better designed because they are using a radius around the caster. I think that blade storm has a much better mechanic then avalanche or world on fire because you actually have to watch where to use it. Ash is build up around Bladestorm. You can make a smoke build but in my opinion bladestorm defines him. He is a damage dealer. He is that guy who jumps around and kill people. This should not change.

In my opinion bladestorm is fine if people would be allowed to shoot the targets of bladestorm. It is the only issue I have when playing with an Ash. Therefor decrease the damage of his ultimate a bit and keep it like it is. 

[DeadlyBard676]

Yeah if they only took off the invincibility and made it where the mobs in its AoE were killable by outside sources(and it just searched for a new target), it would be fine.

tho i would miss Being an Inaros and devouring a heavy mob and the ashes just continuously attack it and push it outside the bounds of the map. It's hilarious.

[Thebel]

Biggest change it needs, to stop making mobs invincible so it doesn't break the flow so much for your team.

[rytisrytis]

Blade Storm needs a rework, don't be afraid of change :) change is good

[JalakBali]

How is hitting a button and watching a movie make for a fun game?

 

Bladestorm needs a rework like Peacemaker did. Its problem is not that it's powerful, but how un-interactive it is. It should stay as powerful, but it needs to make the players do things instead of pressing a single button every 4 seconds. Also, the real reason Ash Bladestorm build is popular is not because it is such a fun, powerful ability. It's because it is safe. You could activate it from far away and while you're doing the attacks, you're invulnerable. Balance in games like this should be: high risk high reward, low risk low reward.

[(PSN)martin576]

2 hours ago, (XB1)Oussii said:

loooool

If you are worried about affinity, then don't worry you will share it

If you are playing in a squad, last time i checked, the objective of the mission was for SURE not who kills more,

But get the mission done

And if ash does it faster, let it be

May I ask why the hell you're telling this to me?

[Kastorius]

The Bladestorm nerf is coming, and there's absolutely nothing trAsh Prime mains can do about it. No quantity of complaint threads will prevent it.

Personally, I do hope that the rework will make trAsh more fun to play, rather than less. I played him a great deal when I was new, for his invisibility, speed, and teleportation with good survivability. I'd like to have a reason to play him again.

However, Bladestorm needs to go. It's obnoxious, it's mindless, it locks down groups of enemies before they're killed so that teammates can't use abilities requiring a target (EV, for example) and/or waste their time and ammo before they notice trAsh flipping around above their heads... and frankly, even at high Power Strength, Bladestorm is overall slower than most other efficient methods of killing, especially now that endless Void missions have been removed.

[highfirelifez23]

2 hours ago, rytisrytis said:

Blade Storm needs a rework, don't be afraid of change :) change is good

I agree , I hope it comes soon... I really don't know how they're (DE) gonna fix this but i just hope once it arrives all the hate will go away (It probably won't) and that this topic doesn't have to show itself again, I'm an ash player and other players immediately assume that i spam BS (which i don't ) and I really want that to stop.  :P   (I'm not the only one right?)

[CY13ERPUNK]

i do want it to be more interactive, but at the same time, its an ULT, what do ppl expect? 

i dont want it to lose all of the awesome custom animations that were created for it 

and currently, it seems that no one can figure out how to make it not just a carbon copy of another ability =/ 

 

[Nazrethim]

57 minutes ago, highfirelifez23 said:

I agree , I hope it comes soon... I really don't know how they're (DE) gonna fix this but i just hope once it arrives all the hate will go away (It probably won't) and that this topic doesn't have to show itself again, I'm an ash player and other players immediately assume that i spam BS (which i don't ) and I really want that to stop.  :P   (I'm not the only one right?)

You are not alone.

[rytisrytis]

1 hour ago, highfirelifez23 said:

I agree , I hope it comes soon... I really don't know how they're (DE) gonna fix this but i just hope once it arrives all the hate will go away (It probably won't) and that this topic doesn't have to show itself again, I'm an ash player and other players immediately assume that i spam BS (which i don't ) and I really want that to stop.  :P   (I'm not the only one right?)

Yes you are not alone :) 

[Omnipower]

I dont know if its "fun" for others but maybe his 4 should be something like, i probably gonna hated for this, League of Legends Katarina's ult where he spins in place killing any enemies that come in range....oh better yet think inaros but instead of sand his blades are flying towards any enemy in range basically it will rely on all 4 modifiers and while he has it active he takes 90% less dmg. Good idea or bad or at best feasible?

[BlackCoMerc]

4 hours ago, Nazrethim said:

Eliminates his crowd-clearing capabilities and reward E-spam (because everyone will be full efficiency all over again).

The only way to somewhat make Fleeting Expertise an actual gain/lose option is to make Duration a valuable stat, so no toggles.

Compare to my Ash Rework idea:

  Reveal hidden contents

Hello everyone.

This is a suggestion to rework Ash. I try to aim for these aspects:

- He must keep his theme:

"This is Ash, lethal and elusive. Ash can remain unseen, but his effects on the battlefield can be felt by all. Keep an eye out, Tenno." -Lotus

-The ability set must synergize but at the same time the abilities must not require other abilities to actually work.

- Must be interactive

- Shouldn't require more than a stat tweak to work in Conclave, remaining mechanically the same

- Must be simple to use, but at the same time allow for skilled players some crazy tactical stuff.

4-Bladestorm:

Cost: 100

"Ash goes on a rampage, unleashing the power of his hidden blades and martial fury upon enemies."

Ash enters into Bladestorm stance, consisting of fast and vicious attacks with his hidden blades which inflict deadly Bleed procs on every hit. Finishing an enemy will make Ash summon shadowy copies of himself to execute nearby enemies. Ash gains increased mobility and evasive capabilities while in Bladestorm mode. Bladestorm lasts 20s

- Bladestorm  stats: 100 Slash damage with 20% Crit chance.

- Affected by Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Strike Chance/Damage and Channeling mods (not affected by Elemental mods and Shadow Debt Event mods)

- 100% Chance to inflict a Bleed proc on hit

- 'Pause' Combo opens enemies to Finisher.

- 'RMB' Combo focus on covering ground for fast maneuvering

- Performing a Finisher to an enemy will spawn 1/2/3/4 shadowy copies of Ash to finish nearby enemies. Copies deal the same damage Ash deals with the Finisher attack and only attack once per Finisher.

-If Ash is affected by Smoke Screen the copies will be invisible and will grant Stealth Kill Affinity buff if they execute unalerted enemies.

-While in Bladestorm Ash gains 20% Sprint, Bulletjump, Wall latch, Aimglide. And Sidespring and Backspring evasive maneuvers are speed up by 50%

- Cannot be canceled manually.

Rising Storm (Augment): While Bladestorm is active: Combo counter duration is increased by 10s and Ash gains 5% attack speed per instance of the Melee Combo Counter.

Conclave:

-60 Slash damage

-Affected by melee mods (including Sword Alone)

-100% chance to inflict a 3s Bleed proc on hit

-While in Bladestorm Ash gains 20% Bulletjump, Wall Latch, Aimglide. And Sidespring and Backspring evasive maneuvers are speed up by 50%

-Lasts 10s

-Ash cannot collect pickups nor cancel Bladestorm manually.

 

 

Not every needs Duration just because Fleeting Expertise exists. Nekros won't need Duration. Rhino doesn't especially, and neither does Strength Frost.

So why does a frame built around damage and killing need to have Duration forced on it? Just to make max efficiency a drawback, isn't a valid answer, unless you want to do that to every other frame, too.

Honestly, I wish Corrupted Mods didn't exist. We'd have a better game for the lack of them.

[Nazrethim]

Just now, BlackCoMerc said:

Not every needs Duration just because Fleeting Expertise exists. Nekros won't need Duration. Rhino doesn't especially, and neither does Strength Frost.

So why does a frame built around damage and killing need to have Duration forced on it? Just to make max efficiency a drawback, isn't a valid answer, unless you want to do that to every other frame, too.

Honestly, I wish Corrupted Mods didn't exist. We'd have a better game for the lack of them.

It's actually to make FE a choice rather than a straight upgrade, and to add synergy to build, not only to mechanics. Why build Ash for anything other than efficiency now when all your problems can be bladestormed into oblivion? I will leave other frames considerations for people who like them, I play Ash.

I think Corrupted mods are good, just they give and take too much. If they gave maybe +30% -30% instead of +99% -66% or whatever they would be less problematic.

[BlackCoMerc]

8 minutes ago, Nazrethim said:

It's actually to make FE a choice rather than a straight upgrade, and to add synergy to build, not only to mechanics. Why build Ash for anything other than efficiency now when all your problems can be bladestormed into oblivion? I will leave other frames considerations for people who like them, I play Ash.

I think Corrupted mods are good, just they give and take too much. If they gave maybe +30% -30% instead of +99% -66% or whatever they would be less problematic.

Even if the Nerf Storm...Fatal Teleport remains. And with the energy refund, it's nearly as potent, if more time consuming. And barely more interactive.

I still maintain Ash is a damage dealer. If you make his Ultimate Duration based, its going to feel like Berserker mode, and we already have a Berserker. Thats why I don't want a Duration based Ultimate for Ash. We don't need another Valkyr.

[Nazrethim]

3 minutes ago, BlackCoMerc said:

Even if the Nerf Storm...Fatal Teleport remains. And with the energy refund, it's nearly as potent, if more time consuming. And barely more interactive.

I still maintain Ash is a damage dealer. If you make his Ultimate Duration based, its going to feel like Berserker mode, and we already have a Berserker. Thats why I don't want a Duration based Ultimate for Ash. We don't need another Valkyr.

Abilities don't exist in vacuum, I actually made a full rework making all 4 abilities interactive and just as (if not even more) potent as they are now. Also, read carefully, for my suggestion doesn¡t match the berserker theme at all, is about an elusive ninja going on a killing spree, I focus on proper combo or ability execution and not on E-spamming my way to victory like Excalibur or becoming godmode like Valkyr.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Nazrethim

[(PSN)martin576]

Yes DE, please rework Ash in your new trash style. Make it into a new Saryn. Nerf it, overcomplicate it, kill it, rape it, burn it, make it a 2 - 3 - 1 - 4 pressing "only Ignis only Hikou" frame. And in the end, it will kill... Grineer easily. (But not in sortie.)

Edited August 8, 2016 by (PS4)martin576

[Nazrethim]

7 minutes ago, (PS4)martin576 said:

Yes DE, please rework Ash in your new trash style. Make it into a new Saryn. Nerf it, overcomplicate it, kill it, rape it, burn it, make it a 2 - 3 - 1 - 4 pressing "only Ignis only Hikou" frame. And in the end, it will kill... Grineer easily. (But not in sortie.)

That's why we players must give DE good ideas in the hopes they won't repeat past mistakes with him.

[blaes]

15 hours ago, Camelslayer said:

Bleed procs could use a minor rework so that Moas and Rollers don't bleed (because bleeding robots make zero sense, hilarious as it is)

Actually, though the name may be wrong, it makes a lot of sense. The "blood" of robotics is lubricant and fuel. Get those to leak, and you'll see the damage it does.

 

Otherwise, the only problem I have with bladestorm has already been stated : it makes the targets invulnerable to other damage sources, which can be especially bothersome when it actually ends up protecting high priority targets. Fix that and I'll be happy.

Any further rework past that to make it more interactive will be welcome, but isn't mandatory imo.

[Thural]

yes

[Birdframe_Prime]

Okay then, typing, I do this a lot these days XD

You asked for a discussion, so lets put down some points, addressing what a few people have already mentioned and adding my thoughts on the matter.

I will spoiler this next bit, because I want to chuck two cents in on Saryn, this goes out to @(PS4)martin576 especially for his post, but skip if you feel like it, I don't mind.

Spoiler

Saryn is, to me as a player of her before and after the change, better now.

And it's all the order that you work with. You pointed out that you worry about the over-complicated nature of the button presses, well you're kind of right. It's a learning curve that many players struggle with on Saryn because it's not immediately obvious.

For a start, what you have to exploit are her 100% proc abilities, Spores and Molt, but not in the way people immediately think. DE have put in encouragement, but not made it obvious.

I've found, over much testing, that it's Molt that's the key to making her work, and the key to putting out damage with Miasma that's actually half again larger than the old Saryn could do.

Let's start off with old Saryn, because everybody used her as a room nuke, even me. It was what she was best at, running in with that ridiculously high armour, blitzing the entire room with Miasma, running on. Perfect for exterminates, captures, infested missions, mobile defense... anything that didn't scale endlessly. Because that damage, even fully maximised, was about 10k radial. That's a lot, 10k to every enemy in range? Definitely making them sit up and take notice.

New Saryn though, Miasma can be fully modded for strength and duration, with tallies up her total damage per cast of the ability to over 5k radial. Except if an enemy has a Toxic or a Viral proc, and then it does over 10k. Except if they have both Toxic and Viral, and then it does 15k.

The only frame that has that kind of potential damage output on enemies, the only frame that beats it? Ash. We'll get to him.

I did mention Molt though, and that's where things kick off. Why? Because Molt detonating spreads a radial proc, guaranteed, of Toxin. Immediately doubling the damage of Miasma, because casting Miasma detonates Molt first.

That's fine, except it's even better, because you can cast Spores on Molt, and casting them on Molt only costs half the energy (DE's hidden hint). And every time the enemies hit that Molt, they can burst a Spore and hit themselves with it for a guaranteed Viral proc. Better yet, detonating Molt by any means spreads Spores. Which I mentioned happens at the start of every Miasma cast.

In that case, you drop a Molt to draw aggro, cast Spores on it. Once everything is in range of Molt, possibly even bursting the Spores and spreading all that Viral around, you cast Miasma. Boom goes Molt, dealing lovely radial damage and spreading both Viral and Toxic procs to everything in range, and then tick, tick, tick, Miasma deals triple damage to everything. Their armour is melting, their health is cut by half, and then you hit them for 15k damage. That kills things for days, and those it doesn't kill are not happy afterwards.

But that's not all! Oh no. Quite apart from this combo not caring about your weapons, meaning you can take anything you like and still do the same job, there's more to consider.

Spores, that wonderful ability, is really quite special. Because it spreads Viral around, and more of itself, yes, that's great. But if a target has a Toxin proc, it spreads that too. And Toxin initially procs with 50% of the damage that triggered the proc for every tick (on Saryn that's about 12 ticks). Which, with Saryn, encourages one thing (in my mind): EXPLOSIONS! -Ahem...- Heavy damage weapons.

Molt, Spores on Molt, detonate with another Molt to start the reaction on everything in range, both Toxic and Viral, then blow everything up with a Tonkor or a Vaykor Hek. The Toxin is guaranteed to proc on the next enemy with both the damage of the weapon, and the 'spread' damage from the Spores on top, plus that's on an enemy that's suddenly now at half health due to viral.

A Spores build, with negative efficiency, lots of strength, range and duration, can have Spores chalking up incredibly high numbers. High enough with a regular weapon, but something that deals all that damage at once, like a shotgun or grenade launcher (penta works too), will see some really special chains of Spores that will clear rooms after even just a single spore cast on Molt, or a hit with Toxic Lash (another source of guaranteed Toxin proc) on a spored enemy.

In short, I have no qualms about taking Saryn to anything anymore.

She's got damage, damage mitigation (her augment makes molt regenerate her health too), the ability to turn any weapon into fairly good damage (tested this on Eris - Zabala by taking random weapons that I hadn't forma'd yet, in this case the Synapse, Kunai and Dark Sword, lasted 45 minutes before my damage dropped off with the weapons so badly that I was relying entirely on a well timed cast of Miasma just to activate life support).

I will honestly put my new Saryn as lasting longer and better in high end content than anyone else's old Saryn.

Now, on to more objective things.

Why is Bladestorm considered such a room Nuke? Let's take a look. In terms of function there are several abilities in the same class, that is to say: A single press, watch the animation, see numbers pop up or enemies die in a radius, not an energy drain ability or an Exalted ability.

The abilities in this class are:

Avalanche
Stomp
Divine Spears
Crush
Reckoning
Tornado - technically disqualified for being a long-duration CC ability, but in for reference.
Discharge
Miasma
Prism

So let's look at those, first the damage tables, we're assuming builds maximised for the damage based on all possible tricks to maximise such as maxing Duration and Strength for Miasma:

Spoiler

Avalanche: 4.7k on cast, additional 1.2k damage at end of cast, totals 5.9k (plus strips 100% armour from survivors. Versatile)

Stomp: 2.3k damage (wow, that low?)

Divine Spears: 1.7k on cast, 1.7k on dispel, total of 3.4k

Crush: 4.4k

Reckoning: 3.7k

Tornado: 2k on cast, variable damage over time depending on how long target is held, up to 350 per second for duration of hold. Objectively possible to hit high numbers if held for full duration (50 seconds of 350dps is 17.5k) Elemental weaknesses and strengths on target may vary.

Discharge: 1.2k on cast, up to 12k over time from tesla effect.

Miasma: 6.1k unmodified, toxin and viral proc multipliers total 18.3k

Prism: RNG variance of between 750 and 1.4k per target for a duration of 9 seconds, so 6.7k to 12.6k

Coming in first with most damage per target:

Bladestorm with 5.9k per attack plus 14.6k total bleed damage, assuming no multiple hits that's over 20.5k finisher damage, not mitigated by armour, shields or natural resistances.

So here we see that (even considering Zephyr's surprise entry with DoT and the new Miasma possibilities) Ash goes straight to the jugular for over 20k finisher damage to up to 18 targets. For every one less than that, the damage on one target is increased by a further 5.9k, so it's possible for a single enemy to take 120.8k finisher damage if there are no others in range.

That's an outlier that nobody really thinks of... kind of nuts when you think about it.

Okay, so let's move on then, and compare it to the other abilities in its class for function:

Spoiler

 

Avalanche, Stomp, Spears, Crush, Reckoning, Tornado, Discharge, Miasma and Prism all have an element of CC and Support, be that a blind, a hard stop, a pick-up and hold, armour stripping or elemental procs.

Bladestorm: Enemies currently in animation from the attacks are unable to attack or be attacked, any highlighted enemies can be attacked freely, all enemies attacked are proc'd with bleed, but otherwise free to go.

So as a side effect of the boosted damage all the functionality that the other frames can use is gone. Pretty big drawback.

 

Next is comparing it to the others for ease of use in battle:

Avalanche, Crush, Reckoning, Prism and Miasma, easy to spam, simply wait for the animation to end and re-cast. Stomp and Tornado must wait for the end of the ability before re-cast, although Tornado is by far the least easy to spam due to long duration. Divine Spears must be cast and dispelled before next cast, still quite spam worthy. All abilities are radial and form with the warframe as the center of that cast.

Bladestorm, easy to spam, wait for end of animation and re-cast, spreads out from point of cast to nearest enemies in a chain effect so can be cast on a crowd, reach the end of it and then return to original position as if nothing happened.

Avalanche, Crush, Stomp and Discharge cannot be cast while in air, Prism, Spears, Reckoning, Miasma and Tornado can be cast in air, as can Bladestorm. No clear difference here.

 

And now, knowing that the high damage is actually scarily better than any other frame, but the functionality is lower and it's no more or less spam capable than others in the same class, I want to give a revised summary of its pros and cons.

Spoiler

 

Reasons not to change:

Not as evil as people think, marked enemies can be attacked as long as they are not animation locked.
High damage, exceptionally high damage, really, really high potential damage.
The same amount of spam capability as many other abilities in its class, so not worse in that regard.
Can be cast anywhere and any time

Reasons to change:

Too high potential damage output compared to other frames.
Player is invulnerable for duration so spam casts are encouraged. DE is prone to changing abilities that promote invulnerability (see Hysteria changes and Blessing changes)
Player returns to original position at finish, so can be cast from safety and return to safety, more spam promotion.
Ease of use and damage output, with invulnerability and safe return function, completely over-shadows other abilities.
Though affinity share is a function on missions, due to the method of distributing affinity by affinity share, a player levelling a frame, or a single weapon out of their three, will be missing out on up to 75% of that affinity by not participating in the kills.

 

But all of this? This is just dressing on something that I've come to realise over time with Warframe.

And I'll be completely honest with you, here's why DE will be changing Ash.

It's the same reason they changed all the other high damage frames, or frames with 'infinites' in them. Mag was re-worked because one ability was stupidly strong in end game content and against a particular enemy type, but was entirely un-used outside that and her one ability completely over-shadowed and replaced the others. Saryn had an ability that completely overshadowed and replaced the others.

Volt wasn't keeping up because people spammed down Shields and Speed, but never used Overload or Shock unless they were feeling like it. Ember had all fixed damage markers, with no functionality beyond a certain level, giving Accelerant a CC and Fire Blast an expanding damage blast, and changing the way energy drain worked on World on Fire (and in general) brought her up to a pretty decent level. Frost Globe spam was how people were getting to silly levels on Defense due to his invulnerability time on cast, but very few people had a reason to cast Freeze or Ice Wave once they got to Avalanche, so giving Freeze an AoE if it misses the target, giving Ice Wave a cone of effect, and most importantly removing Snowglobe's duration to free him up to cast his other abilities? Perfect.

Ash is the last frame that has a single ability that doesn't synergise at all with his other abilities, so strong that he rarely, if ever, needs to cast anything else with the right build, and that single ability having no draw-backs, no reason not to cast it...

Of course they're going to change Bladestorm. Of course they're going to adjust how Ash works.

I have high hopes after the Saryn rework, the Mag and Volt reworks, the Excalibur rework... I love every change they've made to these frames. So I say let's embrace the change.

I've seen a lot of potential ideas on this thread for changes to him, but I can't say I've played Ash enough to weigh in on those conversations.

All I can say is this:

Whether we believe Ash should or shouldn't have Bladestorm changed, I believe that DE thinks he should based on every change they've made so far to other frames.