Nullifiers VS Other ability reduction enemies

[The__Q]

Both of these enemies have the same job: to reduce damage from incoming abilities. However, nullifiers get an absolute boatload of hate even though these enemies are very VERY similar, and I haven't seen a single thread since U15 (i think) talking about disruptors / combas/ those grineer nullifier things in nightmare raids.

So let's go over the differences

Similarities Between nullifiers and disruptors:       

- Both have the same job of preventing spam

- Both are high priority targets

- Both are unique, somewhat high level enemies in their faction

Differences:    

Disruptors:

- Are a melee unit

- Can be picked off from a distance

- Can remove all of a warframe's energy in ~2 hits/when it procs magnetic

- Can pull in enemies to have them attacked by the rest of the infested hoard

- Can be headshot from range

- Cannot set off alarms in spy missions

- Cannot be instantly killed with melee

Nullifiers:  

- Are a ranged unit that (at higher levels) can instantly kill a player if they are not paying attention/are a squishy low armored frame

- Has a shield that blocks bullets

- Requires effort to be picked off from a distance

- Cannot be killed instantly unless with melee, Instead you have to wait ~1-2 seconds with a high fire rate weapon or ~6-8 seconds with a low fire rate weapon to remove their shield

- Removes abilities upon being near them, making spy much harder, and making frames like limbo or loki very vulnerable to attack by a large number of them

- Is near impossible to prevent take damage from as limbo because you cannot hurt their shield in the rift, and you cannot send them into the rift

Grineer Nullifiers:

- Can be shot from a distance

- Their shield can be shot through

- Can also buff enemies

Combas/Scrambus:

- Have a large field you cannot see

- Field can be removed by getting a headshot on them

- They are not too weak

- Blocks a single type of ability in a large area

- Disrupts hud

 

Now, Nullifiers are not the first ability reduction enemy, but they get a lot of hate compared to other enemies. Why only one specific enemy of this large number of enemies?

It might be the fact that they are both a support, a tank, and a high damage dealer all for the enemies that you are facing, that cannot be pulled onto your side without nekros as they are immune to things like mind control/chaos

Let's compare how to kill them.

Everything but nullifiers:

- Kill them from a distance

- shoot them up close without any chance of instant death except by hoards of enemies around them or being shot by them themselves, and possibly losing energy or a single type of ability forcing you to be crafty in how you kill them by not just spamming at them and instead focusing specific targets

Nullifiers:

- Killing them from a distance with a high rate of fire weapon over 3-4 seconds or using a low rate of fire weapon over ~20-25 seconds

- Getting up close and having a high chance that

    A: A large number of enemies are inside the shield and dying to them

    B: Dying to the nullifiers lanka

    C: You instantly kill them with melee and retreat to take out the rest of the enemies

Nullifiers can be taken out very easily with melee, but a few frames (Loki, Mirage, Ash, Limbo, Ivara) are very vulnerable to being in the shield because their defensive abilities are removed and their defensive stats are very low without them.

From what i think (correct me if I'm wrong [Git gud is not a correction]) but the main reasons for the hate of nullifiers are:

  - The fact that they can deal high damage, enough to instakill a person and that they severely hinder the usage of the above frames, and these to facts increase their usefulness as a  damage dealer.

  - The fact that they can spawn in high amounts all at once and carry a hoard of enemies along with them, severely increasing their usefulness as a support.

  - The fact that if you don't kill them immediately they might kill; the defense target/excavator/a member of your squad and require a large target priority to kill them so your ally does not die again.

The fact that they cover three roles at once and that they effectively have an about 1-10 second immunity time AND spawn in huge numbers.

How to fix nullifiers would be to remove two of the just stated three things.

- Make them a tank/support/high dps target but make them able to be killed quickly with high DPS and give them reduced spawns

- Make them have a 1-10 second immunity time but reduce their effectiveness to their team (reduce shield size, give them a timer to removing warframe abilities ex: removing an ability after 5 seconds, reduce their damage) and buff their hp/shields to make them not instantly die, and reduce their spawns to the point where they're still a threat.

- Make there be a large number of them, but they rather only have strength in numbers; nullifier shields join up to make bigger shields or they can buff armor of other nullifiers or give them a powerful weapon that is easily avoidable but with a large number of them it's hard to avoid.

That's about all i can think of, if you can disprove my points or correct me on them I'll edit this and fix what was wrong.

Sorry for the wall of text

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2016 by The__Q
added apology for wall of text

[(PSN)B_Psycho2]

Make going into a nullifier bubble reduce power duration and strength by 5x

Iron Skin loses 5 health a second in there

Invis loses 5 seconds per 1 second in there

etc