If you're going to make channeling builds a thing, it needs some major changes.

[owendawgx]

Channeling is one of the few weapon stats that is increased by decreasing the efficiency of your weapon, similar to heavy caliber for rifles or whatever the pistol one is that nobody uses. 

This is not inherently wrong. 

What is wrong is the numbers. A lot of them. 5 energy per enemy hit. This immediately makes channeling not viable on any weapon with large reach, as hitting multiple enemies means you'll likely drain a significant chunk of your energy in a few swings, meaning it is completely unsustainable. This can, however, be decreased with mods. And channeling damage can be increased with a mod that doesn't lower efficiency. Great! But . . . the base damage multiplier is so ridiculously low (even on weapons with 1.8x bonus), that literally any other legitimate build can out-damage it. And remember, already any weapon with large reach is excluded from being able to be built for channeling, limiting your build options further.

So, then you come to channeling mods. Some of the most unique and diverse in their effects, truly mods that could be used to fit a vast array of different builds/play-styles. If it weren't for one thing. Channeling mods add an incredibly significant energy cost that is unable to be made up by the one efficiency mod currently available. Now having 10 energy cost doesn't seem too bad, but per enemy hit? That adds up quickly. Especially considering it's a downside that literally comes from me doing the thing I'm supposed to be doing with melee weapons; hitting enemies with them. 

Is channeling impossible to make use of? Absolutely not. Many frames can afford the massive energy investment; although that's more because of the complete trivialization of energy costs due to certain other game mechanics, which is a completely different topic.But that's not the issue. The issue is not that channeling cannot be used (although it could definitely use some tweaking there), but that there's literally no reason to use it. Excluding life strike. But that's not channeling being good, that's just life strike. One use. Out of dozens of mods. Channeling is out damaged and out done by any alternatives, which is disappointing since it's one of the most unique mechanics melee has. 

Oh and that's all disregarding the "drain energy while blocking to do negligible damage that only makes an already unused mod even more worthless while gaining an effect that isn't worth the cost in the slightest", but I don't think you remember that mechanic is in the game, otherwise it wouldn't still be there (seriously, whoever thought that through needs to think it through again). But this is more of just an incredibly annoying/clunky mechanic than one that makes channeling itself bad.  

 

[djternan]

I feel like implementing a channeling energy bar (kind of like the old stamina bar) and making channeling use this instead of energy would solve a lot of the problems.  Then having low channeling efficiency wouldn't be so terrible because you're not wasting energy that could be used for Warframe powers.  Some of the channeling mods would still need adjustment but since they could be used with non-channeling and they wouldn't use up your energy the adjustments would be fairly minor.

 

Life Strike might still need to use Warframe energy for balancing but that's about the only serious issue I'd be seeing.

[SenorClipClop]

Could channeling use some love? Yes. But I don't completely agree with your statement.

Channeling is, as you say, not your most reliable source of damage. Pretty much any other decent build will outdamage a channeling build. But I legitimately enjoy using channeling, and I think it's pretty cool. Here a couple of reasons:

• When I build to channel, I never build exclusively to channel. If all a weapon has going for it is channeling, I'm not really into it. Channeling to me is something of a side dish to melee: I'll slap together a decent build, then depending on the frame I'm using, I'll mix it up and throw some channeling business on there. It's usually Life Strike, sometimes other stats-while-channeling. Channeling amps damage for a cost, but I never rely on it for damage more than other systems.
• When I channel in-mission, it's usually because I'm doing some dedicated melee. While I'm parkouring around mashing E, channeling gives me something else to do. It can get a little dull for me when I've got one melee button and just a small handful of combo moves, and so I can channel to mix up the set number of damage I do per strike to any given enemy. It just feels good to use. Plus it actually can come in some handy to channel once in a while, like if you're mashing down a Bombard, you see his health chunking down in intervals and you just need a liiiiiiittle more DPS to kill him before he fires off another rocket. It isn't optimal as a primary build path, it shouldn't be anyone's only plan of attack, but it's a valid form of added damage and has its uses.
• It looks f*cking cool.

Edited September 23, 2016 by SenorClipClop

[Epsik-kun]

 

[Defendor]

IMO the easiest fix to channeling would be turning it into a channeled ability. I know, blows your mind, right? It'd still allow for energy drain while eliminating the ridiculous "per enemy" element that doesn't work in WF. It would also need to get buffed, of course, since channeling is underpowered even outside of its energy-related issues.

5 hours ago, (XB1)DarwinsPlanB said:

What if channeling mods were equipable instead of a primary or secondary weapon? 

It's not a bad idea, but it would most likely be very hard to implement. It'd be pretty much a new subsystem, as opposed to a rebalance of channeling mods.

[Nazrethim]

Two simple solutions to this:

A) Remove both positive and negative channeling efficiency. Bye bye Reflex Coil and Focus energy will probably give something else, like more Channeling damage. But on the upside all the other buff mods won't have that negative channeling effi that makes channeling builds non-viable, well, maybe Corrupt Charge can keep it (or be reverted to -normal damage +charge attack damage)

OR

B)Return stamina for Channeling only and separate it from energy for good.