How would you redisign underused abilities?

[-HAKUNA-YOUR-TATAS-]

Make them op, then everyone will use them.  XD

[Babellon]

On 10/13/2016 at 2:41 PM, Separius said:

Lots of frames have underused abilities, compared to their other ones.

Pick a frame you feel that has underused abilities and post how you would redisign said ability.

For me, Ember's fireball. The augment is nice, but I'd like if ember had some mobility, so why not make that upon using her 1st ability she jumps a little and turns into a living burning cannonball that tackles and burns enemies and buffs allies (if the augment is equipped)!

Brainstorm up some ideas!

well, first I'd rework peoples ideas of how to mod frames so people stopped modding for one power exclusively. This idea has seriously misled quite a lot of new players to believe that the frame they want to use isn't as good as another because they see those metabuilds(?) is that the right term for it? ......and assume that's how its supposed to be. Its actually very limiting and situational to build like that. 

Second Id put out relevant information that helps new players understand how to mod better to give a more versatile set up and increase their ability to do more in missions. 

Third I'd Design the skills to be used in unison, to work better in tandem with not only each other but with other frames as well. So that a frame, any frame would be equally useful in any situation whether in group or solo allowing more diverse play and approach to the game. 

on topic- I think limbo out of all the frames could use a major overhaul of his power set. They sound good on paper but in practice the skills seem underrated and impractical to me. 

unfortunately while responding to this thread I realize I don't have an actual viable answer to how I would redo limbo. , but my first 3 lines I think would help a lot toward the understanding and playability of all the frames in general..even limbo and his wierd powers.

[AlphaPHENIX]

2 hours ago, kadun said:

Mesa : Ballistic Battery

Incoming damage cumulatively increases a group damage multiplier from 1 to X. The buff constantly decays by Y per second back to 1. Toggle & Drain ability.

Augment :

Incoming damage cumulatively increases the batteries charge. Activating the ability will heal heath and shields in a small pbaoe burst which resets the charge to 0%. Automatically charges, activate to use.

So Vodka Battery?

Because you know, Vodka fixes everything!

[Noobverest]

Ash's Shuriken: Removed

Replaced with: Versatile Utility tool

1: Grappling Hook: Fires out a Grappling hook that allows you to attach to any surface and Wall latch it for 20s, jumping will disable the wall latch. Can break away mid-travel

2: Caltrops: Drops a number of crappy spikey stuff to stab the foots of your enemies. Slows enemies by 50% for 10s

3. Shuriken: Throws shuriken coated with poison, stuns enemies for 2s and places a damage over time of 150/s over 10s

4: Bag of Farts: Smells really bad and sets up for Firebombs

 

Ash's Teleport: Removed

Firebombs: Ash gains a reticle which allows him to aim his Firebombs. Firebombs deal burning damage 200/s for 5s, has 1000 impact damage. If Bag of Farts if present, the firebombs ignite the fart and leaves a circle of flames for 20s, dealing 200/s damage (stacks with Firebomb burning damage).

 

Limbo all skills removed and gets name changed into

GRAVITY BOY

1: Energy barrage: Uses hahahahahahahaa sounds while firing off energy barrages

2: Aura shield: Charges his energy while projecting powerful energy allowing him to mitigate damage and generate energy

3: Kamehameha: Fires a blue beam that looks like it was ripped off from Dragon Ball, but in reality only the name looks similar. It's actually a reskin of Opticor!

4: Spirit Bomb: Throws an orb that looks like a rip off from Dragon Ball Z, but in reality only sounds really similar! The orb explodes and sucks enemies into the center like a black hole, then explodes dealing 333 IPS damage + 333 blast, corrosive, cold damage.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Noobverest

[DameDameNingen]

Psychic bolts would get more use if it was on any other frame, it's so redundant on nyx.

[(PSN)BrutalReaper32]

1) Fireball (Ember):

Spoiler

 I would upgrade this ability giving it the ability to set an enemy on fire, but said enemy will absorb all the damage done to him while he's on fire and release it as an explosion that deals fire damage. As it is a first ability, and Ember is supposed to take down trash mobs better than others while being "weak" against VIP targets. The radius of the ability would be around 15 meters, but the damage cap would be around 15.000 points of damage. Of course, Ember could set on fire up to 5 enemies at the same time. Also, the ability is not a CC ability, so these enemies that have been set on fire, are just caught in the panic animation just at the beginning. 

2) Ring Of Fire (Ember):

Spoiler

 I would give it two areas. The 1st area would be the ring of fire itself. And, the external area will be just the heat of the ring of fire. But, this external area will just deal damage, instead of CC like the ring. You can increase the heat (aka damage of the external area) by killing enemies with there ring or inside of it. Also, the external area will deal damage per second... Said damage equals to 60% of the damage done to enemies inside the internal ring and will have a damage cap of 300.000 points of damage. But, remember that she only can deal 70% of said damage per second.

3) World on Fire (Ember):

Spoiler

 Probably, this ability has a lots of fans here, but IMO is too lazy. And I don't like lazy abilities. So I would completely replace this ability with an ability called "Inferno rounds". Inferno rounds is a channeled ability allows Ember add 100% of fire damage to any of her weapons. Additionaly adding a splash effect of 4 meters that releases 100% of the damage done to an enemy in form of pure fire. To make this ability more engaging, I was thinking on a mechanic that boost the damage done even more by hitting enemies really often. Increasing the damage by 3% for every enemy shot, it means that you will overheat the weapon. But, if every 2 seconds without hitting anything, the weapon coolsdown by 1.5%. So basicaly the more you attack enemies without missings shoots, the more damage you get. You can boost the damage up to 150%. 

4) Miasma (Saryn <3): 

Spoiler

The change would be pretty simple, and I even copied it from other game (Battleborn). basicaly I want Saryn's Miasma to be like Pendles Miasma. I mean, that Miasma now is a Toxic Aura that follows Saryn where she goes. To help the damage Saryn does, players would have the option to hold the ability key to multiply the damage of the aura up to 3. The ability will obviously cost more energy per second if used this way. Also, with this new functionality, Some synergies would get broken, so the solution would be the next ones. 
-Miasma + Spores: Miasma wouldn't spread spores anymore. So Saryn players don't lose damage by spreading spores without poison damage.
-Miasma + Molt: Miasma now will make Molt explode after 3 consecutve ticks. During the first 2 ticks of miasma while molt is in range, Miasma will have a soft CC effect on enemies inside the range of the combo.
The rest of the synergies (more damage on enemies infected by spores or toxin remain the same).

5) Tesla (Vauban): 

Spoiler

As Vauban is supposed to be a Crowd Control warframe, it would be dumb to give him damage abilities iMO. especially if it is his first ability. So, let's analyze Vauban. He has debuffs, hard CC, soft CC and area denial on his 2nd ability, area denial + hard CC on his 3rd and area denial + hard CC on his 4th. So probably he is lacking a more engaging ability that can still help the team. I think Tesla should slow down enemies by 60% while they are being electrified by a tesla grenade, and have a 35% of chances of being proced with a electric proc. The augment mod could do the same, slow down enemies, but by 75%, and enemies that touch the electric coil would maintain the effect by the next 6 seconds.

6) Tidal Surge (Hydroid):

Spoiler

 I think ragdolled enemies should have a chance to be disarmed for the next 12 seconds.

7) Tentacle Swarm (Hydroid): 

Spoiler

This ability should have 70% of chances of making enemies attacked by the tentacles to drop healt or energy orbs, and an additional 70% of chances of dropping ammo. This way the augment mod wouldn't be useless. But tentacle swarm would be more effective outside CC.

8) Tornado (Zephyr) :

Spoiler

 I'm not a big fan of her tornadoes, but to try to maintain her role as a highly mobile tank with some CC. I think she could focus more on protecting allies. I would replace Tornado with a wall of wind that stays in one place (Like Volt's Shield) but reduces the damage of every enemy projectile that passes throught it, while increasing the travel speed of ally projecties that pass throught it.

 

9) Ripline (Valkyr): 

Spoiler

I would simply make enemies grabed by a ripline to be pulled right in front of Valkyr, and as soon as they are in front of Valkyr, enemies should be opened to finishers for 1 second. So they can be exceuted or shoot.

10) Nullstar (Nova): 

Spoiler

Nullstar should work as a type of "buff" to her weapons. In this case, I think every 2 seconds, if Nova shoots her weapons, one of her particles should fly along the bullet to impact the enemy. But, the particle should deal 30% of the total damage done to the enemy with the bullet as blast damage in an area of 3 meters. (with 30% of chances of dealing a blast proc). The augment mod should allow you to prepare all the remaining particles to fly along one of your shoots at the same time and make the enemy explode dealing 20% of his total HP as blast damage in a AoE of 10mts. if he dies with the shoots or the particles.

That's pretty much it. Sorry for the wall of text.

Edited October 14, 2016 by (PS4)BrutalReaper32
Added spoilers.

[(PSN)Exi-Eni-Eli]

Replace Well of Life (Trinity) with Well of Decay: Enemies that are affected will suck the life out of nearby enemies around them, making them slower over time, until finally dying.

Replace Spectral Scream (Chroma) with Spectral Winds: Unleash your wings and thrust them to create violent gusts of wind combined with your elemental effect.

Replace Fire Ball (Ember) with Detonation: Summon a fire within an enemy, exploding them from the inside out, and also damaging enemies around them.

Replace Freeze (Frost) with Ice Dagger: Mold three blades out of ice, and throw them at your foes.

Replace Tempest Barrage (Hydroid) with Exsanguination: Control the water portion of your enemies' blood. Press once to heal yourself using the enemies' blood, or recast to extract it & drown other enemies with it.  

Replace Sandstorm (Inaros) with Quicksand: Convert into a pile of sand, covering the floor. Drag your enemies into the sand one by one, suffocating them.

Replace Ballistic Battery (Mesa) with Keen Eye: Fire a shot directly at the target's weaponry, disabling it shortly.

Replace Sleight of Hand (Mirage) with House of Horrors: Confuse enemies into hallucinating their friendlies have turned into terrible beasts.

Replace Psychic Bolts (Nyx) with Takeover: Use your transference to control an enemy of your choosing. The stability of the transference will depend on the enemy level, and whether or not it is robotic. The less stability the transference, the quicker the enemy will regain control of their own mind & body.

Replace Hallowed Ground (Oberon) with Population Purification: Enemies targeted will be wrapped in thick roots, immobilizing them and dealing damage over time.

Replace Smite (Oberon) with Natural Causes: Oxygen surrounding the enemy target will disappear, suffocating the enemy.

Replace Tesla (Vauban) with Fortification: Launch a grenade which expands into a Turret, dealing damage to enemies.  Holding this ability while targeting an enemy will command all active turrets to focus on that enemy.

Replace Shock (Volt) with Tesla.

Replace Wukong with a different frame.

Tweak Dive Bomb (Zephyr): Diving will create a Vacuum. Enemies within 5m of the dive bomb will be sucked into the Vacuum and launched out of Dive Bomb's point of activation.

 

That's all :P

 

Edited October 15, 2016 by (PS4)PuriDiv

[(XBOX)BigQuadTodd]

I would choose to change ash's 4th ability so its an actual storm of blades

[dual1020]

My most used frame is vauban (13%), the skill i use the least is his minelayer ability. My problem with it is that its not as spamable as his other skills since you have to hold the ability key to use, if i were to change it i would swap the prompts around where tapping the ability will activate, and holding the ability will rotate the skills. I dont mind removing some of the minelayer abilities like tripwire because i feel bounce and tripwire do the same thing except bounce throws the enemy in the air, while tripwire makes them fall to the ground.

Tesla could use a change too. I would love to replace it with a turret like xiphos' skill since tesla is basically a duration based turret. Or combine minelayer's tripwire into tesla, into a tesla-link tripwire combo. That way tesla has some utility use that mitigates its weak damage output, working in the augment in, while reducing the clutter that minelayer has. 

Edited October 15, 2016 by dual1020

[o.0-]

I'll focus on Chroma.

Spectral Scream:

1. Cone Length is affected by Range and Strength (currently only Range effects it)
2. Movement Speed is no longer decreased. Adds regular jumps and sliding to parkour moves that can be done.
3. Holding the Ability Key grants a short sprint burst, going as fast as sprint speed.
4. Damage, adds a Percent of Damage, based on enemy Health, to help scale the ability.

Elemental Ward:

1. Aura is affected by Range and Strength.
2. Adds the ability to change Element.
3. Fix the bug with Heat granting Health.

Vex Armor:

• Scorn only needs 300 Shields to charge instead of 400. Fury in turn can be raised to 200 from 100.

Effigy:

1. Drain is reduced to match Spectral Scream.
2. Radial Roar stun is adjusted to be able to cast with greater frequency.
3. Holding the Ability Key creates a floating waypoint that when released allows Effigy to re-position without returning to Chroma.
4. Adjust RoF enough to be able to reduce Nully bubbles, preventing them to dispel Effigy.

Passive: Chromatic Surge - Bullet Jump adds a radial proc of the current Element on launching, acts just like the Drekar Bullet Jump mods.

Edited October 15, 2016 by SPARTAN-187.Thanatos
Grammar

[Deidaku]

11 hours ago, AlphaPHENIX said:

Excalibur's Radial Javalin Augment

Gates of Babylon - Radial Javalin turns into a toggle with reduced casting cost to 25 and energy drain of 1.5 every second, each hit costs 5 energy. The combo counter and multiplier will be affected, and affect this ability respectively, each increase in the multiplier will slightly increase the energy drain per second (nothing too ridiculous just trying to keep things balanced). Instead of just some boring old skanas pretending to be javalins, the type of weapon this ability shoots will depend on the weapon type of your melee weapon:

• Single-handed Swords: The default Skana we have gotten used to over the years. Same old ability only now, it's a toggle.
• Greatswords: Fires off Grams (Yes, Grams, not Galatines) at targets doing the most raw damage out of all the options.
• Dual Swords: Highest Rate of Fire out of all the options.
• Nikanas: Slightly more damage then the Skana and is guranteed to do slash procs.
• Rapiers: Highest Crit Chance (Rapiers=50% Greatswords=30% Everything else=20%).
• Machetes: Highest Status Chance, effected by whatever status mods you have on your melee. If two statuses are present, it will do both.
• Glaives: Unique feature of ricochet shots, each Glaive will ricochet up to 2 times. Keep in mind the ricochet hits will still drain energy, unless terrain was hit instead of an enamy. Best make sure to have EV Trinity in the squad for this one.
• Blade and Whip: Both the Blade and Whip go after individual targets and anything caught between them will be staggered or knockdowned. Slowest Rate of Fire.
• If not one of the above: Still the default Skana.

Ranking this mod up will unlock new categories:

Rank 0 - Swords and Greatswords

Rank 1 - Dual Swords and Nikanas

Rank 2 - Rapiers and Machetes

Rank 3 - Glaives and Blade and Whip

So basically 

[AlphaPHENIX]

56 minutes ago, Deidaku said:

So basically 

Was thinking more of http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Gate_of_Babylon

[Deidaku]

2 hours ago, AlphaPHENIX said:

Was thinking more of http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Gate_of_Babylon

Oh sweet . Grineer mongrels 

Good idea :) 

[(PSN)BMWWOW]

On October 13, 2016 at 11:50 AM, PrVonTuckIII said:

Limbo's Banish needs to have some method of AoE attack.

Rift Surge could be replaced entirely.

Ice Wave needs more utility, and a better animation.

Well of Life needs to be replaced/changed to be more effective.

 

Agreed Rift Surge should be active by default on any of Limbo's powers, and the slot used for something new - maybe some kind of Levitate / Sky Walk / Fly?

[(PSN)BMWWOW]

On October 14, 2016 at 0:48 PM, Luther848 said:

Well of LIfe

It's total crap.

It should still apply the 10x health bonus but instead of giving health the target should absorb damage that you and your allies have taken up to a max of like 80%.

Just a counter-point.  I love Trin the way she is built.  I use all four powers.  The point of WoL in my opinion is to create a temporary health boost No Matter The Allies Positions.  The "Ultimate" is great when the Allies are all close together, but no good when they are spread far apart.  You can also spam WoL at various places, allowing various "wells," again alleviating the need to all be clumped together.  

[(PSN)BMWWOW]

On October 14, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Babellon said:

 

unfortunately while responding to this thread I realize I don't have an actual viable answer to how I would redo limbo. , but my first 3 lines I think would help a lot toward the understanding and playability of all the frames in general..even limbo and his wierd powers.

I redid my Limbo for Duration and Strength, and now all his powers work pretty well with each other.  Narrow Minded and Blind Rage -  HAPPILY nerfed range because other players are much happier when Cataclysm only covers the Defended Area and does not extend too far.  Add Constitution.  :)

[(PSN)BMWWOW]

Redesign Zephyr's TAIL WIND so it does not look quite so much like he is killing enemies with explosive farts.