Nova Tweaks (Because she really does need some)

[DrBorris]

Yup, I can hear it already, “Nova doesn’t need a rework, she is fine.”

First, fine is never an excuse to not be better.

Second, she isn’t in that good of a place. Sure, she has 2 amazing abilities, but her other two are… less so. Generally, when it comes to Warframe abilities, four good abilities is amazing, three good abilities is average, two good abilities need some help, one good ability is boring and no good abilities is Limbo (I kid, I kid).

Third, in response to the “Other reworks are more important,” while I agree in some senses I think fixing Nova’s quirks would be a pretty easy rework and be very little new code.

 

Okay, so now onto my actual proposal.

Null Star: Besides being sexy (which is why I personally have it active as often as possible), this ability has pretty much no purpose. The easy fix would be an impact + radiation proc. However, that is kind of boring. So, what if it Molecularly Primed enemies hit? It would be nice to have running to keep her survivability up, and not have too much overlap with the full M. Prime because of its passive and more mobile nature. Or maybe that is just too much and it should just be an impact + radiation proc, that would be okay too.

Antimatter Drop: I will never understand why most Nova players I see in games rarely push 2, it is not like it is the best damage ability in the game or anything. Either way though, even though this ability is amazing as it is it has always bugged me how little it was affected by mods (power strength does something to the multiplier in the UI, but not in gameplay, probably should be fixed so that worked). So, my proposal is to add the ability for range to affect AMD but with the caveat of drop off (50% damage at max range). To compensate for it being a nerf to the base ability I would then buff the base range to 18 meters from 15 meters.

Worm Hole: It is okay for mobility I guess, but it is clunky and has no real offensive ability on one of the most offensive archetypes in the game. The most important change would be to change the hit box and fx to a sphere as opposed to a rectangle (dodging through a worm hole will prevent you from going through it). This would make it easier to enter the worm hole and not have to worry about wonky hit-boxes. In addition, I would have the number of allies that are teleported be separate to enemies. So, each Worm Hole can teleport 4 allies AND 8 enemies. And now that the hit-box is more usable, it can be a decent way to cut off an area. Edit: Bringing down the energy drain to 50 would probably be okay, 75 energy for a meh CC and mobility ability is pretty expensive.

Molecular Prime: Yes, this is an insanely powerful ability, but Nova has no reliable way to protect herself. She is the epitome of a DPS caster, and being dependent on her team to draw aggro and in general keep her alive.  I’d say everything is fine here.

 

Edit: Passive: While her passive is a bit funky in concept, it should at least work. Just have the knock down be able to override other animations and it will be passable.

 

Despite making sure that I got why Nova needs some tweaks off first, INB4 “Nova doesn’t need a rework.”

Edited October 23, 2016 by DrBorris
Added Worm Hole energy reduction and passive

[AurumandArgentum]

She doesn't need it, not right now anyways, others need it way more than her.

[taiiat]

yes, Null Star is pretty much without identity.
forced Stagger would be quite useful and solves this problem however. not Impact Status, forced Stagger. there's a difference.

separating Enemies from Allies on Wormhole is fine. it's Mobility anyways, using it on Enemies really has limited application.

 

and there, now the already Meta Warframe is basically perfect.

[Insizer]

I recommended around half a year ago to turn her first ability into something like an antimatter paintball gun.

• Activate once to get X number of charges (like now), click again to fire them one by one.
• They "mark" whatever they hit.
  • if the charge hits an enemies then it becomes primed (perhaps to a lesser degree than what MP does).
    • perhaps it should just explode upon contact with the enemy and not prime them... I don't use Nova at all really, so I don't know which would be more balanced.
  • if the charge hits terrain then it forms a glob that can be detonated by shooting at it.
  • The new augment turns all the charges into one or two large charges.

Sadly no one even commented on it, not that I remember anyways.

[DeMonkey]

Honestly I think Wormhole is a complete waste of an ability. I'd rather see it get switched to something new entirely.

The only time I have ever seen a Nova use a Wormhole was in the LoR, right after the buttons on the way to the console. That really long hallway.

And that's it. It can't be used in combat effectively and parkour eliminates the need for it in exploration. 

[DrBorris]

8 minutes ago, AurumandArgentum said:

She doesn't need it, not right now anyways, others need it way more than her.

*facepalm

Just curious, did you even read the first few sentences of the OP?

 

3 minutes ago, taiiat said:

yes, Null Star is pretty much without identity.
forced Stagger would be quite useful and solves this problem however. not Impact Status, forced Stagger. there's a difference.

separating Enemies from Allies on Wormhole is fine. it's Mobility anyways, using it on Enemies really has limited application.

 

and there, now the already Meta Warframe is basically perfect.

Yeah, I feel weird putting a meta Warframe up for rework, but she isn't really in that good of a place mechanically. Just because a frame is meta it does not mean they shouldn't be "perfected".

 

Just now, Insizer said:

I recommended around half a year ago to turn her first ability into something like an antimatter paintball gun.

• Activate once to get X number of charges (like now), click again to fire them one by one.
• They "mark" whatever they hit.
  • if the charge hits an enemies then it becomes primed (perhaps to a lesser degree than what MP does).
    • perhaps it should just explode upon contact with the enemy and not prime them... I don't use Nova at all really, so I don't know which would be more balanced.
  • if the charge hits terrain then it forms a glob that can be detonated by shooting at it.
  • The new augment turns all the charges into one or two large charges.

Sadly no one even commented on it, not that I remember anyways.

That actually sounds pretty cool, maybe simplify it a bit and have it just shoot the balls out and give them the homing aspect of Ash's Shuriken.

 

Just now, DeMonkey said:

Honestly I think Wormhole is a complete waste of an ability. I'd rather see it get switched to something new entirely.

The only time I have ever seen a Nova use a Wormhole was in the LoR, right after the buttons on the way to the console. That really long hallway.

And that's it. It can't be used in combat effectively and parkour eliminates the need for it in exploration. 

Eh, there is something said for fun. I use it quite a bit just to screw around, maybe to get across bigger rooms in a fancy fashion. It is amazing sometimes how you find uses for abilities when you force yourself to use them. The biggest problem is the energy drain. Bringing it down to 50 would probably have it see a lot more use.

[DeMonkey]

3 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

Eh, there is something said for fun. I use it quite a bit just to screw around, maybe to get across bigger rooms in a fancy fashion. It is amazing sometimes how you find uses for abilities when you force yourself to use them. The biggest problem is the energy drain. Bringing it down to 50 would probably have it see a lot more use.

Perhaps it could be made her passive then as a bullet jump replacement? You teleport instead of BJ'ing.

Edited October 23, 2016 by DeMonkey

[GinKenshin]

7 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

Perhaps it could be made her passive then as a bullet jump replacement? You teleport instead of BJ'ing.

you mean the passive that doesn't even work? that can be a good 'addition', since there's nothing to replace >.> 

maybe when you BJ, you leave a portal that stays open for X seconds that X allies can get through it. 

[xXDeadsinxX]

18 minutes ago, Insizer said:

I recommended around half a year ago to turn her first ability into something like an antimatter paintball gun.

• Activate once to get X number of charges (like now), click again to fire them one by one.
• They "mark" whatever they hit.
  • if the charge hits an enemies then it becomes primed (perhaps to a lesser degree than what MP does).
    • perhaps it should just explode upon contact with the enemy and not prime them... I don't use Nova at all really, so I don't know which would be more balanced.
  • if the charge hits terrain then it forms a glob that can be detonated by shooting at it.
  • The new augment turns all the charges into one or two large charges.

Sadly no one even commented on it, not that I remember anyways.

That's actually a very cool idea.

[Insizer]

Just now, DrBorris said:

That actually sounds pretty cool, maybe simplify it a bit and have it just shoot the balls out and give them the homing aspect of Ash's Shuriken.

Thanks, I'm glad someone likes the idea.

As for your homing idea: That would actually work better for the mobile gameplay that Nova needs to survive, by not requiring you to press the keys 4 or 5 times to fire them all (which would slow down players, especially console players). But I wouldn't include homing on the augmented version, because:

1. I can see all sorts of issues where people want to lop an antimatter paint-bomb into the center of a crowd which is behind an enemy or two, only to have it home in on the enemy closest to you. 
2. Plus not having the augmented version home in on enemies will make it easier to "mark" terrain (with a remotely detonated bomb, lets be honest), which could serve some strategic purpose.

What is your opinion on whether my antimatter paintball gun should prime enemies or just explode on contact?

[DCypherThis13]

For Null Star, my vote is for a Radiation proc if an orb doesn't kill. It would give her a pinch of CC in a pinch.

For AMD, it sounds good. It might be interesting to see how the damage drop off works at higher levels, though. Does it have punch-through?

Spherical hit box on Wormhole? I'm game.

Maybe I'm the weird one here, but I think Nova is in a good spot. She's very good at making stuff go BOOM; her downside is that she's squishy(glass cannon). She's the kill 'em all or die trying frame and there's nothing wrong with that in my book.

[AurumandArgentum]

14 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

Just curious, did you even read the first few sentences of the OP?

 

Just curious, did you even read past the first words? Because she doesnt need one right now nor will she need one for awhile. Others need it first such as Oberon, Limbo and Ash. I know full well she needs some more looking at, but others need it before she does.

Edited October 23, 2016 by AurumandArgentum

[Azrael]

14 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

The only time I have ever seen a Nova use a Wormhole was in the LoR, right after the buttons on the way to the console. That really long hallway.

And that's it. It can't be used in combat effectively and parkour eliminates the need for it in exploration.

If you have the energy it's actually quite useful in combat. Not only can you move faster, but you don't have to pass through the space in between you and your objective. I've seen some pretty cool trick shots using portal and a tigris. it's quite fun to use, the only issue is I never have the energy to use it because I'm always antimatter dropping.

[DeMonkey]

Just now, GinKenshin said:

you mean the passive that doesn't even work? that can be a good 'addition', since there's nothing to replace >.> 

maybe when you BJ, you leave a portal that stays open for X seconds that X allies can get through it. 

Would be nice. Wasn't aware her passive didn't even work. I just dislike it because it has literally 0 relevance to the rest of her kit.

I mean, radial knockdown on knockdown? What does that have to do with Antimatter?

[GinKenshin]

1 minute ago, DeMonkey said:

Would be nice. Wasn't aware her passive didn't even work. I just dislike it because it has literally 0 relevance to the rest of her kit.

I mean, radial knockdown on knockdown? What does that have to do with Antimatter?

you can't really blame them, I mean some stuff *cough* limbo *cough* are just too hard to think about. 

and it rarely works. 99% of the time it does nothing. just lets out a breeze when she gets knocked down >.> 

[DrBorris]

5 minutes ago, GinKenshin said:

you mean the passive that doesn't even work? that can be a good 'addition', since there's nothing to replace >.> 

maybe when you BJ, you leave a portal that stays open for X seconds that X allies can get through it. 

That sounds, on a scale of one to ten, about an eleven in awesomeness. If you could somehow convince the community to be game for a bit bigger of a Nova rework, this would be great, but I am trying to keep things a bit simpler as she is already very "meta."

 

5 minutes ago, AurumandArgentum said:

Just curious, did you even read past the first words? Because she doesnt need one right now nor will she need one for awhile. Others need it first such as Oberon, Limbo and Ash. I know full well she needs some more looking at, but others need it before she does.

But... sigh, whatever. She has only two useful abilities, TWO. At least when I use Oberon I am using more than two abilities. It is not like this scale of rework is that much dev time, but I am still not completely sure you even read the first few sentences.

 

7 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

Would be nice. Wasn't aware her passive didn't even work. I just dislike it because it has literally 0 relevance to the rest of her kit.

I mean, radial knockdown on knockdown? What does that have to do with Antimatter?

It would theoretically be a nice buff to her sustainability... if it worked consistently, just make it the exception where it can override animations and it will at least has a purpose.

[DeMonkey]

21 minutes ago, Azrael said:

If you have the energy it's actually quite useful in combat. Not only can you move faster, but you don't have to pass through the space in between you and your objective. I've seen some pretty cool trick shots using portal and a tigris. it's quite fun to use, the only issue is I never have the energy to use it because I'm always antimatter dropping.

Honestly, if I had the energy I'd rather AMD. Why trickshot with a Tigris when I can trickshot a bubble that then trickshots an entire group of enemies, that's just me though. If you enjoy the ability then I'm glad, honestly. Not something I was ever able to do.

Like I said, if wormhole could somehow be made into her passive ability then she can have something that's both fun and useful in more than the occasional situation.

11 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

It would theoretically be a nice buff to her sustainability... if it worked consistently, just make it the exception where it can override animations and it will at least has a purpose.

Personally I live in constant fear when playing Nova. My arms are mums spaghetti and all that meme stuff.

A single knockdown is enough to kill her, yes the passive may help her survive, but she shouldn't be in that situation in the first place. A passive like that is befitting a shock trooper. A frontline warframe. An ''I'll stick my horn right in yer noggin'' frame.

Edited October 23, 2016 by DeMonkey

[taiiat]

33 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

Bringing it down to 50 would probably have it see a lot more use.

the Energy Cost is a factor, yes. 75E is a questionable cost, and should be 50E, yes.

[Insizer]

Yeah, I've never understood the reasoning behind her passive... It would theoretically work well with her current first ability in that they both are for enemies within close range her, but she shouldn't be in that situation to begin with. Frankly, an innate energy regen would make more sense (as she controls anti-matter, which can be used to fuel her frame) and would work well with her caster kit, but it may be OP (I dunno).

[Azrael]

16 minutes ago, DeMonkey said:

Honestly, if I had the energy I'd rather AMD. Why trickshot with a Tigris when I can trickshot a bubble that then trickshots an entire group of enemies, that's just me though.

No, it's not just you. It's me too, I just enjoy the ability when I feel like I can get away with playing with it. I think if the energy cost were reduced quite a bit it would help a lot. As it is AMD takes priority.

[Epsik-kun]

The only Nova's ability that's lacking something is Null Star.

All her other abilities are amazing and have their applications. Particularly, Wormhole is one of the best (if not the best) ways of covering large distances in Warframe. It's utility for the team is quite limited, but Nova herself can use it to achieve great results.

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

She is completely fine and I have no problem soloing missions with her.

[DrBorris]

4 hours ago, (PS4)DesecratedFlame said:

She is completely fine and I have no problem soloing missions with her.

Neither do I, but "fine" isn't good, let alone great. This is not a buff thread, or a nerf thread, this is a thread to give some more use to Nova's two less than stellar abilities.

 

Just look at Frost for example, he has always been a "fine" frame and has always had a very (very) strong place in the meta. The problem was that it was only for one ability. Sure, people could solo missions with him and he has always been borderline required for any extended defense, but that did not stop DE, did it. All they did was tweak his three other abilities and voila, Frost is in a much better place now.

 

4 hours ago, Epsik-kun said:

The only Nova's ability that's lacking something is Null Star.

All her other abilities are amazing and have their applications. Particularly, Wormhole is one of the best (if not the best) ways of covering large distances in Warframe. It's utility for the team is quite limited, but Nova herself can use it to achieve great results.

The OP talks about QoL changes to Worm Hole that pretty much come down to making the hit box a sphere, I can't be the only one who sometimes has issues with Worm Hole's hit-box. This "rework" is not trying to do anything too crazy just give some nice tweaks and QoL items.

[Epsik-kun]

18 minutes ago, DrBorris said:

I can't be the only one who sometimes has issues with Worm Hole's hit-box

There are no problems with Worm Hole's hitbox. There are problems with its mechanics. Particularly with the fact its interactions are host-based, thus highly affected by lag. Worm Hole has a great hitbox, which still requires you to understand it a bit, yet doesn't require you to have high levels of precision.

All problems it has are problems of faulty game mechanics - not the frame. There are loads of unnecessary host-side interactions in the game, which serve no particular purpose aside from making it worse. It also includes all forms of weapon switching (including Exalted weapons), doors, hack panels, etc.

[KirukaChan]

I think all Nova really needs right now is the stagger that Null Star used to have added back to it. Beyond that, I think she can wait until some other Frames have gotten some attention.