(Warframe Concept) Valkyrie - The Battle Maiden

[transfatninja]

Learning from my warframe concept and having figured out the spoiler tag, any design notes are in spoiler tags, if you wish to read them. No more walls of text!

 

Valkyrie the Battle Maiden

A robust yet swift frame, Valkyrie is a graceful force on the battlefield; with an aggressive and mobile set of abilities that enable her to bring the hurt to her enemies.

What I wanted to do with Valkyrie is create a mobile bruiser warframe; which could serve as either as a female counterpart to Excalibur or Rhino, or as her own theme. Also, there's no female frame in the game other than Saryn that's really all that sturdy; even then, Saryn's more of a sturdy caster than a straight up brawler, so adding some variety would be nice.

 

Overall, her playstyle is somewhat in-between of Rhino and Excalibur, being mobile yet fairly tanky. Her abilities are ones I figured would be useful to a bruiser, so there’s some overlap with Rhino and Excalibur, but I did make sure to make her distinct enough to be justified.

 

Alternate Names:

Valk

 

Appearance

Valkyrie has an elegant, armored look. Her default helm is meant to invoke a historical Norse helm (not a horned helmet, it’d probably look silly on her anyways). On her back is a thruster pack that folds out to form “wings” when she uses certain abilities.

Not too sure how feasible the wings are, but they’d be an awesome effect that’d really give her abilities flair

 

Attributes:

 

Health: 100 (300 at 30)

Shields: 150 ( 450 at 30)

Energy: 100 (150 at 30)

Armor: 125

Sprint: 1.0

Polarity: Two D Slots

 

Powers:

 

1) Heroic Charge - 25 Energy

Valkyrie’s initiator; her thruster pack folds out and rapidly propels her forward with her melee weapon at the ready. Upon hitting an enemy, she hooks them with her weapon in an upward slash, bringing them into the air with her (a few feet above the ground). She then slams the enemy into the ground, dealing heavy damage to the target and a damaging AOE to any nearby enemies. Enemies hit by this ability are knocked down.

 

Leveling increases dash distance, damage and range of AOE.

Another dash attack, though with a bit more flair. I’m a bit concerned with having yet another dash attack, though it does serve as her initiator ability. Functions slightly different from Rhino and Excalibur in that it stops at the first enemy hit, then deals AOE damage and knockdown rather than being AOE throughout the full duration.

 

2) Valor - 50 Energy

Valkyrie fills nearby allies with courage, and begins to glow with a brilliant white light. A constant shield regeneration is applied due to the effect (separate from natural regeneration); damaging enemies with melee returns a percentage of damage as shields.

 

Leveling increases range of AOE buff, constant shield regeneration and percentage melee damage returns as shields.

Valkyrie’s "tanking" ability, lets her and her team be more aggressive with melee. Also applies a shield regeneration since her teammates won't always be close-range frames.

 

3) Smite - 50 Energy

(thanks to GrimoireM for the idea)

Valkyrie targets an enemy for judgement, and swords of light pierce the enemy, stunning them and dealing heavy damage. Increased damage based on how much health the enemy is missing, as a percentage. Something like (Base damage + base damage * %health missing). Deals additional damage over time. Killing an enemy with this ability or them dying while the DOT is being applied causes the enemy to detonate, causing AOE damage, and refunds Valkyrie 25 energy.

 

Leveling increases base damage and duration of DOT.

A coup de grace ability, allows Valkyrie to finish off weakened enemies, or used as a lead-up to a charge.

 

4) Ragnarok– 100 Energy

(Reworked based on GrimoireM's suggestion)

Valkyrie wings unfurl and she briefly leaps into the air. With a flash of light, all nearby enemies are marked for death; dealing a moderate amount of initial damage, causing each enemy to be stunned momentarily, and marking the area with a runic "bubble". Any damage enemies within the bubble receive is added to a counter. At the end of the duration or if Valkyrie leaves the bubble, all enemies currently in the bubble a percentage of the damage counter.

 

Leveling increases the initial damage, duration, and percentage of damage received enemies are hit with at the end of the effect.

I wanted Valkyrie’s uber to be useful to both Valkyrie as well as having team utility. Valkryie is intended to get in close and batter the enemy with melee or short ranged weapons, so an AOE effect makes sense considering her playstyle. Having it scale to other sources of damage should give it more utility, and allow the independent playstyle of Valkyrie to still be able to directly assist the group as a whole. Functionally inverse to Nyx's ult, based on hitting enemies instead of getting hit.

 

Alternate Powers:

 

Might add more as time goes on, or replace the “official” powers I settled on.

 

A) Whirlwind – 50 Energy

Valkyrie flies in a circle, whipping up a vortex. Enemies caught within the vortex are ragdolled and spun around. Leveling would increase the duration of the vortex.

(Liked the idea, thought it’d fit a theoretical wind-based warframe more.)

 

B) Avatar of Battle – 100 Energy

Valkyrie’s wings unfurl and she begins to glow with a golden light; her movement speed is increased, she takes greatly reduced damage (maybe invulnerability?)  and is immune to knockback. Her melee attacks also deal bonus damage to enemies near ones she strikes. Leveling increases duration and bonus melee damage.

(My initial idea for her uber. Figured having two buffs that pretty much do the same thing wouldn't be that interesting)

 

C) Air Raid - 100 Energy

Valkyrie's thruster pack unfurls and she takes to the sky. Enemies within a certain range are targeted and dive-bombed sequentially, dealing damage and tossing them into the air. Functionally similar to Ash's Blade Storm, though deals less damage but with added crowd control. Leveling increases range and max enemies hit.

(Another uber idea, bit derivative and not sure how the animation would go. Valkyrie can't teleport like Ash, so making it work visually would be a lot of work)

 

D) Revive - 50 Energy

Valkyrie picks up a dead ally and slowly, ever so slowly rises into the air. The ally is revived at the end of the lengthy casting animation that can't be interrupted.

(No, I'm not serious with this one. I kinda hope no one gets the joke/reference, for their own sake.)

 

E) Bravery - Passive

Passive ability, gives Valkyrie damage resistance for each nearby enemy, up to a cap. Leveling increases resistance cap and the radius passive activates.

(Originally part of the "official" power set, moved it down here for not fitting the Warframe pattern. Thought it'd be cool and original, but people expect four active powers which are frankly more interesting.)

 

F) Dive bomb - 25 Energy

Alternate for heroic charge. Valkyrie leaps into the air, gives a slight pause, then flies directly towards where the cursor is aiming. Does AOE on impact, enemies directly struck with the dive bomb take further damage.

 

G) Eternal Valor (original) - 50 Energy

Valkyrie is filled with courage, and begins to glow with a brilliant white light. Shields regenerate even when under fire while this lasts; damaging enemies while this is active gives some health to Valkyrie. Killing enemies increases shield regeneration until the effect ends (shield regeneration increases stack) and replenishes duration slightly. Light fades as duration runs out, giving some useful feedback for the player. Leveling increases duration, health returned, and shield regeneration increases.

(reworked effect after feedback on complexity.)

 

H) Afterburner - 50 Energy

Valkyrie activates her thruster pack and hovers above the ground, boosting her speed and leaving a flaming trail behind her. She is also immune to knockdown effects while this is active. Flame trail deals fire damage over time.

Leveling increases duration and the damage the flame trail deals.

(Bit redundant with the charge ability)

 

Feedback and suggestions are welcome; let me know what you think!

Edited June 30, 2013 by transfatninja

[Detheroc]

Sounds more like a new LoL char..... a passive skill? I dont think that they will do that. Other than that, great job imaginating all those skills.

[transfatninja]

Sounds more like a new LoL char..... a passive skill? I dont think that they will do that. Other than that, great job imaginating all those skills.

Thinking it over, I think I'll replace the passive with another skill I thought up, put the passive in the alternative skills. I was originally thinking "hey, something they haven't done yet, that might be cool", but it does break the pattern players expect. Thanks for the feedback.

[GrimoireM]

I might shorten the name to valk, but that's only taste. I had already been thinking about a laser damage paladin frame, and this would fit the bill perfectly in terms of lore. Your abilities seem overly complex, though, so you should think of how to dumb it down. Here's my suggestions:

I don't really see the need for both afterburner and heroic charge. I'd actually prefer a combination of Excal's jump and charge, an arcing leap that still hurts people as it throws you into the air above. You could have Valk impact the ground upon landing, flooding it with light that deals laser damage. The main reason for this is it helps you over a lot of terrain in the right scenarios, while still accomplishing the same thing as slash dash, albeit delayed. This could be called Leap of Faith, as cheesy as it sounds. If DE can make it happen, a charge mechanic to aim the arc would work nicely in tandem with the leap, with some visual cue, but isn't necessary.

Shorten Eternal Valor to Valor, and instead, why not have it give a buff to allies and Valk in an AoE that instantly heals the frame's shield on each melee hit based on a percentage of their damage? You should include a different, larger value for charges, given they take time to set up. That way the effect is immediate and apparent. A flat bonus would reward fast weapons with reach too much, I think.

Ragnarok should have...more oomph, and less treading on Absorb's niche, I think two circles as part of the AoE would work. The outer circle does laser damage, the inner one ignores armor and is basically in the immediate area around Valk. Also, you could spread the damage over two hits instead of a mark. Cast it to deal minor damage immediately, then Valk is mortal again, free to move and draw in enemies to the center before the second hit lands, which deals damage based on how much damage Valk has dealt while in the area. This synergizes well with Valor as well as her leap. Another function could be to have it detonate early if Valk leaves the circle, which would give a reason to give the second hit some base damage.

There is a ranged spell you could add. A targeted laser damage nuke plus stun, as that comes in real handy, and lets you shut down key targets. Maybe even refund some of the energy cost if the target dies from the nuke or while stunned (Which also lets you get away with costing it higher to prevent spamming). What you would see is a few energy beams in the shape of long swords come down from above to pierce the target, holding them down for the stun duration, have that energy return to you if you get the energy refund, as a visual cue. You could call it Judgement, or Purge, or something else that is suitable. If you're worried about it being too caster based, then make the range short. It won't hurt the concept at all.

[transfatninja]

Reworked a few things; thanks for your feedback GrimoireM. Replaced Afterburner, and tweaked Ragnarok and Valor; also added an alternate for Heroic Charge, but haven't decided if the new one should replace it.

[Zara]

Woah, it seems that we both had the idea of a Valkyrie warframe xD I posted a concept of one as well after yours without knowning one was out there :T Not sure if you've seen it but sorry if it seemed like I copied/stole the idea! Regardless i'd love to have a warframe like this :)