Melee Oriented Frame Proposition - "valka"

[Valentine_Grim]

A few words in advance: no pics, no stats, just a bare concept. All things said below are based on my personal judgement and experience and may not reflect the way things objectively are. Any ideas and descriptions are mere advice, and should not be taken as set in stone. Any underlined text bares no insights, it's just my little fetish.

 

The reason: Melee cluster is the biggest of all three weapon types, yet most of the frames count on their damaging abilities and\or gunplay, leaving CQC as mere entertainment. There are damage spikers like Ash and Loki, but even they are rarely seen (subjectively) cutting through the foes with their blades. And there are things like stagger, poison, open areas, stamina drain, exposure to incoming damage and so on and so forth, which obstruct swordplay as a potent alternative to aforementioned mechanics. With current set of frames, close combat (more often then not) comes across as inconvenient and out-of-place.

 

The name: "Valka" ("L" is soft as in "literature" not strong as in "lumber") is Polish word for "battle". I'm sure for 98%, but confirmation from a Polish person would be highly appreciated. Obviously, such a name goes for a female warframe (at least in slaviс the "battle" is "she").

 

Appearance: In order to have recognition as sword wielder, this frame's looks should resemble a suit of light armour. Angly-platy-rivety, yet with soft joints and with little burden on the main hand. In my mind's eye, I see thigh-high boots on a middle heal and small triangle shoulderplates, that make her shoulders square (not ninja-like, but I cannot unsee what I saw).

 

Abilities: In order to make Valka a true blademaster, there should be no attacking abilities. None. Instead, here is the set of utility-mobility ones that would emphasise usefulness of her melee weapon. Names and numbers are just for show. I'd rather let someone with actual understanding of how things work decide which ability is which and what costs what. As they are:

 

1) Smear. On the battlefield, Valka moves so fast, that enemies fall before she's even there and all their strikes only hit the air. Concept is simple: Valka creates a holographic trace that draws enemy fire, similar to Loki's "Decoy", yet it has no health or shields, only the lifetime and moves with Valka, repeating all her movements with certain delay. In order for "Smear" to work, Valka should not stop for more than a couple of moments, otherwise her projection will catch up with her position and all the strikes will land where they were meant to. So, if you have a blade capable of dispatching foes in a matter of seconds, your other gun-wielding foes will have something else to shoot at and large open areas are menacing no more.

 

2) Transposition. Wise combatant knows when to fight and when to retreat. Valka leaps away from battle to fight another day. This ability makes Valka jump forward at double hight and at lenght modified by rank. Any enemy that obstructs her way is knocked down as with jump-crouch. Nothing like tactical retreat when you are swarmed with Infested and your screen goes red...

 

3) Mending. Good warrior defeats the foe. Great warrior lives to tell the tale. As a vanguard frame, Valka has to have means to survive at least one mistake. Thus, "Mending" converts some of her energy into health (say, 75 energy into 50 health at level 3). It doesn't matter if it will be costy, with long cast and not really worth the penny without "Streamline" and "Focus", but it should be there. Because otherwise, her first mistake will always be her last one (DR-RAMA-A). Melee oriented fighter should not fall out of combat just because she miscalculated her capabilities once. I'm sure pouring all your energy into half of your total health is still more preferable than staying out of combat til the end of the level cause you suddenly became too frail for your role. That's in case if it sounded OP or too solo-oriented for multiplayer game.

 

4) Valka (Got it, huh, huh? Valka! *nerdy giggle*). At the peak of her abilities, Valka ignores everything but the battlefield before her. This one is similar to Rhino's "Iron skin" with few alterations. It has total poison, stagger and melee ignore, but ranged damage is only redused by some percent (better than nothing, but still - pen is stronger than a sword, gunshot in the face is stronger than a pen). In this state, Valka moves (unmodifiebly) faster, but cannot use any weapon but melee.

 

I've intentionally left all the armor, polarity, mod attunement details aside, as I am not a programmer and hardly an insightful Warframe player (and not the most eloquent english-speaker, ahaha, edrena vosh!). Here's what makes sense to me as a commoner, hope it'll prove to be beneficial in some way. Luv!

[Archistopheles]

 it's just my little fetish.

 

 

Thank you for including that so I knew when to stop reading. :)

[SlimShazbot]

Sorry, but as far as I know frame ideas aren't taken into consideration unless its in the design council.

[Valentine_Grim]

Well, at least now I can sit straight, knowing I did what I could instead of not doing what I could and blaming myself for not doing what I could while I could do it. In all my couldiness.

[iPrevenge]

This frame sounds extremely boring to play, except perhaps smear.  The way I'm currently visualizing this, is quite cool. 

[Rhorge]

The name: "Valka" ("L" is soft as in "literature" not strong as in "lumber") is Polish word for "battle". I'm sure for 98%, but confirmation from a Polish person would be highly appreciated. Obviously, such a name goes for a female warframe (at least in slaviс the "battle" is "she").

It's spelled "Walka".

[Grodgen]

Sounds like a rusher frame. And it sounds incredibly boring for being a melee oriented frame. You have Excalibur and Ash already. Pick one they both excel in melee.

[Okko1981]

I think it's a good idea, I would see a sort of space samurai with special ability in melee combat.

Grodgen how many element attack warframe in this game? 7, so one more warframe oriented melee, it's will be good. Big up for valentine -grim.

[Grilleds]

Didn't a thread like this turn up a few months ago? Pretty sure we can classify it as an injoke now.

Ember is already a melee focused Warframe with the right mod specs, same with Saryn. Trinity and Rhino are less obvious examples.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Grilleds

[Archangelzz]

Sorry, but as far as I know frame ideas aren't taken into consideration unless its in the design council.

that is true but if a design council member likes your idea they could also introduce it i would think so at least

[Ced23Ric]

Moving to FanZone.

 

that is true but if a design council member likes your idea they could also introduce it i would think so at least

 

DC cannot put forth new concepts on their own. DC votes on stuff DE puts forth.