[Spoilers] Operators and Focus Schools

[AandOE]

Spoiler

As many of us now know, we can step through our Warframes now, to enter the battlefield on our own. However, we are not only exceedingly squishy (100hp), but do minimal damage in the face of the enemy. There are two easily implementable ideas for helping this situation: Producing a new modding screen, and Focus schools. This post will primarily deal with the latter.

We've seen from devstreams that Focus 2.0 will eventually be coming along, and I believe it would be a great opportunity to expand what is now currently at our disposal. I'll take each school in hand, produce a single, reasonable buff, and then we'll go from there, ne? These buffs will all extend off of the appropriate Mastery node, and be applicable through a single Weapon Switch while in Operator mode.

Madurai: Phoenix Gaze Rising. Replaces Void Beam with Phoenix Gaze, as well as all applicable Focus alterations.

Vazarin: Mending Tides Swelling. Replaces Void Blast with Mending Tides, as well as all applicable Focus alterations.

Naramon: Mind Spike Annihilating: Replaces Void Blast with Mind Spike, as well as all applicable Focus alterations.

Unairu: Basilisk Flare Descending: Replaces Void Beam with Basilisk Flare, as well as all applicable Focus alterations.

Zenurik: Void Pulse Engorging: Replaces Void Blast with Void Pulse, as well as all applicable Focus alterations.

Given how much the energy consumption is, these seem reasonable. As an off-set, holding [5] will now only activate the passives located in each tree. This moves the Operator to a more active roll, while still retaining DE's wishes for the time lengths needed to gain the passives. "But AandOE, the Operator does terrible damage and is insta-gibbed by even Mercury enemies!" Yes, and this is where the rest of the Focus tree come into effect. Beyond the current edges of the nodes, reasonable buff nodes will appear! Madurai might obtain better Beam power, whilst Unairu may gain a flat-damage cap while in Operator mode. (as in, say, receiving only 5 damage from any damage source, instead of Xx amount)

Health and Energy cap nodes would be a standard feature, as well as energy replenishment or damage reduction nodes. If we're to be the living embodiments of our Focus schools, improvement nodes for seemingly lackluster Focus augments can exist beyond said places. (like Vazarin's Retaliation. Imagine boosting it to 200%, which might kill an enemy!) As an offset, improvement nodes could also reduce the amount of time needed to activate the passives, at say, 5 seconds per rank invested, to a predetermined max. (while not adding more time, themselves) This is to counter balance the need for large Focus investment and activation. Each improvement node could also be intrinsically linked with other improvement nodes around them, allowing say, a Zenurik Tenno to enter the nodes from their Systemic Override node, and then only focus upon them instead of adding additional Zenurik tree branches.

In conclusion, I believe this provides a level of game depth that both provides a long run for the user, and incremental, handle-able buffs to both the Tenno and their Focus school. Why this, instead of another mod screen? While enough farming can produce requisite mods of the same types suggested, dilution in the drop tables combined with not working with what we already have seems wasteful. Work, expand, and buff towards the endgame, not with the Warframe, but with the Operator! Neither will be able to replace each other, but both can live in harmony~ What say you, dear Warframe players, to these ideas?

[ddips]

Sounds good to me, hope they read this.

[motorfirebox]

I think Focus should work entirely backwards from how it does now. Instead of immediately getting a big single-use ability that you eventually add mission-long buffs to, using Focus should initially give you a temporary (1-2 minutes or so) buff. As you level up your school, you have options that include the big single-use ability, extending the duration of your temporary buff (full mission duration at max rank), and stuff like that.

Basically, Focus should be what it was originally described as: something you do when you're getting ready for a tough fight. Everything else it does should branch out from that starting point.

[AandOE]

@motorfireboxInteresting, but what about when you're in Operator-alone mode?

[motorfirebox]

2 minutes ago, AandOE said:

@motorfireboxInteresting, but what about when you're in Operator-alone mode?

I think your idea works. If you're in operator mode, you get immediate access to the lowest-level version of the single-use power. In Warframe mode, you don't get the single-use power unless you spec into it.