Valkyr: Rip Line and Hysteria

[UvBenServed]

Just wanted to throw out a few changes I'd like to see for Valkyr's first and fourth abilities.

 

Rip Line:

• Make using rip line to move around the map feel less sluggish
• Have rip line function differently when you hold down the button versus just pressing it. Pressing 1 will pull you towards whatever surface, enemy, or ally you are aiming at. Holding 1 will auto target several enemies in front of you (let's say up to 4 for now) and make Valkyr attach hooks to them before pulling back, ragdolling and dealing damage to the enemies

Hysteria:

• There is currently an aura that follows Valkyr around while in hysteria. The current purpose of this aura is to give a visual indicator to help determine whether or not Valkyr will take damage when hysteria ends. Give this aura the added effect of increased threat level for any enemy in range
• Change the energy drain for hysteria into health drain and increase the rate at which it drains

 

I realize that the last change may end up being somewhat...controversial. But since Valkyr's claws already have innate life steal in hysteria, the idea is to make this a nerf for players who use hysteria passively and a buff for players who use it aggressively. It was the only way I could think of to make a hysteria Valkyr killable, but not killable (if that makes any sense). The only concern I have is getting the rate at which heath drains during hysteria just right. Too high and hysteria becomes more of a burden than an asset. Too low and players will barely have to do anything to keep hysteria up indefinitely.

I want to make the play style of Valkyr more in tune with the general theme of the warframe: frenzied, unstable, and bloodthirsty. I want players to earn that invincibility. I want players to want to kill, to NEED to kill. Health drain creates that need, and all of that leftover energy can be used on your other abilities, turning you into that much more of a killing machine.

[(PSN)Goldova]

I definitely like your ideas, it's useful but not over-powered change, the aggro part in particular. ;)

[brytur]

I don't use Valkyr very often, but I'll still offer up my brief opinion.

1 hour ago, UvBenServed said:

Holding 1 will auto target several enemies in front of you

This would be very nice, because it's extremely annoying when you miss your target and go flying off to who knows where.

1 hour ago, UvBenServed said:

Change the energy drain for hysteria into health drain and increase the rate at which it drains

I like this idea in the same way I like Nekros' Despoil augment: It frees up the energy to be concentrated on other abilities. An augment, maybe?

[Rhaenxys]

One thing to clarify, if they change hysteria into draining health over time (which was proposed before) the current self damage mechanic has to go because in terms of survivability would be worse than defy or even vex armor.

I would say just remove the self damage mechanic and keep the current aura to draw enemy aggro but the aura`s range is at max range (20m i think) instantly when using hysteria.

And about the power cost, in terms of balance, it should have a minimal consumption even if it has a health drain, something between 0.75 - 1.25 at base.

They should take a look at paralysis too, the stun duration and the range are very short.

[UvBenServed]

23 hours ago, brytur said:

I like this idea in the same way I like Nekros' Despoil augment: It frees up the energy to be concentrated on other abilities. An augment, maybe?

Tbh, I probably would have preferred to see this as an augment mod, rather than how the ability works naturally. But since hysteria already has an augment mod (hysterical assault), I don't think that's really an option at this point.

20 hours ago, Rhaenxys said:

One thing to clarify, if they change hysteria into draining health over time (which was proposed before) the current self damage mechanic has to go because in terms of survivability would be worse than defy or even vex armor.

I would say just remove the self damage mechanic and keep the current aura to draw enemy aggro but the aura`s range is at max range (20m i think) instantly when using hysteria.

And about the power cost, in terms of balance, it should have a minimal consumption even if it has a health drain, something between 0.75 - 1.25 at base.

They should take a look at paralysis too, the stun duration and the range are very short.

Yeah, it seems like a lot of the mechanics that go into hysteria are just there to try to make it less of a god mode. With a switch to health drain instead of energy drain, a lot of those mechanics would probably be a bit unnecessary. It's hard to say for sure though due to how many factors need to be taken into consideration when it comes to hysteria.

I'm kind of conflicted about whether or not keeping the self damage would be a good idea. When I first thought of this change, I assumed that the damage aura was affected by range mods, mostly due to seeing so many people with narrow minded in their hysteria builds. But after double checking the wiki page, it looks like range mods only affect hysteria if you have the augment mod equipped. If they were to add aggro to the aura and have the range be static the way you suggested (it is 20m at max btw), then I would agree with taking away the self damage mechanic, as long as the aura was still unaffected by range mods. However, if they did all that AND changed it so the aura is affected by range mods, it might actually be better to keep the self damage mechanic just so players will have to choose: do I want to go with a long range build to tank damage from everything in the room at the cost of making things more dangerous for myself? Or do I want to go with a low range build to increase my own survivability?

That mechanic of increased energy cost as time goes on is another thing that may be unnecessary with a transition to health drain. If they were to keep it, I think an interesting change would be for kills from hysteria to temporarily reduce the amount of health currently being drained (kind of like how kills reduce the range of the aura) to further incentivize players to be as aggressive as possible while in hysteria.

I was considering addressing war cry and paralysis too, but I feel like rip line and hysteria are the abilities the need to most attention right now. For the energy cost, paralysis seems more or less fine (if a bit boring) for cheap spammable crowd control. That being said, if they did buff it, I certainly wouldn't complain. I've also got one or two ideas for war cry, but frankly I'd be happy if they just made it recastable (assuming that recasting it doesn't reduce the duration when using eternal war)

Edited November 18, 2016 by UvBenServed