Ash Ability Suggestions

[Voidpunker]

Ash is easily my favorite warframe of the set right now, but as we know - he needs some tweaking. I've read countless threads on various buffs, nerfs, and tweaks that should be implemented for him. We know that the devs have him on the list of frames needing tweaks, but that hasn't stopped the community from dreaming up all sorts of ideas and suggestions. Here are my two cents on Ash's abilities including all of the various suggestions for him that I have read.

 

Shuriken - Most people (including me) seem to be pretty happy with this one. Maxed out, Ash throws two enemy-seeking shurikens  that deal about 500 damage each. It's an easy way to clear out two enemies in a room or weaken a tougher one at any range for just 25 energy. It COULD be buffed so that he throws three at max level to give it better CC capabilities or so that he can make bosses really feel the pain, however, it seems to be fine the way it is.

 

Smoke Screen - This ability pretty much does the same thing as Loki's invisibility, except that it has a knockback effect, it's a little cheaper, and it doesn't last quite as long. This is the ONE ability that Ash users seem to use constantly, and don't have a problem with. Once maxed out and when using the continuity mod, it can last for quite a while.

 

Teleport - This is the ability with the most unused potential. Teleporting is a huge part of what makes Ash the stealthy frame he is, so why is it considered useless to so many players? The problem is that every enemy in the game has instant reflexes, so that as soon as someone appears right in front of their eyes - they immediately punch them in the face. This ability also can't really be used for stealth because without friends nearby, you can only teleport to enemies (and can't even stealth kill them). There have been plenty of suggestions across the forums to tweak this ability, and I've made a list of the popular ones.

 

1. When you teleport, you appear BEHIND the enemy.

2. When you teleport, you stun all enemies within a small radius of your destination.

3. When you teleport, all enemies become unalerted.

4. Tweak the ability so that you can teleport anywhere.

    (This may be a little OP, but keep in mind that Loki can do nearly the same thing with a decoy)

 

Blade Storm - Ah yes, the most requested ability for tweakification. The new animations they showed off at Livestream #8 were pretty amazing, but it raises some concerns for many players. This ability's slow animation coupled with it's small radius and low damage dealt make it an ability that's lacks the usefulness of many other frames' ubers. Here are some commonly suggested tweaks.

 

1. Instead of making Ash go through and kill each individual enemy, allow him to keep functioning normally while the animation plays out for each enemy simultaneously via ghostly images of himself ala Naruto.

2. Keep the lengthy animation, but tweak it by making it do more damage and increase the range.

3. Make the ability prioritize high-level targets to make up for it's lack of CC functionality.

4. Allow the player to point at and choose the next victim so that it can be used to prioritize targets, and can be stopped at any time.

 

TL;DR - Ash is an amazing frame, but needs little tweaks to make himself as useful as some of the others. What do you guys think?

[Tangerine]

Some of the suggestions are pretty OP. A frame like Ash doesn't need CC on everything, especially not his major damage abilities. He has an AoE stun+invis already. Having Bladestorm be an AoE ult without the necessary ult animation is also pretty ridiculous.

 

Shuriken just needs better hit detection on laggy hosts, Bladestorm needs an animation overhaul and maybe a target priority like you said. Teleport is exactly what it should be, a low cost simple mobility ability, it doesn't need an AoE stun or damage; being able to teleport anyway would just lead a rife path for exploits for maps+combat wise. That's pretty much it. He just needs simple fixes, not ridiculous buffs to an already decent kit.

Edited July 2, 2013 by Tangerine

[Voidpunker]

Some of the suggestions are pretty OP. A frame like Ash doesn't need CC on everything, especially not his major damage abilities. He has an AoE stun+invis already. Having Bladestorm be an AoE ult without the necessary ult animation is also pretty ridiculous.

 

Shuriken just needs better hit detection on laggy hosts, Bladestorm needs an animation overhaul and maybe a target priority like you said. Teleport is exactly what it should be, a low cost simple mobility ability, it doesn't need an AoE stun or damage; being able to teleport anyway would just lead a rife path for exploits for maps+combat wise. That's pretty much it. He just needs simple fixes, not ridiculous buffs to an already decent kit.

I personally don't agree with every suggestion above, but different people have different opinions. That's why I put down what I saw to be the most commonly suggested tweaks on the forums. If I were to tweak him, I really would just tweak teleport so that it teleports you behind your target, and blade storm so that it prioritizes high-level targets. I agree that teleporting anywhere would be OP, but if it were implemented, I'm sure the devs would balance it just like they plan to with the grappling hook.

 

I'm aware that he's not a CC frame, and don't think he should be turned into one.

 

Some people think otherwise.

 

Thanks for the reply.