Volt makes no sense as a Warframe

[Xaxma]

When I first heard "Volt," this is what I was expecting:

Instead, you get a dinky shield dispenser that occasionally uses 4 to CC and turtle. Unless you build for a pure power Volt, his 2 just doesn't feel like it's worth using. I feel like his identity is a little misguided and he isn't the speed-demon frame that he's fleshed out to be. His 3 and 4 are the biggest culprits to this counter intuitive design; his passive and 2 tell me "keep moving!" but his 3 and 4 tell me "set up and turtle down." Don't get me wrong, his 3 and 4 are great abilities, but they simply don't fit Volt in my opinion and should probably be relocated to another frame that emphasizes defenses over speed.

I've never heard of lightning that stood still, so I feel like it's time we work on his intended design philosophy by bringing more attention to how his passive can be utilized as well as changing a few skills.

Passive - Kept the same + Maximum ramp up multiplied by Volt's movement speed (Affected by movement speed mods). Movement covered in the air now adds to the ramp up.

1 - Kept the same + While 3 is active, maximum branching and range of branching is drastically increased.

2 - Kept the same + Adds to the passive ramp up multiplier; If the maximum is not reached while under 2's effects, charges stall until 2 is activated again.

3 - Distortion: Volt super charges his molecules and gains X% Evasion (Affected by power strength) while Distortion is toggled. Volt ignores enemy collision. Volt is affected less by gravity and gains the ability to quickly scale along walls; this is activated by bullet gliding and activating slide along or against walls (Speed in which you can scale walls affected by current movement speed effects and friction/bullet glide mods). Volt buffs his 1 ability (Explained above). Costs 25 energy to activate (Affected by power efficiency) and 10 energy per second (Affected by power duration and efficiency).

4 - Climax: (Can only be used while in the air) Volt briefly hovers in place and powers up, then strikes the ground below him with incredible speed as a lightning bolt, damaging enemies for X electric damage (Affected by power strength, distance from the ground, and multiplied by 1.5x of passive ramp up) and ragdolls all enemies within X meters (Affected by power range, distance from the ground, and 2% of passive ramp up). If Volt damages at least 7/6/5 enemies with his 4, he creates an energy pickup that he and allies can use that restores 75 energy at the point of impact. Costs 75 energy to use (Affected by power efficiency).

Capacitance Augment - Volt regenerates 10% Shield (Affected by power strength) for each enemy damaged by 4 to himself and allies within affinity range. Volt can create overshields for himself and allies up to maximum of 100% of his own shielding (Affected by shield mods). Stacks additive overshields to other overshields abilities.

 

My intention for this was to reward the Volt player for constantly staying on the move. He's balanced by the sheer energy costs of constantly maintaining his abilities. Currently, the way he plays out is as a niche speed runner or as a baby Frost. Thematically, he makes no sense to me. I feel like being a speedster and crashing down all over the place to be a potentially unique and rather potent alternative to the way he is right now.

I hope you enjoyed my suggestion and feedback.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Xaxma
Information

[OfPowerOfWant]

I like these ideas

What is the image attached to #3 from?

[Xaxma]

1 minute ago, OfPowerOfWant said:

I like these ideas

What is the image attached to #3 from?

Infamous Second Son

[-Mr.Meeseeks-]

I like these ideas. I would like to actually shoot constant lightning from my fingers with Volt's 1 though. Functionally similar to Chroma's 1, however it would have 100% chance to electric proc as well as chain to nearby enemies.

[Ciaus]

This is pretty cool, makes his passive built into his abilities and identity a lot more, that 3 seems really good for the melee speed style (you know, the main style using his 2 :D) and his 4 just seems FUN. Like Bullet jumping up to slam enemies away is enjoyable, plain and simple. 

Your redesign idea is beautiful tactically and thematically. And good use of images. 

+1 good sir. 

[(PSN)Hajin_Shinobi]

Well, as someone who "mains" Volt since starting Warframe something around 2 years now, I can see where you are coming from, if you would expect him to be some kind of speed demon who obliterates everything with lightning. I see him much more in some kind of a general support role. Back in the days, I explained him to my friends, who started playing Warframe, as literally a living amplifier to the team. He doesn't do anything really, really strong.  He does not deal the most damage, he does not give the team the most protection, he does not deliver the best CC, but he does everything a little bit, like he would "amplify" the team in every aspect, if you get what I mean.

He can deal a little bit of damage and stun with his 1. He can give your team a little bit of utility with his 2, when you want to rush a little more through a mission or you need to get out of some tricky situation quickly AND can improve melee DPS quite some, he can protect and up the dmg of your ranged weapons a little bit more with his 3 and give some AoE dmg and CC with his 4. Seperately there always was a frame that could do each of these taska a little bit better, but you could always contribute in some way with Volt. Obviously, he was always kind of... well, weird. The more specialized frames were almost always way more efficient for whatever mission you were playing. And as of today, there are so many frames, especially the newer ones, that also fill the role of "deliver all kinds of support" really well, while being better in every other aspect, so that many of these older frames, especially those that never got a full rework, are almost obsolete by now.

I still really like playing Volt on so many occasions, especially because he works so well as a frame for helping someone who is completely new to Warframe and is still learning most of the gameplay aspects, but the way he is right now, he definitely needs some kind of change, to make him more viable. I just don't know if I would like to see him evolve to a more aggresive oriented damage frame like you're suggesting. I do like these suggestions, but I think I'd much rather see them on a new frame with an entirely new design based upon maintaining speed...

[Xaxma]

3 minutes ago, (PS4)Hajin_Shinobi said:

Well, as someone who "mains" Volt since starting Warframe something around 2 years now, I can see where you are coming from, if you would expect him to be some kind of speed demon who obliterates everything with lightning. I see him much more in some kind of a general support role. Back in the days, I explained him to my friends, who started playing Warframe, as literally a living amplifier to the team. He doesn't do anything really, really strong.  He does not deal the most damage, he does not give the team the most protection, he does not deliver the best CC, but he does everything a little bit, like he would "amplify" the team in every aspect, if you get what I mean.

He can deal a little bit of damage and stun with his 1. He can give your team a little bit of utility with his 2, when you want to rush a little more through a mission or you need to get out of some tricky situation quickly AND can improve melee DPS quite some, he can protect and up the dmg of your ranged weapons a little bit more with his 3 and give some AoE dmg and CC with his 4. Seperately there always was a frame that could do each of these taska a little bit better, but you could always contribute in some way with Volt. Obviously, he was always kind of... well, weird. The more specialized frames were almost always way more efficient for whatever mission you were playing. And as of today, there are so many frames, especially the newer ones, that also fill the role of "deliver all kinds of support" really well, while being better in every other aspect, so that many of these older frames, especially those that never got a full rework, are almost obsolete by now.

I still really like playing Volt on so many occasions, especially because he works so well as a frame for helping someone who is completely new to Warframe and is still learning most of the gameplay aspects, but the way he is right now, he definitely needs some kind of change, to make him more viable. I just don't know if I would like to see him evolve to a more aggresive oriented damage frame like you're suggesting. I do like these suggestions, but I think I'd much rather see them on a new frame with an entirely new design based upon maintaining speed...

Well, you said it yourself, he's an old frame.

Another old frame is Oberon, and he fulfills that whole "jack of all trades" niche rather well in my opinion. I don't exactly agree with you about him basically being a support.

He's just flat out obsolete, and it's a shame to see the likes of Nezha and Loki take his throne as the "speed frame".

[(PSN)Hajin_Shinobi]

26 minutes ago, Xaxma said:

Well, you said it yourself, he's an old frame.

Another old frame is Oberon, and he fulfills that whole "jack of all trades" niche rather well in my opinion. I don't exactly agree with you about him basically being a support.

He's just flat out obsolete, and it's a shame to see the likes of Nezha and Loki take his throne as the "speed frame".

Oberon is quite a good example actually, first frame I ever build, because a) he was the new frame back then and b) I really, really like his entire nature/paladin design theme going on with him. But he still always felt different for me, he always felt more damage based/aggressive than Volt to me. His 1 is incredibly useful for being "just another single dmg thingy" like so many frames from back in those days have (srsly? Frost, Ember, Mag, Oberon, Volt, etc. they pretty much all had the same 1, with the only difference being the elemental type and some small change like Mag pulling them instead of freezing), his flaming carpet always felt not nearly strong enough in either dmg nor CC for being a viable defensive ability, his regeneration was always just a little bonus, and the most fun was to just spam his 4 and crush your enemies on low level missions all the time.

I'm mostly talking about how I perceived these frames back in the day, because DE has changed so much stuff over the years, many changes, which I'm still not quite fond of to this day, so that I'm much more comfortable in my facts being correct talking about how these frames were when they originated.

I mean, back then we had to put in mods to use our abilities, many builds never used all 4 abilities of a frame back then. Volt was the first frame, where I purposefully used all 4 mods, because I felt every single ability brought in something useful, that I would want while playing with him. Most of the other frames, you just needed 2 or 3 abilities, some people just build their entire frame around a single ability. Back then, that told me, that DE designed Volt and his kit quite good and it just felt "right" for me.

I think he is mostly left behind today because of the increasingly higher difficulty curve in the content, that we have with each update, and his abilities not being that useful in those kind of missions anymore. Some people want more difficult content, they min-max every single mod, aura, forma everything a hundred times, use the most effective element, everything, and then they say that only content against Level 100 enemies is challenging enough for them anymore. Obviously, a lot of weapons and frames aren't really viable for the hardest content. But that's why I play much lower content. I still want to play Volt, because he can be so much fun, so I just stay at low lvl missions (comparatively to most other players with my playtime) most of the time. I don't really need a rework for Volt. Sure, I would like to see him more viable in higher missions, gaining a little bit more relevance, but on the risk of DE changing his kit and making him something, that doesn't really feel like the Volt I used to play all those years, I'd much rather leave him as useless, but also potentially fun as he is right now...

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

Ok, 2 and 3 are somewhat similar...(to me), is there something im missing? 

And 4 shouldnt be called climax, for all the same reasons it shouldnt be called discharge.

But all in all, i like this alot

[Cyphrus]

Would love for this to happen but so much let down has made me a very "glass is half empty" person when it comes to Warframe. So this and nothing like it will never happen. DE believes they know what players want (which we can all see they are fooling themselves especially with the Volt rework) so Volt will stay as is. The chances of another frame with a similar theme that you have created will come out as a completely new release rather than DE fixing volt.

DE to me remind me of those rich kids that have the newest cars but when the tire goes flat instead of fixing it they go out and buy another new car. Probably a bad analogy but I think it gets the point across. 

[EinheriarJudith]

ill have to disagree. there was/is plenty of information about what volts about to the point it was unecessary to form your own expectations around what he isnt. all his powers fit his theme imo. 

Edited December 27, 2016 by EinheriarJudith

[dodyouserious]

the first gif looks like rhino and volt fused 

[Aquasurge]

man it would be nice to see if the stacking system on nidus be applied to volt and his passive.

[Xaxma]

2 hours ago, xvxjiniwai said:

the first gif looks like rhino and volt fused 

It's Savitar from The Flash.

4 hours ago, Cyphrus said:

Would love for this to happen but so much let down has made me a very "glass is half empty" person when it comes to Warframe. So this and nothing like it will never happen. DE believes they know what players want (which we can all see they are fooling themselves especially with the Volt rework) so Volt will stay as is. The chances of another frame with a similar theme that you have created will come out as a completely new release rather than DE fixing volt.

DE to me remind me of those rich kids that have the newest cars but when the tire goes flat instead of fixing it they go out and buy another new car. Probably a bad analogy but I think it gets the point across. 

Unfortunately, it seems to be the case. Ultimately, the direction of DE's development will be overseen by the company that bought them out. I still have hope that they'll work on improving older content. They did fix status melee somewhat with their recent status based mods, but we know it's all a big bandaid.

I hope augments for frames in the future, including Volt, won't ultimately serve as bandaid patches forever but actually mold and shape the build of a frame into interesting gameplay. 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Xaxma

[xXDeadsinxX]

These are actually some sick ability ideas!

[Xaxma]

 

5 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

Ok, 2 and 3 are somewhat similar...(to me), is there something im missing? 

And 4 shouldnt be called climax, for all the same reasons it shouldnt be called discharge.

But all in all, i like this alot

2 is the speed buff to Volt and nearby allies. It increases his movement speed, attack speed, and shortens reloads.

3, from this thread, would be a way to compensate defenses for Volt losing his Electric Shield while also complementing Volt's other abilities so they synchronize together. It's a toggle that applies Evasion instead. Evasion as a mechanic passively reduces enemy accuracy when attempting to fire at you. It's like if you gave every enemy Heavy Caliber, but with only the negative side effects and only when they target you. The only mod I'm aware of that increases Evasion is Agility Drift, so you can refer to that mod's notes in the Wiki if you need to. 

http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Agility_Drift (This would be a good mod for Volt, by the way, if this thread ever actually happened).

It would also enable Volt to be affected by gravity less and to scale along walls and other environmental objects very quickly, as demonstrated in the gif, much faster than clunky 'wall jumping' can. Plus, you ignore unit collision, so you won't be body blocked by any fatass Grineer or Infested clogging up hallways on your speed runs if that's your idea. Don't forget that it enhances the range your 1 ability can branch out and shock enemies, helping compensate for Volt's loss of Discharge by giving Volt the opportunity to potentially shock an entire room briefly with just one cast.

I'd imagine the visuals would be like when your frame is affected by magnetic/radiation procs, only except having your screen garbled up, the model of Volt is just jittery and faded, as if Volt himself is having a hard time maintaining his form and his particles are just barely clinging together in this plane with how fast they're moving in place.

...

And my mind is not in the gutter, so I'm not worried about that.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Xaxma

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

41 minutes ago, Xaxma said:

 

2 is the speed buff to Volt and nearby allies. It increases his movement speed, attack speed, and shortens reloads.

3, from this thread, would be a way to compensate defenses for Volt losing his Electric Shield while also complementing Volt's other abilities so they synchronize together. It's a toggle that applies Evasion instead. Evasion as a mechanic passively reduces enemy accuracy when attempting to fire at you. It's like if you gave every enemy Heavy Caliber, but with only the negative side effects and only when they target you. The only mod I'm aware of that increases Evasion is Agility Drift, so you can refer to that mod's notes in the Wiki if you need to. 

http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Agility_Drift (This would be a good mod for Volt, by the way, if this thread ever actually happened).

It would also enable Volt to be affected by gravity less and to scale along walls and other environmental objects very quickly, as demonstrated in the gif, much faster than clunky 'wall jumping' can. Plus, you ignore unit collision, so you won't be body blocked by any fatass Grineer or Infested clogging up hallways on your speed runs if that's your idea. Don't forget that it enhances the range your 1 ability can branch out and shock enemies, helping compensate for Volt's loss of Discharge by giving Volt the opportunity to potentially shock an entire room briefly with just one cast.

I'd imagine the visuals would be like when your frame is affected by magnetic/radiation procs, only except having your screen garbled up, the model of Volt is just jittery and faded, as if Volt himself is having a hard time maintaining his form and his particles are just barely clinging together in this plane with how fast they're moving in place.

...

And my mind is not in the gutter, so I'm not worried about that.

Speed and distortion still share too much...as moving in warframe reduces enemy accuracy, its just not really measurable ( i guess thats the best way to put it)

DE could fix wall running, and ignoring obstacles and unnerfed parkour speed to volts 2 could be added.

Or we can keep them as two seperate abilities and miss out on really amazing possibilities with his kit. You've played infamous i hope. Amazing game, awesome abilities, warframe could learn a thing or two.

Also, no one said your mind was in the gutter, but of climax, discharge, and overload, one of these is not going to pop up something weird on google, and the other two are.

 

[Phyrak]

I made a thread some months ago prior to the volt rework on the hopes of him becoming the true caster frame he was advertised as

I drew a lot from infamous and some dragon's dogma

Both show brilliantly how great volt's potential could be

[Xaxma]

3 hours ago, (PS4)WINDMILEYNO said:

Speed and distortion still share too much...as moving in warframe reduces enemy accuracy, its just not really measurable ( i guess thats the best way to put it)

DE could fix wall running, and ignoring obstacles and unnerfed parkour speed to volts 2 could be added.

Or we can keep them as two seperate abilities and miss out on really amazing possibilities with his kit. You've played infamous i hope. Amazing game, awesome abilities, warframe could learn a thing or two.

Also, no one said your mind was in the gutter, but of climax, discharge, and overload, one of these is not going to pop up something weird on google, and the other two are.

 

Then you may as well offer up such advice to Zephyr and Limbo, who literally have the same abilities repeated twice, but towards different targets. 

They would both be self buffs, yes, but 3 is a toggle that would help Volt avoid damage entirely since he is rather squishy and 2 is for straight up movement speed and combat dexterity.

[Methanoid]

volt a speed demon?  tbh the speed aspect annoys me more than anything, most times its used i find a group of ppl running into walls, leaping down cliffs and generally not being able to control themselves properly, stupid high speed just seems to get in the way for most.

[(PSN)CaptainIMalik]

I can sympathise, I'm a Volt main and since starting Warframe, I just feel he gets out shined by the other Warframes even in damage despite having the ability to harness electricity. 

If they do not change how Volt#s speed works, I am forever going to be salty of how other Frames outrun (like Loki) even when your under the effects of speed.

[EinheriarJudith]

55 minutes ago, (PS4)CaptainIMalik said:

I can sympathise, I'm a Volt main and since starting Warframe, I just feel he gets out shined by the other Warframes even in damage despite having the ability to harness electricity. 

If they do not change how Volt#s speed works, I am forever going to be salty of how other Frames outrun (like Loki) even when your under the effects of speed.

please try not to replace prefer with main. he doesnt get out shined. he is extremely powerful against robotics what you should be asking is for a rebalance of elemental resists because electricity is not good compared to cold or even heat. his shield is imo more powerful than snow globe because it can stay up the entire duration without being maintained and can be shot through on both sides.. hes got 2 very good CC overload got the very much needed update. as ive said before in a different volt thread speed should have been a toggle rather than recastable.

[(PSN)CaptainIMalik]

1 minute ago, EinheriarJudith said:

please try not to replace prefer with main. he doesnt get out shined. he is extremely powerful against robotics what you should be asking is for a rebalance of elemental resists because electricity is not good compared to cold or even heat. his shield is imo more powerful than snow globe because it can stay up the entire duration without being maintained and can be shot through on both sides.. hes got 2 very good CC overload got the very much needed update. as ive said before in a different volt thread speed should have been a toggle rather than recastable.

But you're not always going to be fighting against robotics 

And Frames like Frosts snow globe does it better than Volts shield. 

[KaeseSchnitte]

Volt currently works just fine.

He could use some touch-ups here and there, but especially Discharge is good how it is now and I can make great use of his kit. Volt is simply not a damage heavy frame, but brings tons of utility if you mod him correctly.

[(PSN)WINDMILEYNO]

4 hours ago, Xaxma said:

Then you may as well offer up such advice to Zephyr and Limbo, who literally have the same abilities repeated twice, but towards different targets. 

They would both be self buffs, yes, but 3 is a toggle that would help Volt avoid damage entirely since he is rather squishy and 2 is for straight up movement speed and combat dexterity.

I do. No one in their right mind should feel zephyrs up and down abilities should be seperate (cant remember the name, failing at life) and banish and rift walk could be murged, and rift surge made a passive. Every lack luster passive needs to be made way better.

Its your rework idea, i can see you are fond of the two abilities, im just saying maybe flesh them out a bit, because right now distortion seems like a weird sidegrade to speed. I already dont like using speed because of the super short duration and not noticeable affects without 200 power strength. So i use mobility mods to run fast, which with distortion, would already be a better version of speed. So, keeping it in his kit would just be weird...but thats my personal opinion. So, im just suggesting, dont keep speed the same in your idea, or add distortion to speed, but i still like it the idea as a whole anyways, because i like the fact someone can agree DE didnt do it right the first time.