Ashs 15 points distribution and smoke screen

[thessaya]

I recently started to play Ash, i kinda view him as a skirmisher/assassin type. You teleport right next to a sucker, stagger everyone around you and strike them from the shadows. If anyone tries to get away, you give them a shuriken and pin them to the wall. Good stuff.

However, smoke screen initially was very underwhelming. You can't cast it on the run, which seems counter-intuitive on one of the more mobile frames, the animation time is pretty long, and the actual invisibility time is abysmally low.

This was a bit more bearable if you put another point into smoke screen; the animation etc. was still fairly long, but you could stay invis long enough to get a couple of charged attacks off.

Now with this recent update, it seems you've changed the possible point distribution on the uncharged frame. There is now only one smoke screen point to unlock the base ability, but 3 shuriken spots. This is a pretty rough change, and turns smoke screen into a completely useless ability, the base version of it is simply far too weak to justify its use.

I would like to see one of the shuriken spots replaced with a smoke screen one, it is after all one of the key features and main appeal of this frame.

Also, it would be nice if you could change the graphic during the abilites duration; right now you're invisible, which is good. But you're completely so, even for the player. I think some sort of faint outline of Ashs model would really help with orientation.

[djjdiss]

Good points you made. Have yet to see a DE employee give a S#&$ about those porblems that Ash has however. Good luck gettin them to pay attention with everyone whinin about their # 4 abilities being nerfed and the cash kids crying because Nyx sucks and needs fixing.

They were right when they said Ash was a stealthy Warframe. He's so stealthy DE never notices him.

lmao

[psyanide]

Aye, he's a forgotten hero thus far. I still use him because to me, he's the kewlest looking Frame there is. Plus I rely very little on power use during gameplay (possibly because of using Ash so much...) so I kinda just go with it. Would be great to get a buff, though.

[Sealgaire]

Good points you made. Have yet to see a DE employee give a S#&$ about those porblems that Ash has however. Good luck gettin them to pay attention with everyone whinin about their # 4 abilities being nerfed and the cash kids crying because Nyx sucks and needs fixing.

They were right when they said Ash was a stealthy Warframe. He's so stealthy DE never notices him.

lmao

They just reduced the costs of his 2nd and 3rd skills. If you level it all the way, smokescreen is downright broken. It's even better with some power efficiency and duration mods. I can pop it whenever I encounter more than a few enemies and still have enough left over for bladestorm.

[MonkJayn]

i loved smokescren on ash before, but now ... to finsih it off i need to go ALL the way to the left of the tree and theres frankly mnothing else there i want, and with having the right side pretty much completely now the smokescreen just doesnt really seem to last long enough evenw ith an extra 50% duration, but with shurikans about the best way to deal with ancients i couldlnt not max them out, although, before a maxed smokescreen did kind iof become a mini controllable bladestorm - and i miss that :P

on another note anyone know how badly ash's scorpion helmet affects power efficency ?

laters

Monk

[psyanide]

I know they reduced the energy costs on him, but I still think his skillset needs some QoL changes. Smoke Bomb is great but... it's like the only skill I use. Shuriken is wonky to use and kind of unrewarding. Single target 1000 dmg IF you hit a weak spot on an ancient.

Just thought, wouldn't it be kewl if the shuriken doesn't kill them after doing its damage but causes other mobs to aggro on them for awhile (half duration for bosses)?

Annnd now I'm thinking they should give that skill to Loki (Trickster type skill, mark a target for temp aggro) and give Ash an exploding decoy.

Also (slightly more ridiculous but could be fun) have him be able to TP a short distance into whatever direction is being pressed, leaving an explosive charge/blade mine in his place!

[Nevrmoor]

Ya agree with most of the above. Spend the better part of my time with warframe getting his stuff together, had plenty crashes, took ages, but now i got him finally.

Well, underwhelming to say the least, shuriken is like *piff* if it hits at all, nothing compared to the other frames stuff...

But he looks cool besides his edgy butt, that could use some reweightening

See you in space cowboy!

[psyanide]

His edgy bottom is for his secret butt stomp move. It's totally OP. Kills anything - even gibs bosses and forces them to drop WarFrame part BP's. To do it, you need to input the Konami code while aiming at your target in midair...

[Kokurai]

Also (slightly more ridiculous but could be fun) have him be able to TP a short distance into whatever direction is being pressed, leaving an explosive charge/blade mine in his place!

this concept reminded me of a game i used to play...

everytime the assassin dashes he leaves a mine on the floor haha

[psyanide]

Man, the existence of games like that (C9) make me hate the fact that I live in southern Africa with its S#&$ty internet. It's just rough to try and play something like that with 500 ping (unless there are EU servers, in which case I'll get between 300-400ms average). Not to mention my 15Gb a month cap. Bleh and Double Bleh.

I just hope that by the time the beta is finished the network code for WarFrame is pristine. As it stands, even playing with people locally (regional) gives me a little bit of lag - like delays between hitting things and having them popped/sliced/ragdolled. Also sometimes the game just desyncs and noone can tell if I've gone invis with Loki or am just having network issues *sigh*

[thessaya]

I put in another couple of hours and would like to update my views on some of Ashs skills. As others have said, the shuriken is fairly expensive, considering it's a single target ability by nature (i believe it CAN pierce an enemy but good luck on getting some use out of that) and has some odd behaviour in regards to what or where you're aming at and where the ability actually hits.

It sometimes strays off of the crosshair, in a completely different direction, which is pretty bad on what should be a precise single target attack. On top of that, it seems to be fairly slow. If i shot it at a Heavy Grineer from midrange, he only needs to do one sidestep and the shuriken flies right past him.

Teleport suffers from targeting issues, if an enemy stick its head out of cover (or even half his body) i mostly get "invalid target" and can't teleport to him. And in most cases, i would not ever actually want to do that, because you often end up looking at a different direction, leaving you disorientated for a moment and most likely knocked down to the ground.

I think teleport would benefit from some sort of impact/interrupt. It does not need to be damaging, but quickly interrupt the enemies around you when you land, giving you time to get to work, or fire off a smoke screen.

Now for his ultimate, oh boy. We all know how awesome Volts ult can be be, or even Excaliburs Javelin (although this one has trouble with enemies on slightly different elevations). Ashs bladestorm is sadly none of that. First off all, both Volt and Excalibur basically damage everyone around them at an instant. Ash though needs to hop around, targeting each enemy individually, a process which takes FOREVER.

In addition, even with 3 points in the ability, i sometimes hit a meagre 3 to 4 guys, leaving a ton of enemies around me still standing. This is disappointing enough, but creates another big problem. You're vulnerable while the ult is running, and everyone around you starts shooting you.

In fact, i managed to die during the bladestorms animation a couple of times, simply because Ash casually (and very slowly) hops around, stabbing (a few) people, which leaves him completely open to fire.

All in all, i like the premise of the frame, but he needs some serious work/bugfixes to make him what he's supposed to be. Right now he feels just pretty broken and it's no wonder people say Excalibur is too strong, if every other frame has so many issues.

[psyanide]

At the moment I've just maxed Smoke Bomb, otherwise just stats (shield, HP, mod slots n Power max). Run in, get surrounded, disappear, stun 'em all and then START SWINGIN'!!! It's working pretty well with my fast, bladed weapons. Ashe himself seems pretty quick on his feet so he excels at this scouting/drawing enemy fire. I kinda like that I have to be really good with my movement and melee to pull this off to a decent effect. When I'm playing with a couple of friends, they go full auto on enemy faces while I run this kind of interference.

Shuriken might also be made a bit more attractive by making each shot cost 10-15 energy and have them launch with a very quick animation (like throwing one from each hand alternately if the power was activated in rapid succession). Still a 'skill' orientated power (has to be aimed accurately), but with great damage potential.