Hydroid, and what he could be.

[Flackenstien]

Hydroid is an awesomely-themed Warframe with a stylish skillset. Sadly, his Abilities are lacking in ways to bring them together or encourage the use of all of them.  
He also suffers with Energy management due to the way his Abilities are (short Duration with repeated-use).
Hydroid, for a long time, had suffered from being unable to recast Tempest Barrage and Tentacle Swarm. Thankfully, this issue has since already been fixed.   

Stats: 
● Hydroid's Power Max is buffed from 100 to 150.

Passive:    
● Buffed from 50% chance to 100%. I don't see why it should have such an inconsistency when tied to an underused type of attack.

New Mechanic: 
Similar to Nidus' Stack Mechanic, Hydroid has a new Water Meter (name pending) that can fill up from 0 to 100. It is filled by 1 for each time an enemy is affected by his Abilities, for each enemy effected. (For Undertow, the meter fills over time, based on the number of enemies Hydroid is keeping submerged.)  
The following aspects are gained from this new mechanic:
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Hydroid gains a % boost to Power Strength.
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Tempest Barrage gains added Duration.
● Each time the meter reaches 100, Hydroid replenishes a respectable % of his total Shields and Energy. The replenished Shields can create an Overshield.  
● For every point in the Water Meter, Hydroid's Water-amplified Shields will filter out damage from the Status effects of Slash and Toxin, reducing how much of it reaches his Health.
● While at 100 points (a full Water Meter), taking a fatal attack will turn Hydroid into Water with minimal Health remaining, ignoring damage for a brief moment. This completely drains the Water Meter.
● After a period of not adding any more to the Water Meter, it will start to drain.

Tempest Barrage  
● Damage increased from 150 to 300, simply for better Mod scaling.
My main issue with this Ability was the low Duration and Hydroid's innate Energy consumption problems, which are mostly alleviated by his new mechanic and Power Max stat.

Tidal Surge  
● Tidal Surge can now be steered by the player, controlling its direction.
● Tidal Surge can now be used from within Undertow, cancelling Undertow.  
● Tidal Surge can now be cancelled by using Undertow, which will cause an explosion of Water that deals Impact damage w/ a Status proc.
● Reduce the travel speed and increase the Duration. This allows for more distance and better control over that distance, for offense, crowd control, and mobility. Especially so when combined with the new Undertow interactions.

Undertow  
● Now makes enemies released from its waters take increased damage from both Melee Finishers and Melee Slam attacks.  

Tentacle Swarm
● Tentacle Swarm is now a toggled Aura-type Ability that spawns Tentacles underneath enemies within radius of Hydroid as he moves around the map.  
This removes some of the overlap with Tempest Barrage, allows Hydroid to fill his Water Meter more over time with the Ability, rather than in a sudden burst, and allows for a more widespread CC. Hydroid does lose the capability to cast the Ability from afar, but as I expressed before, the Tentacle spawning at ranges was inconsistent.   

Bonus:
● New Primary weapon that is a pressurized water gun, a Beam-type Rifle, that has 3 different nozzles to cycle through with its Altfire that change the weapon's Damage type from Impact, to Puncture, and to Slash. It's a Status-based weapon that can deal pure IPS damages. It has a special effect of consuming less Ammo, depending on Hydroid's Water Meter level.

 

REDDIT POST

Edited May 7, 2017 by Flackenstien

[booty_hunter]

Sadly you'll have to wait 3 more months for any changes.

[Urlan]

One thing that most players I played with agreed, is that Hydroid's abilities would all be in a better place by simply making his augments merged into the base abilities and coming up with new augments in their stead.

[Flackenstien]

To be fair, that could be said for... 99% of Augments, lol. (Really, they should have been in the Ability menu, and not Mod cards.)

[Aimop95]

Honestly, the main problem I have with him is the fact that the CC on his 1 and 4 abilities are commonly unreliable. 

His Barrage may or may not knock down enemies depending on how much range you built for it and if the environment will allow you to actually knock down enemies. Fixes with this is that the more range you put on, the more raindrops fall to cover the wider area and the faster they fall. To fix environment, the raindrops should come directly from behind the player. As of now, they come in at a right angle, thus hitting environment you weren't planning for, putting it directly behind should fix this. That or just make it literally rain right down on top of the area.

 

I don't know how to fix his 4s targeting algorithm. Because it seems really random to me. One way to make this easier to use would be to have the tentacles make sweeping horizontal motions, not vertical slapping ones. This way they cover more ground and have a higher chance of actually catching enemies who walk through the mess of tentacles.

[SenorClipClop]

1 hour ago, Aimop95 said:

Honestly, the main problem I have with him is the fact that the CC on his 1 and 4 abilities are commonly unreliable. 

This.

Honestly, I really, really like Hydroid. His damage is terrible, but he's not meant to damage. He is there for maximum utility, and it's pretty darn fun. The only things Hydroid really needs are:

• Greater reliability on is 1 and 4. Like Aimop says, Barrage is fairly reliable, but there are times when an enemy can just be missed and walk right through the onslaught unscathed. And when cast, Tentacle Swarm doesn't always keep its spawns within the specified casting circle.
• Some way for his 3 to be more interesting. I'm honestly okay with the water trap idea, just not with the execution of "sit there for a while and take no other action". This could come down in the form of a placable water trap (toggled drain like Effigy or set cost like anything of Vauban's). If we wanted to make it really interesting, we could have it grant additional effects when interacting with other abilities. Tentacles in the puddle could reach further or deal more damage. Barrage shots could do... something... Anyway, the point is that the trap could be a little more active.
• Some survivability would be happily accepted, but it's not explicitly required. I'd be okay with a defensive buff to the Prime as a fair allowance.

 

[TheGrimCorsair]

His 1's plenty reliable as long as you have some loose understanding of how artillery works: Fire more bigger shells.

 

His 3's more in needed of being able to use his 4 while in puddle mode to grab everything withing the puddle while keeping all the tentacles within the bounds of the puddle's radius even when you resume your form.

 

His 4... well, the scattershot nature of it wouldn't be so bad if you could count on the tentacles to ragdoll enemies that come near, but they don't even when they've nabbed an enemy. If they were more reliable on that front it'd be a pretty nice buff.

 

As for survivability, you kinda have two on-demand invulnerability powers so I don't really see him needing any buffs on this front. A buff to 150 power, though, would be welcome given how much of a caster (and a dodgy one at that) he is.

[AbstractLemons]

For his 4 he could put down a pool of water that marks the Krakens location and then when stepped on it triggers a tentacle to immediately spawn to grab the enemy if the tentacles are unable to grab any more enemies then the remainder of enemies passing through get knocked down repeatedly instead.

 

I recall there being complaints about trying to finish off the enemies being strangled so if possible any bullets or attack that hits the tentacle causes the damage to be redirected to targets currently held by the tentacle.

Think as if it's like bullets travel upstream to hit the enemy.

[Windy_Wind]

well, you can dream as much as you like...you know...oberon syndrome we are having right now. Therefore, the future for hydroid is...well, you know what I mean. 

[Enderlook]

On 2017-4-26 at 11:20 PM, Flackenstien said:

Hydroid is an awesomely-themed Warframe with a stylish skillset. Sadly, his Abilities are lacking in ways to bring them together or encourage the use of all of them.  
He also suffers with Energy management due to the way his Abilities are (short Duration with repeated-use).
Hydroid, for a long time, had suffered from being unable to recast Tempest Barrage and Tentacle Swarm. Thankfully, this issue has since already been fixed.   

Stats: 
● Hydroid's Power Max is buffed from 100 to 150.

Passive:    
● Buffed from 50% chance to 100%. I don't see why it should have such an inconsistency when tied to an underused type of attack.

New Mechanic: 
Similar to Nidus' Stack Mechanic, Hydroid has a new Water Meter (name pending) that can fill up from 0 to 100. It is filled by 1 for each time an enemy is affected by his Abilities, for each enemy effected. (For Undertow, the meter fills over time, based on the number of enemies Hydroid is keeping submerged.)  
The following aspects are gained from this new mechanic:
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Hydroid gains a % boost to Power Strength.
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Tempest Barrage gains added Duration.
● Each time the meter reaches 100, Hydroid replenishes a respectable % of his total Shields and Energy. The replenished Shields can create an Overshield.  
● For every point in the Water Meter, Hydroid's Water-amplified Shields will filter out damage from the Status effects of Slash and Toxin, reducing how much of it reaches his Health.
● While at 100 points (a full Water Meter), taking a fatal attack will turn Hydroid into Water with minimal Health remaining, ignoring damage for a brief moment. This completely drains the Water Meter.
● After a period of not adding any more to the Water Meter, it will start to drain.

Tempest Barrage  
● Damage increased from 150 to 300, simply for better Mod scaling.
My main issue with this Ability was the low Duration and Hydroid's innate Energy consumption problems, which are mostly alleviated by his new mechanic and Power Max stat.

Tidal Surge  
● Tidal Surge can now be steered by the player, controlling its direction.
● Tidal Surge can now be used from within Undertow, cancelling Undertow.  
● Tidal Surge can now be cancelled by using Undertow, which will cause an explosion of Water that deals Impact damage w/ a Status proc.
● Reduce the travel speed and increase the Duration. This allows for more distance and better control over that distance, for offense, crowd control, and mobility. Especially so when combined with the new Undertow interactions.

Undertow  
● Now makes enemies released from its waters take increased damage from both Melee Finishers and Melee Slam attacks.  

Tentacle Swarm
● Tentacle Swarm is now a toggled Aura-type Ability that spawns Tentacles underneath enemies within radius of Hydroid as he moves around the map.  
This removes some of the overlap with Tempest Barrage, allows Hydroid to fill his Water Meter more over time with the Ability, rather than in a sudden burst, and allows for a more widespread CC. Hydroid does lose the capability to cast the Ability from afar, but as I expressed before, the Tentacle spawning at ranges was inconsistent.   

Bonus:
● New Primary weapon that is a pressurized water gun, a Beam-type Rifle, that has 3 different nozzles to cycle through with its Altfire that change the weapon's Damage type from Impact, to Puncture, and to Slash. It's a Status-based weapon that can deal pure IPS damages. It has a special effect of consuming less Ammo, depending on Hydroid's Water Meter level.

I would like to make some suggestions about your idea:

Water Meteer

From 0 to 100, this water meteer fill 1 point per enemy affecter by their abilities (or passive). Also for undertown this meteer fill 1 time per enemy each 2 seconds.
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Hydroid gains a % boost to Power Strength. It could be better: 15% on 50 points, 30% on 100, or 1% per 3.3 points.
● For every 1/4th of the meter filled, Tempest Barrage gains added Duration. I thinks this is strange, this improve a ability. You could do instead that Undertow (don't produce water meteer) use water instead of energy.
● Each time the meter reaches 100, Hydroid replenishes a respectable % of his total Shields and Energy. The replenished Shields can create an Overshield.  On reach 100, I think it could be better if start to healing 3 HP/s (and not consume water becuse the next to the next aspect would be impossible to use)
● For every point in the Water Meter, Hydroid's Water-amplified Shields will filter out damage from the Status effects of Slash and Toxin, reducing how much of it reaches his Health. He could be inmute to slash (he is water, no?), instead, he lose water, and if water is 0, he lose health. Also, each point of water could increase is max shield 1 point (maximum 100) (mods can't improve this).
● While at 100 points (a full Water Meter), taking a fatal attack will turn Hydroid into Water with minimal Health remaining, ignoring damage for a brief moment. This completely drains the Water Meter. On fatal attack he turns into undertow for 5 seconds an heal 1/3 HP (and losse all he's water), after the 5 seconds, if he have energy he could stay in undertown (consuming energy), if not, undertow will desactivate.
● After a period of not adding any more to the Water Meter, it will start to drain. If you don't get water in 7 second, water would drain 2 per second (+1 per second each 10 second without get more water).

Tentacle Swarm channeling +1♥, but, how much energy per second?

[Flackenstien]

I did the Power Strength and Barrage Duration 1/4ths to make it clear cut about what buffs you're receiving. I suppose they could scale directly like the Water-Amplified Shields do, per point, but I figured I'd avoid distracting people with too many mid-mission calculations. Either way is fine, honestly.  

As for the Tentacle Swarm cost, I don't know. I don't have the proper knowledge to determine that.

I made Hydroid's Water-Amped Shield fend from Toxin and Slash Status damage, as these damage types skip through Shields and go to Health. It's the main reason why Shield-based Warframes cannot be as viable as HP/Armor ones.  

I thought about, and almost included, the ability to have Tempest Barrage be cast by using your Water points, when above a certain level, but I figured it could be abused for infinite Energy and Shields.
I didn't want Hydroid to melt into a puddle with his damage dodge, simply because it's meant to allow you to slip away. That said, if differentiating from Nidus' Undying is desired, then puddling-up seems like a fine alternative.  
And as for the Health regen on filling the meter, I wanted to make him more Shield-based. He coats his Shield with a layer of Water that is laced with Void energy. He can easily heal with his Puddle Augment already.  

Thanks for the feedback.