Volt Suggestions: Abilities

[Cavman]

First off, I would like to say that Volt is the only Warframe I have played, so I can't say how good of a place Volt is in when compared to other Warframes. That said, there are a couple things I'd like to say about the abilties given to Volt. I like the idea of having 4 ablities per Warframe, but the discrepency between them for Volt is a little too much for me to accept. Because we are dealing with only 4 abilities, all of them should be very powerful and have multiple uses. Currently, I feel the balance of them is a little off. I'm gonna go into them and explain what I think should change about them.

One thing I have to say about ALL abilities is that they NEED MORE TOOLTIP INFO. I still have no idea if Overload or Shock do more damage. The Wiki doesn't even tell you ffs. Abilities need to show damage info.

Ability 1: Shock

I guess you can call this the entry level Volt ability, since it's the first you can get. Now, I just gotta say, when I first picked this waframe, I had no idea about the other frames that aren't offered to you. I had no idea about the actual gameplay. This, to me, seemed like the "spellcaster" class. Very soon after I started playing, however, I noticed that this is far from true. Shock gives you, through most of the game, a 1 shot kill against most regular enemies. It also stuns the enemies nearby. The only problem I have with this is that it isn't more practical. Yeah, it kills an enemy pretty easily, but if this is the "potent alternative to gunplay" you say it is, I am extremely unimpressed. You can only cast Shock 4 times before you run out of energy early on. That is maybe one group of enemies. Later on, this ability gets totally dominated by Overload. There is almost no reason to use Shock after you unlock Overload. Also, I don't know if this is just my experience with it, but the stun effect on nearby enemies seems to either be extremely short ranged or ineffective most of the time.

My proposed fix to this is that you reduce the cost to 20 energy, and give it a chain shock effect (maybe through it's upgrades?). I'm not sure how the damage is calculated for this abilitiy, but I suggest it be changed to a % based on the enemy's health with a damage cap, to avoid abuse on bosses. This change gives you an extra Shock with the energy change, and also gives it a little bit more viability when facing more than 4 enemies with the chaining effect. Also, the % damage would give this ability great use in boss fights, balanced around whatever you wish the damage cap to be. In my mind, a team of four volts should be able to nuke a boss down to half health with each of them blowing through 10 shocks, so 40 shocks. Not sure how balanced that would be, but it doesn't sound too ridiculous considering how strong a %health based nuke should be.

Ablitiy 2: Speed

This ability is probably one of my most frequently used abilities, but I have never actually found it "fun" to use. From the description, I assumed it would do more than make you run faster. Enhanced speed and dexterity implies that you could maybe melee faster? Maybe you don't get knocked down as easily? This ability needs some other use besides making you run faster

My fix is just that, give it something else besides making you run faster. Have melee attack speed increased. Give it a chance for bullets to miss you, and for God's sake fix the animation you changed in the latest patch. It looks silly to see my legs moving like a locomotive. But yeah, this fix does something else besides balancing the ablitiy. Now, a player wanting to play Volt as a melee fighter would have a reason to max out Speed. It promotes diversity in gameplay.

Ability 3: Electric Shield

When I first got this ability, I thought it was pretty cool. I had just started coming across a lot of heavy Grineer, and having a deployable shield for their Gorgons seemed like the best thing in the world. When I found out that shooting through the shield gave your bullets the electric element, I thought that was genius. However, I don't like how your damage is reduced initially by shooting through it. On paper, that seems like a balanced trade off. In game, unless you are standing completely behind cover, you're still getting shot at. Warframe doesn't have a good enough cover mechanic to really benefit from this.

Proposed fix? Give absolutely no penalty for shooting through the shield. The penalty should be the 50 energy I spend to put it down. Also, I'm not sure if allies can shoot through your shield for the same electricity benefit on their bullets, but if not then that should definitely be implemented.

Ability 4: Overload

Oh boy, when I first saw someone using this ability, I laughed at how OP it was. The sheer difference in power when compared to your other abilities completely undermines the creative uses your other abilities could have. Why bother using speed to get behind enemies, popping an electric shield, and gunning them down from both sides with your team when you can just hit 4 for a room clear? Not to mention how aggravating it is to be on a team with someone who uses it every chance they get. I personally refrain from using it because it sucks the fun out of playing the game. The usefulness of this ability (and others like it) need to be seriously looked at.

My fix to this would be to keep the size of it, completely remove/reduce the damage, and extend the debilitation it provides. This gives it a much more strategic implementation. You can't just use it to wipe a room of 40 Grineer. You can use it to give yourself some breathing room, but you still have to deal with your problems. And it still retains it's superior strength over the other abilities because it provides a massive stun in a huge area.

So yeah, those are just some thoughts of mine. I currently have a lvl 30 Volt, with a spud in it of course, and I still want to play the "potent alternative to gunplay" that I read about.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Cavman

[McGuffin]

Ability 4: Overload

Oh boy, when I first saw someone using this ability, I laughed at how OP it was. The sheer difference in power when compared to your other abilities completely undermines the creative uses your other abilities could have. Why bother using speed to get behind enemies, popping an electric shield, and gunning them down from both sides with your team when you can just hit 4 for a room clear? Not to mention how aggravating it is to be on a team with someone who uses it every chance they get. I personally refrain from using it because it sucks the fun out of playing the game. The usefulness of this ability (and others like it) need to be seriously looked at.

My fix to this would be to keep the size of it, completely remove/reduce the damage, and extend the debilitation it provides. This gives it a much more strategic implementation. You can't just use it to wipe a room of 40 Grineer. You can use it to give yourself some breathing room, but you still have to deal with your problems. And it still retains it's superior strength over the other abilities because it provides a massive stun in a huge area.

Here's my take on how Overload should work. Keep the animation the same, but instead of a wave projecting outwards from you, make it a wave coming inwards, drawing power from nearby electrical sources but doing no damage. After the animation is complete, you have a massive energy pool for a few seconds that scales based on the amount of power you drained, letting you chain cast your other abilities. Alternatively, you just have unlimited energy for X seconds. When the effect wears off, all your energy is drained.

This makes the ability more of a pre-emptive, strategic ability than a tactical win button. And keeping the animation brings with it all the drawbacks while keeping its 'ultimate' feel. Its in keeping with the name too. You're Overloading yourself :P

Edited February 1, 2013 by McGuffin

[Kittygoesmeow]

as for four, NO.

overload needs to be a damage dealing ability. volt is a caster type warframe, not a support type warframe.

overload is, once again, crap. after they nerfed it they nerfed it HARD then changed it back (good damage - enough to kill normal enemies - and a nice range) but in build 6 they seem to have changed back to the weak overload - the one that is TERRIBLE and almost entirely useless. my suggestion is to go back to original overload, the extreme range, and modify it so that it;

A) deals 200 damage to all normal enemies (grineer without shields, corpus crewmen, moas)

B) reduces shields to zero (all enemy shields would be reduced to zero, but no damage done to them. volts own shield would be reduced toz ero as well.)

C) make it so the area of effect is ONLY room-wide. so we dont get volts relying on it to clear several rooms at once.

D) increase its cost by 25 per level increase. would cap at 175 power, which is more than enough to stop the overload spam weve seen.

this way overload is a worthy skill - not a useless thing that no one in their right minds would get, like it is now.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Kittygoesmeow

[Cavman]

as for four, NO.

overload needs to be a damage dealing ability. volt is a caster type warframe, not a support type warframe.

overload is, once again, crap. after they nerfed it they nerfed it HARD then changed it back (good damage - enough to kill normal enemies - and a nice range) but in build 6 they seem to have changed back to the weak overload - the one that is TERRIBLE and almost entirely useless. my suggestion is to go back to original overload, the extreme range, and modify it so that it;

A) deals 200 damage to all normal enemies (grineer without shields, corpus crewmen, moas)

B) reduces shields to zero (all enemy shields would be reduced to zero, but no damage done to them. volts own shield would be reduced toz ero as well.)

C) make it so the area of effect is ONLY room-wide. so we dont get volts relying on it to clear several rooms at once.

D) increase its cost by 25 per level increase. would cap at 175 power, which is more than enough to stop the overload spam weve seen.

this way overload is a worthy skill - not a useless thing that no one in their right minds would get, like it is now.

Even if it depleted your entire energy bar, the idea that it can instantly clear a room of enemies isn't fun in the slightest. I prefer what the poster above you suggested. Overload should drain your entire bar, but give you infinite energy throughout it's duration. This would give you a time frame where you can just spam the S#&$ out of Shock and Speed (and situationally Electric Shield) and just tear into the enemies. THAT would be fun. Clearing a room full of enemies with one button push, will never be as fun as that, especially not for your team mates.

[KiloFoxx]

Even if it depleted your entire energy bar, the idea that it can instantly clear a room of enemies isn't fun in the slightest. I prefer what the poster above you suggested. Overload should drain your entire bar, but give you infinite energy throughout it's duration. This would give you a time frame where you can just spam the S#&$ out of Shock and Speed (and situationally Electric Shield) and just tear into the enemies. THAT would be fun. Clearing a room full of enemies with one button push, will never be as fun as that, especially not for your team mates.

i havn't played Volt, i know my friend WANTS to, but i chose Excalibur as my starter, and am BUILDING frost now. but that idea sounds like it'd be REALLY fun to play, and play alongside.

[McGuffin]

i havn't played Volt, i know my friend WANTS to, but i chose Excalibur as my starter, and am BUILDING frost now. but that idea sounds like it'd be REALLY fun to play, and play alongside.

My thoughts exactly. And while its 'fun' to press a button and wait for an animation to end while everything in the room dies, it is better suited for someone like Ash because you can actually see the action happening. For Volt, its much better and in keeping with the character to be able to sling lightning bolts where I aim at as it actually fulfills the whole 'potent alternative to gunplay' premise :D

[saiou]

Even if it depleted your entire energy bar, the idea that it can instantly clear a room of enemies isn't fun in the slightest. I prefer what the poster above you suggested. Overload should drain your entire bar, but give you infinite energy throughout it's duration. This would give you a time frame where you can just spam the S#&$ out of Shock and Speed (and situationally Electric Shield) and just tear into the enemies. THAT would be fun. Clearing a room full of enemies with one button push, will never be as fun as that, especially not for your team mates.

as a bolt player +1 this watching Mr.volt floating and everyone's dead is not kinda fun

[Aggh]

Overload is fine imo. I put on a single range mod and it still kills plenty of stuff in the right rooms. Shock is the only problematic skill imo. It doesn't stun and it barely does any damage. Don't know what the OP is talking about with 1 hit kills. At higher levels I've rarely seen it even faze basic mobs.

[Cavman]

Overload is fine imo. I put on a single range mod and it still kills plenty of stuff in the right rooms. Shock is the only problematic skill imo. It doesn't stun and it barely does any damage. Don't know what the OP is talking about with 1 hit kills. At higher levels I've rarely seen it even faze basic mobs.

The argument here about Overload is that killing stuff instantly in an entire room isn't exactly fun, for you or your team. And Shock does 1 shot most enemies througout the game, the only exception being when you're on higher level content. Having it be a %health based nuke with a high damage cap would keep it's power balanced througout the game. The tougher mobs on like pluto should be hitting the damage cap easily. If my chain and energy ideas were implemented, then numbers should be tweaked. The chain part of it shouldn't be 1 shotting mobs, but the initial effect should be (at least until higher levels)

[EclecticDragon]

I agree with the idea of turning #4 into a sort of supper charge that gives you large or infinite energy pool. But if I may suggest how about rasing and (possibly) locking the player in place? So you can rain down death from above like Zeus.

[Cavman]

I agree with the idea of turning #4 into a sort of supper charge that gives you large or infinite energy pool. But if I may suggest how about rasing and (possibly) locking the player in place? So you can rain down death from above like Zeus.

That's actually a really cool idea, because it'd give you a reason to spam your shield too. I honestly think Volt would be so much more badass if this became reality.