Umbra warframes [Discussion & Appreciation][*spoilers*]

[AlphaPHENIX]

Asthetic differences for the abilities I would expect, not much else.

Lore wise I am thinking that Umbras are the frames mentioned in Stalker's codex entry, mainly because of this part. 

''Our cold and gold Emperors, breathless, bathed you in savior's silk.''

Cause you know, that beautiful scarf, also given that their Cinamatic quest is named ''The Sacrafice'' and well on that day described in Stalker's codex, the Orokin went extinct.

Maybe the Umbra frames saw that as sacrificing them for whatever reason?

[Nez-Kal]

I'm about 85% certain it's going to be an "Excalibur: Shadow/Edge Edition!" new Frame, with different powers that are based off of Excalibur, more or less.
Excalibur v.2.

[Lakais]

In the end it all depends on his stats to me. Lore is awesome, but I have invested too much into my Excal to just bin him when a slightly shinier version comes along. Aesthetically I rank him SLIGHTLY higher then the Prime versions because of the scarfs. I rank Primes lower then standard versions because weapons look like elaborate, gilded coat hangers and frames are just... noisy. Most of them at least. 

I'm more exited by the lore and new mechanic prospects then the actual frame. 

[Koshiro-Ryu]

Ash Umbra please DE. 

[Unus]

According to Boss Steve, there's a new mechanic attached to earned (not purchased or founder) Umbras, but he's yet to have elaborated on this particular. Interests piqued, but I have yet to even guess what it might be.

[Lost_Cartographer]

While I see the appeal (hate the scarf personally, would rather Stalkers "tabard",) I honestly don't expect Umbra to outstrip primes.  At best, the intent will be to match well against primes.  Granted, keeping things different but balanced is going to make that real hard, so I won't be upset if Excalibur Umbra turns out superior to Excalibur Prime due to circumstance, unless DE decided they had to make him almighty so people splurge on his release.

Edited August 12, 2017 by Littleman88

[(PSN)zeratul____12]

22 minutes ago, Littleman88 said:

While I see the appeal (hate the scarf personally, would rather Stalkers "tabard",) I honestly don't expect Umbra to outstrip primes.  At best, the intent will be to match well against primes.  Granted, keeping things different but balanced is going to make that real hard, so I won't be upset if Excalibur Umbra turns out superior to Excalibur Prime due to circumstance, unless DE decided they had to make him almighty so people splurge on his release.

Does it really matter if Umbra Excal is better than Prime seeing as how only a select few even own Prime?

The only people who would complain are those who own him....and they are a very small minority in the grand scheme in things.

Edited August 12, 2017 by (PS4)zeratul____12

[AzureTerra]

Unless it offers something radically better than excalibur its another bump on the road to next level

[Draymarc]

I've noticed a bunch of videos surfacing about this subject, however they give little suggestion to what we might actually get with Excal Umbra. So what do we know? They're different from Primes and Normal frames obviously, being better than the default but simply different than the primes. Yet a part of me personally doesn't think DE will stop at simply giving Excal a shiny new skin and some stat boosts with a new passive. We have been told Umbra will fit into some whole new system- one we know little about. For a while I've entertained the idea they'll have similar, yet altered abilities.

Excalibur=Swords. That's fact. He's always seen toting a Skana, which translates into his abilities with Exalted Blade's shape. I couldn't help but notice all of Umbra's little promotion material features him with a Nikana, his Chinese release bundled with the Nikana Prime, and the recent trailer having him pull one from stone. One could argue normal Excal has been featured with the weapon class more after its release, but it got me thinking if Excal Umbra's abilities were to change, what if his models and animations featured a Nikana instead of a Skana, his abilities tweaked in nature to go with the motif. Example:
 

Slash Dash: Rather than his current reworked ability, Umbra's variant of slash dash would be more akin to Excalibur's pre-rework ability, albiet with much improvement. He'd surge forward at blinding speed instantaneously, like a rhino charge minus the slight pause on cast, equipping and doing a quick slash with the proposed "Exalted Nikana" and damaging anyone in his path. As the ability ranks up, it could work like a Combo akin to Rhino Charge and Landslide, where he can dash say, three times in succession with no additional energy cost before requiring a slight cooldown phase. 

 

Granted, I don't know how else you could possibly tweak Excalibur's current abilities to make them feel different to use but function about the same. With the amount of time that's being put into the new systems implemented, my mind simply isn't satisfied with the notion Excal Umbra without its link to whatever new system being implemented will just be a shiny, stat boosted Frame. 

[AperoBeltaTwo]

I expect it to be an "excal prime for the rest of the playerbase". Simple stat boost that you'll have to sacrifice your current excal for. Basically a one-time acquisition.

Edited August 13, 2017 by AperoBeltaTwo

[Koldraxon-732]

Excalibur (Prime) uses blinding light, and with the arrival of Umbra being Soon (after Plains of Eidolon drops, which is plotted around September, guessing Hydroid Prime will happen before Plains) I'll say now that Umbra's power set should have 'shadow' versions of the normal powers.

In these spoilers are my suggestions for him.

Spoiler

 

Umbra Slash; Excal glides towards the direction, drawing out and swinging [Equipped Melee] once, dealing Exalted + melee damage. Successful hits cause additional swings at the cost of the gliding stage coming to an end. Pair with Darkness to cause finisher damage. Also, the visual/sound fx used for this should be the same as Shadow-Stalker's.

Darkness (toggled ability); the mere sight of Excal blinds enemies, causing them to shoot in random directions and run around in terror. Excal's body has Smoke coming from it.

Umbra Cuts; Excal generates shadows which execute a single swing, finisher, or impale-finisher attack on all enemies who have their sights on Excal. The shadows disappear after the first cuts are made. Cuts cause slash bleed procs which, if the enemy is attacked again with a melee while the proc is present, will deal finisher damage. Pair with Darkness for all attacks to deal actual finisher damage. The animation and sound used could be the same as Shadow-Stalker's mini Radial Blast.

Sacrificial Blade; Excal draws his equipped melee and bathes it in Exalted energy, allowing every swing to generate a crescent of deadly energy that, instead of damage falloff, has a weight to it. The bigger the blade in use, the 'heavier' and wider the crescents will be. This is essentially Shadow-Stalker's 'Exalted War'.

Umbra passive: Every one-handed/two-handed blade gains a bonus to swing speed and damage. Channeling causes a less deadly Sacrificial Blade.

 

 

[Rawbeard]

why would he be anything other than a boosted Excal, maybe with a passive like primes have?

[Draymarc]

7 minutes ago, AperoBeltaTwo said:

I expect it to be an "excal prime for the rest of the playerbase". Simple stat boost that you'll have to sacrifice your current excal for. Basically a one-time acquisition.

Yeah that's probably the most probable one. 

[Draymarc]

Just now, Rawbeard said:

why would he be anything other than a boosted Excal, maybe with a passive like primes have?

It's fun to speculate. I'd like to see how the passive brings something new to the table. Though that is probably the most probable thing we'll recieve (something I am about to edit into the original post), I personally think it'd be cool, altered yet similar function abilities. There isn't any reason Umbra wouldn't be a stat boosted excalibur, but i don't see a reason there couldn't be some ability tweaks as well. 

[(PSN)theelix]

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense on so many amount of levels. 

Why? Why would a frame that has the same name have, for some reason, different abilities? It wouldn't.

Why would we downgrade an existing rework into something less useful? 

As far as we know, Excalibur Umbra is literally just Chinese Excalibur Prime with a different sort of style. That logic applied here was likely explained to DE and, hey look at that, they can kill two birds with one stone. They have an idea for a quest in which you get a "new" frame and you shut up literally everyone who wants Excalibur Prime? 

I really cannot understand where this idea that a frame of the same name needs to have some sort of different abilities/inferior or even superior versions of the existing powers. 

[Draymarc]

17 minutes ago, (PS4)theelix said:

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense on so many amount of levels. 

Why? Why would a frame that has the same name have, for some reason, different abilities? It wouldn't.

Why would we downgrade an existing rework into something less useful? 

As far as we know, Excalibur Umbra is literally just Chinese Excalibur Prime with a different sort of style. That logic applied here was likely explained to DE and, hey look at that, they can kill two birds with one stone. They have an idea for a quest in which you get a "new" frame and you shut up literally everyone who wants Excalibur Prime? 

I really cannot understand where this idea that a frame of the same name needs to have some sort of different abilities/inferior or even superior versions of the existing powers. 

I'm aware of the most probably outcome being what you listed above. It's simply a proposed idea- a "what if". Sure it makes less sense than the simple stat boost. Nonetheless, thematically, I think its an interesting thing to ponder. Perhaps my wording in the original post was off, and the animosity I perceive in your reply is wholly my fault. I should have mentioned- I think the same as you, it will most likely be a simple stat boost and nothing else.

In any case, regardless of how unlikely a altered, say, slash dash, is to ever be implemented, I personally can see potential in the ability to use a slash dash with no limit on how many enemies can be hit in the ability cast with, say, the Surging Dash augment, opening up new builds. Just a thought. 

[Rawbeard]

38 minutes ago, Draymarc said:

It's fun to speculate.

I hate fan fiction. it never takes all known information into account.

[(PSN)Nefrai]

People have been asking for about 2+ years now. My guess is we'll know in another 2-4 years ;) Surprised to see Umbra threads still being created.

[Rixuel]

Should I sell regular Excalibur after getting Excalibur Umbra? O_o

[Kaotyke]

3 hours ago, Koldraxon-732 said:

Excalibur (Prime) uses blinding light, and with the arrival of Umbra being Soon (after Plains of Eidolon drops, which is plotted around September, guessing Hydroid Prime will happen before Plains) I'll say now that Umbra's power set should have 'shadow' versions of the normal powers.

No, the Plains of Eidolon are planned for September, Steve said in the last Devstream that The Sacrifice will be after that.

And consider the trailer did not have an specific year unlike PoE, so hopefully at the end of the year, at the start of 2018 at wrost.

Edited August 13, 2017 by Kaotyke

[Kaotyke]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Nefrai said:

People have been asking for about 2+ years now. My guess is we'll know in another 2-4 years ;) Surprised to see Umbra threads still being created.

You must be late:

 

[Navarc]

12 minutes ago, Rixuel said:

Should I sell regular Excalibur after getting Excalibur Umbra? O_o

DE said Excalibur Umbra won't work the same way, that depending on your alignment (Neutral, sun or moon) he's going to work differently or have different advantages. I wouldn't until we learn if it's outright better truly in all cases - it might be worse than a normal excalibur if you're aligned with one side for certain things.

[PookieNumnums]

itll probably be like whatever china's version of warframe got for their founders. also @Navarchus can you post the source on where and when the devs said that?

Edited August 14, 2017 by PookieNumnums

[Senketsu_]

6 hours ago, (PS4)theelix said:

I'm sorry, but this makes no sense on so many amount of levels. 

Why? Why would a frame that has the same name have, for some reason, different abilities? It wouldn't.

Why would we downgrade an existing rework into something less useful? 

As far as we know, Excalibur Umbra is literally just Chinese Excalibur Prime with a different sort of style. That logic applied here was likely explained to DE and, hey look at that, they can kill two birds with one stone. They have an idea for a quest in which you get a "new" frame and you shut up literally everyone who wants Excalibur Prime? 

I really cannot understand where this idea that a frame of the same name needs to have some sort of different abilities/inferior or even superior versions of the existing powers. 

I know once I get Umbra ill be happy and shut up about Excal Prime. I main Excal so yeah

[StabbyTentacles]

7 hours ago, Draymarc said:

Slash Dash: Rather than his current reworked ability, Umbra's variant of slash dash would be more akin to Excalibur's pre-rework ability, albiet with much improvement. He'd surge forward at blinding speed instantaneously, like a rhino charge minus the slight pause on cast, equipping and doing a quick slash with the proposed "Exalted Nikana" and damaging anyone in his path. As the ability ranks up, it could work like a Combo akin to Rhino Charge and Landslide, where he can dash say, three times in succession with no additional energy cost before requiring a slight cooldown phase. 

OMG yes. For so long I've felt I was the only one who really missed the Slash Dash dayz.

*insert 

 

Slash Dash:

 

To surge forward at blinding speed perhaps even spin like the bullet jump move... what you have is a long kill area; painting the battlefield in crimson.

So less spam (current exulted blade) and more tactical: see the play; make the play.

*A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran (I Slash Dashed)

I walk along the avenue I never thought I'd meet a Grineer like you Meet a Grineer like you With auburn hair and tawny eyes The kind of eyes that hypnotize me through You hypnotize me through...

And I Slash Dashed I Slash Dashed so far away I just Slash Dashed I Slash Dashed all night and day I couldn't get away