Volt Tweaks

[FINNSTAR7]

TL;DR

1. Riot Shield: Take off or significantly reduce one of those energy drains, no more speed reduction, and ES's duration should not apply (pauses) when in riot mode
2. Discharge: For the first 3 / 3 / 4 / 4 seconds of Discharge telsa damage from nearby enemies should not count towards the health cap, and the cap should be increased to at least 2000 / 3500 / 5000 / 6500 from 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 4000
3. Passive: Static Discharge should not be used up when breaking open storage containers, resource deposits, or other similar items.

 

 

Alright, so it's been over a year since Volt was last touched. His U18.13 Rework was back in May of 2016 already and thus far has proved successful overall. It gave him a completely revamped Overload that significantly increased his crowd control and damaging capabilities, a new passive that is one of the better ones in the game, slight Speed tweaks for more friendly team play, and an Electric Shield visual overhaul.

 

But with it came Volt's riot shield...

 

Volt's Current Shield, or riot shield, has left a bad taste in the mouth of nearly every Volt player. Over 90% of the community would agree that the idea of Volt's riot shield is absolutely great, but it's simply too taxing. First off, it has two separate energy drains, a 5.0 energy per second drain while equipped, and a 1 energy per meter drain while moving with it. So not only does it cost 50 energy to cast an ES, it then costs additional energy to simply use the riot shield mode and even more energy to move around with it. On top of this, the riot shield also takes a huge bite out of Volt's movement speed. Why would you reduce the speed of a frame that is meant to be mobile and fast? The riot shield also restricts you to the use of only your secondary and melee weapon. And the icing on the fruitcake is that even though it has two energy drains it. Still. Has. A. Set Duration.

 

Maybe it'd be easier to make a pros and cons list

Pros:

• It's a shield
• 50% & 200% bonus electrical & critical damage
• You can move with it
• Sprinting will ragdoll enemies you hit with it

Cons:

• It has a 5/s energy drain
• It has a 1/m energy drain
• It's nearly a quarter of the size
• It cuts your movement by nearly a third
• You can't use your primary with it
• It still has a set duration even though it has energy drains like a channeled ability
• Allies can't utilize it unless you have Transistor Shield equipped, in which the energy drains are not effected by either of your mods

 

Obviously something's wrong here. Volt's riot shield seems to be way too unbalanced. There are some things you can do to remedy these cons though. Put a lot of Efficiency and Duration on to minimize the energy drains and cost and use a maxed Zenurik (which not everyone has). Use Speed to counter the movement loss. .......................Um...actually that's really all you can do, everything else is unaffected by mods or otherwise. Plus, modding your Volt specifically for Efficiency and Duration leaves little room for Range, Strength, survivability, and/or other miscellaneous features. And using Speed actually makes the riot shield even more expensive due to that 1/m energy drain.

Maybe the energy thing isn't all that bad on Volt P, he does have the highest energy pool of all frames next to Saryn P after all. But what about the normal Volt? Volt has a less than mediocre energy pool that will nearly evaporate with riot shield equipped. It's really not very newbie friendly, which is pretty weird considering Volt is a starter frame.

 

The riot shield may be meh, but it could be truly viable if at least:

1. One of those energy drains was taken off or significantly reduced
2. There was no speed reduction
3. And the ES's duration did not apply (pauses) when in riot mode, since it's technically a channeling ability at that point

 

 

Next is Discharge's damage cap. When Discharge was first introduced the damage cap became somewhat of a controversy. Many complained that it simply made Discharge too inconsistent, ranging from minimal damage and minimal crowd control to good damage and good cc at seemingly random times. This is mostly due to telsa damage contributing towards Discharge's damage cap, even during the 4 second no-damage phase. Another contribution is whether or not the effected targets were armored. Unarmored, an enemy will stay stunned for no longer than ~12.9 seconds, even if your Duration is well above 110%. Armored, an enemy will stay stunned for the entire duration, so long as they aren't taking a heavy amount of tesla damage as well, due to armor damage mitigation.

In any case, the effectiveness of Discharge changes widely depending on multiple factors, which is usually not what ultimates are meant to do.

 

The best way to "fix" this would be to have the damage cap ignore tesla damage during the 4 initial seconds of Discharge and increase the cap to 2000 / 3500 / 5000 / 6500 at least. This will help bridge the gaps between using Discharge on tightly packed mobs, unarmored enemies, and armored enemies, making its effects much more consistent and reliable.

 

 

Static Discharge. Volt's passive is great, I really don't see a reason to buff it up anymore than 1000. However, one grievance I have is that it gets automatically used when hitting non-enemy targets. For example, the only way to break open storage containers or resource deposits without using up your passive is to bullet jump near them or kick them. Which is actually pretty annoying.

My only suggestion is to make Static Discharge 'un-consumable' when targeting an object (container, deposit, etc.). I don't know how you would go about that. Maybe program it to only apply to an attack that has actually landed, rather than when it's initiated, that way it can register whether or not the attack is hitting an object or enemy before applying the bonus damage? Idk, it's not a big deal but it would be a lot more convenient.

 

 

Anyway, that's just what I've been wanting to get off my chest for a while. As a Volt main (and probably his biggest fan), I'm really just looking for Volt to receive the long needed tweaks he deserves. Volt is in an awesome spot right now, don't get me wrong. He's a jack of all trades, effective in any mission and probably the most well rounded frame out there. But man, that riot shield needs at least some attention and said tweaks would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Also, Volt Deluxe when?!

Edited August 17, 2017 by FINNSTAR7

[Elvangreen]

> remove -1E/m distance drain on riot shield

> remove slowdown on riot shield

> duration paused when shield is picked up

> static discharge damage cap increased 1000 > 10,000  (still gain 1dmg per metre)

> Discharge damage cap no longer counts damage from nearby enemies tesla arcs, giving a base duration of 4 sec no damage and ~8 secs of damage dealing, on an unarmored target.

> non-prime volt e-pool increased to 150/225 from 100/150.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Elvangreen

[FINNSTAR7]

I don't think the static discharge needs to be increased all that much, it is just a passive after all. But tesla damage not contributing to Discharge's damage cap would be excellent, it's currently very inconsistent. 

 

Edited August 14, 2017 by FINNSTAR7

[PrOF_k]

The passive not getting "wasted" on containers would be a great start

[Walkampf]

I'd like to see the passive changed, so that it only effects abilities. This way you'd have a lot more controll.

[Ventura_Highway]

I would appreciate if Discharge ended with a ragdolling.

Last time I observed it in a high level misison, after casting it I watched a tech jerk around and before I could say "where's sebulba" the guy broke free and immediately kept shooting again. If it at least ragdolled I could use that time to properly respond to him breaking free. probably by casting 4 again, but as it is that aspect of Overload makes it more dangerous than the average hard CC.

[FINNSTAR7]

7 hours ago, Ventura_Highway said:

I would appreciate if Discharge ended with a ragdolling.

Last time I observed it in a high level misison, after casting it I watched a tech jerk around and before I could say "where's sebulba" the guy broke free and immediately kept shooting again. If it at least ragdolled I could use that time to properly respond to him breaking free. probably by casting 4 again, but as it is that aspect of Overload makes it more dangerous than the average hard CC.

That would kinda make sense too. I mean, they're being electrocuted with a lethal amount of electricity, so their nerves should be completely shot for a short time.