Tweaks, changes and reworks galore! V2

[TaleTeller]

We all know not all Warframes are on an ideal position in terms of power, survivability and internal synergy. As of Devstream 97 the devs have said that they're more focused on tweaking old abilities to work better than to remove and replace them for new ones. This post will try to do just that, only replacing the abilities that, like Limbo's rift walk, have been rendered useless by the passage of time.

Ash

Spoiler

Shuriken: now fires 15 shuriken in a 72º angle cone affected by range. Each individual shuriken deals the same amount of damage as before, but no longer turn in the air to target enemies. Places Blood Mark on hit targets. Marked enemies take 10% more damage from Ash's attacks. Marks do not expire. Throwing Shuriken at the floor will turn them into Caltrops which will stagger and bleed enemies. Caltrops last 8 seconds, affected by duration mods

Teleport: performs an instant finisher on bleeding enemies, deals 100% more damage against enemies with Blood Marks

Fatal Teleport --> Armoring Teleport: by draining the iron of his enemies blood, Ash gains 40 armor for every enemy killed by Teleport for 20 seconds. Stacks up to 200. Duration affected by duration mods, armor gain unaffected by mods

Blade Storm: drops the long animations. Instead, Ash remains immobile for a second and summons clones that perform finishers on all enemies in range, dealing 100% more damage to bleeding enemies, 100% more damage to Blood Marked enemies, and 250% damage to enemies who are both bleeding and Blood Marked. Cast time affected by Natural Talent

I've been playing a lot of Ash lately, mostly using the Shuriken augment build. I've found it's incredibly tiresome having only 2 shuriken in a game where enemies spawn by the dozen. The rework to his Shuriken is meant to a) work with his bleed-boosting passive, b) become the cornerstone of his set as half his abilities now have boosted damage against blood and, c) give you a choice between brute power and DoT spreads. At 250 range shuriken will be spread in a 180º angle, dealing less damage but spreading bleeds to half the field. On the contrary, lowering range will concentrate all shuriken on a smaller point, dealing far more damage but targeting less enemies. This also gives you the alternative or dropping the Shuriken altogether and run slash weapons, as slash alone also gives a nice boost to damage

As for Blade Storm, I know we're all tired of the regular ability, so I tried to make something that synergized with the blood theme I'm going with, and that avoided all kinds of time-wasting animations.

 Atlas

Spoiler

Tectonics: add the augment to the ability. Now Atlas can spawn up to 3 Bulwarks. If a 4th Bulwark is activated the first spawned will be destroyed. In addition, Atlas can use Landslide on a Bulwark to send it rolling, dealing it's remaining health + Landslide's damage when it explodes.

Petrify: Atlas summons a channeled rock spire that radiates petrifying energy. Just like with the original attack, all enemies in range are staggered, slowed and finally petrified. The spire cannot be damaged. Recasting the ability will dispel the active spire to summon a new one. Each petrified enemy gives the Rumblers a 5% damage increase, capped at 100%

 Banshee

Spoiler

Sonic Boom becomes a one-handed casting ability

Sound Quake to be replaced by a not press-4-to-win skill

 Chroma

Spoiler

CONFESSION: I don't have Chroma yet. As such I can't tell what's really wrong with his abilities or what would make a good rework. I'll do minor tweaks to the abilities, focusing mostly on his passive because his current one is useless.

Passive: Elemental Alignment --> Elemental Mastery: element is no longer locked by energy color. His 1st and 2nd abilities can be cycled through all four elements.

-Using a Cold ability grants Chroma +10 points of armor (max 50).

-Using Lightning grants +3% movement and holster speed boost (max 15%).

-Using Toxin grants 2 health regen per second (max 10).

-Using Heat grants 4% reload speed and fire rate boost (max 20%).

All these buffs last 60 seconds, are unaffected by mods and can be refreshed.

Spectral Scream: doesn't slow user's speed when active

Elemental Ward: cycling the element when the ability is active will dispel it

Effigy: element is the same as Spectral Scream's

Like I said, if feels ridiculous to have a warframe whose theme is holding the power of all four elements only to have 3 locked down whenever you enter a mission. This new passive would make it so you can use any and all elements you want, whenever you want, so you have the full power of Chroma at your disposal.

Ember:

Spoiler

NEW PASSIVE: Degrees of Burning: Ember gets a Fuel Charge for every enemy who gets a Heat proc from her weapons or abilities (max 150). Each Charge grants extra damage to Fireball

1st degree burning (20 FCs): Fireball and Fire Blast slow enemies by 20%

2nd degree burning (50 FCs): Fireball and Fire Blast get an added Blast proc and slow enemies down by 30%

3rd degree burning (70 FCs): Blast proc replaced by Radiation proc. Fireball and Fire Blast melt 25% of enemy armor and slow enemies down by 50%

4th degree burning (100 FCs): Radiation proc replaced by Gas proc. Fireball and Fire Blast stun affected targets for 5 seconds and melt down 40% of their armor

Armor removal affected by power strength, cannot go further than double its original power. Slow is not affected by mods

Fireball: casting it on the floor will cause a fire patch like the napalms. Consumes 5 Fuel Charges. If there are no Fuel Charges the ability will still be usable but won't have any added effects

Accelerant: damage increase reduced to 100% / 125% / 150% / 200%

Fire Blast: consumes 10 Fuel Charges. Same as Fireball

World on Fire: damage reduced to 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 per explosion

So, Ember. Most if not all her reworks I've seen here focused on World on Fire, changing it for something new or reworking it for better efficiency on endgame. I'm gonna try the Nidus route

World on Fire and Accelerant get their damage nerfed to slow Ember's nuke powers and change her towards a Fuel Charge generator. This way, when enemies stop instadying, WoF will still have use as a continuous buff of Ember's other abilities. As for the damage increase, I propose that each FC adds 1/10th of Fireball's damage (after applying strength mods) as extra damage

So at 150 Charges and 100% Strength, Fireball would deal 6k damage per Fireball. Coupled with Accelerant doubling it's power, it would deal 12k damage per fireball, and anything that survived would have to deal with the elemental procs and debuffs

This way Ember goes from a "press 2 + 4 to win at lower levels and die at higher levels" frame to a "debuff everything on sight and get stronger as time goes by" frame.

 Excalibur

Spoiler

Passive: Excalibur is called the master of the blade, but his repertoire is very limited. So now, Excalibur gains 10% damage and attack speed when wielding not only swords, dual swords, rapiers and nikanas, but also daggers, dual daggers, blade & whips, machetes, heavy blades, scythes, sword & shields, Red Veil members and internet comment sections. Everything that has an edge

Radial Javelin: gives Excalibur and allies in range a 2% attack speed boost per enemy hit. If all 12 javelins hit you'd get a 24% speed boost. Affected by strength mods, it can't go beyond 4% per javelin

Radial Javelin is in a bad spot. It does less CC than Radial Blind, and it deals less damage than Exalted Blade. You could amp its CC potential but it will always pale in comparison to a cheaper, recastable skill that can stop enemies and open them to finishers. So I've changed it to a team buff, to further round Excalibur up to the Jack-of-all-Trades starter, but most importantly because now Excalibur will have a skill that doesn't get killed by a full-strength Exalted Blade build.

Loki

Spoiler

Decoy: explodes in a flash that blinds nearby enemies when killed

Invisibility: no longer deafens the user

 Mag

Spoiler

Magnetic element reworked: now slows enemies down based on their armor and reduces weapon accuracy (accuracy not affected by armor)

Base energy increased from 150 to 200. Prime energy increased from 150 to 250

NEW PASSIVE: Magnetic Control: primary and secondary weapons have 50% more accuracy and no recoil

Pull: moves enemies 30% closer to Mag, percentage scales with strength, cannot go beyond 90%. Causes mag proc

Greedy Pull --> Magnet Pull: Pull affects a single enemy but turns them into a bullet attractor for as long as the enemy is alive

Magnetize: doesn't absorb polarize anymore

Polarize: Mag procs all affected targets. Removes 15% armor, removes twice as much on mag proc'd enemies, armor removal scales with strength. 50% of the armor removed is stored like Nezha's Pyroclastic Flow augment

Crush: consumes all of Polarize's stored damage, splitting it evenly across all Crushed enemies, 2x damage for mag proc'd enemies, stuns survivors

Fracturing Crush: grants 10 armor for every enemy killed by Crush for 30 seconds (max 150 armor). Armor gained scales with strength, duration of the buff scales with duration.

First of all, remake Magnetic into something that affects all enemies instead of just Corpus. This new element would help CC and survivability as enemies would miss more often and be slowed according to their armor, thus heavier targets - usually the biggest threats - get the worst of it.

As for why I moved the polarize absorption from Magnetize to Crush, it's because I think Magnetize fares well with only the power of the guns, and Crush is clearly underperforming. This way both of Mag's damage-dealing abilities scale, one with the enemy's damage and the other with their armor. This gives the player the choice of going full range for magnetize while also being able to reach Crush's armor cap, full strength for polarize + crush, or try and find a middle ground to use them all together

Pull's change is meant to stop enemies from flying off to places unknown when all you wanted them to do was have them hit the floor.

 Mesa

Spoiler

Ballistic Battery: stacked power lasts for 10 seconds, not affected by power duration

 Nekros

Spoiler

Soul Punch: enemies hit will have their souls left behind, dealing viral damage to anybody who comes in contact with them

Terrify: paralyzes enemies, freezing them in place. Duration reduced to 10 seconds at max range

Creeping Terrify  --> Hastening: Increases allies' movement and attack speed by 20%

From what I've seen, while Terrify is a pretty good panic button, having all enemies run off is never beneficial. This would keep Terrify's quick CC power while also avoiding the downside of having to chase the enemies. The augment is meant as a fight-or-flight option. You can run away and lick your wounds, or use the time to slaughter everything

 Nezha

Spoiler

Blazing Chakram: adds half of Warding Halo's current armor as damage. Throwing it at Divine Spears will make all impaled enemies proc healing pulse at 10% power

Warding Halo: causes a fire explosion when destroyed, dealing all health it had left as heat damage

Divine Spears: cancelling is a one-handed action, if it expires on its own it doesn't cause Nezha to go into an animation

This would add some synergy between Nezha's abilities, plus giving you a small window to recast WH and not get one-shot as soon as it's destroyed. The tweak to divine spears is to keep you from being stuck in animation, leaving you open to all enemies.

 Nidus

Spoiler

PASSIVE: Undying costs 10 stacks the first death and adds 5 more every time you die to a top of 50

 Nova

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Molecular Prime: can be cycled between slow and fast, both affected by higher power strength. This way if you start a low-level defense as speedva and stay to the point enemies overwhelm you, you can switch to slowva instead of being locked out of using an ability. Also, this way Nova doesn't get a negative effect from the increased power strength of the corruption in fissures.

 Nyx

Spoiler

Psychic Bolts: drops the damage, now all enemies in range get 10% of the highest IPS and elemental damages on your primary weapon as status procs. So if your weapon has highest slash + heat those two status are dealt to all enemies. This is meant to make the ability into something that works with all other skills, as they all benefit from range + duration

 Rhino

Spoiler

PASSIVE: Slam attacks to 2x damage and have a chance to proc Blast

Iron Skin: detonates when broken and deals all health it had left as Blast damage

Roar is now recastable

Trinity

Spoiler

PASSIVE: in addition to her current passive, all allies and pets have 25% longer bleed-out timer

Well of Life: now works like Energy Vampire. Targeted enemy emits 4 pulses that restore 50 HP to allies in range while draining enemy's health. If the targeted enemy is killed while the ability is active, it will emit all remaining pulses at once. Heal, duration and range affected by Strength, Duration and Range respectively.

Energy Vampire: now works like Well of Life. Targeted enemy will emit a pulse that deals 30% of the damage Trinity deals to it as energy restoration to all allies in range. Warframes can only regain a third of their max energy per EV cast. Energy restored, range and duration are affected by Strength, Range and Duration respectively.

Blessing: cannot be recast while still active. Health and shields restoration removed. Now allies in range gain status and damage immunity for a period of time (affected by Duration) according to the health they had at the moment the ability was cast:

76-100% HP = 3 seconds

51-75 HP% = 5 seconds

26-50% HP = 7 seconds

1-25% HP = 10 seconds

When it comes to organized games I find myself playing a fair amount of Trinity, because people would much rather play DPS or CC and someone has to make sure they all stay alive and fueled. One thing I've noticed is that people are far too happy to go nuke everything in its spawn points, ask for EV, then nuke everything again as soon as they have the bare minimum energy needed, making it a very complicated environment for a healer who just wants to do their dang job.

Let's change that.

First of all, Blessing no longer heals so Trinity is no longer an instantaneous full health restoration machine with no drawbacks. The immunity is tweaked to affect allies differently because if you go max duration on everyone the same then there's nothing stopping you from casting Blessing every single second, thus creating a perpetual wall of invincibility.

Well of Life becomes Trinity's main and only form of healing, working as EV did, which means Trinity will foray into the wild to hunt enemies and restore allies' health. Whereas EV is designed specifically so other players can't nuke everything in sight unless they want to find themselves unable to cast anything.

Basically, let the healer work or everybody will die, as it should be.

 Zephyr

Spoiler

NEW PASSIVE: Airborne: maintaining her weightlessness, Zephyr gets a triple jump and 20% bonus to reload speed and fire rate on bullet-jump

Tailwind: no longer sends Zephyr upwards if cast from the ground. If aimed straight above, Zephyr will launch into the sky. If aimed from mid-air to the ground, Zephyr will land with a blast of wind that deals knockdown and impact procs to all enemies within range, with a bonus damage for the distance travelled from air to ground. Damage scales with both Strength and Range mods. Animation is immediately ended when hitting a wall or the floor. When Turbulence is active all enemies hit by Tailwind will drop their guns.

Dive Bomb --> Vacuum:  making Dive Bomb's old augment into a skill, Zephyr creates a field that sucks enemies in and holds them in place. If the Vacuum is hit by Tailwind, it will explode, dealing damage to all enemies and sending them flying

Vacuum augment: Venomous Vacuum: if detonated by Tailwind, the Vacuum will explode into a gas cloud that will spread affected by range mods

Tornado: can be cancelled by pressing the cast button again. Tornadoes won't wander off but they will spawn a set distance from Zephyr and circle in that radius. Spawn distance is affected by Range mods, so you can go negative range to have a small, circling shield of tornadoes, or big range to cover more ground. Range will also affect the distance tornadoes can pick enemies from. There's no damage fall-off.

This is not all the warframe I want to look at, there's far more (Limbo, Equinox, Volt, Vauban, etc), but at the moment I can't think of good changes to give them. Here's hoping I will think of stuff in the future and update this thing accordingly

Edited December 29, 2017 by TaleTeller

[13QZXXTTX]

It look like how you viewed each frame, and their passive.

Not sure when DE get to rework or look over WarFrame Passive.

My feeling for Passive, is I won't change them, until DE at least got 90% of Frames in or the next Seasons of Frame maybe when Plains become Stable.

[TheGrimCorsair]

On Hydroid, I don't think stopping on hitting a wall is all that necessary as you can stop in on command now by going into 3.

Tentacle Swarm already creates an visible area that represents the area the tentacles can spawn in, with charging the cast increasing that area to reflect the charge.

Would like to see his passive changed to: 50% chance to spawn tentacle on Ground Slam, 100% chance to spawn on Ground Finisher kill, max of 5 tentacles created by passive active at once.

[Birdframe_Prime]

Wow, for a thread that starts with the premise of 'DE don't want to remove/replace old abilities, let's tweak existing ones' you do have an awful lot of full replacements and full reworks.

Some of your ideas are good, like the first two for Banshee, but you then turn around and immediately say 'then replace her 4 with something else'.

It's a more common theme in this thread than your actual premise, so... while you get points for noting some basic tweaks that would work well with some frames, the rest? Nope, sorry friend, they aren't 'tweaks'.