I am confused about the theme of Zenurik and Naramon

[DroopingPuppy]

You know, Zenurik is focused on dominate the enemy. It suggest me that Zenurik is focused on restricting the enemy moves. But.... what we got is just more energy.  What connects both of them? Perhaps spam more void powers through the warframes with more energy stuffs? Well, Zenurik is the polarity of ability mods, so it may true... but I am still confused about that.

Naramon is an enigma to me. It says know the enemy, but why the result is melee focused school? Isn't Unairu(the mountain, that withstand the enemy fire and face to face them) or Vazarin(counter the enemy moves) would be much suited for the melee concentrated schools? It seems that gives enemy radar(although Naramon already gives some sort of, although costing energy is only a silly idea), reveal the weakness such as Banshee or Defect Vulnerability(on Helios), damage/critical chance/status chance buff(or reveal the weakness as above) for fully scanned enemies, more damage on a correct damage type against enemy armor/flesh seems better suited for the theme.

 

Edit: it is a mistake that I was put it on here. It must be on the general feedback.

Edited December 9, 2017 by DroopingPuppy

[Phobonaut]

Well, what's the main use of Zenurik? Make Stealth frames use stealth infinitely or CC frames use CC infinitely. Sounds to me like how you dominate the enemy.

I haven't tried Naramon yet, so I don't really have anything to say about it.

[Azamagon]

This a problem with DE's tendency to have horrible (or even plain false) flavor texts. Something everyone playing WF should know is that they should take flavor texts with a HUGE grain of salt (if not even downright ignore the texts). That said, lets overview them:

Naramon hints at using knowledge and tactics.
But it's mostly about melee (with hints of tactics). Finishers and affinityboosts makes SOME sense I guess.
If it had more "tactics" stuff, like more stealth- and weakpoint-oriented stuff, it'd fit better, sure. The extreme melee bias is honestly weird, indeed.

Zenurik hints at dominating the enemy and stripping enemies of their resources.
And it's a lot about CC (which dominates and strips them of their most valuable resource; Their actions) and energy (which can further dominate the enemies).
Imo, not that far off from its description. Give it some armor+shield destroying utility (Void Static, anyone?) and it'd be rather on point imo.

Vazarin hints at "countering" and nullifying the enemy attacks.
Depending on how you read that, it either feels like a lie, or a somewhat true description. Healing is a counter to damage, is it not? And the school DOES provide with ways to nullify a whole bunch of harm. Imo, it being a healing and protection school is fitting. It maybe could need a less confusing description, as to make it clear that it isn't about counterattacking (i.e. reflection), but rather about reversing attacks (i.e. healing).
So, with that thought in mind, it fits its description imo.

Unairu hints at outlasting the enemy.
It does bring mostly tank/survival stuff, but also has a few random utilities. Main problem is that it does most of its buffs (tank/survival) rather poorly.
This school could need a bunch of tweaks, yes, but it fits its description at least.

Madurai hints at offensive power and speed.
It does most of this (at least in regards to power), but fail on a bunch of nodes due to mostly being flat values and due to not helping your Warframe much.
Give it some more offensive utility and it'd be truly fitting its descriptions.

My biggest problem is Naramon and its melee niche. All the other school's tend to be more "universal" in regards to general combat:
* You ALWAYS run with a Warframe and/or Operator, and there is basicly always enemies as your threat. Thus, energy for abilities and CC is always useful, which makes Zenurik universally useful.
* In combat, you are basicly always subject to harm. Thus, healing and/or protecting against damage is always useful, which makes both Vazarin and Unairu universally useful.
* When fighting, dealing damage is almost always necessary (bar some CC-cheese-strategies). Thus, dealing more damage is arguably always useful, which makes Madurai universally useful.
* However, when fighting, you are not always able to bring or even use a melee (for example, certain bosses being impossible to fight with melee, sorties restricting weaponchoices). Thus, dealing more damage with your MELEE is NOT universally useful, which makes most of Naramon too niched. And this is why I think Naramon shouldn't be so heavily melee-biased.

Edited December 9, 2017 by Azamagon

[More-L]

I don't really think any of the schools fit their description very well. I think DE would be better off rewording their description as opposed to reworking their 'ways' at this point.

[Foefaller]

I think they still mostly fit.

Naramon is the only focus school that increases the affinity you can gain, and a few of the upgraded Operator abilities can be headcannoned as "knowing" the best place to strike (crit chance, open to finishers) as well as being able to see through walls.

Zenurik is popular for the energy, but other than Energizing dash, almost everything else is CC. Slow, pulls, and all the damage abilities other than Void Static proc Shock for it's CC effect.

[Birdframe_Prime]

So with the Focus 2.0 the descriptions at the choosing of your school are deliberately left with the vague concepts. It helps if you think of them as the traditional RPG roles. Zenurik is the Mage, Madurai the Warrior, Naramon the Rogue, Vazarin the Cleric and Unairu the Paladin.

But the descriptive text for each school is not meant to actually be clear about this. Where other RPGs say 'choose a class' the selection of Schools is purely based on what description appeals to you.

"They believed the clearest path to victory was to Dominate the Enemy. They sought to choke an opponent of all resources; that sheer strength could erase any resistance."

Yyyyeah... no, that's definitely supposed to be cryptic and un-informative. Take them all together, though... let's have a look at them.

Madurai: "They followed the path of Engage The Enemy. Their swift, uncompromising onslaught, holding nothing back and recklessly attacking their foes, could vanquish an opponent before he had the chance to steel himself. Speed and savagery characterized this school."

Vazarin: "They trained to Counter the Enemy, and move with an opponent's attacks in order to nullify them. They maintained constant awareness in order to defend against all aggression."

Naramon: "This discipline focused on Knowing the Enemy, and the tacticians of Naramon believed that to truly understand a foe would confer the greatest advantage upon a warrior."

Unairu: "They pushed themselves to Outlast the Enemy, to withstand all aggression without retreat. They believed that if the enemy could not match their endurance, then a battle could be won without having even commenced."

Zenurik: "They believed the clearest path to victory was to Dominate the Enemy. They sought to choke an opponent of all resources; that sheer strength could erase any resistance."

No, definitely, these phrases are designed specifically to appeal to your own opinions, not to 'what do I want to do next'. It's purely meant to make you think 'I have absolutely no idea what these are' and then 'Okay, which one sounds the best to me'.

This whole setup is just DE's innate desire for choice that doesn't come from statistical benefits, choice that's blind and doesn't really need to have lasting problems. Every school is useful, every school has unique functions that, if you invest in them, will improve your game experience overall. Unairu's personal armour buffs and enemy armour debuffing, plus team invisibility and damage reduction for people not also in Void mode (like people still in their frames), and so on.

But that's the kind of point, you see.

You choose your school, but that isn't permanent and you can farm up for whatever you think is good from then on, no worries.

However, I do wish that DE would push this RPG role concept a little more and re-adjust the flavour text to more represent them. I mean... look at this:

Spoiler

From the perspective of a Mage, Zenurik makes a lot more sense.

Basic ability; more energy from energy Orbs. Standard mage, better mana gain.

Warframe's residual buff; Melee Channeling efficiency. More efficient mana-to-weapon transfer.

Operator's buffs; increased energy and energy regen. Again, mana pool and mana regen.

Operator's active abilities; Dash creates an energy regen zone and spawns ball lightning along line of travel. Blast creates more lightning and will also slow enemies down to a fifth of their normal speed. Void Mode pulls in enemies and deals damage to them over time, grouping them up for further attacks, like the lightning blast and slow.

Basically, the active abilities are 'pull them together, deal damage with cast lightning while you lock them in place with temporal distortion so you can go to town'. Exceptionally biased towards a Mage's preferred form of attack; put your enemies where you want them and attack with broad magic attacks. Meanwhile, never run out of magic.

Same with Naramon for a Rogue.

Basic ability; more affinity for melee kills. Standard buff for a melee-focused rogue, more gain for playing your class weapons.

Warframe's residual buff; Combo Counter doesn't instantly reset and instead slowly drains at the rate of 5 every three seconds after your mod-extendable combo counter duration finishes. Again, more focus on a Rogue's specialisation into melee.

Operator's buffs; Movement speed increased and Dash speed increased (also dash Ragdoll if you don't spec into one of the 'non ragdoll' effects for your dash). Again, a tree built around melee would buff your movement so you can close distance faster both normally and while in stealth.

Operator's active abilities; Dash deals more damage at a broader range, while opening enemies up for melee finishers that do more than a third more damage. A Rogue's assassination trick, expose the weakness and then attack for massive damage. Allows the melee user to scale even higher. Blast will 50/50 Confuse or Disarm an enemy (it's a 50% chance for either effect, sometimes you get both and sometimes you get neither), again, more on the lines of somebody who loves to come into melee range, sowing discord and panic wherever they go. And Void Mode grants bonus Crit Chance and wall hacks, I mean... seriously, 'surprise attack' and 'detect life' functions, how Rogue can you get?

It's something that you either get or you don't, really.

But I do have to respect the idea that DE are going for; they're taking this whole Focus selection as non-linear as it can be taken. You don't know what's on the other side of the choice (unless you've had spoilers) and the choice only affects where you start, it doesn't affect where you finish.