[Warframe Idea] True Gunslinger Frame

[Ruriko]

Hello everyone. I welcome you to yet another of many suggested theme you've encountered on the forum. For quite some time now, people have been asking for a gunslinger frame. Unfortunately, what they put forward was either heavily unrefined or just really badly conceived. With this concept, I hope to show everyone that the idea of a gunslinger is plausible without being either game-breaking or completely underwhelming.

As far the name is concerned, I collaborated with some friends and came up with three options. I hope that you all will help me decide on the final choice.

Name: Jaeger
Meaning: "Hunter" in German
Frame Gender: Male
Reasoning: Hunts come in all shapes, sizes, and strengths. The real hunters overcome the odds by hunting increasingly more dangerous prey.

Name: Taka
Meaning: "Hawk" in Japanese
Frame Gender: Male or Female
Reasoning: Gunslingers were known for three things: Speed, Skill, and a Keen Eye. Hawks embody all three of these aspects.

Name: Sifu
Meaning: "Master" in Chinese
Frame Gender: Female
Reasoning: A master is always trying to take their art to the next level. In their pursuit of this goal, they attract many friends and followers who are willing to defend their honor and namesake. This frame is about cooperation more than single-handedly overwhelming your enemy.


Frame Stats

Health: 75 (225)
Shield: 100 (300)
Energy: 150 (225)

Armor: 50
Speed: 1.1

Reasoning: Although most gunslingers are masters with their firearms, they are still vulnerable individuals. They rely more on avoiding attacks than soaking them. Their speed is their armor, though they have developed some resilience from taking enough bullets. This setup puts the focus on their skills (Energy) and avoidance (Speed and technically Shield). Their armor isn't much, though it is certainly better than the lightly armored frames, thus giving them a slight degree more survival to compensate for their low health pool.


Polarities

= x4
V x1
- x1

Aura Polarity: V

Reasoning: Every gunslinger is about speed and talent, using both to overwhelm their foes. Even with that in mind, some up the ante with raw power. The combination of V and - polarities on the frame are reflective of their flexibility and skill. The V Aura Polarity fits well with a heavy focus on gun play.


Abilities

Ability 1: Stunning Primer
Effect: Fire a high-impact shot at a target, inflict moderate damage and knocking them cold for a brief time

Cost to set: 2/3/4/5
Energy Cost: 25

Damage Type: Physics Impact
Damage: 50/75/100/150
Stun Duration: 5/5/6/8 Seconds
 

Stunning Primer is affected by Focus, Constitution, and Continuity

Stunning Primer has an innate puncture of .1, making it well suited for knocking down shield lancers through their shields.

Ability 2: Hidden Potential
Effect: Increases fire rate and reload speed for the user and their allies for a short time

Cost to set: 4/5/6/7
Energy Cost: 50

Duration: 10/12/15/20 Seconds
Radius: 4m, centered on the user at all levels
Bonus Fire Rate: 10%/10%/15%/25%
Bonus Reload Speed: 10%/10%.15%/25%
 

Hidden Potential is affected by Constitution and Continuity, but not Stretch

Ability 3: Dispersion
Effect: For the effect's duration, all shots that hit an enemy have a chance to ricochet out of their body and hit another nearby enemy. Ricocheted bullets deal reduced damage. This can trigger more than once per shot, but with diminishing chance with each ricochet.

Cost to set: 6/7/8/9
Energy Cost: 75

Duration: 5/6/8/10 Seconds
Chance to ricochet: 75%, -15% chance with each additional ricochet
 

When a shot ricochets out of the target's body, it deals the ricochet damage based on mod rank.

When a new enemy is struck with a ricochet, it deals the ricochet damage based on mod rank.

Ricochet damage is calculated as a percentage of the original hit's damage.

Dispersion does not work with Explosive Weapons

Shots can ricochet a maximum of 5 times

Dispersion is affected by Focus, Constitution, and Continuity.

Ability 4: Fragmentation Burst
Effect: The user jumps into the air and throws a number of grenades around them. In the same swift motion, they spin around and shoot each one in mid air, detonating them and spraying enemies with a massive hail of shrapnel. The user is invincible during the animation.

Cost to set: 10/11/12/13
Energy Cost: 100

Damage: 500/800/1200/1500 Serrated Blade Damage
Area of Effect: 5/5/10/15 Meters, centered on the user.
 

Fragmentation Burst is affected by Focus and Stretch.

Conceptualization

I know that some people are going to take issue with the abilities as I have presented them. I hope that by giving everyone an explanation of the concepts behind each one, people will offer healthy and constructive advice to further refine this concept.

One thing you've probably noticed is a running theme of duration in almost all these abilities. This may sound flawed, maybe even over-powered, but I ask that people please hear me out before whining. The main focus with this particular ability set is not raw power, but pure synergy. Read on and you'll understand.

Stunning Primer: Almost all level basic skills are some kind of offensive or control ability. I tried to find some middle-ground, creating this skill to be useful as a damaging skill at low level, while proving to be a solid enemy control later on. A lot of the feedback I was given suggested that this skill should inflict a Bleed DoT, Sunder Armor, or have Innate Puncture. I felt that Stun was a better option for this kill, giving it only a light innate puncture to effectively land attacks against pesky grineer shield lancers. This also gives the appearance of a high impact, non-lethal round that sets enemies up for a follow-up attack, or possible execution...

Hidden Potential: The unwritten rule of abilities is that every frame must either have an utility ability or a party skill. You see this as a fairly consistent patterns. It was hard to justify an utility skill, so the part skill was the only real choice. Not wanting to build on ideas already explored with other frames, my friends and I set out to be different and put the focus on enahcning a highly desirable trait for firearms: Reload Speed and/or Fire Rate. Both of these match well with virtually any equipment and party load out, effectively increasing the party's DPS while also burning through their ammo more quickly. I wanted to keep the percentages low enough to keep weapons from getting extremely out of hand, but high enough to be noticeable and beneficial. The duration table is slightly better than Rhino's Roar, but Roar provides a much larger damage boost. As an added bonus, it isn't difficult to imagine a gunslinger going into a Zen state, during which their speed is far faster than normal. This keeps the skill within the concept.

Dispersion: The mark of a good gunslinger isn't just their speed. Their skill speaks volumes, and this ability was meant to put the focus on that. Every time you shoot an enemy, there is a chance you'll essentially bounce a bullet off a bone (or whatever infested have...), causing extra damage to that enemy and striking another nearby enemy. I had intended this to be more of an 'in a pinch' skill, but the more the idea developed, the more I realized that it wasn't enough to simple leave it at that. That is where chain hits came in. Each ricochet deals less damage than the hit before it, but with a fair amount of luck, it is possible to hit 5 enemies with a single shot. This makes rapid fire weapons into highly effective AoE weapons for a brief time. I had to find a way to put a limit on this skill, since it could become grossly overpowered. That is why I negated the effect of explosive weapons (Ogris and Torid), since it doesn't make sense for an explosive to bounce off anything. I don't deny that lasers and bolts are an extreme stretch for this concept, but these are very limited in how they target enemies.

Fragmentation Burst: As an ultimate ability, I wanted Fragmentation Burst to have that major 'Oomph!' factor we've come to expect from a final ability. I played with the idea of having the user spin in circles while unleashing a major torrent of bullets, but that lacked the flare we've come to expect from our frames. I decided to spice it up by blending style with skill, having the user throw out grenades and then shoot them in as part of a grand dodge maneuver, thus turning the area around them into a hailstorm of destruction. You'd be right to think this breaks with the 'WOH!' principle that you see in frames, as this doesn't really do the impossible (I.E: Rhino stomping the ground so hard that time stops, Vauban summoning a vortex that drinks enemies into nothingness, and Nyx making a field that absorbs damage before exploding outward violently.) That being said, this ability keeps well with the concept of the frame while still making people grin from ear to ear as enemies are carved into pieces. Shrapnel is just a different kind of bullet if you ask me.

I welcome any and all feedback regarding this area, as well as votes for a name (Or a name and gender in the case of Taka). Thank you all for reading. I'll answer any and all questions you may have regarding this idea.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Ruriko

[Sekkeisha]

Changed everything to white, so it's readable :)

 

Edit: Main Post got changed to white, deleted my post.

Edited August 8, 2013 by RhSDarkReaver

[-CM-Zura]

Changed everything to white, so it's readable :)

i sir thank you :)

[-CM-Zura]

I rather Cal is Gunar

[Easymac]

hmmm.. The only ability I really like is the ultimate.

-First ability is kinda just a physical version of Volt's shock, or frost's freeze attack
but I guess Its not to bad.

 

-Reload and Rate of fire is already effected by mods. Atleast Rhino's roar and Volt's shield is an added bonus that you can't get from mods.
Perhaps have something like "reduces allies recoil" , or "increase allies accuracy". still that party utility, that would actually still increase damage, since you have less bullet spread- less wasted bullets.
 

-ricochet: ehh... I mean... its good i guess, but. A bullet bouncing off a bone, and hitting another person, let alone 4 other people is pretty farfetched.
that being said, this is a scify game, so lots of things are farfetched, but you tryd to justify it by saing its realistic.
perhaps something along the lines of


Never mind, I thought back to the "high rate of fire". I was just picturing dual vipers with this ability. That would be funny as hell.

Butttt, then again its the same thing as Dual vipers with a puncture mod.
except, ricochet does reduced damage, and is not necessarily behind the enemy you just shot.

I dunno. I say think of a better third idea XD

and uber, its fine.

I was picturing a Devil May Cry action, where Dante jumps up, and spins around in a circle, shooting down.

I think you should take the mines out of the picture though.
If he has mines.... why would he save them for his uber?
Its kinda like Nova's ability anyways. Shooting a bubble of dark matter to explode.

I say just make him jump in the air, spin in a circle, and shoot everything in the radius  with a built in machine gun in his suit

Kinda like a DeusEx exoarmer type thing.
( because if someone has a torid, or Ogris. how would they shoot the mines in the first place?)

[Sekkeisha]

i sir thank you :)

I'm happy to help. :)

[Sophista]

Ladies and gents, that's how you suggest a warframe.

Upvote. 

Edited August 8, 2013 by PiotrGracz

[Sophista]

 

Kinda like a DeusEx exoarmer type thing.

( because if someone has a torid, or Ogris. how would they shoot the mines in the first place?)

 

the same way that excalibur performs slash/dash with kogake

[Ruriko]

Sorry for the original post showing up in black. I did most of the work via Microsoft Word. Seems that Copy-Paste isn't well liked in the forum's coding. Thank you, RhSDarkReaver, for also correcting my fault. I was working on the adjustment. :)

 

Easymac, to address the points you made...

 

Stunning Primer differs from Shock and Freeze in some key ways. Freeze is very slow moving and easily dodged, plus the duration is only good if you ignore the enemy you were lucky enough to hit with it. Shock is hitscan and arcs between targets near the original position where the ability hit. Stun is superior to Freeze in that the duration is pretty much set in stone, leaving enemies vulnerable to attack or removing them for the full duration without worry.

 

You're right to think that Hidden Potential could reduce recoil or improve accuracy, but the issue is that these things aren't really that useful. Accuracy is pretty unrefined as is, so the only thing it could do is tighten the weapon spreads, which is only really helpful for shotguns, excluding Hek and Sobek due to their naturally tight spreads. As for recoil reduction, there are too few weapons in the game that have any significant recoil. If it had the effect you suggested, it would be completely underwhelming. Reload Speed benefits all weapons equally, while Fire Rate turns automatic weapons into bullet hoses.

 

I think you're overlooking part of how Dispersion would function. Let me explain with a little math...

 

You activate Dispersion (Rank 3) and shoot an enemy for 100 damage. You trigger a ricochet. That same enemy takes an additional 70 damage (Due to the ricochet). A nearby enemy gets struck with the ricochet. They take 70 damage (Original Bullet's damage x 70% from the ability). The effect triggers a second time. That same enemy takes an additional 49 damage (70% damage from the original bullet that struck them). This can continue upto 3 more times, dealing 49 + 34, 34 + 24, and 24 damage respectively. Remember that the chance for the ricochet goes down with each new enemy hit (75% -> 60% -> 45% -> 30% -> 15%)

 

In short, it is helpful against bosses as well as massively large groups of enemies missing bullet holes in their bodies/heads/shins.

 

Edit (8/16/13): A thought occurs if this skill should be allowed to stack with puncture or not. I hadn't really considered it. It would definately make this ability drastically more powerful and finally get justification enough for people to consider Puncture as something viable, but it would be so situational I don't think people will go for it. Still, it is a funny thing to picture... And could be highly effective. I'll need to give that some more thought.

 

As for Fragmentation Burst, I meant to say Grenades, not Mines. I just think it adds flare. It isn't really fair to compare it to Molecular Prime, which has a radius of WTF-Big in terms of explosions and priming. It is really more like Radial Javelin, only that it only hits each enemy once since it is considered a single attack as opposed to the multiple attack that Radial Javelin has. I might also add that the radius isn't as good as Radial Javelin, though is certainly would be more effective on it's own unlike Radial Javelin + Bullet Attractor.

Edited August 16, 2013 by Ruriko

[Nama_Sui_Seijin]

Sounds not that very spectacular to me :/  a frame that shoots bullets?  we already have guns man!? why need more bullets coming out of a frame!? ....

 

I dislike this idea. Still other may think differently about it.

[Asher]

+1

Edited August 9, 2013 by OmegaMK1

[Ruriko]

TheStabber87,

 

Do you dislike the idea because it is a frame about using guns to greater effect or do you dislike their capabilities? Just trying to see if I can use your opinion to refine this idea into something you might enjoy playing.

[Ruriko]

Shameless bump for the sake of feedback.

 

Currently weighing a couple of things:

 

Stunning Primer: Damage too low? Weighing the possibility of doubling strength at all level.

 

Dispersion: Should it stack with Puncture? It would definitely increase damage, but it is much harder to picture occurring.

 

Fragmentation Burst: This ability is on the table as a possible full rework, either just animation wise or up for a replacement.

 

Please offer up some feedback and suggestions!

[stingreay]

Stunning Primer: should  be increased a little bit but make sure it doesn't end up being used to kill enemies by itself  .

Dispersion:  i like how it is really but it could be more useful with puncture.

Fragmentation Burst: the animation doesn't need any work  but the range of the shrapnell does -as a bullet hitting an explosive that hits a small piece of metal is going to go quite far-. but the further out it goes the weaker the damage gets.

 

oh and Jaeger sounds the most gunlingery to me.

[DarkXanatos]

I'm impressed by the time and effort put into this. Its very clean and well thought out. Unfortunately, I have one thing two things to point out.

 

The only issue I have is the flavor of the Frame. Mods are what make the guns better. Guns don't make a Frame stand apart. Its the abilities of the Frame that do. So having a Gun Slinger Warframe would leave the Frame looking gray in a field awash in color and diversity.

 

Lastly, think to Defense Missions, hard boss missions, Void runs, and Nightmare missions. Its not the gun that wins the mission. Its the Abilities. Vauban's Bastille, Nyx's Chaos, Loki's Decoy, Banshee's Sonar, and so forth.

 

[SirProper]

I would like to say that any time the argument is made that, ber der I don't like gun centered frames, I would like to point out very successful frames that boost melee attacks. Loki, Ash, Saryn, and ....Excalibur. I think this is perfectly viable idea and I am for one potentially excited for this or a similar one.

Although I think the utility skill, which does have merit, could be something more interesting. Oh just had an idea, the math might get complicated with the new damage system, but what about a skill the increases the effectiveness of a bullet, something that bypasses the enemies specific defenses. Like an ammo modification, I think that adds some wow factor to it. I mean right now it would be as simple as making the damage something that bypasses armor, but in the new damage system, not so sure.  

 

I am not opposed to the Uber skill, but I think it could be cooler, I was thinking more like ash with guns...let me explain. Instead of teleporting, something like a grenade and auto aim mechanism playing out really fast. Like a cascade of explosives being thrown in the direction of an enemy and it blasting as it gets to that perfect spot with a well timed shot.  The effective part comes with the scaling functionality. Say it always throws 6/8/10/12 Explosives, well if there is only one enemy....say a boss all are thrown at the boss, but say a bunch of enemies then it would target in, maybe a clockwise manner, and hit in a radius. The fun part to this is that it could be physics + Serrated blade damage making it quite the explosive tool.

 

Also I think for your first skill a concussive shot, that stuns, or call it a lancing shot, as spears are very part of the Jaeger/hunting ideas in history, and have it lance through enemies in a row doing damage and stunning, staggering, or knocking down....whatever would end up being the most effective in DE's eyes.

 

I would like to address DarkXanatos: DE has repeatedly said all frames need their own niche, right now we have some all around-ers, but it is intended that certain frames will work better in certain applications. That being said. I have been in plenty of non super end level content with frames not super effective in that role, but well played as to not be a hindrance.  Also most of the time you only need 1-2 control frames and a damage/utility would fill that role nicely, especially if it brought something as utility as making the weapons more effective, having the blasts being physics which is knockdown, or stunning problem enemies.

Oh and I could take a Vauban to a run-n-gun mission, but usually I don't end up being able to as effectively use the skills as I do in a defense mission, where as a Loki, Ash, or other mobility/damage frame will far out class me, until we get to a choke point with a bunch of enemies.

 

I dare say +1 from me old boy, jolly good. 

Sincerely,

Sir Proper

Gentleman Adventurer, Theorist, Maximizer of the Minimum, and Aide to the Noobs.