QoL Tweaks to Improve Equinox

[SixDimensions]

Personally, I very much enjoy the Equinox frame. It's no secret that it suffers some drawbacks however.  First, her passive is useless.  2 energy for every health orb grabbed or vice versa? You'll be maxed out on either one for the effect is noticeable.  Second, switching forms should be faster than it is with Natural Talent making it instantaneous.  Third, losing charge on her fourth ability (and third for the augments).  Fourth, having to reactivate her abilities when switching forms. Finally, Mend.  I get that they don't want to copy other frames healing abilities. But building a massive charge for health while hoping to be reactive and heal a squad member is also useless as it wastes so much of the charge.  To keep it short and simple (and I know many will not agree), make switching much faster if not instant, allow charge and toggle of abilities to carry over with switching, and alter Mend in the following way:

Make Mend deal out the charge in healing ticks affected by duration.  This way the squad can keep getting healed over time and it creates an incentive on keeping the ability active beyond just hope and building a massive stack of which most will be wasted.  Keep the ability to deal the remaining heal in a burst when toggled off if dire healing is needed.  Healing ticks based on duration will allow players to really build this ability as they see fit.  High duration = longer period between ticks, allowing to build up high charges more reliably at the cost of having to use an emergency burst heal.  Low duration = more frequent healing ticks but less ability to build up charge.  The charge build up can be affected by strength as well, with more strength obviously generating more charge but it may cost you in other areas.

Personally, I feel like this is an Equinox with a lot of build potential that I would truly love to play. Thoughts?

[atejas]

13 minutes ago, SixDimensions said:

Make Mend deal out the charge in healing ticks affected by duration.

If they added this ability in addition to Mend already passively generating overshields, it would make Equinox one of the best healers in the game. It might be a bit OP by itself since it's basically a larger-area Renewal that's charged by killing enemies, but adding an equivalent DoT to Maim and making it the augment for her 4th might be good.

[Hypernaut1]

My QoL change to Equinox would simply have her 4 discharge when switching forms. I don't think it needs to carry over. 

[SixDimensions]

48 minutes ago, atejas said:

If they added this ability in addition to Mend already passively generating overshields, it would make Equinox one of the best healers in the game. It might be a bit OP by itself since it's basically a larger-area Renewal that's charged by killing enemies, but adding an equivalent DoT to Maim and making it the augment for her 4th might be good.

I agree that passively overshield generation would make this overpowered but I would be willing to lose the shields benefit for an ability that functions this way if it would balance the change enough to implement it.

26 minutes ago, Hypernaut1 said:

My QoL change to Equinox would simply have her 4 discharge when switching forms. I don't think it needs to carry over. 

I absolutely would be in favor of discharging the current charge upon switching. Truthfully carrying over the charge or discharging upon switching forms would be fine with me.

[SixDimensions]

I read an excellent point earlier. I wish I remembered the post to cite it.  Anyway, the suggestion was a change to Metamorphosis in that when switching forms the stat buff should be permanent while the temporary buff is from the form you switched from.  So switching to day form means permanent boost to damage and movement with a temporary buff to armor and shields while switching to night form would obviously be the opposite.  I find this interesting because it would encourage switching to maximize the stat buffs of both forms rather than just using one set of abilities over the other.

[SixDimensions]

bump

 

[Cryozen7]

On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 6:52 PM, Hypernaut1 said:

My QoL change to Equinox would simply have her 4 discharge when switching forms. I don't think it needs to carry over. 

Last time I checked it already does do that.  I usually run a duality build so I do a lot of form switching.

That tick/pulse healing idea would be a good idea.  If I'm understanding right basically like E-Vamp centered on equinox that is a toggle and draws from her stored health pool.

[SixDimensions]

44 minutes ago, Speddy54 said:

That tick/pulse healing idea would be a good idea.  If I'm understanding right basically like E-Vamp centered on equinox that is a toggle and draws from her stored health pool.

Yeah that's a very good way of visualizing it.  I want to see Equinox get the right kind of rework. Because overall she's a really solid frame. She just needs a little bit of tweaking

[SixDimensions]

bump

[kotex073]

Friendly Bump,

 

I also do love equinox, and i must admit i don't play her as much as i want to, Mostly because her nightform needs some Qol.

In my opinion her dayform is fine as it is(besides her 1), but her mend could be a lot better, i think changing it to a small heal overtime with a burst heal when relesead would be enough.

Her one could be better also, it's barely used by the most ppl playing her.

[sehafoc]

Equinox is a strong frame already.  Both forms have good utility in various situations.  One thing I would like to see changed is the casting times. I feel like I could seriously get a cappuccino in the time it takes her to cast something...   The ability to remove Natural Talent and add another survivability mod would be nice 🙂

Regarding the healing ticks... I mean... the over shields is pretty useful on a per kill basis,  I mean this effectively should keep up a party fairly well as long as they have any sort of life gain.  I don't see it being balanced unless you swap the health and shields.... like you get health restore on a per kill basis, and when you pop mend you give the team a massive over shield?  idk...
 

The passive is pretty seems okay... in concept,  I think the values should be buffed a bit though.  whaddya you guys think,  25%,  50%?

[SixDimensions]

4 hours ago, sehafoc said:

(snip)

Interesting take.  The passive is good in concept but the execution is just awful.  A buff to it would be incredible.  2 health/energy per orb is just abysmal.  As for your suggestions about mend, health on kill with overshield burst would be quite interesting to see in effect.  But then you still run into the issue of generating a massive charge that is mostly wasted or having to fire it off and hope it's the right time.  As a reactive heal in a horde shooter, it's a bit lackluster

[Tyreaus]

My suggestion for Mend was that releasing would create health-over-time aura, this making it so that one has to balance between granting health (inactive) and granting shields (active) with associated energy and cast time costs. It's less burst-healing but considering the night form is meant to be "gentle" and defensive, sudden "HAV MOAR HEALF" doesn't really fit the theme as much.

(P.S. this isn't like Oberon's, which is fire-and-forget. You cast his Renewal, someone passes by the Renewal area where you cast it (not necessarily where you are at that time), and they have the Renewal buff until the skill deactivates. This would be AOE surrounding and moving with Equinox, so healing allies requires her to be in their general vicinity no matter what. The distinction becomes much more noticeable in, for example, large Interception maps, particularly if the amount healed scales over distance.)

I also had an idea for an augment that would turn M&M into single-target, directed bursts for controlled burst healing or damage at longer ranges.

An alternative I've seen proposed was to make the cost of Mend from the pool be equal to only the healing applied, instead of expending the entire pool. Purely because Warframe health caps so low whereas enemy health (RE: Maim) doesn't. But this would practically have to be bound with Energy Transfer as a passive rather than an augment, otherwise you either end up locked into night form or you blow the entire charge when changing and the problem just moves to her 1.

[SixDimensions]

On 2018-06-01 at 3:27 PM, Tyreaus said:

(snip)

Perhaps it's the wording that was tripping me up but I think I get your concept now.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.  When Mend is active you will build up the charge for healing and grant shields as it does now.  When it's inactive, the accumulated charge will be depleted over time as a healing aura at 50health/second. So you only gain the health when the ability is inactive and you have a charge built up. Does that seem about right?

[Leqesai]

I think mend needs a charge mechanic.

Press to activate, hold once activated to charge a healing pulse that actively drains stored health and releases it without shutting the ability off.

[Tyreaus]

On 2018-06-04 at 10:42 AM, SixDimensions said:

Perhaps it's the wording that was tripping me up but I think I get your concept now.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.  When Mend is active you will build up the charge for healing and grant shields as it does now.  When it's inactive, the accumulated charge will be depleted over time as a healing aura at 50health/second. So you only gain the health when the ability is inactive and you have a charge built up. Does that seem about right?

That's the idea, yep.

[Buttaface]

I hate Equinox with a passion based on the way the frame is "played" 99% of the time. But if there are players like OP who actually play the frame constructively with support elements using both forms instead of staying in Day 100% of the time, map clearing low missions with max range Maim, obliviously keeping max range Maim up in higher missions/rounds and sloooowing down the speed of things, all the while padding kill count with the team's damage from time to time, I'm for all 5 of those players getting some buffs to form changes and passive. So thumbs up!

Since I haven't -ever- (maybe once) experienced a good Equinox in a team, though, only the noob, low level clearing, kill-stealing, non-supportive, brainless type, will remain skeptical.

Edited June 5, 2018 by Buttaface

[SixDimensions]

19 hours ago, Tyreaus said:

That's the idea, yep.

Then yes that would be a very excellent change as well. 5/5!

19 hours ago, Buttaface said:

I hate Equinox with a passion based on the way the frame is "played" 99% of the time. But if there are players like OP who actually play the frame constructively with support elements using both forms instead of staying in Day 100% of the time, map clearing low missions with max range Maim, obliviously keeping max range Maim up in higher missions/rounds and sloooowing down the speed of things, all the while padding kill count with the team's damage from time to time, I'm for all 5 of those players getting some buffs to form changes and passive. So thumbs up!

Since I haven't -ever- (maybe once) experienced a good Equinox in a team, though, only the noob, low level clearing, kill-stealing, non-supportive, brainless type, will remain skeptical.

Can't blame you for the skeptics.  It's disappointing that the meta or players failing to imitate it can ruin good frames or those with high potential.  For example, Banshee gets a bad rep over this type of issue.  I only really play her with Sonar build (aug, balance between raised damage, range, and duration).

[sehafoc]

On 2018-05-31 at 5:11 PM, SixDimensions said:

But then you still run into the issue of generating a massive charge that is mostly wasted or having to fire it off and hope it's the right time

Well, the end result is actually the same in either case.  By the time you flip off the ability you end up fully healthy with a big over shield.   It just changes the ability while active to to perhaps make the party more resilient to toxin procs, and makes the buff more useful to those that run higher health (rather than shields used on some caster frames).  The point of the comment was that there is still a balance there (an almost identical balance to what we have now).  The implied problem I see with augmenting mend to have an additional health booster function is that you effectively *could* make the party invincible (if say you're paired with a blessing trin).  

Many times when I use mend now it's to establish a buffer, and then I flip back to maim.  The reason for this is that maim introduces a limited blindness and most enemies can be taken out in this time,  but at higher levels you need a bit of extra cushion in case you can't kill all of the enemies before the blindness runs out.   

9 hours ago, SixDimensions said:

Banshee gets a bad rep over this type of issue

Yeah... this is true...  I personally think DE should remove the CC, make it cost a ton more, or nerf the damage on Sound Quake.  Or perhaps add a party function to pair people who would like to AFK farm with Banshee players 😉  I'm totally cool with frames that kill things and get the job done,  or lock up enemies... I'm NOT cool with frames that do both.  At least if a Saryn or Equinox is playing you still have the opportunity to run around and kill things, and the enemies can still move around.  If you do a comparison with Frost you can build it so you can lock people down OR kill people,