Operator concept: 'Transcendence form'

[Loza03]

The Tenno Operators are, or rather contain, the most powerful force in the universe. This does not come through in gameplay. With a fully maxed Operator, regardless of their survivability, you can do some damage to Eidolons and Corpus, but that's it. Ancient Healers protect the other Infested, and are themselves defended by a 50% resistance. The Grineer have both Armour and a 50% damage resistance across the entire faction, and for god knows what reason the Sentient fighters also have both armour a lot of health and their 'link' ability, rendering the Operator useless against them at higher levels - the one thing in canon they are supposed to fight. Evidently, our present capabilities are not as advertised. So what would bring across this without completely breaking the game. My suggestion is our Operators attaining the ability to adopt an enhanced form similar to the one they get during the pre-TWW focus attack, hence the moniker 'Transcendence form'

The form would grant the Tenno the ability to ignore armour, shields, and resistances, as well as boosting their damage and providing them with some inherent damage resistance on top of any focus abilities or arcanes. However, the drawback is that this form isn't accessible right from the start of the mission, nor is it permanent. It must be earned through gameplay as the Operator. My thoughts were perhaps based on the raw damage dealt by the currently equipped amp, but I'm not sure. Regardless, over time, playing as the operator would fill a second gauge that, when at base 75% completion would enable the activation of Transcendence mode, which would then drain the gauge, probably by pressing 4 or something. Under normal circumstances, the gauge cannot be filled whilst in use, but when deactivated, retains the remaining amount. Each school would have a different version, having similar base properties, but would differ in several ways, making each school's transcendence ultimately distinct.

Madurai: Transcendent Fury. As a school Madurai is already about channeling large amounts of void energy for more power. Well suited to the rigors of Transcendence, they can attain the form easily (requiring only 50% of the gauge filled, and it fills slightly faster), and have further increased damage. However, pushing themselves so far has negative consequences, as the form has a shorter duration. Thus, Transcendent fury acts similarly to DMC's Devil Trigger - frequent, brief, but intense uses.

Zenurik: Transcendent Domination. Zenurik is described, like Madurai, as a school focused on power. Unlike Madurai, which takes the approach of unleashing that power swiftly to annihilate enemies, Zenurik instead holds onto that power to overwhelm the opponent with stockpiled strength. Zenurik therefore has double the reserves of 'Transcendence energy' of the other schools, but they still need to acquire 75% of their gauge, meaning it takes Zenurik much longer to get. However, when activated, it drains slower than the other schools. On top of their larger reserves, this allows a Zenurik Tenno to use the benefits of the form for a very long time. They also have better efficiency for void powers during Transcendence.

Unairu: Transcendent Bastion. Unariu's Transcendent form is unique in it's activation. Unlike the other schools, it is not activated at will. Instead when an Unairu Operator is dealt a lethal blow, instead of transferring back into their Warframe, they activate Transcendent Bastion, regardless of the amount in their gauge. At this point, the form acts like quick thinking. Instead of the energy draining over time, it is drained by damage dealt. The form can be deactivated willingly by transferring back manually, as when the Operator re-emerges, they won't enter the form until they take damage. They'll also come out of the form should their health rise above 2 and the button is pressed.

Vazarin: Transcendent Unity. Vazarin also activates their form in a unique way. Fitting their support role, they activate the power when they are aiming at an ally and press the button, whereupon they will buff that ally significantly at the same time they activate their transcendence (Which is otherwise bog-standard). Targeting a player's Warframe will grant it a health boost, healing and some damage reduction. Targeting another Operator will activate their own Transcendence without cost to them, and allowing them to continue gaining energy. Should the receiving Operator activate Transcendence, the duration of both forms will be increased (until one of them expires, whereupon they'll regain their standard efficency) and the Vazarin will gain the axillary benefits of that school's transcendence (for Unairu, this translates to more armour, and for another Vazarin, it leads to larger health regen for both). They can also target their own Warframe to give themselves the health boost and improved healing, although the healing is less than Transcending with another Vazarin.

Naramon: Transcendent Phantom. In keeping with the stealth school, Naramon draws little attention to itself, having a seemingly plain activation using the base values. However, during their transcendence, they are rendered invisible (though not invincible), with void mode costing significantly less energy as it only provides invincibility and access to void dash. They also move faster than normal. 

[(PSN)Kamil-the-KamiKa]

i really like this idea. hope DE takes notice of this

[Koldraxon-732]

Perhaps throwing in their Pre-War-Within Focus ult abilities as their actual 4s, and take these Transcendent states down to a 2nd or 3rd power, and giving the Operators a proper energy pool (using the existing energy system used on Warframes) while adding an ammo counter for the Void beam or it's amplified variants.

In length version with greater clarity:

Spoiler

-Restore Pre-War-Within Focus abilities, with whatever changes deemed necessary (i.e: costs 100 energy to cast, make other Focus nodes in the Tree provide buffs like they used to, making trying to max a School more worthwhile) as the 4th power.
-Allocate 'Transcendence' modes to the 2nd power.
-Possibly introduce a 'Move Warframe' ability which teleports the Warframe using Void powers, but charging the power would also cause the Operator to go back inside. This power would drain 50 energy per use.

Tenno:
Energy capacity: 100 (default), 200 (Zenurik).
Passive: If killed, does not die; return to Warframe + School-exclusive passive (i.e: Naramon: less detectable when crouched + X seconds to hacking, since Naramon are sneaky people who want to know things).
Note: Existing Tenno energy circle acts more as a 'stamina' bar at this point.
1: Transference.
Go to/from Warframe. Costs 0 energy.
2: Transcendence.
Employ your learning to empower yourself. Costs 100 energy.
3: Translocate.
Move Warframe via Void displacement. Costs 50 energy for instant-casts. Costs 100 if you charge it up and transfer back inside; Warframe would subsequently, based on the School:
Deal more damage (Madurai), be more resistant to damage (Unairu), gain health regen (Vazarin), gain energy regen (Zenurik), or go invisible for a short time (Naramon).
4: School Ultimate.
Based on your School of choice: Massive Void beam emitting from both hands which bypasses resistances and bases damage on Amp + 1/3 enemy health/shields/armour combined (Madurai), suddenly petrifying every enemy in the area; reapplication to them causes them to lose all armour, does not affect Eidolon Fragments (Unairu), leech health from enemies in a cone AOE and feed back to allies (Vazarin), suspends enemies; reapplication slams them back down (Zenurik), or cause some enemies to turn into allies, hack terminals, or drop their weapon, jump off the nearest ledge, or stuns them (happens at random) (Naramon).
Crouch button: Void Mode.
No changes.
Melee button: Void blast.
Damage scales based on enemy stats. Doing this on enemies who haven't spotted you deals finisher damage.
Fire button: Void beam.
Damage scales based on enemy stats. Amps restrict how this works in exchange for different forms of damage output and, in some cases, capacity.

 

[Loza03]

On ‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎26 at 12:02 AM, Koldraxon-732 said:

Perhaps throwing in their Pre-War-Within Focus ult abilities as their actual 4s, and take these Transcendent states down to a 2nd or 3rd power, and giving the Operators a proper energy pool (using the existing energy system used on Warframes) while adding an ammo counter for the Void beam or it's amplified variants.

In length version with greater clarity:

  Reveal hidden contents

-Restore Pre-War-Within Focus abilities, with whatever changes deemed necessary (i.e: costs 100 energy to cast, make other Focus nodes in the Tree provide buffs like they used to, making trying to max a School more worthwhile) as the 4th power.
-Allocate 'Transcendence' modes to the 2nd power.
-Possibly introduce a 'Move Warframe' ability which teleports the Warframe using Void powers, but charging the power would also cause the Operator to go back inside. This power would drain 50 energy per use.

Tenno:
Energy capacity: 100 (default), 200 (Zenurik).
Passive: If killed, does not die; return to Warframe + School-exclusive passive (i.e: Naramon: less detectable when crouched + X seconds to hacking, since Naramon are sneaky people who want to know things).
Note: Existing Tenno energy circle acts more as a 'stamina' bar at this point.
1: Transference.
Go to/from Warframe. Costs 0 energy.
2: Transcendence.
Employ your learning to empower yourself. Costs 100 energy.
3: Translocate.
Move Warframe via Void displacement. Costs 50 energy for instant-casts. Costs 100 if you charge it up and transfer back inside; Warframe would subsequently, based on the School:
Deal more damage (Madurai), be more resistant to damage (Unairu), gain health regen (Vazarin), gain energy regen (Zenurik), or go invisible for a short time (Naramon).
4: School Ultimate.
Based on your School of choice: Massive Void beam emitting from both hands which bypasses resistances and bases damage on Amp + 1/3 enemy health/shields/armour combined (Madurai), suddenly petrifying every enemy in the area; reapplication to them causes them to lose all armour, does not affect Eidolon Fragments (Unairu), leech health from enemies in a cone AOE and feed back to allies (Vazarin), suspends enemies; reapplication slams them back down (Zenurik), or cause some enemies to turn into allies, hack terminals, or drop their weapon, jump off the nearest ledge, or stuns them (happens at random) (Naramon).
Crouch button: Void Mode.
No changes.
Melee button: Void blast.
Damage scales based on enemy stats. Doing this on enemies who haven't spotted you deals finisher damage.
Fire button: Void beam.
Damage scales based on enemy stats. Amps restrict how this works in exchange for different forms of damage output and, in some cases, capacity.

 

Sorry, but if I'm honest, the system you propose wouldn't work with the balancing I gave Transcendent form. The point was that these are a big thing at the scale of a more traditional ultimate ability, with the exception of Madurai which has it more as an 'on demand' boost and Unariu having it as an extension to their abilities as a tank. It's not easy to get (since you have to intentionally nerf yourself by using Operator) but very well worth it.

Having ultimates that drain from the same pool is an interesting idea, however. Maybe they could get activated similarly to how the pre-TWW was, holding the 4 button during Operator mode instead of tapping to access Transcendent Mode? They'd have the same requirements as the form changes, so these ults are balanced to be roughly equal to the benefits of true damage and the school-related perks. How about these:

Madurai: Furious Desolation. The Operator releases a blast of energy that completely consumes their gauge, but is guaranteed to eliminate anything (that isn't a boss) within a short range in front of them, increasing with the amount in the gauge (at 50% it'd only hit one or two enemies, but at full power it'd encompass a small squad. Useful in situations where, instead of a large wave of enemies, you have a tightly concentrated group of powerful foes. 

Zenurik: Dominating Aura. The Operator distributes their power across allies within affinity range, building up timer on a buff. Once deactivated, the buff comes into effect, with those effected attaining 0.1% damage dealt as energy leeched from the target (which is a lot considering the damage we deal), which can overcharge the recipiant with a second bar of energy, filled only by this buff. Operators gain this to their normal energy, not transcendence energy. Given the channeled nature of the ability, the amount drained can be precisely tuned (Once again opposing the all-or-nothing Madurai approach). This means that the Zenurik can, from a full tank, grant their allies 25% of their power as a buff and use the rest as Transcendent Domination, although being a compromise this is not ideal in all situations. 25% of the gauge is around 15 seconds of buff.

Unairu: Last Bastion. Only usable during Transcendent Bastion, the Operator allows themselves to fall, using the spike of power of their forced transference to immensely bolster their Warframe, with the ability draining Transcendence Energy. The Warframe loses access to powers and transference for the duration of the ability, but gains 95% damage resistance on top of armour and, should they take lethal damage, have a 15 second invincibility period. Once the ability ends, powers are restored. Allies within 20 metres will gain 50% damage resistance of their own, which lingers briefly if they leave the area.

Vazarin: Arisen Unity. The Vazarin releases their power to all allies within affinity range, including themselves. Those affected gain both health regeneration and removal of shield regeneration delay. Additionally, each ally gets one free res during the effect - dying will cause them to regenerate at full health (as opposed to the 'last stand' of Unariu's Last Bastion) and a brief grace period of invulnerability immediately. If this is unused when the effect expires, it is lost. The duration is affected by how much gauge was above the requirement, with a base duration of 45 seconds, and a full minute for full power.

Naramon: Phantom Rush. Once again possessing an innocuous ability, Naramon simply eliminates the energy cost of Void Dash and allows the invisibility (but again, not the invulnerability) to linger briefly after Void Mode is released. Warframes affected turn invisible during bullet jumps and slides. Although not as beneficial to the user as their transcendence (travel nonwithstanding), this is effectively a team version of Transcendent Phantom. The duration is the same as for Vazarin: 45 second base, 60 seconds at full power.