Attempts at frame reworks: Nyx and Ember double feature

[Teridax68]

Let's be short and sweet on this: Nyx and Ember are both frames that have been discussed, and are among the most frequent receivers of fan reworks. Your mileage may vary on them (some still love them and think they're perfect, others think they've aged or been reworked in not-so-great ways), but if there is one thing we can all agree upon, it's that their status among the community is contentious. I main neither Ember nor Nyx, but I have some ideas on how to change them.

Ember:

1. What's wrong with Ember?

Spoiler

• Several of her abilities feel outdated: Fire Blast I think is the biggest culprit here, as it doesn't really do anything that her 4 doesn't do already. Other than that, most of her power is expressed through big radial casts, and Warframe as a game has evolved a bit beyond that. Most of her abilities deserve to stay, but could use a touch-up.
• Her scaling is janky: Ember is notorious for being a press-4-to-win frame at lower levels, and for requiring a heavily specialized mod build to remain relevant at higher levels. Even then, she mostly stays relevant through the CC in her augments, rather than through her damage, which isn't really the core of what she's about. The fact that she lacks survivability at high levels has also not played in her favor.
• Her reworks made her awkward: the changes to Ember over time, especially to her 4, haven't really improved her flow, and have ended up mostly making her more complicated without solving her issues. This is likely why those changes are hotly debated (/pun) to this day.
• Her core playstyle lacks interactivity: at the core of Ember's problems is the fact that she presses 4, and outputs the near-totality of her power without any other real input. For sure, there are ways to optimize this power by pressing 2 as well, but in the end it's not an especially engaging playstyle, particularly since it also tends to lower enjoyment for other players by removing enemies from the field before they can interact with them. However, being able to kill enemies without much stress is a feature some players like, so the challenge here is finding a balance where Ember can feel strong without much effort, but not so strong as to be able to kill enemies she encounters without so much as acknowledging their presence.

2. Rework goals

Spoiler

• Keep Ember's identity as a massive AoE damage frame: Ember's niche as a radial burn frame I think is a valid one, and I think this could be taken further so that she specializes in softening up targets from afar. A player who brings Ember is a player who wants to burn everything in sight, and that should express itself by melting away enemies' health and set them up for easy kills, something her own kit should also achieve very well on its own.
• Make Ember's playstyle more active, while keeping strong baseline strength: Adding to the above, a player should still be able to run Ember with no stress, press 4, and still be useful to their team. However, that alone should not be able to win missions or clear entire rooms, and the intent of any kind of rework to her I think should involve encouraging her to use the rest of her kit more.
• Smooth out Ember's scaling: Ember should still shine with specialized mod builds, and should be good at all levels, though the transition should be more consistent. Ember should always be able to shine from her damage, not just her CC at higher levels.

3. The kit

Spoiler

• Effects highlighted in red are affected by Power Strength, effects highlighted in blue are affected by Power Efficiency, effects highlighted in green are affected by Power Duration, and effects highlighted in orange are affected by Power Range.
• Passive - Reborn in Flame: When Ember takes fatal damage, she does not die, but instead revives instantly at full health and shields, sending out a fire blast that sets all enemies within 15 meters on fire for 5 seconds, dealing 200 Heat damage each second. This cannot happen more than once every 300 seconds, though every instance of Heat damage Ember to any enemy deals reduces the cooldown by 1 second.
• 1 - Fireball: Ember sends out a fast-moving ball of fire that explodes, dealing 125 / 250 / 375 / 500 Heat damage to whoever it hits and all enemies within 5 meters, and setting them all on fire. The fireball can be charged over time, increasing its damage and range by up to 100%. Costs 25 Energy.
  • Augment - Fireball Frenzy: Casting Fireball on allies causes their attacks for the next 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 seconds to periodically shoot an uncharged Fireball. These projectiles can also trigger Fireball Frenzy.
• 2 - Accelerant: Ember holds to shoot out a continuous stream of accelerant, briefly stunning enemies directly hit, and slowing all enemies in contact with the accelerant while it lasts. Any Heat damage that hits the accelerant ignites it, including all accelerant connected to it, consuming it to set enemies on fire and deal 100 / 200 / 300 / 400 Heat damage per second for 5 seconds. Cast range is 20 meters, accelerant lasts for 10 seconds, and drains 5 Energy per second while held. Casting Accelerant is a one-handed action, and will not interrupt movement or other actions.
  • Augment - Flash Accelerant: Ember and all other allies in contact with accelerant have their casting, attack and reload speeds increased by 20 / 30 / 40 / 50%.
• 3 - Living Bomb: Ember ignites the target enemy, dealing 25 / 50 / 75 / 100 Heat damage per second for 5 seconds. At the end of the duration or upon death, the target explodes, dealing 100% of the damage they took while ignited to themselves and enemies within 10 meters as Heat damage, and setting them on fire for 5 seconds. Costs 75 Energy. Casting Living Bomb is a one-handed action, and will not interrupt movement or other actions.
  • Augment - Fire Fright: Affected enemies have a 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% chance to also be turned into Living Bombs, and enemies affected by Living Bomb run in fear towards nearby enemies.
• 4 - World on Fire: Ember continually ignites the environment within 15 meters of her, dealing 4 / 6 / 8 / 10% of all enemies' current health and shields as Heat damage every second. This damage is so intense that it ignores armor and ignites enemies, causing the burn to continue for 5 seconds even after they exit the radius. Costs 5 Energy per second.
  • Augment - Firequake: Unchanged.

 

Nyx:

1. What's wrong with Nyx?

Spoiler

• Her 2 is useless: This is probably the most pointed issue on Nyx right now. She has some other problems, but at least her baseline kit has a use, save for her 2. Psychic Bolts are not a good fit for her theme and playstyle, and don't do much at all for her.
• She overspecializes in CC: While it is good that Nyx is great at crowd control (this is what people want from her), it's not so great that she's lacking in most other things. It would help to make her more versatile, so that she can still function even in situations where CC isn't in high demand.
• Her abilities lack impact: Because much of Nyx's abilities rely on manipulating enemies into dealing damage for her, and because enemies typically have far larger health pools than they deal damage, the chaos and carnage that she's meant to generate often falls a little short. She could benefit from having enemies properly kill each other under her control.

2. Rework goals

Spoiler

• Give Nyx more versatility while keeping her excellent CC: Pretty simple, Nyx is a great CC frame and deserves to stay that way, but could perhaps use some good damage for when CC isn't so strong, as is the case now.
• Remove her anti-synergy: A problem with the passive Nyx received is that it's kind of counter-productive: Nyx benefits from enemies dealing damage, so she'd want to increase their damage, not disarm them. Similarly, Nyx's drain on her 4 should probably have some more consistent scaling, and not eat through all her energy just because enemies deal inflated damage.
• Build upon her mind control theme: I think a good inspiration to draw from is Illusion magic from Skyrim: Nyx should be able to have the full range of control over her enemies' minds, and this should allow for stealth gameplay as well as her usual chaotic CC fare.

3. The kit

Spoiler

• Effects highlighted in red are affected by Power Strength, effects highlighted in blue are affected by Power Efficiency, effects highlighted in green are affected by Power Duration, and effects highlighted in orange are affected by Power Range.
• Passive - Discord: Enemies affected by Nyx's abilities deal 500% increased damage to her enemies and to Absorb's damage accumulator.
• 1 - Mind Control: Unchanged.
  • Augment - Mind Freak: Removes the target's friendly fire immunity, and instead causes them to taunt all enemies within 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 meters and also take 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% increased damage from all sources while mind controlled.
• 2 - Soothe: Nyx soothes and wipes the minds of all enemies within 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 meters, causing them to return to an unalerted state. For the next 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 seconds, or until she attacks, Nyx is also perceived as an ally by all. Costs 50 Energy.
  • Augment - Subdue: Affected enemies are also put to sleep for 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 seconds, waking up if they drop below 50% of their maximum health.
• 3 - Chaos: Unchanged.
  • Augment - Chaos Sphere: Unchanged.
• 4 - Absorb: Now indicates that Nyx taunts all enemies on cast, and drain normalized to 5 Energy per second at all ranks and times, with no additional drain. Damage changed to pure damage, from magnetic damage, and while holding Nyx is immune to all effects, including energy drain auras.
  • Augment - Assimilate: No longer reduces Absorb's radius.

 

What do you think? Would these changes align with what you'd like to see on these frames? Would they be appropriate and conducive to better enjoyment?

Edited July 27, 2018 by Teridax68