Yet Another Nyx Post

[Melles64]

Hey guys, long time player, but this is my first non-bug report thread on the boards that I can remember. I have played for about a year now, and as of the past week I have completed gaining mastery for all existing Warframes, primed or not, available to non-founders.

Let me start by saying I really appreciate the acknowledgement that Nyx needs retooled, especially since Vlad's very cool thrall system completely eclipses her capabilities outside of her 4.

However, I am deeply concerned that the problem has been misdiagnosed.

Nyx is a caster Warframe, focused on psychic power and the mind. It makes sense that her abilities should primarily beguile her opponents more than dealing damage to them. The problem is that none of her abilities actually do that.

Its a harsh assessment to be sure but I feel its not inaccurate. I have played every Warframe in the game and in my personal experience, I wanted to be done playing Nyx as soon as possible to get back to more fun frames. I was running entire missions casting pretty much nothing because her abilities did not feel impactful. To elaborate:

Nyx's passive applies a chance to disarm enemies when affected by her skills. This passive is a tad underwhelming but compared to some other Warframes it actually isn't on the worse end. It adjusts the behavior of enemies slightly. It can stay or go, I don't think this is a problematic part of her set.

Nyx's 1, Mind Control, is probably the closest to fantasy fulfilling as far as her abilities go. You target an enemy, you gain them as an ally for the duration, they absorb damage they've taken and take it all at the end. The problem? An enemy. This is a horde shooter. Yes, more often than not enemies will redirect their fire to their former comrade but single target abilities have a hard time shining in this game. I worry it will be difficult to make this ability stand out no matter how you buff the controlled minion. I have had the most success with this ability mind controlling a Bursa, striking at its back, having it weaken my foes, and when I've estimated that I've dealt enough damage, end the ability and then hack the bursa.

Oh, yeah, how many of you readers know you can end Mind Control early? I can tell you I found out by accident, and I've had waves of defense go long because a Nyx did not drop it, probably because they didn't know they could. So, regardless of any other changes, Mind Control really needs some QoL upgrades. Something as simple as a tooltip that tells players that recasting their 1 drops it, like the tip that tells Frost that 1 pops the bubble, could help people enjoy Nyx a lot. In addition, it'd be really nice to see the % health your minion has for after you remove Mind Control (For my Bursa example, lets say it's taken some damage. I cast Mind Control, and a little UI buff pops up that says 77%. The Bursa's Health does not deplete as I maul it, but the % ticks down to 0%. Now I know I can release Mind Control at any time to kill my minion.)

Psychic Bolts is not a strong ability, as I'm sure we are all aware. Its removal will probably be a non-controversial change. That being said, Psychic Bolts with the Pacifying Bolts augment has been significantly more useful to me than Chaos. This isn't saying Psychic Bolts is good. This is saying, in my experience, Chaos doesn't do anything.

Literally, 100% of the effect of Chaos is it turns off the AI's friendly fire protections and its ability to distinguish friend or foe. It does not protect Nyx and her team. It does not ensure faster deaths to enemies. I cannot emphasize how poor my experience with Chaos has been sufficiently. It is a Warframe ability that doesn't guarantee any effect at all. Pacifying Bolts may not be great but the targets are stunned. Radiation Procs apply an accuracy malice. Chaos makes Nyx do an animation to watch those enemies maybe switch to infighting, or they continue pumping bullets into Nyx's not at all hardy flesh. I understand that Chaos is an iconic ability for Nyx, but without help, Vlad's Thrall collection is vastly superior. This ability needs to do something every time its cast, and in my experience, it does not.

Absorb has a very different problem. Unlike the other 3 (2 if you want to be generous to Mind Control), Absorb is an ability that can do some work. It borderline requires Assimilate to do anything well, and its boring without it because you can't move, but its understandable that you don't want an invincible bullet sponge of massive proportions moving around. No, the problem with Absorb is that its completely out of left field and has no connection to the rest of the kit or flavor of the Warframe. You meditate off the damage and send it back, okay, but why is it the psychic mind control frame doing this? Unfortunately, I think that this problem is here to stay. Nyx has had Absorb forever, and players have grown used to it being part of Nyx's identity. A newer player friend of mine has pointed out that much like Banshee, the channeling an ability in one place while immobile until you invest a lot of resources in gaining standing in a Syndicate is not very engaging from a gameplay standpoint, however, so that would probably be the point to address.

I would also like to point out none of the existing abilities have any synergy. This is not strictly a requirement for Warframe abilities, however it can add depth and power to a frame that can be satisfying to delve into. This is mostly a thought that should be considered when designing her new 3.

The short version is this: In my experience, Chaos is the problem child ability for Nyx. Without fixing Chaos, she will not feel satisfying. It needs to be at least better than Pacifying Bolts. Mind Control and Absorb both need quality of life fixes at minimum.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope that this feedback is both clear and insightful. I hope that if I play Nyx again in the future, I will enjoy the experience.

Edit:
To clarify, my feeling is not that Chaos needs replaced or completely reworked, but without some kind of notable change that interacts with Chaos, Nyx may not notably improve.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Melles64
Added clarification for a reply

[Halisi]

That's an interesting perspective, considering Chaos is considered Nyx best ability, and also a pretty powerful one. It's light cc and also disables the beneficial effects of enemy auras. I like it because you still have to actively avoid being harmed while it's active. I feel that the rest of her kit should be made better and interact with chaos, rather than changing chaos itself.

[Melles64]

I will confess I had forgotten about turning off enemy auras, but I feel like that emphasizes my experience even more. It did not really seem to matter that my enemy's auras were off if I was still knee deep in chargers that still decided Nyx was more tasty than their former companions. The problem is that the CC effect is so light I often cannot notice it.

To clarify, my feeling is not that Chaos needs replaced or completely reworked, but without some kind of notable change that interacts with Chaos, Nyx may not notably improve.

[Nez-Kal]

1 hour ago, Melles64 said:

To clarify, my feeling is not that Chaos needs replaced or completely reworked, but without some kind of notable change that interacts with Chaos, Nyx may not notably improve.

Rob from the partnered channel "AGayGuyPlays" had an easy fix for it, I believe.

Make enemies effected by Nyx's abilities gain "High Priority" to Enemy's Aggression AI, similar to Loki's Decoy. That way, a room full of Chaos'd enemies are only shooting at and attacking other Chaos'd enemies, AND being attacked by enemies not effected by the initial Chaos as well. That is Unless you get within 5m or so of them. There's a set distance (Can't remember for sure) that they'll turn attention to a "Nearby" foe over a High Priority one, reason why they attack your cat when it runs at their feet instead of continuing to shoot the deadly space ninja in front of them.

But yeah, if enemies were guaranteed to turn their attention to Mind Controlled targets or Chaos'd targets over Nyx, I feel that alone would already be a huge Survivability boost for her and her team.