A few suggestions for Vauban's/Vauban Prime's kit.

[Neo_Ganryu]

Hey there, folks.

After the recent devstream and how DE pointed out that they're taking a look into working on Vauban's kit, I thought this would actually be a decent time to pitch a few suggestions of my own that might be of interest (at least to a few people). I've been working on this list for a while, taking both my own personal experiences with the warframe and the experiences of others into effect and compiling a rough idea of some cons behind the current setup for Vauban and coming up with a few alternative concepts for what could work out.

Current cons:
As a warframe that's based around the theme of being an engineer, Vauban's current kit doesn't really have much of an engineer feel to it. By definition, an engineer is a person who designs, builds, or otherwise maintains engines/machines/buildings, none of which Vauban actually does outside of occasionally re-casting a few abilities every now and then to refresh (or maintain) their duration. And when you consider the fact that several other warframes basically do the same thing with some of their own abilities, it's not exactly something that stands out as unique for what an engineer-themed warframe could do. With that in mind, some of the ability suggestions below are better oriented for fitting the theme of an engineer, while also providing some minor buffs/upgrades to his stats.

Stats:
- Relatively low armor (50 and 100). Lack of armor makes Vauban rather weak and prone to being downed more often during late-game/end-game instances.
- Relatively low energy pool versus the general energy cost of abilities at rank 30 (Flow and Primed Flow don’t really compensate well for this, and building around efficiency doesn't seem to help either).
- Relatively low shields at rank 30. Shields tend to be wiped immediately by most enemies very quickly.
- Relatively low health at rank 30. Coupled with the lack of armor, health tends to be wiped very quickly.

Abilities:
- Passive ability too reliant on having allies nearby for bonus armor, which does not work well in most situations. Players usually don’t get the armor buff due to allies constantly spreading out further than the range that the passive ability has, rendering the ability ineffective for its intended purpose and leaving the player without an armor buff in most cases. This is a regular occurrence since most players tend to space themselves out, usually going further than the range of the passive ability more often than staying within its range.

- 1^st ability (Tesla), while effective after placing several down for a trap, seems a bit ineffective due to the singular bursts between each charge. They’re basically restricted to a single target on their own, which doesn’t do much for crowd control, and the damage isn’t particularly great without throwing a bunch of them down.

- 2^nd ability (Minelayer) impractical/not fun for current state of the game:
     - Geared for a slower-paced game, which Warframe is most certainly not.
     - Current set of mine types are underwhelming in terms of crowd control and armor/shield stripping, does not help at all in most situations.
            - Bounce pads virtually useless; enemies usually walk around or ignore them, and the few who do touch it barely seem to be affected by it. It’s generally unfeasible in terms of being used for strategic purposes, and seems to be more for fun.
            - Trip lasers not very effective for intended purpose; enemies tend to refuse passing through doorways if a trip laser is present or attempt to find alternative routes to get around it (seems intended, but slows down the gameplay overall). Doesn’t really serve much of a purpose beyond interrupting the game by slowing things down too much.
            - Shred mines are not very effective; explosion radius is very small and barely has any effect on enemy units in terms of damage, knockdown, and armor reduction (based on input from others). Other weapons and warframe abilities tend to do a much better job of stripping armor, doing damage, and knocking down enemies.
            - Concuss mines are not very effective; much like Shred mines, the explosion radius is very small and barely has any effect on enemy units (based on input from others).

- 3^rd and 4^th abilities behave in a very similar way in terms of trapping enemies in a given area, which makes it seem a bit redundant to have the 3^rd ability (Bastille) and 4^th ability (Vortex) be two separate abilities. The only real difference between the two abilities is that Bastille only does contact damage when the trap ball hits an enemy, while Vortex does damage over time after ragdolling enemies and pulling them into its center. With how both abilities are often used, however, they both essentially work the same way and have little variation between them. Both have their uses, but not quite enough of a difference to really warrant the need to have them be separate abilities.

Possible solutions:
Stats:
- Increase base armor values for Vauban/Vauban Prime to 150 / 200 respectively instead of the current 50 / 100.
- Increase max energy pool at rank 30 to 250 energy instead of the current 225.
- Increase shields to 300 / 375 at rank 30 for Vauban/Vauban Prime respectively instead of the current 225 / 300.

Abilities:
- Passive ability could be replaced with something more effective and in-line for an engineer-styled warframe. One possible option is to have an aerial combat drone (similar to a sentinel) appear alongside Vauban/Vauban Prime that grants additional armor (while active) to both Vauban/Vauban Prime and any nearby players within a set range (most likely his affinity range). The aerial drone would come with a three-round burst fire mode, similarly to Burston/Burston Prime. The aerial combat drone would also play a part in Vauban’s/Vauban Prime’s abilities, as the drone could also be considered as a form of exalted weapon, making it so that it can be modified to improve its effectiveness through its damage output (with the option to attack specific targets through Vauban's/Vauban Prime's ability input).
            - A possible rename for the passive ability could be "Battle Proxy". Alternatively, "Proxy Reinforcement" could also be used.
            - Grants 10% / 20% / 30% / 40% additional armor to Vauban/Vauban Prime and any nearby warframes, based on ability rank and affinity range.
            - Aerial drone comes with a three-round burst fire mode for built-in weapon.
            - Aerial drone's armor/health/shields based on Vauban/Vauban Prime's stats, and influenced by any armor/health/shield mods installed on Vauban/Vauban Prime.
            - Weapon range would be around 17.5m / 30m as the base/max range respectively (similar to Dethcube's range).
            - Survivability of the drone/sentinel (armor/health/shields) would be influenced by the mods installed on Vauban/Vauban Prime directly, effectively mimicking his own armor/health/shields.
                 - Alternatively, the base stats and max stats (armor/health/shields) of the drone/sentinel could be similar to that of the Dethcube sentinel’s stats, while still drawing influence from Vauban's/Vauban Prime's equipped mods for armor/health/shields.

- The 1^st ability (Tesla) could have extra bursts shoot out based on how many enemies are nearby when the device discharges. Maybe up to a maximum of 3 or 4 bursts at once. This will, however, consume more charges per burst if more enemies are being hit at once. Damage could also be increased slightly for the discharge (95 / 115 / 135 / 165 Electricity damage instead of 80 / 100 / 120 / 150 Electricity damage) to compensate for the additional charge consumptions when multiple enemies are hit.
     - Alternatively, the 1^st ability could also be replaced with another deployable that sets down a small field of electrified cables, with any enemy units that walk into the field being zapped for 80 / 100 / 120 / 150 Electricity damage per charge, or having it be chargeable to increase the damage output per charge. Devstream #114 showed that the ability will now be chargeable to increase its damage output, so this suggested solution is technically not needed anymore (though I'll leave it here with a strike-through, in case it offers any other ideas for the ability).

- The 2^nd ability, in conjunction with the suggested passive ability, could be replaced with a command for the aerial combat drone that lets the player choose what specific targets to have it attack (up to a total of three targets), as well as allowing players to deploy a new drone if the current one has been destroyed (after a 10-second cooldown; open to adjustment). Much like a sentinel, it would also be tethered to the player and stay relatively close to them.
            - A possible rename for the ability could be "Guardian Protocol".
            - The cost of commanding the aerial drone to attack a specific target would be 25 energy upon activation (open for further adjustment).
            - The cost of deploying a new aerial drone after the previous one was destroyed would be 50 energy (open for further adjustment) after a 10-second cooldown.
                 - Alternatively, players can wait an additional 35 seconds for a new drone to appear automatically after the 10-second cooldown expires.
            - Fire rate for the drone's weapon would be set around of 11.35.
            - Base weapon damage/critical damage/critical chance/status chance can be improved via Rifle mods. Applied mods would not be restricted from use on other weapons.
                 - Base damage would be split evenly between impact damage (25.0), puncture damage (25.0), and slash damage (25.0), totalling out to 75 damage.
                 - Base critical chance would be 22%.
                 - Base critical damage multiplier would be 2.3x.
                 - Base status chance would be 22%.
            - Comes with two Madurai polarities and one Naramon polarity for modding purposes.

- The current 3^rd ability (Bastille) could be buffed to do a small amount of damage over time while enemy units are held in the energy field (10 / 20 / 30 / 50 Electricity damage per tick), effectively allowing for both crowd control and damaging the enemy for as long as they are held in place. The current 4^th ability (Vortex) could also be merged into the current 3^rd ability to fit a sort of toggle setup while also granting the aforementioned trait of dealing damage over time to Bastille, allowing players to switch between controlling an area with a bit of distance between the enemy and the epicenter of the net or controlling an area by drawing enemies into the center and dealing damage over time.
            - A possible rename for the ability could be "Field Assumption" since the merged abilities would effectively allow players to take control of a given area in two different ways.
                 - Conventional naming of the two deployables (Bastille and Vortex) would still be present when toggling them, but the main ability would be referred to by its new name instead.
            - Bastille's damage output over time would be influenced by Vauban's/Vauban Prime's ability strength, but probably wouldn't do any more damage than what Vortex is capable of.
                 - To avoid having the ability be too offense-oriented, the damage ticks would probably be set to happen every two or three seconds (open to adjustment). This would allow it to still fulfill its role as a crowd-control ability while giving it just a small touch of offensive power, as well as allow the possibility of suspending other enemies on its own if enemy units die while suspended in the air by Bastille.
            - Vortex, if merged into Bastille, would retain its current overall stats as a separate deployable under a combined ability, with the exception of costing 75 energy to cast (like Bastille) instead of 100 energy.
            - If merged with Vortex into a single ability, the augments for both Bastille and Vortex could also be adjusted so that they're either interchangeable (basically just swapping one augment mod out for the other to incorporate whichever ability's augment into the player's build). Alternatively, they could be merged together (similar to how Equinox's augments have two different effects based on the day and night form) to suit the toggle setup more effectively as a single augment.
            - Bastille and Vortex could both have a separate icon appear as a buff, showing their timers separately should players cast either ability while one or the other is currently active.

- The 4^th ability could be replaced with a separate deployable in the form of a cluster of small ground-based "rally drones" that move and attack in a similar manner to the Corpus Ratel units, with the exception of using a short- to medium-range ballistic weapon to attack from a distance instead of an electrical beam to attack up close. The rally drones would not have the same amount of armor/health/shields as the aerial drone or Vauban/Vauban Prime, and would deal damage akin to the aerial combat drone from the suggested passive ability (with the same weapon mods for the aerial drone having an effect on the turret as well).
            - A possible rename for the ability could be "Garrison Protocol" since you can deploy additional ground-based drones (similar to the Corpus Ratel units).
            - The cost of deploying a cluster of rally drones would be 100 energy.
            - Drones spawn in clusters of 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 upon deploying, based on ability rank.
                 - Rally drones have 45% / 30% / 15% / 0% less armor/health/shields than the aerial drone (depending on ability rank).
                 - Rally drones explode upon death, dealing 150 / 200 / 250 / 400 Puncture damage and releasing a small cluster of explosives (3 / 4 / 5 / 6 explosives, depending on ability rank).
                      - Each explosive deals and additional 200 / 250 / 300 / 400 Blast damage (depending on ability rank) with a guaranteed Knockdown proc.
                 - Re-casting the ability causes any existing drones that remain to explode before deploying new drones. Drones destroyed in this manner do not release a cluster of explosives, but still deals the initial 150 / 200 / 250 / 400 Puncture damage upon death.
            - A possible augment replacement could make it so that only one slightly larger rally drone is spawned at any given time (similarly to how Atlas' augment for his Rumblers ability only summons one rumbler), but with buffs to specific traits.
                 - Drone size increased by 50%.
                 - Health and shields increased by 45% / 50% / 55% / 60% (depending on augment rank).
                 - Drone movement speed and weapon fire rate increased by 35% / 40% / 45% / 50% respectively (depending on augment rank).
                 - Damage increased by 50% / 55% / 60% / 65% (depending on augment rank).
                 - Blast radius of explosives on death increased by 1m / 2m / 3m / 4m (depending on augment rank).

Sorry for the long post, but I hope this is something that sounds appealing enough to at least offer some inspiration.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Neo_Ganryu
Made a few extra adjustments to the presented suggestion, and removed part of an older entry in the rework suggestion that was left behind by mistake when this was posted. That's what I get for not double-checking my saved Word documents.