Focus 2.5-3.0 & Beyond pt.2 - Focus 2.8

Focus 2.8 – “Simple Solutions to Complicated Problems”

Over the years I’ve heard two statements from you DE, explaining the purpose of the Focus System in Warframe. The first, stated during Focus 1.0, was that “Operators are supposed to complement warframes, but not replace them.” As of Focus 2.0 you added that “Operators must be combat capable” (I’m paraphrasing, of course). In the context of the shape the Focus system took – trees with mutators – a valid synthesis of those two goals would be the following statement:

“Operators support warframes by augmenting specific warframe aspects through their own lesser combat abilities and the unique functionality they provide.”

That statement may be a bit too concise to clear, so to elaborate on a few vague terms:

Specific warframe aspects - are the eight components of warframe combat: Damage, Defense, Health, Energy & Warframe Powers, Melee Weapons & their properties, Guns & their properties, Status Ailments, and Crowd Control.

Lesser combat abilities – The four basic operator commands discussed in the first section: Amp Attacks, Void Mode, Void Dash, and Void Blast.

Unique functionality – The mutators for the basic operator commands granted by Focus trees.

If I had to overcomplicate this analysis with numbers rate your progress DE towards achieving that synthesized goal, I’d say that Focus 1.0 brought you about 20% of the way there, establishing five focus trees and the specific warframe aspects they wanted to augment, while Focus 2.5 brought you up to 80% completion. Even though Focus 2.5 appears to have accomplished the synthesized objective, by not giving any of its focus trees an emphasis towards a “specific warframe aspect” (as we discussed in section 1.) none of the focus trees can directly assist any specific warframe

…that being said, Focus 2.5 – the current focus system - does contain almost all of the components necessary to reach the full 100%, and this section is here to prove it. Contrary to the gargantuan length of this analysis-turned-proposition I am unfortunately not being paid to compose, I am a firm believer of the “work smarter, not harder” axiom, and thus have concocted a list of small tweaks that I’m confident would yield large positive changes in player engagement with the Focus system. With one exceedingly minor exception (highlighted in Dark Blue on the Excel sheet), none of the changes proposed in this section would require making new assets or completely redesigning any existing abilities – this is simply a massive precision shuffle to fix the two major problems outlined in Section 1 (seriously, if you skipped to this section, slap yourself, hang your head, then go back and read Section 1 you sneaky degenerate).

One two four last things before we begin:

1.) The approach I took in redesigning specific abilities was to raise every individual ability up to a similar level as the current domineering abilities in the Focus system, Energizing Dash, Void Cloak+Chrysallis, and Void Strike. After all, if one ability within a tree is all players use, then pragmatically, there’s no reason for the entire tree to exist and not simply the single ability within it. *And yes, the ability stats shown are still those at their maximum levels.

2.) The current structure of Base->Dependent was reworked to be Base->Upgrade, to solve the problem of some base abilities interfering with the superior dependent and simultaneously give players a universal option to forgo using the dependent ability if they need to accrue more capacity points.

3.) All trees were designed with internal synergy in mind so that they each promote unique a playstyle. Ideally, this will make players more inclined to stay in operator mode during normal play, as opposed to briefly popping in to avoid damage while reviving, or refresh Energizing Dash.

4.) None of the abilities are named, because I’m a boring sod the changes make their current names inapplicable. However, I will always highlight where the ability or its properties were moved/derived from.

Okay, “LET’S GIT IT ONNN!”

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Unairu 2.8

Unairu was already almost perfect as is, so these changes are just to sweep up the minor weaknesses still lying around.

Passive 1: Like we discussed, the damage reflection of this ability was too small to be of consequence, so I raised it just high enough to be perceptible against armored enemies on lower level content.

Passive 2: Armor is 25 points higher. It’s a purely psychological change in case DE ever starts displaying passive stats from Focus trees in the arsenal *hint, hint*.

Void Blast: Magnetic Blast was removed entirely in favor of further improving the Unairu Wisp with an Armor boost for both the Operator and the Warframe. This seemed both preferable and logical given the redundancy of Magnetic Blast, and the fact that the other two Unairu mutators also provide a shared offensive & defensive benefit to the Operator and the Warframe. In this case, the damage boost was not touched at all because Unairu is supposed to be defensively inclined and that would be OP AF, but sharing Armor follows the school’s creed while granting certain Warframes (read: Rhino, Frost, Nezha, Atlas, and Gara) the ability to convert the ephemeral buff into a lasting boost to their warframe powers. Also, even though the Wisp now affects Warframes, they can still only be picked up the Operator to make it easier for players (especially those of the aforementioned frames) to manage the spares.

Results:

Unairu is ever so slightly more awesome than it was before. The abilities still lack direct synergy, but as a general support with a more pronounced defensive emphasis, it warrants using all of its abilities regardless of whether they chain together. This lack of synergy also indirectly makes Unairu the most newbie-friendly tree in the game as it grants them the simplest answers to the game’s combat scenarios while enhancing their survivability.

Vazarin 2.8

The main goal here was to shake Vazarin’s inferiority complex with Unairu and emphasize the “healer” class archetype. To that end, I capitalized on the “wave” aesthetic to make the tree more user-friendly and broadly applicable.

Passive 2: A revive speed increase – courtesy of Trinity’s passive – was added so the ability maintains value on difficult missions (e.g. eidolon hunting with newbies) and endless missions.

Void Mode: The bubble that used to be on the Dependent was moved to the Base ability, but rather than blocking all damage, it now creates a healing AoE. It makes a selfish ability selfless, while simultaneously solving the original problem of the bubble doing nothing for allies against rushing enemies. Naturally, the range was improved as well so that the bubble can expand 66% faster and afford allies more room to fight. The heal was also changed from a (low) hard number to a percentage so that it rewards players (read: the users of the focus tree) for having more health without punishing players who have little. Lastly, the Upgrade takes the same approach as Unairu’s Void Chrysallis, by adding the old Dependent’s impenetrable shield to the Base’s bubble as well as a status effect guard. The status immunity is particularly significant as it gives Vazarin the one major important healing utility it was previously lacking, finally allowing players to use it as an all-purpose healing instrument, as opposed to the blunt primarily health-exclusive tool it currently is. Together, these abilities now let players be supportive, and heal the team even if their motives are entirely selfish (recover/avoid damage).

Void Dash: I just moved Surging Dash from Naramon to Vazarin and changed the damage increase to a status condition cure to make it more appropriate. Not only does the increased Void Dash radius match Vazarin aesthetically (waves and whatnot), the broader radius makes it MUCH easier to hit multiple allies with a single Void Dash, dramatically improving its usability. And recall: “All Void Mode abilities are void dash abilities,” so dashing through allies is also an effective way to provide immediate relief from status effects.

Void Blast: Guardian Blast (the former Dependent) is now the Base ability and had its outrageous Energy cost removed entirely so that players can choose to rapidly accumulate Overshields. The upgrade however, has nothing to do with Void Shell, instead granting a temporary Shield recharge speed buff to allies struck. As far as I’m aware, no other ability in the game grants that particular buff, so I used Fast Deflection as a power benchmark and down-graded this ability’s power accordingly to keep the mod relevant. That said, I’m painfully aware of how weak player shields are, so I also gave the buff a stacking duration with an upper limit of 60 seconds, so that the Vazarin player can support the team without having to constantly follow people around or (worse) dictate the entire team’s positioning. I would’ve liked to squeeze Guardian Shell’s function in somewhere, because I do genuinely like it. But there just doesn’t seem to be a practical place for it in the game yet.

Results:

Vazarin is now a true cleric. Each of its abilities provides a unique and valuable healing capability, and collectively cover the entire spectrum of healing effects (Health, Shields, Status Conditions, & Reviving). And what’s more, it has a playstyle that can be utilized by more adept players should they choose to chain its abilities.

And in case it wasn’t clear what that is, here’s what I had in mind: Activate Void mode’s bubble to signal the team to group up* and keep everyone safe/healthy, then when everyone is in range sweep the entire team with a Void Dash for the damage immunity/ailment cure or quickly chain Void Blasts to rack up overshields and stack shield recharge boosts. It’s somewhat akin to how Madurai currently functions, except the opportunity you’re waiting for comes much sooner and is ally dependent/can be coordinated to work in a pinch.

*even if players don’t know it’s a signal, they’ll be incentivized to group up anyway for the healing and protection, similar to the way many players currently act when they see a Frost’s Snowglobe.*

Madurai 2.8

If there ever was a poster-boy for the spirit of these changes, it’s Madurai. Not a single thing is this tree is even retooled in a meaningful way.

Passive 1 & 2: You all saw this coming. Passive 1 is Madurai’s original 2 passives put together, while passive 2 is a flat Void Damage increase in the same fashion. This is an obvious and necessary change whose current absence feels more like an oversight with the classification of Void damage as non-elemental, rather than an explicit design decision. Madurai is the damage school. Logically, it should have the best amp damage, not Unairu.

Void Mode: I replaced the actively detrimental Void Radiance Base with Zenurik’s Void Static for obvious reasons and changed the element to Fire for obvious-er reasons. Since Void Strike would undoubtedly still be the driving ability to the tree, players trying to take advantage of it need additional abilities that complement it, or an alternate means of exploiting it. Because Void Mode and Void Dash are not attacks, their mutators need to be offensive to allow Madurai to attack without wasting charges. Void Static was the one ability that fit the bill for Void Mode, so it was the logical only choice for Madurai (plus, it was just gathering dust in Zenurik anyway).

Void Dash: I didn’t move a dang thing. The only change is that the Dependent is now an Upgrade, affecting the Void Dash trail’s damage as well as the Dash itself. Again, this is so obvious of a change that I’m unconvinced the current ability isn’t simply borked.

Void Blast: The laser is back. That’s it. Rather than charging Void Blast for just another stronger (but visually identical) Fire ball, the Void Blast charges into a death beam of unholy hellfire. Why? Because the animation and the timing of the charge gives you EXACTLY enough time to yell, “Ka-me-ha-me-HAAAAA!!!!” No, really that’s the main reason for the change. The fact that it synergizes with Void Strike and the Beam weapon changes is entirely coincidental.

Conclusion:

Madurai was already in a good place, and these changes just tore off the few shackles holding it back. The faster offensive abilities are both stronger and more numerous, while the slower abilities no longer conflict and play off each other. Barring a massive reworking of the entire tree, I cannot picture Madurai getting any better than this in the current system.