Nidus balancing questions

[Spoon™]

So. I've gotten really good with Nidus, he's the most fun warframe I've played, I can make him absolutely busted, but I'm not sure how to feel about his 4th, Ravenous. Base healing is very low, damage is relatively low, un-modifiable range. It's kinda disappointing. (Before you say I'm bad, I easily get max stacks within the first minute of a game, +150% parasitic link buff and if im feeling fun, 40k health). I really wish the range could be modified, or how about holding down 4th, consuming more stacks, but increasing those stats. I dunno. Thoughts?

[chill out]

I fuse it off for roar, because the power str buff nidus gets is pretty high, and building for high str is reasonable, resulting in a pretty reasonable roar.

[Douchebag Extraordinaire]

It's just very misplaced for today's Warframe. Back when he was released, it wasn't too bad but he's in a weird spot where everything just dies and the healing from it is just too low. I actually throw on Gloom on his 4th since healing becomes ridiculous at high stacks, it works on teammates, and has a CC quality that helps with larger clumps of enemies.

I think the whole thing should move with him. A small delay before reaching maximum range but constant maggot spawning and better healing. The stack charge seems like a good buff.

[Donitsi]

Maggots fill 1/5 stacks and explode for big damage when they are attached to an enemy and you hit them with first ability.

I guess Ravenous idea is to give small healing in small area so that players wouldn't camp so much or they fear perfomance issues if ability scaled with Range mods. Would be cool turn one room into infested mass.

[Jaynoble55]

Nidus is not very good in todays warframe as the goalposts have shifted, as it were. Back when he came out he was considered very powerful because much of the focus of players was going hours into a survival. Now with the focus elsewhere his kit is just getting a lot of rust. Warframe favors mobility now in most mission types and activities. The days of camping a room in a survival mission to reach "endgame" are gone. And so is the focus of Nidus.

My point is its not just that his 4 isnt good, which it isnt,........ in todays game. Back a few years ago it was.

But, when you look at it for what it is it is a support skill. With augments it can ramp up stack generation to a great degree while providing mild CC and very mild healing. Combined with his tether its how DE intended for him to be played.

Nidus needs a total rework imho. Maybe not as bad as some frames like Chroma, but he needs it.

[Spoon™]

:/

[Drago]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Nidus is not very good in todays warframe as the goalposts have shifted, as it were. Back when he came out he was considered very powerful because much of the focus of players was going hours into a survival. Now with the focus elsewhere his kit is just getting a lot of rust. Warframe favors mobility now in most mission types and activities. The days of camping a room in a survival mission to reach "endgame" are gone. And so is the focus of Nidus.

My point is its not just that his 4 isnt good, which it isnt,........ in todays game. Back a few years ago it was.

But, when you look at it for what it is it is a support skill. With augments it can ramp up stack generation to a great degree while providing mild CC and very mild healing. Combined with his tether its how DE intended for him to be played.

Nidus needs a total rework imho. Maybe not as bad as some frames like Chroma, but he needs it.

The Nidus warframe is a pretty linear design in that all of the moves tend to be heavily interconnected for a very narrow singular purpose. That isn't always a bad thing but it does mean the warframe doesn't have the best flexibility and if enemies ever get outside the abilities' ability to grow in mission he is going to suffer. This design was a DE Pablo one I recall, what would be the best way to improve Nidus? Change his moves entirely, modify the existing moves to be more scaling and powerful, or change their effects or restrictions to be more in-line with a more mobile and flexible with what the warframe can accomplish in a given mission?

[Jaynoble55]

Originally posted by Drago:

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Nidus is not very good in todays warframe as the goalposts have shifted, as it were. Back when he came out he was considered very powerful because much of the focus of players was going hours into a survival. Now with the focus elsewhere his kit is just getting a lot of rust. Warframe favors mobility now in most mission types and activities. The days of camping a room in a survival mission to reach "endgame" are gone. And so is the focus of Nidus.

My point is its not just that his 4 isnt good, which it isnt,........ in todays game. Back a few years ago it was.

But, when you look at it for what it is it is a support skill. With augments it can ramp up stack generation to a great degree while providing mild CC and very mild healing. Combined with his tether its how DE intended for him to be played.

Nidus needs a total rework imho. Maybe not as bad as some frames like Chroma, but he needs it.

The Nidus warframe is a pretty linear design in that all of the moves tend to be heavily interconnected for a very narrow singular purpose. That isn't always a bad thing but it does mean the warframe doesn't have the best flexibility and if enemies ever get outside the abilities' ability to grow in mission he is going to suffer. This design was a DE Pablo one I recall, what would be the best way to improve Nidus? Change his moves entirely, modify the existing moves to be more scaling and powerful, or change their effects or restrictions to be more in-line with a more mobile and flexible with what the warframe can accomplish in a given mission?

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today. BUT, things can be fixed to a extent. You just need to go deep with the scaling focus of his playstyle. His 1 is fine. His 2 is great. His 3 is pretty good (but it needs to drag the tethered NPC with him as he moves out of range. ) and his 4, I am not sure what to do with it that is not a total rework. Perhaps he pays initial stacks for a Aura that provides maggot production and improved healing.

He is not the worst frame. But he needs a rework as I have said.

[Spoon™]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Originally posted by Drago:

The Nidus warframe is a pretty linear design in that all of the moves tend to be heavily interconnected for a very narrow singular purpose. That isn't always a bad thing but it does mean the warframe doesn't have the best flexibility and if enemies ever get outside the abilities' ability to grow in mission he is going to suffer. This design was a DE Pablo one I recall, what would be the best way to improve Nidus? Change his moves entirely, modify the existing moves to be more scaling and powerful, or change their effects or restrictions to be more in-line with a more mobile and flexible with what the warframe can accomplish in a given mission?

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today. BUT, things can be fixed to a extent. You just need to go deep with the scaling focus of his playstyle. His 1 is fine. His 2 is great. His 3 is pretty good (but it needs to drag the tethered NPC with him as he moves out of range. ) and his 4, I am not sure what to do with it that is not a total rework. Perhaps he pays initial stacks for a Aura that provides maggot production and improved healing.

He is not the worst frame. But he needs a rework as I have said.

Agreed on all counts

[Drago]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Originally posted by Drago:

The Nidus warframe is a pretty linear design in that all of the moves tend to be heavily interconnected for a very narrow singular purpose. That isn't always a bad thing but it does mean the warframe doesn't have the best flexibility and if enemies ever get outside the abilities' ability to grow in mission he is going to suffer. This design was a DE Pablo one I recall, what would be the best way to improve Nidus? Change his moves entirely, modify the existing moves to be more scaling and powerful, or change their effects or restrictions to be more in-line with a more mobile and flexible with what the warframe can accomplish in a given mission?

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today. BUT, things can be fixed to a extent. You just need to go deep with the scaling focus of his playstyle. His 1 is fine. His 2 is great. His 3 is pretty good (but it needs to drag the tethered NPC with him as he moves out of range. ) and his 4, I am not sure what to do with it that is not a total rework. Perhaps he pays initial stacks for a Aura that provides maggot production and improved healing.

He is not the worst frame. But he needs a rework as I have said.

Maybe then the easiest might be pumping the initial base effects of his 4 and making it follow him like some kind of slime trail?

[Ittrix]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today.

I feel that's most warframes in the game. It's all about speed and efficiency to get things done.
Warframes are often 'bad' not because they can't clear content, but because they're slower or have to put extra effort in.

I'm not so sure that's something that actually needs to be fixed for every frame. Though, I wouldn't mind some tweaks to a lot of warframes, Nidus included.

[Jaynoble55]

Originally posted by Drago:

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today. BUT, things can be fixed to a extent. You just need to go deep with the scaling focus of his playstyle. His 1 is fine. His 2 is great. His 3 is pretty good (but it needs to drag the tethered NPC with him as he moves out of range. ) and his 4, I am not sure what to do with it that is not a total rework. Perhaps he pays initial stacks for a Aura that provides maggot production and improved healing.

He is not the worst frame. But he needs a rework as I have said.

Maybe then the easiest might be pumping the initial base effects of his 4 and making it follow him like some kind of slime trail?

I was thinking. Instead of dragging this tethered target you should roll tether into his 4 and make it a super aura that auto tethers the nearest target automatically with a very fast animation. He would need a new 3 however so I dont think this would ever happen.

I think hes such cool farm stuck in the warframe of 6 years ago.

[Jaynoble55]

Originally posted by Ittrix:

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

IMHO the basic idea of his playstyle just does not mesh with the game we have today.

I feel that's most warframes in the game. It's all about speed and efficiency to get things done.
Warframes are often 'bad' not because they can't clear content, but because they're slower or have to put extra effort in.

I'm not so sure that's something that actually needs to be fixed for every frame. Though, I wouldn't mind some tweaks to a lot of warframes, Nidus included.

No frame is so bad that It cannot complete content. Well, most content. For solo play at the extreme end of the game (netracells and above) it matters. Many frames just do not have the survival tools to solo extreme content or the damage to offset the lack of tools.

For group content, everything works. Its why I play solo. No challenge in a group setting.

But your statement does ring true for most things. An example is that a protea could solo netracells, and quite easily with proper playing but why would take a frame that relies on perfect shield gating when you can just take Revenant or Inaros and facetank the content and do it faster.

[Drago]

Originally posted by Jaynoble55:

Originally posted by Drago:

Maybe then the easiest might be pumping the initial base effects of his 4 and making it follow him like some kind of slime trail?

I was thinking. Instead of dragging this tethered target you should roll tether into his 4 and make it a super aura that auto tethers the nearest target automatically with a very fast animation. He would need a new 3 however so I dont think this would ever happen.

I think hes such cool farm stuck in the warframe of 6 years ago.

So Tether or Parasitic Link, could be turned into something that might change his game play but stay true to his theme? Well, part of that theme is being an infested commander warframe, maybe his replacement 3 could be something related to further weaponizing those infested grubs his 4 makes? Maybe make a few meta-morph to full power and rampage around before exploding violently or instead try to take Parasistic Link's current flavor and make its replacement a tendril attack that stabs everyone in Nidus's super aura 4 range and drains their lifeforce? I guess it would be easy enough to just have his link replacement just be a mind control variant but that might step on what they are doing with Revenant and Nyx as well as Nekros these days.

[Joker]

i like ur ideas OP. they could def buff his ult to make it work in steel path. currently all its good for is building stacks quickly with Insatiable. even Parasitic Link has more use with Parasitic Link letting you actually tank in steel path. i think they should let us increase range, if not by raising power range, then by consuming more stacks by holding the button down. i dont see there being any use when it comes to increasing the damage as only the maggots do damage, so instead maybe enemies should be slowed down if they're touching the infested grass. maybe you could even add a fixed number of tentacles and spores that completely entangle enemies, making them unable to move at all, while the rest of enemies would just be slowed down, that'd give it some nice crowd control.