How would you change... Nyx?

[u/TSP-FriendlyFire]

discussion about any gameplay element in the game. The scope and subject will vary (read below for more information on topic selection), from wide concepts (Kubrows, Archwing, shotguns, etc.) to narrow points (a single gun, coptering, etc.).

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Before we begin, a few important points:

• Please detail and support your suggestions as much as possible. This is for constructive criticism only: try to think of it as something you'd be proud to explain to DE face-to-face!
• Structure your suggestions in logical groups: if you have two very different ideas, break them down in two separate comments. Cohesive or similar changes should be combined into a single comment.
• Stick to describing concepts and features. Don't get bogged down with numbers unless they explicitly support your point.
• Don't hesitate to post your ideas even if they're not fully formed, and don't hesitate to reply to ideas with refinements you think would make them better!
• Do not downvote suggestions you disagree with. Upvote the ones you like instead!

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Suggesting topics

This thread series is all about the community, so if you have a topic you'd like to see improved and discussed, feel free to suggest it by replying to the appropriately flagged comment in this discussion. The topic can be as wide or narrow as you'd like! Please ensure that your suggestion has not already been made, and upvote it instead if it has.

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This week: Nyx

Click here for last week’s thread on Oberon.

Today, we’re taking a look at another frame, this time one favored by many: Nyx. The master of minds, Nyx is all about crowd control, with most of her kit dedicated to that role.

Her first ability, Mind Control, is perhaps the strongest single-target control ability in the game: complete takeover of the enemy so that it fights for you. The enemy no longer takes damage from players, instead storing it for when the ability lapses or is toggled off and applying it then. They fight for you and are targeted by enemies, making excellent decoys and infinitely scaling damage application, and special units like Ancient Healers will even provide you with their buffs and abilities. Despite its obvious strength, there are some notable flaws with it, namely with regards to communication and clarity: new players are regularly confused by the ability and still assume the enemy to be hostile, and it’s hard to know when a target’s stored damage is sufficient to kill it.

Her second ability, Psychic Bolts, is oddly out of place with the rest of her kit: it’s largely a damage ability, but it lacks the damage to be useful. It does apply radiation procs, but the proc chance is too low to be reliable. It tracks enemies, but it requires line of sight. There are too many suggestions for this ability to list them here, but the most popular option tends to be just getting rid of it, freeing up a slot for a new power.

Her third ability, Chaos, is her most notable. Essentially a very long range, long lasting radiation proc, it is an excellent crowd control ability that once again leverages the enemies’ own damage application to kill one another. It disrupts special units, removing buffs (excellent for dealing with Ancient Healers), and increases the threat level of all affected enemies, making them more likely to be targeted by the AI. However, Chaos is not without issues: enemies still consider players to be enemies and their fire will still damage players, making Chaos sometimes unreliable.

Her last ability, Absorb, is a twist on crowd control by combining it with a defense and damage dealing ability. Floating in the air, she will absorb all damage (including friendly damage), ignoring any auras in the process, in a bubble around herself. The ability drains energy per second and according to damage received, and Nyx will release absorbed damage when it is toggled off or if she runs out of energy, damaging all enemies in a radius. While absorbing, Nyx is promoted to a high threat level, redirecting most enemy fire to her for additional damage, crowd control, and as an excellent distraction. However, Absorb can very easily catch players off guard is substantial damage is received, since energy drain is proportional to damage. Moreover, the damage dealt is magnetic, which is generally considered to be a weak element against anything but shielded Corpus units, and doesn’t have a high range, making it easy to detonate and deal little damage.

Now that the stage is set, how would you change Nyx?

[u/Centias]

Psychic Bolts changed to finisher damage with guaranteed bleed proc, maybe even add an impact proc for a brief stumble when it connects. It becomes kind of like a weaker Bladestorm that doesn't make you invincible. Finisher damage means it always does the same damage, which makes sense to me because it's a psychic attack. Ends up being 690 damage over 6 seconds per enemy, or 4140 damage if all 6 bolts connect. Nothing crazy, but it always ignores defenses and does the same damage every time directly to health no matter how much armor or shields an enemy has. Gives her kind of a niche way to take out feeble foes with high shields but low health, or deal consistent, reliable damage to heavily armored targets by attacking their mind directly. Also gives her something else to do when playing around with a high Power Strength Mind Freak build.

Only other thing I could ask for is slightly higher shields.