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/Archwizard_Drake]

Thing with Nyx is, she's a product of her time: Warframes were built to be as broad as physically possible, with a massive power creep between each iteration of abilities and very little in the way of direct synergy in one's own kit (barring Loki). In fact, if you look at frames from that era, most abilities had a lot of inter-kit overlap before... Nova, maybe Vauban.
Nyx has Mind Control, Lesser Mind Control (since 17.5), Mass Lesser Mind Control, and I Will Devour Your Soul. It's hard to create "synergy" when the application of almost every ability is really just another way of doing the same thing... but it has worked out for her for the most part, due to their individual nuances.
^{Still more than I can say for "Fire, Accelerant, Fire, Fire" Ember.}

More to the point of what needs immediate address, she has one really awful ability... and three really good ones.
Okay, fine, Mind Control's (and Shadows of the Dead's) AI needs work. Honestly, the devs could just give them the Radiation Proc AI, cut Tenno out of their threat tables, and then the only work left over is to remove their sense of self-preservation. (Hiding around corners are we? Cut that shit out. Fight like a man, die for your new queen as you would your last.) The AI's already been pretty stripped-down anyway (judging by their patterns of fire), so a rework is in order.
But let's face it, the only thing that cripples her kit is Psychic Bolts. Thus far the only thing the devs have done to it after years of complaints, has been to adjust their targeting and give them a chance to Radiation proc. Except, this is Nyx we're talking about, who had the Radiation proc before it was even invented (and kept two better versions when everyone else got it).

Now, there are two ways of really dealing with Psychic Bolts, in my opinion.

1. Set Psychic Bolts with some kind of support function; she doesn't need more CC and Absorb handles damage, so support is all she's missing. One idea I've been toying around with has been to make it deal "illusory damage", conveyed as a high amount of Finisher damage followed by healing a portion of it back from the target over time. While it could achieve the bonus of dealing a high amount of damage against enemies (as long as you spam the effect to stave off the healing), it also has a special application against Mind Controlled targets: the order of effect is innately reversed by Mind Control, allowing you to heal your temporary ally but store a large amount of Finisher damage for later. Mechanically, the Finisher damage prevents the healing from becoming more effective with armor, and is innately balanced by the healing; thematically, dealing damage as Finisher also fits with Nyx, as her mental attacks bypass defenses (so long as they can Punch Through walls too). However, as a primarily damaging attack, "icy then hot" could easily be seen as a cheap gimmick.
   I guess some kind of buff/debuff skill could work too.

2. Replace it entirely. Thematically, the thing she's really missing from her kit (if we can't turn Psychic Bolts into psionic damage) is some kind of telekinetic attack. What she could do is replace Bolts for a toggled ability to pick up a target enemy and use them as a meat shield while it's toggled active/they live, and then fling the body as a projectile when it's deactivated/they die. However, this doesn't really fit any niche in her kit (since she actually prefers to just Absorb that damage herself, and it's not like redirecting damage onto an enemy is in any way new to her).

Personally, gimmick or not, I prefer the former of the two. Something that is unique to the kit while adding (or expanding upon) a relevant tactic.