Fade Secondary Ability (Vortex)

Lambo

There's a rising discussion going on regarding the Fade Vortex ability among Playtesters. There have been a couple of versions of Vortex, and none of them have ever been a successful hit, as in never being used, effectively or not. From my understanding, the idea behind the current version of Vortex was meant to be used in combination with Stab, but it's nowhere close to viable. The Stab ability has a 2 second charge up and also renders the Fade unable to jump or Blink while charging, he can however use Shadowstep. Additionally, it's incredibly risky to attempt to get a Stab off without being most certain of death, due to the movement limitation & the time it takes to charge it up, you're too exposed to meat hits. You could get off somewhat around 3-4 swipes (225/300) compared to the charge up time, and that's more damage than Stab does (160).

Vortex does makes an appearance once in a while in public play but is arguably of any use. In most cases it's people just having mindless fun with it & not putting it to good use due to there not being any. I don't think I've ever taken part nor watched a competitive game where Vortex was used, it's non-existent & not viable.

There have been ideas of a replacement, which will most likely have to be tweaked if it's decided to experiment with them.

1. Restoring a small portion of health every "X" seconds at the cost of energy. - Healing a large portion of health at the cost of "X %" of energy. Metabolize?!
2. Restoring a very small portion of energy every "X" seconds.
3. Some sort of Parasite ability which only benefits that particular fade, making his Swipes focused & deal more damage to the affected target(s).

Another option would be to tweak Stab to make it viable.
What are your thoughts/suggestions? Do you think it's fine as it is? Do you want it tweaked or replaced?

current1y

The idea I had in campfire that matso was talking about modding was to combine stab and vortex into 1.

Once Stab was completed it would auto vortex the fade back say 2 seconds in time to the physical position they had been in during that time. You can adjust how far it takes you back in time but the idea is late game this allows the fade to preform a quick powerful attack that can be used without making the fade a walking brick wall to shoot (stab makes the player super slow now) AND the auto vortex backwards a short distance in time would allow it to be used in combat and have the fade stay in combat to kill its target or make an escape.

Stab would need to have damage reduced, energy requirements changed and the player would be free to move during the attack. The time the attack takes would also obviously need a change.

xen32

Old vertex was cool. Problem was, it was 3rd hive ability and an expensive one, so it never was researched (much like xeno). When xeno became autounlocked in every game with 3 hives, people realized how cool and actually OP it is. Too bad, vortex was changed in the same patch.

I bet we'de see interesting uses for vortex if it was unlocked in the same bundle fashion (i.e. more often).
Preventing marines from spawning, stopping beacon, disabling gates and making marines teleport somewhere else, removing all the upgrades for a few seconds, removing exo from play and taking out welder first, making 2v1 fights be 1v1... so many creative uses.
Current vortex is: a) Noobtrap that makes rookies less effective b) A tool to show off for hardcore pro fades


BTW, I think Stab is Heavy damage, which means it does 160 damage to health and armor 1:1. Well, you'd better check wiki (it's up to date on this question).

Benson

Swapping out one of the Fade's moves for metabolize would be amazing, and I would welcome the change. I've always felt it compliments the fade's playstyle as a lone assassin well, since it makes it less reliant on being grouped together.

As far as keeping the fade with a higher damage move, if vortex was reverted to its original (an AoE on the field), and the effect changed to "mark" the targets affected for a few seconds, that could work.

I personally liked removing Marines from play for a few seconds (Especially Exos to kill their Welders), but did not like how they were able to reposition and reload without being at risk. Maybe prevent reload and jp recharge while effected?

What if the fade did bonus damage to marines that were already tagged by Skulks and Lerks? More teamplay, skulks can support fades by being more than just a meat shield. There would have to be a separate animation to comunicate this though (a fast Stab overhead?)

Bicsum

Another idea would be to reimplement the old crowd control vortex as hive2 ability, but not as click, but as a channeled click and hold.

Balance could be tweaked through energy cost, cool down and immobility.

I could imagine wanting to have this ability to seperate marines, kill pgs (/ the power when the pg is vortexed) and so on.

ssjsonic1

I like marking the target for increased damage. This seems very 'rogue-like' to me, which is essentially what the fade class is supposed to be. My thoughts for the implementation would be as follows:

* The fade has an ability called "haunt".
* The player becomes a ghost that can move around the map in first person, leaving the original fade body sitting defenseless.
* The player has ~3 seconds (adjusted for balance) to fly anywhere they choose and select a target.
* The player is entirely invisible while in ghost form (even to pings and observatories).
* The ghost can not be shot, hurt, seen, or destroyed (essentially just give the player spectator mode camera).
* If the player makes contact with a marine, that marine is haunted.
* Only one marine can be haunted at any given time by each fade.
* Haunting a second marine cancels the first marines debuff and starts a new debuff on the new marine.
* The marine knows he is haunted by a flash of a ghostly looking head of the alien, which fades away. Some black aura or other visual indicator will remain during the haunting. This haunting effect should be dramatic and emphasize fear (maybe accompanied by a shrieking sound?)
* The effect lasts ~15 seconds or so.
* Fade does increased damage (swipe and / or stab)

This is a neat idea because it has several effects.

1) The fade has the ability to get a sneak peek around corners and inside defended rooms, at the cost of being defenseless. Good for recon, but limited to a small window of time / range.
2) The marine knows a target is put on his head and he is very vulnerable. A fade is nearby and can easily dispatch of him. The fear alone should impact the marines walking, searching, firing, reflexes, etc.
3) The fade can make better use of her stab ability and lets her deal more highly directed, short, high-damage attacks.

Versatile, useful for damage, useful for recon, balanced by making the person defenseless.

The_Welsh_Wizard

Now that metabolize is the second fade ability for a while now... I can say that it should be reworked. Maybe vortex was useless or unbalanced but atleast it was a mechanic that adds something to the game. Metabolize is just spamming Shift key for energy and health. There is no point in making this an ability instead of a passive upgrade. Okay there are already the crag hive healing upgrade and the shift hive adrenaline upgrade. But if you feel it is not enough for the fade you could make metabolize a researchable but passive upgrade instead of an active ability and give the fade some real moving ability back like shadowstep or vortex or something new that is fun to use. Blink shouldn't be the only form of movement for a lifeform that is supposed to be a teleporting shadow assassine.

MaxAmus

Nice necro, but anyhow, I think it should be a choice, dont out right remove or change Metabolize as its good as it is, but give a choice, so they can choose Shadowstep (more movement) Meta (better engery/Healing) or Vortex (In and out quicker)

Make the Fade more in depth to play, no need to keep changing / removing just give players the options to choose what sorta "Path" they want to play.

The_Welsh_Wizard

That could work too, yea. Choices are always welcome.