Hello everyone!
I've submitted Exotic rework and buff suggestions in the past in one way or another. This time, as the Season is over and we won't be seeing new content for a while, I thought I'd share some consolidated ideas for the devs and the community to consider.
Note that if I don't mention one of the Exotics is because I consider it to be in a good place.
The format is simple. I will post the description of the Exotic and highlight in bolded letters the change or changes. I will be giving some additional comments behind the rationale for the change.
The Bighorn
Talent: Big Game Hunter
When scoped, switches to semi-automatic fire mode, dealing 450% weapon damage with each shot.
Headshots grant +2% headshot damage and +1% Weapon Handling. Stacks up to 50 times. Once at full stacks, 10 stacks decay every 4 seconds until all stacks have been removed. Headshots delay decaying of stacks.Optics: +30% Headshot Damage
Magazine: +10% Reload Speed
Underbarrel: +10% Stability
Muzzle: +10% Accuracy
This one is pretty simple. Adding Handling will make the gun easier to shoot and land Headshots with both in Automatic and Semi mode.
Chameleon
Talent: Adaptive Instincts
Hitting 20 headshots grants 20% critical hit chance and 50% critical hit damage for 45 seconds.
Hitting 50 body shots grants 80% weapon damage for 45 seconds.
Hitting 20 leg shots grants 150% reload speed for 45 seconds.Optics: +15% Critical Hit Chance
Magazine: +20 Extra Rounds
Underbarrel: +10% Stability
Muzzle: +20% Accuracy
Chameleon is an amazing weapon, so this change is only really aimed at lowering the number of landed shots required to proc the different bonuses.
Bullet King
Talent: Bullet Hell
This weapon never needs to be reloaded.
For every 100 bullets that hit an enemy, replenish some ammo to you and your allies' reserves and grant 15% Rate of Fire for 5 seconds
Underbarrel: +10% Stability
Muzzle: +5% Critical Hit Chance
This one is also quite simple. When the 100 stacks load up, the player and the team receive a small ROF bonus, which is meant as a damage boost to up the sustained damage of BK and a nice bonus to allies.
Pestilence
Talent: Plague of the Outcasts
Hits apply a debuff dealing 100% weapon damage over 10 seconds. This stacks up to 50 times.
Whenever an enemy dies with this debuff, cause an Explosion that Reduces Speed of Movement to all enemies within 20 meters and prevent them from entering cover, and all stacks are transferred to a nearby enemy within 25 meters.
Magazine: +10% Rate of Fire
Underbarrel: +10% stability
Muzzle: +10% Accuracy
Circling back to the days of the old Pestilence, this "explosion" would be visually the same as the old Pestilence yellow burst but instead of damaging enemies, they would be slowed down and prevented from entering cover, allowing players to continue shooting enemies and spreading more marks.
Bluescreen
Talent: Disruptor Rounds
Shooting an enemy marks that enemy and adds a stack to the the agent up to a count of 50. Shooting a marked enemy refreshes the mark and adds stacks to the agent.
When you deploy a non-shield skill, remove all stacks on agent and all marked targets trigger an effect.
1 - 10 Stacks - Pulse marked targets for 5 seconds
11 - 25 Stacks - Pulse and Disrupt marked targets for 5 seconds.
26 - 49 Stacks - Pulse, Disrupt, and Disorient marked targets for 5 seconds.
50 Stacks - Pulse, Disrupt, and Disorient marked targets and all hostiles within 15 meters of the marked targets for 8 seconds. This effect will trigger immediately if any marked enemy is killed.
Optics: +10% Reload Speed
Magazine: +15% Weapon Handling
Underbarrel: +10% Stability
Muzzle: +15% Rate of Fire
Yet another simple change. The area of effect would be increased to 15 meters and the duration too, so it can act as a more efficient CC tool. Additionally, it also would be receiving an additional ROF on its Exotic Mods.
Busy Little Bee
Talent: Busy Little Bee
Each shot to a different target will give 1 stack – up to 10 max, with each stack giving 20% Weapon Damage increase.
Stacks will activate once the weapon is switched or reloaded and will last for 10 seconds. Changing weapon again during the said 10 seconds will cancel the buff.Optics: +5% Critical Hit Chance
Magazine: 10% Critical Hit Chance
Underbarrel: 10% Reload Speed
Muzzle: 25% Optimal Range
The simple change here is that the stacks can also be consumed by reloading the gun, allowing you to also apply its boost into the Bee itself, since at present the buff can only be applied to your other weapons.
Liberty
Talent: Libery or Death
Hits grant 2% weapon damage. Stacks up to 30 times.
Headshots consume all stacks, repairing your shield for 3% per stack.
Gain 7.5% Weapon Damage for Each Blue Core
Optics: +5% Headshot Damage
Magazine: +15% Weapon Handling
Underbarrel: +15% Rate of Fire
Muzzle: +5% Critical Hit Chance
Similar to Capacitor receiving Weapon Damage from Yellow Cores, Liberty would be doing the same with Blue Cores, granting tank builds a damage bump.
Diamondback
Talent: Agonizing Bite
Diamondback randomly marks an enemy.
Hitting that enemy consumes the mark, guaranteeing a critical hit with damage amplified by 20%.
After hitting a mark, all shots fired are guaranteed critical hits for 5 seconds.
A new random enemy is marked afterwards and whenever you reload.
Killing a marked enemy automatically refills the magazine
Optics: +10% Accuracy
Magazine: +10% Reload Speed
Underbarrel: +10% Stability
Muzzle: +15% Critical Hit Damage
This change deals with Diamondback's smaller Magazine in a simple way, reloading the magazine whenever you kill a marked enemy creating the potential for a long chain of mark kills.
Doctor Home
Talent: Doctor Home
Shooting an enemy with Doctor Home applies a mark and grants 1 Stack. When killed, marked target drops a 15% Armor repair kit.
The kit doesn’t give bonus armor. Only the weapon owner can see the Armor repair kit.
Once the player picks the armor kit, all party members receive the heal.
Emergency Requisition: when at 20 Stacks, Reloading the Weapon Automatically collects combat resources in a 20 meters radius.
Optics: +10% Accuracy
Magazine: +10% Reload speed
Underbarrel: +10% Critical Hit Chance
Muzzle: +10% Handling
This is a change I had suggested since PTS, but I'm adding here again. Basically, continuous shots would build stacks that can be consumed when maxed by reloading. This reload would trigger Emergency Requisition, which is a Talent that used to exist on the Ongoing Directive Backpack. Emergency Requisition would create an interesting synergy with Memento that would be especially meaningful for hybrid support builds.
Merciless/Ruthless
Talent: Binary Trigger
This weapon fires twice per shot. If both bullets hit the same enemy, gain a stack.
At 7 stacks, shooting an enemy deals +500% amplified damage and creates a 15 meter explosion dealing 500% weapon damage, consuming the stacks.
Enemies Damaged by the Explosion receive a 10s debuff that amplifies damage received from the Player by 60%
Optics: +10% Accuracy
Magazine: +10% Reload Speed
Underbarrel: +15% Weapon Handling
Muzzle: +20% Stability
This is probably the biggest change of all my proposals. First of all, Merciless would become an Assault Rifle in order for it to be full auto and maintain its 400 RPM and 30 Mag Size.
The amplified shot and explosion would retain the values it currently has because it will receive a damage bump with the debuff enemies will get with the explosion, so from the second explosion onwards on a marked enemy, scaling shots would be amplified and the explosion itself too.
I'm also giving the weapon a slight stability boost by upping some of the values on the Exotic Mods.
Sweet Dreams/Lullaby
Talent: Sandman
Melee attacks grant 30% Bonus Armor for 10 seconds and reload the Weapon
Melee attacks instantly Kill Non Elite enemies, and on Elite enemies cause Blindness for 8 seconds.
Cooldown: 15 seconds.
Optics: +20% Accuracy
Magazine: +15% Reload Speed
Underbarrel: +30% Optimal Range
Rearranging the talent to give it some added functions: first, all Melee hits will reload the weapon and grant bonus armor no matter what. This is meant to provide a return that is proportional to the fact that you have to be in front of an enemy to land a Melee blow. Bonus armor does not stack
The second part of the talent is what we currently know: Melee hits kill red and purples on a cooldown, but I'm adding an Elite effect that is Blinding them, This would make the Melee hit worth using on higher enemies.
I'm also giving a slight bonus to optimal range and accuracy.
Backfire
Talent: Payment in Kind
Dealing damage to enemies adds a stack of +1% critical hit damage, up to 200 stacks.
Stacks Decay by 5 every 3 seconds. After reaching max stacks, decay stops for 20 seconds.
On reload, apply a 10 second bleed to yourself, which deals 0.5% armor damage per stack.Optics: +5% Critical Hit Chance
Magazine: +20 Extra Rounds
Underbarrel: +10% Weapon Handling
Muzzle: +10% Critical Hit Damage
Lots of tweaks here. First, Backfire stacks would be decaying instead of instantly lost. The pace is 5 every 3 seconds, which means it would take 2 Minutes of total inactivity for all stacks to be lost, but reaching 200 stacks will stop the decay temporarily. This is much more engaging and versatile and allows players to switch to different combat situations without losing all stacks like reviving an ally, applying a medkit, charging Umbra Stacks, etc.
Mods would be receiving more changes, a slight bump in Handling and Critical Hit Damage.
The Chatterbox
Talent: Incessant Chatter
When you reload, rate of fire is increased by 25% for each enemy within 15 meters for the duration of that magazine.
Max stacks: 4
Kills refill your magazine.
Optics: +15% Critical Hit Chance
Magazine: +15 Extra Rounds
Underbarrel: +10% Weapon Handling
Muzzle: +10% Critical Hit Damage
In a vacuum, the ROF increase for this weapon with Incessant Chatter is pretty much the same but each stack grants a higher buff on a ceiling of 4. This is to make the bonus more meaningful on a 1v1 both in PvE and PvP. It's also receiving a damage bump with 5 extra bullets for a total of 65. Kills now refill the magazine, as opposed to just half of it.
Acosta's Go-Bag
Talent: One in Hand...
Throwing a grenade refunds it and grants +1 skill tier for 15 seconds. Grants overcharge if already at skill tier 6.
Cooldown is 60 seconds.
Skill Kills reduce Overcharge Cooldown by 5 seconds.
Talent: ... Two in the Bag
+1 Armor Kit Capacity
+3 Grenade Capacity
+25% Ammo Capacity
+10% Skill Efficiency
Generate 1 Grenade for all allies every 30 seconds
This one is just genius, if I may so myself. Acosta's Go Bag is currently a meme, but with these changes it would rival the usefulness of Memento. First of all, engaging your skills and scoring kills with them will lower the cooldown of the Overcharge effect, allowing you to use it more frequently. You would need 20 kills for a full refresh, so I feel it's well balanced.
I also removed Repair and Status and substituted it with an equal roll of Efficiency, which covers both but also adds Haste, Duration and Damage. Lastly, it will generate a grenade every 30 seconds to the group, so they can throw them at leisure.
Ridgeway's Pride
Talent: Bleeding Edge
Shooting enemies within 15 meters applies bleed to the target.
Repair 6-48% of your armor per second for every enemy that is bleeding within 20 meters.
1 enemy: 6%
2 enemies: 12%
3 enemies: 24%
4 enemies: 48%
The first change here is to widen the range of the regen to 20 meters. The regen numbers are also changed significantly with the minimum now being 6% and the maximum being reached at 4 enemies. Following the same concept of Chatterbox, this is meant to give it more value for 1v1 and PvP.
Bloody Knuckles
Talent Over the Top
Damaging an enemy with a grenade or striking an enemy with a melee attack activates the Seeing Red buff. Seeing Red grants +25% weapon damage and Amplifies +100% melee damage. Seeing Red lasts 20 seconds and has a 60 second cooldown.
While in cooldown, striking an enemy with a melee attack or hitting an enemy with the effect of a grenade will complete the cooldown instantly.
Melee Kills refresh the Seeing Red Buff.
Simple change here that we've been mentioning collectively since PTS: Melee Damage buff has to be Multiplicative, but in addition to that, scoring a Melee Kill will extend the duration of the buff.
Imperial Dynasty
Talent: Dragon's Glare
While in combat, applies burn to all enemies within 20 meters and applies a mark for 10 seconds. Marked enemies take 20% more Damage. Killing marked enemies lowers the cooldown of Dragon's Glare by 5 seconds
Cooldown: 40 seconds.
So the dynamic here stays pretty similar, but now the AoE Burn will mark enemies and allow you to damage them more with any effect or damage types. The Exotic has a long cooldown, but if you kill marked enemies, you can lower it, so it's much more engaging.
Waveform
Talent: Alternating Current
Generate a stack of 3% Skill Damage on one of your skills every second, capping at 10 stacks. After 10 seconds at the cap the stacks transfer to your other skill. The process then repeats ad-infinitum.
Stacks transfer Immediately when a skill goes on Cooldown.
Grants +15% Chem Launcher Oxidizer Skill Haste per skill tier
Waveform stays fundamentally similar, but with a mechanic that allows you to sort the weakest part of it which is when a skill goes down while receiving stacks. This would also allow players to more dynamically engage with other Charge based skills like the Hive and Chem Launcher.
Additionally, using Waveform on a ST6 Build will grant a 90% Skill Haste, allowing you to use other small rolls like Skill Duration.
NinjaBike Messenger Kneepads
Talent: Parkour!
Performing a cover to cover, vaulting or combat roll reloads your drawn weapon and grants +25% bonus armor for 5 seconds.
Effect stacks up to 4 times.
One of the worst Exotics can easily turn into one of the best. These kneepads are meant for highly mobile builds, so all movement actions like vaulting and combat roll will grant stacking Bonus Armor up to 100% of your armor for a short duration, without a cooldown. This would grant great defensive capabilities for a short duration if you keep moving.
Sawyer’s Kneepads
Talent: Stand Your Ground
Cannot be staggered by explosions.
Increase total weapon damage by 3% each second you are not moving. Stacks up to 10 times until you start moving. All stacks are lost 10 seconds after moving.
Patience
After not moving and remaining in cover for 5 seconds, grant 5% Armor Regen. This effect is lost immediately after moving or leaving cover.
Sawyer's Kneepads are great, but I'm bringing back a great talent from Gear 1.0 to them, so that it grants another form of defense.
These are all pretty much all the ideas that I have. I really hope they can reach the Game Devs and be implemented in some capacity, as Exotics really need to feel powerful and grant unique opportunities and synergies.
Please do note I'm not mentioning PvP and I don't really care to. This isn't a PvP game.
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