You know I glaze Lancer a lot but I really gotta say there are some design issues I feel certain frames have and I should talk about them sometime
IPS-N
Blackbeard: The Blackbeard's representation is tonally at odds with how it's most optimally used. So many people see it as the Berserker Attack-Attack-Attack mech because of SEKHMET when it actually rewards a very measured, considerate playstyle of grabbing enemies, shutting down their reactions and moving them out of position.
Raleigh: The Raleigh has a niche that it comfortably occupies now, but I feel like it's illustrative that it didn't find this niche until the Stortebeker came along and provided the power fantasy that everyone thought they were getting with the Raleigh the first time they saw it.
Tortuga: Cool you made The Mech That Is Good At Everything and its literal only weakness is it's a bit slow, one of Lancer's easiest problems to fix? The Tortuga is without a doubt my favourite mech and even I think it needs to be nerfed a little.
Vlad: The Vlad is an all-around excellent close combat frame hampered by a slightly unfocused and lackluster toolset. What is the Impact Lance doing here? Why would I ever use Webjaw Snare?
SSC
Black Witch: "My core power is that if my ally is a CQB mech like the Tortuga, they get to do no damage for a turn and then eat 6d6 damage to the face." Mag Field is so easily circumvented by just not firing into it - or, if a PC is inside it, firing into it a bunch to pump its damage. Also for a piece of pinnacle gear that costs 3 SP, Black ICE Module just... doesn't have enough punch.
Death's Head: As Zee Bashew would put it, "I get to spend one whole turn imagining how hard I'm going to hit this enemy instead of actually taking the turn to hit this enemy." You have to spend your entire turn focusing on an enemy for the potential to roll a ton of extra damage if you crit. Remember that the Railgun, the Death's Head's signature weapon, is an area weapon and bonus damage is halved for multi-target attacks. The enemy can also shut off this extra damage by being in any form of cover. Bad core power. Possibly the worst.
HORUS
Goblin: So I get to spend a Quick Action to lose my action economy and get my friend and I heatgunned and AoE'd to death? And it ends if either of us get Stunned? And this is what I have to spend my core battery on?
Hydra: Hello yes I am The Mech That Procs Twenty Bazingillion Saves, which is why my Save Target is the lowest possible starting Save Target in the entire game. Also my action economy is consumed by handling all these drones but I also have to be an off-striker for some reason!
Manticore: I wish they'd never put that fucking meme trait on this thing. I never fucking hear the end of the stupid fucking LMAO EXPLODE jokes.
Minotaur: Genuinely, what is the power fantasy here? I look at the Minotaur and I struggle to understand what precisely I'm supposed to be imagining myself doing when I pilot it. Couple this with a powerful equipment package, but on a frame that doesn't feel fun or interesting to play, this is a license you dip into to get something important for a completely different frame.
Harrison Armory
Napoleon: So I can spend my core power to just not play the game?
Saladin: This frame has the opposite problem to the Minotaur. It has a very, very clear power fantasy - "create a bubble of impenetrable safety for my friends" - and goes absolutely hard on it. You then discover that being permanently immobilised or slowed and having to spend most of your actions maintaining the bubbles with very little else to do is miserable. The power fantasy is so well-defined you end up discovering why it's not very fun.
Barbarossa Mains letting out a sight of relief
The thing about the Barbarossa is it basically makes you play a different game to the game that all of your allies and all of the NPCs are playing. The thing that saves this from being a design flaw is that the Barbarossa Game is actually very fun to play if you do it right.
Answering a couple of tags
Lancaster: Lmao I have the only real, actual healing ability in the game and it sucks shit because it:
a. can miss, wasting my quick action b. costs 1 repair but only restores half an ally's HP
Also Combat Repair sucks shit because it leaves the rezzed ally at 1 HP, making them the most obvious possible target.
This is intentional and not a design flaw. Its frame trait is specifically intended to turn other weapons into Pegasus weapons - that is, sources of deterministic damage.
Surprised not to see Atlas on here with it being 90% vulnerabilities by volume.
Also, Gilgamesh dodging a Tortuga callout on technicality of having the frame be the only non-best class piece of the license.
Surprised not to see Atlas on here with it being 90% vulnerabilities by volume.
That's not a design flaw, though? The Atlas is specifically a high-risk, high-reward frame. You can knock most enemies in the game prone without even investing in Blackbeard 1 SMN. You ignore engagement from most enemies. You have some of the best movement tech in the game. You deal bonus damage against Prone targets - the status that innately makes it easier to hit them. You have the highest base Evasion in the game, tied with one other frame. You can straight up say no to half the damage from a larger enemy (which, again, is most of them) and scoot away.
Yes the Atlas is exceptionally weak to heatgunning and tech attacks, but how the fuck else would you deal with it? On a map with friendly geometry you can move across half the map to kill something and then spend the rest of your turn moving back.
Frankly I'm surprised you haven't talked about the Mourning Cloak. It's licensed weapons are bad to mediocre and one of its systems is "I fuck off and hope not to randomly reappear when I don't want to"
one of its systems is "I fuck off and hope not to randomly reappear when I don't want to"
This part of the criticism I largely agree with, although I will point out that the chances of rolling triples on the dice are 6/216 = 1/36 = 2.77%. The fact that it takes a full action to teleport 4 spaces (4 is the functional minimum, because a roll of 3 is by definition 1-1-1, teleporting you to Alabama) is bad, but it's not the "a non-active "ult" part of the core power so it's more forgivable. Its actual ult is "standard movement and boost is teleportation," which is absurdly good.
It's licensed weapons are bad to mediocre
But I can't accept this.
Fold Knife is an Aux Melee that combines Accurate with an on crit effect, which by dint of Accuracy will activate more often. The on crit effect is one of the extremely few instances in the game of cost-free teleportation, which is EXTREMELY exploitable when combined with other frames or systems.
Vijaya Rockets are one of two weapons in the game that natively allow you to combine Gunslinger and Stormbringer, and the only one that doesn't require reloading. Accurate ensures they hit (and crit) more often, which benefits I Kill With My Heart.
Variable Sword is a Threat 2 melee weapon (which allows it to attack Berserkers without risk) that has innate accuracy and free on-crit bonus damage. Yes, it has low base damage, but the base damage is also deterministic and not subject to the whims of dice. Low base damage is also very easily fixed by talents, core bonuses and the frame's in-built traits.
Very solid frame which balances its downsides very well with its upsides. Notably:
Only baseframe in Lancer you can safely overcharge loop in without any modification, because its base Heat Cap is 10.
Strong mechanical and flavour focus on its core themes (Burn and Heat management)
Looks sick AF
Almost all its license gear is useful
