Talk:Hydroid (Warframe)/@comment-71.68.5.54-20141113113052

TL;DR - Hydroid is a lot of fun with a playstyle that works best with equal use of his powers and weapons. However, his effectiveness falls off quickly due to his powers not scaling or benefiting from most mods.

Building Hydroid is sketchy since he doesn't really benefit from power strength as his abilities base damage/type are too weak to build around (Tentacle Swarm the exception). He doesn't benefit from duration, except for Tidal Surge - Tempest Barrage and Tentacle Swarm actually suffer from duration since you may want to recast them sooner. Range spreads TB and TS out too much making them less effective.

He is best built around Power Effeciency(with neutral duration), and Natural Talent so he can spam his minor CC capabilities. Tidal Surge for emergency knockdown/closing distance for melee, Tidal Barrage for ranged CC, moving into Undertow while reloading or to dodge stomps/pulls and TS for breathing room when the screen is crowded.

This gives him a playstyle that requires equal active use of his powers, melee and range which is a direction I think all frames should gravitate instead of only needing one button. Volt is a good example of this also. Unfortunately, with the current core mechanics and gameplay his actual effectiveness falls off fast as none of his abilities scale .. at all.

Hydroid would be great if TB could be recasted while one was already active, and Tentacle Swarm had a minor rework where power strength affected the number of tentacles. Alternatively if the tentacles grabbed an enemy, and once that enemy was dead it would receed into the ground and pop up to grab a different enemy within the ability range. Or even make TS spawn less tentacles, but make it castable even if it is already active.