Warframe Techrot Encore: All Ash rework details

With Warframe's Techrot Encore update this March, Ash is getting a little touch-up on his abilities to be a bit more palatable and less mechanically obscure (it's all smoke and mirrors). As one of the first frames that has persisted from the beta days, there's some jank in how Ashe's abilities interact with your mod setup, and this lite-rework aims to eliminate that.

While he's a trusty old-school endurance-runner many veteran players main, Ash has not been exactly meta-favored by new Tenno. With this Warframe update, it will hopefully be a bit more lucrative to try out the OG definitive space-ninja.

All changes to Ash coming in Warframe Techrot Encore

That's all she wrote, except some fine prints are kind of crazy (Image via Digital Extremes)

Unlike the Nova or Trinity lite-rework a few months ago, Ash needed no rework for his passive. 25% stronger Slash is a solid baseline passive to have, and automatically makes Ash semi-viable as a weapons platform for Warframe players who have stuck to the time-honored Viral-Slash meta.

Onwards to the actual ability changes:

First Ability - Shuriken

Base damage increased from 500 to 750.
The number of thrown projectiles increased from 2 to 5 Shurikens, which are released in an arc in front of Ash, and home toward the enemies.
Enemies hit with Shuriken now contribute towards the Melee Combo Counter.

This makes Seeking Shurikens an even better augment, as you can consistently armor-strip more enemies now. However, armor strip is not really as big of a deal as it used to be, especially as Ash's main gimmick is bypassing armor in the first place (be it with Slash ticks or Blade Storm, as explained below).

Second Ability - Smoke Screen

Increased the base duration from 8s to 12s. Smoke Shadow (Augment) also provides the same duration to keep parity.

With this change, Ash has the highest base-duration Invisibility, sharing the crown with Loki. Speaking of which, this takes away Loki's relevance even more, and we hope that Warframe eventually gets a pick-me-up this year.

Third Ability - Teleport

The ‘Fatal Teleport’ Augment is now a part of Teleport, and automatically performs finisher on cast with a 200% finisher bonus.

The “Fatal Teleport: Augment has now changed to “Quickend Teleport”:

Executing a target with Teleport increases Parkour Velocity by 30% for 12s. The duration is doubled with a Mercy Kill.
Finisher kills performed by Ash will extend the Smoke Screen's duration. Mercy kills will reset Smoke Screen duration.

Parkour Velocity is arguably the most important stat for mobility, so the new and rebranded Quickened Teleport is great for that alone. However, Teleport is generally not used much on Ash, as it doesn't really flow well with how most players currently play off a simple 2-4 rotation.

Depending on how much the Smoke Screen extension is, the augment may be worth it for an off-brand melee Cyte-09 playstyle.

Fourth Ability - Bladestorm

Keeping with the Pseudo-Exalted changes in the coming patch, Bladestorm is now an Exalted Weapon with a pre-installed Orokin Catalyst, along with two Madurai polarities.
Bladestorm is now considered a Dagger, allowing you to equip weapon-specific mods like Covert Lethality.
Bladestorm has a Critical Chance of 5%, a Critical Multiplier of 1x and a Status Chance of 5%.

The third pointer may baffle those who are not familiar with the main catch of Blade Storm. Simply put, the crit or status chance doesn't matter. Ash's main gimmick is dealing True damage, which bypasses all sorts of mitigation like Armor.

The bigger change, however, is the quality-of-life improvements that make Bladestorm much quicker and smoother. Before, Baldestorm used to put three marks on enemies, and casting it would result in three clone attacks. The first one was based on mods on your stat-stick, but ignored actual Warframe mods. The other two strikes are vice versa: stat-sticks are not taken into consideration, but mods are.

With the Techrot Encore patch, stat-sticks will be a thing of the past for Pseudo-Exalted abilities. Instead, here's how the new and better Blade Storm will function:

Ash can mark targets with an increased radius around the reticle.
Bladestorm now marks each target only once. Clones will no longer perform three Finisher attacks on enemies; instead, they will execute a single attack, allowing the ability to resolve faster.
The attack considers both mods into the exclusive Blade Storm mod platform, as well as Ability Strength on Ash himself.

Overall, Ash is stronger now; how much stronger is something we'll only know when the patch hits on March 19. Meanwhile, check out our other guides:

Edited by Sijo Samuel Paul