Torn between choosing a new frame for solo (Inaros or Chroma?)

[Ailryden]

Greetings fellow Tenno, 

As the title says, I'm at an impasse at the moment. What frame do I pick up next?

To give you an idea, I went the usual route of Excalibur to Rhino, picked up Ivara for my love of bows, followed by an Eternal War Valkyr Prime setup. Got Trinity Prime for free with Twitch, but I rarely use her as I don't care too much for support frames. 

I really want to experiment with more of the guns and sidearms this game has to offer as well as the huge selection of melee weapons, but my first priority is clearing the Star Chart. Even with my Valkyr Prime/Eternal War build, I'm running into issues on Neptune with survivability and basically getting steamrolled before I can activate hysteria or simply run out of energy and die anyways. 

So here's my question, what's a solid, tanky frame that's good for soloing that will help me break into Pluto and Sedna? I've been doing some research on Chroma and Inaros and they seem to be my best bets. That said, I'm leaning more towards the Lazy Tank setup for Inaros as Chroma seems to need some very specific (and expensive) mods to really flesh out his builds properly. That, and people seem to regard Inaros as the better tank frame after the changes made to Chroma. 

Can any veterans that have experience with both help me out with some feedback?

I realize I could probably clear the star chart with Ivara or Valkyr with enough work, but they just feel so squishy. I'd rather have something that makes me feel like a brick wall and let's me eat some damage, jump into the fray, and basically get stuff done without worry of dying. I know Rhino is probably a prime candidate for this, but his playstyle is just too simple for me. I like Inaros' CC mechanics and innate healing, however Chroma has the potential to ramp up damage for gunplay to insane levels. 

Any advice is appreciated!

[Dawn11715]

well valkyr and rhino are already quite tanky and good for solo missions.

I dont think your problem are the warframes, but rather the mods you put into them.

may I see your builds for Rhino or Valkyr?

[GnarlsDarkley]

I also go with your setup being wrong/not ideal.

show us what you use and maybe explain how you play and we can help you way better.

e.g I see lots of Inaros being a burden in sorties and on the other hand I can complete the star chart with a non-reactored Excal

Edited September 2, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[Ailryden]

[Ailryden]

That's what I'm running at the moment. 

Any suggestions for improvement?

[GnarlsDarkley]

28 minutes ago, Ailryden said:

Ditch Blaze and Chilling Relaod for now and max charged shell and contagious spread

28 minutes ago, Ailryden said:

Max Hunter Adrenaline asap. it gives you back Energy. Also toss Blind rage...your abilities costs too much this way. add a normal maxed Intesify, Switch Aegis for Flow to have more energy for your 4. You can also consider switching Resolve for Streamline.

Galatine: Toss Condition Overload, you dont have enough Elements for it being really useful, instead max Blood Rush. way more dps due to higher crit chance!

28 minutes ago, Ailryden said:

Ditch Volcanic and max fever and shocking

 

Neptune is Corpus planet, you have to deal with Nullifier and Scrambus which both can disable your 4 if you aren't careful. The negative of your 4 is: you get all absorbed dmg in one moment as long as there are enemies near you when it is being disabled. If you see any of those 2 types run away to safety, disable your 4 manually when no one is around and kill them, only then proceed

You can also consider using Gas instead of corrosive until Sedna

 

And since both your Melee and Primary are hard hitting but rather slow weapons I suggest a high fire rate/beam Secondary like the Synoid Gammacor/Atomos

 

And if you want to switch to Inaros i suggest sth like this

I use this build in Hijack missions when they are shuffled into the Sortie and never die/get more than 20% group dmg

Edited September 2, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[WorvernScar]

I would suggest Inaros. He's an 'out of the box' tanky frame suitiable for pretty much everything. Paired with Negation Swarm, his scarab armor doubles as an iron skin hybrid as well.

To get the most out of Chroma, he needs a lot of the high level mods, such as the one from vault runs, and a couple arcanes to maximize his capability to tank damage. In restrospect Chroma can get a bit pricey (in a sense he can be considered the 'most expensive' frame to some) if you want him at his absolute best. He's my favorite frame in the game by far, but it took some time and lovin to get him there.

Edited September 2, 2018 by WorvernScar

[Ailryden]

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I'll swap those mods out and give it a shot. 

Still gonna pick up both Inaros and Chroma to play around with and for the MR rank, but I think I'll side with Inaros until I'm in the higher difficulties to really max him out. 

[(PSN)Kamranos]

Harrow is a god on the battlefield. The ability to get 2k+ oversheilds without any shield mods, invincibility for upwards of 10+ seconds and ending with a major crit buff. CC and energy building ability. He is an underrated sleeper frame that will make short work of everything in the star map and then some without the need to cheese tank abilities.

Edited September 2, 2018 by (PS4)Kamranos

[GnarlsDarkley]

30 minutes ago, (PS4)Kamranos said:

He is an underrated sleeper frame that will make short work of everything in the star map

and if you dont want to buy him, you have to complete the WHOLE star chart before (Mot is requirement for his quest)

[(PSN)Kamranos]

1 hour ago, GnarlsDarkley said:

and if you dont want to buy him, you have to complete the WHOLE star chart before (Mot is requirement for his quest)

Inaros requires the Void trader to actually have the quest and you to have the ducats to buy it. Plus you will need to be able to complete the urn, which if you’re having trouble with the star map, might be challenging. Market cost 225

Chroma requires multiple junctions including Pluto, which means you already have most of the chart anyways. Also need to defeat several difficult bosses for those struggling with the star chart. Market cost 375

Harrow requires a quest which is not dependent on the trader having it to sell, but you pr drive to get it. Also no bosses to defeat. Market cost 225

Selling a few items in trade chat and a 50% or better login discount makes Harrow a steal. I’d pick him over the other two any day and help any new player looking to acquire him. He is worth his weight in plat. That is why he requires a high nod unlocked.

[GnarlsDarkley]

3 minutes ago, (PS4)Kamranos said:

snip

Baro arrives every two weeks.

Inaros blueprint is 100 ducat, thats 3x 45 ducats items each 2p = 6p.

All enemies are easy to farm, even juggernaut in low level infested fissures.

OP is not on console, we dont have discount on market

Edited September 2, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[(PSN)Kamranos]

Ease of farming is relative to each player. Not everyone wants to wait for the Void trader to move forward in the game.

Correct, PC doesn’t get market plat discounts, that I should my oversight. 

I wasn’t looking to get into some online debate on which is better. I was simply tossing out Harrow is a strong solo frame worth the work to get.

[(PSN)xtharbadx]

I'd also suggest giving Trinity a try, since you already have her.

The notion that Trinity is just a support frame, isn't actually accurate. Yes, that is what she is most known for, but she does really great solo as well.

You activate your 3 and 4 and you have a tanky frame.

I was actually doing some tests last night just for kicks on the simulacrum, spawned 8x level 115 gunners and compared how long would Rhino iron skin survive vs Trinity in the middle of that enemy group without shooting.

Rhino survived 5 seconds, Trinity survived 7 seconds. So, yeah, trinity can be misleading due to the fact that most people tend to see her as just a support frame.

[(XBOX)Furious Kaiser]

Inaros, apart from his tankiness, has some good CC via his pocket sand (blinds foes) which also opens up enemies to melee finishers (good damage from any melee, but extremely deadly when combo'd with the Covert Lethality mod and a 1-h dagger).

Chroma, when using his augment for his Elemental Ward ability, can buff allies really well. Setting him up for the ice element is probably the most popular, as the ice buffs armor and also deflect a percentage of projectiles. The fire element is a close second (in terms of tankiness), as it gives a fairly large health pool boost (works well with a Rage and Equilibrium mod setup). The ice element, however, holds up better when under sustained fire in higher difficulties. His Vex Armor ability, on top of further stacking on armor, is what gives him his damage boost. You have to build up to it's max potential by taking damage to his shields (for armor buff) and health (for damage buff) Only trick is to keep an eye on your buff timer and recast when necessary to maintain the buffs. Vex Armor can be recast while still active, but Elemental Ward has to run out before it can be recast. Chroma has been my main for a long time, even before PoE hit. While the nerf to his Vex Armor damage buff was a bit of a kick to the squishy parts, I will say he is still highly capable of dishing out some amazing damage with his weaponry with the same buff. He is a great at melee spamming or running and gunning. I ran with the Hek shotgun for a good while, then changed it out for the Arca Plasmor. While I prefer up close combat, Chroma can still do good work at any range.

Some other frames to think about that can be tanky and dish out some damage:

Mirage: Her Eclipse ability makes her tanky when standing in shadows, while making her hit harder in light. Coupled with her Hall of Mirrors which boosts her damage output, as well as draw enemy fire with her clones, makes her pretty tanky and good at dishing out damage.

Mesa: Her shatter shield ability boosts her armor rating up pretty high, making her a very capable tank, and her Peacemaker ability dishes out amazing damage.

Frost: Built him for power strength, armor, efficiency, and reduced range and you got yourself a small personal bubble to stand your ground in and shoot from without hindering allies line of site too much. Having a high power str also makes his other abilities dish out some decent damage too (be mindful of the range)

Zephyr: While not technically tanky, her Turbulence ability deflects ALL incoming projectiles in an aura around her, so she can cover allies too, if they are near enough. Does nothing versus melee enemies tho, and bombard shots can explode close enough (if they get deflected like straight down) to damage her if the aura isn't big enough. She does not have any damage boosting abilities however. Great for running bounties out on the Plains tho.

Atlas: After his recent re-work he has gotten some tankiness in the form of his stacking armor from picking up rubble (it caps at around 1500 armor irrc, diminishes over time, but easy to keep up if you petrify and kill frequently). Using his first ability, Landslide, on petrified enemies yields more health and armor rubble. He has some decent CC in the form of his Petrify ability, which, well, petrifies enemies. While he does not get a straight damage buff, but any petrified enemies take more damage from all sources. Bring along his Ore Gaze augment mod to get more loots dropped from slaying petrified enemies.

There are others out there, but these are the only ones that came to mind atm that haven't been talked about (as of typing this).

Hope this helps :)

P.S. sorry for wall of text lol.

[Veridian]

I wonder why no one's mentioned yet the single most obvious reason you should pick Inaros.

You need Saryn systems to build Chroma. That is if you plan on getting him the normal way and that requires you to clear Sedna.

However, Inaros has no competition as a tank, he has 4 sources of healing - Passive, 1st, 2nd and 4th and lots of HP, also a thing people ignore is his ability for up to 40 sec of invulnerability, albeit he has to hold position.

Also, in my humble opinion Inaros doesn't require Strength or Efficiency and benefits somewhat from Duration and Range, however even those are not that needed.

So the build I use for 7k+ HP and 6-700 Armor is :Steel Charge, Coaction Drift, Hunter Adrenaline, Negation Swarm, Gladiator Resolve, Gladiator Aegis, Intensify, Vitality, Fiber. I have a mod missing because the last 3 are umbral and I have no more capacity, but I didn't find anything worth having anyway, if you use normal mods you can add some QOL mod. This build along with an Orthos Prime is immortal and 1shots sortie 3 enemies, does miracles in the Index and for a bit of an overkill I added Medi-Ray to my companion.

As for Valkyr, your build is almost the same as mine, umbral mods aside, just swap Gladiator Aegis for Intensify. Level the mods and get a Kavat with Pack Leader and Hunter Recovery. The thing about Valkyr is, that if you don't have enough sustain, E.G. Arcane Grace/Elevate/Nourish, Hirudo, Kavat/Kubrow, then Life strike is advised, since there's a good chance you may get downed while trying to activate Hysteria, plus this is mostly a Warcry build so it would be good if you don't have to spend 60% of the time in Hysteria, healing yourself.

Also, switch the Galatine for something with higher critical, replace the 60/60 mods with 90% ones, remove condition overload for Organ Shatter or True Steel, since you seem to be looking for a combo based build.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Ver1dian