I'd Like Some Help - Warframe Choices.

[SpiderWaifu]

Not sure if this is the right subforum for this, but I'm in a bit of a pickle.

Currently I've got a Volt [i've been thinking about replacing it] and Frost, with one empty slot. What can I say? I love elemental-caster types in any game.

I sort of want to change my play style though. I'm not sure if I want to get the Ash, Excalibur or Rhino.

I've heard all sorts of good and bad things about all three.

What would be the ~best~ choice of the three for an insane axeman with the command of elements at my fingers, and disdains the use of guns?

Playstyles, ability combos and mods would be appreciated aswell for the 'frames.

[Ryme]

Excalibur or Ash would be the best for you, depending on your preference of skill usage. Rhino is currently too slow to make effectively use of melee. Ash is one of the fastest frames, but may have issue with his skills not being as potent. Excalibur has tried and true abilities that are useful in various situation.

Ash parts are probably easier to farm than Excalibur's.

[SpiderWaifu]

Excalibur or Ash would be the best for you, depending on your preference of skill usage. Rhino is currently too slow to make effectively use of melee. Ash is one of the fastest frames, but may have issue with his skills not being as potent. Excalibur has tried and true abilities that are useful in various situation.

Ash parts are probably easier to farm than Excalibur's.

I've currently got the Ash BP's, except for systems.

Excalibur seems more geared towards tons of damage, and Ash... Speed and stuff?

I don't know. Excaliburs 1st is better than Ashs'. Not sure how Radial blind and Smoke bomb stack up against eachother. Superjump and Teleport are VERY situational. Not sure about their 4ths.

Can't decided between damage, or style+speed.

I forgot to mention Loki in the OP.

[G3rman]

Super jump is terrible, useless. Don't even consider it.

Ash takes a certain player to enjoy him, and even then it can be tough with some of his powers being glitchy or tough to handle. If you want speed and swordplay though, he might be your bet.

Excalibur is the beginner frame and is a relatively balanced, melee-focused warframe. Always a choice to fall back on.

I started with a Loki and I enjoy it, but it can be difficult to get any kind of substantial damage going. You are a utility class, perfect for rushing and soloing, you can get past enemies with ease. Great speed too. Without any offensive powers though it can get tough, as I said. You are heavily reliant on your weaponry in that case.

[SpiderWaifu]

Loki or Ash seem like it would be best for me.

I already rely mainly on my melee weapons.

With Loki there's the possibility to do this > http://www.youtube.c...h?v=jfnSjPkMbCs

But Ash seems alot more about flash, and sometimes I enjoy that sort of style.

What sort of things make them superior to each other, or their downsides? Besides the Loki's lack of direct damage, and Ash's sometimes buggy attacks.

Edit: Rewording.

Edited February 11, 2013 by SpiderWaifu

[G3rman]

Hm, this is delving into somewhere I cannot get into specifics as I don't have much experience with Ash.

Loki leans toward being an odd team player with his powers, but Ash is basically one man ninja army of doing things on his own. Loki's ultimate disarms opponents which benefits everyone, his decoy draws aggro which benefits everyone, and depending on how it is used the switch teleport can very well save a team-mate's life. Invisible is the one power that benefits only the Loki player in solo or co-op for avoiding mobs or enhancing damage.

Ash's shuriken I hear is difficult to aim and is not consistent in the way it handles against certain enemies, whether it pierces them or even damages them etc. His teleport sounds better than Loki, as he does not require an actor to target, but players don't make it out to sound all that so maybe not. The smoke bomb apparently does not keep enemies from shooting at you, at least for very long, but gives you a chance to hit them with enhanced damage or retreat. Bladestorm is cool, if it works, but like all of Ash's abilities the energy required isn't always worth bothering (considering Bladestorm often doesn't work).

In the end I guess it matters what kind of role you want to be in co-op, or even solo. Ash is a loner type and his main contribution is running fast for objectives and killing things, and those things are up to the player to do. Loki's powers can put him in an odd, but very important support role for the team, aside from capping objectives and hitting bosses.

Unrelated because you don't really use guns, but Loki's decoy can be used to get into generally unreachable spots by using switch teleport. It can be used for getting away from enemies or crossing chasms/drops that others would have to go around.

Edited February 11, 2013 by G3rman

[SpiderWaifu]

Yeah... I've seen some strange things with decoy+switch. But mostly switch-trolling.

I mostly play Solo, but I built my Frost and Volt to have mainly team-assist things. Duration for my stuns, and shield-powers that sort of thing.

Right now, Loki seems to be the better choice. Thanks for the help.

[Kalara]

Hello Spider,

i can shed some light on Ash, as I am leveling it right now (currently rank 26).

He is a fast warframe with low armor. If focused upon he'll go down quickly.

Ash is best suited for hit-&-run tactics.

Now his abilities :

1) Shuriken. Looks amazing at first. But here are some problems with it. The base shuriken only deals 100 damage and isn't nearly as accurate as you would think. Only really useful on immobile targets unless you can lead the target (shuriken has a travel time).

Because the shuriken is shot from the left hand side of the reticule, it also has problems with obstacles that might be in the way during the travel time. Meaning you'll need go line of sight on the target, but also that you'll be shot while using it (and try to avoid that as Ash).

The upgraded version, I find, is still a bit meh though.

2) Smoke Screen. Can be a life saver, but it's duration is very very short. Especially at it's base level.

Think it only last 1 or 1,5 seconds.

You are 'invisible' at that point and if you melee people with it, you'll automatically crit them during that time. But because of the short time you won't get that many hits in.

Good for escaping though.

Bear in mind that some enemies still hit you while using it. For example those infested jumper can still knock you down while you are smokescreened. I believe it because they have a starting animation that 'targets' you when they use it, so if you some screen after they start, they can still hit you.

Once upgraded it becomes better.

3) Teleport: I haven't used this at all atm on Ash, as I feel it's very unreliable. To teleport you also need a good line of sight. Enemies behind railings, behind crates, and sometimes on a seperate level then you, can be troublesome to teleport to.

4) Bladestorm. It looks cool, real ninja like. Poof, stab, poof, stab again, poof, ..etc.

It one shots normal mobs dealing a good deal of damage to 'elites'.

HOWEVER ... it can easily bug out, or get you killed right now. Using it on infested is fun, but nearly suicide. Those infested chargers instahit you if you teleport near them, meaning that if you use it on about 5 of those, you will have lost shields and some hp.

If then by chance there is a Toxic Ancient there aswell, your Ash will teleport to melee rane, hit him and ofcourse take damage from the toxin.

As bladestorm takes away your control of the character you need to wait for the animation to finish before you can start moving again.

But for example the infested defense mission on Xini (Eris), you'll most likely die while using it. It's a lot better on corpus/grineer.

People said it sometimes bugs (as in you fall through the world, the visual effect (called fish-eye) remains after the skill is over .. But I haven't encountered these yet.

So on my Ash I mainly use Smoke Screen & Bladestorm, shuriken when I have enough energy to screw around a bit.

It might seem, by my lst, the abilities are way to unreliable, but don't get me wrong.

He is still very fun to play, especially as it's a fast frame, focused a bit more on melee.

The only advise I can really give you is to try it out, and see if it's a frame you would enjoy.

Hope I helped you at least a bit here :)

[Nephera]

I prefer loki over ash, especially because ash's shurkens are difficult to aim and you can get killed while using bladestorm.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=jfnSjPkMbCs and that yeah..thats pretty..wow......wow ok I am maxing out loki immediately.

Excalibur is great save for superjump.

I love rhino and iron skin is what I use for prolonged melee battles with him but if you're not playing with friends dont expect people to slow down for you.

looking it at a purely melee oriented perspective.

loki - stealthy stabbing with an ult that lets you turn a crowd of gunners into a brawl.

excalibur- good for jumping in and out of combat. Radial blind, slash dash and radial javelin all lend themselves to a melee heavy playstyle.

Rhino- Iron skin lets you stand and fight in melee, high shields and heavy armor let you stay in there a little longer and rhino charge lets you get out of combat when you need to. ( avoid radial blast if you can, rhino stomp is so much more superior that it practically invalidates RB)

[Kalara]

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=jfnSjPkMbCs and that yeah..thats pretty..wow......wow ok I am maxing out loki immediately.

Since that video was made, the Crit damage mods have been balanced.

As you use the invisibility thing, you'll auto-crit hence why that guy was built around crit damage mods.

I don't know if that is still possible now, but yea it is still quite powerful.

[Nephera]

Since that video was made, the Crit damage mods have been balanced.

As you use the invisibility thing, you'll auto-crit hence why that guy was built around crit damage mods.

I don't know if that is still possible now, but yea it is still quite powerful.

ah.

Though given that loki still crits on stealth it's probably still really ridiculous.