Should I find a replacement for Volt, or am I doing something wrong?

[(XBOX)InstaFiz]

As I'm reaching higher leveled missions, it's harder to stay alive. My HP is just getting shredded through.

Now, I understand that in order to truly get stronger, you need to level up your mods. But survivability is still difficult despite the fact that I upgraded the hell out of my shields.

A possible reason that I can think of is that Volt's armor is garbage. I'm starting to wonder if I should replace him for someone with better survivability.

Easier said than done, though. I love his abilities. The way his Shock chains between enemies is so useful, and that shield of his is handy. I've already tried Frost, who has a better shield than Volt, but I feel like his Ice Wave isn't as consistent as Volt's Shock.

My question is: should I start looking for a Warframe with better armor and survivability who's just as useful as Volt, or is there something else I can do for better survivability while still using Volt?

Or should I just screw it and main Rhino?

(I'm mainly a solo player, by the way. Even with a squad, I still feel like I can do better.)

[Signs]

Some tactics to survive as volt (and many other frames) are to —

Roll alot. Rolling gives 90% DR when rolling.

As volt, try to get your back against a wall since you have a shield to block the other 180 degrees.

Cast your 4. It's 4x more expensive than your 1 but also CC's a lot more than your 1.

Build health rather than shields. Armor doesn't affect your shields, meaning your shields get no DR from armor. On my health gets DR from armor. Therefore getting 1 point of HP is better than 1 point of shields.

Get better at parkour. Parkour is one of the best ways to survive. If you go fast, enemies can't hit you.

Play Rhino. Play Rhino. Amirite? Lul

[Dishonored]

grab this lifesteal augment and slap it on furis.
boom! now you can heal yourself 

click to check the marketplace > winds of purity - warframe.market
avg price is 17p as i posted this
 

Spoiler

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by HEA-Devazone

[LordPantaloonsthe3rd]

best way to avoid damage is to not play warframe, enemies cant kill you if you dont play. /s

 

Signs is right on the money, shields are crap for higher level stuff especially with things that bypass them entirely like slash and toxin procs. Also moving around a lot helps, parkour and rolling are good ways to stay alive. If you do have to stop make sure to use your shields as much as possible.

 

Alternatively if you like the idea of warframe being easier than breathing then just play an invis frame like Loki or Ivara.

[BL4CKN0ISE]

You're gonna own a lot of frames, so just keep trying different ones out and spending enough time with them to understand how they work. Volt doesn't need to be your survivability frame. You will find one that fits your playstyle. My personal favorite survivability frames are Gara, Mesa, and Nezha. I just like abilities that just give extra survivability with basic damage reduction or some way of reflecting incoming damage. The frames I mentioned all have something like that. 

[Fishyflakes]

Buy Arcane Guardian set

Expensive, but makes any Warframe in the game an average tank. 😋

[Loza03]

It's not just down to raw EHP numbers, your build and tactics help too. I'm not a Volt main, but I am a Limbo main and he's similarly squishy. So I know a thing or two about what helps survival in these circumstances.

First off, Volt's speed ability can certainly help with your grounded maneuverability. Being in the air is ideal in most cases, but sometimes you just have to ground yourself, for example in a corridor, in which case you need to take what you can get. Your shield can also help in this regard as it's functionally portable cover. Speed also assists your DPS as you reload and swing your melee weapon faster. It's no Rhino Roar, Vex Armour or even Rift Torrent, but it does help with the consistency of your damage, something none of those setups do.

Your 4 is also a potent CC. A lot of people use it for it's AoE insta-kill potential, but if you want to main a frame, I wouldn't recommend something like that, since you'll probably be wanting to have fun with said frame . Even so, it can give you some all-important breathing room. Don't underestimate the power of having such a button at your disposal.

Also, practice air combat and making use of your parkour. Enemies when firing tend to track your frame slowly, so moving constantly is helpful as it'll take a second or so for them to adjust their aim. Parkour grants you more angles to dodge, attack and retreat. Plus, it looks cool as hell dodging bullets at near point-blank range - style on those fools!

Most importantly of all, if things look hairy, GET OUT OF THERE. Only the tankiest of frames can survive being surrounded by high-level Corpus Techs, Bombards or even humble Corrupted Crewmen, so there's no shame in falling back to get in a better spot to push forward. Enemies have hive-mind tracking, so they will always be heading to your location. This means that you can't hide, but it also means that there's usually a space they're ignoring because they don't need to pathfind through there to reach you. Learn to identify a bad spot and that area, and move to that ASAP. Volt is well equipped for this, given that he can move exceptionally quickly even when air travel isn't available.

[(XBOX)InstaFiz]

I really appreciate all the responses, guys. I'm gonna go ahead and respond to what's being said in general.

Yes, parkour helps a lot, but then it's hard to shoot at baddies.

I love this game a lot, but it's hard for me to play the field with different Warframes.I just don't have the time and patience to gather stuff to make a crap ton of frames.

Energy management is hard for me. Yes, I know that Energy Siphon is a thing. I'd love to have that. I'm actively hunting for it.

And yes, I think I'll finally put that Furis blueprint to use. It's been sitting in my Foundry for ages.

----------------------------------------

Above all, I think I might try to go for Rhino and see how I like him. His first ability seems to be a good cc ability, just live Volt's Shock. His second ability is basically a godlike shield, at the same energy cost as Volt's shield. Advantage? He's tankier.

I'll report back.

[Xzorn]

Volt does have poor eHP because he can summon immortal shields to protect himself.

He's a bunker style frame. In spite of his speed ability; he performs best when he can stop and set up shop. Volt can also do some pretty heavy damage shooting through his shields with the right weapon. Far more than any of his abilities. He's designed to use his shields as his survival. Not his HP or armor.

If you're looking for a frame to run around a lot and smash things then Volt probably isn't the best choice but if you want a versatile frame that can protect your entire team while also boosting damage output with some CC then that's where Volt shines.

Rhino and Volt aren't really comparable. They're not played the same way. One might just fit your play style better but they're both good frames.

 

This is an example of one of the ways Volt is played Solo at higher levels.

Spoiler

 

This is an example of one of the ways Rhino is played at higher levels

Spoiler

 

 

[Eirshy]

2 hours ago, (XB1)InstaFiz said:

Yes, parkour helps a lot, but then it's hard to shoot at baddies.

You have to realize how it makes you harder to hit. Note that the following isn't 100% exactly how it works, it's just a good heuristic for how to think of it

The AI takes some time to reduce their firing spread. Any time you move, they gain spread as they track you, making more of their shots land wide. Slower the movement, faster the tracking, less spread is gained. What the parkour does is force them to make rapid corrections (as it's friggin' fast), while also increasing your Avoidance hidden-stat. The more avoidance you have, the slower then enemy's spread comes back down.

So parkour around, stop and shoot, and repeat.

 

But don't just stop completely unless you have cover (or are wall-clinging), and don't hold position (without good cover) for very long. This game is just like any other shooter: you stop moving without something between you and incoming fire, you die. The key difference is, you're an overpowered space ninja only acquainted with the theory of gravity, and they're not.

 

3 hours ago, Signs said:

Roll alot. Rolling gives 90% DR when rolling.

Only 75%, but yes, it does have DR, and fun fact it works on toxin procs if you roll in time with the ticks. Think it might work on bleeds too, but not 100% on those since usually they're either a panic-5 or completely ignorable, with like nothing in between, dependent on frame.

[Veridian]

5 hours ago, (XB1)InstaFiz said:

I really appreciate all the responses, guys. I'm gonna go ahead and respond to what's being said in general.

Yes, parkour helps a lot, but then it's hard to shoot at baddies.

I love this game a lot, but it's hard for me to play the field with different Warframes.I just don't have the time and patience to gather stuff to make a crap ton of frames. 

Energy management is hard for me. Yes, I know that Energy Siphon is a thing. I'd love to have that. I'm actively hunting for it.

And yes, I think I'll finally put that Furis blueprint to use. It's been sitting in my Foundry for ages.

----------------------------------------

Above all, I think I might try to go for Rhino and see how I like him. His first ability seems to be a good cc ability, just live Volt's Shock. His second ability is basically a godlike shield, at the same energy cost as Volt's shield. Advantage? He's tankier. 

I'll report back.

I don't know how long you've been playing since you don't have Energy Syphon, but once you get improved energy generation you can spam volt's abilities, at that point you can cover yourself in shields in 1-2 seconds. Volt's thing is he's supposed to be either between shields or in constant movement, that's why you have the 2nd ability. For further added effect, increasing duration means longer stuns with his 4.

Volt is squishy but don't give up on him.

 

If you want training wheels mode though, go Rhino.

[fartloud]

i remember when i started playing i had trouble surviving. then i found everyone's favorite classic warframe - rhino. so damn tanky. then i played frost prime, because i felt like a badass (it was painful to farm him back then) and he was unkillable inside the bubble. and then i wanted to use other warframes. it was really damn difficult, everything seemed so squishy. i blamed the game, kept playing rhino.

eventually i managed to learn how to move around to avoid most of the damage. sidestepping alone would make me take the least ammount of damage in most missions, hiding behind pillars etc, thats how much difference it made and the playstyle made sense considering i was using shotguns.

then i started to use melee almost exclusively. it was difficult to die even with squishy frames.

parkouring makes it difficult to hit enemies i agree, but you get used to it eventually and general positioning ability means you will be shooting only when you can hit and not get hit.

now i can make it work with most frames. i dont need as many survival mods as before. i sometimes still die like a punk, and game still has plenty of silly stuff like bombards and so on, but hey.

Edited October 12, 2018 by fartloud

[(XBOX)InstaFiz]

4 hours ago, Ver1dian said:

I don't know how long you've been playing since you don't have Energy Syphon, but once you get improved energy generation you can spam volt's abilities, at that point you can cover yourself in shields in 1-2 seconds. Volt's thing is he's supposed to be either between shields or in constant movement, that's why you have the 2nd ability. For further added effect, increasing duration means longer stuns with his 4.

Volt is squishy but don't give up on him.

 

If you want training wheels mode though, go Rhino.

I'm only in the middle of "The New Strange", so I'm not that experienced. If I may ask another quick question: how else do you regen energy besides Energy Siphon? Because I've seen videos of solo players regenerating energy way faster than Energy Siphon can. Sorry for the noob question.

[Veridian]

2 minutes ago, (XB1)InstaFiz said:

I'm only in the middle of "The New Strange", so I'm not that experienced. If I may ask another quick question: how else do you regen energy besides Energy Siphon? Because I've seen videos of solo players regenerating energy way faster than Energy Siphon can. Sorry for the noob question.

Not to be an A****** and spoil it for you, but after a few more main quests you'll be able to as well.

[Xzorn]

Velocity makes it harder for Projectile based enemies to hit you but only sudden changes in vector make it harder for hit-scan enemies.

You can run at 500% speed in a straight line and hit-scan will land about the same as if you were simply running normal speed. It's the sudden changes in your movement causing the AI to compensate that cause hit-scan to miss more often.

Also Avoidance / Evasion reduces enemy accuracy which is a stat that does near to nothing, least below -100%. I've tested enemy accuracy a decent amount in the past and a lot of players are tricked by Titania's Razorwing ability into thinking this stat has a reasonable effect but in truth the hitbox of Razorwing is incorrect causing enemies to aim in the wrong location. You can find a video on just about anything in Warframe but you won't find a thing on Enemy Accuracy because I'm not entirely convinced the stat works.

It's safer to spam dodge roll as your ground movement over bullet jumping so you'll take 25% damage rather than rely on enemy accuracy.

[Eirshy]

1 hour ago, Xzorn said:

Velocity makes it harder for Projectile based enemies to hit you but only sudden changes in vector make it harder for hit-scan enemies.

You can run at 500% speed in a straight line and hit-scan will land about the same as if you were simply running normal speed. It's the sudden changes in your movement causing the AI to compensate that cause hit-scan to miss more often.

Also Avoidance / Evasion reduces enemy accuracy which is a stat that does near to nothing, least below -100%. I've tested enemy accuracy a decent amount in the past and a lot of players are tricked by Titania's Razorwing ability into thinking this stat has a reasonable effect but in truth the hitbox of Razorwing is incorrect causing enemies to aim in the wrong location. You can find a video on just about anything in Warframe but you won't find a thing on Enemy Accuracy because I'm not entirely convinced the stat works.

It's safer to spam dodge roll as your ground movement over bullet jumping so you'll take 25% damage rather than rely on enemy accuracy.

Projectile, it's fairly obvious that the AI is garbo at correcting for travel time, so you're not wrong that exceedingly high speed results in few hits taken, but in terms of hitscan... I will say that it's significantly less effective (again, the AI is bad at travel compensation, which is what raw speed no avo provides), but it definitely helps significantly. What will make you a lot harder to hit, however, is if you add in a bit of parkour to your running around at the speed of sound. This is because of how Avo works with movement.

If you want "proof" avo actually works do your testing with Flux Rifle crewmen, as you can watch how it affects their aim when shooting you. Doing so will also demonstrate exactly what that 30m Dust aura is doing (besides the colloquial "make me die less"). You can claim it has different mechanics if you want, but I've seen no evidence to indicate it doesn't use the same aiming routine just with a different weapon. Just like I've seen nothing to indicate Razorwing's hitbox is misaligned enough to provide a meaningful benefit.

Also... Avo and -Acc only really provide evasiveness if you remain moving.
This is a common mistake on Titania: thinking that you can hold still and enemies won't be able to draw a bead.

 

T. someone as close to a Titania main as you'll find.

[tobascodagama]

18 hours ago, Signs said:

Build health rather than shields. Armor doesn't affect your shields, meaning your shields get no DR from armor. On my health gets DR from armor. Therefore getting 1 point of HP is better than 1 point of shields.

This, right here. Toxin/Gas and Slash procs ignore shields, too. Not "do extra damage to". Ignore. Completely.

Redirection is a trap mod that should be deleted from the game.

[(PSN)Effrimal_]

The Capacitance augment is also very useful for overshields for you and your team. Just use Discharge every once in a while (between parkour jumps and rolls) to keep your shields topped off and you should survive most splash damage and indirect fire (intentional sniper fire from that Nullifier on the other side of the map is another story). When you have to stop, use Shield and stay behind it since it blocks everything.

[Xzorn]

2 hours ago, Eirshy said:

Projectile, it's fairly obvious that the AI is garbo at correcting for travel time, so you're not wrong that exceedingly high speed results in few hits taken, but in terms of hitscan... I will say that it's significantly less effective (again, the AI is bad at travel compensation, which is what raw speed no avo provides), but it definitely helps significantly. What will make you a lot harder to hit, however, is if you add in a bit of parkour to your running around at the speed of sound. This is because of how Avo works with movement.

If you want "proof" avo actually works do your testing with Flux Rifle crewmen, as you can watch how it affects their aim when shooting you. Doing so will also demonstrate exactly what that 30m Dust aura is doing (besides the colloquial "make me die less"). You can claim it has different mechanics if you want, but I've seen no evidence to indicate it doesn't use the same aiming routine just with a different weapon. Just like I've seen nothing to indicate Razorwing's hitbox is misaligned enough to provide a meaningful benefit.

Also... Avo and -Acc only really provide evasiveness if you remain moving.
This is a common mistake on Titania: thinking that you can hold still and enemies won't be able to draw a bead.

T. someone as close to a Titania main as you'll find.

 

Adding Parkour into speed is changing your vector, that's why it's more productive. Enemies only pretend to miss you by wavering their aim over you. If you keep consistent speed without changing than there's little change based on the speed of that movement but when you make sudden changes it causes more misses.

You can more easily see how enemies purposely miss you with an enemy like a Void Lancer. The weapon is projectile based with 100 Accuracy however if you stand perfectly still they will land each shot from their bursts in the same exact locations. Given neither of you move that is. This is also an easy way to see Titania's hitbox is wrong as the same Lancer will never and I mean never hit you if you stand still in Razorwing because they're not aiming at you, they're aiming at a misrepresented hitbox. Their shots will land at the exact same locations behind you every single shot. There's no variation at all based on "Accuracy" changes. You can do this with her 2nd ability as both are a 50% reduction but in case of her 2nd they will hit you while still hitting the exact same locations with or without the debuff.

Other enemies with less accuracy will hit you while standing still because their weapons themselves are less accurate. Another enemy to use is a Nullifier's Lanka. Both are projectile weapons with near perfect accuracy on the weapon's themselves. Nullifiers are also an example of the "wavering" pretend to miss you AI. As you get closer their aim wavers more from your actual location until they cannot hit you and tightens as you get further away until they can snipe you mid air from 2 rooms away because most Projectile based enemies also use movement prediction. The tracking is bad on purpose because years ago Grineer would not miss you in spite of movement or distance from you.

Take Titania into the Simulacrum. Spawn a Lancer or Nullifieer and just hover there in Razorwing. Go in front of the wall so you can see the shots from the enemy land in the exact same spots behind you while none of them hit you. If Accuracy functioned as a stat these enemies would least on occasion land a shot but they won't because it's her hit-box.

You might be able to find an enemy or two that shows some slight difference in aim due to -% Accuracy but most are unaffected.

[(XBOX)InstaFiz]

2 hours ago, tobascodagama said:

This, right here. Toxin/Gas and Slash procs ignore shields, too. Not "do extra damage to". Ignore. Completely.

Redirection is a trap mod that should be deleted from the game.

So it's not godlike to have lots of health that can regenerate?

I always laugh at the face of toxin and slash damage when it's used against me. I find it underwhelming.

But if you guys insist, then armor must be a bigger deal than I thought. Which I wouldn't know, because once again, volt player. 😛

----------------

Once again, I really appreciate all of the responses. Even when I'm still waiting for Rhino to finish crafting and I feel like nothing else needs to be said, you guys keep on helping. This forum is overwhelmingly helpful and positive. Thank you all.

[Xzorn]

1 hour ago, (XB1)InstaFiz said:

So it's not godlike to have lots of health that can regenerate?

I always laugh at the face of toxin and slash damage when it's used against me. I find it underwhelming.

But if you guys insist, then armor must be a bigger deal than I thought. Which I wouldn't know, because once again, volt player.😛

 

Armor is actually the worst form of mitigation in the game since Bleed procs also ignore armor and damage types like Toxic / Puncture reduce your armor amount when considering damage taken. Buffs that give a flat mitigation amount amount like Gara, Trinity, Nidus, Nekros and a few others generally have the best source of Survival or in Rhino's case simply  getting a ton of eHP through Iron Skin that can be replenished near instantly.

I'm not saying armor is worthless but if a frame relies solely on armor it's a bad sign as to it's survivability.

Also Redirection is not a trap mod but it's only useful for very specific frames and against certain factions. The before mentioned mitigation buff frames apply this bonus to shields which can provide more protection when fighting Corpus / Void enemies as most of their dangerous enemies use Puncture which has a negative modifier against Shield but a bonus in damage against Health.

For Volt Specifically using Primed Flow or in lower range Flow and Quick Thinking is going to give him the biggest chunk of survival however if you're having energy problems that won't be of much value. As someone else mentioned... yet. Finish the 2nd Dream quest to find out more.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Xzorn

[CitricComet]

22 hours ago, (XB1)InstaFiz said:

I love this game a lot, but it's hard for me to play the field with different Warframes.I just don't have the time and patience to gather stuff to make a crap ton of frames.

Warframe is built entirely on the idea that you have multiple tools to do any job.  Trying to 'main' any frame is possible but truly unnecessary - use the tools they provided.  Can you play anything with any frame?  Yes.  But - that is really only true for those that have collected the gear necessary to do so.  It can be very difficult as you are leveling up stuff with a limited arsenal.  

You don't need many to start - but having a few options: frost, rhino, volt, excal, nekros, etc. will make the process much easier...  all of what you need is free.  All you need to do is enjoy it while you do it.  

good luck tenno!

[Edzhang]

As a former volt player who started this game with volt 3 years ago, i must say volt is a lot better than he was at my time.. now you have the option for cc, either with your 1 or 4, mobility with 2, and 3 for survivability.. back there, his 4 is a garbage that you shouldn’t never use other than to see some lamps got destroyed..

From my experience, speed and shock is your best buddy.. try to get mods for strength and duration, and try to be mobile at all times.. if you dont have a good aim, use melee (and my weapon back there was mk-1 bo).. keep jumping, rolling, and cast shock on a group of enemies before meleeing.. and from what people have suggested here, health mod is a priority too..

If i remember correctly, my build when i was at low mr (mr 7, that’s the point where i switched to loki) : intensify, continuity (primed because i bought it with plat), streamline, vitality, redirection (you can ditch it if you want, it only gave minor survivability), rush, flow, and energy siphon as my aura..