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Tips for improving your operator


Chad1661
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I am writing to share my tips and to get tips from others on improving the operator.   I have been playing Warframe for a number of years and never felt compelled to use the operator unless I absolutely had to until recently.   With the quest to fight the Unbra, I now have a reason to level up my operator.

First lets get the status of Operator out of the way. Frankly,  the feeling most players have about the  operator is what must people feel about Archwing - it sucks.  I totally agree.  Until you get your Archwing leveled up, it completely and utterly sucks.   But, once it's leveled up, Archwing missions can be fun.  I expect that the same thing will be the case for the operator.  Currently the only gameplay for the operator outside of the quests and Kuvu farming is Eidlon hunting.   ... And those suck with the basic operator, because you have no power and your operator dies all the time.  So, it's an exercise in fight, die, fight, die, until  you win.  Eidolon hunting with a basic operator is pointless.  It can't do enough damage during the night to bring it down.   The only hope is to find team mates to carry the worthless operator.  It's the same problem with the Archwing.   The path to improve Archwing is to get better weapons and different Archwings, but those are hidden behind higher level missions that require a lot of tedius griding and getting carried by team mates.  Unlike regular waframe gameplay, where it's fun to play at low level, it's not like that for Archwing and Operator modes.    DE really needs need to fix that aspect of the gameplay - to make it more fun to play at lower level Archwing and Operators.   

With that out of the way, first of all, operators have a really bizarre path to upgrading.   Unlike your Warframe, you don't improve your operator by fighting with it.   Instead you have to earn focus points by equipping a focus lens to a leveled up Warframe, and/or weapon(s).   Then, in game you will have a yellow focus star thing that will appear on the map.  Once you hit it you start earning focus points until the focus timer runs out.  The focus star will pop up every few minutes.   Now, you might think your would earn focus at the same rate that you earn mastery.   Oh no.  Instead there is a some convoluted equation where you get a small percentage based on the type of lens that you are using.  The result is that unless you are on an endless mission with lots of enemies and you hit the focus start just when a hoard of enemies appears, your lucky if you get an average of 200 focus points per focus star appearance.  Also, you only have about 30 - 60 seconds (have not timed it) to hit the focus star when it appears on the map or you will miss it and have to wait for the next one.   Lens can be found as drops in bounties on POE, and the greater lens can be purchased in the market, but they need regular lens as crafting parts.  

Edit: I get a decent amount of focus from running regular onslaught ( 15 -20 k for the usual 8 rounds)  with regular lens equipped.     The way focus works in onslaught is after the first round, it starts focus automatically at the start of the round, but will not appear again until the next round, so your guaranteed to earn focus for at least 7 of the usual 8 rounds.   I usually have a melee weapon that I am leveling up, so I am earning master rank points as well.

Edit:  Elite Onslaught for 6 rounds with a greater lens equipped -- earned 45K of focus points.

Edit:  Compare that to the highest level bounty on POE and only earned about 1000 focus points.

Now you can also exchange Eidolon shards (from killing Eidlons) for 25K focus points in the focus tree.   But Eidolons only come out at night on POE and it you don't have a good group it can take a long time and sometimes time runs out.   It is a real gamble with public matches on Eidolon hunts for the shards.  Either you get a shard or you get nothing.  At least with good frame in onslaught, you will get something for your time, even if your group bails early.

Another way to build a better operator weapon is to create an Amp.  Amps are weapons that focus the operator energy beam and are crafted from parts bought from the Quill in Cetus.   Similar to how Zaws are made, but only for operators.  So you trade sentient cores to increase quill standing .  Just like syndicates, there are 5 levels.   Each level requires more standing and an offering.  So far the offerings are x number of Eidolon shards.  I just unlocked level 3, but maxed out my daily quill standing cap.   So, I have to wait a day to to trade in the sentient cores to get more standing so I can buy the parts to make a level 3 Amp. 

Edit:  Amps need to be leveled up to maximize them.  Fighting in operator mode is one way.   Hacking with your operator is also one of the easiest ways to level up your amps.

The amps that most people use are 2-2-3 and 3-2-3 amps - hellodownthere

Edit: Even with no upgrades, Void Mode is useful for reviving teammates, picking up capture targets, and hacking.  The operator's attacks also reset the damage resistances on sentients, like the battalyst. The quickest way to make your operator more useful is to start throwing points into Energizing Dash in the Zenurik school, which will give you access to nearly infinite energy. Naramon's dash that opens enemies up to melee finishers is also nice with little investment. But, if you want to do eidolon hunts, Void Strike in Madurai or Unaru Wisp in Unaru is where you need to go. Madurai's increase in amp energy is also a big deal in your ability to take down eidolon shields, so that school should be the first one you invest in heavily. - Cauldrath

 

Edit:  Arcane helms can help with defense.  Those are random drops from Eidolon hunts.   They are leveled up by combining extra helms, which takes a lot of Eidolon hunts.

I hope this helps others.

   

 

Edited by Chad1661
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Even with no upgrades, Void Mode is useful for reviving teammates, picking up capture targets, and hacking. Hacking with your operator is also one of the easiest ways to level up your amps. The operator's attacks also reset the damage resistances on sentients, like the battalyst. The quickest way to make your operator more useful is to start throwing points into Energizing Dash in the Zenurik school, which will give you access to nearly infinite energy. Naramon's dash that opens enemies up to melee finishers is also nice with little investment. But, if you want to do eidolon hunts, Void Strike in Madurai or Unaru Wisp in Unaru is where you need to go. Madurai's increase in amp energy is also a big deal in your ability to take down eidolon shields, so that school should be the first one you invest in heavily.

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I usually have a melee weapon that I am leveling up after a forma, so I am earning master points as well.

Incorrect. You don't gain mastery points after formaing a weapon. You only gain MR affinity the first time you level it to 30.

Also you forgot to mention Arcanes, which can improve your operator's survivability / skills.

 

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thanks for the replies, guys.  I updated the first post.  

Elite Onslaught, is by far the fastest way I have found to gain focus points.   (45K for 6 rounds, with a greater lens and the primary and secondary weapons with regular lens)

 

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11 hours ago, Chad1661 said:

thanks for the replies, guys.  I updated the first post.  

Elite Onslaught, is by far the fastest way I have found to gain focus points.   (45K for 6 rounds, with a greater lens and the primary and secondary weapons with regular lens)

 

If you are really trying to farm focus either bring volt with with amprex only.   Volt is especially good since he has no windup during that initial focus period of each round.  He just murders.   Either way, this minimizes the amount of lenses you need and maximizes the amount of focus you will earn.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is about maxing out your operator quickly.  What little focus you can get without using multipliers is not worth mentioning.  When you need over 1 million focus points to max out a focus school, it does not seem worthwhile to mention ways to earn meager focus point amounts.

As far as earning focus points with greater lens equipped in the warframe and all weapons I can now earn around 75 - 100k running an elite sanctuary mission for 8 rounds.   With an affinity booster that can be amped up to over 100k. Running standard sanctuary, I now normally earn close to 50K.   In order to build lens the best way is run bounties on Cetus.   You will need several lens to  be able to build a greater lens (which are purchased in the market).  

I find that an Ember using the 4th ability can be very effective.   Burning enemies don't fire back and are easier to take down.    A revenant is good for taking over enemies in a group making them fight each other which makes it much easier to take down as well, especially with the harder enemies.   

What I have found recently, is the quickest way to improve your operator's capability is to earn your quill standing to where you can build level 3 amps... and that means killing lots of Eidolons.   The best way to kill Eidolons before you get a good amp is to join a good team (either through recruitment channel, friends or with clan mates).   Find a good public team is a matter of luck.  The quickest way is enter POE from your ship.   That way you have the best chance of finding a open slot.  Going through Cetus, I found that most of the time, I would host.    Look for a least one high level with  some lures and the team already fighting an Eidolon.   

 

Which brings up the question, how in the world can any but high level players hope to build up a decent operator without a lot of help from high level players to carry them?

 

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How good operators can be just can't help motivate me past how awful they feel early in. You can't start getting actually decent amps without fighting Eidolons with that water gun you start off with. I can't bring myself to hunt those things when gameplay consists of pumping countless strings of beams into an Eidolon shield after constant intervals of waiting for it to recharge with void water.

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Having done this multiple times recently on alt accounts for streaming, I'd have to say Eidolon Hunts are quite doable right out of The War Within with just a Mote Amp.   Even with 4 players using Mote Amps (as happened a number of times while I was doing it), the Teralyst hunt only took maybe 15-20 minutes instead of the usual 7-8 which is possible with just about any other amp.   The Amp is far less important than your primary weapon, actually -- if you get the Teralyst's shields down and don't have anyone with at least medium damage capability for the rest, you can't win at all.   But even there, I've had good success with just a Hek with Scattered Justice, or a Rubico with a Forma or two - both easy weapons to get.   And it's *very* important that everyone knows about lures, and that they need to focus on killing any nearby Vomvalysts quickly.   Sure, I'd prefer my main with a Lanka and better Amp, but successful Teralyst hunts are just plain easy with the right knowledge.

And a 212 Amp is not hard to build once you've got a small number of Teralysts under your belt -- that will easily take you through dozens of Teralyst hunts (you don't really need anything better than the 212 for Teralysts...) until you can manage to build a 223 or 323 Amp for Tridolon hunts later.

As for farming focus -- there are many different approaches to that, but honestly you can still manage to do things just fine without it.   I took an account all the way through The Sacrifice, Chimera Prologue, and Eidolon Hunts with almost no focus unlocks and a Mote Amp.   Leveling up your Operator is a nice perk, but not a necessary one.   At least, not yet.

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On 2018-10-17 at 3:44 AM, Aazhyd said:

Incorrect. You don't gain mastery points after formaing a weapon. You only gain MR affinity the first time you level it to 30.

Also you forgot to mention Arcanes, which can improve your operator's survivability / skills.

 

Could you imagine the number of Excalibur 500 forma mk1 braton 100% use Mr 23+ accounts would be if this was the case?

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On 2018-10-17 at 9:14 PM, Chad1661 said:

thanks for the replies, guys.  I updated the first post.  

Elite Onslaught, is by far the fastest way I have found to gain focus points.   (45K for 6 rounds, with a greater lens and the primary and secondary weapons with regular lens)

 

Hydron with AoE Damage is a great secondary option if Elite Onslaught is a bit much for you.

Also, sleep Equinox with stealth-kill stacks gets good results on Sedna.

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- Lenses might seem precious at first, so I often hesitated to put them into weapons or frames. Don't be like me. It's better to run around with a normal lense in your Warframe, Primary, Secondary and Melee Weapon each, than to have no lense equipped because you want to save for a greater lense some day (you can still do that, but IMO, get lenses all over you, before working towards that goal). Do bounties on cetus to get additonal lenses. they are not that hard to come by anymore.

- You can collect focus outside of you primary school, along with focus for that. All you need is a lense of these schools.  Why would you do that? For the waybound abilities. Once you've unbound them, you can use these alonside your primary school. A speed boost from naramon or that health and armor boosts are worth a ton, no matter what other school you use.

- Everything that boosts XP boosts Focus as well. So if you have an XP-Booster, the bonus affinity from nearby tenno, stealth kills, a Smeeta-Cat, or the Affinity-Spike for Melee weapons from Naramon, it'll help you, too.

- Missions that work great for leveling  (Onslaught, Defense on Selene or Hydron), work wonders for focus, too.

- One thing you can level up like any normal weapons are amps, don't level them by eidolon hunts, use one of the missions that are good for leveling and let you inner child out, to level these things up (void mode helps to survive long enough to actually do some damage with it).

-Once you go eidolon hunting: You can use their remains to unbind some abilities or redeem parts of them for focus. This doesn't count towards the daily limit..

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Great tips guys.  I will have to try some of these out.

Also, if  your going for max focus for an elite Onslaught, watch our for players joining as a carry.  Since you gain focus from everyone's kills, just like XP,  it can really hurt your focus potential when you have a player that can't kill hardly anything, not helping much at all.   Plus your distracted from killing by having to constantly revive someone.   So at the start, before you go into the portal look at your team mates.  If you have a weak link, abort and try again. 

Amen on the lure tip fighting Eidolons.  If you join a party and they don't have lures.  Just leave.  They are absolutely necessary to get the best drops from an Eidolon.  If they team mates don't know that, then they are not going to know how to properly bring down an Eidolon.  

Onslaughts are also good for leveling them up.  I will work on maximizing focus while I have the focus multiplyer yellow star thing, but once it runs out switch to operator to finish the round.

 

 

 

 

 

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With 4 of us with just the basic operator amp took 20+ minutes but we were able to kill Teralysts. Public group too, no coordination whatsoever. Wasn't that bad once everyone's pets are dead and you've gotten the hang of using void form to avoid being downed.

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