Limbo advice needed

[Sigonnen]

Hello people, 

So I finally got my hands on limbo prime, didn't do the mission so I have no erlier experience with the frame. After 4 hours of play with him, and some research on the Internet I find him a very interesting, and a very useful frame that I may even make as my main (since my favorite mode is objective oriented, defense). Also with this frame I feel like I need to think more than just run and gun or hack and slash, else I ruin the game or lose the objective for others. I got most mods for the basic set up. 

Using atm Baza that I am enjoying a lot. Here are my few questions:

1.Although I can make good use of 1,2,4 I can not understand what does my 3 really do, when to use it?

2. What weapons are suited best for him? 

3. I feel like I am super squishy outside of rift. If I don't focus and make sure the enemies are in stasis or I am on a different plane, I go down super fast, even with r8 vitality and carrier with extra shield mod for me. Is Limbo that squishy or I am doing something wrong? 

Thanks for your time and answers! 

[(PSN)OriginalEquinox]

Limbo is a support/caster frame so yeah he's squishy, which is why you wouldn't see a Limbo outside the rift often. 

You don't need any specific weapons for him so just take whatever hits hardest though you want to avoid melee because again, he's a support, ofcourse you could banish/stasis and melee but that's another story.

I'm a Limbo main myself but I never use his 3 because it would cause problems with your teammates but there's one scenario that might make it useful if it works (haven't tried it) is in spy missions, cast his 3 and 4, then deactivate 4 and theoretically the enemies in the vault should be banished and unable to trigger alarms.

A word of advice, go with a negative range build when playing with pubs and keep your fingers off banish if you want your teammates to not rage quit at the sight of you.

If you have any other questions I'm always happy to help a fellow man of culture, not many peasants here have the will or the nobility to wield such a devilishly handsome, powerful and sophisticated frame *sips tea*  😄

Edited October 22, 2018 by (PS4)Equinox21697

[Sigonnen]

Thanks! Yeah I am using a r8 Narrow minded and 0 range mods. I totally agree with you on the last part. Limbo feels like the frame for people with brains and strategically advanced playera😎

[Eirshy]

For 3, it's more useful in a low-duration build. The idea is you kill in rift and keep in rift with 3 + Torrent, and short duration lets you easily kick everyone you've invited to your murder closet out by just not recasting 3. This vid is old as hell but includes an example. In a high duration one it's more for letting you be in material while only the mobs are in the rift (ie, max range 4 -> 3 -> collapse 4). This was made a lot less useful with Quill Operators being as legit as they are, since you can just stay in rift and just Starchild things in the material plane if you need to interact there.

 

For weapons, I'd like to suggest burst (as in damage) oriented weapons, particularly long-range. Spending brief periods outside the rift to blap something before dropping back in is often doable, and thus something that hits in a huge whallop then allows you to fade back into safety is ideal. Additionally, long-range sniper-style engagement usually keeps only your target aware of you- and your target will be dead shortly. The Lenz gets special mention on this because you can fade after the cold proc hits you to avoid the SD, meaning you can take danger-close shots almost at-will.

As for why I advise long-range... I've been using him for Excav Arby's, since vs non-infested he can basically take a run as long as the rest of the party wants, and vs infested he only needs something like a frost or slova to get the same effect. Typically I'll find someplace high with a view of the extractor (so I can recast freely) and just snipe problem units with my riven'd TibP (staying in Material the whole time).

 

For survivability I run PFlow + QT + Pain Threshold. Makes it a little more forgiving on trying to get into the rift or 5 before running out of energy. Only ever gets "scary" if there's a DoT on me. That video I linked earlier also has a nifty use of Life Strike + Bleed + Stasis to give yourself health batteries (timestamp somewhere around 12:50 for full context). Typically though if you can stay at long range and kill anything you touch, you won't have many guns pointed your way. Just uh, always be ready to fade into the rift (or at least panic-5) if they notice you.

[chronos280]

1. His 3. Anyone in the rift within a radius (based on range mods) of limbo gets "infected". When infected enemies leave the rift they are immediately put back in the rift, as are any enemies within a small radius around them. As a bonus they also take a small amount of damage and are knocked down. Killing an "infected" enemy spreads the "infection" to nearby enemies. Uses are relatively limited. You can use it do get a free knock-down on enemies which with a minimum duration build can keep a small group of enemies rag dolling constantly (see video at end of post). You can use it with your 4 to keep a large group of enemies in the rift while you come out of the rift, or you can use it with 4 to keep enemies frozen as the radius shrinks and lets them out (this can be useful for soloing an interception sortie with max range). Finally there is an augment which gives you a tonne of damage if you have lots of people caught with this (30% per enemy).
2. Best weapons for limbo are large burst damage weapons like the tigris prime. You dash out of the rift, shotgun someone in the face and then dash back in to reload. Also useful can be something with a rapid fire to take out those irritating nullifiers. Finally for melee I would recommend something hard hitting (not necessarily fast) and ideally with slash status and some method of healing, as this lets you rift then freeze a tough enemy then go to town on him healing yourself and killing him with the slash procs which never wear off as the enemy is frozen in the rift. For example I take Tigris/Arca Plasmor, Synoid Gammacor, and a heavy polearm zaw as my standard loadout.
3. Yeah Limbo is squishy as hell. I almost always run primed flow and quick thinking as Limbo has tonnes of access to energy. This will stop you getting one shot by most things, and then you can recover with life steal from your weapon and just getting more energy. The new mod rolling guard is pretty cool too, as it gives you the ability to dodge out of the rift, be briefly invulnerable to shoot people then dodge back in to wait for the cool down to recover. For the most part though Limbo shouldn't be getting shot, either you are in the rift (and enemies aren't), or enemies are frozen, or you are you have specifically come out of the rift because you know you have a safe window. This is one of the hardest things to learn and how you can normally tell the experienced Limbo players.

There is a great video by Triburos which goes over most things you can do with Limbo. One thing to note though is that in the minimum duration knock down build he mentions, DE halved the duration of Limbo's 2, meaning with minimum duration your two is basically non existent now, though to be fair it wasn't seeing a huge amount of use in this build anyway.

Bonus round - missions:

1. Assassination - Limbo can do these, but I wouldn't recommend it, there are much better methods.
2. Capture - Slide into the rift, sprint through the level. Slide out of the rift to shotgun the target in the back. Slide into the rift and capture downed enemy.
3. Defection - Eh Oberon says hi, don't bother doing these missions unless for the sortie or farming Harrow. If you insist then you can use the same trick as in captures rescues to keep the targets safe from enemies but it's still going to suck.
4. Defence - If it's a sortie defence then you can rift the operative so that they don't take any damage, if it's non sortie then stick a cataclysm over the objective (bonus points if you've a Mesa or other nuke frame who can sit in the bubble safe and getting free energy). Max duration low range.
5. Excavation - Hail to the King baby Limbo's here. You range will depend on the enemy being faced. If it's infested the flying enemies can shoot through your bubble so you want some extra range, I use 184%. If it's corpus go small to avoid nullifiers screwing you up. If it's grineer do whatever you want (standard large bubble salty teammate rules apply).
6. Exterminate - Eh doable but not Limbo's forte.
7. Hijack - Eh doable no special tricks I'm aware of. If it's not a sortie then you don't have the nullifier bubble so maybe you can feed it shields while being in the rift?
8. Interception - If against Corpus standard cataclysm rules apply keep it fairly small so that they don't pop it. Obviously not an issue against the other two factions. Ideally get as many enemies trapped in your cataclysm as possible and don't kill them so that they stop spawning. If not against Corpus and on a small map you can use a max range build to solo this. Cast 2, 4, then 3. Refreshing 2 whenever it runs out, and recasting 3 whenever you recast 4, again don't kill enemies just CC them.
9. Mobile Defence - Stick bubble on point, rinse repeat. Small bubble if against Corpus. Note you can't insert the data if cataclysm is up so wait until the point is activated.
10. Rescue - Slide into the rift, sprint through the level. Unlock the doors in spoiler mode if necessary. Slide out of the rift, cast 1 on the hostage, slide into the rift, sprint back to the exit cackling while nobody can hurt the operative (note your 1 will not be cancelled if the operator enters a nullifier bubble only if you do). Build should be maximum duration.
11. Sabotage - Run through the level in the rift, pop out to do sabotage stuff. Extract. Note that the void version has a boss fight at the end which is possible, but again not recommended.
12. Spy - Head to the vault. Cast 2 then 4, this will destroy all cameras in range and freeze enemies in the rift. Walk through lasers as you don't trigger them while in the rift, use spoiler mode to hack terminals. Limbo is arguably one of the fastest spy frames. In the rare occasion there is a nullifier in the spy vault you can still pop the cameras, but then you will have to use 1 to freeze enemies.
13. Survival - See exterminate.

Bonus tip, Limbo hates nullifiers. Press 5 to use spoiler mode and get rid of them. You can use ctrl + space in this mode to send them ragdolling hilariously over the map. Just be aware that while you're playing pinball with them your timers on 2 and 4 might be running out.

Edited October 22, 2018 by chronos280
brain farts

[Eirshy]

22 minutes ago, chronos280 said:

There is a great video by Triburos which goes over most things you can do with Limbo.

[...]

Bonus round - missions:

1. Defection - Eh Oberon says hi, don't bother doing these missions unless for the sortie or farming Harrow. If you insist then you can use the same trick as in captures to keep the targets safe from enemies but it's still going to suck.
2. Excavation - Hail to the King baby Limbo's here. You range will depend on the enemy being faced. If it's infested the flying enemies can shoot through your bubble so you want some extra range, I use 184%. If it's corpus go small to avoid nullifiers screwing you up. If it's grineer do whatever you want (standard large bubble salty teammate rules apply).
3. Spy - Head to the vault. Cast 2 then 4, this will destroy all cameras in range and freeze enemies in the rift. Walk through lasers as you don't trigger them while in the rift, use spoiler mode to hack terminals. Limbo is arguably one of the fastest spy frames. In the rare occasion there is a nullifier in the spy vault you can still pop the cameras, but then you will have to use 1 to freeze enemies.

Lol same vid I linked

Anyways, Defection, I handle it more like Rescue tbh. If you banish the schoolbus, it can trod along through everything without a care. Though personally I find Trinity to be the best bus driver- at least, outside of Arby's.

Excav, the actual problem is similar to heavy gunners shooting through Gara's glass or any other wall/bubble. The AI, through utter accidental brilliance, can poke the "barrel" of their gun into the bubble, and since the projectile is "spawning" inside it, it counts as inside it. The fliers just happen to have a surprisingly forward projectile spawn point. Double-walling with a Frost or simply having a Slova and shooting them works fairly well for solving this.

A note on Spy, any damage to grineer sentry drones that doesn't outright kill them will trip alarms, so you can't do the 2->4 trick on Grineer spy unless there are no drones. Better to just Operate through them imo, using Limbo only for crossing lasers.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Eirshy

[tobascodagama]

Cliffwalker also has a ton of videos about Limbo on his YouTube channel. Some of the older ones predate the Stasis change, but almost all of the content still applies. You can also just start with the "Immortal Magician" videos and ignore the older ones, too.

As for Rift Surge, it has some valid applications, but it's also not something you want to use in PUGs most of the time. Rule #1 of PUGs is to never leave random enemies sitting in the Rift. There are valid reasons to do it sometimes, but it's never worth annoying your teammates. In general, I don't use Rift Surge or Banish unless I'm playing solo, for that reason.

(The best use of Rift Surge is during Spy missions. Stasis -> Cataclysm -> Rift Surge. Then you can safely bring down Cataclysm to operate terminals without unfreezing -- and therefore alerting -- enemies in the vault. Cliffhanger's Spy video covers this technique as well as a couple of important caveats about it.)

[Ikusi_Prime]

1) His 3 is your way to pull more enemies into the rift, and increase your damage using the augment, Rift Torrent. Its use is what separates good Limbos from bad ones. Get an enemy into the Rift (using Banish or Cataclysm), cast Rift Surge, then push them out of the Rift (by recasting Banish or canceling Cataclysm) to pull more enemies into the Rift without leaving it. Recast Rift Surge, and repeat. You never need to leave the Rift, but you can keep pulling enemies in. 

2) The best weapons for Limbo are burst damage weapons, such as sniper rifles, and/or AoE weapons. Limbo is very squishy and his abilities deal low damage, but when used correctly, he can control a huge number of enemies. Enemies are kept perfectly still by Stasis, so headshots are easy, making snipers very effective, and the ability to cleave down multiple enemies lets you take advantage of your AoE CC. 

Alternatively, focusing on slash/gas procs and finisher damage is a fun playstyle. Stasis pauses all timers and windows on the target, but they will still take DoT that will never wear off. You can deal a surprising amount of damage by just leaving enemies in Stasis and letting those DoT tick away. Finisher windows are also paused during Stasis, letting you finish off enemies with all the time in the world.  One of my favorite setups is to pair the Zakti with a dagger with Covert Lethality. The Zakti sets up finishers, allowing the Covert Lethality dagger to deal a ton of damage, so I can put a group of enemies in a Cataclysm with Stasis up, pop the Zakti in them, then walk around assassinating all of them. 

3) Limbo is squishy. Hella squishy. It's supposed to be counterbalanced by your ability to nope out into the Rift and be immune to nearly everything. Limbo's bread and butter is the "divide and conquer" mentality. I highly recommend picking up the Quick Thinking mod, and running Flow/Primed Flow if you aren't already. It lets you survive getting one-shot at the cost of your energy, which Limbo has a ton of. It can serve you a lot better than mods like Redirection, Vitality, or Vigor. Don't run Steel Fiber, Limbo has basically zero armor. The new mod, Rolling Guard, has the potential to be fantastic on Limbo. Hang out in the Rift for seven second to wait for the cooldown, roll out, and use the invulnerability to Banish enemies into the Rift without any risk to yourself. 

[chronos280]

2 hours ago, Eirshy said:

Lol same vid I linked 

Anyways, Defection, I handle it more like Rescue tbh. If you banish the schoolbus, it can trod along through everything without a care. Though personally I find Trinity to be the best bus driver- at least, outside of Arby's. 

Excav, the actual problem is similar to heavy gunners shooting through Gara's glass or any other wall/bubble. The AI, through utter accidental brilliance, can poke the "barrel" of their gun into the bubble, and since the projectile is "spawning" inside it, it counts as inside it. The fliers just happen to have a surprisingly forward projectile spawn point. Double-walling with a Frost or simply having a Slova and shooting them works fairly well for solving this.

A note on Spy, any damage to grineer sentry drones that doesn't outright kill them will trip alarms, so you can't do the 2->4 trick on Grineer spy unless there are no drones. Better to just Operate through them imo, using Limbo only for crossing lasers.

Yeah my bad I meant to type rescue not capture, though at times it feels like it would be simpler just to capture the taret with the AI in place 😛

Never had an issue with heavy gunners shooting into Limbo's bubble, at least other than the firing as the enter, in which case they get a few shots at most, possibly I've just been lucky.

For spy missions the sentry drones will only trip if you do 4 then 2, if you cast 2 then 4 the drones will not trip until they unfreeze which should be plenty of time to complete the vault

[Eirshy]

28 minutes ago, chronos280 said:

For spy missions the sentry drones will only trip if you do 4 then 2, if you cast 2 then 4 the drones will not trip until they unfreeze which should be plenty of time to complete the vault

Might be a host/client bug then, 'cause I swear that wasn't the case last time I tried to use him for Grineer spy.