Another "Garuda is mediocre" post

[MasterControl]

So having played with the frame since the day fortuna dropped, I think I can provide a decent opinion or two.

1: Her passive. I'm going to be honest, I'm cool with it. It's kind of just okay at best, but it's a lot better than what some other poor frames have to suffer through. Looking at you, Mag and Chroma..

2: Her 1. The blood ball and shield are nice. But, I can't help but feel the pounce portion of her 1 falls flat. I was kind of under the impression that it'd have some meat to it other than just killing at 35%. If an enemy is low on health, it's probably because they were being shot at, which is a shame considering they'll get shot to death before the instant kill becomes useful. It even *feels* powerful, jumping in and prying something apart with your claws. It'd be the most fun part of her kit, if it were stronger. I know you can do knockdown finishers off it but I can't help but feel that needlessly slows down the end result - killing your target. Give it some base damage. Quite high base damage, at that.

3. Her 2. I don't mind her 2. Healing is okay, and very necessary on a frame like this. Can't complain.

4. Her 3 is bad, straight up. Sacrificing health for energy is okay, but with how many ways we have to replenish energy nowadays, I think it needs to do more than just give energy, especially considering that it was supposed to be a boon to her passive, which is kind of mediocre. I feel like it could also take on a voodoo vibe in a way, making nearby enemies more susceptible to the jump portion of her 1 and staggering them, while dealing a small amount of damage. Basically, giving us energy and telling us "use this energy to go pounce these guys to death" at the cost of being more fragile while you do so.

5. Her 4. It's actually good. I can't complain.

 

A more general opinion:

When Garuda is in trouble, I don't really feel like I have any options. Garuda's mobility tools take her directly to enemies, her heal, while decent, isn't immediate and not good for saving yourself, and she doesn't really have a "get off me" button. Her shield is alright but I'm often surrounded due to her 1 yanking her into groups of enemies. Which would be fine if her more powerful casts (charged 1, 4) weren't so bloody slow. She also feels really slow to build up for not much payoff, in that her 1 bomb has a fairly low explosive range. Because of that, her damage can feel a bit low too. In all with some tweaks she could be a lot better, but she's definitely in the same tier as release Khora for me.

[mosaickle]

I agree with some and disagree with others, though as a preface I'm only talking about solo play:
1 - I'm not a fan of the passive but this might just be my personal preference. Whenever I see my HP under like 85% max HP I feel like I absolutely need to heal it up to guarantee my own safety. Thus it seems useless at least for the way I habitually play

2 - I'm not sure whether it's an issue since it technically counts as an 'execute' which is great against higher level or higher priority targets like Gunners or Bombards etc. Otherwise I leap at someone, they get knocked down and I get a shield, they're always within melee range for me to melee them to death anyway. My only real issue with it is that it seems like when you land the leap you land randomly around them. I've landed in front of them, behind them, on their left or right etc. I'd definitely love to land right in front of them so I don't have to peer around my landing place just to know what direction to look to melee them to death

3 - Agree, really nice ability

4 - I quite like the idea of it making her self sufficient at a certain risk/cost. I don't see an issue with it since you have your 2 to heal it up though. Besides, despite all the ways to replenish energy, not all of us really dedicate that much toward it. From the top of my head I can think of syndicate procs which aren't exactly very effective or accessible, Trinity but I personally go solo, energy pizzas but they cost resources and are 'technically finite', focus tree stuffs but people like me couldn't be bothered to look into that and probably arcanes. I say probably cuz I couldn't be bothered to look into them either. So for the average player it displays a very clear 'gain and risk' mechanic that I'm a fan of

5 - Everyone's been saying it needs number tweaks but yeah the actual mechanic of it is really cool

 

So far honestly I think I've found my new favorite frame. I couldn't really pinpoint any glaring issues with her design. Of course there's a few bugs here and there but assuming they get fixed soon honestly I can't really see myself picking any other frame now. She has nice defense with her armor and her 1 shield, it's basically mobility, a Volt shield that doesn't cost constant energy and doesn't restrict you to secondaries and an AoE nuke all in one (that scales hella well), she has comfortable but not broken healing which is even less of an issue since I always use Life Strike on my melees, she has comfortable damage overall though apparently her 4 is getting number changes soon so I can't comment on that, she has basically everything I look for in a frame. Perfect for the missions I play nowadays while still being at least useful in other mission types I play less of.

She also looks amazing, can't forget that.

[MrJxt]

The only way I found to maximize her passive is to use Quick thinking + primed flow. That way you can stay alive with 2hp provided you don't lose all of your energy. Her claws are decent with a condition overload build.

I agree with her first ability needing some kind of base damage. It feels weak after seeing a very low lvl enemy surviving this ability when you could've 1 hit them with literally anything. Her talons have a base damage of 72. Maybe her first ability could have a base damage of 150 that scales with melee damage mods and power strength. The instant kill threshold could apply after the base damage is dealt to make the ability feel stronger against mid-high lvl enemies.

Blood Altar is decent. It would be nice to buff the base heal radius from 6m to 8-10m.

Bloodletting works well with quick thinking + flow combo. Heal with her 2nd ability and use 3rd ability to gain lots of energy. However, this ability is very risky without quick thinking because of the massive health loss. To keep the risk and reward factor, this ability could double her passive damage or provide power strength for X seconds after casting to encourage using it more often.

Her fourth ability seemed very weak at first but is actually very strong. The biggest issue initially is that the ability description does not provide enough information on how this ability works. It does not mention anything about marking targets or marked targets have a chance of receiving bleed procs from all damage sources depending on the ability bleed chance. Imo, this ability needs some punchthrough. I tested this in the simulacrum and enemies standing behind their allies did not receive the debuff. This ability could also use some damage reduction while charging since it requires clear line of sight and severely limits your movements.

 

[MasterControl]

10 hours ago, mosaickle said:

I agree with some and disagree with others, though as a preface I'm only talking about solo play:
1 - I'm not a fan of the passive but this might just be my personal preference. Whenever I see my HP under like 85% max HP I feel like I absolutely need to heal it up to guarantee my own safety. Thus it seems useless at least for the way I habitually play

2 - I'm not sure whether it's an issue since it technically counts as an 'execute' which is great against higher level or higher priority targets like Gunners or Bombards etc. Otherwise I leap at someone, they get knocked down and I get a shield, they're always within melee range for me to melee them to death anyway. My only real issue with it is that it seems like when you land the leap you land randomly around them. I've landed in front of them, behind them, on their left or right etc. I'd definitely love to land right in front of them so I don't have to peer around my landing place just to know what direction to look to melee them to death

3 - Agree, really nice ability

4 - I quite like the idea of it making her self sufficient at a certain risk/cost. I don't see an issue with it since you have your 2 to heal it up though. Besides, despite all the ways to replenish energy, not all of us really dedicate that much toward it. From the top of my head I can think of syndicate procs which aren't exactly very effective or accessible, Trinity but I personally go solo, energy pizzas but they cost resources and are 'technically finite', focus tree stuffs but people like me couldn't be bothered to look into that and probably arcanes. I say probably cuz I couldn't be bothered to look into them either. So for the average player it displays a very clear 'gain and risk' mechanic that I'm a fan of

5 - Everyone's been saying it needs number tweaks but yeah the actual mechanic of it is really cool

 

So far honestly I think I've found my new favorite frame. I couldn't really pinpoint any glaring issues with her design. Of course there's a few bugs here and there but assuming they get fixed soon honestly I can't really see myself picking any other frame now. She has nice defense with her armor and her 1 shield, it's basically mobility, a Volt shield that doesn't cost constant energy and doesn't restrict you to secondaries and an AoE nuke all in one (that scales hella well), she has comfortable but not broken healing which is even less of an issue since I always use Life Strike on my melees, she has comfortable damage overall though apparently her 4 is getting number changes soon so I can't comment on that, she has basically everything I look for in a frame. Perfect for the missions I play nowadays while still being at least useful in other mission types I play less of.

She also looks amazing, can't forget that.

1. Yeah, definitely is a matter of personal preference. Like I said, it's kinda "just okay" but I can't really ask for more from a passive.

2. Yeah I'm not saying remove the 35% hp kill, I'm saying add like 750-1000 base damage that scales with str. Make it impact so it struggles against armor. That way, it can't be used to instantly murderize anything except trash mobs unless you're utilizing the kill threshold. I feel like weaker, horde-y enemies should succumb to it regardless if they've been weakened but otherwise it should act relatively the same. I also feel like it'd feel like less of a "wasted cast" if it did some damage when it doesn't kill. At the very least, make it a bit more forgiving if you misjudge that 35% hp. Heck, I don't know, make it do more if the enemy is vulnerable to finishers to keep up the idea of it being an execute.

4. See, I'm looking at this as somebody who uses Zenurik. And like a lot of people say, we already have Rage for this sort of gameplay. It should at least do a touch more. I suggested a stagger/making nearby enemies more vulnerable (open to finishers?) because I feel like Garuda's in major trouble if she's ever surrounded since she doesn't really have any fight or flight tools. She gets in but doesn't really have a plan for when she does.

5. People gotta stop looking at it as a damage ability. Sure it can wipe some low level mobs but that's not it's primary use - you use it for the slash debuff, which in itself is great. It should certainly be faster though, I will agree with that.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Mastercontrol98

[mosaickle]

1 hour ago, Mastercontrol98 said:

4. See, I'm looking at this as somebody who uses Zenurik. And like a lot of people say, we already have Rage for this sort of gameplay. It should at least do a touch more. I suggested a stagger/making nearby enemies more vulnerable (open to finishers?) because I feel like Garuda's in major trouble if she's ever surrounded since she doesn't really have any fight or flight tools. She gets in but doesn't really have a plan for when she does.

I see what you mean, it already halves your health which in and of itself is putting you at literally 50% more risk. Maybe by bleeding herself out she can simultaneously use that blood to spray on nearby enemies as a blind?

[MasterControl]

Just now, mosaickle said:

I see what you mean, it already halves your health which in and of itself is putting you at literally 50% more risk. Maybe by bleeding herself out she can simultaneously use that blood to spray on nearby enemies as a blind?

Yeah, exactly what I was going for.