My first impressions of Garuda: Bloody Good

[TheGreenFellow]

Overall: "Solid". Just about right, not too great, not bad.

- Seems that Quick Thinking is required to benefit from her passive; otherwise it's just too difficult to benefit from. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but on the other hand, how many players will have Quick Thinking on-hand when they get Garuda?

It's a nice touch, at least, that her base polarities fit Quick Thinking + Flow perfectly, and that she has high base armor, making Steel Fiber an easy choice (Umbral Steel Fiber preferably, of course).

Her 1: is quite useful - but requiring an enemy to be present makes it a bit more situational than Volt's shield. When enemies abound, though, *very* handy. Ample built-in range. Feels a bit action-intensive to make consistent use of.

- The blood orb thing is ugly...a thing of nightmares. Yeah, okay, when charged up it's a Nova-Antimatter-Drop-esque explosion that works pretty well at clearing out 1 mob of enemies in the tile, but, it feels like Garuda walked out of Dead Space or something. (The flesh-crawling sound...ewww....)

Her 2: resembles Inaros' 2, except that you don't have to hold X to heal (but in return, don't benefit from full immunity while healing). Pretty straightforward, manages to look/feel different enough. The range is a bit wanting. Granted, I haven't gotten her to 30 yet, but even so, the range is quite small compared to (somewhat) similar ablities in Oberon/Frost/Hydroid's kits.

Her 3...unusual 'blood warlock' style of ability. This is where I feel "Quick Thinking" is *required* to see the benefit of using this at all, otherwise you're much better off slotting a Rage/Hunter Adrenaline instead and keeping your HP up. Certainly, you can *try* to ride that knife-edge of losing most but not all of your HP, but with enemies being as varied, wonky, and wild as they are, I don't think that's too smart. (Though I reckon a Redirection + Adaptation might work alright, I highly doubt it'd get you as far as Quick Thinking + Flow + Steel Fiber.)

Her 4: Not terribly intuitive, and somewhat difficult to gauge what the expanding reticule means unless you read about the ability on the wiki. Takes a little long to charge up. That being said, once you get the knack of it, *wow* is that powerful. Probably the highest-range AOE in the game (though, it's aimpoint-directional outside of 60m)? All slash proc damage to boot, and it *also* adds the 'Garuda Marks' that, with the help of some Strength modding, guarantees (more) slash procs? Garuda won't be having problems with enemy scaling any time soon, that's for sure....

In general, I don't think she's the quickest frame for killing things; using the 4 takes time (and the slash procs take time to kill), and using it often means you must wisely manage your energy, albeit that she's been given the tools to do so. Her 2 and 3 don't impact crowd-clearing at all (though, sure, you can lock down a bombard with the 2), and her 1 also takes significant time (and energy-risk) to use (while also denying you protection for a few moments, which can be critical).

If you can keep her passive consistently 'charged' with Quick Thinking in use, though, she makes for a good "Gun-kata" platform, particular for leveling guns, with her abilities there to supplement.

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All in all, I'm not sure if there's a specific 'role' I would assign to Garuda other than "deals damage and (with the right mods) is very difficult to take down". She stands out as a frame that can consistently keep up with enemy scaling - I actually took her into a Kuva Flood with no potato, no forma, at level 23, and did surprisingly well, wasn't downed even once (granted that I had a little help with a rivened Prisma Grakata and an Atterax, but I digress).

- There's a notable lack of 'team' play with her kit. Her 2 requires significantly more range, I feel, to be useful for that. On the other hand, nobody else needs to really worry about you going down, so long as you don't stop using your abilities. (As I've said about her 1, she's action-intensive.)

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p.s. Does she really need the talons? We already have Valkyr for that, and like...even if her talons are pretty good for a claw weapon, they won't be replacing whips or polearms without *significant* mobility increases to the stances, a problem that stands out for basically anything that's not a whip or polearm, in my view. At least Valkyr can use both at the same time.

They look kind of like a Warfan, you know...or like they could be used in the same style as a Tonfa....

Edited November 20, 2018 by TheGreenGunner

[TheGreenFellow]

A note to add:

Being paired up with Oberon makes it very difficult to benefit from Garuda's passive. 'Course, you're obtaining another set of buffs in exchange, but still....

[iDragolyte]

The talons are unique as a feature, but they're kinda useless compared to other greater melees. It makes it nothing much special with the stance being the same as any other claw weapons like Venka.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, TheGreenGunner said:

A note to add:

Being paired up with Oberon makes it very difficult to benefit from Garuda's passive. 'Course, you're obtaining another set of buffs in exchange, but still....

Dat infinite energy tho...

[Redfeather75]

8 hours ago, iDragolyte said:

The talons are unique as a feature, but they're kinda useless compared to other greater melees. It makes it nothing much special with the stance being the same as any other claw weapons like Venka.

Is it possible to make Garuda's talons stronger for each empty weapon slot in the loadout?!

Garuda could be a powerful minimalist warframe. XD

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Redfeather75

[RS219]

On 2018-11-20 at 1:27 PM, TheGreenGunner said:

(Umbral Steel Fiber preferably, of course)

Umbral fiber alone gives as much armour as Steel Fiber while on top of that being an unforma-able polarity. The only way to get any actual benefit would be to slot in another Umbral mod, which further eats up capacity costs.

And on top of that, the bonus from Umbral Fiber gives less EHP than that of Umbral Vitality.

If you're going to put in one Umbral mod, the only one worth it is Umbral Intensify for having a stronger bonus than base Intensify.

[csaszar]

Garuda right now is a weak starter frame with an advanced ability mechanics making it unsuitable for starters.

Difficult for newbies weak for advanced use - generally a shame.

She looks good - thats an understatement: she looks gorgeous -and has potential but unless she gets much more life pool faster animations and meaningful passive she is just an another missed opportunity. A shame.

At least triple life pool no shield and a passive that gives bonus after the cumulative reciwved damage - then she will stay in her role and lore but maybe turning useful past the first few lvls.

Edited November 21, 2018 by Csaszar

[TheGreenFellow]

15 hours ago, RS219 said:

Umbral fiber alone gives as much armour as Steel Fiber while on top of that being an unforma-able polarity. The only way to get any actual benefit would be to slot in another Umbral mod, which further eats up capacity costs.

And on top of that, the bonus from Umbral Fiber gives less EHP than that of Umbral Vitality.

If you're going to put in one Umbral mod, the only one worth it is Umbral Intensify for having a stronger bonus than base Intensify.

I'm presuming that anybody that knows what Umbral mods are, already knows how that works. 😉

Edited November 21, 2018 by TheGreenGunner

[RS219]

14 hours ago, TheGreenGunner said:

I'm presuming that anybody that knows what Umbral mods are, already knows how that works. 😉

Then why did you recommend UF without stacking it with one of the others?

Either way, UF and UV's stage 2 bonuses are very tiny. It's best to pair one of them with Umbral Intensify if one can only fit in 2 umbral mods, and since UV gives better EHP, go with UV instead of UF.

[TheGreenFellow]

9 hours ago, RS219 said:

Then why did you recommend UF without stacking it with one of the others?

Either way, UF and UV's stage 2 bonuses are very tiny. It's best to pair one of them with Umbral Intensify if one can only fit in 2 umbral mods, and since UV gives better EHP, go with UV instead of UF.

I literally just explained. It was implied. You're making a mountain out of an unimportant molehill. And you seem to be forgetting the context of relying on Quick Thinking to intentionally keep health down and thereby keep Garuda's passive active, which is the whole idea of picking Fiber (which does work in combination with Quick Thinking) and specifically NOT taking Vitality.

[RS219]

Then why not just use normal Steel Fiber? It gives just as much armor as a non-bonus'd UF if equipped alone and it can go into a polarized slot to cut down on costs.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

Im gonna hop on this thread since its about first impressions.  Just Got mine on ps4 the other day and Already put some forma into her.  My Valkyr already uses Venka claws so its a little disappointing that Garuda's exalted weapon is claws.  I thought her blades would be coming from her forearms.  Maybe a chance for a new dual sword reverse grip stance.  

my first attempt to use her was HP/shields/ try to max range/duration.   A little armor.   She was still squishy as hell especially out on Orb Vallis bounties.   But I went from 0 to 28 versus infested and used all of her abilities.  I'd pop a dread mirror, then impale somebody and then use bloodletting so I can get back energy while the impaled guy heals me.  But that is very energy intensive....   And once you have have no energy and your in an intense fight where your shields, no matter how big, never have time to regenerate I was TOAST.   

Later I tried to make her more like Valkyr.  Umbral mods to give her 700% armor as well as gladiator mods for hp/armor.    No shields...    This time I also took hunters adrenaline and streamline.  (my umbral mods are not maxed..).  My range and duration are not as big.   I did a little worse with this set up..  probably cuz my umbrals but I tried to rely more on impale which is alot of energy to use even with streamline.   I was out of energy more, had a harder time getting it back.  My armor wasnt that great at only 700+.  So towards the end at 20+ minutes I was easily overwhelmed and beat down slowly.  

My first impressions of her abilities...

1 Dread Mirror is most annoying as hell having that beating heart above your head making noise until you launch it(which makes you blow energy).   Out in OV the mirror got bypassed because you get shot at from 50 different angles and so its was largely worthless.  

2. Impale.  On easy missions I LOVE this ability.   I could finally see Garuda being a warframe everyone rallies around and actually sticks close to one another with her constantly dropping heals that you have to be close to receive.   However I think the healing zone is way to short.  I didnt go for max max range but I think between range and duration I only got it up to 15meters for 24-26 seconds??  I think the base range at max level needs to be around 20.  Or I would love to see the duration on Dread Mirror/Impale have a base duration of 30seconds.  20's were way to short.   If I use bloodletting right after impale #1 I have to leave the tiny ass AoE to kill stuff, #2 if I do stay in the circle I usually dont get healed back to full.

3.  Bloodletting... I did not use this alot.  When I try to max out Impale I nerf strength which makes both impale and this suck.  When I was using my armored Garuda and relying on impale I never really needed her to heal lol.  My kavat would take care of me mostly.  By the time I actually start taking damage that I need to heal actively with impale is also the exact same time enemies start to drain the hell out of your energy. soo.....Kind of a mute issue at that point....    What I would wanna see..  Is a bigger surge to energy.   Especially more a energy over time situation that would also benefit from you using Duration mods like you do for DM/impale.  The health loss isnt really an issue with how I use it.   Impale's ability to heal you back to full is the problem in this situation (both in energy consumption and range).  You can not be expected to sit in your healing circle while everything else continues to shoot the crap out of you .

4.  Talons....  couldnt tell you...visually I dont see jack happening but I didnt use it much.   Garuda suffers insane energy swings and since its all tied in to her staying alive mechanics I dont know why anyone would purge energy with a charge up 4.

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I dont know if it would help but I would love if Garuda's claw kills would spawn health orbs.  Or maybe her 4.   Then we could use Health Conversion to armor her up.  Her 4 dropping HP orbs would be cool because it would make her way more offensive than defensive to.   You would blast enemies, hit Bloodletter to regain energy, then run around and pick up the orbs to heal.   And maybe then you could add a magnet to Impale that sucks in all nearby HP orbs.  That sounds insanely fun in my head.... Like I said I dont know if HP conversion is enough to make Garuda tanky enough to survive.   But with a more reliable way of gaining back health,  Bloodletting could be relied on more heavily to fuel offensive power.

Dread Mirror could become something different.  It could just be a duration effect that reflects back a % of all incoming damage to the attacker.      Then her 1/4 are offensive powers.   2/3/4 would be used for healing/energy regen.   That sounds fun as hell..  

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

Well i beefed up my umbra steel fiber mod.   1k armor, 1k hp.   Im having alot of fun.  2 I use as often as I can.  3 if im low.  altar heals me just fine at 37%/s and has a radius of 14m.   Except im about to add max power drift for even stronger heals.  I was using streamline but i swapped for more range.  Dont know how that will go but should be fine even if bloodletting becomes mandatory.    The 4 is alright when you wanna be offensive and have alot in front of you.  I wish it was a 360 burst of damage.

I cant remember if i still use Hunter Adrenaline.  I might swap that for streamline or take some duration.  Dread Mirror I dont use to much.  

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_IGN]

Gotta say Bloodletting 50% loss to HP for only 25% gain to energy is pretty disappointing....  thats basicly enough to just use an Impale if your quick and then your right back to zero.   It should have an instant burt energy return but also maybe a small duration window for slow regen??

I was in an infested survival with electric eximus enemies and completely out of power so I was experiementing with Bloodletting.   I could use impale or dread mirror.   Tried impale and that works fine.  But if I did dread mirror first... I didnt have the juice to use impale to actually heal myself.   So using Bloodletter a second time just killed me lol.   Maybe also make Blood letting only take 49% of your HP so you cant kill yourself with the power if you spam it twice?

 

 

With her passive....  She needs a way to become invulnerable at low heath, and then as she exits invulnerability she could gain back damage based on how much dished out.  But with no way to lock her HP at a number for a short duration you really cant take advantage of her passive.   Like if we could do x2 Bloodletter and be damn near death and invulnerable for like 10-15 seconds that would be great.  Maybe dread mirror could change from offense to healing,  tracking how much damage you dish out.   When your invulnerability ends the little heart from Dread Mirror could burst and dump blood all over your warframe healing you.