Mesa Prime - Niceass Build

[Toran]

What's your fastest time-to-kill with Peacemakers against a L160 Eximus Bombard? Can you beat 2.6 seconds?

Update:
Changed title from Badass to Niceass Build (I know, brilliant)
Mesa Prime is built and I'm done releveling her. While leveling, even on small maps like Sedna, Hydron I dearly missed my extended radar range when standing around stupidly pointing in empty spaces. 60+ Radar just adds so much more potential offense when you don't have to guess where the next group is coming from but welcome it with guns blazing from a convenient spot.

On yesterday's Sortie against Infested Adaptation was really helpful with close-spawning packs giving me near-invulnerabilty for the next 20s (refereshing) on top. During Energy Reduction, Primed Flow and Fleeting Expertise paid off too, thanks to the increased energy of Mesa Prime, you can pull off skill combo 2-4 from start on.

Weapon Test results
Did some weapon testing with an L160 Eximus Bombard. While times can vary, depending on crits and status, there were some noticeable differences. Using Shooting Gallery, fastest was Anemic Agility/Jolt/Pistol Pestilence with 2.6s at best, followed by Jolt/Pistol Pestilence/Frost Bite with 2.85s. Noticeable slowest was Anemic Agility/Convulsion/Pathogen Rounds with about 4s. 

I'll probably stick to Jolt/Pistol Pestilence/Frost Bite, it's insignificantly slower than Anemic Agility/Jolt/Pistol Pestilence but offers extra potential against strongly shielded enemies or shields in general (Hello, Fortuna!).

Regulator Prime Build (5x , 1x ) :
Hornet Strike
Barrel Diffusion
Lethal Torrent
Primed Pistol Gambit
Primed Target Cracker
Jolt
Pistol Pestilence
Anemic Agility/Frost Bite

PRO TIP:

Use a Syndana that doesn't block view to Mesa Prime's derrière - it will increase your motivation tremendously, tremendously!

With Mesa Prime at the door, I'm planning to give her my full love with Forma, trying to make her as nasty as possible. After some testing I have to agree that ability strength isn't that helpful, so the build shifts more to duration while upholding efficiency and extra survivability.

When it comes to Eximus enemies of level 100+, I found that shifting the Regulators more towards status was most helpful. Using two dual mods kills Eximus significantly faster than having normal elemental mods or extreme ability strength. Current build still has Anemic Agility, but I will test it compare it with triple dual mods (adding ice against shields) in the final run.

General Purpose:
High damage, high efficiency and generally high survivability even without Shatter Shield, or when energy is scarce (not everybody loves Pizza) for everyday high-level content (Sorties, Kuva Floods).
Vigilante Pursuit + Animal Instinct give you a perfect assessment of the battlefield and help preventing bad situations in time and tell you when to stop Peacemaker and just move on.
High efficiency and mid duration makes the build very sustainable from start on.

Final Build:
Aura ():
Corrosive Projection
Exilus ():
Vigilante Pursuit
Mod Slots (4x , 1x , 1x , all but Umbral Intensify maxed):
Umbral Vitality/Vitality
Umbral Intensify (Rank 7)/Intensify
Constitution
Primed Flow
Primed Continuity
Augur Message
Fleeting Expertise
Adaptation

Arcanes:
Arcane Grace
Arcane Velocity
Magus Elevate

Focus School:
Zenurik

Duration 147%
Efficiency 160%
Range 100%
Strength 140%

 

Alternative Build with Mesa's Waltz/Rolling Guard for point defense missions (Defense, Mobile Defense, Excavation, Interception):
Aura:
Corrosive Projection
Exilus:
Mesa's Waltz
Mod Slots:
Vitality
Intensify
Constitution
Primed Flow
Primed Continuity
Rolling Guard
Streamline
Augur Message/Stretch

Arcanes:
Arcane Energize
Arcane Velocity
Magus Elevate

Focus School:
Zenurik

Duration 207%/183%
Efficiency 130%
Range 100%/145%
Strength 130%

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Toran
Added a pro tip

[Joe_Barbarian]

As for her Regulators:

Arcanes: Arcane Velocity + *Optional I go with Guardian*

Results: Everything dies fast. 

[EDM774]

Here's my build.

Regulators:

Results: everything dies fast as well 😄

Edited December 21, 2018 by EDM774

[(PSN)drpunk-yo]

I'm a big advocate of 145% strength which hits the 95% max of shatter shield.

Peacemakers still make light work of the VAST majority of enemies the game chucks at you. I'm sure there are times you need more but these are few and far between.

Going for more is overkill to me and a detriment to the other (two useful) skills.

Edited December 18, 2018 by (PS4)drpunk-yo

[spyroxion]

3 minutes ago, EDM774 said:

Here's my build.

Regulators:

Results: everything dies fast as well 😄

Your pictures are broken 😞 

[Bloop]

Both arcanes are obviously preference, but I'm a parkour addict so I need that consequence (You can use one or two velocities, they give the best results for peacemaker). Range in order to benefit Shooting Gallery's stun range, which helps in every situation and Synth Reflex just so I can spam it in bursts, as I like to use her.

Prime will come with an energy buff, so I don't think you need that much efficiency anyways. Strength doesn't need a massive increase either (reaching the DR cap on Shatter shield is enough).

Spoiler

As for peacemaker, since I'm not using velocity, I'm adding anemic agility to it.

Spoiler

 

12 minutes ago, (PS4)drpunk-yo said:

I'm a big advocate of 145% strength which hits the 95% max of shatter shield.

You're confusing Nova with Mesa. Mesa's Damage Reduction is achieved with just 119% strength.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by --Q--Sleeping

[EDM774]

2 minutes ago, spyroxion said:

Your pictures are broken 😞 

WTF I made sure I removed the damn "i." bit imgur puts in front of them that breaks em. Stupid imgr should fix their servers already GEESH

[InfiniteSinX]

Prime access is not ready, what's going on?

 

DE plz, shut up and take my money.

 

LOL

 

Thanks for builds. Liked

Edited December 18, 2018 by InfiniteSinX

[DarthKadra]

38 minutes ago, Toran said:

Any ideas to improve the build?

As long as you have a maxed Hornet Strike on Regulators - drop Transient Fortitude. She doesn't need that strength. Replace with Constitution / Augur Message. You don't wanna be recasting Shatter Shield often, you're very vulnerable in-between casts, so if you can manage the energy, I'd start thinking about dropping Fleeting Expertise or lowering its rank like 2 notches maybe. That's what I'd change in your build.

The rest of the things that I'd change would make it a different build, but anyway, here goes:

 I wouldn't bother adding health mods at all, which means I'd have a slot free from Umbral Vitality and also that way I could move Mesa's Waltz into Exilus and have another slot free. In those two slots I'd put the other duration mod (Constitution / Message) and Stretch. And I'd ditch Fleeting Expertise altogether and put in Rolling Guard to be able to recast Shatter Shield safely. And that's the way I most probably am going to run Mesa Prime. So I end up with this:

                  CP - Waltz

P. Cont. - P. Flow - Const. - A. Msg

Stretch - Streamln - Rolling Guard - U. Intsfy

Arcanes: Energize + Velocity (depends on you Regs build)

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by DarthKadra

[-NightmareMoon-]

"My own version of "Way of the Excessive Degeneracy aka buzzsaw peacemaker", more focus in duration and efficiency for convenience."

[DarthKadra]

16 minutes ago, -NightmareMoon- said:

"My own version of "Way of the Excessive Degeneracy aka buzzsaw peacemaker"

You have a ton of strength, a lot of velocity. I think you could replace Hornet strike with another damage mod to improve it.

Would have to calculate stuff, which I hate, but I have a feeling it might be better.

Edited December 18, 2018 by DarthKadra

[Toran]

vor einer Stunde schrieb --Q--Sleeping:

Both arcanes are obviously preference, but I'm a parkour addict so I need that consequence (You can use one or two velocities, they give the best results for peacemaker). Range in order to benefit Shooting Gallery's stun range, which helps in every situation and Synth Reflex just so I can spam it in bursts, as I like to use her.

Prime will come with an energy buff, so I don't think you need that much efficiency anyways. Strength doesn't need a massive increase either (reaching the DR cap on Shatter shield is enough).

  Inhalt unsichtbar machen

As for peacemaker, since I'm not using velocity, I'm adding anemic agility to it.

  Inhalt unsichtbar machen

 

You're confusing Nova with Mesa. Mesa's Damage Reduction is achieved with just 119% strength.

 

Totally forgot about Vigilante Pursuit as replacement for Enemy Radar! At least one who thinks knowing the enemy positions is important for Mesa. Why you're using Synth Reflex again?

Arcane Velocity instead of Arcane Avenger should be more reliable, changed that too.

vor einer Stunde schrieb DarthKadra:

As long as you have a maxed Hornet Strike on Regulators - drop Transient Fortitude. She doesn't need that strength. Replace with Constitution / Augur Message. You don't wanna be recasting Shatter Shield often, you're very vulnerable in-between casts, so if you can manage the energy, I'd start thinking about dropping Fleeting Expertise or lowering its rank like 2 notches maybe. That's what I'd change in your build.

The rest of the things that I'd change would make it a different build, but anyway, here goes:

 I wouldn't bother adding health mods at all, which means I'd have a slot free from Umbral Vitality and also that way I could move Mesa's Waltz into Exilus and have another slot free. In those two slots I'd put the other duration mod (Constitution / Message) and Stretch. And I'd ditch Fleeting Expertise altogether and put in Rolling Guard to be able to recast Shatter Shield safely. And that's the way I most probably am going to run Mesa Prime. So I end up with this:

                  CP - Waltz

P. Cont. - P. Flow - Const. - A. Msg

Stretch - Streamln - Rolling Guard - U. Intsfy

Arcanes: Energize + Velocity (depends on you Regs build)

 

I've got maxed void dashes I use excessively during any kind of mission. I simply void dash to a safe spot for recast, saves me Waltz and Rolling Guard.

[DarthKadra]

33 minutes ago, Toran said:

I've got maxed void dashes I use excessively during any kind of mission. I simply void dash to a safe spot for recast, saves me Waltz and Rolling Guard.

Actually, I was looking at Joe_Barbarian's build while addressing you. Anyway, void dashing away all the time, especially with short duration, isn't very convenient and doesn't guarantee safety either. Waltz roll is also much quicker than op dashing away, so it's there for situations that require immediate reaction to stay alive and for some QoL and handy stuff like dynamically adjusting position in respect to approaching enemy while shooting and staying behind cover/corner to stay immune to enemy fire but still be able to target them with part of the reticle.  But they are both there on a completely different build. So no point discussing those.

The part that concerns changing your (this time for real) build remains the same. I'd get rid of TF and replace it with Constitution. And I'd think about replacing Fleeting Expertise with Streamline if you can manage the energy costs in some way to get even more duration. The rest would be just remolding your build into something completely different, while you obviously want to have more tankiness.

EDIT: to add - Arcane Precision works but it's a short buff that you have to trigger each time beforehand (Peacemaker itself doesn't land handshots nearly often enough to justify this arcane). 

Edited December 18, 2018 by DarthKadra

[Chaemyerelis]

Question: How does enemy radar help the peacemaker?

[striker890]

Maybe I switch build, if she has an higher base energy pool and start using primed flow...

Edited December 18, 2018 by striker890

[Toran]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb Chaemyerelis:

Question: How does enemy radar help the peacemaker?

You know where the most enemies are or if there are still enough to justify upholding Peacekeeper. You'll notice approaching melee units early and can kill them before the can hurt you. In normal mission (Kuva Flood, Sortiers) you usually clear a spot before your Peacekeeper focus ring gets to its minimum. I find it convenient to know when to turn off Peacekeeper and move on.

[Toran]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb DarthKadra:

Actually, I was looking at Joe_Barbarian's build while addressing you. Anyway, void dashing away all the time, especially with short duration, isn't very convenient and doesn't guarantee safety either. Waltz roll is also much quicker than op dashing away, so it's there for situations that require immediate reaction to stay alive and for some QoL and handy stuff like dynamically adjusting position in respect to approaching enemy while shooting and staying behind cover/corner to stay immune to enemy fire but still be able to target them with part of the reticle.  But they are both there on a completely different build. So no point discussing those.

The part that concerns changing your (this time for real) build remains the same. I'd get rid of TF and replace it with Constitution. And I'd think about replacing Fleeting Expertise with Streamline if you can manage the energy costs in some way to get even more duration. The rest would be just remolding your build into something completely different, while you obviously want to have more tankiness.

EDIT: to add - Arcane Precision works but it's a short buff that you have to trigger each time beforehand (Peacemaker itself doesn't land handshots nearly often enough to justify this arcane). 

Did today's Sortie, some Elite Onslaught and Kuva Flood. Playing in group, I still didn't see the necessity for Waltz and Rolling Guard. Solo however or doing point defense, playing it safe with the two mods might be a good idea.

[DarthKadra]

10 hours ago, Toran said:

I still didn't see the necessity for Waltz and Rolling Guard

If you consider Waltz and Rolling Guard as a set pair that occupies two slots just for the sake of rolling, whatever good that does, and recasting Shatter Shield in safety, then I bet no one would see much good in that.

You see, I'm a big advocate of void dashing myself, use it extensively, it's in the muscle memory, any kind of bad situations - op dash away, need to heal - op dash (2xElevate), op dash to move quicker and op dash to refresh Zenurik and op dash just for good measure and fun. 

As I mentioned before Waltz is there for when in immediate danger and as QoL/utility, Rolling Guard is also there as a survivability and utility mod at the same time, and while they complement each other you don't necessarily need both, they just take their respective slots.

Let's just start by choosing an Exilus mod: I can see two mods for Mesa there - Waltz and Vigilante Pursuit (Cunning Drift adds some range for your 2nd, but not enough to be better than those two, Power Drift offers just way too little power to even consider it, other mods would be for some ingenious and fun builds). 

Vigilante Pursuit is a pretty good thing to have and I like it, not much to say about it, it's good. Some frames you can just play watching the minimap mostly if you have the radar.

Waltz can save you when you need rolling out of AoEs like osprey mines about to explode, you suddenly see a butcher that is just about to chop your noggin off from somewhere off the screen, you're under heavy fire / end up in a group of enemies - going op you're risking getting the kid getting killed instantly before you even switch to void mode so you roll to a side then dash away etc. 

The general idea is: double tapping sprint is a lot faster than pressing a button to go op mode and then two more simultaneously to dash away - and there's another catch, if you fail to go into Void fast enough, which can happen at times when under heavy fire, the op is instantly killed and you're back in your frame and it's likely you're going to die next as well. And yes, there are situations where the time difference between rolling to avoid or mitigate damage and trying to dash away can mean life or death. 

And there's the other side of Waltz - QoL. You can slightly adjust your position as needed, like activated it out of a jump landed a bit off the target spot, can't kill a few enemies because of LoS and need to move just a couple steps. Makes your life easier.

And as I mentioned before there's trick stuff like shooting from behind corner while slightly moving as the enemies approach, so you keep hidden and safe but can still shoot at them with your reticle. 

So all these things together are not only useful but they can alter gameplay a bit, and they outweigh the radar for me, especially because I have Animal Instinct on every pet (it's like a must have mod) - it takes care of your immediate surroundings at least. So you're not left completely minimap blind.

Now, Rolling Guard - I use it as the only survivability mod, while you use Umbral Vitality and Adaptation, and a Grace on top of that. So I do see the necessity for it on my build, especially because survivability is not all that it offers. 

Firstly - it lets you recast her 3rd absolutely safely. Secondly - it synergizes with Waltz. These are but minor conveniences.

Thirdly - and this is the most important part - it's an invulnerability window for Clem's sake and a proc cleanse, which means: you can roll into nullifier bubbles and kill them without taking any damage, point blank with a Zarr if you feel like it. You can counter heavy damage mechanics that Shatter Shield cannot protect you from. You can cleanse any kind of procs. So, again, it's the kind of mod that opens up new possibilities, because dude - invulnerability, while only temporary, can be used in a variety of ways that can change your gameplay.

Amen. 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by DarthKadra

[Toran]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb DarthKadra:

If you consider Waltz and Rolling Guard as a set pair that occupies two slots just for the sake of rolling, whatever good that does, and recasting Shatter Shield in safety, then I bet no one would see much good in that.

You see, I'm a big advocate of void dashing myself, use it extensively, it's in the muscle memory, any kind of bad situations - op dash away, need to heal - op dash (2xElevate), op dash to move quicker and op dash to refresh Zenurik and op dash just for good measure and fun. 

As I mentioned before Waltz is there for when in immediate danger and as QoL/utility, Rolling Guard is also there as a survivability and utility mod at the same time, and while they complement each other you don't necessarily need both, they just take their respective slots.

Let's just start by choosing an Exilus mod: I can see two mods for Mesa there - Waltz and Vigilante Pursuit (Cunning Drift adds some range for your 2nd, but not enough to be better than those two, Power Drift offers just way too little power to even consider it, other mods would be for some ingenious and fun builds). 

Vigilante Pursuit is a pretty good thing to have and I like it, not much to say about it, it's good. Some frames you can just play watching the minimap mostly if you have the radar.

Waltz can save you when you need rolling out of AoEs like osprey mines about to explode, you suddenly see a butcher that is just about to chop your noggin off from somewhere off the screen, you're under heavy fire / end up in a group of enemies - going op you're risking getting the kid getting killed instantly before you even switch to void mode so you roll to a side then dash away etc. 

The general idea is: double tapping sprint is a lot faster than pressing a button to go op mode and then two more simultaneously to dash away - and there's another catch, if you fail to go into Void fast enough, which can happen at times when under heavy fire, the op is instantly killed and you're back in your frame and it's likely you're going to die next as well. And yes, there are situations where the time difference between rolling to avoid or mitigate damage and trying to dash away can mean life or death. 

And there's the other side of Waltz - QoL. You can slightly adjust your position as needed, like activated it out of a jump landed a bit off the target spot, can't kill a few enemies because of LoS and need to move just a couple steps. Makes your life easier.

And as I mentioned before there's trick stuff like shooting from behind corner while slightly moving as the enemies approach, so you keep hidden and safe but can still shoot at them with your reticle. 

So all these things together are not only useful but they can alter gameplay a bit, and they outweigh the radar for me, especially because I have Animal Instinct on every pet (it's like a must have mod) - it takes care of your immediate surroundings at least. So you're not left completely minimap blind.

Now, Rolling Guard - I use it as the only survivability mod, while you use Umbral Vitality and Adaptation, and a Grace on top of that. So I do see the necessity for it on my build, especially because survivability is not all that it offers. 

Firstly - it lets you recast her 3rd absolutely safely. Secondly - it synergizes with Waltz. These are but minor conveniences.

Thirdly - and this is the most important part - it's an invulnerability window for Clem's sake and a proc cleanse, which means: you can roll into nullifier bubbles and kill them without taking any damage, point blank with a Zarr if you feel like it. You can counter heavy damage mechanics that Shatter Shield cannot protect you from. You can cleanse any kind of procs. So, again, it's the kind of mod that opens up new possibilities, because dude - invulnerability, while only temporary, can be used in a variety of ways that can change your gameplay.

Amen. 

 

Thanks for the sermon, but I did get you the first time around, already.

I simply prefer a faster and more flexible playstyle, hence Vigilante Pursuit (plus Animal Instinct) and Fleeting Expertise over higher duration. Most encounters in Sortie and Kuva-Flood only last very few seconds, so I hardly ever get in the situation where Mesa's Waltz or Rolling Guard come in handy or my Peacemaker's focus ring shrinks to its minimum radius. 

While my three survival mods don't guarantee complete safety from one-hit kills, they're passive (Rolling Guard and Backflip with Mesa's Waltz have to be timed) and add additional protection during traversal even when Shattershield's off (I usually activate it just for big groups).

And as mentioned before (the part you didn't quote), I can see the benefits of Mesa's Waltz and Rolling guard in solo play (where you're the sole focus of enemies) or point defense (where you usually face larger crowds in short time). For that I've added a second build that's working with my general purpose build's polarizations.

Suum cuique

 

[Toran]

Am ‎18‎.‎12‎.‎2018 um 15:20 schrieb -NightmareMoon-:

"My own version of "Way of the Excessive Degeneracy aka buzzsaw peacemaker", more focus in duration and efficiency for convenience."

You can further improve your Regulators by exchanging Pathogen Rounds and Convulsion for Jolt/Pistol Pestilence. You still will be able to one-/two-hit crappy level 100s but you will be killing stronger Eximus much faster with the 50+% Status Chance.

 

[Veridian]

Pretty much the same build as OP, Fleeting Expertise shaves 1 energy per second on Regulators more than streamline, but I like the additional 15-20 seconds to all buffs.

Exilus is personal taste, nothing is really that noticeable.

My regulators are 90% the same, the only difference is lack of 60-60 mods and Anemic Agility.

Personally I think that the choice between 60-60 and 90 is irrelevant. Nothing at lower levels lives long enough to warrant the 30% increase and Mesa doesn't see high enough level content for the status to make a difference. I made my choice, cuz bigger numbers.

Also Primed heated charge, in this build, somehow yields more DPS than Anemic Agility.

Personal opinion, Mesa's Waltz is trash. She has enough energy to recast almost 24/7 and it's way easier to just pop it mid-bullet jump, retain knockback resistance and is also way faster to reposition.

I keep wondering however, now that polymer is not so rare, going Madurai and spamming pizzas should yield higher damage output?

Edited December 21, 2018 by Ver1dian

[Toran]

vor 45 Minuten schrieb Ver1dian:

Pretty much the same build as OP, Fleeting Expertise shaves 1 energy per second on Regulators more than streamline, but I like the additional 15-20 seconds to all buffs.

Exilus is personal taste, nothing is really that noticeable.

My regulators are 90% the same, the only difference is lack of 60-60 mods and Anemic Agility.

Personally I think that the choice between 60-60 and 90 is irrelevant. Nothing at lower levels lives long enough to warrant the 30% increase and Mesa doesn't see high enough level content for the status to make a difference. I made my choice, cuz bigger numbers.

Also Primed heated charge, in this build, somehow yields more DPS than Anemic Agility.

Personal opinion, Mesa's Waltz is trash. She has enough energy to recast almost 24/7 and it's way easier to just pop it mid-bullet jump, retain knockback resistance and is also way faster to reposition.

I keep wondering however, now that polymer is not so rare, going Madurai and spamming pizzas should yield higher damage output?

+1
Man, I wish we could get extra Umbral Mods or a way to undo the levels, I'm stuck with my Rank 7 Intensify or have to destroy some other builds.

Fleeting Expertise is but a convenience. While it doesn't help much with Peacemaker, it allows to cast the full combo of Shooting Gallery, Shattershield and Peacemaker for only 60, comes in handy with missions having energy reduction. Let's say I'm just lazy switching builds.

[Veridian]

34 minutes ago, Toran said:

+1
Man, I wish we could get extra Umbral Mods or a way to undo the levels, I'm stuck with my Rank 7 Intensify or have to destroy some other builds.

Fleeting Expertise is but a convenience. While it doesn't help much with Peacemaker, it allows to cast the full combo of Shooting Gallery, Shattershield and Peacemaker for only 60, comes in handy with missions having energy reduction. Let's say I'm just lazy switching builds.

I just sucked it up, maxed them all and use 2 or 3 depending on the frame. Some builds are left with half-leveled or no Exilus, but w/e.

Nice idea for the energy reduction missions workaround, going to put that to use, yay for same polarity. On the other hand I don't use Fleeting Expertise, because I'm lazy in keeping up buffs. Adaptation also helps for that, after the first cast of Shatter Shield I can forget about it for most missions 😄 

Edit: I understood what DE meant when they named it "sacrifice", 9 umbral builds 5-6 forma each is truly sacrificial.

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Ver1dian

[NightmareT12]

On 2018-12-18 at 3:04 PM, EDM774 said:

WTF I made sure I removed the damn "i." bit imgur puts in front of them that breaks em. Stupid imgr should fix their servers already GEESH

It's not the "i", it's the HTTPS protocol, which needs to be removed. Copy the following links to embed them in your post:

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

On 2018-12-18 at 7:42 AM, Toran said:

a L160 Eximus Bombard

As in 1? Lol how bout 10 160 heavy gunners? Or 10 160 techs alerted pounding on you...that said

How fast could I kill 1, I could probably kill 1 in about 2 seconds with my Mesa. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by (XB1)RDeschain82