Switching Aura Polarities

[(XBOX)CaptainNate22]

No idea if I'm missing something. I just unlocked Excalibur Umbra a few day ago and the aura polarity is V. I've seen some people with (-) polarities (for CP) on their builds and I'm wondering if aura polarities are changeable with forma or if they are just random, set and I got a bad roll? 

[actuallyVile]

You can change them. You did not get a bad roll, it's a fixed polarity per frame when you get it. But a Forma can change that for you :) 

Edit: Based on the reply after mine, just want to make something clear. The "umbra polarity" that you can't get back is not the aura polarity. The umbra polarity is this one:

So don't use formas to get rid of those. But as for the aura polarity; go wild 😉 

Edited January 22, 2019 by -AxHx-Vile

[Thaelyn2]

Since you’re asking about Umbra specifically, don’t forget that there is no way to get the umbra polarity back if you change one of them with forms. Be absolutely sure you can live without it before changing it. 

 

Chances Ed are you already know this, but it certainly cant hurt to point it out on the off chance you don’t. 

 

Enjoy. 

[(XBOX)CaptainNate22]

Just now, Thaelyn2 said:

Since you’re asking about Umbra specifically, don’t forget that there is no way to get the umbra polarity back if you change one of them with forms. Be absolutely sure you can live without it before changing it. 

 

Chances Ed are you already know this, but it certainly cant hurt to point it out on the off chance you don’t. 

 

Enjoy. 

Yeah I managed to figure that out after almost doing it accidentally. Thanks for pointing it out though. I'm trying to create the best solo/team hybrid build so need CP for sure which was why I was initially wondering about auras.

[Naftal]

8 minutes ago, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

Yeah I managed to figure that out after almost doing it accidentally. Thanks for pointing it out though. I'm trying to create the best solo/team hybrid build so need CP for sure which was why I was initially wondering about auras.

- polarity also enables enemy radar, which in my opinion is the strongest aura when CP isn't needed. It also works really well in groups with 3CP on other players.

Enemy radar as a mechanic is underappreciated. Combined with Animal Instinct you'll get 48m radar (or more with other radar mods) and it'll help a lot with locating new spawns asap and effectively increasing your kill-speed. It's essentially a wall hack as long as you look at minimap.

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

5 hours ago, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

No idea if I'm missing something. I just unlocked Excalibur Umbra a few day ago and the aura polarity is V. I've seen some people with (-) polarities (for CP)

Changing a frame's aura polarity to a naramon was basically mandatory 3-4 years ago but the game has changed a lot since then.  First there are more viable options in other polarities like growing power.  Then they added the exilus slot so if you really want enemy radar you have that.  Zenurik made energy siphon a waste of time.  And finally they've added a lot of other ways to the game to strip armor in the form of beefing up a lot of status weapons (ie 100% status akbronoco prime) and oodles of frame powers / augments (oberon, trinity, ash to name a few).

Now I some times still change an aura to a naramon but I'm much more likely to just leave it at whatever default it started at.

[(XBOX)CaptainNate22]

17 hours ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

Changing a frame's aura polarity to a naramon was basically mandatory 3-4 years ago but the game has changed a lot since then.  First there are more viable options in other polarities like growing power.  Then they added the exilus slot so if you really want enemy radar you have that.  Zenurik made energy siphon a waste of time.  And finally they've added a lot of other ways to the game to strip armor in the form of beefing up a lot of status weapons (ie 100% status akbronoco prime) and oodles of frame powers / augments (oberon, trinity, ash to name a few).

Now I some times still change an aura to a naramon but I'm much more likely to just leave it at whatever default it started at.

So what would recommend using that has a V polarity? I'm currently running rifle amp and considering doing the orokin moon test that gives coaction drift to buff it, but I'm also considering steel charge because, you know, it's excalibur.

[Sloan441]

22 hours ago, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

No idea if I'm missing something. I just unlocked Excalibur Umbra a few day ago and the aura polarity is V. I've seen some people with (-) polarities (for CP) on their builds and I'm wondering if aura polarities are changeable with forma or if they are just random, set and I got a bad roll? 

They are changeable. Think carefully about what you actually want before doing it, though. It used to be it was a ' - ' polarity or bust. Not so anymore. 

2 minutes ago, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

So what would recommend using that has a V polarity? 

If you want to leverage this polarity, Growing Power is the obvious choice. Most warframes benefit from power strength (though there are a few who do not or are indifferent to it) and this certainly is a significant boost, though it requires some thought in regards to weapons to apply it. 

4 minutes ago, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

 I'm also considering steel charge because, you know, it's excalibur.

As well you should. Steel Charge is quite good for him (and a number of others...) and it also gives you more mod energy to use than most other aura mods. 

Of course, if circumstances change or you feel you've made a mistake, you can always forma the slot again. Forma are cheap and re-leveling a warframe isn't a big deal. It's a bit inconvenient, but that's as far as it really goes. 

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

Just now, (XB1)CaptainNate22 said:

So what would recommend using that has a V polarity? I'm currently running rifle amp and considering doing the orokin moon test that gives coaction drift to buff it, but I'm also considering steel charge because, you know, it's excalibur.

The weapon amps are fine to use assuming you have load out where you consistently use that weapon type.  I personally switch weapons all over the place too much for that.  Steel charge is good, you get a few bonus mod points and melee can be really strong if you want it to be.

For a frame like excal with a channeling ability that needs power strength I would run growing power for sure though.  You trigger the aura buff and then you cast exalted blade with the 25% extra power strength.

Honestly I have two mod loadouts on him.  An exalted blade one with growing power and then a radial blind build with steel charge.  For 90% of the content in the game you shouldn't need to be in exalted blade all the time (EB spammers in low level missions are super annoying).  Radial blind is a massively powerful ability even after all of the line of sight nerfing that they did to it.

[(XBOX)CaptainNate22]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Agent_CHAR said:

The weapon amps are fine to use assuming you have load out where you consistently use that weapon type.  I personally switch weapons all over the place too much for that.  Steel charge is good, you get a few bonus mod points and melee can be really strong if you want it to be.

For a frame like excal with a channeling ability that needs power strength I would run growing power for sure though.  You trigger the aura buff and then you cast exalted blade with the 25% extra power strength.

Honestly I have two mod loadouts on him.  An exalted blade one with growing power and then a radial blind build with steel charge.  For 90% of the content in the game you shouldn't need to be in exalted blade all the time (EB spammers in low level missions are super annoying).  Radial blind is a massively powerful ability even after all of the line of sight nerfing that they did to it.

Personally, I use bows most of the time, but when I want to switch it up I use soma, karak (for lower levels) and sometimes drakgoon just for fun because it isn't all that great but a flak cannon is still pretty cool. So it sounds like rifle amp might be decent to stick with if not using the shotgun. I need to read more about channeling because I still don't fully understand but thanks for the suggestions!