[FORMA] Noob question about Forma

[SPEKTRE76]

Hey Tenno,

I am starting to build a team of Warframes and I have had Frost Prime for quite a while now. He has been forma'd once. When we forma does it increase the specs of the Warframe exponentially or just a few points. I noticed that when I put MOD's into forma'd slots they turn green. Does that mean now they are twice as powerful than they were before?

I have seen people withstand onslaughts of up to Lvl 95 NPC's and laugh in their faces. And I have seen some guy with a single shot rifle take out a drop ship in one trigger pull. If  I forma'd all my slots in my weapons in Warframe will I be a God among other players too? I'm just have trouble on what I should do first? Which Polarities are the strongest?

Frames I have so far:

• Frost Prime - 30 x 2 Forma Main, Valis and Eidolon, Defense Missions
• Equinox Prime - 30 Max
• Loki Prime - 0, Want to use for Capture?
• Volt Prime - 27 Currently leveling up, building as another tank
• Vauban - 0
• Excalibur - 0
• Ivara - 3
• Limbo - 30 x 2 Forma Max, Extraction Missions
• Oberon - 18 but Forma'd once already
• Chroma Prime, need Systems
• Mesa Prime, need Blueprint

What should I be using these frames for?

BTW, The cinematic of "The Second Dream", the Lotus has it going on for sure =o)~

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by SPEKTRE76

[WhiteMarker]

12 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

I have seen people withstand onslaughts of up to Lvl 95 NPC's and laugh in their faces. And I have seen some guy with a single shot rifle take out a drop ship in one trigger pull. If  I forma'd all my slots in my weapons in Warframe will I be a God among other players too? I'm just have trouble on what I should do first? Which Polarities are the strongest?

The things you described have less to do with forma and more with the selection of frames.
Sure, you always need to use forma to get a good build.
But even if you have a strong build, a Nyx won't be able to tank level 95 enemies...
And a Vauban will have a hard time to one shot high level drop ships...

Also there is no "strongest" polarity.
It's about the mods, and about their polarity...

[GnarlsDarkley]

24 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

I noticed that when I put MOD's into forma'd slots they turn green. Does that mean now they are twice as powerful than they were before?

The most important "thing" is the Polarity of a Mod. If the Polarity matches the same one on your weapon or Frame its costs will be halfed and Polarity color will turn green. If you use a Mod with a different Polarity you have to pay extra and will be red. 
 

24 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

Which Polarities are the strongest?

You cannot answer this question. Most polarities have kinda a theme. V polarity usually is for power strength, D polarity mainly for Survivability like Armor/HEalth/Adaptation and Dash for Efficiency and Range

24 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

Frames I have so far:

• Frost Prime - 30 x 2 Forma Main, Valis and Eidolon, Defense Missions
• Equinox Prime - 30 Max
• Loki Prime - 0, Want to use for Capture?
• Volt Prime - 27 Currently leveling up, building as another tank
• Vauban - 0
• Excalibur - 0
• Ivara - 3
• Limbo - 30 x 2 Forma Max, Extraction Missions
• Oberon
• Chroma Prime, need Systems
• Mesa Prime, need Blueprint

What should I be using these frames for?

Use them for whatever you want them to. Some frames are more efficient than others for some missions (Invis frames for Spy, Frost for M.Def/Excavbation, etc) but you can choose freely. It's also possible to do these missions with every other frame

5 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

If you have one of those uber frames can you screen shot a build?

I wouldn't say my builds are uber or OP but they suit my style and I can clear every mission solo if necessary

You can check them here: http://wegaming.de/gnarls/#readme

Edited June 17, 2019 by GnarlsDarkley

[SPEKTRE76]

If you have one of those uber frames can you screen shot a build?

[Ascarith]

Forma polarity has no bearing on the strength of a mod. It halves the cost of a mod with a matching polarity that goes in the slot (rounded up). The green indicator tells you that you've matched the polarity and the cost is being halved. If you try to slot a mod that does not match polarity, you will get a red indicator and it will cost you 25% more mod energy (rounded up, scaled off the original mod cost) on top of the original mod cost itself.

To use the examples above:

• Narrow Minded - 16 mod cost at max rank. Matching polarity halves the cost, so it costs 8. (If it was an odd number, like 15, half would be 7.5 but we would round up to 8.)
• Augur Reach - 7 mod cost at max rank. Mismatched polarity means 25% penalty. 25% of 7 is 1.75. Round up to 2. Base (7) + penalty (2) = 9. 

The exception to this is for stance and aura polarities. If you match the stance/aura polarity, this doubles the bonus of mod energy that you get. If you have a mismatch, your bonus mod energy is reduced by 20%.

Forma/polarities won't innately make your frame stronger, but it will let you fit in more mods (which theoretically makes you stronger). For weapons, Forma are critical to achieving higher damage because it allows you to slot more damage mods. How you mod is also important though, as you want to be playing to a weapon's strengths (e.g. critical chance/damage if applicable) and using the right elemental combos for bonus damage (against certain enemies).

For tanking enemies with your face, that's more about equipment (right mods, right frames, right skills, right Arcanes, etc). Forma will help make sure you've got space for all your mods, but it won't help with the other aspects that help you tank damage.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Ascarith

[JujuHex]

All forma does is assign or change a polarity on a mod slot.
Mods matching the polarity of the slot will have their total drain reduced by half, allowing you to fit in more mods with the same amount of max capacity.
Mods that don't match the polarity will have their drain cost increased by 25%.

Aura slots behave slightly different.
Equipping a matching polarity Aura mod into your aura slot will double, or increase by 100% the bonus capacity granted by the aura.
Aura mods that don't match the polarity of your Aura slot will decrease the total bonus capacity granted by 20%.

Applying forma to your warframe or gear does NOTHING to increase its stats, like health, shields or armor. It only, in theory allows you to equip a higher total drain amount worth of mods, so you can equip more mods and/or more powerful mods.

There is only one exception to this:

Spoiler

The Paracesis sword will increase its Max Rank every time you forma it by 2, up to a Max amount of Mastery Rank 40, allowing a higher Max Capacity on it.

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by JujuHex
Forma

[SPEKTRE76]

Wow thanks guys that really makes it more clear. I do have an Aura Sprint mod that is red and now I know why I am not as fast as the other guys. I do have an Aura Forma so I think I will switch the polarity. I am always the last to the extraction point, LOL.

[ReaverKane]

34 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

Hey Tenno,

I am starting to build a team of Warframes and I have had Frost Prime for quite a while now. He has been forma'd once. When we forma does it increase the specs of the Warframe exponentially or just a few points.

Hey mate, you seem to be confused as all heck about Forma...
First off, teaching you how to fish: Use the wiki, it's pretty complete, and has just about everything about everything!
Wiki page on Forma

Second , formas DO NOT increase stats, forma do one thing and one thing only, they change the polarity of a mod slot, which along with a reactor (or catalyst for weapons) means you can fit more mods on a warframe.

34 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

I noticed that when I put MOD's into forma'd slots they turn green. Does that mean now they are twice as powerful than they were before?

They turn green when you use the correct polarity for that slot, meaning they're using 1/2 the capacity, always rounded up. That means a 9 capacity mod (like Continuity, for example) will take 9 capacity on a normal slot, will take 5 capacity on a Madurai slot, and will take 11 capacity on a different slot.
If you do that on your aura slot, the aura will grant double capacity (so a 7 capacity aura will grant 14 capacity).

Reactors will double your base capacity, so you should always start with one of those, really... You can make end-game builds without using a single forma on a few Primes because they already have enough polarized slots from the get go.

34 minutes ago, SPEKTRE76 said:

I have seen people withstand onslaughts of up to Lvl 95 NPC's and laugh in their faces. And I have seen some guy with a single shot rifle take out a drop ship in one trigger pull. If  I forma'd all my slots in my weapons in Warframe will I be a God among other players too? I'm just have trouble on what I should do first? Which Polarities are the strongest?

You don't need to forma all your slots, most builds will cost 3-5 forma, with some few getting on the 6-7 forma. And yes those will make weapons do those one-shot buisness. However, Formas won't do anything if you don't have the mods to put in those slots, and that's where you'll be stuck. It seems you're really in the initial stages of the game, which makes me doubt you have the mods to back up that kind of intensive build.
There's no such thing as the "strongest" polarity, everything depends on what you're building and what you're building for. What you probably want is the most common polarity, which would probably be Madurai. It is a very common polarity, you'll probably be going to need it a lot on weapons (since most base damage mods are madurai), and even on warframes, stuff like continuity, intensify and other mods are all Madurai.

But again, it HIGHLY depends on what you're building, and you should pick and forma slots as you need them, don't forma just because, it has no practical benefit if you're not at max capacity. (it has a cosmetic one, of unlocking a secondary energy colour though)