Heart of Deimos: Xaku Feedback Megathread

[PsiWarp]

It would be interesting if Xata's Whisper adopted an Empower-LIKE (Helminth ability) functionality for Xaku's abilities.

As in, once Xata's Whisper is cast, the next cast of a different ability (on Xaku) is infused with a bonus. This single charge is used up and can be refreshed by recasting Xata's Whisper.

• Grasp of Lohk's next stolen Void replicas deal increased damage and may proc Void status.
• Accuse applies Void damage onto the corrupted enemies' attacks.
• Enemies hit inside Gaze's radius also receive Void damage and can proc Void status.
• Deny's base damage is increased and procs Void status on stasis-ed enemies.
• The Vast Untime's initial explosion deals increased Void damage and procs Void status.

[NebulaLagoon]

First, I would like to mention 2 things that don't have much to do with balancing/abilities:

1. Xaku's stolen guns get in the way of hacking, especially if I have several:

(pictured: one of the guns hiding a third of the hacking console)

2. Grasp of Lohk doesn't  work on Errant Specters (Granum Void enemies). They don't have guns to steal, but it should work like with the Infestation and spawn (visually) copies of my primary, but right now it doesn't spawn anything.

 

Now this is my Xaku build:

235% range, 189% strength. I don't have max number of guns and Gaze's armor strip is at 94%, but it works quite well, even solo on Steel Path.

As for my opinion on the abilities:

Passive - evasion in general doesn't work as well as other damage reducing abilities. 

1. Xata's Whisper does need a buff. As it is now, I'm better off putting Roar on my Xaku - even with the nerfed base damage buff - since it gives me a bigger damage increase (56.7% vs. 49%), it works for my 2&4, and it applies to my allies (and since I have a lot of range and strength, it works quite well). To be fair, Xata's Whisper will destroy Sentients, a lower energy cost and, combined with the Vast Untime, almost infinite duration. So like Roar, it should apply to all damage, and a increase in base damage would be good (you could leave it as it is when infused to another frame, I would infuse it mostly for the Void damage). Now, as someone who can't aim, I would like if Void procs would center on the enemy head/weakpoint, I'm just scared it might end up being too broken. It would give more incentive to subsume Xaku tho.

2. Grasp of Lohk - It would be nice to have more firing range on the guns. If I can disarm an enemy, I would also like to be able to shoot it, especially if they could shoot me. It would make Xaku more viable for open-world missions. On the other hand, the small range is the only thing stopping Xaku from just standing on a vantage point and letting the guns do all the work (aside from being shot at, but the evasion+adaptation is good enough for most non-Steel Path missions). I'm afraid if Grasp of Lohk is buffed too much, we will end up with another stand around and do nothing frame.

3. a) Accuse - I'm actually glad that my guns can tell who is working for me, and who isn't. If they did start to target my minions, this ability would become kinda useless. By the time the duration of Accuse finally runs out, they have either been killed by me, my allies or their former allies. Could use to ability to be recast, since I sometimes have one or two minions left on the other side of the map or that I can't find.

b) Gaze - I'm satisfied with Gaze's range, but then again I don't mind building Xaku for range and strength, since they don't really need duration and efficiency since the first round of buffs. And I can cast it on multiple enemies to cover more ground. I would like the Grasp of Lohk guns to stop targeting the Gazed enemy, or at least target it less. My actual biggest problem is finding a target that won't die before Gaze takes effect. Even on Steel Path, most enemies will die from my guns (or my allies) by the time Xaku finishes screaming. Make the invulnerability take effect as soon as the button is pressed.

c) Deny - As some have already said, infinite range on the beam would be nice and have the range scale the width of the beam. I think having the beam chain between enemies (like the Atomos and Kuva Nukor) would me nice too, since they don't tend to stand in straight lines one directly behind another, just waiting for me to cycle between The Lost abilities, and then finally cast Gaze. If the cost for all three of these was lowered I would use gaze more, since I can't aim that well.

4. The Vast Untime - Who's ever idea was to have it freeze the timer on other abilities is a genius. It can nuke lower-level, non-armored enemies almost 70 meters away, and I quite like it. Make it benefit from 1's damage boost and we're good. (At least it's better that Protea's 4 at bealing damage -.-)

 

In general, I think Xaku is pretty dang good as it is. I would actually preffer Xaku to stay as it is, and then get augments that turn them into a S-rank frame some time down the line, that buffing them too much and having people ask for nerfs in 3 months, and them getting nerfed into oblivion in the end.

[Sador1978]

Alrighty, after putting a forma into Xaku and playing around a bit, I have some thoughts.  I apologize if I ramble.  For reference, my testing and experiences are based on an incomplete build using max efficiency, moderate duration and range and neutral strength. My test build.

Firstly, his powers, the ones that matter at any rate, are fairly unique within the Warframe lexicon and there's not a whole lot of overlap.  This is good.
Secondly, his look is unique, but difficult to FashionFrame effectively.  This is not good, but also not a big deal.
Thirdly, and this is where I get specific per power:

Xata's whisper is...fine.  Since we've never used the Void damage type in combat except in a very specific situation, it's difficult to say if the additional damage is too much or not enough.  However, I might suggest lowering the additional damage and adding a guaranteed or nearly guaranteed Void status proc with a flat duration.  Bullet Attractor isn't a direct damage increase, but it would play well with the other "most desirable" status types. 
*Side Note* The Void status proc is virtually impossible to see.  It needs to be brightened, if not actually illuminate the surrounding environment.

Grasp of Lohk.  I like it.  There is a lot of potential here.  However, for a power that "steals nearby enemy weapons", the damage output is terrible and doesn't scale at all.  I used this on a group of Grineer that were around level 50.  At level 50, you can kill them in 4-5 body shots with a Catalyzed Seer with decent mods but no Forma(AKA the Ultra Noob).  It took TWO FULL cycles of Grasp of Lokh to accomplish the same task in the quiet solitude of the Simulacrum.  In actual missions, this is totally unacceptable.  Setting aside the reality that this power isn't actually "stealing" nearby enemy weapons but actually creating drones that fire the same weapon using only the appearance of the "stolen" weapons, the damage, rate of fire, and targeting range(around 10 meters with my build), selection and acquisition used "stolen" weapons is genuinely awful.  All of it would be OK if at least the damage was good.  But it's not, Grasp can barely scratch level 50 enemies, never mind Sortie or Steel Path foes.

First of the base damage MUST be brought up.  At least 3x, if not more.  Target selection and tracking AI need to ignore invulnerable targets.  If the weapons that Grasp uses are "stolen" there's no reason for their range to be so bad, obviously they need to target closer enemies, but they shouldn't just stop firing because the they are outside some arbitrary range.  Obviously stolen shotguns will have shorter ranges than stolen rifles, but they don't do anything outside of 10m.   Lastly, and this is a want more than a need, but it would very appreciated if the "stolen" weapons took on the performance characteristics of the "stolen" weapons, even if the rate of fire is bad.  If I dive into range of a squad of Corpus Techs and steal their Supras with Grasp, it's off putting for them to not shoot like Supras.

The Lost.  Where do I even begin?  With my build Accuse does...something(mind control?) to 8 enemies for 23 seconds.  The tool tip provides no information to suggest why I would want to use that power in any situation.  Gaze removes 50% of a group of enemies defenses in a radius around a target that has been CC'd which takes 100% of the damage that happens inside the radius.  While Deny is a simple DPS ray that CC's anything that survives.  Frankly, this ability is trying to do too much, or at least failing to communicate what it's doing.  This is the first ability package I've had to go to the wiki to understand it's usage, the actual gameplay feedback did nothing for me.  So the tooltips need to be heavily revamped.  Duration scaling needs to be increased a bit, this actually felt OK for the most part.  Range scaling needs to be increased for sure.  And the base cost needs to be 50 energy instead of 75.

The Vast Untime.  It's kind of underwhelming as far as Ultimates go.  Modest damage with a mild mobility increase and a survivability buff.  It's fine, but it doesn't feel like an "Ultimate".  It needs "something".  Untime suggests a few things, maybe steal from Limbo and stop time in a radius, but not on the scale that Limbo can?  I dunno, it just needs something.

All in all, I will say this, unlike every other Warframe you guys have produced, there's no real theme to Xaku and I think that's the problem.  Numbers can be adjusted, that's easy and expected.  But "Broken" isn't a theme, it's a state.  None of Xaku's powers relate to one another.  The use of Entrati runewords in the first two power suggest a connection, but the lack of their use in the other two breaks the thematic link, The Lost should probably be renamed the Stars of Ris and The Vast Untime, as cool as the name is, should be renamed the Planes of Khra or Writs of Jahu to invoke the theme already established with the Requiem mods and the Entrati.

To sum up, damage, Duration, and Range scaling need to improved.  Tool Tips need to be more informative.  He just needs to feel "less broken".

Separately, speaking about cosmetics.  He needs and alternate helmet with a mouth filter connected with power cables around the back of his head and large singular scanner under a heavy brow.

[(PSN)ThanatosSloth]

Okay...i had a major thought after putting 3 forma into them, i like whats been done so far with xaku...to be fair, I think they are close to being an awesome frame if not for maybe 2 things, 1.survivability, which would be remedied if we could strengthen our dodge past 75%...and cap aoe dmg resist at maybe 95% with 100% evasion from ranged and 90% evasion on melee...scaleing with power strength...and 2. Damage, which i think is in part due to void being alittle underwhelming and sometimes harmful for its status effect....but past this, my idea is that while acuse has not been fixed yet, make it a 2 part sub ability. On cast, it does its thing, turns enemies into thralls, then re cast to make them detonate...add same effect on death. This allows synergy with the mechanic of the guns grabbed from grasp of loch not shooting at acused enemies, while makeing them go into melee, stealing the guns from grasp of loch...run into mobs and either detonate, or die and explode. Maybe make the boost from xatas Whisper detonate bigger explosions?...i feel that these 2 things would make xaku feel like a jack of all trades, but fairly unique.

[LifeupOmega]

Well, since the buffs, they're now effectively a pocket mesa with 100% armour strip at all times. It's hilarious to play as, and it's also mind numbingly dull to play on the same team with.

Only survivability mod I run is Rolling Guard, your damage comes from enemy scaling and abusing Untime's cooldown pause with Gaze and Deny (who's names should probably be swapped, Gaze being the AoE that denies an area and Deny being the beam blast is odd). Accuse is useless because why bother enthralling enemies when your stolen guns will kill them in a few shots.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

So, I have put the most optimal build on Xaku. It is 200% range and 200% strength. To be brutally honest. This sucks. In order to reach 200% range you require Overextended and stretch. But since Overextended Decreases your frames strength so you now have to put in Blind range, transient fortitude and Intensify to get 200% strength. You also need to fit primed flow in because you need the max energy. So after all of that you get a whole 2 mod slots to patch up the issues of a frame who’s now hemorrhaging Duration and efficiency and desperately needs several survivability mods. This is not only an insane way to balance out a frames stats due to the fact that Max range and strength do not mix well, but the fact that you only have 2 mod slots to do any form of actual customization is massively restrictive to builds. So taking that into consideration here are my suggestions to how Xaku should be improved.

Passive: Replace it. It’s just an altered version of Nyx’s passive. Not only that the passive becomes completely redundant since Xakus current state on PC encourages staying in their 4.

Xatas Whisper: Make it usable on Eidolons. This ability is quite literally already balanced to be used for Eidolon hunts. At base it gives an additional void damage that is 26% of your weapons total damage. That means if it were to be usable against Eidolons then you’d only be dealing 26% of your total damage because only the additional void damage is actually doing anything to the shields. Also, you guys made this ability unable to be put on Rhino, Mirage or Chroma without replacing Roar, Eclipse, or Vex armor. So that means we can’t just subsume the ability only a Chroma and use Vex armor to counter the diminished damage we’d be dealing.

Also fix voids status effect. Either make the bubble target the head, or give it a new status effect.

And give it some kind of synergy with the rest of Xakus kit. Right now there is zero reason to ever cast this ability.

Grasp of Lohk: Double the guns range. This ability is half the reason 200% range is mandatory. And it makes zero sense to have a gun based ability require you to be within melee range with a frame that’s squishier than blended Jello.

Remove the number of guns dependence on range. Tying this to range makes absolutely zero sense because you’re like “I want more guns for more damage, so I’ll put over extended on”, but overextended reduces the damage of each gun, ultimately defeating the point of having more guns. Just make the maximum number of guns a static 15.

Stop the guns from attacking the enemy trapped by Gaze.

I’d also say find some better way to scale the guns because they are absolutely worthless for damage at higher levels without using Gaze for 100% armor strip. But I’m going to assume that’s intended as a “synergy”.

The Lost: Reduce casting cost down to 50. This is a collection of what feels like first abilities. That shouldn’t cost 75 energy. It shouldn’t even cost 50 but I have ideas for how to make these abilities worth 50 energy.

Gaze: double base range. This ability is one of the reasons 200% range is mandatory for Xaku.

Increase base armor strip to 70%. This ability is the sole reason you need 200% strength. Because 100% armor strip is the only thing that makes Grasp of Lohk deal damage at higher levels. Reducing the strength requirement means you can still get the 100% armor strip while being able to focus on other stats. I mean even Nyx can 100% armor strip with just an Intensify. 

Increase cast speed. This ability takes far too long to case. It’s liable to get Xaku killed.

Accuse: Double base range. Again, 200% range is mandatory for this ability to start being effective.

Allow the guns from Grasp of Lohk to target the Accused enemies. I don’t care much for this ability and I see no purpose for its existence. But I don’t see it getting replaced so these suggestions are to make the ability not be more of a detriment than a benefit. 

Increase cast speed.

Deny: From what I’ve heard the damage multiplying from Grasp hasn’t gone so well. So my suggestion. Make it so when you cast Deny make all the guns from Grasp target towards your reticle and deal the same multiplied damage as Denys beam. This is a single instance Damage ability. It needs to deal serious damage in order to be good.

The Vast Untime: Add 75% Damage Reduction to it. Evasion chance is not a reliable form of protection. Titania got DR to help the fact that reduced enemy accuracy wasn’t helping her on its own. There’s no reason Xaku shouldn’t get it too.

So that’s the suggested changes. These would make Xaku significantly less dependent on Strength and Range and allow people to have more options in how to mod her while making the sweet spot of her abilities not completely reliant on 2 stats that are not compatible with each other.

[MrFrog9]

2 hours ago, LifeupOmega said:

Well, since the buffs, they're now effectively a pocket mesa with 100% armour strip at all times. It's hilarious to play as, and it's also mind numbingly dull to play on the same team with.

I mean... this is probably the trajectory any community-designed frame would take, for better or for worse. The fact that people are asking for GoL to do EVEN MORE damage is funny. At least the range is fairly limited and it respects LoS? (but stay tuned for updates on that I guess)

Bit late, but after playing with the new Xaku and liking them enough to commit to Forma'ing them I might as well give my opinions.

OBSERVATIONS:
Deny's damage is now plausibly useful although it's still hobbled by its narrow trajectory. Even still, it's quite good now for pinning down tough enemies like Noxes and opening them to headshots. Using it just for damage is probably doable (you can get it to deal 60,000 raw very easily) but you probably need a specific build.
With the commitment of VU to being a timed buff, I would like to point out that Xaku now has a whopping 6 timed effects to manage!
With the changes to their passive, VU now functions very well as a boost to Xaku's survivability. 75% reduced damage from pretty much everything is no joke.
I balked at making direct changes to Void damage BUT as far as Xaku goes I think making void true neutral was a good call for both balancing and basic functionality. Dealing half damage to an entire enemy faction made Xaku quite inconsistent in performace, and simply removing this handicap allows Xaku and especially Grasp of Lohk to fully shine against Grineer (ie the faction you probably want to be hitting the hardest).
None of the changes to Xaku's mechanics appear to be reflected in their tips, descriptions, et cetera. That's a recipe for disaster (remember when the entire community wildly misunderstood how Gauss's Redline worked due to poor presentation?).
Xaku heavily favours building for range; on top of its usual boons, it makes GoL and by extension Deny deal more damage more flexibly. Meanwhile, the only ability that doesn't benefit from it directly is Xata's Whisper, which still somewhat appreciates having more enemies tagged by Vast Untime's -void resistance.

Good:
Xaku in general feels much, MUCH more fluid to play. All the little things that annoyed me about them are now gone and it lets the good parts shine all the brighter.
Vast Untime's timer stop is a huge improvement to Xaku's basic QoL, as it means that for the duration of the ability I only have to pay attention to one timer and not 5. Making it not a channel also removes the need to recast it constantly, and the changes to Xaku's passive add an actual practical reason to be a skelington beyond it being awesome.
Deny is now within the realm of being worth using, which is important, because it's a goddamn death laser made of reality-breaking.
Grasp of Lohk feels so, so much better to use; it is no longer unrecastable, no longer forces me to sit in front of enemies' faces for a million years to steal their guns, doesn't bring me to a screeching halt for two seconds every time its short duration expires, and at that it probably benefits the most from VU's timer stop which negates the need to constantly recast it. You also no longer need very high power strength to deal with high level Grineer which adds much more flexibility. Bravo!

Bad:
Bullet Attractor still sucks hard
Vast Untime's initial burst seems to ignore LOS (?) which isn't awful given its mediocre damage but will inevitably cause extremely campy gameplay at lower levels
None of Xaku's tooltips reflect their new mechanics
Vast Untime is still probably the single messiest ability in the entire game designwise. Burst AoE. Weak one-off CC. One-off Void weakness. Timed speed buff. Timed buff to Xaku's passive. Halts Xaku's other timers for the duration. That's 6 functions in one ability, which run the entire gamut of ability mod functionality: the AoE damage is unaffected by duration; the Void weakness, speed buff, Xaku passive buff, and timer halt are unaffected by strength (despite it being reasonable for the speed buff and Void weakness to do so); and the speed buff, passive buff, and timer are unaffected by range. It feels like 6 different abilities mashed into one, which really is more of a pet peeve of mine than anything else and certainly fits Xaku's theme, but it still annoys me (more than it should, lol). At least it's better than (unaugmented) Absorb in that more than zero of its functions are actually useful.
Deny's bonus damage from GoL guns doesn't scale with the guns' level, despite the guns themselves scaling their damage with level. Like the above, it shouldn't annoy be but it does annoy me. (This is me scraping the bottom of the barrel for complaints; I really am very happy with Xaku in their current state)
There isn't anything to indicate that the guns are contributing to Deny's damage.
GoL's guns still target Gazed enemies which they shouldn't NOT do but should definitely not prioritise

Things I want:
Update Xaku's tooltips for the love of the Void
Add visual effects to Deny to reinforce that GoL's guns are helping (firing alongside the laser, channeling their energy into Xaku as they charge it, etc.). It's not strictly needed but it feels weird and artificial for the guns to boost the laser despite not visibly interacting with the laser in any way.
MAYBE pare down VU's functionality and focus it better? I'm still hesitant to suggest this because it doesn't actually add anything but holy WOW that is a big mess of an ability.

Things I don't want:
Please god don't quintuple the damage on Grasp of Lohk or make it hit the entire map or whatever other degeneracy people are asking for, it's already dangerously close to being World on Fire 2.0. It's fine as it is.

I was dreading the Xaku rework, because lots of postlaunch changes to frames ended up changing their direction in a way I didn't like, but I am very pleased with how Xaku has been handled. The changes made were very salient and made them more fluid, flexible, and dynamic to play without just buffing them into invincibility or otherwise breaking their concepts. There's still some (very) minor things that bug me or might need some more polish but I am quite satisfied with Xaku and am looking forward to playing them more in the future. Stellar work DE!

[Oorel]

This is a Xaku build that I have been enjoying quite a lot.

I focus a lot on his 2 because I find that to be his most enjoyable ability. Here I have removed the 3 because I just never used it. While its nice that he's got an armor strip in his 3, the guns targeting the enemy that's frozen by Gaze is unfortunate and a bit annoying. Gaze also needs way too much power strength to hit 100% and has a pretty bad range. I also dislike having a stationary armor strip like that but that's up to personal taste more than anything.

So currently the biggest problem with Xaku in my opinion is that he needs maxed range while also needing a lot of power strength. Basically I would like if he didn't need to use Overextended to have good range on his abilities. He's very demanding in mod-space, that's a major reason why I picked Pillage, its a bit of defense strip for enemies, then some survivability by building overshields along with removing statuses for you and your party. Its giving you a lot of survivability in a single ability, its a good substitute for a combination of Redirection, Breif Respite and Rolling Guard all in one, as I cant fit any of that due to the high range and strength demands.

I should note that this build is not geared towards Steel Path at all, it does well in any regular star-chart content however.

(I don't play Hildryn a lot and confuse her ability names, in the screenshot it should not be Haven, obviously.)

[Oorel]

Would like to add a quick note actually. Grasp of Lokh is perfectly fine damage-wise. I've used it a lot even at 100 power strength and its perfectly fine in my opinion. There has been some negative feedback on its damage, but in most regular mission scenarios, its great at dealing with your average fodder, so that's good enough for me. It doesn't matter weather or not it can kill a Nox in 2 seconds, its actually nice that you can focus on heavy troops yourself and have the guns as an accessory to your own damage.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

1 hour ago, Oorel said:

Would like to add a quick note actually. Grasp of Lokh is perfectly fine damage-wise. I've used it a lot even at 100 power strength and its perfectly fine in my opinion. There has been some negative feedback on its damage, but in most regular mission scenarios, its great at dealing with your average fodder, so that's good enough for me. It doesn't matter weather or not it can kill a Nox in 2 seconds, its actually nice that you can focus on heavy troops yourself and have the guns as an accessory to your own damage.

Many people prefer a frame to be usable past level 30. If you actually use Grasp of Lohk at higher levels it’s damage output is practically nonexistent without Gaze stripping 100% armor.

[withinmyself]

4 hours ago, Oorel said:

This is a Xaku build that I have been enjoying quite a lot.

I focus a lot on his 2 because I find that to be his most enjoyable ability. Here I have removed the 3 because I just never used it. While its nice that he's got an armor strip in his 3, the guns targeting the enemy that's frozen by Gaze is unfortunate and a bit annoying. Gaze also needs way too much power strength to hit 100% and has a pretty bad range. I also dislike having a stationary armor strip like that but that's up to personal taste more than anything.

So currently the biggest problem with Xaku in my opinion is that he needs maxed range while also needing a lot of power strength. Basically I would like if he didn't need to use Overextended to have good range on his abilities. He's very demanding in mod-space, that's a major reason why I picked Pillage, its a bit of defense strip for enemies, then some survivability by building overshields along with removing statuses for you and your party. Its giving you a lot of survivability in a single ability, its a good substitute for a combination of Redirection, Breif Respite and Rolling Guard all in one, as I cant fit any of that due to the high range and strength demands.

I should note that this build is not geared towards Steel Path at all, it does well in any regular star-chart content however.

(I don't play Hildryn a lot and confuse her ability names, in the screenshot it should not be Haven, obviously.)

This is almost my exact same build.  I'm getting ready to post my build along with how I use it and why I use Empower on it.  I'll post the difference between having Empower running and not having Empower running.    Thanks for the post. 

[dragozon69]

after playing with Xaku for a while before and after the improvements I have to say that DE did him good for the base idea from the community that was executed wonderfully, in the case of originality and difference from other frames and the concept witch was retained throughout his whole creation (pains me a bit that he got a duration stop and not Protea but I'm happy that some one got it).

From what I played I wanted to focus on his coolest ability GoL so I did a full range strength build with a some efficiency  and base duration and I got what I wanted at a price is what I felt. I could cast GoL and then the VU and after that my energy plummeted witch was ok because with the rework I had good defense against enemies so long as I was careful and I did a nice amount of damage capable of allowing me to easy solo kuva survival to the 3200 mark killing armored enemies easily but I couldn't use the lost ability at all and I found myself switching wisper for empower to get that damage on GoL.

After I tried making a build to concentrate on the lost but I couldn't do it no matter what because of the energy it requires to get good CC, damage or armor strip at a range and using the ult didn't help either because those abilities felt like a one time attack, one time CC and an expansive circle of enemy death (I needed to cast them more to make them usable but without good stats they couldn't do much except create an a ranged 60% defense zone that I could use 6 times at most without refilling all my energy.

So the good points about Xaku after rework are that GoL witch previously came with big risk at using for a not so big reward was fixed to an incredible point witch made me enjoy it endlessly and the buff to void damage was a great call for this and future achievements. Additionally the buff to the passive and the ult made me use the ult all the time and not just for the duration stop but for the passive and that is an incredible design feet in my eyes so take pride in that.

The things I wish to improve on Xaku are more or less making abilities compliment each other better to encourage their use together like what you did with the ult:

1st ability: I know that it might cause to much power to make the buff go to other abilities but other then that it makes it pale in comparison to almost all other damage buffing abilities so I think lowering the duration and the buff itself (making the ability weaker) but making it complement and buff his other abilities (making the whole frame stronger) might be a way to make it balanced yet important tool in Xaku's kit, we can also make the status of void make his abilities to chain from enemies but that is but one option of many witch are written before and after this I'm sure.

2nd ability: Here is a recommendation about being careful if you wish to buff this. GoL as is is very close from being OP as it is now it has balanced use and damage so that it scales but pale if not modded correctly and exclusively for, the gun's range is a good way to make it not nuke all the map and I know some people want more but I understand the reason for it, 10m like Khora's ensnare will create a monster so 9m is the limit if you want to add more to it in my own opinion.

3rd ability: here is were I feel there is a diamond in the rough. Let's start with the defense reduction root circle it's an incredible way to strip defenses to multiple enemies making GoL available at all levels but it loses it's usefulness if you are not camping or stopping somewhere because even if you have a ton of duration from VU you can't make enemies enter a small circle to make them a target for GoL in my own mind because it's not a CC ability and the enemies in it are meant to die you can shorten the duration (with VU it will be negligible) and make the range something that will cover a big area for a small amount of time giving you a chance to move quickly to a new location with GoL and if you want to keep a point  safe use VU to keep it going longer (and it will be balanced because it will make you use the ult all the time to keep it from going away if it's new duration is short).

Second is the Beam laser with good damage  that hits a single or more enemies if you'r skilled. here I liked the Idea  of it scaling with GoL and I believe that right now you need a lot of range and strength to make it good damage but in my opinion it can be made stronger by making the range stat (on the ability or by the number of guns on GoL) affect the number of enemies it can hit and the damage can just scale the same as with the guns and strength, what I mean in that is that you can make the number of guns make the laser fire for longer allowing you to aim it like wisp for some seconds, make it fire at a bigger arc the more guns you have, make it jump between enemies, make the small guns shoot a big laser themselves or just give it a debuffing ability so that it makes an enemy  shoot a laser at other enemies each time it is shot for a while (can be given extra live) basically in warframe where there is no one strong enemy but many endless enemies a single line burst one time blast won't make much change and it wastes the abilities potential in my own view of it.

Last of those three is the one I wish will become a best ability is of course the CC mind control it's a good CC but other then that... yea, it's crying for a synergy first if GOL won't attack it then make it so if you take the weapons of effected enemies it will make them stronger or faster, you can make the ult insta-kill  them, make them into shields/health for allies or make GoL shots rebound of of them to create an artificial range increase in my own opinion it is just a matter of added functionality to make it again as I said with the 1st ability a weaker tool for a stronger frame (feel free to nerth it to help xaku as a frame).

and a problem with all three of those abilities is that they need to be recasted alot so just lower the cost (many other then me still believe it to be a problem).

4th ability: first of all thanks you for making this thing and buffing it to work like it is, I have no real problems but if you want you can erase some of it's functions because right now it slows, damages, weakens and stops ability timers basically you can get away without the slow or the mediocre damage (keep some damage for container breaking pls). If you want you can remove the slow to make the passive buff stronger or the enemy vulnerability be a small radius around you (might be too op but an idea non the less I mean there are pretty op frames out there).

 

Other all Xaku is fun right now and I hope to see all of his abilities shine and not just his 2 and 4 and some time in specific cases his 3rd. Thanks for reading ;)

[withinmyself]

Hello!  I wrote a short guide along with my build.  I thought it was too big to post the whole thing in here so I made my own post and here's the link.

 

[PsiWarp]

More suggestions for round 2.

Grasp of Lohk

• Firing range increased from 8 to 10 meters.
  • Brings Xaku's proximity defense from close quarters to medium range.
• Stolen guns when reaching a high gun count, do not clip into the floor but instead form a second crescent/column.
  • Due to each gun needing its own line-of-sight, with guns that clipped into the floor means to use them at all Xaku has to be airborne and in open space.
• Stolen guns no longer attack Gazed targets.

The Lost

• Accuse - recastable to affect new enemies, only castable when at least 1 enemy is in the AOE to avoid wasting the ability.
• Gaze - moved slow effect from The Vast Untime to Gaze, allowing it to remain useful when dealing with non-armored/shielded (Infested mainly).
• Deny - add a 5 meter radius (moddable) at the impact zone of the Void beam, dealing all effects of Deny to enemies within.

The Vast Untime

• Now procs Void status effect on all enemies hit by the explosion.
• Enemies hit by Xaku's shrapnel become visible through walls and on the minimap for Xaku and their teammates while the ability is active (a reference to The Lidless Eye)

[quxier]

7 minutes ago, PsiWarp said:

Now procs Void status effect on all enemies hit by the explosion.

 

8 minutes ago, PsiWarp said:

Gaze - moved slow effect from The Vast Untime to Gaze, allowing it to remain useful when dealing with non-armored/shielded (Infested mainly).

While I would like to see slow effect aura for 4th, I think it would be ok for the Gaze to have "slowness effect".
However I don't see them adding "void proc" for his 4th as people don't like void proc.

[PsiWarp]

8 minutes ago, quxier said:

 

While I would like to see slow effect aura for 4th, I think it would be ok for the Gaze to have "slowness effect".
However I don't see them adding "void proc" for his 4th as people don't like void proc.

Aura or on Gaze are both good ideas. The slow for now really isn't worthwhile on its own, due to Untime's line-of-sight blast and also turns off when Xaku reforms.

I don't see the harm in adding a proc to the initial blast IMO, since Xaku is stuck in the casting animation and the Void bubbles only last like 3 seconds, which can only help protect our skeleton from shattering from an unlucky ranged attack.

[quxier]

1 hour ago, PsiWarp said:

1 hour ago, quxier said:

 

Aura or on Gaze are both good ideas. The slow for now really isn't worthwhile on its own, due to Untime's line-of-sight blast and also turns off when Xaku reforms.

And enemies' slowness isn't huge. I can see a difference at ~50 speed. So I need 150-200 to even see something slower.

1 hour ago, PsiWarp said:

I don't see the harm in adding a proc to the initial blast IMO, since Xaku is stuck in the casting animation and the Void bubbles only last like 3 seconds, which can only help protect our skeleton from shattering from an unlucky ranged attack.

3 seconds might be ok... I don't know.

[Mu_Gera]

why is void damage in xakus kit so inconsistent? the only time it nearly properly works (procs void status and can reset sentient adaptation) is from xatas whisper. every other ability in their kit, besides deny resetting sentient adaptation, does everything but act like how void damage should.

and that's just part of a bigger problem, where alot of frame abilities won't proc their respective damage status effect.

[LagartoPunkarra]

Xaku when released: This is broken, can't do damage!

Xaku when patched: This is broken, kills everything!

Way to go DE!

My observations:

- Passive: Still a bit unreliable as the only means of survivability, but seeing that this frame can do so much damage now, I don't mind it.

- Xata's Whisper: Honestly, works perfect now. I would say to make it a bit stronger, but seeing that you want to build Xaku for strenght, it's unnecessary. The void status effect can be annoying when trying to headshot, but you won't need to headshot with them now to be honest.

- Grasp of Lohk: This is an awesome improvement, it can disarm a lot of enemies at once, does a lot of damage, buffs Deny's beam damage and can be recasted. No need of touching this now.

- The Lost - Accuse: Completely irrelevant, I would just delete it and make The Lost be a tap-or-hold ability with Gaze and Deny. To make enemies your temporal allies, you have Revenant.

- The Lost - Gaze: A solid ability, but sometimes it bugs in Defense missions as the trapped enemy has to be killed to progress, when initially it didn't do that.

- The Lost - Deny: Yeet laser. Nothing more to say.

- The Vast Untime: This ability was so broken that you had to avoid using it to not drain all your energy. Now, this is so broken because it lets you extend the duration of the rest of the abilities all you want. This is what makes this frame so good now and I wouldn't change it at all.

Overall, Xaku is in a really good position and could rival the power of Mesa or Mirage. Also, Xaku is best waifu AND husbando now.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

4 hours ago, ElecDeathblade said:

 

Overall, Xaku is in a really good position and could rival the power of Mesa or Mirage.

Um no, Xaku can maybe rival Nyx. But she is nowhere close to being where Mesa is.

[Kadesfy]

Xaku "rework" show potential, but they still feel a bit clunky to use, this is my idea on how to streamline them a bit.

1. Move Xata's whisper to their 4th ability, so once you activate it, enemies are weak to void and you do void damage.
2. Grasp of Lohk moved from 2nd ability to 1st ability, hold it to cast Denys Beam, new cost: 25 energy. weapons can target accused enemies, but not Gazed enemies.
3. Move accuse to be the 2nd ability. New cost 50 energy.
4. Gaze will be their only 3rd ability. Keep the 75 energy cost.
5. Turn The vast untime on a toggle ability, so while that is active, no countdown on their other abilities, but reduce the base cast cost to balance energy economy.
6. Their passive need to be changed a bit because evasion alone does not work,  something like a high armor value that decreases the lower your hp get, (and the Xaku armor pieces fall off as that happen) but that increases Xaku evasion, so you need to manage armor<>evasion by their hp.

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

On 2020-09-17 at 9:29 PM, Kelaris said:

Add a small amount of energy regen on hit/kill

thats augment territory.

something like "killing a enemy affected by the void status effect grants 5 energy" or the like. 

not a bad idea for a augment tho.

[quxier]

5 hours ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

that's augment territory.

Nope, it could be in vanilla mode.

[webaaa]

still cant understand why xaku dont embrace the helminth system more. like he dont have ANY SKILL. all his skills come from helminth, and the skill on his ult (4) gets a bonus in power like its 150-180% stronger...
this way he would be trully the frame made from parts from others..

[DrBorris]

I understand changes are soon, but given the changes do not address the firepower of Grasp of Lohk I believe the following feedback/suggestion will still be relevant.

Give Grasp of Lohk the same treatment Peacemaker did. Give it a considerably larger range but limit the auto-aim to a circle around your cross-hair.

Possibly keep the current range as is, only when aiming down sights does the range and targeting circle come into effect. This would allow Grasp of Lohk to feel like a relevant offensive tool outside melee ranges.

An additional change, given the changes coming to Void status, would be to give Grasp of Lohk a status chance. This would give Grasp of Lohk a utility aspect, allowing the ability to have a function when it is unable to quickly kill targets (which also opens up more build diversity).