Heart of Deimos: Xaku Feedback Megathread

[Decinomic0n]

DE i know you cant immediately change Xaku, that's unreasonable to expect, but would it hurt to acknowledge feedback given and say you're looking into changes for Xaku, why do you have to be so comms closed about it?

[Hawk197]

After playing around with Xaku, putting in 6 Forma, I'm less than unimpressed. The idea is nice, but the execution was poor.

Xata's Whisper: Void damage needs some major love. All it is right now is a quest only damage type, and even then it's only uses are against Eidolon's (Which you turned off) and Kuva Clouds (Which who cares now that we got Kuva Survival?). If I'm using an AoE weapon or my team has a crowd clearing ability, the Bullet Magnetism doesn't mean much anymore since I don't care about accuracy anymore. I can't really say much about the ability itself, since it relies so heavily on a garbage damage type.

Grasp of Lohk: Again, void damage sucks. You could allow this ability to GENERATE 100 weapons and it still be worse than my Soma Prime, simply because of the void damage. Stealing weapons is nice, but the radius is so bad it's another who cares? Loki's Radial Disarm works far better, and has the added benefit of having Irradiating Disarm. If void damage doesn't get reworked, then uncap the amount of weapons it can steal and increase the range 10 meters.

Accuse: Crowd control is great, this ability isn't. Being capped to 8 enemies and a range of 11 meters really hurts this ability. Maybe increase the radius to something like 10 enemies and 15 meters?

Deny: Void damage still sucks. The lifting effect is just a worse version of Hildryn's Aegis Storm. You could make this ability deal 10,000 void damage and it'd only be enough to take you through the star chart.

Gaze: The only useful part of the ability. No changes needed to this function.

The Vast Untime: Dodging does nothing unless you can dodge 100% of attacks. The weakness to void damage sucks because void damage, once again, sucks. The cost is WAY to high for the meager "benefits" you get from this thing, and the drain is awful. If you don't have Arcane Grace AND Arcane Guardian, this will NOT help you survive. I've no way of fixing this ability and keeping it as is.

Passive: Honestly the passive should have the 75% dodge chance The Vast Untime has, and The Vast Untime should get something else.

 

Void damage needs some major changes. All the abilities, except for The Vast Untime, are great but suffer because of void damage. The Vast Untime does literally nothing to help you survive or deal damage, we might as well be using Adaptation instead.

[(XBOX)PrecursorNam]

Jesus Christ man. I was super excited to get Xaku. Like extremely. Then i played it. Boy oh boy, xaku needs some serious rework. Every last ability is useless to the point that you'd be better off playing as a corpus soldier with brittle bones disease. I do like the void damage to sentients, but it still pales in comparison to any other damage that could've been done without it. Great concept, but terrible execution.

[(PSN)Ozymandias-13-]

18 minutes ago, (XB1)Raph Nihilus said:

xaku needs some serious rework

That honestly doesn't surprise me. 

I voted against the lame concept (when there were much more creative ones options available), and was against it every step of the way. I take no credit for this so you'll have to ask the other councilors what they were on at the time.

[Traumtulpe]

Have you tried it with 90% efficiency, 40% duration, 200% ability strength, Natural Talent, and some range?

The Idea is that you keep 1 active, only attack enemies affected by Gaze (no shield/armor), and cast 4 frequently. Should have no trouble killing anything, regardless of level, on the Steel Path.

Doesn't seem terrible to me. Of course there are problems with their abilities:

• 1 has really low value.
• 2 seems terrible.
• Deny seems pointless.
• 4 is much worse than 90% damage reduction, low value on slow, evasion and weakness unaffected by mods, why does it drain energy?

[xBZYKUx]

4 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Scott didn’t work on Xaku. She was a community created frame to let him focus on other stuff.

Pablo definitely didn’t pick the abilities because he knows how to make a well designed frame.

Xaku gives off the impression that whoever picked her abilities had little to no understanding how certain mechanics perform.

Well they must have consulted someone about this. But who knows.

3 hours ago, arm4geddon-117 said:

Exactly , and i was about to ask, because on the stream when Reb showcased Xaku she clearly said OUT loud that in his skeletal form he would receive 75% dmg REDUCTION, on top of saying he'd be harder to track by enemy gunfire ( aka evasion ) and SPEED bonus.

I'm missing the 75% dmg reduction part...

Aside from that i find him pretty fun to play, altho the base range of his abilities at 5m default is a bit too low

Or they sneaky changed it or they just cant decide what to do.

[rawr1254]

My issues with...it..:

1. Designated an entire ability just to give himself void damage? Really? Should just give him innate 50% void damage as his passive as well and give himself a worth having ability

2. This is the most enjoyable ability so far, the only downside is if you happened to cast it where a bunch of enemies were and someone happens to come in an kill all but one enemy well now youre screwed for a while. Think this should be duration based and just pull weapons from enemies around yourself for the duration until reaching the cap of weapons instead of being cast and have a chance of being a waste of energy.

3.1 Accuse: This is ok on paper but just like with Revenents thralls it becomes pointless if they get killed(proverb:best enemy is a dead enemy) Also enemies tend to need like 1000% damage buffs to their damage to even kill other enemies most of the time(looking at mind control)

So maybe give all the controlled enemies like a 500% damage bonus, a 50% damage reduction from other players/self and damage they inflict/you inflict(- the DR) gets absorbed to the group at the end

3.2 Gaze: Honestly the only good one of the 3 but the cast time is atrocious. I dont think Id change anything on this other than the cast time tbh.

3.3 Deny:Scrap it  and give him something useful, Im thinkin something for damage reduction, energy refund, or armor buff. One of the 3 but not all 3

4. This ability feels ok but the vulnerability to void damage always feels barely noticeable. I honestly dont know what to do with it but it does feel sub-par.

[Azvalk]

Xaku tested '-' ( and formated several time )
I like they ^ ^
But, they are clearly missing synergies that could give some real damage and presence on the field.

• Xata whisper: too weak.
  • Suggestion: it's Void damage.. why not up this according to the number of focus school we have unlocked with our operator ?
    Or, hold to charge more energy in it. Like Harrow's Thurible.
     
• Grasp of Lohk: range and duration are too short.
  why can't we recast it ? ( same problem on Accuse )
  We are stealing enemy weapon, it's for killing them at distance right ?
  • Suggestion: up range a little, up duration more, and add a function:
    hold to launch it away, like nidus larva.
    It even could have travel time to return to us, or cost more, but it is important we can steal enemies at long distance.
     
• The Lost:
  • Accuse: why can't we recast it ? There is a limit number right ?
    But if we affect only 2 enemies first, then we have to wait all the duration before recasting it on a better group of coming enemies..
    • Suggestion: recastable until we reach the limit.
  • Gaze: needs to slow enemies too. Not too much but this could be nice.
  • Deny: damage is disapointing, the width of the projectile, and the power of the visual effect, do not correspond to the result.
    We expect a devastating attack, hitting several nearby enemies, and then no. An anecdotal damage and a failed crowd control.
    • Suggestion: Give a damage multiplier linked with focus school advancement, wider effectiveness.
       
• The Vast Untime: there are damage in this ult ? I didn't see them..
  • Suggestion: pure buff needed '-' when we use an ult, we expect a visible result..
     

Additionnal suggestions, but requiring more work on the warframe:

• Grasp of Lohk: doesn't steal weapons of enemies affected by Accuse, duplicate them. They keep their weapon, we have a duplicate of it ^ ^
• Deny: on enemy traped by Gaze, the beam is divided and guided to all enemies nearby. ( the damage is not divided °^° )
  • Optionnal : Hit even harder on enemies affected by Accuse.
  • - A combo meter. Like Landslide of Atlas..
  • - Continue to hold, the beam will gain in power with time.
• The Vast untime: since it debuff enemies speed and reduced Void resistance, could it buff speed and damage of enemies affected by Accuse ?
  ( it still reduce their void resistance )

With all these little things, I think Xaku would be more enjoyable, because even if I already like they a lot, they are a little too discreet on the field..
But maybe it's me.. Maybe I'm too used to the massive power of Revenant.. ^ ^'

[Pizzarugi]

The durations on most of their abilities are terrible. 3 second base? I was hoping Protea would be a rare case with her turret, but these skills are just undesirable unless you min-max duration at the expense of everything else. Even then, it's still not all that good.

I was really looking forward to having another petmaster frame using Accuse, but the terribly low duration puts me off big time.

However, I heard that their 1 scales both in power strength and enemy level, potentially giving Xaku infinite offensive power, so that's cool.

[Rakosta_Kai]

Here's what I'm seeing:

• Cast times for each ability are too long.
• Base states are wonky and that is clearly intentional, but that also means there needs to be something that makes up for those stats
• Void damage is not useful. Period.
• Duration is generally too short.
• The goal appears to be a jack-of-all-trades frame but all of the abilities appear to work almost ok.
• Xata's whisper is a poor damage increase.
• Grasp of Lohk has too low duration and too short a range for either the casting cost, damage, or firing speed...It's basically an expensive disarm for a range where the enemies switch to melee anyway.
• The Lost abilities all seem to suffer from being underwhelming and having long cast times.
• The Vast Untime is very expensive for what it does.

Either change Void Damage or change Xaxu's damage to something untyped and lower it.

Reduce casting times or dramatically increase durations

Remove the per second energy cost for Untime

 

 

 

[(XBOX)Madmad3x]

I really like them, their abilities are fun, but there are some big problems with them.

Passive: This is fine. It helps their survivability

Xata's Whisper: This ability is fine, bit it needs slightly higher damage, but it has good duration. On a slightly different note, all of Xaku's void damage should be effective against Eidolons. Or at least it should effect Eidolons that were struck by The Vast Untime.

Grasp Of Lohk: This ability is good... If you grab a bunch of weapons. The damage the stolen Weapons do should be equal to the damage of the weapon they are stealing. The duration of this ability needs to be close to Xata's Whisper.

The Lost: Well... The duration for all abilities needs to be doubled, or the cost needs to be cut down to 25 energy. And Deny needs to have a wider effect range, so enemies don't have to be in a straight line to hit. Or you should be able to move your aim, and continue holding cast to keep the lazer up

The Vast Untime: Remove the drain. That's it. Remove the drain, or halve the drain and cost, and remove the duration. Xaku is so energy hungry because of this ability

[aligatorno]

I've been playing Xaku in these last few days and I've been trying to see how to make him work, but at the curent state he's in, that's impossible. His entire kit feels disconnected without everything working together to make a whole.

 

You can certainly make some combos with him, but it requires a tremendous amount of Energy at base cost to get even underwhelming results. In order to make GoL even remotely feasible you need to spend 100+ (Vast Untime) + 75 (Gaze) + 50 (GoL) = 225 Energy for random damage to enemies within a small circle at base stats.

 

Xata's Whisper

What's wrong

• The base Damage Bonus % is too low
• The Status Effect redirects all damage to the enemy's center, making Headshots impossible when proccing it

How to improve

• Increase base Damage Bonus from 26% to 45%
• Change Void Status Proc to only cover the Head or to redirect all shots to the Head

Grasp of Lohk

What's wrong

• Cast time is extremely slow
• Damage does not scale
• Fire Rate is too slow
• Damage type is weak

How to improve

• Reduce cast time by 50%
• Increase fire rate by 30% or make it scale with Duration
• Change damage type from Void to Weakness, similar to Revenant's 4 or Make the weapons benefit from his 1 if it's active
• Make the damage scale with Primary Weapon Mods

The Lost

What's wrong

Accuse

• Casting time is too slow
• Base Radius is too small

Gaze

• Base Radius too small
• Base Defense Reduction too low

Deny

• Utility is almost inexistent
• Base cast time is extremely high
• Damage is extremely low

How to improve

Accuse

• Reduce cast time by 50%
• Increase Base Radius to 16m

Gaze

• Increase Base Radius to 16m
• Increase Base Defense Reduction to 75%

Deny

• Reduce Base Cast time by 75%
• Change beam from Single Target to Arching Beam, similar to Atmos
• Increase Damage by 100% and add Status Chance
• Add bonus utility
• or Replace it completely

The Vast Untime

What's wrong

• The speed bonus is almost insignificant
• The speed debuff is almost insensible
• Dodge Chance is too RNG based
• Void damage bonus is too low

How to improve

• Increase Base Speed bonus by 30% and make it scale with power strength
• Increase base Speed Debuff to 50%
• Change Dodge Chance to Damage Reduction
• Increase Void Damage Bonus to 40% and make it scale with power strength (currently it seems to be at 20%)

[Samhel]

Overall they are a good frame. But they really really need a duration buff on their 2. and 3. ability, mostly for the 3. . Their kit needs strength in all variations and duration as well, but the most efficent way would be if we used range as well with negative efficiency, but this doesn't work out, because if we want high range and strength then duration needs to be sacraficed and it's same with range with strength sacrafice and strength with duration sacrafice, you get the idea. I know nobody says we need to use corrupted mods or play on high levels, but their 3. ability still doesn't have even a decent base duration to work it up only with some duration mods and we need defensive mods as well because even with the 75% ult evasion we can get bullets or punches and they tend to be deadly without defensive mods, so we need slots for them as well. This pushes out potential plus duration building so we are limited to choose atleast 1 stat to sacrafice, but if it's duration, then even if it's 100% or like 130% the 3. ability still has lass then 30s duration which is insanely low considering what they do and the need or desire of cycling them. We either need really quick fingers with that one, or a duration buff in future hotfixes.

[Erl-King]

Hmm, few thoughts about Deny (energy lance ability). Let it scale with the biggest damage bonus on equipped weapons (either primary, secondary or melee). Also give it unique ability to penetrate and destroy Nullifier fields like certain mod for Mitter. Then it will have at least some interesting application.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

I understand that they initially release frames on the lesser end of the power scale. But this frame honestly feels like they just made the abilities threw on the bare minimum stats and called it a day.

[(PSN)Vexx757]

They should have revisted void damage when making this frame, coz that`s what I was expecting to get, and I said it once and i`ll say it again... I was not exited for this update, I kept my expectations low and I`m so glad I did, the only thing I like in this update so far is the music on Demos THAT`S IT.

They really need to rework void damage and Xaku.

 

[(PSN)Grand_Sheba]

      Xaku's abilities dont have synergy with each other like most warframes which i'd like to address and see fix.

Xata's Whisper should flow through out the kit applying to The Lost's [Deny] and  Grasp of Lokh's weapons imbuing them with all the benefits of Xata's Whisper.

• Allow Xata's Whisper to snyergize wih Xaku's damage dealing abilities as well.

Graps of Lokh has an issue where it gives sentients damage resistance instead of removing it, likely due to the weapons copying the stats of Xaku's primary. Allowing for synergy with Xata's Whisper would fix this while making for a great synergy through out the kit as Rebecca stated in the live demo.

The Lost's Deny has very little if any use or need out of the entire kit, as it only deals small damage due to the void status Damage negative and neutral stats. The reset of sentients is already done with Xata's Whisper which is faster and doesn't stop you from moving during combat, its a superior choice. when it comes to CC, Gaze and accuse has it beat by either controlling a large group that you can hardly miss or just stopping a target that's hard to deal with so you're team can focus the easier ones first.

To remedy this Deny should still have all the same functions with an addition to the lift mechanic. That being it causing enemies near the lifted targets to start attacking the ones that are lifting.  This would help Xaku avoid targets while also sticking with a theme of The Lost where those lifted are Denied aid, loyalty, and mercy.

These changes would also create synergy where its needed by allowing Xaku to cast deny on targets which would cause other targets to be drawn towards the ones lifted, then being able to apply Gaze causing targets to walk into the debuff aoe. likewise Deny can open up for targets to all be Accused, allowing all 3 abilities to work together and effect each other will provide clean synergy with Xaku.

• add aggressive agrro to enemies lifted by deny.
• Allow The Lost to be used on each other exculding deny on those under accused.

The void damage status proc also needs a change since it will be used more often now, that change being " Bullet Attractor, which creates a small 5 meter field around the target which absorbs and redirects projectiles over 3 seconds." the 3 seconds needs to be changed to 6 seconds which is currently the standard for status procs and the Bullet Attrator bubble should also have a field on the heads of targets affected allowing easier headshots. This would make up for the -50% damage to Cloned Flesh and Fossilized with another -25% to Tenno, as well as the fact that while the bubble is up you cant deal any head shots at all since the bullets move to the chest.

• change 3s to 6s.
• add extra attractor around the head for bullets caught in the 5m bubble to give head shot chance.

This would have Void damage seems more like an assisting debuff than a dot similar to Corrosive or Viral.

The passive should a add 50 energy return every time the passive activates. This would be increased when using vast untime to help balance out the initial cost of abilities.

Vast untime should have its drain removed since it has a timer.

Side note, Xaku's agile pose causes their chest to turn around almost 108`.

in the Simulacrum if Xaku uses Grasp of lokh on paused targets they will become un-paused , this can bee seen with some of the other abilities at times as well but most notably the 2nd. this may be due to a recent change in the Simulacrum.

it would be nice to have an icon similar to Nekkros or Revenant to see how many are affected by Accused.

some enemies are affected by accused but will still attack Xaku and deal damage like the giant infested tendril worms on deimos(i dont know their names yet, they hit the ground and poke you with tendrils from any range.)

Deny will sometimes bend to right after hitting a target instead of doing its punch through, denying us of a proper CC. (sorry, the irony was funny to me)

EDIT: I noticed Xaku can infest it self with the same effect that nidus link gives. With this being the case why can't xaku enter the infested room with out a pink cyst?

Found another issue with Gaze, if you use gaze with a weaker strip then cast another this stronger due to a buff, that new strip won't take effect until the old one is gone.. im pretty sure this is a bug since it causes your own power to work agaisnt you. If its not a bug it needs to be changed to allow the stronger gaze to always override  the weaker or just let them stick. Other wise working with nidus, rhinos or using energy conversion to boost your power str will be pretty pointless.

Or make power str. Buffs apply to current abilities instead of next cast.

The grasp of lokh could use an adjustment to have it ignor attacking the enemies caught in gaze or other gaze like abilities when there are other targets around. As it stands its a waste of energy spent and lowers dps due to all the guns shooting the trapped target thats not a threat and avoiding the other targets that are vulnerable.

[(XBOX)BeansMcDonut]

Xaku really needs some work if they're going to be good in my opinion.

Their 1 gives void damage. This is not very useful in most scenarios except for against eidolons. I feel that this ability needs to work with eilolons if it will see any play

Their 2 is okay, but its range is a little short and the weapons dont do much damage. Not to mention the duration is pretty short. Maybe they should scale off of your primary weapon mods. That would make this ability much better

Their 3 is a tough one, because one of the abilities is kind of just a worse version of bastille and one is a worse version of mind control. Gaze is pretty decent but I think it needs an agro mechanic sort of akin to Octavias mallet. Or at the very least have better range

Their 4 needs damage reduction added plus the damage should probably be higher. I can hardly kill low level enemies with it and I have a pretty ideal build for them. Xaku is incredibly squishy and dies way too easily. Damage reduction would help their ability to survive a lot. Plus the ability costs energy, and then saps it for the entire duration. This is too much of a debuff to the ability. I think it should either not sap energy over the duration, or preferably just be a toggle ability.

Thats about it. Love you DE.

[Zynich]

Playing Xaku was just... depressing. 

Passive: It's certainly something... While we have some extremely good passives like Gara, Octavia, Protea, Wisp... We have that as well... a copy of Nyx's passive, which is basically useless.

Xata's Whisper: 26% extra *VOID* damage? Are you kidding? If I put Rhino's Roar in that place it would be 300% better, EVEN WITH THE HELMINTH NERFS!
Bump the damage bonus up and make void status actually do something useful!

Grasp of Lohk: The damage is good, if you put some range in it the ability can scale actually nicely. I just felt weird with the guns cap scaling with RANGE instead of strength.

The Lost: LITERALLY NOTHING USEFUL! This ability is a joke?! Because it looks like one! Old Vauban's Minelayer was more useful than that atrocity! The energy drain is too high. The casting time is just painful. I needed to run Natural Talent and it was still SLOW AS F.

-Accuse: One of the most useless abilities I've ever seen. Nyx's Chaos with a range smaller than my pp.

-Gaze: I didn't even use this ability at all. It was just not worth it. Armor stripping is almost useless in the latest patches. 

-Deny: That ability feels like a 1st ability of any other warframe. But the cost is actually a third of your total energy 🙂

The Vast Untime: WHAT A CRAPSHOW! This is one of the worst abilities I've ever seen. Completely worthless! IN IT'S BASE POWER, the actual final drain is 200 energy.
PS: Xaku only has 230 base energy, so that's a thing... I felt bad for using it, I felt like I could use that energy for ANYTHING ELSE! I could use it to cast Grasp of Lohk FOUR TIMES, which would actually help more than that excuse of a 4th ability. 
Want to make it better? Well, I can come up with a lot of changes that can make this ability USEFUL.
Xaku's biggest problem in the moment is his survivability. Erase the drain/sec from existence, bump the dodge chance to 90 or 95% and now we're talking.

[Schwarzsturm]

Is just me or the feedback about Xaku looks more like feedback about Void damage? Looks like Xaku only needs minor adjustments, range on abilities, buffing Grasp of Lohk damage and that, and then getting a buff but on the Void damage department. Hope to get enough platinum to get them soon. I am looking forward to use them :)

[hooperinius]

4 hours ago, Traumtulpe said:

 

• 1 has really low value.
• 2 seems terrible.
• Deny seems pointless.
• 4 is much worse than 90% damage reduction, low value on slow, evasion and weakness unaffected by mods, why does it drain energy?

What he said. 4 could be a dodge that scales with strength to say 95% but even then the odd 5% that wacks you would still hurt on say Steel Path missions.

[(PSN)reddragonhrcro]

Have a rather indirect feedback, not related to the frame itself but rather crafting. Gyromag resource as a requirement is just awful, still haven't made progress with Vox due it with how RNG is for it. There's no reliable way to obtain it.

[Oobachoo]

I don't come to the forums much, but I really like this frames abilities so I thought I'd give some feedback. I don't want to type a wall of text here so I'll just say what I think needs to be done as simply as I can.

Xata's Whispers, 1): Void damage is not strong enough for the current damage increase to actually help, I feel it should be a significantly higher damage buff and it'd do fine. It also feels like the damage from void interferes with what my weapon is built for? Especially status, I don't know if that's a bug or just the void procs overlapping other status. However, I really like being able to put void procs on enemies using the frame, it is really fun to smash a weapon's accuracy and still land hits. Other people might not like it but I think it's unique. 

Grasp of Lohk, 2): This ability just feels extremely lackluster in my opinion. However, I think it's an extremely cool ability that I REALLY want to work Maybe let the guns do void damage, but scale with the current mods you have equipped on your primary. If not this it just needs a significant damage buff and some synergy with 1. Also please buff its duration it lasts no time at all. 

Edit: I would really like to be able to recast this ability during its duration in order to have more guns

The Lost, 3): Please make this less clunky to swap abilities. I like all the options here, really, but aside from gaze it feels too weak, and even gaze could do with better range or duration. Deny Is good CC, I actually don't have a huge problem with it but I wish it had some form of synergy, or additional bonus to use it. And I have basically the same issue with Accuse. They're not good enough to permit a 75 energy cost, and not strong enough alone to be useful. If there was a big reduction in energy costs and cast time I feel like the utility options aren't bad, and act as decent crowd control. Otherwise they need the power to represent their cost.

The Vast Untime, 4): This ability makes zero sense to me on how it got past the testing phase. It does no damage, really ruins fashion frame, and is WAY too expensive. This ability needs a visual rework, and maybe an addition perk to using it. Maybe let the ability just only have a small cost to cast and small drain per second, but killing enemies hit by it give a buff? Maybe increased void damage? The biggest issue is its cost for sure. But it also just isn't that great beyond it because it only dodges projectiles.

 

 

[(PSN)MountainHail]

Hi! This is full of feedback, but copied from a reddit post I made so it may be wierdly worded at first, I hope it helps! 

Please message me if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading!

Tldr at the bottom

This is with a multi forma'd Xaku after a couple hours of play

"Final verdicts" are summaries.

Hi, this for anyone wondering how xaku is, and if they should get them. I'm also kind of hoping that even though, this will get like, 2 upvotes that maybe someone from DE will see this and be sort of interested in the ideas, as I would personally love to see where Xaku COULD be. Overall I think Xaku is pretty average or below average capability wise, their main constraint being that they are very hungry for every ability stat and partially survivability mods, which sounds weird considering their 4 and passive, but I'll explain later. I'll start by gaging the abilities, and some of their pluses, and constraints.

Passive: 25% chance to avoid weapon damage. The passive, while not visibly or audibly noticeable, is nice, and kind of cool to read on paper. Passives usually aren't the most special or effective thing so no problems with this.

The 1 Xata's whisper: Bout as simple as it gets, an ability that when used gives you bonus void damage, not useable on eidolons, and gives you access to the void status effect, which I am pretty sure is not that useful as it gives enemies the bullet attractor field, though I don't anyone was struggling to shoot them anyhow, and this might be interrupting headshots, with a decent base duration and damage affected by strength. 

Final verdict: Not very effective, doesn't feel like it's providing actual bonus damage, it is also not a one handed ability though you "should" be spamming this a lot (if it were damage/effective)

 

The 2 Grasp of Lohk: Probably one of the coolest abilities seen on the devstream, but this is where the base stats start getting in the way. With a base range of about 8m, a base duration of 10 seconds, a max target weapon limit and damage affected by strength, as well as being unable to be recast until the end, without huge investments, this is essentially a buff to your melee combat because it is EXTREMELY short, doesn't put out too much dps if you are uninvested in duration, and won't steal enough weapons/ do enough damage (from what I could tell with whatever level scaling there is) without proper strength. Trying to fit in ability efficiency is also a struggle. The most useful part of this ability is just disarming enemies, which probably wasn't what anyone was really looking forward to in it.

Final verdict: A short range to steal, a short range to shoot, and no damage with it to boot. Very unsatisfying, and does not seem like it scales at all. Stopped using this ability entirely as it wasn't even worth the energy.

 

3 The lost, which is three seperate cycleable abilities.
Accuse: This is the ability I was excited for most, but that kind of went away after using it. It mind controls units in a small aoe, with a duration of about 10 seconds, with a max target cap affected by strength. Again you have to satisfy going positive in every ability stat to make the ability remotely satisfying, on top of this, the enemies are also killable by allies, and you, so they WILL get blasted by atlas petrify, one shot by that one guy with the kuva bramma, and blown up by saryn spores, repeatedly. It is also not recastable until every last one of the previously accused are dead, this, combined with them being friendly fireable, with a short duration, with modding as well, and the fact that there benefit to them being killed (like revenant's mind control, where, at least if they died they dropped a damage pillar, gave you overshields, or are at least spreading the mind control as allies die) makes for a unsatisfying and expensive ability.

Final verdict:Boils down to radiation proc 5 enemies for 3 seconds in a short radius.

 

Gaze: This ability turns up to two targets into an invincible unmovable tower that strips the defenses of nearby enemies. With An ok base range, short duration, and defense reduction affected by strength (see?) this needs to be built 3 split ways to be nice.  You can make it up to 100% reduction and it instantly strips enemies, but not increasing your other stats makes your other abilities unsatisfying, and going NEGATIVE severely gimps them, including this one.
Deny: Not fun, a laser, and by laser I mean pinpoint piercing, no aoe which is very annoying considering we are in a crowd fighting game, that does 4000 base void damage in a straight line with no scaling, and makes enemies float if it does not kill them for a duration. One of the abilities that actually has good base stats, besides a damage that doesn't matter, but is expensive, and kind of a pesterence to use with how accurate you have to be. If it were in a cone, or even a cylinder it would probably be one of the best, and really satisfying, but as it is no.

Final verdict: Reduce protections, sort of, in a short radius, for a short while, unless you're at 100% which is great for armored targets, but at that point you have no duration range or efficiency so it isn't effective, or fun by extension.

 

4. The vast untime.
 A ability that makes you explode your body parts off, increasing void damage for targets hit in a short base range, with a initial energy cost of 100, as well as a drain per second which is pretty odd. I'll start with the dodge chance. This ability increases your dodge chance to 75% from weapon fire, which sounds good on paper, but in situations where it really matters translates to, "You will be one shot later. Maybe. Could be the first shot, who knows. It's random." versus something like damage reduction which would flat increase your effective health to something definite like lets say 3000-4000 effective health points. This is where they are sort of greedy for survivability mods? You can't really forgo them in sake of the passive and this ability as, if you don't appropriate stats, again, you will be one shot depending on fate. It also increases void damage taken by nearby targets (no percentage given) and actually has a very interesting slow effect like nova's that scales up to 100% with strength which basically stuns all enemies limbo style, but you'll probably have to gimp your other abilities duration(because you need range for this, and otherwise the slow will last 3 seconds) in order to reach this.
Overall Xaku is totally there in terms of sound, gameplay ideas, and visual effect, but is held back by their numbers and ability constraints. I think Xaku has the potential to be one of the best, and more importantly, most fun warframes in the game, but they are not there right now unless we literally get more mod slots, straight buffs, or quality of life changes for things like accuse and deny which are just silly at the moment. Trying to get every ability to a satisfying/cool/useful place is just not possible atm, so Xaku ends up being average/below average in all terms. Also I do not see a speed boost stat anywhere, nor do I notice one.

Final verdict: A terribly expensive ability, that really just doesn't even do much to begin with. It could be 25 energy only in it's current state and still be only used for it's cool visual and sound effects, beyond that it is a waste.

Tldr: Xaku has the capability to be one of the best warframes in the game, but needs every single ability stat to be high for their abilities to be useful, and at the bare minimum fun. Going negative at all in one ability stat makes that ability crazy fun, but gimps maybe it, and definitely the others. Xaku is also held back by the abilities themselves as they are, in short, clunky to use, as well as mod for specific aspects. They are also not very damaging or effective, this COULD be because of their low base stats, but could also be due to just nothing scaling in any way at all.

I hope this helped anyone who was wondering about buying/farming Xaku, after all this, I still find Xaku very cool, and fun to play, but they are definitely not one of the best frames, if I had to say, they are C tier at best, and frustrating to play at times.
 

[LilacCross]

The main flaw of Xaku is that Thematic over takes practicality.

• Slow Cast time along with the sounds and visual make each cast of an ability looks and sounds powerful but ingame, long cast time is a death sentence. Doesn't help that the ability aren't powerful to begin with. Natural Talent is now mandatory for Xaku if things are left the way it is. This was the same problem Garuda had when she was first released.
• Void Damage: Void damage type is the major theme of Xaku ability set but nothing was done to change it to match the current Warfame game play. Void in my opinion should be a all rounder damage type. No Weakness to a Armor type (maybe to Sentients since lore wise, they are weak to Void) and no Armor type should have a resistances to it. The Status effect should also be changed. Perhaps each proc of Void makes the enemy weaker to Void and increase other status type proc chance.

 

A quick breakdown on how I feel about each of Xaku Ability.

Passive - Xaku has a 25% chance that shots will pass right through.

As a passive, Dodge Chance is decent but I will go more into detail about why Dodge chance is bad in The Vast Untime ability section. Something could be added to help the passive not feel so underwhelming. Something like, "Xaku has 25% chance that each shot will pass through Xaku. Each shot that passes through Xaku gives Xaku energy.

Xata’s Whisper - Add Void damage to all your attacks

Look above for my opinion about Void Damage.

Grasp of Lohk - Take the enemy’s weapons and use them to fight back

This Ability not only have a long cast time but a very short cast range as well. Another drawback is that the ability can't be recasted if you have a "taken weapon" out. If this is out of fear of having spam-able disarm ability, Warframe already have many of them.

1. Loki's Radial Disarm.
2. Baruuk's Desolate Hands
3. Titania's Spellbind

The Damage output of the "taken weapons"  do not scale well. Past level 30-40ish, they can't keep up and become a dead ability. Only good for a Disarm and that comes with a 12 sec cool-down due to not being able to recast when you have a "taken weapons" following you. I don't mind the short duration of the ability if the "taken weapon" does more damage or can be modded like a makeshift Exalted weapon, or let it scale off your primary weapon mods.

The Lost - Cycle through one of three abilities:

• Accuse - create an area that turns enemies within its radius on their former allies!

I'm kinda fine with the ability. It does what it is suppose to do. The range is small but if made too large would overlap with Nyx and Revenent

• Gaze - Trap enemies in a Void Cage, reducing Armor and Shields of other enemies in range

The useful of the 3 Lost ability. Once again the only issue is range being too small. The ability also need to be able to be undone by recasting the ability. Waiting for the duration to expire will only annoy teammates like at the end of a Defense wave and having to wait on the Duration of a Gazed enemy to expire. Garuda had this issue with her Blood Alter and thankfully it can be undone by a recast.

• Deny - fire a Void beam that strips Sentient resistances, and hold aloft any survivors!

Low damage output, long cast time, non tracking and being animation locked. This ability is just awful. Perhaps allowing the beam to spread out to near by enemy like the Atmos and fix the above listed problems it has.

The Vast Untime - shed your outer layers to grant 75% Dodge Chance and a speed boost! Cast it again to reform

Once again, long cast time is a major problem for this ability and low range for the explosion(A running theme for all of Xaku abilities). Having both a High Cast Cost and a Duration Cost is overkill for a ability that does so little. The Dodge Chance for Xaku, Void damage debuff and the enemy slow down when hit by the explosion does very little to warrant such high cost.

As someone who mains Titania, Dodge Chance is near useless. 50% dodge chance for Titania's Razorwing for the longest time was "accepted" as being good enough for her survival. Now she has a way to add Damage Resistance from her kit. Do not let Xaku suffer from a mistake that was already learned from. Dodge chance does not scale well at higher levels due to a high chance of getting two shotted(thank you shield gate) and at lower levels it is just a "Win More" passive due to enemy being a low threat already and now doing 75% less then before.

Dodge Chance has to be 100% for this ability to work as is. It has a High Casting cost and a Duration cost!

Dodge chance does not combo off any of the useful mods like Adaptation and Rage/Hunter Adrenaline. Quick Thinking would works well with The Vast Untime if it wasn't for the ability having both high Cast and Duration cost. So if you take a hit during The Vast Untime, not only would you lose a chunk of energy, the Duration cost will eat up what ever is left of your energy reserves and if you are out in the open, you are a sitting duck at that point.

I have pointed out at the start that Xaku main flaw was that Thematic over takes Practicality and this is the main offender. From a Thematic point, Dodge chance make sense for Xaku. You are purging the outer shell, gaining more speed and a thinner profile so that dodging bullets make sense. Ideally, Damage Resistance would be more practical. Could say "Xaku purges it outer shell; surrounding the skeletal frame with Void Energy for a limited amount of time making Xaku more durable".

Damage Resistance is more universal, works well with mods, and doesn't leave the player survival to chance. Xaku already has very low stats. 2nd to Loki I think for the lowest hp/armor stats. A good damage mitigation is needed. Wither it is 100% dodge chance or a very high amount of Damage Resistance, The Vast Untime need to be altered in some way.

 

~Just little more tid bits I have on Xaku:

• Xaku has no "dump stats". Xaku wants everything stat-wise. Need range to compensate for all of the ability low range. Need Duration, due to all the ability having low Duration. Efficiency due to how energy hungry The Vast Untime is. Strength for everything.