Xaku: Amazing Idea, Iffy Execution...

[Khir-Bea]

Hey all,

This is my first post on the forums to share my thoughts on the new Warframe that has released with Heart of Deimos: Xaku.

Let's start with the pros and cons.

Pros:
1. First frame to be given the gift of void damage as a regular damage tool for weapons. Other than using kiddo, you can use your weapons to your disposal to blast enemies into paste. Powerful for Sentient, which I will mention quite a bit later.
2. Xaku has a small radial disarm from Loki onto his second ability, though not all enemies within the area are disarmed, it is still a nice tool to have when in a pickle.
3. He has a selection of abilities to choose from for his third ability, whether messing with aggro, CC, or armor/shield strip (thank god), he has what you need.
4. A relatively nice ultimate that goes well with Adaptation to make sure that you don't die a miserable death. Given that it is a chance to dodge enemy attacks, it is nice that it is a high 75%.
5. All of Xaku's abilities go well with each other. Given that his 4 can help his 1 ability, and in all ways shape and form, destroy Sentients as if they are no threat, he is most certainly a fun frame to pick up.

Cons:
1. While it is nice that his passive is helpful for reducing the damage that is coming towards Xaku, it is only evading the inevitable. A measly 25% is pitiful for a frame, not to mention that he shares a similar passive with Nyx, who is another frame that has fallen out of favor due to power creep and CC becoming irrelevant because of high DPS frames.
2. When I first saw that he could do void damage onto any weapon, I thought this would be amazing for Eidolon missions, due to the fact that the meta for those missions are run into the ground all of the time, and this would be a chance to change the meta or bring some new light to this frame. But when I saw that it didn't effect Eidolons, it hurt a bit. Not to mention that Void damage is so linear on what it is effective against, you're only time you're gonna put it into good effect is when you're fighting mostly Sentients, which only appear in a small percentage of nodes in the game.
3. His 2 needs a buff in a way that the floating weapons around Xaku do a pitiful amount of damage to certain faction types. Infested are not even effected by it at all, not to mention! If it were possible that it would increase damage by taking account for mods on your primary weapon, this would be a good step in a right direction. Another way to buff it is to make the range a bit better or to make the AI of the guns more responsive.
(These are getting long to explain so I'll make the rest of these TL;DR)
4. The third ability needs changes: Accuse: Make the targets affected be of range, not by damage. Gaze: Don't touch, it's good as it is. Deny: Rework. Damage is weak and it's single target. Not worth using. Either make it multi target or have it be his main DPS ability.
5. The fourth needs changes as well: Make the ability either drain based or duration based, not both (This should have been learned from Wukong's old Cloud Walker.)

Overall, Xaku, while not a showstopper of a frame, he's got a toolset that stands out from the rest of the gang of frames, and he's a lot of fun. Any feedback is welcome to this post as well. Thank you for your time.

Rating: 6.5/10

Conclusion: Skeleton joke.