Xaku - Right Frame, Wrong Zone? Too squishy.

[LegendaryNeurotoxin]

I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on this, as I could easily be missing something. There's a lot I like about Xaku for clearing lower-level content, and I really like that I'll be able to put Xata's Whisper on Rhino to change Roar to a void damage addition. But I feel like it is the wrong frame for Deimos. 

Xaku doesn't seem particularly invested in any defense type, and can be built for shields, health/armor, or a combination of the two, which is further supported by the polarities they start with. Beyond that, their 4th ability kinda helps with bullets, but it seems like a lot of projectiles in Deimos simply ignore this and hit anyway. That's it for the whole of Xaku's defense, since Grasp of Lokh seems to do nothing with infested, and can be awkward to use as it means getting close to effective melee-viable ranged attackers. Accuse can convert a few enemies to fight for you, but the high spawn rate for lots of the content in Deimos renders that fairly useless as a survival strategy. I'm sure The Vast Untime is great around hordes of Corpus and Grineer, but melee-centric Infested couldn't care less. 

So Xaku has some great damage output capabilities, and a couple CCs for solo/small group targets, but defensively they're quite lacking. Vault runs really highlight Xaku's weaknesses, and shows how easy Xaku can be overwhelmed and lacking the abilities to deal with it. How about the signature weapon, Quassus? Heavy attack launches daggers, great. So burn part of your 12x stack to do what your gun should do, or what a Zaw can do with a bit of aim gliding? Again that's not busting the cysts off Deimos, and for Xaku's overall squishiness, a signature melee weapon suggests that Xaku would survive well to use it in Deimos, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

I like the idea of Xaku. I think there could be a bit more done to improve survivability and synergy for battling through Deimos. Here's a few ideas:

Xata's Whisper - 1% of void damage dealt replenishes shields, and can overcharge them up to 10%.

Grasp of Lohk - For enemies without ranged weapons, parts of their armor or chitin are "removed" and encircle Xaku to sustain melee attacks before dissolving. 

The Lost: Gaze - The armor stripping effect of Gaze enhances Xaku and ally armor while they're within the radius.

The Vast Untime - Any standard projectile, grenade, area-of-effect attack isn't just dodged, it is nullified by TVU and the power's duration is slightly extended. (Is it me or are all the meaningful Deimos enemy projectiles--aside from Necramech machineguns--actually explosives that render Xaku's passive and 4th ability pointless?)

 

If this doesn't seem right, I'd love to know what is wrong with the assessment of Xaku, or what changes should be made to alleviate Xaku's biggest problems?

 

 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

“Xaku has great damage output”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

36 minutes ago, LegendaryNeurotoxin said:

Grasp of Lohk - For enemies without ranged weapons, parts of their armor or chitin are "removed" and encircle Xaku to sustain melee attacks before dissolving

This indicates to me you do not have or have not learned some of the basics of this frame.

Grasp already affects enemies without ranged weapons, briefly stunning them and providing a gun in the shape of your primary weapon. This also happens to already disarmed enemies.

In short no matter what you will stun and get a floating weapon reguardless of what weapon an enemy is using.

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

3 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

“Xaku has great damage output”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[(PSN)CommanderC2121]

3 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

“Xaku has great damage output”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

No no he has a point, Xaku has good damage. They just dont have reliable survivability, range, CC or anything else xD

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

30 minutes ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

 

Ok, now do it without the armor strip.

[MasterBurik]

43 minutes ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

 

I never knew that we faced mass droves of Corrupted Heavy Gunners, and nothing else...

[Alpheus]

37 minutes ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

 

That doesn't show Xaku has good damage, only that they can strip armor. Any frame that can totally strip armor can wipe an entire group like that (Banshee, Nyx, Ember, Grendel over time, etc.), and a proper-built melee can still be a lethal force even in the hands of an unranked Mag. The guns shouldn't be the metric of whether a frame does good damage or not, cause by that metric my Bramma-wielding, CO Orthos Trinity is a powerhouse of damage.

[Bronjun]

1 hour ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

 

I'm sick of people using this kind of video to justify xaku. Any frame can do the same if not better with 200% strength and 100% defence strip.

[killerJoke66]

1 hour ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

 

In a controlled envoirnment and with stealing 20 gunners high dps on top of it ... try doing this  in high levels where 1  butcher march , scorpion gonna pull you  , there is a napalm and an eviscirator attacking from distance you would have no time stealing the two ranged weapons and there not dps type and even if they enough dmg to kill the meless (most probably) their attack animations still go off and you die before stealing their weapons.

[killerJoke66]

using simulacrum for balance showcase is always a bad idea , this can be said for even gun usage in some situations.

[Renginus]

They cant make warframe to fit one open world u need him to be viable in whole game +/-

I like idea of broken wf

But this 😕

passive is just bad i think it does not stack with 4

and if you take enemy range atack and just jump its totaly usseles

1 this should be passive where it convert or ad bonus void dmg to his whole kit and weapons

2 is it recastable ?

3 idk

4 what and why it looks cool but its a combo of gaus 2+4

i ddnt played him yet i got him but from yt it looks so bad

[Hokibukisa]

11 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Ok, now do it without the armor strip.

wtf is this? Thats like saying "okay, do it without weapons or using abilities dur hur"

Defense stripping (which not only strips armor but shields as well) is a great damage boosting ability, very comparable to sonar

[Hokibukisa]

11 hours ago, Alpheus said:

That doesn't show Xaku has good damage, only that they can strip armor. Any frame that can totally strip armor can wipe an entire group like that (Banshee, Nyx, Ember, Grendel over time, etc.), and a proper-built melee can still be a lethal force even in the hands of an unranked Mag. The guns shouldn't be the metric of whether a frame does good damage or not, cause by that metric my Bramma-wielding, CO Orthos Trinity is a powerhouse of damage.

Uhh yeah.. Trinity is a damage powerhouse. You mod your weapon for their squishy unarmored flesh and just shoot whatever is linked and they die. I outperform "dps" frames all the time on Trinity. She can carry you through most SP without any hiccups.

Im actually starting to wonder about some of the forum posters, what constitutes as damage to them.. what would be good enough..

Should Xaku have an ability where you just press it, the entire map dies, the faction leader surrenders, and the Lotus returns to you and awards you the medal of freedom?

I mean, the game is about surviving and killing things... with weapons, abilities, and strategy.

[(PSN)nerdlegend]

Part of me thinks steel path is the home for Xaku, other part thinks this frame sucks. 

Void damage is largely pointless, no real bonus to using it. Low range and duration in general just hurts, other problem is low scaling no real benefit for power strength. Reducing defences is okay but requires power strength to hit 100%. Not even sure if it can hit 100%. Together the frame lacks synergy, drain cost on the ult. Overall the frame needs some big changes to feel better. 

Passive is decent I guess

[(PSN)i7081277]

Does void damage contribute to condition overload? I'm not seeing it pop over enemies heads. If it did it'd make Xaku a bit more useful imo.

[Hokibukisa]

10 minutes ago, (PS4)nerdlegend said:

Void damage is largely pointless, no real bonus to using it.

Well it’s a fantastic subsume ability.

i don’t think it’s a coincidence that his 1 synergizes so well with other frames when it comes to fighting sentients, and he comes with the same patch as Helminth

Needing 200 strength will be tough. If he came with a tau polarity it would have helped a lot, tri-umbral + augur secrets + power drift would get it done, as well as give hefty tank, but for me I’ll also want primed sure footed, and primed flow would be a must.

Would also want 175 range.

with Only 100 duration and efficiency, putting dispenser on him would be a good idea, especially considering his 4’s drain, dispenser + arcane energize...

yeah DE should just give him a tau polarity

[Hokibukisa]

With a tri-umbral, use a decaying dragon key, and brief respite, and spammable dispenser with 4 active, he’s be an unkillable god. He could be the most effective gate tanker out of all of the frames

[(PSN)Hopper_Orouk]

13 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Ok, now do it without the armor strip.

12 hours ago, Bronjun said:

I'm sick of people using this kind of video to justify xaku. Any frame can do the same if not better with 200% strength and 100% defence strip.

you know what guys, i actually like that demonstration, it shows that xaku's true potential when utilizing the full potential of his abilities.

all it needs for DE to do a little refining in the efficiency side, including casting speed, energy consumption, maybe minor base stats increase

 

but this warframe shouldn't be literally broken OP 

i'm actually so sick of people wanting every warframe to one shot, it's getting annoying 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

2 hours ago, Hokibukisa said:

wtf is this? Thats like saying "okay, do it without weapons or using abilities dur hur"

Defense stripping (which not only strips armor but shields as well) is a great damage boosting ability, very comparable to sonar

If the damage was actually great he wouldn’t need 100% armor strip to kill the enemies on a reasonable time.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Hopper_Orouk said:

you know what guys, i actually like that demonstration, it shows that xaku's true potential when utilizing the full potential of his abilities.

all it needs for DE to do a little refining in the efficiency side, including casting speed, energy consumption, maybe minor base stats increase

 

but this warframe shouldn't be literally broken OP 

i'm actually so sick of people wanting every warframe to one shot, it's getting annoying 

Xaku literally uses the worst damage type in the game and enemy damage for DPS with no multiplier. We can’t just ignore these issues with “oh but 100% armor strip they only need minor changes to be good”.

Xaku is literally the worst frame in the game right now. And we can just hold up the best thing about her and ignore everything else that is genuinely awful.

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

13 hours ago, killerJoke66 said:

In a controlled envoirnment and with stealing 20 gunners high dps on top of it ... try doing this  in high levels where 1  butcher march , scorpion gonna pull you  , there is a napalm and an eviscirator attacking from distance you would have no time stealing the two ranged weapons and there not dps type and even if they enough dmg to kill the meless (most probably) their attack animations still go off and you die before stealing their weapons.

Another person who in the first sentence reveals they know nothing about how Xakus 2 works.

A: the floating guns are not copys of the weapon stolen, they only cosmetically look like them

B: Disarmed or melee enemies can still provide a floating gun, which takes the shape of your currently equipped primary weapon (including skin).

 

C : 16 at most can be disarmed, 16 at most can be floating next to you. Even stealing 2 will usually be enough in normal situations with 5+ being my average.

[(PSN)ForNoPurpose]

5 minutes ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Xaku literally uses the worst damage type in the game and enemy damage for DPS with no multiplier. We can’t just ignore these issues with “oh but 100% armor strip they only need minor changes to be good”.

Xaku is literally the worst frame in the game right now. And we can just hold up the best thing about her and ignore everything else that is genuinely awful.

Go back to Revenant.

[killerJoke66]

1 hour ago, (PS4)ForNoPurpose said:

Another person who in the first sentence reveals they know nothing about how Xakus 2 works.

A: the floating guns are not copys of the weapon stolen, they only cosmetically look like them

B: Disarmed or melee enemies can still provide a floating gun, which takes the shape of your currently equipped primary weapon (including skin).

 

C : 16 at most can be disarmed, 16 at most can be floating next to you. Even stealing 2 will usually be enough in normal situations with 5+ being my average.

okay so whats the purpose here , lets say youre right im counting on your input  , shall DE nerf xaku ? can they(xaku) be any better cc frame than a vauban/baruuk or any better dps frame than any other primarily dps frames ? 

I mean whats the point of all this , is where im  at . 

Lets say xaku is good enough to ' mildly ' compete solo or in group  , still we have lots of frames that are probably better than them(xaku) , coupled with the helminth infused frame combos that people are afraid of those thing to be nerfed , i dont see quite good reasoning behind bragging about xaku .

[killerJoke66]

or being good at 'jack of all trades ' a bad thing ? i think we even need more of jack of all trades considering good chunk of playerbase are solo.