Can not decide what defensive ability to put on Excalibur umbra

[HonorGuard2074]

I can not decide between the defensive abilities to swap radial jav on

[LoneWolf9989]

There aren't many infusable defensive abilities.

 

Defy: Gives an Armour boost depending on damage absorbed. Within a few seconds, with the cap being 1500(I think, not sure if infusion changes it)

Eclipse: DR when in the dark depending on power strength.

Elemental Ward: Grants increases to Health, Shields, or Armour dependent on energy color.

 

Those are the only abilities that grant direct defensive potential.

[Aadi880]

Its worth noting that Umbra will cast subsumed abilities that are whitelisted in the Specter AI dictionary. So, it is best to take that into account before subsuming.

Umbra runs on Specter AI. Specter AI has specific ability sets. Specter Wukong will never cast Celestial Twin, but will cast Defy. Therefore, since Defy is whitelisted and is also a defensive ability, Umbra will cast it. So that is a very good defensive ability here

I put Wisp's Breach Surge on mine. A sentient Umbra can cast Breach Surge since the ability is whitelisted. Provides very nice CC when Umbra couples it with Radial Blind.

Tho, I have seen some clever builds such as Pull-Gunblade-Umbra. Pull can be casted by a sentient Umbra and if an enemy is within melee range, Umbra will heavy attack them.

 

While you can put Blood Altar for healing, sentient Umbra will not cast it, because the ability is blacklisted my Specter AI.

[Proscriptor]

23 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

There aren't many infusable defensive abilities.

 

Defy: Gives an Armour boost depending on damage absorbed. Within a few seconds, with the cap being 1500(I think, not sure if infusion changes it)

Eclipse: DR when in the dark depending on power strength.

Elemental Ward: Grants increases to Health, Shields, or Armour dependent on energy color.

 

Those are the only abilities that grant direct defensive potential.

those are not the only defensive abilities

[LoneWolf9989]

Just now, Traubenzuckr said:

those are not the only defensive abilities

I said infusable defensive abilities

[Proscriptor]

Just now, LoneWolf9989 said:

I said infusable defensive abilities

yeah, those are not the only infusable defensive abilities

[LoneWolf9989]

1 minute ago, Traubenzuckr said:

yeah, those are not the only infusable defensive abilities

Well, you can take a look, I went through them all

 

[Aadi880]

2 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

Well, you can take a look, I went through them all

Pillage.
Rebuild Shields.
Warcry.

If you want to go further ahead, healings can also be considered defensive. So, you get Blood Altar, and Well of Life.

[Proscriptor]

also: harrow 1 (shields), and nova 1 (dr)

another hp regen ability is saryn 2

[LoneWolf9989]

6 minutes ago, Aadi880 said:

Pillage.
Rebuild Shields.
Warcry.

If you want to go further ahead, healings can also be considered defensive. So, you get Blood Altar, and Well of Life.

I'm talking direct defensive potential, because that is what was asked.

Also, Pillage(When infused) gives energy, not shields. It only does shields because shields are Hildryn's energy.

I did forget about Warcry, you got me there.

[LoneWolf9989]

5 minutes ago, Traubenzuckr said:

nova 1 (dr)

How many people do you know that run null star for DR? It's like desolate hands, You passively lose DR without any control.

[NinjaZeku]

2 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

Pillage(When infused) gives energy, not shields.

Source on this? Because free Energy (along with an Armor / Shields debuff) on any Frame would seem just a tad over the top.

[Proscriptor]

10 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

How many people do you know that run null star for DR? It's like desolate hands, You passively lose DR without any control.

what's the relevance of us discussing this? i won't be dragged into this pointless off-topic diversion.

you said those three abilities you listed are the only infusable defensive abilities and i merely corrected you, so that OP wouldn't be constrained by your misinformation.   

9 minutes ago, NinjaZeku said:

Source on this? Because free Energy (along with an Armor / Shields debuff) on any Frame would seem just a tad over the top.

there's no source of it because it's false. only now i see the quoted post of that user.   

17 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

I'm talking direct defensive potential, because that is what was asked.

Also, Pillage(When infused) gives energy, not shields. It only does shields because shields are Hildryn's energy.

I did forget about Warcry, you got me there.

your claiming of something being a real defensive ability and something else not, without explicit criteria, is completely fallacious

[Aadi880]

19 minutes ago, LoneWolf9989 said:

Also, Pillage(When infused) gives energy, not shields. It only does shields because shields are Hildryn's energy.

This is false.

I've already done so with Titania. It gives shields, not energy.

if it was energy it would be bloody overpowered you know...

[Caidezes]

I've been wondering about this myself. Thinking of maybe going for Elemental Ward since it's basically several defensive abilities in one. But you do need to either change the energy color or loadout a lot if you want to switch between each effect.

Pillage is also great if you want a self buff and enemy debuff at the same time.

[taiiat]

either something like Larva/Ensnare/Pull to group Enemies to Kill them quickly so that you don't need to tank them as much...

or pick Elemental Ward for non Enemy reliance and flexibility.
you'd only ever use Fire/Ice Ward (and really for Umbra just Ice because with just 3/3 Umbral and assuming something like 2.6x Strength - Fire offers 1.485x EHP while Ice offers 1.993x EHP)

Null Star wouldn't be great for Excalibur since he's encouraged to be close to Enemies. for another Warframe that stays away from Enemies, instead.

Pillage is interesting for pseudo Damage plus that it is also a 'Healing' Ability at the same time.

 

Breach Surge would be amusing for Damage though you'd really want to group Enemies to make the best of it so Exalibur may have a hard time making use of the Particles and he already has a Blind anyways.

though if you wanted Damage you'd just use Furious Javelin because it's actually one of the strongest Damage buffs in the game for Melee.