Upcoming Xaku Changes!

[Mademon]

8 hours ago, IamLoco said:

Can someone explain to me why Xaku is referred to as "they"?

Are "they" more than one person?

My school english tought me "they is plural".

its because they/them is a gender neutral term in English. its often used by people who identify as outside the binary of Male or Female

[Grasq]

37 minutes ago, Mademon said:

its because they/them is a gender neutral term in English. its often used by people who identify as outside the binary of Male or Female

My understanding is that Xaku is literally assembled from multiple frames,

[-Krism-]

Didn't try the Xaku revamp, but I'll still say this:

-The things I would still change are the Void status effects, the bullet attractor isn't very useful & can already be done by other means

-Xaku's 3 should only be a tap to cast the mind control, & hold to cast Gaze. Remove the Void beam as killing enemies with it isn't helpful as we can just use our weapons & save energy; & the lift effect doesn't help either since we could just mind control the enemies for a better effect

[Raylo555]

I know it's probably something you don't want because of the The Lost needing to be a rule of 3, but I don't get why Xata's Whisper and Deny can't work similar to Smite Infusion or Shock Trooper where you tap to cast and hold to grant yourself (and your allies) the damage bonus.

[Grasq]

Do we know when this update is expected to arrive? Post says this week I thought but I cant seem to find any information on it.

[MasterBurik]

1 minute ago, Grasq said:

Do we know when this update is expected to arrive? Post says this week I thought but I cant seem to find any information on it.

PC just received the update.

[SonicCreeper21]

On 2020-09-10 at 6:05 PM, D1videdByZer0 said:

I do wonder if void damage can be improved even further by giving it a certain proc.

 

Void damage is a very special damage type. Giving it a special effect could increase the utility of Operators as well... idk maybe it can work like slag damage in Borderlands 2. So every stack of void proc would increase damage taken by all other sources by 10% or something (and the status effect lingers for quite a while).

Doesn't it give a bullet attractor like Mag's 2nd?

[CrustySockPuppet]

 

 

[hanton95]

The changes seem very favorable to me after trying them.

Currently the problem is the state that causes the Void, how is it possible that instead of helping the team, it slows us down more in the murder of an NPC by not multiplying the damage or allowing us to shoot at weak points?

 

Also add, when you use Gaze on a target and grab Lohk, the weapons you get go crazy shooting at the Gaze target, losing some of the damage they can deal. Is it a mistake, or is it made on purpose?

Sorry if my English is not too good ^^

[DraggedBelowPrime]

i think a great idea for vast untime fix would be to make it function similar to iron skin so when the duration ends and all xakus pieces return depending on how many enemies were hit by it Xaku gains either 200 armour per or invulnerability until values hit zero , when ability is recast it automatically resets to zero 

[Nasheim]

Just tested out the new Marked for Death in the Simulacrum, and holy yikes the nerf is even worse than I thought.

As it is capped to the marked target's current health, not their total health, it means that if you kill a Marked enemy with low health (regardless of how much total health they normally have) the resulting radial damage is effectively nonexistent.

If you're playing solo with Excalibur, Inaros, Ash, Ivara or Sleep Equinox, MfD may have some value for softening up the occasional group of enemies (thanks to having abilities that open enemies up for Finishers), since there's no squad mates that can damage your chosen target and weaken the radial effect, but in general it's been nerfed down to the bedrock.

RIP Marked for Death. It went from having incredible, if somewhat niche potential, to being barely useful for like five frames out of around forty. This nerf is definitely excessive.

[Callmesmalls]

I kind of liked the energy drain for Vast Untime, but agree that it was way too power hungry. Otherwise, I it would be neat if Vast Untime paused shield regen and/or froze status effect decay.

[200BadlySpentPlatinum]

Could this stop happening? It needs a bit more of IA improvements to avoid wasting shots.
Targets affected by Gaze are often prioritized if we stay too close to it, that results in an inefficiency of shots, which can easily lead xaku to his death.

Thanks, in advance.

Spoiler

 

[Mademon]

can you make deny work like the alt fire on the Sepulcrum? auto targeting things within range then firing beams per target. it would give it some reliable crowd control and actually hit the enemy.

its still really underwhelming with the changes as is. the single beam doesnt feel great to use and the damage isnt worth building around it 

[(PSN)Claudija]

They're not listening. The recent patch notes Megan shared are identical to what was presented here before we started brainstorming... figures :P

[Velitria]

Alright, Since I've already forma'd a ton and played Xaku a ton and with the new changes today... It is time to provide feedback about the frame again, based on these changes.

The frame does feel much nicer than the previous iteration. This version did fix most of Xaku's primary issues, but there's a little bit more than can be done in round 2 (including possible tone downs in areas).

Xaku's vast untime pausing ability durations has to be the most unique and nice thing I've seen in a new frame in a long time.

Octavia storing a battery of damage in mallet for infinite scaling with permanent invulnerability (aka invisibility) does exist and isn't so bad because of how boring the playstyle is.

Xaku's 2,3,4 combo of armor strip, infinite scaling damage to 1-2 shot enemies without armor (excluding nox), and the vast untime aiding in keeping durations decent all provide an interesting synergy that I approve of.

However, what does Xaku's 1 do with all that? I even managed to find use in accuse for some distractions along with the armor strip, and deny was good on enemies like Nox to lift them, but I had absolutely no reason to use Xata's Whisper.

What if while xata's whisper is active, the vast untime will give every enemy in radius the void vulnerability bonus damage based on the % of xata's whisper?

One thing that didn't make it through was that grasp of lohk weapons attack gazed targets and it would be great if that didn't happen, as one probably wants that enemy gazed to be alive if the duration were to end unexpectedly (cough nullifier/arb drone). Even if that didn't happen, them constantly shooting it is obnoxious.

About grasp of lohk... the recasting was a step in the right direction, but since the effectivity of the ability is based on alive enemies and if you decided that you wanted to recast, you don't want the active form to be killing the enemies. It would be better to have it cast or toggle off and then just cast again when ready. While it is nice to recast, I often find that I kill majority of the group if I desire to recast before getting within appropriate range and would be better off waiting for it to end and thus defeating the purpose of the recast.

Grasp of lohk's damage would be better off being a % of health/shield base instead of direct damage (similar to revenant) to get a better visual in the HUD for how effective strength values for it would be. However, this version would abide by armor instead of ignoring it I assume, considering synergy with gaze to not being irrelevant.

The vast untime giving slowing and damage vulnerability is a bit odd of a choice considering it reminds me of Nova too much. I would propose that instead of slowness (and not timescale), increase enemy movement speed based at 30% and have the effects and damage apply through walls in a sphere instead of radial circle. The "vast untime" would create an aura while making ability durations pause, would cause enemies to move faster and be less accurate by 25%, and shedding (the body) would increase the passive from 25% to 75% if they were to take the hit, it would do no damage, this is not related to accuracy, this is evasion. This aura would make it benefit allies by a minor 25% (25% chance to miss on top of 75% chance to not take damage would be 81.25% for Xaku vs 75%).

Note about reducing blast damage... That actually isn't what anyone wanted since blast damage is extremely high in the first place. Explosive aoe damage is an energy wave, the amount of force applied is dictated by surface area. With Xaku as a skeleton and using the power of the void to maintain here and now, it would make sense that Xaku was simply immune to aoe damage and knockdowns from them, or alternatively when the passive triggers on the aoe damage.

Since void damage in the 4 makes enemies vulnerability to damage, I was confused why void status isn't simply the cause of that, perhaps void status could be an infinitely stacking multiplier to damage based on how many statuses could be applied before durations ran out. This would give weapons with high firerate and low damage the ability to compete with high damage weapons more effectively. Using Xata's Whisper to create synergy for the damage vulnerability (to all forms of damage) with the 4 would be nice if players were to decide to not use Xaku's 2. It would be more weapon centered with a 1,3,4 combo to speed enemies up in an aura, deal good damage and status with the 1 (only if the 1 was a force proc to make fast firing weapons with no status or crit actually useful for a change), and some evasive bonuses for survivability. 

Xata's whisper % damage is absolutely horrible still and to compare with anything else in the game, would have to be at least 50-75% extra and force the status instead of taking away from the ones on the weapons.

Lastly... why in anyone's right mind would they classify Xata's whisper a "damage buffing" ability for helminth in terms of competition to eclipse, roar, or chroma? This is irritation if I want void status on a frame with a damage buffing ability already.

[(XBOX)IMABEMEOUTLAW]

21 hours ago, Ceryk said:

That only works for the big ones you get from Eidolons and Eidolon hunting are an exercise in tedium, monotony, and dealing with super annoying people... so... yeah, that's included under the whole boring grind umbrella. Focus EXP should be gained through normal play.

Yeah I guess it's still understandable to make it gained through regular gameplay with how much focus xp they allow to to gain in one day. So I don't disagree with you one bit.

[(XBOX)IMABEMEOUTLAW]

1 hour ago, Velitria said:

Alright, Since I've already forma'd a ton and played Xaku a ton and with the new changes today... It is time to provide feedback about the frame again, based on these changes.

The frame does feel much nicer than the previous iteration. This version did fix most of Xaku's primary issues, but there's a little bit more than can be done in round 2 (including possible tone downs in areas).

Xaku's vast untime pausing ability durations has to be the most unique and nice thing I've seen in a new frame in a long time.

Octavia storing a battery of damage in mallet for infinite scaling with permanent invulnerability (aka invisibility) does exist and isn't so bad because of how boring the playstyle is.

Xaku's 2,3,4 combo of armor strip, infinite scaling damage to 1-2 shot enemies without armor (excluding nox), and the vast untime aiding in keeping durations decent all provide an interesting synergy that I approve of.

However, what does Xaku's 1 do with all that? I even managed to find use in accuse for some distractions along with the armor strip, and deny was good on enemies like Nox to lift them, but I had absolutely no reason to use Xata's Whisper.

What if while xata's whisper is active, the vast untime will give every enemy in radius the void vulnerability bonus damage based on the % of xata's whisper?

One thing that didn't make it through was that grasp of lohk weapons attack gazed targets and it would be great if that didn't happen, as one probably wants that enemy gazed to be alive if the duration were to end unexpectedly (cough nullifier/arb drone). Even if that didn't happen, them constantly shooting it is obnoxious.

About grasp of lohk... the recasting was a step in the right direction, but since the effectivity of the ability is based on alive enemies and if you decided that you wanted to recast, you don't want the active form to be killing the enemies. It would be better to have it cast or toggle off and then just cast again when ready. While it is nice to recast, I often find that I kill majority of the group if I desire to recast before getting within appropriate range and would be better off waiting for it to end and thus defeating the purpose of the recast.

Grasp of lohk's damage would be better off being a % of health/shield base instead of direct damage (similar to revenant) to get a better visual in the HUD for how effective strength values for it would be. However, this version would abide by armor instead of ignoring it I assume, considering synergy with gaze to not being irrelevant.

The vast untime giving slowing and damage vulnerability is a bit odd of a choice considering it reminds me of Nova too much. I would propose that instead of slowness (and not timescale), increase enemy movement speed based at 30% and have the effects and damage apply through walls in a sphere instead of radial circle. The "vast untime" would create an aura while making ability durations pause, would cause enemies to move faster and be less accurate by 25%, and shedding (the body) would increase the passive from 25% to 75% if they were to take the hit, it would do no damage, this is not related to accuracy, this is evasion. This aura would make it benefit allies by a minor 25% (25% chance to miss on top of 75% chance to not take damage would be 81.25% for Xaku vs 75%).

Note about reducing blast damage... That actually isn't what anyone wanted since blast damage is extremely high in the first place. Explosive aoe damage is an energy wave, the amount of force applied is dictated by surface area. With Xaku as a skeleton and using the power of the void to maintain here and now, it would make sense that Xaku was simply immune to aoe damage and knockdowns from them, or alternatively when the passive triggers on the aoe damage.

Since void damage in the 4 makes enemies vulnerability to damage, I was confused why void status isn't simply the cause of that, perhaps void status could be an infinitely stacking multiplier to damage based on how many statuses could be applied before durations ran out. This would give weapons with high firerate and low damage the ability to compete with high damage weapons more effectively. Using Xata's Whisper to create synergy for the damage vulnerability (to all forms of damage) with the 4 would be nice if players were to decide to not use Xaku's 2. It would be more weapon centered with a 1,3,4 combo to speed enemies up in an aura, deal good damage and status with the 1 (only if the 1 was a force proc to make fast firing weapons with no status or crit actually useful for a change), and some evasive bonuses for survivability. 

Xata's whisper % damage is absolutely horrible still and to compare with anything else in the game, would have to be at least 50-75% extra and force the status instead of taking away from the ones on the weapons.

Lastly... why in anyone's right mind would they classify Xata's whisper a "damage buffing" ability for helminth in terms of competition to eclipse, roar, or chroma? This is irritation if I want void status on a frame with a damage buffing ability already.

When will these changes be made to xbox??

[papucar]

Thanks for these changes, but we still need to look at his passive.Evasion is very bad at higher levels its easy to die with xaku because it only takes two hits maybe 4 because he has low armor and medium health either add that so when you are in the ring of gaze that you get 1000-1500 armor or just rework that god awful passive.And also accuse needs to be recastable,aslo void damage is still a big problem because it deny's your ability to hit headshots you need to rework void damage and by doing that you will buff operators at the same time so its a win win looking forward to a even greater xaku

[papucar]

5 hours ago, DraggedBelowPrime said:

i think a great idea for vast untime fix would be to make it function similar to iron skin so when the duration ends and all xakus pieces return depending on how many enemies were hit by it they gain either 200 armour per or invulnerability until values hit zero , when ability is recast it automatically resets to zero 

 

6 hours ago, SonicCreeper21 said:

Doesn't it give a bullet attractor like Mag's 2nd?

yes it does and its really bad it prevents you from hitting headshots

 

[(PSN)Preventer-Wind]

• Can we increase the targeting range of the guns shooting on Grasp of Lohk?
• Can we make it so that when you refresh Grasp of Lohk it keeps building to the max amount of guns, and only replaces the guns if it's building towards the maximum amount?  If no enemies are around I should be able to recast Grasp to maintain the guns I have.
• Can we make Grasp of Lohk the subsume ability for Xaku instead of whisper?

[DustyToast]

Loki sitting in the corner like-

[LumilSilvermoon]

Ok, I'm already test out Xaku phase 1 change and this is my op.

1. Vast untime is very successful adjustment, It's make Xaku less intense to keep all skill woking form short duration. and make us save a lot energy to maintain that.

2.Grasp of Lohk - increse cast speed is successful, I no longer got kill by jump into enermy group to do that. Together with increase disarm range make it a lot more comfort to do so. "BUT" I still resist to say "Please give us more Fire range" I don't know what happen with DE, While most complain about this skill is it's fire range was too short. Again we not steal enemy gun to use it smack on them, we steal it to shoot them. Now this skill is useful disarm, but not much useful as DD unless you go in to Melee them. With high range, this skill is not that bad damage compre to Energy. But as i use to say, If you compare very same skill like Protea's Blaze Artillery. You will notice that why ppl complain.

Blaze Artillery  - Damage = Fairly strong on high duration, with high fire rate, useful Heat debuff  - Range = Fair with unmod, long range with modded - Utilize = Can place anytime anywhere with max 3 , Fast speed - Result = It's pure DD ability with little cc ability form heat proc, which you can use it anytime any which no additional condition, Fast and Furious

Grasp of Lohk - Damage = Just Fair with high Range modded and at least 8 gun stolen, quite low fire rate, no addional useful element buff. - Range = Fair Disarm range, Very poor Shoot range - Utilize = Useful for disarm, but fail as DD, require to disarm to use it as DD < this critical conditon in case of none of disarm target in zone or little number of target around = this skill will be doom in that condition>

If DE aim for Grasp of Lohk to be disarm skill, I must say it's got some successful. But as DD, with many traded off condition. I say it's may fair to buff some of attack part of this skill to compensate the requirement of use. I'm not ask for increase damage thing cause DE always have a problem with it (always feel bad to give somthing stronger). Just ask for add some shoot range to make it really useable as a gun!

3.Deny, Oh god, since i see this skill on Dev stream. I know it's must be bad. And it's really. I test it on 175 Heavy gunner, 8 gun form Grasp of Lohk, And enemy was in the area of -50 percent defend reduciton (I test on Range conditon since Range is most profit to Xaku) 8 gun! and it's hit like 10 percent of it's HP! haha really? 75 En on skill 3, linear laser beam that very hard to hit something with some cc ability (in case of hit! and enemy not die!) Yes it's casting faster, but this adjustment not really help this skill in term of usage. Please DE, your target DD ability is never ever deal good damage, you can see that list on many frame. But at least it on skill1! some not useful skill on skill1 for 25 en not 75 en for nothing.

Sigh... Please

 

Move this Deny to skill 1, let's it be part of Xata's Whisper! Click for Deny, Hold for Void Buff, This skill not worth 75 en in any mean. And believe me. none of player put Xata's whisper to any other frame cause need this Deny.

Let's - Lost - left only 2 skill so we can get rid of skill wheel for god sake!  just click for Accuse, Hold for Gaze. or reverse i'm not really care. Deny is not worth to stay as 75 en - skill 3!  Or if you can't do that just get rid of Deny, skill wheel is very bad when you try to use skill and you waste time to rotate it. And the worst is it like you try to wheel 2 thing while got one junk keep switching in position.

 

4.Survival potential. I must say that Xaku really bit better with AoE damage reduction. But it's sitll not fix the real issue of Evasion problem. You may not hit, but when hit you hit very hard. It's like you trade off defend for evasion not profit form it. Ok this is only think i may ask. Please let's adaptation active even bullet that pass through him. that all i ask for. It's will fix lucky hard hitting problem so you no need to adjust evasion rate to compensate the defend. Make evasion as real buff not defend trade off.

[Scroll_of_Wisdom]

I love the xaku changes so far but I have one gripe that needs to be adressed.

Grasp of Lohk weapons will prioritize Gaze targets. 

This is awful. 

The way the current set 'wants' you to deal damag with grasp of lohk is by stripping 100% defense. 

But once you are inside that zone the guns will target the gaze target, which helps noone cuz that gaze target is invulnerable.

Please remove the gaze target from the eligible grasp of lohk target pool.

And while you're at it add accused enemies to the target pool

thank you

EDIT: I gotto agree with most people here. Deny is so bad. its a disgrace to xaku's kit. 

You can buff the base damage to 10x its current value and I would still not use it.  

[Ace-Bounty-Hunter]

Just got done with a 1 hour Steel Path Kuva survival run with Xaku and I must say that one change to The Vast Untime has improved their kit considerably. Duration isn't quite as necessary since their 4 can let you maintain Gaze targets and the buffs from their first two abilities almost indefinitely which improves Xaku's energy economy by quite a bit. With nearly 200% power strength, the disarmed turrets were chewing through high level targets within the Gaze radius pretty nicely without having to worry about refreshing their duration every 15 seconds, which was an absolute pain before the buffs. Even so, I still used a Primed Continuity to allow their 4 to maintain almost 40 seconds of uptime, which felt pretty comfortable overall.

Range is definitely a high priority stat for my build to work efficiently. I'm currently running 250% range and even then it felt a little cramped. Even with two Gaze targets evenly spaced out. The firing range on Xaku's 2 and the radius of Gaze really needs a slight buff to make them not feel quite as restrictive. 

Deny and Accuse however are still terrible abilities and no amount of buffs to them will make them worth using. They either need to be reworked or removed from their kit entirely.