Is there any use for Garuda/anything she is actually good at?

[Ogger]

I like Garuda stylewise and the abilities are actually unique and interesting but they are just very underwhelming.

I tried using her as:

1. a Tank: With 300 base hp and armor at rank 30 and blood altar she can surely survive but either standing still or constantly recasting as you go along is the most exhausting way to play just to survive..
2. a DPS: her 4 and 1 have an interesting synergy as you can get good stacks from marked armored enemies and you can even kill marked enemies with the AOE of your 1 but the 4 only shoots EIGHT projectiles which is unaffected by mods. Not a good nuke. at all.
3. a DMG buff frame: her passive is kinda interesting but just a 100% increase for staying on 2HP is not worth it.
4. exalted weapon user: WarframesBetterThanYou's comment from the wiki says it all: " So all the power of a melee weapon but all the downsides of an exalted weapon with no bonuses."

So is there actually any use to her? 

[Wyrmius_Prime]

Breach surge + her 4 is a infinitely scaling damage loop. Also her 4 alone should be seen as a debuff on enemies, not a nuke. Quick thinking + rage combined with her 3 gives her infinite EHP if played smart. You stay naturally on 2 HP with QT while also being nearly impossible to kill, and when/if Rage heals you, you just use 3 for more energy and EHP.

[TheArcSet]

35 minutes ago, OggerAZ said:

a Tank: With 300 base hp and armor at rank 30 and blood altar she can surely survive but either standing still or constantly recasting as you go along is the most exhausting way to play just to survive..

I'd use Quick_Thinking to make her an energy tank, that way she's unlikely to ever go down.

2880 EHP just from QT, Primed Flow & base armour. 4324 EHP with Steel_Fibre, much more if you can maintain HC, or buff it another way.

You can buff that further with Health_Convserion, but she's not the best frame for that, as while she can't lose charges while at 2hp, if she hits a health orb, she'll be vulnerable to losing the charge until you drain her.

Still, blocks all damage in front of her and massive damage reduction from armour and energy conversion still makes a great tank. You could even throw on a decaying key. Her invulnerability augment isn't that useful though.

35 minutes ago, OggerAZ said:

a DPS: her 4 and 1 have an interesting synergy as you can get good stacks from marked armored enemies and you can even kill marked enemies with the AOE of your 1 but the 4 only shoots EIGHT projectiles which is unaffected by mods. Not a good nuke. at all.

For DPS, focus on her damage doubling passive and the fact that her 4 can shoot through walls and over a long distance.

Her 1 can be a great bomb but, especially with fall-off now, you have limited control on when it's ready, though you can just dump energy into it; still I'd mostly combine her 4 with guns. That way she can blaze through armour.

35 minutes ago, OggerAZ said:

a DMG buff frame: her passive is kinda interesting but just a 100% increase for staying on 2HP is not worth it.

Almost mandatory for player her, see Quick_Thinking and maybe Health_Conversion to make double damage worth it.

35 minutes ago, OggerAZ said:

exalted weapon user: WarframesBetterThanYou's comment from the wiki says it all: " So all the power of a melee weapon but all the downsides of an exalted weapon with no bonuses."

Yep. Her claws suck, no two ways about that; they don't even provide a sortie condition alternative, in fact, they might lock her out of sortie.

[Ogger]

7 minutes ago, TheArcSet said:

Almost mandatory for player her, see Quick_Thinking and maybe Health_Conversion to make it worth it.

That's what I meant with staying on 2hp.

9 minutes ago, TheArcSet said:

I'd mostly combine her 4 with guns.

well that doesn't help much as the projectile count stays the same.

I tried going with natural talent and speed drift and high efficiency but spamming the ability is just way too much work.

[Ogger]

1 minute ago, Wyrmius_Prime said:

Breach surge + her 4 is a infinitely scaling damage loop

DE will probably nerf helminth breach surge as it's very good on a lot of frames.

And it takes quite a while to build up. But I'll try that.

[TheArcSet]

1 minute ago, Wyrmius_Prime said:

Breach surge + her 4 is a infinitely scaling damage loop. Also her 4 alone should be seen as a debuff on enemies, not a nuke. Quick thinking + rage combined with her 3 gives her infinite EHP if played smart. You stay naturally on 2 HP with QT while also being nearly impossible to kill, and when/if Rage heals you, you just use 3 for more energy and EHP.

I agree with what you're point about her 4 being a debuffer (, while her 1 is a weak nuke), but just FYI, the QT Rage/Adrenaline synergy was patched out quite a while ago: in that while you lose life you gain energy, but once you hit the min, rage stops working.

[Wyrmius_Prime]

Just now, OggerAZ said:

DE will probably nerf helminth breach surge as it's very good on a lot of frames.

And it takes quite a while to build up. But I'll try that.

The build up is pretty slow, but it works decently in solo and it is good CC anyway. If you shoot the enemies by yourself it builds up faster because the sparks that your weapons create deal higher damage, but can also proc the slash form her 4.

[SpiritTeA]

Garuda becomes my main frame. I fall in love with her. Rage + QT +Umbra mods (Have to figure out which best to take), for finishing my build I only need Molt from helminth instead of 2. Don’t get me wrong, 2 is great, especially in team, but regenerative molt is just superior to this as panic button. 

I use her almost everywhere. Especially on SP Deimos. 4-shot from something hard-1 kills **** Jugglers in few seconds and gives you 380k charge for 1 throw. I liked killing necromechs with her, since: 1) her 1 skill blocks all the fire from their gun , so you can face tank him; 2) AND!! her 4  instantly  destroys necromech shield without any reflection, that’s why I love her there ( I don’t play Ivara, Octavia other popular  frames obviously).

[GPrime96]

47 minutes ago, Wyrmius_Prime said:

Breach surge + her 4 is a infinitely scaling damage loop. Also her 4 alone should be seen as a debuff on enemies, not a nuke. Quick thinking + rage combined with her 3 gives her infinite EHP if played smart. You stay naturally on 2 HP with QT while also being nearly impossible to kill, and when/if Rage heals you, you just use 3 for more energy and EHP.

^^ pretty much except for the Rage part. Using her as this kind of DPS is where you can find her Playstyle than using her as a Tank/Exalted Weapon User. Try to use those two in Steel Path Void Survival Solo. Damage buffer part of her is nice since it’s double damage buff but better to use passively since trying to force yourself to use her 100% Damage is suicide. The reason why i excluded Rage because she can still survive without Blood Letting, there’s two things called Arcane Energize/Zenurik.

[Srovy]

Neat synergy: you can take a kubrow and use the mecha set to turn 4 + 1 into a wave clear