Wow DE/Community I owe you an apology (Xaku)

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

I submitted my idea for a warframe concept for Tennogen but I didnt expect it to make the cut,  and it wasnt lol.   When the top 10 came out o be voted on I wasnt really impressed with any of the ideas.  When the broken concept won I was pretty disgusted, thinking the community suggested and voted for a joke frame.  I didnt really follow the ability thread that closely I dont think...I may have suggested some but I forget lol.   Then the artwork came and meh I didnt really feel anything...

Deimos dropped and I got Xaku's parts right away but I was in no hurry to make it... until yesterday.

DE and the community managed to take something I was not thrilled with and make a really fun frame!!!!  I dont know what is up with the polarities it comes with....I had to replace those but I dumped about 4-5 forma into Xaku yesterday.   Its a nice offensive frame.   It is equally good at being a shooter or melee.   

I really hate ability wheels though.  Accuse/??/deny  are some very wierd abilities.   Deny is absoutely worthless,  On a controller you have to fire the beam and aim at the same time and both things take a thumb.   That middle one looked like the coolest, I thought I could tendril several enemies and just stun/lock them in place.  Performance wise it sucks and is single target, the target becomes invulnerable while becoming a bomb.  Only deailing damage when you release the guy.  This is going to be extremely worthless unless your sitting in one spot.  I havent tried it with my loadout yet but the range looks pretty decent if I do use it.. I think I can get a 36m circle bomb out of it....    Accuse I havent even used yet but it sounds like the ONLY choice and yet it sounds like a direct rip off of Nyxs chaos on a smaller scale (limited number of affected enemies).   Maybe a little better since Nyx/chaos affected enemies attack random faction... where Xaku/accuse cause X amount of enemies to only attack other enemies ??  

Xaku makes me a bit nervous though because it has such low armor, low health,  I Havent seen how effective Accuse is like I have said but without that she has no damage reduction or crowd control ability... just offense.   Mag is like that but atleast she has overshields.  I did a murmur and kicked all kinds of ass tho.  Oh I guess people will be bringing up her evasion while in skeleton form ?   Thats 100 energy for me..I doubt when im in trouble it will be saving me heh.   But she seems tough enough.   

But anyways after her part 1 rework I really really like this frame..  I was hoping to use some energy colors I rarely use but damn it...  I just wanted her in my personal colors black n green lol.  I got her arm and whatever colored a light gold.  I wish it could be chrome but it just looks washed out and white if I try to go for that...   

My loadout is 170+ dur,  100 eff,  170+ range, 170+strength.     Id LOVE to drop an umbra forma on her and free up her exilus slot for more str.   Umbras are just to rare I dont want to waste them on non primes.....like I did with that free one from alert in my nidus....  

<3 Xaku

ps: I think there may be something buggy about her stats...  when I was leveling up in defense I only used a gun and wyrm prime sentinel w/ gun..... no melee..... and yet I got massive kills but I would see like 200+ melee kills lol.....  I dont know if the kills from her guns count as melee kills instead of ability kills???  Other times my melee kills are low or non existant....   so????

[Birdframe_Prime]

Glad you like the frame, but I'm convinced you've missed one of the key strengths of the abilities and how they work together.

For one, you can actually drop a lot of the Duration, just stay in positive numbers, because Xaku's 4 is the only Duration that matters. As long as you have that active, your other ability timers are paused.

For another the one you don't like out of The Lost is actually one of the strongest parts of their kit. The Lost is a rather annoying one if you don't know all that it does, so here:

Accuse is, exactly as you've noticed, an area-of-effect CC that is technically a better version of Chaos, because enemies will not attack you. This is great in general terms, although your stolen guns for your 2 don't attack them... not exactly fun.

Deny I can completely understand why you don't like it, a lot of players don't use it for the same reason and also for the fact that it takes setting up; it only deals semi-decent damage when you have a massive amount of guns stolen with 2, and you also need to have recently cast 4 to have the enemies primed to take double-damage from Void damage... which isn't exactly all that fun.

Gaze, however, the single-target lock-down? That thing creates an Area-of-Effect that can completely strip enemy defenses. Both Shields and Armour. Although it takes getting to 200% Ability Strength to do it, which balances your Range a little... If you have two enemies (the maximum number of targets) placed so that the strip fields cover a large area, Xaku can literally scale their damage up to silly levels of play. Steel Path Survivals are almost silly when you get a good position and decent enemy flow.

Try this, it's not the best build, but you'll be surprised at what it can do:

Go with Umbral Intensify and Umbral Vitality, Transient Fortitude will then get you to 210% Strength with only a little Duration loss, Primed Continuity and Augur Message will push that Duration back up to 152%, Streamline for a little Efficiency to keep casting, then Stretch, Augur Reach and Cunning Drift to get up to 190% Range.

This gives you a base of about 38 Seconds on The Vast Untime, with a radial burst on cast that does 52% Slow on enemies and makes them take double-damage from Void. You hit the 100% Defense strip on Gaze easily, and the radius is just over 15m, so a nice large circle for each enemy you target. You also get up to 16 targets for Accuse, and... eh, who cares about Deny? Grasp of Lohk can steal up to 11 weapons, and they deal over 100 Void per hit, multiplied by the Enemy level (meaning at level 100 enemies, you're dealing 10,500 damage per hit, and if they're stripped of all Armour, it's pretty quick kills). And of course, Xata's Whisper adds that extra Void hit onto anything you're shooting/hitting with of 54% the weapon's total damage, which is a considerable buff when you take into account it adds a multi-shot hit, not just an extra damage type.

If you want, you can drop out Augur Message for a Primed Flow, which will give you a way bigger Energy pool to draw from and make use of an Arcane Energise if you've got one, it gives you about 7 seconds less on Vast Untime, which isn't that big of a hit really. There's Natural Talent, which is a good utility for Xaku. Heck, if you're feeling brave, swap out Umbral Vitality for Rolling Guard, then use Augur Secrets in that spot to get back up to over 200% Strength.

Anyway, tl;dr

Getting over 200% Strength with a good Range, reasonable Duration and just a little extra Efficiency will really, really improve your play with Xaku.

That one ability you don't like is the power-house of this kit, and unlocking the magic numbers will allow you to turn enemies into swiss cheese with no issues.

[xombob89]

Yeah Xaku is great but as the above guy said you misunderstood some of the abilities and how they work. Gaze indeed can remove all defenses from the enemies inside the ring at 200 str so I would suggest the same, go 200 str and some range and you are set since 4th stops ability timers.

I dont much use Deny either myself, it seems useless considering your guns from Grasp of Lohk will kill everything really quickly. Accuse might be of use somewhere but again why if I can just outright melt them in seconds. 

Ive done sorties, arbies and some Steel Path too with him and he can survive very well if played right.

[(PSN)thegarada]

I have not given Xahu enough chance. So far, I am not impressed. Gaze needs 200% ability str, for 100% armor removal. This does not work well with a frame that also needs a lot of energy, since you cannot use blind rage. The survivability is inconsistent. I played it a bit on SP, and I got close to 1 shot 2-3 times, in the survivability on Sedna (which is not that much of a high damage). Granted, I was level 25, and that was level 135 content, but things miss, miss, then 1 hit, boom. Evasion only works if your frame is already tanky. If 1 hit removes shield and another removes HP, you need 100% map CC, which Xahu cannot do. So I guess level 100+ content is out of reach. 

This is more of a personal gripe, I am okay with how Xahu looks, but the skeleton is so ugly and removes all customization. Not good for fashion frame. I really wish for at least a toggle. And yes, fashion frame is important 😶

I guess if sentinels become a more prevalent enemy, Xahu will be the frame that I must feed to the Helminth 😀

Unrelated, OP was referring to Xahu is a she. Xahu is "neither he nor she, Xahu is a composite." This is from the frame selection screen. I think it is supposedly made from remnants of three frames. I am unsure if Xaku will be considered a "female" frame. It definitely looks feminine. From my understanding, it was supposed to be a female frame initially. So, I though the next frame will be a female frame, continuing the M-M-F-F trend, but Alchemist is male. So... I dunno.

 

[xombob89]

1 hour ago, (PS4)thegarada said:

 Gaze needs 200% ability str, for 100% armor removal. This does not work well with a frame that also needs a lot of energy, since you cannot use blind rage. The survivability is inconsistent.

Xaku does not need that much energy. The way you need to play him is cast grasp of lohk, then immendiately his 4th and go full stickman mode. This means your grapped guns stay on technically forever if you just recast your 4th every time. Same if you want to use gaze, theyll stay on as well, no need to recast.

I have only base energy, no flow, and never run out this way. 

And personally I dont have problems surviving but I guess it depends how you play. If I lose shields I usually dash around in operator mode to get out of trouble and as bonus I have the healing arcane too. 

[(PSN)thegarada]

1 hour ago, xombob89 said:

Xaku does not need that much energy. The way you need to play him is cast grasp of lohk, then immendiately his 4th and go full stickman mode. This means your grapped guns stay on technically forever if you just recast your 4th every time. Same if you want to use gaze, theyll stay on as well, no need to recast.

I have only base energy, no flow, and never run out this way. 

And personally I dont have problems surviving but I guess it depends how you play. If I lose shields I usually dash around in operator mode to get out of trouble and as bonus I have the healing arcane too. 

There is a lot of similarities between Xahu and Ember. First skill buffs damage. A skill that reduce damage. A skill that strips armor. Ember gets fire damage bonus, instead of void. You can strip 100% armour with no intensity. You get consistent damage reduction versus dice roll. And Ember has much better CC. Xahu skill 4 in particular is a problem. The lack of consistent damage reduction leaves you pretty vulnerable in Pluto and going forward on SP. Even before that, 1 hit can remove the entire shields.

On the other side, below level 100, armor strip does not matter much. There are better nuke frames. There are even better armour strip.

Xahu needs work. Lots and lots of work. And need to be something more than a weak copy paste of Ember.

[Birdframe_Prime]

12 hours ago, (PS4)thegarada said:

And need to be something more than a weak copy paste of Ember.

I think that's where the other ability in The Lost comes in, my friend, you need to use Accuse on areas predictively to ensure that the enemies are not shooting you. The change of enemies to friends will then passively CC the enemies that come after them, meaning you can mow down the whole lot while they're fighting and cast again. That way the odd shots that actually do get through the mosh-pit of regular and controlled enemies are usually tanked by the Shield Gate and your Evasion.

The next round of buffs to them will be the buffs that they actually need, with Accuse being re-castable (along with Grasp of Lohk) to build up to the maximum number of enemies affected (or guns stolen by Grasp), rather than being unable to cast if even one controlled enemy is left alive.

And that's alongside things like Gaze having its base-range buffed, the changes to Void Status (so it will proc on the body-part you hit, not always on centre-of-mass (allowing for crazy headshot play if you're accurate) and the further buff to Deny to make it castable while you're moving so that you can actually target it even with the thumbsticks on controllers. (Deny will still be a joke, but at least it won't have the problem OP is having with it.)

So yeah... even though the key interaction on the frame requires 200% Strength, that's not an un-achievable number. (I say that with the full veteran-with-everything status, which some players might not be able to relate to... So I can get to 210% Strength with just two Umbrals and Transient Fortitude, then build the rest for a little Duration, reasonable Range and some Efficiency.) With the buffs to Xaku's CC ability and the changes that make the Duration so much easier to handle, I think I'll be able to push this frame wayyyy past the point I have so far.

I mean... you claim that Level 100 is a cut-off, but it kind of isn't even now. Depends. I take the frame out on Steel Path regularly and have no real issues as it is, and I think with better CC, better base Range and better Void Status... yeah, Xaku's going to be a really solid frame.

[kwlingo]

If AFK killing is what you call fun... I dont know what the community is heading. Not the best idea for AFK gaming one bit.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

I didnt notice how much Xaku felt like old Ember w/ World on Fire but I certainly noticed that the next day.   Xaku part 2 DE talks about NOT extending gun range any further to keep it from becoming as bad as WoF.   The current range feels pretty good, if you just sit in one place it can take a painfully long time for enemies to get in range.  It makes me be active and move around the map.  Its best to go melee but I have been using guns with Xaku this whole time and I still move around.. (sometimes heh)

I didnt have a problem with WoF.  I dont have a problem with new ember.  Personally I love that frame even more, now that she is tanky.  

I have no strong opinion either way....  but how would people feel if Xaku's grasp kind of got an Ember upgrade...   

-grab gun range can be whatever (its great as is)

-gun shoot range could be drastically INCREASED (to match grab range atleast)

-gun shoot ANGLE...the guns would only shoot in the direction you are looking....  Like Ember's new 4, you can only drop it like its hot on enemies in the direction your looking.  So the other 270 degrees enemies dont get touched....  If people feel like Ember's 4 requires active play then this should be a good enough solution for Xaku to count as "active"?????

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I know some people abuse afk powers but for me WoF and now Grasp encouraged a different playstyle from me.   When I can sit on my butt and kill stuff it tends to make me use GUNS to pick off stragglers.   Most of the time I use melee but im getting to damn old and played video games to long melee is starting to kill my thumbs =(.  So I am really enjoying Xaku for letting me focus on guns.  I rarely get best damage out,  but my kill counts are pretty awesome

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Has anyone else noticed Grasp guns become hostile to squadmates sentinel pets ???    I was with a dude farming murmurs and I noticed my guns going crazy anytime the other guy got close to me and when I looked closer all my guns were lighting up his Helios pet lol.   It only happened in a defense mission.   Other missions they got along fine lol.  

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I understand what everyone is saying about how important Gaze is.  I dont play in steel path or arbitrations so armor/defense stripping isnt really something I need.  My Xaku 4 is like 45 seconds long, and grasp is like 15-20 seconds..    It pretty much doesnt matter if im shooting or meleeing I lose track of those timers pretty often as is... lol..    I know for a fact I would be dropping my guns alot more often with shorter timers.  

What I was going to try to develop next was the muscle memory to drop her 4 and refresh it BEFORE it runs out.  Like as soon as I get the energy for it just recast.  

[KitMeHarder]

3 hours ago, (PS4)AbBaNdOn_ said:

-gun shoot ANGLE...the guns would only shoot in the direction you are looking....

This may just be be my own opinion, and not a commonly shared gripe, but I find this playstyle extremely un-fun on frames like Ember, Protea, Garuda.... Its very boring to have to get as far away from the action as possible, make sure you camera is aligned perfectly, and then spam a button. I'd much rather be restricted by line-of-sight and have a short range so I have to run around IN the action.

3 hours ago, (PS4)AbBaNdOn_ said:

Has anyone else noticed Grasp guns become hostile to squadmates sentinel pets ???

That's because once a companion gets irradiated from something like a Kuva Nukor or Toxin lich, the game always considers them hostile and targets them even if the duration has worn off. May not happen 100% of the time, but this is what causes it to happen.

22 hours ago, (PS4)thegarada said:

So, I though the next frame will be a female frame, continuing the M-M-F-F trend, but Alchemist is male. So... I dunno.

That's only how prime frames are released, base frames don't really follow an order.

And all I will say is Xaku does not need a rework unless it's just to make him more fun. In effectiveness he is just fine, and much better than Ember at that.

[(PSN)Darmstomp]

I‘m glad people are enjoying Xaku, definitely was pretty meh about them when I first saw the design. Seems like a pretty cool frame though, fun abilities and a unique appearance. 
 

I‘m way more excited about Lavos though, really hope DE says something about him. Last thing we heard was a tweet 2 weeks ago that said he was "almost ready". So idk if we‘ll even get him this month since they‘ve basically been completely silent.