How to play Grendel effectively?

[(NSW)BlaineKodos]

I really want to like the ol Thickroll but I really can't grasp him. I know the basics, you eat enemies and use the three buffs. But his energy always feels like it evaporates before you can really get going and it feels like a fool's errand to try and eat more than five enemies at a time.

I know he's not very popular, but does any kind Tenno like the thicc boi and have some playstyle tips to share? I've got tons of resources stashed for Helminth stuff and forma so I don't mind upending everything I have on him if it makes him more accessible.

[dwqrf]

Ok. Let me tell you as a Veteran player with 4k hours played over 5 years, and being for a while a Grendel main, after using two umbral forma on him, that this frame is one of the strongest frame there is out there. For sure, people don't like his style, his kit, and dump him without doing anything between challenges or theory crafting. If Grendel was a waifu with b00bs, he would be meta as fck. Let me elaborate.

 

Grendel isn't supposed to be a pro-active spellcaster, but rather a reactive tank. While playing with few mandatory mods like Rage/hunter adrenaline, some layers of tankyness like steel fiber (umbral) and vitality (umbral), with adaptation, arcane grace and arcane guardian, using the left over slot for basic stats boost (stretch, continuity (primed) and intensify (umbral), flow), you get a meatball tankier than inaros (because his 75 shield is enough to grant him invunerability to one shots thanks to shield gating - and his large armor pool make every health point more valuable) and doing insaaaaaane dps. And there is not enough space on this post to express how insaaaaaaaaaaaaaane is his potential dps.

 

The dps of grendel can be buffed with his 2, but even his base unmoded dps, it is strong, as it is calculated by the number of enemies eaten AND the enemy level. While using grendel at a high level enough, you can chain eating enemies (which are then considered dead even though there are still alive in the belly : SO THEY RESPAWN) and while you strip armor them with a %armor / second, auto-spitting em all at 0 energy make a AOE toxin that just freeze your computer considering hundreds of enemies on the exact same pixel. And then they all melt. Without any strength. Try that in solo steel path T4 void survival (Mot) and have fun. (So enemies spawn like if it was a party of 4, and are buffed with +200% damage)

Then you could ask : but how do you do that considering the energy drain ? Well, back to the basis, Grendel is a reactive tank using Rage. So you can effectively use his kit only if you face enemies able to damage you enough to fill your energy pool with conversion (and you have a lot of health and so few energy, even with flow (primed). Truth is, if enemies don't have that kind of dps, well, yes you can't use his kit, but no, you don't need it then, and then you can't die whatsoever. And if we need to talk about how to heal up after taking damage, (without arcane grace), his 2 heal yourself on use, scaling as well. There might be a tight spot where you could find yourself with low energy and low life, but that's rare ; and companions, consumables or else, can find, only then, some use.

Everything revolve around the power of the first spell, witch is the ultimate mass CC in the game, striping armor, and moving enemies with you to save loot and xp for later on a precise spot. Also, you can kill enemies in your belly with chain weapon on a corpse nearby (like amprex, kuva nukor, atomos, etc).

 

But trying to keep enemies in the belly or play around the ultimate isn't worth it. Sadly. The third spell has some nice niche use, like eating dargyn and their pilots in the plains to complete really annoying riven asking you to kill the pilot mid air.

 

Grendel is really strong in front of a huge amount of high level enemies. He isn't the quickest for capture, doesn't offer anything really interesting vs world boss, and he is struggling a lot in hijack, but overall, don't underestimate him just because the game doesn't offer that many hard missions. He was even stronger in railjack anomalies when he used to be able to eat all sentients, but the nerf hammer came once for him.

 

But remember : running around with 0 energy is maybe a uncomfortable death sentence for most of the frames, but that's paradise for grendel, meaning no one is hurting you enough to devour a whole solar system. Grendel laughs at parasitic eximi, nullifier, and anything annoying. "Hit me, me eat you."

[Dauggie]

i just don't like his kit, everything revolves around near by enemies to even make him fun. his 4th should be duration based depending on how many enemies consumed. would at least be some what fun to use to fool around.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

Most of grendels ailities depend on having enemies in his belly.   However having enemies in your belly drains his energy!!.   So its pretty hard to scoop up enemies and carry them around until you need them tactically.   You have to eat and use right away.  

Besides THAT problem... his other problem in my opinion are his buffs are to weak, to short range/duration.   So thats out....

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The only way I have fun with grendel is just to inhale around 10 guys and then bounce around killing everything.   The amount of guys in his guts controls the size and damage of his bounces.   But bouncing kills the guys in his belly even faster so you shrink as you go lol  

His spit attack is really powerful and nice no complaints there.    Another good tactic is just suck up all the enemies you can and then barf them into a pile to melee them or aoe weapon them.  (You hold ability 1 to barf everything back up).   

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In my opinion Grendel should get extra loot rolls for the guys who die in his belly.    There should be no energy drain for having guys in his belly.  His 3 wheel abilities should be buffed in every way.   His 4 shouldnt shrink in size/intensity as the guys in his belly die,  he should stay whatever size you were when he started until your energy runs out.  

But I like grendel,  his health makes pets practically invincable.    He should have alot more acceleration as his ball,  it is hard to move through maps as a ball lol.  

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It sucks how some frames get iterated on and others dont.   Xaku had great iteration.   Poor Grendel just instantly got left in the dirt. 

[NinjaZeku]

4 hours ago, (PSN)AbBaNdOn_ said:

buffs are to weak, to short range/duration

Yeah, that 25% Energy gain boost (which costs 50 Energy to trigger in the first place) at least is pretty questionable.

But dunno 'bout the range being "too short" TBH, 25m base range (same as e.g. Roar),
on a Frame that greatly benefits from building for Range anyway, seems okay to me.

Duration, 25 seconds ... sure, could be better, but it's also not terribly short
(for that, look at Trinity's Link, which lasts not even half as long, aarrgh Trinity buffs / rework when).

4 hours ago, (PSN)AbBaNdOn_ said:

bouncing kills the guys in his belly even faster so you shrink as you go lol

Digesting enemies during Pulverize Meatball Mode does not lower the range / damage of his impacts until you deactivate the ability.

4 hours ago, (PSN)AbBaNdOn_ said:

having enemies in your belly drains his energy

This is really the one thing that makes him just not work IMO,
you're supposed to gobble up lotsa enemies at once for the biggest effect, but also get punished for doing so.

It would (probably) be ~fine if it was just a regular, manageable Energy drain.

But no, it's a growing Energy drain (BRB gonna strangle whoever started that trend),
even if all enemies are already digested they still somehow drain you dry at ridiculous speeds, DE why.

On a related /note, I still very much want the ability to activate Meatball Mode freely,
just give it the (static) drain, and range / damage of what 1 held enemy would give you I guess,
whatever, I simply wanna roll around without having to worry about eating something first.

It's a loss of mobility (and usually damage, if your weapons are modded halfway decently),
it doesn't need to be further restricted to such a degree, just let us have fun with it, pretty please ❤️

[BethTheBean]

13 hours ago, (NSW)BlaineKodos said:

I really want to like the ol Thickroll but I really can't grasp him. I know the basics, you eat enemies and use the three buffs. But his energy always feels like it evaporates before you can really get going and it feels like a fool's errand to try and eat more than five enemies at a time.

I know he's not very popular, but does any kind Tenno like the thicc boi and have some playstyle tips to share? I've got tons of resources stashed for Helminth stuff and forma so I don't mind upending everything I have on him if it makes him more accessible.

https://overframe.gg/items/arsenal/2840/grendel/