Optimizing Hildryn vs Infested (Yes, I Know. Humour Me.)

[SenorClipClop]

I know that she is one of the few wholly "bad" options to pit against the Infested. I know that it's way easier and makes way more sense to use basically any other of our 40-odd frames. I'm not concerned with making her "top-tier" or "worth it" in any sense of those terms.

I simply want to craft the best anti-Infested setup I can, with the one criterion that the setup uses Hildryn.

Here's what I have so far:

• The core of this build is in both of her current augments: Blazing Pillage and Balefire Surge. While base Hildy can't restore Shields using abilities unless her enemies have Shields or Armor (things the Infested generally lack), these augments grant Shields regardless.
• High Power Strength increases the Shield gain of these augs. I'm currently using Energy Conversion to help this as she uses two toggled abilities, but I'm not married to the mod.
• To restore Shields, Balefire needs to directly hit and be fully charged, so I've built fully toward Fire Rate. The rest of the build is open.
• Arcane Velocity is almost for-sure a staple of this build, as it boosts the charge rate of Balefire immensely for more Shield gain.
• Range, Efficiency and Duration are a puzzle I haven't balanced yet.

General weaknesses:

• Arcane Velocity needs Crits to proc, but Balefire itself has an abysmal crit chance. Can't rely solely on it.
• Ancient Disruptors will not drop from Balefire shots, must take care of them some other way.

Where to go next?

• More Range means I touch more foes with Haven and thus gain more Shield with Blazing Pillage, but it could drain my Shields too fast. More Strength means more gains too, but cutting Eff or Dur also increases drain. What do?
• I'm willing to infuse a Helminth ability over Aegis Storm.
• One Arcane slot left. I'm thinking Arcane Resistance but I'm open to suggestions.
• Several Mod spaces are open and flexible. I want to avoid Adaptation and Rolling Guard unless absolutely necessary. (They kinda feel like cheating.)
• Rakta Dark Dagger is a thing, but.... eh. Kinda takes the fun out of it for me.
• How to handle keeping Velocity fresh? Adarza Kavat? Quassus heavy attacks? Somehow making crit Balefire a thing?

[(NSW)OinTygon]

Looks to me like you've covered most of the options already, try to mix and match to see what works.

You may need to carry a high crit weapon to trigger Arcane Velocity, unless you're willing to mod Balefire for enough fire rate that you won't need the arcane in the first place. Any high crit, rapid fire gun may be useful for this.

I will point out that heat Thermal Sunder adds its damage to any existing heat procs in its radius, so a Blazing Pillage-Thermal Sunder combo might be a good choice to use against infested. Plus, the heat AoE itself will help keep the runners back.

 

[(PSN)iuvenilis]

Looks like the only thing left to consider/debate is a helminth ability. As mentioned above, thermal sunder is a solid choice. I've just started using Gloom, and it's wonderful.

Pillage will work on some infested. Once ancients start spawning (and others with armor), you can easily get your shields back. It's just at the start where it's mostly chargers who have no armor that getting your shields back can be an issue.

Side-note: I have a suspicion the shield cost for Gloom isn't being calculated correctly. While the initial cost is being multiplied by 10 (energy cost converted to shield cost), I think the cost/enemy drain is not being multiplied by 10. I could be wrong of course, but this might be part of the reason I like it so much.

[Lutesque]

It's always nice to see players do everything they can to make their Warframe's Work even in situations not suited for them....

Waiting for the day to see That Infamous Limbo ESO Build 😈 !!!

[Slayer-.]

I'm only outputting 113,494 thousand damage with Balefire, I do not shoot directly at the enemies it has bugga all killing power, instead aim at the floor between their legs or in front or to one side of them, I've found Balefire splash damage does more damage that way, it works quite well in Steel Path.

Fighting infested always keep your overshields up if you can, it will stop damage to your health seeing as damage cannot impact on your health bar with overshields active.

I use my Hildryn a lot in SP but I have to be super careful with Infested, those little Infested Ospreys will crop dust you to death in and instant if you don't kill them first.

I run Arcane Aegis all the time testing my bottom slot with Arcane Resistance and Arcane Nullifier, it saves me having to use the second skill a lot that way, jury is still out though on that test.

With Hildryn it comes down to play style I use different configs at times so you need to find something you're comfortable with.

I run a Sentinel with Hildryn with Guardian and Shield Charger which really helps with shield replacement.

edit:
Is that better. @NinjaZeku

[NinjaZeku]

@Slayer-. Please don't add text colors and stuff, this is what your post looks like on my end:

[vanaukas]

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Rapid_Resilience

[-AoN-CanoLathra-]

If you want to use Helminth to get more shields, Condemn is a viable option. Unlike Pillage, it gives a set amount of shields per target, affected by strength, so with enough strength you only need to hit 2-3 enemies to get more shields than you spent.

[Slayer-.]

 

44 minutes ago, NinjaZeku said:

@Slayer-. Please don't add text colors and stuff, this is what your post looks like on my end:

I don't apply text colours, I hate it myself, my post was typed out no copy paste or anything so no idea why it has done that.

Here is what I see.

Edit:
WTF, I changed my forum theme back to Light and I'm seeing it as though it was a copy and paste, altered post. 

It shows to me as the same as your quote. 

I'll edit it post and copy all of it and repost it as plain text to see if that fixes it, apart from that I never use anything to alter my post.

[SenorClipClop]

23 hours ago, Slayer-. said:

I'm only outputting 113,494 thousand damage with Balefire, I do not shoot directly at the enemies it has bugga all killing power, instead aim at the floor between their legs or in front or to one side of them, I've found Balefire splash damage does more damage that way, it works quite well in Steel Path.

In order for it to restore Shields though (using the augment) it needs to land a direct hit.

[Slayer-.]

48 minutes ago, SenorClipClop said:

In order for it to restore Shields though (using the augment) it needs to land a direct hit.

Yes it does, though I've never bothered with the Balefire mod or even tested it, I have the room might see what it's like.

I dropped Balefire Surge on my build to see the stats it shows as Shield 485.

I've never really had trouble keeping shields up and going, to me it seems a waste but if you've built for it and find it fine that's ok as well.

I use Blazing Pillage on my everyday build with 235% Range, I don't use it all the time but it's nice to turn it on now and then going through the levels and seeing them become crispy critters or become CC'd because they're burning. lol

[ZiLTemma]

Ensnare over her 4, and use your weapons, antitoxin rapid resilience and adaptation mods, and arcane resistance.

[Butterfly85]

The main enemy i find when playing her vs Infessted is toxic ancients and their hook shots bypassing sheilds and doing health damage. 

Can oversheilds block this effect? I know they prevent status effects.

[(PSN)nerdlegend]

I been playing around with blazing pillage with breach surge. 

[motorfirebox]

Point of interest, range also affects Balefire's AOE radius.

Honestly, the easiest way to do this is to just throw Rebuild Shields on in place of whichever ability you use least. I don't see Blazing Pillage as being usable for actually maintaining your shields, at best it will slow the overall rate of loss. Between Rebuild Shields, Arcane Aegis, and Arcane Barrier, you should be able to keep your shields up fairly well.