Can’t Xaku basically do everything?

[Berzerkules]

3 minutes ago, (XBOX)TehChubbyDugan said:

It's not the status.  I actually stripped Xata's off my Xaku for Empower, because I run low strength, high range.  Replica count is based on range, not strength, and more guns = more DPS, I actually did the math for how I was willing to mod and what I was willing to dump.  The damage on the replicas scales with enemy level, and having more guns firing at their fixed fire rate will give you more DPS than higher strength will in most modding cases, and since it scales based on level in the damage calc, having a bunch of guns floating around will shred even high level enemies.  When you add in more strength anyway with Empower and Growing power and maybe even a Pax Bolt, you can cast Grasp in a big pack with their 4 already up and end up with lots of high strength guns that run on aimbot.

It takes some pretty chunky dudes to slow Xaku down.

Xaku slows down?!?!

[(XBOX)TehChubbyDugan]

Just now, Berzerkules said:

Xaku slows down?!?!

Against high level, really DR intensive, heavy units, yeah, a little.  

[(PSN)Reaper330011]

7 minutes ago, (XBOX)TehChubbyDugan said:

Against high level, really DR intensive, heavy units, yeah, a little.  

WHAAAT?

 

HOWWWW?

 

 

WHYYYYY?

[(PSN)Unstar]

4 hours ago, (XBOX)TehChubbyDugan said:

That's a lot of solid crowd control to be "middling" imo.

Part of what makes it middling in my eyes as opposed to great is that the CC only works on enemies that exist at the time of the cast.  In Warframe even strong enemies aren't sticking around for long periods of time, and new enemies come to replace them.  This is just my opinion, but I think a necessary component of great CC in Warframe is that you can sort of set it and forget it without keeping track of which enemies it's been cast on and which enemies it hasn't.  So Vauban's Vortex, for example; when new enemies arrive, your CC is still working and you don't need to micromanage every individual enemy's CC status.

But I do agree it's a diverse array of CC that can be helpful in a variety of situations, even if in my view all of those options are middling (which isn't bad, by the way).

[(PSN)Unstar]

15 hours ago, (PSN)Reaper330011 said:

You mean great survivability with 75% dodge chance and void status?

Nope, in my opinion it's pretty middling.  Though to be clear, I'm considering "survivability" to be the ability to survive when you're actually taking incoming damage, so I'm including Xaku's passive and Untime in this but not void status, which I'm categorizing as CC.  (and I don't want to get into a semantic debate about categorization, so if you see it differently, that's fine)

When it comes to surviving incoming damage, 75% dodge chance seems solidly in the middle of the pack when it comes to Warframes.  There are a ton of frames who can take survival for granted, and some that actively want to be damaged.  In a world where Rhino, Hildryn, Chroma, Gara, etc exist, the chance to not take full damage with Xaku's average shield and health pools seems right in the middle of the pack.  And while that chance is in Xaku's favor for every single instance of damage, the possibility of unlucky dice rolls entirely foiling your mitigation ultimately makes it unreliable.  In addition, this specific flavor of mitigation has an anti-synergy with one of the best patch-up mods for survival, Adaptation, since a dodged shot doesn't build any resistance; this means that you have to take the full force of attacks to build Adaptation's dependable resistance, and that the built resistance is more likely to fall off because statistically you're dodging many hits.  Now, all of that said, dodging will statistically offer you some good protection, so that's not to say in the slightest that Xaku's dodge is garbage or anything.  But compared to what's out there, I can't see it as anything other than middling, especially with its downsides compared to more reliable forms of mitigation.

[(PSN)Reaper330011]

7 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

which I'm categorizing as CC

It does both.

 

7 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

Rhino, Hildryn, Chroma, Gara

Forgot to mention Harrow, who needs to take 3k damage to convert it into crit while not taking damage at all.

 

the thing is now that I’ve tried him out on sp I rarely need to have survivability mods due to the fact that he completely shatters the enemy without them.

7 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

can't see it as anything other than middling, especially with its downsides compared to more reliable forms of mitigation.

Your talking about frames who can just stand still and not die. That’s pointless.

Xaku’s crowd control combined with his 4 and passive makes him extremely hard to kill…. Died once in a 3 hour sp survival bc I accidentally let a acolyte hit me. 

[(PSN)Unstar]

16 hours ago, (PSN)Reaper330011 said:

Your talking about frames who can just stand still and not die. That’s pointless.

You can think it's pointless, but to players with less skill it's incredibly valuable and meaningful.  Any player with sufficient skill can play any Warframe without dying, but there are plenty of players who lack that level of skill, and for them details like this are important.

But regardless, being able to "stand still and not die" represents the upper limit of Warframe's ability to survive inflicted damage, which Xaku is well below.  It's not a slight against Xaku to admit that Xaku can't tank like that.

[(PSN)Reaper330011]

6 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

valuable and meaningful

Standing still and just getting shot and not making any contribution to the objective is valuable?

[(PSN)Unstar]

14 minutes ago, (PSN)Reaper330011 said:

Standing still and just getting shot and not making any contribution to the objective is valuable?

I never said that and you know I didn't say that.  Anyway, have a good one.

[(PSN)Reaper330011]

6 hours ago, (PSN)Unstar said:

You can think it's pointless, but to players with less skill it's incredibly valuable and meaningful

^ right here

[quxier]

On 2021-10-15 at 2:58 PM, (PSN)Reaper330011 said:

So anyway… why don’t people use Xaku more?  It’s not (yes, IT) as boring as octavia. The 1 and 4 are the most fun and the 1 and 3 are extremely efficient and fun in some cases…

 Sadly they made him "boring" by nerfing 2nd (GoL) and upgrading 4th (Vast untime, time freeze). Probably lots of people just use high Dur/strength & low efficiency and just GoL+VU. and maybe some Gaze and/or Helminth ability.

People used GoL to disarm enemies but probably most of them don't like negative duration.

 

If you want to use GoL more (to disarm enemies) then you cannot use VU.

 

Void status is not great. It can prevents headshot (e.g. your teammate proc Void on body part so in most cases you cannot do headshots). More damage is ok but is it noticeable?

 

The lost (3rd) is cumbersome to use. It's hard to change abilities mid-fight. You can switch tap/hold but it doesn't change too much.

Void beam (of 3rd) is super expensive for low-level enemies (just killing costs 75) and it's little slow. For stronger enemies it's ok.

Accused enemies can be killed by you and cost too much for what it does.

Gaze is, I would say, good. It might need 200% strength for full armor strip (for some cases).

In my Xaku play I rarely used more than 1 ability from 3rd. I Accused enemies from time to time to get some break.

 

Vast untime is 2 things. Bad features and features that could be added to other abilities (not even to Xaku's).

Sprint speed is not noticeable. I heard it's bugged.

Slowness requires lot of strength (200% for 50% slowness). Constant recasting to proc another enemies.

Void vulnerability is the same. It's not great when you want just put other abilities on freeze.

75% is not great on it's own. It could be increased to near 100% but it's boring style. You either let everything kill with GoL (pet's mod deactivates on most attack) or require you to spam Heavy attack for every 6 second (afair) and requires 3 mod's slots.

 

 

I love Xaku's 4th design but I cannot use it because it cannot be like Loki.... but it's ok to be aimbot.

 

And what kind of augment it will get? Just what I love (lot of sarcasm ahead) about Xaku: Cycling 3rd sub-abilities! I'm Excited!

 

I remember lot of fun with pre-last-nerf Xaku: running in Skeleton form, sometimes on fire, with mustache, disarming enemies with GoL or Void status. Now I need something with some quick ability to use while my GoL is on cooldown. It's nice gameplay but less fun than pre-nerf Xaku.

 

ps. I guess I ranted too much.... but maybe some stuffs may be good for others.

On 2021-10-20 at 1:05 PM, (PSN)Reaper330011 said:

WHAAAT?

 

HOWWWW?

 

 

WHYYYYY?

(about 4th slowing)

You need pretty high Strength to get enough slowness. Base slowness is very low (25%). I think with ~200% strength you would start seeing results.

Another stuffs is it's not an aura but an action that slows enemies near you. Enemies can die or new enemies (not slowed) can appear.

Last but not least is horrible effect intensity. With low settings you may not even see "slowness" effect on enemies.

 

[(XBOX)TehChubbyDugan]

On 2021-10-20 at 10:55 AM, (PSN)Unstar said:

Part of what makes it middling in my eyes as opposed to great is that the CC only works on enemies that exist at the time of the cast.  In Warframe even strong enemies aren't sticking around for long periods of time, and new enemies come to replace them.  This is just my opinion, but I think a necessary component of great CC in Warframe is that you can sort of set it and forget it without keeping track of which enemies it's been cast on and which enemies it hasn't.  So Vauban's Vortex, for example; when new enemies arrive, your CC is still working and you don't need to micromanage every individual enemy's CC status.

But I do agree it's a diverse array of CC that can be helpful in a variety of situations, even if in my view all of those options are middling (which isn't bad, by the way).

That is actually a really fair point.  I still wouldn't agree with "middling" because I'd put Wisp's Shock Mote in middling.  It's enough to slow down a Hydron run, but isn't enough to completely defend an objective either.  Something like Vauban's level of CC is at the very top end and great.  Compared to that, taking your point into account, Xaku is still really good, but definitely doesn't have the ability to CC without being present to cast.

One caveat though, is that with a really niche, specialty build in something like an interception where enemies will only spawn up to a certain amount, you can perma-lockdown the enemies present and then just leave them until the round is over.  With a specialized build for specific content, I'd actually take that over Vauban since you have to recast his at the enemy multiple times and with Xaku you just keep their 4 up.