Saryn Build Idea for Zariman/Steel Path

[Fyrscha]

I've been testing a new Saryn build for soloing steel path and being able to handle any faction of lvl 200+ enemies without having to change the build. 

My theory is to replace Miasma with Gloom, not use Spores at all, and go low Efficiency + low Range for multiple reasons. I'll share my build ideas below. 

First, Energy: With any solo build, especially one with negative efficiency, energy stability is paramount. I don't like using arcane energize, so I decided to try out the Emergence Dissipate operator arcane and I am surprised at how much energy it provides. With a single canceled void sling (once I got used to the key inputs it became nearly effortless and only takes 1-2 seconds to deploy accurately) on a group of enemies, I can get 50-150 energy instantly. It's worth noting there is no cool down for this arcane, so I can use this method as often as desired for near-endless energy as long as there are at least a few enemies. 

Next, Survival: Saryn is tough, but not the best tank, so I needed a way to make her invulnerable as possible while constantly being on the move for mission objectives, acolytes, etc since this is a solo build (specifically for Survival and Disruption). I chose Brief Respite + Decaying Dragon Key as my primary defense. With the penalty to efficiency, every cast of my abilities maxes my shields for shield gating. Paired with Molt, Adaptation, and Rolling Guard, not to mention the health regen from Gloom, I seem to have achieved near invulnerability against all factions on 30+ minute steel path survival missions. 

Finally, Damage: This build is purely melee focused, so I have no primary or secondary build notes other than using the Dexterity arcanes in each weapon. Using the Venom Dose augment for Spores, I keep both it and Toxic Lash up at all times. This pairs nicely with hard-hitting weapons that have large numbers, but I chose a middle ground weapon because I love the way it looks and always wanted to use it for a build. The Twin Krohkur. This gives decent crit and over x3 crit damage, but mainly it's a decent middle ground of speed, damage, crit and status that has access to the Carving Mantis stance, which I love for my Saryn. (The Riven I have for it is decent but not great)

Synergy:  I use the Unairu school since I will be in-and-out of operator mode a lot for energy/utility. Poise frees up the exilus slot for something besides Primed Sure Footed, and the other Unairu abilities provide boosted survival and reliable shield/armor stripping, all which compliment this build. Venom Dose and Toxic Lash boost 'melee math' in different ways, and they synergize well together for massive melee hits, especially once the Molt Augmented buff is maxed. And as always, Saryn is the status queen so I use Condition Overload and Weeping Wounds to dramatically boost melee damage output since targets reliably have at least 2 status effects, and often many more. 

Tactics: As an opener, I move into a group of enemies and use Molt. I shift to operator and use void stealth for 1-3 seconds while enemies focus on Molt, then use sling-cancel a few times to make them all drop energy motes. I then swap back to Saryn, turn on Gloom, and use Biting Mandibles (Block + Attack) of Carving Mantis to kill all the enemies at the Molt. This not only instantly refills any health and energy Saryn might need, but gives between x4 and x6 combo in just a couple seconds. Paired with Dexterity arcanes, I have no trouble comfortably keeping the combo counter maxed, but if it ever drops I can easily max it out again in just moments. For on-going combat with Gloom active, I keep both self-buff powers active and never stop moving. I regularly use Unairu school to strip shields and armor, and then with a mix of slide attacks, Biting Mandibles, and well-timed heavy attacks to take out Eximus or other tough units, I slash through all types of enemies in just seconds, regardless of level. 

Acolytes and Demo units: With Unairu armor-stripping, these enemies die almost as fast as regular enemies. With a x12 combo and both self-buff powers on, my Biting Mandibles hits for hundreds of thousands of damage, and when paired with any powerful Primary or Secondary (to avoid a Demo unit's ability purge or an Acolyte while it fights other enemies) I haven't found any of these advanced units to last more than 5-6 seconds when I focus on them. 
 

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

You got it exactly right. 

But geezus dude put some range on your melee. 

[Fyrscha]

36 minutes ago, (PSN)Madurai-Prime said:

You got it exactly right. 

But geezus dude put some range on your melee. 

lol I hear you, but with how I use the Twin Krohkur and Carving Mantis the range I have feels like plenty. also I get tired of building the same meta all the time, so I like mixing it up ^__^

[Uhkretor]

1 hour ago, Fyrscha said:

I get tired of building the same meta all the time

... therefore "slash + viral"?

[Fyrscha]

3 hours ago, Uhkretor said:

... therefore "slash + viral"?

And how would you recommend I build for universal application to steel path? Due to the meta DE chose, there aren't many viable options, especially for the weapon I chose. I experimented with a few combinations, but nothing I tried except viral/slash for this build worked. It's hard to move too far outside of the top-tier/meta stuff if you want to do high level solo missions. 

[Uhkretor]

5 minutes ago, Fyrscha said:

Due to the meta DE chose, there aren't many viable options, especially for the weapon I chose. I experimented with a few combinations, but nothing I tried except viral/slash for this build worked. It's hard to move too far outside of the top-tier/meta stuff if you want to do high level solo missions. 

DE didn't choose or incentivized any meta. That illusion exists due to certain players, and only because of those players..

7 minutes ago, Fyrscha said:

And how would you recommend I build for universal application to steel path?

I don't build for universal application. I moved away from the only build I had as soon as Steel Path was released and, honestly, I should've never had a single build for universal applications to begin with.

People attempt at building for universal applications but end up building only vs Grineers, because they're Grineers (and I call it discrimination as no other unit of any of the other factions & sub-factions in the game gets flamed in the forum), and "it just works" vs the rest, despite the lower performance... Low maintenance ingame knowledge, too, is the only only thing proven by those certain players, at this point. And "high level" solo missions can be done, in most cases, better with non-universal builds...

... And no, justifying lvl99999 as being "high level" is useless. Its already been proven that its a waste of time... And it can be done Solo just by stripping armor and time-lapsing reality to avoid the natural "24h per day" that reality forces onto us all...

 

Anyway, I can point out some suggestions you can try out but, like I usually tell anyone I give advice to, they weren't/aren't/won't be miracle workers. The player, and I'm not referring to the Operator/Drifter, is as much of a component in the game, and to the game, as anything the player chooses to use.

However, technically, any clan member in my Clan switched from the alleged "universal" build to faction builds when they experienced the difference for themselves... And by "faction builds", its actually more than just slapping anti-faction mods...

[Leqesai]

2 hours ago, Uhkretor said:

because they're Grineers (and I call it discrimination as no other unit of any of the other factions & sub-factions in the game gets flamed in the forum)

There's a reason for this though.

Grineer have an extra level of damage reduction that the other factions don't have, which (especially in steel path) makes them significantly more tanky. People don't bother with Corpus and Infested because they're simply not that hard to kill compared to Grineer.

I do find it funny that people hyper focus on Grineer though because, despite having a huge amount of EHP they are really the easiest faction. Infested and Corpus are both much more annoying to fight due to nullifiers, ancients, disruptors etc. Grineer just have big health. Big health is not difficult.

[(PSN)iuvenilis]

I still run the exact same max range build (but with Gloom in place of Molt), and the spores still destroy everything in SP (not that I'm doing level cap or anything close to that). Each to their own of course. Stick with what you enjoy!

[(PSN)haphazardlynamed]

my preference is different:

 

Gloom replacing Molt (because gloom's lifesteal means I don't need Molt's regeneration)

high ability range and strength

high armor and health

Hunter Adrenaline (or Rage)  - damage to health regens energy

Quick Thinking (drain energy to save self from lethal damage) + primed flow (need a big energy reserve to act as a backup health bar)

Dragon key to lower shields.

 

Noted: rather than rely on Shield Gating for survival, just keep an eye on health bar, when it goes down cast 4 (or just shoot someone in the face) so that Gloom can restore health -quick thinking is important here, because I really need my energy reserve as a backup health bar

its kinda like heath gating instead of shield gating, main advantage being the constant hits on my health restores energy

keep all 4 abilities constantly active and shields down, health and energy constantly in flux feeding off each other

basically everything on the map is constantly dying, including you, you're just regenerating as fast as you get shot

 

 

This strategy can fail, when enemies don't deal enough damage to me to regen my energy, thus forcing me back into normal gunframe (usually only happens when facing infested), not that bad of a fail tho, since if they aren't dealing me damage I'm not in danger anyway.

 

[Fyrscha]

On 2022-06-30 at 6:04 PM, Uhkretor said:

DE didn't choose or incentivized any meta. That illusion exists due to certain players, and only because of those players..

I don't build for universal application. I moved away from the only build I had as soon as Steel Path was released and, honestly, I should've never had a single build for universal applications to begin with.

People attempt at building for universal applications but end up building only vs Grineers, because they're Grineers (and I call it discrimination as no other unit of any of the other factions & sub-factions in the game gets flamed in the forum), and "it just works" vs the rest, despite the lower performance... Low maintenance ingame knowledge, too, is the only only thing proven by those certain players, at this point. And "high level" solo missions can be done, in most cases, better with non-universal builds...

... And no, justifying lvl99999 as being "high level" is useless. Its already been proven that its a waste of time... And it can be done Solo just by stripping armor and time-lapsing reality to avoid the natural "24h per day" that reality forces onto us all...

 

Anyway, I can point out some suggestions you can try out but, like I usually tell anyone I give advice to, they weren't/aren't/won't be miracle workers. The player, and I'm not referring to the Operator/Drifter, is as much of a component in the game, and to the game, as anything the player chooses to use.

However, technically, any clan member in my Clan switched from the alleged "universal" build to faction builds when they experienced the difference for themselves... And by "faction builds", its actually more than just slapping anti-faction mods...

I appreciate you taking the time to respond in such detail, thank you. 

[Fyrscha]

On 2022-06-30 at 11:35 PM, (PSN)iuvenilis said:

I still run the exact same max range build (but with Gloom in place of Molt), and the spores still destroy everything in SP (not that I'm doing level cap or anything close to that). Each to their own of course. Stick with what you enjoy!

My spore build from years ago after Saryn's rework still works on Steel Path just fine, but I wanted to make something newer that could kill faster, especially hardened enemies. I enjoy so much about this game, especially coming up with build combos for my dozen or so fave frames =)

[Fyrscha]

On 2022-07-01 at 1:24 AM, (PSN)haphazardlynamed said:

This strategy can fail, when enemies don't deal enough damage to me to regen my energy, thus forcing me back into normal gunframe (usually only happens when facing infested), not that bad of a fail tho, since if they aren't dealing me damage I'm not in danger anyway.

Interesting, ty for sharing your build and tactics with me =)

[Fyrscha]

On 2022-06-30 at 8:49 PM, Leqesai said:

There's a reason for this though.

Grineer have an extra level of damage reduction that the other factions don't have, which (especially in steel path) makes them significantly more tanky. People don't bother with Corpus and Infested because they're simply not that hard to kill compared to Grineer.

I do find it funny that people hyper focus on Grineer though because, despite having a huge amount of EHP they are really the easiest faction. Infested and Corpus are both much more annoying to fight due to nullifiers, ancients, disruptors etc. Grineer just have big health. Big health is not difficult.

Indeed. I find Grineer the easiest of the three at higher levels, especially with how many ways there are to bypass or lower/remove armor now. I have the most trouble with Corpus, especially doing Steel Path past level 200. I think they're my favorite faction to battle against because they're the most challenging, especially all dang nullifier bubbles/waves/etc. Fun times =)

[(PSN)iuvenilis]

12 hours ago, Fyrscha said:

My spore build from years ago after Saryn's rework still works on Steel Path just fine, but I wanted to make something newer that could kill faster, especially hardened enemies. I enjoy so much about this game, especially coming up with build combos for my dozen or so fave frames =)

You could consider something with a bit less strength and duration, but with more efficiency and range, which could give a nice balance. 

E.g.

Transient fortitude, primed continuity, umbra intensify, umbra health, venom dose, Adaptation. I'd consider switching rolling guard and umbra fibre, for perhaps streamline and stretch, but base range is workable. Though you might prefer Constitution/Augur message for more duration. 

With 200% strength you'll get 100% status chance on spores (I don't think you'll notice much difference between 270 and 200 strength, but I could be wrong of course). With 100-145% range, you'd be able to use spores and miasma when playing solo, and gloom's slow effect gives a really nice crowd-control buffer zone. And with 100-130% efficiency, gloom is basically set and forget. That said, if you've got your energy needs sorted, by all means, stick with the low efficiency build.

As for your melee, ditch pressure point and add bloodrush. And if you were using miasma, you could switch the cold mod for range. 

[Fyrscha]

12 hours ago, (PSN)iuvenilis said:

You could consider something with a bit less strength and duration, but with more efficiency and range, which could give a nice balance. 

E.g.

Transient fortitude, primed continuity, umbra intensify, umbra health, venom dose, Adaptation. I'd consider switching rolling guard and umbra fibre, for perhaps streamline and stretch, but base range is workable. Though you might prefer Constitution/Augur message for more duration. 

With 200% strength you'll get 100% status chance on spores (I don't think you'll notice much difference between 270 and 200 strength, but I could be wrong of course). With 100-145% range, you'd be able to use spores and miasma when playing solo, and gloom's slow effect gives a really nice crowd-control buffer zone. And with 100-130% efficiency, gloom is basically set and forget. That said, if you've got your energy needs sorted, by all means, stick with the low efficiency build.

As for your melee, ditch pressure point and add bloodrush. And if you were using miasma, you could switch the cold mod for range. 

Absolutely! The other Saryn build I use is very similar to what you just described ^__^