Help with a Lavos Railjack build?

[MauVasconcellos]

Hello everyone.

I love Railjack, and I love going in solo with my Lavos. But I was wondering if I could hear your thoughts on your builds of choice for this matter, naming which Archon Shards you've chosen for the alchemist pilot. Should I go for power? Range? What?

So far I managed to install 2 Ember shards for "Casting Speed", 1 Azure for "Armor" and 1 Crimson for "Duration"... but here lies the question: some reddit forums will tell you he does not benefit from "Duration" at all, while others guarantee it does help with your 3rd ability cooldowns (Transmutation Probe). I am confused.

Oh, by the way, I've subsumed "Ensnare" (Khora) replacing his 2nd ability (Vial Rush).

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[SneakyErvin]

My Lavos build that I use for practically everything is the following.

Combat Discipline, Primed Sure Footed, Umbra Vit, Umbra Fiber, Umbra Int, Overextended, Blind Rage, Stretch, Piercing Roar and Primed Vigor. Piercing Roar is replaced with Augur Secrets or Augur Reach in builds where I dont want the puncture effect from roar or dont use roar at all, which is when I run Archons, where I either run basic roar or xata's whisper.

Arcanes are Grace and Avenger, except for Archons where I rely on minimal crit for the incarnon perks to trigger. I just replace avenger with +damage to primary arcane or guardian really.

Shards are 5 red strength. I did run 2 cast speed earlier, but at times it screws up when you brand skills and triggers the skill instead of applying the element(s).

While efficiency is low with this build it really only matters in content that doesnt have very many mobs, where I feel it to be a waste to cast AoE often anyways. In dense content the massive range makes up for a large part of the low efficiency, so you can nuke often enough and wipe out the whole map when you do so.

Prefered element mixture on skills is Gas for me.

[Mazifet]

I cant remember perfectly off the top of my head, but I believe my shards are casting speed with a bit of duration. Casting speed really just makes Lavos a lot smoother to play, and makes his kit just flow better. Some people will say you don't need duration, but personally having that extra status duration is really nice. I think duration effects his 3rds uptime duration, but not the cooldown.

I don't really get ensnare though. Lavos really doesn't need helminth and his 2nd is nice for mobility. If you did want helminth sickening pulse synergizes really well with gas.

[MauVasconcellos]

3 minutes ago, Mazifet said:

I cant remember perfectly off the top of my head, but I believe my shards are casting speed with a bit of duration. Casting speed really just makes Lavos a lot smoother to play, and makes his kit just flow better. Some people will say you don't need duration, but personally having that extra status duration is really nice. I think duration effects his 3rds uptime duration, but not the cooldown.

I don't really get ensnare though. Lavos really doesn't need helminth and his 2nd is nice for mobility. If you did want helminth sickening pulse synergizes really well with gas.

Right, I see what you mean. I shall keep the "Duration" red shard, then.

As far as "Ensnare" goes, it just helps to group enemies together when throwing your 3rd "Transmutation Probe" and resetting all your countdowns at once (not to mention its great to have them close in order to shoot your Cedo).

I don't much care for mobility, as I am not a rushing type of player, so, his 2nd "Vial Rush" has to go.    ;)

[chaotea]

Always check the wiki over redit, it tends to be more accurate.

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Lavos#Abilities

Duration only affects the lingering effect of his 2.

Duration of probe isnt affected by mods.

[MauVasconcellos]

13 minutes ago, chaotea said:

Always check the wiki over redit, it tends to be more accurate.

https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Lavos#Abilities

Duration only affects the lingering effect of his 2.

Duration of probe isnt affected by mods.

That is where it gets confusing.

Mazifet mentioned "Status Duration" for his abilities as well. Wouldn't "Duration" help with those extra ticks?

Thanks a lot.

[MauVasconcellos]

4 minutes ago, SneakyErvin said:

My Lavos build that I use for practically everything is the following.

Combat Discipline, Primed Sure Footed, Umbra Vit, Umbra Fiber, Umbra Int, Overextended, Blind Rage, Stretch, Piercing Roar and Primed Vigor. Piercing Roar is replaced with Augur Secrets or Augur Reach in builds where I dont want the puncture effect from roar or dont use roar at all, which is when I run Archons, where I either run basic roar or xata's whisper.

Arcanes are Grace and Avenger, except for Archons where I rely on minimal crit for the incarnon perks to trigger. I just replace avenger with +damage to primary arcane or guardian really.

Shards are 5 red strength. I did run 2 cast speed earlier, but at times it screws up when you brand skills and triggers the skill instead of applying the element(s).

While efficiency is low with this build it really only matters in content that doesnt have very many mobs, where I feel it to be a waste to cast AoE often anyways. In dense content the massive range makes up for a large part of the low efficiency, so you can nuke often enough and wipe out the whole map when you do so.

Prefered element mixture on skills is Gas for me.

I see, thank you very much for the detailed information. Now I am considering swapping my "Duration" red shard for an "Ability Strenght" one. But I don't believe I'd drop the yellow "Casting Speed" ones, man... geez... Lavos sure is slow with his animations.

Do you use any Helminth ability on him?

[SneakyErvin]

1 minute ago, MauVasconcellos said:

I see, thank you very much for the detailed information. Now I am considering swapping my "Duration" red shard for an "Ability Strenght" one. But I don't believe I'd drop the yellow "Casting Speed" ones, man... geez... Lavos sure is slow with his animations.

Do you use any Helminth ability on him?

Yup I use Roar for nearly everything, only swap over to Xata's Whisper config to fight Archons. Which might change to me always running Roar depending how the upcoming damage attenuation changes turn out for Archons. 

Bonus effect from the Piercing roar augment is that it also reduces the CD on the skill from 30-ish seconds to 10. So you can knock down and apply puncture to the whole map constantly, increasing your survivability through the debuff and increasing crit chance versus all the targets aswell in addition to the regular Roar damage buff.

[MauVasconcellos]

9 minutes ago, SneakyErvin said:

Yup I use Roar for nearly everything, only swap over to Xata's Whisper config to fight Archons. Which might change to me always running Roar depending how the upcoming damage attenuation changes turn out for Archons. 

Bonus effect from the Piercing roar augment is that it also reduces the CD on the skill from 30-ish seconds to 10. So you can knock down and apply puncture to the whole map constantly, increasing your survivability through the debuff and increasing crit chance versus all the targets aswell in addition to the regular Roar damage buff.

Definately gonna try that out tonight. Piercing Roar. Sounds fun.

THanks a lot, mate. :))

[SneakyErvin]

4 minutes ago, MauVasconcellos said:

Definately gonna try that out tonight. Piercing Roar. Sounds fun.

THanks a lot, mate. :))

With that build he is my current favorite go to frame. Very durable, great damage output from skills when needed and reliable buffs to his weapons.

And no problem! 

[chaotea]

19 hours ago, MauVasconcellos said:

That is where it gets confusing.

Mazifet mentioned "Status Duration" for his abilities as well. Wouldn't "Duration" help with those extra ticks?

Thanks a lot.

Status duration is the duration of status effects once applied to an enemy.

Duration is the duration of an ability.

These are separate values. For example, Saryns Miasma damages enemies and applies a status proc. The duration of miasma and the status are separate.

[SneakyErvin]

3 hours ago, chaotea said:

Status duration is the duration of status effects once applied to an enemy.

Duration is the duration of an ability.

These are separate values. For example, Saryns Miasma damages enemies and applies a status proc. The duration of miasma and the status are separate.

Although in Lavos case ability duration also impacts all of his status duration (skill based and weapon based), both positively and negatively. It's just that going beyond 100% on him is kinda pointless since none of his skills really benefit from it, or are just hardcapped from the start. So staying at 100% just in order to not reduce status duration for him would be the optimal.