Help with Edun focused build for steel path

[Tromlui-Tine]

I just unlocked the steel path and have decided that I want to get a solid survivability and damage build in my arsenal instead of my various flavor/theme builds which while powerful at base difficulty get turned into a vauge warframe colored paste by steel path E-Prime enemies. I was hoping for help developing a good build for early/mid steel path. My only requirement is that the build uses the Edun as it's main form of damage output, as I quite enjoy the weapon's playstyle and general feel and would like to retain some form of comfortability going into the Steel path.

[MarakViri]

Okay, so your question seems fairly simple, but we have no idea what Frames, Weapons, Arcanes or Mods you have access to. Additionally, we have no idea what kind of playstyle you utilise.

Now, keep in mind that I havent actually bothered to get the [Edun] just yet, but Im guessing you have that built well enough if youre claiming it to be your primary method of damage. That said, having a well built melee as the focus of the build does help quite a bit. Even with that, however, I'm going to assume you have access to basically everything that doesn't require Steel Path.

Warframe: The Warframe you pick is usually dependant on the type of playstyle you prefer, the enemy faction or mission type, or how effective it is at cheesing content.

Because of this, I'm going to give you a few different options so you can choose one that fits your style. Assuming this is for Steel Chart, and not Endurance, you should be fine.

Volt (Prime) is a good beginner choice, especially since Volt is so easy to acquire. If you have the [Capacitance] augment, you can reliably keep your shields (and overshields) active, which will keep you safe from everything but Toxin and Slash, basically. You can pair it with [Transistor Shield] to both amplify your shield regen and nuke rooms as well (not to mention it blocking all projectiles from the direction its facing, and the fact that you can carry it even without the augment), or run [Shock Trooper] to add electric damage to all your weapons. In regards to Helminth, you could slot over either {Shock} or {Speed}, depending on whether you want to use {Shock} to either electrify your shield or run its augment. High Duration, Moderate Range and Average Strength works for this, so you could add other survivability tools to his kit if you want. 

Wisp (Prime) is another fairly good option. Her {Vitality Mote} gives you really good health tanking capability, {Haste Mote} gives you a really good melee attack speed boost, she's invisible while airborne (rapid jumping for perma invis), she has an AoE blind that amplifies damage (including on eximus), and her fourth is ... an easy helminth slot for {Silence}, {Roar}, {Warcry}, {Pillage}, {Wrathful Advance} or whatever else you want.

Revenant (Prime) is probably the easiest, as you can just invest in strength and efficiency, and use him exclusively for {Mesmer Skin}, or have a more balanced (but still strength invested) build for the {Enthrall} + {Reave} insta-kill. His fourth is also decent, but I'd say this would be the helminth slot too.

Zephyr (Prime) with {Silence} at low (70%) range will keep you safe from ranged attackers while you slaughter other enemies at close range, gives you really good acolyte shut-down ({Silence} prevents their abilities, so it's a really good helminth option if they are a problem), and let's you constantly stagger enemies just by getting close to them. Not to mention her Tornadoes wipe things away when paired with a good gun. Her points drop a bit because you want to be melee focused, but she's still pretty good.

Honestly, most frames can be viable, depending on how you want to work them.

Guns

So, you want your main DPS to be your Melee. That's fine. If you're using [Condition Overload], then great. If you aren't, you probably should. Pair this with a decent primer (such as [Cedo] or a viral+heat [Epitaph], or the Grimoire to boost a frame's stats), and you should be able to rip through enemies fairly quickly.

Companion

I'm guessing you're trying to avoid absolute cheese, so I'm going to disregard the current [Contagious Bond] meta (plenty of videos about it anyway). Honestly, any Sentinel running [Tenacious Bond] while you have a [Vulklok] or [Vulcax] with [Critical Delay] will boost your crit damage. 

Depending on what you have and want, I could probably try to design builds, but those would be some of my general suggestions.

Edited January 26 by MarakViri

[Berzerkules]

Kinda basic build for any slash weighted melee weapon with around 20% cc and 20% sc is something like condition overload, blood rush, weeping wounds, attack speed, range, crit damage, faction mod. Pair that with viral primer like epitaph, kuva nukor, tenet cycron etc. and call it a day.

Some people don't like faction mods so use more cd, range or attack speed. or a riven

[Zakkhar]

On base SP you do not need a primer or faction mod at all. You can run viral unranked (unranked 60/60 mods to lower the viral potion of damage), ranked WW or even pure damage corrosive.

On the frame proposals I would like to add Octavia (perma invisibility, strong point control and breaking enemy AI) and Wukong (if you focus on melee your clone will be assisting you from the sides with firearms, this is how I run my Wukong - pure corrosive melee and clone with viral+heat aoe dmg/primer - Sporelacer).

 

Edited January 26 by Zakkhar

[Tromlui-Tine]

Of those frame options i do have a wisp prime, my main two mod loadouts on her are designed to turn her 4 into a effective nuke but my 3rd is free to subsume roar onto her 4,  I also have a grimoire for a secondary that i lucked into a usable riven for, but i also have the Kuva Nukor I got from my first litch, which might possibly be better, my primary options aren't vast, but are as follows: Boltor; Braton Prime, Dread, Gorgon, Latron Prime, Nataruk, Zarr, and Zenith, as for mods assume I have any easily accessible mods that can be traded for, as i have a decent stash of platinum that I was saving up for a Steel Path Build.

When it comes to companions I have two helminth chargers, a Vasca Kavat, a plain kubrow, and the base taxon that everybody gets.

the melee weapon is obviously the Edun, however my mod array for it is rather lackluster being currently a Fire + Radiation build to match my solar motif, so that needs a mix up as well. 

additionally the Edun has a unique heavy attack that throws the weapon in an arc, allowing for ranged attacks with the polearm.

As for arcanes I practically only have a rank 4 arcane power ramp, and a rank 2 molt. But u do have a good bit of vosfor.

Edited January 26 by Tromlui-Tine
Forgot arcanes

[chaotea]

So i did most of my own Steel Path solo. Heres my tips:

Warframes:

You cant get by with any single frame, you'll need a few for different situations.

Any exterminate / kill focused: I advise a 200% strength Xaku. Armour strip is great, and his grasp of lohk devastates enemies, especially infested. Would synergise well with melee.

Stealth / capture / rescue / sabotage (objective based where killing isnt needed): Grab a wukong with Cloud walker as the focus. Just blitz through the level. Swap 4 for helmith auto hack ability helps.

Defensive missions: Vauban with high range is good for this, or octavia. Xaku can also be good, but you need to make enemies friendly with Accuse, then trap those friendlies in Gaze. This will let them draw enemy fire and take the heat off the objectives.

Weapon:

An ignis wraith is OP on steel path. Mod it for damage, with Hunters munitions. The high fire rate guarantees a high rate of slash procs even with a lower crit rate. Alternatly a high status viral / fire for priming enemies or a corrosive build for armour stripping can be good situationally.

Specter:

Having a good specter can help alot on defence and interception missions. Wisp specters are very useful as they'll drop motes you can use.

[Tromlui-Tine]

15 minutes ago, chaotea said:

So i did most of my own Steel Path solo. Heres my tips:

Warframes:

You cant get by with any single frame, you'll need a few for different situations.

Any exterminate / kill focused: I advise a 200% strength Xaku. Armour strip is great, and his grasp of lohk devastates enemies, especially infested. Would synergise well with melee.

Stealth / capture / rescue / sabotage (objective based where killing isnt needed): Grab a wukong with Cloud walker as the focus. Just blitz through the level. Swap 4 for helmith auto hack ability helps.

Defensive missions: Vauban with high range is good for this, or octavia. Xaku can also be good, but you need to make enemies friendly with Accuse, then trap those friendlies in Gaze. This will let them draw enemy fire and take the heat off the objectives.

Weapon:

An ignis wraith is OP on steel path. Mod it for damage, with Hunters munitions. The high fire rate guarantees a high rate of slash procs even with a lower crit rate. Alternatly a high status viral / fire for priming enemies or a corrosive build for armour stripping can be good situationally.

Specter:

Having a good specter can help alot on defence and interception missions. Wisp specters are very useful as they'll drop motes you can use.

I have neither a xaku nor a wukong, the frames I have are Garuda, Frost, Excalibur umbra, nidus, Octavia, nekros prime, and wisp prime 

Would any of those be a reasonable alternative?

Edited January 26 by Tromlui-Tine
Wasn't done typing

[MarakViri]

@Tromlui-Tine

Okay. Now that I know your weapons,  I can help a bit more.

Wisp Prime is probably your best overall pick. Obviously, there will be places where another frame might be better, but she can do everything fairly well.

For a general build, since you prioritise melee generally, I'd go with Steel Charge, (Primed) Flow, Transient Fortitude, Adaptation, and Rolling Guard as a basic kit. Umbral Fiber and Vitality if you need more survivability and can afford it, but probably not worth investing an umbral forma. Add other mods and whatnot per your playstyle.

Since you're running Wisp, I'd say that [Silence] would arguably be the better overall helminth ability that [Roar], mainly because it shields you from acolytes, and you could utilise the [Savage Silence] with [Arcane Trickery] and/or [Arcane Ultimatum] for more survivability, but you don't really need that.

Of those Primary Weapons, I'm actually not sure what would be best. If you're good with it, and have the right build, the Nataruk decimates pretty well, but I never really invested in mine.

Kuva Nukor v Grimoire though ... the Grimoire would let you add either Range, Duration, or Strength to your build fairly easily, but the Nukor is a better overall primer. Until it runs OT of Ammo anyway. It works better once you get the Galvanised Mods though, so it would probably be better, because the Kuva Nukor melts regular Steel Path. Builds are readily available for that as well.

The Taxon is actually a decent companion, but the Vasca Kavat is probably the better option. It has the ability to cancel your death, and if you use [Pack Leader] or its Primed variant, it isn't dying if you hit enemies with your Melee. It won't do damage or Prime very well, but that's the trade off.

1 hour ago, Tromlui-Tine said:

An ignis wraith is OP on steel path. Mod it for damage, with Hunters munitions

This is true. If you can get one, it would be the best of your primary weapons for this. Corrosive-Heat, Viral-Heat, Gas ... very good against all the factions.

1 hour ago, Tromlui-Tine said:

Would any of those be a reasonable alternative

Wisp is really good at Spy, since her second flies through lasers and you can swap places with it by releasing the hold-cast. Her Shock Mote gives you a free status proc for Condition Overload, so kill based missions aren't too hard either. Survival is fine with a semi-ready SP build for her, because you can camp your motes to keep your buffs anyway, and Breach Surge should amp your KPS high enough to keep life support up.

Defense might be an issue, but you could probably handle it with liberal use of Breach Surge. 

Edited January 26 by MarakViri

[Hexerin]

Dunno what all you have access to, etc. Here's what I'd personally toss in Edun, though.

Spoiler

Costs 4 forma in total, but that can be reduced with base versions of the Primed/Amalgam mods (and/or forgoing Tennokai).

This should easily carry you through all of Steel Path, especially since you have Wisp.

Edited January 26 by Hexerin

[StrawberrySparrow]

 

[UnstarPrime]

Nowadays basically any decent melee weapon will overwhelm Steel Path enemies when built for the arcane Melee Influence with something along these lines:

• Weeping Wounds
• + Attack Speed mod
• + Range mod
• + Base Damage mod
• + Combo Duration mod (or you could use Primary Dexterity on your primary to get a flex slot here)
• 60% Cold, 60% Status Chance
• 60% Toxin, 60% Status Chance
• 90% Electric

Put any stance on that you like, but any Tennokai mod you like in the Exilus slot, and of course, put Melee Influence in the arcane slot.  It's so effective that I'll personally be surprised if Melee Influence isn't nerfed within 6 months.

[Tromlui-Tine]

So I just used tennokai on the Edun for the first time, and am confident to say that tennokai is a waste of a mod slot on the edun instead of a tennokai attack preforming the melee heavy attack the edun preforms on a tap, tennokai attacks preform the Edun's thrown attack, which at close range, usually misses the target due to the throw's natural arc. Is there a better mod for my exilus slot, because tennokai won't help except in niche situations.

[MarakViri]

1 hour ago, Tromlui-Tine said:

So I just used tennokai on the Edun for the first time, and am confident to say that tennokai is a waste of a mod slot on the edun instead of a tennokai attack preforming the melee heavy attack the edun preforms on a tap, tennokai attacks preform the Edun's thrown attack, which at close range, usually misses the target due to the throw's natural arc. Is there a better mod for my exilus slot, because tennokai won't help except in niche situations.

There are many Tennokai mods. Some of them may be more useful for it that others, and the default one does nothing except enable Tennokai. But most of the other exilus mods add utility.

[Dispatch Overdrive] is good for a movement speed buff if you need it, if you use Heavy Attacks frequently. Other than that, I'm pretty sure it's either Tennokai mods, or block/parry mods. If you just want something to have on the slot, I'd recommend [Dispatch Overdrive], [Discipline's Merit], or [Condition's Perfect].

The first is good utility for mobility on heavy attacks. The second and third are both Tennokai mods. The first makes it occur regularly (every 4th hit, I think), and the second will give you a boost to status chance on Tennokai attack (not sure exactly how the heavy-throw functions, so I can't give you the ideal choice). 

[Hexerin]

1 hour ago, Tromlui-Tine said:

So I just used tennokai on the Edun for the first time, and am confident to say that tennokai is a waste of a mod slot on the edun instead of a tennokai attack preforming the melee heavy attack the edun preforms on a tap, tennokai attacks preform the Edun's thrown attack, which at close range, usually misses the target due to the throw's natural arc. Is there a better mod for my exilus slot, because tennokai won't help except in niche situations.

These are your exilus options, if you forgo Tennokai:

Spoiler

The only one that would really make sense on the Edun (assuming it isn't broken by the throwing mechanic) would be Dispatch Overdrive. Parry and Focused Defense are... kinda bad, and Guardian Derision is niche. That all being said, you could also just forgo the exilus slot entirely. You don't need to put a mod in there, and that'd save you some capacity.

Edited January 27 by Hexerin

[chaotea]

On 2024-01-26 at 10:27 AM, Tromlui-Tine said:

I have neither a xaku nor a wukong, the frames I have are Garuda, Frost, Excalibur umbra, nidus, Octavia, nekros prime, and wisp prime 

Would any of those be a reasonable alternative?

Wisp may be a good choice instead of xaku. You'll not do as much damage though. Instead of Wukong though you'll need some sort of stealth frame. Remember for steel path spy if you fail 1 vault you fail the whole thing.