Yareli's new Augment "Loyal Merulina" - Love it

[UnstarPrime]

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to have any feelings about this mod, beyond the fact that I thought it was cool to offer players a different way to play Yareli.  But then I tried it and...I love it.  There's a solid chance that I'll be using Yareli more, and I'm suddenly excited about someday getting Yareli Prime.

I turns out that I simply love having 90% damage reduction that isn't attached to a timer I have to constantly pay attention to.  And I love that Yareli's new augment gives me a cute frame to experience that with, without needing to lose access to my melee weapon.

So anyway, for me that's a win!  Thanks!

[MutoManiac]

@UnstarPrime Do you have to cast her 2 every 10 or 15 seconds or it goes away? Just me? Ty

[UnstarPrime]

16 minutes ago, MutoManiac said:

@UnstarPrime Do you have to cast her 2 every 10 or 15 seconds or it goes away? Just me? Ty

Personally did not need to recast it very often in Steel Path, but I'm sure it depends on a lot of factors.

[Stormandreas]

I quite like Yareli and how she plays, and honestly... it's not a good augment as it currently is. It needs buffed.

Using Loyal Merulina removes the defensiveness AND mobility that Merulina provides, in favour of using your Primary and melee weapon. Merulina when flying around, takes a LOT of damage, and dies very easily.
Ontop of that, the Sea Snares she casts is incredibly slow compared to just throwing 5 out yourself in less time, and she doesn't even move as fast as Yareli can when you're bullet jumping around.

Merulina isn't attached to a timer at all, just a healthbar. Using Merulinas Guardian means you can actually keep that healthbar up at all times while using your best ability with powerful mobility AND buffing your gun all at the same time.

Edited March 28 by Stormandreas

[Hexerin]

22 minutes ago, MutoManiac said:

@UnstarPrime Do you have to cast her 2 every 10 or 15 seconds or it goes away? Just me? Ty

If Merulina is dying a lot, it means you haven't built Yareli well and/or are playing poorly (ie taking far more hits than you should be taking). I recommend investing in shields, and if you have access to archon shards, a couple armor shards. Adaptation goes without saying, of course.

Any damage you would take is first reduced by any damage reduction that Yareli herself has (the 50% on shields, any from armor, any from abilities, etc) and then that result is what is considered for Merulina's damage redirection. The more damage reduction Yareli has, the less damage Merulina will end up taking.

4 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

Using Loyal Merulina removes the defensiveness AND mobility that Merulina provides

It absolutely does not, you still get everything that the ability would normally provide.

4 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

Ontop of that, the Sea Snares she casts is incredibly slow

She doesn't cast it while moving, which is likely to balance out how fast she casts it (and for free).

4 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

Using Merulinas Guardian means you can actually keep that healthbar up at all times while using your best ability with powerful mobility AND buffing your gun all at the same time.

It's a trade-off. Both are very strong, just in different ways.

7 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

it's not a good augment as it currently is. It needs buffed.

It really doesn't. The only thing that might be debatable is whether or not Merulina should cast her Sea Snare while moving.

7 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

I quite like Yareli and how she plays

Which is likely the actual reason you're voicing such an irrational dislike for the augment, because you hate that people who dislike K-Drive can finally play Yareli.

[MutoManiac]

26 minutes ago, Hexerin said:

If Merulina is dying a lot, it means you haven't built Yareli well and/or are playing poorly (ie taking far more hits than you should be taking). I recommend investing in shields, and if you have access to archon shards, a couple armor shards. Adaptation goes without saying, of course.

Any damage you would take is first reduced by any damage reduction that Yareli herself has (the 50% on shields, any from armor, any from abilities, etc) and then that result is what is considered for Merulina's damage redirection. The more damage reduction Yareli has, the less damage Merulina will end up taking.

She's just fine without the augment in SP and also without the guardian augment. I build all my frames to be tanky and I know how to mod. If I was playing poorly, Yareli herself would be dying, so don't assume sh!T. The question that was asked was if something has changed and casting needed to be done very frequently. @UnstarPrime said no, so I'll do more testing.

Edited March 28 by MutoManiac

[ChaoticOrderly]

The augment is great and solidifies her as my new main since Nezha is now a caster with his aug but there's noticeable problems with it.

1: She loses her PSF effect from normal riding
2: Merulina casts only one sea snare
3: Cannot also be used with Merulina Guardian
4: The auto snare cooldown is based off of efficiency

While the QoL of never having to use K-Drive is way more than enough of a justification, the aug itself still isnt in a great place.

Edited March 28 by ChaoticOrderly
Changed #4 reason to efficiency instead of duration

[Stormandreas]

3 minutes ago, Hexerin said:

If Merulina is dying a lot, it means you haven't built Yareli well and/or are playing poorly (ie taking far more hits than you should be taking). I recommend investing in shields, and if you have access to archon shards, a couple armor shards. Adaptation goes without saying, of course.

Any damage you would take is first reduced by any damage reduction that Yareli herself has (the 50% on shields, any from armor, any from abilities, etc) and then that result is what is considered for Merulina's damage redirection. The more damage reduction Yareli has, the less damage Merulina will end up taking.

It absolutely does not, you still get everything that the ability would normally provide.

She doesn't cast it while moving, which is likely to balance out how fast she casts it (and for free).

It's a trade-off. Both are very strong, just in different ways.

It really doesn't. The only thing that might be debatable is whether or not Merulina should cast her Sea Snare while moving.

Which is likely the actual reason you're voicing such an irrational dislike for the augment, because you hate that people who dislike K-Drive can finally play Yareli.

So:

Yes, you lose the mobility

Yes, she doesn't, which is bad because YOU CAN. Not only that, YOU CAST 5 OF THEM AT A TIME, Merulina does 1.

Merulinas Guardian gives you far more buffs than Loyal Merulina. There's not a tradeoff there. Merulinas guarding just flatout increases your DPS, keeps you healed. Loyal Merulina does neither with very little extra benefit

No, I don't "hate people who dislike kdrive". And no, it's not an "irrational dislike". It's a solid observation on the augment and how it works.
Given your immediate assumption that my analysis was "irrational" and I'm just "hating", as well as assuming someone else was just "building her poorly" when they asked a simple question, says to me you have 0 interest in any actual feedback or discussion. Have fun.

[Gaxxian]

Loyal Merulina:

- Same damage reduction and buffs as normal
- It allows you to use your primary and melee weapons
- Free sea snare casts each 2 seconds (you can improve the speed with ability efficiency)
- You can add an Helminth ability to your one without any drawback
- You can use Helminth abilities without problems, since you aren't riding Merulina

No, that augment DOESN'T need a buff. The regular Merulina riding needs one, since now there is no reason to use it.

[Hexerin]

24 minutes ago, ChaoticOrderly said:

4: The auto snare cooldown is based off of duration

It's based on ability efficiency.

35 minutes ago, MutoManiac said:

She's just fine without the augment in SP and also without the guardian augment. I build all my frames to be tanky and I know how to mod. If I was playing poorly, Yareli herself would be dying, so don't assume sh!T. The question that was asked was if something has changed and casting needed to be done very frequently. @UnstarPrime said no, so I'll do more testing.

The instant tantrum/rage though. I thought I recognized your name, you're one of those people.

Edited March 28 by Hexerin

[MutoManiac]

1 minute ago, Hexerin said:

It's based on ability efficiency.

The instant tantrum/rage though. I thought I recognized your name, you're one of those people.

You're one of those people that thinks they know everything, yet are mostly wrong about most things when I can be bothered to verify them. So please don't do me any favors and reply to my posts. You obviously don't play the game and spend all your time answering every question or post on the forum calling people stupid or that they don't have any brain cells etc. You sock dude.

[Hexerin]

24 minutes ago, MutoManiac said:

You're one of those people that thinks they know everything, yet are mostly wrong about most things when I can be bothered to verify them. So please don't do me any favors and reply to my posts. You obviously don't play the game and spend all your time answering every question or post on the forum calling people stupid or that they don't have any brain cells etc. You sock dude.

The forum has an ignore feature. If you're getting that triggered by someone simply giving you advice, I suggest you make use of it.

Edited March 28 by Hexerin

[MutoManiac]

33 minutes ago, Hexerin said:

The forum has an ignore feature. If you're getting that triggered by someone simply giving you advice, I suggest you make use of it.

I suggest that YOU make use of it. And my apologies to the OP who started a positive thread until you showed up.

[Mayonnaise3737]

2 hours ago, Hexerin said:

It absolutely does not, you still get everything that the ability would normally provide.

Not really. The damage reduction isn't all there is. You also have cc immunity while riding and get 1.5 s invincibility when you dismount/Merulina dies. You lose both of those with Loyal Merulina. In high level gameplay those benefits are arguably far more important than the damage reduction.

[Hexerin]

28 minutes ago, Mayonnaise3737 said:

Not really. The damage reduction isn't all there is. You also have cc immunity while riding and get 1.5 s invincibility when you dismount/Merulina dies. You lose both of those with Loyal Merulina. In high level gameplay those benefits are arguably far more important than the damage reduction.

You definitely don't lose the summon invulnerability (it's ~4 seconds, by the way), and it's beyond easy to see that.

https://streamable.com/8mys8n

The invulnerability is part of the summoning, any damage you would've taken is added to Merulina's health. Fairly common design mechanic for such things, and exists on many other frames with similar abilities as well.

I haven't yet been knocked around while Merulina's active, but I do also run Unairu on Yareli for the extra armor boost (which in turn improves Merulina). Poise is a helluva drug, but I guess I can take a moment to test the knockaround immunity.

EDIT: Ah, so you do lose the knockaround immunity. They must've changed that prior to release, because it was still there originally. Small nerf, I'd say debatable if really needed as the augment is safely within the realm of balanced as is. Wouldn't have overtuned it to have kept that.

Edited March 28 by Hexerin

[Mayonnaise3737]

Just now, Hexerin said:

You definitely don't lose the summon invulnerability (it's ~3 seconds, by the way), and it's beyond easy to see that.

No, I mean when Merulina gets destroyed or you dismount. You get 1.5 s of i-frames to recast Merulina or do whatever else. Basically a shield gate that you can chain into the i-frames from summoning Merulina. Without that buffer you open yourself up to immediately getting downed when Merulina runs out of hp.

As for the knock back, she is still immune to self-stagger from weapons, but is now vulnerable to enemy cc.

[Cephalon-Begun]

I'm just sad I can't use those 2 augments, would be so fun, you don't need to be above merulina, it will cast sea snare, you will kill an enemy on sea snare and heal her + getting fire rate/reload speed. WHY D.E, fun police

[G0D5peed]

On 3/28/2024 at 4:24 PM, ChaoticOrderly said:

3: Cannot also be used with Merulina Guardian
4: The auto snare cooldown is based off efficiency 

Fix these and it’s better.
Great if these are addressed too:

With the augment Merulina doesn’t benefit from the 4 second damage absorption well if at all. (Took her to lvl 4000 enemies in a void cascade and couldn’t break a 100k health, nezha can get a couple million by lvl 500) 

Being locked completely out of the k drive function completely feels bad, it’s kinda her whole identity. 

Im not really sure why they locked the guardian augment with this definitely wouldn’t be game breaking. 

[Proboscis]

I like the augment and I like that you can just double-tap to resummon when Merulina is at any HP. The only things I currently dislike are:

• The K-Drive noises whirring right inside my eardrums whenever Merulina catches up to me, please god mute the noises or put an option for it.
• A short invuln when Merulina dies would be nice, like other abilities that do similar.
• The sea snares are nice, but needing to basically stop for Merulina to fire them once again clashes with her passive. 

I'm still of the opinion that this shouldn't need to be an augment, and should just be a default hold-ability for Merulina, but I digress. IMO she's always been good in a niche way, and this just makes it easier to use her without needing helminth investment.

Edited March 30 by Proboscis

[KoreZame]

I personally think this augment either needs a buff, needs to be an exilus mod or needs to be added as a baseline tap/hold functionality for merulina.

You lose access to your increased mobility, immunity to enemy CC, Merulina Guardian augment (200% fire rate and reload speed is too insane to give up in my opinion), invincibility on merulina dying and an entire mod slot.

And you gain access to your primary and melee, easier access to helminth abilities, not having to deal with the most bugged ability in the game and a SINGLE sea snare projectile every 2 seconds that doesn't get shot if you are moving.

Like to me that's just not a fair trade-off, why do we have to give up so much to be able to do something every other frame can do baseline? Even Titania can use helminth abilities while on archwing.

Not having to deal with so many game breaking bugs and a very awkward movement ability (specially in some tilesets) is nice, but then again i have to use a mod for that? Why not fix her bugs instead? I love driving merulina but sometimes it's frustrating.

And please, a SINGLE sea snare every 2 seconds? Let's not pretend that's not the most pathetic upside ever, specially on such a buggy ability like sea snares (it loves to float around happily doing nothing most of the time instead of chasing enemies, even with a high amount of range and the enemies being directly on top of it), and yeah, you can scale it down to 0.5 seconds with max efficiency, at which point it finally feels decent but then again you are stacking efficiency on yareli which feels horrible, like what else is that gonna be good for? Spamming your 4? The ability that will suck in a single enemy at most in a room with 20 enemies even with max range because it just doesn't work?

Like don't get me wrong i love this frame and love to be able to go on foot every now and then to use certain more precise weapons, play on trash tilesets or if i dont feel like dealing with the gamebreaking bugs that day, but it just feels like yareli players are getting the short end of the stick as usual, and it's frustrating.

I wish they would make meru shoot more sea snares, shoot while moving or decrease shot CD, and fix the insane bugginess of sea snares, i wish her 4 would work and i wish her 3 was more interesting, but maybe that's asking too much.

Sorry for the huge rant, just a passionate yareli player.

Edited March 31 by KoreZame