Banshee Sonar Build

[WarReap3r]

Since the new Tenno labs (which I really like btw) came out, I decided to make banshee to go with my Paris prime. I got her building right now and I'm wondering how to mod her for sonar ( or with sonic boom ) against high level defenses.

Thanks in advance! :D

[KTribute]

I'd suggest making Power Duration important, and Range. I'd go with Fleeting Expertise (Don't hate me yet), Constitution, Continuity, Overextended, and Stretch.

 

This gives you a very cheap but short durationed spammable Sonar, and each time it procs, it might affect a different spot. So on super high level defense where enemies take minutes to kill, you aren't stuck aiming at the tiny foot of the grineer ballistica for 2 minutes.

 

This also lets you spam a cheap Sound Quake and Sonic Boom, which can help your team aim at the now stunned targets that you used Sonar on.

 

I'm not saying it's the best build, but it's what I would use.

[AKATheStinger]

well u definately want continuity and constitution or narrow minded for duration and streamline and flow or fleeting expertise and maybe a strech or overextended

[WarReap3r]

I'd suggest making Power Duration important, and Range. I'd go with Fleeting Expertise (Don't hate me yet), Constitution, Continuity, Overextended, and Stretch.

 

This gives you a very cheap but short durationed spammable Sonar, and each time it procs, it might affect a different spot. So on super high level defense where enemies take minutes to kill, you aren't stuck aiming at the tiny foot of the grineer ballistica for 2 minutes.

 

This also lets you spam a cheap Sound Quake and Sonic Boom, which can help your team aim at the now stunned targets that you used Sonar on.

 

I'm not saying it's the best build, but it's what I would use.

well u definately want continuity and constitution or narrow minded for duration and streamline and flow or fleeting expertise and maybe a strech or overextended

Doesn't power strength affect sonar? Read a few forums and people said you can get 1000%+ with blind rage and focus.

[ExplosiveFuel]

Yes, power strength does affect sonar. It increases the percentage damage done.

[WarReap3r]

This is the build I'm planning to do so far :

Rifle amp for aura.

Sonic boom

Sonar

Blind rage

Focus

Fleeting

Continuity

Constitution

Redirection

+ a defense polarity and a dash polarity

Would this build work for max sonar damage?

Edited February 13, 2014 by WarReap3r

[Wallace24]

sorry, started this post back when the topic just started, then I had to go for a while, but I've got to see it through. the above build looks pretty solid, btw. anyhow:

 

I'm actually working on tweaking my banshee build to maximize sonar as well. it's a tough balance between power strength, duration, range, and efficiency, because sonar needs all of those. I have fleeting expertise, blind rage, focus, overextended, constitution, and continuity/streamline (can't decide which is better, 30% extra duration or 30% extra efficiency. if you're counting, that leave 4 mod slots, I bring sonic boom, sonar, and soundquake, and the last slot is for vigor, just so she's not paper-thin for standard missions. I might change that up

 

anyhow, this build requires a potato and one forma (forma'd out an ability slot for a - polarity. sorry silence). oh, and I have the chorus helmet, so I think that's an extra bit of efficiency I've been forgetting about. so here are the overall stats (this is partially for my own knowledge. I haven't actually calculated it out yet, I've just been using it, and I want to see what the numbers actually are):

+75% range (1 less than max overextended. otherwise, all other mods are max)

+15%/+45% efficiency (without/with streamline)

+79% strength

-2%/-32% duration (with/without continuity)

 

so what this means in terms of sonar (also assumed max), is +895% damage and 61.25m range. the cost will be either 42.5 or 27.5 (without/with streamline), and the duration will be 17.64 seconds or 12.24 seconds (with.without continuity). unfortunately, narrow minded cuts the range way too much at max strength, but a medium rank narrow minded might be alright to get that duration back up

 

if you don't use vigor/redirection, you can have both streamline and continuity, but if you're picking one over the other, I'd say continuity

Edited February 13, 2014 by Wallace24

[Zyba]

I like Wallaces build but have to vote streamline. If focusing on sonar, 1 shot kills don't need a whole lot of duration mods. Also swap overextended for stretch to not sacrifice power strength.

[Darzk]

Agreed. Ive never felt the extra range from Overextended was worth the damage loss. I guess maybe when sniping but then why not both?

 

Basically finetuning Sonar is based on the Rank of Blind Rage, and the presence of Streamline vs. Continuity, as Wallace pointed out above.

[Noble_Cactus]

The extra range from Overextended matters for Sonic Boom and Sound Quake, so at that point it's a matter of if you want extra CC or really want to seal the deal for your team in terms of damage. I'll have to play with both to decide which I'd rather want, but personally I enjoy the extra range from OE.

[Darzk]

Remember that OE is only a ~30% range gain over Stretch, while reducing the multiplier of Sonar by -300%.

[Noble_Cactus]

True. Sound Quake with high range does come in handy in rare occasions, when a teammate is being revived for example. Park yourself in a protected corner and you can lock down nearly the entire big room of the ice planet maps (the one with the two mobile defense terminals). But more powerful Sonars will carry your team farther in the long run.

[Phoenix86]

On my Banshee (potato + 1 forma, all max'd but Blind Rage r8) i use:

 

Sonic Boom

Sonar

Sound Quake

Redirection

Focus

Blind Rage

Flow

Streamline

Stretch

*last slot goes to Rush or OverExtended depending on mission's type*

Edited February 14, 2014 by Phoenix86

[Thundervision]

Pic:

 

With Trinity or Valkyr (it keeps her safe) you can take «Steel Charge» and good range Melee wp, 'cause melee can cut Sonar lights.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Spectre-Agent

[Noble_Cactus]

On my Banshee (potato + 1 forma, all max'd but Blind Rage r8) i use:

 

Sonic Boom

Sonar

Sound Quake

Redirection

Focus

Blind Rage

Flow

Streamline

Stretch

*last slot goes to Rush or OverExtended depending on mission's type*

 

This is the build I was running, more or less. Dropping OE for FE will give me a better energy economy, but I'll see if I end up missing OE + Stretch's range.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Noble_Cactus

[Phoenix86]

This is the build I was running, more or less. I'm hoping the extra point I put in BR tonight doesn't throw everything off if I end up wanting OE back.

 

i'm avoiding that because Streamline + Chorus Helmet totally counter a R8 Blind Rage, adding 2 more ranks would require a 4 energy siphon's team to be effective or either slot in fleeting expertise and i honestly dont know what to remove... (keep in mind Scott said Silence is gonna be changed and if the new skill will be something good there will be even more troubles slotting in everything)

 

I dont feel the need of Continuity/Constitution/NM because Sonar already lasts 18 seconds if i'm not mistaken, more than enough imho

Edited February 14, 2014 by Phoenix86

[Noble_Cactus]

I haven't hit Rank 8 BR yet, so I should be okay for now. Though as Darzk noted, you're losing out on a lot of Sonar damage by using OE over FE. The question of what to remove if the new Silence is useful, though, also has me thinking. I suppose I COULD remove Flow, but that's a big could...

Edited February 14, 2014 by Noble_Cactus

[Vernoc]

i like

its a solid build with highest dmg during sonar, which gaves u nice cc´s and much support abbilities

[Darzk]

Single Forma Banshee Sonar Build [Note: Edited to include Chronus Helmet 10% efficiency]

 

http://goo.gl/xfyvyO

 

+120% power Strength [sonar = 1100% damage]

+45% range [sonar = 50.75 m range]

-2% duration [sonar = 17.64 sec]

+50% efficiency [sonar = costs 25 energy]

Quake and Boom for CC

 

 

I feel that with Sonar only costing 1 energy orb you dont really need Flow.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Darzk

[Sloan441]

Banshee is all about power strength (sonar), range (sonic boom, sonar), and efficiency (everything).

 

That's what you should build for.

 

Having said that, I kinda like the idea of fleeting expertise as well. I hadn't really thought about it, and it's worth experimenting with, especially if your efficiency is high (and if it is, you don't need flow).

[Wallace24]

I prefer overextended for the extra range, you lose out on some damage, but that's only really important for high-level survival/defense. if you're not sniping the enemies from long ranges, then overextended is unnecessary. I like to see where all the enemies are, and sonar with overextended is a bit more of a utility than maxed-out power strength. and the CC from soundquake can buy you some time, and the extra range is good to prevent more enemies from being able to shoot you while you're stuck casting

 

I like Darzk's above build, hitting that sweet spot of 50% efficiency. actually, if you use the chorus helmet, you can probably put on a bit more blind rage. that should give you an extra 10% efficiency

 

Ideally, if you are doing a long defense/survival, you'd have a trinity, so banshee doesn't really need HP or shield mods, and can focus solely on maximizing that damage from sonar. I suppose if you're going for overextended, continuity might be the better choice over streamline if you must choose, just so all the enemies you marked that were further away will still be marked by the time they come into range. but I think the way to go is probably stretch+streamline, as it allows you to keep spamming sonar and taking out the enemies in the immediate area. overextended+continuity is alright, but losing 250%-300% damage multiplier will make the high-end stuff tougher 

 

I haven't done any really long survivals with my banshee yet, just standard starmap stuff. and fleeting expertise is crazy good, and despite the loss of duration, it's still almost a necessity for most builds, even if those builds focus on duration. just because it can allow you to spam ults for just 25 energy, and you can stack efficiency with streamline. it also allows you to make up for the efficiency loss from blind rage, which allows you to reach crazy high levels of power strength. unfortunately for sonar, you need efficiency, strength, range, and duration, otherwise you could combine just one or two corrupted mods and be good to go. but if you combine all 4 (narrow minded, overextended, blind rage, and fleeting expertise), you get diminishing returns over the normal variants of the mods. I'm going to do some more number things, partially for my own benefit because I've never calculated it out:

-Narrow Minded: +99% duration, -66% range

-Overextended: +90% range, -60% strength

-Blind rage: +99% strength, -55% efficiency

-Fleeting expertise: +60% efficiency, -60% duration

 

for a grand total of: +39% duration, +24% range, +39% strength, +5% efficiency. guess that's not too bad, but it's only helpful if you have all the other mods that boost those as well, and unfortunately, those would take up 5 more slots (streamline, focus, continuity, stretch, and constitution). that leaves only 1 mod slot for an ability (which would be sonar)

 

with the non-corrupted mods, you'll get +97% duration, +69% range, +69% strength, +35% efficiency (45% with chorus helm). that doesn't end up being too bad. but you would be stuck with only sonar, so no force push or CC of any sort. but only +69% strength would be an 845% multiplier from sonar. not bad, but not ideal. and the duration would be ~35.5 seconds. if you lose constitution in favor of soundquake/sonic boom, you still get about 30 seconds of duration from sonar, and you can retain some CC. that really seems alright, actually. but as has been pointed out, if you go for more efficiency and strength over range and duration, you can just recast it more often rather than leaving up an old sonar, so narrow minded and overextended are the least necessary mods in the build

 

TL;DR - full corrupted build is viable, but the two most important of the four attributes (strength, range, duration, efficiency) are strength and efficiency, so narrow minded and overextended can be left out, which allows you to have sonic boom and soundquake for crowd control purposes. stretch is fine, overextended is unnecessary for sonar. but overextended works great with soundquake to stun-lock a large area, which means you should take less fire while you're stuck casting

 

and sorry that these posts end up being so long. I like math, so I feel the need to calculate this stuff out

Edited February 14, 2014 by Wallace24

[Darzk]

I like Darzk's above build, hitting that sweet spot of 50% efficiency. actually, if you use the chorus helmet, you can probably put on a bit more blind rage. that should give you an extra 10% efficiency

 

Added the helm in (or rather upped BR 2 ranks), now its at 120% power strength, or 1100% multiplier. I could see losing 300% from the multiplier for Overextended in exchange for one of the CC abilities, leaving us with

 

http://goo.gl/A7iofU

+60% power Strength (Sonar=800% damage)

+135% range (bringing range to 82.25m, or area to over 5300m^2)

-2% duration

+50% efficiency (Sonar = 25 energy)

 

But it would require another 2 formas to fit everything (we can do it with 2 total if we ditch sound quake and just use Sonic Boom).

 

 

 

But I can't really see making full use of a 82m range without some more +duration. If I felt I had enough +strength, maybe just drop Focus or BR for a utility or ehp mod.

 

Low level play;

http://goo.gl/GXey0P

+30% power Strength (Sonar = 650% damage)

+45% power Range (Sonar = 50.75m)

+48% power Duration (Sonar = 26.64 sec)

+50% power Efficiency (Sonar = 25 energy)

 

Or ditch the FE in there for Flow and its completely corrupted mod free.

 

650% damage bonus feels like enough for most low-mid level content, it wouldnt start feeling weak until into really high level play.

Edited February 14, 2014 by Darzk

[Wallace24]

agreed, sonar isn't super useful for low level stuff outside the mini-map utility. although it does make it so that unranked weapons (for mastery or recently forma'd gear) can snag some kills. anyhow, I agree that the range is a little excessive with full overextended, and there's no way you'd make use of the information that there are enemies 80m away without duration so that they have time to come into range, a proper sniper, or an accurate rifle (possibly with some zoom mods). but duration would be the most useful of those 3 to take advantage of it

 

so right now I've taken this information and decided to drop overextended on my build for now, as 50m is plenty of range for sonar. but soundquake really does benefit from a larger radius. stretch alone only brings it to 29m (from 20m base). overextended makes sonar and soundquake less offensive, and more of a utility. a low-level overextended might be ideal, similar to tweaking blind rage for the efficiency. 1100% damage is awesome, but somewhat excessive for most situations. then again, I haven't done high-end stuff recently, so the difference between say 900% damage increase and 1000% damage increase may be significant when enemies are level 200+

 

I like to cast sonar and light up the whole map, if only just to see where enemies will be coming from in the next minute or so. for example, I just had a pretty good run on eurasia, one of the interception missions on earth. still no luck with natural talent, but I was covering point D, and sonar only really helped us see which enemies were immediately incoming from the crevice, and which ones were hiding in the rafters of point A. couldn't reach B and C, or deeper into the crev spawn area with just stretch on. still helpful, but on larger maps, you wouldn't be able to help out other areas with sonar. so I guess it comes down to mission type as well. for defense, you probably don't need to know what's past the 50m radius, and your team is all in one spot anyway. but on the larger interception map (lua. I think it's larger, or the points are more spread out, at least), it would be useful since your team might be separated, so you can point out enemies across the map for your allies defending different capture points. room sizes in survival missions vary as well, so overextended is fairly situational. so I guess the point of that is there isn't a truly ideal setup, it's a balance

[Noble_Cactus]

See, that's the rub. I really like my Sound Quake with massive range for the moments where you need to stop an entire room or few from moving. But I'm unsure if I can justify that over losing 300% damage on Sonar.

[Noble_Cactus]

So this is what I'm planning come Banshee "buffs," assuming her other three skills remain untouched and Silence is buffed to be viable:

 

http://i.imgur.com/C4Hi2Is.jpg

 

And if Silence remains crap,

 

http://i.imgur.com/VnaMYU4.jpg

 

Swap in Rush for Constitution on alerts/invasions, or swap it in for Silence and put Sonic Boom where Silence was for the same purpose. I put a dash polarity on the aura way back when I first got her for Energy Siphon. Turns out it ends up working perfectly even with the mismatching polarity.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Noble_Cactus