Is Banshee Good?

[(PSN)x35_DOuBLeTReYx]

I've 4 forma'd my nova, 3 forma'd my oberon, 1 forma'd my mag prime

 

I wanna use one of the less popular frames and I've never seen a banshee in a lobby before.

[(PSN)x35_DOuBLeTReYx]

Anyone?

[Taikaponi]

Sound Quake is a great CC ability, and Sonar can boost your weapons' damage significantly. However, in my opinion there are many more cons than pros. Sound Quake leaves you vulnerable for quite some time and Banshee is really weak in general, and Sonar only boosts your damage if you manage to hit the one small particular orange spot of the enemy.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Taikaponi

[Scherhardt]

Banshee? She has the best skill to amplify damage done by guns.

Soundquake is fun to use as well as Sonic Boom.  

Silence is non-existent to me now since our stealth is not yet solid.

She's good all in all. Don't listen to players saying she's weak. You just have to use her well.

[Deanoa]

Well, Banshee was the first Frame I ever built - and that was when you had to farm missions for her parts. Took me long enough, but I was happy.

To answer your question, Banshee is indeed considered as one of the most useless Warframes atm, but I still love playing her.

 

Her "Sonic Boom" CAN help you out IF the situation is right. It just knocks everything in front of you away and deals minimal damage.

Her "Sonar" is pretty good, as it can boost your Damage by 500% IF you hit the marked spot. Also, it shows near enemies on your minimap.

Her "Silence" is pretty much useless atm unless you want to hardcore stealth. But the Devs said, that It'll be OP when they rework Stealth.

Her "Sound Quake" Ability deals... moderate damage and stunlocks everyone in range. It still has a long animation, which means that you're open to ranged attacks.

 

If you want my opinion, get her. She is rather weak, I know but she can be tons of fun and I hope she'll be better when Stealth 2.0 (or w/e) hits.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Deanoa

[Terrornaut]

Banshee is much stronger than people give her credit for.  

 

Sonar (recommend range and power boosting mods) adds incredible amounts of damage for friends and allies.  It isn't hard hitting the orange spots, so unless you can't aim at all, its nearly a certain damage boost.  If you use inaccurate weapons or have a sent with sweeper or deth rifle, you'll hit those spots easily.  If you use weapons like ogris, penta, ignis, embolist...you'll be hitting those spots anyway.

-I don't recommend duration on it just because things should be dead before the next cast is needed.

With the increased range, Soundquake covers a massive area that will pretty much shut down everything that would try to fire on you. It almost reaches the point where enemies would try to start shooting, so its a worthwhile skill.  Nothing shuts an area down and allows you and your guys some peace like it.  Can easily be dangerous to use without range boosting.

Sonic boom. Yeah, eh, its just a wide frontal knockdown.  It can definitely help in a pinch but it needs something.
No comment on Silence.  I don't feel like it'll be great even with an improvement to the stealth system, but we'll see.

Her main weaknesses are a lack of mobility and defense options.  If you're solid with dodging around and engaging enemies safely/intelligently, you'll be alright with a couple sonic booms thrown out to get enemies out of your face for a moment.  Both shield recharge mods can be a good option because she has abilities that stop the action at midrange for a few seconds - enough time to charge up and keep moving.

 

Banshee adds a lot to a team - more than some frames considered 'better' really.  Use her well and your team will be rewarded well.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Terrornaut

[Wallace24]

as others have said, Sonar is the best damage-boosting skill in the game. she's a ranger/sniper frame, but if things do swarm you up close, you can use sonic boom to push them away, because although she's not an extremely fragile frame (she's got average stats), she doesn't like taking hits either

 

sound quake is a fun ult to use, but ultimately (in end-game/against high-level enemies), it's purpose is to lock down an area to buy your teammates some time to revive someone or activate life support or something. because like most skills, the damage falls off. at this point, sonar is your main damaging ability (though it's indirect)

 

with the proper mods you can get up to 1145% damage boost from sonar, but practically you'll probably want a bit of overextended in your banshee's build, so you'll want to keep the boost up around 800-900%, which is still significant. she's a great support frame, and she's very fun to play. you don't see too many, it's true, but she has her followers. and partially it might be because of the method of getting her used to be random missions, and now it's through research. both are annoying and out-of-the-way

[Naftal]

Sonic Boom is the most cost efficient CC there is.

[ExplodingStars]

Not really, poor CC apart from Sonic Boom. (Don't think it's the most cost efficient nor the best)

 

Her only saving grace my opinion is Sonar because it reveals weak spots for the entire team. 

 

Sound quake deals poor damage, little to no utility apart from stunning enemies within it's range for a few secs.

Worst thing about it is you're stationary while the skill is active. It's pretty much asking to be killed at High lvls if your team doesn't have any pure CC Warframe like Nyx or Vauban. 

[Terrornaut]

Pull is the most cost efficient CC there is, probably even after the LOS fix/nerf/change.

"little to no utility"

Its a stun. How is a stun not utility? A lasting stun that can potentially shut down the entire field of fire.  Sure, its not as good as...radial blind, for whatever reason...but ah, I guess the warframe designers still have a lot to learn about their work - if they care to.  Some of the design decisions and lack of action/playerbase communication on many issues make me wonder.