Nekros.

[Felbourne]

Hello. First off I'd like to mention that I'm a new player and I was looking into different warframes and builds while considering what my first crafted warframe should be. The problem I'm encountering the most is that I can't find something that pleases me both aestetically, in terms of gameplay and is something my friends aren't already building.
One of the warframes that really interest me is Nekros. I love his theme and looks and he has interesting abilities that will make him useful while playing with my friends. My problem is that while I will be desecrating I don't want to be there just for that. At the very least I would like to hold my own in terms of offense and defense. If my only job is going to be mashing the desecrate button while everyone does all the work I won't even bother with this warframe.
So tell me guys is Nekros only good for that or can he actually be useful in combat too? Maybe recommend some builds? Ideally I'd like to have terrify and that ability that brings the dead back to life in my build.

[-Shrintoo-]

Honestly, every Frame has the potential to be wonderful. This game is mega situational, but yes Nekros can be a badass if you want to build him that way. Personally, Nekros is my favourite Frame (despite how much I do love the others as well) and the only ability I ever bring with him is desecrate. I have entire loadouts, strategies, teams built around that one ability to the point where it's more than just "spam 3 all day", it becomes "slash, slice and dice with 3 included" and comes with much more loot! It's mega fun IMO and everybody that I invite to farm with us always wants to come back and know how to make his desecrates as good as possible.

Press 3 to win!

[Llyssa]

He's quite useful in combat.

 

Personally, I equip all of his skills.

 

Terrify tends to be good for buying you time to do something(hack, ress), and is a great precursor to shadows of the dead(it's a tad long of a skill, so you want either hard cover(terrain) or soft cover(skills like terrify) keeping the enemy from hitting you while you cast.

 

Soul Punch is great for knocking heavies down(biggest use in T4), or outright killing things at lower levels.

 

I tend to use nekros with short range weapons and a carrier sentinel, so that desecrate is effectively a healing skill(you automatically grab health orbs from nearby), with soul punch taking care of long-range enemies until you can get to them.

 

So far as exact builds go, that's very much up to personal taste, but he's definitely a prime candidate for an efficiency build(fleeting expertise+streamline) so that you can use desecrate as much as you want.

 

One important note is that he's somewhat on the flimsy side(only starts off with 90 shields, and has average health/armor), so learning to dodge is higher on his priority list than many frames, especially since he lacks an area instant-kill.

 

One other important note: Shadows of the Dead does not turn you in to some kind of army lord. They can do some nice damage, but it's intentionally limited, so anyone with delusions of hiding behind an endless legion of undead tends to get very disappointed with the frame. If you're even pretending to think armies of undead will kill everything for you, it's not worth building, and you will hate it.

 

It works very well with an aggressive playstyle, but doesn't work quite the way many people seem to think.

 

One last note, either having a fair aim, or being good at sliding is a bit of a must if you plan on using terrify for more than self-defense--some players have problems catching the enemies as they flee.

[Rydian]

If you're the Nekros in a group, most of the time you're there to Desecrate.  Terrify is alright for scaring away monsters to revive another player, at least.

 

His 1 is almost useless since it's close-ranged and the more-than-one-target damage is too low, and his ult takes forever to cast, doesn't have a long duration, counts on you having gotten kills yourself beforehand, and if you build to Desecrate the best, his ult is nerfed to near-uselessness (due to his low base energy and Desecrate's cost encouraging the use of Fleeting Expertise). :(

 

Players are wanting a Nekros revamp, he might be the next one to get a balance pass... maybe.

 

Anyways in my opinion Nekros works best as a support looter, generating energy, health, and ammo for players (which can be pretty useful depending on the mission) while helping to grab drops from rare mobs.  This seems simple but shouldn't be underestimated.  Ammo can help launcher and bow users shoot a lot more often, health helps with bleed procs and people won't have to fear poison as much, and energy from dead bodies means the whole team can use their abilities more.

 

But to more directly answer your concerns... he doesn't stand out on his own as an offensive frame and his only defenses are more along the lines of distractions.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Rydian

[EagleScoutman]

I have Nekros, but when I want to hang back. He was designed to be a support type and I use him as such. Desecrate is a must, I spam it often not just for my teammates but myself as well. Some people say shadows of the dead is of no use but I put it in to give myself a meat shield to hide behind. Terrify comes in handy as well for reviving players or getting out of tight spots. 

 

Personally I don't place myself in the frontline when there are teammates and play safe when I'm solo. That's my playstyle.

[Llyssa]

If you're the Nekros in a group, most of the time you're there to Desecrate.  Terrify is alright for scaring away monsters to revive another player, at least.

 

His 1 is almost useless since it's close-ranged and the more-than-one-target damage is too low, and his ult takes forever to cast, doesn't have a long duration, counts on you having gotten kills yourself beforehand, and if you build to Desecrate the best, his ult is nerfed to near-uselessness (due to his low base energy and Desecrate's cost encouraging the use of Fleeting Expertise). :(

 

Players are wanting a Nekros revamp, he might be the next one to get a balance pass... maybe.

 

Anyways in my opinion Nekros works best as a support looter, generating energy, health, and ammo for players (which can be pretty useful depending on the mission) while helping to grab drops from rare mobs.  This seems simple but shouldn't be underestimated.  Ammo can help launcher and bow users shoot a lot more often, health helps with bleed procs and people won't have to fear poison as much, and energy from dead bodies means the whole team can use their abilities more.

 

But to more directly answer your concerns... he doesn't stand out on his own as an offensive frame and his only defenses are more along the lines of distractions.

His 1 has a base distance of 50m(maximum range of any skill), and is entirely silent(allows for stealth kills--it's how I beat the stealth kill rank-up test!). If you can't even get the basics right, don't say anything at all.

[Felbourne]

Thanks for the answers guys. I don't have delusions about his skills since I have seen gameplay videos and I'm well aware how insanely good extra drops can be in games like these and that's awesome and is one thing that interests me but if I'm worthless in every other aspect this is just not the frame for me. I understand that my role will be that of a support but if Nekros is so weak in every other aspect that I don't even feel incentivised to fire my weapon I'm not interested.

[-Shrintoo-]

As an example, we sometimes run 3 nekros with only desecrate, and one loki with only radial disarm. All three nekros are there to do 75% of the damage and take 75% of it - there is no even 5 second window at any time in these missions where each and every nekros doesn't have to pay close attention to what is going on. If you ask me it takes a lot of skill and therefore is a lot of fun, to play as a squishy toon with a tanky role that has little room for error but vast room for epic amounts of mods

[Rydian]

His 1 has a base distance of 50m(maximum range of any skill), and is entirely silent(allows for stealth kills--it's how I beat the stealth kill rank-up test!). If you can't even get the basics right, don't say anything at all.

I attempted to use Soul Punch multiple times when I first got Nekros (some time in U12 or U13) and the only time it appeared to do anything (knockdown+damage+projectile) was when I was within melee range of the target.  If I'm wrong on the range of a skill, please correct me in a nicer way next time, I'll go check it out myself to see if I was doing something wrong with my targeting or something.

EDIT: Grammar fixes.

 

EDIT2: Got done messing around with it, and you're right it's ranged like that.  Dunno' why I didn't get it working earlier.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Rydian

[scavenge]

Thanks for the answers guys. I don't have delusions about his skills since I have seen gameplay videos and I'm well aware how insanely good extra drops can be in games like these and that's awesome and is one thing that interests me but if I'm worthless in every other aspect this is just not the frame for me. I understand that my role will be that of a support but if Nekros is so weak in every other aspect that I don't even feel incentivised to fire my weapon I'm not interested.

 

He's basicly like loki, just a bit more usefull.

 

It's gonna be up to your weaponry with him thou, just as with Loki or Trinity.