High Damage Spell Based Frame?

[Enzone]

Hai

I was wondering if anyone would be able to tell me a Frame that does tones of damage and is spell based, preferably something that won't bore me to death. I was thinking of Nova but I've heard from many people that it's boring and they only play it when they absolutely have to.

Any ideas? :3

 

[Dasmir]

The answer is none, you weapons will always do better than Raw damage skills.

[vaugahn]

Unfortunately, damage skills are not very effective.

 

However, there is one exception. Nova has some very powerful skills that can put down massive amounts of damage if used properly. 

[Dasmir]

Unfortunately, damage skills are not very effective.

 

However, there is one exception. Nova has some very powerful skills that can put down massive amounts of damage if used properly. 

 

Is the exception becouse their skills scales with you weapons.....

[izzatuw]

None. But in the end, damage based Warframes aren't the best scaling Warframes

[Riot_Inducer]

Don't worry too much about the negative feedback about power based playstyles. Unless you go into T4 void stuff or 30+ min/waves into the infinite scaling missions power damage will be fine. You can do most of the content on the standard planets without too much trouble with a power heavy playstyle. 

 

As for what frames are good casters

 

Ember is probably the most baseline damage caster there is, she doesn't have much utility but she can extend the usefulness of her damage by a lot thanks to her Accelerant power that increases fire damage (up to a 500% boost)

 

Mag  is also a good starting caster, her first two abilities can deal surprising amounts of damage and she also has quite good crowd control. However her Magnetic damage specialization means she only really shines when fighting Corpus who are vulnerable to it. 

 

Volt isn't quite the "potent alternative to gunplay" he's advertised as, but his lightning skills are deadly and are useful even when they don't kill things outright thanks to the stun effect. He's also really well rounded with Super Speed and Lightning Shield so he's always useful no matter the level or situation.

 

Nova is quite good though both of her big damage powers require you to use weapons to improve/trigger their effects. Molecular Prime however is probably one of the most powerful damage abilities in the game when used right. 

 

Oberon is also a decent choice, he's a bit slower and tankier than the others but most of his abilities have effects that support your team while also dealing damage to the enemy.

 

I've heard that some people also quite enjoy using Frost's offensive powers as a caster frame. My experience with him is limited so I can't comment much more than that.

 

Mirage is absolutely deadly but she's more a mix of weapon and powers. She has a power that flat out increases her damage and her ultimate can destroy hordes in moments. The big draw of her however is her ability to multiply weapon firepower. 

[ThePredicament]

Antimatter Drop is basically the meteor/ultima magic in the game, if you have the right weapons. Huge area of effect, potential for ultra huge damage, a little slow but can be navigated. MPrime is a ridiculous CC/Debuff that does tons of damage.

[Pacheon]

Nova is just an exception. Her Ultimate (Molecular Prime) will usually increase the cause of your weapon's damage.

She is pretty fragile, keep that in mind, so high levels will kill her quite fast.

 

Alternatively you can use Mirage. Mirage's first ability "Hall of Mirrors" will clone herself and will output your damage by 4 additional copies of you.

Since thus are copies, they will do a total damage of 20%.

E.g. you are dealing 1000 damage (no matter if Primary, Sidearm or Melee) with a single hit, thus far, your mirrors will cause 20% of that totally, which means 200 damage (x4 mirrors = 800 damage. In absolute total 1800 damage).

You can increase that damage output by intensify and/or blind rage. I am taking both maxed:

 

(1000dmg / 100%) * (45.8%) =

 

Damage cause by a single clone: 458 Damage

Thus x4 = 1832 Damage

Plus yours = 2832 Damage

 

*no critical chance, critical multiplier, status proc, etc. has been additionally calculated within this calc.

[KindCollusion]

Unfortunately, until they change the way damage scales your only real option is nova maybe ember. See the issue is that damage doesn't scale well on frames and abilities hit such a long range that its hard to make them anything but impotent or op... For this reason most players use abilities that have a utility element or a buff/debuff. Nova's ulti is basically the ultimate debuff and functions like damage.

[PlebbyMilliner]

There are really only a couple of frames where their damage scales with enemy levels:

1) Trinity's Energy Vamp does 6.25% damage of the enemy's hit points x 4 ticks. So overall, an Energy Vamp does 25% remaining hitpoint damage. This can be increased to around 57% with mods.

2) Trinity's Link will also reflect scaled damage, but I think the enemy health/armor outpaces this eventually.

3) Mag's Shield Polarize is percentage based + damage multiplier. But this is really only good for enemies with Shields.

4) Nyx's Chaos typically makes enemies attack each other. So as the enemy's weapon damage scales, so does the damage they inflict on each other.

5) Nyx's Absorb absorbs enemy damage and then can be sent back.

6) Nekros' Shadows of the Dead spawns dead copies of enemies. So as the enemies scale, so do your copies.

7) Oberon's Smite works like Nyx's Chaos for 12 seconds, causing enemies to attack each other.

All these are "damage" abilities that scale, ignoring the infinitely scaling crowd control ones.

Edited October 24, 2014 by PlebbyMilliner

[Blackout751]

I can recommend Oberon.

Smite is one of the best first abilities now in my opinion - I've seen the initial cast do up to 1,800 while knocking the target down, and each of the projectiles deal 540 plus the Radiation proc and Impact proc - and Hallowed Ground is... okay. Doesn't last as long as it should, but it's incredibly helpful on Saturn Interception where you're spammed with Seekers and Rollers.

Renewal is a brilliant ability as it's channeled and gives you instant healing, which is amazing if you don't have Life Strike and Reckoning is for when you just need everyone around you to get back and get down.