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Nekros: My Opinion/review Of The Frame


(PSN)IkariWarrior83
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In sum: Nekros is a cool-looking frame with an awesome theme of necromancy, but I don't understand what his role is supposed to be.  

 

After doing about 9 or 11 ODAs, I got all of the pieces for Nekros.  I had been trying for a while, and was finally able to build him.  I was excited at the prospect: this skeleton-looking dark, ominous frame with its ridiculously expensive blueprint seemed like it would just wreck everything.

 

Before I get into the meat of my review, I wanted to lay out my biases:

1) I am primarily an Oberon player.  Love 'im or hate 'im, Oberon is my favorite to use.

2) I put a reactor in Nekros, and got it to level 30 but have not forma'd it at all.

3) I know that Desecrate will be getting a buff of some kind, but until that's implemented, this is my review of Nekros as he is, not as he will be.

4) I know there are other Nekros threads out there, but they all seemed to be "Fix Nekros"

5) My mastery rank is 11, for whatever relevance that may have to the conversation

 

Abilities:

Soul punch - Good first ability.  It does okay damage and it has the ability to ragdoll the target.  Ideal against heavy targets to knock them off their feet so you or a team mate can take them out.  I appreciate the augment that allows you to res an ally instantly, too.  It definitely gives Nekros a lot of potential utility.

 

Terrify - I don't understand this ability, and perhaps I would enjoy the frame more if I did.  Terrify doesn't seem to do anything, and whatever it does, doesn't seem to last long.  It seems like anyone who uses this would be disliked because it would scatter targets instead of forcing them to group together.

 

Desecrate - The reason most people get Nekros (myself included) is for that extra re-roll, to make resource farming easier, or to make survivals last longer, or to make survivals last longer for resource farming.  I feel like Nekros is the only frame with an ability that affects only dead targets and simultaneously NOT live targets.  Useful for what it is, but in general not that great.

 

Shadows of the Dead - On the surface, this ability seems useful.  Resurrecting destroyed targets and having them fight for you for a limited duration.  It's what truly gives Nekros his necromancer feel.  It's hard for me to gauge the kind of damage this ability does, because I don't know what the damage is based on or what my shadows are doing at any given time. 

 

Conclusion:  I'm not entirely sure what Nekros is supposed to be.  It's definitely not an assault frame like Rhino or Valkyr with its armor rating of 65.  It's not an assault frame like Ash, either, because Ash's armor rating (or lack thereof) is balanced by his ability to go invisible and teleport and cut down a slew of enemies in one go.  Soul Punch is good, but only for one enemy at a time.  Shadows of the Dead seems good, but I feel like they're not aggressive enough, so they all bunch around Nekros confusing allies into thinking another player or objective is being attacked.  Additionally, the shadows clutter up the screen and will get in the way of ally shots.

 

I suppose Nekros is a support frame, but the support abilities are really 'meh.'  Terrify doesn't seem to do much.  It might be useful for scaring off enemies so you can res an ally.  Desecrate is useful for farming, but I feel like if you're dedicating 25% of a warframe's ability to cut down on the grind, it was designed wrong.  Aside from Terrify, Nekros doesn't have anything to affect the enemies en masse, as opposed to Banshee or Nova, who are by no means assault frames, but can seriously cripple the enemies around them before bringing them down.

 

The problem with using Nekros is the expection of being the designated farmer.  I don't know about the rest of you, but that doesn't exactly exclaim fun to me.  Whenever there is a discussion about farming for resources, my group plays a game of "not it" for Nekros.  We all have him and don't want to use him.  I'd say that's a fundamental flaw.

 

If you actually read all of this, then thank you for your time.  If you read my summary and jumped to make a comment, that's cool too.

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Terrify would be better if the enemies either A) did not sprint as fast away or B) coward in fear in place, this would allow us to effectively use the armor debuff it gives.


 


I would honestly prefer Desecrate to be take on out the game. Move the extra loot mechanic to soul punch maybe so that skill is more then just a single target ragdoll. Have soul punch drop extra loot from enemies it kills. I think Desecrate has de-valued Nekros completely, no one really cares to see his potential (if any at the moment, but maybe with these minor fixes) due to the fact that he is only a loot machine.


 


Give us a power that synergies with his existing powers or necromancer theme:


 


- Maybe a power that gives Nekros an aura around him that drains the life of enemies within range and replenishes his health and his shadow's health.  


 


- Or have him cast a field on the ground where enemies that come inside slowly die. Enemies that do die within the field get added to Nekros SOTD even if he didn't kill them and have them drop extra loot that way. 


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Seem like people just don't know how to actually play Neks.

 

The frame is supposed to be up front at all times but only at certain levels (low/mid). The reason for this is equilibrium, basically, Neks is a masochist and works BEST whenever taking damage for infinite casting. Neks MAKES the battle field, kill a bunch of enemies, desecrate, and it's pretty much home turf. Can cast plenty, can heal more while getting more loot.

 

The frame needs a good balance of duration. This is the main reason why Terrify is grossly understood. Farmer builds makes it impractically short and Shadow builds make it last way too long. It seems like the frame was designed with max efficiency in mind, extremely long timer on both Terrify and Shadows can be hit with negative duration and still be good but just not too much of it. One duration mod is plenty good for a build.

 

Terrify itself is a GREAT skill, when built and used properly. It's not a defensive CC, it's offensive in nature. With ten or so seconds, a Neks can EASILY kill all fleeing enemies. At worst, it will bench heavy units for time+travel back time. The debuff is great since it actually scales.

 

Shadows is another skill that's greatly misunderstood, they are meant for cannon fodder (8 targets instead of 1) while still doing SCALING damage. AI does need tweaking though, since it's known to be dumbed down.

 

Soulpunch is bad and does need a rework, would be amazing with uninterrupting casting though.

Edited by TheLocalHentai
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Terrify itself is a GREAT skill, when built and used properly. It's not a defensive CC, it's offensive in nature.

But...it is a defensive CC, it just happens to have offensive potential.  Maybe not the best defensive skill, sure, but it still serves that purpose decently.  I can't say how many times I've used Terrify to keep enemies away while I was busy reviving someone.

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That's the thing though, it's a HUGE debuff that technically benches enemies better than Radial Blind (They don't throw nades or fire back). Use it as an offensive tool and players will get much better mileage out of it. Currently, with how it resets after killing stuff and the fact that it has limited targeting, it's best to hunt enemies down. When used as a defensive CC, it's simply just utilizing just half of the skill. For example, in a small room with a regular amount of enemies (5-10), using it will pretty much allow Neks to clear out easily without even getting shot at.

 

Obviously it's not perfect but it's definitely underutilized by the majority of players because of poor modding.

 

Also to add to what I posted, Neks is at optimum with a slash heavy weapon (Braton Prime), splitting enemies and descrating can turn the tide in any battle since it would make every kill into three (First kill, split, two) and with some practice four, that's 100 points of damage and depending on the rank of Equilibrium, more for energy.

Edited by TheLocalHentai
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A review of the frame as it will still be on consoles for a while yet is just as valid, it might be useless to PC players but it could help a newer console player avoid something they may not enjoy.

Well, I don't want anyone to avoid it, but having played offensive (Oberon, Mag, Ash) and support (Banshee, Nyx) I just feel like Nekros' role is poorly defined.

 

If you can get a height advantage with soul punch casting down into a group can hit more than one enemy at a time with some splash damage.

Sort of similar to how arrows cause a targets body to do damage to those behind it if I remember correctly.

I'll keep this in mind.  I've put too much effort into acquiring Nekros, I have no intention of getting rid of him.

 

I hated nekros until the soul punch augment. Now I can't put him down. The smug satisfaction of reviving a downed team mate instantly feels so good.

It disappoints me that soul survivor has to be a necessity to the configuration of the frame, y'know?

 

Farmer Nekros... a sad use of a cool theme.

That's what it frequently boils down to for me.  Nekros seems to only reap resources and orbs, rather than souls.

 

Seem like people just don't know how to actually play Neks.

 

The frame is supposed to be up front at all times but only at certain levels (low/mid). The reason for this is equilibrium, basically, Neks is a masochist and works BEST whenever taking damage for infinite casting. Neks MAKES the battle field, kill a bunch of enemies, desecrate, and it's pretty much home turf. Can cast plenty, can heal more while getting more loot.

 

The frame needs a good balance of duration. This is the main reason why Terrify is grossly understood. Farmer builds makes it impractically short and Shadow builds make it last way too long. It seems like the frame was designed with max efficiency in mind, extremely long timer on both Terrify and Shadows can be hit with negative duration and still be good but just not too much of it. One duration mod is plenty good for a build.

 

Terrify itself is a GREAT skill, when built and used properly. It's not a defensive CC, it's offensive in nature. With ten or so seconds, a Neks can EASILY kill all fleeing enemies. At worst, it will bench heavy units for time+travel back time. The debuff is great since it actually scales.

 

Shadows is another skill that's greatly misunderstood, they are meant for cannon fodder (8 targets instead of 1) while still doing SCALING damage. AI does need tweaking though, since it's known to be dumbed down.

 

Soulpunch is bad and does need a rework, would be amazing with uninterrupting casting though.

I freely admit I don't know "how" to play Nekros.  Perhaps I'll post in "Players helping Players" to get more tips.  The same could be said of Oberon.  People hate him because he's considered useless before you get Reckoning, but they ignore how valuable smite and renewal are.  

 

It's frustrating having the frame at the front lines.  Nekros' movement speed and armor rating (even with maxed vitality, redirection, and steel fiber) do little for him in terms of taking damage.  

 

I will agree that Terrify should be used offensively.  I never thought to run into a crowd of enemies and cast Terrify to make them flee or herd them toward other players.

 

Shadows of the Dead is atrocious.  The damage may be scaling, but the extra cannon fodder gets in the way of allied attacks.  It's not as spammy as other attacks in terms of number of times it's cast, but it's as spammy or more spammy than other attacks because Nekros' cannon fodder is constantly in the way, plus the visual clutter.  It's especially problematic for Defense missions.  I guess the answer is don't use Nekros on Defense?  That sounds like a pretty shoddy solution to what sounds like a balance issue to me.

 

Edit: I should add that I appreciate your input, LocalHentai, and I will use Nekros a bit more offensively and see how it turns out.  It could very well be that my frustration is based in my inability to use the frame properly.

Edited by (PS4)IkariWarrior83
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