Mirage: An Exhaustive Review

[(PSN)Fen_Integrum]

Disclaimer: Several of my other reviews have had posts saying that they need a TL;DR button, and this will be no different.

 

Below is an extensive review of everything that is Mirage, in my experience. I review everything from appearance, to her stats, abilities, and gameplay benefits. I hope it helps you.

 

APPEARANCE: 

Mirage is a good looking frame, and while she does have an obvious theme, the theme still leaves her abstract enough that she can look good with most of the armor pieces. In fact, I struggled to find any armor pieces that look bad on her, and was pleased to see that , unless you were putting together outlandish combinations of attachments, she would walk out looking cool. Harkonar, Iliac, Edo, Daedalus... it doesnt matter. She is fortunate that her theme awarded her such an abstract helmet as well, which doesnt look great, but doesnt look terrible either. With her theme being all harlequinesque, and harlequins obviously being masks, she had to have eyes, but they did it right. Instead of making her look too much like the Comedy mask, or the Tragedy mask, she wound up having nondescript eyes that seem devoid any emotion. I'm alright with that. I will say that the better of the two masks, IMO, is the Harlequin helmet. The curling horns really add somehting, and the face is a bit less derpy. Both of her skins are split down the middle, further playing on the harlequin theme, but the better of the two skins is the Winter skin, which is more than just a festive alternative. It works better with her textures, and the..."snow flakes"?...arent so bad when you fill them in with some color. Furthermore, it works well with the Harlequin theme, with half and half of each color. It should be noted that, with the way her Eclipse looks, the only thing you are modding for in appearance, in terms of customizing the coloring, will be for the appearance of your HOM, because you will either be silvery-white, or Shadowy Black.

 

 

BASE STATS

 

Health/Shields: This is not good. Her defenses are each only 80, which can pose a lot of problems until you can throw on an Eclipse, or a Hall of Mirrors, to mitigate. Do yourself a favor, and try to keep HOM going, or you will be spending more time on your back than standing. Once you get Eclipse, you will be much better off than you were beforehand. 

 

Armor: Not complimenting the poor defenses, comes the armor class of 65. Even with her health tiers capping at 240, her effective HP are only around 290. Really give some thought to her mitigation powers, or theres going to be problems. Again, let me point out that her only form of damage mitigation remains in her powers, so until you and your Eclipse, lay low, and keep your HOM running.

 

Movement: 

 

Sprint Speed: Her speed is a generous 1.2, pretty close to Loki, but not close enough, and honestly, it is not worth modding on her, with all of the ways her powers benefit. Still, it's fast enough to make a difference, and mobility is half of her ability to survive.

 

Stamina: Her Stamina is 100, which  would be alright on a frame that has more defenses, but its not so bad that it needs buffed.

 

Power: At max rank, she runs at 225. This is more than enough though, all things considered, which I will explain later.

 

ABILITIES:  

 

Hall Of Mirrors: Mirage is blessed enough to start the game with a power that mitigates incoming damage, buffs her own damage, and can function through walls, so she can be the first to knock on a door that is on lockdown, clearing out the forces gathered on the other side. This power makes for amazing uses of the various Alt fires of the Quantas. Not only does it shower the battlefield with Electric Cubes, but it's impossible to miss them, causing a massive explosion of whatever electric linked element you can want for. With the Mutalist variant, you can actually make enough of the Radiation orbs for it to make it useful against anything beside the Infestation. And for the Paracyst, it will permit the hooks to make a huge difference, harpooning several targets simultaneously. In addition, this power is amazing with max duration, which all but eliminates the need for efficiency. Ill talk more on that later, but in the meantime, keep an eye out for her holograms, which despite how they slightly fade around the reticle, still wind up leaving you with obstructed LOS.

 

Hall of Malevolence: This mod is debatable. I havent gotten it yet, as I am only not getting close to Genius with Suda, after realizing my errors with Red Veil, and that ridiculous Rakta Ballistica. Still, it's not a bad bonus. While the wiki does not confirm or deny that the bonus scales with power strength, I find it hard to imagine that it would, considering the bonus that it enhances scales with Power Strength. With the build I will be providing below, my holograms deal about 44% of the weapon damage that I do, and with the maximum bonus from HOMal, that bonus would be about 66%. That's nothing to sneeze at, but remember this is, in no way, affected by Eclipse, so get the idea out of your head. I'd say it's a toss up, wheter to equip this, or something else. 

 

Sleight of Hand: I've heard this power is useful, though I have not found the use in a game as fast paced as Warframe, short of a trick learned from the Wiki about rigging Desecrated loot. I'm not big on powers that have such a limited application. If you have found some tricks that make this more useful, I'd be overjoyed to hear it, but the key problem that I've found, is how great she works when modding for duration.

 

Eclipse: This is likely her most useful power, if you're smart enough to memorize tilesets. With this power, she can choose between having what nearly adds up to a 5.5 damage multiplier, or a 95% reduction to incoming damage. So long as you memorize where the shifts in light are, you can be a step away from either bonus you like. This mitigation makes her poor defenses entirely negligible, and with the duration on this power, it may as well double for efficiency, as most of the energy that you spend, if not all or more, will be made back before the duration is concluded. Still, let it be said that this is the power that will make her shine, both literally and metaphorically, even into the late game. 

 

Total Eclipse: I am on the fence with this mod. Eclipse is a fantastic power, but using a whole mod slot on making it available to the rest of your squad is not the best use of mod space. First off, with everybody clumping together, it will draw enemy fire closer together, and hurt the LOS that you are already suffering from with HOM.

 

Prism: I find this power a bit underwhelming. It's toggleable, but it has a duration, and it costs per second, which is just silly. It's not the most easily controlled power, and it can have adverse effects on other players, chief among them is Nekros, whose Shadows have been destroyed by this power on several occasions, in my experience. That being said, this power has good damage, and is best in tight indoor levels, where the lasers arent as spread about. The Blind is probably the best use of this ability, IMO, because it provides Mirage with some much needed CC, and at a fairly low cost, but the casting time is extremely problematic. In other words, dont bother using this to save your own skin, because you will be down long before it's finished casting. 

 

Strategy: Mirage is the very embodiment of a Glass Cannon, and is more than capable of handling herself, even in the hands of newer players, and especially so after the first 15 levels. She does insane damage, and has great damage mitigation, once you get some mod space. The best feature about her powers are how they all make great use of duration. With Maximized duration, HOM will run over a minute long, Eclipse will run nearly a minute long, SOH 3/4 of a minute, and with Prism, you are looking at an insanely long Blind duration, of 38 seconds, matching Excaliburs Max Duration Radial Blind in longevity. This is very important, because with Mirage, because her powers are not instants, and she benefits actively by them being used. With this in mind, Duration mods act as secondary Efficiency mods. With these running nonstop, you will have two forms of damage mitigation stacked up, and two forms of damage buffs also stacked, and Mirage becomes a killing machine. This is where Hall of Malevolence becomes so useful, in that there is no doubt that Mirage WILL get kills, considering she requires no precision aiming (due to HOM), and her insane damage buff provided by Eclipse. HOMal, with that in mind, becomes a sure thing. 

 

Why Duration over Efficiency?: With Blind Rage and Max Duration: Lets look at, HOM, which normally costs 25. With Maxed Streamline, this power will cost 30 energy every  65 seconds. With a Maxed energy siphon, you will make back 39 energy during that duration. With Maximized Efficiency, at the cost of duration, it will cost you about 15 energy, and last for 50 seconds. The problem here, is that Mirage has no powers that are all that spammable, and in that, she has absolutely no need of maximized efficiency, whereas all of her powers benefit from great duration. I run with Blind Rage one from the top, and even with that, I can cast both Eclipse, and HOM, for a total of 60 energy, and have that made back in a little over minute and a half, if I found absolutely no energy orbs. Assuming you can manage to find one single energy orb every 60 seconds, which is not a hard thing to manage, you could sustain HOM and Eclipse perpetually, even when you do not need them on. In addition, all the Efficiency in the world will not help you when Disrupted, but Duration, at least, has a chance of getting you where you need to be, while waiting for the Disruption to end, and your energy to restore. It is in these contingencies that Efficiency comes back to bite you, because it kills your Duration, and with Mirage, you are reliant on her energy to keep you standing. 

 

LOADOUT

 

 

 

Mirage Build: Requires 1 Formae 

Energy Siphon: With her great duration, this makes back what you lose with no time at all.

Narrow Minded/(Primed)Continuity/Constitution: Max. Dont worry about range with her. The powers that require range will still do what they really need to. Duration is her best feature. Knockdown Recovery is good for her, since she is so squishy. 

Streamline: All the efficiency you will need, even with perpetual buffs on.

Blind Rage/Intensify: This chick is all about the damage. Dont worry about energy loss from Blind Rage here. The Duration, Energy Siphon, and Streamline will handle this for you.

Stretch: To balance out the loss from Narrow Minded a bit.

Fortitude:I use this for a couple reasons. First off, I dont want to be on the ground, whatsoever. Second, with her massive damage mitigation, it should be rare that they make it to your health. Still, it will happen from time to time, and it's best to be able to recover those shields quickly, and to be as resistant to being knocked down as possible. 

 

Primary: Mirage can manage damage regardless of what weapon she has, so it's a good use of a Primary slot, equipping a weapon that makes the most utility from HOM. As I mentioned above, the Quantas benefit greatly, and since they have no Fine Aim, you arent as negatively impacted by the HOM blocking LOS. The Quanta itself sort of becomes an explosive elemental shotgun, requiring very little effort in aiming, as you will be firing so many cubes that it gets ridiculous. 

 

Secondary: I'd go with something end game here. She can do great things with the Tysis, and the Nukor, raining Status on the whole battlefield, and she can turn hand cannons, like the Brakk or the Pyrana, into the equivalent of field artillery. Still, I've found that some of the best use of a secondary slot is either the Acrid, also raining status like the Tysis, only massive DOT as well, or the Furis, with Winds of Purity on it, in the event she takes health damage.

 

Melee: Again, she can manage damage with any weapon, so there is no real need to go for the biggest, or the most damaging with her. She could use some help in the CC area, and when you put a Reach Mod on a Jat Kittag, with HOM, you are basically a one woman version of the Odonata power, Repel, capable of ragdolling a squad with as little effort as you wish. Another option, or rather series of options, would be anything with an AOE ground pound, like Silva & Aegis, Amphis, Heat Sword, Mire, or others, because the ground pound is as good as an AOE Blast.

 

Companion: With Mirage, she has little need of the Carrier, because her Holograms pick stuff up. With that in mind, find an area where you think she is lacking. I prefer the Raska, which will help with Shields, and keep enemies away with its Faux Terrify.

 

Conclusion: Mirage is a circle of destruction, and due to several of her powers, she is well rounded for all things. Her clones make CC possible with weapons, her Eclipse makes her able to tank, as well as manage insane damage. She can prevent lockdowns, shut down cameras, turrets, and screw over enemy hordes with SOH, and she has great CC in the blind on her prism, which will deal some insane damage as well, provided you are indoors, where the Prism will bound around. The only mission type I would never suggest her for, is Archwing, as her attributes dont translate well...at all.

 

 

Until next time,

 

 

-Fen

Edited February 6, 2015 by (PS4)Fenrushak

[(PSN)Cyrusdvirus]

Nice review. Very Helpful. Thanks

[traybong111]

A good read, again. Thanks for that. and her holding jat kittag like a boss iwht harlequin helmet i can't no i'm going to cry like a fangirl

 

I've recently put 2nd Forma on her and I really can't help but think her 2 could be...I dunno. Less buggy? Just replaced outright and turned into something a bit more team-oriented? Shamelessly taking from Mesa's Shooting Gallery, maybe she could "share" one of her holograms with a randomly-selected teammate (higher chance to share with a teammate who is closer) for a short period of time. It won't do much but it's something. 

[TheGuy08]

Nice overview. 

 

Just a few things to note.

 

Prism can be good for quick cc with natural talent.

 

Another thing to note is that it can be cast from stealth with a huras kubrow.

 

You can run efficiency and range and basically be a cc frame using the stun or if you really want to get tricky with it you could use her as a blind stealth frame. Even with a build like that you'll dish out damage due to the nature of the frame.

 

Sleight of Hand has a use in corpus missions. Using it will activate lasers. Pretty useless right? Except in defense where it adds a lair of cc. If you use a range weapons and have canisters it you can time the blinds too. Overall its some decent cc in the right situations.