Venka, Vidi, Vici [7Th Video Added]

[MechaTails]

Someone brought up Venkas, so I jumped in game to test them out again.

 

Relevant Info
Banshee + Venka
Versus Lv40+ Infested (10 minute Survival)
4-player team to increase the spawns

I'll point out I didn't use any warframe powers and my team mates didn't have any team buffs. This was specifically to see if Venkas could hold their own.

I ran away from the team to fight packs of Infested on my own, and Venkas shredded through everything that came at me. This was a very different experience than what I was used to with Venkas, and it's mostly because I changed their build slightly. How many times have I typed "Venkas" already?

 

Venka Build

At a glance, the stats aren't very impressive at all. In practice though, holy crap, I almost felt bad for the Infested lol. The 24% Status and Crit Chance proc very often simply because of how often you're slashing away. You can quickly build up Berserker by using Lethal Clash, it's quick, looks cool, and ends with a knockdown slam, giving you even more free hits to trigger Berserker and rack up your combo meter. Wicked Slash also has a flurry of attacks. After that it's all the savage carnage you can handle, you can easily keep renewing Berserker.

You don't even have to Channel to kill stuff, I added Reflex Coil (channeling efficiency) just in case I needed more damage against heavy units, but they died just as quickly without it. I think using Life Strike would be better for survivability, even though I only died once at the end because I was trapped with freaking poison clouds.

And...that's it! There's no trick to it, the rest is up to you. The Malicious Raptor combos are easy to pull off, even at full speed, and they're useful to boot.

Next I'll try fighting Grineer/Corpus, though I fear it's going to be a repeat of this: https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/348386-allow-us-to-cancel-combo-animations/

Maybe increasing the speed at which Venka's combo meter rises, as well as keeping the combo meter longer, would help against the Grineer/Corpus since they like to run away and shoot you from afar. But then again, every weapon doesn't have to be good at everything.

 

=======================================

 

Versus Corrupted

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/418064-venka-vidi-vici-now-adding-videos/?p=4634556

 

Versus Grineer (densely packed)

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/418064-venka-vidi-vici-now-adding-videos/?p=4845076

 

Versus Grineer (just goofing around)

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/418064-venka-vidi-vici-now-adding-videos/?p=4632416

 

=======================================

 

Videos

•The main thing these vids show is that 24% crit chance is all you need to keep Berserker running almost indefinitely. In a later video, the Venkas still quickly tore through enemies even while I was in a Frozen Aura.

 

•I nerfed myself to make the fight more interesting, since the enemies are Lv30 and under. I didn't use powerful event mods, left slots empty, no life strike, etc. Most of them were dying immediately anyway though lol.

 

•The videos also show some of the Venkas' problems, like trying to catch up to enemies, getting knocked down constantly, sometimes the ground attack prompt wont trigger, cant hit enemies if they're like an inch below you, etc.

 

Download or view it on Mediafire:

"http://www.mediafire.com/watch/?yaaep0xq99uxb3y'>Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

 

==========================================

 

General Tips

•Venkas have a rough time hitting Crawlers and Kubrows. Try using Lethal Clash, the uppercuts can hit low enemies, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.

Edited May 14, 2015 by DarkTails

[Holeypaladin]

Melee weapons in general seem to be much better against the Infected, yeah.

 

Have you tried using Ash as a melee frame yet?  With the combo buildup of Bladestorm, plus the stealth damage multiplier, I consider him the best melee frame, better than Valkyr.

[MechaTails]

I got Ash to 30 and used him for Movember because he looked so manly with a moustache, but I wasn't thrilled with that frame. I might come back to it next Movember lol.

 

Test Update

Tried Venkas against lv35ish Grineer Mobile Defense

Same build

 

Holy crap, I finally saw another Banshee in the game :D

 

She kept spamming Silence, which is kinda annoying, removing the challenge entirely. BUT, it actually turned me into a wrestler xD

 

Silence lets you perform Stealth Finishers from behind and Counters from the front, Venkas animations for both of those involve jamming the claws into their torso, lifting the enemy triumphantly over your head, then slamming them down with extreme prejudice as their friends watch in horror. Now imagine being able to do that at will? My gawd it was glorious, the only thing that would make it better is if you could throw them at the other enemies to knock them down.

[MechaTails]

Test Update

Same build
Banshee + Venka
Versus Lv50ish Corrupted (Wave 30 T4 Defense)
4 players, Mesa, Trin, Frost, Banshee

First 15 waves were a snooze, Mesa made the game boring as hell. I missed the wave 10 reward from AFKing, its so boring. Trinity was a good substitute for Life Strike. I didnt use Sonar or Silence, again, to see if the Venkas would shine on their own.

Once Nullifiers and Bombards started showing up, ending Mesa's bullS#&$, the game got interesting. While the others wasted ammo breaking the Nullifier shields, I could just slide jump at them and kill them outright with the Venkas. Once I killed the Nullifier, I could then Sonic Boom and escape, or hope my team backed me up with bullets as I slashed away at everything around me.

 

Normal enemies were a good test of reflexes and comboing.

 

Heavies were fun to fight 1 or 2 at a time, lots of rolling and flipping and slamming and furious dropkicks to the face. Any more than that and i was asking to get killed with stunlocks and rockets.

I died like 3 times, my fault for thinking i could F*** with 4 Heavies and Nullifiers at the same time lol.

Edited March 25, 2015 by DarkTails

[MechaTails]

Anyone have requests for missions or scenarios you want me to test? Id post videos but i dont feel like dedicating all day to upload just one video, i have crappy upload speed.

[MechaTails]

You don't know how satisfying it is to suplex Infested and gorilla press slam the Crawlers, it's like power-slamming ugly little babies, or bashing open your kids' ugly Halloween pumpkins.

Edited March 18, 2015 by DarkTails

[Telogor]

OP, the phrase is Veni, Vidi, Vici.

[MechaTails]

OP, the phrase is Veni, Vidi, Vici.

 

I'm upvoting your post because I'm almost sure you're being facetious, good job xD

 

*quickly hides error and pretends nothing happened*

B)

Edited March 18, 2015 by DarkTails

[Coryphaus]

You don't know how satisfying it is to suplex Infested and gorilla press slam the Crawlers, it's like power-slamming ugly little babies, or bashing open really ugly year-old pumpkins.

 

LOL!

 

I feel the same way. Malicious Raptor's combos are a visual feast in their viciousness.

 

After IMPALING the enemy with both claws, he removes them from his claws by (a) LIFTING THEM OVER HIS HEAD and SLAMMING them to the ground, (b) BREAKING THEIR BACKS ON HIS KNEE.

 

Wicked Slash plays out like a punch drunk boxer's desultory strikes until the last bit where he slashes apart his target like a PSYCHO trying to dismember his victim while it's still standing.

 

Venging Thrash is so intimate when your frame pulls your target close and STABS IT THREE TIMES IN THE LIVER, plants BOTH claws in its chest, and PULLS IT APART WHILE HEADBUTTING YOUR TARGET. If that's not bad enough, if the target isn't killed after all that, your next blow will IMPALE the target with both claws, LIFT it over your head and chuck the CORPSE ON THE GROUND.

 

I almost get orgasmic sensations whenever I use Venka!

 

Malicious Raptor is the very meaning of "extreme prejudice", and turns every foe in Warframe into victims.

[Coryphaus]

Next Project for my Venka is to put Max Primed Reach on it and Heat mods, so that I can set a whole circle of foes around me alight, and watch them struggle with one eye while dismembering/stabbing/impaling a chosen target to death. :D

[Coryphaus]

You don't know how satisfying it is to suplex Infested and gorilla press slam the Crawlers, it's like power-slamming ugly little babies, or bashing open really ugly year-old pumpkins.

 

Playing with Nova is awesome the way Molecular Prime's effect makes it seem like Infested torsos are bursting apart from the onslaught :D

[MechaTails]

Lol yeah, Wicked Slash turns you into a blender at the end.

 

Venging Thrash works on Corrupted Vor, the 3 stabs hit him right in the weakspot.

[MechaTails]

By the way, the new Ripkas are essentially straight buffed up Venkas, so grab those if you've got a number fetish.

[MechaTails]

Next Project for my Venka is to put Max Primed Reach on it and Heat mods, so that I can set a whole circle of foes around me alight, and watch them struggle with one eye while dismembering/stabbing/impaling a chosen target to death. :D

Did you ever put primed reach on them? Would be funny to uppercut a bunch of enemies at once lol

[Racercowboy]

Interesting. Did you ever do a retest of the grineer without the awesomeness known as silence? Would be interesting to see what they are like. 

Edited April 8, 2015 by Racercowboy

[Spikey844]

Venka are a bit of a diamond in the rough. I took them back out recently, and once you get bezerker going, you become an infested shredder :D 

[MechaTails]

Interesting. Did you ever do a retest of the grineer without the awesomeness known as silence? Would be interesting to see what they are like. 

 

Maps like Kiste, Ceres, where the Grineer are densely packed, were a pain to get through because of how many bullets are flying at you at once. It's hard to isolate enemies or find cover. Not impossible, but you'll feel your sphincter pucker a few times, if not outright die lol. I tend to abuse Sonic Boom on maps like that.

 

Solo it's alright, but in a 4-player squad it's rough because the enemy spawns go up. Then again, there's usually someone cheesing it by spamming Molecular Prime or using Mesa, so the experience varies wildly.

 

Venka are a bit of a diamond in the rough. I took them back out recently, and once you get bezerker going, you become an infested shredder :D 

 

Blend-zerker lol

[MechaTails]

In about 3 hours I'll post 20 minutes worth of video showing just how "viable" Berserker is on Venkas.

[MechaTails]

I just spent 3 hours uploading the videos to mediafire. Got the confirmation that the zipfile uploaded completely. Went to check the file to get the share link and it says I didn't upload anything.

 

IDGAF anymore lol

[Yinglong]

I'm surprised you went through all that trouble to making a video to express that statement.

 

This video pretty much nails it on the head whether something is Berserker viable or not. Sharing it to someone else would have saved you the time.

 

 

To answer your question whether Primed Reach is worth it on the weapon, the answer is no. The reach difference is too negligible to give up a mod slot for (tested with Malicious and Riders), even for Loki or Ash to take advantage of. The issue is that for a natively short ranged weapon, you're still not likely strike multiple enemies consistently much like the Staff and Polearm classes to make a real difference in DPS. The only benefit is a slight ease of successful strikes.

 

Now, about that build.

 

At first glance, I'll admit, I was skeptical (and still am). It left me on the fence left scratching my head how a slash/fire build would perform optimally on all factions. I thought it may have been the slash/fire dot stacking, but for melee it's not that great in contrast when firearms use it, speaking in practice.

 

So far I'm getting mixed results on my end, but not enough to draw a conclusion (for now). So far I've tested it on Grineer in Ceres. Nuovo is my go-to-place for more consistent spawns and the R5 cores are a nice bonus. Egeria is mostly running through empty rooms, I'm not a fan of the Grineer Shipyards.

 

I've yet to test it on Corpus, but like the poster above mentioned earlier, anything slash based will perform decently against Infestation especially since they do possess rather lower effective health values comparatively to other factions.

 

I'm sleepy at the moment, I'll post more at a another time.

 

Any luck on that Four Riders stance?

[MechaTails]

No luck with 4 Riders stance, never gonna get it buhuhu

 

--------------------------------------

 

My mistake was thinking technology would work like I expect it to, forgetting it actually wants to foil me at every step lol. I'm going to upload 1 a day, 20 minutes straight isnt too digestible anyway.

You will almost always have at least one stack of Berserker active on Venkas, as long as you're actively playing the game. The bonus is that you'll also keep proccing Berserker to get up to +90% attack speed.

Edited May 11, 2015 by DarkTails

[MechaTails]

There we go, added 3 videos so far, more tomorrow

[Holeypaladin]

Anyone have requests for missions or scenarios you want me to test? 

Try Ash using a stealth/bladestorm build.  For ideas how to mod Ash, you could try primed continuity and narrow minded for smoke screen (double damage melee attacks), rising storm and stretch, and fleeting expertise for bladestorm (makes melee combo counter last twice as long, to build up the high multipliers), and steel charge aura.

 

In my experience this is the best melee build, but what do you think?

[elele]

useless mogamu video

 

as always

 

OP has a point.

[elele]

There we go, added 3 videos so far, more tomorrow

 

But the million dollar question is whether Venka works on lvl 90 enemies. I'm curious of at what level Venka dmg would fall off.