Banshee's Sound Quake [Bugged?]

[TGPhoenix]

Several friends and I all completed the Banshee at the same time a little while ago.  As we were going through and leveling them up, I started to notice that mine felt underpowered compared to the others. Watching closely I found that Sound Quake is only ticking damage numbers 5x over 7 secs (instead of the 6x that the wiki states it should) and isn't killing much of anything on level in alerts, Kiste, etc. Sound Quake is at max ranks, as well as Focus (Continuity is as well, even though it *shouldn't* affect Sound Quake currently).  Grineer regularly laugh at my ultimate and live with a sliver of health. Meanwhile my friends all using the exact same setups can kill things in a single ultimate with no worry.  This results not only in me not contributing as much to the team, but in not being able to compete with them in kill counts at the end.

 

I am wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences with Banshee and if this is a bug or if I am just doing something wrong?

[GtXx]

I have the same problems.. I never have problem with Kiste, but now I can't kill the Grineers with Sound Quake (Full Focus and Continuity) . There is almost 25% HP left. 

[Xanezz]

I have the same problems.. I never have problem with Kiste, but now I can't kill the Grineers with Sound Quake (Full Focus and Continuity) . There is almost 25% HP left. 

Continuity doesn't improve Sound Quake.

[OrtuOcelot]

Lv40+ mobs will not really go down with quake, maybe one or two that are right on you, but I know lv55 mobs won't die even if they're sniffing your ninja undies >.< it's not a bug, but also the farther the enemy the less damage they take, so equipping a maxed "Reach" along with a maxed "Sound Quake" and "Focus" will go a long way and you will take out close to medium mobs of up to lv30-35. And by the way, "Continuity" has no effect on "Sound Quake", so might as well trade it for "Reach" while you're at it  ; D

[TGPhoenix]

Just to clarify, my full mod setup is this -> maxed Sound Quake, maxed Focus, maxed Reach, maxed Continuity, Streamline with 4 rank ups, Flow with 2 rank ups, Vitality with 6 rank ups, Redirection with 2 rank ups and Sonar with 2 rank ups. The Continuity is only on there for the Sonar, but everything that directly affects Banshee's Sound Quake damage is maxed out.  Kiste has mobs ranging from lvl 25-35  and I still can't kill them unless they are directly on top of me and sometimes not even then.  The only mobs I can consistently kill with my Sound Quake are the melee mobs which have very little armor, the regular base Grineer units don't go down short of "sniffing my ninja undies."  (I love how you put that OrtuOcelot) My friends have been able to get major groups to go down to their Sound Quakes, usually killing everything short of heavies, even at noticeably further distances.

 

Still I point to the fact that Sound Quake is only doing damage 5x instead of 6x when I use it.

Edited May 15, 2013 by TGPhoenix

[OrtuOcelot]

I think I've always counted 5 myself, but I never knew it was meant to be 6 /: But then again DE has yet to release official stats too, so who's to say the bug is 6? : o Nevertheless I can safely say I am truly satisfied with quake : D, sometime you'll have that RNG hit you with a mass of enemies, and in a matter of seconds there's none standing...I just hope they don't tone her down, I'm selfish like that :p on topic, though, I can take care of Corups lv55 mobs, but that's simply because they have no armor like grineer, which allows for some "resistance" since quake is affected by their armor. I'm not familiar with Kiste, but I have had lv25-lv28 grinner in Kappa but even then I can still kill them fro mthe condole room to the catwalk on the outside, and if there's some on the border of that, tiny-small dmg to those...hmm...

[Lady_Solaire]

Enemies on Kiste will take a lot less damages because they have higher level & armor compared to Kappa's.

 

Sound quake should only hit 4-6 times IIRC, but a bug gives it "double hits" when you are off-host.

 

In other words, Sound Quake becomes completely useless against Grineers as early as level 40, unless you are off-host, because of the double-hit glitch.

 

SQ is a crowd control ability with great range and unlimited target cap, it's logical that its damages get mitigated. It doesn't need a nerf, DE simply needs to fix the double-hit glitch.

 

You are experiencing the "vanilla" Sound Quake as host, your friends enjoy the super steroided version because of a coding glitch when off-host.

[TGPhoenix]

In other words, Sound Quake becomes completely useless against Grineers as early as level 40, unless you are off-host, because of the double-hit glitch.

 

SQ is a crowd control ability with great range and unlimited target cap, it's logical that its damages get mitigated. It doesn't need a nerf, DE simply needs to fix the double-hit glitch.

 

You are experiencing the "vanilla" Sound Quake as host, your friends enjoy the super steroided version because of a coding glitch when off-host.

I hadn't heard about the double-hitting glitch. That would completely explain why I am receiving the worst damage of the group as I am always host when we play together (usually strongest internet connection). Thank you, that helps a lot in understanding why I constantly feel underpowered compared with them. 

 

Now on another point you brought up - SQ being "crowd control" is almost laughable compared with every other CC in the game and I think that its damage needs a small boost to compensate for that, but I do see where you are coming from at least. 7 seconds where your team is almost as blind and useless as the enemies caught in the effect because of how much it messes with their screens means that it does next to nothing useful as a CC other than slow the enemy very briefly. I get it having less damage because it has a huge range and it should fall off before other warframes, I just feel that "standard content" (ie regular mobs all the way through pluto, without going into endless defense) should die to any of the major damaging ultimates consistently. So, not only does Banshee's ult not get affected by a mod that logically would improve it in many ways (Continuity), but even at maxed out potential it only kills trash mobs halfway through the game and after that even at point blank range it requires either being cast a second time to kill them or shooting them to finish them off, which is tough for teammates to do during the ultimate because of its animation. I can't see that the 7 seconds of crowd control is worth more than being able to kill basic trash throughout the game.

 

I guess Banshee just isn't the right warframe for me right now, back to Saryn then...... :/

[Lady_Solaire]

I hadn't heard about the double-hitting glitch. That would completely explain why I am receiving the worst damage of the group as I am always host when we play together (usually strongest internet connection). Thank you, that helps a lot in understanding why I constantly feel underpowered compared with them. 

 

Now on another point you brought up - SQ being "crowd control" is almost laughable compared with every other CC in the game and I think that its damage needs a small boost to compensate for that, but I do see where you are coming from at least. 7 seconds where your team is almost as blind and useless as the enemies caught in the effect because of how much it messes with their screens means that it does next to nothing useful as a CC other than slow the enemy very briefly. I get it having less damage because it has a huge range and it should fall off before other warframes, I just feel that "standard content" (ie regular mobs all the way through pluto, without going into endless defense) should die to any of the major damaging ultimates consistently. So, not only does Banshee's ult not get affected by a mod that logically would improve it in many ways (Continuity), but even at maxed out potential it only kills trash mobs halfway through the game and after that even at point blank range it requires either being cast a second time to kill them or shooting them to finish them off, which is tough for teammates to do during the ultimate because of its animation. I can't see that the 7 seconds of crowd control is worth more than being able to kill basic trash throughout the game.

 

I guess Banshee just isn't the right warframe for me right now, back to Saryn then...... :/

 

This is working as intended though, the Banshee is a support/off-dps frame. Your ultimate is meant to soften and stunlock enemies so your team can easily dispatch them, which is what SQ do.

 

Grineers are very resilient to it because even their basic units have a lot of armor.

 

If you want to kill high-level, high-armor units, use Sonar.

 

Free glowy weakpoints granting 400% damage increase stacking with regular weaknesses is more than enough to make the Banshee completely viable against everything.

 

I just had a game with a level 45 Stalker invading me, Sonar highlighted his head, my buddy killed him in 2 or 3 headshots of his Snipetron while I was protected by SQ's I-Frame.