How Should I Play Nekros?

[Kronos44]

As a new player having just started playing under a month, I was very excited to spend money and buy the Nekros Warframe. I thought the prospect of killing mobs with their own soul, extra loot, and becoming a minion master was going to be an amazing class choice. 

 

After playing for a little bit, I noticed that the Nekros is very squishy, and his damage is sub-par. How should I play/mod Nekros so that I can have the most fun while still being an asset to the team?

 

Thank you so much for your responses,

Newbkros

[Shaydewalker]

Press 3 and then cry because you realize you've been doing it for the last 45 minutes

[(PSN)jFresh215]

Nekros really isn't good at anything but farming imo. his abilities after desecrate are all subpar. his 1 is almost no damage but provides ok straight line cc. terrify is good cc and is good for getting to extraction when doing those long survival camping missions. shadows is good as it draws aggro and gives you some "minions" but most people run overextended on nekros and that really hurts their damage. i play nekros to camp and because he is my favorite warframe aesthetically.  

Edited May 28, 2015 by (PS4)jFresh215

[xlraistlx]

Well the most common build is a Desecrate one, and while it is effective is not fun to use (at least IMO). This is increased range and power efficiency.

 

Other one may be a summoner one, achieved by increasing the power strength and power duration.

 

As per the survability (and leaving aside that Vitality is a must), increasing armor vía Steel Fiber wont do much so i'd just leave it aside. Personally I find the combo Flow + Quick thinking very effective on frames that doesn't have much armor, sadly Nekros doesn't have an increased energy pool which makes it not so great, but still a viable way of survability, plus using this with a Equilibrium mod will be very efficient, as health pick ups will grant you energy and viceversa, and the amount of health orbs Desecrate yields is a significant number.

[KlarVyvern]

A healthy dose of range, efficency and duration is recommended. Unless you want to click "3" to farm all day long you'll probably have to support the team by drawing fire away from them. Terrify will spook all the enemies around you and cause them to momentarily remove themselves from combat. Shadows of the dead will be useful for distracting enemies and maybe put some hurt on them.

Edited May 28, 2015 by KlarVyvern

[Exinanis]

I remember of a discussion a while back concerning equilibrium being used to make nekros some kind of makeshift tank, can anyone confirm this?

[OvAeons]

Nekros really isn't good at anything but farming imo. his abilities after desecrate are all subpar. his 1 is almost no damage but provides ok straight line cc. terrify is good cc and is good for getting to extraction when doing those long survival camping missions. shadows is good as it draws aggro and gives you some "minions" but most people run overextended on nekros and that really hurts their damage. i play nekros to camp and because he is my favorite warframe aesthetically.  

don't listen to this. if you want his use to be boring do this.

 

for general play i do this and it has worked amazingly well for me. i know it may not be obtainable for a newer player but it is something to work towards and you can still get a decent build with less costly mods. probably not the best mix, but it is balanced and eveything is usable. Taken i did throw the build together in a few minutes :P equilibrium is awesome but his build is tight, but it is all down to preference.

Edited May 28, 2015 by OvAeons

[ThePredicament]

Get rid of Redirection unless using the Des aug mod, what you really want to do is liter the field with health orbs. Get max out an Equilibrium (or R8) and max out a Braton Prime. Shoot enemies dead, shoot them when dead to split bodies. You'll never run out of red orbs which will make you and your team "tanky" and with the help of equilibrium, you won't run out of magic either.

 

I've noticed that most people don't play him correctly and build for farming but they never equip Braton Prime (or a body splitting weapon) and farm efficiently. If you kill ten enemies while splitting maybe five you'll get fifteen maybe even twenty things to Des at once, just do it once and you're done.

 

If you want to see a master of Neks, add me and we can run a game so you can learn a bit.

 

ALSO, if you are going to Des, remember to use it to reload cancel OR while wavedashing, holding crouch while casting will let you slide.

[Kronos44]

Thank you so much for your help guys, I think all this input will really help me get going :D

[Urologist]

As a new player having just started playing under a month, I was very excited to spend money and buy the Nekros Warframe. I thought the prospect of killing mobs with their own soul, extra loot, and becoming a minion master was going to be an amazing class choice. 

 

After playing for a little bit, I noticed that the Nekros is very squishy, and his damage is sub-par. How should I play/mod Nekros so that I can have the most fun while still being an asset to the team?

 

Thank you so much for your responses,

Newbkros

Just off the top here, a mod called shield of shadows can really increase your nekros's survivability, you can easily get it off of someone for maybe 10 plat in the trading chat

[xlraistlx]

I just tested OvAeons' build (but with regular continuity) and while the cost of desecrate is a little too high for what I'm used to, it's a very well balanced build and it's probably what I'll run from now on.

 

Completely recomend it OP.

[OvAeons]

I just tested OvAeons' build (but with regular continuity) and while the cost of desecrate is a little too high for what I'm used to, it's a very well balanced build and it's probably what I'll run from now on.

 

Completely recomend it OP.

unless i am stupid and do not watch my health i have not had any issues with gaining back what i desecrate XD shadows augment also helps conserve health :P

[noteom]

despoil + 4 forma furis + syndicate augment

also, shield of shadows as mentioned above

 

re: equilibrium

if you use despoil you will always be below max health, and so will pick up lots of health orbs, which means your energy constantly gets topped off.

if you have an extra spot you could put quick thinking on there, too

[rohver]

pick spot near vauban/mesa, spam 3. Profit. 

[xenozid]

1.: build for range, efficiency and survivability with natural talent for unlimited desecrate spam in ressource farm groups (coupled with greedy mag and mesa). this either gets boring really quick or exploitive (macro), wouldn't call this "playing" nekro, yet good to have this setup.

 

2.: the sometimes advertised survival crutch (he generates O² packs with desecrate, in long runs life support drains faster the longer you stay) has a mayor problem when modded for desecrate only -> he's squishy and his other skills are useless due to lack of duration and power. essentially the moment you would start needing his extra O² (40min+) is the moment he'll start dying. this is where his augments come into play -> despoil and shield of shadows. mod for power str to reach the dmg reduction cap of shadowshield (90%) with 15 summons. this also leads to an immensly strong army because they scale with enemy lvl. the insane cost of desecrate is mitigated with despoil, you essentially have the same "mana"pool like a max. efficiency build without despoil (150mana/13drain vs. 740hitpoints/73drain). "b-b-but that's my HP!" here take a lifesteal furis. primary should be massmurder capable to restock on the 15shodows in 44seconds, tonkor highly recommended. this concept has been stress tested in quite a few 60+ min survivals and 2000+cryotic excavations (while more often than not leading in kill%). here be builds:

http://goo.gl/paXgog nekros

http://goo.gl/SOQe1h tonkor

http://goo.gl/XDBCyT furis

melee doesn't really matter, something slash based to hack up the corpses i guess (more pieces = more loot)

Edited May 29, 2015 by xenon_nobelium

[srlhama]

pick spot near vauban/mesa, spam 3. Profit.

I im ashamed that the combo mesa/mag/nekros still work, it simple kills the gameplay, and yes I know profit... but stay on the same place pressing the same button for at least 20/30 minutes makes me thinking on where warframe will go, and reduces the importance players give to Nekros and Mag.

About our necromancer I can say Shield of Shadows is uselles IMO, your minions already get all the aggro for theyselfs(?), power strenght for Terrify works much better to CC than the augment.

And use a weapon that dismember our enemies like the BratonPrime the guy already said, Tigris, Flux Rifle(meh), Drakgoon(?), Kohm, AkJagara, Pyrana or melee like Mire(it cuts everything on half), Scoliac, Atterax, Ether Daggers and Scindo Prime.

And dont forget to Soul Punch every heavy unit you saw to knockdown and stop their high damage.

The (?) Mean that I'm not sure with I wrote it right.

[jonnin]

I really did not care for nekros after I got it.   He is easily killed and has 1 good ablity: summon ghosts for a very short duration.  At endgame with forma and all the mods and such this becomes rather good (a good 30 seconds of hard hitting allies) but even so it pales in comparison to a good aoe ability for much of the game.  And it costs a lot of power for what you get ... and its an expensive weak ability if you do NOT have all the right mods to make it strong.

 

The other ability of note produces loot, using it when you kill a large number of enemy in a small area to get the occasional mod and a bunch of  more or less garbage (typical healing, power, ammo drop stuff which you get in spades without the special ability).   This is excellent for, again, getting extra mods and secondly, toward endgame or doing content that is particularly difficult for your team, you get some heals and ammo restored etc which is really good *when you need it*.    Spamming it on every group that dies in "standard" difficulty content, 90% of this stuff goes to waste as it isnt needed. 

 

His other two abilities are mostly junk.   A well timed terror aoe can be really good, in some circumstances, but its very situational.

 

So there you have it... a weak frame that can farm a few extra mods and resupply your team --- and at high levels, with a useful but pricy ability to summon allies.   I think that he is going to be very difficult to play without a ton of mods and experience with the game... you might want to store this frame until you are further along.   Its very playable after you have the power frame mods, like streamline, stretch, blah blah all maxed out and have a good handle on how to use terror, desecrate, and summons (knowing when and where to use them, its all about timing here) to support a group.  As for damage ... the summoned guys hit hard and are quite effective when facing large numbers of enemy --- but only at deep endgame are they stronger than spam-aoe frames.   Nekro is not an aoe bomber for low - mid level butchery, he is a weird support frame mostly.  Unless the team NEEDS the terror and desecrate support,  his role becomes greatly reduced.

Edited May 29, 2015 by jonnin

[Noble_Cactus]

I im ashamed that the combo mesa/mag/nekros still work, it simple kills the gameplay, and yes I know profit... but stay on the same place pressing the same button for at least 20/30 minutes makes me thinking on where warframe will go, and reduces the importance players give to Nekros and Mag.

 

 

It's been that way for the past two years, unfortunately.