Is Equinox Even Good?

[NocturneOfSolace]

Abilities seem rather lack luster

[PsychedelicSnake]

I love her. I don't have any problem with her abilities or her survivability. The only problem I've had was trouble finding good colors for her.

[IX-44]

Equinox is VERY much worth it. The downside, as with any frame, is that if you want to pile a bunch of maxed mods on her, you need to forma her three or four (five if you're using the new utility slot) times. The upside is that she is, by far, the most balanced Warframe in this game right now. (No pun intended.)

Her first ability gives reasonably strong buffs when switching.

Her second abilities are amazing. Rest needs a slight base range buff but it makes her viable for stealth missions. Rage makes enemies take more damage in turn for making them move faster, and dealing more damage is always nice.

Her third abilities are VERY useful. Pacify at max rank without using strength mods offers a 50% damage decrease to nearby enemies, resulting in them doing very little damage. Provoke boost nearby ally power strength. Need I say more there?

 

Her ultimates are by far the most useful on introduction we've seen in a long time. Both of them can scale near endlessly.

Maim puts a 100% chance to Slash proc nearby enemies within the aura and builds up damage when you damage enemies in the aura. When you reactivate her ultimate, you unleash your stored damage evenly over all enemies in the aura, potentially dealing a good 5,000 damage or more depending on how much damage you've stored and how many enemies are in your aura.

 

Mend heals allies, plain and simple. It's charge mechanics are similar to Maim in that the more damage you do, the more that gets stored into your ability. It is VERY easy to reach a 1,000 health heal for your entire squad (dealing around 4,000 damage). Yet, Mend also heals defence cryopods and the like right now, which can potentially turn the tide in that 80-wave defence.

 

 

All in all, she's a very well made Warframe, and is nothing to laugh at. Anyone who has been saying she costs a lot and that needs to be brought down hasn't (of course) played her yet. She is truly two frames in one and deserves to be treated as such.

[Sir_Alex_Traffo]

Equinox is VERY much worth it. The downside, as with any frame, is that if you want to pile a bunch of maxed mods on her, you need to forma her three or four (five if you're using the new utility slot) times. The upside is that she is, by far, the most balanced Warframe in this game right now. (No pun intended.)

Her first ability gives reasonably strong buffs when switching.

Her second abilities are amazing. Rest needs a slight base range buff but it makes her viable for stealth missions. Rage makes enemies take more damage in turn for making them move faster, and dealing more damage is always nice.

Her third abilities are VERY useful. Pacify at max rank without using strength mods offers a 50% damage decrease to nearby enemies, resulting in them doing very little damage. Provoke boost nearby ally power strength. Need I say more there?

 

Her ultimates are by far the most useful on introduction we've seen in a long time. Both of them can scale near endlessly.

Maim puts a 100% chance to Slash proc nearby enemies within the aura and builds up damage when you damage enemies in the aura. When you reactivate her ultimate, you unleash your stored damage evenly over all enemies in the aura, potentially dealing a good 5,000 damage or more depending on how much damage you've stored and how many enemies are in your aura.

 

Mend heals allies, plain and simple. It's charge mechanics are similar to Maim in that the more damage you do, the more that gets stored into your ability. It is VERY easy to reach a 1,000 health heal for your entire squad (dealing around 4,000 damage). Yet, Mend also heals defence cryopods and the like right now, which can potentially turn the tide in that 80-wave defence.

 

 

All in all, she's a very well made Warframe, and is nothing to laugh at. Anyone who has been saying she costs a lot and that needs to be brought down hasn't (of course) played her yet. She is truly two frames in one and deserves to be treated as such.

Uhm, I can't wait to try her now!

[NocturneOfSolace]

Equinox is VERY much worth it. The downside, as with any frame, is that if you want to pile a bunch of maxed mods on her, you need to forma her three or four (five if you're using the new utility slot) times. The upside is that she is, by far, the most balanced Warframe in this game right now. (No pun intended.)

Her first ability gives reasonably strong buffs when switching.

Her second abilities are amazing. Rest needs a slight base range buff but it makes her viable for stealth missions. Rage makes enemies take more damage in turn for making them move faster, and dealing more damage is always nice.

Her third abilities are VERY useful. Pacify at max rank without using strength mods offers a 50% damage decrease to nearby enemies, resulting in them doing very little damage. Provoke boost nearby ally power strength. Need I say more there?

 

Her ultimates are by far the most useful on introduction we've seen in a long time. Both of them can scale near endlessly.

Maim puts a 100% chance to Slash proc nearby enemies within the aura and builds up damage when you damage enemies in the aura. When you reactivate her ultimate, you unleash your stored damage evenly over all enemies in the aura, potentially dealing a good 5,000 damage or more depending on how much damage you've stored and how many enemies are in your aura.

 

Mend heals allies, plain and simple. It's charge mechanics are similar to Maim in that the more damage you do, the more that gets stored into your ability. It is VERY easy to reach a 1,000 health heal for your entire squad (dealing around 4,000 damage). Yet, Mend also heals defence cryopods and the like right now, which can potentially turn the tide in that 80-wave defence.

 

 

All in all, she's a very well made Warframe, and is nothing to laugh at. Anyone who has been saying she costs a lot and that needs to be brought down hasn't (of course) played her yet. She is truly two frames in one and deserves to be treated as such.

Sweet

[PsiWarp]

Equinox is designed for highly skilled players who can micromanage her skills in real time, having a large ability kit to suit the player's and teammates' needs in a wide variety of scenarios and gamemode. She's just that versatile.

[Tarror]

She's not good for high lvl endless survivals. 

 

Power 1 buff is only marginal and you shouldn't rely on it especially with the 2 second switch delay that also prevents you from using other abilities. Switching also deactivates your other abilities that you have active,

 

Power 2 Rest, due to lack of range, you'll have to spam it like crazy to minimize getting shot at. If you enter a room with a lot of enemies, its going to take you a while to CC them all. Also, you can't refresh Rest on a target. The target has to wake up first from the original duration, then recast rest to put them back to sleep

 

Power 3 Pacify is 50% damage reduction at base. Hardly enough to consider it dependable. Also range is poor, so enemies will easily do full damage at range. Pacify drains alot of energy if a bunch of enemies are around, though pacify drains no energy if no enemies.

 

Power 4 Maim slash proc is weak, and the damage storage is based only on kills and only a percentage of that damage is taken into account. Mend's aura does nothing, and the process of storing damage to unleash a limited range heal means its not worth it to spam these abilities when you need to.

 

If you want to buff or heal your teammates, you need to keep them in range. Much easier done in Defense or camping. The Strength buff is only marginal also.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Tarror

[IX-44]

@ Tarror

 

She's great for high endless missions, her ults, specifically Maim, turn into thousands and thousands of hp healed and damage dealt.

 

Power 1's buff isn't meant to be relied upon, but with the right build the armor buff switching from day to night can reach insane amounts of armor. It makes perfect sense that it would deactivate abilities.

 

Rest certainly needs a range buff, but the duration is fine if you aren't running a minimal duration build.

 

Pacify is a steady 50% damage reduction. How is that not dependable? It also is effected by power strength last I checked, and can result in even more than just a 50% damage reduction. Don't run a minimal range build. Stretch should be enough.

 

While Maim's slash proc is weak, it IS a slash proc, and it IS a 100% chance. It shouldn't do Ash Bladestorm levels of bleed proc.

 

 

 

Equinox isn't made for spamming abilities at random, she's made for coordinating with your teammates using your abilities.

 

The key with her is communication.

[achromos]

She's not good for high lvl endless survivals. 

 

Power 1 buff is only marginal and you shouldn't rely on it especially with the 2 second switch delay that also prevents you from using other abilities. Switching also deactivates your other abilities that you have active,

 

Power 2 Rest, due to lack of range, you'll have to spam it like crazy to minimize getting shot at. If you enter a room with a lot of enemies, its going to take you a while to CC them all. Also, you can't refresh Rest on a target. The target has to wake up first from the original duration, then recast rest to put them back to sleep

 

Power 3 Pacify is 50% damage reduction at base. Hardly enough to consider it dependable. Also range is poor, so enemies will easily do full damage at range. Pacify drains alot of energy if a bunch of enemies are around, though pacify drains no energy if no enemies.

 

Power 4 Maim slash proc is weak, and the damage storage is based only on kills and only a percentage of that damage is taken into account. Mend's aura does nothing, and the process of storing damage to unleash a limited range heal means its not worth it to spam these abilities when you need to.

 

If you want to buff or heal your teammates, you need to keep them in range. Much easier done in Defense or camping. The Strength buff is only marginal also.

 

Power 1:  I believe that it really REALLY should be buffed to last at least 60 seconds without duration mods effecting it.

 

Power 2: Rest, you will be using on priority targets, like bombards.  or if you are caught in a reload or if there are 3+ enemies close together.  Though I do agree that rest needs to have higher range.

 

Power 3: Pacify is dependable IF you have a decent range mod on, however I wouldn't say no to a range increase.

 

Power 4:  Maim is actually useful to STUN high level enemies if you don't have a good charge saved up or aren't close or are in a pinch.  I've taken bombards out and locked them down repeatedly by flicking maim on and off, on and off each time it was up until the danger was cleared.  Mend is... very unwieldy in my opinion unless you are ALREADY in night form and have good prediction skills of 'when' you will or wont need it otherwise you are just draining energy for nothing.

 

If your allys want your buffs, they need to stay within the same room as you if you at least have a max range stretch and they can just bullet jump over and use the ability they want and then go back into the fray.  I haven't tested this out but I BET you could buff a entire large room [probably a majority of A raid room [the pressure plate room im talking about] and lock down enemies using maim.  It's expensive solo so having a trinity nearby will ease the costs but it's doable.

 

So far I've gone to 33 minutes in T4S solo, aiming for 40 and I can feel it's possible, I just keep making horrible mistakes that would kill anyone, so she's viable, very.   She requires a higher skill-cap at the moment being honest, awareness and ability to utilize both forms.

Edited August 3, 2015 by achromos

[----Fenrir----]

Equinox is designed for highly skilled players who can micromanage her skills in real time, having a large ability kit to suit the player's and teammates' needs in a wide variety of scenarios and gamemode. She's just that versatile.

 

The problem with that is that currently only 2 abilities are useful, both Day-form, so there is little need to micromanage anything.

[weezedog]

Their ultimates are pretty beast and scale very well. It's a creative use of mechanics. Metamorphosis is kinda a waste, I think the buffs from it should be permanently a part of each form. Night form should have increased shields and armor and day form increased speed and damage. Real physical permanent differences between the forms. Because you don't really change forms that often to be honest. You are too busy building damage with maim to switch forms.

Edited August 3, 2015 by weezedog

[Tarror]

Power 1:  I believe that it really REALLY should be buffed to last at least 60 seconds without duration mods effecting it.

 

Power 2: Rest, you will be using on priority targets, like bombards.  or if you are caught in a reload or if there are 3+ enemies close together.  Though I do agree that rest needs to have higher range.

 

Power 3: Pacify is dependable IF you have a decent range mod on, however I wouldn't say no to a range increase.

 

Power 4:  Maim is actually useful to STUN high level enemies if you don't have a good charge saved up or aren't close or are in a pinch.  I've taken bombards out and locked them down repeatedly by flicking maim on and off, on and off each time it was up until the danger was cleared.  Mend is... very unwieldy in my opinion unless you are ALREADY in night form and have good prediction skills of 'when' you will or wont need it otherwise you are just draining energy for nothing.

 

If your allys want your buffs, they need to stay within the same room as you if you at least have a max range stretch and they can just bullet jump over and use the ability they want and then go back into the fray.  I haven't tested this out but I BET you could buff a entire large room [probably a majority of A raid room [the pressure plate room im talking about] and lock down enemies using maim.  It's expensive solo so having a trinity nearby will ease the costs but it's doable.

 

So far I've gone to 33 minutes in T4S solo, aiming for 40 and I can feel it's possible, I just keep making horrible mistakes that would kill anyone, so she's viable, very.   She requires a higher skill-cap at the moment being honest, awareness and ability to utilize both forms.

 

I'm just saying the abilities are only okay. There's no specialization. With a bunch of other frames i can do 60m T4S solo, without losing a life. A good skilled player can put her to good use, but that can only go so far. I'm sure any frame can go 33 mins in T4S, if the player skill makes up for it. 

 

In defense though, shes good as a nuke with maim, and a slight strength boost.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Tarror

[PsiWarp]

The problem with that is that currently only 2 abilities are useful, both Day-form, so there is little need to micromanage anything.

Don't underestimate Night Equinox. I mainly use her over Day form, and while she may not have widescale crowd control or nuking capabilities, her stun is absolute and longlasting, and her healing keeps even objectives alive and well.

Her playstyle is much like Limbo's rift assasin build. Put hardhitters, Ancients, and Eximi to rest, strike them down with melee (Covert Lethality guarantees a kill, Rest & Dagger is very fun against high level bullet sponges). Or, snipe them down from long range when they can't even move.

Pacify is designed for melee-oriented players, as damage reduction depends on how close enemies are to Equinox. To avoid draining too much energy, keep power range around Stretch values and blitz through as many enemies around you as quickly as possible.

Mend, looks unappealing on first try. It does nothing to enemies or allies while active, and the 10k HP heal seems to go to waste on wounded players and sentinels. But, when you realize Mend can heal objectives as well... Equinox can basically cast Blessing on pods and excavators as long as she earns it through kills! Coupled with semi-decent players and frames and you can very far into endless missions.

That said, I do prefer using Day form should the need to kill the masses arises. Both forms are not equally potent, at least not in the same areas, but each are powerful in their own right.

[Neogeo]

Why did people think so highly of a merely 50% damage duration? Even Valkyr with no mod already had more than 50% reduction with her natural 600 armor. The damage reduction can go up to 75-80% with mod and warcry.

Another example is Trinity, link give 75% damage reduction and cc immunity, bless can instant heal the whole team. Its leap ahead of the clunky switch mechanism that everyone seem to be impress. This is like Limbo reception all over again. Complicated doesn't equal to good. I will wait till novelty worn off. More and more negative feedback will appear.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Neogeo

[IX-44]

Why did people think so highly of a merely 50% damage duration? Even Valkyr with no mod already had 50% reduction with her natural 300 armor. The damage reduction can go up to 75-80% with mod and warcry.

Another example is Trinity, link give 75% damage reduction and cc immunity, bless can instant heal the whole team. Its leap ahead of the clunky switch mechanism that everyone seem to be impress. This is like Limbo reception all over again. Complicated doesn't equal to good. I will wait till novelty worn off. More and more negative feedback will appear.

 

Because its a 50% reduction that caps VERY easily at 85% (I think you only need 170% power strength to hit the cap.) and the fact that the damage reduction isn't just for you.

 

Slap it on Valkyr and suddenly she's taking next to no damage.

 

Also her base armor is 650, not 300.

 

 

It isn't novelty. She is genuinely a great frame if you don't slap max range and efficiency on her or min-max her to S#&$.

[PsiWarp]

I don't think anyone is impressed by Pacify damage reduction, especially when it is so restrictive and expensive to keep up.

Valkyr and Trinity are survivalists and specialists. The difference is they excel at particular roles while sacrificing CC for damage. Equinox trades role specializations and survivability for versatility in offense, defense and support, so she is more adaptable and capable of handling different situations mid-mission.

She isn't without flaws and can use many quality changes. That doesn't mean she has nothing to bring to a team.

Edited August 3, 2015 by PsiWarp

[IX-44]

I don't think anyone is impressed by Pacify damage reduction, especially when it is so restrictive and expensive to keep up.

Valkyr and Trinity are survivalists and specialists. The difference is they excel at particular roles while sacrificing CC for damage. Equinox trades role specializations and survivability for versatility in offense, defense and support, so she is more adaptable and capable of handling different situations mid-mission.

She isn't without flaws and can use many quality changes. That doesn't mean she has nothing to bring to a team.

 

 

It isn't restrictive or expensive at all. The damage reduction applies to enemies within the aura instead of your teammates. For every enemy, at max rank without any changes to efficiency, 0.5 energy is drained per second per enemy.

 

It works beautifully when someone goes down in the middle of a Raid.

 

 

 

 

And I still don't know how a 85% damage reduction ISN'T impressive. 1,000 damage suddenly becomes 150 damage. What wouldn't be impressive about that?

I'm five forma into Equinox and I have to say that she works wonders on Nightmare raids and easily fills the roll of Valkyr as the emergency healer.

 

 

But then again, that's my opinion.

[FelisImpurrator]

All in all, she's a very well made Warframe, and is nothing to laugh at. Anyone who has been saying she costs a lot and that needs to be brought down hasn't (of course) played her yet. She is truly two frames in one and deserves to be treated as such.

On the subject of cost - technically, build time makes it three and a half frames' worth in one unless you simultaneously build the aspects, which RNGesus can deny for a while.

 

As for how Equinox works, my experience and information gathered from the forums: Here.

 

The short version is: Amazing frame, rough execution, needs a good deal of QoL.

 

I'm interested in seeing your build/forma - haven't gotten any forma on them at all yet. But I do know that, say, capping out Range makes Pacify bleed your energy pool dry, Mend's ability to heal cryopods doesn't solve issues with survivability/lack of reliable night-form CC, Provoke doesn't buff Equinox, and a few other issues. But Equinox is still my new favorite frame and working well despite the problems.

[Pride]

She can substitute even frost in defense with pacify and pod heals thru mend

[Tesseract7777]

It isn't restrictive or expensive at all. The damage reduction applies to enemies within the aura instead of your teammates. For every enemy, at max rank without any changes to efficiency, 0.5 energy is drained per second per enemy.

 

It works beautifully when someone goes down in the middle of a Raid.

 

 

 

 

And I still don't know how a 85% damage reduction ISN'T impressive. 1,000 damage suddenly becomes 150 damage. What wouldn't be impressive about that?

I'm five forma into Equinox and I have to say that she works wonders on Nightmare raids and easily fills the roll of Valkyr as the emergency healer.

 

 

But then again, that's my opinion.

 

The problem is the way it works. You and the squad aren't getting a decrease from incoming damage, you are decreasing the damage output of enemies within the aura, and if there are tons of enemies in the aura, even with max efficiency your energy can go down fast. I've experienced it myself and watched my energy disappeared in a heartbeat. 

 

I just want a simple change to that ability. It would still have the 85% damage reduction, but instead of affecting enemies, it would be a reduction that affects squad within the aura. Instead of draining per enemy in aura, it would drain per ally, but just like Provoke only drains energy if a squad member uses an ability, it would only drain energy per sec while the squad is taking damage. That would make it about a billion times more useful. And wouldn't make it suddenly drain way too much energy at once if you get swarmed too bad. 

[IX-44]

^@Tesseract7777 here

 

Decreasing enemy damage is always good on those high level defences. Specially when your pod gets swamped and loses half it's health. And if you're draining energy at such a rate that you're suddenly at 0 from 450 in anything less than ten seconds (which is PLENTY of time to nuke the enemies in your aura if you aren't using Overextend), then maybe you should use the many ways we have to get energy in a hurry.

 

Energy pads are cheap to build if you have the credits for the blueprints. And no, they aren't essential to the ability being used in a swamped area.

 

 

 

The idea is that while you're using Pacify, you're also slaughtering enemies. Or rather, you should be using Night form Equinox when your other squad members can do the DPS and they need support. Otherwise you use Day form.

 

 

 

I currently believe the only things that need to be changed are the base range for Rest and Rage, and a stagger effect needs to be added to Mend.

[Enno69]

EirwynTelyn, and then after those 10 seconds, what ? You stand here with zero energy and you die from having tried to protect your squad...

Meanwhile, the base range is fairly short (15 meters), so anything beyond will hit you at full strenght. And if you do a range build, as said before you'll increase your drain severly, but you'll also lose power strenght, which Equinox needs badly. And it still won't save you from any foe wielding a rifle who is standing a bit too far.

This ability is lackluster. If the base range was increased and the method of draining was changed or removed, then it might be useful. Or it could just, you know, give allies in range a damage reduction bonus. Simple and efficient.

 

The problem with Equinox is that the fear of her becoming an OP frame led to her powers being crippled : most of them are either weak (Metamorphosis bonuses since they go away so quickly, Rage, Provoke) or cumbersome to use (Pacify, Mend). Specialized frames do their specific job better, which is more valuable in late game than doing a lot of jobs poorly. For instance Rest and Rage are eclipsed respectively by Nova's Molecular Prime and Banshee's Sonar, Frost and Limbo defend the team - and the cryopod - in a more effective maneer than Pacify, and Trinity laughs at Mend. Only Maim is interesting, imo.

 

It's a shame, because the concept behind Equinox is awesome. She's just needlessly complicated to play properly, for a meager result. I'm sure many players here could have designed her better - no offence DE, you're doing an amazing job overall, but please review your newest frame and spend her a rework.

 

Cheers fellow tennos

[GravesTheOutlaw]

Seems to work in non-endless missions. Players run around with maim on all the time stunning all enemies in range and deactivate it when theyvget into a big pile of enemies to unleash all the built-up damage at once. Seems like a decent extermination rush frame.

[Tesseract7777]

^@Tesseract7777 here

 

Decreasing enemy damage is always good on those high level defences. Specially when your pod gets swamped and loses half it's health. And if you're draining energy at such a rate that you're suddenly at 0 from 450 in anything less than ten seconds (which is PLENTY of time to nuke the enemies in your aura if you aren't using Overextend), then maybe you should use the many ways we have to get energy in a hurry.

 

Energy pads are cheap to build if you have the credits for the blueprints. And no, they aren't essential to the ability being used in a swamped area.

 

 

 

The idea is that while you're using Pacify, you're also slaughtering enemies. Or rather, you should be using Night form Equinox when your other squad members can do the DPS and they need support. Otherwise you use Day form.

 

 

 

I currently believe the only things that need to be changed are the base range for Rest and Rage, and a stagger effect needs to be added to Mend.

 

Your missing the problem with the ability. 

 

To begin with I don't use restores because I consider them to basically be cheats. 

 

That said, the real problem with the ability is not energy drain. It's the way it works. 

 

Any enemy outside your laughably small aura still does full damage. If they are closer to the end of your aura they do more damage. 

 

It's not a good ability at anything high level because the toughest enemies will stay outside or near the edge of your range and still do full or almost full damage. While you waste energy and use Night Form when you could be in Day and actually being useful to the team. 

 

It's not a good ability, there is no excuse for it. 

[Neogeo]

Because its a 50% reduction that caps VERY easily at 85% (I think you only need 170% power strength to hit the cap.) and the fact that the damage reduction isn't just for you.

Slap it on Valkyr and suddenly she's taking next to no damage.

Also her base armor is 650, not 300.

It isn't novelty. She is genuinely a great frame if you don't slap max range and efficiency on her or min-max her to S#&$.

Not only your number is way off. 170% strength for 84% reduction? Try 284% strength for merely 82% and that's the enemy at very close range. Somemore you didn't even bother to mention the energy usage is through the roof. My energy was drain within 5 seconds as soon as a large group of enemy step into the playing field. Its unusable. Equinox do had some redeeming point but its nothing like what you had mentioned. Seriously, next time do some field test before spitting nonsense with cocky attitude.