Need help to build Chroma

[Atomic_Beam]

Ok guys I really want to try out chroma, but I just don't get how it works and that's why I left him all alone in my storage, what is his main purpose? How do you build him and what type of mission do you use him for???

 

Thanks!

[HalfDarkShadow]

Okies, so great timing because I've been messing around with him as of late, but I'll make another reply in a little bit with screenshots of my builds for ideas and others things to help you really get the most out of him (:

[Atomic_Beam]

9 minutes ago, HalfDarkShadow said:

Okies, so great timing because I've been messing around with him as of late, but I'll make another reply in a little bit with screenshots of my builds for ideas and others things to help you really get the most out of him (:

Thank you!! Looking forward to it! L've just re read the whole wiki about it too, so it will help me! I think i'll go electric!

[IEpicWolfI]

How's this for refrence,

 

 

Built around Fire.

Edited March 3, 2016 by IEpicWolfI

[HalfDarkShadow]

So as a heads up, I'm no avid or seasoned Chroma player, but after really messing around with him since his debut and recently re-creating new builds and such, I personally found a nice build+playstyle that I'll share in a bit.

As far as his "purpose" is concerned, from what I experienced, he falls under the defensive front-lines, bezerker-esque kind of Warframe. Depending on how you build him, how he'll end up will vary more so than other Warframes.

Where he really shines in:
 - Melee-oriented builds
 - Defense builds
 - Support builds

The only real downside and trouble I personally have with him, is that trying to find a nice balance between all his skills and utilities will usually resort in sub-par results. But it is possible to get a real decent hybrid build, just not ideally for me lol. As far as understanding how he works via mechanics, it isn't too hard, but something like you have done already, you'll need to do external research on (specifically his passives and how they correlate with what energy colour he's using).

The more common elements you'll run into is Ice and Fire. Electric is a personal favourite of mine for it's awesome CC (Spectral Scream and Elemental Ward). Although people seem to write-off Toxin, but it does have some great effects. Especially if you're a gun-play kind of person, this can really help with the reload speeds and holster rate. More importantly though many forget, is it's awesome Toxin DoT. It might not seem much in normal missions, where you're killing things faster than you can blink, but in situations like Sorties, every bit counts. It's also not affected by power range, so you can add all the duration and power strength you want, since (if you're more gun-focus like I mentioned), you wont be needing to worry much on your other abilities (I also mention power strength by the way, because it's chance to deal damage per second is increased by such, not the actual Toxin Damage).

Anyways, digressions aside there, the only other thing you need to really know, that power range isn't too important for a lot of builds. Since the only things that are affected by power range is Spectral Scream, Elemental Ward's Aura, and the electrical discharge from Elemental Ward (electric). So unless you want to aim for a more support-oriented build, everything else is fair game.

Most players I've came across, seen online videos for, and general forum discussions, seem to use Ice for their solo-play/survival builds. Though it's still a great element to have outside of that as well. Just note if you do care about the buff(s) the other players in your squad receive, that armor rating isn't always important and/or beneficial for alot of Warframes, but it's CC (deflecting bullets back) is always welcomed. I don't recall other players receive that as well, but regardless lol. But generally I'll run into Fire/Ice-Chroma's and the occasional Electric-Chroma. Personally I find it best to switch energy colours when appropriately needed for the mission or when you feel like trying something new.

So as far as specific builds, I just recently found this informative post, that provides links to some pretty decent builds you can experiment with https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/3lxz8d/chroma_build_for_every_element/

And these are the two builds currently I use, since I try to strike a balance between all his abilities:

Spoiler

This build just has a more focus on duration for Elemental Ward and Vex armor coupled with prolonging Effigy a bit. I actually don't run Streamline, as I prefer to use his Augment Vexing Retaliation, but for the sake of what would be more wise, is to have at least some power efficiency to have a much more reasonable energy-drain for having Effigy out for longer periods of time. Since I only really use Effigy for the initial Scream that stuns all the enemies around you, I found it much more comfortable for me to take out Streamline.

My second build:

Spoiler

This one is my original go-to build that's much more balanced, which helps a bit more with Vexing Retaliation since now I have more mod space. You can still take it out for anything else, as it's more loose and open to other mod choices we have.

With both of my builds, I am planning to get his Exilus slot unlocked soon so I can put Cunning Drift in to bump his power range back up to 100%. Though 85% is personally fine for me, since I'm not worried about Elemental Ward's aura radius (no one sticks around anyway, regardless of range), so I might just put in my elemental jump mods, which in my honest opinion is a completely overlooked and underrated set of mods. I love my Ice and Fire ones hehe~

 

To get this out of the way, Rage is also optional, which can be easily replaced with anything else. How I play Chroma is more Bezeker-esque, as in that I purposely take in as much damage as possible to gain more weapon damage and armor rating, hence why I also use Vexing Retaliation. I've had other Chroma players comment how they don't really have much of an energy issue, but personally I believe that's Chroma's ultimate crutch is the ludicrous amount of energy you'll be using. Even just excluding some mods and focus purely on power efficiency, power duration, and energy pool (via Prime Flow), having an Effigy-only build is still not ideal for overly long periods of time, especially if you're compromising power strength. Coupled in that I think his duration for Elemental Ward and Vex Armor needs a slight innate increase, makes it personally for me a hard balance. So this is why I try not to aim for "no-pelt" builds. But like I said, this is just me and my own personal issue I have currently with him via energy management, so take it with a grain of salt lol.

Anyways, I hope this somewhat helps you out and feel free to use any of the builds I provided or in the link! Personally, I wouldn't just do a 1:1 copy and stick with it, but to experiment around and find where the sweet spot is for you. If anything, you can just copy any builds you find online exactly, and then change things around to what will work for you. Which I think is Chroma's strong point I've mentioned in the beginning, that due to how varied the end result will be once you mod him up to your standards, really opens up a lot of diversity and freedom on what you can do with him.

I believe that's everything I wanted to say, so best of luck and hopefully you'll find some joy with him!
Cheers!~ (:

Edited March 3, 2016 by HalfDarkShadow
Whew, took about over an hour to type up! xD

[Atomic_Beam]

Thank you everyone! I'm na try some stuff around your tips!

[Cryozar]

If you're going to use a vex armor+elemental ward build, I've posted a link in the spoiler below to a topic that had helped me a lot when chroma was released:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Cryozar