Frost Offensive Tank build for a Newbie?

[Furiyen]

Hi All,

My first post on the forums, and ostensibly its to ask for some help in putting and looking towards putting an 'end game' or high level build together.

I've played Excal, Volt, Zephyr, Oberon and lately Rhino as frames, and I much prefer the heavier, tankier frames to the lighter Caster types. As much as I enjoyed Volt's sheer speed, I much preferred the sheer fortitude of Rhino and throwing a Rush Mod on him.

So I've started reading up on some more of the advanced frames, considering that I wanted to be a bit of face-smashing, wade-through-them all type of Frame I've grown very fond of the idea of a Frost based build. I can cope with the low Run speed, and that base 300 Armour looks extremely sweet. In terms of Weapons, I really like the Nikana I built recently, and always enjoyed a balanced Melee & Range approach to gameplay as necessary. However, I'm hoping with Snow Globe I can get close and personal.

Where I need advice is on weapons and Mod layouts and advice from those that have played the higher levels and know the Meta far better than me. My experience with weapons is a little short, I have a decent if not extensive Mod collection, I guess where lack is in appreciation of the Caster-type mods and the Mods achieved at higher levels - Nightmare/Corrupted/Primed Mods, Arcanes, how Exilus stuff fits in - the Meta of it all and the like.

The good news is I'm in it for long game now, I don't mind some extensive farming, and I'm willing to throw a bit of plat at the problem to take a few shortcuts if necessary. Yes, that means I don't mind paying up for a Frost Prime BP set, and I'm working on my Steel Meridian 'favour' to get the Frost Augments.

Thanks in advance :)

[Cryozar]

Okay, this is gonna be A LOT of text as he's my personal favorite warframe:

1. Thinigs to know about Snow Globe
   • Snow Globe has a 4 second absorb period where hostile damage done to Snow Globe is converted into health
   • Recasting Snow Globe inside of your previously casted globe takes the previous globe's total health and adds it to its own. This new globe still gets a 4 second absorb period as well.
2. His build MUST have at least +70% efficiency for a total of 170% efficiency on the UI achieved through Fleeting Expertise and Streamline as a globe with nothing but power strength and armor will lose to an energy efficient build as the energy efficient build can make a tankier globe in however many casts it would take to meet the cost of 1 snowglobe casted fromthe power strength and armor only build while still costing less energy
3. A combination of Vitality + Redirection, Vitality + Steel Fiber, Redirection + Steel Fiber (i wouldn't know why you would do this one, but w/e), and Primed Flow + Quick Thinking, for surviveability
   • Steel Fiber helps because globe health gets 500*armor value added to its healthpool (someone correct e if i'm wrong)
   • Quick Thinking and Primed Flow (rank 9 minimum) will grant more effective health than any of those combinations, making it better for Frost's surviveability. This is especially helpful when you're running at least 170% efficiency and when mixed with the Zenurik passive, allows ability spam with quick replenishment (cost of a 170% efficiency Snow Globe has a cost of 15. With the Zenurik passive maxed, you'll get 16 energy back by the time the 4 second hostile damage absorb period for Snow Globe expires
4. Place at least Stretch on. With a maxed Stretch, you can effectively be left unscathed when an enemy's explosive (such as a bombard's rockets) explodes upon impact with Snow Globe as long as you're in the center. if you want more breathing space, Overextended is an option, but your power strength (which affects snow globe health, damage on abilities, and how much armor is removed from enemies while they're frozen from avalanche) will suffer
5. Duration/Power Strength: This is pretty preference based. You can put power strength for a stronger Snow Globe and/or counter the effects of Overextended, but be careful if you want to strip enemy armor because if you only freeze enemies for 1 second with Avalanche, then you only have that 1 second to destroy a target before they get all that armor back. Duration, however affects things like how long augment effects can last as well as giving more duration when you freeze enemies, allowing you to potentially keep a room locked down long enough for you or your teammates to res a downed ally.
6. If you have space, augments can be used. Frost has Freeze Force, which gives allies cold damage, which affected by power strength mods, and duration affects how long it'll stay on them, though personally I never really used it. We also have Chilling Globe which has a 50% chance to freeze enemies for a base duration of 8 seconds when they enter Snow Globe. Personally I feel it redundant when I can freeze them with the initial cast Snow Globe and push them out in the process and possibly deal damage to them if they collide into objects in the process, although it definitely has its uses vs infested. My personal favorite, however, is Ice Wave Impedance as it creates a floor of Ice that lingers for a base duration of 12 seconds, slowing enemies that walk into it and if they're inside Snow Globe and/or slowed by your ally abilities, that can slow them down even more. If you want to focus only on globe, then Armored Agility helps assuming you have Transient Fortitude and Intensify already on the build
7. Aura Slot: Rejuvenation is definitely a great option, allowing you to heal yourself if you got hit and lost health for whatever reason. Personally, I put a forma to change the polarity to a - polarity, allowing me to have access to either Energy Siphon, Enemy Radar, and, more importantly, Corrosive Projection, which can make it easier to kill enemies in late game survival and defense missions if your team has either 3 other Corrosive Projection users, or 2 other Corrosive Projection users with a member of the team using Coaction Drift.
8. Exilus: preference. Some people use rush, others use maglev, others just bullet jump and use other parkour features to keep up. Personally I run either Handspring or Coaction Drift if I'm using Constitution in my build as getting up faster imo is better than having a 30% chance to resist knockdown. As a Frost, you need to prioritize your globe, especially for defense as you are your teammates' safe haven and stronghold. Sooner you get up, sooner you can recast Snow Globe. Sooner you can recast Snow Globe after 3-4 seconds, the better when you're in late game. Coaction Drift, meanwhile is for when in a team of 3 Corrosive Projections so that the 4th teammate can use a different aura. Power Drift works if you really want the Power Str, but I have no space on my build, and i don't want to sacrifice a 100% chance to get up faster for a 30% chance to not get knocked over.

[Genoscythe]

Frost can be built quite universally. I use this build for all mission types, I am able to defend a t4 cryopod without ever loosing the bubble while being rushed by speed-nova'd enemies.

 

Transient fortitude, intensify for the punch,

rush and armored agility (alternatively maxed vitality, vigor or redirection) for the speed

streamline and fleeting expertise for the eficiency and to be able to spam and reinforce my globe and other abilities

Primed continuity (maxed) to make up for the duration loss, like this one can debuff longer and get some light CC with his 4

Stretch is also a must.

lastly, natural talent for faster casting and power drift, can save your life. I normally use Corrosive projection or energy siphon, combine it with zenurik energy regen and you can play this build for basically everything.

 

I also use an arcane squall helmet.

 

With this build you can quickly spam snow globes to fortify positions, chocke points or get some protection (10k health per globe) and kill lots of enemies or stun and weaken armor of higher level mobs.

 

The fact that you level steel meridian comes nice, vaykor marelok is my secondary of choice because of the damage and the fact that it can heal you with the faction effect.

 

 

If you want a more fortified build for personal defense you can trade some of the mods for vitality, redirection and if you are really hardcore you could trade the run speed mods for stun denial or handspring. I do recommend to play frost in synergy with weapons and abilities, in the end he is heavy caster that can exponentially increase team survivability and has a bit of everything.

 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Genoscythe

[felixsylvaris]

With Frost:

Basic: Rejuvenation, Steel FIber, Vitality, Armored Agility

Offensive: Range + Ability Power + Efficiency. (ditch duration)

Bauble: No range,

Weapon: Soma Prime is cheap and good. Vaykor Hek is good if you are going anyway for meridian. Nikana Prime is good. Or just War. ;-)

 

 

Edited March 11, 2016 by felixsylvaris

[Furiyen]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll pick through the mods and see how the synergies work.

I've picked up the Spores Prime access today so Nikana Prime it is, and I've got my plat for the Frost Prime BPs.

Thanks for the input.

[Furiyen]

That's really awesome advice. Thanks :)

[Furiyen]

Ok, so for my basic frame Mod layout I'm thinking:

Aura Steel Charge
Exilus Rush        
1 Redirection    
2 Fast Deflection    
3 Vitality    
4 Steel Fiber    
5 Armoured Agility *
6 Primed Flow *     
7 Streamline 
8 Fleeting Expertise *

(* = Not yet owned)

This to try and make me as Tanky as possible, but with maxed Efficiency for Snow Globe / Avalanche casting with a nod towards Melee as a preference.

Armoured Agility / Fast Deflection I could be argued into something else, however, if Power Range / Strength is something I really need if I'm playing up close and personal.

I'm currently thinking of Lifestrike on my Nikana Prime, too, with maxed Channelling efficiency so I don't completely wreck my Power Efficiency. Pointless / Unworkable? Go a different route?

[Cryozar]

3 hours ago, Furiyen said:

Ok, so for my basic frame Mod layout I'm thinking:

Aura Steel Charge
Exilus Rush        
1 Redirection    
2 Fast Deflection    
3 Vitality    
4 Steel Fiber    
5 Armoured Agility *
6 Primed Flow *     
7 Streamline 
8 Fleeting Expertise *

(* = Not yet owned)

This to try and make me as Tanky as possible, but with maxed Efficiency for Snow Globe / Avalanche casting with a nod towards Melee as a preference.

Armoured Agility / Fast Deflection I could be argued into something else, however, if Power Range / Strength is something I really need if I'm playing up close and personal.

I'm currently thinking of Lifestrike on my Nikana Prime, too, with maxed Channelling efficiency so I don't completely wreck my Power Efficiency. Pointless / Unworkable? Go a different route?

Fast Deflection IMO is unnecessary as you can just avalanche or globe for safety and a breather. At MINIMUM I'd say stretch so you don't get hit by the aoe from bombard rockets hitting snowglobe. I already said the benefits of power str, so i won't make any comments on that

 

for nikana prime: don't bother with channeling efficiency. if you have body count and blood rush, an unranked life strike heals plenty once that combo gets going, especially if you're running organ shatter as it takes little to no time at all until you start critting almost every hit, not to mention the combo multiplier adding damage as well. if anything, channeling's currently more of an "i need to heal" thing for me, where i freeze everything with avalanche for free hits for the combo meter. as things get harder, you may want to cast freeze on your melee target after an avalanche however so you can take advantage of proc-ing status on your target sooner instead of waiting for avalanche to wear off (freeze will unfreeze enemies after they take a certain amount of damage)

[ADirtyMonk]

5 hours ago, Furiyen said:

Ok, so for my basic frame Mod layout I'm thinking:

Aura Steel Charge
Exilus Rush        
1 Redirection    
2 Fast Deflection    
3 Vitality    
4 Steel Fiber    
5 Armoured Agility *
6 Primed Flow *     
7 Streamline 
8 Fleeting Expertise *

(* = Not yet owned)

For what you have here: drop fast deflection, redirection, armored agility, primed flow for rage/intensify/transient fortitude/ice wave impedance. Shields are worth very little survivability compared to HP. At higher levels enemies will shred right through them. You have the plat, get yourself life strike or winds of purity and use those to heal. You don't need primed flow. If you are truly relying on snowglobe/alvalanche for damage mitigation each time you run into a group of enemies you will almost always be hurting for energy and all that extra capacity goes to waste. I would drop AA in place of a strength mod. I believe it scales the globe health better than armor. Also, IMO sprint speed is a wasted stat in most situations and on most frames. Parkour allows for high speed travel perfectly well and the slot would be better used on other mods, for example, handspring. For the corrupted mods, either pick them up for 15 plat each or do 20 vault runs on orokin derelict capture, sell whatever doubles you have, and buy what you are missing. Do second dream and work on maxing Zenurik energy flow ASAP.

I feel that  a snowglobe build is not mobile enough for non defense type missions. If you insist on using it, max out power range of to play arena master, much like limbo with his cataclysm but in practice, it will most likely be very energy intensive even with 170% efficiency, requiring generous use of energy pads, a trinity, or the zenurik focus.

May I recommend a layout that is built around ice wave and ice wave impedance with a range>efficiency>duration>strength build. When encountering any enemies, use ice wave/ice wave impedance to lay down cheap, massive AOE slows, then take your time clearing them. If there is still too much heat, you can then drop a snowglobe or avalanche to stop all incoming damage so you can get away and heal. Will upload full build when I can access warframe. My weapons of choice: vaykor hek, puris/twin grakatas/v. marelok/lex prime/staticor/sonicor, life strike orthos prime/atterax with primed reach.

Just as a final note. All the above is if you absolutely insist on using Frost. Nothing beats a well built frost at static defense missions, but a properly built chroma or wukong are much better in almost any other mission type.

Edited March 13, 2016 by ADirtyMonk

[Voidforged]

Frost is capable of being so much more than a walking snowglobe. 

A few examples of play style and ability scaling below if you're interested.

 

Swapped Redirection to Vitality against Infested.

 

 

Hope it helps. :)

Edited March 13, 2016 by senseijake

[Furiyen]

Ok, a little report in on my progress so far.

I took full advantage of the 1K Cuts missions over the weekend, and I took my Frost Prime through 1-30 over the weekend, and definitely seen a hint of the power possible after taking a lot of the advice here.

On Saturday, I took him 1-15 concentrating on his defensive mods, and while I found him tanky I was being too impressed with the ability casting at first, but that all changed Sunday.

On Sunday, I was able to trade for a Non-primed Flow, Fleeting Expertise and Stretch, and got Streamline slotted in as well. What a huge difference these make - the sheer ability to spam abilities was breathtaking.

Around 26/27 I took off into the Void for some T2 Defense action, and was really pleased with the Snow Globe Defense, the ability to rush in for Snow Globe/Avalanche rescues and even just killing Mobs hiding in cover with Ice Waves, or pin-point freezing mobs with my Freeze rays of doom.

Anyways, I was all good enough that I ran out of Mod Capacity last night at 30 (67 Mod Capacity with Steel Charge Aura), so I forma'd up a Naramon slot and reset back to 1.

I now understand why people go the full all-out spellcasting Mod setups, but I love my defense too much :)

Next: Figuring out my Nikana Prime. Previous advice to be heeded.

[Furiyen]

On 13/03/2016 at 0:34 PM, senseijake said:

Frost is capable of being so much more than a walking snowglobe. 

A few examples of play style and ability scaling below if you're interested.

<SNIP>

Swapped Redirection to Vitality against Infested.

<SNIP>

Hope it helps. :)

Fun to watch and learn. Thanks for these :)