Am I Playing Mesa Wrong?

[(PSN)RenovaKunumaru]

I don't get it. I'm relatively new to Mesa but I've modded her to have a decent duration of 40 secs (155%), fair range (145%), efficiency (130%) and enough power stregnth to have 95% reduction (130%).

I'm choosing to use a sniper for damage and making use of Ballistic Battery. Spira for those moment when I need to reload but there are enemies too close(and because they look cool) and the ack and brunt because it looks terrific on Mesa. 

All jokes aside, Mesa seems very lackluster. You have to share shooting gallery so you only get buffed momentarily. Ballistic battery never comes in handy because this game focuses fighting waves of enemies and most of the time extra single target damage is uneccessary because our weapons already do so much damage. Pretty niche. 

However, Peacemaker seems to be the worst of the skills. I figured I would use it when too many mobs surrounded me in a general area. Unfortunately the move completely fails for me for some reason. You can't move. You can't aim. Theres no reticle. The gunfiring is slow and doesn't prioritize closer targets. I will stand on an elevated position and aim where I'd assume my cross hair would be towards close enemies to have Mesa just stand there.

 

So please tell me, help me, what am I doing wrong?

[Thebel]

You're playing Mesa, that's whats wrong in the first place, she's clunky AF.

Safest way to play her, accept that Shatter shields is her only reliable power and live off that, she's tanky as hell, just rely more on your guns than Peacemaker and Balistic Battery.

Balistic is a solid bossing skill though, charge it up and you can one shot bosses harder.

[MasterControl]

Well, there's not very much use you can get out of Ballistic Battery except for oneshotting high level bombards and forgetting you don't have Shatter Shield on because there's way too many effects that make Mesa glow. That said, Shooting Gallery is useful when the team is huddled together. The damage bonus is mediocre but the stuns it sets off can save some lives. It's best for revives imo. Shatter shield needs no explanation.. And well, Peacemaker is a bit wonky. The way it works is that you initially start out with a massive ring, and can pretty much autotarget anything on the screen. But the more you shoot, the more your reticle shrinks, and the more damage you do. It's a bit difficult to see the focus ring depending on your energy color. It eventually can prioritize close-up enemies, but only if you're the one aiming at them. It's best to use it in short bursts to clear an area of trash mobs, but don't count on it - Use it before enemies get too close, you can't move. It also has somewhat wonky targeting, it can hit enemies you wouldn't normally be able to and is sometimes a bit reluctant to hit enemies you should be able to. I think that's because it uses Mesa's position for targeting instead of the crosshairs like normal weapons, but I might be wrong. But most importantly, and something the game doesn't telegraph well: HOLD DOWN THE FIRE BUTTON. It causes Peacemaker's firerate to ramp up massively, eventually getting to assault rifle levels of speed. I'd also recommend giving yourself a bit more efficiency. I currently run a 175% pwrstr 115% rng 170% eff 138% dur build, that way I don't get completely crippled by Peacemaker's energy drain without making my other powers useless.

As for using a sniper rifle.. ehh, I wouldn't recommend it. Mesa does best with semi-auto weapons like the Latron P or Dex Sybaris. It covers her at some range and does some nice damage without being totally useless in the case that enemies decide to show up behind you.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Mastercontrol98

[TrickshotMcGee]

I don't think there's a definitively "wrong" way to do it. Just depends on how you use her. I think the biggest issue there is that sniper rifles and the Spira are kind of 'meh' for damage.  

I personally use the Dex Sybaris because it's a crit machine with easy headshots, and dual pistols for the aesthetic, though the AkMagnus are actually pretty good. Melee changes a lot for me, but Broken War is a recurring choice. 

As for her skills, range is not the way to go. Duration, power strength, and efficiency are all she needs. Peacemaker is a subject of great debate, but it's getting a buff soon, so it's about to get a lot stronger. The reticle is huge in the beginning and gets smaller as you shoot more, getting more accurate and focusing your shots closer to the center of the screen. I personally love the ability and it's used to clear trash before it gets to me, at something like 25-40 meters. If stuff is in your immediate area (close enough to melee), the ability has trouble targeting them, so I'd recommend using it before they get to you. 

[Thebel]

3 minutes ago, (PS4)RenovaKunumaru said:

I can't even get peacemaker to kill trash mobs reliable. The targeting system is very strange to the point where it feels as if Mesa is reluctant to even fire. She'll shoot enemies in a tiny burst and then stop although there are plenty of the around. 

I considered a sniper because I wasnt sure whether or not multple bullets from the Dex burst would Apply to Mesa's ballistic battery. Also I cant find any other class to make use of the Vulkar better than she should*.

This frame is frustrating. I don't even see a reticle when playing with Peacemaker. Is it glitched?

Pick a different energy color, find one that lets you see the ring best, its hardly visible with her default color

[leocww]

After the Peacemaker nerf, I tend to use Mesa as a run-and-gun frame in low-to-mid tier gameplay.

And just for your reference, I use Rubico on Mesa and have no major issues survivng in missions.

But Ballistic Battery will not grant you much extra damage bonus, so not recommended to go for it.

 

Ballistic Battery has no place IMO, cuz you almost run into hordes of enemies & rarely deal with a single one.

Shooting Gallery may come in handy for enemy CC, but not much use considering you need to share to teammates.

Shatter Shield grants 95% reduction most, make good use of it and Mesa can be quite tanky.

Peacemaker is a bit underwhelming now, I only use when my guns are running out of ammo / facing a large group of enemies.

 

For my build, I maxed out Duration for the Shatter Shield. Also Intensify for 95% dmg reduction.

And with max Duration & 130% efficiency, Peacemaker will also have max efficiency so you can spam the heck out of it. Use as a panic button.

Range only benefits Shooting Gallery, only consider adding range if you wish to have more CC on enemies.

[direcyphre]

Shattershield with the augment is what I'm all about. Against Grineer especially, you constantly stun enemies shooting at you. Ballistic Battery can be useful depending on the level of content you are tackling, namely it easily taking down heavies of any variety. I also mostly use it when leveling weapons because it turns peashooter damage into a reliable killer when needed.

Peacemaker is pretty straightforward, you just need an ideal position where you aren't surrounded. You don't need perfect line of sight on anything, but you shoot everything you are pointing at until the reticle gets smaller (it starts as a large circle around your HUD and narrows down). Provided you are running positive in Power Range, this stays fairly large, but isn't entirely necessary since you can just recast when needed.

Personally, I run Narrow Minded for the duration and the size doesn't bother me in Peacemaker. Power Duration also effects all toggled abilities the same way efficiency does so it makes Peacemaker pretty cheap to run anytime. I believe Secondary mods now effect Peacemaker to some degree as well. 

It sounds like your only real issues are your weapons. Sniper rifles are still pretty bad in the grand scheme of things, especially when a large variety of other weapons have all the damage and none of the drawbacks. Ballistic Battery is definitely more beneficial to semi-auto weapons, but there are plenty of other heavy hitters out there that aren't sniper rifles. I personally run Hek and Marelok, as I always enjoy the hard-hitting semi-autos more than than any other type. 

[Roboplus]

So you want a top-tier Mesa able to hang even in sorties? Check this out.

Power Drift gives you 92% damage resistance. It's not the 95% cap, but it solves the Power Strength requirement with an Exilus slot.

Vitality and Vigor to give you as much health as possible. This is to save you from burns, and more importantly, bleeds, which Shatter Shield does not protect you from.

Rapid Resilience. This is the only frame I use this mod on but it is vital. Because Shatter Shield doesn't protect you from DoTs, you need them to end as soon as possible. This mod is the difference between death, and surviving a direct hit from a level 135 Napalm.

Fleeting Expertise to keep cost down, Primed Continuity/Constitution to keep duration up.

Stretch, naturally.

And here's your flavor slot. I use Sure Footed (also the only frame I use it on) for a combined 90% Knockdown Resistance when combined with Power Drift. Together with Constitution even on the off-chance you get knocked down, it won't be for long. This is great for melee combat (Melee on Mesa? Believe it or not, she's one of the best) which is also why I have Steel Charge.

Natural Talent is another good choice if you want to use Ballistic Battery more. It's base cast time is too long if, for example, you want to bring a Torid to build up charge with your secondary (TWO Ballistic Shots!).

That's the beauty of Mesa. Unlike Chroma or Valkyr she has very few requirements. You can afford to do stuff like this.

Pair faster, high status weapons with high damage/high crit single shot weapons. Sobek with Lex Prime. Rubico with Tysis.

Peacemaker is going to scale with secondary mods soon on PC. It will likely be a while before PS4 gets it. Avoid using it for now. It's only good at charging Ballistic Battery if your faster weapon needs to reload.

[Stratego89]

You can aim. You have to aim. There's no crosshair- it's a circle area that gets smaller as you fire. That's where it will select a target from and last I checked it DOES in fact prioritize closer targets now (or maybe it's just center of the circle is prioritized since I always aim for close targets first anyways).

The fire rate also increases the more you shoot- if you stop shooting for a few seconds it slows down again.

Peacemaker isn't bad once you know how to use it.

EDIT: Also you have to HOLD the fire button to shoot. If you're not- then that's why your mesa isn't shooting.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Stratego89

[(PSN)RenovaKunumaru]

I can't even get peacemaker to kill trash mobs reliable. The targeting system is very strange to the point where it feels as if Mesa is reluctant to even fire. She'll shoot enemies in a tiny burst and then stop although there are plenty of the around. 

I considered a sniper because I wasnt sure whether or not multple bullets from the Dex burst would Apply to Mesa's ballistic battery. Also I cant find any other class to make use of the Vulkar better than she should*.

This frame is frustrating. I don't even see a reticle when playing with Peacemaker. Is it glitched?

Edited April 16, 2016 by (PS4)RenovaKunumaru

[TrickshotMcGee]

4 minutes ago, (PS4)RenovaKunumaru said:

I wasnt sure whether or not multple bullets from the Dex burst would Apply to Mesa's ballistic battery.

They don't. Just one bullet counts. However, it's got great single-shot damage, and the burst-fire only doubles up on that. 

Peacemaker takes a minute to ramp up the FR, but when you get it going (try Infested defense to really test it out), it's insanely quick, if a bit weak for high level missions. Gotta keep the trigger held down, though. 

All snipers are boring and too weak for what they should be, so I don't think many frames could make great use of them. Best might be an character with invis, and that's only for the bonuses stealth provides. MAYBE if you had the BB syndicate mod and modded the Vulkar for FR and status, it could be alright, but many of the ranged rifles in-game do the same job, only without the frustration that snipers give you, and a lot faster. I recommend switching that out.

Mesa definitely took some getting-used-to, but she's one of the more fun frames to use. For me, anyways. 

[(PSN)RenovaKunumaru]

OK for one thing I changed the color and I now notice the ring everyone kept mentioning for the skill. 

Mesa definitely needs a reevaluation of her skills and I don't think it's beneficial to play her at this time which is highly disappointing. She's one of the best looking frames in my opinion. 

Ballistic Battery is niche and only Benefits from using a sniper or a semi automatic secondary.

Snipers suck because atm the game primarily focuses on hordes. 

Shooting Gallery is gimmicky.

Peacemaker needs to be reevaluated. I'd rather them limit the range to 8 meters so I'm in striking distance with autotargeting fully enabled and mobile than the lackluster current she is now. Thanks for everyone's help. I'll still be reading through this thread and responding to see how much more I can learn of course.

[TrickshotMcGee]

1 hour ago, (PS4)RenovaKunumaru said:

I'd rather them limit the range to 8 meters so I'm in striking distance with autotargeting fully enabled and mobile than the lackluster current she is now.

Funny, I feel giving her that would take away part what makes her ult unique. Part of that is the fact that everyone else can move and they've got a relatively small effective range (Ivara being the exception). Peacemaker is fine as a turret, but it does need some adjusting to stay comparable to other powerful abilities. Obviously they need to  improve the targeting system or tweak firing speed to be a bit quicker so you can hit everything despite targeting being odd, and maybe buff the damage so it's not useless in higher levels.

Overall, Mesa's abilities simply don't scale up well, but she's actually mostly balanced. If she scaled well, there wouldn't be any other changes needed.

[(PSN)RenovaKunumaru]

13 minutes ago, TrickshotMcGee said:

Funny, I feel giving her that would take away part what makes her ult unique. Part of that is the fact that everyone else can move and they've got a relatively small effective range (Ivara being the exception). Peacemaker is fine as a turret, but it does need some adjusting to stay comparable to other powerful abilities. Obviously they need to  improve the targeting system or tweak firing speed to be a bit quicker so you can hit everything despite targeting being odd, and maybe buff the damage so it's not useless in higher levels.

Overall, Mesa's abilities simply don't scale up well, but she's actually mostly balanced. If she scaled well, there wouldn't be any other changes needed.

I agree with you but I just decided see that since they were having a hard time making Peacemaker balanced when she can attack aggressively from too far than make it aggressive from short range with mobility.

It just can't be like this..

[Foefaller]

A fun thing to do with Ballistic Battery is to bring a Furis with the Loka life drain mod. Charge up the battery, and when your health is low, switch to the Furis, activate the charge and regain all your health in a single shot. Lets you use it as an "oh (*&%" button not just for taking out some heavy that just showed up, but to quickly regain health should you take a massive hit while Shatter Shield/Shooting Gallery was down.

[(PSN)robotwars7]

best way to paly Mesa IMO is as a Shatter Shield tank. what I like to do is put Shatter Shield up, and charge enemies in melee while shrugging of projectiles and saving up Ballistic Battery to take down larger opponents. when I get surrounded, I use Peacemaker, and take down the closest and most dangerous enemies first, and with Shatter Shield still up, you're not a sitting duck either.

Shooting Gallery isn't that useful though, as there's not much you can do if your team can't hit the broad side of a barn. once Peacemake scles with secondary mods though, she'll be right where she should be : powerful, but not a Press-4-to-win frame.

 

[Insizer]

17 minutes ago, Roboplus said:

 

The only things I'd critique is the lack of duration, but you have a decent amount of efficiency so it really doesn't matter.

Also, try out a Rage mod on her, just try it if you haven't. It works really well on her. I use staggering shield instead of Rage, but in the beginning, it was part of my basic build for her.

I have to say this though, using power drift is a pretty great idea, i never thought of it. kills two birds with one stone.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Insizer

[Thebel]

6 minutes ago, Insizer said:

The only things I'd critique is the lack of duration, but you have a decent amount of efficiency so it really doesn't matter.

Also, try out a Rage mod on her, just try it if you haven't. It works really well on her. I use staggering shield instead of Rage, but in the beginning, it was part of my basic build for her.

I have to say this though, using power drift is a pretty great idea, i never thought of it. kills two birds with one stone.

Why rage? Shields get the 95% damage reduction so you end up only losing HP to slash/toxin procs. If anything a Redirection works better, with enough shields you basically won't have anything touch your HP.

[Insizer]

Just now, Thebel said:

Why rage? Shields get the 95% damage reduction so you end up only losing HP to slash/toxin procs. If anything a Redirection works better, with enough shields you basically won't have anything touch your HP.

It helps in those oh S#&$ moments with eximus auras, sacrifice a little health for enough energy to cast SS. Granted, I used this build before Baro and primed mods came out... And I'm not saying use it in exclusion of basic defense mods. It worked really well on high efficiency build as you can imagine.