Building Nekros

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

Hello fellow Tenno!

Just recently acquired my new Nekros frame, so excite! Er, but I've been use to my more "tankier" Ash build and even at max level with Vitality R5 (or 6), Nekros is quite squishy by comparison, which I understand and am fine with, but I'm not versed enough to know what mods I need to make Nekros "less" squishy. I've read things on Despoil, but I've YET to do any of the Syndicate stuff, and kind of want to avoid that route for now.

I play solo, mostly because I'm uncomfortable playing with strangers and what friends I do play (that even play) don't play as frequently as I do. I'd like a build that can survive higher tiers of enemies AND also (maybe) farm some mods that I'm looking for (example Berserker).

Thank you for any suggestions in advanced.

Edit: I'm not looking for a dedicated "tank", just looking to boost his survivability in Void missions.

Edited April 16, 2016 by (PS4)MelodiousMelody

[Syntax3Error]

He can be an ok-ish tank with his shadows of the dead syndicate mod. wouldn't play nekros for tanking, there are way more warframes who can tank better(chroma,inaros,trinity,rhino,frost);

[Drzzter]

You're going to have a hard time playing Nekros as a tank, his stats simply don't work well for that sort of thing. He's built for support and utility and that's more or less the only thing he's good at.

I suppose you could try slapping a Steel Fiber on him, but his base stat's too low for that to be terribly effective. Vigor would help boost his health and shields up a bit too, but he's still going to be quite squishy in comparison to proper tank frames.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Drzzter

[MasterControl]

I heard Tankros and I thought "Right, Shield of Shadows, done." But you said no syndicate stuff..

I don't think you're going to be able to do that. Nekros is a support caster at heart, so no matter how many survivability mods you throw onto him he's never going to be particularly tanky. You're just going to get more of a chance to jump away in terror when you see your shields melt. I mean I guess you could throw on Pflow/QT/Rage, but I mean Nekros is pretty power-hungry, so I'm not sure how much it'd help. You could use Despoil to fix that energy consumption problem, but again, you said no Syndicate stuff, so..

TL;DR Tankros is possible, but you probably need syndicate stuff to make it work.

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

50 minutes ago, Drzzter said:

 

I may try Vigor, I don't notice Steel Fiber effects much. Once his shields go, his health just gets blown away, sometimes I'm just not quick enough to notice... maybe just some practice playing him.

34 minutes ago, EranTerran said:

 

I just need him to survive some Void runs (particularly T3, I don't really need him for anything else other than for funsies.

33 minutes ago, Mastercontrol98 said:

 

Right now, energy doesn't seem to be an issue, Life Strike and Rage is mitigating his energy consumption.

 

 

I'm not necessarily looking for a tank, just a build that I can manage to kill higher level enemies Void T3 ish, at least.

I might just have to acquire some syndicate stuff. I was hoping I would avoid that.

[ashrah]

i use 2 build for nekros 1 for my personal taste and second for team play......vitality.natural talent.streatch.overextended.equilibrium.despoil.soul agment for fast revive team.aura corrosive projection and exilus handsprings

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

2 hours ago, ashrah said:

i use 2 build for nekros 1 for my personal taste and second for team play......vitality.natural talent.streatch.overextended.equilibrium.despoil.soul agment for fast revive team.aura corrosive projection and exilus handsprings

Do you think Despoil is absolutely necessary?

I don't usually play in a team, and when I do it's a Public team and some peeps don't take the time to heal a downed teammate, so I figure I should build all my frames for survivability (at least somewhat). Nekros is a difficult one for me to build atm, considering all the suggested (well, Nekros specific) mods are Syndicate locked apparently.

[Resige]

May i intervene? I actually use Nekros as a tank, as he can be built as one (actually more of just a survivable frame). Equip Despoil, and the Health Conversion mod, as well as Quick Thinking, Steel Fiber and Redirection and. Despoil will take your health instead of energy, but at max rank, the amount of health orbs that drop will be able to heal yourself near instantly. The Health Conversion Mod will boost your armor by 450 for three second after taking damage, and as you aren't consuming energy for Desecrating, you will have plenty of energy for Quick Thinking. Everything just compliments each other very well with this build, and is an awesome for team and solo play. Hope this helps.

PS yes the wiki says otherwise, but health conversion does work on nekros

[ashrah]

9 minutes ago, (PS4)MelodiousMelody said:

Do you think Despoil is absolutely necessary?

I don't usually play in a team, and when I do it's a Public team and some peeps don't take the time to heal a downed teammate, so I figure I should build all my frames for survivability (at least somewhat). Nekros is a difficult one for me to build atm, considering all the suggested (well, Nekros specific) mods are Syndicate locked apparently.

despoil is fantastic augment.used with maxed equilibrium...every team who going long runs will ask for desecrate nekros......but u can always made one build for regular play...

[-CdG-Zilchy]

I have a tank build for Nekros but it requires 2 Syndicate augments and is also very micro-manage intensive. It either works very well or falls flat on it's face depending on how diligent you are as a player. And it will require several forma as well.

Aura: Energy Siphon, Exilus: Power Drift, Equilibrium, Despoil, Shield of Shadows, Vitality, Primed Continuity, Streamline, Natural Talent, Blind Rage rank 6. 

The idea is to keep Shield of Shadows up pretty much permanently. They will last for around 45 seconds with this build. Here's the hard bit. Terrify and SoS will consume a lot of energy to cast so in the time that SoS lasts, you have to fill your energy pool, cast Terrify in order to safely cast Shield of Shadows(long vulnerable animation) and reset the process. Done correctly I've lasted to the hour mark on Egeria Ceres survival.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Zilchy

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

49 minutes ago, Resige said:

 

I like the look of your build, I possess all but two of the mods at least. I'm going to try Steel Fiber and see if that helps. Man he just gets chewed up so bad once the shields die.
There is only so much running I can do before I cramp up. Lol.

37 minutes ago, ashrah said:

 

I'm not keen on team play (at least with strangers). I mean I'll help and all, but most missions are so disorganized, it's a free for all. I just want to be able to hold my own, in case I run into the type of behavior I ran into tonight (no one healed anyone).

14 minutes ago, Zilchy said:

 

Phew! That's a lot of mods I lack.
BUT sounds promising indeed, I'll keep your build in mind for future tryouts.
:)

I've Forma'd him once and man it's torture re-leveling everything again (yea, I'm impatient lol). It's fortunate he's fun to play, even if I die a lot more with him.

Edited April 17, 2016 by (PS4)MelodiousMelody

[-CdG-Zilchy]

Yeh that build takes 3 forma but it's as tanky as he'll get, Shield of Shadows will make you nigh on unkillable till about an hour into Survival missions. Casting Terrify before SoS is essential to keep you from being 1shotted during the seconds of vulnerability when SoS is being recast, since you can't recast it till it runs out. Rewarding to play and because it relies on Desecrate and Equilibrium, you are farming effectively as well. Enjoy.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Zilchy

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

28 minutes ago, Zilchy said:

Yeh that build takes 3 forma but it's as tanky as he'll get, Shield of Shadows will make you nigh on unkillable till about an hour into Survival missions. Casting Terrify before SoS is essential to keep you from being 1shotted during the seconds of vulnerability when SoS is being recast, since you can't recast it till it runs out. Rewarding to play and because it relies on Desecrate and Equilibrium, you are farming effectively as well. Enjoy.

Oh, that's not too terribly bad, I was afraid it be like 6 Forma! Or something. Lol.

I'd probably still fail horribly, but maybe with practice...
Being able to survive an hour would be... awesome.
:D

[Insizer]

I've seen a guy work magic on the Moon with a Naramon Shadow Step + that grineer whip + Nekros. But that was more Naramon than anything else.

[Alymbic]

As someone who has used Nekros as my main warframe since update 10, I have a build guide which I keep updated as the game develops and adds more mods and mechanics:

Nekros Builds and General Info

All my builds I have included in there are min-maxed and use 4 forma for the non-exilus versions and 6 forma for the exilus variants. I generally encourage up and coming nekros players to have a read through that and take a look at the included builds. They are what I personally use, and while I know full well no one build works for everyone I am very comfortable taking my shadows of the dead variant into an hour or longer T4S, solo or with friends.

[(PSN)Iudex_Nemesis]

My Nekros is pretty much a variant to the one in the video below with the addition of prime mods and handspring. As mentioned the despoil equilibrium combo works like a charm especially in sortie missions where the condition is "low energy".

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RJZaWbRQM

I like this build because I haven't weakened any of Nekros' other abilities and so he stays "balanced". Like yourself I play solo alot and this build works for me.

[(XBOX)Skylancer4]

FYI, syndicate mods are trade able. On the PC and XBOX, you can usually pick one up for about 10 plat each, I imagine the PS4 are roughly similar. 

You don't have to level the syndicate up if you don't want to.

If you are already farming void missions, jump into trade and sell a few of the drops you've gotten (if you don't have the plat already) and pick them up by posting 'WTB [insert mod name] 10p' occasionally until you get someone who sends a message. There are tons of people who make 20k rep (MR daily rep + daily missions) a day and will happily cash in some for plat for doing what they are doing normally. Same goes for syndicate secondary weapons (primaries require MR 12) which usually sell for 30-40p if you are interested in them at all.

 

Point being, leveling syndicates isn't necessary to get the mods or weapons if you have no desire to do so. It seems like you may not realize that. Plat is actually relatively easy to get in this game even as F2P (not buying play with real money).

Edited April 17, 2016 by (XB1)Skylancer4

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

17 hours ago, Alymbic said:

 

Thank you for this! Def checking out when I get home.

12 hours ago, (PS4)Snakeboy1990 said:

 

I'll def have to try this. Yea, I'm not looking to necessarily optimize Nekros to the point he's tanking everything, I just discovered Inaros' indestructibility for that lol. Thank you.

12 hours ago, (XB1)Skylancer4 said:

 

I wasn't actually sure if those were trade-able, but I do now. Thank you.
Buying with plat would def be an option, IF I can manage to sell anything. Ha!

Edited April 18, 2016 by (PS4)MelodiousMelody

[(XBOX)Skylancer4]

Well you seem to already be doing towers so 1) probably have a few duplicates of uncommon/rare mods if you are hitting the "hidden" or obstacle course rooms 2) you probably have a few prime pieces.

 

Check warframe.market and compare to trade chat to find out a decent price to start your 'WTS XYZ @ #plat' spam in trade. Certain odd item blueprints will sell because they are required for sydicate leveling (check the wiki for a list of the syndicates and which items they require). Others are just worth it because of the item they make. Also, with Barro coming every 2nd Friday you could trade your junk bp's into ducats and buy a particular item or mod he sells that you can then turn around and sell on trade channel. The decent stuff usually takes 300-400 ducats, just beware there is a 1 million credit tax on primed mods, and some buyers who are new may not be aware of that, just that the mod is good and they want it.

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

2 hours ago, (XB1)Skylancer4 said:

 

Nah, my luck with those are horrid, I've found plenty of common mods (which has sorely disappointed me; almost pointless running those).
I do, but nothing of apparent worth... selling what I can spare for Ducats, maybe get a hold of a Primed mod and sell it.

Syndicate stuff would be good to sell, didn't think about that.
:O

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by (PS4)MelodiousMelody

[(PSN)Iudex_Nemesis]

1 hour ago, (PS4)MelodiousMelody said:

 

If you are able to take part in the new event you could farm the new mods and sell any duplicates you don't need.

 

6 hours ago, (PS4)MelodiousMelody said:

I'll def have to try this. Yea, I'm not looking to necessarily optimize Nekros to the point he's tanking everything, I just discovered Inaros' indestructibility for that lol. Thank you.

You're welcome. One last thing about Nekros is that he benefits from using weapons with high slash damage. Bodies that are cut in half by Slash damage are treated as two distinct corpses, each with its own chance to yield additional loot whenever you cast Desecrate.

[(XBOX)Skylancer4]

8 hours ago, (PS4)Snakeboy1990 said:

If you are able to take part in the new event you cou beneld farm the new mods and sell any duplicates you don't need.

 

You're welcome. One last thing about Nekros is that he benefits from using weapons with high slash damage. Bodies that are cut in half by Slash damage are treated as two distinct corpses, each with its own chance to yield additional loot whenever you cast Desecrate.

They have another forum post about melee weapons, ivr

[Wopel]

Bleh, my browser won't let me edit the stupid post. Had to switch to my PC account for some reason.

 

I was going to say, I've been trying to sell them on the Orthos Prime in another thread they have about melee weapons. That being one of the pros.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Wopel

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

5 hours ago, (PS4)Snakeboy1990 said:

 

I just noticed people selling certain event mods, I've begun farming them... slowly. Lol.

[(PSN)MelodiousMelody]

Okay, been messing around with Nekros. Man, I love playing, but his squishy-ness is... ugh! Frustrating. Particularly when I teammate goes down and I can't rez them cause I'd get chewed up (I do Terrify, however, if able).

/Rant

Slowly acquiring Nekros related mods, I still need to get Despoil though. 

Still finding it hard to imagine how he'll survive, in higher levels. I slapped Redirection on him and he's surviving better, but once those shields are down he's gone in two hits to his health.
I did manage to get him to survive Ceres for longer than I had originally gone for.
(Napalms though, those Napalms *shiver*)

I've tried Shield of Shadows and was not at all impressed, albeit I don't use that ability much. The glowy "undead" guys annoy me to death. I'm either trying to hit them mistakenly or they just clutter the room some more.

Other than that, he's super fun to play. I like going around Desecrating everything insight. Lol.

[EpicJakelor]

I main nekros (640 hours just as him) and this is the build I use. I did a bunch of fiddling and testing to see what worked. It isn't cheap, but it can definitely last long into t4 missions  solo.

Redirection can be replaced with any survivability mod you want. For infested missions I switch it to vitality, but normally I like to think of shields as health and health as your desecrate reserve.

Despoil, equilibrium, and rejuvenation keep your energy at max pretty much constantly.

Shield of shadows can give you up to 90% damage resistance with 15 shadows. This build gives you 14, which is 84% damage resistance.

Efficiency was thrown out the window in exchange for a bigger shadow army, so primed flow allows you to cast terrify and shadows back to back if needed (normal flow works as well, but a bigger pool is always better.) I tried streamline, but even an um-primed flow lets you cast more.

Primed continuity keeps your army up. This one is more important to have primed than flow, but it isn't required. If you have normal continuity you will just have to grab more health orbs to get your energy back before they die.

Natural talent really helps you survive since nekros has stupidly long animations, but if you have some other mod you want to toss in instead (like intensify to get you to 90%) it isn't super critical.

 

You want to keep your shadows up as much as possible. While your shadows are up use desecrate to max your energy. If they go down before that you can desecrate them for health orbs, which give you more than enough to cast again. Try to jump around to avoid getting hit. Even with 84% damage resistance nekros is still a bit squishy. Playing with this build is basically a cycle of shadows to killing (for more shadows and energy) back to shadows. If things really hit the fan you can use terrify. Soul punch is good for ragdolling bombards and heavy gunners, but I don't use it often because of the low efficiency.