Lenses, and acquiring focus

[Tomppak]

Adding a focus lens to a maxed warframe or weapon converts 1,25% of earned affinity into Focus points. Questions:

Assuming that my frame and my weapon earn roughly the same amount of affinity, does having a Naramon Lens in both of them (as opposed to having a lens in only one of them) effectively double the amount of focus points I gain?

Likewise, if I've got two different lenses (say, Naramon in frame and Zenurik in weapon), do I an equal amount of both?

Does having Naramon in Frame and Zenurik in weapon result in less Zenurik Focus than if I only had the Zenurik in weapon?

Considering that I've only got the lens I got as a reward for the second dream quest, and a single lens I got from the sorties, is there any reason to/not to use them both immediately on my main weapon/warframe?

The greater lenses sound really expensive. Are they really so good/beneficial that I should consider investing into them?

Apparently normal lenses can be traded. Is there any point in trying to trade my un-desired lens to a lens matching with my chosen focus?

 

What I'm really after: Is there any tangible drawback and/or benefit for installing my Naramon lense to a frame, if I already have Zenurik lens in the weapon?

BONUS QUESTION: Which focus do you prefer, and why? I chose Zenurik in the hopes that it's energy regen can keep my warframe abilities running more often (in the far future when I get enough focus to actually unlock that passive), but now I'm tempted to try and open Naramon for the increased melee affinity (to speed up focus gathering) and Shadow step - invisibility after crit hitting - are these acceptable reasons for choosing said foci, or should I really concentrate on something else entirely?

Edited May 11, 2016 by Tomppak

[MechaTails]

Granted I've only used Naramon so far, but-

The invisibility Naramon grants lets you cheese your way through the whole game, provided you use a decent crit weapon (roughly 25% crit chance or higher). I have one point in Shadow Step, that's it. This lets my Banshee wrecking-ball her way through Lv80-100 Sorties with Furax, no special tactics needed, it's ridiculous lol.

Yes, it's a good idea to boost the ability that gives extra affinity with melee, that's what i'm working on now to raise the ability that disarms enemies (which doesnt seem that useful, I could just punch them so they die instead lol).

I want to believe the other schools have their own merits, but all I see is people glorifying Naramon and the regen schools, never even acknowledging the others exist.

Edited May 11, 2016 by MechaTails

[(PSN)Bowjangelz]

The frame will get focus more quickly than the weapon due to how XP works. Having a lens on each will not reduce focus in any way, they each gain focus through the affinity system, you will just reach your cap for the day more quickly. I run with a frame and weapon with lenses from different schools all the time. I get focus for both; more goes to the wf. 

This wiki page explains how affinity works, should help: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Affinity

Greater lenses make farming focus faster. I had the plat so I bought some, but I'd have been fine without them. Just would take longer to max out and rank up the skill trees. 

If you have lenses for schools you don't want to rank, no harm in trading for the ones you do want. 

If you want to rank up in the schools you have lenses for, I would install them on your favorite frames/weapons. Might as well start. 

I like Zerurik and Naramon for the same reasons. I also have Vazarin so if I know I'll be rezzing people I cut down the annoyance by making it instant. I'm sure I'll go for all 5, but so far these have been the most interesting to me. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by (PS4)Bowjangelz

[Roboplus]

Answering some of these questions involves explaining how focus is distributed, which you can find in the table on this page.

For your questions:

Because of how affinity is distributed, frames tend to get more focus than weapons, if you are the one killing.

Focus earned for one school is not lessened by using different lenses on the same loadout.

Lenses can't be removed, only overridden. The main concern when using a lens is if you'll want to change the lens on that weapon/frame later. If the answer is no, then go for it.

Statistically, it is better that you have a lens on your frame and all currently equipped weapons than to have one greater lens.

You can try. Naramon and Zenurik are both popular schools. You could probably get the lens you want, if you give it some time.

There isn't really a drawback, no. Efficiency wise, any potential focus earned is dropped if you don't have a lens in the equipment slot the affinity is going towards.

I leveled both. Zen is great for casters and Nar is great for melee fighters.

[Zeyez]

using different lenses on weapon and warframe doesn't have any penalty, besides the warframe will earn the most, since killing by using your weapon give 50% affinity to your weapon and 50% for your warframe, killing with warframe skills give 100% for the warframe

the only penalty will be the shared maximum amount of focus per day (100K) that every school has

 

greater lenses only helps you if you play for an hour per day or you doesn't like to farm affinity too much for focus, since they only give extra +75% focus, barely worth the value, besides can be crafted by using 4 lenses... just put one normal lense on every equipment instead of that

 

bonus answer:

i use Vazarin for instantaneous ressurection, healing utility for allies and my sentinel and increased shared affinity range (from standard 50 meters to 67.5 meters), useful for leveling equipment and any situation that i can deal without Zenurik's energy regeneration (warframes with Rage mod or channelled skills)

Zenurik for outstanding amount of energy regeneration with some heavily builds that rely on trinity to work (roar Rhino, frosty Frost, Equinox pacify with peaceful provocation...)

Naramon... still upgrading, but maybe has some utility for Equinox single dagger (rest + covert lethality), Volt with any critical meele weapon or wukong in future, if this doesn't change in U19-20

Madurai... raw power doesn't fit most of the situations for me

Unairu... waiting for rework

 

if you want to swap between them, do it early, or after upgrading the core passives

[(PSN)Nukerxero123]

Don't have time but last question I can answer. Zenurik and Naramon are the only good focus schools. Naramon for crit melee invisibility- Shadow Step. And Zenurik for energy restoration passive. It will allow you to continuously spam abilities

 

[Maicael]

There is no drawback to adding multiple lenses to a loadout afaik, and it allows you to gain focus with multiple schools simultaneously (although slower than if all were the same school).

A lens on a Warframe will get a bit more out of it though, especially if it's one that can kill enemies with its abilities. (From the wiki)

• Kill an enemy. Each enemy grants a specific amount of Affinity. If killed with a Warframe ability, all of the Affinity goes to the Warframe. If killed with a weapon, half goes to the Warframe and half to the killing weapon.

Putting a lens on both a frame and weapon ensures that no affinity from your kills is being wasted. Then there's shared affinity from kills by squadmates which will go 25% to the frame and 75% distributed equally (25%) to your 3 weapon slots which will result in lost affinity there if they don't have lenses or you could unequip the weapons without lenses to have the full 75% go to the one with a lens.

[Tomppak]

Thanks for all the good answers!

Follow up question: Are the greater lense BP's useable multiple times, and where do I even get the lesser lenses to turn them into greater lenses, apart from 1 per focus from the sortie..?

[Maicael]

14 minutes ago, Tomppak said:

Thanks for all the good answers!

Follow up question: Are the greater lense BP's useable multiple times, and where do I even get the lesser lenses to turn them into greater lenses, apart from 1 per focus from the sortie..?

I believe the greater lens BPs are reusable. I've only built one and haven't checked in months, so I'm not sure. Currently there is no other way to obtain the lesser lenses except through Sorties and trading with others.