Mag Build

[Chandelidra]

Mag is a pretty fun frame to play for me, but I was wondering what ways would make her the most useful in a party? The wiki says for most of the abilities that duration has no positive effect for increasing the duration, so would I go for range as the main stat?

[NativeKiller]

I'd like to know this as well.

 

I really can't figure out what I should do with Mag since the rework and all. :D

[VKhaun]

I don't play Mag much myself but I find large bullet attractor fields somewhat annoying. I prefer Mag to use medium-low range so she's just hamster-balling key enemies that dish out lots of damage or annoying CC, without making me unable to shoot at what I want to. Maybe a high range build is worth it at very high levels, but for general play it's one of those things like Nekros' Terrify where I'd just rather not deal with it.

[PikeOrShield]

13 minutes ago, LittleLantern said:

Mag is a pretty fun frame to play for me, but I was wondering what ways would make her the most useful in a party? The wiki says for most of the abilities that duration has no positive effect for increasing the duration, so would I go for range as the main stat?

Mag has undergone a rework recently and duration is now somewhat relevant.  As far as I know, Pull and Crush are still not effected by duration, but Polarize and Magnitize are.  However, Magnitize is quite useful with low duration (since you can set up a choke point kill box and have it explode seconds after) and Polarize is not too useful anymore.  I build for slightly negative duration (64% I think?  This way, if I misplace a Magnitize, it's not too inconvenient), max range to capitalize on her wide crowd control with Pull/Magnitize/Crush, with positive strength and efficiency.

I have also seen some neat Fracturing Crush builds made to strip 100% armor with Polarize+Crush.  These builds require positive duration though, and I didn't care much for that.

[motorfirebox]

Mag's primary ability these days is her 2, Magnetize. There are two ways to build for Magnetize: short duration, in order to get more explosions; and long duration, for charging up the bubble's DoT.

I prefer long duration, because there are a lot of ways to charge the bubble's DoT up to huge, huge levels. For instance, here is the results from today's Gift of the Lotus endurance run (10 minutes with level 100+ Infested):

Spoiler

What I've found works best is to prioritize range, then duration, then power, then efficiency. With longer duration, you don't need to recast as often if you pick your targets wisely. Of course, I'm also using Energy Siphon and Zenurik, so my energy regen is pretty high. Here's my build:

Spoiler

In order to charge the bubble, you need to do massive amounts of damage very quickly, and you need to get gas procs. There's some kind of interaction between Magnetize's damage absorption and the gas cloud DoTs that really seems to pump up the bubble DoT. The best weapon I've found is the Quanta Vandal, which does huge amounts of elemental damage (no IPS procs getting in the way), high status, and high fire rate. Its pinpoint accuracy is nice, but not necessary since you're mainly going to be shooting the bubble. I've also had fairly good results with the Synoid Gammacor. The Daikyu and Torid have worked okay. I'm still experimenting, but thus far nothing else has come close to matching the QV in terms of charging up the Magnetize DoT. Here's my QV build:

Spoiler

 

The basic strategy with this build is, you focus on the spawn points and choke points. Figure out where enemies are coming from, where they have to come through to get to you, put a Magnetize on one of them and unload on the bubble. Thus far, three or four seconds from the QV has been enough to melt pretty much anything that walks into the bubble.

Beyond that, it's all about using the bubble. Duck inside it when you're being shot at. Use Pull to yank mobs into/through the bubble (often it doesn't matter if they land in the bubble, simply passing through it via Pull is enough to kill them). Keep an eye on the timer, recast before the old one explodes. Cast early, because the casting speed is slow and your target can die before you're done, which means your bubble won't appear.

[Sweaty_Pleb]

On 6/18/2016 at 1:59 AM, motorfirebox said:

Mag's primary ability these days is her 2, Magnetize. There are two ways to build for Magnetize: short duration, in order to get more explosions; and long duration, for charging up the bubble's DoT.

I prefer long duration, because there are a lot of ways to charge the bubble's DoT up to huge, huge levels. For instance, here is the results from today's Gift of the Lotus endurance run (10 minutes with level 100+ Infested):

  Hide contents

What I've found works best is to prioritize range, then duration, then power, then efficiency. With longer duration, you don't need to recast as often if you pick your targets wisely. Of course, I'm also using Energy Siphon and Zenurik, so my energy regen is pretty high. Here's my build:

  Reveal hidden contents

In order to charge the bubble, you need to do massive amounts of damage very quickly, and you need to get gas procs. There's some kind of interaction between Magnetize's damage absorption and the gas cloud DoTs that really seems to pump up the bubble DoT. The best weapon I've found is the Quanta Vandal, which does huge amounts of elemental damage (no IPS procs getting in the way), high status, and high fire rate. Its pinpoint accuracy is nice, but not necessary since you're mainly going to be shooting the bubble. I've also had fairly good results with the Synoid Gammacor. The Daikyu and Torid have worked okay. I'm still experimenting, but thus far nothing else has come close to matching the QV in terms of charging up the Magnetize DoT. Here's my QV build:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The basic strategy with this build is, you focus on the spawn points and choke points. Figure out where enemies are coming from, where they have to come through to get to you, put a Magnetize on one of them and unload on the bubble. Thus far, three or four seconds from the QV has been enough to melt pretty much anything that walks into the bubble.

Beyond that, it's all about using the bubble. Duck inside it when you're being shot at. Use Pull to yank mobs into/through the bubble (often it doesn't matter if they land in the bubble, simply passing through it via Pull is enough to kill them). Keep an eye on the timer, recast before the old one explodes. Cast early, because the casting speed is slow and your target can die before you're done, which means your bubble won't appear.

Would an ignis with vile acceleration work? 

Edited June 19, 2016 by Sweaty_Pleb
And a range mod

[(PSN)lhbuch]

As others mentioned the main ability now is Magnetize. Basically because it is really strong. Now think that this ability is a giant Dome that attarcts enemies-bullets and is active during a certain duraion. Also consider that enemies inside the dome cant shoot you and you cant shoot anything behind that dome. After that, this dome explodes and damages enemies.

So the size of the dome and the duration that it will exist, will be almost entirely your preference. I personally prefer range and low duration but it is a matter of preference.

As for guns, Lanka, Quanta, Penta are good options. After testing a lot, I use the staticor because it is a weapon that I also use outside the magnetize power.

 

 

[Chandelidra]

42 minutes ago, (PS4)lhbuch said:

As others mentioned the main ability now is Magnetize. Basically because it is really strong. Now think that this ability is a giant Dome that attarcts enemies-bullets and is active during a certain duraion. Also consider that enemies inside the dome cant shoot you and you cant shoot anything behind that dome. After that, this dome explodes and damages enemies.

So the size of the dome and the duration that it will exist, will be almost entirely your preference. I personally prefer range and low duration but it is a matter of preference.

As for guns, Lanka, Quanta, Penta are good options. After testing a lot, I use the staticor because it is a weapon that I also use outside the magnetize power.

 

 

I've tried a couple high burst weapons without gas procs, and they still work too. I think you just either should go the gas procs with those types of weapons or the former.

[motorfirebox]

5 hours ago, Sweaty_Pleb said:

Would an ignis with vile acceleration work? 

I've been thinking about trying out the Ignis, but I don't even have a potato on mine yet. I'm hesitant because it's lower base damage, but it's got good status chance and it's elemental, so... maybe.

Speaking of Ignis, a warning: enemy flamethrowers pass right through the bubble, probably because the Ignis is considered an AOE effect.

Edited June 20, 2016 by motorfirebox

[(PSN)Sin-Kytori]

After skimming most of the answers, I feel like maybe none have quite touched on what mag can do when you think outside of the 'one skill' box that she was trapped in before. Her skills now work with a synergy that is pretty wicked. From what I can gather (And I've forma'd her 4 times now I think) there are really two builds you can focus on outside of a strict magnetize build.

Power stength: This build will kill duration. Mine is down to 17% with still some levels to drop. However, (And consider there is still some levels on mods to be taken so these are under max but not by too much) her pull does 813 with a 68% chance to drop an energy orb, doubled if the enemy is magnetized (So 1626), Her magnetize has a dmg multiplier of 5.42 and an explosion damage of 813 but a duration of 2.63 seconds, polarize does 1084 and the mines do 6.78x that (though it doesn't generate many because of short duration, it only hits a few enemies.) and her crush does 4065 plus 1500 if mag'd. So the focus of this build was quick mag n pull combos to generate orbs while still dealing sustainable damage. Her costs for pull and mag are 14/27 respectively so you need to make sure enemies are grouped, ideally, but it's not necessary. To turn profit, you need to kill at least two enemies. This is actually pretty easy from my experience even without range stacked. Curtesy of mag's aug mod, Shield Transference, Polarize functions as a shield restore for yourself. It also will drop mines around that, when pulled in with mag, do bonus damage. However this is unreliable without range stacked in my experience. I don't focus on this. If it happens it happens. 9/10 times when it comes to crush, I'll use it without magging things down first. I feel like it takes up too much time for not enough gain since only one or two mobs can fit in a standard bubble. While the big damage of this build will come down to using mag and weapon, she can sustain herself on trash mobs. However, the other part of this build design was to prevent the bubble from getting in the way of me and my team (Which happens a lot in the next build)

 

Power str/range: This build was meant to be a pure nuke. Using primed mods, this can easily see some of the gnarliest damage i've ever had on a frame. The build is same as above, stack str to max but swap out a mod for stretch. I usually swap out shield transference which makes me squishy but this build is a glass cannon AoE nuke. She still has redirection, which is a plus but the overshields were nice. Anyway:

The gist is this. Drop Polarize first to lay mines. (I can't recall if everything in the area drops mines or literally only the things touched. Like I said I use this mechanic as bonus damage, not prime source so I don't worry about it), follow it with magnetize on pretty much any enemy. With prime reach, this bubble will be pretty big. Then follow it with crush. Everything in the area is going to take 5500 damage (unless you swap fleeting expertise, then the number drops a bit) and then 800 damage from the explosion to finish stragglers. Sometimes you can use pull if you need energy.

 

Power range/duration/wee bit of str: This build doesn't stack as much str because of it killing duration and efficiency so here I went with a duration (for better polarize and mag) at the cost of str. Stacked with range you get the same benefit as above but you prioritize mines over bonus mag damage mechanic. The general idea of this one was to crush everything after magging it but it's really energy intensive if you don't get the right mods down and I always felt like it was eating away at my energy restores so I stopped using this one and went back to the first. The trick here is using polarize, then mag will deal enough damage to kill most things, if too much survives, follow it with crush. The downside for me is that the str felt so lacking that it didn't feel worth it.

 

If you want me to post the specific mods to any of these builds, let me know and I'll get a list. But I hope this at least opens up the concept of using mag as something other than magnetize spam.

[(XBOX)Kaf Grunk]

On 6/19/2016 at 9:51 PM, (PS4)Sin-Kytori said:

After skimming most of the answers, I feel like maybe none have quite touched on what mag can do when you think outside of the 'one skill' box that she was trapped in before. Her skills now work with a synergy that is pretty wicked. From what I can gather (And I've forma'd her 4 times now I think) there are really two builds you can focus on outside of a strict magnetize build.

Power stength: This build will kill duration. Mine is down to 17% with still some levels to drop. However, (And consider there is still some levels on mods to be taken so these are under max but not by too much) her pull does 813 with a 68% chance to drop an energy orb, doubled if the enemy is magnetized (So 1626), Her magnetize has a dmg multiplier of 5.42 and an explosion damage of 813 but a duration of 2.63 seconds, polarize does 1084 and the mines do 6.78x that (though it doesn't generate many because of short duration, it only hits a few enemies.) and her crush does 4065 plus 1500 if mag'd. So the focus of this build was quick mag n pull combos to generate orbs while still dealing sustainable damage. Her costs for pull and mag are 14/27 respectively so you need to make sure enemies are grouped, ideally, but it's not necessary. To turn profit, you need to kill at least two enemies. This is actually pretty easy from my experience even without range stacked. Curtesy of mag's aug mod, Shield Transference, Polarize functions as a shield restore for yourself. It also will drop mines around that, when pulled in with mag, do bonus damage. However this is unreliable without range stacked in my experience. I don't focus on this. If it happens it happens. 9/10 times when it comes to crush, I'll use it without magging things down first. I feel like it takes up too much time for not enough gain since only one or two mobs can fit in a standard bubble. While the big damage of this build will come down to using mag and weapon, she can sustain herself on trash mobs. However, the other part of this build design was to prevent the bubble from getting in the way of me and my team (Which happens a lot in the next build)

 

Power str/range: This build was meant to be a pure nuke. Using primed mods, this can easily see some of the gnarliest damage i've ever had on a frame. The build is same as above, stack str to max but swap out a mod for stretch. I usually swap out shield transference which makes me squishy but this build is a glass cannon AoE nuke. She still has redirection, which is a plus but the overshields were nice. Anyway:

The gist is this. Drop Polarize first to lay mines. (I can't recall if everything in the area drops mines or literally only the things touched. Like I said I use this mechanic as bonus damage, not prime source so I don't worry about it), follow it with magnetize on pretty much any enemy. With prime reach, this bubble will be pretty big. Then follow it with crush. Everything in the area is going to take 5500 damage (unless you swap fleeting expertise, then the number drops a bit) and then 800 damage from the explosion to finish stragglers. Sometimes you can use pull if you need energy.

 

Power range/duration/wee bit of str: This build doesn't stack as much str because of it killing duration and efficiency so here I went with a duration (for better polarize and mag) at the cost of str. Stacked with range you get the same benefit as above but you prioritize mines over bonus mag damage mechanic. The general idea of this one was to crush everything after magging it but it's really energy intensive if you don't get the right mods down and I always felt like it was eating away at my energy restores so I stopped using this one and went back to the first. The trick here is using polarize, then mag will deal enough damage to kill most things, if too much survives, follow it with crush. The downside for me is that the str felt so lacking that it didn't feel worth it.

 

If you want me to post the specific mods to any of these builds, let me know and I'll get a list. But I hope this at least opens up the concept of using mag as something other than magnetize spam.

If it is possible for you, yes I would like to see pictures of your loadouts please! I have just gotten myself Mag P and feel like she will be very fun to play, but would like a general Idea from a Mag vet