How to build a Mag

[Yablo]

Hello!

I just recently crafted a Mag prime, I decided it migh be fun to try her, she always seemed like a pretty weak frame to me but Ray making a cool new skin for her as well as the opinions I read here about her changed my mind.
I went to a warframe build site just to try out some builds, I want to mainly use her Polarize and Magnetize and eventually I settled with this build.
The current build I am planning for is however lacking in Power range and I wanna know if that will significantly hurt the effectiveness of her Polarize.

I created this thread because I am interested to see how experienced Mag players build their frames.


ps. sorry if this thread is in the wrong section, I was unable to find a subsection that would suffice better than this one.

[(PSN)joe03827]

Polarize isnt affected by power range , but by power duration , just like nova's molecular prime .

BUT , power range affects magnetize's bubble which also affects the explosion that is at the end of the ability when  the timer ends

For me i Have a High Range with Really low Duration ( so the magnetize bubble's timer ends quickly and it explodes killing enemies ) and a little bit of strength

Strength isnt all that important cuz magnetize's main focus is to shoot inside the bubble which builds up a lot of damage that ticks on enemies which go inside the buuble and go into the explosion at the end ..... AND it scales   

Edited November 1, 2016 by (PS4)joe03827

[Dima19U]

http://warframe-builder.com/Warframes/Builder/Mag_prime/t_30_4420032430_1-0-10-4-5-5-5-3-5-6-6-0-7-4-5-34-8-5-46-1-5-49-7-10-411-2-10-615-9-5_1-7-46-6-411-8-5-9-7-9-4-5-6-3-49-8-34-14-615-9_0/en/1-0-11/ thats my build and i use it whit level 3 energy overflow in the zenurik shcool

[(PSN)joshw1400]

If you didn't know, Mag got a rework and is one of the top tier frames in the game. Her polarize is just like molecular prime, both are affected by duration. 

My Build

Aura: Corrosive Projection

Exilus: Power Drift

-Redirection

-Transient Fortitude

-Stretch

-Streamline Rank 4

- Fleeting Expertise Rank 4

- Primed Continuity

- Constitution

- Primed Flow/Augment(s)

Duration will help polarize and magnetize and the range will help for CC with pull and crush.

Edited November 1, 2016 by (PS4)joshw1400

[YpsitheFlintsider]

High range, high efficiency, low duration, decent strength, augment on crush, natural talent.

[(PSN)joshw1400]

3 minutes ago, Dima19U said:

http://warframe-builder.com/Warframes/Builder/Mag_prime/t_30_4420032430_1-0-10-4-5-5-5-3-5-6-6-0-7-4-5-34-8-5-46-1-5-49-7-10-411-2-10-615-9-5_1-7-46-6-411-8-5-9-7-9-4-5-6-3-49-8-34-14-615-9_0/en/1-0-11/ thats my build and i use it whit level 3 energy overflow in the zenurik shcool

His build is pretty good aswell.

[Korakian]

I found that building mag only for range and duration works really well, while also staying above 100% efficiency, because you can just use magnetize to suck all the enemies into one place and then use an aoe weapon or something with travel time and punchthrough to deal massive amounts of damage and if the bubble runs out and the enemy who it was cast on died in the process, the bubble still explodes and can kill enemies in the 100+ lvls easily even with only 40% power strength.

[Yablo]

15 minutes ago, (PS4)joe03827 said:

Polarize isnt affected by power range , but by power duration , just like nova's molecular prime .

BUT , power range affects magnetize's bubble which also affects the explosion that is at the end of the ability when  the timer ends

For me i Have a High Range with Really low Duration ( so the magnetize bubble's timer ends quickly and it explodes killing enemies ) and a little bit of strength 

15 minutes ago, Dima19U said:

http://warframe-builder.com/Warframes/Builder/Mag_prime/t_30_4420032430_1-0-10-4-5-5-5-3-5-6-6-0-7-4-5-34-8-5-46-1-5-49-7-10-411-2-10-615-9-5_1-7-46-6-411-8-5-9-7-9-4-5-6-3-49-8-34-14-615-9_0/en/1-0-11/ thats my build and i use it whit level 3 energy overflow in the zenurik shcool

11 minutes ago, (PS4)joshw1400 said:

His build is pretty good aswell.

So generally power strength isnt as important as efficiency, power range is good for magnetize and duration is completely personal preference?

 

 

[(PSN)joe03827]

14 minutes ago, Yablo said:

So generally power strength isnt as important as efficiency, power range is good for magnetize and duration is completely personal preference?

 

 

Yup , but feel free to test with different builds and find your favourite build

[(PSN)Elctrcstel]

while i dont have my build on hand because im being a bad boy and using the internet at work...i can recommend some weapons that work well with Mag/Prime.

pretty much any continuous fire weapon (Ignis, Gammacor, Atmos) Lanka built for gas and electric, the Miter works wonders here with its insane punch through when charged, AOE weapons, the Penta (but dont alt fire and blow it up)

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 1, 2016 by (PS4)Elctrcstel
dont know why the strike through is there...

[Xzorn]

As someone who's played Mag off and on for 3 years.....  I no longer play Mag.

Her Pull is still OK for working with Magnetize. Her Polarize is completely useless and her Crush is still useless with the added chance of getting you killed because of it's cast animation. Added to this Magnetize is a very obnoxious ability in groups and I've left games because there was a Mag throwing up Magnetize on every enemy they see.

Her rework was a complete failure IMO and she's not fun to play at all.

Prioritize:    Range > Strength > Efficiency > Duration

This is what I was using with Zenruik.

Take off Blind Rage for Vitality if you want to play her at casual level ranges. All of her augments suck now so I wouldn't bother with those.

This build was for a meta group lvl 1,000+ enemies.

[aligatorno]

13 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

As someone who's played Mag off and on for 3 years.....  I no longer play Mag.

Her Pull is still OK for working with Magnetize. Her Polarize is completely useless and her Crush is still useless with the added chance of getting you killed because of it's cast animation. Added to this Magnetize is a very obnoxious ability in groups and I've left games because there was a Mag throwing up Magnetize on every enemy they see.

Her rework was a complete failure IMO and she's not fun to play at all.

Prioritize:    Range > Strength > Efficiency > Duration

This is what I was using with Zenruik.

Take off Blind Rage for Vitality if you want to play her at casual level ranges. All of her augments suck now so I wouldn't bother with those.

This build was for a meta group lvl 1,000+ enemies.

What exactly is useless about stripping enemy of their armor/shield, creating armor shards that hurt people who are caught in Magnetize and completely restoring the shield of everyone in its radius? Just because it's no longer a nuke doesn't make it useless. 

Edited November 1, 2016 by aligatorno

[NyxCrab]

Build is pretty flexible, you can replace overextended with natural talent or redirection if you want to cast abilities faster or be slightly less squishy, replace Trans Fortitude with Intensify if you want more duration, but remove Overextended if you do that otherwise you gimp your power strength too much. Could run R4 fleeting as opposed to R3 if you want less duration. Don't bother with any of her augments, they're pretty bad. Standard Combo should be Magnetize, then use Polarize, as Polarize creates shards from destroyed armor/shields and it increases the damage Magnetize does. If enemies have no armor/shields somehow, use Crush instead, as that still creates the Shards but deals increased damage to enemies in the Magnetize. It's not great damage, but it can help.

[Xzorn]

9 minutes ago, aligatorno said:

What exactly is useless about stripping enemy of their armor/shield, creating armor shards that hurt people who are caught in Magnetize and completely restoring the shield of everyone in its radius? Just because it's no longer a nuke doesn't make it useless. 

 

Because it's a set number against exponential growth.

No matter what you strip a set number of armor or shields while enemies continue to gain them at an ever increasing rate. For this same reason the shrapnel Polarize creates is useless, if anything simply shooting the bubble will produce a far greater effect anyways and when enemies can do 3k damage in 0.5 seconds at lvl 80 the Overshields it grants are equally useless.

Overshields work for Trinity because she also gives the team 75% mitigation to add value to them, even then there's a point when Trinity isn't useful either.

Mag's kit might work at lvl 30 where the Devs like to show off reworks but at any significant level range she has one good ability.

[Katinka]

I'm surprised by the number of people saying not to bother with power strength considering how many of her powers double dip on it.  Pull, power strength affects damage dealt and the chance of energy orbs dropping.  Magnetize, power strength affects the damage multiplier on shots entering it and the explosion damage at the end.  Polarise, power strength affects the armour/shields removed and the damage caused by the explosion.  For example, Polarize deals 400 damage to a targets shields/armour as the wave passes and then does 400x2.5 damage ( so 1000 Magnetic damage) to everything in 8m, diminshing over distance, but both the 400 damage and the x2.5 are affected by power strength so +100% power strength will mean dealing 800 damage and then causing an explosion of 800x5 damage (4000 Magnetic damage) over 8m.

[(PSN)joshw1400]

25 minutes ago, Katinka said:

I'm surprised by the number of people saying not to bother with power strength considering how many of her powers double dip on it.  Pull, power strength affects damage dealt and the chance of energy orbs dropping.  Magnetize, power strength affects the damage multiplier on shots entering it and the explosion damage at the end.  Polarise, power strength affects the armour/shields removed and the damage caused by the explosion.  For example, Polarize deals 400 damage to a targets shields/armour as the wave passes and then does 400x2.5 damage ( so 1000 Magnetic damage) to everything in 8m, diminshing over distance, but both the 400 damage and the x2.5 are affected by power strength so +100% power strength will mean dealing 800 damage and then causing an explosion of 800x5 damage (4000 Magnetic damage) over 8m.

The main reason is since magnetize scales with enemy damage and your damage, you don't need too much power strength.

[Katinka]

1 hour ago, (PS4)joshw1400 said:

The main reason is since magnetize scales with enemy damage and your damage, you don't need too much power strength.

Surely you still want it to be at least 50% so that Magnetize isn't reducing your damage?  A 40% power strength build will give Magnetize a 0.8 damage multiplier.  I'd much rather go without the extra range and keep the x2 damage multiplier.

[Xzorn]

42 minutes ago, Katinka said:

Surely you still want it to be at least 50% so that Magnetize isn't reducing your damage?  A 40% power strength build will give Magnetize a 0.8 damage multiplier.  I'd much rather go without the extra range and keep the x2 damage multiplier.

 

Enemy damage output doesn't come close to their HP scaling, you for sure need Power Strength to deal with enemies going on lvl 300+ as a lvl 300 Bombard has 400k Raw HP and if you're not running CPx4 for some reason then it has 99.45% mitigation. Meanwhile that same Bombard's rocket deasl 6,700 damage which is 1.67% of his own Raw HP and the gap only grows as level increases.

You cannot rely on enemy self damage for anything in this game when it comes to scaling. The higher level you go, the more Power Strength you'll want.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Xzorn

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

Duration: 123%
Efficiency: 160%
Range: 205%
Strength: 70% + Energy Conversion

Aura: Growing Power
Augments: Greedy Pull (for fueling EC)

Weapons:
Primary: Mutalist Cernos - Corrosive spec + fire rate (use with Strategy #1). Gas spec w/ highest possible damage (use with Strategy #2).
Secondary: Pox - Gas spec w/ highest possible damage. Use only when bigger damage is needed. Switch back to Cernos when threat is eliminated.
Melee: Whatever - Useless on this build. Too squishy. Lacera or Lesion, if an empty slot bothers you.

Strategy #1 (No CP): Cast Magnetize on target in cluster. Fire three arrows into the bubble. Cast Magnetize again. Wait about 2 seconds, then cast Polarize. Now leave, your work here is done. 

Strategy #2 (4x CP): Cast Magnetize on target in cluster. Fire one arrow into the bubble. Cast Magnetize again. Now leave, your work here is done.

Base strength is enough for Mag, and you achieve that with this build. Notice what happens to Growing Power when Cernos clouds stack inside Magnetize. The first strategy I listed will strip armor completely off any unit up to levels I cannot realistically test, while keeping you safe from incoming damage. If you stick around to see the fireworks, recast Magnetize the instant you see the bubble begin shrinking, or enemy fire will escape and one-shot you.

WARNING: On console, this setup occasionally causes Magnetize bubbles to suddenly vanish instead of shrinking and exploding. I haven't isolated the bug yet, but my guess is it's related to the Growing Power exploit. If this happens, you will most likely die. Even if you don't, the whole strategy falls apart. I don't know if this bug is present on PC, so use my setup at your own risk.

[mikami666134]

I played mag since i began playing this game and has been consistently playing her post rework. With that in mind i must humbly said that there are no particularly "best" build for mag.

But i have 4 which stands out from the rest.

1. CC build : max out range and duration. 

This is useful for (mobile) defense missions. Toss in maxed efficiency to keep enemies perma-CCed on interceptions with crush (AFAIK it's the only CC with spans across rooms; along with silence i guess).

2. Room clear : max eff and range with enough strength (TF and power drift is enough for me)

Press 2 -> one tigris click -> dead bodies

3. Boss murderer : max strength, enough said.

4. Hybrid build : personal favorite; uses redirection, TF, power drift, stretch, overextended, primed flow, primed continuity, and natural talent. 

This is what i use to tackle solo survivals. I just let the enemies shoot at themselves; which scales with levels. 

 

Have fun with mag, her magnetize need some knowledge about choke points and enemy behavior to use optimally. It'll serve as a good training for when you want to take a break from brain dead bladestorming along with tonkors and simulors.

 

 

[Ralk1456]

Congrats on Mag Prime! Mag is one of the earliest frames and was the Queen of Corpus, but the rework removed her infinite scaling insta-kill with Shield Polarise, and her skills are a bit iffy besides Magnetise (formerly "Bullet Attractor"). Crush has a short CC (+Augment), Pull has a short CC (Augment is good for high wave survival), and Polarise is good for Hijack missions and when you really need shields.

With Magnetise and its decent damage amp, Mag is a boss killer. Simply aim at the top of the bubble and watch all your shots become auto headshots and massacre everything.

With Mag, your methods all center around Magnetise and tweaking it to your liking. 

Boss killing: Max strength and positive duration. Headshots + damage amp. 

Run and Gun: Minimal duration, high range, positive strength. This allows you to turn Magnetise into a fast, hitscan version of Nova's Antimatter Drop. Bring a high burst/DPS weapon.

Time-based Defense: Mobile Defense, Excavation, Survival that doesn't require you to kill a certain number of enemies. Build for Max Duration and Range. The bubbles will absorb all incoming ranged attacks and mildly pull enemies to its centre. It will also build up obscene amounts of damage for the continuous ticks.

For personal safety, Mag scales very well with Shield mods, so Redirection is good, Vigor is better if you don't feel confident vs Toxin and Slash. I would recommend at least 1 syndicate weapon with health restore. Modding for Quick Thinking also works. Mag herself doesn't have any scaling defenses, so keeping mobile or behind cover is your best bet. Or, if you're feeling experimental, make room for Fracturing Crush and high Duration.

For Mag-specific weaponry, Magnetise goes best with projectile weapons, which are those that have darts and arrows and energy bolts, and have travel time. Some good ones are (Mara) Detron, Secura Dual Cestra, Supra etc. The bolts will spin inside the Magnetise and blend enemies for you. Radiation procs allows enemies in bubbles to shoot each other and push the damage ticks further, so that is one of the modding considerations.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2016 by Ralk1456
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