How do you play Mag?

[Jabarto]

I've been playing Mag Prime lately, and it's going so poorly that I'm pretty much at the point where I consider the fact that she's a potential starter frame to be some kind of cruel prank on new players. I've got her at level 30, with a reactor. I have her modded with Corrosive Projection, Intensify, Vigor, Stretch, Streamline, Flow, Constitution, Redirection, and Natural Talent, but any missions over level 20 or so are almost impossible unless I eat a couple of revives. She's more fragile than I ever thought a frame could be, she's constantly starved for energy, her abilities barely do any damage, she's not particularly fast...and yet people tell me she's a top tier frame.

So I guess I'm asking for not just build advice, but actual strategy. Which of her abilities should I be using? On what kinds of enemies? What kind of modifiers should I be going for? What exactly does she do that other frames can't do better? I'm at wits end here so nothing is too basic.

[Chipputer]

2 hours ago, SenorClipClop said:

This was an issue right when the rework dropped, but honestly, have you tried her in the last six months?

Don't bother. This is the same mindset that people have toward Oberon.

I can't even count the amount of times I've had people get annoyed that I even dared to bring him to their precious sortie.

[Jabarto]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm still going through them but I did want to address something since it's come up a few times.

Frost is my favorite frame, yes. When I asked what Mag can do that other frames can't I was specifically thinking of him because he has better damage, better hit points, better shields, better armor, better crowd control, and better defensive abilities. Every time I tried to use Magnetize to close off a line of attack, I found myself thinking "I could be using Snow Globe to do the same thing, except with 360 degree coverage and the ability to shoot through it". Whenever I used Crush, I found myself thinking "this is almost exactly like Avalanche, if Avalanche had a cast time you could measure in eons and didn't do as much damage".

For a little more background, I tried building around Magnetize but the problem is that it only catches a few enemies at once. Once they go down you're left with a giant obstacle that you can't shoot through or out of, and which enemies can march through unimpeded. That said, I haven't paid much attention to Polarize, and that might be worth looking into more since it restores shields.

Also I will say that I like Pull quite a bit, and to Magnetize's credit things that get caught in it go down REAL fast. It's just that you usually have incoming fire from all directions and you really don't have the energy or endurance to cover them all.

[(PSN)Tactless_Ninja]

Mag is currently my most played frame according to my stats screen. She's meant to be very mobile. Can cast pull, magnetize, and shield polarize mid-air and her passive is a good replacement for vacuum. Can displace entire crowds of enemies, stop them dead, or make one very very dead and then blows up killing their buddies.

Polarize is given way too little credit. Shields are supposed to be the alternative to armor, and can instantly restore a portion of her shields, her teammates shields, the defense objectives shields, all while whittling away the enemies defenses. Once shield gating becomes a thing she'll be a monster. And the effects can be buffed by teammate abilities like Nidus's parasitic link.

Natural talent is very good for magnetize because it does have a delayed cast time, and crush which will shorten cast time.

As for energy she mostly has to rely on pull generating energy orbs, but I found zererik's energy overflow and at least a streamline on her to be very useful.

The people saying she's a trash frame only have one spot in their inventory for 1 gun, the synoid skillulator and do nothing but watch pewdeepie and listen to Nickelback. Can you really trust someone like that?

 

[(PSN)Tactless_Ninja]

19 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm still going through them but I did want to address something since it's come up a few times.

Frost is my favorite frame, yes. When I asked what Mag can do that other frames can't I was specifically thinking of him because he has better damage, better hit points, better shields, better armor, better crowd control, and better defensive abilities. Every time I tried to use Magnetize to close off a line of attack, I found myself thinking "I could be using Snow Globe to do the same thing, except with 360 degree coverage and the ability to shoot through it". Whenever I used Crush, I found myself thinking "this is almost exactly like Avalanche, if Avalanche had a cast time you could measure in eons and didn't do as much damage".

For a little more background, I tried building around Magnetize but the problem is that it only catches a few enemies at once. Once they go down you're left with a giant obstacle that you can't shoot through or out of, and which enemies can march through unimpeded. That said, I haven't paid much attention to Polarize, and that might be worth looking into more since it restores shields.

Also I will say that I like Pull quite a bit, and to Magnetize's credit things that get caught in it go down REAL fast. It's just that you usually have incoming fire from all directions and you really don't have the energy or endurance to cover them all.

Snow globe doesn't focus fire into a tiny little point. Also you're still going to run into complications in your snow globe against a bursa or Tech while you try to dig yourself in to defend against them while magnetize already has them dead. Also it can be used at a very long range. Snow globe is always on your current position so they function very differently. And at what point do you go "Oh gee I need a bubble right now"? It's when you're taking health damage right? Polarize lets you fight in the open longer.

Crush functions similarly but it's more of a problem with their innate elemental damage. Crush deals magnetic damage along with all the nuances that come along with it. And it needs the augment to have any utility outside of simply magnetic damage. Since the augment had been already a thing, the rework was probably built around that fact it was a possible build variable.

Though we're all comparing these stats with a competitive mindset. This is a (mostly) co-op game, and a Mag and a Frost in the same game can compliment each other very well.

 

[Hypernaut1]

48 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm still going through them but I did want to address something since it's come up a few times.

Frost is my favorite frame, yes. When I asked what Mag can do that other frames can't I was specifically thinking of him because he has better damage, better hit points, better shields, better armor, better crowd control, and better defensive abilities. Every time I tried to use Magnetize to close off a line of attack, I found myself thinking "I could be using Snow Globe to do the same thing, except with 360 degree coverage and the ability to shoot through it". Whenever I used Crush, I found myself thinking "this is almost exactly like Avalanche, if Avalanche had a cast time you could measure in eons and didn't do as much damage".

For a little more background, I tried building around Magnetize but the problem is that it only catches a few enemies at once. Once they go down you're left with a giant obstacle that you can't shoot through or out of, and which enemies can march through unimpeded. That said, I haven't paid much attention to Polarize, and that might be worth looking into more since it restores shields.

Also I will say that I like Pull quite a bit, and to Magnetize's credit things that get caught in it go down REAL fast. It's just that you usually have incoming fire from all directions and you really don't have the energy or endurance to cover them all.

There is no point in comparing frames like that. Just play the frame if you find it fun to use. Not everything is about the meta.

[AzureTerra]

19 hours ago, Jackviator said:

Nonsense said by someone who apparently hasn't gotten over the change.

Sure she wont be the End of all Corpus across most of the map but is still highly capable of dealing with them with the side order of being actually useful versus Grinner and the Infested (to a lesser effect)

 

[Jackviator]

Just now, AzureTerra said:

"Nonsense said by someone who apparently hasn't gotten over the change."

Thanks for the lulz, needed that.

Anyhow, yeah, she's still effective, and a slight bit more versatile against the other factions. It's just that she's no different than she was before, gameplay-wise (if you want to actually be an asset to your team, that is):

22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222...._2.

.......Also, I kinda never really used her before her rework because I detest one-ability frames. So I'm not salty about the Corpus thing; in fact, I'm glad DE fixed the sheer cheesiness of it. It's just that they didn't go far enough in making her a frame that can use all of her abilities.

[MagPrime]

Not really up to defending why I like a 'frame to the meta mind set of "yeah, but someone else does it better" tonight, so this is all I'm contributing to the topic - OP, add some of us in game and we'll run some Mag only missions.  Its easier to show a playstyle than discuss it.

[(PSN)Colloquial_Bloke]

1).  Level her to 30 at Akkad.

2).  Delete her.

3).  Play a frame with an actual use.

[Midrib]

How do i play mag?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't......

Never liked her pre rework, wont like her post rework.

[SenorClipClop]

10 hours ago, Jackviator said:

Her playstyle boils down to "press 2 and then shoot the Lanka/other weapons with travel time into the bubble."

Here's how I play her. I still don't know what you mean about hitscan weapons not working, I use them all the time and have never seen an issue.

11 hours ago, SenorClipClop said:

Spoiler

I wait for a heavy unit to be in an opportune position and tag them with Magnetize. The damage  multiplier on Magnetize means the enemy is dead pretty much immediately after I start shooting it, and now I have this cool structure to play with, which works sorta like a combination of Snowglobe and Absorb. I feed ammo into the bubble, increasing its DoT and eventual explosion. I'm safe in the bubble (or if I'm on the opposite side from enemy fire), so I can use it defend myself and the objective. Enemies who enter the bubble are subject to constant damage. I'll step out of its cover to shoot enemies, I'll hop around the bubble to ensure enemies stay within it, or I'll Pull them in with me to subject them to the DoT/make quick work of them with a Finisher. Use her 3 and 4 as needed, it should be pretty clear when to use them. The most fun I have with Mag is watching the bubble reach the end of its timer, at which point it explodes for massive damage. When it shrinks a bit, Pull enemies into the blast zone for a satisfying execute.

 

 

10 hours ago, Jackviator said:

And if you don't do that and instead try to use all of her abilities, you'll find yourself spamming energy pizzas. She's a caster frame with the energy pool of a tankier frame like Rhino or Frost.

This is a drawback I see to Mag, but we've all got weaknesses, and this is a weakness that can be accounted for. In early levels, killing with Pull can keep her Energy up, and in later game  when that stops working, we have multiple resources to help with it too. Some frames are more Energy-hungry than others (Chroma is another example). But ultimately, I don't really spam that much with Mag (except maybe Pull). She's a caster, true, but that doesn't mean she needs to be spammy to get the job done.

10 hours ago, Jackviator said:

Add in the fact that you need to spam her 3 for it to be effective at even second mission Sortie levels (due to the lack of scaling), and she'll be starved for energy real quick.

Spamming 3 is trying to force an old build that will no longer work, because the power is very different now. Since Mag's scaling was moved from using enemy shielding via her 3 to using enemy damage via her 2, I see Polarize as more of a support move now, restoring team shields and softening the enemy (and setting up more damage for yourself via 2 and 4). I regularly top the squad's damage as Mag and never feel the need to spam powers.

10 hours ago, Jackviator said:

So... yeah. Press 2 to win, or you'll have a bad time. Is it effective with the right weapons? Yeah. Is it extremely limited and boring? Also yes.

Please don't take any offense, this is a difference of opinion, but a Tenno with a Frost profile icon calling Mag limited and boring... it's really funny to me.  

[Jabarto]

I keep seeing people throw the word "meta" around and I don't think it really fits here because:

1. We're not talking about minutiae here, I literally can't complete lower-midlevel content with her even at max rank with good mods/gear.

2. It isn't meta to ask why I would want to play Mag over someone else; if there isn't even one compelling reason to pick her, then she has some pretty serious problems and dismissing that as "meta mindset" is just a cop out.

EDIT: Not sure if anyone was implying this but it's also pretty amusing to think that I"m a meta player, seeing as I dedicated myself to acquiring Frost as my second frame, long before I even knew what his abilities did, just because I like his theme.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Jabarto

[MagPrime]

14 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

I keep seeing people throw the word "meta" around and I don't think it really fits here because:

1. We're not talking about minutiae here, I literally can't complete lower-midlevel content with her even at max rank with good mods/gear.

2. It isn't meta to ask why I would want to play Mag over someone else; if there isn't even one compelling reason to pick her, then she has some pretty serious problems and dismissing that as "meta mindset" is just a cop out.

EDIT: Not sure if anyone was implying this but it's also pretty amusing to think that I"m a meta player, seeing as I dedicated myself to acquiring Frost as my second frame, long before I even knew what his abilities did, just because I like his theme.

It's brought up because for as long as I've been here, Mag has been declared useless because she doesn't fit the meta.  Because there's always a different 'frame "That does what she does better" and while it's true, it also appliesto just about 2/3 of the other Warframes we currently have.  There will always be a better healer than Oberon, there will always be a better 'frame for defense than Limbo, etc.  One of the joys of Warframe is that there's a variety of choices and none of them are wrong as long as you know how to play your 'frame of choice. 

Quote

1. We're not talking about minutiae here, I literally can't complete lower-midlevel content with her even at max rank with good mods/gear.

Sounds like you don't know how to mod nor play her.  Hence my suggestion of getting with some dedicated Mag players in game to see what you're missing.

Quote

2. It isn't meta to ask why I would want to play Mag over someone else; if there isn't even one compelling reason to pick her, then she has some pretty serious problems and dismissing that as "meta mindset" is just a cop out.

But that is meta.  You're asking who to play that's better, that's more "viable" and easier to play, that gets more use by the community at large.  And you're totally dismissing the posts that explain how she's viable and why anyone would want to chose her.  If you don't find her such, that's fine.  Play something you do find fun. 

[LascarCapable]

Moved to players helping players.

[(PSN)maso_sage-mode]

it seems like you can not see the problems.

1: too low energy pool

2: pull is decent, not amazing. greedy pull augment is useless

3: magnetize: looks fine to mine, better than the old bullet attractor for sure

4: polarize : total garbage skill, use 4 corrosive projection is a way better option. bring the old one back ! who is using shield in 2017 ??? i would play redirection ONLY paired with a set of arcane barrier to have the chance of the instant shield regen.

5: crush: please dont tell me you can CC with this crap because it means you dont even know what CC is. too low damage, the augment is useless as well. as i said before  4 corrosive cp is a better option.

 Conclusion: bring back old polarize ( since youre adding more annoying corpus units), tweak a bit pull, magnetize is fine, crush is either to be tweaked or to be removed for another brand new ability.

 

Dont get me wrong people, I really like mag , the skins, the theme, I used to play her a lot in the past years but since rework it doesnt give me any fun anymore. Speaking about theme : once she had the title " corpus killer" , now what title does she have ? " the almighty nerfed " ? Lets be real guys.. the rework was 70% a nerf. I would like to see Mag good again, i still have 3 mag prime and normal mag in my inventory hoping for a further rework.

Edited February 13, 2017 by (PS4)maso_sage-mode

[gkuoni]

2 hours ago, (PS4)maso_sage-mode said:

it seems like you can not see the problems.

1: too low energy pool

2: pull is decent, not amazing. greedy pull augment is useless

3: magnetize: looks fine to mine, better than the old bullet attractor for sure

4: polarize : total garbage skill, use 4 corrosive projection is a way better option. bring the old one back ! who is using shield in 2017 ??? i would play redirection ONLY paired with a set of arcane barrier to have the chance of the instant shield regen.

5: crush: please dont tell me you can CC with this crap because it means you dont even know what CC is. too low damage, the augment is useless as well. as i said before  4 corrosive cp is a better option.

 Conclusion: bring back old polarize ( since youre adding more annoying corpus units), tweak a bit pull, magnetize is fine, crush is either to be tweaked or to be removed for another brand new ability.

 

Dont get me wrong people, I really like mag , the skins, the theme, I used to play her a lot in the past years but since rework it doesnt give me any fun anymore. Speaking about theme : once she had the title " corpus killer" , now what title does she have ? " the almighty nerfed " ? Lets be real guys.. the rework was 70% a nerf. I would like to see Mag good again, i still have 3 mag prime and normal mag in my inventory hoping for a further rework.

actually, I found a suggestion on the forums somewhere where the person suggested adding a debuff that's unique to mag on polarized enemies. The debuff then interracts differently with her abilities, allowing her to have more control over her cc abilities while dishing out more damage. I do definitely agree that mag needs a higher energy pool, not only because she's a caster, but because if valkyr can have that high energy pool, then so should mag. I do also think she could use an additional passive added on because it is not really a useful ability in combat or a way to cleverly use its passive in a way that can lead to good choices in the fight.

Here's a link to the rework I mentioned:

Spoiler

 

 

[-Temp0-]

18 hours ago, Xgomme said:

You should stop talking with steps when the first one should still be "Git Gud"

People spamming 1 spell with a random build found on internet are not the smartest people, not even the most efficient players.

 

Feel free to stay in the "meta addict" part of the game, kinda nice if you're born without skill 

And you an keep talking about skill in a pve horde game where all the difference between you and someone who's only mashing one button is that you mash 3 for the same exact effect. What you do with Mag or Saryn using all of her abilities and currently shtton of energy (partly because in reality their abilities have no synergy unlike Nidus for example and you need to mod them either for everything ot sacrifice efficiency mods) + certain weapons to get the maximim effect someone else can do with variety of different warframes like Nova or Equinox wasting only 30% of the energy for the same effect. All the difference between Mag and someone like Excalibur is that he does damage right away, Mag waits several seconds to build it up and pnly then does damage. Such diffirent much wow.

So yep you can stay in the "special snowflakes" group that don't want to face the reality of a frame not being efficient all you like. Clearly it's working out fine both in terms of balance and popularity.

 

 

Quote

 

I keep seeing people throw the word "meta" around and I don't think it really fits here because:

1. We're not talking about minutiae here, I literally can't complete lower-midlevel content with her even at max rank with good mods/gear.

2. It isn't meta to ask why I would want to play Mag over someone else; if there isn't even one compelling reason to pick her, then she has some pretty serious problems and dismissing that as "meta mindset" is just a cop out.

EDIT: Not sure if anyone was implying this but it's also pretty amusing to think that I"m a meta player, seeing as I dedicated myself to acquiring Frost as my second frame, long before I even knew what his abilities did, just because I like his theme.

 

In short I can tell you this because I play other games like Overwatch beside Warframe - meta is always just 1 useful heroes 2 something that if you play it correctly works on any skill level. Last part is kinda not important in WF because it's pve game after. Everything that is 'not meta' is just 1 situational 2 "fun" to use for the person who uses it, for the teammates - a dead weight mostly. That's why the only real time you will see people seriously asking for meta frames in WF is when they play Raids - is because you can actually fail raids, the outcome does depend on the frames you use and the host will lose a key in the process so he and everyone involved will always try to minimize the risks. So in short you can and will use frames like Mag or Zephyr for fun (not sure how much fun it is to just spam polarized bubbles personally but for each their own). Which is like nothing wrong with that if that's your definition of fun. I mean I run frames like Zephyr because it's fun fo me to watch them being swayed by little tornado while being immune to 95% of the damage at the very low cost in terms of energy, spamming several powers in hopes that 'something' will rather slowly happen in terms of Mag - not.

This is also brings questions about Mag and Volt being starter frames because in that terms they suck. Since WF is very complex, you won't have much explanation and mods in the beginning it's a rather awful choice.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Nomen_Nescio

[Xgomme]

3 hours ago, Nomen_Nescio said:

And you an keep talking about skill in a pve horde game where all the difference between you and someone who's only mashing one button is that you mash 3 for the same exact effect. What you do with Mag or Saryn using all of her abilities and currently shtton of energy (partly because in reality their abilities have no synergy unlike Nidus for example and you need to mod them either for everything ot sacrifice efficiency mods) + certain weapons to get the maximim effect someone else can do with variety of different warframes like Nova or Equinox wasting only 30% of the energy for the same effect. All the difference between Mag and someone like Excalibur is that he does damage right away, Mag waits several seconds to build it up and pnly then does damage. Such diffirent much wow.

So yep you can stay in the "special snowflakes" group that don't want to face the reality of a frame not being efficient all you like. Clearly it's working out fine both in terms of balance and popularity.

 

 

In short I can tell you this because I play other games like Overwatch beside Warframe - meta is always just 1 useful heroes 2 something that if you play it correctly works on any skill level. Last part is kinda not important in WF because it's pve game after. Everything that is 'not meta' is just 1 situational 2 "fun" to use for the person who uses it, for the teammates - a dead weight mostly. That's why the only real time you will see people seriously asking for meta frames in WF is when they play Raids - is because you can actually fail raids, the outcome does depend on the frames you use and the host will lose a key in the process so he and everyone involved will always try to minimize the risks. So in short you can and will use frames like Mag or Zephyr for fun (not sure how much fun it is to just spam polarized bubbles personally but for each their own). Which is like nothing wrong with that if that's your definition of fun. I mean I run frames like Zephyr because it's fun fo me to watch them being swayed by little tornado while being immune to 95% of the damage at the very low cost in terms of energy, spamming several powers in hopes that 'something' will rather slowly happen in terms of Mag - not.

This is also brings questions about Mag and Volt being starter frames because in that terms they suck. Since WF is very complex, you won't have much explanation and mods in the beginning it's a rather awful choice.

Yeah, so now you say she can be as efficient but with more than 1 button pressed. Perfect ! It's what I want from a video game. I don't want to press 1 button like a retard, and Mag is one of the frames I like because of that. I didn't like her before patch, when she was a corpus nuker.

 

But I guess you like to just win with no effort, and that's fine. Just don't blame a frame when you can't handle it. I'm not saying all frames are perfect, a lot of them needs some tweaks. But some are just too OP or plain retard, so yep, if you make a basic comparison a balanced frame like Mag will look "bad".

 

+ "In short" meh, too long

Edited February 13, 2017 by Xgomme

[DatDarkOne]

I built Mag and play in a slightly different way than what's mostly posted in this thread. My build is high strength, efficiency, and range. With very little duration. I use her Pull and Crush in combination with the Galatine Prime. Works very well for me. Pull then melee to finish them off if they survive. Crush for the larger crowds.

This is quite different than most Mag users as I don't bother using her 2 and 3 much. This works for me and I like it. Not that Mag Prime is my main Frame, but close second. :D

[Jabarto]

12 hours ago, Noamuth said:

It's brought up because for as long as I've been here, Mag has been declared useless because she doesn't fit the meta.  Because there's always a different 'frame "That does what she does better" and while it's true, it also appliesto just about 2/3 of the other Warframes we currently have.  There will always be a better healer than Oberon, there will always be a better 'frame for defense than Limbo, etc.  One of the joys of Warframe is that there's a variety of choices and none of them are wrong as long as you know how to play your 'frame of choice. 

Sounds like you don't know how to mod nor play her.  Hence my suggestion of getting with some dedicated Mag players in game to see what you're missing.

But that is meta.  You're asking who to play that's better, that's more "viable" and easier to play, that gets more use by the community at large.  And you're totally dismissing the posts that explain how she's viable and why anyone would want to chose her.  If you don't find her such, that's fine.  Play something you do find fun. 

Playing with other Mag users would be a legit good idea. If you're offering I'd love to tag along sometime.

Also, if I seem dismissive of the advice given to me so far it's because I've tried it and it doesn't work. I've explained this before but let me go over my specific problems again:

1. She has a cripplingly low energy pool for how dependent she is on spamming her abilities. People talk about spawning multiple Magnetize fields and using Pull to yank enemies into them while casting Polarize whenever your shields get low, but unless you carry stacks of energy restore pads everywhere you go this literally is not possible.

2. Magnetize blocks your shots. If you're inside of it you can't damage anything. If you're outside of it you can't damage anything behind it. If enemies don't walk into it, it's just a piece of cover at best.

3. She's fragile. A lot of her abilities have long cast times that root you in place and you simply can't afford to be that vulnerable for that long.

[MagPrime]

12 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

Playing with other Mag users would be a legit good idea. If you're offering I'd love to tag along sometime.

Also, if I seem dismissive of the advice given to me so far it's because I've tried it and it doesn't work. I've explained this before but let me go over my specific problems again:

1. She has a cripplingly low energy pool for how dependent she is on spamming her abilities. People talk about spawning multiple Magnetize fields and using Pull to yank enemies into them while casting Polarize whenever your shields get low, but unless you carry stacks of energy restore pads everywhere you go this literally is not possible.

2. Magnetize blocks your shots. If you're inside of it you can't damage anything. If you're outside of it you can't damage anything behind it. If enemies don't walk into it, it's just a piece of cover at best.

3. She's fragile. A lot of her abilities have long cast times that root you in place and you simply can't afford to be that vulnerable for that long.

Can you post a screenshot of your mods for Mag?  And feel free to add me in game, I'll probably be online in about 4 hours.

[gkuoni]

26 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

Playing with other Mag users would be a legit good idea. If you're offering I'd love to tag along sometime.

Also, if I seem dismissive of the advice given to me so far it's because I've tried it and it doesn't work. I've explained this before but let me go over my specific problems again:

1. She has a cripplingly low energy pool for how dependent she is on spamming her abilities. People talk about spawning multiple Magnetize fields and using Pull to yank enemies into them while casting Polarize whenever your shields get low, but unless you carry stacks of energy restore pads everywhere you go this literally is not possible.

2. Magnetize blocks your shots. If you're inside of it you can't damage anything. If you're outside of it you can't damage anything behind it. If enemies don't walk into it, it's just a piece of cover at best.

3. She's fragile. A lot of her abilities have long cast times that root you in place and you simply can't afford to be that vulnerable for that long.

Here's my suggestion for each point:

1) use zenurik focus tree, (presuming that you know what that is) at the start of the mission, yes, you will run out of energy, but that's the only tough part you'll have to endure.

2) Use pull while inside the bubble if you want enemies to get inside, it helps (they just have to be pulled close to the bubble, the bubble will still pull them in slowly. Also, while yes, you can't shoot through it, the enemy also can't. That effectively removes one area of crossfire from a fight if the bubble is placed and maintained correctly.

3) Pretty much use your abilities while bullet jumping. You have magnetize, which effectively blocks bullets; use it as a shield. Shield transferrence augment I feel is a must have, since the overshields will boost the survivability most times. If you are still getting 1 shot with overshields, then you would get 1 shot with almost any other frame. However, use mobility as your method of survivability and casting time - enemies are less accurate if you keep moving and it's easiest to accomplish this by just rushing through them. (I was doing a high level corpus survival with mag and had two valkyrs (one was warframe level 10 though) and an equinox, the valkyrs died the most, equinox once, and I didn't die. I also had 40% of the damage.) Even nullifiers aren't a problem with shield polarize, just keep max shields, quickly jump into the bubble, melee or shoot them and jump out instantly.

[SenorClipClop]

Not criticisms of your play, but hopefully here are some helpful suggestions to make Mag a little less frustrating:

On 2/13/2017 at 3:54 PM, Jabarto said:

1. She has a cripplingly low energy pool for how dependent she is on spamming her abilities. People talk about spawning multiple Magnetize fields and using Pull to yank enemies into them while casting Polarize whenever your shields get low, but unless you carry stacks of energy restore pads everywhere you go this literally is not possible.

She is very energy hungry, it's true. We have many possible resources to combat this, but it can be frustrating if a build demands too much of those resources. The lowest-maintenance solution I have found so far is to be less spammy and build lots of Duration. Polarize benefits from it now (duration effects travel time outward, so more Duration means it aids further allies and weakens defenses on more enemies), and the added Duration on Magnetize means there's more time to feed damage into it to make a more intense explosion. This means that Mag's damage is very stationary, but it is absolutely giant (good for Defense, Interception, etc, scaling into high levels). As a result, I am very careful about where I place my bubbles, and I never have more than one or two going at a time (usually just one as I watch its countdown timer). My playstyle with Mag is all about controlling (and erasing) specific zones as opposed to specific enemies. I'll hit 3 maybe once or twice per Defense wave unless someone else is pumping out Energy (Trin or a pizza fanatic).

On 2/13/2017 at 3:54 PM, Jabarto said:

2. Magnetize blocks your shots. If you're inside of it you can't damage anything. If you're outside of it you can't damage anything behind it. If enemies don't walk into it, it's just a piece of cover at best.

Valid point This is another reason I place my bubbles very carefully and none too frequently. I also don't tend to mod for much Range, usually keeping it between 100 and 145%, and I adjust it for the size of the rooms I'll be playing in. It'll be larger for outdoor maps (affects more enemies) and smaller for indoor ones (annoys fewer allies). I usually try to cover one or two important chokepoints with a Magnetize, throw some ammo at it for good measure, then control other ingresses with my weapons. Similarly to playing with a support Nyx, Tenno can dip in and out of the zone to have cover or focus specific enemies, respectively.

On 2/13/2017 at 3:54 PM, Jabarto said:

3. She's fragile. A lot of her abilities have long cast times that root you in place and you simply can't afford to be that vulnerable for that long.

Mages tend to be fragile. Mag's got some survivability built-in, in that she can restore her own shields (at a cost), throw down cover (in most situations) and layer bunches of crowd control, but at the end of the day shield-reliant frames will suffer from a little squishiness. Her Transference augment helps if you need it. I tend to use Mag very differently from other mages, as less of a caster and more of a control mage. Her abilities can often serve more than one purpose at a time, so I tend to be thinking about maximum utility as I use her powers. With Nova and Ember I spam, but with Mag I'm more methodical.

Hope this helps.

[Jabarto]

So, minor update: I reread the wiki and realized that shooting Magnetize fields will increase it's passive damage, not just the blast damage at the end. This slightly improves my opinion of it; you can't place it strategically because you can't target the ground with it, and it still blocks your damage output, but at least I can feel better knowing that if I shoot it enough it'll instagib anything that tries to cross it (it's probably quicker and more efficient to just shoot enemies directly, but I'll take what I can get).

Also apparently Shield Polarize creates an explosion if you completely drain an enemy's shields? I was wondering why I never noticed this before until I gave it another try and realized that Polarize never does enough damage to completely drain the enemy's shields. Also I can't figure out what do with those shards it creates; they don't seem to burst or do anything at all, even when an enemy is right next to one.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Jabarto

[gkuoni]

34 minutes ago, Jabarto said:

So, minor update: I reread the wiki and realized that shooting Magnetize fields will increase it's passive damage, not just the blast damage at the end. This slightly improves my opinion of it; you can't place it strategically because you can't target the ground with it, and it still blocks your damage output, but at least I can feel better knowing that if I shoot it enough it'll instagib anything that tries to cross it (it's probably quicker and more efficient to just shoot enemies directly, but I'll take what I can get).

Also apparently Shield Polarize creates an explosion if you completely drain an enemy's shields? I was wondering why I never noticed this before until I gave it another try and realized that Polarize never does enough damage to completely drain the enemy's shields. Also I can't figure out what do with those shards it creates; they don't seem to burst or do anything at all, even when an enemy is right next to one.

That magnetize increases in dot is one of the main reasons why it's strong. You can use it at choke points easily since enemies will cross the chokepoint and then you magnetize it, voila, strategic placement. (it can't be placed before a round, but right at the start and then you can keep recasting it if you want).

The shards are the amount of armor/shields you've taken from the enemy. They will add onto the damage of magnetize (which is why it's good to keep using 3 in addition to 2.) People say that magnetize barely shreds armor, or shields, but most of the time I can get the armor down in 2-3 casts for all lower health enemies, 5 or 6 for larger ones (but that's not really the point of polarize anymore). You use it to benefit magnetize damage.