Advice for a strong mesa build.

[bowiespoon]

Hello fellow tenno! I've been wanting to make a good mesa build for some time, but honestly I have no idea how to play her, let alone make a powerful build for her. Could anyone give me a good build comp and advice on how to play her?

Thanks a ton!

[Echorion]

Her ult scales off the mods on your secondary weapon, not the weapon itself. So make sure you have a good secondary you can use 8 good mods on.

Her ult benefits from power strength first, and then efficiency and then range/duration last. Efficiency makes her ult last longer than duration does while also making it cheaper to start with.

Use her 3rd ability often especially before ulting since it will keep you alive long enough to do so.

 

That is all you need to know after that just BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM-

Edited March 16, 2017 by Echorion

[Stormandreas]

The way to get the best out of Mesa, you want a VERY high strength and Duration build. Not Strength Efficiency.
Why?
Because Duration will also boost your Scatter Shield and Shooting Gallery, her 1st and 3rd best abilities. (Scatter is best, then Peacemaker then gallery. Gotta live yaknow)

Here's the build I'm using, and it works amazingly.
Energy Siphon, Coaction Drift, Primed Flow, Narrow Minded, Primed Continuity, Blind Rage, Streamline, Power Drift, Stretch, Intensify
254% Duration
75% Efficiency
79% Range
244% Strength

Next to boost this, I have a secondary weapon with Crit+damage based mods equipped. This is because Peacemaker has a fairly good crit chance and multiplier, plus with autoaim and the high fire rate, its crit damage goes through the roof!

Running these mods on the secondary to get the full crit experience.
Hornet Strike, Lethal Torrent, Barrel Diffusion, Primed Heated Charge, Hollow Point, Creeping Bullseye, Primed Pistol Gambit, Primed Target Cracker

Now you may question Hollow Point and Creeping Bullseye, but they are actually more effective than using elementals. I have run through tests and seen the hard numbers, and the crit mods do that bit more DPS overall, plus are more general

[Xion]

I personally don't play Mesa for her Peacemaker, mostly because I like being able to move while I kill stuff (I find WF's movement to be really fun). So I've actually built her as one of my "super tanks". Using 254% Duration, 130% Efficiency, 79% Range, and 130% Strength (to get the max damage reduction value from Shatter Shield) as my stats. I also use Vitality and Primed Vigor with Arcane Grace and Barrier for both Health and Shield regen whenever I take damage. I'm pretty damn near invincible as long as I don't get melee'd.

I'm also comfortable with only 130% power strength, since Peacemaker does quick work of any enemy that's not protected by Ancient auras as long as you have a good crit build on your secondaries.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Xionyde134

[Echorion]

33 minutes ago, Stormandreas said:

The way to get the best out of Mesa, you want a VERY high strength and Duration build. Not Strength Efficiency.
Why?
Because Duration will also boost your Scatter Shield and Shooting Gallery, her 1st and 3rd best abilities. (Scatter is best, then Peacemaker then gallery. Gotta live yaknow)

Here's the build I'm using, and it works amazingly.
Energy Siphon, Coaction Drift, Primed Flow, Narrow Minded, Primed Continuity, Blind Rage, Streamline, Power Drift, Stretch, Intensify
254% Duration
75% Efficiency
79% Range
244% Strength

Next to boost this, I have a secondary weapon with Crit+damage based mods equipped. This is because Peacemaker has a fairly good crit chance and multiplier, plus with autoaim and the high fire rate, its crit damage goes through the roof!

Running these mods on the secondary to get the full crit experience.
Hornet Strike, Lethal Torrent, Barrel Diffusion, Primed Heated Charge, Hollow Point, Creeping Bullseye, Primed Pistol Gambit, Primed Target Cracker

Now you may question Hollow Point and Creeping Bullseye, but they are actually more effective than using elementals. I have run through tests and seen the hard numbers, and the crit mods do that bit more DPS overall, plus are more general

I found a balance focusing more on efficiency instead of duration; which lets me ult more often and they can't kill me if they are dead. Also with enough duration still that I can take her into all the sorties; long run missions, etc and still not die. If you really want to focus more on duration though it's not like that is bad either; but you are going to see people with different preferences on that like you saw here.

So I wouldn't say never do it like it's an absolute; if someone wanted to try either way I imagine it would be just fine. She isn't a terribly complex warframe, you can probably experiment yourself too and still do just fine.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Echorion

[(XBOX)ThermalStone]

Mesa doesn't need a ton of strength for 99 percent of the game's content if you have a good critical pistol build.  Just max Intensify is more than enough for max Shatter Shield energy reduction.  Peacemaker can one shot nearly everything in Sortie 3 with the right pistol mods.

Don't make range too small.  It makes it easier to aim Peacemaker and keeps melee enemies at bay with Shooting Gallery.  

Playing Mesa is simple: cast 2 for offensive buff and melee protection, then 3 for damage reduction from projectiles, then use Peacemaker whenever you encounter enemies.

 Mesa's only problem is that she is very energy hungry and can have problems at the beginning of games.  A Mesa without energy is a dead Mesa.  She works best with Zenurik and lots of energy pizzas.  For tough missions I usually start off dropping a pizza or two.  

Edited March 16, 2017 by (XB1)ThermalStone

[(PSN)joshw1400]

Aura: Pistol Amp

Exilus: Coaction Drift

-Intensify

-Narrow Minded

-Primed Continuity

-Primed Flow

-Constitution

-Streamline Rank 4

-Fleeting Expertise Rank 4

-Vitality

This is all the strength you need to hit the damage reduction cap and you'll have about 60-70 seconds of shatter shield and shooting gallery.

[Arcainyx]

If you do decide to use a Peacemaker build here are a few more things to keep in mind:

• You can't activate Ballistic Battery to start charging its damage during Peacemaker.  You can deactivate it to expend its stored damage which will effect one shot during Peacemaker.
• Because of Mesa's passive using dual weapons as a secondary weapon will increase fire rate which will affect Peacemaker.  The added reload speed from a single weapon will not.
• Getting a headshot with Dual Toxocysts will proc a buff whose fire rate will affect Peacemaker while the buff is active.  If you can acquire them it is worth giving them a try to see if the change in your playstyle from scoring a headshot consistently before activating Peacemaker is something you can adjust to.  Some members of the community have tried this and prefer not to use Dual Toxocysts.
• The added damage from Mesa's second ability Shooting Gallery affects Peacemaker.
• Peacemaker is affected by line of sight.  Try to activate in an area clear of things that can block your sight.  Standing on a hill or another higher vantage point may also help.

Whatever build you use try going without a melee weapon to get the added HP from Mesa's passive.  Many Mesa builds will have Vitality in them to take advantage of Mesa's HP pool which her passive adds to.  I find that a weapon with a Syndicate buff like Vaykor Hek or Sancti Tigris helps to keep my HP up when fighting things that hit me with Toxic or slip past my defenses to take a chunk out of my HP while also not draining my energy like a melee weapon with Life Strike will.  If those weapons are available to you give them a try.  You can also try using a Furis with the Winds of Purity mod.

[Desperado14]

I go duration, efficiency, then strength, then range.  If you are not running zenurik or using rage, she can run out of energy pretty fast.  I use 

Prime continuity, prime flow, fleeting expertise, intensify, stretch, constitution, and the others I will switch per mission type or level.  I played a sortie the other day with crit built astiletto prime and was easily killing level 100 enemies with just pistol amp and intensify installed.  

[(XBOX)R3d P01nt]

16 hours ago, Arcainyx said:

You can also try using a Furis with the Winds of Purity mod.

Should note, however, that Peacemaker does not use that mod, so it won't heal Mesa while in Peacemaker.

[raven2k01]

You should be stacking Power Strength to max Peacemaker dps.
You also has decent duration, which will slow the drain of Peacemaker.

200% Power Strength
160% Efficiency
145% Range
97.5% Duration

This build has high enough duration that you have long buffs and dont waste too much energy while in Peacemaker mode.
The 200 strength does crazy damage, while keeping good energy efficiency.
Range helps with your buffs, and causes Peacemaker to reach more targets.

Here is my build
http://warframe-builder.com/Warframes/Builder/Mesa/t_30_3322300020_2-7-10-4-6-5-5-4-5-6-5-5-21-8-5-55-1-2-411-2-10-479-3-10-481-0-10-615-9-5_481-7-55-4-411-8-479-7-5-5-6-11-4-9-2-12-21-14-615-9_0/en/1-0-31/0

[(PSN)drpunk-yo]

Concentrate on duration and range.

Keep 2 and 3 active all the time (shouldn't be too difficult).

Run around like a lunatic, laugh at enemies as they mong out, shoot them.

Be smug at fire accuracy in mission summary screen (see how close you can get to 100%).

That's what I do 

Edited June 16, 2017 by (PS4)drpunk-yo

[Xzorn]

The biggest difference between Duration Vs Efficiency on Mesa is that Efficiency will get you a free mod slot to use Primed Vigor, Stretch, Streamlined Form or whatever and have the same drain rates. The downside is you have to re-cast Shatter Shield and Shooting Gallery more often though they do not cost more in energy management as a result.  It's mostly just upkeep.

These are two Mesa build I use the most: I have a Range build for Grineer but I mostly just avoid fighting Grineer with her.

I should mention these are perma Peacemaker builds. I don't usually bother to shoot normal guns with Mesa. I use Chroma for that.

You don't need more than 130% Power Strength if you do not intend to go past Sorties but a 200% Power Mesa does x1.54 more damage if you intend to go past Sorties level ranges. (I've taken these to lvl 400 Solo) then Power Strength makes a noticeable difference at those levels.

Weapon Loadout:

Spoiler

Top is full font-end damage for general use, Infested, CPx4 (Swap to Viral). The 2nd is for lvl 100+ Armored enemies.

[(XBOX)AntiCaesar]

@(Xbox One)FCastle74

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

On 6/22/2017 at 6:39 PM, (Xbox One)AntiCaesar said:

@(Xbox One)FCastle74

This is my vary strong build for my main Mesa. 

I run a vary high strength (271), high duration build to get her shooting gallery and her PM multiplier as high as possible and last as long as possible.  Also use a high status primary to proc my aura all the time. I run dual stat mods on my secondary because i don't use corrosive projection. 

200 heavys are like paper. 

Also I use vacuum with animal instinct so I can see everyone on the map and no one sneaks up behind me. And vacuum to suck that energy to keep your EC ready togo.

Also I run a set of grace and energize. 

Keep your 2 and 3 up all the time, I generally keep her 1 charged for high priority targets. Her 4 can wipe maps but keep and eye on your radar.

 Watch out for 3 things, nully bubbles, grenades, and melee enemies. Pandaro alt fire or Sybaris P are great for nully bubbles, then use her PM.

  Grenades and melee attacks can instantly down her. So I run a lot of utilities on my sentinel and sweeper prime to help watch my back. Also arcane grace will help too, and eventually so will shield gating. That's it. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by (XB1)FCastle74

[Xzorn]

I wouldn't recommend going without health mods on Mesa.

A single Bleed proc will put her down and she has even less chance to survive radial damage.

In fact against the meaner Bleed status enemies she needs the HP + Rapid Resilience in order to survive a single bleed proc at lvl 270. Without Rapid Resilience she can usually survive most other enemy Slash procs using Vitality.

This is what happens to Mesa against a lvl 170 Eviscerator.

I did this run again with Rapid Resilience and Survived. Just barley hit the 2h mark, lvl 300. Given all Armored enemies.

Obviously she can push further in the Void or unarmored enemies. That base 10% status starts to show.

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

I have never used a health mod. Grace and my sientinal healing me is enough 99% of the time with my shatter shield active, (however if u don't have a grace set then I would use a health mod)  as well as enemy radar so I know exactly where everything is. Anything that will one shot u will still one shot you with a health mod equipped.

And at high levels find that health mods are generally a waste of a slot. My PM multiplier is well over 4.0 and shooting gallery is over 50% so anything under level 200 is dead in a few shots using the right element with dual stat mods. 

Edited June 23, 2017 by (XB1)FCastle74

[uAir]

Not a single optimal Mesa build was seen this day. lol

Best seen so far is Xzorn.

Castle, your build wouldn't make it 10 seconds against level 100+ enemies.
Level 100, a few slash procs would mean you're dead in 10 seconds.
Level 200, one slash proc would mean you're dead.
Without CP you do 10 damage per hit. Good luck killing anything. If you've ever gone to level 200 it meant your allies were carrying the hell out of you if that was the Mesa build you were using.

[Xzorn]

There's no doubt that more power is more damage but a 271% Power Mesa does 44% More Damage than a 200% Power Mesa including both Peace Maker multipliers and Shooting Gallery additive bonus after Hornet Strike.  While CP alone will increase her damage against armored enemies by 43.86% and armor is by far her weakness when it comes to dishing out damage with that base 10% status. A 90% + 60/60 gun build will also dish out 47% more Corrosive procs than a 60/60x2 Build due to the higher Corrosive proc weight. Together they perform considerably better than having 271% Power Strength.

But either way I find it hard to believe she can stay alive long enough for any difference to matter without a group protecting her.

No Health mods being 12,000 eHP against Vitality + P.Vigor being 31,800 eHP. I have doubts Mesa without health mods can even Solo an hour reliably in Tier 4 missions like MOT or any Axi Fissures let alone 2 hours in a normal mission where there's a longer period of time to catch bleed procs or make a mistake and she very much can survive those with Health mods.

If you're in a group going lvl 500+ then sure, health mods won't make a difference and neither will her Shatter Shield at that point. I looked through my footage and sadly did not find the part where a lvl 270 Eviscerator did not kill me thanks to HP + Rapid Resilience appose to a lvl 170 killing me but since Rapid Resilience brings Bleeds down to 2.5 ticks. It's not hard to imagine from my previous video that I would have survived and a Mesa with no health mods would die regardless of Rapid Resilience.

[(PSN)horridhal]

1 hour ago, Xzorn said:

I have doubts Mesa without health mods can even Solo an hour reliably in Tier 4 missions like MOT or any Axi Fissures let alone 2 hours in a normal mission where there's a longer period of time to catch bleed procs or make a mistake and she very much can survive those with Health mods.

You having doubts make it no less possible.  People do run higher tier missions while forgoing health and shield mods.  I do it with Mesa all the time as none of my Mesa builds actually have vitality or vigor in them.  It simply requires some basic intelligence on the part of the user and the ability to pay attention to timers on Scatter and Gallery.

[DatDarkOne]

CP is all good IF you are in a group.  While solo, CP isn't as good as using another aura.  At least in my experience, and this is not just in regards to Mesa.  Not saying that anyone is wrong, just adding a solo player's perspective.  :D   Then again, I'm still experimenting with Mesa to see how I want to forma her.  

46 minutes ago, (PS4)horridhal said:

 It simply requires some basic intelligence on the part of the user and the ability to pay attention to timers on Scatter and Gallery.

I think this is good advice for all frames and not just Mesa.  

[Xzorn]

10 minutes ago, (PS4)horridhal said:

You having doubts make it no less possible.  People do run higher tier missions while forgoing health and shield mods.  I do it with Mesa all the time as none of my Mesa builds actually have vitality or vigor in them.  It simply requires some basic intelligence on the part of the user and the ability to pay attention to timers on Scatter and Gallery.

 

Note the word Reliably.

....and if you're going to start talking about basic intelligence. I'm going to ask for a video because I know how much damage a lvl 200, 300 or 400 enemy does and 12k eHP isn't worth trying to manage. Esp if there's Nullifiers or Tier 4 damage multipliers. Mesa with that small of a health pool needs to be protected by team mates or she will die.

Mesa has to stand still to burn enemies with Peacemaker. There's no Intelligence outside your chosen location and you're going to justify this massive loss in survival for what amounts to less than a Primed Bane mod? You gain 40-45% damage at the expensive of 20k eHP,  better value from Sentinel's Guardian, Arcane Grace and Medi-ray. Not to mention that extra damage doesn't amount to much of anything against armor. It's her status trigger rate that's doing work by that point and you can't buff that. All you can do is insure you survive long enough for it to do it's job.

[(PSN)horridhal]

1 minute ago, Xzorn said:

Note the word Reliably

I reliably run Mesa in the way you are saying is impossible.  I noted the word fine.

1 minute ago, Xzorn said:

and if you're going to start talking about basic intelligence. I'm going to ask for a video because I know how much damage a lvl 200, 300 or 400 enemy does and 12k eHP isn't worth trying to manage. Esp if there's Nullifiers or Tier 4 damage multipliers. Mesa with that small of a health pool needs to be protected by team mates or she will die.

The basic intelligence comes on the part of the player to not simply sit in enemy fire or, when slash procced, to figure out a way to get health back.  We have pads, lifestrike, etc.  The slash proc isn't simply an instant down.  As to your request for a video, I don't make videos.  I play the game.  That said, I'm sure somewhere out in cyberspace is a video of someone running Mesa without Vitality as it really isn't hard considering you can ignore a majority of the damage (even from Nullies assuming you don't simply run into their bubble and lose Scatter) or stunlock nearby enemies.

4 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

Mesa has to stand still to burn enemies with Peacemaker.

No, she really doesn't.  You seem to ingore that Mesa doesn't have to use Peacemakers and her kit is actually built for survivability once you move beyond the whole stationary turret.

5 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

There's no Intelligence outside your chosen location and you're going to justify this massive loss in survival for what amounts to less than a Primed Bane mod?

You pretty clearly have your mind made up on the subject and, regardless of what anyone says to you, you aren't going to change it seemingly.  I simply pointed out the error in your assumption that everyone has to use Vitality or Vigor to make her viable.  I don't really care beyond that.

7 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

Not to mention that extra damage doesn't amount to much of anything against armor.

Nowhere in my post was more power mentioned.  You might want to argue points that are made as opposed to making up points I've never made then trying to attribute them to me.

[DatDarkOne]

Xzorn my fellow Tenno.  Going by what OP said, it's very doubtful that he/she will be planning to face off against lvl 100+ enemies let alone 200+.  I only mention this because depending on what OP is wanting to do, it might be a moot point.  This is not saying that your information is incorrect in any way.  Just that everyone doesn't go for endless mission durations as you do.   :D

[Xzorn]

1 hour ago, DatDarkOne said:

Xzorn my fellow Tenno.  Going by what OP said, it's very doubtful that he/she will be planning to face off against lvl 100+ enemies let alone 200+.  I only mention this because depending on what OP is wanting to do, it might be a moot point.  This is not saying that your information is incorrect in any way.  Just that everyone doesn't go for endless mission durations as you do.   :D

 

Yea. I get caught up at times with numbers but in my defense, it was the lvl 200 comment that triggered me.

It's not that you can't. I just wouldn't recommend it. Esp for a new player who's more likely to make a mistake.

Even at Sorties levels a strong Slash proc will end her without a larger health pool and she can survive most mistakes at those levels while you're not really gaining much for the lack of security.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Xzorn

[(XBOX)YoungGunn82]

3 hours ago, Xzorn said:

Yea. I get caught up at times with numbers but in my defense, it was the lvl 200 comment that triggered me.

I know what I've done, I don't have to defend myself. Yes 200 heavies are paper, with dual stat mods, a 4.45 PM multiplier and 72% shooting gallery damage % on top of that and animal instinct they won't get a shot off. I know her limitations and exactly what she's capable of. I will never use her out in the open especially against 150+ enemies, always at choke points or I'll reposition myself for a better angle. Zenistar works great to with corrosive and blast. Your video showcases u out in the open getting your &#! kicked. That's all I got from it. 

 

7 hours ago, uAir said:

Not a single optimal Mesa build was seen this day. lol

Best seen so far is Xzorn.

Castle, your build wouldn't make it 10 seconds against level 100+ enemies.
Level 100, a few slash procs would mean you're dead in 10 seconds.
Level 200, one slash proc would mean you're dead.
Without CP you do 10 damage per hit. Good luck killing anything. If you've ever gone to level 200 it meant your allies were carrying the hell out of you if that was the Mesa build you were using.

 5 level 145 heavys die in seconds. And yes 200s are paper, my SS can stun lock them for at least 5,6,7 sec. But U must stay mobile. More than enough time to chop them down. 

Edited June 24, 2017 by (XB1)FCastle74