"Reworkening" is totally a word, don't give me that look.
Since his rework, community reception to Oberon has been rather... tepid. It's either viewed as a heavy nerf (it isn't), or viewed as not being enough (possibly). The key to a lot of this is that the rework has more or less jumbled Oberon's stat priorities, and there's one build in particular that's working very well right now -- Rage. If you had told me last week that Rage was going to become a godsend on the goat, I would've called you a liar, and yet here we are.
THE ROLE
The first thing you need to get out of your head is that, despite being given scaling damage, Oberon is not going to be pumping out damage like Nidus. Nidus has ridiculous scaling damage. Oberon has scaling damage. Got it? Great, moving on. Oberon's primary role within the team is status immunity and removal, crowd control, and general utility via buffs and healing. You're not gonna be blowing up mobs like Nidus. You're not gonna be able to pull off massive, instant heals like Trinity. That's not your job, so don't worry about it. You've got something special and unique instead. You're gonna be every squishy frame's best friend without really realizing it.
THE BUILD
One mod is pretty vital to all of this -- Rage. It's free energy for taking health damage, and while normally this would be a bad fit on a frame like Oberon, he can simply heal all that damage right back with Renewal. It just turns into a feedback loop of sorts, providing constant health regen and other benefits so long as you're throwing yourself into the thick of things. You're also going to want to try and aim for at least 200% power strength, as this provides a nice little "breakpoint" of sorts. At 200% strength, your Iron Renewal buff is a flat 400 armor, with Renewal itself ticking for 80 health per second. Hallowed Ground has a 30% proc chance (which is pretty high for something ticking over time), and Smite is going to spawn 12 projectiles per cast. 200% strength should be your immediate goal, and your build can deviate a bit beyond that, depending on what you prefer. Efficiency can largely be ignored, since you're going to be running with Rage, whilst Stretch by itself should be more than enough for range needs.
THE RUNDOWN
Just a step-by-step breakdown of the various abilities, what they do, and how you should probably be using them.
Passive:
Oberon grants bonus health, armor, and shields to all allied kubrows and kavats, including your own. Your pet also gets a free revive once per mission, ala Regen. This passive does not stack with other Oberons, but is party/raid wide, and will apply to kubrows, kavats, and Helminth chargers. It does not apply to sentinels.
This is basically just a freebie, and definitely more useful than the previous random charm on select tilesets and very select enemies. It's simply free stats for you, or anyone else in your group, who happens to be using a pet. Even if you don't use kubrows or kavats, if at least one person in your party is running with one (probably RNG kitty), it's being put to use. This passive is also effectively an aura mod too, so it's got infinite range -- don't worry about having to stay close to pets for them to get it.
Smite:
This is basically on-demand crowd control. You're primarily gonna be using this on ranged enemies if you don't have much else to do, but especially on heavies like ancients, gunners and bombards, or bursas and techs. It's a guaranteed knockdown with guaranteed radiation on the initial target, with the spawned projectiles also doing guaranteed puncture. All of this essentially works as a form of team damage mitigation, as the knocked down and rad proc'd target is likely doing not much at all during all this, and everything hit with the puncture procs is also doing less damage.
You're not using this for damage. I mean you can, if there's not much else going on, but this is mostly there to try and lockdown something bad that can put the hurt on your team.
Hallowed Ground:
Welcome to your new best friend. Hallowed Ground works much like it used to, in that you have complete and total status immunity while standing on it, on top of Hallowed Ground also removing any active status effects if you run into it or stand on it. You're gonna need this for both Renewal and Reckoning -- in the case of Renewal, you and your buddies need to be standing on it at the time you cast Renewal in order to get the armor buff. However, so long as you're channeling Renewal, this armor buff is infinite and has no timed duration (that only happens when you turn off the channel). In the case of Reckoning, Hallowed Ground is a mass primer, capable of putting rad procs on multiple enemies at once. Rad proc'd enemies get bonus damage from Reckoning, which makes them more likely to die, which gives you a shot at health orbs. They also get armor stripped if they're standing on it when you cast Reckoning. Yay armor strips. Even if it's not a huge amount, it's still a free armor strip.
Renewal:
Your bread-and-butter, and what makes the Rage build so potent. This is a channeled ability now that drains energy over time, draining more if you're actively healing friendlies. The entire time this is going on, you've basically got a Primed Primed Rejuvenation following you around, like a mobile Nidus field of flowers but less pretty. While Renewal is being channeled, you've got constant health regeneration, your armor buff from Hallowed Ground (if you combo'd it) is infinite, and both the heal and armor buff will also remain on allies indefinitely if they were nearby for the initial cast, no matter how far they go afterwards. You can have someone on the other side of the map, and they'll still be getting healed from you. Renewal will also constantly remove status effects from allies upon them reaching full health, so you can strip status effects too without having to get people to step on the magic flaming carpet. Iron Renewal isn't to be underestimated either -- while a flat armor buff doesn't sound like much, it's a sizeable increase in survivability for squishier frames who don't even have the 150 armor that Oberon does. Extra flat armor does wonders for a frame who might only have 65 or less at base.
Of special note is how this all works with Rage. Rage gives you energy when you take health damage, and Renewal gives you health while draining energy. Working in tandem, you can effectively keep up Renewal forever with no real downsides, so long as you're actively making yourself take damage. This means that you can also maintain the armor buff on yourself and allies indefinitely, as well as constantly healing them and removing status effects. In short, it gets really silly, really fast, especially when you're healing 80 health per second with a huge armor buff.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT RENEWAL: Of important note is that Renewal will try to heal Nekros Shadows, and as the Shadows take constant health damage, it'll just murder your energy. Try your best to manage being near them, or just turn it off if you have to.
Reckoning:
More crowd control and utility. You can try to use this for damage, though if you're completely ignoring efficiency because of Rage, it's gonna end up costing you. Instead, maybe reserve using this for big moments where you need to help get a revive off or something else. It's best used as emergency crowd control, or if you need to try and squeeze in some armor strips on some enemies. Reckoning can be a huge (albeit temporary) increase in team survivability via enemy crowd control, as any immediately affected will be both knocked down and radiation proc'd. Enemies not immediately affected but still nearby will also be hit with a brief blind.
Aside from the added interactions with radiation procs and Hallowed Ground, Reckoning basically works like it did before.
THE AUGMENTS
The only augments really of note are Smite Infusion, Phoenix Renewal, and Hallowed Reckoning. Smite Infusion lets you buff up allied damage (same as it's always been), whilst Hallowed Reckoning lets you stack up armor even further, as the buffs from both Hallowed Reckoning and Iron Renewal are unique and will stack with one another. Phoenix Renewal also allows for fast and easy revives on friendlies if they go down, though be forewarned that the revive will only trigger if they go down while Renewal is already on them. Hallowed Eruption isn't really worth it at all, given the increased importance of Hallowed Ground now (as the augment only allows you to have one field at a time).
THE WEAPONS
I'm adding a special section for this, if only because of a very small handful of mods, and one weapon class: sword & boards. Using Guardian Derision will draw more damage to you, to help keep Rage going. The new Avenging Truth (which only works on Silva & Aegis) gives a damage boost to your next charge attack based upon damage blocked, as well as giving you the Truth syndicate effect, which is AOE gas damage, a parkour buff, and a +25% health restore. It's a pretty potent combination.
THE TL;DR
Get Rage, aim for 200% power strength, and go from there. You mostly exist to remove status effects from friendlies, provide crowd control, and also give your team steady healing and armor buffs. You're not gonna be anywhere near Nidus' or Trinity's level, but that's not really your job either.
Question
Vargras
"Reworkening" is totally a word, don't give me that look.
Since his rework, community reception to Oberon has been rather... tepid. It's either viewed as a heavy nerf (it isn't), or viewed as not being enough (possibly). The key to a lot of this is that the rework has more or less jumbled Oberon's stat priorities, and there's one build in particular that's working very well right now -- Rage. If you had told me last week that Rage was going to become a godsend on the goat, I would've called you a liar, and yet here we are.
THE ROLE
The first thing you need to get out of your head is that, despite being given scaling damage, Oberon is not going to be pumping out damage like Nidus. Nidus has ridiculous scaling damage. Oberon has scaling damage. Got it? Great, moving on. Oberon's primary role within the team is status immunity and removal, crowd control, and general utility via buffs and healing. You're not gonna be blowing up mobs like Nidus. You're not gonna be able to pull off massive, instant heals like Trinity. That's not your job, so don't worry about it. You've got something special and unique instead. You're gonna be every squishy frame's best friend without really realizing it.
THE BUILD
One mod is pretty vital to all of this -- Rage. It's free energy for taking health damage, and while normally this would be a bad fit on a frame like Oberon, he can simply heal all that damage right back with Renewal. It just turns into a feedback loop of sorts, providing constant health regen and other benefits so long as you're throwing yourself into the thick of things. You're also going to want to try and aim for at least 200% power strength, as this provides a nice little "breakpoint" of sorts. At 200% strength, your Iron Renewal buff is a flat 400 armor, with Renewal itself ticking for 80 health per second. Hallowed Ground has a 30% proc chance (which is pretty high for something ticking over time), and Smite is going to spawn 12 projectiles per cast. 200% strength should be your immediate goal, and your build can deviate a bit beyond that, depending on what you prefer. Efficiency can largely be ignored, since you're going to be running with Rage, whilst Stretch by itself should be more than enough for range needs.
THE RUNDOWN
Just a step-by-step breakdown of the various abilities, what they do, and how you should probably be using them.
Passive:
Oberon grants bonus health, armor, and shields to all allied kubrows and kavats, including your own. Your pet also gets a free revive once per mission, ala Regen. This passive does not stack with other Oberons, but is party/raid wide, and will apply to kubrows, kavats, and Helminth chargers. It does not apply to sentinels.
This is basically just a freebie, and definitely more useful than the previous random charm on select tilesets and very select enemies. It's simply free stats for you, or anyone else in your group, who happens to be using a pet. Even if you don't use kubrows or kavats, if at least one person in your party is running with one (probably RNG kitty), it's being put to use. This passive is also effectively an aura mod too, so it's got infinite range -- don't worry about having to stay close to pets for them to get it.
Smite:
This is basically on-demand crowd control. You're primarily gonna be using this on ranged enemies if you don't have much else to do, but especially on heavies like ancients, gunners and bombards, or bursas and techs. It's a guaranteed knockdown with guaranteed radiation on the initial target, with the spawned projectiles also doing guaranteed puncture. All of this essentially works as a form of team damage mitigation, as the knocked down and rad proc'd target is likely doing not much at all during all this, and everything hit with the puncture procs is also doing less damage.
You're not using this for damage. I mean you can, if there's not much else going on, but this is mostly there to try and lockdown something bad that can put the hurt on your team.
Hallowed Ground:
Welcome to your new best friend. Hallowed Ground works much like it used to, in that you have complete and total status immunity while standing on it, on top of Hallowed Ground also removing any active status effects if you run into it or stand on it. You're gonna need this for both Renewal and Reckoning -- in the case of Renewal, you and your buddies need to be standing on it at the time you cast Renewal in order to get the armor buff. However, so long as you're channeling Renewal, this armor buff is infinite and has no timed duration (that only happens when you turn off the channel). In the case of Reckoning, Hallowed Ground is a mass primer, capable of putting rad procs on multiple enemies at once. Rad proc'd enemies get bonus damage from Reckoning, which makes them more likely to die, which gives you a shot at health orbs. They also get armor stripped if they're standing on it when you cast Reckoning. Yay armor strips. Even if it's not a huge amount, it's still a free armor strip.
Renewal:
Your bread-and-butter, and what makes the Rage build so potent. This is a channeled ability now that drains energy over time, draining more if you're actively healing friendlies. The entire time this is going on, you've basically got a Primed Primed Rejuvenation following you around, like a mobile Nidus field of flowers but less pretty. While Renewal is being channeled, you've got constant health regeneration, your armor buff from Hallowed Ground (if you combo'd it) is infinite, and both the heal and armor buff will also remain on allies indefinitely if they were nearby for the initial cast, no matter how far they go afterwards. You can have someone on the other side of the map, and they'll still be getting healed from you. Renewal will also constantly remove status effects from allies upon them reaching full health, so you can strip status effects too without having to get people to step on the magic flaming carpet. Iron Renewal isn't to be underestimated either -- while a flat armor buff doesn't sound like much, it's a sizeable increase in survivability for squishier frames who don't even have the 150 armor that Oberon does. Extra flat armor does wonders for a frame who might only have 65 or less at base.
Of special note is how this all works with Rage. Rage gives you energy when you take health damage, and Renewal gives you health while draining energy. Working in tandem, you can effectively keep up Renewal forever with no real downsides, so long as you're actively making yourself take damage. This means that you can also maintain the armor buff on yourself and allies indefinitely, as well as constantly healing them and removing status effects. In short, it gets really silly, really fast, especially when you're healing 80 health per second with a huge armor buff.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT RENEWAL: Of important note is that Renewal will try to heal Nekros Shadows, and as the Shadows take constant health damage, it'll just murder your energy. Try your best to manage being near them, or just turn it off if you have to.
Reckoning:
More crowd control and utility. You can try to use this for damage, though if you're completely ignoring efficiency because of Rage, it's gonna end up costing you. Instead, maybe reserve using this for big moments where you need to help get a revive off or something else. It's best used as emergency crowd control, or if you need to try and squeeze in some armor strips on some enemies. Reckoning can be a huge (albeit temporary) increase in team survivability via enemy crowd control, as any immediately affected will be both knocked down and radiation proc'd. Enemies not immediately affected but still nearby will also be hit with a brief blind.
Aside from the added interactions with radiation procs and Hallowed Ground, Reckoning basically works like it did before.
THE AUGMENTS
The only augments really of note are Smite Infusion, Phoenix Renewal, and Hallowed Reckoning. Smite Infusion lets you buff up allied damage (same as it's always been), whilst Hallowed Reckoning lets you stack up armor even further, as the buffs from both Hallowed Reckoning and Iron Renewal are unique and will stack with one another. Phoenix Renewal also allows for fast and easy revives on friendlies if they go down, though be forewarned that the revive will only trigger if they go down while Renewal is already on them. Hallowed Eruption isn't really worth it at all, given the increased importance of Hallowed Ground now (as the augment only allows you to have one field at a time).
THE WEAPONS
I'm adding a special section for this, if only because of a very small handful of mods, and one weapon class: sword & boards. Using Guardian Derision will draw more damage to you, to help keep Rage going. The new Avenging Truth (which only works on Silva & Aegis) gives a damage boost to your next charge attack based upon damage blocked, as well as giving you the Truth syndicate effect, which is AOE gas damage, a parkour buff, and a +25% health restore. It's a pretty potent combination.
THE TL;DR
Get Rage, aim for 200% power strength, and go from there. You mostly exist to remove status effects from friendlies, provide crowd control, and also give your team steady healing and armor buffs. You're not gonna be anywhere near Nidus' or Trinity's level, but that's not really your job either.
Edited by VargrasChanged stuff
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