Chroma Shock Trooper Builds

[(PSN)FatedHood]

Anyone got a good elecrtical Chroma build that functions well in sorties? 

[Synpai]

Until shield gating becomes a thing throw that idea out the window. The Effective HP you get from shields makes 0 difference. Even the same spam fire build is significantly less worth for electric.

Ice Chroma is by far the best: No range needed, make everyone more tanky with Eternal Ward (drop range!!!!)
Where toxin chroma and fire have their places, they just don't hold up in the long run.

The only bad thing Ice has for it is the reflection damage is gimped because it seems to take your armor AND the enemies armor into account.; however with vex armor....you'll be destroying everything in your wake anyway...

[(PSN)FatedHood]

4 minutes ago, Synpai said:

Until shield gating becomes a thing throw that idea out the window. The Effective HP you get from shields makes 0 difference. Even the same spam fire build is significantly less worth for electric.

Ice Chroma is by far the best: No range needed, make everyone more tanky with Eternal Ward (drop range!!!!)
Where toxin chroma and fire have their places, they just don't hold up in the long run.

The only bad thing Ice has for it is the reflection damage is gimped because it seems to take your armor AND the enemies armor into account.; however with vex armor....you'll be destroying everything in your wake anyway...

Well Thing is I have tried ice chroma but the problem for me is that it still damages you significantly even when the bullets are bouncing off you. Your shield drops fast and so can your health. especially if your having to deal with a crowded room and revive anyone while team mates run off ahead. I was using the typical duration ice chroma build with steel charge.  Got swiss cheesed in the first two sorties today. 

[Magneu]

1 minute ago, (PS4)FatedHood said:

Well Thing is I have tried ice chroma but the problem for me is that it still damages you significantly even when the bullets are bouncing off you. Your shield drops fast and so can your health. especially if your having to deal with a crowded room and revive anyone while team mates run off ahead. I was using the typical duration ice chroma build with steel charge.  Got swiss cheesed in the first two sorties today. 

Something is wrong with your build then. I can completely AFK level 100s while my buffs are up, and can easily tank level 145 with two sets of Arcane Grace.

Ice is the best for several unique reasons; it reflects projectiles (and reduces almost all of their damage; say goodbye to hooks and bombard rockets), it reflects hitscan projectiles with a power strength-related chance of inflicting a cold proc (instantly decrease enemy DPS by 50%), and the armor buff from Ice Elemental Ward is further multiplier by Vex Armor.

By comparison, Fire gives more health, Toxin has nift reload buffs (which are pretty fun), and electric gets extra shields and damage chargeup/reflect; the extra shields are practically useless, as they gain no armor mitigation (just use Vitality/(Prime) Vigor with the Brief Respite aura to be able to max Vex Armor in one shield bar), and the damage reflect isn't very good because (a) enemy armor almost completely nullifies it (alloy armor units gets 50% mitigation to it!), and enemy health scales to the point where you would need to take several health bars of damage to kill them.

This is what Chroma is capable of doing when built properly. Those are the highest DPS Grineer units (and possibly highest DPS bar the Juggernaut and Corpus Techs) in the game:

 

[(PSN)FatedHood]

3 minutes ago, Magneu said:

Something is wrong with your build then. I can completely AFK level 100s while my buffs are up, and can easily tank level 145 with two sets of Arcane Grace.

Ice is the best for several unique reasons; it reflects projectiles (and reduces almost all of their damage; say goodbye to hooks and bombard rockets), it reflects hitscan projectiles with a power strength-related chance of inflicting a cold proc (instantly decrease enemy DPS by 50%), and the armor buff from Ice Elemental Ward is further multiplier by Vex Armor.

By comparison, Fire gives more health, Toxin has nift reload buffs (which are pretty fun), and electric gets extra shields and damage chargeup/reflect; the extra shields are practically useless, as they gain no armor mitigation (just use Vitality/(Prime) Vigor with the Brief Respite aura to be able to max Vex Armor in one shield bar), and the damage reflect isn't very good because (a) enemy armor almost completely nullifies it (alloy armor units gets 50% mitigation to it!), and enemy health scales to the point where you would need to take several health bars of damage to kill them.

This is what Chroma is capable of doing when built properly. Those are the highest DPS Grineer units (and possibly highest DPS bar the Juggernaut and Corpus Techs) in the game:

 

Havnet been lucky enough or had spare money enough to get arcanes for on

Secondly I tend to run vitality, steel fiber, narrow minded, constitution, and continuity (currently at 221%) , rage(which probably could be traded for something), steel charge, and I cant remember what else off hand right now. 

I sadly run with a burston prime most of the time as its the only one I got right now or a zarr. Twin roga, and sadly till my rank goes up or I get a better melee weapon I use broken war, 

[Synpai]

1 minute ago, (PS4)FatedHood said:

Havnet been lucky enough or had spare money enough to get arcanes for on

Secondly I tend to run vitality, steel fiber, narrow minded, constitution, and continuity (currently at 221%) , rage(which probably could be traded for something), steel charge, and I cant remember what else off hand right now. 

I sadly run with a burston prime most of the time as its the only one I got right now or a zarr. Twin roga, and sadly till my rank goes up or I get a better melee weapon I use broken war, 

Arcanes are merely icing. You can make work with the mods you have as long as you get close to max strength

[Prof_Blocks_007]

17 minutes ago, (PS4)FatedHood said:

Havnet been lucky enough or had spare money enough to get arcanes for on

Secondly I tend to run vitality, steel fiber, narrow minded, constitution, and continuity (currently at 221%) , rage(which probably could be traded for something), steel charge, and I cant remember what else off hand right now. 

I sadly run with a burston prime most of the time as its the only one I got right now or a zarr. Twin roga, and sadly till my rank goes up or I get a better melee weapon I use broken war, 

I would highly recommend Hirudo. They have innate lifesteal on crits, and don't even need to be equipped to regain health (quick melee), unlike Life Strike, which requires channeling and so can only be used with melee fully equipped.

[Magneu]

44 minutes ago, (PS4)FatedHood said:

Havnet been lucky enough or had spare money enough to get arcanes for on

Secondly I tend to run vitality, steel fiber, narrow minded, constitution, and continuity (currently at 221%) , rage(which probably could be traded for something), steel charge, and I cant remember what else off hand right now. 

I sadly run with a burston prime most of the time as its the only one I got right now or a zarr. Twin roga, and sadly till my rank goes up or I get a better melee weapon I use broken war, 

You're missing strength mods. Strength mods will scale the amount of armor you get from ice Elemental Ward, and the multiplier of Vex Armor. Work on maxing out your rank 10 mods that aren't max yet (if you have any), then swap Constitution for a strength mod; with Rage (and Zenurik focus for 4 e/s; you mention Broken War, so you've completed the quest) my energy is topped off for my 45% efficiency, Blind Rage build. If you are willing to drop duration, use Transient Fortitude, or stick with Intensify. Work towards getting Primed Continuity (Baro will have every Primed mod he's ever brought during Tennocon), slap either Power Drift (more strength) or Handspring (get back up from knockdowns super fast) into the Exilus slot.

For the last two slots, I would first highly recommend (Primed) Flow, as Chroma has a higher than average energy pool; this gives you a larger buffer for casting your buffs, a longer time on having Effigy out, and a higher "reserve" of energy due to Rage. For the last slot, it's somewhat personal flavor. Constitution for longer buffs/lower Effigy drain, another strength mod for stronger buffs/Effigy, an augment like Everlasting Ward for teamplay or Guided Effigy for fun, Streamline if you have trouble being able to cast your buffs, Rapid Resilience if enemies are inflicting Slash procs (Chroma's greatest weakness!) and what I personally run, Primed Vigor so that my Vex Armor gets maxed in one shield bar.

For polarity, you have options. I discourage Steel Charge, as the 60% melee damage is uneeded on Chroma with his Vex Fury buff. Going with a D polarity, Stand United makes you a bit tankier, or Rejuvenate gives a handy  3 hp/sec regen, which, factoring in Chroma's insane armor with his buffs, lets you passively heal most damage up sortie level. Staying with a V, Growing Power is neat if you use status weapons, but the 25% strength will only apply to your buffs if you cast while Growing Power is active, so your mileage will vary. A dash is helpful, as Energy Siphon will help you keep buffs up, or Corrosive Projection will make higher level enemies easier to kill; however, with Chroma's high weapons damage and the existence of Corrosive-proc builds, it's rather superfluous for all but extremely high level play. My personal favorite is a scratch/double-dash polarity for Brief Respite. It does narrow your choices for auras, but Brief Respite is practically made for Chroma; upon using energy, you get 150% of that energy back as shields, unless you currently have overshields. This is amazing because (a) you need to take shield damage to build Scorn buffs, (b) Chroma's expensive buffs (especially with Blind Rage) give a lot of shields, and (c) it enables you to not have to duck out of a fight to recast buffs, as you will get shields while being shot at, enabling you to stay front-line 100% of the time.

The build in the video, which I've taken up to level 150 without any real problems, is: (Aura) Brief Respite, (Exilus) Power Drift, (Warframe )Primed Flow, Primed Continuity, Primed Vigor, Narrow Minded, Blind Rage, Vitality, Steel Fiber, Rage, Zenurik focus with maxed Energy Overflow for energy regen (if Unariu becomes useful someday, I'll probably swap to that for moar tank). This build is not good for lower level/shorter missions, this is a build for sortie level/endless missions.

Similar to Nidus, Chroma shows his true potential as enemy levels rise, as he needs to take high amounts of damage to fuel his abilities and activate his buffs. Pair him with a status/critical weapon like the Strun Wraith (along with a certain TWW reward), and you can oneshot level 145 heavies with ease while facetanking everything they throw at you.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Magneu

[(PSN)FatedHood]

41 minutes ago, Prof_Blocks_007 said:

I would highly recommend Hirudo. They have innate lifesteal on crits, and don't even need to be equipped to regain health (quick melee), unlike Life Strike, which requires channeling and so can only be used with melee fully equipped.

I am actually thinking of grabbing those. Been debating it for some time. 

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

Meh, Chroma needs some sort of health management anyways, what makes the extra armor desireable but not exactly needet if you're not relying on a full set of arcanes for it. Plus the trigger of the electric charge is defined by range but the spark doesn't jump, what makes range only a factor when playing gun. If even.

Works best with the same build as a ice chroma used with melee in my experience.

Just build him for max strength and duration, add armor and ignore efficiency like allways.

Edited June 22, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108