The Bo Staff. How good (or bad) is it?

[Renan.Ruivo]

I've tried searching about the Bo using the search function.. . but "bo" only has two letters, and the search function requires three.

So my only option it to come here and ask to the more experienced players. How does the Bo staff fares compared to other weapons? I love stave weapons because of the reach and overall crowd control potential. Plus, the Bo model is slick.. just what it was supposed to be (no edges).

Opinions?!

[Dexter96]

It's suposed to have minor armor ignore properties but it doesn't do much difference.

It's crappy stats and weird combos make it the worst melee weapon in the game.

I suggest fragor, dual zoren or heat sword.

They are just what you need for damage, dps and hitstun, and balance respectively.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Dexter96

[Renan.Ruivo]

I haven't tried any of the ones you suggested. So far i have used Skana, Cronus, Dual Skanas, Furax and now i just bought and upgraded the Bo to check it out.

I haven't unlocked that many planets.. the furthest from mercury i've been to is Earth i believe, but my only frame (Excalibur Prime) is already rank 30. My highest mods are rank 17, as a result of my conservative play. My goal is to experiment with and rank everything i have before venturing to the higher rank zones and trying the different frames.

Since affinity gain is the same no matter the rank of the enemies (save a few exceptions), it seems a huge waste of time to fight the higher ranked ones, considering i'm a constant affinity booster user.

So far i've been pleased with the Bo's range of effect, but displeased that it doesn't hit multiple enemies with its charge like the dual skanas do (Dumb me.. it does that too.). I'd say that so far (can't review the Bo yet), my take on melee weapons (that i have used so far) are Dual Skanas > Furax > Cronus > Skana.

EDIT: I'm also loving the Bo's slide+mellee combo. It does a lot of damage and it's very hard to miss since it has such a long range.

Edited February 1, 2013 by ruivoml

[Meltina]

The one advantage of the Bo is the uncharged attacks ignore armor. The problem is fraggor also ignores armor on non charged attacks, hits much harder, hits multiple enemies per swing, and is pretty much the same speed as the bo because it has a better swing animation. The bo does have a bit more reach but untill you get decked out in mods you will need the extra damage to be effective in the later areas.

Furax is usualy rated quite high because it is one of the stongest charge attacks and the fastest charge attack. With charge attacks ignoring armor they let you take out the enemies that are actualy a threat. The high base damage on the charge attacks make it scale well as damage mods are based on the weapons base damage a place where the Bo loses at. You can expect them to seem better as you get to higher level areas.

You may want to start progressing to later areas. Mods are much more important than affinty rank and those drop based on the area. Getting a 98 shield 74 health mod is about 3 ranks of your warframe in health and shield nodes.. Mod drops are based on the level of the area. Also when it comes to getting other warframes you will run into choke points gathering Rubedo. You will rank up multiple weapons to 30 in just farming rubedo for your new suits if you don't buy them. Also one of the new areas drops alloy plate at a much higher rate than venus so you may want to do your leveling there to save time in gathering materials for crafting weapons and warframes. Going back to a lower area to test your new gear is still a good idea. Once you do get good mods leveling in higher level areas can be effective as there is more enemies in an area and with proper mods you still one shot them like an enemy in mercury.

[jnka]

I keep using it because I like what it looks like, but overall it's one of the worser weapons. Low damage, fairly long charge and odd hitboxes just make it kinda meh.

I think the only advantage it has (apart from the AP) is that it has one of the best slide attacks since it's arc is one of the biggest.

[Renan.Ruivo]

I keep using it because I like what it looks like, but overall it's one of the worser weapons. Low damage, fairly long charge and odd hitboxes just make it kinda meh.

I think the only advantage it has (apart from the AP) is that it has one of the best slide attacks since it's arc is one of the biggest.

Yeah it's exactly what surprised me so much about it. A wide arc means its much harder to miss with a slide attack, and hitting with slide attacks in my opinion is already pretty hard.

I'm itching to try the Fragor.. but it just looks so... unninjaey. Sure, i'm a heavy metal lover, but only when i'm playing a viking berserker, and not a futuristic space cyborg ninja.

[EclecticDragon]

EDIT: I'm also loving the Bo's slide+mellee combo. It does a lot of damage and it's very hard to miss since it has such a long range.

As someone whom has use the Bo Staff allot I can say that it's slide dash attack is possibly one of it's strongest moves due to how long the attack range is making it a good entry move into large groups. then I rely primarly on it's regular melee attack to finish targets off. Personally I think after maxing it out it doesn't really need many attack speed mods and sticking primarly to elemental and damage mods is what I'm planning on doing.

[Bruh]

Another Bo user here. I haven't gotten any other melee weapons to rank 30, but I agree with the Slide attacks for Bo. It has fantastic range, and you'll be one-shotting most things with it if you have damage or crit chance mods.

My Bo mods are pretty average I think, but I definitely don't feel that it is lacking now. When I first got my Bo, it did feel pretty weak compared to other weapons, but for those of you who like the Bo but are unpleased with its performance, I say Stick with it and you may be satisfied later on.

[Renan.Ruivo]

Hmm, then i'll stick with it. I like the way it sends thrash mobs flying, the high rate of swing that send lancers flying as well.. the multi-hit charge attack.. the multi-hit slide attack.

With a rank 6, unmodded Bo i just killed Captain Vor with 8 charge attacks. Along with all the mobs i also bo'ed (didn't fired a single shot) the Bo went from rank 5 to rank 11 in just one mission v0v

[titanoz]

I would choose a ceramic dagger over it.

[Renan.Ruivo]

I'm really loving the range and the arc. I can run around doing charge runs, side-swipes, slash-dashes and the grineer fly around in droves. I guess that this is because i have bad timing and reflexes to properly use the other types of melee weapons.

I'm a really great sharpshooter, so with a Latron/Braton(with over 60% fire rate mods) and a Lex i can really clear a room (specially the grineer bases). And i'm finding that the Bo complements this with close-range, high-damage, panic-button clearing power.

[Hietala217]

I picked up the BO the other day and it was entertaining and effective in some ways, less so in others. I found the BO's charge attack really hard to time perfectly, yet even with the same 'damage' number as my Skana it devistated enemies in melee with regular attacks. I'm guess that's the built in AP?

I went back to my Skana (And eventually Cronus) because I prefer 1-hit kills and then hitting cover. Maybe it's just me, but I never could get down the BO timing as the animation was much longer to fire off on those charged attacks. If you want a solid weapon to 'melee' with without a lot of charge attacks, then the BO is awesome. If you're like me and rely heavily on taking out enemies in one quick hit and then moving to the next or cover, not quite so much. Watching them fly across a room was awesome, very awesome.

[neKroMancer]

Bo is a support weapon - the good thing are large siliding attck, stun, multihit, ignore armor. The bad thing are low damage, slow attack animation which allow the target to recover before your second combo attack.

Even with Mercury Grineer - Bo is struggling to kill the regular trooper.

[Renan.Ruivo]

Bo is a support weapon - the good thing are large siliding attck, stun, multihit, ignore armor. The bad thing are low damage, slow attack animation which allow the target to recover before your second combo attack.

Even with Mercury Grineer - Bo is struggling to kill the regular trooper.

I've added freeze mods to it, they slow the target down enough for the second (and third.. and fourth) swings to hit just fine. Not to mention it's now also working great against Moas and Heavies.

Haven't even dared get near Infected with it thought. Then again, i haven't dared get near infected ever since Update 6....

[Hamsta]

Haven't even dared get near Infected with it thought. Then again, i haven't dared get near infected ever since Update 6....

Why?

They be about as easy to kill as ever.

Just the ancient mobs be annoying as they take quite a while to kill.

(.-.)

But then again, me managed to solo my way through all the planets up to pluto on the starter frame with default weapons before me realized what me was doing.

Bosses still be a pain in the foot since they has instant kill attacks and a ton of hp.

x.x'

[Renan.Ruivo]

Bosses still be a pain in the foot since they has instant kill attacks and a ton of hp.

x.x'

v0v

Edited February 2, 2013 by ruivoml

[Namacyst]

Try charge speed & charge attack damage on Bo and use charge attack only. You'll see.. totally different feeling (cleave away) and the Bo is viable. But i aggre... since the Bo is the little brother of the almighty Fragor... Fragor is better...and noone cares about stupid Axes anyways ^^

[neKroMancer]

Try charge speed & charge attack damage on Bo and use charge attack only. You'll see.. totally different feeling (cleave away) and the Bo is viable. But i aggre... since the Bo is the little brother of the almighty Fragor... Fragor is better...and noone cares about stupid Axes anyways ^^

No one, NO ONE talks bad about my Scindy, the infest slayer.

Edited February 2, 2013 by neKroMancer

[jnka]

Yeah it's exactly what surprised me so much about it. A wide arc means its much harder to miss with a slide attack, and hitting with slide attacks in my opinion is already pretty hard.

I'm itching to try the Fragor.. but it just looks so... unninjaey. Sure, i'm a heavy metal lover, but only when i'm playing a viking berserker, and not a futuristic space cyborg ninja.

You misunderstood me - I find it's slide attack to be one of the best. Not the weakest. But overall the weapon is incredibly lackluster, just look cool which is why I kinda prefer to use it.

I've added freeze mods to it, they slow the target down enough for the second (and third.. and fourth) swings to hit just fine. Not to mention it's now also working great against Moas and Heavies.

Haven't even dared get near Infected with it thought. Then again, i haven't dared get near infected ever since Update 6....

Try electricity and or stun mods. I can usually turn of 2-3 close packed mobs and beat them to pulp with standard attacks thanks to those.

Edited February 2, 2013 by jnka

[Renan.Ruivo]

You misunderstood me - I find it's slide attack to be one of the best. Not the weakest. But overall the weapon is incredibly lackluster, just look cool which is why I kinda prefer to use it.

Try electricity and or stun mods. I can usually turn of 2-3 close packed mobs and beat them to pulp with standard attacks thanks to those.

Oh i think you misundertood my understanding of your stating. I think...... I meant to say that really its slide attack is pretty boss, and that performing slide attacks with other weapons is much harder. It's so easy with the Bo because of the ridiculous arc.

I've already fitted some electricity mods to it and a freeze mod to slow them down (and eat some shields). It's stellar.

[Ferriwind]

It does half the armor piercing damage of Fragor but is faster and looks much better. The charge attack is not nearly as strong, but I'd prefer this over screen shake.