Nova's Null Star is a shield.

[--BAT--]

First I'd like to say, there will be a TL;DR at the bottom

Next, This was brought to attention after DE Glenn Had live streamed and apparently this was found out. https://twitter.com/DE_KickBot/status/912014880181489664

And this line was added under nullstar shortly afterwards on the Warframe Wiki. "Each active particle gives +5% damage reduction to Nova's health, potentially stacking up to 80% with the maximum number of particles (currently undocumented)." 

And I have done some quick but extensive testing about this as an Avid Nova player.

Firstly, The damage mitigation is ONLY to health. Not to shields. 

Second, Duration makes more of the Null stars appear, and Strength Makes the reduction of damage % increase. - This will be shown in the following screenshots. 

The tests were conducted with a Rank 30 Nova. Using Vitality at first, then removing for other mods. And using a decaying dragon key to reduce the shield value to 56 to make the health damage more prevalent. The enemy used is a rank 20 corrupted bombard.

Firstly, without nullstar and base stats. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361635510826827776/20170924170615_1.jpg

Next, With nullstar, 100% on all stats. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361635554879864832/20170924170637_1.jpg

After that,  I tested for maximum duration only, (273% for 16 orbs) https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361636630143959050/20170924171344_1.jpg

Then, Maximum strength (285% Without energy conversion active) https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361637496880234496/20170924171646_1.jpg

So, seeing that the amount is more potent than the reduction %age, I decided to test both. Str + Dur at 200%+ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361638172985262080/20170924171941_1.jpg

And lastly, with maximum duration (of 273%) and using overextended (Strength = 40%) https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/250483968875429888/361638527068536835/20170924172131_1.jpg

So, after much testing, Damage mitigation on health is moreso affected by number of Null stars than the potency of the damage reduction.

This brings a couple questions. A) How long has this been in the game and why is it undocumented? B) Could we potentially get this added to the abilities page so it's known to anyone? C) Could we see a rework of Null Star in the future?

And a nit-pick I have is the fact that Null-star seeks out enemies within range. Thus meaning it's literally a shield for your health being stripped away for being near combat. I would like to see some sort of change so they do not follow enemies, perhaps a charge and hold system. Unsure.

That's about it. I just wanted to make this aware and share my testing of it as well, letting it be known how exactly it works. As an avid Nova player, I might actually start using Null-Star un-ironically now.

 

TL;DR - Nova's 1 Has damage reduction only to health, More Duration = More particles, Strength = No change to %age reduction on health, Undocumented in game, recently discovered info.

 

Edit: After further testing thanks to others, Strength does not seem to have an effect. Only the number of nullstars, meaning the reduction is always 5% per orb on health damage.

Edited September 25, 2017 by That_Beast
Addressed new info

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

Thought this was common knowlege honestly. I always keep null star on pretty much at all times with Nova because it both made you tankier and it was a great way to detonate nearby primed enemies that were too close and were about to attack me.

[--BAT--]

Just now, (PS4)Stealth_Cobra said:

Thought this was common knowlege honestly. I always keep null star on pretty much at all times with Nova because it both made you tankier and it was a great way to detonate nearby primed enemies that were too close and were about to attack me.

I mean, I always had my suspicions. But never enough to go into rough detail about it. Glad that this was brought to my attention. I just hope this thread helps out a few people or gets some sort of documented update.

[PsiWarp]

Huh that's new to me. So Null Star isn't as useless as I thought, welp time to run low range high duration build for that sweet sweet damage reduction.

[(PSN)N7PaladinN7]

Hmm, new to me too and I have her as my most used frame for a few years now. Well, now I wanna see neutron tar augment reworked around this, like every remote detonation, applies the total damage reduction of each particle detonated for say, 10 seconds, and can be increased with duration. Now that would make a pretty sweet augment.

 

[INight00]

Null star is an under-rated ability. It has been for a while. (her antimatter drop with augment is under-rated too)
Even better with the augment, Neutron Star.

Edited September 24, 2017 by INight00
In SOME situations.

[LSG501]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Stealth_Cobra said:

Thought this was common knowlege honestly. I always keep null star on pretty much at all times with Nova because it both made you tankier and it was a great way to detonate nearby primed enemies that were too close and were about to attack me.

While I do normally have it active, I never noticed any 'defence benefits' to it other than it killing nearby enemies etc.   So I wouldn't say the 'damage reduction' is that well known unless you read the wiki in minute detail.

[dopey_opi]

I replicated OP's test and, by God, he's right.  as a huge Nova nerd i'm amazed i never noticed this before.  Probably since I usually use 1 only with the Neutron Star augment and high range, for short-acting hard CC.

Seems like there's two ways to go about using this effectively.  One, shorten your range with Narrow Minded.  Two, use whatever range you have, but detonate 1 early with Neutron Star after your damage reduction gets too low for your tastes and then recast.

[--BAT--]

5 minutes ago, dopey_opi said:

I replicated OP's test and, by God, he's right.  as a huge Nova nerd i'm amazed i never noticed this before.  Probably since I usually use 1 only with the Neutron Star augment and high range, for short-acting hard CC.

Seems like there's two ways to go about using this effectively.  One, shorten your range with Narrow Minded.  Two, use whatever range you have, but detonate 1 early with Neutron Star after your damage reduction gets too low for your tastes and then recast.

Yep, My Mate let me know about Glenn's stream and tweet relating to it. And I did the testing and was astounded. Of course since my main frame is Nova.

[Epsilon_Knight]

So wait, the 100% power strength is identical to the 285% power strength in your screen shots.  Looks like duration isn't just > than strength for this test, strength has no influence at all?

[--BAT--]

1 hour ago, Epsilon_Knight said:

So wait, the 100% power strength is identical to the 285% power strength in your screen shots.  Looks like duration isn't just > than strength for this test, strength has no influence at all?

Apologies, seems I was a little too quick when making this topic. 

Strength = Increasing the % of damage reduction.

Duration = More Particles = More stacks of the damage reduction.

Basically, the more Null-Star Particles there are, the more damage resist you'll get, as the number seems to not be effect too much by strength. Hell, maybe my screenshots are correct and just shows that strength does nothing? Unsure. Which is why I'd appreciate if DE added this into Nova's abilities. Just know that having your 1 up as Nova isn't useless!

[Epsilon_Knight]

Tested this extensively tonight.  As far as I can tell, there's no practical difference between 40% power strength and 285% power strength.  Which is fine, being able to push up to 85% health damage reduction is extremely powerful!  Thanks for the thread!

[Fallen_Echo]

I always thought that this skill is completely useless as the damage is pityful and it doesnt do anything good for you, well i guess this is the fault of missing descriptions and information.

[DrBorris]

All of these people claiming "Oh, I knew that" is BS. Nobody knew it, DE even apparently did not know (I would bet good money even [DE]Scott forgot this long, long ago). Every time someone posted feedback on Null Star, none of you people who "knew it" ever piped in. 

 

I really don't know what to think about this, It might change my build... maybe. This does just make QT+Flow the superior form of defense for Nova to an even greater extent, but having it not affect Shields and the orbs fly away whenever they want is awkward. Narrow Minded may just become a "mandatory" Nova mod. 

I guess it does make her 1 Augment a bit more useful though.

[(PSN)JCM_Unlimited]

And with this discovery nova becomes one of the most well balanced frames in my opinion. She now has survivability, movement, CC, and damage in her base kit. I can finally justify running her with rage and arcane grace. This will bring nova to a new level

[(PSN)Elvenbane]

Interesting, won't affect how I play Nova though as I've always kept Null Star up at all times (it's so ingrained that I often try to activate the first ability of every other frame at the start of a mission without thinking). :)

[--BAT--]

3 hours ago, (PS4)Elvenbane said:

Interesting, won't affect how I play Nova though as I've always kept Null Star up at all times (it's so ingrained that I often try to activate the first ability of every other frame at the start of a mission without thinking). :)

Good habit for those non-duration based abilities! 

[--BAT--]

16 hours ago, Epsilon_Knight said:

Tested this extensively tonight.  As far as I can tell, there's no practical difference between 40% power strength and 285% power strength.  Which is fine, being able to push up to 85% health damage reduction is extremely powerful!  Thanks for the thread!

Well I do believe the maximum is 16 orbs of Null-star, not 17? And with each orb being 5% that still means a whole 80% damage reduction. Still quite the number!

[Ragefright]

Very useful information!!