Nova Prime vs Saryn Prime vs Octavia

[PewPewShax]

Hello, 

As the title suggest I'm in a bit of a predicament, I have these 3 frames that I enjoy but dunno which to invest into maxing as my first endgame frame. Over time I will get all of them up but for now I need you guys's help and experience on which I should go for first. What I would like if possible is a build for the endgame one and decent weapon, I have quite a few good bows, rifles and Pandero (dread, paris prime, soma prime, boltor prime, soon cernos prime).

 

Thanks in advance. 

[Bouldershoulder]

Nova. Octavia is half-broken in a squad. Saryn can't do a 400k dmg in a 20m nuke.

[PewPewShax]

1 minute ago, Bouldershoulder said:

Nova. Octavia is half-broken in a squad. Saryn can't do a 400k dmg in a 20m nuke.

So Nova all the way? Both solo and squads? 

[BRad_Skirata]

I would recommend Octavia, wide area coverage, stealth and speed buffs, weapon damage buffs, CC, decent killing potential (even on min strength), only thing I don't like is the aesthetics of Octavia...

[Bouldershoulder]

Yes. Her slow and x2 damage from Ult help a lot. Wormhole makes her extremely mobile.

[PewPewShax]

22 minutes ago, Bouldershoulder said:

Yes. Her slow and x2 damage from Ult help a lot. Wormhole makes her extremely mobile.

Alright, any recommended weapon to go with her kit? 

[Bouldershoulder]

Sniper rifles and opticor benefit from slow and they are good for charging antimatter drop, so they may be an option. Other than that - anything you like.

[Foefaller]

Saryn's my pick. Just love her spore build Max Range, High Strength, at least 100% duration, with a gas procing weapon and a backup for high-threat enemies. Efficiency isn't that important, as spore refresh duration every time they spread limiting how often you need to recast it (in fact, if you're comfortable with it, you can go negative efficiency and still get through most missions without dropping an energy restore)

Spore an enemy, hit them with your gas weapon and watch damage and xp ticks pop up everywhere as the whole map dies.

Favorite part about her is that she scales inversely; the tougher enemies are, the more spore popping you can do to build up damage until everything just instantly melts. In my experience even Maim Equinoxes and Antimatter Drop/Molecular Prime Novas eventually lag behind after a rotation, especially vs. Corpus or Infested. Only thing that's ever beaten my Saryn in kills/damage over the long haul has been Resonating Quake Banshees, and IMO it's less because of damage and more because it's pretty much impossible to build up spores when all the enemies are stuck in their spawn rooms.

Finally, being capable of easily procing two types of conditions (viral and toxin) as well as increase condition duration as her passive, she's probably the best 'frame for Condition Overload. For missions where the above spore build struggles (like most non-endless as well as Grineer Sorties) you can make an alternate loadout that's more energy efficient and keep her 1 and 3 up while you murder everything with your status-procing melee.

Nova's always going to be fragile as F, which is a big problem when getting shot at by things you can't slow with Molecular Prime, like Nulifiers or enemies half a click away in the Plains. (she's a bit better if you're not maxing MP range with Narrow Minded and pick up the Antimatter Drop augment, but will still drop pretty quickly should something get behind her on the Plains) Octavia is great for defenses (arguably better that Saryn when it comes to Grineer) but really struggles to bring damage and CC when you have to move around a lot. Also, you better hope you like Sandstorm knockoffs, because unless you have incredibly good timing those are usually the best songs for triggering Amp buffs in the middle of a fight.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Foefaller

[PewPewShax]

54 minutes ago, Foefaller said:

Saryn's my pick. Just love her spore build Max Range, High Strength, at least 100% duration, with a gas procing weapon and a backup for high-threat enemies. Efficiency isn't that important, as spore refresh duration every time they spread limiting how often you need to recast it (in fact, if you're comfortable with it, you can go negative efficiency and still get through most missions without dropping an energy restore)

Spore an enemy, hit them with your gas weapon and watch damage and xp ticks pop up everywhere as the whole map dies.

Favorite part about her is that she scales inversely; the tougher enemies are, the more spore popping you can do to build up damage until everything just instantly melts. In my experience even Maim Equinoxes and Antimatter Drop/Molecular Prime Novas eventually lag behind after a rotation, especially vs. Corpus or Infested. Only thing that's ever beaten my Saryn in kills/damage over the long haul has been Resonating Quake Banshees, and IMO it's less because of damage and more because it's pretty much impossible to build up spores when all the enemies are stuck in their spawn rooms.

Finally, being capable of easily procing two types of conditions (viral and toxin) as well as increase condition duration as her passive, she's probably the best 'frame for Condition Overload. For missions where the above spore build struggles (like most non-endless as well as Grineer Sorties) you can make an alternate loadout that's more energy efficient and keep her 1 and 3 up while you murder everything with your status-procing melee.

Nova's always going to be fragile as F, which is a big problem when getting shot at by things you can't slow with Molecular Prime, like Nulifiers or enemies half a click away in the Plains. (she's a bit better if you're not maxing MP range with Narrow Minded and pick up the Antimatter Drop augment, but will still drop pretty quickly should something get behind her on the Plains) Octavia is great for defenses (arguably better that Saryn when it comes to Grineer) but really struggles to bring damage and CC when you have to move around a lot. Also, you better hope you like Sandstorm knockoffs, because unless you have incredibly good timing those are usually the best songs for triggering Amp buffs in the middle of a fight.

I've been looking at saryn prime, i still have to get so god damn nitain extract, but i have the regular frame. Is gas so important on her abilities ? And what weapon would you recommend? 

[SilverRook]

Nova Prime is my Bottom *@##$ :) 

AMD and MP are just TOO fun not to use..... I find it very hard to actually use another frame.

Opticor with Akstiletto Prime and Galatine prime all 3 can charge AMD very quickly if not immediately.
I have more recently been forcing myself to use others but Nova ticks all the boxes for me.

• High damage ✔
• High mobility ✔
• CC ✔
• AOE ✔

[Foefaller]

3 hours ago, PewPewShax said:

I've been looking at saryn prime, i still have to get so god damn nitain extract, but i have the regular frame. Is gas so important on her abilities ? And what weapon would you recommend? 

Gas or Toxin. the damage from popping spores is increased based on the toxin procs that the enemy that were applied since the last time a spore on them was popped (affected by power strength, which is why you need to keep it high) as well as spreads a new toxic proc that is 50% of that damage. Gas' proc is an AoE toxin cloud, which deals toxin damage with a guaranteed proc, so even if the initial attack didn't hit spores, the gas cloud will. While the nitty-gritty of mechanics mean that the Gas proc is going to have about the same DoT as a regular toxic proc, since it's a combined damage type, it also means you can stack other dual stat ele+status mods for a higher status chance; Anything with at least 30% status chance will hit 100% chance with all 4 such mods.

Popular weapons are pretty much any high status weapon that, ideally, only does toxin or heat damage (exactly what status proc you get is weighed heavily in favor of physical damage, though weapons with a high rate of fire, like the Akstilleto Prime, can kinda get away with this because of how often they will proc.) as well as the handful of weapons that have guaranteed toxin procs. Ingus is what you'll see most use. I personally use the Torid with the Acoylte mod that increases status chance after casting an ability. For secondaries, I believe Pox is popular. You might see some people use Embolist, especially with the Eroding Blight mod (Red veil syndicate proc for more energy!) but I personally couldn't stand it as the AoE and especially range are pitifully small. I remember a video a couple years back of someone getting insane spore damage from a Lanka, but IMO it's more of a gimmick than a real thing. Note that if melee is your thing, her Toxic Lash add toxin damage to her weapon with an 100% toxic proc chance.

Edited November 22, 2017 by Foefaller

[Xzorn]

Well, Octavia is easily he most powerful of the three.

She gives the group 500-700% damage boost which laughs at both M.Prime and Spores + Venom Dose. Her damage output scales exponentially with enemy damage scaling so it's pretty much the highest output in the game and she can make the entire group invisible. So yea. She pretty much trumps everything the others have to offer.

That being said her play is conditional to the group cooperating and camping while perma Invis is not very fun.

Nova and Saryn are pretty equally matched in damage output and group multipliers. Neither are very great outside of an endless type mission but Nova survives considerably better than Saryn when played well since she has slow in addition to her AMD augment for shielding and her 1st ability damage reduction. Saryn has very little in means of protecting herself. Still, when dealing with armored enemies I'd much rather have a Saryn on my team than a Nova.

[Foefaller]

IMO Octavia's strengths are more tied to endless missions (especially defense and excavation) than Saryn and Nova are. Mallet and Amp are locked to where they are dropped, enemies stop shooting at Mallet (and therefore stop increasing the damage) once you bring Resonator out (or at least, they did last time I played her), and as you say, perma stealth is boring and, frankly, if you aren't standing in one place there are frames that do it better (at least for themselves.) When everything's happening in one place, she beats out pretty much anyone (unless it's vs. infested) But when the situation requires you to keep moving, both her own damage and her ability to buff ally damage drop significantly.

Nova on the other hand can dart through the map with Wormhole, or buff MP to the point that she'll be tagging enemies several rooms away whenever it's used, and both still let you stay alive with her 1 and AMD's augment (though wormhole buffing favors AMD augment, and MP buffing favors her 1). Saryn's spores aren't as reliable for crossing rooms, but going full melee with Toxic Lash works pretty darn good, especially when you remember that Toxic Lash buffs the damage resist that comes from using your weapon block. And since you're not going to worry as much about range, you can invest in some efficiency to make sure you can always drop a molt or hit Miasma when the situation calls it.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Foefaller

[Bouldershoulder]

That's right. Octavia relies heavily on staying out of enemies sight for her mallet to have any effect, and for her teammates to cooperate by staying invisible using either her metronome or their own abilities, because otherwise enemies won't shoot at it. Resonator works against metronome by pacifying enemies, which means they stop shooting altogether. Metronome is kinda controversial. When there is shooting all around and you have to stay in air more than on the ground to survive, the last thing you want is stop moving to do squats, or try to time your shooting for a few seconds of a chance to have additional multishot. Her Amp depends on noise level (really?). You can only rely on her resonator to draw aggro, everything else is highly conditional.

Saryn's toxin+spores combo relies on either high level of enemies to be able to stack toxin, or for you playing solo, because in a squad your mates will kill everything before you get your toxin stacked. Regenerative molt is a great thing, I like it a lot. Without it Saryn dies all too often (kind of sarcastic here), which means it's minus one mod slot. Also, molt itself does not live long. Toxic lash's bonus for blocking improves her survivability, but limits you to using melee only (can be kind of tricked around with Redeemer, Sarpa, or throwables). Miasma is nothing on high levels.

Nova's M.Prime needs time to spread out, which leaves you kind of vulnerable until then (can be improved by casting beforehand), but it stays relatively long, and it primes everything in its range even if they have spawned after M.Prime stopped spreading. A.M. drop needs time to reach its target, which is not very good in a squad for the same reason Saryn's spores suffer. Wormhole is limited to 4 uses per instance. Null star's damage is nothing, has limited number of 'stars' and can't be recast without the augment. The augment itself works against M. Prime, since it depends on range, while M.Prime depends on duration, which is usually reduced by Narrow Minded.

 

P.S. Brushed off some glaze from the stuff for you.

[mosaickle]

I recommend Clem.

[(PSN)Radehx]

Technically, Octavia is hands down the strongest in terms of endless runs...but imo she's soooooooo booooooooring because I feel like focusing on watching timers run down and teabagging instead of actually playing the game. But she is super strong.

Nova would be my pick because of the insane damage and more involved gameplay. She has a lot of interesting synergies between her abilities too and with Antimatter Absorb, she's very tanky even at endgame levels.

Saryn works too and has nicely scaling damage, halving enemy health at all levels...but her main defense (molt) dies super quick at endgame levels, so I wouldn't pick her for solo stuff. Amazing in endless run teams though. 

Long story short, all of those frames work and are worth investing in...they're all just play differently. The "easiest" frame would be Octavia, but like I said, imo she's incredibly boring to play. You just sit in a corner and teabag every couple of seconds while you watch stuff kill itself. Like watching paint dry. 

If I was you, I'd get Nidus and invest in him...amazing endgame frame, both solo and in teams. For long solo runs Ivara is a goddess too and offers a ton of utility...or you could go with Ash who can achieve ridiculously high kills per second figure at endgame levels with seeking shuriken stripping armor before you finish stuff off with a viral/slash weapon.

Edited November 23, 2017 by (PS4)Radehx

[Sabreracer]

All three frames are very good in slightly different ways.

According to my stat tracker Trinity is my most used frame but I find it hard to believe as Nova Prime comes out for most general play times or if I'm not looking to do a particular role and has done since her release.  Most think of her as a glass cannon but she dies no more than anything else in my hands.  The other two have their advantages already listed above.

I love my bows but Cernos Prime sucks the big one, the rest are all high end viable.  Soma Prime with Hunter Munitions (from the current event) gives it the edge over Boltor Prime, though Tigris Prime is a monster once you mod it to 100% status chance.  AkStilletos are a good high end secondary as long as you bring Carrier Prime for Ammo Case, Pandreo is good too though small mag size for larger groups.

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by Sabreracer

[grrmisfit]

Anyone who says Octavia is a sit in a corner and tea bag isn't playing her right. Equip a nice melee weapon go invis and start destroying stuff. There's many ways to build warframes, nova can be slow or speed,  Octavia can be range cc lower damage or strength high buff. But like others have said each frame has their niche and it's all in preference. I prefer Octavia as I can solo missions if I want or get a bad group and live longer. In a good group all those frames can shine but I'm a bad one I think Octavia would shine brighter.

[plasmox]

I personally prefer Octavia. She's one of those frames that benefit from having positive stats thru out. Her 1 scales infinitely, so damage is usually not a problem for her, she can stay perma stealthed, and can offer damage buff to your entire squad.

I really only use nova and saryn to farm for crafting materials and focus respectively.

[(PSN)CoolD2108]

I would highly recommend against saryn.

 

Testing shows that the poison potential that should come with the spores is pretty much broken. The regular spore spread is limited, unreliable and the toxin part tends to be nonexisting except for the part that results from the basedamage of the spore. (Should scale off the trigger damage of all proccs on the enemy)

 

Her catcher is the viral status and damage on range builds but the actuall damage scales really poorly.

The other two choices are pretty decent. Try oberon and ash too, those are my personal favorites.

Edited November 24, 2017 by (PS4)CoolD2108