Advice For Banshee

[Kaysick]

I just finished making Banshee today and I wanted to know what mods I should use for her.

 

I know that Sound Quake and Sonar are her best abilities. Stretch seems like a good mod as well. Redirection and Vitality are always a must. What aura should I take?

[Alighierian]

my setup:

 

Banshee (65):
+ Energy Siphon: 5
- Sonic Boom: 3 (=)
- Focus: 6 (V)
- Rush: 11
- Quick Rest: 7
- Sound Quake: 7 (=)
- Sonar: 4 (=)
- Continuity: 5 (V)
- Streamline: 9
- Fast Deflection: 8
- Redirection: 5 (\> (Forma))
 

this built is mainly focused around being able to fire abilities off a bit more often (streamline) whilst they last longer (continuitiy) and have more effect (focus). sound quake already has the very decent range of 18m so I didn't really feel like stretch is needed, especially since it's not a 'kill' ability at higher levels, only at lower ones. and the 18m radius stagger is what still makes it very useful

stretch is a good mod, but it's more directed towards the insta-kill ubers or defence fields (snow globe / bastille) than banshee's abilities

Shockwave is very useful, mainly against rushing shield lancers, rushing ancients, group-hugging infested and other people you'd like a few meters back when you're about to walk out of the elevator.

the rush and quick recovery is essential for my style of 'aggressive sniper' and it helps a lot if you have to get away.

 

requires only 1 forma and a reactor, so it's semi-cheap to get

 

ps: set the secondary hotkey for skill 1 on a button you can quickly press, for me that's 'F' (weapon swap is on Q for me, and other stuff is a bit hussled around as well). it'll greatly help with quick response 'GET AWAY FROM MEEE'-shockwave.

the useful thing is that a lot of other frames have their spam ability also on '1', so you can have that key for 'spamming' in general.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Alighierian

[kamimegurine]

Continuity, Constitution, Stretch, redirection, stream line, and maybe forma it to take out one " slot to place a - slot to get flow.... also by doing it this way u are focusing on sonar only, the other 3 powers sucks... well maybe the 1st one is good, but silence and quake sucks if u wanna use quake go rhino works a lot better

[GottFaust]

Pure Caster Build (The one I favor):

Energy Siphon

Focus

Flow

Streamline

Constitution

Stretch

Redirection

And, of course, Sonic Boom, Sonar, Silence, and Sound Quake.

With skating Rush and Quick-Rest are a waste of slots and mod potential. With smart play so is Fast Deflection. Pure power-spam all the way.

Edit - If you think Silence is a waste of space, throw continuity in there instead for even more power duration.

Edited August 6, 2013 by GottFaust

[Kaysick]

@Ali: I like this setup so far. Your explanation of Stretch does make sense. I might swap out Rush or Quick Rest with something else. I'm not too worried about run speed.

 

 

Continuity, Constitution, Stretch, redirection, stream line, and maybe forma it to take out one " slot to place a - slot to get flow.... also by doing it this way u are focusing on sonar only, the other 3 powers sucks... well maybe the 1st one is good, but silence and quake sucks if u wanna use quake go rhino works a lot better

I actually really like Sound Quake because it stuns and damages. Thanks for your input though, I appreciate it.

 

@GottFaust: Thanks for this too. I like the idea of being a caster since I'm used to playing Vauban, which is a really spammy Warframe.

[Kroul]

Sonic boom is a nice ability to CC that one toxic ancient who runs up to the pod on a high wave.

[GottFaust]

@Ali: I like this setup so far. Your explanation of Stretch does make sense. I might swap out Rush or Quick Rest with something else. I'm not too worried about run speed.

 

 

I actually really like Sound Quake because it stuns and damages. Thanks for your input though, I appreciate it.

 

@GottFaust: Thanks for this too. I like the idea of being a caster since I'm used to playing Vauban, which is a really spammy Warframe.

You're welcome. I'd also like to point out that stretch is a god-send for Sonar (which is your go-to ability, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, if they do they're idiots). It's cheap, it lets you save mod/aura slots by not having to use enemy radar, and shooting the orange spot that's generated on enemies nets you 400% damage.

[AlchemistMute]

Sound Quake isn't really for damage as even on Mercury it will only deal about 60 damage to Grineer, reducing the higher level you fight, but it's still okay against Infested. Use it for the 10 second massive radius stun. Focus will boost it, but you're putting it on for different reasons. Stretch will give it a bigger radius, as it's decently small without it.

 

Sonar's obviously for x5 damage. Range is boosted by Stretch and damage multiplier is boosted by Focus. That's what you want Focus for. Bonus points if the orange spot is on the head for Corpus/Grineer or knee for Ancients. Continuity boosts the time the orange spot stays on Sonar'd enemies, but 10 seconds is long enough IMO.

 

Sonic Boom is definitely good. It pretty much knocks down every enemy in the room. The radius is massive when Stretch boosted. 50 damage for 25 energy..? Yeah, don't try to deal damage with this. Use it to get Toxic Ancients off the pod. (Well, anything off the pod.)

 

Silence is S#&$ use that slot for another mod.

 

Loadout:

 

Sonic Boom

Sonar

Sound Quake

Vitality

Redirection

Streamline

Stretch

Flow

Focus

Anything else (I like to put Rush here)

= 10 Mods

 

Rifle Amp is good for the default polarity. As a sniper and CC frame, Rifle Amp allows her shots to deal even more damage when combined with Sonar and it helps everyone. Give her the Chorus helmet and she won't ever run out of energy, with Sound Quake only costing about 65 energy. So while Energy Siphon seems worth it, she doesn't need it.

[Alighierian]

With skating Rush and Quick-Rest are a waste of slots and mod potential. With smart play so is Fast Deflection. Pure power-spam all the way.

 

it's not a waste, more a decision based on what play-style one prefers. fast deflection I have not because I can't keep my shields up or something (if my shields go down I hide with the help of cover and/or shade) but simply because it reduces my 'downtime'.

I based my mod setup mainly around my aggressive sniper playstyle, and for that rush / quick rest is very useful.

 

I generally also don't power-spam that much unless it's needed, I tend to rely on my weapons more.

this also means i don't really use my sonar as radar non-stop -> stretch is less useful for me personally.

[GottFaust]

it's not a waste, more a decision based on what play-style one prefers. fast deflection I have not because I can't keep my shields up or something (if my shields go down I hide with the help of cover and/or shade) but simply because it reduces my 'downtime'.

I based my mod setup mainly around my aggressive sniper playstyle, and for that rush / quick rest is very useful.

 

I generally also don't power-spam that much unless it's needed, I tend to rely on my weapons more.

this also means i don't really use my sonar as radar non-stop -> stretch is less useful for me personally.

It's not actually a matter of play-style. Skating voids the advantages of Rush and Quick Rest.

[Kaysick]

Sound Quake isn't really for damage as even on Mercury it will only deal about 60 damage to Grineer, reducing the higher level you fight, but it's still okay against Infested. Use it for the 10 second massive radius stun. Focus will boost it, but you're putting it on for different reasons. Stretch will give it a bigger radius, as it's decently small without it.

 

 

With Focus one tick away from maxed, I was killing level 40 Infested with it. Not the Ancients, but the leapers, runners, and chargers. I found it pretty effective.

 

Thanks everyone for posting your mod setups, I really appreciate it.

[PlebbyMilliner]

I have this frame also. I never use the Silence ability.

 

I find her other 3 abilities to be excellent, but they are "assist" for the team. A lot of times I'll use sonar followed immediately by sound quake. So it sets up the enemies to take a bunch of pin point damage, and then I stun all of them in place for 10 seconds allowing my teammates to hit them hard. These abilities can also go through walls and be acitvated behind cover.

 

Sonic Boom is nice for keeping melee enemies away from you. It's part of your defense. The downside is that when you push enemies off a ledge, they just teleport back to where you knocked them off (much like you do when you fall of the edge).

 

The qualities that make her special require range and energy. So Stretch and Flow (and Streamline, but I don't have it yet) are excellent. 

 

She has the same shields and health as an Excalibur, but no armor. So Redirection and Vitality provide the same effects. Steel Fiber doesn't do anything.

 

After that, use whatever you want to keep her in your play style. She has tons of energy and can be a team player, but is highly susceptible to ranged attacks.

[Iainius]

A glass-cannony build that I personally run. It does require a Reactor and a single Forma, though. It's a bit more gunplay-focused than the other two builds I see in this thread..

 

Aura:

Rifle Amp: It's no longer disgustingly overpowered after the values were changed, but I still like to use it. It syngergizes well with Sonar and a hard-hitting precision weapon like the Latron Prime or Snipetron Vandal.

 

Abilities:

Sonar: I don't think you'll find a Banshee player who'll tell you not to equip it.

Sound Quake: It's damage is pretty good, but it falls off quickly. The staggering is the main draw of this ability, in my opinion. Mostly used as a panic button in this setup.

Sonic Boom: 25 Energy for 25 damage and guaranteed knockdown in a wide radius makes this well-suited as a panic button. Particularly useful when backed into a corner. The knockdown also makes it somewhat useful as a first-strike ability. Hit 1, hit 2, then unload into the glowy orange spot.

 

Mods:

Redirection: You're Armor 10 and Health 300. If your shields pop, you might as well hit 4 and assume the position. A maxed Redirection (hence my recommendation of using a Forma to change one of the scratch slots to a D slot) gives you 740 shields. It's not amazing, but it'll give you enough to get out of a bad situation.

Focus: It's got limited usage on Sonic Boom and Sound Quake, but I personally use those two skills for crowd control. The main draw of this mod is its scaling on Sonar. Going for 500% multiplier to 650% multiplier makes those heavies die all the quicker.

Continuity: Again, SONAR!!! Three seconds may not sound like much, but it's invaluable on higher-level mobs.

Constitution: Another three seconds on Sonar? Yes, please. Also, the knockdown recovery helps on those higher-level missions.

Flow: More energy means more Sonars. Also, more Sound Quakes and Sonic Booms if you're backed into a corner.

Streamline: MORE SONARS!!! MORE!!!!

Stretch: Makes your Sonar affect more targets. Also makes the Sound Quakes and Sonic Booms viable as first-strike abilities as well as panic buttons.

 

Weapons:

Primary: I recommend a precision weapon in your primary slot, because Sonar. I personally run Latron Prime, but I've also seen a Braton or Braton Prime with damage mods and a fire rate work wonders at quickly bursting down heavies. The Snipetron family also works pretty well, though I personally find they don't have the lasting power in close quarters for that rare occasion where you're out of energy and fumbling for your secondary.

Secondary: Anything with decent close-quarters capability works here. I usually use the Kraken, Bronco Prime, or Despair in this slot depending on my mood.

Melee: The usual recommendations go here. Though something interesting to try is the Glaive or Kestrel. Throwing the thing interrupts your reload animation, but catching it does not. You can use it to pick off some mobs if you're caught while reloading.