Some personal observations on craftable warframe specters usability.

[Niennah]

This post contains my personal observations on craftable warframe specters and their usefulness. It'll be updated as I go through the roster.

A small note: people who've used specters in the past may know that they used to only receive baseline version of weapons and frames. The recent specter update changed that; now specters are able to use all frame and weapon variants (and it's not just a cosmetic difference).

So far the most useful weapon setup seems to be (Secura) Penta and a long-reach melee weapon with average to high attack speed. Secondaries are still irrelevant.

Other decent weapons to consider are anything fast firing with a bit of spread or aoe and either hitscan or close to it (decent results with boltor P, S simulor, Ignis W, Miter). For melee polearms so far are the favorite. Special/charge melee attack (glaives, zenistar) usage not observed.

Now to the frames.

All specters tend to use their 1st ability very often, other abilities usage is varied.

Ash:

Rating - good.

Uses all 4 abilities relatively liberally. This translates into good consistent damage and a small boost to specter's survivability.

 

Atlas:

Rating - good.

Uses all 4 abilities liberally (a bit stingy with his 3). Prepare to see enemies punched across the room, petrified and getting mobbed by golems. Wall comes out rarely, which is probably for the best since the specters have zero idea about positioning.

Banshee:

Rating - borderline trash.

Uses sound quake once and either silence or sonar once (could see any actual effect); then proceeds to spam 1 about every two seconds regardless of anything being in range.

 

Chroma:

Rating - boring.

Uses all but 1 moderately. Set to fire color, so his 2 serves as a weak form of healing. Enemies don't attack specters much, so his 3 gets very little effect, and he's not coded to refresh the duration. 4 is okay, but it's stationary and runs out pretty fast.

 

Ember:

Rating - good.

Well, no reason to expect anything other than damage here - but damage she does really well. Uses all 4 abilites liberally. If you like seeing stuff set on fire without you doing anything, this is your choice. Give her Ignis (Wraith) for even more fire!

 

Equinox:

Rating - decent?

Seems to mostly prefer running around with day 4 and throwing day 2 here and there. Day 3 and night 2 usage not observed. Rest of the night abilities are a bit difficult to notice, so no idea.

Ability impact seems minor, but doesn't waste much of specter's time, so why not.

 

Excalibur:

Rating - boring.

Uses all but his 4. The issue is, nothing he does feels particularly impactful compared to him just shooting. Blind would be nice if he for some reason didn't always stop shooting at blinded enemies.

 

Frost:

Rating - boring.

Uses all but globe, moderate frequency. Same problem as Excalibur - just using his weapon he does more good than with abilities.

Gara:

Rating - decent.

Uses all but splinter storm. Her 1 has okay range, so it doesn't cause many problems other then breaking her 4 almost immediately. Her 2 is a good cc move. Only specter so far with confirmed functioning passive.

 

Harrow:

Rating - superb.

Uses all abilities liberally. Provides cc, energy restore, relatively frequent invulnerability and crit chance buffs.

Nidus:

Rating - superb.

Uses all but Larva very liberally. Link (on ally, usually yourself) and 4 have seemingly 90%-ish uptime; and since his 1 is a relatively long reaching aoe that staggers, him spamming it is not a problem. His 4 provides CC, healing and tanking; moreso because the maggots actually scale with enemy level independently of the specter itself.

Nova:

Rating - good.

Uses all but wormhole (probably for the best) liberally. 1 being what it is prevents her from spamming it nonstop; 4 is reliable cc and damage boost. 2 yet untested with anything other than Penta, which may have been the reason she didn't shoot it.

Rhino:

Rating - decent.

Uses all but roar relatively liberally; roar usage not observed at all. Durable and has a bit of CC.

Trinity:

Rating - borderline superb.

Uses all abilities liberally. Maintains high uptime on Link, spams 2 and 1 (the 1 spam being main reason for rating not being superb). Blessing doesn't provide lasting buff, only restores shields and health (to all allies), so the specter tends to use it only when an ally or itself is low on hp (30%-ish).

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Niennah

[(PSN)vidare]

Nice thread, have had some varied results with Rhino, at first he used Roar a lot.. next time not once. So i don't feel hes a good choise.

Edited March 16, 2018 by (PS4)vidare

[RoninJed]

Hmm I'm going to make a trinity specter now....many thanks Niennah.

[Hypernaut1]

Specters are so much more fun to use now. Too bad they can't copy fashion frame

Edited March 16, 2018 by Hypernaut1

[Niennah]

Added Atlas, Chroma, Ember, Equinox, Excalibur, Frost, Harrow and some weapon notes.