[Builds] Hybrid Bless and EV Trin

I'm not a fan of hybrids but I was asked a question in the forums about it and decided to give it a go.
Before yo proceed, please make sure you are aware of the basics of running an EV and Bless Trinity. You can check that here.

Here's the build.

And Here's the Ability window:

Ok so I sacrificed duration a lot to get high-ish range and 40 e per pulse. I also could not get the augment in, unless you want to remove Overextend completely (you probably could in tight maps).

You will encounter 2 problems with the hybrid build, that can be remedied.
1) Low Bless duration-You'll need to just cast more often.
2) High EV duration-You'll have to kill the target right after casting EV. This makes this build very difficult to use especially at higher levels.

Foregoing Overextended for Vampire Leech
You could do this if your team sticks together. This will limit your possible targets though (you need to make sure your team is getting the energy). I also suggest using that Exilus slot for Cunning drift for the 15% added range.

Divine Will Notes and Cheese

Before you read this post, I highly recommend that you do it the normal way first. :) I have a post detailing just that here.

So you've done the Alert several times already and are getting bored. Wanna try something out? You've come to the right place. I'll be detailing some of the things that I've done based on rumors to see if they are indeed real.

Mag: Bullet Attractor

I've seen several posts about this and it does make some sense. I tried it 5 times with the same group. and it was terribly easy to survive without a Bless Trin.

What Bullet Attractor does is make sure that all of Razorbacks attacks hit himself. So none of the Tenno-ending attacks hit you or your team. It might also end up killing him if the lazer balls are out and he happens to fall while influenced by Bullet Attractor.

Out of the 5 Runs:
1) 2 were the usual
2) 2 Razorback killed himself
3) 1 Razorback just died out of nowhere (seems to happen randomly regardless~faulty Corpus engineering XD)

Sounds great right? Why stop at 5? Because without eliminating everything in your path, every gate to Razorback could potentially lock (requiring a hack) and call a bursa. It's terribly annoying.

Loki: Invisibility

This one is something I plan on continuing. It's consistent and less annoying because you don't get detected. :)

Basically you do the whole thing invisible. Nothing, even Razorback, will attack you. So No locked doors, no Hyena pack or Bursa ambushing you on your way and no missile spam from Razorback. The best part is, it's a solo run! No need to beg for others to join you with the right things already equipped.

Note:
If Razorback sees you and sends missiles your way or those blue orbs, turning inviz will not save you. Better use your parkour skills to evade.

Here's my Loki Build:

The important bit is max duration to give you 33.84 seconds of invisibility. Next would be efficiency and ES to keep the spam going. I am also Zenurik so I never run out of energy.

My weapon of choice is... Redeemer. Channeled Charged Shots FTW. Here's my build. As with other charge attacks, you can also chain Redeemer Shots. Wtach your energy if you choose to channel though.

Rumor Mill

I have heard of these from clan mates but have never tested these. You may test these at your own risk. I guarantee nothing. I'll add more as I find out.

Sleeping Razorback

So apparently razorback can be put to sleep. Ivara's sleep arrow and Equinox works based on hearsay.

Why didn't I test it? It's because despite this, it still suffers from the same problems that Mag has... except Ivara... but she's too slow.

Thanks for reading.

[Tactical Alert] Divine Will

Done the run enough times? Try the tips here. If not, read on.

With the release of 18.4.10 we also saw the start of the newest Tactical Alert, Divine Will. the Alert is basically a challenge from Neffy (Nef Anyo) to basically everyone else in Origin. Your ultimate task is to kill the new Razorback, a new and improved version of the Jackal.

What to expect

Be prepared to face a lot of Bursa Moas and Hyena (the pack set). They will be scattered throughout the mission and will aim to distract you from just going straight to Razorback.

Once you get to the boss expect to be spammed by missiles and beams, shock waves and explosions. Very similar too but more annoying and lethal compared to the Jackal experience.

Once you kill the Razorback, you just need to extract or of course, farm the Bursas which could drop Tempo Royale, Astral Twilight or Life Strike depending on which one you kill.

Bursa Changes

In False Profit, The Bursa Moas had to be disabled, hacked, protected, then killed. Now that offerings are no longer required, once you deplete the Bursa's Health, it'll go into a hack-able mode. Hack it. After successfully doing so, it will fight for you for a short amount of time before being dying and dropping loot.

This is the mechanic that you will use to defeat Razorback.

Preparation

You need Several things in this TA, Survival, Damage and Control. I suggest that you go with survival first. You'll need to mix damage and control after, but you can't do either if you're dead. There is also no way to OHK (One Hit Kill) the boss so you can't just jump in with guns blazing.

Survival

There really is no other way to go about it. Equinox  (Pacify) is too unreliable.

Bless Trinity-Very reliable and potent in a master's hands. You will not have to worry as long as you have a competent Bless trinity (especially the ones that bless for 30 seconds).

Damage

There are several options here. Of course you could go with EB Excalibur or Land Slide Atlas, but you could just leave the damage to your Weapon too. Whatever your choice is, know that you need a huge burst for when Razorback becomes vulnerable. Mod for Electricity(Robotic), Puncture, or Radiation (Alloy). Better Yet, Grab a Volt and shoot through his shield.

Control

Frost is your best option. Go for Max Range and as much HP you can get on that globe. Slowing the Razorback will definitely give your team the best chance at killing it and it will also prevent it from annoying your team while you wait for the next Bursa.

Nova might sound good, but if you slow down everything, without a way to cancel (unlike Frost) you will end up just prolonging the mission needlessly.

Tactics

So you've reached the boss with your team that's designed to trash it. Now it's time to find out how the fight will go.

The Boss room is very similar to Jackal's. The picture above was taken from a platform right above the entrance to the den. You can see a similar platform across the room, the broken rails from the top and Razorback in the middle.

Here's what you have at each edge of the platform, consoles. You have two on each platform for a total of 4. Notice that you see a door barred by a laser Grid beyond each console. This is where the Bursa Moas spawn. Hacking the console nearest the laser grid will deactivate it and eventually allow the Bursa to get down and enter the main platform in the middle.

There are also un-barred doors. This is where the other enemies emerge. These are mostly Sniper Crewmen, a good source of EV Energy.

According to Nef Anyo his new bot is invulnerable. After the first few hundred rounds you pepper Razorback you will agree that this is the case. The thing is, this vulnerability can be disabled by the Bursa Moas. I'm sure you know what to do now. :)

Let me tell you so you can confirm your hunch.
1) Start the battle.
2) Look for where the Bursa spawned.
3) Deactivate the laser grid for the corresponding area and let the bursa drop to the ground. (do not engage it in the laser area you might get trapped there and you need to to engage Razorback in the middle)
4) Kill the Bursa
5) Hack the Bursa
6) Watch the bursa fight for you and disable Razorback
7) Deal as much damage to Razorback before he gets up
8) Repeat steps 2-7 until Razorback dies

During this time...
Bless Trin spams Bless
EV Trin Spams EV
Frost A globe over the platforms and on Razorback (to slow him down) Frost also has to try not to get the Bursa slowed when it starts fighting on your side (just shatter globes with Freeze)
Volt or Excalibur or X frame waits for a chance to deal tons of damage or help with the hacking.

If you have the correct set up, this will just be annoying. If you don't it'll be frustrating too.

If you have any tips, questions or comments, please comment below or on the forum post/facebook.

Thanks for reading.

[Builds] Equinox Augments and Revitalized Builds

The new Augments for Equinox and Atlas came out recently (18.4.7) so I immediately jumped at the Atlas mods... and got disappointed. 2 of the three were lackluster and I didn't have the heart to try the third so... I went and got the Equinox augments. I was not disappointed.

After fiddling around with Equinox, I found that I had to apply one more Forma so naturally, the first augment I was able to sue was Duality.

I used Continuity and a Maxed Duality mod At rank 1 and Hosted a T3 Def getting the usual suspects in (Frost, Excalibur and EV Trinity) to level up and hopefully get an Ash prime BP (for the 100 plat it's worth as of this writing err... typing). It was fun playing around with the specter and the Synoid Simulor I had on. I would cover one side , trigger it and rush to the other side and it would just spam the hell out of the primary. I would Jump up the bridge just in front of the pod, trigger Metamorphosis and jump down on an unsuspecting Mob of corrupted just as my Specter materializes doubling the Simulor spam.

Needless to say I enjoyed my way to 25.

Below is my current Duality Build for Equinox.

The Build just focuses on Duration and Efficiency so I can get a specter out as often as I want. I want to add one more polarity but I can't decide which polarity at the moment.

So at that time I was rank 25 and was thinking if I should go and run another T3 Def, then I checked the augments and found Calm and Frenzy. I grinned because I knew where exactly to apply it's unique properties (specifically Night).

I often use Loki to farm Focus (especially with the Orthos Prime build I have here). I've really been wanting to replace him because he was so... hmm... well I was just sick of Loki, but my potential replacement, Ivara, was a dud (too slow). So now that I can spam Rest and Put whole maps to sleep (for a little over 40 seconds at a time)... I naturally go to Vedic, Ceres.

The Rank 25 build I used there was Focused on range primarily (Overextended, Stretch and Cunning Drift) then Duration.

I was initially conservative with my Rest casts, but when I enemies started spotting me, I just spammed it and it worked fine. With whole maps put to sleep I just spun and won with Orthos Prime til I hit 30.

It was crazy fun stealth if not a tad overpowered (at least for that map). Since bumping into enemies did not break the effects of Rest, I had no hesitations taking advantage of Maiming Strike.

My current Rest Build is below.

It continues to prioritize Range, followed closely by Duration. Enemy sense is there to boost my Carrier's Animal Instinct so my spamming has direction.

So now My equinox is back to rank 30. Unlike with Atlas, I wanted more so I definitely wanted to play with Peaceful Provocation.

My initial issue with Equinox as a buffer is that he maxes out at 50%. With the new augment, the Power Strength jumps to a maximum of 80%! So I cobbled together my old buff build and added the augment. The build is below:

This Build Buffs up to 77~%. The great thing is that it has great synergy with a lot of frames since it doesn't just boost damage. For example your mediocre EV Trin suddenly becomes an unlimited source of power, Frost Globes instantly become more durable along with Iron Skin. If you add Roar to the mix, well... the possibilities are endless.

On top of this, you can still activate your Ultimate... which also benefits from your newly improved Provoke. All while still gaining energy from EV. Just perfect!

Of course I do the expected and run a CP team in T3 Defense to play with the combo. As expected it went quickly and  smoothly. I even out damaged our RJ Excal when he went spamming EB.

Give the new Augments a spin and share your build down in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

Orthos Prime: Maiming Strike Build (Shadow Debt Mod Set)

We all love the Orthos Prime for it's insane range, One of it's biggest drawbacks is the damage. This caused players to look elsewhere to get their fix of stealth slide kills... until the new mods came out.

Shadow Debt was a unique event that gave the chance to drop one of the new mods that was added in Update 18.4.1. Most of these new mods were odd, but there were a hand full of gems, including a lot of great melee mods.

This build uses some of these new mods to boost it's damage output per slide attack.  Blood Rush and Body Count give a boost to the damage multiplier and Critical chance. Maiming Strike will drive this up by 90% guaranteeing yellow crits per slide attack with a chance to do red crits.

The Build

This particular build is focused on Grineer and per slide damage (stealth kills/one hit). This is the reason why I did away with the Attack speed mods like Berserker.  I also opted to remove True Steel and instead add Spoiled Strike, which will add more damage compared a small increase to the critical chance.

Since you are making use of 2 slots for elements, you can easily change the elemental combo. the only restriction is that you can only have 1 elemental combo.

Executing High Damage Slide attacks

Once you're done with the build, you can start by just slide attacking everything. With the immense reach of Orthos Prime with Primed Reach, you can safely clear clusters of enemies while maintaining the damage multiplier from stealth.

Be careful with heavy units. you might want to channel to kill them safely and avoid breaking your stealth bonus streak. Once you have a high enough multiplier you can just slide attack them as normal.

I usually use this to farm focus with Loki. in Ceres (Extermination or Sabotage). After a few days of farming, I can say it's easier than using War or Tonkor and breaks the stealth bonus streak less frequently.

Shadow Debt: The Rise of Naramon

Naramon's Shadow step has never been in such a wonderful position. Prior to this update, Naramon had very tempting options related to melee attack crits and invisibility. Now, with a reliable source of crits (maiming strike and any melee weapon with at least a 10% Critical chance will proc crits 100% of the time), you will just need enemies and you will get 10 seconds of invisibility that is resistant to nullifiers.

Luckily, Orthos Prime is such a weapon with a 10% Crit rate. Now slide attacks with amazing range now comes with a 100%  Crit chance.

[Builds] Rhino: Basic and Extreme Builds as of 18.2.4

Rhino is a very versatile frame that has a damage, survivability and control. Here are three builds that will help you start out with this powerful frame.

The Basic Build

This build is all about efficiency and flexibility. With this build you can deal damage, you can control and even buff all at max Efficiency.

Extreme Damage

Rhino can definitely deal damage, but it's not going to come from stomp, but Iron Shrapnel. Maximum potential damage is 13894.276 after using Roar. You'll have to consider that this damage will decrease with range (~25m according to wiki). This could also potentially increase because of the damage absorption phase or Iron Skin. Rhino Charge will be your next go to skill in terms of damage especially with the new combo mechanic. You will probably just use stomp for the  CC and do this rarely.

The biggest problem with extreme builds like this is the energy consumption. You'll want to use this only with an EV Trin in your team. Given that EVs are rare you might find yourself using the basic build most of the time.

Roar Only

This build, as the header states is focused on Roar as a means to boost your team's damage. a 2.49 damage multiplier is nothing to laugh at especially considering the damage that can be achieved with Warframes like Ash (Blade Storm). This build also has decent Iron Skin health along with good Rhino Charge damage.

As with the build above, you can expect problems with energy so EV Trinity is a must.

Double Damage: Rhino VS Nova

There are only 2 choices when it comes to Consistent buffs, that's Rhino and Nova. Other options either can't provide enough of a boost (Equinox) or can't provide it consistently (Total Eclipse Mirage).

Most teams can't accommodate both these frames so here's a short post that might help you pick your team or frame (if you're deciding on which to pick up).

Here's a short summary of their differences based on buffing alone (Roar vs Molecular Prime).

	Nova	Rhino
Multiplier	Not Power Strength Dependent	Power Strength Dependent
Duration	Affects Debuff and Range (spread)	Affects Duration
Effect	Slowly Spreads from cast point Can be recast	Immediate to allies in range Cannot be recast
Other Effects	Explosions deal damage Debuff also slows up to 75% or Speed up enemies by 30%	n/a

Multiplier

In this post I'm not going to include the Roar Augment to keep things simple.

Both can deliver (potentially) double damage. Nova does it by default as any enemy that is affected by her debuff will receive double damage. Rhino Can potentially hit double damage and can even exceed it capping at 2.49 times.

So if you are a Vet with all the requisite mods (Blind Rage -BR, Transient Fortitude-TF, Intensify and Power Drift) Rhino is a sure pick. If you're starting out, you might have to focus on your collection first, building Duration before Power Strength.

If you're picking team mates, Nova will be a sure bet at 2x regardless of mods as long as she is at rank 30. Rhino is going to be a bit chancy unless you ask the player for their multiplier before inviting them.

Duration

In terms of Duration, Rhino can sacrifice this and still provide effective damage multiplication (as long as he keeps on using it) while Nova's debuff duration and range is dependent on duration mods.

At 50% duration Rhino will just have to recast more often, while Nova on top of having to recast will have her coverage affected as well.

This is one consideration you'll have to make when taking a Nova into a large map.

Effect

Nova's Molecular prime spreads out from the cast point while Rhino's affects all allies in range immediately.

Again this has to be considered based on how big the map is. Bigger maps will see slower coverage while Rhino can be effective regardless.

Another consideration is that Rhino's Roar cannot be recast. So if you miss cast your roar and miss the damage dealer for any reason, you will not be able to recast it until the duration runs out.

Other Effects

Molecular Prime, being an ultimate has other effects when you cast it. The debuff can either slow of hasten enemy movement depending on your Power Strength. Aside from this, enemies that are killed while debuffed by Molecular Prime will explode and deal damage to nearby units (affected by power range).

Rhino's roar doesn't have any additional effect.

Conclusion

There are a lot of things to consider when making choices for either team mates or for personal use but Mods will play a very important role in your choice. Also consider that not all the players in recruiting will have all the necessary mods maxed.

Assuming equal mod levels and that most of the mods were obtained...

Rhino will excel at providing raw damage output consistently regardless of map size and when in coordinated teams. Consider Rhino for missions that just require destruction (like exterminate or... Draco).

Nova will be able to provide double damage and crowd control (or speed for farming) that will become slightly less effective on bigger maps. Nova Can be very effective when farming (speed variant) or at control (slow Variant) for defense, Mobile Defense and Interception.

Which is your personal pick?

Thanks for reading.