How should I build the Optimal Gauss?

[PossessingSpirit09]

I'm kinda puzzled how to build him - he's quite versatile?

[Watermelons]

I was thinking of Quick Thinking, Adaptation, little shields but some health, and strength/duration. So I can build off of the 2 for tankiness and energy generation, and the buffs of 4. The damage of the 1 is pretty negligible, as it is much more suited for just CC. The 3 is nice all and all but I wouldn't rely on it too much outside of infested or having a buddy there to pull everyone in, so I'm leaving the range alone.

[PossessingSpirit09]

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

I was thinking of Quick Thinking, Adaptation, little shields but some health, and strength/duration. So I can build off of the 2 for tankiness and energy generation, and the buffs of 4. The damage of the 1 is pretty negligible, as it is much more suited for just CC. The 3 is nice all and all but I wouldn't rely on it too much outside of infested or having a buddy there to pull everyone in, so I'm leaving the range alone.

Hmmm....depending on how much range you put into the 3 it can provide some pretty decent CC. I built it so far for strength and duration and a spot of range and its working out fine. But I wonder how hard which abilities scale to which.

[BurlsoL]

Sprint Boost, Maglev, Cunning Drift, Streamlined Form, Armored agility, Rush, Primed Sure Footed, Vitality, Rage.

[Watermelons]

Originally posted by ThePacifist09:

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

I was thinking of Quick Thinking, Adaptation, little shields but some health, and strength/duration. So I can build off of the 2 for tankiness and energy generation, and the buffs of 4. The damage of the 1 is pretty negligible, as it is much more suited for just CC. The 3 is nice all and all but I wouldn't rely on it too much outside of infested or having a buddy there to pull everyone in, so I'm leaving the range alone.

Hmmm....depending on how much range you put into the 3 it can provide some pretty decent CC. I built it so far for strength and duration and a spot of range and its working out fine. But I wonder how hard which abilities scale to which.

Strength is no good for the 1st one, which is a huge disappointment. Hell, not even sprint speed does anything. Hugely missed opportunity to incentivize using that Naramon polarity in the Exilus slot for at least a Rush.

[primobrainlet]

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

Originally posted by ThePacifist09:

Hmmm....depending on how much range you put into the 3 it can provide some pretty decent CC. I built it so far for strength and duration and a spot of range and its working out fine. But I wonder how hard which abilities scale to which.

Strength is no good for the 1st one, which is a huge disappointment. Hell, not even sprint speed does anything. Hugely missed opportunity to incentivize using that Naramon polarity in the Exilus slot for at least a Rush.

I can see why DE did it to be fair, if warframe works like most games, the physics engine is only meant to handle so much speed before things get weird

[Yuki]

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

I was thinking of Quick Thinking, Adaptation, little shields but some health, and strength/duration.

The 2 goes all the way up to 100% damage reduction (with 100+ power), with some strength it also starts quite high. Not sure if you even need adaption here.
And thats 100% to most damage types you will usually encounter except for toxic. It doesnt protect against radiation but thats...rather rare. And of course he doesnt have any protection against eidolons. 100% against those, that would be...yea.

Also: Id recommend to go for shields instead because of his passive and the synergy with his 1, 2 and 4. So 3 out of 4 skills!
His battery level increases recharge rate and decreases recharge delay. As long as his battery is full his shields dont really drop, even if his kinetic shield ran out. And the kinetic shield prevents more damage on shields than on health, means more warframe energy in return! Its kind of as if he has a shield based rage/lifesteal combo already build in. A single redirection will push you beyond 1k shields already.

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

Hell, not even sprint speed does anything. Hugely missed opportunity to incentivize using that Naramon polarity in the Exilus slot for at least a Rush.

Wrong. Sprint speed and hence rush increases your battery recharge. Which is bound to distance covered, hence its more battery per time. Noticeable more.

But ya, Gauss is one of those frames that just dont have enough slots, he needs everything!

I call my build "Living above the Redline". Thats how you play it. Always stay above!
Max duration. A self buffer. (your buff strength depends on Duration! Not on strength!)
Secondary on strength, then range to keep it above 100, though especially here i would love to have more. But narrow minded (+ duration - range) just makes too much of a difference for the buff. Cant have all i guess...
At least those damage fields from your 3 stay for quite a while, dropped properly they alone easily recharge your battery all the time.

Skills/Usage:

1 is used to get around and bring the battery to 100% initially. Its used like...always!
Did you notice your kinetic shield enhances your 1? It does! Its damage too.
From that moment on when your battery is fully charged Gauss' 2 provides 100% damage reduction, no matter how much ability power you got. (As long as its above 100, otherwise the max is your power strength)
Thats the moment the 4 is activated.
Now the 1, running around, as well as 3, dropping cold fields and trapping enemies, push the battery above the red line.

And this "above" is the actual battery power you deal with, discharged only down to that line by your 3 sometimes- this time heat fields, for damage. Most of the killing usually comes from weapons though and most battery power goes into damage mitigation and hence energy- and most of that is used for running!

This ensures that the damage mitigation stays where it is.
In larger enemy groups and when at high Warframe energy i also sometimes deactivate the 4, especially when its about to run out anyways.
The resulting kinetic shockwave from that is much stronger than just bouncing into things. Its finally a nuke, albeit by far not the strongest. This discharges the battery completely, but he still got his basic damage reduction and awesome shield recharge - and the way to the next group will even overcharge the battery again.

Same thing for running into a nullifier -.- And this especially happens...OFTEN:
Stay above the line and your battery and hence damage mitigation will stay at 100% as if it just ran out normally, even a nullifier only means you just need to reactivate kinetic shield. Be below and the involuntary discharge of your 4 will deplete your battery completely, dropping you to ~30-50% damage mitigation. And then all depends on how many traps you placed or how fast you can run. Luckily- thats pretty fast.

You can just buzz around and drop cold fields whenever you feel like it. Enemies stepping into them, or you dropping that on their heads will replenish your battery that your 2 converts into warframe energy that you use for your 1 to overcharge the battery again to keep damage mitigation and buff alive. A vicious self fueling cycle, living "above the red line" :D

Plus the cold fields provide at least some kind of CC for your team.

If you are out of energy stand still for a moment, otherwise rush from enemy to enemy. No one can stop you! No stagger, no knockdown, no Heavy gunner, no napalm! No one! Except for Nullifiers and nox.
And even if you encounter a rare damage type or run out of kinetic shielding there are 1200 shields just from a single survivability mod alone that recharge even quicker and sooner than Hyldrins while she uses her drain, just in case. That base shield alone already provides arbitration class survivability.

Living unstopable cannonball who leaves traps all over the place and similiar to wisp makes good use of weapons that benefit from haste. Best paired with carrier sentinel. Should you try it you will see why...

[PossessingSpirit09]

Originally posted by Yuki:

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

I was thinking of Quick Thinking, Adaptation, little shields but some health, and strength/duration.

The 2 goes all the way up to 100% damage reduction (with 100+ power), with some strength it also starts quite high. Not sure if you even need adaption here.
And thats 100% to most damage types you will usually encounter except for toxic. It doesnt protect against radiation but thats...rather rare. And of course he doesnt have any protection against eidolons. 100% against those, that would be...yea.

Also: Id recommend to go for shields instead because of his passive and the synergy with his 1, 2 and 4. So 3 out of 4 skills!
His battery level increases recharge rate and decreases recharge delay. As long as his battery is full his shields dont really drop, even if his kinetic shield ran out. And the kinetic shield prevents more damage on shields than on health, means more warframe energy in return! Its kind of as if he has a shield based rage/lifesteal combo already build in. A single redirection will push you beyond 1k shields already.

Originally posted by Something Something Watermelons:

Hell, not even sprint speed does anything. Hugely missed opportunity to incentivize using that Naramon polarity in the Exilus slot for at least a Rush.

Wrong. Sprint speed and hence rush increases your battery recharge. Which is bound to distance covered, hence its more battery per time. Noticeable more.

But ya, Gauss is one of those frames that just dont have enough slots, he needs everything!

I call my build "Living above the Redline". Thats how you play it. Always stay above!
Max duration. A self buffer. (your buff strength depends on Duration! Not on strength!)
Secondary on strength, then range to keep it above 100, though especially here i would love to have more. But narrow minded (+ duration - range) just makes too much of a difference for the buff. Cant have all i guess...
At least those damage fields from your 3 stay for quite a while, dropped properly they alone easily recharge your battery all the time.

Skills/Usage:

1 is used to get around and bring the battery to 100% initially. Its used like...always!
Did you notice your kinetic shield enhances your 1? It does! Its damage too.
From that moment on when your battery is fully charged Gauss' 2 provides 100% damage reduction, no matter how much ability power you got. (As long as its above 100, otherwise the max is your power strength)
Thats the moment the 4 is activated.
Now the 1, running around, as well as 3, dropping cold fields and trapping enemies, push the battery above the red line.

And this "above" is the actual battery power you deal with, discharged only down to that line by your 3 sometimes- this time heat fields, for damage. Most of the killing usually comes from weapons though and most battery power goes into damage mitigation and hence energy- and most of that is used for running!

This ensures that the damage mitigation stays where it is.
In larger enemy groups and when at high Warframe energy i also sometimes deactivate the 4, especially when its about to run out anyways.
The resulting kinetic shockwave from that is much stronger than just bouncing into things. Its finally a nuke, albeit by far not the strongest. This discharges the battery completely, but he still got his basic damage reduction and awesome shield recharge - and the way to the next group will even overcharge the battery again.

Same thing for running into a nullifier -.- And this especially happens...OFTEN:
Stay above the line and your battery and hence damage mitigation will stay at 100% as if it just ran out normally, even a nullifier only means you just need to reactivate kinetic shield. Be below and the involuntary discharge of your 4 will deplete your battery completely, dropping you to ~30-50% damage mitigation. And then all depends on how many traps you placed or how fast you can run. Luckily- thats pretty fast.

You can just buzz around and drop cold fields whenever you feel like it. Enemies stepping into them, or you dropping that on their heads will replenish your battery that your 2 converts into warframe energy that you use for your 1 to overcharge the battery again to keep damage mitigation and buff alive. A vicious self fueling cycle, living "above the red line" :D

Plus the cold fields provide at least some kind of CC for your team.

If you are out of energy stand still for a moment, otherwise rush from enemy to enemy. No one can stop you! No stagger, no knockdown, no Heavy gunner, no napalm! No one! Except for Nullifiers and nox.
And even if you encounter a rare damage type or run out of kinetic shielding there are 1200 shields just from a single survivability mod alone that recharge even quicker and sooner than Hyldrins while she uses her drain, just in case. That base shield alone already provides arbitration class survivability.

Living unstopable cannonball who leaves traps all over the place and similiar to wisp makes good use of weapons that benefit from haste. Best paired with carrier sentinel. Should you try it you will see why...

Concerning the 2nd ability. Does the damage reduction change constantly with increases or declines in the batter level, or does it stay at the point which you activated it at?

[Yuki]

Constantly changes, but apparently takes "at impact time charge".
I just caught my Acceltras rockets. Again. A full burst at once. Gone was the battery, but no damage.
Another time the burst was more spread out, the missiles came in one by one kind of. Each shot depleted the battery and applied more and more damage.

Edit: So yes constantly changes, however "constantly" is in some kind of a time window. Aprox 0.5 seconds id say.
Also self damage is mitigated by your kinetic shield and charge depleted for that, however without being converted into energy. Of course i had to try that.