Is Vauban just a lost cause?

[Radioactive Grass]

As much as I hate to say it, when I hear the question "who's the worst warframe in the game" my mind still goes to Vauban. Despite 3 years waiting for a rework DE still haven't really fixed any of his major issues and any frame other frame is a better option.

Other frames do his job better

•Bastille still lacks

Despite recent buffs to Bastille it's still quite underwhelming, for instance it still has an enemy cap and cannot stop all enemies like Khora's dome can, Khora's dome can even stop demolition units.

•Ember's Buffs

Ember's buffs make her basically a better version of Vauban, want armor striping? Just press 3 no more waiting for Bastille to strip armor, Want good CC? Just press 4 without having to gather your enemies in one spot or waiting for orbital strike to warm up.

•Mine layer is still useless

I honestly truly wish that the needle grenade was so much better than it is currently, I feel like its CC potential could be great, it should have a stat where it ignores armor. Also Teather grenade dosent even pull its enemies twords it. Do I even need to bring up speed boost?

It honestly makes me sad that this was the rework, there where so many better ideas out there, I guess DE just decided to listen to absolutely none of them.

[[Meyo]Frakura]

I think the best thing come out of this rework was his Vortex getting bigger. I think its far better than the original actually.

Or it feel bigger, I don't really play vauban that often but it feel bigger.

[Radioactive Grass]

Originally posted by MeyoFrakura:

I think the best thing come out of this rework was his Vortex getting bigger. I think its far better than the original actually.

Or it feel bigger, I don't really play vauban that often but it feel bigger.

New vortex scales with how big your Bastille was, if you just throw a normal vortex it will just be its regular size.

Any enemies that are in your Bastille will get sucked into vortex, but once the animation of Bastille collapsing is over Vortex will remain its regular size.

[BurlsoL]

Seems like a big improvement to me even if I can't load up people's pets with shock sentries any more. Roller sentries work well as irregular damage and CC from electric arcs, good for things like mobile defense or excavation as it helps enemies cluster around and hold around their spawning direction longer. Havn't used them enough, but tether mines and boost plates have their uses with creative planning and can arguably be more effective than bastille for some locations. Orbital strike is something that adds meaningful damage to Vauban's kit and can combine well with any method of clustering enemies around a single point. Bastille is a straight upgrade and still works with the augment mod to make it repel enemies, and unlike Khora's dome, you can use it in more than one place.

I think the problem you have is that it just doesn't fit with your playstyle or mentality. Going for 'the best' just leads you to the same boring meta as 85% of every other player. Sure, it might make the missions quicker or easier, but in the end you just end up being bored and burned out and complaining about things being too easy or there not being enough content. Some times it makes more sense to just try and do what is fun to do even without being the most optimal way.

[Watermelons]

Tesla Bank's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy, I highly recommend that.

Feels like what they did was really try to increase Vauban's damage output, so that he covers both that and CC. And they did it well, but at the cost of A: not a lot of survivability, and B: it's not as fast killing as other frames, so it will fall under the argument of "but other frames do it better".

[Rivers]

Ember can only strip armor efficiently when she is at 90 on immolation which activates a cost of energy per second that scales the longer you leave it at 90 up to a cap which is the cost you see in the tooltip. Ember's 4 only works for enemies in her LoS.

Ember is better, but it feels you think you just press 3 and its insta win, same with her 4, which isnt the case at all.

I had Vauban Prime and after this rework I deleted him, DE won't touch him for a very long time and its sad to see him with the same problems he already had.

[Sceles]

Vauban has never been the worst frame in the game. Bastille/Vortex are now the same ability and have the same range. Max range Vortex is very strong. This is literally the only thing they got right with his rework, his other abilities are the real problem.

Ember is absolutely nothing like Vauban. I have begun to think that maybe Ember's rework wasn't a total miss, but I dislike managing the heat on her 2 and she kinda plays too much like Mesa tbh.

[King of Wei]

He's worse now than he was before to me. I used minelayer more than bastille/vortex for CC so being forced to use them is not fun.

The bastille & tesla changes were nice but they botched everything else.

The orbital strike is only there to placate those easily amused by shiny things. Its far too slow to do much of anything in a squad and my weapons do more damage than that ability ever will.

The tether grenade is a gimped tripwire. Where well place wires could lock down multiple hallways this grenade stops two whole enemies, wow! Sometimes it'll even grab enemies you don't want it to so you're better off using bastille.

Flachette grenade is useless for dealing with mid-high level enemies. It can be used as an extended radar by using the damage pop-ups to know where enemies are but concuss did it better.

The damage boost grenade would be nice if it actually worked. Half the time it doesn't activate even when i throw it right at someone's feet. It will be half decent if bland once they fix that.

Speed pad is kinda useful against enemies since they trigger it from any angle. Set it up in advance to prevent enemies from rounding a corner or going through a door for a cheap alternative to bastille. You can also chain one into another to send enemies off the map in defense missions. Just be prepared to get flak from unobservant teammates.

I really wish they'd give us the option to switch back to the old minelayer or mix n' match them. Then i'd be pretty happy with the changes.

[Spartykins]

his survivability only being addressed via bastille was the biggest mistake

personally I think DE is doing it to cause a certain train boy suicidal depression

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by Spartykins:

personally I think DE is doing it to cause a certain train boy suicidal depression

Hmm... maybe the goal is to give him an ability to spread said depression among enemies? That way people will still have something to use, should DE nerf Saryn >.>

[Radioactive Grass]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

Seems like a big improvement to me even if I can't load up people's pets with shock sentries any more. Roller sentries work well as irregular damage and CC from electric arcs, good for things like mobile defense or excavation as it helps enemies cluster around and hold around their spawning direction longer. Havn't used them enough, but tether mines and boost plates have their uses with creative planning and can arguably be more effective than bastille for some locations. Orbital strike is something that adds meaningful damage to Vauban's kit and can combine well with any method of clustering enemies around a single point. Bastille is a straight upgrade and still works with the augment mod to make it repel enemies, and unlike Khora's dome, you can use it in more than one place.

I think the problem you have is that it just doesn't fit with your playstyle or mentality. Going for 'the best' just leads you to the same boring meta as 85% of every other player. Sure, it might make the missions quicker or easier, but in the end you just end up being bored and burned out and complaining about things being too easy or there not being enough content. Some times it makes more sense to just try and do what is fun to do even without being the most optimal way.

Not exactly, most of my main problem is how useless Vauban becomes when doing high level content. Things like Tesla and his needle grenade stop dealing any sort of meaningful damage, Bastille stops really being effective because the arbitration drones can walk right through it with enemies when Vauban already has poor survivability and lastly by the time orbital strike fires all of the enemies are dead because my teammates killed them for the arby drones got to them before it could fire.

I was hoping that a rework could have helped Vauban find a place in taking of the high level content, but the most he can really do ability wise is just spam his 3 and 4 but why even bother doing that when I could just run around as Excalibur and with exalted blade and now down my enemies much faster? Or Mesa?

[Artek [General]]

I don't think he's a lost cause.
His old self was pure ♥♥♥♥. He was unfun to play, oneshoted by everything, only 2/4 abilities mattered and they were boring to spam.

Now he's genuinely fun to play. He's not S tier by any stretch, but he's fun and that's what matters to me here.

I find myself constantly setting up trap hallways with his 2 (all of them), I love airstrike, I love watching bastiled enemies getting sucked into vortex... He actually deals damage now (carried grendel survival by spamming needles into a tight room) and throwing animations are pleasant to the eye.

He might not be good power wise, but at least playing him now feels good.
Before rework he was neither.

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by Candy bar bag carrying bag:

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

I think the problem you have is that it just doesn't fit with your playstyle or mentality.

Not exactly, most of my main problem is how useless Vauban becomes when doing high level content. Things like Tesla and his needle grenade stop dealing any sort of meaningful damage,

His tesla grenades were never about dealing massive damage. What they are good for however is causing electricity procs that prevent enemies from attacking and thereby increasing Vauban's survivability since these balls will roll around near him.

Needle grenade is support damage that is essentially fire and forget. This is the "let us deploy a gun turret" ability that people have been asking about for years. Use this in areas that are too dangerous to jump into, or to soften up groups. Combine with other abilities.

Vortex beam works best with tether or Bastille's vortex. If you're using it in areas that your team members are actively killing, you are using it wrong and just wasting energy that could be better spent on more rollers or overdrivers.

Don't forget, for all of Vauban's abilities that disable, his damage from other abilities and his weapons increases 25% against trapped enemies.


Vauban is not a spam ability to win kinda frame. Vauban is not the frame for people who feel they need to be the biggest try-hard in the group to get the most damage or kills. Vauban is a CC frame, and all his abilities benefit from trying to play it as a CC frame.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

Originally posted by Candy bar bag carrying bag:

Not exactly, most of my main problem is how useless Vauban becomes when doing high level content. Things like Tesla and his needle grenade stop dealing any sort of meaningful damage,

His tesla grenades were never about dealing massive damage. What they are good for however is causing electricity procs that prevent enemies from attacking and thereby increasing Vauban's survivability since these balls will roll around near him.

Needle grenade is support damage that is essentially fire and forget. This is the "let us deploy a gun turret" ability that people have been asking about for years. Use this in areas that are too dangerous to jump into, or to soften up groups. Combine with other abilities.

Vortex beam works best with tether or Bastille's vortex. If you're using it in areas that your team members are actively killing, you are using it wrong and just wasting energy that could be better spent on more rollers or overdrivers.

Don't forget, for all of Vauban's abilities that disable, his damage from other abilities and his weapons increases 25% against trapped enemies.


Vauban is not a spam ability to win kinda frame. Vauban is not the frame for people who feel they need to be the biggest try-hard in the group to get the most damage or kills. Vauban is a CC frame, and all his abilities benefit from trying to play it as a CC frame.

Step 1: find a tight hallway enemies come through.
Step 2: put tethers, needles and maybe even a speed pad for fun.
Step 3: turn around and go and hold another hallway.
Murder-rooms are my favorite thing about new Vauban.

[Spartykins]

I take it back, biggest mistake was not giving him a shoulder cannon for his various grenades (think doom eternal) as shoulder cannons are cool

[pcdeltalink]

The rework I'm honestly unsure of as Vauban was never my main to begin with though I did like him for infested missions. Armor stripping on Bastille is nice but his new 3rd ability, frankly, sucks. It has a huge delay before it actually hits and when it does hit from my testing it does basically no damage.

The problem I've always had with Vauban (and I admit it may just be that I suck) is that he has little defensive abilities. No extra type of shield/armor thing he can get like Trinity's Link or Zephyr's Turbulence of example. As such I tend to go down near constantly with him since on top of all of that he has no natural way to restore lost health aside from spamming health pizzas.