Should I give this another whirl? Question about caster builds.

[Awakened Gamer]

Long story short I got frustrated after unlocking lots of planets and still could not play how I wanted to, it seems this game mostly relies on weapons, you have all of these cool characters but still forced to use your weapons all the time? I just think thats silly, I have no idea if there is some super magic mod that lets you do this but I do not feel like waiting until end game just to play how I want to, I do not want to be op I just rather shoot off powers then my guns atleast.

[Yeti.^^]

There are such frames , yes.Still , the game is about both of them.Combining abilities and guns to tear your way through.(nullifiers being the best example of why you should at least carry a gun with ya)

[Wales Grey]

Originally posted by Dragonbound:

Long story short I got frustrated after unlocking lots of planets and still could not play how I wanted to, it seems this game mostly relies on weapons, you have all of these cool characters but still forced to use your weapons all the time? I just think thats silly, I have no idea if there is some super magic mod that lets you do this but I do not feel like waiting until end game just to play how I want to, I do not want to be op I just rather shoot off powers then my guns atleast.

what warframe(s) are you going for ability focus on? (you will never escape the importance of weapons, btw - this isn't some diablogame where you just stop doing "basic attacks" in favor of "attack with x attribute" abilities, some of those are different guns instead of abilities)

[Wales Grey]

i should mention, here's the full list of viable "caster" warframes:

• ash (not even fatal teleport, just get shredding shuriken and spam his 1)
• atlas
• banshee (support/cc)
• chroma (ehhhhh wex armor counts as a spell right?)
• ember
• equinox (flexible caster)
• excalibur (both with exalted blade and not)
• frost
• gara (more of a support caster)
• harrow (100% pure support but powerful)
• hydroid
• inaros
• ivara
• kohra (support)
• limbo (support)
• loki (support, abilities enable wierd tricks)
• mag (extremely castery)
• mesa
• mirage
• nekros (takes weapons to charge 4)
• nezha
• nidus (extremely castery)
• nova (another extreme caster)
• nyx (support but 4 is powerful tank "spell")
• oberon
• octavia (support/damage boost caster)
• rhino
• saryn (powerful caster)
• titania (wierd support caster, razorwing should probably give exalted weapons)
• trinity (powerful pure support)
• valkyr (yes valk is a """spell"""" frame)
• vauban
• volt
• wukong (wukong is boring)
• zephyr (more cc than raw damage but still good imo)

you'll also want to have lots of energy pizzas, look into maxing arcane energize, and rock zenurik for your focus school to make sure you have uncomfortable, gratuitious amounts of energy.

[Yeti.^^]

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

i should mention, here's the full list of viable "caster" warframes:

• ash
• atlas
• banshee (support/cc)
• chroma (ehhhhh wex armor counts as a spell right?)
• ember
• equinox (flexible caster)
• excalibur
• frost
• gara (more of a support caster)
• harrow (100% pure support but powerful)
• hydroid
• inaros
• ivara
• kohra (support)
• limbo (support)
• loki (support)
• mag (extremely castery)
• mesa
• mirage
• nekros (takes weapons to charge 4)
• nezha
• nidus (extremely castery)
• nova (another extreme caster)
• nyx (support but 4 is powerful tank "spell")
• oberon
• octavia (support/damage boost caster)
• rhino
• saryn (powerful caster)
• titania (wierd support caster)
• trinity (powerful pure support)
• valkyr (yes valk is a """spell"""" frame)
• vauban
• volt
• wukong (wukong is boring)
• zephyr (more cc than raw damage but still good imo)

>Khora/Titania
>Support
Yeah right.Let's call Rhino a support as well because he has a CC.
This guy is most likely not even at the end of his star chart and you're saying he should get maxed arcane energize?..You need to work your advices , friendo.

[Wales Grey]

Originally posted by Yeti.^^:

>Khora/Titania
>Support
Yeah right.Let's call Rhino a support as well because he has a CC.

no let's call rhino a support because he has two powerful cc moves and a massive team damage buff, plus it never dies so it's great as a support caster. have you ever played as rhino? i haven't slammed korrarra yet so all i know is cat does damage on cat ai and the thunderdome is pretty good cc

[Yeti.^^]

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

Originally posted by Yeti.^^:

>Khora/Titania
>Support
Yeah right.Let's call Rhino a support as well because he has a CC.

no let's call rhino a support because he has two powerful cc moves and a massive team damage buff, plus it never dies so it's great as a support caster. have you ever played as rhino?

It's called sarcasm.

[Wales Grey]

Originally posted by Yeti.^^:

It's called sarcasm.

so you haven't played rhino yet? you really should, it's great at basically everything except for group tridolon where roar isn't as useful b/c you have a chroma to wex-oneshot every limb. his ability damage doesn't scale well with enemy dr (because warframe has stupid-huge enemy ehp inflation past like 30) but the cc on his skills is good for both panic buttons and to hold dudes in place to shoot/have teammates eliminate.

[Watermelons]

Originally posted by Yeti.^^:

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

no let's call rhino a support because he has two powerful cc moves and a massive team damage buff, plus it never dies so it's great as a support caster. have you ever played as rhino?

It's called sarcasm.

I think he detected your sarcasm.

[Yeti.^^]

Originally posted by Viele Wassermelonen:

Originally posted by Yeti.^^:

It's called sarcasm.

I think he detected your sarcasm.

Hopefully.Doesn't seem like it.Anyway OP , you should see if any of the frames specified above tickle your fancy.Some of them are more difficult to get than others *cough* nidus or ivara *cough* but they do meet your requirements.It's not that you'll see your weapons become obsolete , they'll still be needed , but.. yeah.That's as close as you'll get to ,,shooting off powers rather than weapons''.

[Watermelons]

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

i should mention, here's the full list of viable "caster" warframes:

• list

you'll also want to have lots of energy pizzas, look into maxing arcane energize, and rock zenurik for your focus school to make sure you have uncomfortable, gratuitious amounts of energy.

I don't think you quite get what a "caster" is, but I don't disagree how many of these can do very well and get by purely on their abilities.

Regardless, abilities which are purely supplementary are not what casters use. Buffs and support abilities may be supplementary, but as long as that's not the only thing that the Warframe can do, they may still be casters.
For this reason, I'm just gonna go ahead and redo your list here, because I think your basis, your idea of what a "caster" is is just a bit incorrect.

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

• Banshee (Support and Crowd control)
• Ember (Damage, area of denial, crowd control
• Equinox (Crowd control, team buffs, healer, heavy damage dealer)
• Frost (Crowd control, area damage, defensive)
• Gara (High damage, defensive, and crowd control)
• Harrow (100% pure support, healer, energy restorer, team buffs, crowd control)
• Hydroid (Crowd control, can be augmented for loot or further team support)
• Inaros (Crowd control, but also heavily tanky. Somewhat of a caster)
• Ivara (Stealth caster, capable of high damage, crowd control, and teammate invisibility)
• Limbo (Crowd control, team buff/damage negation)
• Loki (Stealth caster, but also crowd management via disarming them)
• Mag (extremely castery, crowd control and shield restorer)
• Nekros (Crowd control and debuff, minion summoner, loot)
• Nidus (Extremely high damage capability, crowd control, teammate buff/healer
• Nova (another extreme caster, very high damage and capable of crowd management)
• Nyx (Literal crowd control and management)
• Oberon (Team buffs, healer, enemy debuffs and crowd control)
• Octavia (Team buffs and damage caster)
• Saryn (powerful caster, extremely high damage output)
• Titania (Enemy debuffs, crowd control, mobility via ability)
• Trinity (powerful pure support, healer)
• Vauban (Crowd control, lays many traps and areas of denial)
• Volt (moderate damage caster, team buffs, defense, and crowd control)
• Zephyr (Crowd control, defense and mobility via abilities)

And Yeti is absolutely correct, this OP doesn't seem too far into the game, you should not be talking about Arcane Energize, or even Focus at ALL at this point. And calling Team Restores "pizzas" means nothing to a newer player. You should try to stick to proper terminology unless the person you're talking to has shown they have an understanding of the common lingo. Even then, if you're trying to be informative, stick to terminology that would be the least confusing for everyone.

[Wales Grey]

tbh the only warframes that can 90% forgo weapons are either warframes that have exalted weapons (including valkyr), have absurd infinite-scaling damage (sayrn, equinox, debatably nyx, and barely including nekros), possess good damage+utility from their abilities (ash, mag, sort-of ember, debatably vauban and oberon), or are mesa.

[Wales Grey]

op asked if "pure caster" is a viable role, and it mostly-sort-of-is. you'll have to use weapons and abilites in concert for the entire game until you get the team energy restore (large) train rolling, pick up energizing dash from zeniruk, and eat some lategame arcanes. and even then abilities are mostly there to support a primary attack.

so i guess the answer is "yes, but you have to have it as a build goal and it won't come online for quite a while".

[Sceles]

You can obtain mods at any time you want because they're tradable, not mastery locked, and most are cheap as hell. To spam abilities all you really need is efficiency, so Fleeting Expertise + Streamline.

[Wales Grey]

Originally posted by Sceles:

You can obtain mods at any time you want because they're tradable, not mastery locked, and most are cheap as hell. To spam abilities all you really need is efficiency, so Fleeting Expertise + Streamline.

just remember to keep the 75% efficiency cap in mind - if you want to use FE and streamline together, don't put FE past rank 4.

[Watermelons]

Originally posted by Kerb Your Enthusiasm:

op asked if "pure caster" is a viable role, and it mostly-sort-of-is. you'll have to use weapons and abilites in concert for the entire game until you get the team energy restore (large) train rolling, pick up energizing dash from zeniruk, and eat some lategame arcanes. and even then abilities are mostly there to support a primary attack for everyone who isn't mesa.

so i guess the answer is "yes, but you have to have it as a build goal and it won't come online for quite a while".

My main point was just that you were kind of misunderstanding what "caster" meant, and which Warframes should be considered casters. Just because you can go through missions using only one ability does not make it a caster. But I understand what you mean, which is why I do agree that your original list there is full of Warframes very capable of playing purely by abilities.