The Snake Queen ~ An In-Depth Guide to Saryn

Contrary to popular opinion, Saryn's rework left her overall a better frame. This is an explanation of the mechanics that make the new Saryn an unstoppable plague, as well as a guide to use these mechanics to their greatest effect.

Introduction

This is Saryn, elusive and deadly.

Saryn is a deadly force on the battlefield. Get down with the sickness, Tenno. -The Lotus

Opinions on Saryn's rework, to this day, remain mixed.

On one hand, Saryn lost a pretty big chunk of her hitpoints, and her old calling card, Miasma, lost the buggy interaction with Duration mods that made it a convenient low-level mapwide nuke. And in the place of the raw power of the old Miasma lie a long road of forced synergies necessary to make the ability shine.

On the other hand, Saryn gained far more than she lost. Her first 3 abilities, which used to all be mediocre at best, have been massively improved. Molt and Toxic Lash are far superior to their older counterparts, and the upgrade from Venom to Spores can only be described as godly. She has some of the strongest ability synergy in the game (even if some of it is forced), and is more than capable of keeping up with some of the game's heaviest hitters.

Saryn's new kit is a fusion of a variety of playstyles, mixing caster and bruiser elements to create a debuff-focused battlemage. While she may not be the best caster or the best swordsman in the game, she has the advantage of being able to fill both roles very well.

This guide assumes that you know all the basics of Warframe, and is geared at intermediate players and above. The builds in this guide are based on my experience and success in gameplay, and I do not claim that any build in this guide is the best way to build Saryn. You alone are the one who puts the mods on your Warframe, and which ones go into the final configuration are up to you.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I'll start this off rather simply. What does Saryn do well, and what does she do not so well?

Strengths:

• Fantastic debuff potential; effectively doubles team damage with a debuff that can stack with every other damage buff in the game.
  
• Extremely powerful against large, tightly packed groups of enemies.
  
• Can potentially quadruple melee damage with the right build, before accounting for the effective damage increase from Viral procs, with the cheapest melee buffing skill in the game.
  
• Ability to spread melee damage across the map; one of the two Warframes capable of ranged melee. (More on this later)
  
• Access to reliable healing with Regenerative Molt.
  
• Excellent base stats on Prime variant; Usable speed, good durability, and an enormous energy pool.

Weaknesses:

• Weak to armor scaling; dependent on armor removal to deal damage to high level Grineer or Corrupted. #deathtoarmorscaling
  
• Loses most of her power if enemies are too few in number or spread out too far.
  
• Energy inefficient against low-level enemies.
  
• Poor survivability of decoy and lackluster crowd control significantly hurt longevity.
  
• Depends heavily on Regenerative Molt for survivability.

Abilities

So, with that out of the way, onto Saryn's abilities.

Passive: All status effects last 25% longer if inflicted by Saryn. This is most notable on Toxin and Viral procs, which I will discuss later, but it's also phenomenal on Radiation procs. It's a good passive, and it plays a pretty big part in Saryn's effectiveness.

Spores: This ability really caught me off guard. At a glance, it looks like it's just a way to spread Viral procs, and thus can be dismissed as a super-cheap substitute for Molecular Prime. But as it turns out, having Viral procs spread like wildfire is just the beginning. Mastering the mechanics of this ability turn it from a simple damage amp into a way to apply an enormous amount of offensive pressure to quite literally an entire map with indefinitely stacking damage over time.

See the Spore Mechanics section for further details.

Molt: With its enormous aggro pull and its fantastic augment, Molt is an ability that is not to be underestimated. It has the very unique and powerful perk of being castable in the middle of nearly any maneuver with no cast time or animation whatsoever. Casting it midair will leave it out of reach for melee units while allowing you to distance yourself from it, while it will provide a huge distraction for every enemy in your immediate vicinity. It does have some serious problems with scalability, but it's still a very useful tool to get yourself out of a bind. Just remember that if it dies, Regenerative Molt will cease to heal you.

Toxic Lash: It's easy to dismiss Toxic Lash as a useless ability, since, at a glance, it appears to be merely a 30% damage increase as a damage type that can't be altered, as well as a near-useless bonus to blocking. However, digging into the details of this ability reveals that it is vastly better than it might initially appear. The first big asset of Toxic Lash is the guaranteed Toxin proc, which will tick for 50% of the initial damage added by Toxic Lash 11 times over a 10 second period (accounting for Saryn's innate 25% bonust to status duration) ultimately amounting to a 195% increase in damage. What's better is that with a cost of 50 energy and its 30 second duration, Toxic Lash effectively costs 1.67 energy per second, which is cheaper than Exalted Blade, Hysteria, Vex Armor, Warcry, and every other melee buff in the game. In fact, since bursting Spores with Toxic Lash restores a small amount of energy, it's even possible to gain energy from this ability.

See the Spore Mechanics section for more details.

Miasma: This is the only ability in Saryn's kit that isn't flat-out better in every way than it was before the rework. In fact, it's really fallen from its throne as the fastest way to clear out low-level mobs. However, that doesn't mean it's useless. With both procs, it's still one of the most powerful radial direct damage abilities in the game, losing only to Maim and Bladestorm (which needs a high combo counter to win that duel). In fact, with its base damage of 4200 on enemies with both procs, and after the effective double damage from Viral procs, the reworked Miasma's damage exceeds the power of the minimum duration exploit on the old Miasma. It takes longer to apply its damage, but its damage is a lot higher since the rework.

Spore Mechanics

Understanding the way that Spore functions is imperative to playing Saryn to her full potential. This is going to be a huge wall of text, but it's the most important part of this guide. If you don't care about the math and just want to go kill things, then skip to the TL;DR.

First things first, a recap of Toxin procs. Toxin procs account for the bulk of Saryn's damage output, so understanding how they work is quite important. If caused by a weapon, they will inflict 50% of the weapon's base damage as Toxin damage for 9 ticks over 8 seconds. If caused by an ability, including Toxic Lash, the damage will be 50% of the total damage dealt by the ability. Saryn's passive extends the duration of the proc to 11 ticks over 10 seconds, thus increasing the total damage dealt by the proc by 25%. It's also important to remember that an infinite number of toxin procs can be applied to each and every enemy.

Toxic Lash is the clear winner for delivering deadlier Toxin procs. Since it deals 30% of your melee weapon's total damage (after elementals, crits, and the melee combo counter), it can deal a surprising amount of damage. With 11 ticks dealing 50% of that initial damage, Toxic Lash amounts to ((30*0.5)*11)=165% of your total melee damage dealt as Toxin damage, in addition to the initial 30%, on every single strike. And that's all affected by Power Strength.

However, to deal more Toxin Procs, try the Ignis modded for Gas damage and status chance. Gas damage is mediocre, but Gas procs can proc Toxin on every enemy standing around the enemy hit with the initial Gas proc. With the huge area of effect provided by the Ignis, it will cause a huge amount of Toxin procs on every enemy in the room, and also burst a huge amount of Spores.

And that brings me to the complicated part: spreading mechanics. If an enemy with a Spore on it is suffering a Toxin proc and the Spore is burst, 25% of the damage that inflicted the Toxin proc will be added to the burst damage of Spore as Viral damage (this is where you see the damage numbers), and it will proc both Toxin and Viral statuses. The percentage is affected by Power Strength.

So, for example, two enemies are standing next to each other. Assume that Saryn is completely unmodded and Spores is at rank 3. The first one is affected by Spores and a Toxin proc that is dealing 100 damage per tick (which was inflicted by 200 Toxin damage), while the second is suffering from an identical Toxin proc, but from not Spores. If the Spore on the first enemy is burst, it will take 25% of the initial attack that caused the Toxin proc (so 25% of 200 damage) and deal that to the second enemy as Viral damage with a guaranteed Toxin and Viral proc. The burst will deal 50 Viral damage in addition to the base damage of Spores and inflict a Toxin proc that will deal 25 damage per tick. The Toxin proc will amount to (25*11) 275 additional Toxin damage over 10 seconds.

While this seems mediocre by itself, Toxin procs stack. The second enemy is now taking 125 Toxin damage every second, and is inflicted with a Spore. And this is where the fun really begins. Bursting the spore on the second enemy will repeat the same process, only now it uses both Toxin procs for its damage calculation. The initial proc was inflicted by 200 damage and the second was inflicted by 50 damage, so the burst damage amounts to ((200+50)*0.25) 62.5 damage. This procs Toxin on the first enemy, which will now inflict 31.25 damage per tick in addition to the 100 damage per tick from the first Toxin proc on the first enemy.

This process can be repeated until both enemies eventually die. Every time you burst a Spore on an enemy, it will make the next burst Spore more powerful.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the snowballing potential of this ability. That was a scenario starting with just two Toxin procs, assuming that Saryn was completely unmodded, and there were only two enemies. The burst range of Spores can easily cover an entire room, and there are multiple ways of spreading Toxin procs even without Spores.

What this ultimately means is that the potential power of Spores scales immensely with the number of enemies. The more Toxin procs you inflict and the more Spores you burst, the more powerful this ability becomes. And don't think for a second that there's a ceiling on all this. Most damage, even weapon based damage, falls off with enemy level, but this doesn't. Tougher enemies can survive more damage to be inflicted with more Toxin procs, and thus cause more powerful burst damage from Spores and even more damage buildup from the constant spreading. This has fantastic scaling potential, and Saryn is able to constantly pressure an entire room full of enemies with massive damage over time, regardless of enemy level.

And don't forget that all of this happens to enemies with half their health bars.

TL;DR: The best way to use this ability is to hit as many enemies with as many Toxin procs as possible while bursting as many Spores as possible. Because of the way that Toxin procs spread with Spores, the potential damage of this ability builds up the more Spores are burst. Its power increases greatly with the number of enemies in a room, and is not as vulnerable to damage falloff as it seems, since tougher enemies can survive more hits to accumulate more status procs. Saryn's damage potential also scales with Power Strength.

General Build Guidelines

Aura: Armor scaling is Saryn's number one weakness (which is true for most damage-focused frames), making Corrosive Projection the best choice for Saryn. Energy Siphon is a good substitute if you can't coordinate a squad. Rejuvenation, while useful, isn't all that necessary since Saryn has access to reliable healing without it, so it's mostly a way to save Forma.

Essential Mods: Rage should be somewhere in your build unless you know for a fact you're going to have an EV Trinity around to completely take care of your energy needs, or you run Zenurik and always carry Energy Restores.

Stat Priorities: Range is the most important stat for Saryn right now, since her gameplay revolves entirely around Spores, and Spores needs a lot of range to be useful. Strength is the second priority, since it significantly amps up the power of all of her abilities. Efficiency is good for quality of life, but Saryn doesn't do a huge amount of casting, so it can largely be replaced by Rage and Zenurik. Duration is helpful on Toxic Lash builds, but it isn't needed extensively for much else. Make sure to keep at least 70% of your duration, since extremely short duration will make it tough to spread Spores, since they won't last very long.

Side note: Please take into consideration that the builds I list here are using the Exilus slot and are assuming that the non-Prime Saryn is used. These builds can be accomplished with fewer Forma if you are not up for the time and resource investment.

Caster Saryn (4 Forma Build)

This is a build for a more supportive, firearm focused Saryn. (Sorry about the broken image for Power Drift)

Explanation: Since Strength scales the damage transfer from Spores, it's a huge priority, and thus this build uses all four Strength mods. Overextended sounds like a bit of a detriment, but even after its penalty, the build comes out to 239% Strength, and the Range is too good to pass up. Rage is to help with the efficiency penalty from Blind Rage and to help with energy problems in general, and Vitality is there to provide adequate health to make it worthwhile. Primed Flow and Streamline finish the build, giving back a bit of energy sustainability.

Pros: The high range and very high strength make this build ideal for wrecking house with an AoE status cannon. It even gets a fair amount of hitpoints out of Molt and a lot of damage out of Miasma.

Cons: This build has a high reliance on team support, since it lacks Regenerative Molt. Toxic Lash, while usable, takes a hit from the duration loss.

Melee Saryn (4 Forma Build)

An adjustment of the Caster build, this setup aims to get as much use as possible out of the combination of Spores and Toxic Lash to accomplish Saryn's brand of ranged melee.

Explanation: Intensify was swapped for Primed Continuity to reach 128% Duration, which is plenty with the high base duration of Toxic Lash. Regenerative Molt is favored over Streamline on account of the higher emphasis on close combat, while Handspring patches up a leading cause of death for melee players.

Pros: Saryn's highest damage potential comes from use of Toxic Lash. The combination of good range, duration, and strength make this a very well-rounded build. While it's designed for Toxic Lash, it's still very usable for a caster playstyle.

Cons: The biggest problem with this build is the conflict between Shadow Step and Rage. Shadow Step is essential for maximizing both the damage and survivability of this build, but with Shadow Step active, it's significantly harder to reliably get energy from Rage.

Other Build Options

If you despise the low efficiency of my builds, it might be worthwhile to drop Blind Rage for Intensify, although the build loses a lot of potential damage. A tank build on Saryn Prime with Vitality, Steel Fiber, Rage, Quick Thinking, and Regenerative Molt is workable, but it leaves too few slots for power stats, and pure tank roles are better accomplished by frames like Chroma or Inaros.

Here is a build by Tactical Potato for those of you who may want more efficiency.

Suggested Loadout

Saryn's entire playstyle completely revolves around status, so her loadout choices should reflect that. Here are some suggestions for weapons that play into Saryn's strengths and help patch up her weaknesses.

The Ignis: This is possibly the best gun that you can put in Saryn's hands. If modded for Gas damage, status chance, and as much area of effect as you can get, it will absolutely disintegrate everything standing in your path. However, status chance is a little wonky on continuous weapons, and the Ignis might have a lower effective proc rate than you might hope for, even with nearly 100% status chance.

The Torid: Despite its glaring negative attributes, such as slow fire rate, slow reload speed, and horrendously slow projectile speed, the Torid is still a serious contender for the Ignis's spot in a Saryn loadout. It can't cover as wide of an area as the Ignis, but it has much higher base damage, and has the benefit of leaving behind its toxic clouds... which can proc Gas.

The Staticor: This thing is awesome. With a couple fire rate mods, it can quickly stack up a huge amount of procs on your enemies, and has the tremendous advantage of being able to carry Radiation damage without losing Gas damage. Radiation not only has a bonus against Alloy Armor, worn by some of the most dangerous units in the game, but it also has one of the most useful status effects. But perhaps the best feature of this weapon is that it doesn't have to compete with the Ignis or the Torid for a slot, even though it can easily replace one of them. As a result, it opens up the primary slot for a monster like the Sancti Tigris instead. The only downsides are mouse wear and its horrendous crafting costs.

The Tysis: Unassuming and often forgotten as it may be, the Tysis patches up two of Saryn's biggest weaknesses: Armor scaling and single targets. Its niche of quickly stacking Corrosive procs to melt armor make it an unlikely hero, but nonetheless a valuable asset in Saryn's hands.

Dual Toxocyst: While they require a fair amount of player skill to be useful, the Dual Toxocyst have a niche of being a good alternative to the Tysis, but with similar single-target DPS to the Lex Prime, at the cost of not being able to proc Corrosive quite as reliably.

The Mios: If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the Mios was specifically designed for the reworked Saryn. It has ludicrous attack range (with reports claiming it can hit up to a whopping 18 meters away with a max Primed Reach), it deals a lot of damage, and it can be modded for both status and crit. It's a weapon that can be built and used in a variety of ways, and its crafting costs are pretty manageable on top of that. This may very well be the best melee weapon for Saryn.

The Lesion: My name is Lesion, for we are many. With its great reach, enormous base damage, and its unique passive effect of a guaranteed Toxin proc whenever it inflicts status, on top of an attack speed buff, the Lesion becomes a monster in Saryn's hands. However, it's far more expensive to build than the Mios, so be wary of that.

The Atterax: If you just want to make a mess, accept no substitute. The Atterax has the same crit stats as the Dual Ichor with higher base damage and a pretty big reach, making it yet another great choice for Saryn.

Weapon Builds

Ignis



Explanation: Serration, Split Chamber, and Heavy Calibur are all pretty self explanatory. Malignant Force and Thermite Rounds provide Gas damage on top of good status chance. Speed Trigger might seem like an odd choice, but it raises the status chance per second. Rifle Ammo Mutation compensates for the loss of ammo efficiency (no need for the Primed variant), and Firestorm increases the radius of the cone.

Alternatives: Continuous Misery is a good option for this build. It has great synergy with Saryn's passive and overall significantly increases the total damage possible with this build. Combustion Beam is another reasonable option, since it's good at bursting Spores, but this mod is quite unreliable at high levels. Catalyzer Link makes a decent alternative to Split Chamber if you want more status chance without hurting your energy economy.

_________________________________________________________________

Staticor



Explanation: Hornet Strike, Barrel Diffusion, and Lethal Torrent are no-brainers. Pistol Pestilence and Scorch create the very powerful Gas + Radiation combo and bring status chance above 80%. Anemic Agility increases the charge rate, while Lethal Momentum patches up the middling projectile speed. Embedded Catalyzer was largely a toss-up card, but it has the benefit of bringing the status chance to almost 100% when you cast an ability.

Alternatives: If you don't like the loss in damage and don't care that much about the charge attack, Gunslinger is a more than adequate choice over Anemic Agility. On the other hand, if you want to use the charge attack almost exclusively, both mods can be used to make the charge rate preposterously fast.

_________________________________________________________________

Mios



Explanation: There is no reason not to use Pressure Point. Blood Rush allows the Mios to red crit at a 3x multiplier, while Body Count makes it feasible to reach that multiplier, while the combination of these two make Berserker a no-brainer. Primed Reach provides absurd range on whip attacks. Virulent Scourge and Volcanic Edge provide a comfortable 55% status chance. Organ Shatter rounds out the build, increasing crit damage and thus the total damage applied by Toxic Lash.

Alternatives: If a Warframe mod slot is more important to you than a DPS mod on your Mios, Life Strike is a great mod to fit into the build. Weeping Wounds is a good choice if you want more status chance, while Lasting Sting is a good mod to use alongside it for much longer-lasting status procs. Maiming Strike is a fantastic choice if you don't want to use pure melee, since it allows you to reliably proc Shadow Step with a quick melee slide attack.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Thinking of Miasma as a primary damage source: This is only ever going to lead to disappointment. Yes, Miasma is powerful. Yes, it looks like everything in Saryn's kit is there to build up to Miasma. But playing this way is going to be far too expensive in energy and isn't going to yield the expected results. Think of it this way: Saryn's kit capitalizes on Spores. It doesn't build up to Miasma. Use Miasma for its stun and to put a dent in enemies weak to Corrosive damage, not to finish fights that your Toxin DoTs are more than capable of finishing.

Spamming: Saryn can easily avoid having any energy problems whatsoever, as long as you're smart with your ability use. It's really easy to carry out an entire engagement with only one cast of Spores and possibly Toxic Lash, which could easily produce enough energy orbs to result in a net profit. Use your abilities when you need to, not when you want to.

Conclusion

Saryn is yet another frame that is unfairly judged by the community, but she can hold her own against DPS monsters like Excalibur and Equinox if played to her strengths. Just remember the way her mechanics work and how to use them to your advantage, and Saryn will be more than happy to ruthlessly slaughter everything that stands in your way.

Thank you for reading my guide, and I hope that you have as much success with Saryn as I have. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any additional questions about Saryn or maybe even the game in general. Questions help me improve both this guide and future ones.

Credits

Branding Image by DarikaArt[darikaart.deviantart.com]

Introduction Image by Rotaken[rotaken.deviantart.com]

Abilities image by penguinstein[forums.warframe.com]

Video by Tactical Potato

Conclusion Image by Antti Jussila[www.artstation.com]

My Guides

If you liked this guide, be sure to check out my other guides if you play any of these frames.

Chroma ~ The Dragon Rises

Mag ~ Little Miss Mayhem

Atlas ~ The CRUMBLER

[Woman Respecter]

@Lord Maxson: I'll be honest, I haven't played Warframe all that much since before Spectres of the Rail, so I didn't even know there was a Telos Boltace until I opened the game up today.

If and when I get back into this game, I'll definitely give the Telos Boltace a whirl.

[Lord Maxson]

Recently I got the Telos Boltace and found that it's absolutely amazing at popping/ spreading spores, have you messed around with it at all?

[Foxtrot 841]

I have been playing Saryn with the Hikou + Concealed Explosives to spread spores but i'm not sure how effective that is. Would putting toxin with either of the throwing weapons help to deal more damage like you mentioned in the spore mechanics? Also, does the Power Throw mod pop spores? You haven't yet put the throwing melee into the guide yet so I am curious.

[Oxium]

Very well made guide, however, I am surprised there's no mention of how amazing the Embolyst is as Saryn's secondary. Embolyst has an innate 100% toxin status proc regardless of elemental mods installed. When an enemy has a toxin proc active, any detonated spores will also spread that toxin proc. Pair that with the Red Veil mod, and the fact it functions the same way as the Ignis, and I can't think of a better secondary for her.

[Woman Respecter]

@Bachuuu: I'll be honest, at first, I was very skeptical about the rework. I didn't necessarily think or say that she was trash, but I wasn't convinced that she was very good. Then I read some forum posts and watched a few videos, and decided to give it a go myself.

Primed Reach shouldn't have any effect on Spores. Likely what Mogamu noticed is that using Primed Reach lets you hit enemies that are further away, and thus it allows Spores to hit targets further away from you. For instance, if your Spores has a 40 meter range, and you can hit an enemy 18 meters away with the Mios, you can infect an enemy 58 meters away with Spores. But no, Primed Reach doesn't directly increase the range of Spores.

[Bachuuu]

This guide is amazing. It was so funny when they reworked her and everyone thought she was trash.

One question: does primed reach extend the range on Spores? Mogamu said it does in the Saryn Prime video.

[Woman Respecter]

@Dark: I use Saryn in energy reduction missions with 50% efficiency and usually don't have many energy problems, so I think you'll be fine with regular Flow.

Zenurik is very good on Saryn, but Shadow Step is better if you want to go pure melee. A good workaround I found for the Rage problem is using a low-crit weapon with Maiming Strike. That gives you a lot of control over when you want to be invisible and makes it easier to get energy from Rage when you need it.

[GUN]

Is it fine if i use regular flow instead of primed flow?,also the guide states that shadow step interferes with rage,so does it mean that zenurik is a good alternative too? Great guide btw

[Woman Respecter]

@I'm sexually a spatula: I played with both Life Strike and Regenerative Molt for a while, and I ultimately decided that they're both good choices, but I personally prefer Regenerative Molt. I found the advantage of not needing enemies around to heal, as well as being able to heal myself while using the Ignis made it well worth the mod slot, so I usually forgo Life Strike.

[Baben]

Oh, and with the open slot you don't have to use for regenerative molt, you could use the spores augement if you have an Exalibur.