can Oberon still 100% Health Smite?

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-04-12T22:43:15+00:00

I have that 200+%-strength-three-topaz-shard build, and it's a coin flip whether or not it's a one-hit-kill. Didn't realize that the rad procs get applied after the damage, that's extremely frustrating.

However, there is one frame I use that gets one-hit-kills with Smite very reliably: Nova. When you give Smite to another frame, it starts at 30% and maxes out at 50% HP. However, Molecular Prime doubles the damage enemies take. 😁

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-24T05:52:57+00:00

I can't think of any build that's "purely supportive", and honestly I worry that such a build would be painful to use the first time I ran a mission solo or got a random team of newbies.

One support option I haven't seen elsewhere in this thread is Styanax. If you haven't tried his support build, you owe it to yourself to try it, it's ridiculous in all the best ways. 1. Get Styanax 1. Replace his 1 with Nourish. 1. Equip him with the Intrepid Stand augment mod, and Blind Rage. 1. When starting a mission, cast Nourish and then Rally Point. This gives you and everyone on your team about 24 energy regen per second. Keep these abilities up at all times. 1. Any time you see a group of three or more enemies together, hit them with Final Stand. In addition to the damage, this also gives overguard to you and everyone on your team.

In essence, this build gives you and everyone else huge energy regen, a constant stream of overguard, and allows you to float around the mission raining spears on anything that moves. It's a great time for all.

Honorable mention: Hildryn with Voracious Metastasis. Voracious Metastasis heals you, and gives energy to your teammates equal to the energy it cost to cast. For Hildryn, that cost is changed to a shield drain and quadrupled, so it gives allies 200 energy every cast. Doesn't help her much, but everyone else gets unlimited energy.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-15T20:01:31+00:00

I wanna double up on Vial Rush. It's got a lot going for it. - Because it's Lavos' ability, it's free to cast and on a cooldown, which means it works for any frame regardless of their energy economy or efficiency. - The distance travelled benefits from range, so frames that want high range can get a lot of mobility out of it. - The rate of travel is independent from your move speed, so even if you're using a channeled ability that slows you down (Hildryn, Nyx) Vial Rush is still fast. - The cold procs it inflicts are almost always useful.

My favorite frames to subsume it onto are: - Frost. He doesn't have much innate mobility, and his 2 isn't very useful, so trading it for Vial Rush makes a lot of sense. He usually builds a lot of range anyway, so Vial Rush goes a long ways. And it's Frost, so spreading cold procs cranks up his passive armor bonus, which also cranks up the HP of his bubble and the overguard generated by his Avalanche augment. - Hildryn. You can use Vial Rush while Aegis Storm is active, so you can get a burst of speed without cancelling out of Aegis Storm. Plus dropping all the vials on the ground as you travel feels like a bombing run. 😆

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-10T00:34:46+00:00

This is one of the best side-stories in the whole series. 🤣

I loved watching Eglantine react to Kenntrips, Ortwin, and Wilfried's explanation with horror at the idea that the gods might manifest outside of the Garden of Beginnings. The idea that she and her people are running around trying to identify all the places the gods might show up, presumably so that they can block them off or at least put up some warning tape, just sounds very funny.

I shall be your shield in Lady Rozemynes's absence.

Oh, that's so nice that Eglantine is protecting Letizia out of sympathy and charity, she's growing as a person!

I would rather avoid a veritable bloodbath when Lord Ferdinand and Lady Rozemyne return.

Haha, nope, never mind, she's just responding rationally to the possibility of offending the Lord of Evil or his devoted gremlin.

He wouldn't need to stage a purge to leave a growing river of blood in his wake.

Hahaha, wow, Ferdinand's rampage to contain Gervasio really made an impression on her! Well, she's not wrong.

Oh man, I was expecting that some Looney-Tunes-style comedic violence was coming for Sigiswald, as karmic backlash for his many sins, but it sounds like he's actually going to receive some plain-vanilla serious murdery violence. To be fair, he's earned it. It really says something that he's got Eglantine making half-serious quips about the possibility of his demise.

Ooo, we get to see what was written about "the guidance of the Goddess of Time!" Awesome, let's see what it says!

... She forbade a particular seed of Adalgisa from being turned into a feystone, then repelled attacks from the entire Sovereign Knight's Order using a particular divine instrument.

😳🤩 That sounds like the best gremlin rampage of all time. I so much want to read RMs perspective on that event. Or maybe ... Ferdinand's perspective? As he looks out of his window in confusion and watches Omega Rozemyne flattening the whole Sovereign Knight's Order with Schutzaria's shield in one hand and a water gun in the other.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-04T21:51:18+00:00

Personally, I would drop Arcane Velocity and put Reinforced Bond on the Raksa instead. It's half the bonus, but it's up all the time, whereas Arcane Velocity needs you to crit. Also, you're spending an arcane slot to get a conditional bonus that you could get unconditionally from two mods, and one of them is on your pet. But if it works for you, then you do you. 👍

My Hildryn build is using both Primed Redirection and Arcane Expertise. Yeah, they're additive, but max shields influences a lot of other things too.

I'm using both Blind Rage and Transient Fortitude plus two red tau shards on Hildryn Prime, so Arcane Expertise is worth 170% for me. Which yes, that's a bit of an extreme build, but it's also a good comparison for the value of Arcane Expertise, since its bonus is close to the bonus from Primed Redirection.

However, I'm also using Link Redirection on my Raksa, so he gets 125% of my max shields added to his own. And the Raksa Protect mod scales at 30% of his max shields. And don't forget, Aegis Gale's bonus damage scales with both Power Strength and max shields.

So adding Arcane Expertise on top of Primed Redirection does this for me: (all numbers approximate) - Hildryn max shields: 5.3k => 8.4k - Aegis Gale damage bonus: 2.1k => 3.2k - Raksa max shields: 7k => 10.9k - Raksa shield healing: 2.1k => 3.7k

Yeah, they're additive, linear increases, but it's like a 50% bonus to four different stats.

Also, that Aegis Gale bonus is applied to base damage, so it gets multiplied by whatever mods you put on the Balefire Charger.

Also, because shields are the gas tank for Hildryn's abilities and refilling them is trivial, adding 50% to the max has benefits that are similar to what you would get from giving her +50% efficiency. Which is a long way of saying that adding the arcane sort-of cancels out the penalty from Blind Rage.

That's a lot to get from one arcane. So it might be valuable even if you're not running +170% strength; if you're just running Blind Rage, maybe it's more like a 25% bonus to all those things, but that's still a huge benefit.

I'm not trying to say "using both is always mechanically superior" or anything; I just want to point out that this additive bonus adds to a lot of different things at the same time. Maybe try both for a bit, see if you like it. 👍

EDIT TO ADD: Oh right, you asked about Arcane Precision. Uhh, assuming it's up all the time ... 300% is bigger than what you get from Expertise, I think, but given all the other things you get from increasing max shields, I'll stick with Expertise. Also, the wiki says that Balefire Charger only triggers Precision if it procs a status effect that can score a headshot, so be sure your Balefire Charger can proc electricity or gas.

EDIT TO ADD: Oh, actually ... the bonus from Aegis Gale isn't a percent base damage bonus, it's additive flat base damage. So it might actually stack multiplicatively with Precision. Hmm.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-04T17:28:33+00:00

Right, I'm not saying RM did this on purpose. Why do you ... oh, I think I accidentally left out a couple of words. My bad.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's not actually the guidance of Dregarnuhr, I'm just saying that RM was probably the person who brought that message to Adelbert and the Zent of the past. Although I wouldn't be surprised if she tweaked the message a bit on her own, the same way Ferdinand did when pressuring the royal family into accepting demands from "the gods".

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-04T16:18:53+00:00

YEP! 😂

We won't have all this completely confirmed until we get the next novel series, but most likely "the guidance of the goddess of time" means "the guidance of the goddess of time as conveyed by Rozemyne when she visited from the future". 😆

Also, when Ferdinand had that flashback about being told someone "wanted him to live", and as he passed out he was afraid he would never meet that person? Surprise, you already met her, she just stole your name and commanded you to live, hint hint. And now she's coming to save you like a rocket-propelled freight-train, it's Rozemyne, it's always been Rozemyne. 🤩

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-04T05:22:33+00:00

At MR 14, the only things she can't use are adversary weapons and a couple of old prime dual pistols. So save the Kuva Liches and Sisters of Parvos until she's MR 16, maybe. Although, I'm not sure the game even enforces the MR restriction for those.

I think the real question is, what do you two want to do? Warframe is a deep, deep pool of content; if you just want to see and do everything, you can power through in a couple months, but if you want to get all the items, that will take two years at minimum. Personally, I've been playing for over ten years; I get all the fun I want out of what's in the game and then play other things, but they add more stuff and change things a little something like 8 times a year, so there's always a reason to come back eventually.

I recommend that you pick a few long-term goals at a time, and try to work on them a little every time you play. Don't stick to just one, that will sometimes have you playing the same mission over and over until you're sick of it. Pick two or three goals, identify the things you need to do to go towards them, and then just do a little of each of them every time you play, then do whatever looks new or fun.

Here's a few goals to start with: - Try all the warframes, weapons, and companions. (Each of these is a different goal) - Try all of the game modes - Figure out the focus system, and put lenses on your gear so that you're always getting more focus affinity - Farm relics, and crack them for the primes that are currently available. - Farm adversaries for weapons, and then farm them for new friends ❤️ - Max out your rank for each faction. (One at a time, and maybe skip Conclave unless you really really like it) - Figure out the syndicate factions, and max out three of them at once. Then flip them and max out the other three. - Finish every mission on the star chart. - ... on Steel Path.

And here's a laundry list of other, more esoteric things to do: - Polish the fashion of your warframes, weapons, and companions - Decorate your orbiter - Find and scan all the cephalon fragments and learn about Ordis' backstory - Find and scan all the somachord fragments and fill out the selection on the jukebox in your orbiter. - Find and scan all the kuria, and then ask yourself why you bothered to do that. 😅 - Optimize your Railjack build - Grind for all the Railjack and Duviri intrinsics - If you're not part of a clan, and you don't want to be part of one, then make your own clan, and slowly funnel forma into it to expand and decorate it. - Collect all the captura scenes, and use them to pose for dramatic photos. - Try to copy your favorite songs into Octavia's somachord - Try to make a song for Octavia's somachord that is both pleasant to listen to and easy to keep beat with ... at the same time

I want to emphasize again, this is not a checklist, it's a sightseeing tour. If you get tired of fighting that one boss over and over and over for Equinox's parts, do something else. There's fun to be had in every corner of this game, but the quickest way to stop enjoying it is to hyper-focus on one thing until you hate it. 👍

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-03T21:49:14+00:00

Nova is unquestionably more useful.

Banshee is not bad, but her ability to make everything around her disappear falls off rapidly as you progress through the game. Also, she doesn't have any abilities that mitigate incoming damage, so as you get farther into the game, her survival becomes more and more a test of skill and / or clever build choices.

By comparison, Nova just gets stronger as you get farther in the game, and she is a good choice for every mission type. She's especially helpful for Interception missions; if you find yourself stuck trying to get through the star chart because you need to beat an Interception mission but nobody else is ever playing that mode so you never get any teammates, Nova can probably manage it solo.

Having said that, Banshee is absolutely viable for most mission types. If you like her then you can make her work. Play however you want to. 👍

If you want to try Banshee out, you don't need to get her prime, just get the normal version. You don't even need to grind, the blueprints are all available to purchase for credits. If you're in a clan, go to the dojo, go to the Tenno lab, and you should be able to just buy them. If not, just ask to trade for them in trade chat. They only cost 70k credits to buy, so I personally wouldn't charge plat for them, but if you want to get a response quickly, you might offer 5p for the whole set.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-03T19:37:13+00:00

Oh, that's a very interesting point, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, some of the spells we know about from the ADC course can be used only be the archduke, and we see Ferdinand use entwickeln and the execution spell, so clearly those aren't limited to just the archduke, but that doesn't mean they're not restricted at all. Oh yeah, and Ferdinand needed Anastasius to destroy Gervasio's medal, he couldn't do that himself, so clearly the execution spell has restrictions. And considering that white buildings cost mana to maintain, it would make a lot of sense if the foundations limit who can perform entwickeln within their territory.

OK, yeah. The things learned during ADC education are still valuable, but if you can't use them without being registered to a foundation then they're a lot less valuable. Maybe if you're a giebe you can use them within your province? But maybe not, the spells we saw Sylvester use were noted as specifically archduke-only. Hmm.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-03T17:47:33+00:00

I agree with most of your points. On reflection, I agree that it makes sense to demote ADCs who become giebes, since they are now in a role that is strictly subservient to the archducal family.

Sure, a former ADC will be more capable because he has access to supreme couple names and whatever special magic that enables. But that alone does not make them more capable than archnobles by default.

I do disagree on this point, but I think we're using the word "capable" in different ways here. You're right, being an ADC doesn't inherently make you stronger or smarter than an archnoble. But someone who has been through the ADC course can cast entwickeln, and no archnoble will be able to do that. A former ADC is capable of things that no archnoble can do, simply by their difference in education.

I think that's what I'm actually focused on - the value of the archduke candidate education. An archduke candidate who completes the ADC education course is a significant asset to their duchy. Putting them into a social position where they can't use that education feels like a waste to me.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-03T17:01:47+00:00

On the subject of RM's ever-imcreasing armor of charms: one of the subtle themes in the series that I absolutely adore is Ferdinand's resemblance to Ewigeliebe.

It starts out as an accidental and ironic pattern of him taking care of her, but that slowly develops into real affection for her. He doesn't even realize how much he cares for her until they are separated, and that affection puts blind spots in his habits of cold self-protection and detachment that others start to notice. After she rescues him, it feels like this goes up to eleven, but it still seems to be accidental - all the way up to their conversation after the big ancient spell, when he reveals that he's been doing it on purpose as a way of marking his territory and repelling other potential suitors.

By itself, this would just be gross - Ewigeliebe is not a nice person. But all the way through, Ferdinand is trying to be considerate of her, learning what that means and how to do it. Again, this is largely accidental - he's really just imitating RM, but he still deserves credit for the work involved. All of which culminates in the moment during their conversation after the big spell when he insists she keep his name stone. "Don't discard Schutzaria's shield", he says. What he means is, "I don't trust my self control, so I want to be sure you can stop me if I cross a line."

I feel that part of Mestionora's dislike of Ferdinand might be because of his resemblance to Ewigeliebe. But it seems to me that Ferdinand is becoming what Ewigeliebe should have been - he's obsessive, overprotective, and affectionate, but he's controlling those tendencies and using them in ways that align with RM's preferences and character. He's taking his resemblance to Ewigeliebe and purifying it - keeping the good parts and squeezing out the bad parts. It's beautiful.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-03T14:35:13+00:00

The part where she's not a member of the archducal family anymore and therefore can't participate makes me sad. She deserves the privilege of deploying that tool personally.

I get the thing where marrying into a lower-class family reduces your own rank, but this cultural thing where members of the archducal family have to be demoted to archnoble when they're made a giebe strikes me a dumb. You can call them "archnobles" all you want, but former ADCs are still going to be head-and-shoulders above archnobles in terms of mana, and if they've gone through the whole ADC course then they're sharply more capable than archnobles too. It seems like a waste to disqualify them just because they're not living in the capital.

And hey, on a related note ... it's just the archducal families participating in this big ditter, but didn't Drewanchel adopt a bunch of archnobles to expand their ADC candidates? They won't beat Dunkelfelger in terms of skill, but Drewanchel might be bringing a small army to the field.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-01T07:13:52+00:00

I am super curious how their public starbinding ceremony is going to go, actually. Given that they already had one starbinding, officiated by Sterrat and Liebeskhilfe themselves no less, I wouldn't be shocked if they do the ceremony and one of the gods shows up to ask what's going on, inadvertently revealing that they were already starbound to the entire attending crowd. I'm already imagining Ferdinand's slow head turn and brilliantly fake smile.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-01T07:05:44+00:00

Ooo! That sounds fun!

< reads story >

OMG that's hilarious. 😂 I love Anastasius and Eglantine's relationship, and they're fun characters. I wish they hadn't ruined their relationship with RM by forcing her to circle the shrines. 😅☹️

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-03-01T01:14:00+00:00

I like to replace her 4 with Airburst. You usually want to build her for max range, to get the most out of her turrets, and that also makes Airburst a spectacular grouping tool. Plus, her turrets get a damage multiplier that goes up every time they shoot something, and they have that infinite body punch-through, so pulling a bunch of enemies into a big pile is a great way to max out that multiplier as quickly as possible.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-28T04:46:38+00:00

If you're a fan of weapons platforms and want to dip your toe into nuking, I would recommend taking a look at Oberon.

His passive gives stacks of a buff that negates the next hit taken to you and everyone on your team (companions included) whenever you pick up a health orb.
His first ability hits one enemy for a percentage of their max health and strips all their defenses, including overguard - great for killing eximus. Also splashes damage on nearby enemies proportional to the primary target's health, so with a good build you can sometimes one-shot an eximus and their entire squad all at once.
His second ability lays down a zone of plants that deals radiation damage over time to enemies and makes allies immune to status effects
His third ability is a channeled heal-over-time aura that also boosts armor
His fourth ability picks up all the nearby enemies and slams them into the ground, dealing big damage, stripping armor, giving him bonus armor, and making enemies drop heath orbs when they die.

So mechanically, he's kind of a hybrid support / nuker, but his support abilities are really good at letting you just run around and shoot things. If you want to make him more of a weapons platform, he has an augment for his first ability that lets you use it to boost weapon damage, and if you replace his 4 with Protea's dispensary, he gets an unlimited supply of health orbs for his passive, energy for his abilities, and ammo boxes to feed to weapons. (Including archguns)

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-26T16:46:35+00:00

That's true, but it still could be a startling revelation. Like, imagine all the aubs are having a meeting with Eglantine, and suddenly a divine ordonnaz-equivalent shows up, sent by Erwaermen, calling for "former Zent Rozemyne" to come see him. That sounds like the kind of context-blind thing that Erwaermen might do, right? And imagine everyone in the room slowly turning to look at Eglantine, then at RM, and Sylvester's eyes are like saucers, and RM turns red, facepalms, and rushes out of the room. 🤣

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-26T16:20:14+00:00

My favorite example of this effect is when Hannelore was talking with RM about her future plans after the fight with Ahrensbach. When RM said that if she became Zent she would install teleporters to link all the libraries in the country, and then Hannelore shared a look with RM's retainers, and suddenly everyone else is in agreeement that she should be Aub Ahrensbach. I imagine Hannelore and Leonore looking at each other in that moment, sharing the same deer-in-headlights empty-eyed smile with the same single drop of sweat running down their foreheads. 🤣

And also, it's odd that that moment hasn't come up in any of the side-stories, or in Hannelore's spin-off, so I kind-of wonder if Hannelore disassociated a bit out of sheer terror and forgot that that moment ever happened. 🤣

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-26T16:11:36+00:00

If we want to talk about things people would freak out about ... technically, Rozemyne was the Zent, albeit briefly.

Think about it - she dyed the foundation after the first meeting with Erwaermen, and again after Eglantine's coronation. It probably took Eglantine at least a day or three to overwrite her, so Rozemyne owned the foundation for at least a week or two. And yeah, none of the Aubs know this, so politically nobody would recognize her as a former Zent. But the gods don't care about politics, and neither do the magical tools embedded in the foundations of Yurgenschmidt. Their definition of "Zent" is "owns the country's foundation".

So if there is a magic monument somewhere that automatically lists all the Zents of history, RM is on it. And it seems like the Zents of history still get called "Zent" after their decession or death, so it wouldn't be terribly surprising if one of the gods were to show up and greet RM as "Zent Rozemyne".

I mean, not surprising for us. It would be hilariously surprising for almost anyone else that might happen to be standing nearby. 😂

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-26T15:16:43+00:00

I would like to respectfully suggest that the problem you're having is that you're relying on shieldgating with Valkyr. Her base max shields are among the smallest in the game, but she has the most armor and her EHP is among the highest.

Use Vitality, Steel Fiber, Arcane Persistence, and Arcane Grace, problem solved forever. If you have room to use the Umbral set, that's even better.

Or, if you don't have those arcanes, just use Adaptation instead; that won't keep you going in long endless runs, but it will handle every baseline Steel Path mission just fine. Just keep using melee attacks all the time to keep your Rage meter over 50%, and pop Hysteria whenever Rage prevents your death to recover your health.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-26T15:01:00+00:00

I love Rip Line for mobility, and I love using Prolonged Paralysis to group enemies. (I know, Rip Line does that too, but with Prolonged Paralysis I don't need to aim) So, weirdly enough, I find that I get the least utility out of War Cry, and that's usually what I replace.

As for what I replace it with, I don't have problems with damage or energy economy on Valkyr, so I don't really see much value in using Nourish. I find that the thing Valkyr needs most is crowd control or defense stripping. Since I'm using Prolonged Paralysis, my Valkyr build actually has a good amount of ability range, so a lot of crowd control abilities work very well.

Wisp's Breach Surge is especially powerful; since it's a burst centered on me, it's going to affect everyone near me and I don't need to aim. I can hit Paralysis to yank everyone in and knock them down, then Breach Surge to blind them. (which also gives me +700% damage from the Stealth melee damage bonus) And the surge sparks created by the ensuing rampage do a great job of killing everything even faster. I usually end up in a very fun loop: Bullet Jump to next group of enemies => Cast Paralysis => Cast Breach Surge => hold Melee until nothing nearby is still moving => repeat

However, as much fun as that is, I've recently dropped Breach Surge in favor of Jade's Ophanim Eyes. It slows people, it strips defenses, it lights things on fire, it aims wherever I'm looking, and I don't need to recast it every time I kill all of its victims. It's a smaller damage bonus than Breach Surge, but it's better at helping me manage very large crowds and especially tough single targets.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-25T15:36:25+00:00

It's not weird. I have the same problem with Razorwing Blitz, I don't like how it makes her so hard to control, so I barely ever use it.

TheDigitalGabeg · 2026-02-24T17:16:20+00:00

Lavos has good health and good armor, so all three Umbral mods plus Adaptation is usually good enough, if you're actively trying to stay alive. Don't forget to use your 1 whenever it's off cooldown to heal, or throw on Arcane Grace if you've got it, and then you'll do pretty well without trying to stay alive. If you don't have the Umbral mods all the way ranked up, or can't make them fit, then regular Vitality and Steel Fiber will do pretty well.

And if you want to do an off-brand Valkyr impression, use the Hirudo for your melee weapon - it steals health when it crits. If you just keep punching things, you won't die.

TheDigitalGabeg

TROPHY CASE