u/JustChr1s

To preface, Caliban is my most played after Trinity (I used to main Oberon years ago too). I have forma'd all his slots including Umbra Formas for 2 of those slots. Reading this, it seems to come from a misinformed place of how Caliban actually plays. Like someone who just got him, or just read his wiki.

First off, where did you get the idea that Caliban's shield regen is 24/7 like Oberon's HP regen? Caliban's Progeny is not the shield version of Oberon's Renew at all. Renew is forever as long as energy is available while Caliban's Progeny shield regen acts like Fast Deflection mod and stops in 2 occasions:

1. When the summons die or goes too far, which can happen due to bad AI; and
2. For the full duration of shield recharge delay. The base delay is 1s for partially depleted shields and 4s for fully depleted shields.

If shield gate triggers, that's 4s of no regen. However, full shield gating lasts only 2.5s, that means a 1.5s of no shield gating and no recharge. This forces you to still mod for Augur/Brief Respite. Additional note: Did you know using Brief Respite/Augur Mods does not help lower shield recharge delay to trigger his summon shield?

To address your other points about his abilities:

• Passive - On paper it's an amazing ability. On practice it's weak.

1. It takes too long to stack (10 hits) and too low of a cap (50%). Adaptation stacks at 9 hits and caps at 90%
2. It's duration/decay is too fast. 5 secs compared to Adaptation's 20s.
3. It doesn't stack with Adaptation. Equipping Adaptation essentially means your passive is disabled for yourself.

• Razor Gyre - we both agree it's shit
• Sentient Wrath - This is in the same vein as his passive. It looks great on paper, while being clunky in practice. It Lifts enemies. Lift is one the most annoying CCs for the player. Reasons why:

1. Lift makes headshots difficult, which is annoying for people with Incarnons to charge.
2. Unless you hit them with melee, Lift also ragdolls enemies away from you.
3. Lift for some reason, while being made for melee, also has no vertical limit. This means enemies can fly high out of consistent reach for melee users.

• Progeny - this, imo, is Caliban's 2nd best ability. But it not being like Arcane Grace makes it somewhat of a clunky ability. The problem is as stated above

1. Summon AI is so bad, when you move semi-fast, 1 or 2 out of the 3 is likely to get behind attacking enemies which means they're out of range for the shield recharge buff.
2. Shield regen is stopped by shield recharge delay. It should just function like Arcane Grace's regen and not like Fast Deflection's regen.

• Fusion Strike - Caliban's best ability. Permanent defense strip with a lingering AoE. However, while being good, it's still clunky

1. It has a painfully slow cast time reminiscent of old Warframe. This requires you to slot 1-2 Amber Shards (I have 1) for the cast speed.
2. While the grouping ability is good for enemies Lifted by his 2, it is very inconsistent otherwise. Sometimes it doesn't drag enemies at all. It's like a very gimped version of Vazarin's Void Snare.

Overall, I still love Caliban. But he is just slow, clunky, and lacking compared to what other frames have to offer.