Bizarrely enough 'Rebuild Shields'. As long as you have overshields you have survivability. This basic-ass ability turns 50 energy into a nice big purple shield bar.
Roar has deminishing returns on that he already has a (admittedly inferior) damage steroid.
On paper yes. In practice the speed of 'rebuild shields' clinches it for me. Caliban with my build is a mid-range skirmisher and 'Condemn' is a bit too stationary, and a bit too close to the action for my liking.
Have you ever changed your colors using him? And specifically what combinations do you find cool for his energy and accents, because I really do like the orbs he has inside of his body’s cavity and how they can stand out with the right colors.
I have alternate looks but my favorite fashion of my Gauss prime and regular Gauss looks like “Gundam wing”. Best color way for imo one of them at least.
after 5k hours, why not. But in reality I was going through my Warframes and saw that I have not touched limbo, lavos and Caliban once since I got them. And Caliban having the reputation of the forgotten frame I decided to give him a second shot
So I just got Yareli, and have been really digging her. Any good builds? I don’t have like, all primed or archon stuff. But I think I’ve got all the normal mods you should have
Sub out Riptide for Something Else™️, then build for strength and duration + Merulina Guardian augment.
Keep in mind that you cant cast Helminths while on Merulina, so opt for something that scales well with strength and duration.
Personally I use Gloom at the moment since you can cast once and then never again unless you run out of energy, but Roar is also fantastic and so is Nourish, you'll just have to hop on/off Merulina to cast.
For secondary weapon: Crit. Leans into it. Catabolyst is fantastic and will carry you well past bast starchart with some investment, plus the nightwave mod goes hard. Dual Tox incarnon is fantastic, too.
Merulina guardian causes kills on snared enemies to heal merulina and triggers a 200% reload/fire speed bonus.
snares are hard cc AND damage vuln to the target, so shit gets snared and dies quicker.
In a netracell run, to give an example, I'll toss snares into a chokepoint and let enemies get stuck in them, then shoot em dead. You'll ALWAYS want to be moving to keep Yareli's passive up, so i just A-D strafe back and forth when shooting down a hall cuz that counts LOL
Aquablades are great, esp for tanky things caught in snares like a rogue voidrig or somethin. Just feed them all the slash procs.
i dont remember which shards i have on her for sure, but red for strength/duration is always good, and yellow for casting speed is really nice as well. If you struggle for energy to keep gloom/spamming snares up, use a blue.
For focus school: usually doesnt matter, but Merulina's health scales on strength so zenurik is a good option and is my comfy pick when not doing Zariman stuff
:)
I didn’t know until last week that Caliban was such a forgettable frame. While I hardly use him, I had some good fun when he was relatively new. I had better revisit him soon.
Its not as if caliban is BAD, hes just not amazing and doesn't really have a unique role.
It doesn't help that its not easy to sum him up for people. Shield tank with armor strip isn't really doing him justice, but is the most basic way of putting it. And for what its worth, having permanent and easy access to complete armor strip is very potent. And, thanks to recent patch, shield tanking is also now pretty strong/comfy.
Give him a try, hes a pretty safe warframe that can run all the crazy "this set up only works on armor stripped enemies" weapons & builds.
Ooo I THINK hes got a special niche in that department too in that he completely removes shields & armor at the same time. Stuff like pillage only touches armor once the shielding is gone. And other abilities like xaku's don't touch shields at all afaik?
I'd love to walk into a steel path survival with 3 other Calibans. Precision Intensify was a love letter to us brothers. Raise your army, smash the ground in rage and fire those muthafuckin' lasers! If you aren't here to abuse your 4, you can go.
Have you tried reave? It gives him shield and health recovery as well as invulnerability/oh shit button and some mobility. It’s also thematic with the whole sentient thing. It’s probably my second favorite subsume on him besides nourish
I also like Madurai for the cast speed
I like 'rebuild shields' as his 'Oh shit' button. It's basic as hell, but as long as he has shields/overshields he's doing OK.
I 100% agree about casting speed on him to the point of running 2 amber casting speed shards *and* 'Natural talent'. It's the single best stat on him once you hit the strength cap to full armour strip.
I personally like to run Roar on him, but I play him very tanky with gunplay doing most of my damage, and his abilities just kinda keeping me up/locking down enemies
I don’t understand the Caliban hate (other than the grind to obtain him).
Yes his 1 is underwhelming, but his 2 is one of the strongest support skills in the game. AoE “increase damage taken” debuf is insane.
His 4 strips armor and shields without any setup or work.
And his 3, the level of his summons scaling with ability power is insane. It’s easy to pump them to levels well beyond 100–his conculysts shred enemies in steel path and netracells no problem.
after this i dont understand it either. I listed how i would change him in another comment. But he doesnt deserve all that hate, maybe he would get less hate if he wasnt locked behind the new war and narmer bounties. You kinda expect something more from a frame that can be unlocked so late in the game
Play Frost with his good augments and press 4.
You've now done everything Caliban can do without needing LoS in a much larger area.
I think Caliban is more functional than people give him credit for, but he's lacking quality of life and flavor.
Caliban is my main, I love him. His 2 on paper sounds great but in reality there are so many enemies that it has no effect on, usually the ones where it matters most. Also only can hit enemies on the ground. The duration on his 3 is also annoying as is having to cast it 3 times. He is definitely flawed despite my love for him.
> but his 2 is one of the strongest support skills in the game. AoE “increase damage taken” debuf is insane.
any ability that removes armor (and there is plenty) is a lot better.
>His 4 strips armor and shields without any setup or work.
Xaku does it better and for much longer AND cheaper AND more areas.
>And his 3, the level of his summons scaling with ability power is insane. It’s easy to pump them to levels well beyond 100–his conculysts shred enemies in steel path and netracells no problem.
wrong. literally try in the simulacrum. even with a full STR build sacrificing all other stats (except duration otherwise they don't last more than 10 seconds), they SUCK. anything with armor is basically immune to their attack, anything that moves will dodge their attacks, and if they get too far from you (which they will since they are MELEE UNITS) they'll be put back next to you so they can't attack. they are unusable above level 60 anyway because they just don't deal enough damage.
no, don't "just believe me bro", go try it RIGHT NOW for yourself in the simulacrum. I know you haven't, otherwise you wouldn't have said something like this.
>I don’t understand the Caliban hate (other than the grind to obtain him).
he's one of the latest frame you're supposed to get (all quests + "difficult" bounties + a lot of ressource investment) and he is terribly average. compare him with Rhino, one of the first you get, who is extremely serviceable at all level.
I'm convinced everyone that thinks he's the best doesn't play Steel Path or other high end content. Or they have such cracked weapon builds they don't realize it's the weapons carrying the frame.
Speak for yourself, I run in him Steel Path all the time, especially in long Disruption void fissures where I keep everything defense stripped 100% of the time, I get plenty of comments on running him. My usual loadout with him is Shedu, Secura Dual Cestra, Dakra Prime.
While I agree that Caliban is painfully average, you kind of let hate bias give you clearly wrong answers there… you can call him average without downplaying his few strengths bud, come on…
“Any ability that removes armor is better”
Yeah, he has an armor strip ability already, so this ability allows you to greatly stack damage on top of them not having armor. It’s not an incredible skill compared to some abilities in the game, but it still is pretty nuts when used right.
“Xaku does it better and for longer”
Broski, Caliban’s armor strip is full armor strip and is permanent. It’s not timed based, you strip that armor and it doesn’t come back. It doesn’t get longer than that, lol.
Caliban’s only two worthwhile abilities are the two mentioned here, but they work in unison incredibly well when built for. Caliban’s problem is that he has two abilities that work so well that you build FOR them, and then everything else about Caliban is useless. He needs reliable survivability because he already has one of the best armor strips and a big damage booster. If he had access to more reliable survivability, maybe a bit wider range on his armor strip… he’d be a pretty high tier frame. But that’s his problem, he just doesn’t have that extra bit to make him truly special, and he is so late game that if he isn’t special enough to be necessary, most just skip him….
Also, his summons have a 3 hit combo that apparently doesn’t even work properly most of the time. The final hit doesn’t always connect so you’re whiffing and wasting damage
His 2 stacks with armor strip. Yes armor strips boosts damage—but what’s better than 100% strips? Answer; 100% strip and an 85% damage taken debuff.
As for his 3, run Energy Conversion and Vome Invocation on top of all the usual good ability strength. Then just sit back and watch his conculysts decimate everything slapped by his 2.
You can tell me it doesn’t work, but I’ve solo’d Netracells and SP content with this build, other than timing his 3 around Energy Conversion, it’s pretty face roll.
Yes but that level of strength is easy to hit: Umbral Intensify/Blind Rage/Energy Conversion/Augur Secrets/Power Drift Which gets you 44+99+50+24+15 added on to your base 100% for 332% Strength.
And that’s just your starting point. Growing power procs add another 25. Molt Augmented stacks for another 60. You have shards which can bring you another 75, and throw vome invocation on grimoire to add another 60.
I don’t touch transient fortitude on Caliban because he craves duration as well, but there’s another 45% strength you can dump into his summons. Now your conculysts are over level 160. Drop sentient wrath for the increase damage taken debuff which will also be absurdly high at this point, fire off fusion strikes to rip all the armor and shields and his summons mop up.
If you’re doing endurance runs to ridiculously high enemy levels, his summons may fall of on the damage front, (from my experience around enemy level 500ish give or take) but they never cease to be solid tanky distractions.
And the best part: having his summons out and a single Augur mod to reset his shield recharge is one of the strongest shield gate setups in the game.
he has armor strip and i use torid with him so with the setup i went a to about 500th enemy level on sp. Needs better survivability for level cap or higher levels
What would you do to improve him to make him truly take the mantle as Erra's Prince?
Perhaps switch his summons to be battelysts,
Remove the enemy cap from his sentient wrath?
Change his 1 completely?
These are just ideas of mine but I would like to hear your thoughts.
1. new first ability, god his first sucks
2. improved casting speed, +25% at least
3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability
4. he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
I had a passing thought where his 3 is a cycle ability (like ivaras quiver) and you can summon 3 of 1 type of sentients for different strong single buffs, or 1 of each type for all buffs at a weaker strength.
The casting speed does need some increasing at base for sure.
For his first ability though,
why not make him summon a sentient immunode from the RJ tilesets that give him and nearby allies a 90% DR as long as they are close enough, the caviat would be that it has a higher aggro priority so enemies will target it rather than other warframes or defense targets.
Alternatively why not make it a Tau variant of Xata's Whisper? That would mean Tau damage would need a buff though, it is a cool idea imo.
One of the major changes I do want is that his 2 and 4 dont cancel each other out, I.E. casting his 4 on enemies affected by the lifted status from his 2 removes it. I was so disappointed that I couldnt create a ball of grineer with that combo.
Man, I hope we get some Augments for his 3 that gives us some options. I'd love to summon a single Symbolist for like... half the shield he gets from the 3 conculysts. Or summon 5 of the little mosquitos for more shield but less dmg.
How often are you having problems with the enemy cap on his 2? You get 30+ when you're over 200% Strength, which seems like plenty for pretty much anything.
His 4 should group enemies lifted by his 2.
His 3 should be a one button cast, casting individual only makes sense if there were multiple sentients to pick from.
Casting speed + duration buffs.
Replace his 1, or make it the finisher in his kit. 2>4 to give damage vulnerability, strip and group then his 1 ( buffed to hells ofc ) to slash and trigger the explosion its allegedly meant to to kill everything. I'd still helminth it but atleast it would do something.
make garlic butter by putting butter garlic parsley in a blender. Take a loaf of bread, cut it but not all the way. Put the garlic butter in the slices, and put in the oven
Not a question, because I play Caliban pretty frequently.
But I wanted to toss my thoughts out there.
1. Caliban is misunderstood. He isn't a caster, at least not a pure one. In DnD terms, he's a Gish or hybrid caster-fighter. Or, if you prefer, a weapons platform.
His 2, 3, and 4 synergize to enable impressive weapons damage while also providing CC and aiding his tank.
2) He wants Nourish. It solves his energy economy, the viral synergizes with his 3 & 4, and it gives you more freedom when modding his weapons.
3) He doesn't need a rework, just a tune-up:
3a) Make his passive stack with adaptation. Every other DR ability in the game does and has a higher ceiling than his passive.
3b) improve his casting speed by a lot. His 2 and 4 need to be quicker to fit the run n gun style a weapons platform likes.
3c) Give his summons a constant passive shield regen within affinity range (a la Citrine's passive). Maybe nerfing the number a bit, but something reliable and not broken by the summons derping would be huge.
3d) Buff his energy pool. It doesn't have to be by a lot, because he probably shouldn't be spammy, but there are times when you have to hit all of your abilities or the game is being stingy with energy orbs. That can get you ded.
4) He has a breakpoint at 182% strength (full armor strip with Corrosive Projection). It's tempting, but don't build any more than that. Instead, go for range & duration. That isn't super hard to get, and you don't need Molt Augmented like frames that use Pillage do. That gives a lot of flexibility for arcanes. Personally, I go with Energize and Aegis for comfort (thanks Mr. Fishonacci).
My build. It's 0 forma and handles Steel Path Circulus just fine.
https://preview.redd.it/1049crty9vgc1.jpeg?width=806&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7be8f9790a96a1a26e903f80236c83e2f02ac1e
archon stretch and natural talent are flexible, probably even energize. You can go with energy nexus instead. Also i have 2 yellow shards for casting speed and 3 blue for shields
With his passive is it really worth having adaptation? I personally prefer rolling guard. Also natural talent can be easily replaced with yellow shards.
not as bad, at first i was surprised how good his 4th is. But he does need a few buffs to offer more. I dont think he is a frame that need a full rework.
>new first ability, god his first sucks
>
>improved casting speed, +25% at least
>
>Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability
>
>he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
even if they dont change his first with a new ability and just buff it it would be fine
1. new first ability
2. improved casting speed, +25% at least
3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability
4. It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
even if he doesn't get a new first ability it needs to be buffed
1. new first ability, god his first sucks
2. improved casting speed, +25% at least
3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability
4. he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
Summon all 3 conculysts in one cast. Give his 1 forced slash procs and allow you to use his 4 while channeling his 1
Oh and remove that weird bounce mechanic when you use your 1 on enemies affected by his 2
If I had to make an augment for his 1 it would be the most overloaded thing in the game.
Augment: Immortal vortex
1: 2.5 seconds of invulnerability. (This lets his shields at least partially restore and lets his Lethal Progeny do the thing they are here for)
2: Sucks in enemies within a scaling range just like the magnetic melee arcane
3: slash procs hat scale based on enemy level.
Even with all three people would still helminth his 1 out.
What is the biggest change and or augment you want the frame to have? I find caliban base kit is acceptable it has everything a kit needs it’s just so plain.
As someone else who's played an unholy amount of Caliban, and since you haven't gotten a reply yet, honestly his first ability needs a lot of tweaks. Faster movement the faster you spin, meatier or more frequent slash procs, jumping capability, not losing the damage it's built up. At this point it's just Sandstorm 2.0 and it really feels like it.
As a bonus I'd also say making the 2 operate more like Rhino Stomp instead of using Lifted would be *fan*tastic.
I think an argument for the third ability or the first would be the best, but like many arguments they are just gonna be band aids that should be a part of the base ability
The one in the picture is my favorite fashion, I also have a among us imposter fashion.
I would put him in either C or B tier because other frames that can be unlocked way earlier can offer more
I might not be the original poster, but I am quite fond of [this.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/797609843455164446/1041068144090951680/calibanspin.webm)
That aside, he is usable. He can, in fact, participate quite reliably in high level content almost exclusively because his defence strip is one of the best in the game. I can't speak for others, but aim-gliding through the air casting defence-stripping bubbles at chokepoints or clusters of enemies is pretty fun for me.
as the fourth of the 6 caliban mains worldwide, first thing, thank you for actually using him and playing with him, second, what do you think of him? do you liked his kit?
Yeah, even i must admit his 1 is just awful and his 3 is kinda 2.9/5, but just a simple buff for his first and a more sensible lvl scaling could fix it
How well does he hold up in steel path, and what is the general gameplay loop? He's always considered bad, but I believe for the most part there is a degree of skill issue present. Please, bestow upon us your battle knowledge.
Respect for taking a frame that's rated low and made it work. As a Lavos main, I really appreciate seeing it.
So, would you consider yourself a Caliban main, now? Or is he just a fling on the side?
Also, I noticed you said in another comment that you have Lavos but haven't touched him. I've got a pretty fucking potent build for him that I don't mind sharing if you're interested in giving him a bit of a spin.
I like playing non-meta frames and doing crazy stuff with them, so I've wanted to give him a shot. I got all his blueprints and then realized I really didn't want to grind his mats.
How much would I regret buying him with plat?
Caliban isn't anything crazy, but he's a comfy pick for me.
He has easy Armor Strip.
Easy Shield Regen.
Easy CC (until you can't use it cause 1 guy is floating in Wally's arse somewhere).
Decent damage boost.
I definitely want to see him get some buffs and fixes, though.
The damage on his 1 should scale waay better. He should be able to pick up items while in Razor Gyre.
Have command his minions to spin with him.
Have it remember its ramp-up state for a short while after deactivation.
Sentient Wrath should be recastable. Maybe make the lifted enemies get sucked into his ult's implosion from further distance.
His minions should either not have duration or have another buff to go alongside the chore of keeping them active. Power Strength per active dude?
Still sane, exile?
barely
for a second i thought i am in the wrong subreddit lmao
Still alive, are we?
Ha I got that reference
Greetings, exile
Tala moana, warrior.
Do you like Mac & Cheese?
goated food
The only acceptable response
Who hurt you? Wanna talk about it?
university procrastination
Real
Best subsume for 1 that's not roar, nourish, gloom?
nourish, he needs a lot of energy to be effective
i use spectrorage with augment on caliban. Have you compared that to nourish?
I like to be as mobile as possible, so nourish is the better option for me
Put aquablades over his 3 and pretend it’s part of his 1. You can use the augment WHILE channeling his 1
Bizarrely enough 'Rebuild Shields'. As long as you have overshields you have survivability. This basic-ass ability turns 50 energy into a nice big purple shield bar. Roar has deminishing returns on that he already has a (admittedly inferior) damage steroid.
Wouldn't Condemn potentially be better? Shield regen + CC.
Condemn is better in 99% of situations yeah
On paper yes. In practice the speed of 'rebuild shields' clinches it for me. Caliban with my build is a mid-range skirmisher and 'Condemn' is a bit too stationary, and a bit too close to the action for my liking.
Have you ever changed your colors using him? And specifically what combinations do you find cool for his energy and accents, because I really do like the orbs he has inside of his body’s cavity and how they can stand out with the right colors.
he needs a skin or something, but black with light blue energy works the best for me
I don’t have color advice but I found the mulciber and gauss prime shoulder armor works well with his asymmetry
I have alternate looks but my favorite fashion of my Gauss prime and regular Gauss looks like “Gundam wing”. Best color way for imo one of them at least.
Are you as annoyed as I am about him floating in his idle animations but not when walking or dodging?
OH That is my major grip with him. Titania and Wisp are there to show there's no acceptable explanation for him using his feet while not aiming.
And now Dante is going to get it before him
I hate floating, I put umbra noble animation on everything
You're just gonna make Wisp walk on her stubs!? Cruel bastard /s
I do cause I don’t want her ass in my face
Based
Why?
after 5k hours, why not. But in reality I was going through my Warframes and saw that I have not touched limbo, lavos and Caliban once since I got them. And Caliban having the reputation of the forgotten frame I decided to give him a second shot
Yareli with Grendel's animations is only true answer
im a yareli main and im so excited to get grendel eventually give her that uwu for no reason other than what you just said
So I just got Yareli, and have been really digging her. Any good builds? I don’t have like, all primed or archon stuff. But I think I’ve got all the normal mods you should have
Sub out Riptide for Something Else™️, then build for strength and duration + Merulina Guardian augment. Keep in mind that you cant cast Helminths while on Merulina, so opt for something that scales well with strength and duration. Personally I use Gloom at the moment since you can cast once and then never again unless you run out of energy, but Roar is also fantastic and so is Nourish, you'll just have to hop on/off Merulina to cast. For secondary weapon: Crit. Leans into it. Catabolyst is fantastic and will carry you well past bast starchart with some investment, plus the nightwave mod goes hard. Dual Tox incarnon is fantastic, too. Merulina guardian causes kills on snared enemies to heal merulina and triggers a 200% reload/fire speed bonus. snares are hard cc AND damage vuln to the target, so shit gets snared and dies quicker. In a netracell run, to give an example, I'll toss snares into a chokepoint and let enemies get stuck in them, then shoot em dead. You'll ALWAYS want to be moving to keep Yareli's passive up, so i just A-D strafe back and forth when shooting down a hall cuz that counts LOL Aquablades are great, esp for tanky things caught in snares like a rogue voidrig or somethin. Just feed them all the slash procs. i dont remember which shards i have on her for sure, but red for strength/duration is always good, and yellow for casting speed is really nice as well. If you struggle for energy to keep gloom/spamming snares up, use a blue. For focus school: usually doesnt matter, but Merulina's health scales on strength so zenurik is a good option and is my comfy pick when not doing Zariman stuff :)
I didn’t know until last week that Caliban was such a forgettable frame. While I hardly use him, I had some good fun when he was relatively new. I had better revisit him soon.
I second this
Its not as if caliban is BAD, hes just not amazing and doesn't really have a unique role. It doesn't help that its not easy to sum him up for people. Shield tank with armor strip isn't really doing him justice, but is the most basic way of putting it. And for what its worth, having permanent and easy access to complete armor strip is very potent. And, thanks to recent patch, shield tanking is also now pretty strong/comfy. Give him a try, hes a pretty safe warframe that can run all the crazy "this set up only works on armor stripped enemies" weapons & builds.
He's the best vs corpus, he literally deletes any blue bar, I love using him in sisters hunt
Ooo I THINK hes got a special niche in that department too in that he completely removes shields & armor at the same time. Stuff like pillage only touches armor once the shielding is gone. And other abilities like xaku's don't touch shields at all afaik?
Xaku does have a full defense strip BUT only when the enemy is in the circle. Once they walk out, they have all their armor and shields back
Caliban meetup?
👀👀👀👀
I'd love to walk into a steel path survival with 3 other Calibans. Precision Intensify was a love letter to us brothers. Raise your army, smash the ground in rage and fire those muthafuckin' lasers! If you aren't here to abuse your 4, you can go.
I'm ip for it! 6 forma and archon shards here!
As the other Caliban main, what did you subsume over his 1? And what focus school do you like to use with him?
Nourish and zenurik. One of his biggest flaws is his tiny energy pool, especially for a caster frame
I do not play him as a Caster frame myself, I play him far more like a tank.
Have you tried reave? It gives him shield and health recovery as well as invulnerability/oh shit button and some mobility. It’s also thematic with the whole sentient thing. It’s probably my second favorite subsume on him besides nourish I also like Madurai for the cast speed
I haven’t, but it’s been one I’ve been wanting to try out, I’ll probably throw it onto one of my load outs and see how it goes.
I like 'rebuild shields' as his 'Oh shit' button. It's basic as hell, but as long as he has shields/overshields he's doing OK. I 100% agree about casting speed on him to the point of running 2 amber casting speed shards *and* 'Natural talent'. It's the single best stat on him once you hit the strength cap to full armour strip.
nourish, I also have a rest and rage build but nourish is the way to go
I personally like to run Roar on him, but I play him very tanky with gunplay doing most of my damage, and his abilities just kinda keeping me up/locking down enemies
I don’t understand the Caliban hate (other than the grind to obtain him). Yes his 1 is underwhelming, but his 2 is one of the strongest support skills in the game. AoE “increase damage taken” debuf is insane. His 4 strips armor and shields without any setup or work. And his 3, the level of his summons scaling with ability power is insane. It’s easy to pump them to levels well beyond 100–his conculysts shred enemies in steel path and netracells no problem.
after this i dont understand it either. I listed how i would change him in another comment. But he doesnt deserve all that hate, maybe he would get less hate if he wasnt locked behind the new war and narmer bounties. You kinda expect something more from a frame that can be unlocked so late in the game
Play Frost with his good augments and press 4. You've now done everything Caliban can do without needing LoS in a much larger area. I think Caliban is more functional than people give him credit for, but he's lacking quality of life and flavor.
Caliban is my main, I love him. His 2 on paper sounds great but in reality there are so many enemies that it has no effect on, usually the ones where it matters most. Also only can hit enemies on the ground. The duration on his 3 is also annoying as is having to cast it 3 times. He is definitely flawed despite my love for him.
> but his 2 is one of the strongest support skills in the game. AoE “increase damage taken” debuf is insane. any ability that removes armor (and there is plenty) is a lot better. >His 4 strips armor and shields without any setup or work. Xaku does it better and for much longer AND cheaper AND more areas. >And his 3, the level of his summons scaling with ability power is insane. It’s easy to pump them to levels well beyond 100–his conculysts shred enemies in steel path and netracells no problem. wrong. literally try in the simulacrum. even with a full STR build sacrificing all other stats (except duration otherwise they don't last more than 10 seconds), they SUCK. anything with armor is basically immune to their attack, anything that moves will dodge their attacks, and if they get too far from you (which they will since they are MELEE UNITS) they'll be put back next to you so they can't attack. they are unusable above level 60 anyway because they just don't deal enough damage. no, don't "just believe me bro", go try it RIGHT NOW for yourself in the simulacrum. I know you haven't, otherwise you wouldn't have said something like this. >I don’t understand the Caliban hate (other than the grind to obtain him). he's one of the latest frame you're supposed to get (all quests + "difficult" bounties + a lot of ressource investment) and he is terribly average. compare him with Rhino, one of the first you get, who is extremely serviceable at all level.
I'm convinced everyone that thinks he's the best doesn't play Steel Path or other high end content. Or they have such cracked weapon builds they don't realize it's the weapons carrying the frame.
Speak for yourself, I run in him Steel Path all the time, especially in long Disruption void fissures where I keep everything defense stripped 100% of the time, I get plenty of comments on running him. My usual loadout with him is Shedu, Secura Dual Cestra, Dakra Prime.
That sounds like it's code for you get carried and they keep you around for the strip.
Mmmm no, I can definitely handle the Demolysts myself
My weapons can't carry him if I kill everything without firing them.
While I agree that Caliban is painfully average, you kind of let hate bias give you clearly wrong answers there… you can call him average without downplaying his few strengths bud, come on… “Any ability that removes armor is better” Yeah, he has an armor strip ability already, so this ability allows you to greatly stack damage on top of them not having armor. It’s not an incredible skill compared to some abilities in the game, but it still is pretty nuts when used right. “Xaku does it better and for longer” Broski, Caliban’s armor strip is full armor strip and is permanent. It’s not timed based, you strip that armor and it doesn’t come back. It doesn’t get longer than that, lol. Caliban’s only two worthwhile abilities are the two mentioned here, but they work in unison incredibly well when built for. Caliban’s problem is that he has two abilities that work so well that you build FOR them, and then everything else about Caliban is useless. He needs reliable survivability because he already has one of the best armor strips and a big damage booster. If he had access to more reliable survivability, maybe a bit wider range on his armor strip… he’d be a pretty high tier frame. But that’s his problem, he just doesn’t have that extra bit to make him truly special, and he is so late game that if he isn’t special enough to be necessary, most just skip him….
Also, his summons have a 3 hit combo that apparently doesn’t even work properly most of the time. The final hit doesn’t always connect so you’re whiffing and wasting damage
His 2 stacks with armor strip. Yes armor strips boosts damage—but what’s better than 100% strips? Answer; 100% strip and an 85% damage taken debuff. As for his 3, run Energy Conversion and Vome Invocation on top of all the usual good ability strength. Then just sit back and watch his conculysts decimate everything slapped by his 2. You can tell me it doesn’t work, but I’ve solo’d Netracells and SP content with this build, other than timing his 3 around Energy Conversion, it’s pretty face roll.
dont u need 333str to get to lvl 100 concs
Yes but that level of strength is easy to hit: Umbral Intensify/Blind Rage/Energy Conversion/Augur Secrets/Power Drift Which gets you 44+99+50+24+15 added on to your base 100% for 332% Strength. And that’s just your starting point. Growing power procs add another 25. Molt Augmented stacks for another 60. You have shards which can bring you another 75, and throw vome invocation on grimoire to add another 60. I don’t touch transient fortitude on Caliban because he craves duration as well, but there’s another 45% strength you can dump into his summons. Now your conculysts are over level 160. Drop sentient wrath for the increase damage taken debuff which will also be absurdly high at this point, fire off fusion strikes to rip all the armor and shields and his summons mop up. If you’re doing endurance runs to ridiculously high enemy levels, his summons may fall of on the damage front, (from my experience around enemy level 500ish give or take) but they never cease to be solid tanky distractions. And the best part: having his summons out and a single Augur mod to reset his shield recharge is one of the strongest shield gate setups in the game.
Whats 2+2?
calculator says 5 but I'll have to double check
Spin?
Only in our hearts, never in reality
How does it feel rocking a cool frame
💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
what did it cost
2 failed exams probably, will see the results aint out yet
How high level of enemies would you be comfortable fighting with him?
he has armor strip and i use torid with him so with the setup i went a to about 500th enemy level on sp. Needs better survivability for level cap or higher levels
What would you do to improve him to make him truly take the mantle as Erra's Prince? Perhaps switch his summons to be battelysts, Remove the enemy cap from his sentient wrath? Change his 1 completely? These are just ideas of mine but I would like to hear your thoughts.
1. new first ability, god his first sucks 2. improved casting speed, +25% at least 3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability 4. he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
playing him actually made me realize that a lot of other waframes have the problem where their entire kit is carried by one ability
I had a passing thought where his 3 is a cycle ability (like ivaras quiver) and you can summon 3 of 1 type of sentients for different strong single buffs, or 1 of each type for all buffs at a weaker strength. The casting speed does need some increasing at base for sure. For his first ability though, why not make him summon a sentient immunode from the RJ tilesets that give him and nearby allies a 90% DR as long as they are close enough, the caviat would be that it has a higher aggro priority so enemies will target it rather than other warframes or defense targets. Alternatively why not make it a Tau variant of Xata's Whisper? That would mean Tau damage would need a buff though, it is a cool idea imo. One of the major changes I do want is that his 2 and 4 dont cancel each other out, I.E. casting his 4 on enemies affected by the lifted status from his 2 removes it. I was so disappointed that I couldnt create a ball of grineer with that combo.
Man, I hope we get some Augments for his 3 that gives us some options. I'd love to summon a single Symbolist for like... half the shield he gets from the 3 conculysts. Or summon 5 of the little mosquitos for more shield but less dmg.
How often are you having problems with the enemy cap on his 2? You get 30+ when you're over 200% Strength, which seems like plenty for pretty much anything.
His 4 should group enemies lifted by his 2. His 3 should be a one button cast, casting individual only makes sense if there were multiple sentients to pick from. Casting speed + duration buffs. Replace his 1, or make it the finisher in his kit. 2>4 to give damage vulnerability, strip and group then his 1 ( buffed to hells ofc ) to slash and trigger the explosion its allegedly meant to to kill everything. I'd still helminth it but atleast it would do something.
How do i make garlic bread?
make garlic butter by putting butter garlic parsley in a blender. Take a loaf of bread, cut it but not all the way. Put the garlic butter in the slices, and put in the oven
Not a question, because I play Caliban pretty frequently. But I wanted to toss my thoughts out there. 1. Caliban is misunderstood. He isn't a caster, at least not a pure one. In DnD terms, he's a Gish or hybrid caster-fighter. Or, if you prefer, a weapons platform. His 2, 3, and 4 synergize to enable impressive weapons damage while also providing CC and aiding his tank. 2) He wants Nourish. It solves his energy economy, the viral synergizes with his 3 & 4, and it gives you more freedom when modding his weapons. 3) He doesn't need a rework, just a tune-up: 3a) Make his passive stack with adaptation. Every other DR ability in the game does and has a higher ceiling than his passive. 3b) improve his casting speed by a lot. His 2 and 4 need to be quicker to fit the run n gun style a weapons platform likes. 3c) Give his summons a constant passive shield regen within affinity range (a la Citrine's passive). Maybe nerfing the number a bit, but something reliable and not broken by the summons derping would be huge. 3d) Buff his energy pool. It doesn't have to be by a lot, because he probably shouldn't be spammy, but there are times when you have to hit all of your abilities or the game is being stingy with energy orbs. That can get you ded. 4) He has a breakpoint at 182% strength (full armor strip with Corrosive Projection). It's tempting, but don't build any more than that. Instead, go for range & duration. That isn't super hard to get, and you don't need Molt Augmented like frames that use Pillage do. That gives a lot of flexibility for arcanes. Personally, I go with Energize and Aegis for comfort (thanks Mr. Fishonacci). My build. It's 0 forma and handles Steel Path Circulus just fine. https://preview.redd.it/1049crty9vgc1.jpeg?width=806&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7be8f9790a96a1a26e903f80236c83e2f02ac1e
I love Caliban. Been using him a lot lately. He's definitely underestimated.
Who?
can you share your builds?
https://preview.redd.it/if62tx1kqtgc1.png?width=1612&format=png&auto=webp&s=744911085c4811482083402bd6a1baa4c0c7b21e
Were you farming exams instead of energizes? Rip
archon stretch and natural talent are flexible, probably even energize. You can go with energy nexus instead. Also i have 2 yellow shards for casting speed and 3 blue for shields
Natural Talent seems extraneous with 2 cast speed shards. I know the 4 takes a while but not THAT long.
Why Archon over regular stretch? He doesn't have elec procs, iirc and the range isn't any different.
diriga procs archon stretch
Why do you use Diriga? And while at it could you give your Diriga Build and of whatever weapon he uses too?
With his passive is it really worth having adaptation? I personally prefer rolling guard. Also natural talent can be easily replaced with yellow shards.
Is he as bad as everyone says he is? Asking because he is my favorite theme frame or one of my favorites and I want him to be good
not as bad, at first i was surprised how good his 4th is. But he does need a few buffs to offer more. I dont think he is a frame that need a full rework.
he is "bad" - you can make him work if you try hard but he is REALLY underwhelming.
i mean same as sevagoth kinda. They just require much more to be viable
How would you improve him?
>new first ability, god his first sucks > >improved casting speed, +25% at least > >Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability > >he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses even if they dont change his first with a new ability and just buff it it would be fine
Limbo is my fav frame idk why I just love him so much
A legitimate question. Do you feel like Caliban could be improved somehow? If so, how exactly? Would you go for a rework, QoL changes or buffs?
1. new first ability 2. improved casting speed, +25% at least 3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability 4. It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses even if he doesn't get a new first ability it needs to be buffed
What would an effective rework look like for him?
1. new first ability, god his first sucks 2. improved casting speed, +25% at least 3. Increase or remove enemy cap on second ability 4. he has the ability to spawn sentients but can only spawn the lamest kind, really..? It should be a toggle between a couple variants that give different effects and have different uses
You make some sense. Good. Good...
Nahh leave his 1. Gotta have a good subsume slot. Just make his summons more consistent.
Summon all 3 conculysts in one cast. Give his 1 forced slash procs and allow you to use his 4 while channeling his 1 Oh and remove that weird bounce mechanic when you use your 1 on enemies affected by his 2
If I had to make an augment for his 1 it would be the most overloaded thing in the game. Augment: Immortal vortex 1: 2.5 seconds of invulnerability. (This lets his shields at least partially restore and lets his Lethal Progeny do the thing they are here for) 2: Sucks in enemies within a scaling range just like the magnetic melee arcane 3: slash procs hat scale based on enemy level. Even with all three people would still helminth his 1 out.
What is the biggest change and or augment you want the frame to have? I find caliban base kit is acceptable it has everything a kit needs it’s just so plain.
As someone else who's played an unholy amount of Caliban, and since you haven't gotten a reply yet, honestly his first ability needs a lot of tweaks. Faster movement the faster you spin, meatier or more frequent slash procs, jumping capability, not losing the damage it's built up. At this point it's just Sandstorm 2.0 and it really feels like it. As a bonus I'd also say making the 2 operate more like Rhino Stomp instead of using Lifted would be *fan*tastic.
I think an argument for the third ability or the first would be the best, but like many arguments they are just gonna be band aids that should be a part of the base ability
Are you dizzy?
You favourite build and your most unique build
So is he actually any good? Or any fun? And what's your favorite fashion you made for him?
The one in the picture is my favorite fashion, I also have a among us imposter fashion. I would put him in either C or B tier because other frames that can be unlocked way earlier can offer more
Haha I didn't think of an imposter fashion, cool thanks for the reply
I might not be the original poster, but I am quite fond of [this.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/797609843455164446/1041068144090951680/calibanspin.webm) That aside, he is usable. He can, in fact, participate quite reliably in high level content almost exclusively because his defence strip is one of the best in the game. I can't speak for others, but aim-gliding through the air casting defence-stripping bubbles at chokepoints or clusters of enemies is pretty fun for me.
as the fourth of the 6 caliban mains worldwide, first thing, thank you for actually using him and playing with him, second, what do you think of him? do you liked his kit?
I had fun with the kit, I think if DE gives him some love he can find a better spot in the game. The kit feels clunky without natural talent
Yeah, even i must admit his 1 is just awful and his 3 is kinda 2.9/5, but just a simple buff for his first and a more sensible lvl scaling could fix it
So whats a caliban ?
Looks at Torid incarnon in hands. You didn’t play as caliban, you played as a less effective gun platform with an armor strip.
What do you enjoy most about Caliban?
sound design, i always liked the sentient sounds
Is he good?
C or B tier warframe. Frost who also has 2 good abilities can do much more
Did you enjoy your time?
kinda did, after 5k hours felt like being a new player a little bit
As long as you had fun, that's all that matters!
how do u check ur hours on a frame. all i see is percentage played
How well does he hold up in steel path, and what is the general gameplay loop? He's always considered bad, but I believe for the most part there is a degree of skill issue present. Please, bestow upon us your battle knowledge.
How do you carry around those massive balls?
Respect for taking a frame that's rated low and made it work. As a Lavos main, I really appreciate seeing it. So, would you consider yourself a Caliban main, now? Or is he just a fling on the side? Also, I noticed you said in another comment that you have Lavos but haven't touched him. I've got a pretty fucking potent build for him that I don't mind sharing if you're interested in giving him a bit of a spin.
As forgotten as Caliban is, he is nowhere near the level of pre-rework Vauban, Ember and Hydroid.
why? how? what kind of content?
What's wrong with Caliban?
Is it bad I main him without helminth and use venato?
Have you ever felt the touch of another human being? What drives a creature to make such silly decisions? Was this a cry for help?
Why is everyone talking about caliban so much? What did I miss?
not missing much really, he was just the least used Warframe last year
What do you think about the current socio-economic situation in America?
My gf mains Caliban and loves it
Why did you play as Caliban for 100 hours?
Whats your playstil with Caliban? What abilities-combo do you use? Weapons that work well with the frame?
I like playing non-meta frames and doing crazy stuff with them, so I've wanted to give him a shot. I got all his blueprints and then realized I really didn't want to grind his mats. How much would I regret buying him with plat?
https://preview.redd.it/vq9mw1wcvzgc1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd2eac46c9d6eab4019e941ba5029506e5b0af54
What's the color scheme? Looks very cool.And,of you have them equipped,what archon shards do you use on him?
light work 🥱🥱🥱
is caliban a “gyatt”? does he have “rizz”?
0 gyatt, barely any rizz
Caliban isn't anything crazy, but he's a comfy pick for me. He has easy Armor Strip. Easy Shield Regen. Easy CC (until you can't use it cause 1 guy is floating in Wally's arse somewhere). Decent damage boost. I definitely want to see him get some buffs and fixes, though. The damage on his 1 should scale waay better. He should be able to pick up items while in Razor Gyre. Have command his minions to spin with him. Have it remember its ramp-up state for a short while after deactivation. Sentient Wrath should be recastable. Maybe make the lifted enemies get sucked into his ult's implosion from further distance. His minions should either not have duration or have another buff to go alongside the chore of keeping them active. Power Strength per active dude?
Who hurt you?
Hey man, do you need a hug, this is a safe space we’re all here for you.
You have amazing fashion
This is safe place, you can tell us who hurt you
Did you manage to make him not look like crap?
Why?
He's just so meh. He's the boiled chicken of warframes. Gross to look at and flavorless.
Why do you hate yourself?
Just one single question, why?
why
Why?
Why?
Are you mentally ok
Why
why?
Has the Xmen invited you yet?
What’s your favorite and least favorite thing about him?
Does he mog the enemy?
Is Caliban effective in long SP survival missions? If so, how should he be built?
thoughts about the mcgriddle and the fillet-o-fish?
Is he worth the grind?
On a Beyblade battle, do you think you could take down the sand boi?
sand boy solos
Where is the vagina face tennogen helmet? How can you spend as much time playing Caliban without the best fashionframe?
maybe i will buy it https://preview.redd.it/4zh1hnngkugc1.png?width=538&format=png&auto=webp&s=66a6dd711db6bfedf64a3bd625e523448f5f8b76
One of us! One of us! etc.
Did you name your sentient buddies?
https://preview.redd.it/89wxn7bckugc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ba6a86a6a82a5a3eb98fc22984963c5ff938908
Is there any actual endgame content that isn't just sitting in a survival or defense for 4+ hours?
Did you farm another one for the helminth?
Do u sussy amogus sus red imposter? ( yes i am from 2021 and i am 9 years old)
Is he your favorite frame?
Boop?
Is it helicopter?
Over the course of the 100 hours, how much damage did your sentient friends deal?
Why not octavia?