Warframe | Is Damage Reduction Dead?

[@CoolKid369]

Hope you all enjoyed! I have a few survivability sources from the first sections I missed and want to add here: Invisibility - Shade and the Huras Kubrow can make you invisible, which is broken by weapon attacks but not abilities. Invincibility - Being in Limbo's Rift also makes you invincible to enemies outside the rift, except for Eximus abilities, along with Baruuk being invincible to attacks within a certain angle from Elude and Zephyr being immune to projectiles with her 3. Nyx is also invincible while in Absorb, and the Rolling Guard mod also makes you invincible after rolling for 3 seconds (on a cool down). Damage Reduction - Mods like Aviator, Aerodynamic and the Boreal set bonus grant damage reduction while in the air, which can also be stacked with other DR sources. I also want to say that a few people have rightfully pointed out that Thrax spawns increase with level in Void Cascade, so in that environment it is much more worth staying till levelcap than i gave it credit for. That's a completely fair argument and I'm entirely willing to admit I did not consider that fact strongly enough, though it is still only one game mode in the entire game that rewards getting to that level and it still takes more time than most people are willing to invest.

[@A_Game_Zone]

Already told in vid but, I tested the possible perma shield gate on Grendel. Turns out your gate ends immediately as soon as you start regenerating shields. This means no matter how much you buff shield recharge and reduce shields, he won't have perma gate.

[@filorvus6982]

I think Rolling Guard is worth mention too at Invincibility section

[@pigslayer275]

Me going to level cap circuit with just shield of shadows nekros:

[@A_Game_Zone]

Damage redirection 👌 I heard it even decreases the shield drain of hildryn's abilities

[@blakezekin553]

This is why I subsumed silence on my limbo. No damage allowed in my rift plane.

[@usdepartmentoftreasuryinte6052]

remember kids: it doesn't matter how much damage the enemy does if you kill them fast enough.

[@praneelprasad5042]

Dmg meta smh… You right

[@furiouskaiser9914]

The best status effect is D E A D 😅

[@nathaliethelittledemon1535]

As a gauss player there's 2 outcome 1: i kill the enemy too fast 2: the enemy barely manage to damage my shield

[@telatomodosh7410]

This is unironically my mesa levelcap strat. I die if I stop killing the enemies so.. I just kill them more

[@Argetbrisingr101]

As a Saryn main... Yeah. I can't remember the last time I was downed doing netracells, enemies seem to just disappear once they enter Occucor range.

[@alphaone739]

I like the camera angles and jokes in the introduction section, comically large asterix jumpscare

[@thefrumentarii8909]

I think people often also forget that just playing the game makes enemies so much less effective. Things like being airborne dropping enemy accuracy and different status effects distracting them or stunning them are incredible assets people forget about when thinking of survivability. My most half-assed gyre shield gating build uses aegis, redirection and silence and that's enough to keep me alive 30 mins into level 225 sanctum survival so long as I basically never stand still, the second I stop moving I die.

[@elementall3623]

You know, funny thing about that is that being airborne doesn't decrease enemy accuracy. It's strictly based on how fast you are moving, and being airborne happens to be a great way of doing that. Hope this helps in some way. :3

[@imjustaguy1721]

The one thing that you need to look out for is green toxin clouds or red health leech eximus since they go through armor and shields. Everything else breaks your shield and you have 0.5 seconds of invincibilty which gives you enough time to press shift twice with ROLLING GUARD and recharge your shield. Or in my case use Gauss press 4 and equipe fast deflection or something for fast shield recharge and you are pretty much invincible cause Gauss 4th increases shield recharge And Gauss 2nd abbility makes you immune to stagger therefore you can never get knocked down or stunned by your own explosions. So yeah toxin is my only natural enemy

[@anstorner]

With banshee i can survive level cap enemies by having Aegis, Barrier, Redirection, Vigilance vigor and fast deflection

[@drask1988]

that just becomes an accessibility issue though, locking survivability behind quick paced action is bad for people with disabilities, especially when the "lazy" way ( dr/regen) that would be the preferred solution is the one suffering the most from not being active

[@fashionsuckman4652]

​@@drask1988being disabled is always going to make a game that attempts on any way to challenge you more difficult

[@VoraciousSergal]

DR is useful for everything at least below level 250. So 99.(9)% of the game.

[@SmoothTurtle840]

Yeah lol, it’s even still useful for Netracells and EDA.

[@underatededm93]

more like anything below level 1000

[@OniGanon]

It's useful until ~lv600.

[@farhanrahmaddani3218]

in my experience my mesa with only its 2nd ability for dr (no shard) start to be killed at lv 800

[@molassesman4066]

Unfortunately duviri exists and level 600 can happen in 2 minutes now

[@sajinkahnalt]

When I was making my baruuk video, your DR layout would’ve been huge. I talked about how the more DR you get, even by a few % points, in the 99%+ range, it feels like those minuscule points do a lot more than you’d think, and you lay it out perfectly. Wish I had this to reference then.

[@villepore7013]

Of note on Nezha, while he is a good tank, he can very effectively leverage the invincibility warding halo gives on cast and on break, alongside rolling guard and shield gating with his very low base shields, allowing you to chain invincibility periods with relative ease. And because it is a chain of several sources, it is much less spammy than basic shield gating, which is the main reason people, me included, don't like to use it.

[@CoolKid369]

That's a good point! Yareli can do something similar by repeatedly getting on and off Meruliuna, but that honestly is rather annoying lol.

[@xanthacanthus]

the big issue with trying to leverage warding halo's gate is that if you take a few stray bullets during the invincibility period of halo's initial cast (at a level where you would want to abuse the gate), you will likely end up with a warding halo HP greater than what your nezha can actually tank, often resulting in your death before the halo breaks.

[@Cantaloupe_Connoiseur]

​@@xanthacanthus which is why you want to also use catalyzing shields and brief reapite to instantly max out your shields on a firewalker cast. That combined with the shield regen mods and rolling guard makes you almost entirely invincible at all times. You also still get massive damage with archon shards and a roar subsume.

[@xanthacanthus]

⁠​⁠@@Cantaloupe_Connoiseurok so just... a normal shield gate setup with a tertiary source of I-frames? that isn't unique to nezha.

[@villepore7013]

@@xanthacanthus Other way around, the warding halo invincibility is the main one, shield gate and rolling guard is there for when it fails.

[@knicklichtjedi]

As a Path of Exile player, I already knew what the answer here would be. A good tanking setup is the synergy of multiple smaller parts: HP, Recovery, DR. Heavily investing in one category and neglecting others, makes you more squishy than when you spread out your investment across all of them. Which is even more noticeable for sources of DR. Two 75% DRs make your 1.6 times more tanky than one 90% source. I love direct tanking, but it took me years to fully understand this concept and philosophies behind it. So I can see, how simpler concepts like shield gating are more popular.

[@thahrdworkingingo]

This is major reason I feel omamori is a fantastic survivability tool. Yeah, it's 50% chance to not take damage and heal, which can be seen as a 50% chance every 3 seconds to get obliterated or not. But the heal on higher levels sends your shields to the moon giving you huge recovery that damage reduction can work off of as well as refreshing your shield gating every time it procs. Stacked on top of a little bonus armor/adaptation and koumei ends up being one of the smoother warframes I play.

[@O-bearer-mine]

This exactly, it's the reason adaptation is not good enough on its own, but that it only takes a lvl 2 version of the mod for me to get good results, but higher level of the mod works better in endgame ofc

[@DawnAfternoon]

This also applies to shieldgating where most people think you have to only rely on shieldgating to survive without caring about other ways to survive, creating a hyperactive playstyle that's far too hectic to keep up, when you could have paired shieldgating with a degree of CC or even Radiaton proc from your Companion to make their playstyle much more comfortable.

[@arutemisemtrai9769]

This is the principle I put on my shadows necros. Adaptation shield of shadows, and eclipse, triple dipping DR that covers the shields, while taking advantage of the augur setup to keep the shields up. Adaptation is 90% to one damage type, SoS is 90% to all damage types and status immunity, eclipse adds another 75%, all of these cover each other. My Nekros has just stopped dying.

[@quantumhawk806]

​@@thahrdworkingingo as a poe player reading 50% chance for uptime does not scare me anymore.

[@upside-downsmore9437]

4:35 never in my life have i ever seen rhino's passive be used on purpose like that oh my god

[@eximusbum1996]

Word, I was flabbergasted

[@Vaxtin]

Noticed as well, and wondered if it was just for the video or if its something they do just for kicks.

[@gatordragon6140]

His passive is actually pretty goofy if you kit him out for it, his passive also works with melee slams so do with that what you will

[@upside-downsmore9437]

@@gatordragon6140 oh stacking it with melee slams sounds GOOFY i gotta try that

[@gatordragon6140]

@@upside-downsmore9437 just a heads up it also stacks with heavy impact

[@googlygoink]

worth noting that you can make a Dante specter which will give you, your allies, and your companions overguard and the overguard regen on kill ability. This has a cap of 15k and pretty much solves survivability issues by itself on any mission that allows specter usage.

[@GreytestGrey]

They called me crazy for my tanky khora build (no one did, just the voices in my head)

[@hateful_data]

crazy? i was crazy once.

[@tarakolindo]

Me with my funni Garuda tank build (why does she need 2000+ armor and energy tanking and Gloom and Dread Ward? yes)

[@provaricus627]

Health tank Khora changed so much that I found it very amusing when another non-tank Khora kept going down in SP Mot

[@crisschan2463]

@@tarakolindo same with my health + energy tanking sevagoth

[@altered-silicone]

making tanky builds for non tanky frames is the best thing

[@Setivyn]

Having played with Qorvex a fair bit, I can attest that (at least with umbral set) Arcane Grace does more than enough healing for him in a majority of content. If Disometric Guard had DR inbuilt, he would be able to face tank a frankly ridiculous amount of damage, even disregarding the CC he has inbuilt, as well as the full status immunity from DG. Still, your points on how at the moment he has none of the fundamental pieces a tank kit usually has are true and I hope DE consider giving him an augment or retouch that gives him an extra DR source to stack.

[@yasinachekzai2567]

This was my experience as well. His armour is *so* high, that it feels like high armour plus DR on top of it. As you said, just Umbral allows him to reach 90% DR through armour and even more. Any source of external healing will keep him alive just fine.

[@Last_Man_Alivv]

I've done similar while using the sancti magistar with him as well.

[@silvercat18]

Steel path is a strange thing - my Grendel has more armour, hit points and defences than a God at this point. I can usually stand in the middle of deep archimedea missions and rez people quite happily while under heavy fire. I can reliably solo archon hunts and so on. But despite all that, one day, some random grineer downed me in one shot when my shield was out. I was like....ok.

[@provaricus627]

Yeah, that Adaptation has to be build up. He must’ve been so sick of your shit he picked up some Tenno’s Kuva Ogris. You should try putting shock absorbers onto your Grendel (if you can fit it in your build) for a sweet constant 20% reduction to IPS!

[@loafofbread9400]

deep archimedea and archon isnt that damage heavy, even elite deep archmedea assassination boss doesnt deal that much even to a frame with 0 spec into tank

[@RapTapTap69]

It was very recently that enemies are no longer able to headshot. I bet that was a lucky headshot lol

[@silvercat18]

@@RapTapTap69 That would certainly explain it.

[@Theguyoverthere603]

Coolkid confirmed horse beater

[@tare104ka]

"Is DR Dead?" Me "thugging it out" on LVL 500 SP with Lavos with just unmaxed triumbra, adaptation and arcane grace: 🤨 (And its not even the best tank setup you could make, i just cba to invest more since its enough for any non-levelcap gameplay) Also there is secret, 6th survivability option: Killwhoring. You cant die if everyone is fucking dead in nanoseconds due to sevagoth oneshotting entire map with augments

[@samreddig8819]

I call that preventative healing

[@juanjox2006]

ah yes ... nuking the entire map in 5 seconds ... the famous survivability tool of ... mirage, saryn and mesa (among other nukers)

[@ThatOneAnnoyingPubPlayer]

Nuking is CC, enemies with the dead status aren't as effective at killing you

[@provaricus627]

You should try putting on Shock Absorbers, free 20% reduction to IPS!

[@cherry9787]

"Death is the best CC"

[@etch-a-mess1598]

Baller video. Had Caliban and Atlas mentioned. You are spared a melee arcane adapter your next netracell

[@provaricus627]

No Grendel though. Sad. The Grungus requires acknowledgement.

[@callumprice1710]

​@@provaricus627he was mentioned in shield gating though.

[@exorack3037]

Mind throwing that melee arcane adapter my way? I'm running low again

[@Antondencoole]

Call me Qorvex the way I'm resistant to women

[@wauchi1895]

Quite the concrete statement I gotta say.

[@provaricus627]

@@wauchi1895 Can’t deny he’s got a rock solid foundation

[@ScorchedIce]

I remember having to explain this to friends arguing (and getting heated about) this kind of topic, but lacking the capacity to word it properly, so thank you for giving me those tools! 🥰I can always just point them here whenever my brain doesn't brain. Also, a side thought: I have some sort of deranged mental condition where I'm obsessed with stacking huge levels of DR and armor on Banshee so she won't evaporate to a stray sneeze like her base design dictates. I'd abuse the Silence stun strat like you mentioned, but that requires Gloom... which is probably the most boring way to play her. Like, every single build I have on her is exploring a different survivability method. Null Star build, Condemn build, Breach Surge build, Gloom + Silence combo, etc. Pablo please just rework her already... In the meantime, nothing will take away my Adaptation, Reconstruct, DR and blue armor shards. (If you're wondering yes I did slap Umbral forma on her too, I said "deranged" for a reason).

[@merilynnshark6144]

Everyone has a main :)

[@callumprice1710]

Have you tried eclipse? 75% dr just in a subsume and you can also get dmg if you want.

[@halcyon1644]

BANSHEE CONDEMN MENTIONED YESSS

[@Bum-t9x]

Dude the banshee , I can relate

[@zockertwins]

As a returning player that hasn't kept up with all the new stuff but will forever be a Banshee main, I would really really appreciate to hear your opinion on the best Banshee build without subsumed abilities, armor shards and arcanes.

[@darkwolf9637]

The small kitty taking hits better that a giant concrete man will always be funny

[@SapphicClown]

To add on ivaras invis, it isn't broken as long as the weapon is silent (to my knowledge) as with the nataruk not being intrinsically silent not breaking invis when nade silent

[@redted5851]

Indeed, while using Prowl loud weapons will disrupt the ability. You can however use cloak arrow to fire loud weapons without breaking invisibility.

[@Few_dinner]

Or you know, use the mod that silences your weapon

[@SapphicClown]

@@Few_dinner yes that's what I use

[@texitocfyd]

Instructions unclear put silence on Ivara instead of prowl. Now I'm dead.

[@textture8651]

I have been working on some theory crafting for qorvex, it's all pretty expensive and you would only do this because it sounds cool. And it's arcane battery, molt reconstruct, blind rage, overextend, stretch, his augment, triple umbral mods and hunter adrenaline, so that 2600 armor and 2k life and 1000 energy, life goes down, energy rises, cast, and health hoes up. Now I just need all the forma and 120000 endo. Like I said, only because it sounds cool

[@ksNanoSquid]

You, my friend, are on the path to enlightenment.

[@samuelemmert5136]

Molt reconstruct is an amazing tool for any frame that wants heals but don’t get them naturally/conveniently. Hydroid and Quorvex pop to mind. Honorary mention to Garuda for using Molt Reconstruct to make energy economy a joke.

[@Fiendir]

I love this strat on so many high armor frames rn, Quorvex, Chroma and even Valkyr does great with it.

[@spencerselzer1328]

I did a budget version of this with oberon for a long time, man I hope he gets reworked

[@makara9792]

Molt reconstruct you say. I’ll have to look into this.

[@-GuessMyName]

Warframe is a game where a wiki is always welcomed, and videos like these are, without a doubt, included!

[@abyssphantom6786]

Thank you for covering such a debated topic, but THANK YOU the most for covering the 2 most important parts imo: Scope of levels for most content, and enemy attack scaling being the main reason for DR fall off points. Personally, I see ZERO benefit to the rate at which enemy attack scales up. It’s because of this that objectives are given Multiple Hundreds of Thousands of shields and health, just so they aren’t instantly destroyed (on top of them almost always being placed out in the worst, open spots where they can be shot from 30+ different angles)

[@zacfor4454]

As someone who has played for going on 6000h. back before we had adaptation or shield gatting and other similar things compared to now. it's like most players just completely forgot you can like actually keep moving to avoid most attacks? The amount of times people barely move/jump as they kill things is insane. Running T4 survival keys used to be my favorite pass time to do when they were in the game and I can tell you right now people were SO much better at surviving just by moving around then they are now it's insane. And before someone says it yes you can avoid hit scan attacks based on how fast you move they almost like auto miss you. I know it was talked about in a dev stream forever ago, but test it yourself if yall don't believe me.

[@WispGraxx]

This is probably the best video I have seen addressing how defenses work in the game in general. I love your content despite not commenting often but this is truly one of the best educational warframe related videos out there. Thank you! Also since you mentioned at some point in the video the silence+slow strategy I suggest you trying Banshee + resonator for silence + charm. You can pretty much disable enemy AI this way and the build is cheaper so you can even fit augments for sonar or sonic boom if u want armor strip (or both!)

[@FoxersBoxers]

I think this a fantastic video that would really help some people on making their builds more survivable in more content. I see arguments regarding DR's lack of effectiveness nearly on the daily and I think this comes from two places: Level cap challenges requiring more efficient methods of survivability and shield gating being thought of as the one-size-fits-all method of survival for every warframe (minus inaros/nidus). This is also a reason why there tends to be a significant amount of slander towards certain frames that utilize CC, armor, DR, or regen to survive. I think a particularly interesting case is Equinox, where one of her forms has horrid survivability while the other form can be leveraged with DR stacking and CC. Particularly, I've recently constructed a build using eclipse in place of her 2 and it stacks multiplicatively with pacify. It gets even better when you add in her peaceful provocation augment and add an 80% slow (+ larger strength snapshot) on top of her shield regeneration from her night form 4. She still has issues, but in utilizing this method, she becomes a very impressive support frame that can effectively build survivability for her teammates through the interactions you describe. Regardless, I really pray you make more videos like this! I know how toxic people can be in discussions like these, but know discussion like this is hugely beneficial to have in community spaces. Your work is greatly appreciated, thank you ^^

[@securatyyy]

It's always irritated me when people use level 9999 enemies as the measuring stick for whether something is good or not. This is something most players never even see to begin with, and not nearly as difficult as they make it out to be. If anything, it alienates newer players because they're constantly being told their builds are bad or incorrect, when steel path missions are what the game is balanced for.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

It’s only shit for Lvl cap but otherwise you’ll be fine for 99% of the game which is what we do anyway. Like lvl cap is done by a percent of a percent of the playerbase.

[@blix17]

When Trinity literally not mentioned while being the best DR frame lol

[@seikijin2308]

I mean true but... U agree it's still shit for level cap r? Even using umbra forma mods.

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

@ yes but it doesn’t matter since almost nobody does it. It works for general content that you will be doing 99.99999999% of the time.

[@elitombenvegnu5308]

there are two other DR strategies that i use that you didn't mentioned... Shield tanking : staking shields to high value + shield regeneration source (WF ablities/arcanes) + [adaptation] + damage reduction abilities = 50%(shield DR) + 90%(adaptation) + 90/75%(WF abilities) = 200* EHP as shields... (do not use against infested enemies!"toxin") Energy tanking: staking energy and armor to high value while using the mod [Quick thinking] + energy regeneration source (WF ablities/arcanes) + [adaptation] + damage reduction abilities = 58.33%(QT mod) + 80%ish (armor) + 90%(adaptation) + 90/75%(null star/eclipse) = 1200* EHP Shield tanking have the plus side of also having the shield gating machanic to save you ass, but the down side of being ineffective against toxin and dealing poorly against magnetic... Energy tanking is a good option for frames with low shield and HP values and high energy capacity, combining blue archon shards for armor + [Flow]/arcane batery for further increasing energy capacity, it have the plus side of benefiting from both energy and life regen, but have the down side of using "your health" to cast your WF abilities, magnetic is also a problem... and there are thos F*** infested ancient energy leeches... they can zero your energy in 1 sec... "sorry for my bad grammar, english is my 3° lenguage"

[@Felinaxo]

I use Shield tanking with hildryn, and my workaround for toxin is using Nezha's 1 as my subsume for the status inmunity

[@elitombenvegnu5308]

@@Felinaxo Hyldrin passive makes that toxin damage dont bypass shields... (also last time i cheked status imunity dont prevent toxin damage to bypass shields, only eliminate the DoT part of it)

[@crisschan2463]

I use health + energy tanking with Sevagoth that I can just stand around for a long time and place a toxin cloud from torid on a ground to heal me with gloom's life steal also, energy can regen via hunter adrenaline/rage, so my setup is actually life steal, energy conversion, health and energy tanking.

[@tatri292]

@@elitombenvegnu5308 Correct, people using status immunity for dealing with toxin are coping massively. If the initial hit doesn't kill you, the dot would take at least 3 seconds to kill you. Just go to operator and wait it out atp

[@emperor_prime2011]

Great video. The only defense form I missed was "Energy Gating". Mods like Quick Thinking drain energy to prevent you from dying. I know it's pretty niche, but I think it's at least worth mentioning.

[@uberwarlocker]

the bombardier over there? he's frothing at the mouth and level 450 and you dont have energy anymore.

[@KanaMedia101]

This method is also vulnerable to being stunlocked by the stagger if you have no way to mitigate it

[@irondawn6473]

if I had my pills I think energy gating does scales with dr? been centuries since I've touched quick thinking

[@Zuxtron]

@@irondawn6473 I watched a video a while ago that said it does work with DR.

[@felix_patriot]

Quick Thinking isn't really gating. You're actually still EHP tanking, just using your energy bar as EHP. Your Quick Thinking "efficiency" is like the DR that is applied to that, but armor and other DR sources also stack with that.

[@AromaComet]

This helped me understand DR a little better. I've been running Mesa in Steel Path a lot and everything just dies anyway

[@louisrobitaille5810]

0:13 I've actually never heard this in my >1000h of playtime. Whenever somebody mentions something related to surviving at any level, all I hear are recommendations and suggestions on how to deal more damage 😂.

[@lmm772]

If enemies are ded u dont need to tank anything i guess

[@mobius-q873]

It's for level cap or slightly below most of it is just from those handful

[@threedog27]

​@@lmm772also a different perspective: If everything two shots you, you dont need to loose your head about survibability. Kill before it kills you.

[@magnolia8886]

Remember, you can effectively be immortal if you take your time and not try to rush every single thing you do

[@youraveragechroma2139]

1:52 Ah, the Mario 64 invisible wall chart! Yap recognizes yap.

[@famous4turtles433]

Wow!!! Firstly thank you for this video, this has REALLY opened my eyes to DR usefulness, personally I found myself looking for alternative options to DR because tanking would never work out for me in later game content (lvl 225, SP, etc.) so I always avoided using things that would “tank” instead opting for things like overguard, invis, or invincibility as I didn’t understand shield gating for a long time, but thanks to this I see that I was just misunderstanding where the strength of DR came from, so thank you. This absolutely makes me want to start madding a few frames for DR now when I look at my options, though I still love my Octavia as the game’s “Easy Button” for later content (Anyone wanna talk shit about the last comment Don’t @ me, I play casually for fun not for challenge)

[@mrwatermelontheexotic3448]

Really appreciate the comprehensive math section...and reminding me that this game gives me trust issues in every corner (looking at you...adaptation ...and everything else) I still think we could get some player hp changes,just so armor seems more appealing,but there's good argumets to somewhat convince me here Also yeah,maybe if the DR,armor and etc,was explained by others (or this vid,go on mr algorythm do your job) there could be more praise,hell im grateful to learn stuff today even if ill be stubborn about it Ty koolcid very informative,very kool

[@sparkingriver2881]

I know weapons are not taken into consideration for tank builds, but I think an honorable mention would be the Hirudo melee. It provides extra max hp, and extra healing to go with the regen as long as you put enough crit on it

[@SignificantOwl]

Overall, an excellent video! I think some of the reasoning in the tier list section is a little... eh, though. Ember's DR doesn't drop much when she uses her meter if you have enough strength, it never goes below 70% (close to what you can get from helminth DR like Eclipse). With her ability to generate overguard through the mod precisely when she dumps heat, I don't think this is a convincing argument against her. I also think it's kind of weird to categorize some of the "great" tanks as such, just because they lack healing. I LOVE tanky frames. I pretty much main Citrine, Nova, Nezha, Gara, and such. But I would never rely on the pitiful healing provided by built in healing from Citrine, nor spend a mod slot to make Gara heal. These are options in lower level content, but if you're actually trying to survive with EHP tanking in content where survival matters, you need a 1500+ health pool (Arcane Blessing, or a select few frames using Umbral mods) and significant healing. Arcane Grace is always the right choice here (unless you have another source of significant healing that isn't a trickle, like blue shards or Citrine's built-in), and because of that, saying that some frames are excellent because they have built-in low healing and some frames aren't because they don't is not, I think, the right parameter to split them on. That's just my experience. I'm a dedicated EHP tanker because I cannot be bothered with gating gameplay, and I find that pretty much any frame can survive any reasonable gameplay (that is, you're not purposefully staying 7 hours in an interception mission just because) with a DR ability (Eclipse if the frame doesn't have one) and a simple set of arcanes/mods: Arcane Blessing, Arcane Grace, Adaptation, Health Conversion. Add in a companion with Synth Deconstruct for orb spawn to stack blessing and keep Health Conversion stacked, and you're good for any content - SP, EDA (which the video, I think erroneously, categorizes as untankable), Netracells, Arbitrations, SP circuit up to around level 1000, etc. Yes, EHP tanking will eventually fall off if you stay in missions until enemy levels are 4-digit (but the falloff point is not necessarily 1000, you can go higher, particularly on frames with built-in 90%), but again, there's no real reason to do that. As mentioned in the video, there is really no meaningful cost to just restarting missions if they actually get to an untankable level.

[@doublereel-real]

To add onto the ember point, you can just chain uses of her 3 to keep overguard up. Her 2 isn't neccesary if you have overguard and over-gate keeps you alive between each cast. You can elect to helminth off her 2 since making 3 cost less is not neccesary, but its a trade off. Either you sacrifice some of your full kit to get enough energy to spam 3, or you don't helminth. If you keep 2, you can keep it topped off by spamming 4 with the aug that creates energy orbs on enemies hit by 4. Basically, full caster Ember. Also you can run brief respite so that in the gaps between each overgate you shield gate and you regen your shields since you spend so much energy and don't have a very big shield. In high enemy density modes you don't neccesarily even need strength since you get a shit ton from your passive.

[@AvgGamerGuy15]

This is the kind of video I need to show a few friends… longest survival I’ve done hit 1 and a half hours in Steel Path, I was using Oberon with Helminth applied for armor… I ended up building so much DR and Regen that the only time I went down was a 10 second AFK. left with lvl 300 enemies around iirc… that was honestly because I had plans with a friend who had just gotten on, but just show how valid DR Regen strats are… the point of level cap you made is just too valid, as honestly the strongest enemies I ever faced was a session of SP Circuit, which got all but one of my tiers that run. That was only possible because I was in the zone and got lucky on my weapons and warframe picks, and had a squad of friends together. You have done the topic justice, thank you

[@wtfman2049]

finally my favourite 4th monitror streamer. (i have 1 monitor)

[@kancelas]

I did EDA with Nezha this week and while the weapon choices were a bit shit, i only died once when i wasn't paying attention to enemies. Great video, btw. A detailed explanation, with jokes thrown in is a great way to make a long video seem like 5 min.

[@VertietRyper]

Nezha only really struggles with restricted drops (an EDA specialty) and really high DPS attacks (this is solved by not standing still) He can be more unkillable than a number of frames on this list because he's basically a juiced Rhino.

[@justsomeguywithlasereyes9920]

No mention of Kullervo? He has 650 armor and a heal that gives overguard when he overheals with just one press.

[@Xyna7590]

He did mention kullervo in the overguard gating section though

[@LoreFoundry]

As a returning player, this was one of the better videos I've seen. Good presentation. I wanna check some of your other videos out about the mechanics.

[@Signupking]

I love to use Hildryn because her 4 also does crowd control

[@josephpotter5766]

Yeah, with the changes to shields and the new Aegis Gale augment Hildryn is actually in a really good place right now.

[@eliaspanayi3465]

Yeah, hildryn has gotta be my main right now because of how easy it is to shield gate and how good her clearing potential is

[@josephpotter5766]

@@eliaspanayi3465 Mained her from release, the recent changes have hugely improved her potential, but she was always better than people claimed.

[@dorktriogamer2865]

You should make a more general video on survivability cause just thinking to myself got me excited about it. Particularly three interesting talking points, like relation between these categories (the I's are counteractive, thinking of healing and dr separate is useless, and the I's shore their weakness with one of the other two) outside interactions (killing and companions) and applications when playing vs test room. Good video 👍.

[@peanuts7648]

Not all survivability options are made equally. With exception to invis and invincibility, most will require significant investment into other sources of survivability in order to scale indefinitely. Often that comes at the cost of other parts of your build to where you essentially become a walking brick wall and nothing else. Using invincibility and invisibility playstyles frees up room to craft powerful builds that can do significantly more than just live.

[@SeekerTerminarch]

Something you need to consider is INVESTMENT. Stacking multiple sources of DR and still needing to reserve room for healing is just phenomenally less efficient than having a baked-in infinite immortality button so your build can focus on other things like damage.

[@giles.9862]

Solution to making this opinion less widespread? Delete revenant from this game.

[@AnntNoThaang]

based

[@alphaone739]

TRUE

[@Yoophy]

Revenant was the one frame that carried me throughout all of beginner steel path until I got better and finally understood how to properly utilise damage reduction on the right frames and shield gating. Removing revenant would either discourage newer players from continuing or slow down progress

[@giles.9862]

​@@Yoophy You say this like new players are lobotomy victims. People have been joining this game and getting to the latter stages of progression for over a decade without revenant holding their hand.

[@qsfff5099]

Why are you talking about revenant and not Rhino?

[@Relhio]

Very informative, thanks for all the breakdowns! There's also one thing there was no mention of which is pretty much free and greatly increases survivability. Citrine pretty much made me feel invincible thanks to her busted Shell, Adaptation and the free healing from her passive, but there were some moments in SP where I was starting to feel the heat, thankfully parkour is free and completely eliminated the threat of me dying.

[@felix_patriot]

Only thing i really have to add is that, with the addition of Omnia Void Cascade fissures, there is actually, finally, a real ingame MATERIAL INCENTIVE to level cap. Not just proving you can do it for the fun of it. You get to level cap in around 1.5hrs in Cascade, and a Cascade fissure is one of the best plat farms in the game if you have the mod drop chance booster. You can farm Zariman arcanes, Acolyte arcanes, Steel Essence and Relics all at the same time. I tend to make about 250 "simple" plat per 2hr run (from selling the prime parts, and breaking down the arcanes into vosfor and buying eidolon arcane packs and selling their contents), and then there is the less simple platinum to consider, which is, Steel Essence which you convert into Kuva and other weekly goodies on rotation. EHP tanking absolutely works for most content. But i'd choose builds that work in all content over builds that work in most content- especially whenever we're finally being incentivized to content over level 1000.

[@thatSillyNeko]

Big thanks for the video you've made! A problem of survivability is a question that keeps bothering me since I entered steel path. I recently realized how to build weapons to kill >100 lvls, yet I struggle with surviving them. This got all the solutions I need and explained with great details, covering not only DR, but also some more strats that can be utilized!

[@MigoqAki]

I want to be *that guy*, and put an asteriks to your "level cap doesn't matter anywhere" in cascade it does, it's I think the only mission in which it's objectively worth to go to level cap and sit there the higher enemy level there is (or more like probably the number of exos/time spent) the more thrax units spawn there the more thrax spawn, the more arcanes you get = you're constantly getting more and more rewarded also the mission becomes harder and more fun, but it's still more about arcanes

[@KanaMedia101]

And yknow, steel path circuit

[@ksNanoSquid]

You guys mean the two things he specifically called out in the video?

[@KanaMedia101]

@@ksNanoSquid just reminding OP also, didn't finish the video yet, maybe he didn't either

[@cameronmckillop6448]

For personal use, isn't it substantially easier to use standing to get these arcanes?

[@itsrainingcats9968]

​@@cameronmckillop6448standing is capped on a daily basis whereas cascade loot isnt and also gets boosted by the mod drop chance booster.

[@adrianl8429]

4:40 something to note is that damage redirection does affect overguard. Pretty niche overall, unless you are using an ancient healer or dante specter on frames with redirection abilities.

[@night_san03]

Small thing I'll note about adaptation, the damage selection is scaled off the final damage weightings, including adaptation's resistance. So you will still build resistance to all the damage types you're taking, but at different incramentals depending on the weapon's weighting.

[@firetroy1]

This was one of the best warframe videos I have watched. Love such discussions and you really gave a great insight. Thanks!

[@noah-wo3dp]

what would you consider zephyrs turbulence is? it does block all projectiles but if your meleed or used abilities on it doesn’t really do anything. then again zephyr is always in the air if your playing her right, so youd be meleed rarely if at all. would that be invincibility or dr or what?

[@anirudhmallick8032]

invinicibility, against projectiles but with zephyr youre in the air all the time so, basically invincibility

[@xs10shul]

This. She's a way better tank than many of those on the list.

[@dawsongranger4940]

Zephyrs way more powerful than people give her credit for. With turbulence you’re basically unkillable and her fourth means you don’t even have to aim and get guaranteed red crits, and melee enemies are too busy floating to hit you. She also takes damage from explosives I believe

[@noah-wo3dp]

@@dawsongranger4940 exactly. i’ve mained her for a long time, and i’ve wondered why not a lot of people talk about her or use her. i subsumed Silence over her 2nd ability to get rid of the enemies abilities that could possibly hurt her like eximus abilities or enemies that can throw explosives. it’s smarter to subsume it over her 1 because her two is a grouping tool, but ive come to like being able to use it to move around really fast around the tilesets, and learned to do it without running in to anything. i love my fashion for her too, and the youtuber Blueberrycat has some great fashion for her

[@VertietRyper]

You can also stack this with Aviator and Boreal mods

[@roppftw2455]

This is the first time it's suggested your channel to me. I'm only 1 minute into the vid, and I'm already enjoying your style. You need to slap the algorithm and make it put your content out there.

[@khaozcat]

No, no it ain't.

[@aralanstradivari2841]

This was an amazing video. And I am so glad this came out, as I was literally looking at my survivability and thinking: “what are some ways I can do this better on frames without invisibility?” So, phenomenal work, good editing, and some humour at times, will be subscribing

[@trainershade1937]

Nice video, and I find the point towards the end very noteworthy. People DO really like to talk about this game and its balance at the levels that they themselves are likely NOT playing at. It's actually kind of ridiculous. Though mind you, half the time I see a random bring up how effective they think something is in Warframe, my only response is to absolutely "?????" them. Can't tell you how often I see someone say something is "bad" and "needs" a rework for something that's perfectly fine. Like sure, Valkyr and Chroma may as well have half a kit and I would like it if they received some changes, but to say that they're so bad that they NEED a rework is ridiculous.

[@theblackishboy1105]

It depends on how you judge things lots of people judge things in a vacuum but if you judge things, i would argue correctly, you compare them to their peers because if you can jump an inch and the air and everyone else jumps a foot you suck at jumping. It doesn't matter how many acorns you can jump over and how the game doesn't need you to jump a foot you suck compared to everyone else so you will never be picked for the jumping contest Now i will say this i think the game is generally pretty badly balanced in general although its been getting better lately to be fair, one thing i think people do overlook is fun. I don't want to instantly delete the whole map without looking at enemies or aiming i actually like to play the game, so saryn although effective is probably one of the lamest frames in the game imo and judging frames based on nuking the map as an example i think is a foolish way to judge them but yes comparisons do matter

[@aquamarinerose5405]

@@theblackishboy1105 That's kinda something I was tempted to reply with myself. People say that certain things NEED a rework in such doom-filled language because of the idea of what is worth investing in when there is an arguably objectively better way to do something similar. Like Chroma being the big example. For many, Chroma isn't really worth investing the time and resources into because for each thing he does, there's a frame that does it better. There are better Tanks like Inaros or Nidus or Citrine or any of the others that were put in a higher tier; better elemental blasters like Ember, Frost, Saryn, or Volt/Gyre for each element respectively, or even Lavos for another weird off-meta pick that in turn has access to ALL the elements just like Chroma. Hypothetically it's arguable that the benefit of picking Chroma is the ability to do both at the same time, but that doesn't entirely work when a Gunrunner Rhino can be a great tank AND deal high damage, or even something like Gauss being effectively immune to 6 damage types while dropping Thermal Sunders on the whole map.

[@jonahbrown5669]

Chroma is bad for this reason: He gives armor and serration-like damage. That's it. That's Chroma. Elemental dragon that requires part from multiple elemental frames to craft? Whaaa?... Nah bro, Chroma just gives armor and damage. Clearly that's what you'd expect from an *elemental dragon*

[@theblackishboy1105]

@aquamarinerose5405 yup not only that but chroma specifically is basically just a gun he just gives you a bigger serration which really isn't that useful in most cases these days, if he was average but really fun for example or super unique playstyle wise at least it would justify the frame but he really has nothing

[@trainershade1937]

@@jonahbrown5669 He still isn't bad. What you're describing is "boring", "disappointing", or "underwhelming". Which are the words that I'd describe Chroma with, and are the reasons I'd want him to be reworked for. Frankly speaking, all you need for this game is a way to kill your enemies and not die in the process. Chroma can do this, and he does so rather well. Calling Chroma bad is simply inaccurate, we have specific words for a reason.

[@bixybixy2]

I would argue Baruuk is the tankiest non-invulnerable frame in the game, but it requires one of a few very specific builds. As you said, HP/s blue shards help immensely, but I don't know how well you've tested it. 3-stack Umbral mod, adaptation, and misc strength mods and reactive storm. IIRC I'm at 74.9% armor DR, and a total of 300% strength makes sure you always have a truckload of darts for DR for you and your friends so you can stay well above the 9 for 90% it gives, and while it's not too frequent, you can get the 50% and 40% from both Restraint and Serene Storm when needed, which is more than enough to let whatever is hitting you fuel its own adaptation stack, but in my experience, nothing short of a 4 digit level actually can harm you beyond your layers and shard healing. I replaced Elude with helminth's Hideous Resistance, which gives you status immunity charges so you don't have to worry about Bleed and Toxin, which notoriously will melt you through anything you have, and at high strength, you also get a lot of those per cast, too. Bonus points if your sentinel has a heal. My usual take is a vampire cat for no reason other than its friend shaped, but it's healing and occasional pickup means even if you somehow get torn in half by several worst-case scenarios happening at the same time, you can recover. Your usage goes up in multiplayer, as having 25-30 darts means you can load your allies, defense objectives, pets, etc, with half of that, which is still comfortably above the 9>90% for them to benefit, and you have low range for being an ability strength machine, so the darts will only fly out to enemies that get fairly close; and when those darts do fall off, your Restraint is cooking up to its max value, usually comfortably enough to where you don't need to lull. Reactive storm does its job with wave clearing and status priming with your favorite elemental combo in addition to the converted physical, but you're fairly weapon reliant for heavy enemies because you're usually heavy-attacking them, which is fairly slow and not able to be kept up with the pace of a survival mission solo after some time. I can't remember the last time I died. (edit, wrong armor % and some numbers; 1234 hp, 897 armor, 331% STR with molt vigor and augmented stacked to inch out some more charges but honestly you could use anything and be fine. Sometimes ill use unairu just to squeak out my armor DR up to 1097, 78.5%. If i did my math correctly, my EHP is 16,361 meaning 2 +5 hp regen shards is giving me 132 EHP. I did the (more correct) formula of multiplying damage incoming and 2000 damage at full tilt is reduced to a cute 1.506) I just let the full group of 215 corrupted enemies in simulacrum wail on me while i was writing this, and they are killing me, albeit very, very slowly, as i stand here... I'd say they might peel through me in a few minutes if i don't do anything. Though, they are all mostly disarmed except for a couple bombards who refuse to walk close enough to take a dart.) (edit 2, i put my 3/5 arcane grace over molt vigor and... yeah, my hp never went below 1k as long as i kept my buffs up.)

[@night_san03]

I think the biggest disconnect between the effectiveness between dr tanking and damage evasion/negation just comes down to elitism and investment. When you focus on your damage reduction aspects, you have to dedicate several mods just to get the ability to survive in a way that's anywhere close to to the same effect you get from 1-2 mods with the evasion negation strategy. Additionally, a lot of builds that benefit DR also have the ability to come back from a bleedout, which in solo when you would need the bleed out negation to tank acolytes will cause them to despawn anyways. I'm in a discord sever with someone who's insanely elitist about using dr and being able to out-survive other players who shield gate and refuse to acknowledge anyone who spoke against him... so I'll just make the same statement I made to him. A DR build uses 5 mods to do what a shield gating build does in 2, leaving a lot less room for you to affect your abilities. Mods like the archon named set mods have the right start, but it's still just so much more expensive to use a DR build and sacrifice a lot of kill power.

[@crisschan2463]

depends on the frame for effective shield gating, usually the setup is just not 2 mods, but 4 to 5 mods (brief respite + augur mod [secrets, message + augur mods in weapons] + catalyzing shield + blind rage) some spammable ability that should have little to no casting animation usually requires low energy consumption, you need a lot of augur or negative efficiency to achieve a full shield recovery for shield gating (no sources for arcanes, and there's only select few frames that can replenish shield with their abilities, you also need to think about energy economy) DR + health tanking + health regen usually comprises not by mods, but warframe abilities + mods + arcanes, some setup don't even use much armor stacking in the mods, just 1 steel armor, or use archon shards to target armor stacking, or use helminth ability via parasitic armor (you just need prime redirection/redirection, 1 mod) to gain high amount of armor, and stack as many strength as much as you can (still depends on warframe) this is what I've done for my Sevagoth, health + energy tanking, lifesteal + energy conversion, and is very viable with high ability strength like how most sevagoth are built (around 250-300%+ ability strength)

[@tatri292]

It's much more common to see someone being elitist the other way ie. dr doesn't work in level cap and level cap is the only content that matters A dr build takes more space yes, but allows you to not pay any attention to survival for the most part. It's up to the person playing if that tradeoff is worth it to them

[@pnutbteronbwlz9799]

Great video and solid argument for DR. Tanking is good in the game and not worthless. But also, wanting to have a frame that can survive in level-cap is exciting whether or not it’s the actual endgame. And endless void cascade is rewarding when you can go to level-cap. But yea it’s a tiny piece of the game. Dante is one of my favorite frames to play, because he helps his team easily survive and can scale into level-cap well with the way his buffs work and his overguard gating. I think it’s ok for people to enjoy frames that tank cause they are viable in all important content, but also for people to enjoy invulnerable frames because it’s satisfying that they can scale that high and still survive. There is something awesome about that and it’s ok for people to want that too. People need to stop being toxic and controlling the way other want to play the game.

[@Cut_Content]

I dunno what kind of communities or servers you're interacting with, but I've never heard someone say that DR is dead a single time in my life

[@haotatyan]

Warframe Reddit, yt comments, and wiki comments

[@SmoothTurtle840]

@@haotatyanaka the slums

[@Cut_Content]

@@SmoothTurtle840 Yeah, must be why I never heard it, I don't read the comments of any of these sites

[@trainershade1937]

@@haotatyan Don't forget region chat. They occasionally love to share their highly inaccurate takes.

[@115zombies935]

@@trainershade1937There’s a reason why region chat being disabled is the default option lol

[@UltimRoGuE]

thank you for making this video. I've been using Adaptation on almost any frame since it been added to game, and ppl were constantly saying it's useless mod and i should use rolling guard instead... And ye, they dunno how damage reductions stacks... Hope some will know now :D

[@timetravelingninja3930]

I love your channel, i have 5.5k hours in Warframe, but I love learning more about Warframe from your channel.

[@ransomdean9141]

As a newish player this helped the creeping sentiment I had about “endgame builds” since information acceleration, due to content creation, usually amasses over the top 1%-5% of game content imo. Plus it’s the kind of info dump I love that helps me understand more about how the game works fundamentally.

[@williamrothan764]

Great video! I found out a recent weird quirk of the game that could go in a new Weird and Obscure Facts video, in that while using an Archgun in a normal mission (from the equipment wheel), Wisp Prime (not sure about base Wisp, only saw it after I got her Prime) walks on her feet and uses standard sprint animations instead of floating like she's supposed to. I don't know if it's a bug or oversight or what, but it is weird.

[@jerryandersson4873]

Thank you for clearing some stuff up that I did not know, and on other stuff I had plain forgotten.

[@migueldevera5080]

Good vid - will watch multiple times when I wanna refine some builds and play with other frames. It also helped put into perspective how playstyle can affect survivability. Both your video and the comments mention things like invisibility, high kpm, shield gating, health regen, and just making use of movement as ways to increase survivability. I know your video's purpose was to educate about DR but it's also helped me appreciate the options we're given in this game. gud vidya tank yuu berry macha

[@IC-xk4gi]

Good video. I use all except invisibility in the regular, more of a ¨the right tool for the job¨ kinda guy instead of a ¨I main X warfrane¨ dude, only ever go near lvl cap in sp circuit because I can only go home to my pc in the weekends and have to rush that pass. Been trusting DR when things get serious more often than not, supporting the team with magus repair for good measure. Honestly? most content isn't worth it past surface level, like, you can go harder, but the rewards are just the same (except on relic streaks) so you do it for no reason other than a slight ego boost. There's no point on staying longer than 20 min in standard content, most of the playerbase doesn't care for lvl cap but repeat whatever lvl cap content creators say like parrots even though it will never matter in the level of content people engage 99.9% of the time. Just my 2 cents

[@SaiKisaragi]

Thank you for teaching me how to understand Damage Reduction. I apologize that you got harassed in the last video. You aren't a furry freak, you are a furry friend. Please keep up the good work and stay safe.

[@TazBoy2K]

Tl;Dr: Dope video, keep your head on a swivel from extra sources of DR like Innodem, Eclipse, & Null Star, & do your best to blend how you tank, you don't paint a pretty picture with just 1 color, get creative with how you neutralize the BS. Tl;Dr P.s.: Piercing Roar is a good way to increase the tanking capabilities of Over guard frames, this is due to Puncture reducing the enemies damage dealt, this as opposed to giving yourself Dr. Also Nezha's Halo & Trin's Link are "Damage Redirection", similar to Nekros' Shield of Shadows, this distinction is important for things like Over-guard since Secondary Fortifier is a thing. I can appreciate seeing a vid like this, especially as someone who does a lot of build crafting (this being the thing that makes me wanna play a majority of my games), it's dope to see others dive down this rabbit hole. To cosign your video, I use a Sevagoth build that uses the Innodem with Crescendo, specifically it's 40% DR, alongside Arcane Ultimatum, and Adaptation as my upfront protection. With Sevagoth having access to a pull that keeps enemies bundled up and in a "finisher" state, I can quickly stack Crescendo, which reduces the down time of the Incarnon form, this is important since you need to do Innodem finishers to stack the DR (no kills required, just the action performed, with a value of 10% per stack). So just with those 2 things alone I have given myself at least 80% DR, Inno's 40%, plus Adapt's conditional 90%, and that's with an average HP pool of 1,500 (Blessing + Base health). So About 88% total DR before Adapt (harder to calculate since I don't know every enemies damage preference). Now calculate all that, plus an average 80% reduction to their actions speed from Gloom's glorious. As a side note, the Null/Neutron Star changes have my newly minted (at least more so in terms of completing her build) Hildryn Prime, flexing so hard the lasers lament & the bullets blush (NS=75%, Shields built in 50%, Adaptation's conditional 90%), and leering at the CC aspect we see fire & blast staggering the enemies damage, either from staggers or panicking.

[@warnpeace5294]

I wanted to comment on your other video about Warframe needs new players. I just saw it recently, and I couldn’t agree more. I started playing Warframe almost 3 months ago because I had gone through a terrible breakup with my bf, and needed something to get my mind off of it. I fell in love with the story so far especially the Sacrifice which brought me to tears. I had tried the game a long time ago when it was first starting up and I wasn’t a fan. I definitely feel like the experience has gotten better but the start up is really slow. As for this video I do know that meta’s is the fastest way to ruin a game of its variety. I love the variety I get in this game and I love to mess with new things to make higher numbers pop up lol. I still have a while to go before I even finish the story I want to prep before taking on New war. I love this game and have formed a unhealthy addiction to farming it lol.

[@RedQueenPeyton]

i love this video gonna send it to some friends that dont understand how the game works and tell me im "building my frame wrong" for not having any defensive mods when we are only doing level 100 enemies

[@TyFighterTV]

I really appreciated the math about effective health. I've been messing around with Qorvex lately and didn't feel like a jump from 85% DR to 90% would be that big a deal, but I was obviously incorrect. Thank you!

[@That-Lu-Jan]

As someone who is focused mainly around level cap content I have to agree that DR is "dead" at least in that part of the game, for the rest of the game I would still not use DR if possible. Face tanking requires too many working parts to work effectively. Convenience is the #1 reason why Invisibility & Invincibility are better than face tanking. Face tanking (like you said in the video) requires DR, Healing, & Armor to work effectively so it already excludes many frames who dont innately have access to all 3. Whereas any frame with shields is capable of shield gating. The only 3 exceptions to that rule being Kullervo, Nidus, & Inaros. However Kullervo & Nidus also have their own forms of damage gating (Kullervo with overguard, or Nidus with his death gate passive). So that would open up the ability to drop any face tanking mods/shards/arcanes if you want to rely solely on their damage gates for survivability. Invincibility & Invisibility not requiring much at all also opens up more on your loadout to focus on other things which would increase your overall killing potential or QoL. As it is now, face tanking too many working parts to not even be on par with other survivability methods. Id say that is likely the main reason why a portion of the community would say that "Damage reduction is dead". Its just not effective enough for how much it costs compared to other options.

[@AnymMusic]

The only time I got in trouble for normal tanking is in the level 1000+ on Circuit, so probably 500 normally. Hell even Limbo, squishy squishy Limbo, was able to easily energy tank shit till well late into SP (using Limbo, cause he's arguabl the squishiest frame in the game), so smth like Nezha's 90% DR is FINE

[@Mandingy24]

2:40 just for clarification, ability casting does temporarily break Voruna's stealth, but it doesn't end the ability duration or trigger Shroud's other affects

[@oldcowyogurt287]

This video has a good message, but I think is a little bit misguided. To preface: I run almost exclusively DR builds, and have no trouble surviving almost all content in the game with these builds. I do like DR over the other survivability options, but the other ones are both better and easier. To start, most people say that DR is trash mostly because it literally does not work at all at level cap, which is what most people mean when they say "late game". Almost no decent build should have trouble surviving in SP up to around level 300, even if durability is not focus on in the build. The real reason, though, why DR is considered so bad compared to gating and invis strats is becaues it's incredibly inconsistent. A lot of DR strats rely on multiple abilities to be on at once, and a lot of them also require some amount of stacking to happen. If the player ever drops these for any reason (running out of energy, nullifier field, died, etc.) then the build immediately drops off in effectiveness. In comparison, revenant, wisp, loki, and ash only need a single button press in order to be functionally immortal outside of nullifier bubbles as long as the player isn't afk. Also, one very important thing that was no mentioned at all is the amount of investment required to pull off a DR build successfully. As an example, my Lavos has umbral fiber, umbral vitality, arcane blessing, arcane grace, and adaptation to tank without needing to use abilities or energy. However, this takes up both arcane slots and three mods slots, which is about half the space in the build. Invis frames like the aforementioned loki and ash need nothing other than base duration and some amount of energy economy in order to function, and they are way harder to kill as well. Wisp can do the same thing without any button presses, and revenant doesn't even need to worry about getting hit at all. Revenant and wisp are both excellent examples of why this is important. You can completely ignore survivability as a concept and simply dump everything in the build into damage or comfort, and as long as you stay in the air as wisp or don't subsume off mesmer skin on revenant, you will never die, even in chaotic environments like multiplayer. This is, in my opinion, the main reason why Revenant is considered he best tank in the game. He cannot take damage and has tons of cc, and both of those two things come from a single ability that doesn't require any investment from the player other than pressing the button every once in a while. Compare that with DR builds, which require way more investment while being less effective at tanking damage, and you can see why people would say it's trash. Also, shields granting a longer shield gate based on the highest shield amount before break is intended. It was one of the things the devs discussed in the devstream, and they implemented it to buff shield tanking since it's been so weak for so long. I like being tanky, though, and not taking damage feels like cheating so I have more fun playing DR builds. They're also more engaging to play. TLDR - I don't mean to discredit DR, but it's so much worse of a strat than the other well established survivability options that people consider it not worth using. Its not that it doesn't work, but just that it just isnt worth it the huge majority of the time. EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but extreme high levels were made more acessible with SP Void Cascade. You can reach level cap in aroun 2.5 hours with a decent group, or around 3 solo if you're fast. Players started to devalue DR even more because of this, as sp void cascade often outpaces DR strats after about an hour to an hour and a half.

[@Kurosakio]

Lovely work, always informative. Bonus points for making people aware of how dr works in warframe

[@alt-ctrl-report4410]

Absolutely agree on the last part - enemy damage output scales way too quick. In the Circuit for example, I start feeling it way earlier than I expect. At round 10 (which is not too long), enemy levels reach beyond 1000 already and it hurts. Also, worth to note (I think) that while "the devs don't consider lvlcap the endgame and will not balance the game around it" is true, I remember something similar being said about the sponge path(tm). And, well, look at where we are now - almost all the cool stuff is locked behind it.

[@seanfortes7156]

Great video. I think you covered how many people overlook how different types of survivability and tools synergise well, to increase effectiveness, even if in a vacuum, they might be weaker, especially weaker on paper. There is something, I understand you probably wouldn't want to go too in depth on, because the video was already long, and its 1. A bit obvious. 2. A bit hard to communicate in a clean easy and convenient way, but thats how certain play styles and player behaviours, can also add up to make a larger difference. Like I often play Nidus in longer Steel Path endurance missions. Which should be relatively easy, for reasons this video covers... Thing is, I don't actually use his Link ability that much. Just because I am lazy and move around too much, and well... I don't really need to. I actually just survive off rolling a lot, and getting the 75% DR, the simple, basic roll gives you. Plus Nidus has a CC ability that renders a lot of enemies unable to attack you. Plus his 4's Maggots will CC quite a few enemies as well. I'll only really start to use his DR link ability once I lose my first set off stacks via his passive and cheat death. Which is usually only until I get to enemies around level 800+. There are other things though, that players can do, but often don't, because its Warframe, and so they often do not need to, like... LOS. Line of sight. Important in many other shooters, but peeking corners, or hiding behind objects, to shoot enemies but block their attacks, that can buy you time as well. Getting familiar with enemies behaviour, knowing how to roll through certain high level attacks they do, jumping over them so their accuracy is lowered, or Heavy Gunners spooling is stopped, and other really basic video game shooter ideas (that again, often don't matter in really low level easy Warframe content), but they can synergise well with health tanking, or DR in higher level content. A player who stands still in the middle of an open room, versus a player that jumps around, rolls, peeks cover now and then, they can have the same exact build, but one will survive far longer. Its also not something that translates well on paper, just telling people that they might survive if they roll better or learn better positioning and enemy behaviour, but if you know, you know. Which is another reason why I think some people downplay or misunderstand many Warframes survivability. Play style differences. I personally play many Warframes to enemy level content 1000 and higher (but I also get bored staying longer than 2 hours in a mission, so unless I am in Cascade, or Disruption with a team, I usually don't get to level cap, nor am I that interested in it. I mostly like Relic Cracking giving Boosters so...), but the Warframes I use, many of them survive just via overlapping their various individual strengths, base states, with some sort of Adaptation, Rolling Guard, with stuff like basic rolling, parkour, using LOS, right side advantage, and then emergency tools, like Spoiler Healing via Arcanes. Lavos, Nidus, Mag, Qorvex, Vauban, Citrine, Protea, many many more. Been on a Koumei kick recently though (shes great for longer sessions). Unfortunate to hear some people have been aggressive. Your videos are super chill and laid back.

[@dummy_vicc2976]

As an mr9 casual player this video was really interesting! Hope you're doing well :)

[@ARandomGuyWhoPlayGamesBecause]

Nooo Volt, you're in Warframe not Minecraft, you don't need to build a hous- VOLT LOOKOUT THERE'S A JADELIGHT/ARSON EXIMUS- NOOOOO YOUR PROPERTY VALUEEEE Voruna mentioned, you now get the funny positive internet point. No Sparkle Dog tho so no x2 positive internet point. But -9999 points for pulling out the sheet of paper, how could you do such an evil thing, now I miss my family... A nicely informative video which I hope will help people know they don't have to use the same 1 or 2 ways to survive and play the game for their things... Guys, I know it's hard to understand but not everyone does level cap, we don't care, let others play how they feel instead of copy-pasting the same method, they'll see for how long they feel like going, it's not good. I usually go for 2 hours and 30 minutes on my missions or just 1 hour, invincibility and invisibility are not always a must. Also change the batteries of your fire alarm you're not tricking us you furball and get Phone out of overframe, at least by this month

[@redted5851]

I have to comment again to commend you for such a thorough and practical video. While yes, you have opinions, I have opinions, everyone has them. You didn't make this video about opinions, or not just opinions. It wasn't without research, data, math, examples, and proof of how everything works. These are the kind of videos for me. Sure I can look at a build video where they say "this is good, do this". I can even learn something by researching what they've done and changing it and implementing it to my own needs. However, I really enjoy the math and facts and then the creativity you can have with all of the tools available in Warframe. Well done.

[@JonWaterfall]

Very nicely articulated video. Though it hurt me deeply as a math nerd when you pulled out the paper and illustrated EHP with a plus symbol instead of using division. I see that it made the text fit quite nicely, but you can represent division with a horizontal line.

[@yeselectro8152]

Awesome video, watched till the very end and I'm not disappointed, thank you

[@ChloraLul]

i've just watched a min of your vid and i gotta say i love your jokes and editing style. Keep it up man

[@yiwmsh4393]

Really thorough and informative - thank you!

[@zeroadak5421]

I wanted to mention as a khora main that she’s also pretty good at a dr and health regen combo when she has a lot of focus on melee combat. With health and armor mods such as saxum carapace it can be easy to get khora to over 1,000 in both stats. Combined with venari bodyguard, health link, armor link, and pack leader it becomes easy for both khora and venari to survive since khoras attacks can heal venari and venari has a healing mode that can help khora. Worst case scenario either can also save the other from death as well. Arcane reaper also fits well when utilizing pack leader on venari since melee combat benefits both her and venaris survivability. As for a dr ability khora doesn’t have one of her own to my knowledge but she can prevent enemies from attacking her with her 2 and 4, and you could always just use null star from helminth. Great video btw!

[@RobbiusBossius]

khora is way way better at gating than health tanking lol, you just spam whipclaw and kill everything and be invincible to anything bar toxin

[@vex2482]

This is a Genuinely refreshing and thought out take, very informative take this subscribe

[@Marina-bc2dc]

amazing video!! i dont really have anything insightful to say other than this was very well made and informative. thank you for posting ❤

[@duwop544]

Enjoyed your conclusion on balancing, and overall.

[@hjonk9858]

Coolkid back at it again with a (semi?) long form video. I’m ready! My body is ready!

[@altered-silicone]

Thank you for this video! I watched your CC video and your critique of Eximus units and one thing I was thinking about that nobody really talks about as much (since a lot of people critique DE's bungling of CC) is how this game absolutely HATES healing. Jade is the best example: healer frame, but she is squishy and has shield based buffs and also only recently got the ability to heal objectives. I made a "tank" Jade build by subsuming her 4 with parasitic armor and stuffing her with armor and shield shards. Specifically took away her AOE bomber gimmick to turn her into a tanky supporter/buffer. It works! But probably people would call it a waste of shards because x, y and z frame could do it better, but I see it as a fun challenge. A little comment on invisibility - it works well but it does not ignore AOE attacks. my Ivara is a wet paper bag so if she catches a fire proc or any other proc, she will go down, invisible or no. Which is why I'm experimenting with chucking a bit of armor shards into her as well, to see if it helps even a little bit while I press the Operator panic button. I hope more people see the fun in DR and also think about the community's obsession with endurance run/levelcap as if that is a reasonable measure of gameplay (who has time to sit 3 hours in void cascade...) Anyways, I hope people are civil, your comment about people straight up threatening you is also why I felt compelled to leave a more measured comment, regardless if you actually end up seeing/reading this or no.

[@altered-silicone]

Random thing I remembered - Zephyr with her 3 and being airborne is a niche survivability combined with CC. I soloed Netracells with her without EVER having an "oh shit" moment. Then again Zephyr is an underrated and unsung hero in the Warframe roster.

[@Zyocuh]

I think an extremely huge and important thing you overlooked is mod slots. Shield gating can save you 1 or 2 mod slots on your frame which is a HUGE factor in choosing SG over tanking. Companions can also help with Gating with Guardian + Manifold Bond

[@jacobestabrook1937]

Great video! In my personal experience, i haven't found steel path to be difficult at all and due to it being all that i play anymore the base game feels SO slow paced now. All that being said, i think this is because of how i play the game. I typically will choose a frame that best fits the mission style that im playing. My brother on the other hand has two or three frames that he plays and thats about it. For this reason, there are some game styles that are a nightmare for him. Dont get me wrong, i have my favorites as well (typically i play wisp) but that doesnt mean they are good everywhere. For example, i would never take nyx into an Armageddon or circuit but if i need to do an interception she is my go to. Something else that i see a lot is people copying some random build they saw on KZbin that does millions of damage in the simulaocrum without taking into account that the build sacrificed all survivability mods to achieve those numbers. Then they get mad when they get one shot over and over again.

[@allpapiodin]

All forms of survivability are viable. Problem is, most players aren't good at most of them and go to Overframe or KZbin videos for builds and never really understand how the build is expected to work. A lot of builds are pretty simple, but then you can go and look up a something like any glaive build video and the amount of comments that do not understand you can do something as simple as detonating the weapon mid-flight is staggering. You can't expect the general people to think DR is good or fine for 98% of the game when they're told what to think and at no point will ever bother to question what they're told. "It WaS WhAt I wAs ToLd, So It MuSt Be TrUe!" Great vid, ty for the upload.

[@Rora-Mohan]

Honestly i have exactly the same opinion about hour long + runs and its way healthier to say it like that than encourage level cap prayers real nice video

[@thatkidfox]

Hey man i really appreciate the time you took on this and i love getting more information about warframe and your videos have genuinely improved my enjoyment of warframe now that i have a deeper understanding. that includes both these informative videos and the niche topic stuff too. Thank you for committing the time