Sunday 7 August 2022

Warframe: Harrow and Mesa

The priest and the gunslinger.

Harrow

Only available after completing the "Chains of Harrow" quest (after which you might need to grind a little for some of h8s other parts), this clergy like warframe has a strong focus on shields and teamwork - enjoying a double capacity over shield (shield on top of a shield) and starting each mission with full energy.

He can shield the entire team, throw out a corridor of chains that give him more shields for each enemy he tangles up, flagellate himself to remove all shields to buff the entire squad based on how how much shields he lost, and wave some incense around to help everyone regenerate energy (so that he can use all those abilities again). His power loop is a pretty straight forward one and provided he doesn't tangle with any toxin type enemies (because toxin goes directly for health and ignores shields) this makes him super durable - but not as durable as the Revenant. Because of that and because I'm not into team focused powers, this priest is worm food.

Mesa

This gunslinger is locked behind the mutalist Alad V assassination mission (avoid that collar) which you'll need to craft keys for. On the plus side, you'll probably get a Nyx from all that key building. As expected all of Mesa's abilities are gun (mainly pistol) focused, and she gets benefits for not being armed with melee. She can jam enemy guns, briefly shield herself from bullets, re-apply stored gun damage with the next shot and lastly become a stationary (or slow moving) turret of doom for as long as her energy allows.

While she might be one of the higher DPS frames currently available she suffers from being not too sturdy. That bullet shield lasts mere seconds, enough time to get to the next cover I suppose but against melee hordes (hello infested) she'd be in trouble "turret" form or not. Might be one I'd like more if I got her earlier in the campaign when I still played it like a shooter all those years ago, but after seeing how quickly Steel Path grunts can shred through unprotected warframes I don't think she'll last in my arsenal for very long.

8 comments:

  1. I'd suggest modding Mesa with as much Duration as possible.

    When I play her her 3 lasts 50 seconds or so, I have it up at all times and pretty much never die (as melee mobs don't even get to me).
    Also, Duration makes her 4 cheaper to uphold, which is obviously another big boon.

    In my opinion she's one of the best frames out there, but I'm admittedly rather averse to the whole "build up your melee combo counter, prime the enemies with multiple status effects, then mow everything down"-meta. What can I say, I like to shoot things, and for that it doesn't get any better than Mesa. :-)

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  2. As with Mailvaltar, i second the duration modding for Mesa. I also mod range, actually, and always keep 2 and 3 running at all times. Even melee mobs get disarmed by the field so anything within about 30 meters of you simply stands around like a chump with no weapons. And the bullet shield handles stray shots from farther than that, so Mesa is essentially invulnerable for me. The #4 does so much dps even without modding strength that all the glass cannon mod builds out there that push to boost the #4 as much as possible and kill things in 0.04 seconds instead of 0.05..... I just don't get it.

    The 2 shields don't have quite the same cooldown lenght, but it's close and you can refresh without letting them expire, so I just turn them on, run around killing things, and keep an eye on the timers and when the slightly shorter one is about to expire after 40-ish seconds, I just hit both each time. Works super well.

    FWIW, the bonus for not carrying a melee weapon is extremely small, and melee is still useful, even for Mesa, so I always carry a melee regardless.

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately you can't refresh her 2 and 3 while they're up (at least I can't), but I had a look ingame, and in my case her 3 actually lasts 72 seconds and her 2 even 86 seconds. It's plenty, really.

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    2. Alright, I'll try this out when I build another Mesa. Current one has gone into the garden *cough cough*. :P I do want to check though: a) what gun(s) do you use with her and b) where are you getting all your energy from to power the 2 shields and peacemaker?

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    3. You can basically use any weapons you like best with her, just don't forget to mod her regulators properly too (basically crit chance & damage, multishot, normal and elemental damage).

      Personally I use a Rattleguts Kitgun as her secondary because a) she has a neat little reload speed bonus for single pistols, and b) I run Arcane Velocity to push her 4 into overdrive anyway, so that helps the pistol too).

      As for energy, I also run a max rank Arcane Energize (to be honest, I run that on almost every frame). If you don't have that I'd suggest using Zenurik as your focus school and use the new version of Energizing Dash (I always forget how it's called nowadays).

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    4. Ah thanks for that, I don't have arcane energize yet (actually I have very few arcanes) nor have I unlocked Zenurik. I've barely even started on Naramon which is what I chose first! Basically I'm relying on Energy Siphon which is enough for my Loki, but it seems like I need to level up a bit more to actually enjoy the Mesa.

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    5. Zenurik is really great for energy management. Wellspring (which was formerly called Energizing Dash, a lot of guides probably still use that term) gives you basically unlimited energy as long as you refresh it every now and then. I even have a mouse macro for entering Operator form, activating Wellspring and swith back into my frame.

      It's so good, technically you don't need anything else, especially since it doesn't rely on any outside factors whatsoever (Arcane Energize still requires you to pick up energy orbs, for example).

      The only downside for me has been that I couldn't bring myself to switch off Zenurik for ages, so I didn't even try the other focus schools until much later. Even now I use Zenurik for 90% of purposes.

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    6. I could swear that I could refresh the 2 & 3 abilities without letting them expire, but I could definitely be misremembering that.

      For energy, I use the Zenurik focus and the Energizing Dash/Wellspring, plus over time I've crafted thousands of "energy pizzas" so I have no problem dropping 3-4 at a time any time I feel like it. Maybe someday I'll get Arcane Energize too, but I've honestly never felt the need since "consumables are free" (I know they're not, but they feel like it).

      For weapons, I also use the rattleguts kitgun. It melts anything I point it at very rapidly, even armored units. I honestly don't use the Regulators much for Mesa, just periodic bursts to clear out especially large enemy concentrations, and the occasional boss, is all. I typically use Kronen Prime for my melee weapon, and between those it's honestly fairly rare that I ever use my primary weapon at all. I too have the Arcane Velocity, so the pistol shoots so fast it's .... rather insane, really.

      I'll generally carry the um.... flamethrower? It's also good for clearing enemy concentrations rapidly, so long as they're close by, but since the melee weapon more or less serves the same purpose for if I'm getting swarmed... eh.

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