Review: Nekros (Prime) [U30.9.2]

 

As his name suggests, Nekros is a necromancy-themed Warframe, introduced back in U10. Nekros Prime was introduced in U:The Silver Grove H3, between U18 and U19. With an odd collection of abilities, Nekros fills a unique and largely unchallenged niche as a Lootframe, as well as filling other roles to varying degrees of effectiveness.

Acquisition

Nekros' component blueprints drop from the Lephantis boss fight on Deimos, node Magnacidium. Notably his three component blueprints have equal drop chance, where most boss fights have a lower drop chance for the Systems.

The main blueprint is available directly from Market.

Nekros Prime is standard Prime equipment stuff, his Blueprints drop from various Void Relics. As of writing, NekrosP is currently Vaulted so Relics containing his parts are not currently available in-game.

Stats

Nekros has fairly ordinary stats across the board. His base Shields are slightly below-average, while Sprint Speed is slightly above-average.

Nekros Prime has increased Armour, Energy and Shields, the Energy increase being the most useful of the three.

Abilities

Passive

Nekros recovers 5 Health to himself and his companion for each enemy that dies within 10 metres of him.

Any form of passive healing is very useful for newer players, who likely have minimal access to any healing equipment. It also synergises nicely with the Augment Despoil (3).

1: Soul Punch

Nekros targets a asingle enemy within 50 metres (+Ran), dealing minimal Impact damage (+Str) to them and ragdolling them. A projectile is created from their soul, which travels in the direction Nekros is aiming, which also deals minimal Impact damage (+Str) and ragdolling to any other enemies it hits. More importantly, Soul Punch will instantly kill any enemy that is below 25% Health.

If an enemy is killed by Soul Punch, it will spawn a Shadow of that enemy (see Shadows of the Dead [4] below). If they survive, they are marked for 3 seconds during which killing them will also spawn a Shadow of that enemy.

Soul Punch is a one-handed ability that does not interrupt most actions and costs 25 Energy to cast.

The damage dealt by Soul Punch is uselessly small, however its ability to insta-kill any enemy below a Health threshold can be useful at very, very high levels. Noting the sheer powercreep of Warframe, this doesn't really come into effect until levels far beyond that which the ordinary player will never see - in the vast majority of cases it would be as fast and far more convenient to just use your weapons to finish them off.

Probably more useful than this is Soul Punch's ability to spawn a specific Shadow, for instance creating your own Ancient Healer Shadow for the damage reduction and Status proc redirection. Outside of this feature though, Soul Punch is rarely worth using.

2: Terrify

When Terrify is cast, 20 enemies (+Str) within 15 metres (+Ran) become panicked, fleeing and not attacking for 25 seconds (+Dur). Affected enemies also have their Armour reduced by 20% (+Str).

If casted repeatedly, Terrify will prioritise enemies who are not already under the effects of Terrify. Otherwise, for the enemies it does target, it will refresh the effect duration, and the Armour reduction will stack multiplicatively [for instance, two casts of default Terrify will reduce Armour by 100%-(100%-20%)x(100%-20%)=36%].

Terrify will interrupt actions as well as temporarily preventing movement, and costs 75 Energy to cast.

 

Terrify is a useful panic button Ability, and potentially a decent debuff as well. With reasonable Strength, it can be used to temporarily distract nearby enemies, useful to get enemies away from yourself or an objective under threat. The Armour reduction is neat, and can be increased with a high Strength, however its base value is very low so very high Strength is required for major benefit.

However, Terrify is not great if you want to actually kill enemies. Though the Armour reduction is useful, Terrify causes enemies to actively run away. This forces you to chase after them if you want to kill them, and will usually obscure their weakpoints, preventing you from dealing maximum damage.

3: Desecrate

Desecrate is a channeled (on/off) ability. While active, Desecrate will automatically consume corpses within 25 metres (+Ran), at a rate of 3 corpses per second. Each corpse consumed has a 54% chance to roll the corresponding enemy's drop table again, which includes loot like Credits, Resources, Health/Energy Orbs, Life Support and mods. Note that as these drop tables can contain nothing, sometimes a successful Desecrate roll will still drop nothing. Each corpse consumed costs 10 Energy.

Toggling Desecrate will interrupt actions and pause movement, though does not cost Energy to toggle. Despite being a channeled ability, as it only consumes Energy per-corpse and not over-time, Desecrate does not block Energy regeneration like most other channeled abilities do.

Desecrate is often considered the core of Nekros' kit. Its corpse-looting ability is unique among Warframes, and its massive area-of-effect makes it very convenient. Gathering loot is an essential and massive part of Warframe's progression, and having Nekros around speeds this up significantly. It even benefits certain mission types like Survival and Excavation.

The Energy drain can be troublesome without high Efficiency or Arcane Energise, though is mitigated by the increased Energy orb drops.

4: Shadows of the Dead

When Nekros kills enemies, they are added to a "queue" for Shadows of the Dead. It prioritises stronger enemies such as Ancients and Heavy Gunners. This queue stores up to 20 enemies. SotD creates up to 7 Shadows from Nekros' kill queue, removing them from said queue. As such, it can only be used after killing enemies, and if there are insufficient enemies in the queue, will not spawn the full 7 Shadows. Recasting while some Shadows are active will fully heal all active Shadows, and spawn new ones to the maximum of 7. If all Shadows are active upon recasting, the cast animation will be significantly shorter and all Shadows will be fully healed..

Shadows have increased Damage, Shields and Health (+Str), though lose 3% Health-per-second (reduced by +Dur). They also have increased Threat so will draw enemy fire away from Players and Objectives. Units who are capable of spawning extra units, such as Drahk Masters, will still do so and these extra units will be spawned as extra Shadows. This allows such units to circumvent the usual 7 Shadow cap.

Casting SotD is a long animation that interrupts all actions and prevents movement, and costs 100 Energy to cast.

Shadows of the Dead is primarily a useful distraction tool. Shadows draw enemy fire away from Players and Objectives due to their increased Threat, and will also attack on their own which again draws more aggro towards them. Even with greatly increased Damage, their damage output is not impressive unless specifically built for. On the other hand, their increased Shields + Health can make them extremely tanky, health drain-over-time notwithstanding.

SotD can also serve additional utility if you spawn Shadows of specific enemies. For instance, an Ancient/Corrupted Healer Shadow can offer some very nice extra survivability without having to use Specters, while a Toxin Ancient Shadow both adds Toxin damage to your attacks and provides Toxin damage resistance.

Augments

1: Soul Survivor

Soul Survivor allows you to use Soul Punch on a downed ally, reviving them to 30% Health (+Str) and consuming all Energy.

Soul Survivor is a neat mod on any Nekros build that does not rely heavily on Energy. Remotely instantly reviving allies can be useful in some situations, and offers some entertaining convenience. It is somewhat less valuable once you have access to Operator, who can revive allies while being completely invulnerable, but is still faster.

Note that allies revived using Soul Survivor will not receive the short invulnerability period that a regular revive would grant, which in unsafe environments could result in them being instantly downed again.

2: Creeping Terrify

Creeping Terrify slows affected enemies by 60% (+Str, to a maximum slow of 80%).

Creeping Terrify is a useful Augment if building for or intending to use Terrify. In its base form, Terrify serves as a nice get-off-me button, however as enemies run away, it can be difficult to capitalise on their reduced armour. Creeping Terrify makes affected enemies much easier to catch and kill, and its maximum slow can be reached at just +34% Str.

3: Despoil

With Despoil, Desecrate consumes Health instead of Energy to consume corpses. 

Despoil is often considered a mandatory Augment for Nekros for several reasons. A max rank Vitality gives Nekros more Health than a max rank Primed Flow gives him Energy. Despoil spawns far more Health orbs than Energy orbs, and in general there are many more ways of quickly recovering Health than Energy. The constant Health depletion and recovery with Health orbs also makes Health Conversion a perfect option for extra survivability, offering essentially permanent +1350 Armour. Finally, Despoil also frees up Energy for casting other abilities, like Augmented Soul Punch (1) or Augmented Shadows of the Dead (4).

4: Shield of Shadows 

Each active Shadow within 50 metres (+Ran) of Nekros will take a small portion of damage dealt to him in his stead (6% each, +Str). This has a maximum of 90% total damage redirection. Additionally, any Status procs dealt to Nekros will be redirected to one of his Shadows instead.

Shield of Shadows drastically improves Nekros' survivability and is a fantastic option in high level content. Built appropriately, it gives him up to 90% Damage Reduction with effective proc immunity so long as enough Shadows are still active. This DR cap can be reached with the default maximum Shadow count of 7 at around +115% Str. Having more than 7 Shadows allows you to hit this DR cap with lower Str, while having more Str allows you to maintain maximum DR with fewer Shadows active.

Builds

Nekros' abilities appreciate different stat spreads. Strength improves the target count and armour reduction of Terrify (2), and the Damage/Health multipliers of Shadows of the Dead (4). Range mainly increases the radius of Terrify and Desecrate (3). Duration increases the duration of Terrify, and reduces the Health drain of Shadows. Soul Punch (1) technically scales with Strength and Range, though most of its effects are so weak as to not matter.

Looking at Augments, Despoil (3) is of course the first point of call. Draining Health instead of Energy to fuel Desecrate is almost always a great option, and has a few useful synergies as mentioned below. Shield of Shadows (4) is a great survivability option if you intend to bring Nekros into high level content, though you will need decent Strength for full benefit. Creeping Terrify (2) is a decent CC option on a build with reasonable Strength, Range and Duration. Soul Survivor (1) is an entertaining option if your build does not rely on Energy and there are no other notable mod options.

There are a few Strength gates of note. For Creeping Terrify, you will reach maximum Slow at just +34% Str. Shield of Shadows wants at least +115% to reliably hit 90% DR with the standard 7 Shadow maximum.

Thanks to Desecrate's tendency to spawn many Health and Energy Orbs, Equilibrium is a great option to keep both topped up. Equipping Synth Fiber on your Companion allows you to collect Health Orbs while at full Health, which helps with Energy regen. Similarly, Health Conversion is a no-brainer as Nekros can essentially guarantee permanent uptime for it. Despoil introducing constant Health drain also makes Equilibrium and Health Conversion great. For any Strength-based build, Energy Conversion can also be considered for the same reasons. 

Particularly if running Despoil, naturally Vitality is a no-brainer. In a Shield of Shadows build, Adaptation can be added to stack up even higher amounts of DR. The two give him up to 99% DR before considering the extra armour from HC, making Nekros impressively tanky provided you keep your Shadow count high. 

Arcane options are quite diverse for Nekros. Guardian offers the usual easy-to-trigger Armour boost for extra survivability. Pulse is the Health equivalent to Energise, and can be used to completely eliminate any Health concerns from Despoil even with low Efficiency. A more Energy-focused build may still appreciate Energise of course. Eruption is almost never used due to inconsistency, but on Nekros with his Energy Orb generation, can actually be used somewhat reliably as a CC option.

Grace, Victory, Barrier, and Aegis are all survivability options that are notably effective in a Shield of Shadows build. Three of the four leverage the DR to trigger more reliably, and in all cases the DR makes the Health/Shield recovery more impactful. The weapon-buffing Arcanes can of course be used to personal preference.

Theorem Infection is a niche option that can be used to significantly buff Shadow damage output, provided you use a Kitgun with a Residual Arcane. Accounts from other players seem to suggest it is somewhat finicky.

Oddly, neither Nekros nor Prime have an innate Aura polarity, one of only a select few Frames lacking it. This makes them an ideal candidate for an Aura Forma, though does mean that starting builds will have less capacity than usual. Nekros has one innate D and V polarities each, while Prime has an additional - polarity.

The usual suspects of Auras are all relevant for various purposes - Growing Power for more Strength, Corrosive Projection vs armoured enemies, Sprint Boost for more mobility, Enemy/Loot radars for quality-of-life, and so on.

Basic - General Purpose

Like with most other Warframes, slotting in the basic Ability mods is generally a decent starting point and benefits all abilities. For the remaining two slots, I've included Despoil and Augur Reach. I consider Despoil practically mandatory for Nekros as it makes Desecrate far easier to maintain. Augur Reach mainly benefits Desecrate, which is often considered a cornerstone of Nekros' kit.

High Range - Desecrate Looting

This build focuses purely on maximising loot from Desecrate. It cranks Range to maximum for a 70m Desecrate range, with some Efficiency to preserve Health. Strength and Duration have no effect on Desecrate, hence their omission in this build.

The downside of this build is of course that Terrify and SotD are significantly less effective. Terrify affects very few enemies per cast, while the Shadows are significantly weaker than normal.

Streamline could be switched for Fleeting Expertise for even less Health drain from Despoil, however will make Terrify even less useful and the Shadows from SotD will die off even faster.

1-Forma Balanced - Terrify CC

This alternate build goes for a mix of Strength, Range and Duration, so as to have a solid Terrify. A maxed Umbral Intensify gives maximum slow from Creeping Terrify without compromising any other stats. The only reason Umbral Vitality isn't included as well is simply due to polarity convenience. There are several other ways to make the +34% Str, including but not limited to Intensify + Power Drift, Intensify + Growing Power, Transient Fortitude. More Strength would increase Terrify's target count and armour reduction, though this would come at potential cost of other mod slots and/or stats.

Desecrate remains useful with decent range and Shadows have decent stat multipliers and reduced Health decay.

2-Forma Survivability - Shield of Shadows

This build is focused entirely on survivability. It uses Shield of Shadows and Adaptation to provide much more survivability in content where enemy damage output is significant, together potentially providing up to 99% Damage Reduction. This stacks with HC and Arcane Guardian to make Nekros nigh-unkillable. Blind Rage + Growing Power gives just above the required Ability Strength for maximum SoS benefit. With low efficiency, this build consumes a lot of Energy to cast SotD, so Equilibrium is installed to ensure Energy recovery.

If this level of DR is unnecessary and the poor Efficiency is problematic, Blind Range can be switched to a weaker +Str mod.

My Builds

My default Nekros build is maximum range for maximum looting. Health Conversion offers more than enough survivability in the content this build is usually used. Pull (Mag) has been subsumed over Soul Punch, and the Greedy Pull Augment allows me to pull in loot from the same range as Desecrate - 70m with this setup.

Power Donation is used to buff teammates (so long as they are not a Speed Nova), as this build is purely about looting so does not care for Strength. Growing Power and Corrosive Projection are the main alternatives if there is a Speed Nova in squad.

Arcane Guardian offers easy extra survivability. Arcane Pulse ensures that Health is never an issue from Despoil constantly depleting it.

This build is pretty much exactly the Shield of Shadows build above. Speed Drift slightly reduces casting time, which is very beneficial for SotD. I've run this build in 1-hour Steel Path missions (the highest level enemies I'll ever encounter) with no survivability issues so long as Shadows are up.

This final build also uses SoS and Adaptation for extreme survivability, and forgoes Strength as it is intended for use only with the +300% Strength Arbitration buff or a +200% Strength Invigoration. Such a buff gives SoS (near) maximum benefit without any Strength investment, allowing more investment in Range for improved looting capability.

Roles

Nekros has an odd set of abilities giving him surprising versatility, though perhaps lacking in many areas compared to other, more specialised Warframes. By far his most notable use is as a Support Lootframe with Desecrate (3). No other Warframe with looting capabilities uses the same effect, so Nekros can work alongside other such Frames for even more loot. Nekros' loot ability is also by far the most convenient and has the largest area-of-effect.

Shadows of the Dead (4) provides some nice distractions, and when Augmented can make him a surprisingly decent tank once the requisite kills are achieved. Terrify (2) is a decent CC ability, but is underwhelming compared to many of the best CC abilities in the game, even when Augmented. Soul Punch (1) can be used to instantly kill low-health enemies, as well as prioritise specific enemies to create Shadows of.

Combat Use and Summary

The first priority for just about any Nekros is to activate and maintain Desecrate (3). On top of the free loot, it also spawns heaps of Health orbs, as well as lots of Energy orbs and ammo drops. Terrify (2) and Shadows of the Dead (4) can both serve as nice distractions/light CC when needed, though note that Shadows can be quite distracting to allies as well. If Augmented, SotD should also be kept up at all times if possible, so as to maintain maximum survivability. Soul Punch (1) serves few purposes, its main use being to prioritise particular enemies you want to create Shadows of, though SotD already prioritises stronger enemies anyway.

Nekros can be adapted to most mission types, though shines most in Survival or Excavation where Desecrate can create additional Life Support or Excavator Power Cells respectively. Desecrate also increases other drops from enemies, including resources, credits and mods, which are all highly valuable especially for newer players. This utility remains valuable throughout the vast majority of a typical Warframe player's playtime. While some other Frames also have loot-increasing abilities/Augments, none of them match the sheer convenience and area-of-effect of Nekros' Desecrate.

Besides this exceptional looting ability, he can be adapted for other roles but pales in comparison to many of the other better Warframes in those categories. In terms of CC and Debuffing, Frames like Vauban or Nova are overall more convenient and/or much stronger than Augmented Terrify. A number of other Frames like Nezha and Gara can achieve comparable or superior tankiness to an Augmented SotD, with more convenience and/or additional utility. 

Overall, Nekros is an amazing Lootframe with reasonable utility in other roles, though is much less notable in anything besides looting. Nonetheless, his sheer convenience and effectiveness as a Lootframe and relatively early potential acquisition make him a must-have.

Weapon Combinations

Desecrate (3) will consume an enemy corpse and reroll the loot table for that enemy. If an enemy corpse is split into multiple large chunks, Desecrate can consume each chunk separately for even more potential loot. Corpses are most likely to split into chunks in this way when killed by attacks dealing majority Slash damage. Therefore, any weapon with majority Slash is an ideal pick for Nekros. Appropriately, Nekros Prime's signature Tigris and Galatine Primes are both majority Slash.

The Ripkas serves as a uniquely good weapon option primarily for its exclusive Amalgam mod. The Gore Chance stat gives most attacks, not just the Ripkas and not even limited to just weapons, a much higher chance of splitting enemy corpses regardless of the damage types they deal. It isn't a perfect or completely universal effect, but it is nonetheless extremely helpful for Desecrate.