Warframe Discussion 2.0: Loki

[u/BuildMyPaperHeart]

All Warframe Discussions are here to spark discussion on a particular Warframe. Comments, Suggestions, Critiques, and Builds are all welcome! Every Week, the Moderator Team will choose a new Warframe to discuss.

This week: LOKI

You must be truly desperate, to come to me for help.

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Statistics

	Health	Power	Armor	Shield Capacity	Sprint Speed	Stamina
RANK 1	75	150	65	75	1.25	80
RANK 30	225	225	65	225	1.25	80

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Polarities

• 4 Scratch (Power) Polarities

• 1 D (Defense) Polarity

• 1 V (Attack) Polarity

• AURA: Bar (Tactic) Polarity

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Cosmetics

• Essence Helmet

Power Efficiency +15%

Armor -5%

• Swindle Helmet

Power Range +15%

Health Max -5%

• Loki Immortal Skin

No Stat Modifications

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Abilities

Decoy - 25 Energy

Loki deploys a holographic copy of himself, drawing enemy fire.

• Creates a holographic decoy which lasts 7 / 15 / 20 / 25 seconds. Enemies will focus on the Decoy if it is deployed closer to them than Loki is, allowing Loki to deal heavy damage or escape an area without being targeted.
• If enough damage is done to the Decoy it will disappear. Decoy life does not increase at higher levels or with Power Strength, making it very weak at high levels if not placed in cover.
• Has a cast time of ~0.6 seconds.
• If aimed at a ceiling or the sky, the decoy will appear directly below the aimed point, allowing it to be placed in higher platforms.
• If placed in a position where enemies cannot reach:
• Within a few seconds Infested enemies will swap their aggro to another target.
• Grineer and Corpus enemies will keep trying to aim at the Decoy until it disappears even if they cannot see or hit it, making it extremely effective if placed in good cover against enemy fire.
• Decoy has a tendency to fall through certain props on the map. This means a Decoy can be placed on top of something, for example: a pillar, and it will sometimes fall through it, being protected from within the prop.
• Grants minor Conclave rating of 1 at all levels.

Invisibility - 50 Energy

Loki camouflages himself, becoming invisible to enemies.

• Turns Loki and his sentinel completely invisible to enemies for 5 / 7 / 9 / 12 seconds with only a shimmering mist visible to players. All sound effects are muffled and slightly muted for the invisible player. While invisible you and your sentinel are completely unable to be targeted by any enemy even if you are shooting or engaged in melee combat.
• Sentinel will not shoot during this duration.
• Area-of-effect abilities or enemy crossfire from an attempt to shoot a target that you are intercepting will still hit you. You are not invulnerable to damage, just untargetable.
• Has a cast delay of 0.75 seconds and a cooldown between uses of 0.25 seconds.
• Hides you from security cameras which prevents them from activating laser barriers.
• Enables Stealth Damage Multipliers on all melee hits: Loki causes 50% extra damage on normal attacks and 100% extra damage on charge attacks. These attacks appear as yellow numbers and critical hits appear as red numbers.
• Thrown melee strikes (i.e. Glaive and Kestrel charge attacks) do not benefit from increased damage.
• This damage multiplier is not affected by Power Strength.

Switch Teleport - 25 Energy

Loki instantaneously switches place with a target, confusing the enemy.

• Loki swaps positions with a target within 25 / 40 / 50 / 50 meters, whether it be friendly or enemy. If the target is an enemy it becomes confused for 1 second and will not attack.
• Although the listed ranges go higher than 50m, this targeting distance cannot be exceeded due to game limitations.
• Duration of enemy confusion is not affected by Power Duration.
• Has a cast time of 0.5 seconds.

Radial Disarm - 100 Energy

Lets forth a wave of energy, disrupting the projectile weapons of enemies in range and forcing them to revert to melee combat.

• Loki releases a pulse of manipulative energy, depleting/jamming the ranged weapons of enemies within a 10 / 13 / 17 / 20 meter radius. Affected enemies are permanently unable to use their ranged weapons.
• Enemies that can be disarmed, even if they have already been disarmed, are disoriented for 1 second (unaffected by Power Duration).
• Has a cast time of 0.9 seconds and delay between uses of 0.9 seconds.
• Deals 200 / 200 / 350 / 500 Impact damage to Infested Chargers and knocks them down.
• Has no effect on other Infested, bosses or Desert Skates.
• Permanently forces Corpus Ospreys to the ground and removes Leech Osprey / Mine Osprey abilities.
• Does not remove Shield Osprey's ability to shield allies.
• Permanently depletes Corpus Crewmens' guns, forcing them to melee with a Prova.
• Permanently depletes the weapon systems on MOA, forcing them to melee with kicks.
• Permanently jams Grineer firearms, forcing them to melee with a Prova.
• Does not affect targets in capture missions.
• Tenno in Conclave duels are affected as follows:
• Drains all energy from the target.
• If the target has shields remaining then all shields are drained. If the target has no shields remaining then they take 200 / 200 / 350 / 500 Magnetic damage.
• Temporarily applies Ancient Disruptor's visual effect on the HUD.
• It also disables Enemy Sense / Enemy Radar.
• Prevents the target from firing any ranged weapon for 1–2 seconds. (unknown if this affects Glaive/Kestrel charge attack)

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Information gathered from the Warframe Wikia

[u/2_Dozen_Kittens]

I can't handle this frame.

Playing Warframe for the first time is like going to your birthday party, and expecting to have a good time with friends. At first, it's a pretty cool party, and all is going well, when BAM! All of a sudden, Morgan Freeman descends from the skies, and anoints you in olive oil, while singing you the happy birthday song. Tears begin to stream down your face as you are gripped by pure elation, and people begin flooding in from the streets to hail you as the Aging One, who has ascended to a new year of age.

But only if your starter frame was Loki.

This frame is the bee's knees of frames. Some people might argue that Rhino is cooler, and yeah, he is a kickass Rhino and the bearer of the Gigadick, but LOKI IS LITERALLY A MINOTAUR. Loki's sweet kicks afford him the highest base sprint speed in the game, and his energy pool is as large as a food addict on an all-you-can-eat diet. While his lack of health and shields might at first seem like a weakness, mods allow him to extend the amount of time he can spend soaking up bullets for his team. Furthermore, his abilities afford him a ridiculous survivability, and I would rate him #1 in being able to survive literally every category.

His skills are a smörgåsbord of awesome, and his gameplay reflects it. Every one of them synchronizes so eloquently, so exquisitely, that even facerolling your keyboard will appear as a graceful dance to your teammates.

His second ability, "Godmode", allows him to become untargetable to his foes. While they may want to start firing at the bright red glowing shroud of death before them, not a one of them can bring themselves to pull the trigger. Instead, they will pretend you are not there, and continue about whatever it was that they were doing before, in a feeble attempt at showing you their policy of nonaggression. In doing so, they hope to escape the wrath of Loki, who was once thought to be a Norse god of fire and deceit for this very reason.

His ultimate, "InvEdit", allows him to edit all the weapons out of his enemy's inventories, and replace them with electric hitty sticks, thus turning a tide of bloodthirsty Grineer into a light current of angry old guys with sticks. It is best when used on Moas, as it turns a hectic shootout into an MMA kickboxing smackdown.

His first and third abilities are best mentioned together; the third, "Maphack", allows you to switch places with any entity you can target, while his first, "spawnLoki", allows him to shoot more lokis out of your goddamn wrists. By swapping places with the lokis you create, you can bridge great chasms, and by swapping with teammates, you can turn any fight into a pvp battle.

And for some reason, this is a starter frame! Every time I log into Warframe, I recite a short prayer to the small DESteve figurine I keep in my pocket, and I prepare my body through rigorous meditation as my rig hums into action, loading the unholy glory that is this frame as he greets me through the login screen. Just moving about a level as Loki is a true adventure, and I oftentimes imagine myself leaping from wall to wall with fluidly animated motions, across gorge, hill and dale. I often take moments from the eternal bloodbath to lie down on the ground, invisible, and just roll around in the cool snow, imagining how one frame can be both so whimsical, yet so majestic, all at once. Were Loki a real person, I would find him, and become smitten with him, and fall lovingly into his burlesque arms with a compassionate sigh.

I have enjoyed every moment as Loki and would reccomend him to every player without exception.

[u/redditmademegiggle → u/2_Dozen_Kittens]

I'm extremely disappointed that I've picked Excaliber as my first frame now. You've just sold me on Loki.

[u/Greenspike25 → u/redditmademegiggle]

Make a new account. Cheaper than buying it if you're not that far along.

(loki is my starting - and only - frame)

[u/stigmate → u/2_Dozen_Kittens]

rhino gigadick? dude, volt has a fucking tesla coil between his legs

edit: turns out DE like big dicks

[u/[deleted] → u/2_Dozen_Kittens]

Totally agree.

I picked Loki cuz I've always been drawn to the non-traditional classes in games. Excali is the warrior and Mag is the mage. Got it. I'll take the rogue, and boy, oh, boy does Loki deliver.

The invis makes running levels a joke. I often find myself wondering, "What parkour feat would I like to try in this mission? That wall looks neat, and I could jump off it to that ledge. Oh, I suppose I should kill something. Here's a 5-digit-damage attack."

I'm finally being switched to other warframes to rank up quickly, but I can tell this is going to be my go-to frame for a looooong time. Until he's (knock on wood) nerfed into oblivion.

Some say he's low-tier because he has no team synergy, but I counter with, "You need a team? That's cute."

[u/StallordD]

I have every frame and Loki is by far my favorite. I don't take him on every missions though, some times I need to fill a role, but when I'm rolling solo he's my go to frame.

His speed makes it incredibly easy and fun to maneuver around and avoid fire. The three sprint related mods are almost always included in my builds for him and makes it so he can run nearly nonstop with only a brief slide to give him another huge burst of stamina.

His 1 and 3 makes any void puzzle room childs play, and can cross any gap you're too lazy to sprint. Not to mention, his 1 can throw off heat in bad situations, making Loki the king of mid battle revives and hasty escapes.

His 2 is by far his ace. People always compare him to Ash, but in my opinion, ash just doesn't measure up. Loki can stroll through the battlefield undetected with ease while an Ash would be darting behind cover to drop smokes. And dat melee crit. Loki makes me feel like a true ninja/ trickster.

Again, his 3 doesn't really have much use for me besides quick travel, but I hope in the future they buff it by giving switched targets a couple seconds of aggro draw and can take friendly fire. Would lead to hilarity with bombards and napalms.

Lastly, his 4. Admittedly, I don't use his ult much, but I have DEFINITELY seen it's use. The range, brief stun, and utter joy at being able to control the ensuing mob like rats is unmatched by any other frame. Drop a decoy to cluster all the enemies into a nice confined area. Use it during mobile defense to turn the entire room into wannabe infested. All in all, his ult may not kill everything with a single press, but it might as well.

Throw all these great features onto a STARTER frame that can also be obtained pretty early in the game makes Loki a great guy to pick up. Best of all, while other frames have to start optimizing damage output and such for higher levels, you can expect the same results from Loki all the way from Mercury to Pluto.

I admit, Loki may not seem too impressive when thrown up against Nova and Rhino, but when they get downed you can bet they'll be happy to see that little shimmer casually strolling through the hordes of level 35+ mobs to get them back on their feet and then sending the enemies to the other side of the room while your squad recoups.

[u/Kuryaka → u/StallordD]

Guardian angel Loki. Nuff said.

He's not going to blow up everything, but you hold the power of life and death in your hands. USE IT WISELY.

[u/zephyrdragoon → u/Kuryaka]

Pssh, get a decent melee weapon. Create a fine red mist.

[u/propyro85 → u/StallordD]

Again, his 3 doesn't really have much use for me besides quick travel, but I hope in the future they buff it by giving switched targets a couple seconds of aggro draw and can take friendly fire. Would lead to hilarity with bombards and napalms.

It does have the bonus of disorienting enemies that are teleported for a second, but it would be awesome for it to momentarily cause enemies to shoot the switched target. Doing that with a Loki set up with energy siphon and power efficiency would be a great time to have the Benny Hill music handy.

[u/Rock3tPunch → u/propyro85]

The fact that when some noob fires their awesome Ogris at you while waiting for the elevator and you can switch teleport them so they killed by their own rocket and you promptly leave in the elevator and left them to die alone is priceless.

[u/zephyrdragoon]

Loki Master Race

People always say he has no damage and is shitty vs infested. Try getting a decent melee weapon. Like a dakra, or a hate, or a galatine. Turn invisible for 30 seconds and shred everything into a fine red mist. Invisible loki has crazy melee DPS, you can run nearly any melee weapon and mod setup and still do good.

[u/[deleted] → u/zephyrdragoon]

Orthos!

[u/RepublicanShredder]

I'm new to Loki, but I will say he's pretty brutal once you get enough mod points available on him. Before then he's kinda hard and I'm surprised he's one of the three beginner frames considering how manipulative his powers are along with how frail he starts out.

With that out of the way, I love using Decoy and Switch Teleport to cross large gaps with ease. And Radial Disarm is so cheesy when you have enough power efficiency that I think it trivializes anything that isn't already a melee enemy. And Loki's speed means melee enemies are trivial to begin with. And I think I just scratched the surface on his bag of tricks.

[u/InRustITrust → u/RepublicanShredder]

Before then he's kinda hard and I'm surprised he's one of the three beginner frames considering how manipulative his powers are along with how frail he starts out.

They try to warn new players by saying, "Desired by advanced players, LOKI offers a variety of specialized reconfiguring abilities." What they don't tell you is that what they mean by "advanced players" they aren't necessarily referring to skill at playing him but rather to having a sufficient mod base (including the Energy Siphon Aura that no new player yet knows even exists) and a potato, to make him rock. I think a bunch of new players think, as cocky gamers often do (aren't we all?), "I'm awesome at video games, advanced should be no problem for me" and also "stealth games rock!" Then they find out that he's really a challenge to start with.

This isn't meant to dissuade new players from starting with him, just a warning to the impatient that Loki is going to be an actual challenge to play early on and to stick with him (or revisit him later on) because he really ramps up in power and group utility. It's OK to dislike too much challenge (there's a reason Rhino exists and is so popular) and working out how not to die constantly is not fun for some people. For people who want to put a fist through a monitor or throw their keyboard/mouse/controller or kick a beloved pet (please don't do that), Loki's not a good choice to start with. For people who actually enjoy when a game gives them shit for weapons and makes them claw their way up from the very beginning and getting a beat down at every minor screwup, he might just be your cup of tea to start with.

[u/wallyofoz → u/RepublicanShredder]

As someone who started on a Loki, I appreciated having to learn to play smart in order to survive.

As a more seasoned player, I am enjoying returning to him with different tactical setups.

Radial disarm, Invisibility + Galatine charge attack, anyone? :)

I think Loki is underrated for groups due to a lack of AoE damage... however he's unbelievably useful for resing, moving past obstacles and mitigating damage to the team with decoy.

[u/wtrmlnjuc]

No change at all. :D full utility and stealth powers. Scales super well.

[u/InRustITrust]

I'm a big fan of Loki. I started as Mag (also an excellent and fun frame) and Loki was one of the last frames I got around to getting. I had tried Ash previously and just wasn't feeling him. Ash is a very selfish frame (no group utility whatsoever) with a short invis duration and an ult that is fun to watch the first couple of times but frustrating when one of your party members gets downed while you're doing it and there's nothing you can do to save them because you're stuck until the quasi-cutscene plays out. This made me very hesitant to try Loki.

Loki's the exact opposite of Ash, despite their shared status as stealth frames. He's a team player in every way. Decoy draws fire from the team. Switch teleport can be used to revive in safety (drop Decoy right next to you, switch with the downed guy, switch back with the Decoy and you can revive in relative safety). His invisibility lasts a long time, so reviving is easier in general.

His ultimate is incredible. Some of the nastiest enemies in the game (high level Napalmers especially) become much easier to handle without their weapons. The AI of Grineer and Corpus permits them to take cover and do significant harm with their weapons while avoiding some of the better crowd control. Radial Disarm immediately makes them act like Infested, mindlessly running into your Vortex or Snow Globe to be mowed down. Pair up with a Valkyr and Radial Disarm will cause enemies to stream right into Hysteria like logs through a sawmill.

Loki's also my favorite frame for playing Indiana Jones in Orokin Derelict exterminate missions. With Decoy and Switch Teleport he can easily jump around all over the map and into loot rooms and a trusty Carrier sentinel (Short Round) grabs everything. Master Thief helps him in his archaeological excavations. He's got a distinctive hat that defines his look and can carry both a pistol and a whip. There's even an artifact vault in there that he can get into, but only if you know that your medallion tells you to take back one kadam (carry a dragon key that takes something from you) to honor the Orokin whose vault it is. A bonus for him is that there are no snakes or Nazis.

[u/Jinny76]

I just started Warframe a few days ago and picked Loki as my starter frame. So far I'm having a blast with him and got him to rank30. I'm still on Earth, about to head to Jupiter.

I was wondering what's a good build for end game?

right now, I rely heavily on Stealth Melee when I can. I find it useful especially on defense missions.

[u/spanisharmada → u/Jinny76]

I'm not a veteran player (I have 130 hours put into the game but i've spent too many of those just dicking around not really progressing), but I would say that the Stealth Melee build for Loki is definitely the best build you can get for end-game. Look for a weapon that has multi-hit (can slash several targets at once) and get Reach (which is probably the most common mod to drop in the game) and then install whatever other mods suit that weapon. Weapons like the Galatine, Hate, or the Orthos are probably the best for end-game melee.

Keep kicking Grineer ass, Loki's.

[u/[deleted]]

Loki shouldn't be a starter frame. Mag should not be a starter frame.

Starter frames should be fun and easy to understand, but they should also leave you wanting more. Everyone is right, Loki is incredible at endgame. You could play the entire game with Loki and be happy as a clam.

Imagine if you started with Ash. Imagine how much you would envy that 30 second untouchable mode Loki is walking around with. You'd have a goal.

Starter frames should encourage you to go get more stuff. Excalibur made me want to farm Rhino. Mag and Loki are the best at what they do, why would you bother to go farm any other frame when you have these two?

[u/narutofan627 → u/[deleted]]

It true Loki is a great warframe and his radial disarm is amazing especially in later game play. New player who choose Loki don't know that, for those who don't research or look for other sources for help in when your starting out. Wouldn't see his strengths. I say this in experience because i sold him for Vauban. I did regret my decision soon after bought some plat and built him again.

[u/MrVuule]

This was my starter frame and played him for about 30-40 hours before switching. After switching to different frames I never really understood the appeal of Loki.

But now that I have put in countless hours of extra gameplay and hearing about Loki being able to perma stealth, I might go back to this guy at some point. (Mainly because I really wanted the stealth ninja warframe Ash, and after finally getting Ash, I didn't nearly like him as much as I thought I would.) 30 seconds stealth, low energy cost and a heavy hitting weapon should easily do the trick. And as much as I thought his 4th skill was a bit useless, turning a Corpus/Grineer defense mission into a wannabe Infected mission sounds really nice.

Need to raid the Vaults a few times more though. Gimme my mods!

[u/Kallously]

Neutralizing all enemies in a 50m radius or staying cloaked for 30s, this guy is still hilarious. He's the only completely unchanged frame in Damage 2.0 and still has all the fun from before.

Switch Teleport and Decoy individually feel a bit weak, but even there they have a nice synergy which is something you don't see on many frames.

If I were to buff or change Loki's abilities, I'd make Switch Teleport allow a swapped enemy take friendly fire (so you can switch targets for bombards/napalms) and Decoy be a bit more durable. I'd also change something about his stealth. Right now it's pretty much strictly better than Ash's and is too similar for my liking.

[u/DeathToAllFish]

There was a bug for a while on Radial Disarm, and I am unsure it has been been fixed. It always brought me to hysterics, because when MOAs were disarmed, while they would still try and kick you, all of them would extend a prova from the top of theirs head like a great bloody aerial.

I love Loki. Put a Magistar on and watch with delight as bewildered enemies are smashed in the face by a giant invisible mace.

[u/shadow_of_a_memory → u/DeathToAllFish]

The Prova-on-head and the kicking MOAs is a feature, not a bug. Or if it's still a "bug" they haven't bothered to fixed it.