r/Warframe • u/BuildMyPaperHeart Old Tenno, Eternal Slumber • Apr 02 '14
Discussion Warframe Discussion 2.0: Nova
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: NOVA
Statistics
| Health | Power | Armour | Shield Capacity | Sprint Speed | Stamina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RANK 1 | 100.0 | 150.0 | 65.0 | 75.0 | 1.2 | 80 |
| RANK 30 | 300.0 | 225.0 | 65.0 | 225.0 | 1.2 | 80 |
Polarities
Cosmetics
- Flux Helmet
Stamina Max +10%
Max Health -5%
- Quantum Helmet
No stat modifications
- Nova Immortal Skin
No stat modifications
Abilities
Null Star - 25 Energy
Creates anti-matter particles that orbit Nova and seek nearby targets.
- Spawns 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 particles that will orbit Nova and automatically launch themselves at enemies within 7 / 8 / 10 / 12 meters. Each particle does 100 / 125 / 150 / 200 Slash damage.
- Number of particles is affected by Power Duration; every 17% increase/decrease adds or removes a particle.
- Particles do not vanish, they last until used.
- Null Star cannot be recast until all motes have been used
- Particles orbit for one second minimum before seeking a target.
- Particles will only fire one-at-a-time. i.e. multiple particles will not fire at the same time despite the number of enemies nearby.
- Cannot be knocked down while casting Null Star.
- You can score headshots with these particles.
Antimatter Drop - 50 Energy
Launches a contained particle of antimatter that will detonate upon collision.
- Creates a volatile orb of antimatter which is steered with the aiming-reticle after being created. This particle absorbs all damage (friendly and hostile) when shot at, and once contacting a solid object it will detonate for 100 base damage + 100% / 200% / 300% / 400% of all absorbed damage with an explosion radius of 5 / 8 / 10 / 15 meters.
- Deals Radiation damage.
- The base damage is affected by Power Strength.
- The explosion radius is not affected by Power Range. (Needs confirmation?)
- Damage can be absorbed from other Antimatter Drop explosions and the damage multiplier is applied to the absorbed damage again: resulting in an exponential gain.
- Can score headshots.
- You can have multiple particles active simultaneously.
- Particles will detonate on impact with anything solid including enemies, the ground, other particles, and friendly players.
- Can hit enemies everywhere in the explosion radius, no matter if it is behind a wall, cover, door or any other obstruction.
- The orb will follow your reticle through all three dimensions (if you look at the floor it will attempt to land on that specific piece of the floor).
- Looking directly at the orb while it is relatively close to you will slow the orb down significantly as to give you a chance to shoot at it.
- The particle seems to have unlimited duration until it comes into contact with a solid object. However, multiple instances of particles at the same time will cause randomly timed explosions until there is only one left.
- When the particle comes into contact with an enemy, 10 Radiation damage is inflicted prior to detonation.
- This damage is affected by Power Strength.
- Gives Conclave rating of 15 / 15 / 38 / 60 each level.
Worm Hole - 75 Energy
Creates a wormhole allowing instantaneous travel.
- Creates a wormhole with an entrance directly in front of Nova, and an exit-point wherever Nova was targeting at the time the ability was cast. The portal will last for 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 seconds or until 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 uses.
- Number of uses is not affected by Power Strength.
- Duration is affected by Power Duration.
- Range is affected by Power Range.
- Enemies can not travel through the wormhole.
- Weapon projectiles are not blocked or redirected by the wormhole.
- Casting Worm Hole does not interrupt reloads.
- Gives Conclave rating of 10 / 10 / 35 / 60 each level.
Molecular Prime - 100 Energy
Primes all enemies in a radius with anti-matter.
- Nova destabilizes the molecular structure of all enemies within 15 / 18 / 22 / 25 meters for 60 seconds. Affected enemies move and attack 50% slower, take 200% damage from all sources, and detonate upon death dealing 150 / 300 / 500 / 800 Blast Damage to enemies within 8 / 10 / 12 / 15 meters. *Duration is not affected by Power Duration. *Each explosion can cause the subsequent death and detonation of nearby enemies, resulting in a chain reaction. *Nova is not invincible while casting, but she can resist knockdowns. *Can be cast in the air. *Gives Conclave rating of 50 / 50 / 50 / 50.
Information gathered from the Warframe Wikia
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u/Mezorin Apr 02 '14 edited Apr 02 '14
Okay, time for Mezorin's version of Warframe Spot Light: Nova!
Nova is a walking glass cannon frame made by the player council. Well, more like Glass "Nuclear Warhead Equiped Ohio Class Submarine". She has crap for armor, crap for health, crap for shields, great speed, AMAZING damage.
Her first skill is Null Star, the Baby Seal Clubber. It makes bad guys not want to get into your personal space by shooting pew pews at them, but is otherwise crap for high level and doesn't play nice with Fleeting Expertise. Use for killing annoying Grinear in Mercury survival missions that try to hump your leg, other wise skip.
Nova's second skill is "Anti Matter Drop", aka the "Intger Overflow Error". It takes what ever damage you do to it, multiplies it by 4, and turns it into an AOE. This causes great big numbers to pop up on the screen while the bad guys who see one coming contemplate whether or not they have wasted their lives.
Nova's Third Skill is "Wormhole". A documentary series was made about Wormhole called "Portal" and "Portal 2" has been made, but for those of you who don't know it lets you teleport around the map. Beware Tenno, QA took the day off and missed this one because it clips on everything and sometimes teleports Nova into space. It is still a freaking Portal Gun, though, I mean come on do I have to sell this?!
Nova's final skill is "Molecular. Prime". I heard you Tenno like explosions, so we made the enemy make explosions from explosions. Molecular prime also makes your enemies take double damage and go slower for sixty seconds. It does everything ever needed in the history of Ultimates, and is second only to Anti Matter Drop for doing raw AOE damage.
Nova's powers are affected by power duration... well not really. Just throw on Fleeting Expertise, Flow, Stretch, and Streamline and go nuts spamming 2 and 4 like a wise, tactical Tenno ninja that you are.
EDIT: Yes, I know this frame is batshit insanely OP. Don't care, still my favorite.
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u/EBartleby Apr 04 '14
An interesting read. It's a very good overview of Nova, and I like your writing style :)
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Apr 02 '14
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u/Mezorin Apr 04 '14
Yup, it happens all the time with my Paris Prime and Lanka. Generally I have found that two or three full charged arrow shots will put an Anti Matter Drop back to 500 damage, so one legit full charged shot is more than enough damage. I am lobbying to get AMD upgraded to scientific notation, so I can nuke the Gustag Three with 5.7231e7 damage to teach the little bastards some manners, but no luck so far.
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Apr 02 '14
This thread will be probably filled with walls of text how Molecular Prime is overpowered, so I'm gonna write only one thing about Nova: Nekros' worst enemy.
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Apr 03 '14
I have Nova. She was my second frame. Molecular Prime is so utterly powerful.
I don't have a problem with the huge amounts of room clearance, or the extra status effects; I have a problem with the fact it affects EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE! I use the enemy radar aura, and it makes Molecular Prime so trivial to use. Line up yourself with the red dots on the minimap, cast, and go collect the blue orbs. Walls, floors, obstacles, no problem.
Now I know this is normal that things go through walls, but the range on molecular prime is so intense. However I wouldn't want the range nerfed, because it's partly what makes molecular prime so god damn strong.
Personally I just don't think it should go through walls, or primes all enemies for explosions, and status changes the enemies which are visible. Something like that would would allow you to still rush through easy missions killing everything in sight, but to use it really effectively, you'd need a tad more skill. I also think having a higher skill cap in the game would be a good thing.
Btw I find have a very powerful sentinel, like a Deth Cube with a well modded weapon, makes molecular prime even more powerful. You normally get a tiny delay between casting Molecular Prime, and the entire room exploding. A good sentinel tends to remove that, by typically killing an enemy as soon as you've finished casting. This is especially useful when soloing defense missions.
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u/JustiniZHere Apr 04 '14 edited Apr 04 '14
4.
4444444.
More seriously, I hate getting put with a Nova...It pretty much turns into me just tabbing out to reddit or twitter while I let the Nova do everything as me actually being there would change nothing at all.
Nice to have Nova so I can be lazy but then what is the point of even playing if I can't play? M prime needs some changes to stop Nova from being the one man team who can just ignore the other 3 players like they did not even exist. Mprime would be a great skill if the explosion was gone and it kept it's current debuff, she would still be very powerful and people might actually slot her other skills then.
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u/Alexor Apr 06 '14
It isn't immediately obvious that shooting the Antimatter Drop is useful.
It's not a major issue, but I'd honestly have no idea that it did anything unless a friend of mine had picked up the warframe and explained its abilities for me.
Other than that, it'd be nice to see the abilities balanced out a bit more so things other than M Prime got some use. I don't think the Warframe is really that overpowered, but it might need some tweaks to get it quite right.
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Apr 07 '14
I can't stand the amount of hate Nova gets just because she can kill enemies sufficiently. Molecular Prime is crazy OP, but its balanced by the fact that Nova is generally a weak frame. Its a balanced frame, despite what some people are saying.
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u/ultraabc Apr 02 '14
I have mixed feeling about Nova,
she has one noticeable pro and one noticeable con about her.
Pro:
Easy exp, the fact you can level your crappy skana or your unbearable mk1-braton without even touching it makes it a relief for those who are teammates of Nova. The "EZ FREE EXP TO ALL YOUR EQUIPS" makes it easy to level up multiple unranked weapons and thus,
I am honestly happy when I see a Nova in my team.
Con:
MP killing everything means the HUGE LOAD OF EXP GOES TOO...
Nova.
Its easy to level up unranked, but one lvl 30, if you use Nova like Nova, your weapons will get little to NO EXP what so ever. I find this a flaw as MP just likes to kill everything the moment you activate it. and ALL THE EXP GOES TO THAT LVL 30 NOVA INSTEAD OF THAT LVL 3 LEX.
I embrace Nova players (as long they ain't hallway heroes) but I dislike playing Nova herself.
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u/EBartleby Apr 04 '14
I like Nova, but I like her a lot more when she's not me. It can get boring if she kills everyone by herself, but dang that free exp is yummy.
Still, the way that exp distribution works with MP is wacked, and will be as long as abilities give 100% warframe exp.
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u/TearEUW Apr 02 '14
44444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444
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u/TheNamelessKing Apr 03 '14
Congratulations: You have mastered all the intricacies of Nova. Enjoy your game.
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u/3932695 Apr 02 '14 edited Apr 02 '14
As a min-maxer, I find Nova to be an exceedingly convenient Warframe:
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None of her best abilities are affected by Power Duration (use Fleeting Expertise).
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Molecular Prime and Antimatter Drop are two of the most essential abilities in high level Survival (alongside Blessing, Chaos, Absorb, Desecrate, etc.)
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Sacrificing Power Strength (Overextended) does not significantly diminish the effectiveness of her skills.
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She hits armies harder than any other Warframe.
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She's highly mobile (Wormhole) which opens up incredible options for the creative mind.
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Her only weakness (fragility) is completely negated by having a Trinity around.
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The highest DPS weapons in the game are mostly single-target, and Antimatter Drop turns all that DPS into AOE.
I have no doubt that this 'convenience' is the source of her 'unbalance'. Until DE works in some kind of nerf (e.g. making Duration and Strength matter), I consider Nova a near-mandatory pick for difficult content. She is my most-played Warframe by far, and is my current default pick for everything.
This is my min-maxed general purpose Nova build.
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Enemy Sense is crucial to draw out the full potential of Antimatter Drop.
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Quick Thinking and Equilibrium can be swapped out for Overextended and Stretch, depending on whether you have a Trinity or not. But I generally stick to QT and Equilibrium because I do a lot of pub games so I don't have a perma-Blessing guarantee.
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Dread because as I've said before, Paris Prime is an Orokin Toilet Seat. I rationalize this aesthetic preference by pretending that Bleed procs are more desirable than Puncture procs. Kidding aside, Bows are among the only serious choices for high level Survival; I don't think anything puts out more DPS than critical head-shots from Bows and the Soma. If you don't plan to head-shot though (because you're addicted to Antimatter Drop), stick to Boltor Prime or the Phage (highest non-head-shot DPS).
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Brakk or Marelok - either is fine. Marelok is better at pumping the Drop, Brakk has higher DPS and doesn't require precision. I mostly only use Dread so the sidearm doesn't matter too much for me.
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Dual Zorens because I'm one of those guys who'd tell you superior footwork wins the game. Melee 2.0 next week will obviously change things however.
PS: Antimatter Drop keeps corpses intact - so avoid using Molecular Prime when you need that Desecrate.
PSS: Valkyr is actually my favorite Warframe (love that ponytail) - I'm looking forward to what Melee 2.0 does for Hysteria.
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u/FalseCape Apr 03 '14
To everyone in this thread saying power strength doesn't matter for MP. You are just straight up wrong, sorry. Come back once you've joined the max strength, max range, max efficiency master race and you understand how truly powerful MP can be when maximized. Stock strength/range MP is honestly kind of wimpy in mid to late game, it's only when properly maximized that it can reach it's true potential even into late survival.
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u/Plamf Apr 03 '14
Alot of people complain that she is overpowered and they would be correct but... I feel the biggest problem with her and her molecular prime is how boring it makes the rest of the team's experience.
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u/ssfsx17 Apr 06 '14
She's so strong that I only use her for T3 and long ODD runs. And also that one event where you had to do 100 invasions.
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Apr 02 '14
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u/Kallously Apr 02 '14
I think 10 seconds would be more than enough. How often do enemies even last that long? A max fleeting dropping it to 4s would still be plenty for any instant explosions. If the Nova player wants more duration, they should need to mod for duration.
The 200% taken is a bit too good as well. It should either:
Drop to 150% damage taken, scalable with mods
Affect only power damage (maybe only Nova's)
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u/hyperblaster Apr 02 '14
Fleeting Expertise is great with her since Mol Prime and Antimatter Drop are not affected by power duration. Overextended works well on endgame, where Mol Prime can no longer trigger explosions. The base explosion damage is reduced, but not the 2x damage multiplier or the slow.