by Freyr — last updated 4 months ago
The heir of twin kingdoms ascends. Biological and Sentient life meet in Caliban. An adept monarch, he offers crowd control and survivability. His creator had more than one world in mind.
ITEM RANK
3060 / 60
APPLY CONDITIONALS
Nourish: Solid, probably the best Helminth imo. Free Viral damage, along with an Energy Multiplier. The Viral Damage also extends over to your Summons! So this’ll buff up their damage pretty nicely, with Tau status increasing the Status Chance received from other statuses! This one I have and will use for my group play build, as it buffs up everyone’s damage nicely.
Roar: Generic Damage buff. Works nicely with all Frames, and it synergizes well with [Caliban]’s defense strip and damage vulnerability.
There are more options, but these are the main two I would recommend. Feel free to experiment and see what you like!
[Brief Respite] is my second recommended option, giving you guaranteed Shields, and Shield Gates, whenever you cast abilities. You will not always need it, but the Summons only Restore Shields when you have shield already. So if you are at 1 shield, you will receive the buff. [Brief Respite] will help you mitigate downtime and verify you can stay alive.
[Corrosive Projection] is also a nice option, should you choose to run it. This will lower Enemy Armor by 18%, which will enable you to run a lower Strength number, fully stripping Armor with only 162% Strength! Good generic option, benefits the whole team.
[Growing Power] would be my final recommendation, before going into some niche Aura’s. This Mod gives you 25% Strength after applying any Status, and with your entire kit guaranteeing Tau proc’s, it should be up permanently! Beloved option, again benefits the entire team.
Duration: Moving onto the main build itself, and the stats I like to use, we will open up with Duration. I run one Duration mod, [Primed Continuity], and one Tau Forged Shard. This puts you at 170% duration, which is comfortable for the timers on [Caliban]’s abilities. Sentient Wrath, or the Stomp, will last for 17 seconds. Lethal Progeny, your Sentient Summon ability, will last for 76.5 seconds. Fusion Strike’s field, the Defense strip and “nuke”, will last for 25.5 seconds! If you subsume Nourish over his 1, Razor [Gyre], you will have a duration of 42.5 seconds. A subsumed Roar will last for 51s.
Efficiency: Efficiency is a dump stat, in my opinion. Good energy economy can be easy to manage with Energy Pad’s, Zenurik, [Equilibrium] through either the Mod or Violet shards, or Arcane Steadfast. My preferred option is Arcane Steadfast, since I like to treat [Caliban] as a caster frame. If you do not feel comfortable with low Efficiency, you can swap in [Streamline], or adjust the build accordingly!
Range: Range is a very important stat for [Caliban]. Higher range gives the Stomp more leverage and power, as you can suspend an entire room into the air, giving you free headshots, while increasing the damage they take. It also affects your Fusion Strike, giving you a big area of lingering defense strip! With [Overextended], and [Augur Reach], you will have a total of 220% range. This gives your Stomp 55 meters of range, with Fusion Strike having a range of 66 meters. Your Lethal Progeny is also affected by Range, affecting the range your allies have to be in in order to receive the Shield [Regen] buff. I would try to run at least 175% range, which can be achieved by [Stretch] and [Augur Reach].
Strength: The most important stat for [Caliban]. This will increase the damage vulnerability of your Stomp, the amount of defense stripped by Fusion Strike, along with the damage of your Summons. I like to run [Blind Rage], with [Umbral Intensify], I have 3 Tauforged Crimson shards for Strength, giving us a grand total of 228% Strength. This gives you 79% damage vulnerability on the Stomp, and 100% Defense Strip. Your Summons will also have a damage multiplier of 5.7x, with a Health Multiplier of 4.56x. They will start at Level 68, and have a shield [Regen] rate of 57 a second. This applies to all Allies and Companions within 55 meters.
To wrap up, Arcanes! Very fun options to go into, depending on what you think you need, what you like to run, there’s plenty of fun stuff to do with them. Feel free to experiment if you'd like! Down below are some recommendations.
As stated earlier, a solid option is Arcane Steadfast. After casting an ability, there’s a 20% chance to cast an additional 3 abilities at no energy cost. This can let you spam the Stomp and your Fusion Strike, dishing out heavy damage at no energy cost.
Molt Augmented is my second option. I love the 60% strength, but the 250 kills can be a while to get going. I wouldn’t recommend it in shorter missions, as it will take a while to stack up. On your longer missions, that 60% extra strength will help buff your Damage Vulnerability, and your Summons will receive higher damage multiplier, with increased Shield [Regen] rate!
Arcane Nullifier can be a solid option. Negates Magnetic Effect. Pretty much it.
Molt Efficiency can be very nice, providing an additional 36% duration. Little hard to keep up at times, but a very solid option.
Arcane Camisado can be a BiS arcane for a Summoning build. The Conculyst’s stack the 60% the quickest, as they cast a mini Fusion Strike when you cast your own. 20% movement speed allows them to keep up easily with enemies, and melts em easily. Ortholyst’s are also a great option for it, with their mortar strikes being the second quickest stack for it. Summulysts don’t feel terrible to stack it on, but they will not be as fast as the other two. Permanent 60% uptime on additional Strength for simply playing into his abilities. Much more convenient than Molt Augmented.
This will be the end of my build! I put way too much effort into this, but feel free to critique, and let me know what you think :)
