The Razor Storm | Caliban | General Use SP and Endurance (non-helminth and helminth options)

by ninjase — last updated 6 days ago

Forged in celebration of the all-too-brief peace between the Orokin and Sentients, Caliban Prime is a true collaborative masterpiece. The heir of twin kingdoms arises in royal gold.

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ITEM RANK

60 / 60

Orokin Reactor

APPLY CONDITIONALS

ENERGY: 225
HEALTH: 370
SHIELD: 740
SPRINT SPEED: 1.1

DURATION: 100%
EFFICIENCY: 100%
RANGE: 100%
STRENGTH: 100%

ARMOR: 290
Damage Reduction: 49.2%
EFFECTIVE HIT POINTS: 1,714

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Caliban Prime builds

Builds by ninjase

The Razor Storm | Caliban | General Use SP and Endurance (non-helminth and helminth options)

General Use [Caliban] build for Starchart, Steel Path and SP Endurance with a focus on all Ortholysts and [Razor Mortar] (ideal helminth option is Nourish over 4).

Gameplay footage of old build (before [Razor Mortar]):

PLAYSTYLE

NOTE: Invert tap/hold controls
1. Hold 3 until you select Ortholysts and tap 3 to summon and keep active as needed for summon DPS. Otherwise you can select Summulysts to boost passive shield regeneration.
2. Cast 1 (Razor [Gyre]) frequently or whenever shields break to restore shields, gain energy and group enemies and trigger [Razor Mortar].
3. Cast Fusion Strike to create a 20+m zone that strips enemies as they enter the zone (or keep Nourish active if subsumed)
4. Use Sentient Wrath frequently to crowd control enemies and apply a damage vulnerability as well as Tau status.

SURVIVABILITY

SHIELD TANKING (CASUAL PLAY AND BASE STEEL PATH)
Shields have an innate 50% damage reduction and [Caliban] can restore shields with both 1 and summulysts. [Caliban]'s passive also has damage adapation that gives up to 50% damage reduction to a specific damage type. [Adaptation] is optional over [Rolling Guard] or [Transient Fortitude] for even more passive tankiness (but note that [Adaptation] simply overrides his passive), allowing shields to have 95% damage reduction. This is probably fine for most missions up to base steel path (i.e. < level 500) especially if you want to have a more laid back time.
SHIELD GATING (ENDURANCE STEEL PATH)
Once enemies deal enough damage to oneshot all your shields, you will need to rely on the shield gate mechanic which is where you gain a certain duration of i-frames (invulnerability) depending on the highest level of shield reached before breaking. For example if you [Reach] 1150 shields or higher, breaking this will give 2.5s of immortality. Currently Overshields generated by either 1 or 3 count to giving this 2.5s shield gate (likely unintended but has been present for almost 2 years since inception in September 2023), meaning pressing 1 and generating over 1150 shields resets your shield gate for 2.5s gate each time. If you are constantly spinning around in 1 or at least within 2.5s of breaking shields, you will effectively be unkillable. You MUST combine this with crowd control i.e. from Sentient Wrath to reduce the frequency of taking damage so you don't actually lose shields constantly. Rolling Guard is optional but highly useful to gain additional backup i-frames AND clear annoying statuses that can kill you (e.g. slash, electric, heat).

IMPORTANT NOTE ON AUGUR MODS: Try to AVOID using any augur mods on both [Caliban] and secondary on both you and your sentinel. This is because Augur mods cause you to gain a tiny amount of shields on ability cast and can OVERRIDE the 2.5s gate with a tiny 0.5s gate if you cast an ability like Sentient Wrath after reaching 1150 shields.

ORTHOLYST SURVIVABILITY
Ortholysts appear to have the same sentient health gates as the enemy sentients in addition to damage [Adaptation], meaning it takes at least 5 shots to kill no matter how much damage enemies can deal. They also appear to dodge many enemy attacks while in mortar mode for whatever reason, meaning they are actually quite hard to kill even at level cap.

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Positive duration is mainly suggested for the uptime of Lethal Progeny (around 1 minute) so you don't need to recast as often as well as the uptime of Razor Mortar. Sentient Wrath and Fusion Strike have long enough base durations (sitting around 10-20s)

Efficiency
This is a flexible stat that you should tailor to your preferences and access arcanes and can be either negative at 45% (due to [Blind Rage]) or neutral at 100% (drop [Blind Rage]). Negative efficiency allows Razor [Gyre] to generate more overall energy which effectively offsets the increased cast costs. For example at 45% efficiency, Razor [Gyre] costs 39 energy and refunds 9.75 energy per enemy hit, meaning you will have a net energy gain of 156 energy after hitting 20 enemies (equivalent to another four casts of Razor [Gyre]). At 100% efficiency, Razor [Gyre] costs 25 energy and refunds 6.25 energy per enemy hit, meaning a net energy gain of 100 after hitting 20 enemies (also equivalent to four casts of Razor [Gyre]). Arcane Steadfast triggers frequently with spamming of 1, which then allows free casts of Fusion Strike and improves energy economy significantly. [Equilibrium] is optional for maximum backup energy restore. [Archon Stretch] is also optional for further passive energy generation with [Razor Mortar].

Range
Range is a useful stat as it affects all his abilities, particularly the range of Razor Gyre and therefore how many enemies you can hit per spin for shield/energy restoration as well as grouping radius from [Razor Mortar], the range of Sentient Wrath, the shield [Regen] range of Lethal Progeny and the lingering strip zone of Fusion Strike. You can keep this between 145% to 235%+ depending on tile set and preference. Note to activate [Razor Mortar] mode on Ortholysts, you only need to hit a single enemy with ragdoll grouping and they will still shoot other non grouped enemies with no real range limitation meaning the grouping itself is actually not that important. If you prefer high range, swap [Transient Fortitude] for [Overextended].

Strength
Strength is [Caliban]'s most important stat as it affects the amount of shield restored by 1 and summulysts, the damage vulnerability from Sentient Wrath and the strip of Fusion Strike, although you only need to hit 200% strength for full strip (or 164% with [Corrosive Projection]).

Finally, the total DPS of Ortholysts in fact is dipped multiple times by strength:
1. Multiplies their damage directly by 2.5 x strength
2. Increases their level scaling which boosts damage exponentially by the enemy damage multiplier formula 1 + 0.015 x (current level - base level)^1.55. Since current level is given by 30 x strength and base level is 1, substituting this in gives 1+0.015 x (30 x strength - 1)^1.55
3. [Razor Mortar] augment boosts electric damage by 1 + 0.7x strength which is a final multiplier to damage as it is applied like an element mod
4. [Razor Mortar] augment boosts fire rate by 1 + 0.7 x strength which is another final multiplier to DPS
5. Boosts other potential damage multipliers e.g. sentient wrath (1 + 0.35 x strength) and nourish (1+ 0.45 x strength) although nourish would be additive to [Razor Mortar] electric boost.

Multiplying all of these together (with Nourish) we get approximately:
2.5 x strength x (1+0.015 x (30 x strength - 1)^1.55 x (1+0.7 x strength + 0.45 x strength) x (1+0.7 x strength) x (1+0.35 x strength)

See Desmos graph for calculating relative DPS boost: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/iepqomk69w

For example going from 100% strength to 200% strength multiplies damage by 14x rather than 2x, and going to 400% strength actually multiplies damage by 282x rather than the expected 4x.

With conditionals you can hit over 400% with Camisado + Augmented active, while adding archon shards and madurai in can let you even hit 500% which is actually about 800x damage. This is sufficient multiplier to essentially kill enemies up to levelcap within seconds, and can be further boosted by nourish and priming/armor strip.

If you want to calculate final effective DPS you can plug in all damage instances from mortar, summoner's wrath and base fire rate. In mortar mode, each of the THREE Ortholysts fires TWO mortars at a rate of 0.417 which explode for 200 direct/50 aoe damage, but each mortar also split into THREE further shells that each explode for another 200 direct/50 aoe each, for a total of 3 x 2 x (1+3) = 24 detonations of 250 damage. Each hit also has a 300% status chance to proc electric status. Summoners wrath multiplies the raw hits by 1.75x then double dips the electric status for a second 1.75x dip.

Assuming all three ortholysts fire simultaneously on a single enemy (to avoid calculations based on density, overlapping and electric status chaining).

Final DPS = 250 x 3 x 2 x 4 x 0.417 x 1.75 x (1 + 3 x 0.5 x 1.75) x damage multiplier

Desmos calculator for final DPS : https://www.desmos.com/calculator/awyjqqsd88

The damage of a single mortar direct hit is expected to be in the order of 5 million damage before viral status. At 500% strength we are dealing approximately 1 billion theoretical DPS on a single target, without even accounting for tau status, viral status or group density effects. Once you add in grouping from [Razor Mortar], viral and tau status as well as the chaining effect of electric status the overall DPS on a group of enemies probably reaches in the order of a few billion damage per second.

Aura
Flexible
Summoner's Wrath - acts like faction mod bonus for Lethal Progeny and double dips status damage
Corrosive Projection - reduces strength requirement for 4 to full strip to 164%
Growing Power - more strength

Exilus
[Power Drift] for more strength
[Cunning Drift] for more range
[Primed Sure Footed] for knockdown resistance
[Proton Pulse] for Mobility

Arcanes
Very flexible
Arcane Camisado gives 60% strength on next cast after your summons attack.
Molt Augmented gives another 60% strength after 250 kills
Molt Efficiency gives extra duration to help uptime of 3 and 4

Archon Shards
ONE to TWO Cast Shards would be nice to improve cast speed of Fusion Strike
Rest are flex e.g. TWO to THREE Strength shards to further boost Ortholysts and Sentient Wrath, TWO Parkour velocity shards to boost mobility

Focus School
Madurai would give the most benefit as 50% cast speed helps fusion strike casting and 40% strength further boosts sentient wrath/ortholyst damage.

HELMINTH

The subsume slot can be quite flexible depending on preference and usecase:
1. Razor [Gyre]: Since this gives energy and shields, you could replace this with Nourish which provides more energy and just shield gate with brief respite/augur mods instead
2. Sentient Wrath Sentient Wrath would slow down missions like Defense and Survival especially with a group and you may consider dropping this for grouping (e.g. airburst/coil horizon/pull/larva or Rest and [Rage] (for rage) in those situations.
3. Lethal Progeny is very good for aggro draw, shield recharge and passive tau status priming/dps but they do not scale much in level and start getting instantly oneshot by levelcap. You could consider dropping this if you don't want to constantly recast them in long endurance runs.
4. Fusion Strike is quite a high cost ability to strip enemies and armor is not as important these days since the armor cap, given that status effects such as corrosive and heat already partially strip armor. Applying 10 corrosive status via a weapon strips 80% armor which is effectively a 6x damage multiplier. Fusion Strike full strip is therefore only 1.6x damage increase on top of this and you could consider swapping this out.

HELMINTH OPTIONS
1. Nourish: gives viral damage buff to weapons and Lethal Progeny, allowing your summons to apply viral status on attacks and on getting attacked, multiplies energy gained to help sustain energy at 45% efficiency even better. I would suggest subsuming this over 4 as not all enemies even have armor and the armored enemies have an armor cap now, meaning just a few corrosive or heat procs added via a companion or primer is sufficient to strip.

Shock with [Shock Trooper] augment: Adds electric damage at 100% x str to Ortholysts ONLY while they are not in mortar mode.
Roar: boosts Lethal Progeny and weapons, double dipping DoTs specifically e.g. the electric statuses, but is additive to Summoner's Wrath meaning Summoner's Wrath is already a 75% roar (i.e. equivalent to 250% roar), meaning this is your last choice for subsume

ARSENAL

[Caliban]'s abilities proc Tau status effect which increases status chance vulnerability, which is effectively a final multiplier to status DPS (i.e. 2x at 10 stacks).

This means status based weapons have the most synergy:

Utility

COMPANION

A companion that can passively prime useful statuses like viral (damage multiplier to health up to 4.25x if not using nourish), corrosive (armor strip up to 80% if not using fusion strike), cold (flat crit damage up to +0.5x applies to ortholysts which have base crit multi of 1), puncture (+25% flat crit chance applies to ortholyst which have base cc of 0), magnetic (for bonus dmg against overguard)

[Diriga] with [Arc Coil] + [Prime Laser Rifle] is able to proc puncture, magnetic, corrosive and cold in a 10m radius around you constantly which pairs well with Razor Gyre grouping.

Diriga build: https://overframe.gg/build/541464/
Prime Laser Rifle (rearrange elements to make corrosive cold instead of viral heat): https://overframe.gg/build/722838/

Hounds can also prime puncture, corrosive, cold well.
Hound build: https://overframe.gg/build/540825/
Akaten/Batoten build: https://overframe.gg/build/542052/

Alternatively if you want to have lazy afk survivability, [Shade] with [Duplex Bond] and [Tazicor] can keep you invisible while still creating clones that can prime for you, as long as Ortholysts do all the killing and you do not shoot weapons.
Shade: https://overframe.gg/build/441583/
Tazicor: https://overframe.gg/build/890595/

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The Razor Storm | Caliban | General Use SP and Endurance (non-helminth and helminth options)

The Razor Storm | Caliban | General Use SP and Endurance (non-helminth and helminth options)

PLAYSTYLE

SURVIVABILITY

BUILD SPECIFICS

HELMINTH

ARSENAL

COMPANION

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