It’s time for the original sound based frame, the main cause of integer overflow damage numbers - Banshee!
Release date: 2013-03-18
Passive:All of Banshee’s equipped weapons, including Gunblades such as Redeemer, and weapons equipped on Sentinels should they be present, are treated as silent.
Sonic Boom - Banshee emits a sonic shockwave that pushes targets in range with enough force to incapacitate or kill attackers.
Sonar - Using acoustic location, Banshee’s Sonar power finds and tracks enemies, and exposes critical weak spots to everyone in your squad.
Silence - Using Silence surrounds Banshee in an aura that stuns enemies and will limit their perceptions and tactical response to gunfire and Warframe attacks.
Sound Quake - Channeling all of her acoustic energy into the environment, Banshee uses ultrasonic reverberations to violently shake the ground.
Acquisition: Banshee’s blueprints can be researched from the Tenno Lab in the Dojo.
Some of the most fun I had in Warframe was running a 34% range Savage Silence Banshee. 34% is about 6m, so Silence only hit enemies as I approached them, and then they died. It required fast, economical movement and a weapon with a very fast finisher animation. Surprisingly this was NOT a dagger. After extensive testing, the fastest finishers turned out to be… SWORDS. Probably because their animations were done early and they aren’t fancy.
But the Eximius rework killed off 34% Range Banshee for me. With no reliable albeit momentary CC for Eximus, she gets downed almost regularly. However, 34% range Savage Silence lives on with Savagely Invisible Loki!
Nowadays it’s Resonance Eximus Deleter Banshee I run most, with just 100% range. She’s still excellent at Rescue since she just runs right past every enemy as they clutch their heads from Silence. The Eximus get their auras deleted at enough range to keep her safe.
Banshee’s main problem is the inability to take a hit, though this has been helped recently with the changes to Shields and their damage reduction. Even so, I have several blue archon shards in her to get armor up to some decent number. Also, Condemn to replace Sonic Boom is a godsend, plus Augur mods and Brief Respite.
Euphona Prime as Banshee’s signature weapon makes no sense to me. It has no unique buff when she uses it, and its stats and nature don’t synergize with Banshee in any unusual way.
If a syndicate weapon could be a signature weapon, Banshee’s would be the Rakta Dark Dagger. Its syndicate proc is yet another way to help her keep her shields up.
Sound Quake—-yeah yeah once it was great, though that predates me and I’m on day 1839. It’s extra problematic because it wants ALL the range, ALL the efficiency and ALL the strength, three things that all her other abilities either don’t need at all or only need one of. So you’re either building for Quake, or for the other stuff. And the other stuff is actually fun, as opposed to Quake. In one build, I’ve replaced it with Defy.