Talk:Oberon/@comment-43649337-20190910111402

Broberon, Toblerone, the G.O.A.T.

Oberon is a wonderfully balanced allrounder frame with offensive, defensive and supportive capabilities. I recently invested my Umbral Forma in him, so I wanted to review the fairy paladin. Although it's true that he isn't really the absolute best at any particular thing (except solo Eidolon hunting), he is extremely versatile and useful in pretty much any situation. His well-rounded abilities are backed up by very solid stats: Health, Armor and Energy Capacity are all close to the top of the list, which makes him a good candidate for Umbral Forma and Umbral builds in general (and not just because he has 1337 health with all Umbral mods, although that's a pretty solid reason).

In a world of really crappy damage 1's (looking at you, Nekros and Volt), Smite stands out. Because it deals damage based on maximum health, it scales to any level and becomes incredibly powerful against bosses in particular. It generally bypasses body-part protection on stuff like Jackal and Ambulas and assassinates them effortlessly even in Sortie 3. It's also a really nice lazymode low-level killing ability, because of its low energy cost and seeking ability, which makes it ideal for things like plant scanning when you don't want to switch between weapons and the scanner. As if a cheap, spammable, scaling damage ability wasn't enough, Smite Infusion is an excellent augment which greatly boosts damage output whether Oberon is solo or in a team. It's mostly known for its outstanding utility in Eidolon hunting, as Radiation is the element they're most weak to.

Hallowed Ground is one of the best packages out there: There really aren't many abilities that compress so much utility into one thing. It's excellent crowd control due to the radiation procs. It's incredibly useful defensively for the status immunity, particularly notable against Eidolons and Radiation Hazard sorties, but also generally one of the best defensive boons to have, and combined with Renewal it gives a solid armor bonus as well. It's also an outstanding low level nuke: With high range and decent strength it will obliterate low to medium level Intercepts and Defenses. Not only does it offer all those great benefits, but unlike almost every other ability in this class it also isn't dispelled by Nullifiers. It also has really solid base duration and adequate range, so those stats don't need to be maximised to use it effectively. Sadly Hallowed Eruption isn't worth it at all; although it'll display some decent numbers, removing its static nature totally defeats the purpose of this ability. Don't use that augment, not only does it not improve the ability, it actually makes it worse.

Renewal heals and buffs armor. While not as effective as Trinity's Blessing, it's easier to use due to its on/off nature and more than sufficient for most content. The main problem with this ability is the substantial energy drain because it scales off the number of recipients: This makes it very expensive to heal a full team plus Eidolon lures, and if you've got a summoner Nekros on your team you can forget about using this entirely. However, if you're playing aggressively and taking enough damage to fuel Hunter Adrenaline, this combines really well with Oberon's base survivability to allow you to power through high level enemies and remaining at max health. The armor bonus is great as well; although it's not as strong as some of the really good damage reduction abilities, it's still enough to turn squishy frames reasonably tanky, and because you only need to touch Hallowed Ground once and it'll remain active as long as Renewal is, it's very easy to maintain. Phoenix Renewal is a strong augment as well, particularly noteworthy for Arbitrations, which Oberon is one of the best frames for. It's solid for the likes of endurance Survival runs as well, but it's mostly Arbitrations that are really worth the slot.

Reckoning is good for low-level nuking, and high level CC and armor stripping. It's outwardly extremely similar to Mag's Crush, but unlike that, it doesn't need an augment to remove armor. Although not a bad ability, it's not really a defining feature of Oberon the way some other frames' 4s are. Still, stripping armor in a large area is definitely useful, and it's great to use for quick crowd control when you need to revive an ally, for example. Hallowed Reckoning is a waste of a mod slot and shouldn't ever be used; I'm not sure what the idea behind that augment was but it really doesn't do anything noticeable.

Using Oberon, you really can do everything: Surprise your teammates by killing a Sortie 3 Ambulas with a couple Smites. Keep your squishy pet at full health all the time. Annihilate every enemy that spawns in a low level Interception fissure with max range Hallowed Ground. He is so flexible, it's impossible to narrow him down to one or even three builds, but here's some general advice. Oberon benefits from, but doesn't necessarily require all ability attributes. The most effective general Oberon build, much like the frame itself, is well-rounded - some duration, some efficiency, some range, some strength. Corrupted mods can be used but for most purposes he shouldn't have any ability stats below 100.

I considered posting my general Oberon build, but honestly his flexibility makes that almost useless (not to mention it uses an Umbral Forma). The one thing that should be incorporated into all builds though is energy: Oberon should always have higher than 100 efficiency and Hunter Adrenaline is highly recommended due to Renewal's draining nature and his generally ability-heavy playstyle. Everything else is situation-dependent to some degree.

If I were forced to use only one frame forever for every mission type, level, and opponent, it would probably be Oberon. There are almost no other frames that have his level of flexibility and utility.