Protea: Melting Faces Since Day One

Written in Update 31

 Protea (or Mrs.  Vauban) is one of the most versatile Warframes out there, because she can play mobile offense with her mini- Mesa turret (the  Blaze Artillery) and  Temporal Anchor, ground holding with slicing  Grenade Fans, and even support with shielding Grenade Fans and the ubiquitous  Dispensary. In fact, so ubiquitous that players would farm for two Protea frames: one to keep for themselves and the other to be offered to Helminth so other frames can bring their own Dispensaries. This blog entry will revolve around setting up an effective defense and exploiting Dispensary.

Unlike Vauban, who prefers enemies to approach too close to him and become trapped in his intricate setups, Protea's preferred defensive style is preventing them from even getting close in the first place. As a Warframe, Protea is rather squishy in prolonged melee, so she performs best at engaging in a decent range from mob swarms. And what better way to keep them at bay but with guns.

Guns. Of the very heavy variety. Like, the ones you can only normally carry around in zero gravity. Ones that can make a cannon-toting Garuda or Saryn blush.

The Offensive Bulwark Build

• Aura:  Steel Charge
• Exilus:  Preparation
• Warframe Mod List:  Umbral Intensify,  Vitality,  Primed Continuity,  Primed Flow,  Blind Rage,  Constitution,  Stretch,  Augur Message
• Minimum Forma requirements: Four standard Forma (I tend to spare Umbra Forma on Prime variants, so Protea Prime can wait)

• Skillset:
  • Protea's default kit ( Grenade Fan,  Blaze Artillery,  Dispensary,  Temporal Anchor)

• Weapon Options:
  • Any Tenet weapon, honoring her previous role as Parvos Granum's former bodyguard.
  •  Kuva Grattler, as it will greatly benefit from Dispensary's universal ammo drops. Also works for allies carrying their own auto-flaks or  Corvas Primes.

Explaining the build

The above mod build is designed primarily for Survival and Defense (the Arbitrations variety, to be specific) gameplay, emphasizing Ability Strength and Duration and a bit of added Range, while sacrificing Efficiency which is going to be partially compensated by Energy drops from Protea's Dispensary. With the help of Preparation, she can set up her bulwark very early by placing three Grenade Fans and deploying Dispensary on the fourth to exploit her passive, both abilities helped out by her emphasis on Ability Duration. The added Ability Range also helps her cover more ground with said fans. In those moments when a significant number of enemies are able to get a bit too personal, Blaze Artillery can stagger and clear them out. And in case you are playing Path versions and an Acolyte spawns (especially dreadful Malice and his magicked  Magnetize), use shield-type fans and Temporal Anchor - the latter primarily as a safeguard in case you get an unexpected heavy blow - and spank him or her.

For the greater part of the fun, Protea can sustain a huge amount of covering fire for her party by using the Kuva Grattler (or Grattlers, if your party is mindful of bringing them), helped by the universal ammo drops that her Dispensary provides. Nothing is more satisfying than watching swarms of enemies bombarded with flak and dropping like flies from very distant range, especially if the ground of choice is a convenient corridor. For maximum effect, load the Grattler with  Sabot Rounds and watch hapless enemies get obliterated.

Now, be mindful that while Dispensary can give Protea a decent trickle of Energy, she can still run out of energy because her Efficiency stat is stunted by Blind Rage, especially if she overspammed her Grenade Fans and Blaze Artillery. So be judicious about her use of her Energy reserves, and hope felled enemies drop Energy as boosters.

Alternative builds?

While Protea's skills synergize extremely well with each other, it can be possible to try exploring alternative builds via Helminth infusions, either to increase damage output for the Kuva Grattler ( Xata's Whisper,  Eclipse, Day in  Rest & Rage,  Shooting Gallery,  Energized Munitions), improve survivability ( Molt,  Lull,  Blood Altar), or provide added utility ( Condemn,  Vial Rush,  Banish). For such alternative builds, Temporal Anchor is the one most practical to get replaced as it is typically a situational type of ability, though it is a hallmark of Protea's lore.

Conclusion

Protea's usually a cartwheeling, jovial lady, but even she has her serious moments. Not  Valkyr level of serious, mind, but still pretty serious.

As tech-centered defensive Warframes, both Protea and Vauban excel in holding ground, and this is actually more pronounced when both of them are in the same party (imagine enemies being pulled by Vortex-type  Bastille and being cut down by closely placed Grenade Fans). But in case the lady technomancer is not with her rumored beau, she and her Kuva Grattler are nonetheless going to be a most welcome part of any party requiring effective defenses.

Provided, of course, she can manage to keep enemies from getting too close to her.