Octavia is part of the Warframe family since March 2017 and has quickly become one of the most loved Warframes in the game. She is truly unique and her sound based skill set has a lot of potential.
Octavia can help out her team mates, deal a lot of damage or just delight everyone with her melody. The last part is something very special and an one-off in Warframe: The Mandachord allows every Octavia to use one song at a time.
If you want to be creative and compose your own melody, go ahead and experiment a bit with the possibilities. But if you want to choose from a lot of popular songs it is recommended to go to the Warframe forum and pick one from there.
Also before you invest a lot of Forma and time into your Octavia, you should probably learn about the Mandachore first. Reading the patch notes for Patch 20.0 is a good start!
- Super unique Warframe
- Has own quest line
- Good AoE damage
- Solid armor stats
- Passively replenishes team energy
- Low shields
- Too complex for beginners
The Best Octavia Builds
Finding the perfect build for Octavia isn’t easy and there are a lot of different variations out there that focus on different aspects and preferences.
That already starts with picking the aura slot polarity: Going with Energy Siphon or Corrosive Projection is never wrong and you can totally use more energy or lowering enemies’ armor.
But picking something like Steel Charge, Rifle Amp or Pistol Amp can totally be worth it, especially if you combine it with Rush in the exilus slot.
This way you get a mobile and fast Octavia, who can use your favorite weapon with great success and also profit from her abilities. So “right” and “wrong” in terms of picking an aura slot polarity for Octavia is highly debatable.
Tip: If you want to know more about Octavia and her abilities, feel free to take a look at the wikia page!
Main Octavia Build: Balanced Music
You will probably run this main build most of the time, since it is very well balanced. You can use all four of your abilities to great success and even be the main DPS in some dedicated farming groups.
Especially on survival missions this build will carry your group, if you can find a choke point and some complimentary Warframes.
The build itself isn’t really surprising, since you want a great amount of duration and strength to really benefit from your abilities.
Don’t forget to combine your first and second ability to make your damage skill mobile and now all you have to do is recast your skills once the duration is over.
If you use this skill in a premade group with an EV Trinity you don’t really need Primed Flow and Streamline.
More range, Intensify or Energy Conversion are a good way to buff your Octavia even further. Picking another survival mod for better late game survivability is also fine.
If you go for a +damage aura you should also go ahead and pick Rush in order to be more mobile.
Endless mission build
This build doesn’t really need a choke point in order to deal a good amount of damage since you have a lot of ability range.
It is really good in low level missions (Lith, Meso, Neo, etc.) and you will benefit the most in endless mission types. The high amount of range will make sure that you can hit a lot of enemies at once and you also still have some amount of duration and strength.
The build itself is pretty straight forward and all you need to do is to use your first ability and place it on spots where it can hit as many mobs as possible.
You don’t really need to use your other abilities, but if you are ever in need of crowd control, pressing 2 will save you a lot of trouble!
Buffer Octavia Build
This build revolves around your ultimate ability Amp and allows you to buff yourself and your team mates big time.
Especially with Energy Conversion you’ll be able to amplify damage by a lot – 650% and more are a common thing.
Just make sure to use stuff that make sound (e.g. your weapons) while you and your team mates stand on the Amp area of effect. The more sound you can make the higher the buff will go.
You don’t really need to invest more Forma in order to use your exilus slot in this build, but if you want to do so, you’ll probably going to put Rush or Power Drift into it.
Conclusion
Octavia is a very good, but also somewhat complex Warframe.
Understanding how to use The Mandachord is an essential part of her and finding a melody or rhythm that works for you is very important.
Picking the right aura slot already can be a hassle for newer players and finding the one build that does exactly what you want is problematic as well.
But if you invest some resources, sweat and time into her, she quickly becomes one of your all-time-favorites. Just give her a chance and have fun fooling around with different melodies!
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