Introduction

Yes, this build is incredibly forma-intensive. No, that doesn't mean it's a pain to level; quite the opposite actually - build for range, strength and efficiency and nuke Hydron for sweet ability kill affinity - problem solved! And yes, I do enjoy Gara, a lot. Enjoy!

Build Options / FAQ

My Umbral mods are fully leveled, what do I do now?!
Yeah, it's a bit complicated.

• Use an Umbral Forma, which you should only do if you absolutely adore playing Gara, as she doesn't benefit from the mods as much as, say, Nidus or Valkyr.
• Use a R4-R6 [Adaptation]. This will reduce your ability to sustain damage that ramps up (i.e. very high level heavy gunners) but it's not that bad of a tradeoff.
• Skip on [Coaction Drift]. The obvious choice, up to you really.

I do not wish to invest so much forma into this warframe.
You can skip the Umbral mods. They do make a very slight difference, specifically [Umbral Intensify], however they're definitely not necessary for you to have a good time and not die.

[Coaction Drift]? Why?
Can never have enough armorstrip in a game with broken scaling. Feel free switch it out for [Cunning Drift] if you want more range.

This range is absolutely terrible!
Realistically you won't be doing much with your [4] Mass Vitrify AoE damage at high levels (think 1 hour in an arbitration), which is what this build is suited to do (well!). Do keep in mind, though, that your [2] Splinter Storm AoE damage can stack to obscene amounts so if you really want to keep some range, there's a reason to.

Which arcanes should I use?
Energize is a must if you're not running Zenurik, and even with an R3 Energize I find myself running out of energy at times. [Guardian] is mostly there for added bulk when doing very high level content, isn't 100% necessary so feel free to swap it out for your favourite weapon-buffing arcane.

Abilities & How 2 [Gara]

[*PASSIVE] Glint: a passive form of crowd-control, randomly blinds enemies when standing in light, exposing them to melee finishers. Nice to have but not the highlight of [Gara].

[1] Shattered Lash: one of your combo abilities. Meant to be a sort of pseudo-exalted sword attack, but is very clunky to use outside of the synergy with your 2 and 4. Tapping it will result in puncture damage, while holding it performs a broad sweep dealing slash damage thus IPS mods will only affect the type of attack you perform.

[2] Splinter Storm: your combo ability and main source of damage resistance for both you and your allies. This ability also deals stacking damage when combined with your melee mods and [4] Mass Vitrify combo. To [Reach] the maximum of 90% DR, you need 130% strength at minimum, though extra strength improves the damage multiplier: check wiki for a more in-depth explanation.

Note: you can apply your 90% DR in a survival to your sentinel by looking up, walking forwards/backwards and spamming 2. This greatly improves the survivability of your sentinels when combined with the Synth set and doubles the damage dealt by your glass aura.

[3] Spectrorage: don't use this ability.

[4] Mass Vitrify: your last combo ability. This ability operates kinda like [Frost]'s Bubble, except with an open top and you can't stack it for more EHP, so it's useless outside medium level content for protection. However, it does have three very important properties:

• it CCs enemies inside it. CCd enemies take 50% more damage, affected by your strength.
• it refreshes the timer on your (or allied) [2] Splinter Storm, letting you stack the damage practically infinitely.
• when broken, it adds the damage from your [1] Shattered Lash (affected by certain multipliers, check wiki for details) to your (or allied) [2] Splinter Storm, as long as you stand outside while breaking it.

Recommended Equipment

Weapons you choose to use alongside this build are mostly a matter of preference. The [Kuva Kohm] (or the regular [Kohm], if you have a riven for it) works absolute wonders for long survivals. You may also be interested in a Pox to strip away armor (if you're not bringing 3x Corrosive Projection/3x [Coaction Drift] or straight up 4x Corrosive Proj. in a squad). For melee, it's a lil bit complicated: if you're looking to stack your [2] Splinter Storm, a stat stick with raw, slash and elemental mods will do absolute wonders but will practically remove your melee slot, so for long survivals I'd definitely pick up a dedicated melee like the [Reaper Prime].

Your sentinel can provide a lot of utility, especially when combined with the survival strategy in the Abilities & How 2 [Gara] section. If you feel like you're constantly in need of energy and are not running Zenurik: [Dethcube] with [Energy Generator] and [Sweeper Prime] built for multishot and firerate; if you're after crowd control and wish to avoid certain sucky procs: [Wyrm] with [Crowd Dispersion] and [Negate], [Cryotra] recommended for maximum CC; if you want to buff your melee: Helios with Detect Vulnerability and Gladiator set mods on the Deconstructor.

As for your focus school - honestly just use whatever you like the most. Naramon can prove useful for its melee buffs and Vazarin is a must for defence/excavation arbitrations.