INTRODUCTION

This build is a DPS focused [Vauban] build used mainly for endurance steel path missions e.g. Survival or Circuit. Vortex is used to group enemies while Flechette Orbs from minelayer are used to do DPS that scales with enemy level (multiplied by 1+enemy level/10), at a faster rate than enemy HP scales. In addition, ability strength (2.83x), Vaubans passive (1.25x), overdriver (1.46x), [Vigorous Swap] (2.65x) and arcane arachne (2.5x) are all optional multiplicative damage buffs for [Flechette] orb. This means at level 101, each [Flechette] nail deals an average damage of around 200,000 damage while at level 9999, each nail does an average of 15 million damage, which increases to 90 million after 10 stacks of viral status (created by nourish). Keep in mind a fully armored corrupted heavy gunner at lvl 9999 has 18.7 million EHP (and 7.5 million HP), meaning flechette almost one-shots with zero viral status.

Nourish actually applies Viral Damage to Flechettes (acts like direct multiplier to damage) AND gives an energy multiplier which increases energy gained via both [Equilibrium] and energy orbs as well as [Archon Stretch] (proc via [Tesla Bank]).

Addtional alternative ways to boost Flechette orbs includes buffing the crit. Flechette has a base CC of 50% and base CD of 2.
The CC can be boosted by :

• Arcane Hotshot (needs a heat ability such as pyrotechnics or diriga applying heat), adds +300% making final CC 200%,
• Arcane Avenger (needs [Combat Discipline] to proc consistently) adds flat 45% crit i.e. 95% without hotshot or 245% with hotshot too.

The CD can be boosted by:

• Arcane Crepuscular (needs invisibility e.g. Evade, Quiver or Huras/Shade)
• Tenacious Bond (needs companion e.g. sentinel with burst laser prime, panzer/huras)

You can check your theoretical damage with this caulcator: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l_5Z-Pr0-PiMl4xvkbOmZqFtTiclXjMOV286p646WZI/edit?usp=sharing

UPDATE 2025
Arcane Circumvent can strip enemy armor by dodging through the ball of enemies twice, while also stealing overguard and shields from enemies that possess them.

UPDATE 2024
With armor cap changes, you no longer even need to Bastille to full strip enemies in order to one-shot levelcap enemies. This means you can clump enemies with vortex, allow your companion to passive prime with any combination of viral/corrosive/heat status and just let flechette kill everything.

ALTERNATIVE BUILDS

Pyrotechnics Flechette Vauban: https://overframe.gg/build/942047/
Photon Strike Spam: https://overframe.gg/build/616656/
Infinite Vortex + Spectrosiphon: https://overframe.gg/build/8649/

PLAYSTYLE

1. Hold 4 to cast a Vortex which passively pulls enemies into it. Bastille is no longer mandatory to use since it strips quite slowly (takes around 5.5s for a full armor strip), the strip effect doesn't work while Vortex is in range, armor has been capped and is no longer that important, and finally arcane circumvent can strip armor by just rolling into a Vortex.
2. Toggle ability 2 and cast overdriver on the ground and walk over it to receive weapon damage buff, then toggle to [Flechette] orb to ready it.
3. Wall latch to activate Arcane Arachne if equipped (optional) and activate [Vigorous Swap] (optional) by swapping primary and secondary (don't use quick melee due to a delay), then immediately lay down a [Flechette] orb. Repeat [Vigorous Swap] and [Flechette] orb up to 4 total orbs. If playing circuit, you can skip these two entirely by picking up decrees that boost damage (and are additive to arachne/vig swap).
4. Optionally, Lay down Tether Coils which have a range of 47m which will slowly draw in additional enemies outside the range of Magus anomaly/Bastille/[Flechette] orbs
5. Hold 1 to charge 4 tesla nervos. These will attach to enemies and when enemies die they will discharge the unarmored hp value at time of attaching in a big AOE, meaning it is second form of scaling AOE damage in addition to Flecheette.

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Required for uptime on Nourish, minelayers and Vortex

Efficiency
Dumped due to [Blind Rage]. Make up for energy economy with [Primed Flow], [Equilibrium], Nourish, Achon [Stretch] and any other sources such as Grimoire Xata invocation, emergence dissipate, dethcube energy generator etc

Range
Important for Bastille/Vortex range, Tether coil grab range and nourish [Retribution] range and vortex range should you wish to collapse your bastilles

Strength
Important for flechette damage, overdriver boost and nourish boost

Flexible Slots

• Rolling Guard: gives i-frames and status cleanse on roll with cooldown,
• [Tesla Bank]: When Tesla Nervos latches onto an enemy, it will take the amount of current unarmored hp at the time of latch (e.g. 90% HP) and then explode that in an 18.8m radius (at 235 range) on death. Since you have four nervos you could have four explosions at any time going off contributing to AOE damage which technically scales off enemy HP (although if [Flechette] damages them to low health and then nervos latches you will only get explosions that scale off low values). With viral priming + armor strip via bastille or corrosive this can scale quite well and contribute to DPS. If you don't feel like this is doing much for you or prefer using Photon Strike just subsume off 1 for nourish and swap Tesla Bank for more strength (e.g. Umbral Intensify).
• [Vigorous Swap]: This applies a +165% damage boost to [Flechette] but is additive to Arcane Arachne and requires you to constantly swap between weapons since it only lasts for 3s. If you want to use this, you can remove [Tesla Bank]

Exilus
PSF is best in slot to avoid knockdowns.
Flexible for [Handspring], [Cunning Drift], [Power Drift]

Arcanes
Arcane Circumvent: strips armor, shield, overguard on rolling through enemy. Vortex allows you to roll through tons of enemies at once.
Augmented: +60% damage after 250 kills boosts nourish and [Flechette] damage
Crepuscular : applies +30% strength and flat +3 cd buff to [Flechette] but requires you to be invisible e.g. from Huras or [Shade]
Arachne : applies a +150% damage boost to [Flechette] orbs after wall latch
Avenger : flat +45% crit chance to the base 50% crit chance of [Flechette] orbs
Hotshot: adds 300% modded CC to base 50% cc for final 200% cc, which is gauranteed orange crits. Needs pyrotechnics or companion to proc (e.g. [Diriga]).

Archon Shards
2 cast speed shards
3 duration shards OR strength shards

ARSENAL

Companion
An invisible companion such as [Huras Kubrow] or [Shade Prime] can make survivability even more chill since you can cast abilities and stay invisible. [Shade Prime] with [Duplex Bond] + [Tazicor] allows you to passive prime the whole area with viral (from nourish, boosts health damage), corrosive (partial armor strip) and cold (optional). Additionally, you could add Arcane Crepuscular. Alternatively you can also run burst laser or verglas prime with CC riven for Tenacious Bond which applies to Flechette orbs.

Huras Kubrow: https://overframe.gg/build/268129/
Shade: https://overframe.gg/build/441583/
Tazicor: https://overframe.gg/build/890595/