What’s The Best Archwing?

What’s the best Archwing? Amesha. Amesha is the best Archwing. This isn’t a question. It’s not a contest. Honestly, I was going to end this article here, but that would be bad of me. Plus, I ought to tell you WHY Amesha is the best Archwing, I shouldn’t just ram that down your throat.

But first, a quick thing about the other Archwings.

Odonata, your base Archwing, is crap. A shield, something that does something, something else and something else, it’s all round a very basic, very mediocre Archwing. It’s nothing special. Even the single augment for it, which gives shields to nearby team mates, isn’t very good. I’d call the Odonata the Excalibur of Archwings, but that would be an insult to Excalibur. Excalibur is a genuinely good character and is fun to play. Odonata is just boring. The base weapons, the Imperator and the Veritux, are both also mediocre, perhaps salvage-able with a potato, but they both have better versions – the Imperator Vandal and the Prisma Veritux. Also the Grattler, a Grineer weapon used by Heavy Gunners on the Plains of Eidolon, is even better since it can easily kill Shield Dargyns.

Odonata Prime isn’t any better. The benefits are minimal. It’s really just there for mastery rank. It’s also the only Prime Archwing, but it was vaulted alongside Volt Prime, so it’s not that easy to get any more.

Next up is Elytron. Elytron’s only gimmick is rockets. But why do you need rockets when you have massive space weapons? It’s not really worth even building.

Then there’s Itzal. Itzal is the only competition that Amesha has. Itzal is basically the Loki of Archwings, an incredibly flimsy but speedy Archwing capable of teleporting forward and going invisible. While the teleporting forward is a cool ability (and priceless for Pursuit or Rush missions), the invisibility only works when standing still. And it’s very easy to accidentally drift out of your invisibility if you were recently moving very fast. Itzal’s third ability, Cosmic Crush, is good for pulling loot towards you (and slowing enemies with its augment) but otherwise, you’re using Itzal for speed, not survivability.

Being able to survive is why the Amesha is so strong. If Itzal is the Loki of Archwing, then Amesha is a terrifying hybrid of Trinity and Rhino. An Iron Skin-esque form of immortality and damage avoidance, a giant glowy orb that heals allies as enemies attack it, a flat immunity to all types of status effect and group immortality for both you and nearby allies, for the entirety of the duration of the ability or as long as you don’t have maximum energy, PLUS regenerating energy… Amesha kinda does everything.

And the thing is, Amesha’s first and fourth abilities make it invaluable on the Plains as well. Yes, Itzal can teleport you across the map in seconds, but it’s incredibly flimsy and the fact that every fricking Grineer out there seems to have anti-aircraft missiles means you’ll end up falling from the sky half the time. Amesha ignores that, and just lets you fly about, doing damage as you please. All you have to do is make sure that you refresh your abilities occasionally.

But the thing is, I don’t think Amesha should be nerfed. I think the other Archwings need to be buffed to Amesha’s standards. Let’s face it. You’re a space ninja flying through space. You should be powerful and terrifying. Not a noodle that disintegrates the second someone flings a bullet or twi in your direction.

Itzal is already halfway there but could do with a more interesting 4th ability (which is basically a bunch of crappy robots that follow you). Elytron should be literally nuking enemies and maybe could use a nice defensive ability too. Odonata just needs buffs all round. Especially that shield, which only protects from the front. It should be curved, like Medic’s shield in Mann VS Machine. Or at least it should buff damage and electrocute enemies who pass through it, like Volt’s shield.

So yeah. Get an Amesha. You won’t regret it.