The Vauban Rework in the Eyes of a Non-Vauban Player

With all the Warframe I’ve been playing lately, I kinda forgot about the Vauban and Ember reworks, to the point that I haven’t even played Ember yet. In fact, Ember remained in my arsenal at level 22, after I stuck a Forma in her to see what all her fire effects looked like with two energy colours instead of one. No, it wasn’t as impressive as Nezha was with his flaming trail. Vauban on the other hand, I managed to get Vauban and Vauban Prime in the days where Vauban was available only from alerts and Vauban Prime was still in relics and he was rarely used because, well, there had always been better options.

Now? There probably still are better options. I mean, when it comes to crowd control, Khora still does it better than Vauban does. Really, I wouldn’t say that Vauban has gone up much in the “Warframe Tier List” when it comes to pure power or anything like that. But what we have now is a Warframe that has a ton of utility and, more importantly, is way more fun to play. Which is nice because I didn’t play Vauban because he sucked, I played Vauban because he was kinda boring.

Vauban now has a nice collection of abilities that are loud, flashy and definitely feel like they’re doing something, even if they’re not. You got some little miniature rollers that electrocute enemies, you got four mines, three of which are pretty useful, two abilities – Bastille and Vortex – combined into one ability and A FUCKING ORBITAL STRIKE.

And that orbital strike is insanely good fun. It’s such a badass move. I don’t really know how strong it is or even what the radius of the orbital strike is but it’s a fucking orbital strike and it’s bright and blinding and amazing. Frankly Vauban’s orbital strike puts Ember’s meteor strike replacement for World on Fire look mediocre in comparison. It’s like an Opticor being fired down from the heavens, even if it makes no sense that the orbital strike goes through ceilings and floors to hit its target.

I suppose I should say that Vauban’s other abilities are nice as well. The Bastille/Vortex combo was a change everyone wanted and it works pretty well, although a lot of enemies will get stuck on geometry when being sucked in. Vauban’s new collection of mines are mostly alright, although I’m not so sure about the speed boost one. I think I would have actually preferred the old Bounce Pad staying as a way to push enemies around, but the little spinning minigun mines and the mine that boosts allies are nice at least.

But the icing on the case is how much more fluidity you can find in Vauban’s movements. Because old Vauban basically had the same animation for all four of his abilities and now his attacks are much more pleasing to the eye. You aren’t just loosely chucking a mediocre mine, you’re THE mine master. Everything about Vauban is definitely better but it’s more than just stats and ability changes, Vauban is now a Warframe that is genuinely fun to play. The only real department where Vauban is lacking is his own visuals, but Vauban Prime AND his deluxe skin are both really nice. The animations and effects though take Vauban from feeling mediocre to feeling great.

In fact, I think it’d be great if lots of older Warframes got animation and particle tweaks, to make them seem fancier.

Anyway, Vauban’s worth a try. And what with all his parts being easily available via Nightwave AND Vauban Prime soon to be unvaulted, now’s as good a time as any to try him out.