Vauban / Vauban Prime has a great toolkit: He has several CC and AoE damage abilities, can strip armor and also provide DPS or speed buf.
I find Vauban useful for many different mission types but especially like to use him on certain Defence type missions. He is not able to shield the mission target like Limbo, Frost and Gara can but he has four (!) different crowd control abilities including one of the very best in the game: Vaubans Vortex ability (press and hold the 4 key) deploys a singularity that drags all enemies in and hurls them around the center of the singularity, where they can easily be killed with your weapons - or you can simply use the Photon Strike (#3 ability) ability to nuke them.
I find Vauban especially useful on Sortie Defence missions, where the mission target will walk around and walk out of e.g. Frost's Snow Globe protective shield; just build for max Range + Duration and Efficiency and spam the Vortex ability, this will make it impossible for enemies to get near the mission target!
Against high level armored enemies you may prefer the standard #4 ability: Bastille. This ability raises a containment field that traps enemies and also strips armor over time + boost your own armor while standing inside the containment field. When the containment field collapses, it will turn itself into a Vortex for 3 seconds giving you time to finish off the incapacitated enemies.
How to get Vauban
The main blueprint can be bought at the Market for 35.000 credits. The component blueprints can be bought from the Nightwave Cred offerings for 25 creds each (total 75 creds needed).
At the time of this writing the some of the relics that drops blueprints for Vauban Prime have been unvaulted and are available in game - I recommend you try to farm all the blueprints before they get vaulted again! The blueprints can be acquired by unlocking the following Void Relics:
- Vauban Prime Blueprint: Meso V6 (Uncommon) - relic has a 50% drop chance from Orb Vallis Lvl 20-40 bounty *
- Vauban Prime Neuroptics: Lith V7 (Rare) - relic has a 33.33% drop chance from Orb Vallis Lvl 10-30 bounty or Ghoul Bounty on Plains of Eidolon *
- Vauban Prime Chassis: Neo A4 (Common) - relic has a 51.72% drop chance from Orb Vallis Lvl 30-50 bounty *
- Vauban Prime Systems: Lith V8 (Rare) - relic has a 33.33% drop chance from Orb Vallis Lvl 10-30 bounty *
* The relics also drops from other bounties or missions but these have the highest drop chance.
Abilities
Passive ability: Vauban inflicts 25% bonus damage (both abilities and weapons) against incapacitated enemies, e.g. enemies stunned/trapped by Tesla Nervos, Tether Coil or Bastille.
1: The Tesla Nervos ability throws a capsule that deploys an invulnerable Latcher specter. The Latcher specter will follow Vauban around - when an enemy gets within range it will then latch to and stun the enemy while also dealing Electricity damage. It will also deal shock nearby enemies with AoE Electricity damage. Press and hold the #1 key to charge and throw up to 4 Tesla Nervos.
Mods:
- Damage scales with Ability Strength
- The number of charges scales with Ability Duration.
- The shock radius scales with Ability Range.
- Augment: The Tesla Bank augment will absorb all damage while the Nervos is attached to a target and will then release the damage in a 8m burst of Electricity on death.
2: The Minelayer ability allows Vauban to deploy four different types of mines. Press the #2 key to switch between the mines; press and hold to deploy the selected mine. Up to four instances of each mine type can be deployed at a time.
- Tether Coil mines deals Slash damage and will pull in and trap two nearby enemies. Damage and Range scales with Ability Strength and Ability Range mods.
- Flechette Orb mines deals AoE damage but prioritize closest target. Damage scales with Ability Strength and will also benefit from DPS buf from the Overdriver mine.
- Vector Pad mines deploys a pad with an arrow; cross the pad in the direction of the arrow will give allies a sprint boost. Enemies that cross the pad will be thrown in the arrow direction; this can be used to throw enemies into e.g. the Bastille or Vortex. The speed boost scales with Ability Strength.
- Overdriver mines will jump to the nearest player, companion or mission target and will give a weapon damage buf. Attach radius scales with Ability Range and the damage buf scales with Ability Strength.
3: The Photon Strike ability throws a beacon, which after a short delay is targeted and hit by a massive blast from an orbital cannon, dealing Blast damage to all nearby enemies. It is very useful for nuking enemies trapped in a Vortex, as the orbital cannon will focus in on the vortex.
Mods:
- Damage scales with Ability Strength.
- The blast radius scales with Ability Range.
- Augment: Photon Repeater: If the Photon Strike hits at least 5 enemies, the next strike cost no energy.
4: The Bastille ability erects a containment field, that traps enemies and suspend them in stasis in the air while stripping their armour over time. Allies standing inside the field will get an armor buf as long as they stay inside - if moving outside the buf will disappear shortly after. As the duration expires the Bastille collapses and falls into a vortex for 3 seconds that draws all enemies within range into the singularity and inflict Magnetic damage.
Press and hold the #4 key to cast a Vortex instead of Bastille. On most missions I prefer using the Vortex as this is a very good crowd-control ability because it does not wait for enemies to walk into it but pulls all nearby enemies in. However, against high-level enemies you may prefer to use Bastille first to remove their armor.
Mods:
- Damage, armor stripping and max number of enemies trapped scales with Ability Strength.
- Capture radius scales with Ability Range.
- Armor bonus duration scales with Ability Duration.
- Augment: After the max number of enemies have been trapped by Bastille, the Repelling Bastille augment will repel new enemies. This augment will also increase the duration of a Vortex when you cast a new Vortex on top of it.
Vauban Builds
This build focus on max range; it is great for all Defence / Mobile Defence / Interception / Survival and similar missions where lots of enemies are spawning - just spam Vauban's Vortex ability (press and hold #4) to pull every enemy within range into the Vortex. Keep an eye on the timer and recast Vortex before it runs out. Also make sure to equip some Squad Energy Restore's on your gear wheel or use Zenuriks Energizing Dash to refill your energy bar if there are no energy orbs around.
