under construction
I see a lot of badly optimized builds on here that were either made pre-Archon mods and still use Umbral mods, or are making really bad decisions like trying to maintain range, using Roar instead of Empower, or dropping Wil-o-Wisp instead of Sol Gate.
This build is OPTIMIZED to excel at every game mode and mission, except for ONE niche event that you only need to substitute one mod for; I will go over this at the end. This is not an experimental/for funsies/niche build. This is not a jack-of-all-things in [Wisp]'s kit. We helminth out Sol Gate and give up some range on Breach Surge in order to make you and your entire party absurdly overpowered and able to take on any content you desire.
First, let's talk about why we build her this way, and how that meshes with her skills.
This is a maximum Ability Power, high duration, and intentionally low ability range build. Why? Because despite her ability to do insane damage with her 3rd skill, she is BEST utilized as a buffer/support frame that does insane weapon damage instead.
High duration means that Reservoir buffs will last longer when players are not sitting in their range. The massive speed buffs you provide will give your team a lot of mobility, and duration will give them the freedom to spread out and use that for longer periods. It will also prevent you from getting "caught out" when your extra 3000 health wears off mid-fight and leaves you... dead. It also means that Wil-o-Wisp will travel farther, and your BS debuff will last longer (though your enemies won't live long enough for that to matter).
Low ability range is irrelevant for most content, a boon for defense missions, and only a negative for one very niche situation that you will want to be highly prepared in advance for anyway. I'll cover this more later, just trust me for now.
Your efficiency here is garbage. We will take some steps to fix that without sacrificing power. You don't need as much energy as you think, especially when you learn not to rely on Breach Surge, and this build will allow you to still drop Empowered Fused Reservoirs even in Sorties with energy restrictions! Even when those skill costs exceed your maximum energy!
SKILLS
Reservoirs is your main skill, and our goal here is to maximize it both in terms of power and utility. Because of Empower and Energy Conversion you absolutely need to use Fused Reservoirs.
Wil-O-Wisp is such an amazing skill. It's your escape button. It gives both distraction and mobility. It bypasses lasers and cameras on Spy missions. Entire hallways of them. And it will get you to many places more easily (albeit slower) than your Operator can. Replacing this skill is insanely stupid. Don't do it.
Breach Surge has a ton of damage potential, but using it with this build is going to require a bit more skill than usual. We are sacrificing our ability range (for good reasons), so you will have to hug your enemies to use this now. Do it. Give them an invisible hug. Kill them with kindness. The good news is the surge sparks aren't affected by our limited range, just the initial AoE. I mostly use it to blind and weaken tanky targets like high-level Demolysts. Another perk of our build is that learning to not rely on this skill will also help with energy management.
Sol Gate We are dropping this and taking Empower. I get it, being a big laser gun is fun, but its endgame potential is abysmal compared to what you can do with this build and basically any weapon.
Empower This is a basic Helminth ability that adds 50% ability power to your next cast. Should be self-explanatory on [Wisp], and yet I still see people taking things like Gloom or Roar.
If you want, Helminth out your A and B slots for Empower. Make this build your A slot, and save your B slot for the exceptional situation this build isn't the best for. Then you can still play with Sol Gate on your C slot.
Lastly, let's not forget to mention [Wisp]'s passive, which is arguably the most broken passive skill in the game, and needs to become a core component of your play style with her. Basically, when she is airborne, or for about 3 seconds after landing, she is invisible. Want to trivialize the infamous MR9 test? This is how you do it: [Wisp] and [Skiajati].
RIP season one of Dog Days where this skill still worked...
EQUIPMENT
Note: everything in this section except for Pax Bolt on a kitgun is just my recommendation. Fit the rest to your needs and what you have.
Note 2: while you can use two kitguns for two instances of Pax Bolt, it's both a huge headache to juggle and severely hampers your damage potential. Kitguns are currently... not great for any serious content. IMO not worth it unless you are meme'ing in low level content.
[Fulmin Prime]. I prefer this for a few reasons. One, its primary fire mode is silent, which pairs well with [Wisp]'s passive invisibility (note: this is still bugged at times). Two, it has no ammo, so you can use it in any mode without worrying. And three, it is very easy to mod for huge endgame slash procs. Also worth noting that, because it doesn't use primary ammo, you won't be competing with your [Nidus] Specter for ammo. Score! [Wisp] also get a speed boost to the mode change.
A Kitgun that can trigger Pax Bolt with a headshot kill. [Catchmoon] Haymaker Splat is the usual recommendation. Can also be used to help trigger stuns for Power Drain. [Rattleguts] and [Gaze] are viable alternatives, but neither are as good.
Pennant. With Wise Razor equipped it turns your heavy attack into automatic slash procs, which bypass armor. Use Corrupted Charge. Your haste will give you insane attack speed, so just spam heavy attack. Amar's Hatred just makes this even better.
GEAR
Nidus Specter. Unless you have a real one in your party, this guy will give you a tether that buffs your ability power. You have to own [Nidus] to make the Specter of him. Equip him with Proboscis Cernos if you want a little extra useful CC.
Air Support Charge. Ask me how many public spy missions I have saved by bringing the starter ship and using one of these. Answer: A lot. Help those dumb Rhinos out and give them an extra few seconds to plow through security (and lose your stealth reward bonus) like dumb Rhinos.
Did I mention you have passive invisibility and a skill to bypass lasers? Yes, yes I did...
Energy Dispensers. Self-explanatory. You can't always use them, but they are great to have when you need them and nobody else bothered.
Cipers. Get the 100x blueprint and go ham. Press Y on PC to auto use it. Faster animation than the Parazon mod, but doesn't work during sorties.
ARCANES
Molt Augmented if you don't need Arcane Emergize, use this.
**Arcane Energize will help with not having [Energy Siphon], and will remove the need for making bad decisions like bringing [Dethcube] for energy. Can be better than other options depending on the mission, even as an R0 arcane, but optimally you should be fine with Zenurik and energy items.
Molt Vigor extra Ability Power after Operator skill. Drop your Hardened Wellspring (Zenurik) and you've checked three boxes already.
Magus Lockdown Crowd control supreme. Helps a ton with demolysts and corpus treasurers.
Pax Bolt goes on a kitgun, and gives you more ability power, which is the name of the game here. This will be the last thing that you trigger before dropping your Fused Reservoirs.
PARAZON
(1) [Power Drain]. For more POWER.
(2) [Auto Breach]. Amazing parazon mod that randomly saves a lot of headaches (and occasionally missions).
(3) [Untraceable]. 15 seconds of invisibility after hacking fills in the gap between your passive wearing off and you coming out of the hack animation. Makes everything nice and smooth.
OR
(3) [Intruder]. Adds 8 seconds to the timer. A fine option for slower hackers or missions that you don't care about the stealth bonuses. Autobreach and Ciphers make this less useful though.
OPERATOR SCHOOL
Zenurik. Energy regeneration, plus more ability power while standing in Hardened Wellspring, which is what you will use to activate Molt [Vigor].
Do not get tricked into taking Madurai for the ability power. You give up too much utility, as well as one of the biggest perks of Zenurik...
Remember when I mentioned those Sortie missions that limit both energy regeneration and maximum energy, preventing many people from even using a lot of their skills? Not you! Because one of the Zenurik skills gives you a FREE CAST every xx seconds that completely bypasses this restriction! Not only that, but it also helps offset the increased energy cost from Fused Reservoirs.
Pro Tip: your 2nd Operator skill works on Thumpers in PoE and slows them nicely. Easy to pop out of Necramech, hit 2, and bounce back between reloads.
ARCHON SHARDS
Use Red Archon shards for Ability Strength only. Your reservoirs will provide you with all of the buffs and mobility you need. Remember: optimized build.
COMPANIONS
Smeeta Kavat. [Charm] is, hands down, an amazing mod. It affects every single drop table except one: fishing.
Oxylus. Your fishing buddy. Not recommended for combat, but this little guy has a mod that replaces glow bait. Highly recommended for that, since Smeeta does nothing there. Also has a mod that harvests/scans plants for you. Great for farming plants for Apothics!
Nautilus. Tied for best on-board Railjack companion. Once you leave the ship, it becomes just average. But onboard RJ it helps more than half of the pubs you will get.
Panzer Vulpa. It comes back from the dead, and can revive you if you go down. Useful if you are a solo player, but otherwise, you're better off git'n'gud and taking Smeeta. Especially after the upcoming companion changes.
Helios Prime or Dethcube Prime with Verglas. [Helios] does free scans for lazy people, but you don't get the 2x drop bonus from the scanner mod, and it only scans uncomplete codex entries.
Dethcube has an energy drop on assist/kill ability. Outside of that, the only real reason to use either one of these is if you want to use Verglas to help with status procs for [Growing Power]. IMHO Smeeta is always a better option, because charm is amazeballs.
Note: removing weapons and attack mods from your pet will stop it from attacking, but will also improve its survivability, because it won't be drawing aggro with its attacks. Do not put swipe or anything similar on your Smeeta. Other pets can be beneficial with a molded gun, but not cat/dog ones.
THE EXCEPTION – aka: when to NOT use this build.
Advanced Eidolon Hunts.
Why? Because [Wisp]'s main job during advanced Tridolon Hunts (i.e., anything over 1x3) is healing, and it is REALLY hard to do without range on her Reservoirs, because the Eidolon Lures can't move into range on their own like players can. So you want those circles BIG.
The solution? Drop Narrow Minded for Archon Stretch, or augur/normal [Stretch] is fine.
Also, consider replacing Molt Augmented with Arcane Nullifier for magnetic resistance. You won't be getting that many kills, and this will help [Protect] your enegy.
WHY USE NARROW MINDED AT ALL?
One of the most annoying things about public Wisps is, on missions like defense, they drop shock motes everywhere and actually drag the mission out. [Narrow Minded] fixes this by reducing the shock range to basically Melee range of the player. This makes them still be viable CC without also being a nuisance to the mission itself. And the rest of your skills (e.g., 2's range) are affected by duration, not range!
WHY NO UMBRAL MODS?
Two reasons.
One because it requires you to give up THREE mod slots just to maximize the ability power gain (our goal here). That requires THREE umbral formas, which are a pain to get. And then you also lose three of our current mods, including [Archon Intensify]. All for what... HP, Armor, and some very niche Tau resistance? No way.
Second, the survivability that you gain, when paired with our already huuuge buffs, just doesn't matter. Without the umbral mods, you are either going to have so much health that you won't die, or you are so high level that you are going to get OHKO'd no matter what you take. This is yet another reason why [Wisp]'s passive is so important. Just watch out for Eximus AoE skills and you will be pretty much unkillable anyway. Even then, you have Operator mode, and in some cases, Necramech.
Third, you also have Augur Secrets here, which gives you shields every time you use an ability! Yay easy shield gate!
HOW TO PLAY IN MISSIONS
In general, all you need to do is hit 4, drop your Fused Reservoirs, hit 4 again (this is important) and then go pew pew. Repeat again once you trigger [Energy Conversion] for stronger buffs. This is your "go fast" play style for easy content and mobile missions like Capture, Exterminate, Rescue, etc. Stay mobile and stay invisible. Boom, done.
Why do we use Empower again immediately after dropping motes? Because otherwise we can get messed up by Zenurik. Remember that Zenurik skill that gives us a free cast?
If you have full energy, [Energy Conversion] won't trigger. However, if you mess up the order, Empower WILL consume the buff, for no benefit.
HOPEFULLY this gets changed with the upcoming energy/health pickup changes, but still be aware of the cost mechanic
If you have full energy and use Empower to try to reduce it and the skill triggers... you will still have full energy, no EC buff, a wasted Empower, and no free cast for your Reservoirs. So what you want is:
Empower (first cast, free) --> Reservoirs --> Empower --> EC --> Reservoirs buffed by both (free cast) --> Empower --> EC --> Repeat.
THE NEXT STEP is in using Operator. We have two ways to buff ability power here: one while standing in Hardened Wellspring (cast 1st ability twice), and two, from Molt [Vigor] (which we activate by casting HW).
So, once you have both Empower and EC, go to Operator, activate HW, and stand inside it. Then cast Reservoirs, and use Empower again.
Boom, grofit.
Don't let anyone tell you [Wisp] can't be played on "fast" missions anymore.
ADVANCED PLAY CYCLE
I'm adding in the [Nidus] Specter here because it is only really used for longer missions. Just use the item and make sure he tethers to you. Got a friend with a [Nidus]? Bigger buff if they tether you. But the Specter is still good otherwise. The star level doesn't really matter, either.
Now we add three things: a parazon mod called Power Drain, Archon Intensify, and Pax Bolt, which requires a headshot kill with your kitgun. The latter two are here because they are both on 10 second timers and can expire.
[Power Drain] simply requires you to execute an enemy. Go find an eximus, stun them, and do the action. Easy enough.
[Archon Intensify] adds 30% ability power every time health is restored with abilities. Your health motes do this. All you have to do is make sure that the ability is active so you are triggering this. (Last I checked this works even while at full health, but let me know in the comments if this changes).
Pax Bolt requires a headshot kill. Pew pew. This buff will EXPIRE, so time it right before you drop your reservoirs.
Growing Power will also be triggered when you use your gun to trigger Pax Bolt.
TL;DR FOR SKILLS
Start by doing your initial casting of
○Empower
○Fused Reservoirs
○Empower
Then, for maximum Ability Power, you need:
○Empower
○Energy Conversion
○Nidus / Specter (needs link to you)
○[Power Drain] (parazon execution)
○[Archon Intensify] (via health reservoir, "timed")
○Hardened Wellspring (be in it, "timed")
○Molt [Vigor] (activated by casting HW)
○Pax Bolt (headshot kill, timed)
○[Growing Power] (triggered along with PB, timed)
○Fused Reservoirs
