The better engineer, turret frame, erectin’ a dispenser - Protea!
Release date: 2020-06-11
Passive: Every 4th ability casted by Protea gains an additive 100% Ability Strength bonus.
Grenade Fan - Throw out 3 grenades in an arc. (TAP) Creates a slashing, staggering swirl of shrapnel. (HOLD) Protea reconfigures 3 Grenades to work as overcharging shield generators, protecting her, her allies and companions. When Shields break a Satellite is destroyed to extend the period of invulnerability.
Blaze Artillery - Deploys an artillery unit to blast plasma charges at enemies it faces. Each enemy hit increases the power of subsequent plasma attacks.
Dispensary - Deploys a device that generates 3 pickups after a short delay: empowered health orb, universal ammo pack and energy orb.
Temporal Anchor - Drops a Temporal Anchor which, after a short duration, Protea rewinds to triggering a temporal implosion. Implosion damage increases based on damage dealt between anchor drop and rewind. Everything lost or expended in that time is returned. Dying while Anchor is active rewinds Protea to the anchor, saving her. Protea is knocked down and the anchor vanishes.
Acquisition: Main blueprint is rewarded upon completion of The Deadlock Protocol quest. Component blueprints can be acquired from within the Granum Void.
What a frame. I actually started playing actively again to farm her Prime, although I was a bit disappointed Stahlta didn’t get the Prime treatment since it was my workhorse gun until I got into Kitguns (and then Incarnons blew them out of the water).
Some of the fun things Protea has access to:
Temporal Anchor, Temporal Erosion and Dispensary all work together to make her a decently scaling archgunner, in case you want to use that 5 forma Kuva Grattler on SP. With enough aggressive heat modding, you can also use her turrets to assist killing heavy targets that something like the Decs, Grattler or Corvus Prime can’t efficiently manage. Or just let the turrets do their thing.
Temporal Anchor stores overkill damage, so it’s quite functional as a nuke. Temporal Erosion both generally assists her with armour removal, as well as directly buffing the “time bomb” playstyle. Also worth noting the general utility of Anchor, as it can be used in quick succession as a grouping ability for your turrets.
In general, Temporal Anchor is an amazingly condensed ability, and deserving of its ultimate status. The Erosion augment rips armour off the heaviest enemies, then the stored damage provides a straight small modifier. At 15m, the implosion is actually one of the largest grouping abilities. Finally, it bestows generous intangibility frames when first used, and then for the entire duration of the rewind. I definitely recommend trying a vanilla Protea build before ripping it off for Gloom or a damage buff.