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.
Protea is a fairly strong caster frame that also doubles as a support frame.
Protea’s shield grenades are extremely helpful for any content where enemies do very high damage to the player as long as the damage isn’t toxin. They’re functionally Arcane Aegis as an ability. The Tap/Hold functionality can be inverted in settings if you find you primarily use one mode over the other making it a little more comfortable to cast. The slash grenades offer some minor CC but the damage feels a little lack luster to me, at least when compared to her turrets.
Blaze Artillery is a very strong ability and it becomes more effective the more duration you mode for. It still requires some range to be effective though. Grouping abilities also help to make the turret more effective because the splash damage also increases its shot multiplier. There is also the Temporal Artillery augment for this ability which essentially turns the turret into one of Xaku’s, but the combo count is capped to 20, and requires using Temporal Anchor to be used at the same time.
Dispensary is Protea’s other support ability. it’s very useful if your loadout includes weapons with very low maximum ammo/arch guns or if you’re going to be doing anything that requires staying in a small area for a some amount of time like piloting a railjack or defense/survival missions. The augment for this ability was never really worth using and after the recent QOL changes to radar and companion reviving is even less useful. The Helmenth version of this ability was probably over-nerfed and only has 50% of the duration when subsumed onto another warframe.
Temporal Anchor is an ability that feels like it griefs you more than it helps you. If you forget to cancel the ability before the timer expires, you can be sent back far behind the rest of your squad. If it was possible to cancel the rewind while in progress it wouldn’t be as bad, but as the ability functions currently, you’re probably better off replacing it with something else. The Temporal Erosion augment seems somewhat useful, but with the armor rework it’s probably less important to have.