This is a general use and endurance viable Steel Path [Dante] build using all base abilities, with helminth options described below. You can focus on either spamming Dark Verse and Tragedy to deal ability DPS, or use Pageflight to boost status based weapon DPS and Wordwarden for passive priming while using Triumph to stay immortal.

Quick video guide and demonstration:

PLAYSTYLE

1. Keep Triumph buff active at all times (cast Light Verse twice followed by Final Verse: 2, 2, 4) to grant Overguard as well as Overguard with kills.
2. Keep Wordwarden buff active (cast Light Verse, followed by Dark Verse then Final Verse: 2, 3, 4) to summon a [Noctua] companion which helps deal passive DPS or priming.
3. Keep Pageflight buff active (cast Dark Verse followed by Light Verse, then Final Verse: 3, 2, 4) to summon three Paragrimm companions which draw aggro, deal slash status and boost status DPS.
4. Activate Noctua (press 1) and either use it to deal DPS or as a primer/utility depending on your preference. If you are focusing on Tragedy for AOE nuking, use Noctua as a viral primer/ability buffer.
5. Use Tragedy to nuke enemies in approximately 40m cone range (cast two Dark Verse followed by Final Verse: 3, 3, 4). This will force a total of four slash statuses before compressing approx 4-6s of remaining slash status into one instance, then multiplying it.

You will gain 0.5s i-frames upon losing Overguard and approximately 1s i-frames on losing 240 shield. With Triumph active you can constantly gain Overguard with each kill/kill assist, and Light Verse gives more on-demand Overguard. Additionally constantly casting Tragedy will allow you to constantly regain shields via Augur mods which refreshes your shield gate in case your overguard is down and you are not actively regenerating it.

BUILD SPECIFICS

Duration
Higher duration gives longer uptime for all buffs (specifically Triumph, Wordwarden, Pageflight) so you don't need to refresh as often, lasting approximately 1 min. Note that [Noctua] can equip [Ris] Invocation giving a free 60% duration. Molt Efficiency is optional and can be replaced with another option.

Efficiency/Energy Economy
[Dante] is a very cast heavy frame and each rotation of Final Verse costs 100 energy to enact at base. Triumph, Wordwarden and Pageflight each last 1 minute meaning you need to spend 300 energy each minute to keep them active, while Tragedy costs 100 energy to nuke each time. The final efficiency is up to personal preference but you could sit beween 100% to 160% efficiency for a cast heavy Tragedy spam playstyle (without Arcane Steadfast), or 45% (with Equilibrium + Arcane Steadfast +/- [Netra] Invocation) on a more weapon focused playstyle. To restore energy, use a combination of Equilibrium and Xata Invocation (10 energy/s). [Primed Flow] gives a high energy pool to cast Tragedy frequently. Arcane Steadfast is a great option that gives free casts. [Noctua] also allows you to equip [Netra Invocation] which gives a free 60% efficiency and even procs [Seismic Bond] on a companion for another free 30% efficiency. As a final bonus [Archon Stretch] is OPTIONAL but can be triggered via either [Noctua] OR Wordwarden when it is modded for Viral Electric. [Mystic Bond] is also optional on your companion.

Range
Decent range is needed for nuke range although both Dark Verse and Tragedy are line of sight, meaning you cannot damage enemies beyond the size of a normal room. Approximately 175 to 190% range is sufficient. ARCHON STRETCH is OPTIONAL but gives some free passive energy generation if noctua/wordwarden is modded for electric.

Strength
High strength affects the damage of Noctua, damage of Dark Verse, overguard from Light Verse/Triumph, multiplier of Tragedy and the damage/status boost of Pageflight, making this the most important stat. Running Molt Augmented and [Vome Invocation] effectively gives +120% bonus strength to over 300% final strength.

[Umbral Intensify] vs [Precision Intensify]
Note [Umbral Intensify] is flexible for [Precision Intensify]. While Precision Intensify boosts Triumph, Wordwarden and Pageflight to maximum possible values, it does NOT affect either Noctua damage/slash procs or Dark Verse damage/slash procs. If you tend to use a combination of [Noctua] + Dark Verse + Tragedy to deal DPS, you will be better off using Umbral Intensify since it affects all these abilities equally. If you tend to use your own weapons and rely on Triumph/Pageflight/Wordwarden more to support gameplay or use Tragedy without relying so much on Dark Verse procs, you are better off running [Precision Intensify].

If you run [Seismic Bond] and Invocation mods on a pure [Noctua], your final stats will look as follows with max conditionals:Duration: 223%Efficiency: 130%Range: 190%

Strength: 363%

Flexible slots
Blind Rage: If you don't feel comfortable with negative efficiency and are not running some combination of Netra Invocation/Xata Invocation/[Seismic Bond] or Arcane Steadfast, swap this for [Transient Fortitude] and consider even adding [Streamline].
[Augur Message]: This just gives bit of extra duration and shield gating for times when you are spamming dark verse but have overguard down. This can be swapped for [Constitution] at the cost of more forma, or even more strength e,g [Transient Fortitude] at the cost of duration and forma.

Aura
[Growing Power] gives more strength.
[Brief Respite] is optional for backup shield gating in addition to overguard gating.

ExilusSince overguard provides knockdown resistance, Primed Sure Footed is not needed unless you subsume over 2, which is not recommended.

Flexible options:

• Power Drift - more strength
• Cunning Drift - more range

ArcanesArcane Steadfast or Energize - for better energy economyMolt Augmented - gives free 60% str after 250 killsMolt Efficiency - gives up to 36% duration with shield activeArcane Velocity - boosts Noctua fire rate

Arcane Avenger - boosts Noctua and weapon crit

ARCHON SHARDS

Amber Cast Speed : 3
Crimson Duration Shards: 2

HELMINTH OPTIONS

• ROAR: This double dips on DoTs like Slash, which is dealt by Dark Verse and ultimately boosts the damage of Tragedy. This means at 300 strength, a 90% roar buff increases final Tragedy damage by about 3.61x. We would likely subsume this over 1 or 2 depending on preference.
• NOURISH: Increases energy gain and adds free viral to Noctua allowing to offload viral mods for other mods, subsume over 2 or 3.

• Madurai: Gives +50% cast speed and +40% strength.

NOCTUA
There are multiple ways to build Noctua, pure slash DPS, pure raw DPS with self strip, pure utility/primer and hybrid.

COMPANIONSCompanions that can AOE prime Viral would benefit Tragedy the most:

Panzer: https://overframe.gg/build/220091/

Hound: https://overframe.gg/build/540825/
Diriga: https://overframe.gg/build/541464/

Note, [Seismic Bond] can proc while in [Noctua], meaning you can get another free source of 30% efficiency. This would mean you don't need to use the efficiency book mod at all.
[Synth Deconstruct] helps spawn health orbs to power [Equilibrium] energy production.
[Mystic Bond] helps improve cast efficiency further.
Panzer can also run both [Tenacious Bond] and [Reinforced Bond] to boost [Noctua] and give it another 60% fire rate and 120% flat crit multiplier.

UTILITY WEAPONS
Certain weapons for boosting Noctua DPS passively include:

• Ceramic Dagger + Any secondary holding Secondary Outburst: gives up to 240% CC and CD at x12 combo for 30s.
• Furax Wraith with Amalgam Furax : Boosts secondary fire rate by +45% - replace Quickening or Reach with Amalgam mod; https://overframe.gg/build/642135/
• [Afentis]: boosts fire rate by 20%.

DPS WEAPONS
Weapons that can deal significant amounts of AOE status, particularly slash, can synergize well with Pageflight's status damage buffs and Tragedy's expedite effect. Note that Tragedy cannot expedite electric, so use slash, heat or toxin status if you want to expedite.

Primary:
Phantasma (viral elec or viral heat): https://overframe.gg/build/374667/
Torid (corrosive blast): https://overframe.gg/build/472389/
Strun (viral slash, viral electric, corroblast): https://overframe.gg/build/465699/
Kuva Zarr (viral slash): https://overframe.gg/build/226265/
Kuva Tonkor (viral slash): https://overframe.gg/build/451007/
Sporothrix (viral slash): https://overframe.gg/build/267473/

Secondary:
Furis Incarnon ( viral heat): https://overframe.gg/build/465709/
Spectra Vandal (viral slash): https://overframe.gg/build/638360/
Ocucor (viral heat: https://overframe.gg/build/483134/
Lex Prime Incarnon (viral slash): https://overframe.gg/build/468567/
Kuva Nukor (viral heat): https://overframe.gg/build/232817/

Melee:
Glaive Prime: https://overframe.gg/build/270712/
Furax Wraith Incarnon (influence): https://overframe.gg/build/642135/
Hate Incarnon (x12 tennokai): https://overframe.gg/build/494117/
Praedos (influence): https://overframe.gg/build/315105/
Innodem (influence): https://overframe.gg/build/328180/