But seeing as you can only have one at a time, which one of these defensive auras should you pick? Well, that depends on several factors – but first we should probably look at what each of them do.
Corrosive Projection: Reduces enemy armor by 5% (or 30% at max level) Shield Disruption: Reduces enemy shields by 4% (or 24% at max level)
Those two effects might sound very similar on the surface, but to see the differences, it’s useful to take a crash course in what armor and shields actually do in Warframe.
Armor vs. Shields in Warframe
These are two similar terms that fill somewhat different roles in Warframe. Both reduce the damage you’re dealing to enemies in some way, but their methods of doing so differ.
Armor acts as a direct reduction to the damage you deal. If an enemy has armor, their health bar will appear yellow instead of red, and your attacks’ damage will be reduced.
Shields, on the other hand, act as a buffer. Enemies with shields will have a blue bar over their health which you must punch through before you can deal damage to them. Shields will also recover after a brief moment.
With that in mind, how do you pick which one you want to reduce? It all depends on what you expect to see on a mission and the factions that you’ll be facing off against.
Corrosive Projection vs. Shield Disruption
On missions, you’ll usually be dealing with one of the four main enemy factions in the game. Each faction has strengths and weaknesses – as well as different likelihoods of using shields and armor. This is by far the most important factor in deciding which aura you want to use. So if your enemy is shield-reliant, you’ll want to pick up Disruption. If they’re armor-clad, you’ll need Corrosive Projection.
Which Enemy Factions Require Which Aura
Grineer: The Grineer are an easy choice. Nearly all of them use armor of some description, so Corrosive Projection is the obvious choice.
Corpus: The Corpus heavily emphasize shields in their units, so you’re probably better off taking Shield Disruption on missions against them.
Infested: The Infested are slightly trickier. They tend not to use armor or shields at all (with a couple exceptions), so your best option might be to take some other aura altogether on their missions. There is one enemy type that can buff weaker Infested with armor though, so if you find that especially annoying, you could consider Corrosive Projection.
Orokin: The Orokin are another interesting case. Their ranks mainly consist of corrupted versions of enemies from other factions. As such, you’ll find shields and armor in roughly equal amounts.
You have a couple options here. The first is to consider that armor is usually more effective than shields, so Corrosive Projection tends to be the popular choice anyway. The other, if you have a team you’re able to coordinate with, is to take both. Each player can take one aura, so you can spread both varieties across your team. Auras also stack, so you can counter both defenses pretty effectively if you take two of each.
That wraps up our guide for deciding whether you should pick up Shield Disruption or Corrosive Projection. Be sure to keep an eye out on GameSkinny for more Warframe guides and tips!
