Prime warframes or regular warframes?

[iesous27]

I've been a bit curious about this for a while, but very simple question:

Should I invest the time to get prime warframes or just stick with regular warframes?

From my knowledge, there's very little difference between prime and regular warframes for the exception of a bit more shield, health, and mod capacity (and maybe something else I'm missing). 

[iesous27]

Oh, I also forgot to say, prime warframes obviously take up another warframe slot, and I'll have to buy more slots with platinum, which at the moment I only have 5 lol. 

[GnarlsDarkley]

4 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

and mod capacity (and maybe something else I'm missing)

No, they have some more/different Polarities if you mean that but they have the exact same capacity and have a buff the get 250 energy from void orbs when touching them.

And yes they do need another slot, but since they are straight upgrades (not by much like you said) you can sell the normal one and replace it with its prime

Edited November 16, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[iesous27]

Just now, GnarlsDarkley said:

no. they have the exact same capacity but have a buff the get 250 energy from void orbs when touching them

So the same exact mod capacity. I think at this point in my warframe life, I'll just collect as many prime parts and sell them for platinum. That seems like a better strategy for me at the moment, and then In the future, I can get prime frames. 

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

[GnarlsDarkley]

2 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

I always was a completionist (91% Steam achievement rate out of 300 games) so I want all items.

They also provide 6k MR like the normal ones...so you can increase your MR by a large margain with ease (and a higher MR has various advantages)

Edited November 16, 2018 by GnarlsDarkley

[HorridaMessor]

1 minute ago, iesous27 said:

So the same exact mod capacity. I think at this point in my warframe life, I'll just collect as many prime parts and sell them for platinum. That seems like a better strategy for me at the moment, and then In the future, I can get prime frames. 

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

Both standart and Prime warframes give mastery separetly - each version of a one particular warframe gives 6000 mastery.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, iesous27 said:

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

Mostly fashion, completionism and mastery. Some of them (for example Volt) also have significantly better stats compared to the vanilla version.

[Dhrekr]

10 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

Mastery Rank and bling (people like shiny) are usually the best reasons. And they're not very good reasons, tbh.

My clan leader's favourite and most used frame is Nova, and he still uses Nova despite having Nova Prime. He has Nova Prime, he levelled her for the Mastery Rank, and he keeps using Nova and leaves the Prime in the inventory to collect dust.

There is nothing against using the regular version, especially as a beginner.

However, if I may give a suggestion, consider taking Primes that are going in the Vault. You don't need to build them immediately, you can keep their BPs in your inventory for months, but if you ever want to build a Vaulted Prime it's better if you farmed it yourself and don't have to pay fancy amounts of plats for it.

[iesous27]

3 minutes ago, Pr1A said:

Mostly fashion, completionism and mastery. Some of them (for example Volt) also have significantly better stats compared to the vanilla version.

Gotcha, is Volt really the only exception here?

[iesous27]

2 minutes ago, Dhrekr said:

Mastery Rank and bling (people like shiny) are usually the best reasons. And they're not very good reasons, tbh.

My clan leader's favourite and most used frame is Nova, and he still uses Nova despite having Nova Prime. He has Nova Prime, he levelled her for the Mastery Rank, and he keeps using Nova and leaves the Prime in the inventory to collect dust.

 There is nothing against using the regular version, especially as a beginner.

 However, if I may give a suggestion, consider taking Primes that are going in the Vault. You don't need to build them immediately, you can keep their BPs in your inventory for months, but if you ever want to build a Vaulted Prime it's better if you farmed it yourself and don't have to pay fancy amounts of plats for it.

You can only buy the Prime frames from the vault right? You can get them by other means through the game? 

[Ada_Wong_SG]

15 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

What's your reason for having prime frames? 

1) You really use a warframe a lot, and want a direct upgraded version - go for prime

2) you randomly collected all the components for the prime warframe cracking relics

Other than this 2 reason I really seldom go all the way out to get a primed warframe.

 

[Phatose]

You'll end up wanting the mastery from both, and the Prime version tend to have better stats.  Best approach is to get the regular frame, level it to 30, get the prime version, sell the regular version, build the prime and use it, formaing and what not.  That leaves you still only ever needing 1 slot, getting mastery from both, and ending up with the statistically superior version.

If it's a frame you really like and the prime version in unavailable, no harm in potatoing/formaing the regular version.  Half the frames I use have no prime version, and I don't feel bad about using forma or reactors on them.

[Dhrekr]

Just now, iesous27 said:

You can only buy the Prime frames from the vault right? You can get them by other means through the game? 

During the "Unvaulting Period" you can obtain their relics and drop their pieces. So, for instance, you can now drop the relics for Nova Prime and drop her for free. You can also keep the relics forever if you don't want to open them now.

Otherwise, you can always trade for vaulted Frames. There is a healthy market for vaulted pieces.

 

And, lastly, keep an eye on the Warframes that are about to be Vaulted - that's to say, the Warframe that you can now drop for free but whose relics are going out of the drop tables in two months time.

[iesous27]

1 minute ago, Phatose said:

You'll end up wanting the mastery from both, and the Prime version tend to have better stats.  Best approach is to get the regular frame, level it to 30, get the prime version, sell the regular version, build the prime and use it, formaing and what not.  That leaves you still only ever needing 1 slot, getting mastery from both, and ending up with the statistically superior version.

 If it's a frame you really like and the prime version in unavailable, no harm in potatoing/formaing the regular version.  Half the frames I use have no prime version, and I don't feel bad about using forma or reactors on them.

This is my conundrum. I've already used a forma and potato one of my regular frames, now I'm wondering if I screwed up. 😯

[Dhrekr]

4 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

Gotcha, is Volt really the only exception here?

Rhino Prime is faster than Rhino. By that I mean, Rhino is below average (0.95 run speed) and Rhino Prime is average (1 speed).

It makes a substantial difference, imo.

[iesous27]

1 minute ago, Dhrekr said:

During the "Unvaulting Period" you can obtain their relics and drop their pieces. So, for instance, you can now drop the relics for Nova Prime and drop her for free. You can also keep the relics forever if you don't want to open them now.

 Otherwise, you can always trade for vaulted Frames. There is a healthy market for vaulted pieces.

  

And, lastly, keep an eye on the Warframes that are about to be Vaulted - that's to say, the Warframe that you can now drop for free but whose relics are going out of the drop tables in two months time.

Are these relics only available further in the star chart? I just got to Uranus. 

[Phatose]

2 minutes ago, iesous27 said:

This is my conundrum. I've already used a forma and potato one of my regular frames, now I'm wondering if I screwed up. 😯

It's not a big deal, in the long run.  Likely to end up like me if you keep playing - 150 forma, 30 reactors, 20 catalysts in your inventory.

Don't be super wasteful, but for stuff you like?  Don't sweat it.

[Dhrekr]

1 minute ago, iesous27 said:

Are these relics only available further in the star chart? I just got to Uranus. 

As detailed here:

They can be obtained in Planes of Eidolon Bounties, in Orb Valley Bounties, and in the Void (which you have partial access to).

If you are looking for a specific relic, DE publishes their official drop tables, so you can go and look at locations and drop chances.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, iesous27 said:

Gotcha, is Volt really the only exception here?

Rhino Prime gets some nice stat bonuses as well.

[iesous27]

1 minute ago, Dhrekr said:

As detailed here:

They can be obtained in Planes of Eidolon Bounties, in Orb Valley Bounties, and in the Void (which you have partial access to).

If you are looking for a specific relic, DE publishes their official drop tables, so you can go and look at locations and drop chances.

Awesome, I just got all the Nova parts and it's one of the more intriguing frames that I want to try out. So if I could get the Nova prime, that'd be awesome. I was thinking of buying the Nova prime bundle anyways (for the platinum too). Plus, I guess I can do the Gara quest and focus on PoE bounties. 

Thanks for your help!

[Airwolfen]

I generally just replace the base versions with the primes. Though I generally just like the looks more.

The only frame I have both is Nova. And I even have 2 primes.

[Dishonored]

nova is the one the warframe that you need both version prime and the regular one.
people usually built nova prime for slowva/tanky built with arcane guardian.
and the regular one is used for speedva to speed up enemies in defense mission.

Edited November 16, 2018 by HEA-Devazone

[iesous27]

1 minute ago, HEA-Devazone said:

nova is the one the warframe that you need both version prime and the regular one.
people usually built nova prime for slowva/tanky built with arcane guardian.
and the regular one is used for speedva to speed up defense mission.

I think my play style suits a fast tanky melee frame, but also with a good primary for distance kills. 😅 Maybe the regular nova suits me best?

[KuroShiranui]

One more thing to add is that you can change the appearance of the prime warframe to be identical to its regular version. That way you can still retain the vanilla look of your warframes with the additional stat upgrades. 

 

So to answer your question: like most have suggested, get the prime version if you can. It's better and has more polarities so you use less forma.

 

As for investing forma/potato to a regular warframe, you will need to predict which warframe will be primed next. Currently the next warframe that will likely be primed is Mesa Prime, or to a lesser extent, Equinox Prime. So if I were you, I will not spend potato on both of these frames. Take note of the regular warframe release order and plan accordingly.

[Elyann]

1 hour ago, iesous27 said:

I've been a bit curious about this for a while, but very simple question:

Should I invest the time to get prime warframes or just stick with regular warframes?

From my knowledge, there's very little difference between prime and regular warframes for the exception of a bit more shield, health, and mod capacity (and maybe something else I'm missing). 

You want to farm for a normal warframe , max it in order to get mastery points , farm for its prime , toss the old one away , level and use the prime version .

This way you'll be earning mastery from both normal and prime frames , save warframe slots and have a better version of the regular frame ( aka its prime counterpart ).

[iesous27]

3 minutes ago, KuroShiranui said:

One more thing to add is that you can change the appearance of the prime warframe to be identical to its regular version. That way you can still retain the vanilla look of your warframes with the additional stat upgrades. 

  

So to answer your question: like most have suggested, get the prime version if you can. It's better and has more polarities so you use less forma.

  

As for investing forma/potato to a regular warframe, you will need to predict which warframe will be primed next. Currently the next warframe that will likely be primed is Mesa Prime, or to a lesser extent, Equinox Prime. So if I were you, I will not spend potato on both of these frames. Take note of the regular warframe release order and plan accordingly.

Thanks for the tip. I don't have Mesa or Equinox. I only have Volt, Trinity Prime, Rhino and Valkyr (and Frost in the foundry).