A list of Warframe abilities that are currently obsolete

[Blexander]

I had the idea to make a comprehensive list of all warframe abilities that see little use in casual/end-game missions, with the help and input of anybody who cares enough to contribute.

Just write about a warframe's ability, or 2, that is rarely used due to it being obsolete in the current state of the game, not giving enough incentive to be used, or are simply poorly designed. You can also add your take on what said ability should and how it can benefit the warframe's playstyle(s).

Passives and full kits (reworks) are a different can of worms and should be excluded.

I'll start this off:

Chroma's Spectral Scream:

The ability is horribly underused and rightly so. Back in the day, channeling it would restrict you to a slow walk giving the ability almost to reason to be used making it a waste of energy, and removing the the mobility restriction has done little to make it viable. It has little to no use anywhere.

[Wrum]

valkyr rip-line - useless.

[Blexander]

4 minutes ago, Wrum said:

valkyr rip-line - useless.

Yeah, the last time it was useful was when stamina was a game mechanic. Should be replaced with a leap/dash, but that would make her too similar to Garuda, imo,

[Dishonored]

excal 3

[(PSN)Hikuro-93]

22 minutes ago, Wrum said:

valkyr rip-line - useless.

I still find it very useful. Not for enemies, but as an utility ability. Pretty handy for helping friends out during the pipe drift challenge on Lua by pulling them up to the upper part of the room. Or to tarzan across interception maps as enemies are hacking a blue node.

I think what this thread means is more "weak" abilities and not so much as "useless". Some abilities are weak, but far from useless. Tho even then most abilities could always benefit from a touch up to bring them up to speed with current times. Even Valkyr's first, even if I'd just make it better without actually changing the ability itself.

Edited June 3, 2019 by (PS4)Hikuro-93

[Salenstormwing]

12 minutes ago, Wrum said:

valkyr rip-line - useless.

Only use I've found for it is making Nox fall down constantly. Just spear them and yank them down to their feet.

Ember - Fireball

Vauban - Tesla & Minelayer (Seriously, Tesla is totally ruined because Wisp's plants never despawn and CC better, heal & speed you up while Tesla does... meh).

[Blexander]

6 minutes ago, .OwOkin. said:

excal 3

It's a pretty good ability, it just needs the 12 enemies limit removed.

 

2 minutes ago, (PS4)Hikuro-93 said:

I still find it very useful. Not for enemies, but as an utility ability. Pretty handy for helping friends out during the pipe drift challenge on Lua by pulling them up to the upper part of the room. Or to tarzan across interception maps as enemies are hacking a blue node.

Mobility is always a good thing, but it's over shadowed by many other, better mobility abilities.

 

1 minute ago, Salenstormwing said:

Ember - Fireball

Vauban - Tesla & Minelayer (Seriously, Tesla is totally ruined because Wisp's plants never despawn and CC better, heal & speed you up while Tesla does... meh).

Both Ember and Booben need full reworks, and while we're talking about individual abilities, Fireball and Fire Blast are almost equally worthless, with Fire Blast being slightly worse due to cost, effect, damage type, lackluster ally buff, etc.

[(PSN)Mordecai_Vrykul]

Frost 1* (only used for popping bubbles)

Titania 1 (useless), 2 & 3* (need a rework)

Trinity 1.

Ember 1.

Nyx 2.

Mirage 2.

Necros 1.

That's all i got at the top of my head atm.

 

 

 

[TehGrief]

Trinity - [1] Well of Life 

• Ability is rendered completely obsolete by Blessing.
• Base healing should scale with enemy level, instead of being capped at 400.
• Ability is too clunky to be used in any unique or gimmicky ways (can't be recast while active, 1 second cast time).

What could be changed?
The ability just need to be completely overhauled. A simple suggestion would just have it function identically like [2] Energy Vampire, where it sends out waves of healing from the target.

 

Equinox (night form) - [3] Pacify

• Energy drains too quickly because of how the ability functions.
• Ability functions poorly: Reduces the damage that enemies deal, rather than reducing the damage that allies take.
• Requires more range to be useful (caused by the ability having a "fall-off" range mechanic) - but more range means more enemies effected - which means more energy drain (a vicious cycle, really).

What could be changed?

If the ability was changed to apply a damage reduction mechanic to allies instead of to enemies (exactly how the day form [3] Provoke currently works), the energy drain would not be so bad, and the ability could certainly be more viable.

 

Ivara - [2] Navigator

• Ability is too gimmicky to be used seriously. 

What could be changed?

If we saw either a change to the base mechanic or even an augment that made it so that Ivara could fire the Navigator arrow and then teleport to wherever it hit (had been discussed a while back), I imagine it would see a lot more play.

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

Enthrall- garbage

 

[(XBOX)Tanta Cinta]

RADIAL JAVELIN!!! 

UMBRA’S PASSIVE!!! 

[(XBOX)Nightseid]

34 minutes ago, (PS4)Mordecai_Vrykul said:

Frost 1* (only used for popping bubbles)

Titania 1 (useless), 2 & 3* (need a rework)

Trinity 1.

Ember 1.

Nyx 2.

Mirage 2.

Necros 1.

That's all i got at the top of my head atm.

 

 

 

Titania's 1 is not useless - i find her 1 and 3 useful cc, So long as you have good range, my complaint is the enemies drifting as they float. Her 2 though is underwhelming and prefer it be rework or switch with an offensive ability like transform enemy into razorleaf butterflies or something since wisp has much better version of her tribute ability.

[(PSN)Mordecai_Vrykul]

13 minutes ago, (XB1)Nightseid said:

Titania's 1 is not useless - i find her 1 and 3 useful cc, So long as you have good range, my complaint is the enemies drifting as they float. Her 2 though is underwhelming and prefer it be rework or switch with an offensive ability like transform enemy into razorleaf butterflies or something since wisp has much better version of her tribute ability.

I agree to an extent. Her 1 and 3 do sort of similar things, enemies float, so really they should be combined into one ability that has the effect of both abilities, so long as the enemies don't float off. Her 2 is good for the buffs but having to fumble around to pick the buff up is absolutely terrible and should be just changed into an affinity radius buff for the party.

[(XBOX)Nightseid]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Mordecai_Vrykul said:

I agree to an extent. Her 1 and 3 do sort of similar things, enemies float, so really they should be combined into one ability that has the effect of both abilities, so long as the enemies don't float off. Her 2 is good for the buffs but having to fumble around to pick the buff up is absolutely terrible and should be just changed into an affinity radius buff for the party.

I feel synergy between the two abilities would be nicer than combining them like if titania's lantern ability attracted the floating enemies from her 1 to increase the size of lantern affects.

Having affinity radius effect on tribute instead of a pick up would be more useful than it's current state. I feel Titania needs just a little bit of offense utility to help her feel balanced compared to other frames. Razor wing is great offense ability but its archwing - so you either love it or hate it.

Edited June 3, 2019 by (XB1)Nightseid

[(PSN)Mordecai_Vrykul]

7 minutes ago, (XB1)Nightseid said:

I feel synergy between the two abilities would be nicer than combining them like if titania's lantern ability attracted the floating enemies from her 1 to increase the size of lantern affects.

Having affinity radius effect on tribute instead of a pick up would be more useful than it's current state. I feel Titania needs just a little bit of offense utility to help her feel balanced compared to other frames. Razor wing is great offense ability but its archwing - so you either love it or hate it.

Synergy would be nice but with only 4 ability slots there isn't a whole lot of room which is why i think combing the effects might be a better solution. So enemies float, attracting more enemies while granting allies the immunity to status effects. Additionally it would be nice to see that also refresh the razorflies while she is in her 4. Granted that is a lot to pack into just one ability but for something thats for CC i think it's not too unreasonable.

And you are right about her needing some offence, tbh i would like to see the ammo cap removed from her dex pixia, but that might be too OP. Maybe buffing her 2 so that it increases Damage instead of doing damage reflection?

[(XBOX)Nightseid]

20 minutes ago, (PS4)Mordecai_Vrykul said:

Synergy would be nice but with only 4 ability slots there isn't a whole lot of room which is why i think combing the effects might be a better solution. So enemies float, attracting more enemies while granting allies the immunity to status effects. Additionally it would be nice to see that also refresh the razorflies while she is in her 4. Granted that is a lot to pack into just one ability but for something thats for CC i think it's not too unreasonable.

And you are right about her needing some offence, tbh i would like to see the ammo cap removed from her dex pixia, but that might be too OP. Maybe buffing her 2 so that it increases Damage instead of doing damage reflection?

You have think of spellbind and lantern like vauban's 3 and 4 - where the two abilities offer two different types of cc - just slower. I too thought combining them the abilities until I really started using them and realized how useful they are separately. Using lantern to defend and spellbind for offensive cc. Combining the two would make it too OP but allowing them to synergize would be a better payoff.

Yeah her tribute definitely needs something to make it a tad bit more useful - I'd be ok with combining lantern and tribute as an area of effect ability then 1 and 3. The issues with razorwing (IMO) is simply the archwing controls and collisions ... and lack of boosters, not the razorwing ability itself.

[Vanilla_nuka]

7 hours ago, (PS4)Mordecai_Vrykul said:

Nyx 2

Her 2 strips armor and shield, dont see how that ability is obsolete. If anything you should have said her 4, since without the augment its utter garbage

Edited June 3, 2019 by Vanilla_nuka

[Hawner]

hace 2 horas, moostar95 dijo:

Inaros 2 and 3. One is redundent due to his 4. The other is useless cc garbage.

2 heals him after using 4, so he doesn't go around without full health, and any he loses due to enemies he can recover it.

3 is not that bad of you are on a defense and the pod is surrounded.

[(PSN)LoisGordils]

12 hours ago, Blexander said:

It's a pretty good ability, it just needs the 12 enemies limit removed.

It's not. It can't kill, nor debuff. 

[(PSN)LoisGordils]

My list:

Fireball

Freeze

Shock

Half of Vauban's kit

Well of Life

Half of Chroma's kit

Tectonics

Sandstorm

Decoy

Soul Punch

Null Star (too unreliable as a damage mitigation skill. Polish the mechanics)

Enthrall

[Shaburanigud]

8 hours ago, moostar95 said:

Inaros 2 and 3. One is redundent due to his 4. The other is useless cc garbage.

I agree partially.
For his 2, his sandshadow is completely worthless. Has anyone even seen a sand shadow?
His 3 is costs to much, and has too little range and CC. Could use a rework on that.

Another I never see used is Mirage's 2. The fact that there has to be stuff around for it to do anything makes its see almost useless.
We gather loot, not leave it alone for it to be used for a possible booby trap that doesn't do much.

[LupoDWolf]

13 hours ago, (XB1)GearsMatrix301 said:

Enthrall- garbage

 

why? :x I find a very good 1 ability

[AKTKWNG]

15 hours ago, Wrum said:

valkyr rip-line - useless.

It's useful for dragging in people who are spamming emotes just outside of the extraction point.

[Veridian]

Just 1 or 2?

Banshee 1,3
Chroma 1,4
Ember 1,3
Excalibur 3
Frost 2
Gara 3
Hydroid
Inaros 3
Limbo 3
Mesa 1
Mirage 2
Nekros 1,2
Titania 1,2,3
Vauban 1,2
Wukong 1,3
Zephyr 2
 

 

Woops, went a little overboard.

[SenorClipClop]

18 hours ago, Salenstormwing said:

Ember - Fireball

I see niche power in using it, as full-melee Ember. On-demand stun distant enemies for time to close the gap and keep the stun going with 2 and/or 4.

 

38 minutes ago, Ver1dian said:

Banshee 1,3

If you play Banshee, these are pretty useful skills, primarily in keeping her alive while killing with 2-enhanced damage. Sonic Boom keeps danger away from Banshee, while 3 stuns anything approaching just after it enters Sonar range, letting you set up weakspot shots much easier.

SB could use a bit extra something, maybe full-movement cast or just a faster animation, but this and Silence are solid. Now if only they could give her a real ult in place of SQ....