What frames are better than Nezha for solo play?

[x0nkers]

I’m 200 hours in but I still feel like a fairly new player because this game is massive. The issue is simple... I’m stuck on Nezha. I use him for pretty much everything. I find all four of his abilities useful... he’s a tank with great crowd control, and his #2 spawns health all over the place especially with Reaping Chakram. I can solo fractures with only Nezha and a Fulmin, no problem (one canister at a time).

But I’m sure there are other frames that are similar or better, for solo (eg solo fractures, or high level bosses). Can anyone suggest a few I can try? But not Rhino plz - I played Rhino through a majority of the star chart and I find Nezha much better. The spears are better than the stomp IMO, and Reaping Chakram regens health and energy like a champ.

I’ve also tried Saryn, she’s awesome but I still find Nezha better (more survivable, better crowd control) at high levels.

Keep in mind I’m still learning so I could be totally wrong about everything :)

[shut]

Rhino was going to be my go-to response. Stomp doesn't have quite the same duration as Divine Spears, but it reaches noticeably further and is very consistent in what it affects (i.e. literally anything and everything, including bosses ^{with the caveat that it doesn't last as long against bosses}). Definitely one of the most potent CC abilities in the game, and IMO the most reliable... provided that you don't build him exclusively as a tank or something (as 99% of rhino players apparently do). If you've got enough range+efficiency for his 1 to be worth using, Rhino can also be pretty darn fast compared to most other frames.

 

For a less tanky option, I'm a big fan of Excalibur, with his incredible mobility (Slash Dash), invulnerability frames (Slash Dash), CC (Blind), and melee damage (Blind-- especially if using a long-ranged melee weapon that can attack without triggering Finishers). I personally just slap on Overextended and never touch his 3 or 4; you'll have enough mobility and CC to breeze through nearly every open-world mission.

He tends to be a bit squishy against higher-leveled enemies, though, so you'll want to get used to moving around a lot and always have a reliable source of healing handy (e.g. Magus Elevate, Life Strike, etc).

 

EDIT:

If you happen to use a melee weapon as your main source of damage: you should consider using a Phantasma or some other gun that can rapidly spread Radiation procs on groups of enemies. It'll work great for Condition Overload, and the reliable radiation procs mean that you've got a good CC option with you at all times.
If you don't mind sacrificing a gun slot, the CC really opens up the variety of frames that you can use as all-rounders, allowing you to take selfish frames (Ash, Wukong, Chroma, etc) into defense-oriented missions without a hitch!

Edited September 8, 2019 by SortaRandom

[LascarCapable]

No frames are better than Nezha for solo play. Actually, no frames are better than Nezha in any setup. Nezha is best frame. 😎

Jokes aside, most warframes are perfectly viable for soloing, though some are defintely a bit better thanks to their self sustain. I do have two Warframes I particularily enjoy for solo play :

• Garuda - There's no better example at being self sustainable than Garuda in my opinion. Blood Altar restores your health, Bloodletting restores your energy, you have the possibility to deal massive amounts of damage with your Dread Sphere, passive and Seeking Talons, and you're VERY hard to kill if you play well. Her only weakness ? Her lack of CC. But you shouldn't need CC too much when everything dies so fast.
• Wisp - Curious choice due to how efficient she is as a team buffer perhaps, but she's there for a good reason. Her kit is faily complete, she's quite sturdy with her red mote, she's a great damage dealer and her nuking capabilities are no joke. She lacks energy sustain in her kit, but you should be able to work around that decently.

They're far from being the only ones with great solo capabilities of course. They're simply my favourites (with Nezha).

Consider also playing Gara or Frost for defense based missions : you'll probably need something to defend the console/cryopod. I don't particularily enjoy that much playing any of those two myself, but if you play solo and want to last long-ish in anything defense related, they are going to be seriously helpful. I heard Limbo can work too, but I don't know anything about Limbo.

[Tiltskillet]

What frames are better than Nezha

 

None.  You've figured it out and won Warframe!  gg gg  All you can do now is build more Nezha.  Minimum of three, or you're not really trying.

Spoiler

Nova might be worth a try.  Really versatile like Nezha, but has a very different way of going about it.   Probably better at most things, practically speaking, and nearly as fun.

 

 

[Yuri_Doujinshi]

Ever since Wukong's rework, I've been playing him obsessively. He can perform decently in pretty much every single mission type, and rarely dies if you know how to use his utility. Highly recommend trying him out.

[actuallyVile]

The way you talk about Nezha (versatile, using multiple abilities) makes me think you will enjoy Nova, Wisp and Wukong quite a bit.

 

[NinjaZeku]

Solo play? Limbo 😄

I'll also say Nova is a great choice, not least for stuff like solo Fractures (also Bounties) or Interception.

Oberon is a nicely versatile Frame, useful in pretty much any situation.

Khora is lotsa fun, woo high-Range builds, whip it, whip it good.

Gara is a decent defender and can get pretty stupid with a charged up Splinter Storm.

Ash / Loki / Wukong are nifty for missions where you just need to get to a target fast and then get out.

The damage + CC + debuffing (also woo Squad buffing via Augments) prowess of Frost is not to be underestimated.

Nekros Bonedaddy is great for Survival, but also in general just a tanky SOB with some "support fire" funzies, and who doesn't like more loot.

[Srovy]

Octavia, Infinite invisibility, Infinite damage, amazing CC

[0_The_F00l]

Well any frame can solo most content , but since you are looking for something that is :

a) Tanky,

b) has CC

c) has health regen option,

I would consider one of the following:

Nidus, Wisp , Inaros, Equinox.

 

You can also refer my handy ranking of tanking for reference purposes:

 

[Methanoid]

Titania, can cheese pretty much any gametype.

[DatDarkOne]

No one mentioned the Solo Queen Ivara.  Wow.  

a) Tanky,---She doesn't need to because of Prowl

b) has CC  - Sleep Arrow and Noise Arrow

c) has health regen option,---Life Strike or Healing Return.  

[(PSN)NoTrollGaming]

Nidus and Wukong

[Prime_Reckoner]

Rhino for me is better than Nezha.

1) He has better CC than Nezha and at the same time can nuke much, much better than Nezha. 

2) He can tank better than Nezha without needing arcanes and adaptation. And adaptation is NOT straight 90% dmg reduction as some people believe here. I get 50,000 ironskin VERY EASILY. No arcanes needed. I  can then put dmg arcanes since I have zenurik. 

3) He can buff FAR BETTER than nezha. There is really no competition here. 

Rhino is FAR MORE USEFUL frame than nezha. He is useful in arbitrations (meta because of how revive tokens work), index, leveling weapons up, nuking, CC, eidolons, etc. It boggles my mind how people think nezha is a better frame. 

And he has one build that lets him do all of the above: tank, CC, buff, go fast, nuke.

Frames better than nezha: gara, rhino, nova, volt, and octavia. those 5 are more useful to have than nezha.

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Prime_Reckoner

[Tiltskillet]

Just now, Prime_Reckoner said:

Rhino for me is better than Nezha.

1) He has better CC than Nezha and at the same time can nuke much, much better than Nezha. 

2) He can tank better than Nezha without needing arcanes and adaptation. And adaptation is NOT straight 90% dmg reduction as some people believe here. I get 50,000 ironskin VERY EASILY. No arcanes needed. I  can then put dmg arcanes since I have zenurik. 

3) He can buff FAR BETTER than nezha. There is really no competition here. 

Rhino is FAR MORE USEFUL frame than nezha. He is useful in arbitrations (meta because of how revive tokens work), index, leveling weapons up, nuking, CC, eidolons, etc. It boggles my mind how people think nezha is a better frame. 

And he has one build that lets him do all of the above: tank, CC, buff, go fast, nuke.

Frames better than nezha: gara, rhino, nova, volt, and octavia. those 5 are more useful to have than nezha.

 

Counterpoints: Nezha's slippery passive, and he has a terrific sense of humor.  Rhino is distinctly non-slippery, and while he does have a few primitive humor protocols, his upper limit is knock knock jokes. 

Also Nezha is unique in having a 5th ability, his true ultimate really:  Getting people banned from game chat.

 

Winner: NEZHA.

[Prime_Reckoner]

2 hours ago, Tiltskillet said:

Counterpoints: Nezha's slippery passive, and he has a terrific sense of humor.  Rhino is distinctly non-slippery, and while he does have a few primitive humor protocols, his upper limit is knock knock jokes. 

Also Nezha is unique in having a 5th ability, his true ultimate really:  Getting people banned from game chat.

 

Winner: NEZHA.

All valid points, but Rhino still edges him slightly.

[(NSW)CthulhuAzathoth]

IMHO, Rhino is better than Nezha if you have the right mods. Because you can recast iron skin anytime you want, the amour buff  can go offs the roof and does not require energy to maintain. At one time I use lvl 100 gunner to compare my chroma and rhino build. It take a while for the gunner to burn off my armor buff. The main disadvantage for Rhino is he bring almost no damage bonus to the game play. You are 100% depended on the weapons, if you bring a wrong config into a mission, you may well just abort it.

For general solo play, I usually use rhino, eqx, nidus or nezha. For hard mission, ivar, reveant or valkyr because of their immutability to damage.

 

[sinnae]

I bring a tanky Nekros Prime almost everywhere if I'm doing solo stuff. Free loot, and 7 lil buddies I can summon to keep me company.

Edit: Ivara for open world activities.

Edited September 9, 2019 by sinnae

[JohnTheMango]

Rhino

[(XBOX)Obi Wan Dandobi]

+1 for octavia. For survival she's my lady. Invisibility for survival, damage buffs, she has it all. I run 2 builds, more range if play in a more open space and higher strength if camping. She's pretty flexible in how you build and one of the few frame exceptions where a balanced build will probably serve you best, just don't skimp on duration and efficiency. I also use Rolling Guard on her just to give me those precious few seconds if I need to trigger my invisibility again. Good luck with whatever you choose!

[vegetosayajin]

Octavia is the best frame in versatility, scaling and survavability all at once. She takes a bit of getting used to tho and managing her builds/skill timing. 
Wukong is better for building and has most of the things needed, great scaling etc.
Nova (my personal fav) is great at all the things but in the survavability department she wants some 4-5 forma build, a lot of movement, a couple of arcanes and it's still a 50/50 if you are one-shot sometimes.
Oberon is the logical choice tho, because he can do all of the above AND eidolons.

[Guest]

Nova is super versatile. Nuking, CC, open world mobility, speeding up defense/survival farming... With a right build, there's very few situations where she isn't a good choice.

[(PSN)Jacobivan]

On 2019-09-08 at 10:35 AM, NinjaZeku said:

Solo play? Limbo 😄

I'll also say Nova is a great choice, not least for stuff like solo Fractures (also Bounties) or Interception.

Oberon is a nicely versatile Frame, useful in pretty much any situation.

Khora is lotsa fun, woo high-Range builds, whip it, whip it good.

Gara is a decent defender and can get pretty stupid with a charged up Splinter Storm.

Ash / Loki / Wukong are nifty for missions where you just need to get to a target fast and then get out.

The damage + CC + debuffing (also woo Squad buffing via Augments) prowess of Frost is not to be underestimated.

Nekros Bonedaddy is great for Survival, but also in general just a tanky SOB with some "support fire" funzies, and who doesn't like more loot.

Mostly +1

But I'd like to add some of my insights. 

Limbo makes almost every content in game trivial, but requires different loadouts depending on mission type. My favourites are max duration min range for all kinds of defence, max range for corpus spy or emblem/cache hunt. Also, make sure to have Quick Thinking and (primed) Flow, his weaknes is getting shot when not in the rift.

Nova is awesome, very tanky, great cc with damage buff, huge radius and damage of Antimatter Drop- crits won't count for increasing damage, through. Also check Switchva build, great for making defence missions faster with added net of safety.

Oberon has awesome augments, extra life every couple minutes with one, huge rad damage buff with other (easily able to solo eidelons with damage augment and proper use of 2) . Great cc, infinitely scaling 1, really good sustain- also heals your pets and sentinels (and party members, their pets, defence operatives, defectors- everything that is allied and moves) He's probably the best frame to level kubrows, kavats and moas. Problem is, he needs Hunters Adrenaline, so needs to get hit. This can cause some problems above level 180 or so.

Khora- great dps, cc, venari attacks, shreds armor, permanently disarms enemies, heals everything including static defence targets and cryopods. Try whip build (good stat stick required) with Huras kubrow for really high levels. Lots of fun.

Gara- very tanky, extremally strong potential dps, reaching millions of damage to everything near you, but too much maintenance required for my taste. Also very good cc and invulnerability with high range wall. Great on paper, feels clunky and slow for me. 

Wukong is stupid strong solo, he can do everything except healing/protecting targets. Most of the time your clone will kill anything that could pose a threat, though (which might be annoying when you need that enemy to extend combo timer, or just want to slay in your own pace:-)) . Wukong has superb but tricky to use movement skill that also heals you (and clone), removes any status effect, opens enemies to finishers and make you invisible and undetectable by spy laser barriers. Also, op exalted weapon. Which clone gets too... Wukong might be the best jack of all trades in the game now, only falls off at above sortie levels. 

Loki... Paper thin, fast and invisible. Ok cc on 4 OR good duration of invisibility (which still triggers Spy Vault barriers) . Everything Loki does, other frame does better. 

Ash... I got Ash Prime from twitch drop, leveled him, got Ivara, haven't used him till couple weeks ago. Oh, what huge mistake it was. I tried duration + max efficency build with his 4 augment, and IT IS AWESOME:-) I can spam all abilities (without flow...), deal great damage that ignores armor, spam shurikens to kill flyiers and cameras through walls, teleport to priority targets, all while being invisible. Combo counter never decays, first time i saw x5 was with Ash. Full gladiator set Venka P, Condition Overload Reedemer P, any dagger with Covert Lethality- some weapons that enable him to easily kill everything well above sortie 3, in couple hours survival. 

Frost is ok, Snow globe can be recast inside, absorbing incoming damage and adding it to all provious globes health. Works like Iron Skin or Nezha's halo. 4 is spammable, easily clearing till level 35 or so. But... Frozen enemies are immune to status, and you can't shoot through the globe from outside (also blocks some other frames abilities), which limits your gameplay options. For me Frost is the King of sitting on his butt. Effective, but boring. 

Necros +1, nothing to add. 

Edited September 9, 2019 by (PS4)Jacobivan

[Graavarg]

On 2019-09-08 at 8:50 AM, x0nkers said:

But I’m sure there are other frames that are similar or better, for solo (eg solo fractures, or high level bosses).

If you are mostly playing solo, my suggestion would be to build your own "stable" of solo warframes (and builds). While there are warframes that can do any mission solo, the differences between warframes is significant, and selecting warframes, builds and weaponry for specific missions is part of the fun.

I use a lot of frames for solo play, depending on mission and mood: Ivara, Nova, Mag, Ember, Limbo, Inaros, Gara, Revenant, Wisp, Khora, Nekros, Wukong, Hildryn, Loki, Volt, Zephyr, just off the top of my head. The game is so varied that no warframe is best at everything. No warframe beats Ivara for high-level spy missions, some riven challenges or scan the heck out of everything. Khora can easily do high-level solo survivals for 60 minutes and more. Hildryn doesn't care about energy (or lack thereof), and actually doesn't care about anything else either with the right build. A World-on-fire Ember can toddle any solo extermination alone (as could Equinox). Wukong and his celestial twin can handle just about anything together, but you can add a kavat/kubrow and a specter for a "full team". Nova makes soloing Orb Vallis bounties easy, including getting the bonus every time. Zephyr can easily solo plains bounties, as Turbulence makes her immune to incoming fire and she is fast as heck without getting into archwing/k-drive (and so she excels at cetus wisp collecting). Revenant will totally wreck the enemy in most infested missions, as he is practically invincible, can't get swamped and can even get some helpers. Damage-wise Inaros can take anything, period. A power-Wisp can put down her stake and defend a spot as a true Cheyenne dog soldier, taking on all comers. Mag is glorious on mobile defense (and a lot of other missions as well), you can eat a pizza while soloing a high level mob def with Mag, she is so op. Gara can run solo excavation missions for many A-A-B-C-rounds (as can Limbo). And no frame is better than Limbo at finding syndicate medallions or hunting Simaris targets. Or doing solo vault-runs with four Dragon keys equipped. Volt empties smaller maps in no time when farming defense drops. And speaking of drops, Nekros rulez. And this list is just a subset of a subset of a "solo mission warframe list" 🙂.

Sure, you can do all this with just one frame. But that way you are missing out on a lot of fun. Really a lot.

Edited September 9, 2019 by Graavarg

[CatboyPrincess]

22 hours ago, Prime_Reckoner said:

All valid points, but Rhino still edges him slightly.

Rhino edging Nezha is my fetish

 

Inaros is the only other competition, but Nezha is still the best. who can resist this beautiful frame? wherefore would you want to switch? scowls for a scalawag -- how dare thee even suggest such heresy.

EXECUTIONERS

 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Gwyndolin-chan

[Hexsing]

So...

I like Nyx and Wisp.  Ok.  I also like Zephyr a lot.  

Each can have a tankiness to them. Heck.  Even Trinity is pretty tanky if done right.  

Personally I like to combine Nyx with the Sonicor, the Redeemer and I'll use the Soma.  You could use Dread or Pox as well.

I generally feel pretty unbeatable with Nyx.  She is now my go to gal for the most part.  I really like her kit.

Wisp I love because she can straight up do anything and her motes are super versatile.  Shock mote is great CC.  As is Breach.  

Those frames make happiest.

[AntonLebedev]

It depends on what you want. Actually, there are lots of Warframes for solo.
But I personally prefer to use Trinity and Ember Prime.

Trinity is a supporter, she can restore shield and health. Not really for solo, but you may find a way.
Ember is good for everything. Mostly for Exterminate and Defense mission types.

But honestly you should find your own Warframe that you're going to like. How I've written above, it depends on you and what you want to do. Each Warframe is about to be useful on certain missions.

Edited September 9, 2019 by SteKKoIsHere