Why no one is playing Harrow?

[-Vahagn-]

I find this very odd but I have not seen a Harrow player in a very long time. I almost feel like they vanished. I cannot recall the last missions where I saw a Harrow. Which I find alittle odd considering he is said to be an alright Warframe with a pretty cool theme.

 

Even for Warframes I feel are not very popular I see then once and awhile, yet not with Harrow. Why is that?

[Cicasajt]

harrow has a strict playstyle and in order to make it really work the harrow player has to kill the enemies. 

he is just a support frame with no damage abilities and he is very situational

[(PSN)max141064]

it may be because:

 

1- it's harder to get for new players

2- it's not a full fledge dps frame, and we all know how people LOVE to use only dps frames to feel powerful.

3- it wasn't a very popular frame to begin with

[Tuli_Donitsi]

I played him too much and had to take a break. 

8 minutes ago, Cicasajt said:

harrow has a strict playstyle and in order to make it really work the harrow player has to kill the enemies. 

he is just a support frame with no damage abilities and he is very situational

Killing is not an issue with right weapons. If I had to guess it's his animations. Every ability either stops all movement or won't allow other actions until channelling is stopped. Everybody wants insta cast warframes which makes me wonder why Natural Talent even exist.

 

Also farming.

[KnossosTNC]

Took him on Steel Path Adaro once. Died about 3-4 times. Problem was he takes a bit of time to bring out his best tools. Too much time for my liking, and I had better options for Steel Path farming, while those same tools are overkill for normal star chart.

So he's sitting there collecting digital dust at the moment.

[TastyTaro]

everybody waiting for Prime version?

[Marvelous_A]

The first reply covered everything. In short he doesn't fit in the META.

[0_The_F00l]

I speculate its for a couple of reasons:

1) He is a support that needs to perform the kills to support, so a bit of an oxymoron from a play style perspective.

2) Has sacrifices to make in order to be effective , and those sacrifices can be deadly if you get unlucky at times, the payoff can also be very situational.

3) Requires aiming, yeah this is probably what i am guessing keeps players away , he is only marginally effective if you dont aim , he needs actual skill to work well.

4) Other better alternatives exist that dont need as many conditions.

 

I personally like harrow, and when i do play i usually play solo , so that may be another reason.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

He's too advanced for inexperienced and casual players. 

[_R_o_g_u_e_]

55 minutes ago, WH1735S0W said:

I find this very odd but I have not seen a Harrow player in a very long time. I almost feel like they vanished. I cannot recall the last missions where I saw a Harrow. Which I find alittle odd considering he is said to be an alright Warframe with a pretty cool theme.

 

Even for Warframes I feel are not very popular I see then once and awhile, yet not with Harrow. Why is that?

In higher level content, his survivability is his problem. You either need to spam the 1, or rely on his ultimate. There are many frames with far more convenient ways to survive that don’t need the buffs Harrow provides.

In lower level content, the buffs that Harrow provides are meaningless and can’t be used to nuke rooms of weak enemies. Just overkill targets more. Which has no value.

In the end, we have a frame with a really cool design, that’s just too exacting and restrictive to see much use anywhere.

[DarkSkysz]

1 hour ago, 0_The_F00l said:

3) Requires aiming, yeah this is probably what i am guessing keeps players away , he is only marginally effective if you dont aim , he needs actual skill to work well.

 

That was my first guess too.

Why bother aiming for headshots when you can blow the entire room? :V

[Flannoit]

Wanna know why no one plays Harrow?

The buggiest mission in the entire game, coupled with one of the worst drop rates on earth. Rotation C is a lie because rot c is where it almost always bugs out and makes it so at least one of the rescue targets get stuck on the geometry, requiring Loki to be able to actually save that target or else they're doomed to die because they will never get unstuck otherwise.

The majority of the players who own Harrow bought him, one way or another. He's heavily gatekept by having the WORST mission type on earth mandatory for one of his parts.

Once Harrow Prime drops, you'll see a S#&$ ton more Harrows, maybe even more than you see Trinities or other support frames, since he has a semi-reliable invincibility on top of a hard-CC and the ability to give everyone infinite energy including himself. 

(If I wrote Nidus here even once, ignore that. I don't know why I keep writing Nidus instead of Harrow. Nidus Prime hype on the brain maybe)

EDIT: @ above RE:aiming

You actually don't need to have aim. Many melee weapon stances will naturally have you come in contact with the enemy's head a lot. (Most notorious is Shimmering Blight) You can also use AoE guns to more easily proc headshots (like Epitaph, Ignis, Amprex, etc.) since they have a higher chance of just getting a headshot for no reason.

Slap the Thaumaturge augment on him, activate it, then spin in a circle in front of a bunch of enemies and watch your energy counter hit 100+, roll away with Rolling Guard, then smack something in the face til it dies and boom, 3-400 energy back right there.

[TeaHands]

I subsumed him so I could go all Scorpion on Acolytes with Ash and I do NOT want to farm him again. I'm better off just waiting for his prime at this point.

[V2lkyr]

Because my mental health is more important than that stupid defection mission

[EdinaMonsoon]

waiting for his Prime tbh, he's one of my favourites but if his prime is around the corner then i don't wanna pour forma into him

[(PSN)deathwolfclaw666]

I ran into one yesterday who didn't do much.

The issue I have is that I try to complete missions as efficiently as possible so I tend to use DPS/Nuke frames, so a Harrow that focuses on his 3rd would be perfect. Unfortunately most of the time I've used Harrow there hasn't been a DPS/Nuke frame making me using his 3 a bit pointless. 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

as others have said, the fact he is behind one of the least enjoyable modes is a huge factor as to why not everyone has him. kit-wise I think he's OK, but he's more of a Solo frame as the only real benefits he gives the team are Condemn's CC (but the shield boost is only given to Harrow, hence why people tend to subsume him and use the ability on other frames), and the invul phase on his ult (which is used to counter Eidolon's Magnetic AoE between phases).

I still enjoy him though, for the ability to make any weapon a crit monster, and for his fashion. I look forward to his prime!

edit: I forgot Thurible! but it requires Harrow to get the kills, maybe if it was made so that anyone within Harrow's Power range can get the kill it would be much more useful in teams.

[Quimoth]

Harrow in general just doesn't fit the meta at all. He sacrifices his own shields to heal himself... well gg because we can heal ourselves without that by installing lifestrike. He is a gun focussed support frame... guns are still a joke compared to melee. He is crit and headshot focussed, the former is just plain worse than status chance once you get to higher level enemies. The latter is annoying because some guns lend themselves poorly for headshots and nullifier/arctic eximus bubbles exist which hinder his signature knell pistol (which is literally VERY good if you can land the headshots). Oh and have you ever try doing headshots on ospreys, moa's and chargers? Their heads are minuscule and not always where you expect them to be.

[AzureScion]

I'd play him if I had him. The damn Harrow System still eludes me to this very day!

That being said though, I do see him a quite a few times. The one frame that people don't seem to play at all is Oberon imo.

[kyori]

I think in eidolon game mode you will see more harrow, just like in fissure you will mostly see gauss. lol

[Godmode_Ash]

Same reason why you don't see that many Trinity outside of Tridolon, they are full pledge support frames.

For Wisp/Protea, after you drop your stuff you could run around and do whatever. But for Harrow/Trinity, their support skills are range based and noone likes to chasse after teammates to buff them. Unless the contents really require a support like Tridolon, noone is going to care if a group has Harrow/Trinity buff or not.

Also 99% of contents you could just bring a dps and melt everything. WF has became too powerful.

[ShogunGunshow]

Harrow does a lot of amazing things.

Things that are not particularly in demand right now. 

[(PSN)thowed]

Because the other 3 Wukongs with Bramma, Acceltra and Envoy kill everything before you can get decent buffs AND Wukongs don't need any buffs to be annoying lol.  This is the only correct answer.

[Rasputin]

harrow is resident tree wrangler. His kit is really well made to the point it feels its abit too well made. People play other frames which clicking 1 button does the entire thing. Harrow is a micro-manage frame which is why I assume hes not used much

[sunderthefirmament]

1. He's pretty difficult to obtain (though his Prime should remedy that soon enough).
2. He needs to get kills for his abilities to function, which makes playing with a Mesa, Saryn, or other room-clearer kind of awful.
3. His playstyle involves too much plate-spinning.  Not as much as maxing out Gara's 2, but it's still kind of obnoxious.  His 2 and 3 should have their durations extended by a few seconds every time he gets a headshot.
4. Although aggressive, he's still a support, and supports aren't very popular in almost any online game.
5. His 4 requires the team to take damage, and is hard to time with a team that might suddenly clear a room or lock an area down with CC.
6. He specializes in headshots.  I can kill enemies by aiming with the minimap if I choose the right weapon, so headshots don't have a ton of appeal when I'm trying to be efficient.
7. His interactions with the alt-fire of the Scourge would be cool, but spearguns glitch out a lot when thrown.  So it's just unreliable.
8. If you want to be a speedy weapons expert, Volt or Gauss are easier to acquire and easier to use for similar results.  Wisp counts too.
9. He's hard as hell to mod.  He needs everything, even cast speed.