What are the best caster frames?

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

I'm just a little bored so I just wondered what frames that are mostly ability focused for damage are out there? (Essentially frames who use abilities as opposed to weapons) 

Rn the only caster frame I really use is Wisp, and even then she still is weapon-based.

(Also I'm fine with exalted weapon using frames as well since those are abilities.)

[Loza03]

Warframe's mod system means that power strength is rarely more than 200% if you're focusing on it, and as such very few - usually very new - frames have the base damage for casting-focused gameplay to work. Even then, compared to weapons which can have similar base stats but increase by substantially more.

If you're looking for an ability-focused damage frame, Protea, Lavos or Xaku are good bets. If we count exalteds, Mesa, Excalibur and Baruuk are good.

[Leqesai]

The best caster frame is ember imo. Easy armor strip, self sustaining energy, big flashy damage effects, tanky.

[Tyreaus]

While I don't use him much, I've heard Nidus is pretty solid for an ability focus. Not really "magical" with it, though.

[ant99999]

I'd say Trinity, although she's finicky to use sometimes. Her pure damage build is basically the polar opposite of her tank build, and everything inbetween is really inconvenient to use.

But oh boy, does she deal damage! The damage dealing ability is Energy Vampire of course, which does percentage danage, so the bigger the enemy the more damage it deals. It can be enhanced with Marked for Death for deleting groups. And it continuously replenishes your energy and overshields.

The catch is - it has to be primed with Viral, so technically Trinity isn't a true caster. Still fun to use. Tge weapons I use for priming are Ignis or Kuva Nukor.

Your survivability when using a damage build is poor. You have to abuse shield gate, and maybe use Vazarin shields. But Trinity is really good at abusing shield gate, so it is alright.

[cute_moth.npc]

I like Protea, she has a bit of everything and the passive is fun. A lot of spammy and active gameplay!

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

Based off your definition, or at least my interpretation of it... I really like Garuda, Xaku, Lavos, Nidus, Equinox, Protea, Mesa, Atlas. I can play large stretches just using their powers exclusively. 

Warframes, whose powers I spam a lot, like Mag, Saryn, but I usually use in heavy combination with a weapon. Like for Saryn, a good melee for spreading spores, and for Mag, a good projectile weapon with punch through for Magnetise. So I cast a lot, but need more than just powers. 

Frost and Ember I like, especially on lower levels. I know they can work on harder missions too, but they have diminishing returns for me, personally, enjoyment wise, up to a point. 

 

[trst]

Baruuk, Ember, Khora, Lavos, Mesa, Octavia, Protea, Saryn, Volt, Xako, and Yareli.

They all have abilities you can rely on for pretty much all your killing needs. Some fall off sooner than others but slapping on some armor stripping with their own augments if they have them or via Helminth should have you set for clearing SP with them.

 

As for which is the "best" it depends on what exactly you're looking for. Like Lavos offers a lot but is very high engagement while Octavia has good scaling and takes zero effort to play. Baruuk, Khora, and Mesa are all pretty one-dimensional but are very easy to play. Baruuk and Khora are better with dedicates stat stick melees. Etc.

Personally I'd recommend Ember. Not the strongest with abilities alone but offers a lot for direct damage, survivability, weapon buffing, and an engaging kit. Plus has innate full armor stripping, a healing augment, and an energy generation augment.

[PhiZero]

Off the top of my head with that criteria, direct damage casters we can consider Lavos and Hyldrin fit the bill, maybe even Nidus.

Lavos has condition overload built into his 4, Hyldrin has shield strip and AoE, and Nidus gets scaling damage on his 1 based off his stacks encouraging spamming.

 

Setup casters, we have Ember, Xaku, Protea, and Saryn. All of which have synergies between their abilities and requires some setup. If we include augments, Rhino and Nezha can be interesting picks with Ironclad Charge and Reaping Chakarm.

 

Indirect damage casters you've got Wisp like you've said, but there's also Volt, Frost, and my personal favorite Mag, all of which do next to nothing with a bad weapon loadout due to lack of ability damage, but pull to the front of the pack with synergistic weapons thanks to their ability utility.

[TheSixOfDiamonds]

Just because he doesn't get mentioned much, I'm gonna toss Ash in there. I"m working on an Umbral build that the goal is to use all his abilities, and it's incredibly satisfying, I just don't think it'll be cut out for SP.

All the others I can think of have either been mentioned, or require Helminth stuff to replace a bunk ability.

[AntifreezeUnder0]

Grendel. 

[PhiZero]

1 minute ago, TheSixOfDiamonds said:

Just because he doesn't get mentioned much, I'm gonna toss Ash in there. I"m working on an Umbral build that the goal is to use all his abilities, and it's incredibly satisfying, I just don't think it'll be cut out for SP.

All the others I can think of have either been mentioned, or require Helminth stuff to replace a bunk ability.

Actually, Ash is a pretty solid off-meta caster.

I've seen some put in work with Fatal Teleport and Marked for Death on SP, and could be a fairly good Slash Proc machine with the mecha mod set to spread AoE slash. Maybe even combine the two, the Mecha set spreading slash every 15 seconds, and Fatal Teleport + MfD when it's on cooldown.

[CosoMalvadoNG]

You mean glass cannon wizards? well these are not but I think they have the most dps out there.
Saryn, Ember, Octavia, Mag(This one is not for everyone as it has mechanics that new people don't like).

[Surbusken]

Getting ready for the AOE nerf, eh? lol

Just hit up youtube immediately after the update, to see what people will be switching to, but you are probably right, caster spam does sound likely.

[Numerounius]

Thermal Sunder Trinity 

Works a lot better than you'd expect and you can easily use all aspects of her kit. Harrow is the big user of thermal sunder but I prefer the trinity playstyle more.

 

Titania, dex pixia combined with razoring blitz since it boost the fire rate of the pixia and you just zoom around

Vauban, you can do entire missions without abilities if you are using Vauban Vortex and Photon Strike 

 

Those are the ones that I use the most at the moment that are more than just press an ability every now and then like an QOL skill like armor strip or speed

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

8 hours ago, Surbusken said:

Getting ready for the AOE nerf, eh? lol

Just hit up youtube immediately after the update, to see what people will be switching to, but you are probably right, caster spam does sound likely.

Nah I just want to be an energy mage, but yeah probably what others will be trying too.

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

9 hours ago, (PSN)slightconfuzzled said:

Based off your definition, or at least my interpretation of it... I really like Garuda, Xaku, Lavos, Nidus, Equinox, Protea, Mesa, Atlas. I can play large stretches just using their powers exclusively. 

Warframes, whose powers I spam a lot, like Mag, Saryn, but I usually use in heavy combination with a weapon. Like for Saryn, a good melee for spreading spores, and for Mag, a good projectile weapon with punch through for Magnetise. So I cast a lot, but need more than just powers. 

Frost and Ember I like, especially on lower levels. I know they can work on harder missions too, but they have diminishing returns for me, personally, enjoyment wise, up to a point. 

 

That reminds me, I have everything except Garuda prime systems.

[(XBOX)Lord ChibiVR]

9 hours ago, Loza03 said:

Warframe's mod system means that power strength is rarely more than 200% if you're focusing on it, and as such very few - usually very new - frames have the base damage for casting-focused gameplay to work. Even then, compared to weapons which can have similar base stats but increase by substantially more.

If you're looking for an ability-focused damage frame, Protea, Lavos or Xaku are good bets. If we count exalteds, Mesa, Excalibur and Baruuk are good.

Baruuk seems fun. As I said, I'm fine with exalted weapons as long as I'm using other abilities as well. I think I'll wait for Baruuk prime tho.

[PollexMessier]

Haven't seen anyone say Gara yet. She can aoe nuke star chart enemies pretty hard by shattering her vitrify wall with her 1 if she has a lot of range and strength, and can get some absolutely insane damage up close with splinter storm with a decent stat stick mele if you can keep it rolling. I don't understand why splinter storm scales off having a stat stick. I think it buffs her 1 which buffs the explosion damage of shattering her 4 which stacks damage onto her 2. so it probably also affects her nuke damage.

If you don't know how it works, you can stack damage up on it pretty much as high as you want by standing outside of her vitrify wall and shattering it while splinterstorm is active over and over again, and casting vitrify resets splinterstorm's duration.

Spectrorage is her weakest ability but I see people using it from time to time so it's probably good for something I don't know about but it's a solid contender to swap out for any of the great subsumable abilities. Especially since it's the only one of her abilities that has no synergy with the rest of her kit (and subsuming anything else out pretty much ruins her). I just have roar on her. Shield pillage is probably also a good pick for armor strip and some extra survivability.

[FishMcCool]

35 minutes ago, PollexMessier said:

Spectrorage is her weakest ability but I see people using it from time to time so it's probably good for something

Well, it's some cc in itself, but the main thing is the Spectrosiphon augment which makes Spectrorage a pretty insane energy generator. It works great helminthed on static defense frames such as Vauban for example, since the Vortex will pull everything within the energy-generating siphon, ensuring the casting of more Vortex.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

1 hour ago, (XBOX)Upl0rdYT said:

That reminds me, I have everything except Garuda prime systems.

 

If you don't have her by the time cross play hits, I have a spare for you! 

She's in a really strong spot right now, with some of the new Arcanes, some of the QOL changes, Gloom etc

I do sort of miss her old passive though. 

 

57 minutes ago, PollexMessier said:

I don't understand why splinter storm scales off having a stat stick. I think it buffs her 1 which buffs the explosion damage of shattering her 4 which stacks damage onto her 2. so it probably also affects her nuke damage.

 

Great call on Gara, she is so fun and I am 90 percent sure that you explained exactly how it works too! 

Now that there is a new Arcane that can increase Duration time and Strength might be fun to do a refresh build for her! Miss running around trying to get the highest Splinter Storm number. 

[PhiZero]

Correct, and Spectrosiphon is a 3-mod setup which is kind of harsh investment wise, as you need the Augment + Primed Flow + Equilibrium to sustain it.

With some of the Zariman Arcanes, it can be a pretty ridiculous support tool to generate energy for the whole team in addition to drawing aggro. It's a Helminth ability as well, and works pretty damn well on Mag too.

[(PSN)Cargan2016]

Saryn, Protea , Ember in that order for the top 3.  I personally have more fun with Protea

[SneakyErvin]

If you look for a caster like casters in other games I'd say Protea and Vauban are strong contenders (if not the strongest) for that type of playstyle. Both can do very well without really using their weapons far up in the levels. Saryn is a good choice too but needs a weapon to get things spreading and the damage to ramp up. If you dont mind something in between, then Garuda is also a strong contender that can clear trash decently with her #4, which also scales well with her weapons due to inflicting guaranteed slash procs. Daynox is decent too, but relies on killing with weapons to then discharge a massive AoE when needed.

 

[(PSN)Cargan2016]

1 hour ago, SneakyErvin said:

 Saryn is a good choice too but needs a weapon to get things spreading and the damage to ramp up.

 

Not really thats only for her number 1 her 4th ability melts about everything right out of door