What gear do you like even though it's not meta?

[UnstarPrime]

When we're looking to be as effective as possible, we often turn to the meta, and it's no secret why: there's a joy to be found in being effective, in being optimal.

But that's not the only thing that can bring us joy.  I know that many of us have weapons and Warframes that we love despite them not being optimal.  Where it's the aesthetic or the game feel or something else entirely, something about them brings us joy that overshadows any disparity in efficacy that they may have.  And because of that, we're willing to settle for "good enough", or maybe we even bend over backwards to make these sub-par favorites shine.

I want to hear about the Warframes, Weapons, Pets, and even the Mods that you love to use even though the overall player base isn't in to them.  Let's use this thread to celebrate everyone's distinct tastes and hear about perspectives that we might otherwise never have considered!

I'll try to kick things off with my favorite weapon: the Bo.  It can't slash and it has terrible follow-through; it even gives Lifted status to enemies and causes them to float away before I kill them sometimes!  But none of the downsides have come close to conquering the joy I get from smacking robots with it; I simply love the flowing animations and the wooden *clunk* of the sound effects it makes.  It was my first melee weapon in Warframe, and there might even be some nostalgia due to the fact that Donatello was my favorite Ninja Turtle as a kid.  The recent Incarnon boosts and even more recent addition of Melee Influence feel like they've given the Bo a second chance at life, which has been very fun to experience.  I don't expect to see it on any top 10 lists, but the Bo is a weapon I just can't quit.

What about you, Tenno?

[Merkranire]

Everything

edit: Wait, there’s some mods like Warm Coat that I can’t bring myself to find out how to enjoy. Peculiars are of higher value, and they don’t even change any stats

Edited March 1 by Merkranire

[Xzorn]

I have a lot but I'm not sure they all count because what was "meta" for the community was not meta for endurance runs.

Torrid, Pox, Mutalist Cernos, normal Zarr for instance were prized for their scaling potential. Lots of guns worked with the right combinations also.

I do have some classics I've always liked though and some that were good but fell just a little short.

• Marelok
• Prisma Grakata
• Supra
• Synapse
• Aprex
• Corinth
• Sobek
• Penta
• Dread
• Daikyu
• Grinlok
• Latron
• Aksomati
• Akjagara
• Detron

Melee was more about the stances. Old Swirling Tiger, Old Crushing Ruin, Old Kraken. Now it's more like finding which ones sucks the least.

[TARINunit9]

The Sybaris family. I know burst fire weapons suck but I still love the sleek yet satisfying click-click-boom-boom of a good Sybaris shot

And also pretty much all of the non-explosive bows (except Daikyu. The only good thing I can say about the Daikyu is "it's not the Muralist Cernos")

 

[Joezone619]

The Attica. It has no varients at all, please DE give this thing a prime, give this thing a prisma, give it something cuz all it has going atm is 5 dispo.

[Marvelous_A]

Braton Prime, Burston Prime, Boar Prime, until they got the Incarnon that is, now I use them even harder

Edited March 1 by Marvelous_A

[Tiltskillet]

Way too many things.  My mind boggles at listing even 10% of them.

I'll just go for the two most recent additions to my favorites

Incarnon Bronco Prime.  Total PITA to charge up, not really that impressive once it is, and unfortunately the charges last about 10 seconds.  Needs a lot of special modding and babying to be remotely worthwhile, especially compared to the decent Incarnon weapons.  (Let alone the really good ones.)  But damn, I find this thing satisfying.

Qorvex.  Not a great Warframe.  All four of his abilities have serious flaws, and it depresses me he got minimal iteration after release.  But I love the visual and sound design so much, and the chonky health and armor, and I've always got a kick out of rad status...I just find myself playing him a lot, and having a great time doing so.

[AntifreezeUnder0]

My primaries mostly rotate between- kuva quartakk(sounds great), recently convertrix, vermsplicer(but its op), have used grinloks and soma, rest mostly just for lvling up and then leaving them be.

Secondaries, kohmak is fun, then gaze the op, but most favourite and used - Stug , picked not because of the op dmg, but utility and occasional corpse launches,but its doing ok in sp too, enemies die by stugs dmg or laughing at stugs dmg.

Melee- Hirudo is top pick, because of healing on hit, and fun breakdancing throught star chart while enemies cease to exist. Used to use dual clevers and dragon nikana, but hiudo just suits and feels best to use.

 And with recent melee influence introduction for fun made 7.56 range pathocysts elec gas build for actual melee combat, not throwing exploding ... and since how busted melee influence is it works too. Also ninkondi prime is great in that regard, but sad fact its ok that good because of suspisiosly larger dmg output from melee influence rather than when weapon hits enemies w/o its proc...

Pet- Vizier predasite with volatile parasite, distracts enemies. With mecha mods and primary weapon stat stick can achieve 100+% status and cc helping alot, but recent pet/companion changes hit hard on survivability dying twice as much than before.

Frame- Grendel, just best pick on my lazy style and casual play. Rolling through maps and trying to race with gauss,volt, titania wukong, or parkour velocity people.

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

Snipers are always fun, but I used to play FPS competitively. 

[Numerounius]

Looking at my loadouts and usage stats. Some of these may actually be meta since I don't know the community usage stats off the top of my head.

Telos Boltace, king of parkour for the longest time with a great active ability to boot and I still use it since I already have so much invested into the parkour stat that trying to min-max it with a Praedos/Innodem isn't going to be show-stopping and might actually be too fast in some scenarios.

Akarius, great secondary option before I discovered sporelacer secondary. Had some problems but was at least something different but not too dissimilar to the kuva bramma / other radial spamming on my primary.

More recently Catabolyst with the ability to proc both corrosive and viral in the secondary slot. Great primer with providing the right statuses that you need. Sure the Cedo and Epitaph puts more statuses on them but it doesn't put the two top statuses on that you want on a demolyst.

Still looking at other options for that specific status priming category combination right now like the Akbronco prime and its augment or Kompressa that I still have to look at.

Primary, I'm just used to the common stuff. Nothing too out of the ordinary for me. But I do use both the Kuva Grattler and Kuva Ayanga in the archgun deployer slot. Grattler for content more focused on the run and boom whereas the Ayanga can pull its weight in higher-level content with a little bit more ommpth on the damage at the cost of less range for its radial attack.

 

Helminth abilities:

Warcry w/ eternal war. A great ability that is on the set it and forget it side of things. Able to get up to 3 abilities that you never have to recast if you use this. That's about it for subsume abilities, the others are pretty meta like dispensary.

Companions/Amps/Archwing/K-drive, standard stuff. Warframe likeness is subjective there.

[(PSN)AbBaNdOn_]

Tiberon and Tenora are freaking Beautiful pieces of art.   Probiscus Cernos is super fun to use on ivara.  I love the sfx of the quartakk when shooting from the hip(Not aimed).  In general I just really love full auto rifles/pistols.   I like the tenet Cycron and Vermsplicer as beam secondaries cuz they Regen ammo which is great for melee.   I like the Tenet ferox (I wish you could mod its pull range lol).  I like the Kuva Kraken,  I wish it spit out 5 rounds at a time but whatever.   Its a Robocop gun and its sweet lol.  (I love Dahl pistols in borderlands for same reason lol)

There's 50+ warframes and I love most of them..  I wish they would STOP making new ones.  I try to manipulate my Usage Boards and so I spend months/years on frames I maybe don't really wanna be using just because I want to see them up at the top of my list because I do like them lol.... 

Nekros started as a necessity, I was a solo clan and I wanted resources,  never had boosters.  But I just freaking enjoy making extra loot pop up.   His load out is very tricky and he always had several ways to build so he was always fun to try and make better you know?   My current build I am super happy with...  armor shards + Arcane Bless+Reaper  = super strong.  I don't think I have even been on him since most recent shield revamp...  He is my #1 most used frame and I hardly use him now.   I managed to drop him to #2 with Ember but I just couldnt stay away and he got back to #1 LMAO. 

I also just really love Nyx.  Her grax skin is soooo sexy.  She is the ultimate ninja.  She drops into a horde of enemies and makes them turn on each other and then moves around the battlefield killing everything.  I wanted to turn her into a cool bomb with Absorb+singularity but... its to slow and nobody knows that your suppose to shoot Nyx's bubble.    I tried to Make Chaos+Breach build lol.   Make enemies turn on each other and when they deal damage or kill one another it creates extra damage but that did not pan out lol.    SHield build w/ harrow's condemn was a fav build for awhile.   I don't think I have touched her since shards dropped....(maybe shield shared?).  I think I want to just get back to a focus on Chaos,  shields?, melee...I love my Arcane Bless+Reaper combo and it might go well with her.  I think a Manifold pet would go great on her to spread status..

------

Most neglected frames are Zephyr, trinity, mesa, equinox, Mirage...  I wanna be working on them but they always get bumped. 

--------

Oh You know what..  I've been trying to master everything to push for L4 and only JUST RECENTLY used the Embolyst pistol from Dojo (after 10 years lol).  That thing was cool as hell and I never heard any chatter about it.    Its like a Ignis wraith secondary or a Lega Prism amp!!!!  And its so tiny.  Such a cool gun.   I slapped ruinous extension on it and gave it that arcane that add flat damage based on the status ailments the gun inflicts.   It could melt stuff pretty damn good but prob not for SP lol.   Would be cool to see some YouTube compare the performance between Ignis and Embo. 

Edited March 1 by (PSN)AbBaNdOn_

[Aldain]

I fell in love with the Quellor again thanks to a mediocre Riven (it could be replaced by Hammer Shot for minimal power loss) and getting Galvanized mods for it.

Turns out being able to self-prime and the Radiated Reload mod make for a surprisingly fun setup.

[Voltage]

For Warframes, I have always been a Nova enjoyer, especially the chained satisfaction of properly placed Wormholes.

For weapons, I used to dabble with more single target choices back in the day, but since Warframe Revised dropped in 2020, you're just shooting yourself in the foot in the way most new content is designed. 

My favorites a long time ago:

• Vaykor Hek
• Vectis Prime
• Snipetron Vandal
• Vulkar Wraith
• Daikyu
• Corinth Prime
• Dex Sybaris
• Sybaris Prime
• Tiberon Prime
• Prisma Grinlok
• Euphona Prime
• Aksomati Prime
• Akjagara Prime
• Akbolto Prime
• Akvasto Prime
• Aklex Prime
• Ohma
• Tipedo Prime
• Machete Wraith
• Telos Boltace
• Ninkondi Prime

My favorites lately to be honest:

• Kuva Tonkor
• Torid
• Tombfinger (Primary)
• Sporelacer (Secondary)
• Synapse
• Mutalist Cernos
• Tenet Cycron
• Ocucor
• Praedos

I only really use a weapon if I have a Riven Mod for it, and while I still own Riven Mods for most of my old favorites, they just can't keep up and aren't exactly rewarding to use with how the game plays (atleast for me) with farms lately. Maybe it's because there are so many weeklies, or maybe I've just evolved with how I look at my mission efficiency. I've always loved my AoE in Warframe, whether it was Atterax, Telos Boltace, Castanas Trinity, Synoid Simulor Mirage, or Zenistar. However, I didn't feel like I had to use that stuff every mission. Those were widespread nukes, but I was only using them in more designated missions (aside from Maiming Strike melee, those were usable everywhere). In today's game, with how much CC has been nerfed, additions like new Eximus and Overguard, and the general direction of objectives (Mirror Defense being a speed-nuke game on a timer instead of properly defending a pod for example) leans into "AoE or you're spending a considerable amount of extra time".

There was this community sentiment for a long time that things were just rebranded Mobile Defense, but I feel like we lately see more rebranded Exterminate instead (looking at Netracells, Conjuction Survival, and Mirror Defense as the most recent examples). 

With that said though, I still use older single target guns from time to time, and there is content that is starting to emerge to make benefit of my polished items. This feels most rewarded in places like Duviri and soon Deep Archimedea. 

Maybe I am just waffling, but everything definitely feels like it over-rewards "zoom and boom" instead of that feeling like an optional choice for exceptional efficiency in certain missions (like Void Fissures).

Edited March 1 by Voltage

[Pakaku]

Not even sure if these are unpopular...

• Zephyr, Harrow, sniper-shotgun Voruna, Oberon of course
• My MOA; I see a lot of Hildryns and mainly use her myself, but I wonder how many use MOAs as really strong shield supports
• funny Warframe builds; I leveled up my Wisp Prime with an anti-gravity build, and it was shockingly effective at survival
• Prisma Grinlok, Buzlok, Harpak, Alternox, Quanta Vandal, Zhuge Prime, Perigale, Sporothrix
• very big fan of the Knell and Sonicor
• Akjagara, Ballistica Prime, Bolto, Hystrix, Zymos
• unironically like the Stug with how I've built it
• Nightwave added some good augments, so I've become a fan of the Prisma Gorgon and Bronco
• Edun is really fun to snipe with after learning its throwing arc, and the fact that it's janky made learning it feel more satisfying

Edited March 1 by Pakaku

[Mazifet]

All of my favorite Warframes aren't Meta, being Equinox, Zephyr, Lavos, Limbo, and Garuda. I do use other Warframes but these 5 are my current favorites, and I pretty much run all my missions with them.

For primaries, Supra Vandal is a hidden gem. It's a very strong weapon with a massive magazine, allowing for very good sustained DPS. Nagantaka Prime is also great. Forced impact means you can use Internal Bleeding, though it isn't even necessary due to the high base slash weighting. Solid crit chance and a mag dumping alt fire for heavy units allow this weapon to be very effective. Finally, I need to mention Amprex. It is an absolute monster of a weapon that has flown under the radar for a while recently. I would argue it's the best non incarnon beam primary, capable killing hoards of enemies within a few seconds.

I personally don't really use secondaries as my main weapon, mostly just Epitaph for priming. The Epitaph is actually a really good single target weapon though, due to the extremely high crit change, guaranteed impact, and multiplicitive gunco. Quite the versatile weapon.

Tipedo Prime is and always will be my favorite melee. Clashing forest is an amazing stance, and it just generally does great damage.

[Berzerkules]

Kuva kohm was one of the first weapons I went all in on. I freaking love that thing even though I almost never use it any more. Everyone over there in that general direction is getting some.

It took what felt like forever to find a high enough roll sc/ms/- riven to reach 100% sc back when that was a thing. SC roll is 1% from perfect and MS is <2% from perfect roll. Even though that riven isn't what it used to be it's still probably my most prized possession in the game. Kohm was one of the things that sent me down the path of high status utility primers. I still search for those sc/ms/xx/- rivens to compliment my melee.

I also like balanced Wisp builds w/o stupid high strength. Wisp isn't a support frame, I'll die on this hill.

 

Also Keratinos(possibly the first "incarnon") is also a super fun melee with it's unique heavy attack gimmick. I've been running combo/heavy build on that thing forever. With Tennokai it's even better.

Edited March 1 by Berzerkules

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

Every frame and weapon has a meta strategy that's used. Even if it's a 1 trick pony it's usually a strong pony. 

The post above mine said that zephyr and equinox weren't meta...lol.

[Xzorn]

1 hour ago, Tiltskillet said:

Incarnon Bronco Prime.  Total PITA to charge up, not really that impressive once it is, and unfortunately the charges last about 10 seconds.  Needs a lot of special modding and babying to be remotely worthwhile, especially compared to the decent Incarnon weapons.  (Let alone the really good ones.)  But damn, I find this thing satisfying.

 

Probably THE most disappointing Incarnon. Base version is still very clunky. At least some are just solid without using Incarnon form.

1 hour ago, (PSN)Madurai-Prime said:

Snipers are always fun, but I used to play FPS competitively. 

 

I'm a hip shot guy myself from the old days of arena shooters. Hanzo triple head-shot kills. Widow, can't hit center mass. =D

[Skoomaseller]

- yareli, obviously

- kullervo with a vulkar wraith + target acquired + new loka augment + deadhead for collective curse shenanigans

- gas electric Sporothrix with Volatile Variant

- bladestorm ash, if I'm not using yareli I'm using him

- prisma gorgon + grendel because LMGs are based

- Z E P H Y R how she isn't meta yet is mind-boggling because of how easily she can trivialize missions

- DPS Citrine with roar infused over crystalize. roar + archon Vitality and you get to play like TF2's Engineer using the Wrangler, so it's not set-and-forget/full automation, you have to direct your crystal (the gem "turret") using your 1. So fun

[Prof-Dante]

For Non meta Warframes, Zephyr, she's extremely strong, fast and defensive, yet nobody plays her, Madurai Prime is loling at people saying she isn't, but your meta doesn't always align with what people actually use.

she can bypass most damage attenuation mechanics in the game with her fourth ability.

I believe Yareli as well isn't considered one, especially a K-driving yareli, she's just too fun right now.

 

for weapons, Sybaris Prime, Prisma Grinlok, Spirex, Azothane

[CrownOfShadows]

My answer would probably be the Tenet Tetra. Never see other people using it but I find it to be a really solid gun (with a riven). Also the Gunsen Prime, I love the sound and performance and stance of these. Oh also the Keratinos - been using those a lot with Tennokai because I have a unicorn build on them.

And this might be a little off-topic because this isn't stuff I like to use, but it's stuff I like and wish so much that I could use:

• Dera Vandal. I love the sound of this weapon so much. Hope it gets incarnon'd
• Alternox. What an awesome looking gun that does nothing
• Steflos. Another awesome looking gun that does nothing
• Buzlok. I love it, used it for a long time, but it just can't do SP well so I hardly ever pick it up anymore.
• Glaxion Vandal. Just can't quite deliver but idk I love it
• Battacor. I also love the look & concept of this gun. I've tried to make it sing. Hope it gets incarnon'd or buffed.
• Paracyst. Another awesome looking weapon that just can't compete anymore. Incarnon plz.
• Mutalist Quanta. Man I love having this thing rotating around.
• Dual Cestra. I've tried SO hard to get these things to perform and they just cannot, but I love them
• Ballistica Prime. What a freakin cool looking weapon. Hope it gets incarnon'd
• Ghoulsaw. I feel a little silly for investing so hard in this. But it's awesome and unique

Edited March 1 by CrownOfShadows

[(PSN)robotwars7]

primaries: Tigris Prime, Sybaris Prime, Dex Sybaris, Prisma Grinlok, and all the true LMGs (Soma Prime, Quellor, Supra Vandal and Trumna). I like my overwhelming firepower but Tigris and lever-action rifles tickle my pickle in the best way.

secondaries: Magnus Prime, AkLex Prime, AkVasto prime, , but also a few auto pistols like Kuva Twin Stubbas, Aksomati Prime and Quatz.

melees: I'll run anything tbh, but heavy blades, nikanas, TH Nikanas and polearms are probably my favourites. 

[0_The_F00l]

Oh there are many of these things , I have complete loadouts just for the thematic suitability of weapons , some are meta and some are not meta I will list off a few,

Frost , sibear , prisma lenz , epitaph , sunika kubrow with the new frost Armor, it's cool.

Gyre , arca titron , quatz , stahlta (lightning gun skin) it's shocking.

Nidus , synapse , dual toxocyst , patjocyst , helminth charger, i think it's sick.

Excalibur Umbra (proto skin) , braton p , p lato, skana , Helios p ,  classic.

Ash p , dread , despair , hate and shade prime, it's psychotic.

Atlas p, p Gorgon , staticor , Furax wraith , kicking moa, it packs a punch.

Oberon p  (feyarch skin) , Proboscis cernos , vermisplicer secondary , sancti magistar and (big) medjay predasite naturally.

Outside of loadouts , there are specific weapons /frames I haven't gotten a full setup on yet 

Hema , prisma grinlok , akjagara (both prime and non prime) , cyath machete zaw,  to name a few but that's just the tip of the iceberg 

[TeaHands]

Warframe: Chroma, he's my lil Helminth Chameleon Boi and I have so many builds for him. To the point that I need to make yet another and fully Shard him out too. I personally like that his 1 and 4 aren't very good, it let's me try out other builds to get him up to snuff in just about every mode. And the FASHION, he's just so drippy. After 1000 hours he's been used for a third of that time.

Lavos,  he only has 1 good skin but it looks so damn good. I hope he gets a Deluxe soon, also very excited for his upcoming Augment. Love me some tanky casters and this guy is a Beefy Casting Machine and the Green Shards brought him to another level.

Voruna(?) I don't think she's meta? But shes a dedicated mother of 4 and can absolutely rock the house. I love jumping between her different passives even if DE nerfed the rate you can switch them. Though I am a lil miffed that Tennokai kinda made her melee passive kinda irrelevant. But I still love my wolf queen, high range makes her just a menace. You spread that rabies, queen!

Primary: Kuva Karak, looks pretty rad and is just a lil headshot machine. So satisfying. 

Weirdly wasn't meta but now has become a meta king but I've always been a hipster for it, Latron. I thought it peaked at Double Tap but DE boosted my boy to the stars. Was my go to weapon until I got my bearings straight with this game. He was my consistent ally as I restarted this game on several different consoles and I'm so happy to be able to bring him everywhere now ❤️

Secondary: I think all the Secondaries I use are meta haha. Love you Atomos 😍 

Melee: Tenet Exec, this big fella greatly benefits from any sort of ability that boosts damage and has turned into my Netracell Necromite finder. The Heavy Slam just tears the Labs apart. And I am very excited for the melee slam buff because of this big guy.

Mod: Amar's Anguish, anything that makes me go faster is an immediate win, but you guessed it, this Mod really makes Chroma's movement shine since he gets 2 bullet jumps. And the teleport is pretty janky but when it lines up with Tennokai it feels extraordinary.

Armored Agility, makes me tankier and faster, major win.

Misc: Bonewidow, I just got the Jump Mod for her and now she has no issues navigating the Labs, hits like a recently widowed truck and can use all the great Heavy Weapons.

Heavy Weapon: Corvas Prime, hits so damn hard and I love the charge mechanic.

Edited March 1 by TeaHands

[Dr.Tursko]

Ironically, I'm borderline always using the 'mr0' loadout. I love using Braton Vandal, Lex Prime, Skana Prime. Sure they all have incarnons and prime mods on now, but the simplicity and reliability of them to do their job always feels the best for me. Braton for crowds and status, Lex for single target hard-hitting shots, and skana prime because getting those crits with the new arcanes feels so good