Which Type of Warframe do you prefer? (Ability Caster, Weapon Caster, Weapon Platform)

[Prof-Dante]

I ask myself this Question a lot. 

And because these terms have their own meanings for me, I'm going to briefly explain what I consider each one means.

 

Ability Caster: Caster to me, is a Warframe that uses nothing but abilities, and it's almost detrimental for him to use a weapon, his kit is the only weapon they need, frames like this to me are: 

• Khora
• Atlas 
• Nidus

Weapon Caster: Weapon Caster is a Warframe that is focused mostly around Casting abilities, but using weapons doesn't harm his kit, but actually compliments it, these are not necessarily "Hybrid" between Caster and weapons platform.

Warframe like this to me are

• Revenant 
• Garuda,
• Dagath,
• Frost,
• Qorvex etc.

Weapon platform: This is a warframe that doesn't use a single ability other than weapon buffs, or has the capacity to use ability damage but is focused primarily on weapon damage. example for this is 

• Chroma 
• Mirage 
• Volt 
• Hydroid etc.

Now, I prefer Weapon casters of course. Dagath being my favorite of this archetype...but I too wonder, what other people prefer? And which of these archetypes of mine sound more fun, and effective? 

[Aruquae]

Ability casters for the win

You can take a guess who

Technically I also use weapon caster, but I think she would go under ability caster moreso than weapon caster.

Edited March 23 by Aruquae

[ReddyDisco]

I play SP mostly and the amount of abilities that scale to sp and higher are limited, i tend to use weapons more. On frames that have scaling abilities i use the abilities more.

[AntifreezeUnder0]

Grendel, want use abilities, want use weapons. Pre-rework grendel of course was better scaling wise.

Others i dont say are better or worse, but grendel suits my playstyle.

[BiancaRoughfin]

I love playing Zephyr, her abilities are focused on mobility, crowd control and protection but she has a very good Weapon buffing kit with her passive and augments.

Her Passive gives +150% Critical Chance with any weapon when mid-air which gives me a lot of reasons to bunny hop or airglide.
Her Airburst (2) with the augment Airburst rounds give her a Damage Bonus to secondary based on the number of enemies hit by it, up to +500%.
Her Turbulence (3) with the JetStream augment increases weapon's Projectile Speed by 100% (+1/1% Power Strength) which greatly increases weapons with limited range due to Falloff or short lived projectiles, weapons like the Tigris can get its Damage Falloff range doubled/Tripled/Quadruplicated, weapons like Arca Plasmor the projectile can go much much further, same go for weapons which the projectile flies in an arc like Bows.

Edited March 23 by BiancaRoughfin

[UnstarPrime]

The problem with the "Ability Casters" that you defined is that their playstyle is injurious to player's hands, fingers, and wrists.  I'm already in arthritis territory, so any frame that requires repeatedly pressing a single button is a no-can-do for me.  These frames desperately need the benefits of a system akin to auto-melee.

But I do love abilities, so I like to use frames that infrequently cast abilities, but with great effect.  But at the same time, I want a frame that is durable without needing me to keep track of timed defensive buffs.  And that really limits the pool.

Hence, Mag.  Which I suppose you would put under "Weapon Caster".  But I think that's too broad of a category; most frames are intended to use a mix of abilities and weapons, so there's plenty of room to break that down into more meaningful sub-categories.

[zThulsaDoomz]

I prefer the the ones that turn enemies into distant memories 

[johnno23]

I like so many frames it is hard to say what is my favorite and I never really consider what category they fall into. I often just load a random frame but also use specific frames for specific content. I also enjoy running SP solo just for the fun and often mess around with frames and builds as running one frame for too long for me makes the game too much of a rinse and repeat fiasco.

for example I can run SP mot survival for 20 -30 minutes solo with a wukong but doing that endlessly is so lame. but i often run a weak ivara but high duration for invisibilty and maybe last 20 minutes on a good run but often get into trouble and die too often around the 15 minute mark but the fun i have is next level next to simple bash shoot and smash with a wukong. Revenet makes it even more mindless as he is almost unkillable unless you really mess up and then using torid ogris fulmin etc it is also a case of farm some essence and then go find something more fun to do. I also like using Mirage khora Saryn Inaros Mag and others. Do i have a preference of abilities over weapons? not really as i simply like my weapons and my abilities and therefore like to mix things up and pick a frame or weapons choice dependent upon how i feel at that moment. For example one of my favorite weapons is the Kuva Quartakk as the soundstage for that weapon is simply amazing.....does it obliterate everything? not really but is it fun to listen to that sound through headphones as you blast away at enemies ? Absolutely.

[(PSN)AyinDygra]

Frames that don't require energy (or they have sustainability built into their kit) or guns.

For me, that's Inaros, Wisp, Styanax and Loki (once he goes invis, you just open lockers once in a while or kill eximus for an energy orb here and there as you rush the spy objectives and/or use Zenurik energy bubble at the start).

And I really only Melee... guns don't feel right to me, playing a Space Ninja.

[Hakugami]

I love casters.

Ember

I will play most frames like a caster.

Mostly because I can't aim for crap. I may use a gun. I don't use melee UNLESS it is on Kullervo because I use him like a caster. 

[Prof-Dante]

1 hour ago, UnstarPrime said:

But I think that's too broad of a category

the category isn't too broad, but the the list of warframes that fall under it is, for example...I wouldn't say Atlas is a Weapon caster, because he relies mostly on his 1.

Lavos for example falls under Weapon casting, despite being a Warframe designed around his own kit, and that's because Lavos's access to any status in the game makes him a good candidate for priming. 

1 hour ago, (PSN)AyinDygra said:

that's Inaros

I'm sooooo excited for the Inaros rework!

[Prof-Dante]

2 hours ago, Aruquae said:

You can take a guess who

hmm Dagath?

[(PSN)AyinDygra]

13 minutes ago, Qorvex99 said:

I'm sooooo excited for the Inaros rework!

I'm ... not.

I'm just happy that the core elements of his kit remained the same, so it didn't "ruin" him for me, like other reworks have ruined other frames' kits for those who liked them before and just wanted buffs/tweaks. (play style, reason for use, etc - arguably, more people like the new uses, so they were "technically" "successes", but I won't touch the new Ember, for instance, with the whole temperature meter mechanic, and Wukong's cloud is now an uncontrollable wreck like Titania with a Volt's speedup... when I used to use it for precise movement.)

Anyway, that's off topic.

[Prof-Dante]

15 minutes ago, (PSN)AyinDygra said:

Anyway, that's off topic.

actually it's on topic!

because Inaros now will turn from a pure weapons platform frame to my second archetype, weapon caster....In my opinion, the Inaros rework is pure genius, keeping what worked while being cost effective for DE and fun for players. 

typically, nothing's changed in Inaros' kit, instead, the abilities you never used have been removed, and the abilities that you used rarely are now enhanced, which is the pinnacle of what Reworks should be.

for example, when was the last time someone used the swarm version of scarab swarm? or devour? and even sandstorm was used so rarely.

now DE took what did not work (devour) and combined it with what didn't work properly (sandstorm) to make a better ability.

inversely, DE took an ability that contradicted itself (scarab swarm) and split it in two, now scarab armor is preserved, and scarab swarm shines as it's own special ability, and they don't ruin each other!

 

 

compare that to Ember rework, they kept fireball as is, terrible, they introduced a handicap mechanic, and added unnecessary new abilities like fireblast and inferno that further feeds into that terrible mechanic, ember rework fixed nothing in my opinion.

[ominumi]

Not sure where Loki fits in these categories. Even still, certain warframe have multiple playstyles. Voruna is a good example.

[Aruquae]

1 hour ago, Qorvex99 said:

hmm Dagath?

Dang, Garuda
You did say you thought of her as a weapon caster, but TECHNICALLY she only needs abilities. Her talons also count as an ability, and I forget I even have guns half the time. She can also count as a weapon caster, what with your examples, it makes sense.
Whatever the case, always thought of her as a caster. Kind of like a blood mage

[Aldain]

Whatever the hell Excalibur qualifies as.

[Raarsi]

Tank.

[Aruquae]

25 minutes ago, Aldain said:

Whatever the hell Excalibur qualifies as.

Feel like he would be considered a weapon caster

[Kronxito]

Baruuk. Because of what he represents. Balance. Peace. Meditation. Martial arts. The power of the mind. 

[NeDesitVirtus]

25 minutes ago, Kronxito said:

Baruuk. Because of what he represents. Balance. Peace. Meditation. Martial arts. The power of the mind. 

This! And Ash the original ninja/assassin. Yin and Yang. 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

honestly, I started out mainly as a weapon user above all else, because I simply love the combat in this game, but over the years, and as more interesting and powerful abilities have come out, I'd say I'm now leaning into more hybrid playstyles that use casting and weapons together. this week I've been running Qorvex, using mostly his 1 and 4 to spread that radiation damage, and I really enjoy him actually!

[Prof-Dante]

1 hour ago, Kronxito said:

Baruuk. Because of what he represents. Balance. Peace. Meditation. Martial arts. The power of the mind. 

I second that, I love Baruuk.

[Zahnrad]

For me, it generally depends on how fun the abilities are. If the abilities are fun, then Castors are fun.

But for me personally, the Gunplay of Warframe is my favourite.

 

While there are certainly Warframes that augment your damage and even the Gunframe Mesa, I'd like if DE made a Warframe that was tailor made to be a Weapons platform, a proper Commando, Rambo Warframe or etc. Where all his abilities have benefits to your guns.

Again, several frames do benefit gunplay, Protea's Dispensary, most of the starter Warframes with an augment, Lavos' transmutation

But I want a Warframe that, rather than having one skill to benefit gunplay, all their skills benefit gunplay.

Think of gun mechanics or stats that aren't tapped into all that often. I want Punch Through that actually punches, Multishot that goes crazy. The ability to regenerate ammo and the stat I really wish we saw more usage of...Ammo Efficiency.

[-ShadowRadiance-]

12 hours ago, Qorvex99 said:

I ask myself this Question a lot. 

And because these terms have their own meanings for me, I'm going to briefly explain what I consider each one means.

 

Ability Caster: Caster to me, is a Warframe that uses nothing but abilities, and it's almost detrimental for him to use a weapon, his kit is the only weapon they need, frames like this to me are: 

• Khora
• Atlas 
• Nidus

Weapon Caster: Weapon Caster is a Warframe that is focused mostly around Casting abilities, but using weapons doesn't harm his kit, but actually compliments it, these are not necessarily "Hybrid" between Caster and weapons platform.

Warframe like this to me are

• Revenant 
• Garuda,
• Dagath,
• Frost,
• Qorvex etc.

Weapon platform: This is a warframe that doesn't use a single ability other than weapon buffs, or has the capacity to use ability damage but is focused primarily on weapon damage. example for this is 

• Chroma 
• Mirage 
• Volt 
• Hydroid etc.

Now, I prefer Weapon casters of course. Dagath being my favorite of this archetype...but I too wonder, what other people prefer? And which of these archetypes of mine sound more fun, and effective? 

My amswer would be weapons caster. Equinox ftw.