Which of these would be best for a melee playstyle?

[Mr.PPD]

Currently I have Nidus, Nezha, Inaros, Garuda and Hydroid. Which would be the best in terms of overall tankiness and primarily melee combat?

 

Also, how do we know if a warframe is melee-suitable or not?

[Chewarette]

Well Garuda is literally designed for Melee. And she's basically invulnerable if you don't fall asleep.

Usually the "melee suitable" warframes need to be tanky - usually health-tanks, because they're in the middle of the pack and can't avoid lots of stuff unlike "casters". But in the end, all Warframes can play as melee, we have enough tools nowadays for it to be a viable solution.

Edited May 23 by Chewarette

[MaxTunnerX]

56 minutes ago, Mr.PPD said:

Currently I have Nidus, Nezha, Inaros, Garuda and Hydroid. Which would be the best in terms of overall tankiness and primarily melee combat?

 

Also, how do we know if a warframe is melee-suitable or not?

Make sure you use all the tools neccessary to survive. For example rolling guard and mods like life strike and such, which give you health for killing enemies. Otherwise I can recommend valkyr as her 4th is a melee weapon and she cant die while using the abulity. Also dont forget about Volt. Hes not tanky at all, but he swings his weapon so fast that it doesnt really matter + you can use his shield to become more or less tanky. From this list (and I know you didnt ask about these specific frames) you can deduce how to know whether a frame (or more specifically the whole build including mods and arcanes) is suitable for melee or not. It all comes down to "Can it be immortal while using melee? Can it take a lot of damage? Can it deal so much damage that health becomes irrelevant?". Lastly, melee in this game is usually used for end-game content (endurance runs and so forth) with damage being low at the begining, but extremely high at the end (because all the status you deal stacks and gives enemies much more damage later). Definitely learn how combo works and use it to your advantage as well.

Edited May 23 by MaxTunnerX

[Zakkhar]

13 minutes ago, Chewarette said:

Well Garuda is literally designed for Melee. And she's basically invulnerable if you don't fall asleep.

Usually the "melee suitable" warframes need to be tanky - usually health-tanks

Garuda is extremly specific type of tank that is an ability tank, you can run her with base health just fine. Similar examples are Baruuk, Revenant, Gara, Nezha or Rhino.

So out of Op's choice Garuda or Nezha, however these frames have extremly different playstyle.

Edited May 23 by Zakkhar

[Merkranire]

Some Warframes lend themselves better to the playstyle through their innate design of abilities and stats from the modless baseline where they can jump into the fray a little more safely or benefit from melee a little more, but really any frame can find a place to work due to the flexibility of modding and range of still-rewarding content outside of highest-level, so don’t be afraid to play around with, I dunno, Wormhole Ninja Nova or two-man dungeon group with Wukong, where you go melee guardian and your clone goes range DPS

[Venus-Venera]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Mr.PPD:

Currently I have Nidus, Nezha, Inaros, Garuda and Hydroid. Which would be the best in terms of overall tankiness and primarily melee combat?

 

Also, how do we know if a warframe is melee-suitable or not?

Warframe just has to survive in mele range. There are cc skills, health+armor or shieldgate combinations. So whatever suits you best.

and in that case I would definitely take Inaros. Because it plays very well for new players and is almost impossible to die even in sp missions.
and inaros is also very easy to mod. also roar/warcry(with augment) etc with rage or hunter adrenaline.  2 dmg arcanes or ideally arcane grace (even if it is low rank). with arcane grace and adoptation you can go afk in sp modus. enemies will shot at you for ever and your pet/stentinel etc. will kill everything. if you dont have any heal arcanes then let the pet heal you.

[Zakkhar]

3 hours ago, Venus-Venera said:

(Inaros) almost impossible to die even in sp missions

You cannot be more wrong.

Edited May 23 by Zakkhar

[(PSN)FrDiabloFr]

2 minutes ago, Zakkhar said:

You cannot be more wrong.

Lol fr i’ve seen him even after his buff still get one shot by barrels in steel path.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

Warframe, is the kind of game, where eventually you can make many things work, if you really want them to. Naturally some can have an easier time of it, depending on what characteristic or trait you are talking about. 

For example, to your questions, well Inaros and Nidus are pretty tanky in most of Warframes content, but they are both health tanks, with no shields or easy way to get Overguard for themselves. Inaros got a.rework a few months ago, many of his abilities can help heal him, Nidus has a damage resistance ability and some healing as well. As long as you are not doing some especially hard content, like Steel Path, especially Steel Path Endurance, getting to high levels in say Steel Path Circuit, or say certain Eximus enemies in Archon hunts, where you might be susceptible to being one shot... Then Inaros and Nidus are pretty generally tanky. 

Out of those mentioned though, I'd probably say Nezha is the tankiest, because they have an ability (I think your 3, I sometimes get it and the 3 mixed up in my memory)that they can cast for a large amount of damage reduction, that also scales off enemy damage, meaning, if you cast it at the right time, you can become especially tanky, as opposed to just tanky. Though if your abilities DR is chipped away, you can always cast it again. One of your other abilities will also give you status immunity, as well as knockdown immunity, although you have to stand on it/in it (your 1). Often many Warframe abilities that provide you with tankiness, can provide it much more durability than just having high health and armour stats. Especially if they also already have shields, and or if you can slap Adaptation on them. 

Garuda and Hydroid can also both be built and played to be pretty tanky, but I would personally say Garuda is more DPS focused. Plus whenever I play Garuda I am usually jumping and flipping everywhere and casting my 4 in the air, and enemies aren't the smartest, not can they keep up with a constantly moving, mobile player, who is being evasive. Hydroid also got a rework sometime last year, they have an ability that should help with survival, but I wouldn't say its as strong as say Nezha's. Should still be enough if you happen to enjoy their abilities or theme more. 

Melee wise? I would say depends, since there are quite a few melee. I do think Nidus is really good with a bunch of different melees, that work well with grouped up enemies. One of Nidus abilities, is one of the best grouping abilities in general. So some melee weapons like Redeemer or Stropha, can be devastating, because you do a gunblade quick combo into a heavy attack, or just heavy attack build, to shoot 15 enemies all at once. Or any melee with heavy attack builds, or melee weapons with good follow through stats. Or melee weapons that like getting to high combos fast, since again, all group up, lots of free, fast, easy hits to build combo. Some unorthodox weapons can shine here, like Two Handed Nikana, because many people find the stance a bit slow and clunky, but if enemies are grouped up tight in Nidus Larvae, you can be a bit slow, and methodical, build some combo and then do a huge Heavy Attack for big damage. Same with Glaives, being thrown at Larvae, but any melee weapon will like that situation. 

Inaros also has a group up tool now as well, granted it will drop the enemies on the ground, so you you'll be doing ground finishers. Good for melee with good ground finishers, slam attacks, or if you have Melee Crescendo, well Inaros is great at doing finishers to build your stacks fast. The other three all also have potential synergies with melee weapons too, Garudas passive, Nezhas ability to CC especially with his newest augment, Hydroids kit around Corrosive and Viral with one of their arguments, can open up a few different melee synergies. I personally like Garuda and Glaives, since I am often in the air and so you can attack from range. Hydroid I like with Nami Solo (Incarnon is great) and Nami Skyla Prime, and Nezha with Guandao Prime (though with the last two examples, its more of a thematic reason)

Good luck! 

[VENDOMINUS]

If you're asking about this and have these frames, then you probably don't have many or any maxed mods. If we think you don't have access to to maxed good mods and still have energy issues, then Inaros would be best for the majority of your early game.

When you stop having energy problems, And use equilibrium, Nidus will be very good for melee due to his natural grouping ability. Nezha will be better at tanking as long as you keep your 3rd skill up.

Garuda has her own very good melee weapon, which you can use by unequipping your melee weapon. She'll be able to do very well when it comes to damage, If you use her skills and have at least some rank of vitality on, you shouldn't have any problems.

Hydroid is the best out of everyone when it comes to power and versatility, but he usually needs a good build to shine, so I wouldn't suggest him for early game.

 

Edited May 24 by VENDOMINUS

[RLanzinger]

To @Mr.PPD,

As @Zakkhar said Garuda, without a doubt and I'll add Hydroid then,

Also, how do we know if a warframe is melee-suitable or not ?

-They have an ability to regen health sparring your Defensive mod (+1 slot !!!) (Garuda's Blood Altar / Saryn's molt augment)

-They have an ability to augment their melee damages (Garuda Passive / Saryn's Toxic's slash or Venom Dose)

-They can open finisher or insta-kill a bothersome unit ro more (Garuda instant kill at 40% or less, Exca Radial blind)

-They have a AoE Damage with stuns (CC) or Immunity time (Garuda Dread heart, Garuda or Saryn or Valkyr's Ultimate)

[Zakkhar]

5 hours ago, RLanzinger said:

-They have an ability to regen health sparring your Defensive mod (+1 slot !!!) (Garuda's Blood Altar / Saryn's molt augment)

Actually best way to regen health is not reliant on frame abilities whatsoever. 

Either Magus_Repair if you run high HP frames and want to be able to heal allies or better Magus_Elevate which heals most of base health frames to full on transference (and you should be doing that when close to death anyway). Yeah, yeah it also used a slot, but this time an Operator Enhancement one. And there is not a big choice of stuff in there. Magus_Lockdown is absolute king and then, dunno what.

9 hours ago, VENDOMINUS said:

Garuda has her own very good melee weapon, which you can use by unequipping your melee weapon. She'll be able to do very well when it comes to damage, If you use her skills and have at least some rank of vitality on, you shouldn't have any problems.

Garuda doesnt need vitality whatsoever. Her 1 makes her pretty much immortal. She also doesnt have energy problems because she can health tap with 3 (stacking health is counterproductive with this ability as it costs 50% max health). Her Talons are one of the most potent melee weapons in game, just slap basic scaling mods and you are golden.

Edited May 24 by Zakkhar

[VENDOMINUS]

38 minutes ago, Zakkhar said:

Garuda doesnt need vitality whatsoever. Her 1 makes her pretty much immortal. She also doesnt have energy problems because she can health tap with 3 (stacking health is counterproductive with this ability as it costs 50% max health). Her Talons are one of the most potent melee weapons in game, just slap basic scaling mods and you are golden.

From my perspective, OP is a a new player. Therefore it's possible he doesn't have the knowhow, experience and discipline to survive without any survivability mods. It it also possible that OP may have major energy problems if that is the case and may lack basic ways of infinite health regen to utilize Garuda's 3 efficiently. I doubt OP has blood rush or weeping wounds or have the mod capacity to make use good use of full builds or even crit. If that is the case then all your suggestions are pretty bad.

 

If that is not the case, then your suggestions could have merit, but then why would OP need to ask the question in the first place?.

[Venus-Venera]

Am 23.5.2024 um 14:50 schrieb Zakkhar:

You cannot be more wrong.

How about informing and testing yourself instead of spreading lies here as usual?
OP just doesn't play sp circuit. And how the hell do you manage to die as Inaros in the usual SP mission? 👎

[(PSN)FrDiabloFr]

9 minutes ago, Venus-Venera said:

How about informing and testing yourself instead of spreading lies here as usual?
OP just doesn't play sp circuit. And how the hell do you manage to die as Inaros in the usual SP mission? 👎

Because even now after his changes, inaros can still be 1 shot by barrels in steel path.

Edited May 25 by (PSN)FrDiabloFr

[Nira]

Nidus is a strong choice. He's tanky AF and his 4 means you'll be in melee range of foes often. His 2 is excellent for grouping up mobs to whack them.

Nezha also works well if it's a more mobile mission.