Warframe Roles? Your Input Needed

[STRFTR]

One thing that bugs me about the game after having played it for about half a year is how nebulous a lot of the roles are for the different Warframes, at least to me. I'm curious to find out what the community thinks the roles for the different frames are, and what the generally accepted direction is for modding toward those roles, both in low end and high end gameplay.

 

To that end, I'd like to keep a list of the various frames, and update it as people comment on what they think the role of that frame is. In order to keep it easily parsable for me, I'd appreciate it if you'd post in the following general format:

 

Warframe name

 

High end role (healer, crowd control, support, etc)

High end build style (high EHP, high power duration, high movespeed, etc)

 

Low end role

Low end build style

 

For purposes of this discussion I'm defining "high end" gameplay as things like endless defense, lengthy survival, nightmare, stuff like that. "Low end" would be farming, leveling, solar system map clearing, and so on.

 

You can provide as much or as little commentary and justification as to why you think the frame is suited to the role you describe as you like. Niche or little-used roles are also encouraged. I'll be collating as much of the input as possible into the table below. Discussion is welcome as well, but let's not let this turn into a heavily charged argument. I think we can use broad enough terms to satisfy everyone but still be useful.

 

 

Editor's note: The following information is the first posting, most basic info; it will be updated and improved over time.

The List (to be filled in as discussion grows):

 

Ash

 

High end role: Damage (outclassed by others)

 

Low end role: Damage, Solo starmap clearing

 

 

Banshee

 

High end role: Damage amplification, Crowd control

 

Low end role: Damage, Crowd control

 

 

Ember

 

High end role: Damage (outclassed by others)

 

Low end role: AOE Damage

 

 

Excalibur

 

High end role: Crowd control

 

Low end role: Damage, Crowd control

 

 

Frost

 

High end role: Objective defense

 

Low end role: Objective defense

 

 

Loki

 

High end role: Crowd control

 

Low end role: Solo, crowd control

 

 

Mag

 

High end role: Support, Damage (outclassed)

Play notes: Shield Polarity has a niche in that it is quite good against high shield enemies, and also restores friendly shields; dual purpose damage/heal ability.

 

Low end role: Support, Damage

 

 

Nekros

 

High end role: Support, farming

Play notes: Excellent in high tier Survival due to increased rate of oxygen drops from Desecrate

 

Low end role: Support, farming

Play notes: Excellent for farming drops due to Desecrate

 

 

Nova

 

High end role: Crowd control, Damage

Play notes: Massive slow and massive damage potential on the same ability. First pick for all high end content.

 

Low end role: Crowd control, Damage

Play notes: Molecular Prime tends to steal kills, which is a detriment to anyone in your party trying to level a specific weapon.

 

 

Nyx

 

High end role: Crowd control

Play notes: Chaos can cause enemies to de-aggro for a long time.

 

Low end role: Crowd control, Damage

 

 

Oberon

 

High end role: Support (outclassed), damage (outclassed)

Play notes: Lack of specialization hamstrings Oberon.

 

Low end role: Starmap clearing

 

 

Rhino

 

High end role: Damage amplification, crowd control, damage

Play notes: Universally good, the only thing he can't do is heal. Not the absolute best in any specific role, but viable through all content.

 

Low end role: Freight train, Hammer time, The Hulk

 

 

Saryn

 

High end role: Crowd control (outclassed), Damage (outclassed)

Play notes: Molt can be used as either a Decoy, or static Iron Skin if you remain in place after casting. Miasma is both a CC and Damage ability, however to max the CC duration requires minimizing the damage potential, and vice versa, as its damage scales inversely proportional to its duration.

 

Low end role: Damage, Crowd control

 

 

Trinity

 

High end role: Support

Play notes: First pick (with Nova) at high end content due to the ability to heal/make teammates invulnerable.

 

Low end role: Support

Play notes: Less useful due to the lack of damage output in lower end content

 

 

Valkyr

 

High end role: Damage (outclassed), Crowd control (outclassed)

 

Low end role: Solo, Damage, Crowd control

 

 

Vauban

 

High end role: Support, Crowd control, Objective Defense

Play notes: Excellent anti-Infested due to their need to melee.

 

Low end role: Support, Crowd control, Objective Defense, Damage

 

 

Volt

 

High end role: Support (outclassed), Crowd control

Play notes: Support takes the form of speed bonuses and his shield. Not terribly effective for ODD/ODS. 

 

Low end role: Support, Damage, Crowd Control

Play notes: Speed bonus is excellent for blitzing Capture/Interception.

 

 

Zephyr

 

High end role: Crowd control, Tanking (ranged)

Play notes: Outclassed by Rhino, but has high personal survivability.

 

Low end role: Crowd control, Tanking (ranged)

 

 

 

General Consensus: Warframes that lack abilities that scale well with the content are at a massive disadvantage for higher end missions. Damage amplifiers, heals, and long duration crowd control are much better to bring than things like straight damage abilities, which tend to scale poorly as the enemies gain levels. 

Edited March 17, 2014 by STRFTR

[(PSN)delta_3802]

I'll definitely keep my eye out for updates on this thread. I'm a new player and I'd like to figure out Excalibur before I look into other warframes.

[Cynick]

Ash

Good for solo-ing the starmap, asides from Defense and Mobile Def. Can't contribute much to the team.

 

Banshee

Great for higher tier content (predominantly long survivals) as part of a squad. The team damage boost is gigantic and she has some crowd control to help too. If you want a damage dealer/"debuff" member of the team, the choice is most likely between Banshee and Nova.

 

Ember

High damage until a certain point. Outclassed by the other two main "damage" frames, Nova and Banshee when it comes to higher tier content.

 

Excalibur

Surprisingly good for most content. Radial Blind is a great crowd control move and is very spam-able. Can be used all the way to high tier content without becoming blatantly outclassed. Not the best at the role but still effective. 

 

Frost

Useful for medium level defense/mobile defense. The globe is no longer good enough for him to be considered the best pick for higher tier defense.

 

Loki

Excellent frame for both solo and team games when built correctly. Can definitely contribute in higher tier content due to radial disarm and other utility. Your creativity is the limit to what Loki can handle. 

 

Mag

Good frame for most content. Outclassed as a damage dealer again by Nova/Banshee however Shield Polarise really comes into its own against highly shielded enemies and she has a niche as a result of that. 

 

Nekros

Nekros is generally only considered useful for survival games due to Desecrate's ability to spawn more oxygen drops. This alone however allows him to be considered a pick for higher tier survival content. Terrify can also debuff and crowd control if you work it into your build, giving him some more team utility against Grineer. 

 

Nova

Arguably the first pick for all content requiring a damage dealer. Whilst Banshee grants your team higher damage by a fair margin, Nova is able to severely slow all enemies within a large radius with the same move. This crowd control is often invaluable. Anti-matter drop also allows her to deal extremely high damage by herself while Wormhole allows for great movement throughout larger rooms. 

 

Nyx

Arguably the best crowd control frame in the game. Chaos, spec'd for a shorter duration and maximum range, can keep enemy aggro off your team in survival or the pod in defense, permanently. A huge (and often underrated) asset for the team in higher tier content. 

 

Oberon

Good for clearing the starmap, very outclassed by other frames for higher tier content due to not specialising in any particular role.

 

Rhino

Very good at everything. Iron skin makes most of the game easy and when it loses its utility in higher tier content, he makes up for it with Roar and Rhino Stomp. The latter could also be considered one of the best crowd control moves in the game once spec'd for max range and efficiency. Whilst also not the absolute best at any role due to not specialising, he is still good enough at his roles to remain viable all the way to the end. 

 

Saryn

A good damage dealer but like Nova, outclassed by Banshee/Nova in higher tier content.

 

Trinity

God mode for the team once built correctly. Seriously. Always relevant and should be present in any serious survival game. Not as necessary for defense but still useful.

 

Valkyr

Decent for soloing, can't be considered a pick for higher tier content. 

 

Vauban

Will probably always be considered for higher tier infested games. Offers the team a form of invulnerability. Also quite useful for higher tier defense but arguably outclassed by crowd control frames with more range.

 

Volt

Excellent frame for medium tier content. His abilities are very spam-able and allow for near permanent stunning of groups of enemies. Speed is a nice bonus and electric shield can be useful for a team damage buff and some invulnerability. Outclassed for higher tier content because he doesn't have a specific role. 

 

Zephyr

Decent for most content but will probably not be considered a pick for higher tier. Has some nice movement, crowd control and "tanking" abilities though Rhino generally does this better. Zephyr allows for more creativity, though. 

Edited March 17, 2014 by Cynick

[(PSN)delta_3802]

Looking through the list, Mag looks like she would have been useful fighting the Corpus and clearing the Jackal level/dungeon. I notice that you didn't mention which frames are mor suitable than others if you prefer to use firearms. Could you delve into that?

[Cynick]

Good point, not many newer players ask that question. 

Basically it comes down to this:

The High Tier content mentioned is generally survivals over an hour in length or high wave defense (40+). By this point in time, due to the way that enemy health and armour scales, all pure damage warframe abilities become practically useless; your weapon is your main source of damage because it can be modded to increase its power and effectiveness against specific factions which keeps it relevant for a much longer period. 

This means that if you intend on playing to this point, you will probably only be using frames which rely on their firearm as there source of damage. Although I didn't specifically say anything like this in the above post, you can see that the frames I recommended as more suitable for higher tier content are ones which have moves that have functionality outside of dealing damage. Even the two main "damage dealing" frames for high level content are no exception as their signature moves (Molecular Prime and Sonar) deal negligible damage themselves BUT they buff your team's weapon damage in some way. 

Hopefully that explains it somewhat. There are exceptions to everything obviously so feel free to experiment; for example Volt is a "damage/caster" style frame however he has great synergy with firearms and specifically sniper rifles due to the ability to stun enemies from infinite range before taking shots along with the ability to change any weapon's projectile to hitscan by shooting through his Electric Shield. 

Edited March 17, 2014 by Cynick

[Darzk]

 

 

One thing that bugs me about the game after having played it for about half a year is how nebulous a lot of the roles are for the different Warframes, at least to me. I'm curious to find out what the community thinks the roles for the different frames are, and what the generally accepted direction is for modding toward those roles, both in low end and high end gameplay.

I actually really like that most frames can fill different roles, at least untill really high level endless. At mid-lower levels, most frames can fulfill either the support or damage role.

 

 

Banshee, Trinity, Loki and Rhino are my favorite frames for levling firearms, as they fill support roles that are not dependent on the damage their abilities do.

 

 

High end content usually focuses on weapon damage, as ability damage fails to scale well with enemy level.

 

The notable exceptions are Nyx's Absorb, Mag's Shield Polarize, and Nekros' Shadows of the Dead. Saryn's Miasma can be very effective to higher levels than the other damage dealers, but still falls off in effectiveness past lvl 80 or so.

 

Outside of those exceptions, we focus instead on CC, or weapon damage amplifiers, like Nova's AMD+MP, Banshee's Sonar, and Rhino's Roar. Volt's Energy Shield deserves a mention, although it is generally not used as often as the amplification is not as high and you can barely see through it with graphics turned to full.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Darzk

[MrJxt]

I own all every warframe so i'll give my opinion on them.

 

Ash (solo/damage)

I didn't play him that much, bladestorm is fun to use and deals a lot of damage and that's pretty much it. His invisibility has a lower duration than Loki's, his teleport is meh, shuriken is meh. He doesn't contribute much when it comes to teamwork.

 

Banshee (Support/crowd control)

Got her to rank 30 and didn't play her again. Sonar is really useful against high levels and soundquake for decent crowd control.

 

Ember (damage/crowd control/support)

never used her against high lvls but press 4 to win against low lvls.

 

Excalibur (crowd control/subpar damage/mobility)

-spam 2 to win

 

Frost (support/crowd control/damage)

After the recent buff to snowglobe he somewhat redeemed his title as king of defense. spam 3 to survive.

 

Loki (support/crowd control)

-tactically place decoy in a good spot and laugh as enemies become derpy.

press 2 to become selfish.

press 4 to cripple enemies.

 

 

Mag (crowd control/subpar support/damage)

Spam 1 and laugh at those faceplants. Spam 4 if enemies are tanking everything you throw at them.

 

Nekros (support/subpar crowd control)

You wanna farm for mats/cores? Bring this skeleton and spam 3.

 

Nova (support/crowd control/damage)

press 4 to win, or press 2 and shoot ball to win.

 

Nyx (support/crowd control)

Good in high level defense/survival. press 3 to win

 

Oberon (subpar heal/support/crowd control/damage)

He's fun and all but he's not good at the stuff he does, mediocre at best. Spam 4.

 

Rhino (support/crowd control/damage/tank/mage/ADC/jungl- wait what?)

He can pretty much do everything except heal and tank against high levels. With vanguard helmet and rush, rhino prime is the tied to be the fastest frame with a rush'd loki. Press 2 and 4 to win.

 

Saryn (damage/subpar crowd control/support)

Didn't play her that much

Miasma is good for stunning enemies and debuffing them with corrosive status.

 

Trinity (healer/support/subpar situational crowd control)

Gotta keep your teammates healthy right? Trinity is almost a must in high level non-infested survival/defense missions. Spam 4 to win.

 

Valkyr (damage/subpar support/subpar crowd control)

ehh i kinda regret adding a potato to her, I rarely use melee.

 

Vauban (support/crowd control/damage)

I only use booben in infested mobile defense and defense missions, ODD specifically. His entire kit is almost entire just traps and infested need to be in melee range to hurt you.

 

Volt (support/crowd control)

I mostly use him for rush missions (deception/captures) due to his speed boost. Spam 1 to win.

 

Zephyr (mobility/tank/crowd control)

Havent used her in high/med content. Press 3 to shrug off most projectiles shot at you. Her tornado is extremely annoying because it sends loot flying all over the place.

[STRFTR]

Keep it coming guys =] Really pleased with the response so far. I'll begin collating the information soon.

 

Edited to add: Also, if you guys could mention in broad terms how you build the frames for the roles mentioned (you don't need to list specific mods, just concepts) that would also be helpful.

Edited March 17, 2014 by STRFTR

[Darzk]

So I'm just gonna do Endless Surv/Def viability, levels 80+

 

Banshee - Great damage amplification, decent emergency CC. Squishy.

 

Frost - Great for protecting the pod, but made irrelevant by Loki or Nyx

 

Loki - Radial Disarm is awesome, and works equally well at all levels. Couple with Vauban for complete room CC.

 

Mag - Shield Polarize decimates Corpus, heavily damages Corrupted under an Osprey, while restoring self, objective, and teammate shields to full. Pull is decent CC. Bullet Attractor useful as emergency damage nullification.

 

Nekros - Survival only, or resource farming. Spam Desecrate, SotD after killing 7-9 heavies in a row.

 

Nova - MP used to debuff, AMD used for damage. Most crit weapons deal ~3-4x headshot damage, x2 from MP = 7x. Not quite as powerful a buff as Banshee but more consistent weakpoint locations. AMD is excellent for stacking damage and delivering to a group.

 

Nyx - CC king. Forces enemies to attack each other, and they have increased threat so as long as it lasts tends to draw fire from allies/the pod. Absorb can deliver teammate weapon damage to a massive area, useful for clearing crowds. Also has increased threat and can be placed over or near a downed teammate to draw fire. Damage done scales with damage absorbed, so scales well with enemy level.

 

Rhino - personal tank. Keeps himself alive while drawing fire from teammates/the pod, because Iron Skin increases threat. Stomp can be used to CC enemies. Roar synchronizes especially well with Nova and Nyx, as roaring after a AMD/MP or Absorb cast can amplify the damage done. Most other frames require a preemptive Roar in order to buff damage. 

 

Saryn - Effective damage dealer up to ~80, but not ideal post 80.

 

Trinity - Team Synergy. Can be used either to keep the team immortal, or constantly full of energy with frequent heals. Link's damage scales with enemy level.

 

Vauban - Effectively nullifies melee units. Perfect for Infested, or coupled with a Radial Disarm Loki. Properly speccd Vauban can maintain 2 Bastilles with no energy orbs, infinitely. Maintaining Vortexes allows for some damage/enemy grouping, but takes a bit more energy.

 

Volt - Energy Shields are great because they absorb 100% of damage while amplifying teammate damage. However they are nearly impossible to see through with graphics turned up, so using Volt effectively requires teammate coordination. Shock is decent cheap, local CC, and Overload has a massive range and cc potential but incapacitates the character for quite a while. Not recommended.

 

Zephyr - Incredibly high personal survivability, tornadoes are decent CC. Unfortunately Turbulence doesnt draw threat, and Tornadoes tend to scatter enemies and loot to unpredictable places. Basically Rhino is better, in every way.

 

My ideal setup for endless defense is Loki+Vauban+Nova+Rhino(damage) or Trinity (heals/energy).

Alternate setup for endless defense is Nyx + Nova + Rhino + w/e you want.

My ideal setup for endless survival is Nekros+Trinity(team immortality)+Nova+Mag(For Void/Corpus, swap to Loki for Grineer, Vauban for Infested)

 

Ideally we all use Corrosive Projection to -100% armor for Grineer and Void. Max Energy Siphon for Corpus/Infested.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Darzk

[Amazerath]

One thing that bugs me about the game after having played it for about half a year is how nebulous a lot of the roles are for the different Warframes, at least to me. I'm curious to find out what the community thinks the roles for the different frames are, and what the generally accepted direction is for modding toward those roles, both in low end and high end gameplay.

 

I don't think I can really give you a straight answer like some of the others. The roles for my warframes change constantly.

 

But I'd like to know one thing. What are you trying to figure out by asking others about warframe roles? Is it really just out of curiosity?

[STRFTR]

I don't think I can really give you a straight answer like some of the others. The roles for my warframes change constantly.

 

But I'd like to know one thing. What are you trying to figure out by asking others about warframe roles? Is it really just out of curiosity?

 

I don't think I'd agree with saying the roles change constantly. That would require the specifics of their abilities to change constantly, which doesn't happen. Some warframes have very clear roles - like Vauban for instance, which is obviously intended for static defense due to how his abilities work, though you can still use him in other things. 

 

Yes, it's really out of curiosity. There are a few frames that I play regularly and I don't branch out much, so it's interesting to see what other warframes are meant to do. Also I wasn't able to find a unified resource on the subject of roles so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone. 

[Darzk]

Actually quite a few frames have had changes to their abilities that drastically changed their role.

 

Banshee went from Nuker -> Support-Damage Amp

 

Ember went from Tank -> Damage.

 

Mag went from CC only to Corpus/Void Nuker and team shield restorer.

 

Rhino went from Tank/Damage -> Support

 

Saryn went from top Support-Damage Amp -> Nuker

 

Trinity went from Battery/Healer -> Team Invincibility

 

Volt went from Nuker -> Support/CC

Edited March 17, 2014 by Darzk

[STRFTR]

I'm not saying it never happened, I'm just saying it doesn't happen "constantly."
 

[Amazerath]

I don't think I'd agree with saying the roles change constantly. That would require the specifics of their abilities to change constantly, which doesn't happen. Some warframes have very clear roles - like Vauban for instance, which is obviously intended for static defense due to how his abilities work, though you can still use him in other things. 

 

I was originally going to post a proper explanation to why the roles change when I'm playing, but it was kinda off-topic so I removed it. I'll try to keep it short, but keep in mind that what I'm going to write is entirely a personal notion of what roles are.

 

There are basically two things that decide roles for my warframes:

 

1) The way I want to play the game with that specific warframe.

Example: if I want my Saryn to be a tank, I will mod her to function as a tank. If I want my Saryn to deal more damage through powers, I can remove the tank mods and give her power-related mods instead. This can be done with any warframe because the objective here is not to reach top efficiency, but to have the most fun.

 

2) The team I am currently playing with.

Example: if I'm using my "tank" Saryn on a team that has 3 Rhinos, I will avoid playing like a tank. I will do that because the team already has 3 other warframes that can probably better fulfill the tank role then my Saryn. So I change my tactics and try to fulfill a support role, or damage role, or whatever it is that the team seems to be lacking. This is also possible with any warframe because, again, it is about having fun through adaptation and not about being the most efficient warframe around.

 

So, if you take those two things into consideration, I think you will understand why I would say something like "my role changes constantly". It is because I think roles involve more then just stats and mods. To me, roles also rely heavily on your playstyle and skills as a player.