Warframe Tiers?

[Glasglow]

I've been wondering, which Warframes are good and which aren't that good overall?

Is there a tier-list somewhere for warframes as there is for weapons?

I mean, obviously Prime Versions are better than the Normal ones and there should be no reason to keep non-prime versions once you aquire the Prime ones.

But overall, what are the best frames to have for each role?

From my own experience, having only 4 frames at the moment, my ability to rank them is limited to...

S Tier: 
Mirage
A Tier:

Banshee
B Tier:
Volt

C Tier:
Nekros

 

With C tier being the lowest, where frames in it need major changes and rebalancing,  A tier being top tier where frames bring either extreme utility, or have high performance, right under the broken classes of S tier, and B tier being the average tier that aren't too bad, but aren't very good either.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Glasglow

[-Vane-]

I don't get your point here. I just know that thinking that prime frames are better than ordinary is wrong, they have diffrent looks and diffrent polarities.

 

There are no good or bad frames in this game its in their user, get over it!

[Mrevasivepants]

I don't get your point here. I just know that thinking that prime frames are better than ordinary is wrong, they have diffrent looks and diffrent polarities.

 

There are no good or bad frames in this game its in their user, get over it!

as much as i agree with this, i have to forcely admit that oberon and nekros atm are quite bad...

[Traxadel]

Mirage in S and Loki in A?! Seriously?!

I always preferred normal Rhino than Primed version so it's not about sword length but only it's owner

Edited July 31, 2014 by Traxadel

[Firefinch]

all good...

[Yazeth]

All frames are good. If you are looking for a frame that can do good in all missions, then you only have to worry about Survival/ (Mobile) Defense, and Interception, since you can speed run with coptor weapons in the others. So, basically any frames that have good CC and survivability. They are:

 

Ember (w/ Accelerant build. Yeah, she's good)

Frost (Tanky, best at Defense)

Loki (Utility-based, scales endlessly)

Nova (Dmg buff and slowness, or speed up depending on what faction you are fighting against)

Nyx (Very good CC and Defense)

Rhino (Very tanky and good CC)

Vauban (mainly for Infested)

Edited July 31, 2014 by Yazeth

[Glasglow]

as much as i agree with this, i have to forcely admit that oberon and nekros atm are quite bad...

Aye, i was quite dissapointed with nekros, after spending quite a bit on him.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Glasglow

[Glasglow]

Mirage in S and Loki in A?! Seriously?!

I always preferred normal Rhino than Primed version so it's not about sword length but only it's owner

If you think Loki has anything that can put him in the same league as mirage, then you probably never even tried playing mirage.

Currently Mirage is in a league of her own, doing insanely stupid dps, x8 times more damage than basically any other frame.

 

 

I don't get your point here. I just know that thinking that prime frames are better than ordinary is wrong, they have diffrent looks and diffrent polarities.

 

There are no good or bad frames in this game its in their user, get over it!

I would downvote this post, but sadly there is no such option on this forum.

Are you serious? The only Frame that has different polarities in normal and prime version is ember, which you could argue which is better, but prime still wins out - having better overall polarities for a offensive frame.

Any other Prime is an upgrade to the normal version, having the same polarities, with 1 additional polarity.

And have i mentioned that ALL Prime versions, look tons better than the normal version? Well i thought thats a given.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Glasglow

[(PSN)Magician_NG]

A rank of first to worst for frames? I'll play along.

Top Tier

Ash

Excalibur

Nova

Valkyr

Nyx

Nekros

Mag

Loki

Rhino

Zephyr

Vauban

Volt

Trinity

Middle Tier

Hydroid

Banshee

Frost

Saryn

Lower Tier

Oberon

Ember

[Sloan441]

It's hard to classify 'frames, since much of their effectiveness is from your (the player) mod loadout. Nyx is generally considered one of the better warframes, but a corrupted Nyx is a lot more capable than one with a more conventional loadout.

 

Some warframes are more generalists than others. Some have very specific niches. The only rule of thumb is utility/support 'frames tend to fare better as enemy levels increase past the 40s. Before that, about anything will work and work well.

[Yazeth]

Aye, i was quite dissapointed with nekros, after spending quite a bit on him.

Currenty, Nekros is only good for desecrating, but this is what makes him needed in a bunch of void survivals. Oberon is good, but only for all around purposes. Because Oberon was made very balanced in every situation, he cannot be the best in those situations compared to other frames.

 

If you think Loki has anything that can put him in the same league as mirage, then you probably never even tried playing mirage.

Currently Mirage is in a league of her own, doing insanely stupid dps, x8 times more damage than basically any other frame.

But, remember, she's a very squishy frame, and can basically be called a glass cannon. In terms of survivability, I would still choose Loki. He is also more viable for team play since you can't share Mirage's dmg bonus with your teammates (unless you are gonna use the alt fire of the Mutalist Quanta, but I have yet see anyone use it in long survivals).

 

I would downvote this post, but sadly there is no such option on this forum.

Are you serious? The only Frame that has different polarities in normal and prime version is ember, which you could argue which is better, but prime still wins out - having better overall polarities for a offensive frame.

Any other Prime is an upgrade to the normal version, having the same polarities, with 1 additional polarity.

And have i mentioned that ALL Prime versions, look tons better than the normal version? Well i thought thats a given.

Ember was made to be an offensive frame, but her dmg can only scale up to so much, so she isn't a viable choice as a dmg frame. I would prefer to make a spammable Accelerant build for infinite enemy lockdown and just kill them with my Boltor Prime/Brakk.

 

Also, you are right about other Prime variants having an extra polarity, but that only means that it takes one less forma to make your build. It does not give Prime variants any sort of advantages besides less time to make your desired build.

 

Also, the only two Prime variants with stat boosts are Rhino and Loki Prime, but it doesn't even make enough of a difference to call it better. Rhino's variant has extra movement speed, which can be done better with coptoring weapons, such as the Dual Ichors, so that doesn't even mean anything. Loki's variant has a raised energy cap, but that only means that he can spam his abilities a bit more, and benefit a bit more from QT, if you are planning to use it that is. As for looks, I'm fine with either the normal or prime variants. The gold trimmings stands out in my color scheme though, so that part's a bit annoying though.

 

 

 

 

My message to you is: Consider playing the game a bit more and learn what is good or not good on your own. Also, keep on trying new builds, weapons, and such. You will learn a lot more that way. I'm not sure if I really wanna agree with anything you say, since you have only recently started to play, specifically 10 days ago.

[Darealslenderman]

There is no bad warframe or prime, it all depends on your playstyle, and if you want to get to endgame status, and the weapons you use. Some people like oberon, some people hate him, all becuase his gameplay and abilities, same for mirage etc. This game is all opinion, just totaly depends on how you play. just like some people can still play trinity and be super OP even after they changed blessing on her. All depends. no right or wrong when it comes to what is good or bad on warframe. also depends on how much you forma.

 

To be honest, all warframes are good, depending on the mission and level. Same for weapons

Edited July 31, 2014 by Darealslenderman

[CaptainJohnson]

The problem is that Warframe can never really have anything like a "tier list" because the main game mode is PvE. This is different from games like Smash Bros., which is played PvP unless you go through the story-mode. Being a team-based PvE, 'frames will have team utility over individual power, unless you're playing only Solo- in that case, there's a whole different class of 'frames that are useful.

 

In Conclaves and Dark Sectors, there might be a different set of "tiers" which are completely different from how someone might rank the same 'frames in the normal PvE mode. However, since the PvP aspect of Warframe is a side-mode, it doesn't make much sense to use it to classify 'frames as a whole.

[(PSN)Agent_CHAR]

Power of frames is so subjective that you'll get a different answer from any one you ask.  Or even worse, the cop out all frames are good answer.  So rather than give you ranking of good to bad this is my list of frames I like and those I don't.  My personal opinion... has nothing to do with "power".

 

Top 3: Couldn't live without

Nyx
Nova
Trinity

Frames I want to play

Ash
Frost
Mag
Saryn
Volt

Frames I'll play if I'm in the right mood

Banshee
Ember
Excalibur
Loki
Nekros
Oberon
Rhino
Valkyr
Vauban

Bottom 2: Never want to play for any reason

Zephyr
Hydroid
 

[Darealslenderman]

Why does no one put Mirage into there list? down in these posts, not the topic post, is it becuase shes new and buggy or? other reasons. 

 

Nvm i can see theres ps4 memebers, makes sense now

Edited July 31, 2014 by Darealslenderman

[CaptainJohnson]

Why does no one put Mirage into there list? down in these posts, not the topic post, is it becuase shes new and buggy or? other reasons. 

 

Nvm i can see theres ps4 memebers, makes sense now

 

Also, no one really knows where she belongs at the moment. She doesn't have a real "niche" as far as team-based play goes (Sleight of Hand and Prism are nice CC, but the former isn't wildly good while Prism is outdone by Radial Blind), but Mirage has an insane solo dps increase, which may yet just put her in a league of her own. Frankly, the jury's out on this one but I suspect she'll be useful when all you need is damage, damage, damage, baby.

[Glasglow]

A rank of first to worst for frames? I'll play along.

Top Tier

Ash

Excalibur

Nova

Valkyr

Nyx

Nekros

Mag

Loki

Rhino

Zephyr

Vauban

Volt

Trinity

Middle Tier

Hydroid

Banshee

Frost

Saryn

Lower Tier

Oberon

Ember

I wouldn't top tier nekros because he is weak on his own and only thing he brings to the table is his desecrate, everything else he has is just a joke and his ultimate is garbage and weak , also i would give banshee a higher tier for boosting everyone's damage insanely high.

Having played Volt for the longest time of all frames, he did not impress me much towards higher content, he is also somewhere mid tier, because all he provides is speed to make capture runs faster or travel around the map for party members.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Glasglow

[ProCharlesBro]

Well I will make a Tier for survival missions

 

Roles

 

Damage

Mirage

Nova

Ash ( He can kill very high lvls with bladestorm)

Saryn 

Ember

 

 

 

Support

Nekros (nekros is always good for the xtra LS but can be replaced if you have a good team)

Banshee (Really shines 30 mins +)

mag  ( Low energy cost pull = good cc + shield recovery + Bulet attractor 200% dmg beats trinity)

Trinity

 

 

CC

 

Nyx (chaos, mindcontrol for vor and absorb make her the best in this Role.)

Loki ( Loki disarm can make your life easier at a survival mission when a couple shots are enough to kill you.)

Excaliber

Vauban 

 

Tanks

 

Rhiano (roar and stomp are the main reason it beats valkyr)

 

Valkyr ( if played right she can be immortal)

 

Frost (with small globe to help rez)

[Yazeth]

I wouldn't top tier nekros because he is weak on his own and only thing he brings to the table is his desecrate, everything else he has is just a joke and his ultimate is garbage and weak.

He's a support frame, not a dmg dealer. What else do you expect? Anyways, he's basically a must for long Survivals, so that's why I consider him to be top tier as well. Also, Nekros can protect himself with SotD (meat shields) and Terrify (basically makes enemies useless during duration, but only takes effect on a certain number of enemies, won't tag all in the radius).

 

 

also i would give banshee a higher tier for boosting everyone's damage insanely high.

1) You HAVE to hit the glowing spot to make the ability worthwhile. This can be hard to do for explosives and projectile weapons (at long distances). I consider Molecular Prime to be better imo since it can also slow down enemies, and even cause dmg to nearby enemies as well. What's the point of extra dmg when you'll get shredded beforehand? Also, the rest of her abilities aren't that great. Only her ult is debatable.

 

Having played Volt for the longest time of all frames, he did not impress me much towards higher content, he is also somewhere mid tier, because all he provides is speed to make capture runs faster or travel around the map for party members.

There's a bug currently that allows you to stack his shield, resulting in broken numbers due to the dmg buff. (said to have been fixed by patch notes, but this seems to not be the case). Also, unlike Frost's Snow Globe, his shields are only duration base, making him arguably a good defender as well. Just slap on some efficiency and duration and you're good to go.

 

Again, consider playing the game a bit more. You are only touching the tip of the iceberg on everything, and dmg isn't the only thing you should care about. Also consider what a frame is not only best at, but how well they can perform in other situations as well, and how valuable they can be in a team.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Yazeth

[Wehe]

I don't get your point here. I just know that thinking that prime frames are better than ordinary is wrong, they have diffrent looks and diffrent polarities.

 

There are no good or bad frames in this game its in their user, get over it!

There are several primes that have extra benefits. Loki gets more energy, Rhino moves faster and Excaliber gets faster sheild recharge over non prime version.

 

Also Loki  is S tier he's advanced and one of the harder warframes, but if you mod him and play him right his ability to survive from invisibility is second to none and it's very hard for his damage to fall off. 

 

He excels in capture, exterminate, survival and thanks to his 1 he is even good in defense if you know how to place his clone under stairs and other places that it won't instantly die. I'd even argue that at it stands he's the best frame in the game but I know many won't agree.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Wehe

[Yazeth]

-snip-

Ember can also qualify for CC if you do an Accelerant build, which is actually pretty useful. 

 

-snip-

He is a really good frame, but you did say 'one of the harder warframes'. His abilities can scale endlessly, but he's very squishy. So, it takes a bit more skill to use Loki than any other frames. You will also need the right builds, which may be difficult for newcomers since they will need Corrupt mods to make a good build. It's understandable why Loki was replaced by Volt as a beginner warframe, and that players will need to kill the Hyena pack to get him, who will be difficult for new players to defeat, especially with the recent buff.

[Glasglow]

Currenty, Nekros is only good for desecrating, but this is what makes him needed in a bunch of void survivals. Oberon is good, but only for all around purposes. Because Oberon was made very balanced in every situation, he cannot be the best in those situations compared to other frames.

 

But, remember, she's a very squishy frame, and can basically be called a glass cannon. In terms of survivability, I would still choose Loki. He is also more viable for team play since you can't share Mirage's dmg bonus with your teammates (unless you are gonna use the alt fire of the Mutalist Quanta, but I have yet see anyone use it in long survivals).

 

Ember was made to be an offensive frame, but her dmg can only scale up to so much, so she isn't a viable choice as a dmg frame. I would prefer to make a spammable Accelerant build for infinite enemy lockdown and just kill them with my Boltor Prime/Brakk.

 

Also, you are right about other Prime variants having an extra polarity, but that only means that it takes one less forma to make your build. It does not give Prime variants any sort of advantages besides less time to make your desired build.

 

Also, the only two Prime variants with stat boosts are Rhino and Loki Prime, but it doesn't even make enough of a difference to call it better. Rhino's variant has extra movement speed, which can be done better with coptoring weapons, such as the Dual Ichors, so that doesn't even mean anything. Loki's variant has a raised energy cap, but that only means that he can spam his abilities a bit more, and benefit a bit more from QT, if you are planning to use it that is. As for looks, I'm fine with either the normal or prime variants. The gold trimmings stands out in my color scheme though, so that part's a bit annoying though.

 

 

 

 

My message to you is: Consider playing the game a bit more and learn what is good or not good on your own. Also, keep on trying new builds, weapons, and such. You will learn a lot more that way. I'm not sure if I really wanna agree with anything you say, since you have only recently started to play, specifically 10 days ago.

`

it is true, that she is squishy, but her clones often enough take enough damage, to let her get away with being squishy.

And it is also true about ability based frames, that deal damage with abilities. Damage abilities in this game do not scale well at all, compared to how weapons scale, so in the end, doing 300-500 damage with abilities, while your gun does 1000 damage per bullet, are two very incomparable things.

Yes, most Prime Variants have one extra polarity and a one or more, have an additional polarity in the aura slot, making them have two extra polarities, and while you are right, that they are not very much different from normal frames, they do tend to have A BIT higher base stats, which is not a very big advantage, but its there and it takes longer to forma normal frames, to make them equal to primes, but overall, i think that once you level a normal frame to 30, you can dispose of it, if it has a prime version.

Also i do agree with the gold bliss on Prime versions being unable to color, but that i guess is preferance, because i think the prime versions look just much better, even with the incolorable gold parts.

Also, almost every prime part, has additional bonuses over just more polaris, you should wiki it and see  yourself, ember can cast some abilities without interrupting her reload, excalibur has higher shield recharge rate, loki has more innate power,ect

 

Edited August 1, 2014 by Glasglow

[Glasglow]

He's a support frame, not a dmg dealer. What else do you expect? Anyways, he's basically a must for long Survivals, so that's why I consider him to be top tier as well. Also, Nekros can protect himself with SotD (meat shields) and Terrify (basically makes enemies useless during duration, but only takes effect on a certain number of enemies, won't tag all in the radius).

 

 

1) You HAVE to hit the glowing spot to make the ability worthwhile. This can be hard to do for explosives and projectile weapons (at long distances). I consider Molecular Prime to be better imo since it can also slow down enemies, and even cause dmg to nearby enemies as well. What's the point of extra dmg when you'll get shredded beforehand? Also, the rest of her abilities aren't that great. Only her ult is debatable.

 

There's a bug currently that allows you to stack his shield, resulting in broken numbers due to the dmg buff. (said to have been fixed by patch notes, but this seems to not be the case). Also, unlike Frost's Snow Globe, his shields are only duration base, making him arguably a good defender as well. Just slap on some efficiency and duration and you're good to go.

 

Again, consider playing the game a bit more. You are only touching the tip of the iceberg on everything, and dmg isn't the only thing you should care about. Also consider what a frame is not only best at, but how well they can perform in other situations as well, and how valuable they can be in a team.

I would not consider Volt any better because of a bug that he has, which enables him to stack damage, it will get removed and he is still mediocre with limited utility because the shield covers a very small angle.

Hitting the orange is not hard because in most cases, the orange area is very large, like shoulder, head, torso,ect and i do agree that her other abilities are bad and need a serious rework.

 

[Yazeth]

Just some things I wanna say:

 

it is true, that she is squishy, but her clones often enough take enough damage, to let her get away with being squishy.

The clones don't actually take dmg, they just draw aggro. Bullets can actually pass through them and still hit you.

 

 

Also, almost every prime part, has additional bonuses over just more polaris, you should wiki it and see  yourself, ember can cast some abilities without interrupting her reload, excalibur has higher shield recharge rate, loki has more innate power,ect

Excalibur Prime isn't something to matter about currently, since he is no longer obtainable. Fireball is the only ability that won't interrupt her reload. It doesn't deal a lot of dmg compared to other frame's 1 ability, so it's more of a stun ability. If by innate power, you mean raised power cap, then yes.

 

 

I would not consider Volt any better because of a bug that he has, which enables him to stack damage, it will get removed and he is still mediocre with limited utility because the shield covers a very small angle.

It's still there, and if you already have Volt, you should at least still keep him and abuse it for as long as possible. :)

 

 

Hitting the orange is not hard because in most cases, the orange area is very large, like shoulder, head, torso,ect

It's annoying whenever it's on the tiny legs of those Heavy Gunners though. :/

 

Btw, nice of you getting more info.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Yazeth

[Glasglow]

Just some things I wanna say:

 

The clones don't actually take dmg, they just draw aggro. Bullets can actually pass through them and still hit you.

 

 

Excalibur Prime isn't something to matter about currently, since he is no longer obtainable. Fireball is the only ability that won't interrupt her reload. It doesn't deal a lot of dmg compared to other frame's 1 ability, so it's more of a stun ability. If by innate power, you mean raised power cap, then yes.

 

 

It's still there, and if you already have Volt, you should at least still keep him and abuse it for as long as possible. :)

 

 

It's annoying whenever it's on the tiny legs of those Heavy Gunners though. :/

 

Btw, nice of you getting more info.

Aye i have volt and i love him, but doesn't change the fact that he is still not that great, but he is tons of utility really, the lightning stuns for so long and it chains, making targeting easy as pie, then his speed is awesome for melee and just running around the map, his ult is kinda mediocre tho and the shield is okay, rather than okay, i should say its GOOD but situational.

[-Vane-]

If you think Loki has anything that can put him in the same league as mirage, then you probably never even tried playing mirage.

Currently Mirage is in a league of her own, doing insanely stupid dps, x8 times more damage than basically any other frame.

 

 

 

I would downvote this post, but sadly there is no such option on this forum.

Are you serious? The only Frame that has different polarities in normal and prime version is ember, which you could argue which is better, but prime still wins out - having better overall polarities for a offensive frame.

Any other Prime is an upgrade to the normal version, having the same polarities, with 1 additional polarity.

And have i mentioned that ALL Prime versions, look tons better than the normal version? Well i thought thats a given.

Again, you are looking on this game's equipment all wrong. It all depends on build ( i need some polarities that normal ember has but i like the looks of ember prime). And you can always put some goodies on your frame. I think you are trying to be one of those "ultra pros" who use only the "best" frames in game.