Tiers Of Warframe (Community Input Needed!)

[link4355]

Did you guys and girls know there is a Warframe called Banshee?

For playing close to about 2 years now, I've noticed that some frames are used more frequently than others. I'm not asking for nerfs and buffs but I think it would be nice to know why from the community one frame is used more than another. For this I want to set up a tier system so that players can refer to it and who knows you may learn something new about your favorite frame.

You won't have to talk about every frame but just talk about at least one and what you use it for. Would you take it against one faction over another? Is there something about your frame that you feel is unappreciated? Would you like to see more of your frame? How difficult is it to acquire your Warframe? Maybe a power on paper sounds great but in execution falls flat. (example questions you don't have to answer like this)

There will be obvious answers but we'll need that and with the recent addition of augments your answer may change. All frames will have their spot (even primes). As for the tier system I was thinking basing it off of Smogon's Pokemon tiers starting off with Over Used, Rarely Used, and Never Used. I will add more if need be but I think that would be a good start (even if we have to rename it to suit our purpose).

I would ask as a last remark that when you talk about your frame(s) that you say where you think it should be on the list. Do keep in mind that it may or may not be placed in that tier. The list below is not finalized and will change as time goes on. Right now just trying to get a baseline. Other than that lets get started!

EDIT: To help with some confusion in reading this the tiers have been split into two separate categories. The first talks about overall effectiveness/usefulness (more dedicated towards end game or high level content). Please send me screenshots of your builds that demonstrate that your Warframe can fulfill its role (Mods do not need to be Max Rank. In fact it might be better to show the minimum amount of work needed to run it's role) I'll even accept links/screenshots to builds from http://warframe-builder.com/

 

Here I have a rough estimate from the Orokin Void Defense on what the range is from the center of cryo pod. This can help give an idea on how far some powers go (some go further but this covers a majority of them)

For now until hype and changes settle down on Warframes Nova Prime and Mesa will NOT be included at the current time.

Here is how the Tiers are broken down

Tier A- The best of the best able to fill multiple roles
Tier B- Still effective fills in a few roles but just not enough for Tier A
Tier C- Your one trick ponies. Normally has only one or two effective roles
Tier D- Out classed or role performed better by another frame.

Warframes will be based on the following

In game description: What role or expectation should the player have

Obtain Difficulty: how difficult it is to gather the parts and build (for an average or new player. Veterans obviously would find a majority of these Warframes easy because of certain gear, their knowledge, or friends who also are high leveled)

Stats (Unmodified At Max Rank)
Health:
Armor:
Shield:
Energy:
Speed:

Abilities (At Max Rank)
Crowd Control: Limits an enemies ability to fight back
Support: Buff allies or debuff enemies
Damage Dealing: Powers that dish out damage (EX: Loki's Radial Disarm does not count)
Utilities: Powers that mainly help yourself or are a compliment to your powers
Tank: Powers that boost armor, health, and/or shield rating. Any power that adds survivability and makes your warframe last longer in a fight

Augments: quick descriptions about what they do and the material that you care about

Meets Expectation? Does using this frame meet the expectation you have when you read the description? Do the powers/stats (no augments allowed here) match the description?

Additional Notes: any additional comments to help make the most out of your frame

Warframe Tiers

Tier A

Mirage
Nova
Rhino
Rhino Prime

Tier B

Ash

In Game Description: Great for players looking for a stealthier approach to combat. Lethal abilities are complimented by powers of distraction.

 

Obtain Difficulty: Easy: Overall fighting Tyl Regor on Uranus isn't difficult. Considering he uses melee and his own form of slash dash your chances of winning are higher when you keep your distance

 

Stats

Health:450

Armor:65

Shield:300

Energy:150

Speed:1.15

 

Abilities

Crowd Control: Shuriken, Blade Storm

Support:Shuriken(Augmented), Smoke Screen(Augmented)

Damage Dealing: Shuriken, Blade Storm

Utilities: Teleport, Smoke Screen

Tank:N/A

 

Augments: Seeking Shuriken- shurikens that hit their target will reduce enemy armor for 8 seconds

Smoke Shadow- Grants allies invisibility for 8 seconds in a 5m radius of intial cast

 

Meets Expectation? No as stated in the description his abilities are lethal and distracting. He follows the lethal part don't get me wrong but his powers do not distract enemies like Loki or Sayrn.

 

Additional Notes: Ash holds as one the highest health values out of all the frames allowing him to tank more hits with no negative to his shield (what I mean is that he has a normal shield value). Because his armor is normal he still won't be able to fully assume a tank role but with his power pool and augments is able to help his teammates, with either melee damage(Smoke Shadow also applies the 400% melee boost) or knocking off the armor of specific enemies (Seeking Shuriken with atleast 43% power strength). Ash's abilities and augments make for an interesting hybrid of stealth and staying offensive without sacrificing overall health and sheilds.

Excalibur
Loki
Loki Prime(in the void being near an inactive death orb will restore your energy one time use though)
Trinity
Vabaun

Valkyr

Tier C

Excalibur Prime(only because he's founder's Exclusive Should I even include him?)

Frost

Oberon
Nekros
Mag
Mag Prime
Sayrn
Volt

Tier D

Banshee
Ember
Ember Prime
Hydroid
Nyx
Nyx Prime
Zephyr

 

Mission Specific

Survival

Commonly Used

Rhino
Nova
Vauban
Mesa

Uncommonly Used

Trinity
Loki
Loki Prime
Sayrn
Excalibur

Rarely Used

Zephyr
Oberon
Hydroid
Ash
Mag
Ember
Ember Prime
Banshee

Defense
Commonly Used

Frost
Nova
Rhino
Mirage

Uncommonly Used

Nyx
Nyx Prime

Rarely Used

Oberon
Valkyr
Zephyr

Interception

Commonly Used

Rhino
Nova
Valkyr
Mesa
Mirage

Uncommonly Used

Excalibur
Loki
Loki Prime

Rarely Used

Ember
Ember Prime
Excalibur Prime
Nyx
Nyx Prime
Trinity

Capture

Commonly Used

Volt
Rhino
Nova

Uncommonly Used

Rarely Used

Assassination

Commonly Used

UncommonlyUsed

Rarely Used

Mobile Defense

Commonly Used

Uncommonly Used

Rarely Used

Exterminate, Hijack, Spy, and Sabotage

Commonly Used

Uncommonly Used

Rarely Used

Updates

V1.0

Started with 3 tiers
1.1

added tiers based on gametype
Changed "Over Used" to "Commonly Used"
Changed "Rarely Used" to "Uncommonly Used"
Changed "Never Used" to "Rarely Used"
started adding warframes to places

1.2

Added more descriptions to warframes
Added placeholders

1.3

Changed General Tiers"Over Used", "Rarely Used", and "Never Used" to Tier A, B, C, D respectfully
Removed Old Descriptions of Warframes and added a description of Ash in Tier B to show the new description
Gave explanation of A, B, C, and D Tiers

Uploaded picture for reference to range

Edited January 6, 2015 by link4355

[Aeiroth]

Overused: Rhino, Loki, Nova, Mirage.

 

Rarely Used: Ember, Limbo, Mag, Hydroid, Oberon, Nekros, Trinity, Volt.

 

Never Used: When was the last time you saw a Banshee?

 

Edit: Eh, fine... I might as well say some reasons about these choices.

 

Rhino

Overused due to his capabilities to nullify incoming damage while amplifying outgoing damage. This together with an Ultimate Ability that has a long reach and high damage makes him the obvious choice for everyone who wants an easy ride all the way up to 40-ish leveled mobs.

 

Loki

Overused because of two abilities in particular. Invisibility and Radial Disarm. Making himself unable to be attacked in most instances while severely limiting his opponents attack power. Invisibility also grants a huge damage multiplier to melee weapons, making infested turn into butter while his now disarmed Corpus and Grineer become easier to get close to and cut down like slightly tougher butter.

 

Nova

Molecular Prime. Make everything go boom. The end.

 

Mirage

Overused in missions that has larger amounts of enemies due to her ability "Hall of Mirrors". She becomes a one-man firing squad who can gun down most enemies, and a lot of them, with a good weapon in mere seconds. In addition she can use Eclipse to make herself do more damage, or take less damage depending on whether she wants a suntan or not. As the icing on the cake, her Ultimate, Prism can also deal a large amount of damage over a massive distance.

 

 

Not going to bother with the rest since they're pretty much lacking in firepower or utility or are very situational compared to the ones above.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Aeiroth

[Oberonight]

Trinity is definitely Never Used even though she can go Godmode and effectively decide the course of the battle with massive heals and free energy...yet I have not seen a single Trinity in a Void mission other than myself.

Trinity is SO unappreciated.

Every-time I heal a noob Rhino at 10hp and give him 99% damage reduction after face tanking a horde of Gunners and Bombards you know what he says? "omg noob trin isn't using EV so noob I coulda used Iron Skin so bad go uninstall why did you pick trin you noob."

 

Nova is Over Used without a doubt. M.Prime is just too good.

Frost is OU by default for Defense missions.

Ember is RU

as for NU...."what's a mag?"

Edited January 2, 2015 by Oberonight

[legendarysidekicksteve]

You might want to take the game mode into consideration as well. For example, Defense missions are going to have more Frosts than normal, and Survival more Nekros. 

[duhadventure]

Mesa and Limbo are semi overused.

[link4355]

Overused: Rhino, Loki, Nova, Mirage.

 

Rarely Used: Ember, Limbo, Mag, Hydroid, Oberon, Nekros, Trinity, Volt.

 

Never Used: When was the last time you saw a Banshee?

 

Does this seem accurate?

 If you can explain why then yes

@duhadventrue

 

Actually I hadn't thought of that but would be a great Idea. I'll edit that now

Edited January 2, 2015 by link4355

[[DE]Grzegorz]

Overused: Rhino, Loki, Nova, Mirage.

Loki. Is. Not. Overused.

 

This frame is THE true masterrace, capable of everything at any time (assuming Loki has enough energy to do its magic), it's a god tier frame, not overused toy like Rhino.

 

My contribution to never used, but I spent quite a lot of time in void lately so...

 

Zephyr, quite a rare sight in this game yet very fun to play.

Banshee, thanks god we don't see her that much, can't stand her design yet she has some potential.

Hydroid, too hard to acquire for what it offers.

Oberon, drops everywhere but rarely anyone uses this frame, probably due to the lack of a speciality, not a damage dealer, not a CC frame, not a healer, not area denial... Jack of all trades.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Mofixil

[Oberonight]

Loki. Is. Not. Overused.

 

This frame is THE true masterrace, capable of everything at any time (assuming Loki has enough energy to do its magic), it's a god tier frame, not overused toy like Rhino.

Loki for Ubers please.

Actually let's give it the Mega Rayquayza treatment and give him his own tier.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Oberonight

[AlphaHorseman]

Loki for Ubers please.

Actually let's give it the Mega Rayquayza treatment and give him his own tier.

I wouldn't call Loki an overused frame. He completes his function very well because his kit is a broad swath, but is still focused on stealth and/or enemy manipulation. His kit is solid. I would rather all our frames have power kits as solid as his so that all frames complete their functions fully, but are also allowed deviations and variations of builds. Some frames are getting there, some are still left in the dust, but improving our frames to be as solid in their kits as his would be a great benefit to all of us.

[Invisum]

Well, you have to define "overused" before  putting commonly used frames in that category. Nekros is almost always used in Survival, yet that doesn't make him overused, it means he serves a specific purpose.

 

Usually frames that do not serve a particular purpose fall under underused simply because they cannot contribute to the team as much. Some frames that are better for solo missions are commonly used in public matches where you cannot rely on a well-built squad.

 

I'd say frames are only underused when they have no real purpose to fill in a squad in any mission type.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Invisum

[link4355]

Well, you have to define "overused" before  putting commonly used frames in that category. Nekros is almost always used in Survival, yet that doesn't make him overused, it means he serves a specific purpose.

 

Usually frames that do not serve a particular purpose fall under underused simply because they cannot contribute to the team as much. Some frames that are better for solo missions are commonly used in public matches where you cannot rely on a well-built squad.

 

I'd say frames are only underused when they have no real purpose to fill in a squad in any mission type.

 Okay, well community what should define the tiers? Remember if there is a more suitable word to use let me know.

[AlphaHorseman]

 Okay, well community what should define the tiers? Remember if there is a more suitable word to use let me know.

Commonly Used:

 

Uncommonly Used:

 

Rarely Used:

 

Mission Specific Frame Preferences:

[VentiGlondi]

Loki. Is. Not. Overused.

 

This frame is THE true masterrace, capable of everything at any time (assuming Loki has enough energy to do its magic), it's a god tier frame, not overused toy like Rhino.

Over-used. Used a lot.

Geez. How can you get so emotional about someone saying a lot of players use a certain warframe?

 

 

Ash and Saryn are the two most overused Warframes for Interception missions due to their ults being the most spammable and mindless abilities in the game.

[Rehero]

I don't really think tiers of use are the best way to go about this. If anything tiers of potential would likely be better as there are some frames that have insane potential but see little play.

 

Mag for example has insane scaling on shield polarize but I don't see her nearly as much as Saryn whom tends to taper off.

[link4355]

I don't really think tiers of use are the best way to go about this. If anything tiers of potential would likely be better as there are some frames that have insane potential but see little play.

 

Mag for example has insane scaling on shield polarize but I don't see her nearly as much as Saryn whom tends to taper off.

The reason why I picked tiers was so that people could look at it and pick up patterns. Yes it's true that some frames can be used in more scenarios than others but that's the issue. Some of these frames are nothing more to players than a Mastery Rank booster not because they don't like them but because they lack 1 or 2 details that puts them way under par.

[cyrus106]

Before everybody jumps on the "Omg mission-specific" train for tiers, I feel we need to seperate the tiers. One tier for general gameplay (as-in, using the frame for everything, no matter what) and one for mission-specific tiers. Because I'm sorry but I see rhinos and novas friggin everywhere, I would consider that over-used

 

edit: Looks like OP beat me to the punch.

 

I'll give my two cents then

 

 

Nyx: A fickle girl, it's hard to categorize nyx anymore due to the irradiating disarm augment on loki giving her some fierce competition for her own role

 

Zephyr: I have literally seen 2 Zephyrs after the Zephyr released died down, even if some of her under-use is due to not understanding how some of her powers (such as turbulence) work

 

Volt: I don't care what people say, my favorite frame Volt is extremely under used as I almost never see him unless it's solely to use his crit-boosting elec shield and nothing else. There's not even much love for his speed boost. Valkyr warcry + speed melee builds anyone? Nobody? They're fun as hell, try it.

 

Rhino: I don't even need to explain why he honestly needs some work as he is simply too good at too many roles

 

Trinity: A living team energy restore and team health restore, that's all she is anymore, hate to say it.

 

Nova: Most nova players spam m prime and have no idea what AMD is, so....highly overused, but not very understood.

 

Loki: An excellent frame that actually does take some intelligence to use, even if the invisibility is a BIT TOO good. I'd say leave him as-is on tiers.

 

Ember: Never used, serious rework needed

 

 

Will help with mission-specific tiers soon

'

 

Edit2: Mag prime and mag I feel should be in uncommonly used, as the new shield transference mod allows her to be GREAT in void and corpus tilesets

Edited January 2, 2015 by cyrus106

[Rehero]

The reason why I picked tiers was so that people could look at it and pick up patterns. Yes it's true that some frames can be used in more scenarios than others but that's the issue. Some of these frames are nothing more to players than a Mastery Rank booster not because they don't like them but because they lack 1 or 2 details that puts them way under par.

No I mean the tiers are fine, Tiers of USE are going to cause problems. It works on pokemon because there are things that do the same job but see less play because of some varied ability/move/type combo. It doesn't work in warframe because there are not many frames and things get played because people enjoy it more. A tier of use in warframe is likely just going to be a tier of which is more fun to a wider group of people when in reality they may not hold nearly the same potential as another.

 

Trinity for example sees very little play but her potential is outlandish. Mag sees little play but her shield polarize is hilarious (especially with the new augment). Saryn sees a lot of play but only because her ult stomps on any lower level content, but in reality she can't hold up to the utility that trinity and mag bring to higher levels of play.

 

Also these are just examples there are many more than don't see as much play but perform very well as the difficulty scales.

Edited January 2, 2015 by Rehero

[Monolake]

[link4355]

I've seen this before but it needs updated. Moving on...

 

So rename the tiers like the picture above?

Edited January 2, 2015 by link4355

[cyrus106]

I've seen this before but it needs updated. Moving on...

 

So rename the tiers like the picture above?

 

No I mean the tiers are fine, Tiers of USE are going to cause problems. It works on pokemon because there are things that do the same job but see less play because of some varied ability/move/type combo. It doesn't work in warframe because there are not many frames and things get played because people enjoy it more. A tier of use in warframe is likely just going to be a tier of which is more fun to a wider group of people when in reality they may not hold nearly the same potential as another.

 

Trinity for example sees very little play but her potential is outlandish. Mag sees little play but her shield polarize is hilarious (especially with the new augment). Saryn sees a lot of play but only because her ult stomps on any lower level content, but in reality she can't hold up to the utility that trinity and mag bring to higher levels of play.

 

Also these are just examples there are many more than don't see as much play but perform very well as the difficulty scales.

we arent here to discuss potential of frames, we are here to discuss how often they are used. Also, link no, that table in the picture is horrible and looks like a joke to me

Edited January 2, 2015 by cyrus106

[HibikiGanaha]

I've seen this before but it needs updated. Moving on...

 

So rename the tiers like the picture above?

how is banshee not in delete tier all by herself?

[DianaHuntress]

I would just change tiers to how often they are seen in missions, most times/frequently/uncommon/rarely seen.

I mostly play mid tier content and Archwing(didnt include that one here as its purely cosmetic and you hardly see what the others use if not in list)and rarely the void.

 

Most seen:

Usually see one Mirage with Boltor P or beamguns everywhere i go, even more often than Nova lately. Commonly nickname her the attention@#&*( discoqueen due to her lightshow.

 

Rhino/P stomps through the world like an angry dinosaur. I see him less often than Mirage lately but when i see him he usually comes in a pack (Having 3 Rhino Primes surrounding my little Banshee kinda feels like some bulky Thugs taking onto a little girl...)

 

Frequently seen:

Nova/Oberon seem to take a head on head race in their ultspamming party during midtier missions though i rarely see anything else from their side.

 

Mission specific:

I see Volts mostly in speedruns like capture or alert mission public runs, mostly to boost the speed of those who do not copter all way through but out of that i rarely see him ,if not used by a clanmate who kinda mainly uses volt.

 

I mostly choose frames by design so my personal useage list is not representive though lately i mostly play (in that order) Zephyr, Trinity, Banshee and Mirage.

[ElecZING]

High tiered tower endless missions(def,int,surv)ive seen alot of loki, trinity, nekros, saryn, valkyr, mag, nova, vauban, frost(for def) mirage. Not many others have the kit that they can bring in those. But mostly loki/trin/nekro/mag

[cyrus106]

Mesa is difficult to gauge since new frames are popular for some time. put her in overused for general use and defense, since that is where I see her most

[Otakuwolf]

Personally:

 

The frame i use the most is Excalibur, is very versatile and i can play almost anything with him... but the real reason why i use him rather than any other frame it's the "feeling" it gives, lesser of a Rambo and more like a true space samurai/ninja/whatever with his high mobility and customization and i like to use it against every faction in every mission.

I feel like this frame is under appreciated, people talking about it often say is not as effective as the other frames when in real they mean "it cannot obliterate a room with a press to win strategy", or complain about his skills being "useless" adding stuff like "coptering > Slash dash" or "Super jump = useless" and a lot of other reasoning that are (in my opinion) a proof that people simply don't really understand that it's skills are not supposed to be taken singularly and considered occasional (enemy ahead: Slash dash ! Enemies around: Radial Javelin !) but rather taken all together and consider theyr use for many purpouses (you can tell all you want a coptering is better than a Dash, but to copter you need precise weapons with precise mods, and anyway a dash sends you forward much faster and combined with a superjump it allows you to skip canyons by lenght).

I don't know if i'll see more Excaliburs around, i honestly don't care because as long as I play with him i'm fine, if other people don't like it's playstyle i perfectly understand and respect it, if other people don't play him because instead claim is "weak" then probably don't understand it's mechanic and i'm sorry for them because don't see the full picture about him.

Excalibur is a starter but if you didn't pick him at the beginning you have to get to Pluto before to get one so i say it's eighter very easy or an obnoxious amount of time to finally reach Ambulas and get it's parts.

I also have Excalibur Prime but i don't use him much because i'm not much a "bling bling" person, so i use him for "long" missions (like high Tier endless Void missions) since it's different polarizations allowed me to build it much more "tanky" than it's non-prime counterpart.