Which Warframes Are "endgame" Viable?

[Ruby_Rose_]

Just a simple question to everyone here on the forums.

 

Which warframes do you think are or are not endgame viable frames? Why do you think so?

 

Now personally, I believe ALL of them COULD be endgame viable. With the right builds and knowing how to use them of course. So I ask again, which do you think are actually viable and which aren't?

 

To clarify: My definition of Endgame at the moment is Raid level or higher enemies. Those moments where you need more than one specific frame to be successful. I say this because, while it may not be a true end game, it is more or less the most difficult content outside of extended Defences and Survivals.

 

I'm more or less looking to do some theorycrafting, but I honestly want to see what people think. So expect me to reply :)

Edited May 7, 2015 by Ruby_Rose_

[Autongnosis]

To be honest there is nothing i would not bring - that provided the user has some finesse in building and some skill in using the frame.

 

Personally i think it's more a question of how easy it is to do it than of whether you can do it.

 

Nyx, Loki, Nova, Vauban, Mirage, Ash are probably the easiest to use.

 

Imho the ones that are the hardest, or require more effort/team coordination, are Ember and Excalibur.

[dddeath]

if you define endgame by long survivals/defense and raids i'd say good CC frames, vauban and disarm loki in particular. that and vamp trinity.

 

that insane Tactical Alert with heavy melee only vs lvl 100 enemies was a good example of how CC makes VERY hard challenges doable.

[Brynslustafir]

Many of them if you know the optimal builds. 

[Ruby_Rose_]

To be honest there is nothing i would not bring - that provided the user has some finesse in building and some skill in using the frame.

 

Personally i think it's more a question of how easy it is to do it than of whether you can do it.

 

Nyx, Loki, Nova, Vauban, Mirage, Ash are probably the easiest to use.

 

Imho the ones that are the hardest, or require more effort/team coordination, are Ember and Excalibur.

I agree, those are pretty easy to build for end game. I disagree with Ember being harder to play, at least not the way i build her. Ecal is pretty easy too, he pretty much just spams blind most of the time.

 

 

if you define endgame by long survivals/defense and raids i'd say good CC frames, vauban and disarm loki in particular. that and vamp trinity.

 

that insane Tactical Alert with heavy melee only vs lvl 100 enemies was a good example of how CC makes VERY hard challenges doable.

CC definitely does scale well, or at least better than most damage into the late game survivals and defences..

 

Many of them if you know the optimal builds. 

:) You said many, but not all?

Edited May 7, 2015 by Ruby_Rose_

[Endrance]

IMO, there is no "optimal endgame warframe", there are although, Duo of warframe that stick well together.

 

I like how Nyx and Ash combine

[Autongnosis]

Let's say Ember is harder because it is almost a pure damage frame and you need to evaluate pretty well what to do since your damage will falloff pretty fast compared to, say, Ash. Also Ember has very little in the way of self defense which means that any error at a certain level means you'll go down.

 

Excalibur needs a bit of finesse since the changes - you need to be able to process the situation when casting the Blind or you risk leaving a wide area unaffected that will then bite you in the &#! shooting you to pieces when you thought they were blinded.

 

Compared to, say, Nova's Molecular Prime spam with an Antimatter Drop here and there to clean up, or Vaubans Vortex/Bastille combo where you just have to press a button every once in a while, or the max Range Nyx which only needs to cast Chaos on a regular basis and save her arse with Absorb as a panic button, Ember and Excal are a little more complex in my opinion.

[Blackout751]

I believe every warframe can be endgame, but not every player can be endgame.

[Neofaucheur]

I would say ALL too, but nuke Warframe don't scale well, even Ash. That being said every Warframe can be useful with the right build and the right teammates... for some mission types at least.

The only requirement is to play them for CC/team bonuses, not as damage dealer, weapons are better to this job.

[VKhaun]

If by endgame you mean T4 non-endless, T4 endless to one full reward rotation (AABC) and top level syndicate missions and alerts then none are "not viable". You can do that stuff on Loki using no powers if you have good weapons and a good sense of position. You only start to need powers when you ignore cover and try to face tank everything. I actually do have every frame and wouldn't hesitate to do things like this with any of them if I was in the mood.

 

If by endgame viable you meant trials (/raids) that's always going to be in flux. We will have more raids coming to the game with all sorts of challenges. Who knows what could be useful or what frame could become useful? Plus if they're going to allow four players that means it'll never REQUIRE more than four specific frames so again, anything could be "viable" if carried through the raid-specific parts as long as you're contributing to QoL and DPS. It'd be pretty hard to pick a frame that did neither.

 

If by endgame you mean endless missions then your metric is either flawed (infinity) or arbitrary (whatever minutes) and I can't speak to it without you defining it.

 

Going to go with "none" for now.

Edited May 7, 2015 by VKhaun

[AdunSaveMe]

All of them are somewhat viable, but the ones with less CC and less defensive (such as Ember) really struggle.

[dddeath]

the damage frames (blade storm, miasma etc) doesn't scale very well.

[Ruby_Rose_]

Let's say Ember is harder because it is almost a pure damage frame and you need to evaluate pretty well what to do since your damage will falloff pretty fast compared to, say, Ash. Also Ember has very little in the way of self defense which means that any error at a certain level means you'll go down.

 

Excalibur needs a bit of finesse since the changes - you need to be able to process the situation when casting the Blind or you risk leaving a wide area unaffected that will then bite you in the ! shooting you to pieces when you thought they were blinded.

 

Compared to, say, Nova's Molecular Prime spam with an Antimatter Drop here and there to clean up, or Vaubans Vortex/Bastille combo where you just have to press a button every once in a while, or the max Range Nyx which only needs to cast Chaos on a regular basis and save her arse with Absorb as a panic button, Ember and Excal are a little more complex in my opinion.

This is true. Some are simply enough to play with a few buttons, others take a bit of game knowledge to work properly.

 

I believe every warframe can be endgame, but not every player can be endgame.

I guess that's a reasonable way to think about it.

 

I would say ALL too, but nuke Warframe don't scale well, even Ash. That being said every Warframe can be useful with the right build and the right teammates... for some mission types at least.

The only requirement is to play them for CC/team bonuses, not as damage dealer, weapons are better to this job.

Hmm, Ash I'd say is one that deals fairly good damage at high level enemies. Mainly because Blade Storm does Finisher damage, which ignores any kind of armor. I took him on a raid once, he had no problems tearing them apart. Bladestorm gets kind of crazy, considering it gets the bonus multiplier from Melee combo.

 

If by endgame you mean endless missions then your metric is either flawed (infinity) or arbitrary (whatever minutes) and I can't speak to it without you defining it.

I definitely don't mean one rotation of survival/defence. Currently, I see end game as any where Enemy levels are 80+, so Raids, and lengthy Def/Sur. There are different kind of "endgame". In the case of warframe, it's just tougher enemies that make it feel endgame.

 

All of them are somewhat viable, but the ones with less CC and less defensive (such as Ember) really struggle.

Less CC? Ember? All of her skills can cause CC effects actually.

 

Fireball: Heat proc, tends to cause "panic"

Accelerant: AoE Stun for a short duration.

FireBlast: Knock down, Heat procs

World On Fire: Knockdown(with Augment), Fire procs.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Ruby_Rose_

[AdunSaveMe]

Fireball: Heat proc, tends to cause "panic"

Accelerant: AoE Stun for a short duration.

FireBlast: Knock down, Heat procs

World On Fire: Knockdown(with Augment), Fire procs.

Augments don't count. You don't judge a frame by its augments. It's inaccurate. 

 

Heat procs aren't great CC. It relies on RNG, which makes her weaker in terms of CC than other frames.

[Petersheikah]

I think it'd be easier to answer to the question "which ones are not viable for endgame?"

I'd say Ember and Zephyr. The former is very underpowered, her only advantage is the CC, but it needs a very nice build to perform decently. The latter would be very strong if it wasn't for that broken ability she has.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Petersheikah

[WERElektro]

Nyx is endgame viable...

Volt isn't

that's what I can say for sure.

Got plenty of experience with both frames.

Gotta love nyx' skills.

[Ruby_Rose_]

Augments don't count. You don't judge a frame by its augments. It's inaccurate. 

 

Heat procs aren't great CC. It relies on RNG, which makes her weaker in terms of CC than other frames.

True, the procs are RNG, for WoF. The other three all have a 100% CC chance... But, even by itself, Accelerant is still great CC, Spammable too.

 

I count the augment, You can't judge a frame by it, but it does add a really reliable CC to WoF. I think the augments actually make a lot of the previously nonviable frames a lot more viable.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Ruby_Rose_

[(PSN)JiggaJazz]

loki prime

nova prime

volt prime

vauban

nyx prime

banshee

trinity

mirage

rhino prime

mag prime

mesa

 

ash if youre camping and using his invis augment

 

frost for endless def and nekros for endless surv

 

no particular order

[Kuestenjung]

Endgame doens´t exist, with other words, no frame is andgame viable.

[(PSN)JiggaJazz]

Nyx is endgame viable...

Volt isn't

that's what I can say for sure.

Got plenty of experience with both frames.

Gotta love nyx' skills.

how is a warframe that can set 12-20 turret shields for 40 seconds+ not "end game"? (mine last 1 minute)

 

dont get me started on crit head shots either

Edited May 7, 2015 by (PS4)JiggaJazz

[007-Creed]

It depends what u mean with endgame.

 

If u speak of big endless runs (exemple for leaderboards) u dont have much choise on frames, squad is just 4 players and u need CC and damage boost, so frames like loki, nyx, nova, banshee, vauban or trin is almost guaranted to be present, depends on squad tactic.

 

If u speak of runs with lvl 60+ then i would say every frame is reliable except ember, frost and rhino should be avoided, these 3 lack on playing there rolls later.

 

Frost as ice themed and tanky frame lacks on both CC and tankiness, same for rhino, iron skin doesnt scale and roar is just terrible bad too

As for ember is just pure damage and eventually will fail later.

Edited May 7, 2015 by N7-Creed

[WERElektro]

how is a warframe that can set 12-20 turret shields for 40 seconds+ not "end game"? (mine last 1 minute)

 

dont get me started on crit head shots either

 

Okay.. create a shield... meanwhile you get gunned down from behind (did this sound wrong?)

 

I'd love to se Volt as endgame viable... He's my favourite warframe... But I can't.

The shield is usefull... But doesn't offer allround protection ... unless you're camping.

[AdunSaveMe]

True, the procs are RNG, for WoF. The other three all have a 100% CC chance... But, even by itself, Accelerant is still great CC, Spammable too.

 

I count the augment, You can't judge a frame by it, but it does add a really reliable CC to WoF. I think the augments actually make a lot of the previously nonviable frames a lot more viable.

Yes, one spammable cc ability and rng-based heat procs. Not reliable, comparatively. 

 

Other somewhat squishy damage casters have something to back up their relative paper-ish aspects.

Nova has that mass area slow/debuff and mobility, Mag has CC and a shield restore etc.

 

Ember has no defensive capabilities outside of CC spam, which makes her damage focus even more noticeable when it falls off.

[Hypernaut1]

Why do people insist on saying Ember is not good at CC?

Why do people think Volt is better than ember? Because of his shield? I find his shield far less reliable in tough situations when you're surrounded compared to ALL of Embers CC abilities.

Volt shock is decent, but speed and his ultimate leave a lot to be desired when it comes to high level content.

[Elenortirie]

some would be extremely situational but I think all of them will be "viable"....

 

althought please do not mistake "viable" twith "optimal" here :P