Un-Official Warframe Tier List

[Sideway]

Okay, it's that time of the year again, time to discuss Warframe Tier List and give some feedback on "How do we fix Low Tier Frames".

 

This list was created after many many days of serious discussions between Top Clans (lel) and Elite Players (lul) and I think it's almost perfect. It really shows how the Warframe "endgame" looks like. But 5-6 amazing frames out of 13 is not enough.

 

I'd be very happy to see ~10 High/Mid Tier Frames and no Low Tier at all.

 

So:

 

 

I'll start then:

 

Mag:

Holy crap... Mag. How could this happen? DE literally ignored her for A VERY long time. She terribly needs a rework. Gladly, there are SO many threads about it so I hope that DE will not ignore our feedback.

Solution: Serious rework. She is the Master of Magnetism... and Warframe is about killing things mostly made out of metals... so she should kinda be... Crowd Controller/Devastating Caster?

 

Rhino: The Fallen King - ;_;7

I'm one of those players who have "wasted" precious Orokin Reactor on the "old" version of this Frame. Right now he's a Giant... but he can't tank. He is unable to, not anymore. After Wave 15 his Iron Skin is shattered faster than you can say "Oh crap, Potato alert". His Ulti died the same day when Vauban was introduced.

Solution: Iron Skin rework, Ulti rework. Long live the King.

 

Volt:

Ah yes... Volt. In theory - he's supposed to be Caster, "an alternative to the gunplay". But sadly... he's not. He's only decent against Corpus... any other Fraction can resist his funny, little spells like they're nothing.

Solution: Stronger first spell, more aoe/chain lightning effect. His shield could be a little bigger, let's call it "Volt Wall", and the most important thing... his situational Ulti. It's too situational. Also mobs lightning resist tweak would be nice.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that the Mid Tier could use a little tweaks. No need for any serious reworks, just a little tweak or buff here and there.

 

High Tier Frames are one of my favourites. Battlefield Manipulators, good damage (real ALTERNATIVE to the gunplay) and very versatile. Almost perfectly balanced, useful in many situations, it's always nice to have one of them in your team. Nice desings too.

 

God Tier is broken - that's obvious. I'm not saying that "nerfing him to the ground" is a good idea, but Vauban really could use a little nerf, right now he's -the best- Frame in the game.

 

Final Feedback: Rework and buff Mag, buff Rhino and Volt, tweak Mid Tier and Nerf God Tier.

 

PS. Yes, no matter how frustrated you are - Ash is Mid Tier (barely escaped the Low Tier! Only a few votes!) and there is nothing you can do about it but to ask DE to make him more useful to the team.

 

TL;DR - Here, let's discuss Tier List. Also - Mag sucks.

 

Post 8.3 Version (Still waiting for the Update 9!)

 

Edited July 7, 2013 by Sideway

[Xoxile]

All I see are opinions. I disagree with most of the order in which the frames are placed.

TL,DR - Change the "Official" in the name to "Opinions about"

[[DE]Rebecca]

Hmm, I am interested in what the rest of the community thinks of this list. Do you agree/disagree? Have you played all 13 frames, or are you in a clan or squad with access to all 13, and found clear disadvantages as suggested in this image?

[.Fyr.]

Mag sux! :)
my 1st Frame..i hate it!
 

[Yogotiss]

I think Trinity should be GOD

[Dochi.]

Yay my 4 favorite frames in High Tier. :D

[Dantal]

This appears to be more a usefulness in endless defense than anything else. Some of those mid tier warframes are some of the best boss farmers in the game, and while I will agree Mag needs some love, she is far from useless.

 

Edit: @Becca

 

I have yet to play Excalibur, Ember, or Rhino (playing Vauban right now, next is Excalibur Prime). I do, however, have friends with those frames.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Dantal

[Kickboxing_Banana]

Rhino can still solo any boss that is out there soooo easily, why would you consider him as low-tier frame? In my opinion he could be mid-tier.

[SpXxwW]

Volt <3 a very best warframe. But almost useless against infested. Banshee is God.

[SnokyoDrift]

Hmm, I am interested in what the rest of the community thinks of this list. Do you agree/disagree? Have you played all 13 frames, or are you in a clan or squad with access to all 13, and found clear disadvantages as suggested in this image?

 

I have played every single frame to 30 multiple times (with the exception of Mag; once is enough) in every type of mission possible (4 clanmates in a similar situation), and I would 90% agree with the OP save a few minor changes (ie. Trinity and Nyx in God Tier due to technicalities - you will not take a single point of damage in any situation if you know how to play).

 

I disagree with Vauban needing any sort of nerf though, as he isn't pervasive in his strength like the old Banshee ultimate. While this would exclude him from being labelled God Tier, I believe that Vauban has enough tools to adapt to any situation, simultaneously earning him his place in the God Tier and making him perhaps the most enjoyable frames in the game.

 

God Tier contains the frames that are able to manipulate enemies and the field into a state of no-lose (an alternative definition is that God Tier contains abilities that are straight up more powerful than everything else), where you cannot be beaten while playing these frames. Being a co-op game, this isn't an enormous issue, but some attempts to rework the two "technically God Tier" frames should be made, as they are effectively one-trick-ponies without anything else going for them (as opposed to something like Meta-Knight, who has the best in every single area).

 

High Tier contains the most enjoyable frames to play in my opinion. They are never useless in 99% of situations and all have a nice theme. Some adjustments are needed (Saryn's 1&3, and as a consequence, 2&4) but overall, they are fine, balance wise.

Banshee, Queen of All Trades - The most flexible frame by far, containing 1 powerful ability in the Offensive, Defensive, and Utility area.

Frost, King of Defence - An Immovable Object that is fully equipped to hold his ground against any enemy.

Saryn, the Gymnast - Incredibly flexible and moddable to suit any situation. Owner of the only ultimate that is blind to all situations.

 

Mid Tier frames tend to be specialists in their abilities. Good to Excellent in one area, but lacking in others that are important for control in various other situations. By this definition, Saryn fits in Mid Tier, but she remains in limbo-High Tier due to Miasma's indiscriminate nature being too valuable.

Ember, the Exterminator - Good for committing genocide on the most evil scale, roasting thousands of enemies in minutes, however loses effectiveness when enemies are able to resist her extremely high damage.

Excalibur, Jack of All Trades - Similar to the Queen, but more specific and slightly less suitable to the current map and enemy designs.

Loki, the Loner - Extremely powerful in his own right, but simply does not offer enough to the team.

Ash, the Nuker - Powerful direct damaging abilities that are blind to race make him superior to Volt, but the scope of their function is rather small. Smoke Bomb's stagger effect is his saving grace from the damp darkness of Low-Tier.

 

By extension, Low Tier is further specialised, but in a way that is so narrow that it excludes too many game elements to be useful. Both Ash and Volt are good at dealing damage with their spells, but this is a VERY weak strength to have, which makes Low Tier their home. As with the alternate God Tier definition, it contains things that are simply outclassed in their function, such as Rhino.

 

Lastly and most obviously, Trash Tier contains the characters that are have extremely weak or niche strengths that simply aren't needed in too many situations.

 

e: Wow, typing this up reminds me of reading and writing Pokemon and Super Smash Brothers Tier Lists. *nostalgia*

 

Disclaimer: the advice below contains generalisations. Use your brain.

Now, drawing on my balance experiences indirect combat interactions from many other games, I can loosely say that High Tier and Mid Tier are mostly okay to be left alone. A few damage nerfs on High Tier and a few ultility buffs on Mid Tier should establish a solid balance reference for all future frames to come.

 

When we come to Low and God Tier though, super-buffing or super-nerfing them is not always the best solution. Using the insight of years of DotA balance, it is often better to stab a powerful warrior's sword arm to hinder him rather than take away his skill with the sword. What I mean by this is that it is preferable to make easy, powerful feats slightly more difficult to achieve, rather than to turn them into easy, less powerful feats. And of course the inverse is true for buffs.

 

In Trash Tier though, a whole rework is necessary. I'm sorry, but you're going to have to put in work.

 

Further edit: Here's my opinion of game stages at the moment.

 

Early Easy Game - All the planet missions

Can be done with sub-optimal weapons, enemies and challenges may be 'brute forced' with some effort.

 

Mid Medium Game - T3

Early game tactics and equipment are less suitable here, where effective equipment is strongly preferred. Despite this, enough patience will see the success of Early Game tactics.

 

End game - Non-existent

End game content requires fluid teamwork, effective strategy and the very best equipment to overcome. There is no currently existing content that fits this description.

 

High Wave Defence (HWD) is simply abuse in its most literal meaning. There is no rational motivation to enter HWD, and it consists of only specifically tailored skills that are conceivably infinitely useful (Snowglobe/Chaos, Bastille). Therefore HWD belongs in Easy Game. However, effective equipment is highly desirable in the interest of time, placing HWD in between Easy and Medium Game. As a player who has fought many level 300+s, after extrapolation, I can confidently say that I could (theoretically) train a chimpanzee to do my job for me. Fun factoid: Lack of mental stimulation for an intelligent being is akin to torture.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Tryysaeder

[ArticHood]

I have a lot more to say on this topic, but I don't exactly have the time now, so I'll edit this post or post again later.

 

One very important thing though, do NOT nerf Vauban. He's alright as he is right now, although the jump pad thingy (forgot the name) is useless.

 

Just a note, I do have every warframe except Nyx.

Edited June 18, 2013 by ArticHood

[S3raph]

I played most of the frames with the exception of nyx and vauban... and with the exception of ash and excalibur I would mostly agree with this... 

Excalibur is extremely underrated. IMO one of the best. 

And since the rework to Ash's Shuriken, he's become my favourite and my go to frame for high level missions

[Sideway]

Hmm, I am interested in what the rest of the community thinks of this list. Do you agree/disagree? Have you played all 13 frames, or are you in a clan or squad with access to all 13, and found clear disadvantages as suggested in this image?

 

Haha, Reb in my thread, glorious.

 

Yes, we have access to all the Frames (Reactor'd and Forma'd) and we've hard-tested them in many situations.

 

I know it may look like "Official Opinion Thread" but it really isn't. We've been testing Frames in the few categories:

- Non-Defense Missions

- Defense Missions

- Void Towers

 

Result was always the same: Crowd Control > Damage. Only Saryn's -devastating- DoTs allowed her to stay in the High Tier, no matter the mob levels. Excalibur was close to get to the High Tier but his blind is just too short.

 

In the end damage doesn't matter, but if Frame has at least one Crowd Control or one -very unique- Utility Skill then it's no longer useless.

 

Rebecca, I think that Mag's uselessness is overlooked by far too long. Same as Volt, she's "so situational it makes her too situational - and useless in the result.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Sideway

[Desauron]

How dare you insult Loki warframe!! I dont even bother anymore....

[TheaMatticks]

Rhino can still solo any boss that is out there soooo easily, why would you consider him as low-tier frame? In my opinion he could be mid-tier.

Any frame can solo any boss pretty easily with good gear.  What's your point?

Edited June 18, 2013 by therundown

[Mr.Popo]

As someone who has put maybe 30 or 40 hours into Mag, here's what I have to say. 

 

Crush is good. It has excellent range and does good damage, but once you get to a level that mooks survive, there really isn't much Mag can do except disable them for about 3 seconds. 

 

The only use I've found for shield polarise is to give a little extra protection to the cryopod. Everything else happens too fast for the other capabilities of this power to be useful.

 

Pull is situational at best, and I generally don't equip it. 

 

Bullet attractor sounds great but can actually reduce the DPS of a competent team as it doesn't direct the bullets against the enemy weakpoint. 

 

Suggestions:

 

Crush should ignore armour and affect things which enter the area afterwards. 

 

Pull should be thrown out. Suggestion: Magnetise - Aim at the ground, wall, a friendly or an enemy target and all other enemies in range will be pulled towards it. 

 

Bullet attractor should be configured to draw bullets to the enemies weakest point. If Sonar is active, the orange section should become the weakest point. 

 

Shield Polarise should drain shields from enemies AND prevent their regeneration for some duration. Shields given to friendly or cryopod should be greatly boosted, perhaps 1000 at maximum. 

Edit: Shield Polarise should also be area of effect, small perhaps, but then it would see great utility. Consider a friendly in the midst of a group of enemies, it would drain the enemies and increase the friendly's shields. Further, it should boost that friendly's shields by the given amount, whether or not it goes above their maximum. Such a temporary buff for friendlies would make this power very interesting and perfectly justifiable given its current cost. It could then self boost ones shields also. 

Edited June 18, 2013 by Mr.Popo

[Vinogrady]

Hmm, I am interested in what the rest of the community thinks of this list. Do you agree/disagree? Have you played all 13 frames, or are you in a clan or squad with access to all 13, and found clear disadvantages as suggested in this image?

I played all of them. Played Rhino before and after Iron Skin nerf.

And yes, i think Iron Skin got nerfed too far, it's not even on par with Trinity's link anymore.

If backing up Iron Skin and tweaking it's duration is not an option, then his other skills should get a buff to make up for it.

i find it kinda funny that they nerfed rhinos iron skin and left trinitys link skill to be.

i do agree that they need to increase the energy cost for iron skin.

i think the simpliest way would be nerfing radial blast in terms of damage and decreasing it's cost to 50 and making

iron skin what it was with higher energy cost and maybe tweak the duration for it.

right now it's just silly that trinity is a better tank than rhino.

[Kickboxing_Banana]

Any frame can solo any boss pretty easily with good gear.  What's your point?

 

Rhino doesn't need good gear to go solo most of the bosses.

[Amistyrja]

I potatoed my Mag. Haters gonna hate.

 

 

But other than Crushing groups of enemies and Shield Polarizing my teammates and the Cryopod, I really don't do much else.

[Nicodemus666]

Haven't played all of the frames,(in fact i got only Exca from the "mid tier" frames), but i have all "useless-low tier" and Nix is the only one of the "hig-god tier" i miss.

 

I agree with this rating, Mag clearly need a buff, most of her abilities have a nice concept, but are underpowered in term of effect. I would like to see her with more crowd-control oriented abilities.

 

The real problem about Rhino is the Iron Skin, it should scale better with the difficulty and i thin that the frane should return a viable option.

 

Volt...well Volt is useful against Corpus. Ember cut trough Infested as a hot knife in the butter, but it's pretty good against all factions, and i think Volt should be able to do the same.

 

Vauban could use a nerf. Maybe a cap on Tesla. Oh, and a fix on Vortex^^

Edited June 18, 2013 by Nicodemus666

[Amistyrja]

Trinity still best frame 10/10 potatoed and forma'd

[Dantal]

Suggestions:

 

Crush should ignore armour and affect things which enter the area afterwards. 

 

Pull should be thrown out. Suggestion: Magnetise - Aim at the ground, wall, a friendly or an enemy target and all other enemies in range will be pulled towards it. 

 

Bullet attractor should be configured to draw bullets to the enemies weakest point. If Sonar is active, the orange section should become the weakest point. 

Shield Polarise should drain shields from enemies AND prevent their regeneration for some duration. Shields given to friendly or cryopod should be greatly boosted, perhaps 1000 at maximum. 

^This

 

The thing that bothers me about Crush is it "Magnetize the bones of nearby enemies, causing them to collapse upon themselves". So why is it affected by armor? If anything, it should do bonus damage to enemies wearing lots of metal armor (maybe make it armor piercing damage).

 

Shield Polarize should also boosts Mag's own shields on use, in my opinion.

[corpseshock]

Im sorry but i think your list is partially wrong. You should consider the time when you get the warframes. Some are very easy to obtain in early to mid game. Some are more of a longtime experience. Let me explain:

Godly Tier: Vauban

This one is right. Making his BP's a reward for Alert Missions make obtaining him a longtime term.

 

High Tier: Frost Prime, Banshee

 

I wonder why you forgot about him. His BP's drop in Tier 3 Void Missions which means: Hope and be lucky to get a Void Tier 3 key from Wave Defenses / Login rewards / Random mission rewards and then hope and be lucky to get a Frost Part BP from that Tier 3 missions. Banshees Blueprints can also drop from missions and wave defenses as rewards or for your daily login. But you directly get the parts, not a lottery ticket where you eventually win one.

 

Mid Tier: Excalibur, Rhino, Saryn, Ash

 

Why mid ? Because the bosses that you need to farm are either in a high level area (Excalibur) or the bosses need specific strategies to get killed. Tyl Regor needs a team at least and Jackal and Kela Del Thaim are bosses with this specific strategy.

 

Low Tier: Ember, Frost, Loki, Mag, Nyx, Trinity, Volt

 

These warframes are very easy to obtain and pretty standard. Thats why they are low tier. But you are right, Mag needs a overhaul.

Edited June 18, 2013 by corpseshock

[Xievie]

Hmm, I am interested in what the rest of the community thinks of this list. Do you agree/disagree? Have you played all 13 frames, or are you in a clan or squad with access to all 13, and found clear disadvantages as suggested in this image?

 

This Tier List does make sense. I would say Banshee COULD be in the Mid Tier.

I wouldn't say Vauban is THAT much better.

 

I agree with most of this list, though.

I still want Mag reworked. Maybe reworked in terms of art too...?

 

I mean, she's the one you would see as the noob-newbie unless you saw them with a Sentinel and a Dread. If she looked a bit more powerful or elite, I'd definitely get her in terms of Fashionframe.

Her looks don't compare to Loki in terms of starter frames.

[Oleker]

Buff, Nerf, Update or Whatever.

My main warframe was and always will be Loki.

At moment, is the warframe that need less changes in my opinion. I would like to see a better balance between all warframes.