Un-Official Warframe Tier List

[BoompigXD]

To show you that tier lists in ANY game are the biggest load of Bull**** Look at where Ember is placed. Mid Tier.

 

"Oh but we tested her" Bull**** 

 

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3ux3bb/

Edited June 20, 2013 by BoompigXD

[-Frosin-]

The list need to be seperate into the different mission type / Enemy. Vauban is no where near god tier for various mission and can really use some attention infact to bring them up. (Would be a pain not to further unbalance it for Infested defense however...)

[Grilleds]

Volt is closer to mid tier, although clearly on the lower end of it. Yeah, he loses most of his effectiveness vs non-Corpus, but he is absolutely godlike vs Corpus to the extent that he takes a lot of the fun out of the game. Making 1/3 of the game's missions sickeningly easy is enough to make him a good Warframe to get, regardless of how subpar he is in the other missions. Properly modded he isn't useless against the other factions too simply due to Overload's absolutely sickeningly high range. With Stretch, Continuity, Streamline and maybe Focus, he can easily spam Overload to kill every enemy in the room and most enemies in nearby rooms, and can constantly use it. Even vs Grineer it maintains a large degree of effectiveness until you are facing level 30ish enemies. Played right, Volt is one of the best defense mission Warframes due to Overload often hitting half a wave in one use. He still needs some buffs though to make more usable in higher level Grineer and Infected missions. A minor damage buff to Overload, some bug fixes for Electric Shield, and a rework of Shock. As it stands now though, Volt is the best Warframe for low-mid level farming or any Corpus mission. Keep in mind I have Volt potatoed though, and like Ember, he is indeed complete crap without a specific mod setup. Volt is a bit underpowered, but isn't anywhere near as crappy as most of the community seems to think.

Ember is high tier. No question. The fact she is crappy without a specific setup doesn't change the fact that she borders on breaking the game with said setup. She is easily one of the best Warframe choices to potato as her skills scale better with mods than most Warframes, making her absolutely devastating vs all 3 factions in even the highest level play.

Trinity can be argued to be low tier except in certain situations. Yes, Link and Energy Vampire can constantly be spammed to keep her invincible so long as she stays close to an enemy and Blessing is arguably the best utility skill in the game. But she is reliant on her teammates for AoE damage and her heal is a lot less useful when your team plays carefully anyway, in which case another Warframe with an AoE damage skill would have been a better pick. She also suffers from having a long casting animation for all her skills which often means you either get shot up while using them or you are a second too late to do any good. Still, if you play with careless teammates her Blessing can often be the game changer.

I haven't fully leveled or potatoed her yet, but Banshee strikes me as being mid tier, not high tier. Soundwave has absurd range (possibly the highest range AoE attack in the game), but it roots her to the ground for a while and its damage is deceptively low and not armor ignoring. Sonar makes up for it, allowing her team to quickly kill a few tough enemies or a boss, but against hordes of enemies a good AoE attack would have been better and while Sonar affects every enemy around you giving you a huge huge huge damage boost vs them, its much more effective in practice against a small number of tough enemies and after a certain point in the game, doing more damage to single targets becomes redundant when you are already nearly one shotting level 60+ enemies with your potatoed and properly modded weapons. Still a good frame, but not quite on Saryn's level.

Otherwise I agree with the list on the first post.

[Ruzu]

I have played all 13 frames and this is how I rank all the frames. I'm following a similar format, based off of Tryysaedar's post on the first page.

 

God-Tier:

     - Useful in just about any situation. Has little to no weak spots that can be exploited if abilities are just effectively in conjunction with natural skills.

Candidates:

     - Frost (With Snow Globe, all you have to worry about is CQC. if you can time your jumps correctly and keep your distance, you are untouchable within the confines of your little barrier. With Avalanche, you can give your allies a little room to breathe by temporarily stunning, maybe killing, the mobs around you)

Personal Note:

     - Out of all existing frames, it is close to impossible for me to die when using a Frost effectively. I end up having to res teammates frequently in higher level defense missions and stages

Honorable Mention(High-God Tier):

     - Banshee (Sonic boom is effective at CC, and it's very cheap. Sonar is useful anywhere, especially in T3 and on high level bosses. Sound Wave is just brutal, especially with the damage distribution patch. The only reason why I don't consider her on the same level as Frost is because she just isn't as grand as Frost(on a figurative level))

 

High-Tier:

     - Very versatile and dependable. Can potentially change the tide of battle

Candidates:

     - Vauban (His bastille is effective at stalling infested, especially on defend the pod missions, and just in general when you're surrounded by a 360 degree net of monsters. You can also use it to give yourself a chance to resurrect team-mates. it is also a good CC ability. His vortex is effective at both mass annihilation, and also serves as yet another excellent CC ability. It also pulls materials into one spot to make it easier to gather)

     - Nyx (Using mind control on specific monsters can give you crucial buffs. Chaos can save you from a rampaging horde by making them focus their attention on themselves instead. A good lifesaver if used properly. If you're absolutely surrounded, absorb will give you a moment of breathing space, so that hopefully, your teammates can kill the horde around you and save you, or if you've taken in another damage, you may be able to outright kill the mob itself)

Honorable Mentions(Mid-High Tier):

     - Ember (While her mobile fire ring ability "can" turn the tide of battle, I do not consider it a game changer on the same level as Vauban or Nyx)

     - Trinity (While her link ability allows her total invulnerability and her life well/energy vampire abilities can change the tide of battle, I can not consider these abilities potential to impact the battlefield the same way that Vauban or Nyx can impact the battlefield)

 

Mid-Tier:

     - Good decent frames that make excellent distractions.

Candidates:

     - Excalibur, Loki, Ash, Saryn (Excalibur's Radial Light provides a moment of distraction to allow you to escape or unleash Radial Javelin, and hope that it hits for the full amount. Loki's decoy provides a decent distraction, plus he can take a lot of weight off your shoulders by disabling all projectiles within a certain radius. Ash provides a decent distraction. Saryn can also provide a decent distraction, with a sturdy organ-melting toxic ultimate to boot)

 

Low-Tier:

     - The potential is there, but they just aren't appealing enough to take seriously(for lack of a better explanation)

Candidates:

     - Rhino, Volt, Mag (The new 15 seconds of invuln for Rhino may seem like it's a redemption, but on higher level stages, the damage cap renders the 15 seconds pointless. The charge isn't really that good which leaves the ultimate the only worthwhile option, which is a bad since it's the biggest power drain. Besides volt's initial shock ability, which is quite feeble, her speed and shield abilities are unimpressive. The only possible redeeming feature about her is overload, which no longer appears to require electronics to work. Mag's crush ability seems to be about the only thing anyone even uses these days. That doesn't bode well for the rest of her abilities.)

 

Useless-Tier:

     - Non-existent. Useless implies that a frame cannot contribute in any way whatsoever. However, all frames have at least one ability that enables them to deliver damage in some way, therefore, no frame is useless until the day that they are stripped of all possible damage potential.

 

On a personal note, you'll be able to realize which classes I use frequently, simply because of how useful they are, compared to others, which are quite unappealing due to under performance in battle.

[BoompigXD]

[Ruzu]

@BoompigXD and all others who say Tier Lists are pointless

 

I totally agree, but it's a fact that new players would be interested in a thread of this nature, about what others think of the existing frames, and use that information to decide which frame would be the best investment for them to start off with. No need to act with a "are these people serious?" attitude. I enjoy reading this thread simply because I get an idea of what frames most people play. It also gives me an idea of the potential nerfs/buffs a certain frame might receive in the future.

 

To wrap this thought up, I apologize in advance for doing this, but, I recommend the people who are *facepalming* to *facepalm* their own naivety for not realizing this simple fact. I disagree with some of the tiers that people have posted, because I feel differently, but a lot of people enjoy looking at these. The OP clearly wrote "un-official", which is as clear as it gets to me.

 

Anyways, I apologize once again if I came off as rude in this post.

[LongDraw]

Well a very well thought out response, with such detailed point-by-point counters to the things in the post you quoted.

 

To refresh your memory, Rhino has a better version of Slash Dash. He has more overall disabling power, and damage than Xcal. Better base stats. And even IF Rhino Skin is a useless skill(it's not), it's still better than Super Jump in every scenario. So why is Xcal rated medium and Rhino low?

 

 

I mean I'd love to hear any Objective reasoning behind why Rhino is so poorly rated. Seeing that he has above average CC, above average damage, a good mobility skill, and great base stats. The only thing people say is "Iron skin is useless" which is the stupidest statement I've ever heard. Having an extra chunk of health comparable to what most people have as their entire health bar, that allows their shields to regen, prevents stagger, and draws aggro. And no discussion of the fact that the rest of his skills are very strong, and other frames have completely useless skills(Superjump, Silence, Radial Disarm, etc).

Sorry I couldn't type you out a page long point-to-point counter argument when I posted that reply.  Truth is I was trying to post that while re-imaging 3 different computers, cover all IT dept concerns and hurriedly update about 30 CI's in my company's database.

 

My bad.

[SnokyoDrift]

@BoompigXD and all others who say Tier Lists are pointless

I've never understood these standpoints. Any game where different and varying player controlled elements are present can have tier lists. By saying that there Tier Lists are useless (in the literal meaning, not "screw the man, I'll play [trash tier] because I can, therefore it isn't relevant"), only 2 conclusions can be drawn: that Tiers are so obvious that they do not need to be pointed out, or that everything is in the same tier. I'd like to see a serious argument put forth for this.

 

Vauban's turrets needs a nerf. Either a serious reduction in duration, a hard cap to the amount, or something along those lines. He's not so crazy overpowered otherwise.

His turrets are the second last thing that makes him God Tier. They're relatively stationary, kill slowly, and do fixed elemental damage. The last fact alone makes them limited in usefulness.

 

Can anyone tell me why Saryn is high tier? I have a saryn, but I am not very impressed. How is it used in high level gameplay?

 

Indiscriminate, fast casting ultimate that disables enemies for a significant amount of time. Augmented by all relevant mods.

This is loses effectiveness at a far slower rate than most ultimates, meaning that it is effective in many situations. This may not be how the OP came to this conclusion, but by my definition (see page 1 of this thread, you can't miss it), this puts her in high tier despite fitting the criteria for mid tier.

[SnokyoDrift]

Well a very well thought out response, with such detailed point-by-point counters to the things in the post you quoted.

 

To refresh your memory, Rhino has a better version of Slash Dash. He has more overall disabling power, and damage than Xcal. Better base stats. And even IF Rhino Skin is a useless skill(it's not), it's still better than Super Jump in every scenario. So why is Xcal rated medium and Rhino low?

 

 

I mean I'd love to hear any Objective reasoning behind why Rhino is so poorly rated. Seeing that he has above average CC, above average damage, a good mobility skill, and great base stats. The only thing people say is "Iron skin is useless" which is the stupidest statement I've ever heard. Having an extra chunk of health comparable to what most people have as their entire health bar, that allows their shields to regen, prevents stagger, and draws aggro. And no discussion of the fact that the rest of his skills are very strong, and other frames have completely useless skills(Superjump, Silence, Radial Disarm, etc).

 

Rhino was poorly rated (by me) because I was caught up in the whole "DE can't balance empty scales if their lives depended on it" mantra on top of the Anchoring Effect set by the example in the OP. I wrote my post on the fly and forgot about Rhino's existence for the most part, only remembering towards the very end, when I was thinking about different things already.

 

I completely agree on Rhino being Mid Tier. If the God Tier frames were removed from the game this instant, Rhino would move up to High Tier.

[KuramaKitsune]

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 to say, mag was my first frame, 

i heard the words master of electromagnetic..... and was freakin Done Then and THERE

 

it was a great frame for the lower level stuff, 

a perfect starter frame,

but once you break say level 20-25 it becomes nigh useless,

 

the master skill crush , literally does not even damage high level mobs visibly. 

 

 

and the shield recharging power is completly COMPLETELY use less  

pull can be cool sometimes, but ive never really had someone that i couldnt and or diddn't just shoot anyways.

 

 

now VAUBAN, on the other hand,

ive forma'd vauban about 4 times now

just like the bratton and the hek.

 

the vauban, 

is the ONLY frame that ive used that has a 100%   One Hundred Percent  sit down and shut up crowd control skill.

 

bastille, especially stretched with continuity,

will stop ANY target short of Boss characters.  no matter the level COMPLETELY and TOTALLY.

making vauban the most powerful character in the game.

 

targets are unable to escape and even unable to defend or aggress in this frames sight..

 

granted, vauban sucks down energy drinks like a kid hiding snacks at a fat camp.

in defense on xini i usually go through about 200 /25- energy PER WAVE on Tesla ALONE.

 

but with stretch focus streamline and continuity maxed out,  i can even simply toss the Tesla directly to the ceiling above the cryopod

and even the infected  after about ten-fifteen Tesla in chain simply vaporize..

 

 

JUMP ive only used out of laziness when i did not want to walk around to a ramp

 

and VORTEX  i tend not to use at all as it routinely glitches an npc into the ground making them unkillable and ruining the defense mission. 

defense should really be swapped to survive x seconds per wave because of this.

 

it just seems to me, that vortex used to basically just ate anything that it sucked in, ive been in a void tier 3 mission, 

and tossed the vortex in a group of about 4 or 5 heavy gunners,

they were at full shields and full health, and it ate them all,

 

it sorta seems like it has a 50% chance of eating a target ,

but lately it seems like its weaker

[Watlok]

His turrets are the second last thing that makes him God Tier. They're relatively stationary, kill slowly, and do fixed elemental damage. The last fact alone makes them limited in usefulness.

 

His turrets can solo any defense or mobile defense mission in the game with no one present. They are not particularly strong in the endgame, but defense is going to be part of the endgame then they are adding a non-negligible amount of damage to vauban at all times. It just seems odd that Vauban has one of the best dps increasers (turrets), best cc (bastille), and vortex.

 

I didn't suggest it because they are his strongest ability. I suppose you could take a different approach. Change Bastille, Change Vortex, but the question then becomes how do you do that? Vortex's current incarnation is especially problematic.

 

e: I consider Nyx my main and have played most of the frames. I haven't played Rhino, Ash, or Volt (his shield is actually situationally amazing, with a Supra you can kill Jackal in 3s or so by shooting his body and ignoring his legs, it also removes shotgun dropoff and turns certain weapons into hitscan, if there are going to be endgame bosses it could easily become relevant, and it combos really well with sonar).

Edited June 20, 2013 by Watlok

[fatpig84]

What the Op has said is mostly true.....

Vauban being god tier is well debatable but if you want to know where the frames stand, is do high level defense

 

Common picks for high def missions.

Frost, Frost Prime, Ember, Trinity, Vauban, Saryn, Nyx and Banshee.

 

That's 8 of them there.

But the rest are left alone.

 

This means 1 thing.

The rest don't scale as well.

Which is bad since DE will want to make more higher end content.

 

We should not hear other squaddies, friends or clan mates tell us, "Hey ditch that Rhino and get Frost man, we are going to do outer terminus wave 1xx today !" 

Edited June 20, 2013 by fatpig84

[forseeker]

Rhino's position on any Defense tier list has to take into account the aggro mechanic that his Iron Skin now has. I stand a few steps to the left of the Cryopod and hit 2 and everyone in the room forgets that the icebox even exists.

 

Then I have to run for my life but that's where the party Ember or Saryn comes in, eh?

[ShockTart]

i know in the live stream the devs saw this post and now they are planning on reworking the frames so they are on par with vauban. starting with mag and rhino.

[fatpig84]

Rhino's position on any Defense tier list has to take into account the aggro mechanic that his Iron Skin now has. I stand a few steps to the left of the Cryopod and hit 2 and everyone in the room forgets that the icebox even exists.

 

Then I have to run for my life but that's where the party Ember or Saryn comes in, eh?

 

With Snow Globe you don't need to.

Shots just stop cold literally and anything in there is moving like they are trapped in Rhino Stomp.

 

The team doesn't even need to leave the pod ever.

Edited June 20, 2013 by fatpig84

[lstalri]

What the Op has said is mostly true.....

Vauban being god tier is well debatable but if you want to know where the frames stand, is do high level defense

 

Common picks for high def missions.

Frost, Frost Prime, Ember, Trinity, Vauban, Saryn, Nyx and Banshee.

 

That's 8 of them there.

But the rest are left alone.

 

This means 1 thing.

The rest don't scale as well.

Which is bad since DE will want to make more higher end content.

Then explain why so many T3 missions are run by loki's and ash's.  It's not necessarily that they don't scale well, it's just that they have a niche that happens to not be necessary/supported in defense missions. 

 

Loki and Ash are really the "runners" due to their speed, stealth ability, and high damage output while being alone, and since they need little to no mods to do so (no need for any mods asides from streamline and continuity to play them as a runner), that leaves 4 mod slots to throw in master thief, thief's wit, and two running augments of your choice (my personal favorites are quick rest and rush). 

 

Unfortunately, while volt CAN do this role, she's extremely suboptimal considering how situational her damage output is.  And then there's mag and rhino who do exactly as you say, just drop off in usefulness as difficulty progresses (no thanks to rhino's speed either). 

 

So yeah, I think I successfully excluded Loki and Ash from your list of "they don't scale well" frames... the rest you're spot on about, although I'd personally add ember to that list since she's really not all THAT amazing of a high lvl damage dealer...

[S3raph]

Then explain why so many T3 missions are run by loki's and ash's.  It's not necessarily that they don't scale well, it's just that they have a niche that happens to not be necessary/supported in defense missions. 

 

Loki and Ash are really the "runners" due to their speed, stealth ability, and high damage output while being alone, and since they need little to no mods to do so (no need for any mods asides from streamline and continuity to play them as a runner), that leaves 4 mod slots to throw in master thief, thief's wit, and two running augments of your choice (my personal favorites are quick rest and rush). 

 

Unfortunately, while volt CAN do this role, she's extremely suboptimal considering how situational her damage output is.  And then there's mag and rhino who do exactly as you say, just drop off in usefulness as difficulty progresses (no thanks to rhino's speed either). 

 

So yeah, I think I successfully excluded Loki and Ash from your list of "they don't scale well" frames... the rest you're spot on about, although I'd personally add ember to that list since she's really not all THAT amazing of a high lvl damage dealer...

 

Volt's a "he", but other than that spot on. I fully agree with post :)

[sambarpowder]

Volt's a "he", but other than that spot on. I fully agree with post :)

Volt is definitely not a he. Or a she. Volt is an it.

[Aeshi]

I'd put Trinity (and maybe Nyx) at God-Tier, but this otherwise seems pretty accurate

[SpringwoodSlasher]

really depends on what kind of mission  you do.

i mostly do infested defenses:

 

trinity only midtier?

vauban better than nyx? O.o

[ReV0LT]

Isn't Mag's Bullet Attractor very deadly combined with Excalibur's Radial Javelin?

[LazerusKI]

Nyyx in highlevel defense is a god.

cast chaos and watch everything die

[Mietz]

Isn't Mag's Bullet Attractor very deadly combined with Excalibur's Radial Javelin?

 

Which means I need two coordinated frames for the skill to actually be useful.

 

In all other situations BA is useless. It ignores roughly a third of all weapons and ignores enemy weakpoints actually lowering your DPS.

 

The only time you use BA is on bosses to make it easier to hit them, and even then it still ignores weakpoints. BA is $&*&*#(%& to use on Jackal because bullets will ignore the legs for example. Sure, you can use it once with a Excal to burst down one ancient with 12k damage but thats it, thats its only use, everything else is mitigated with aiming.

 

Ok, lets say there is a soft CC to it since the mob will stop firing but its not really a good CC for 75E either.

 

The only consistent use i found for it in moment-to-moment gameplay is putting it on Rollers to make them easier to hit, and even then I'd rather use Crush CC-ing the rollers and killing them at the same time.

[Sideway]

Isn't Mag's Bullet Attractor very deadly combined with Excalibur's Radial Javelin?

 

No.

 

You realize that this Combo isn't as good as it used to be since the newest Update, right? Ogris can devastate large group of mobs when they are under Banshee's Sonar effect... with one shot. Same for the Bosses. I can oneshot Ambulas, Hyena and Krill. Nobody wants to waste 2 precious Team Slots for Excalibur and Mag only for their ~10 000 damage combo on a single target.

Edited June 20, 2013 by Sideway

[WARLOCKE]

Rank 9, Own and play all frames. List is truthful and i agree with every placement. Except id put Rhino with Mag in the useless tier.