Warframe Tanks

[Aridum]

I've played dozens of games in my life. Most of those games had a class system. Mage, damage, TANK! That's what I want to talk about. Rhino, Frost, Chroma, and Inaros I classify as Tanks (If you don't see one of those 4 as tanks then I'd love to hear why BTW.). The point of a tank it to soak up the damage for your team and do a moderate amount of damage. Some of these frames don't do that as well as others. Let's look at Inaros first.

 

Inaros has thousands of health points and is able to regenerate said points. He also has a good chunk of armor. I think that Inaros is the best tank in the game. His 1st power blinds people, therefore, preventing them from shooting. His 2nd power is strict to support himself and his teammates. His 3rd grabs enemies and throws them up in the air. I like to think of that as the "Oh s**t" button. But not for Inaros, but for your team!  The point of a tank it to make the enemy attack you and allowing the rest of your team complete the objective.  And his 4th does two things. If you hold it, you drain your health to double your current armor. If you tap it while looking at an enemy, then you will discharge 25% of your Scarab Swarm onto the enemy, stunning them and producing corrosive. And if an enemy comes within 5 meters or so then the swarm will spread. And enemies affected by the swarm will give off a healing pulse. HES THE BEST TANK EVER!!! He prevents, he heals, he kills, he's everything that you could want.

Frost  has a good chunk of shields and has an ability that can easily safeguard your friends. That is what makes him a tank. His 1st is called Freeze... you know what it does. His 2nd and offensive ability that can do a good amount of damage. This ability does not support the fact he is a tank. It's just a power that can help you kill enemies. His 3rd is what makes him  THE KING OF DEFENSE MISSIONS! He makes a sphere of ice that has a set amount of health. Any enemies that enter the sphere are slowed down. This makes him a good tank. He can protect his friends and deal ok damage. And his 4th is just a massive AOE. His 3rd is the only thing that putting him in 2nd place. The other three are if you want to play offensively.

Rhino has one of the best defensive abilities in the game. This gives him the tank title. His first is called Rhino Charge.

 

If you know who that guy is then you know what Rhino Charge does. His second is the most defensive ability in the game. He wraps himself in ferrite armor and protects himself from all damage. But it's a fairly selfish ability. There's no way to cast it on your friends and it only protects the player, nothing special. His 3rd is a damage output buff for you and your friends. The last is a massive AOE that disrupts time and outputs a good amount of damage. Rhino is in 3rd because the only thing that he can give to the team is a damage buff. Iron Skin only protects you. But that doesn't change the fact he's still a good tank.

 

And last but certainly not least is Chroma (Note that I am only paying attention to the Ice version of the Chroma Warframe.). His 1st power spits ice. Its has a crappy range and does next to  no damage. His second makes an ice shield around Choma's body. If enemies hit Chroma while the power is active, bullets will ricochet off of him, and the attacker will get a cold proc. It also adds armor. The ability is duration based is an okay ability. His third makes him sound like a berserker. If his shields get hit then his armor will be increased. If his health gets hit then his weapons get a damage buff. Another okay ability. And his 4th lets him shed his cloak and the cloak shots ice everywhere. But half of his armor is removed. Eh. His in dead last because he is a survivor than a tank. He's not about supporting or diverting the damage, but just to save his own skin. You could argue with the fact that he has 3 other elements, but I'm looking at the ice.

 

How to be the best tank for your team

Step 1: Get Inaros

Step 2: Get  Guardian Derision for your melee.

Step 3: Always be in the front to take the brunt of the axe

If you have an opposing opinion please do tell.

 

 

[Gorila_Azul]

The problem with tanking in Warframe is that currently there aren't many mechanics that allow for aggro management outside of Guardian Derision (which is bound to change). But when it comes to just being durable, there are many other warframes that will do the job superbely. Wukong with his Defy ability can receive a portion of his health back whenever he takes lethal damage. If you have Rage, you can sit on the Simulacrum with 20 level 140 Heavy Gunners if you want.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Gorila_Azul

[Inarticulate]

Warframe doesn't have clear-cut roles because Warframes are typically designed to be self-sufficient and capable of fulfilling enough roles on its own (Warframes without reliable damage mitigation typically have crowd-control options to compensate). As such, there isn't a need for a "classic tank" in most squad configurations.

Also, you are missing Nekros as a tank. With over 98% damage reduction on himself with Health Conversion and Shield of Shadows, a reliable source of health orbs for the party, and 7 or more summoned shadows with increased threat levels that draw enemy fire away from squadmates, Nekros can handle this role at least as well as any other tank in the game.

[RoninJed]

I might add (although many already know) that having a arcane grace and guardian set with maxed health and armor mods and the sancti magistar works wonders. The focus school can be whatever but I like naramon, madurai, and...the one that adds to armor..I forget what it's called now hehe. Anyways Inaros is what I like refer to as one of the immortals;)

 

[TrickshotMcGee]

You may have played dozens of games (I mean, I have been gaming since before the 2000s. "dozens" would be a horrific understatement) but it doesn't seem like you've played a lot of MMOs, nor does it seem like you've played all that much Warframe with how you're describing them. 

A tank is not only about absorbing damage, though that is their most powerful ability and they do need that to even be considered among the class. A tank also serves to provide support, usually in the form of CC or a damage buff (as you did note, but you said it was useless for being a tank). Because of this, I have to disagree with your assessments of some Warframes, and add 2-3 to the list. 

Frost himself is not notably tanky, but his abilities give him a lot of room for it. Snow Globe, for example. His passive also lets him tank a small amount more melee than normal frames by freezing melee attackers. The team bonus he provides is shelter from ranged fire and large-scale CC. Makes him a fairly effective Warframe, though he's only kind of a tank.

Inaros. Yee. Tank. Large-scale CC. Blind ability. He's a good tank. Easily one of the best, and immortal 90% of the time, solely because of his ridiculous amount of HP and the synergy of Covert Lethality and Pocket Sand. Easy to maintain him at any level.

Rhino is much better than you seem to give him credit for. Iron Skin is a given, and with the augment it can be a nuke, provided you stack tons of power strength. Roar is incredible for a tank, as it lets allies do much more damage to the enemies you're distracting. Stomp is amazing CC, and stacked with Roar, your team will do even better against enemies. Now, I am not super fond of Rhino (well, haven't used him in a while, so I might take him out for another spin sometime to re-test and whatnot), but it's undeniable that he's a great tank and provides adequate support to the team. It's very much worth having a Rhino much of the time of tougher missions.

Now for Chroma, my bby. The fact that you have only looked into Ice Chroma is appalling. I am well-aware of the armor bonus he gets over others, but at one point that armor bonus falls off and just stacking more won't matter for much. At this point, you can swap that out for Electricity or Fire (my personal favorite) for their bonuses. But to the point - Chroma has the highest EHP in the game when he has a full Scorn buff and more than 190% strength. Higher than Inaros when it's Ice Chroma, actually. With the augment Elemental Ward, you can spread your bonus to allies, which can buff their armor, heal them + give them extra HP on top of base health, restore shields, or give them massively buffed reload speed. On top of that, he can stack massive amounts of damage and be dangerous at any range as long as both Vex Armor buffs are active (compare to Inaros, who is most effective at melee range). Chroma is hands-down top-tier tanking material and can provide a huge bonus to his team, as well as dish out pain. 

You forgot Valkyr, who is one of my personal favorite warframes. She's an amazing tank, but most effective as a Berserker-type player. The buff Warcry (Eternal War is amazing) gives massively increases her armor and lets her run up to the toughest of enemies and melee them to death. On top of that, Hysteria is ridiculously powerful and makes her invulnerable. She has Paralyze to CC, and having a positive range stat lets Warcry slow enemies in a very large range by a fairly large amount, as well as buff ally armor and melee speed. Great tank, as she boosts survivability and melee DPS, on top of her tanking ability. 

Trinity is also a tank with Link and Blessing. They both negate 75% of damage, which lets her tank lot of stuff. 

Nyx with the Assimilate augment is nigh immortal so long as she has energy. 

 

Lots of Warframes can tank. There is no specific class. Merely some powers or traits that give some frames the ability to eat more bullets than everyone else.

[TrickshotMcGee]

Double post

Edited December 9, 2016 by TrickshotMcGee

[SenorClipClop]

1 hour ago, Inarticulate said:

Warframe doesn't have clear-cut roles because Warframes are typically designed to be self-sufficient and capable of fulfilling enough roles on its own (Warframes without reliable damage mitigation typically have crowd-control options to compensate). As such, there isn't a need for a "classic tank" in most squad configurations.

Pretty much this. With our ability to squad up, filling certain jobs can become very useful, even vital, but these roles aren't as clear-cut as something you'd see in the standard D&D-style "party". As robotic operatives, Warframes are designed to do jobs in particular ways and open up particular ways of playing. A DPS like Banshee needs to skirt around the battle and avoid damage while dealing her own, and a big, tanky Inaros can sit in the middle of the fray and take as much damage as he wants, but these two complimentary roles typically seen in a dungeon crawler aren't a strict requirement and are more for player preference and preparing for particular kinds of missions.

In regard to the OP, though, it would be cool if we saw a little more option to pull aggro. I guess for now we'll have to be a little more ninja about it and have our squishies work to minimize aggro on themselves via stealth or other tactics.

Banshee passive ftw.

[Aridum]

8 hours ago, Inarticulate said:

Warframe doesn't have clear-cut roles because Warframes are typically designed to be self-sufficient and capable of fulfilling enough roles on its own (Warframes without reliable damage mitigation typically have crowd-control options to compensate). As such, there isn't a need for a "classic tank" in most squad configurations.

 

I completely agree. I'm not saying that all warframes have cookie cut roles in the game, but people see the frames that I listed as tanks than anything else in the game.

[Aridum]

7 hours ago, TrickshotMcGee said:

You may have played dozens of games (I mean, I have been gaming since before the 2000s. "dozens" would be a horrific understatement) but it doesn't seem like you've played a lot of MMOs, nor does it seem like you've played all that much Warframe with how you're describing them. 

A tank is not only about absorbing damage, though that is their most powerful ability and they do need that to even be considered among the class. A tank also serves to provide support, usually in the form of CC or a damage buff (as you did note, but you said it was useless for being a tank). Because of this, I have to disagree with your assessments of some Warframes, and add 2-3 to the list. 

Frost himself is not notably tanky, but his abilities give him a lot of room for it. Snow Globe, for example. His passive also lets him tank a small amount more melee than normal frames by freezing melee attackers. The team bonus he provides is shelter from ranged fire and large-scale CC. Makes him a fairly effective Warframe, though he's only kind of a tank.

Inaros. Yee. Tank. Large-scale CC. Blind ability. He's a good tank. Easily one of the best, and immortal 90% of the time, solely because of his ridiculous amount of HP and the synergy of Covert Lethality and Pocket Sand. Easy to maintain him at any level.

Rhino is much better than you seem to give him credit for. Iron Skin is a given, and with the augment it can be a nuke, provided you stack tons of power strength. Roar is incredible for a tank, as it lets allies do much more damage to the enemies you're distracting. Stomp is amazing CC, and stacked with Roar, your team will do even better against enemies. Now, I am not super fond of Rhino (well, haven't used him in a while, so I might take him out for another spin sometime to re-test and whatnot), but it's undeniable that he's a great tank and provides adequate support to the team. It's very much worth having a Rhino much of the time of tougher missions.

The fact that you have only looked into Ice Chroma is appalling. On top of that, he can stack massive amounts of damage and be dangerous at any range as long as both Vex Armor buffs are active (compare to Inaros, who is most effective at melee range).  

You forgot Valkyr, who is one of my personal favorite warframes. She's an amazing tank, but most effective as a Berserker-type player. On top of that, Hysteria is ridiculously powerful and makes her invulnerable. Great tank, as she boosts survivability and melee DPS, on top of her tanking ability. 

Trinity is also a tank with Link and Blessing. They both negate 75% of damage, which lets her tank lot of stuff. 

Nyx with the Assimilate augment is nigh immortal so long as she has energy. 

 

Lots of Warframes can tank. There is no specific class. Merely some powers or traits that give some frames the ability to eat more bullets than everyone else.

10

Ok, obviously you came here to prove a point... which you did quite well. But there are somethings that I didn't include in the original article that I should've and some frames that I've forgotten.

1st of all, yes, I meant to include Trinity due to her 75% percent damage reduction. SO SORRY!

Now Valkyr is a berserker (In my eyes). She has good CC, with buff and a power that turns you into a crazy cat lady. Her ulte has the ability to regenerate her, so I mainly user Hysteria to just say "Get ready to die." and heal a bit.  Beserker.

3rd I wasn't including augments because I was mainly making this topic for a friend who just started Warframe a few days ago. He wouldn't have access to augments and augments would make such an argument unfair.

Nyx's Chaos... That is an "Oh s**t" button (In my eyes)

And plus I was mainly listing the "most famous tanks". I was looking at the frames at a stereotypical POV. With said POV I look at Trinity as a healer and Nyx as a utility frame. But you pose a good point. Cool.

[CrimsonDalekanium]

Whoawhoawhoa! Rhino's IS gets a rave review, while Chroma's 2 and 3 get "Meh"? Is this the twilight zone? Chroma's (Ice) 2 and 3 paired with strength, duration, rejuv, and arcane guardian (which is one of the cheaper defensive arcanes) is ridiculous! Inaros is a great tank, but he's lacking raw damage and can get downed by a mob or a misclick at higher levels. Frost is nice because he can turn the entire team into tanks, but you're kinda stuck under that bubble (which can get downed very easily at higher levels). Rhino is a good buff and CC, and IS is nice <level 35, but much beyond that and IS is gone faster than you can say "Dammit" (Where's Nezha and his copycat IS on this list?). Ice Chroma on the other hand gets both damage and damage resistance, stacking to ridiculous proportions at higher levels, especially if you're already using something like a S/Tigris/P, Soma P, or V. Hek. I'll be the first to admit Chroma's first is, well, awful against nearly any enemy, and his 4th is only really useful for credits, as a decoy, and for gaining a little extra move speed. To finish, a well-built Ice Chroma is IMO the best SOLO tank (except possibly Valkyr), while Frost is the best at defending your team. Yeah, Inaros is fun and Rhino is a good CC/buff, but Inaros lacks raw DPS and Rhino's iron skin melts like butter.

Atlas? Valkyr? Nezha? Nyx? Trin? Wukong? Nekros? None of those deserve honorable mentions?

 

Edit: Just read that this was meant for a new player. For a new player, Rhino is certainly the EASIEST tank.

 

Edited December 10, 2016 by CrimsonDalekanium

[bubbabenali]

See, the problem is that you make clear that you don't even know wich frames realy are capable of executing the "tank role".

There are the immortal Wukong and Valkyr, the nearly invulnerable Mesa and Trinity, the CC and pulverising Atlas and the team Iron Skining Nezha.

Edit: Oh yeah and how could I forget about the Assimilating Nyx the perfect target for Guardian Derision in Kuva missions.

Edited December 10, 2016 by bubbabenali
Hmpf

[TrickshotMcGee]

13 hours ago, Sensai0203 said:

Ok, obviously you came here to prove a point...

I didn't, but I was rather disappointed that you didn't seem to give the Warframes their merits that they deserved. You kind of downplayed a few of them as if they were worse than they are, and forgot a good few of them. I even left some out that were worth mentioning, like Nezha and Atlas.

I get that Valkyr might play a lot like a Berserker does (which is actually the best way to play her, I agree), but she has the highest armor value in the game, and an ability that increases her armor further. Sounds like a tank to me. 

 

Now, since this is for a newer player, I need to point out that Rhino is still one of the most rounded tanks, providing damage and CC for his team, while also eating bullets. Awesome for a newer player to pick up and use, being that he's totally straightforward. Valkyr has immortality in her kit, which is a massive crutch for newer players and lets them gain access to tons more content than they'd get without her. 

You don't want to paint a solid picture of tanks to newer players because they begin to think that those frames are the only ones they can use to actually do tanking. Granted, Inaros is one of my favorite Warframes along with Valkyr, I would give credit where credit is due and mention some of the other, easily obtainable, Warframes that can do the same job with their own quirks. 

[(PSN)CommanderC2121]

arent tanks supposed to draw agro? Besides the new melee mod, the only frame that reall does that is atlas with his rumblers....

 

btw, in no way is chroma a "bad tank." He is the best tank, it cannot be disupted. A tank is a character that can take a lot of hits (obviously) and provide good CC. A ice chroma can have an ehp up ~20000 if IIRC, a fire chroma can have a extremel;y high ehp while being a side healer, able to run by teammates and heal them. A electric chroma has amazing cc. Get 200%+ strength, run around with a life strike weapon, and prepare to murder. the electric chroma can take damage and send it back at a ~20x multiplier in the form of electrical arcs. The poison chroma can add toxin procs (one of the best procs) to enemies by running near them, and drastically increase reload. Only counting his ice form is like saying a car is bad because you're only judging its seats. 

 

Rhino is great as well. With ironclad charge, he can get, and i kid you not, ~100000 ehp, and use that to nuke a room if using iron shrapnel. Roar is a great team buff, and a high range rhino can lock down maps with his 4. 

 

Ironically, id consider Inaros the worst tank in the group (thats not to say hes bad. No tank is bad imo). Yes, he can take a lot of his, and with rage have infinite energy, but his cc is limited to pocket sand, his two is a good "oh sh*t" button where you can become invincible, and while he can heal teammates, that comes at a cost of armor build up, making him easier to kill. In terms of teamplay, he is outclasses easily by rhino and frost, and in terms of tankiness, he is easily outclassed by rhino and chroma. 

[(PSN)NoVa_Erk]

On 9.12.2016 at 9:32 PM, TrickshotMcGee said:

You may have played dozens of games (I mean, I have been gaming since before the 2000s. "dozens" would be a horrific understatement) but it doesn't seem like you've played a lot of MMOs, nor does it seem like you've played all that much Warframe with how you're describing them. 

A tank is not only about absorbing damage, though that is their most powerful ability and they do need that to even be considered among the class. A tank also serves to provide support, usually in the form of CC or a damage buff (as you did note, but you said it was useless for being a tank). Because of this, I have to disagree with your assessments of some Warframes, and add 2-3 to the list. 

Frost himself is not notably tanky, but his abilities give him a lot of room for it. Snow Globe, for example. His passive also lets him tank a small amount more melee than normal frames by freezing melee attackers. The team bonus he provides is shelter from ranged fire and large-scale CC. Makes him a fairly effective Warframe, though he's only kind of a tank.

Inaros. Yee. Tank. Large-scale CC. Blind ability. He's a good tank. Easily one of the best, and immortal 90% of the time, solely because of his ridiculous amount of HP and the synergy of Covert Lethality and Pocket Sand. Easy to maintain him at any level.

Rhino is much better than you seem to give him credit for. Iron Skin is a given, and with the augment it can be a nuke, provided you stack tons of power strength. Roar is incredible for a tank, as it lets allies do much more damage to the enemies you're distracting. Stomp is amazing CC, and stacked with Roar, your team will do even better against enemies. Now, I am not super fond of Rhino (well, haven't used him in a while, so I might take him out for another spin sometime to re-test and whatnot), but it's undeniable that he's a great tank and provides adequate support to the team. It's very much worth having a Rhino much of the time of tougher missions.

Now for Chroma, my bby. The fact that you have only looked into Ice Chroma is appalling. I am well-aware of the armor bonus he gets over others, but at one point that armor bonus falls off and just stacking more won't matter for much. At this point, you can swap that out for Electricity or Fire (my personal favorite) for their bonuses. But to the point - Chroma has the highest EHP in the game when he has a full Scorn buff and more than 190% strength. Higher than Inaros when it's Ice Chroma, actually. With the augment Elemental Ward, you can spread your bonus to allies, which can buff their armor, heal them + give them extra HP on top of base health, restore shields, or give them massively buffed reload speed. On top of that, he can stack massive amounts of damage and be dangerous at any range as long as both Vex Armor buffs are active (compare to Inaros, who is most effective at melee range). Chroma is hands-down top-tier tanking material and can provide a huge bonus to his team, as well as dish out pain. 

You forgot Valkyr, who is one of my personal favorite warframes. She's an amazing tank, but most effective as a Berserker-type player. The buff Warcry (Eternal War is amazing) gives massively increases her armor and lets her run up to the toughest of enemies and melee them to death. On top of that, Hysteria is ridiculously powerful and makes her invulnerable. She has Paralyze to CC, and having a positive range stat lets Warcry slow enemies in a very large range by a fairly large amount, as well as buff ally armor and melee speed. Great tank, as she boosts survivability and melee DPS, on top of her tanking ability. 

Trinity is also a tank with Link and Blessing. They both negate 75% of damage, which lets her tank lot of stuff. 

Nyx with the Assimilate augment is nigh immortal so long as she has energy. 

 

Lots of Warframes can tank. There is no specific class. Merely some powers or traits that give some frames the ability to eat more bullets than everyone else.

And that makes warframe unique! not a casual mmorpg role Type game. IT is simply warframe! 

[(PSN)Mofojokers]

My brother and i run Inaros because he cannot be dropped.

Both use maxed Arcane grace and Victory and Rage / Life Strike as well as Medi Ray. As well as the best of the best mods to match.

We both favor Tigres Prime and nothing is a challenge.

I recommend Inaros to everyone who just loves god mode. 😊

(If you drop as Inaros your doing something wrong).😂

Edited December 13, 2016 by (PS4)Mofojokers

[bubbabenali]

1 hour ago, (PS4)Mofojokers said:

My brother and i run Inaros because he cannot be dropped.

Both use maxed Arcane grace and Victory and Rage / Life Strike as well as Medi Ray. As well as the best of the best mods to match.

We both favor Tigres Prime and nothing is a challenge.

I recommend Inaros to everyone who just loves god mode. 😊

(If you drop as Inaros your doing something wrong).😂

some frames are immortal with the right arcanes, it's not an Inaros exclusive feature.

[(PSN)Mofojokers]

34 minutes ago, bubbabenali said:

some frames are immortal with the right arcanes, it's not an Inaros exclusive feature.

Didn't say it was , they are not even needed but they are sure great to have. 😂

 

[bubbabenali]

2 minutes ago, (PS4)Mofojokers said:

Didn't say it was , they are not even needed but they are sure great to have. 😂

 

I know what you mean to be honest.

Inaros is the only frame where I only use utility mods plus Vitality and Rage, the rest is stuff like Handspring, Natural Talent and so on.

And that was my 60 minutes T4 Void survival build

[(PSN)Mofojokers]

Just now, bubbabenali said:

I know what you mean to be honest.

Inaros is the only frame where I only use utility mods plus Vitality and Rage, the rest is stuff like Handspring, Natural Talent and so on.

And that was my 60 minutes T4 Void survival build

Part of me wants a survival map that starts at level 100 and builds so we can truly go into high numbers without waiting the 60+ mins.😊

Not for rewards but just to truly test especially since we just keep power creeping up and up and up. 😂