So, which warframe is really the best for a newbie?

[Baskakov_Dima]

Greetings!

I am not a complete newbie anymore, but neither a pro yet, and that's the thing that prevents from finding the answer myself. The question is, which one of the three starting frames should a newbie pick at character creation? I personally need the guide to link my friends to it when their mind is finally hijacked and I have made them download the game.

Yes, there are a lot of guides over there, but most of them share one or more of the following problems.

Usually, the guide...

• ...is outdated: provides an overview of a frame as it was long ago, e.g. still speaks about the Shield Polarize Mag or even GMag.
• ...has a lot of "water" inside it -- words that add nothing, but eat newbies' attention. The newbies have just downloaded the game, and they are stuck with the very first choice! They don't have the whole day!
• ...draws no conclusion: it doesn't actually say how to choose a starting frame, just provides an overview.
• ... focuses on high-level gameplay, a place where the newbie will be way later, if ever, especially if he/she makes a choice based on high-level gameplay.
• ...doesn't say what does the frame player actually do, especially considering the very first adventures.
• ...ses a lot of game terms, which the newbie definitely doesn't know yet.

So, I would be thanking very much the people who could provide an actual instruction on selecting the starting Warframe.

In my personal opinion, the guide should focus on the following points, sorted by the importance descending:

• What does this Warframe do at low-level game play, where the only mods available are Damaged and/or low-ranked?
• How well does the frame perform at low-level gameplay compared to the other two?
• What happens when transitioning to mid-level play, where enemies become reasonably stronger and mods start to be available? What does the frame do, how does it perform?
• How hard is it to get this warframe if you don't choose it?
• Does the answer change if the newbie gets some extra plat to spend?

The ideal guide could touch the topic of high-level gameplay, but it should definitely not be the focus. The ideal guide would also avoid using game terms when they aren't really needed, and when they are, explain them. 

I also don't think that a guide on choosing the weapons is needed, as all of the starting weapons are very easy to get, and actually thrown away pretty soon anyway. 

Thanks in advance for your effort!

Edited October 25, 2017 by Baskakov_Dima
Minor imrovements

[k05h]

Excalibur is the best to start

His abilities are easy to understand - especially for noobs.

He is strong for early game, mid game and late game.

He is easy to mod because a balanced build will do just fine on him. 

He is the toughest (highest health and armor) of all starter frames. 

He can be a great damage dealer and great crowd crontroller ... or he can be both. 

He is a pain to farm if you dont pick him as starter frame.

He is great for true endgame because he has amazing skins.

 

Edited October 25, 2017 by k05h
Added the why

[Baskakov_Dima]

Just now, k05h said:

Excalibur is the best to start

Perhaps it is. But why? How is it way better than, say, Volt?

[NoggDog117]

I always thought of it as a difficulty standpoint. Excal is easy to learn, Mag's harder, Volt's in the middle somewhere. In my opinion, of the three, Excal is the greatest option for new players due to his playstyle, not to mention you can't craft him until Pluto anyways. Volt being Clan-tech makes him more available, and Mag's from Sergeant, both more available than Excal.

[Aurea_Hiigara]

All three starter frames are approximately equally strong.

Excalibur, however, has the most armor and health, meaning better survivability while learning the base game mechanics, AND Excalibur is the hardest of the three to farm later on after the Ambulas rework.

[Rawbeard]

Volt is bad for newbies because he instantly dies the moment his shields drop. if you don't have the movement to avoid most fire and modding to use his powers basically at will, you will think Warframe is some BS you die a lot game.

[k05h]

6 minutes ago, Baskakov_Dima said:

Perhaps it is. But why? How is it way better than, say, Volt?

I just added the why to my initial answer. Having played around 1300 hours in Warframe I have seen enough new players struggle with starter frames. Excalibur was always the least pain for new clan members and friends. 

Dont get me wrong, all starter frames are solid warframes. When you have no clue how to mod properly (in your first 30-40 hours) the other starter frames will go down way faster. 

[(PSN)drpunk-yo]

Blind and exalted blade are very strong and useful pretty much everywhere.

Mag and Volt are a bit more specialised to me. Like Mag's armor stripping is good against high level Grineer (and I suppose low level too when you're new and your weapons aren't so strong) but that's about it (*prepares to be schooled by Mag lover*).

[FreeWilliam]

It would be really nice to see a guide for this written from the standpoint of 'how you'd like to get pulled into the game'

I think that's a big part of it because that frame choice also can influence how you approach the game early on and what missions you get comfortable with first.

From that standpoint, I think the real question becomes 'What does this Frame make extra enjoyable' and 'Where does this frame thrive'.  And from that standpoint I think we do get something, because each frame sort of becomes an Action Hero style archetype. (I know they're all quite versatile, but I'm setting it up this way to feed into that point)

In the Thick of Things - Excalibur -  When the bad guys are swarming and you occasionally want to shotgun one in the face or bring out your inner Donnie Yen

The Manipulator - Mag - When you love the idea of making awful things happen to bad guys in creative ways, and sitting back and watching the red mist form

Squirrel! - Volt - What if something's on the other side of the map?  Why am I not there? District B-13 was great!

Each of those kind of gets to a different initial playstyle, but in each case there are also (cheap) mods that allow any of those frames to shift and fill the gaps left by others in lower level missions, and also weapons and other things you can get down the road that help that way too. (plenty of weapons with a CC alt-fire of some sort for example)

Then you can also get into Synergies with other warframes and such.  

Anyway, a bit short on time, but I bet if I had something like that I'd have gotten even more immersed :)

Edit: I'm actually totally cool with the idea of drafting a couple of articles to do this, then we could also walk through a way for each frame to just change your approach and COMPLETELY change the way it's used (definitely could extend this to all frames as a concept).  I'm a passable article writer but historically have mostly dabbled in Animals or Science/Entertainment...I haven't done much gaming related writing since I was the guild reporter for my DAOC guild years ago)

I'd LOVE for it to be a collaboration though. I think we get cooler stuff that way. :)

Edited October 25, 2017 by FreeWilliam

[YandereWaifu]

3 hours ago, (PS4)drpunk-yo said:

Blind and exalted blade are very strong and useful pretty much everywhere.

Mag and Volt are a bit more specialised to me. Like Mag's armor stripping is good against high level Grineer (and I suppose low level too when you're new and your weapons aren't so strong) but that's about it (*prepares to be schooled by Mag lover*).

as a mag main your not wrong ^^, the armor and shield stripping works great against most things on the star chart aside from the infested since they only have armor when theres a mutalist moa around or specifically juggernauts tho theres always magnetise for them and the grineer (reduced effectiveness on juggernauts). the quick cc and + chance to drop energy orbs from her pull was a life saver when i started off (she was my starter).polarize made corpus spies easier as well since it would kill all the cameras so id just have to watch out for the lasers. excal is definitly the easiest to use (tried him out after getting him, was brain dead easy though definitly not starter loki easy), mag is pretty good but just slightly more difficult tho, volt i see as being the toughest choice of the 3 though that could be due to my own bias towards him never liked volt too much tbh) 

 

[FreeWilliam]

1 hour ago, YandereWaifu said:

as a mag main your not wrong ^^

I wonder if the warframe we choose at the beginning might influence how we approach the game early on too. 

I started Mag and she made me a controller. I'm pretty sure that because of her I started with a more methodical playstyle than I would have if I had started with Volt or Excalibur.  I also probably enjoyed certain parts of the game (like pinning bad guys to walls and setting up clever choke points) more than I would have had I been a Volt or an Excalibur at first.  

My second frame was Octavia, and I became a commander.  Mallet and my little disco ball were little things with personalities.  She's VERY controll-y and kind of a defense princess, so a lot of the things I liked setting up with Mag got even more fun with her (and that time I saw a Mag main and put Mallet inside her bubble and had that 'Magic: the Gathering Combo!' moment was amazing by the way! Thanks DE!) and I was set for Argon crystal for life.

Then I got Excalibur and all of a sudden I was PART of the combat.  With Mag I was a controller, with Octavia I evolved into more of a commander, and Excalibur just gave me a whole new game.  Instead of cleverly/cautiously positioning things expertly I started enjoying the visceral up-close-and-personal destruction. 

Then I got Nyx and everything got weird.  That's when I learned the joy of playing a frame in a less than obvious way and loving it. Most people don't think 'Punching Juggernauts' with Nyx.  She was my solution to the fact that they made me nervous in my Excal.  Instead of being nervous when the lights flickered, when I was in my Nyx I mentally would go 'ooooh yeah!' and try to hunt it down and punch it in the face not because it was practical or the best way to win.

Instead it was because I COULD.  Somebody had told me that was crazy (it kind of was), but all of a sudden I was completely owning how I played a game. 

DE encouraged me to play wrong and made it fun than playing right.

And then I was trapped. DE had found the exploit in my pathology, and now they get a bunch of my money and support (and I love the way they develop, so that's totally cool)

I think putting a LOT of emphasis on how you want to play will really make the difference for some people.  We've got lots of frame guides, plenty of people have min/maxed the finances and convenience (Excal is harder to farm), others have great advice on how to get a lot out of the game in different ways (companions, sentinels, specific pathways to success) and so on...but each of those is really talking about how WE like to play.

Perhaps we shouldn't really focus on anything until we've thought about 'how many ways can people approach and enjoy this game'.  We're not all clones after all, and if everyone took my advice then we'd just have too many AOE melee monsters with a growing stable of weapons earning (and getting) the name 'Clem' and not enough Volts helping us get to the next mobile defense point faster. :)

 

Edited October 25, 2017 by FreeWilliam

[BethTheBean]

1. Excalibur - He's your run-of-the-mill hero. Every stat straight down the the middle, as balanced as a blade. If you enjoy video games, where it's you against the world, he's your frame.

2. Volt - Geared towards those who love to speedrun through games. He's also the most expensive frame to build, since he must be researched in the dojo then built from the BPs. 

3. Mag - Eh. I liked her better before the rework. Still, I don't see her as a starting frame due to the mods needed to get her up to par. She was created to be a Corpus-Killer, but any well modded weapon can do that.

For the record, I picked Excalibur. He's perfect for a veteran or beginner, giving you a balanced setup to get you through the star map.