Nezha
Often unfavorably compared to Rhino, Nezha is a super speedy, super fragile Warframe. His low health and shields are offset by a skill that stops damage altogether (hence the Rhino comparison) and reflects it back at enemies. His ultimate offers decent crowd control, while some augment mods increase his ability to support allies.
Specialization: Supersonic semi-support that relies on his abilities to stay alive.
Weaknesses: “Basically a worse Rhino,” according to some.
Tier: Low
Prime: No
Nidus
Nidus is another shield-less Warframe in the vein of Inaros with an equal focus on tanking. The difference is that Nidus needs extremely lengthy missions to reach his full potential. His basic skill, Virulence, builds stacks of a resource called “mutations” over time, which increase Virulence's own damage, fuel his other abilities, and make him immune to death (as long as he has stacks). This makes him a perfect candidate for endless missions like survival, but unfortunately his mutations reset after every wave of Sanctuary Onslaught.
Specialization: A tank with crowd control and ever-increasing damage that takes time to warm up.
Weaknesses: Needs time and enemies to ramp up and use his abilities.
Tier: High
Prime: No
Nova
Nova is a champion of crowd control. Her ultimate ability is so good at it that, even if she didn’t also have an impressive nuke and nice utility, she’d still be one of the best Warframes in the game. Said ultimate primes enemies a damage debuff - that is to say any damage they take is multiplied. Foes that die under this effect explode, often causing chain reactions that cause their fellows to explode and so on, and if that weren’t enough then affected enemies are slowed (or sped up with certain farming builds) as well. Nova can also spawn a powerful AoE nuke and create portals for squadmates to cover long distances in a flash.
Specialization: Best-in-class crowd controller with a nasty nuke to boot. Her portals speed up long missions better than any other ‘frame.
Weaknesses: On the squishy side.
Tier: Top
Prime: Yes
Nyx
On paper Nyx is a perfectly fine crowd controller with a get out of jail free card in the form of her ultimate. In practice she’s mostly useful as a tank and not for much else. That’s because her primary crowd control skill, Chaos, is simply outclassed. The skill inflicts a confusion effect on nearby foes—causing them to attack enemies and allies alike. The problem is that so many other Warframes offer total crowd control by blinding, reliably disarming, stunning, or just plain killing. Chaos is unreliable by comparison and isn’t helped by two mostly useless skills. Her ultimate, however, can combine with the Assimilate mod to make her effectively invincible as long as she has energy.
Specialization: A would-be crowd controller with temporary invincibility and not much else.
Weaknesses: Unreliable lockdown. Her tank ability, while powerful, requires grinding for a mod to be fully effective.
Tier: Low
Prime: Yes
Oberon
Oberon shouldn’t be your first choice for a support. That isn’t to say he’s a bad one, as the faerie king is a perfectly serviceable healer with some perks. He can strip enemy armor, remove allied status effects, and manage crowds. The downside is that most of this requires enemies and allies to stay in a certain area, so Oberon fills a nice niche somewhere between defense and support.
Specialization: A damage dealing healer best suited for defense and escort missions.
Weaknesses: Requires targets to stay in certain areas he creates. Utility is a bit unreliable.
Tier: Middle
Prime: Yes
Octavia
The idea of a rhythm-based Warframe might be intimidating at first. It’s absolutely worth it to farm and use Octavia, however, as she’s almost undeniably the strongest ‘frame in the game. That’s largely thanks to her infinitely scaling damage in the form of Mallet, as this skill summons an invincible orb that entices enemies to stop what they’re doing and shoot it. That damage is then multiplied and blasted out in an AoE on-beat with the Mallet’s pre-programmed song. If that weren’t enough you can make the Mallet mobile with Octavia’s second, and if those weren’t enough the Warframe and her allies can also trigger buffs by crouching, jumping, and attacking on-beat with her own tune. Octavia’s ultimate also multiplies weapon damage based on noise (which is constant in Warframe), meaning her damage output and crowd control are truly on another level.
Specialization: Divine damage support AoE killer.
Weaknesses: Acting on rhythm can be tricky in the heat of battle.
Tier: Top
Prime: No
Rhino
Every new player should absolutely pick up Rhino as quickly as possible. The tank among tanks is a solid and simple early Warframe that can yawn his way through most of the game’s early content. He doesn’t drop off at higher levels, either, with his high damage scaling and skills that literally make him invincible. His signature Iron Skin ability will protect you while you learn the ropes of Warframe, while his ultimate, Rhino Stomp, can clean up low-level missions once you do know what you’re doing.
Specialization: A nigh invulnerable damage dealer with excellent crowd control. Truly classic.
Weaknesses: Passive ability is pretty niche.
Tier: Top
Prime: Yes
Saryn
Saryn is a totally decent, if slightly complicated, AoE killer. She focuses on spreading toxic, corrosive, and viral damage among crowds, with the latter damage type making her especially good at killing high-level enemies since it reduces their maximum health by half without having to do actual damage.
Specialization: Infectious damage dealer with a couple of tricks.
Weaknesses: Her ability combo takes a while to get going while other Warframes can kill outright.
Tier: Middle
Prime: Yes
Titania
Titania is a bit of a mess and has been since the character was first introduced. Most of her skills are theoretically useful, but simply don’t function in practice. Her crowd control is unwieldy, as the buffs she can extract from enemies are randomized and uselessly minor. Her ultimate, Razorwing, lets her shrink down and fly around like The Wasp - blasting enemies with admittedly powerful weapons. Unfortunately, this mode uses Warframe’s much maligned Archwing controls, though thankfully developer Digital Extremes has promised a Titania rework sometime soon.
Specialization: An unwieldy would-be support and crowd controller that’s only sort of good at dealing damage.
Weaknesses: Just about everything.
Tier: Low
Prime: No
Trinity
If Rhino is the tank among tanks then Trinity is the support among supports. She offers everything an aspiring Warframe squad might need: infinite energy, infinite healing, and damage reduction. Two of her skills are also powerful single-target stuns, and modded correctly she can even become the strongest tank in the game - making her a solo badass as well as a support powerhouse. She’s been near the top of Warframe’s meta for longer than anyone can remember.
Specialization: A classic healer that’s nearly indestructible with the right build.
Weaknesses: Very low armor (which is offset by her skills anyway).
Tier: Top
Prime: Yes
Valkyr
Valkyr’s signature move, Hysteria, is an early game-changer. It allows the raging Warframe to pop claws and go to town on enemies at melee range, but its real upside is invulnerability - allowing her to way through the very enemies she rips to shreds without taking a hit. Her damage is converted into health, too, so she’s often back to full strength when the skill ends (which is sooner than you’d like thanks to its high energy drain). Some good damage buffs and debuffs round Valkyr’s kit out nicely.
Specialization: A melee shredder with solid buffs and debuffs, plus total invulnerability.
Weaknesses: Very poor energy efficiency.
Tier: High
Prime: Yes
Vauban
Vauban is a straightforward defender with strong crowd control. His ultimate summons miniature black holes that manage foes while his signature skill, Bastille, traps enemies in midair. The rest of his skills aren’t anything to write home about, which is likely why he’s scheduled for a rework.
Specialization: A straightforward defense class.
Weaknesses: Half his skills are largely ignored. Farming him also requires you to watch for special, time limited missions every day.
Tier: Middle
Prime: Yes
Volt
What started as a fairly simple “spellcaster” class has morphed over time into an eclectic utility character. Volt’s massive movement speed buff is a godsend to him and his teammates on large missions (such as during Cetus bounties), and his ultimate is a strong AoE stun. Yet his most unusual skill is Electric Shield - a stationary energy field that Volt can pick up and use as an actual shield. Allies that shoot through it will charge their fire with electric and bonus critical damage, which makes it popular for greasing Earth’s Eidolon bosses.
Specialization: A unique utility class with solid crowd control.
Weaknesses: Electric Shield is a bit unwieldy compared to standard damage buffs.
Tier: Middle
Prime: Yes
Wukong
Wukong is an effectively immortal Warframe (so long as he has energy) with a melee focus. That’s about it. The character has next to no utility outside of a small AoE stun, and he’s seemingly another candidate for a rework.
Specialization: A melee focused tank.
Weaknesses: Next to zero utility. His melee abilities are just fine.
Tier: Low
Prime: No
Zephyr
Zephyr is a bit of an odd duck. Her skills are largely centered around keeping her airborne, as from there she can cast other skills at reduced cost and dive bomb to knock enemies down. It’s a unique and solid form of crowd control, but requires setup that feels more thematic than useful. Her ultimate is much more traditional - it summons tornadoes that whip enemies into the air and distribute damage when shot. You can increase that effect by throwing concussion grenades, Zephyr’s Airbursts, into the cyclones. Unfortunately the windy skill is a bit unreliable as it slowly moves across the battlefield, yet her mix of movement and wide area control makes Zephyr a strong player on the Plains of Eidolon.
Specialization: A slightly strange crowd controller with high aerial mobility.
Weaknesses: Signature skill is unreliable.
Tier: Middle
Prime: Yes
Looking for the right parts to upgrade your chosen Warframe? Then check out our Warframe Trading guide for all the information on buying, selling, trading, and bartering.
