In terms of community usage stats.
I really like Banshee, but I was shocked to learn she was at a mere 0.53% usage on last year’s published stats. I’m also really fond of Yareli and Gyre.
Probably Yareli, she is quite tanky even in steel path and even if your surfboard dies, its one button press and instantly back up. Combine with ocucor and you just sorta roomba the map. Screw some of the grineer layouts tho.
Gyre: Pillage build and unhealthy amounts of strength bring me a lot of satisfaction
Caliban: Nourish and Primed Flow give him as much energy as he needs to shine. His 4 is kinda like Xaku’s 3, but where Xaku’s 3 lasts more and is wider, the defense strip from Cali’s 4 is permanent and drains both shields and armor at the same time (also it stacks an infinite amount of times
Zephyr: has it all, many fun and viable helminth combinations (coil horizon to put enemies into tornado range from further away, silence to negate eximus and make overguarded melee enemies your only threat, spectrorage to generate energy from tornado kills), AND she’s the best frame for solo SP Circuit (in fact, i’ve never gone levelcap yet, but i believe Zephyr with Silence and Assimilate Nyx with something to slow overguarded melee enemies down OR Dispensary is a perfect duo). Also, if your starter frame was Volt and you switch with Zephyr but miss the speed, Jet Stream has you covered
I also slapped Silence on Zephyr, bricking Eximi and Thrax is great
Also when enemy armor is less of an issue and I don’t feel like playing around the tornadoes, Target Fixation goes brrr
Nyx is entirely unnecessary in the normal star chart:
-Armor strip isn’t needed when they die to normal weapons
-Chaos isn’t needed when they die too fast to be CCed anyway
-Mind Control has no effect when enemies do low damage
But on the Steel Path all these things are inverted and Nyx shines. Enemies still have trouble killing each other, sure, but they stay busy trying. Nyx’s armor strip takes less power strength to get to 100% than any other frame.
In any case I have a soft spot for her. Still have my original, which I literally farmed by accident. My first built frame, and also the one I did the Second Dream with.
My usage stats across all frames are basically an inversion of DE’s published ones: Rhino/Mesa/Saryn/Wukong are at the bottom for me, and Nyx/Ivara/Mag/Zephyr at the top.
Speaking of: Ivara trivializes about half of the Steel Path. You don’t even need to change your frame build for it.
In a similar vein to Ivara, Ash is also quite strong in steel path though mediocre in regular star chart.
I don’t see other Zephyrs but I assume it’s low usage. She’s got EVERYTHING.
I always forget about Zephyr but she’s pretty badass too.
Zephyr is probably my top used frame, very slept on, whats not to like about effective immortality and with subsumbed spectrosiphon, infinite energy and crit bonus. I still run the projectile speed mod too, since it makes shotguns stronger and boltor/nataruk hitscan.
Is there a link to community usage stats?
I play a lot of Equinox and Octavia, but I very rarely see anyone else bringing them into missions.
I don’t think people want to farm Equinox, and don’t know how busted her day mode 4 is.
I have been playing less Octavia lately even though she’s still a favorite, because she’s so powerful that it makes things boring. I just sit there twerking to maintain invisibility and refresh skills once a minute or so.
stats site, can click through to 2020 as well: https://www.warframe.com/2022stats
I love Gyre too. I’m currently trying to make her more viable for SP. Does Ash count? Because I just got his prime and he’s been so much fun so far. When I played WoW years and years ago, I played as a rogue just going invisible all the time and it was way more fun than any of the other classes I tried. I’ve never been big on invisible frames (I use Ivara for spy missions and open world farming/hunting, Wukong’s invisibility isn’t manageable for me, I’ve never played Loki, and Octavia’s is fun but doesn’t last long enough) but Ash’s invisibility is easy and cheap on energy to use. Plus my favorite thing to do is use his teleport augment and one-shot every Eximus I see.
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My best girl, Garuda.
When I see her in the Circuit I know I can solo basically anything, regardless of the weapon choices.
I used to Banshee main 7 years back. She needs speed and good aim to stay alive, always liked that about her. Enjoying pulling out old frames in the circuit
I don’t know the usage % but Nyx.
With her combined massive 0.73% playrate, 0.63% of which lies in the Prime, Equinox is my favorite Warframe and the one that instantly caught my eye when my friend introduced me to the game and I was skimming over the wiki because of her Day/Night mechanic. Nowadays I main her for the silly little dopamine rush Terrify + Maim gives me, but it’s still the same frame nonetheless.
Other than her… my next favorite low %-er frame would have to be Gyre. I enjoyed her in the past and just wish she got the tiniest bit of an extra boost, which Cathode Current provided in spades. Real fun and Pillage is an easy slot.
Grendel. I love him after his rework, and wish he’d get more spotlight in the community. He’s super fun
Grendel is actually my favorite “active” frame but honestly it feels like a huge struggle to keep his belly full most of the time in pubs.
With a combined total of 0.58% - Baruuk.
He has double-dip damage reduction, he has an insane ult that synergizes well with Archon Shards, and you can very easily Helminth your 1st or 2nd ability for Tharros Strike.
My only gripe with Baruuk is the initial charging of the 4, but then i find i am only using the 4 and might as well nto have anything else equipped.
Baruuk is pretty much my favorite frame to play in Circuit. Add in all the melee buffs and it’s just gigantic red crits everywhere at ludicrous speeds.
But what if I want to get rid of his 4 for Silence? 🤔 (Don’t worry, I only made that build for funsies.)
There is a weird Lull build I tried for him paired with Savage Silence. Not super efficient but a fun change up of play style.
I have mained Frost Prime for nearly 9 years. I rarely see other frostys in the wild, but I know there are about 5 of us! :P
Frost is a highly under-rated frame. I don’t understand why he’s disliked so much. His 4 will do full armor-strip and is a great CC for headshot kills. Someone conscious about where they’re putting bubbles doesn’t get in the way, except for people who think they need to be the one to shoot everything on the map, even if there are teammates on the other side of the defense point who can do that.
My only complaint is that his 1 or 2 are somewhat redundant with the 4 when you have a lot of energy, but Helminth can take care of that. I like his 1 for immobilizing high-damage targets, though it became less useful with the Eximus rework.
Steel Path mobile defense, or excavation, Frost is my guy. If only I could freeze the defense target guy and make him quit wandering around. I still often take Frost for defense and just keep moving my bubble.
Gyre has been my absolute queen of Steel Path content in recent months thanks to swapping coil horizon out for tharros strike and making incredible use of her cathode grace augment. Duration and efficiency are now dump stats lmao
Would Silence work on her instead of Tharros Strike? I can’t seem to stay alive using TS so maybe some pointers on using it?
Tharros Strike… now that’s a good swap for Coil Horizon
Would’ve replied to this far earlier, but apparently Lemmy doesn’t properly work on mobile browsers. Cool.Isn’t…that the exact opposite of what you’d want to do? Tharros Strike pairs exceptionally well WITH Coil Horizon, not in its place. CH is her grouping ability. Tharros strike is a strip in a small contained area. Dunno why people are so insistent on replacing her 2 when her 1’s right there. It’s never been particularly good.
Isn’t her 1 kinda needed for getting electric procs so she can crit?
Honestly? With how her 3 gives her crit chance (that also effects her abilities) it basically invalidates the need to focus on her passive. You’ll still get some benefit out of it from her abilities, but, eh, the fact that her 2 is a basic grouping ability (good to have at worst) and her 3 and 4 are essentially irreplaceable means 1 is just by default on the chopping block.
Additionally, while I’m here, forget Tharros Strike. Subsume Pillage onto Gyre. She needs both Armor Strip -and- survivability, which Pillage provides both of in spades as she is one of the few frames who just naturally builds enough power strength to hit Pillage’s breakpoint (which Corrosive Projection greatly lessens). Attached below is an example of my build. Energize is for QOL and basically unnecessary after her 3+4 get a safe buffer of kills , Molt Augmented can be replaced by some strength shards and another arcane to your taste. I have two energy max shards, 1 +max energy filled on spawn shard, and 1 Parkour Velocity shard on, but, again, those are to your taste and effectively QOL.
