GHStmm22

WARFRAME FRAMES GUIDE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
    I. INTRODUCTION
    II. SUMMARY OF FRAME ROLES AND GRADES
    III. LIST OF FRAMES BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER
    IV. NOTE ABOUT TANK FRAMES
    V. LIST OF GOOD AUGMENTS
    VI. MODDING GUIDE
    VII. FAQ

----------INTRODUCTION----------

GRADES ARE GIVEN FOR EASE OF USE. DON’T RELY ENTIRELY ON GRADES. READ FRAME DESCRIPTIONS.

This guide is aimed at players seeking to do high-level content. It assumes you have some experience with the game and access to high-level mods, but new players can also make use of this guide if they're wondering which frame/build to work towards. It also assumes you have a basic understanding of what a particular frame's abilities do (if you don't, read the wiki).

An overview of frames is presented as well as builds for most of them. Above all else, this guide seeks to answer questions such as: “Is X frame good?”, “Which frame should I make?”, and “How do I build X frame?”

Frames are graded on a scale from A+ to F based on their endgame potential, prioritizing group play, though solo play is also taken into account. The terms ‘post-DEAC’ (see FAQ at end for explanation of DEAC), ‘endgame,’ and 'high-level' are used interchangeably, and in this guide are used exclusively to refer to endless sortie missions, basically any time you face lv50+ enemies, with a focus towards lv80-100. This guide does NOT grade based on missions with enemies <lv50, but bear in mind that frames that are good endgame are good everywhere.

Build guidelines are given for almost every frame except some really bad ones. When applicable, purposes besides endgame content (e.g. Hydroid for farming) are also explained.

A general "How to build frames" section and FAQ are at the end.

UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, ALL FRAMES SHOULD AIM FOR MAX EFFICIENCY.

----------SUMMARY OF FRAME ROLES AND GRADES----------

Ash Prime (F): Damage
Atlas (F): Damage
Banshee (F): CC, Damage, Buff
Chroma F): Survivability, Damage
Ember Prime (F): Damage, CC, Clearing DEAC
Equinox (F): Damage, CC
Excalibur (F): Damage, CC
Frost Prime (F): Defense, CC
Hydroid (D): Farming, CC
Inaros (F): Survivability, CC
Ivara (F): Survivability, Damage, Utility
Limbo (F): Utility
Loki Prime (F): CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Mag Prime (F): Damage, Utility
Mesa (F): Damage, Survivability
Mirage (F): Damage, CC
Nekros (F): Farming, Tank, Utility, CC
Nezha (F): CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Nova Prime (A-): CC, Buff, Damage
Nyx Prime (B-): CC, Defense/Survivability
Oberon (None): F
Rhino Prime (F): CC, Survivability, Buff
Saryn Prime (F): Damage, Buff
Titania (F): Damage, CC
Trinity Prime (F): Infinite energy, Survivability/team survivability
Valkitty (A++++++++): Best Kitty
Vauban Prime (A-): CC
Volt Prime (F): Defense, Speedrunning
Wukong (F): Survivability
Zephyr (F): Survivability/Defense, Damage

----------LIST OF FRAMES BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER----------

=== ASH PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: Damage
Edgelord frame that deals surprisingly good DPS with Bladestorm. Because of its Finisher damage type that ignores shields and armor, Bladestorm scales well into endgame, capable of one-shotting regular enemies, though it falls off against high-HP heavy units, especially Infested, which have higher raw HP compared to other factions. Unfortunately, Ash has no use outside of Bladestorm. Bladestorm also leaves him unable to do anything, so he’ll need support defending objectives.

There is one build:

-Bladestorm build that runs high power strength and high range. Dump stat is duration, though some players like to add in Prime Continuity so they can use Smoke Screen as a get-out-of-jail button. Press 4 and watch cutscene, over and over. Good for Defense missions to speed up killing waves, especially in augmented armor Grineer sorties. The only build in the game that works best with Steel Charge and doesn’t require a dash aura polarity slot for CP. Mod your melee weapon with Fury/Quickening to speed up the animation and Body Count to increase damage. Other melee mods don’t carry over.

Some people like to stack duration and use Ash solely for Smoke Screen, running around invisible. While it's passable, I advise against it, because Loki is the better Invis frame.

=== ATLAS ===
Grade: F
Roles: Damage
One Punch Man. His only good ability is Landslide, which can dish out crazy numbers, but its in-mission effectiveness is limited by its range. He technically has utility abilities but they are underwhelming. Tectonics is serviceable but it's a worse version of Volt’s Electric Shield, which is already a worse version of Snowglobe. Rumblers are tanky but are unreliable at drawing aggro and deal poor damage. Petrify is shitty CC all around, but with the augment provides fringe use in scanning/farming enemies (particularly Sentients).

=== BANSHEE ===
Grade: F
Roles: CC, Damage, Buff
AKA whoframe. Currently, her greatest use endgame is using Sound Quake as CC to lock down entire rooms, but Quake has the downside of being channeling with absurd energy drain. Quake's damage only excels in DEAC. Previously, Banshee had some niche use with Sonar and the Resonance augment, which greatly amplifies weapon damage and can dish out absurd numbers, but with long endless runs gone there's little point to Resonance Banshee anymore.

There are two builds:

-Quake (damage) Banshee that runs the Resonating Quake augment and builds for high/max range, high power strength, and enough duration to hit Sound Quake's efficiency cap. Only good in DEAC, but makes short work of it, especially on small maps and for Berehynia affinity farming. Because of Resonating Quake's absurd energy drain, she's typically paired with an EV Trin.
-Quake (CC) Banshee that runs max range and enough duration to hit Sound Quake's efficiency cap. Dump stat is power strength. The augment is still good, but on some small maps may not be necessary.
-Resonance Banshee that runs the Resonance augment and builds for high duration, high strength, and high range (yes, it needs everything). Recast Sonar to stack weak points. Only good for extremely long runs, and with those gone, this build is quite useless now. For the vast majority of the game (including sorties), damage is not a problem with good weapons/damage frames/CP.

=== CHROMA ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Survivability, Damage
Tank frame that can reach 99% damage reduction using Vex Armor and Elemental Ward. Inferior to flat-out invincibility from Wukong, but the plus is that Chroma can buff his weapon damage to insane amounts. Effigy has fringe use in credit-farming. Good solo frame but provides little to a team.

For an in-depth look at the ways you can build Chroma along with calculations, see this forum thread. Note that it's out-of-date with unoptimized builds, but it's a good read for math and build comparisons:

https://forums.warframe.com/topic/431756-sci_ants-comprehensive-chroma-armor-build-guide-in-depth-with-calculations-and-results/.

tl;dr - Ice Chroma is tankiest Chroma, building high/max power strength, max duration, Steel Fiber, and either Vitality OR Quick Thinking/Flow. Dump stat is range. Efficiency also isn't as important because Vex Armor and Elemental Ward are all you'll be using and each one last 50s+. With Vex Armor and Elemental Ward active, you become increasingly tankier and deal increasingly more damage the more you get hit; the effective HP from Steel Fiber and Vitality/QT thus become significantly magnified. You still need some way to regain health from chip damage. Medi-Ray is the best and easiest way to do so, but bringing along another source of healing is a good idea, e.g. Lifestrike, lifesteal Furis, Syndicate proc. Be careful that your sentinel doesn't die from AOE, because you are relying on it heavily for Guardian/Medi-Ray.

A second niche build is the credit build:

-Credit Chroma runs high power strength with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Dump stat is range. Used solely for credit-farming 5-wave Dark Sector Defenses. Go to Akkad, plop down Effigy at the objective, and you can go do something else for five minutes. In groups, the usefulness of a single Effigy is doubtful, because waiting for your Effigy to kill enemies usually isn’t as efficient as everybody killing enemies to speed up the round. Best used with multiple Effigies.

Word of caution: Tank Chroma requires multiple high-ranked r10 mods and forma to become good. In fact, even his Sentinel requires a potato and multiple r10 mods so it doesn't die easily. Chroma is not recommended for new players.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== EMBER PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: Damage, CC, Clearing DEAC
Queen of DEAC. The combination of World on Fire (WoF) and Accelerant obliterates enemies below level 50 and potentially even up to the first sortie, but falls off hard against lv80+ enemies (against heavies WoF can even struggle in DEAC). Despite having low endgame potential, Ember is a useful frame to own simply because she’s so efficient for everything else. There’s a reason her vaulted Prime set is outrageously expensive. She allows you to speedrun exterminates and semi-AFK in Survival/Defense missions.

There is one build:

-WoF build that runs high power strength, high range, and enough duration to hit WoF’s efficiency cap. You still want to hit 75% casting efficiency if you want to spam Accelerant. Ember has minor use as CC using the Firequake augment and Accelerant (which stuns enemies on cast). However, Firequake is subpar CC because it can only hit a maximum of 5 enemies/second. WoF also innately procs fire (which stuns enemies).

=== EQUINOX ===
Grade: F
Roles: Damage, CC
Good damage-dealing frame with some CC potential. Although she has eight abilities, all her abilities are lackluster except Maim. Maim’s stored damage is infinite-scaling, making it good even into endgame, although it takes time to charge and decreases with distance. In a pinch, Maim can also be used as CC by recasting it over and over. Her Sleep ability provides good CC but the range is abysmal (literally smallest AOE CC in the game). Her power strength buff is decent but too niche to be concerned with, and in terms of damage it's outshined by many other buffs. Pacify has some CC potential with the augment.

There are two builds:

-Maim build (Day form) that builds max range with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Power strength only affects the initial slash damage, so it will be a dump stat unless you plan on buffing. Press 4, let damage store, press 4 again. The amount of damage you want to store before popping depends on the mission, but it doesn't take a lot of kills. Natural Talent is very good to speed up Maim's 2s cast time. Maim is ineffective against armored units unless you bring multiple CP.
-Peaceful Provocation build (Night form) that uses the slow part of Peaceful Provocation (PP), building for high power strength (ideally 200% to hit the slow cap) and high range. Dump stat is duration; some people like to add duration for Sleep, but mod space is very limited, and even a minimum-duration Sleep can still be effective. PP's slow takes a long time to build up, especially for a competent team that has ways to mitigate damage. Self-damaging weapons alleviates this problem. Even then, slow is not a hard disable like Stomp or Bastille. Note that although this ability drains energy, it is not a channeled ability; Zenurik/Energy Siphon still work through it.

Note: Maim build is significantly more popular (and more recommended) than the PP build.

=== EXCALIBUR ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Damage, CC
Posterboy frame that got hit hard by the damage fall-off nerf. Your Exalted Blade (EB) will do almost no damage to distant enemies, a problem especially noticeable on big maps, and getting close to enemies is risky like it is with any melee weapon; this problem is alleviated if you have Shadow Step. Even if you do get close, EB can be outdamaged by melee weapons that use Blood Rush and Body Count. Radial Blind's LOS requirement makes it unreliable as CC, though the damage amplification it gives is good.

There are two builds:

-EB build is by far the most popular build. If you want to go pure EB, all you need is power strength, but most of the time there’s enough mod space to add range and duration for Radial Blind. Using Radial Blind is in fact encouraged since it's not just CC but also a DPS increase via the stealth damage multiplier; against high-level enemies using Radial Blind is a must. An equally important part of this build are your melee mods. You want as much damage as possible through elementals. EB has mediocre crit stats, but modding for crit + Berserker will still give you the highest DPS. Of special mention is gas EB, i.e. a melee modded for gas damage and high status. When paired with Radial Blind, gas procs deal sleek amounts of stealth damage and can easily kill lv100+ heavies in a single proc.
-RJ build that prioritizes max range, then max power strength, then max efficiency. Dump stat is duration. Natural Talent is also good for spamming even more RJ. Literally all you do is spam 3. Only ever seen for Berehynia affinity farming, but seems to have fallen out of favor due to Berehynia's LOS obstructions. Can be played with a macro.
-Radial Blind build that goes for max range and duration. Dump stat is power strength. Pure Radial Blind builds are unpopular because the line-of-sight restriction makes its CC unreliable; you can get shot at from an enemy less than 5 feet away if he's around a corner.

=== FROST PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: Defense, CC
King of Defense. Snowglobe is the best defensive skill in the game (PSA: Snowglobe is stackable, just recast it when you're inside a globe). Ice Wave is a serviceable slow, and Avalanche is decent for DEAC nuking and provides a measure of CC, but all anyone wants from Frost is globe.

There is one build:

-Snowglobe builds are versatile. The core of any Snowglobe build is high power strength and decent range (at least Stretch) so explosives/Napalm doesn't splash through Snowglobe. Beyond that, some people only care about globe HP, in which case adding more power strength and Steel Fiber is good (globe HP scales with armor). Some people prefer higher range via Cunning Drift/Overextended; the loss in globe HP can be made up for by simply stacking globes. Dump stat will generally be duration, but many people like to add duration for the Chilling Globe augment; duration also makes Avalanche more effective as CC. No matter which build you use, Snowglobe is great for Defense, Mobile Defense, Excavation, and camping. Plop it down and sit inside. Make sure to use your CC when needed.

Most people consider using Frost in Infested missions to be a mistake. Snowglobe is significantly less useful against melee units and also stops your team from hitting anything inside it. For any mission, make sure to pop Snowglobes if they’re in the way (use your first ability on it). Whether to plop down globes at interception points depends on your teammates. Snowglobe is also less effective in sortie Defenses because the operative moves around so much.

=== HYDROID ===
Grade: D
Roles: Farming, CC
Has the second-best loot-generating ability in the game after Nekros. The Pilfering Swarm augment build is his sole purpose. All his other abilities are awful, though Undertow has fringe use in blocking off Interception points and is fantastic for griefing in Defense missions. With the Desecrate loot nerf, Hydroid is arguably as good as Nekros now for farming, so Hydroid is still a decent frame to have in your inventory.

There is one build:

-Pilfering Hydroid that uses the Pilfering Swarm augment (obviously), building high duration and base range/negative range (via Narrowminded); too much range is detrimental because it causes tentacles to spawn erratically. Power strength is recommended to help kill things quicker. Tentacle Swarm works best when cast at choke points.

An optimal farming group runs 1 Nekros and 1-2 Hydroids with an EV Trin/Speednova.

=== INAROS ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Survivability, CC
Decent solo frame, decent team frame. He’s tanky with almost 5k health, but comes nowhere close to LITERAL INVINCIBILITY. Although it’s difficult to actually die with him, Inaros’s biggest problem is that he requires maintenance through lifesteal, compared to Wukong/Chroma who just press one button and forget about ever dying (Medi-Ray alleviates some of Inaros's sustainability issues). His one advantage over other tank frames is that he functions better on a team, because he provides CC through pocket sand (it’s ironic that despite having 4 CC abilities, his only decent CC is pocket sand). His heals are clunky to use on anyone except himself.

There is one build:

-CC Inaros that builds max range and high duration for pocket sand. Dump stat is power strength. Vitality + Steel Fiber are necessary; Rage is also good for infinite energy sustain. Bring a dagger with Covert Lethality for finishers. You want to start almost every mission by building up Scarab armor to max. Blind enemies with pocket sand, shank them to regain health. Devour and Scarab Armor are sub-par heal/CC and generally not worth using over pocket sand, though Devour is useful if you’re feeling lazy.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== IVARA ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Utility, Survivability, Damage
High-utility frame that offers good damage, survivability, and cheese potential. Artemis Bow (AB) scales off of primary weapon mods and gives her good DPS. Has built-in survivability with Prowl, making her a good solo frame, and Prowl’s slowness can be mitigated by rolling everywhere; the Infiltrate augment also has fringe use in cheesing Spy missions. Navigator provides insane damage bonuses that is often overkill and generally not worth the time/energy investment. Quiver provides tons of utility: Cloak arrows are great and your team will love you for it, while Sleep arrows provide good CC in a small AOE. Dash arrow occasionally has its uses. Noise arrow is useless 99% of the time but has its niche in soloing Interception missions.

There are five builds, listed in order from general to specialized:

-AB/Prowl build that builds high power strength for Artemis Bow with enough efficiency/duration to hit the efficiency cap for AB/Prowl. Dump stat is range. Bring a primary weapon modded for crit. Punchthrough isn’t needed since Artemis Bow has innate punchthrough. Fire rate mods such as Vile Acceleration are recommended to take advantage of Artemis Bow’s horizontal fan.
-Hybrid build that’s essentially the first build but sacrifices power strength for range/duration, allowing for more utility through Cloak arrows. Good general all-purpose build for when you still want utility but don’t trust your allies enough to dedicate yourself to supporting them. Don't worry about AB's damage; even a low strength AB with Prowl can kill lv100 enemies.
-Cloak build that builds high range and high duration for Cloak arrows. Dump stat is power strength. Spam Cloak arrows on allies and on yourself. Cloak is especially useful for sortie defenses to keep the operative alive. For missions with object-type defenses e.g. Mobile Defense, Cloak will NOT protect the objective.
-Noise arrow build that builds max range and enough efficiency for Prowl. Duration for Sleep arrow (+Covert Lethality) is recommended. Dump stat is power strength. Ever only used to solo Interception missions. Stay in Prowl and use Noise arrow to lure enemies away from towers, which causes them to stand around doing nothing. Once you have all 4 towers captured and enemies are in a permanent state of doing nothing, you can afk in Prowl and do something else until the end of the round. Be careful that sometimes a stray enemy will still cap towers.
-Solo Survival build that builds max duration (so Prowl steals quicker) and 100% power strength to get max steal chance with Prowl. Range is also desired but not as important. Entirely used to solo Survival missions for hours, using Prowl to steal life support and a Covert Lethality dagger to kill enemies with Sleep arrow. Unfortunately, with long endless missions gone, this build now has little use.

Note: Unless you're making a dedicated steal build, Prowl’s loot-stealing ability generally isn’t worth the time and risk of sitting next to enemies for a few seconds.

Ivara is also good for stealth focus-farm runs using Prowl and Sleep+CL dagger.

=== LIMBO ===
Grade: F
Roles: Utility
Most bad frames are useless. Limbo has the dubious distinction of actually harming your team if played incorrectly. His biggest problem is that allies can’t damage enemies in another plane of existence, so while he can protect your team, your team can't really do anything either. His biggest use is in Rescue/sortie Defenses to protect the objective. Some people like to use him in Spy missions to avoid setting off lasers, but Loki with Invis is almost always better for Spy. The exception is Moon spy, where Limbo can be better. The only frame that doesn't need a potato to function.

=== LOKI PRIME ===
Grade: F+
Roles: CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Extremely versatile frame for both solo and group play. Invisibility comes very close to invincibility in this game, while Radial Disarm (RD) is a fantastic CC that turns enemies into ducks hitting each other with sticks. His Decoy and Switch Teleport abilities are less useful but still essential for trivializing Spy missions. Having the highest base sprint speed in the game also means he’s great for speedrunning.

There are two builds:

-Invisibility build that runs max duration, which allows you to essentially maintain it forever. Dump stats are power strength and range. General solo build for non-endless missions, Spy missions, etc. When in a group, be careful not to get caught in the line of fire between enemies firing at your teammates. Because Invisibility is so easy to mod for, there’s plenty of room to add sprint/parkour mods. One of the best, if not THE best, speedrun builds.
-RD build that runs max range, which allows you to spam it over and over to trivialize entire rooms. Dump stat is strength and duration, though fitting in a Prime Continuity for Invis is recommended. Natural Talent can also be good to speed up RD’s long cast time, and the Irradiating Disarm augment might be the best augment in the game. Preferred build for group play in endless missions and Raids. Note that disarmed enemies still do shitloads of damage if they hit you with their sticks. Disarm is also significantly less effective against Infested, though the radiation proc still works.

There’s also a hybrid build which is essentially the RD build but you add in duration via Narrowminded. This allows you to keep a high-duration Invisibility, but I don’t recommend it. The standard RD build already has space for Prime Continuity, giving you ~12s of invisibility, which is more than enough time to pop a life support capsule or revive a teammate, and in fact you can sustain Invis permanently with a Zenurik.

=== MAG PRIME ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Damage, Utility
After her rework, Mag is no longer the Corpus-slaying machine she was, but in return she's gained more versatility across all three factions. Magnetize is her new go-to skill; its damage is infinite-scaling and it also doubles as (okay) protection. The best weapons by far to use with Magnetize are AOE explosive weapons (e.g. Tonkor, Kulstar); Lanka, Miter, and Mara Detron also deserve mention because their projectiles can bounce inside Magnetize. Using any other weapons will be underwhelming. The protection offered by Magnetize is decent but you shouldn't depend on it entirely.

There are two builds:

-Magnetize Mag that builds high/max range and high power strength. Your duration should be ~70%; negative duration is preferred because it shortens the delay in the explosion damage. Because you'll be spamming Magnetize so often, Natural Talent is a good choice to speed up Magnetize's cast time. Cast Magnetize, shoot your gun in its general direction, kill everything inside, and the explosion damage will take care of the rest. Magnetize works best when cast at choke points.

An alternate build is "CP Mag," which uses a mix of Polarize and Crush with the augment to remove enemy armor. I strongly advise against this build. It takes multiple Polarizes to completely strip enemy armor from lv80+ units and significantly more against heavies. Not to mention it's completely useless if you're running 4xCP or facing any faction other any Grineer.

=== MESA ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Damage, Survivability
Recent buffs pulled from Mesa from up from garbage tier, and she's now an excellent damage frame. Shooting Gallery staying on her means you now have a permanent 60%+ damage increase. PM scaling with secondary mods is absolutely huge, allowing PM to deal good damage even into sorties. While Shatter Shield's 95% damage reduction is certainly useful, it still does not provide reliable enough protection from endgame enemies because there are many things that go through it, e.g. explosives. Fortunately, she can often kill enemies quick enough that they can't even hit her.

There is one build:

-Damage/tank build that runs high duration and high power strength. Dump stat is range; some people like to add range for Shooting Gallery's CC, but I advise against it because it's awful CC. Vitality can also be used if you want more survivability. Make sure you have Shatter Shield up at all times. Use Peacemaker to mow down waves of enemies, but be careful of standing still for too long. You want to recast PM often anyway so the aiming reticule isn't so small. Your secondary mods are equally important; use the standard crit secondary build.

=== MIRAGE ===
Grade: F
Roles: Damage, CC
Prism build has been gutted by the LOS nerf and for most missions is a worse Radial Blind now; although Prism can fly around to get a better vantage point, it also has higher energy cost than Radial Blind and, most importantly, significantly longer cast time. Her DPS build remains unchanged and still makes her a top-tier damage frame. Hall of Mirrors provides significant weapon damage amplification with the additional upside of allowing explosive weapons to cover a larger area. Eclipse is one of the best weapon buffs in the game (and isn't too bad for survivability either) but can be unreliable because of its light mechanic.

There are two builds:

-DPS build that builds max power strength and max duration. Dump stat is range and efficiency. Efficiency isn’t needed because you’re only casting two abilities every 50s. Uses Hall of Mirrors with the augment and Eclipse to deal massive damage. Prefers AOE explosive weapons such as Tonkor, Kulstar, etc. Synoid Simulor is the most popular Mirage weapon currently. Surprisingly, this build doesn't have much trouble with survivability because her illusions draw enemy fire (and also because she kills enemies so quickly).
-Prism build that builds max range and duration. Dump stat is strength. Must have Natural Talent because Prism has a very long cast time. Useless on closed maps with lots of LOS obstruction, but still provides passable CC on large, open maps. Note that unlike Excal, a hybrid build for DPS and CC is not possible.

A third build is a buff build, which builds max power strength, high duration, and high range using the Eclipse augment. But buff builds are uncommon and you're almost always going to be better off going the DPS build instead.

=== NEKROS PRIME===
Grade: F+
Roles: Farming, Survivability, CC, Utility
Gives you more loot. Recent rework nerfed his loot ability while giving him many quality of life buffs. Desecrate no longer requires a macro, but bodies will disappear now even if the loot roll misses. Terrify is decent CC with the augment. Shadows of the Dead's (SotD) rework has been controversial, but overall its ability to be recast has made it considerably easier to use and turns him into a good tank with the augment. Grade aside, Nekros is a good frame to have in your inventory simply because he's so good for farming.

There are three builds:

-CC Nekros that runs the Creeping Terrify augment with high/max range and decent strength (120-150%). Duration isn't as important since Terrify lasts incredibly long, but don't dump duration entirely; 50-80% works well. Creeping Terrify is decent CC but is bogged down by its subpar range and unit cap.
-Desecrate build that runs max range. Dump stats are strength and duration. Generally runs the Despoil augment with Vitality for easy upkeep, but if you have Zenurik or an EV Trin you can skip Despoil (despite being a toggle, you still gain energy through Desecrate). Some people like to use the Soul Punch augment for instant revives (with Despoil, there's nothing you use energy for). For a hybrid build, add Creeping Terrify and as much strength as you can fit; you won't hit the slow cap, but it'll be enough to be useful and allow you to help your team as CC in addition to being a lootbot.
-SotD/Desecrate hybrid build that runs the Shield of Shadows (SoS) augment, Despoil, Vitality, base/high duration, high range, and high strength (ideally 214% to hit SoS's DR cap, achievable with max Blind Rage + Power Drift). Yes - this needs almost everything. Dump stat is efficiency because Equilibrium exists, which allows for infinite health/energy sustain using the Despoil loop. Many people also like to use Health Conversion for extra tankiness. The core of this build is using SoS to achieve high damage reduction, while Despoil and Equilibrium give you infinite sustain, and all the while your Shadows are drawing aggro and you're Desecrating more loot/health/energy for allies. This is the most popular build for Nekros, but be careful of investment; Health Conversion and Equilibrium can be difficult mods to acquire/level (Equilibrium is an uncommon r10), and these mods are not used on any other frame. Your Carrier also needs investment in order to not go down easily, because you are relying heavily on Vacuum for Equilibrium/Health Conversion. Note that this build is very difficult when you are just starting a mission, when you have no Shadows or Health Conversion.

Note: Desecrate works well with slash damage weapons, which can dismember corpses into several parts. Each part can roll additional loot.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== NEZHA ===
Grade: F+
Roles: CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Ladyboy frame whose only use is ERP. With innate Maglev, he’s actually a great speedrunner and can be even faster than Loki, but in high-level missions Warding Halo doesn't grant the same degree of protection as Invisibility, and furthermore doesn't have cheese potential in Spy/Rescue. Overall, Warding Halo is essentially a worse Iron Skin. Divine Spears is good CC but suffers from being extremely awkward to use.

There is one build:

-Speedrunning build that uses all the sprint, slide, and parkour mods. Nothing else is needed! You can mod duration/efficiency for Firewalker but it's not necessary. Not recommended on lv60+ enemy missions because you will die very quickly.

For general-use Nezha builds, see Rhino’s builds. Build Warding Halo as you would Iron Skin (strength + armor) and Divine Spears as you would Stomp (range + duration + Natural Talent).

=== NOVA PRIME ===
Grade: F-
Roles: CC, Buff, Damage
Versatile support frame. Her best ability is Molecular Prime (MP), which can be modded for CC or to speed up endless missions, all the while doubling the damage your team does. Wormhole is a good team mobility skill, and Anti-Matter Drop (AMD) is a good damage ability. Just remember that MP's slow is not a hard disable.

There are two builds:

-Slovva build that runs max duration for MP with just enough power strength to hit the slow cap (145%, achievable with max Intensify + Power Drift). Dump stat is range. Standard build for endgame, Raids, and any time you want CC.
-Speednova build that runs max duration for MP with minimum power strength (max Overextended). Because MP’s slow scales with power strength, having less than 100% power strength will actually make enemies go faster. Why is this good? Because this speeds up the mission. Preferred build for grinding Defense missions.

Note: AMD is largely unaffected by power attributes and can be used with both builds. It's best with high-damage weapons that don't rely on crits, because AMD does not take crits into account; particular mention goes to Tigris variants, which can fully charge AMD with a single shot.

Slovva is the standard build for most missions, including Excavations and Survivals. It’s generally a mistake to bring Slovva to a Defense mission, because slowing down enemies means waves take much longer to kill. Don’t bring Slovva to Sortie Defenses.

=== NYX PRIME ===
Grade: F-
Roles: CC, Defense/Survivability
Decent utility frame. Chaos is okay CC, but is ultimately unreliable and overshadowed by Irradiating Disarm. Absorb with the Assimilate augment makes you literally invincible and offers an alternative to Frost for defending objectives; unfortunately, its low range means that unlike Snowglobe, you won't be able to protect allies. Several things (e.g. grenades) also go through Absorb, and Assimilate's movespeed penalty makes it unusable if you're not camping.

There are two builds:

-Standard Chaos Nyx that builds max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength. Natural Talent is also good to speed up Chaos's long cast time. Note that recasting Chaos does not refresh its duration on units already affected.
-Minimum-duration Chaos Nyx that builds minimum duration (Transient Fortitude + Fleeting Expertise) instead of high duration. Natural Talent is a must. Minimum duration allows you to chain one Chaos right after the previous one ends. This allows you to take advantage of Chaos's initial stagger, which is better CC compared to Chaos's Radiation effect. Unfortunately, this means your entire gameplay consists of pressing 3 every few seconds.

Both builds can slot in Assimilate, which does not require power strength.

=== OBERON ===
Grade: F
Roles: None
Literally the worst frame in the game. Supposedly a jack-of-all trades frame, but he actually can’t do anything well and doesn’t even have any niches like some other bad frames. His only passable ability is Reckoning, which is okay for DEAC nuking and can function as CC by spamming it over and over. For some reason DE devoted time to making a kickass skin for a frame nobody liked.

=== RHINO PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: CC, Survivability, Buff
Doesn’t do anything particularly well, but does enough of everything decently. Prime version is a decent speedrunner with the Arcane Vanguard helmet. Iron Skin is a passable tank ability that falls way short of literal invincibility other frames have and will not protect you in endgame. Roar is a good team buff ability and you generally activate it whenever you can. Stomp is good CC but has two weaknesses: its low duration and its inability to be refreshed on affected units.

There are four builds:

-Tank Rhino that builds for high/max power strength and armor for Iron Skin. Dump stat is duration (unless you want to use Roar). The Ironclad Charge augment is surprisingly decent; Ironclad Charge + Steel Fiber provides a significant boost to Iron Skin, but it's probably not worth the effort. The Iron Shrapnel augment is a must-have for the sole purpose of being able to re-cast Iron Skin. Even still, don’t expect to be invincible endgame. If you want to tank, Rhino is a suboptimal frame for it.
-CC Rhino that builds for max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength. Natural Talent is recommended to speed up Stomp's long cast time. You’ll mostly be using Stomp, and unfortunately Iron Skin's tankiness and Roar's damage will suffer as a result.
-Hybrid build. All-purpose general build. Basically a CC Rhino that trades duration/range for power strength so Iron Skin/Roar isn’t gimped. Probably the most popular build.
-Buff Rhino that builds max strength and max duration for Roar. Range is less important, but adding range helps to make sure you don't miss allies with Roar. Only ever used in Berehynia runs. Rhino is the best buffer to use for Berehynia because he buffs all damage, compared to elemental buffers who can't buff abilities like Spores/Quake.

Rhino gets bonus points for being newbie-friendly. He’s easy to mod for and easy to roll through low-level content with.

=== SARYN PRIME ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Damage, Buff
Former Queen of DEAC, and actually she's still good for DEAC after her rework. Spores is her new go-to ability. Miasma's damage is okay but falls off hard lategame and is overall inefficient compared to Spores, though its stagger can be useful as emergency CC. Molt is unreliable at drawing aggro, and endgame enemies kill you and Molt too quickly for Regenerating Molt's heal to be useful. Toxic Lash forces you to use melee, which makes it awful. Unlike most other damage frames, Saryn lacks survivability.

There are three ways to play Saryn. For each build, you want max range, max power strength, and as much duration as you can fit for Spores. Dump stat is efficiency; you'll only be casting Spores, which lasts a decent duration and isn't hard to sustain. The playstyles differ depending on which weapon you use:

-Ignis (best modded for gas) or Hikou+Concealed Explosives. These weapons trigger Spores multiple times per second, which greatly accelerates its damage. Cast spores on enemy, pop them with your weapon, watch everything <lv40 instantly die.
-Mutalist Cernos/Torid/Pox etc. These weapons are unique in that they create AOE clouds that can pop Spores. The sequence goes like this: 1) Cast Molt 2) cast Spores on Molt 3) Fire weapon at ground near Molt, creating an AOE cloud 4) Cloud pops Spores on your Molt and spreads them to enemies 5) Continually cast Spores on your Molt, where they're instantly popped by the cloud. Only ever used for affinity farming on Berehynia. More effective than RJ Excal because Spores doesn't require LOS, but has the heavy downside of being unable to be macro'd (or at least significantly more difficult to macro) or afk'd like Quake Banshee.
-Gas Lanka or Gas Ignis. Arguably the only Saryn build that scales against lv100 enemies: Gas cloud proc deals toxin damage, and Spores can spread toxin damage, essentially allowing Spores to scale with your weapon damage. Simple enough in theory, right? Unfortunately, the only weapon that seems to work with it is the gas Lanka, remarkable for its high status and incredibly high, pure elemental damage. Cast Spores on your target, hit it with a charged Lanka shot, and if gas procs, the cloud will spread Spores and hopefully murder everything in range (I say hopefully because its mechanics are inconsistent). Gas Ignis is another notable weapon; it's easier to use and more consistent, but scales worse than Lanka against lv80+ heavies. Other high-status weapons like Pox, Staticor, etc. work but not to the same degree. Testing is made difficult by inconsistency of results and the fact that nobody knows exactly how Spores work, least of all DE – and Spores may very well be bugged.

Note: Your Lanka/Ignis will need multiple forma. Hikou will NOT need forma. M.Cernos/Torid etc. also will also not need forma or even any mods.

If I had to choose one weapon to recommend, I would choose Ignis. It's easy to use, consistent, and good for everything from DEAC all the way up to sorties, only falling off against high-level Grineer and heavies. Saryn's damage output with other weapons is awful, and the specificness of the weapon required is a big reason why I don't give Saryn a higher grade.

=== TITANIA ===
Grade: F+
Roles: Damage, CC/Utility
Fairyframe, and she's only slightly better than her male counterpart. Spellbind is subpar CC that suffers from extremely low range (tied for lowest range of any CC) and a long cast time. Tribute's buffs require a lot of effort to acquire and only one buff is useful (Dust): Thorns and Full Moon are flat-out useless, while Entangle's small 10m slow range also makes it close to useless. Lantern doesn't actually seem to work. Razorwing gives you decent damage and mediocre survivability.

There are two builds:

-Razorwing build that builds high power strength and enough duration/efficiency to hit the efficiency cap. Dump stat is range, though you can mod for range/Natural Talent if you want a hybrid build to use her other abilities. The archgun is quite flexible and can be built many ways: crit, status, damage via pure elementals, and/or fire rate. No matter how you build it, it has good damage, but because of its single-target nature, it gets out-damaged by other damage frames and arguably isn't even as good as some top-tier guns. The melee is flat-out bad; it has awful crit stats, mediocre status, and furthermore lacks the AOE potential of other melees. You'll also rarely be able to use melee, because Razorwing's 50% evasion doesn't even come close to being good survivability, especially when the razor butterflies go down. Razorwing is also disables your companion and you can't interact with objects. Overall a weak Exalted ability.
-CC Build that builds max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength. Natural Talent is highly recommended to speed up her slow cast times. The ability you'll be primarily using is Spellbind. Tribute requires a lot of effort for minimal effectiveness, and Lantern is currently quite buggy and suffers from its gravity/physics mechanics. Don't use Razorwing for damage, because a negative-strength Razorwing is inferior to regular guns.

=== TRINITY PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: Infinite energy, Survivability/Team survivability
Decent support frame, though the nerf hit her hard. Blessing being capped at 75% damage reduction makes it significantly less useful, because there is a world of difference between 75% and 99% damage reduction - and this is without taking into account its range being limited to 50m now. Her EV build remains unchanged and still provides infinite energy to your team, but EV by itself isn't anything to get too excited about.

There are two builds:

-EV build that runs high/max power strength, max range, and minimum duration (Fleeting Expertise + Transient Fortitude) to shorten the time between energy pulses. Dump stat is efficiency. Often runs the EV augment. Necessary build for Raids and any time you don’t want to pop lots of energy restores. EV Trin is most useful if you don't have Zenurik focus, and her usefulness decreases significantly if you do. Make sure to use Blessing to heal if anyone gets low.
-Blessing build that runs max duration to make sure Blessing lasts as long as possible, with at least 50% power strength to hit the DR cap. Dump stat is range, though you can add range for better EV capabilities; although time between pulses is long and range is shit, you can simply EV the target, gather around it, and then kill it, which will release the remaining energy charges (this is why going over 50% power strength may be useful). Tank Trinity builds should also use Link, which grants an additional 75% damage reduction on top of Blessing's 75%, in which case you should also mod some more range for Link.

=== VALKYR ===
Grade: A+++++++++++++++++++++++++=
Roles: Best Kitty
Best Kitty. Always bring to sorties for morale support and cute kitty flavor. Always remember to feed it Fancy Feast and the blood of Corpus fagbaits.

=== VAUBAN PRIME===
Grade: F
Roles: CC
The other King of Defense. Particularly good for Infested missions. Bastille is his best ability, granting spammable CC in a huge area. Vortex is good, but generally you'll be spamming Bastille more than Vortex. His different mines are fun but also useless when Bastille exists. Fills the same niche as Frost for Defense, camping, etc. with the upside that he’s useful in Raids and Infested missions. Downside is that unlike Frost, Vauban is less effective against guns, requires more maintenance, and gets fucked over by Nullifiers.

There are two builds that build differently but play identically:

-Standard Bastille build that builds for duration, range, and power strength (yes, it requires all three stats AND efficiency). Each stat is important, and almost any combination of stats works as long as one of them isn't super low. Spam Bastille and watch enemies float in the air.
-Repelling Bastille that uses the Bastille augment, building for max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength.

For both builds you’re going to be spamming Bastille everywhere. Maintain as much coverage as possible.

=== VOLT PRIME ===
Grade: F
Roles: Defense, CC, Speedrunning
Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none frame. Despite DE trying to buff him with a rework, his power level has not changed much. Electric Shield is a mixed bag; you can now pick up the shield, but doing so drains energy, slows you, AND you can now only have 6 shields up at a time. Speed got a small buff affecting reload speed, and works best with weapons that reload frequently, e.g. Tonkor and Tigris. Overload received the biggest change and is inarguably buff; unfortunately, its damage and CC are both still mediocre on top of being inconsistent.

There are three builds:

-Shield build that runs max duration. Dump stat is range and power strength, though there's often enough mod space to add power strength for Speed. Best used with crit guns. Shield is a good defensive ability but outshined by Snowglobe since you need to constantly maintain multiple shields for full coverage, which is made more difficult by the shield limit. Picking up the shield is cool but not reliable since enemies can still shoot you from the back/sides.
-Speed build that runs high/max strength, high duration, and high range (yes, everything). Press 2 and turn your team into racecars. For solo play, Volt still lacks the survivability of Loki (the other top speedrunner) with his Invis.
-Discharge build that runs high/max range. The other attributes are trickier to mod for. Because of Discharge's damage cap mechanics, no combination of strength/duration will give you a long duration stun; Discharge will almost always last significantly shorter than the ability states, especially on light units, and furthermore cannot be refreshed on affected targets. Its damage is also poor. The Capacitance augment is okay - just don't expect 1200 overshield to last long against high-level enemies.

=== WUKONG ===
Grade: F
Roles: Survivability
Literally invincible with Defy, which is the best survivability ability in the game now that Hysteria is nerfed. Primal Fury is a decent Exalted weapon with significantly more range than a regular melee weapon, though in terms of DPS it can fall behind due to its inability to use Blood Rush + Body Count. Good solo frame but provides little to a team.

There are two builds:

-Pure Defy build that runs max efficiency and max duration. Strength and range are dump stats. You must run Rage + Vitality to keep your energy pool up; Medi-Ray also helps. Very easy to mod. Literally invincible; just make sure to bring a good gun.
-Defy/Primal Fury build that builds similar to the previous build, except you fit in as much strength as possible along with the Primal Rage augment. Range has minimal effect on Primal Fury. Equally important are your melee mods; mod for Crit and/or status. Reach is also very good to increase his stick's initial range. The biggest problem with this build is mod space on Wukong: Vitality/Rage/Primal Rage doesn't leave much space for strength/duration mods, and like Exalted Blade, it can be outdamaged by weapons using Blood Rush + Body Count.

For either build, remember to recast Defy every couple of ‘deaths’ to reset your heal percentage.

See note at end about tank frames.

=== ZEPHYR ===
Grade: F
Roles: Survivability/Defense, Damage
Flight frame whose most gameplay doesn't actually involve flight at all. Tail Wind can be used for mobility, but much of its niche has been lost now that everyone has bullet jump. Dive Bomb requires setup for pathetic damage and pathetic CC. Tornado can actually hurt your team. Turbulence is by far her best ability; it's a decent tank ability, but is ultimately too conditional and too unreliable to qualify as LITERALLY INVINCIBLE. Her best endgame build is her gimmick Tonkor build.

There is one build:

-Tonkor/Turbulence Zephyr that uses the Turbulence augment, building high duration and high power strength (at least 234% for this build to work). If you have trouble hitting 234% power strength or for some reason don't want to, you can use 174% power strength instead with Terminal Velocity on your Tonkor. Range is generally the dump stat, but aim for >50% range or else Turbulence may fail to stop bullets; modding more range for Turbulence is useful if you want to defend objectives, allowing you to function as a pseudo-Frost. The entire purpose of 234% power strength + Jet Stream is that it allows Tonkor grenades to explode on contact with surfaces. Despite being a bug, DE said they won’t fix it. Comes with the bonus of going fast.

Her grade here assumes you are using the Tonkor build. Although it's a decent build, it relies more on Tonkor than Zephyr so I can't justify giving her a higher grade. Although Turbulence is a fine ability even without Tonkor, by itself it's not going to turn any heads.

----------NOTE ABOUT TANK FRAMES----------

Wukong, Chroma, Inaros, and Nekros are all similar frames that fulfill the same niche of being a tank. I consider them to be all more or less equal. It mostly comes down to personal preference which frame you like more:

-Wukong is literally immortal. He is also an okay melee frame with Primal Rage if you choose to go down that path. Easy to mod.
-Chroma isn’t quite immortal but close to it, with the upside that he has insane damage output with his buffs. Requires expensive mods and lots of forma.
-Nekros (SotD build) is less tanky than Chroma, but has infinite sustain with Equilibrium, helps roll more loot for your team, and his Shadows help draw aggro. Also requires lots of investment.
-Inaros doesn’t tank nearly as well as the other 3, but has decent CC. He performs better on a team and on defense-related missions.

----------LIST OF GOOD FRAME AUGMENTS----------

The vast majority of frame augments are garbage. Here's a list of the good ones. "Some people like X" means exactly that: it's fairly popular with some effectiveness, although an equal (or greater) number of people dislike it. If an augment is not listed at all, it's safely not worth getting. Augments are further elaborated upon in their frame descriptions.

Ash Prime: Some people like Fatal Teleport with a Covert Lethality dagger.
Atlas: Some people like Ore Gaze, but it's very niche.
Banshee: Resonating Quake. Some people like Resonance (which is a good augment), but no current content needs Resonance Banshee.
Chroma: None.
Ember Prime: Firequake.
Equinox: Peaceful Provocation.
Excalibur:  None.
Frost Prime: Some people like Chilling Globe.
Hydroid: Pilfering Swarm.
Inaros: None.
Ivara:  Some people like Infiltrate for Spy missions.
Limbo: None.
Loki Prime: Irradiating Disarm. Some people like Hushed Invisibility for stealth runs.
Mag Prime: None.
Mesa: None.
Mirage: Hall of Malevolence. Some people like Total Eclipse, but buffing is highly niche.
Nekros: Despoil, Shield of Shadows, Creeping Terrify. Some people like Soul Survivor.
Nezha: None.
Nova Prime: Some people like Escape Velocity.
Nyx Prime: Assimilate.
Oberon: None.
Rhino Prime: Iron Shrapnel. Some people like Ironclad Charge.
Saryn Prime: Some people like Regenerative Molt.
Titania: None.
Trinity Prime: Vampire Leech.
Valkyr: Eternal War.
Vauban Prime: Repelling Bastille.
Volt Prime: Some people like Capacitance.
Wukong: Primal Rage.
Zephyr: Jet Stream.

----------MODDING GUIDE----------

What does it mean to build a frame for "high power strength" or "max range?" To understand, we must look at the mods. The following is a comprehensive list of every mod that affects power attributes (also available on the wiki):

Strength:
Intensify
Power Drift
Blind Rage (+strength, -efficiency)
Transient Fortitude (+strength, -duration)
Energy Conversion

Duration:
Continuity/Prime Continuity
Constitution
Narrowminded (+duration, -range)

Efficiency:
Streamline
Fleeting Expertise (+efficiency, -duration)
DURATION MODS ALSO AFFECT ENERGY DRAIN OF CHANNELED ABILITIES!

Range:
Stretch
Cunning Drift
Overextended (+range, -strength)

A trivial case is whenever the term "max" is used. It means you should use all mods in that category, e.g. Disarm Loki uses maxed range, so he needs all three mods from the 'Range' category, and DPS Mirage builds max power strength, so she needs all the mods from the 'Strength' category. Exceptions are Energy Conversion, which only provides a situational buff, and Constitution/Drift mods, which have low-enough impact that they may not be worth using.

Choosing non-corrupted mods is easy. Mods such as Continuity, Intensify, Stretch, etc. that offer pure benefit with no downside should be included in every build that requires said attribute.

Choosing corrupted mods is more difficult. Corrupted mods greatly boost one attribute at the cost of another. Is the trade-off worth it? A general rule of thumb is to NOT use corrupted mods that conflict with a desired attribute. For example, Stomp Rhino requires max range and high duration; in this case, using Narrowminded on him is NOT recommended because the mod will negatively affect his range. Corrupted mods are great if their negative stat is a dump stat. In the previous example, Stomp Rhino requires high range but dumps power strength, so Overextended is great on him.

(Reminder that every frame should aim for max efficiency unless otherwise stated.)

Despite general guidelines, exact frame builds can be difficult to arrive at. I suggest you simply do your best, then post your build on /wfg/ for others to critique.

A note on Energy Conversion: This mod raises power strength whenever you pick up an energy orb. Generally, you should only use this mod if you are using a channeled ability that requires power strength (e.g. Exalted Blade, World on Fire, etc.). The power strength bonus applies to the entire duration of the ability.

Your guide was meowed by me man.