IMPORTANT: THIS TIER LIST IS NO LONGER UPDATED AS OF U21.3.2.
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/WFG/ FRAME TIER LIST

TABLE OF CONTENTS
    I. INTRODUCTION
	II. SUMMARY OF FRAMES
    III. FRAME BUILDS BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER
    IV. BEST FRAMES OF EACH CATEGORY (CC, TANK, DPS)
    V. LIST OF GOOD FRAME AUGMENTS
    VI. MODDING GUIDE
    VII. FAQ

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

This guide is aimed at players seeking to do high-level content. It assumes you have some experience with the game and access to rare 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 good augments and 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?” Build guidelines are given for almost every frame except some really bad ones. Sample builds are also given; these sample builds are basic builds meant to give you an idea of where to start, NOT to be upheld as the "best build." In fact, due to high variation in builds, it's highly likely your own favorite build will differ from the exact mod loadout given. Feel free to swap out any mods!

To find a specific frame, type its name in brackets, e.g. [Mesa]

Frames are tiered based on their endgame potential, prioritizing group play, though solo play is also taken into account. There is a soft spectrum in the listing, i.e. frames listed earlier are generally better than those listed later. For example, Chroma/Mesa are generally considered better than Volt/Nezha.

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 mostly to refer to endless sortie missions, basically any time you face lv50+ enemies, with a focus towards lv80-100. Some focus is given towards long endless runs (lv100+), but keep in mind very few people do those. This guide does NOT grade based on missions with enemies <lv50, but frames that are good endgame generally are good for every level of content.

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 TO BUILD MAX EFFICIENCY.

----------SUMMARY OF FRAMES---------

Great Tier: Frames in this tier have high CC/utility and can perform multiple roles well. Because of this game’s emphasis on CC/utility, a frame MUST have high CC/utility to belong in this tier.

Loki
Frost
Nova

Good Tier: Frames in this tier excel at their roles, though may lack the high utility or flexibility of great-tier frames. “Better” or “worse” frames in this tier is less dependent on the frame itself and more on the mission or role you want to do.

Vauban
Mesa
Rhino
Ivara
Chroma
Nidus
Nekros
Wukong
Trinity
Inaros
Equinox
Excalibur
Nyx

Mediocre Tier: Though there are often better options, frames in this tier are still capable of pulling their own weight when properly built. Be expected to work harder to pull off what good/great frames can do.

Octavia
Mirage
Banshee
Saryn
Volt
Zephyr
Mag
Nezha
Limbo

Bad Tier: Frames in this tier are outshined by other frames who perform their role better, though several bad frames have other uses besides standard endgame content.

Titania
Atlas
Valkyr
Ash
Ember
Oberon
Harrow
Hydroid

----------FRAME BUILDS BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER----------

=== [ASH] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Survivability, Damage
Good Augments: Some people like Fatal Teleport.
Edgelord frame that got gutted by the nerf to Bladestorm, which was his one good ability. Although Bladestorm's high Finisher damage remains unchanged, marking enemies using LOS is incredibly laborious and simply less effective than just using your guns (also, Bladestorm's energy usage more than doubled); compared to other damage frames like Mesa, Ash just has no place. Furthermore, he continues to lack any form of utility or CC. His only other ability worth mentioning is Smoke Screen, which is a decent invisibility skill that received some nice quality of life improvements.

There are two builds:

-Smoke Screen/Bladestorm build that runs high duration, high strength, and high range - yes, it needs everything now. Because you now spend significant portions of time out of Bladestorm , you actually need high duration for Smoke Screen to stay alive. Go Invis, mark enemies, Bladestorm them, watch as you get outdamaged by any other frame with a good gun. Mod your melee weapon with Fury/Quickening to speed up the animation and Body Count/Drifting Contact to increase damage. Other melee mods don’t carry over. Works well with Venka Prime because of its combo multiplier. Note that Bladestorm's Finisher damage type goes through shields and armor, making it better for augmented armor/shield sorties.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Intensify, Power Drift, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow]

-Fatal Teleport build that runs max duration and decent range. Dump stat is strength. Entire purpose of this build is to remain invisible all the time and kill things with Fatal Teleport in conjunction with Covert Lethality, which one-shots any enemy in the game. Despite how awesome this sounds, finishers are very inefficient ways to kill things. Fatal Teleport is also bugged and sometimes will simply not work; several enemies such as ospreys are also immune to finishers. This build is most popular for farming Index, but note that due to energy mechanics in the Index, you need Zenurik/EV Trin. Your Fatal Teleport can remain unranked.
[Sample Build: Fatal Teleport, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Narrowminded, Continuity, Constitution, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Vitality]

Some people like to stack duration and use Ash solely for Smoke Screen. While it's passable (and honestly running around invisible with a good weapon will probably be more effective than Bladestorm), there are significantly better Invis frames.

=== [ATLAS] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Damage
Good Augments: Some people like Ore Gaze.
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. Landslide works well with Venka Prime because of its combo multiplier. 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).

There is one build:

-Landslide build that runs high power strength and high range. Dump stat is duration. Efficiency is good but less important because of Landslide's combo mechanics. Mod your melee for pure damage along with Body Count. Literally all you do is spam 1, because not only does Landslide function as damage, it also functions as survivability. Prepare to break the 1 button on your keyboard. Works well with Venka Prime due to its unique combo counter.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Power Drift, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Vitality]


=== [BANSHEE] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: CC, Buff, Damage
Good Augments: Resonating Quake, Resonance
AKA whoframe. Currently, her most popular use endgame is using Sonar and the Resonance augment, which greatly amplifies weapon damage and can dish out absurd numbers, but unless you're doing 2h+ endless runs, this much damage is overkill. She can also provides CC using Sound Quake to lock down entire rooms, but Quake has the downside of being channeling with absurd energy drain. Quake's damage only excels in DEAC.

There are three 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.
[Sample Build: Resonating Quake, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, Stretch, Power Drift, Transient Fortitude, Continuity, Flow]

-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.
[Sample Build: Resonating Quake, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow, anything else you want]

-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 endless runs. For the vast majority of the game (including sorties), damage is not a problem with good weapons/damage frames/CP.
[Sample Build: Resonance, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow]

=== [CHROMA] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Survivability, Damage
Good Augments: None
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.

There are two builds:

-Ice Chroma is tankiest Chroma, building high/max power strength, max duration, and either Vitality OR Quick Thinking/Flow (most people prefer Vitality). Dump stat is range. Efficiency 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 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. If your team is competent and you're not taking damage, bringing along a self-damaging weapon (e.g. Cerata) can help you hit Fury's cap.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Power Drift, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution]

-Credit Chroma that runs enough duration/efficiency to hit the cap. Dump stat is range. Power strength is trickier to mod for. If you have a team of Secura Lecta users, mod for negative strength so Secura Lecta gets kills instead of Effigy (Effigies increases credit gain of every kill within range); for non-dedicated setups (e.g. pubbing), run high strength so you get kills faster. Credit Chroma is used solely for credit-farming on Akkad.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Intensify, Power Drift, Transient Fortitude, Blind Rage (rank 5), Continuity, Narrow Minded, Flow]

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.

=== [EMBER] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Damage, CC, Clearing DEAC
Good Augments: Some people like Firequake.
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).
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Power Drift, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity]

=== [EQUINOX] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Damage, CC
Good Augments: Some people like Peaceful Provocation.
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 three builds:

-Maim build (Day form) that builds max range with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Dump stat is power strength (strength is good on buff builds but you will very rarely run a buff Equinox). 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.
[Sample Build: Natural Talent, Speed Drift, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow, Quick Thinking]

-Low-level Maim build that builds max range and high strength, with enough duration to hit the efficiency cap. Instead of relying on Maim's stored damage, you'll instead be relying on its initial Slash proc to deal damage. Unfortunately, the Slash damage is pathetic and only works on low levels (<20), but this build is very efficient for low levels. Make sure to cast Provoke before Maim.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Power Drift, Flow]

-Peaceful Provocation/Sleep build (Night form) that uses the slow part of Peaceful Provocation (PP), building for high power strength (max 200% to hit the slow cap) and high range. Dump stat is duration, but some people like to add duration for a better Sleep. 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, making efficiency less necessary.
[Sample Build: Peaceful Provocation, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Power Drift, Stretch, Overextended, Cunning Drift, Fleeting Expertise, Streamline]

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

=== [EXCALIBUR] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Damage, CC
Good Augments: Chromatic Blade
Posterboy frame that's the best starter frame. After his nerf, Exalted Blade (EB) still remains a decent damage ability (especially with the augment), but damage fall-off over distance is a big problem, 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. Radial Blind's LOS requirement makes it unreliable as CC, though the damage amplification it gives is good.

There is one build:

-EB/Blind build that runs high power strength along with the Chromatic Blade augment. Range and duration are also good for Radial Blind, but due to limited mod space, you will likely only have room to mod for one of them. Use Blind frequently not just for the CC but also for the damage amplification via the stealth damage multiplier. An equally important part of this build are your melee mods. You want as much damage as possible through Condition Overload (CO) and 90% elementals (do not use dual-stats; with 180% power strength, you already hit 100% status with Chromatic). Make sure you have 2 elemental combos for Chromatic Blade; Corrosive/Blast is popular because Blast counts twice for CO. Due to Excal's frailty, this build works best with Shadow Step. If you don't have Shadow Step, Vitality + Life Strike can help with survivability.
[Sample Build: Chromatic Blade, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow, Vitality]
[Sample Melee: Pressure Point, Condition Overload, Berserker, Life Strike, 4x 90% elementals]

=== [FROST] ===
Great Tier
Roles: Defense, CC
Good Augments: Some people like Chilling Globe. Some people like Icewave Impedance.
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 some people like its augment, and Avalanche is actually good 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). 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/range 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.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Steel Fiber, Continuity, Flow, Quick Thinking]

Most people consider using Frost in Infested missions to be a mistake, in particular, missions where you camp on highground and shoot Infested below. 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). Snowglobe is also less effective in sortie Defenses because the operative moves around so much.

=== [HARROW] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Buff, CC
Good Augments: None
The worst frame DE has released in recent memory. Every single one of his abilities suck. His 1 is heavily constrained by being line-based instead of 360-degree radial like every other CC in the game. The buffs from his 2 and 4 are are among the worst buffs in the game when buffs already struggle (compare it to Chroma/Rhino/Banshee's buffs). His 4 buff is also rendered worthless by having any sort of CC on your team. His 3 is okay, but it forces you to compete for kills, and all the energy in the world doesn't mean anything when you have nothing worthwhile to use that energy on. He can't deal damage, can't support, can't tank, and doesn't even have any niches like other bad frames.

=== [HYDROID] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Farming, CC
Good Augments: Pilfering Swarm
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.
[Sample Build: Pilfering Swarm, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Blind Rage, Intensify, Transient Fortitude, Energy Conversion, Streamline, Power Drift]

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

=== [INAROS] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Survivability, CC
Good Augments: Some people like Negation Swarm.
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 provides some 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. The Negation Swarm augment is decent but it won't turn any heads: It's a low-impact mod that can function as a replacement for Handspring.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Steel Fiber, Rage, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Flow, Armored Agility]

=== [IVARA] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Survivability, Damage, Utility
Good Augments: Some people like Infiltrate.
High-utility frame that offers good damage and survivability. While decent in general use, her high rank is mostly due to her cheese potential for Survival and Intercept missions. 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 has more uses than you would think. Noise arrow is useless 99% of the time but has its niche in soloing Interception missions.

There are four 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. Use Infiltrate for cheesing Spy missions. Bring a primary weapon modded for crit. Fire rate mods such as Vile Acceleration are recommended to take advantage of Artemis Bow’s horizontal fan.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Power Drift, Continuity, Flow, Quick Thinking, Infiltrate]

-Cloak build that builds high range and high duration for Cloak arrows. Dump stat is power strength, but you can add power strength for a high-damage AB hybrid build. 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.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Flow]

-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. Note that this build is not effective for endless relic runs unless you actively kill enemies for reactant.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Constitution, Flow, Quick Thinking]

-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. Due to terrible reactant drop rates in endless, you might have trouble getting enough reactant per rotation.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow]

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.

=== [LIMBO] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: CC
Good Augments: Some people like Rift Torrent.
Formerly one of the worst frames in the game, his rework has not done much to change anything (except for a short, glorious period when he was actually good before promptly being nerfed). The same old problems apply: the Rift mechanic just isn't very helpful, with a high potential to actually hurt your team. Limbo's troll potential even got buffed with the Stasis ability, which is actually excellent CC, but it completely screws over everyone's guns (using melee alleviates this).

There is one build:

-CC Stasis Limbo that builds max range and high duration. Efficiency is less important because of the Rift's innate energy mechanics. Dump stat is power strength, but some people like to add strength with Rift Torrent; however, building strength on Limbo is awkward, and killing things is not the point of this build. Activate Cataclysm and Stasis and hard-CC everything around you, while unfortunately also leaving you unable to use anything but melee. Natural Talent can also be used due to long cast times. Rift Surge should also be used frequently. The easiest way to think of Rift Surge is that it kicks enemies back into the Rift when they go out: As Cataclysm shrinks, enemies that are no longer caught in Cataclysm will be kicked back into the Rift (with an added AOE bonus) and CC'd with Stasis. Only use in missions where you don't need to kill stuff (e.g. Mobile Defense). This build is utterly useless against Nullifiers.
[Sample Build: Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Constitution, Natural Talent, Flow, Quick Thinking, Streamline]

Some people like to use short-range Cataclysm to defend objectives, but just use Frost instead.

Limbo still has his 2 primary niche uses: 1) in Spy to pass lasers; 2) in Rescue to protect operative with Banish.

=== [LOKI] ===
Great Tier
Roles: CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Good Augments: Irradiating Disarm
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.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Streamline, sprint/slide/parkour mods]

-RD build that runs max range, which allows you to spam it over and over to trivialize entire rooms. Fitting in a Continuity (for Invis) is recommended. Dump stat is strength. 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.
[Sample Build: Irradiating Disarm, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Flow, Quick Thinking]

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] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Damage, Utility
Good Augments: None
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 Lanka, Miter, Mara Detron, etc. because their projectiles can bounce inside Magnetize. AOE explosive weapons (e.g. Tonkor, Kulstar)also deserve mention. Using any other weapons will be underwhelming. The protection offered by Magnetize is decent but you shouldn't depend on it entirely.

There is one build:

-Magnetize Mag that builds high/max range and high power strength. Negative duration or close to base duration (play around with Transient Fortitude/Fleeting Expertise/Continuity to see what works for you) 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.
[Sample Build: Natural Talent, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Continuity, Transient Fortitude, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Power Drift]

-Boss-kill Mag that builds max duration, high power strength, and high range. This allows Magnetize to stick for a long time on bosses, allowing you to kill them quicker while also providing protection from the boss's attacks. Bring a Lanka or similar weapon (weapons whose projectiles bounce inside Magnetize do the most damage). Works very well for bosses such as Hyenas and Vay Hek. Note that successive abilities cast on a boss will have shortened effectiveness; Magnetize's duration will drastically drop each time you cast it.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Intensify, Blind Rage, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Streamline, Flow]

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] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Damage, Survivability
Good Augments: None
Excellent damage frame  with good survivability. 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, 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 bad CC. Vitality can also be used if you want more survivability. 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. Some people like to use the Dual Toxocysts, because their headshot buff applies to Peacemaker.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Intensify, Transient Fortitude, Blind Rage (5), Power Drift, Flow]

=== [MIRAGE] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Damage
Good Augments: None
Prism build has been gutted by the LOS nerf. Her DPS build remains unchanged and still makes her an okay damage frame, though weapon nerfs have also indirectly nerfed this. 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 is one build:

-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 Synoid Simulor, Kulstar, etc. Surprisingly, this build has a decent degree of survivability because her illusions draw enemy fire (and also because she kills enemies so quickly).
[Sample Build: Hall of Malevolence, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Power Drift, Narrowminded, Continuity, Constitution]

=== [NEKROS] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Farming, Survivability, CC
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. Endgame potential 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.
[Sample Build: Creeping Terrify, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Transient Fortitude, Continuity]

-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. Alternatively, use Shield of Shadows (mod some power strength + duration) for a semi-tank build.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (4), Vitality, Despoil, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Creeping Terrify]

-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 Sentinel also needs investment in order to not go down easily, because you are relying heavily on Vacuum to suck up health orbs. Note that this build is very difficult when you are just starting a mission, when you have no Shadows or Health Conversion.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Shield of Shadows, Despoil, Equilibrium, Health Conversion, Blind Rage, Power Drift, Stretch, Flow]

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

=== [NEZHA] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: CC, Survivability, Speedrunning
Good Augments: Some people like Warding Halo.
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 a worse Iron Skin and suffers from its inability to be recast. 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.
[Sample Build: Rush, Armored Agility, Speed Drift, Maglev, Cunning Drift, Lightning Dash, Endurance Drift, Coaction Drift, Streamlined Form]

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).

Nezha has some minor support potential with the Warding Halo augment, which can help protect scrub allies in low-level missions. But Warding Halo does NOT hold up against sortie-level enemies.

=== [NIDUS] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Damage, Survivability, Utility
Good Augments: None
Incredibly versatile frame that can fulfill multiple roles in the same build. His bread-and-butter skill is Virulence. Don't let its low damage fool you; once you get several dozen stacks up, it can deal 50k+ damage easily. Larva is good for drawing multiple enemies in so you can vast Virulence on them, but as a pure CC ability it's lacking because of LOS restrictions and the fact you can only have 1 up at once. Link is versatile and makes Nidus an incredible tank, or function as a buff if you find you don't need the tankiness. Ravenous provides a nice campground for good sustainability, and while its damage/CC aren't the greatest, it's often essentially free to cast since maggots will regain stacks for you.

There is one build:

-Virulence build that runs high/max range, high/max power strength, and as much duration as you can fit (for Link). Vitality is also recommended for extra tankiness. Efficiency is less important because Virulence refunds your energy, and with smart usage can even gain you energy; however, some people like to use Rage because of his high health and regen. The core of the build is spamming 1 to build stacks and deal damage, with the occasional Larva if enemies are more spread. You should run a Link up at all times, not only for the survivability/buff but also for Virulence's double-cast. Once enemy density is high enough, Ravenous should also be maintained because it's essentially free, since maggots can gain you stacks.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Continuity, Flow]

Nidus's biggest weakness is that his stacks take a while to build, especially on low enemy-density maps with LOS obstruction that block Larva. If your teammates are competent, they may also kill everything before you get a chance to use Virulence.

=== [NOVA] ===
Great Tier
Roles: CC, Buff, Damage
Good Augments: Some people like Escape Velocity.
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 its augment has niche uses for going fast, particularly in raids. Anti-Matter Drop (AMD) is a criminally underused 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.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Intensify, Power Drift, Streamline, Flow, Quick Thinking, whatever else you want]

-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.
[Sample Build: Overextended, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Streamline, Flow, Quick Thinking, whatever else you want]

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] ===
Good Tier
Roles: CC, Defense/Survivability
Good Augments: Assimilate.
Decent utility frame. Chaos is okay CC, but is ultimately unreliable and overshadowed by Irradiating Disarm. Has good survivability with Absorb and the Assimilate augment, which makes you extremely tanky and offers an alternative to Frost for defending objectives; unfortunately, Assimilate's movespeed penalty makes it only much worse if you're not camping. Several things (e.g. grenades) also go through Absorb.

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.
[Sample Build: Natural Talent, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Flow, Assimilate]

-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.
[Sample Build: Natural Talent, Transient Fortitude, Fleeting Expertise, Streamline, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Flow, Assimilate]

=== [OBERON] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Utility
Good Augments: Some people like Phoenix Renewal.
Rework? What rework? Formerly the worst frame in the game, his rework has done little to change that. He's 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. Some people like Phoenix Renewal, but the cooldown renders it ineffective. His only other passable ability is Reckoning, which is okay for DEAC nuking and provides a measure of CC when spammed over and over. Some people like to use Hallowed Ground for Radiation sorties, but even then there are better options. For some reason DE devoted time to making a kickass skin for a frame nobody liked.

=== [OCTAVIA] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Damage, Survivability, Utility
Good Augments: None
Decent damage frame with some utility. Mallet (combined with Amp) is a good damage ability when it chooses to work, a task severely hampered by unreliable aggro mechanics. If you have competent teammates who CC or kill enemies, Mallet is further made useless. Metronome buffs are inconsequential with the exception of Invis, which is good, but can be annoying to trigger. Amp should be maintained at all times along with Metronome. Resonator is okay CC (if unreliable due to roller ball mechanics), but a terrible ability if you want to deal damage, because it actively prevents enemies from shooting Mallet.

There is one build:
-Mallet/Cloak build that builds high duration and high range with as much power strength as you can fit. Duration is most important because Mallet deals more damage the longer it sits. Efficiency is less important because all of Octavia's abilities last a very long time, and she has her Inspiration passive. Cast Mallet + Amp near a chokepoint; as enemies arrive and shoot at Mallet, Mallet will start accruing damage until it can reach insane levels of tick damage. You should be cloaked at all times in Metronome. Because of the static nature of Mallet, this is a very camp-centric damage build.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Power Drift, Flow, Streamline]

Mandachord mechanics: For optimal use, have at least 1 beat in each bar for each ability. This maximizes Mandachord/Resonator DPS while also making Metronome as easy to trigger as possible. Faster beats means faster damage ticks on Mandachord/Resonator, but each beat deals less damage, which experimentally provides greater DPS than slow, strong beats. For most people, having numerous beats on Metronome also makes it easier to trigger simply by spamming actions.

=== [RHINO] ===
Good Tier
Roles: CC, Survivability, Buff
Good Augments: Iron Shrapnel. Some people like Ironclad Charge.
Widely regarded as a noob frame, but actually he does many things decently. 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 three builds:

-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.
[Sample Build: Natural Talent, Speed Drift, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Constitution]

-Tank/Hybrid Rhino that builds for high/max power strength and armor for Iron Skin. Iron Skin doesn't need range or duration, but due to the weakness of Iron Skin in the lategame, it's highly recommended you also build range/duration for a hybrid CC build. 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.
[Sample Build: Iron Shrapnel, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Streamline, Intensify, Power Drift, Steel Fiber, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity]

-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.
[Sample Build: Blind Rage, Intensify, Transient Fortitude, Power Drift, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Stretch, Cunning Drift]

Rhino gets bonus points for being newbie-friendly. He’s easy to mod for and easy to roll through low-level content with. The Prime version is a decent speedrunner with the Arcane Vanguard helmet.

=== [SARYN] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Damage, Buff
Good Augments: Some people like Regenerative Molt.
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 to prioritize max range, then max power strength. Duration is good but less important. 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+Fire rate. 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.

-High-status weapons modded for gas. Arguably the only Saryn build that scales against high-level 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, testing is made difficult by the heavy forma requirement of weapons, inconsistency of results, and the fact that nobody knows exactly how Spores work, least of all DE - and Spores may be bugged. Riven mods excluded, the best weapons seem to be gas Ignis and Lanka (though Lanka suffers from consistency issues). Other high-status weapons like Pox, Staticor, Mutalist Cernos, Telos Boltace, etc. work but arguably not as well. This build is particularly good against Corpus because poison bypasses shields.

[Sample Build for all 3 builds: Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Energy Conversion, Flow, Quick Thinking]
[Ignis Build: Serration, Heavy Caliber, Split Chamber, Infected Clip, Malignant Force, Vile Acceleration, Thermite Rounds, Firestorm]

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. You can also bring Zenistar as a "dump-and-forget" weapon (dump at chokepoint, where it auto-procs gas on enemies, switch back to Ignis). Saryn's damage output with standard weapons is awful, and the specificness of the weapon required is a big reason why Saryn isn’t higher.

Saryn is not recommended for new players because of the heavy modding requirement for her and her weapon.

=== [TITANIA] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Damage, CC/Utility
Good Augments: None
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 (Dust) is useful: Thorns and Full Moon are flat-out useless, while Entangle's small 10m slow range also makes it close to useless. Lantern is okay CC when it chooses to work, but suffers from a tendency to float off and you can only have 1 up at a time. Razorwing gives you decent damage and mediocre survivability.

There is one build:

-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; both primary and shotguns have similar damage output. 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 also disables your companion and you can't interact with objects.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Transient Fortitude, Power Drift, Blind Rage (rank 5), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Flow, Quick Thinking]

=== [TRINITY] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Infinite energy, Survivability/Team survivability
Good Augment: Vampire Leech
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 prioritizes max range, then max power strength. You want 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. Because EV deals percent-based Finisher damage, this build also has fringe use in killing certain bosses such as Kela.
[Sample Build: Vampire Leech, Transient Fortitude, Fleeting Expertise, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Blind Rage, Flow, Quick Thinking]

-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 some 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.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Intensify, Blind Rage (rank 2), Stretch, Cunning Drift, Streamline, Vitality]

=== [VALKYR] ===
Bad Tier
Roles: Survivability
Good Augments: Eternal War
RIP sweet princess. Hysteria got gutted by the energy nerf and is now impossible to permanently sustain (while also restricting you to melee). Her only usefulness - survivability - got gutted with zero compensation. Hysteria's damage isn't anything to speak about either compared to Blood Rush + Body Count weapons with high range such as Galatine Prime. Valkyr still lacks any sort of utility or CC. All her other abilities are awful, although Warcry is a decent melee buff (especially with the augment, which causes it to last the entire mission). If you want to tank, there are loads of better options. Her only saving grace is that she's easy to mod and has an incredibly low ceiling.

There are two builds:

-Hysteria build that builds high power strength and decent duration (for Eternal War and to hit the efficiency cap). Dump stat is range. Gameplay revolves around staying in Hysteria as long as possible, but you'll still have to constantly enter and exit Hysteria because the drain is so unsustainable. Some players like to use Rage along with Vitality/Steel Fiber to help regain energy out of Hysteria. Mod your melee for crit, because Hysteria’s claws have a whopping 50% crit chance; many players also like to run Prime Reach. Hysteria struggles against Nullifiers and flying enemies.
[Sample Build: Eternal War, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Blind Rage (rank 2), Power Drift, Narrow Minded, Flow]

-Melee build that runs max power strength and decent duration for Eternal War. Dump stat is range and efficiency; efficiency isn't needed because the only ability you'll be using is Warcry once. Vitality+Steel Fiber are needed to survive in melee range. Your melee also needs Life Strike.
[Sample Build: Eternal War, Vitality, Steel Fiber, Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Power Drift, Narrow Minded, Handspring]

=== [VAUBAN] ===
Good Tier
Roles: CC
Good Augments: Repelling Bastille
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 (especially in wide-open maps), 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.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Intensify, Power Drift]

-Repelling Bastille build that uses the Bastille augment, building for max range and high duration. Dump stat is power strength.
[Sample Build: Repelling Bastille, Streamline, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Continuity, Consitution, Flow, Quick Thinking]

Note: Both builds can use Vortex, but the Repelling Bastille build is better-suited for it because Vortex doesn't need strength. Vortex works best for funneling enemies into chokepoints.

For both builds you’re going to be spamming Bastille everywhere. Maintain as much coverage as possible. Zenurik is highly recommended because Bastille costs a lot of energy and is very spammy.

=== [VOLT] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Defense, CC, Speedrunning
Good Augments: Some people like Capacitance.
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 still a good defensive ability with the added benefit of being able to pick up the shield, but has several downsides when picked up. Speed is still a good ability for speedrunning, and the reload speed buff it received means that it 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.
[Sample Build: Streamline, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitutin, Intensify, Power Drift, Flow, Quick Thinking]

-Speed build that runs high/max strength, high duration, and high range (yes, everything). Press 2 and turn your team into racecars. Also works well with certain melee setups such as Telos Boltace. For solo play, Volt still lacks the survivability of Loki (the other top speedrunner) with his Invis.
[Sample Build: Blind Rage, Transient Fortitude, Intensify, Power Drift, Stretch, Continuity, Constitution, Flow, Quick Thinking]

-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 consistent, 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] ===
Good Tier
Roles: Survivability
Good Augments: Some people like Primal Rage.
Literally invincible with Defy, which is the best survivability ability in the game now that Hysteria is nerfed. Very good for tanking bosses. Primal Fury is an okay Exalted weapon with better 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 to keep your energy pool up; Vitality and Flow are also recommended. Medi-Ray also helps. Very easy to mod. Literally invincible; just make sure to bring a good gun.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Rage, Flow, Fleeting Expertise (rank 4), Continuity, Narrow Minded, Handspring, whatever else you want]

-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. Prime 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 mods, and like Exalted Blade, it can be outdamaged by weapons using Blood Rush + Body Count.
[Sample Build: Vitality, Rage, Flow, Primal Rage, Streamline, Fleeting Expertise, Continuity, Transient Fortitude, Power Drift]

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

=== [ZEPHYR] ===
Mediocre Tier
Roles: Survivability/Defense
Good Augments: Jet Stream
Flight frame whose gameplay doesn't actually involve much flight. Her most useful ability by far is Turbulence, which is a good survivability ability that can also function as AOE protection, but be careful that several things (e.g. sapping ospreys) go through it. She has minimal CC potential with Dive Bomb and Tornado (Tornado can in fact hurt your team by making enemies harder to hit). Her best endgame build is her Tonkor gimmick build, which has unfortunately been indirectly nerfed with nerfs to Tonkor.

There are two builds:

-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 helpful to better defend objectives. Efficiency is also a dump stat because Turbulence is pretty much the only ability you're using and it lasts a long time. 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. Unfortunately, they nerfed the shit ouf of the Tonkor, making it deal less damage and also kill you. Comes with the bonus of going fast. Note that Jetstream works well with any projectile weapon; if you want to use another projectile weapon besides Tonkor, you don't need to aim for the 234% breakpoint.
[Sample Build: Jet Stream, Blind Rage, Intensify, Power Drift, Narrow Minded, Continuity, Constitution, Stretch, Flow]

-Non-Tonkor Turbulence Zephyr that builds high duration and high range. Jetstream and power strength are less necessary but can still be good for going fast. Efficiency is still the dump stat. 	This build has slightly better utility than the Tonkor build, but lacks the damage potential.
[Sample Build: Narrow Minded, Continuity, Overextended, Stretch, Cunning Drift, Jet Stream, Blind Rage, Power Drift, Flow]

----------BEST FRAMES OF EACH CATEGORY (CC, TANK, DPS)----------

Ranking frames within a category is difficult because there is a lot of spillover across multiple categories; frames can fulfill multiple roles, and breaking down a frame into only a single role ignores the bigger picture. Nonetheless, it can be helpful to know which are the best frames within each individual category. The following are the best CC, Tank, and Damage frames.

CC:

CC in Warframe is diverse and comes in many flavors, making it difficult to say which is the "best" CC frame. Some excel against particular factions, while others serve other functions besides CC within the same build.

-Loki's RD has good range and infinite duration, but RD is not a hard disable, an especially big problem on defense-type missions. Significantly less useful against Infested. Also has good survivability with Invis.
-Nova's MP has the biggest range of any CC in the game and doubles your team's damage, but is also not a hard disable.
-Rhino's Stomp has excellent range and is a hard disable, but has short duration and cannot be refreshed on affected units.
-Vauban's Bastille/Vortex is a hard disable, but has short range (limited to how far you can throw it). Particularly good against Infested or when paired with RD Loki, less effective otherwise.

Special mention: Frost, Quake Banshee, Nezha, Nyx, Limbo. Frost isn't a CC frame but Snowglobe often obviates the need for CC at all; Avalanche is also serviceable CC. Banshee suffers from extreme energy issues, while Nezha/Nyx are just worse versions of Rhino/Loki. Limbo has good CC but fucks up your team's guns.

TANK:

The tanks are also quite well-balanced with respect to each other, and there isn't exactly a "best" tank. Which one you like depends mostly on preference and mission type.

-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.
-Nidus is a tank/damage hybrid similar to Chroma, but his damage can take a long time to build. Has high sustain, and overall is a very versatile frame.

Special mention: Inaros, Mesa, Nyx, Trinity, Zephyr. These are also good tanks, but they have other roles that overshadow the role of tank and are typically not considered tanks (e.g. Trin is much more frequently run as EV). Inaros is also a tank with decent CC, but his EHP is far below those of other tank frames.

DAMAGE:

The best DPS frames all have excellent AOE room-clearing potential. Again, they are all ranked closely together, and the "best" damage frame will differ depending on mission and faction.

-Mesa is a solid DPS frame against all factions. Also very tanky. Requires good mods on your secondary.
-Equinox (Maim build) has huge, infinite-scaling AOE potential, but is terrible against Grineer because of armor mechanics.
-Chroma has incredibly high weapon damage amplification and is also very tanky, but is not recommended for new players.
-Excal has great DPS using Chromatic Blade and Condition Overload as well as some CC potential with Blind.

Special mention: Nidus, Mirage, Saryn. Nidus has good damage output when you get stacks up, but this can be very time-consuming. Mirage has high weapon damage amplification and allows AOE weapons to cover a larger area, but recent weapon nerfs have indirectly nerfed her hard. Saryn has incredible range due to Spores spread that bypasses LOS, but suffers from scaling issues against high-level Grineer.

----------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. Most augments are further elaborated upon in their frame descriptions.

Ash: Some people like Fatal Teleport with a Covert Lethality dagger.
Atlas: Some people like Ore Gaze, but there are much better farming tools.
Banshee: Resonance, Resonating Quake.
Chroma: None.
Ember Prime: Some people like Firequake.
Equinox: Peaceful Provocation.
Excalibur:  None.
Frost: Some people like Chilling Globe.
Hydroid: Pilfering Swarm.
Inaros: Some people like Negation Swarm.
Ivara:  Some people like Infiltrate for Spy missions.
Limbo: Some people like Rift Torrent.
Loki: Irradiating Disarm.
Mag: None.
Mesa: None.
Mirage: Hall of Malevolence.
Nekros: Despoil, Shield of Shadows, Creeping Terrify. Some people like Soul Survivor.
Nezha: Some people like Warding Halo, but this does NOT hold up to sortie-tier enemies.
Nova: Some people like Escape Velocity.
Nyx: Some people like Assimilate, but only for solo play.
Oberon: None.
Rhino: Iron Shrapnel. Some people like Ironclad Charge.
Saryn: Some people like Regenerative Molt.
Titania: None.
Trinity: Vampire Leech.
Valkyr: Eternal War.
Vauban: Repelling Bastille.
Volt: Some people like Capacitance.
Wukong: Some people like 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 long-duration ability or 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.


----------FAQ----------

Q: What's DEAC and post-DEAC?
A: DEAC is short for "Digital Extremes Approved Content." In essence, this refers to all Starchart missions, basically any time you face enemies <lv50, because the game was originally designed for these enemy levels. Post-DEAC refers to endless sortie missions and long endless runs past 2 full rotations, or any time you face enemies >lv50. Trivial missions such as Exterminate/Capture/Sabotage etc. are NOT considered post-DEAC, regardless of enemy level, because they are significantly easier than endless runs. Note that the exact definition and enemy level cut-offs delineating DEAC/post-DEAC differs among players.

Q: What about raids?
A: This guide mentions raids when relevant, but in general does not grade based on raids because 1) raids do not play like any other mission in Warframe in that they are essentially puzzles where the most important thing is knowing what to do; and 2) raid compositions are highly specialized with little frame or build variety, and you'd be much better off reading a raid guide instead. That being said, most raid builds are exact copies (or variants) of builds given in this guide.

Q: What’s the difference between Primes and non-Primes?
A: The differences are small enough that a Prime frame will never rank higher than its counterpart. However, because Prime versions are direct upgrades, be cautious when using Orokin Reactors on a frame that already has a Prime version. Note that Prime WEAPONS are significantly better than their non-Prime counterparts.

Q: What aura should I use?
A: 99% of builds run Corrosive Projection (CP), because late game armored enemies reach 90%+ damage reduction. Other auras are simply trash. If you're running low-level content, it doesn't matter what aura you use; if you're running high-level content, CP blows every other aura out of the water. The only build that doesn't run CP is Ash, who works best with Steel Charge, and a few other highly-specialized builds.

Q: Should I use survivability mods like Vitality/Redirection/Steel Fiber/Vigor etc.?
A: In low to mid-level missions these mods can make your life easier, and especially for new players these mods are useful. But in sorties the majority of frames have no use for these mods. There are exceptions such as Chroma and Inaros (typically when frames have high damage reduction tank abilities), and the guide explains each exception when it occurs. There are 2 reasons why these mods are bad lategame: 1) Lategame enemies simply too deal much damage for you to tank and can easily kill you through Redirection/Vitality 2) There's no need to have survivability when you have CC. The most common survivability mod lategame is Quick Thinking (QT) in conjunction with Prime Flow, which gives you much higher effective HP than the common survivability mods. Even still, QT is only used as an emergency measure in case things go south, NOT to tank.

Q: What is Berehynia affinity farming?
A: Intercept missions are a popular way to farm affinity because of unlimited enemy spawns. Berehynia is currently the most popular node, but its actual efficacy is questionable. Organized runs use an AOE nuker (e.g. Saryn/Banshee), EV Trin, and a buffer (Rhino is the most popular choice), with a free spot for a leecher. Everybody camps at the center of the map. When buffed, the AOE nuker kills enemies when they step out of spawn, resulting in a large number of kills per round, while Trin supplies everyone with energy.

Q: What do you mean by Zenurik?
A: Zenurik is one of five focus trees unlocked after completing The Second Dream quest and by far the best. With the Energy Overflow passive, you regenerate 4 energy/s, which gives you ridiculous sustain on your abilities. Zenurik is recommended on most frames, and in many cases allows you to substitute an efficiency mod or two for something else.

Q: How important are Prime mods?
A: Not very important. Prime Flow is often overkill compared to regular Flow; Prime Continuity provides a more noticeable boost, but regular Continuity will still serve you fine. Overall, if you are short on endo, don't bother with Prime mods because they require absurd amounts of endo to level up for only a minimal advantage over regular Flow/Continuity. Corrupted mods (e.g. Fleeting Expertise, Transient Fortitude) are significantly more impactful than Prime Mods and are core on every frame, so you should prioritize acquiring Corrupted mods over Prime mods.