In terms of community usage stats.
I really like Banshee, but I was shocked to learn she was at a mere 0.53% usage on last year’s published stats. I’m also really fond of Yareli and Gyre.
Gyre: Pillage build and unhealthy amounts of strength bring me a lot of satisfaction
Caliban: Nourish and Primed Flow give him as much energy as he needs to shine. His 4 is kinda like Xaku’s 3, but where Xaku’s 3 lasts more and is wider, the defense strip from Cali’s 4 is permanent and drains both shields and armor at the same time (also it stacks an infinite amount of times
Zephyr: has it all, many fun and viable helminth combinations (coil horizon to put enemies into tornado range from further away, silence to negate eximus and make overguarded melee enemies your only threat, spectrorage to generate energy from tornado kills), AND she’s the best frame for solo SP Circuit (in fact, i’ve never gone levelcap yet, but i believe Zephyr with Silence and Assimilate Nyx with something to slow overguarded melee enemies down OR Dispensary is a perfect duo). Also, if your starter frame was Volt and you switch with Zephyr but miss the speed, Jet Stream has you covered
I also slapped Silence on Zephyr, bricking Eximi and Thrax is great
Also when enemy armor is less of an issue and I don’t feel like playing around the tornadoes, Target Fixation goes brrr
Probably Yareli, she is quite tanky even in steel path and even if your surfboard dies, its one button press and instantly back up. Combine with ocucor and you just sorta roomba the map. Screw some of the grineer layouts tho.
Is there a link to community usage stats?
I play a lot of Equinox and Octavia, but I very rarely see anyone else bringing them into missions.
I don’t think people want to farm Equinox, and don’t know how busted her day mode 4 is.
I have been playing less Octavia lately even though she’s still a favorite, because she’s so powerful that it makes things boring. I just sit there twerking to maintain invisibility and refresh skills once a minute or so.
stats site, can click through to 2020 as well: https://www.warframe.com/2022stats
Nyx is entirely unnecessary in the normal star chart:
-Armor strip isn’t needed when they die to normal weapons
-Chaos isn’t needed when they die too fast to be CCed anyway
-Mind Control has no effect when enemies do low damage
But on the Steel Path all these things are inverted and Nyx shines. Enemies still have trouble killing each other, sure, but they stay busy trying. Nyx’s armor strip takes less power strength to get to 100% than any other frame.
In any case I have a soft spot for her. Still have my original, which I literally farmed by accident. My first built frame, and also the one I did the Second Dream with.
My usage stats across all frames are basically an inversion of DE’s published ones: Rhino/Mesa/Saryn/Wukong are at the bottom for me, and Nyx/Ivara/Mag/Zephyr at the top.
Speaking of: Ivara trivializes about half of the Steel Path. You don’t even need to change your frame build for it.
In a similar vein to Ivara, Ash is also quite strong in steel path though mediocre in regular star chart.
I don’t see other Zephyrs but I assume it’s low usage. She’s got EVERYTHING.
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With her combined massive 0.73% playrate, 0.63% of which lies in the Prime, Equinox is my favorite Warframe and the one that instantly caught my eye when my friend introduced me to the game and I was skimming over the wiki because of her Day/Night mechanic. Nowadays I main her for the silly little dopamine rush Terrify + Maim gives me, but it’s still the same frame nonetheless.
Other than her… my next favorite low %-er frame would have to be Gyre. I enjoyed her in the past and just wish she got the tiniest bit of an extra boost, which Cathode Current provided in spades. Real fun and Pillage is an easy slot.
I have mained Frost Prime for nearly 9 years. I rarely see other frostys in the wild, but I know there are about 5 of us! :P
Frost is a highly under-rated frame. I don’t understand why he’s disliked so much. His 4 will do full armor-strip and is a great CC for headshot kills. Someone conscious about where they’re putting bubbles doesn’t get in the way, except for people who think they need to be the one to shoot everything on the map, even if there are teammates on the other side of the defense point who can do that.
My only complaint is that his 1 or 2 are somewhat redundant with the 4 when you have a lot of energy, but Helminth can take care of that. I like his 1 for immobilizing high-damage targets, though it became less useful with the Eximus rework.
Steel Path mobile defense, or excavation, Frost is my guy. If only I could freeze the defense target guy and make him quit wandering around. I still often take Frost for defense and just keep moving my bubble.
With a combined total of 0.58% - Baruuk.
He has double-dip damage reduction, he has an insane ult that synergizes well with Archon Shards, and you can very easily Helminth your 1st or 2nd ability for Tharros Strike.
Baruuk is pretty much my favorite frame to play in Circuit. Add in all the melee buffs and it’s just gigantic red crits everywhere at ludicrous speeds.
Grendel. I love him after his rework, and wish he’d get more spotlight in the community. He’s super fun
Grendel is actually my favorite “active” frame but honestly it feels like a huge struggle to keep his belly full most of the time in pubs.
