Warframe Tier List July 2021: Best Tank, DPS And Support Warframes

Warframe Tier List Warframe is one of the most popular looter shooters in the game with so many playstyles. Here is out Warframe tier list ranking every frame currently available. Image via Digital Extremes.

With the release of The New War expansion and the development of a mobile version of the game, Warframe has cemented its position as one of the most popular looter shooters for PC and console platforms. The game allows players to travel through space to encounter rich lore and receive regular content updates that include advanced features. Now and then, the developers, Digital Extreme, release a new Frame, which are player-controlled suits that each have a unique set of abilities and roles to play. With that said, let’s take a closer look at the overall quality of these Frames, as well as how they compare to one another in a Warframe tier list.

As of May 2021, there are 47 Frames in the Warframe universe, with a 48th Frame named Yareli on the way. Each player can specialize in a different type of content, whether it’s pushing more challenging survival missions, solo farming, or farming Liches, among other things. Generally, all frames are perfectly acceptable for gameplay, but some are significantly more appealing for higher-level missions and more valuable farms than others. Continue reading our article to learn about the advantages, disadvantages, and comparability of each Frame in the game so that you can make an informed decision about which Frames are best for you.

Please keep in mind that their alphabetical placements determine the actual position of the Frames. Except for what is specified in each Frame’s paragraph, we do not differentiate between an upper and lower differentiation in this Warframe Tier List.

Warframe Tier List Rankings Explained

• S Tier – Generally the best Frames for their role, those with an incredible power level for different content, or ease of access based on overall strength.
• A Tier – Generally perfect Frames with a viable playstyle. They either rank lower than S because it’s missing that edge, or it compares slightly lower than the OPs in the S tier. Nonetheless, they are perfect Frames.
• B Tier – Overall decent frames and useable for the most, but are a bit on the weaker side of things compared with A and S tier Frames. Generally more beginner-friendly Frames than anything, or harder to perform Frames lacking the extra benefit for it.
• C Tier – Some more Beginner-friendly frames but are most certainly on the weaker side or fill weird niches.
• D Tier – Frames that fall flat in most areas. Either counter-intuitive to play or super far behind those in the same role.

S Tier

Wukong is a very powerful Frame for solo players

Mesa – Mesa is a gunslinging Frame capable of buffing allies while mowing down opposition by itself. Her ultimate makes you the top cowboy, mass firing at all enemies like an action film’s cowboy. The Frame comes with a few other survivable perks, making it a good option for solo content if you’re not interested in Wukong. However, the shooting Gallery perk is where it gets interesting, cycling power buffs to allies in the thick of combat. Mesa doesn’t need any more damage buffs, as Ballistic Battery provides enough bang to pull out colossal burst damage on targets.

Octavia – One of the most muscular frames in the game with a supportive toolkit. She also has a daily decent damage kit with her roller balls and buffed-up mallets. Her kit’s power comes through her musical melodies, making her play like a Bard in other fantasy titles. Players who move to the beat of their abilities can get buffs by crouching, jumping, or performing different skills while playing music. Her Amp ability also buffs her and her ally’s damage for some time.

Rhino – One of the earliest Frames to build in the foundry for new players. A perfect Tank Frame allows new players to face more challenging content while not having access to better frames to tackle the content more appropriately. The more experienced players recognize Rhino’s worth. Rhino is good when faced with many enemies in survival missions, tanking Star Chart bosses, or events like Plague Star. A well-timed Roar is enormous, allowing the player and their allies to dominate the enemies in front of them.  

Saryn – Saryn is one of the best DPS Frames in the game. Saryn has a spore ability, which can destroy entire rooms full of trash. Follow this up with her Miasma, and most content is trivial. Her powers are considerably strong even for boss battles, making for a high-level solid frame to nuke through content.

Titania – One of the best boss killers in the game. While Titania is harder to master frames, to manage the energy usage will leave the game’s most formidable enemies trivial. The Razorwing ultimate and Lantern are her primary sources of damage, which provide vast bursts of damage in small windows. The added benefit of Razorwing is that she becomes smaller and flies. While under those effects, she is incredibly mobile and harder to kill while taking down key targets. Also, Titania’s main blueprints come from the Silver Grove quest, making her reasonably accessible.

Trinity – It is well known Trinity is one of the best healing Frames in the game. Trinity’s Blessing build is so robust and can come in clutch in many of the game’s most challenging content. The Blessing ability can restore a bucket load of health and shield herself and her allies in her affinity range. Furthermore, the power also grants allied temporary damage reduction when activated, meaning they can take even more threat in those high-pressure moments. Alternatively, Trinity’s blessing works on Sorties defense missions, adding value to the everyday content.

Wisp is one of the more robust Frames in the game but comes with a rather large skill gap. Wisp has several different effects on her abilities, with the will of the wisp having several different firing types to manipulate her taunt / teleport ability. Furthermore, knowing how to manage her energy during the solar beam is the difference between clearing out a problematic room or tumbling to your imminent doom. However, proper mastery of this Frame will leave you a walking god amongst many. We advise the most experienced or daring players to give Wisp a try.

Wukong – Arguably the best frame for solo players and solo content. The Frame scores are exceptionally high on our Warframe tier list simply because of the kit’s design. The abilities allow Wukong to summon a close, which aids the player by attack targets. Wukong can also heal himself and his pet, with some built-in CC for getaways. Furthermore, Wukong has a big stick that can chunk targets for damage, with an invulnerability shield capable of tanking massive hits and dishing some of that damage back out. Wukong is perfectly viable for every game content, with his invulnerability tanking vault traps in spy mode, to putting high DPS out on bosses. Suppose that wasn’t enough; how about three cheat deaths. The cheat deaths also randomly give the player some incredible buffs to breeze through the challenging enough content to down you. Overall, one of the most versatile frames out there is one of the most efficient ones.

A Tier

Ash – A powerful killing machine with stealth. It favors the kill everything part more than stealth but gets the job done in both departments well.

Baruuk is best described as a pacifist ninja, dodging and taking more minor damage from things. To keep him alive for longer, traveling knives destroy weapons, rendering opponents unable to shoot. And that’s where his ultimate comes in to regain his unique resource back to invest in crowd control measures. In some ways, better than Rhino, but one that takes a lot longer to get right.

Chroma – This Frame uses its colors to become a different class before heading into missions. Surprisingly, every niche the Frame can fill does so well, especially in the tanking department—overall one of the best jack of all trades in the game.

Ember – A solid AOE Frame designed for annihilating tile sets. The Frame is no longer as solid as clearing lower-level content but still a decent alternative to other AOE Frames. As a matter of fact, why not try her out in the new extermination missions launched with the Corpus Prime patch.

Equinox – Equinox is arguably one of the more exciting frames available. The Frame can do many different healing styles and deal damage depending on the night or day stances. Some of these builds with different Arcanes are good too, but generally not the best compared to more focused Frames. Overall, a reasonable frame for players looking to jump into different playstyles.

Gara – One of the stronger CC bots in the game but is still not as straightforward as one would hope. Very good when used correctly.

Gauss – No doubt one of the more manic Frames Out there. The Frame uses a charge meter to empower abilities, adding extra effectiveness to his commands. Gauss’ ultimate puts him into a supercharged mode, making everything about him stronger, stacking with inbuilt buffs already. Some skill to master but one of the more fun playstyles out there.

Inaros – Inaros is a quality Tank Frame. In some ways, Inaros’ revives make him a better tanking Frame than Rhino, but overall, Inaros is lower on our Warframe tier list for trivial reasons. The main reason is the expense. Inaros comes much later in the game, and are the situational differences worth it for the average player? Especially when Rhino is so easy to craft. By no means is Inaros bad, some people may even prefer the Frame’s playstyle, but it is a solid A tier for us.

Ivara – One of the more potent stealth assassins in the game. She provides allied cloaking for stealth ops, among a range of tactical buffs. She also has powerful dedicated invisibility and some incredible long-range firepower. A solid option for those wanting that scout sniper playstyle.

Khora – One of the more unique frames with a pet ability. The combination of Vinari attacking and enemies getting chained together means a very self-reliant character with good party features.

Lavos – The Elementalist. The abilities deal with several different elemental types of damage, each also applying other effects to opponents. The ultimate power causes the damage to double based on each element on the target, meaning you can deal 300% damage when fighting the big bad.

Limbo – Easily the cheesiest frames available. The teleportation between the different realms of existence allows Limbo to duke mechanics. Combine with his status field and tanged bullets won’t find its target. Also some solid AOE nuking. Limbo is great solo content and utility in parties.

Nekros – Nekros is a character designed for one thing only, trash. The passive makes him regain health from fallen enemies close to his position. Furthermore, he gets more loot from fallen allies and can bring back the dead to go wild on more challenging mobs. A solid farming frame if you want something more min-maxy for loot.

Nezha – Another engaging solo content character. A protective CC, some added teleportation, and a fire ability make those hit more vulnerable to all damage – fitting any build path. The passive also makes the Frame one of the fastest in the game, stacking with other buffs.

Nidus– Arguably the best Tank for survival farms. Nidus gets strong the longer combat goes on, making it incredibly powerful in the more phases of survival waves.

Nova –  The antimatter blaster is a decent solo frame, which flexes well into group content too. She has a teleport ability called Worm Hole, with several AOE abilities with Molecular Prime Null Star. That’s not all as Nova’s Frame includes a heavy burst ability called Antimatter Drop when it collides with a target.

Oberon – Another supportive Frame, with a mix of damage and healing. The healing output can rival Trinity in some build paths, making it a very competitive healing spec.

Protea – Another jack of all trades. The damage from Blaze Artillery is an ability strong for clearing out multiple enemies at once or to ramp up damage on the same target. The additional buffs from her kit, such as infinite ammo, is also a fantastic ability. The only reason why Protea is an A tier is down to how powerful Saryn and Wukong are, as those characters generally do a better job than Protea. With that said, Protea is an excellent frame in the middle of these two, making it an excellent option for the best of both worlds feel.

Revenant – If you ever wanted to master an army, now’s your chance. Revenant enthralls an enemy, which then infects others nearby. They fight for you for several seconds before automatically dying, generating new explosives to slay enemies. The ultimate is also powerful, doing huge cleave damage and redirecting incoming damage back at opponents. Generally great at solo content and good in groups.

Sevagoth – has to be one of the most complex Frames to date. While most Frames have four abilities, this kit has eight! The concept of the Frame uses a ghostly shadow has a second version of the Frame, with abilities design for managing the Shadow, and another set for the Frame you directly control. Reap send forward his Shadow, which applies passive damage through Death’s Harvest. This is important as it fills his resource bar, the Death Well, which allows him to transform into the Shadow through Exalted Shadow. When he enters the Shadow form, he can dash, consume shadows to heal the condition, grab enemies and maintain the Deaths Harvest damage dot. The focus of this side of his kit is about moving into melee and destroying those in his path. Eventually, he will run out of souls from his pool and will return to the Frame. Alternatively, a manual press of Reunite returns you to your physical Frame too. With all that said, Sevagoth is a powerful boss killer, trash farmer, and relatively agile. Sevagoth is solid A Tier for the amount of power, but his downside is pretty tricky to master.

Valkyr – One of the most potent melee DPS-themed Frames. However, it ranks in the middle of our A ranking in this Warframe tier list because of the skill required to push out damage based on energy usage. One of those that need some time to master. Otherwise may feel more like a B-tier Frame in the wrong hands.

Volt – Another solid support, but the buffs are a little tricky to get rolling. Compared to Octavia, who is much easier to play and has great customization options, Volt slightly slides down the rankings. Although, if you prefer the quick movement and the environmental effects of his abilities, Volt is a worthy alternative.

B Tier

Atlas – The master of stone. He can petrify opponents, throw rubble and heal from those turned to dust. A nice self-sufficient Frame, with the bonus of two golem allies with his four abilities. However, it is no Wukong who generally feels too strong for solo content. If you like the aesthetic, Atlas is a sound choice, though.

Banshee – The very definition of a glass cannon. It can devastate all the enemies played well, but it drops incredibly quickly, even with tankier upgrades in the kit through arcanes and upgrades. One to certainly experiment with in group content, but other picks give off much more value.

Excalibur – The legendary sword is now a frame. Generally a solid and popular newcomer frame, with some decent power at the higher levels. But it’s not as strong as it could be compared to A and S tier frames.

Frost – Feels very similar to Khora with the CC enemies and nuking department, albeit on the weaker side to the two. If you like the idea of a frost mage freezing and shattering them, then this is still a decent pick.

Garuda – The bloodlust Frame, where she gains more damage the lower her health is. There is some support utility, too, able to heal allies with her strikes. However, Garuda is a little awkward to play. Dropping too low on harder difficulty is dangerous in a group setting, and lower-level gameplay means she will clear through it with ease anyway. Requires an outstanding player and coordinated group to pull off to its fullest potential. If you can manage that, this will pick will naturally move up a tier in this Warframe tier list.

Harrow – Generally a supporting character but can convert the incoming shield and energy into damage for solo content. Generally, friendly flex support if you want a different shielding mechanic, but it is no Equinox if you wish to the flexing.

Hildryn – Decent shielding support that empowers allies with buffs. However, the fans aren’t as competitive as Trinity’s or Oberon’s output. If you like the shield playstyle, then go ahead with this as preference is everything in Warframe.

Loki – Not one of the best stealth Frames in the game, but it certainly is great for several reasons. The Frame is one of the best for clearing out Spy missions with its incredible stealth capabilities. Furthermore, the trickster can swap places with hostiles, allowing him to perform some amazing maneuvers to get into combat or to get to new advantage spots. There is some tactical play with teleport switching to the decoy, too, making it an excellent option for solo content. In addition, Loki is easier to acquire than stealth Frames like Ash and Ivara. Loki also comes across an entry-level stealth option for new players wanting to try stealth gameplay. Don’t be fooled by the B Tier ranking in the Warframe tier list. It still has its purpose.

Mag – A nice and easy to play DPS build with some inbuilt sustainability. It offers some decent group farming but overall lacks the full potential other DPS frames do. Better for beginners to get and learn the game with.

Mirage – One of the least obvious playstyles. Mirage relies on dazing and confusing enemies with mirrors, light, and lasers. One of the more challenging frames to master, but it certainly has its niches.

Vauban – A decent character for solo players, with plenty of CC and damage, boosts to those under CC effects. A proper kit but overall a little lackluster compared to other CC damage dealers.

C Tier

Hydroid – Another self-sufficient trash farmer but requires mods to make it work. Largely a weaker Nekros, the tool kit doesn’t offer what dedicated A and S tier damage dealers do. Rather disappointing, hence the C tier placement in the Warframe tier list.

Xaku – A-frame with a lot of things going on. Some mind control, some tanking, and some rotting with void damage. It is an excellent flexy role, but it does seem like a hard Frame to build around, hence, the low position on the Warframe tier list. 

Zephyr – One of the earliest released Frames in the game. The developers originally designed her for the game at launch. As the game has progressed, the kit has been left behind, as Zephyr is all about making more moves in the air and dealing with oncoming fire. A nice Frame to play on the side in the Plains of Eidolon when you get a build going through, or for those looking to get into the game.

D Tier

Grendel – Generally a terrible tank in comparison to those already in the game. Energy consumption largely punishes players feasting on enemies. The more enemies consumed gives buffs to allies, but there’s no point buffing allies if they are all in his belly. Give this one a miss.

Nyx – The original Revenant; however, the Chaos caused via Nyx is generally weaker. Mobs attack different factions at random, making Nyx harder to use for arbitrary reasons. Furthermore, the kit lacks typical damage. Overall, just a much weaker Revenant – play Rev, okay?