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
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.
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.
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.
