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Monday, 28 January 2019

Prime Unvaulting: Ember + Frost (2019)

For the first time, we'll be having back-to-back Unvaultings. This isn't unexpected given Warframe continues to introduce more and more Primes, and thus add more and more items into the Vault.
Ember Prime comes with Sicarus and Glaive Primes.
Ember (Prime) is a fire/heat themed Frame, and has received a number of changes in the past. As she stands currently, she has maybe two niches in which she is effective, but otherwise is relatively lackluster and would appreciate a rework.

Ember's Fireball (1) is quite weak, shooting a fireball that does a bit of Heat damage and inflicts Heat procs. Accelerant (2) is arguably her best ability, significantly increasing Heat damage received by all enemies within range, as well as increasing Ember's casting speed, and stunning enemies for a short time. Fire Blast (3) releases a wave of fire from Ember, dealing a piddling amount of Heat damage with guaranteed proc. It also creates a ring of fire around Ember's location that lingers, dealing a bit of Heat damage, and also giving +50% Heat damage to shots fired through the ring. World on Fire (4) is Ember's signature ability, dealing Heat damage to enemies in an AoE around Ember. After some time, this AoE shrinks, with damage and energy consumption doubling.

Ember's Augments for her 2 and 4 are decent and worth using, while the Augments for her 1 and 3 are pretty poor.

Ember Prime has increased shields and armour, though neither is a major improvement. Ember overall is not in a very good place. World on Fire is great for strolling through lower level missions, and Accelerant can make Heat-based weapons quite powerful, but otherwise she is rather lacking in utility and power.

Sicarus Prime is a decently powerful hybrid burst-fire pistol. With solid crit and decent Status Chance, it can deal heavy damage to most enemies, however requires frequent reloading. An old weapon that has received several buffs, the Sicarus Prime is a solid secondary, but also has to compete with the many other good secondaries that are currently available.

Glaive Prime is a Slash-focused throwing melee with great status capabilities and reasonable crit. Notably, its thrown attack has guaranteed Impact and Slash procs. With the ability to be wielded alongside a single secondary (such as the Sicarus Prime), the Glaive Prime can be very powerful with a status-focused build, and is probably the best throwing melee currently in the game. I don't enjoy using it personally, but it is a unique and powerful playstyle.


Frost Prime comes with Latron and Glaive Primes. Frost (Prime) is a more defensive focused Frame. His abilities primarily revolve around slowing or stopping enemies, while also offering a degree of damage dealing.

Frost's Freeze (1) shoots an ice projectile that deals a small bit of Cold damage, with guaranteed proc in an area, and proper freeze on direct hit. Hitting a surface will create a small ice patch that slows down any enemies who step on it. Ice Wave (2) shoots forward a wave of ice, dealing some Cold damage, again with guaranteed proc. Snow Globe (3) creates a protective ice sphere that absorbs attacks from outside, eventually breaking upon receiving sufficient damage. Any enemies within the globe's radius on cast are frozen, and thrown outwards, losing up to 50% of their health if they collide with obstacles. Avalanche (4) freezes all nearby enemies, dealing a fair amount of Cold damage and temporarily reducing their armour.

Though Frost's Augment for his 1 is pretty forgettable, his other three Augments are all solid and worth considering.

Frost Prime has increased shields, a very minor improvement. Overall, Frost is a pretty solid Warframe. He has a wide variety of CC/Debuff abilities, excelling at holding enemies back and defending objectives. He can also be built in a number of different ways to emphasise different abilities.

Latron Prime is a semi-auto rifle, with reasonable power but poor Reload Ratio and no anti-crowd measures. It is a victim of powercreep, being largely outclassed by many newer rifles, as well as being a weapon type simply not well suited to Warframe's combat. I personally enjoyed using it for a while, but it has since fallen far into the depths of unused, underwhelming, outclassed weapons in my Arsenal.

Reaper Prime is a Slash-focused Scythe with solid crit. Personally, I cannot stand either Scythe stance, and the Reaper Prime's stats are unremarkable as melee weapons go. If you enjoy Scythes, the Reaper Prime is one of the better ones, otherwise it's nothing special. The upcoming Melee 3.0 is set to allow Scythes to use Heavy Blade stances, which for me at least will make them much more enjoyable.

If I had to rank them in order of utility/priority, I would order them as such:
  1. Frost Prime
  2. Ember Prime
  3. Sicarus Prime/Glaive Prime
  4. Latron Prime/Reaper Prime

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