Besides the design flaws that others have pointed out already, I can’t play Lavos since his ability chording gives me hand pain after prolonged sessions, and I can’t use my mouse buttons for them without redoing binds or creating a completely separate Lavos-only button profile.
Cooldown-based abilities are also not my thing; I’ve played enough classic MMOs to tire of the timeline optimization meta-game.
In no particular order, I think my top 5 melee Incarnons are regular Magistar (Khora stat stick + Slam builds), Praedos (speed), Ceramic Dagger (Secondary Outburst stick), Dual Ichor, and Skana (I just think longswords are cool). Furax is also an honorable mention for secondary users - I’m not sure why Amalgam mods exist, but I’m definitely thankful for Amalgam Furax Body Count!
Okina is just outside my top 5 alongside Furax, Hate, and Innodem, but I’ll have to see if I can work Okina into more builds.
Kunai is the standout of this bunch IMO. I think it’s the only weapon in the game with such easy access to headshot homing (do Buzlok and Zymos count?); no need to prep with Scourge alt-fire or Void status. It’s carried me through countless headshot Riven challenges. Great on Cyte-09 as well for emergency Evade refreshes. The main drawbacks are its extremely small magazine size and occasional weird tracking against enemies with unconventional weakpoints.
Skana is my second favorite (ok fine, I just want an excuse to use literally any of the cool longsword skins and stances). When’s Pangolin Incarnon Genesis??
Paris is a fun one as well - super satisfying to scythe down entire hallways with a single shot. Pretty funny on Mag as well. Bhisaj-Bal makes this slightly easier for general use over Dread IMO, but Unseen Dread has the definite edge on stealth frames. Unfortunately I find bows in general fairly clunky to use, so I don’t get a ton of use out of this one.
Braton is fine, if somewhat boring. The extra damage on evo 2 only being active on channeled abilities means I only ever feel compelled to use this on Sevagoth or Ember, but even without that it’s a strong, easy-to-use Incarnon.
Lato Incarnon Genesis is the only Incarnon I haven’t tried yet. I’ve been stubbornly re-farming Lato Vandal since I was an idiot and sold my previously-mastered copy a long time ago. I don’t expect this to outshine other secondary Incarnons, but it seems strong enough on paper as a reliable Circuit/EDA pick.
This isn’t the first year they’ve done it, but heatmaps by mastery are a great enrichment to the otherwise flat ranking-by-usage data.
I kinda wish there was an option to combine stats for base/Prime frame variants, especially for Primes that released in the lookback year.
Edit: am I tripping, or are stats missing for Excal Umbra/Prime?
Finally! I’m so tired of the Fandom platform.
Also, the Stakeholder Analysis meta-wiki page is unintentionally very funny.
Sicarus Incarnon has dethroned Laetum as my comfort secondary. It’s the perfect blend of ridiculously strong and easy to use, especially with the ricochet.
Dera Incarnon with Primary Crux is very funny and my second favorite of this batch. I just wish the Incarnon fire rate was higher - I find myself camping the Incarnoff mode until it’s time to laser a priority target.
Cestra is also extremely funny but still has horrible shot spread, so it’s mostly meme gun status to me.
Sybaris is fine. I’m sure the many Sybaris enjoyers appreciate the upgrade.
Okina is pretty nuts! Definitely melee of choice on Frost, but stands out in lots of other builds too. I’m curious what the other two in your top 3 Incarnon melee are.
Pain. Although the Lich system is so convoluted that it’s hard to fault anyone for these kinds of mishaps.
It only gets better. 120-ish hours is where I’d expect the game to start really opening up for you, assuming you’ve been making progress on the star chart and mastery ranks. 😄
As you can tell, there are many foot-guns and opportunity costs in this game. If you aren’t playing under someone else’s guidance, I recommend finding a mentor, else you risk making the same expensive mistakes that I (and many others) have made.
Dissolving a fully ranked Primed Point Blank. At least for Endo.
OOF
Upgrading a second Arcane to Rank 1.
You should be able to break the arcane back down into unranked ones, unless I’m misunderstanding.
A few more from the recesses of my brain (and friends reminding me):
Things I’ve dunked on my friends for doing:
I believe in living with the consequences of my actions. I definitely made that choice deliberately and not because I didn’t know you could submit a support ticket for that.
In any case, it’s in the distant past now. Check before you click!
My queen 👑🙏
Assimilate + Ruvox (Ternary Vault) + subsumed Dispensary for full parkour! I never liked Revenant anyways! (Edit: this fun bug has been patched out. RIP)
Mind Control on Leech or Jade Eximus is very funny and cool, but like others have said, I don’t care for the overguard-peeling minigame before you can get to the juicy innards. Sunika Kubrow with Assassin Posture kinda helps, but most times the slash ticks will just kill Eximus outright.
I’m sure there’s more stuff I’m forgetting or repressing. 5k+ hours btw
Does anyone have an Ash setup that they like? He’s one of the few frames I cannot seem to find any joy in playing. I’ve tried Savage Silence Bladestorm and found it incredibly boring to wait for things to die.
Frost can’t stop winning! Besides excav/defense, he’s my go-to for interception and an instant lock for Circuit/EDA.
Just don’t hit any killplanes or you instantly lose all of your overguard. :(
Cyte-09 with Kunai Incarnon Genesis is my go-to for headshot Riven challenges now. Neutralizer is the main workhorse, Kunai for the fiddly stuff like aim glide/sliding headshots. I do wish I could slap Stabilizer on Neutralizer, since the kickback is pretty intense.
My main criticism is that he’s another “greedy” frame that competes with squadmates for kills to upkeep stealth and headshot bonuses, and it can be challenging to find those headshots when you regularly play with war criminals who favor frames like Wisp/Dante/Mesa.
I heard a similar pitch from someone else after I came back to Warframe around the launch of Duviri. Initially I wasn’t impressed, but the incremental improvements from Archon shards and properly built Electric/Gas weapons made a pretty large difference to me (even better now after status reworks). She’s definitely a regular in my Circuit/EDA rotation now, and an easy frame to recommend for new players.
Also, as someone that still plays Loki and Chroma, there are dozens of us! Ok, maybe just one dozen, but still.
I think this actually is with the Deathtrap Trigger evo selected - it’s currently bugged to display the extra crit modifiers in the arsenal despite being a conditional proc.
Now add Secondary Outburst!