Hello everyone,
I don't think it's surprising to anyone that some of the older warframes have lost some of their luster compared to newer releases and I've seen some of us already thearycrafting revamps of a few of the older 'frames so I figured I'd join in on the fun with an old favorite of mine, Frost.
Passive: Enemies who have Cold Status applied to them have a 1.25% chance to additionally Freeze increasing with the stack to 10% chance at 8 (max) stack for five seconds.
1, Freeze: Throw a burst of extreme cold, freezing weakened enemies in place.
Strength: 200 / 275 / 325 /4 50 Cold Damage + 75 / 125 / 175 / 250 AoE Cold Damage
Duration: 3/5/7/10 Seconds (Freeze)
Misc: 400% Cold Status Chance, 50% Freeze Threshold, 5m radius
Alt: Hold 1 to impart +100% Cold Status chance to the weapons of yourself and all allies in a radius centered on self
Synergy: Directly hitting a Snow Globe with Freeze will make it burst dealing 35% of it's remaining health as Cold Damage with 400% Status Chance to all enemies within and to a range of 7m from the edge of the globe
2, Cold Snap: Unleash subzero winds to flash-freeze the ground and any enemies in the affected area.
Strength: 300 / 445 / 565 / 700 Cold Damage, 25 / 30 / 35 / 50% Cold Status Chance per second in AoE.
Duration: 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 Seconds
Range: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35° Initial Angle, 10 / 12/ 17 / 20m Length
Misc: 200% Cold Status Chance, 60° (angle cap)
Synergy: Enemies affected by Absolute Zero take 50 additional Cold Damage whenever Cold Snap's frozen terrain adds a Cold Proc and Cold Snap terrain activates twice as often for them
Augment: Holding 2 to increase angle at expense of range, capping out at 90 / 180 / 270 / 360° & -50 / 40 / 30 / 20% Range
3, Snow Globe: Sap moisture from the air and freeze it into a protective and briefly invulnerable sphere, enemies within are slowed and have a chance to be frozen.
Strength: 1500 / 2500 / 3500 / 4000 Base Health, 1 / 3 / 5 / 7x Armor Multiplier, 30 / 35 / 40 / 45% Freeze Chance
Duration: 4 / 5 / 6 / 8 Second Freeze Duration
Range: 5m Radius
Misc: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Second Invulnerability, 40 / 50 / 60 / 70% Slow
Synergy: Directly hitting a Snow Globe with Freeze will make it burst dealing 35% of it's remaining health as Cold Damage with 400% Status Chance to all enemies within and to a range of 7m from the edge of the globe
Augment: Hold 3 to create Snow Globe of -75 / 65 / 55 / 45% size that will move with you similarly to an Ice Eximus. If Freeze is cast within the mobile Globe the reduced size isn't factored into the burst radius and the globe inherits Freeze's 50% threshold.
4, Absolute Zero: Reduce the area to absolute zero debilitating enemies as their defenses freeze and solidify ice around yourself and allies as buffer health.
Strength: 1000 / 1250 / 1500 / 1750 Cold Damage, 15 / 30 / 45 / 60% Shield and Armor strip, & 20 / 25 / 30 / 40 damage absorption per enemy hit to allies within range
Duration: 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 Seconds
Range: 8 / 10 / 12 / 15m Damage, 3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5m damage absorption
Misc: 800% Cold Status Chance
Synergy: Enemies affected by Absolute Zero take 50 additional Cold Damage whenever Cold Snap's frozen terrain adds a Cold Proc and Cold Snap terrain activates twice as often for them
Augment: Cold Snap terrain is generated surrounding the Warframe out to 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% of Absolute Zero's range
This is my first time doing anything like this and I haven't mained Frost in years so this'll be interesting... what do you think?
I really love what happened recently to the game with helminth and armor rework and archon mods. Frost is in a decent spot IMO. Some additional tweaks would be welcomed for his passive, 1 and 2, but I replaced his 2 with Thermal Sunder and use his 1 as utility to shatter his globe. The full armor strip on his 4 is amazing and thermal Sunder makes him a decent caster frame, where you can actually kill enemies with abilities.
He's absolutely not in a decent spot IMO. He's still one of the worst frames. His globe is still just a major annoyance for everyone with blocking shots, it's completely stationary and his only way to survive at high levels, and his 4 is a really, really expensive, slow armor strip that lacks range when combined with the fact that Frost needs a dozen mods to do things and only has 8 slots (or 10 but 2 really aren't too relevant to boosting abilities).
His augments help, but the issue is they're fighting against the other things Frost needs like casting speed and range. Combine that with Eximus units that just completely ignore almost everything Frost does and he's really not that good at all.
I agree Thermal Sunder is great. I agree armor strips are good (but really, completely replaceable given viral/slash exists). I don't agree that Frost is good, decent, or anything above bad.
Here is my build: https://overframe.gg/build/386728/frost-prime/archon-thermal-sunder/
Energy cost isn't a problem with high efficiency and zenurik. Don't really need range since i usually move from pack to pack. I even put a lot of utility in my build with Mecha set and icy avalanche. I once out damage people in SP circuit with this build.
I'll be completely honest and state that this seems like an awful build and my points stand.
Like, there is nothing in this build that makes sense or makes use of anything unique to Frost. Icy Avalanche is a joke in Steel Path, and any frame with an armor strip would work for this build. You could easily run Gauss and subsume Terrify on him, or if you don't want to bother with the battery you could use anyone with an armor strip from Nekros to even Caliban. You have many better choices for what your build is accomplishing.
All your caster frame damage is coming from the subsumed ability, not Frost. Again, you've discovered that Thermal Sunder is great. Frost isn't keeping you alive if you're running around, his globes are stationary blockers and Icy Avalanche is, once again, just not useful in Steel Path and will get eaten before you blink.
Out-damaging the average player in Steel Path Circuit is as easy as having one thing that works. That thing in this build is Thermal Sunder. It's not an impressive feat, especially when Circuit isn't balanced (as stated by the devs) and you can easily get very good decrees while others don't.
If you want Frost to function well, there's a couple builds you could use. Some go the Parasitic Armor route to boost his armor to keep him alive in Steel Path and turn his Snow Globe into something that will survive for a very long time with or without being shot. You could also maximize efficiency and allow him to spam both Snow Globe and his 4, which is very useful. There is also, of course, Biting Frost. However, even these kinds of builds are still lacking, because Frost himself is lacking. If you run frames like Nezha, Revenant, Mesa, Saryn, Zephyr, or any other of the dozens of frames that are leagues ahead of Frost with any sort of competency, it should become very clear that Frost is just not that great of an option.