Chill Out: A Guide To Frost And His Various Builds

Hello, I'm boat. I play Frost. Frost is a very good frame viable in almost every game type. I'm here to show you why you should try Frost out.

update

guide has been outdated for a while and i don't see myself updating it any time soon. i wouldn't recommend the max str build in high lvl content, if anything do a max range build and just spam it to keep the invincibility period indefinite.

here are the three builds i would use in 2018
globe: https://puu.sh/znepO/a353d8311b.jpg
ice wave impedance: https://puu.sh/znemv/3ad246b1c7.jpg
icy avalanche: https://puu.sh/znens/67b7e300c9.jpg

This Is Frost

This is Frost, a slow and decently armored frame that is mostly built for defensive and support roles.

• He has 100 Health which goes to 300 at rank 30.
  
• He has 150 Shields which go up to 450 at rank 30.
  
• He has 100 Energy which goes up to 150 at rank 30.
  
• He has 300 Armor.
  
• He has a sprint speed of 0.95, slower than most Warframes.
  
• He comes with three polarities, being 1 Dash and 1 D and another D in the Aura slot.

You can acquire Frost's parts fairly early on in the game by defeating Lieutenant Lech Kril on Mars.









His Prime variant however, has some better stats. If you're going to play Frost a lot, I suggest saving up on your Platinum as his set rarely goes for less than 800 nowadays(or pick up his Prime Vault package for $60 coming up this Christmas!) since unvaulting, his set has dropped dramatically to around the 300-500p range. Picking up the parts individually by lurking trade chat or monitoring warframe.market[warframe.market], you could probably snag it for 250-300.

Frost Prime comes with 25 extra base shields starting at 175, then increasing to 525 at rank 30, the highest base shields in the game. He can achieve a maximum of 1505 with a maxed Redirection and Vigor, even more so with the upcoming Primed Vigor mod speculating a ludicrous 2000+ base shields at rank 30! Frost Prime also comes with an additional D polarity.

A Breakdown of Frost's Abilities

To start things off, we'll go over Frost's ability set.


Frost's first ability is Freeze, an ability that shoots out a blast of energy that freezes anything it touches. You can freeze a single enemy solid with a direct hit, or slow down an area by shooting at a surface. This ability is especially good against Corpus enemies as they cannot regenerate shields while frozen.

The duration an enemy is frozen is affected by Power Duration and it's damage is affected by Power Strength, but it's area of effect is NOT affected by Power Range.
It is a one-handed ability meaning you can perform many actions while casting it including reloading.


The Augment for Freeze is Freeze Force, allowing Freeze to be cast on allies adding 100% Cold damage to all of their attacks for 40 seconds.



This is arguably the best 1 in the game, on par with Atlas. Simple and powerful. You can use it to burst your Snow Globe if you don't need it anymore and bursting the Snow Globe will also damage and ragdoll any enemy within its radius.





Frost's second ability is Ice Wave, an ability that sends a wave of ice shards hurtling in front of you, dealing Cold damage to anything in it's path. This ability has 100% status chance of slowing the enemy down, similar to Freeze, but does not freeze the enemy solid.

The damage of Ice Wave is affected by Power Strength, and the cone's width is affected by Power Range, but cannot exceed 60°.

Ice Wave is a two-handed ability that can be cast while airborne. The animation has a cast time of 1 second which cannot be interrupted, but can be altered by Speed Drift and Natural Talent.


The Augment for Ice Wave is Ice Wave Impedance, that makes Ice Wave leave a trail for 12 seconds. Very similar to Freeze's area of effect variant, but on a larger scale.

Ice Wave is an alright ability, good for a large scale slow in tight spaces such as corridors. It also leaves golden turds if you have Frost Prime, which is neat.







This is the biggie.

Frost's third ability is Snow Globe. This ability creates a defensive sphere that can block incoming damage with ease. It has a base health of 5000 which are increased by both Power Strength mods and Frost's Armor values, but Power Strength has a much more noticeable effect. When first cast, the globe is invulnerable for 4 seconds and any enemy within the radius is frozen and pushed out of the globe. Enemy damage absorbed during this invincibility period is converted into health for the globe. Neither you nor allies can contribute damage, only enemies. The globe's diameter is determined by Power Range, but the invulnerability period is NOT affected by Power Duration.

A maximum of 4 snow globes can be active at one time, with the most recent snow globe's health being displayed on the ability icon in the bottom right. Recasting Snow Globe while inside an existing snow globe will remove the older globe and combine the health of the older globe with the newer one, this is why you see a few Frost players recasting Snow Globe 4 or 5 times. Snow Globe has a hard cap of 1,000,000 health.


The Augment for Snow Globe is Chilling Globe, giving Snow Globe a 50% chance to freeze any enemy that enters its radius. Note that flying enemies like Ospreys maintain their momentum while frozen.

This ability is the core of Frost and is why he is the king of defense missions. While many builds focus around this ability, there is one more ability worthy of building around...








Avalanche is Frost's 4th ability. It can freeze a large group of enemies surrounding Frost solid and reduce their armor by 40%. The percentage of enemy armor reduced is affected by Power Strength, which can reach 100% armor reduction by having at least 250% Power Strength. The duration an enemy is frozen is affected by Power Duration, and the range at which enemies can be affected is determined by Power Range.

It should be noted that casting Freeze on a target frozen by Avalanche will extend the duration and armor reduction, but no more than Freeze's duration.

There is currently no Augment for Avalanche.

Avalanche is a very good crowd control (CC) ability. Building for duration, while not recommended, can be very beneficial when focusing your build around Avalanche.

My Builds For Frost

Frost is very versatile and it is recommended you tinker with his builds to suit your playstyle, but here are my 3 builds focused around his 3rd and 4th ability.


This build is my primary build focused around getting as much armor and Power Strength as possible to increase Snow Globe's Health. With this much Power Strength we get up to 20k base health on our Snow Globe!


This is my second build I use for mostly solo Hieracon and any Infested Cryopod Defense mission. It utilizes the Chilling Globe Augment as well as maximum Power Range to slow the infested onslaught on our Excavator or Cryopod.


And finally, my third build I use for CC with Avalanche. I usually use this build for Mobile Defense Sortie missions with either Corpus or Grineer. With the Infested I will still recommend you use the second build. While it is not recommended to focus on Snow Globe with this build, due to the decent amount of Strength, Snow Globe is still fairly powerful.

Note: I used to use Stand United on my first build as a way to add even more armor and health to the Snow Globe, but after a decent amount of missions with it, I went back to Rejuvenation as the HP regen is nice without a Trinity and armor doesn't really add much to Snow Globe when it's only 25.5%. If you want to add even more Health, I'd suggest forma-ing the Aura slot to a V and using Growing Power, though it is fairly inconsistent.

If you wish to use my builds, I recommend using Forma twice on Frost Prime, three times for regular Frost, and add two V polarities for Prime, two Vs and a D for Frost.
If you want to max all the mods, add a Dash. I'll do that eventually. :p

Thank You For Reading My Guide!

Please consider rating the guide up if you found my builds useful!
Thank you and have a great rest of your day. ^-^

Sources:
WARFRAME Wiki
Own Experiences

Also credit where it's due, I used this[s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com] piece of art for the guide's icon, only edited slightly to look visually appealing. If the original creator wants it removed I'm happy to do so!

[xTheLostSinnerx TTV]

Frost ( Not Primed or Polarized ) w/ Energy Siphon(Don't have Corrosive Proj. yet.) w/o Adaptor

Fleeting Exp - 3/5, Vitality - 8/10, Blind Rage - 5/10, Overextended - 5/5, Flow - 5/5, Stretch - 5/5, Transient Fortitude - 7/10, Streamline - 5/5

Armor - 300
Energy - 300
Health - 660
Shield - 450
Sprint Speed - .95

Duration - 40%
Efficiency - 140%
Range - 235%
Strength - 134%

What are your thoughts?

[reg]

thx

[♡ boat]

guide has been outdated for a while and i don't see myself updating it any time soon. i wouldn't recommend the max str build in high lvl content, if anything do a max range build and just spam it to keep the invincibility period indefinite.

here are the three builds i would use in 2018
globe: https://puu.sh/znepO/a353d8311b.jpg
ice wave impedance: https://puu.sh/znemv/3ad246b1c7.jpg
icy avalanche: https://puu.sh/znens/67b7e300c9.jpg

[reg]

Is this guide still viable considering there are decent new mods or is this just outdated now.
I have 3 frost primes for some reason and I need to do something with them.
hi

[MyNameMeansBentNose]

I'd still argue that IceWave Impedance is stronger than you suggest. I think of it as an ability that supports mobility as it reaches quite a ways in front of you, catching enemies in the slow effect long before they see you. It also does not disrupt allies as they travel as it wont stop weapons fire, but makes targets much easier to hit while flying by.

Snow Globe supports stationary play as it centers on you and pushes enemies out. Of course it is fantastic, but it is only good for travel for when you need a moment of space. You'll quickly leave it behind.

Icewave is also great for siphon missions as it can cover quite a bit of ground to catch enemies suddenly spawning in, although I expect it slowing the kuva down is a bug that may be patched out.

... and it isn't popped by the Nullifier you couldn't see.

[AnemoneMeer]

Go for Aegis and Grace. Frost can achieve 765 armor and Grace negates bleeds/toxins/etc, which also helpfully trigger Aegis.

Barrier has less proc odds and a 20s aegis with extreme shield regen is like 5-10x your actual shield value.

[♡ boat]

Ooo, that sounds really interesting, I'll give it a try, thanks!

Choosing between Arcane Aegis and Barrier will be difficult though.

[AnemoneMeer]

Missing the final build option. Shield Soak frost. 1505 shields (more if you get primed vigor), both shield regen mods, and (and you NEED this) Arcane aegis. Add on the armor mods and HP mods and you actually create the single hardest to kill frame on average in the game. Nullifiers and similar don't cripple you, your shield regen works in combat and is ludicriously massive. Snow globe is still potent from all that armor. And since you're not reliant on abilities or energy to stay alive, you match up well against everything. Inaros has more raw burst soak but suffers if he can't self heal/loses abilities/loses energy. Wukong and Valkyr have invincibility, but nullifiers tend to basically instant death them if they get spawned on, or generally if they lose ability access.

Just a great build for Melee/Melee Channeling.

[Lord Washy]

Frost for life

[♡ boat]

I was more so building for range and efficiency rather than duration with my third build. I'd use a R4 Fleeting and R4 Streamline if I had one spare.

Ice Wave Impedance is good, I won't deny that, but I'm not prepared to have a build focused around it, and I'm not one for dual Augments.

I personally believe Energy Conversion is a wasted mod slot that could be used for a consistent strength mod. Don't let me discourage you from using it though, it's an interesting choice including it.