Been having a pretty rough time after a psychiatrist suddenly reversed course and refused to supply documentation I need for disability benefits. It definitely feels like a very personal instance of "you're a useless mouth and should be dead, or at least out of the system where nobody has to think about you".

Not the best idea but I also read pretty extensively about how bad Australia's health system is for disabled people. Also lived through two of my grandparents being left to die by it. Also a lot of contact trauma from being on the periphery of the welfare, disability, and poverty rights movements.

So, let's have a chat. What helps? I usually make it through immediate mental health crises but every episode of suicidal planning ratchets my preparedness up a bit more. I think I need to be more proactive about not getting to that state in the first place.

Looking over my personal usage stats and my clan's usage stats; and contrasting with the community usage stats, I noticed something interesting. One of the least-used archetypes, and one rife with frames with bad or polarising reputations, is the hybrid damage buffer/CC frame. Meanwhile these are really popular in my Alliance, as we have a few stalwarts spreading the good word. (I'm doing my part for Banshee propaganda.)

I can say that the usage stats reflect a sentiment I hear a lot: "just use ". In this case, Nekros and Octavia dominate this particular role at 3.2% usage apiece, reflecting community belief that Octavia is the best frame in the game and renders other CCs useless. Meanwhile there is a harsh dropoff in the buffer/CC archetype after Octavia (or Nezha if you count him). The next most used is Mag at 1.5%, then Frost and Zephyr at 1.1%. After this, the rest of the archetype all have less than 1% usage.

Other support archetypes are in a similar place: the healer/buffer is dominated by Wisp, and the damage/CC archetype by Khora.

A second factor is the "death spiral". If a frame has a bad launch or a rough patch as the meta shifts around them, they seem to never shake that bad reputation. For example, year on year, even with extensive positive coverage, Zephyr sees very little change in equip time. Yareli is Turbomurder Water Nezha now, but it's still a common sentiment that she's squishy and has poor damage potential. Everyone has an opinion about Sevagoth even though nobody plays him.

A third factor, and I think another kind of death spiral, is unappealing meta builds. For example, Nyx is dominated by Assimilate builds, Banshee by glass cannon builds, Caliban's meta being a complete mess, one-button Frost and Loki builds, and so on. People don't invest into the frame because it has been typecast and the builds ossify, and if the builds aren't fun to play, nobody invests or experiments, and the cycle repeats.

So, that's my take. I'd love to hear your opinions!

Prior to Duviri, I put in some time acid testing boilerplate builds to get all my frames to scale into SP Circuit. I'll summarise the work here. I'm happy to answer any questions in the comments. Hopefully this will be of some use!

As a bonus, none of these require energy->shield mods or Decaying key, although using either or both adds an extra layer of survivability.

Infinite Scaling

Condemn helminth! Easily the comfiest and most reliable way of shield gating, as it CCs enemies and shield gates most frames in just two or three targets affected. The ability has a "soft" slam animation that has reduced priority over double jump and parkour, so casting during a double jump or bullet jump will keep you airborne. It's also a one-handed cast so does not interrupt reloads, and you can shoot mid-cast.

The important requirement is that you need to compensate range or strength on Overextended or Narrow Minded builds, or use the next helminth option.

Pillage helminth. Unlike Condemn, provides absolutely no CC, so I only recommend this on frames that have some kind of innate CC such as a slow, distraction, confusion, etc. Also a full-body cast so it prevents movement and other actions, and comes in at twice the casting cost.

Infested

The heck faction... until now. Silence helminth completely reduces them to melee, which should not be a problem with Warframe movement. Just don't get in a slap fight with any Disruptors or Toxic Ancients (or Venomous Eximus).

Silence prevents grapple hooks and Osprey clouds, as well as all Eximus casts. The only remaining mechanics are the Ancient stretch arm attack and MOA goop and clouds, but the MOA attacks do fixed low damage, so no biggy.

I just want to face tank to level 300

Health Conversion from Simaris, Arcane Blessing from Conjunction Survival, and your choice of Fractured Blast (same build constraints as Condemn) from Citrine, or Lycath's Hunt from Voruna (preferably don't dump stat Duration). Frames with inbuilt DR can go quite a bit farther than that, but even Banshee or Gyre can facetank with HCAB strats.

But I'm Inaros or Lavos

This section is theoretical, since I don't have Trickery.

Desiccate, Ophidian Bite, and Dagger heavy attacks force finishers, so you could use this with Arcane Trickery to stay invis. Otherwise possible helminths are Resonator (from Octavia), or Shooting Gallery (from Mesa) + Muzzle Flash augment.