5 meta-defining weapons in Warframe (which are no longer that powerful)

Warframe has plenty of weapon variety, and players often label a few as meta weapons. These are typically some of the most powerful weapons that excel at specific tasks. This could be damage, crowd control, or priming enemies for dealing more damage later on. That said, metas tend to shift..

The weapons that were meta in the past will always be outclassed by the new ones. This article will list five meta-defining weapons that aren’t as powerful as they used to be.

Note: The entries are in no particular order.

---

Past meta-defining weapons in Warframe

With Warframe’s story spanning across the Void and other Dimensions, players have often received new and powerful weapons. In the process, some old meta weapons were outclassed. Let’s check out a few of them:

1) Ignis/Ignis Wraith

Best weapon for a new Tenno (Image via Digital Extremes)

There was once a time when clans in Warframe used to recruit players by advertising the Ignis Wraith. This weapon was available from clan research, although its blueprint is also tradable.

The Ignis Wraith is a flamethrower with decent critical and status chance, which could melt some of the toughest enemies. Due to its innate fire damage, the Viral stat with Hunter Munitions was the usual choice. The weapon is still good for new players, but struggles in high-level battles.

---

2) Kuva Bramma

Still a solid weapon (Image via Digital Extremes)

Once the feared carpet bomber, the Kuva Bramma is now collecting dust in most players’ inventories. The weapon was introduced with Kuva Lich, and after its self AOE damage was removed, it became the first choice for most of the content in-game.

The Bramma still remains very powerful, but the ammo economy changes made the weapon inconsistent. Nowadays, it is replaced by the Kuva Zarr or the Acceltra Prime for AOE damage.

---

3) Synoid Simulor

Players are still trying to simulate damage (Image via Digital Extremes)

The Synoid Simulor was one of the best crowd control weapons upon its release, and it also dealt a lot of damage. But the weapon saw a massive overall nerf to its range and damage-stacking ability.

This was basically the end of its meta period, and although the developers added in some buffs later, the weapon never caught up with others. The Kuva Nukor or the Tenet Cycron are now the go-to weapons for crowd control and priming enemies with status effects.

---

4) Dread

The only ones dreading are the players (Image via Digital Extremes)

The Dread is one of the signature weapons of Stalker, and at the time of introduction, it had one of the highest critical chances. Moreover, its primary damage was Slash, which is still one of the best status effects in the game.

It was quickly outclassed by other crowd control weapons, but the final nail in the coffin was the arrival of the Nataruk. The latter outclassed not only the Dread but most other bows in the game. This was thanks to its ability to punch through every enemy in line and a massive crit rate bonus on perfect charger shots.

---

5) Lanka

Rubico Prime at home (Image via Digital Extremes)

Back in the early days of Warframe, Eidolon-hunting was one of the few ways to acquire Arcanes. With the introduction of the Lanka, the task was made a bit easier, thanks to its innate Electric damage that was easy to convert to Radiation.

For the longest time, it remained the top weapon for Eidolon-hunting, even after the Rubico was introduced. However, things changed with the Rubico Prime. Maybe, a Tenet Lanka will outclass the current meta — if the developers decide to make such a weapon a reality.

---

Check out more guides on the game:

• Warframe: Yareli Prime build guide
• Warframe: How to get and use the Synth Deconstruct mod
• Warframe beam weapons tier list: All beam weapons, ranked
• Warframe: Ambassador build guide