Forgetting that Vauban Exists

Everyone complains that some Warframes are worse than others, but at least some Warframes have something that makes them at least usable. Wukong for example was at least unkillable while Nezha, before his rework, at least had a cheap Iron Skin so he didn’t instantly disintegrate. But Vauban? Vauban basically has nothing. He is completely forgotten about in almost every way.

Vauban is just unforgettable. He doesn’t look appealing, he isn’t appealing to play and he is currently 100% unobtainable right now because his parts are locked away behind the Nightwave cred shop, which isn’t available. Vauban Prime is just as bad, as all his parts are rare rewards in vaulted relics and there is no realistic way to farm for Nitain, which you need 20 (TWENTY!) of to build him.

That is how forgotten Vauban is. He is so forgotten that you can’t even realistically obtain him.

But even if you did obtain him, you’re not getting much. Everything in Vauban’s kit is either useless, insanely niche or just not worth it. His most well-known ability, Bastille, is mediocre without his augment, can only hold a handful of enemies, is worse than other, similar abilities and half the time doesn’t work correctly. The existence of one single Ancient Disruptor will render Bastille useless.

The rest of his kit is worse. Yeah sure you can get trip mines and trampoline mines which are briefly amusing but enemies are better properly crowd-controled or dead and we can all bullet jump. Sure, you can make a build with mines to shred armour with Vauban but why would you when so many frames can do it better? To top it off, his passive makes no sense and doesn’t actually do anything useful.

Basically everything Vauban can do, someone else can do better. Even the whole “cover someone in electric balls and have fun!” gimmick is ruined because Wisp does the same thing with better results and less standing around having a Vauban throw things at you.

Even Vauban’s theme isn’t safe. He is supposed to be the engineering Warframe, a master builder. His kit somewhat suggests a trap-themed Warframe though, with different tools and tricks. His looks…

Vauban’s looks really don’t help him. He doesn’t look as Warframe-y as other Warframes released around his time. In fact, he looks like he would he at home in a Corpus facility as a dangerous high level enemy or even a boss. Vauban Prime looks less like a Corpus mook and more like a Primed Warframe but he is still a mess of oddly square shapes. His cosmetics, his non-Tennogen ones at least, range from “meh” to “ugh”. The only good cosmetic Vauban has is his deluxe skin, which makes him look like a steampunk Dark Souls boss.

Really, Vauban needs to be stripped down and completely put back together. The theme of an engineer Warframe sounds amazing. The community wants Vauban to be good, but he’s been stuck in the dark for so long that it feels like Vauban has been forgotten entirely. And really, he has. I can’t tell you the last time I saw a Vauban being played and I haven’t used Vauban for so long either.

I don’t blame people for not using Vauban though. He has his tricks but he’s sadly just not worth using. And for whoever wants to try Vauban, despite his lack of use, it’s impossible to actually do so.

Maybe one day Vauban will be remembered…