Fun Warframe Augments
Warframe augments are a funny bunch. Some Warframe augments are rather useless or are too niche to be able to use them most of the time, especially since we have limited space for mods. Some augments allow you to tweak the way you play a Warframe. Some augment mods are insanely strong and make a Warframe ten times better. Some augments are so strong that you wonder why they’re not a part of the Warframe’s default kit in the first place, especially on weaker and less popular frames.
But some augments are simply… fun. Here are some of the augments that I think are worth messing around with, even if they’re not useful all the time.
Concentrated Arrow
Concentrated Arrow is an augment for Artemis Bow, Ivara’s exalted Bow weapon. Rather than firing a horizontal or vertical spray of arrows, you can now fire one single massive arrow… that explodes on impact! A 7 meter explosion, to be precise! It’s like using that dumb mod that makes 90% of arrows fired to explode, except minus the horrific self-damage and being far more reliable.
Duality
While the rework of Wukong and the prevalence of Excalibur Umbra these days mean having a clone to shoot things with is less common, it used to be that, aside from Specters, the Duality mod for Equinox was the best way to make yourself a buddy you can trust. Duality’s gimmick is that, whenever you switch from day to night form or vice versa, the other side comes alive and will shoot things for a while. The great thing about Duality though is that your twin will have +300% damage and use the mods on whatever weapon it uses. Wukong’s Celestial Twin is a bit more reliable, but Duality means you don’t have to always play as a monkey.
Irradiated Disarm
What’s better than disarming a large group of enemies, one might ask? Well, as any Loki using the Irradiated Disarm augment might tell you, it’s disarming groups of enemies, who then pull out their melee weapons and turn on each other! Frankly, all of Loki’s augments are interesting, but Irradiated Disarm is the most amusing just because it causes friendly fire among enemies. It’s not as fun when it’s used by Kuva Liches against players, but luckily Toxin Liches are the ones with radiation procs.
Piercing Navigator
Ivara’s augments are all quite interesting simply because Ivara is a pretty interesting frame with no major damage capabilities and more of a focus on tactics. Well Piercing Navigator is a fun way to change that, by allowing Ivara to get 3 meters of punchthrough on her Navigator ability. What does Navigator do again? It lets you control the next projectile you fire. While Navigator was strongest with the old Zenistar (that was nerfed with Melee 3.0), you can control all sorts of interesting and high-damage projectiles like Arca Plasmor beams and the massively dangerous blasts from Catchmoon Kitguns.
Photon Strike
Vauban’s Orbital Strike is a great ability but you might find yourself not being able to cast it that often (especially if you’re playing with an Ember) but thankfully there’s an augment that should help you spam it more. With Photon Strike, if you hit more than 5 enemies, then your next cast of Orbital Strike is free. And I can’t argue with free. Valkyr’s Swing Line (which gives 4 free casts after the first use while airborne) also falls into the same line of thinking, simply because Ripline is a fun yet not too useful ability.
You can never have too many Orbital Strikes.
Shocking Speed
I’ve mentioned Shocking Speed before, but it’s frankly a really good ability and it’s what kept me alive as a newbie Volt, simply because you stun anyone who runs into you. You don’t need to worry about anything, just activate Speed and laugh as enemies you run past are electrocuted and unable to attack! Shocking Speed is also a great way to break Corpus windows and initiate lockdowns, making the augment great for pissing off team mates.
Tectonic Fracture
Tectonic Fracture is an augment for Tectonics, Atlas’s wall of rubble, which allows you to place not one wall, not two walls but three little walls of rubble! Sure, you lose the ability to turn your singular wall of rubble into a rolling ball of rocky death, but frankly I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Atlas actually use a ball of rubble legitimately. Instead, you can place little rocky walls everywhere to severely piss off enemy AI and occasionally build a wall around a defense target (or the goals in the Index) to stop enemies from getting in.
That’s it for now. Next time I talk about Warframe augments, I’ll be discussing genuinely useful ones that most people always have equipped on their Warframes.