The Definitive Harrow Guide – Warframe

How to play well as autistic Priestman in Warframe.

Introduction

Harrow is probably one of the best frames added in recent years, if not ever. However, as Warframe’s audience is mainly populated by drunk monkeys, 12 year olds, people who think AFK farming strats are a good usage of their times, and the dirty unskilled masses, and as Harrow requires more than simply pushing a single button, the poor holyman was doomed from the start. However, the good news is that if you happen to belong to the “dirty unskilled masses” category of Warframe’s audience, there is still hope for you yet, for I am here to meticulously help you stop being such a worthless waste of food and oxygen and help you on your way to success, not only in Warframe, not only in video games, but in life itself.

Warning: I can’t be asked to grab any pictures in this so if you aren’t accustomed to reading things without pictures, you might have trouble with this guide.

Preface

First off, you won’t be able to completely wrap your tiny little mind around playing Harrow effectively without first expanding it a bit. You gotta stay with me because I’m gonna say some things you aren’t gonna want to hear. Resist the urge to go crying to your mother the Lotus because some meanie on the internet hurt your feelings. Sterilizing a wound may hurt, but its good for you in the long run.

“Harrow is better for solo play”

This may have been something you’ve said in the past, or maybe you’ve seen someone else say. You put your thurible up, but your teammates kill enemies before you do so this must be Harrow’s fault right? ♥♥♥♥ING WRONG. If your teammates are killing enemies too fast, you need to kill them faster. Learn to aim and aim fast. Learn to predict where enemies are heading because they are predictable as hell. Learn to headshot and get good at headshotting. No, I don’t give a ♥♥♥♥ that infested look like the result of some potato that rolled behind something and was left to its own devices for a year or two. No, I don’t give a ♥♥♥♥ that they seem to move around erratically. The area that counts as a headshot is in the same place every time. Learn it. Commit it to memory. If you play with a gamepad, I’m sorry, but you are a lost cause until you pick up the mantle of the Mouse and Keyboard. There are things that that the gamepad is good for and things its not so good for and until you have the right tool for the job, you might wanna consider sticking to your Maryo Golfs and Slonic the Tax Accounts.

“Harrow is a support frame and not as good as Trinity at it”

For starters, Harrow isn’t a support frame. Just put that out of your head, regardless of what DE said about him. Any support your team receives from him is simply a by product of your main goal. What is your main goal is, is instilling the Fear of God The Void into your enemies and possibly even teammates. Play selfishly and you’ll contribute more to the team than you will simply trying to be a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ support.

The Abilities

We must first be familiar with our tools if we are to use them. Harrow (And Nidus to a lesser degree) is an anomaly in that his abilities aren’t 5 disconnected powers that each do their own thing, but they all build off each other and work in tandem. Learn to use them together and you’ll achieve maximum effectiveness.

1. Condemn

You throw out a straight line and every enemy in that straight line is chained up in a compromising position (Mind out of the gutter) For you to leisurely shoot in the head, melee, run them over with a steamroller, etc. Also gives you shields/Overshields.

2. Penance

You must channel your inner Martin Luther and learn the art of Self-flagellation. You whip yourself and essentially convert all your shields into duration for a buff for you and your team that increases fire rate, reload speed and gives you lifestrike on all your weapons. An important thing to keep in mind is that its affinity range, not powerrange. You know that radius of XP gainshare your teammates refuse to stay in. That one. Point is, cant be increased or decreased. You wanna learn to use condemn in tandem with this for building up as much shield as you like then converting it, then getting it back so you arent shot to death. Sentinals and such that can restore shields are great for this, as it makes it more forgiving after you use it, or you can even use it again to get even more duration. Its almost as if they are useful for other things besides loot magnet.

3. Thurible

You swing a chain, it drains your energy and builds a buff that gives you and your team energy for every kill you make with a bonus for headshots, based on how long you swung it for. Keep in mind you can swing it for as long as you want as long as you have the energy to do so.

4. Covenant

Do you like red crits? No, not the old red crits, the new ones. That’s right, a multiplier on top of a multiplier on top of a multiplier. Do you like making yourself and your team ♥♥♥♥IN’ INVINCIBLE? If you said no to either of these, you may as well just stop reading because clearly you are an extremely dull person who needs to get the hell out of my face. You cast it, you and the teammates who are currently in your affinity range (See: barely any) become invincible. However unlike certain other frames who have the ability to be invincible, instead of dying because an enemy is looking at you when your invincibility wears off, the damage you would’ve been dealt is turned into crit chance, topping at a meaty +50% crit chance with +200% on headshot. Essentially everything in front of you is going to die.

Passive

He gets an overshield cap 200% higher than normal. That’s a lot of goddamn shields that won’t really matter if you get toxin damage, but hey, more penance.

The Build

Before we sail this boat, we must first build it, and unfortunately for those of you who are simpleminded and can’t be bothered to do simple research, building him is not as obvious as it seems. I’m not going to provide you with any specific builds, because I believe it’s in your best interest to learn to make informed decisions by yourself. You’re just gonna have to take your training wheels off, Timmy. But don’t fear, Daddy is here to help you on your way by giving you the push you need in the form of talking about the various stats you need to consider in order of decreasing importance.

Duration

This above all else is important for Harrow. With it, you will get your absolute most out all four of your abilities. Enemies will stay chained longer, you won’t have to cast your penance and thurible buffs as much, and most importantly of all, you get more time to be invincible and take damage, and more time to have ridiculously high crit chance with your covenant.

Power

More shield gain from condemn, better Penance buff, thurible charges faster, you get better damage to crit conversions with covenant.

Efficiency

Do I really have to explain this? It’s nice to have, don’t worry too much about it though.

Range

Run this into the ground if it means better of the above stats. Granted, you’ll have to get up close and personal with condemn and your teammates will have to get closer to you for energy. You’ll live.

The Weaponry

Now I could be helpful here and list a bunch of weapons that work well with Harrow, but I’m not. Once again you will be forced to build character and make your own choices. There’s like a ♥♥♥♥ton anyway, and the time I’d spend going through all of them is time that could be spent in other, more valuable pursuits, like drinking myself into an early grave and making sweet, tender, loving, yet still VERY kinky love to your respective mothers (If your mother happens to no longer be with us, I apologize for this joke. Please substitute “Mother” with “Sister” “Girlfriend” “Wife” or simply just “That one girl you wish you were successful enough to be with” These are all just examples, feel free to use whatever would have the same emotional impact as they would. I want to make an effort to be inclusive when telling you how much you ♥♥♥♥ing suck compared to me).

However, I will do you this one solid. There is ONE thing and ONE thing only that you should be concerned with, and this ONE thing actually happens to be TWO things: Crits, or statwise, Crit chance and crit damage. Whether high damage, low fire rate or High fire rate, low damage, you want to get the most out of them with. Status is good and great and all but this is Harrow territory and the broken as ♥♥♥♥ armor system ain’t gonna mean ♥♥♥♥ if the level 150 corrupt heavy gunner is looking at a headshot*x^3 multiplier. Now go out there and get your guns red-crit ready.

The Execution

Now that you’re properly geared, you’re ready to begin your quest into greatness. Or at least your ascent out of mediocrity. I’m not going to waste my time and yours explaining how to play Warframe, but I’ll give you some pointers.

First thing you should do is cast thurible and use up your starting energy. You’re gonna get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gains from it since its not a whole lot but it will pay off in the long run when you use your newly gained energy to build a stronger buff. If one of your teammates throws down an energy restore LIKE THE ♥♥♥♥ING CASUAL THEY ARE WHAT THE HELL IS THIS A RAID NO ITS A ♥♥♥♥ING MESO FISSURE STOP SUCKING SO HARD BEFORE IT RUBS OFF ON OTHERS AND WE HAVE A FULL ON SUCKING OUT LOUD OUTBREAK ON OUR HANDS THAT MEANS YOU LIMBO ♥♥♥♥ OFF WITH YOUR GODDAMN STASIS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥T AND STOP LETTING EVERYONE KNOW HOW GARBAGE YOU ARE BY WEARING THAT TRASHCAN ON YOUR HEAD, simply end it, get your energy and build a new, better one.

Secondly, your 4 can be a life saver but keep in mind you cannot recast it while its active. So feel free to run your ♥♥♥ away like the goddamn coward you are make a tactical retreat if you are getting too overwhelmed to simply cast 1 a bunch of times and you’re still in your crit phase.

Lastly, experiment. I think it’s safe to say this is the best possible build and gearing for Harrow, but complacency doesn’t help anything. If you think you’ve found a way to utilize Harrow more effectively, feel free to leave a comment so that I may completely ignore it and eventually unsubscribe to notifications because I’m tired of seeing that green envelop light up only to discover all it is, is some stupid ♥♥♥♥ like yourself who think’s he’s clever when he’s really just posting the same thing that hundreds of other people have posted before. In other words, just have fun with him. Video games are meant to be fun and if you aren’t having fun, what’s the point?

Closing

Now if you’ve actually read this guide instead of just skimming it and your reading comprehension is higher than that of a preschooler, you’ve now gained the knowledge of not only how to play Harrow, but how to be successful in life. I cannot promise you that that fame, money, women (or dudes if that’s your thing), and power will come your way, but you have been given an advantage few others have. Use it well, and maybe DE will stop listening to crybabies who don’t know how to play and giving Harrow unneeded buffs while actually bad frames Mag, Zephyr, and Hydroid all sit crying in a pool of their own tears and irrelevance.

Original Link – Continuation of discussion