Warframe's Focus system consists of five unique skill trees that provide various buffs. Madurai, Naramon, Vazarin, Unairu, and Zenurik each provide two Operator abilities and a handful of useful passives that can radically change your combat effectiveness.
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With the rework of the Focus system, all five schools have never been in a better place. Any school can work in high-level content, yet a few trees are notable for their invaluable utility or incredible damage boons. From the melee-focused Naramon school to the tanky Unairu school, here are all five of Warframe's Focus schools ranked from worst to best after the Focus 3.0 rework.
5 Vazarin
Vazarin is a support-themed Focus school that gives your Operator the ability to heal allies and make them immune to incoming damage for a short time. Protective Sling is the only major boon going for this tree, yet the rework from Void Dash to Void Sling makes this passive far more clunky. The rest of the tree doesn't fare much better.
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Increasing your Affinity range is inconsequential for most Warframes, and getting four instant revives is a quality of life improvement in most situations since your Operator can revive anyone with complete safety. Void Snare is a solid crowd control ability, but it's tied to such mediocre passives that other schools become far more appealing. Grab the waybound nodes from Vazarin and move on.
4 Naramon
Warframe's melee-themed school hasn't seen many changes in Focus 3.0. What was once a mandatory school for its waybound nodes has become one of the least important due to the Far Sling's distance nerf. Naramon is still a great school for melee-focused builds, yet that's all it has.
Power Spike is the star of the show, causing your combo counter to decay in increments instead of fully deplete. This immediately makes Naramon a great choice for melee-focused Warframes, yet its passives and Operator abilities are mediocre at best. Void Levitation applies a clunky ragdoll effect, while Sling Stun is more of a crowd control tool than a damage multiplier. The bonuses to melee critical chance are not particularly great, and the Amp damage provided by Amp Strike can be matched or surpassed through other Focus trees that offer far more utility. Naramon is far from a bad tree, but you need to stick to its niche to get any use from it.
3 Madurai
Madurai saw one of the largest buffs out of all Focus schools with Focus 3.0. While Void Strike is no longer S-tier for Eidolon Hunts, it has become a fantastic ability for every other activity in the game. Madurai finally fulfills the power fantasy of striking hard and attacking relentlessly.
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Void Strike and Contamination Field let your Operator pump out some incredible DPS for a short duration, perfect for one-phasing bosses with immune phases. Your Warframe gets benefits as well, notably Ability Strength and cast speed for using your Operator. While Madurai's waybounds are mediocre, the core abilities and passives are so good that it's worth investing your Focus points into. It's just narrowly beaten by the utility provided by the next two schools.
2 Unairu
This might come as a surprise to some Warframe players. Unairu has immense utility in its kit that complements nearly every playstyle. Poise gives players the equivalent of Primed Sure Footed without needing that Mod equipped. Stone Skin is nice for increasing the survivability of your Operator, and Unariu's waybounds give you Inaros' passive for every Warframe in the game. Newcomers or players that can't log in for hundreds of days to earn Primed Sure Footed will likely use Unairu for the Poise passive alone.
But that's not all Unairu has to offer. Caustic Strike is one of the best Operator abilities in the Focus system, fully stripping enemy armor while doubling your Operator's damage. Armor starts to become an issue at higher levels and Steel Path difficulty, so having a method of countering armor for every Warframe is a huge boon. Magnetic Flare is lackluster in comparison, although stripping enemy shields can still prove useful in high-level Corpus missions.
Overall, Unairu fixes many pitfalls that mid-game players will experience. Don't have Primed Sure Footed or a way to mitigate staggers? Use Unairu. Struggling to start Steel Path? Strip enemy defenses with Unairu's abilities. Want a way to revive yourself while playing solo? Unlock Unairu's waybound passives. Just about every Warframe player can find some use from the Unairu school.
1 Zenurik
Zenurik might not have as much utility as Unairu, yet it has one thing up its sleeve that radically changes how Warframe is played: Energy. Zenurik's consistent Energy economy buffs are nothing short of a game-changer for players unlocking Focus for the first time.
Warframe's Energy economy is mostly random, relying on RNG Energy Orbs to use your abilities. Methods exist to gain Energy without Zenurik's Wellspring ability, yet they're gated behind massive resource sinks, hundreds of hours of grinding, or restricting your loadout. Zenurik gives players multiple buffs to their Energy economy with little compromise, making it far easier to weave your abilities into combat. For players that just finished "The War Within" and likely don't have any other Energy sources, this far outweighs what the other Focus schools provide.
Once you start getting into late-game content, Zenurik becomes less appealing but still useful. Hardened Wellspring gives you a chunk of Ability Strength. Temporal Drag applies a noticeable slow to nearby enemies, although Eximus targets are completely immune to it. Disarming Sling might be underwhelming, yet the waybounds tied to Zenurik make it far easier to weave Operator dashes and abilities into your gameplay loop. You might consider using Unairu and Madurai once you've established your arsenal, but that takes hundreds of hours. Until then, Zenurik is nothing short of an S-tier Focus school.
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