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Helminth Usefulness: Low

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Ash: Shuriken

Shuriken is a weak damage ability. Its only real use is as an armor strip with its augment. However, if you need an armor strip, Ember’s Fire Blast is better. The only situation where I can see Shiruken being useful is if you need armor strip for single targets and cant afford the energy for Fire Blast.

Baruuk: Lull

I find Lull to be a combination of Equinox’s Rest & Rage (Rest specifically) and, with Lull’s augment, Radial Blind. Both of these other abilities are better for their uses. If you want enemies to be asleep, use Rest. If you want enemies to be open to finishers and CC’d, use Radial Blind.

The case I can see Lull being of use is if you want to do both at once, but I can’t think of a good build that would want that.

Harrow: Condemn

All of Harrow’s abilities work well… together. Condemn on its own is not good. Its augment wont even do anything without Penance or Thurible up. If you want to restore shields, use Hildryn’s Pillage.

The only case I can see this being helpful is if you want to restore shields while soft CCing targets (remember, its just an immobilize – they can still shoot) for a headshot build.

Hydroid: Tempest Barrage

Tempest Barrage is a small area of effect hard CC. There are plenty of better ways to CC enemies than this.

Its only redeeming factor is that its augment gives you access to corrosive procs that you wouldn’t otherwise have. Snare enemies with Nidus or Khora and you can strip some of their armor.

Inaros: Desiccation

Desiccation is a decent, spammable, finisher opening CC. However, If you are looking for a finisher opener, I suggest Radial Blind. The Sand Shades generated by the augment are decent, but their AI will make them a bit lackluster.

If you plan to only finish enemies that are in your way, this is a good choice.

Limbo: Banish

The Rift Plane is one of the most useful things in the game. However, Banish by itself is just not enough to utilize the Rift Plane. You can’t banish yourself, so you have no way of interacting with enemies that you banish. They also won’t be frozen like a real Limbo would be able to do; they’ll just be normal enemies.

You can still banish the rescue target or troll your friends. I can see this being best used on frames with Exalted Weapons like Mesa or Excalibur. The issue with that is those builds usually reduce their Range in favor of Power and Duration, making Banish even tougher to use.

Loki: Decoy

When Helminth was announced, the ability people seemed to jump on as being the worst was Decoy. While I agree that it has very few uses, I believe its augment has unlimited range.

Drop a Decoy at any spot with a decent duration, go do something far away, get yourself killed and you’ll be back where you started. Maybe watching too many speedruns has tainted my judgment, but even Protea’s rewind isn’t instant.

Mesa: Shooting Gallery

Shooting Gallery is a decent damage buff and an unreliable CC. If you want to increase your teams damage, bring Eclipse or Roar instead. If you want to stop enemies from hurting you, there are plenty of great CC or damage reduction options.

Its infinite range means that if you want to buff allies that are far away from you, this will give them a small boost while every other ability in the game can’t effect them.

Nyx: Mind Control

Mind Control used to be great when Nyx first came out. Since then, Warframe has moved more towards abilities straight up killing enemies rather than CCing them. If an ability just CCs, it need to be impressive. Mind Control’s single target nature makes it a weak choice.

It is a pretty unique ability though, and being able to take over an enemy has its uses. Most of the useful enemies are already Specters though. I might try a Nekros build, buffing up a single, tough enemy with the 500% damage boost augment and supporting it with all its reanimated friends.

Protea: Dispensary

If you need to give your team a small amount of energy in a situation where you are all standing still, this ability can be useful. If you have a low ammo weapon like the Kuva Bramma that you want to use more often, you might find a use in this. Other than that, these items dropped by the Dispensary can just be obtained by enemies and there are better options for energy restores.

Vauban: Tesla Nervos

Tesla Nervous are a fun CC ability. There damage is negligible, but they can take enemies out of a fight as you move past them. I can see this being kind of fun on a Volt or Guass build that is quickly running past enemies and stunning them as he goes.

Wisp: Breach Surge

Breach Surge is an OK distraction. I can see this being helpful for a speedrun type build that needs to go down a path and come back real quick. Send your surge down one path, do what you need to do in the other, and teleport to your surge.

Zephyr: Airburst

Ragdolling enemies is always fun, and useful. While there are plenty of better CCs, Airburst can be a fun, simple CC. Remember too that it costs half the energy if used in the air.