As much as I would like to be known as an absolute grinding machine when it comes to Warframe – and I absolutely can be, as evidenced by how much progress I made through the game when I decided to start playing seriously just back in December – I cannot say that I ground out Temple with that degree of dedication. Digital Extremes was kind enough to give me access so that I could immediately start rocking out with the newest gender-neutral frame right from the get-go.
What is disappointing is how long it took me to realize why Temple has access to a flamethrower on their fourth ability, though.
I’ve had the chance to play with Temple a fair bit now, and I will be honest and say that I don’t think they’re going to become my main frame any time soon. However, I think they definitely do represent an interesting new play option for the game, and frankly I find them a fair bit more interesting than the last new frame added to the game. That means it’s time to talk about them both as a frame itself and in contrast to other frames.
Now obviously, Temple is not our first frame from 1999, but they’re also not even our first music-themed frame; Octavia has the same basic concept. This is hardly unique. Gauss is clearly meant to hone in on the same sort of speed-based concept that Volt played with, Gyre also steals some concepts from Volt, Garuda shares some themes from Valkyr, and so forth. There are a lot of concepts to play with, and trying to just have one musical frame isn’t immediately practical.
What is different is playstyle. Octavia is clearly meant to be a much more support-oriented frame, but she also suffers from the problem that her mechanics aren’t really all that easy to make use of. The idea of firing to the beat is a good one, but there’s no way of being certain that the rest of your group has weapons that conform to the beat or that it’s even advantageous to do so. Cool idea, but frequently counterproductive in actual play.
Temple, meanwhile, is much more of an aggressive frame and definitely more of an ability-focused sort. They have a couple of minor buffs, sure, but their main ability is to wade in, lay waste, and then recover, with an extra burst of support for your team.
The Flame Pillar ability that serves as their first trick is pretty great for hitting moderately clumped groups; you don’t want to use it on single targets very often, but it has decent range, damage, and splash. Temple doesn’t really have any ability to clump enemies, so this is to their advantage. Meanwhile, their second ability (Overdrive) is the one that I kinda think is less useful; it’s nice to have a point-blank disable with a debuff, but the range is really small, and I generally think that disables wind up being less useful in this game. If something can be staggered, your better option is to just kill it faster.
Ripper’s Wail is pretty vital, though; Temple gets a brief invulnerability window, a heal, and a party-wide buff of Heat damage. With good timing this lets Temple really extend their survivability even in packs, something that’s very useful because their fourth ability turns Lizzie into a nasty flamethrower that can torch entire groups.
What makes this kinda rule is that Lizzie does not count as a sustained ability for purposes of energy drain. She’s just a weapon whose ammo fills up as you hit abilities on the backbeat. This means that ideally, you want Temple to wade in and unleash some flame pillars, then open up with the flamethrower, back and forth on precise timing. Unlike a lot of frames with an exalted weapon draw on 4, Temple really lets you use your abilities in equal mix once it’s out even if you haven’t invested heavily in efficiency.
Temple does have weaknesses, of course. The backbeat timing means that you do have to keep an eye on when you’re casting abilities, and while it’s not too hard to get the rhythm for hitting your pillars a few times in quick succession, failing to do so can get you in a bad spot. Moreover, Temple has no tools for clumping enemies up; you have to rely on map features or just luck to get groups to hit.
Also, this is less important but it matters to me, at least: Lizzie is a primary weapon, which means that even though Temple has about a million sources of Heat damage, they cannot make any use of Topaz Shards triggering on Heat damage unless you want to completely ignore Lizzie. Which seems weird to me. I understand why it’s there, but it is just unpleasant.
With those small critiques out of the way, I definitely feel as if Temple is a more fun frame than Cyte-09 was to play. It’s not that Cyte-09 is bad or anything (I know some people really like him, after all), but he is definitely much more like a weapon-platform style of frame rather than being built around abilities, which is less interesting to me. Temple has a distinct style that you want to support and runs light on weapons except for specific situations.
In fact, despite the comparison to Octavia, I don’t think they’re really all that comparable. Temple is closer to Ember in playstyle, except where Ember is a very casting-focused frame that needs to stay at range, Temple gets into the paint. I think they’ve got a lot of potential for fans who like a casting focus and/or rhythm gameplay, in a way that I just don’t think Octavia quite delivers and without the fragility you get from Ember.
It’s also worth noting that all that Heat damage has insane synergy with Arcane Hot Shot, which is one of the new Arcanes you can pick up from Kaya. I don’t blame anyone who isn’t eager to farm that one just yet, honestly, but it’s worth keeping in mind. Builds are starting to be made for Temple, but my suggestion is to not worry too much about efficiency or duration and instead aim for duration and ability strength; since you’ll need to be casting a lot, Brief Respite isn’t a bad aura to use to keep your shields continuously refreshing (not that you’ll need it with your third ability).
Ultimately, Temple is a fun frame for anyone who likes flames or just really digs on the rhythm mechanics, and I think giving them a showcase for this update really works amidst all the other very musical things going on in 1999. As I said in the start, I don’t see them becoming my new main any time soon, but I’ll be darned if they’re not a lot of fun along the way.
Pick a ‘Frame, any ‘Frame! The Warframe galaxy is in danger, Tenno, and Space Mom needs help to combat it. Are you in the right Warframe of Mind to join in? The MOP writers have enlisted, suiting up in their favorite ‘Frames to fight the good fight, blasting the Grineer and Infected into smithereens.
