Warframe – Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

Tricked out and expensive builds for Volt lovers. Cheap builds also included! This guide contains speed, raid, and melee tanky builds. With the speed builds, you’ll get more done in less time than you ever thought you could. Run fissures/sorties/alerts faster and have an edge over the competition in time limited events such as Alcolyte farming. Be a great contributor in raids by shortening completion times using speed buffs and be a great option for the team as bomb carrier. As for the melee tanky build, I got tired of being limited to low level content. I also got tired of running true melee tanks (E.g Chroma) in survivals because of how slow they are. Meleeing enemies running away is such a pain. With tanky melee volt, those issues are solved on top of having increased dps from buffed sprint, reload, and melee attack speed.

Introduction

Please note: all credit goes to ThePHiLsTeR!

In this guide I will include fully tricked out Volt builds where I spare no expense in formas and arcanes. For people who don’t want to invest the amount of time and resources, I’ve included cheap builds which require less formas and no arcanes.

Volt is a very skill based warframe. The more skill you have the faster your speed runs are going to be. Also the faster you run, the more bullets you’re going to dodge. Many of these builds and suggestions are not for the faint of heart and is designed for absolute Volt enthusiasts like myself. I mean I ABSOLUTELY LOOOOOOOVE VOLT. That’s why I went so crazy with these builds. But if Volt is your favorite warframe, why not go all out?? Trust me. The benefits are truly rewarding especially in the fun and efficiency departments.

Team Speed Build

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

4 FORMAS REQUIRED

  • Aura slot: –
  • Add polarties: – D V

OVERVIEW

With this build, speed ability lasts 21 seconds, costs 39 energy, and has a range of 27 meters. Range stat needs to be at least 100 for team builds. As you can see there are no survivability mods. This build is only meant for regular missions. You’ll also be dodging bullets. =D

MISSION TYPE SPECIALTY (Level 40 Missions and Below)

  • Sabotage
  • Capture
  • Exterminate
  • Easy assasinations (The Sergeant and Phorid) 
  • Alerts
  • Non-endless fissures
  • Invasions

MISSION TYPES TO AVOID

  • Defense
  • Survival
  • Sorties
  • Any higher level content
  • Defection
  • Nightmare
  • Axi fissures

ARCANE SETS

  • Arcane Agility
  • Arcane Energize

ARCANE SYNERGY AND IMPORTANCE WITH BUILD

Arcane agility gives 4% chance on receiving damage to gain a 20% increase in sprint speed. The chance on proc seems low but I found the arcane to be procing all the time. There is no need for 2 sets. This build has no energy efficiency mods because there is simply no room. Therefor, arcane energize is needed to ensure 100% uptime on the speed ability. Make sure to kill enemies along the way for their energy orb drops. I found this is easily done with any melee weapons with large range such as polearms, great swords, and whips. I personally use the atterax and galatine prime.

VIDEO OF A CAPTURE MISSION ON NEPTUNE DISPLAYING 100% UPKEEP ON SPEED WITH NET ENERGY GAINS USING ARCANE ENERGIZE

Completion time is 1:25. Keep in mind this mission was solo. In team based missions, your slow poke teammates will slow you down, but thats ok because your job is to speed them up. 🙂

Protip: Using strafe to turn lowers momentum while using mouse to turn maintains momentum. Only strafe when needed and in open environments use the mouse.

VIDEO OF PUB AXI EXTERMINATE

VARIATIONS

The goal of this build was max speed runs. There could be some variations to it. However, there needs to be a balance between high speed and practicality which could be a little tricky. There needs to be good duration so when teammates get out of range of you, you won’t have to worry about re-boosting them for some time. There’s also the concern of maintaining 100% uptime for speed buff. I found this build to be a good balance in all aspects.

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

Solo Speed Build

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

This solo speed build is similar to the team speed build with some changes. Everything is the same except the following mods were switched from:

  • Primed flow
  • Stretch
  • Rank 5 Narrowminded
  • Intensify

To:

  • Rank 4 Fleeting Expertise
  • Rank 5 Streamline
  • Rank 10 Narrowminded
  • Armored Agility 
Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

OVERVIEW

This build sports a duration of 20 seconds and increased energy efficiency at 19 energy per cast. The team build requires killing enemies along the way for energy drops. However, this solo build requires minimal energy orbs.

VIDEO OF A CAPTURE MISSION ON NEPTUNE

It’s the same mission in the team build section, but with a shorter completion time of 1:13. The map also seemed harder to navigate comparatively which goes to show the greater speed potential.

VARIATIONS

Total sprint speed equals 3.632. Armored agility gives more sprint speed then intensify. However, intensify boosts sprint, reload, and attack speed while armored agility only provides increased sprint speed and a negligible amount of armor. Intensify is a great alternative and opting for intensify over armored agility will give a comparable 3.5235 sprint speed.

A Brief Parkour Guide

I sprint whenever I can since Volt’s abiltiy and mods buff sprint. However, we cannot sprint in all situations. Here is a guide for maxing speed while forced to jump or when it is optimal to jump. The sprint buffs help jumps because the take off speed is based on sprint speed.

FULL PARKOUR SEQUENCE

  • Bullet Jump
  • Double jump
  • Mid-air roll (Simultaneous glide situational)
  • Mid-air kick (Simultaneous glide situational)
  • Land (kick turns into slide)
  • Roll

ADAPTATION WITH ENVIRONMENT

As you can see in the video, the map is hierchon. The wide open space allows for full sequences. However, not all maps are as wide open. Therefor, you can only use parts of the sequence. Knowing which segments to use comes in time and practice.

Note: The sequence applies to all warframes with or without the speed buff.

Protip: Often times when bullet jumping upward to a higher platform, the bullet jump over shoots. To stop this from happening tap glide. It stops the flight. Then do a kick forward if needed to change trajectory 90 degrees onto the platform.

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

Law of Retribution Build

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

5 FORMAS REQUIRED

  • Aura slot: –
  • Add polarties: – – D V

ARCANE SET

  • Arcane Agility

OVERVIEW AND VARIATIONS

This build is designed to speed buff the entire team as well as carry the bomb if needed. I believe 284 strength to be the perfect amount. To get higher than 284, you would need power drift, growing power, and/or energy conversion. Rush could be replaced with power drift, but rush provides a hefty personal base sprint boost of 0.3 while power drift gives a minor +15 strength. Growing power is highly impractical because the most important aura in raids is corrosive projection. CP is a – polarity and conveniently so is the aura sprint boost allowing them to be interchanged. If there are already 4 team members with Cps, it’s time to throw that sprint boost mod on. Growing power is a V polarity which will not allow CP to be interchanged when needed. Energy conversion is also impractical because of the frequency of casting and low kill rate in LOR (aka no energy orbs). Arcane energize isn’t needed in LOR since 99.999% of the time teams will run with an EV trin. So a second arcane set of your choice is optional. If your raid team doesn’t have any special requirements, this build should be very good.

STRATEGIES

  • Keep as many teammates buffed at all times 
  • On mission 1 after bomb is dropped by the injector, place a shield in front of it and wait for everyone to clear the area. Shoot the bomb to force it to explode faster. 
  • May not want to cast speed buff on mission 2 due to potentially overshooting buttons 
  • While on buttons cast 3 shields covering 360 degrees around you. This gives you ability to shoot rather than having to melee block giving you relative safety to take out priority targets such as disruptor drones. 
  • Can also cast 3 shields around teammates on buttons. 
  • Due to his shield ability, Volt is great for taking on more challenging buttons such as the left button in the last room where G3 tends to pressure. 

Tanky Melee Volt Build

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

It is obviously not a full on tank frame but it will survive in sorties and similar higher level content.

3 FORMAS REQUIRED

  • Aura: No change
  • Add polarities: D D D 
Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

SPECIALIZATIONS

  • Survivals
  • Axi fissures (Enemies do 3x damage)
  • Sortie speed runs (Exterminate, capture, sabotage)
  • Sortie survival
  • Infested sortie rescue (only because invisibility and VIP protection isnt as needed)
  • Enemies up to level 100

Mission Types to avoid

  • Sortie missions with energy debuff

ARCANE SETS

  • Arcane aegis
  • Arcane energize

FOCUS SCHOOL

  • Naramon with shadow step 
Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

OVERVIEW

This build focuses is survivability and dps. 299 strength will give an additive bonus attack speed of 2.99. Total attack speed will be base speed affected by melee attack speed mods + 2.99. Steel charge provides a nice +60% melee damage boost.

MECHANICS ON INCREASED SURVIVABILITY

  • Volt has great base shield at 450. With a max redirection, his shield comes to 1110. Arcane aegis synergizes well with high shields and provides a steady and reliable shield regen. 
  • Volt has the highest energy pool of all warframes tied with Saryn Prime. This build boasts 850 energy pool which synergizes well with quick thinking. Additionally, this combo synergizes with arcane energize which will keep your energy topped off as long as you’re killing enemies. Note that the infested’s damage bypasses shield, so this will be one of your more predominent defenses. 
  • Shocking speed provides an additional safety net, can be used on dangerous targets such as bombards, and proc nicely if surrounded. 
  • Electric shield can be casted when needed. 
  • Volt’s increased speed provides greater evasiveness. 
  • Sometimes the best defense is a great offense and this build’s 299 strength significantly increases dps. 
  • This build is tanky enough that naramon isn’t needed. Naramon with shadow step boosts survivability so much that even squishy frames can survive in higher level content. Naramon with this build will make this volt’s survivability so high that it will be super difficult to die. It is also important not to be too dependent on naramon since not all missions are longer than 5 minutes, the time it takes to activate naramon. 
Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

VARIATIONS

Team-oriented build

  • Can exchange steel charge for corrosive projection (must change aura polarity V to -). 
  • Can exchange shocking speed with overextended or stretch for increased range to more easily buff teammates.

Speed and tank hybrid

  • Can replace steel charge with sprint boost (must change aura polarity V to -) and replace power drift with rush. 
  • Can exchange arcane aegis with arcane agility.

Arcanes

  • Can exchange arcane aegis with arcane barrier which is cheaper and better at restoring shields against lower level enemies with high fire rate.

Cheap Solo Speed Build

3 BUILD VARIATIONS

2 FORMAS REQUIRED

  • Aura slot: –
  • Add polarty: D

HIGH STRENGTH, MEDIUM ENERGY EFFICIENCY, LOW SURVIVABILITY

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

Speed ability lasts 20 seconds and the power cost is 20 energy. Energy siphon will help to maintain energy. 100% uptime for speed can be achieved with an occasional energy orb.

HIGH STRENGTH, LOW ENERGY EFFICIENCY, MEDIUM SURVIVABILITY

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

MEDIUM STRENGTH, HIGH ENERGY EFFICIENCY, MEDIUM SURVIVABILITY

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

MORE VARIATIONS

There are going to be many variations based on player needs, mod ranks, and mod availability. For example, you can opt for an even less forma build. The important points are to have energy siphon equipped, good power strength, duration, and enough effeciency to hopefully maintain 100% upkeep of the speed ability buff. If going for team build, then at least 100 range is optimal. Warframe builder link included.

Conclusion

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)

There are other build variations including CC, hybrid, and AOE damage. I don’t use these builds as I use other warframes for those purposes.

The drawback to super speeds is that in tight maps super speed can actually make it harder getting around. Also boosting a teammate who cannot handle super speed can cause more trouble than good. Another draw back is it’s going to take practice to get full use out of speed. Some people also complain about how squishy Volt is. In that case, the tanky melee volt may be the way to go, since it too can be used for speed runs. It just won’t be as fast which depending on the player could be a good or bad thing.

Probably the most versatile build in this guide is the tanky melee volt. It can be used in a much wider array of situations. I highly recommend it. It just won’t be as much a speed demon as the speed builds due to the speed builds being very specialized.

Anyway, I hope this guide helped you or at least gave you some ideas on how to build your own. Good luck!

Warframe - Optimized Volt Builds (Advanced Guide)
Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15056 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices.

6 Comments

  1. This dude knows what’s up, Your builds are very optimized and great, i might even re-obtain Volt just to speedrun stuff with your builds, but i’m already too used with Loki.

  2. Thanks for this! My starter frame was Volt and I just got Volt Prime. I’ve never been too great with builds so this helps. 😀

  3. for a capacitance aug build volt i go with taking full range mods and rejuvination to help with healing as well. staty away fromdamage as the team can dio the damage theselves plus the consatnt arc is murderous. also get that casting speed mod it helps well

  4. You dont need sinister reach on the amprax just slide as you fire and if you have should have no range issues with volts speed

  5. i guess but i dont really notice much of a difference i do prefer to have an something like argon scope or an element,might have put it in if it wasnt for the riven though, i just feel like there are better options when you get to higher level

  6. Cheers to this guide! I just tested it out all week. The results are amazing especially the team speed build and the crowd control build. Team Speed my built suck, and this one gave one heck of a boost. And the CROWD CONTROL was so damn effective at Sanctuarty Onslaugtht that my other teammates didnt have to do anything at all. It was wide attack, gives great damage. Supply that even more with Corossive Projection (enemy less armor, making ur damage higher) and the Energy from Energizing Dash by Operator, so you can keep on unleashing 4th skill.

    This build makes my standard weak-ass solo run volt into enemy-wrecking Zeus thunder!

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