Ability Duration

Ability Duration linearly affects the duration of many Warframe abilities. Increased Ability Duration usually extends the length of time that an ability is active, but there are some unorthodox or otherwise counter-intuitive interactions the stat gives: for example, the maximum amount of charges for  Tesla Nervos increases as a factor of added Ability Duration. There are some instances where negative Ability Duration is desirable, usually because it speeds up periodic effects like  Trinity's  Energy Vampire or  Mesa's  Shooting Gallery when augmented with  Muzzle Flash.

All Warframes have a base stat of 100% Ability Duration.

Final Ability Duration = Base Ability Duration × Ability Duration bonus

The remaining duration of an ability is displayed on the ability's icon in the bottom right corner as a number with two places. Hence, if the remaining duration of an ability is greater than 10 seconds, it displays to the nearest second. If the duration is less than 10 seconds, it displays down to the nearest tenth of a second.

Energy Drain for Toggled Abilities

There are abilities like  Gauss's  Mach Rush or  Chroma's  Spectral Scream which last for an indefinite amount of time but drain energy with each passing tick until canceled or if no energy remains. As of Update 18.0 (2015-12-03), Ability Duration affects the energy drain for these abilities: if, for example, an ability normally has an energy drain of 1.0 energy per second, at 200% Ability Duration that ability would drain a point of energy every 2.0 seconds - resulting in a total of 0.5 energy per second drain.

Final Drain Rate = Drain Rate ÷ Ability Duration

• The Drain Rate is the amount of energy that gets drained per second.
• When energy drain is less than about 10 per second, energy will be drained once per tick, and the time between ticks will depend on the drain rate. For example, with an ability that drains 2.5 energy per second, the game will actually consume 1 energy every 0.4 seconds. It is unknown what the minimum time is between ticks (for especially high drain rates).
• This mechanism behaves essentially opposite of how Ability Efficiency affects the cost of abilities.
• Without any other mods to compensate for the reduced Duration, a "High Strength and High Efficiency" build - achieved by slotting a maxed  Blind Rage (+99% Strength, -55% Efficiency), a maxed  Fleeting Expertise (+60% Efficiency, -60% Duration), a maxed  Transient Fortitude (+55% Strength, -27.5% Duration), and a maxed  Streamline (+30% Efficiency) - will have a very high energy drain.
• The resulting Duration penalty is -87.5%, leaving a Duration stat of only 12.5%, which results in a penalty of 800% before calculating efficiency. At 135% efficiency, this results in a final 520% penalty.

Final rate = Base rate × (100% - 35%) ÷ 0.125 = Base rate × 5.2

• If efficiency mods are not included in the build, then the resulting increase is even greater: a massive 762% (without Streamline), 1000% (without Fleeting Expertise), or 1240% (without either).

Because energy drain is also affected by Ability Efficiency, the chart to the right can be consulted to determine a Warframe ability's real energy drain per second.

• Note that using  Fleeting Expertise with  Streamline adds up to 90% total Ability Efficiency. The maximum final efficiency is 75% - the extra 15% efficiency can be used to compensate for a low Ability Duration. At 90% efficiency, this means that using 40% Ability Duration will still reach the maximum 75% Ability Efficiency.
• Using the combination above with certain arcane helmets or Focus abilities, it is possible to reach 100% or higher efficiency before factoring in Ability Duration. This will result in a 75% final efficiency, regardless of the value of Ability Duration.

Similar to Ability Strength, energy drain is calculated when the ability is first used. If something later changes the value of Ability Efficiency or Ability Duration, it will not affect energy drain unless the ability is re-cast.

Cooldowns

Most abilities do not have a "cooldown" period, which is a mechanic in many similar games that disallow a player from recasting the same ability too frequently. However, abilities in WARFRAME can often instead prevent you from recasting while the first instance is still active. Hence, if you have an ability that lasts 5 seconds long, you can only cast it once every five seconds. If you extend its duration to 8 seconds, you will not be able to cast it more frequently than once every eight seconds. This increase in uptime can be undesirable for certain abilities, such as  Silence, which can be used as an on-demand stun.

Modifiers

Modifiers combine additively to the Ability Duration stat.

Final Ability Duration = Ability Duration + Modifier 1 + Modifier 2 + Modifier 3 + ...

Mods

 Continuity,  Primed Continuity,  Constitution,  Narrow Minded and  Augur Message can each be equipped to increase Ability Duration. Note that as a primed mod, Primed Continuity cannot be equipped simultaneously with Continuity on the same Warframe.

 Fleeting Expertise and  Transient Fortitude both reduce duration of abilities.

• Increase
• Decrease

ContinuityModU145.png

ConstitutionModU145.png

NarrowMindedModU145.png

FleetingExpertiseModU145.png

Arcane Helmets

Arcane helmets can also reduce (or increase) ability durations. The following helmets affect Ability Duration:

TrinityAuraHelm.png

Trinity Aura Helmet (+25%)

VoltSeries3Helmet.png

Volt Pulse Helmet (+10%)

SarynSeries3Helmet.png

Saryn Chlora Helmet (-5%)

VaubanSeries3Helmet.png

Vauban Gambit Helmet (-10%)

Patch History

Update 17.5 (2015-10-01)

• Duration Mods now have an effect on toggled Abilities.
  • For example: Mods that added 100% duration will make a 10 Energy drain become a 5 Energy drain.
  • The minimum energy cost of an Ability cannot go below 25% of the base cost.