Not to be confused with the depreciated Melee Channeling (mechanic) or 
Energy Channel (mod).
Channeled Abilities (also known as Toggled Abilities) are Warframe abilities that consume additional Energy in some way while active, and can be deactivated manually by recasting. These typically do not have a fixed duration, though this is not always the case.
While channeling, most sources energy restoration are disabled for most abilities (see ability pages for more details), with the only exceptions being energy conversion from Rage and Hunter Adrenaline and Energy Orb. However in rare instances or in the Conclave game mode, Energy Orbs may be disabled as well.
Incarnon Genesis perks offer an additional bonus to some weapons while a channeled ability is active, though not all channeled abilities can activate these perks. The abilities which meet Incarnon requirements and allow the use of equipped weapons are:
Baruuk's Elude.- Chroma's Spectral Scream (melee only) or Effigy.
- Ember's Immolation when fully heated.
- Equinox's Mend or Maim.
- Excalibur's Exalted Blade (Primary and secondary weapons only).
- Gara's Mass Vitrify (During expansion only).
- Ivara's Prowl.
- Mirage's Prism.
- Nyx's Absorb with Assimilate.
- Oberon's Renewal.
- Sevagoth's Gloom when draining within enemy range (a Helminth-transferable ability).
- Valkyr's Hysteria (Primary and secondary weapons only).
- Wukong's Primal Fury (Primary and secondary weapons only).
How Ability Duration Affects Energy Drain[]
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 17.5 (2015-10-01), 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. [1]
- 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 above combination alongside Boreal's Hatred or certain Arcane Helmets, 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.
Exception : A change in Ability Efficiency from Seismic Bond will update the energy drain of the ability without having to re-cast it.[2]
List of Channeled Abilities[]
- Main article: Category:Channeled Abilities
Patch History[]
Update 17.5 (2015-10-01)
- Warframe Changes
Toggled Abilities and Energy Drain: The following adjustments have been made to Abilities that can toggle on or off with the intention of making each Ability more rewarding to use in a wider range of scenarios. We will continue to monitor the balance of all Toggled Abilities after launch.
- 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.
- Drain-Per-Second and other adjustments has been made on the following Toggled Abilities:
- Chroma’s Spectral Scream now drains 3 Energy.
- Chroma’s Elemental Ward’s Electric elemental discharge effect is now affected by range Mods instead of strength Mods.
- Chroma’s Elemental Ward Poison holster and reload speed are now affected by duration Mods instead of strength Mods.
- Ember’s World on Fire now drains 3 Energy and has had its maximum duration removed.
- Equinox’s Rest & Rage has had its base range doubled.
- Hydroid can now recast Tempest Barrage and Tentacle Swarm with no cooldown.
- Nyx’s Chaos no longer has a cooldown, and enemies affected by Chaos cannot be stunned by additional casts.
- The minimum energy cost of an Ability cannot go below 25% of the base cost.
