Rakta Ballistica vs Ballistica Prime Discussion/Opinions

[z3us32610]

Title. I know the Ballistica Prime has a little more damage, a quicker reload time (1.2 to 2.0) & a higher magazine (32 to 20), which in turn makes the dps significantly higher for the Prime version. But that syndicate proc is sooo appealing:  25% of energy given with 10% movement speed for 30 seconds, along with the AOE effect. 

Whatcha guys think? 

[Teliko_Freedman]

Ballistica Prime makes ghosts

[Kierlak]

Ballistica Prime is garbage. It's a silent weapon that does everything it can to make the fact that it's silent meaningless. It's innate multishot means it's damage is split between the bolts, which in turn means it is much more likely to not kill the target in a single instance of damage, which means that you can never count on it to keep a stealth killstreak going. The innate multishot also means it's shackled to shotgun status calculations, making it perform FAR below what the listed status percentage shows. The ghost on charge shot kill also immediately defeats the entire purpose of stealth, as it instantly aggros everything in something like 30 meters, AND doesn't even stick around long enough to mean anything. A large percentage of the time it just spawns, aggros everything, and then takes cover for the rest of it's 7 second lifespan.

 

The Rakta Ballistica isn't amazing either, but at least it's charge shot doesn't sabotage you, and the proc gives energy.

[z3us32610]

Interesting. I read that about the Prime version and wasn't sure why a silent weapon would do that with the charge shot. The wiki even says it aggros everything which is bad for stealth kill. 

I just unveiled a riven for the Ballistica so I was trying to decide which one to invest forma into. I have both but only levelled and shelved them. But rivens actually perform their function with me - I'll build and use a weapon I wouldn't normally use when I get a riven for it. 

[Marvelous_A]

I prefer Prime because the 4 bolts burst of Rakta is a hassle. Stealth kill ain't particular useful in this game anyway and specters are useful to draw attention of enemies.

[RX-3DR]

I just treat them as completely different weapons. Ballistica Prime's a fun weapon. When you get a good final charged hit on the Grineer Dropships on the plains and watch the ghost ship fly off to heaven, it's always quite a chuckle.

Ballistica Prime doesn't do very well in the higher levels though, even with Corrosive built, it will struggle with the heavier Grineer, making it not very sustainable with ammo use.

[deothor]

The only use for B. Prime is kavat genetic code farming. 

The only use for Rakta B. IMO is for its energy refill burst on AOE-energy draining frame while doing afk'ish endless missions (like equinox/chroma/ember)

Both of them are pretty bad either way, though and not worth using as main secondary.

[Lancars]

Both suck for stealth even tho they are stealth weapons. The ghost blow your cover and the rakta blows your cover cause of the aoe.

[DatDarkOne]

4 hours ago, Lancars said:

the rakta blows your cover cause of the aoe.

Actually my fellow Tenno synd procs stopped alerting enemies a long time ago.  Like back in the Specters of the Rails update.  So they don't screw up stealth anymore like they use to.  None of them.  

[Makunogo]

 

you can actually find some comparison videos online. '

 i use this with titania as my "make them all float" theme and its kind of hilarious. her 1 /3 can cc and i can just ghost them as i see fit while they are helpless 

suggest you try it as its quite fun. 😛 

btw if u get a riven fire rate can help a bit. if u wanna focused on a charged shot build. it really is worth it.

[Kierlak]

2 minutes ago, DatDarkOne said:

Actually my fellow Tenno synd procs stopped alerting enemies a long time ago.  Like back in the Specters of the Rails update.  So they don't screw up stealth anymore like they use to.  None of them.  

 

So long as the aoe doesn't blow up a barrel. Those still seem to alert enemies.

[z3us32610]

8 minutes ago, Makunogo said:

 

you can actually find some comparison videos online. '

 i use this with titania as my "make them all float" theme and its kind of hilarious. her 1 /3 can cc and i can just ghost them as i see fit while they are helpless 

suggest you try it as its quite fun. 😛 

btw if u get a riven fire rate can help a bit. if u wanna focused on a charged shot build. it really is worth it.

hey thank you, cuz I wasn't quite sure exactly what I wanted out of the riven. And I'm not concerned with enemy scaling or "end-game" worthy. These are just weapons I use for fun and messing around on Kuva Siphon missions i.e. the Kulstar build I have with a riven where I try to see how many minutes I can play consecutively without blowing myself to high hell. Cuz it's a pure damage riven. LOL. Or my Quanta Vandal riven build where I try to not be completely worthless cuz I completely suck at using that weapon, and I put 6 forma into it.

So I think I might go with the Prime first and see how much fun I can have. Likely tho, I'll end up building both for fun. 

Edited December 17, 2018 by z3us32610

[Makunogo]

1 minute ago, z3us32610 said:

hey thank you, cuz I wasn't quite sure exactly what I wanted out of the riven. And I'm not concerned with enemy scaling or "end-game" worthy. This are just weapons I use for fun and messing around Kuva Siphon missions i.e. the Kulstarbuild I have with a riven where I try to see how many minutes I can play consecutively without blowing myself to high hell. Or my Quanta Vandal riven build where I try to not be completely worthless cuz I completely suck at using that weapon, and I put 6 forma into it lol. So I think I might go with the Prime first and see how much fun I can have. Likely tho, I end up building both for fun. 

yes exactly. i will always choose fun over damage as we already can cheeze pretty much everything 

[NocheLuz]

12 minutes ago, DatDarkOne said:

Actually my fellow Tenno synd procs stopped alerting enemies a long time ago.  Like back in the Specters of the Rails update.  So they don't screw up stealth anymore like they use to.  None of them.  

I think the explosion itself is silent, but enemies that doesn't died from it will be alert (they'll still not shooting you because they cannot see you if you're invisible). I do think Sensor Drones in Data vault will trigger an alarm if they didn't died from explosion too. Which is still sad...

[DatDarkOne]

Just now, NocheLuz said:

but enemies that doesn't died from it will be alert

They don't go to alert status.  If you have enemy radar equipped, they will show as not alerted at all.  While also still allowing the Stealth multiplier to continue when killing them.  Same for the Sensor Drones.  Only as @Kierlak mentioned about the exploding barrels do the enemies get alerted, and only if they are nearby the explosion.  

I use to use the Rakta Cernos as my main weapon for Ivara before I switched to Daikyu.  I've seen about every situation in which the synd proc could, should, or would alert enemies.  Well, except I kinda stopped using the Rakta Cernos before PoE came out.  So not as sure about the open worlds.  

[NocheLuz]

1 minute ago, DatDarkOne said:

They don't go to alert status.  If you have enemy radar equipped, they will show as not alerted at all.  While also still allowing the Stealth multiplier to continue when killing them.  Same for the Sensor Drones.  Only as @Kierlak mentioned about the exploding barrels do the enemies get alerted, and only if they are nearby the explosion.  

I use to use the Rakta Cernos as my main weapon for Ivara before I switched to Daikyu.  I've seen about every situation in which the synd proc could, should, or would alert enemies.  Well, except I kinda stopped using the Rakta Cernos before PoE came out.  So not as sure about the open worlds.  

Oh, so it's safe to used then. Good to know, because I didn't equip syndicate weapon on spy mission as I fear they may trigger an alarm lol...

PS. About the drone alarms things... I think I read it online somewhere that they said it alerts the data vault... So I didn't use them... May be I should try one...

[DatDarkOne]

2 minutes ago, NocheLuz said:

PS. About the drone alarms things... I think I read it online somewhere that they said it alerts the data vault... So I didn't use them... May be I should try one...

Here's something cool about the Syndicate Procs.  They go off EVERY time you successfully hack a spy vault without fail as long as you have it as your active weapon.  This usually takes out all the surrounding sensors, cameras, etc allowing you to completely decloak and walk right out in full view.  

[Lancars]

18 hours ago, DatDarkOne said:

Actually my fellow Tenno synd procs stopped alerting enemies a long time ago.  Like back in the Specters of the Rails update.  So they don't screw up stealth anymore like they use to.  None of them.  

Oh? I'll have to give it a test. Usually when it happened all of them went into caution mode and i'd have ruined stealth multiplier.

[Diangelius]

After studying properties of both Variants of Ballistica, you should understand that, intentionally or not, DE didn't make them as Stealth weapons. Silent shot in Warframe doesn't even mean it serves as Stealth weapons. Just look at Baza !

=> Just go rambo with them !

Moreover, I had some experiences myself. I once equip my Vectis with Hush mod and guess what ? After stacking like 300~400% affinity on stealth kill, I have no idea why there were some that were one-shot but also made my stealth affinity bonus disappeared (????), just like how they were alerted although they were not. This happened too frequently that I didn't earn much affinity with my Vectis at all. I mean, "Silent" property are not really created for Stealth kill unless DE fixed it in some manners. So when I see a weapon with "silent", I don't have much hope.

Though I didn't have this issue with bow. Anyway, I just find "silent" so wrong.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Diangelius

[NocheLuz]

1 hour ago, Diangelius said:

I have no idea why there were some that were one-shot but also made my stealth affinity bonus disappeared (????), just like how they were alerted although they were not.

Enemies killed by Multishot will be alert by the first shot the split second that being shot at. You'll needed a weapon that empowered the first shot so much that it can really one shot them to death.

I even use Daikyu the most powerful bow (not count Lenz ofc lol) and I still keep losing Stealth Multiplier. And I notice that when I lose the multiplier, the enemies died because of the Multishot. So, yeah... You'll needed to mod the weapon to really 'One' shot them to keep the bonus going.

Edit : Oh, also. Every internal silent Weapon is not really Silent. You still can get the enemies attention/alert them by shooting the ground/wall near them. While the Silent Mod will make the impact point of the bullets/arrows silent too... I feel weird using them lol...

Edited December 18, 2018 by NocheLuz

[DatDarkOne]

11 hours ago, NocheLuz said:

Enemies killed by Multishot will be alert by the first shot the split second that being shot at. You'll needed a weapon that empowered the first shot so much that it can really one shot them to death.

I even use Daikyu the most powerful bow (not count Lenz ofc lol) and I still keep losing Stealth Multiplier. And I notice that when I lose the multiplier, the enemies died because of the Multishot. So, yeah... You'll needed to mod the weapon to really 'One' shot them to keep the bonus going.

Edit : Oh, also. Every internal silent Weapon is not really Silent. You still can get the enemies attention/alert them by shooting the ground/wall near them. While the Silent Mod will make the impact point of the bullets/arrows silent too... I feel weird using them lol...

I can't say that this is exactly true.  I have multishot on all my weapons.  I still get stealth kills without losing the stealth multipliers.  I'm thinking that it might be another mod you have that could be causing this issue you're having.  Maybe Heavy Caliber?  Although you are very correct that one hit kill weapons are needed for stealth kills.  

Silent weapons just means that the sound of firing the weapon doesn't alert the enemies.  It's most useful benefit is for Ivara and her Prowl.  This is why the Baza is such a powerful weapon for her.