My Analysis On Primary Secondary and Melee Weapons

[justin0620]

I have been playing warframe for more than 1,400 hours, but I have never done anything like this. I have been reading warframe wiki, watching youtube videos on weapons and trying find out what I have been missing or doing wrong. This is by no means I am telling you how to play this game. This is just something that I discover and I want my fellow tennos to comment on my findings.

 

The most powerful weapon now is melee.

-Able to reach 100% + crit chance, and 100% status chance on the same weapon.

-Doesn't need to aim to kill, just smash buttons, won't run out of ammo, doesn't need to reload.

-ONLY 2 arcanes to buff damage (Fury, Strike)

-Unique Weapons: Redeemer (infinite ammo shotgun), Zenistar (no input is needed (other than throwing it), things die around it.)

Note: I know there are zaws but I have tested it myself and I find out atterax is more powerful than them, and I don't find the arcanes very useful.)

 

The second most powerful weapon now is secondary.

-Hornet Strike, barrel diffusion, lethal torrent, magnum force for deadly damage increase.

-3 very strong arcanes (Velocity. Precision, Awakening)

-Kitguns and their arcanes are meta.

 

The least powerful weapon now is primary.

-ONLY 2 arcanes to buff damage (Acceleration, Rage.) Rage is very hard to trigger.

-No Modular weapons

Note: Amprex, Ignis Wraith, Arca Plasmor, Rubico Prime are very poweful, but I am talking about primary weapon on paper in general.

 

 

I still feel like Primary weapons are more effective, but on paper it has no modular weapons, less useful arcanes, weaker multishot mods, this make me put them in last.

 

 

Please feel free to comment.

 

[NotDaijoubu]

You forget that Primaries have their own unique mods like vigilante armaments and hunter munitions that are crucial to a lot of builds. In general, primaries make better crit weapons than secondaries.

It's kinda unfair to compare primaries to kitguns because kitguns are unquestionably superior to "normal" weapons in the game. Maybe we'll eventually get kitgun primaries, ones you can build 30+ base cc on for crazy bleed builds. Once that happens, I think primaries will once again triumph against secondaries.

[justin0620]

2 minutes ago, NotDaijoubu said:

You forget that Primaries have their own unique mods like vigilante armaments and hunter munitions that are crucial to a lot of builds. In general, primaries make better crit weapons than secondaries.

It's kinda unfair to compare primaries to kitguns because kitguns are unquestionably superior to "normal" weapons in the game. Maybe we'll eventually get kitgun primaries, ones you can build 30+ base cc on for crazy bleed builds. Once that happens, I think primaries will once again triumph against secondaries.

3

Personally, I prefer argon scope, and bladed rounds to push the damage to the next level, and I am not really into hunter munitions. I have not tested which combination is better, but rather than relying on RNG, I prefer mods that are actually doing things.

For multishot mods barrel diffusion and lethal torrent outshine split chamber and vigilante armaments, so vigilante armaments was not mentioned.

[TheGreenFellow]

Primaries are in a bit of a weird spot. Hunter Munitions is mandatory on anything not-a-sniper-rifle, and sniper rifles only get away with it by virtue of the sniper combo mechanic. This is partially due to the modding situation, and partially due to the wonky Damage 2.0 mechanics.

What I've arrived at as the 'ideal' setup between the 3 sources of damage is this:
- Viral + Hunter munitions (using Primed Cryo Rounds for more damage) for all my Primaries, because slash + Viral can still deal with armor scaling is B.S. and it enables me to be effective against any type of enemy. Weapons that can't crit reliably aren't worth using, or else must fill a niche (Ignis, Tigris Prime built for 100% status, etc.)

My Favorite Primary: Stradavar Prime (useful/viable automatic & semi modes, it's all I've ever wanted in a gun), Vectis Prime/Rubico Prime, Tigris Prime for Index

- Corrosive using Secondaries, since Primed Heated Rounds is of very limited utility & Secondaries get an insane number of extra projectiles & fire rate per shot thanks to Barrel Diffusion & Lethal Torrent (meaning you can focus on Crit on just about every Secondary weapon that has at least 15% crit chance, which meshes well with the presence of Primed mods for both CC & CD. Mara Detron is fun with 100% status, though.)

My Favorite Secondary: Rattleguts Kitguns (with the Arcane for Oberon's Smite on headshot, just, wow)

- Gas (+Electric) using Melees, because Melee weapons have limited range, limited speed, and are mainly useful for crowd-clearing, which Gas and Electric status procs enhance greatly, and this makes use of the Primed Fever Strike, which contributes a significant portion of Melee damage. Viral is also a viable choice (particularly on low-status chance weapons, since you just need 1 proc every few seconds for effectiveness), but that's already coming from Primaries usually and when it comes to crowd-clearing, do you really need to halve hitpoints when they tend to die in 1 hit? Especially when you have the extremely broken Maiming Strike + Blood Rush + Organ Shatter combination to drive Melee damage through the roof, you mainly want to reach as many targets as possible with one button press. It also just so happens that Gas, for the purposes of Condition Overload, counts as *two* elemental procs. The Sarpa provides a niche case where you may want to focus on Shattering Impact or Corrosive procs, but otherwise it's much easier to apply Corrosive damage & status via Secondaries.

My Favorite Melee: Secura Lecta. Highest range, high innate attack speed (so no need for Primed Fury), crit chance doesn't matter because Meme Strike, high status chance and innate Electric meshes well with Gas and AOE, though you can also slot in just Primed Fever Strike for Corrosive and stick in Gladiator Might for some extra juicy crit damage


It's wonky and there's much I would change about mods, damage types, and perhaps touch on current weapon balance as well, but it is what it is.

Edited April 10, 2019 by TheGreenFellow

[justin0620]

1 hour ago, TheGreenFellow said:

It's wonky and there's much I would change about mods, damage types, and perhaps touch on current weapon balance as well, but it is what it is.

I tried a lot of the things you talked about and I gave up most.

 

1 hour ago, TheGreenFellow said:

My Favorite Secondary: Rattleguts Kitguns (with the Arcane for Oberon's Smite on headshot, just, wow)

what is your rattleguts setup?

[TheGreenFellow]

22 hours ago, justin0620 said:

I tried a lot of the things you talked about and I gave up most.

 

what is your rattleguts setup?

Haymaker & splat. The mods are straightforward, Hornet Strike + Barrel Diffusion + Lethal Torrent + Augur Pact + Primed Pistol Gambit + Primed Target Tracker + electric dual stat + toxic dual stat.

I also have one with Lovetap & splat, it's kind of up to preference with DPS there - I found that Lovetap sort of made armor strip a little *too* fast, though, so I went and made the Haymaker one, which does perform better against status-immune bosses.

Edited April 11, 2019 by TheGreenFellow