What is the purpose of each of your three arsenal weapons (excluding Primers)

[trst]

Either one weapon I'm actually using throughout the entire mission with everything else either there for the ride or being ranked up passively.

Or one weapon I'm testing a build on, one weapon that can carry the mission, and one that's just there or is being ranked.

 

There's just never any reason, outside of PT, to bother with multiple weapons in a mission aside from personal preference. Even priming weapons are entirely superfluous as they're just more effort for more overkill damage.

[Tiltskillet]

6 hours ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

That said, it might need a Riven which I imagine are extremely expensive.

Ocucor with the augment shouldn't need a riven.   Maybe at level cap without any buff abilities or something.   It kinda needed a riven before, or at least one was super-handy. depending on what content one was running,

[Berzerkules]

6 hours ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

Caustacyst has innate Corrosive, it's the only melee with it afaik. This is important because if you want to use Melee Influence, you need to have Electric on your weapon, and Caustacyst is the only weapon which allows you to have Corrosive and Electric at the same time. You can further add Viral to it either through mods or through Nourish. Regardless of the way you do it, you should end up with a weapon that does Electric, Corrosive, and Viral.

Just in case, I'll explain Melee Influence. It grants a 20% chance on Melee Electricity status procs to spread elemental Melee status effects to enemies within 20m for 18s.

The next step is to use two Emerald Shards that add extra Corrosive stacks to reach full armour strip.

If you combine all of the above, you end up with a melee weapon that's constantly Armor stripping all enemies in a 20 meter radius while also giving them Viral and Electric.

It doesn't end there. It also does radial blind on every heavy attack, Tennokai included, and it also does a long range wave attack on every heavy attack that leaves behind a sludge that does Corrosive damage.

That sounds good but It seems that full strip through 14 stacks of corrosive with melee would take so long that you would end up killing enemies before you got a full strip. A corrosive primer would probably strip faster. IDK, maybe I'm missing something here. 

7 minutes ago, trst said:

There's just never any reason, outside of PT, to bother with multiple weapons in a mission aside from personal preference. Even priming weapons are entirely superfluous as they're just more effort for more overkill damage.

IDK, I use an exodia contagion zaw on Mag to tag eximus units outside on my bubble. That's a pretty good reason to use 2 weapons.

That's just the first example of the usefulness on using more than one weapon that popped into my head. There are countless more.

[(PSN)Sentiel]

7 minutes ago, Tiltskillet said:

Ocucor with the augment shouldn't need a riven.   Maybe at level cap without any buff abilities or something.   It kinda needed a riven before, or at least one was super-handy. depending on what content one was running,

I would say it needs a Riven to conserve slots and introduce Punch Through to it. High level enemies will shrug it off without abilities or Armor strip.

With the 8 Mod slots, you take up the usual 6 for CC, CD, MS, DMG (Galvanized Shot), two elements (Corrosive or Viral), followed by Primed Heated Charge, and Sentient Surge.

The problem is Ocucor's measly 11 starting damage, which makes getting the first kill to trigger the Galvanized Shot and Sentient Surge annoying, especially on high level.

A Riven can help with this by adding some base damage, PT, and whatever else you'll need (CC in my case). Not only this buffs it once it gets rolling, but it makes it much easier to get the first kill and you don't have to rely on abilities or buffs as much.

Just now, Berzerkules said:

That sounds good but It seems that full strip through 14 stacks of corrosive with melee would take so long that you would end up killing enemies before you got a full strip. A corrosive primer would probably strip faster. IDK, maybe I'm missing something here. 

The Arcane description isn't well written. Basically what it does is status sharing, like Contagious Bond or Mecha Set does. Example: If you trigger 7 Corrosive stacks on an enemy and Electric, it will spread those 7 stacks around. You keep doing that until you hit 14 stacks for full Armour strip and as long as you keep hitting enemies so Status Duration doesn't run out, everything around you will be Armor stripped (while also enjoying other elemental effects).

[Berzerkules]

42 minutes ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

The Arcane description isn't well written. Basically what it does is status sharing, like Contagious Bond or Mecha Set does. Example: If you trigger 7 Corrosive stacks on an enemy and Electric, it will spread those 7 stacks around. You keep doing that until you hit 14 stacks for full Armour strip and as long as you keep hitting enemies so Status Duration doesn't run out, everything around you will be Armor stripped (while also enjoying other elemental effects).

I like the caustacyst and wanted it to work out but after a little testing I still prefer gas/electric dagger armor strip setup, it seems to provide more consistent armor strip and higher kps average without the use of 2 archon shards. You do have to sacrifice your primary weapon tough. 

[Tiltskillet]

1 hour ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

I would say it needs a Riven to conserve slots and introduce Punch Through to it. High level enemies will shrug it off without abilities or Armor strip.

With the 8 Mod slots, you take up the usual 6 for CC, CD, MS, DMG (Galvanized Shot), two elements (Corrosive or Viral), followed by Primed Heated Charge, and Sentient Surge.

Punch Through is really nice on it, no doubt.  (Proud / ashamed owner of three different Ocucor PT rivens. ) 

 

1 hour ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

The problem is Ocucor's measly 11 starting damage, which makes getting the first kill to trigger the Galvanized Shot and Sentient Surge annoying, especially on high level.

Even at ridiculous levels, stripped fodder units die fast.  Once there's a tendril or two, it's game on.  Also Cascadia Flare or Empowered or Secondary Dexterity are all really helpful for getting those initial stacks going.

Although speaking of Dexterity, I'm realizing  my perspective is maybe a bit skewed, as I'm perfectly willing to mix in other weapons to make getting those initial kills easier.  Even when I've got Ocucor rolling, I get bored fast using it alone.

 

 

 

[Merkranire]

Depends on how I’ve built and what I’m doing and how I want to play.

Personally I like building for different damage types to give my gear roles against the different enemies in the one faction. Sometimes I’ll do the old “Sniper for long-range, pistol for mid-short, melee for close” thing. A few times I’ve completely dropped the primary and secondary and went full melee, which can be pretty fun since I love things like melee’s locational damage according to the animations and need to be considerate of when to jump into the fray or not; it can really shift an approach when you don’t have a ranged weapon to draw upon

[Pakaku]

I just choose guns for the sake of variety, or I pick a fallback gun that I know is reliable when I use what I intend to be a main gun that I'm not sure about. Usually I favour making headshots or running something with a fun gimmick

Melee is easy: I hate melee, and always pick something ranged like the Quassus, Wolf Sledge, Kestrel, etc to get around range limits. With a ranged melee, it falls back into having something just for extra variety, plus it's just funny to throw a hammer everywhere

[(PSN)robotwars7]

12 hours ago, Qorvex99 said:

what is the point of running both of them in the same arsenal?

I've been levelling mine, and while I don't particularly like the Akarius anyway, I will admit that it's good as far as AoE secondaries go.. but then Angstrum Incarnon exists so it's not like there aren't alternatives.

12 hours ago, Qorvex99 said:

melee weapons mostly have this problem, If you have a weapon for AOE and one for single target, and both do massive damage, what really is the reason for melee weapons? what are you supposed to do with them?

if you're running Acceltra AND Akarius, chances are in any kind of prolonged ranged engagement you're gonna run out of ammo, unless you run mutation mods. personally I always like to take a melee weapon no matter what for enemies that get really close so I can kill them instantly, and on the very rare possibility I might run out of ammo. Drahk Masters also can't disarm you of your melee, so even if there are several and they take both your guns (it can happen), you always have a means of dealing damage.

12 hours ago, Qorvex99 said:

a weapon takes your entire focus while the rest aren't used in the mission...

to be fair, I do also usually only take one gun with me most of the time, because I neevr typically need two and a secondary will only get used for priming, or for situations where you are forced to use secondary, namely carrying a datamass or if you are bleeding out, but nowadays I run Unairu Focus and Last Gasp, so the latter doesn't apply as much anymore. so in summary:

- one ranged weapon, primary or secondary for ranged combat and the majority of my non-ability DPS: some secondaries are better suited to being "sub-primary" weaposn than others.

- one melee, as a backup weapon. 

- warframe abilioties generally does the rest of the killing and/or helps the weapons, depending on the exact frame and setup I'm using.

5 hours ago, ReddyDisco said:

I have a nataruk for home defense

3 Conculysts break into my dojo, "what the Void?" I yell, as I grab my Syandana and rush to meet them, I pull out my Nataruk and fire a perfect charged shot, it nails the first conculyst to the wall, it's dead on the spot. next I draw my Basmu and spray wildly at the second Conculyst, but it isn't fazed because the Basmu's damage is garbage, and he keeps coming after me. "tally ho lads" I shout as I grab my War that I stole from Shadow Stalker and start swinging wildly at the two of them, the blade is totally dull but the concussive force is enough to shatter the second Conculyst's head into pieces,  the last Conculyst is still trying to bonk me, so I just go into Operator mode and cremate his a$$ with my Amp.

just as the Founding Archons intended!

 

Edited January 21 by (PSN)robotwars7

[Merkranire]

14 hours ago, Qorvex99 said:

I like having purpose, even when I play Gauss, who might not tick every reason to use him in the game, just challenging myself by bringing him everywhere is the "fun" factor for me in this game. but weapons are different, if you bring the wrong weapon for the wrong Job, you're basically handicapping yourself...(another reason why Duviri doesn't vibe with me too well).

You might want to stick to the Meta, as part of the point of having a reason to switch amongst gear is that one piece doesn’t obliterate the entire mission on its own

Edited January 22 by Merkranire
double post for some reason

[DontRunWScissors]

Depends on the content I'm running, but for my usual SP content I'll run some combo of the following, I will list priming but nothing in my loadout is solely used as a primer:

Primaries

• Latron Prime Incarnon for tanky enemies or whenever I just need to clear the room as fast as possible.
• Cedo for both priming and single target damage.
• Acceltra Prime for mindless roomclear in low levels

Secondaries

• Kuva Nukor for easier room clearing than Latron, doesn't need any charge gimmick to do its job. Also a great primer with encumber.
• Ocucor for a more kill hungry Nukor, takes a little more upkeep with tendrils and such but also auto aims and kills quick, doesn't work well as a primer.
• Lex Prime Incarnon for clearing hallways with a single shot
• Vasto Prime Incarnon for deleting acolytes

Melees

• Nikana Prime for combo/tennokai
• Venka Prime is the same as Nikana, different flavor, some synergy with frames like Ash
• Guandao Prime or Lesion for combo spam
• Any Incarnon for move speed

[Xzorn]

These days, not much reason to switch weapons. I use Ignis for anything under level 120ish.
I've always used Ignis as my trash content sweeper so I could get back to theory crafting endurance builds but I don't do that anymore.

They killed poor Zakti and Zenistar. Two of the best synergy weapons in the game so most the time I have no reason to swap weapons.
I obviously pick weapons that cater to a frame's strengths but usually only need one to get the job done.

[Aruquae]

Use Nataruk for large single target damage, it’s just so satisfying to use. 

When I see a large group and I’m in a sticky spot, I swap to Laetum. Always charge that thing in the beginning of the mission. 
The point of my melee slot is to stay empty, so I can use my talons. 
 

[Prof-Dante]

1 hour ago, DontRunWScissors said:

Vasto Prime Incarnon for deleting acolytes

Vasto Prime is my Eximus/acolyte/Archon/Angel deleter...I love it so much...It feels like that small pistol from MIB that obliterates everything it touches and you would only use it when necessary.

[(XBOX)Varzin]

Primary: Tenet Ferrox (+Magnetic) - Modded for Viral, fire rate, and status chance. Throwing the Ferrox plants it place. Thrown Ferrox generate a radial pulse at regular intervals pulling enemies towards itself (essentially trapping them) and damaging them. This makes it a great crowd control tool since I can drop it on a choke point and essentially halt enemy advance from that direction. Increasing fire rate increases the rate at which the pulses are generated. It also kinda serves as an alarm system since every time the damaging pulse hits an enemy it make a distinctive tick sound, alerting me that enemies have reached that location. I also added Primary Obstruct which, on Magnetic status proc, triggers a radial effect jamming enemy weapons within 15m of the effected target, so not only can I trap enemies I can prevent them from shooting, great for protecting defense targets.

 

Secondary: Tenet Cycron (I have 3 different TCycons +Heat, +Magnetic and +Cold) - Tenet Cycron is a beam weapon that chains beams to other nearby enemies, punch-through helps multiply that effect by allowing it to generate extra beams for each additional enemy hit by the beam. It also uses a rechargeable battery instead of ammo making it easy to use liberally without worry.

Heat - This one kills. Modded for extra Heat damage, Viral, status chance, and punch-through. Cascadia Flare (on heat proc gain increased damage for 10 seconds) ensures that the damage output ramps up quickly on tankier targets. Even if direct damage doesn't kill my target the 50+ burn procs I just built up are usually able to finish the job.

Magnetic - This one weakens. Modded for Corrosive, status, and punch-through. I mainly just wanted an all-purpose defense stripping tool, anti-shield and anti-armor in one beam. Cascadia Empowered also helps make it a decently effective weapon by generating elemental explosions with every status proc, not quite as steel path worthy as the Heat one but decent enough.

Cold - This one slows. Modded for Radiation, status, and punch-through. Did you know Cold procs are effective at slowing disruption demolysts? That was the entire impetus of my wanting a Cold TCycron, just a tool for applying Cold procs in places where abilities like Gloom either don't work or get turned off by enemy abilities. Secondary Shiver (enemies take bonus damage per cold proc) is an obvious choice of arcane but this one isn't really built for killing on it's own.

 

Melee: "Virgule" Ooltha Zaw (Ooltha/Peye/Vargeet II Jai) - My masterpiece. People seem(ed) to like the Mewan strike better for 1H sword zaws which led to Ooltha being overlooked and underused. This means Ooltha ended up with a much higher riven disposition by comparison, one of the highest among all the zaws. There's nothing technically wrong with the Ooltha, in fact it's actually faster then the Mewan while having identical base damage, so it works just as well as any other strike. I'm lucky enough to have an amazing riven for it (guaranteed orange crits and bonus damage). This is the most powerful weapon in my arsenal when it comes to just straight up killing things. I have also taken great advantage of the new purple archon shards (+25/37.5% crit damage, boost is doubled when max energy is over 500) and the new Melee Retaliation arcane (+30% damage for every 200 shields, max cap of 420%) to push this already hyper-lethal blade even further. Modded for high crit chance/damage, and Viral as the main damaging element, I carefully cultivated a build that fits everything I want onto the sword but leaves 1 mod slot unpolarized so I can change the element from Viral to whatever I want.

 

Ferrox is my crowd control, Cycron is my swiss army knife, Virgule is my weapon.

[UnstarPrime]

You can obviously do whatever you want, but I personally want the weapon I have in every slot to provide a distinct gameplay experience.  This is easy for melee, because melee doesn't feel like Primaries or Secondaries.

So then for my Primary and Secondary, I just want two weapons that feel different.  Maybe one is an explosive weapon and the other is a shotgun, maybe one is fully automatic and the other is for singular big hits.  Etc.

I don't use primers, I just want 3 different flavors of having a good time hitting stuff.

[Prof-Dante]

So, Does anyone have a melee weapon (probably gunblade) that handles bosses? like full on Radiation and cold, and melee exposure crit melee weapon that's designed specifically for bosses.

[(PSN)Sentiel]

21 minutes ago, Qorvex99 said:

So, Does anyone have a melee weapon (probably gunblade) that handles bosses? like full on Radiation and cold, and melee exposure crit melee weapon that's designed specifically for bosses.

I tried that with Ceramic Dagger, Caustacyst, Sancti Magistar, and a few others and it was horrible. Not only was it impossible to see what's happening, it's not applicable to all bosses, and some have weird hitboxes (TFO mainly).

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

Really depends on my mood and goals for the session. I rotate my arsenal frequently and often. As does my general objective, as this is Warframe after all. I value synergy a lot, and will often start with an initial selection, and then the rest of my arsenal my accommodate them. Like lets say if I wanted to play Qorvex today. They are quite tanky, which means I can spend more time shooting at enemies, since my survival isn't tied to my DPS per say. I might pick a Primary thats fun, but maybe not with a high KPM. Alternatively if I would have more fun with Mag, then I would usually pick a Primary thats a projectile weapon, to synergise with Magnetise. If I do a solo Netracell, then weapons with higher KPM become more important. 

With that being said, recently i have been using the following a lot. Fulmin Prime, Exergis, Atomos Incarnon, Quassus, Pennant, Ceramic Dagger, Boar Incarnon, Paris Incarnon. With the melee weapons, its mostly been to test out Tennokai with them, the Exergis and Boar, I just really like shotguns (I prefer the Boar Incarnons normal fire mode), Atomos has been my lazy back up weapon, since it chains, and is pretty potent, I will use it if there are a lot of enemies I need to kill fast (say Netracells, to make the percentage go faster). Plus its really good Acolyte killer in Steel Path. Will probably be using Acceltra Prime and Akarius Prime a bit once they are built. Then have Stropha as my back up. Basically I tend to pick a weapon for fun, and use the other slots to accomodate them in some way. Assuming there is a need, otherwise, I'm also good with just going on a whim. 

[Prof-Dante]

2 hours ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

I tried that with Ceramic Dagger, Caustacyst, Sancti Magistar, and a few others and it was horrible. Not only was it impossible to see what's happening, it's not applicable to all bosses, and some have weird hitboxes (TFO mainly).

Yeah, I forgot that I said "probably gunblade" I should've thought about the stropha since It used to be my boss weapon.

but bosses need multi-hit consistent DPS weapons...not one shottys.

I wish we would get another burst rifle gunblade, the one we have is really, really weak.