Weapon Comparison: Dual Zoren, Dual Ether, And Ether Daggers

[Coratha]

So a while back I was leafing through wiki pages trying to put together a good loadout specialized for fighting Infested. For my melee weapon I decided on the Dual Zoren, for a quick-swinging-auto-attack weapon, to use as a panic button when surrounded to carve out an exit. The wiki claimed that they have low base damage, but incredible fire rate and base critical, which has so far proven true. however, this was all before the update that added Dual Ether and Ether daggers.

 

Since then I've been hearing friends and fellow forum-goers go on and on about how much of a godsend versus Infested that they are, and to be honest they look pretty badass too (swords are more my style than axes). I have the Dual Zoren maxed out at 30 already, but I have plenty of spare cash and materials to mess around with, and more mastery points are always welcome, so I've been wondering about the Ether weapons.

 

My main question to my fellow people of the forum is not which is "best" or "worst" or "hax" or "n00btrap", simply what are the most outstanding differences between the three? The wiki does a fairly good job of describing each of them separately, but I'm curious how all three stack up to each other comparatively. If it's not too drastic, and would still fulfill the Zombie-Blender role I need them for, I might make the switch just for fun.

 

Any thoughts?

[Darzk]

Dual Zoren and Dual Ether deal nearly identical dps to non-Ancient Infested. However, Dual Ether will still deal full damage to Ancients, while Dual Zoren will have it's normal damage cut down (*hehe) by 2/3rds.

 

Ether Daggers deal more dps but have less range than the DZ or DE. I havent used them, but IMO the range loss is too important for a dps increase. They also will deal less damage than DE to Ancients.

[rhoenix]

The other tradeoff is that (as far as I know) the Dual Zorens and Dual Ether Blades will strike multiple targets, but the Dual Ether Daggers won't - but they make up for it by rapid single-target damage.

[Dalu__Ka]

If you want to massacre the infested, you may consider the gram.

[fauxhb]

when i noticed the drop of fire rate with zorens (even with +50% fury mod on) i saw that low base dmg outweighs high critical chance and specced into charge attacks. i can tell you one thing, these things charge pretty damn fast. worth a potato, in my opinion. and they look so damn nice with dagger axe skin!

dual ether are more suitable for swinging, because of the innate ap and infested killing capabilities. haven't leveled up mine properly, but with new char i could melee pretty good with them at maps up to two times higher level than my own. good combo: banshee 1 skill (instant knockdown) and then executing stunned enemies, faster than a charge, a little weaker too, but pretty deadly. dual ethers are especially suitable for this, because executes are equally strong against all factions, armored or not.

daggers are just plain bad, like a meaker version of fang.

[Anelyn]

Dual Ether Swords hands down.

 

Why? 100% stagger on hit. If you plan to venture into a zerg of infested and mow them down with melee attacks, stagger >>> higher critical chance. Plus Dual Ether Swords have a base dmg of 30 compared to 15 of Dual Zorens. With 60% fury mod you will destroy anything in your path. Plus higher reach range than Dual Zorens.

 

But then again any of the 3 weapons are good moded right. It depends a lot on what warframe you play as well, as warframe skills are an important part in helping you control and destroy (as well as escape) the combat situations you'll find yourself in.

[Darzk]

Dual Ether Swords hands down.

 

Why? 100% stagger on hit. If you plan to venture into a zerg of infested and mow them down with melee attacks, stagger >>> higher critical chance. Plus Dual Ether Swords have a base dmg of 30 compared to 15 of Dual Zorens. With 60% fury mod you will destroy anything in your path. Plus higher reach range than Dual Zorens.

 

But then again any of the 3 weapons are good moded right. It depends a lot on what warframe you play as well, as warframe skills are an important part in helping you control and destroy (as well as escape) the combat situations you'll find yourself in.

 

Zorens stagger as well, and attack 2x as fast. Charged Zoren attacks are similar in speed to regular DE attacks, and stagger 100% of the time as well as ignore armor. Chargers are immune to stagger anyways. Zoren auto attack is 2x as fast as DE, so autoattack on unarmored targets is identical DPS.

 

DE has higher range, and armor pen on regular attacks against Infested. It works well as an autoattack build, but Zorens would be better with charged attacks (higher dps, same bonuses as DE, smaller range)

Edited April 25, 2013 by Darzk

[Anelyn]

Sorry, on wiki doesn't show any stagger for zorens.

 

Is quite easy to test in game as well, use no mods zorens and Dual Ether Swords, and go hit some infested (no fire / ice for burn / slow etc).

 

Yes Zoren has better attack and charge speed (in fact fastest charge speed in game). They lack armor pen. So that alone makes Dual Ether swords better vs all 3 factions, while DZ will shine vs normal infested pretty much.

 

Maybe I didn't explain quite good my point of view. DES is better than DZ vs all factions, because they have no weakness due to innate AP, fast native attack speed and fast charge (decent dmg at 100). Modded with fury / reflex coil they have a great flow in combat. 

[Buddlschlumpf]

Dual zorens have an extremely low charge dmg which makes them pretty unusable right now. Normal melee attacks are inferior to charge attacks in almost any situation except the mobs lvl is so low that you onehit them with normal melee attacks as well. But any discussions about strengths and weaknesses based on extremely weak enemies is pointless anyways.

 

Given the current inferiority of normal attacks, the dual ethers armor piercing is irrelevant as well as all charged attacks are armor piercing. Except for the ether daggers charged attack which makes them a lot worse. And they have a slow charged attack which rules them out as well though their charged dmg ain't that bad.

 

That leaves the dual ethers in the ring. Not a great weapon but better than the others.

 

If someone doesn't know why normal attacks are inferior: depending on the specific weapon, even without mods most times charge attacks are better than normal attacks. But normal attacks have a +42% max dmg mod, charge attacks have a +150% one. And both benefit from elemental dmg mods. Thus the higher your mods are the weaker normal attacks become.

[Darzk]

The armor pen on DE is completely irrelevant if you're going to be using charge attacks tho, as all charge attacks from every weapon ignore armor.

 

Zorens charge DPS > DE's charge DPS

 

If we're talking Charge attacks, almost every weapon has very similar charge DPS.

 

Furax is highest charge DPS but smallest range.

Scindo has largest range, best knockdown/slide attack.

DHS has largest dmg/hit of non-heavies, longer range than Furax.

Dual Zoren has the fastest charge, and slightly higher Charge DPS than DHS/Heavies, but less range.

 

Everything else is middle-of-the-road.

[Buddlschlumpf]

I think dark sword has dps close to the furax but a lot higher range.