Ignis wraith is worse than ignis

[Ironlixivium]

27 * 10 = 270, 270 * 1.05 = 283.5

25 * 10 = 250, 250 * 1.12 = 280

why....

the only reason to use wraith over normal is mag....and I guess status....but status on continuous weapons suck, so.....

http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Status_Effect#Continuous_Weapons

is it too soon to ask for an ignis wraith buff?

Edited March 27, 2017 by Ironlixivium

[Chewarette]

Have you ever considered the 12 vs 5% crit ?

[Ironlixivium]

Just now, Chewarette said:

Have you ever considered the 12 vs 5% crit ?

yes, it's in that equation. 270 * 1.05 essentially doubles 5% of the damage, by adding it again. wraith is still worse.

[The_Madman_of_Chaos]

It's bare bones damage stats might be slightly, and I mean *Slightly* worse, the better potential is the value of the weapon. You have higher crit and status stats, plus more ammo to use the weapon far longer. Mod around this, and you can get some impressive numbers out of the weapon to make up for the 3.5 damage loss.

[Cyborg-Rox]

6 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

yes, it's in that equation. 270 * 1.05 essentially doubles 5% of the damage, by adding it again. wraith is still worse.

Have you tried... you know... actually working in the crit mods?

[LuckyCharm]

4 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

yes, it's in that equation. 270 * 1.05 essentially doubles 5% of the damage, by adding it again. wraith is still worse.

That doesnt at all take in to account mods..150% x a 5% base is a whole lot less than 150% x 12%.  

Itd be like saying the gorgon out damages a soma prime because its base damage is higher. Soon as you add a crit mod its a different story

[AntoninDvorak]

14 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

but status on continuous weapons suck, so.....

 

 

This thread again? 
no, it doesn't on ignis. Everyone seems to forget that:

 

• Sprays in a frontal cone, allowing it to hit multiple enemies at once. ( this spreads even more using heavy caliber, which is a must in an ignis build. imo.) 
• Has innate Punch Through depth of 2 meters.
• Has innate Multishot.  

And you can get to 100% status. 

All of this lets you spread procs wildly all over the place. Use a radiation/viral build, and you have a mini nyx in your hands. Plus reducing health to 50%. 

[TotallyLagging]

22 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

but status on continuous weapons suck

Ignis is an exception since it hits a lot of enemies at once, so while you won't start shredding armor anytime soon you can (slowly) wear enemies down from a safe range or through the wall

 

Of course it would certainly be better if it procs as much as a proper status weapon, or at least let Split Chamber draw another beam in the game instead of simply doubling its damage. Still waiting for that continuous weapon rework DE.

[Ironlixivium]

3 minutes ago, The_Madman_of_Chaos said:

It's bare bones damage stats might be slightly, and I mean *Slightly* worse, the better potential is the value of the weapon. You have higher crit and status stats, plus more ammo to use the weapon far longer. Mod around this, and you can get some impressive numbers out of the weapon to make up for the 3.5 damage loss.

I did address crit and status directly in the OP, if you know what that equation means. I should have probably explained it better mb. as for magazine size, it's not really that relevant

2 minutes ago, Cyborg-Rox said:

Have you tried... you know... actually working in the crit mods?

 

2 minutes ago, LuckyCharm said:

That doesnt at all take in to account mods..150% x a 5% base is a whole lot less than 150% x 12%.  

Itd be like saying the gorgon out damages a soma prime because its base damage is higher. Soon as you add a crit mod its a different story

working with crit mods on a weapon less than 15% crit... that would be a waste of mod space, any elemental mod would increase the weapon's dps more. That's why it's completely irrelevant to even bother. It's nothing like comparing soma to gorgon, because soma has very good crit stats. On a soma, crit mods are very much worth more than an elemental mod even split chamber, because they add more dps.

2 minutes ago, AntoninDvorak said:

This thread again? 
no, it doesn't on ignis. Everyone seems to forget that:

 

• Sprays in a frontal cone, allowing it to hit multiple enemies at once. ( this spreads even more using heavy caliber, which is a must in an ignis build. imo.) 
• Has innate Punch Through depth of 2 meters.
• Has innate Multishot.  

And you can get to 100% status. 

All of this lets you spread procs wildly all over the place. Use a radiation/viral build, and you have a mini nyx in your hands. Plus reducing health to 50%. 

What? first, heavy cal doesn't actually affect the spread of ignis, second, normal ignis has these EXACT same traits. Although I do admit I overlooked the fact that it can obtain a 100% status chance per tick without rof mods, similar to shotguns getting 100% without multishot mods.

 

[Ironlixivium]

2 minutes ago, TotallyLagging said:

Ignis is an exception since it hits a lot of enemies at once, so while you won't start shredding armor anytime soon you can (slowly) wear enemies down from a safe range or through the wall

 

Of course it would certainly be better if it procs as much as a proper status weapon, or at least let Split Chamber draw another beam in the game instead of simply doubling its damage. Still waiting for that continuous weapon rework DE.

continuous weapon procs work differently than normal. you should read the link I put in the op. multishot doesn't actually add status chance, because its split between pellets. similarly to continuous, they can gain over 100% chance to status proc, without being guaranteed because its split between rate of fire.

[AntoninDvorak]

2 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

 

What? first, heavy cal doesn't actually affect the spread of ignis, second, normal ignis has these EXACT same traits. Although I do admit I overlooked the fact that it can obtain a 100% status chance per tick without rof mods, similar to shotguns getting 100% without multishot mods.

 

"Adding Heavy Caliber as a second Serration results in an increase of damage. The reduction of accuracy, which is a negative for most weapons, is arguably a benefit for the Ignis as the AoE spread will widen slightly."

[Cyborg-Rox]

5 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

working with crit mods on a weapon less than 15% crit... that would be a waste of mod space, any elemental mod would increase the weapon's dps more. That's why it's completely irrelevant to even bother. It's nothing like comparing soma to gorgon, because soma has very good crit stats. On a soma, crit mods are very much worth more than an elemental mod even split chamber, because they add more dps.

What are you talking about? You can fit in both crit mods with 3 90% elements just fine and it will very clearly have more damage than using 4 90% elements and a 60% element.

[AntoninDvorak]

Also i want to add this video. You say that ignis W is worse than ignis . Yet this demostration arguably proves that ignis W is SLIGHTLY better at killing than ignis. It may not be a huge difference, but it's slightly better. However i disagree with the methods on the viddeo. He should have done it with and ignis W with 100%status. And the tests should have been against crowds. 

So i want to call you out. I want you to actually prove that Ignis wraith is worse than ignis, as your original title says. I dare you to give me actual tangible facts
 

 

Edited March 27, 2017 by AntoninDvorak

[Ironlixivium]

1 minute ago, AntoninDvorak said:

Also i want to add this video. You say that ignis W is worse than ignis . Yet this demostration arguably proves that ignis W is SLIGHTLY better at killing than ignis. It may not be a huge difference, but it's slightly better. However i disagree with the methods on the viddeo. He should have done it with and ignis W with 100%. And the tests should have been against crowds. 

So i want to call you out. I want you to actually prove that Ignis wraith is worse than ignis, as your original title says. I dare you to give me actual tangible facts

 

Dude....Chill...out.... You didn't even READ what I said, or at least you didn't comprehend it.

 

12 minutes ago, Ironlixivium said:

Although I do admit I overlooked the fact that it can obtain a 100% status chance per tick without rof mods, similar to shotguns getting 100% without multishot mods.

 

I very clearly stated this, and I do admit that is huge although I don't think many people realize why (you obviously do). I did give you tangible facts in the op that of the two weapons, not including status, ignis wraith is worse, which it IS. however, I also reasoned that status is irrelevant because continuous weapons are very stupid with status, treating rof as multishot. the ignis wraith actually has only a 3% status chance per ammo spent, which is obviously crap... but I carelessly forgot that with 4 dual stat mods, it can reach 100% without rof, bringing it to guaranteed proc chance per tick, and that is huge, much over the 3.5 damage lost on wraith. So I admit its not worse, even though in base dps without status it is.

[Ironlixivium]

31 minutes ago, AntoninDvorak said:

"Adding Heavy Caliber as a second Serration results in an increase of damage. The reduction of accuracy, which is a negative for most weapons, is arguably a benefit for the Ignis as the AoE spread will widen slightly."

Also, heh, just thought I might add...wherever you got that is wrong, I don't care if its the wiki....it's not a cone, its an aoe. Try it. Go into simulacrum. spawn an ancient. shoot right past it's head. I promise you as long as you're not aimed at a nearby wall and instead at the background, it won't take any damage. Go on, I dare you. also seeing as it's an aoe not a cone, heavy cal has no affect. Whoever wrote that was probably a victim of the placebo effect.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Ironlixivium

[TotallyLagging]

7 hours ago, Ironlixivium said:

continuous weapon procs work differently than normal. you should read the link I put in the op. multishot doesn't actually add status chance, because its split between pellets. similarly to continuous, they can gain over 100% chance to status proc, without being guaranteed because its split between rate of fire.

Well yes, they don't. The second part of my post is a "I wish DE would..."

 

My point is that Split Chamber doesn't draw a second beam for continuous beam weapons, which hampers its status potential even more even if you reach 100% status before multishot.

[Variega]

16 hours ago, Ironlixivium said:

Also, heh, just thought I might add...wherever you got that is wrong, I don't care if its the wiki....it's not a cone, its an aoe. Try it. Go into simulacrum. spawn an ancient. shoot right past it's head. I promise you as long as you're not aimed at a nearby wall and instead at the background, it won't take any damage. Go on, I dare you. also seeing as it's an aoe not a cone, heavy cal has no affect. Whoever wrote that was probably a victim of the placebo effect.

Heavy caliber Still adds extra damage. so as for "heavy cal has on affect" I think you should have worded your phrase better.

[AntoninDvorak]

23 hours ago, Ironlixivium said:

Also, heh, just thought I might add...wherever you got that is wrong, I don't care if its the wiki....it's not a cone, its an aoe. Try it. Go into simulacrum. spawn an ancient. shoot right past it's head. I promise you as long as you're not aimed at a nearby wall and instead at the background, it won't take any damage. Go on, I dare you. also seeing as it's an aoe not a cone, heavy cal has no affect. Whoever wrote that was probably a victim of the placebo effect.

I'll take the challenge. Also, it's interesting how you "don't care if its the wiki", since you were the first jack to back up his arguments with a wiki page. 

 

On 27/3/2017 at 10:01 AM, Ironlixivium said:

I did give you tangible facts in the op that of the two weapons, not including status, ignis wraith is worse, which it IS. however, I also reasoned that status is irrelevant because continuous weapons are very stupid with status, but I carelessly forgot that with 4 dual stat mods, it can reach 100% without rof, bringing it to guaranteed proc chance per tick, and that is huge, much over the 3.5 damage lost on wraith. So I admit its not worse, even though in base dps without status it is.

 And what? ._. So the point is? I don't know what you're trying to say. But, it doesn't matter if the dmg is less, it still overpowers the normal ignis. Not by that much, but that is better for the weapon. If you make the ignis wraith OP, you will attract the villagers of Nerf-town, and that will be its demise. So leave it like that please.

[Tesseract7777]

I would explain how horribly flawed the OP's entire premise is, and how flawed his math is because of all the things it isn't properly taking into account. But I won't bother, and none of you should bother any further either. 

The Ignis Wraith is easily objective better. This is clear with a quick glance at the stats. It is amazing anyone can believe otherwise, but none of you are going to convince this guy. He clearly has no interest in listening to your arguments, and has been very combative. It seems obvious the OP has closed their mind on this issue, so I advise not trying to explain it to him further. 

[Ironlixivium]

22 hours ago, TotallyLagging said:

Well yes, they don't. The second part of my post is a "I wish DE would..."

 

My point is that Split Chamber doesn't draw a second beam for continuous beam weapons, which hampers its status potential even more even if you reach 100% status before multishot.

Mb I missed that.

13 hours ago, Variega said:

Heavy caliber Still adds extra damage. so as for "heavy cal has on affect" I think you should have worded your phrase better.

Yes it does, I meant it does not add any range to the aoe to increase its status procing abilities.

6 hours ago, AntoninDvorak said:

I'll take the challenge. Also, it's interesting how you "don't care if its the wiki", since you were the first jack to back up his arguments with a wiki page. 

 

 And what? ._. So the point is? I don't know what you're trying to say. But, it doesn't matter if the dmg is less, it still overpowers the normal ignis. Not by that much, but that is better for the weapon. If you make the ignis wraith OP, you will attract the villagers of Nerf-town, and that will be its demise. So leave it like that please.

Well, that was more of "if this is wrong blame wiki" than "wiki says it, it's 100% right". I didn't mean to pain the wiki as a 100% trusted source, rather, it's our best source rn, so if it's wrong, its not our fault. No, I am not excluding you from that blame proof, even though you did make me feel a little dumb by pointing out the 100% status pre-rof thing ignis w can do. (I honestly should have seen it.

[Ironlixivium]

7 hours ago, Tesseract7777 said:

I would explain how horribly flawed the OP's entire premise is, and how flawed his math is because of all the things it isn't properly taking into account. But I won't bother, and none of you should bother any further either. 

The Ignis Wraith is easily objective better. This is clear with a quick glance at the stats. It is amazing anyone can believe otherwise, but none of you are going to convince this guy. He clearly has no interest in listening to your arguments, and has been very combative. It seems obvious the OP has closed their mind on this issue, so I advise not trying to explain it to him further. 

I was having an honest discussion of thoughts. I was listening and reading all of the replies, just because you disagree doesn't mean you should come in here and kill constructive feedback. thanks, A******. 

[shut]

On 3/27/2017 at 10:16 AM, Ironlixivium said:

Also, heh, just thought I might add...wherever you got that is wrong, I don't care if its the wiki....it's not a cone, its an aoe. Try it. Go into simulacrum. spawn an ancient. shoot right past it's head. I promise you as long as you're not aimed at a nearby wall and instead at the background, it won't take any damage. Go on, I dare you. also seeing as it's an aoe not a cone, heavy cal has no affect. Whoever wrote that was probably a victim of the placebo effect.

I played a lot of the Ignis a couple years back, when it was first buffed to have a cone/AoE/whatever hitbox instead of being a narrow beam. I very clearly remember Heavy Cal causing the entire cone/AoE/whatever to waver side to side, making it difficult to consistently land headshots from far away while it's equipped.

But: mechanics can change, and memory can fade, and you seemed pretty confident. So I decided to pop into the Simalcrum to test it for myself. I tested on a Frozen enemy, so there was no interference whatsoever caused by the target moving around.

 

My findings, regarding both HC and the hitboxes in general. Warning: disjointed wall of text ahead.

 

- (regarding HC):

• No HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many slightly-varying numbers.
• Yes, HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many significantly-varying numbers, but occasionally no numbers at all.
   
• No HC: No matter where you aimed, the ticks would either be all headshots (~2x damage) or all bodyshots (~1x damage).
• Yes, HC: When aiming somewhat past the head, some ticks would be headshots (~2x damage) and some would be bodyshots (~1x damage).
   
• No HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.
• Yes, HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.

 

- (regarding hitboxes):

•  Attacking with the central "beam" would deal the listed DPS of the damage, with slight deviation. Attacking with the AoE outside the central "beam" would instantly deal 0.50x of the listed damage, which would last all the way up to the very outside of the hitbox (as opposed to falling off gradually).
   
• Attacking dead-on within 20m would always produce the same range of numbers, no matter what the distance. Attacking from beyond 20m is when damage reverts to 0.50x and is no longer able to score headshots.
   
• Attacking within ~15m will deal zero damage if your central beam is even slightly off, making the Ignis practically a laser pointer within this range. Backing away will cause the AoE to deal damage again.
  There is also a sour spot between ~25m and ~35m where this AoE will NOT deal damage. Between 35-40m is okay, though. (Firestorm alleviates this slightly.)
   
• (unsure!) Based on extensive testing with and without Firestorm, my prediction for what the "hitboxes" are:
  • Regular perfect-accuracy beam from 0m to 20m.
  • 5m spherical AoE appears at 20m.
  • (?) 5m hemispherical AoE appears at 40m (i.e. a sphere with the faraway half cut off). ^{Adding Firestorm changes that final AoE from 35m-40m to ~34m-40m, which is what suggests this shape.}

 

- (unrelated):

• The initial tick of damage (from that first "puff" of the flamethrower) has a MUCH wider AoE than the continuous fire. It can hit enemies at wide angles even if they're within 15m, or in the 25m-35m sour spot. (However, it still needs a bit of time to reach its max distance, similar to the beam itself. So you'll need to hold M1 briefly if you want to hit faraway enemies with it.)
  Seems like tapfire spam would work really well with 100% Status builds.
   
• Punchthrough mods like Shred will replace the stock 2m punchthrough, not add on to it.

 

The verdict (and TL;DR):

- Heavy Caliber DOES have an effect.
It causes the entire beam to waver around, which can cause the AoE to occasionally miss a target it should have hit (or to hit a target it should have missed). It produces similar shenanigans regarding the "central beam".
It's a small enough effect that it'll hardly matter in gameplay. But it's still an effect nevertheless.

- The "hitbox" is indeed NOT a cone! It appears to be a standard 20m beam, plus a weirdly-shaped AoE at the far end. 
The 20m beam (with perfect accuracy at base) will deal 1x damage, and the AoE will deal 0.50x damage.

Edited March 30, 2017 by SortaRandom
The AoE deals 0.50x, not 0.25x.

[Fallen_Echo]

6 hours ago, SortaRandom said:

I played a lot of the Ignis a couple years back, when it was first buffed to have a cone/AoE/whatever hitbox instead of being a narrow beam. I very clearly remember Heavy Cal causing the entire cone/AoE/whatever to waver side to side, making it difficult to consistently land headshots from far away while it's equipped.

But: mechanics can change, and memory can fade, and you seemed pretty confident. So I decided to pop into the Simalcrum to test it for myself. I tested on a Frozen enemy, so there was no interference whatsoever caused by the target moving around.

 

My findings, regarding both HC and the hitboxes in general. Warning: disjointed wall of text ahead.

  Hide contents

- (regarding HC):

• No HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many slightly-varying numbers.
• Yes, HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many significantly-varying numbers, but occasionally no numbers at all.
   
• No HC: No matter where you aimed, the ticks would either be all headshots (~2x damage) or all bodyshots (~1x damage).
• Yes, HC: When aiming somewhat past the head, some ticks would be headshots (~2x damage) and some would be bodyshots (~1x damage).
   
• No HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.
• Yes, HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.

 

- (regarding hitboxes):

•  Attacking with the central "beam" would deal the listed DPS of the damage, with slight deviation. Attacking with the AoE outside the central "beam" would instantly deal 0.25x of the listed damage, which would last all the way up to the very outside of the hitbox (as opposed to falling off gradually).
   
• Attacking dead-on within 20m would always produce the same range of numbers, no matter what the distance. Attacking from beyond 20m is when damage reverts to 0.25x and is no longer able to score headshots.
   
• Attacking within ~15m will deal zero damage if your central beam is even slightly off, making the Ignis practically a laser pointer within this range. Backing away will cause the AoE to deal damage again.
  There is also a sour spot between ~25m and ~35m where this AoE will NOT deal damage. Between 35-40m is okay, though. (Firestorm alleviates this slightly.)
   
• (unsure!) Based on extensive testing with and without Firestorm, my prediction for what the "hitboxes" are:
  • Regular perfect-accuracy beam from 0m to 20m.
  • 5m spherical AoE appears at 20m.
  • (?) 5m hemispherical AoE appears at 40m (i.e. a sphere with the faraway half cut off). ^{Adding Firestorm changes that final AoE from 35m-40m to ~34m-40m, which is what suggests this shape.}

 

- (unrelated):

• The initial tick of damage (from that first "puff" of the flamethrower) has a MUCH wider AoE than the continuous fire. It can hit enemies at wide angles even if they're within 15m, or in the 25m-35m sour spot. (However, it still needs a bit of time to reach its max distance, similar to the beam itself. So you'll need to hold M1 briefly if you want to hit faraway enemies with it.)
  Seems like tapfire spam would work really well with 100% Status builds.
   
• Punchthrough mods like Shred will replace the stock 2m punchthrough, not add on to it.

 

The verdict (and TL;DR):

- Heavy Caliber DOES have an effect.
It causes the entire beam to waver around, which can cause the AoE to occasionally miss a target it should have hit (or to hit a target it should have missed). It produces similar shenanigans regarding the "central beam".
It's a small enough effect that it'll hardly matter in gameplay. But it's still an effect nevertheless.

- The "hitbox" is indeed NOT a cone! It appears to be a standard 20m beam, plus a weirdly-shaped AoE at the far end. 
The 20m beam (with perfect accuracy at base) will deal 1x damage, and the AoE will deal 0.25x damage.

Hmm i always thought its a cone becausr of how the fire effect looks like, i guess time for the devs to update the effect to reflect it better.

[Ironlixivium]

10 hours ago, SortaRandom said:

I played a lot of the Ignis a couple years back, when it was first buffed to have a cone/AoE/whatever hitbox instead of being a narrow beam. I very clearly remember Heavy Cal causing the entire cone/AoE/whatever to waver side to side, making it difficult to consistently land headshots from far away while it's equipped.

But: mechanics can change, and memory can fade, and you seemed pretty confident. So I decided to pop into the Simalcrum to test it for myself. I tested on a Frozen enemy, so there was no interference whatsoever caused by the target moving around.

 

My findings, regarding both HC and the hitboxes in general. Warning: disjointed wall of text ahead.

  Hide contents

- (regarding HC):

• No HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many slightly-varying numbers.
• Yes, HC: Attacking the enemy with the outer "edge" of the hitbox would produce many significantly-varying numbers, but occasionally no numbers at all.
   
• No HC: No matter where you aimed, the ticks would either be all headshots (~2x damage) or all bodyshots (~1x damage).
• Yes, HC: When aiming somewhat past the head, some ticks would be headshots (~2x damage) and some would be bodyshots (~1x damage).
   
• No HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.
• Yes, HC: Aiming directly at the head produces consistent headshots, up to 20m. Attacking from further would never produce headshots.

 

- (regarding hitboxes):

•  Attacking with the central "beam" would deal the listed DPS of the damage, with slight deviation. Attacking with the AoE outside the central "beam" would instantly deal 0.25x of the listed damage, which would last all the way up to the very outside of the hitbox (as opposed to falling off gradually).
   
• Attacking dead-on within 20m would always produce the same range of numbers, no matter what the distance. Attacking from beyond 20m is when damage reverts to 0.25x and is no longer able to score headshots.
   
• Attacking within ~15m will deal zero damage if your central beam is even slightly off, making the Ignis practically a laser pointer within this range. Backing away will cause the AoE to deal damage again.
  There is also a sour spot between ~25m and ~35m where this AoE will NOT deal damage. Between 35-40m is okay, though. (Firestorm alleviates this slightly.)
   
• (unsure!) Based on extensive testing with and without Firestorm, my prediction for what the "hitboxes" are:
  • Regular perfect-accuracy beam from 0m to 20m.
  • 5m spherical AoE appears at 20m.
  • (?) 5m hemispherical AoE appears at 40m (i.e. a sphere with the faraway half cut off). ^{Adding Firestorm changes that final AoE from 35m-40m to ~34m-40m, which is what suggests this shape.}

 

- (unrelated):

• The initial tick of damage (from that first "puff" of the flamethrower) has a MUCH wider AoE than the continuous fire. It can hit enemies at wide angles even if they're within 15m, or in the 25m-35m sour spot. (However, it still needs a bit of time to reach its max distance, similar to the beam itself. So you'll need to hold M1 briefly if you want to hit faraway enemies with it.)
  Seems like tapfire spam would work really well with 100% Status builds.
   
• Punchthrough mods like Shred will replace the stock 2m punchthrough, not add on to it.

 

The verdict (and TL;DR):

- Heavy Caliber DOES have an effect.
It causes the entire beam to waver around, which can cause the AoE to occasionally miss a target it should have hit (or to hit a target it should have missed). It produces similar shenanigans regarding the "central beam".
It's a small enough effect that it'll hardly matter in gameplay. But it's still an effect nevertheless.

- The "hitbox" is indeed NOT a cone! It appears to be a standard 20m beam, plus a weirdly-shaped AoE at the far end. 
The 20m beam (with perfect accuracy at base) will deal 1x damage, and the AoE will deal 0.25x damage.

Cool thanks. I stand corrected that it does not affect it, what you describe sounds exactly like what it does to glaxion. However, that does mean that it's not actually expanding the AOE, just varying where it hits.