We've finally caught up! What would people like now, should I just keep doing a weekly discussion thread and link to previous weeks? Or just wait for the week 8 rotation until it's all done?
This week is another amazing one, with some very notable community favourites:
- Lex
- Magistar
- Boltor
- Bronco
- Ceramic Dagger
My top picks this week are the Boltor and Ceramic Dagger, but the Bronco is a very fun and totally unique toy for reasons I will explain.
Lex
Oh boy. This is it, this is the Surge weapon of all time. I also ran it as a Fortifier build during Jade Shadows and it turned me into a Fortifier Enjoyer (before I graduated to Atomos and Akarius). It's also an amazing Outburst weapon. And it's compatible with Cannonade!
Essentially the final form of Arca Plasmor style weapons, this "side"-arm hits like a truck with a big wall of energy that kills anything you point it at. Maybe I'll give it a catchy name like "one of the Three Demons" of priority killers in the Incarnon arsenal, alongside Furis and Vasto. If nothing else, the raw damage numbers are extremely entertaining. If you go the Surge route, try it on Yareli smiles sluggily.
Magistar
Has two variants: the base Magi and the Loka Sancti Magistar variant.
Slamkong might have had a QoL regression but the Magistar is still great on every frame. Can be evolved for a truly unreasonable 20m slam radius, although it's not a true sphere like other radial effects, and seems to be restricted by terrain slopes and steps, just like Slampotes and Exec shockwaves. Still, this is a massive nuke, and the new Galvanized Melees let you pretend this is the Arca Titron if you run an Influence build. Needless to say it's great as an Afflictions weapon too. The nuke radius is significant enough it's also a candidate for Exposure builds, which have great synergy with Surge builds.
The Sancti variant heals you too, so this is an interesting option for Combat Discipline/Arcane Avenger setups that don't otherwise want to run some form of self healing.
Boltor
My beloved, and easily my favourite Frostbite weapon. First up is the consideration between the Telos and Prime variant. Telos Boltor is technically the lesser of the two Truth incarnons after the Burston, but it still does its job well enough. Telos is also a straight downgrade to the Prime by a fair margin, and for no real benefit in raw stats. What you do get is the Truth effect, which gives you +25% parkour speed!
That said, Telos Boltor makes it into many of my loadouts as a great utility weapon. It kills most things very fast, clears crowds, and anything it doesn't kill is buried under Cold and Corrosive for my other weapons to handle. And most importantly of all, it makes me go even faster. Zoom!
Bronco
It's time to reveal some deep Warframe lore. Dizzying Rounds applies always. You can open finishers even through Overguard, as well as spam finishers on Acolytes. As an Incarnon, it hits hard too. My favourite combo is an Outburst build with a Ceramic Dagger, but this goes great with the two rapier zaws and the Destreza Prime due to their exceptional finisher damage. Like the Boar, I think the biggest pain point is the slow charging and poor accuracy, although like the Boar you can run "accuracy on equip" in your Exilus to mitigate this.
The weird thing about Dizzying Rounds is that Zakti does not exhibit these properties. Maybe it'll get nerfed, maybe the Zakti will get buffed. Who knows! Enjoy it for now.
Also, credit to Nash Prime for revealing this weird interaction in his Protea video. Go subscribe to him, his buildss will turn you into a Warframe genius.
Ceramic Dagger
Ah yes, the iconic funny combo stacking Incarnon. With the addition of Galvanized Reflex, can get to 11x initial combo, and I believe Ready Steel might push it to 12x? If you don't have Crescendo yet or want to run Slamflictions or Influence, this is a great option. I use it as a slamfluence weapon on Zephyr.
Probably the best stat stick for most frames with exalted pistols, since all you have to do is get some melee kills to keep Galv Coil rolling, and you can transfer Outburst to your exalted to your heart's content; unless you count Crescendo and Vazarin. I wouldn't recommend this on Titania though due to the clunk of having to recast her 4 every now and then.