Prime Unvaulting: Mag + Nova (2018)

Trying out a new type of post, this one will give a quick rundown of all the stuff that has just been Unvaulted. They'll skip out on a lot of details, but I hope to still provide a reasonably accurate overview of the items. This time around it's Mag Prime and finally Nova Prime.

A quick rundown on "Vaulting" if you're a newer player:
When a new set of Prime stuff is released, the oldest set of Primes are put in the Vault. This means that relics for those old Primes will no longer drop in missions. Any relics you have in your inventory remain, as do any of the Vaulted Primes and their parts/blueprints. For instance, the oldest Prime items currently available are Banshee, Euphona and Helios Primes. When we get the next new Prime stuff, expected to be Mesa Prime in December, the relics for Banshee and her stuff will no longer drop in missions. Anything you already have will remain, so Banshee and her stuff will remain in inventory, as will all their related parts and relics.

A Unvaulting is a temporary re-release of old, Vaulted Primes. It has no effect on the regularly available Primes, nor does anything get Vaulted when an Unvaulting happens. In Unvaultings, relics are made available in drop tables which have the Unvaulted Prime parts. When the Unvaulting ends, those relics are made unavailable and these Primes return to the Vault. For instance, in this Unvaulting, there will be new relics available containing the parts/blueprints for Mag and Nova Primes and their associated weapons. Once the Unvaulting ends, these relics and thus Primes will become unavailable again.


Mag Prime comes with Boar and Dakra Primes, the latter of which I don't even have built currently, but have mastered previously.
Mag (Prime) is a frame that requires a lot of skill and experience to make the most of, but can be very powerful once mastered.
All four of her abilities are useful, though Pull (1) arguably less so than the others. Pull (1) offers some short-term emergency CC, pulling enemies off their feet towards you. Magnetise (2) creates a projectile attracting bubble around a targeted enemy. When used well, it can act as both an offensive damage buff and delayed area damage, as well as a defensive bullet blocker. Polarise (3) emits an expanding wave that reduces enemy shields and armour, also dealing some AoE damage to affected enemies. Crush (4) stuns nearby enemies, dealing some damage and generating overshields for yourself and nearby allies based on damage dealt.

Most of Mag's augments are also good, and offer additional utility to her abilities. Mag can be effective both offensively and defensively, as her abilities, especially with augments, offer some damage dealing, but predominantly enemy debuffing and CC.

Mag Prime has increased Health and Energy compared to regular Mag, which are both nice improvements to have.
To be honest, I don't like playing Mag and I'm not very good with her. That said, I can definitely appreciate her power and potential, and I would say (in my highly unqualified opinion) that she is fairly good right now.

Boar Prime is a 100% status capable full-auto shotgun. It doesn't do as much damage as some of the other shotguns, but procs a lot of status, excelling at armour stripping with Corrosive. It's not the best weapon in the game, but it's far from the worst.

Dakra Prime is a single sword, whose base stats are identical to Broken War except for having a significantly lower base damage. Not to mention things like Krohkur, but most importantly Zaw Swords, which leave the DakraP as a vastly outclassed sword. We can only hope that Melee 3.0 also brings with it major buffs for underwhelming weapons like the DakraP.

Nova Prime comes with Soma and Vasto Primes, which I believe is the only Prime set to have two Prime weapons, neither of which are melee.
Nova (Prime) is a powerful and versatile frame. Her Molecular Prime (4) alone makes her worth having, and her other abilities offer even more utility and power.
Null Star (1) creates a bunch of orbiting projectiles that will attack nearby enemies. More importantly, each Null Star gives +5% damage reduction to health, to a maximum of 90%. Antimatter Drop (2) launches a slow moving projectile. Upon hitting an enemy or object, it detonates, dealing a base damage plus additional damage absorbed from shooting the projectile. Wormhole (3) allows instant movement from the portal location to the end point, with limited range. Molecular Prime (4) causes all affected enemies to receive double damage to health, and depending on build, can make them move up to 60% faster, or 75% slower. Affected enemies also explode on death.
Nova's augments can be useful, though for relatively more niche purposes.

Nova's augments all have some utility, each adding a useful effect to their associated ability.

Nova Prime has increased Shields and Energy compared to regular Nova, the latter of which is a useful boost.
As I mentioned before, Molecular Prime (4) alone has so much utility that having just that ability would still make Nova worth having. The ability to universally debuff and speed control enemies is invaluable for so many mission types, and her other abilities add some useful utility as well. I would strongly recommend trying to acquire a Nova Prime set while she's Unvaulted.

Soma Prime is a crit focused spool-up rifle, with a massive magazine and high ROF, but poor Status Chance and very low base Damage. I personally consider it to be the worst of all the spool-up rifles, but that's more of a case of all the others getting significantly buffed in U22.12, rather than the Soma Prime being "bad" as such. It is also a relatively minor improvement over the base Soma, an oddity among Prime weapons. With all that said, especially with Hunter Munitions, the Soma Prime can handle the majority of content in the game without too much trouble, only requiring Ammo Case/Mutation/etc support for longer missions. It's not a weapon I particularly like, but it's quite popular among a lot of other players, and will serve well if modded properly.

Vasto Prime is a slash based pistol with high crit and status. It has good firepower and procs a lot of Slash, but has a tiny magazine and requires constant reloading. Vasto Prime is a great weapon for use against a few high priority targets, and is rather fun and stylish. Again it's not a weapon I particularly like, but it's quite solid nonetheless.

If I had to rank them in order of importance/usefulness/priority of acquisition, I'd arrange them as such:

1. Nova Prime
2. Mag Prime
3. Boar, Soma, Vasto Prime (depending on personal preferences)
4. Dakra Prime