Review: Mara Detron (U27.3.16)

Last updated: U27.3.16

The Mara Detron is an MR9 Secondary Shotgun that was introduced back in U15.6.3. It has seen a few significant buffs throughout its existence, though really rose to prominence with the U22.12 Balance Pass, and a subsequent hotfix fixing certain status calculations. However, it was one of the worst hit weapons by the U27.2 Revisited update, resulting in a massive fall for what was arguably the best armour stripping weapon in the game.

Acquisition

The Mara Detron is occasionally and exclusively available from Baro Ki'Teer.

Stats

Since U27.2, the Mara Detron had its Status Chance completely changed. It now has a 13.7% Status Chance per pellet, which by Shotgun standards is respectable. Base Radiation damage is quite nice, as it allows otherwise impossible combos like Corrosive + Radiation, or Viral + Radiation + Heat. A quick look at the crit stats will show you that it is absolutely not worth building for.

Its Reload Ratio is solid at 2.4. As a Shotgun, the MDetron has damage fall-off, starting at 16 metres and dropping to 37.5% damage at 30 metres.

Augments

The (Mara) Detron has an augment that is dropped from enemies in Neptune's Index. Enemies killed by the (Mara) Detron deal an amount of Magnetic damage around them, scaling with the killed enemy's health. At first, this seems like it could be very decent, after all, Sobek's very similar Acid Shells is highly valued. Unfortunately, this mod is vastly worse in pretty much every aspect.

Against Grineer/Corrupted, whose primary and most dangerous enemies are armoured, Magnetic does terrible damage to them. The mod slot would be much better used by say Seeker for the Punch Through, or Magnum Force/Augur Pact for more direct damage.
Although initially seeming perfect against Corpus, the extra damage from max enemy health is calculated from exactly that - health only, and not shields. As a result, the extra damage this augment deals is much lower than you'd expect or hope for, because most Corpus are around half shields, if not more. Furthermore, as it does not proc Magnetic, the overall effect of this Augment against Corpus is rather limited.
Ironically, the Infested are the most vulnerable to the augment, as they are purely health and do not resist Magnetic. Furthermore, they are generally greater in number, and more likely to be packed together. That said, I don't consider the Mara Detron to be well suited to crowd killing anyway, and there are a number of secondaries with superior crowd killing abilities even when this mod does work well.

Personally, I don't recommend this augment. It is at its most useful against a faction against whom I do not recommend the Mara Detron against in the first place, and is not especially effective against the faction its damage type is most suited against.

Builds
0-Forma:

To get the most out of the Mara Detron, you'll need as many of the 60/60 mods as possible.This above build is what I'd recommend aiming for to start with, covering all the main bases and giving a good idea of if it is worth further investment. This build inflicts a lot of Status procs, with enough damage to kill weaker enemies and significantly weaken tough enemies.

My go-to recommended elemental setup is of course Viral + Heat. Viral is just an exceptional general-purpose element, effective against just about every Status-vulnerable enemy. Heat capitalises perfectly, adding in its partial armour strip and stacking damage-over-time proc. Corrosive + Heat is an alternative combo focused purely on armour reduction, and also has the best direct damage against the Infested. Viral + Electric hits unarmoured Corpus very hard once their shields are depleted. You could also consider a Magnetic + Toxin setup to help strip Corpus shields, but I generally find their shields to be quite weak anyway.

Recommended Setups: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, Viral + Electric or Magnetic + Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

Augur Pact 1-Forma:

One added V polarity allows the addition of Augur Pact for a good amount of extra damage.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Punch Through 2-Forma:

One added V or - polarity allows the use of Seeker instead, for some Punch Through. It is a great help against groups.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Augur Pact 3-Forma:

Another suitable polarity and you can look at filling both remaining mod slots. Besides the aforementioned Augur Pact and Seeker, there are several other mods you might consider slotting in.

Magnum Force is a bigger damage boost than Augur Pact, but its spread increase greatly reduces the Mara Detron's effective range. Another elemental mod can be a good damage boost and/or bias shift, notably Primed Heated Charge for maximising Heat proc frequency and damage. Stunning Speed or Sure Shot could be used for further increased Status Chance, the former also improving Reload Speed.

For the Exilus slot, the most notable option is Lethal Momentum. The increased Projectile Speed also lengthens the damage fall-off distances, significantly improving the Mara Detron's effectiveness beyond close range.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

As my Primary is usually already running Viral, I typical equip Status Secondaries with Corrosive. Heat is the natural extra element, with additional armour strip, and one of the few procs that can deal good damage.

Otherwise, Viral + Heat is my recommended go-to combo.

Combat Use and Summary

As a pure Status weapon, the Mara Detron is best at weakening heavier enemies, particularly armoured ones. It can inflict many Viral/Corrosive/Heat procs to weaken such enemies, though its mediocre direct damage limits its effectiveness in finishing off such foes. That lacking direct damage lends poorly to killing unarmoured enemies. Though Viral procs remain just as useful, they are the Mara Detron's primary source of damage amplification, which drops off compared to Crit-heavier weapons.

With quite a wide spread, projectile travel time and damage fall-off, naturally the Mara Detron is quite poor beyond close range. It can still inflict several Status procs, but will be much weaker and less potent.


The U27.2 Warframe Revised update was extremely harsh on the Mara Detron. Previously, as a purely elemental Shotgun capable of 100% Status Chance, it could completely strip the armour of pretty much any enemy in just a few shots of Corrosive. It was a fast armour stripper than just about any other weapon in the game, as its base Radiation damage did not have the 4x bias of physical damage types. Now, its Status Chance has been linearised and overall significantly reduced, Corrosive procs are capped to 80% armour strip, and physical damage types no longer have 4x bias.

Overall, the Mara Detron is a decent but not exceptional Status Secondary. It can inflict many Status procs on a lot of targets with just a few shots. However, it is lacking in direct damage, and is nowhere near as good as it used to be, as well as facing much stiffer competition.

Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 2.5/5 - Middling DPS but good reload ratio and spread, it is beaten in this category by quite a lot of other, mainly crit, secondaries.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2.5/5 - Burst DPS is very mediocre by secondary standards. Beaten by a lot of secondaries, particularly Crit ones, for single target damage. Enhanced Viral procs do help, but are not enough to make up the gap.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 -The changes to Shotgun Status, Corrosive and damage type bias removed many of the Mara Detron's biggest strengths. Though it is still very capable of stacking up Viral/Corrosive/Heat procs, it lacks the direct damage to more efficiently kill high health enemies.

Vs Variants

The MR9 Mara Detron is an improvement over the MR6 Detron. Notably, its damage fall-off ranges are further away (16-30m vs 13-22m), and its magazine is much larger (8 vs 5).

Competitors

By far the biggest competitor to the Mara Detron is the Kuva Brakk. It has a much lower base Damage and only slightly lower Status Chance, in exchange for great Crit stats for overall far higher damage output. The KBrakk is much more potent at close range, inflicting heaps of Status procs while also dealing immense damage. However, it is also practically worthless beyond close range, dealing a measly 4% damage beyond 20 metres.

Rivens

The Mara Detron has a neutral Riven Disposition of 3/5 (1), while the regular Detron has a 4/5 (1.15) Disposition. Given that they feel relatively underwhelming since the U27.2 update, I personally wouldn't mind seeing those Dispositions going up a little.

Naturally, +Damage/Multishot are great to have. +Elemental damage is another solid damage increase, and can help adjust biases. +Status Chance can help maximise Status procs and proc stacking. +Status Duration can be helpful if you intend to finish off the enemy with a different weapon. +Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are nice, but by no means crucial. +Projectile Speed improves performance beyond close range. +Punch Through is great against crowds.

Given their very low base values, -Crit Chance/Damage have minimal impact, though the former is much preferable to the latter. -Faction Damage has no effect if you don't use the weapon against that faction, and can be very manageable against the weaker factions. -Fire Rate can be manageable, especially alongside Lethal Torrent. -Ammo Max is largely a non-issue as the (Mara) Detron is quite ammo efficient. I would consider +Recoil to be very manageable. -Zoom is ideal as the (Mara) Detron is most effective in close quarters anyway.