Review: Nagantaka (U24.0.2)

The Nagantaka is Garuda's signature primary, an MR9 crossbow very recently released in U24. It is quite unique among current bows, being semi-auto with a special secondary fire. With 90% Slash damage and solid base stats, it's a fairly powerful bow that can do some good damage to most enemies.

Acquisition

The Nagantaka's blueprint is available directly from the market.

Stats

39% base Status Chance, with 90% Slash bias on a rather high base damage is fantastic. Even with the low ROF, the Nagantaka procs a lot of large Slash. Its crit is definitely usable thanks to the above average Crit Damage, but 15% Crit Chance is annoyingly low for a slow firing weapon. A Mag Capacity of 9 and Reload Time of 2.3 seconds gives it a fairly poor Reload Ratio of 1.57.

The Nagantaka also has a special secondary Burst fire, akin to that of the Pandero, firing off all remaining shots in the mag. Besides the much higher ROF of 5.81, the Burst fire also suggests a shorter reload. From my use, I haven't noticed any difference in reload speed between firing the last shot with Semi or Burst modes, but 0.3 seconds is not a lot of difference.

Also of note is that upon scoring a headshot kill, the Nagantaka will have a boosted reload speed. This buff lasts for a couple of seconds, and significantly reduces Reload Time.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With a single V polarity, you can fit a reasonable build on the Nagantaka without Forma. I've slotted on Shred, with Split Chamber downgraded to Vigilante Armaments, because I personally find the base ROF to be too slow for my liking. As a bow, the Nagantaka gets a double bonus from +Fire Rate, with a max rank Shred effectively giving +60% instead of its usual +30%. Punch Through is also great against crowds, because of how slow firing it is. The Fire Rate buff and Punch Through make the bow much more usable for me, but if the slow ROF doesn't bother you, Shred can be switched for something else.

Viral has been chosen as the go-to element because it synergises fantastically with the high Status Chance and Slash bias, halving enemy health for the Slash procs to eat through even faster. With such a low ROF, the Nagantaka is not very good at armour stripping via Corrosive procs.

Built for crit, with a critical headshot, the Nagantaka can apply a massive Slash proc, which can do major damage even to level 100+ armoured enemies. Unfortunately, its low Crit Chance of 37.5% with Point Strike means that it can be very inconsistent with this. Thankfully, its base damage is high enough that even a non-critical Slash proc is going to eat a decent chunk of health.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs Grineer, Corrupted, unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive vs Infested, Radiation vs armoured Corpus

General Purpose 3-Forma:

Three added V polarities lets you comfortably fit in a full build. Again Shred is there because I really like the ROF boost and Punch Through, but can be switched for something else. Something like Argon Scope or Critical Delay can make the Nagantaka more consistent with critting, or say Bladed Rounds for increased damage-per-shot. I'm not sure how it is affected by -Accuracy, but otherwise Heavy Caliber may also be a decent choice for damage-per-shot.

It's worth noting that because of the Nagantaka's mediocre Crit Chance and great Status Chance and Slash bias, my calculations suggest that Vigilante Armaments will cause more Slash procs than Hunter Munitions in this build. If you switch the 60/60s for 90% elementals, I think Hunter Munitions would get the advantage.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

Nothing special with my builds. Viral for most targets, Corrosive for Infested, Radiation for armoured Corpus. To be honest though, I wouldn't use the Nagantaka against anything unarmoured or inorganic, as it loses most of its main benefits compared to other weapons.

Combat Use and Summary

As a fairly slow firing, Slash proccing weapon, the Nagantaka is at its best when used against a few heavily armoured enemies. A couple of well placed shots, with a little luck for crits and Slash procs, can leave level 100+ Heavy Gunners and Bombards rapidly bleeding out. It is much less impressive against enemies without armour, as Slash procs are significantly less noteworthy, and the Nagantaka's Burst DPS is unimpressive, especially given its mediocre crit. As a slow firing weapon with poor Reload Ratio, the Nagantaka also struggles against crowds.

The Nagantaka has several of the typical Bow properties. It has significant projectile travel time, which makes engagements beyond close range and against moving targets quite annoying. On kill, the dead enemy becomes ragdolled and the arrow continues forth, which helps against multiple targets, but is relatively infrequent and unreliable. This is especially ineffective as much of the Nagantaka's damage potential comes from Slash procs, which do not provide this pseudo-Punch Through effect. It also has minimal recoil.

Likewise, while the bonus reload speed on headshot could be great for the Nagantaka, I feel that the short buff time, and trigger conditions make it difficult to utilise. The buff triggers only on headshot kills from direct shot damage, not triggering if the target dies to Slash procs. Additionally, since the buff only lasts for a couple of seconds, you must reload almost immediately after the shot to utilise it. Especially in a game like Warframe which can be very chaotic, the reload buff feels to me more like a random nice buff, rather than an actual reliable feature.

The Nagantaka's secondary Burst fire is rather special, being shared only with the Pandero. Firing off all remaining rounds in a single burst, the Burst fire is great in those times when you need some things dead quickly. The (temporarily) drastically increased ROF is a great help against groups, and is also highly effective against Nullifiers, easily popping their bubbles. Unlike the Pandero, the Nagantaka's secondary fire does not have increased recoil, and still allows you to zoom. However, compared to the Pandero's fast reload, the Nagantaka still needs its usual 2+ second reload after the secondary fire, which I find to be frustratingly long. Like the Pandero, the secondary Burst fire can be cancelled by rolling or quick melee.

Overall, the Nagantaka feels like a relatively specialised weapon. It excels at obliterating heavily armoured enemies with Slash procs, falling behind in group killing, and against anything without armour. I was actually quite impressed with its killing power, as even without Forma, it was doing major damage with Slash procs. Given it's available from Market at MR9, it's definitely worth building to try out, and if you're in need of a decent bow primary and don't like the traditional bows, I'd say the Nagantaka is worth investing in.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 1.5/5 - Burst mode can help with punching through groups of enemies, but a poor Reload Ratio and slow ROF otherwise really hinder the Nagantaka.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2.5/5 - Fairly mediocre Burst DPS for a primary weapon, and Slash procs are not as noteworthy against unarmoured enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4.5/5 - Regularly inflicts big Slash procs, and can make quick work of most armoured heavies with just a few well placed shots.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: NA/5 - Doesn't actually benefit too much from HM due to mediocre Crit Chance, and procs more than enough Slash naturally anyway.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

There is nothing quite like the Nagantaka currently in game. The other crossbows, Astilla and Zhuge, are both Full-Auto, and have more crit. The closest weapons are probably the Semi-Auto rifles, with the most comparable being the Grinlok which has a similar crit/status spread. Compared to the Grinlok however, I'd consider the Nagantaka to be superior, by virtue of its near total Slash bias resulting in far more Slash procs, and special secondary fire which is great against crowds.

Rivens

As a new, middle-of-the-range weapon, the Nagantaka has a moderate 3/5 (1) Riven disposition, which I think is fairly reasonable. It is already a rather powerful weapon, and certainly does not need much help to deal with most enemies in the game, but is by no means absurdly strong.

Personally, I'd consider Multishot/Crit Chance to be the best Riven stats, for increasing the number of procs, and increasing crit frequency for improved consistency. One of the Nagantaka's main weaknesses is that it crits fairly unreliably, which can be very inconvenient and frustrating on a slow firing weapon. Damage/Crit Damage are both great extra stats to have of course. I would also consider +Fire Rate, +Reload Speed and Punch Through to be good stats to have. +Projectile Flight Speed can improve usability at longer ranges.

As a slow firing rifle with good ammo efficiency, -Max Ammo is a great negative. -Zoom is also good given the projectile travel time makes the Nagantaka difficult to use beyond medium range. -Impact/Puncture are both excellent as they collectively make up only 10% of its base damage. +Recoil if you can handle it is also a reasonable negative.