Review: Grinlok (U24.2.2)

The Grinlok is an MR7 lever-action Semi-Auto rifle originally released in U12.1. It received a substantial buff along with many other weapons in the U22.12 Balance Pass, though still suffers from several notable flaws.

Acquisition

The Grinlok must be researched at a Dojo's Chem Lab to acquire its blueprint.

Stats

Immediately noteworthy is the Grinlok's exceptionally high 35% Status Chance, among the highest of all weapons. This combines well with its very high base Damage, with a solid but not exceptional 40% Slash composition.

The Grinlok also has a great 2.5x base Crit Damage, but a frustratingly low Crit Chance of just 15%. This is helped by its Augment, but remains a problem in combat.

With such a low RoF, the Grinlok has a respectable Reload Ratio of about 3.17, even with such a small magazine.

Augments

The Grinlok has access to one of the best weapon Augments in the game, Deadly Sequence, available from the Perrin Sequence. Deadly Sequence gives +200% Crit Chance at max rank, more than Point Strike for less mod space. This helps to patch up the Grinlok's mediocre base Crit Chance. As a Perrin Sequence Augment, it also gives the weapon the Sequence Syndicate effect.

Upon gaining sufficient affinity, the Sequence Syndicate effect inflicts 1000 Radiation damage, with guaranteed proc. It also restores some shields, and increases base shields by a small amount for a time. The Radiation proc is quite useful, and Radiation is one of the better damage types to be inflicting, however the partial shield restore and increase is quite poor, mainly because shields are currently a very weak defence.

Builds

0-Forma:

With Deadly Sequence being so good but also so low drain, the Grinlok has a slightly easier time fitting in basic builds than most crit weapons. The pictured build has Deadly Sequence in place of Point Strike, with two 60/60s to take full advantage of its high Status Chance. Viral has been used as the Grinlok fires very slowly, but procs Slash surprisingly frequently, so suits a Viral + Slash build surprisingly well. If the 60/60s are not available, 90% elementals can be used in their place thanks to the spare capacity.

Because of the Grinlok's ability to proc Slash, I recommend Viral for use against most armoured targets, particularly Grineer and Corrupted. Viral is also great against unarmoured Corpus. Gas is a surprisingly effective anti-crowd option, especially against Corpus, as the Grinlok's high damage-per-shot can inflict some very large Gas/Toxin procs. Radiation is ideal against armoured Corpus. Against Infested, I'd recommend sticking to Corrosive to target their heavies.

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

General Purpose 1-Forma:

An added V polarity lets you fit in Point Strike, while still have a bunch of spare capacity, perhaps for a 90% instead of 60/60. Personally, I find the Grinlok's Crit Chance with just Deadly Sequence to be too low, and frustratingly inconsistent.

Recommended Setups: see above.

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Another V polarity lets you fit on Shred, which I consider mandatory for the Grinlok. It provides Punch Through and Fire Rate, both of which the Grinlok is sorely lacking in. This helps substantially against groups.

If you don't want Shred, you can slot in something else like Vigilante Armaments, Hunter Munitions or Fanged Fusillade. Vigilante Armaments offers a nice damage boost, while Hunter Munitions and Fanged Fusillade both greatly increase the number of Slash procs inflicted. HM will inflict the most Slash procs provided you have both Deadly Sequence and Point Strike, but Fanged Fusillade is better if not, provided you use two 60/60 mods.

The Grinlok is a weapon that really, really wants to use more mods than it has mod slots. On top of the standard six (Damage + Multishot + Crit + Elements), it really wants both Deadly Sequence and Point Strike because its base Crit Chance is quite low. Shred is also very helpful. On top of these, the Grinlok also greatly appreciates Hunter Munitions/Fanged Fusillade to inflict Slash procs more frequently, not to mention a Riven if available.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

My +Crit Chance Riven beats Point Strike, allowing me to drop that mod entirely from builds. While equipping it as well would result in even higher Crit Chance, this would be at the cost of a substantial amount of power or usability. This above build is a standard crit + Viral build. Rime Rounds instead of Primed Cryo Rounds offers much more status application, at the cost of a lot of direct damage.

This Corrosive build is aimed primarily at Infested.

This Radiation build is aimed primarily at armoured Corpus.

Combat Use and Summary

The Grinlok is a slow-firing precision rifle, and has weaknesses as such. It is one of the worst rifles against groups, due to its very low RoF and lack of consistent AoE or other anti-crowd mechanic. Punch Through and its Syndicate effect from Deadly Sequence are pretty much essential for anti-crowd purposes. A Gas build can be effective against groups, thanks to the Grinlok's exceptionally high Status Chance, but deals poor direct damage.

The Grinlok fares much better against single targets, dealing reasonable but not exceptional DPS against high health unarmoured heavies. Notably, with reasonable Slash disposition and very high Status Chance, it can inflict Slash procs surprisingly frequently, which deal major damage to armoured enemies.

Rather annoyingly, even with both Point Strike and Deadly Sequence, the Grinlok only reaches 67.5% Crit Chance, which leaves significant chance for any given shot to not crit at all. On such a slow firing rifle, this is very noticeable and very frustrating. Thankfully, the Grinlok has extremely good accuracy and practically no recoil, which allows for very precise repeated shots, ideally at an enemy's head.

Overall, the Grinlok is a decent MR7 weapon, but is outclassed by other rifles, and wants more mods than it can fit. Its inconsistency with crits is especially bad given its low RoF. Most snipers have a similar RoF, with far, far better damage-per-shot and crit consistency. Many other precision rifles have better crit, especially Crit Chance, for much better consistency and overall damage output. Most other rifles in the game also fare better against groups, whether it be from higher RoF, innate Punch Through or AoE effects.

Like with most other precision rifles, the Grinlok is an alright weapon in a weapon class that is not well suited to Warframe. It handles groups quite poorly, which make up the majority of Warframe combat, and does not fare especially well against single heavier targets compared to other rifles. Unless you really like precision rifles or the Grinlok in particular, I'd recommend just levelling it to 30, then switching to something else.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 1.5/5 - Very low RoF and no innate AoE, the Grinlok relies on Punch Through and its Syndicate effect from Deadly Sequence. A Gas build can be effective against groups as well, but sacrifices a lot of direct damage and is much worse against single targets.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 3/5 - Decent but not great Burst DPS means that the Grinlok falls behind many other rifles against high health enemies, but it isn't terrible by any means.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 3/5 - With very high Status Chance and not-terrible Slash disposition, the Grinlok is one of the better anti-armour rifles without Hunter Munitions. It can proc Slash surprisingly frequently, and with a crit, these Slash procs will be quite powerful. The Grinlok is of course subject to luck of procs and crits - one good shot could bleed the enemy dry while one bad shot could do almost nothing. Notably, Fanged Fusillade results in nearly as many Slash procs as Hunter Munitions, with more direct damage.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 3.5/5 - Thanks to Deadly Sequence, the Grinlok has a high enough Crit Chance to take advantage of Hunter Munitions. HM inflicts more slash procs than using Fanged Fusillade, though not by a lot. Annoyingly for the Grinlok, this applies only with both Deadly Sequence and Point Strike equipped, which combined with HM results in no mod slots remaining for things like Shred. Dropping either of the Crit Chance mods makes Fanged Fusillade a better option for inflicting Slash procs.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

As with the other Semi-Autos, the Grinlok faces competition not only from the other (few) Semi-Auto rifles, but also the other, more numerous precision rifles. Of the Semi-Autos, the Veldt is more effective against groups, while the Latron Prime is much more powerful. The Grinlok has minimal advantage besides potentially a Syndicate effect from its Augment.

This gets even worse when looking at the other precision rifles available, like Argonak, Sybaris Prime and Tiberon Prime. The Argonak is much better against groups, while the Sybaris and Tiberon Primes are just vastly superior overall. Not to mention sniper rifles, which far exceed the Grinlok for raw firepower.

Rivens

The Grinlok has a fairly high Riven Disposition, at 4/5 (1.245). I'd consider this to be fairly reasonable, given its unpopularity and significant flaws.

As usual, Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the stats to aim for. Personally I strongly prefer MS + CC for the greatly improved consistency. Punch Through and +Fire Rate are a great help against groups, especially if you don't equip (Primed) Shred. A suitable element can help to save a mod slot, which the Grinlok is especially tight on. +Slash can help to inflict Slash procs more frequently/reliably. +Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can also be helpful against crowds.

-Max Ammo is very good on the Grinlok since it has very high spare ammo, and is very ammo efficient. -Zoom is great for close quarters combat. -Impact will drastically increase the number of Slash procs, but will reduce overall damage a reasonable amount. -Puncture will slightly increase Slash proc bias, but will barely affect total damage. -Projectile Flight Speed has no effect. +Recoil has barely any effect since the Grinlok has very little recoil to begin with.