Review: Lenz (U24.2.7)

The Lenz is an MR8 nuclear launcher disguised as a bow, released in U21.3. With a unique two-part explosion with guaranteed Cold proc, it is both the most powerful explosive weapon currently in the game, as well as one of the safest despite its in-game description.

Acquisition

The Lenz' blueprint can only be acquired from a Dojo's Energy Lab once it has been researched.

Stats

Right off the bat is the Lenz' 50% Crit Chance, equal (with the Dread) highest of any weapon in the game currently. Combined with very high base Damage, this allows the Lenz to deal an absurd amount of damage-per-shot. This is counterbalanced by a rather slow 1.2 second charge, and the Lenz being unable to fire at anything except a full charge. Furthermore, its Status Chance is a measly 5%.

Oddly for a bow, the Lenz is not Silent. Additionally, it has just 5 spare rounds. This is compensated for by built-in ammo mutation, allowing it to utilise any ammo pickups.

The Lenz' odd base Damages actually occur completely separately. The Impact damage is dealt by direct impact of the projectile with an enemy. The Cold and Blast are dealt by the two parts of the Lenz' unique explosion.

Upon impact with an object, the Lenz projectile will create a 6-metre radius initial explosion. This initial explosion has a guaranteed Cold proc, and inflicts a small amount of Cold damage.

About a second later, the bubble collapses into a second explosion, dealing the large amount of Blast damage to all targets in the same area of effect. Both explosion components can deal self-damage, and the first part will inflict a Cold proc on you if you're in range.

Notably, added elements are added to each instance of damage separately, scaling off the respective damage amount. The 50 Impact on direct impact gets its own bit of damage, as does the main Blast damage on the second explosion. The Cold first explosion does as well, combining like an elemental weapon as normal.

Like with other bows, if the projectile kills on impact, the enemy is ragdolled and the projectile continues, then continuing to ragdoll other enemies. In the Lenz' case, it also does not detonate until it hits a piece of the room itself, for instance a wall or the floor.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With two innate - polarities, there are a few options open to the Lenz without Forma. This first build has the standard Damage and Crit mods, with Vigilante Armaments as a cheaper and more efficient Multishot mod. Stormbringer and Malignant Force combine for Corrosive, though the elemental combo is easily changeable depending on what mods are available. I've slotted in Vile Acceleration, as I find the Lenz' base 1.2 second charge to be far too long. As a bow, it gets a double bonus from +Fire Rate, bringing its charge time down to a much more usable 0.429.

This second build slots in Split Chamber for the extra Multishot, but loses the second elemental. Honestly, I don't think losing some elementals is that big a deal for the Lenz, as it does such absurdly high damage-per-shot anyway. It has much more of a problem with armoured enemies, given its pathetic Status Chance, and would much prefer something to kill armoured units...

...like Hunter Munitions. This build has Hunter Munitions to allow the Lenz to inflict massive Slash procs - something it normally can't do. Malignant Force is really just there to fill up the space. Even with this incomplete setup focused on Hunter Munitions with just one measly elemental mod, this Lenz build deals over 20,000 raw damage in a single shot - quadrupled if you manage to land a headshot since it's a guaranteed crit. That amount of damage will already instantly kill most unarmoured enemies up to level 50 or so, and easily 80+ if you can land headshots reliably.

For enemies with heavy armour, no amount of raw elemental damage will help the Lenz perform particularly well against both armour types - armour scaling is just too extreme, and the two armour types share no major weaknesses. Instead, the Lenz must rely on Slash procs from Hunter Munitions to deal significant damage against enemies with both armour types. If you care only about one armour type (e.g. Alloy when fighting Corpus only), slotting in the appropriate elemental combo (e.g. Radiation vs Alloy) will do just fine at the levels most players experienced (ie max ~100).

Recommended Setups: HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, Viral vs unarmoured Corpus, Radiation vs armoured Corpus, Corrosive vs Infested. Note that a HM build will kill most enemies without trouble anyway.

General Purpose 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you easily fill in all eight mod slots. This above build again is an elemental damage focused one, great against anything with no armour, and decent against just one armour type. Though again, unless you care only about direct damage, I personally would recommend going for more of a Hunter Munitions approach to cover all bases.

Dropping an elemental to fit in Hunter Munitions, this build deals less (but still an absurd amount of) direct damage, but has massive anti-armour potential. Firing 2 or 3 projectiles per shot, and with guaranteed crits, Hunter Munitions will proc with reasonable frequency and massive power. Again, Malignant Force is there just to fill the slot, as the other options I'd recommend won't fit in 8 mod capacity.

Again looking purely at direct damage with this build, just firing directly into the ground is going to instakill most non/lightly-armoured enemies up to level 70 or so. With headshots, you're looking at over 150,000 direct damage on average, which most enemies will only reach in health beyond level 100. With the other, elemental damage focused build, you're looking at over level 120 before non/lightly-armoured enemies will have a good chance to survive a Lenz headshot - then you can just kill them with a second shot anyway.

With such low spare ammo but so much excess damage, it can be worth considering slotting in Ammo Drum, just to offer a little extra buffer against not getting ammo pickups - though I've rarely found this to be a problem anyway. Terminal Velocity may be worth considering if you want to use the Lenz at longer range.

Recommended Setups: see above. Note that a HM build will kill most enemies without trouble anyway.

Direct Damage 3-Forma:

Another added V polarity lets you fit in two 90% elementals for that little bit more direct damage. If you want to fit in Primed Cryo Rounds, you would need another Forma still, but in the Lenz' case, I don't think PCR is all that useful anyway.

Slash Proc 3-Forma:

This is more what I'd recommend building towards. Again using a third added V polarity lets you go full on Damage + Multishot + Crit with Hunter Munitions. The direct damage isn't important here because the Lenz does so much of it to anything without armour - and so little to anything with heavy armour. Other good options include the (Primed) Bane mods, which will amplify Slash procs massively against the correct faction and Argon Scope/Bladed Rounds if you can reliably meet their trigger conditions. The aforementioned Ammo Drum could be useful if you've constantly running low/out of ammo.

Recommended Setups: HM vs everything except armoured bosses (use the appropriate damage type vs their armour)

My Builds:

This first build is focused on inflicting Slash procs. Heavily armoured units are pretty much the only ones that stand a chance at surviving a Lenz blast. Between over 100% Crit Chance, multiple projectiles from Multishot and the two-part explosion, there is a very high chance of victims being inflicted with very large Slash procs. Two or three shots are all that is necessary to obliterate a group of armoured heavies, with unarmoured enemies likely being obliterated with the first.

These other two builds are set up to deal maximum raw damage against enemies who are less affected by (or immune to) Slash procs and Blast damage (mainly bosses). Honestly they barely ever get used anyway.

Combat Use and Summary

As mentioned previously, the Lenz is more grenade launcher than bow. With a 6 metre radius explosion, it can easily catch an entire crowd in one shot, and kill them all with ease. With such high damage-per-shot, and the ease of catching enemies in the blast radius, just about any unarmoured enemy will be taking massive damage, if not immediately vaporised. This is often still the case with fewer or even no elemental mods - the raw amount of damage the Lenz can deal is enough to overkill most enemies that typical players will encounter several times over.

The Lenz falls down a little when faced with armoured enemies however. With practically no Status Chance to speak of, it has no easy way through armour without Hunter Munitions. It can do good damage to one armour type by equipping the appropriate elemental combo, but will then struggle against the other. With Hunter Munitions however, the Lenz has a powerful, if somewhat unreliable, way to deal with armoured enemies. Easily reaching over 100% Crit Chance, especially with Multishot, the Lenz has a reasonable chance of inflicting a Hunter Munitions Slash proc on its victims. With such high damage-per-shot, any such Slash procs deal massive damage, and often just one or two are enough to kill an armoured heavy.


The two-part explosion is a notable benefit in many respects, but also a weakness in others. For starters, although the Lenz deals self-damage, the first explosion does not deal enough to easily self-kill, at only 10 base Cold damage. The explosion range is also clearly marked in the weapon's energy colour. Since the bulk of the damage is not inflicted until about a second after the initial explosion, it is quite possible, with a roll or otherwise, to escape the blast radius before being struck by the second explosion, which will almost certainly kill. Switching to Operator mode is also a way to prevent your Warframe from taking damage, especially effective if you are able to enter Void mode in time to completely ignore the damage. This makes the Lenz one of the safest explosive weapons.

However, if you can escape the explosion, so can enemies. Even with the Cold proc, faster moving enemies like Chargers, especially if they are near the edge of the explosion, can avoid the second explosion and thus bulk of the damage. As such, leading faster moving enemies may be necessary for maximum effectiveness.

The minimal spare ammo and built-in ammo mutation is again both a blessing and a curse. It greatly reduces the need for Ammo Case/Mutation/etc, capable of drawing ammo from any ammo pickup. However, it also means that you have a severe limit on the number of shots you can take before having to go and pick up ammo. With decent modding, in most missions, this is hardly an issue since the Lenz can kill most enemies with ease. It also makes +Max Ammo a potentially useful stat, which is a rarity - I think the number of weapons that really like +Max Ammo is in single digits.

As you'd expect from a bow-type weapon, Lenz projectiles have significant travel time and some projectile drop, making them much less effective at range.


Overall, the Lenz is a fun, unique and incredibly powerful explosive weapon. It beats out just about every other explosive weapon for raw damage, and with its unique and visually obvious two-part explosion, is much more survivable and a lot easier to get used to. If you're looking for a bow that can handle groups, like explosive weapons, or just want a fun new weapon to try out, I'd strongly recommend giving the Lenz a shot.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 5/5 - Large AoE with massive damage, the Lenz is capable of destroying a crowd with just a single shot.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Absurd damage-per-shot allows the Lenz to deal massive damage to anything without thick armour.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 2/5 - With essentially no Status Chance to speak of, the Lenz is much weaker against armoured enemies, relying on pure DPS to break through. With very little spare ammo however, this can quickly render the Lenz useless without dealing enough damage. The right elemental combo does help significantly against the right armour type, but does not scale too well.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - With over 100% Crit Chance with just Point Strike, and an absurd base Damage, the Lenz is capable of inflicting ridiculously large Slash procs on its victims. However, with very low RoF, it can be inconsistent in inflicting such procs. Sometimes enemies will just disintegrate immediately, having being inflicted with a double-crit Slash proc from the main blast, and other times they don't get any Slash procs at all.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

There are a number of other explosive/AoE weapons in the game, but none come close to the raw firepower of the Lenz. The Tonkor is probably the closest, with a 650 Blast explosion and 2.5x Crit Damage, but falls behind with just 25% Crit Chance. This puts it well behind the Lenz for damage. Notably of the other explosive/similar weapons, the Torid and Pox do not deal self-damage and leave lingering toxic clouds, while the Zarr has an alternate shotgun-like firing mode that also does not deal self-damage. Of all the true explosive weapons though, none of the others offers potential to survive if you get caught in the blast - for every other explosive, you're pretty much just instantly dead unless you can survive the raw damage.

Rivens

The Lenz has a slightly below average 3/5 (0.9) Riven Disposition. Honestly, given its already immense power (especially compared to other weapons at a similar disposition), I don't think it unreasonable to knock it down slightly more, but it also doesn't feel notably overpowered at this level (looking at you, Tiberon Prime at 4/5 [1.3]).

Naturally Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. For an elemental damage build, an added element can help save slots. +Fire Rate is very helpful for the Lenz given its rather long charge time. +Max Ammo can be useful if you struggle with keeping the Lenz topped up. +Flight Speed can be useful for longer ranged engagements. +Reload Speed can help to reduce the time between shots.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all great negatives, since they all have negligible effect on the Lenz' damage output. -Status Chance is very tolerable since the Lenz has barely any of it in the first place. -Faction Damage to a faction you're not worried as much about (particularly Infested) can be a very usable negative too. I would avoid -Grineer Damage though, especially on a Hunter Munitions build, since the Slash procs will be double-reduced. -Mag Capacity and +Recoil have no effect. -Max Ammo can be usable in a smaller amount if you don't have trouble with ammo. -Flight Speed or -Zoom are not problems in close quarters.