Review: Synoid Gammacor (U24.2.13)

The Synoid Gammacor is an MR7 beam weapon, available from the Cephalon Suda Syndicate. With well rounded stats and a very useful Syndicate effect, the Synoid Gammacor is a very solid beam secondary.

Acquisition

The Synoid Gammacor is available from Cephalon Suda for 100,000 standing, provided you are at maximum rank. If unused and without an Orokin Catalyst installed, it can also be traded.

Stats

The Synoid Gammacor has solid crit and great Status Chance. The Status Chance in particular combines great with its high RoF and pure Magnetic base Damage, to make for a fantastic status weapon. As a beam weapon, the SGammacor only consumes ammo at 6/sec at base, for an exceptional Reload Ratio of 7.41.
It also fires with perfect accuracy and has a maximum range of 40 metres, which is quite good for a beam weapon, but of course presents a potential problem in larger maps.

As a Synoid weapon, the SGammacor has the Entropy Syndicate effect. Upon gaining sufficient affinity, it will deal 1000 Magnetic damage to all nearby enemies, with guaranteed proc. It also restores some Energy, and temporarily increases your Max Energy.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

The Synoid Gammacor has a native D and - polarities. The - is useful for 90% elementals and/or Seeker, while the D polarity only fits the 90% Cold elemental, making it far less useful. This is a fairly standard, basic build - Damage, Multishot Crit and elementals. Thanks to the polarities, you can use any combination of two elemental mods, whether 60/60s for Status Chance or 90%s for raw damage. Lethal Torrent is an option instead of Barrel Diffusion if you want the higher RoF for more status application.

Against armoured enemies, the Synoid Gammacor performs very well with a Corrosive armour strip build. It has high RoF and Status Chance, and notably its base Magnetic damage allows it to proc Corrosive far more frequently than a physical damage weapon. The base Magnetic damage also greatly mitigates Corrosive's one weakness against shields. This build of course wants maximum Status Chance.

Against unarmoured Corpus, both Viral and Gas are solid options. Viral deals excellent direct damage once shields are down, especially to organics, and the base Magnetic tears down shields very quickly. Gas, while lacking in direct damage, deals excellent group damage with its procs, and can bypass shields entirely, again with its procs. The Viral build does best with maximum raw damage, since it procs frequently enough already, while naturally the Gas build wants maximum Status Chance.

Against Infested, Corrosive is again the best option, this time building for raw damage.

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

General Purpose 1-Forma:

An added V polarity replacing the D lets you fit in Lethal Torrent, with the elementals needing to be one - polarity 90%, and one 60/60. This adds a substantial amount of extra damage output, but does not offer any different functionality.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Primed Crit 3-Forma:

Two more V polarities lets you comfortably slot in both Primed crit mods, and have the flexibility of any combination of two elemental mods.

Recommended Setups: see above.

General Purpose 4-Forma:

One more V polarity lets you make use of all eight mod slots, depending on what elementals and eighth mod you choose. My go-to eighth mod is of course Seeker, for more than just the usual efficiency and convenience. Beam weapons suffer against groups compared to regular weapons. Due to the damage ramp-up mechanic of beam weapons, they have reduced damage output when switching between multiple targets. The Punch Through from Seeker allows you to damage multiple targets simultaneously, thus also reducing/eliminating the extra damage ramp-up time.

Augur Pact/Magnum Force both offer more raw damage, another elemental like Pathogen Rounds is great for more bias, Primed Heated Charge for raw damage, the list goes on.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Electric vs unarmoured Corpus, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested

My Builds:

This is my go-to build, Corrosive with increased bias and Status Chance for maximum armour stripping. The rest of the setup is pretty standard, the Riven also adding Punch Through.

This is a Viral + Electric build, permitted by +Toxin on my Riven. This build is brutally effective against Corpus, dealing massive damage to all of their health types besides their armoured enemies. A Gas status build would also be highly effective in a similar role, dealing worse direct damage but much better AoE.

This is a Corrosive + Heat build, great against the Infested.

Combat Use and Summary

The Synoid Gammacor is a fairly solid general-purpose beam weapon. It deals a reasonable amount of raw damage, with very high status output. It is most effective against heavily armoured targets, rapidly stripping their armour with a Corrosive status build, and dealing reasonable direct damage with its respectable crit. The SGammacor falls behind many other secondaries against unarmoured heavies, due to its unexceptional raw damage output by secondary standards. Notably however, it can run a Viral + Magnetic build that allows it to reduce both health and shields with its procs, which few other weapons can do.

The Synoid Gammacor's main weakness against groups is the beam damage ramp-up mechanic. Due to requiring a short time to reach maximum damage when it switches targets, it is less effective against many weaker enemies than it is against fewer heavier enemies. Punch Through does help significantly, allowing you not only to damage multiple enemies at once, but also ramp-up damage on multiple targets at once. The Entropy Syndicate effect is also useful at lower levels, though occurs infrequently. Building for Gas status can also be helpful, dealing consistent AoE damage with its procs, but is weak against armoured Grineer and the Infested's Ancients.

A limited range of 40 metres is largely a non-issue in most Warframe content, with most combat occurring well within such range. It is however a potential problem in the open worlds. As a beam weapon, the Synoid Gammacor has no recoil, and has perfect accuracy.
A spare ammo reserve of 400 is not exceptionally large, and can deplete in longer missions, especially against tougher enemies. If you intend on undertaking a particularly long mission, one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc is recommended.

Overall, the Synoid Gammacor is a solid secondary. It does reasonable damage with great status output, has a great Syndicate effect, and is usable at a fairly low MR. It is relatively weaker against crowds, but can kill them all the same. Its base Magnetic damage offers many rare and powerful elemental combos as well. If you enjoy beam weapons, or are looking for just a well rounded secondary, the Synoid Gammacor is worth a chance. Its Syndicate effect is a notable advantage over most other secondaries that is particularly helpful for certain Frames who like to use channeled abilities a lot (e.g. Ember, Equinox).

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3.5/5 - Reasonable damage output with high RoF, and a very useful Syndicate effect. However, the Synoid Gammacor is still primarily a single-target weapon, with no AoE or innate Punch Through, and suffers from beam damage ramp-up. Though useful, the Syndicate effect is also inconsistent and slow.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2.5/5 - Unexceptional raw DPS means that the Synoid Gammacor does not fare especially well against enemies with a lot of health. Its decent Crit does help if you can land headshots consistently.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 - High RoF and Status Chance, with base Magnetic damage allows the Synoid Gammacor to proc Corrosive frequently and reliably, rapidly stripping armour. Being a beam weapon however, it unfortunately does not gain multiple beams from Multishot, so lags noticeably behind the fastest armour stripping weapons. It is also a little lacking in raw DPS.

Vs Variants

The MR7 Synoid Gammacor is a vast improvement over the MR2 Gammacor, trading a slower reload for vastly superior damage output and more status.

Competitors

There aren't too many beam secondaries currently in the game, and the majority of them are more heavily weighted towards status, with worse crit than the Synoid Gammacor. Notably, the Ocucor and especially Atomos are much better against groups, while the Cycron regenerates its own ammo. In particular though, a Gaze Kitgun can sport higher crit and/or status, for overall superior damage output, but of course does not have a Syndicate effect. The Synoid Gammacor's base Magnetic damage is also pretty rare, and opens up a number of rare build options, like Corrosive + Magnetic.

Rivens 

The (Synoid) Gammacor has a low Riven disposition of 1/5 (0.65), which I consider to be unnecessarily low. Though decently powerful, the Synoid Gammacor is hardly exceptional or overpowered, especially in light of more recent releases. I would consider a Disposition of around 3/5 to be a lot more reasonable.

Naturally, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. An element is great for saving a mod slot or increasing bias (e.g. Toxin/Electric for Corrosive). +Punch Through is a great help against groups.

-Status Duration is usable if you care only about Corrosive procs (which are unaffected). -Faction Damage to a weaker/less important faction (e.g. Infested) is tolerable against other factions. -Fire Rate is nice for ammo economy, and does not affect the (Synoid) Gammacor's behaviour, but does of course cost DPS and status output. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed can be tolerable as it has a very good Reload Ratio. -Max Ammo can be alright in shorter missions, or alongside Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. +Recoil has no effect. -Zoom is quite usable since the (Synoid) Gammacor is only usable in closer range anyway.