Review: Opticor Vandal (U24.6.2)

The Opticor Vandal is an MR14 charge rifle released in U24.4 for the Operation: Buried Debts event. It fires large beams of light, dealing heavy damage to any enemy caught in its path. Compared to the regular Opticor, it trades raw damage-per-shot for superior crit, status and notably a much shorter charge time. In several ways, it is more similar to the Ferrox than the Opticor. Nonetheless, with high damage output and a multitude of anti-crowd mechanics, the Opticor Vandal is a rather capable heavy hitting rifle.

Acquisition

The Opticor Vandal has so far only been made available through the recently completed Operation Buried Debts event, awarded for acquiring 100 Thermia Fracture points.

Stats

The Opticor Vandal has very solid crit stats, which multiplies off of a rather high base Damage to deal impressive damage-per-shot. Combined with a relatively short 0.6 second Charge Time, it can put out multiple powerful shots surprisingly quickly. A high Status Chance of 30% is let down by low RoF and Slash bias, limiting the status potential of the OpticorV.

The OpticorV can be fired with only a partial charge (minimum ~50%), for greatly reduced damage. Upon fully charging, it will immediately fire, rather than holding its charge. Any enemies hit are immediately staggered.

Notably, the Opticor Vandal produces explosions when its beam impacts enemies or obstacles. These explosions deal 200 base Magnetic damage with a 5 metre radius. The beam itself is 0.5 metres wide, and can hit multiple targets given it can pass through them with its innate 1m Punch Through.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

With a single native V polarity, you can fit a reasonably effective basic build in to the Opticor Vandal. With low RoF, I lean towards using Viral, as it is reasonably effective against both brands of armoured organic enemies. Corrosive/Radiation will deal more direct damage to the appropriate armour type, but suffers greatly against the other. Against Infested, Corrosive has the best multipliers against the major threats (e.g. Ancients), though Viral will still be quite effective. Against unarmoured Corpus, both Viral and Toxin are very effective. Viral is extremely effective once shields are depleted, while Toxin ignores shields entirely. Against armoured Corpus, Radiation is by far the most effective.

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

Hunter Munitions 1-Forma:

One added V polarity lets you comfortably fit in a seventh mod. In this example build, I've slotted in Hunter Munitions. Though inconsistent with the Opticor Vandal's low RoF, HM gives it a powerful way to break through armoured enemies, bypassing it entirely with Slash procs. Any unarmoured enemy will quite easily die to the raw damage, but armoured enemies can survive some hits.

Vile Acceleration 1-Forma:

Alternatively, if the anti-armour Slash procs are not needed, I very much like Vile Acceleration for much shorter charge time. I personally hate any amount of charge time, so any reduction to it is a good thing in my books. Less charge time means less time to putting a shot on the target and a generally easier time aiming. If you're ok with it however, Vigilante Armaments is a very solid seventh mod for simple increased damage output.

Recommended Setups: Viral + HM vs Grineer, Corrupted, otherwise see above.

General Purpose 3-Forma:

Two more added V polarities lets you comfortably use the eighth mod slot, provided you downgrade to two 60/60 mods. If you want to use 90% elementals, more Forma will be needed. In this example build, I've slotted in Vile Acceleration alongside HM, for fast charging, Slash proccing shots. Against unarmoured enemies, Vile Acceleration + Vigilante Armaments will be much more effective.

Recommended Setups: see above.

My Builds:

Fairly standard Viral + HM build, aimed primarily at armoured organics (e.g. Grineer).

Standard Corrosive damage build, primarily for use against Infested.

Standard Radiation damage build, primarily for use against armoured Corpus bosses.

Combat Use and Summary

The Opticor Vandal is a slow-firing rifle, dealing heavy crit damage. Naturally, this lends well to killing heavy unarmoured enemies, of which there are fewer, and will take massive damage from a direct hit, especially to the head. Hunter Munitions also allows it to threaten armoured enemies, though it is much less consistent and will struggle a little in direct damage. The OpticorV handles worst against large groups of enemies. Though it can wipe out tightly clustered groups quite well thanks to its explosion-on-impact, its slow RoF prevents it from engaging multiple groups of enemies efficiently. Partial-charge shots do help significantly in this respect, though are substantially weaker than full-charge shots.

The Opticor Vandal cannot hold a full charge, firing as soon as full charge is reached. This can be quite frustrating at times, since it increases the minimum time between seeing an enemy and firing a shot.

Overall, the Opticor Vandal is a decent, though not exceptional, charge rifle. It does good damage-per-shot, and can deal with groups of enemies far better than other single-shot, slow-firing rifles. However, it is still relatively slow itself, and even with Hunter Munitions, inconsistently effective against armoured enemies. It's not a weapon type I personally like at all. With its drastic differences to the base Opticor (see below), you may not like the Vandal even if you liked the base Opticor. I feel that it is most similar to bows, though naturally far more powerful.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 2/5 - the Opticor Vandal is held up primarily by its explosions-on-impact, which will deal major damage to tightly clustered groups. However, it remains too slow firing to engage multiple groups of enemies quickly.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - with rather high damage-per-shot, the Opticor Vandal performs quite well against single enemies without armour.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 3/5 - though it has high Status Chance, the Opticor Vandal's slow RoF and low Slash bias prevent it from having any reliable anti-armour functionality. It relies primarily on brute-force damage, which it does fairly well at with majority Puncture damage, but this does not scale especially well.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - Hunter Munitions helps a lot, giving the Opticor Vandal a (somewhat) reliable Slash inflicting method, however it is still frustratingly inconsistent, with only 60% Crit Chance with Point Strike. Its low RoF really holds back its consistency here as well.

Vs Variants 

Unlike most weapon variants, the Opticor Vandal is not a direct upgrade to the also MR14 Opticor. Though superior in many respects (crit, status, Mag Capacity, reload), it sacrifices a large amount of base Damage to do so. The Vandal has 40% of the base damage, with only 30% of the charge time (the base Opticor has a 2 second Charge Time!), and superior crit, for overall higher DPS. However, the Vandal stops one-shotting enemies long before the base Opticor does, which is often what you'd use an Opticor for. As such, a fair number of players prefer the base Opticor to retain the one-shot-ability. I personally strongly prefer the Vandal as I hate charge weapons, and the less charge time the better.

Competitors

Barring the Lanka, which is a sniper, the only other competitors to the Opticor Vandal are the regular Opticor (as discussed above), and the Ferrox. The Ferrox has slightly lower base Damage and much lower Status Chance, but higher crit for overall higher damage-per-shot. It also has a slightly shorter charge time and a little more innate Punch Through, though has a lower RoF. In the Opticor Vandal's favour though is its thicker beam and innate explosions on impact with objects and enemies, making it far more effective against groups.

Rivens

The Opticor family currently retains a 4/5 (1.15) Riven Disposition. Given the raw firepower of both models, I think it reasonable to drop that down to 3/5, maybe even a little lower.

Naturally, Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great stats to have. I'd personally favour CC + MS for improved consistency of crits, as neither Opticor model has guaranteed crits. An appropriate element can help to save a mod slot. +Fire Rate is massively helpful for the Opticor, and I'd consider it fantastic for the Vandal as well. +Punch Through is not as important for the Opticor family as they have 1m innate PT, but a little more can help to penetrate thicker obstacles.

-Slash/Impact are both solid negatives, as neither is a significant damage type of the Opticor family. If you care only for raw damage output, -Status Chance can also be alright. I would personally advise against -Status Duration, as it hurts any Viral and Slash procs you inflict. -Faction Damage to an enemy you don't care about (e.g. Infested) is a solid negative. -Ammo Max is great for the Opticor family, which is extremely ammo efficient. -Flight Speed does not affect them either, as they are hitscan. +Recoil is not a problem for such slow firing weapons. -Zoom is alright if you only intend to engage at closer range.