Random: Weapon Exilus revitalised my Secura Dual Cestra (U26.1)

The Secura Dual Cestra is one of my favourite secondaries, mainly because I love blasting walls of neon lasers everywhere. Unfortunately, its drawbacks coupled with Secondary mandatory mods meant that I was previously never able to have it user-friendly, as well as fully effective. The implementation of Melee 3.0 (well, 2.9 implemented the important change), coupled with the Weapon Exilus slot allowed me to finally (somewhat) realise my dream of an effective and user-friendly Secura Dual Cestra.

Previously, this was my build. Seeker for Punch Through as is mandatory, and Primed Quickdraw to reduce the SDC's painfully long reload. These required leaving out Lethal Torrent and Primed Target Cracker. The loss of just one of these would have been an manageable damage reduction for greatly improved usability, but losing both was just a little bit too much. As such, the SDC spent a lot of time sitting on the shelf, collecting dust.

First came Melee 2.9, which had some of the changes intended for Melee 3.0. Most notable for this topic is that Quick Melee now instantly drew your Melee weapon, and aiming would instantly holster them and redraw your previous weapon. This was a great convenience as I generally enjoy shooting more than slashing, and used Melee primarily as a backup/healstick.

Then came Weapon Exilus, which fits relatively few mods. Notably among them, the Reload-While-Holstered, Projectile Flight Speed and Ammo Mutation mods. Since Weapon Exilus does not fit regular Reload Speed mods, I tried the SDC with Eject Magazine (reload-while-holstered), and used the now-free slot for more damage. It was nice having that extra bit of damage, but switching between Primary and Secondary still took too long for my liking.

Then it hit me - using Melee counts as having the Secondary holstered, which reloads via Eject Magazine. With Melee <-> Secondary transitions now being instant since Melee 2.9, this meant I could seamlessly switch between blasting fools with the SDC, and slashing any nearby skoom, with the SDC often being fully reloaded after just a few swipes. Provided I could close to Melee range, I could have practically no down-time during combat. Not having to suffer through the SDC's painful reload was a massive boon to its usability.

Weapon Exilus disappointed a lot of players with its relative lack of options, but for me, it has revitalised my love for the Secura Dual Cestra. The same can be said for the Battacor, being able to fit on Terminal Velocity (+Flight Speed) has made it much more enjoyable to use. There are a number of my weapons that have little, if any need for Weapon Exilus (e.g. my trusty Tiberon Prime is largely unaffected), but that it has made me rediscover two existing weapons is at least a small victory.