Review: Quellor (U27.1.2)

The Quellor is an MR12 Rifle with two very distinct firing modes. Its Primary Fire is a status-focused Full-Auto with enormous capacity, while its Secondary Fire charges up an immensely powerful short range wave blast. Both are quite potent, though also have notable flaws.

Acquisition

The Quellor's blueprint is dropped from Grineer Captains and Commanders in Empyrean missions. It only drops from Grineer who are a mission objective in a Galleon or Asteroid, not the Captains seen in Crewships.
Additionally, the blueprint can be traded.

Stats

The Quellor's Primary Fire is Full-Auto, with very high Status Chance and a massive Mag Capacity. Even with the incredibly long 4 second reload, it has an absurdly good Reload Ratio of 12.5. A small amount of base Cold damage is useful as Cold is a decent element to have. 0.5 metres of base Punch Through is also nice, though not enough to consistently pierce through enemies. Primary Fire has very low Crit stats however, limiting its deirect damage potential.

The Quellor's Primary Fire is hitscan, with the weapon firing beams of light.

The Secondary Fire on the other hand has extreme Crit and damage-per-shot, at the cost of a slow Charge Time, and consuming a ridiculous 75 ammo per shot. It also has a low Status Chance, all completely in contrast with the Primary Fire.

The Quellor's Secondary Fire launches a large, short range wave projectile, much like the Arca Plasmor, Catchmoon and Fulmin. It shares their damage fall-off characteristic, dealing reduced damage beyond 9 metres, and having a limited range of 20 metres. It also shares their innate Punch Through on bodies, which is very useful. Oddly, it seems to actually be hitscan where the others all fire travelling projectiles.

Augments

None, it's a new weapon.

Builds

Status 0-Forma:

The Quellor's Primary Fire is status-focused, so with two native V polarities, this sort of build works very well for it. The extra elemental damage is particularly good for increasing the bias of whatever element you want to proc. Alternatively, you can have a third 60/60 instead of the 90%, for even higher Status Chance, though take note of the innate Cold, that will combine with the third element. Shred's extra Fire Rate is a good boost for the otherwise slow Quellor, and the added Punch Through is always helpful.

On the other hand, the Quellor's Secondary Fire is not so appreciative of the Status Chance, with only 10% base and a very slow RoF. Nonetheless, it already deals quite a lot of damage in a single shot.

Crit 0-Forma:

A Crit-based build is not so great for Primary Fire, with its measly 12%/1.6x, and as a result, it deals less damage than the Status focused one above. It also procs the added elements less often without the extra elemental mod and Multishot.

Secondary Fire on the other hand is massively boosted, dealing almost double the damage. It's also worth noting that a Viral + Hunter Munitions build is very much possible here - you can replace either Shred or one of the 60/60s with HM. Since the Quellor's Secondary Fire has innate Cold, adding just Toxin will combine to make Viral. Unfortunately, HM is very poor with the Quellor's Primary Fire since it has fairly low Crit Chance.

Personally, I'd recommend going for the Crit build. Primary Fire does not lose a lot of damage and still retains solid Status capabilities, while the Secondary Fire is significantly more powerful.

For most targets, the Primary Fire liks a Corrosive setup. It strips armour with ease, and hits Infested very effectively. Against unarmoured Corpus, Viral or Gas are viable options. Viral has good direct damage, while Gas procs are extremely effective against Corpus especially. Unfortunately, because of the base Cold, pure Toxin is not possible without combining the Cold into something else first.

The Secondary Fire is a bit more nuanced. Viral + HM is inconsistent, but absolutely devastating against armoured enemies. Otherwise, any of Corrosive/Viral/Radiation are good options against most enemies, depending which enemy/armour type you want to prioritise. Unarmoured Corpus are best hit with Viral, and Infested with Corrosive.

In summary, Corrosive is probably the best overall element for the Quellor (in a pretty accurate reflection of the state of the game's damage types right now), with Viral being second best.

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

Hybrid 2-Forma:

Two added V polarities lets you make good use of the eighth mod slot. Besides the previously shown/mentioned Vigilante Armaments, extra Elementals, Shred and Hunter Munitions, there are a few other mods worth considering. Argon Scope and Bladed Rounds give the Secondary Fire quite a boost, though are not so great for the Primary Fire. Heavy Caliber is big damage boost for both modes, though the reduced Accuracy can be troublesome for Primary Fire. Vile Acceleration is an alternative to Shred, with much more Fire Rate, but no Punch Through. It is especially useful for Secondary Fire.

The extra mod space opens up a few more elemental combos, though the Quellor's innate Cold locks off a few options. Notably, it forces Corrosive + Heat into Corrosive + Blast, which is good against Infested, but less effective against armour. Viral + Electric is still possible however, which is great against unarmoured Corpus.

There are several decent options for the Exilus slot. (Primed) Rifle Ammo Mutation can be useful for keeping Secondary Fire supplied. Hush can be neat for keeping the alert level down. Tactical Reload for Reload while Holstered is extremely efficient with the Quellor's enormous Mag Capacity and long Reload Time.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Electric vs unarmoured Corpus

My Builds

Nothing special here, my default build is an armour-stripping Corrosive build that is also effective against Infested, with the Secondary build being Viral for use against unarmoured Corpus.

Combat Use and Summary

The Quellor's two firing modes give it a lot of versatility. The Full-Auto Primary Fire has an immense capacity. It does not deal high direct damage, and has a slightly low RoF for a Full-Auto, so tends to work through groups a little slower than some other Rifles. Nonetheless, it is well suited to taking on large groups. Additionally, its high Status Chance allows it to proc Corrosive frequently, making it very good at depleting enemy armour.

With low direct damage, it is naturally weakest against unarmoured enemies with a lot of health. Thankfully, this is where the Secondary Fire excels.

The Secondary Fire works best against clustered, unarmoured enemies. With its innate body Punch Through and wide blast, a single shot can take down an entire corridor of weaker enemies. Such a slow Charge Rate however delays follow-up shots quite significantly. Its insane base Damage and great Crit result in it dealing enormous direct damage, perfect against heavy unarmoured enemies. It can make use of Hunter Munitions against heavily armoured enemies, however its painfully slow Charge Time can make it very inconsistent with that.

With the two firing modes having complementary strengths and flaws, the Quellor works best when both firing modes are used. This also means using a hybrid build, which is slightly inefficient for both firing modes, but does not significantly sacrifice either.

I generally find that the Primary Fire is reasonably ammo efficient, however the Secondary Fire eats ammo like crazy. If you use the Secondary Fire at all frequently, I would strongly recommend at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc for longer missions. A super slow Reload Time of 4 seconds is largely a non-issue in Primary Fire, however the much higher ammo consumption rate of Secondary Fire can make it troublesome, given it effectively has only 4 such shots.

Overall, the Quellor is a reasonably potent and versatile Rifle. It has both significant Status capabilities, as well as an immensely powerful Crit shot. However, as I have already mentioned and will discuss further below in Competitors, I personally feel that the Quellor is still quite flawed. Its Primary Fire Full-Auto is largely outclassed by a number of other weapons, both for Status application as well as damage dealing and general usability. Additionally, while its Secondary Fire is extremely powerful, it is immense overkill for most enemies, and the charge time and ammo consumption are big flaws. I personally don't like it, I've never been a fan of pure-Status or extremely slow firing weapons.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - Both Primary and Secondary Fire are well suited to killing groups. Primary Fire has incredible Mag Capacity and Reload Ratio, though is a little lacking in direct damage. Secondary Fire can rip through groups in a single shot, but is slow to charge and incredibly ammo hungry.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - While Primary Fire has quite low DPS, Secondary Fire does ridiculous damage and can one-shot most unarmoured enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - Primary Fire strips armour quite consistently, though is a little slow by Full-Auto standards. Once enemy armour is weakened or depleted, the Secondary Fire can deliver the finishing blow quite easily.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - The Secondary Fire can make very good use of HM with its high Crit Chance and immense damage, though its very slow RoF makes it quite inconsistent.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

With two very distinct firing modes, the Quellor has few directly comparable weapons, but many individual competitors.

Its Primary Fire is a high-capacity, Status-focused Full-Auto, of which there are a number of solid competitors. Braton Prime, Supra Vandal, Zenith, Kuva Hind in Full-Auto, to name a few. Supra Vandal notably has the same Mag Capacity and a faster Reload Time, as well as much higher RoF and damage output. Generally, the Supra Vandal is much superior to the Quellor's Full-Auto. That's before mentioning other potent weapons like the Amprex and Ignis Wraith, which with their powerful AoE again almost totally outclass the Quellor's Full-Auto.

The Quellor's Secondary Fire only has a few weapons it can be compared to, namely the Arca Plasmor, Catchmoon, Fulmin Semi-Auto. The Quellor deals far more damage-per-shot than any of those, but of course is also far slower and ammo-hungry. Personally, I think that the Quellor's Secondary Fire is excessively powerful, and suffers too much for balance as a result. It would be much more practical if it were weaker, but fired much faster and consumed less ammo. In my opinion, any of the other three weapons are more practical.

The Fulmin is the closest directly comparable weapon, as it has the closest firing modes to the Quellor, albeit reversed and both Crit-focused. While their Full-Autos are very different, I personally consider the Fulmin's Semi-Auto to be far more practical than the Quellor's Secondary Fire.

Rivens

As a new weapon, the Quellor has a neutral 3/5 (1) Riven Disposition. Both firing modes are quite powerful, but also have distinct flaws, so I wouldn't be surprised to see its disposition stay neutral, or perhaps drop slightly.

+Damage/Multishot are always great. +Crit Chance/Damage are great for Secondary Fire, though less so for Primary. +Elemental damage can be good for extra damage, saving a mod slot, or additional bias, but as always, be aware of the Quellor's base Cold damage. It prevents certain combos from being possible, such as Corrosive + Heat. Personally I would consider +Fire Rate to be quite beneficial, as both Primary and Secondary Fire appreciate being sped up. +Punch Through is beneficial for Primary Fire against larger enemies and groups.

Any of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are great to have. Puncture and Impact are the dominant damage types for Primary and Secondary Fire respectively, but both are poor damage types and procs anyway. Slash is a small component of Primary Fire, and is not in Secondary Fire at all. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction can be very manageable. -Mag Capacity is quite manageable for Primary Fire, though will impact Secondary Fire. -Ammo Max can be manageable, especially with at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. -Projectile Speed has no effect on Primary Fire, but will reduce Secondary Fire's Damage Fall-Off ranges. -Reload Speed can be manageable, though I personally wouldn't recommend it. +Recoil is a solid negative as neither firing mode has significant recoil.. -Zoom is great for close-quarters.