Review: Velox (U28.0.5)

The Velox is an MR8 Full-Auto Secondary, released in U28. Protea's signature weapon, it has the unusual feature of occasionally not consuming ammo, becoming even more efficient in Protea's hands. A high RoF weapon leaning towards Status, it is a decent but vastly outclassed weapon.

Acquisition

The Velox's Blueprint is available directly from the Market. Its Barrel and Receiver are Rotation C drops in the Tier 1 and 2 Granum Voids respectively.

Stats

The Velox's base Damage is biased towards Slash, which combines well with its fairly high Status Chance. Its Crit Multiplier is below average, though has a high enough Crit Chance. A Mag Capacity of 62 is reasonably large, though is matched with a fairly long 2.6 second Reload Time.

The Velox has a few special features. By default, every fifth (5th) shot will not consume ammo - giving it slightly better ammo economy than its RoF would suggest. When used by Protea, this is further improved. In her hands, for each set of five rounds fired, the second and fifth shots will not consume ammo. Additionally, when completely emptied, the Velox reloads 50% faster.

Thanks to these gimmicks, with a base RoF of 15, in the hands of most Warframes, the Velox has a Reload Ratio of 1.99, or 2.98 when emptied. When used by Protea, this increases to 2.65, or 3.98 when emptied.

Augments

None.

Builds

0-Forma:

Like with so many other Secondaries, the Velox's Crit stats are just high enough to justify building for Crit, but only with both maxed Primed Crit mods. Without the space to fit them in, or without having them at max rank, it is better to stick to a raw damage build, which is much easier, though with Magnum Force, also increases spread. Additionally, as these above builds demonstrate, its Crit is not enough to make up for the gap left from missing essential mods (in this case Lethal Torrent).

The above Crit build fits with 2 capacity remaining, not enough to have Lethal Torrent instead of one of the elementals. The Status build has 3 capacity spare. There is of course the option to switch the three 60/60 elemental mods for two 90% mods in both builds, saving a few capacity and also using mods that are generally speaking, much more common. Augur Pact is a much cheaper mod than Magnum Force to acquire and max, and also takes less capacity, but of course is weaker.


In terms of elements, as per usual, Viral is the primary combo to go for. It has at least some use on every target that isn't Status-immune, and is highly effective against many notable heavy enemies (all of the Grineer, for instance). Viral procs also synergise perfectly with the Velox's tendency to inflict numerous Slash procs, greatly enhancing their armour-bypassing damage output. If you have the space, some extra Heat is a strong addition as well.

Corrosive with optional Heat is great against Infested, as well as for weakening armoured enemies. Radiation is stronger against Alloy-armoured units. Toxin is a strong option against unarmoured Corpus. Pure Electric is a novel option that deals widespread group damage, but has rather poor damage multipliers.



Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs armour, Infested, Radiation vs armoured Corpus, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus

1-Forma:

One added V polarity allows the Crit build to fit in Lethal Torrent, and the raw Damage build another mod. Due to lack of space, the Crit build does still lag behind a little, though will edge ahead with consistent headshots.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Primed Crit 2-Forma:

Another added V polarity gives sufficient space for both Primed Crit mods, as well as an eighth mod. Finally unconstrained, the Crit build is able to match and beat the raw Damage build. Depending on the desired last mod, more Forma may still be required.

Several of the mods shown in these previous builds are solid options - Magnum Force for a big damage boost with accuracy penalty, Augur Pact for a smaller damage boost with no downside, and another elemental mod. Besides Scorch/Primed Heated Charge for some extra Heat being fantastic alongside Viral or Corrosive, Viral + Electric and Radiation + Toxin are both powerful anti-Corpus combos.

Seeker for Punch Through is always a favourite of mine, drastically improving ammo efficiency against tight groups. If you want to focus on a Slash-proccing build, it may be worth considering Maim for the extra Slash. Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are Crit-boosting options, but largely inferior to Magnum Force and Augur Pact.

In the Exilus slot, the main mod to consider is an Ammo Mutation, as even with its ammo efficiency, the Velox can eat through ammo quite quickly. Eject Magazine can be useful to mitigate its relatively slow Reload Time. Suppress can be neat for stealthier builds, particularly Ivara.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Electric and Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus

My Builds

My build, generic and ordinary.

Combat Use and Summary

The Velox's high Fire Rate makes it reasonable at taking on many weaker enemies, and solid at inflicting lots of Status procs. When emptied, it has a decent Reload Ratio, especially when used by Protea. However, its low damage-per-shot often requires several rounds to finish off even weak enemies, and will result in frequent reloading.

The plethora of Status procs the Velox inflicts is excellent for weakening heavier enemies, though it is a little lacking in direct damage. Its natural Slash procs in particular are very effective at eating away the health of armoured enemies, unimpeded by their impressive damage reduction.

This relative lack of direct damage and mediocre Crit are most prevalent against unarmoured enemies with very high health. Higher Crit weapons in particular can take better advantage of Crit headshot bonuses to take down heavy enemies much faster.


The Velox's fast reload-from-empty is appreciated, though rather flawed. When reloaded from partially full, its Reload Time is quite slow at a base 2.6 seconds, and emptying the weapon for the faster reload may not be tactically astute. Reloading with even a single round remaining grants no bonus Reload Speed, encouraging deliberately wasting ammo for a faster reload.

As a pleasant surprise, despite having a high RoF, I find the Velox to have minimal, very controllable recoil. It is also reasonably precise for its type, readily capable of keeping shots on target at close-to-medium ranges. This same high RoF does however result in high ammo consumption, even with the Velox's gimmick of occasionally not consuming ammo. In fairness, this feature does make it signficantly more ammo efficient than most other fast-firing Secondaries. For longer missions, I strongly recommend equipping one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc.


Overall, the Velox is a fast-firing Secondary that is very solid for its MR. It is one of the better Status-focused pistols up to MR8, and is very capable of holding its own even at higher levels. As you progress however, you will inevitably come across much better weapons. As I've discussed in the Competitors section below, there are a number of Secondaries which are mostly or strictly superior. The Velox's neat gimmicks of fast-reload-from-empty and high ammo efficiency are not enough to offset its major statistical shortfalls, and unless you really like the weapon, it is not worth heavily investing into.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 3.5/5 - Solid Reload Ratio when emptied, and high RoF allow the Velox to engage groups of enemies comfortably. Its main drawbacks in this role are the slow reload when not totally emptied, and low damage-per-shot requiring many rounds to be fired even at weaker enemies.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 2/5 - Relatively mediocre direct damage causes the Velox to fall behind on killing single targets, particularly Status-immune ones. Stacked Viral procs help significantly, but cannot match more powerful weapons.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Hunter Munitions: 4/5 - High Status Chance, RoF and Slash bias allow the Velox to perform quite well against armoured enemies. It can rapidly stack up Viral, Slash and Heat procs on single targets, greatly weakening them and inflicting lots of damage-over-time.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

At its MR level (MR8), the Velox is a very solid Secondary. It is on-par with, or better than, most other Secondaries at or below that Rank. Most Secondaries up to that Rank that are more powerful trade their superior Crit stats for significantly weaker Status capabilities. It faces the stiffest competition from beam weapons, notably the Synoid Gammacor, Atomos and Ocucor.

The Velox is roughly on par with the Ocucor for Burst DPS and Status application, and superior to the Atomos in both. However, both of these weapons are far superior against groups with their multi-targeting and chaining mechanics respectively. The Synoid Gammacor has lower base Damage and Fire Rate, but superior Crit and Status Chance, as well as the Entropy Syndicate proc. It also trades off the Velox's Slash biased damage for pure Magnetic. All three beam weapons are naturally subject to damage ramp-up and limited range, which the Velox is free from.

Looking to the higher MRs, the Velox becomes hilariously outclassed. There are many Full-Auto Secondaries that are majority or strictly superior, such as the Dex Furis, Prisma Twin Gremlins and Kuva Twin Stubbas, to name just a few. A Rattleguts Kitgun can also be easily made superior.

Rivens

Like with the Stahlta, as a new weapon, the Velox has started with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. Given it is heavily outclassed by a number of weapons, I would not be surprised to see that shoot up very quickly, likely to at least 4/5 (~1.25).

As per standard, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all great. +Slash can be good for a Slash-focused Status build. +Elemental Damage can be very useful, whether to save mod slots or for more direct damage. +Reload Speed can be very helpful for the Velox's above-average Reload Time, though is less effective combined with the bonus on reload-from-empty. +Punch Through significantly improves efficiency against groups.

-Impact/Puncture are both great as they are lesser components of the Velox's base Damage, and neither inflicts good procs. -Crit Chance/Damage are very usable in pure Status build, however this significantly limits your DPS. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction can be manageable (Infested is ideal, Corpus is ok). -Ammo Max is fine alongside at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc. As usual for a hitscan weapon, -Projectile Speed has no effect. I find the Velox's recoil to be very manageable, so consider +Recoil to be a good negative. -Zoom is quite good as it is only really effective in close quarters.