The Athodai is a brand-new MR10 Secondary, initially released as a Tennocon 2020 Twitch drop. Yet another weapon with two firing modes distinct in both stat-spread and attack type, it is a powerful weapon that rewards accuracy, but eats through its small ammo pool very quickly if not controlled well.
Acquisition
The Athodai has so far only been available as a Twitch drop from watching any Tennocon 2020 panel for at least 30 minutes. Due to issues with Twitch drops, it was also given to all players who logged in on the day of Tennocon. DE have indicated that it will become more regularly available in the future.
Stats
The Athodai's Primary Fire is clearly geared towards Crit, 32% Crit Chance being among the highest for Secondaries. This combines well with its fairly high base Damage, which notably consists primarily of Heat. The Athodai is a fairly slow-firing Full-Auto, firing just 5 rounds-per-second at base.
Primary Fire has a special "Overdrive" feature. Upon achieving a headshot kill, the Athodai will enter Overdrive for 8 seconds. During this time, its Fire Rate is significantly increased and it will not consume ammo. However, its Recoil is significantly increased, and you cannot use Alternate Fire while it is active. Additionally, Overdrive cannot be refreshed by achieving another headshot kill in its duration.
Alternate Fire is more balanced between Crit and Status, being quite solid in both. Its pure base Heat damage works extremely well with its solid Status Chance.
A high Fire Rate of 12 however makes the Alternate Fire very ammo-inefficient, burning through the base magazine in just 2 seconds. This gives it a very poor Reload Ratio of just 1.
Unlike the Primary Fire's conventional hitscan attack, Alternate Fire
fires a cone-shaped beam forward. This beam has a range of 12 metres, and a width of about 2
metres, and 2 metres of innate Punch-Through. This allows it to damage multiple enemies at once if they are bunched up.
Alternate Fire consumes (up to) 24 ammo in a single burst, and cannot be zoomed. This is similar to the Alt-Fire of the Pandero and Kuva Kraken, however unlike those weapons, the Athodai will not consume more than 24 rounds if it has extra capacity from +Mag Capacity mods.
Augments
None.
Builds
0-Forma:
An innate V polarity allows the Athodai to fit in a basic Crit build. This above build fits with 2 spare capacity. If you'd rather the increased Fire Rate over the extra Multishot, Barrel Diffusion can be switched for Lethal Torrent instead. If you don't have the Primed Crit mods, you can fit in a Lethal Torrent as well, though one of your mods will have to be just below max Rank.
As per usual, Viral is my recommended elemental go-to for both firing modes. It is universally useful, has decent multipliers, and synergises especially well with the Athodai's innate Heat. Alternate Fire in particular is quite adept at maxing out Viral stacks very quickly, and stacking up powerful Heat procs. Corrosive is a strong option for weakening armour in particular, and is especially strong against Ferrite-armoured units. Radiation is strong against Alloy-armoured units, being most useful when they are also Status-immune.
Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Radiation vs Alloy-armour
1-Forma:
One added V polarity allows the addition of a seventh mod, though again if you are running the Primed Crit mods, you won't have a lot of mod space. This above build also has 2 capacity spare. If you don't have the Primed Crit mods, Lethal Torrent can be comfortably slotted in at max rank. An alternate option would be to forgo the seventh mod to upgrade your elementals to the 90% mods. This lowers your Status Chance significantly, which is worse for Alternate Fire, but offers a lot more Viral damage.
Augur Pact is a universal, no-nonsense damage boost. There are multiple other options to consider for that last remaining mod slot, which I'll discuss below.
Recommended Setups: see above.
2-Forma:
Yet another V polarity and you can comfortably fit in Lethal Torrent alongside the Primed Crit mods, with 4 spare capacity. From here, any additional polarities are dictated primarily by which elemental mods you want, and what your eighth mod will be. Either way, another V polarity for Barrel Diffusion, and Lethal Torrent as well if you need the extra space, are good starting points.
As mentioned previously, Augur Pact is always a decent pick for the last mod slot. It offers a relatively small, unconditional damage boost, and is very easy to fit in. Magnum Force is more powerful, but is harder to slot in, and its accuracy penalty can make triggering Overdrive a lot harder. Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are Crit-boosting options, however note that as they both activate while aiming, they will not affect Alternate Fire.
Another elemental mod can be a strong source of extra damage. Primed Heated Charge in particular is a big boost, and greatly increases Heat bias, for stronger, more frequent Heat procs. This is especially potent for Alternate Fire, with its higher RoF and Status Chance. This does however also mean fewer Viral procs. Scorch offers less raw damage, but further increases Status Chance for even more procs. Some added Toxin alongside Radiation gives for an all-round strong anti-Corpus setup, while adding Electric alongside Viral will combine to Viral + Radiation, which has certain benefits over Viral + Heat (extra damage vs Alloy-armour, Rad procs disable Ancient/Eximus auras).
Seeker is one of my favourites for the extra Punch-Through, which does not do much for Alternate Fire (already has 2 metres of innate Punch-Through), but helps Primary Fire significantly against groups.
For the Exilus slot, there are several mods to consider. (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation is very much worth slotting in, as it helps keep the Athodai's very small spare ammo count replenished. Trick Mag is an alternative that is easier to acquire, and is more effective alongside something like Pistol Scavenger. Steady Hands for reduced recoil is useful primarily for Overdrive and Alternate Fire, as the default Primary Fire does not have a lot of recoil.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus, Viral + Radiation vs everything
My Builds
Combat Use and Summary
In contrast, it is less effective against large groups or heavily armoured enemies, at least without the Overdrive buff. Its Reload Ratio is not great at just 2.4, necessiting frequent reloads when taking on lots of enemies. Added Punch-Through can be quite helpful here. With low Status Chance, Primary Fire can take a while to stack up Viral/Corrosive procs on heavily armoured enemies, and does not inflict Heat procs very frequently.
If you can reliably trigger the Overdrive buff, the Athodai becomes massively more effective. The increased Fire Rate greatly improves DPS, while the improved ammo efficiency allows the Athodai to take on large numbers of enemies with ease. The increased recoil from Overdrive can be troublesome to manage if you are not good with recoil management.
Secondary fire is more of a close-range panic-button type attack. With solid Crit and Status Chance, as well as a large, though short-ranged, AoE, it is quite capable of clearing out tight groups. It deals much higher DPS than Primary Fire primarily thanks to its far higher RoF, though is much harder to land consistent headshots with. With drastically higher Status Chance than Primary Fire, it is also better suited to stacking up procs on heavily armoured enemies. Alternate Fire is undoubtedly powerful, dealing quite high damage with a lot of procs, but its automatic consumption of a full base magazine can be rather troublesome. Additionally, its seemingly random recoil can make it a little difficult to control, though this is less of an issue thanks to its large cone AoE.
Spare ammo is a big problem for the Athodai. On top of its default Mag Capacity of 24, it only holds an additional 48 rounds. Unlucky ammo drops or an inability to kill enemies efficiently can quickly render it impotent. At least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc is strongly recommended to keep the Athodai supplied.
The Athodai successfully combines two special features into a single, powerful Secondary. Its Primary Fire is a powerful Crit-focused Full-Auto, with access to the Overdrive buff similar to the Knell and Dual Toxocyst. Alternate Fire is a cone-beam version of the mag-emptying Pandero and Kuva Kraken. The Athodai's default Primary Fire is already quite powerful, with Overdrive and Alternate Fire giving different and powerful bonuses. Altogether, this makes the Athodai a surprisingly versatile and very capable Secondary.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 3/5 - If you can trigger the Overdrive buff reliably, the Athodai's Primary Fire will tear through groups with ease, thanks to its (temporary) infinite ammo and increased RoF. Otherwise, Primary Fire is not exceptional against lots of enemies, and though Alternate Fire can eat through groups, it also eats through ammo in equal measure.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - High Crit and base Damage give the Athodai's Primary Fire very good DPS, which allows it to work through unarmoured or Status-immune enemies quite quickly. Overdrive improves this further.
Vs Armoured Heavies: 4/5 - The Athodai relies on Alternate Fire to inflict procs, which it does readily, but also consumes ammo very quickly. It procs Heat very reliably thanks to its pure base Heat damage, which when combined with Viral or Corrosive, can deal great damage to heavily armoured enemies. Primary Fire can be used to finish off weakened enemies quite easily.
Vs Variants
None, the Athodai is new.
Competitors
Ignoring Overdrive, the Athodai's Primary Fire is nothing super special. Its closest competitor is probably the Akbolto Prime, which has a slightly higher Fire Rate, superior Crit and Status Chance, faster Reload and much larger Mag Capacity. The Athodai is well ahead for base Damage, and of course its innate Heat damage is a strong positive. It sits in an odd place RoF-wise, being much slower than most Full-Auto Secondaries, but a lot faster than most of the Semi-Auto type weapons.
The Athodai's Overdrive feature is very similar to that of the Dual Toxocyst and Knell. For those two weapons, their buff triggers immediately on headshots, not requiring kills, and are refreshable while active in exchange for lasting much less time. The big difference for me is how those weapons perform outside of their buffed state. While the Dual Toxocyst and Knell are rather weak weapons while not buffed, the Athodai remains a very solid and usable weapon.
The only other beam Secondary that fires in a cone forward, rather than a precise beam, is the Status-focused Embolist. The Athodai's Alternate Fire, though much harder to control, is a lot more powerful overall and has a slightly longer range. The other weapons with an Alternate Fire that empties the magazine are the Pandero and Kuva Kraken, both of which fire regular rounds rather than a beam attack.
Rivens
As a new weapon, the Athodai starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. I would expect it to increase a little in future Disposition updates, as though it is powerful, it is not the easiest weapon to use.
As always, +Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all solid buffs to both firing modes. +Elemental Damage can help to save a mod slot, or be another raw damage addition. +Faction Damage drastically increases the efficacy of Heat procs against the given Faction, but of course does nothing against the others. Most notable is probably +Damage to Grineer, given they are by far the toughest. +Mag Capacity improves the Reload Ratio of both firing modes, notably stopping Alternate Fire from consuming the entire magazine. +Ammo Max can be helpful to keep the Athodai supplied. +Reload Speed can be quite helpful as it is frequently reloading, especially if using Alternate Fire. -Recoil is particularly beneficial for Overdrive and Alternate Fire, both of which can be troublesome to control. +Punch-Through greatly improves the efficiency of Primary Fire against groups.
-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all great negatives. Only Puncture is even in the Athodai's base damage, and it is a fairly small component and a poor damage type overall. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction, chiefly Infested, can be quite manageable. -Fire Rate can improve the controllability of both Overdrive and Alternate Fire, though of course at the cost of DPS. -Projectile Speed has no effect on either firing mode. +Recoil is a decent negative if you are good at handling recoil, though can be especially troublesome in Overdrive. -Zoom is ideal for close-quarters combat.
No comments:
Post a Comment