The Epitaph is an MR8 wrist-mounted Secondary. Sevagoth's signature weapon, it sports two very different firing modes. With each firing mode playing into a particular role very well, it has a number of major strengths, but also some notable weaknesses.
Acquisition
Stats
The Epitaph is an unusual weapon, behaving like a Bow. It has a single shot magazine that draws directly from the spare ammo pool. However, it does not actually need reloading. Its ammo pool is fairly respectable for a relatively slow firing weapon at 60 rounds.
Also like a Bow, the Epitaph is a Charge-Fire weapon. It can fire both Uncharged and fully Charged shots, with the two behaving very differently. Full charge is reached after just 0.36 seconds, faster that most Bows. Charged shots possess incredible Crit stats (48%/2.6x), with the highest Crit Chance of any Secondary so far (and close to the highest of any weapon), and a great Crit Multiplier. In contrast, Charged Shot Status Chance is abysmal at just 4%.
Innate Punch Through of 2 metres is quite significant and capable of piercing through most enemies
Oddly, very little information is included about the Uncharged shot, only detailing the base damages and explosive stats. Currently, the in-game stats do not detail the Uncharged shot's Crit-Status distribution, which I have instead pulled from the Wiki. It has a Crit of just 5%/2x which is a far cry from Charged shots, but notably has an enormous 50% Status Chance. A base Damage of just 100 compared to the Charged shot 300 is a massive drop in firepower.
However, where the Uncharged shot really shines is its excellent 8m radius explosion, dealing a small amount of Blast damage with fairly high Fall-Off. Combined with its fantastic 50% Status Chance, this allows it to stack up high numbers of procs on many enemies very quickly. Additionally, Uncharged shots inflict guaranteed Cold procs.
Both Uncharged and Charged shots have a guaranteed Impact proc on direct hit. Additionally, both are projectile shots. Charged shots have a higher projectile speed, while Uncharged shots are quite slow and also drop.
Like many signature weapons, the Epitaph has a bonus when wielded by Sevagoth. In this case, it deals 20% extra headshot damage.
Augments
None.
Builds
NOTE: As of writing, Overframe currently only has stats for Charged shots, and nothing for Uncharged shots.
0-Forma Crit:
Two native V polarities allow the Epitaph to fit in a decent Forma-less build. This pictured Crit build has all the basics and even space for one of the Primed Crit mods. The Crit mods drastically increase the damage output of Charged shots, with the Fire Rate bonus from Lethal Torrent helping to reduce Charge Time as well.
0-Forma Status:
This alternate build focuses on maximising Uncharged shots, which of course gain almost no benefit from Crit. Instead, this example build uses Magnum Force for more base damage, and adds in some Heat. Uncharged shots can make great use of Heat, with very high Status Chance allowing it to rapidly stack up. Charged shots are not as good with it, due to their abysmal Status Chance.
There are a couple of elemental setups that are worth considering, though it will vary between projectile types. Viral and Corrosive remain top-notch options for both firing modes, with Viral being a little more catch-all, while Corrosive is stronger against armour. Adding Heat to either of these is a great option for Uncharged shots, with Heat procs dealing damage-over-time, as well as giving additional armour-reduction. It is less effective for Charged shots, but nonetheless still worth considering.
Radiation is a very strong option for Charged shots against Alloy-armoured enemies, notably most Grineer and practically all Corpus bosses. It is much less useful for Uncharged shots, as they are a lot weaker and Rad procs are much less useful. Pure Toxin is a very strong option against unarmoured Corpus for both projectile types, as both its damage type and proc bypass Shields. Adding in Radiation damage can be a solid anti-Corpus catch-all for Charged shots, but again is much less useful for Uncharged shots.
Recommended Setups: Viral (+Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+Heat) vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation vs Alloy-armour, Toxin (+Radiation) vs Corpus
1-Forma Crit:
One added V polarity allows you to fit in both Primed Crit mods for a good bit more damage with Charged shots.
1-Forma Status:
Alternatively, the Status-focused build can add in another mod like Augur Pact, though it is a rather small boost relatively speaking.
Recommended Setups: see above.
2-Forma Status:
With an additional V polarity, this build is further optimised for Uncharged shots, to spray out Status procs everywhere and deal some AoE damage. Though the peak damage of this build is lower than the previous build, thanks to (Primed) Fulmination it hits far more enemies, and the extended explosive radius also mitigates damage fall-off. The biggest threat is of course the massively increased self-stagger/knockdown radius.
Recommended Setups: see above.
3-Forma Hemorrhage:
One very strong option for the last mod slot is Hemorrhage. The Epitaph inflicts guaranteed Impact procs on direct hits, which with its low Fire Rate have a very high chance of triggering Hemorrhage. With Charged shots in particular, this allows it to reliably inflict heavy Slash procs which are exceptionally effective against heavily armoured enemies. Uncharged shots can also inflict it on direct hits, but as they are so much weaker, the resultant Slash procs are much less powerful.
There are a few other mod options you can consider that haven't already been mentioned. A (Primed) Expel mod is always a solid damage multiplier, but can be fiddly to switch around for each Faction. Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are great Crit-boosters for Charged shots, but do nothing for Uncharged shots.
(Primed) Quickdraw can be used to reduce the delay between shots, though it is not a major increase and there are usually better mod options.
For the Exilus slot, the most notable option is Lethal Momentum for increased Projectile Speed. It can make longer ranged combat much easier with the Epitaph. A (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation completely eliminates any hints of ammo concerns.
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Hemorrhage vs Grineer, Corrupted
My Builds
Combat Use and Summary
The Epitaph's slow Charged shots are naturally most effective against singular heavy enemies. They deal great direct damage, especially on headshots, but of course are fairly slow-firing even with Charge Time being quite short. Hemorrhage is a fantastic addition against heavily armoured enemies. As direct hits deal guaranteed Impact procs, and the Epitaph is slow-firing, Hemorrhage will trigger constantly and inflict enormous Slash procs on its victims.
Naturally, Charged shots are least effective against groups. Significant innate Punch-Through is helpful, but otherwise they have no notable anti-crowd abilities, and fire very slowly.
Uncharged shots deal minimal damage, but inflict a great many procs in a very large radius. They can clean up weaker enemies like Runners and Butchers, but with so little explosive base damage, have difficulty killing anything tougher at higher levels. The main use of Uncharged shots is to stack up procs to cripple enemies, allowing Charged shots to kill even very tough enemies with ease. The guaranteed Cold procs are useful for slowing down enemies, but of course do not help in the damage department.
The Epitaph draws ammo directly from the spare ammo pool, without reloading. As such, on-reload conditions will not activate, and the Reload Time stat is essentially meaningless. With an ammo pool of 60 and a fairly slow Fire Rate, ammo is not a major concern unless enemy ammo drops are very unlucky.
Both firing modes suffer from projectile travel time, and Uncharged shots also suffer from projectile drop. As such, the Epitaph can be difficult to use at longer ranges.
Overall, the Epitaph is a very unusual and decently effective weapon. Charged shots are very good against singular enemies, while Uncharged shots spread Status procs in a very wide area. Combined with forced Impact procs on direct hits (to trigger Hemorrhage), the Epitaph can take on single targets, both unarmoured and heavily armoured, quite well.
Where I find it to struggle most is against large numbers of enemies, particularly if they aren't very weak. Charged shots are very slow, so are not efficient against groups. Uncharged shots, though highly explosive, deal a very small amount of explosive damage, which I tend to find struggles against all but the weakest of enemies.
Additionally, like many other similar weapons, the Epitaph's two projectile types prefer very different mod configurations. Charged shots like Crit and maximum direct damage, while Uncharged shots have almost no Crit, and much prefer base Damage and Status Chance. A build optimised for Charged shots are not as effective with Uncharged shots, and vice versa is also true.
If you enjoy the slower, more deliberate gameplay of Bows, the Epitaph may be to your liking. It behaves very similarly, with a comparable high-Crit Charged shot, though the vastly different Uncharged shot offers significant additional utility that most Bows lack.
Scores
Vs Variants
None.
Competitors
The Epitaph's two projectiles are individually nothing too special, but together make a unique, pretty much incomparable Secondary. No other Secondary has a hard-hitting single shot as well as high explosive attack. The Euphona Prime is vaguely similar with a hard-hitting Primary Fire and a Status-based Alternate Fire, but its Alternate Fire is a point-blank ranged Shotgun attack rather than an explosive. As such, I'll be looking at the two shot types individually.
Charged shots are a slow-firing, Crit-heavy attack, so go up against such weapons as the Euphona Prime, Tombfinger and Kuva Seer. The Epitaph is certainly competitive with them for direct damage output, though is slower firing due to both a low Fire Rate and a short Charge Time. Additionally, the latter two fire explosive projectiles that give them much better anti-crowd capabilities, while also having far better Status Chance as well.
Uncharged shots mainly compete with other explosive weapons like the Zakti Prime, Zymos and Staticor. While the Epitaph has larger explosions than any of these besides Staticor charged attacks, it also deals far, far less damage than any of them. As a result, while the Epitaph will hit more enemies than most other explosive Secondaries, it does not have anywhere near the killing power that the others have. Its main purpose is to supplement Charged shots with Status procs, while the other explosive Secondaries can generally hold their own.
Rivens
As with all new weapons, the Epitaph starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. I would not be surprised to see it shoot up quickly. Though it has quite high potential single target damage with Charged shots, there are many other weapons that deal the same (or more) damage with fewer drawbacks. Uncharged shots inflict lots of procs in a large area, but lack direct damage and again do not do a whole lot that other Secondaries cannot also do. The combination of the two in a single weapon is neat, but as the two modes prefer very different builds, one of them is usually sub-optimal.
+Damage/Multishot are universally good stats. +Crit Chance/Damage are of course fantastic for Charged shots, but do very little for Uncharged shots. +Elemental Damage can be useful for saving a mod slot or adding in more damage. +Faction Damage can be a very strong proc damage multiplier, mainly useful against the Grineer. +Fire Rate is helpful for reducing Charge Time further. +Reload Speed acts like +Fire Rate since it occurs between every shot, but its effect is not massive. +Projectile Speed can be very helpful particularly for Uncharged shots.
-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all usable negatives. -Puncture is the best, with the overall lowest effect between both firing modes. -Impact reduces base Damage by more, but is a terrible damage type so does not represent a big loss. -Slash has the largest overall effect, but is still not a big loss. Charged shots have almost no Status Chance, and Uncharged shots rely primarily on their large explosions. In both cases, the loss of Slash damage is not huge. -Crit Chance/Damage are fine if you exclusively use Uncharged shots, but are of course terrible for Charged shots. -Faction Damage to a weaker faction (ie Corpus or Infested) is generally manageable, and of course has no effect on other enemies. -Mag Capacity has no effect. -Ammo Max can be manageable given the Epitaph is quite ammo-efficient. +Recoil has minimal effect. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.
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