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Friday, 13 August 2021

Review: Tenet Diplos (U30.6.1)

The Tenet Diplos is an MR16 Dual Secondary. Another new weapon introduced in U30.5 Sisters of Parvos, it is a conventional Full-Auto Secondary with a homing feature. With great Crit and an innate reload-while-holstered effect, it is a very solid weapon.

Acquisition


A Sister of Parvos weapon, so create a Sister with this weapon and Vanquish them.

Stats

The Tenet Diplosis clearly Crit-focused, with one of the best Crit spreads of all Secondaries. Its Status Chance is also respectable when combined with a relatively high Fire Rate of 9.67. Unfortunately, Slash is the smallest component of its base Damage composition. Innate Punch-Through is very much appreciated.

A large Mag Capacity of 92 rounds and a Reload Time of 2.8 seconds gives for a very good Reload Ratio of 3.40. Additionally, it innately reloads 8 rounds-per-second while holstered.

The TDiplos has a special feature. Aiming in activates a lock-on mode. Passing over an enemy within 60m will lock on to them, to a maximum of 8 enemies. Pulling the trigger will fire two rounds per enemy, which will each home in on their designated target, seemingly targeting centre-of-mass. After firing rounds, there will be a short delay before the TDiplos can continue firing. Oddly, each round in this mode consumes two ammo.

The lock-on mode can be circumvented by firing before aiming in, or firing while aiming when there are no targets locked. In both cases, the TDiplos will default to its ordinary Full-Auto.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: The below builds are pictured with a maximum 60% Radiation bonus. For a minimum 25% Bonus, multiply the total damage numbers by 0.78125.

0-Forma:


A single innate V polarity is helpful for fitting in a basic build, but annoyingly leaves you one capacity short of fitting all of the essentials - in this case Lethal Torrent has been left out and replaced with the lower-drain Augur Pact. If any of your mods are below max rank, you will be able to fit Lethal Torrent in instead.

In terms of elemental setup, the usual suspects are all here. Viral is the best general-purpose, with ok multipliers and an almost universal proc. Corrosive is slightly stronger against armour, especially Ferrite-armour, and has much better direct damage against Infested, especially on the Cambion Drift. Pure Toxin is great against any unarmoured Corpus, ignoring their Shields striking at their usually low Health directly. Against enemies whose Shields are strong and cannot be bypassed, Magnetic can be used to rapidly deplete them. Radiation is very strong against Alloy-armour, which is used by pretty much all armoured Corpus and many Grineer.

Recommended Setups: Viral vs everything, Corrosive vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Magnetic vs strong Shields, Radiation vs Alloy-armour

1-Forma:

Just one added V polarity lets you comfortably slot in Lethal Torrent, as well as upgrade both Crit mods to their Primed versions.

Especially with Lethal Torrent equipped, you may consider Creeping Bullseye instead of (Primed) Pistol Gambit. It offers slightly higher Crit Chance at a lower drain, in exchange for a small loss of Fire Rate. With an already fairly high Fire Rate, the TDiplos can eat through ammo quite quickly, so the small Fire Rate reduction may be beneficial for better control and slower ammo consumption.

Recommended Setups: see above.

2-Forma:


Another added V polarity and you can start looking at an eighth mod as well. There are a lot of good options.

Adding a third elemental mod can allow for some strong combos. Adding Heat to Viral or Corrosive is a very strong setup that improves their capabilities against armour. Adding Toxin alongside Radiation or Magnetic allows you to cover a lot more bases against Corpus enemies. The former covers both unarmoured and armoured Corpus Health/armour types, while the latter ensures that enemy Shields are a non-issue.

Carnis Stinger is a novel option for somewhat increasing Slash procs inflicted. It is useful against heavily armoured enemies, but much less effective against unarmoured and especially Status-resistant/immune targets as its total damage increase is very small.

 

A (Primed) Expel mod is strong against the targeted Faction, but can be tedious to switch around. It is notably useful for magnifying damage-over-time procs like Toxin/Slash/Heat. Magnum Force is a slightly smaller damage boost, but applies to all Factions. The Accuracy penalty can be troublesome however, potentially reducing total damage output. Augur Pact is much weaker, but does not have an Accuracy penalty.

Hydraulic Crosshairs and Sharpened Bullets are conditional Crit-boosting mods, however both of them are only active while aiming. For the TDiplos in particular, this can be troublesome as this forces it into lock-on mode.

If the long Reload Time troubles you, you could consider slotting in (Primed) Quickdraw. I would however recommend trying out the innate reload-while-holstered first to see if it suits your playstyle.

 

In the Exilus slot, there are a few main options. (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation can be quite useful as the TDiplos eats through ammo quite quickly, especially with Lethal Torrent. Eject Magazine can be used to emphasise the reload-while-holstered effect, if that playstyle suits you. Lethal Momentum increases Projectile Speed which can be useful at longer ranges. Finally, Steady Hands can be used to mitigate the TDiplos' odd recoil patterns if that troubles you.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + Heat vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, armour, Viral + Carnis Stinger vs armour, (Radiation or Magnetic) + Toxin vs Corpus

Galvanised Build and Arcane

Galvanised Diffusion, always.

Galvanised Shot would be a solid option over Hornet Strike in very tough content (ie Steel Path), if it applied its bonus correctly. With a fairly high Fire Rate, the TDiplos can inflict a respectable number of Status procs, easily enough for the Galv Shot damage to exceed Hornet Strike. This is especially the case if you have a Radiation or Magnetic bonus. In its current state however, Galv Shot does not properly give the full damage bonus, and you are still better off with Hornet Strike.

Galvanised Crosshairs is rather frustrating to use with the TDiplos. Galv Crosshairs only activates while aiming, which of course forces the TDiplos into its lock-on mode. In its current state, lock-on is often more of a hindrance than a help, so you are probably better off with a standard +Crit Chance mod ([Primed] Pistol Gambit/Creeping Bullseye).

Both Merciless and Deadhead offer solid additional effects. The +Reload Speed from Merciless is quite appreciated on a relatively slow Reload Time. The extra Headshot Multiplier from Deadhead of course gives higher potential damage output, and the Recoil reduction can be useful as well.

My Builds


Standard Viral + Heat fare. I might switch Hornet Strike to Galv Shot.

Kuva Lich/Sister of Parvos Bonus


There are a few solid options to consider. Heat is strong, adding to Viral or Corrosive to deal great damage to most targets, with very useful procs. Radiation or Magnetic offer unique elemental setups, and notably add another proc type for Galv Shot/Condition Overload to benefit from. Radiation offers good damage against Alloy-armour and can help shut down enemy auras, while Magnetic is extremely effective against enemies whose Shields are very tough.

Combat Use and Summary

With great Crit, high Fire Rate and good Reload Ratio, the Tenet Diplos excel at spewing out direct damage. Along with its innate Punch-Through, it works through large groups of enemies very well. Great Burst DPS also makes it very strong against unarmoured and Status-resistant/immune enemies.

The TDiplos is least notable against heavily armoured enemies. Its Status Chance and Slash bias are not particularly high, so it does not inflict large numbers of Slash procs. Carnis Stinger can help in this regard, but it still falls well behind more Slash-focused weapons. Nonetheless, it can stack up Viral/Corrosive procs at a reasonable rate, and deals great direct damage to such weakened enemies.


Lock-on mode tends to be more of a hindrance and gimmick than much actual use. The TDiplos is a high Fire Rate, low damage-per-shot weapon so firing two rounds at single targets is not going to achieve much. Additionally, there is a short delay after firing a set of homing rounds before you can resume firing, which can be very annoying. Finally, lock-on mode being forced when aiming in means that it is inconvenient to apply any while-aiming bonuses to the regular Full-Auto. If the lock-on function was activated using Alternate Fire instead, it would be more convenient as you could just ignore it entirely if you don't want to use it.


Ammo is a concern for longer missions. Especially with Lethal Torrent, the TDiplos eat through ammo quite quickly, and a Max Ammo of 460 rounds is not huge. I'd recommend at least one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc if you intend to use it in a long mission. Recoil may also be problematic, as it is mainly horizontal. This is much more difficult to compensate for than more conventional vertical recoil.


Overall, the Tenet Diplos is a very solid Full-Auto Dual Secondary. Great Crit gives it very good direct damage output, while still retaining a solid Status Chance. Lock-on mode in its current form is largely a gimmick and inconvenience. If you're a fan of automatic Secondaries, I'd definitely recommend giving the TDiplos a look.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4.5/5 - Good Reload Ratio and high Fire Rate make the Tenet Diplos very good at taking down large groups of enemies. Innate Punch-Through is quite helpful as well.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4.5/5 - Quite high Burst DPS makes the TDiplos quite effective against tough unarmoured and Status-immune enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 4/5 - With reasonable-but-not-great Status Chance, and low Slash bias, the TDiplos are not especially effective against heavily armoured enemies. While it can max Viral or Corrosive relatively quickly, its Heat and Slash procs are not especially powerful. Nonetheless, its high direct damage allows it to muscle through such targets.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: NA/5 - The TDiplos does not inflict anywhere near enough Impact procs to make good use of Hemorrhage, nor does it fire slow enough for greatest effect.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

The Tenet Diplos has one of the strongest overall stat spreads of all Full-Auto Secondaries, and there are only a few competitors worth mentioning.

The Aksomati Prime is the only other Crit-focused Full-Auto Secondary of note, trading significantly lower Crit Chance for higher Crit Multiplier and Status Chance. A slightly smaller Mag Capacity is easily made up for with half the Reload Time. A far lower base Damage is mitigated slightly with much higher Slash bias. Nonetheless, the TDiplos sports an overall much higher DPS.

While the AksomatiP has a higher Fire Rate, it is a spool-up weapon so takes a little time to reach that, where else the TDiplos always fires at full Fire Rate. Additionally, the AksomatiP starts out imprecise and only improves when spooled-up.

Overall, the TDiplos is a fair bit stronger, while the AksomatiP handles extremely heavily armoured enemies slightly better thanks to its superior Slash proc capabilities.

The Kuva Twin Stubbas is the only other Full-Auto Secondary worth mentioning. It has a similar Fire Rate and Reload Time, though it has notably superior Mag Capacity. More importantly, the KTS is much more Status and Slash focused, so deals far more useful procs, while dealing a lot less direct damage.

As such, the TDiplos and KTS serve somewhat different roles, though both are very strong weapons.

Rivens

New weapon, so minimum 1/5 (0.5) Disposition. I expect it to rise at least a little, as it is nowhere near as popular or easy as the current meta Secondaries.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the obvious great stats to have. +Damage is much weaker once you have the Galvanised mods and weapon Arcanes, Multishot as well to a lesser extent. +Slash can be nice if you want to eke out more Slash procs, but does not add much direct damage. +Elemental Damage can help to save a mod slot. +Projectile Speed can be helpful at longer ranges. +Reload Speed can be a nice quality-of-life stat if you find the long reload troublesome. -Recoil can also be nice if you find it problematic. +Punch-Through can be helpful against crowds, though of course the innate 1m is already useful.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash are all usable negatives, though the latter is the worst of the three, and in light of Galvanised Savvy, all should be kept above 0. Neither Impact nor Puncture is a great damage type or proc, but are larger components of base Damage. Slash is the smallest component of base damage, but has a great proc. -Faction Damage to the weaker factions (mainly Infested, often Corpus as well) is quite manageable if the rest of the Riven stats are good. -Fire Rate can be useful for mitigating recoil and ammo consumption, but of course impacts DPS. -Mag Capacity in a small value can be manageable. -Ammo Max is not a big deal alongside one of Ammo Mutation/Case/etc. -Reload Speed is a non-issue if you rely purely on the reload-while-holstered effect. +Recoil can be a good negative if you manage recoil well. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.

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