Review: Quanta Vandal (U31.2.1)

The Quanta Vandal is an MR10 Beam Rifle. It possesses a solid, conventional beam Primary Fire with an unusual explosive Alternate Fire that benefits from manual detonation. It is a solid and surprisingly versatile weapon, though is burdened with an unfortunate base damage type, and finds itself facing increasingly strong competition.

Acquisition

The Quanta Vandal is one of many weapons that is sold by Baro Ki'Teer on occasion.

Stats

The Quanta Vandal's Primary Fire is a very solid beam attack. 22%/2.4x Crit is very good, and 45% Status Chance is immense, especially backed up with 12 Fire Rate and innate 2 Multishot. It stack up immense numbers of procs with ease, though base Electric damage is unfortunately suboptimal. It prevents the classic Viral + Heat combo, and biases Corrosive + Heat towards Corrosive, which is not ideal.

Being a Beam attack, the QuantaV's Primary Fire only consumes ammo at half its Fire Rate, for a fantastic Reload Ratio of 7.41. It also has the current longest range of any beam weapon at 50m, more than enough for the vast majority of Warframe tilesets.

The QuantaV also sports an odd Alternate Fire. It launches explosive cubes that float slowly forward, with a maximum range of around 15m (dependent on Projectile Speed). Upon reaching this range, the cubes detonate if they haven't already hit an enemy or been manually detonated. Each cube fired consumes 10 ammo.

Unlike Primary Fire, Alternate Fire's cubes are purely Status-focused.

These cubes will detonate in one of several scenarios. If left alone, they automatically detonate after around 8 seconds. Upon contact with an enemy, they will immediately detonate, though will bounce off of other objects. They can also be manually detonated by being shot with Primary Fire or another weapon. Notably, it does not seem to inflict self-stagger/knockdown.

The "Damage" component in the stats refers to direct enemy hits, dealing some Electric damage with decent Status Chance. "Radial Attack" describes automatic detonation, dealing some Blast in a tiny 0.5m Radius, with no fall-off.

Manual detonations are much, much better than automatic detonations. They deal quadruple (600 Blast) base Damage, with explosive Radius of 6m - a very respectable range though I'm not sure about the Damage Fall-Off. 

Augments

None.

Builds

Basic 0-Forma: 

The Quanta Vandal has a single innate V polarity. If you have some of the 60/60 elemental mods or of some of your mods are missing a few ranks, there is just enough space for all of the basics. Notably, for elemental combos that use Electric, you can get by without one elemental mod if you are struggling for space.

Viral is of course the general-purpose, with a proc that is useful against most enemies. Corrosive deals much better direct damage to Infested and Ferrite-armoured enemies, and its proc is very useful against armour as well. Radiation is the best damage type against Alloy-armoured targets. Unfortunately, pure Toxin to use against the Corpus is not possible in this build as it will automatically combine with the innate Electric. Instead, Magnetic is an option to rapidly deplete their Shields, though it has no good multipliers one Shields are down.

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

Hunter Munitions 1-Forma:

One added V polarity for Split Chamber gives you some options for a seventh mod. There are a lot of good options to consider. As pictured, Hunter Munitions is a great anti-armour option, as Primary Fire will reliably inflict Slash procs with it. Unfortunately, it does very little for Alternate Fire, which has almost no Crit to speak of.

A third elemental mod is also a decent option, if Slash procs are not desired. Unfortunately, the QuantaV's innate Electric makes Viral + Heat impossible, as it will combine into Viral + Radiation. Adding Heat alongside Corrosive is a very strong options, covering just about every Infested health type, as well as further increasing its armour reduction ability. Radiation + Toxin is one of the few ways of getting pure Toxin on the QuantaV, and covers most Corpus health types well (though notably not their Shields).

There are other options too, which I will discuss just below.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs everything, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, Ferrite-armour, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus

General Purpose 3-Forma:

Two more V polarities offers you options for the last mod slot, though you may need even more Forma depending on your last mod choice.

First, it is worth considering switching Point Strike to Critical Delay. The Fire Rate penalty is not major and is easily mitigated by a +Fire Rate mod, while the extra bit of Crit Chance is appreciated for Primary Fire.

Vigilante Armaments is a no-fuss positive for more Multishot, though is weak alongside Galv mods. Heavy Caliber is a stronger damage boost and its Accuracy penalty has minimal detriment on either firing mode, but again is weak alongside Galv mods and Arcanes. A Primed Bane is very strong, especially on a Viral + HM build against the Grineer or Corrupted.

The conditional Crit mods Bladed Rounds, Argon Scope and Proton Jet are all worth considering if they suit your playstyle. Hammer Shot is a weak +Crit Damage mod, but also offers some +Status Chance.

A +Fire Rate mod is a strong DPS increase, though also consumes ammo much faster. Vile Acceleration offers maximum +Fire Rate, while (Primed) Shred is slower but adds Punch-Through which is great for Primary Fire against crowds.

The Exilus slot has some notable options. Vigilante Supplies can be used to negate any potential ammo issues, while also giving a very slight damage boost with its set bonus. Sinister Reach can be used to increase the Range of Primary Fire, though its best-in-class 50m is already more than enough for much of Warframe's combat. Finally, Terminal Velocity can be used to increase Alternate Fire's Projectile Speed, making it more usable beyond close range.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Galvanised Build and Arcane

Galvanised Chamber as usual.

Galvanised Aptitude is usable, though depending on the build and your playstyle perhaps not optimal. The QuantaV's Primary Fire only has one base Damage type, and it is a single element so cannot be increased beyond two unique damage types. Alternate Fire's explosions do not gain damage from Galv Apt, however they can inflict Blast procs for a third proc type, enough for Galv Apt to be worth using on Primary Fire. This is improved further on a Hunter Munitions build, thanks to the Slash procs.

Galvanised Scope is a decent option if it fits your style. The QuantaV is very precise and has no issues landing headshots, though you may have a few issues with kills occurring due to damage-over-time procs, rather than direct damage. In such cases, Galv Scope will not gain stacks.

The argument between Merciless and Deadhead follows a similar path. Deadhead offers more damage, will stack up much faster and decays slower, but only stacks from direct damage headshot kills. Merciless stacks from any kill, so is much easier to stack and maintain, particularly if using Alternate Fire a lot.

My Build

Pretty ordinary Viral + Slash build.

Combat Use and Summary

The Quanta Vandal's Primary Fire is fairly well rounded. High Fire Rate and great Reload Ratio allow it to easily engage multiple enemies in quick succession, though it has no innate AoE to speak of. It has very good Crit, however relatively low base Damage leaves it behind a lot of other Rifles in direct Burst DPS.

Primary Fire also sports exceptional Status capabilities, though is limited by its base Electric damage. Its best purely elemental anti-armour setup is a Corrosive + Heat build, which not only reduces armour by up to 90%, but also inflicts ever-increasing damage-over-time. 

Finally, Hunter Munitions is a fantastic anti-armour option. The armour-bypassing Slash proc damage scales far more effectively than the aforementioned Corrosive + Heat, which still has to deal with an amount of armour. HM triggers regularly and brutally from Primary Fire's very good Crit.

Alternate Fire is a novel AoE option giving the QuantaV additional capabilities on top of its Primary Fire. It deals reasonable damage with decent Status Chance, enough to kill weak enemies but struggles to make an impact on tougher, higher levelled ones. Its best use at higher levels is for spreading Status procs, notably its innate Blast which is an extra multiplier for Galv Apt.

Both of the QuantaV's firing modes are range-limited. Primary Fire has a base Range of 50m, by far the longest of any beam weapon currently in-game. This can be inconvenient in the largest tilesets and the open worlds, but is largely a non-issue. On the other hand, Alternate Fire's default maximum range is about 15 metres, and its cubes take a long time to travel to that distance, making it a close-quarters-only attack.

Though the QuantaV can eat ammo quite quickly, between a fast-firing Primary Fire and an Alternate Fire that consumes 10 ammo per shot, it also draws from the extremely common Rifle ammo drop. As such, ammo efficiency is not usually a major issue unless you are running +Fire Rate mods.

Overall, the Quanta Vandal is a solid, though not exceptional, Beam Rifle with a novel Alternate Fire. Its Primary Fire is fairly well rounded, though suffers from Electric damage being a poor base type to have. Alternate Fire deals decent AoE damage at lower levels, and at higher levels is still useful for spreading Status procs.

In my opinion, the Quanta Vandal is just one of many weapons that has suffered from Warframe's continuous powercreep. While it may have been notable during its heyday, I'd consider it largely outclassed particularly by newer releases, as I discuss below in the Competitors section.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - Primary Fire is an ordinary single-target attack with high Fire Rate, so can switch between single targets very easily. Manually-detonated Alternate Fire deals reasonable explosive damage in a decent range, leaving any survivors with a number of procs. While solid on-paper, this mechanism can be a little clumsy and inconvenient to use in-practice, and its damage drops off at high levels.

Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 3/5 - Though Primary Fire has solid Crit, its Burst DPS falls behind quite a lot of other Rifles.

Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 4/5 - With base Electric damage, the best elemental setup against heavy armour is Corrosive + Heat. While the QuantaV can stack this effortlessly, it is biased towards Corrosive which is suboptimal with its Status capabilities.

Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 4.5/5 - Hunter Munitions offers a better-scaling option, combining with Viral to deal massive armour-bypassing damage from Slash procs. Either firing mode easily maxes Viral procs, with Primary Fire regularly proccing HM for reliable Slash procs.

Vs Variants

The MR10 Quanta Vandal is significantly stronger than the MR4 Quanta. Primary Fire has better Crit, nearly doubled Status Chance, and even increased base Damage. It also gets nice quality-of-life improvements in larger Mag Capacity and slightly shorter Reload Time.

Oddly, Alternate Fire is not altered at all.

Competitors

There are a lot of other strong Beam Primaries that the Quanta Vandal faces competition from. Of note, some of them have innate AoE on Primary Fire rather than relying on an alternate firing mode.

The MR9 Ignis Wraith is one such example. Though it deals much lower DPS and its stats are overall a lot worse than the QuantaV, it has a far better base Damage type (Heat), and its innate body Punch-Through and AoE make it an excellent crowd cleaner.

The MR10 Amprex is a strong contender as well. It deals slightly more direct Damage thanks to its overall better Crit, though of course loses out in Status Chance as well as Range (18m vs 50m). Most importantly, the Amprex chains from its initial target to damage up to three other enemies at the same time, giving it far superior and more convenient crowd-cleaning capabilities.

In the same vein, a Crit-focused Vermisplicer Kitgun can far exceed the QuantaV's direct damage, has better base Damage composition, and chains to extra enemies for much better crowd-clearing. This again comes at a trade-off of much lower Status output and Range.

Finally, the MR11 Synapse is another weapon that trades Status Chance and Range for drastically superior Crit and overall damage output. Additionally, it deals base Corrosive damage, which is very rare and extremely useful. Unlike the other weapons mentioned though, it has no innate AoE.

While Primary Fire's stats are quite good on-paper, its base Electric damage is notably very limiting in potential elemental builds. In turn, this also mitigates its otherwise extremely impressive Status Chance.

The QuantaV's Alternate Fire has quite unimpressive stats, and looking at any remotely decent explosive Primary shows how badly outclassed it is.

Rivens

The Quanta Vandal has a high 5/5 (1.35) Riven Disposition, with the regular Quanta marginally higher at 5/5 (1.4). This is not surprising given its relative unpopularity and continuous powercreep limiting its relevance.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are all no-fuss positives, though +Damage is much weaker with Arcanes and Galv mods. +Elemental Damage can be useful for saving a mod slot, adding more damage, and/or shifting around biases. +Faction Damage is a strong multiplier particularly for damage-over-time procs like Slash. It is most notable against the Grineer, who are by far the toughest of the three main factions. +Fire Rate is a solid DPS increase, but also increases ammo consumption. +Projectile Speed increases the speed and range of Alternate Fire, which can be useful. +Punch-Through can be very useful for Primary Fire against crowds.

While it isn't ideal, -Status Chance is easily mitigated by any other +Status Chance mods. -Faction Damage to the weaker factions (Corpus and especially Infested) can be manageable and of course has no effect on other factions. -Fire Rate can be compensated for with another +Fire Rate mod, but it isn't ideal. -Mag Capacity/Reload Speed are mitigated by the QuantaV's exceptional base Reload Ratio. -Ammo Max is not a problem if you have other ways to manage ammo (e.g. Ammo Mutation). -Projectile Speed has no effect on Primary Fire, but will further shorten the travel distance of Alternate Fire. +Recoil has essentially no effect. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.