Acquisition
The Phage's Blueprint can be researched and acquired from a Dojo's Infested Lab.
Stats
The Phage has a limited range of 25m, which is respectable for a Beam weapon. It also suffers from the usual Beam damage ramp-up/decay, but in exchange consumes ammo at half its Fire Rate, at just 6-per-second at base. This gives it an exceptional Reload Ratio of 7.5.
A single native - polarity doesn't offer a lot in the way of saved capacity, allowing for only the most basic of builds. This above build is an example of just lumping in a bunch of elemental mods, which are mostly relatively easy to acquire. If going the pure element route, simply throw in all of the decent +Damage/Multishot/Element mods you have, then rearrange the elemental mods for the right combo.
One added V polarity allows you to start comfortably fitting in Primed mods, for a solid power boost. Primed Ravage in particular makes a Crit build worth pursuing.
One major build option that opens up is Hunter Munitions. This above build is actually not optimal for a pure HM build, as Corrosive does nothing for Slash procs, and the innate Viral absolves the need to mod it on. If you expect the native Viral procs to be sufficient, all of your mods should be dedicated to maximising Slash proc damage and output, which I'll talk more about those just below.
Another added V polarity and you can start filling all eight mod slots. The added polarities will depend on your chosen extra mods.
The Phage has an incredibly high 5/5 (1.46) Riven Disposition, demonstrating its clear unpopularity. While a strong single target weapon, it can be awkward to use, and is not a good AoE weapon which is the current meta.
As mentioned previously, the Phage fires a spread of 7 beams. These beams fire out very wide at a set spread, each dealing very low damage on their own.
Aiming while firing will converge the beams to a single point, taking around half a second. Exiting aim will stop the convergence and hold the beams in the current spread, while stopping firing will reset the spread to full.
This makes the Phage very unusual and can be quite difficult to get used to. It is the only weapon with this type of convergence effect, and its spread resetting every time you stop firing can make it frustrating to use. With beams at maximum spread, it deals very little single target damage.
Augments
None.
Builds
Elemental 0-Forma:
Instead of a third elemental mod, you could consider slotting in Vigilante Armaments or Vicious Spread. They offer a nice boost of Multishot or Damage respectively, though become essentially redundant once you gain access to Galvanised mods and Arcanes.
Basic Crit 0-Forma:
Alternatively, you could go straight for a Crit build. With just the basic Crit mods however, it will not be especially strong.
For now I'll just discuss simple two-element combos, with the three-element setups detailed further below.
Since the Phage already has innate Viral, it does not need to be modded on and opens up many great and normally impossible combinations. Modding on Corrosive is especially effective against heavily armoured targets, as together the two procs when maxed out can increase their damage taken by around 21x on an enemy with extremely high Armour. Corrosive also deals massive bonus damage to Ferrite-armour, and is the best type to use against the Infested.
Radiation deals strong direct damage against Alloy-armour, more so than just Corrosive with its procs. The Corpus notably mostly use Alloy as their armour type, making it very effective against them. Pure Toxin is exceptionally strong against any unarmoured Corpus, as its damage and proc bypass Shields entirely, striking directly at their Health. This is greatly augmented by the innate Viral procs. Against the select few enemies whose Shields are actually tough and cannot be bypassed using Toxin, Magnetic is the obvious counter.
Recommended Setups: Corrosive vs everything, Radiation vs armoured Corpus, Toxin vs unarmoured Corpus, Magnetic vs strong Shields
Primed Crit 1-Forma:
Critical Deceleration is an obvious replacement for Blunderbuss once you acquire it, as it offers more than double the Crit Chance in exchange for a little Fire Rate. This in turn is easily counteracted by any +Fire Rate mod.
Recommended Setups: see above.
General Purpose 3-Forma:
It will probably take another two or so Forma to start customising the build to your liking. From there, you can start considering seventh mod options. There are of course quite a lot to consider.
This above build pictures one of the best options, a third elemental mod for some simple extra damage and another useful proc. There are several options worth considering if going this route.
Combining Corrosive and Heat adds a little extra against armoured enemies, with Heat giving additional armour reduction as well as a very strong stacking damage-over-time proc. It is also an extremely effective combo against the Infested, as it strikes just about every one of their Health types super effectively.
Radiation and Toxin alongside the innate Viral is super-effective against the vast majority of Corpus once their Shields are depleted (or in Toxin's case, ignoring Shields entirely). Magnetic with added Toxin or Heat will make short work of the select few enemies whose Shields are tough.
Hunter Munitions 3-Forma:
Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Corrosive + Heat vs everything, Hunter Munitions vs extremely heavy armour, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus, Magnetic + Toxin/Heat vs strong Shields
General Purpose 4-Forma:
As always, I am a big fan of adding Punch-Through to any weapon without innate AoE. Seeking Fury is lower drain and generally easier to fit, while Seeking Force offers more Punch-Through.
A +Fire Rate mod like Shotgun Spazz is a strong DPS increase, especially alongside Critical Deceleration. Note that it will also significantly increase ammo consumption rate, which is already problematic for the Phage.
A (Primed) Cleanse is a strong damage boost against the correct faction. It is especially potent alongside any damage-over-time procs like Slash, as its bonus is applied twice. It is overkill for most content, but is a clear best-in-slot option in a HM build.
Shrapnel Shot is a decent conditional Crit mod, significantly increasing Crit Damage. Its Crit Chance equivalent, Laser Sight, is less impactful due to the relative strength of Critical Deceleration, which you should always use on any Crit Shotgun. Motus Setup is another conditional Crit Chance mod, but it also increases Status Chance, so offers more benefit than Laser Sight.
The convergence mechanic makes increasing Mag Capacity with (Primed) Ammo Stock slightly more valuable than usual. Stopping firing at any point will immediately reset beam convergence, including when reloading. As such, a larger Mag Capacity allows you to keep firing for longer to hold converged beams for longer. It probably isn't worth mod slot on its own though.
There are two main options for the Exilus slot. Sinister Reach gives +12m Range, increasing Beam Range from 25m to 37m. It is a solid increase and makes the Phage a little easier to use outside of close quarters. An Ammo Mutation mod helps to alleviate ammo issues in most situations, and Vigi Supplies in particular offers a marginal increase in DPS.
Recommended Setups: see above.
Unexceptional Corrosive + Heat build, with my Riven replacing Primed Ravage.
The Phage excels against Status-vulnerable armoured enemies. With innate Viral, it can be easily modded for Corrosive to increase damage dealt to heavily armoured enemies by up to 21x or so. Any added Heat is a great addition as well, while Hunter Munitions' Slash procs will scale even better at really, really, really high levels.
Galvanised Build and Arcane
Galv Hell.
Galv Savvy is a strong option in any multi-element build. Three different proc types is sufficient for the +Damage bonus to exceed that of Primed Point Blank. The increased Status Chance is also very beneficial.
Galv Acceleration is a very strong quality-of-life effect, almost doubling Beam range to 47.5m at full stacks. This can make using the Phage at medium ranges much easier. As an Exilus mod, it is also much easier to justify slotting Galv Accel, as it faces far less competition.
With an amazing Reload Ratio, Fractalised Reset is pointless.
The decision between Merciless and Deadhead is largely to preference. Deadhead heavily incentivises headshots with its +Headshot Damage, while Merciless requires less effort and its +Ammo Max effect can be nice on the Phage. Most notably, Deadhead only stacks from direct-hit headshot kills, and not damage-over-time proc kills, which the Phage excels at.
My Builds
Combat Use and Summary
Despite having a distinct, set spread, I find the Phage is not particularly effective against groups. Its individual beams are almost comically weak, to the point where they struggle to kill all but the absolute weakest enemies. Instead, I find it more reliable and effective to simply converge the beams, and then sweep through each enemy individually for maximum single-target damage. With no innate Punch Through, this puts it slightly worse than a conventional Full-Auto Rifle, since it also has the short damage ramp-up to deal with.
Additionally, the Phage deals extremely low Burst DPS, mainly by virtue of its pathetically low base Damage. Any enemy that is Status-resistant/immune poses a major problem, as the Phage's biggest strength is in stacking ludicrous amounts of Status procs.
The Phage's spread and convergence function is a neat idea, but in practice ends up being very inconvenient. The individual beams when spread out deal very little damage, only killing off the absolute weakest of enemies. Anything else is much better dealt with by converging beams. The spread resetting every time you stop firing can be very frustrating, forcing either lost time in re-converging the spread regularly, or wasting ammo to keep the spread converged.
The Phage of course uses the relatively uncommon Shotgun ammo, and consumes it at a rate much faster than a normal Shotgun, so can burn through its reserves surprisingly quickly. With the spread mechanic encouraging you to keep firing to keep its beams converged, this only worsens the ammo situation. One of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc is basically mandatory for longer missions.
Overall, the Phage is a very strange weapon. It is undeniably extremely powerful against heavily armoured enemies, however it is rather lacking against most other targets and can be annoying to use optimally. There are many weapons that are overall as or more effective, while being much easier to use effectively. Unless you are a fan of very unusual, unconventional weapons, I probably wouldn't invest much time or effort into the Phage.
Scores
Vs Trash Mobs: 3/5 - While the Phage's default spread is quite wide, it deals very little damage with each individual beam. As such, it is actually rather poor at spread damage. It is much more effective converging beams and simply sweeping through individual targets.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 1.5/5 - The Phage has really low Burst DPS, so is quite poor against Status-resistant/immune enemies.
The Convectrix fires two beams at a wide angle, with Alt Fire causing them to sweep back and forth. While not the same as the Phage, this is the closest effect that any other weapon has to the beam convergence mechanic. Notably, the Convectrix is an incredible Slash proc weapon while the Phage has innate Viral. The two have similar Status output, with the Convectrix having much higher Stats-per-beam, and the Phage having far more beams. With fewer beams to split its damage into and a built-in sweeping mechanic, I think the Convectrix fares a little better against groups, while the Phage does better in the DPS department.
I've included comparisons to a couple of other Beam weapons, though the only other Shotgun one in the mix is the MR9 Phantasma. The Phantasma is even better for inflicting Status and has a far higher base Damage, in exchange for unusable Crit and slightly shorter range. The Phage's innate Viral is also more useful than the Phantasma's innate Radiation.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 5/5 - The Phage inflicts a hilarious number of Status procs on single targets when focused, and its innate Viral allows for some normally impossible and incredibly strong combos. Modding on Corrosive and Heat drastically increases the damage taken by affected armoured enemies, and Heat procs will stack up ridiculously fast to deal immense damage-over-time.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 5/5 - HM allows the Phage to reliably inflict Slash procs, which when the beams are focused on a single target, will munch through even the most heavily armoured of targets. However, unless you are going for an extended endurance run, I think building for Heat instead is as effective, if not more.
Vs Variants
None.
Competitors
Being such an unusual weapon, the Phage has very few, if any true direct competitors. The closest weapon to it is the MR7 Convectrix.
Another key advantage for the Convectrix is its unique Efficient Beams Augment, which causes it to only consume ammo when actually hitting an enemy. The Phage would absolutely love this effect, as it would allow it to retain converged beams without having to worry about ammo.
Overall the Phage fills a very specific niche. Very few other weapons deal innate Viral damage, and its beam convergence mechanic is completely unique thus far.
Rivens
+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the usual suspects. With Arcanes and both new and buffed mods, +Crit Damage is the best of the four to get in terms of pure damage. +Crit Chance is of course notably good if using HM. +Elemental Damage can be useful to save a mod slot. +Faction Damage is a very strong multiplier especially in any build with damage-over-time procs (e.g. Heat, Slash). It is most useful against the Grineer, as the other factions are generally much weaker. +Mag Capacity can be nice quality-of-life, allowing you to hold converged beams for longer before needing to reload. +Punch-Through is very helpful against tightly packed groups.
-Faction Damage to the weaker factions (Corpus and especially Infested) is generally quite manageable, especially with good positives. -Ammo Max in smaller amounts can be counteracted with one of Ammo Case/Mutation/etc as well as a Merciless Arcane. -Projectile Speed has no effect. -Reload Speed is not the biggest deal. +Recoil has no effect.
No comments:
Post a Comment