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Friday, 16 September 2022

Review: Aegrit (U32.0.5)

The Aegrit is a new MR11 Thrown Secondary, released in U32. A manual-detonation explosive, it packs an impressive blast range with good damage, making it ideal for clearing out groups. It struggles against armoured targets, and is one of many weapons deliberately constrained by the Ammo rework.

Acquisition

The Aegrit's Blueprint can be purchased from Kahl's Garrison, unlocked after completing the Veilbreaker quest. You must be at least Rank 4 (Settlement) to purchase the BP. As such, as of writing, it cannot be acquired outside of spending Platinum or purchasing the Veilbreaker Supporter pack.

Stats

The Aegrit packs a massive punch. It has an extremely high base Damage backed up with exceptional Crit Chance of 37%, though a Crit Multi of 1.9x is a tad low and mostly base Blast damage is generally not a good type. 19% Status Chance is nice, but nothing special with such low Fire Rate.

Notably, the Aegrit has one of the largest explosive radii of any weapon in Warframe at a colossal 9m. With surprisingly lenient Damage Fall-Off of 70% (dealing 30% damage at maximum range), it can deal very good damage in a massive area.

The Aegrit is the first weapon I'm reviewing since the Ammo rework. The jist of it is that ammo types have been reduced from four (Rifle, Sniper/Bow, Shotgun, Secondary) to two (Primary, Secondary), drop rates halved, and ammo restoration more commonly varies among weapons. It was particularly targeted at AoE weapons such as the Kuva Bramma and Kuva Zarr, and the Aegrit is one such weapon impacted as well. It has a miniscule ammo pool of just 4 rounds, and a Mag Capacity of just 2 for a total of only 6 shots before being rendered useless. This is further constrained by the Aegrit only recovering a single round per ammo drop.
The Aegrit is a manual-detonation explosive weapon. Pressing Primary Fire will only throw projectiles, which will stick to whatever surface or object (including enemies) they hit first. Up to four such projectiles can be deployed at any one time. Attempting to fire any more once four are active will do nothing. These projectiles are detonated by pressing Alt Fire.

Interestingly, the Aegrit has a specific horizontal fan-out spread pattern when equipped with Multishot. This is very useful for striking down large groups of enemies, but much less effective against single targets.

Augments

None.

Builds

Basic 0-Forma:

Rather helpfully, the Aegrit has a three native V polarities. This makes it extremely easy to fit a basic build. The above build largely uses common, easy to acquire mods (Pathogen Rounds is probably the hardest to acquire as it drops only from very specific uncommon enemies), and already achieves very respectable damage.

Primed Crit 0-Forma:

In fact, 3 V polarities save so much capacity that you can easily fit the Primed Crit mods if you have them available.
In place of (Primed) Pistol Gambit, you could consider using Creeping Bullseye instead. Fire Rate is far less valuable to the Aegrit than most weapons due to its extremely low ammo count and manual-detonation.

As a manual-detonation Thrown Secondary, Multishot is slightly less desirable for the Aegrit than most weapons, though I'd argue still very strong. It has a hard limit of 4 active projectiles that includes extra Multishot pellets, so Multishot beyond a certain point (that point being +300%) does not help at all. It also potentially devalues follow-up shots, since if the first shot threw three projectiles, the next can only throw one before the projectiles are detonated. Between this and the lack of value from +Fire Rate, I've elected to not bother with Lethal Torrent. I believe there are better things you can do with the mod slot.


With so many good polarities, you can easily fit two- or three-element combinations, and there are several to consider.
Viral is the default all-rounder. Its proc is almost universally useful as it significantly increases damage dealt to all Health types, making it the best generalist. Its proc also very strong even with just a single stack. It can be complemented extremely well with Heat, which itself has ok multipliers but a very strong proc that reduces armour and deals stacking damage-over-time that is amplified by Viral procs.

Corrosive is the secondary elemental combo of choice, notably dealing massive damage to anything using Ferrite-armour and having a strong anti-armour proc. It is also very effective against the Infested, dealing the best direct damage to most of their heavy units, and especially being by far the best damage type for the Cambion Drift Infested, many of whom are immune to Viral procs. Once again, adding Heat is a strong option, as it benefits from Corrosive procs against armoured enemies as well. A Corrosive + Heat build also has strong multipliers against almost every Infested unit.

Radiation is somewhat more niche, but still has its uses. It is by far the strongest direct damage type against Alloy-armour, which is notably used by many Grineer bosses and heavies, and most armoured Corpus units. Toxin damage on its own bypasses most Shields entirely, making quick work of most unarmoured Corpus units as their Health pools are often not that large. Radiation and Toxin together strike at the Health or Armour types of the vast majority of Corpus units, making it a strong combination.

Finally, Magnetic is worth a mention but is the most niche of the lot. Its multipliers and proc make it exceptionally effective at depleting enemy Shields, however outside of a select few enemies, Shields are often not particularly tough. Against many enemies, it can be more effective to go with one of the other damage types, brute force through the Shields, and then get maximum benefit when striking at Health/Armour. Adding Heat or Toxin alongside Magnetic can help to chew through the tough Shields on those select few enemies, which often cannot be bypassed by Toxin.


The choice of 60/60 elementals vs 90%s (or in the case of Heated Charge, its Primed version) comes down largely to your preference of direct damage vs Status output. The 90%s and especially Primed Heated Charge offer much more damage, particularly useful for punching down heavy unarmoured enemies quickly. On the other hand, the higher Status Chance from 60/60s gives a much better chance to weaken enemies who survive the first shot, giving follow-up shots an easier time finishing them. I often default to the 60/60s simply because they are lower drain and thus easier to fit in builds.

Recommended Setups: Viral (+ Heat) vs everything, Corrosive (+ Heat) vs Ferrite-armour, Infested, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus, Magnetic (+ Heat/Toxin) vs strong Shields

General Purpose 1-Forma:

One added V polarity offers a lot more mod options, though depending on your mod choice a different polarity may be more suitable instead.

(Primed) Fulmination is a strong option, significantly increasing its explosive radius and allowing it to damage an even wider area. It also extends the explosive Damage Fall-Off range, thus dealing slightly higher damage to enemies at a given distance from the epicentre of the explosion.

A (Primed) Expel mod can be a strong extra damage multiplier, particularly if you manage to inflict any damage-over-time (e.g. Heat) procs. Its main drawback is of course that it has no effect on any other factions, and that certain factions are not covered by such mods yet (e.g. Sentients). For general damage against all factions, Magnum Force and Augur Pact are options, with the former being stronger with an accuracy penalty, and the latter being much cheaper to max and include. With a +Damage Arcane installed, both become obsolete.

Sharpened Bullets is a conditional Crit Damage-boosting option that offers a reasonable overall damage increase.

(Primed) Quickdraw could be used as a quality-of-life mod to cut down the frequent Reload Times. With such low ammo and its projectile limit however, the Aegrit doesn't really suit a rapid-fire playstyle anyway. I rarely find the Reload Time to be significant even without (Primed) Quickdraw, and the Aegrit comfortably blasts groups of enemies regardless.

For the Exilus slot, both ammo mods are good options. (Primed) Pistol Ammo Mutation allows you to convert Primary Ammo for the Aegrit, thus effectively doubling the number of ammo drops it will get. Trick Mag can be used to double the spare Ammo count, allowing you to survive slightly longer without ammo drops. If ammo is not a concern, Lethal Momentum can be nice to make throws easier to land beyond close range.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Galvanised Build and Arcane

Galv Diffusion is an obvious choice to get as many projectiles into the field as quickly as possible. Fully stacked, it guarantees throwing 3 projectiles per shot, with 30% chance for a fourth. Lethal Torrent can be used to make it a 90% chance for four.
If you favour a single-projectile-throw style, then obviously it is a no-go.

Galv Shot is pointless as it only works on direct hit damage, which is a miniscule component for the Aegrit.

I would not consider Galv Crosshairs to be much use since landing headshots with the Aegrit can be difficult, though detonating in mid-air can trigger headshots. Regardless, I have not had much success getting it to work reliably so would not bother personally.


For Arcane choice, as an AoE weapon the +Damage options will offer more overall damage increase than the +Crit ones. Cascadia Flare can be somewhat slow to stack with the Aegrit itself since it relies on a high quantity of Heat procs, but of course offers the largest damage boost of them all.

Between Secondary Merciless and Deadhead, I'd consider Merciless the better option. It is simpler and stacks rapidly from killing groups, which the Aegrit excels at. Deadhead stacking faster from headshots is irrelevant if you do not land headshots reliably, which as mentioned previously I struggle to do with the Aegrit.

If you want more Crit Chance, Cascadia Overcharge can be effective if you run equipment that reliably generates Overshields. I would consider Cascadia Accuracy a poor choice for the same reasons as Galv Crosshairs and Secondary Deadhead.

My Builds

Viral + Heat build without Lethal Torrent, as discussed previously. I've also opted for Creeping Bullseye over Primed Pistol Gambit because the Fire Rate penalty is negligible, albeit the Crit Chance increase is also very small.

Combat Use and Summary

With a massive blast radius, the Aegrit naturally excels against large groups of weak enemies. A single throw and detonate can wipe out even high level trash mobs thanks to very solid damage-per-shot, and such a high kill rate also helps it to recover ammo more easily.

With its massive damage-per-shot, the Aegrit fares reasonably well against high-health, unarmoured or Status-resistant/immune enemies. Landing a direct or near hit can cripple or kill even high level heavies. However, the changes to headshot mechanics also hurt it significantly. Explosive attacks like the Aegrit's now do not benefit from headshot multipliers, and the base headshot multiplier has been increased from 2x to 3x. This puts ordinary weapons at a significant advantage compared to explosive weapons against single targets.

The Aegrit is weakest against heavily armoured enemies. It does not have notably good Status output, with very low shot output and only mediocre Status Chance. Even the basic Viral/Corrosive can take a while to stack up, which the Aegrit cannot afford with its low ammo count (more on that just below). It does not naturally inflict Slash procs with any consistency or strength, and does not inflict the Impact procs necessary to make use of Hemorrhage either. Even brute-forcing through armoured enemies with pure DPS is less effective now that explosions do not benefit from the headshot multiplier.


Ammo is a major concern. Having just 6 rounds total is very low, and it can be quickly depleted if used carelessly on a few, unsuitable (i.e. armoured) targets. The Aegrit should be treated somewhat like grenades and other explosives in conventional shooter games - a powerful but deliberate tool best used when a high burst of damage or AoE damage is required. Thankfully, much of Warframe's content involves high quantities of enemies, especially when playing in a group, giving the Aegrit many more opportunities to replenish ammo. Modded and used appropriately, it should have little issue achieving the necessary kills to get ammo drops to resupply itself.
Ammo storage/restoration equipment such as Carrier's Ammo Case, an Ammo Mutation Mod, or an Ammo Scavenger Aura, are very good options if you can fit them.
Low Projectile Speed and projectile drop naturally also make it only useful at close- to mid-range.

I'm generally not a big fan of manual detonation weapons, primarily because I'm lazy but also because my depth perception in Warframe is not very good. It was a notable problem for me with the Corinth Prime's manual detonation airburst, however it is a bit more lenient with the Aegrit since its projectile stick to surfaces and objects rather than being rendered inert.
The biggest issue with being manual detonation is that the Aegrit has a hard limit of 4 projectiles out at any one time. This limits the value of Multishot, since anything beyond +300% is completely useless on single shots. Additionally, it also restricts the value of +Fire Rate and firing multiple shots. As mentioned previously, if the first shot throws three projectiles, the second can only fire one regardless of Multishot, unless the first batch of projectiles is detonated.
The Aegrit is perhaps not as affected by these issues, as it often only requires a single throw (and not necessarily even all four projectiles) to blast apart a group of enemies. Compared to the other manual detonation Thrown Secondaries (see Competitors below), it deals far more damage-per-shot so the projectile limit is less impactful.


Overall, the Aegrit is a decent crowd-clearer Secondary. Its enormous blast radius can clear out massive groups of weak enemies with ease, and it deals solid damage to unarmoured targets as well. It struggles mightily against heavily armoured enemies, with no way of reliably inflicting large numbers of useful procs against them. If you're after a Secondary that is effective for clearing an area of trash mobs quickly, the Aegrit is a great choice.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 5/5 - Packing high damage-per-shot and one of the largest blast radii in the game, the Aegrit excels at clearing out large groups of weak enemies.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 4/5 - The Aegrit deals massive damage with well placed explosions, however it does not benefit from the newly-buffed headshot multiplier as it is a mostly explosive weapon. This puts it a number of other Secondaries for single-target damage.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 1.5/5 - Very low shot output with only mediocre Status Chance makes the Aegrit quite poor against heavily armoured enemies. Its only method of inflicting Slash procs naturally is on direct hits, which deal miniscule damage. Even stacking up Viral/Corrosive + Heat procs is not very reliable due to its low Fire Rate and terrible spare ammo pool. As an AoE weapon, it cannot benefit from headshot multipliers to brute force its way through either.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: NA/5 - The Aegrit can only inflict occasional Impact procs with its very weak direct hits, and not at all with its explosion, making Hemorrhage basically worthless.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

There are two other manual-detonation Thrown Secondaries to look at, the Sancti Castanas and the Talons.
Annoyingly, as of taking these screenshots, the Warframe Arsenal does not properly line up the stats of the Aegrit against the SCastanas and Talons, and oddly also omits the Crit and Status Chance of the latter two.

Besides having lower Status Chance and Ammo, the Aegrit totally outclasses both. It deals far more damage with drastically higher base Damage and Crit Chance, and in a far larger explosive radius as well. The lower Status Chance is not a big deal as none of the three are good Status weapons anyway, and the lack of Ammo is compensated for by its much higher damage and larger blast radius.


Looking at more general explosive Secondaries, things get more interesting. I've picked out three somewhat comparable weapons: the Akarius, Kulstar and Sporelacer (Secondary).
The MR8 Akarius is Status-focused rather than Crit-leaning, immediately introducing a notable difference in role and function. The Aegrit packs far more punch-per-shot with its way higher base Damage and good Crit. On the other hand, the Akarius can fire far more rounds with its higher Mag Capacity, Fire Rate and spare Ammo, as well as spreading Status procs much more effectively.

The MR5 Kulstar is more Crit-viable than the Akarius, but still a far cry from the Aegrit. While its stat-screen base Damage is much lower, the Kulstar releases a number of additional munitions upon impact that roughly double its total on-paper damage. This gives it superior Status output to the Aegrit and makes the damage comparison a lot closer, however the Aegrit still comes out well ahead for damage as well as explosion range coverage. The Kulstar retains an ammo advantage, balancing out these factors slightly.

Finally, a Sporelacer Kitgun is an extremely potent weapon, one of my go-to Secondaries. If built for max Crit, it is very competitive for DPS, thanks to its incredibly high Crit Multiplier as well as additional cluster munitions. Additionally, it does not have any ammo issues with far more spare Ammo and Ammo Recovery, perhaps an oversight from DE. If necessary the Sporelacer can be equipped with the Pax Charge Arcane, turning it into a recharge weapon and eliminating any ammo concerns. Once again, the Aegrit retains a far larger blast radius (almost twice the Sporelacer's radius), however in this case that might be its only notable advantage.


Overall, the Aegrit is clearly the best of the manual-detonation Thrown Secondaries. It is by far the most powerful, and has the largest explosive radius of the lot. In fact it has one of the largest explosive radii in the game (the only larger one coming to mind is a fully charged Staticor), giving it a notable edge even against normal explosive Secondaries.

Rivens

As standard for a new weapon, the Aegrit starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. I'm honestly not sure where it will end up, but I think it deserves to remain relatively low (say around 2/5 [0.7-0.8]). It is among the best weapons in the game at clearing out groups of enemies due to its enormous explosive radius, and the ammo is not a major concern if you are getting lots of kills to recover ammo from.


+Damage is good, though not very strong with a +Damage Arcane installed. +Multishot is useful only as far as maxing out at 4.0 Multishot (+300%), anything beyond that is wasted. Alongside fully stacked Galv Diffusion, the maximum useful value from a Riven would be +70% Multishot. +Crit Chance/Damage are both great, though the former less so with one of the +Crit Chance Arcanes installed. +Elemental Damage can be nice to save a mod slot or for more damage. +Faction Damage, mainly against the Grineer, can be useful as an extra multiplier. It is most notable for damage-over-time procs like Heat, which unfortunately the Aegrit is not particularly good at inflicting.

+Mag Capacity/Reload Speed could be considered nice quality-of-life stats, however with the Aegrit's deliberate playstyle, I don't think they offer significant benefit. +Ammo Max is much more useful to have with such low base ammo pool. +Projectile Speed can be useful to better engage enemies beyond close range.


Any of -Impact/Puncture/Slash are good negatives. They are only present in the Aegrit's direct hit damage, which is a miniscule component of its overall damage and not worth worrying about. -Faction Damage to the weaker factions (Corpus and especially Infested) can be manageable with good positives, and of course has no impact on other factions. -Fire Rate has minimal impact since the Aegrit does not benefit from rapid fire. -Mag Capacity has no impact at values smaller than -25%, and even when it does reduce Mag Capacity to 1, I don't think it is the biggest deal on the Aegrit if you only take single, deliberate shots anyway.

-Projectile Speed is not the biggest deal if you use it only in close range. -Reload Speed in small amounts could be argued as not the biggest deal, since the Aegrit is best used slowly and deliberately. Secondary Merciless also helps to offset it with its own +Reload Speed. +Recoil has practically no effect. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.

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