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Thursday, 1 June 2023

Review: Cinta (U33.0.14)

The Cinta is a new MR6 Bow, used by one of the new Duviri enemies. Using the Nataruk's Perfect Shot mechanic, it is a surprisingly strong Bow with greater versatility than the typical Bow.


Acquisition

Besides buying the Cinta from Market, you'll need to farm its Blueprints on Duviri. They are potential drops from these "Paragrimm Hutch" puzzles.
The Cinta's components need to be built before building the Cinta itself. Notably, the component blueprints are tradeable while the main blueprint is not.

Stats

For an MR6 Bow, the Cinta is fairly potent. Uncharged Shots are already surprisingly strong, with usable Crit, decent Status Chance, and very high base Damage. Innate Punch Through is appreciated as well. Majority Puncture damage is not ideal though.

Ammo Max of 60, recovering 10 per ammo drop, is not particularly high but not insurmountable as the Cinta is relatively ammo efficient. Reload Time of 0.6 seconds is quite standard.
The Cinta's Charged Shot is a very strong conventional Bow shot. It has significantly stronger Crit than Uncharged Shot, among the best of any normal Bow, as well as almost twice the base Damage.

By far the biggest downside with Charged Shot is its very long 1.5 second Charge Time - the slowest of any Bow.

Like with the Nataruk, the Cinta has a Perfect Shot mechanic. Releasing the shot in the small highlighted area fires a different projectile to fully Charged or Uncharged Shots.

Unlike Uncharged and Charged Shots, which fire a conventional arrow, Perfect Shot fires a large wave projectile, akin to the Arca Plasmor. The Perfect Shot projectile has infinite body Punch Through as well as a high chance to knockdown enemies. Compared to Charged Shot, it trades a large amount of Crit and base Damage for far greater anti-crowd capabilities.


On top of all of this, the Cinta also has a unique extra firing mode. Pressing Alt Fire will switch the Cinta to the alternate firing mode, though there is no visual cue for which mode you are in.

Firing while in this mode will cause the Warframe to jump backwards, leaving a string of explosives in the ground that detonate shortly after. This is exactly like the move used by the Dax Arcus in Duviri. Unfortunately, it seems this attack deals miniscule damage and doesn't scale with mods, making it completely useless.

Augments

None.

Builds

NOTE: All builds are pictured with Charged Shot stats, as that is the only shot type Overframe currently has.

0-Forma:

With a single native V polarity, the Cinta can fit a solid base build in. This pictured build has all the usual - Damage, Multishot, Crit, two Elements. Depending on the ranks of your mods and which mods are available, there is space for at least one 90% elemental over the 60/60s (which are usually more difficult to acquire).

Viral is of course the go-to elemental combo if you don't to think too hard. As a damage type it has some decent multipliers, but its proc is almost universally useful as it amplifies all damage dealt to Health - which every enemy has. Corrosive is much stronger against Ferrite-armoured enemies, dealing drastically more direct damage and reducing armour with its proc. It also deals much better direct damage against most heavy Infested units, however in that case stacked Viral procs usually win out regardless. Notably though, Cambion Drift Infested are immune to Viral procs.

Radiation is similarly strong against Alloy-armoured enemies (notably almost all armoured Corpus units as well as their unarmoured robotics), although its proc is not nearly as useful. Finally, pure Toxin is ideal against most unarmoured Corpus units, as it bypasses their Shields and deals damage directly to their often-weaker Health. Unfortunately it is not possible to have pure Toxin with two mods on Perfect Shots, due to their innate Heat. Strong Shields can be combatted with Magnetic, but there are very few enemies whose Shields actually justify such.

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

Fire Rate 1-Forma:

An added V polarity allows you to look at a seventh mod. I would prioritise a Fire Rate mod to cut down the Cinta's painfully long Charge Time. The example build has Vile Acceleration, which offers the highest Fire Rate bonus at a very small Damage cost. As Bows receive doubled Fire Rate bonus, this cuts the Cinta's awful 1.5 second Charge Time down to a much more manageable 0.54 seconds.

With a +Fire Rate mod, you can also look to replace Point Strike with Critical Delay, for a little more Crit Chance at the cost of some Fire Rate. In this example build, that increases the Charge Time slightly to 0.62 seconds, but raises Crit Chance from 90% to 108%.

Recommended Setups: see above.

Hunter Munitions 3-Forma:

Two more added Forma, probably both V polarities (or one V and one -), will allow you to consider and fit in an eighth mod. Probably the top priority mod to fit in is Hunter Munitions alongside a Viral elemental setup.

Armoured enemies are by far the toughest enemies in Warframe, due to their colossal damage reduction values. Combatting armour by either reducing or bypassing it is mandatory to dealing with high level enemies. This is primarily done with Status procs, usually some combination of Viral/Corrosive/Heat to increase damage dealt, or Slash procs to deal damage that bypasses armour damage reduction entirely. Unfortunately, the Cinta is not ideal for stacking any of these top their fullest potential. Though it has good Status Chance, its very low Fire Rate even with +Fire Rate mods makes it rather slow and unreliable at stacking Status procs naturally. Additionally, its base Slash bias is very low. Hunter Munitions however can make any Crit-viable Primary reliably inflict Slash procs, as its trigger chance is based purely off Crit Chance, which the Cinta does well in with all shot types. With the Cinta's huge damage-per-shot, any Slash procs it inflicts (natural or otherwise) will deal colossal damage.

Split Flights is an interesting Multishot alternative to Split Chamber. When stacked up, it can offer far more Multishot than even Galv Chamber (+400%), however it decays extremely quickly which requires you to constantly spam out shots for full benefit. Even with increased Fire Rate and reduced Reload Speed, the Cinta struggles to put out enough projectiles to consistently keep Split Flights fully stacked. The Accuracy penalty is negligible for Perfect Shots, but noticeably degrades Uncharged/Charged Shot precision. I don't think it's worth the trouble personally.


If for some reason you don't need that specific eight-mod-setup (e.g. not facing armoured enemies or have external sources of +Fire Rate), there are several other options to consider for the seventh/eighth mod slots.

Vigilante Armaments is a low-drain, no-fuss Multishot increase, however it is relatively weak, and is redundant once you acquire Galv Chamber (or if you use Split Flights). Heavy Caliber is a little stronger, however comes with a significant Accuracy penalty, and again becomes redundant once you get +Damage Arcanes. The best damage boosting option is a (Primed) Bane mod, particularly as it applies twice to damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat. However, they are expensive to max, tedious to switch around, and completely unnecessary for anything except extended Steel Path runs.

Bladed Rounds and Argon Scope are the two conditional Crit-boosting options. Hammer Shot unconditionally boosts Crit and Status, however its Crit boost is much weaker than the other two.

You could also choose to use one of the mod slots for a third elemental mod. There are a few notable options. Viral + Heat is a great all-rounder, however if you are running Viral, you are better off with Hunter Munitions for combating heavily armoured enemies. Corrosive + Heat is exceptionally effective against almost all Infested health and armour types, particularly the aforementioned Cambion Drift ones. Finally, Radiation + Toxin offers strong damage against most Corpus units - Toxin quickly kills most unarmoured ones, while Radiation is the best direct damage type against most of their armoured units. Notably, such a setup also retains the individual Toxin on Perfect Shots.


For the Exilus slot, there are two main candidates. Vigilante Supplies offers an Ammo Mutation effect to eliminate any ammo concerns, along with marginally increasing damage output with its mod set bonus. Arrow Mutation offers a stronger Ammo Mutation effect without the minimal damage boost. Otherwise, the +Projectile Speed from Terminal Velocity can be very beneficial for combat beyond close range.

Recommended Setups: see above. Also consider: Viral + HM vs armoured enemies, Corrosive + Heat vs Infested, Radiation + Toxin vs Corpus

Galvanised Build and Arcane:


Galv Chamber.
Galv Aptitude can be very strong, as it seems the Cinta is one of those weapons for which its +Damage bonus is applied separately to other +Damage effects, rather than adding with them. It will be most impactful with a +Damage Arcane.

Galv Scope can also be very strong, but is dependent on landing headshot kills. The Cinta can land headshot hits reliably with a little skill, but against many tougher targets its primary damage comes from Slash and/or Heat procs - neither of which will trigger headshot kills. This one is a personal playstyle pick - if you think you can land headshot kills consistently enough to stack Galv Scope up, by all means use it for massive Crit Chance boost.


The aforementioned Galv Aptitude interaction means that you really want a +Damage Arcane, but for completeness we'll go through the full list anyway.
  • Fractalised Reset is unnecessary because the Cinta's Reload Time is already short and is not the main bottleneck in getting shots out quickly.
  • Primary Frostbite is quite strong, but doesn't compare to a +Damage Arcane with Galv Apt, and the Cinta is not good at stacking Cold procs.
  • Primed Plated Round doesn't work at all.
  • If not for the Galv Apt interaction, Longbow Sharpshot would be a very strong option - and technically it is still quite strong. Especially with Perfect Shots, the Cinta can trigger the "on headshot" condition with ease, for a massive subsequent damage boost. A standard +Damage Arcane remains superior in this case, but only slightly.
  • The Cinta doesn't inflict Impact procs with any of its shot types, so Primary Exhilarate is pointless.
  • Building the Cinta for Magnetic just to use Primary Obstruct is likely not worth the very niche damage type and Arcane effect compared to dealing much better damage types and procs (e.g. Viral, Corrosive). Not to mention using Pri Obstruct means missing out on a huge chunk of damage.
  • The Cinta isn't a Shotgun so Shotgun Vendetta is pointless.
  • Both Primary Deadhead and Primary Merciless have merit versus one another. Pri Deadhead is faster to stack, and offers a little extra headshot damage. However, it will not stack from kills by some damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat. Pri Merciless stacks from any type of kill and the slight Reload Speed increase is appreciated, however it also decays very quickly which can be problematic for the slow-firing Cinta.
Because of the aforementioned Galv Apt interaction, I'd recommend either Pri Deadhead or Merciless.

My Builds

Standard Viral + Slash build.

Combat Use and Summary

The Cinta's Charged Shots are ideal for tough single targets. Though very slow firing, they deal massive damage-per-shot, particularly if you can land a headshot. Innate Punch Through can help to hit a few enemies in a line, but the overall extremely low Fire Rate makes this a minor detail. Additionally, while its Status Chance is quite high, majority base Puncture means that in terms of useful procs, it is likely to only inflict whatever elements were modded on.

This is particularly detrimental against heavily armoured enemies. While Charged Shots can deal good direct damage with Corrosive or Radiation, and Viral or Corrosive procs are beneficial, with limited ability to stack Status procs Charged Shots do not scale well against heavy armour.

Perfect Shot, given its massive projectile, is naturally well suited to taking down groups of enemies. It deals respectable damage in a huge range, easily killing off weaker enemies while leaving tougher enemies with several Status procs. It deals significantly less damage than Charged Shots, making it less suited to heavy targets, but that is a non-issue. Once again however, its low Fire Rate and lack of natural Slash procs makes Perfect Shots scale poorly against heavy armour. Perfect Shots fare perhaps slightly better due to its base Heat, but still not well.

Hunter Munitions addresses most of the Cinta's issues against heavily armoured enemies. All of the Cinta's firing modes have decent Crit Chance (Charged Shots especially), giving them a good chance of trigger HM for massive Slash procs. HM can be somewhat unreliably due to the Cinta's very low Fire Rate.


Alt Fire is essentially worthless and should never be seriously used in its current form.


Ammo should generally not be a major concern. A Max Ammo pool of 60 is not huge, however Perfect Shots in particular excel at clearing lots of weak enemies, for a good chance of getting ammo drops. Charged Shots are less enemy-efficient, but are much more suited to quickly killing priority targets. Regardless, properly used and modded, the Cinta should not have much difficulty sustaining ammo.

The Cinta can also be somewhat problematic to use at longer ranges, as all shot types fire projectiles with travel time. Given Warframe's general focus on closer-range combat and incredibly fast movement system, this is generally not a major issue.


Overall, the Cinta is a very impressive MR6 Bow. Its Uncharged/Charged Shot deal greater single-target damage than the average Bow, while Perfect Shot offers a decently strong anti-crowd attack, especially by Bow standards. By far its biggest weakness is its very long Charge Time, which can be greatly reduced with +Fire Rate mods. Consistently firing Perfect Shots also takes some skill and effort, much more so than most popular Warframe weapons. The Cinta easily outclasses most other normal Bows, and competes surprisingly favourably with the excellent Nataruk.

Scores

Vs Trash Mobs: 4/5 - Perfect Shots possess a massive hitbox with infinite body Punch Through, allowing them to effortlessly tear through clumps of enemies. It deals more than enough damage to kill weak enemies, and will leave tougher enemies with a few Status procs. The main drawbacks are relatively low Fire Rate, and the necessity to reliably fire Perfect Shots since fully Charged Shots are a different projectile type.
Vs Unarmoured Heavies: 5/5 - Charged Shots deal massive single-target damage, especially on headshots. The Cinta can brute-force quite effectively through unarmoured or Status-resistant/immune enemies.
Vs Armoured Heavies without Forced Slash: 3/5 - With low Slash bias and overall very low Fire Rate, the Cinta is not great against heavily armoured enemies without HM. It does not reliably naturally inflict Slash procs, and struggles to quickly stack up more than a few Viral/Corrosive procs. Base Heat on its Perfect Shots can be helpful, but Perfect Shots are also significantly weaker than Charged Shots.
Vs Armoured Heavies with Forced Slash: 4.5/5 - Decently high Crit Chance with all forms allows the Cinta to make very good use of Hunter Munitions. With HM, it can inflict massive Slash procs fairly reliably, which will eat through most heavily armoured enemies quite easily. Fairly high Status Chance allows it to also inflict some Viral procs fairly reliably for even more damage.

Vs Variants

None.

Competitors

The MR6 Cinta has many similarities to the Nataruk, including the Perfect Shot window, inevitably putting them head-to-head.
Initially when looking at Uncharged Shots, the Cinta comes off surprisingly well. They have the same base Damage, however the Cinta has a slightly higher Crit Multiplier for a little more damage. The Cinta also has innate Punch Through, which is very helpful.
Things become much tougher once you look at the Charged and especially Perfect Shot comparisons. In both of these modes, the Nataruk is far more powerful than the Cinta. Additionally, the Nataruk has infinite ammo, shorter Charge Time, and almost no Reload Time.

Of note in the Cinta's favour is that the its Charged Shot will benefit from the 3× headshot multiplier where the Nataruk's Charged/Perfect Shots will not. This can give the Cinta higher peak single target damage if used skilfully. Additionally, the Cinta's Perfect Shot projectile is much larger than the Nataruk's Perfect Shot projectile, though the Nataruk's is far more powerful. In its individual shot types, the Cinta offers either better anti-crowd or better single-target damage than the Nataruk - however the Nataruk does both at the same time fairly effectively. In contrast, the Cinta's anti-crowd shot is much weaker against single heavy targets, and its single-target shot is terrible against crowds.

In summary, while the Cinta is far stronger than most normal Bows, and individually beats the Nataruk in several aspects, the Nataruk is more well rounded and does everything competently without having to choose. The Nataruk is also far less punishing for missing the Perfect Shot window, since its Charged and Perfect Shots have the same projectile type.

Rivens

As a new weapon, the Cinta starts with a minimum 1/5 (0.5) Riven Disposition. Considering it is more difficult to use well than the Nataruk, but much better than most other Bows, I see its Disposition rising up to at least 2/5 (0.8), and probably more.

+Damage/Multishot/Crit Chance/Crit Damage are the standard decent positives, with the former being much less valuable once you get access to Arcanes. +Slash could be used to try and eke out more natural Slash procs, but relying on Hunter Munitions is much more effective and reliable. +Elemental Damage can be useful to save a mod slot. +Faction Damage can be a strong multiplier of damage-over-time procs like Slash and Heat. It is most useful against the Grineer as they are by far the toughest of the three base Factions. +Fire Rate is a great stat to have, reducing the Cinta's painfully long Charge Time. +Projectile Speed can be useful beyond close range. +Reload Speed slightly reduces time between shots, but +Fire Rate is more impactful. +Punch Through can be helpful against solid objects, but is not necessary given the Cinta has some innately.

-Impact/Puncture/Slash all have value. -Impact has no effect so is ideal. -Puncture reduces the Cinta's base physical damage noticeably, however Puncture isn't the best damage type or proc so this isn't a huge deal. More importantly, it also increases the bias of Slash and the modded-on elemental damage types which is highly beneficial. -Slash reduces base physical damage as well as chance of natural Slash procs, but its base value is so low that these are very minor effects. -Faction Damage against the weaker Factions (mainly Infested, arguably Corpus) can be manageable, and of course has no effect on other targets. -Mag Capacity has no effect. -Ammo Max is very manageable as the Cinta is fairly ammo efficient. +Recoil is a non-issue as the Cinta is slow firing. -Zoom is ideal for close quarters.

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