previous incarnation: https://dormi.zone/post/3240013
With big meta changes in 1999, some of my commentary is out of date. I also tend to slowly learn new things about the weapons as I go, or have brain waves like for this week's selection.
As always the "Crowd Wisdom" is because I'd love for people to share their thoughts about the offerings.
What do we have this week?
- Braton
- Lato
- Skana
- Paris
- Kunai
My personal favourites are Skana and Kunai.
Braton
Still have not conclusively labbed how the anti-crit evolution works with Comradery and Acuity. I'm making a note that I'll comment a report of my research process and findings if I remember or come up with a good experiment protocol. If anyone else wants to confirm or share their findings, go for it!
Lato
Deathtrap Trigger is even more attractive now that we have Acuity and Comradery. Skana has a setup to feed Secondary Outburst without sacrificing Melee Influence, which is both extremely fun and extremely effective.
Skana
Evolution II confers +9 combo whenever Skana strikes an "undamaged" enemy. Notably, this includes the initial hit sent through Melee Influence; and enemies with overguard are "undamaged" until the overguard is depleted.
So, while there are some restrictions in place, it's not as useless as I originally wrote it off. Especially with Panzer Vulpaphyla no longer being a guaranteed companion pick, as long as you're not playing a frame that does large AoE chip damage like Mag, Frost, Nova etc, it is very easy to keep your combo up.
As mentioned on Lato, this lets you maintain the best of both worlds of Secondary Outburst and Melee Influence.
Paris
No updates since last time, other than bows in general benefit from Acuity and Comradery due to the incredible power of Longbow Sharpshot's unique multiplicative bonus. Stealth frames can abuse Spectral Serration to scale this weapon extremely hard.
Kunai
Another Deathtrap Trigger weapon, like the Lato. Even easier to use since it homes. Same remarks about the Skana setup apply here too, if you choose to go that route.
Unlike the Lato, has multiplicative Cascadia Accuracy, and hence also Acuity. Absolute terror of a weapon for priority killing.
Kunai is the standout of this bunch IMO. I think it's the only weapon in the game with such easy access to headshot homing (do Buzlok and Zymos count?); no need to prep with Scourge alt-fire or Void status. It's carried me through countless headshot Riven challenges. Great on Cyte-09 as well for emergency Evade refreshes. The main drawbacks are its extremely small magazine size and occasional weird tracking against enemies with unconventional weakpoints.
Skana is my second favorite (ok fine, I just want an excuse to use literally any of the cool longsword skins and stances). When's Pangolin Incarnon Genesis??
Paris is a fun one as well - super satisfying to scythe down entire hallways with a single shot. Pretty funny on Mag as well. Bhisaj-Bal makes this slightly easier for general use over Dread IMO, but Unseen Dread has the definite edge on stealth frames. Unfortunately I find bows in general fairly clunky to use, so I don't get a ton of use out of this one.
Braton is fine, if somewhat boring. The extra damage on evo 2 only being active on channeled abilities means I only ever feel compelled to use this on Sevagoth or Ember, but even without that it's a strong, easy-to-use Incarnon.
Lato Incarnon Genesis is the only Incarnon I haven't tried yet. I've been stubbornly re-farming Lato Vandal since I was an idiot and sold my previously-mastered copy a long time ago. I don't expect this to outshine other secondary Incarnons, but it seems strong enough on paper as a reliable Circuit/EDA pick.