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Guandao Prime

The Steel Path Shredder - Super OP (no Riven, multiple builds, see description)

by last updated 3 years ago

1240

That a god might reap a harvest of lives.

109 VOTES
4 COMMENTS

ITEM RANK

30

60 / 60

APPLY CONDITIONALS

ATTACK SPEED
1.00
CRITICAL CHANCE
32%
CRITICAL MULTIPLIER
2.4x
RANGE
3.00m
RIVEN DISPOSITION
0.65
STATUS CHANCE
20%
DAMAGE
 IMPACT
60.0
 PUNCTURE
12.0
 SLASH
168.0
TOTAL Damage
240.0
AVERAGE HIT
347.5
SUSTAINED DPS
347.5
Guide
4 Comments
Guandao Prime builds
Builds by OmegaConstruct

The Steel Path Shredder - Super OP (no Riven, multiple builds, see description)

The Steel Path [Shredder]

This 4 forma [Guandao Prime] build will destroy the Steel Path star chart. And yes, it is just a single element! Yes, it is just one of the Sacrificial mods! That is all you need! In fact, that is all you want. Also, this is actually two builds in one! You swap out the element depending on which faction you are facing, and this will be the only melee weapon you need in Steel Path.

NOTE: This build is insanely OP for the normal star chart, Sorties, or really anything short of ridiculously high level endgame content. The [Guandao Prime] is an amazing weapon and will wipe out the star chart with 1 forma. This build is excessive. But if you want to see how far this massive powercreep of a weapon can go, here is how you do it. TL:DR at the bottom.

Requires Naramon focus school's Power Spike skill to maintain combo counter!

Sorry, you want the best melee you gotta give up Zenurik. If you really, really, really have to have Zenurik, you can swap [Weeping Wounds] out for [Drifting Contact]. But you shouldn't.

Primed Smite mods? Really?

Yes really! The reason is that faction specific damage double dips in the damage calculations by increasing the damage of the initial hit to the enemy by 55%, and then increasing the damage done by the DoT status proc by another 55%.

Use Toxin against Corpus and Heat against everything else!

  • Use (Primed) Fever Strike against Corpus because Toxin damage bypasses shields.
  • Use Molten Impact against Grineer and Infested because many units are weak to Heat damage.
  • Corrupted enemies are a grab bag, I stick with Heat as Toxin is less effective against Grineer and Infested type Corrupted enemies.

Why a single element over a combined element? DoT!

Yes, combined elements can give a stronger bonus against many enemy types than the single, but there is a twofold reason to avoid them, and both of them are about damage over time:

  1. Heat and Toxin status procs both cause damage over time, while most of the combined elements do not.
  2. A combined element would weight the ratio more heavily towards the element and away from slash procs, another source of damage over time.

The goal is to get high damage slash and Toxin/Heat procs on the enemies. We don't want any other procs from this weapon.

Required pairings: [Helios] and a Status Spreader!

You absolutely want to bring a fully modded [Helios] as your companion, with its [Deconstructor] weapon modded with the 3 Gladiator set mods. The 30% 3 set bonus will apply to your melee weapon, turning the 60% stacking crit bonus from [Blood Rush] to 90%.

This weapon will benefit heavily from being paired with a weapon that can spread a lot of unique status procs for [Condition Overload]. This is also where you apply your valuable Viral procs, rather than on the weapon itself since Viral procs work the same no matter how much damage the proc itself does, and you want the Viral to proc before the big DoT status effect procs. I recommend the [Kuva Nukor] or [Vermisplicer], both of which can be modded to add an insane 5 unique status procs to supercharge Condition Overload, and their chained-beam mechanics make sure all of your enemies are primed.

Check out my Steel Path Statusizer Kuva Nukor build here!

A note about stances:

The default stance polarity for the [Guandao Prime] matches [Shimmering Blight]. [Shimmering Blight] is a fine stance that does quite well. That said, [Twirling Spire] has combos that add forced slash procs, and that will up your damage output. Is it truly necessary to add a 5th Forma, or maybe even a Stance Forma? No, probably not, but it's there for the absolute min-maxer. I will say, the [Twirling Spire] stance is also just a fun stance. It has hard, dramatic attacks that feel powerful, and that's just plain old fun, especially when it ends with the enemy slicing in half or burning to a cinder.

TL:DR: Why (this) instead of (that)?

The whole idea is to get high crit damage over time status procs. Every choice is about getting the most out of that damage:

  1. [Helios] and the Gladiator set mods are crucial. If you do the math, that extra 30% stacking crit brings your total crit chance at 12x combo multiplier to above 400%. Without Helios, crit chance is the listed 384%.
  2. Naramon/[Weeping Wounds] is far better than [Drifting Contact]. At 12x combo multiplier, you have 108% status chance, meaning nearly every single hit will land a high DoT status proc. This kills the crab. [Drifting Contact] will work, but the status procs are more rare and it takes a bit more brute force.
  3. Toxin and Heat do damage over time. This is better than combined elements when you nearly every hit is causing a high crit DoT proc (see previous 2 points).
  4. If your goal is absolutely maximizing your output, the [Kuva Nukor] or [Vermisplicer] (primary) are the 2 weapons that can reliably apply 4 to 5 status effects to a large group of enemies in an instant for [Condition Overload]. Alternatives are the [Ignis Wraith] or the [Amprex], both which can AoE 3 status effects to enemies (2 elements and Slash with [Hunter Munitions]). Just make sure Viral is one of the elements on your status spreader.
  5. Primed Smite mods are mathematically superior to both [Primed Pressure Point] and [Sacrificial Pressure] when it comes to DoT. If you don't have the Primed Smite mods or don't want to bother changing them, [Primed Pressure Point] is better than [Sacrificial Pressure]; even with the boosted crit chance from pairing both Sacrificial mods, the damage falloff isn't worth the boosted crit chance. It's there in the math, and you can check it here in the Overframe builder.
  6. Twirling Spire over Shimmering Blight if you absolutely want to min-max, and also you might just enjoy it. It will require a 5th Forma (or a Stance Forma) to use with [Primed Fever Strike], but you won't need to polarize the aura slot to use it with [Molten Impact].

Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk. Enjoy shredding the Steel Path!