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Revision Log:

v 1.X.X >> Build identity changes / Complete build overhaul

v X.1.X >> Central idea stays; only mod order changes / or Major guide rework

v X.X.1 >> No change in setup; Minor guide edits only

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!! As of Update 38.5; MultiCRIT has been PATCHED. Worthy Comradery is still optional, but Acuity is a definite pass

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EVOLUTIONS

E1- 20x Delayed Explosions

• Weakpoints to charge - 30

• Ammo Pool - 20

Note: Incarnon mode ‘radial attack’ applies FORCED Heat to all targets hit.

• Heat only present on radial portion and does not exist on direct projectile. You may notice that heat also exists as an elemental damage type, this is separate from forced heat which means Gorgon can intrinsically apply 2x heat from radial
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E2 - Hoplites Virtue

E3 - Optional - Rapid Reinforcement / Voids Guidance

E4 - Elemental Balance

The bulk majority of [Gorgon] DPS will be coming from and after applying status. With delayed explosions and further delayed heat dots, Elemental Balance makes Gorgon just play faster by applying more viral / heat sooner, which is more valuable to us than negligible crit.

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Gorgon Damage Combos -

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TL;DR- (details further below)

• For min/max sustained DPS; Bane + Elementalist is optimal

• For min/max burst DPS; Bane + Hellfire is optimal

• For factionless DPS; [Hellfire] + [Hammer Shot] best

Why do we use?

After experimenting with different combos, if factionless, the best combination becomes Hellfire + Hammer Shot for DPS, with HS even managing to outpace Elementalist (somehow)

Elementalist -

As one can see from above damage results, Elementalist and [Hellfire] perform practically the same most cases, and this is because Elementalist gives general status damage, and will function identical to respective 90% elemental bonus mod if none are present.
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This can be useful to know since heat is forced AND innate; because of this, it can actually be WORSE to mod for heat in other cases. This is cuz any additional heat mods will interrupt viral. The [Gorgon] already has a very low base status chance, and knowing that heat is guaranteed, being able to apply more viral to scale alongside heat can be beneficial for dps

With Elementalist instead, we are able to increase heat damage without interrupting viral, and this is how i decided what is best to use. Through my own testing, in high density environments, we get higher DoTs and higher KPM when we use Elementalist + Faction combo.

Otherwise, in situations where there are a lot of heavier targets and or player is able to hit targets direct for more damage, [Hellfire] + Faction becomes better.

(keep in mind if choosing to use Elementalist over heat mod, will lose heat as damage type in base form, for however much that matters..)

PCR + MF - Balances damage with primed mod and status chance with toxin. We dont really care about status chance otherwise.

Vile Acceleration? - [Gorgon] wants every morsal of fire rate possible, so we use Accel. If using [Shred], i suggest also swapping Crit Delay for [Point Strike].

This setup uses Merciless for consistency, [Gorgon] incarnon cannot use projectile speed mods (for some reason), so it can be hard to lead shots and hit weak spots but not impossible, can use Deadhead instead.

Why don't we use?

MultiCRIT has been patched; Acuity is no longer a viable option

Primary Acuity - Multiplicative weakpoint crit chance to normal crit chance mods on incarnon mode, however, we lose multishot. The cost of multishot is just too great to slot this situationally useful mod. We have a better option that doesn't cost a weapon slot and allows us to keep multishot;
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We use Worthy Comradery Aura instead --For +75% critical chance to weakpoints. Just like Acuity, this Aura is multiplicative to crit chance mods on incarnon mode, but we keep our multishot.

P-Firestorm -- cuz [Gorgon] only has a 10% radial falloff at max 5m.
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Rule of thumb, the less falloff an explosion has and the smaller its radius, the less it will benefit from firestorm.

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Personal Review - The Gorgon Incarnon is Acceptable (4/7)

After extensive use and testing of all the incarnon weapons, how does the [Gorgon] compare?

Incarnon mode still performs fine but noticeably falls off and requires more attention at higher levels. The problem with the [Gorgon] is itself, whose whole gimmick is the fact that it applies forced heat on radial damage, and this is the whole problem..
Dots are a huge part of Gorgons damage, the explosions have a delay of 0.8 seconds and heat itself has a 1 second delay before it ticks, so the [Gorgon] has to wait 2 entire seconds before it can deal the damage it wants. The devs also very conveniently purposefully altered the fire rate of all [Gorgon] variants to exactly match the imbed delay, so that even with [Vile Acceleration], there is no chance at escaping this delay or stacking explosives, and this is why the [Gorgon] cant keep up.

Otherwise, if we ignore the damage delay the [Gorgon] Incarnon is deceptively strong. Despite this being one of the few weapons where OFF deals more damage than ON (almost 3x more), the [Gorgon] is still able to keep up in kills with higher incarnons that should be leagues ahead on paper. Why is this?

For one, the [Gorgon] has an exceptionally strong AoE; While it may only have 700 base damage which is pretty mediocre, this happens in a 5 meter radius pure heat AoE with only 100~90% falloff, which is unheard of. 5 meters of full uninterrupted damage stacks up incredibly fast, and while its damage per individual target may only be serviceable at best, its volumetric damage is where the [Gorgon] exceeds expectations.

Another point, the [Gorgon] Incarnon deals massive heat DoTs, it is one of the only weapons that has a status effect as both a forced and elemental damage type. Both of these are separate and equal to 100% radial base damage. This means that heat has a 200% intrinsic effectiveness on the [Gorgon], before mods, and will always proc on every shot...

Unfortunately, direct hitting with 75 base damage does next to nothing, as is weaker per direct shot than even the [Burston], and this is where the [Gorgon] falls apart. Having an aoe is always good, but when a weapon has only an aoe, it cant scale. Aoe cant headshot, has reset 1.0x part multipliers, is ignored by CO, and means no deadhead or acuity, and this is why the [Gorgon] cant [Reach] nearly as high as even basic AoEs. The [Strun] has its electric direct headshots, the Miter has its homing ricochets with direct multiCO, The Latron has wide surface projectiles with perma strip, radial multi-double tap and direct multiCO. The staltha has multiCO, multiCRITS, and massive direct / radial base damage. The Burston / [Braton] have sheer overwhelming numbers; yes, all of these incarnons have radial blasts for ads, but they can also scale into the hundreds of millions by abusing direct hit scaling, whereas the [Gorgon] has zero chance, it has a limit it cant pass..

The [Gorgon] was absolutely dreadful on release, a bad first impression that still permeates within the community today. A charge up semi auto trigger that released a slow moving projectile with an imbed delay after landing.. Very suboptimal.

This was changed to be at the very least usable in a followup patch, the charge up was replaced with a full auto trigger, and the fire rate / imbed delay were 'adjusted' across variants.. They apparently wanted just enough fire rate that it would exactly match with rate of imbed delay, which is still far too slow and kills this weapons dps..

Besides adjusting the firing mechanic, nothing else to speak of was changed even when the [Gorgon] despirately needed it. Its 'evolutions' do next to jack sht to actually improving this thing, to the point im not sure why they even bothered.. I mean, Evo 2 gives +5 damage on a weapon with 775 at base? Barely half of one percent?? What about that 2~6% crit chance from a final evolution..? Spare any change?? Im not saying every weapon has to be a crit maniac, but you didnt even try? Ion even like the [Gorgon], i dont know why I'm ranting an essay..

Anyways, its lack of.. well, anything benefitting it is what keeps the Gorgon in average 4/7 tier, it works, but doesnt impress.

This^^ goes for all of the incarnons specific to this rotation bar a couple, they OBVIOUSLY played it as safe as humanly possible, which doesn't make any sense..? The dev's were deathly afraid of making another [Torid] or [Strun] when designing the incarnons for this week, so instead of addressing the problem at face, they made these weapons perform like complete garbage, and for what?

What could have possibly been so wrong for these incarnons to have existed alongside or close to the big three? No one said they had to be equal or more powerful, but competent at the very least.. The outstanding incarnons like [Latron], [Torid], [Miter], [Strun] already exist! What was the plan here?? You want the Incarnons to be the pinical of performance, but NOW you change your mind? You cannot take away from the presence the top incarnon have already established by making weapons like the [Gorgon] suffer because of their success!! You have just made a pointless and forgettable weapon that the collective majority will walk over so they can keep using their [Latron] instead. What a backwards way to prevent 'aggrivating the problem' that you (devs) dont want to admit to...

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