Been having an episode of Zaw Brain again and looking through my collection. I’d love to hear some other Tenno’s “wishlists” for zaws you’d make different variants of if forma, time, and inventory weren’t considerations. Or maybe if you could time travel and go back and build them differently.
Here are some candidates I’ve been considering:
Cyath. Currently an Ekwana II Jai/Seekalla variant. Twirling Spire has an initial slam on the moving block, so it’s a good Hunt candidate, and can throw out some juicy slashes, especially with Boreal’s Contempt. Considering a Vargeet II Jai/Peye variant since it’s the slashiest Machete Zaw. (Unless you do a -impact Kronsh riven.)
Plague Kripath. My first two zaws were the Plague Star zaws and they’re both messes that I never use. I want to do a Vargeet II Jai/Plague Akwin variant so I have another rapier for my collection. Dehtat has better dispo, but it also looks stupid.
Dokrahm. Currently using an Ekwana Jai II/Seekalla variant for the Hunt memes. I want a Vargeet II Jai/Seekalla so I have a good Contagion hybrid for Hildryn and Vauban fashionframe… although I think I can fix it with a CC riven, so this is a low priority one.
“ but it also looks stupid.” Skins work on Zaws now. For a while.
My take on zaws is first that DE needs to fold rivens for them back into the larger pool of melee rivens. SO MANY zaw rivens.
But they aren’t going to do that, so my second recommendation is to not build any zaw until you get a riven. Then build a zaw not only for that strike, but to maximize whatever you have rolled the riven to be. This is how my Cyath polearm has 199% crit.
Offftopic, but I like that modular weapons have their own riven pool. Dispos are lower, but I prefer having easy-to-get rivens I can reasonably farm myself rather than rolling on the <1% chance in the main pools or dealing with riven trading.
Remind yourself of this comment when you unveil your third rabvee riven and find that even with perfect stats it won’t even sell for 10p, and you have to melt it down “cause you can’t even give it away for free.
You might want to consider trying to make “utility” zaws, the most useful probably being a heavy attack Zaw using the Exodia Brave Arcane as a way to regenerate energy. Generally any works for this, so pick your favorite Crit related components for the upfront damage and desired weapon type i.e. Scythe. Just know that heavy units may die to a slash proc instead of the upfront damage (Enemies dying to Damage Over Time effects will not trigger Exodia Brave) if you are dealing with endurance runs in Steel Path, standard fodder units should still die to the upfront damage though and you may prefer having a strong weapon to force proc Slash on heavy units. If you don’t want Forced Slash on heavy attacks, you might want go for a heavy blade Dokram, or head over to the wiki and look up a stance for your specific weapon type like Crushing Ruin for hammers and find “Heavy Attack” in the table. If you don’t see a Slash Icon, there is no forced Slash Proc in that specific combo. Stalking Fan as an example for anyone that might want an example of a Zaw which will have Forced Slash procs on all heavy attacks. (All stances share the same Heavy attacks, just make sure the stance you are looking up is compatible with the Zaw you are building).
This is the general heavy attack build I use for my Zaw. The components are Plague Keewar, Plague Akwin, Vargeet II Jai. The components don’t matter too much as long as you’re more Crit Focused. If you have any other build plans like a quick attack build, you might want to consider using attack speed related parts, I just wanted a plague themed Zaw which is why I ended up with the parts I used.
