Ballista

Ballista
	Primary Fire	Secondary Fire
Damage	990 to 2970	(275 to 550) x 5
Shots per Second	2 to 0.5	1.33 to 0.44
Magazine Size	6	3
Damage per Second	1980 to 1485	1833 to 1222 per enemy
Sustained Fire Time (seconds)	3 to 12	2.25 to 6.75
Weakspot Damage Bonus	75%	75% (initial hit)
Reloading Time (seconds)	3.5	3.5

Overview

• The Ballista is the primary weapon of TSYGAN and cannot be changed for her before rank 40.
• This weapon is unlocked for all characters to use as a secondary weapon at rank 25 for players, that have the Road to Elysion DLC and after rank 40 on they can use it as primary as well.
• The Ballista is equipped with a scope, allowing for a stronger zoom.
• Fire modes
  • Primary Fire
    • The primary fire can be charged for extra damage and accuracy. The damage can increase up to thrice per shot. Maximum charging a shot and firing it takes about 2 seconds, leading to 4 times lower fire rate than if not charging.
    • Without charging the bolts will tend to be innacurate. The bolt is affected by gravity, i.e., it has a tendency to hit lower than the intended target, but charging up can reduce this deviation a lot.
  • Secondary Fire
    • The secondary fire also can be charged for extra damage and accuracy. The dmg can rise up to twice. Maximum charging a shot and firing it takes about 2.25 seconds, leading to 3 times lower fire rate than if not charging.
    • The bolt sticks into the target and releases 4 shockwaves in 0.75-second intervals, that deal damage to all enemies within a small area around the bolt (i.e. the shockwaves have rate of 1.33 per second). The bolt and each shockwave deal same damage, but only the bolt can hit weakspots for extra damage as a single-targeted projectile itself - the 4 shockwaves are simply doing AoE dmg.
    • The area-of-effect component of this fire mode cannot damage Bobble Heads or Fiskeplaske, although it can hurt Hoverers & Hoverer Queens if it hits their backs. Interestingly, Hoverers & Hoverer Queens will suffer three ticks of the area-damage if the bolt hits the back, but will always negate the last (4th tick). All four mentioned partially-invulnerable lumes will suffer Sweet's burn even if it's just the AoE hitting the armoured body parts of these lumes, dealing no weapon-related damage.
    • If used by TSYGAN, the last shot can cause tremendous damage to groups of lumes if charged completely.

Notes & tactics

• Pretty much all characters can find good use of the weapon
  • TSYGAN can deal great damage if fully charging the last shot to take full advantage of the +150% damage she gets. The Head Start perk works well, too, as it adds the same damage, but on the 1st shot instead.
  • Due to its high weakspot damage bonus (+75%) and high base damage, the Ballista is an effective weapon in SiMo's hands as well.
  • Sweet can set on fire multiple enemies with the secondary fire.
  • Since Haigen's higher durability allows him to keep closer to enemies, he has less needs of charging the weapon, therefore more easily getting more DPS. Also his proximity damage bonus comes in handy.
  • The secondary fire helps Skye as well, improving her damage vs multiple lumes.
• The secondary fire is effective against crowds of lumes that are close to each other, due to the area-of-effect.
  • Tactical Juxtaposition will increase the number of bolts, that can be shot on the field, increasing crowd control potential against smaller targets as Walker Pups, Runners and Brood Mothers.
• The secondary fire is also good against Soakers, since it easily makes them more vulnerable.
• This weapon works fine with the Penetrator Rounds perk.
• The Long Range Specialization perk does not affect the area of effect of the secondary fire, since it is a non-explosive AoE.
• Despite granting more damage per shot, holding the trigger actially lowers the overall DPS, so if the situation doesn't require extra accuracy due to need of accuracy, more dmg due to heavy enemy armour or another specific reason to charge the weapon, releasing the trigger faster for more shots per second can be more effective. The primary fire's DPS can be up to 33% more if not charging the bolts to max, while the secondary fire's DPS - up to 50% more.
• The usage of this weapon with Hip Fire is clearly not recommended, as this perk would cripple the good crit damage bonus to weakspots of both fire modes of the Ballista.
• High crit damage is also dealt by the primary fire of the Nailgun (+200%) and the Plasma rifle (+100%) & both fire modes of the Sniper Rifle (+130%).