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Acolytes

ACOLYTES

The acolytes are an important part of Steel Path:

  • source of 2 new main resources: Steel Essence and acolyte arcanes
acolytes: resource details
  • Steel Essence
  • acolyte arcanes
    • will allow you to boost your builds with good first weapon arcanes
    • the surplus will allow you to get a variety of other arcanes via the vosfor with Loid (original)
  • often the most dangerous element in Steel Path
acolytes: danger details
  • they hit hard
  • resistant:
    • a unique damage reduction formula
    • resistant to many armor reduction sources
    • resistant to status effects: status are limited to 4 stacks maximum each
  • disruptive abilities:
    • Violence uses the skill Silence which disables your skills and prevents new casts
    • Malice launches Mag's bubble which can redirect your projectile damage back to you (or your allies / defense objectives...). Can be detached by rolling

Anti-acolyte Strategies

Video with the essential info.

The acolyte damage reduction formula can be found on the wiki, it is calculated based on a DPS metric dependent on the firerate sustained. No firerate, less damage reduction.

To mitigate the impact of acolyte damage reduction:

  • avoid attacking them with a weapon having a lot of firerate/multishot (simple bullets/projectiles or beam/continuous attack)
  • prioritize high critical tiers (100+ crit chance) which allow to partially ignore the attenuation
  • prioritize large damage instances in few hits
  • prioritize AoE projectile weapons (different calculation)
  • prioritize melee weapons if possible (ignore firerate/multishot part as they have none)

Melee

  • AoE projectiles:
    • glaives: Glaive Prime, Xoris, Pathocyst, Cerata, Glaive Prime, Falcor, Cerata
    • zaws Exodia Contagion: a rank 0 arcane suffices
  • heavy slam: Magistar Incarnon, Fragor Prime, Arca Titron, Sampotes...
  • weapons modded crit / heavy attack. Compatible stat-stick running speed or hybrid crit/status weapon: Praedos, Okina incarnon, Dual Ichor Incarnon...
  • mod Shattering Impact to consider if melee only for Acolytes
Praedos build Exposure / Duplicate
  • Exposure, spam heavy attacks: Praedos Exposure
  • Duplicate, light attacks then heavy: Praedos Duplicate

Ranged

Mainly AoE projectile weapons:

  • primaries: Arca Plasmor, Tenet Arca Plasmor, Kuva Bramma, Kuva Zarr, Latron incarnon (with passive armor strip)
  • secondaries: Lex Incarnon, Tenet Plinx, kitgun secondary Haymaker + Splat + Sporelacer (modded corro/crit)

Non-player Allies

Damage reductions only apply to players, we will use:

  • railjack crewmate with big weapon (Kuva Zarr)
  • companions (especially crit-oriented like DPS kubrow/vasca kavat builds)

Helminth Abilities

  • Pillage from Hildryn: can armor-strip acolytes
  • Wrathful Advance from Kullervo: allows to advance several crit tiers
  • Silence from Banshee: completely blocks Acolyte skills
  • Gloom from Sevagoth can slow to near-stun in place