The One Forma Volt (Prime) Nuke Build

My All-Rounders Volt build, in my opinion, is a good one. I take it everywhere and it mostly gets the job done, providing enough power strength to make Speed and Shock usable while also keeping Discharge and Electric Shield viable as well. But sometimes you just need everything to die, and right now this is where Volt also shines, because of how Discharge works.

Discharge does more damage by bouncing to and from enemies. This means that you need high range to be able to make Discharge bounce between more and more enemies. But the bouncing only lasts for so long, so you want to have as much duration as possible so that the electrical arcing lasts as much as possible.

I do currently have two Forma in my Volt Prime, but the Aura Forma I stuck in him is entirely optional. Corrosive Projection does make things a tad easier, but you don’t need to use an Aura Forma, you could just forma the slot into a – polarity. This would be a two-forma build in a normal Volt, but Volt Prime was unvaulted for all of June so you should have farmed for him while you had the chance. Really though, Volt Prime works far better for this build anyway as he has 300 base energy, meaning you can leave out Flow or Primed Flow.

The trick with any Volt Nuke build is to have as high a range or duration as possible, while also having positive power strength. Which is somewhat problematic because the mod that gives maximum range – Overextended – also has a negative of power strength, and the other three mods that all increase ability range aren’t that strong. The other issue is that the strongest duration mod, Narrow Minded, has negative range on it. And on top of that, you need to keep your strength positive, which you can’t really do with one single mod, unless you’re willing to use Blind Range and have a hit to your efficiency.

My build is pictured below:

My build only really uses Overextended. In my opinion though, the most important thing is duration. Especially if you are doing Elite Sanctuary Onslaught. The build above gives Discharge a duration of about 9.3 seconds. Really, that’s not quite enough duration. You see, ideally, you want Discharge to be more than 10 seconds long, so that Simaris doesn’t decide to cut off your ability to use Discharge for 20 seconds. That doesn’t happen to Saryn, the other main nuker, because her ability to nuke is based off Spore, her first ability, and first abilities are ignored by Simaris.

The build does work on a normal Volt, but you have to give up some of your duration so you can fit in Primed Flow. Otherwise Volt does not have enough energy to reliably cast Discharge – even with Streamline, you only have enough energy for two casts before needing more.

But the thing is, if you bring a ranged melee weapon, you don’t even need a Forma. You don’t even need Volt Prime. Working alongside my brother, he and I managed to get to wave 9 of Elite Sanctuary Onslaught using a NORMAL Volt and a Maiming Strike Atterax with a single Forma on it. The trick to this was to use the Atterax while Discharge was on cooldown, and it worked reasonably well until the Parasitic Eximi struck on wave 9. You don’t have to use an Atterax or Maiming Strike, you just need a good AoE weapon to help clear mods while you wait for Discharge to finish.

Sure, this isn’t as effective as a proper nuke build, but it goes to show that, if you have the know-how, you can build around your limitations quite easily.