The Wardcliff Coil — Volley Battery (Hunter)

Weapon: The Wardcliff Coil (Rocket Launcher · Heavy · Arc) · Subclass: Arc (Arc Hunter) · Role: Swap-to burst add/major deleter + fireteam Bolt Charge battery Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

Pull it, dump a fan of mini-rockets into the densest thing in the room, and swap off before the smoke clears. 9.7.0 turned Wardcliff from a meme into an engine: max ammo 5→8, it autoloads while stowed, and the long-broken Bolt Charge perk finally works — every other rocket bolt-charges the whole fireteam. The build is built around the swap: a stowed Wardcliff is always reloading itself, so the exotic and subclass exist to make the draw free and to convert the volley's Bolt Charge into a self-feeding Arc economy.

The weapon

Mad Scientist (verbatim): "This weapon fires a volley of rockets and grants Bolt Charge to all nearby allies for every other rocket that it fires."

Catalyst — Pinpoint Guidance Module (verbatim): "Improved tracking on projectiles."

It fires a random spread of mini-rockets in one trigger pull — burst add-clear and major/miniboss deletion in a single shot. Arc element, Heavy ammo. The two 9.7.0 facts that define the build: it autoloads from reserves while stowed, and its Bolt Charge perk is fixed and live — so swapping to it always finds a full tube, and firing it floods you and your allies with Bolt Charge. The catalyst's tracking is what makes the random fan actually land on the target you aimed at instead of the wall next to it — run it.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arc Hunter	Wardcliff is Arc; Bolt Charge is an Arc verb, so the gun is a subclass engine.
Super	Gathering Storm	One-cast burst nuke that pairs with the gun's role; Arc Super keeps surges/Facet honest.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Auto-reloads the equipped weapon on dodge and feeds Spirit of the Dragon's reload-from-reserves swap window.
Movement	Triple Jump	Air control to reposition between volleys; Wardcliff is a stand-and-deliver gun, dodge is for the swap.
Melee	Combination Blow	Cheap Arc kills → Amplified uptime; not the damage, just the Arc keyword feed.
Grenade	Storm Grenade (with Touch of Thunder)	Roaming thundercloud add-clear that holds ground while Wardcliff reloads stowed; Arc grenade for Spark of Shock jolt.
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target → Amplified; Amplified = greatly increased reload + faster dodge recharge → faster swaps and faster Storm-nade.
Aspect 2	Touch of Thunder	Upgrades Storm Grenade into the roaming thundercloud (the add-clear that covers Wardcliff's reload downtime).

Exotic — Relativism (Hunter Cloak) · Spirit of the Dragon

"Your weapons ready quicker and are more stable. Using your class ability temporarily increases this benefit and reloads your equipped weapon from reserves."

This is the swap exotic, and Wardcliff is the swap gun. Faster ready speed means the draw-fire-stow rotation costs almost nothing; the class-ability reload-from- reserves means a Marksman's Dodge tops the tube on demand on top of the stowed autoload. The "weapons ready quicker / more stable" half also makes your other two weapons snap up the instant you stow Wardcliff, so the swap is frictionless in both directions. It carries no element requirement, so it doesn't fight the Arc-keyword economy the way a damage-window exotic (Mask of Bakris) would.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The stowed autoload is the whole thesis. Post-9.7.0 Wardcliff reloads from reserves while holstered, and reserves jumped to 8. So the optimal loop is the swap loop: fight with a primary, swap to Wardcliff for the priority target/pack, dump the volley, swap back — and the tube refills itself in your pocket. Spirit of the Dragon makes both halves of that swap instant.
• Bolt Charge is now a real fireteam payload. Mad Scientist grants Bolt Charge to all nearby allies every other rocket — and a Wardcliff volley is many rockets, so a single shot bolt-charges the whole team toward their max stacks. That's a free, fixed-in-9.7.0 support layer no other Heavy provides.
• The Arc verb chain closes on itself. Storm Grenade + Spark of Shock jolts the pack → killing a jolted target procs Flow State → Amplified → Amplified gives "greatly increased reload speed" (faster Wardcliff/everything) and turns on Spark of Beacons, so your next Wardcliff volley blinds the whole pack on the final blow. Crowd control and damage off one gun.
• Two independent Ionic Trace faucets keep abilities full. Spark of Discharge (Arc weapon kills) and Spark of Ions (jolted / Bolt-Charge kills) both mint traces, and Wardcliff's volley triggers both at once — every shot that kills a jolted pack is several traces homing back for grenade/melee/dodge energy, which re-arms Storm Grenade and the next dodge-reload.
• Champion coverage is honest, not invented. Wardcliff carries no bespoke anti-champion stun — its archetype doesn't intrinsically stun under Anti-Champion 2.0 (see Verify notes). The build covers champions with the subclass: jolt (Storm Grenade / Flow State chain) and blind (Spark of Beacons / Spark of Brilliance) are crowd-control answers to Overload/Unstoppable behaviour, and your two other weapons carry the actual intrinsic stuns.
• Gathering Storm is the same fantasy at Super scale. When the volley isn't enough, the Super is a single thrown staff that nukes the pack — same "one commitment, big Arc burst" shape, and it keeps the surge/Facet math Arc-pure.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Health 100+ → Class ~100 → Grenade. Weapons stat is the lever on Wardcliff's PvE damage vs majors/minors; Class ~100 keeps Marksman's Dodge (the reload-on-demand) on a short leash. Health is the survivability floor for a point-blank gun.

Mods, by piece:

• Helmet: Ashes to Assets (Super on grenade kills — Storm nade feeds it) · Harmonic Siphon (Arc weapon kills → Orbs).
• Gauntlets: Heavy Hand / Momentum Transfer for Combination Blow uptime · Bolt Charge has no loader, so prioritise Grenade Font here.
• Chest: Arc Resistance + Concussive Dampener (Wardcliff is fired in splash-damage range of your own rockets).
• Boots: Rocket Launcher Scavenger + Rocket Launcher Reserves (more Wardcliff ammo on the floor — the only thing that gates the swap loop) · Arc Weapon Surge ×1 if a slot is free.
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (dodge vacuums the Orbs/traces your Arc kills flood the floor with) · Reaper.
• Stat tuning: +Weapons / −Grenade if your rolls already cover Storm-nade regen via Ions/Discharge traces.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — strikes, Nightfalls, Onslaught, GM clear phases: a stowed Wardcliff is free burst that you draw on every fresh wave; Bolt Charge tops the fireteam between draws.
• Fireteam support: the only Heavy that hands your whole team Bolt Charge on trigger pull — pair it with a Bolt-Charge-hungry teammate (Storm's Keep Titan, any jolt build) and you're their battery.
• Champion coverage: none intrinsic on Wardcliff (flag). The subclass supplies jolt + blind as crowd-control band-aids; your two other weapon slots carry the actual Anti-Champion 2.0 stuns — bring a Barrier/Unstoppable primary and an Overload special to cover the trio.
• Weak spot: single-target boss DPS — the random spread wastes pellets on a lone boss. This is an add/major gun; swap to a different Heavy for damage phases.

### The other two weapon slots

• Primary (Kinetic): a champion-stunning archetype that does the trash work between volleys — e.g. an Overload auto/SMG or an Unstoppable hand cannon. This is your default gun; Wardcliff is the interrupt.
• Special (Arc, optional): an Arc Special (e.g. an Arc shotgun/fusion) keeps Spark of Discharge/Ions and the surge math Arc-pure and gives a second Spark-of-Beacons blinder. If you'd rather cover a second champion type, run a champion Special instead and accept the off-element.