Empowered Blades is still not worth using, how to fix it.

[Yasha-7HS]

Empowered Blades is garbage for many reasons, three of which that relate directly to how it functions: 

1.  It uses a resource which depletes extremely quickly in melee combat, which hinders your ability to use it at all outside of very few frames (like Gauss, Mag, and Hildyrn, who already don't really like being close enough to possibly be nullified or meleed anyway)
2.  It uses an additive formula for status chance, making it entirely pointless on weapon with no status chance unless they have a forced heavy procs
3. This aura always applies its debuff, yet there's a chance of a chance you actually ever benefit from it.

Firstly, decrease the status chance to 25% but make it a flat bonus. (4 players in the lobby make this 100%, but you still have to roll for a DoT status. Therefore, you only have a chance to benefit from this mod in the first place. At least this makes it more consistent across the board for everything, and a possible choice as an actually useful aura)

Next, change the status damage to 10% * combo tier. Which means at 6x, you get 60% more status damage. 12x, 120% more status damage. I don't really care about what initial value you start with, but the idea is to make it tied to combo tiers in order to make it worth building combo, and not just spamming heavies. My original idea included a -25% combo efficiency debuff to combat focus energy + reflex coil spamming, but then I'm back to square one where it's always applying the debuff but you only have a chance of a chance to actually utilize the mod. Therefore, changing it to a % * combo tier does still combat spamming, but rewards you at every tier and more-so at higher tiers. 

Lastly... This iteration does not need any debuff. If DE decides it does, the most logical was my original thought: -combo efficiency to combat spamming even more. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by ShichiseitenYasha

[Yasha-7HS]

I'm glad pressure point is worthless because I've wanted to get away from base damage mods like that. It should've been part of leveling the weapon in the first place, at least condition overload and Bloodrush have parameters to activate them instead of something the weapons should've leveled with. 

[lukinu_u]

14 hours ago, ShichiseitenYasha said:

I'm glad pressure point is worthless because I've wanted to get away from base damage mods like that. It should've been part of leveling the weapon in the first place, at least condition overload and Bloodrush have parameters to activate them instead of something the weapons should've leveled with. 

One being status on target, being better than Primed Pressure Point at 2 status (aka spam attack button) and the other one being combo build up, starting at True Steel value with 0 combo and stacking to 12x the value after 220 hits (aka spam attack button), I wouldn't call them "activation on parametter.

With how the melee currently work, these mods are just 100% better than the flat value ones and yes, it's on the topic because one mod stacking the same way is the main reason Empowered Blades is useless. Weeping Wounds (which stack with combo counter) grant +40% to +480% status chance based on combo counter.
With +480% status chances from a single melee mod, why would you waste your Aura slot to only get +60% on charge attacks only ? Of course there is no reason. And even if you imagine this +60% is multiplicative with the final status chance of your weapon (which is not the case), you still have no reason to use this mod because with +480% status chance, any weapon above 17.2% status chance will reach 100%, which make the mod even more useless.

So yeah, Empowered Blades is not that good and sure needs a buff, but the main problem is not there, it's how melee mods acts in general. Even if they put a flat 100% status chance on charge attack and +300% status damages without debuff, the mod would stay pointless because you're better keeping your combo counter high to get benefit from bloodrush and weeping wounds, apply as much status as possible and kill your target through insane crit buffed by Condition Overload.

[(PSN)Onder6099]

Quick refill of Energy.

[Rey153]

it's funny to read this thread now because right now the mod straight up doesn't work