Weapon Exilus slots are too restrictive

[(PSN)Unstar]

I think Exilus slots on weapons are a cool idea, but I think they have two problems:

1. There aren't enough capacity points to support an additional mod on high-end builds.
   • You can solve this with Forma, but it seems to require at least 8 polarized slots to do so, which presents a new problem: you have not only mostly restricted your weapon build, you have almost entirely restricted it.
2. The default polarities of Exilus slots on weapons often make it harder, not easier, to make builds.

Here's a quick case study:

Capacity

First off, this build is packed.  I don't have enough capacity currently to even use a rank 5 mod in my Exilus slot.  I could change that with another Forma, but then for all intents and purposes I would basically be stuck with this exact build.  I would not even be able to switch out one of my elemental mods for Cold damage if I wanted to.

Even in it's current state, the number of polarities on this weapon is preventing me from even slightly altering the build.  I was considering an alternative build replacing Lethal Torrent with Hollow Point to see how it felt, as it would have higher damage-per-bullet than this build while emptying my clip slower, hence requiring fewer reloads while offering more sustainability.  But the polarities in my weapon have restricted my ability to even switch out that single mod.  It feels bad.  I put a lot of effort and resources into this weapon, and while it's good, I've also locked myself into one specific flavor of good.  That's disappointing, because I have 3 other loadout slots that imply that I might want to have a few different builds (and it's true, I do!)

Warframes get around this because their Aura slot gives them an additional 14+ capacity.  Guns simply don't have that, which puts them in this unfortunate situation.

 

Exilus Polarity

From the Old Blood release notes:

"The conversation of tight capacity already exists without the addition of the Exilus Weapon Mod Slot, so we’re making these Slots default Polarities, meaning all Exilus Weapon Mods are - (Naramon) or V (Madurai) Polarity."

In regard to the polarity of the Exilus slot, it's worth pointing out that I had to Forma for that Dash-Polarity.  The default Exilus Polarity for the Twin Grakatas, a weapon renowned for its ammo consumption, was incompatible with all of the mods that could shore up that weakness.  It sort of felt like I was being punished for wanting to use the Exilus slot, as not only would I need the Adapter, but also another Forma.

If solving the problem of tight capacity was the goal of these default polarities, I would personally say it hasn't worked out.  When I checked most of my favorite weapons to see if I thought an Exilus mod would work well on them, I was disappointed to find that nearly all of them were incompatible with the actual mod I wanted to put on them.  My personal observation is that most of the mods that would be most useful to most weapons (silencers, more ammo, holster speed) are Dash-Polarity, while all of the V-Polarity mods seem very situational (as well as being much fewer in number).

 

Solution

I would suggest that instead of starting with a "random" polarity, start weapon Exilus slots with the Exilus equivalent of an Aura Forma: any mod put in there is halved.  That said, I personally would recommend going even further and making any mod put in there cost nothing, since without a mod slot on Weapons that increases capacity instead of reducing it, there's just not enough capacity to go around.

But that would be different than Warframe Exilus slots, and that can make things confusing and overcomplicates the design a bit.  One solution would be to call it something different than Exilus; different name, different symbol, no confusion.  Might even reduce confusion with the potential of players potentially thinking Exilus Adapters can do the job of Weapon Exilus Adapters, since the former's name doesn't mention that it's specific to Warframes.

A more fleshed out solution would probably require adding some sort of Aura or Stance mod equivalent to Primary and Secondary weapons, but that sounds like a big undertaking.

Thanks for listening to my feedback, and for continuing to iterate on this great game!

Edited December 13, 2019 by (PS4)Unstar
Removed line that wasn't supposed to be there

[(PSN)Gaelic-_-Flame]

Yeah, making it at least an equivalent of Aura forma's universal polarity would already be a pretty big step. Right now, like half of the weapons have the Madurai polarity, and there's only like 2-3 exilus mods fitting in that, and most of them are pretty useless for many weapons. So you either have to forma it to the Naramon, and then you can't really use those 2-3 mods anymore, or just stick to those mods. It limits the variety and usability of exilus mods, which was the entire point of exilus slot in the first place.

In general though, I feel like forma approach need to shift a little bit. The more great mods and their Primed versions (and also rivens) we get, the more and more you are sometimes forced into making a really inflexible slot polarizing to fit those, where you basically can fit 1-2 builds at best (it also doesn't help that for whatever reason Cold element has different polarity from every other element, so it makes it unnecessary difficult in some cases). I wouldn't mind if in the near future we got an Universal polarity forma of sorts, even if it was almost as rare as Umbra Forma currently is. But at least we would be able to make our favourite weapons/frames more flexible.

[Robolaser]

In my opinion the 7-8 forma requirement and mod point limitation are fair. Especially since, in many previous builds which included exilus mods, most people will replace them with more damage. Could some heavily primed builds be impossible to max with an exilus slot? Maybe, but it would still be an improvement, sometimes a big one.

In the example you showed, you could replace the top right 90 elemental by a 60/60. For a minimal dps loss (about 7%), without having to put one more forma (which also allows you to keep some flexibility)  you can then put a maxed primed AM in the exilus. Small compromise imo.

About the slot polarity... Yeah maaaaybe i'm paranoid, but it almost looks like they checked which soon-to-be-exilus mod was the most used for each weapon, and then made sure to put the "wrong" polarity by default. DE knows very well that some people (myself included) end up buying forma bundles occasionally. Fair game, formas are easy to farm, i could just be less lazy/impatient.

Overall i'm ok with the current state of weapon exilus slot.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Robolaser

[vomder]

They are pretty much DOA with all the issues the have.

[Lone_Dude]

Weapon Exilus is a veteran tax. Plain and simple.

[000l000]

Exilus are mostly pointless except from buffing shotgun range, they really did miss the spot here. Tbh i wouldn't even care about ammo mods since any synth mod would already do the job.

[Renegade343]

1 hour ago, 000l000 said:

Exilus are mostly pointless except from buffing shotgun range, they really did miss the spot here. Tbh i wouldn't even care about ammo mods since any synth mod would already do the job.

Thing is that they stack, so practically (with respect to modding builds) 30% magazine reloaded per second while holstered is pretty powerful.

[Grave.Knight]

9/10th of weapons don't need the Exilus.