Status vs Crit damage

[(PSN)northern_rebal]

I've been reading the wiki and watching videos trying to figure out the differences between the two types of damage.  I think i have a slight handle on the differences and how they are calculated.  What I don't really understand is when I read things like "this is a stat build" or "this is a crit build" etc.  Why would I want one versus the other, and wouldn't I always want both?

Given base stats I can see how one weapon may be better at one or the other, but is there more to consider?

[HugintheCrow]

24 minutes ago, (PS4)northern_rebal said:

differences between the two types of damage.

Status isn't a type of damage, it simply tells you how likely a hit is to inflict a status effect (and the status effects the weapon can inflict are based on what elements are on said weapon).

e.g. If you have a mod that adds heat damage to your weapon, it will ALWAYS deal that heat damage, but the heat PROC might only happen every now and then, based on status chance.

And for status builds vs crit builds: as a rule of thumb, if the weapon has less than 15% crit chance or status chance, don't build the weapon for that thing, cause it's not worth it.

And yes, weapons that can get a lot of both status and crit are obviously always gonna be the best.

[FLSH_BNG]

Not all weapons can do a dual build, they just don't have the base stats for it.

Generally, crit builds multiply raw damage against targets to finish them off quickly through most difficulty levels.

Status builds are developed to inflict the particular damage type's debuffs against targets to make them easier to wipe out, generally for more difficult content or to facilitate certain innate abilities present in specific warframes or weapons.

These, at least, are my reasons for using the different weapon builds, and often I'll bring at least one weapon along built each way for most missions, especially for high-level and endurance missions.

[Ham_Grenabe]

Sometimes it depends on the enemy involved -- some enemies (bosses, Liches, etc.) are immune to status effects so a high-damage build is better. Of course, a status build might be great for the enemies between you and the boss, so you would consider both.

What I'm never sure of is where the stat cutoffs are. Some weapons are obviously heavily tilted one way or the other, so they're pretty obvious. It's the hybrids that still give me pause. I think the baseline for "this is a viable X build" is around 24% (e.g., "viable with a crit build at 24% critical chance or better"). But I am not inclined to math it out, so I generally follow the advice of those who have done the math. 

[TheArcSet]

Generally the most powerful weapons are ones that can use hybrid crit-status builds; however not all weapons have the base stats for that and certain weapons do very well as sole status/crit weapons in certain situations.

Take Mara_Detron: as a shotgun every natural pellet splits the damage, uses the same crit and splits stated status chance. In that case it can reach 100% status though, so all 7 natural pellets, plus any from multishot, will always proc a status effect; for viral, rad, ect, that doesn't have any benefit, but for corrosive in particular that can be very powerful.

If a high level enemy has so much armour that all raw damage to them is reduced by 99%, removing all that armour in a shot or two is great utility from a weapon.

Likewise, against litches, or lots of bosses, you can't proc status effects, so it makes sense to ignore them and focus on raw damage and if a weapon has a decent multiplier, critical hits are the best way to increase that, with mods.

You can make a weapon with no crit hybrid using an adarza or arcane avenger, though that's less consistent,but that could make something like the Pox more powerful.

Likewise, weeping wounds or certain stances can make most melee weapons work for status, which may enable condition overload.

Edited February 16, 2020 by TheArcSet

[Methanoid]

2 hours ago, (PS4)northern_rebal said:

I've been reading the wiki and watching videos trying to figure out the differences between the two types of damage.  I think i have a slight handle on the differences and how they are calculated.  What I don't really understand is when I read things like "this is a stat build" or "this is a crit build" etc.  Why would I want one versus the other, and wouldn't I always want both?

Given base stats I can see how one weapon may be better at one or the other, but is there more to consider?

there is no such thing as "Status Damage", status inflicts a side effect on the enemy, crit directly increases the chance of doing more direct damage.  People mod for crit to achieve higher damage output directly, people mod for status to inflict various effects that can do many things such as deal more damage via weakening enemy armor, crowd control via slow/knockdown etc.

One is not 100% better than the other, a weapons base stats determine if either one is viable to use, some weapons can only really be 1 or the other, some can be decent both ways and both are certainly useful.

A useful example of the difference would be having a crit weapons handing out decent chances of critical damage on a regular basis, this is near certain extra raw damage so obviously weapons with higher crit chances will be a great choice, this damage will weaken when facing higher level mobs due to them having more armor.

On the other side you may find a fast firing weapon with virtually no crit chance but high status, most would fit something like corrosive damage to that weapon so the weapon has a high chance of inflicting a corrosive status chance which lowers a mobs armor value (handy on higher level mobs who have more armor where crit will eventually struggle) which in turn allows your weaker damaging status weapon to inflict more damage.  This would only work ofc on mobs with a yellow HP bar (which indicates an armoured mob), stripping the armor of a mob that doesnt use any would not lead to the same damage increasing effects, luckily there are many status types that can be beneficial to the various faction mobs out there.

As mentioned previously, a weapon with "decent" status as well as crit can have some of the best of both worlds, inflicting decent critical damage as well as stripping armor via status, there is a time and place for both.

 

[NinjaZeku]

Just to add to this / to clear any potential confusion, Elemental Mods always add damage to your shots,
any Status effect (and having control over what types you get to inflict) is a bonus on top of that.

For Crit weapons, modding in the "correct" elemental damage type for what you're facing,
and then multiplying that super effective damage via Crits, is what will give the best raw damage output.

For Status weapons, it can get a bit more complicated, like,
you may actually want a less effective damage type that however gives a powerful proc,
e.g. Corpus Flesh is resistant to Gas damage, but Gas procs will deliver Toxin goodness
which will bypass Shields and get a nice +50% bonus against said Flesh.

Edited February 16, 2020 by NinjaZeku