Weapon modding: better to specialize or generalize?

[Erasculio]

From what I have read, looks like the current meta for modding weapons is to go with "slash + viral + heat".

However, if I'm modding a weapon with low status chance (so status effects don't matter much, only damage type), and I know I'll only use that weapon against a specific enemy faction, would it be better to get elemental mods against that specific faction, or should I just go with "slash + viral + heat" for everything?

For example, if I have a weapon I know I'll only use against the Grineer, should I go for Puncture, Corrosive and/or Radiation damage, in order to deal more damage to ferrite and alloy armor? Or should I just stick with what works against flesh?

[(NSW)OinTygon]

The slash + viral + heat works well against grineer because the status effects of those damage types enhance each other's effectiveness.

If the status is too low to proc status effectively, then match your damage type to enemy weaknesses and build for as much damage as you can, enhancing with crits if possible.

[taiiat]

you.... answered your own question, didn't you? if you're going to use a Weapon against just one Faction, there's no reason to generalize.

 

for example, versus Grineer if you're going to have no Status involvement, then Corrosive or Radiation is your primary Damage Type, yes.
assuming you have space for more than 2 Elementals, you'll then have to make a choice. Corrosive+Ice or Radiation+Ice.
you'll either be choosing to hyper specialize versus Alloy Armor, or lean towards Ferrite Armor with some bonus to Alloy Armor.

in the past you would use Radiation+Toxin but since Toxin was nerfed vs Ferrite Armor that's not an option anymore. if your Weapon is strong on Puncture then Radiation+Puncture could be another option.

Anti-Faction Mods are always highly desirable, just inflexible. strongly consider them in all situations, but ultimately decide if the inflexibility is a problem for you.

 

you just have to evaluate as to which Enemies in a Faction are the ones you 'hate' the most, and so want to Kill the quickest, while trying to balance yourself to still deal with the other Enemies in that Faction effectively.

[(NSW)Joewoof]

That's the meta, but the meta always changes. It is already starting to, since heavy Infested enemies on Deimos are immune to Viral Status. Technically, Viral + Heat no longer works for everything. Viral + Heat isn't also ideal on slow-firing and/or low-status-chance weapons, where you will benefit far more from Corrosive/Radiation and their innate 75% armor penetration on pure damage without status.

For most newbies, however, that's still the go-to combo. It works in most cases, and the only places they have to build differently are Cambion Drift and Infested Disruption (where Demolishers are also immune to Viral Status).

Personally, I think it's far better to specialize. You have different loadouts in your Arsenal anyway, and I think it's fun to specialize at least 3 of your frames against specific factions. It's not popular since it takes far more investment, and some players find it annoying to keep switching loadouts, but I think it's fun and offers more customization opportunities.

It's not difficult to specialize either:

vs Grineer → Viral + Heat is the best.

vs Corpus → It's faster to bypass their Shields with Toxin damage, especially vs Raknoids on Orb Vallis.

vs Infested → Corrosive is now the best element for Infested in general, since it's the main weakness of heavy Infested on Cambion Drift.

vs Corrupted → Corrosive + Cold

vs Eidolons → Radiation

vs Bosses → usually Radiation

[vegetosayajin]

short answer: generalize 90% of the enemies
specialize the other 10%
bonus: viral+slash+heat on primaries even with low status usually includes HM

[OrionHisSon]

On 2020-09-29 at 10:04 PM, Erasculio said:

From what I have read, looks like the current meta for modding weapons is to go with "slash + viral + heat".

However, if I'm modding a weapon with low status chance (so status effects don't matter much, only damage type), and I know I'll only use that weapon against a specific enemy faction, would it be better to get elemental mods against that specific faction, or should I just go with "slash + viral + heat" for everything?

For example, if I have a weapon I know I'll only use against the Grineer, should I go for Puncture, Corrosive and/or Radiation damage, in order to deal more damage to ferrite and alloy armor? Or should I just stick with what works against flesh?

Overframe 

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