Silva and Aegis Prime, Avenging Truth, and Guardian Derision

[TenTonneSkeleton]

Bascially, I would like this setup to be a viable alternative. I detest "cookie cutter builds" and try not to use them. It's little synergies and niche setups that interest me the most, however they still actually have to be effective and not just a meme setup.

I'd like for the Silva and Aegis to be viable for a heavy attack build (or hybrid build) featuring Avenging Truth and Guardian Derision, and I'm just not seeing that it works as it currently exists.

We have a few problems here:

•  Both the weapon and the mod require that you block to build charges and damage. Blocking means you need to stop swinging, which will actually lead to less DPS than the added benefits of these functionalities. Notably, this also leads to slower build ups for proccing Truth.
• Avenging Truth only applies the extra damage to heavy attacks, which appear to be fairly weak compared to other weapons. Combo builds seem stronger on this weapon. Hybrid builds are possible but not easy to do, and I'm not sure these are even as effective as other weapons.
• Organ Shatter, Killing Blow or Corrupt Charge will almost always be better to slot in than than either Guardian Derision or Avenging Truth.
• Guardian Derision just sucks. It doesn't justify a mod slot at all.

To make this build viable, I will suggest some combination of the below:

AVENGING TRUTH MOD:

• Make the damage bonus from Avenging Truth percentage based instead of raw damage. Raw damage doesn't scale.
• Reduce the number of blocks it takes to get Avenging Truth up to say 200% extra damage. To build up any kind of meaningful bonus from the mod, you have to stand still and block for a fairly long time. This isn't effective.
• I would really love Avenging Truth to make a hybrid combo/heavy build more possible for this weapon. For that to happen it has to grant additional combo duration AND efficiency. I'd say 30% combo efficiency and 8 seconds combo duration would be perfect. Or just call it 90% combo efficiency and you can switch to Naramon for duration.
• The Truth effect itself is pretty mediocre. I wish it at least scaled the gas damage a bit more with the mods you have equiped. As is, this is just a marginal benefit for Condition Overload that doesn't proc often enough to make much of a difference. Instead of restoring health, I wish this just buffed your armor for a certain percentage and duration.

SILVA AND AEGIS PRIME:

• Buff the status chance and crit buff inherent to the weapon's abiltiy. As is, I just don't feel this is doing enough to justify standing still. The bonus appears to be very small. It needs to be HUGE in order to be worth modding for. It would be neat if this ability were like miniture versions of Weeping Wounds and Blood Rush. This plays into the fact that blocking actually increases your combo counter. So instead of stacking an additive bonus, I would change this to something like Blood Rush/Weeping Wounds that scales with your combo counter. Blocking a certain number of attacks increases your timer for this effect.

GUARDIAN DERISION:

• I would at least increase to 4x the current effect to +120% combo chance while blocking. Even with this mod, simply attacking as normal will be MUCH more effective to build your combo counter. In order to provide enough benefit while STANDING STILL, this stat has to be better.
• It needs an additional effect. I actually love the idea of this mod, but there is nothing that stands out as something that it can easily replace without drastically lowering damage. How about "10% critical damage. Stacks with combo multiplier." You could also put combo efficiency or combo duration here as well. DE would have to balance this so it wasn't objectively better than Organ Shatter, but perhaps slightly better on this particular build.

 

Anyhow, I'm not sure these changes would work or be balanced, so lets discuss! How would you change this weapon and these mods so they work together to create a viable build and melee style involving blocking?

 

 

[Shaburanigud]

Seeing what they did to the Amalgam Javlok magazine warp, I don't expect DE to do more niche builds anytime soon.

Kinda sad really. I really liked the variation and niches.