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[Explained] Damage 2.0 Builds, With Cheatsheets!


_Aahz
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Okay, first and most important thing to realize:

  • Do NOT compare the new damage system to old damage system. It is completely different and you're just going to confuse yourself trying to somehow translate new mechanics into the old stuff.

Scott/Grineeer tried to explain it in the livestreams, and DERebecca tried to explain more in the forum, but the great majority of people who logged into U11 were completely confused. So start from scratch, forget the old damage/enemy/weapon system, and realize everything is going to be okay. Now onto some explanations... (btw, TL:DR, pics at the bottom to tell you how to build your weapons, if you don't care about the mechanics).

MblYCuA.png

Info in next spoiler is outdated according to 11.3.2/11.3.3 update. There is currently no rational explanation, or simple way of explaining, damage 2.0 according to Update 11.3.x. Check back later when they've settled on... idk... whatever they're trying to do.


Physical Damage
We have 3 physical damage types that (almost) all weapons have, in different amounts. Here they are:

  • Impact - Most effective on shields
  • Puncture - Most effective on armor
  • Slash - Most effective on health/flesh (non-robotic)

That seems simple enough, right? Well, those of you who have been enjoying Pokemon Snap in space, if you check the enemies in your Wardex (Codex), you may notice:

  • Corpus - Have health and shields, but NO armor
  • Grineer - Have health and armor, but NO shields
  • Infested - Have health, but NO armor OR shields

Using those 2 key pieces of knowledge about damage types and enemy types, you should now be able to look at your weapons properly. Let's take a few examples, starting with the loudest complaint: Soma
MjOpCd3.png
Using what you just learned about damage types, you SHOULD be able to see that this is probably never going to be a good weapon to use against high level Corpus. Why? Because Corpus rely on heavy shields which are weak to impact damage, of which Soma sadly has little to begin with. Soma is fairly even on puncture and slash however, with high crit. This means you should boost your puncture/slash damage, slap on some crit mods, and you'll be able to destroy Grineer and Infested. Soma is now most efficient and effective against Grineer and Infested, so stop taking it into missions against Corpus and expecting miracles.

R2ZFOkj.jpg
So now looking at the Boar, out of the 3 physical damages, it has high impact and medium slash damage. Judging from that alone, your most beneficial build will be as an anti-Corpus weapon, because Corpus shields are weak against impact damage, and Crewmen's health is weak to Slash. Also, the extra slash damage Boar has is nice, because when elemental damages are calculated, they're based on the percentage of your total physical damage (Impact + Puncture + Slash). So it may be worthwhile to boost Boar's slash damage as well.

3GjUIoW.png
Despair has a large chunk of base puncture damage, which is most effective on armor. The proper build here would be focusing on boosting puncture, slapping on a max No Return mod for +60% puncture damage. Why not use a max Razor Shot mod too, so I can boost Slash damage by 60%? Well, look at the math:

  • Base puncture damage * 60% is equal to 44 * 1.6 = 70.4 damage
  • Base slash damage * 60% is equal to 8.2 * 1.6 = 13.12 damage... kinda feels like you wasted power points by using this mod for an extra ~5 damage, huh?

Here's a quick cheat sheet for determining builds at a glance (Updated for 11.0.7):
5W8yb5u.png



Elemental Damage
There are 10 possible elemental types, but that doesn't mean you should use all of them at once. Just like with the physical damage types, some elemental types are more useful on certain weapons than others. Here's a quick overview of what they are and how they combine:
uqSxITt.png
Well, if you played with the old damage system, you know Corpus shields are weak against Cold, and they can be stunned by Electricity if they don't have shields up. Infested have resistance to electricity, but are particularly weak to Heat. Grineer are really tough, but Corrosive causes heavy damage to their thick armor, leaving the exposed flesh open to Heat, Viral, and Blast damage.

The number one rule with Damage 2.0 is:

  • Use the right tool for the job, and compliment your weapon's base stats.

Learn to think of your weapons as anti-Corpus, anti-Grineer, or anti-Infested. When you start viewing it like that, it becomes completely obvious that you need to use an elemental that Corpus are weak against on your anti-Corpus weapon. If you've got a high puncture weapon, you're going to want the Corrosive element as well, because that's what Grineer are weak against.  A heavy impact weapon? That's great for Corpus, so add on some Magnetic element. Slash weapons are particularly useful for... you guessed it, Infested! Simply add some Heat and Blast damage and go eradicate some Infested areas of the galaxy.

The primary elementals are fairly straightforward, but I also like to divide the combined elementals into 2 categories:
Utility

  • Blast - Stun/knockdown
  • Gas - Poison AoE
  • Radiation - Confusion and slowed fire rate/reduced accuracy

Direct

  • Magnetic - Shield reduction
  • Viral - Health reduction
  • Corrosive - Armor reduction/removal

Utility is most useful as a secondary effect, on top of a primary effect you've given your weapon. For example, Embolist already defaults to Toxin damage (a primary), and it's really nice to have Blast (secondary from fire and ice) on top of that to keep things locked down.

29uixir.jpg



Hopefully that explains most of what DE Scott intended, and it really is an elegant design for weapons and enemies, once the kinks are worked out and it's explained to players better in-game. Any more questions?

Updates:

  • DE_Steve has suggested Radiation against Grineer, and testing it out with Synapse shows little penetration through Armor, but to non-armored Grineer health it's fairly effective. (Although in-game codex states no weakness)
  • Added FAQ below based on questions in this thread.
  • Updated information further based on testing and feedback (Thanks to: Phoenix86, NegimaSonic, MeduSalem)
  • Updated according to U11.3.3, I guess.  Hugely controversial update to Damage 2.0, which... dunno... I can't think of any way to explain it in its current state, sorry guys.  Updated the cheat sheet at the top at least.

FAQ Follow-up Questions


Q: Is it true that there are no more armor-ignoring damage types in Damage 2.0?
A: Boost your weapon's Puncture to gain better damage against armored enemies.  You can also use the Corrosive element to reduce/remove armor, along with the Aura mod, Corrosive Projection.

Q: Do bullet type damage not work on Pure Elemental weapons (Ignis, Synpase, etc.) or was that a UI thing?
A: The unique elemental weapons (Ogris, Ignis, Synapse, etc.) use their elemental damage type as default, instead of physical damage. You can still increase this damage by using same element and generic damage mods like Serration. Example: Ogris is 300 Blast damage base, equipped with max Serration (+165%) gives it 300 * 2.65 = 795 Blast damage.

Q: Also how does status chance work? Does it allow for every damage type that the weapon has to hit special effects?
A: In patch 11.0.2, they added icons to damage numbers indicating when Statuses proc from your weapons. You'll notice the status chance is somewhat low for certain weapons, and higher for others. Unfortunately now, just because you're using Cold on your Kunai, it doesn't mean you'll be freezing enemies with every shot; the Frozen/Slowed status effect only has a small chance to proc, depending on the weapon's Status Chance. A further note, is that most of the time when a Physical status procs, it will be the status of type of damage that you have the most of on that weapon. So if you have high impact on a weapon, if a physical status procs, it will most likely be Impact's stun/knockback.

Q: What does armor/puncture damage amount do, exactly? Do enemies now have a set amount of armor (like shields and health) that you blast through before doing damage to health? Or does armor prevent X% of damage from reaching health, and when you deplete the armor you do 100% health damage?
A: Armor does not deplete like shields, but you can reduce/remove an enemy's armor using Corrosive status effects, the Corrosive Projection aura mod, and possibly other mods/abilities. Armor works like mitigation and prevents X % of damage from reaching health, so you'd probably want more puncture than the other two physical types.

Q: Is slash the only physical damage type that lowers health, essentially making the other physical damages useless on low level Infested?
A: No, all damage types are supposed to be able to damage health, but Slash is more effective at reducing non-robotic health fast. It's also cautioned that Impact and Puncture are up to 50% less effective against Infested, meaning you would be better using a weapon whose physical damage was mostly focused on Slash.

Q: So we're pretty much forced to go a one build kind of way with weapons?
A: Somewhat, but not really. For physical damage you're usually better off complimenting your weapon's base stats, but you can find a lot of versatility in the effects you put on it. Technically you could also fit up to 3 elemental effects on your weapon, utility and otherwise, but they may be competing for proc chance (we're not sure yet). It's really just up to your personal preference at the time, what you want to go for...

For example, Synapse is a beautifully versatile weapon. It defaults as electric damage, which can be:

  • Boosted purely as Electric, or
  • Combined with Cold to form Magnetic and drain Corpus shields fast, or
  • Combined with Heat to form Radiation to debilitate and confuse most enemies, or
  • Combined with Toxin to form Corrosive and melt Grineer armor, or
  • Combined with one of the above and Blast/Gas for even more crowd control possibilities...
Edited by _Aahz
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what does armor/puncture dmg amount to, exactly? Do enemies now have a set amount of armor (like shields and health) that you blast through before doing dmg to health? Or does armor prevent X% of dmg from reaching health, and when you deplete the armor you do 100% health dmg? Is slash the only physical dmg type that lowers health, essentially making the other physical dmgs useless on low level infested?

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You're not.  This is now meant to be about making hard choices.  You're not meant to have everything.  You didn't have Elemental mods before other than Wildfire - you don't need them now either.   I was planning to make a post similar to this but breaking down what appears to be the role of each weapon - I don't have the list finished, but the Soma's "role" appears to be as a Critical Build main.  Your best DPS will come from high chance of crit expanded on by an immense rate of fire.  Anything you can add onto that is great but unnecessary.  The weapon will still outperform a similar 10 base damage high fire rate weapon with Elemental mods because of the high crit rate - or at least, appears to be the case depending on your exact load out and what you are facing.

 

Where Crit Builds will shine in a way is that you don't have to worry about needing different elements for the different enemy types you may encounter in a mission.  Just blast them with high amounts of base puncture or slash damage.  But as OP stated, it won't ever be a top contender against shielded Corpus.  Once you get the shields off of them, through whatever means, it will still slash through Crewmen and do decent against MOAs and such.

Ah, I get it now. I noticed that Serration increases both, Slash and Puncture...

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Sir, I wish to have your babies. Oh so many of your babies. And possibly make your coffee in the morning.

 

On a more level-headed note, thank you very much. You have written clear, concise information and I'll be keeping your infographics up on my second screen when I'm in the armoury :)

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Well, it's kinda complicated, and I kinda miss the simplicity of a rainbow build - I always personally found the idea of an Ignis shooting freezing electric fire to be hilarious - but this does encourage more thinking and planning into weapons. Which is fair, IMO - even IRL we use the right weapon for the right role. An SMG, LMG, GPMG, sniper rifle, assault rifle and carbine all have their roles.

 

...kinda regret not Formaing my Soma though! It was leveled maxed and doing 14 Impact, 20 Slash and 24 puncture (IIRC), along with 58 Blast, then I reset it to 1, formaed it, and now leveling it is such a pain, lol. :p I do feel a little disappointed over the nerf of the Soma's critical rate; hopefully it'll get bumped back up, because I honestly don't think that with its current stats it deserves to be Level 6. *shrug*

 

So, just to be sure: if I do 58 Blast damage, and have a Proc chance of 5%, that means that out of 100 shots, five of those will do 58 Blast damage. Correct? Or is that with every shot, and the 5% is the stun/knockdown? (Because if so, I can live with that...)

 

Also, it seems that Piercing Hit is now less worthwhile, and only really effective on guns with a high Puncture damage.

Edited by WhiskeyGolf
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So, just to be sure: if I do 58 Blast damage, and have a Proc chance of 5%, that means that out of 100 shots, five of those will do 58 Blast damage. Correct? Or is that with every shot, and the 5% is the stun/knockdown? (Because if so, I can live with that...)

 

 

Don't trust me on this but I was playing around earlier with a boltor with level 1 blast(level 1 cryo rounds + hellfire, no other mods) on and off on Pluto. The damage was always higher with Blast on than with it off. So regardless of the proc chances, damage is always increased just for having an element. Like the old days.

 

Copied from where I wrote it elsewhere:

Pluto (Infested) Palus - Blast off 6-10 damage Side note: The lower numbers are always leapers pre leap. Nothing else seems to resist it.

Pluto (Infested) Palus - Blast on 9-16.

Edited by NegimaSonic
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Don't trust me on this but I was playing around earlier with a boltor with level 1 blast(level 1 cryo rounds + hellfire, no other mods) on and off on Pluto. The damage was always higher with Blast on than with it off. So regardless of the proc chances, damage is always increased just for having an element. Like the old days.

 

Copied from where I wrote it elsewhere:

Pluto (Infested) Palus - Blast off 6-10 damage Side note: The lower numbers are always leapers pre leap. Nothing else seems to resist it.

Pluto (Infested) Palus - Blast on 9-16.

That's interesting to see, and does give me some hope that at least not all mods got nerfed. ^_^;

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That's interesting to see, and does give me some hope that at least not all mods got nerfed. ^_^;

 

Actually yes, this is a point we should do our best to clarify:

Can we interpret the elemental damage mods as giving an increase to damage per shot, and that this increase is actually separate from the elemental proc? 

 

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So, just to be sure: if I do 58 Blast damage, and have a Proc chance of 5%, that means that out of 100 shots, five of those will do 58 Blast damage. Correct? Or is that with every shot, and the 5% is the stun/knockdown? (Because if so, I can live with that...)

 

Also, it seems that Piercing Hit is now less worthwhile, and only really effective on guns with a high Puncture damage.

 

No, if you have 58 blast damage, that is added into each hit.  Having blast damage on your weapon ALSO gives you a chance to proc the Blast status effect, which is stun/knockdown.  Let's take an example, and remember it's guess-timation on my part, just from the testing I've done:

A base Boltor with just unranked Cryo Rounds and Hellfire (+15% cold and +15% heat), yields:

  • 1.8 Impact
  • 14.4 Puncture
  • 1.8 Slash
  • 5.4 Blast
  • 5% Status Chance

Physical Damage totals to 18 damage, so the Blast damage calculates to (18 * .15) + (18 * .15) = 2.7 + 2.7 = 5.4 Blast damage.  Now let's say you take a single shot at a simple level 1 Grineer Lancer.  The formula is always (Impact result + Puncture result + Slash result) + Elemental Damage, and they are calculated individually before being added together to give you those damage numbers you see pop up.

  • Impact returns .5 damage maybe, because Grineer are impact-resistant.
  • Puncture returns near full damage, probably around 14, because Grineer are weak to puncture
  • Slash returns .5 damage maybe, because it's being mitigated largely by the Grineer's armor.
  • Blast returns the full damage probably, around 5.2, because most things are weak to Blast damage I think.

Your average damage each shot on that level 1 Lancer would probably be around ~20, so it would take around 5 shots of this hypothetical Boltor to kill that level 1 Lancer using these new damage calculations.  There's also a 5% chance to proc any of the damage statuses this Boltor has, but I'm not exactly sure if that's 5% across the board or if there's something more complicated.

 

How can i add AP dmg to my Acrid or any full elemental dmg??? it never shows any AP dmg even if the mod is on

Don't think you're reading close enough, but in any case, you can't.  Those weapons don't use physical damage types, instead using elemental types by default.  This opens you up for other modding possibilities...

 

Can we interpret the elemental damage mods as giving an increase to damage per shot, and that this increase is actually separate from the elemental proc?

Yes, the damage is separate from the status proc.  The formula is (Impact damage + Puncture + Slash) + Elemental Damage.  Personally I also feel like the higher damage type on your weapon improves the odds of that particular damage type proc'ing its status effect on an enemy.

 

Ooh, lovely!

May I ask, how did you isolate the Poison on your Embolist? It always takes first priority for combinations on my other Poison-only weapons.

Love to get an answer for this too.

A bit glitchy, since it's supposed to process elements in order from top left to bottom right 1-8.  Try Heated Charge first and then Ice Storm and/or Deep Freeze.

xB0VPvq.png

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No, if you have 58 blast damage, that is added into each hit.  Having blast damage on your weapon ALSO gives you a chance to proc the Blast status effect, which is stun/knockdown.  Let's take an example, and remember it's guess-timation on my part, just from the testing I've done:

A base Boltor with just unranked Cryo Rounds and Hellfire (+15% cold and +15% heat), yields:

  • 1.8 Impact
  • 14.4 Puncture
  • 1.8 Slash
  • 5.4 Blast
  • 5% Status Chance

Physical Damage totals to 18 damage, so the Blast damage calculates to (18 * .15) + (18 * .15) = 2.7 + 2.7 = 5.4 Blast damage.  Now let's say you take a single shot at a simple level 1 Grineer Lancer.  The formula is always (Impact result + Puncture result + Slash result) + Elemental Damage, and they are calculated individually before being added together to give you those damage numbers you see pop up.

  • Impact returns .5 damage maybe, because Grineer are impact-resistant.
  • Puncture returns near full damage, probably around 14, because Grineer are weak to puncture
  • Slash returns .5 damage maybe, because it's being mitigated largely by the Grineer's armor.
  • Blast returns the full damage probably, around 5.2, because most things are weak to Blast damage I think.

Your average damage each shot on that level 1 Lancer would probably be around ~20, so it would take around 5 shots of this hypothetical Boltor to kill that level 1 Lancer using these new damage calculations.  There's also a 5% chance to proc any of the damage statuses this Boltor has, but I'm not exactly sure if that's 5% across the board or if there's something more complicated.

 

Yes, the damage is separate from the status proc.  The formula is (Impact damage + Puncture + Slash) + Elemental Damage.  Personally I also feel like the higher damage type on your weapon improves the odds of that particular damage type proc'ing its status effect on an enemy.

Thanks for that well-said explanation! This gives me some hope that the Soma isn't to terribly nerfed - so basically, I'll have additional elemental damage per shot, seperate from the Proc chance. I can live with that, and that really explains reducing the crit chance; My previous Soma was doing something like 57 damage or so (20 base + 15 cold + 12 Fire + 10 AP), then last night it was doing IIRC 118 Damage (14 impact + 24 Puncture + 22 Slash + 58 Blast). That makes up for it somewhat. ^_^

 

But damnit, I really shoulda Formaed it when it was easier to do so. :p Ah, well, thanks for your help again!

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Testing more stuff.

 

Braton no mods:

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 7-16 damage outright. So by default Braton wins out over Boltor from my earlier test.

 

Now I'm curious as to whether Boltor can EVER beat Braton with all things kept the same.

 

Boltor

105 Serration. 75% Split Chamber. 15% Piercing Hit. Impact = 7.2. Puncture 66.2. Slash = 7.2

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 14-23

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 42 (shields). 56 health (moa) 46 fusion moa?

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi = 29-31 (average units, commander included).  22-23 (trooper). 34 Scorpion.  40 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Braton (same mods). Impact = 27.1. Puncture 31.1. Slash = 27.9

Pluto (Infested) Palus = 15-35.

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 49 (shields) 40-50 (health). (This one was harder to see the numbers for. I was also trying NOT to aim for weakpoints). I didn't find any fusion moas. But these should be the numbers for moa, shield osprey, corpus crewmen in general, cameras. Shockwave moas took 40 on health.

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi = 30-33 (average units, bombard included). 17 (trooper). 37 Scorpion. 47 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

------------

Braton wins on Infested. And Grineer in all cases except Trooper. Strangely Boltor wins on Corpus after shields are down. But only slightly.

 

I'm thinking that a gun that is good in two of the areas is still good enough for everything vs a comparable gun that's good in one specific one (IF their points are about even, Braton [86.1] vs Boltor [80.6]

 

Also based on this puncture seems better against Corpus? Boltor lost overall vs grineer except against the trooper who has the most armor. Grineer appears to have the most variety concerning resistences.

 

This makes me curious. So time for a little more testing.

 

Snipetron Vandal

105 Serration. 75% Split Chamber. 15% Piercing Hit. Impact = 25.6 . Puncture 553.0. Slash = 25.6

Getting crits a lot messed things up here :T So I really don't vouch for any accuracy here.

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 308 (shields) 373-440 (health).

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi = 224-240 (average units, bombard included).   176 (trooper).  250-258 Scorpion.   296 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Puncture appears stronger against Corpus.

 

-------------------------

Shotguns are annoying. Too many numbers.

Strun Wraith:

100% Multishot. 75% damage.  25% Puncture (specifically from Fletchette since Accelated Blast potentially uses a different calculation). Other minor performance but not damage mods were used.

338 Impact. 97.5 Puncture. 104 Slash.

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 35 or 70 a pellet? Health and shields it seems.

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 7-18 a pellet. (Leapers get 7 pre-leap)

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi =  17-18 a pellet (average units, bombard included).  7-8 (trooper).  19-20 Scorpion.   27 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

So it is good on Corpus as expected. More or less equal on Infested and Grineer (because despite Impact being -50 on infested, it only seemed like Leaper is the only unit that will resist it).

 

Hek:

(same mods). 73.5 Impact. 398.1 Puncture. 98 Slash.

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 15-27 a pellet.

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 43 shield 54 health.

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi =   32 a pellet (average units, bombard included).  21 (trooper).   34-35 Scorpion.    41-42 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Outperformed Strun Wraith on Corpus (on a per pellet basis NOT counting number of pellets, I'm too lazy for that)

 

Premature conclusion?: It seems Puncture is your best shot at all around effectiveness.

 

Going to check into some slash things next.

 

Aklato.

100% Multishot. 180% Damage

Impact = 20.1 Puncture = 33.5 Slash = 80.1

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 30-73.

Pluto (Corpus) Archron = 72 shield 60 health. 39 Shockwave moa health?

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi = 47-56  (average units, bombard included).  26-28 (trooper).    64 Scorpion.    80 Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Dual Ether Swords (bleed kind of fudged some numbers but I believe this is right)

 

Impact = 9.0 Puncture = 9.0 Slash = 42.0

100% Melee Damage

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 27-72

Pluto (Corpus) Archron =  64 shield 48 health

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi =    45-49 (average units, bombard included).  22 (trooper).  58  Scorpion.   74  Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Galatine (just a quick test on something)

100% Melee Damage

Impact = 1.8. Puncture = 1.8. Slash = 66.5

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi =   54-61 (average units, bombard included).  23 (trooper).  70 Scorpion.   92-96  Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

 

Curious...does melee have natural stronger slash potential?

 

Kunai (also quick test)

100% Multishot. 180% Damage

Impact = 25.2 Puncture = 189 Slash = 37.8

Pluto (Infested) Palus. 47-81

Pluto (Corpus) Archron =  132 shield 170 health

Ceres (Grineer) Ludi =  100 (average units, bombard included). 68 (trooper).     108 Scorpion.   129  Powerfist, Shield Lancer. No heavy gunners encountered.

Edited by NegimaSonic
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