Sanctum Radiation mods open up another Steel Path viable status combo.

[Iedarus]

I was trying to figure out what to build my weapons with so that they can do significant damage to the Murmur, and I learned that Radiation with Toxin is the strongest combo since they resist the ever-meta Viral Slash. I tried to build for that, but then realized that it would normally take an additional mod slot to add the Toxin; that's when I remembered the new Radiation mods that are dropped. Not only did this help immensely for Murmur missions, I also found out that this combo was universally viable; the Radiation would do significant damage to Grineer and Acolytes, and the Toxin was not only a solid DoT on most factions, it also decimated Corpus enemies due to the shield bypass.

I then learned that on weapons with added radial heat shots such as my Braton Prime, the Toxin will combine with the innate heat to proc Gas which makes it good against Infested. So not only is this setup primed to the nine Hells, it's also strong against every faction. What's crazier is that I'm currently not using a Riven.

I'd argue Radiation Toxin is now stronger than Viral Slash and I encourage others to try it.

Edited January 18 by Iedarus

[Aruquae]

Careful now, it might be considered overpowered for creating variety and receive the topaz shard treatment 

[Mazifet]

Viral slash is still one of the best combos in the labs. They have resistance to viral and slash damage,  not the status effects which doesn't affect the true damage from bleed or the damage increase from viral.

[SDGDen]

20 minutes ago, Iedarus said:

I'd argue Radiation Toxin is now stronger than Viral Slash and I encourage others to try it.

viral/slash was never based on multipliers but on their status effects.

so you may be right, for weapons that are NOT status based, radiation/toxin is better.

but viral/slash will still outperform it on any weapon that can stack those procs. since slash procs deal true damage bypassing armor and viral multiplies all damage enemies take.

[Iedarus]

Hm, fair points. Though it's still nice to see other combos that aren't Viral Slash see the spotlight.

[Skoomaseller]

36 minutes ago, Iedarus said:

I was trying to figure out what to build my weapons with so that they can do significant damage to the Murmur, and I learned that Radiation with Toxin is the strongest combo since they resist the ever-meta Viral Slash. I tried to build for that, but then realized that it would normally take an additional mod slot to add the Toxin; that's when I remembered the new Radiation mods that are dropped. Not only did this help immensely for Murmur missions, I also found out that this combo was universally viable; the Radiation would do significant damage to Grineer and Acolytes, and the Toxin was not only a solid DoT on most factions, it also decimated Corpus enemies due to the shield bypass.

I then learned that on weapons with added radial heat shots such as my Braton Prime, the Toxin will combine with the innate heat to proc Gas which makes it good against Infested. So not only is this setup primed to the nine Hells, it's also strong against every faction. What's crazier is that I'm currently not using a Riven.

I'd argue Radiation Toxin is now stronger than Viral Slash and I encourage others to try it.

the procs for viral slash are still the most bonkers OP proc so it'd be better to run viral + something.

Perhaps for weapons that don't rely on procs it'd be better, otherwise just stick to viral.

36 minutes ago, Iedarus said:

they resist the ever-meta Viral Slash. 

murmur that "resist" viral when I hit them with my ~250% cc viral heat atomos:

Edited January 18 by Skoomaseller

[Iedarus]

18 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Careful now, it might be considered overpowered for creating variety and receive the topaz shard treatment 

Yeeeaah, not sure why they decided to nerf Topaz when the issue is how busted shield gating is compared to health tanking.

[0_The_F00l]

It's ok , and radiation was never a bad element. 

But I don't see how it is better than viral/slash. 

Firstly the radiation is maxed to 60% with those mods , so you are already at half power compared to most dual mod combinations or a 1/3rd if you go pure elements. So depending on the bonuses against the Armor/flesh you may see some differences.

At the benefit of saving a mod slot - that can actually make it worth it - if the secondary stat is good (and most are good to have).

So it's good to have , but I have not changed my loadouts in most cases (there are a few where i can now proc corrosive , radiation , viral and heat on the same weapon without depending on kuva bonuses ).

 

[trst]

It's definitely not stronger than Viral Slash in general but there are use cases for the combo. In particular it's a great option for status priming and there are other ways to get Viral statuses floating around.

 

43 minutes ago, Aruquae said:

Careful now, it might be considered overpowered for creating variety and receive the topaz shard treatment 

 

18 minutes ago, Iedarus said:

Yeeeaah, not sure why they decided to nerf Topaz when the issue is how busted shield gating is compared to health tanking.

Topaz Shards were fixed for being objectively broken. The potential of nearly 400% flat crit chance (plus it wasn't even intended to be flat) and literal invulnerability on some frames/any build with a companion built for it are just broken, not variety.

[Aruquae]

18 hours ago, trst said:

It's definitely not stronger than Viral Slash in general but there are use cases for the combo. In particular it's a great option for status priming and there are other ways to get Viral statuses floating around.

 

 

Topaz Shards were fixed for being objectively broken. The potential of nearly 400% flat crit chance (plus it wasn't even intended to be flat) and literal invulnerability on some frames/any build with a companion built for it are just broken, not variety.

While I agree with it being busted on some frames such as Octavia, I just wish they narrowed down what can proc it. They just outright murdered it like with null star. 
Rip null Star, you were better off just not being buffed in the first place.

Edited January 19 by Aruquae
*were

[Traumtulpe]

This is complete nonsense. Like complete nonsense.

Viral/Slash is 100% effective against Murmur. Viral status multiplies the bleed as normal, and bleeds deal true damage which they do not resist.

And neither Radiation nor Toxin is effective against Ferrite armor.

[Iedarus]

1 hour ago, Traumtulpe said:

This is complete nonsense. Like complete nonsense.

Viral/Slash is 100% effective against Murmur. Viral status multiplies the bleed as normal, and bleeds deal true damage which they do not resist.

And neither Radiation nor Toxin is effective against Ferrite armor.

Definitely not nonsense; I'm straight up decimating Grineer units and killed an acolyte in seconds in SP Kuva Fortress so it's 100% a strong setup. I scratch what I said about it being stronger than viral slash but it still shreds.

[Traumtulpe]

7 hours ago, Iedarus said:

I'm straight up decimating Grineer units and killed an acolyte in seconds in SP Kuva Fortress so it's 100% a strong setup.

Shall I make you a video of me "decimating" those same enemies with a Magnetic/Gas weapon? And before you ask, no, Magnetic/Gas is *not* a "strong setup" at all.

[nslay]

Unless you have all available Toxin mods slotted already, drop the Radiation mods and try pure Toxin with a source of Corrosive/Viral priming. Use 2 green shards for better effect (for 100% armor strip).

My take will inevitably be unpopular, but I strongly prefer Toxin over Slash. I mainly like Toxin because its DoT is also increased by Toxin mods in addition to base/faction mods... you don't have anything like that for Slash. Consequently, this makes Toxin pretty potent at quickly stripping Overguard. You also probably remember that it bypasses Shields making it potent against Corpus and some Corrupted enemies. Its only real sore point is armored enemies... well, if you have a means to dump Corrosive/Heat on targets fast, Toxin destroys the most beefy targets very quickly! And Viral helps kill everything faster with Toxin in general (even through Shields)! Toxin is just well-rounded against all factions and very nice against Eximus (especially Guardian Eximus).

For Toxin, I mainly play with pure Toxin Cerata and rely on something like Phage to prime enemies. I'm unsure how other Toxin weapons or setups will fare... Cerata is an OP Glaive after all.

Anyway, I realized this about Toxin some time ago when I left my SP Corpus gear equipped in an SP Grineer/Corrupted mission and found that it continued to work well there! Now I just use the same gear everywhere.

[Hexerin]

1 hour ago, nslay said:

Unless you have all available Toxin mods slotted already, drop the Radiation mods and try pure Toxin with a source of Corrosive/Viral priming. Use 2 green shards for better effect (for 100% armor strip).

My take will inevitably be unpopular, but I strongly prefer Toxin over Slash. I mainly like Toxin because its DoT is also increased by Toxin mods in addition to base/faction mods... you don't have anything like that for Slash. Consequently, this makes Toxin pretty potent at quickly stripping Overguard. You also probably remember that it bypasses Shields making it potent against Corpus and some Corrupted enemies. Its only real sore point is armored enemies... well, if you have a means to dump Corrosive/Heat on targets fast, Toxin destroys the most beefy targets very quickly! And Viral helps kill everything faster with Toxin in general (even through Shields)! Toxin is just well-rounded against all factions and very nice against Eximus (especially Guardian Eximus).

For Toxin, I mainly play with pure Toxin Cerata and rely on something like Phage to prime enemies. I'm unsure how other Toxin weapons or setups will fare... Cerata is an OP Glaive after all.

Anyway, I realized this about Toxin some time ago when I left my SP Corpus gear equipped in an SP Grineer/Corrupted mission and found that it continued to work well there! Now I just use the same gear everywhere.

Corpus and Infested (and now Murmur, which are effectively Infested v2.0) are all a complete joke, it doesn't matter what you build against them even on Steel Path. Grineer, however, are actually able to take a hit, which is why slash is supreme. It bypasses armor, allowing frames that don't have reasonable access to armor strip to still be viable. This is why your take is "unpopular", because it's objectively wrong and horrid advice to give anyone.

You build exclusively with Grineer in mind, because anything that effectively deals with Grineer will simply steamroll all the other factions as well.

Edited January 19 by Hexerin

[Xzorn]

Radiation Status, specifically. Has always been good.

It's what held together Nyx and Vauban's kits for CC lock down because it can't be nullifed and it isn't reduced by Disruptor auras. It also shuts down Ancient Healer Auras, Shield Drones and most other annoyances that might hinder damage going into your target. The damage type has only ever been good for status immune bosses.

Shame they killed Blast status when Radiation was always better outside stealth frames.

[nslay]

1 hour ago, Hexerin said:

Corpus and Infested (and now Murmur, which are effectively Infested v2.0) are all a complete joke, it doesn't matter what you build against them even on Steel Path. Grineer, however, are actually able to take a hit, which is why slash is supreme. It bypasses armor, allowing frames that don't have reasonable access to armor strip to still be viable. This is why your take is "unpopular", because it's objectively wrong and horrid advice to give anyone.

You build exclusively with Grineer in mind, because anything that effectively deals with Grineer will simply steamroll all the other factions as well.

I thought I recognized you... remember this?

Guess what my "horrid" or "objectively wrong" advice gets? 1.92 kps in SP Circulus... not quite as good @Berzerkules.

It does actually work the way I wrote... and it works for all factions equally well. That doesn't apply so much to Slash.

[nslay]

2 hours ago, Hexerin said:

You build exclusively with Grineer in mind, because anything that effectively deals with Grineer will simply steamroll all the other factions as well.

Look, I don't want to sound snarky or mean or anything... but have a look at this and tell me what you really think. Maybe you don't like the experimental parameters? I can change them for you! I think the Glaive Prime is built pretty decently for Grineer! It gives a guaranteed powerful Slash proc too! Great for SP Grineer! Great for SP Corpus?

Spoiler

 

I don't know... I think Toxin works better in general in this experiment. Just a qualitative assessment of time-to-kill on the SP Corpus cohort is pretty bad for the Glaive Prime. The Cerata needs a little time to kill the SP Exo Gokstadt Officers, but it does seem a lot faster at doing that than the Glaive Prime does at killing the SP Corpus! I tell you, those Guardian Eximus are a real nuisance!

Would you like to see how well the Toxin Cerata works in a real SP Grineer endurance game mode? Maybe 1-2 hours long (I'd record toward the end of course!)?

[(PSN)Sentiel]

15 hours ago, Iedarus said:

I was trying to figure out what to build my weapons with so that they can do significant damage to the Murmur, and I learned that Radiation with Toxin is the strongest combo since they resist the ever-meta Viral Slash. I tried to build for that, but then realized that it would normally take an additional mod slot to add the Toxin; that's when I remembered the new Radiation mods that are dropped. Not only did this help immensely for Murmur missions, I also found out that this combo was universally viable; the Radiation would do significant damage to Grineer and Acolytes, and the Toxin was not only a solid DoT on most factions, it also decimated Corpus enemies due to the shield bypass.

I then learned that on weapons with added radial heat shots such as my Braton Prime, the Toxin will combine with the innate heat to proc Gas which makes it good against Infested. So not only is this setup primed to the nine Hells, it's also strong against every faction. What's crazier is that I'm currently not using a Riven.

I'd argue Radiation Toxin is now stronger than Viral Slash and I encourage others to try it.

Put Primary Blight on it and it will become absolutely delicious.

[Xzorn]

Slash was actually rarely the best scaling option before they scuffed up the status effects.
I had to write this out for players who used to swear by their Viral + Rad Tigris Primes that Corrosive + Blast scaled better.

You also used to not only build for specific factions but the level range and crit Vs status based. It's a real shame they stupefied the system.

Probably did it because players would be ranting about how they need 3 different versions of the same weapon due to capacity problems for guns.
They went from only Magnetic being useless to more than half the damage / status types. Nice fix.

[Iedarus]

9 hours ago, (PSN)Sentiel said:

Put Primary Blight on it and it will become absolutely delicious.

Oh damn, I didn't even think of that. Will try it ASAP, and by ASAP, I mean as soon as I have the energy to farm Duviri again.

Edit: Thank God for the Sanctum.

14 hours ago, Traumtulpe said:

Shall I make you a video of me "decimating" those same enemies with a Magnetic/Gas weapon? And before you ask, no, Magnetic/Gas is *not* a "strong setup" at all.

Wait, wouldn't that just prove Magnetic/Gas is also a strong setup if it had that much kill power?

Edited January 19 by Iedarus

[nslay]

Biggest problem with Gas is that its damage doesn't scale with stacks or elemental mods. The stacks instead increase the AOE of the Gas damage.

I like to use it for spreading Synth Deconstruct effects, but it's not very good after DE reworked it.

[Traumtulpe]

9 hours ago, nslay said:

Look, I don't want to sound snarky or mean or anything...

That's ridiculous. You have two completely dead mods on your Glaive (since you prime with Viral), and you strip 100% of the enemies armor with your primer, completely mooting the point of using Grineer as targets.

[nslay]

1 minute ago, Traumtulpe said:

That's ridiculous. You have two completely dead mods on your Glaive (since you prime with Viral), and you strip 100% of the enemies armor with your primer, completely mooting the point of using Grineer as targets.

OK, what would you like me to change the mods to?

[Aldain]

1 minute ago, nslay said:

Biggest problem with Gas is that its damage doesn't scale with stacks or elemental mods. The stacks instead increase the AOE of the Gas damage.

I like to use it for spreading Synth Deconstruct effects, but it's not very good after DE reworked it.

Gas and Blast are the two damage types that are probably in the worst place imo (Magnetic is fine in theory, the issue there is more that Toxin renders it moot), I recently built a Zakti Prime and while it's fun as hell to spam AoE darts...the Gas damage on it is just painful.