Been under a rock. is Viral Slash not best general combo?

[7bigpete]

Since the rework i havent been able to play all too much and when i do i just kept rocking my same setup since it seemed fine. And im sure it is im not someone that cant play this game unless im mid maxing or anything haha. 

But i do like to know what people are running and the meta just at least to get a base line and at least try some of the strongest builds.

I noticed on some sites and youtube vids that viral slash isnt the general safest lazy build anymore? I dont have any friends playing so not sure who to ask haha so i figure id try here.

I assume its different but is there no general setup at all? from what i gather corr heat seemed strong? 

im kinda looking for every weapon but i guess my main guns i like to re config are like latron torrid tetra melee dual tox etc etc. thanks 

[Traumtulpe]

It depends. You kinda want Viral (for health), Magnetic (for overguard - also helps with shields), and either Heat or Slash.

Just Viral / Heat works fine, and generally speaking Heat is now equal to or better than Slash, since armor is 90% reduction at most, noticably less even with the reduction from a Heat proc, but the bonus against overguard makes Magnetic appealing as well.

[Traumtulpe]

Melee is a bit of an exception because Melee Influence is so damn strong - any light attack build will typically want Electric damage, with Viral being optional.

And on guns the best thing to do might be to just mod for Heat and get the other statuses from your sentinel or a primer in situations where you need them.

[7bigpete]

22 minutes ago, Traumtulpe said:

It depends. You kinda want Viral (for health), Magnetic (for overguard - also helps with shields), and either Heat or Slash.

Just Viral / Heat works fine, and generally speaking Heat is now equal to or better than Slash, since armor is 90% reduction at most, noticably less even with the reduction from a Heat proc, but the bonus against overguard makes Magnetic appealing as well.

ty this helped. so i assume people like heat since ite easier to mod for and adds to gun and elemental dmg. maybe got that last part wrong but in general viral is still king? i think a quick overframe check showed me corr heat/ corr blast something gas etc. im guessing in general many combos could be more then viable now? but heat would be the best general dmg element 

[Traumtulpe]

Kinda, but unless you are using a *highly* specialized (meme) build, Gas and Blast aren't very good. Corrosive is "nice to have", but definitely worse than Viral (and you can't typically have both on the same weapon).

Again, damage reduction from armor is 90% at most, 82% or so with Corrosive Projection, and 70% or so with just a Heat proc. Corrosive can bring that down to 40% at full stacks, but really you'd rather have 70% DR and stacking Heat procs than whatever Corrosive can provide. And Viral is just always really good, everything has health, and the damage bonus is humongous.

[Zakkhar]

Slash (as in bleed) is not longer so dominant, because impact of Armor scaling was significanty reduced (and it can be stripped more efficiently, due to increasing the effectiveness of partial strips ad full strips being so accessible).

You can mod however you want. Viral/Heat or Corrosive/Heat are pretty popular combos.

9 minutes ago, 7bigpete said:

im guessing in general many combos could be more then viable now?

Yes.

9 minutes ago, 7bigpete said:

but heat would be the best general dmg element 

No. Heat is great for single target but for groups Gas/Electric/Blast are better, especially if you got grouping (Nautilus exists). Or Toxin if we talk corpus. The aim of this change was to not make one particular dmg/status proc dominant and it partially achieved that, although not without unforseen and undesired consequences (eg. bloated EHP of infested Bosses/Minibosses)

Edited September 14 by Zakkhar

[Zakkhar]

1 hour ago, 7bigpete said:

I noticed on some sites and youtube vids that viral slash isnt the general safest lazy build anymore?

It still is and works fine, it is just there are equal or slightly better alternatives now. More variety.

[Traumtulpe]

2 minutes ago, Zakkhar said:

eg. bloated EHP of infested Bosses/Minibosses

I rarely fight Thumpers, but I just did yesterday (on the Steel Path) due to Nightwave and that thing was a terror. Definitely substantially more durable than before, I didn't expect having to switch to the Arquebex and even when I did (and it *is* modded for Corrosive) it still took a while!

[Dreddeth]

Viral+Slash is still viable, but they curtailed Armor and boosted Health across the board, so TTK is higher than it used to be. Slash procs also no longer ignore shields, so Toxin is faster vs. shielded enemies. Corpus are kinda glass-jawed at the moment, though, so for now what works for Grineer and Corrupted is good enough for most anything outside of niche enemies like Eidolons or The Murmur.

Most people still make extensive use of Viral, but the "meta" as far as I can tell these days is to have a Hound or Sentinel specifically for stacking Viral with its precepts, use frame abilities to partially or completely strip armor, and mod for Magnetic on weapons to deal with Overguard. For actual elemental damage, people tend to use Toxin, Heat, or the newly reworked and surprisingly not-awful Blast, but Melee Influence has caused Gas+Electric or Blast+Electric to become the top pick for melee weapons that have the space for it, on account of turning your melee into a nuke.

If you're not doing that, Viral+Heat is good generally against everything that can be procced with Viral, Corrosive+Heat is good generally but better against enemies immune to Viral procs, Corrosive+Cold is good specifically on crit or hybrid setups and not too shabby vs. eximus units, and Viral alone is perfectly fine on anything that will reliably proc Slash.

[The_End_Kinda]

I don’t know but kompressa+ secondary encumber go brrrrrrrrr