Mod Scaling And Semi-Auto Viability

[Darzk]

Proposal – Increase viability of semi-auto weapons, and boost the effectiveness of low ranked mods. Should help beginning players by scaling their damage higher without effecting late game DPS.

 

 

How – Change the way damage mods scale with level by increasing more at low rank.

 

Reduce Max Serration and Heavy Cal to +150%.

First 4 ranks are +20%, next 7 ranks are +10%

 

Increase Multishot to +100%

Base mod is +25%, every rank after is +15%.

This totally counters the DPS loss from Serration/Heavy Caliber.

 

Now:                    265% damage * 1.9 Multishot = 503.5% damage

Proposed            250% damage * 2.0 Multishot = 500.0% damage

Now /w HC:          430% damage * 1.9 Multishot = 817% damage

Proposed /w HC  400% damage * 2.0 Multishot = 800% damage

 

We can do something similar with Hornet Strike by decreasing it to +200% and bumping BD up to 140%, making sure one of the BD ranks hits 100%.

 

So you can see the total damage barely changes. What does change is the viability of semi-auto weapons. Having a guaranteed extra shot on each trigger pull is much better than having a 90% chance for a second shot. As it is now, we have an occasional shot that does half the damage of the other shots. It makes semi auto weapons like snipers a pain to use effectively. The optimal build when possible doesnt even use multishot and focuses on doing enough damage per bullet to kill in one shot. When building for killing in 2 bullets with Split Chamber, 1/10th of the time you wont.

 

The changes to damage scaling, with lower ranked mods having a higher impact, will help newer players who’ve yet to max out their damage mods.

 

If we expand the concept of mod scaling by rank, we can encourage use of elemental damage at low levels as well. Having the first few ranks worth more than simply ranking Serration further will open up mod combinations both for new players, and FTP players who may not be using Catalysts.

 

We could also look at increasing the %age values of the elemental mods, and decreasing the value of Serration/Hornet Strike style mods. This would increase the % of elemental vs base damage done, and help to bridge the gap between innately elemental weapons and bullet damage type. As it is, innate elemental weapons have a huge damage increase 'hidden' in enemy vulnerabilities.

[RealPandemonium]

What about semi-auto viability?

[matrixEXO]

What you are proposing is equivalent to asking for these mods to be changed to the common pool. No matter how I see it, it's a nerf in all fronts because not everyone gets both mods easily.

[DBugII]

I agree with Multishot on rifles needing a buff(even if it's just 10%), considering all other (originating, non-Nightmare) multishot mods grant up to 120%, however the damage model for rifles is easily made up for their rapid-fire capability or their raw damage over range.

The Latron and Grinlock specifically are some very hard hitting rifles despite their semi-auto capability and easily outdamage weapons in a similar category down range. Accurate side-arms such as pistols are much in this same boat.

 

The issue with semi-automatic rifles is their lack of crowd control, which is a tradeoff for pure stopping power. These are weapons which work great at picking off targets, even beefy ones, but often cripped because of their magazine capacity when it comes to groups. This isn't an issue as much as it is a balancing factor.

The 5k+ Headshots with these weapons is a force to consider in their current state.

 

The mods don't fix a weapon, they improve it. If you don't build for the weapon's strengths, you lose across the board.

Edited March 9, 2014 by DBugII

[matrixEXO]

...considering all other multishot mods grant up to 120%...

Lethal Torrent is 60% at max. I think you meant all other normal multishot mods.

[DBugII]

Lethal Torrent is 60% at max. I think you meant all other normal multishot mods.

Fixed, thank you.

[HillsAndTheSea]

latron prime is already stronger than soma, how is that not viable?

[RealPandemonium]

Split Chamber is fine; rifles already do a ton of damage.  The biggest issue with semi-auto viability is that decreases in framerate lower their DPS.  Otherwise, get some punch-through and aim well.

[Darzk]

however the damage model for rifles is easily made up for their rapid-fire capability or their raw damage over range

 

...

 

The issue with semi-automatic rifles is their lack of crowd control, which is a tradeoff for pure stopping power. This isn't an issue as much as it is a balancing factor.

 

The point being semi auto weapons have a distinctly spiker damage per 1 second than rifles with rapid-fire capability.

 

I'd agree that the tradeoff you mention is the point of semi-auto weapons. I just think every shot should have that stopping power, not just some of them.

 

Shrug. It is, at least IMO, more efficient to not even use Split Chamber on semi auto weapons. Latron Prime is more of an exception, as the crit builds makes the damage spiky no matter what so you want SC just for increased crit chance.

 

The 4x damage on headshot crits is likely a bug and is an entirely separate issue.

 

For most snipers, focusing on guaranteed damage/hit makes more sense than gambling on crits and MS procs. 

 

Think about it, what would you prefer; a weapon that sometimes does 5k damage and sometimes 10k, or a weapon that always does 7k? Even if the weapon dealing 7k has less dps, if 7k's enough to kill a mob but 5k isn't the choice is obvious.

[Darzk]

What you are proposing is equivalent to asking for these mods to be changed to the common pool. No matter how I see it, it's a nerf in all fronts because not everyone gets both mods easily.

 

Huh? Wouldn't moving them to the common pool mean everyone gets these mods easier?

 

The reduction in Serration damage would be negligible for newer players and beneficial to really new players. A Rank 8 Serration would add +130% damage instead of the current +135%. Anyone with the playtime to max out a Serration likely would have Split Chamber as well.

[Volt_Cruelerz]

All this does it make power more reliant on RNG.

 

No.

 

That said, I do want Split Chamber to be boosted to 100%.  It's stupid that it isn't.

[matrixEXO]

Huh? Wouldn't moving them to the common pool mean everyone gets these mods easier?

 

The reduction in Serration damage would be negligible for newer players and beneficial to really new players. A Rank 8 Serration would add +130% damage instead of the current +135%. Anyone with the playtime to max out a Serration likely would have Split Chamber as well.

I stand corrected. I didn't do the maths for the early levels situation while reading your final damage total calculation.

Edited March 14, 2014 by matrixEXO