Nikana Prime vs Lacera

[DAYvonte]

I wanted to know which is better and does it even matter? The Nikana which is a crit base weapon vs the Lacera which is a elemental/status base weapon. Just got the Nikana prime and with the new mods making the Nikana prime do alot of red crits I was wondering would it be better or just preference. My status build for my Lacera is corrosive. Also did any of the new melee mods make the Lacera better?

[PotatoTrapdoor]

Having used both, I can say without a doubt that the Nikana Prime is (in general) the better choice.

It's kind of hard to compare the two, seeing as how they're focused on different things (Crit vs Status), but there are just much better options when it comes to status melees (like the Ninkondi). The Lacera is just too slow to be effective late-game.

The Nikana is a crit machine, and one of the best melees in the game at the moment.

And the only new mod which would really benefit (and be worth using on) the Lacera is Body Count.

[Arkhenbarn]

Body Count does help (all melee weapons will benefit from it anyway). As the crit chance is only 2.5%, don't bother modding critical chance and damage. Focus on Damage and Status, and adapt the elements to the enemy type.

On the long run, if you feed your combo meter, the Nikana Prime will have a much higher DPS than Lacera, but you can rip the armor with corrosive procs on Lacera, which is independent of your combo counter.

See what style fits you best.

[ZetraThorn]

Nikana P outpreforms Lacera in most cases. With the acolyte mods crit weapons are quite good. 
If you like the blade-whip then go Mios. It can stand up to Nikana P.

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

Pro-tip: Maiming Strike + Berserker.

All weapons are now neck-breakingly fast.

The benefit of Lacera is that it only needs two dual status mods to achieve 100% status chance. It'd be a crime not to use Primed Reach, since it enables your delayed combo to basically reach the moon. You can also use Fury (better yet, Primed Fury once you have it), but the combo I mentioned above has additional benefits, so I don't recommend it. This leaves you 5 slots for pure damage. If you're going to be holding the weapon, sub one for Body Count. This setup will give you ample DPS, even outperforming Nikana P prior to 8 hits due to viral procs. Sure, you won't be red critting for 20k. But when every hit inflicts viral + blast, that's moot outside of very long T4 sur/def runs.

Nikana P is much easier to design builds for, and simple to use, with limitless potential in high level missions. Lacera is much more high-maintenance, but can be almost as effective thanks to its status and obscenely long-range combos that ignore cover.

[DAYvonte]

For body count on the Lacera, is it worth removing a damage mod for?

[Arkhenbarn]

3 hours ago, DAYvonte said:

For body count on the Lacera, is it worth removing a damage mod for?

 

If you play full melee, definitely yes. The multiplier you can achieve and sustain is high enough to compensate for and surpass the loss of a damage mod. Remember you should just have at least this on your build, the 2 elemental damage mods are up to you, depending on the combinations you want (of course, you can add other elements if you want) ; the empty slots are up to you too.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Arkhenbarn