Rending Strike: Is there any use for it?

[Tomppak]

As per title. Is there any weapon/situation where using rending strike can be justified? And no, "if you don't have any other damage mods" or "If you don't have drain to spare" is not an acceptable answer.

Is there's any weapon or situation where rending strike outperforms other damage mods to the point that you should consider using it? Are there any weapons with which it would even come close?

I mean, if you include nothing in your build except for pure damage mods, you'd would equip: Point Strike, spoiled strike, Auger strike, and 4x 90% elemental damage mods before putting in the Rending strike... If you don't care about status chance, I suppose using Rending Strike is justified if the weapon deals at least 60% of it's damage in piercing (versus simply choosing a +60% mod)(provided that the rest of the damage is divided equally between slashing and impact OR favors slashing over impact), but... I suppose that at that point, a simple attack speed mod would give more benefit than adding more damage..? And would you even ever build anything simply by stacking all damage mods on it..?

 

EDIT: And while we're at it, why would anyone, ever, use "Smite" mods?

Edited June 9, 2016 by Tomppak

[CrudShuzKong]

Short answer: NO.

Long answer: still no, except if you do not own any elemental or 120% mods and still want to somehow increase your damage..... wait, that situation doesnt exist soooo.... NO.

[RagingGrizzly]

No, there isn't. Rending Strike is a completely underwhelming mod in nightmare missions, even before it was changed.

And on the talk of Smite mods, I would use em if I had room.

Edited June 9, 2016 by PUR3K1LL3R

[Clonmac]

8 minutes ago, Tomppak said:

EDIT: And while we're at it, why would anyone, ever, use "Smite" mods?

From what I understand about the "Smite/Expel" and other faction mods is that the way they work is they apply their damage bonus to BASE weapon damage. What this means is that it stacks multiplicatively with other mods which increases all damage. So the more elemental mods you are using, the more benefit you'll receive from faction mods as well.

In other words, when you use Expel Grineer, for example, because it will increase your base weapon damage and the elemental mods calculate their damage increase off of that number, then the damage your elemental mods will do will also be increased by Expel Grineer.

So even though you don't see the benefit from Expel Grineer in the arsenal interface, don't underestimate the damage it can do against specific factions. It can boost your damage output well beyond just "30%" since that 30% is applied to all your other mods as well. So if you have 4 elemental mods, that 30% is being added not only to your base damage, but also 4 additional times to each of those elemental mods (30%+30%+30%+30%+30%=150%!!).

On my Limbo, because there is a weird interaction discovered between Rift Surge and Serration/Hornet Strike, I opt to instead use faction based mods in its place and it can perform on par with those mods in the material plane and while in the rift plane using Rift Surge, I well surpass it.

In summary, the more elemental damage mods you're using, the more benefit you'll receive from faction based mods.

I urge people to test their mods out in the simulacrum to make sure they get the best bang for the buck!

[ashrah]

smite expel.bane mods add on top of dmg.....more wepon elements have more benefit....

[Tomppak]

1 hour ago, Clonmac said:

From what I understand about the "Smite/Expel" and other faction mods is that the way they work is they apply their damage bonus to BASE weapon damage. What this means is that it stacks multiplicatively with other mods which increases all damage. So the more elemental mods you are using, the more benefit you'll receive from faction mods as well.

In other words, when you use Expel Grineer, for example, because it will increase your base weapon damage and the elemental mods calculate their damage increase off of that number, then the damage your elemental mods will do will also be increased by Expel Grineer.

So even though you don't see the benefit from Expel Grineer in the arsenal interface, don't underestimate the damage it can do against specific factions. It can boost your damage output well beyond just "30%" since that 30% is applied to all your other mods as well. So if you have 4 elemental mods, that 30% is being added not only to your base damage, but also 4 additional times to each of those elemental mods (30%+30%+30%+30%+30%=150%!!).

On my Limbo, because there is a weird interaction discovered between Rift Surge and Serration/Hornet Strike, I opt to instead use faction based mods in its place and it can perform on par with those mods in the material plane and while in the rift plane using Rift Surge, I well surpass it.

In summary, the more elemental damage mods you're using, the more benefit you'll receive from faction based mods.

I urge people to test their mods out in the simulacrum to make sure they get the best bang for the buck!

Okay, I checked the wiki, and it seems that you're right (except for the math being a bit off). So, it seems that you have damage mods equipped for at least a total of 200% increase, then the expel/smite mods actually do become viable (against that single enemy type). I presume it also stacks with regular damage mods, that is: a weapon with a base damage of 100, with a serration/equivalent of 100%, would deal 200 damage. A weapon with a damage of 100 and expel and serration would deal 100*1,3*2=130*2=260dmg.

So it seems they are more useful than I thought, but still, switching out the mod/changing config between missions hardly seems worth it (except for something really, really difficult maybe).

On a related note: In Orokin void, do the Corrupted crewmen/moa's/shielddronethingies count as corpus, and so on?