Maximizing Dread

[RenownedWheat42]

Below is my 0-forma Dread build. I want to put a forma into it, but before I do, I want to know what I can do to really maximize it for endgame utility. (I'm well aware there isn't much "endgame" at the moment, but you should know what I mean). Are there mods I should add/remove? Mods I should consider finding to put on? Please let me know what improvements I can make to make my Dread the best it can be. If possible, please provide a screenshot of the build as well so I can see what your stats end up at. Thanks!

[GinKenshin]

remove sawtooth clip, it's useless, replace it with a cold dmg mod for viral, also consider using a speed trigger to draw the arrow faster, that's the basic bow build 

[taiiat]

mmm, replacing Sawtooth Clip with another 90% Elemental is essential.

Fanged Fusillade will only benefit you if you're fighting Infested or Armor stripped Grineer. or if you're one of those people that spams Arrows for Slash Status.... on a Bow.

 

Vile Acceleration (or Speed Trigger if you don't have Vile Acceleration yet) is highly recommended.

[(XBOX)C0gnitive 0n3]

Here are the 2 main builds I go with:

For late game - - 

Split Chamber
Serration
Point Strike
Vital Sense
Hammer Shot
Fanged Fusillade
2 Elemental Mods

&

For Star Chart - - 

Split Chamber
Serration
Point Strike
Vital Sense
Hammer Shot
Bladed Rounds
2 Elemental Mods

 

Try these out and see which works best for you. I once went into a long game with nothing but damage mods - but it helped that I was playing as Banshee and was spamming a Resonnance build. Tried the same build with a regular frame and the damage fall off came faster than I anticipated after 40 minutes (pre-SotR). Ultimately, it falls on your playstyle and how YOU enjoy the build you give your gear. Good luck, Tenno.

[(XBOX)C0gnitive 0n3]

+1 on what @taiiat said regarding Vile Acceleration or Speed Trigger. 

You get a faster fire rate with Vile Acceleration buy you sacrifice a little bit of damage (-15%).

[taiiat]

6 minutes ago, (XB1)C0gnitive 0n3 said:

You get a faster fire rate with Vile Acceleration buy you sacrifice a little bit of damage (-15%).

you just get a faster Fire Rate. the Damage loss is ~3-6% (for Bows should be -4.76%) - completely irrelevant considering you get to shoot your Bow almost 3x as fast.

Edited September 9, 2016 by taiiat

[Inarticulate]

45 minutes ago, (XB1)C0gnitive 0n3 said:

Hammer Shot

Hammer Shot is not worth it.

Also, as taiiat mentions above, the damage loss from Vile Acceleration is negligible. It's because it's additive with Serration, not multiplicative; -15% damage is small compared to the +165% damage that Serration gives.

My personal recommendation is:

• Serration
• Split Chamber
• Point Strike
• Vital Sense
• Vile Acceleration
• 2 90% elementals
• Your choice of Fanged Fusillade, a third 90% elemental, or Bladed Rounds depending on what you have and who you're against (notes below)

Use Bladed Rounds if you have it. It'll beat out any of the other choices for the last slot.

Against unarmored Grineer and Corrupted (4 Corrosive Projections), use Viral and Fanged Fusillade. Fanged Fusillade slightly edges out Hellfire for damage (same multipliers against Cloned Flesh, but Fanged Fusillade is 120% x 90% = 108% instead of Hellfire's flat 90%).

Against armored Grineer and Corrupted, use Corrosive-Cold or Radiation-Toxin depending on the enemies you care more about. Corrosive-Cold has Corrosive for Heavy Gunners and Cold for Bombards, whereas Radiation-Toxin uses Radiation for Bombards and Toxin for Heavy Gunners.

Against Corpus, use Magnetic-Toxin or Corrosive-Cold. Magnetic-Toxin works well overall, but doesn't hit Bursas as hard, whereas Corrosive-Cold will do better against Bursas.

Against Infested, use Corrosive and Fanged Fusillade. Corrosive hits Ancients hardest, and Fanged Fusillade slightly edges out Hellfire for damage here, too (same multipliers against light Infested, but Slash as a bonus against Ancients that Heat doesn't have in addition to Fanged Fusillade's higher damage).

Edited September 9, 2016 by Inarticulate

[Xzorn]

Speed Trigger is not really needed with Dread if you're going for head-shots. Dread was / is ideally used as a Heavies killer roll. As a Bow user it's your job to take out the high eHP targets in a group and allow other members to deal with fodder units so the draw speed is never an issue. If you're fighting enemies below lvl 120 you'd prolly be better off with Rakta as it has a superior kill rate.

Here are the Dread builds I use:

Dread Vs Void:

Ideally two 60/60 mods yields the most DPS but Bows are a Damage per shot weapon so I find a single 60/60 to be a good compromise Between Damage per shot and Bleed / Viral Procs. This also keeps Viral proc weight giving a better chance to one-shot on procs. You can use Fanged in place of Argon but this will also reduce your Viral proc rate while increasing your Bleed proc rate. Since Argon completely relies on the user; it's up to you. I find in a meta group with enemies slowed and CC'd its quite easy to land head-shots.

Dread Vs Grineer:

Argon Scope is the weakest link in the set. A bane mods is also 100% dependable. In this case a single Corrosive proc is much less valuable than a Viral proc so it's best to go with two 90% as Corrosive damage has an innate armor penetration value.

Dread Vs. Corpus:

Pure Toxic damage has the best kill rate on Corpus units for any Crit based weapon.

Dread Pure Physical:

This build focuses on heavy Bleed DPS. It requires Madurai IPS passives to compete with the Viral build in CPx4.

Dread Artemis:

For Ivara.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Xzorn

[Inarticulate]

48 minutes ago, Xzorn said:

-snip-

Modding for elemental procs on the Dread is not particularly optimal.

Two 60% status-elementals (and no 90% elementals or Fanged Fusillade) gives you a mere 44% chance to proc a status per arrow and a 23% chance to proc the elemental status proc per status proc. This is a 10% chance to proc the elemental status proc per arrow, which is not reliable at all, especially if you aren't modding for fire rate.

One 60% status-elemental with one 90% elemental (and no Fanged Fusillade) gives you 32% chance to proc a status per arrow and a 27% chance to proc the elemental status proc per status proc. This is an 8.7% chance to proc the elemental status proc per arrow.

Adding Fanged Fusillade to the build drops the elemental status proc chance even lower due to the fact that physical status procs are weighted four times as heavily as elemental status procs.

I feel it is better to use 90% elementals and to pick the elemental types that deal more raw damage to the enemy's health or armor type instead of modding for elemental status.

[Xzorn]

15 minutes ago, Inarticulate said:

Modding for elemental procs on the Dread is not particularly optimal.

Two 60% status-elementals (and no 90% elementals or Fanged Fusillade) gives you a mere 44% chance to proc a status per arrow and a 23% chance to proc the elemental status proc per status proc. This is a 10% chance to proc the elemental status proc per arrow, which is not reliable at all, especially if you aren't modding for fire rate.

One 60% status-elemental with one 90% elemental (and no Fanged Fusillade) gives you 32% chance to proc a status per arrow and a 27% chance to proc the elemental status proc per status proc. This is an 8.7% chance to proc the elemental status proc per arrow.

Adding Fanged Fusillade to the build drops the elemental status proc chance even lower due to the fact that physical status procs are weighted four times as heavily as elemental status procs.

I feel it is better to use 90% elementals and to pick the elemental types that deal more raw damage to the enemy's health or armor type instead of modding for elemental status.

It's not strictly for procing Viral though. It's Bleed or Viral. Around ~50% probability of giving you a rather large damage boost.

I agree damage per shot is more dependable that's why I went for a mix of the two. Which you choose depends how far you want to go. I feel. If you continue to one shot enemies with dual 90% then obviously that's better but once it takes 2-3 shots the status becomes more appealing.

Right now there's no reason to build it for anything but front-end damage. That's the old endless Void build I used, ideally for going into quad lvls with enemies who have 3-4 million raw HP. There's no much point in using a bow unless you're going to lvl 200+ anyways.

[Hayabusa97]

My build uses the following (and has no Forma)

1. Serration (obvious)
2. Speed Trigger (fire faster)
3. Vital Sense (extra crit damage)
4. Bladed Rounds (more crit damage)
5. Point Strike (Red Crits)
6. Hammer Shot (even more crit damage and also some procs)
7. Arrow Mutation (unranked and so I can stay topped out)
8. Malignant Force (extra damage and for a higher proc chance)

So yeah, I think the most damage I did with this was around 134K off a BR enhanced Red Crit. If this thing procs, it's a death sentence. Also, I don't really give a S#&$ about Split Chamber

Edited September 10, 2016 by Hayabusa97