Slash, Impact, and Puncture mods. Are they of any use?

[BenzinNinJa]

Title pretty much says it.

I've been around for a while (2-3 years or something), but I have yet to find any good use for mods that only increase one of the basic damage types.

Am I missing something completely obvious, or are they just meant for new players (and sh*t in the eyes of veterans)?

[Rawbeard]

the 120% event version have some use, the rest is plain inferior to elemental mods, or crit mods, etc.

[Trichouette]

The 120% can have a use on some weapons like tigris, rest of the time you have better stuff to use like elemental. And the other element mods are even worse.

 

Another problem, slash mods don't increase bleeding damage (according to the wiki) which is sad.

And impact is pretty much useless in game

[BenzinNinJa]

7 minutes ago, Rawbeard said:

the 120% event version have some use, the rest is plain inferior to elemental mods, or crit mods, etc.

 

Just now, Trichouette said:

The 120% can have a use on some weapons like tigris, rest of the time you have better stuff to use like elemental. And the other element mods are even worse.

 

Another problem, slash mods don't increase bleeding damage (according to the wiki) which is sad.

And impact is pretty much useless in game

I'm sensing that "some use" may very well mean "If you haven't got anything else to stick on your go, go for these". Correct?

As an example, and to help clarify, I'm just about done ranking up my Tigris after the 5th forma, and will end up with something akin to this build:

I can find no reason to exchange anything in favor of Sweeping Serration (+120% Slash).

[Trichouette]

 

1 minute ago, BenzinNinJa said:

 

I'm sensing that "some use" may very well mean "If you haven't got anything else to stick on your go, go for these". Correct?

As an example, and to help clarify, I'm just about done ranking up my Tigris after the 5th forma, and will end up with something akin to this build:

I can find no reason to exchange anything in favor of Sweeping Serration (+120% Slash).

Well you can remove contagious spread or incendiary coat since the slash mod grant 120% added slash (which is a lot on the tigris) or even scattering inferno since I don't see the point of it.

But yeah it's hardly worth it...

[TheTundraTerror]

So, the general idea is that, so long as the physical damage type amounts for at least 75% of the damage, an +120% IPS moid will give more than an elemental. Sometimes. Maybe.

First off, Impact damage as a whole is a total dumpster fire of useless. If you're fighting Corpus, just mod for toxic which goes through their shields.

Second, keep in mind things like modifiers since some types of damage have increased or decreased damage. It's also worth keeping in mind that, with armour scaling as it is, worrying about these modifiers for Grineer is either pointless (at low levels, armour rarely matters) or useless (where, at higher levels, grineer units have so much armour that any modifier you can get is laughablely small).

Lastly, in cases of status, adding some more slash damage is often a good idea. Slash damage counts as finisher damage and bypasses armour. Keep in mind that slash procs are based on your base damage, so slash mods won't increase your slash proc damage. I won't go into too much detail about this beyond "higher damage type means more likely to proc said damage type".

So to answer your question: It's complicated.

[DiosGX]

48 minutes ago, Trichouette said:

 

Another problem, slash mods don't increase bleeding damage (according to the wiki) which is sad.

Well that may be, but upping slash still makes it a more-likely status proc indirectly bolstering overall bleed damage.

[Trichouette]

1 minute ago, DiosGX said:

Well that may be, but upping slash still makes it a more-likely status proc indirectly bolstering overall bleed damage.

Indeed, that's why I use it on the tigris, but I don't use it on my nikana modded for bleed proc

[kyori]

I felt that in this game, elemental damage wins over physical damage... as opposed to game slike Borderlands which physical damage is more important overall.

[BenzinNinJa]

Alright, I've done some reading and made a spread sheet, based on slight variations of the build above.

Toxic Barrage build:
http://warframe-builder.com/Primary_Weapons/Builder/Tigris/t_30_22332000_167-6-3-175-3-5-178-0-5-179-2-5-190-5-5-191-7-3-482-1-9-546-4-5_178-8-482-7-179-6-175-6-546-6-190-9-167-9-191-7/en/2-0-35/
Sweeping Serration build:
http://warframe-builder.com/Primary_Weapons/Builder/Tigris/t_30_22332000_167-6-3-175-2-5-178-0-5-179-3-5-190-5-5-359-7-5-482-1-9-546-4-5_178-8-482-7-175-6-179-6-546-6-190-9-167-9-359-11/en/2-0-35

The only thing I haven't quite figured out how to factor in is chance pr. pellet, so for this I'm assuming that my aim is true and that no pellets miss.
The total damage average is meant to give an idea of overall damage reliability. From where I'm sitting, it hardly makes a difference, but I'll stick with my elemental mods for the time being.