If you hear that a weapon is mastery fodder...

[Jeoxz]

For me, at least to an extent, someone saying "Mastery fodder" means "I don't know how to mod", while yes some weapons aren't as powerful as others, they all shoot and work and can kill enemies. Weapons like Spectra, Caustacyst, Supra aren't considered the best, but I like them and with some forma I can take them up to sorties no problem.

Also Conclave, there's that and it's actually fun once you get some mods under your warframe's belt.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Jeoxz

[(PSN)robotwars7]

I'm willing to give all weapons a chance, even when I already know they aren't great (Cycron for example). it may be the only time I use the weapon, but I use it anyway, to see what it can do, I prefer not to rely on leeched Affinity for it. this was before Rivens were introduced; now that we have them, absolutely any weapon has the possibility of being viable for higher levels, just some more than others as usual.

every weapon has a purpose to me, and each one should be given a chance to realise that purpose IO, but I don't blame people who trash weapons.

[(XBOX)Graysmog]

I mean. I get what you're saying, but there are just some weapons nothing can save aside from gimmicky builds that rely on incredibly specific variables, or boosts from specific sources.

The Seer can never be good, nor the Lato, Fang Prime, or even the Convectrix.

 

[HalfDarkShadow]

3 hours ago, trst said:

Personally I ignore all meta complaints and only care about how I see myself utilizing the weapon.

Plus if it looks/sounds/feels good to use then it's always worth keeping.

But I have so many weapons now that I have plenty of good ones gathering dust.

 

Also I'm more inclined to toss "meta" weapons since I seem to be in the minority that actually enjoys the combat in this game more than the farming.

You and me both haha. Especially that last line. To be fair though, I never "farmed" in this game before to begin with so I'm sure maybe what kind of weapons I'd prefer using would be different based on what would be the most efficient for farming.

But neither is here nor there lol. If people want to use their Boltor Primes and Synoid Simulor then by all means. For how I play and what I utilize to get the job done very well, I'll stick with my Kohm and Cerata. Whatever floats yur' boat, or so the saying goes lol.

Edited June 1, 2017 by HalfDarkShadow

[HalfDarkShadow]

15 minutes ago, (Xbox One)Graysmog said:

I mean. I get what you're saying, but there are just some weapons nothing can save aside from gimmicky builds that rely on incredibly specific variables, or boosts from specific sources.

The Seer can never be good, nor the Lato, Fang Prime, or even the Convectrix.

Like any kind of game out there, there will always be those "early-game" weapons that's really only there to help take that next step into better classes of weapons. Minus the Convectrix in your examples. Only because the stats are sitting higher up especially in the status weapon build's department compared to other ones in it's category. As far as straight up damage is concerned, yes the Synoid Gammacor of all things is an extremely stronger laser weapon, but the Convectrix is a status spreading weapon, not a damage dealer.

I think a better example would be something like the Bronco Prime or the Latron.

Edited June 1, 2017 by HalfDarkShadow

[Bouldershoulder]

I try weapons and decide if I like them. Maybe some time in the future I'll see them called mastery fodder, I don't care.

BUT

If there were less weapons with 5% crit chance, x1.5 crit multiplier, or 10.. ok 10 is acceptable - 5% status chance, there would be less 'mastery fodder' tags. I mean, wth? Furis has 15 base damage, 5% crit chance and 1(!!!)% status chance. The only thing that makes it barely usable is Winds of Purity. I understand it's a MR 0 weapon (although many primes are MR 0), but at least 10% crit and 10% status would make it satisfactory. And Stradavar? What is 25 damage for an assault rifle, even if it has 50 in semi-auto? It's a MR 8 weapon and it's stats are similar to MR 0 Braton (a bit more damage and status) and MR 0 Latron (a bit more crits and status, but less damage). Low damage weapons with 25% status like laser rifle are laughable, spectra is more powerful. No amount of status will help them kill 50+ enemies. 1% x4 crits on Nukor are a joke. Does it ever crit?

Just a few examples of why weapons are tagged mastery fodder. If they struggle to do their job against enemies past Mars, they are mastery fodder.

[Z3GR4M]

Much like everything else in warframe its all about the looks.  I have all weapons in the game, minus braton vandal, and I use silva & aegis, well now the prime version, exclusively because I the way it looks...  are there more powerful weapons?  For sure, but IMO they are just mastery fodder.

[Sziklamester]

I have a lot of weapons and warframes the warframe part is okay there is nothing to say because time need to master each warframe and they are not garbage. There are good and bad weapons but each weapon can be useful in some way just need to find the positives. My personal preference is simple, be useful and the handling should be fine. There are good weapons which are bad at handling and there are some weapon which quite fun to use but stat wise these are no meta items and peoples bringing only metas most of the time. The old weapons can be useful too some needs tweaks to be up to date others just need a certain amount of practice to use them well and there are few which needs a rework or tweaks otherwise every weapon has the potencial. 

My personal bad experience the plasma sword which in stat wise mediocre at best but the speed for a single handed sword is just terrible. I am not a Star Wars fun but peoples when hear plasma sword they relate it to the SW but they got a different easily avoidable weapon. Damage wise the plasma sword mediocre, status-crit wise mediocre-okayish but it's biggest flaw the attack speed which kill the option to add a spoiled strike to the weapon because the primed fury is not the first priority to get and hard to level to max and most of the new or advanced players don't bother with it to make it great. Status wise the weapon should be much better because it supposed to be a plasma sword which deal radiation or heat damage but in stat wise not worth currently to use it. I tried to like it and gave it many chances to prove but visually and both stat wise that weapon just bad and need some tweaks to be useful. That is a good example how the balance cannot be achieved maybe the devs felt the weapon could be op if they touch further but that is clearly underpowered.

Another example the bo and mk1 bo which both worth the time and both have good status and the mk1 version slightly weaker just than the regular but stat wise very useful melee and can stagger enemies. 

There are other weapons aswell which needs tweaks to be up to date like mire, pangolin, jaw sword, ether and heat sword series, daggers, whps are in a good place but we missing a real tenno stlye whip but there are potential for bows, snipers overall bad because design wise, poles mostly okay because of the range. Machete is directly bad, like clevers and the other faction weapons. This is because you don't want to die by a one shot convertix or quanta because if the enemies could use the full potential of these weapons then we hardly #*($%%@ up then.

There are weapons which not terrible just needs their updates to be viable. Tiberon for example a good raw damage burst weapon, but by the nature of burst it i less popular because need to click a lot but a stat boost and mechanic changes could help to it to be much more adorable weapon. Add +20 damage slpit between the types, change the status to 20% add 30% crit on it and make the weapon able to one shot like how stradavar can does and then we have a nice weapon. Latrons needs some damage buffs but these are not bad but need dedicated time to use them well and ofc stat boosts.

Aegis after the prime release should get some boost in stats to be more viable. Heavy weapons like scindo fragor needs tweaks to be more useful.

 

PS _ I am not calling weapons fodders if they are in some way useful. Sometimes design wise the devs can make super op and super bad weapons but we the community are here to fix the problems and make feedbacks if needed.

Edited June 1, 2017 by Sziklamester

[Hidaru.]

If I don't like how a weapon feels to me then it's fodder. 

[AzureTerra]

I try to use most things unless i can see that they will be terrible and if they do in fact turn out to be terrible they get to sit on my back or hip and get tossed out in the next clean up once 30 is reached

[(XBOX)Onyx Schnee]

I'll answer in an out of context way:

 

i managed to build my venka prime for condition overload and use it for hysteria.

and guess what? Somehow, my hysteria build is now equal to a pure crit warcry build....my hysteria has 20% status chance due to dual stat mods.....50% crit+zerk+p.fury makes this more than acceptable.

 

in short? No....I don't trash weapons cuz others say they're mastery fodder.

i make other weapons work....regardless of how weak.

Edited June 1, 2017 by (XB1)Orcus Imperium

[StinkyPygmy]

I always try out weapons myself if they interest me. Mostly because 9 times out of 10 the community is blatantly wrong and they are using absurd enemy levels as the bar for comparison, which only gets raised higher and higher over time due to power creep. No, level 140+ enemies is not a fair basis for a weapons performance.

My criteria is simple:

1. Is the weapon fun
2. Can it handle a majority of the content one generally faces in the game.

For no.2 that covers really anything up to sortie level, but I generally give a little bit of wriggle room up to the 60-70ish mark because that is above and beyond what a majority of the game's content is centered around. The most important thing is that it's fun to use. I'll keep a few of the top tier weapons on hand and ready for those occasions when I've decided I hate myself enough to go on absurdly long endless missions. But for the most part I'll use what gets the job done and that I enjoy. Apparently the Daikyu is trash, and sure, its outclassed by a fair amount of similar weapons, but that wont stop me taking it to sortie 1 and 2, and similar level content. it does a damn good job there too. I personally am yet to try it in a sortie 3 but I think thats pushing things a tad.

Thats how I feel about the whole thing anyway. I take the forums opinions with a grain of salt at best. For the longest time my endgame was taking weapons widely considered "trash" and seeing just exactly how far they could go with some forma and a potato. More often than not they went much further than people expected.

TL;DR: The community very rarely has any idea what it's talking about because its stuck in the meta gaming echo chamber.

Edited June 1, 2017 by StinkyPygmy

[Hypernaut1]

The only items I truly consider as mastery fodder are the regular variants of prime weapons. 

Personally, I feel that primes should require the mastery of the regular, or as part of it's BP to prevent them from being obsolete.

Players that like to call anything that's not top tier "mastery fodder" are just boring players to me. I play the game for fun, not numbers. Sometimes I want to run a few missions with a burston just for variety. It's actually at the point where my meta weapons rarely get used, unless there is a really tough sortie.... Which isn't too often.

[_Vortus_]

Kinda a basic list for me.

Is it a burst weapon?  No, continue on.   Yes, rank to 30, toss in bin.

Does it look cool? Yes, continue on.  No, rank to 30, toss in bin.

Does it sound cool?  Yes, continue on.  No, rank to 30, toss in bin.

Anything that reaches this point I will use and see if I like it or not.

 

[Madway7]

6 hours ago, AdunSaveMe said:

People use 'mastery fodder' to describe everything from weapons they don't like, to anything that doesn't outclass the soma prime.

The term has absolutely no meaning whatsoever now. It's overused.

In general the word I believe means "whatever one deems to only be useful for mastery points"

Opinions can range from the weapon not being "good, but not great" or "just plain bad". 

That definition seems to work since it's subjective.

[AerinSol]

As long as it's fun and aesthetically pleasing I would try to keep it. Like the Gram. It is unique in looks but I sold it to free-up slot space. I will build it again now that I have more slots, even if it's the worst of the heavy blades.

[Andaius]

I get them to atleast rank 30 without a potato in low to mid level and actually use it to gauge it's potential. Then if I think it's ok, or I like it's play style i'll potato it and put more forma into it. Most of the time I don't pay attention to the communities opinions on "trash" weapons and frames because most of the time they're wrong about it.

[(PSN)CharlieX05]

I have 4 forma and a god riven on my tysis and its still trash that can barely kill. Some weapons just arent worth it.

[StinkyPygmy]

15 minutes ago, (PS4)Charliecrj said:

I have 4 forma and a god riven on my tysis and its still trash that can barely kill. Some weapons just arent worth it.

I have 4 forma, a potato and no god Riven yet I have no trouble taking my tysis to at least lvl 70. Haven't tried much beyond that with it, but I'm sure it could handle it once I put hornet strike on. Corrosive and Viral status prcs for dayz, bruh.

[VentiGlondi]

I assume that the person who made the statement is an elitist and avoid them at all costs.

[StinkyPygmy]

6 minutes ago, VentiGlondi said:

I assume that the person who made the statement is an elitist and avoid them at all costs.

So at least half of the community then, eh?

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by StinkyPygmy

[(PSN)CharlieX05]

16 minutes ago, StinkyPygmy said:

I have 4 forma, a potato and no god Riven yet I have no trouble taking my tysis to at least lvl 70. Haven't tried much beyond that with it, but I'm sure it could handle it once I put hornet strike on. Corrosive and Viral status prcs for dayz, bruh.

Still not good enough to be used in sorties or raids

[DxAdder]

If it's not meta I don't bother with it

Why would you waste your time on MR fodder ? 

Keep the trash weapons for when your soloing.

 

[EmberStar]

I have no idea which weapons, warframes, or pets are "just Mastery Fodder," because I disabled Region chat about 30 seconds after figuring out how to do so and never turned it back on.  I play almost entirely solo, and I use whichever items amuse me at the moment.  I have one of almost everything in the game, with the exception of a couple of event weapons that I missed and either haven't come back, or which are just *really* hard to get.  (Brakk, Karak Wraith, maybe a few others.)  Honestly, I've gotten my Mastery Rank to a point where nothing in the game is locked anymore due to just MR, and I don't really feel any need to make it go higher.  I find the Mastery tests to be arbitrary and often both frustrating *and* pointless, and don't see any reason to deal with them anymore. 

And no, high MR does *not* indicate skill, all it indicates is that you've leveled up everything in the game at least once and passed an arbitrary test mission.  I only team for Fissure Defense, and I've still seen some MR 23 players that make me question if they really knew which end of their weapons to point at the enemy.

[(PSN)forChristsake]

14 hours ago, Gamma745 said:

For me it's a matter of preference. If i like the feel and/or the mechanic of the gun, it's a keeper. If not, then MR fodder or not even worth building. I know it's very subjective, but I'm here just to have fun, so I'll take whichever I can have fun with. I personally don't like ammo hoses, which is why I scrapped the Soma as soon as I leveled it. People say it can be good, and I won't disagree with them. I just don't like the weapon.

I hated vanilla soma for the same reason I hate the gorgon, wind up. I like some weapons just because they are different or fun, but wind up annoys me to no end.