Correct mindset of damage build weapon?

[Rieaz]

Hi all,

I'm at MR7, capable to solo Saturn (actually Sedna, but my weapon too sub-optimal for Sedna, so Saturn)

I'm kinda confused with the right mindset to build weapon, especially damage build (which I consider the easiest and cheapest one).
Do one build with every +90% element added? Or see opponent weakness (blunt, puncture, slash) and build accordingly?

In another word, is this build better? https://goo.gl/LqN9gE
Or this one better? https://goo.gl/owTpkN

Or maybe the another answer is better? Like "Rieaz pal, by now you're more capable to build weapons that more damaging than damage build". Something that I'm not aware of? (Let be honest, warframe is huge. All of those weapons and all of those mods @.@)

Thank you for your reply and guidance.

Note:
Why no heavy caliber? I don't have it :/
Why braton? Because it's jack of all trade weapon. And because I'm too confused with what weapon I should have :D
Well, although my example is primary, I'm also confused with right mindset for secondary too :D

Edited June 21, 2017 by Rieaz

[Magneu]

The answer depends on the weapon. However, 99% of the time, never use the IPs (impact, slash, puncture) mods. They don't apply off of total base damage like elemental mods, and the bonuses against enemies are too weak to be worth it. IMO, the only time it's worth it is making a high slash damage weapon proc slash more often.

If a weapon only has raw damage, i.e. no status or crit stats to speak of, building for raw damage is the best you're gonna get. These weapons tend to occupy the lowest tier of scalability, as they don't get good headshot multipliers or the ability to apply procs reliably.

If a weapon has crit viable stats, build for it. For example, the Soma has incredibly low base damage, but extremely high (for a machine gun) critical chance and damage of 30% and 3.0 (the Prime version gets more ammo, a larger clip, more base damage, more status, and looks amazing. You should get it ASAP). This makes it, even with it's tiny base damage, one of the better guns in the game. Criticals are very powerful due to you getting a 4x multplier on top of your critical multipler. So, a Soma with 6.6x critical damage does (raw damage x4 x6.6, which as you can see is awesome). However, you'll need a weapon with either very high base damage or a very high critical multiplier to scale very far, as enemy armor will eventually become too much. This is where status comes in.

If a weapon has viable status chance, build it for status/damage. Procs like Radiation and Viral are helpful, but my favorite is either a machine gun with Corrosive, or a 100% status (BEFORE multishot is factored in) shotgun for Corrosive. This will enable you to strip armor, which vastly increases how far your weapon can scale. On the downside, these weapons often lack the raw oomph to kill enemies as health pools rise, and their true power isn't shown when enemies have lower health. Base damage helps, but crits and status is some of the best in the game.

The best weapons in the game tend to have a good blend of status, crit, and base damage. My go-to is a Strun Wraith with 100% status, some crit mods, and some special stuff you'll find later in the game. It mixes high status, decent critical stats, and good base/burst damage all together into a sequentially reloaded package of awesome.

For your point in the game, I'd get a Soma/Soma Prime (although you'll have to buy a set of the Soma Prime off someone on the trade market), as it will easily scale through the starchart. If you like bows, the Paris Prime and Dread (if you can get it to drop) will both serve you very well, with the Rakta Cernos (Red Veil syndicate offering, people usually sell it for less than 40 plat) is an equally viable alternative; the Attica/Zhuge are automatic crossbows that are tons of fun and effective to boot. For shotguns, if you can farm invasions/trade for a Strun Wraith, sticking three dual stat (60% elemental, 60% status) mods on there for Corrosive/Fire and filling in the rest of the mods will scale further than you'll like have to ever fight. The entire Tigris series is also great, along with both Hek models currently available.

Pistols are a whole different matter, but for your MR, I'd recommend getting the Pandero. It's easy to craft, and honestly one of the best secondaries in the game. Build it for a mix of crit/status, and it kicks &#!.

Overall, Warframe has a very large selection of viable weapons (don't listen to the meta people, they believe that there are about three viable weapons, period) that can easily handle the starchart, and most of them can actually scale decently into endless missions (the special stuff I mentioned earlier helps these weapons immensely. Compete the Natah quest to begin your journey towards that power, it is 100% worth if for the experience alone). I'd highly recommend checking out the Warframe Wiki; it's maintained by players, and is usually pretty up to date. There is a full list of weapons on it, and you can browse at will and see what seems like something you like. Just be careful of potential spoilers for the story quests!

[Jangkrik]

Get. Braton. Prime. Seriously.

1. Braton has low-ish dps, very unreliable crit chance, very low status chance, very long reload for a weak weapon, eats ammo like crazy, etc etc. Some of the disadvantages like abysmal status chance and low damage are greatly reduced in the prime version, not to mention that it's not that hard to get.

2. Never ever use +30% physical damage mods. They are trash and don't deserve their spots in Warframe, at least use +90% or +120% physical damage mods if you want to use a physical damage mods. They're usually only useful to increase the status chance of a specific physical damage (mostly slash because it ignores armor). They can sometimes give net dps increase more than the elemental ones, but that's rare.

3. Serration and Split Chamber are must have. Heavy Caliber is situational, I wouldn't want to put it in weapons that need to do headshots consistently like Dex Sybaris.

Generic builds:

1. Raw damage build like the one for Braton goes: Serration, Split Chamber, Heavy Caliber or much needed utility mod like Vile Accel/Speed Trigger for Opticor, 1 standard utility mod like Shred or Metal Auger, 4x +90% elemental which are rearranged based on the faction fought. Bane mods are usually avoided since they make modding a hassle, unless you're a min/max maniac.

2. Crit damage build for crit weapons: change 2 of the +90% elemental mods to Point Strike and Vital Sense.

3. Status build: change 2 of the +90% elemental mods to dual stats elemental mods, the ones with +60% damage and +60% status chance.

4. Hybrid build (status/crit): change 2 of the +90% damage mods to Point Strike and Vital Sense, change 1 of the +90% elemental mods to dual stats.

Secondary is more or less the same.