An general look at the actual mod's situation

[Zeyez]

The concept of the mod system rely on diversity of options between what kind of attributes we will put in our weapons, warframes, companions... but some of them are inside of an endless spiral of forgetfulness that make the players ignore its utility, and by consequence, their existence as something different than endo/credits packs.

i'm here to bring them back, somewhat... in general, i will try bring those mods to the elemental mod's level, besides some of them will have more than 1-2 bonuses to balance out

so, let's start with:

• Pure status mods:

 

mods that only grant status chance, that basically an chance to apply an additional effect based on the damage of the weapon, useful if you are trying to focus on fewer combinations to increase the possibility to inflict the right effect, unlike those elemental + status mods that increase the overall chance, but put more damage types on the mix

Stunning Speed, Sure Shot, Rifle Aptitude, Meele Prowess and Shotgun Savvy didn't end well by the time damage 2.0 arrived on warframe, from the time that was used to give stun chance, and now, they are using their old values based on weapon's status chance (that vary between +10 to +30% bonus), which is useless compared with those event elemental + status mods that grant +60% elemental damage

the change: follow the Entropy Burst's mod rule, keep their values on range between +10 to +30, but make them grant flat amountfor weapons (if the the shotgun has 10% status, using Shotgun Savvy increase it to 40%, instead of 13%)

the same rule can be applied for Enduring Strike (+60% status, but -40% channel efficiency), but this one should be +100 status chance, ensuring one status proc per strike

• Channeling mods: 

 

players that doesn't know about them, channelling mods are mods that grant bonuses only if you equip your meele weapon and actively use your energy by holding fire button

Quickening, True Punishment, Enduring Strike (you again? i won't repeat the suggestion on this one from "Pure status mods section") and Corrupt Charge falls on this category, that in general, has worse bonuses that its normal counterparts, with exception of the unique effect from Life Strike

the twist will be in 3 parts:

1. The energy cost will count each strike, instead of each hit, this will reduce the cost if you are hitting many enemies at once, but will punish every missed strike
2. adjust their bonuses to become something more universal, or at least, powerful enough to justify the energy cost
3. they have reduced effects while not channelling, keeping only 20% of the potential, if the mod is solely based on this bonus

- Quickening: From +20% to +0.6 attack speed while channeling (weapons with attack speed lower than 1.0 will have an bonus better than +60%), from -80% channel efficiency to -20%, +0.12 while not channelling (basically, this mod will help even if you are not channeling, but the effects are worse)

- True Punishment: From +40% to +50 flat critical chance (non-crit weapons will be enabled to crit more naturally) and keeps the -60% channel efficiency, +10 critical chance while not channelling

- Corrupt Charge: From +100% to +200% channel damage and +50% charged attack damage (basically, from 3x to 4.5x base damage on it), but from -40% to -60% channel efficiency and cost 2 energy to use charged attack (if you don't have the energy amount, this bonus will be ignored)

- Focused Defense: (+20% armor, but -140% channel efficiency) barely worth mentioning, since it only increases armor while channelling... but the change could be give 100% auto-parry on 360° degree while channelling and increase the weapon's block effectiveness by 20% (capped at 98% damage reduction), but cost 2 + 3% of maximum energy per second to keep active (this will count as toggle ability, that deny regenerate energy with Energy Vampire, Energy Siphon... while active)

• Usability mods:

 

mods that are used, at least you think you could use, to increase your sustained DPS, the QoL of those weapons (like zoom, reduce noise...) or even exchange other resources (ammo) for more damage (fire rate)

many mods fall here, from Ammo Drum to Tainted Shell (both are ammo capacity, but not restricted at them)

- Eagle eye, Hawk Eye: this mods increase the zoom by 40-80%... and only this... the game, until the Plains of Eidolons, those mods barely give any advantage to have this status as positive one, so, let's give some additional stats

- increase zoom from 40% to 80% (only Eagle Eye)

- while in zoom mode, increase the projectile speed by 60% (if applicable)

- increase overall weapon's damage by 20% if you hit a weak spot (banshee sonar, headshot...)

 

Ammo Drum, Shell Compression, Tricky Mag: obviously, doesn't matter if you raise your ammo reserves if you can't use everything... or there is a mod that replaces it (ammo mutation)

- Increase the maximum ammo by 90% at max rank

- Increase ammunition pickup by 40%

- If you have less than 75-50-25% ammunition, increase the movement speed by flat .05 | .10 | .15 (only counts if you're with the weapon in hand)

- +30% reload speed if your weapon's clip is empty

 

Slip magazine (primed), Magazine Warp: give the same treatment than Ammo Stock (shotgun version)

- Raise from 5% each rank to 10% (60% at max level, 110%¨for Primed Slip Magazine)

 

Fast Hands (Primed), Tactical Pump, Quickdraw: because of the way these mods works, they end up being weaker than they appear. example: instead of +100% reload speed grant 0 second reload, it just reduce the reload time by 50%

- Raise from 5-8% each rank to +10% reload speed , raising to +60% (but the Primed Fast Hands will be +8% per level, increasing to +88% reload speed)

• Damage mods:

 

that's exactly the ones you are thinking... those mods are used to increase the damage output of the weapon, but, by some circunstances, are left behind into an Limbo (not the warframe), especially after the introduction of damage 2.0, which didn't worried about fixing those numbers for rifles, pistols and shotgun mods... or interactionips, which previously gave that damage type to the weapon, instead of amplifying an existing one (i'm ignoring the meele ones since the numbers are, somewhat, ok, there's one primed derived from one of them and Accelerated Blast, because its dual type that's still useful into an specific weapon [Hek series])

Rupture, Disruptor, Concussion Rounds, Piercing Hit, Flechette, No Return, Sawtooth Clip, Shredder and  Razor Shot falls under this category (5 levels, low bonus and focused on physical damage)

because they are weakened versions of the 120% physical event mods, i will suggest something an bit different, in fact, 3 things:

1. each of those mods, per level, will convert 5% of the entire weapon's damage (including elemental mods equipped) to their respective damage type (Razor Shot will convert to Slash, Disruptor will convert to Impact...), like the physical mods from PvP, at maximum level, will convert 30% of the weapon's damage (weapons without innate physical damage will earn this damage type)
2. After the conversion, the mod will increase 3,5% of their respective physical damage, +21% at maximum level
3. can't use more than one mod of this category at same time

• Corrupted mods:

 

This category belong to the mods that has an positive and negative attribute, expecting that the trade would be, at least, meaningful, but Tainted Shell, Magnum Force, Burdened Magazine and others don't care about this

Tainted Clip/Burdened Magazine: following the marathon (not the deprecated mod) of upgrades previously done by Slip Magazine and similars, let's increase these ones

- Raise the magazine capacity from 10% per rank to 15% per rank (from +60% to +90%), while keeps the -30% reload speed

 

Tainted Mag: slightly modify this mod, considering that one as 10-rank mod

- Raise from +6% magazine capacity to +10% (max rank at 110%), keep the penalty (-33% reload speed)

 

Magnum Force: what was supposed to be an counterpart of Heavy Caliber for pistols, doesn't do his job greatly

- Raise from +6% per level to +15% (+165% at maximum level), keeps the -3% per level penalty (-33% at maximum level)

 

Depleted Reload: i know that this mod was done to make the Vectis Prime users happy... but probably this one did the opposite, let's justify the existence of this mod right now

- Increase the reload speed from +8% per level to +30% (+180% at maximum level), but keeps the -10% magazine capacity penalty (-60% at maximum level)

 

edit: thanks to remember me this Littleman88

Critical Delay/Critical Deceleration/Creeping Bullseye: Critical chance counterparts that doesn't have any niche of use between normal and corrupted version, but with those changes, they can be used to reduce the weapon's fire rate on critical focused weapons, allowing to save ammo (Amprex, Soma, Tenora...)

- Raise from +8% per level to {Critical Delay           : 25%}  (maxed at 150%)... keep the penalty (-36% fire rate)

                                               {Critical Deceleration: 20%} (maxed at 120%)

                                               {Creeping Bullseye   : 15%} (maxed at 90%)

Hollow Point: Same situation from above, but instead this one has an niche, it works as complement to Target Cracker, since nobody would use an -%damage mod in normal situations

- Raise from +10% per level to +15%  (90% at maximum level), keep the penalty (-15% at maximum level)

• Warframe augment mods:

 

for the that doesn't know about them, those mods are the ones acquired on Syndicates that can alter or increase the number of functions of specific abilities of the warframe, which by some extent, can even create some builds that are created around them, like Peaceful Provocation, 

besides... many mods of this category needs to compete with other mods, but don't have enough weight to witstand against other more popular ones, like Flow, Overextended or even Vitality

i will suggest changes on existing ones:

 

Atlas: 

- Titanic Rumbler: the "draw aggro" effect of Rumbler needs to be bigger than it is now, like 25-30 meters (affected by Atlas's power range), maybe with limit on how many enemies are affected each cast (maybe 15-20), since 2 rumblers can draw aggro even better than this "augment"

 

Chroma: 

- Vexing Retaliation: its range is too short (9 meters), even for Electric chroma, let it be 15-20 meters, doesn't need to change the damage, since the main utility is managing your own health by weakening the enemies, akin to the Staggering Shield from Mesa and giving some utility enough to challenge those builds that rely on Narrow Minded.

 

Equinox:

- Duality: The double keep with us for 7 seconds while using our weapon with 300% damage, but the A.I. is too dumb to work at short duration, and since Peaceful Provocation make us to keep one form for the entire mission (day for provoke + maim or night with mobile slow pacify), the change on this one will be increase its duration from 7 to 20 seconds, keeps 50% of the switch bonus (shield and armor for night, damage and movement speed for day), but the weapon's damage and double's health scaling will be only 100% (affected by power strenght), this will create an opportunity to the player keep changing his battle style and earn benefits of it.

 

Excalibur:

- Surging Dash: increase the +4 combo counter can be useful to earn more damage... but his combo counter has short time (3 seconds), like almost all warframes without Body Count mod, so why not give an additional +150% extra base combo timer (affected by power duration, but doesn't affect Body Count and Drifting Contact bonus) that increase his combo timer while he keeps using Slash Dash? obviously, he will start to spend a lot of energy to keep the combo counter active

example: you have 3 seconds of combo timer and you hit something with Surging Dash, that 3 seconds will be increased by 3 + 150% duration (3 + 4.5 seconds), leading to 7.5 seconds of combo timer

the following ones will keep increasing the combo timer by 4.5  seconds

- Furious Javelin: instead of increasing only his meele damage, why not giving overall bonus damage? lessened than before (from 12% meele damage to 5% general damage), but with more duration (12 to 20 seconds), since besides he is an swordmaster warframe, this will not force him to use Exalted Blade due to the accumulated bonus be exclusivity for his meele weapons anymore or give more time to take advantage of the effect.

 

Hydroid:

- Tidal Impurity: just increase its status immunity from 6 to 12 seconds, again, same reason: short duration doesn't give any incentives to use those augments.

 

 Mag:

- Greedy Pull: i know, they put line of sight on this mod because was so abused that this augment created an meta in the past, but right now, is useless, especially with the new mag passive... but to keep the "greedy" effect, apply an 15m vacuum effect (an little greater than Vacuum mod, that is 12 meters) on allies and her self for 25 seconds (affected by Power Duration) at every cast that hit them (and by default, herself every cast).

- Shield Transference: almost only can be used against corpus and even then, doesn't give any overshield to the allies, only to Mag, the change is basically an tweak that is already applied to the Volt's Capacitance, that is give overshield to the allies near of Mag at even amount plus an additional effect on enemies with armor, and thar is give 5% of the armor removed (from 400 base ability, so, +20) from the enemies to herself and near allies, capped at 50% the maximum amount (if the ability has 400 base effect, will be +200 extra armor at maximum) for 12 seconds (percentage not affected by power strenght, but the maximum amount is, and duration affected by power duration).

 

Nekros:

- Soul Survivor: this mod is good as utility, but sacrifice his entire energy pool to ressurect other player without full health doesn't make it so desirable... if at least give more health based on energy used (like 1% extra health per 1% energy used, cap at 50% entire energy pool, plus 30% health of the mod's value), by this way, the augment become less punitive.

 

Rhino:

- Piercing Roar: just two things: raise the piercing proc effect to match Roar's duration (6 to 30 seconds) and allow recast Roar while active with this augment.

 

Saryn:

- Regenerative Molt: the regeneration effect is good by itself, but the augment doesn't work anymore if Molt, that is created to draw aggro from enemies, is destroyed, just this little tweak: keeps the regeneration, even if the Molt is destroyed

 

Trinity:

- Pool of Life: instead of killing the target with 10x health to give health/energy globes, just remove the 10x health effect while with this augment and give an plus of ammo cache (1 of each ammo pickup) and this augment will be fine (especially with Health Conversion combo)

 

Valkyr:

- Swing Line: i know that augment can be fun to be used as "spider-woman" fashionframe, but this barely have any uses after that, especially with parkour 2.0, but if this augment can make Valkyr being pulled the full distance of the hook and bring the enemy closer, plus open it to finisher, instead of just ragdoll it, but the ability will lose the combo counter, this can change the ability enough to fit an new play style

 

in few words, those suggestions are here to improve our playstyle options by increasing the amount of useful ones

some of those numbers can be tweaked and i'm sure that i forgot many mods/augments, but please, i tried this alone

 

i will edit this topic on the course of the days, but this is the feedback i want to post right now

edit 31/10/2017: there's no feedback about Augur, Gladiator and Vigilante mod sets yet, since i don't own every mod yet

Edited October 31, 2017 by Zeyez
like this topic, everything in the world can be changed, it just need the right words... and the left ones too.

[Firetempest]

They left those useless mods on purpose. As a stepping stone. Actively ignored since U11 November 20th, 2013. They rather add new mods that "fix" that gap and have it be content rather than alter our 5 year old mods.

"Skill" is the flavor of the year. Doing something for a bonus. I don't expect that to change much.

They have been adding it directly to weapons instead of turning it into a mod. like Arca Sciscos Target Analysis grants a flat +4% crit and status chance, stacking up to five times for +20%.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Firetempest

[KelsierSurvivor]

That was an impressive amount of writing there... By the way, thanks for this! I'm probably not interpreting this thread properly, but it has helped my view of mods quite a bit. I have been confused about many mods since day one of my year of playing. This has helped a ton! Thanks!

[Urlan]

I don't consider conditional mods a skill based situation but rather a push towards certain desired game-play elements.

[Lost_Cartographer]

3 hours ago, Firetempest said:

They left those useless mods on purpose. As a stepping stone. Actively ignored since U11 November 20th, 2013. They rather add new mods that "fix" that gap and have it be content rather than alter our 5 year old mods.

No one will really go after those mods either, because now you're looking at a primed utility mod that sucks down tons more mod points for a marginal increase over the base form.  It takes a special kind of snowflake to want Primed Fast Hands or Prime Slip Magazine (me being an example) but most people aren't ever going to equip either of these mods on their weapons, let alone their primed variants.

Useless mods are to me as useless as the guy that has the power to fix them but won't.  Mind, I'm currently fine with the current reload speed mods, but magazine size, status chance, and some corrupted mods definitely need some work.  One takes critical delay more for the fire rate decrease than the marginal critical chance increase.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Littleman88

[Zeyez]

On 27/09/2017 at 2:34 PM, Firetempest said:

They left those useless mods on purpose. As a stepping stone. Actively ignored since U11 November 20th, 2013. They rather add new mods that "fix" that gap and have it be content rather than alter our 5 year old mods.

"Skill" is the flavor of the year. Doing something for a bonus. I don't expect that to change much.

They have been adding it directly to weapons instead of turning it into a mod. like Arca Sciscos Target Analysis grants a flat +4% crit and status chance, stacking up to five times for +20%.

but some day, someone will start to complain the dirty below the Carpet... just like i'm doing right now

1/3 of the mods that i listed here until now just need to change their numbers to fix

 

i can understand the fact that they are researching some ways to create unique weapons by giving passive/active effects, but this doesn't justify enough to make them forgot those mistakes in the past

 

On 27/09/2017 at 2:48 PM, Urlan said:

I don't consider conditional mods a skill based situation but rather a push towards certain desired game-play elements.

certain, i agree with your vision

mostly of the mods that focus on "skill" to earn their bonuses are not good enough, since they force the player to act as he was told to earn the same thing that he could win with an more passive mod (Argon Scope vs Point Strike)

if they want to create an bonus that can be something or nothing, DE should to this as weapon/warframe's passives, instead being as mods, since we don't have that much of slots to gamble... or if they still want to put them, give an reduced bonus while we don't meet the mod's condition and full bonus while doing it.

 

 

i put some more thing on the topic, like Critical Delay/Critical Deceleration/Creeping Bullseye mods that @Littleman88 remembered me and some "damage focused" mods

[Jago47]

Block mods could be also revisited, for example: Focused Defense, Parry and Reflex Guard.
because the only time you see people blocking is when they use electromagnetic shielding on Ack & Brunt
or maybe if they use vaykor sydon for the radialblind.

And there are also still some warframe mods which could use some changing.
The example for these mods would be: anytype of damage resistance mod (Diamond Skin and so on), or Rapid Resilience,
from my perspective these mods could be usefull if they were exilus-mods. 

 

 

[(XBOX)Tucker D Dawg]

one other thing about many of those mods is they have a more common drop (status mods vs dual stat are uncommon vs rare) so less rewarding.

I used many of those mods when i first started out as I had no better alternative - just like I used the "damaged" mods.