Considering Gram is dealing overwhelmingly slash damage as base I thought Buzz Kill’s +120% slash damage would be a slam dunk on it, yet none of the popular builds use that mod.

Does this have something to do with how damage is calculated that I’m missing or are physical damage increase mods just always a bad idea?

  • misericordiae
    4•1 year ago

    In addition to what neooffs said, it looks like a fully upgraded Buzz Kill (120% slash) increases flat damage (ignoring procs) on Gram Prime as much as a fully upgraded (non primed) Fever Strike (90% toxin) for the same cost. So if you only have one flex slot, going toxin instead is 1) an extra status type for Condition Overload and 2) upgradable to a Primed Fever Strike (165% toxin) for more damage if you’ve got the mod and capacity. If you have more than one flex slot, I guess it depends on the goals of your build and the statuses you already have access to on your loadout, but other mods might still be more beneficial.

    From my (maybe questionable) understanding, slash mods have some value when:

    1. you’re low on capacity and the base slash weighting is high enough, a Jagged Edge (90% slash) or Carnis Mandible (90/60) (or non-melee equivalents) adds more flat damage than a 60/60 or equivalent capacity 90% elemental mod. Again, I suspect YMMV depending on statuses in your loadout, but I might be wrong.
    2. you’re trying to mess with the IPS weighting for more chance of slash damage over puncture/impact, for Desecrate dismemberment.
    3. you’re trying to mess with general proc weighting for a better chance of slash procs over other procs (this is the area I’m fuzziest on, maybe someone else can explain if/when you’d want to do this).
    • KaldoOP
      1•1 year ago

      I see, so it’s mostly that even 90% elemental mods are bad value in today’s meta, I see most often people skipping even serration/point blank I guess due to galvanized mods. Thanks for clarifying!

      • misericordiae
        3•1 year ago

        Glad to help! Hopefully I haven’t misspoken–I’m not an expert modder by any means.

        I wouldn’t say 90% elemental mods are bad value–they have their place bulking out damage on very low status chance weapons or ones modded exclusively for crit. They’re also good if you want to beef up a status when you’ve already slotted the 60/60 version. Even IPS mods aren’t bad, they’re just very niche (some more than others… lookin’ at you, puncture).

        Also, the reason Serration/Point Blank get left off is due to their being replaced by weapon arcanes like Primary/Secondary Merciless. The diminishing returns of putting more than one +damage source on a weapon are too high to justify having both (plus you get an extra mod slot to play with).