Weapon Modding Fundamentals
Getting the most damage out of a weapon is fairly straightforward - it is about getting the biggest damage multipliers out of the weapon's stats. In a simplified form, an equation for it looks something like this:
As a simple example, consider modding a Rifle. Its standard Base Damage mod is Serration (+165%), which alone would give a total multiplier of 2.65x (1 + 1.65).
- Adding in Heavy Caliber, which also increases Base Damage (+165%) increases this to (1 + 1.65 + 1.65) = 4.30x.
- However, if you added in Split Chamber instead for some Multishot (+90%), you would end up with a multiplier of ([1 + 1.65] x [1 + 0.9]) = 5.035x.
Despite its smaller numerical value, in this setup Split Chamber provides a larger damage boost as it increases a different multiplier.
A slightly more complicated example would be to consider these two Rifle builds:
- Serration (+165% Base Damage), Heavy Caliber (+165% Base Damage), Split Chamber (+90% Multishot), Vigilante Armaments (+60% Multishot)
- Serration (+165% Base Damage), Vigilante Armaments (+60% Multishot), Malignant Force (+60% Elemental), Speed Trigger (+60% Fire Rate)
The first build would have a total damage multiplier of 10.75x, while the second would have a multiplier of 10.8544x. Despite using mods of much smaller numerical values, the second build achieves an overall higher damage output because it invests in more multipliers, rather than maxing out a few.
Elements should always be considered, as they can add much more beyond just the extra numerical damage. All damage types (barring the special ones Void and True) have different multipliers against different health types, and using the correct damage type against the right enemy can greatly increases your damage output. In particular, a damage type that is effective against an enemy's armour type not only gets an up-front damage increase, but also ignores a portion of the enemy's armour for even more damage. This can range anywhere from a relatively small 25% damage bonus and armour ignore, to a massive 75% damage bonus and armour ignore (which equals up to 7x damage at very high armour values!).
As of U36, damage multipliers have been altered to apply across all units in a specific Faction. These are displayed on the Star Chart itself, and apply uniform +50% damage for effective types, and -50% damage for resisted types. Since these are all clearly displayed in the game and are identical across all weapons, I won't bother mentioning in my posts damage types that are effective against each faction.
Building for Critical and Status Effects are very conditional on the weapon. Some weapons have great Crit but poor Status Chance (e.g. Lenz, Acceltra, Corinth), so you may ignore building them for Status and focus entirely on up-front damage (or use Hunter Munitions to bypass this weakness). Others may have great Status Chance but poor Crit (e.g. Sporothrix, Kuva Ogris, Proboscis Cernos), so conversely you may focus on maximising Status output and ignore Crit entirely. As a very basic, general rule of thumb, around 15% for base Crit Chance or Status Chance is a rough minimum threshold to build for Crit or Status respectively.
In the case of Crit, the Crit Multiplier is a significant factor. For instance, the Kuva Nukor has a rather low 7% Crit Chance, but its best-in-game 5x Crit Multiplier makes it immediately worth building for Crit. For Status, a higher Fire Rate is quite helpful, allowing you to inflict procs more quickly and frequently.
Status Effects often take time to build up to their most potent, or to inflict their full potential, but are the best way to deal with very high level enemies. I've covered all Status Procs in a separate post most recently in U27.3.7. In short, the right procs can drastically reduce how much time it takes to kill a given enemy, and increasing Status Chance can often be worth the sacrifice of lower up-front damage.
Though Fire Rate is one of the multipliers, it is also often the last one to be considered. Unlike the other multipliers, Fire Rate also increases your ammo consumption and recoil, which can be particularly troublesome for some weapons, and for many negatively impacts usability.
Why Not Melee?
Note that at least for now, I will likely not bother with reviewing Melee weapons. Compared to Primaries and Secondaries, they have far fewer differences between different weapons, and a lot of their performance depends on Stances. For the most part, even more so than Primaries and Secondaries, you can glean all the important differences between Melees of the same class just from stats. Furthermore, I don't particularly enjoy melee combat, and typically use them only as a Healing Return stick or a close-quarters clearer.
How Are Weapons Rated?
Of everything in Warframe, weapons are probably the easiest to analyse with reasonable objectivity. Much of their behaviour is directly comparably through their stats and controlled testing, and since they all have the same purpose, killing enemies, it is also easier to assign each weapon a score. With that in mind, there is enough difference between weapons outside of raw stats, or that are not well represented by stats (e.g. recoil and spread patterns, AoE effects), that I feel individual reviews are valuable. I've elected to compare weapons based on three main categories: killing trash mobs, killing unarmoured heavies, and killing armoured heavies. These categories are each assigned a value out of 5, compared to other weapons of that category. Note that these scores are merely approximations, and will differ depending on how you mod the weapon.
- Killing trash mobs approximates how good a weapon is at killing a large number of low health enemies, think enemies like Chargers, Crewmen and Butchers. For this category, a weapon values high capacity, RoF and any AoE effects. High DPS is nice, but not essential, with Sustained DPS being more useful than Burst DPS. A high Reload Ratio (detailed below) is valuable here as well.
- Killing unarmoured heavies approximates how good a weapon is at killing a few high health, unarmoured enemies, think Ancients and Corpus Techs. It is also a reasonable approximation of weapon effectiveness against Status-immune enemies
, like Sentients. In this category, burst DPS is the most valuable, particularly if it comes from high Crit. High Crit Chance is especially appreciated here as Critical headshots gain an extra 2x multiplier on top of the standard headshot multiplier. - Killing armoured heavies approximates how good a weapon is at killing a few high health, high armour enemies, think Bombards and Heavy Gunners. Due to armour scaling, at higher levels, these enemies are by far the toughest standard enemies around. Against these enemies, burst DPS is valuable, but armour-stripping/bypassing is much more scalable. Good status chance with decent RoF/volume of fire is fantastic here, for repeated Corrosive/Viral + Slash/Heat procs.
EDIT 20/09/2021 - U30.7 removed Sentient immunity to Status procs, thus dwindling the pool of Status-resistant/immune enemies to a very small number. Nonetheless, Burst Direct DPS remains more efficient at killing unarmoured enemies in most content than stacking Status procs, which take a little bit of time to build up and deal full damage.
Forced Slash Procs
The mod Hunter Munitions allows any Primary with decent crit stats to become Slash status capable, which assists greatly against armoured heavies. However, it takes up an additional slot on weapons which are already tight for slots. For weapons which benefit significantly from HM, they get assigned an additional score for armoured heavy killing which takes into account HM. This score is separate due to the additional restriction it places on modding.
U29.10 added in two more similar mods, Hemorrhage and Internal Bleeding. Like HM, these give certain weapons potential to inflict Slash procs under unique conditions. Unlike HM, these have a chance to inflict Slash procs when an Impact proc is inflicted, notably with the chance increasing below a certain Fire Rate. The "Hunter Munitions" score column will be generalised to include these two, and added to Secondaries as well. Unlike HM which is a decent consideration on basically all Crit Primaries, there are relatively few weapons that make good use of these mods.
"Reload Ratio"?
"Reload Ratio" is something I'll refer to frequently. It describes the ratio of the time spent firing a weapon, to the time spent reloading it. Though it does not have a directly associated score, it is important against Trash mobs, and greatly impacts the usability of a weapon. I've also seen the same concept referred to as "Weapon Uptime" or similar.
Consider the example above, the (Secura) Dual Cestra. It has a mag capacity of 120, and a RoF of 12.5, which means that at full speed, it takes 120/12.5 = 9.6 seconds to empty, not including spool-up time. The (S)DC has a reload time of 3.5 seconds, giving it a Reload Ratio of 9.6/3.5 = 2.74.
I generally consider a Reload Ratio of 2 to be "average", with around 3.5 onwards being considered "good". This is of course relative to other weapons in the same category, as well as the weapon's other capabilities.
I feel that Reload Ratio nicely encapsulates the differences between Mag Capacity, Reload Speed, and RoF between weapons.
Example Builds
For each weapon, I will give a couple of sample recommended builds or at least build directions, as well as my own personal setups. I will suggest 0-Forma builds, as well as builds with various numbers of Forma installed. I typically put multiple Forma into weapons before trying out different builds, usually just using one general purpose build for levelling. Remember that these are by no means the "best" build, rather these are builds I like and/or use. The best build is the build that you find works best for you - tinkering is a big part of Warframe.
All builds will assume an Orokin Catalyst is installed, as it is basically impossible to have any semblence of a full build without one.
I will use primarily Warframe Builder or Overframe to show example builds, as it lets me play around with polarities with no consequences. They also display damage-per-shot, Burst DPS and Sustained DPS for a given build, which is useful for direct numerical comparisons.
Punch Through?
I am a big fan of Punch Through, for its crowd killing ability and wall/obstacle/body ignoring convenience. As such, I will recommend PT mods a lot, more than some other players. This is a great example of there being no single "best" build - for many weapons I would consider their "best" build to include Punch Through - but you may not. If you don't want it, by all means switch it out for something else. I usually list several alternatives that I consider to also be a good use of that slot.
I absolutely love (Primed) Shred, and consider it practically mandatory on most rifles. Likewise, I use Seeker and Seeking Fury a lot in their respective weapon classes.
+Damage vs Faction Mods, Verstility?
I also highly value build versatility and convenience, hence why I will seldom use Bane/Expel/etc mods, despite their impressive power against the right targets. Against the wrong targets (ie other Factions), these mods are of course useless.
Weapons will typically be scored when using what I consider to be their best or most versatile build(s). For instance, a Gas/Electric build may give a Status-focused weapon some decent AoE, but usually at the cost of being far worse against single heavier targets.
With regards to fighting Grineer and Corrupted, I strongly dislike targeting one particular armour type. A Radiation pure damage build is great against Alloy armour, but poor against Ferrite. A Corrosive build is fantastic against Ferrite, but without good Status capabilities, limited against Alloy. As most Grineer and Corrupted armoured units are organics and weak to Viral, I often like to use Viral instead, especially for slower/lower Status weapons, as it is more balanced against the two armour types. Viral often offers a good middle-ground between the two, with a universally useful proc even at lower Status output, and notably being the best complement for Slash procs.
Rarer Mods
In the case of the basic 0-Forma builds, I try to avoid including the rarer mods, such as Primed mods and the Electric 60/60 mods. The 0-Forma builds are intended for less experienced players to try out, who may not have some of these hard to acquire mods, or the spare Forma to use. If you don't have the Primed version of a mod, the regular version will usually do just fine until you do acquire one.
Quality-of-Life Mods?
As a former Battlefield 3/4 player who used high recoil weapons like the MTAR and FAMAS a lot, recoil in Warframe very rarely bothers me. As such, I personally place relatively little value on -Recoil mods for most weapons. Nonetheless, I appreciate that not everyone handles recoil well, and I will leave notes for weapons for which I feel the recoil is noteworthy., especially given how tight weapon builds already are for mods. Though not usually included in my recommended builds, I will make a note for weapons for which I feel recoil reduction may be worth considering.
With the addition of the Weapon Exilus slot, some of the weapons that would appreciate -Recoil mods can now slot them in without losing any essential mods.
Heavy Caliber and Magnum Force
Personally, I don't like Heavy Caliber or Magnum Force very much. They take up a lot of mod space, can be difficult to fit in a build without more Forma, and the accuracy loss hurts a lot of weapons. Nonetheless, they offer a solid damage boost, and a lot of players do like them and consider them staples.
EDIT: The introduction of Weapon Arcanes and Galvanised Mods in U30.5 and their enormous damage boosts makes these mods even less valuable than they were previously.
Augments and Rivens?
Weapons are scored taking into account any Augments or Syndicate effects they may have, but not Rivens. Augments are reliably acquirable (from Syndicates, particular farming spots, or trading), and Syndicate effects are innate to the weapon (or Augment). On the other hand, Rivens are locked behind far too many layers of RNG (or trading) to be considered a progression system, and you cannot consistently farm for a Riven with a given set of stats. Furthermore, DE has not altered any Riven dispositions in a long time, which especially with the massive Balance Pass in U22.12, and a lot of new weapons/weapon variants since, are obnoxiously outdated. I will briefly discuss Rivens for the weapon in question, but will not include them in scoring.
In general, the easiest way to assess if a positive stat is good (e.g. +Fire Rate), is to consider if you would want to increase that stat normally with mods. For example, +Damage or +Multishot are great because we almost always want to increase them. +Crit Chance/Damage is not good for a Status weapon like the Proboscis Cernos, since we wouldn't normally try to mod it for Crit. Of course, as mentioned in some of my reviews, there are a few weapons that are borderline worth Crit builds, which are made more Crit-viable by a good Crit Riven.
Negatives are a little more nuanced since you have to consider stats that are largely (or entirely) harmless, have an impact but are manageable, or even the rare few that are beneficial for the weapon. It can be worth chasing a Riven with a negative as having a negative stat increases the values of the positive stats.
Kitguns?
When it comes to Kitguns, I'll give an overview of the Chamber and how it fires, as well as the setup and parts I think are most appropriate. There is a lot of personal preference here of course, so it'll be more in the sense of what Damage vs Fire Rate and Crit vs Status biases I feel are most suitable. There will also be emphasis placed on how various builds compare to other existing weapons.
Galvanized Mods?
U30.5 Sisters of Parvos brought with it a new set of mods for ranged weapon, Galvanized mods. These are one part of the "Arsenal Divide" portion of the update, intended to narrow the gap between Melee and ranged weapons. Of particular note is that the mods start at a slightly lower value to their base versions, but with kills stack up to be drastically more powerful. I've covered these in more detail in a separate post.
Given they are obtained only from the Arbitration Store for 20 Vitus Essence, these mods are clearly intended for more experienced players. Their incredibly strong effects can significantly influence mod setups, and give ranged weapons some of the scalability that Melees enjoy.
I will cover the relevance of these mods to weapons in all future weapon reviews, in an additional builds/discussion section separate to the standard builds showcase.
Arcanes?
U30.5 Sisters of Parvos added in three Arcane types for Primaries and Secondaries, which drop from Acolytes in Steel Path. These are also intended to give ranged weapons more scalability. They can only be installed on a weapon by first installing an Arcane Adapter, purchased from Teshin for 15 Steel Essence.
The new Arcanes are:
- Primary/Secondary Merciless - +Damage from each kill to a maximum of 12 stacks, with +30% Reload Speed and +100% Ammo Max at max rank.
- Primary/Secondary Deadhead - +Damage from each headshot kill to a maximum of 3 stacks, with +30% Headshot multiplier and -50% Recoil at max rank.
- Primary/Secondary Dexterity - +Damage from each mele kill to a maximum of 6 stacks, with +7.5s Melee Combo Duration and +60% Holster Speed at max rank.
Unlike mods, these Arcanes compete only with one another for use, since they use a unique Arcane slot. All three give +360% Damage at max rank with full stacks, so the choice between them comes down to preference between the trigger conditions and the unique bonuses each one offers at max rank. I will mention which of Merciless or Deadhead I would consider better. I will not discuss Dexterity as that one is playstyle-specific and Melee-focused.
U31.5 introduced several more Weapon Arcanes, albeit more niche ones than the three above.
- Fractalised Reset (Primary) - After casting an ability, gain +240% Reload Speed for 5s.
- Cascadia Accuracy (Secondary) - After rolling, gain +300% Crit Chance on Headshots for 4s.
- Cascadia Empowered (Secondary) - Upon inflicting a Status proc, deal an additional 750 damage of the same damage type as the proc.
- Cascadia Overcharge (Secondary) - While Overshields are active, gain +300% Crit Chance.
- Cascadia Flare (Secondary) - on Heat proc, gives +12% Damage for 10s. Stacks 40 times for up to +480%.
- Primary Frostbite - on Cold proc, gives +3% Crit Damage and +2.25% Multishot for 12 seconds. Stacks 40× for up to +120% Crit Damage and +90% Multishot.
- Primary Plated Rounds - on Reload, gives +Damage scaling with Mag Capacity for 10 seconds. Exact formula is +Damage% Bonus = (Mag Capacity^0.5)×0.33. Reaches +360% at roughly 116 rounds reloaded. Does not trigger from battery recharge weapons, and does not affect Bows.
- Longbow Sharpshot (Primary Bow) - on Headshot, grants 4× damage to next shot. Separate damage multiplier to other +Damage effects.
- Primary Exhilarate - on Primary weapon inflicting Impact proc, gives +1.2 Energy per second for 10 seconds, stacking up to 3× for up to +3.6 Energy per second.
- Primary Obstruct - on Primary weapon inflicting Magnetic proc, jams enemy weapons within 15m of target. Jam animation lasts roughly 4 seconds, with 10 second cooldown.
- Shotgun Vendetta (Primary Shotgun) - on Shotgun kill within 5m (i.e. be within 5m of your target), grants +180% Multishot and +75% Reload Speed for 15 seconds.
- Conjunction Voltage (Secondary) - on Electric proc, gives +1.5% Reload Speed and +3% Multishot for 12 seconds. Stacks 40× for up to +60% Reload Speed and +120% Multishot.
- Secondary Encumber - on weapon inflicting any Status proc, has 24% chance to inflict another random Status proc. Can inflict Status procs that the weapon cannot naturally inflict.
- Secondary Kinship - on applying unique buffs to allies, grants +20% Crit Chance per buff per ally, for the duration of said buff. Some, but not all, buffs to self will trigger this Arcane. Stacks as many times as you can apply unique buffs to allies.
- Secondary Shiver - for the weapon it is equipped on, grants +45% Damage per Cold proc on enemy. As Cold procs are limited to 8 stacks, gives a maximum of +360% Damage. +Damage effect has the same unusual interactions as Galvanised Shot, and only works on direct damage.
- Primary Blight - on Toxin proc, gives +3.6% Crit Damage and +1.8% Multishot for 12 seconds. Stacks 40× for up to +144% Crit Damage and +72% Multishot.
- Akimbo Slip Shot (Dual Secondary) - during Slide or Aimglide, gains 65% Ammo Efficiency (i.e. consumes 0.35 ammo per shot).
- Secondary Outburst - on swap to Secondary, consumes Melee Combo to give +12% Crit Damage per Combo consumed for 15 seconds. Default Melee Combo max is 12×, consuming 11× for +132% Crit Damage.
- Secondary Surge - On Ability cast, next shot gains 0.5% Damage bonus per Energy remaining, to a maximum of ×8 Damage.
- Secondary Fortifier - Deal 8× Damage to Overguard, and grants 1% Overguard steal.
Incarnon Genesis Adapters?
Major Changelog
EDIT 1/1/19: Well, DE finally changed some Riven dispositions in U24 and presumably will continue to do so in the future, but relatively tentatively and there are still many baffling dispositions (e.g. Tiberon [Prime] is still at a 4/5 [1.3]). My stance on ignoring Rivens in reviews stands, and will remain unless DE introduces some kind of true progression system for them. I would prefer if Rivens were kept out of being a progression system however.
EDIT post-U26: Kuva/Tenet weapons throw a bit of a spanner in the works, with their variable Lich/Sister damage bonus significantly increasing their base stats and adding or increasing a damage type. I will mention what bonus pictured builds have, and any necessary further multipliers to consider based on the total damage numbers. I will also discuss the damage bonus(es) I consider best for the weapon in question.
EDIT U30.0.3: Added in a segment about Hemorrhage and Internal Bleeding.
EDIT U30.5.3: Added in sections for Galvanized Mods and Arcanes.
EDIT U31.5: Added in more Arcanes.
EDIT U31.6.1: Added in Arcane Cascadia Flare.
EDIT U33.0.14: Added in Incarnon Genesis Adapters and more weapon Arcanes.
EDIT U33.5.2: Added even more Arcanes.
EDIT U36: Updated the paragraph about damage multipliers, and the new Arcanes.
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