Recommended Mods
Since there are many mods here's some of my recommendations for best mods, but change them around
depending on your playstyle and weapon. For
a full list of mods available please refer to the wiki at
http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Mods
Try to level important mods together
instead of trying to max only one. For instance if you have a slow
firing weapon don't level up serration so much that you can't put
speed trigger in. You'll be happier with some attack speed and good
damage.
As this post is quite long I have split it into sections:
Rifle mods
Pistol mods
Shotgun mods
Melee mods
Elemental damage system
Enemy weakness table
Warframe mods
Aura mods
Sentinels
Update 11: A new damage system was introduced along with new mods. Each weapon now also gives three different types of damage: impact, puncture and slash. Each can be increased by use of their respective mod cards.
Damage = impact + puncture + slash + elemental
After spending time testing the new system it appears that the best general damage is still from cards that increase all damage such as serration (others that are listed below in their respective categories) and an elemental mod.
However if a weapon has a lot more of one type of damage than the others such as a flux rifle, which has 120 slash and 15 for impact and puncture, then using the new mod card that increases slash damage (Sawtooth clip in this case) will be effective. The new cards are best for melee since you can level them up to give 90% extra. Each type is good against different enemies.
Corpus humans – Impact, slash
Corpus robots – Impact
Grineer – Puncture, slash
Infested – Slash
The new damage mods can be upgraded to give a maximum of 30% for rifles and shotguns, 60% for pistols and 90% for melee weapons.
A new element system was also introduced but more on that below.
Weapon Mods
Rifle mods:
Serration – Gives
more damage. Very difficult to max but try at least 75% (takes up
capacity of 8). Once your weapon has an orokin try to make this at least 150%.
Sawtooth clip – Increases the slash damage of rifles
Rupture – Increases the impact damage of rifles
Piercing hit –
Increases armor piercing damage. Good for all enemies and should be
at least 40% (takes up capacity of 7). For enemies that don't have
armor its still useful as it counts as elemental damage. As of Update 11 this mod is useless!! As it now only increases puncture damage by maximum of 30%. So it's good for guns with high puncture like the boltor. Before update 11 you could upgrade this to give 90% armour piercing :-(
Split chamber – Each
bullet has a chance of shooting one more without costing ammo
(multishot). Although a very good mod and important for dps this mod
is VERY hard to find. It also costs a minimum of 10 to equip, so not
recommended till you potato your weapon.
Speed Trigger –
Increases fire rate. I find 30% (takes up 6 mod capacity) enough for
most guns as any higher would mean too much ammo
loss.
Bane of
Corpus/Infested/Grineer - Increases base damage and any elemental mod
damage. Most missions have one main type so exchange mods as needed.
Infected Clip – Poison damage which is good against grineer but weak against infested and robots. However it bypasses shields.
Cyro rounds – Ice
damage. Very good for enemies that have shields and also slows down
enemies.
Stormbringer – Electric damage that's effective against corpus as it stuns them if
they have no shield
Hellfire – Fire
damage which is best against infested
Fast hands –
Increases reload speed. Use this if your gun takes ages to reload.
Wildfire – fire
damage and magazine capacity. A nightmare mod that you get randomly
for finishing a nightmare mission. It can be very hard to get so I wouldn't waste time getting
it if you're starting out.
Shred – fire rate and
punch through (bullet goes through enemies and objects). Another nightmare mod that I
would not waste time getting till later.
Metal Auger – As of update 11 this can be maxed to give 2.1 metres punch through. This can be quite useful when fighting enemies that are bunched together or those grineer who have shields as this mod allows you to shoot through them.
Pistol mods:
Pistol mods get the best stat increases per rank up.
Hornet strike –
Increases damage. At least 100% that takes up a capacity of 8
No return/Razor shot/Concussion rounds – Increases puncture/slash/impact damage respectively
Gunslinger – increase
firerate
Expel
infested/Grineer/Corpus - Increases damage, exchange as needed.
Barrel diffusion –
Multishot. Yes its hard to find.
Pathogen Rounds – Adds poison damage to pistols
Deep freeze – Ice
damage
Heated charge – Fire
damage
Convulsion – Electric
damage
Quickdraw – Faster
reload speed
Seeker – Allows your weapon to punch through. Beware this mod will use up 11 slot capacity to equip.
Lethal torrent – a
nightmare mod that gives multishot chance and fire rate. It stacks
with barrel diffusion so if you max both you get an 180% chance of
multishot. That means you're guaranteed 2 shots from 1 bullet and an
80% chance of a 3rd shot! Definitely try and get this when you're ranked up well.
Shotgun mods:
Point Blank –
Increases damage
Flechette/Disruptor/Shredder – Increases puncture/impact/slash damage
Tactical pump –
faster reload speed
Cleanse
infested/Grineer/Corpus – Increases damage, exchange as needed.
Hell's Chamber – Multishot
Contagious Spread – Adds poison damage to shotguns
Chilling Grasp – Ice
damage
Incendiary coat –
Fire damage
Charged Shell –
Electric damage
Blaze – Nightmare
mod that gives Damage and Fire damage
Accelerated blast –
Nightmare mod that gives armour penetration and firerate.
Seeking force – Allows bullets to punch through
Melee:
As of update 13, melee 2 has arrived removing charge attacks and introducing a new combo system.
You can either press e to do normal melee whilst holding your primary/secondary weapon or equip melee weapon by holding down the f key. In melee mode holding the right mouse button will block in the direction you are facing (takes up stamina). Holding the left button will add 20% extra damage when you press e but this will take up energy.
In order to use the combo system you will have to find and equip stance cards. Each type of melee will have their own stance card and you can find out the combos when equipping them. Also equipping a stance card works like an aura card in that it increases the mod capacity for your melee weapon.
There are two ways of
playing with a melee weapon and its important mod wise that you find out
which style you prefer.
You can either spam the melee button using
weapons that have fast attack speed or use charged attacks by holding
down the melee button.
For charged attacks:
Killing blow –
Increases charged attack damage
Reflex coil – Lets
you charge attacks faster
Rending Strike –
Nightmare mod that adds puncture damage and increases charged damage
Focus energy –
Nightmare mod that increases charge speed and adds electric damage
Fury – Speeds up motion of charged attack and also increases attack speed
For normal attacks:
Pressure point –
Increases base damage but does not help charged attacks
Fury – Increases
attack speed and speeds up motion of charged attack
For Both styles:
Smite
corpus/grineer/infested – Increases damage against respective
faction
Sundering Strike/Heavy Trauma/Jagged Edge – Increases puncture/impact/slash damage respectively
Fever Strike – Poison damage
North
wind – Ice damage
Molten
impact – Fire damage
Shocking
touch – Electric damage
Reach
– Increases melee range
So those are the
important weapon mods (not including crit builds). Also most enemies
take more damage if you aim for the head.
Elemental damage:
I mentioned elemental mods earlier, each element is good for different factions take a look below. Make a habit of switching
mods for the enemies you face (it tells you on the map screen which faction you're up against).
Corpus – Use electric
mods for more effective damage against these.
Grineer – Armor
penetration mods to deal the most damage since most have armor.
Infested – Fire mods
give the best damage
So pair these elements
up with mods that increase damage against a faction.
If you have
enough space do put on a secondary elemental mod as that will also
increase damage. I would recommend an ice mod as it slows enemies
down on hit and is effective against shields.
As of Update 11: Elemental mods can now be combined to provide better effects:
- Ice + Electric = Magnetic Reduces Max Shields
- Ice + Fire = Blast Small Aoe Knockdown effect
- Ice + Poison = Viral Reduces Max HP
- Fire + Poison = Gas AOE poison effect
- Fire + Electric = Radiation Causes Confusion
- Electric + Poison = Corrosive Reduces Armour
If you have more than two elements or are using a weapon with its own element then the priority for combination starts from left of the first row and then from left of the bottom row on the mod equipping screen for the weapon. Eg.
Since electric and ice mods are first two elemental mods in the order they combine to magnetic leaving fire by itself as heat. If the weapon had an element then the fire will combine with that native element.
This time the fire and electric mods are switched. This leads to Fire and ice combining to form blast and leaving electricity by itself.
Final Enemy weakness list:
So if we add these new element combos to the list of enemy weaknesses (bold being best) we get:
Corpus humans – Magnetic, Fire, Viral, impact, ice, toxin
Corpus robots – Magnetic, Impact, cold, electric, radiation, corrosive
Grineer – Puncture, Corrosive, Fire, Viral, blast, gas, toxin, slash
Infested – Slash, Fire, Blast
For the best dps you will have to potato your weapon but that can wait till you find a nice weapon you like and have more experience.
Warframe Mods
Every warframe has
different stats and a different way of playing. They also come with all 4 of their skill mods when you build them. These skill mods can also be upgraded for better damage or duration,
Focus
– Increases damage from abilities. Do not get it for warframes that
have no damage skills like Loki.
Continuity
– Increases duration of skills like decoy.
Streamline
– Increases power efficiency so less energy consumption.
Flow
– Increases maximum energy.
Constitution
– Nightmare mod that Increases skill duration and helps you get up
faster if you were knocked down.
Stretch
– Increases the range of your skills.
Rush
– Increases run speed of your frame.
Marathon
– Increases stamina so you can run longer.
Redirection
– Increases Shields
Fast
deflection – Increases the rate at which shields recharge.
Vitality
– Increases hp
Vigor
– Nightmare mod that increases hp and shields
Thief's
wit – The minimap will show nearby containers and resources as a
yellow mark. Hopefully you won't need this once your used to what everything looks like.
Aura mods:
These
mods can be obtained from alerts and give your warframe an effect as
well as increasing the total mod capacity. Its best to get a matching
polarity as it doubles the extra slots given. Level them up for
increased effects and increased mod capacity.
Their effects also
apply to the whole team and can stack, so make sure you get one ASAP.
Energy
siphon – Restores energy to the team. Maxed it gives 6 energy every
ten seconds. If your whole team has one that's 24 every ten seconds.
Probably one of the best.
Physique
– Increases max hp
Rifle
amp – Increases rifle damage. 27% more when maxed.
Steel
charge – Increases melee damage. 18% more when maxed.
Rifle/shotgun/sniper/pistol
scavenger – Increases ammo gain from pickups
Rejuvenation
– Restores team hp.
Shield
disruption – Reduces enemy shields
Corrosive
projection – Reduces enemy armor
Enemy
radar – Shows enemies on minimap as red dots.
Speed
holster – increases speed you can switch weapons.
Infested
impedance – Reduces speed of infested.
Try
and get any aura mod at first as something is better than nothing
especially when you don't have much mod capacity in the beginning.
Sentinel:
These
are floating companions that have their own hp and skill. Different
Sentinels come with their own special skill mods and guns. At the moment there
are 5 sentinels. The first four can be bought from the market place
for platinum or built from blueprints that cost 100k credits:
Shade
– Makes you invisible when enemies are near till you attack them
Wyrm
– Can stun nearby enemies
Dethcube
– Highest dps of the sentinels
Carrier
– It picks up drops.
Djinn
– You will need a clan in order to craft this from clan research.
Its a fighting type that attracts enemies and stuns them for a short
period.
You
can also equip their guns the same way as you would a rifle with some
exceptions. Sentinels do not run out of ammo so you can ignore adding
any ammo mods. Also they have 0% crit so no need for crit mods
either.
Best to add serration, speed trigger and other damage mods of
your choice.
Mods for sentinels:
Coolant
leak – Slows nearby enemies down
Guardian
– Sentinel charges your shields up
Regen
– Sentinel revives when it dies. It recovers more hp the more you
level this up.
Sanctuary
– Puts a shield up when you try to revive an ally
Spare
parts – Has a chance to drop rare materials when sentinel dies and
cant revive. 45% chance when maxed
Vitality
– Increases sentinel hp
Steel
fiber – Increases sentinel armour
You may have noticed that I left out the corrupted mods. That's because those mods can only be obtained from the orokin derelict and need a well equipped team. You can purchase the blueprint key to enter in the market, it uses nav coordinates which are those black orbs you may find in containers. Also every corrupted mod gives a negative effect as well as positive.
As for crit builds it's best to wait till later in the game till you have access to better weapons. Generally sniper rifles and bows have a good crit rate making them viable for crit builds. However they have a slow fire rate so make sure you have an aoe melee or fast secondary in the event you get swarmed.
