Elementalist Mods (Torid)

[fourskulls]

I'm working on my Torid Incarnon, and so far have Galvanized Chamber, Galvanized Aptitude, High Voltage, Hunter's Munitions, Critical Delay, and RIfle Elementalist. I haven't seen any builds online that use the Elementalist mod yet, as they usually use a faction mod. Can the elementalist mod replace the faction mod, or what should I do with the remaining slots?

I'm using Plentiful Mayhem, Swift Deliverance, and Elemental Balance as the evolutions.

[Firefrye]

1st, If you're relying on slash from Munitions for dps, then you don't need corrosive, so you can swap the High Voltage for the cold 60/60 to apply viral instead. (if you're getting viral another way, that works too and corrosive is still fine).
The elementalist mod will ONLY improve the dps from the slash status, while a faction mod will increase both the direct and status damage. I'm pretty sure the double-dipping of a maxed prime faction mod will still out damage the elementalist mod (1.55x to both base AND applied status, so if I understand that comes out to about 2.4x to status vs the 1.9x of elementalist). They're comparable for general use or avoiding having to switch loadouts per faction if you're relying only on slash.

[fourskulls]

I was really only running he High Voltage to give it corrosive so I could do extra dmg to Grineer, but it sounds like I would rather have the faction mod than the elementalist (although I don't have the Prime version).

[Firefrye]

if you're relying on the slash procs, elementalist will beat a non-prime faction mod I believe.
(the non prime mods are 1.3x applied twice for a total of 1.69x compared to the 1.9x of elementalist).

[Firefrye]

Looking at a build
Primary Merc - Galv Chamber - Crit Delay - Vital Sense - Hunter Munitions - Rime Rounds = arcane and 5 mods for the core crit viral slash of the build with three more flex slots available. (Galv ap is additive with the arcane, doesn't apply to the bonus flat damage of the incarnon upgrades, and doesn't apply to any of the AoE portions of the weapon, so is far weaker than it seems)
Having checked the wiki, it looks like elementalist is actually multiplicative with faction mods (rather than being additive), so you could totally use both for even higher multipliers. That leaves one more flex slot for fire rate (suggested) or Serration (base damage for when your arcane isn't stacked up)

Or you go for other elemental combos rather than rely on the slash. (slash is still reliable, but other options are now more competitive). For example, the highest rated Torid build on Overframe is corrosive blast rather than viral slash

[fourskulls]

So, I'm kind of confused on something here. Whenever I mod a weapon, I usually set the dmg type for whatever is the most effective against the type of enemy I'm expecting. Like Corrosive for Grineer, Magnetic for Corpus, etc. But the Corrosive Blast Torid got me thinking...are you just setting it for corrosive/blast and just swapping out the Bane mod?

[Firefrye]

Yup! The elemental weaknesses of different factions are a damage multiplier, but some specific elemental combos will do far more damage than "just" applying the enemy weakness. This is a big difference between a raw damage build and a status build. (if the weakness lines up, that's great, but not required) Fighting a big boss that's mostly or completely status immune? All you care about is raw damage and not the effects of those damage types. But as for the corrosive/blast Torid build, you are assuming the majority of your damage is coming from the specific combo of applied status effects you have modded for.
Corrosive to strip armor + Blast's new AoE explosion (which is FAR more powerful if you kill the enemy before the blast triggers on its own) + any amount of other status priming you have through abilities, pets, or other weapons (like viral)

Status builds are "meta" partly because of how they receive double damage from faction mods, allowing those builds to be MUCH more effective by essentially giving you a "bonus mod" worth of power. This is partly why DE has made so many bosses or special enemies either directly immune to status effects, capped the number we can apply, or weakened their duration/effect on those enemies. Another reason for them being meta is the "Condition overload" and equivalent galvanized mods that give us large quantities of base damage per unique status effect we're applying. If we're already applying so many, why not lean into making them do more damage?