Tigg’s Torrid Takes — New Mods Announced 1/31/19!

Hello and welcome to another of Tigg’s Torrid Takes (“TTT”). Here we discuss the following upcoming test build / patch notes:

http://forums.atlasreactorgame.com/showthread.php?9165-Mods(1-31-19)&p=18040#post18040

In case you’re wondering how many POINTS each of those cost, the wonderful LPFinale has compiled this resource. I also put the point cost in when listing each mod.

And finally, if you want to get the thoughts of a grumpy old man whose glory days are a distant memory, here’s Blatm’s Borrid Bake.

Overall, I think there are some good, some bad, and some ugly. Go read up on them first because I am not going to repeat what they do (not because I’m lazy but because there will be way too much text on this page).

Blackburn – Close Quarters – (2)

Cool mod. Definitely not how you really want to play Blackburn, but could be a lot of fun to autofollow a support or something. Also helps you trade with frontlines. Mods — ideally — are supposed to change how you play a character, and this does that. Not sure how good it’ll be, but I think situationally vs. the right teamcomps it could be solid and fun.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Blackburn – Collateral Damage – (3)

Meh. It’s fine. Again situational. Hard to think you’d take this over the other good mods on Grenade, especially at three points, but increased area can be quite good and this makes it hit nearly double the number of squares.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Celeste – Perfect Getaway – (2)

I like this mod. Gives some upside to not trying to do damage with Celeste’s dash, which changes how you play and also makes it “feel better” psychologically. Not much else to say. I think Celeste will have the points for this and given the relatively limited dash options, may acually take this.

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Celeste – Pilferer – (1)

Ok sure. Feels like a Borrid Bake over here. Obviously this mod isn’t a total gamechanger but isn’t bad and might see some niche play if you have a spare point.

Strength: 2/5
Fun factor: 2/5

Elle – Long Barrel – (2)

Dislike. Elle is already very good at dealing damage at significant range, and this is another mod where the exact damage is hard to determine. She also already has a long-distance mod on primary and two damage mods on primary. I just straight up don’t like this mod.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 1/5

Elle – Undercharge – (2)

This is kind of neat. +6 damage on the next 2 attacks instead of +10 on the next one. Overall you get +2 damage and can sort of hedge your bets a bit. But for 2 points I don’t see this getting that much play over something like Block ‘n’ Load or even On the Chase.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Gremo – Triple Fun – (3)

Cool mod. Reminds me of a mod on Spooky the Ghost. TIGG DID IT FIRST. PLS HIRE ME GAMIGO. I think the energy gain alone is quite nice on this one, and it definitely opens up some playstyle variety with mines, so I like the mod. Plus it’s obviously fun it’s literally got fun right there in the name.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Gremo – Long-Longer-Longest Fuse – (1/2/3)

Fuck this shit. I don’t want to keep track of the durations, and frankly it’s a pain in the ass having mines that last forever. It starts to become more of an annoyance for the Gremo’s opponent than a fun playing tool for the Gremo. This is an interesting experiment in variable-point mods, though. In general, I’ll note that I prefer not to see variable point mods. Why? Because then you get some hardcore min-maxing, whereas having to choose a mod loadout based on point costs that don’t necessarily line up with what you need can actually be interesting. I also think it’ll present balance problems, as 3-point mods are fundamentally very different from 1-point mods in nature. You can’t just scale up a mod. I mean, you can if it’s just a +2/+4/+6 damage for 1/2/3 points or some such, but that’s an incredibly boring mod design so no. I’m not saying this is something that the devs have in mind for the future, but clearly it’s being explored so I want to get out in front and say use with caution. As for how good this mod is, it gets some points just for versatility.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Juno – Watchful Eye – (2)

I mean, cool I guess but let’s be honest we’re taking Stockades.

Strength 1.5/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Juno – Fortification – (1)

Seems good if you screw up and stand near a teammate. Hard to think you’d take this over Shield Battery, but at 1 point maybe it’s not the worst idea honestly. I could see this getting some niche play. And shielding teammates is kinda fun.

Strength 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Kaigin – Wave of Steel – (1)

Oh my god whose idea was this? This is…so problematic. Like, either the extra Shuriken doesn’t add damage, in which case it’s semi-pointless, or it does in which case you’re looking at 35 damage. (It’s the latter, by the way.) Kaigin did not need a buff! Now, do you take this over Stalker’s Mark (which is quite good)? Unclear, but at 1 point I’m going to say probably in many situations. It gets a bad score for fun factor not because it won’t be fun for the Kaigin but because it won’t be fun for the opposition.

Strength: 4.5/5
Fun factor: 1.5/5

Kaigin – Vengeance Seeker – (2)

Another mod that really wasn’t needed. Tol-Ren doesn’t need one on his ult either, but I guess Kaigin wants to be just like daddy. I think this mod is good enough to see at least some play, but most people likely won’t bother because Kaigin’s ult already has a fair amount of flexibility.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Lex – Engage NOS – (2)

This is another pretty boring mod as mods go, but at least it doesn’t mess anything up. You aren’t going to be super upset to see a Lex take this, no matter what team she’s on. I think it’s actually a fairly good mod and might play with it a bit.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Lex – Spontaneous Combustion – (2)

This is interesting. I’m kind of addicted to +10 hp, but maybe Spontaneous Combustion is worth considering since I basically mash my ult whenever it’s up anyway. Not a super exciting mod though.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 2/5

Lockwood – Extra Battery Life – (2)

I don’t like this mod. You already have Consolation Prize to throw out random traps and stuff. Sometimes you can really zone a spot or get cool value, but more often than not it’s just going to turn a failed trap into an unintentional annoyance for the other team.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 1/5

Lockwood – Perfect Angle – (2)

Oh wow. This is a monster mod, and at only 2 points. Lockwood can dash fairly often (and you could pair this with On the Move), and it gives him Might where he previously had no way to get it. I expect this mod to see a lot of play and be quite good, even with the drawback that you only get the Might after dashing (and maybe you’re vulnerable then?).

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

NEV:3 – Medicat – (3)

I can’t tell if this is good. I think it might be decent. In any event, I think splash healing (by which I don’t mean AoE healing, but rather splashing some healing into an otherwise firepower-y kit) is actually quite nice. Similar to Medic Blackburn, having some self-sustain can open up new build paths, comps and playstyles, and can just let you feel a little less awful about every hit point you lose when your healer is MIA. For these reasons, I’m giving it a good “fun factor” score — I think it’s good for the game.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Nix – Taser Drone – (2)

Quite nice — I think at 2 points this will see a fair amount of play, and Nix actually somewhat needed another sort of mid-range mod for his Drone if you didn’t want to invest 3 points in Drone Network or Ammo Rep.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Nix – Path of Destruction – (2)

Seems quite fun. Biiiiig Nix ult coming right up! As for strength, it has to compete with some fairly good mods so I’m not sure it’ll be that viable a pick, but I don’t think it’ll be worthless either. Very fun for casual games though.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 4.5/5

PuP – Frolic – (2)

Oh yes, let’s give PuP more options so if he gets predicted on his dash he’s still fine. Thankfully this mod has to compete with the insane Play Time so it may not see too much play time.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 2/5

PuP – High Energy – (2)

To paraphrase Erish (I think), it’s like the devs said “oh wow the things everyone hates most about PuP are invis and walkies, they’re sure to love this mod.” Well, news flash. We hate invis. We hate walkies. That said, this mod could be way more troublesome.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 1/5

Tol-Ren – Way of the Scorpion – (2)

This mod seems like garbage. I think it may have some niche uses, though, so if you’re looking for a 2-point mod for your shield you could probably do worse. Would I take this over Way of the 5 Shields (Snake?)? Not sure. It is fun to get big energy though, so I’ll score it OK there.

Strength: 2/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Tol-Ren – Die by the Sword – (2)

This mod seems like hot garbage. Like…first of all, we take Vengeance Seeker on ult because that’s broken. Second of all, the best thing about his ult is the 50% refund if you miss. Stupid? Yes. Should it be a mod? Yes. But if you’re telling me I’m gonna pay 3 (jk it’s only 2) points to give that up just so I can ult at 85 energy (which by the way is probably 1-2 turns before you’d be at 100 anyway so there’s a limited window to even get value from this mod), like…hell no man.

Strength: 1/5
Fun factor: 1.5/5

Vonn – Rimescale – (2)

This mod seems pretty good. I remember the Vonn mods from when they were testing him out, and this was a popular choice. I think it may be a contender to compete with Cryoenergy or whatever the 1-point mod everybody takes is. I welcome the diversity.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Vonn – Climate Engineer – (3)

Also a decent mod honestly. The threat of the extra turn of damage and slow is significant. I think this one sees some play too, even at 3 points.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Zuki – Bear Trap – (3)

Heh. I guess slow stickies wasn’t enough. This mod seems very powerful (particularly in conjunction with the Big One) and I do expect it to see play.

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Zuki – Long Range Love – (1)

Sure, it’s a mod that does stuff. I think it’s actually pretty good at 1 point, because there are really a lot more places you could be (and your enemy will have to guess). I’m actually giving it a 3/5 on fun factor because it is a bit skill-testing.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Asana – Curved Blade – (2)

Now we’re talking! This mod has “fun” written all over it. Is it good? I think it’s decent, yeah! Lets you hit around corners if your autofollow on dash didn’t go as planned, for example. I’m definitely going to mess around with it.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 5/5

Asana – Herald of Decay – (2)

OK. I get the theme of a lot of these mods here. Let’s put a Haste/Might/Weaken/Something on a thing that has some of the other things and then you’ll have more choices about what thing you want it to do. Realistically, this mod is doing something similar to Archangel, but delayed a turn. Is that good? Situationally yeah. Do I think this mod will see play? At 2 points, probably a bit, yes. But I don’t think it really needs to be in the game, either.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Brynn – Tip of Justice – (2)

Justice the tip. Justice for a minute. Justice to see how it feels. Good name, good concept. The tip literally can’t hit next to Brynn, so you actually have to think about your positioning. Ludic is having an orgasm somewhere, because his Brynn positioning is second to none. I’m giving this one a high score for fun in part because it’s interesting (and doesn’t reward autofollowing!), but it does lose a bit because a lot of Brynn players are just going to be like LOL I STAB YOU AT 5 RANGE FOR A TON OF DAMAGE GET REKT and that’s not super fun. We’ve seen that movie. Still, 4/5.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Brynn – Boomerang – (2)

Fun concept. Not sure it’ll actually be all that good, especially at 2 points, but really fun. And reducing the cooldown of this particular ability is particularly good, so…yeah, there’s actually some potential here.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 4.5/5

Garrison – Fuel Rods – (3)

Whoa. Two charges? This is extremely good, I think. And seems fun, though maybe less so for Garrison’s opposition. At least it’s 1) not inherently upsetting and 2) not boring AF.

Strength: 5/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Isadora – Extra Nibbles – (1)

Snore. Wake me when something interesting happens.

Strength: 2/5
Fun factor: 1.5/5

Magnus – Clobbering Time – (2)

I remember this mod from way back. I really don’t know how good it is! And there are some interesting options it competes with. So — that’s probably a good problem to have. At 2 points, I think it does see some play.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Magnus – Adaptation – (3)

This is cool. Self-healing. Hard to say whether it’s good, but I think it is, even at 3 points. Comes with a neat trade-off, though. Nice.

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Phaedra – “New” Aftershock – (2)

Sure, it’s a thing. Keep ’em in the lair, hit ’em again next turn. Pretty strong, not the worst concept. It loses some fun factor though because it’s hard to outplay if you don’t have a dash. Like what are you supposed to do? But delayed damage is inherently interesting.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Rask – Brawl – (3)

Oh god no. Please no. Like…what is the point of this freaking mod? It’s boring, it’s powerful, it’s probably a must-take, and the only thing that makes it better is that at least we’ll see less Crippling Slash which is real BS.

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: 1/5

Rask – Lingering Plasma – (2)

Sure, this one’s fine. I don’t know how good a third turn of kitty pee is going to be, but it’s a mod choice I can get behind. It does something interesting. Has play and counterplay. Etc.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Titus – Single-Minded – (3)

LOL OK. Get REKT. Titus coming in HOT. I don’t love the mod, but I don’t super hate it. It seems strong and maybe slightly ill-advised to have created (even at 3 points) but it’s nothing compared to the next mod.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Titus – Phase Blade – (2)

This is the single worst mod in the batch. Dirty Fighting is already very strong and hard to outplay, because if Titus has line of sight to you he can always potentially do this move, which comes with a prep phase reveal and near-guaranteed damage. And now, you…really can’t do fuck-all about it. I was going to give this a 0/5 fun factor, but honestly that doesn’t do this bullshit justice. Please remove this fucking mod.

Strength: 4/5
Fun factor: -10/5

Aurora – Phase Beam – (2)

Fascinating. I like this mod a lot. I don’t know how good it’ll be — you’re missing out on about half of the ability this way, and a really good Paralazer is orgasm-worthy. Plus the base ability has some great mod options — like you can’t take this and the unstoppable effect. But I think it’ll have some uses, and it definitely spices up the ability.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Aurora – Wave of Light – (1)

I personally love the idea of this mod. It fits my playstyle perfectly. And yet, it’s a reasonable 1-point mod — the effect is minor in many ways. So I think this is somewhat skill-testing and interesting. And it fits thematically.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Dr. Finn – Flounder – (3)

They pretty much made this mod so newbie Finn / bot Finn won’t look as stupid when he heals enemies, right? That said, it’s kind of neat. Ordinarily you line your own team up for the heal, but now you can sort of think about battle applications, so I like it.

Strength: 3/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Dr. Finn – Double the Bubble – (2)

This is extremely good, in my opinion. (Was the name “Double Bubble” not possible…?) It does compete with the absurd Unstopbubble, but you basically get all the good effects of the bubble two turns in a row (unless it did the job of soaking up a full 45, in which case you got value anyway). You can even pre-Bubble. Crazy good. It’s also pretty fun, I think, particularly as it changes how you use the ability — but loses a bit because it becomes a bit fire-and-forget / hard to play around.

Strength: 4.5/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Helio – Power Transfer – (2)

Neat idea. Probably won’t see a lot of application in practice, but it’s the right KIND of mod, like it lets you do something interesting with the ability and maybe there’s a way to work this into a cool energy comp in fourlancer.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Helio – Firewall – (1)

Very neat. Wow. Super skill-testing, I love it. I’m definitely going to play around with this mod.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 4.5/5

Khita – Recharging Mark – (1)

Pretty reasonable option at 1 point. It sucks to waste a Mark and this makes it sting a little less. Given the way Khita’s points are distributed, I could see scenarios where you take this.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 3/5

Khita – Umbrella Weather – (3)

Wow. Really a game-changer. Not much else to say — this mod spices things up in a hurry. I like the cost and drawback (have to only hit one enemy) so I don’t feel like it’ll be a juggernaut, but it seems like a solid pick and definitely has the sort of teamplay aspects that Khitas enjoy.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 3.5/5

Meridian – Crusader – (3)

This is a crazy mod! It passively gives you +1 movement. I’m not sure what I think of this idea. But it’s really out there, man. Thematically it feels super weird to have this on anything but the ultimate, but hey. I think it’s actually a pretty decent mod, by the way.

Strength: 3.5/5
Fun factor: 4/5

Meridian – Conqueror – (2)

A bit run-of-the-mill, but situationally useful. There are definitely those times you juuuuust can’t make the 180 work. I don’t see taking this over Compound Fracture, not at 2 points, but maybe some niche play.

Strength: 2.5/5
Fun factor: 2.5/5

Su-Ren – Toad Style – (1)

LOL. HOLY WOW WE SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST. Is this a real mod? Like. What? I could understand if it said “2” enemies, but “3?” Are we sure that’s not a typo? Holy mackerel this mod is situational AF. I think we all agree it’s basically a joke, so without further ado:

Strength: 0/5
Fun factor: 5/5

Ok but seriously it scores points for fun factor because getting this off is gonna feel sweet plus there’s all that sick BM value.