Not including environmental or Emperor’s Fading Light
Tier S
The Final Toll: This modifier is what Havoc should be aiming towards in regards of enemy buffs for the following reasons:
- It’s conditional and not luck based
- It’s impactful
- When triggered, there’s a gameplan around it (Kill it as fast as possible, else don’t hurt the enemy too much to trigger the effect in the first place)
It creates extremely fun situations (excluding it being paired with The Encroaching Garden)
Heinous Rituals: This modifier is what Havoc should be aiming towards in regards of objective based modifiers
While it is true it’s the only one so far, it is impactful, fun and exciting, as well as being obvious on how it works
The only issue with this is the current bugs
Tier A
Contaminated Stimms: Contaminated Stimms is the only modifier that brings randomness in the most fair way possible (it’s still random, so not really fair by nature, it’s the best way that can be done however)
Enemies are stunned for at least 1s when injecting their stimm, leaving a big opening window for players to act upon, or at least get ready for a buffed enemy
The only issue with Contaminated Stimms is the fact that it’s not obvious at a glance for newer players on what effect an enemy has (as well as not being able to know at all if they’re turned around since the effect is on their eyes)
Tier B
Rotten Armour: Placing this in tier B for now since we didn’t get it into rotation after the Infested armor changes
This modifier changes completely the way people need to target priorities, and will force a lot of people into more melee playstyles
Since the Infested Changes, this could mean that the best way to deal with them is actually bringing anti horde weapons rather than anti carapace, weapons like Heavy Sword would win a huge amount of value which is always a net positive
The main downside right now, is the effects affecting performance
Moebian 21st: What do I need to say, it is an insanely fun modifier, however the reason why it’s in B tier it’s because it’s not impactful at all
It doesn’t matter if hordes are more fun since AoE will kill them quickly, it’s just not good enough as a modifier to the point that people like getting it to get easier missions
Cranial Corruption: It suffers from the exact opposite of Moebian 21st, it is an extremely impactful modifier (It ramps up Reaper’s threat level by 600%) in moments of separation, however it being luck based (except for Reapers that get it 100% of the time) really makes it inconsistent and just overall not fun
Enemies being immune to suppression while also firing faster if they have the parasite doesn’t help either
Rampaging Enemies: The modifier is fun, but has considerable anti-tide design
It essentially forces AoE on hordes since they win 50% DR, as well as ruining many breakpoints for many weapons
It also the WORST modifier in regards of performance, it NUKES your FPS
Tier C
Pus Hardened Enemies: Not impactful at all, boring (it just makes ranged less effective with nothing interesting to make melee more exciting), and for some reason affects higher levels less than lower levels (50% DR to ranged on H40 but 90% on H1?)
The Encroaching Garden: One of the worst modifiers ever designed. It is fun if everyone on the team is playing meta, but this modifier heavily limits what builds are effective and which aren’t. This gets worse with other modifiers that stack on top of it (Final Toll, Rampaging Enemies, Rotten Armour, Contaminated Stimms) which make it a NIGHTMARE to not lose your head when dealing with it
The Blight Spreads: Worst modifier ever designed. It is extremely anti tide (punishing the player for killing enemies in melee), forces specific talents being brought (Beacon or Stimm Crate), and just nukes your FPS for no reason