I wanted to share one of my most interesting findings in the world of status builds: melee weapons that will always proc a specific elemental combo with every hit. Please do note that these are builds that I use regularly (both within sorties and outside them), but the idea can be translated to any melee weapon with 40% status or higher that deals exclusively elemental damage (if there are/will be). To just look at the builds skip to the bottom half of the post.
So, with the addition of Drifting Contact (+40% status chance, +10 seconds to melee combo counter), a whole new world of possibilities opened up for status builds. Previously players were required to add 4, sometimes 3, dual stat mods (aka, mods with +60% elemental damage and +60% status chance) to reach 100% status on melee weapons with very high status chance (30% or more), which could cause sub-optimal damage types (like blast vs grineer instead of heat) and diluted status proc pools. Now, Drifting Contact reduces the number of dual stats needed to reach 100% status chance on weapons with 35% status chance or more, allowing for more freedom when creating a status build (sadly, 30% status still requires 4 dual stat mods, and 25% and under will require using Weeping Wounds).
This helps 2 melee weapons in particular: the Lacera (45% status chance) and the Twin Basolk (40% status chance). Both of these melee weapons only deal elemental damage (Lacera being electricity and the Twin Basolk dealing heat) and can reach 100% status chance with one elemental combo with the following formula:
2 dual stat mods + Drifting ContactAnd with that you get a weapon that will proc the elemental combo you equip it with 100% of the time with each hit. For example, if I add Malignant Force and Voltaic Strike to the Lacera, combined with Drifting Contact, then my Lacera will proc corrosive on every enemy it hits, every time it hits.
My current builds for both weapons are:
Lacera (innate electricity damage): (Primed) Pressure Point, (Primed) Reach, (Primed) Fury, Drifting Contact, Malignant Force, Voltaic Strike, Fever Strike, Shocking Touch.
Cost: Innate - polarity. 2 Forma for Primed Mods (add 2 V polarities)
Procs Corrosive with every hit.
Twin Basolk (innate heat damage): (Primed) Pressure Point, (Primed) Reach, (Primed) Fury, Drifting Contact, Malignant Force, Volcanic Edge, Fever Strike, Molten Impact.
Cost: Innate V polarity. 1 Forma for Primed Mods (add 1 V polarity)
Procs Gas with every hit.
Feel free to try these builds out and leave some feedback on them. Just as an example of how strong these builds can be: I removed all of Tyl Regor's armor on a sortie 3 with the Lacera build (no forma atm, Primed Fury is the only primed mod) to shoot him with a viral Prisma Gorgon, which did work
