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Modding: A Checklist for Melees

Table of Contents

Overview

This guide walks through my personal checklist for building melee weapons from scratch and is based on lessons and tips I've picked up through my time playing Warframe. Like the guns checklist, this one focuses on how to mod your melees step by step based on your weapon's stats. These builds won't be 'perfect' but they're perfectly functional and will be good starting points for tweaking and refining your build.

Melee weapons vary a lot more than guns and this can completely change how you mod, so this checklist starts at question 0 to determine your build archetype before anything else. Your answer to question 0 can drastically change your modding, so it's worth spending time to consider your playstyle and weapon type here.

My checklist has 8 questions, and at the end I've included a basic star chart Nikana Prime build, a Steel Path version, and a thrown heavy detonation Xoris build to show how differently the mod choices can look.

The Checklist

  1. What Type of Weapon/Build Are You Using?
  2. What's My Stance?
  3. Condition Overload or No?
  4. Do I Need Attack Speed?
  5. Is It a Combo Build?
  6. Is It a Viable Crit Weapon?
  7. Is It a Viable Status Weapon?
  8. What QoL Mods Should I Use?

0. What Type of Weapon/Build Are You Using?

Before adding any mods, you'll need to decide how you want to use the weapon. This depends on a mix of playstyle preference, the weapon's stats, and the weapon type itself. For example a glaive can be used as a thrown melee or a regular melee, but a sword could never be built as a thrown melee. There are 4 general build archetypes:

  • Regular Melee
  • Heavy Attack Spam
  • Slam-Focused
  • Thrown Weapon

Your archetype will change which mods you use throughout the rest of the checklist. Some of these differences include:

  • Regular melee builds focus on combo generation and combo scaling mods
  • Heavy attack spam builds use Sacrificial mods and heavy attack specific mods, foregoing combo mods
  • Slam builds have unique slam specific mods
  • Thrown weapon builds don't benefit from attack speed and range, so those are skipped

1. What's My Stance?

Stances are a core part of the Warframe's melee system. Each stance comes with its own unique combos and gives additional capacity just like Warframe Aura mods. You'll always want a stance equipped and matching the polarity will give up to 10 additional base capacity.

Looking past just matching polarities, stance vary in combo fluidity, damage multipliers, and forced effects like knockdowns or status procs. In the mid and late game when you have the option to Forma your stance slots, these factors are worth considering when choosing stances.

2. Condition Overload or No?

Condition Overload (CO) is an incredibly strong base damage mod for melees, granting +80% melee damage per status type affecting the target. For comparison, Primed Pressure Point gives +165% melee damage. That means at just 2 status types on a target, CO is equivalent in strength, and every additional status makes CO surpass Primed Pressure Point even further.

Early on you'll use Pressure Point as your base damage mod. Once you pick up CO, it's almost always the better pick unless your build falls into any of these exceptions:

  • Slam builds - CO does not affect slam AOEs
  • Thrown detonation builds - CO does not scale with the AOE detonations
  • Heavy attack spam builds - CO is less effective unless your weapon has high status application or you have a companion that can prime enemies quickly.

For heavy attack spam builds without a primer, Sacrificial Pressure or Primed Pressure Point are the recommended alternatives.

3. Do I Need Attack Speed?

Attack speed is the melee equivalent of fire rate. Swinging faster means more hits, and more hits means more damage. Most regular melee builds will want at least one source of attack speed, but three archetypes care about it less or ignore it:

  • Thrown weapons - Attack speed provides zero benefit. They do benefit from heavy attack wind up speed, which reduces the delay before you throw the weapon.
  • Slam builds - Attack speed does affect the recovery animation after a slam, but you can partially cancel the animation with a slide or roll. This makes attack speed a lower priority, comfort option rather than a priority.
  • Heavy Attack Spam builds - Attack speed affects the swing animation, but generally you want to prioritize heavy attack wind up speed more.

4. Is It a Combo Build?

Combo is a great tool for boosting your damage and it also enables some very strong melee mods. Blood rush (+40% CC per combo tier) and Weeping Wounds (+40% status chance per combo tier) both scale directly off combo.

There are a few situations where you'd generally skip combo scaling mods.

  • Thrown heavy detonation builds - Heavy detonations consume all combo, so scaling mods like Blood Rush and Weeping Wounds never get to ramp up.
  • Slam builds without Melee Crescendo - Without Melee Crescendo's potential +210 initial combo, heavy slam builds run into the same issues as heavy detonation builds. This is especially true for quick missions where you might not even have the time to stack up Melee Crescendo.
  • Heavy attack spam builds without special Tennokai - Standard heavy attacks consume all combo. Without one of two Tennokai mods (Discipline's Merit and Truth's Flame) you run into the same issues mentioned above.

5. Is It a Viable Crit Weapon?

The same rule of thumb from the gun checklist applies here. A melee is generally crit viable with at least 15% CC and 2x CD. Below that threshold crit mods aren't usually worth it.

The main difference from guns is that your choice of crit mods depends on whether you're running combo or not.

  • Non-combo regular melee - True Steel for CC, Organ Shatter for CD
  • Combo builds - Blood Rush is your primary CC mod since it scales with combo tier. Organ Shatter or Galvanized Steel covers your CD
  • Non-combo heavy attack spam/spam/thrown - Sacrificial Steel is the preferred CC mod here since it pairs with Sacrificial Pressure for +550% CC on heavy attacks. Amalgam Organ Shatter is a great CD option since it also grants heavy attack wind up speed.

Note: Galvanized Steel grants both CC and CD in a single mod slot, making it a strong option for builds that are tight on capacity.

6. Is It a Viable Status Weapon?

Same rule of thumb as guns, a good status melee has over 15-20% status chance. Status viability determines three things for melee: - Whether to run 60/60 mods like Virulent Scourge or 90% elementals like Molten Impact - Whether to run Weeping Wounds - Whether to run Elementalist mods

In general most melee weapons like having more status chance, but you will find situations where you just want to skip them. For example, heavy attack focused builds often look to one shot enemies so they tend to focus on raw damage over status chance.

7. What QoL Mods Should I Use?

Just like the other checklists, this is a broad category for anything that makes the weapon feel better or doesn't fit into questions 1-6. Testing in the Simulacrum or a mission can help you figure out what stats you'd want to upgrade.

QoL options include:

  • Range - more enemies hit per swing. good on weapons with high follow through
  • Combo Duration - Extends the 5 second combo window, so you have more time before you lose your combo
  • Initial Combo - Useful for heavy attack and slam builds for a free damage multiplier
  • Status Damage - Elementalist mods boost status DoTs, great for high status builds
  • Thrown weapon mods - Can affect bounce behavior and travel speed for your melee
  • Faction Mods - Strong but situational, not worth prioritizing early
  • Rivens - Can fill a QoL slot but generally expensive and not recommended early

Example: Basic Nikana Prime Build

The Nikana Prime is a straightforward katana with solid stats and no special mechanics. This basic build sticks to basic mods and avoids Condition Overload, combo scaling mods, and any Galvanized or Primed mods.

0. What Type of Weapon/Build Are You Using?

Regular melee.

1. What's My Stance?

Blind Justice (matches the stance polarity slot)

2. Condition Overload or No?

Pressure Point (+120% Melee Damage)

3. Do I Need Attack Speed?

Yes, it's a regular melee build. Fury (+30% Attack Speed)

4. Is It a Combo Build?

Technically yes, but skipping most combo scaling mods for this basic build.

5. Is It a Viable Crit Weapon?

With 28% CC and a 2.4x CD it's very crit viable. Slotting in True Steel and Organ Shatter.

6. Is It a Viable Status Weapon?

Yes, it has 28% status chance and good attack speed. The Nikana Prime deals mostly Slash damage and Viral (Cold + Toxin) synergizes well with the Slash bleed effect. Using a 60/60 Toxin mod and a 90% Cold mod. If you don't have 60/60 mods yet, you can always use 90% elemental mods.

7. What QoL Mods Should I Use?

Two slots are left. Adding Reach for range and Body Count for combo duration to benefit from the combo damage multiplier.

Nikana Prime Basic

Example: SP Nikana Prime Build

It's the same weapon, but now I'm assuming you have access to a lot more content and mods.

0. What Type of Weapon/Build Are You Using?

Same as before, but now with combo and Tennokai

1. What's My Stance?

Blind Justice has the best Nikana combos

2. Condition Overload or No?

Yes to CO. Its a combo build and the Nikana Prime has good status chance

3. Do I Need Attack Speed?

Yes, it's still a priority

4. Is It a Combo Build?

Yes. Adding Blood Rush for combo scaling CC and Weeping Wounds for combo scaling status chance

5. Is It a Viable Crit Weapon?

Swapping True Steel for Blood Rush and swapping Organ Shatter for Galvanized Steel

6. Is It a Viable Status Weapon?

Yes, swapping to both 60/60 mods this time

7. What QoL Mods Should I Use?

Adding Galvanized Elementalist to improve bleed dots and Dreamer's Wrath for free heavy attacks. Also adding Melee Afflictions to increase the number of slash procs applied on Tennokai strikes. Off screen I'm using Naramon's focus perk and 2x Dexterity arcanes on my heavy weapon to help maintain combo.

Nikana Prime SP

Example: Xoris Thrown Detonation Build

This example is quite different from the previous two. The Xoris is a glaive that can be thrown and detonated mid-air with the heavy attack input. It also has forced (guaranteed) Electric procs on detonation which synergizes really well with Melee Influence.

0. What Type of Weapon/Build Are You Using?

It's a thrown weapon

1. What's My Stance?

Stances don't matter, pick any

2. Condition Overload or No?

No, CO doesn't benefit AOEs, so Sacrificial Pressure

3. Do I Need Attack Speed?

Nope, focus on heavy attack wind up speed

4. Is It a Combo Build?

No, heavy detonations consume all combo so combo scaling mods aren't good

5. Is It a Viable Crit Weapon?

Xoris has 20% CC and 2.4x CD which makes it crit viable. Since it's a heavy detonation build, using Sacrificial Steel (which pairs with Sacrificial Pressure). Amalgam Organ Shatter gives CD and also gives some heavy attack wind up speed.

Note: 2x sacrificial mods can be expensive without an Umbra Forma. The cheaper options are Galvanized Steel + Primed Pressure Point or Sacrificial Steel + Primed Pressure Point

6. Is It a Viable Status Weapon?

The Xoris has 18% status chance but has forced Electric procs on heavy detonation. We're running two electric mods to scale the Electric DoT damage.

7. What QoL Mods Should I Use?

  • Melee Influence - Spreads elemental procs to enemies within 20m
  • Volatile Quick Return - Larger AOE explosion
  • Galvanized Elementalist - Better electric DoTs
  • Whirlwind - Faster glaive flight speed
  • Galvanized Reflex - Boosts initial combo for a 2-5x damage multiplier from combo tier

Xoris Build

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