How often did you switch weapon mods while playing Doom 2016?

I just finished another playthrough of the game and it occurred to me that I literally never switch weapon mods. For most weapons, one mod seems self-evidently so much better than the other one (to the extent that I use them at all) that I never feel the need to switch. Plus the game is so fast-paced that there is really no time for the sort of strategic deliberation to think "ok I should use weapon xyz AND I should switch the weapon mod on it for now as well."

Am I alone in this or are people really switching out weapon mods willy nilly?

I'm with you on that one. Certain mods I only used - and boosted at that - to get the trophy, and otherwise not at all. The tactical scope on the HAR, early detonation on the RL, heat blast on the PR, burst fire on the shotgun, all unused. I like having the secondary fire and the option to switch is nice to tailor to an individual's play style, but if anything I agree the game was too fast paced for it to matter much. Just jump in an kill and survive.

Singleplayer Rocket Launcher mods, I Switch to remote detonation mod to fight Pinkies and Lock-On Burst mod to fight strong monsters like Baron .

Plasma Rifle too, I Switch between the 2 mods when needed Stun Bomb to stagger hordes of demons and gather some Health, Ammo and armor in the mean time .

EDIT : I Also used HAR Misseles mod alot .

It depends on the weapon.

DooM_RO said:

It depends on the weapon.

Same here.

it's really not feasible switching mods until you get the dexterity upgrade that makes switching go much faster. otherwise, you spend a lot of time making yourself far too vulnerable. i do agree that there's only two weapons IMO where switching mods makes sense: the Rocket Launcher and Chaingun, because Lock-On and Remote Detonation, as well as Gatling Rotator and Mobile Turret do have some different uses IMO, although Remote Detonation and Mobile Turret is pretty much better to me.

and yes, i rarely switched mods myself, because things like the Explosive Shot, Micro Missiles, Stun Bombs and goddamn Siege Mode are so much more useful to have, because Burst Shot sucks on heavy foes, the Tactical Scope has no use whatsoever because you never need to zoom in the game, Heat Wave is too weak to use and stunning heavy foes is much more useful, and Precision Bolt is just useless because Siege Mode deals insane amounts of damage.

i think there could've been more overall advantages for the other weapon mods, and maybe not have an upgrade tree that makes switching mods faster, so that you could change your mods in battle and actually maybe use them all more in general, instead of having a good mod and a best mod.

I think there are too many upgrades. It's by no means a gamebreaking issue but if only a few weapons had more than two the game would have been easier to balance. For example, I don't see the point of the HAR scope upgrade but the Plasma Rifle upgrades are very useful.

Once I unlocked the mastery for the super shotgun I find myself using it most of the time. Just a quick blam blam a few times and everything including the barons are downed pretty quickly. It's like once u can do that double shot it's massively over powered.

Sp as far as weapons mod there was most I never used. The lock on rocket launcher is handy, siege mode on the gauss canon, the one on the chain gun that turns it into a triple barrel although it overheats to quick until unit the mastery for it and explosive shot on combat shotgun are all I used if and rarely at that

Micka said:

Once I unlocked the mastery for the super shotgun I find myself using it most of the time. Just a quick blam blam a few times and everything including the barons are downed pretty quickly. It's like once u can do that double shot it's massively over powered

Sure it is, when you are playing below ultra violence.

Even on ultra violence it's still a go to imo

For reference, I just beat the game on nightmare and this was my weapon selection:

Shotgun: used explosive rounds until I got better weapons
HAR: micromissiles for Lost Souls, occasional cleanup use when I was low on ammo (Lost Souls are by far the worst enemies in the game on nightmare)
Plasma rifle: got and upgraded the stun-ball mod ASAP, and spent most of the game quick-switching between the plasma and something else
SSG: the "something else" for most of the game, especially once I mastered the double shot, which is insanely powerful
Rocket launcher: used on the rare occasion (usually in a big arena fight) when I ran out of shells. Got the remote detonation mod so I didn't have to aim as carefully.
Gauss rifle: barely ever used except for bosses / sniping cacodemons, especially once I got the siege mode mod.
Chaingun: Literally never touched, because it's awful and counterproductive in a game where you constantly have to move and jump and dodge to sit there with a bullet hose

Huh, I found the chaingun in turret mode could wipe out an entire room in a few seconds.

I didn't pay much mind to the weapon mods. I felt it made the game more complex than it needed to be. Why use triple burst for the shotgun when you can only carry 20 shells? 7 shots to deplete your inventory? No thanks.

Remote detonation rocket launcher felt right; deal some decent damage without having to get direct hits.

The charged gauss canon felt super overpowered but I used it for panic situations with a lot of tough guys and not a lot of space to hide.

I have a way of getting comfortable with a particular style of play. That's why I like doom. Things don't change.

I use shotgun burst mode although the explosive mode is probably better - but the machine gun also has an explosive mode which seems far more useful, and this makes the equivalent shotgun mod seem obsolete. I never even unlocked the tactical scope. Precision shooting on a console controller? Yeah right. The assault rifle explosive mode was my go-to attack, especially when upgraded.

The plasma gun seems like one of the worst weapons in the game. I couldn't finish a Cacodemon that was glowing white - it kept "waking up" and I went through my entire plasma ammo trying to destroy it. Freeze mode is one of the best mods in the game though and is a life-saver. Pity the gun it's attached to isn't so good.

I never used the self detonating rockets (too much farting about when you're already doing a hundred things at once - lock-on is far more useful), the precision gauss mod or any of the chaingun mods. In fact I never used the chaingun at all.

Barely ever. Not even the plasma rifle, that weapon is barely ever used by me. And the HAR, micro missiles OWN. The shotgun's explosive shot is so much superior, as is the gauss non zoom in and rpg 3 shot.

The devs need to understand runes and argent cells are cool, but all those weapon mods and suit upgrades - this isn't an rpg, its doom.

I Hate it when people talk about balance and such for just a game, Seriously, I never thought anybody would care enough to pay that much of attention about those, I treat them like optional stuff, Personally i like to upgrade them , It gives me another reason to replay SP and try to get everything upgraded fully and complete all challenges, Sure they're not very balanced but that's barely an issue to me since i don't really care about those small details (Especially in a video game) .

DMGUYDZ64 said:

I Hate it when people talk about balance and such for just a game, Seriously, I never thought anybody would care enough to pay that much of attention about those, I treat them like optional stuff, Personally i like to upgrade them , It gives me another reason to replay SP and try to get everything upgraded fully and complete all challenges, Sure they're not very balanced but that's barely an issue to me since i don't really care about those small details (Especially in a video game) .

I agree, I don't care that much either and this thing got blown out of proportion, perhaps due to misunderstanding. I just think with or without them, the campaign will still be great because they have a success formula going on with the campaign and let's hope we see more and more of it!

Linguica said:

For reference, I just beat the game on nightmare and this was my weapon selection:

Shotgun: used explosive rounds until I got better weapons
HAR: micromissiles for Lost Souls, occasional cleanup use when I was low on ammo (Lost Souls are by far the worst enemies in the game on nightmare)
Plasma rifle: got and upgraded the stun-ball mod ASAP, and spent most of the game quick-switching between the plasma and something else
SSG: the "something else" for most of the game, especially once I mastered the double shot, which is insanely powerful
Rocket launcher: used on the rare occasion (usually in a big arena fight) when I ran out of shells. Got the remote detonation mod so I didn't have to aim as carefully.
Gauss rifle: barely ever used except for bosses / sniping cacodemons, especially once I got the siege mode mod.
Chaingun: Literally never touched, because it's awful and counterproductive in a game where you constantly have to move and jump and dodge to sit there with a bullet hose

I like how not everyone uses exactly the same cookie-cutter upgrades. The HAR missles upgrade was one of the most used weapons and the Gauss Rifle is really kinda op. It should use more ammo tbh. The chaingun is also really useful.

What in the name of Mister Peter McCallister the FATHER happened to this thread?

I see someone else in this thread barely uses the plasma rifle. They really misjudged this weapon, its "freeze mode" upgrade seems to determine the overall function of the gun. I thought it was supposed to lay down a barrage of fire that ripped heads from bodies and sent hell knights screaming for their mum.

In fact the mods seem to determine the weapon's overall effectiveness. The chaingun has been turned into a slow but powerful turret with barely enough ammo to last a few seconds. The plasma gun is a suppression weapon. Whether or not you even use the weapons at all depends on your personal play style.

Maybe this is a good thing. After all, the super shotty in the original games renders everything obsolete most of the time. Maybe they were trying to encourage different play styles relying on different guns.

Once you max out a mod, it is kinda pointless too nerf yourself by switching it.

The only weapon that i find myself changing mod during combat it's the rocket launcher. Remote detonation it's useful for crowd control and for certain enemies like pinkies or the shield soldiers, while lock on burst it's useful for taking out big threats and certain enemies like the cacodemons while moving around. As for the other weapon mods..... a lot of them don't make a difference in combat, and most of them are not that useful, so i just stick to only one single mod for the rest of the weapons.

Triple shot it's not as useful as a grenade shot, HAR scope it's really pointless since it's asking you to stop to aim while you are being swarmed with enemies and the Gauss canon siege mode does waaay too much damage and has a decent stopping power that it's not worth using the precision bolt mod.

I never did switch.

Am I the only one who liked the heat wave on plasma? I never used a single stun shot on UV or NM playthroughs. I have a very bad attitude against anything that doesn't do damage and it's great for finishing targets off or killing multiple trash enemies at once.

Also never used remote detonation. The lock-on of the burst is quick when mastered and you can quickly kill tough monsters with a multitude of salvos of homing rockets. You can easily kill front armored targets by hitting the ground behind them (mostly the shield guys) without the need to remotely detonate it.

The scope on HAR is great when mastered for saving ammo, sniping and easy headshots although the rockets are very good as well.

Gauss cannon is a pretty overpowered weapon with no mods and it's totally unfair with any of the mods. Tried both, liked both.

Liked the turret chaingun more (that stopping power :O).

Shotgun tri-shot's only purpose is to waste ammo, explosive is so much better.

On topic: I switched mods almost only on HAR and Gauss Cannon.

I only switch weapon mods depending on what demon is in front of me.

I switched the plasma rifle and RL on occasion. The rest seemed to really only have one good choice.

MajorRawne said:

What in the name of Mister Peter McCallister the FATHER happened to this thread?

I see someone else in this thread barely uses the plasma rifle. They really misjudged this weapon, its "freeze mode" upgrade seems to determine the overall function of the gun. I thought it was supposed to lay down a barrage of fire that ripped heads from bodies and sent hell knights screaming for their mum.

In fact the mods seem to determine the weapon's overall effectiveness. The chaingun has been turned into a slow but powerful turret with barely enough ammo to last a few seconds. The plasma gun is a suppression weapon. Whether or not you even use the weapons at all depends on your personal play style.

Maybe this is a good thing. After all, the super shotty in the original games renders everything obsolete most of the time. Maybe they were trying to encourage different play styles relying on different guns.

They really dropped the ball on Plasma Rifle. The firing sound is weak, bolts look like water, and damage is pathetically low. They gave Berserk so much love with all these unique fatalities, but have not made PR adequately powerful. Really feels off.
At least the Heat Wave can dish out some good damage. Thankfully the rest of the weapons are nowhere as bad.

And yeah, the chaingun in general has not enough ammo. 210 rounds?! What the hell... it should be at least four times more.

after playing the game a bit for another time, i've some more thoughts about the weapon mods in the game. some of them are great, and others just don't hold the bar for me:

Shotgun: Explosive Shot is way better than Burst Shot. the shotgun gets outclassed in the end, but the explosive shot is less ammo-intensive and you only really use the shotgun on low-tier enemies anyway, so a way of dispatching them fast is better. when you only have 20 shells to start with, Burst Shot just seems less attractive to me. not worth the mastery though.

Heavy Assault Rifle: Micro Missiles all the way. they're good for most of anything until you get a chaingun, are fairly accurate and deal a good amount of damage. bottomless makes it sort of a low-grade chaingun and it's still more accurate than it and not wasting as much ammo. Tactical Scope is garbage.

Plasma Rifle: Stun Bombs are just so much more useful than the heat wave, which IMO needs the mastery to be even remotely useful, while Stun Bomb is always useful. stunning anything in the blink of an eye has a lot of applications, and the mastery is not too hard to get.

Rocket Launcher: while Lock-On might seem useful at first, it does so little damage and doesn't actually improve with any upgrades. the Remote Detonator does though, and that makes it better. great for crowd control. mastery is eh.

Super Shotgun: what a gun. it's already more powerful than the shotgun when you get it, but then you get Double Trouble and it leaves the shotgun completely in the dust. simple, effective, and does a ton of damage against any enemy.

Gauss Cannon: Siege Mode is borderline overpowered. at base level, it can kill any enemy not a mancubus or baron in one hit, and an upgrade gives it railgun capabilities. it's kind of telling when the mastery for the gun doesn't make it do any extra damage, but makes it more convenient to use. don't even bother with Precision Bolt, you can chainsaw all the goddamn plasma cells you want.

Chaingun: while it seemed pretty awesome at first with Mobile Turret, it really doesn't do as much damage as i'd want it to. the Gatling Rotator is kind of more useful as it doesn't impede your movement. it definitely outperforms the assault rifle though.

You must be the first person I met that prefers Rotator over Turret. How much damage should the latter inflict in your opinion? I am genuinely curious.

shotfan said:

You must be the first person I met that prefers Rotator over Turret. How much damage should the latter inflict in your opinion? I am genuinely curious.

Yeah I was shocked when he said that the rotator mod was better than the mobile turret.

once I pick a mod on a gun in a playthrough I stick to that mod, the only gun I would care to have both on is the HR.
my final mod selection after playing the game so many times:

Shotgun: Charged shot, burst becomes absolutely obsolete if not counterproductive when you get SSG.

Hard Assualt Rifle: This is the only one I'm split on, both are really good at what they do.

Plasma Rifle: Stun, heat sink is super good for damage and getting a mob of enemies out of your face but stun has more utility.

Rocket Launcher: I might be an odd ball but I use rockets for trash so pre-det is my choice, early on lock on is use full for taking out threats pretty quick but I find it's far less use full. It has better dps by itself for bosses but poor quick switch capabilities.

Chaingun: both mods are good but portable turret became my favorite in the end, the dps you do with it is crazy and stuns threats quite well, towards the end I don't use HR nearly as much so I wipe this out to save on shells, rockets and plasma. The portable turret will piss through ammo so fast and its a good thing so you can go back to focusing on other weapons.

Gauss Rifle: Seige is better for multiple enemies, snipe is better for singular. I like seige because it saves a tone of ammo on trash and clears crowded hallways when i need to pass.