Melee Influence for (almost) all melee weapons

This is how pretty much almost all melee weapons are to be built for Melee Influence nuking. The new damage meta means that slash is no longer the only option for armor, even on Steel Path. You can pretty much just raw damage your way thru now, although Melee Influence could already do that before these new changes.

The Skana is only used as a canvas weapon to display the build. Almost all weapons can use a Melee Influence build to nuke. Weapons that have an inherent element on them will be a bit more challenging to build for as they require 3 mandatory elemental mods, one of them being Elec. As such, you'll have to give up 3 of the cowbarff mods ([Primed Reach], [Gladiator Might], and [Condition Overload]), so whether this is still worth it is something you have to decide for yourself. A Riven Mod giving at least just 2 of the required elements let you put on Conditon Overload.

Note that [Condition Overload] is best used with a primer. Without a primer, it only helps you kill enemies that you do direct hits to faster, not enemies who are damaged by the Influence buff. Using [Condition Overload] without a primer should in my opinion only be if your given melee weapon can proc 3 primary and or secondary elemental damages on its own (elec+element+element). This will give an 80 x 3 = 240% damage increase on Influence'd enemies. Examples that can achieve this include:

• Rakta Dark Dagger with Magnetic Rush
• Lavos with Valence Formation, imbue Elec to trigger Influence then Toxin w/ Archon Continuity, melee with Blast or Gas, can give a minimum of 3 unique status effects, can go even higher
• Augment Mods for abilities that can imbue elemental damage
• Lich and Sister melee weapons with inherent Elec using Focus Radon and Magnetic Rush
• This is not an exhaustive list

For melee weapons with the following inherent elemental damage types, you unfortunately need to use 1 elemental damage mod that matches the inherent element followed by another element. I recommend using the dual stat mods here to gain extra status chance, e.g. 1 max rank and the other rank 0. Just make sure the Elec weighing isn't too low. For the different elements, your options are as following:

• Heat = Elec+Blast/Gas.
• Cold = Elec+Blast/Viral

• Toxin = Elec+Viral/Gas

• Elec = if a melee weapon has inherent elec, you can either use Voltaic Strike, create Blast/Gas/Viral, equip [Focus Radon], or skip elemental mods entirely

Voltaic Strike doesn't need to be replaced with Shocking Touch, even if the Elec dmg doesn't weigh more than the other damage types. Weeping Wounds lets you get a higher status chance, and [Voltaic Strike] gives you a higher base Status Chance and subsequently a higher final Status Chance with [Weeping Wounds]. Focus Energy can be used instead of [Voltaic Strike] and [Shocking Touch] if you want to use Heavy Attacks but don't have Tennokai mods yet, don't want to use them, or have unlocked the Exilus Slot yet. Do note that certain melee weapons with only 1 or 2 damage types, one of which being an inherent element, may want to use [Shocking Touch] to achieve a less low status weighing of Elec.

Regarding Formas, certain weapons will require more or less Formas to make the mods fit. Forma accordingly for each individual weapon. You're probably looking at an average Forma count of 3-5.

If you're aksing why Primed Reach isn't on here, it's because it's not really needed. Having to hit an enemy by being close to them or being able to hit them from afar doesn't matter when you nuke everything fast from close and far away. Keeping [Organ Shatter] along with [Galvanized Steel] lets you nuke for more damage. But if you nuke quickly without [Organ Shatter], then does it even matter? Nope, you could drop both mods if you wanted to. You decide if you wanna keep either one of them.

Low crit?

If your weapon in question has a low crit chance (like the regular [Skana]), just replace crit mods with something else. There're 2 lists below that include mods you can replace crit mods with, but both lists are also alternatives to P. Reach, P. Pressure Point, and Organ Shatter (and Weeping Wounds if a given melee weapon meets the criteria):

• Primed Pressure Point can replace or be replaced with (Primed) Faction mods

• Melee Elementalist OR [Galvanized Elementalist] should always be used over P. [Pressure Point] for Melee Influence builds as they rely on Status Damage to which Elementalist gives more damage, but Primed Faction Mods do more dmg than Elementalist

• Primed Fury > Berserker Fury for the fastest attack speed, Quickening if base attack speed is already somewhat high and P. [Fury] makes it uncomfortable for you to use, and Gladiator Vice if the base attack speed is even higher and other options make it uncomfortable for you to use

A bit on [Primed Reach], [Organ Shatter], and [Weeping Wounds]

I had written about [Gladiator Might] here before, but then [Galvanized Steel] was introduced. Basically, here's the hierarchy:
[Galvanized Steel] > [Organ Shatter] > [Gladiator Might]

On bilds that have [Gladiator Might], [Galvanized Steel] replaces it. Not only will you have a higher crit chance with G. Steel but also a higher crit damage. [Galvanized Steel] is not flexible; instead, [Organ Shatter] becomes somewhat flexible due to the lower crit damage increase. I recommend keeping [Organ Shatter] on, however. If [Organ Shatter] is the only crit mod there is space for, then [Galvanized Steel] replaces it.

There's actually no space for P. [Reach] now because of this. Unless you replace [Organ Shatter] with it, of course. [Organ Shatter] is +90% while G. Steel is +120% at max stacks and basically lasts forever, despite having a 20 second duration, because you'll always be getting kills. So [Organ Shatter] is now the 'flexible' that can be replaced with other mods if you really want it.

Before getting to the list of mods you can use instead, I want to finish off by talking a bit about [Weeping Wounds]. [Weeping Wounds] is generally a mandatory mod in this build. However, it can be made flexible if a certain criteria is met. In order for Weeping Wounds to become a flexible mod, the criteria you must meet are:

• Galvanized Elementalist, giving +120% status chance at max stacks of 4 kills (20 sec duration)
• Base Status Chance of 36% WITH Voltaic Strike
• Base Status Chance of 46% WITHOUT [Voltaic Strike]

Maths:

60 ([Voltaic Strike]) + 120 (G. Elementalist) = 180%
36 x (1 + 180%) = 100%

46 x (1 + 120%) = 101%

Make sure to math out individual melee weapons if they (can) use more mods that increase status chance, e.g. melee weapons with innate Heat, requiring Blast or Gas (2 dualstat mods) in order to run Elec, 60 + 60 + 120 = 240%. The [Rakta Dark Dagger] with its augment mod is another example of this, giving +100% status chance.

This is because these percentages allow your melee weapon with max stacks from [Galvanized Elementalist] to [Reach] a final status chance of 100% (101% without Voltaic Strke). Also known as guaranteed to proc a status on every hit. In my opinion, a 100% status chance for Influence is just fine. You will hit a lot of elec procs even if it's only 1 status per hit, so going above 100% isn't exactly mandatory. The threshold for what you deem as an acceptable final status chance depends on your tastes of course, so take my opinion as simply a suggestion. You may want a higher final status chance, or perhaps you're fine with it being in the 80s to 90s. With this setup, you will of course not have an as-high status chance as you would with [Weeping Wounds], but it does still let you kill good and fast and as such opens up a slot for something like range mods as an example.

Options to use instead include:

• Faction Mod

-P. Pressure Point if you don't wanna use Faction Mods

• Syndicate Mods

• Focus Radon

• Magnetic Rush is good for Corpus

• Spoiled Strike lets you use one of the faster attack speed mods to lower the uncomfortable attack speed to a more comfortable one and gain more damage

• Gladiator Rush, Body Count, or Drifting Contact for a longer combo duration, I recommend Drifting though it's just the best one with more status chance too

• Spring-Loaded Blade as an alternative to P. Reach

Tennokai Mods and Exilus Mods

I recommend using Tennokai mods for more damage. The meta choices are:

• Dreamer's Wrath, this can be good for melee weapons with good crit

• Discipline's Merit lets you Tennokai Heavy Attack much more often, if the given melee weapon can't be built for crit, you can use Merit.

Non-meta options are Opportunity's Reach, Master's Edge, or Condition's Perfection. These can also be used to replace Wrath.