Borrid Bake

Blackburn
* (Equalizer) Close Quarters - Deal an additional 6 damage to enemies within 2 spaces.
Of all the mods, this one is probably the most interesting to me. It addresses a balance problem pretty directly: that frontlines are way too good and just smash 120hp firepowers, and for that reason I like it. I think it can also lead to an interesting BB playstyle, where you try to stay in the fray, maybe use dodge a lot (especially if it incetivizes dodging to near your target, because then predicting dodges is a more reasonable options), but if people start autofollowing on BB then we've got some problems. The existing mods on equalizer are already pretty good, so this needs to be strong if it's going to make a difference. I could be totally wrong and this mod could end up making BB gameplay miserable, but it's definitely got me interested.

* (Proteus Grenade) Collateral Damage - Area of effect increased.
Ya ok cool



Celeste
* (On The Run) Perfect Getaway - Cooldown reduced by 1 if no enemies are hit.
I really like this mod. Right now people should be taking the invis, and I think this looks like a decent alternative, not obviously better or obviously worse. It promotes a different kind of playstyle, and in the past I've definitely found myself in feelbad situations where the best move is to dash away, but I also don't want to give up 26 damage, and that'll help reduce those feelbad moments I hope.

* (Safecracker) Pilferer - Increased aiming Variance to 180 degrees
Ok



Elle
* (Plasma Volley) Long Barrel - Increased damage to targets further away
These mods can be annoying because you can't really tell how much damage you're going to take, and that removes some depth from the game. There's a lot of satisfaction to be derived from taking a shot because you know you will barely live, and this makes that less common, however infrequently. I like that it's sending a message to people that you don't have to play frontline Elle, but I worry that taking essentially random amounts of damage is going to make the game worse. The mitigating factor here is that the good players can also just learn exactly at what distances the damage goes up, so I guess overall it's ok. Definitely not more annoying than Meridian heal at least.

* (Overcharge) Undercharge - Reduced damage, can be used for two attacks
This mod seems pretty interesting to me.



Gremolitions Inc.
* (Boom Boom)Triple fun - Increases number of mines to three, Reduces direct damage by 6.
Probably awful but hilarious. I like.

* (Splort!) Long Fuse, Longer Fuse, Longest Fuse - Three sizes of the same effect, 1/2/3 Loadout points for longer duration on mines.
This brings in some memory issues. Right now you can make small decisions based on your knowledge of when mines are going to disappear, but if you suddenly can't remember how long a mine has been out for then you find yourself playing a less interesting game. It appeals to the players that love just spamming mines, but I hope I don't start seeing this everywhere, and I feel that I might, because right now Gremo doesn't care too much about mod points, and the Splort mods are pretty whatever.



Juno
* (Lockdown) Watchful eye - Pierce first target, Deals 10 less damage when triggered
* (Riot Shield) Fortification - Grants 10 shields to nearby allies.
Neither of these are close to the power level of the good mods for these abilities, so they're completely irrelevant.



Kaigin
* (Razor Tempest) Wave of Steel - Increases number of shurikens by 1.
This is gonna get nerfed lmao.

* (Spectre of Death) Vengeance Seeker - Range increased by 2.
The ult mods were pretty trash so I like this I guess.



Lex
* (Afterburners) Engage NOS - Grants Haste next turn
No idea

* (Superheated) Spontaneous Combustion - Lasts 1 additional turn. Automatically activates when usable.
I think I like this direction. The idea is to give a reasonable alternative that promotes a different playstyle that's not obviously better or worse, and to do it in a flavourful way. This feels very in character, and very red, in the Magic the Gathering sense. It also pushes players to play in the right way, which is a big plus imo. There's a Magic card, Ulamog's Crusher ( https://scryfall.com/card/uma/8/ulamogs-crusher ), that has a very powerful effect when it attacks, but in playtesting, the developers found that players, for whatever reason, weren't attacking with it, so they added rules text to the card that forced it to attack, and this feels like that (this is a good thing).



Lockwood
* (Tripwire) Extra Battery Life - Duration increased by 2 turns
Weird but kind of neat I guess. I think the point of these mods is to give some new life to skills, and I guess this does that. I would try this at 1 point.

* (Backup Plan) Perfect Angle - Might next turn
I would consider taking this but wouldn't be sure, so that's cool. I evaluate it as obviously worse than the shield mod on dash, but it's also 1 fewer mod point, and mod points matter a lot for LW.



NEV:3
* (Embiggify) Medicat - You and any allies the disc travels over are healed by 6.
I love this! Giving firepowers a little bit of sustain feels so good because then they're not incentivized to just hide in a corner for the second half of the game (think of how great a change the healing from Halo was, e.g.), and it's also really cool to give non-supports a little bit of ally healing so that the lancer has a bit of a new dimension to it. Huge fan. Nev is pretty tight on Mod points right now, and 6 healing doesn't seem like that much on an ability that also wants to be doing other things (unlike, say, Mending Mists, where the healing is pretty free every time), so I hope that this gets buffed a bit to make people actually take it.



Nix
* (Overwatch Drone) Taser Drone - Enemies hit are weakened until end of next turn.
I didn't like where the drone mods were at before this, so I'm happy to see a new choice. Both the double drone and ammo rep were 3 points, so there was no mod point flexibility here, and both of those mods led to some annoying play patterns, either CONSTANTLY having to play around drones, or not being able to play around them by sending a teammate through a potential drone first to break it. This also might help the super derkamdab Nixes that drone when they have a primary every time for no reason. The power level seems pretty good to me.

* (Fusion Pulse) Path of Destruction - Width of shot doubled
This is pretty heads up, realizing that people often use Fusion Pulse to cover squares, since it's so much fatter than the primary. Probably not going to see much play, but neat to have around. Not everything can see play.



PUP
* (Pounce)Frolic - Gain 8 sheilds and 2 energy for every ally that is adjacent to you after you pounce. These shields last until broken.
Range is just too good to not take, but this is pretty cool. It makes dashing to allies a bit better, and that's nice, since often I feel like it's a good choice, but missing the damage is just too painful. If this is triggering on an enemy a lot then something very weird is going on, but I do like that this is sheilds instead of health, since it's often going to proc when you're full hp because of invis, and wasting it would feel bad. Overall I think this mod is nice, but I don't expect it to see much play because range is just so good (and should probably be removed, and base range increased by 1 or something).

* (Prowl Protocol) High Energy - Refreshes cooldown on walkies
So the dev sat down and was like wow I did some neato thing for PuP that promoted cool gameplay but wait PuP is supposed to be cancer bullshit that makes the game horribly unfun I gotta get on that shit. And then the dev though, what is it about PuP that makes him cancer bullshit that makes the game horribly unfun? Oh yeah, invis and walkies. What if I made this mod? And then he made this mod.



Tol-Ren
*(Ren’s Fury) Way of the Scorpion - Energy gained from being hit increased by 2.
I have no idea how much energy you're going to gain from this. It could be a lot, but it could also not really be relevant. A lot of what mod you pick for this skill depends on how many points you have left over after taking the mods you think are must-take, and if that number is 2 then you might take this. I guess that's the point of the new mods, so good job. I think it can also be kind of fun, as the Tol-Ren, to get more ults so you can dash around even more. It might be annoying to play against, but Tol is on the weak side these days, so I don't think that's a huge issue right now.

*(Showdown) Die By The Sword - Energy Cost Reduced by 15. No longer refunds energy on a miss.
What they were thinking was maybe "Well, the energy refund can be kind of annoying, and people have complained about it, so maybe we'll make a mod that removes the energy refund so people have to deal with it less." What they made, however, was a mod that's stone unplayable. I'm wouldn't take this if it were free (0 mod points and I could take another mod on top of it). Ult mods have to be really good if you want to compete with range.



Vonn
* (Cold Snap) Rimescale - Target Gains 8 shields
This seems really good, and it's nice because it gives Vonn a sort of self heal/ally support dimension that I advocated for already in Nev.

* (Polar Vortex) Climate Engineer - Lasts an additional turn, deals 10 damage on final turn.
I think everyone's gonna take this. It's unclear to me whether or not it's net fun.



Zuki
* (Sticky Bomb) Bear Trap - When a Sticky bomb Explodes, the target is Rooted
This is 3 points, and Zuki is already starving for mod points, but this also seems really, really good. I think from a quality-of-life perspective it's nice when you're playing with randoms because you don't have to rely on teammates anymore to set up your Big One, but it's also nice with good players because you can set up really well for roots and that's kind of satisfying. In general, however, I think hard CC is kind of problematic, but roots are much less offensive than knockbacks. Overall I think this is pretty cool, because it'll force Zuki to make some hard decisions with her mod points, but it could easily end up being way too good.

* (Rocket Jump) Long Range Love - Range increased by 2
Reasonable mod imo. It's nice to have 1 pointers that actually do something when you're strapped for points, and right now it's very common for Zuki to dash into bushes, and when there's only one bush in range, it's like there are no bushes in range, you know?



Asana
* (Stand and Fight) Curved Blade - Can now bounce off one wall
On the one hand, Asana is pretty tight on points, but on the other, dodging cover some of the time can be nice, and extra range (if it works like LW) is really nice (but maybe awkward, since you could end up rooting people that you can't get in primary range of, so maybe have this give haste too?). You'd probably have to give up some things you don't want to give up, but this is also probably good, so overall this seems like a good mod to have exist.

* (Guardian Angel) Herald of Decay - Enemies hit are weakened until end of next turn.
I think this is a two point alternative to Archangel, and given how much Asana needs mod points, I would try this over Archangel and guess that it might be better. This mod is a big deal. Savior hasn't been playable since 2016 btw.



Brynn
* (Impale) Tip of Justice - Enemies on the tip of the spear take extra damage.
Brynn already has an extra damage mod on her primary, so I'm not sure what's up with this. I view this as basically a 1 point discount on the existing damage mod, but I guess you're not going to get it every time. Right now I run the shields on primary mod and I think it's good, but I'd consider this too. Here's a situation where I'm glad it costs the same as another viable option.

* (Soaring Shield) Boomerang - The shield continues after hitting a target. If you bounce it back to yourself, reduce the cooldown by 1.
This is pretty nifty and pretty funny, so normally I'd like it, but I think knockbacks should just not be in the game, and this makes them be more in the game, so I'm against.



Garrison
* (Heavy Metal) Fuel Rods - Now has 2 stocks, cooldown increased to 6
Garrison was very 4Head, and this gives him a bit more play, which is nice, but I don't know how a skill with charges with 6 cd is going to play. This could easily push people into a play pattern of dash twice early game and then 6cd for the rest of the game, but it could also be nice for better players who can use this mod to have Garri be a bit less autopilot. But also Garrison is a pile of stats and not what the game should be about, and I'm against him being good, so I'm torn about how I hope this mod turns out.



Isadora
* (Suit up) Extra Nibbles - 1 additional crystal appears when Forceball is destroyed
lol



Magnus
* (Power Drive) Clobbering Time - If only hitting enemies in the second or third arc power drive will only lose one arc of range.
This seems like it does the things you want, promoting different play styles, promoting skill-based gameplay, reducing feelbad moments, and adding diversity to the game, but a) I have zero experience with Magnus, and b) Magnus is a pile of stats AND cc, so I really wish he'd just get deleted.

* (Horns Up) Adaptation - Heals instead of shields on second turn if you do not dash
This is a lot of healing wow. Makes me wish Magnus would get deleted even more, because now he's not gonna dash and just be an even bigger pool of stats.



Phaedra
* (Lair) Aftershock - Quakes again next turn for 12 damage.
This is a really serious damage increase for not that many mod points, so I think people will try to make room for it. I'm not so mad about it appearing on Phaedra, because she's not that annoying as a Frontline right now imo.



Rask
* (Maul) Brawl - Damage increased by 4 and energy gains increased by 1
No please why no please no

* (Uncontrollable Fury) Lingering Plasma - Plasma persists 1 additional turn.
Sure this is neat. This does what you want in a new mod.



Titus
* (Berserker Charge) Single Minded - Increased damage to primary target. That enemy is followed this turn)
I thought the whole point of the slow was that you didn't have to have an autofollow. All the melee lancers have dashes that give them a way to melee next turn: Asana autofollows, Garri slows, Tol moves, etc., so wtf is this. The damage increase also overlaps a ton with Momentum. Really dumb mod imo.

* (Dirty Fighting) Phase Blade - Can now be thrown through walls
BUT NOT AS DUMB AS THIS ONE HOLY SHIT. FUCK THIS. It's fucking unbelievable that the dev found a way to make the most cancer ability in the entire fucking game by a country mile even more fucking cancer. This mod ALONE makes this update a net negative for me.



Aurora
* (Paralazer) Pulse Beam - Now a free action. No longer applies shields.
Sweet! Right now I think Paralazer is pretty awkward, because often it overlaps a lot with just primarying. This completely fixes that, and it gives people even more flexibility for what they want Aurora to be.

* (Heart of the Storm) Wave of Light - Knockback all adjacent enemies.
A 1-pointer makes sense for Aurora since she has so many nice mods, and gets so much out of her mods, and I guess this is kind of cool because, if you have to make a 1 point mod, the most interesting you can make it is situationally useful, as opposed to always useless.



Finn
* (Refreshing Spray) Flounder - Additionally weakens enemies hit for the turn. Generates 2 energy per enemy hit.
I think this is probably weaker than what's in the current go-to Finn build, but it's sort of an interesting choice, and, again, not everything can be playable. When something isn't playable, it's just all about how cool something is, and this is pretty cool, because it gives your ability a new dimension.

* (Bubble Trouble) Double the Bubble - Persists an additional turn if the shield isn't broken.
I didn't play when this was a thing, so I'm sure many people have much better ideas about how this mod will turn out than I do. Right now unstop is possibly the best bargain in the game at 1 point, so anything that attempts to upset that is worth consideration.



Helio
* (Blast Shield) Power Transfer - No longer generates energy. Shielded target gains 10 energy.
This is a really cool direction to take supports in, and I think this is a great choice of a place to put this mechanic. Helio already generates a ton of energy, and even though a lot of that energy does come from shields, I'd guess that he still has a good chance of getting his 2 ults per game (and the second one by turn 17, so he gets max value), and it's also a small effect that you can just throw around a lot depending on the need, as opposed to, e.g. putting this effect on Finn bubble, where it'd never really factor into your decision making because the baseline bubble effect is so strong. It's hard to overthrow the might shield overlords, however. Helio needs mod points badly, so making it cheaper is nice, but I would try this at 1 point instead of 2 because it's a cool idea, and at 2 I don't think it'll get taken that often.

* (Disruption Matrix) Firewall - Blocks vision for enemies.
This is such a cool idea. It's the absolute best example of what the new mods should be: giving a new dimension to abilities in a way which is possibly viable but clearly not too strong. I think in practice this might end up playing a little weird, because you want people to go through your wall, and if they do well then the vision blocking is probably going to do nothing, but I guess it can play like a hedge, where if they don't go through then they have no vision? That'd be cool, because it gives the opponent an interesting choice, but I think we'll just have to see how it plays in practice. My guess is that it's going to feel like this mod just does nothing a lot. If you wanted 0 point mods to be a thing I think this would be a great choice.



Khita
* (Take Aim) Recharging Mark - Cooldown of Take aim is reset if it is not triggered.
I can sympathize with trying to give an alternative to through walls, but through walls just makes so, so much sense for Khita. If you really want to make progress on this front you're just going to have to make it baseline I think. I like that this mod makes Khita's healing more reliable, since that was by far the most frustrating part of playing with her, but I doubt people will take it. Khita is really bad right now, so she could use a buff too, so I'd like to see this mod beefed up a little if you're not going to make through walls baseline (e.g. reset if it's not triggered the first turn).

* (Rain of Arrows) Umbrella Weather - If only one enemy is hit they are Scrambled until end of next turn.
I would probably take this in high level play, since root + scramble is probably the most devastating thing in the game if you have a team. However, I think this mod looks really unfun, since a) scramble is miserable, especially with root, and b) you're going to have more feelbad moments where you just totally whiff an ult. Nothing could be worse than the dogshit that is phase dagger, but I'll be sad if this makes it in.



Meridian
* (Reforge) Crusader - Range of Reforge reduced by 2. Base movement increased by 1.
SICK. SO SICK. WOW. Exploring completely new space like this is really, really cool. The big problem with this mod is that you have to give up the extra healing, and no one is gonna do that, but it's so awesome to think about Meridian just zipping around. I would definitely consider expanding this sort of effect, where you take a hit on one ability to gain some passive, if this one is well received. There's merit to making this just a cool, unique, one-off thing, but there's also merit to expanding on it, since there's a whole new world right here.

* (Boneshatter) Conqueror - Angle of attack increased.
Ok



Su-Ren
* (Martial Master) Toad Style - If 3 or more enemies are hit gain 10 shields next turn.
:derkambab:



Overall: Some really good ideas, some bad ideas, and Phase Dagger.