I ran my grenade build in the raid last night and it worked really well. Overload grenades + the damage debuff they assign made the big guys on the first fight a pushover.

I want to get a similar set on my Titan to use with the throwing hammers and Monte Carlo and then Heart of Inmost Light and its faster ability recharge rate.

There are also mods which interact with the weapons, such as giving you Grenade Energy for kills with a Barrier weapon or whenever a Barrier Champion’s shields get popped. These mods aren’t cheap on energy in your armor, and they occupy one of your mod slots which could be used for other benefits.

From what was described, you can equip mods that make you do more damage against champions. Seems like that INCREASES damage output. What's the tradeoff? What do you give up?

So there are three Champion types.

Overload Champions which just run around relentlessly and beat shit up. I've mainly seen these in the form of teleporting Minotaurs. You can equip an Overload mod to SMGs, Auto Rifles, or Bows. If you hit them with Overload rounds, they get locked in place, and you can destroy them.

Unstoppable Champions are similar (I've only seen them in the form of big ol' fuck off Ogres in this week's Nightfall). Only Hand Cannons have Unstoppable Mods. When you aim down sights, after about a second you get a buff on the hand cannon, which will freeze them in place.

Barrier Champions will occasionally bubble up in a shield that only a Hand Cannon, Auto Rifle, or SMG with Anti-Barrier mods can penetrate. They also heal while in their shield. Anti-Barrier mods also have the added benefit of piercing normal shields, Hydra shields, and the Hobgoblin lockdown thing (sadly, they don't penetrate the Taken Goblin tether or the Servitor tether).

All of those champions are totally killable without any of those mods, it's just more difficult (and probably vastly more difficult on higher tier Nightfalls). They don't make you strictly "better" overall, just for dealing with those champions that only show up in certain activities. They also lock you into using certain loadouts, which can only be Hand Cannons, Bows, SMGs, and Auto Rifles (and those mods cannot be applied to exotics). So you have to decide if you want to give up using your favorite loadout to cover one or more champion types, or if you rely on your team to have those covered. Being able to effectively deal with Champions may also mean not being as effective overall in varying situations.

It's not perfect, but I do think it's interesting, and I think there's definitely more room to experiment in that direction in other seasons.

They dont make you "better" in some generic sense, they make you specialized at the cost of overall damage output. So actually, more like what you describe mods should do in the first place.

Ok so as you know I have no idea what all this stuff is because I don't play anymore, but what exactly does it do?

From what was described, you can equip mods that make you do more damage against champions. Seems like that INCREASES damage output. What's the tradeoff? What do you give up?

I'm liking where the game is at. I've longed for the type of gear experimentation that I used to experience in a game like Diablo, but in Destiny, and this is the closest we've been to that, so its aces in my book.

This is the second one. About 2.5" in size, I think. I mounted it at an angle just like it is on the Scout Rifle. :-P

But I'm into this

First of all, if you’re going into high-level PvE activities, you really need to be using these mods if you want any chance of succeeding. The Champions are often too tough to beat without the correct mods.

Exactly why mods that make you 'better' are bad. Mods should make you 'different'.

From what you write, this sounds needlessly complex. Remember how Halo's rules were simple, yet super flexible?

You lack something.