Talk:Hek/@comment-11621992-20130724102910/@comment-13117751-20130724144959

Okay well first thing is first, and this is jsut my opinion so feel free to disregard it but most of this will be based off of sheer math.

1) It isn't necessary to have ammo stock maxed, since if your goal was to only have two extra shots (6 shots in the magazine) you only need to get ammo stock to level 3 (+40%). Any further levels unnecessarily drain mod points.

2) About seeking force...it's a huge drain on mod points and you will see very little actual use from it (save for very very tight crowd mobbing). However if you've grown accustomed to it then feel free to keep it on there, it is just that you give up some good extra damage potential if you choose to keep it. I would recommend the compromise that for anything besides defence missions (or wherever you see it most useful) swap it out for a damage mod since you will likely encounter looser mob formations. For missions when you know for sure you will need that puncture (i.e. high tier defence where mob packs are really tight) you can swap it back in. Again though, to reiterate, if you enjoy having puncture on then by all means keep it, the goal is to keep it fun for you.

3) In my opinion tactical pump doesn't offer as many returns as ammo stock, and having both is a little overkill since the Hek already has a decently "short" reload speed (at least compared to the other shotguns). For shotguns with really slow reload speeds tactical pump sees the most gains since it has a much more pronounced effect (take the sobek, for example). I would recommend you try a few missions without tactical pump and a few with just to get a feel for the different reload speeds...you'll probably find there's not truly that much difference at all.

In your comment you mention you were going to drop ammo stock if you dropped anything at all, and I would recommend to you that, if you do end up dropping something, drop tactical pump BEFORE you drop ammo stock. You can break it down like this:

At ammo stock level 3 (+40%) you gain 2 extra shots due to rounding. This is a 50% gain of ammunition, meaning you reload 1/3 less often (this math might sound weird, but you can derive this by noticing how if you were to want to fire 12 shots, you would need to reload 3 times without ammo stock and 2 times with ammo stock). Compare this to tactical pump which will cut your reload speed down by 30% when maxed (note that this also eats MORE mod slots than level 3 ammo stock does)...out of those 3 reloads you do, you save 30% of the time, but your ending time to fire those 12 shots still ends up being longer because you have to do a 3rd reload. This holds true for every proportion of shots.

So really, if it comes down to "I want to be able to fire 'xx' shots as quickly as possible" ammo stock draining only 5 mod points will BEAT tactical pump even when it's maxed. Of course this can be situational, and there will be a couple or so instances where tactical pump might win the day (i.e. you decide, for whatever reason, to reload early while enemies are still present...I...don't know why you would do that but tactical pump would be superior here).

HAVING SAID ALL THAT:

My recommendation, if you want to maximize your damage, is to drop NOT ammo stock, but to drop tactical pump....get a new ammo stock that ONLY GOES UP TO LEVEL 3 (+40%). And bam, you get 9 mod slots free. This could fit a maxed flechette or a maxed chilling grasp (90% each) and significantly improve your damage. [of course this largely depends on your target but you can swap them out to address weaknesses better and having the extra mod points will allow for wider versatililty].

After you do that, you have the further option of dropping seeking force for another damage mod. Doing this will increase your hek to one of the highest attainable shot-for-shot DPS in exchange for losing the puncture (which is "situational" at best).

Hope this helped answer your question! If you disagree with any of the points I made feel free to tell me. Good luck with your build.