To manage, or not to manage...?

Okay here’s a simplified version:

1. Level

Not much to explain, a mod range from level 1-15. The higher the level, the more secondary stats/ higher the primary and secondary stats.

2. Tiers

A mod comes with 5 tiers. Each tier is represented by a colour (Highest: gold—purple—blue—green—colourless). The higher the tier, the more secondary stats it comes with (4–3–2–1–0). This CAN be increased with slicing MK5 mods. (Green to blue, blue to purple etc.)

3. Rarity
A mod ALSO has 5 (6) different rarities, from Highest: MK6-MK1. Natural ones range from MK5-MK1, represented by the glowing dots on the mod. However, you can ONLY slice MK5 mods. The higher the rarity, the more dots it has. Higher rarity means the primary stats on the mod will be higher and has a higher maximum stat. E.g a level 15 MK5 Gold health primary stat mod gives +5.88%, while a level 15 MK4 Gold health primary mod gives +4.00%. The maximum potential of the mods below MK5 are very limited. You would want to replace all of them with MK5 in the long run.

4.Sets

Mods belong to different sets (Health, Critical Damage, Critical Chance, Offense, Defense, Tenacity, Potency and Speed). These are indicates by the icons on the mod. By having 2 or 4 of the same mod set depending on the set requirement, they give additional set bonuses such as +15% potency or +10% speed. This is irrelevant to the tiers and rarity. Even if you have 2/4 colourless MK1 lowest potency mods at level 15, it gives you the same +15% potency.

Now that you have basic knowledge about mods, think about the character you are modding. Since most of these mods are based off a % increase rather than the occasional flat increase from secondaries, it is better if we focus on the higher original stat of the character, say a character with very low health and very high speed would benefit more from a speed set rather than a health set, since +100% of 2 = 4, while +25% of 100= 125. You want something that scales high.

Moving on to sets, remember you have a total of 6 mods on charactera. That means you can have potentially 3 mod sets bonuses on a character with each mod set requiring two of its kind, or 2 mod sets with one mod set requiring two of its kind and the other set requiring 4.

This is basically what mods are about. I’ll write up a detailed guide if you are still unclear.

Hi. Yes mods are way too confusing since slicing was added.

no dont use auto manage its terrible i have seen it recommend 4 dot health mods over a 5 dot mod with 25 speed on it.
get used to them is the only option here is 2 things that will be a massive help to getting you started
http://apps.crouchingrancor.com/Mods/Advisor
that site offers advice on which mods are best for each toon, it also tells you the best primary stat for each mod. 99% of the time it is bang on for mods.
once you know what the best recommended set up is you can go to your https://swgoh.gg account (if you dont have one create it)
then click on mods + on filters.
from there you can select the shape of the mod, the type of mod + which primary stat your searching for.
honestly once you get the hang of it you will be sorted. im not the best with mods but those sites help a keck of a lot

I’d recommend focusing on speed. Any mods that have a speed secondary should be upgraded, ones that don’t shouldn’t (with a few exceptions). If you’re not sure what a toon needs, just give them the mods that will boost their speed the most. For primary stats, as a general rule you want speed arrows, critical damage triangles and protection circles (though I wouldn’t sacrifice a lot of speed to go protection over health circle). Crosses depend on whether or not you need potency. If you do, potency cross is the best way to get it. If not, either protection or tenacity (depending on what you need), and occasionally offense. When in doubt, protection primaries on cross/circle.
As for sets, generally I go with speed speed set plus whatever my next best 2 mods are (tend to be health, since I farmed a lot of those back when farming speed was harder). If you’re looking for a big damage dealer, maybe critical damage sets (for toons like solo, Ventress, etc). Potency sets for toons that rely heavily on debuffs (zFinn, EP). Again though, when in doubt, speed sets.

If the fine details are too complicated for you, you can outsource the work by using grandivory's mods optimiser:

https://mods-optimizer.swgoh.grandivory.com/

Give it your ally code and it will pull all the details for your toons and what mods you have on them. You can then choose toons to optimise and it will literally just tell you what mods to move where. You can choose from preset priorities (eg fast han, slow han) or customise your own if you feel brave.

The only caveat is that it can't see mods you don't have equipped to anyone, but then nor can any other tool.

grey mods mostly sell them unless its speed arrow, critical damage triangles and protection circles
green mods upgrade to level 9 if no speed then sell unless as above
blue mods upgrade to level 6 if no speed then sell unless as above
purple mods upgrade to level 3 if no speed then sell unless as above.
if you do get speed secondrys then level them to 15 and see how good the speed rolls.
thats the basics. hopefully someone else will come in with a better explanation for you though

Great advice! I appreciate the time you've all taken to better explain the need & use of mods. Thanks!

One other thing...

Should I just "sell off" colorless mods with a single tier, which (I assume) are indicated by the number of dots...and, what about basic upgrading, or the need for it (not to be confused with slicing)?

Thanks for the input, LynnYoda...I'll wait to see what others think as well and if the opinion is unanimous, then I'll decide.