Question about gear/mod priority

I have seen the advice in numerous posts to grab a decent set of weapons, then a toss up between chest/gloves/holster in terms of HE gearing priority for the most bang for your buck. What next though? Do most people fully equip every slot with HE items before focusing on mods? Do most people get HE mods as drops or should I be prioritizing grabbing some blueprints and crafting gun mods asap now?

It seems like gun mods play the most significant role in upping your current dps (on paper at least) but I would love to hear other's opinions and experience with this. I guess it could be down to luck, if I never get HE mod drops I should save my Phoenix credits for those blueprints but I won't really know until a few more days of challenge missions I guess.