Introduction
After the great work Afro did in his Tediore Reloads and Axton thread 134, I wanted to do something similar with another aspect of Axton that I’ve recently come to love: assault rifles.
I didn’t really give assault rifles a fair chance at first. They were, in my opinion, too weak to get the job done, so I didn’t bother using any. However, I picked up a Rifleman Com a while back and started to REALLY see what they could do. The result was that I had been completely wrong about them!
Ever since then, I had thought about doing an assault rifle damage comparison using some of Axton’s different coms. I wanted to make sure that I covered as many possibilities as I could, so I decided to test the damage capability of each specific assault rifle mentioned against his Legendary Engineer, Legendary Ranger, Legendary Soldier, Rifleman, Veteran, Grenadier, Gunner and Chaotic Neutral Ranger Coms. These are the stats from the 8 coms that I used:
Legendary Engineer
- +46% Cooldown Rate
Legendary Ranger
- +55% Team Shield Recharge Rate
- -33% Team Shield Recharge Delay
Legendary Soldier
- +47% Cooldown Rate
- +39% Gun Damage
- +25% Fire Rate
Front Line Rifleman
- +50% Assault Rifle Magazine Size
- +46% Assault Rifle Gun Damage
- +5 Battlefront
- +4 Impact
- +4 Onslaught
Expert Veteran
- +38% Reload Speed
- +47% Magazine Size
- +5 Steady
- +4 Pressure
- +3 Last Ditch Effort
Impact Grenadier
- +47% Grenade Damage
- +30% Explosive Damage Resistance
- +6 Impact
- +5 Steady
Auto Gunner
- +31% Team Fire Rate
- +6 Steady
- +5 Overload
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- +49% Magazine Size
- +34% Fire Rate
- +6 Impact
- +5 Grit
The test rifles I chose were the Fire Swift Lead Storm, Slippery Seeker, the Fire Deep Seraphim, the Slippery Kerblaster, the Slippery Ogre, and the Fire Deep Veruc. Of course, there are other rifles, but I used these specific ones because I had them on me and they were easier to test than some of the other ones (the Sawbar comes to mind).
AR & Gear Used in Testing
Fire Swift Lead Storm (Vladof Grip/Dahl Stock/No Sight)
- 239922 Gun Damage
- 70.4 Accuracy
- 15.0 Fire Rate
- 3.5 Reload Speed
- 60 Magazine Size
- 141047.4 Burn Damage/sec
- 6% Chance to Ignite
Slippery Seeker (Torgue Grip/Dahl Stock/Torgue Sight)
- 1817608 Gun Damage
- 88.5 Accuracy
- 1.5 Fire Rate
- 3.1 Reload Speed
- 22 Magazine Size
Fire Deep Seraphim (all Dahl)
- 453703 Gun Damage
- 90.6 Accuracy
- 6.8 Fire Rate
- 3.5 Reload Speed
- 40 Magazine Size
- 141047.4 Burn Damage/sec
- 6% Chance to Ignite
Slippery Kerblaster (Torgue Grip/Dahl Stock/Torgue Sight)
- 1421970 Gun Damage
- 89.9 Accuracy
- 2.8 Fire Rate
- 3.1 Reload Speed
- 29 Magazine Size
Slippery Ogre (Torgue Grip/Dahl Stock/Torgue Sight)
- 460802 Gun Damage
- 81.9 Accuracy
- 6.3 Fire Rate
- 3.1 Reload Speed
- 81 Magazine Size
Fire Deep Veruc (all Dahl)
- 248009 x3 Gun Damage
- 92.6 Accuracy
- 6.8 Fire Rate
- 2.8 Reload Speed
- 39 Magazine Size
- 141047.4 Burn Damage/sec
- 6% Chance to Ignite
In addition, DScarface tested the Horse Bekah, the Horse Hammer Buster, the Wild Damned Cowboy, and the Severe Hail. They had the following stats:
Horse Bekah (Jakobs Grip/Dahl Stock/Vladof Sight)
- 609326 Gun Damage
- 93.3 Accuracy
- 15.3 Fire Rate
- 3.1 Reload Speed
- 16 Magazine Size
Horse Hammer Buster (Jakobs Grip/Dahl Stock/Dahl Scope)
- 759118 Gun Damage
- 93.0 Accuracy
- 15.3 Fire Rate
- 3.1 Reload Speed
- 16 Magazine size
Wild Damned Cowboy (Jakobs Grip/Torgue Stock/Jakobs Scope)
- 764196 Gun Damage
- 86.4 Accuracy
- 2.2 Fire Rate
- 3.2 Reload Speed
- 15 Magazine Size
Fire Severe Hail (Vladof Grip/Dahl Stock/Torgue Sight)
- 218342 Gun Damage
- 92.4 Accuracy
- 9.7 Fire Rate
- 2.7 Reload Speed
- 37 Magazine Size
- 141047.5 Burn Damage/sec
- 6% Chance to Ignite
Artifacts
Bone of the Ancients
- +39% (X element) Damage
- +47% Cooldown Rate
Explosive Damage Relic
- +39% Explosive Damage
For the non-elemental (Jakobs) weapons, DScarface used:
Heart of the Ancients
- +39% Assault Rifle Damage
- +39% Fight For Your Life Time
- +180% Second Wind Health
Numbers
I used the same method as always to obtain the numbers:
- No B.A.R.
- Only tested damage on slagged L80 Stumpy enemies (“The Forest” Tiny Tina DLC map)
- OP8 Gear used
- Spec was consistent throughout testing
- Single shot only (no burst firing)
- Battlefront was always active
Here we go:
Swift Lead Storm
Legendary Engineer
- 1350K
Legendary Ranger
- 1148K
Legendary Soldier
- 1408K
Front Line Rifleman
- 1634K
Expert Veteran
- 1012K
Impact Grenadier
- 1175K
Auto Gunner
- 1012K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 1175K
Slippery Seeker
Legendary Engineer
- 6821K
Legendary Ranger
- 5798K
Legendary Soldier
- 7114K
Front Line Rifleman
- 8253K
Expert Veteran
- 5116K
Impact Grenadier
- 5934K
Auto Gunner
- 5116K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 5934K
Deep Seraphim
Legendary Engineer
- 2554K
Legendary Ranger
- 2171K
Legendary Soldier
- 2663K
Front Line Rifleman
- 3090K
Expert Veteran
- 1915K
Impact Grenadier
- 2222K
Auto Gunner
- 1915K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 2222K
Slippery Kerblaster
Legendary Engineer
- 5336K (initial impact)/10406K (child grenade damage)
Legendary Ranger
- 4536K (initial impact)/7484K (child grenade damage)
Legendary Soldier
- 5566K (initial impact)/9184K (child grenade damage)
Front Line Rifleman
- 6457K (initial impact)/12591K(child grenade damage)
Expert Veteran
- 4002K (initial impact)/7604K (child grenade damage)
Impact Grenadier
- 4642K (initial impact)/11003K (child grenade damage)
Auto Gunner
- 4002K (initial impact)/7804K (child grenade damage)
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 4642K (initial impact)/7660K (child grenade damage)
Slippery Ogre
Legendary Engineer
- 4764K
Legendary Ranger
- 3652K
Legendary Soldier
- 4482K
Front Line Rifleman
- 5765K
Expert Veteran
- 3514K
Impact Grenadier
- 4713K
Auto Gunner
- 3573K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 3738K
Deep Veruc
Legendary Engineer
- 1396K
Legendary Ranger
- 1186K
Legendary Soldier
- 1456K
Front Line Rifleman
- 1689K
Expert Veteran
- 1047K
Impact Grenadier
- 1214K
Auto Gunner
- 1047K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 1214K
Numbers provided courtesy of DScarface (thanks, man!):
Horse Bekah
Legendary Engineer
- 1965K (initial impact)/5897K(bullet split)
Legendary Ranger
- 1719K (initial impact)/5157K (bullet split)
Legendary Soldier
- 2036K (initial impact)/6110K (bullet split)
Front Line Rifleman
- 2450K (initial impact)/7351K (bullet split)
Expert Veteran
- 1554K (initial impact)/4664K (bullet split)
Impact Grenadier
- 1752K (initial impact)/5256K (bullet split)
Auto Gunner
- 1554K (initial impact)/4664K (bullet split)
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 1752K (initial impact)/5256K (bullet split)
Horse Hammer Buster
Legendary Engineer
- 2449K
Legendary Ranger
- 2141K
Legendary Soldier
- 2537K
Front Line Rifleman
- 2857K
Expert Veteran
- 1936K
Impact Grenadier
- 2182K
Auto Gunner
- 1936K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 2182K
Wild Damned Cowboy
Legendary Engineer
- 2465K
Legendary Ranger
- 2156K
Legendary Soldier
- 2554K
Front Line Rifleman
- 2876K
Expert Veteran
- 1949K
Impact Grenadier
- 2197K
Auto Gunner
- 1949K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 2197K
Severe Hail
Legendary Engineer
- 3146K
Legendary Ranger
- 2423K
Legendary Soldier
- 2974K
Front Line Rifleman
- 3772K
Expert Veteran
- 2323K
Impact Grenadier
- 2994K
Auto Gunner
- 2359K
Chaotic Neutral Ranger
- 2480K
Observation & Summary
The Ogre would sometimes cause the single-shot damage to spike a bit, so to keep everything consistent, I only listed the lowest damage number I saw from each com.
As I looked through all the numbers, I kept noticing how well damage-wise the Front Line Rifleman Com performed. Out of all the coms tested, it turned out the highest numbers.
Both the Legendary Engineer and the Legendary Soldier Coms did very well too, and the numbers were extremely close for nearly every gun. The only times the Engineer caused more damage than the Soldier was in the Ogre and Kerblaster (child grenade) tests, yet even then, the numbers remained very close. Throughout all the tests, these two coms always had great numbers, and they did well.
The results for the Impact Grenadier, Chaotic Neutral Ranger, and Legendary Ranger Coms were close together as well. The numbers weren’t too far off from each other, but for both the Ogre and Kerblaster (child grenade) tests, the Impact Grenadier outperformed the other two.
The final two coms, Auto Gunner and Expert Veteran, also performed about the same, yet the damage was the weakest out of all the other coms.
A Note about Ranger-boosting coms: To keep things consistent, I did NOT spec into Ranger for any of the main testings. However, since both the Chaotic Neutral Ranger and Legendary Ranger Coms have boosts to this skill, I went 5/5 in Ranger and did a quick couple of tests with them to see what I’d get. Since I didn’t have the Ranger boost on my Chaotic Neutral one, I instead grabbed the max stat Lawful Neutral Ranger that I had used for the Tediore tests. It had +6 Ranger and +5 Impact, and while it isn’t EXACTLY the same as the Chaotic Neutral, it’ll give you a good idea of what the damage will look like going from 0/5 Ranger to 10/5 or 11/5 in it. The Kerblaster got the most noticeable benefit from the Ranger boost, so I used it for both examples.
These are the numbers that I got:
Slippery Kerblaster + Chaotic Neutral Ranger, +6 Impact/+5 Grit, 0/5 Ranger:
4642K (initial impact)/7660K (child grenade damage)
Slippery Kerblaster + Lawful Neutral Ranger, +6 Ranger/+5 Impact, 11/5 Ranger:
4829K (initial impact)/7968K (child grenade damage)
Slippery Kerblaster + Legendary Ranger, 0/5 Ranger:
4536K (initial impact)/7484K (child grenade damage)
Slippery Kerblaster + Legendary Ranger, 10/5 Ranger:
4802K (initial impact)/7924K (child grenade damage)
DPS Comparison Test Videos
In addition, I performed tests on these 6 guns (each using all the aforementioned coms) to find out what their DPS capability looked like. Again, you’ll probably scratch your head when you see me use coms like the Impact Grenadier with weapons such as the Veruc and Seraphim (they don’t get grenade damage boosts), but I wanted to keep everything consistent. I used L80 Treants for the testing because they had a good amount of health, which meant that I could get a pretty accurate picture of what the DPS would be.
Here are the videos:
Notes about the videos: I made a minor boo-boo right before I recorded the videos for the Ogre and Seeker because I had accidentally sold my Auto Gunner Com (I had found a max stat version one day while farming the train). Luckily, since the old one had +6 Steady and +5 Metal Storm, I was able to find another one without too much farming. The new one had +5 Overload instead of Metal Storm, but it still didn’t change both the single shot and DPS numbers because it also had the +6 Steady bonus.
I forgot to show my skill build and BAR after I demonstrated the Ogre’s damage with the Expert Veteran Com. It was the same exact build and BAR as the other coms.
Final Thoughts
Whew! That was a lot of numbers, but I hope this thread gives you an idea of what each com is capable of when talking about assault rifles. In my humble opinion, I’m going to keep rocking the Front Line Rifleman. It has great damage, expanded magazine size (without even needing Overload), and the added benefit of Onslaught for maximizing damage when my kill skill buffs activate.
Speaking of opinions, I’d really like to know what you think! Also, let me know if I missed something important that should be here. Thanks for reading!
