A lot of PVP players have been telling me I should dump my Pistols for an Assault weapon, I just wanted to know,

is there a DPS difference between a fully specced Pistol and a fully specced Assault Weapon?
Are there any differences that I should know about?
I already have some info, as my secondary account at Commander 2 uses a Full Auto-Assault weapon and seems to do great with it, but confirmation would be nice, am I indeed wasting DPS by using Pistols on my main account? Was the loss I had in the ground match I managed to get into today due to my weapon being inferior?
I'd like to know, because I will be buying a new ground weapon with my emblems soon and I wish to know if I should buy a Pistol or buy a Rifle and respec my ground game.

Perhaps they were suggesting you go with an Exploit / Expose gearing, where you use the Assault Rifle to expose (as well as AoE knockback), then switching to a Sniper Rifle or Split Beam for the kill?

But go with what you are happy with.

I run Dual Pistols that expose often with the secondary ability, then lunge for an exploit. I'm pretty happy with this setup, as even without an expose my lunge does 200 or so damage.
I was just wondering if there was a gameplay reason why everybody and their Targ runs with a sniper rifle/assault weapon.

i my self have wondered the same thing "why is every one using assault weapons" and i have come up with the answer that they do the same damage as any other equivalent weapon its just that people like the "Arnold Schwarzenegger" "Rambo" or Full Metal Jacket "Get Some" feel if you will of the assault weapons with full auto.

Range, mostly.

Personally I find Wide Beam Pistols better for close in work... *shrug*

Sniper rifles, OTOH, are just easymode noobcannons. ^^

Thanks for the answers
guess I'll stick to my pistols, probably shouldn't have gotten so down with just one loss and started doubting myself.

Sniper Rifles do more damage than Compression Pistols, so many people prefer them for exploits. Split Beam Rifles do similar damage to Compression Pistols, but can hit multiple targets.

Full Auto assault weapons have a similar effect to dual pistols, but they have a longer range on the expose effect. On my Engineer (not specced into any sort of weapon) I normally use a Full Auto assault along with a Split Beam, because that gives me a chance of exploiting multiple targets at range.




On my Tactical officers I like pistols a lot though. Pistol secondary attacks generally do less damage and have shorter range than rifles, but they are much faster. Compression Pistols are by far my preferred weapon on tactical officers, because they are fast, do a lot of damage, and can be used while moving around (unlike the sniper rifle). If you want an expose weapon as well, dual pistols or a wide-beam pistol seem good choices, since they're enhanced by the same skills as the compression pistol.

The most fun I've had with a tactical officer though was with a Sniper Rifle and a Compression Pistol, both fully skilled. Tacs can do enough damage that they don't need expose weapons. The tactic was to lead off with a fully buffed sniper shot, which would knock down the target's shields and a good chunk of their health, and then follow up with the Compression Pistol. You can finish most players in 3-4 shots that way (less if you catch them from behind).

What is all this talk of "fully skilled weapons" ? You can't fully a skill a weapon on ground we don't have any boxes for that anywhere.

Only Tactical officers can. Tac ground skills.

Firearms skill along with T1 and T2 skills for Tactical in the appropriate category.

Also technically pistols and rifles do the same DPS just that DC fire more often.

Think of it like DC vs. DHC.

Most people like rifles because of the range and burst potential.


However exploit Pistols have an advantage if you want to have the opportunity to exploit more often since their recharge is faster.