Machine Gun Augmentations — Pros & Cons

General Discussion
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I’m struggling to find the “right” augmentation for my PM-71, my work horse gun. Thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the options, and maybe get some feedback and new ideas.

Titan Toppler
The “safe but boring” choice. 20% extra damage is decent, but not game changing.

Unstoppable Shells
Great augment, but I use it on another gun that can fit scopes (so I can see what I’m shooting through the wall)

Prone Specialization
Didn’t try it yet, but 90% Recoil Reduction could be massive. The problem is, how often do I use my LMG while being prone?

Machine Disarmer
I used it on another gun, and it was a mixed experience. The 50% damage bonus makes short work of one, maybe two weapons. However, the remaining weapons can be hard to hit in a frenzied close-up fight, where it matters the most, so the augmentation effect doesn’t apply for the remainder of the fight.

Health Stealing
It’s great in theory, but just not enough impact. Additional problem: the healing is based on damage dealt, not secondary damage. If I one shoot a runner by hitting the gas tank, I get almost no healing because apparently only the direct component damage is counted.

EMP Detonation
I tried it, but it didn’t help in the situations where I need it the most. When I’m surrounded by Hunters and fight for my dear life, I manage to disable them once maybe when destroying a component that is easy to target. But after that one is gone, I usually don’t get to destroy another one in such a fight, so the augmentation effect is limited. Similar problem as described above for Machine Disarmer

The rest
Sharpshooter seems like a bad idea on a gun that is used short to medium range at most. Small Fryer is useful but not on an LMG, same for Structure Destroyer. Adhesive Rounds, Acidic, Scorching, Uranium Infused: haven’t unlocked those yet.

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If you are using an LMG

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If you’re using an LMG as your main gun, then why not a larger cap mag and longer sprint time? When I use an LMG, it is close range, lots of targets and I don’t want to stand and shoot so I use sprint a lot. Also depends on how you built out your specialist.

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Great points, thanks!

Maybe “work horse” or “main weapon” wasn’t the best way to put it. I use a range of guns depending on the situation (RPG, experimental PVG, and an assault rifle with unstoppable shells).

I use the LMG in two types of scenarios:

  • When the shit really hits the fan (surrounded by 5 fnix hunters and two harvesters). That situation is inevitably short range. Health steal would be great here, so I wouldn’t have to switch to medpacks too often, if it wouldn’t be such a low percentage.

  • In mid-range scenarios where I have control of the situation, and want to get the kill fast and efficiently. In my experience, the LMG has one of the best, if not the best DPS (when taking reload into account). So when I can, I like to use it for a kill because it’s quick, and ammo is comparably cheap.

Because of the mid-range usage, Oversized Magazine doesn’t work because of the added recoil. But, agreed with the sprint augmentation, that’s my current favorite for the secondary slot.

My build is a mix of survivability, damage and a bit of stealth: ultimate skill is damage reduction, damage bonus for auto fire and armor, and faster crouch speed (because that tends to be my main movement mode before starting an engagement).

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I think you can use Prone Specialization to almost completely negate the added recoil from Oversized Magazine. How well it seems to work for me, anyway.

It is highly situational, as you pointed out, as it would make the gun harder to deal with on the move—but especially good when prone… From my perspective, it might be the most worthwhile, considering the mid-range scenario you mention. It could force you to pick where you fight or fight from a little more carefully, but…that combination does suit an MG pretty well. Especially the PM-71, which already has pretty much the best power output of any normal automatic firearm, good effective range, not terrible handling in my opinion…

Then again, if you find you just aren’t prone enough to make that worth it, well, forget that combo. Can’t combine the crouched weapon handling augment with oversized magazine, anyway, so that isn’t an option…wouldn’t be much of an option, either, as the crouched weapon handling augment isn’t nearly as good as the prone one.

Really, a LOT of the augments are super situational. Like you’ve already settled on, it forces you to specialize different weapons in different ways. One for armor stripping, another for actual component damage dealing…one for EMP, another for blinding…

IF the blinding one works, I think the duration for it is LONG at the high end, so it might be especially nice…but if i remember right, it works based on component destroyed, so the same trigger as the EMP augment. If your maneuvering doesn’t give you a chance to really pick a machine apart, component by component, even the blinding might not be worth it. You pointed that out as a con against the EMP augment, which I agree with, but the duration might make it worth it for blinding vs. EMP… The EMP duration may just be too short.

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I played around with the prone specialization on the pm-71 for a bit. When it works, it’s crazy good, like you suddenly have a higher fire rate pvg at your disposal. But unfortunately, these situations are few and far between, and it’s not helping at all that in prone position aiming angles are greatly restricted.
I’m back to titan toppler for now, it’s admittedly a bit boring but seems to have the overall highest utility on this gun (at least with my play style)

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Nice information. We hope you will be succeded.

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Update: I settled on Machine Disarmer in the end. Since it does +50% damage to weapons, it is almost as good as Titan Toppler in terms of raw damage bonus (higher damage bonus, applicable to all machines not just the big ones; damage bonus only applied when hitting weapons though). It does however also help in the situations I described before, when you’re in close combat fighting for your life against multiple enemies. So, it seems like a good trade-off between general utility (higher damage) and situational utility (save your ass when you are being overwhelmed)

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Added recoil! That explains what is happening with the COM-10. I’m still happy having 85 rounds with the silver augmentation