So, I'm a bit stuck here on gun choices. For a shadow gun, I see 3 viable options. Shadowtech, Biohazard and Sentenza after the missions update turns it pure shadow.
What, in a gunners opinion, would be the best shadow gun to use? Right now, I see it as a tie between sentenza and shadowtech, but it's good to have opinions.
Now for elemental guns, I dislike the polaris. So, would the argent be a viable option as a pure elemental gun post mission? I'm kind of leaning towards a elemental tech gun.
I'm not a gunner, BUT I've got to say that the Polaris is actually very useful when soloing. You can keep large groups of enemies at a distance due to the spam knockback. Obviously, the downside is that in groups, you'll be seriously trolling when you knock a lumber's attack into the face of a teammate.
Aside from that, I'd recommend going Shadowtech and Prismatech for shadow & elemental (respectively). The ricocheting bullets can add up to a lot of damage when fighting larger groups, and the Nova Driver (5* Prismatech) can one-shot Slags in FSC with a party size of 3 (or less? not sure exactly).
Anyways, that's a swordie's opinion, take it with a grain of salt :3
Gunners should not use the Polaris as their primary Elemental side (especially in parties). It is a great tool (4th weapon), but horrible as a main weapon.
Personally I would go Umbra Driver & Nova Driver, but you could be wasting crowns if OOO rolls out the AP/Sent update soon. I was right about to start heating the 3* versions when I noticed that the test server is running the AP as pure Elemental. I am now holding out to see if my AP will become useful sometime soon.
*edit* Really we can't answer your question, AP/Sent vs Drivers, until after the update happens. I suspect that the 6 shooters will have a clear DPS advantage:
Shoot,Shoot,Shoot,Shoot,Shoot,Shield-cancel,Shoot,Shoot,Shoot,Shoot,Shoot vs Shoot, Shield-cancel, Shoot
You might try reading the test server forum for intel.
The damage calculation by somebody on rawr-cake's thread shows that ap does slightly higher dps on undeads, the family weak to elemental and neutral to piercing. Thus, if ap is changed to pure elemental, it will outdamage the drivers, even after counting in ricochets. And this will both apply to undeads and constructs. Drivers will become niche weapons, almost for pure gunners as a utility gun for taking mobs down, like a shadowtech charge into a jelly infested area
Test servers are test servers for a reason. If every single change on it goes through, people will be unhappy. Pure piercing rss, anyone?
[off-topic] It would be nice if they just went ahead and added another 4*->5* path for pure Piercing Antigua too while they were at it (oh and make it not silly looking too while they are at it). Then we would have all 3 damage types out of the same style of gun. [/off-topic]
I really love my storm driver, pretty good damage especially as I get better at utilizing the charge and the shock can really help slow mobs down when I'm feeling overwhelmed.
I don't currently own a shadow gun (other than the shadow mk2 that I only use when I feel like going full guns in t2 lockdown but since I don't use that in clockworks I'm not gonna count it). My all around loadout usually is callahan, storm driver and silent nightblade. I would definitely look into the sentenza line if it became pure shadow mostly because it would be a weapon with entirely different mechanics than anything I currently use. Playing around with the different weapon styles is one of the most fun parts of this game for me which is one of the reasons I didn't want to have two drivers in my loadout (and I loath polaris line so that was never an option).
I'm not on the test server right now. Other people are, but they're not supposed to talk about it. So we don't really know how Argent and Sentenza will behave after the change. I myself am waiting for this to shake out, before pursuing any more guns. In any event, here are your options for elemental:
* Nova Driver (raw damage)
* Storm Driver (shock)
* Magma Driver (fire)
* Hail Driver (freeze)
* Polaris (knockback, shock)
* maybe Argent (raw damage)
For the most part, this comes down to a general decision about which statuses you'd like to inflict. That depends on whether you play solo, what your other weapons are, etc. I will say this: I and other people find Hail Driver hard to use, because an imperfect gunner breaks his own freezes really often.