Dual Pistol Fire Ammo not worth it?

[biostem]

So I haven't really messed around with dual pistols all that much, and I had a concept that I thought would work well as a Sentinel.  As I've been playing him and looking at the numbers, it seems that incendiary ammo's extra DoT is just too small to be worthwhile.  I've been taking advantage of cryo ammo's increased range and slows to a lot greater effect.  Am I missing something here?  I suppose there are some enemies that are a lot weaker to fire damage, but besides that, which ammo do you folks find the most useful, (or is the ability to swap as needed really the best approach to take?).  Thanks for reading!

[pblue]

Have a look at this discussion and see what you make of it:

 

I find the extra range of Cyro very useful in certain maps when solo.  Likewise all the KB/KD from standard ammo provides helpful damage mitigation, but once I get them Defence soft-capped, less so. As such I generally I go with Fire ammo. I can't say I notice during play mobs going down any quicker, I'm just trusting the people who have done the maths.

[oldskool]

5 hours ago, biostem said:

Am I missing something here?  

 

I think so. The damage contribution of Incendiary Ammo is deceptive. For many powers Incendiary Ammo is adding around 20% more damage than not running it. This can have 100% uptime if you're not toggling away from it. Aim, by contrast, is a 50% damage improvement that runs 10 seconds with an uptime constrained by power recharge. So, in cases of low recharge Incendiary Ammo's effect actually contributes more damage over time than Aim would. Builds with higher Aim uptime, and Gaussian's Build-Up, make things more competitive but Incendiary Ammo is still quite good for what it is (free damage). 

That said, some players do not value Aim much and likely wouldn't value Incendiary Ammo either (or maybe even the entire Swap power broadly). That's fine. If max damage isn't the goal (considering constraints within the AT; let's not get off the rails making AT-to-AT comparisons), then Incendiary Ammo isn't a big deal. If you do want to leverage the most damage that Sentinel Dual Pistols can offer, then Incendiary Ammo is a must. There really isn't any other power in the kit that contributes as much as the fire ammo. 

If you do like the idea of juggle ammos to offer options to a team, or yourself, then I recommend taking a look at a Defender or Corruptor. Defender's have very strong debuff numbers which combines really well with their primaries. Dual Pistols shines as a force multiplier set when paired with primaries doing the same thing. Sentinels can also contribute a bit here (Blasters too for that matter), but my preference is to lean into the damage enhancers on the AT. 
 

[UltraAlt]

8 hours ago, biostem said:

which ammo do you folks find the most useful, (or is the ability to swap as needed really the best approach to take?). 

 

Well, I always go with what fits my character conception for that character.

[Thrax]

Just use fire. Maybe standard if you’re solo and need the mitigation. But I stay in fire. 

[Underfyre]

A consideration. A typical Aim (as in, not Water) will give you around a 17% bonus, in addition to the Gaussian proc give you another ~13%. That's around a 30% damage buff to every ability you use. Incendiary Ammo, on the other hand, is only adding Fire damage to your DP attacks. Using Dominate/Mind Probe like everyone else? Oh well, your damage boost has now lost half of its effectiveness. While Oldskool is correct about it increasing damage by about 20%, that's not quite the performance you'll see once you start subbing out Primary attacks for your Epic attacks. Unfortunately those epic attacks will still increase your damage output. The good news is you aren't losing a ton of damage by switching your ammo out to engage other effects.