Flame Throwing

I've double checked my math here at least three times. Spurred on by a comment about Firearms being vastly superior to Explosives for the Pistol, I set about to some mathing. At this stage of the game, the numbers point to Explosives for increased Pistol damage. I know that should be backwards, it's called Firearms, right?

So last time I did an isolated test using the Pistol skill Explosive Shot. The numbers came about about the same. Or did they? I forgot to count the extra ticks for + Condition Duration in Explosives, so Explosives actually comes out ahead. While the condition damage from Firearms out damages the conditions, the extra crit just isn't enough to out damage the sustained Power of Explosives.

So tonight I added Poison Dart Volley to the mix.. My test used data collected from a couple hundred shots but I broke it down into averages over 10 shot sets. Poison Dart Volley has a cooldown of 10 seconds so I could only use it once.

Note: I left out the third skill, Static Shot because it has no instant damage and I am unsure about how traits affect damage from Confusion.

When I used Poison Dart Volley first I get:

When I used it after 8 seconds I get a little more damage:

As you can see, Explosives comes out on top again. Here's the basic formula I used (I go into more details on this previous post)

((poison dart volley crit dmg * crit rate) + (poison dart volley dmg * 100-crit rate) * 5 (hits)) + (2 ticks) * (poison tick dmg)

I add to that

((explosive shot crit dmg * crit rate) + (explosive shot dmg * 100-crit rate) * 9 (hits)) + ticks(bleed tick dmg)

I collected the damage and crit rate numbers in BWE2. For untraited it looks like this:

((348 * .375) + (230 * .625)) * 5 + 2(96) + 9(420.375 + 280.625) + 32(49) = 6123

+30 Explosives:

((428 * .375) + (280 * .625)) * 5 + 2(96) + 9(520.375 + 340.625) + 38(49) = 7399

+30 Firearms

((348 * .525) + (230 * .475)) * 5 + 2(125) + 9(420.525 + 280.475) + 32(64) = 6939

But Wait!!!!

Traits.

The Explosive traits do almost nothing for the Pistol. Explosive shot will occasionally add vulnerability but at this point I don't know the rate and I can't calculate it.

I do however know that Target the Maimed in the Firearms tree will give me a 5% damage boost to instant damage on every shot except the first one. (Another reason to not shoot Poison Dart Volley first)

So the Firearm tree actually looks like this:

((348 * .525) + (230 * .475)) * 5 * 1.05 + 2(125) + 1.058 (420.525 + 280.475) + (420.525 + 280.475) + 32(64) = 7153

Getting closer. There's more. Sharpshooting adds more bleeding on crit. We know crit so we can calculate this.

Let's add 2.6 * 2 * 64 for crits from Poison Dart Volley and 4.75 * 64 * 3 (it's not 4 since the crit can be at the end)

This yields 7153 + 1244 = 8397

We actually do get more damage from Firearms. Vulnerability will help Explosive damage but I can't see it making up 1000 damage over 10 seconds. This is something I will have to test later

So after lots of boring math, we learned

1. Firearms is better than Explosives for Pistols, although not as much as I would think.
2. Don't open with Poison Dart Volley. Build bleeds for a few shots to get your condition stacks up and then let the poison darts fly.