Combat Rifle

Combat/Support Rifles are heavy weapons which come in two major varieties.

Burst Fire Rifles tend to have small magazines, high damage, relatively high rates of accuracy and effective recoil handling, and are either semiautomatic or more commonly burst-fire. Burst fire rifles sometimes have a scope often at x1.4 but sometimes higher, especially with the "Scoped" prefix. Reload rates tend to be manageable, ranging from 0.75 seconds to as much as 1.75 seconds. Dahl, Hyperion and Tediore all make burst fire rifles.

Support Machine Guns are fully automatic, sharing handling characteristics with burst rifles and Submachine Guns. They often come with medium to medium-high firepower rates, though the slower firing variants are not as effective as their faster counterparts. Machine guns tend not to be equipped with scopes of any kind, though using iron sights will still reduce the spread allowing for relatively accurate sustained fire on a target. That pointed out, machine guns do not necessarily have to be sighted to remain effective; short bursts can allow run-and-gun tactics to be used due to the often superior recoil handling these weapons posses. Reload times for machine guns are oftentimes very high, as much as 3.5 seconds for certain models. However, large magazine sizes typically all but negate any significant reload time. Atlas, S&S Munitions, Torgue and Vladof all make machine guns.

Burst Fire Rifle Strategy
Burst fire rifles have sometimes been described as the little brother to the Sniper Rifle, in that oftentimes the very first model encountered is going to be scoped, yet inexact and not hit as hard as the Sniper Rifle will. Although as the game progresses, models encountered later in a playthrough will break this initial mold, and depending upon player style could become better at sniping distant targets than sniper rifles due to the comparatively minuscule recoil between bursts. Higher fire rates also reduce recoil between shots, giving the weapon less time to throw off its spread between each bullet in the burst. As a result a 7.7 fire rate rifle will have a significantly wider, less lethal spread than a 15 burst fire rate.

Burst fire rifles are most effective at medium-long range. Given that, the ability to rapidly project accurate, crippling amounts of firepower is best used against targets that don't take full advantage of cover. For this reason, burst rifles excel against Scythids, Skags, all breeds of Spiderant, and Crimson Lance of any variety. With their specific weak spots, Lance should be tackled at close to medium-long range. Spiderants should be burst-sniped at medium-long range from a raised position. Scythid and Skag can be taken effectively with an assault rifle at any range.

When looking for a good burst rifle, look for firepower while showing a minimal favoring towards accuracy, and pay attention to the rate of fire. Anything with a fire rate below 10.0 should be avoided, otherwise maximum effective range is greatly reduced. Any degree of negative recoil reduction should also be avoided, and for much the same reason even if initial accuracy is high and firepower is above-par. Negative recoil reduction basically turns the burst rifle into a scoped Shotgun of painfully limited firepower and critical potential.

Semiautomatic Pounders with extremely good accuracy are a rare and valuable find, but the small magazine capacity and low fire rate limit their use to protracted engagements at a distance.

Burst rifles make mediocre elemental weapons, so don't prioritize elemental ability over firepower or accuracy.

Support Machine Gun Strategy
If burst rifles are the little brother to the Sniper Rifle, then support machine guns are the big brother of the Submachine Gun, hitting the target a little bit slower, while possessing a much greater amount of strength per hit and a comparatively enormous magazine.

For extended firefights at almost any range, nothing beats a support machine gun. No matter the situation, be it against lots of little enemies or just one really big Badass, the constant slamming away at enemy hit points makes the support machine gun a superb all-around weapon. It should be noted that these guns are to be treated as a jack-of-all-trades; they do everything adequately and excel nowhere. Where support machine guns really start to shine depends entirely upon the model, and the capabilities of the weapon. There are accurate, steady types with very big magazines and very long reload times, where the best situation to use it is at medium range. There are also fast-firing, slightly inaccurate bullet hoses with above-average magazines and decent reload times that are best used up close against heavily armored targets where an almost never-ending rain of hefty slugs causes flinching or stun effects.

What is wanted in a good support machine gun is the ability to hammer at everything moving until it's dead. Look for firepower, magazine size, fire rate, and accuracy in that order. The harder the gun hits the fewer bullets it needs to kill, the faster it hits the faster it can make that kill, and more accurate it is the greater the effective range those kills can be racked up.

Support machine guns make excellent elemental weapons due to elemental effects stacking with subsequent hits on a specific target.

Class Info

 * Roland is optimized for using combat rifles. His skills and class mods can increase magazine size, rate of fire, recoil reduction, accuracy, damage, damage per second and trigger chance with Shock elemental effects. There are even specific Class Mods available to the Soldier that give him a large damage boost to all rifle weapons (since Patch 1.30), greatly increased yet specialized magazine sizes, and either combat rifle ammo regeneration or insanely effective recoil reduction with rifles. Roland, unlike other classes, can also make very good use out of elemental 'Pounder'-style rifles, allowing him to eschew the use of Sniper Rifles entirely.
 * Lilith, being the elemental weapon specialist can take good advantage of elemental support machine guns with her skills and class mods that increase elemental trigger damage over time and trigger chance for specific elemental effects or even blanket coverage. The Siren can also increase some general stats like rate of fire, bullet speed, accuracy, damage, and critical strike damage.
 * Mordecai's skills and class mods can make good use out of combat rifles, support machine guns especially; increasing damage, accuracy, reload speed, and critical strike damage.
 * Brick, being the explosive weapons expert can turn an otherwise mediocre explosive combat rifle into a formidable weapon with his skills and class mods that improve explosive damage, blast radius damage and explosive chance. Like Mordecai, Brick can also improve some general stats that allow him to take maximum advantage of support machine guns with increases to damage, recoil handling and reload speed.

Burst Rifles
 Titles:


 * Rifle - Balanced but basic; there are better burst rifles.
 * Cobra - Highly accurate without sacrificing firepower.
 * Stomper - Extremely powerful but half bullet velocity; very good in hands of a Siren.
 * Pounder - Small mag-capacity, high power, semiautomatic.

 Drops and Rewards:


 * The Sentinel "A watchful eye" - Unique quest reward from Jack's Other Eye. Large (3.9x) zoom.




 * Dahl Raven "2 More Bullets Make All The Difference" - Five round bursts instead of three.
 * Tediore Guardian "Hold your ground... Forever." - Ammo regeneration.
 * Hyperion Destroyer "The destructor has come" - Automatic fire while zoomed.




 * Tediore Avenger "Uncommon Power" - High zoom, +50% Critical Hit Damage, single shot, slow ammo regeneration.

Support Machine Guns
 Titles:


 * Machine Gun - Basic but still useful, with a manageable reload speed.
 * Mauler - Very high damage per bullet and respectable rate of fire, but suffers from reduced accuracy.
 * Havoc - Fast fire rate coupled with a hard hit, rarely scoped, and unlike most machine guns Havocs reload fairly quickly.
 * Massacre - Very accurate machine guns with moderate fire rates; scoped models can sometimes replace sniper rifles.

 Drops and Rewards:


 * The Meat Grinder "War is in your blood" - Unique weapon used by Jaynis Kobb. Large magazine but low accuracy. Erroneously said to have increased firerate after killing an enemy.
 * Ajax's Spear "Useful for kicking Hector's bitch ass." - A unique weapon used by Ajax in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Increased damage and recoil reduction.
 * The Chopper "RAR! BRAR BRAR!" - Occasionally found from Motorhead in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Fires 4 bullets per shot at the cost of 6 ammo and does not stop firing until interrupted by reload or melee attack. Huge magazine and extreme firerate but decreased accuracy.




 * S&S Draco "Dragon Fire!" - 3x or 4x Incendiary and large magazine, however naming bugs prevent it from being named correctly.
 * Atlas Ogre "Ogre SMASH!" - 2x to 4x Explosive.
 * Torgue Bastard "TORGUE! Bastard Guns for Bastard People!" - High damage.
 * Vladof Revolution "Guns of the Revolution will never fall silent!" - Large magazine (Comes in either Glorious or Rowdy variants).




 * S&amp;S Serpens "Poison in your veins" - Very high Corrosive damage and bullets travel in waves.

Rifle de combate