Combat Rifle

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

Assault rifles tend to have small magazines, high hit-per-bullet damage rates, relatively high rates of accuracy and recoil handling, and are either semiautomatic or more commonly semiautomatic burst-fire. All known assault rifles include scopes starting at 1.4x, though can go higher. Reload rates tend to be manageably speedy ranging from 0.75 seconds to only as much as 1.75 seconds. They are made by Dahl, Hyperion and Tediore.

Machineguns are fully automatic, sharing handling characteristics with assault rifles and Submachine Guns in far as initial accuracy and recoil handling are concerned. They often come with medium to medium-high firepower rates, though the somewhat lackluster rate of fire can limit the damage potential of machineguns. Machineguns tend not to be equipped with scopes of any kind, though sighting will still reduce the spread allowing for relatively accurate sustained fire on a target. Reload times for machineguns are oftentimes very high, as much as 3.5 seconds for certain models. They are made by Atlas, S&S Munitions, Torgue and Vladof.

Assault Rifle Strategy
Assault 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 messy and not hit as potentially hard as the Sniper will. However, 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 miniscule recoil between bursts.

Scoped, burst-firing assault rifles are useful for any number of roles against any number of enemies at any range. Given that though, the ability to rapidly project accurate, crippling amounts of firepower is best used against stupid targets that don't take full advantage of cover. For this reason, assault 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-close range. Spiderants should be burst-sniped at medium-long to medium range from a raised position. Scythid and Skag can be taken effectively with an assault rifle at any range.

When looking for a good assault rifle, look for accuracy and firepower while showing a minimal favoring towards accuracy. Any degree of negative recoil reduction should be avoided, even if initial accuracy is high and firepower is above-par. Negative recoil reduction basically turns the assault rifle into a scoped Shotgun of painfully limited firepower and critical potential.

Avoid semiautomatic "Pounders" unless a rare one can be found with extremely good accuracy and a much expanded magazine. Unless those qualities can be found the role of a high-powered, scoped, semiautomatic weapon is better filled by the Sniper Rifle.

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

Machinegun Strategy
If assault rifles are the little brother to the Sniper Rifle, then machineguns are the slow cousin to the Submachine Gun, hitting the target comparatively slowly, while possessing a certain amount of impressive strength per hit.

For extended firefights at almost any range nothing beats a machinegun. No matter the situation, be it against lots of little enemies or just one really big Badass, the constant slamming away at enemy hitpoints makes the machinegun a superb all-around weapon. However, it should be noted that being good at pretty much everything doesn't make machineguns the best at everything. Where machineguns 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 okay 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 machinegun is the ability to hammer at everything moving until it's dead. Look for firepower and accuracy in that order. The only exception to this rule is scopes. If you can find a machinegun with a decent 1.4x or better scope and it has slightly less firepower and/or accuracy than a compared model, get the scoped weapon anyway. With it you can cause a chain of heavy critical hits against nearly any target.

Machineguns make passable Incendiary and Corossive elemental weapons, but otherwise don't prioritize the elemental ability over brute firepower.

Note: The machinegun Roland has Fresh Off The Bus is not typical of most machinegun weapons, there is something better.

Class Info

 * Roland is the optimal character for using Combat Rifles. His skills and class mods can increase magazine size, rate of fire, recoil reduction, accuracy, damage, and 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.
 * Lilith, being the elemental weapon specialist can take good advantage of elemental machinegun-style Combat Rifles 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, 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. Brick can also improve some general stats like damage, recoil handling and reload speed.

Burst-fire Assault Rifles
Legendary: Pearlescent:
 * Rifle - balanced but basic; there are better assault rifles.
 * Cobra - highly accurate without sacrificing firepower.
 * Stomper - extremely powerful but half bullet velocity; very good against Crimson Lance Defenders.
 * Pounder - small mag-capacity, high power, semiautomatic.
 * The Sentinel - Unique quest reward from Jack's Other Eye
 * Dahl Raven "2 More Bullets Makes All The Difference" - Five round bursts instead of three
 * Tediore Guardian "Hold your ground... Forever." - Ammo regeneration
 * Hyperion Destroyer "The destructor has come" - Full auto while zoomed


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

Fully Automatic Machineguns
Legendary: Pearlescent:
 * Machine Gun - basic but still useful and with a relatively quick reload
 * Mauler - very high damage per bullet (stronger than either a Havoc or a Massacre but usually less accurate)
 * Havoc - fast fire rate coupled with a hard per-bullet hit, rarely scoped but manageably accurate when sighted
 * Massacre - Very accurate machine gun with moderate fire rates.
 * The Meat Grinder - The Meat Grinder is a Unique weapon guaranteed to drop when you kill Jaynis Kobb.
 * Ajax's Spear - A unique item drop from Ajax in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.
 * The Chopper - Unique weapon that can drop off of Motorhead in The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.
 * S&S Draco "Dragon Fire!" - Incendiary
 * Atlas Ogre "Ogre SMASH!" - Explosive
 * Torgue Bastard "TORGUE! Bastard Guns for Bastard People!" - Damage
 * Vladof Revolution "Guns of the Revolution will never fall silent!" - Huge magazine


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