What are the numbers for the damage that elements do for different enemy types? I'm a level 29 sniper with a 377 raw damage rifle, with no elements, but i want to know what sort of damage i'd need to be getting with elements to equal that.
I'm open to any sort of answers; facts, figures, amusing anecdotes, flames about how much i suck, social commentary on the profession of my mother... Anything
Your mother is a classy woman.
Also I mainly go by level and manufacturer when comparing this sort of thing. On top of that I look at specific weapon mods. It's quite common to pick up a +30% dmg or better weapon and then future ones you find are only +5-10% and end up less damage even though they are higher level.
Manufacturer makes a large diff as well. Jakobs sniper rifles tend to be slower and higher damage, for example, and often have revolver style loading.
On top of THAT the 4 primary stats are all balanced with each other, damage, acc, ROF, mag size. I'm sure you've seen those godly shotguns/revolvers that seem amazingly sweet...until you notice it has 2 shots. Not counting white effects (like +%dmg, +%accuracy etc) whenever you gain in one you lose in another. Overall though these stay in about the same rages as you go up, only damage shifts around a lot.
So...if you are lucky and you find a weapon of similar basic acc/rof/mag/level as yours but is elemental then you can see how much less damage that elemental costs you. But otherwise...it's hard to say :).