DP questions

I've just come back and stared playing a DP corruptor. I'm now level 12 after yesterday and having taken Swap Ammo I'm VERY disappointed with the secondary effects of it. So my question is, does it get better, is it worth keeping or should I respec out of it? Right now I'm really regretting taking it, so someone that has played to a higher level would most likely have a better more educated opinion on this.

Thanks in advance.

What makes you disappointed with it? Standard rounds give you -def and KD, like a normal gun in this game. Incendiary rounds give you a Fire DoT, like a normal fire attack in this game. Cryo rounds give you -spd and -rech, like a normal ice attack in this game. Chemical rounds give you -dam, which is new.

Swap Ammo doesn't make your gun better. It lets you choose which weapon you want to use at any given time.

The secondary effects really don't seem to do much at all. Last night I lit a guy on fire and did all of 6 damage to it. When I froze someone it only lasted a few seconds. I guess what I'm disappointed with is that the secondary effects are underwhelming at best.

At level 12 (unenhanced), the Fire portion of Dual Wield is 6.6. There's still 15.41 lethal damage as well, plus the Fire DoT (totalling 7.52 over the course of 3.1 seconds at lv12)

Now, Fire Blast will have slightly bigger DoTs than Incendiary ammo gives. Ice Blast will incude slightly stronger slows for slightly longer (a factor of about 5%, I believe) than Cryo ammo. Assault Rifle's -def is actually about the same as Standard ammo. And there isn't anything to compare Chemical ammo with, anyway. The closest is Dark Blast; Chemical rounds with Dual Weild is -10% damage for 6s, Gloom is -7.5% tohit for 10s (-1% tohit is somewhat similar to -2% dam, but that's inexact and doesn't tell the whole story).

I don't know exactly where Dual Pistols lies on the spectrum of "best damage", but each ammo type isn't really that bad. DP shines in its flexibility, especially when it comes to enemies with a certain type of resistance.

On the other hand, you can drop Swap Ammo and stick with Standard ammo, and you'll be no worse wor wear than an Assault Rifle Corruptor, and you'll have that extra power selection.

As Whisper said, the real advantage of Swap Ammo is it's versitility. If the team has plenty of survivability, use fire ammo for more damage over time. If it doesn't, then cryo or (imo better choice) chem rounds. If something highly resists lethal, but has less resistance to say cold or toxic, you can swap your secondary damage type to help bypass that lethal resistance. Personally, I rarely use cryo ammo since I find chem rounds aid survivability more on my blaster.

Also, don't neglect the standard rounds when soloing. I find the KB is often better mitigation when soloing than the -dam from chem rounds.

Sometimes swapping ammo in the middle of a fight is useful. Start out with standard rounds for a Built-Up AOE alpha, then quickly switch to fire rounds to pick off the one or two who don't get KB'ed, or chem rounds to debuff a boss.

The strength Dual Pistols comes from the fact that it's like the Swiss Army knife of blast sets.

Did that Archvillain just activated his awesome shield and now all your Lethal attacks do 2 points of damage? Toxic time!

Is that a fire-based demon over there? Oh, what's that? He resists Fire but has a weakness to Cold? Ice ice baby!

Hey look! Your team is a little low on the damage side! You need more oomph. Only if you had some way of pumping out more damage at no cost! OH WAIT! You do!!!! Burn baby, burn!

Oh look over there! Is that a boss with some Defense? Or wait, is he rushing at you? Here, have some -DEF and Knockback! Lethal time!

HOWEVER.

I do realize that Corruptors don't get Build Up. And Build Up tends to help Dual Pistols immensely. I can understand why Corruptors keep complaining about it, and if anyone wants to try out the awesome-ness of Dual Pistols, I recommend them to roll the Blaster version percisely for higher damage and Build Up. Dual Pistols/Mind Manipulation Blasters specifically! Bring out the Shockwave!

Either way, I think you should notice greater performance at higher levels. Especially after you get your two heavy hitters: Executioner's Shot and Piercing Rounds.