Soma Prime vs Braton Prime

[KnaveOfSwords]

I haven't done too much with either of these two, but I have - and have levelled, but not formad - both.  And while some of the differences between the two seem fairly obvious (Soma's more crit-focused, low-damage, high RoF, Braton's higher damage but lower RoF and less crits - though better status), I'm trying to figure out a bit more of how do these two play, whether I should focus on one or the other, and whether there's enough difference between the two to be worth keeping both.

[Teloch]

Soma P - probably the only one good LMG in the game (200 rounds of crits)

Braton P - the highly customizable universal assault rifle that simply does its job (mostly via status effects and only after 4-5 formas). 

Edited October 4, 2016 by Teloch

[[DE]Momaw]

If you can aim for heads and get those delicious head-crit bonuses, Soma Prime completely annihilate anything very very fast....  up until the point where armor starts being a significant problem and getting rid of the target's armor becomes the biggest factor in your DPS. Then the Braton prime's ability to remove armor in a somewhat efficient manner will start to matter more and more. Status also plays nicer with teams since you can synergize  in ways that don't rely on your own personal DPS. For example building for blast and electricity can keep everything down range immobilized for somebody with a grenade launcher, or radiation and viral.  (But then, if you're on a team, you might be able to get everybody to bring corrosive projection which means armor stops being a thing entirely and Soma prime is back to being a high prince of murder).

Edited October 4, 2016 by Momaw

[Rekkou]

With Soma Prime you are still going to procs bleed pretty often because of its fire rate, and Bleed procs x armor ignore x High crit damage x Headshot multiplier = There will be more numbers coming out of your enemies than blood

[(PSN)Bosnia_Akhalar]

20 minutes ago, Momaw said:

.... up until the point where armor starts being a significant problem ..........

I always hear this, but when the armor become a problem ? lv 200 ?

[ashrah]

both are good guns i have soma p and braton p with 6 forma...braton p  have low ammo pool what i really dont like dmg is good....soma is good for everything just not for long runs

[Zarota]

When in doubt;

 

[NyxCrab]

Soma Prime has more total damage, and if you can hit headshots it deals an amazing amount of DPS. However, Soma Prime is awful unless you do a crit build on it. 

Braton Prime doesn't deal quite as much damage, but it's got better status so it can easily proc corrosive, viral, radiation, and slash procs, and it's more well rounded than the Soma.

[Sloan441]

I use both pretty extensively.

The SomaP does substantially more damage, but it's a crit weapon and relies pretty heavily on making headshots to reach the exalted heights it's capable of. It has much higher ammo capacities to sustain that damage output, but has a relatively long reload. It can produce status effects mostly due to its high rate of fire, but it isn't terribly reliable at it. It's about a 27k dps weapon. Due to its being a crit weapon, builds are rather restricted because of the necessary mods--it generally comes down to one elemental combo and whether you want shred or not.

The BratonP is handier, has much higher base damage and can produce status effects very consistently. It has limited ammo capacity, so firing short bursts tends to work better with this gun. It's known for its ability to strip armor and produce heavy bleed effects. It's around a 23k dps weapon. The gun is very flexible in builds and responds best to RoF and elemental damage combos. You usually have room for bane mods. It's my most used primary weapon.

I have 4 forma in my SomaP and use it on when I want the sustained fire ability or just brute dps. I mod for crit, one elemental combo, and run HC and shred.

I have 7 forma in my BratonP and I like it for general use. I have several builds for it, depending on enemy type and who is actually using it. Generally I favor RoF builds with multiple elements and at least one combo. I also have fitted it out to use primed bane mods where appropriate. I generally keep it around 50% on status chance, which is adequate, especially at around 23RoF. It's aimed more at bleed procs lately, since we've seen a trend of mixed enemy types, which makes using bane mods a bit problematic.

[KnaveOfSwords]

3 hours ago, Zarota said:

When in doubt;

Yeah, I think that's the big reason I haven't done more with either of these two.  I got the Twin Grakatas fairly early, and have mostly used them as my assault rifle of choice.