Demolition ammo and other useless(?) assemblies

[Buzzard]

Yes, it is nice. Almost like plasma ;) .

That and you have a backup gun with 60 shots if you run out of plasma ammo.

[tylor]

+1 to gatling. It eats bullets very fast, but bullets are usually plenty. And if you have SoB5 it does not matter much what you fire, but how fast (and how accurate, which can be a problem)

[Thomas]

To go back to the original post for a second - the wiki says that the damage from demolition ammo is supposed to be (X+2)d2, where X is the dice rolled by the original weapon. In this case, the '6' in the chaingun's original 1d6 is completely ignored and the damage is based off the '1' instead. That said, 3d2 is still a fair bit better than 1d6 - it deals about 30% more damage on average.

As for assembly balance in general, the ones I always find myself making are:
Tactical Boots, Armour, Shotgun: Everybodys' favourites. Moving fast and shooting often is obviously way more powerful than almost anything else.
Micro Launcher: A perfect compliment to the average no-EE no-Wiz shotgun run. Is vastly inferior to the missile launcher, but is easier to get and what else are you spending tech mods on?

More situational:
Chainsword: A must-have for certain challenges and malicious blades runs.
Gatling Gun, Hyperblaster: I don't do rapidfire runs often, but these are both nice when I do.
Grappling Boots: Melee-only. Tech mods would otherwise be worthless to a melee character, so I'll sometimes take 50% less knockback. Melee characters are also the only people with enough inventory space to consider boots-swapping, so you can take them off if you want to run fast or be propelled by an explosion.
Speedloader Pistol: The simplest pistol to get, I generally don't get Wiz in my AoMr runs.

Others worth mentioning:
Literally anything that requires a special mod: Isn't worth mentioning. Aside from nano mods, I never think about assemblies when I use a special mod.
Tactcial Rocket Launcher and Focused Double Shotgun: Both intrigue me, but I never go for Wizkid in a shottyman run.
Assault Rifle: I wish I could get this to work, but you need TH 2 and Wiz 1 and by then it just isn't worth it uuugh
Piercing Blade: I made this for the achievement once. It says '+2 die if you put the power mod on first' - does this mean 6d6 or 4d8? Either way, a single bulk mod gets you to 5d6 and armour really couldn't be any less of a problem to a melee character who can deal upwards of 40 damage in one shot without even trying.
Elephant Gun: I'm a bit surprised to hear this one get attention too. Its main upside over the double shotgun seems to be ammo efficiency (more damage per shell AND less damage falloff) but this doesn't matter at all to a shotgunner. The double shotgun puts out more damage per turn, the tactical shotgun fires faster (and has even less falloff), does this have a niche between them?
Fireproof Armour: I always forget this exists! I generally try to agility-mod my red armour, but most endgame enemies deal fire damage (and only revenants will ever melee you, really) so we should all try to remember to make this just before Hell.

[shark20061]

Piercing Blade: I made this for the achievement once. It says '+2 die if you put the power mod on first' - does this mean 6d6 or 4d8? Either way, a single bulk mod gets you to 5d6 and armour really couldn't be any less of a problem to a melee character who can deal upwards of 40 damage in one shot without even trying.

Piercing blade has a bug that makes the order of mods matter for determining the final output for the assembly.  That said, Power Mod on a melee weapon is +1 sides, not dice (wiki was wrong).  Piercing Blade on a combat knife would be 3d5 (P mod second) or 3d6 (P first) and piercing chainsaw would be 5d6 (P second) or 5d7 (P first).

[raekuul]

I see other people are finally seeing the problem that I've been harping about for a while with explosive weapons, in that Knockback is calculated before damage.

Demolition Ammo is a great concept and could be very useful, if not for this fact.

[Mogul]

I might be alone in this, but I think the Elephant Gun blows other shotguns out of the water. If I'm going for a shotgun focused build it is my primary weapon. Tactical Shotguns are great, especially when you're not getting shotgun traits, but they can't really compete with an Elephant Gun when you have the appropriate traits. Shell efficiency, the larger cone of fire, and higher damage/knockback all make it fantastic. The only real downside is when you are cornershooting, but the extra knockback helps offset this, and you can combat it with appropriate use of ammoboxes or even sidestepping if you move fast enough.

[MaiZure]

Yes!
I have always been a silent supporter of the Elephant Gun and I almost always get it when Im doing a shotty build. In fact, since they moved Combat Shotty to later levels, I almost never get it over the regular shotgun anymore.

[Buzzard]

I might be alone in this, but I think the Elephant Gun blows other shotguns out of the water. If I'm going for a shotgun focused build it is my primary weapon. Tactical Shotguns are great, especially when you're not getting shotgun traits, but they can't really compete with an Elephant Gun when you have the appropriate traits. Shell efficiency, the larger cone of fire, and higher damage/knockback all make it fantastic. The only real downside is when you are cornershooting, but the extra knockback helps offset this, and you can combat it with appropriate use of ammoboxes or even sidestepping if you move fast enough.

Absolutely agreed. However, the Focused Double Shotgun/Super Shotgun is even better if you can make it/find it. Sure, it loses a little in ammo efficiency, but the damage boost is worth it, especially if you are playing MAD.

[Equality]

However, the Focused Double Shotgun/Super Shotgun is even better if you can make it/find it. Sure, it loses a little in ammo efficiency, but the damage boost is worth it, especially if you are playing MAD.

...unfortunately playing MAD Fin and WK traits are blocked and focused double shotgun can't be assembled anyway. I try focused double shotgun once and IMO this one of worst assemblies. Super shotgun fine and moddable. But focused shotgun... even with P-mod it only = unmodded super. Elephant gun assembly much more useful.

[gunofdis]

It really is a shame how far the assault rifle has fallen.  I made it nearly every ammo chain game when it first came out because of its amazing accuracy and fire rate.  Now the fire rate bonus is gone and it's far less accurate, on top of the double ammo cost.

[skarczew]

It really is a shame how far the assault rifle has fallen.  I made it nearly every ammo chain game when it first came out because of its amazing accuracy and fire rate.  Now the fire rate bonus is gone and it's far less accurate, on top of the double ammo cost.

Kornel does not play this game, why should he make useful assemblies ;) ?

[Matt_S]

I usually make a gatling gun instead of an assault rifle nowadays.  Not like I have much else that I'd want to put a bulk mod on.

[2DeviationsOut]

I often dump bulk mods onto a BFG just for ammo storage. It's really nice to be able to store 220 plasma cells with a B3 BFG, especially since I rarely use BFGs. That might be changing in this version, though.

[Ashannar]

Yeah, I quite often throw bulk on the BFG and red armor if I'm not using it for an assembly.