Choosing the Right Weapon Cylinder

Choosing a Cylinder seems easy at first. High Velocity Gas Cylinder for Arsenal and Combustible Gas Cylinder for Pyrotech.

The talents in each tree seem to support that as well.

Arsenal has Terminal Velocity which benefits their barrage of missile attacks. Pyrotech has Superheated Gas which increases the proc rate of Combustible Gas Cylinder. It also gains the effects of Firebug and Burnout which increases the damage when it procs.

While its clear the Arsenal is better off using High Velocity Gas Cylinder its not so clear with Pyrotech.

In order to decide we'll have to calculate how much damage per second Combustible Gas Cylinder actually contributes compared to how much damage High Velocity Gas Cylinder adds to each attack.

Using my current gear set of Full champion gear with some Battle Master gear I came up with these averages for my ranged attacks.

• Rapid Shots   - 914 Damage
• Power Shot    - 1920 Damage
• Unload        - 955 Damage
• Rail Shot     - 1584 Damage 

Modified by 25% armor which would be about 5% less than a Bounty Hunter and 5% more than a Sorcerer.

• Rapid Shots   - 685 Damage
• Power Shot    - 1440 Damage
• Unload        - 716 Damage
• Rail Shot     - 1298 Damage*

*Rail Shot gains 30% Armor Penetration when used on a Burning Target.

High Velocity Gas Cylinder allows us to ignore 35% of the targets Armor. All of our Ranged attacks and Thermal Detonator benefit from this increased Armor Penetration.

So calculating the average damage of these attacks with the added Armor Penetration.

• Rapid Shots   - 767 Damage ^83
• Power Shot    - 1613 Damage ^173
• Unload        - 802 Damage ^86
• Rail Shot     - 1441 Damage* ^143

*Rail Shot gains 65% Armor Penetration when used on a Burning Target combined with High Velocity Gas Cylinder.

The average damage gain for Ranged attacks using High Velocity Gas Cylinder is about 11%

Now lets compare that to Combustible Gas Cylinder.

We know it can proc off all Ranged attacks which includes Rapid Shots, Unload, Power Shot, and Rail Shot.

Each time it procs it deals 1168 Elemental Damage.

With a 16% chance to proc modified by Talents, your looking at about 187 Damage per Second provided by the proc.

So to put that in the equation the average damage of each attack would be.

• Rapid Shots   - 872 Damage +187
• Power Shot    - 1627 Damage +187
• Unload        - 903 Damage +187
• Rail Shot     - 1485 Damage* +187

*Rail Shot gains 30% Armor Penetration when used on a Burning Target.

On the hardest hitting attacks your seeing an average of 11% increased damage and on the lowest damage attacks you get an average of 21% damage increase.

This totals to 16% increased damage from Combustible Gas Cylinder.

For comparison High Velocity Gas Cylinder is around 11% increased damage.


So for sustained damage Combustible Gas Cylinder is the clear winner by a margin of around 5%.

However on high armor targets such as Tanks that have around 40% armor the benefit of High Velocity Gas Cylinder jumps to around 22%.

So all in all Combustible Gas Cylinder does more damage over a longer period and provides a static boost of around 16%, however because it is a proc effect you aren't always guaranteed to get that damage.

High Velocity Gas Cylinder is more reliable with around 22% increased damage on high armor targets (Tanks) and 8% increase on lower armor targets. (Sages)

In Summary.

1.  Use High Velocity Gas Cylinder for:
1. Tanks
2. More Burst Damage
3. People that can Cleanse your Combustible Gas Cylinder
2. Use Combustible Gas Cylinder for:
1. Lower Armor Targets
2. Sustained Damage
3. High Heat situations.

Hope this helps you decide.


All Calculations were done using the average damage of each attack without factoring critical strike into the equations.