Volcano Vs Snider

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

I was browsing the old forums and found this and I thought it might be helpful.

PSA: The Maliwan Volcano vs. Maliwan Snider

###All credit for this goes to vinylicpuma3 from the old forums###

So there’s been alot of misinformation going around about the Maliwan Snider being completely superior to it’s legendary brother, the Volcano. Well, that is sort of true. On charater’s like zero, maya, maybe gaige, a fire Snider will generally outperform it’s Legendary brother.

However, we play Axton the commando and we have grenade Damage Bonuses! These are not to be underestimated. So let’s take a look. Shall we?

Video Proof:

Just to prove that i’m not just citing numbers at you, here is a video that shows the comparison between all 3, but mainly the Maliwan Barrel Snider and the Volcano snipers in real time.

What’s being Tested:

There are 3 Sniper Rifles that are being tested. 1 Volcano and 2 Maliwan Sniders(1 with Dahl Barrel and 1 with a Maliwan Barrel). Each have Identical parts down to the weapons grip, stock, scope and accessory. For these tests, we will be using the Damage Prefix(So Barking) and each Sniper Rifle has a Maliwan Grip with Hyperion Stock and Scope.

All Weapons are OP8 and the test dummy was level 80. All testing is done on OP8 Difficulty.

Statistics:

Top Contender is always in Bold and Underlined

Plain Body Shot:
Dahl Snider: 829k
Maliwan Snider: 962k
Volcano: 1002k

Plain Critical Shot:
Dahl Snider: 2487k
Maliwan Snider: 2886k
Volcano: 2674k

Critical Shot(5/5 Impact, Metal Storm, 1 point in Expertise):
Dahl Snider: 2985k
Maliwan Snider: 3463k
Volcano: 3209k

At this point, we will disqualify the Dahl Barrel Snider.

Critical Shot(5/5 Impact, Metal Storm, Steady, 1 point in Expertise and Do or Die):
Maliwan Snider: 3463k
Volcano: 3396k

Critical Shot with BattleFront(5/5 Impact, Metal Storm, Steady, BattleFront and Sentry, 1 point in Expertise and Do or Die):
Maliwan Snider: 4329k
Volcano: 4446k

Leg Soldier, No BattleFront Crit Shot(10/5 Impact and Sentry, 5/5 in Metal Storm, Steady, BattleFront, 1 point in Expertise and Do or Die):
Maliwan Snider: 5011k
Volcano: 4913k

Exp Grenadier, No BattleFront Crit Shot(11/5 Steady, 10/5 Impact, 5/5 in Metal Storm, Steady, BattleFront, and Sentry, 1 point in Expertise and Do or Die):
Maliwan Snider: 4041k
Volcano: 4442k

Exp Grenadier, With Full Spec, No Battlefront, Crit Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 4135k
Volcano: 4538k

Exp Grenadier, With Full Spec, No Battlefront. Body Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 1366k
Volcano: 2132k

Exp Grenadier, With Full Spec, With Fire Bone of the Ancients, No Battlefront. Body Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 1899k
Volcano: 2964k

Exp Grenadier, With Full Spec, With Fire Bone, With Bee No Battlefront. Critical Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 14821k
Volcano: 17772k

Leg. Soldier, With Full Spec, With Fire Bone, With Bee No Battlefront. Critical Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 18817k
Volcano: 20370k

Expert Grenadier, With Full Spec, With Fire Bone, With Bee With 23.4% Gun/Grenade Damage from BAR, No Battlefront. Critical Shot(Link to Spec):
Maliwan Snider: 17323k
Volcano: 20893k

Expert Grenadier, With Full Spec, With Fire Bone, With Bee With 23.4% Gun/Grenade Damage from BAR, No Battlefront. Body Shot(Link to Spec):
Dahl Snider: 4904k
Maliwan Snider: 5210k
Volcano: 9456k

Various Thoughts:

At first glance, the Maliwan Snider does outperform the Maliwan Volcano. In the Abscence of Grenade Damage Bonus, it’s inferior on most characters like Zero, Maya, Gaige, Sal. Ultimately, I think that is why the Volcano is overlooked for the most part.

What’s also interesting about the Volcano is that it consistently outperforms the Snider when it comes to a normal Body shot without any buffs from skills, bee, fire bone, etc. What I thought was amazing was once we performed a body shot with the Expert Grenadier, Bee+Bone and BAR, the body shot damage exceeded the Snider by 4 million! Pretty nice!

As we’ve seen, the more Grenade Damage that gets added, the more powerful the volcano becomes. The weapon really comes alive once Battlefront is added to the mix. The Volcano finally gains enough grenade damage to allow it to exceed the Snider damage on a crit shot.

That said, the Expert Grenadier performed worse than the Legendary Soldier in total damage. This is because Gun damage bonuses in general trump grenade damage bonuses. Sad but true. However, headshots on the Volcano while the grenadier class mod were outperforming the Snider by 3 million damage in some cases. 2 Million while the legendary soldier was equipped.

Just adding the Bee Shield while spec’d into Steady and Do Or Die makes the weapon exceed the good ole’ Snider. This will allow you to use a variety of Class Mods and still exceed the Damage of the Snider.

The only thing that sucks about this weapon is it doesn’t come in multiple elements. If it did, I think the Volcano(or whatever Gearbox decided to call it) would definitely be more popular.

This weapon is pretty easy to acquire though. Simply beat the game and you can get your hands on one.

Verdict:

The Volcano is a pretty good gun, relatively easy to get and works on axton beautifully. It receives bonuses from grenade damage and once Battlefront is proc’d, it surpasses the Maliwan Snider. As I’ve said before, it’s a weapon that has high damage potential after it’s been properly buffed by skills.

Most weapons in this game are like that. Take the Infamous BeeHawk Combo, Pimps with Bore, ShamFleet with Anarchy, etc. Besides, who walks around with no spec in higher difficulties? Masochists.

That’s pretty much it. So yeah.

2 Likes
[Guide] Top Gear for Axton
#2

In short, the Snider is superior 9 times out of 10, and the one time it’s not, the Volcano beats it by less than 10%.

I don’t think there is misinformation floating around here. What has been said mostly is that it’s a poorly designed Legendary. The idea of having a wider and more powerful splash is interesting, but the balancing nerf was too big. you NEED grenade damage bonus to make it at least as good as a Snider, and not a lot of characters have access to that. Compared to crit boosts (which make the Snider even better than it was ) which 2/3 of the characters can have.

Had they done the same thing but reduced base damage less, so that it at least did more damage on a body shot, then you could call it a reasonable tradeoff.

Or dramatically increase the burn damage and burn chance, to make it a gun that has a different function altogether.

So yes: the Volcano is a pretty good gun… The problem is that it’s not as good as its purple equivalent in most scenarios… The fact that you have to build around it to make it ever so slightly better in the best of scenarios kinda demonstrates that.

It has its niche… It just doesn’t own it enough.
If it was slightly less powerful on crits…but massively more powerful on body shots, it would be interesting.

4 Likes
#3

Still, I’m surprised at the big difference between the 2 guns with the Bee.

#5

What? No

No reason to take it down IMO. This is a well articulated and tested opinion I just disagree with the conclusion.

1 Like
#6

Ok I just thought it was good info to add. I personally like the volcano and now I know how I can make it even better.

1 Like
#7

I think that part is funny

Well, if its decidedly not as good on 2/3 of characters in the game, then it’s not “overlooked”. :wink:
The 2 that can make it better are not known for their Sniper use anyway.

As for the Bee, it’s true that the Volcano is better with the Bee, but if you use either of those slow guns when you have a Bee equipped, then you are not using the Bee properly to begin with.

#8

I agree. But on a side note I really wish more of the old forum was avabile.

#9

Me too. We had a load of good resources and guides back there. I ported a few of them as some of the other still active members did, but a lot of stuff is lost.

The worst part is the body of “common knowledge” that no longer has a backup. For example: at some point, the prevailing idea was that for shotguns, Quads were the best barrels and the vertical grip was the best accessory…always.

I made a thread proving that both of these assumptions were wrong most of the time.

Now, if you ask most people here, they’ll probably answer double barrel and Crit accessory. And they are generally more open to other accessories than before.

The thing is, if you ask them why… You might get a few blank stares: the thread in question is on the old forum, and can’t be looked at anymore. So whatever proof we had is lost too.

The Double barrel/crit accessory thing is now just prevailing idea, like the Quad/vertical grip was…

1 Like
#10

I’m digging around in there looking for good things to port.

#11

Talk with @VaultHunter101
He ported a bunch of them lately
He might have a few interesting leads for you.

#12

Will do

1 Like
#13

A pm has been sent to him.

#14

Many guns react differently with a Bee…

Jacobs snipers for instance.

Most times Skookum is your best bet for first round damage on a critical hit
But with a Bee…it’s usually a Tum Tum

And I have no idea why as theoretically, the Skookum should still be higher and it IS on any other shield.

Except the Bee.

#15

Something to do with the crit being multiplied by the amp damage irc.

#16

The Bee adds a fixed damage bonus.
If you add 6mil damage on a 500k gun, it matters much less if the gun is actually 550k instead, that’s a drop of water in the ocean.

Basically, the Skookum prefix adds 10% damage bonus… To your GUN.

While the Tumtum adds 20% crit… To your SHOT…which includes the Bee.

Or, for anyone reading this who is still in the dark, it’s the same as the difference between a 20$ coupon vs a 20% sale: on something that costs 100$ it’s the same, but if I’m buying a car, I’d rather have the 20%.

4 Likes
#17

Ahhh …thanks…I always wondered why.

#18

This is faascinating, and I really appreciate you taking the time to test this! So now that the Volcano is better on an Axton character, can it outperform a Lyunda or a Storm, or even a Pimpernel on Axton?

#19

It wasn’t my test. But no the volcano will never out damage a pimp or lyuda sadly.

#20

I would have thought that with Axton’s grenade and damage buffs, it would :frowning: Is it close, or nowhere near a competition?

#21

Never compared the 2 but I’d guess the volcano is no where near the pimp. I can easily do some really fast test. I mean it this time lol