So, I just got a Purple Rarity Jakobs Masher Level 25 Pistol as a Mission Reward (I’m level 28).
It does 47x5 damage, but has an attribute of “- (minus) 62 % Weapon Damage”.
Mashers in BL1 used to have this sometimes and I’ve noticed it on other weapons, too.
What does this mean, is the gun worth using still, and why do they do this on guns?
Thanks in advance!
I think the stat numbers are comparing the gun to the “base” gun of that make and maker. In this case, a generic Jakobs pistol. Hence the reduced damage in favor of the pellet count.
This is why the Butcher’s item card looks so stupid and is flooded with stats, since it’s basically an SMG in the form of a shotgun.
No it doesn’t its a minus damage per projectile and has nothing to do with the base.
Imagine it as a shotgun.Thats a masher but a pistol.A penalty for multiple projectiles.
It has to do that because the masher shoots multiple projectiles. Each one does slightly less damage, but all together they’re still much stronger than a one pellet pistol.
the part that makes it masher turns the bullet into 5 bullets and applies a damage penalty to compensate, otherwise it would have done 5x more damage than any other similar gun that didn’t come with that accessory. i do believe the current state of mashers are that they’re simply not worth it, could be wrong. i believe gearbox also stated that they’re aware if it (atleast when it comes to maggie, which is a legendary masher)
But I’ve seen mashers without this penalty.
Without fully understanding it, I’ve always blindly discarded weapons with this penalty.
Are they still worth using?
Edit: @1sirus2 Guess I’ll give it a try!
I would like to have a masher without that penalty.Thats not a maggie. 
Let me know if you find one Ill gladly use it with you , have fun with the game my man
I absolutely love having Mashers back, definitely give it a try. Mileage may vary heavily depending on accuracy, you want a tight spread on these.
Just wanted to point out for anyone that doesn’t know, that percentages on the item card are already calculated into the damage shown.
The weapon would be too op. The mashers are great for leveling. They are a beast.
Like I said, in BL1, Mashers were one my most used weapons, and I would discard, sight unseen, any that had the minus weapon damage penalty.
Earlier in this playthrough (I’ve long since sold it) I found a Blue Rarity level 13 Torque Masher with no minus weapon damage penalty, but it was a weird Masher: 37 x 5, which was huge back then, Corrosive, but instead of firing the 5 pellets like a shotgun type blast, it fired them as one big yellow grenade-like projectile that would stick to the target and explode shortly after (yes, that was its only firing mode). It was called an “Oozing Carbuncle”.
The Carbunkle is the Torgue Alien Barrel Pistol. It fires the whole mag every shot, I believe, but is wildly ridiculous at causing elemental Mayhem.
And yes, damage percent on the card is already applied. Remember the Orphan Maker? That 850 percent damage wasn’t ON TOP OF the card damage, it was already there.
I believe this is one of the weirder parts of their system, user interface wise. The body or barrel has a set damage per level, and then all the other parts modify that, and that gets listed on the card. The card is telling you that if you took away the special accessories, you’d be back to basic damage.
The Masher accessory automatically comes with a minus percent…if the other parts balance that back to zero, you won’t see a penalty on the card
Any questions, I’m always down to talk shop. It’s so exciting to be in on the first round of this game
Yes!
I never went on the forums for BL1 or BL2 until long after their releases (despite playing them both FROM release), and it was awesome being on the forums posting, discussing, asking from Day 1 release on TPS, so yes, I agree, this is very exciting indeed!
Like. To find a weapon and test it out and be like “THIS IS WHAT IT DOES” without any wiki. Or finding a skin you didn’t know existed.
Finding out things of my own and test weapons/class mods/builds/granade mods etc etc is half of the game for me. Sure, i always know in the back of my mind which is “best” in terms of pure damage and ability to abuse to get to ridicoulus heights but i never enjoyed limit myself like that, if it looks cool and doesn’t hinder me to a point were progress is impossible, i’m happy with that! Which is why recent nerfs doesn’t really bother me(apart from one thing, i’ll get to that). But speaking of nerfs and mashers… what do you guys think of torque weapons? Do you think the changes they made to sticky were to severe? I never really used it before the change but now afterwards they just seem kinda meh. Anyone else feel the same way?