I've researched this quite extensively but my results seem to be going against the information provided already.
Excluding additional benefits such as bonus stats/relics/skill points (etc) my weapons that do "bonus elemental damage" (excluding launchers) seem to do: Weapon damage x elemental effect (150% flesh/200% corrosive etc) + 2x splash damage (Torque pistol = 100% etc)
So when it comes to, for example, the Torgue pistols with bonus explosive damage it's doing 3x the damage it states on the weapon card and from all my research nobody is boasting that kind of multiplier.
Therefore my question is, is my evaluation of the damage of weapons that say bonus elemental damage correct or am I somehow evaluating it incorrectly.
Additionally, are there explosive weapons that don't have bonus explosive damage as I only really collect elemental weapons and have neglected to see if there are explosive weapons that don't have bonus explosive damage.
These, I'm aware, are really nooby questions but I am a Borderlands 2 noob so any help would be much appreciated. Cheers.
p.s. My Maliwan pistol with bonus damage seems to do 100% splash damage (2x) which contradicts this post.
Best Answer
Elemental effects usually apply per shot, and often have a duration where they continue to do damage. Some do splash damage, but many don't, the variety is huge. Some explode, some leave clouds of effect, some are more or less effective with slag applied, and the ratio changes with each play through. In TVHM elemental damage is much more important against shields and armour, and in UVHM enemies take a lot more damage but slag is much more effective too.
On top of that there are class modifiers that can completely change how effective a gun is. For instance the siren gets lots of bonuses that help with rapid fire elemental guns like SMGs, making her capable of extremely elemental high damage per second while also setting everyone on fire.
Basically the only way to really tell which gun is best is to use it with your character and see how it works.
Don't worry which gun is best - new ones turn up all the time and your favourite awesome gun (that you did all the maths on and figured out was best) will probably be out classed in a few levels.