Supressor vs Compensator / Silent vs Loud

[Muwatallis]

So in this example I am looking at mods for the blaster 9mm.
Looking at the stats of the bigger the better supressor, it only gives -1 damage, compared to the funnel of fun's +4 or the fire breather's +3.
With the silent killer skill, you get +30% damage with silenced weapons (assuming it is additive), which usually trumps the 4 or 5 difference in damage between the supressor and the compensator by a fair amount. On top of this you get +8 accuracy + 4 stabilty, compared to the funnel of fun's -4 accuracy, and you also get armour piercing from silent killer too (not to mention increased stability and increased accuracy if you take the professional skill too (and even more armour piercing)).
I don't know if I am missing something? (I'm new to this game, so there is a strong possibility I am...).
Is there therefore ever any reason to take non-silenced over silenced?
There don't seem to be any skills which increase damage for non-silenced weapons, unless you count the shotgun skills, and the damage gained from "loud" barrel extensions doesn't seem to be enough. I realise this isn't the case for all weapons, but I saw the same pattern for most of the ones I looked at.

Thanks!

[Sakhari]

Originally posted by Muwatallis:

Is there therefore ever any reason to take non-silenced over silenced?

Getting the benefits from Silent Killer and The Professional requires a minimum spend in the Ghost tree of 42 points. Getting the attachment-specific benefits from a compensator requires nothing and allows you to spend those points in other areas.

It's not necessarily a bad choice to go the silent route (as you say, it can net better stats and make it easier to reach damage breakpoints) but there is definitely a cost for those perks.

[Muwatallis]

Hi Sakhari,
Thanks for your response. I guess it's worth mentioning that with the skill build I was planning I would only need to spend a few points to make it to silent killer (I was already getting shinobi and smg specialist from the ghost tree). But even if that wasn't the case, as it gives such a boost to damage does it not make it worth going down the ghost tree just for that? Most other skills are weapon-type specific, but these can apply to any weapon type as long as it has a silencer.

[Sakhari]

I'm not going to get too deep into the math or specific examples (because it would take more time than I have and others around here would probably do it better) but in brief, 'more damage' isn't necessarily worth the expense. It only makes a difference to your weapon efficiency if you get enough to hit a useful breakpoint (the damage-line where it actually takes fewer shots to kill something) and on many weapons, Silent Killer won't make you any more efficient than a Compensator would even though the damage number is higher.

And yeah, the Stability and Accuracy benefits are nice but if it's a tossup between a few points of each and, say, Inspire, not many people would suggest going the Silent route.

Pros and cons. Silent-skills are... I won't say 'optimal' but they're a perfectly adequate choice for a build. They definitely aren't a no-brainer though and loud weapons still see plenty of play.

[Archwraith]

SK build, as Sakhari says, eats up to those skill point really good, so you're kinda limited in your later play, either as Masterghost, Ghostforcer, or Fugighost. What I found better on SK is the armor piercing should you choose a weapon with high ROF.

The damage might be higher, but the trade off for skill point is quite big as well.

[kiro the avenger!]

Armour piercing by the way only gives a % chance to penetrate a tans chest piece- it's not important because headshots are what you want any way. Tan have some hp on them :P

Silent killer is very expensive and the benefits aren't huge when compared on the real world
Compensators such as the competitors are your best bet- lots of accuracy and stability with good damage bonus
FunnelOfun is utter tripe, 4dmg for -4acc is awful. Compared to having a competitors it actually comes out at +2dmg -16acc and -8stab (if memory serves
Fire breather is similar to above, but not quite as ♥♥♥♥ :P

Silencers however also do give 0 threat, meaning cops are much slower to react due to your silent gun shots. That helps slightly
On my beagle I use a champions suppressor because their are no good 'loud extensions' and the 0 threat is very nice. I do not use silent killer though lol

[Armin]

You need to understand that dmg often isnt important. what is important is the breakpoint for headshots on DW. often it doesnt matter if you have 40 or 70 dmg. the headshot count needed is the same. so sometimes a dmg diffrenence of 30 doesnt matter and sometimes 2dmg make all the diffrence there is. for deagle and beagle silent killer is a helpful tool. but for most other weapons its not useful at all. the reasons why have been mentioned more or less above.