Question regarding heavy bolter vs heavy stubber...

[Gastberend]

I am doing my second playthrough I equipped my Arch-Militant with the Heavy Stubber combined with the heavy flamer for closer encounters or to flush out mobs of lesser enemies.

My thing is that the calibrated heavy stubber is ( or was ) supposed to be the best heavy weapon for the ArchMilitant, but I am having difficulty choosing between both as the heavy bolter has much higher %armour pen with skills, and the amount of bullets fired after rapid fire is not significant.

As for equipment I am using those recoil gloves that reduces recoil by 50%, but I am thinking to equip everything that improves RoF and range.

Any recomendation to build a proper heavy stubber build? So far except for the extra AP to fire a voley of heavy bolter I am not seeing a significant difference in favour of the heavy stubber unless there are skills I am not aware of.

[Kid Gloves]

It's a game of synergies with other classes and scaling-to-infinity.

The heavy bolter on it's own is the better choice because of the penetration. However, if you start pumping the per-shot damage (e.g. master tactician) and do a bit of basic debuffing to lower enemy armour (e.g. operative), the extra RoF means the stubber will out-perform, since the base damage of both weapons rapidly becomes a rounding error.

You hit the nail on the head, though, when you pointed out that bullets fired after the enemy is dead are irrelevant. If you want the weapon that is mathematically capable of the highest possible damage against a theoretical enemy with infinite hp, the heavy stubber is your gun.

If you just want all the things you fight in the game to be dead, go with the one with the most satisfying audio. :)