I have found that the spread of rounds down range almost completely negates the AHMGs ability to shoot farther. It is a shame, since on paper it would seem to perform well.

Assault has about the same damage dropoff as the standard assault rifle.

The problem is that even though it still deals the same weapons damage percentage, your reduced damage makes the weapon only really effective at medium ranges.

It's a very situational weapon, good for gunning down players in the middle of the road assaulting your objective.

However, personally, the burst variant is the only other one I would use. Normally if you use two damage mods, the range issue isn't a problem because the more damage you deal, the less the range damage reduction actually affects your weapon.

For instance, I've killed players from about 80 meters away with a Gatsun's...the main issue for shooting at range with an HMG is the kick. Keeping that reticle centered on a player at long ranges it somewhat hard to do, especially when you have to keep firing or else your spread is increased again.

Which in some cases, makes the burst the best long-range HMG. Sure, you might not have a 50-60 meter range, but the increased DPS per burst, super tight spread, and just overall power lets you take chunks out of people's health before they realize what happened.