This is why the touch of malice is the best weapon to use against aksis, even better than the dark drinker for dps. The touch of malice's perk allows you to use 33 shots before you kill yourself with 1 bullet left in the chamber, which gives you 32 shots with extra damage before you kill yourself. So for the purpose of this comparison i will use 32 shots as the base which i will call a 'health clip'. Also during the 3 phases that aksis teleports, i manage to get 1 health clip of touch damage off in the first and second phases, then in the final phase i manage to get 2 health clips. Now with no tether and no weapons of light, the touch does 6,406 damage for a headshot on aksis. So 32 shots equals 204,992 damage. Now multiply this by 4, which equals 819,968. Using the following source from reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/56t4w7/dattos_video_on_comparing_swords_vs_sleeper/) i have used the dark drinkers damage as the following: 8 swings per R2 push, each doing 3648 damage and the normal amount of ammo (being 68), also i will include the 86-ish that you get from radegast for further comparison. These numbers also include no tether or weapons of light. So, dark drinker with 68 ammo is equal to 14 swings which gives you 14x(8x3648), which equals 408,576. With radegast this would be 18 swings, so 18x(8x3648) equals 525,312. So the max dps potential with no weapons of light and no tether between the two is 819,968 - 525,313 (dark drinker with radegast) = touch is better by 294,656. I don't have figures for a dark drinker with just weapons of light, just a tether or with both. I do however have them for the touch and it is astounding how much damage you can achieve with this gun. With a tether each headshot does 7,063. So 32x7,063= 225,984. Multiply by 4 for the phases and thats equal to 903,936. With weapons and tether it's 8007x32 which equals 256,224. Mulyiply by 4 phases and this is equal to 1,024,896. This is miles better than the dark drinker and so far is the best dps weapon i use on aksis. I will share how i regularly push 4.5 to 5 million of damage on aksis using the following strategy. I am currently making a video to show how i do this in real time, but for now i will describe as best i can and give the numbers to show how it is done. I use golden gun hunter with celestial nighthawk, the touch of malice as primary, ex machina as secondary and elulims frenzy (kf raid rocket launcher) with cluster bombs. The benefit of this rocket launcher is it automatically reloads due to the cocoon perk, so everytime aksis moves it is reloaded ready for me. The damage numbers from these weapons will include tether damage, but no weapons of light as i'm rarely by a titan, however my clan do occasionally pop bubbles by me, but for the sake of keeping it simple i won't include those numbers. The following are precision hits as it's real easy to precision hit aksis, apart from the rocket launcher of course. Touch is 225,984 per health clip. Ex machina damage is 27,915. Elulims frenzy is 25,373 (initial hit) + 7,961 (blast) + 3840 (6 clusters x 640) = 74,346. I start by emptying my touch clip to 1, emptying my machina clip to reload for 4 bullets in the chamber while im throwing bombs or if running cannon before i pick it up. As the last bomb is thrown i pop golden gun and shoot aksis as i hits him just before he teleports. This damage is 129,000. I then fire 2 rockets (74,346), golden gun (142,565) then empty 1 touch health clip on aksis (225,984). All have tethers, so max damage potential in phase 1 with this method, with every shot being perfect is 571,895 including the golden gun shot before he teleports. Phase 2 I fire 2 rockets 74,346, golden gun 142,565, 1 touch health clip 225,984 and finish with 4 sniper shots 142,565. All this equals 554,555. Phase 3 Fire 2 rockets 74,346, golden gun 142,565, one health touch clip, 225,984, 8 sniper shots 223,320 and finally one more touch health clip 225,984. All equal to 892,199. So over all 3 phases this damage equals 2,018,649. Now add my 3 bombs (3x 132,000=396,000) and the grand total is 2,414,649. Then multiply this by how many full phases it takes to kill him, my clan is usually 2 so thats 4,829,298 damage. Now i know i will come under some scrutiny for these numbers. I do have clan mates and various other friends who have seen me hit these numbers and in some instances over 5 million in rare instances. Truth be told i almost always hit over 4 million on my hunter and 3.5 million on my titan and warlock. Lastly people are going to say that not every shot is perfect, so below i have the same strat without any tethers, just base damage of touch 204,992, frenzy 27,092 and ex machina (20,000ish). Simplified they are: Phase 1 - 517,176 Phase 2 - 468,176 Phase 3 - 753,168 3 bombs - 396,000 Total - 1,738,520 (without bomb damage) 2,134,520 (with bomb damage) All these numbers are regardless of me slamming empowerment or moving as i move into position or slam within seconds as the team i run with are very good with callouts. So the difference with precision and tether to normal damage are 2,414,649 - 2,134,520 = 280,129 difference. So allow a 280,129 prescribed limit of error for precision shots when using the perfect run that i've detailed above. As soon as i have a video of this i will upload this to my youtube channel SM3D 007, i have a video on there similar to this where i hit 3.6 million, but im running a cannon and only slightly using the above strat. Will try to do the video this weekend as proof, plus i have witnesses to back me up and can provide references (lol). So to conclude, the touch of malice is the beat dps weapon to use on aksis. I look forward to any discussions with you guys and hope one day someone shows me a better strat, until then, get your Touch of Malice's out of the vaul and start smashing aksis with them! Cheers! Edit for 400 dark drinker. Added the followong figures for a 400 dark drinker, thanks to xmattx24 for the numbers. Dark drinker without tether with the damage being around 4500-5400 is for 18 swings with radegast between 648,000 and 777,600, and with the buff goes up to 921,600. With only the standard 14 swings, its between 504,000-604,800 without buffs and 716,800 with buffs. Touch wins by 42,368, thats a dark drinker at max 5400 and with radegast (18 swings) as well. Without radegast touch wins by 215,165. So max damage of touch with weapons and tether, is 8007 (7062 just tether) damage per shot, 32 shots and managing to get 4 phases of shots of is 8007x32x4= 1,024,896. Dark drinker with both tether and weapons, max swing of 18 with radegast is 6400x8x18=921,600 Touch wins by 103,296. With running dark drinker, it would reduce my overall damage on my primaryand my rockets still do big damage remember and the benefit of touch is that i am not reliant on heavy ammo or synths. Also im proving that a primary can do more damage than a heavy so I feel using dark drinker would stop me from achieving max dps with my above strat. I will try to have a go at it later when online and try to publish figures to prove it. Stay tuned. Edit 2. Phase two damage for my touch strat is short by 31,000 damage, so add 31,000 to overall damage, still proves this is a beastly gun and better alternative to dark drinker. Edit 3. For those who say touch is not a viable option, maths doesn't lie. Edit 4: My Strat simplified for those easily confused. I do goldie before he teleports, so as the last bomb hit him i shoot, when he teleports to 1st pad, i use 2 rockets straight away, if i have to slam him i do this after, doesnt really effect time. After 2 rockets, golden gun, touch of malice. He then teleports for 2nd time, i use 2 rockets (already reloaded becuase of cocoon) golden gun, (health has regenerated) so then i use touch of malice, 4 sniper shots reload sniper as he teleports 3rd time. Again 2 rockets, golden gun, health has regenerated so touch of mailce, 8 sniper shots, health regenerated again so use touch of malice, if i can i try to get off another few sniper shots, then take a platform at the back. Rinse and repeat. **********Deleted a few edits for this******** I will be streaming this tonight at 11pm (friday 10th UK time) on twitch at SM3D_007 and will also be posting the results onto youtube, will provide the link in this forum when it is completed. Will be looking at comparing dark drinker vs ToM, using a variety of variables as well as different loadouts with both weapons in to keep the doubters happy. Should you wish to have any input into variables i should consider, post them below and i will test them tonight. On the subject, i will agree that dark drinker is an easy alternative, but i aim to prove that risk rewards the brave. I am just merely pointing out an alternative to people who might want to try something different, that is all. Thanks again! Smed **************update**************** As promised i streamed this tonight, thanks to those who watched, i will be putting the video together tomorrow as its half 2 in the morning, will be posting the video and a write up within the next 24 hours. *****************sneak peak************** Last nights live stream data, no wipes on aksis phase 2. My loadout as stated ToM,Machina, Frenzy and 6 bombs vs 2nd best damage loadout out of group was Chaos Dogma, Machina, DD extra R2 damage and radegast with 2 scorch cannons. All 6 of us went crazy for max damage to beat each other and compare. We hit all slams and supercharges and used supers every round apart from one supercharge and i missed a goldie shot. Other 4 people all used DD and other weapons, i did 1.2 more million damage than everyone else, will provide screenshot later! If i had thise two goldies it would been above 1.4 million.