Is it possible to one-phase with SAG? It's possible to one-phase with anything given you have the numbers behind it. But it is not the best DPS and calling it that is misinformation. I can think of one instance in Shadowkeep where it would be meta, and it only applies in a world where tractor cannon stacked with other damage buffs, which it no longer will. Let me break it down for you... Burning damage from the melee on thousand cuts procs the reload. To get that, you need to melee. To MAINTAIN that, you need to proactively dodge and melee again and again multiple times during a single phase as the burn duration isn't even that long. During all that downtime, you could have just been shooting. Reloading in a post-shadowkeep Lunawell/Rallycade would have been faster not to mention just simply Marksman's Dodging. And to top it all off, running SAG means no >1 million damage opener from Nighthawk. What makes Mountaintop so powerful is the auto-reload. And even with auto-reload, especially in the current patch, it's not gonna beat out spike GLs or Darci. Damage-wise, a Nighthawk is basically over 10 explosive light rounds from Wendigo. You're basically trading that for the niche of auto-reloading weapons at the cost of having a DPS loss and DPS downtime so you can empty said Wendigo faster before running out of ammo. For SAG to even come close, you need to have more heavy spike GL ammo than you can carry. You'll burn through it all before the phase is even ended. After which, swapping to mountaintop is also a DPS loss. There are spreadsheets you can find easily with a google search that list and compare boss DPS for the current meta options. In short; the DPS gain you get from the auto-reload is offset by having to dodge to refresh your melee so you can melee to reapply the burn to proc auto reload. All your doing is effectively extending your magazine by 4 or 5 for the burn duration before having to reload or refresh burn. And in some cases, your burn can be overridden by your teammates' abilities completely shutting down your build. Imagine that. Where as if you open with Nighthawk, unload your GL, Marksman's Dodge, the boss will likely be dead before you're through your second mag and even if you had to reload, reloading in a post-Shadowkeep Lunawell/Rallycade is still gonna be faster than Dodging AND melee'ing. SAG is still a great exotic. Use it with Mountaintop or Fighting Lion. Use it with Loaded Question, this combo in particular is amazing. Use it to melt bosses if you want. But don't use it for melting bosses because it's the "best DPS" because it's not. It's an all-rounder.