Damage fall off for auto rifles is appalling. They reach barely farther than shotguns with a mere fraction of the damage per second. And it gets pretty tedious when my teammates decide to hang out away from the freshly spawning cluster of enemies and I have to chip away at this shielded enemy since my special weapon doesn't match elements.
I used Ether Doctor for my auto rifle and multi kills. you can take enemies down fast with head shots. when you get Breakneck you will have fun using it in gambit. I like it for strikes and most pve activities when you get kills the rate of fire increases making it really easy to take enemies out fast. i think it may have outlaw or at least some reloading perk, when you get precision kills the reload is increased. I really like it and definitely is worth the grind. I added back up mag to mine and it holds 45 shots.