My information comes from the databases and by testing the weapons myself, I have free time to make sure my information is correct and the information of others to be true. A weapon of higher attack will do more base damage to an enemy however levels do play a big role in how much damage is applied (Ex: every level you are under an enemy, you do roughly 25% per level and a max 50% if you are above them 2+ levels) But a weapon also does more base damage if it's attack/10 is greater than the targets level (Ex: a 300 max damage weapon will do more damage against a level 26 enemy than a 260 weapon will do because of the 50% over level bonus I mentioned even if both the players are level 26. So, no, having higher damage weapons will generally be better than same level weapons) I will admit, having the same guns with different attack damages can be tough, but it is do able with others. There was another man online who had posted a sheet of information about the values with weapons he recorded, but it is lost somewhere in the database for now. However, I do know that two weapons that have the same stats but have an attack value of 230 and the other 288; the 230 will do less damage against anything above 23 levels, but a 288 will do additional damage to anything its level and below. If you do believe I am wrong, please feel free to recreate the tests with two identical weapons with the same stats, but different attack values. Then collect the data of both body and critical shots at an average against Vex/Fallen/Hive from a range of low level to high and make sure the first weapon is not upgraded or modified while the other is fully upgraded without modifiers towards stats and damage (Ex: glass half empty and lucky bullet will void out results since they change the damage modifiers and increasing the impact slightly will void out the results as well)