Yes! AR and LMGs/Miniguns go very well together, in fact, I'm currrently writing a guide on a build that utilises the 2 together.
ARs and heavy guns share many feats together:
- Suppressive Fire + Opportunist
- Full Auto
- Concentrated Fire
While all of the above feats are sort of mandatory, Concentrated Fire is the crown jewel. It is THE ability that enables bosses/targets with high health to be taken down in 1 burst. And Concentrated Fire has a PER requirement of 8, so 8 would be the minimum PER for your build.
From my own experience playing AR and LMG builds, 8 PER is also enough to get through the game, so I would spend extra ability points on CON or AGI instead of PER.
Thanks to the sharing of feats between heavy guns and ARs, if you already have an LMG build, all you need to make the build viable for ARs is this one extra feat: Commando. Commando is THE defining AR feat, must have for AR builds. And it costs only 80 skill points and 1 feat point extra for an LMG build.
If you have an AR build and want to tack on heavy guns to it, it would unfortunately be more nauced. First, you have to have enough STR to use the heaviest heavy gun that you intend to use (e.g. 12 for refurbished GlaShaG-9). Then you have the feats exclusive to heavy guns:
- Mag Dump
- Brute Aim
- Heavy Metal
- Bullet Trance
- Gunner's High
Since you are playing a tin can build, Heavy Metal would be the most important feat for you, since it adds huge damage to LMGs/miniguns (but you can't have a LMG in one weapon slot and an AR in another weapon slot, you will have to choose one type to bring to each encounter.) Mag Dump comes second, Brute Aim would be good if you are putting points into Heavy Guns skill instead of relying on Guns synergy, Bullet Trance I tend to skip if pairing LMGs with other weapons like sledgehammers or ARs, since using other weapons tend to easily break Bullet Trance stacks. Finally, Gunner's High only heals your health and does not help offensively, so I tend to skip as well.
Enjoy your build!
