Does a slag weapon deal more damage?

Question

I know that slag will not stack, and a slag weapon will not deal extra damage to enemies that have been coated in slag. My question is, will the shots that don't slag (from the same gun) deal more damage? Would Critical Hits deal more damage? Or am I better off ditching it for a corrosive version of the gun?

If it does deal more damage, which would be the better gun? (They both have the exact same stats, except one is slag, and one is corrosive.)

Answer 1

Bullets from elemental guns do "bullet elemental damage", which is different from "elemental damage over time" a.k.a "status effect". Slag bullets are not amplified by slag status effect.

Slag does not inflict DoT or do bonus damage, but it will deal 100% damage to any target, while Corrosion is penalized against non-Armored targets:

• In Normal difficulty, corrosion will do 90% damage to flesh targets, and 75% to shields. Factoring in corrosive DoT, the damage is somewhat equal. Corrosive is obviously better for Armored targets.
• In True Vault Hunter Mode, corrosion will do only 60% and 40% to flesh and shields, so a Slag weapon becomes much more dependable.

See wiki for a table of element effectiveness.

Answer 2

I know that slag will not stack, and a slag weapon will not deal extra damage to enemies that have been coated in slag.

In Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, slag weapons deal more damage to enemies coated with slag.

Relevant UVHM gameplay fix:

Slag on slag damage increased 50%.