An Anthem bug was recently discovered by players which causes basic guns to do more damage than higher level weapons. Developer BioWare has said it is working on a fix for the problem.
The bug was originally discovered by Reddit user YeetLordSupreme who completed tests to find that their default Defender Rifle was more successful at taking out enemies than their level 45 masterwork Ralner’s Blaze rifle.
The redditor reported that, despite higher damage numbers showing up for the higher level weapon, fewer bullets were required to take out the same target when using the basic gun.
Source: IGN.com Anthem 'Defender' Bug Causes Level 1 Guns to Be Better Than Higher Level Weapons, BioWare Working on a Fix