Effective use of the talk commands will offset the damage discrepancy, though getting ganked by the assimilator with one of the others will sometimes still screw you if she locks your enrage skill.
That being said, another boost is cooking. Eating (I believe meat or dough?) boosts your base damage before the damage range allotted by your stamina level, so you'll be hitting for 15 on the regular with the pizza/ramen from hell with everything on it (including water and noodles)