Mass Effect 3.7: "That was for Thane"

[SiuiS]

I got the Acolyte yesterday, which I've been using with my Vanguard. I loaded him up with a new shotty (loads 8 shots, semi-auto), and upgraded so I can charge and Nova very quickly. I've been able to move about with a flickering akin to a much more quickly Banshee.

Acolyte burst, charge, shotgun, nova, charge, shotgun, nova. My charge will be ready almost instantly when I use a Nova, and I can Nova immediately after a charge.

Nova!guard is a pretty slick build, able to trash a lot unless you get too cocky. A personal favorite really.

The eight shot semi-auto is the N7 Piranha, and is currently the best gun in te game. It's damage per second capacity exceeds EVERYTHING else, and at maximum rank has an average weight penalty of +150%. It's also somehow really effective against armor.

Got my commendation. The drop? The N7 Valiant. This goes straight to my Quarian Infiltrator.

Also got the Eviscerator as a drop. That goes with my Vanguard.

I have two HPs, two SMGs, two SGs, one two ARs, and seven eight SRs. C'mon.

It's a matter of packs. There are only a couple of each gun in each tier. I think the phalanx and predator are both common, the arc pistol, acolyte, Carnifex all rare, and suddenly I can't recall if there are any uncommon pistols... Maybe the phalanx is uncommon?

That shotty I mentioned earlier (with 8 shots loaded)? It's absolutely killer with an Adrenaline Rush-ed Turian Soldier. I'm serious: it's absolutely insane how quickly I can empty a clip into anything. Their health drops faster than I'd ever hoped was possible.

If you get a Geth unit, or the N7 Destroyer, use hunter/Devastator mode to boost accuracy as much as possible. The Piranha can then function as a makeshift SR, able to headshot enemies from long range, just outside of where your powers can track. It's amazing.

The Valiant's also solid with the usual Cloak -> Sabotage -> Shoot-shoot-shoot combo. I've killed a great many Banshees singlehandedly with that tactic.

EDIT: Got the Javelin as my first true Ultra-Rare drop. I also got a Striker, which I will actually use instead of the stupid Javelin. Seriously! The Valiant blows it out of the water!

The javelin has its place. Single highest output, I think, except when comparing javelin I and claymore X. Tactical cloak, Sniper rail amp, sniper amp, and maxed turian training give you ~1,000 damage plus 170% more. That's nothing to sneeze at when you can shoot targets through walls.

In general a front loaded weapon is better against any enemy with health at either 99.99% damage, or double/triple that. A single shot kill is better than a full clip of the valiant, because that's a second more time you have tidier with the valiant, where with the javelin you're done. With the faster gun, the amount of damage inflicted over time begins to swing in the faster gun's favor. This is why the geth plasma SMG is one of the best guns in its weight class.

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Tried to compare claymore and piranha today. Used a Salarian infiltrator, with debuffing proximity mine. Once I got used to the claymore it was alright. A single mine and shot could take out just about anything but a full shield hunter. Where things got interesting were in high-stress situations.

Against singular armored targets, like stripped pyros, brutes and ravagers the claymore did an astounding about of damage. Both died in two cloak cycles (prose took one cloak cycle, plus an extra mine). Upon switching back to the, I found he extra seeming half-second thr targets survived to be highly irritating.

Against double hardened targets - primes, atlases, banshees, full pyros - the claymore was remarkably unwieldly. A single claymore shot was as useful as two shots from the piranha - except the piranha got off another two shots by the time the claymore was ready to go again. In all, I could empty the piranha in the time it took to fire three claymore rounds, and the piranha has some supernatural advantage against armor that the claymore does not. Further, against targets this large, the added accuracy of the claymore (roughly 20% firing distance) wasn't advantageous. The piranha covered the entire prime/banshee torso at the same long range. Only when as far out possibly on the map did the claymore have an edge, but it lacked the ammo capacity to make that worthwhile; a single bar of prime armor is not worth two shots, when I could spend that time closing the distance.

Finally, against thick firefight situations, the piranha shined. Where te claymore was capable of definitely taking out one target at a time, the piranha was too - and also possibly dropping a second or third as well. With the claymore, proximity mines were my go-to crowd control, but the much heavier claymore made firing them difficult, at +41%, compared to the +180% of the Salarian or +200% of the geth. I wound up relying on a Power Efficiency module to stay competitive, otherwise working as a jackal and picking off stragglers or flankers.


Final synopsis: the claymore is fun. Switching back to piranha from claymore left me disappointed with the amount of time it took to kill a target. But at the end of the day, the Piranha can fulfill the Claymore'a function. The claymore cannot fulfill the piranha's function. That slight dip in firing distance is more than made up for by the huge boost in functionality, versatility and rapid response.

I will try with an accuracy build next, to see if the increase in claymore accuracy is quadratic. If so, it would still be pretty slick, possibly a superior weapon for a geth infiltrator.