Mass Effect 3.5 Does this thread have a soul?

[Starsign]

Okay so, I got the Kishock Harpoon Gun in multiplayer now. Due to it's lower weight I prefer it to the Widow for non-Infiltrators. Anyone have advice for it? Even when an enemy is in Stasis (it's on my Asari Vanguard at this time) I have serious issues landing headshots with it and I don't want to use any other sniper rifle. (The Mantis is only at rank IV and the Widow is II)

[SiuiS]

All this talk of vanguards is making me feel guilty when I top the bronze runnings (not 'cos I care one jot about the scoring, mind) with my Krogan Battlemaster...

I do tend to charge off into the enemy, even during the hacking and extraction (though I tend to do that and then dash back and stick farily close...) Mind you, it is only Bronze, so...

Bronze is the one rank where this is totally okay. No worries.

Even without lag, Banshees and Phantoms will often rather arbitrarily pull you towards them in order to perform the insta-kill. It's rather jarring when it happens.

I hate when the camera does the "youre about to die" thing and then the banshees just stands there. No kill.

The Paladin's a great weapon if you can consistently get headshots with it; you use it as you would a regular sniper rifle. It's lighter than an equivalent damage sniper rifle, but you need to mod it with the scope attachment.

I use it on my Asari Adept and it's great. Stasis Bubble means it's ridiculously easy for me to get headshots on the enemy mooks.

On Silver (note: I have a Paladin 2 with extended barrel 2, so YMMV)

One headshot kills all non-shielded mooks (Cannibals, Assault Troopers, Geth Troopers, Guardians)

Two headshots kill all shielded mooks, one to strip shields, one to kill (Marauder, Centurion, Rocket Trooper, Nemesis)

It's really handy to be able to Stasis bubble, line up the shot, and kill a person, before the Stasis recharge is back up.

Which rifles are equivalent in power but heavier?

Okay so, I got the Kishock Harpoon Gun in multiplayer now. Due to it's lower weight I prefer it to the Widow for non-Infiltrators. Anyone have advice for it? Even when an enemy is in Stasis (it's on my Asari Vanguard at this time) I have serious issues landing headshots with it and I don't want to use any other sniper rifle. (The Mantis is only at rank IV and the Widow is II)

Even though Iraq sniper rifle, it works like a shotgun/AR combo. It does full damage even without the scope, so you can just run around with it charged and let go when a target is in your sights.

Also, the projectile drops; if you aim at the eye, you'll hit the neck/chest. You have to aim just above the crown of the head to hit it.

The good news is that because of this, the kishick has the highest headshot multiplier of any weapon.

[Arbitrarity]

After damage buffs, Paladin is more damaging and faster-firing than the Saber, though the clip is incredibly limited. Black Widow, Mantis, Widow, Javelin, and Kishock are all more damaging than Paladin, though all of those but BW are limited by being single-shot. BW also fires MUCH slower (60 rpm vs 100 rpm) and has a longer reload animation (3s vs 1.5s)
Oh, and the Valiant does nearly as much damage, and reloads faster/has more ammo. Always competitive.

On the other "good weapons" note, GPS is better for chest shots most of the time, but kinda loses out by being unable to headshot. Very easy to use though, and great against headshot-immune targets. Graal is hard to use, but has amazing potential (Charged Cloaked Graal Headshot can deal 7000+ damage without difficulty, more with equipment)

On Gold, I'm pretty sure that information on headshot damage isn't true unless you stacked up some significant damage boosts, or have a high level Paladin. For example, Paladin I headshots do 1070 base, so to kill a Gold Cannibal, you need another 100% damage bonus from somewhere. 25% from extended barrel, 20% from headshot class passive, 15ish% from class passive... it's enough for Cerberus health bars/shields, and weaker Geth, but not enough for Cannibals/Marauder health/Phantom Barrier/Hunters/Pyro shields.

[Binks]

Anyone have advice for it? Even when an enemy is in Stasis (it's on my Asari Vanguard at this time) I have serious issues landing headshots with it and I don't want to use any other sniper rifle. (The Mantis is only at rank IV and the Widow is II)

I don't bother trying to get headshots with it, the damage is extremely high so it generally 1-shots most mooks on silver with a body shot. Personally I just keep it charged whenever possible and aim for the center of mass. If you hit something with a fully charged harpoon they're going to take a lot of damage, headshot or no headshot.

Now if we're talking Gold or a character spec'd with headshot damage bonus through the roof then all that goes out the window, but I've found it's an excellent sniper rifle for my Krogan Sentinel for these reasons .

[Xondoure]

Has anyone else found the disciple to be absolutely essential on close range builds that don't focus on weapon damage? The knock back is such an awesome panic button when your shields are down, whether it's Krogan sentinel (who couldn't care less about the low weight) or novanguard.

[Psyren]

Has anyone else found the disciple to be absolutely essential on close range builds that don't focus on weapon damage? The knock back is such an awesome panic button when your shields are down, whether it's Krogan sentinel (who couldn't care less about the low weight) or novanguard.

I wouldn't know my Disciple is only II at the moment, so Katana X and Eviscerator VI are still better in every way.

[Yana]

I can't really say that I enjoy the Disciple all that much. Seeing as I rarely use a vanguard, if I've got a shotgun equipped, I'm using it to shoot people at all times. If that's the case, then I want to be dropping them in one shot, which the Disciple can't really do unless I get lucky.

If I am using a vanguard though, I very very rarely find myself in a situation where the knockback from the Disciple (which I've never actually noticed) could be more useful than charging again. But again, I hardly use my vanguard because it just doesn't mesh with my playstyle. I like being able to flee, as opposed to being forced to fight at close range at all times.

[Psyren]

Shotgun Infiltrators are a lot of fun though, and the Katana isn't light enough for me to also use my Carnifex and still get a decent recharge. So for them, a light shotgun is a must.

Asari Vanguards benefit from a light shotgun too too, because Stasis is painfully slow and it's your primary combo setup.

[Sholos]

I recently started carrying a Scimitar on my Batarian soldier. Yay 8 shots in the magazine with good fire rate. I went toe-to-toe with a Geth Prime on Bronze and came out on top easily.

Anyways, any suggestions for rank six of the Batarian soldier's passive? Can't decide between lower weight or more damage/ammo.

[Sholos]

I recently started carrying a Scimitar on my Batarian soldier. Yay 8 shots in the magazine with good fire rate. I went toe-to-toe with a Geth Prime on Bronze and came out on top easily.

Anyways, any suggestions for rank six of the Batarian soldier's passive? Can't decide between lower weight or more damage/ammo.

[Morty]

I keep hunting for a Batarian Soldier but Spectre Pack after Spectre Pack, I am unable to find him.
And the only shotgun I use is the N7 Crusader on my Krogan Sentinel. It works great, because I can snipe with that thing when charging and attacking in melee doesn't work.

[Zevox]

I keep hunting for a Batarian Soldier but Spectre Pack after Spectre Pack, I am unable to find him.

And yet I, the guy who will not play a Soldier under any circumstance, not only have it, I have at least a couple of extra appearance customization options for it unlocked.

Damn booster system...

Zevox

[Yana]

It's ironic that you won't play it, because I've found that it plays more like a sentinel than a soldier. And by that I mean, it has an armor power and an ability that allows you to kill without using a gun.

[Morty]

And yet I, the guy who will not play a Soldier under any circumstance, not only have it, I have at least a couple of extra appearance customization options for it unlocked.

Damn booster system...

Zevox

It's the same with me and the Asari Vanguard. I unlocked all of its appearance customization options, yet I don't play Vanguards at all.

[Starsign]

I actually never touch the Soldier either. In multiplayer this is mostly because I have terrible guns to use and I prefer Engineers, Infiltrators, and Vanguards for Gold. (I like Sentinels the most, but Shepard Sentinel is the most worthwhile one to play)

Speaking of that, started Insanity. Defense Matrix does WONDERS for instant shield recovery. just need to get the Blood Dragon Armor now. (finished Eden Prime, still need to do Palaven) James has also been wonderful for his durability. Contrasting Liara, who is the floor inspector.

[Derthric]

I actually never touch the Soldier either. In multiplayer this is mostly because I have terrible guns to use and I prefer Engineers, Infiltrators, and Vanguards for Gold. (I like Sentinels the most, but Shepard Sentinel is the most worthwhile one to play)

Speaking of that, started Insanity. Defense Matrix does WONDERS for instant shield recovery. just need to get the Blood Dragon Armor now. (finished Eden Prime, still need to do Palaven) James has also been wonderful for his durability. Contrasting Liara, who is the floor inspector.

The problem is that unless you have a playthrough with Kaiden or have From Ashes, Liara is your only biotic option as far as squadmates go.

However I have to give another vote up to Defense Matrix, used it on my soldier insanity run and it was a godsend.

Did my first match as a vanguard in MP last night. Only took me two months to get around to it. Never made one before but started at level 15 because of all the cards. It was a Silver-Cerbrus-Glacier match. I think I did ok, stuck right next to an Asari Adept. They would drop a stasis then I would charge, Big booms ensued. Only problem I really had was charging into a Turrets line of fire that I did not know was there.

Now my question is this, I was using a Carnifex II instead of a shotty. Is this me gimping myself? I have a Katana X a Geth Shotgun II, a Scimitar VI, and a Disciple II. Is it worth it to keep a pistol or do I switch to using shotties?

[Starsign]

The problem is that unless you have a playthrough with Kaiden or have From Ashes, Liara is your only biotic option as far as squadmates go.

However I have to give another vote up to Defense Matrix, used it on my soldier insanity run and it was a godsend.

Did my first match as a vanguard in MP last night. Only took me two months to get around to it. Never made one before but started at level 15 because of all the cards. It was a Silver-Cerbrus-Glacier match. I think I did ok, stuck right next to an Asari Adept. They would drop a stasis then I would charge, Big booms ensued. Only problem I really had was charging into a Turrets line of fire that I did not know was there.

Now my question is this, I was using a Carnifex II instead of a shotty. Is this me gimping myself? I have a Katana X a Geth Shotgun II, a Scimitar VI, and a Disciple II. Is it worth it to keep a pistol or do I switch to using shotties?

Well beating Eden Prime means that I do have Javik, so Liara won't be needed aside from forced missions. Kaiden isn't alive but I always preferred Ashley

And yes Defense Matrix is awesome. The damage protection goes through the roof with Tech Armor. (so I don't immediately die to turrets) With that plus the Particle Rifle, things should be only a little bumpy until Grissom Acadamy. (which unfortunately, will be coming almost soon after Palaven since I did Eden Prime ) So suggestions, for the first act before Ashley rejoins, who would you recommend that I bring alongside Javik? Really a choice between Garrus and James.

[Tome]

Now my question is this, I was using a Carnifex II instead of a shotty. Is this me gimping myself? I have a Katana X a Geth Shotgun II, a Scimitar VI, and a Disciple II. Is it worth it to keep a pistol or do I switch to using shotties?

You're fine, use whatever you like so long as it leaves you with a 200% Cooldown. Most rounds you shouldn't even be firing a gun, just using an endless loop of Charge -> Nova -> Charge (or Charge -> Nova -> Nova -> Charge if you took the double-nova upgrade). Only time to stop spamming Charge and Nova is for mission rounds.

That said, the split is really between the Disciple and your preferred pistol. Some folks favour the Disciple's knockback as a panic button, while others prefer to keep a decent pistol for the objective rounds where they can't be charging all over the map. I favour a pistol myself. That's all personal preference though.

Interestingly, Shotguns are actually more the province of Infiltrators (and Krogan) nowadays. They're too heavy for most Vanguards to carry.

[Aotrs Commander]

Woo. Had another few games, cranked my Turian Sentinel the last couple of levels up to 20, and snagged a premium spectre pack while they're out. Which got me - Huzzah! - Geth Engineer. (Salarian Engineer as well, for good measure...) So I had a few games with that. Went Turret, obviously, and I think I'm gonna ignore Hunter Mode (since if I get Geth Inflitrator, I'll use it there).

Heck, I really just wanted to play with the turret, which is pretty dudey.

I'm running around with the Geth SMG, because my list of weapons is fairly paff (best is Mattock II (which my sentinel uses), snipers (which I'll be saving for the inflitrators) and about a Carniflex II, I think (plus shot guns which I didn't even look at for engineer!) Keeps my Overload recharge down, at any rate... (Pity the only SMG mods are extra ammo and the one that gives you a 25% of not generating hear per round. On the other hand, I can keep the firing button down for fracking AGES.)

Does the Geth SMG have a maximum range? I ask because I didn't seem to be doing a lot shooting from safety at Primes and such...

Interestingly, Shotguns are actually more the province of Infiltrators (and Krogan) nowadays. They're too heavy for most Vanguards to carry.

I only use on my Krogan Battlemaster 'cos I've got a +15% melee damage Shotgun mod and no pistol stunners...

[Arbitrarity]

Geth Plasma Shotgun, Graal, Claymore, Disciple (sorta...) and now Wraith, are the viable shotguns.
GPS is braindead easy to use, with homing projectiles and not caring about aim. It's also the most effective against big armored headless targets, and probably the best at long range. Completely ignores armor DR and shield gate, and does plenty of damage, but can't headshot. I use this on most of my Engineers, especially Geth, and the occasional Sentinel and Soldier. Batarians get oddly good use out of it, since they can charge during the Ballistic Blades animation.
Graal Spike Thower is the more skillful version of the GPS. It doesn't home, meaning the projectile travel time is harder to deal with (especially in laggy games). However, it CAN headshot, which gives it completely ridiculous potential damage. Also has very tight spread, which makes it potentially lethal at long range, if you can compensate for the travel time. Ignores DR, and has some DOT when charged. I tend to use this interchangeably with the GPS, depending on how I feel about headshots today.
Claymore hits like a truck... then spends a long time reloading. Great if you can guarantee a kill with that shot, but otherwise you're gonna have a bad time. Enormous spread, affected by armor DR, also the heaviest shotgun. For shotgun Infils, I tend to prefer the Graal or GPS, since they also are pretty certain kills when charged, can follow up, and are 60% cooldown lighter.
After the buffs, Wraith is like a Claymore with the damage split into two shots. It's actually really light, does slightly more damage over those shots, and reloads much much faster. Unfortunately, it's an ultra-rare, so you're unlikely to get a high-level one. I don't have one, but I'd probably consider using it on shotgun infils. High level Wraith might see use on power-reliant classes, since it's a full 50% cooldown lighter than the GPS and Graal. Batarian Soldier, for example, would probably find it useful. Also would be good on Krogan Vanguard, since they'd get full 200% cooldown with it.
The Disciple... is pretty much only viable as a Vanguard, imo, and even then, only somewhat. It's only good if you:
Are strongly reliant on power cooldowns
Expect to be in close range at all times
Need enemies to stagger often
Other than that, it does strictly worse damage than the Carnifex (which has equivalent weight, and is much better at mid-long range) requires shredder mod to handle armor, and reloads 50% slower. I actually have Carnifex on my Vanguards, though I'm also considering Talon. If only it didn't weigh as much as it does...

Promoting all my classes but Vanguard (haven't played him enough for 20). Time to rebuild again.

Unless you can constantly headshot armored targets, GPSMG won't do anything to them. It's probably the worst gun in the game to try fight a Banshee with (strictly speaking, if you're fighting a Gold Banshee with a Locust, and don't have Warp, that is worse. Even Shuriken, as long as you have Extended Barrel, will do better)

[Psyren]

And yet I, the guy who will not play a Soldier under any circumstance, not only have it, I have at least a couple of extra appearance customization options for it unlocked.

Damn booster system...

Zevox

I have one - you might actually like them, they don't play like soldiers at all. You'll spend most of your time alternating between melee and blades, with an occasional shotgun blast.

[Krade]

Played around with my shiny new Eagle a bit. Turian Soldier, of course. With max level clip mod it's got a 32 clip size (nice with Marksman), and wih the turian's innate stability bonus, hardly any recoil. Basically, I'll say it's decent for Bronze (like everything else), might hold up in Silver, and don't even think about Gold with it. All in all, not quite awful, but there're definitely better options on the table.

[Corvus]

There is a new gun in MP that has turned up without any fanfare - the N7 M-90 Indra. Its an ultra-rare automatic sniper rifle.

Basically its an assault rifle with scope and accuracy that is classified as a sniper rifle. And as such is has the low damage problems all ARs have - basically it gets stopped dead by armour.

[Anarion]

There is a new gun in MP that has turned up without any fanfare - the N7 M-90 Indra. Its an ultra-rare automatic sniper rifle.

Basically its an assault rifle with scope and accuracy that is classified as a sniper rifle. And as such is has the low damage problems all ARs have - basically it gets stopped dead by armour.

That gun needs to be used with ammo equipment. Because it's a sniper, it applies the effects of ammo, especially cryo ammo, in very few shots. But the Indra is semi-auto, so you can freeze enemies very quickly, much faster than an assault rifle with cryo ammo, even though the fire rate is similar.

[Landis963]

There is a new gun in MP that has turned up without any fanfare - the N7 M-90 Indra. Its an ultra-rare automatic sniper rifle.

Basically its an assault rifle with scope and accuracy that is classified as a sniper rifle. And as such is has the low damage problems all ARs have - basically it gets stopped dead by armour.

I thought that was a pre-order bonus? Is it available in packs now?

[Dhavaer]

I thought that was a pre-order bonus? Is it available in packs now?

I've heard you need to have it as a promo to get it in packs, but I'm not sure if it's true.

[Zevox]

I thought that was a pre-order bonus?

Not a pre-order bonus, but it was a promotional item from something. It was the one that was PC-exclusive for some reason.

Zevox

[Arbitrarity]

People seem to not trust me bringing level 1's into Silver, even with GPS X and Graal X. This is annoying.

[Zevox]

People seem to not trust me bringing level 1's into Silver, even with GPS X and Graal X. This is annoying.

How is that surprising? I wouldn't trust someone trying to play a level 1 in Silver either, no matter their weapon. Unless maybe they were a Soldier.

Zevox

[Xondoure]

How is that surprising? I wouldn't trust someone trying to play a level 1 in Silver either, no matter their weapon. Unless maybe they were a Soldier.

Zevox

Why? Almost any weapon with 10 ranks can absolutely shred enemies on silver. And fitness boosting is really only essential for survival on gold.