I've recently been paying more attention when Sniping and I have noticed that even though I can do enough damage to take the enemies down in one bullet, for some reason a large amount of that damage is being negated. So I took it upon myself to do some research. I searched the Forums as to why this happens and I couldn't find a thread such as this one, therefore I have decided to create one. This is what I have found. This is; what the Shield Gate is and how it works...
What is it?
The Shield Gate is a system used in Mass Effect 3 to stop Sniper Rifles being able to "One Shot" Shielded Enemies. Even though all guns suffer from this it is Sniper Rifles that feel it the most. Any damage over the amount of shields an enemy has, will be reduced at a set percentage. These percentages are;
Bronze - 50% Damage Reduction (DR)
Silver - 75% Damage Reduction (DR)
Gold - 100% Damage Reduction (DR)
This means in Gold difficulty, it is impossible to 'one shot' a shielded enemy without the use of powers.
Although 'Kittstalkur' has said that when Shooting a Pyro it is possible to negate the Shield Gate by having the Bullet hit the Chest, therefore doing the initial damage which takes down the Pyro's Shields and then Slamming into the Shield gate, then having the bullet travel through the Pyro and hit the Tank on it's back, causing it to explode, essentialy 'one shotting it. He also said that it is possible to get a Combat Engineer down to two bars of health using the same tactic, as the Bullet will hit the Turret on his back, causing it to explode.
How Does it Work?
-We're in a Bronze match and lets say we're shooting an enemy who has 1000 Shields and 1000 Health. Our Sniper Rifle does 2000 Damage (None of them actually do). We shoot the enemy and take his shields down to 0 in the first shot. The other 1000 damage hits the shield gate and suffers a 50% Damage Reduction. What this means is that only 500 of the original damage has made it through the shield gate and proceeded to damage the enemy's health. Therefore we cannot 'one shot' the enemy. The damage that makes it through the shield gate 'bleeds' through the shield and is sometimes known as 'Shield Bleed'
-Now We're in a Gold match and lets say we're Shooting the same enemy and for this example's purpose he has the same 1000 Shields and 1000 Health as before. Our Sniper Rifle still does 2000 Damage. We shoot the enemy and as before his Shields are taken down to 0 in the first shot. However the 1000 Damage 'Shield Bleed' suffers from 100% DR, as this is a Gold Match. This makes it 100% Impossible to kill a shielded enemy in one bullet only, using a Sniper Rifle, in a Gold match.
Working Around The Shield Gate
Sniper Rifles are the main victim of the Shield Gate, although the effect is applied to all guns. However, as Shotguns fire 8 projectiles per shot, only the first projectile will hit the Shield Gate, allowing the other 7 to proceed into the enemy's health without suffering from the Damage Reduction. This allows high damage shotguns such as the Graal, Geth Plasma Shotgun and the Claymore to essentially 'one shot' enemies, even on Gold difficulty. The N7 Crusader is the only Shotgun that suffers from the Shield Gate effect, as it only fires one projectile therefore any extra damage over the amount of shields cannot bleed through as the one projectile hits the shield gate. This is why many Infiltrators are using Shotguns in Gold matches instead of Sniper Rifles.
Biotic Explosions, Tech/Biotic Powers, Melee Attacks and the Kishock Harpoon Gun never suffer from Shield Gating.
So there you go
Everything you should need to know about The Shield Gate.
-If you know more about this, please comment it and I shall add it to this original post.
[Edit]
Disruptor Ammo
Disruptor Ammo could work around the Shield gate as when you fire the shot, the Disruptor Ammo's Shield Damage is taken away from the target's shields before the original damage from the bullet hits the Shield Gate. Essentialy this means that if Disruptor Ammo could do enough damage to the shields to take them down, there would be no Shield Gate for the Bullet's damage to hit. This would allow you to 'one shot' enemies. However I have not tested this feature out yet as I don't have the disruptor ammo to waste.
Warp Ammo
Warp Ammo could also work around the Shield Gate as it too has it's damage applied before that of the Bullet. However Warp Ammo gains bonuses to Barriers and targets affected by Biotic Powers, whereas Disruptor Ammo gets bonuses against Shields and Synthetics. In theory Warp Ammo could work around the Shield Gate, if it could do enough damage.
Some mathmatics done by peddroelmz.
How regular shoguns (Katana, Scimitar, Eviscerator, Disciple, Claymore, Wraith) work with the shield gate
Each of the 8 pellets is dealt with separately - at most 1 pellet's damage is wasted due shield gate ...
Shotguns and Shield gate
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Test Shotgun shield gate On Insanity Marauder with Scimitar V
0 shield HP || body shot vs health
1800 - 1226.0576 = 573.9424 (/8 = 71.7428 damage per pellet)
======================
1 shield hp || body shot
1800 - 1297.8004 = 502.1996 (71.7428 * 7 = 502.1996) {one pellet stopped by the
shield gate}
============
75 HP shield | | body shot
1800 - 1369.5432 = 430.4568 (71.7428 * 6 = 430.4568) {1 pellet does normal damage to shield, 2-on pellet gets wasted on shield gate , rest 6 damage health}
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Edited by ItsRed, 15 April 2012 - 11:40 AM.
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