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Several people have made comments on various guns that I didn't include in my Multiplayer guide....so I thought I'd put together some information. I've included all of the guns which I personally believe are viable on Gold and Platinum difficulties. This information is just my personal opinion. Other people may have recommendations that differ from mine and are entirely valid.
On a side note any DPS for the listed guns is at rank X. I might add that the Reload DPS listings are in fact theoretical. They are provided merely as a guideline, weapons will differ in actual use. If a weapon is used incorrectly, or shots are missed you will be quite a ways from the listing. Following the recommendations for each of the guns should minimize this.
In some areas I differentiate setups for biotic and non-biotic classes. To clarify when I say “biotic” I am expressly inferring those biotic classes set up to do BE (biotic explosions). If you have a biotic class incapable of doing a BE, or have spec'd them in such fashion then use the “non-biotic” setup. This is not to say it couldn't be used, but doing so is an advanced technique which I'm not covering here.
General Tips:
Head shots: Generally when shooting an enemy one "should" be going for head shots. Performing one will increase the damage done to most targets. People often work on and develop the skill for these in Bronze and Silver. Certain evolutions on powers and or weapon mods will further increase the damage done. Check here for further details.
http://social.biowar.../index/14351341
class Information:
Certain classes are better with guns than others because of the abilities they can learn. These are the pertinent skills that aren't shared with any other classes.
Adrenaline Rush:
- Increases weapons damage and instantly reloads the currently equipped weapon.
Batarian Enforcer:
- Increases a weapons damage and spare ammo. This skill does not increase the amount of ammo available in a given clip; rather the amount of ammo that is available to refill a clip.
Devastator Mode:
- Increases a weapons damage, rate of fire, and magazine size.
Hunter Mode:
- Increases a weapons damage, accuracy, and possibly rate of fire (depending on evolution choices).
Marksman:
- Increases a weapons accuracy, rate of fire, and instantly reloads your currently equipped weapon.
Turian Veteran:
- Increases a weapons damage and stability. Useful for those weapons with a kick.
Terms:
AOE (Area Of Effect):
- AOE weapons apply ammo effects on any enemy within the blast radius. The Scorpion is an exception see its description.
- All AOE weapons stagger most opponents. This is especially useful for hunters and phantoms.
- Never equip piercing mods on an AOE weapon, as it has no effect.
Armor Damage Reduction (Armor DR, or DR):
- All armored targets receive reduced damage from a given weapons fire. Thus your weapon is going to do less damage to them. One may circumvent this in part or completely by the use of piercing mods and/or ammo.
http://social.biowar.../index/11500067
Note
- All of the listed projectile weapons ignore armor damage reduction. Thus making them especially useful for armored targets.
Beam Weapons
- This currently includes: The Particle Rifle (Assault Rifle), the Collector Sniper Rifle, and the Collector SMG.
- These weapons all have ammo that automatically refills.
- These weapons have a significant reload period which can't be bypassed via reload cancel.
–- As with any weapon one may bypass a reload by using a Thermal Clip.
- Proper usage of these weapons is to never completely drain their magazines, and allow them to refill automatically.
- The Assault Rifle and SMG class guns have ammo capacity mods which will increase the clip size allowing for more ammo with these guns. For these two weapons in particular this is one of two mods which should always be used.
- The Sniper Rifle ammo capacity mod does NOT increase clip size, and therefore is useless for the Collector Sniper Rifle.
- The Barrage Upgrade, and Thermal Clip Storage gear do NOT increase clip size and will not benefit any of these weapons.
- The Destroyer Devastator mode ability grants a higher clip size which is beneficial for these types of weapons.
- Incendiary ammo is always recommended for these particular weapons.
Charged Guns:
- Charged guns do the full damage only when charged. The display in the weapons selection screen reflects the charged state.
- Running, melees, and using powers can be done while charging any gun capable of doing so.
-- This can be taken advantage of. Here are two instances...
--- During a vanguard charge (power), charge your gun and release upon impact.
--- Start charging your gun during a melee and release upon completion.
- Certain events will caused a charged gun to fire off.
-- Falling, climbing ladders, or going over barriers (this doesn't cause it to fire but will restart the charge)
-- Taking cover
-- Reviving a team mate or working on a device (this is important as it will stop whatever your doing and you'll have to restart it). Release the charge before doing either.
-- Being staggered
- Charging after a cloak will remove the cloak, but one may start the charge before a cloak without a problem.
Piercing:
Piercing can come in a mod, via ammo type, or be an inherent ability of the weapon. When used it can apply to two different things. One being the removal of some or all of an armored targets damage reduction. Or it can be specific to your ammo's penetration of cover (to include a Guardian's shield).
Projectile Weapons:
- These guns fire projectiles that take time to hit a target. This must be considered when firing the gun.
- Often one must "lead" a target in order to score a hit.
-- Leading is a concept of aiming and firing at where the target will be as opposed to where it currently is.
- These weapons are susceptible to lag so if your connection to the host is a bad one your going to miss a lot of shots.
- All listed projectile weapons stagger most opponents. This is especially useful for hunters and phantoms.
- All listed projectile weapons ignore armor damage reduction.
- All listed projectile weapons ignore shield gate.
Shield Gate:
Shield gate is the idea where only a certain portion of damage from your weapon will get through an enemies shields (or barrier) to either hurt their armor or health (regardless of how powerful said weapon is). The amount of damage that can get through a shield (or barrier) is reflected in a percentage that changes with difficulty level and expressed by the following formula:
X = single shot damage from the weapon
Y = shield amount left on target
Z = shield gate amount (depends on difficulty level)
If X>Y
(X-Y)Z = resulting damage to health or armor
This is a control method created to prevent powerful single shot weapons, like the Javelin and Widow, from being able to one shot kill nearly everything even on the higher difficulty levels.
http://social.biowar.../index/11363744
Note
- All the listed projectile weapons ignore shield gate. This makes these particular weapons especially useful for shielded targets.
- Any gun that fires multiple projectiles is a special consideration in that only one of the projectiles is affected by shield gate. The rest will do full damage if the shield has been removed. This means nearly all of the shotguns (minus the Crusader & Reegar), and the Talon. This exactly is the reason why the Claymore in particular can one shot kill even shielded targets on the higher difficulties.
VROF (Variable Rate Of Fire):
- These guns all have a wind up. Meaning as one continues to fire the rate of fire will increase and thus the gun will do more damage. Due to the time it takes to wind up these guns you will be out in the open for a period of time. Be sure to take that into account.
Ammo Types
Most of these are self explanatory in their descriptions. Three of them bear special mention however.
- Drill: I didn't list it because I don't much care for them. It allows one to fire through thicker objects, such as walls which can be useful if one has Hunter Mode and/or a Javelin. However, it has less DPS than the corresponding Armor Piercing ammo. It can be a replacement for Armor Piercing if you run out.
- Explosive: I'm not a big fan of these. Fire at one target then fire at a different target, this allows the delayed explosion to occur. Alternating between two or three different targets maximizes its effect.
- Incendiary: The DOT (damage over time) of this ammo type stacks, but does so in about 3 second increments. So when generally using such ammo firing bursts for 3 seconds, and then working another target maximizes the DOT DPS.
http://social.biowar...3200/1#14033200
*** Uncommon/Silver ***
M-5 Phalanx
Recommended Setup:
- Piercing and damage mods
- Ammo
- Biotic: Warp
- Non-biotic: Cryo, Disruptor, Incendiary, or Warp
Recommended class(s): Extremely light gun and thus an option for classes that require a 200% cool down.
Reload Cancel DPS: 463
Manufacturer: Human; Alliance
M-9 Tempest
Recommended Setup:
- Mods
- Heatsink and high-velocity barrel mods
- Ammo
- Biotic: Warp
- Non-biotic: Cryo, Disruptor, Incendiary, or Warp
Recommended class(s): Perhaps best used for caster classes
Reload Cancel DPS: 545
Manufacturer: Elanus Risk Control Services; produced for Eclipse mercs
Note:
- Like all high ROF (rate of fire weapons) it is very useful for setting up tech explosions via ammo.
M-13 Raptor
Recommended Setup:
- Mods
- Piercing and damage mods.
- Ammo
- Biotic: Warp
- Non-biotic: Cryo, Disruptor, Incendiary, or Warp
Recommended class(s): Perhaps best used on some of the caster classes such as engineers where a 200% cool down isn't required.
Reload Cancel DPS: 632
Manufacturer: Human
Note(s):
- May be hip fired with minimal damage penalty
- This is a semi-automatic weapon, so it fires as quick as you can click. When using it at it's fastest rate of fire it can be a little tiring.
M-96 Mattock
Recommended Setup:
- Mods
- Piercing and damage mods.
- Ammo
- Biotic: Warp
- Non-biotic: Cryo, Disruptor, Incendiary, or Warp
Recommended class(s): Perhaps best used on some of the caster classes such as engineers where a 200% cool down isn't required.
Reload Cancel DPS: 739
Manufacturer: Unknown
Note(s):
- This is a semi-automatic weapon, so it fires as quick as you can click. When using it at it's fastest rate of fire it can be a little tiring.
Phaeston
Recommended Setup:
- Mods
- Piercing and damage mods.
- Ammo
- Biotic: Warp
- Non-biotic: Cryo, Disruptor, Incendiary, or Warp
Recommended class(s): Perhaps best used on some of the caster classes such as engineers where a 200% cool down isn't required.
Reload Cancel DPS: 462
Manufacturer: Turian
Note(s):
- Like all high ROF (rate of fire weapons) it is very useful for setting up tech explosions via ammo.
Edited by denarius15, 12 December 2012 - 06:13 PM.
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I just tested it and change that section.
