This character started on Level 1, although the game was an import (edited the level down), and the difficulty is Insanity. The next mission was Ardat-Yakshi Monastery. This is prior to meeting the Quarians and is the third mission post Citadel Coup. Current level is 35 at mission start with 5 levels of Biotic Mastery, with the Damage and Capacity evolution taken. The character has the Kuwashii Visor (+5% weapon damage, 10% headshot damage) and N7 otherwise. There is a 5% bonus to weapon damage from Intel.
The shotguns tested were the Eviscerator, Wraith, Graal and Claymore, all were at Level V. Mods were High Caliber Barrel IV and Smart Choke III. The exception was the Graal, which had the blade attachment equipped, although I do not think this would have substantially altered the results. Weapons were paired with Hornet V equiped with ULM IV.
Here is the list of the weapons with cooldown bonus and the recharge time of Rank 1 Singularity, and "ammo":
Eviscerator +187% 1.55s 3/19
Wraith +187% 1.55s 2/14
Graal +137% 1.87s 3/16
Claymore +82% 2.41s 1/12
Note that these would be marginally improved without the Hornet (which wasn't actually used at any point in the mission). These times would also be marginally worsened with Barrier.
Eviscerator
Eviscerator could reliably one-shot a husk if aimed at the head, otherwise it required 2 body shots.
Against Cannibals it was possible to kill with a single shot to the head, although this takes care and it is more likely you will need 2. It takes 3 body shots to kill a Cannibal from the side or rear.
Marauders can be killed with 3 shots if they are fully shielded, provided you land the majority of hits on the head.
It took 13 shots to drop the Banshees barriers without power use, and with minimal interference from the squad. You will not be able to kill a Banshee with only Eviscerator shots at rank V without finding extra ammunition.
Overall this weapon is adequate. If you use it as a supplement to powers it can serve you well, but it does not have the power to kill large enemies by itself. This isn't surprising, and given the disparity between power damage and weapon damage you shouldn't be simply shooting everything anyway, even as a Soldier.
Wraith
This is the 250,000cr upgrade to the Eviscerator with more damage and one fewer shot per clip.
The Wraith reliably one-shotted husks at moderate to close range.
Against Cannibals the Wraith is slightly more reliable at killing in one-shot than the Eviscerator, and it will reliably drop them 2 from the front or side.
I couldn't for the life of me get to the Marauder in this mission so that it had full shields (Garrus or Liara invariably took a pot shot before they would move somewhere they couldn't fire from). But with only 1 bar of shield missing the Wraith can 2 shot a Marauder if they are both headshots.
The Wraith took 10 shots to drop a Banshee's barrier. 9 is possible with mild squad assistance. Like the Eviscerator, it is unlikely to kill a Banshee without squad assistance or spare thermal clips.
Overall this weapon is slightly more effective than the Eviscerator.
Graal
1 charged shot will kill a Husk. Or 2 rapid uncharged shots.
Graal is the only one of the group that can reliably one-shot a Cannibal at long range (and that was without smart choke) provided you can land some of the shot on the head. Alternatively, 2 rapid uncharged shots will kill a Cannibal if from the front or side.
1 charged shot will kill a fully shielded Marauder if aimed at the head. Otherwise it takes 3 shots uncharged.
It took 8 charged shots to drop the barrier with minimal assistance from the squad. It was difficult to keep them out of the fight after that, and in total with assistance it took 15 more shots to kill it. This is of course higher than the ammo capacity of the Graal (I backed over some clips kiting it). Otherwise it took 13 uncharged shots to drop the barrier.
Claymore
One-shots husks at close range. Becomes less reliable as range increases due to shot spread.
At range it may take 3 shots to kill a Cannibal. This would improve with higher level Smart Choke most likely. At close range it kills Cannibals reliably in one-shot from any aspect.
You can one-shot a fully shielded Marauder, provided that the majority of the shot lands on the head. However this is difficult outside of extreme close range and it is more likely to require 2 shots.
Because of the shot spread, you will find differences in number to remove a Banshee's barriers. At a reasonably close engagement range it took 5 shots to drop the barrier (4 to get it to one bar). With 13 shots there was 1 bar of armor remaining. Most shots were taken just within her "Nova" attack range. You may be able to kill her without spare clips if you were to get to point blank range.
All in all the most powerful single shot, but perhaps not the best all around.
Verdict
All of these weapons are more than adequate for enemies on Insanity.
Eviscerator sounds terrible but does adequate damage. The issue is that it isn't quite as reliable as the others at putting down targets with full health. However, when mixing in power use, this becomes less of a factor as you end up engaging targets that are weakened from biotic explosions, debuffs, or squad weapons fire.
At this level, and with these mods, currently I still do not believe that the Wraith is sufficiently superior to the Eviscerator to absolutely recommend it. Of course if you don't want to spend you credits on something else, then go ahead and get it.
The Graal was better than I expected, and perhaps was the best all around "shotgun" in this test due to the accuracy and power at range. It has the least capacity, but you could run the Spare Thermal Clip mod since Smart Choke isn't a requirement for it. It is heavier than the above, but cooldowns are still more than reasonable.
Claymore is the hardest hitter, although perhaps it lags behind the Graal in flexibilty, and is the heaviest of the bunch. However, even with the the longest cooldown times, it was still an effective option as it allowed me to fire the shotgun, use a squad power, then Shepard's power to cancel the reload and detonate the combo, and fire again. If this is done it is perhaps the most effective against the large targets when combined with powers, despite the reduction in cooldown bonus.
Disclaimers
*Of course this wouldn't be able to be published in a scientific journal, but it is something to think about.
**Use whatever weapon you want, the game is beatable with all of them.
***The usefulness of each may vary with difficulty setting and current level in game.
Modifié par capn233, 27 avril 2012 - 09:54 .
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