17 Antworten in diesem Thema

[yars revenge]

Bored of my snipefiltrator, I wanted to shake things up and try something a little different. I read a post by No Snakes Alive recommending a couple of non-standard Infiltrator builds which got me thinking and experimenting. This is what I finally settled on hours later and it is, in my opinion, an absolute monster after testing on Insanity.

I present my spin on the Operative.

Weapon loadout:
M-358 Talon (Armor Pen, Scope)
A scoped Talon gives you the ability to fight from mid-long, mid and short range with very good mobility, accuracy and damage. Able to one-shot most normal enemies. Energy Drain then a shot will kill Cents, Engies and Marauders. The Talon can even bypass shield-gate sometimes because of the multiple pellets (much like a shotgun).

N7 Hurricane (Barrel, Scope)
Not necessary, but why not? Hip shooting this gun at close range does a ton of damage and remains manageable. Scoping gives terrible recoil, however. On the off chance you run out of bullets for the Talon, this gives you a monster CQC alternative until you can reload while keeping cooldowns at +200%. You may want to sub the scope for Ultralight Materials until you've leveled both guns up enough not to need it. Note: when starting a level your character defaults to this over the Talon, so switch up ASAP.

Build:
6/6 Cryo Ammo (Squad Bonus, Headshots, Damage Combo)
6/6 Incinerate (Damage, Burning Damage, Armor Damage)
6/6 Tactical Cloak (Damage, Recharge Speed, Bonus Power)
6/6 Sticky Grenade (Damage, Armor-Piercing, Damage)
6/6 Sabotage (Duration, Recharge Speed, Tech Vulnerability)
6/6 Operational Mastery (Weapon Damage, Weight Capacity, Damage and Duration)
6/6 Fitness (Durability, Shield Recharge, Fitness Expert)
6/6 Energy Drain (Damage, Recharge Speed, Damage)

Power choices/reasoning:
Cryo Ammo: The Talon freezes what it doesn't kill outright. Amazing crowd control with tech bursts everywhere (Shoot->Incinerate).

Incinerate: Your anti-armor power. Sabotage->Incinerate does stupid amounts of damage to armored targets.

Tactical Cloak: Goes without saying. Most people go with Sniper Damage at rank 6 (and an argument could be made here as well for the headshot damage), but I prefer Bonus Power which gives me the ability to Cloak->Energy Drain and reposition if I drop shields or am in trouble/get flanked.

Sticky Grenades: Damage. Stealth and lob at big targets/groups if you want.

Sabotage: One of my favorite powers in-game. Turrets go from horrific avatars of death to friendly little buddies that just want to help you out. Geth become your bros and happily chatter as they shoot each other with rockets. That said, Tech Vulnerability is the goal here. It's an AMAZING debuff that you'll want to apply on boss-type enemies (Primes, Brutes, Banshees, etc) to have them take double damage from your tech powers (Incinerate/Energy Drain) for 10 seconds. Cloak + Sabotage + Incinerate/ED hurts things.

Operational Mastery: Pretty straight-forward. I go with Damage and Duration at rank 6 to boost power damage by 25%.

Fitness: Grab health/shield bonuses.

Energy Drain: We take this as the Infiltrator doesn't have access to big daddy Overload - or any effective way to deal with shields, really. Energy Drain won't do as much damage and doesn't get arc/chain upgrades but it does restore our shields, which gives us a 2-in-1 power. Cloak->Energy Drain->shoot kills shielded mooks instantly. When hurt, Cloak->Energy Drain and reposition. When fighting shielded bosses, Sabotage->Energy Drain.

Armor:
I went with all +weapon damage, but an argument could be made for Inferno, +power cooldown or +power damage gear.

Summary:
Mix things up. You're a caster with invisibility and a handheld shotgun that snap freezes people. Debuff with Sabotage. Drain shields. Incinerate armor. Shoot while recharging or when an enemy is down to health. Try to Cloak before doing anything as it normalizes recharge times, keeps people from shooting your pretty face and applies a very hefty buff to weapon and power damage.

This build may not be quite as powerful as a sniper build (I think it is) but it plays faster and focuses on mobility over the cover hugging sniper. And while not quite as good at very long range, it compensates by being absolutely amazing at mid to short range with very good survivability and the amusement factor of shattering almost every enemy in the game with a cool looking gun that sounds amazing. What you don't kill outright will be frozen and ripe for a burst (Incinerate the frozen target and watch all his friends snap-freeze around him). It is also amazing against boss-level mobs offering very high damage with the ability to move and reposition safely.

Hopefully you enjoy the build as much as I do!

Edit - Some quick/sloppy video:
N7 - Cerberus Lab
Sur'Kesh - STG Base
N7 - Cerberus Attack
Tuchanka - Downed Vessel

Bearbeitet von yars revenge, 11 Mai 2012 - 04:00 .

[known_hero]

I think a better name for this build is the "Invisible Engineer". It's the same play style except with cloak.

[idspisp0pd]

I like this quite a bit on paper. Why the Talon over Paladin or Carnifex for a caster? Is it because of the multiple pellets giving you increased freeze chance and shield gate penetration? I haven't really used the Talon much, so I'm interested to hear more about what advantages you think it offers.

[yars revenge]

idspisp0pd wrote...

I like this quite a bit on paper. Why the Talon over Paladin or Carnifex for a caster? Is it because of the multiple pellets giving you increased freeze chance and shield gate penetration? I haven't really used the Talon much, so I'm interested to hear more about what advantages you think it offers.

Yeah, the multiple pellets basically enable you to bypass the shield-gate mechanic as well as freeze the enemies you don't one shot almost every time. Also, I'm not sure if the Talon just has a really tight spread or if it's the added accuracy from the scope, but you can scope and one shot/shatter enemies from a pretty far distance.

It also does very high damage to the bigger enemies (Atlus, Brute, etc) when all the pellets hit, which seems to happen frequently when you scope in (tight pellet spread again).

The only downside to the Talon is that every once in a while you'll aim dead-center at something, pull the trigger and.. nothing. It's like every pellet just misses. I've had this happen from time to time on shotguns as well.

Lastly, I'm not the player some people on here are and struggle headshotting moving targets with a Paladin/Carnifex somewhat. With the Talon, that hasn't been an issue.

Bearbeitet von yars revenge, 10 Mai 2012 - 10:33 .

[yars revenge]

known_hero wrote...

I think a better name for this build is the "Invisible Engineer". It's the same play style except with cloak.

It does play a bit like an Engineer, especially on boss type mobs where you cycle Sabotage debuffs and burn them down. More/better gunplay though.

Basically losing Drones, Overload and some power damage for Cloak, Energy Drain and weapon buffs. Cryoblast is subsituted with Talon/Cryo shots.

It's pretty effective and a really fun build.

Bearbeitet von yars revenge, 10 Mai 2012 - 09:53 .

[RedCaesar97]

I do not see myself playing as a sniper Infiltrator and I have already played around with the Scimitar and Claymore on an Infiltrator. This looks like a good build to try in the future.

Do you have a recommended alternative to the N7 Hurricane for players that do not have the Collector's Edition?

[yars revenge]

RedCaesar97 wrote...

I do not see myself playing as a sniper Infiltrator and I have already played around with the Scimitar and Claymore on an Infiltrator. This looks like a good build to try in the future.

Do you have a recommended alternative to the N7 Hurricane for players that do not have the Collector's Edition?

The Hornet - provided burst-fire weapons don't bother you. It's 1b to the Hurricane in my opinion but fires 3 (I think) shots every time you trigger.

Bearbeitet von yars revenge, 10 Mai 2012 - 10:12 .

[yars revenge]

Added a few videos. I didn't have time to make them pretty and I screw up at least 3 times in each, but they're good enough to show how the build works.

[RedCaesar97]

Got around to watching your videos. Good stuff. The Talon looks like a better shotgun than some shotguns.

[capn233]

Talon does have more accuracy than the standard shotguns, and the scope improves upon it. It is very good little weapon.

Seems like a pretty cool mini-shotgun infiltrator build.

[brazen_nl]

Watched this vid:

I see squad powers are Off, and you don't have Singularity on your quickbar top left. How does it get fired at 1:34?

[RedCaesar97]

brazen_nl wrote...

Watched this vid:

I see squad powers are Off, and you don't have Singularity on your quickbar top left. How does it get fired at 1:34?

I would assume Q or E (default controls), which controls your left and right squadmates. Pressing Q or E will tell your left/right squadmate to move to the spot you are pointing at, or if an enemy is hightlighted the squadmate will use a power of their choosing.

Typically when pressing Q or E to cast a power on an enemy, a squadmate will use the best power for the situation. For example, Garrus will use Overload against Shields, Concussive Shot against Health, and Proximity Mine against Armor. Note however, that this is not always the case and that sometimes squadmates will cast seemingly stupid powers, like Liara casting Singularity on a Banshee instead of Warp.

[HTTP 404]

Looks pretty cool. pretty much a cloaked engineer

[ZombieGambit]

Hmm, might give this a try. Running my Infiltrator like a "Pocket" Soldier i.e using the Typhoon, Cloak for the quick damage boost, Marksman + Cloak trick to have it on 24/7, and tossing a lot of Stickies. Gets a little old after a while, especially since it kills a little too quickly even on Insanity, it feels like I'm playing on Easy.

Your build seems more tactical and yet still powerful.

[All-a-Mort]

Hmm interesting. Wouldn't have thought to try a scope on the Talon. Does it really have the sort of range, power and accuracy as a shotty with smart choke and marksman active?

[capn233]

RedCaesar97 wrote...

Typically when pressing Q or E to cast a power on an enemy, a squadmate will use the best power for the situation.

Yeah about half the time they use the stupidest power for the situation.

Liara wants to spam Singularity on nearly anything, unless she has Stasis... then she might Stasis a mid tier shielded enemy.  She nearly never uses Warp with Q or E when it is appropriate, not even to detonate combos.  Warp is the most important to be hotkeyed so you can use it appropriately, and use Q or E when you want Singularity or Stasis on a Phantom.

Garrus works pretty well with Concussive Shot and Overload up until you spec into Proximity Mine.  Then he will inexplicably use the Mine against some enemies, even basics or mid-tier that would be better served with Overload.  And the other thing is that his mine is only maybe 60% accurate and will hit surfaces instead of the target.  However, he sometimes uses Overload against armor just to be contrarian.  At the minimum I would hotkey ProxiMine so I know I will get the debuff against large targets when needed, and I tend to key Overload as well.

Many of the other squad members don't even have more than 1 real power, so it appears that they are functioning correctly.  Consider Ash:  She only has one power that can be used via Q or E, and that is Concussive Shot.  She will only use it against Health though, so if you want to set off a combo with it on a protection you have to use it manually.  Inferno Grenades are manual only, and Marksman is manual activation only (not worth investing in largely though).

James is pretty similar except switch out CS for Carnage, and Inferno for Frag grenades.

Tali is a pretty big mystery to me if you have Sabotage, Energy Drain and Combat Drone spec'd at the same time.  I think it might give Energy Drain priority to shielded targets, but only if she needs shields.  Otherwise if it is a synthetic she has a good chance of using Sabotage.  Drone is cast whenever you expect her to use something else, although I think it is prioritized if you have a clump of basics.  She does use Sabotage on organics every once in a while too.

Javik has Pull, Slam and Dark Channel, plus Lift Grenades (which are manual only).  He tends to Slam isolated basics, and will use Dark Channel on most other enemies.  If you don't have Slam then Pull vs Dark Channel seems like it is a toss up.  You basically need to hotkey Pull and use it when you want, then he will mostly use Dark Channel with the auto command on appropriate targets.

EDI with just Incinerate and Overload works in a fairly coherent manner.  Usually Incinerate against health and armor, and usually Overload versus shields and barriers.  If you add Decoy you might as well assign her other two powers to hotkey because she prefers to spam Decoy all over the place and you will not have reliable decent powers on command.

I only played one game with Kaidan.  He works ok when you have Reave and Overload on him.  With Cryo Blast as well he is still alright, IIRC.  Probably best to key Reave if you are definitely going for max biotic combos though.

Aria is ok, despite having too many powers.  I never invest in Carnage on her, so that leaves Flare, Lash and Reave.  I spec Lash for shield and barrier piercing, and she uses that predominantely on protected mid tiers.  I think it prioritizes Flare over Reave if there is a group of enemies, or on something like an Atlas.  If you aren't a biotic Shepard, you can get away with just going Q or E with her most of the time.  If you wanted to do combo biotics, you should probably hotkey Reave so she isn't using Flare and wasting cooldowns.

Nyreen is ok most of the time.  She has two good powers (Overload and Incinerate), one useless power (Biotic Protector) and grenades.  Hotkey the Grenades (since they are manual), then consider Incinerate so that you can make sure she uses that on armor (Ramparts, Atlases) and basics.  I haven't found any use for Biotic Protector, so I did not invest in it at all in my current jaunt through Omega (which is actually a non-standard Infiltrator: ME1 Inspired one with no cloak and Marksman).

Bearbeitet von capn233, 19 Dezember 2012 - 03:24 .

[brazen_nl]

Okay, so I've started an NG+ Insanity playthrough using this spec. One word: FUN. It's so amazing and dynamic, I think it's now my favorite spec, with Engineer coming in at second place.

As for the second weapon, it doesn't get any use. So, I tried out a Geth SMG because of its accuracy, and it's amazing for taking out barrier engines and shield poles at long range. It's the only time the second weapon gets used. Well, I could see its use if you get swarmed and just freeze/chill everything around you until the clip is empty and then cloak again, but that really shouldn't happen.

As for the Q/E thing, I don't use it since I hate to have that depend on, well, whatever it depends on. I use mostly Garrus and James for their Overload and Carnage (Sabotage > Incinerate > Carnage is amazing).

Last but not least, thanks for letting us know about this spec!

Bearbeitet von brazen_nl, 22 Dezember 2012 - 01:41 .

[capn233]

One thing that has been lost (even though this is an old thread) is the Sabotage spec...

Duration vs Backfire is debateable, but Rank 5 should be "Explosive Hack." I realize that with Bonus Power under cloak you will use Sabotage's CD if it is the first power, but if you are running only the Talon and a light BUG, then you probably don't get much benefit from the small recharge speed bonus (probably tenths of a second, especially with Weight Capacity in Op Mastery). This is also basically true of Energy Drain. It is especially true if you are going to break cloak with a shot and don't get to the bonus power anyway.

Relatively minor critique.