28 replies to this topic

[Revan654]

I'm about to try insanity using the Solider class.

Which is the better AR to use during insanity?

Particle Rifle, N7 Typhoon, Cerberus Harrier or another AR?

[CapnCruuunch]

All three of the ones you mentioned have the ability to wreck. They are my favorite ARs. This probably isn't the most helpful answer, but I think you should try them out and see which one you like the feel of. If I had to pick one, I'd say the Harrier is probably the best, but you may not find it to be the most fun (also, I don't crunch numbers for this stuff, so that's an opinion just based on impressions during gameplay). It does suffer a bit from low ammo, and that isn't a problem on the the other two options. Running out of ammo is never fun, but I guess that's why you bring a sidearm...

On my insanity Soldier run, I used PPR for half and Harrier for half (didn't have Typhoon at the time). Absolutely wrecked with both guns and explosive incendiary ammo.

Used to use PPR on squaddies, but am trying the Typhoon (on squaddies) out on my current run (Drone Master engi, Insanity). I sometimes have to tell James/Garrus to switch away from the Typhoon so I can get some kills in. Even if you don't use it, it's a phenomenal squaddie weapon.

I see some disdain on the forums for the soldier class, but sometimes some good old fashioned run and gun hits the spot. And the solider delivers.

[PnXMarcin1PL]

avenger with explosive incendiary really owns and im not joking
but most epic gun for soldier is the one and only harrier, personally i call her jennifer. id give up everything for one more mission with this ****ty old rifle in post reaper galaxy

[ZombieGambit]

They're all good. I'm not even kidding here, enemies on Insanity have about the same amount of health as enemies on Silver in MP, but Shepard has way more weapon and power damage bonuses. Anything can be good, even great, if you know what you're doing. You can play through the whole thing with a Shuriken if you wanted and still have an incredibly easy time if you take Ashley, Garrus, or James with you and give them Typhoons.

If you want something fun without being too easy try a Geth Pulse Rifle with Explosive Incendiary ammo, a magazine upgrade, and the high-velocity barrel.

[capn233]

I don't have the Typhoon for SP, and I don't particularly miss the bugged recoil version.

Harrier is a very solid weapon if you have a little aim.  It would be my choice out of the three.

I do not like the Particle Rifle, although it is effective.

All three are good with Incendiary Explosive Burst ammo.  If we are talking about best for weight, it might be hard to beat the Punisher, although it is an SMG.

ZombieGambit wrote...

They're all good. I'm not even kidding here, enemies on Insanity have about the same amount of health as enemies on Silver in MP,

Not exactly.

At release, they would start at about Silver level when Shepard is at Level 1, but as you go up they got the same HP as on Gold by Level 60.  So most of the time they were skewed towards Gold, given that most would play Insanity with an Import or NG+.

But MP balance changes have upped the HP of some units on Gold, so it is a little different now.  Then again they also dropped the shieldgate in MP to only 75%...

Edited by capn233, 03 January 2013 - 03:46 PM.

[CapnCruuunch]

capn233 wrote...

I don't have the Typhoon for SP, and I don't particularly miss the bugged recoil version.

Harrier is a very solid weapon if you have a little aim.  It would be my choice out of the three.

I do not like the Particle Rifle, although it is effective.

All three are good with Incendiary Explosive Burst ammo.  If we are talking about best for weight, it might be hard to beat the Punisher, although it is an SMG.

ZombieGambit wrote...

They're all good. I'm not even kidding here, enemies on Insanity have about the same amount of health as enemies on Silver in MP,

Not exactly.

At release, they would start at about Silver level when Shepard is at Level 1, but as you go up they got the same HP as on Gold by Level 60.  So most of the time they were skewed towards Gold, given that most would play Insanity with an Import or NG+.

But MP balance changes have upped the HP of some units on Gold, so it is a little different now.  Then again they also dropped the shieldgate in MP to only 75%...

Yeah I agree on the Punisher. I don't leave home without my Punisher since I got the DLC. Been using it as a secondary on my Soldier and now my Engineer (w/recoil mod). It definitely did the trick whenever my Soldier's Harrier ran out of ammo.

My Soldier had me craving thermal packs. MP taught me to be quite effective with grenades, but I didn't feel that there were enough refills to use them as conisistently as I would've liked. So between that and the Harrier...

Also interesting about the enemy HP levels. It must be something else then (Pause 'n Play, Shepard bonuses, new MP enemy units, etc.) because Insanity really feels like somewhere in between Bronze and Silver to me. Again purely anecdotal observation.

Edited by CapnCruuunch, 03 January 2013 - 06:00 PM.

[RedCaesar97]

CapnCruuunch wrote...
Also interesting about the enemy HP levels. It must be something else then (Pause 'n Play, Shepard bonuses, new MP enemy units, etc.) because Insanity really feels like somewhere in between Bronze and Silver to me. Again purely anecdotal observation.

I think it mostly has to do with enemy composition and how mulptiplayer is horde-based.

Basically, Bronze and Silver in MP are mostly spamming lower-tier units at you with higher-tier units appearing in later waves but never at great numbers. On Gold you start getting higher-tier units much sooner and they appear in much greater numbers.

It is pretty much the same thing in SP, except the enemy composition is always the same and you are never overwhelmed with higher-tier units, and you are never really bombarded by waves or hordes of enemies like you are in MP. I think the most Phantoms you face at any one time is 2 or 3, and you never face more than 2 Banshees at once. Only once do you face 3 Geth Primes, but you also have 3 Geth Spitfires to take them out as well. 

[Deathsaurer]

Theoretically the Typhoon would be but recoil... For a gun focused class (Soldier, Infiltrator) I generally run the Harrier and use the Ajax armor.

[CapnCruuunch]

RedCaesar97 wrote...

CapnCruuunch wrote...
Also interesting about the enemy HP levels. It must be something else then (Pause 'n Play, Shepard bonuses, new MP enemy units, etc.) because Insanity really feels like somewhere in between Bronze and Silver to me. Again purely anecdotal observation.

I think it mostly has to do with enemy composition and how mulptiplayer is horde-based.

Basically, Bronze and Silver in MP are mostly spamming lower-tier units at you with higher-tier units appearing in later waves but never at great numbers. On Gold you start getting higher-tier units much sooner and they appear in much greater numbers.

It is pretty much the same thing in SP, except the enemy composition is always the same and you are never overwhelmed with higher-tier units, and you are never really bombarded by waves or hordes of enemies like you are in MP. I think the most Phantoms you face at any one time is 2 or 3, and you never face more than 2 Banshees at once. Only once do you face 3 Geth Primes, but you also have 3 Geth Spitfires to take them out as well. 

Yeah, that all makes good sense to me.

[HolyAvenger]

I did my Soldier playthrough mostly with a Revenant/Black Widow combo, for nostalgia/RP's sake. Worked pretty well.

[sentinel_87]

The soldier is the class I play almost exclusively and I also play on insanity the most. I prefer the mattock because of its' semi-auto fire rate; always have liked semi-auto's. I find that it has decent damage, weight and ammo capacity. Combined with adrenaline rush it is great for landing headshots on enemy units.

The Cerberus Harrier is also good, but I found myself running very close to or completely out of ammunition to much for my liking.

[Zaidra]

Because you're playing as a soldier, you have the ability to increase your ammo capacity and damage...

and they certainly don't leave any lack of ammo during the campaign. After me2, they kind of owed it to us...

So definitely go harrier (as it does the most all-around damage). If you're worried about running out of ammo, bring a hurricane along just incase.

[PnXMarcin1PL]

I have forgotten to tell you one thing. This weapon loadout is pretty neat.
1. Harrier
2. Cerberus SMG or AT-12 Raider or N7 Piranha
You pretty much obliterate anything on ur path

[Dubozz]

1. Typhoon, since it's Typhoon 1.0 (huge recoil without upgrade)
2. Harrier
3. Revenant/Geth rifle/Particle rifle + Explosive ammo.

or you may equip you squadies with Typhoons and do nothing.

[Frostmourne86]

If you're having problems with the Harriers' ammo supply, you can also use it like a burst-fire Mattock that's not the Argus: tap the right trigger/R2/mouse button once and the gun fires a two-round burst (you get ten bursts per thermal clip).

[kw0lf]

Typhoon + clip size + high velocity barrel is my favorite combo. Add incendiary ammo with the explosive burst upgrade and it gets pretty sick. I think Particle Rifle is best for squaddies.

[BronzTrooper]

I played through as a soldier on ME2 and as soon as I got the Revenant I thought it was the best gun for the class (granted it has high recoil but that can be fixed when you activate Adrenaline Rush) and as soon as I got it in ME3 I equipped it (I maxed out weight capacity so it weighted nothing). It is better when you put a Stabilization Module V on it so it is easier to handle when you don't have Adrenalin Rush active. If you equip it try going for an Adrenalin Junkie build (I did and I almost never died... unless I made a stupid mistake). Other than that I think that the N7 Typhoon and the Harrier are great guns but I haven't tried them on my soldier yet. Then again, it's your choice what you want to do.

[sharkboy421]

kw0lf wrote...

Typhoon + clip size + high velocity barrel is my favorite combo. Add incendiary ammo with the explosive burst upgrade and it gets pretty sick. I think Particle Rifle is best for squaddies.

Normally I'd agree with you but in SP the Typhoon still has that nasty recoil bug.  Its recoil goes up by 100% everytime you buy the next rank of it.  At rank X it is basically unusable without a stability mod.  I believe someone posted a fix for it if you play on PC but otherwise I would suggest going stability and extended mags.  The gun will still just absolutely melt enemies on a soldier Shep.

Also I just noticed you said high velocity barrel and not extended barrel.  I personally prefer the EB on the typhoon (assuming you have no recoil issue).  The HVB is good but in SP you simply don't face that much armor and the typhoon already has native .25M cover penetration.  And when you do face armor, soldier already has Incendiary ammo and Shep can have insane amounts of extra weapon damage to make up for the enemy's armor damage reduction.  Neither barrel is a wrong choice but I personally feel that the typhoon gets more use out of the EB. 

[Nitrocuban]

Hands down, it's the Cerberus Harrier with Clip Mod and Piercing or High velocity barrel.
Ammo could be an issue but most of the time there is plenty of it around and stuff dies so quick that you don't need to worry about that.
A sidearm with Ultra Light Materials Mod (e.g. the Hurrican) just to be save is fine, too.

[ofarrell]

The Harrier hands down. Extended Mag and Extended Barrel mods.

[Nitrocuban]

ofarrell wrote...

The Harrier hands down. Extended Mag and Extended Barrel mods.

Piercing mod is more versatile (like shooting enemies behind cover) and gives you an advantage vs armored enemies i.e. all bosses. The HVB even more.
So as long as you ain't gonna use Garrus' AP ammo, put a Piercing Mod on the Harrier.

[Alex_Dur4and]

Cerberus Harrier for you (hands down!), Kaiden and Javik
N7 Typhoon for James, Garus and Ashley

[Revan654]

Thanks for all feedback.

The Cerberus Harrier & Particle Rifle have been the best loadout.

Does the increased ammo capacity on the armor do anything for Particle Rifle? I haven't tried it yet, I'm assuming no.

Also any way to increase the capacity even more on the particle Rifle after the Magazine Upgrade V mod? I'm currently at 180.

[Abraham_uk]

Particle Rifle reminds me of the assault rifles in Mass Effect 1 with overkill activated.

[Revan654]

One other Question.

What is the best mods for Particle Rifle?

Some suggest High-Velocity Barrel (Once Omega is Complete) + Magazine Upgrade.