6 réponses à ce sujet

[RedCaesar97]

In the past I have stated that I think the two bonus ammo powers--Warp Ammo and Armor Piercing Ammo--are not very good bonus powers in that you either have better powers already, or better bonus powers are available. I can make an argument for Warp Ammo on the Adept and possibly the Sentinel, but I do not really see a good fit for AP Ammo on any class. 

Except I think perhaps the Engineer can make the best use of AP Ammo, provided:
a) You want to carry a heavy weapon like the Claymore, so
It becomes harder to effectively combo most of your powers.

Or maybe you just want to create a Shepard version of the multiplayer Female Quarian Engineer (Sentry Turret, Cryo Blast, Incinerate).

So that leaves me with the question: which evolution of rank 6 is considered better for AP Ammo?

Rank 6 Damage: Increase Health and Armor damage by 10%
Rank 6 Pierce: Increase ammo's cover-penetration by 60%. Decrease the effectiveness of armored targets by 25%.

So if I take rank 6 Pierce, the armor effectiveness will increase from 50% to 75%, and penetration will increase from 0.7m to 1m.

On the surface, it seems that Pierce is the better choice. BUT, is this really the better choice?
Depending on mods such as Shredder or Armor Piercing mods, would Damage actually be the better choice?
Or depending on the weapon used, would Damage actually be the better choice? For example, would Damage benefit the Claymore more than Pierce, whereas Pierce would benefit the Tempest more than Damage?

[CoffeeHolic93]

If it works like the multiplayer then the shredder mod is applied before the AP ammo itself, resulting in a damage penalty(!) when piercing light cover (though it may be superior against armored enemies - Not sure.)

In the situation described above I would definitely go with the increased damage because Cryo Blast has armor weakening properties, and I think that increasing the damage would be better once the armor has been weakened by Cryo Blast. If you're using other powers, the pierce evolution may be better.

[capn233]

Yeah, unless you are going for max penetration, the best reason to go AP would be to skip Shredder or Piercing mods for another mod.

It might make sense to go with AP if you planned to run the Hurricane or even the Punisher and then take either both capacity mods, or the Power Amplifier. At least on a caster class.

I ran the numbers a long time ago where the "break even" point of base damage was for the last evolutions of both Warp and AP. I will look for it.

[capn233]

Ok here was what I had said before:

if I ran the numbers right, theoretically AP and Warp would give the same damage per shot (if you take damage over piercing or armor weakening) if the base damage is 125. If it is higher, than Warp gives more damage, lower AP Ammo does. If you go max armor weakening, they are equivalent at base of 166.667, AP better below and Warp better above.

For the two evolutions of WA, base damage above 100 should favor damage evolution, and below would favor weakening evolution. For AP it would seem that base above 125 favors damage, and below favors piercing.

This is purely against armor, not against health. Against health the damage evolution would always be better of course. The Ammo Power damage should be applied to armor first, and is supposedly immune to armor damage reduction. At least that is the theory. Additionally, the armor weakening should stack with Piercing mods, and Warp ammo weakening should apply what is essentially a "debuff" that also allows squad members to benefit when they take their shots as well.

[Frostmourne86]

AP ammo doesn't have a penalty (I think), so it would be better to not have a piercing mod on your weapons, since even with the damage evolution (6a) you're going to have a bonus of 30% against armor and health, and weaken armors' DR by 50%.

[RA RA XD]

I was wondering the same thing myself. When playing infiltrator I run AP mainly on my hurricane (yes I know DM is the better bonus power etc.) so the best evolution would be damage, as the hurricane has a base damage of 128 ? Does this change when having Garrus use the squad evolution ?

[capn233]

RA RA XD wrote...

I was wondering the same thing myself. When playing infiltrator I run AP mainly on my hurricane (yes I know DM is the better bonus power etc.) so the best evolution would be damage, as the hurricane has a base damage of 128 ? Does this change when having Garrus use the squad evolution ?

I am not sure how the "50% effectiveness" changes the armor piercing or weakening.