Do you use Bulwark and Concussive ?

I'd personally like to see Bulwark changed such that you receive DR based on the percentage of living squadmates in proximity, including the player.

I.e. if everyone's dead, or you're soloing, you receive the full DR bonus; if you're fucking off across the map in a game with three squadmates, no DR. That'd give Bulwark a wider niche as a weapon for soloers and add utility when clutching.

You can't do this with Bulwark.

I have found Concussive weapons to be very useful when soloing to do weapon challenges on easy difficulty. Got lots of double and triple kills from the explosions-saving me many mouse clicks while using all those semi-automatic assault rifles. Finally got Shadow Concussive and tried it on gold off-host and couldn't get explosions. I'll have to use it while hosting to evaluate its performance on-host.

It's tricky. Might have appeared balanced on paper, but doesn't turn out that way in practice.

No, it's more of a reliable insurance to always keep your character at full Health, thus allowing a room for error and giving yourself confidence about your positioning. Also, if you combine Siphon effect with LMGs (Large Magazines, +600 RoF) and DR from Powers (Fortify, Tech Armor), it allows the user to keep shooting while peeking from cover (or out of cover) even when Shields are broken, allowing you to deal high Sustained Damage with little-to-no Health loss; making you into an effective boss-killer and tanker.



Compared to Siphon, Bulwark has more limits.

• You need to move back to cover when Shields are broken, so you are not dealing damage for 3.5 seconds (provided Shield Regen Delay Reduction is at 100%, if not then 7 seconds; you also need to consider Shield Regen Speed).
  
• Forces the team to stay together, potentially being tasty targets for enemy AoE Damage.
• Less room for error since no Health restoration.
  
• No effect on last-man-standing and solo-players.
• Has Diminishing Returns.
  

Meanwhile Siphon only requires the user to damage the enemy to gain effect. No matter what weapon it is, Siphon is always beneficial to the user, and allows damage-trade with less loss.



If you are forgoing Siphon and using Bulwark, then perhaps better Shields are important; since you don't want to receive Health damage.

Combat Fitness 6 with Defensive Positioning, Fortify 6 with Shield Feedback, Barricade 6 with Regeneration, Barrier 6 with Active Barrier, Energy Drain 6, Shield Boost, Multicapacitor etc will keep your Shields going.

For weapons, since you are going to avoid peeking from cover for a long time, weapons with single-shot, high damage trait (DMRs and Sniper Rifles, Heavy Pistols) will likely work. You can shoot and go back to cover fast.


But I always prefer Siphon since it allows some mistakes. Your Shields eventually come back, your Health doesn't until you clear a wave.

Likewise!

Currently, my Turian Soldier has Cyclone Bulwark and Cyclone Siphon. I can't wait to swap Cyclone Bulwark to Revenant Siphon or X5 Ghost Siphon.
It is an annoyance when I should swap from Bulwark to Siphon during attacking, once I realize my Shields are broken.
And it's not like my Gold PUG teammates are sticking with me constantly either.

The fuck? Is this bologna difficulty? You do that on platinum your dead...

I have only used a concussive once.

Did a Havoc gold solo on Derelict vs Kett and ran the Cyclone I Concussive. I think I ended up killing three targets in the match total with the AOE explosion, although damaged a couple more. Many more explosions didn't really do anything.

I have a couple Bulwark guns that I have ran just because I might as well over the base version, but never really noticed anything since they were at rank I.

This is true, a fire "explosion" would not result, but you would keep burning while you were being electrified as the charge received would overwhelm you.

However, this discounts the armor that ME combatants wear. Overloading the armor system would likely cause some sparks to fly, and if there was already fire there you might get some mini-splosions from the electronics frying in the midst of the Ryncol boogie.

Suspension of belief is one thing, but a gun that actually heals you as you kill things is just stupid, regardless of how imaginative and sci-fantastic the universe is.

lol this is actually incorrect, round 4 platinum can take minimum of about 5 minutes for 75K credits. People just are always so anxious to go for that 125K it always is overlooked.

Ending Wave 4 with under 5 minutes? Does that mean you are clearing all enemies for each wave within a minute and 15 seconds? 

I would believe that if there was a video. And also, that video should show a 4-player PUG match with no friends, and everyone with unmaxed Rare weapons or fully maxed Uncommon Variants. You say Gold is not the most reliable way to earn Credits, so that should apply to all players with whatever characters and whatever weapons they use on Platinum, right?

Every single player would play Platinum, if they had N7 Hurricane X Siphon and Rozerad X Siphon with Batarian Scrapper XX. Not all players are fully kitted as you are.