Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 15, 2016 21:44:52 GMT
ATTENTION: The information in this post was originally posted by Simbacca on the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. I am copying the information here to preserve the information before the old BSN forums are taken down.
On another forum I frequent, a player new to ME2 asked me about Ammo powers. What I started with the intention of a quick outline ended up being a lengthy piece about choosing the right Ammo power for each situation. I'd like to share it here, though most of you vets here already know much of this.
I'll use a Soldier as an example since they rely on ammo powers more than the other classes.
Now even though different weapons have different modifiers versus the three types of defensives, you still rarely ever choose what weapon to use in a given situation based on that. That's what ammo powers are for. If the enemy is at long range, use a sniper, if they are at mid-range, use an assault rifle, and if they are close range, use a shotgun.
From what I've seen around the net, most players think of the ammo powers in terms of type of defense they are good against. However that is not all ammo powers do, other factors should be taken into consideration.
Btw, any time I said "unprotected" above, I meant an enemy that has just health left (shields, barriers, or armor already removed)
Now obviously when facing Blood Pack, Incendiary ammo is ideal because it destroys their defenses (armor) and crowd controls them (organics).
And as such, when facing Geth, Disruptor is ideal because it destroys their defenses (shields) and crowd controls them (synthetics).
Where it can get a little tricky is Blue Suns (shielded organics), Eclipse (shielded organics and barriered organics), Mechs (armored synthetics), and Collectors (barriered organics). Getting back to the Soldier example I was talking about, say we are on a mission fighting Blue Suns. Do we use Disruptor Ammo to deal with their shields or Incendiary to since they're organic? Well that depends on which weapon you're using:
Now say we take this Soldier example but are facing Collectors instead. Well then all three would be set to Incendiary ammo because we don't have Warp Ammo to put on the Sniper. Even if we did have access to Warp Ammo (like say take it as a bonus power), I'd still only use it on the Sniper and keep Incendiary on the Assault Rifle and Shotgun for all the reasons discussed above.
As far as the other ammo powers go, any class that has access to Incendiary has no use for Armor Piercing (as this video demonstrates). AP does very little extra damage compared to Incendiary, and doesn't have any of the crowd control. The one real advantage AP has over Incendiary is that it also does boosted damage to synthetic enemy health, but you should be using Disruptor in that situation anyway. AP ammo is redundant, and should never be taken as a bonus power on a Soldier or Vanguard Shepard. Sniper Rifles are also naturally good against armor, so AP ammo shouldn't even be taken as a bonus power on an Infiltrator as well. AP ammo can be a decent bonus power for Engineer and Sentinel players who choose to forgo the superior Squad Incendiary and Squad Disruptor (the crowd control is that valuable, even against Collectors) so that they aren't forced to always have to bring along Grunt, Jacob, or Zaeed as one of their two allies.
Shredder is pointless. Ok, maybe it could useful if one is playing on Casual/Normal (since many enemys have no protection) but then again, it's Casual, the enemies will already be dying quickly. Incendiary Ammo is superior as a versus organic enemy health ammo power since it also crowd controls and is useful against armor. Cryo Ammo is superior too, since it crowd controls both organics and synthetics at just health, and they will still die fast due to the double damage of freezing. On Hardcore/Insanity (where all the enemys have some form of protection), Shredder is completely useless.
As I said before, when going for 1S/1K of certain Snipers, Warp Ammo can be useful. Some Soldiers and Infiltrators that will take the Widow sniper on the disabled Collector ship will have Warp Ammo as their bonus power to keep that 1S1K flowing. Adept's that choose to take Warp Ammo as a bonus power will use it on all their guns since it does double damage to the enemies they float with Singularity and Pull. Warp ammo can be a decent bonus power for Engineer and Sentinel players who choose to forgo the superior Squad Incendiary and Squad Disruptor (the crowd control is that valuable, even against Collectors) so that they aren't forced to always have to bring along Grunt, Jacob, or Zaeed as one of their two allies.
Now I have to note a couple special situations where Cryo Ammo outshines Incendiary ammo versus organics. These situations are against Husks, Krogan, and Varren, since these enemies will not panic from Incendiary ammo. When a Husk is frozen, it instantly dies, just as they instantly die if they are floated by Singularity or Pull, stunned by Neural Shock, or knocked down by Throw or Concussive Shot. Now on Hardcore/Insanity, this means you have to strip away their armor first, easy enough with Incineration Blast, Area Reave, or Incendiary ammo. As far as Krogan and Varren are concerned, Cryo won't instantly kill them, but is the only ammo that crowd controls them since the fire doesn't panic them.
Finally if there is one thing Cryo Ammo is used for more than anything else, it is as the one catch-all set it and forget it Squad Ammo power. Vanguard players typically set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Inferno ammo and some Infiltrator players set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Heavy Disruptor ammo and/or Heavy Warp ammo. Some Soldiers that take the Revenant on the disabled collector ship will set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Heavy Disruptor ammo and/or Inferno ammo. Some Soldiers that take the Widow may have maxed Heavy Warp Ammo as a bonus power don't have room for Squad Cryo ammo. These Soldiers could set their allies to Squad Disruptor ammo or Squad Incendiary ammo, while they use either Squad Disruptor ammo or Heavy Warp ammo on their Widow.
On another forum I frequent, a player new to ME2 asked me about Ammo powers. What I started with the intention of a quick outline ended up being a lengthy piece about choosing the right Ammo power for each situation. I'd like to share it here, though most of you vets here already know much of this.
I'll use a Soldier as an example since they rely on ammo powers more than the other classes.
Now even though different weapons have different modifiers versus the three types of defensives, you still rarely ever choose what weapon to use in a given situation based on that. That's what ammo powers are for. If the enemy is at long range, use a sniper, if they are at mid-range, use an assault rifle, and if they are close range, use a shotgun.
From what I've seen around the net, most players think of the ammo powers in terms of type of defense they are good against. However that is not all ammo powers do, other factors should be taken into consideration.
- Disruptor - highly damaging to shields, highly damaging to synthetic enemy health, briefly crowd controls unprotected enemies (overheats weapons at rank 3+, stuns synthetics at rank 2+)
- Incendiary - highly damaging to armor, highly damaging to organic enemy health, briefly crowd controls (panics) most unprotected organic enemies, halts Krogan and Vorcha health regeneration
- Cryo Ammo - crowd controls (freezes) all unprotected enemies for quite a bit, doubles damage frozen enemies take (they shatter)
- Armor Piercing - highly damaging to armor, highly damaging to all enemies health
- Shredder - highly damaging to organic health only (useless ammo power)
- Warp Ammo - pretty damaging to barriers, armor, and all enemies health, highly damaging to floating enemies (pull, singularity)
Btw, any time I said "unprotected" above, I meant an enemy that has just health left (shields, barriers, or armor already removed)
Now obviously when facing Blood Pack, Incendiary ammo is ideal because it destroys their defenses (armor) and crowd controls them (organics).
And as such, when facing Geth, Disruptor is ideal because it destroys their defenses (shields) and crowd controls them (synthetics).
Where it can get a little tricky is Blue Suns (shielded organics), Eclipse (shielded organics and barriered organics), Mechs (armored synthetics), and Collectors (barriered organics). Getting back to the Soldier example I was talking about, say we are on a mission fighting Blue Suns. Do we use Disruptor Ammo to deal with their shields or Incendiary to since they're organic? Well that depends on which weapon you're using:
- On a bolt-action Sniper Rifle (Mantis or Widow), I'd have Disruptor set. These are weapons in which we are trying to get as close to one-shot/one-kill (1S/1K) as possible. Because of this, the defense is the first thing that one shot will hit so that is what the decision is based on. A fully shielded Blue Sun merc is more likely to die from a single Mantis shot with Disruptor ammo, whereas said merc would survive the same Mantis shot if it had Incendiary instead.
- On an Assault Rifle, I'd have Incendiary set. These are weapons in which we are going to pumping as many rounds into an enemy as we can to kill them. Because of this need to be out of cover more to continue firing, the crowd control because the deciding factor. An Assault Rifle will remove the shields easily enough with it's rapid fire, so continually panicking our target with fire once those shields drop is and killing that now down to health organic quicker is paramount. Besides, you're facing shielded enemies, surely you brought squadmates along with Area Overload or Area Energy Drain. After you have them cast those powers, you'll be shooting enemies that are at just health anyway. I suppose you could try to bring squadmates along with finishing powers, like Incinerate, Cryo Blast, Pull, Throw, or Dominate and try to use Disruptor ammo as they way to strip shields, but this method is far less efficient.
- On a Shotgun, I'd also have Incendiary set for all the same reasons as I just listed for the Assault Rifle. In addition, I'd say the crowd control is even more important since the Shotgun will have you at close range. One shot from some Shotguns, specifically the Eviscerator, Claymore, and Geth Plasma Shotgun, will certainly strip the enemy of their defenses regardless of ammo power, but it may not kill them. Better to have them panicking from the fire after that shot, making it easy to finish them off once you can fire another shot or melee. In fact Cryo Ammo can also be highly effective on the higher damaging Shotguns too, since after that one shot they will lose their defense and freeze. With being frozen causing enemies to take double damage, it's easy enough to finish them with a melee, or shoot someone else while they lie there frozen.
Now say we take this Soldier example but are facing Collectors instead. Well then all three would be set to Incendiary ammo because we don't have Warp Ammo to put on the Sniper. Even if we did have access to Warp Ammo (like say take it as a bonus power), I'd still only use it on the Sniper and keep Incendiary on the Assault Rifle and Shotgun for all the reasons discussed above.
As far as the other ammo powers go, any class that has access to Incendiary has no use for Armor Piercing (as this video demonstrates). AP does very little extra damage compared to Incendiary, and doesn't have any of the crowd control. The one real advantage AP has over Incendiary is that it also does boosted damage to synthetic enemy health, but you should be using Disruptor in that situation anyway. AP ammo is redundant, and should never be taken as a bonus power on a Soldier or Vanguard Shepard. Sniper Rifles are also naturally good against armor, so AP ammo shouldn't even be taken as a bonus power on an Infiltrator as well. AP ammo can be a decent bonus power for Engineer and Sentinel players who choose to forgo the superior Squad Incendiary and Squad Disruptor (the crowd control is that valuable, even against Collectors) so that they aren't forced to always have to bring along Grunt, Jacob, or Zaeed as one of their two allies.
Shredder is pointless. Ok, maybe it could useful if one is playing on Casual/Normal (since many enemys have no protection) but then again, it's Casual, the enemies will already be dying quickly. Incendiary Ammo is superior as a versus organic enemy health ammo power since it also crowd controls and is useful against armor. Cryo Ammo is superior too, since it crowd controls both organics and synthetics at just health, and they will still die fast due to the double damage of freezing. On Hardcore/Insanity (where all the enemys have some form of protection), Shredder is completely useless.
As I said before, when going for 1S/1K of certain Snipers, Warp Ammo can be useful. Some Soldiers and Infiltrators that will take the Widow sniper on the disabled Collector ship will have Warp Ammo as their bonus power to keep that 1S1K flowing. Adept's that choose to take Warp Ammo as a bonus power will use it on all their guns since it does double damage to the enemies they float with Singularity and Pull. Warp ammo can be a decent bonus power for Engineer and Sentinel players who choose to forgo the superior Squad Incendiary and Squad Disruptor (the crowd control is that valuable, even against Collectors) so that they aren't forced to always have to bring along Grunt, Jacob, or Zaeed as one of their two allies.
Now I have to note a couple special situations where Cryo Ammo outshines Incendiary ammo versus organics. These situations are against Husks, Krogan, and Varren, since these enemies will not panic from Incendiary ammo. When a Husk is frozen, it instantly dies, just as they instantly die if they are floated by Singularity or Pull, stunned by Neural Shock, or knocked down by Throw or Concussive Shot. Now on Hardcore/Insanity, this means you have to strip away their armor first, easy enough with Incineration Blast, Area Reave, or Incendiary ammo. As far as Krogan and Varren are concerned, Cryo won't instantly kill them, but is the only ammo that crowd controls them since the fire doesn't panic them.
Finally if there is one thing Cryo Ammo is used for more than anything else, it is as the one catch-all set it and forget it Squad Ammo power. Vanguard players typically set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Inferno ammo and some Infiltrator players set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Heavy Disruptor ammo and/or Heavy Warp ammo. Some Soldiers that take the Revenant on the disabled collector ship will set their allies to Squad Cryo ammo while they use Heavy Disruptor ammo and/or Inferno ammo. Some Soldiers that take the Widow may have maxed Heavy Warp Ammo as a bonus power don't have room for Squad Cryo ammo. These Soldiers could set their allies to Squad Disruptor ammo or Squad Incendiary ammo, while they use either Squad Disruptor ammo or Heavy Warp ammo on their Widow.