I've been using the Armistice and while its a good weapon in CQC, its painful to engage someone you're not close enough to smack with your melee weapon. Would it be a good idea to use the SOAS-20 to play a stealthy "Headhunter" type class? (going invisible, sneaking behind enemy lines during heated firefights and picking people off from medium range, then running away). I tend to be an aggressive fighter even outdoors but given that the Armistice is meant more for indoor CQC, I can only pull off a kill or a severe health drain before I get lit up by the enemy team. I'm thinking being able to use a weapon I can engage targets from far away from will allow me to operate at a safe range and be a more effective Infiltrator. Thoughts? Any infies here who've used the SOAS-20 or anything other than an SMG/Sniper Rifle?
(I'm going to preamble the following statements by saying that this is all based on my personal preference. I have no hard numbers to back up any of this, this is all from my personal experiences in game and I'm a relatively average player.) I have used many of the non-Sniper/non-SMG Infiltrator weapons in the last couple of months and found them all to be very palatable. The SOAS is agreeable if played correctly. I certainly enjoy it. It places a high premium on accuracy and headshots to be effective but if you're playing Infiltrator this should not come as a great surprise to you. My playstyle with it is simple: -sit back a little ways from the front lines (not too far, it's not a sniper rifle) -shoot at targets that are either standing still or moving predictably -aim for the head Preferably I will engage targets that are either preoccupied with shooting at a teamate or doing some other task like an Engie repairing a Max or a Medic reviving teamates. After a kill or after several shots I will cloak, reload and relocate. Remember it's not an assault rifle and you are still squishy. Most enemies have weapons with the same effective range as yours, so avoid getting into fair, head-to-head fights. Use your cloak to control the engagement. The auto-Scouts are not forgiving weapons. If you overcommit, you die. If you run out of ammo and your target isn't dead, you die. If you get into a 1v1 and don't hit headshots, you probably die. When it all comes together though, it allows probably the most versatility of any weapon in the Infiltrators arsenal. I would recommend a 1x or 2x sight, a foregrip and no suppressor. The logic for me is that I want to be as effective at medium range as possible and fight with the team, so there's no point in hiding on the minimap. I pack a suppressed secondary for when I want to take advantage of an opening and be sneaky.
I've been playing since Beta, and can say that I used the SOAS for a long time until the TOME came out. The SOAS has greater damage potential at specific ranges, but the recoil pattern is greater than that of the TOME. The TOME's recoil pattern is basically straight up, where as the SOAS is also up, but has some kinks to it. TOME does a flat 112 damage at any range, SOAS starts at 143 before 10m, then drops down to 125 after 60m. Because the magazine size is so small, if with extended mag attachment, it's critical to land headshots. I use the 1x scope, compensator, extended mag
I forgot to mention, I really REALLY wish they enlarged the clip to 30 bullets max (with extended mag)
The SOAS is a niche weapon, but you have to be good at flanking, it has a horrendous hipfire, stay with a foregrip, 1-2x scope, maybe a flash suppressor. I generally stay away from the suppressor and compensator, 15-30 meters is about the standard that I use it. You want adrenalin pump for fast feet, I also recommend sensor shield for implant.
It's been a while but I don't think they've changed too much since I used them. Main thing to remember is that controlling distance with the auto scouts is super important. They have significant recoil/spread and need consecutive headshots to be effective, so you can't be too far away. But they also have small magazines and low overall DPS, so you can't be too close either or you'll get smashed by dedicated CQC weapons or responding squadmates. You have a narrow slice of middle range where you're good if you get the drop on somebody, and it's hard to drop multiple targets at once without reloading, so it's all about positioning yourself to pick off isolated infantry at that very particular range. Then you've got to reposition before anyone forces you out of your comfort zone. You can definitely do it, but success will depend more on movement than on aim than you might be used to.
I understand that you want to make this weapon work, and I enjoy the auto scouts as much as the next man, but it is just not all that good. I don't mean that you can't do well with it, but you have to pick your fights so, so very carefully (or land headshots reliably, always, under pressure, including at close range in cqc situations), that it kind of negates the major tactical advantage of NAC where you can just drop aggro at decent ranges or gain heavy assault levels of survivability as you soak damage with NAC and evade hits through sheer near imperceptibility. I think the greatest strength of infiltrators is their ability to pick fights almost always. Theoretically, if an opponent is unaware, you can open fire on it, and if you don't drop him, cloak, disengage and re-engage. This relies on the idea that you are vulnerable, out of cloak, for very brief periods of time, such as with uncloak-fire-cloak with such speed that ms doesn't allow much room for counterattack. The full auto scouts - indeed most scouts - really widen the engagement window against you. Missing shots doesn't kill you - being hit with bullets does, which, effectively, means that unless you drop your target with all headshots, your target will have a decent chance at firing back at you because the full auto scouts do all the damage of a medkit.
