Just curious, as it's an idea I've toyed with a lot, but have never been brave enough to ditch my maxed Nanoweave for. I love using EMPs, they're great for throwing into a room before running in and spraying your SMG, and have saved my bacon many times whilst being chased down thanks to some precision throwing. Not to mention they get rid of enemy devices (perhaps most importantly, motion spotters and AP mines). Only thing is one never seems to be enough. However I'm very aware of the infiltrator's lower EHP pool, and I maxed my Nanoweave with the purpose of counteracting this. I guess running grenade bandolier would engender a much more cautious style of play. So, do (m)any infiltrators here forum-side use such a thing? If so, how does it work?
When stalker first came out, I quickly released when only having a wimpy secondary weapon... any "fail-bush" was going to be deadly. I ditched Nanoweave for Bando for good because Nano wasn't actually helping me. Nanoweave certainly helps with SMG style play because your openers are limited and based on rapidly changing factors. You have less control over your next move and Nanoweave helps prolong your life by a little bit. EMP's on the other hand give you more control if you can think ahead to use them. You can toss them to detonate behind corners and push or delay, or you can destroy enemy mines freshly placed, or even just ensure a quicker kill on multiple targets. I took Nanoweave off my NS-7 PDW loadout back in the day for the reasons you stated. PDW has a longer potential range to make kills from but its lower damage output benefits more from using the EMPs. I did the same thing with my Eridani and smaller clip size as well basically using EMP's specifically for multiple targets. I think the PDW helped me develop my play-style as a stalker. I would not recommend Bando on Sirius which requires you to be closer with fewer options to escape, and also has horrible wobbly aim (lending to body shots rather then accurate headshots) in that case Nanoweave is your friend.
Thanks for such a detailed response. I guess I feel more secure with the margin for error Nanoweave provides, though as you say if you can think and plan ahead to use the EMPs and bring the fight together under your terms... hmm. I'm quite eager to try this now! Probably about to get the MKV too, as it's the only SMG I have left to aurax (besides Blitz/Cyclone, but I'm not into NC), again ties into the ranged thing. Cracking video by the way, title made me laugh, and some top kills in there. That poor heavy at 2:50 never knew what hit him.
Yeah, Cute beaver gave some pretty good examples. I run EMP Bando whenever i'm using a weapon with really low damage output ie. Pistols, NS-7, MKV. In those cases I'll lose any direct fight regardless, but having multiple EMPs allows me to use them on single targets which gives me an edge in combat. I also use EMP bando with the bolt-actions from time to time (Most notably when I'm farming a tower). Cutting everyone's health in half with an EMP makes it so I can quickly mop up a group of enemies without needing to worry about landing headshots on each of them.
i use the emp in big figths while playing the stalker with hunter crossbow, so i can OHK any class with it and its a big help for teammates to kill the enemy easyer. Its also good to keep enemys in the telepoterrooms of the biolabs because noone wants to leave the room without shields.
It's too squishy for live play honestly. I run emp bando + nano cloak exclusively in competitive matches since there's way less random **** I can die to. On live I'm currently running hunter + flak armor when bolting since the amount of explosives is absurd and I don't die to that random claymore/bouncing betty around the corner anymore. If you are set on running bando I would use nano cloak since that will give you a huge boost to survivability when you are trying to get away.
That's a thought, about running it with NAC. That's 35% small arms resistance at max rank, if I remember rightly? I've been getting into the auto scout rifle today and think Nanoweave will still have the edge for that style of play, as targets will often be outside of grenade range (especially considering the EMPs have a timed detonation), and also the potential multiple damage sources yeHHH1g mentioned. However I'm still keen to try out bandolier when I get the MKV. Probably would've worked well with the Hailstorm too, though I just auraxed it the other day so won't be touching it again.
I used to run Nano but I realized that having EMP grenades was more useful than being able to take 1 or 2 extra bullets. It all depends on style of gameplay I suppose. I carry 4 EMP grenades and use them generously, they are useful on everything except maybe a heavy assault. Can't tell you how many times I've thrown emp grenades at enemy sunderers and made closely planted tank mines kill the sunderer. Tossing them into a room clears out any explosions and grants you any kills that those said explosions cause. The grenade bando is awesome with EMP in my opinion. I strictly play infiltrator and now a days its 90% SMG infiltrator, and I find Emp grenades really help squad play.
I haven't used nanoweave in nearly a year on any character. When stalking or using smg. I usually take extra grenades with me, only giving them up for adrenaline pump (which is very effective with stalker in the field) on occasion. 4 EMPs are great if you know how and when to use them for the rest of your faction to push into much needed rooms. I can remove enemy sheild regs and motion sensors as well as tossing them on top of building to remove spawn beacons. Even with scout rifles they are useful for wiping out small groups ducking behind cover.
Cool, thanks for the additional feedback. Do you run the nano armour cloak when SMG-ing, or just the standard one?
Well, I took the plunge today and filled up the grenade bandolier and nano armour cloaking cert lines, also unlocked the MKV Suppressed. I hated the SMG at first, made the mistake of running extended mags instead of the laser. After switching over the thing works like a dream for hipfire headshots in conjunction with EMP spam. Think I'm getting about 40% headshot rate with it. The generic silenced SMG noise makes for good crowd anonymity too. I've had nano cloak on my VS account but didn't use it much until now. That 35% small arms resistance is very handy, just gotta watch the energy drain.
Destroys shield regen devices, motion spotters, recon darts, placed enemy explosives, spawn beacons, as well as disabling all personal shields within the blast radius, effectively halving all affected players' hit points for the duration. Oh and causes a HUD disruption that includes loss of crosshairs, making aiming much more difficult. So for a class that by default has 100 less hit points, has access to generally sub-par CQ gear and relies on surprise and deception to survive... they're pretty darned important *EDIT* You can even kill enemies with their own explosives (the EMP detonates them, rather than just disabling them)
I know that but I don't see carrying more of them more useful when compared to being a necromancer with revive nades or a max killer with AV nades.
Well... being able to do that stuff more than once per life without running back to resupply can be invaluable. Same reason you'd run grenade bandolier on any other class.
EMP shield implant +bandolier combo is the best infiltrator suit position in my opinion. You can walk into a room, throw an EMP at your feet and then immediately kill whoever is in the room. You just got to be careful with heavies because they dont lose their heavy shield for some weird reason (infys lose cloak so yeah ) Having 4 of them aswell pretty much means you wont run out, and with membership you never run out either xP
