Just wondering if anyone has tried the Shadow sniper rifle? Going by stats it seems to have the highest damage. Confirmed?
Because it's a scout rifle, NOT a sniper rifle. By those standards it is very strong. Damage categories are different for different weapon categories. I hope my post was helpful and you read the weapon category in the future. =)
^This. It's confusing, but the damage bar goes from 0 to 100% (from 0 damage to "the most damage a weapon in this category can do"). Scout rifles' damage is roughly the same as the pistol's, fyi. You got a fully automatic scout rifle (Stalker) and a semi-auto (Shadow), these are the best weapons you have for CQC, both of them fall in comparison to every other class's though. Shadow has enormous recoil, low ROF and still takes ~6+ body shots to kill, a full mag of the Stalker may not kill a Heavy at point-blank, etc. Personally, I favor the Stalker, it gets the job done when doing some actual "infiltration", you can never, ever, engage head-on though. Which is not the point of the Infiltrator anyway, so I guess all's fine with the world.
Has anyone tried to deck this thing out? It seems that the damage potential is very good (even taking 4 body hits) as it can be fired rapidly (4 shots < 1 second). The rapid reload time + decent clip size makes me think it would not be a terrible investment. Recoil seems like the only major problem. Slap a reflex sight on this with compressor + front grip and it seems like it would be very good for the occasional 1 v 1 (keep in mind that appropriate use of cloak + recon device should minimize the need for 1 v 1 situations where you do not start with the upper hand)... Thoughts/Experiences?
I have both the Stalker (auto) and the Shadow (semi) and love them both. Usually the Stalker is for in-base fighting and the Shadow for the lead up since it's more of a mid-range weapon. It's important to remember that the infiltrator rifles aren't meant to go head-to-head with other guns, our camo is meant to give us the jump on people. A head shot followed up by a body shot or two generally does trick. I find the Shadow very hard to use and yes, it's about 4-6 body shots / 2 headshots / 1 head 2 body. Hitting someone with it is hard because of the recoil, so you need a good aiming hand. I've given the Shadow the 2x reflex sight (4x was terrible for close range) but I've yet to give it anything else. I can usually get a kill in three shots with a bit of luck and that's usually enough to kill someone before they can understand what's happening. The alternative is that I get two hits and miss eight then get killed. Great if you're backing up a friend but difficult to use on your own. Much more versatile than the sniper and the Stalker but suffers outside of mid-range. It's got a hell of a lot of damage but isn't particularly forgiving if you miss a lot...which you will. Oh and don't use it from the hip. I've missed ten shots from 5m firing from the hip and that wasn't to do with my own aiming. Hope that helps.
I don't want to copy paste because I've posted this twice in the last couple of days. Stat wise, Mibeshu is largely correct. I main the Shadow and I have it fully configured with laser, silencer, and 2x. To summarize, it's very lethal and versatile at different ranges. Completely deadly (much higher damage capability than the Stalker) in close range. Even with the silencer, carefully placed headshots can silently dust off enemies at range, and the hipfire with the laser is amazing and gives you the opportunity to outshoot heavies even. I kid you not- I find it very effective and I cap bases and kill until I run out of ammo regularly. The recoil is fairly heavy depending how fast you shoot. To summarize it's more versatile and more capable than the Stalker while less consistent and harder to use. Not saying either one is better, but it depends on your playstyle. I don't like to play tag quite so much, and I like to silently eliminate enemies before they realize, so the Shadow is my gun.
I like it for what it is - a medium-close range semi auto hard hitting rifle. Take it for a trial run. Also try out the SAS-R (standard bolt rifle but with iron sights and close range scope upgrade) - I got a bronze medal with it in my trial run, very deadly if you can aim. And trial the Rebel pistol, it's said to be strong as a main weapon
