I play almost exclusively VS Infiltrator. And recently, I've tried to move away from sniping and more towards close range "infiltrating", grabbing a trial Artemis whenever I can. I'm going to save my complaints about how abysmal this class is at assuming it's advertised role for later; for now I just have one question... Why is it that the VS stock assault rifle, the Pulsar VS1, has a higher rate of fire, faster reload, better accuracy, and a larger magazine than the Artemis, a 1000 cert weapon and the "Infiltrator's" only choice of automatics? Shouldn't it be AT LEAST as usable, if not preferable in some way? I've watched every video I can find on using this weapon effectively and completely altered my play-style, and it still feels sub-par.
Sadly sony names the class infiltrator.. the official name is Sniper. Close range weapons suck really hard now and Sony is to ignorant to do something about that, stealth yust plain sucks at close range, our sensordart is nice but lasts way to short to be usefull during long-term OPS, we have less health then everyone else, we have less reaction time then other people due to having to leave stealth before shooting instead of removing stealth when starting to shoot, knifing takes 2 hits even from the back, we cant hack vehicles.. this is no infiltration class, this is a sniper class and the fact that sony named it infiltrator is either hope for the future or a obvious lie. yust my opinion, i kinda think CQC infil is fun, but its so ****** up... i really hope they change something about this cause the whole infiltrator basics of PS1 are put in a shredder and fed to the fish..
Worse is the fact they claimed if Darklight was in game they'd have to give us near perfect stealth. Darklight IS in the game. Any IR/NVG will show you stealthed or not.
I vaguely remember there being a scout rifle identical to the Pulsar in beta... Nova or something like that?
Use a Semi Auto Sniper and throw a 4x range scope on it or whatever you feel comfortable with and only use it to pick off certain enemies, don't use it unless needed. Stick to your pistol and knife. Shoot about 2-3 times then knife, if you run out of pistol ammo, use your semi auto sniper to shoot in the back 2 times then knife, the enemy will die in a second without any time to react. Against multiple enemies, kill one, stealth sprint around covers to trick the other enemies, sprint to another enemy, pistol/knife, stealth again, repeat. I think the most I ever killed was 12 at a time with only pistol knife combo. You HAVE to keep moving and confusing the enemy. Yes they can see you stealth, but if you keep sprinting behind cover and jumping ontop of rocks/cover, they will have a hard time shooting you down, don't make obvious movements.
At close ranges and when you need the ability for quick follow up shots the artemis is very decent. Sure even a carbine has a good chance of out performing it in a stand up fight, but that shouldn't happen. To quote a certain wizardly private investigator "If you ever find yourself in a fair fight someone has made a mistake." The Nyx does passably well as a mid/short range infiltrator weapon with a 2x, but if you don't finish them quickly the ROF won't be enough to keep their aim dodgy. The Artemis on the other hand gives you more of a chance if they're smart enough to turn on you before they die. But since you had the drop on them like a proper infiltrator and you've already scored a couple of head shots, you should be able to finish them off before they get through your shields. It's definitely one of those guns that's more situational than others, and it does take some practice but it does have it's place. If you're looking for an all around infiltrator weapon a Nyx with a 2x and 4x for range flexibility is a better choice than the Artemis. And to Flaeb, as VS, we might as well not have a pistol for all the good it does. I've used the repeater extensively on my alt TR char, and it's hands down better at everything even than the Manticore.
TR pistol is really good and I won't deny that. But your pistol can still do the same job, shoot 2-3 times then knife.
The thing to keep in mind is that infiltrator is at no time a core-combatant class, even while going for the close game. In almost any situation head to head with any other class, you are pretty much going to lose unless you're particularly crafty, or they're just bad. You can't try to shoot every person you see, you need to be aware of the situation and enemy positions, pick and choose, and only engage when you know you have the advantage, like when you can get one enemy alone and unaware or when there's significant chaos elsewhere that you can take advantage of the distraction to cause some havoc. The moment you start going to work, any and every action leads closer to your detection. Every body that someone sees with skull and bones hovering over it, every burst of gunfire that doesn't sound like it belongs to their faction, or every burst of suppressed gunfire puts people on to you. Many of which, knowing there is an enemy nearby, will make it their priority to find and kill you. You don't enage these people, you lead them on a chase, or disappear entirely and leave them searching every corner, becuase once they KNOW you're nearby they won't give up, and you have them on the hook. Try to keep them busy, and when, bust mostly IF the oppertunity arises, you drop them. Every one you manage to kill is just going to respawn in 10 seconds and come at you harder, and that's good, because every defender that's aware of you now has their attention split, and every one searching for you at the back door, is one less keeping the main push from the front door. It's a methodical and risky play style, and most of all requires patience. You're going to farm certs doing it either. (realistically less than half of the certs I've used to upgrade my infi were actually earned by it, and most of that was from sniping medics) You do it for two reasons: 1) because you get a rush out of accomplishing something at a serious disadvantage or 2) you're a bit of a jerk, admit and embrace this fact, and like to mess with people, even if it's certainly going to get you punched in the face. If you try to play it differently you're just going to die quicker, and wind up angry and raging. If you want to be the guy that hits hard and fast from an unguarded flank, the LA is far more suited to this purpose (it's why they have better guns than us). Infiltrator is meant to get in, and do as much damage and more importantly distruption as one can before being found and killed. Realistically the only way it's going to end differently is if you manage to evade well enough to keep alive until your team manages to push in, and that doesn't happen often. You can't be afraid or upset with being killed because you didn't stand a chance, you embrace this and flip them the bird as you go. You do it because you like to, because in the time spent doing all this, you probably could have doubled or tripled your kills as another class or even as a sniper.
