Anyhoo, got my PDW almost on a whim, almost a week ago I guess, probably close to auraxing it now, but I have been pretty slow since 700 kills so I could be further off than expected. I've been very happy with my eridani, love my nyx, and the artemis can be nice at times, but I wanted something inbetween the eridani and the artemis, so PDW. Anyways, I followed my basic process, use the stock gun for awhile to get a feel for the general handling. After bout 100 kills I found the thing that let me down the most was running out of ammo (in the mag) in combat, so I bought an extended mag first. Great investment, was really happy with it, but I wanted to try more stuff, talked to my friend who had long since auraxed his PDW, and he convinced me to try the laser before the grip, so for the next few hundred kills I ran adv laser. Found the increased hipfire range was fairly nice, though I missed the extended mag, it wasnt too bad. I did however find that the overall benefit of the adv laser sight vs stock was really not that large in practical application. I'm sure if I was running at a solid 60-80 fps and could really abuse those first highly accurate shots in cqc it would be alot more useful, but as it stands I would definitely not reccomend this attachment. Oh, and at no point did I use a barrel attachment. Silencer I feel with this weapon is simply not that beneficial, with its faction neutral sound and the lack of people who actually watch the map, and cloak to deal with dot visibility after. Now what I tried next is the reason I'm making this post, because I don't think many people would consider it, and it's as far as I am concerned the defining setup for this weapon. And that is foregrip and compensator. I actually feel this is kind of OP lol, I'm only posting about it because I know the vast majority of people just think "derr smg lol hipfires lazor silencer!", so only a handful of skilled people might actually care about this and give it a shot, this is basically for you guys, because I want to share this awesomeness. Basically the difference it makes to your ability to control the recoil is just night and day, it's extremely easy to keep the shots on target, and the majority of them will hit if you lead properly. Especially if you are VS, you're probably used to our typical left-right random recoil pattern, this is not the case with this gun! if you control the recoil you will get almost all shots on target, barring cof. The compensator's effect on hipfire is far, far more minor than you'd probably expect. If you go into VR and test out how the gun actually increases COF per shot, you'll find that between comp, stock, and adv laser, while the initial cof might be notably different, the maximum cof (which is reached in a similar number of shots) is really not significantly different, especially for practical purposes. What might seem statistically significant is actually not a factor in most engagements, it might be 20-50% less accuracy but you're still landing 94% of the rounds regardless... using this as an example, not a statement of fact lol. Anyways, try it out, it really takes advantage of the gun's primary strength, and that's the unusually high minimum damage. This would be fine on its own, but on top of that, the gun basically fires like a laser to an impressive range if you can manage the recoil, which is disturbingly easy with this setup. Performs about as good in cqc as the stock gun, but performs ungodly better in range than the stock gun.
Just my opinion but you should use the forgrip on each and every smg in this game. At no point under any circumstance should you use the laser (on any of the smgs) Anyway must get the pdw. Been wanting it for a while but hold it off for some reason. Thanks for recommendation edit: compensator im not sold on though..hm, really?
Yeah definitely go for the compensator as well, it seems to make a much larger difference than it makes on most weapons. If you're worried about visibility, I wouldn't worry too much about that, you can even use it to your advantage with the rare enemy that's observant enough to follow your gunfire, or if you're being hunted by a group of enemies. Typically you will have radar and they will not, giving them a place to run to makes your job much easier =p and If they do have radar, silencer wont count for squat anyways. And the only other smg I own is the eridani, which doesnt support foregrip, and you'd be very silly to not use the extended mag, given the weapon's close quarters strengths and superb base cof. I do love my smgs though so I might grab the sirius before the new smg (presumably, pic seen in command centre 1-2 eps ago). I'll probably end up using the foregrip on that one too but we'll see, I might just end up leaving the rail empty for that one.
Having recently gotten the auraxium medal for my NS7-PDW I certainly agree with the compensator/forgrip setup, as it's the one I used most while getting the medal. It gives the gun a sense of flexibility that few other weapons in the infiltrator's array can boast. I think the PDW is a very good gun to use if you're an infiltrator who runs closely with a squad and isn't too concerned with being as stealthy as possible. However, when it comes to stealth play and CQC I prefer my Armistice. I'm sort of onboard with this, but there is one thing I always like to keep in mind. Yes, below average skill players rarely look at their minimaps and thus won't really notice you if you're using a compensator. However, the players who do use their minimap tend to be the skilled players who are more likely to catch you if they catch your scent. As an infiltrator I prefer to avoid confrontation if I can.
For running and gunning with an SMG, the advanced laser sight is a great thing to have if you aim high. Hitting something in the head while you are on the move, and your target too, is much harder without it and will screw up your accuracy. I once dropped laser for extended mag on my armistice and regretted it. I'd not recommend it. For the PDW though, the foregrip plus compensator are awesome, because you won't be hipfiring much at medium range.
