• Phalanx now has 55 instead of 65 damage. Still, it offers an edge, since it's a DLC weapon and people payed additional money for it, so I believe it'd do it good to be above Carnifex and Predator, but again not too much so people who fancy the two mentioned can still use them without feeling they're missing out on anything.
• If you're enjoying your Mass Effect 2 story, and are planning on exporting your save file to Mass Effect 3, then I strongly recommend you play this DLC. This DLC does not add any new permanent squad members or weapons or items, but it does add a lengthy mission that is quite fun to play.

For me, it depends on the mission. I prefer the better fire rate of the Carnifex for missions with husks. If I need to snipe, I prefer the Phalanx - at least for missions before the Collector ship. Sep 05, 2010 The results are 11.8 seconds for the carnifex, and 11.297 seconds for the mattock. Both weapons had 4/5 available research upgrades. Take into account I missed wide right twice on the second round.

... on classes that don't get time dilation or ammo powers, and without using a click macro?

Specifically, how does it compare to the other AR's in power or even the Viper (which it is based on to an extent)?

A lot of old timey threads just talk about how it is so much more powerful than the other choices on some of the casters without a lot of numbers that I could find. Some claims also seem to be contrary to what I would expect numbers to actually show if they are calculated correctly.

Might do some maths later today just for the hell of theorycrafting, but want some current day opinions.

$50 SPENT

The next milestone includes $30 more, bringing the grand total spent up to $50. Of the 15 Spectre Packs purchased during this phase, you’ll notice a ton of duplicates, especially a lot of Drell Vanguards.

Each time you obtain a duplicate weapon, that specific gun is leveled up by one point (two if it’s a default option). You can level any weapon up to 10, and there are well over 20 to unlock.

CHARACTERS

• Turian Sentinel
• Drell Vanguard
• Krogan Sentinel
• Drell Vanguard x4
• Turian Sentinel
• Male Human Adept x2
• Female Human Adept

WEAPONS

Mass Effect 2 Phalanx Vs Carnifex 2

Assault Rifles
M-8 Avenger V
Geth Pulse Rifle II
Assault Rifle Stability Damper II

Heavy Pistols
Arc Pistol I
M-6 Carnifex III
Pistol Piercing Mod II

Shotguns
M-27 Scimitar I
Geth Plasma Shotgun II
M-23 Katana III
Shotgun High Caliber Barrel III

Sniper Rifles
M-98 Widow V
M-92 Mantis III
Sniper Rifle Piercing Mod II

Submachine Guns
M-4 Shuriken IV
SMG Heat Sink II
SMG Scope I
SMG High Caliber Barrel I

Bonus

• Cobra Missile Launcher Capacity +1
• Ops Survival Pack Capacity +1
• Reset Powers

CONCLUSION

Although there were some good finds, overall that felt like another $30 down the drain. Even with all the rare character cards, our class levels hadn’t changed much, and we were still missing a few specific races:

• Adept – 5 (missing Drell)
• Sodier – 5 (missing Turian)
• Engineer – 7
• Sentinel – 7
• Infiltrator – 5 (missing Quarian)
• Vanguard – 12 (missing Asari)

$100 SPENT

$50 down, $50 to go. The following is a list of all of my unlocked content after the full $100 was spent. That’s 50 Spectre Packs or 3,000,000 Credits.

CHARACTERS

Note that the entire second $50 didn’t yield a single new character, leaving me with four empty slots on my class-select screen. XP also came to a crawl. I was hoping to get a character pretty close to level 20 without having to play a single match, but the highest I got was 12.

Mass Effect 2 Carnifex Vs Phalanx

• Adept – 9 (missing Drell)
• Soldier – 7 (missing Turian)
• Engineer – 12
• Sentinel – 11
• Infiltrator – 7 (missing Quarian)
• Vanguard – 12 (missing Asari)

WEAPONS

At $80 in, I unlocked the M-99 Saber, my first “N7” class weapon. Although I ended with plenty of options to choose from, the Geth Plasma Shotgun remained my go-to weapon, especially without the M-13 Raptor in my inventory. I was still missing lots of mods, and the ones I did have were not leveled up by much.

Assault Rifle
M-8 Avenger V
Geth Pulse Rifle III
M-96 Mattock I
M-15 Vindicator II
M-99 Saber I
M-76 Revenant II
M-37 Falcon I
Assault Rifle Stability Damper II
Assault Rifle Magazine Upgrade I
Assault Rifle Piercing Mod I
Assault Rifle Precision Scope III

Heavy Pistols
M-5 Phalanx I
Arc Pistol II
M-3 Predator V
M-6 Carnifex V
Pistol Piercing Mod V
Pistol Magazine Upgrade I
Pistol High-Caliber Barrel II
Pistol Score I

Shotguns
M-23 Katana III
Geth Plasma Shotgun VI
M-27 Scimitar II
M-300 Claymore II
Shotgun Spare Thermal Clip I
Shotgun Shredder Mod I
Shotgun Blade Attachment II
Shotgun High Caliber Barrel III
Shotgun Smart Choke II

Sniper
M-92 Mantis VII
M-29 Incisor IV
M-98 Widox IX
Sniper Rifle Spare Thermal Clip I
Sniper Rifle Piercing Mod IV
Sniper Rifle Enhanced Scope I

Submachine Guns
M-25 Hornet II
M-4 Shuriken VI
M-9 Tempest II
SMG Ultralight Materials III
SMG Magazine Upgrade V
SMG High Caliber Barrel I
SMG Heat Sink II
SMG Scope I

Mass Effect 2 Predator Vs Carnifex

SUPPLIES

Supplies are special one-use items that are automatically equipped to the D-pad and available in every mission. I didn’t keep track of them until the very end since they’re not that important, and you get a ton of them. But the final tally is below.

• Cobra Missile Launcher – 64
• Thermal Clip Pack – 73
• Medi-Gel – 54
• Ops Survival Pack – 85

The Medi-Gel definitely comes in handy as it allows you to revive yourself, and the Cobra Missile Launcher is vital for instantly taking down minibosses such as Atlas mechs. Somewhere along the way I picked up two missile capacity increases, meaning I can now storm into each battle with four missiles. On Bronze difficulty, there are usually only four Atlus mechs total, which makes surviving all 11 waves a breeze.

CONCLUSION

Had I not stolen the $100 out of GamesBeat editor-in-chief Dan Hsu’s wallet, I’d be feeling pretty gypped right now. After 50 packs of the best Mass Effect 3 multiplayer has to offer, I still don’t have a single level 10 weapon, I don’t even have all of the available characters (which there aren’t that many to begin with), and I didn’t pick up any of my favorite weapons from the campaign.

Worse yet, I can’t imagine sinking the 40 hours of total playtime that it would take to build up 3,000,000 Credits, only to end up with such a mixed bag. XP comes very quickly through actually playing the game, but Mass Effect 3 is quite stingy when it comes to Credits. I think a better price point for the packs would have been 5,000, 15,000, and 30,000, rather than 5,000, 20,000, and 60,000.

I’m sure there will be those who purchase just a couple packs and get some awesome stuff, while others will go on to have worse luck than I did. That’s the problem with gambling. But according to our little test, the odds are stacked against you in Mass Effect 3.