ME3: Best Sniper Rifle (let's keep the spoilers mild)

[Trollsassin]

I just used the Widow in a mission, and I like it more than the Javelin. Basically a "bolt action" sniper rifle, it packs a punch. Like the Javelin, it shoots through cover and pierces enemies, allowing a well placed shot to decimate a number of weaker opponents. The Widow, on the other hand, has no need for charge-up before it fires. Whether this is a blessing or a curse, I'll leave to personal preference (I like using the extra charge-up time to correct my aim). Stats-wise, as I said in my previous comment, they're near identical, with the Widow sporting a minute amount of extra damage, and immediate fire.

If weight seems to be a problem for you, the Mantis is still a very capable weapon. Similar stats to the last two, except less weight means less damage. It also can not pierce cover, or enemies based on my experimentation, so I still prefer the heavy-weight sniper-rifles.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

The Black Widow was easily my favorite sniper rifle in the whole game. Once you throw in some upgrades and mods to buff its damage, the fact it has 3 shots before a reload totally turns my gameplay around.

 

[Artemicion]

I roll Raptor pretty much all the time. If I'm feeling snarky I'll switch over to my Black Widow.

 

[Veldrenor]

So far in single player I'd say the best is the javelin. It appears to deal the same amount of damage as the widow (maybe a little less, I can't tell on the weapon select screen) but it has an enhanced scope built in so it can see through smoke, light cover, and it can see cloaked enemies. Its shots are high-powered enough to punch through light cover and even other enemies which is pretty badass. Sure, its shots have to be charged up, but with the concentration mod (which boosts damage anyway so it's always worth having) that "weakness" is negligible and just gives me more time to perfect my shot. In multiplayer though, so far it's mantis all the way.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Black Widow. Similar punch to the Mantis, but fires 3 bullets per clip instead of one, reloads faster, and has almost double the ammo capacity. Once I got it almost never touched any of my other guns, save for those times I was feeling whimsical.

 

[synobal]

Played on insanity and liked the black widow better than anything else. Since doing damage across barriers was very hard, so once you shot them they went down and took another shot to finish off regardless, once you hit a high enough damage it doesn't matter it's going to take 2 shots to finish off a target unless you remove their barrier/shields with some powers then it is going to take a single shot.

Plus lets face it the Black Widow looks awesome.

 

[LetalisK]

So there are sniper rifles in ME3, then? Good. I played Infiltrator in the demo, as I have played since ME1, and I never got a sniper rifle. Needless to say, I had a pretty major sad throughout that demo :-\

Eh? I'm pretty sure I had a sniper rifle from the start. On my soldier at least, but the weapons apply to all classes.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

The Black Widow, Widow, and Mantis are all fairly comparable. Each has strengths and weaknesses that make them more or less the same, overall. Mantis is lighter, Black Widow fires and reloads much faster, and Widow hits VERY hard at a slow rate of fire. For Sniper-focused Infiltrator, I'd probably stick with the classic Widow.

 

[RJ 17]

All right, at hour 32, I sense that I'm nearing the endgame and possibly yet another difficulty bump. I saved up and purchased the Black Widow from Spectre Requisitions, but was disappointed to discover the damage is lower than ANY of the single shot rifles.

I have, at this point acquired both the M-98 Widow (classic) and the Javelin, thought I haven't really thrown down for upgrades yet. With about 80 grand in the kitty, I could potentially max one of these out before the penultimate mission. So, the question is: which do I go with?

I'll interrupt this thought here to say that the Black Widow is actually very good for battlefield management. Since a soldier/sniper can squeeze off three shots within a single time dilation, you can potentially kill every squishy in sight in a couple fo seconds. I haven't given up on it yet, but with the appearance of Banshees on the battlefield, the lack of single shot DPS is a bit disappointing.

Thoughts?

Trust me, the Black Widow is the best sniper rifle in the game. Yes, it's only as strong as the Mantis, shot-for-shot the Javelin and regular Widow do more damage...there's one MASSIVE difference though that makes the Black Widow far superior: ammo. 3 rounds per clip is OBSCENELY beneficial, you can mow down brutes like they're made of paper. That and you get far more shots with the Black Widow. And personally, as far as ordinary enemies are concerned, there's nothing that the Black Widow won't kill in one shot. Even Banshees fall easily to the Black Widow, at least far quicker than having to reload after every shot. The simple question is "Do you REALLY need to absolutely vaporize the soft targets with every shot? Or is just killing them enough?" Because you can take down a brute very quickly with a single clip of the Black Widow (on Normal) and as I mentioned, Banshees really aren't that big of a deal either so long as you can actually hit their twitchy, seizure-having asses.

Keep in mind, the Black Widow has the same armor/cover penetrating power as the regular Widow or Javelin. Don't give up on it just yet, keep using it and trust me, you'll come to love it. Sooooooo much faster and efficient.

 

[Saladfork]

I like the javelin a lot. The charge time can take awhile to get used to, but once I did, I was massacring anything that showed its' head (and thanks to the javelin's piercing ability, quite a few things that didn't).

Just make sure you have a good secondary weapon because the javelin is even worse than other sniper rifles at close range.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I just use the Viper. I loved that sniper rifle back in ME2.

 

[Terminate421]

The Raptor is a kick ass combat rifle, not a sniper rifle.

 

[nokori3byo]

All right, at hour 32, I sense that I'm nearing the endgame and possibly yet another difficulty bump. I saved up and purchased the Black Widow from Spectre Requisitions, but was disappointed to discover the damage is lower than ANY of the single shot rifles.

I have, at this point acquired both the M-98 Widow (classic) and the Javelin, thought I haven't really thrown down for upgrades yet. With about 80 grand in the kitty, I could potentially max one of these out before the penultimate mission. So, the question is: which do I go with?

I'll interrupt this thought here to say that the Black Widow is actually very good for battlefield management. Since a soldier/sniper can squeeze off three shots within a single time dilation, you can potentially kill every squishy in sight in a couple fo seconds. I haven't given up on it yet, but with the appearance of Banshees on the battlefield, the lack of single shot DPS is a bit disappointing.

Thoughts?

Trust me, the Black Widow is the best sniper rifle in the game. Yes, it's only as strong as the Mantis, shot-for-shot the Javelin and regular Widow do more damage...there's one MASSIVE difference though that makes the Black Widow far superior: ammo. 3 rounds per clip is OBSCENELY beneficial, you can mow down brutes like they're made of paper. That and you get far more shots with the Black Widow. And personally, as far as ordinary enemies are concerned, there's nothing that the Black Widow won't kill in one shot. Even Banshees fall easily to the Black Widow, at least far quicker than having to reload after every shot. The simple question is "Do you REALLY need to absolutely vaporize the soft targets with every shot? Or is just killing them enough?" Because you can take down a brute very quickly with a single clip of the Black Widow (on Normal) and as I mentioned, Banshees really aren't that big of a deal either so long as you can actually hit their twitchy, seizure-having asses.

Keep in mind, the Black Widow has the same armor/cover penetrating power as the regular Widow or Javelin. Don't give up on it just yet, keep using it and trust me, you'll come to love it. Sooooooo much faster and efficient.

I did wind up retaining the BW through to the end of my first playthrough (on Hardcore), and now that I'm playing on Insanity I've upgraded it to X and re-equipped it. Once I figured out that the key to success is having the patience to score multiple headshots, I did the math and cocnluded that all the stacking bonusses simply made multiple shots more profitable.

But damn the Banshees are a pain in the arse. Between time dialation and their sparkly spasms, there's so much visual static on the screen that it can be hard to tell what you're aiming at through a scope. Usually, I go to my trusty M-37 to take hard targets down on hardcore.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

And that's what I was talking about: the 3 shots from the Black Widow does much more damage than one shot from the regular Widow.

But yeah, Banshees are nothing but a big pain in the butt. A crap-ton of life and they're so twitchy and warpy that they're hard as hell to hit.

 

[Cranky]

Mantis. I just love it for its aesthetic and damage and accuracy.

 

[teh_Canape]

Geth Sniper and Mantis
Geth Sniper is basically Mantis, but it outlines enemies behind light cover

also it kinda sounds like the railgun from quake 2 when it fires

 

[Adultism]

Would not know, I play Vanguard at all times with ONLY shotgun.

Katana ftw two shots.

 

[lordlillen]

Pssht. Who needs weapons when you can just chargenovachargenovachargenova?

Team Vanguard!

GO TEAM VENTUR...VANGUARD!

team vangaurd!

OT: i played vangaurd so i dont really know about sniper rifles but the javelin was rather nice and it could see and shoot through some cover.