Why You Should Care For: The Striker Assault Rifle

Can't say that I'm optimistic about giving this weapon a second chance. I don't like this weapon in particular, but for some people there is hope. I would say this is a high-risk, high reward weapon with a definite skill floor. Not a newb friendly weapon.

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Why is the Striker unpopular?

This gun is heavy- The weight definitely will slow down power recharge and generally this weapon has terrible synergy with power-based classes.

Guns don't kill people, lag does- Being a projectile weapon means that being off-host requires some calibrations before using it effectively. Quite annoying to calibrate every time your ping changes. It's a wet dream for Garrus to do this many calibrations.

THOOP, THOOP, THOOPTHOOPTHOOPTHOOP- This is the part that frustrates me the most; the wind-up time. In order to use this gun most effectively, it must be wound up to its maximum fire rate. This takes some time out of cover and can be reset if stunned. Not helpful when there are Primes and Phantoms that love to stunlock.

The gun LITERALLY flew out of my hand- The recoil on this monster is insane, especially when scoped. Even as a Turian with stability passives, the recoil when zoomed is bad enough to want me to slap a stability mod or module.

Where id ammo? Uit has been stoled!- I butchered the English language for a second to emphasize that this gun has little spare ammo and blows through a thermal clip magazine very fast. Pretty much like the Harrier, but not as good.

Being a Rare, it isn't all that bad. But combining these attributes above and it has well-earned its hate.

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And you are telling me that I should give it a second chance?

FLAK ATTACK- The premier advantage of this gun is the high damage and ammo-priming output. Assuming the recoil is dealt with, it can basically cover a decent area with deadly exploding shells. And like many projectile weapons, the Striker is excellent at priming enemies with ammo consumables to set up power combos.

Feel the power of the Force- The Striker also has some decent knock-back potential. Useful for stunning Phantoms, Hunters, and Pyros as they get close.

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Miscellaneous

Stability and Magazine mods- Unless you can combat the recoil easily, I recommend slapping a stability and extra magazine mods to make it easier to shoot with and maximize the time spent in the fastest firing mode.

Don't have to zoom in- The best way to combat the recoil is not zooming in. Outside of zooming, the recoil is not that bad.

Weapon Platforms are the best- Like the Crusader, the weight is generally the tipping point for not using this weapon. I would slap it on a Destroyer or Krogan (not Battlemaster) as they are hardly affected by weight. I prefer it on a Krogan Sentinel myself.

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I came into some testing of the Striker thinking "I loathe this gun, it better poop rainbows and puppies when I'm done with it". Sadly it does not poop rainbows and puppies, but it does poop damage.

Quite useful against crowds and armored targets but somewhat abysmal otherwise, the Striker certainly is a weapon for the experts. Try it out for a couple of rounds before dismissing it into the NEVER USE AGAIN pile of weapons.

Agree/Disagree? Put it in the comments. I will see them, so don't get too brave.