Why You Should Care For: The M-76 Revenant
This gun has had a hard time transitioning from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3. Originally a weapon only accessible to Soldiers, the Revenant ran over enemies like a lawnmower. When coming to Mass Effect 3, it had nearly every aspect nerfed. This makes players yearn for memories back when they were hideously powerful (see: every weapon in ME2). Still, in the right hands the Revenant is a powerful weapon whose weaknesses can be easily negated with preparation.
Personally, this is one of my favorite guns in the game once the issues of the guns have been worked around as there really isn't another gun (maybe besides the Hurricane) that can shoot like the Revenant. It has a huge magazine, does excellent damage (needs AP for Armor), and has a great rate of fire that gives me a bit of guilty pleasure when using it.
Why do players not like the Revenant in ME3?
I wanted Quality, NOT QUANTITY!- The biggest issue the Revenant has is it's accuracy/stability handling. Of all of the assault rifles, it has by far the worst combined handling of accuracy and recoil. That means that without preparation you will never be able to hit anything beyond arms length. And those fixes tend to require specialized mods and equipment, thus forcing the player down a narrow route of choice in order to continue using the Revenant. In particular, the accuracy is what turns many players away as most assault rifles have very good accuracy at range.
Once again, I wanted Quality NOT QUANTITY!- In addition to the aforementioned handling issues, the Revenant also has a relatively low damage/pellet stat. This means that the enemies that you can easily hit like Atlases and Praetorians will easily deflect said bullets with armor damage reduction. This also means that the Revenant requires more time out of cover than most assault rifles to get the damage out to Armor, putting the user at a bigger risk than most guns.
No running and gunning allowed- Whilst firing the Revenant, the player is forced to walk and not run like many other weapons. The only other weapon with this feature is the Reegar Carbine.
And there's the Harrier...- Like any assault rifle, there's inevitable comparison to the Harrier. The only apparent advantage the Revenant has over the Harrier is ammo capacity whilst falling short in nearly every other category.
With those issues, why should I take the Revenant out for a spin?
DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA- One of the great features of the Revenant is it's high rate of fire and magazine size. Those two combined allow for the Revenant to deal an enormous amount of damage for a sustained and burst period. Whilst only being out-DPSed by UR ARs and a Mattock with a macro, the Revenant is a powerful weapon and definitely worth its weight to deal damage.
It's general stats are pretty good- You don't need laser-like accuracy unless you are sniping across the map. Once the stability issue of the Revenant is locked down, it's accuracy is better than you think. If you try and snipe across the map with it you are using it wrong. It's not the Bianchi LMG from 2142 that gets more accurate as you shoot it. Instead, it's a light machine gun that still has great accuracy at mid-range and will deal it's huge damage output as long as the enemies are inside of its crosshairs. Also, the Revenant has a great ammo capacity in both its magazine and spare ammo (unlike a certain bird-named UR assault rifle), easing the need for extraordinary ammo management. Finally, the Revenant is also of medium weight and thus doesn't kill power recharge times unlike the heavier assault rifles. This makes the Revenant a perfect fit for Soldiers who want to have both high firepower and great cooldowns in one package.
Easy to use- There's no trick you have to use with this gun. It's basically a bullet hose. No need to use soft cover for a charge up, hardly a need for constant reload cancelling, and it's hit-scan. Overall a simple yet effective light machine gun. What more could you ask for?
Miscellaneous
HOT MODS AND EQUIPMENT!- There's a variety of modifications for this gun to improve its effectiveness. Personally, I always use magazine size and stability on any assault rifle to improve its usability with AP Ammo to deal with Armor. The Revenant benefits a lot from using both of those mods as stability will negate its main weakness and magazine capacity will ensure that it rarely needs to reload. Other good mods include armor penetration mods and the extended barrel if you are going to use AP or Drill Rounds and are getting recoil bonuses from some other source like Turian Veteran and Stabilization Modules. On the equipment side of things, use a stabilization module and Barrage Upgrade if you aren't going to use a stability mod or a Cyclonic Modulator to keep up that huge RoF up at all times. When it comes to ammo types, I highly recommend AP Ammo above all else. With AP Ammo, armor damage reduction (the biggest bane of the Revenant) becomes a non-issue and the ability to penetrate cover will only make it that much better when you want to use soft cover. If AP isn't available, high level Drill Rounds provide an acceptable substitute. If neither of those are around, make sure you have an armor penetration mod on board and choose Incendiary Rounds for additional armor damage.
Accuracy++ = Tanking++ = Cover++ = Killing++- To get the absolute best out of the Revenant, you have to tackle the accuracy stat. There are thee main ways to do this. The first is to obviously improve accuracy by powers (I don't find the scope mod to be very helpful because other mods are better) such as Hunter Mode and Marksman. The second it to use the Revenant on a kit that has a lot of Shields and has to get up close to kill enemies such as the Krogan Sentinel and Vanguard. Since the player will be close anyways, the lack of accuracy is hardly a problem with the Revenant as almost all of the bullets will hit anyways. Finally, consider using hard cover to improve your accuracy. It's a noticeable change between being in cover and not in cover.
And it sounds cool too!- The Revenant also has a really cool firing sound. I thought I should point that out. I should also point out that the Revenant looks cool too, giving it style points that other guns certainly don't get (sorry PPR, but you do look a bit too alien for my tastes).
And that's why you should use the M-76 Revenant. It's a powerful light machine gun that has a few big issues with it. Fortunately, its issues are easily remedied through equipment and a few powers. Once the issues are fixed, it is a death spewing assault rifle with few, if any, equals. Any equals must sacrifice something, such as the Harrier with its ammo capacity and the Typhoon/PPR with the windup time, in order to be competitive with the Revenant. Players looking for a no-BS machine gun should look towards the Revenant to provide them a solution to their woes.
Posted Apr 13, 2013, 10:33 PM UTC