Rifle Weapons
The rifle skill affects the Sniper rifle, the Assault rifle, the Assault shotgun, and the Sawed off shotgun.
Sniper Rifle
Advantages
The sniper rifle is one of the most useful long range weapons. Bullets travel instantaneously to point of impact, and at master skill level, a head shot taken with a zoomed in sniper rifle will kill. Even torso shots will do a significant amount of damage. The vision augmentation is very handy with this weapon, since it helps you find enemies more easily.
Disadvantages
The sniper rifle does significantly less damage if the scope is not in use. It also has a fairly slow rate of fire, reloading after every shot. While zoomed in, you can't see a lot of the world around you, making you a prime target for being attacked from behind. Due to its slow reload time and need to be zoomed in, it is almost impossible to use this weapon effectively at close range.
Opposing
Ballistic defense protects somewhat against the sniper rifle. It is also very hard for someone to snipe at you if you have the speed augmentation on and are running. The cloak augmentation provides near perfect protection; since the distances involved in a sniper attack are generally much greater than the distance at which the vision augmentation perceives cloaked people, snipers will almost never be able to see cloaked people. If you don't have these augmentations, try dashing from cover to cover. Snipers have to be able to see you to shoot you. Closing very quickly with a sniper is often a good way to kill one, since his weapon is next to useless at close range.
Assault Rifle
Advantages
The assault rifle is a fairly versatile weapon. It works at both close and medium ranges, and does a fair amount of damage. Unlike most multiplayer weapons, it is not perfectly accurate. When unskilled, it is actually fairly inaccurate, although because it has burst fire, it tends to wound the opponent some anyway. Standing still or buying higher skill levels increases this accuracy, but not to perfect accuracy. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It makes it easier to hit a target with some of the bullets, but makes it harder to hit with all of them. The alternate ammo, 20 millimeter, is one of the most powerful ammo types in the game. The 20 millimeter grenades arc, and can therefore be used to shoot over obstacles with indirect fire. They are also highly explosive, and can be used as splash damage weapons.
Disadvantages
This gun is useless at long range when loaded with bullets. It is also not perfectly accurate, and when firing, can burn through a clip pretty quickly. The 20 mm ammo is very useful at longer ranges, but the arcing, although useful for indirect fire, can take a lot of getting used to. You must also be careful not to hit yourself with the 20 mm with a stray shot into a nearby wall.
Opposing
Staying far away from your opponent helps, as the gun is useless at long ranges. If you can force your opponent to keep moving and firing, he will be less accurate and may run out of ammo quickly. Ballistic protection also protects well against this weapon, protecting you against both ammo types. The aggressive defense augmentation will stop the 20 mm, and, if you are close enough to your enemy, may even cause him to injure himself.
Assault Shotgun
Advantages
The assault shotgun has a high rate of fire and does decent damage. It works at short to moderate ranges. Since it fires five pellets, it is fairly easy to hit opponents with at least one of them. If you are right up next to your enemy, you can often hit with all five pellets. Unlike the singleplayer game, higher accuracy will not reduce the spread of the pellets. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an advantage in that it makes it easier to hit enemies, but a disadvantage in that those hits are less likely to be from all pellets.
Disadvantages
It doesn't work at longer ranges, and unless you are right next to your enemy, you're not going to get any one shot kills, since the pellets spread out.
Opposing
If you keep moving around, your opponent will find it very difficult to tag you with more than one or two pellets a shot.
Sawed-off Shotgun
Advantages
The sawed off shotgun does a lot of damage, almost twice as much as the assault shotgun. Like the assault shotgun, it works better at closer ranges, and the pellets always spread at least somewhat. Unlike the assault shotgun, it is much easier to get one shot kills. A full load of all five pellets, with skill level 3 and the targeting aug will kill someone if all pellets hit the torso.
Disadvantages
It has a slow refire rate, and doesn't hold much ammo in a clip. Although very dangerous at short ranges, this isn't a very dangerous weapon at longer ranges, even at ranges where the assault shotgun might still be effective.
Opposing
Much as with the assault shotgun, try to stay out of close range. If you must be in close range, take advantage of the slow refire rate to circle around your opponent with a much faster firing weapon.
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