YCS/186 vs anti-material rifle?

[vVPREDATORVv]

which is better?

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

The YCS can kill ANY target instantly more often than the AM rifle (ammendment made). The energy beam's vapourisation bonus can reduce anything to ashes on a critical hit more often than the AM-rifle can, I've tried it. If you take the sniper, commando, laser comm perk and max charge packs into account (plus ED-E's 5% dam bonus for beams) against the AM's match ammo sniper commando traits, you will notice the beam's damage is better. Major drawback to the YCS is its alarming ammo consumption. But with the energy weapon's ammo weighing and costing less, it gets my vote.

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

If this was compared to the Gobi Campaign sniper rifle, It would have been tougher to answer...

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

The YCS can't be silenced, though, and I've killed Divide Deathclaws with one hit from a fully-repaired AMR before, at their highest strength when the Courier is over level 40.

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

I forgot to mention the damage bonus of energy weapons against robotic targets too, I like that. pop-fizz, goodbye ^_^

[Binky]

remind me what the ycs is. i am sorry for not remembering. but in my guess (if it is of course) that gun that is alot like the rail gun then you have me there

[Binky]

Originally posted by Mystic Pobb:

I forgot to mention the damage bonus of energy weapons against robotic targets too, I like that. pop-fizz, goodbye ^_^

true of course. i would imagine anti armour would also be effective against robots too?

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

Even though it kicks ass, anti armour doesnt have an energy bonus against robots. And the ycs is a gauss :) I'm obviously batting for energy weapons here, but I do admit, I go off them, and go over to the guns side now and again..I always have to include some kind of energy weapon in my gear, just as a different attack exploit, like robots, or instant kill factor..

[raeyel]

just thought i would point out that the YCS is not a beam weapon its a projectile weapon.its power source is MF energy but the YCS is a railgun. a laser sniper rifle would be impractical. the sniper rifle in mass effect is a mass driver and only looks like its producing a beam because the projectile is travelling so fast.

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

The above is why the Gauss has a knockdown when the AMR doesn't. The AMR deals a ton of damage, but it still uses gunpowder, which has some major limits. Since the Gauss uses electricity instead of explosives, it can travel faster and hit harder.

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

Yeah, Prof.Gauss, a german dude Who invented the magnetic coil accellerator wasn't working with lasers. I'll give you your point, but I think the YCS falls under energy weapon dynamics for it's purpose in the game...The ammo isn't specified..although we assume it is a jacketed steel core armour piercing penetrator, launched by the Gauss technology. It seems to behave differently to the ballistics of guns...perhaps it is it's increased muzzle velocity, I still regard it as an Energy weapon..

[Ygolnac]

With YCS you have to recharge after every shot, and since i never got that "instakill" effect that Dan says, for me it's not a good gun (i have a char with all energy weapon perks, still does not impress me).

AMR kicks hard but has a LOT of recoil, slow rate of fire, and basically you can't shot 2 times in a row without relocking target. Also in VATS it's very slow: if you invest a lot of points in AGI and take all the perks, you can squeeze 2 shots per VATS.

Gobi is better than both. Might hit less, but you can fire all the shots without reaming, and in VATS i can squeeze 5 (!!!) shots. If you take the perk that increases accuracy after every shot, the 5th has always 95% to hit even at insane distances, it's even better than MATCH rounds. .308 are common, low price and low weight bullets. And the goby has a very high condition = less repairs.

With my char i tried everything and Gobi is sniper's best choice. Only problem: to get it you need lockpicking 100 (or console command).

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

LOL I like that...''console command' heh heh. I never cheat..

[Mauno]

Pretty much all characters should, by late game, have 90 lockpicking, so getting the Gobi is no problem. Besides, its a late-game gun anyways, you don't need / shouldn't have it before you have high skill levels.

Effective VATS is almost useless for sniper rifles, as you're always going to be more accurate with free aim. 100% hit chance > the 95% max VATS hit chance.

[Dosbilliam, Boring but Practical]

Boom, headshot.

[Ygolnac]

Originally posted by Mauno:

Effective VATS is almost useless for sniper rifles, as you're always going to be more accurate with free aim. 100% hit chance > the 95% max VATS hit chance.

I don't know at what difficulty settings are you playing, but a lot of people talk about instakilling stuff with headshots but that doesn't happen in my game at hardest difficulty. And i know my stuff about perks abilities stats etc.
Since in every combat my enemies need a lot more than 1 shot to be killed, and many times things go wrong, i prefear to be able to enter a vats and shoot 5 times, maybe crippling the legs of 2 enemies. Even in manual aim i prefear less recoil and faster rate of fire since my targets never die with that single headshot.

BTW, all these weapons are good and viable, it's just a matter of preferences and the stats are not so important in this kind of games. But if you look at the numbers the Gobi is the winner of sniper rifles.