Mass Effect 3: How to Choose The Best Weapons in ME3
Different Guns, Different Purposes
You have five slots for weapons in ME3: sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotgun, heavy pistol and submachine guns. Each gun serves a different purpose and is best for different occupations. Because of this, different statistics are more useful for particular weapons. For example, since you'll often be able to get in only a few shots with a sniper rifle, you'll want to focus on power over shooting speed, to make those few shots really matter. Here are the qualities of the different weapon types:
Sniper Rifle: Used for attacks at a long distance. Slow, precise shots are what's needed.
Assault Rifle: Quick, powerful and accurate, the assault rifle is good at most ranges, but has limited ammunition.
Shotgun: Powerful, and with a wide range, but slow and with limited range.
Heavy Pistol: Strong and accurate, but with a slower rate of fire than submachine guns.
Submachine Gun: Fast firing speed, good for spraying opponents, but individual shots are fairly weak.
Stats
You can check your weapon's stats at a weapons bench, or when picking up a new gun. Compare these stats when choosing you gun of choice.
Weight: The weight of your gun will affect how many other weapons you can carry, as well as your ability recharge time (See Below).
Capacity: The amount of rounds the gun can hold.
Fire Rate: How quickly the gun shoots rounds.
Damage: How much damage each shot does.
Accuracy: How accurate the gun fires; vital for sniper rifles.
Watching Your Weight
Mass Effect 3 introduces the weight system to weapons. Each weapon comes with its own weight, and Shepard will have an overall weight limit. When you go over this weight limit, your abilities will recharge more slowly. However, if you are below the weight limit, your abilities will recharge more quickly. If you are a biotic specialist, you may want to keep your weight as low as possible so that you can use your biotics with greater frequency.