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This article is about the power in Mass Effect 3. For the unlockable ability in Mass Effect, see Pistols (talent)#Marksman. |
Marksman is a power in Mass Effect 3's single-player and multiplayer modes.
Power Ranks
Rank 1: Marksman
Boost weapon accuracy and firing rate for a short time.
- Recharge Speed: 6 sec
- Duration: 6 sec
- Rate-of-Fire Bonus: 30% (25% multiplayer)
- Accuracy Bonus: 30% (35% multiplayer)
Rank 2: Recharge Speed
Increase recharge speed by 25%.
- Recharge Speed: 4.80 sec
- Duration: 6 sec
- Rate-of-Fire Bonus: 30% (25% multiplayer)
- Accuracy Bonus: 30% (35% multiplayer)
Rank 3: Duration
Increase duration by 30%.
- Recharge Speed: 4.80 sec
- Duration: 7.80 sec
- Rate-of-Fire Bonus: 30% (25% multiplayer)
- Accuracy Bonus: 30% (35% multiplayer)
Rank 4: Accuracy/Firing Rate
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Accuracy Increase accuracy by 30%. (15% multiplayer)
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Firing Rate Increase firing rate bonus by 20%. (15% multiplayer)
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Rank 5: Duration/Headshots
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Duration Increase duration by 40%.
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Headshots Increase headshot damage by 25%. |
Rank 6: Accuracy & Firing Rate/Recharge Speed
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Accuracy & Firing Rate Increase accuracy and firing rate bonuses by 20%. (10% multiplayer)
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Recharge Speed Increase Recharge Speed by 40%.
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Player Notes
- Mechanics
- As of patch 1.04, Marksman will automatically reload the current weapon when activated (multiplayer only).
- Self-cooling weapons such as the Particle Rifle and M-7 Lancer will not be instantly reloaded on use of Marksman, but they will instantly start recharging their magazines.
- Ashley Williams's version of this power is bugged in many versions of the game. See below.
- Marksman can be used on semi-automatic weapons (weapons where the trigger must be repeatedly pulled to fire as opposed to held down), but to take full advantage of the increases to firing rate, the trigger must of course be pulled more often. Even when not glitching out, Ashley will not do this, so equip her with a fully automatic weapon when using her Marksman.
- Marksman does nothing to reduce the muzzle climb/recoil of firing weapons; rather, the vastly increased fire rate can make controlling those things even more difficult. If available, mods such as the Assault Rifle Stability Damper tend to be useful to help compensate.
- The power has an innate 25% bonus for headshot damage. If the Headshot evolution for Marksman is also chosen, a stable weapon with naturally low recoil is recommended to maximise the headshot bonuses. Examples include the Phaeston, M-12 Locust, and Geth Pulse Rifle. In combination with the Assault Rifle Stability Damper mod and Armor-Piercing Ammo/Rounds (to deal with armored enemies), these weapons will fire a constant stream of bullets in a straight line that will tear down almost all enemies very efficiently.
- The headshot damage bonuses granted by Marksman are multiplicative.
- Along with the headshot damage bonuses provided by the Pistol Cranial Trauma System, Marksman's bonuses do not apply to boss-type super elite enemies such as Atlases and Banshees.
- Using conventional shotguns (those firing eight pellets) with Marksman will cause the individual pellets to cone inwards into a very tight group. The circular shotgun reticle, however, does not reduce in size (as it would with a Shotgun Smart Choke), making headshots somewhat difficult. Combined with the smart choke, even highly inaccurate shotguns like the N7 Piranha will have a tight grouping.
- This also applies to the M-358 Talon heavy pistol; even though it is not a shotgun, the Pistol Scope mod can be used to further tighten its spread.
- The rate of fire bonus will only come into play if the burst was started after marksman is activated for most weapons; i.e., if the player is holding down the fire button then activates marksman, they will have to release and reapply the fire button for the bonus to come into play. The exceptions are weapons with rate of fire ramp mechanic, such as the N7 Typhoon and Geth Plasma SMG, in which case the rate of fire bonus will be applied instantly.[1]
- On "burst" firing weapons that fire multiple consecutive rounds per trigger pull such as the M-55 Argus and the M-29 Incisor, Marksman not only increases the rate of the bursts but also the rate of each round fired within the burst. This is especially noticeable with the Argus. Interestingly, this also means that the fire rate evolutions of Marksman provide accuracy boosts to burst-firing weapons as the shots in the burst all fire before the weapon has "climbed" as far from each trigger pull.
- Grenade powers and the Vanguard's Nova can still be used while Marksman is active.
- Marksman cannot be activated during Adrenaline Rush, despite having the Adrenaline Rush bonus which allows the use of one additional power in its duration.
- While active, Marksman renders the user immune to the disabling effects of Seeker Swarm and Seeker Plague explosions. Even though none of the multiplayer classes with Marksman can use any other powers while Marksman is active anyway, weapon accuracy remains unimpeded, and once Marksman ends, powers go back on their normal cooldown without any interference from swarm effects.
- Strategies
- One of Marksman's main benefits is its accuracy bonus, which on some weapons can make them 100% accurate while in cover and/or aiming down sights. This makes missing shots difficult because only recoil or being out of cover can have any real impact on your hit chances.
- Marksman is most useful on fully automatic weapons that have very high projectile spread (inaccurate), weapons with a large magazine capacity (can fire many times before needing to reload), or weapons that have good damage per shot but fire relatively slowly (like the M-12 Locust, M-99 Saber, or M-97 Viper). Other weapons effective with Marksman include:
- The M-27 Scimitar, as it increases the fire rate to the extent that the player can fire all 8 shots in under 4 seconds. This is very useful against armoured units.
- When paired with the Striker Assault Rifle, a large amount of grenades can be fired within a very short time. If the Rank 5 Duration evolution is chosen, 2 full clips can be unloaded with a short pause in between for reloading, though this severely depletes ammo. The Assault Rifle Stability Damper is highly recommended as the recoil is very high even with Turian Veteran stability bonuses in multiplayer.
- The Blood Pack Punisher is extremely effective against even armored enemies thanks to its anti-armor round feature which will occur much more often during Marksman. The SMG Recoil System is useful especially for landing more headshots.
- The M-76 Revenant. When combined with the stability modifications it helps negate the spread inherent to the weapon.
- The N7 Typhoon; when activated the "damage ramp-up" bonus goes into effect instantly (see below).
- The N7 Eagle is the only fully automatic heavy pistol, and it features a combination of good accuracy, damage, stability, and capacity.
- In single-player, Marksman can be used in tandem with Tactical Cloak to gain the benefit of its damage bonuses, and it can be activated without breaking invisibility with Cloak's Bonus Power evolution—though of course it's impossible to continuously fire any weapon without breaking invisibility (the Striker Assault Rifle and the Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle being the only two exceptions to this). The interplay between the separate durations and recharge times of the two powers is fairly complicated; see the Tactical Cloak notes for more information. In brief, if you know what you're doing it's possible to dovetail the two abilities allowing for a nearly constant active Marksman.
- With the Bonus Power evolution of Cloak and a very high duration of Marksman it can be possible to use an additional power while Marksman is kept continuously active using the above technique, something that is normally not possible.
- The above techniques can even be performed with very heavy weapon loadouts.
Bugs
- As of Patch 1.04, activating the marksman on Ashley Williams results in a glitch, characterized by her omni-tool endlessly activating and sometimes Williams freezing in place or cover. BioWare has not commented on this bug so far, and a fix is not currently planned. The only other known options are: not paying any points into Marksman on Ashley (or using Reassign Powers in the Medical Bay to revert if you already did), disabling squad member power use, not using Ashley as a squadmate, or putting up with the bug in gameplay (i.e., accepting that for considerable portions of missions where Ashley is present you will essentially be limited to the other squadmate).
- PC users have a few options to fix/circumvent this bug:
- Installing a pre 1.04 installation
- Downloading and running player mods that fix the ability to pre 1.04 state
- Manually editing the relevant PCC files so as to allow Ashley to utilize this ability
- This bug has been fixed in Legendary Edition.
- PC users have a few options to fix/circumvent this bug:
Availability
- Single-player: Ashley Williams, Commander Shepard (Bonus Power)
- Multiplayer: Turian Soldier, Quarian Marksman Soldier