The combat stealth guide is great, and covers basically everything I mentioned in the other thread about infiltration the other day when I forgot to bring my silenced guns.
You can be "stealthy" with an L-6 and an intimidator if you follow the rules about relocating after each shot and approaching targets from behind.
Are there any plans for a guide to gear, both upgraded and unupgraded? I absolutely hated the executioner when I first tried it out - the slow projectile speed combined with the level 1 not being able to score a one-hit-kill combined with the way even a sliver of shield provides 100% protection meant that it was an absolute pain to fight anyone that got their shield up - and firing would make people break stride as they'd hear the shot before it reached them. The slow cycle rate would mean that if I didn't kill on the first shot, they'd have their shield up before I got a bead on them for a second, and I'd need the third to kill - which is the entire magazine so if I miss a single shot then I'm left reloading which is an absolute pain.
Once I got it to level 3, it got a lot better, dropping most targets in one go. Magazine size makes a huge difference and faster handling make it a pleasure to use. Audio masking is practically easymode as you can skip relocating. Noise suppression? I actually didn't bother. I might take it if I didn't also have a noise suppressed tormentor? I messed up the other day when I forgot it was the only gun that wasn't silent indoors and saw someone down a long hallway - the ammo counter still had the little crossed-out speaker symbol on it even though I was indoors. Ideally, I should have pulled the sidearm for that job.
Same with the tormentor. You can draw it a lot faster than an executioner and with a couple of upgrades (or a headshot) it'll happily single-tap any unaware targets much more quickly and conveniently than the zap, and if you max it out to G5 and put the headshot mod on it, it'll even take out a resist-augged G5 dominator in one shot. I can't see any reason to pack either of the other pistols while the tormentor exists, and I would definitely recommend that if you take any weapon to G5 and put both the silencers on it, even if you don't want to grind anything else, the tormentor will complement any loadout. Plus it's always nice to know you've always got a silent takedown on you.
Shoutout to the intimidator, the other primary weapon on my stealth combat loadout. Want to take out a guard indoors while they're searching for you, without drawing more attention? A noise suppressed intimidator handles a lot more nicely than an executioner, cycles faster, and is a lot better at dropping shielded targets. Even without the silencer, the exe's painfully slow cycling rate means that dropping shields on the first shot and suit on the second takes ages, while the intimidator is just a case of BLAM, BLAM, and you're done.
I've not yet experimented with audio-masked rockets. I have had some success with drawing people out using explosive barrels and grenades - making a noise happen somewhere I'm not is a fun way to move the guards elsewhere so maybe it'll be useful for that. They will drop just about anything in a single shot though without the need to even be accurate. Even G3 is overkill, G5 is... well, I guess it makes splash damage more impressive. Nigh on 120 damage while people have 30 health and at most around 50% explosive resist? Yeah.
Laser and plasma weapons I've found generally don't kill fast enough to be really useful for stealthing about as you can't just tap someone and run. I had an audio masked C-44 that I got from a pioneer supplies, tried firing on a guard behind a building, and while I hurt them a bit they started dodging, raised their shields, returned fire, etc, and while I did kill them with it faster than I would have in a stand up fight with an executioner as I was able to keep pressing the attack instead of having to stop to reload and only fire once every 0.8 seconds, it was not what I would call a stealthy fight.
As for the oppressor all I can say is "lmao". About the only thing that's good for is hosing down a doorway to make your opponents duck before they return fire.
