Is Soma good as everyone says it is?

[DuelMaster53]

I'm almost at mastery rank 6, and I really want to know if the Soma is that great of a primary. Should I get it? Or something else? I've heard that it's good, but have been old otherwise.

[NobleParadox96]

the soma is good itself but soma prime is better. the weapon is worth getting

 

forgot to mention soma can be better with crit mods... but yea start off with soma then later go for the upgrade

Edited July 24, 2016 by NobleParadox96

[BiancaRoughfin]

In my personal experience, No... Its an overrated weapon. I have formed my Soma Prime and went in missions with many players using the same and would always see them left behind in damage and kill rates done in the stage.

[Azrael]

The soma prime is good but it's a bit of a bullet hose, so you will tend to run out of ammo on long missions unless you're extremely careful or use an ammo mutation mod. Also the best builds for it often require argon scope, which is both exclusive and expensive. 

[DuelMaster53]

7 minutes ago, NobleParadox96 said:

the soma is good itself but soma prime is better. the weapon is worth getting

 

forgot to mention soma can be better with crit mods... but yea start off with soma then later go for the upgrade

yea thanks. Have Soma p bp just need the parts :P

[VKhaun]

Yes. It is fantastic.

It's not the best weapon in the game, but the stats are viable for the whole game and it comes with two V polarities on a crit weapon (crit mods are lower points than elements) so you can run Serration, Split Chamber, Point Strike, Vital Sense, and two 90%'ers right out of the box. I recommend Shred and two 60/60's though.

[Zavenosk]

Soma isn't the best weapon in the game, but if you're going full spray and prey you couldn't ask for a finer bullet hose. 

[MillbrookWest]

7 minutes ago, DuelMaster53 said:

I'm almost at mastery rank 6, and I really want to know if the Soma is that great of a primary. Should I get it? Or something else? I've heard that it's good, but have been old otherwise.

As with every weapon, it's a matter of preference firstly.

As to the characteristics of the Soma; It has a large magazine size, and for an LMG has very good accuracy. Unlike other LMG's, it's spool up time is quite short, which helps with headshots.

This leads well to one of it's favoured traits, which is its crit chance. If you mod for Crit, you'll be shooting critical hits more often than not. But more importantly, coupled with the good accuracy rating, getting headshots, with the headshot multiplier, will increase your damage further still.

If that is your playstyle, it is a very good weapon.

For me Personally, i used to run the Soma, and Soma P. But they've been replaced by the Sybaris rifles - Since i main a Banshee. This suits my playstyle far more than the Soma does since i can hit the Sonar spots a lot easier, and the base damage for the sybaris rifles far exceed what the Soma does when hitting those spots.

[PoisonHD]

I personally hate the Soma.

Its good, but its not enjoyable in the slightest for me. I never seem to put out the same damage as others, and its a bullet hose on top of that.

[SenorClipClop]

19 minutes ago, DuelMaster53 said:

I'm almost at mastery rank 6, and I really want to know if the Soma is that great of a primary. Should I get it? Or something else? I've heard that it's good, but have been old otherwise.

In my experience, Soma is great. I picked it up when I hit MR 6 and it's still my go-to assault rifle (I don't have Soma P yet because I'm lazy and never farmed the Void much). Its crit stats are really good, it's simple and reliable, and it's effective at both short and long range. Its accuracy is probably what stands out most to me. It falls off on longer missions due to poor ammo efficiency, but there are remedies for this. I enjoy the whole Soma line (Dual Raza are acceptable, Aksomati are my favourite pistols right now).

My recommendation: try it out. It's pretty good in many situations (albeit not all situations), and I think you'll enjoy it.

Edited July 24, 2016 by SenorClipClop

[Avalona]

It is decent for new players such as you, but it is NOT as good as most claims it to be.

On an unrelated note, I personally dislike the firing sound of it, it sounds like you flicking on a sheet of aluminium kitchen foil.

[rawr1254]

[Urlan]

Its a good weapon choice if you enjoy critical focused weapons. If the Grakata was enjoyable, then the Soma and Soma prime handle mostly like more stable higher mag versions with less status. Its a reliable weapon series but mind that it needs critical mods to function and has a long reload that may take some getting used to. If you prefer more a more raw damage with high speed rifle like the Boltor series weapons, consider the Supra with the Entropy mod from Cephalon Suda instead.

[DuelMaster53]

12 minutes ago, SenorClipClop said:

In my experience, Soma is great. I picked it up when I hit MR 6 and it's still my go-to assault rifle (I don't have Soma P yet because I'm lazy and never farmed the Void much). Its crit stats are really good, it's simple and reliable, and it's effective at both short and long range. Its accuracy is probably what stands out most to me. It falls off on longer missions due to poor ammo efficiency, but there are remedies for this. I enjoy the whole Soma line (Dual Raza are acceptable, Aksomati are my favourite pistols right now).

My recommendation: try it out. It's pretty good in many situations (albeit not all situations), and I think you'll enjoy it.

Thanks!

[DuelMaster53]

9 minutes ago, Avalona said:

It is decent for new players such as you, but it is NOT as good as most claims it to be.

On an unrelated note, I personally dislike the firing sound of it, it sounds like you flicking on a sheet of aluminium kitchen foil.

I'll keep that in mind and lol

[NativeKiller]

I made myself a 4 forma'd Soma Prime, a few days ago, just for the hek of it.

 

(Loving Akkad, Eris for xp farming)

 

After using it, i seems that it would be good for popping nullifer bubbles with its absurd fire rate but it's ammo efficiency is REALLY bad.

 

Personally,  Rifle Scavenger or Rifle Ammo Mutation would be a must-have to use the Soma series properly, and that would lead to one wasted mod slot. (And I don't use ammo restores, so yeah)

 

I generally prefer to use my 7 forma'd Dex Sybaris.

 

It has great accuracy, damage per shot, ammo efficieny, and is just really reliable and effective.

Edited July 24, 2016 by NativeKiller

[Maicael]

I don't fully know why, but I absolutely hated the Soma. It felt clunky to me, I think. I gave Soma Prime a chance for the mastery and actually liked how it felt.

Pretty much the only automatic primary I use is between Soma Prime and Braton Prime now, though I prefer weapons that use fewer hits with much harder punch like bows, snipers, and shotguns in general.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Maicael

[Keyse]

It's a great gun, but like all weapons it has it's place where it works and other places where different guns work better. It is a bullet hose lol, but it's not that bad if you have controlled fire. There are way better guns to use, but this one is reliable. I just hit MR19 and still find myself using it occasionally. :)
I'm with Avalona though, I don't like the firing sound either. I wish it sounded like the Braton. I love the way that gun sounds!!

ALWAYS try new guns out whether they have a bad rep or not. You may find something you like. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

[DuelMaster53]

2 minutes ago, Keyse said:

It's a great gun, but like all weapons it has it's place where it works and other places where different guns work better. It is a bullet hose lol, but it's not that bad if you have controlled fire. There are way better guns to use, but this one is reliable. I just hit MR19 and still find myself using it occasionally. :)
I'm with Avalona though, I don't like the firing sound either. I wish it sounded like the Braton. I love the way that gun sounds!!

ALWAYS try new guns out whether they have a bad rep or not. You may find something you like. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks, sure will!

[Keyse]

You're welcome!! Happy hunting out there!

[Teloch]

By this moment I have 119k kills with the regular Soma and 217k with its primed version, which pretty much means I'm familiar with this guns.

First of all, I must mention that these guns perform as efficiently as you handle them; accuracy and trigger discipline is the key. People say that it is a "spray and pray" weapon, but going full "dakka" without even trying to score headshots will take you nowhere. You might also need to use it as a LMG, not like an assault rifle, by this I mean you have to prioritise your targets from mid to long range and to cover with fire huge flocks/lines of enemies, taking advantage of the shred mod. All in all, this gun requires investment and proper boosting gear/loadout(s), but it has very high conditional sustained DPS potential; I'd say this gun is for gunners, and not for those who prefer to rely on frame's powers and else.

The best loadouts to use this LMG with:
Focus school: madurai (IPS passives, which means +90% damage)
Frames: Rhino (Roar), Chroma (Vex), Nova (Molecular prime), Mesa (Shooting gallery)
Companions: Adarza kavat (Sharp senses), Smeeta kavat (Charm)
Accessory arcanes: Rage (+20% damage on headshot), Avenger (+30% flat crit on sustaining damage(works best with chroma))

The best builds so far:
With shred and without shred

As a summary: if you're more of a "gunner" type player with decent skills - get these beauties, there are easier to handle and less demanding guns otherwise.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Teloch

[LoreKeeper-Ronan-]

It's a damn good gun personally, I got Soma P, and before it, I used Soma a lot, my advice, if you don't like the wind up time for the gun, you can skip that with a fire rate mod.

[Azrael]

5 minutes ago, Teloch said:

The best builds so far:
With shred and without shred

Just FYI, I while ago I ran damage numbers, and your non-shred build performed better with argon scope instead of bladed rounds. They're both very good, and of course bladed doesn't require headshots, so it's more personal preference than anything. But I just wanted to throw this out there, that the math supports using argon instead of bladed. 

[Teloch]

1 minute ago, Lord_Azrael said:

Just FYI, I while ago I ran damage numbers, and your non-shred build performed better with argon scope instead of bladed rounds. They're both very good, and of course bladed doesn't require headshots, so it's more personal preference than anything. But I just wanted to throw this out there, that the math supports using argon instead of bladed. 

 

 

Field testing and kavats release state otherwise.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Teloch

[Azrael]

8 minutes ago, Teloch said:

Field testing and kavats release state otherwise.

Ah, yes. I suppose kavats do change that a bit, especially if you run the crit cat. In that case (if you have an adarza), I agree with you that bladed rounds would be better. 

[Pizzarugi]

In a time, long ago, the soma was once considered the most powerful gun in the game. After Damage 2.0 came out and then new guns, it has fallen since then. It's a decent weapon these days, but there are others that are better than it.