Decoy or EMP grenade?

[psijaka]

I'm about to spend certs on my Infiltrator grenade slot, and would like to know exactly what effect the EMP grenade has before making the decision. I've come across previous threads about this, but these don't answer all of my questions and are pretty old so the info in them may well be out of date.

Does it:
Deplete shields, effectively reducing people's health?
Destroy or deactivate mines, engi turrets or other deployed devices?
Have any effect on vehicles?
Have any effect on enemy phlanx turrets, air/vehicle deployment terminals etc?
Jam the mini map?
Interfere with enenies ability to spot enemies and remove the blue triangle/name identifying their friendlies?
Have any effect upon friendly forces within it's AoE.

Also:
What is the radius of effect?
How long do the effects last?

[Mastodon]

I bought the EMP grenades on one of my characters. My advice is: don't waste the certs.

I should be more clear. They do deplete shields, including those on your team. Do deactivate mines, claymores, etc., have no noticeable effect on vehicles, turrets, or terminals. I can't remember about the minimap. Not sure about spotting.

Huge area of effect. Lasts 3-5 secs I would say.

The biggest problem with them is that you get nothing in return for using them. No cert gain for chucking that 200 cert grenade into a room and knocking everyone's shields off. It's just an extra resource sink in an already bloated resource category (infantry).

These things may have changed since I last bothered trying to use EMP grenades.

[psijaka]

Originally Posted by Mastodon

I bought the EMP grenades on one of my characters. My advice is: don't waste the certs.

Thanks; any particular reason that you think it was a waste?

Perhaps I should save up for that second Bouncing Betty instead
Or maybe (and more usefully) I should max out my spare ammo, hunter cloak and hacking speed.

[The Messenger]

I've also heard they disable electronic infantry sites like IRNV, don't know about vehicles.

I'm guessing the reason Mastodon says it's a waste is, because like any other grenade, it will cost infantry resources to stock. And if it's anything like any other item I've seen it probably cost somwhere around 75-100 resources. This may sound cheap but bear in mind you have a cap of 750. And if hitting enemy infantry warrants no EXP gain, this is pretty pointless unless you're willing to help your team that much. But if you put a regular grenade that close, you would probably kill the same person netting the exp and removing the enemy from combat.

Go with the bouncing betty, they are pretty lethal if you know where to put them; teleporter exists, jump pads landings, generators, SCUs, and avenues of approach. They also work through spawn room shields unless it's been fixed recently. And no, they don't despawn if you die or switch classes. But you can only drop as many as your certed to carry at a time.

[Electrofreak]

It seems to me that the ability to knock someone's shield out could be useful. But then I suppose with a regular grenade you can just blow them up.