How do I take out turrets effectively?

I just replayed the section of the female Krogan rescue where you have to get past two turrets and their entourage like a million times before finally clearing it. All it takes is a few seconds out of cover and I'm dead even from max shields/health. I used Overload to take out the turrets shields, but even if I managed to whittle down their armor, an engineer would just come over and repair them.

Is there an effective way to take out the turrets, in that specific section or even better in general?

Solution 1:

Cerberus Turrets are one of my least favorite enemies in the game (followed closely by Banshees) for exactly this reason.

First, if you're an Infiltrator, dump one point in Sabotage early on. It's all you need to convince the Turrets to turn on Cerberus. And boy does that feel good.

Second, if you know you're going up against Cerberus, bring along EDI. She's got a couple of useful abilities. Firstly, she has both Overload and Incinerate, which, when properly ranked, can fully eliminate one of the turret's two defenses, leaving the other for yourself or your second squadmate (like, say, Garrus). Secondly, Decoy is quite good at absorbing and attracting fire. Decoy is even available as a bonus power if you're so inclined, and will happily soak up turret after turret for you.

Third, learn the turret's firing patterns. It is utterly lethal when it's spraying lead at you, but after a barrage, it spins down and stops for a second or two. That's your cue to pop out of cover and let fly with your abilities, accurate weapon fire, and so forth.

Finally, if all else fails, see if you can avoid it. Turrets don't count as enemies whenever you have to defeat waves of enemies - you kill everything else, if you can run by it, you're golden.

And, trust my personal experience when I say, never ever biotic charge a turret while it's firing. It won't end well.

Solution 2:

Turrets are a pain, but their often preditable patterns means that you can wait and watch the turrets stop shooting. Once they are't shooting, as a Sentinel, here's what I do:

• A blast of Warp to reduce their armor by almost half.
• Take a sniper rifle and shoot few rounds at the barrel

By these 2, you'll take them out in no time.

If there a bunch of turrets, toss out two or so Life grenades, and then follow the above. Warp ammo will also help in taking out these turrets fast.