User blog comment:Lancer1289/Are People in Multiplayer Lacking in Intelligence?/@comment-1978336-20120730005728/@comment-1388547-20120730101248

Keep in mind that your teammates would like to win the match, not have a protracted gun duel. The Avenger is a decent weapon -- it's lightweight and does moderate damage -- but it doesn't really cut it as a primary damage dealer. I used to use it a lot as something to shoot while my powers were on cooldown, but I've never had much success trying to kill things with it by itself.

If you don't like your current situation, I have two suggestions. The first is that you could find some like-minded players, and play the game the way you prefer. The second is that you could try one of the easier powers classes, which are still great choices if you want to be effective without high-end equipment. If biotic combos are too complex to start with, try an Engineer. As an example, one good build with the human Engineer would be to max out Overload, going for the chain and neural shock upgrades, and use it for area damage and crowd control. You won't get a lot of kills with this, but you will get a lot of points on assists, and you'll be very helpful to your teammates.