<P><B>Advantages of Pepper Spray:
<P>1) Highly portable (fits snugly in a purse), multiple applications. Can be carried with any kind of combat strategy. My anything-goes-strategy has kind of fallen into Pepper Spray/Dragon's Tooth, pistol weapons, sniper rifle, and GEP. As long as you're short range, you can use any weapon to finish off your target.
<P>2) If care is taken with ammo, can be used to incapacitate multiple targets easily in multiple situations (unlike gas grenades which give you limited opportunity).
<P>3) Since this is a silent weapon, you can catch all your targets unaware. With a gas grenade, they can hear it contact with what you throw it against giving your targets a chance to run away from the explosion.
<P>4) Fire suppression. If your targets are incapacitated, they aren't firing. Much healthier on you to finish them off.
<P>5) From what I can tell, the pepper spray is skill independent. Can't ever say I've missed a target when I've used it properly, unlike the pistols, etc. Does not require more ammo to take effect at lower skill levels or if your target is aware versus unaware (like the riot prod or baton). Perhaps the only thing that skill effects here is the reload time?
<P>6) The gas effect is much more constrained, and is safe for your exposure. Compare with the gas grenades, where they are just as harmful for you as they are for your targets (and you really need the Environmental Resistance Aug or a hazmat suit or gas mask to use them safely). This is especially true if you are in a confined space where you can not get to your target to finish them off or have to cross through the gas cloud to move on.
<P>
<P><B>Disadvantages:
<P>1) Short range. Definitely a melee weapon. Can not be used at point-blank range either.
<P>2) While each ammo container has plenty of ammo, the ammo containers are generally hard to come by. Care must be taken to not use the pepper spray too much as to run out.
<P>3) Reload time is high. Therefore you have to make sure you don't have to reload (or run out) when you are facing a group of targets.