Particles in Unity 5

[greyhoundgames]

So I used a workaround I found that puts particles infront of NGUI. I add a component that does this:

1.         Renderer ren = GetComponent<Renderer>();
2.  
3.         if (ren == null)
4.         {
5.             ParticleSystem sys = GetComponent<ParticleSystem>();
6.             if (sys != null) ren = sys.GetComponent<Renderer>();
7.         }
8.  
9.         if (ren != null)
10.         {
11.             mMat = new Material(ren.sharedMaterial);
12.             mMat.renderQueue = renderQueue;
13.             ren.material = mMat;
14.         }
15.  

It was working fine, but I noticed it now no longer works. I am wondering if its related to upgrading to Unity5.
Things I have tried:
In the particle system itself, change the render layer field(new to unity 5 perhaps?)
Make a panel just for the particle and put it at a higher render priority http://www.tasharen.com/forum/index.php?topic=7216.0
The originally mentioned code
Another person's component based solution

1. int rq = widgetBehindMe.drawCall.renderQueue + 1;
2. foreach (Material material in m_renderer.materials)
3. {
4.   material.renderQueue = rq;
5. }
6.  

None of these seem to work for me anymore.
Thoughts?

[ArenMook]

http://www.tasharen.com/forum/index.php?topic=12837.0

In short, it sounds like Unity 5 just broke some backwards compatibility.