The Geth Trooper looks spiffy, can't wait for it to be released.
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The Geth Trooper looks spiffy, can't wait for it to be released.
Wow. You haven't given Salarians a fair shake then. A full 1/3rd of my kills came from my decoy. It shocks enemies, distracts them, and blows up. combat drone defaults to an area shock, but can be upgraded to an actual one; the drone and decoy can combo while the volus hides. Drones are also pretty potent, tactically and damage-wise. I understand your recalcitrance as the guy doesn't shoot energy, he shoots energy shooters, but that's actually pretty cool in my opinion.
I am personally looking forward to the Turian, and the Asari.Quote:
On the up side, the Turian Saboteur finally gives us an Engineer with Sabotage, and the Vorcha Hunter looks like something I might actually try, unlike the existing Vorcha. But yeah, otherwise, it looks like the new classes I'll most use/enjoy are already out - the Krogan Shaman and Asari Valkyrie.
Edit: I was wrong about the Asari Infiltrator, my bad.
You want to use the flame thrower: you prefer your turret near you yes?Quote:
So, anyone have advice for me on statting that Geth Engineer?
Zevox
Geth turret, heal boost/heal boost/flamethrower. It will snipe or you, indicate the direction o enemies, give you an ccasional pick me up, an spray fire at any surprises like hunters, phantoms or drones.
Hunter mode is awesome. Not as mandatory on the engineer, but it is good. If you go all the way, vision range is more useful than not. Your turret will provide you with enough leeway to turn off hunter mode if you're in danger.
Networked AI is a mixed blessing. Standard passive, plus geth weapon boosts. Your call.
Platform strength or whatever, melee is pretty handy because your heavy melee does crazy damage. Health/shields are also good though. Play by ear.
I just barely got the weekend challenge (50k with N7 weapon; my Eagle 6 did not go hungry this night) in before midnight, cracking a Valiant in my Commendation pack. (Not positive that midnight is the cutoff, but I didn't want to take chances.)
And can I just say the Paladin is a badass? Ever since the tech burst change, I have turned him into a comboing, debuffing maniac. Area evolutions on all three tech powers means a technological hell of razor-sharp ice shards, panicking organics slapping at their flaming skin, and gouts of static electricity that should be frying reaper circuits in orbit.
I quite like the Salarian Engineer, but to be perfectly honest, in my recent games decoy just doesn't seem to be doing anything. I haven't seen enemies shoot at it much when I deploy it, so it feels like I'm just deploying it on the off chance it'll work. And the shock only occurs if an enemy is close enough, too, so that's not kicking in practically ever.
Combat Drone I just haven't seen do much ever. Ever since I first played the Human Engineer they've seemed to attack at a very low rate, do little when they do, and rarely work as a distraction. Though I did take the long-range rocket upgrade, not the short-range shock, since I didn't want to have to worry about the range the thing was at, so maybe that was just the wrong choice.
Still, in both of those cases, they're just one power that I can try to make use of, even if they rarely seem worth it. On the Volus Sentinel, they're basically all he's going to have. That does not fill me with confidence.
Likewise.
Actually, at least with the Quarian, I tend to prefer to toss it into enemy groups, or where I expect enemy groups to be.
With the Geth though, I'm definitely seeing that near me is preferable. Need to get that healing, because without it I'm about as squishy as a Volus with no Shield Boost thanks to Hunter Mode. I really wish there were a way to control when it heals me, though, as the AI's decision-making there is sometimes proving problematic.
Yeah, I wound up going and making it myself before you replied there. Went damage & durability/heal & range boost/flamethrower. I figure that rank 4 was the only durability boost, and rank 5 heal gave the same healing boost as rank 4 plus a range boost, so I should go with those. Seems to work well, though the turret still seems kind of squishy even with that durability boost.
I have noticed that I can get Fire Bursts off the turret's flamethrower + overload, but it seems inconsistent. I had an easy time doing it on Altases when I first noticed it, but later had a very hard time getting it to work on Brutes, and completely failed to get it to work on Banshees.
I'm pretty uncertain about Hunter Mode, though. As mentioned, it makes me very squishy, and I'm not sure the benefits are really worth that. I did take the move speed/vision boost at rank 6, but honestly, the weird visual overlay causes me more problems than the ability to see enemies through walls/smoke/cloaking helps. Especially on the hazard version of Firebase White, where that overlay's white tinting made the snowstorm into a virtual white-out. I almost want to switch around to either completely ignoring it, or just putting 3 points in it (at the expense of my 6th rank in my class skill most likely), so that I can use it occasionally when Cerberus breaks out the smoke or when dealing with cloaked enemies.
No call to even make - geth weapon boosts aren't worth it for me. I haven't liked the Geth Pulse Rifle even though I have it at rank 9 now, and while I do like the Geth Plasma SMG, I put it on classes that need anti-shield weapons, and the Geth Engineer definitely doesn't need that - just the reverse, it needs an anti-armor weapon, which is why I'm using my Carnifex (turns out that rank 3 plus a rank 1 ULM puts that at 180-something cooldown, which is acceptable). And the other Geth weapons are too heavy for me to use on a caster.
Zevox
This weekend challenge started off by pissing me off but ended on a good note.
On Friday night I was running my Salarian Infiltrator with the Valiant. Both times for the 2 games I played the server kicked me off and did not record the points I had accumulated. First game I got kicked after wave 3 or 4. Second game I was kicked during Extraction!:smallfurious:
So, I quit and watched BSG for the rest of the night.
After I finished the operation I went back to doing all the challenges so I can earn the Biotic God title. I got a lot done, but I'm a little miffed because I need the Slayer to finish all of the challenges and that is 1 of the few classes I don't have.
I did manage to unlock the N7 Infiltrator- I can never remember its name. I spec'd Tac cloak, Electric Slash, Shadow Strike, and the sword tree all the way to 6. I have to say, I'm really liking the class. I think I may need to tweak the power assignments some, but it is a lot of fun to jump around the battlefield laying waste with a glowing sword.
Can't wait for that Geth Soldier. Geth weapon boosts, with Hunter Mode and Fortification should make for an interesting time. It'll give me an excuse to use the Geth Plasma Rifle, at least.
I took the Piranha shotgun for a spin just now. I'm not sure what to think. It has an awfully short effective range, but it does seem to deal good damange at this range. Then again, I did suffer from annoying lag, which can make using any weapon difficult.
I'm no good with the Piranha, but then, I dislike shotguns in general. The only times I like shotguns are on infiltrators, and those of course reward slow and powerful shotguns like the GPS/Claymore more than the rapid fire ones that won't benefit as much from a cloak cycle.
@ Cregan: She's the N7 Shadow
I do well with the Eviscerator on my Krogan Vanguard. I've been meaning to equip one of my caster classes with the Eviscerator or Scimitar to see how it works. I think the Revenant might be better for my Krogan Soldier, but I'll try it out once more. That said, I've been thinking of abandoning some the Krogan's melee power and taking some points of Carnage... with the changes to fire explosions, it might be more worthwhile.
The Eviscerator is a very good general-use shotgun for Vanguards. Lightweight enough that it'll eventually leave them at 200% cooldown once it's ranked up, good ammo for a shotgun, good firepower, and no real downsides. The Krogan can get away with heavier though, especially if you took the rank 6 class talent that decreases shotgun weight. Mine uses a Wraith 1 and is at 190%.
I wouldn't put an Eviscerator on a caster myself, since unlike Vanguards, they don't generally want to be in close to their opponents. Maybe a Fury, Shadow, or Asari Valkyrie, but I don't have any of those yet.
Zevox
Yeah, the Eviscerator is good. In fact, the Eviscerator X is better for many classes than the Disciple X, a fact I found pretty annoying.
I use the N7 Eagle on my Fury, and its only purposes are (a) leaning on the trigger between DC landing and Throw coming up, and (b) Guardians. It fires like an SMG but gets the HP bonus vs. armor, and has piercing+
I would never use a shotgun on the Fury simply because there are lots of enemies you want to stay far away from - Brutes, Banshees, Atlases, Primes, Praetorians, Scions etc. Even Dragoons are problematic up-close because they're tough and hit hard, yet have nothing for your AF to drain.
I also get tickled at the synergy of a N7 weapon on a N7 class... feels like standard-issue. :smallsmile:
Really. SMGs are bad against armour because most of them have such low damage/shot. Some specific weapons have multipliers against defenses (Talon and Acolyte are good against shields and barriers, Striker's bad against shields and barriers but good against armour) but weapon types as a group don't.
Honestly, with the Disciple's weight, I'd say it's better suited to when you want to carry two guns with minimal cooldown reduction than one - at least once you start getting weapons at decent ranks. Even at low ranks it gets you 200% or close to it on its own, so you could likely pair a high-rank version of it with another light-weight weapon and still have great cooldowns.
Anyway, today I decided to switch away from buying Premium packs and go back to spam-buying Veteran ones. I was really feeling my lack of ranks in some of those uncommon weapons when trying to pick something out for my Volus Engineer, and Premium packs were mostly giving me uncommon expendables when they gave me uncommons, so I figured this would help. And it actually is, very much so. I've now maxed out two more uncommon weapons (the Vindicator and Viper), and have several more approaching maxed out. Unfortunately, it's mostly avoiding giving me the ones I really want, as I've gotten only one more rank in my Phaeston (putting it at 6) and none in my Phalanx (which is my lowest-ranked uncommon weapon at 3). Did bring my Mattock up to 8 though, so if that keeps going, I'll hopefully be able to use it on my Volus Engineer soon.
Oh, and I have a question: does anyone have any build ideas that would make a Human Sentinel stand out as something besides an Asari Adept with Tech Armor? I haven't used mine since way back before I got the Asari Adept, and I'd kind of like to, but just going 6/6/6/5/3 with it isn't going to really make it differ enough from the Asari to warrant bothering, and ignoring Tech Armor (which was my original build for it) is even worse in that respect.
Zevox
Fair enough.
Huh. I thought you were a sworn enemy o throwing your turret? Oh well.Quote:
Actually, at least with the Quarian, I tend to prefer to toss it into enemy groups, or where I expect enemy groups to be.
What you wanted was Damage/Damage/healing speed. A bunch of small heals every 3 seconds is much better than a big heal in eight, because after eight seconds you're probably dead.
The turret provides a shield boost whenever you are both wounded, and around during it's charged phase. Afterwards, it takes another 8 seconds before it can heal again.
I'd say go without for a while. If its not useful then just toss it. The visual issues don't get better.Quote:
I'm pretty uncertain about Hunter Mode, though. As mentioned, it makes me very squishy, and I'm not sure the benefits are really worth that. I did take the move speed/vision boost at rank 6, but honestly, the weird visual overlay causes me more problems than the ability to see enemies through walls/smoke/cloaking helps. Especially on the hazard version of Firebase White, where that overlay's white tinting made the snowstorm into a virtual white-out. I almost want to switch around to either completely ignoring it, or just putting 3 points in it (at the expense of my 6th rank in my class skill most likely), so that I can use it occasionally when Cerberus breaks out the smoke or when dealing with cloaked enemies.
Sub machine guns are not anti shield weapons. Only weapons which call out having a specific modifier do anything different. The geth plasma submachine gun does the same damage as a shotgun or pistol would if they had equal DPS.Quote:
[...]while I do like the Geth Plasma SMG, I put it on classes that need anti-shield weapons,
Effective range is mutable. I am consistently blowing the heads off of marauders at ranges people miss with pistols at. Powers which increase your accuracy and stability go a long way; hunter mode specifically. The spread goes from as wide as my screen to nailing enemies 60% of the time at sniper ranges.
The piranha can get off 3 shots user the cloak boost, providing damage equal to about two and a Half additional shots. There is a reason they have consistently needed it. It still has the highest DPS in the game, i unless the math switched up when they changed the sniper rifles recently.
I find your parameters interesting. The damage to weight ratio is meh to okay at best there. If you need a light shotgun, grab the disciple, slap an omni blade on it, and melee things. Otherwise, there are a slew of guns out there that fiction much better; if you don't have an appropriate shotgun you can get those returns from an assault rifle or pistol.
Heavy pistols do not get a damage bonus to armor.
You're looking at it backwards. You're already getting close, because AF is your main focus. You may as well bring a heavy weapon with you for backup that works best at those ranges. My preferred build is AF, Fitness, and melee boosts. A claymore or raider with an omniblade, an go to town.Quote:
I would never use a shotgun on the Fury simply because there are lots of enemies you want to stay far away from - Brutes, Banshees, Atlases, Primes, Praetorians, Scions etc. Even Dragoons are problematic up-close because they're tough and hit hard, yet have nothing for your AF to drain.
I also get tickled at the synergy of a N7 weapon on a N7 class... feels like standard-issue. :smallsmile:
ARMOR ON DIFFERENT DIFFICULTIES
Armor (the yellow health bar on enemy units) reduces the damage from each "bullet" by a set amount. It's 15 on bronze, 35 on silver, and 50 on gold/platinum. This cannot reduce damage below 5 per bullet.
A heavy pistol which does 200 damage per shot with a DPS of 100 will do more damage to armor than an SMG which does 20 damage per bullet and 200 DPS. this is because each bullet from the pistol, will deal at least 150 damage, and each bullet from the SMG only does 5, leaving you with 75 DPS on the pistol and 50 DPS on the SMG.
Weapon mods which reduce enemy armor affect the number of reaction only. The shotgun shredder mod, pistol assault rifle and sniper rifle piercing mods all reduce enemy armor by 65%. Only 35% of 50 damage is removed per shot, which is (35 x .5 = 17.5) 17.5 damage. This makes the armor piercing mod better on any gun which does less than 132 damage per shot, where the extended barrel mod adds equal damage to the AP mod.
The SMG high velocity barrel reduces damage resistance by 90%, so any SMG will do almost full damage. You lose 5 points per bullet on gold, which is a full 25% on the locust, and it goes up from there.
Shotguns are especially screwed because [quote]they lose this damage on each pellet[/i]. A shotgun with eight pellets is dealing 400 less damage on gold than it should.
It is uncertain whether stacking enough armor piercing effects will reduce damage resistance by more than 100%, and cause more damage. Anecdotes say yes, however.
alternately, 6/6/6/6/0, sice tech armor's 30-40% DR is actually better than the eventual +65% you get from fitness. It's much less than you get from 6/6/6/0/6 however; equipment bonuses such as cyclonic modulators and shield gear are also protected by the tech armor; if the armor has 40% DR, and your equipment gives you +100% shields, you're actually getting +140%.
All right, I cede that HPs don't get an armor bonus in ME3, but the fact remains that I have a max piercing mod for my pistols and none for my SMGs, so it works out much the same regardless.
I have a Shotgun mod too, but if your own post is any indication, armor and shotguns don't mix well anyway.
Concerning the Fury:
This is a playstyle difference; I never melee with my Fury, and have no trouble topping the charts in Gold. (She and the Paladin are my go-to classes when I feel like coming in first.) The power damage boosts from the passive may not affect combo damage, but they do allow me to eaily take out packs of weaker enemies (e.g. Husks, Cannibals, Cerberus Troopers etc.) simply by spamming Throw, i.e. not needing to leave cover, get close or setup a combo. I do blaze top-speed into the midst of many enemies (especially those with shields like Marauders and Centurions) in order to chain nuke them to vapor, but stay far away from Banshees, Praetorians, Plague Swarms and Primes.
My current build for her is 6/6/6/5/3.
Finally unlocked the "biotic god" tag and I'm very happy about that:smallbiggrin:
Been home sick the past few days, so I've had a lot of time to play. I always stayed away from the Drell Adept... well all Drell TBH- because I hated them. They sucked when I originally tried to play them. After this time, though, I have to say that the Drell Adept isn't as bad as I originally thought. He's still one of the lower Adepts on my list of preferences, but he's not as terrible as I once believed.
Drell Adept is fantastic for re-leveling the Adept class; Whereas other Adepts can feel starved due to the need to max their combo powers, all the Drell needs are max grenades and fitness (speed/health), the most powerful guns you own regardless of weight, and he's ready for Gold. Everything after that is gravy. In matches, zip around like a rabbit on controlled substances restocking your grenades and nuking tightly-packed groups of foes, softening them up with your firearms where necessary, and also dashing in to rescue downed teammates before dashing out again. Slap an adrenaline mod on them for crazy amounts of speed.
Balance changes are up.
Also, Halloween challenges!Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Fagnan
Quote:
October 31st – November 2nd (9:00 a.m. PDT)
Unnerving reports from the front indicate that the Collector reinforcements are more numerous than we feared. At this point, we do not know if our numbers are accurate or if psychological warfare is at work. We need to engage the enemy to assess their true strength.
Halloween Challenge – Complete the three Halloween challenges to earn the Halloween Challenge Banner.
Ghostbuster: Requires 5 extractions on Firebase Ghost or Firebase Ghost Hazard
Zombie Hunter: Requires 7500 points against husks/abominations.
Monster Killer: Requires 10000 points against brutes/scions/praetorians/banshees.
All challenges can be completed on any difficulty.
Scion nerfs at last. Jeebus.
And hopefully the GPR will be more useful than flicking rubber-bands at my enemies now.
That's not really what I was looking for; I meant more different in terms of play style. The Asari Adept and Human Sentinel both have Warp -> Throw as their obvious go-to damage dealer, and that makes them too similar for me - I'll just use the Asari when I want to do that. I was hoping somebody might have tried something more out-there with the Sentinel and found some success with it, something that would differ from the obvious Warp -> Throw oriented tactic.
No, you must be thinking of someone else. I've always tended to be very aggressive with my turret as my Quarian. If I preferred to put it near me my first instinct would've been to take the rocket upgrade at rank 6 so it could do more from a distance, not the flamethrower for close-range damage output.
Hm, interesting, though I'd be quite hesitant to go without the flamethrower. Still, I do have three respec cards now (thank you, Veteran packs), so I could try that, especially if I decide to change to a build with 0 or 3 in Hunter Mode.
Yes, I know they did away with the damage multipliers of ME2 there. But the Geth Plasma SMG is quite noticeably good at stripping shields quickly, while meanwhile suffering immensely against armor, so I nonetheless think of it as an anti-shield weapon.
The Disciple is weaker than the Eviscerator, so I'd just be surrendering firepower if I went with that now that my Eviscerator gives 200% cooldown. And on Vanguards especially I won't go below 180% cooldown, since Charge is life for them, which makes most of my weapons invalid choices on them.
Batarian Brawler, eh? Really not sure what I'll do with that one if I get it. Lash seems so out-of-place on a Vanguard that I'd normally ignore it in favor of other powers, but if I were to do that, I'd just end up with an inferior version of my Krogan Vanguard build. So I'll either have to try and find a way to make Lash useful to a Vanguard, or I'll just end up not using the class.
I don't know, that damage buff seems awfully small. I mean, I know it has a great rate-of-fire, but still, considering what SiuiS outlined about the specific mechanics of armor above, it's certainly not going to be the least bit more useful against armored foes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Psyren
Zevox
Zevox - With the right spec the Human Sentinel can out perform the Asari Adept damage wise (if not in cool down) while being slightly bulkier due to damage resistance. Other than that... Eh.
Well, its primary strength (aside from its weight/'coolness factor') is its accuracy, so I'm also looking at the increased headshot multiplier. And with a max AR piercing mod (which I have) I think I can cut down the armor DR quite a bit. (80%? I think?)
And yet, I find the Asari much more survivable - Stasis has prevented much more damage to my Adept than tech armor ever would.