Mass Effect 3.5 Does this thread have a soul?

[Tome]

Justicar reporting. Spending some time debating offensive or defensive bubbles.

Offensive is hard to use, but devastating when you do.

Defensive is always good, but the effect may not be that noticeable on Gold.

[Arbitrarity]

Offensive is hard to use, but devastating when you do.

Defensive is always good, but the effect may not be that noticeable on Gold.

Picked Defensive. Effect is very strong when team can hunker down in position. Reduced shield recharge time means shields come back in 2-3s, which is incredibly strong for maintaining fire. DR is enough that you can tank rockets with Fitness, and shrug off moderate amounts of fire.

For 600 base shield Asari with max fitness, defensive bubble gives 1600 effective shield; as much as Krogan.

Unfortunately, this means I'm super-dependent on having someone with Throw or Warp on my team (preferably Throw).

[SiuiS]

My Krogan are always named Slappy. Quarians are always Kari or Kali'Reeger.

It's the next best thing since they killed Space Casey offscreen.

All of my characters got actual, self-referential codenames. Often based on the pony who would use similar powers and tactics.

Krogan Battlemaster, however, hearkens back to Married: With Children. Slapmaster K has the silliest name. The silliest. Go ahead, shorty.

Laugh.

I dare you.

And then I smacked all the things. Yes, even those things. And with biotic charge I can fly through spaaaaaaace

Offensive is hard to use, but devastating when you do.

Defensive is always good, but the effect may not be that noticeable on Gold.

The effect is indeed noticeable on gold. Unspec'd HP Gethcraft and a random Justicar. Geth sat there wih hunter mode on, (350 HP, 375 shields) and used cover on occasion. For reference, Xanatos tried the same thing on bronze and died on wave 2.

Picked Defensive. Effect is very strong when team can hunker down in position. Reduced shield recharge time means shields come back in 2-3s, which is incredibly strong for maintaining fire. DR is enough that you can tank rockets with Fitness, and shrug off moderate amounts of fire.

For 600 base shield Asari with max fitness, defensive bubble gives 1600 effective shield; as much as Krogan.

Unfortunately, this means I'm super-dependent on having someone with Throw or Warp on my team (preferably Throw).

oh man it increases shield regen?
I want to play with a justicar as my Battlemaster. With the 30% shield recharge boost from Rage and Barrier, I will be an unstoppable font of grunts, slaps and witty one-liners, blocking assaults aimed at my teammates with my face.

Really, the only downside to the Battlemaster is that you look like a banana.

[VanBuren]

Mass Effect 3 Sells 1.3 Million Copies in March

Joystiq managed to get their hands on the NPD sales numbers for March and is reporting that Mass Effect 3 sold 1.3 million copies during its launch month, with 943,000 units being on the Xbox 360 alone.

Total Mass Effect 3 sales for its launch month of March were 1.3 million units across Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the NPD informed Joystiq. The number covers purely new physical retail sales, so no digitally distributed product on PC or PS3 is tallied.

Although the NPD doesn't publicly share sales breakdowns by platform, Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg did share that Xbox 360 sales for the space opera were 943,000 units for the month.

[Arbitrarity]

oh man it increases shield regen?
I want to play with a justicar as my Battlemaster. With the 30% shield recharge boost from Rage and Barrier, I will be an unstoppable font of grunts, slaps and witty one-liners, blocking assaults aimed at my teammates with my face.

Really, the only downside to the Battlemaster is that you look like a banana.

Also, justicar spams reave all day. Have fun with explosions.

[Zevox]

I was talking about Mass Effect 2, actually - in ME3, I do agree that Tali's Defense Drone is quite efficient for a Sentinel. EDI's Decoy isn't half bad either.

Hm, don't know about ME2. My Sentinel used Inferno Grenade there, but that was for thematic reasons. Looking over the list... Dominate maybe? That's a fun one, and not redundant with anything the Sentinel already has. I guess Reave or Stasis might qualify, though I never liked either of them in 2. Warp Ammo fits thematically since it's biotic in nature, so there's always that, although it is a tad generic.

All the colours will distort slightly; similar to adrenaline rush or marksman.

And of course I've never seen what adrenaline rush or marksman look like, since I don't play Soldiers. Joy. Guess I'll have to be on the look out for some slight distortion during matches then.

So, in singleplayer me3, is there any way to make carrying a sniper rifle viable on an engineer without screwing over my recharge times? Also, where do I even get the superlight materials mod for a sniper rifle?

There is no superlight materials mod for anything but SMGs. If you want to use a sniper rifle on a caster, I'd recommend looking through your inventory of them, finding the lightest one, upgrading it to rank 5, and checking to see how it impacts your cooldowns at that time. If you can live with the effect, go for it; if not, you're out of luck in that regard.

This is surprising. The banshee's barriers actually prevent detonation or warping. Only phantoms have this ability of all the other enemies, and theirs is directional.

Er, no they don't. I do warp -> throw on Banshees all the time and get detonations.

Similarly, I see you saying shielded enemies are harder for your adept; why? Warp, shoot once or twice, throw, and they're dead. On gold. So shouldn't silver be just as easy?

Shields are the defense biotics are the least effective against - they take the least damage from my warp or explosions. Biotic detonations still wreck the weaker ones, sure, but Warp itself has reduced effectiveness, and I can't do much with throw other than set off combos - and thanks to them dodging powers, it often takes longer for me to do that, which can lead to my allies gunning them down before I can actually do so, thereby losing us the AoE of the combo. And on larger targets (Primes mostly) their shields are durable enough to survive a combo. Pyros live through a combo too, though their shields do drop.

If you have enemies who frequently dodge, play smarter not harder. Throw, then warp, then throw. Either they dodge and get warped, or get knocked down and then warped. And it's more efficien to have a 1-second delay before hitting them with warp than waiting two or three.

Sure, but that's still extra time during which enemies are shooting at me, and my allies may be shooting at my target. Also I sometimes forget to do that, since throw on a shielded enemy is pretty useless on its own, so my first instinct on seeing one is to use warp (or stasis if it's a Hunter or Engineer, sometimes others depending on the situation).

Zevox

[Psyren]

So Krogan Battlemasters are able to solo gold. Color me surprised


@ ME2 Sentinel: Caster, you either want Reave (now you have two zero-travel spells that can hit all defenses) or an ammo power (I recommend AP.)
CQC Sentinel gets Energy Drain, no exceptions.

[Arbitrarity]

Cyclonic Mod III. Not huge surprise. 3200 shields makes Gold... less painful.

[Psyren]

Cyclonic Mod III. Not huge surprise. 3200 shields makes Gold... less painful.

Especially when you can refill them with a button press, and do damage at the same time.

Surprised he got away with charging those banshees though... or maybe he didn't?

Still, bragging rights aside, is it worth it when it takes an hour?

[SiuiS]

I have decided being slapped by my Battlemaster is an experience, and all the enemies of value will line up for a round. He is not unlike being struck with a solid gold brick wrapped with a wedge of lemon.

I will name him after said drink from now on

And of course I've never seen what adrenaline rush or marksman look like, since I don't play Soldiers. Joy. Guess I'll have to be on the look out for some slight distortion during matches then.

You will throw your arms to the side, laugh heartily, usually a fast "hahaHA!", and the screen will tinge yellow and increase in saturation.

Going into the frenzy will actually interupt your other actions, as well.

There is no superlight materials mod for anything but SMGs. If you want to use a sniper rifle on a caster, I'd recommend looking through your inventory of them, finding the lightest one, upgrading it to rank 5, and checking to see how it impacts your cooldowns at that time. If you can live with the effect, go for it; if not, you're out of luck in that regard.

Mantis X gets me 180%-190% on the asari adept. Quite fun really.

Er, no they don't. I do warp -> throw on Banshees all the time and get detonations.

Yes they do. Not all the time, but the swirly blue effect they shroud the self with can prevent the warp from doing anything. And phantoms do the same thing.

Shields are the defense biotics are the least effective against - they take the least damage from my warp or explosions. Biotic detonations still wreck the weaker ones, sure, but Warp itself has reduced effectiveness, and I can't do much with throw other than set off combos - and thanks to them dodging powers, it often takes longer for me to do that, which can lead to my allies gunning them down before I can actually do so, thereby losing us the AoE of the combo. And on larger targets (Primes mostly) their shields are durable enough to survive a combo. Pyros live through a combo too, though their shields do drop.

Again though, on gold, wih the highest health and shields possible; one detonation leaves a hunter with 40% Health, and a pyro with around 70% armor. Rocket troopers have the barest sliver of health left. I have done this almost constantly for hours. So I do not get why they give you that trouble.

Sure, but that's still extra time during which enemies are shooting at me, and my allies may be shooting at my target. Also I sometimes forget to do that, since throw on a shielded enemy is pretty useless on its own, so my first instinct on seeing one is to use warp (or stasis if it's a Hunter or Engineer, sometimes others depending on the situation).

Zevox

Yes, but knowing the odds are likely that you will spend extra time, choosing to spend 3 seconds Extra instead of 1 second extra is innefficient. You've already taken a hit on kill time by using a biotic instead of just bringin a heavy sniper rifle, we are just haggling over the specifics of that loss now.

Especially when you can refill them with a button press, and do damage at the same time.

Surprised he got away with charging those banshees though... or maybe he didn't?

Still, bragging rights aside, is it worth it when it takes an hour?

Silly mortal, you ascribe motive to a force of nature.

Spoiler

Show

[Psyren]

Okay, so after seeing this, I take back everything I said about Reave. Going to try this build out - maybe the grenades ARE a better idea than Pull, and forgetting about the DR seems to be the best bet.

The guy playing the Drell is apparently a Bioware employee too... May have to ask for pointers...

[Zevox]

You will throw your arms to the side, laugh heartily, usually a fast "hahaHA!", and the screen will tinge yellow and increase in saturation.

Going into the frenzy will actually interupt your other actions, as well.

Yeah, noticed this tonight. Though I'd call it more of a sicky green tinge than yellow. It already seems as though I hardly notice it anymore though, so I might have trouble with knowing when I am and am not in rage.

Yes they do. Not all the time, but the swirly blue effect they shroud the self with can prevent the warp from doing anything. And phantoms do the same thing.

The one from when they teleport? But again, I've shot them with warp and throw during that, and they take it just fine. And I've never seen anything like that on Phantoms.

Anyway, played some more with my Krogan Sentinel tonight. Unfortunately there was some problem or another in every game. All the bronze games I've played with him included one or two Vanguards, which is frustrating since they do what I'm trying to do, but faster (again, damn my lack of Biotic Charge!). And when I moved up to Silver I got paired with a couple of incompetent teams, then had to deal with a mission against the Reapers on Firebase Hydra. Yeah, we got wiped out in a king-of-the-hill objective, surprise surprise. I already hate that map, perhaps even more than the reactor one.

Actually, the reactor one might be good for my Krogan. The other indoor map (I've never learned the names for most of these things, it's the science lab one) was among those I played tonight, several times in fact, and it worked quite well for me. The lack of open space made it easy to get into melee quickly and without being swarmed.

I also learned three things tonight. One is awesome: you can actually shoot the Graal Spike Thrower while running. Yes, running. And accurately at that. Don't know how many guns that might apply to, but it certainly helps my Krogan.

The other two things I learned are less than awesome. The first is that I should not melee Atlases unless they're currently targeting someone else. Apparently I cannot count on getting hitstun out of my heavy melee attack on them even on bronze, which can lead to Banshee-esque instant-death. The other is that Brutes have just such an instant-death melee attack as well. That one kind of made my jaw drop - I have never seen that before, and I've charged those things with my Vanguard more times than I can count.

Zevox

[Psyren]

SiuS is right, sometimes Phantoms can block Warp. Instead of getting the blue tinge all over, it looks like they grab it with their laser-hand; I've seen it a few times.

Never had a problem comboing Banshees though. As far as I know, the blue charge field they gather is only for their Nova.

[Corvus]

Mass Effect 3 Sells 1.3 Million Copies in March

Joystiq managed to get their hands on the NPD sales numbers for March and is reporting that Mass Effect 3 sold 1.3 million copies during its launch month, with 943,000 units being on the Xbox 360 alone.

They shipped four million copies though. That is a lot of copies clogging up gaming stores, not to mention all the returns they are getting. It is little wonder that it is being sold cheaper than Skyrim already.

[Psyren]

The 1.3 figure does not include PC sales or digital sales. People have been trying to read into that number on the forums all week.

[Derthric]

The 1.3 figure does not include PC sales or digital sales. People have been trying to read into that number on the forums all week.

Does anyone have the numbers for ME2 at this point at least on consoles? A very interesting comparison that would make.

And unless they release their sales numbers for origin we'll never know the PC sales.

[Corvus]

ME3 has sold about twice as much as ME2 in the first month, but its week 4 sales aren't much better than ME2 and are less than ME1.

[Sagonene]

This feels so wrong after using my phone to post at lunch all week. Booted from a gold when I announced 'hi, new to gold' but getting more consistent at silver so coordination should be icing.

New unlocks:
Batarian Soldier - Mint, still in Box. Still using my Turian want to shoot something
Geth plasma shotgun/Arc Pistol - Shotgun fun but rarely use them at all, Arc Pistol is probably as close to a sniper pistol that I'll get
Finished Tempest X/Avenger X/Mantis X out of recruit packs
+1 rockets

Enjoying:
Adept/Engineer/Vanguard

Currently at 20 for 2 promotes this weekend (in case it matters)
Adept & Soldier
Engineer, Vanguard mid-teens

Naming conventions:
All Asari are named after a shade of Red or Grandma (see 90's sequel to 80's movie called F/X http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089118/)
Krogan are named after rocks (Discworld trolls) or Bloodbowl Players (Yes, my soldier is MorgnThorg)
Batarians - creep me out. haven't had a reason to use him. it's the eyes.
Turian (Soldier) - Gunhaver (seems obvious) Gunhaver II
Quarians - Girl names with T -Tina, Talley (engineer) Girl names S -Sabrina (Saboteur infliltrator)
Salarians - Short names like Bob or Lou

Human names:
Adept - Headache medicines (Tylenol, Advil)
Engineers - Inventors (currently Vinci & Curie)
Soldiers - Comic book Norse (Svetlana & Thor)
Infiltrators - Phil & Dixie (I suck at infiltraitors)
Sentinel - Jimi & Joan (All along the watchtower stuck in my head - 60's music)
Vanguard - Vanguardian & Ramjet (Superhero-ish)

Sago

[LordShotGun]

The 1.3 figure does not include PC sales or digital sales. People have been trying to read into that number on the forums all week.

True. But still just strictly speaking of shipped physical copies, that 1.3 million figure is pretty bad compared to the 4 million shipped. Not to mention the 20 dollar price drop in less then a month.

Someone's biscuits are seriously burning over this.

[Aotrs Commander]

Right, now the nieces are out of the way, and my new speakers have come, I suppose I should take a shot at MP at least long enough to land me one o'them event packs...

New character, I guess...

[Psyren]

True. But still just strictly speaking of shipped physical copies, that 1.3 million figure is pretty bad compared to the 4 million shipped. Not to mention the 20 dollar price drop in less then a month.

Someone's biscuits are seriously burning over this.

The price has dropped in Wal-mart Canada. Wal-Mart US, Gamestop, and many other large retailers are still at $60.

But people will cherry-pick the data that supports their preconception and ignore everything else, it's human nature.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, tried Turian Sentinel for a few games (long enough to try for another premium Spectre pack) - since I may well be going Sentinel in my next ME2 run... About as different from Inflitrator as possible, bar vanguard, I suspect...

I equipped a shotgun (Eviscerator) and Carniflex (because I wanted to try and keep the weight down a bit), and about the best function I found was to try and flank, and use myself as a walking Tech Armour explosion bomb, though I'm fiddling with Warp and Overload as well.

Not sure I like shotguns much; after 150 hours of sniping, the accuracy, range and damage seems pretty low...!

[Psyren]

I love Shotguns on infiltrators, especially since they break through the shield gate. Don't really like them on other classes, including Vans.

[Arbitrarity]

The "Special" shotguns are quite good for long range. GPS has very high damage (but can't headshot), and has homing. Graal can headshot, and has insanely tight spread. Dealing with the delay in your shots can be tricky, but it's an incredibly powerful gun.

[Derthric]

So, tried Turian Sentinel for a few games (long enough to try for another premium Spectre pack) - since I may well be going Sentinel in my next ME2 run... About as different from Inflitrator as possible, bar vanguard, I suspect...

I equipped a shotgun (Eviscerator) and Carniflex (because I wanted to try and keep the weight down a bit), and about the best function I found was to try and flank, and use myself as a walking Tech Armour explosion bomb, though I'm fiddling with Warp and Overload as well.

Not sure I like shotguns much; after 150 hours of sniping, the accuracy, range and damage seems pretty low...!

My Turian Sentinel is an Overload God. Set it up for as fast a cast time as possible, chain it to three targets set tech armor for power boosts and watch the score rack up. Keep a light weapon, I just use the Avenger X with clip and penetration upgrades(no barrel upgrade available) and routinely top off the charts on Silver. Heck at level 1 with only 1 point in armor and overload my guy topped out on Bronze with 3 players in the 17-19 range.

On that note I stink on an engineer it seems. Was playing as 1 of 5, my geth engineer, and was doing ok in Silver at 15, maxed out the turret for shield regen and had overload to 5, so chain1/recharge as my evolutions. But ended up being kicked when I came in second to last. Now I lead the Salarian Infiltrator by 10k points. But I was dropping left and right as I felt my shields were little more than tissue paper even out of Hunter mode. Also Hunter mode is fun, on bronze, and asking for death on Silver. 50% shields is a killer.

[Arbitrarity]

My Turian Sentinel is an Overload God. Set it up for as fast a cast time as possible, chain it to three targets set tech armor for power boosts and watch the score rack up. Keep a light weapon, I just use the Avenger X with clip and penetration upgrades(no barrel upgrade available) and routinely top off the charts on Silver. Heck at level 1 with only 1 point in armor and overload my guy topped out on Bronze with 3 players in the 17-19 range.

On that note I stink on an engineer it seems. Was playing as 1 of 5, my geth engineer, and was doing ok in Silver at 15, maxed out the turret for shield regen and had overload to 5, so chain1/recharge as my evolutions. But ended up being kicked when I came in second to last. Now I lead the Salarian Infiltrator by 10k points. But I was dropping left and right as I felt my shields were little more than tissue paper even out of Hunter mode. Also Hunter mode is fun, on bronze, and asking for death on Silver. 50% shields is a killer.

Hunter mode is actually usable on Gold. Partially because the playstyle is different, since you hug cover, and partially because everything instakills your shields anyways. It's a problem against basic troops with automatic weapons, and Geth turrets though. Might be easier as an Infiltrator though, since they have Cloak.

But really Geth Engineer and Asari Justicar Adept are both hard to use outside of gold/coordinated teams. Their best powers rely on getting the team to hunker down somewhere, and not run off in all directions.

[Derthric]

Hunter mode is actually usable on Gold. Partially because the playstyle is different, since you hug cover, and partially because everything instakills your shields anyways. It's a problem against basic troops with automatic weapons, and Geth turrets though. Might be easier as an Infiltrator though, since they have Cloak.

But really Geth Engineer and Asari Justicar Adept are both hard to use outside of gold/coordinated teams. Their best powers rely on getting the team to hunker down somewhere, and not run off in all directions.

I am a hunkerer, I like letting them come into my field of fire and picking them off. This charge kill and then charge some more just is not my style. Its why I am not a vanguard

[Aotrs Commander]

Well, I think I've played all I can today... I play some more, but it's getting very laggy again (funny, must be time of day, I'm pretty sure I got that this time of night last time.) Got to level 15, though, so not bad, I suppose.

Anyway, I appear to have unlocked Batarian Soldier, at any rate...

Are they any good...?

(I have decided Geth seem easier than Cerberus, now - well certainly with overload, at any rate...)

[Starsign]

Okay so I've been wanting to really use a Geth Engineer (but haven't due to rarity) and I've been wondering how to build it when I get to it. Mostly though for how to use the Geth Turret and weapon choices. Should I build the turret for offense or defense? And for weapons, most of what I have available isn't very good (atm my idea is the Geth Plasma SMG and Predator for max weight) and I'm leaning to using Overload a lot (possibly with Disruptor Ammo for the Tech Explosions )

...For a crazy idea, Geth Engineer/Infiltrator melee-focused build. Yay or nay?

[Arbitrarity]

Well, I think I've played all I can today... I play some more, but it's getting very laggy again (funny, must be time of day, I'm pretty sure I got that this time of night last time.) Got to level 15, though, so not bad, I suppose.

Anyway, I appear to have unlocked Batarian Soldier, at any rate...

Are they any good...?

(I have decided Geth seem easier than Cerberus, now - well certainly with overload, at any rate...)

Batarian Soldier is quite strong on Bronze and Silver, since Ballistic Blades does pretty substantial damage. As with other soldiers, you rely a bit on having good weapons, which you don't yet.