Mass Effect 3.5 Does this thread have a soul?

[Sagonene]

Bah, still no Krogan vanguard but I've been doing some comparisons of asari adept vs justicar and I find myself preferring the justicar more. Reave with radius expansion tears tightly bound groups apart and makes choke points nicely glow with damage. I do wish that reave to pull would set off combos but it makes teaming with just about any other biotic very loud from the familiar pop of explosions. Maybe its just a playstyle thing, but the normal adept feels way too squishy with only 3 fitness.

Sago

[Arbitrarity]

I do, but since I've gotten the hang of using unscoped, full-auto weapons, pistols have largely been either not even equipped or "strictly secondary" for me. So I pick one that is a little lighter, usually the Phalanx, since it hilariously has a higher DPS than the Carnifex.

Easier to line up consistent shots with Carnifex (with much slower fire rate), and it's much stronger against armor. Also, the Phalanx needs to reload more often, due to higher fire rate (even with the larger clip) (if you include this, its sustained DPS drops below Carnifex). Finally, sustaining 4 clicks per second isn't a huge drain (I tend to cap out around 6/second), but it's more work than 1.5.

[masterjoda99]

So...was the resurgence stuff just a temporary thing? Because I downloaded the resurgence dlc, and I have not even seen other people playing the new classes, let alone find any myself. And I had so hoped to try for a krogan battlemaster...

Also, to add myself to the list of GiTP players:

Giantitp Name: masterjoda99
XBL: Archmage Joda
Preferred Classes: Engineer, Adept, Vanguard

[Fawkes]

News alert!

Korean-founded, Tokyo-based game company Nexon, the makers of Maple Story, have put out a bid to buy EA. EA's stock is rising back up with the news of the possible takeover.

[masterjoda99]

I...don't really know how to feel about that. I've played maple story before and...well...yeah..

[Krade]

Easier to line up consistent shots with Carnifex (with much slower fire rate), and it's much stronger against armor. Also, the Phalanx needs to reload more often, due to higher fire rate (even with the larger clip) (if you include this, its sustained DPS drops below Carnifex). Finally, sustaining 4 clicks per second isn't a huge drain (I tend to cap out around 6/second), but it's more work than 1.5.

Perhaps, but I only really pull it out when I either run out of ammo for my other weapon or for guardians. Ocassionally for stubborn enemies behind cover. Sometimes for larger targets such as atlas, brutes, or primes (where the lined up shots are somewhat less important). For banshees I usually just keep the full-auto weapon going while backpeddling.

Of course, all this is for when I'm playing classes that rely more on weapons and (naturally) when my team isn't around to help.

[Psyren]

So...was the resurgence stuff just a temporary thing? Because I downloaded the resurgence dlc, and I have not even seen other people playing the new classes, let alone find any myself. And I had so hoped to try for a krogan battlemaster...

For a while, there was a special pack in the store called the Resurgence Pack that included two rares, one of which was guaranteed to be from the DLC. Now that promotion is over; you can still get the new classes and guns, but they've been mixed in with the game's other rares so your odds are lower.

As far as not seeing any, I find this odd - I see Geth all the time in my games, and Justicar are fairly common as well. Batarians seem rarer, though that could simply be because people that unlock them don't really play them. (I certainly haven't done anything with mine.)

I haven't seen many Krogan Vanguards, but when I have they've been pretty noticeable

[SiuiS]

Thought it seemed strange, 'cos the first time I got insta-killed by a brute it was as a vanguard, and it took me by surprise (I mean, I know up to Krogan Vanguard I was mostly sniper, but, still, I've been cornered by 'em plenty of times)...

Maybe the Reapers just have a thing against Krogan or something...

They're trying to recoup after Operation: Goliath. All those Krogan bodies gotta come from somewhere!

Fire and Thunder, biotic charging brutes, how horrifying

[Zevox]

So...was the resurgence stuff just a temporary thing? Because I downloaded the resurgence dlc, and I have not even seen other people playing the new classes, let alone find any myself. And I had so hoped to try for a krogan battlemaster...

No, the DLC is quite permanent. Two of the maps, Firebases Hydra and Condor, came from it, and the classes and weapons are definitely still around. If you haven't run into someone using the new classes, that's strictly luck. Geth seem the most common in my experience, followed by Batarians, followed by Krogan Vanguards (though half of those seem to think they're actually Soldiers, focusing on Carnage and not using Charge at all...), with Asari Justicars as the least common (and you need to check their power list to know whether they're Justicars, since the player list will just call them Asari Adepts, same as the original).

News alert!

Korean-founded, Tokyo-based game company Nexon, the makers of Maple Story, have put out a bid to buy EA. EA's stock is rising back up with the news of the possible takeover.

How does that work? Isn't EA a big, successful company? Why would they ever consider selling themselves to anyone?

Anyway, after trying it out a bit today, I don't think I'll be using my Geth Plasma SMG on my Asari Adept. I tend to use my gun very little with her, mostly against big targets that will survive her power onslaught for a while, so she'd rather have something that's better against armor, and doesn't require you to keep firing to increase its rate of fire. Still perfect for my Quarian Engineer though.

Zevox

[Psyren]

How does that work? Isn't EA a big, successful company? Why would they ever consider selling themselves to anyone?

The key is that they're a big, successful corporation - i.e., if the shareholders want the takeover to happen*, it will happen. And Nexon, believe it or not, is technically larger than EA (though not by a lot.)

*And by "want" I of course mean Nexon becoming a large enough shareholder itself to push the notion through, by buying up EA stock.

[Krade]

So I decide to go ahead and try a random game of Gold (never tried without at least one other friend with me). Puts me in a lobby where the leader has chosen FBW and Geth. "Alright" I say, noticing he has on the Justicar, "I'll be an asari adept and we can rock out the explosions!" Trouble is, dude has no mic and while it looked like he was getting the hang of cooperative biosplosions by the end of it, we weren't nearly as effective as I had hoped we would be. He also seemed to have trouble with keeping the shield up and and, even worse, staying in it (I can forgive having it do the warp effect instead of more DR). Good thing we had a good salarian infiltrator on the team, otherwise... I still managed to pull out on top, though (if only just).

Second game, Salarian stays, justicar and other guy leave. New justicar shows up, I think he couldn't possibly worse than that last one (still didn't have a mic, though), so I stick with my adept. Boy was I wrong. This guy managed to be even worse. Never stayed in cover. Ran to the other side of the map once for no discernable reason (wasn't an objective wave). And seemed just as scared of setting up combos for me to set off as the first guy (not to mention even worse at putting up the shield). There was one nice part near the end where I ran up and saved him from a bunch of pyros bearing down on him when all he had was his pathetic (by itself) reave. At least he put the impact radius on it. I set of a combo on the one in the back, warp->threw the rocket trooper sneaking up behind him, turned around, fired a throw at each of the pyros, detonating each one and killing all of them. Whole thing took about 10 seconds. I wonder if that got the message across...

[Morty]

You know what I'd really like in Multiplayer? A class with Defense Drone. That thing really takes care of Hunters, Pyros and Husks.

[Landis963]

You know what I'd really like in Multiplayer? A class with Defense Drone. That thing really takes care of Hunters, Pyros and Husks.

That would be a pretty good class, depending on the other stuff it gets. It'd have to be an engineer, I think. We have two human engies, a Salarian, a Quarian, and a Geth, IIRC, so unless you can think of another race to use it (Batarian, perhaps?) it'd have to be a variant on one of those.

Of course, this could be a Command-and-control type like Geth Primes. I'm thinking Defense Drone, Some sort of Turret (perhaps not as quickly deployed as the Geth Turret), and Submission Net or similar. *gets idea* Or it could be a Sentinel, with Defense Drone, Stasis, and Lift Grenade or some kind of biotic mine.

[Morty]

I could see a Turian Infiltrator with this power, or a Turian Engineer. Batarian Engineer less so, since they're supposed to be rather focused on offense. It definetly fits a Sentinel as well if some other race were to be given this class.

[Xondoure]

Male Quarian with defense drone, overload, and cryo blast. Could be so very fun. (shield wipe, freeze plus electric tech burst, down in an ice shattering blast. Banshee? Prime? Atlas? Drone. Rinse and repeat.)

Edit @^: Drones are the Engineer only ability.

[Morty]

Yeah, I guess you're right. That leaves the Turian Engineer from my suggestions. I'm not sure what other powers they'd get. Perhaps some new ones.

[Landis963]

Yeah, I guess you're right. That leaves the Turian Engineer from my suggestions. I'm not sure what other powers they'd get. Perhaps some new ones.

Not necessarily, I think the Male Quarian idea proposed by Xondoure could work quite well. To re-iterate his idea, it would have Defense Drone, Overload, and Cryoblast. Although a Turian Engineer would (to my mind) have Defense Drone, Proximity Mine, and maybe Incinerate? That or Overload would be the viable choices to my mind, as they help strip Armor and Shields, respectively. Of course, that would leave them open to anything with Health, but a properly specced Overload or Incinerate would leave them open to a handy-dandy pistol or shotgun.

Speaking of which, I'm going to be taking my lv. 19 Salarian Engineer to Gold once the weekend op starts. What should I keep in mind while re-speccing him? And when does Exorcist start, anyway?

[masterjoda99]

So, before I go making a fool of myself in gold, how do I manage to not fail utterly trying to play silver and gold matches?

[Morty]

Not necessarily, I think the Male Quarian idea proposed by Xondoure could work quite well. To re-iterate his idea, it would have Defense Drone, Overload, and Cryoblast. Although a Turian Engineer would (to my mind) have Defense Drone, Proximity Mine, and maybe Incinerate? That or Overload would be the viable choices to my mind, as they help strip Armor and Shields, respectively. Of course, that would leave them open to anything with Health, but a properly specced Overload or Incinerate would leave them open to a handy-dandy pistol or shotgun.

I don't like Proximity Mine, myself, so I wouldn't like the Turian Enineer to get it. Besides, three other classes have it already. I think a new power would be good.
Also, looks like I've managed to get the Sabre this time. I won't be using it myself, but I'm wondering if it's worth giving to Ashley.

[Zevox]

Whatever we get for further Engineers, I think the next one needs to have Sabotage. That's such an obvious Engineer power, but for some reason we only have it on a single Infiltrator class at this point.

So, before I go making a fool of myself in gold, how do I manage to not fail utterly trying to play silver and gold matches?

Depends on what you're playing. For caster characters (most of those I play), the strategy is to identify which powers are most effective on which targets and fire them off as fast as you can. Stick to cover when possible, but retreat if it's not, only sitting outside cover if there's just a mook or two around. Shoot mostly in between cooldowns, and only if you shields are in good shape.

The other character type I play is Vanguards. For those, the Human wants to do Charge-Nova-repeat, toss in shotgun blasts when the situation calls for it; the Krogan wants to do Charge, heavy melee or shotgun as appropriate, Charge whenever you're not close enough to your target or your shields need recharging. Exceptions to this patter would mainly be Banshees (only Charge if they're targeting someone else or in the middle of an attack, roll back immediately as the Human, do not Charge unless it's an emergency as the Krogan, do not melee unless going for the killing blow) and Atlases (can be charged/nova-ed/heavy meleed, but do so less frequently, favoring shotgun blasts for the most part - staying close to them for too long will prompt their rarely-used insta-kill grab).

Note however that unlike the caster types I have not played gold as a Vanguard, so that advice is for silver only at this time. Gold is dangerous enough that I worry about using Vanguards there.

Also, remember your expendables. It's your call whether to use them on silver - I find I don't have to, but you may want to if it's that much of a problem for you - but they're definitely worth using on gold. Which exactly will depend on your class (power damage boost for example would be fantastic for an Adept, less so for a Vanguard) and even on which enemy you're facing (Disruptor Ammo is best against the Geth, Armor Piercing Ammo is best against the Reapers, that sort of thing), so it's a matter of judgment on which to use mostly. The ones that give you a boost to your shields are always helpful though, and one of the categories is nothing but damage boosts to particular weapons, so that shouldn't be hard. Try to remember your missiles, ops survival packs, and medi-gel during the missions too, though when to use each is entirely a judgment call.

Zevox

[Landis963]

So, before I go making a fool of myself in gold, how do I manage to not fail utterly trying to play silver and gold matches?

Find chokepoints and clog them with Drones, Biotic Bubbles, Turrets, Singularities, with anything you can, Stick with the rest of your group as much as possible, and set up biotic and tech explosions as much as possible. I believe Charge sets off Biotic explosions, at least it sounds like it sets off Liara's Singularities in SP. If not, then Warp can pull double-duty on setup and detonation.

[Zevox]

I believe Charge sets off Biotic explosions, at least it sounds like it sets off Liara's Singularities in SP. If not, then Warp can pull double-duty on setup and detonation.

Charge can set off biotic combos, yes. Warp however cannot "pull double duty" - it can only set off combos with other powers, never with itself.

Zevox

[Landis963]

Charge can set off biotic combos, yes. Warp however cannot "pull double duty" - it can only set off combos with other powers, never with itself.

Zevox

Got it. Also, got any pointers for building a level 19 Salarian Engineer up to take on Gold this weekend?

[Anarion]

The key is that they're a big, successful corporation - i.e., if the shareholders want the takeover to happen*, it will happen. And Nexon, believe it or not, is technically larger than EA (though not by a lot.)

*And by "want" I of course mean Nexon becoming a large enough shareholder itself to push the notion through, by buying up EA stock.

Not actually correct, despite common misconceptions to the contrary. If EA doesn't have a poison pill for their stock, I'll go find a hat and eat it. There's essentially no way to pull off a buyout of a company like EA without approval from EA's board of directors.

So, before I go making a fool of myself in gold, how do I manage to not fail utterly trying to play silver and gold matches?

Be familiar with your class, don't take stupid risks, try not to tunnel vision, and stick with your squad.

[Zevox]

Got it. Also, got any pointers for building a level 19 Salarian Engineer up to take on Gold this weekend?

Nothing I can say from experience with. I've only played gold with my Asari Adept.

My own Salarian Engineer is specced for maximum damage from Energy Drain and Incinerate, plus Durability/Shock/Shields & Duration for his Decoy (a recommendation from Arbitrarity, I think), and 5 ranks in class power with 3 in Fitness, which is my standard for casters. Whether that's optimum for gold, I can't say, though I'd imagine it would do fine. I'd imagine your basic plan would be to hunker down in a defensible spot with your allies, keep Decoy out at all times, and fire Energy Drain/Incinerate as appropriate. That's basically what I do with my Asari Adept, minus the Decoy part and plus lots of biotic combos of course.

Oh, but on a personal note: if you're playing with an Asari Adept (original, not Justicar), Human Sentinel, or some combination of biotics that can do biotic combos, don't spam Energy Drain no matter how tempting it is. Use it to take down shields on small things quickly sure, but try not to use it too much on big things unless the biotics are occupied. It interferes with them setting off biotic combos by causing them to set off tech bursts instead, which are much weaker.

Zevox

[Landis963]

Nothing I can say from experience with. I've only played gold with my Asari Adept.

My own Salarian Engineer is specced for maximum damage from Energy Drain and Incinerate, plus Durability/Shock/Shields & Duration for his Decoy (a recommendation from Arbitrarity, I think), and 5 ranks in class power with 3 in Fitness, which is my standard for casters. Whether that's optimum for gold, I can't say, though I'd imagine it would do fine. I'd imagine your basic plan would be to hunker down in a defensible spot with your allies, keep Decoy out at all times, and fire Energy Drain/Incinerate as appropriate. That's basically what I do with my Asari Adept, minus the Decoy part of course.

Zevox

Thanks for the tips. That's what I'm going to do with the 78 skill points I have available. Anybody else got 2cp to put in? How about weapons? My Multiplayer Manifest is here, and if the link doesn't work, the guns I have are listed below:

Sniper Rifles

• Mantis VII
• Incisor I
• Raptor III
• Viper I

Assault Rifles:

• M-8 Avenger V
• Phaeston I
• Vindicator II
• Geth Pulse Rifle I
• Falcon I
• Revenant I

SMGs:

• Shuriken V
• Tempest II
• Hornet I
• Geth Plasma SMG I

Shotguns:

• Katana VII
• Claymore I
• Graal Spike Thrower I
• Disciple II

Heavy Pistols:

• Predator VI
• Carnifex I

[Fawkes]

Got it. Also, got any pointers for building a level 19 Salarian Engineer up to take on Gold this weekend?

Decoy Decoy Decoy Decoy Decoy

Always Decoy. Also, try to be fighting the Geth.

But seriously, try to keep your casting times low, use Energy Drain to keep your shields up and strip defenses, have Incinerate ready to burn armor, and ALWAYS HAVE A DECOY UP. You will save lives.

For weapons, I'd recommend either taking in your Mantis, or a Carnifex/SMG combo.

[Landis963]

OK, I have 2 skill points left, with Incinerate/Energy Drain specced for max damage (with Energy Drain getting a Recharge Speed boost since there wasn't a damage buff in that slot), Decoy specced as specified (i.e. Durability-Shock-Shields&Duration), with 4 ranks in Operative (Damage&Capacity, BTW) and 2 in Fitness. I'm hoping that the remaining 6 skill points I need will come from the final level-up. As it is, I'll just grind with my Geth Engie until the operation pops.

[Luzahn]

Any idea if the Javelin is any good? I have the Mantis, and my new Javelin just seems really sluggish in comparison.

[Aotrs Commander]

Any idea if the Javelin is any good? I have the Mantis, and my new Javelin just seems really sluggish in comparison.

Javelin deals the highest damage any sniper rifle, and has scope and piercing with mods. (It does have a bit of a fire delay.) I used the Mantis through the single-player until I got the Javelin.

Class for class, I'd say Javelin, no hesitation. However, it becomes more of a choice is you've got Javelin I or something and a much higher Mantis, of course.