Mass Effect 3.5 Does this thread have a soul?

[SiuiS]

Actually that sounds about right... Bronze is for raising your class to 10, unlocking some useful abilities, practice... Silver is for actual play fun-ness...

Gold has become farm... with predictable but necessary strategies to encourage spiffy unlocking.

Geth SMG 7 and rising. with the heat dissipator V it's as close as I've seen to the infinite firing guns of ME1...

Hope my Victory/commendation packs are there tonight.

Sago

So am I the only one who can do silver with a fresh respec and not be terrible?

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Have my victory pack (yay moar medigel!), but no commendation pack. Have those dropped yet? I'm not even sure I'd qualify for one. So.

[Arbitrarity]

So am I the only one who can do silver with a fresh respec and not be terrible?

-

Have my victory pack (yay moar medigel!), but no commendation pack. Have those dropped yet? I'm not even sure I'd qualify for one. So.

Don't think anyone has commendation packs.

Patch up;

Spoiler

Show

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May 2, 2012
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Frag Grenade Power
- Base damage increased from 650 to 750
- Evolution 3 increase to max grenades increased from 1 to 2
- Evolution 4 extra damage to organics increased from 40% to 50%
- Evolution 5 armor damage bonus increased from 65% to 75%
- Evolution 6 shield damage bonus increased from 65% to 75%

Inferno Grenade Power
- Base damage per second increased from 100 to 125
- Evolution 3 increase to max grenades increased from 1 to 2

Sabotage Power
- Damage from weapon backfire increased from 200 to 300
- Evolution 2 weapon backfire damage bonus increased from 50% to 60%
- Delay before weapons backfire reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds

Biotic Explosion Power Combo
- Impact radius reduced from [3.0-5.0] meters to [2.0-4.0] meters

Arc Pistol
- Damage increased from [61.6-76.8] to [70.2-87.7]
- Encumbrance decreased from [1.25-0.7] to [1.1-0.6]

Wraith Shotgun
- Damage increased from [89.5-111.9] to [102.3-127.8]

Cerberus Horde Wave Data
- (Silver) Extraction wave: reduced number of Guardians from 4 to 3 and added a single Phantom

Atlas
- (Silver) Increased chance to sync kill players from 50% to 60%
- (Gold) Increased chance to sync kill players from 60% to 80%

Objective Waves (Waves 3, 6, and 10)
- Increase XP rewards for completing objectives from 2000 to 3000

XP Rewards
- Random Faction XP bonus increased from 15% to 25%
- Random Map XP bonus increased from 10% to 15%

Credit Rewards
- Total credits rewarded for a match is unchanged
- Increased share of total credits for wave 6 by 10%
- Decreased share of total credits for wave 10 by 10%

Grenades buffed, biotic explosion nerfed. That's a base range nerf, so I think it makes Throw/Warp significantly shorter range. Sabotage buffed against organics, which is nice. No one cares about Arc Pistol, nothing but insane buffs can salvage it. Big Wraith damage buff, I want one.
Minor buffs to random/random for xp, and more credits when you fail wave 10. Atlas Sync Kills increased is pretty unimportant, an extra phantom on silver... eh.

[masterjoda99]

So, would it be at all possible to organize something of a meetup for X-Box multiplayer, say, either thursday or saturday? Be it Bronze for funsies with my Krogan Vanguard, Silver for Srs Bizness with Salarian Engineer, or Gold Farming with my Asari Justicar, I'd just like to get a good group together and maybe, just maybe finally get that geth engineer.

[Zevox]

Well, the reward packs are out. I got nothing but expendables, plus the Eagle. Went ahead and played a game to try it out, and... eh. As-is, it seems inferior to my Predator. Maybe about as rapid fire (albeit with the benefit of not having to hit the trigger multiple times), less damage. Perhaps with upgrades it could be good, but at rank 1, I don't think so.

Also, Premium Specter Packs are in indeed back this week.

Patch up;


Grenades buffed, biotic explosion nerfed. That's a base range nerf, so I think it makes Throw/Warp significantly shorter range. Sabotage buffed against organics, which is nice. No one cares about Arc Pistol, nothing but insane buffs can salvage it. Big Wraith damage buff, I want one.
Minor buffs to random/random for xp, and more credits when you fail wave 10. Atlas Sync Kills increased is pretty unimportant, an extra phantom on silver... eh.

Odd that the only grenades they gave those buffs to are Frag and Inferno. Did they just forget Lift and Cluster grenades, or is there a reason they'd not want to give those the same buffs?

Biotic combos nerf is just a radius decrease. Not that huge of a deal - the damage is the most important part, and the radius is still going to be quite good, especially after being increased by Detonate.

If the Atlas thing refers to their instant-kill grab, that's pretty important for Vanguard and Krogan players to know about.

I like that they increased the amount of money wave 6 is worth. I understand not splitting the credits evenly between the three objective waves, since obviously the later ones are harder, but fully half of the credits coming from wave 10 did seem a bit much to me personally.

Zevox

[Landis963]

Just got my packs for the weekend. That was a great big "meh". New sniper rifle amp, few instances of things I've got like 50 of already (no, I would not like more survival packs, I can only use like 2 of them per round, what's the point? and the same goes for those thermal packs, which have only ever been used on my Salarian caster-Engie when his Phalanx starts running low mid-wave), and the Crusader. Gee, the only shotgun I ever have my chars use is the Disciple (or one of the low-weight higher-damage ones (ex. the Katana) for my krogan vanguard murder train), I really needed one which makes cooldown times plummet through the floor.

[Yana]

My commendation pack garnered me the N7 Valient... Which is practically worthless to me. If I'm going to be sniping stuff, why wouldn't I be using my Widow? It's not like I can't get two quick shots off if necessary by either using Adrenaline Rush or by cloak glitching.

[Sholos]

At least you guys got something theoretically useful. I got the Eagle. Ooh boy!

[Anarion]

Are sync kills the official term for the instakill attacks from banshees, atlases, brutes, and phantoms? I've never heard that before.

[SiuiS]

At least you guys got something theoretically useful. I got the Eagle. Ooh boy!

... I liked the eagle!
Until I got the plasma SMG and a decently high carnifex it was my go to gun.

Got a valiant. Tried it out on bronze solo- it is a nice gun.

[ShinyRocks]

So, perfect example of why the scoreboard doesn't indicate much and why getting lots of kills doesn't necessarily make things easier for the rest of the team.

White Geth Gold. Me (20 Salarian Engineer), 20 Quarian Infiltrator, and 18 and 16 Turian Sentinels.

The 18 Sentinel refused to stay in cover, and refused to stay in the console room. He kept going round the back, which meant that mobs went to him, and then he died, and they came in the back so that we had to deal with attacks from 3 sides instead of the usual 2. We wiped on wave 6. The 18 Sentinel was first on the boards by some margin. I was second. The Quarian Infiltrator was third, and was the star player. We had 2 sets of 'activate 4 devices' tasks and he did all of them. On Wave 6 he managed to do the last device so we got the money and then died.

The 18 Sentinel is the reason we wiped, but I'm pretty certain he looked at the results and thought 'Yeah, I'm a rock star, look how high my score is'. I spent my whole time refreshing my Decoy in a vain attempt not to be overwhelmed. The Infiltrator was off being useful. The 16 Sentinel was pretty rubbish to be fair (also liked jumping out of cover; had a pistol and an assault rifle equipped with an SMG Amp) and probably should have placed last, but at least he was just not very good as opposed to an active hindrance.

Getting lots of kills isn't helpful if in doing so you cause problems for everyone else.

[Krade]

So, would it be at all possible to organize something of a meetup for X-Box multiplayer, say, either thursday or saturday? Be it Bronze for funsies with my Krogan Vanguard, Silver for Srs Bizness with Salarian Engineer, or Gold Farming with my Asari Justicar, I'd just like to get a good group together and maybe, just maybe finally get that geth engineer.

I'd be down. Working 'til 3 EST today (thursday). Possibility of passing out when I get home, though, so I might not make it

[thugthrasher]

So, after bringing up yesterday that it had never happened, I finally got dropped into an ongoing match. In the middle of wave 6. On Silver. While queued up for Bronze. On my recently promoted, level 6 vanguard.

The best part was that I just kind of assumed it was Bronze when I got in, and was VERY confused when nothing was dying as quickly as I expected and I got killed very quickly. As I lay there dead, I checked the difficulty and quickly changed tactics for the next wave.

[Aotrs Commander]

All this talk of vanguards is making me feel guilty when I top the bronze runnings (not 'cos I care one jot about the scoring, mind) with my Krogan Battlemaster...

I do tend to charge off into the enemy, even during the hacking and extraction (though I tend to do that and then dash back and stick farily close...) Mind you, it is only Bronze, so...

[masterjoda99]

I think that as long as the vanguard is making at least some effort to be a team player there it's fine (or rather, I hope that, because otherwise I'd end up pissing people off with my own Krogan Battlemaster even when I try to be a good teammate)

[Morty]

So I unlocked a Paladin with my last Spectre Pack. Not sure what to do with it; it's damn heavy for a pistol. I guess I could have my Drell Adept use it.

[Sanguine]

So, would it be at all possible to organize something of a meetup for X-Box multiplayer, say, either thursday or saturday? Be it Bronze for funsies with my Krogan Vanguard, Silver for Srs Bizness with Salarian Engineer, or Gold Farming with my Asari Justicar, I'd just like to get a good group together and maybe, just maybe finally get that geth engineer.

I'm game. I'm pretty open, though I tend to go to sleep around 11 or 12 EST, so it can't be much later than that.

[masterjoda99]

Then shall we aim for 4pm EST? I must warn, however, I do not have a microphone through which to communicate, which is the primary reason I have not done any gold matches.

[Sanguine]

Then shall we aim for 4pm EST? I must warn, however, I do not have a microphone through which to communicate, which is the primary reason I have not done any gold matches.

Sounds good to me.

[Xondoure]

Then shall we aim for 4pm EST? I must warn, however, I do not have a microphone through which to communicate, which is the primary reason I have not done any gold matches.

Mine has been dysfunctional for so long now. Got to go get a new one soon...

[Joran]

So, after bringing up yesterday that it had never happened, I finally got dropped into an ongoing match. In the middle of wave 6. On Silver. While queued up for Bronze. On my recently promoted, level 6 vanguard.

The best part was that I just kind of assumed it was Bronze when I got in, and was VERY confused when nothing was dying as quickly as I expected and I got killed very quickly. As I lay there dead, I checked the difficulty and quickly changed tactics for the next wave.

I guess they fixed that part of the code. I also never got dropped into a game before until last night. Before last night, there were a couple times where I got a "Lost Connection" instead of a lobby, and now that I think about it, those could have been failed attempts to get me into an in-progress game.

Too bad I jumped in just as they loaded, so no time savings for me.

[ShinyRocks]

I got my Commendation Pack.

It had the Hurricane.

What a horrible, horrible gun.

[Zevox]

Then shall we aim for 4pm EST? I must warn, however, I do not have a microphone through which to communicate, which is the primary reason I have not done any gold matches.

Oh, you don't need a microphone for gold matches. I don't use mine with anyone I don't know personally, and actively avoid groups in ME3 that I can hear chatter coming from, and I've done gold games.

Zevox

[masterjoda99]

So, the appointed time draws near. I have created a private match in the x-box lobby currently, so whoever's interested, I would ask you to please post your x-box live usernames that I may invite you. Also, any preferences for difficulty, enemy, or location should be expressed here that I may actually respond.

[Psyren]

Are sync kills the official term for the instakill attacks from banshees, atlases, brutes, and phantoms? I've never heard that before.

Yes, that is how Eric Fagnan refers to them. Presumably because the mob needs to "sync" your location with its own to verify that you're in melee range, then the animation can begin.

Lag can play havoc with this process; causing the creature's check to occur (and be validated) after you've already run away. This is what leads to the weird phenomenon of Banshees sucking you in for an insta-kill after you're sure that you've fled successfully. (The others do this occasionally too, but Banshees are the worst offenders.)

[Morty]

Even without lag, Banshees and Phantoms will often rather arbitrarily pull you towards them in order to perform the insta-kill. It's rather jarring when it happens.

[Dhavaer]

I got my Commendation Pack.

It had the Hurricane.

What a horrible, horrible gun.

I've heard it's very good with Turian stability bonuses.

[Anarion]

Yes, that is how Eric Fagnan refers to them. Presumably because the mob needs to "sync" your location with its own to verify that you're in melee range, then the animation can begin.

Lag can play havoc with this process; causing the creature's check to occur (and be validated) after you've already run away. This is what leads to the weird phenomenon of Banshees sucking you in for an insta-kill after you're sure that you've fled successfully. (The others do this occasionally too, but Banshees are the worst offenders.)

Even without lag, Banshees and Phantoms will often rather arbitrarily pull you towards them in order to perform the insta-kill. It's rather jarring when it happens.

I've never seen that happen with a phantom, but I have definitely experienced it with banshees. Primarily happening sooner than I would expect, where I see the teleport occurring and then die even though I thought I had backed away.

Ah well, hopefully I can get back into playing. I just finished my last final and I haven't actually touched the game for a week now due to all the tests and such.

[masterjoda99]

Well, just had a good couple hours of playing multiplayer myself. And I learned a valuable lesson to boot: I'm not very good with multiplayer adepts.

[Joran]

So I unlocked a Paladin with my last Spectre Pack. Not sure what to do with it; it's damn heavy for a pistol. I guess I could have my Drell Adept use it.

The Paladin's a great weapon if you can consistently get headshots with it; you use it as you would a regular sniper rifle. It's lighter than an equivalent damage sniper rifle, but you need to mod it with the scope attachment.

I use it on my Asari Adept and it's great. Stasis Bubble means it's ridiculously easy for me to get headshots on the enemy mooks.

On Silver (note: I have a Paladin 2 with extended barrel 2, so YMMV)

One headshot kills all non-shielded mooks (Cannibals, Assault Troopers, Geth Troopers, Guardians)

Two headshots kill all shielded mooks, one to strip shields, one to kill (Marauder, Centurion, Rocket Trooper, Nemesis)

It's really handy to be able to Stasis bubble, line up the shot, and kill a person, before the Stasis recharge is back up.

[Corvus]

Opened up my first of the new premium packs - and got the ultra-rare Sabre. Took it for a spin with a Turian soldier and I like it a lot.

Might try it out with a human solider to see how they handle it.