Mass Effect 3.6: Are you engaging in reproductive behavior with this thread?

[Sholos]

I finally got the N7 Hurricane in my commendation pack though. The thing has insane recoil. Going to need to use stabilisers and Turians to get the most out of it I think.

Fire from the hip or aimed from cover and all your recoil problems disappear.

[Krade]

So, I got the Typhoon yesterday and here's my impressions:

GOOD GODS THIS THING IS AWESOME!!!

Using ONLY the %10 recoil reduction from my Barrage gear, a turian (with Marksman) or Devastator (with Devastator Mode) soldier can fire it from the hip and destroy at ridiculous ranges. It says it has redused recoil firing from cover, but with either of those two classes, it's entirely unnecesary. It allows you to stay mobile and still lay down the hurt. And that's always nice.

[Mr._Blinky]

I was under tHe impression that they had fixed it. Let me check.
Yep. It is fixed. Piranha; power takes 1.84.
Add shuriken, power takes 1.99
Add ULM to shuriken, power takes 1.85.

Well, that doesn't necessarily mean anything; pre-patch it always said it was reducing the time, it just never actually did anything in-game. Other people are saying that the patch was apparently a dud.

[SiuiS]

Getting my readiness up a bit before I tackle the ending later...

Four games... Tried all three new maps. Not very impressed, though Rio is okay I guess.

Ye gods Batarian solider is boring. Sadly, still the most interesting soldier class I have to hand.

But hey, I think I managed to hit something with my Ballistic Blades at one point. For like the first time ever. *sigh* I will get to level 20, though.

Spectre Pack - two golds... One Thermal Clip upgrade and a stronghold upgrade or something. Woo. *eyeglow roll*



Weird, though... I've got inflitrator, vanguard, engineer and sentientl at level 20, soldier at level 17 (haven't played adept yet), not promoted anyone, and my N7 is 77. Shouldn't it be, like 97 or something?

Ho hum. Back to do some more grinding...



??? Wha... Krogan Vanguard vanish! Pretty damn sure I didn't promote him, and level is still at 20, but it was reading "new" and wasn't named or anything... Had to make him again. That's... Must be a bug or something, because otherwise, surely it'd have gone back to lower level (since Krogan Vanguard was the only character I had...)

Guh. Dammit.

Funnily enough, re-making my Krogan Vanguard put my N7 back to 97...

Bug, must be.

Unfortunate and unfun.
Try more risks? Human soldier can be fun with a focus on casting time and concussive shot (carrying ammo at rank 6), since you can say, whittle a bloke down with fire ammo, then shoot him with concussive shot for a big boom.
Barbarian sentinel involved running at things with a shotgun.
Turian I focused on proxy mine and automatic fire. Least 'fun' but effective.

Well, that doesn't necessarily mean anything; pre-patch it always said it was reducing the time, it just never actually did anything in-game. Other people are saying that the patch was apparently a dud.

no, it always reduced the recharge penalty but very specifically left the indicated cooldown time alone. I'll double check when I can though. I'll load up in heavier gear and bust out my stopwatch again.

-

Sanguine is my good luck charm. While playing together we both drew a particle rifle. With a friend of mine, that was three particle rifles in the group! We busted all the ghosts. Not so much all the Geth but they are definitely exercised, no possessed Geth now.

And therein I noticed a strange glitch. Tried and myself both had, in order, the ammo increase mod and the armor piercing mod. Our rifles were red and hot through walls. Sanguine had the armor piercing mod and then the ammo boost, and his rifle was yellow, and did not go through walls. So order affects its viability? Or maybe the mod got switched off, though I recall seeing in it before he readied up.

With that, and an SMG recoil reducer, I have all the mods. Maxed out omniblade bayonet, too. But I have had as many ultra rare drops as I have had class drops; three. Except where the particle rifle, wraith and scorpion are useful, the Vorcha sentinel, Salarian infiltrator and QMI are not (all customization options, naturally). So I think I will declare myself "satisfied", and be done for a bit. I've gotten good drops certainly, but I shouldn't let my terrible expectations ruin it for me and I am. Three ultra rares! I'm maxing out all sorts of things, but instead I having fun is covering all the cool new trinkets, it's become about getting the new classes. I'm ruining it for myself.

Ah well

[Edge]

Unfortunate and unfun.
Try more risks? Human soldier can be fun with a focus on casting time and concussive shot (carrying ammo at rank 6), since you can say, whittle a bloke down with fire ammo, then shoot him with concussive shot for a big boom.
Barbarian sentinel involved running at things with a shotgun.
Turian I focused on proxy mine and automatic fire. Least 'fun' but effective.

Unfortunately, the Amplification evolution of Concussive Shot is bugged and doesn't work.

no, it always reduced the recharge penalty but very specifically left the indicated cooldown time alone. I'll double check when I can though. I'll load up in heavier gear and bust out my stopwatch again.

Yeah, they fixed the cooldown time display, but it still didn't actually change the cooldown times once you were in a match. As far as I know, that's still the case and SMG ULM only works on the Geth Plasma SMG.

[Aotrs Commander]

Have completed extended ending. Thoughts in appropriate thread, for those as interested... Though I can't quite muster the same bluster as last time... Apathy and time has worn away some of my ire...

[Zevox]

Well, that was a frustrating set of games I just played. Around five or six of them, and I triggered the Vanguard bug in all but one. Two of them were on Firebase London, and neither of those missions succeeded - I'm rapidly coming to truly hate that map. One of those was a mission I got dropped into after they started, and it highlights how much I dislike that phenomenon, because I afterward found out that the host had selected that map deliberately, and I never would have stayed with that group had I seen that selection in the lobby. I'll put up with the map off random, but go to it deliberately? Never.

On top of that, I went to respec my Slayer after one of those missions, finished my selections, and then the host left. Which apparently reset my powers to as they were before, but did not refund my respec card. So I wound up spending two respec cards on a single respec.

The Premium pack all that trouble bought me was another disappointment too. Sniper rifle piercing mod (I don't use sniper rifles), Geth Pulse Rifle V (I don't use that particular rifle), N7 Demolisher unlock (the class based entirely on grenades, which I can't aim to save my life). The RNG must be paying me back for giving me something I actually liked the other day with the Slayer unlock.

Zevox

[Tome]

N7 Demolisher unlock (the class based entirely on grenades, which I can't aim to save my life).

One of their grenade types homes and tracks like a normal power, but with a somewhat slow travel time, and the other detonates on impact, letting you just toss it directly at an enemy.

Even if you can't normally aim grenades, I'd give it a try.

[Edge]

One of their grenade types homes and tracks like a normal power, but with a somewhat slow travel time, and the other detonates on impact, letting you just toss it directly at an enemy.

Even if you can't normally aim grenades, I'd give it a try.

Worth noting that their manually aimed grenade power can be evolved to have an incredibly wide radius and a potent damage over time effect that's perfect for tech bursting off, and thus are far more forgiving with accurate throws than most grenade powers.

[SiuiS]

Unfortunately, the Amplification evolution of Concussive Shot is bugged and doesn't work.

Okay, that one I KNOW is untrue. I have lit enemies on fire with incendiary ammo + concussive shot, and I have frozen an enemy with cryo ammo + concussive shot. I also don't think concussive shot can trigger tech bursts without the ammo carrier ability, and fire explosions were my staple when I ran my human soldier, Starfall.

Yeah, they fixed the cooldown time display, but it still didn't actually change the cooldown times once you were in a match. As far as I know, that's still the case and SMG ULM only works on the Geth Plasma SMG.

That seems rather absurd. Shouldn't the time is play be a direct result of the in-system mathematics, pulle for display? Geeze. They did rush didn't they?

Have completed extended ending. Thoughts in appropriate thread, for those as interested... Though I can't quite muster the same bluster as last time... Apathy and time has worn away some of my ire...

Was it that bad still? From eaves dropping it sounds like te extended cut fixes [i]some[/I/3 of my personal ire, and "it's not the real ending and the real one will never be actualized" fixed the rest.

[Aotrs Commander]

Was it that bad still? From eaves dropping it sounds like te extended cut fixes [i]some[/I/3 of my personal ire, and "it's not the real ending and the real one will never be actualized" fixed the rest.

Long story short and non-spoiler-y, it essentially fixed many (but not all) of the execution problems of the ending, while leaving the core concept unchanged (and thus all the Stupids contained therein), though microscopically better explained.

[Zevox]

One of their grenade types homes and tracks like a normal power, but with a somewhat slow travel time, and the other detonates on impact, letting you just toss it directly at an enemy.

Even if you can't normally aim grenades, I'd give it a try.

Alright, I did. And you are correct - it seems that Arc Grenades detonating on impact does solve my problem. The bouncing that normal grenades do must be my issue.

I specced the class in an unusual way for me, ignoring Fitness in favor of the other powers, because I saw that rank 6 of the class skill had an upgrade that increased both your weapon damage and grenade capacity, which was too good to pass up. The end result is that I became a huge glass cannon.

Homing Grenade has ridiculous damage output. More than double Arc Grenade's, and more than Biotic Slash's on my Slayer, which is already very high. Granted I specced it for maximum damage in every way, but still, when three shots of the thing can take out a Brute on Silver (with a fair chunk of hitting power on the last shot to spare I'm pretty sure), I'd call it pretty damn impressive. It is very slow though, both in firing animation and movement speed. Good thing it also tracks very well, better than most powers even.

Arc Grenade I specced for radius, extra grenades, and armor damage. I think I made a mistake on that last. I figured that since it already did bonus damage to shields/barriers it would be best to add armor damage to it, but since I always went for Homing Grenade vs armor anyway for its hugely superior damage I think it would have been better to go for more shield/barrier damage - especially since I see that Homing Grenade does less damage to those. Other than that, I'm pretty darn happy with it - hits nicely, stuns anything it doesn't kill, and as mentioned it is now officially the only grenade I actually can aim.

Supply Pylon is essential for its grenade-spam-enabling, but annoying. Slow cooldown prevents deploying it anytime I want to move, so it forces me to hunker down in one spot - which is fine on some maps, but not so much on others, especially the newer ones which I don't yet know the good camping spots for. Also, it's an issue when you've got teammates with grenades, since they can pick up the ones it deploys too - I had one game with a Drell Adept who kept getting my grenades, which was annoying since they're my entire class, while for him they're just a perk. Though in that respect I think it would help if the ammo stations allowed easy resupplying of grenades to full between rounds like they do for ammo - I really don't get why that isn't the case.

Since the class has only Supply Pylon with a cooldown I went with a heavy weapon load, using my Striker and Paladin. The former because I have it at rank 6 and it was too thematically appropriate not to try, and the latter for a backup weapon with armor-piercing because I thought I might need it against Guardians. Turns out, I pretty much never touched my Paladin. I actually rather like the Striker - good damage, decent ammo amount, and the AoE means I don't need to aim too precisely. I did run into that "shooting blanks" issue people have mentioned in regards to that gun though. Unfortunately, attempting to start my own room with myself as the host was taking way too long - somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes passed without anyone showing up, so I lost patience and just went back to regular quick-matching and put up with the blanks. Still, I think that'll be my weapon of choice for this class - though it's still way too heavy for me to use on anything else.

Grabbed another Premium Specter Pack, to a resounding "meh." Shield boosting gear (okay, but needs more ranks before I'll use it over the shield/recharge one I have), Disciple upgrade (good, but needs more ranks before I'll use it over my Katana X, since that's already light enough that my Vanguards can use it basically without penalty), and Revenant upgrade (bleh, too heavy for me to use it on anything I play). Still, could've been worse.

Zevox

[tomaO2]

Well, reinstatement sucked. WAY worse then I was expecting.

Hey Council, if you don't want me working for Cerberus, get me a new ship! Every Specter should have their own ship anyway, plus a bank account for official purposes. Also, I never got to deny working for Ceberus, at all. They raised me from the frikken dead, and this was my earliest oppertunity to get away and come straight for you, so YOU guys could fund my mission instead. I thought there would be some undercover thing. Provisional reinstatement? Seriously?

I liked the council in ME1, sure they blocked me at the end but that wasn't too bad. Sending them reports was fun and they let me go my own way, mostly, to do what I felt needed to be done. However, the outright hostility I got this time around was really disappointing.

Vigil is dead now? I did NOT see that coming. The Reaper ship didn't give data explaining the situation? They didn't figure out that the Citadel is a massive relay point that will usher the doom of galactic civilization? What about indoctrination? Can't that be studied? Why is no one looking into that? I thought there would be some more stuff about the Conduit but it seems there will be no place for the only portable mass effect transport in the galaxy.

OMG! What is going on here? Do I really have to depend on an Indoctrinated Illusive Man to save the galaxy from a threat he is obviously going to help bring about? Plus, the only mention of the crimes Cerverus commited is, "oh well, that was the military divison". I wanna know why a human centered group kills so many humans.

Another thing, I'm still confused by the DLC. There is this Cerverus Network that has 4 "news items". talking about Genisis, Arrival, Alternate Appreance pack and Shadow broker but I have no idea if this is installed in the game or not. How do you know if you got all the DLC available? Also, is there anyway to stop this message about bing disconnected every time I go to the main screen? It's annoying

[Edge]

Okay, that one I KNOW is untrue. I have lit enemies on fire with incendiary ammo + concussive shot, and I have frozen an enemy with cryo ammo + concussive shot. I also don't think concussive shot can trigger tech bursts without the ammo carrier ability, and fire explosions were my staple when I ran my human soldier, Starfall.

Okay, that's weird, because for me and a lot of other people, it doesn't work properly (it'll apply the incendiary/chilled/shocked visual effect, but not the actual mechanical effect). Also, Concussive Shot can set off tech bursts, cryo explosions and fire explosions regardless of evolutions.

[Tome]

Another thing, I'm still confused by the DLC. There is this Cerverus Network that has 4 "news items". talking about Genisis, Arrival, Alternate Appreance pack and Shadow broker but I have no idea if this is installed in the game or not. How do you know if you got all the DLC available? Also, is there anyway to stop this message about bing disconnected every time I go to the main screen? It's annoying

Those news items are just ads for the DLC, not indications that you actually have said DLC.

There should be a Downloadable Content tab on the start menu (on the 360 at least). That should bring up a list of the available DLC, whether it's already installed and the option to purchase it if it isn't.

You should also have received a message on Shep's private terminal abut each bit of DLC you have installed.

[CreganTur]

Finally got my first N7 class- the Fury Adept. It was a little difficult to adjust to her at first, but now I really love this character.

She is a biotic detonation machine- that's all this class was designed to do... that and high damage output.

Annihilation Field is great for dealing with any enemies who get close, since it has high DPS, sets up targets for detonation, and you can recast it to detonate anything that is already setup. I've used it a couple of times against cerberus to setup a phantom that gets to close, teleport dodge away, then teleport back in and recast to detonate- and this detonate even goes off if they have their stupid invulnerability shield active.

Dark Channel is very good clinging DPS and another way to setup for detonations. I've hit Phantoms with it when they were at full strength and have seen them die from it after a while with no additional damage sources. It takes a while, but that is pretty impressive.

Throw is the main trigger for detonations, especially since it's fast. I only play gold, so I haven't expereinced this yet, but I've heard of people on bronze walking through enemies with Annihilation Field running and killing everything with Throw. Guess I need to try this sometime when I just want to feel ultra-powerful.

Even with 3 ranks in Fitness, she still feels squishy. I have to be careful about managing cover and using teleports intelligently to keep myself from dying too often.

I love the heavy melee- teleporting through walls and auto-tracking to the nearest target is very sweet, but you have to be careful because you can die quickly if you do it at the wrong time.

I'm still not sure if heavy melee can trigger detonations. Either it can or another biotic on my team was throwing a power at the same time.

[Wraith]

I too have just opened my first N7 class - the Slayer Vanguard.

With regards to melee, I've experienced pretty much exactly what you just said Cregan - the teleport-attack is hilarious, but one wrong move and you're suddenly swinging at air in the middle of a mob of enemies. It takes all sorts of finesse that I don't quite have yet, but I'm determined to work on it.

Biotic Charge is a necessity if you want to use the Disruptor Power, which is basically a high powered Shockwave-style attack that drains your Barriers when it fires. Despite a few complaints I've heard, this isn't as bad as it sounds if you use it with the 'knocks down weak enemies' add-on and and then Biotic Charge. Everything is bowled over, and you Charge at the next biggest threat to restore your Barriers and finish it off before everything else stands up and gets another Disruptor to the face.

I'd highly recommend using either Disruptor or Biotic Slash though, so that you can pump your spare points into Fitness for the synergy between extra Shields or better Melee, respectively. You could go for both and have Fitness lower, but I think that would make Silver games harder than they ought to be and on Gold it would be incredibly hard to pull off.

Still trying to decide what weapon works best on a Vanguard-class, though. I always seem to default to the Geth Plasma SMG since it has 0% weigh penalty and the rate of fire puts down pretty much anything in short order, but I feel like I ought to mix it up and use something else. Anyone have a suggestion (that ISN'T the Carnifex) to make things a little more interesting?

[Joran]

Tried Cerberus Vanguard... Ehh. I thought Smash would synergise better with Biotic charge - which it didn't. I tried the Human vanguard (for charge/nova spam) and it was... okay. Depressingly, the Krogan Battlemaster is still miles the most fun.

Cerberus Vanguard is pretty fun if you want to pretend you're Whiplash from the last Ironman movie. The really short range on Smash is annoying though and not being able to self-trigger biotic explosions on armored targets with Lash.

I just tried the Krogan Battlemaster; he's ridiculously durable and fun. Unfortunately, he can't do squat for damage, since I specced him for tankiness, but smashing faces with my fists was plenty of entertainment.

P.S. Anyone know if the Reegar Carbine works with an armor penetrating mod? The lightning gun is awesome against everything but armor.

[Zevox]

Cerberus Vanguard is pretty fun if you want to pretend you're Whiplash from the last Ironman movie. The really short range on Smash is annoying though and not being able to self-trigger biotic explosions on armored targets with Lash.

With the upgrade to Smash that allows it to prime combos, you should be able to set one off on armored targets with that followed by a Charge.

Zevox

[Joran]

With the upgrade to Smash that allows it to prime combos, you should be able to set one off on armored targets with that followed by a Charge.

Zevox

Right, but then you end up next to an armored target, who often have insta-kill animations ;_;

If I'm close enough, I just keep spamming Smash until the thing dies. I think Lash at least sets off detonations on shielded/non-armored targets.

[Aotrs Commander]

Cerberus Vanguard is pretty fun if you want to pretend you're Whiplash from the last Ironman movie. The really short range on Smash is annoying though and not being able to self-trigger biotic explosions on armored targets with Lash.

I had come to the conclusion that you want Lash and smash as primaries, rather than biotic charge.

I just tried the Krogan Battlemaster; he's ridiculously durable and fun. Unfortunately, he can't do squat for damage, since I specced him for tankiness, but smashing faces with my fists was plenty of entertainment.

Spec for melee damage and biotic charge is best (even I, who otherwise always picks the armour/shield boost evolutions - 'cos I suck - picked melee damage for the Battleaster). Stick a light gun on (pistol if you have melee stunner - I don't) or shotgun blades otherwise. I find I only ever use my gun (or concussive shot/carnage, whichever one it is - shows how often I use it) when defending an upload or the extraction zone. Otherwise, I spam biotic charge and inbetween, melee everything to death.

[Joran]

Spec for melee damage and biotic charge is best (even I, who otherwise always picks the armour/shield boost evolutions - 'cos I suck - picked melee damage for the Battleaster). Stick a light gun on (pistol if you have melee stunner - I don't) or shotgun blades otherwise. I find I only ever use my gun (or concussive shot/carnage, whichever one it is - shows how often I use it) when defending an upload or the extraction zone. Otherwise, I spam biotic charge and inbetween, melee everything to death.

On Silver, I didn't have much trouble beating mooks up to and including Phantoms with my big, meaty, Krogan fists, even specced for durability rather than melee damage.

The problem is when I was up against a Banshee, or Atlas, or even a Ravager. For a Ravager, I usually just meleed it, but Banshees and Atlases aren't very safe to melee and I had to resort to a gun, which was pretty painful. There's no Flamer alternative like there is for Vorchas.

I tried the Wraith (level 1), wasn't impressed. Then tried the Reegar Carbine (level 1), better, but took an entire 66 round clip to take down an Atlas solo (rest of my team was down). I may try the Piranha and see how that makes me feel.

[CreganTur]

For my Krogan Vanguard I run with the Disciple- it's light weight (I'm at ~180% - 190% recharge rate) it's decent damage, but the real payoff is in the stagger effect.

For the KV Charge is just a means of transportation or emergency shield boosting. The real meat is in spec-ing rage so that it triggers after 2 melee hits, boost melee as much as you can in fitness, and get all the DR you can. In rage mode I have no problems with anything in Silver or Bronze. You just have to be smart about closing on targets.

For heavies, you want to charge them and immediately back away so they can't grab you (but Banshee's can still magically snatch you out of the air in some cases). If they stagger, that's when you go for a heavy melee, but always back away quickly after closing for an attack or you'll get grabbed.

Putting adrenaline mods on a KV is also a smart move- increased speed is never a bad thing when you can close like a freight train and 1-shot everything but heavies and shield/armor units with a single raging heavy melee.

[Rake21]

I've found that every time I play as a Krogan, my strategy devolves into a series of headbutts, shotgunning until empty, a random CHARGE, followed by more indiscriminate headbutting.

Needless to say, Krogans are still my favorite race to play as.

[Joran]

I've found that every time I play as a Krogan, my strategy devolves into a series of headbutts, shotgunning until empty, a random CHARGE, followed by more indiscriminate headbutting.

Needless to say, Krogans are still my favorite race to play as.

Vorcha is mine, followed by Salarian infiltrator. Vorcha is all "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, DIE, DIE, FIRE, FIRE". Salarian Infiltrator is quiet, composed, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

So many "BOOM, headshots" when I play Salarian Infiltrator.

[SiuiS]

Hiya ponies folks. Got a Demolisher, haven't touched her yet. Seriously, I am dog tired. But I wanted to comment on the variety of builds - physical builds - te characters have. With the fury, the shadow, the base alliance classes, and the demolisher, the game actually covers the gamut of military capable women. Gel, only half of them are ridiculously stacked! That's fantastic. Although... Let's be honest. The shadow should either have a chest binder during all those flips, or her own NC-17 rating (and a concussion from smacking herself in the face).

Acolyte Pistol-

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turns out my intel was incorrect. Apologies! The pistol charges up, and then releases a grenade with modified gravity. You cannot successfully bounce it into a group of enemies evaluate it will bounce once and then fly high into the air to detonate like a super bouncy ball. Decimates the top of the ladder on fire base white though...

Low ammo, low weight, weird damage. Against a Geth trooper, a fully charged shot will leave it with about a third of it's health left. Against a Geth rocket trooper, a full shot will leave it with about a third of its health left. I want to repeat that, with emphasis.

The acolyte's damage multiplier against shields means the bleed through against a kinetic barrier will do more damage than whittling off the shield and then attacking. one third of a prime's shields, gone with but a thought. And this is the level 1 acolyte with a pistol damage mod!!! I'm actually looking forward to using this thing. Pistol amp, expendable rail amp, extended barrel and some ammo, an shields will be a worry of fools who don't by weapons from magical blue space lesbians.

There are downsides though. The ammo is limited; with an ammo mod I had five shots. The aiming takes a bit of getting used to, and several times the round fell short, or took long enough that it missed the target by a hair. Requiring charge is brutal if you aren't used to hit-and-run geometry. And by Luna's Moon, the charged gun looks like you're holding a stapler upside down an backwards and it is flapping at you. I cannot take an instrument of war seriously when it is chastising me like an old Disney cartoon.

Customization Options-

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Something neat I noticed by happenstance an want to discuss.

One of the usual color mods you'll see on a character is a phantom fade, like a junebug; the highlight is a contrasting color from the base, and when the light catches the model the highlight flares to life, like a junebug. The usual is blak with a red/green/blue/yellow highlight, or pink.

When you apply a pattern over this, if the pattern is black (or possibly the same as the base color), then the pattern will instead take on the color of the highlight color. In this way you can strongly present a color over a more dominant base coat. I found the effect thrilling when identified, as several plot executions I've tried have failed due to looking like just blue, or something.

Does anyone actually know how this works? It feels right now that I've seen it. I can almost put science behind it, or at least rules of thumb from drawing.

Long story short and non-spoiler-y, it essentially fixed many (but not all) of the execution problems of the ending, while leaving the core concept unchanged (and thus all the Stupids contained therein), though microscopically better explained.

Yes, I gave it a look-see. "turd polishing" is a remarkably elloquent term considering the subject implied. Suffice it's a term I'll be using often. Especially if describing a certain DM's style.

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Alright, I did. And you are correct - it seems that Arc Grenades detonating on impact does solve my problem. The bouncing that normal grenades do must be my issue.

I specced the class in an unusual way for me, ignoring Fitness in favor of the other powers, because I saw that rank 6 of the class skill had an upgrade that increased both your weapon damage and grenade capacity, which was too good to pass up. The end result is that I became a huge glass cannon.

Homing Grenade has ridiculous damage output. More than double Arc Grenade's, and more than Biotic Slash's on my Slayer, which is already very high. Granted I specced it for maximum damage in every way, but still, when three shots of the thing can take out a Brute on Silver (with a fair chunk of hitting power on the last shot to spare I'm pretty sure), I'd call it pretty damn impressive. It is very slow though, both in firing animation and movement speed. Good thing it also tracks very well, better than most powers even.

Arc Grenade I specced for radius, extra grenades, and armor damage. I think I made a mistake on that last. I figured that since it already did bonus damage to shields/barriers it would be best to add armor damage to it, but since I always went for Homing Grenade vs armor anyway for its hugely superior damage I think it would have been better to go for more shield/barrier damage - especially since I see that Homing Grenade does less damage to those. Other than that, I'm pretty darn happy with it - hits nicely, stuns anything it doesn't kill, and as mentioned it is now officially the only grenade I actually can aim.

Supply Pylon is essential for its grenade-spam-enabling, but annoying. Slow cooldown prevents deploying it anytime I want to move, so it forces me to hunker down in one spot - which is fine on some maps, but not so much on others, especially the newer ones which I don't yet know the good camping spots for. Also, it's an issue when you've got teammates with grenades, since they can pick up the ones it deploys too - I had one game with a Drell Adept who kept getting my grenades, which was annoying since they're my entire class, while for him they're just a perk. Though in that respect I think it would help if the ammo stations allowed easy resupplying of grenades to full between rounds like they do for ammo - I really don't get why that isn't the case.

Since the class has only Supply Pylon with a cooldown I went with a heavy weapon load, using my Striker and Paladin. The former because I have it at rank 6 and it was too thematically appropriate not to try, and the latter for a backup weapon with armor-piercing because I thought I might need it against Guardians. Turns out, I pretty much never touched my Paladin. I actually rather like the Striker - good damage, decent ammo amount, and the AoE means I don't need to aim too precisely. I did run into that "shooting blanks" issue people have mentioned in regards to that gun though. Unfortunately, attempting to start my own room with myself as the host was taking way too long - somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes passed without anyone showing up, so I lost patience and just went back to regular quick-matching and put up with the blanks. Still, I think that'll be my weapon of choice for this class - though it's still way too heavy for me to use on anything else.

Grabbed another Premium Specter Pack, to a resounding "meh." Shield boosting gear (okay, but needs more ranks before I'll use it over the shield/recharge one I have), Disciple upgrade (good, but needs more ranks before I'll use it over my Katana X, since that's already light enough that my Vanguards can use it basically without penalty), and Revenant upgrade (bleh, too heavy for me to use it on anything I play). Still, could've been worse.

Zevox

That's basically what I'm looking at, except I'm going to try the opposite tack; I am going to forgo arc grenade, or apply only a token allotment.

From what I've heard, the class goes down hard, and with the pylon you are encouraged to camp or be damn clever - a pylon between two prominent ammo caches would allow for a highly mobile, circuit engineer which is how I usually play power-strong classes - and there's a definite stress to picking out the perfect build. I'm goin to experiment with using the acolyte pistol fr shields and barriers, and having homing grenades for armor and flesh. This gives full passive and fitness, which will help me remain semi mobile around the pylon, and stay out of cover with the acolyte.

When I respec I'm going to instead try a gun-reliant build, with both grenade powers being less than maximum. Although a bit of reflection says I should play the fitness builds after the straight power build, as it's harder to miss damage output than it is to miss health and shields.

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Well, reinstatement sucked. WAY worse then I was expecting.

Hey Council, if you don't want me working for Cerberus, get me a new ship! Every Specter should have their own ship anyway, plus a bank account for official purposes. Also, I got to deny working for Ceberus, at all. They raised me from the frikken dead, and this was my earliest oppertunity to get away and come straight for you, so YOU guys could fund my mission instead. I thought there would be some undercover thing. Provisional reinstatement? Seriously?

I liked the council in ME1, sure they blocked me at the end but that wasn't too bad. Sending them reports was fun and they let me go my own way, mostly, to do what I felt needed to be done. However, the outright hostility I got this time around was really disappointing.

Vigil is dead now? I did NOT see that coming. The Reaper ship didn't give data explaining the situation? They didn't figure out that the Citadel is a massive relay point that will usher the doom of galactic civilization? What about indoctrination? Can't that be studied? Why is no one looking into that? I thought there would be some more stuff about the Conduit but it seems there will be no place for the only portable mass effect transport in the galaxy.

OMG! What is going on here? Do I really have to depend on an Indoctrinated Illusive Man to save the galaxy from a threat he is obviously going to help bring about? Plus, the only mention of the crimes Cerverus commited is, "oh well, that was the military divison". I wanna know why a human centered group kills so many humans.

Think about it though. The turians are pragmatic, and while may not personally like the decision can understand its purpose. The Salarian race relies entirely on conversion and shadow operations, and Asari are based on social notes, etiquette, quiet back room deals and sabotage.

From the coucil's point of view, this is a Political incident. They are brushing it under the rug, blamin the Geth because giant space death machines that cannot be beaten would do the exact opposite of why they want - it would tear the galaxy apart, as everyone who knows the end is nigh would just riot and do whatever they wanted. Anarchy.

Instead, the turians commandeered the weapons systems and began reverse engineering, the salarians stole as much of the tech as they could in conjunction with the Asari and the Asari continue telling people I relax, have a drink, invest in the economy and don't look too closely at the council R&D budget. They thought they could be ready, an Shepard, as a full spectre running around talking about the End Times would brin that down around their ears. They couldn't risk it.

Cerberus for its part went through great pains to show Shepard the beautiful smile and not the gleaming knife or pile of bodies. The Illusive Man may be fou wrong things, but as a person he is worthy of respect, and respects Shepard in turn. That's powerful.

Okay, that's weird, because for me and a lot of other people, it doesn't work properly (it'll apply the incendiary/chilled/shocked visual effect, but not the actual mechanical effect). Also, Concussive Shot can set off tech bursts, cryo explosions and fire explosions regardless of evolutions.

I have not been able to cause detonations without the power in the past, and I've mentioned this build before with no comments. I'll check though, as I said. One sees why they want often enough tat I can't be sure.

Here's the problem though. As listed, MP incendiary ammo doesn't cause damage over time? Nor does AP ammo reduce enemy DR or go through walls. There was a big stink about how warp and disruptive ammo were superior because of these oversights. So how [b]could[/i] I test this? Knock someone to almost dead with concussive shot + ammo and then throw a proxy mine? Better than nothing I suppose.

Finally got my first N7 class- the Fury Adept. It was a little difficult to adjust to her at first, but now I really love this character.

She is a biotic detonation machine- that's all this class was designed to do... that and high damage output.

Annihilation Field is great for dealing with any enemies who get close, since it has high DPS, sets up targets for detonation, and you can recast it to detonate anything that is already setup. I've used it a couple of times against cerberus to setup a phantom that gets to close, teleport dodge away, then teleport back in and recast to detonate- and this detonate even goes off if they have their stupid invulnerability shield active.

Dark Channel is very good clinging DPS and another way to setup for detonations. I've hit Phantoms with it when they were at full strength and have seen them die from it after a while with no additional damage sources. It takes a while, but that is pretty impressive.

Throw is the main trigger for detonations, especially since it's fast. I only play gold, so I haven't expereinced this yet, but I've heard of people on bronze walking through enemies with Annihilation Field running and killing everything with Throw. Guess I need to try this sometime when I just want to feel ultra-powerful.

Even with 3 ranks in Fitness, she still feels squishy. I have to be careful about managing cover and using teleports intelligently to keep myself from dying too often.

I love the heavy melee- teleporting through walls and auto-tracking to the nearest target is very sweet, but you have to be careful because you can die quickly if you do it at the wrong time.

I'm still not sure if heavy melee can trigger detonations. Either it can or another biotic on my team was throwing a power at the same time.

What I'm really unclear on here is that the fury seems to be the only class with a power confirmed to be able to detonate its own setups?

This makes me wonder if I am right, and two adepts with ahockwave can destroy chaff by one lifting and the other detonating - at +130% damage and force

I too have just opened my first N7 class - the Slayer Vanguard.

With regards to melee, I've experienced pretty much exactly what you just said Cregan - the teleport-attack is hilarious, but one wrong move and you're suddenly swinging at air in the middle of a mob of enemies. It takes all sorts of finesse that I don't quite have yet, but I'm determined to work on it.

Biotic Charge is a necessity if you want to use the Disruptor Power, which is basically a high powered Shockwave-style attack that drains your Barriers when it fires. Despite a few complaints I've heard, this isn't as bad as it sounds if you use it with the 'knocks down weak enemies' add-on and and then Biotic Charge. Everything is bowled over, and you Charge at the next biggest threat to restore your Barriers and finish it off before everything else stands up and gets another Disruptor to the face.

I'd highly recommend using either Disruptor or Biotic Slash though, so that you can pump your spare points into Fitness for the synergy between extra Shields or better Melee, respectively. You could go for both and have Fitness lower, but I think that would make Silver games harder than they ought to be and on Gold it would be incredibly hard to pull off.

Still trying to decide what weapon works best on a Vanguard-class, though. I always seem to default to the Geth Plasma SMG since it has 0% weigh penalty and the rate of fire puts down pretty much anything in short order, but I feel like I ought to mix it up and use something else. Anyone have a suggestion (that ISN'T the Carnifex) to make things a little more interesting?

For weapons, consider the acolyte. You can hold a charge during other powers, and it's light. Light enough you could probably also carry an SMG or disciple.

The mantis or viper slow down powers barely but noticeably, in exchange for adding an entire combat style to your repertoire.

The Geth pulse rifle, with an omniblade bayonet gives you laser-precision across the map, 144 rounds with ammo mod, and melee support.

The disciple on its own increases melee with a bayonet and allows for stun-locking enemies.

The crusader combines sniping and armor piercing with a bayonet, in exchange for making you a Gish rather than caster.

The scorpionif you have one is ace, since the ULM mod let's you carry it at +200%, and the extended barrel and auto stagger means you've got a free window maker. Pop two or three rounds onto a guy and then focus elsewhere, as he will not only explode but if any of his allies get too close they trigger the proximity effect and both get blown up. Shooting at the ground to the side of guardians likewise bypasses their shields. Explosions on ravagers also take care of Swarmers.

Cerberus Vanguard is pretty fun if you want to pretend you're Whiplash from the last Ironman movie. The really short range on Smash is annoying though and not being able to self-trigger biotic explosions on armored targets with Lash.

Phoenix vanguard has two basic builds.

Adept. You Max the three powers, and the passive. Biotic charge saves you, detonates Smash, and gets you into melee range while you're on cooldown. Not as good as te Phoenix adept for whom Aingularity becomes a semi-killball, but still viable.

Melee. Max biotic charge, fitness (melee spec) and whatever you want from there. Charge in, and either whip crack groups or stun baton single targets for MASSIVE DAMAGE. Pistol or disciple gives you a free +25% boost to melee, and while not as solid as a Geth, you've got gads more shields.

I just tried the Krogan Battlemaster; he's ridiculously durable and fun. Unfortunately, he can't do squat for damage, since I specced him for tankiness, but smashing faces with my fists was plenty of entertainment.

P.S. Anyone know if the Reegar Carbine works with an armor penetrating mod? The lightning gun is awesome against everything but armor.

Built one I those to protect allies on platinum.

It failed there is no safety on platinum. There is only Zuul.

On gold however I can just walk calmly at things an gun them to pieces. Biotic charge for surprise healing, and the krogan slap hits fr an unmodified 700 damage which isn't the instant kill of a fully prepped krogan soldier (2,800!) but still useful in a pinch, and makes claymore frame cancel potent.

The reegar carbine does not benefit from object penetration, but the mod would increase the damage done to armor. You can't fire it through walls, unfortunately. If memory serves then the shotgun mod will reduce armor DR on gold from 50 to 17.5, which about doubles the low level reegar's damage against an armored target.

If you want to kill an atlas though, drop the silly tesla toy for a real shotgun - the N7 piranha. Capable of biting a prime or atlas or brute or [armored enemy]'s yellow health bar at a steady and impressive clip. I use the AP mod an the extended barrel. Primes take two clips and a power during reload to kill. Adding the smart choke quadruple's the guns effective range an scientifically proves that I am mentally deficient and require a learning curve with shotguns.

On Silver, I didn't have much trouble beating mooks up to and including Phantoms with my big, meaty, Krogan fists, even specced for durability rather than melee damage.

The problem is when I was up against a Banshee, or Atlas, or even a Ravager. For a Ravager, I usually just meleed it, but Banshees and Atlases aren't very safe to melee and I had to resort to a gun, which was pretty painful. There's no Flamer alternative like there is for Vorchas.

I tried the Wraith (level 1), wasn't impressed. Then tried the Reegar Carbine (level 1), better, but took an entire 66 round clip to take down an Atlas solo (rest of my team was down). I may try the Piranha and see how that makes me feel.

See above.

I've found that every time I play as a Krogan, my strategy devolves into a series of headbutts, shotgunning until empty, a random CHARGE, followed by more indiscriminate headbutting.

Needless to say, Krogans are still my favorite race to play as.

you say that like its a bad thing XD
The best part of the krogan was using a pistol to melee things to death. Nothing hurts enemy morale more than daintily flicking something with a toy and watching it sail like the Wright Bros. first

-

I am now in the awkward position of wanting more levels in disciple, as rank V is still just a touch too heavy for its relatively shoddy damage output. I plan to run an adept with an acolyte and a disciple. I will have all the religious titles!

[CreganTur]

When you talk about the damage of the Acolyte, at what difficulty are you playing? On Bronze or Silver I can believe this and, since I'm a Gold player, my answer is meh

But if it does that on Gold, then I'm all over that pistol!

[Callos_DeTerran]

When you talk about the damage of the Acolyte, at what difficulty are you playing? On Bronze or Silver I can believe this and, since I'm a Gold player, my answer is meh

But if it does that on Gold, then I'm all over that pistol!

It doesn't do quite as much on gold, but it still does remarkable damage to shielded/biotic enemies on gold.

[SiuiS]

When you talk about the damage of the Acolyte, at what difficulty are you playing? On Bronze or Silver I can believe this and, since I'm a Gold player, my answer is meh

But if it does that on Gold, then I'm all over that pistol!

Predominantly sober, as the host switched on me. Gold was inconclusive. I played a bit but it was a game where an enemy would walk from the left to center screen, I would shoot it, it would walk from left to center screen is throw a warp, it would walk from left to ceter screen, I'd fail to use throw, it would kill me, it would walk from left to center screen, detonate, and then I would be revived.

Regardless; the level of investment is still feasibly worth it. With just an extended barrel, I saw huge results. Anecdotally, several players have told me its the only way to deal with phantoms on gold and even platinum (don't buy thy last one), and that a level 7-10 is insane.

On gold, I have confidence it will strip shields, but unless it avoids gating entirely, it cannot deal damage afterwards. Gold provides 100% reduction in damage, remember?

EDIT: waitaminnit, bronze? Bronze? I take umbrage, sir!

[tomaO2]

Those news items are just ads for the DLC, not indications that you actually have said DLC.

There should be a Downloadable Content tab on the start menu (on the 360 at least). That should bring up a list of the available DLC, whether it's already installed and the option to purchase it if it isn't.

You should also have received a message on Shep's private terminal abut each bit of DLC you have installed.

Thanks! This is exactly what I needed to know. I got the computer version but it seems to work the same. Okay lets see. I got the delux edition and it came with:

-Cerevus Network, which gives news. (seems to have gone offline)
-Firewalker (got message)
-Normandy Crash (got message)
-Arc Projector (got message)
-Zeed (got message)
-Weapon and Armor (um, I got a message about Cerverus Assult Armor but no weapon)

I read that I was suppost to get some sort of behind the making of the game and bonus stuff too? Also, a comic backstory? I don't see that anywhere though. Anyone know anything about that? However, the important thing is game content. Seems there are a few left to add on.

-Genesis (not needed, I have game 1)
-Various armor and weapon packs (not needed, I play on casual)

Then there are 4 new missions I don't have.
-Arrival (560 points)
-Shadow Broker (800 points)
-Overlord Pack (560 points)
Kasumi-Stolen Memory (560 points)

Lets see here that comes to 2380 points. I would have to buy 2400 points to get them all and that comes too...

30 bucks? O_O

That is more then I paid for game 1 and 2 combined. Okay, sure, I got it 50% off but still. Anywhere I can get it cheaper? Also, is this absolutely all the content? Why doesn't BioWare seem to sell ME1? That's really wierd.

Also, why is getting to the online store so hard? I can only seem to access it if I click on a link from the game itself. I can't find a search button on the website and I don't see a place to buy new games and whatnot.