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

[Psyren]

Turian Soldier with Tempest is awesome. I just want the Revenant because their AR bonuses won't work with an SMG.

But yeah, he's definitely the caster of the group; the powers, especially Marksman, are pretty sweet.

[KillItWithFire]

Turian Soldier with Tempest is awesome. I just want the Revenant because their AR bonuses won't work with an SMG.

But yeah, he's definitely the caster of the group; the powers, especially Marksman, are pretty sweet.

Turian soldier is so underrated. Revenent chews through dudes and the whole bottomless clip thing is really cathartic if you're having a bad day.

[Psyren]

NEVR ENUFF DAKKA "For Palaven!"

I also had an insane gold match in Glacier last night, vs. Reapers (ugh.) Come to think of it, there was a Turian Soldier on that one too, and he came second. I remember him standing at the top of the outside stairwell (our spawn point) spraying what seemed like the entire inside room and keeping the Marauders at bay with a veritable wall of bullets. That was when 4 Ravagers showed up

[Zevox]

worth investigating. My complaint has almos always been the gameplay unravelling. The bad ending just failed to patch that for me. Rannock, Tuchanka, even Thessia. Those were fine.

Investigating? Gameplay unraveling? I'm afraid I don't follow you there.

Zevox

[Strife Warzeal]

It's amazing, the totals for Alloy blew the goal out of the water.

PC: 67,573
PS3: 28,398
Xbox: 166,778
TOTAL: 262,749!

That is just crazy, though there was this one line in the write up, some people are theorizing either a new dlc, enemy group, or game mode.
"While we celebrate Operation ALLOY’s success, we need to be aware that the unexpected resistance faced by our soldiers may be symptomatic of a larger issue. We’ve been receiving a number of strange reports that are inconsistent with our knowledge of Reaper ground troop movement. At this point, intel is vague at best. Rest assured we are pursuing the matter."

[Landis963]

It's amazing, the totals for Alloy blew the goal out of the water.

Not really, those "Promote X characters" event weekends are pretty easy to achieve.

That is just crazy, though there was this one line in the write up, some people are theorizing either a new dlc, enemy group, or game mode.
"While we celebrate Operation ALLOY’s success, we need to be aware that the unexpected resistance faced by our soldiers may be symptomatic of a larger issue. We’ve been receiving a number of strange reports that are inconsistent with our knowledge of Reaper ground troop movement. At this point, intel is vague at best. Rest assured we are pursuing the matter."

I'm fairly certain this is foreshadowing Leviathan. It could also be a new MP DLC, but it's far too close to Leviathan to be a tentpole franchise DLC release, IMO. If that makes any sense.

[Krade]

So I'm sitting here, waiting for Leviathan to download (38% so far). Might as well post something.

I had a lot of fun starting all of my characters back to level 1. My first game after the promotions I picked Krogan Sentinel and put my one point into Lift Grenade. Cerberus Harrier V and a Claymore X with Grenade Capacity V gear makes being level 1 somewhat less of a hassle. Even playing on Silver instead of Bronze like you're "supposed" to do at level 1.

I also recently discovered how awesome the Indra is on the right class (Hint: it's the Destroyer). It's great because I've been looking for a good, high DPS long range weapon to go with my Revenant on him. I am greatly pleased.

62% now

[Strife Warzeal]

I'm fairly certain this is foreshadowing Leviathan. It could also be a new MP DLC, but it's far too close to Leviathan to be a tentpole franchise DLC release, IMO. If that makes any sense.

While it could be foreshadowing Leviathan, This clearly is.

Yes, they could have more than one thing pointing towards it, it does seem at the least possible to be pointing at new stuffs. Also I'd just like to note that I was saying opinions others had, I have no stance currently on what it could be referring to if anything at all.

[Dhavaer]

You've got me there. I always see people use the hornet and spirits I hve no idea how or why.

Hipfire clicking as fast as you can. The hornet has the interesting quality of having a refire rate faster than the length of time it takes to fire one burst, so you can do tremendous damage very quickly. It's also very accurate: the only thing stopping you from sniping with it is the very high recoil, which can be mitigated with one of the new mods.

On the dlc buying end of the scale, the pricing of Bioware points is oddly inconsistent. I can get 1600 for $22 through the Origin store or for $19 going through the 'shop for add-ons' option. Strange.

Also, balance changes:

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August 28, 2012
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Gold and Platinum Difficulties
- Enemy shield/barrier damage gates on weapon damage reduced from 90% to 75%, which means
25% of the remaining weapon damage will pass through to health.

Medigel maximum capacity increased from 5 to 6 due to the success of Operation Alloy

Falcon Assault Rifle
- Encumbrance decreased from [2.0-1.4] to [1.75-1]

Geth Pulse Rifle
- Damage increased from [24.1-30.1] to [27.4-34.2]

Hawk Missile Launcher Power
- Rank 3 damage bonus increased from 20% to 30%
- Evolve 1 shield penalty reduction increased from 15% to 25%
- Evolve 2 damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%
- Evolve 3 missile refire time reduction increased from 25% to 35%
- Evolve 5 damage of split missiles increased from 50% to 75%
- Evolve 6 damage bonus increased from 100% to 150%

[Psyren]

I'd kill for a new enemy type. I want to depopulate the galaxy of mercs again

New enemies in the existing factions would be nice too. Geth Armature/Colossus? Scions and Praetorians? Cerberus Destroyer/Vanguard?

[Beowulf DW]

Well, those were the most disappointing Commendation and Victory packs I've ever gotten. The only thing or note that I received was an Eagle III. Yay.

[Edge]

I'd kill for a new enemy type. I want to depopulate the galaxy of mercs again

New enemies in the existing factions would be nice too. Geth Armature/Colossus? Scions and Praetorians? Cerberus Destroyer/Vanguard?

Given the events of Leviathan, my guess is actually

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Playable Reaper troops for multiplayer. Which I don't mind too much. They should be able to bring some whacky new powers to the table. Plus, you'd probably get the Leviathans' booming voices for voice over.

[Landis963]

Given the events of Leviathan, my guess is actually

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Playable Reaper troops for multiplayer. Which I don't mind too much. They should be able to bring some whacky new powers to the table. Plus, you'd probably get the Leviathans' booming voices for voice over.

*Is trying not to look at the spoiler* How is the DLC? Favorable/non-favorable review?

[Edge]

It's... I don't want to say mediocre. Gameplay remains solid, and the little investigation sections are a nice change of pace. The real problem is with the reveal, because

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it basically already happened in the Extended Cut.

So, really, it doesn't add much new in terms of plot. The Earth DLC weapon mods making their way to SP is a nice touch though, but the lack of new information is... disappointing.

[Krade]

It's also quite a bit shorter than $10 should be worth. If I weren't such a sucker for owning all the DLC, I wouldn't have bought it. ME2 had longer DLCs with a lower price, overall a bit disappointing.

Edit: Also, checking the war assets for the first time since March for this character, I noticed the points from MP were nowhere to be found. Now I have no clue how those are processed since I know this character has had it before. Maybe they expire after so long?

Edit 2: Sort of Leviathan Spoilers

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I laughed when Shepard asked EDI about Basilisk and she described it as an enemy in 'Galaxay of Fantasy' that has a sync-kill ability that many players call over-powered. Gee, I wonder if this is making fun of people who complain about sync-kills in the multiplayr?

[Landis963]

Gotcha. Mediocre it is then. I might use it as my gateway drug back into finally finishing singleplayer for the second time ( I have a NewGame+ on the cusp of starting Priority:Tuchanka), but it's not looking likely.

[SiuiS]

I use the Phalanx...
Scope + Melee on a Shadow = long distance teleportation, plus more SS damage; Phalanx X has a better damage/weight ratio than my Carnifex III or Paladin I, and with zero points in my passive I need the lightest kit possible. On my Human Engineer, it doesn't add any weight and I need to fire something between Incinerates for max dps on armor. And unlike the Predator it doesn't shoot rolled up bits of paper.

Believe it or not, the rate of fire on the predator makes it a worthwhile choice sometimes. The sheer amount of lead coming out of that pistol is insane. The phalanx is noticeably better, but as a panic button I enjoy it.

And I like Turian Soldier too, dammit! But with only a Revenant IV he isn't worth it right now So far my favorite soldiers are Batarian and Destroyer.

Try it with the hurricane!

Turian Soldier with Tempest is awesome. I just want the Revenant because their AR bonuses won't work with an SMG.

But yeah, he's definitely the caster of the group; the powers, especially Marksman, are pretty sweet.

True. But it is still payable at lower levels without such guns. Just give it a whirl. My old successes came don never stopping the proximity bombing. With a free 20% boost to all damage, even 'weak' guns were useful.

Investigating? Gameplay unraveling? I'm afraid I don't follow you there.

Investigate: your method of looking at things bears scrutiny.
Unravelled gameplay: see complaining in other thread.

Hipfire clicking as fast as you can. The hornet has the interesting quality of having a refire rate faster than the length of time it takes to fire one burst, so you can do tremendous damage very quickly. It's also very accurate: the only thing stopping you from sniping with it is the very high recoil, which can be mitigated with one of the new mods.

Yeah, I tried it recently. Even at level 1 it's pretty potent. Is it faster hip firing?
The downside is it is heavier than my piranha. Which is really no contest.

Also that medigel thing is deceptive. It sounds like they were goin to give one to everyone...

[Sanguine]

Given the events of Leviathan, my guess is actually

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Playable Reaper troops for multiplayer. Which I don't mind too much. They should be able to bring some whacky new powers to the table. Plus, you'd probably get the Leviathans' booming voices for voice over.

Damn, you beat me to it.

Anyway. I hope that one of the next multiplayer classes we get has Dominate, cause I doubt I'll ever actually get a chance to use it in singleplayer and I'm curious.

[Dhavaer]

Yeah, I tried it recently. Even at level 1 it's pretty potent. Is it faster hip firing?

No, but there's essentially no recoil.

[Krade]

Gotcha. Mediocre it is then. I might use it as my gateway drug back into finally finishing singleplayer for the second time ( I have a NewGame+ on the cusp of starting Priority:Tuchanka), but it's not looking likely.

Might I suggest picking it up if/when it goes on sale? Usually when DLCs go on sale it's by 25 or 50%. And I wouldn't have had a problem with it for $5.

Edit: Also, since it's come up, I gave the Hornet a try on my vanilla human Adept. Stability and Damage mods. Not bad. I was only playing on silver, but it reliably did damage at a fair distance while waiting on cooldown. Would use again on a caster.

[SiuiS]

Might I suggest picking it up if/when it goes on sale? Usually when DLCs go on sale it's by 25 or 50%. And I wouldn't have had a problem with it for $5.

Edit: Also, since it's come up, I gave the Hornet a try on my vanilla human Adept. Stability and Damage mods. Not bad. I was only playing on silver, but it reliably did damage at a fair distance while waiting on cooldown. Would use again on a caster.

I use it on the fury. AP and stability, and it puts out enough reliable damage to astound.

And I just realize I've been saying Hornet an meant talon all day
EDIT: yup. I meant the talon, don't know why.
The hornet, I've been using whenever I needed DPS. It's pretty darn good, and even without a recoil reducer it's solid. At point blank it's murder on armored enemies, especially now with the SMG AP mod - doing 90% damage to armor means I'm
Losing 5 damage a shot, on such a dan strong gun. Worth it. Although haven't done the math yet, maybe the extended barrel would be better?

No, I was looking at the talon, the pistol wih piss-poor accuracy, huge weight deficit? Remarkably workable if you're willing to put in the effort. Put in on my paladin, Shining Armor *waits for groans* and tried to play guardian. Was pretty slick. The output was more consistent than I would expect for a shot weapon. It was also pretty strong! I enjoyed using it. Any gun that is fun enough that I will line up my shots for giggles? A good idea. I cnt wait o get this at higher levels so I can put it on more classes.




As is, I got a tip to try geth infiltrator without the geth weapons from Strife Warzeal. The clincher? Hunter mode with accuracy and rate of fire boosts... The only boosts I never used because the weapons I put on didn't benefit from them much. Suddenly I see why they say the gethfiltrator ha the highest DPS there is. I was doing good enough on Gold my allies were fighting over who I I revive me

Thanks Warzeal!

[Edge]

Anyway. I hope that one of the next multiplayer classes we get has Dominate, cause I doubt I'll ever actually get a chance to use it in singleplayer and I'm curious.

Hoo boy, is Dominate disappointing. From my (admittedly very few) field tests, targets with armour seem to be immune to it. Which makes me ask: why bother?

[Dhavaer]

Why am i cursed with constant Crusaders? It's the only truly bad promo weapon, in my experience. Even the Eagle is just aggressively mediocre. Yet I have it at VI. Hate hate hate.

[Edge]

Why am i cursed with constant Crusaders? It's the only truly bad promo weapon, in my experience. Even the Eagle is just aggressively mediocre. Yet I have it at VI. Hate hate hate.

In what world is the Eagle more effective than the Crusader?

[Landis963]

In what world is the Eagle more effective than the Crusader?

[gravelly voice] In A World where the number of bullets trumps the power of each one, and single-shot weapons are relegated to the bottom of the worthless pile, one weapon dares to challenge the status quo...

Crusader X. In theaters everywhere Feb. 31.[/gravelly voice]

I'm sorry. It was the perfect setup.

[Calemyr]

Consider yourself lucky. I get nothing but one-shots for the victory packs. Talk about annoying.

But now for the real reason I'm posting: my take on the Leviathan DLC.

First: Understand that this DLC was quite crippled due to the Extended Cut, the big reveals lost a lot of that jarring "wait... what?!" impact they would have had if the EC hadn't been released. We already knew enough about things by now that these reveals aren't really surprises.

What is a surprise, however, is frankly how well they did the reveals anyway. I am getting perilously close to forgiving the ending debacle... Not close enough, of course, but closer. I do like this DLC but I do not like the "purchase your happy ending" concept that this seems like it's working up to.

Here's the plot: We know the batarians got the Leviathan of Dis, which is a Reaper corpse. We're not interested in that. Whatever killed that Reaper is the real Leviathan. Shepard is on the trail of this Leviathan, but something is obstructing his path, removing his information sources and using people almost as if it was indoctrination...

Okay. Here's what you get:

Several hundred points of fleet strength from the quest and assets found on newly available planets.

2 Pre-order "exclusive weapons", the Raider Shotgun and the Argus Rifle. (I'm rather upset about that as all my pre-order exclusives are now available for purchase, but none of the ones I didn't get are. That really sucks.)

A bunch of new weapon mods, including an assault rifle melee mod and the new mods from multi-player. It's a nice rebalancing of things (mods tend to fill the gaps) but no magic bullets.

The Dominate bonus power. Like AI Hacking, only for organics, and just about as effective. The upgrade tree runs along two paths: crippling your target and turning your target into a shock trooper for your side. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work on certain enemies (likely those that are armored), which is a shame, because its origins show it being used against a brute. Additionally, my allies didn't get update their IFF, so they tended to keep pelting the shock trooper I made, apparently making the "cripple" path superior. Nice to see it back, but not really anything to write home about.

3 combat missions and 3 non-combat "detective" missions. All of them are nicely made, well laid out, and laden with atmosphere. The detective missions are a nice change-up, and aren't used enough to really get old.

I've only gone through it once, but there's voice acting and commentary for the whole crew, including Javik. One exchange in particular amused me:
Liara (horrified after hearing a particular plan): Are we seriously considering...
Garrus (awestruck after the conversation moves forward a bit): ...apparently we are...

Dunno why I find that amusing, but I do. Kind of like the Samara recruitment mission in ME2.

Now for the spoilers sections:

My take on the plot in specific:

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The Leviathan's form of indoctrination is quite interesting. Rather than permanently enslave a target like Reaper indoctrination, it takes direct control of the target for as long as it wants. If the domination is broken or retracted, the target shows no ill effects aside from lost time and a vaguely creeped out feeling. In other words, the Leviathan shows the exact same ability Harbinger uses on with the Collectors. It shows a distinct difference between the Leviathan's mentality and that of the Reapers: the Leviathan's want slaves and consider taking good care of their slaves to be the logical course of action, while the Reapers want disposable shock troops that can safely be discarded at the end of each cycle.

The atmosphere for the combat missions is flawless. The mining facility is extremely creepy and the research facility obviously had a very simplistic layout before all hell breaks loose. The third mission shifts seamlessly from desolation to desperation to isolation.

The reveal (for those of you who don't want to pay for DLC)

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The Leviathan is a member of the first species to be turned into a Reaper. Leviathans look exactly like Reapers, only organic, because Starkid makes every (capital ship) Reaper in the Leviathan image. And yes, Harbinger is indeed the first Reaper, made from the Leviathans, which explains why it has the same burst-style indoctrination the Leviathan uses.

At their prime, the Leviathans were basically super-Protheans. They were so much larger, smarter, longer-lived, powerful, etc etc than the other races of the time that they used them as something of a cross between client states and slaves. The Leviathans didn't create Starkid to solve their own problems, it was to resolve the Synth/Organic dilemma that kept popping up in other races, as dead civilizations were of little use to them. The Leviathans never considered themselves to be at risk until the Starkid's solution was already well underway. Starkid hadn't honed its talent for genocide yet, however, so a lot of them escaped and went into hiding, eventually finding a place in the extreme depths of a water planet.

The biggest new detail is a suggestion by the Leviathan that Starkid wasn't just setting fire to the brush, it was after something. It created the Relay system to accelerate galactic evolution and decrease the time needed for each cycle, using the entire galaxy as a genetic algorithm to answer something... That question may well be answered by the crucible, which is why Starkid is so helpful at the end of it all.

Final verdict: The bonus power is pretty weak, the weapons are fairly sub-par, the mods are good to decent, there are only three combat missions, you suffer from the usual DLC-imposed reduction in control over the outcomes, and the big reveal had its legs kicked out from under it by the Extended Cut. That's a lot of downsides to it, enough that I can't say it's an obvious win.

That said, the levels are well done, the plot is well executed, and the finale manages to present a mostly spoiled twist in an intriguing way, along with a lot of missing context. I'd say it's on par with one of the major plot arcs for ME3 (Rannoch and Tuchanka), without the big choices. Still high stakes, but no hard decisions.

[Beowulf DW]

[gravelly voice] In A World where the number of bullets trumps the power of each one, and single-shot weapons are relegated to the bottom of the worthless pile, one weapon dares to challenge the status quo...

Crusader X. In theaters everywhere Feb. 31.[/gravelly voice]

I'm sorry. It was the perfect setup.

But the Crusader has 4 shots per thermal clip.

[Dhavaer]

In what world is the Eagle more effective than the Crusader?

Mine. I can't make the Crusader hit things. Shots I could easily make with, say, a Sabre miss with the Crusader. Add that to the slow fire speed, high recoil and small clip...

[Landis963]

But the Crusader has 4 shots per thermal clip.

I wanted a pithy term for "non-automatic" and "single-shot" was the first thing that came to mind. So sue me.

[Beowulf DW]

I wanted a pithy term for "non-automatic" and "single-shot" was the first thing that came to mind. So sue me.

The proper term is semi-automatic. I never thought that I would ever use knowledge from that gun safety course on this forum.