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

[Landis963]

Goddess is tricky - while the Landing DZ is reasonably easy to defend, there are precious few other places where you can get decent cover, and most of the objectives are overlooked by higher ground and entrances on at least 2 other sides. It's not bad though, I enjoyed what I could of it and it looks as gorgeous as I thought Condor did when I first played it.

Jade, I haven't made my mind up about. It looks like there are plenty of good places to hide and to protect your squad, but the objectives we had left little chance to try them properly. It feels about the same size as Glacier though, just without walls.

Okay... Goddess doesn't sound much trickier than Hydra when you put it like that. Also, do you know whether they pull a Dagger and have more than one LZ?

The second game was on Goddess, which was fun but for some reason incredibly buggy - being shot through walls, enemies clipping into scenery and being dragged to Instant Death by a Banshee from over 20m away..... I don't know if they're just bugs in a new map, but it wasn't ideal....

20m? Oi.

[Zevox]

Atlases and Primes just got a LOT harder to kill.

For you maybe. I guarantee you I won't notice a difference .

Apparently the ULM fix didn't work.

Well, the new characters seem rather... similar to each other. Quarian Infiltrators/Engineers, Vorcha Soldiers/Sentinels and Phoenix Adepts/Vanguards only differ from each other by one power.

That's... sad. I mean, I appreciate getting new powers and all, but making each class unique is a tad more important than that. At least the fact that the Vanguard's Charge ability and Infiltrator's Cloak change their play style so significantly just on their own means that the new biotic and tech classes will still differ nicely, but I can't say the same for the Vorcha.

The Carbine is sort of like an electric flame thrower. Extremely short range but effective.

Sounds like something I'll want on my Vanguards. How's the weight?

And does anyone have one of the ex-Cereberus classes yet to explain how Lash and Smash work? The only new power the wiki has information on is the Quarian scan one. (And a little on the electric grenade, but, well, it's a grenade, what it does was thoroughly predictable.)

Zevox

[Arbitrarity]

Silly redundant character cards. I have all my rare guns but Kyrsae/Reegar at X, and I still get new gear slowly. I think their drop rate is a bit broken.

There's a LOT of equipment cards though. The Numbers Thread has updated links to the new equipment (note the spreadsheet has tabs in the top left for uncommon/consumable equipment), and the guns sheet also has all the new guns.

Looks like the Harrier is going to take over as the AR king, with better fire rate AND damage than the Mattock. Ultra rare though, and tiny ammo capacity. Probably trying to get soldiers to use ammo recharge consumables more.

Kyrsae is pretty brutal. It's basically a bazooka, easiest "sniper rifle" in the game to use. You point vaguely in the direction of your target and click. Doesn't register headshots, moderate projectile speed, explodes and does AOE. Very strong against non-headshot targets (Banshee/Brute/Atlas/Prime/Ravager), and works well with ammo powers.

Reegar scales onto Gold very well. Amazing damage output, but you have to find places to take advantage of the miniscule range.

Only new character I have is the Quarian Male Engineer. He's the worse of the two new Quarians, trading Tactical Cloak for Incinerate. Arc Grenades are very strong; they blow up on impact with any surface instantly, have massive AOE, and shock targets for tech bursts. I preferred damage/DOT/Armor. Much better than Sticky grenades.
Tactical scan is... interesting. It has a fairly long (1s?) animation; cancelling it cancels the lockon (however, you can execute the animation behind cover WITHOUT popping up). It reveals the target to the entire team, through walls, slows, shows a cool HUD for their health, and gives bonus damage. I didn't get the "pulse" tier 6 upgrade, though I suspect it just temporarily reveals all enemies near the target. You have to be able to target (red highlight) an enemy to use Tactical Scan, or else it fizzles (but still does the animation), making it only moderately effective against Hunters. Cooldown is miniscule for any reasonable weight (5s base). You can only have one target scanned at a time, and scans don't stack. Due to the long animation time and restriction to having one scanned target, tactical scan is pretty useless except for boss-type targets. There, the 15-25% damage boost is pretty strong. It's also generally useful if you're in cover, waiting for shield to recharge.

[Krade]

Had a game earlier where I dropped in at wave 2, Silver, Cerberus, Giant. I killed nearly everything immediately after joining then hear one of my teammates say something about how another guy isn't playing. He then quits. Then another quits. So it's me and the AFK dude. Since I'm rocking my awesome Claymore Infiltrator I think, "All right, I can do this. After a few waves I get another teammate. Salarian Infiltrator with a Widow. Together we ran through the whole Silver match and the AFK guy magically comes to life at extraction. I guess to ensure a full extraction. So we boot his ass when we get into the lobby and then I get some decent teammates who actually speak and we played a few games together before disbanding.

I can't wait for that patch to boot AFKs.

Also I got the new Engineer. He's fun, but I fell like I'm not using him as effectively as I should be. I'm painting targets as often as possible, and try to remember to be liberal with the grenades, but it seems like he needs to rely on weapons to do most of his damage, which isn't really good for a caster character.

I guess I'm just not accustomed to being forced into the support role. I'm usually the one dishing out the damage and the Male Quarian Engineer just isn't built for that.

Edit:

Only new character I have is the Quarian Male Engineer. He's the worse of the two new Quarians, trading Tactical Cloak for Incinerate. Arc Grenades are very strong; they blow up on impact with any surface instantly, have massive AOE, and shock targets for tech bursts. I preferred damage/DOT/Armor. Much better than Sticky grenades.
Tactical scan is... interesting. It has a fairly long (1s?) animation; cancelling it cancels the lockon (however, you can execute the animation behind cover WITHOUT popping up). It reveals the target to the entire team, through walls, slows, shows a cool HUD for their health, and gives bonus damage. I didn't get the "pulse" tier 6 upgrade, though I suspect it just temporarily reveals all enemies near the target. You have to be able to target (red highlight) an enemy to use Tactical Scan, or else it fizzles (but still does the animation), making it only moderately effective against Hunters. Cooldown is miniscule for any reasonable weight (5s base). You can only have one target scanned at a time, and scans don't stack. Due to the long animation time and restriction to having one scanned target, tactical scan is pretty useless except for boss-type targets. There, the 15-25% damage boost is pretty strong. It's also generally useful if you're in cover, waiting for shield to recharge. I'd say overall a good situational support power, rather like AJA/GE, but not quite as strong.

The "pulse" does reveal enemies around the target for a few seconds. However, I noticed that if you don't have a target, it will just reveal enemies around you for a few seconds. So it is still somewhat useful against Hunters.

Edit II:

Sounds like something I'll want on my Vanguards. How's the weight?

Looking at the spreadsheet, the same as the Mantis, Raptor and Valiant sniper rifles and the new Cerberus Harrier rifle (since there is no shotgun with the same weight).

[SiuiS]

Quarian infiltrator (male): tac scan is beautiful. It has a long animation, but doesn't break cover when used. You can't fire during the first second thereof. But...

Imagine giving everyone on your team hunter mode. Highlight enemies. Increase the damage they take. Slow their movement. show their lifebar through objects. ****ing. Fabulous. Arc grenade is awesome, but has no bounce - it explodes on impact, stuns and does extra damage to shields and barriers. And finally their passive works like alaince training - minus twenty percent weight on all weapons.

I named my m. Quarian c3i XD

PHOENIX VANGUARD. melee Beast, huge windup, crazy damage. Melee is stun baton, heavy melee is big circle of electric whippery.
Slam brings both whips into an impact point, dealing massive damage (I'm at 1k, as good as some grenades!).
Lash works like scorpion's spear from mortal combat. It grabs and yanks enemies. Lifts them, and rank four is a choice between a biotic aura or tech aura, allowing you to customize which kind of burst you want to inflict. It's also crazy fast. Rank six lets you basically pull shielded opponents. Or something else that isn't so good.

So far, good fun.

[Corvus]

Got hold of the Reegar and gave it to the Vorcha soldier. And discovered something beautiful - you can use your Flamer power while you are firing the Reegar.

It requires being close but you can bathe down packs of enemies with streams of fire and electricity. Things just melt.

[Edge]

For people saying the ULM fix didn't work: the patch didn't come with the DLC. It comes out on Thursday.

Also, for those who said Vorcha are fragile, I could not disagree more. If you spec them for full health regen in Bloodlust, the only things they fear on Bronze are Turrets and Atlases. If you get full bloodlust stacks, you can out heal the damage of two pyros standing right next to you, or a Prime's cannon shots. Anything big gets next to you, just flamer it. Everything else get the heavy melee treatment.

I have no idea if it'd stand up on Silver or Gold, but I mean to find out. If nothing else, Flamer is a great short-ranged power. I didn't pick up rank 6 (I chose to go Carnage 3 instead. Bit of a mistake, really), so I've not even seen it's full potential.

In other news, the Lash power that both ex-Cerberus get is brokenly good. It's essential Pull+Throw in a single power, with the same cooldown as Throw. That's already pretty good. It's evolutions break it wide open. There's a DoT effect that has it do an extra 100% of its damage over 10 seconds. Again, pretty good. Rank 5 is what turns it into the best crowd control in the game. You can choose a 40% damage boost... or the ability to effect shielded and barriered targets with less force.

You are not reading that wrong.

It still does nothing to any target with armour, but you can quite happily ragdoll Centurions, Nemeses, Engineers, Phantoms, Rocket Troopers and Hunters to you from across the map and into the welcoming arms of your shotgun, Biotic Charge or Smash. Lash's only downside is its inability to detonate combos on armoured targets, or set them up (since it can't use it's Pull effect on armour).

Speaking of Smash, it's a highly damaging short range cone attack that can be evolved to either set up a biotic combo or a tech burst. It'll also detonate biotic combos.

[Corvus]

Vorcha can't die on Bronze - but the same can be said for a lot of classes.

Gold is a different matter. Even triple stacked maxed out regen can't save you against burst damage or packs of enemies. Turrets still eat you alive still. Maybe if you played a sniper Vorcha you'd live more, but a melee/flamer/Reegar Vorcha tends to fall down a lot.

[Edge]

Vorcha can't die on Bronze - but the same can be said for a lot of classes.

I'd dispute this. Even the most well-played krogan vanguard can be killed by some bad luck/flanking. The vorcha just simply doesn't care.

Gold is a different matter. Even triple stacked maxed out regen can't save you against burst damage or packs of enemies. Turrets still eat you alive still. Maybe if you played a sniper Vorcha you'd live more, but a melee/flamer/Reegar Vorcha tends to fall down a lot.

This I can believe. I can see a power/regen focused vorcha working well on Firebase White Geth farming though, which I admit isn't saying that much. Still, staying behind the counter and letting loose with Flamer and racking up the Bloodlust stacks seems viable on paper.

[SiuiS]

Vorcha are crazy fun. Like, wow.

[Sagonene]

Saved up almost a million credits over the weekend... I got...

One new character, no new weapons, 2 gear bonuses (Shotgun 1 & pistol/power 1)

Okay, so it was the male ex-Cerberus adept which I *did* want... but still. kind of underwhelmed.

Singularity - You know this one. Decent but meh... sets up combos for lash.

Smash - PB Cone - short range, long animation. Not bad for ducking around corners but still keeps you exposed for a very long time even from cover. Animation keeps it from being a good panic button. Reminds me of a more powerful shockwave but it normally goes off just as I die or misses the one half a step out of range who then shoots me and I die. Fully capable of smash-stunning a pyro and then being ready to use just after the flamer starts up again.

Lash - Should be 'Yank'. Great power for the effect but until VERY high levels (and the +DoT doubling damage) you aren't able to outright kill mooks. Fun until you realize that hunter will stand up BEHIND you in about 3-5 seconds. Don't forget to finish off your targets.

Yeah... just whelmed. Not overly impressed, not competely gimped. Will get better as I adapt to the style but still a pale comparison to Stasis or Reave.

Sago

[Morty]

That's... sad. I mean, I appreciate getting new powers and all, but making each class unique is a tad more important than that. At least the fact that the Vanguard's Charge ability and Infiltrator's Cloak change their play style so significantly just on their own means that the new biotic and tech classes will still differ nicely, but I can't say the same for the Vorcha.

Yeah, the Vorcha look pretty much identical. Sure, Carnage and Cluster Grenade aren't quite the same, but that's just one power. And Vorcha Sentinels are the first Sentinels not to get any armor power. I find that questionable... as it is, they're more like Soldiers with a biotic grenade.

[Dhavaer]

For people saying the ULM fix didn't work: the patch didn't come with the DLC. It comes out on Thursday.

On consoles, yes, it comes out Thursday. PC got it about 19 hours ago.

[Wraith]

Okay... Goddess doesn't sound much trickier than Hydra when you put it like that. Also, do you know whether they pull a Dagger and have more than one LZ?

As far as I could tell, no. Jade is quite a small map, having 2 would be redundant. Goddess, on the other hand, I very much doubt has 2 extraction points because the vast majority of the map is indoors, and there's only a comparatively small space where the LZ can go. I couldn't confirm that for you at the moment, though.

20m? Oi.

It teleported within a few metres of me, and I ran away. Some 20m away, I started sliding backwards (still in control of my running animation and direction) towards the Banshee.

When it had finished dragging me towards it, because I hadn't stopped trying to run I immediately started to move away again. When I reached the same point about 20m away I spontaneously fell over, Auto-Dead because of the Banshee that had "grabbed" me.

I was not amused.

[Morty]

Wooo... I finally unlocked a new class. Only it's a Krogan Battlemaster. And I don't play Vanguards.

[Beowulf DW]

Wooo... I finally unlocked a new class. Only it's a Krogan Battlemaster. And I don't play Vanguards.

You should try it then. Just one game. It might be fun.

Speaking of Vanguards, which is the better shotgun, Wraith or Claymore?

[Edge]

On consoles, yes, it comes out Thursday. PC got it about 19 hours ago.

Ah, yeah, right, I'd heard about that. Being a 360 player, I made an assumption. My bad.

After testing, the vorcha soldier holds up just fine on Silver, but doesn't seem to be that great on Gold, but that's probably just my build (focus on Flamer, health regen and melee). A Carnage-focused build with a decent assault rifle might work better.

[Sagonene]

Claymore X is my target eraser button. That said, the wraith having more than one shot and being almost as powerful gives it the advantage if you spray & pray.

Also check out the Geth shotgun, it is powerful with a charge and not useless when at range.

Sago

[Zevox]

Looking at the spreadsheet, the same as the Mantis, Raptor and Valiant sniper rifles and the new Cerberus Harrier rifle (since there is no shotgun with the same weight).

For future reference, comparing something's weight to sniper rifles is not particularly helpful to me, since I don't use those and thus don't know their weights off the top of my head. But since you say it's on the spreadsheet already...

Hm. Higher weight than the Katana, lower than the heavier-weight shotguns. At rank 10 it gets down to the same weight as a Disciple 1, so with enough ranks it should be useable on my Vanguards, but I don't know about at low ranks.

Speaking of Vanguards, which is the better shotgun, Wraith or Claymore?

The Claymore is too heavy - I'd only consider it if you have the Human or Krogan weight reduction from their rank 6 passive skill, plus a good number of ranks in it. The Wraith still isn't what I'd pick personally, but it's much lighter, which is preferable for Vanguards.

Re: New biotic powers - Lash didn't sound very good to me until you guys said it can get upgraded to affect shields/barriers. That's good, makes it sound well worthwhile. Smash... short-range cone effect eh? Not sure about that myself. Even for a high-damage effect, short-range isn't preferable for an Adept, and Vanguards would generally rather use their cooldowns on Charge. Guess I'll see when I get one though. That'll likely take a while though, since I'm busy with other games.

Zevox

[Morty]

I just experienced a very "amusing" bug. The first objective in this match was the new "find and bring back object" one, on the Firebase Hydra, which BTW I hate so very much. However, one of us picked it up, then dropped it - I think people still forget, or don't yet know, that pressing space drops it - and it dropped... under the floor. So we were unable to retrieve it.

[Edge]

Re: New biotic powers - Lash didn't sound very good to me until you guys said it can get upgraded to affect shields/barriers. That's good, makes it sound well worthwhile. Smash... short-range cone effect eh? Not sure about that myself. Even for a high-damage effect, short-range isn't preferable for an Adept, and Vanguards would generally rather use their cooldowns on Charge. Guess I'll see when I get one though. That'll likely take a while though, since I'm busy with other games.

Zevox

You'd be surprised just how damaging Smash is - only slightly less than a Frag Grenade, and it can be evolved (at rank 4) to set up biotic detonations as well as detonating them.

And normally, yes, a Vanguard would rather use their cooldown on Charge. An ex-Cerberus would probably prefer to use it on Lash.

I cannot quite overstate just how good Lash is against everything unarmoured. And for armoured things, you have Charge and/or Smash and your gun(s).

[DabblerWizard]

I like both of the new maps, aesthetically. Both have some interesting nooks and crannies, which I enjoy because hunting down enemies is more fun than seeing them coming a mile away, like in Giant. Both types are fun though.

The store glitch hasn't been fixed. Trying to buy the premium specter pack, my game froze after clicking on it, and shut down the game. The only consolation is that I appear to have gained a new (for me) character anyway, a drell vanguard, but still have no clue what other nifty gadgets I got with the pack.

I also enjoy the new package grab and drop mission, as it encourages close teammate cooperation. Things can go terribly wrong if you're carrying and they're being thoughtless though.

[Krade]

For future reference, comparing something's weight to sniper rifles is not particularly helpful to me, since I don't use those and thus don't know their weights off the top of my head. But since you say it's on the spreadsheet already...

The comparison to the sniper rifles was more so you could put on one of them just to see what the cooldown would be like when you get the Carbine since you definitely have the Mantis and probably the Raptor as well. That was the intention, anyway. Sorry if that was not as clear as I thought it would be.

The store glitch hasn't been fixed. Trying to buy the premium specter pack, my game froze after clicking on it, and shut down the game. The only consolation is that I appear to have gained a new (for me) character anyway, a drell vanguard, but still have no clue what other nifty gadgets I got with the pack.

I've had what happened to you and still got the items. It sucks not knowing exactly what you got, but at least you got what you paid for. The (presumably) now fixed glitch would just take your money and you get nothing.

[SiuiS]

Wooo... I finally unlocked a new class. Only it's a Krogan Battlemaster. And I don't play Vanguards.

Good thing you can build and play the battlemaster like a sentinel or like a soldier as well as like a vanguard then.

You'd be surprised just how damaging Smash is - only slightly less than a Frag Grenade, and it can be evolved (at rank 4) to set up biotic detonations as well as detonating them.

And normally, yes, a Vanguard would rather use their cooldown on Charge. An ex-Cerberus would probably prefer to use it on Lash.

I cannot quite overstate just how good Lash is against everything unarmoured. And for armoured things, you have Charge and/or Smash and your gun(s).

they are phenomenal. lash>charge is good, lash>smash is good, smash>charge is good, even charging in and using heavy melee is good. Smash is one of those fun powers that can go through walls. Really good for destroying darn near anything. I need to spec for melee next time. It would be quite the show.

[Morty]

Good thing you can build and play the battlemaster like a sentinel or like a soldier as well as like a vanguard then.

Well, I maxed out Charge and Barrier, and put Carnage and the passive powers on 4 for now - he's on level 18. A test run on Bronze armed with an Eviscerator went surprisingly well.
Also, I got my Victory Pack... it contained some consummables, which will be useful, and a Geth Plasma Shotgun, which probably won't. Oh well.
Finally, everyone and their mother seem to be using the Reegar Carbine. I have one, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet... I'll give it to my Turian Soldier next time I play him.

[Zevox]

Also, I got my Victory Pack...

Just grabbed mine as well. The usual assortment of expendables I don't care about, plus a rank up to my Geth Plasma SMG. Which is good - that's my weapon of choice on my Quarian Engineer. Not bad, considering I did absolutely nothing for it.

Zevox

[Xondoure]

The new sniper rifle is awesome. Rank 1 and it nearly matches the mantis X for power, affects multiple enemies, and makes things go boom.

[Edge]

The new sniper rifle is awesome. Rank 1 and it nearly matches the mantis X for power, affects multiple enemies, and makes things go boom.

Yeah, the Krysae is great. I now have a sniper rifle I can use relatively well. Also, at rank 1, it's the same weight as a Widow X. This bodes pretty well.

[Derthric]

So lately all my Premium packs have been giving me consumable upgrades and Arc Pistol upgrades. Might try it but it always seemed like such a gimmicky gun like the falcon or javelin. You know, good on paper but impractical for actual use.

On another note, I promoted 3 classes and seem to have not received my commendation pack......Darn you Bioware.

[Yana]

Is it just me, or are Banshees still popping up in Geth and Cerberus missions? I was farming WGG earlier and was doing fine right until I heard the shriek.