Btw, is anyone else finding the Destroyer to apparently no longer get any benefits from Fitness? Because I've got my guy with Fitness maxed out, and no Hawk points either, which leaves me with something like 800 Health and 1200 Shields, and yet I feel like I'm squishier than any of my other classes. I know that the lack of dodge is important and that he's no Krogan, but I feel like I'm getting dropped way more than I used to, and far more than a guy who's that tanky should be.
I think that it's more down to the fact that Devastator Mode pretty much halves your movement speed, and you have no dodging ability. While you're no weaker than any other class, you're often forced to be exposed to fire for a lot longer than them.
At least, that's how I figured it, and when I switched to using the Typhoon so that I could make best use of cover I seemed to do a lot better.
So it turns out the Krogan Shaman is pretty fun to play. Even with only three ranks of Rage, I'm very resilient with barrier up, which seems good for shockwave detonations.
Only shadow strike benefits from melee boosts. Electric slash and shadow strike both benefit from N7 training though. Your choice boils down to boosting both powers or really, really boosting Shadow strike. Although that 5/5/5/5/6 thing might work out.
Eh, works for me. Electric Slash is more than powerful enough as-is, and I'd lose more power from dropping the rank 6 evolutions (50% on both) than I'd gain from taking 5 ranks in her class talent (35%).
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Originally Posted by SiuiS
I found that shadow strike maxed out at around 1500, despite having the numbers to hit 2200 damage. So dropping damage isn't so bad.
Hm, odd, but good to know.
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Originally Posted by SiuiS
Personally, I love the shadow strike heal because it turns you into a vanguard if you've got the right target. Keeps you alive sometimes.
Yeah, but the availability of shielded targets is going to vary. The Reapers in particular only have Marauders and Banshees in that respect. The rank 4 defensive evolution works all the time, and costs less damage.
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Originally Posted by SiuiS
The disciple's benefit is that you can get all four shots out by the time you're maybe dripping your second Eviscerator shot. It's also light enough to bring the omniblade along, netting you an additional damage boost got a total of +50% melee damage. Brutal on the shadow.
I'm only getting something like 170% with my Disciple at 7. No way I'd add a mod that'll increase the weight, even at rank 10, when there's a version that does the same thing (albeit weaker) without that downside. (Also, I don't have that mod anyway.)
Question though - does Shadow Strike count for the Martial Artist effect from rank 5 of Fitness, or only actual melee? If the latter, I'd probably drop that when respecing in favor of the shield recharge boost. I'm actually thinking that getting the Shadow as much shield recharge reduction as possible may be a great way to go, to try and make it so that she starts recharging shields while doing Shadow Strike. (Unfortunately I only have one rank in the shield recharge gear...)
Zevox
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"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis
"We each decide our own sense of right and wrong. The rest, I leave to my sword." - Yuri Lowell, Tales of Vesperia
Question though - does Shadow Strike count for the Martial Artist effect from rank 5 of Fitness, or only actual melee? If the latter, I'd probably drop that when respecing in favor of the shield recharge boost. I'm actually thinking that getting the Shadow as much shield recharge reduction as possible may be a great way to go, to try and make it so that she starts recharging shields while doing Shadow Strike. (Unfortunately I only have one rank in the shield recharge gear...)
Zevox
Yes, as far as I know it does.
Shield recharge may well be a good avenue to go down. Let me know how it works out.
Also, have you considered a 6/6/3/5/6 build for the Shadow? If you're relying mainly on Shadow Strike then you don't need the full six ranks in Electric Slash. It remains perfectly usable with only three ranks from my experience, whilst putting points into the class passive lets you bring along something more substantial than a predator without reducing your cooldowns.
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Originally Posted by Mr._Blinky
Btw, is anyone else finding the Destroyer to apparently no longer get any benefits from Fitness? Because I've got my guy with Fitness maxed out, and no Hawk points either, which leaves me with something like 800 Health and 1200 Shields, and yet I feel like I'm squishier than any of my other classes. I know that the lack of dodge is important and that he's no Krogan, but I feel like I'm getting dropped way more than I used to, and far more than a guy who's that tanky should be.
Don't be fooled by the copious shields, the Destroyer isn't really all that tanky, particularly once you get past silver. You need high shields and either DR or some way to restore them easily to be decently durable.
Also, have you considered a 6/6/3/5/6 build for the Shadow? If you're relying mainly on Shadow Strike then you don't need the full six ranks in Electric Slash. It remains perfectly usable with only three ranks from my experience, whilst putting points into the class passive lets you bring along something more substantial than a predator without reducing your cooldowns.
This is the spec I always run as, with everything for SS damage aside from the extended cloak duration and double power use. On silver its entirely viable to forgo any of the DR buffs on SS since with the longer cloak you can easily SS a target then either run away or pick another target before the cloak ends. If you're gonna try this on gold though I'd recommend at least getting the 40% DR upgrade or going for a 6/6/6/3/5 spec.
I think that it's more down to the fact that Devastator Mode pretty much halves your movement speed, and you have no dodging ability. While you're no weaker than any other class, you're often forced to be exposed to fire for a lot longer than them.
At least, that's how I figured it, and when I switched to using the Typhoon so that I could make best use of cover I seemed to do a lot better.
The typhoon also grants DR once you're firing at full speed.
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Originally Posted by Zevox
Eh, works for me. Electric Slash is more than powerful enough as-is, and I'd lose more power from dropping the rank 6 evolutions (50% on both) than I'd gain from taking 5 ranks in her class talent (35%).
No, you misunderstand. I'm saying that (ignoring the power itself for now) your choices are;
5 ranks of passive for 35% to both shadow strike and electric slash, or
6 ranks of fitness for a variable 65-150%~ boost to shadow strike only
As far as which passive skill to get. You could also drop electric slash to three, and focus on both passive and fitness for an insane boost to shadow strike, but I find that doesn't actually wok as advertised. After a certain point the percentage increases stop counting. Which is why I think 5's across the board would work - the difference between rank 5 and rank 6 is only 300 points.
300 less damage in shadow strike alone, in order to increase shadow strike by 210, increase electric slash by 247, and carry heavier weapons is a fair trade off I feel.
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Yeah, but the availability of shielded targets is going to vary. The Reapers in particular only have Marauders and Banshees in that respect. The rank 4 defensive evolution works all the time, and costs less damage.
Quality over quantity. If all you're digging is brutes, ravagers and cannibals, you're probably not going to need shields. If marauders and banshees are on the field, then not only are you able toget yields but you're in a position where doing so is drastically more life-saving.
I had higher damage output with the shadow using both defensive boosts on shadowstrike, and using both area boosts on electric slash, than I did trying to increase the damage on any one of them. So Gavin both of them at decent level is pretty cool.
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I'm only getting something like 170% with my Disciple at 7. No way I'd add a mod that'll increase the weight, even at rank 10, when there's a version that does the same thing (albeit weaker) without that downside. (Also, I don't have that mod anyway.)
I was getting 180% after adding the mod, myself. And apparently it didn't actually weigh in at 180%, it was at 200% and lied to me. so it was pretty worth it.
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Question though - does Shadow Strike count for the Martial Artist effect from rank 5 of Fitness, or only actual melee? If the latter, I'd probably drop that when respecing in favor of the shield recharge boost. I'm actually thinking that getting the Shadow as much shield recharge reduction as possible may be a great way to go, to try and make it so that she starts recharging shields while doing Shadow Strike. (Unfortunately I only have one rank in the shield recharge gear...)
Read the power again, luv. It says "after killing an enemy with a sword strike". All sword hits will trigger it. Combined with a maxed out sword heavy melee doing 1700+ to armor or barriers (1500 to flesh), and the light melee doing about the same with a three hit combo, and killing a husk with a melee sequence, cloaking, shadow striking a banshee into a heavy melee and then light sequence until she drops is totally valid.
Shield recharge may well be a good avenue to go down. Let me know how it works out.
I would if I could, but as I said, I don't have the gear necessary to try that yet. And anyway, if Martial Artist does activate from Shadow Strike, I might well prefer that anyway.
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Originally Posted by Tome
Also, have you considered a 6/6/3/5/6 build for the Shadow? If you're relying mainly on Shadow Strike then you don't need the full six ranks in Electric Slash. It remains perfectly usable with only three ranks from my experience, whilst putting points into the class passive lets you bring along something more substantial than a predator without reducing your cooldowns.
No thanks. I rather like having both powers maxed out - feels more like a caster build that way. And besides, I already can bring more substantial weapons. I'm currently using the Phalanx X and Tempest X, the latter with ULM 3, and have 196%. Next time that mod ranks up that should hit 200% outright. Though honestly, I could probably ditch the Tempest, as I just find myself using the Phalanx, since it's the one with the melee mod, and its ammo limitation is not really an issue on the Shadow since I rarely fire the thing anyway.
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Originally Posted by SiuiS
No, you misunderstand. I'm saying that (ignoring the power itself for now) your choices are;
5 ranks of passive for 35% to both shadow strike and electric slash, or
6 ranks of fitness for a variable 65-150%~ boost to shadow strike only
But you didn't suggest not taking fitness. If I read your build right, you had that maxed out anyway.
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Originally Posted by SiuiS
Quality over quantity. If all you're digging is brutes, ravagers and cannibals, you're probably not going to need shields. If marauders and banshees are on the field, then not only are you able toget yields but you're in a position where doing so is drastically more life-saving.
True. And I actually did end up taking that when I respecced her today - though because I decided that the DR from the rank 4 boost only lasting 5 seconds was inferior to the shield restoration effect, which could save me if I were in trouble, rather than just help me survive when I jump into a group.
I have noticed a definite damage decrease from the changes (that plus damage for duration on cloak), though. I used to be able to one-shot shielded enemies with Shadow Strike without cloak, but no longer can, and I used to be able to one-shot Phantoms with cloak + Shadow Strike, but no longer can. Nonetheless, it was probably worth it - the cloak duration is amazing, both for allowing me to get away after a Shadow Strike or allowing me to do two with the same cloak, and the shield draining is a life-saver at times. Does make the Reapers more frustrating than the others, though.
Though Ravagers in and of themselves were already doing that - my god but Shadow Striking them is a bad idea . Surprising, considering that Vanguards basically beat Ravagers for free, but somehow it's easier to avoid getting swarmer-swarmed and killed by the acid the things disintegrate into with Vanguards than with the Shadow.
Zevox
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"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis
"We each decide our own sense of right and wrong. The rest, I leave to my sword." - Yuri Lowell, Tales of Vesperia
I have noticed a definite damage decrease from the changes (that plus damage for duration on cloak), though. I used to be able to one-shot shielded enemies with Shadow Strike without cloak, but no longer can, and I used to be able to one-shot Phantoms with cloak + Shadow Strike, but no longer can. Nonetheless, it was probably worth it - the cloak duration is amazing, both for allowing me to get away after a Shadow Strike or allowing me to do two with the same cloak, and the shield draining is a life-saver at times. Does make the Reapers more frustrating than the others, though.
For raw damage I think you're better off striking with shadow strike, rolling away, and dropping electric slash for the tech burst.
Is what I would say, until the cognitive dissonance from comparing a tech burst to shadow strike. Hmm.
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Though Ravagers in and of themselves were already doing that - my god but Shadow Striking them is a bad idea . Surprising, considering that Vanguards basically beat Ravagers for free, but somehow it's easier to avoid getting swarmer-swarmed and killed by the acid the things disintegrate into with Vanguards than with the Shadow.
Zevox
You actually want to pop all the bubbles with the phalanx first. If they can't pop their acid filled womb-things on you, they don't do any damage. Which begins to burst as soon as you click the shadowstrike button if they have the bubbles available. The vanguard is much faster in action than the shadow, and begins to immediately replenish shield's and cancel out the acidic degeneration.
Though Ravagers in and of themselves were already doing that - my god but Shadow Striking them is a bad idea . Surprising, considering that Vanguards basically beat Ravagers for free, but somehow it's easier to avoid getting swarmer-swarmed and killed by the acid the things disintegrate into with Vanguards than with the Shadow.
Nothing quite like a good match ruined by lag. We were doing well, but on wave 10 we were wiped by Collectors. Now, while I firmly believe Collectors are too strong, we could have won this if lag hadn't prevented me from reviving my teammate and blowing up two Praetorians with a missile.
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Collectors are far too strong. I keep hoping that the next balance change will fix them.
Was playing some Gold matches over the weekend and a particular one on Condor against the Collectors is very memorable. Mainly this is becuse I was playing as a Sniper and was having difficulty dealing with the hordes of abominations that kept coming my way, which meant I often had to backpeddle while reloading to keep them off of me.
I was positioned to the far right of spawn- I like roosting at the top of the ramp as it gives good LOS to a lot of areas of the map.
Anyway, once the possessed abominations showed up things got interesting because, on multiple occassions, I would be backing away from one, trying to reload, and one of my teammates would kill it, causing it to explode and take me out with it's nuclear approximate ordinance. This happened at least 3 times, so finally I started announcing when they should not kill the thing chasing me.
Well I tried out the Drell adept, and the Geth engineer today.
The adept I didn't like much, (Granted I was playing on geth, so reave's health boost didn't work. I think.)
However I liked the Engineer, I ended up picking the Geth turret for maximum shield boosting ability, however I'm stuck as to which version of Hunter mode I should pick for my 6th Speed, and Vision, or damage.
I'm using a 6/6/3/5/6 build.
Also I got a Salarian engineer I'm thinking of making it a 6/6/6/4/4 build. Would that work?
You actually want to pop all the bubbles with the phalanx first. If they can't pop their acid filled womb-things on you, they don't do any damage. Which begins to burst as soon as you click the shadowstrike button if they have the bubbles available. The vanguard is much faster in action than the shadow, and begins to immediately replenish shield's and cancel out the acidic degeneration.
Okay then, good to know.
Something I forgot to mention last night - the game doesn't seem to allow me to Shadow Strike Altases. Is that supposed to be the case, or am I hitting a bug?
Re: The Collectors - I honestly still don't think they're as powerful as you guys make them out to be. While I'd say that they are more dangerous than the Geth or Cerberus, I don't think they're meaningfully more dangerous than the Reapers.
Though that said, there are a couple of changes I would like to see there. One being a health reduction on Seeker Swarms/Plagues - for an enemy spawned by another enemy which is mostly supposed to be an annoyance, they take way too much to bring down, on top of being hard to hit due to their size and erratic flying. The other being either a reduction to the rate at which Scions get possessed or a reduction to the frequency with which they use their cluster grenades - at least on gold. That's the one truly difficult thing about the faction, I find: on gold almost every Scion will get possessed, and will be lobbing those grenades like crazy, which makes life much more difficult.
Zevox
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"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." -C.S. Lewis
"We each decide our own sense of right and wrong. The rest, I leave to my sword." - Yuri Lowell, Tales of Vesperia
Well, from what I've seen, collector melee is a good bit more powerful than that of the other factions. A single chain of melee that they do has killed my humans a few times.
Other than that, the difference isn't too substantial, especially on silver.
Well I tried out the Drell adept, and the Geth engineer today.
The adept I didn't like much, (Granted I was playing on geth, so reave's health boost didn't work. I think.)
However I liked the Engineer, I ended up picking the Geth turret for maximum shield boosting ability, however I'm stuck as to which version of Hunter mode I should pick for my 6th Speed, and Vision, or damage.
I'm using a 6/6/3/5/6 build.
Also I got a Salarian engineer I'm thinking of making it a 6/6/6/4/4 build. Would that work?
A geth with the Javelin Sniper Rifle is crazy good...
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Something I forgot to mention last night - the game doesn't seem to allow me to Shadow Strike Altases. Is that supposed to be the case, or am I hitting a bug?
This is a known bug and (supposedly) due to be fixed.
Hey all, i have just got the game to play with my father who has had it for a while.
He just got the Vorcha Sentinal and I wondered what class plays really well with it?
We will be trying to play with just the two of us.
That depends - does he have his Vorcha Sentinel set up to use Flamer, Cluster Grenades, or both?
If Flamer, out of the initial classes available, I would go for Human Engineer, picking the Chain evolutions for Overload. Once you've unlocked some classes, anything that can detonate lots of fire explosions will be good.
If he uses Cluster Grenades, you want to play any class that can prime biotic explosions. Look for classes with Singularity, Warp and Reave. Out of the initially available characters, this means the Human Adept and Sentinel.
If he uses both, characters good at detonating either type of explosion would be good.
Well I tried out the Drell adept, and the Geth engineer today.
The adept I didn't like much, (Granted I was playing on geth, so reave's health boost didn't work. I think.)
I've found the key is getting off combo detonations with your grenades after Reaving something. Stay close to an ammo dump!
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However I liked the Engineer, I ended up picking the Geth turret for maximum shield boosting ability, however I'm stuck as to which version of Hunter mode I should pick for my 6th Speed, and Vision, or damage.
I'm using a 6/6/3/5/6 build.
I always go with extended vision range- it's much more useful to me than extra damage. It lets me spot enemies further out which lets me call targets to my team or go on a hunting spree before the enemies know what hit them.
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Also I got a Salarian engineer I'm thinking of making it a 6/6/6/4/4 build. Would that work?
As long as you have Decoy and Energy Drain to full, then you're good. Energy Drain is really useful in a number of ways, especially fi you're a sniper and want something to stand still long enough to line up a shot.
I got an ME2 question but I think by now there's no need for separate threads anymore and I won't start an ME2 thread for this:
I just finished the game and Miranda died. I've always sided with Jack and never made up with her before, but she never died the three times I played through the game before. I don't remember really doing anything this time.
Any idea why that happened? Was there something changed with a patch?
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Nothing, she was with the rest guarding my back while I was at the end fight. She was the only one who didn't have loyalty and when Joker said all the survivors are on board, she was the only one lying dead on the floor.
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Who did you have with you during the final fight? If you take the tougher teammates - Grunt, Zaeed and Garrus especially - the disloyal and squishy ones might get killed while holding the line.
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The rear guard team was Garrus, Tali, Miranda, Legion, and Mordin. That's indeed not a terribly powerful force.
I also played on Hardcore, which I am not sure I did before. Unless there's an achievement for that, in that case I did do that before.
I am also planning to do a Let's Play in which as many people as possible die. I heard that one needs at least one party member to survive or Shepard dies in ME2 and I think I'll take Thane for that, since he's already a dead man walking.
Unfortunately there are killable NPCs in most loyalty missions which I also would like to do. Figuring out the maximum death count will require quite a bit of planning.
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Re: Mass Effect 3.7: "That was for Thane"
But you didn't suggest not taking fitness. If I read your build right, you had that maxed out anyway.
. Surprising, considering that Vanguards basically beat Ravagers for free, but somehow it's easier to avoid getting swarmer-swarmed and killed by the acid the things disintegrate into with Vanguards than with the Shadow.
