Mass Effect 3.7: "That was for Thane"

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

For roughly 180,000 you can get 3 rares from spectre packs or 4 rares with a possibility of ultra rare in premium spectre packs. My last PSP gave me a trooper, javelin and particle rifle. The only packs you'd ever want to get are recruit and between in the early game, PSPs in the late game, and jumbo equipment packs whenever.

Heh, the last couple weeks I've had the opposite experience. The Premium Spectre Packs (which, admittedly, I don't all that often, what with my skill level placing me solidly in low Silver and a distinct lack of patience) have given me nothing but guns I already had but never use, but regular Spectre Packs have given me three Voluses and an upgrade to the Talon (which I never use).

Not trying to tell you off or anything, just noting the wierd and humourous ways the random numbers have been generating.

[Zevox]

Originally Posted by Edge

I disagree with considering grenades a very limited resource. If you don't have capacity gear, you're only going to be carrying 2 or 3 anyway, which can be filled up quickly and easily.

And empty just as quickly, and then not be filled up again for a while because the spawn points take their sweet time restocking grenades - gets especially bad if other players are using grenades too, Demolishers that can supply their own aside. I've experienced this plenty with my Quarian Male Engineer, and he doesn't even fully rely on his arc grenades.

Originally Posted by Morty

I unlocked the Batarian Brawler today. I'm not too happy with it. I don't play Vanguards a lot and the Brawler doesn't look like a good Vanguard anyway, since Lash doesn't fit the class. I suppose I could ignore it entirely and max out all other powers, focusing on charging and melee attacks.

Yeah, that's pretty much my opinion of it too - except that if I were to do that obvious solution and not take Lash, it'd be too much like my Krogan Vanguard, who already eschews Carnage and plays that way. So I tried it with Lash... and couldn't make it work. Depending on how much I tried to use Lash I either felt like a one-power caster or a Vanguard with an awkward backup power that was useless on armored enemies. So I've pretty much ditched the Brawler entirely myself.

Originally Posted by Rising Phoenix

Volus are a nightmare to play when you have to upload data... especially if the locations has 2+ access points...

Oh quite the contrary, upload data and escorts are the best ones for having a Volus. Shield Boost all the way to the bank. You may not do much, but your allies will be nigh invincible because of you.

Originally Posted by Tome

I prefer using an SMG on casters myself. The Hurricane in particular has a lot of punch for it's weight.

Eh. I actually unlocked the Hurricane from one of the recent events, but I really did not like it when I tried it. Even with the SMG stability mod I have it still had some bad recoil, and I honestly couldn't even tell where it was shooting - the bullets are practically invisible.

Originally Posted by Luzahn

Aha! Ex-Cerberus Vanguard. I'm thinking I'll be going with a casting build on him, charge+smash. Need to decide whether to spec into lash or not, seems redundant with charge.

Not so much redundant with Charge as out-of-place on a close-combat character. I ignored it on mine. My main strategy is to abuse the hell out of that heavy melee after charging - it's fast as hell and an AoE. Smash is for dealing with big enemies or spamming through walls during some defense objectives. Sadly you can't really use it well after charging - Charge's cooldown combined with its startup time adds up to too much time you're probably getting shot at to make it practical.

Originally Posted by Morty

The Batarian Brawler worked unexpectedly well. I ignored Lash, instead focusing on Charge, Blade Armor and the passives. I charged, shot and punched. With the bonus to weapon damage from Charge, following it up with backing away and firing is pretty effective. I used my favorite shotgun, the Eviscerator. And I was durable enough to get to safety even after charging into a group of enemies. Plus, charging put me in their melee range, meaning they were damaged by the Blade Armor. Not too bad, all in all. We lasted until extraction, even though there were only three of us.
Now, what this build isn't good at dealing with is heavies. Fighting Geth Primes consisted of lots of hit-and-run tactics. Since one of the other two players was a Krogan Battlemaster, we had trouble with them. I ended up using four missiles.

Strange. Maybe it's a Batarian vs Krogan thing or a silver vs gold thing (assuming you're playing on gold - I haven't taken any Vanguards onto gold), but I find my Krogan Vanguard, who as mentioned uses basically that same build, can very much go toe-to-toe with Geth Primes with no problem, even when they've got backup (though I generally clear the backup first before targeting them in that case). And the other top enemies, though he has to be careful about charging and meleeing them since they have instant-kills. Primes are easy pickings though, since they don't. Just keep charging whenever the cooldown finishes, and smack them with your shotgun and heavy melee in between.

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Done it. With every class on that list. As a caster, specifically.
This isn't hypothetical. I'm not crunching numbers and guessing. So pick a build. Use it exclusively for a week (around 30 hours or so gameplay, minimum). Work on the ins and outs of how it functions. And then say whether it woks or not. Because where you're saying "I don't think this can possibly work", I'm saying "this has worked".

Unfortunately we're at an impasse with the grenade-based ones then, since my inability to use non-arc/homing grenades well makes it impossible for me to really test that, as I wouldn't be able to tell whether the problem was me or the build.

I would genuinely like to know, though, your explanations for how the non-grenade-based ones I objected to can work as casters. The Batarian Brawler, for instance - you listed that one, and as I've said above I've found myself at an impasse with it where I'm just not using it. Or the Turian Soldier - you've suggested using Proximity Mine and Concussive Shot for combos there, but neither of them primes a combo that I've seen. Though granted I haven't actually used Concussive Shot, but I have seen the results when other players used it, and it never seemed to do anything but damage and knocking enemies over.

Originally Posted by Luzahn

Ah, excellent. I assume all mods aren't commons then?

Sadly no. There have been uncommon mods from the start, and the third DLC (Earth) added rare ones.

Zevox

[Rising Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Tome

And I'll have to disagree about Volus during uploads. That's one of the times when continuously spamming Shield Boost is a good idea, particularly if you hide behind your allies.

Not that easy when you are getting charged by brutes from all directions and keep getting stagered...

Edit: Zevox, that's what I have been doing, but see the lines above >_<

[Psyren]

I'm trying to get into Platinum, but every game I've joined so far is using questionable farming tricks

All right, I'm okay with that one crate in Rio that the Banshees can't get into, but leaving the map in Hydra is really getting old.

[Landis963]

Originally Posted by Psyren

I'm trying to get into Platinum, but every game I've joined so far is using questionable farming tricks

All right, I'm okay with that one crate in Rio that the Banshees can't get into, but leaving the map in Hydra is really getting old.

What?

Originally Posted by Psyren

leaving the map in Hydra

Whut?

Originally Posted by Psyren

leaving the map in Hydra

WHUT?

I didn't even know this was possible! What are you supposed to do, snipe from 1000 feet in the air? And what about objectives? and, and, Gah! there are so many problems with this tactic!

[Psyren]

Got the Volus Adept! Can't wait to try him. But I'm flexing my Shockwave and Warp muscles, and that means human for now.

Originally Posted by Landis963

WHUT?

At the back of Hydra - polar opposite of the landing zone - is a stack of crates next to a slanted wall. There's a trick that unscrupulous folks use to get onto that slanted wall, and most monsters (particularly banshees and praetorians) don't have pathfinding to get at the players who hide there.

It might be easier if you see it yourself - just join a Platinum Hydra game, I guarantee you'll run into someone doing it.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Psyren

But how long did it take you? As, say, a human infiltrator or Turian soldier - without firing your gun once, or resorting to rockets - to bring a Gold Banshee down from full health? I'm honestly curious. And feel free to link a video as well - again, not challenging, I'm genuinely interested in how efficiently such a thing would work.

Turian soldier is actually cake. Proximity mine for damage boost, and he default spec for concussive shot is effective against barriers, armor and organics. Human infiltrator? I'll find out.

Originally Posted by Corvus

I tried out the Krogan Shaman today. Given my kromance, I really want to like it. I just can't. Doesn't seem to work for me. That could be because of how buggy shockwave is. Throw shockwave at warped target right in front of you and nothing happens. Very annoying. May need to reconsider how I play it.

It definitely requires a different touch than every other Krogan.

In other news, is the Collector SMG one of the worst ultra-rares going around? The fact that it doesn't need ammo doesn't make up for its small 'clip' size it uses and other factors.

Nah, it's a pretty solid gun, though I wouldn't really mainline it until it levels up a few due to weight. the trik is to remember that it's actually a burst gun that punishes spray and pray. The damage and accuracy is good, and as long as you've got a single bullet left, you'll have a full clip in seconds.

Originally Posted by Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins

Heh, the last couple weeks I've had the opposite experience. The Premium Spectre Packs (which, admittedly, I don't all that often, what with my skill level placing me solidly in low Silver and a distinct lack of patience) have given me nothing but guns I already had but never use, but regular Spectre Packs have given me three Voluses and an upgrade to the Talon (which I never use).

I would be attempted to agree with you, except I now have two more harriers, two more particle rifles (rank five! 200 rounds!), three more talons, two more javelins, and an extra typhoon. Sure, there are several packs I got nothing but ammo and expendables, but this last week has been flicking awesome! Oh, and I've got a black widow four, but I'm not sure what that was at before hand.

Not trying to tell you off or anything, just noting the wierd and humourous ways the random numbers have been generating.

Nah, it's cool. I was singing the same tune. But seriously, there is absolutely nothing but gambler's superstition to say that you wouldn't have gotten the exact same draw from a PSP if you'd gotten that instead.

[quote=Zevox;14219578]And empty just as quickly, and then not be filled up again for a while because the spawn points take their sweet time restocking grenades - gets especially bad if other players are using grenades too, Demolishers that can supply their own aside. I've experienced this plenty with my Quarian Male Engineer, and he doesn't even fully rely on his arc grenades.
[quote]

That is almost always because other people are getting there first. I just ran my QMi for the first time in a long spell. Not only is the particle rifle V AWESOME, but grenades are really awful when only one it two of the Four man group uses them. With just me and a destroyer, we rocked. With me, a Qi, a destroyer and a ghost, suddenly no one had anything.

But this goes away when four of you camp one box and all dire and reload like fools. Works plenty on rio at least.

Oh quite the contrary, upload data and escorts are the best ones for having a Volus. Shield Boost all the way to the bank. You may not do much, but your allies will be nigh invincible because of you.

aye, and cloaking helps a lot too.

Strange. Maybe it's a Batarian vs Krogan thing or a silver vs gold thing (assuming you're playing on gold - I haven't taken any Vanguards onto gold), but I find my Krogan Vanguard, who as mentioned uses basically that same build, can very much go toe-to-toe with Geth Primes with no problem, even when they've got backup (though I generally clear the backup first before targeting them in that case). And the other top enemies, though he has to be careful about charging and meleeing them since they have instant-kills. Primes are easy pickings though, since they don't. Just keep charging whenever the cooldown finishes, and smack them with your shotgun and heavy melee in between.

The brawler takes some work. I enjoy using it to clear out groups, due to body surfing.

Unfortunately we're at an impasse with the grenade-based ones then, since my inability to use non-arc/homing grenades well makes it impossible for me to really test that, as I wouldn't be able to tell whether the problem was me or the build.

Fair enough.

I would genuinely like to know, though, your explanations for how the non-grenade-based ones I objected to can work as casters. The Batarian Brawler, for instance

Blade armor for damage returned, melee damage, and DR in that priority. Lash at a distance, biotic charge into lashed targets for explosions. Biotic charge into melee attacks when lash isn't necessary.
It's not unique from the Phoenix vanguard, but uniqueness isn't a prerequisite.

Or the Turian Soldier - you've suggested using Proximity Mine and Concussive Shot for combos there, but neither of them primes a combo that I've seen. Though granted I haven't actually used Concussive Shot, but I have seen the results when other players used it, and it never seemed to do anything but damage and knocking enemies over.

Occasionally, proximity mine lights people on fire.

Concussive shot either does extra damage to frozen targets, damage over time to organics and such, or it does a huge area when it hits. It's actually not so bad. It fires like throw, but has more utility, more damage, and just doesn't Deontae biotics (but does everything else). Cryo ammo sets it off nicely.

Originally Posted by Rising Phoenix

Not that easy when you are getting charged by brutes from all directions and keep getting stagered...

Edit: Zevox, that's what I have been doing, but see the lines above >_<

Cloak, dude. Cloak an stand in a corner, popping shields.

Originally Posted by Psyren

I'm trying to get into Platinum, but every game I've joined so far is using questionable farming tricks

All right, I'm okay with that one crate in Rio that the Banshees can't get into, but leaving the map in Hydra is really getting old.

Man, I'm sorry. I've been getting a lot of the same – people being lazy, sloppy and relying solely on exploits. Even the rip box gets Old fast and nothing sucks worse than a team who can't hold their own elsewhere. Try hosting? Set it to random level and wait for someone to show up.

Originally Posted by Psyren

At the back of Hydra - polar opposite of the landing zone - is a stack of crates next to a slanted wall. There's a trick that unscrupulous folks use to get onto that slanted wall, and most monsters (particularly banshees and praetorians) don't have pathfinding to get at the players who hide there.

It might be easier if you see it yourself - just join a Platinum Hydra game, I guarantee you'll run into someone doing it.

you can also do this on rio, in the box. In the back left you can stand on the ammo box and get knocked back, ending up on top of the packing crate.

I envy you actually, all I ever get is the darn rocket glitch.

[SiuiS]

Okay, so I found my old keyboard for the xbox and decided to add everyone on the first page as Friends. So you'll be getting a message from Starry Notions.

Tried to get to a banshee solo with the human infiltrator, but predator, solo gold is beyond me at the moment. Been too long since I bothered with the human caster build. And as I found out, getting to the banshee is harder than fighting the banshee.

So I switched to Turian soldier to prove I wasn't completely full of poop. Getting to the third wave and clearing everything but the banshee was a pain. Took me about forth five minutes. But I got to the banshee, an killed everything else. Then I ran away for like five minutes while clicking my phone every spare moment toget to the stop watch. I clicked the button, turned around, and killed the banshee.




Not a bullet fired at her.

[CreganTur]

The Collector Sniper Rifle is bugged in a big, terrible way.

I unlocked it last night and took it for a spin on an Infiltrator. If I used up all the charges it would do its overheating animation, but on many occassions it would not recharge itself. The gun would stay in the overheated state unless I tapped the reload button multiple times. This would eventually cause the overheat animation to happen again and then, finally, it would recharge the weapon.

To test this out I left the gun alone after overheating for nearly 2 minutes before I finally started tapping reload. I can see this weapon being fun once you get used to it, but in its current state it is something you should avoid using lest it screw you over by not recharging.

[Psyren]

Turian Soldier I'll give you as a caster (they do have two blasting powers, however little they really interact), but not Human Infiltrator.

Originally Posted by SiuiS

I envy you actually, all I ever get is the darn rocket glitch.

No, I got that too actually, but I joined on Wave 10 (Reactor) so I didn't realize at first due to the mad scramble for disable nodes. At first I thought people had just managed to save their rockets for the end. It wasn't until we were on the 4th node that I realized all the rockets were coming from the same guy.

Then he came up to where we were and I saw he was firing them out of his Striker. Somehow, didn't think that was standard issue...

[CreganTur]

Unlocked the Turian Havok and Battlefield 3 sodlier in a game over lunch. I don't really care about the BF3, but I'm looking forward to taking the Havok out for a spin.

[Luzahn]

Ooh, we can unlock battlefield soldier now? Neat.

[Landis963]

Originally Posted by Luzahn

Ooh, we can unlock battlefield soldier now? Neat.

Not really. I've unlocked him; he's non-customizable, saddled with an underpowered "power" (Carnage) that you're better off sacrificing for the last level of Fitness.

[Luzahn]

He looked bad, yeah. I just didnt want to wind up with a hole in my unlocks.

[Psyren]

Originally Posted by Landis963

Not really. I've unlocked him; he's non-customizable, saddled with an underpowered "power" (Carnage) that you're better off sacrificing for the last level of Fitness.

I prefer Carnage to Concussive Shot though - Carnage can at least do fire explosions. (Can Frag grenades set those off? I haven't tried this guy since the night I got him.)

Not being customizable is a stealth boon - it means he'll only ever show up in your rare slot once.

[Dhavaer]

Originally Posted by CreganTur

The Collector Sniper Rifle is bugged in a big, terrible way.

I unlocked it last night and took it for a spin on an Infiltrator. If I used up all the charges it would do its overheating animation, but on many occassions it would not recharge itself. The gun would stay in the overheated state unless I tapped the reload button multiple times. This would eventually cause the overheat animation to happen again and then, finally, it would recharge the weapon.

To test this out I left the gun alone after overheating for nearly 2 minutes before I finally started tapping reload. I can see this weapon being fun once you get used to it, but in its current state it is something you should avoid using lest it screw you over by not recharging.

Are you sure you didn't interrupt the animation? I've done that a bunch of times because the animation's so long and it fails even if it's interrupted at the very end, when it looks like it's finished.

Edit: Not many balance changes this week:

Spoiler

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nov 14, 2012
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

New hazard maps available this week are Firebase Glacier and Firebase Ghost

Vorcha Hunter Engineer kit now available as a new Rare card

XP and Score Rewards (applies to points earned for Challenges)
- XP/Score bonus on Gold difficulty increased from 40% to 60%
- XP/Score bonus on Platinum difficulty increased from 60% to 100%

Shield Gate
- Cooldown between getting shield gates decreased from 4 to 3 seconds, meaning you have to wait
less time before you get your shield gate back.

Objectives
- Decreased the chance that enemies will spawn close to annex objectives

Challenges
- Fixed an issue causing the Turian Soldier challenge to give too many notifications

[Luzahn]

Ooh, that's a nice one. Vorcha Sentinel and Geth Trooper from the same Premium Spectre Pack.

That's only my second soldier unlock, and my first Geth.

His name shall be Geth 364-A.

[CreganTur]

I love my Geth Trooper... second to my Geth Infiltrator, of course.

Mine is running with just a Phaeston, but he only needs it for targets out of range of his Flamer. Anything within 15 meters is going to burn and die.

[Luzahn]

How does flamer work, then? Am I going to want to not lug around heavy weapons to help the recharge?

[Dhavaer]

Apparently the vorcha hunter's Submission Net is the pre-buff version, not the one the batarian sentinal uses, and it will be updated in next week's changes.

[CreganTur]

Originally Posted by Luzahn

How does flamer work, then? Am I going to want to not lug around heavy weapons to help the recharge?

I don't remember the cooldown times for the power, sorry.

I just know that within about a second or two of Flamer's duration running out, or me stopping it manually, it has recharged and is ready to keep going. This is with Fortification up, but I took the 30% reduction to cooldown times. Not sure if that is the right answer, but it's what I went with.

[Edge]

Flamer's cooldown works similarly to cloak's: the longer you have it active, the longer it takes to cool down.

Worth noting that the longer you leave Flamer active, the more stacks of its DoT effect it applies, which results in it doing a lot more damage in the 5 seconds after you stop using it, which that damage increasing dramatically depending on how long you've been flaming a target.

[Luzahn]

Originally Posted by CreganTur

I don't remember the cooldown times for the power, sorry.

I just know that within about a second or two of Flamer's duration running out, or me stopping it manually, it has recharged and is ready to keep going. This is with Fortification up, but I took the 30% reduction to cooldown times. Not sure if that is the right answer, but it's what I went with.

Ah, I see now. Wasn't sure if it was a cooldownless power like Nova or something.

[CreganTur]

Originally Posted by Edge

Flamer's cooldown works similarly to cloak's: the longer you have it active, the longer it takes to cool down.

Worth noting that the longer you leave Flamer active, the more stacks of its DoT effect it applies, which results in it doing a lot more damage in the 5 seconds after you stop using it, which that damage increasing dramatically depending on how long you've been flaming a target.

This is how I was soloing Brutes and Banshees with my Trooper. When Flamer was cooling down I would be using the Phaeston.

I think I'm going to have to try him with a Shotgun next.

[Luzahn]

Originally Posted by CreganTur

This is how I was soloing Brutes and Banshees with my Trooper. When Flamer was cooling down I would be using the Phaeston.

I think I'm going to have to try him with a Shotgun next.

Did you skip Hunter Mode? That's my initial plan here. Hunting is for infiltrators.

[CreganTur]

Originally Posted by Luzahn

Did you skip Hunter Mode? That's my initial plan here. Hunting is for infiltrators.

Absolutely not! Hunter mode is a requisite for me on all the Geth classes. It's so useful that I always want it. It lets me see any impending flanking manuvers or ambushes and it helps me track enemies faster than anyone else, which results in more kills for me

[Morty]

Batarian Brawler continues to work well. I tried him with a Scimitar today. I can still charge frequently, but I have good firepower and melee damage. And his durability means charging isn't as risky. Charging Ravagers and punching them to death is fun.
We still got wiped during Wave 10, though, and I used up several missiles on the Banshees - this build is not good at dealing with them, since charging them is a very bad idea. But we finished the objective, so it's fine.

[Zevox]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Blade armor for damage returned, melee damage, and DR in that priority. Lash at a distance, biotic charge into lashed targets for explosions. Biotic charge into melee attacks when lash isn't necessary.
It's not unique from the Phoenix vanguard, but uniqueness isn't a prerequisite.

Would be quite unique from my Ex-Cerberus Vanguard, since I ignored Lash on him. Honestly though, it sounds more like a melee Vanguard build that happens to have Lash than a caster build to me. Particularly since it can't really play like a caster against armored enemies since Lash does nothing to them, and Lash pulling enemies away from their groups kind of defeats part of the purpose of the combos.

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Occasionally, proximity mine lights people on fire.

Really? Huh. I've never seen that happen with my Volus Engineer, oddly.

Originally Posted by CreganTur

The Collector Sniper Rifle is bugged in a big, terrible way.

I unlocked it last night and took it for a spin on an Infiltrator. If I used up all the charges it would do its overheating animation, but on many occassions it would not recharge itself. The gun would stay in the overheated state unless I tapped the reload button multiple times. This would eventually cause the overheat animation to happen again and then, finally, it would recharge the weapon.

To test this out I left the gun alone after overheating for nearly 2 minutes before I finally started tapping reload. I can see this weapon being fun once you get used to it, but in its current state it is something you should avoid using lest it screw you over by not recharging.

Sounds like you're just accidentally canceling the cooldown before it starts recharging the ammo. It works like the Particle Rifle - when you need it reloaded, you need to wait for the ammo to start refilling before doing anything. Any action besides walking (and even that if you're in cover) will result in a reload cancel, which on those weapons means needing to wait through the whole animation all over again.

Originally Posted by Dhavaer

Edit: Not many balance changes this week:

Spoiler

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nov 14, 2012
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

New hazard maps available this week are Firebase Glacier and Firebase Ghost

Vorcha Hunter Engineer kit now available as a new Rare card

XP and Score Rewards (applies to points earned for Challenges)
- XP/Score bonus on Gold difficulty increased from 40% to 60%
- XP/Score bonus on Platinum difficulty increased from 60% to 100%

Shield Gate
- Cooldown between getting shield gates decreased from 4 to 3 seconds, meaning you have to wait
less time before you get your shield gate back.

Objectives
- Decreased the chance that enemies will spawn close to annex objectives

Challenges
- Fixed an issue causing the Turian Soldier challenge to give too many notifications

Decreased chance of enemies spawning next to objectives? Halle-frickin'-leuhah. I've been getting enemies spawning practically on top of king-of-the-hill locations way too often of late, regardless of map.

Also, Vorcha Hunter, not bad. Think I'll stick to Earth as my pack-group DLC for now though, since they're now tied 2-2 in classes I want (Fury and Shadow in Earth, Valkyrie and Hunter in Retaliation) but Earth has the rare mods, which I barely have, and some gear I want.

Zevox

[Luzahn]

Ahh, the Fury is great fun to play. So far I've used mine to get in close enough for the Annihilation field to prime everything, and spamming +200% recharge throws. The explosions are devastating, and Dark Channel is very useful when forced to fight at range.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Luzahn

How does flamer work, then? Am I going to want to not lug around heavy weapons to help the recharge?

I have only had problems with flamer's recharge when carrying -70% weapons, and then only because one was a single shot sniper and it cut Ito my close range weaponry during cooldown. An automatic as heavy as 0% will still get you all the benefits of flamer, although 50%+ is ideal.
Flamer has many uses. Against organic enemies, a half second of fire keeps them panicked while you shoot them (or run in a bad place), and against groups I like to hit them with a lot of fire before ducking around a corner, so the entire lot burns (and detonates if someone lobs a power at them). I only rarely focus the whole beam on a single target, because gun damage to a burning enemy almost always trumps increased burn damage. The exception is a full armor, partially shielded heavy; a full stack of burning, and then gun them down. Works wonders.

If you have it, try the geth plasma shotgun. Toucan Gil a gun charge during flamer, so it doesn't interfere at all, and you cannot se flamer in cover – using the power kicks you out.

Originally Posted by Luzahn

Did you skip Hunter Mode? That's my initial plan here. Hunting is for infiltrators.

I use 6/5/5/5/5.
Flamer for maximum reach, damage and armor piercing.
Fortification for protection and shield recharge.
Hunter mode for weapon speed and accuracy.
Networked AI for weapon damage and power damage.
Advanced hardware for health, fitness, and shield regen.

The end result is that my guns and powers are all doing about 30% more damage, I take 30% less damage, I can see enemies through walls an around corners, my shield recover in 1.2 seconds w/o gear, .96 seconds w/ gear, .6 seconds with expendables, .36 seconds with both gear and expendables. Oh, and my shields have a net 15% gain, for a total of 1,150.

Now, if you're worried about it, you could instead move the final rank to fortification for the 30% recharge penalty reductions, and use the 20% recharge boost on hunter mode to acquire fortification with no net loss to your power speed at all, but it isn't necessary.

The geth trooper is a damn fine all around soldier, and probably the best example of such the game has – even the destroyer is a step down.

Originally Posted by Zevox

Would be quite unique from my Ex-Cerberus Vanguard, since I ignored Lash on him. Honestly though, it sounds more like a melee Vanguard build that happens to have Lash than a caster build to me. Particularly since it can't really play like a caster against armored enemies since Lash does nothing to them, and Lash pulling enemies away from their groups kind of defeats part of the purpose of the combos.

Against armor, you charge and melee. The light is fast and fierce, the heavy provides DR like an ablative Mage armor, and biotic charge get you back up to speed while the now point blank enemy kills itself against your spines. Or you could charge the enemy, punch him, lash a nook to you as detonate it. Just as much a caster effect a pull/reave.

Combos are not a prerequisite of caster builds. Powers are, and often in a timely fashion.

Really? Huh. I've never seen that happen with my Volus Engineer, oddly.

It's rare, and I've only seen it on reactor against Cerberus with Turian sentinel. No, wait. I've also seen it on rocket troopers on white as a salarian, but only several times in one match. Disruptor ammo and no other players alive.

Sounds like you're just accidentally canceling the cooldown before it starts recharging the ammo. It works like the Particle Rifle - when you need it reloaded, you need to wait for the ammo to start refilling before doing anything. Any action besides walking (and even that if you're in cover) will result in a reload cancel, which on those weapons means needing to wait through the whole animation all over again.

Yeah. Walking off a small ledge can cancel it even.

Also, Vorcha Hunter, not bad. Think I'll stick to Earth as my pack-group DLC for now though, since they're now tied 2-2 in classes I want (Fury and Shadow in Earth, Valkyrie and Hunter in Retaliation) but Earth has the rare mods, which I barely have, and some gear I want.

Zevox

Got him but haven't had the gusto to play. Submission net, incinerate, and bloodlust sound like some good fun. But without a headset, I've lost the one big reason to play that often; my friends.