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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Gaming Mass Effect Series

Discussion in 'Community' started by Valyn, Sep 7, 2012.

  1. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I absolutely annihilated everything in the arena . . . until I tried Mirror Mode. Then I got slaughtered. Horribly!

    The last time I tried it, we hid in the back of one of the trains on the Pain Train map, creating a choke point that worked well. Then the very last Sim-Shep suddenly appeared behind me and took me out with a single blade to the back. I'm going to try giving Garrus and Ash the Typhoon and seeing how well they do then.
     
  2. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Which clone got you? The vanguard is always the one you need to kill first, unless you enjoy being on the wrong end of charge/nova spam. After that it's a hard call - the adept and engineer are highly dangerous because of their powers and also the N7 Hurricanes they have (those things HURT); the soldier loves to chase you out of cover with frag grenades and then flip off carnage blasts; the infiltrator can really hurt you with the Black Widow and incinerate, in addition to sometimes trying to sneak up for a melee kill; and finally the sentinel has an M-11 Wraith, warp, and incinerate.


    The map I prefer for that matchup is "Wingman" - depending on where they spawn, you can take up position at either end of the arena (if they spawn on the middle landing, go to the far end opposite the ramp and platform) and have a decent amount of space and clean sightlines to whittle them down. I've heard Pain Train is a good choice because you can bunker up in a corner and avoid being flanked; problem is you don't have a lot of room to soften them up or escape if things get dicey.

    The other thing to remember is that in general the Shep-clones won't target squadmates. That means you can let them follow you rather than ordering them to cover, or in the case of Wrex and Grunt let them go in with bayonets and shotguns. Garrus and Ash with Typhoons should do the job; the first time I did that was with my sentinel who had romanced Ash in ME1 and Tali in ME2 and 3. I was imagining it was a revenge fantasy for Ash to be shredding Shepard several times over with a machine gun. It was working really well (I just had Ash on the Typhoon while Garrus sniped with a Krysae; since then I've given him a Widow for that match) until I got hammered within an inch of my pixelated life in the last wave and only survived by burning half my medigel.
     
  3. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I think the vanguard got me, and now that I think about it, she probably charged across to get to me. I need to try having Garrus place proxy mines in that opening in case she pulls that sneak attack again. I'd use Stasis bubble, but Carnage is my long-range power since I don't have to peek from behind cover for long.

    Last night I played a few games against Reaper grunts with just Garrus so I could test out his proxy mines in different ways. For some reason, Garrus and I got slaughtered repeatedly, like with their attacks going right through my shields and killing me while he fell in seconds.
     
  4. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002

    If you were doing your standard-issue "wait in the middle of the enemy" plan, then yeah - Garrus is not good at short range. His health and shields aren't the best; it's better to park him a ways off with a good line of sight and a big gun. If you're planning on going up close like that, Wrex, Grunt, Jacob, or James are the best options due to their high health, shields, shotguns, and melee damage buffs. Kaidan is also a decent tank, since between barrier and reave he can soak up a lot of fire.
     
  5. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    On another note, I decided to take another try at running an adept character through the series - wasn't satisfied with my first one (that was my attempt at "make Shep as much a selfish jerk as I can stand"), so I changed the background from Earthborn/Ruthless to Colonist/Ruthless, which felt like it had more depth. Torfan was personal. Might finish this one up as a Jack romance, since that's the only one I haven't done that I'm somewhat interested in seeing.

    Still early, but I had a good laugh driving the Mako on an early UNC mission - Distress Call, which has you investigate an escape pod that turns out to be a Geth trap (complete with Wrex yelling "It's a trap!"). With a couple of armatures, rocket troopers, and rocket drones popping up, I started driving like crazy and wound up running over two of the rocket troopers. I probably could have flattened the third, but the second one got stuck on the front of the Mako and resulted in the handling getting messed up, bouncing me all over the place while this little Geth corpse stubbornly clung to the front. That bouncing ruined what would have been an awesome, Death Race-style sideswipe kill of the third rocket trooper; instead I jumped right over it. Finally managed to shake the thing off by driving over some rocks before turning around and using the heavy artillery to wipe the rest out.
     
  6. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    You know DC you ought to put all these pieces of advice into one place, I don't know, call it:

    Darth Cane's Recipes for Mass Effect Mass Destruction?
     
  7. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Actually, I stayed in the back to see what Garrus would do, but he rushed right in and got slaughtered. It also seems like power-based characters like Liara, Jack, Edi, and Samara prefer to use their guns. That's a bummer because I wanted to try a Javik/Liara combo to send bodies flying all over the place.

    The exception seems to be Tali, whose drone has a higher kill count than she does.
     
  8. Shadow Trooper

    Shadow Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2013
    I like to use an Ashley/Garrus combo with my Infiltrator for Insanity.With full weapon damage upgrades in the passive class, they both can do massive damage with weapons and I can set up good Tech Combos with Overload and Incinerate. Garrus is great at Sniping and Ashley can do some major Damage with the Marksman and a Revenant. For people who murdered Ash, I would recommend using Liara instead and keeping her power recharge time at a minimum, as her singularity is perfect for crowd control on unshielded mooks, and she can trigger a biotic explosion by herself by using warp afterwards.
     
  9. Shadow Trooper

    Shadow Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2013
    I hate how dumb the squad AI is. On my Insanity run through, I had to turn AI power usage off, and than Micromanage their powers, weapons and positioning.
     
  10. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    OK, did a couple more missions:

    Pissed off the Illusive Man by nicking a load of scientists, not too bad a mission save for a weird crash after re-activating the AA guns and killed a Phantom or two. Jacob pops up too.

    Then went to the Ardat-Yakshi monastery, well hello Banshees - get close to me? No, I don't think so! Seriously creepy enemy design on an already creepy level. Not sure which is worse, Banshee or Phantom.

    Then went around the Citadel, meeting up with the crew and doing stuff, have hooked up with Liara and turned down a bromance with Kaidan, also shot beer bottles with Garrus on the top of the Presidium - fun little sequence.

    Have just done the Geth Dreadnought mission - it certainly has some excellent intro and conclusion cutscenes, it was one very ominous dreadnought. I now have Legion, the Geth, a pack of feuding Quarian Admirals oh and reapers to deal with!
     
  11. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Yeah, I have squad powers usage turned off - I initially left it on, but then started having instances when I wanted to set up a timely combo detonation and they were on cooldown. As far as positioning, I hardly ever go into a fight without pausing and ordering them to cover first. If they're bunkered down and have the right weapon selected, I can pretty much stop worrying. Doing that at the end of Priority: Earth with my soldier was fun - I had Shep, Ash, and Garrus all holed up in one of the storefronts, all approaches covered, and all of them armed with N7 Typhoons and respective rank 6 ammo powers. Not much even got close [face_skull]



    Hmm, I might embellish that by borrowing from Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary - "Darth Cane's Seventy Maxims for Maximally Effective Mass Effect Mass Destruction" :D
     
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  12. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Yeah, that title'd work!
     
  13. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    The other, shorter suggestion would be one of my (many) favorite Zaaed lines from ME3 Citadel, when Shepard asks what he set a countdown for ...

    "Arma-****ing-geddon!"
     
  14. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
  15. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I beat the game and started a new one with my character so I can get all the X weapons and upgrades. I also want to get all the characters before I try the Citadel this time (I excluded Miranda and forgot Grunt) so I can see more options in the dialog. Gotta say though that I love the post-mission scenes with Wrex ("Ugh, more ice!"), Grunt ("How were the noodles?" "A little spicy."), and Zaeed ("This #%%^@%^ cheats!") the best.
     
  16. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    I like the Grunt bits in Citadel, him getting into trouble with the authorities was funny.
     
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  17. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002
    Wrex's bit in the bar was definitely a "lost my ****" moment," and Grunt's was hysterical. The paragon and renegade solutions to the latter are equally funny; telling Grunt to "apologize to the nice man for setting his car on fire" versus "Operation Fire Cobra Claw." I also liked Joker's version of how he participated in stopping the Cerberus coup. Then you had Shep and Javik getting suckered into roles in Blasto Goes to War, Zaeed winning the prize for most obscenities thrown at a claw game, Ash and Shep getting a shout-out to Ponda Baba and Dr. Evanzan ("My friend doesn't like Alliance types ... I don't like Alliance types either."), and Traynor's Kepesh-Yakshi match complete with dramatic eye zooms. "Specialist? Kick her ass." I also like the exchange between femShep and Miranda in the casino where they try to make girl talk and fail, with femShep saying they can't pretend they're anything but "troubleshooting space divas."

    That's without some of the romance-specific bits. Garrus doing a tango with Shepard (he's so good he makes femShep dance well for the first time in the series), Shep and Jack exchanging innuendos in the middle of a combat match, and the sheer fanservice of femShep and Traynor in a hot tub :D
     
  18. Shadow Trooper

    Shadow Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2013
    It was awesome seeing Wrex and Grunt again, and all of the Krogan scenes really helped remind me how lame ME3's squad selection is when there is no Krogan option.
     
  19. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002

    I did like that there were fewer squadmates - in ME2 there were some characters I hardly used at all, even though they were fun to have along for the ride (well, most of them). In ME3 it's easier to trot everyone out (and keep up with all the shipboard interactions); with that said I wouldn't have minded trading Vega for Grunt in the "wrecking ball/meat shield" role or getting Wrex back for the full game.
     
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  20. Shadow Trooper

    Shadow Trooper Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2013
    Exactly. The smaller cast size was fine, however I hated James and EDI simply because they took up spots that could have been used for returning Squad mates. I understand why they were added though, because otherwise, some people would have a very empty ship after the suicide mission.
     
  21. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    I did find a glitch of some kind on the Pain Train map. Twice, when I used Pull from the other train, an opponent got stuck somewhere, we couldn't find him, but the level didn't end, rendering it unwinnable. I ended up loading a previous save. This only happend on PT and only with Pull.
     
  22. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    Few more missions:

    Admiral Kovis: OK, so what nutcase designed this to be so dark I can't tell what's cover and what's shadow? Oh and the turrets - who nerfed them? Wielding a turret ought to epic, but they block your radar so you have to use sght only and it has be reloaded so damn often. And it was the same for Shepherd's shuttle gun! You'd have expected that to be an absolute death machine, with the usual zoom/aim feature but no.

    N7 Fuel Reactors - Aside from a crappy "puzzle" at the start, it was a reasonably good little mission.

    Geth Fighters: Part 1 was very fun, very different and great design - Part 2? Again, someone didn't think about it - oh I'm supposed to hit this spot that's a mere shade different from the other spot and it's now in range where it wasn't before? Great.

    The common strand in these "puzzles"? They're not. Puzzles have something in the way of clues and hints, some cue of some kind not these - it's as if the game is being written with a view to getting people to buy the guide book.
     
  23. DarthCane

    DarthCane Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 30, 2002

    I've had something similar happen on Prime Evil - somehow a target will end up sunk in a puddle (as in my squadmates are aiming down and the radar shows a blip there, but nothing's visible or can be targeted) and I'll have to reload. Seems rare. The most common glitch I find seems to only occur with Cerberus matches; on the second wave I won't see the spawn points until the countdown hits one ... which is call for an Oh Crap moment when they suddenly spring up around you and you have one second to do something about it.

    In a first, I did get killed on a match today - combination of a horrible situation and bad luck. On Blasteroid I had a Scion and a Praetorian pinning me down from higher ground, another Praetorian that was right next to my cover but focusing on James, and the straw that broke the camel's back was an Abomination running down the ramp at me. I gunned it down and somehow the blast knocked me back from cover, right into a 1-2-3 salvo from the Scion. Drat.

    As far as the ME3 cast, EDI was a fun addition because she was technically a carry-over from ME2; she just got a smokin' frame and continued evolving into a real person. James and Javik were really the only "new guys," and Javik at least brought his "In my cycle ..." rants and overall "when in doubt, shoot it and then nuke the site from orbit" attitude. James wasn't a bad addition to the team (better than Jacob in ME2), but with everyone else he was just the tag-along kid.
     
  24. vypernight

    vypernight Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2012
    Funny, but I liked James and Jacob. The only characters I really disliked were Miranda and the reporter who tags along with you (luckily, she's not part of the crew). I've been using either Garrus/Ashley or Garrus/Tali on nearly every non-Geth mission as they are really Really good at taking down opponents while I charge around the battlefield.
     
  25. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    The reporter lady luckily doesn't really do much except stay in her cabin all the time.

    I liked James, but I only used him on a couple of missions since he is really the male version of Ashley. I primarily used Garrus (duh) and Liara since I needed more biotic support and the team was lacking it in ME3 (compare to ME2 where you have Miranda, Jack & a choice of two Asari to use).
    I did also like that finally most characters had armour, even Tali if you got some DLC. Always bugs me when people are going into serious battles and will be shot at and yet seemingly don't wear any armour (especially Tali who is vulnerable if her suit gets ruptured) and somehow don't get injured, that ruins any realism.