Gaming Mass Effect Series

I tried the multiplayer today, lots of fun.

Managed to get myself a Geth Juggernaut, awesome piece of ass-kicking metal with a wonderful health-draining melee attack. Shame it's so slow, though given hardly anything seems to damage it I guess it doesn't matter. Ended up at one point alongside some crazy Krogan who went around smashing everything with a hammer, damn thing charged an Atlas and beat it down.

I need to get me one of those.

 

Although as I understand it, Geth infiltrators are kind of glass cannons, so shooting enemies from behind a wall is probably the safest place for them to be.

 

Put it this way, the annoying-as-hell Geth Hunter is basically a Geth Infiltrator forced by the game designers to use a shotgun. And unlike players, the Geth Hunter can be seen from half a mile away when cloaked.

 

Small Geth seem to not be the best combat option, whereas big Geth seem to be made of win.

 

From what I gathered, a properly spec-ed and equiped Geth Infiltrator is probably one of, if not the best, sniper in MP. With the Geth Engineer, it's best to treat him/it as a support, using Overload to take down shields/stun enemies and deploying the Turret to help cover and buff the team. Main issue with both of them is that they are rather fragile, especially if you use Hunter Mode. If you treat them as front line soldiers, especially on anything higher than Bronze, you're going to be in a world of hurt. Geth Prime/Juggernaut though? Not a problem. Though, it does help that Geth Juggernauts can't get insta-killed by anything. Really funny to see a couple of Banshees and/or Brutes swarming around one and not (seeming) to even scratch it.

 

Makes for some good team tactics I would think - let the Juggernaut draw the heavies so the squishier people can get some potshots in at them.

As for the Geth Hunters in SP, I did the Geth Dreadnought mission last night with my NG+ infiltrator. Silly Geth, I have a thermal scope on that Valiant X ... *blam* *headshot*

 

My Juggernaut laughs at Banshees since they do no damage at all, though a Brute charge does do some damage since agility is one thing big Geth lack so you can't move out of the way.

I also currently lack any good weapons that can take down a Brute more easily so losing shield and then being swarmed by enemies can be problematic.
Everything else though is easy, even a Cerberus Atlas is fine if you deploy the shield.

No wonder Shepard wants them as Allies

 

That, indeed, is the prime idea behind the Juggernaut. Although there's a common belief that just standing there doing the brofist heavy melee is not substantially contributing. I don't honestly know: I thought your job as a Jughead is making the rest of the team cheer by crucifying Phantoms and Dragoons in mid-air

 

I don't why heavy melee isn't contributing, it can take out enemies that other small & fragile allies struggle with more such as Cerberus Guardians & Phantoms or Reaper Banshees. Sure it's not very skilful, but the point is to kill things so why does it matter how you do it?

The disadvantage of the Jugernaut as a team supporter is if allies run off and get incapacitated. Jugs are so darn slow they can't always get to a fallen team-mate in time to revive them, although that's not always an issue since once the Wave is over they will be revived anyway.

What kind of weapon is good for a Juggernaut to have to fulfil its potential best? I currently only have a Mattock I which does enough but isn't that effective against big things.

 

So, gave ME another try.

It's a game that's determined to kneecap itself. Like I have sniper training for Shepherd, so it should work fine right? No! Rifle may as well be being wielded by a junkie on crack! It veers all over the place! I spend far more time fighting the controls and the constant veering than I do sniping, it's just self-inflicted damage.

Outside of the combat aspects? So much to like really, it's a shame.

 

Yeah, the sniper rifle in ME1 can be pretty atrocious. Until you put a bunch of points in it, the sight is all over the place.

Still, I'd rather put up with that than... well, *goes and beats The Dead Horse Issue of Mass Effect into an even bigger pulpy mass*

 

If you put the points into it, the sniper rifle in ME1 is sooooo satisfying to use. Given the long engagement ranges you have in the missions involving the Mako, that thing is like the Finger of Doom - you're picking off targets at half a kilometer with near-impunity. On my first playthrough as a soldier I think I finally got into it around level 40 or so, and then it was just a sniping rampage on a lot of the UNC missions. Easily got the 150 kills for the weapon selection bonus on my subsequent characters. The infiltrator and my vanguard with sniper rifles as a bonus talent did even better, since by then I had a better grip on it. My infiltrator made sniper training a priority early on; since that allowed her to make long-range kills outside the Mako I got her up to Level 57 on one playthrough.

 

I've already got 4 points of what looks to be 12 max on sniper rifles, so I have reason to think it should be better than it is. I'm willing to accept character is still low-levelled but he should be able to shoot straight!

In some respects it's the crappy realism agenda applied to vid games, but I can't buy real snipers, even at the start of their training, are so unsteady!

 

I prefer to just blast things with assault rifles, I have Ashley & Garrus to snipe things for me if needed in ME1.

 

I knew there was a reason I always ran around with Garrus and Ash in ME1.

Yeah, by about level 6 or 8, I think, you start noticing the aiming gets much better. I'll admit, it doesn't make much sense for someone who's supposed to be special forces (I think) to have such a bad time holding a rifle steady, especially if they were supposed to be trained with it. I just write it off as Story and Gameplay Segregation though.

 

I never trust squadmates to do my sniping in ME1; for one thing unless the enemy is already shooting at them or within "radar" range (<40 meters) I find they don't fire. And within 40 meters, they'll be better with assault rifles. Hell, they'll do just dandy with pistols at that range. Don't expect them to dominate in a long-range gun duel. Trust me, pile some more points into the sniper rifle. On the occasions where I've had Ash and Garrus sniping alongside me at long range, they maybe contribute a handful of kills versus the entire damn platoon I just annihilated. When taking on turrets and armatures they usually just get themselves killed, since there isn't a lot of cover squadmates can easily use in long-range fights.

The other factor is the level and make of the rifle - generally until you get into the Volkov, Naginata, Striker, Punisher, Equalizer, and Harpoon series sniper rifles you will have issues. The Hammer, Avenger, and Reaper lines are all pieces of useless ****, even at high levels. Of course, once you rack up a million creds you unlock the Rich achievement and get to buy Spectre gear, and then the fun really starts.

The temporary fix is to use Assassination. Even at low level that largely zeroes out the scope sway and lets you get off a single accurate shot - and then you can use Adrenaline Rush to recharge Assassination and take another shot. Time consuming way to go about it, but getting sniper kills as opposed to using the Mako really boosts your XP gain. My infiltrator was decent at sniping by level 20 at least.

 

Cool, thanks for all that - should help!

 

Another tip is to use the sniper rifle against turrets and Geth armatures. They make for much bigger targets so the scope drift isn't as much of an issue in the early game. The downside is in the early game they can easily one-shot you. One trick is to take them on at long range so you have plenty of time to dodge the rockets or siege pulses, but it really helps if you can find a position where you can sneak shots in at the heavy but it'll hit terrain trying to return fire. That requires some patience, but it also nets you double the XP and credits per kill than if you just vaped them with the Mako's guns.

On a lark, I fired up my Level 57 infiltrator last night to start a new game plus, although I doubt I'll keep at it. As it turns out, I only allotted her ten points in sniper rifles, which was plenty to make her a dangerous killer out to 500 meters.

 

It's taken me some time but I finally had an awesome firefight on ME1.

On Feros, having done a load of sidequests, got improved armour, shields and weapons plus upgrades - load of Geth turn up. I'm expecting this to be trouble then my squad just tears through them. The shotgun I've got being especially effective on both targets and barriers!

 

Yeah, once you get into the late game and have Kassa Colossus or Armax Predator L/M/H armor (former being best for raw damage reduction, latter having better shields and tech/biotic resistance), Spectre weapons, and high-level weapon/armor mods firefights with most enemies turn into curbstomp battles. You can generally ignore cover and just berserker-charge enemies with guns blazing, especially as a soldier. The only times you have to really worry about cover is when taking on heavy artillery, and as stated the sniper rifle is a glorious asset there.

In the interim, there are some decent weapons and armors to tide you over. The various Hahne-Kedar armors (Mantis, Predator, Scorpion, Ursa) as well as the Rosenkov Titan armor are pretty good standbys until you get the top-level stuff. One of the things I disliked about ME is that Shep's iconic N7 Onyx armor is a worthless piece of ****; I think in just about every case it was discarded right after acquiring Ashley.

 

Basic Geth aren't very tough when you have decent armour and weapons, and even stuff like Hunters & Primes go down without too much effort after a while (Primes can deal a lot of damage but if you hit them hard enough quickly that isn't normally a big problem). Geth don't change much really, they remain much the same throughout the whole Trilogy whereas enemies like Cerberus & Reaper Force alter and adapt.

 

ME1 did have the Geth Hopper, Stalker, and Sapper, which were annoying pains in the rear. Well worth using tech or biotics to take those agile little nuisances out - or if you had assault rifle training, just give them a taste of Bullet Hell. Krogan in ME1 were a big problem unless you had biotics to knock them off their feet or enough firepower to down them fast.

Started my ME3 vanguard on a New Game + and had a fun incident on Menae as the shuttle was coming in to land. At first you get a chance to pick off some husks climbing up the cliff by firing from the shuttle. Well, my weapons were a Piranha and Executioner, neither of which are suited for playing door gunner. So I figured what the hell and used the Piranha, which had a Smart Choke and High Velocity Barrel fitted. Yeah ... I fired once and incinerated all three husks. Gotta love the combo of explosive burst ammo and a wide pellet spread.

 

OK, taking out the Geth on Feros and then the Thorian was quite, quite epic - killed 7 colonists, saved 9 - due to how strangely the gas grenades worked. Taking out the Thorian was nuts, lost count of how many of his thralls I took out.

 

Yeah, even on my most jerk@$$ playthrough I had to go spare them all. It's possible to get all five grenade capacity upgrades before Feros, which gives you a total of 15 grenades (10 capacity plus 5 reloads in the colony). Aside from that, a well-built and equipped soldier, infiltrator, vanguard, or sentinel can just run right up and pistol-whip the colonists. Bit trickier for engineers and adepts to pull that off. One trick for that and the optional paragon hostage rescue mission is to have your entire squad use pistols; much lower risk of collateral damage than shotguns or assault rifles.

If by this point you're pretty decent with sniper rifles, you should get the UNC: Geth Incursions missions. Those and the rachni UNC missions (i.e. "blatant Starship Troopers homage") are perfect opportunities to go on a scoping-and-dropping rampage.

 

Went and did the first Geth Incursion mission - quite smart, took out the husks then Geth reinforcements show up, take those out but find there's also a contingent outside the base! Clever - they're still all dead but clever.

On the second one had a Thresher Maw fight, where the thing seemed to resurrect itself with minimal health! So killed it again and it stayed dead!