Anyone playing the ME3 multiplayer a lot?

I'm enjoying it a lot.. so far I've promoted a soldier, but I also have a level 20 adept I'm holding onto, and working on a Quarian ilfiltrator.. but I'm not liking that one as much. Also kinda bugs me how almost every box of supplies that I buy has the stupid noob 1-shot sniper rifle in it. I have the level 9 version of it now, and I never use it. I'm more of an assault rifle kinda guy. I think it's rigged, it knows what weapons you use more often, and gives you the opposite so you'll keep playing till you get what you want, which is never. :/

anyway if anyone wants to play on PS3, my username is xX_Necros_Xx .. usually off and on most nights...

From what I can see its basically Gears of War's Horde mode but Mass Effectized, which actually sounds pretty awesome (Horde mode was the only thing I liked about the Gears series and I loved it). EDIT: My friend is actually complaining about the weapons too. He wants the Phaston but he keeps getting Vindicators.

When I pick up the game I'll definitely be playing it, but I'll be on PC so I can play with the buds XD

I'm playing it but mostly just to boost my "galactic readiness".

Feel I will jump in with my experience.

Good:

Love Horde modes.

Indifferent:
The packs you can buy (Good idea to use credits, bad idea trying to suck more money from fans.)

Bad:
Very few maps
Very few enemy types(Though I love killing Cerbarus troops due to reasons in the main story).

I know theres more bad than good but I really enjoy it, sadly though I cannot play more than 2/3 games before needing a break just to go back to it in 10 mins. I swear its those packs which I always buy with credits and get pretty much garbage from. Maybe I should invest some Biopoints into em, nah I want DLC instead.

Love it, just because I love Mass Effect. Its really not -that- good from a gameplay standpoint, it is basically Horde Mode from Gears of War as mentioned before.

I love it though, and I really do like the Packs system because it reminds me of my childhood when I used to buy packs of cards.

I like it

Gears of War Horde mode is good, especially once removed from its steroid filled dirt gray environment

I actually for the first time though realize that I hate storm/cover/action are all keyed to the same damn button. It didn't annoy me at all in ME2 but in the multiplayer its pretty annoying when attempting to run away ends up planting me to the box right behind me and then taking a Banshee to chest (which does not turn me into a town guard btw).

I'm liking it a lot more now that I've got that widow sniper rifle. It's pretty satisfying to finish 1st in the group. That usually doesn't happen for me in multiplayer.

What is everybody's usual set up??

At the moment I'm running around with the M-8 Avenger assault rifle and the M-6 Carnifex heavy pistol.

Emptying clips into enemies with the assault rifle is awesome. Only use the pistol when I'm out of ammo for the rifle.

Loving Infiltrator with a Widow, which I got on the first day from a Spectre pack, along with my favoured Quarian.

In general just enjoy the aspect of working in a team. Heck, even Aura is enjoying it and playing a lot, and she normally can't stand Multiplayer shooter style games. She got my from 75ish Galatic readiness to 94% yesterday while I was relaxing on Sims 3.

Tbh its a shame we can't rationalise a second decent telly and Xbox, as we'd happily play this one together.

I'm having a lot of fun with it. The different race/class combinations make for some fun and unique character builds that let you mix it up from battle to battle.

Some examples I have been using:

Krogan Sentinel - I do a no-power build with this guy. My points go into Rage, Krogan Berzerker, Tech Armor and Lift Grenade. I spec Tech Armor for damage reduction and melee damage, and I never take it off, which means none of my abilities have a cooldown and I can take whatever weapons I want regardless of weight. I've been using the Geth Plasma Shotgun, because the game saw fit to give me 4 upgrades to it for some reason, and it's pretty awesome. The 3 balls it fires are semi-homing and more accurate than the stats imply, making it an excellent shot-medium ranged weapon. The charge shot is nice for damage but a little impractical since it uses all of your ammo and takes a long time to actually charge. Between just single shots from the Plasma Shotgun and heavy melee, I was able to top the charts within my first few times playing this class. It's quite fun, and probably my favorite build so far.

Human Adept - I'm not even gonna bother explaining this one in detail, because it's pretty basic. Suffice to say I spec Shockwave for maximum AOE and lift, and warp for max damage. Spam warp, use shockwave against close targets. Done.

Salarian Engineer - This one is really strong against Geth. If you spec Energy Drain to recharge shields and provide damage reduction, they can spam it against anything with a barrier or shield, or anything synthetic, and basically survive indefinitely if they have a fast enough cooldown and don't do anything stupid. Incinerate gives them some decent anti-armor abilities, so their only necessity is a pistol to shoot down health on living targets.

Human Engineer - This class makes for good crowd control and works well alone. If you aren't expecting much support from teammates you can use this class and expect to get out of most situations by yourself. Spec overload for crowd control, IE take the talents that make it stun organics and hit multiple targets, and spec incinerate for damage. Set up the combat drone to use missiles and max damage, and you now have a host of damaging and distracting abilities that means you are rarely ever targeted if you are doing it right. Husks are really the only problem I've run into, because they tend to flush you from cover when dealing with things like Ravagers or Marauders at range, and usually clever placement of the combat drone can take care of them before they become an issue.

Quarian Engineer - The fire and Ice combo is amusing but not amazing. Basically you take Cryo Blast and Incinerate, and spec them to deal max damage in combination. The only problem is you have to shoot Cryo Blast, THEN shoot Incinerate for it to work so teammates often steal the kills if you aren't fast enough, and they are weak against shielded opponents. The combo explosion from fire and ice is the loudest sound I've heard in a video game though.

Human Vanguard - This one is braindead stupid easy and on lower difficulty settings it can rack up some pretty impressive scores. Take Biotic Charge and spec to replenish maximum shields, take Nova and spec for max damage against all targets (no half-blast BS) and max out damage and health/shields with Alliance Training and Fitness. Never use Shockwave. It's not worth it. Make sure you have as close to a 200% increase to recharge as possible, and spam Biotic Charge and Nova against everything. Rinse and repeat and watch as everything dies. It gets old after a while though.

I have not played much using Solider or Infiltrator, primarily because I haven't unlocked Quarian Infiltrator or a decent sniper rifle yet. I did just get Turian Soldier though so I might play with that, but I would prefer to get Krogan Soldier for amusement and melee shenanigans.

I like the ability to "promote" level 20 characters to support the war effort, and reset a particular class back to level 1 so you can try different builds while increasing your N7 number. Its a nice feature that increases re-play value. We are also supposed to get some multiplayer DLC soon that will add new race/class combinations and new maps. I'd like to see some additional enemies like Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns, or maybe Collectors. None of those really make sense story-wise, but they would definitely make for some more interesting matches.

Aye the promote to your game is a very nice touch.

The random box collection is nice idea as well, gives you another reason to push on, earn more credits for unlocks, but because it is random what you recieve, you can't just grind it out quickly.

Aura seems to like the biotics more so than myself, so has been playing the Adept and Sentinel mostly on my game file. Although she is generally having a go at anything, so Bioware did something right.

New maps and more race/class combos would be good. Although I doubt we'd ever see it, would love to play a Hanar adept.

I must admit the combination of MP and SP has been somewhat surprising. I thought I would hate it to begin with, oddly I was mistaken.

So far I have 2 MP characters imported into SP, a human soldier and a Turian Sentinel. I am now working on a Drell Vanguard.

I got lucky with one of the Spectre packs though and got 2 classes to use, the Drell Vanguard and a Salarian Infiltrator IIRC.

So far I only have 5 other classes unlocked, Turian Sentinel, Salarian and Quarian Infiltrators, Drell and Asari Vanguard.

A lot more to be done XD

Aye I've not done too bad so far.

No luck with a Krogan or Drell yet, but I have, Turian Soldier, Turian Sentinel, Asari Vanguard, Quarian Engineer, Quarian Infiltrator, Salarian Infiltrator and Salarian Engineer


Talking about Multiplayer, not sure if this is legit or not, but at least four of those shown would interest me greatly.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a370873/mass-effect-3-classes-for-multiplayer-dlc-leaked.html

Mmmm Geth.

Human engineer had been my most effective so far. Overload and incinerate allows you to deal with sheilds and armor and your drone can become quite powerful. He's good at everything.

Chain Overload is hilarious to watch, especially when there's more than one on the team.

Been dabling with Drell adept too. Take light weapons and you can rapid fire pull. Anything that doesn't have protection is screwed. No walking on the ground allowed for any enemies!

On a side note, who are your fave opponents, and who is your worst.

Fave for me are Cerberus, satisfying to do them over especially after dealing with TIM's gak for two games. Also as a Infiltrator.. gotta love me some post slot shots.

Worst are the Geth, don't see them that often, but they seem to pack a heck of a punch, especially when a Prime turns up.

Although Banshee is still the freakiest thing, when you turn and find yourself face to face with one.

Only thing I hate are Banshees. God Damn I hate those things! Single and multiplayer.

Yea the Reapers are my most hated enemy. Banshees can instakill if they want to.

Got to say Cerbarus are my favs to kill, lots of revenge to be given out since the events of the single player lol.

Geth primes are usually quite easy for me to deal with.

I'm sad about the fact that for example Turians couldn't be infiltrator which I thought was odd and that Krogan's can't be vanguards.
Wrex and Garrus were pretty much those classes in 1 and 2 (only for Garrus though).

Apart from that I can't fault multiplayer except how the non-human classes are type set into.

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:On a side note, who are your fave opponents, and who is your worst.

Fave for me are Cerberus, satisfying to do them over especially after dealing with TIM's gak for two games. Also as a Infiltrator.. gotta love me some post slot shots.

Worst are the Geth, don't see them that often, but they seem to pack a heck of a punch, especially when a Prime turns up.

Although Banshee is still the freakiest thing, when you turn and find yourself face to face with one.

Cerberus is pretty easy to take on in all difficulty levels, but then I played the hell out of the demo so I know their tricks. Reapers are annoying, but only because of Banshees and Husks. Statistically speaking, the things that kill me the most are Ravagers, but only because I'm usually flushed from cover by either a Banshee or a Husk, right into the line of fire of a Ravager. Geth on lower difficulties are the easiest opponents ever. Primes don't have an insta-kill, and the number of Rocket Troopers, Hunters and Pyros are limited. On Gold difficulty they are damn near impossible. Wave 3 is nothing but Hunters and Pyros which makes it impossible to sit in cover, and very difficult to defend against a rush because half the enemies you cannot see and half have goddamn flame throwers to distract you from searching for their buddies. Also, gold difficulty has no damage bleed from shields/barriers to health/armor. So for example if you have a Geth Pyro that has 1 point of shield remaining and you hit him for 1,000 damage, it knocks his shield off but nothing carries over to armor.

I agree though that Banshees are creepy as hell. The noises and the way they move are so disconcerting that I have to keep myself from going into panic mode when I hear one.

VikingScott wrote:I'm sad about the fact that for example Turians couldn't be infiltrator which I thought was odd and that Krogan's can't be vanguards.
Wrex and Garrus were pretty much those classes in 1 and 2 (only for Garrus though).

Apart from that I can't fault multiplayer except how the non-human classes are type set into.

With the unlock system they had to limit the number of race/class combos to prevent it taking forever to unlock all the classes and get the cosmetic upgrades for them. The setup they have now leaves room for DLC expansion and makes it reasonable for people to unlock the class they want to play. Then again, I still haven't gotten my Turian Sentinel, dammit!

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Only thing I hate are Banshees. God Damn I hate those things! Single and multiplayer.

Hit them with a flame turret and they basically get locked in one place.

Either way, Phantoms annoy me more, since I play Infiltrator and they're a bitch to hit. Of course, that may be because I get a ridiculous amount of lag in most games, seemingly because their lag compensation software is awful.

Pretty fun overall, but the weapon 'drops' can be terrible -- I'm been playing my max-level infiltrator for a bit now and still roll with a Mantis and Phalanx.

The Phalanx is fine, but the Mantis, I feel, is just not cutting it on Silver and Gold. Seriously, a single-shot weapon in the year 218x?

Asari pretty much destroy Phantoms. Stasis bubbles make the poor little things absurdly easy to kill

Ronin-Sage wrote:Pretty fun overall, but the weapon 'drops' can be terrible -- I'm been playing my max-level infiltrator for a bit now and still roll with a Mantis and Phalanx.

The Phalanx is fine, but the Mantis, I feel, is just not cutting it on Silver and Gold. Seriously, a single-shot weapon in the year 218x?

You need to get yourself a Widow Anti-Material Rifle.

Just started playin the Drell Vanguard, oh my god is that class boring....

I started a second Turian Sentinel to get out of playing the Vanguard.

The Human Engineer is still my favorite. He's equipped to handle anything, period. That and my Carnifex Hand Cannon are all I need to put serious hurt on anyone. Doesn't matter, bring the noise.

Turian Sentinel is fun too. Mainly due to Overload and Tech Armor. The Tech Armor slows down your recharge rate pretty bad at first, but you can slowly spec to bring that up to a reasonable level. I just give him the N7 Crusader and go on the warpath.

I've been finally playing the Infiltrator, and though I have practically every sniper rifle... I use the N7 Crusader. I'm the kinda arse who wants to stealth and then blast someone with a shotgun at point blank. It's so rewarding. And since it's the Crusader, I can snipe with it across the whole map if I want. No Scope? No problem.


Anyone on XBL can hit me up on The Steamdriven. I'm usually on with a gang playing Silver missions.

I actually see ME2 as reinventing Garrus as a soldier, but maybe that's just me. I too however want a Krogan Vanguard (though Biotic Charge on something so big would be awkward, balance wise and visually). Barrier/Pull/Warp would be a nice combo.

Turian soldier is horrifyingly overpowered, setup as maxed damage they just buzzsaw down everything.
Krogan soldier is perfectly usable, even on gold, as a mellee truck, inferno grenades maxed out are super nasty
as is having a buddy with maxed out/zero cooldown throw and another with maxed out/zero cooldown warp.

Yeah after playing my Krogan Sentinel I want to unlock Krogan Soldier, but I have to say, the Sentinel has massive melee damage and damage reduction with Tech Armor and Rage.

I do have my Turian Soldier though and I'm planning on specing him for stability and accuracy then using a Revnant for rate of fire. Should be interesting, and if it doesn't work that well I'll promote him at 20 and then try something else.

Having played both the Soldier and the Sentinel for the Krogan, can honestly say I prefer the Sentinel. Incenerate does less damage than Carnage but has half the cool down and the base protection of Tech Armor is higher than Fortitude. Plus, Lift Grenades can have much funnier (and more immediate) results than incendiary.

So far I've done and promoted a human soldier, asari adept and salarian infiltrator. Right now I'm almost done by turian sentinel. I think I'm gonna do 1 of every class before I decide what I like the best, but so far I think the asari adept was the most fun. I'd just bubble stuff then use my other shooty power. But the salarian infiltrator was fun too, I was the last guy alive playing hide & seek with a banshee and I saved us all.

I mostly stick to assault rifles for every character. I have my M8 upgraded to level 8 or 9 now I think, weight isn't really an issue and I have a level 10 shuriken as a backup. But I have so many ammo packs saved up I never really need to switch

I buy a recruit pack after every game, and then I save up what's left and I've been getting the premium pack that they had for 33,000. I got 3 different weapons in one once. Bugs me though when it gives me one of the noob weapons, they should only be in recruit packs.

Started multi today. I love the Adept.

Our tactic on the packs is buying the premiums at the mo, seems a better deal with at least two uncommons (possibly a rare) over a definate rare for nearly double the cost.

In fact the only spectre packs I've had was using up some left over points, just to see what kind of stuff I'd get.

If you buy out the Recruit Packs, it will level up your basic guns pretty fast. A Level 10 Avenger is a damn good assault rifle and will be a good fallback depending on your needs. Once you max out the Common weapons, they stop giving them to you.

Then if you start buying Veteran Packs, or the slightly more expensive Premium version, you'll start upgrading the Uncommon items as well.

This has been my plan so I STOP getting the Common Weapon upgrades in my more expensive packs. Instead, those slots will be filled with either Weapon Upgrades or Temporary Equipment... but it will be level 2 or 3 Equipment. Once I can get all that done, I can start buying Spectre packs and getting the rare weapon upgrades I need.

The only problem with that plan is that the game will continue giving you character packs. It's not that big of a deal, since it's free XP, but I don't really need them since most of the characters I play (with the exception of the Quarian Infiltrator) have all the color customization options unlocked already.

So far so good!

See ya'll on the battlefield. I'm your man if you need a killer Engineer.

And I'm your Turian if you need a merciless Sentinel to hold the line!

yeah I'm gonna keep getting recruit packs till I get all the guns, then focus mostly on vet packs. I got a few sentinel packs but the few high end guns I found don't really seem to be any better than the cranked up level 1 guns I already have.

The one I really want is the Geth assault rifle, that was my favorite in the single player.

Hmm, interesting point about the recruit packs. Would be nice to get the Vindicator to lvl 10. No idea why, but I love that assault rifle.

On a side note, are you able to get the weapons to lvl 10 in game, or is it for multiplayer only. (I ask as my weapons seem maxed at lvl 5 atm in the game, and I'm on the Quarian/Geth bit, and assumed that was getting close to the end.)

From what I've seen, the Single Player caps out at level 5. Multiplayer caps at level 10.

And I feel ya on the Vindicator. That Assault rifle served me very well throughout ME2 and I loved it to death. It's just as effective in ME3. The only thing holding it back right now in multiplayer is the weight, but once it's maxed out that should solve that problem pretty well. Right now mine is level 4, but I can still get more punch for less weight with the Carnifex.

There is nothing more rewarding than snap-killing a Phantom. Overload-Headshot. You don't even have time to call out a warning to your buddies and you've flatlined the bi-... phantom.

I really hate Phantoms. Banshees are cake. They still win the creepy award, but I still walk all over them.

I have the opposite problem. maybe its because the Vanguards tear Phantoms to Ribbons, but I'm more afraid of being pinned by a Banshee than a Phantom.

LordofHats wrote:Having played both the Soldier and the Sentinel for the Krogan, can honestly say I prefer the Sentinel. Incenerate does less damage than Carnage but has half the cool down and the base protection of Tech Armor is higher than Fortitude. Plus, Lift Grenades can have much funnier (and more immediate) results than incendiary.

not overly relevent, with my krogan I load up on guns and dont worry about carnage, grenades are cooldown independent, carnage is only for blowing up squads with the combo, otherwise mellee/shoot everything.

raged up I 1shot everything that isn't a brute or boss mob and even those get a serious hurting. Fully upgraded inferno grenades can down pyro geth and similiar medium guys in one shot.

with turrian ive found the best weapons are the burst rifle, automatic pistol, or if you are feeling silly, a SMG with both ammo upgrades.

For myself, I tend to play this:
Human Infiltrator
Raptor Mk VIII with Enhanced Scope and Piercing Mod
Avenger X with Piercing Mod and the increased magazine size.

I do a ton of damage, really accurately, and reliably penetrating cover(and flatout ignoring defenses!).

That's probably why I'm not very good with the Krogans I want to ability spam rather than melee smash.

the hint book said you get guns up to level 5 in the single player game on your 1st playthrough but they go up to 10 on your 2nd.

One other thing I wish I could get more of are the healing packs, I use at least 1 a game usually because dumb teamates run off and do other things instead of standing in the hack circle so I get mobbed by everything.

But I have like 100 or so ammo packs, hardly ever need them with ammo crates all over the place. Except for when dumb teamates run off and do other things instead of standing in the hack circle so I get mobbed by everything.

Haha... you need a better team Necros. Drop me a line and I'll be right there in the hack zone with you.

LordofHats wrote:That's probably why I'm not very good with the Krogans I want to ability spam rather than melee smash.

yeah, it took me a few tries to find the right balance of shield upgrades and mellee damage, I tend to always take max shields and it just doesnt work when you need to 1shot everything or you are screwed.

LordofHats wrote:Having played both the Soldier and the Sentinel for the Krogan, can honestly say I prefer the Sentinel. Incenerate does less damage than Carnage but has half the cool down and the base protection of Tech Armor is higher than Fortitude. Plus, Lift Grenades can have much funnier (and more immediate) results than incendiary.

See, I tend to play a no-power build with my Krogans though. The Sentinel and the Soldier both have an armor type and a grenade type, which is the requirement for a no-power build. On the Sentinel, I forsake Incinerate to max out the rest of my skills, but I set him up for melee damage. The difference is, if you do that with a Soldier, the melee damage boost is WAY more significant than with a Sentinel and you just bash everything to death. The Sentinel gets a bit better damage reduction but the Soldier gets massive melee damage, and I can effectively use the same weapons and everything.

I think once I unlock Krogan Soldier, I'll promote my Sentinel and start over with an Incinerate/Lift Grenade build and use him more at range, and use the Soldier how I'm using the Sentinel right now (IE melee damage and heavy weapons). That way I won't have two of the same characters and effectively use them the same way.

Here's a comparison of the Krogan melee build:

Krogan Sentinel
Tech Armor (Durability, Melee Damage, Durability)
-Damage Reduction: 40%
-Melee Damage: +30%
Krogan Berzerker (Weapon Damage, Headshots, Weapon Damage)
-Weapon Damage: 25%
-Power Damage: 7.5%
-Weight Capacity: 20lbs
-Headshot Damage: 20%
Rage (Melee Damage, Martial Artist, Pure Rage)
-Health and Shield Bonus: 20%
-Melee Damage Bonus: 95%
-Rage Damage Reduction: 20%
-Rage Melee Damage Bonus: 80%
-Martial Artist: 75% melee damage after killing an opponent with Heavy Melee
-Kills Needed to Trigger: 2

Total melee damage bonus: 125% (200% after killing someone with heavy melee, 280% when Rage is active)
Total Damage Reduction: 40% (60% while Rage is active)

Soldier
Fortification (Melee Damage, Recharge Speed, Durability)
-Recharge Speed after purge: 7.5 sec
-Damage Reduction: 25%
-Melee Damage Bonus from Purge: 100%
-Melee Damage Duration after Purge: 20 sec
-Increase to Shield Recharge Rate: 15%
Krogan Berzerker (Weapon Damage, Headshots, Weapon Damage)
-Weapon Damage: 25%
-Power Damage: 7.5%
-Weight Capacity: 20lbs
-Headshot Damage: 20%
Rage (Melee Damage, Martial Artist, Pure Rage)
-Health and Shield Bonus: 20%
-Melee Damage Bonus: 95%
-Rage Damage Reduction: 20%
-Rage Melee Damage Bonus: 80%
-Martial Artist: 75% melee damage after killing an opponent with Heavy Melee
-Kills Needed to Trigger: 2

Total melee damage bonus: 95% (170% after killing someone with heavy melee, 250% when Rage is active, 350 after purging Fortification)
Total Damage Reduction: 25% (45% while Rage is active)

So the Krogan Sentinel has more passive melee damage, but the Soldier has total higher melee damage if you purge Fortification, but you lose your already lower damage protection when you do it, and if you have a pair of heavy weapons it stays down for quite some time. Maybe it's not quite as easy of a choice as I thought.......

There should definately be a Krogan Vanguard. That's basically what every Krogan Battlemaster is.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:There should definately be a Krogan Vanguard. That's basically what every Krogan Battlemaster is.

Well then lucky the Krogan Battlemaster was included in the leaked multiplayer DLC rumors.

According to that link I put in the other thread, it seems we might well be getting an actual Krogan Battlemaster option at some point as DLC.

edit - ninja'd.

although I can quickly add, it showed a Asari Inquisitor as well *drool* and two Geth options. *double drool*

Hope its accurate.

DLC for the multiplayer is something I'd actually pay for, though preferably I'd rather just have map packs more than anything.

Aldarionn wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:There should definately be a Krogan Vanguard. That's basically what every Krogan Battlemaster is.

Well then lucky the Krogan Battlemaster was included in the leaked multiplayer DLC rumors.

Hmmm, I don't know if I'll be getting any ME3 multiplayer DLC. I like it but I don't love the MP. I'll get all the single player DLC. They should just attach a new MP enviroment on every DLC rather than make specific mulitplayer DLC.

Depends on if its reasonably priced or absurd. I'm not gonna pay $5 just to play a Krogan Vanguard. Especially when the amount of work needed to make one is pretty mucha copy paste job. Ideally they'd package several characters together.

Sadly(?) I will give them all of my money. I'm just glad I can dabble in the ME universe a little (even if it is just MP Horde Mode) so I can get a taste and refresh the feeling whenever I want. Otherwise I'd beat the game and sit and stare at my television for a day or three, then begrudgingly move along.

I too will be buying it all. Hell I'm partially considering a second telly, ME3 game and xbox because Aurelia is really enjoying multiplayer and notes its a shame we can't play together.

*screams into pillow*

Fortunately good sense has prevailed so far and I'm not rushing out for the above mentioned goodies. Probably partially as they isn't enough room. If there was.. heaven help my wallet.

I used to auto-buy anything from Bioware that was ME related but then they just started selling new skins for characters in ME2 for like $3. Lost my faith in them there.

Well, the character skins were optional, and were just skins... the didn't come bundled with anything else. So that was nice.

Admittedly when I had some extra MS Points I bought the pack that had another Garrus skin in it, only because I was getting so fed up seeing that his armor was STILL messed up.

Why didn't he get that fixed!

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Well, the character skins were optional, and were just skins... the didn't come bundled with anything else. So that was nice.

Admittedly when I had some extra MS Points I bought the pack that had another Garrus skin in it, only because I was getting so fed up seeing that his armor was STILL messed up.

Why didn't he get that fixed!

$3 well spent.

I enjoy the multiplayer allot, so far I have got Soldier, Infiltrator and Adept to level 20 and am currently working on engineer. I experimented with vanguard (whom everyone claims is amazing) but its so totally against my play style I just can deal with it . I manage to kill a few, then just get bogged down in enemies (because their shield is so poor) and have to rely on other people wading in to revive me, which i hate.

The infiltrator seems to be the best class for me, if your fighting Geth you can use the quarian and spam hack or you can use the salarian and spam energy drain (which is probably the best ability in the game). If things get too intense you can just go invisible and fall back, as well as getting the massive damage bonus.

Mattock is easily the best assault rifle, carnifex is headshot heaven, standard pistol (forget its name) is very light and the mantis is not as bad as people seem to make out (especially since mine is level 7), it head shots just fine.

Ive been pretty unlucky with my spectre packs so far (including the victory pack ) ive got Drell vanguard (who is terrible), asari adept (pretty decent), salarian infiltrator (excellent), the grenade launcher x2 (worst weapon in the game), arc pistol (too heavy) and the carnifex (absolutely fantastic). Im desperate for a widow or black widow and one of those things that lets you reset abilities. Also i never seem to ever get medi-gel, just hundreds of survival packs, rockets and thermal clips (why do they even have those, there are amo crates everywhere). Why cant they let us buy the stuff we want? Id happily pay quadruple if I knew what I was getting.

Why cant they let us fully customise our characters from the word go? Its not like it gives you any kind of advantage.

I am also keen to see DLCs (more maps, mission objectives, weapons, classes, abilities and perhaps enemies).

I wasn't a fan of the mattock, or really any single fire gun. I need lazy-old-people rapid fire or my trigger finger starts to hurt :(

I've got a question for those of you who seem to be more knowledgeable about this than me. Are any of the current characters Uncommon or Rare?

I just unlocked the Quarian Infiltrator and Salarian Engineer as common with Recruit packs today, and was wondering if I can get all of the characters that way.

The Falcon (grenade launcher) used to be completely awesome.

They nerfed it in the patch to knock the firing rate significantly, so now it kinda sucks. I used to use it all the time. Putting Cryo Rounds or Disruptor Rounds... or even Incendiary Rounds was a riot. And you could bounce them under Guadian's shields and around corners.

If they had seriously upped the damage and slowed the rate of fire, I could definitely see that being fair, but alas, it sucks now.

You can get every character out of recruit packs.

Well, there is a chance of getting a Rare in Recruit packs. So... yes?

Chances sorta blow though, since some of the characters are Uncommon and Rare.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Chances sorta blow though, since some of the characters are Uncommon and Rare.

Do you know which characters are Uncommon and Rare?

I can try and rattle off a few from memory, I'm sure you can google a list of em'.

Both of the Quarians are Rare, (Engineer and Infiltrator). The Salarians are Uncommon, (Same classes). The Krogan Soldier is Rare, as is the Asari Adept. Both of the Turians (Soldier and Sentinel) are Uncommon. I think the Drell are Uncommon as well, (Adept and Vanguard).

I could be wrong though, but I'm pretty sure that's right.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I can try and rattle off a few from memory, I'm sure you can google a list of em'.

Both of the Quarians are Rare, (Engineer and Infiltrator). The Salarians are Uncommon, (Same classes). The Krogan Soldier is Rare, as is the Asari Adept. Both of the Turians (Soldier and Sentinel) are Uncommon. I think the Drell are Uncommon as well, (Adept and Vanguard).

I could be wrong though, but I'm pretty sure that's right.

Hmm, I was under the impression that the border around the item you received from the pack indicated its rarity (Blue for Common, Silver/Grey for uncommon). If that is accurate, then the Salarian Engineer and Quarian Infiltrator are definitely common. If that isn't true, well, *shrug*. Thanks for the info Lord of Hats and Chemical Cutthroat!

Yep, the color schemes are correct. There's also a Black N7 border for Ultra-Rares... which is just for weapons, no Characters in that field.

I know the Salarians are both Uncommon, but you can get them in the Recruit packs. If you got them in your starter pack (Free Recruit Pack), then maybe they just default everything to blue? No idea. Anyway, good luck online chief!

vodo40k wrote:I enjoy the multiplayer allot, so far I have got Soldier, Infiltrator and Adept to level 20 and am currently working on engineer. I experimented with vanguard (whom everyone claims is amazing) but its so totally against my play style I just can deal with it . I manage to kill a few, then just get bogged down in enemies (because their shield is so poor) and have to rely on other people wading in to revive me, which i hate.

Human Vanguards aren't amazing. They are easy mode against anything on low difficulty and near useless on high difficulty unless you have support. The strategy is to max Biotic Charge for damage and barrier restoration (IE it restores 100% of your Barrier every time you charge), and Nova for max damage (no half-blasts, and take the increase against armor and shields). Then, you max out Alliance Training and Fitness, and take no weapons that give you less than a 200% cooldown increase. Basically, you biotic charge something to restore your barrier, then nova, then immediately charge, then immediately nova. Rinse and repeat. If you are firing your gun, or put any points into Shockwave, you are doing it wrong. It's a braindead class strategy and it's amusing for about 10 minutes until you play something else on a team that has someone running a Vanguard, and realize you can't get any kills. I stopped playing my Vanguard after that, because it makes lower difficulty no fun for the rest of your team, and on higher difficulty you can't reliably charge something after a nova before the hordes of enemies kill you.

vodo40k wrote:The infiltrator seems to be the best class for me, if your fighting Geth you can use the quarian and spam hack or you can use the salarian and spam energy drain (which is probably the best ability in the game). If things get too intense you can just go invisible and fall back, as well as getting the massive damage bonus.

I just made a Salarian Infiltrator that will be using a shotgun, energy drain and Tactical Cloak. Gonna give it a try this afternoon when I get home. I'm terrible at sniping, so I figure until I get a Black Widow (which makes it a lot easier) I'll try playing a sneaky git with a shotgun that can't die because he drains everything.

vodo40k wrote:Mattock is easily the best assault rifle, carnifex is headshot heaven, standard pistol (forget its name) is very light and the mantis is not as bad as people seem to make out (especially since mine is level 7), it head shots just fine.

A friend of mine speced a Soldier out for rate of fire, and while he loves the Mattock he cannot use it for more than one match before his hand cramps up. The lack of a full auto setting is what turns me off of that gun. I prefer the Vindicator because of the 3 round bursts, but the damage isn't amazing. It's highly accurate though so that's nice.

vodo40k wrote:Why cant they let us fully customise our characters from the word go? Its not like it gives you any kind of advantage.

Look up a "Skinner Box" on the internet and you'll have your answer. Random items rewards with a rarity system is what keeps people coming back for more rather than just maxing out exactly what they want and getting bored with it much more quickly. Every time you sit down to the console and play until you have enough credits for "just one more Spectre Pack" you prove that the system works to keep you playing

Aldarionn wrote:

vodo40k wrote:Mattock is easily the best assault rifle, carnifex is headshot heaven, standard pistol (forget its name) is very light and the mantis is not as bad as people seem to make out (especially since mine is level 7), it head shots just fine.

A friend of mine speced a Soldier out for rate of fire, and while he loves the Mattock he cannot use it for more than one match before his hand cramps up. The lack of a full auto setting is what turns me off of that gun. I prefer the Vindicator because of the 3 round bursts, but the damage isn't amazing. It's highly accurate though so that's nice.

set youre fire button to mousewheel and just wheel away rather than click

Grundz wrote:
set youre fire button to mousewheel and just wheel away rather than click

We play on 360, not PC.

There you go for the list about rarity =)

Common:

Human Vanguard
Human Soldier
Human Infiltrator
Human Engineer
Human Adept
Human Sentinel

Uncommon:

Turian Soldier
Turian Sentinel
Asari Vanguard
Quarian Infiltrator
Drell Adept
Salarian Engineer

Rare:

Krogan Soldier
Krogan Sentinel
Asari Adept
Drell Vanguard
Quarian Engineer
Salarian Infiltrator

Weapons

Common:

M3 Predator (Pistol)
M23 Katana (Shotgun)
M8 Avenger (Rifle)
M92 Mantis (Sniper)
M4 Shuriken (SMG)

Uncommon:

M5 Phalanx (Pistol)
M9 Tempest (SMG)
M27 Scimitar (Shotgun)
M22 Eviscerator (Shotgun)
M96 Mattock (Rifle)
M15 Vindicator (Rifle)
M97 Viper (Sniper)
M29 Incisor (Sniper)
M13 Raptor (Sniper)
M12 Locust (SMG)
Phaeston (Rifle)

Rare:

M6 Carnifex (Pistol)
Arc Pistol (Pistol)
M25 Hornet (SMG)
M300 Claymore (Shotgun)
Disciple (Shotgun)
Geth Plasma Shotgun (Shotgun)
Graal Spike Thrower (Shotgun)
M37 Falcon (Rifle)
M76 Revenant (Rifle)
M98 Widow (Sniper)
Geth Pulse Rifle (Rifle)

N7 - Ultra-Rare:

Scorpion (Pistol)
M99 Saber (Rifle)
M77 Paladin (Pistol)
M11 Wraith (Shotgun)
Black Widow (Sniper)
Javelin (Sniper)
M358 Talon (Pistol)

Nice, cheers for the list. Oh and Paladin is urare, no wonder its my go to pistol., seems amazingly good at lvl 1 compare to some lvl 4 and 5 pistols I have.

Also got the Drell Adept last night, was a quite fun.

The Paladin is a lighter weight, higher damage Carnifex. Holds 4 rounds rather than 6 and packs more punch. I maxed it out in Singleplayer and it is amazing. It puts down everything with zero effort... you just need to make sure you hit it.

I'm not quite sure about the weight of the Paladin. I'm pretty sure it's the same as the Carnifex.
But the Carnifex is more likely to get upgraded. (meaning lighter until both guns are the same level)

As both pistols are basically pocket snipers, I would say go with what you own.
If you have both, try them find out if you prefer bigger punch or bigger ammo count

Don't forget the Predator is still one of the best for the weight =)
and it's quite quick to upgrade.

Sadly no Carnifex in multiplayer yet to compare. Off the URare list I just have the Paladin and Javelin.

Rares, Widow 2, Geth Shotgun, Arc Pistol, Hornet, Claymore 3, Revenent and Geth rifle.

So want the Scorpion though, love that thing in single player.

Aldarionn wrote:

Grundz wrote:
set youre fire button to mousewheel and just wheel away rather than click

We play on 360, not PC.

yeah, then take turian soldier with a smg and both ammo upgrades and go to town... XD

Turian soldier + Revenant + Bronze difficulty = Slaughterfest

Von Skyfury wrote:Turian soldier + Revenant + Bronze difficulty = Slaughterfest

This. I've currently got my Turian Soldier set up for stability and accuracy and I've got a Revnant on him, but I haven't had a chance to run him in a game yet. I'll be trying that out tonight or tomorrow.

Just don't put the stability mod on the revenant =P
Or your aim will actually go down as you shoot with Marksman activated haha

Von Skyfury wrote:Just don't put the stability mod on the revenant =P
Or your aim will actually go down as you shoot with Marksman activated haha

Can you elaborate?

you will get negative vertical recoil =P

You will constantly have to adjust your aim up, instead of down

Usually, if you just hold the trigger, your aim will go to the roof if you don't adjust
With negative vertical recoil, you aim will go to the ground =P


I'm really looking for the right choice of word but it eludes me

If you still don't understand, i'll try to elaborate even more haha

No, I understand what you mean by negative vertical recoil. I'm not understanding why it happens.

When reducing recoil, the game should have an absolute value of 0 for the minimum possible recoil. A negative number should not be possible. Turian stability combined with a stability mod and Marksmanship should just bring that number closer to 0, not below 0 so the gun actually kicks DOWN when firing. That's just silly. If it's doing that, it's likely a bug.

The 33k upgrade is no longer in store ;( It was fantastic.
I really hope they do brute-type events more often.

oh, that's what you meant =P
yeah, probably a bug =P

Still good times blowing up faces with the revenant and the increased rate of fire
Dont forget the ammo capacity upgrade for longer pleasure =P
Can't stand the reload of that gun =P


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm pretty sure they will be doing events every weekend

Macok wrote:The 33k upgrade is no longer in store ;( It was fantastic.

Noooo!! Damn you Bioware.

Hopefully we'll see a return of it eventually, also I'm hoping that when the next event shows up my Net won't be down like last time.

The revenant... is that the assault rifle that shoots little grenades? I have that but I don't really like it :( didn't seem to do enough damage at a distance, and I like to hang back and shoot stuff far away. It just seemed like a shotgun, and I already have a few of those that I never use.

no the grenade one is the Falcon, which was nerfed last week (I never liked it anyway)

The revenant is an assault rifle with resonnably good damage and a good rate of fire, it also sports a clip of... 60 I think ?
Coupled with the Turian Soldier, the gun is a beast (well in bronze, it totally wrecks everything(haven't tried gold yet with this build))

Hmm, gonna have to check my spec. If there is such a thing as too much stability I might just want to spec for rate of fire and call it a day.

Ok the falcon's power has increased
Should be better now =P

Also of interest, the Paladin is heavier but stronger now

Am I the only one who wonders why these guns have recoil at all, when they are shooting some sort of "energy pulse"? Bioware with their Element Zero and Space Magic.

In ME1 the projectiles were extremely small metal shavings cut from a block and shot down a rail line. I believe that's still true.

But yes, I do wonder XD

Yes, they're still like that. Each "clip" is good for like 10,000 rounds or something like that. You're just changing the heat sink now. Back in my day though the heat sink didn't need to be ejected and worked a lot better. I could fire my assualt rifle indefinately. Even though they basically firing pebbles they're going so fast I guess it causes recoil.

vodo40k wrote:Am I the only one who wonders why these guns have recoil at all, when they are shooting some sort of "energy pulse"? Bioware with their Element Zero and Space Magic.

From the Mass Effect Wiki:

"A mass accelerator propels a solid metal slug using precisely-controlled electromagnetic attraction and repulsion. The slug is designed to squash or shatter on impact, increasing the energy it transfers to the target. If this were not the case, it would simply punch a hole right through, doing minimal damage.

Accelerator design was revolutionized by element zero. A slug lightened by a mass effect field can be accelerated to greater speeds, permitting projectile velocities that were previously unattainable. If accelerated to a high enough velocity, a simple paint chip can impact with the same destructive force as a nuclear weapon. However, mass accelerators produce recoil equal to their impact energy. This is mitigated somewhat by the mass effect fields that rounds are suspended within, but weapon recoil is still the prime limiting factor on slug velocity."

So, effectively the weapon is not firing an energy pulse. It's firing a metal slug like anything else, but it's using a Mass Effect Field to lower the relative mass of the object in order to give it a higher muzzle velocity. It doesn't reduce the mass to 0, like a Mass Relay, it just lightens it to allow the electromagnetic firing mechanism to move the slug at greater speeds. Also, as soon as it leaves the muzzle, the Mass Effect Field is no longer active and the slug returns to normal mass. It's just moving insanely fast, and designed to squash or shatter on impact for maximum energy transfer to the target.

Most of it is actually pure physics when you think about it. The slug has mass, and is moving incredibly fast, so recoil is transferred back to the weapon (less than the impact force because of the Mass Effect Field, but still noticeable), and when it impacts the target, the goal is to transfer as much of that kinetic energy as possible, which is true with most modern weapons. A through-and-through does little to no good unless the slug is moving so fast it creates a shockwave capable of stopping the heart (.50 cal sniper rifle) because it just punches a hole and moves on. It's no better or worse than getting stabbed by a thin rod, so unless you hit something vital like the brain or the heart it does minimal damage and the target survives. If the bullet squashes on impact though it transfers all of its kinetic energy to the target and causes massive trauma, which is why hollow point rounds are so devastating. The only "space magic" involved is the Mass Effect Field itself, which allows the projectiles to be much smaller since they are moving much faster and have more kinetic energy. Without that, the guns are effectively miniaturized Rail Guns, which we can make now, just not small enough for conventional use.

Aldarionn wrote:

vodo40k wrote:Am I the only one who wonders why these guns have recoil at all, when they are shooting some sort of "energy pulse"? Bioware with their Element Zero and Space Magic.

From the Mass Effect Wiki:

"A mass accelerator propels a solid metal slug using precisely-controlled electromagnetic attraction and repulsion. The slug is designed to squash or shatter on impact, increasing the energy it transfers to the target. If this were not the case, it would simply punch a hole right through, doing minimal damage.

Accelerator design was revolutionized by element zero. A slug lightened by a mass effect field can be accelerated to greater speeds, permitting projectile velocities that were previously unattainable. If accelerated to a high enough velocity, a simple paint chip can impact with the same destructive force as a nuclear weapon. However, mass accelerators produce recoil equal to their impact energy. This is mitigated somewhat by the mass effect fields that rounds are suspended within, but weapon recoil is still the prime limiting factor on slug velocity."

So, effectively the weapon is not firing an energy pulse. It's firing a metal slug like anything else, but it's using a Mass Effect Field to lower the relative mass of the object in order to give it a higher muzzle velocity. It doesn't reduce the mass to 0, like a Mass Relay, it just lightens it to allow the electromagnetic firing mechanism to move the slug at greater speeds. Also, as soon as it leaves the muzzle, the Mass Effect Field is no longer active and the slug returns to normal mass. It's just moving insanely fast, and designed to squash or shatter on impact for maximum energy transfer to the target.

Most of it is actually pure physics when you think about it. The slug has mass, and is moving incredibly fast, so recoil is transferred back to the weapon (less than the impact force because of the Mass Effect Field, but still noticeable), and when it impacts the target, the goal is to transfer as much of that kinetic energy as possible, which is true with most modern weapons. A through-and-through does little to no good unless the slug is moving so fast it creates a shockwave capable of stopping the heart (.50 cal sniper rifle) because it just punches a hole and moves on. It's no better or worse than getting stabbed by a thin rod, so unless you hit something vital like the brain or the heart it does minimal damage and the target survives. If the bullet squashes on impact though it transfers all of its kinetic energy to the target and causes massive trauma, which is why hollow point rounds are so devastating. The only "space magic" involved is the Mass Effect Field itself, which allows the projectiles to be much smaller since they are moving much faster and have more kinetic energy. Without that, the guns are effectively miniaturized Rail Guns, which we can make now, just not small enough for conventional use.

Ah so they do fire solid projectiles, that makes sense then, I also always wondered how an "energy pulse" could make someones head explode, when it should only burn a small hole. Nice to know not everything involves the use of "Space Magic".

So guns are just tiny mass relays? can you squash your gun with a planet and blow up the whole solar system?

Heh, I doubt the explosion would be anywhere near enough to damage a bedroom, let alone a solar system. The relays have a self-replicating power source capable of reducing the mass of a starship to 0, then throwing it several billion lightyears in the blink of an eye. The gun only needs energy to lower the mass of a paperclip by enough for the magnetic rails to accelerate it to supersonic speeds. Not exactly a dooms day device, or it would be more effective to rig a grenade to your pistol and hurl it at a group of enemies than actually shoot them with it

Not exactly a dooms day device, or it would be more effective to rig a grenade to your pistol and hurl it at a group of enemies than actually shoot them with it

Bullets can be precise. Explosions less so.