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Ald:

We gonna get our game on tonight?

Sorry, I had a long, crappy day at work yesterday and didn't feel like doing anything that involved mental input, so I watched Netflix all night.

I'm sure I will be on this weekend though.

Excellent!

Reportedly, we might have a double credit weekend so...

Golds for Credits!

Double credits!? Oh hell yes!

Wow I may have to go get a few games then lol.

Speaking of turrets

Why do they still not count as an enemy for Round End?

So annoying to think "Oh I'm safe now" and then all I hear is BRBRBRBRBR

Because the Combat Engineer is the enemy, not the Turret. For example, if I am the only person alive during a wave and I'm playing a Geth Engineer with an active Geth Turret when I die, the Geth Turret remains active after my death but we still fail the mission.

Gah, my net connection is doing my head in, thats two games I've been kicked from due to lost connection. Might try again later.. but blegh.

Do I keep the xp bonus for doing up to lvl 3, might have gained something if nothing else?

Unfortunately no, you do not keep the XP. If you DC you lose everything.

There seems to be an overly large number of disconnects after the recent patch BioWare released with the Earth DLC. I wonder if something specific in the update is causing instability, and if avoiding it will help avoid disconnecting.

Was it on Rio with a Slayer or Fury in the party, MDS?

Once in London, once in Rio.

London was a pain as we where on wave 5, had ended up in the middle of the map, killed a Marauder and turned to help a Krogan against a Brute, my shield popped and crash.

Rio was the second Wave I think, after London I was ticked but thought it was a once off. Near the bridge/ramp? (not sure first time there) and blegh, off again.

Assumed it was my net connection, if there are issues, I'm a little happier, but still do'h.

On Rio, what can happen is that a Slayer or Fury uses their dodge in certain locations--it registers as something bizarre with the game and forces them back to the original spawn.

It then will crash the game for the non-host and Slayer/Fury players.

So I'm bored at work and thought I would give a rundown of my opinions on the new classes for those that have not unlocked them yet.

N7 Fury Adept - I'm still figuring this class out. When I first unlocked it I thought the obvious build would be Dark Channel + Throw spam, but in practice that seems an underwhelming combination. The damage of that explosion is VERY sub par. Not at all like the single player version. Dark Channel certainly does a lot of damage over time (One casting kills Ravagers, and two castings kills Brutes), and the ability to jump to a new target when the original dies is nice, but for it to be truly useful the Biotic Explosions need to do more damage. In light of that, the skill to use seems to be the Annihilation Field, but I am still having trouble wrapping my head around this one. It's a very close range power, necessitating a CQC style of play, but on a character that is relatively fragile except for mobility, and that mobility consumes her Barrier.

Personally I think a 6/3/6/5/6 build will probably be the best option, with only 3 points spent in Dark Channel, but it will take some skill in order to weave in and out of enemy groups allowing the Annihilation Field to prime targets for Biotic Explosions detonated with Throw. If anyone else has commentary on how to use a build like this to better effect, feel free to add to this post, because I'm still practicing.

N7 Destroyer Soldier - Topping the list of characters for my personal favorite, tied with the Demolisher, the N7 Destroyer is an absolute monster if you completely ignore his Missile Launcher. That one power is pretty much useless due to low damage, poor firing mechanics, and the fact that it halves your maximum shields and fires completely on auto rather than at the direction of its controller. It will need a serious buff to make it useful.

The rest of the class, however, is pure gold. Devastator Mode can either give massive firepower or near indestructibility depending on how you allocate points, but at the cost of reduced movement speed. This would be a problem except that it makes the class completely immune to stuns and staggers. Rocket Troopers? Primes? Hunters? No problem! The Destroyer gives no f***s and just keeps on shooting. Additionally, the Multiple Frag Launcher is a thing of beauty. It fires much like Ballistic Blades, except instead of firing a close ranged hail of needles, it fires a medium ranged hail of grenades in a reasonable spread capable of carpet bombing an entire group of enemies.

Currently I am using the Cerberus Harrier on this character, but it was made to use the new Typhoon. Unfortunately I don't have that gun yet, but a friend of mine does and it's an absolutely brutal combo. It blows through ammo at a staggering rate, but is capable of shredding just about anything in short order. Even with the Harrier the class is a beast, and so far my favorite soldier of them all. I have yet to try this guy with the Hurricane, but I've heard that there is a bug with the firing mechanics that can cause auto-reload to not function if there is an odd number of bullets in the clip (Due to Devastator Mode's percentage based capacity increase). I'll have to test it out when I get the chance.

N7 Demolisher Engineer - My other favorite class so far. She seems purpose-built to use the Harrier, because the Supply Pylon completely negates that weapons biggest flaw, which is low spare ammunition. There are most certainly other weapons that she can make excellent use of, but so far the Harrier is my favorite. The Supply Pylon can be set up to either increase grenade/ammunition output, or increase shields/damage of nearby teammates. Personally I'm selfish and set it up for the first option, and keep it nearby and hog the ammo/grenades for myself.

Her other powers are Arc Grenades and Homing Grenades. Arc Grenades are nothing new, but Homing Grenades are kind of interesting. They can deal reasonable damage to armor, and superior damage to unshielded targets. They can also be aimed around walls much like Throw or Lash, making them very useful for picking off targets like Nemesis. They are kinda underwhelming compared to Arc Grenades, but having them at your disposal is nice. Both grenade types use the same pool of grenades, so you can pick and choose which ones you want to use without having to worry about not having the one you will need later, and with all of the grenade upgrades and a Grenade Mod, this class is capable of carrying 13 grenades, though I use a Warfighter Package (currently rank IV) and have 10, which seems to be plenty.

N7 Paladin Sentinel - I'll be blunt. If you want to kill things, do not use this class. It's pretty terrible at dealing damage, and currently Incinerate is incapable of detonating Snap Freeze, which is crippling to the Paladin. It can be useful as a mobile Decoy, but when the Omni-Shield is active it cannot move, fire or use powers, making it somewhat cumbersome to use, especially if you have a highly mobile team. I used it in a couple of games and then shelved it, never to be used again.

Some positives of the class are that Snap Freeze can be fired through walls and ignores Phantom's immunity bubble and Barrier, the standard melee strike is reasonably fast and does decent damage, and the shield has over 5,000 disposable hit points capable of absorbing an Atlas Missile without transferring any damage to you. Sadly, the negatives outweigh these in my opinion and I cannot see this class being viable on any reasonable difficulty without a significant buff. Additionally, it's kinda disappointing that this character is a "Sentinel," except it does not have a Biotic power of any kind. Effectively it's just another Engineer.

N7 Shadow Infiltrator - The Shadow is definitely a lot of fun. Shadow Strike does ungodly amounts of damage and acts as a melee attack, meaning it bypasses Shield Gate, benefits from melee damage gear and weapon mods, and if used under the effects of Tactical Cloak it can 1-shot a Phantom at full health/barrier on Gold difficulty (Haven't tried it on Platinum, so I don't know if it can 1HK on that difficulty). The class also has superior mobility, with a dodge much like the Drell characters and reasonable movement speed, making it tough to kill if you keep moving. Electric Slash is also a nice addition, giving some area-effect/crowd-control potential to the otherwise single-target class.

The one downside I have seen so far is that Shadow Strike doesn't seem to do a good job of protecting you from enemy fire. Ostensibly it's supposed to make you invisible while you jump behind the target for a massive melee attack, except that enemies can see and damage you perfectly well during the entire animation. You might be able to 1HK a Phantom, but the entire time you are moving up to her she can hit you with her palm blaster, and unless she was focusing on something else she will kill you. This can be gotten around by always using Tactical Cloak while out of Line of Sight of your target before activating Shadow Strike, but it's a step that should not be required considering the nature of the ability. If they fix this, the class will be exceptional.

N7 Slayer Vanguard - Probably the most fun I've had with a class so far. The Slayer's melee capabilities are very amusing indeed, and the wanabee Palm Blaster does reasonable damage if used correctly. The most interesting feature of this character is its ability to teleport when dodging and making melee attacks. Indeed, it's capable of phasing through walls and up or down levels in the blink of an eye. This teleportation affords the class some excellent protection since it seems to have in-built invulnerability frames when using the regular melee strike. The addition of a Shockwave equivalent gives the Slayer an impressive bag of tricks that allow it to be a master of battlefield control. Charging in to melee to deliver a whirlwind of attacks, then dodging through a wall and firing off several Biotic Slashes to kill the remaining enemies is a lot of fun, if not the highest damage potential in the game. This is definitely a class worth playing.

If anyone has anything else to add, feel free. I'm still getting acquainted with all of the new abilities this DLC provided so I'm sure there are some impressive combos yet to be discovered.

It dosent look like ill be able to play properly untill they fix the disconnecting issue. I had 30 seconds left of a gold game and it disconnected. I wouldnt care so much if I still got my credits/kept my equipment.

The disconnects are definitely a problem, but I have found that if you are in a private game and DC as the host, you can re-join the game and it will allow you to finish with full credits awarded, and your consumables will still be active when you return.

So the solution is to host your own games and play with people you know. After the room fills up, re-set the game to private and if you DC as host, re-join your friend in progress to finish your game. This happened to us the other night. Kanluwen was there so he can attest to the fact that it works. I came back and my score was in tact, and my consumables were all still there. At the end, I was awarded full credits.

I'm very sad, Ald, that you did not mention that the Demolisher can be described in one word as Shiv put it.

"Grenadetastic!"

Also:
The Demolisher can set up her own Tech Bursts, if you spec into the damaging 5th evolutions rather than the capacity.

Otherwise, Ald is spot on. And are we gonna try to play some today?
I want to get some more packs on my birthday.

I'll likely play a few tonight. I'm working for another hour and then I'll need to get some food, but after I have dinner I'll be up for some games. I would like a few more chances at a Typhoon.

You and me both.

I got another frickin' Particle Rifle.

BAHAHAHAHAHA!

BALANCE CHANGE DAY! Yay!

Derek Hollan wrote:July 24, 2012
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Krysae Sniper Rifle
- Damage decreased from [476.0-595.0] to [429.0-548.0]
- Rate of fire decreased from [50] to [35]
- Recoil Increased from [5.0] to [10.0]
- Zoom Recoil Increased from [3.0] to [5.0]
- Total ammo dropped from [9-21] to [9-18]

N7 Typhoon
- Distance Penetration decreased from 100cm to 25cm

Cobra Missile Launcher
- Rate of fire decreased from 140 to 50
- Charge up behavior disabled to fix rocket glitch

- Fix for some uncommon gear not showing up in Spectre + Spectre Premium packs
- Increased XP bonus for common characters in Spectre + Spectre Premium from 62.5k to 250k XP
- Enemies in Gold and Platinum will stomp downed players now

Yay Krysae nerf!
Yay Cobra Missile change!
Yay gear change!
Yay increased XP bonus!
Kinda/Sorta Yay for enemies in Gold/Platinum stomping downed players!

Ehhhh okay for the Typhoon inherent penetration decrease!

Bah, that Krysae nerf was entirely too heavy handed. It works out to roughly a 35% DPS nerf and puts the gun firmly in the bottom tier of weapons (second lowest DPS in the game), meaning the only viable snipers are once again the Valiant and the Black Widow. I am disappoint. That was not the way to fix the Krysae.

The nerf to the Typhoon is pretty bad too. Before it could function without a pen mod through light cover. Now it needs the pen mod to be effective, which lowers the weapons overall DPS. It's still a very good weapon, but it effectively means it must use the same two mods as every other assault rifle, so it's kinda boring.

The fix for the missile glitch is......interesting. They changed the firing mechanic of the gun and increased the ROF so it's basically the same as it was, but it simply fires when you push the button now. That's going to take some getting used to.

Aldarionn wrote:Bah, that Krysae nerf was entirely too heavy handed. It works out to roughly a 35% DPS nerf and puts the gun firmly in the bottom tier of weapons (second lowest DPS in the game), meaning the only viable snipers are once again the Valiant and the Black Widow. I am disappoint. That was not the way to fix the Krysae.

Probably not, but I tried it out on Silver and didn't see a huge difference.

The nerf to the Typhoon is pretty bad too. Before it could function without a pen mod through light cover. Now it needs the pen mod to be effective, which lowers the weapons overall DPS. It's still a very good weapon, but it effectively means it must use the same two mods as every other assault rifle, so it's kinda boring.

It had the same penetration as a Javelin.

In no way, shape, or form was that remotely acceptable. Now it's down to Black Widow levels of penetration.

That said, I think the Typhoon was intended to be the "perfect place" for the Assault Rifle High Velocity Barrel(Piercing and Damage Bonus) but since we don't have the barrel yet...

The fix for the missile glitch is......interesting. They changed the firing mechanic of the gun and increased the ROF so it's basically the same as it was, but it simply fires when you push the button now. That's going to take some getting used to.

It did in the matches I played...but I really like it now.

Oh I agree that it should have less pen than the Javelin, but closer to the Widow. The Black Widow's penetration is something of a joke, and only useful against Guardians and very light cover.

Aldarionn wrote:Oh I agree that it should have less pen than the Javelin, but closer to the Widow. The Black Widow's penetration is something of a joke, and only useful against Guardians and very light cover.

Honestly, I think having it at Black Widow levels of penetration is perfect.

It shouldn't be firing through as much cover as a Javelin or Widow, but it should still be effective against cover.

Check this thread out on the BSN.

I actually watched the whole video and I must say it's got some excellent insight into how to play that class and use that map. I think I'll be testing out some solo runs on Giant soon.

Operation OVERWATCH (July 27th 10AM PDT – July 30th 5AM PDT)

Operation OVERWATCH drops troops on Earth to tackle the most secure Reaper strongholds. Reaper anti-air defense will make for high-risk shuttle extractions.

Squad Goal: Extraction on any difficulty with at least one squad member using an Earth Pack character

Allied Goal: Extract 800,000 individual players on any difficulty, with each live member counting toward the goal.

Squad Goal Success: All squad members awarded a Commendation Pack.
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack that includes a new Earth character.

Special Circumstance: Extraction time lengthened due to failure of Operation BROADSIDE.

Requirement: Mass Effect: Earth must be installed to earn these rewards.

Ald...
All N7 Silver/Gold match.
Me Paladin, you and Mackey Destroyer/Demo, Eddie with...well, whatever Eddie has.

We're gonna hold that line and stomp it like we're bosses?

OOH! Oh yeah, so the BioWare forums now have a countdown timer on there for the Operation start!
When the Operation starts, it'll countdown towards the ending!

Indeed, I saw the timer. That's a nice addition!

I will definitely rock a Destroyer or a Demolisher for an N7 curbstomp match. I don't know what Eddie has but I think he has at least ONE N7 character.

Also, from the BioWare official response to questions regarding the operation, both the allied and squad goals require at least one N7 character in the party, and both can be done on any difficulty/map with any form of extraction. So for the allied goal, we must have at least one N7 character in the match for our extracted characters to count toward the goal, and in the squad goal, at least one squad member must be N7 and at least one person must extract.

That said, I would like to go for full extractions every time to avoid problems and have the highest possible contribution to the allied goal.

Mackey and I played some Silvers, and he suggested we do an all Destroyer match.

Multi-frags everywhere!

I'm cool with that, though not sure if Eddie has a Destroyer or not.

Saw a video on the BSN of a nice reliable spot to hold the line on Fire Base Rio and it can be done with any well designed team of characters. They were doing Platinum difficulty and it looked to be a reasonable strategy for it, so I'll have to talk to the group about giving it a try.

I'm concerned about Eddie joining us though, because he is relatively new to Multiplayer and he doesn't seem to understand a lot of the concepts we take for granted. Perhaps we could try it on Gold first and see how we do.

I was actually thinking we could start with Silver and do London.