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The Blood Pack Punisher is pretty awesome. It's like a buzzsaw on cocaine. The "extra armor piercing round" is quite awesome, as it actually mitigates the recoil of the main rounds.

How? I have no clue, but it does!

The Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle is...strange. It just flat-out destroys shields like they're not even there but is very "eh" against armor. It fires lighting bolts and is fully automatic; and I like shouting that "I AM THOR!" whilst firing it.

OK I watched a few gameplay videos. Gonna have to give these things a go when I get off work. One of the videos that showcased the Harrier and the Punisher had some absolutely awful gameplay in it, so I want to test it out without firing half of my bullets into the ground.

The assault rifle looks.....interesting.

Got an N7 Shadow. Kind of fun but don't think she's that effective on Silver and above because she can't handle the heavy stuff.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Got an N7 Shadow. Kind of fun but don't think she's that effective on Silver and above because she can't handle the heavy stuff.

Oh she can compete. One of the very first solo platinum videos used a Shadow and finished in 45 minutes.

The idea is to spec her for full melee damage, and carry a light weapon like the Piranha, then cloak-shadowstrike-cloak-shadowstrike-repeat. If properly speced, she can 1-shot Phantoms on Gold with a Shadowstrike.

Make sure to take the shield draining evolution, and add the anti-shield/barrier effect to her weapon for maximum damage to shielded targets. Against armor, the Piranha shreds everything with a shredder mod and smart choke. Use it to clean up anything that doesn't die from shadowstrike or against big bosses.

I've actually found her to be incredibly useful against Banshees because of the way she works. When you Shadowstrike, it teleports you to where the target was at the time you activated the power, but there is a delay between when you activate it, and when you hit the target. So if you activate it against a Banshee while she is jumping, you will teleport to where she WAS and hit her for massive damage, leaving you safe from her grabby hands most of the time.

Do not underestimate the Shadow. Use her wisely, and she will take you far.

I guess I was cloaking, shadowstriking then shadowstriking again (cuz you can do two in a row) and that was getting me killed.

Use this build

Maximum melee damage on Sword Mastery, max melee damage on Tactical Cloak, and shield drain for Shadowstrike. I set up Electric Slash for extra damage, but you can just as easily set it up for range. Either way works, really.

For weapons, take a Talon with Melee Stunner and Shredder mod (They are nerfing the Piranha with the balance changes this week so it's probably going to be less useful than something like a Talon), and take all of the melee damage increasing gear you care to use.

For tactics, pick targets wisely. Priority targets should be as follows, in order:

Cerberus - Phantoms > Engineers > Nemesis > Anything Else

Reapers - Marauders > Ravagers > Banshees > Anything Else

Geth - Rocket Troopers > Hunters > Anything Else

For Cerberus, your job is to execute Phantoms before they become a threat to your team, and pick off Engineers before they can lay down turrets. With those two things out of the way, Nemesis should be priority since Shadow Strike can target them around corners. If you are neutralizing those threats while keeping out of the line of fire of Centurions and Assault Troopers, it will make life for your team MUCH easier. Use things like Assault Troopers and Centurions for mobility purposes, IE Shadowstrike them to get out of the line of fire if you are in a bad position, or want to get across the map quickly.

Against Reapers, the biggest threats are Marauders which have ungodly accuracy and damage. Shadowstrike can 1 shot them on Gold with the above configuration as long as you Tactical Cloak, so hitting them is relatively safe. From there, Ravagers are the biggest threat and you have the mobility to hit them from anywhere and avoid their goo and a reasonable weapon to finish them off, but they will not replenish your shields like the other targets I have mentioned. Of course, Banshees are always a priority and as I mentioned earlier it's relatively safe to Shadowstrike them when they are jumping since you will land where they WERE, and hit them anyway.

Geth are probably one of the hardest targets for a Shadow, since they have the most means of seeing through Tactical Cloak. Primes and Hunters both can see through it, and the Prime's Drone can point your location out to others. Rocket Troopers should be your primary target if possible, followed by Geth Hunters, but both targets are dangerous. Both can stagger you during your teleport, ending your Shadowstrike before you do any damage, and Hunters are hard to target in the first place and they travel in packs. Use your mobility and hit-and-run tactics to kill them. Pyros should be avoided if possible. They also travel in packs along with hunters and they kill VERY quickly, so it's extremely dangerous to shadowstrike them directly unless you can catch a straggler or hit them from an angle with a safe retreat.

In any of the above situations it is important to cloak before you shadowstrike, because just performing the shadowstrike alone will NOT break the targets ability to shoot you. It's frustrating as all hell to teleport behind a Phantom only to have her shoot you to death with her Palm Blaster, or melee you the moment you land and follow it up with a synch kill.

Hope that helps!

Hmmmmm.
Managed to play all the way through till Priority:Thessia, without realising that despite thinking that I had, I in fact had not downloaded the Extended Cut. I feel rather silly now.

Also, has the firefight pack appeared for anyone else in europe yet? It has yet to appear for me

@Aldarion: thanks but I only dabble in MP. You guys are crazy for the ME MP!

Goliath wrote:

Also, has the firefight pack appeared for anyone else in europe yet? It has yet to appear for me

Most new downloads appear on Wens but can be delayed a few hours, its there now, downloading it as I type.

ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

FM Ninja 048 wrote:ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?

Just started another run through of ME2
Playing as a female adept, I've never played as an adept on the single player, so has anyone got any tips?
at the moment I've got level 2 warp and singularity, and level one energy drain (I figured that since adept has very little ability to take down shields, I could use it as my bonus power)

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

FM Ninja 048 wrote:ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?

Supposedly, it is something which bugs in a specific set of circumstances.

Goliath wrote:Just started another run through of ME2
Playing as a female adept, I've never played as an adept on the single player, so has anyone got any tips?
at the moment I've got level 2 warp and singularity, and level one energy drain (I figured that since adept has very little ability to take down shields, I could use it as my bonus power)

Keep in cover. Adepts are very squishy. Use your powers wisely.

For ME2: Throw and Shockwave kill Husks/Explodey Husks instantly and have low cooldowns (Throw especially) so these should be choice number one when facing these enemies, Warp is good for pretty much anything and causes Biotic Explosions when used on an enemy affected by Pull and Singularity, Singularity is awesome for dragging enemies out of cover and setting up for Biotic Explosions which hit lots of people, Pull is good to set up for a powerful Throw or a Biotic Explosion.

Singularity/Warp combo is going to be one of your most widely used abilities in ME2. Catch enemies in the Singularity and then detonate it with Warp to do big damage to everybody caught in the explosion.

When you get to pick a weapon on the collector ship Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles are usually the best choice due to their longer range and the aforementioned squishiness of an Adept.

In ME3: Same as before for squishiness. Keep your weapon weight down to lower power cooldowns. A lot more possibilities for Biotic Explosions now (Hooray!). As Throw can cause Biotic Explosions it makes a better choice for a combo move than Warp due to it's lower cooldown. For unprotected enemies (no armour, barriers or shields) Singularity/Throw is the best. For protected enemies you start with a Warp and detonate with a Throw and repeat. Apart from that the tactics are pretty much the same, keep in cover, use the right powers on the right enemies etc.

since nobody's posted it

ME website wrote:Operation OLYMPUS (August 10th-12th)

Increased Reaper activity has been reported around London. Operation OLYMPUS will focus large-scale strikes on the Reapers to buy the Resistance time to investigate.

Squad Goal: Full extraction from Firebase London using any Kit on any difficulty

Allied Goal: Using any Kit/ Map combination against any enemy, complete wave 10 on a combined community total of 200,000 Bronze missions, 175,000 Silver missions and 70,000 Gold missions.

Special Circumstance: None

Squad Goal Success: All squad members awarded a Commendation Pack
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack

Requirement: Mass Effect: Earth must be installed

interesting challange....

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

FM Ninja 048 wrote:ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?

Renegade/Paragon scores actually do not matter in Mass Effect 3. Previously, Renegade and Paragon points were counted separately and if you did not have enough of one type or another, you could not choose the associated reputation choice in conversation. In Mass Effect 3 however, Renegade and Paragon points are represented by a percentage of total "Reputation". Whenever Commander Shepard gains "Reputation", this increases his total reputation score which is used to unlock dialogue options. When Shepard gains "Paragon" or "Renegade" points, these increase his total reputation, but adjust the overall ratio of Paragon and Renegade. So, it is perfectly acceptable to play a Paragon character and choose a Renegade option for dialogue, and the Renegade points you get will just increase your overall reputation, and slightly skew the balance of Paragon/Renegade to the Renegade side. This won't affect your ability to choose further Paragon options, because your total Reputation is what determines if a conversation option is selectable or not. In other words, select the option you think best fits you or the character you are playing, and don't worry about how it affects your Paragon/Renegade slider, because it only changes cosmetic options, and all of the points are simply "Reputation" points.

So, for example, if you did not do every side mission on the Citadel, did not talk to your crew between every mission, and did not select red or blue choices for dialogue where possible, and if you don't take the evolutions in your passive class ability that increase reputation, you very well might not be able to access the final red/blue choices when speaking to The Illusive Man on the citadel, because those choices have a VERY high reputation cap. In fact, if your reputation is low enough, you don't even get the Renegade Interrupt option to shoot The Illusive Man and prevent Anderson from getting executed.

Got a feeling I may need to pass on that event.

Reinstalling ME3 may take a while. Even then I have hardly played ME3 MP for ages.

Aldarionn wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

FM Ninja 048 wrote:ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

That's weird. Sure you weren't more of a renegade guy?

Renegade/Paragon scores actually do not matter in Mass Effect 3. Previously, Renegade and Paragon points were counted separately and if you did not have enough of one type or another, you could not choose the associated reputation choice in conversation. In Mass Effect 3 however, Renegade and Paragon points are represented by a percentage of total "Reputation". Whenever Commander Shepard gains "Reputation", this increases his total reputation score which is used to unlock dialogue options. When Shepard gains "Paragon" or "Renegade" points, these increase his total reputation, but adjust the overall ratio of Paragon and Renegade. So, it is perfectly acceptable to play a Paragon character and choose a Renegade option for dialogue, and the Renegade points you get will just increase your overall reputation, and slightly skew the balance of Paragon/Renegade to the Renegade side. This won't affect your ability to choose further Paragon options, because your total Reputation is what determines if a conversation option is selectable or not. In other words, select the option you think best fits you or the character you are playing, and don't worry about how it affects your Paragon/Renegade slider, because it only changes cosmetic options, and all of the points are simply "Reputation" points.

So, for example, if you did not do every side mission on the Citadel, did not talk to your crew between every mission, and did not select red or blue choices for dialogue where possible, and if you don't take the evolutions in your passive class ability that increase reputation, you very well might not be able to access the final red/blue choices when speaking to The Illusive Man on the citadel, because those choices have a VERY high reputation cap. In fact, if your reputation is low enough, you don't even get the Renegade Interrupt option to shoot The Illusive Man and prevent Anderson from getting executed.

Interesting, and a much better system than the ME2 but still has some problems. Seems like there should be situations where only the Paragon option is unlocked and vice versa.

The idea is that Shepard voices his opinion, and the weight of his reputation makes people consider it more carefully. That opinion can sometimes fall along the Paragon/Renegade axis, but the game lets you make that choice for yourself.

For instance, I play Paragon when interacting with characters that I respect, and Renegade interacting with characters I dislike or hate. When speaking to Garrus, I sometimes alternate between them based on the circumstance. When dealing with my Romantic Interest, I always play Paragon, and I always support them, which should not hurt an otherwise Renegade playthrough by denying me the ability to pick a Renegade option because I didn't completely forsake Paragon choices.

In other words, it's safe to actually roleplay. Rather than pandering to the press in an otherwise Paragon playthrough, I can tell Diana Allers to blow me, and I can deck the Al-Jilani woman for simply annoying me. I can be supportive of Tali, Garrus and Liara who have supported me from the beginning, but keep a firm hand on James and Ashley who show doubt and mistrust.

I personally think it's a much better system all around.

Damn forgot about this, and I'm at work till 10.30pm ish. Might have to ask Aura is she can pop on and do a London mission or two, until she gets a full extraction.

BTW, you can only get 1 commendation pack per operation, right?

if I do 10 full london extractions i'm not going to get 10 commendation packs, correct?

Unfortunately it looks like the weekend event is doomed to fail. As of 7pm last night we were less than 1/3 finished with the community goals. Of course, it barely matters because the victory packs are kinda useless, and as long as you get the squad goal done you get your real reward.

If you want to make damn sure you get a full extraction, do solo bronze with your most effective class (I did it with a Fury) and if you extract at all you get a full extraction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

FM Ninja 048 wrote:BTW, you can only get 1 commendation pack per operation, right?

if I do 10 full london extractions i'm not going to get 10 commendation packs, correct?

Sadly, you are correct. That would be awesome though.

Aww, that sucks

But I'm cool I got two full silver extractions with my Batarian, that subbmission net is soo good.

FM Ninja 048 wrote:ARRRGGHHH!

I just got to the beam rrun on Heroic, after needing about 5 tries to get past the thanix missiles, only to find out I don't have the extended cut installed!!!


But I did get the Bartarian Sentinel, the submission net is awesome, take that phantoms!


Edit: WTF, level 60 paragon shepard doesn't have enough rep/influence to upper left blue the illusive man in the last convo:(

For you to get that option you need to have performed a charm statement EVERY TIME you talk with him. I missed the very first option because I didnt click the investigate equivlent in my first meeting with him on Mars.

Note: I dont know think that if you pick charm or intimidate maters, it only maters that you picked one of them everytime

I did not know that, and it would explain why it worked on my second playthrough but not my first. Interesting!

Aldarionn wrote:

In other words, it's safe to actually roleplay.

Indeed, and that's what matters most. That was basically broken in ME2.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Is it true that Anderson can be saved? If so, how?

Anderson cannot be saved, but you can prevent The Illusive Man from executing him by either talking him down (conversation option) or breaking his hold long enough to shoot him (renegade interrupt), assuming you have the requisite reputation score. If Anderson is not executed, the required War Assets total needed to keep Shepard alive in the Destroy ending is reduced from 5,000 to 4,000. Anderson still dies, but he bleeds out after telling you he is proud of you rather than being executed by The Illusive Man.

Operation Olympus was SOMEHOW a success. No idea how we got it, but people must have really stepped it up on Sunday! Apparently we are getting something special in our victory packs for it. No idea what until I get home.

Free Olympic jump suits with added Gold medals for Shepards casual wear in single player?

Aldarionn wrote:Operation Olympus was SOMEHOW a success. No idea how we got it, but people must have really stepped it up on Sunday! Apparently we are getting something special in our victory packs for it. No idea what until I get home.

It's a guaranteed Rare Gear.