Mass Effect 3 (Seriously, Use Spoilers People!)

[Xeio]

I was playing the other day and a guy came on with 1200 N7 points. How is that even possible?!?! He was also ridiculously good thanks to a viper X, with max barrel and piercing mods. He was 1-shotting things with a multishot rifle which just totally unbalances the game.

Yea, I saw someone with 1k+ points, those people must have a looooot of time on their hands.

I think I still have <100.

[Chen]

Its 1 point per level and another 10 when you promote. So each char you max gets you 30 points. So 33.5 chars leveled to 20 will do it. That shouldn't take all that long especially considering the money you make which gets you more character cards once you've unlocked most of the weapons. Gold games gives something like 250k exp and 70k credits. That adds up pretty quick. Plus at level 1 even a bronze match completion gets you to like level 6 or 7 I think. The next one gets you up to 9-10, it goes pretty quick.

[Weeks]

...is countable on the fingers of my head.

o_O

Is it odd that I like to play an adept in SP with a Javelin?

[An Enraged Platypus]

I hated vanguard after ME1. "Can't lock on" is not an acceptable reason to die, I don't want my ability to survive tied to the caprices of a slightly buggy targeting system. Also, on Hardcore or Insanity, the number of times you can safely charge into a group of enemies and not get squished the second immunity wears off is countable on the fingers of my head.

Although the "Can't lock on" sucks. I found the harder levels easier with Vanguard, not harder especially in ME3. As long as you have near 200% weight bonus, you can charge so much that you never are that much at risk of death. Also proper point placement with Vanguard is vital, you have to allocate as many points to charge and recharge power bonuses. Shockwave and whatnot have to come after.

In ME2, I picked Vanguard for my first run, hated it, and had considerable difficulty completing it on Veteran (stuck with it, though). I went with an Adept for hardcore, which was easier (I AM A BIOTIC GOD), and then for insanity I went solider. It was easier than the Vanguard/Veteran run. Collector with a particle beam? Slow down time, shoot it in the head with the Mantis. Dead. Abomination rising up, about to go boom on your squishy friends? Good luck doing that with no cerebellum, you half-cybernetic freakshow. Eclipse merc? Mantis. No Mantis ammo left? Vindicator. One minute there's a hostile there, the next - shing shing shing- I've scrambled their eggs, and they are toast. For someone with FPS experience, Soldier is easy mode par excellence.

[Feonir]

I have 799 N7 myself on the PC. It isnt all that hard to get a 100 or so N7 pt's in a standard weekend. Do bronze from level 1-10 then silver from 10-15 after which you should have enough skill points to do Geth Gold on Noveria over, and over, and over, and over until you start singing nursery rhymes in a delirious fit with your Black Widow sounding out as rythmic accompanyment.

Also that black widow is goddamn rediculous. With clip mod and barrel extension I can put down a prime in 1.5 clips AKA 5 shots with my geth infiltraitor. Anything else is 2 shots, or 3 if its a laggy game that make all my headshots mean fuck all. Plus there is nothing more hilarious then confusing pubbies with the fact on the cerberus lab level you can murder things through the glass that overlooks the landing bay. Anything with piercing can punch through that glass. So you can wipe out entire waves with impunity without so much as taking a shot in return.

[Xeio]

Wow, falcon is bugged all to hell, half the shots fizzle. It's not even impressive when they hit, but wtf, how can it be so buggy...

[Feonir]

It used to be worse before they turned down its overall firing rate. The trick with the Falcon for MP (never used it for SP because well, Mattock, why use anything else? Which really holds true for MP too.) is to lay off the trigger and use a slower firing rhythm. Every grenade will explode and do a sizable clump of damage, more so with inferno or cryo rounds splattering everything with delicious AoE status effects.

[Chen]

Wow, falcon is bugged all to hell, half the shots fizzle. It's not even impressive when they hit, but wtf, how can it be so buggy...

If you're using the Falcon or Striker host the game yourself or shoot more slowly. It seems to be something of a lag/client synch issue because the problem goes away almost completely if you host.

[ArgonV]

There seem to be some more weird problems sometimes; yesterday I took my Revenant - with warp ammo III, stabilizer V and extended mags V - out for a spin, which meant that sustained fire of 1 clip could strip a Banshee of its barriers. Which I did a couple of times. I was sure I was the only one stripping its barriers, but armor was usually a team effort and the kill went to someone else. So I basically killed 2/3 to 3/4 of a Banshee and got a measly ~300 points or so. Several times.
The opposite also happens, I got 3 shots of at a Brute with a Phalanx with piercing mod and AP ammo. score the killing shot, get 800 points. That's just weird.

But thanks for the advice, I'll try hosting next time I use the Striker.

[Yakk]

There is serious decay in how many points an attack is worth. The killing blow is worth a lot. And there might be some decay over time term as well, where if you damaged something long ago it counts for less, but I'm not sure.

It does make some sense, because a creature that is 90% dead is just as effective offensively. (The banshee and hunter are exceptions, because I think their behavior changes when they are down to health/armor (I know the hunter loses cloak, I don't know for certain about the banshee)).

[maybeagnostic]

I think stripping shields and barriers gives you way fewer points than doing health and armor damage even though it is just as difficult. Points might also depend on how many people are attacking it- say I did 75% of all damage; I get almost all points if I land the killing blow, much fewer if someone else kills it... maybe I get even fewer points if two or three other people damage it after me?

[Chen]

I think stripping shields and barriers gives you way fewer points than doing health and armor damage even though it is just as difficult. Points might also depend on how many people are attacking it- say I did 75% of all damage; I get almost all points if I land the killing blow, much fewer if someone else kills it... maybe I get even fewer points if two or three other people damage it after me?

Shields and Barriers regenerate so I think the diminishing points makes sense. Its probably simpler to code than making it so that the first time you take the shields down you get full points and no points thereafter.

[ArgonV]

Operation SILENCER

Cerberus defectors have verified key intel on Reaper banshees to help provide us a vulnerability to exploit. Banshees are created from a specific kind of asari that cannot be replaced quickly, so we are diverting forces to focus on an all-out banshee extermination effort.

This task is an onerous one, and many of you are right to dread contact with these particular foes, but rest assured that we are prepared to reinforce your battalion with reserves. The vorcha want in, and as soon as they complete combined-arms training with our technically-skilled personnel, we will let them loose.

It’s time to make our enemies scream.

Allied Goal: Kill 3,000,000 banshees
Squad Goal: Survive until a full extraction on any map against any enemy on gold difficulty.

Successful completion of the allied goal will grant all players a Victory Pack.
Successful completion of the squad goal will grant all squadmates a Commendation Pack.

So what? Vorcha DLC?

[omgryebread]

Okay I might log onto multiplayer if I could play as a vorcha.

[Chen]

Bioware needs to stop doing weekends that reward people from finishing Gold Missions. You get an absurd amount of underprepared people logging in just to get their commendation pack and making many gold games either fail outright or result in the rest of the team having to carry the people not ready for it. The Silver weekends were a much better idea.

[Yakk]

Annoyingly, finding good players to play gold period is getting harder as well.

I remember being able to find teams that knew where to go, and would let the enemy come to the meat grinder rather than be an idiot and get flanked all over the map.

Now, even if I tell people "come over here, and defend this", if they do go over there, they start running off like headless chickens. And while this works on wave 1, by wave 5 we end up with dead people in deathtrap rooms, and it is a complete disaster by wave 8.

[SlyReaper]

Do you still get the commendation pack if you fail the gold match?

[Yakk]

Do you still get the commendation pack if you fail the gold match?

Hmm. You mean, fail but do not die? That's tricky.

[SlyReaper]

Well I mean, do you have to complete the allied goal AND the squad goal, or can you just do one or t'other?

[ArgonV]

Well I mean, do you have to complete the allied goal AND the squad goal, or can you just do one or t'other?

If everyone combined kill 3.000.000 Banshees, you get the Victory pack
Survive a Gold round and you get a Commendation pack

If Gold isn't the proper challenge, what would be? I mean, surviving Silver is easy enough. Gold is very tricky (except op White)

I also think Reactor is my most hated map ever.

[Chen]

If everyone combined kill 3.000.000 Banshees, you get the Victory pack
Survive a Gold round and you get a Commendation pack

If Gold isn't the proper challenge, what would be? I mean, surviving Silver is easy enough. Gold is very tricky (except op White)

I also think Reactor is my most hated map ever.

Gold is a proper challenge. The problem is what ends up happening is people who have no business playing gold (because of bad guns/levels or bad skill) come play it on these weekends which just makes the rest of the team either fail or have to carry them (making things much more difficult than usual).

@Yakk I suspect the multiplayer is getting less popular now that a lot of people have unlocked all they want. There's not a huge variety of levels or enemies so it can get somewhat boring after a while. I imagine without more DLC it'll continue to empty out (especially with Diablo 3 coming out next week).

[SlyReaper]

That's why I don't play gold. I don't want to be a hindrance or a dead weight to an otherwise competent team. Frankly, I haven't the faintest idea what character or weapon types I should use in a given situation. I usually just go with a krogan vanguard with a shotgun in silver and bronze, but I don't think that would work in gold.

[ArgonV]

Same here. I'm willing to try gold, but only if I know I have a good team. I think I'm good enough to try, but out of the 3 times I tried gold, 2 were a total catastrophe.

Also, uncommon weapon mods are apparently very hard to get. I have all the weapons, bought 8 Veteran packs and I only got character upgrades. Guess I'll be moving on to Spectre Packs now.

[Yakk]

The most successful gold runs where a simple formula:

1) Find a spot that the enemies wouldn't spawn behind. (note that the spawing AI seems to make enemies NOT spawn where you are)
2) Get cover from incoming attack vectors.
3) Kill the incoming enemies.

Only change this pattern when you have to defend a location. Those are the hardest missions.

I'm not really sure what a vanguard should do in a gold mission with this setup. Cover is so important, and vanguards simply don't use cover.

(I usually play my Asari adept in gold. Find a location with a nice long firing zone, and chain-stasis and biotic-boom incoming enemies. Die instantly if I get flanked.)

[mosc]

Same here as well on the gold stuff. I haven't "promoted" either, I don't understand fully how that works or what it entails. I thought it was a buff to starting a new single player game in that class but apparently not.

[Yakk]

Promoting deletes all characters in that class, gives you 75 readiness points in single player, and gives you N7 rating.

That's it.

Really, it is a way to enjoy releveling a class from level 1, or a "cheaper" way to reset a character's build than the rare-consumable spec resets.

[mosc]

aaand we all know how useful readiness points are... Swell. So, when is Diablo 3 coming out again?

[Yakk]

Do you enjoy leveling characters? If so, promotion is useful.

Do you like having a high N7 rating? If so, promotion is useful.

Otherwise, it isn't.

Everything is just numbers on a wall, after all.

[Menacing Spike]

Everything is just numbers on a wall, after all.

Actually, it's a pattern of magnetic orientations on a platter.

[VectorZero]

Bits in the cloud. Like tears in the rain.

[SlyReaper]

Okay, I'm going to try a gold match at the weekend. Any suggestions on what I could bring to the party? The only character class I lack is Asari adept.

[skeptical scientist]

Okay, I'm going to try a gold match at the weekend. Any suggestions on what I could bring to the party? The only character class I lack is Asari adept.

Yakk has some good advice above.

I hear he really likes the Asari adept.

[Chen]

Aside from the Asari Adept I'd have to say Human Sentinel or Salarian Infiltrator are the strongest classes. Human Sentinel can Warp/Throw for all the detonations you need which is very strong on Gold. Salarian Infiltrator is just a monster on any difficulty. Cloak->Energy Drain/Proximity Mine->Fire (if you have a single shot sniper rifle) is ridiculously strong. With a Mantis X that still kills most regular enemies on gold (exceptions being I believe Geth Hunters and Pyros which take an extra shot).

Yakk is right about gold. You hide hope things don't flank you and win. The goals are the hardest part. Killing enemies goal is easy. Holding a location can either be easy or ridiculously difficult depending on where it is. Same with the 4 terminals though these can be done by a infiltrator pretty easily. The biggest problem with the location goals (hacking or terminals) is when they spawn in an area away from your camping spot. This usually means they're right on a spawn point which in the later rounds of gold mean by the time you safely get there its completely overrun with enemies. Useful to save a missile or two for that.

Alternatively for the gold weekend you can just do a Firebase White/Geth run (there are tons). Go to the room at the bottom of the map have people hide behind the L shaped desks and just wait for the Geth to come to you. Only real threats are the Primes which will advance past the desks. Most of the rest will advance to the desks and you can just grab and insta kill them (every now and then a hunter can get by if the team is slow at killing).

[maybeagnostic]

I'd add salarian engineer to the list of gold-appropriate characters. A bit underpowered compared to the others in general but a salarian infiltrator/engineer combo can completely destroy geth on gold. The drain is good for obvious reasons and the decoy is critical for drawing off geth hunters and primes- it almost guarantees that your team will never get overrun. Firebase White/Geth with everyone hiding in the room downstairs is probably the surest way to win a gold game although that's usually because the host knows what they're doing and wants a safe game.

The one class I have never seen be useful in a gold game is the vanguard. The one exception was probably a vanguard with N7 Valiant X + level III weapon and ammo equipment who only ever charged enemies that were about to overrun our position and immediately got back under cover. Even then he would be shot down half the time he charged. I thought he was a soldier until wave 7 or 8.

[ArgonV]

Ok, so the advice for gold is cower in a corner with your back to the wall, kill everything that gets near. Right, gotcha

My asari adept with stasis bubble, warp biotic splosion booster and max shields/health would be a good choice then?

[maybeagnostic]

Personally, I think the asari adept is the most powerful against non-geth. She's also really good against geth but is eclipsed by the salarian engineer.

P.S. Also, I am maybeagnostic on Origin. Feel free to add me. I am usually up for a gold game whenever I am around.

[Yakk]

I have 0 toughness increase on my adept. And everything else maxed. (If something more than stray bullets hit me, I'm screwed -- but 50% more shields/health won't make much difference in my screwedness).

Warp/Throw is the highest damage output combo in the game at gold. Stasis doesn't work on armored targets, and you need to be able to drop armored targets. (Stasis's refresh is so long, I only use it in emergencies -- ie, when a cloaked hunter is closing in on me and I need to stop it, or 3 rocket troopers are massed at a ladder.

[Chen]

Personally, I think the asari adept is the most powerful against non-geth. She's also really good against geth but is eclipsed by the salarian engineer.

P.S. Also, I am maybeagnostic on Origin. Feel free to add me. I am usually up for a gold game whenever I am around.

Asari adept is slightly weaker than Human Sentinel vs Reapers I find. Stasis is pretty pointless in a reaper match anyway so tech armor + more health is better I find (both have the devastating Warp/Throw combo). Both the Geth and Salarian Infiltrator are very strong too. The combo of proximity mine + Cloaked shot is devastating if you have the 20% increased damage taken evolution of the mine. Its a bit tricky to aim though. The Salarian is particularly good because Engergy drain staggers pretty much any normal enemy which makes headshots much easier.

[An Enraged Platypus]

That's why I don't play gold. I don't want to be a hindrance or a dead weight to an otherwise competent team. Frankly, I haven't the faintest idea what character or weapon types I should use in a given situation. I usually just go with a krogan vanguard with a shotgun in silver and bronze, but I don't think that would work in gold.

Same here. I'm willing to try gold, but only if I know I have a good team. I think I'm good enough to try, but out of the 3 times I tried gold, 2 were a total catastrophe.

Also, uncommon weapon mods are apparently very hard to get. I have all the weapons, bought 8 Veteran packs and I only got character upgrades. Guess I'll be moving on to Spectre Packs now.

You're both on PC? I could hook you up with a couple competent squadmates this weekend. The key to Gold is sticking together and holding the line somewhere where you don't get flanked.

[Yakk]

Tech armor slows down power use. Bad bad!

Stasis is pretty pointless in a reaper match anyway

I dunno. Kill a honeypot, drop a stasis bubble, then blow everything up.

Admittedly, only husks/cannibals/marauders are stasis-bait for reapers. And idiotic allies who shoot targets who are freshly stasised are everywhere. (Protip: everyone who can stasis bubble can also biotic explode. So unless there are no other targets and you can one-shot the target, let them burn 1.5 seconds of cooldown to create a huge biotic explosion.)