Mass Effect 3 (Seriously, Use Spoilers People!)

[Dark567]

KROGAN VANGUARD is in the new DLC.

I am pleased.

[ArgonV]

KROGAN VANGUARD is in the new free DLC.

I am pleased.

Fixed that for you



Also, two new maps

[An Enraged Platypus]

They are just trying to make the ending up to us. Bet you a shiny dollar they never would have made this free were it not for the ending furore.

I'm still stoked for it though.

[SlyReaper]

No Hanar character?

[Xeio]

Would a hanar get to summon drell assassins at will?

[VectorZero]

Geth do not infiltrate...

[ArgonV]

Geth do not infiltrate...

Well, not intentionally...

[VectorZero]

I'll set 'em up, you knock 'em down...

Anyway, Asari justicar adept? Don't we already have that? The battlemaster is just fixing a hole that should've been filled day1. The rest are cool though; wouldn't have thought batarians would've gotten the nod.

Cost wise, theyre probably hoping to make it up on spectre pack purchases.

Would a hanar get to summon drell assassins at will?

Nah, it's just a big stupid jellyfish.

[Belial]

I'm not sure how they were gonna charge for multiplayer DLC anyway, unless they were gonna give you the unlocks automatically.

[VectorZero]

One thing that would've tied up the story nicely would've been the final scene being Normandy crashing on Mars (putting aside the whole garden world thing): the two moons made me think of it. Brings the tale full circle back to where it chronologically started, with the discovery of the Prothean ruins.

Incidentally, something that always gave me the shits during the game: wrong loading screens. Particularly the Normandy going through a mass relay when entering a new system within the existing cluster.

[omgryebread]

The news post that goes along with that Penny Arcade comic is actually really interesting.

It occurred to us that, like the Council of Elrond, we had the power to unite the mortal races against a common foe. We could just make our own new ending everyone could rally around.

The official line has shifted from “our endings are invincible chocolate platinum” to “okay, let’s talk about the endings later, after more people have finished it.” Personally, I’m still hooked on the Indoctrination theory; I like creeping, gnawing ideas of this kind, ones that call the understood narrative into question. The first Force Unleashed did that especially well.

I’ve been in the habit of making things for public consumption so long now that a lot of the mystery that is bound up in Creative Endeavor evaporates. Patrick Rothfuss had me on as a “beta tester” for Wise Man’s Fear, which I was more than happy to do: I wrote NO in thick black sharpie over entire pages, and I think I even shook my fist at one point at an impotent God. I don’t know how the book turned out because I never read the “real” version, but this very act horrified Gabriel. He thinks of books as being Absolute Things, like Sandwiches, as opposed to something that vibrates or shifts in any particular. I didn’t find it particularly weird, but you come into this stuff with a lot of your own shit. Perspective is, to him, more or less inviolate. That’s something I get.

When it comes to Mass Effect 3, certainly they have the “right” however vaguely enumerated to make what they want, and those who consume it have the “right” however vaguely enumerated to say that what they have done is wrong/bullshit/authentically evil. These “rights” don’t necessarily overlap: they exist as perfect spheres, bouncing off one another in space. Creating or critiquing is just a way to pass the time until you die. I won’t say ne’er the twain shall meet, but they might not, and they don’t have to.

Ownership is a very complicated business when it comes to cultural product, though. They succeed by virtue of the fact that we, as players, incorporate these stories into our lives. I’ve always wondered what the conflux of digital goods, interactive storytelling, algorithmic content creation, and democratized funding mean for an idea like authorship. I think we’re beginning to find out.

(CW)TB out.

[Dark567]

Fixed that for you



Also, two new maps

Okay, is Bioware too cheap to turn their spellchecker off? WTF.

[An Enraged Platypus]

Okay, is Bioware too cheap to turn their spellchecker off? WTF.

More worryingly, BioWare assembled their promo material on Word?

My bet is they got an unpaid intern to do it, an intern whose reference will be less than glowing.

[Yakk]

I'm not sure how they were gonna charge for multiplayer DLC anyway, unless they were gonna give you the unlocks automatically.

The unlock could include a bunch of packs with some guaranteed classes. Or even the ability to pick one class and weapon to unlock. Or maybe it would unlock the common classes, give you a random uncommon, and let the rares show up in your packs.

[ArgonV]

Does anyone else get an audio bug that sounds like a weird humming noise that drowns out everything else whenever Drell Adepts are playing in your team? I'm guessing it's a bug with one of their biotic powers.

Also, Mantis + shredder upgrade is an excellent poor man's Widow.

[VectorZero]

Infiltrator, cryo blast, scoped Saber. Good times.

How do people play engineer? I've been running it as a poor man's Adept with a shuriken VII, spamming warp and throw with a low recharge, but I might as well just play the Adept.

[SlyReaper]

Does anyone else get an audio bug that sounds like a weird humming noise that drowns out everything else whenever Drell Adepts are playing in your team? I'm guessing it's a bug with one of their biotic powers.

Also, Mantis + shredder upgrade is an excellent poor man's Widow.

I've only noticed it when I myself am playing a drell adept.

[Yakk]

My Salarian engineer carries a sniper rifle. I use decoy to draw fire (it is ridiculously good at it -- it is the closest thing to healing in the game, drawing fire), overload to stun enemies or draw them out of cover, then snipe them to death.

[Ryom]

Does anyone else get an audio bug that sounds like a weird humming noise that drowns out everything else whenever Drell Adepts are playing in your team? I'm guessing it's a bug with one of their biotic powers.

Also, Mantis + shredder upgrade is an excellent poor man's Widow.

It's REAVE, and it's a bug. Bioware devs said it's fixed in the next patch.

[VectorZero]

How do people play engineer? I've been running it as a poor man's Adept with a shuriken VII, spamming warp and throw with a low recharge, but I might as well just play the Adept.

Crap. I meant sentinel. Engineer's awesome, especially with upgraded rocket-shooting drones.

[Yakk]

My Turian Sentinal activates 45% damage reduction tech armor and pulls out his sniper rifle with a backup shotgun and goes to town.

He has an overload in his back pocket with a ridiculously long reuse time that he uses on the occasional Banshee or Phantom and the like.

With maxed out HP/shields, weapon damage bonuses, and really heavy guns, he can take hits from rocket troopers (or equivalent) without blinking.

[ArgonV]

Same here, my Sentinel carries a modded (shredder + extra damage) Mantis X and a modded (extra damage + larger clips) Phaeston VI. Activate Tech Armor and a very heavy, shield/barrier shattering overload, none of that chain overload crap, that's what Engineers are for. Basically specialising in taking out the heavy targets.

[An Enraged Platypus]

Does anyone else get an audio bug that sounds like a weird humming noise that drowns out everything else whenever Drell Adepts are playing in your team? I'm guessing it's a bug with one of their biotic powers.

Also, Mantis + shredder upgrade is an excellent poor man's Widow.

whumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumwhumWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUMWHUM

[VectorZero]

Ah, so the key to playing sentinel is "Don't play a human"?

[Yakk]

Hmm? Max out overload (or any long-reuse, high-effect power), tech armor, health and weapon damage. That's 4 paths. Any sentinal can do that.

Humans get better dodge moves than Turians, and Krogans have the most HP/shields.

[VectorZero]

Hmm? Max out overload (or any long-reuse, high-effect power), tech armor, health and weapon damage. That's 4 paths. Any sentinal can do that.

Humans don't have overload. So, warp then? And leave out throw?

I actually got used to spamming throw with a fast reload and topping off with a shuriken, but that sounds a better way.

[Yakk]

Sure -- warp, tweaked for max damage and slow reuse works.

You'll have to pack a fast-firing weapon to get through shields.

[VectorZero]

Well, once I promote, that'll be my next build then.

I am really looking forward to seeing the Krogan Battlemaster: Biotic Charge and Carnage, with a Barrier, apparently.

BTW, if anyone wants to add me on origin for a game sometime, I use the same ID as here.

[Azrael001]

A sniping infiltrator with all of the recharge bonuses, and weapon damage bonuses kills all the things in never more than two shots. Unless it's an Atlas, or a Banshee or one of those Rachni artillery things.

[Belial]

one of those Rachni artillery things.

Even those only really take three if you hit them right

[ArgonV]

A sniping infiltrator with all of the recharge bonuses, and weapon damage bonuses kills all the things in never more than two shots. Unless it's an Atlas, or a Banshee or one of those Rachni artillery things.

You sure? I've got a Mantis X with extended barrel I (+15% damage) and piercing mod I (ignores 25% of defences) can bring a Ravager down pretty quickly on Silver, two shots in the green-brown fleshy part behind the middle sacks leaves it with close to no health. I could imagine better upgrades or rifles like the Widow could kill one of them in two shots. This thing is also capable of blasting away 3 slivers of barrier on a Silver Banshee and 2-3 slivers of armor on an Atlas, also on Silver.

[Telchar]

As a salarian infiltrator if something has any barriers I always cloak, energy drain, then fire. Once the Banshee/Atlas shields are down, I just start cloaking and sniping.

Sniping tip: The exhaust port looking thing in the back of the atlas apparently counts as a head, or at last lets significantly more damage through. This seems most useful on Reactor as the Atli twist and turn more in the narrow spaces.

Still haven't found a great way to take out banshees without stasis in the party. Gold Cerberus can become a giant revive-fest on waves 9-10 if you don't have a way to deal with them.

[ArgonV]

Sigh... Free DLC comes out and people are whining there should've been a heads up, since now they've spent all their credits on Spectre packs...

[Yakk]

Still haven't found a great way to take out banshees without stasis in the party. Gold Cerberus can become a giant revive-fest on waves 9-10 if you don't have a way to deal with them.

Stasis does nothing against banshees.

[An Enraged Platypus]

Reave is the best thing ever against Banshees.

[Chen]

Ah, so the key to playing sentinel is "Don't play a human"?

Both Warp and Throw can get the detonation bonuses which make them very strong biotic explosions which pretty much rule the day on higher difficulties. The human sentinel is actually very strong when played in that manner. You can even put tech armor on and as long as you're running near 200% recharge from weapons the recharge penalty is hardly felt. I'm running around with a Predator X and basically just shooting at things while waiting for ability cooldowns.

[omgryebread]

So, humans are the only species in the Mass Effect Universe to have different cultures survive into the space age, and the rest have become monolithic? Fair enough, humans are by far the youngest. More confusing is the fact these two cultures appear to be only Anglo-American and Japanese?

[VectorZero]

Well, I unlocked the Batarian (and Krogan!) Soldier, along with the Harpoon gun, in my first two packs, so that'll be my first exploration in the new set, I think.

Still haven't found a great way to take out banshees without stasis in the party. Gold Cerberus can become a giant revive-fest on waves 9-10 if you don't have a way to deal with them.

Banshee are Reapers. Do you mean Phantoms?

Also, if you liked the ME soundtrack (and who doesn't?) gametrailers did a retrospective with Jack Wall and Sam Hulick.

[Azrael001]

A sniping infiltrator with all of the recharge bonuses, and weapon damage bonuses kills all the things in never more than two shots. Unless it's an Atlas, or a Banshee or one of those Rachni artillery things.

You sure? I've got a Mantis X with extended barrel I (+15% damage) and piercing mod I (ignores 25% of defences) can bring a Ravager down pretty quickly on Silver, two shots in the green-brown fleshy part behind the middle sacks leaves it with close to no health. I could imagine better upgrades or rifles like the Widow could kill one of them in two shots. This thing is also capable of blasting away 3 slivers of barrier on a Silver Banshee and 2-3 slivers of armor on an Atlas, also on Silver.

I'm still only level 19, and using a level IV version of the starting sniper rifle, who's name I can't recall. I've only unlocked a level one Widow, which is heavy enough that it tanks my recharge rate, without really giving me that much of a damage boost.

Once through the shields, the Atlas falls pretty fast even with my terrible weaponry, but I don't play enough to be all that far ahead yet.

[Telchar]

Yeah, was thinking Phantoms, typed Banshees. My bad.