Mass Effect 3, Ah yes, "Reapers"

You're certainly correct there. I've been working with my infiltrator some more, and making some progress. The battles in those big open spaces in the academy were perfect for sniping.

For me it's all about how it makes me feel. If one class is struggling through battles that another class just rolled right over, it makes the former class feel weak to me, and I end up not wanting to play it. I admit, I haven't got any of my adepts or sentinels very far into the game, so it's possible I just haven't figured out the best ways and the best situations to take full advantage of their capabilities.

Sentinels are super tough and can break any defense. Hence they are OP on the higher difficulties. I assume you are being chicken and playing on normal.

I... I'm not quite sure that's how it works. By "breaking line of sight" do you mean "you have to move into cover" or something? Because I've stood on the spot when going into cloak once, and they just whacked my shields down and then targeted my squadmates afterwards.

I think it's just scripted to fire at you for a tiny instant after you go invisible. But maybe someone who can crunch the numbers could clarify that for us~

The sniper rifle base time dilation for the single-player is pretty poor, it's true, but level up the weapons enough and mod the extra 30% time dilation and you can adjust it up to dilation durations pretty much on par with those in Mass Effect 2. As for multiplayer + sniping, I use the Raptor (which is pretty much a sniper version of the Mattock), so the zoom isn't really too bad in the first place. And if you're one of those shooter-gamers on the PC, you can qui- quicksc- scooope QUICKSCOPE there I said it
Ugh I feel like I need to take a shower just saying that, but yeah if you can quickscope then enemies just fold like tissue paper.

Just takes a bit of acclimatizing to the way scoping handles.

Hmm... did you all know, if you evesdrop all the way through many of the ambient conversations on the Citadel, you will unlock options on the Spectre terminal in embassy which can be used to improve your war assets? And I don't just mean with some of the conversations that you can participate in by supporting one side or another. These are conversations that you take no part in beyond just getting into listening distance. I know of at least three such cases.

EDIT: Random note on something completely different. Upside to the Black Widow sniper rifle vs the Mantis: three shots per clip, a few more shots overall. Downside: slightly lower damage. I can't kill a turret in a single cloaked shot anymore. I'm not sure buying this thing was worth it.

This post has been edited by Random Wanderer on Mar 25 2012, 03:08 PM

Yep. You usually need to listen the conversation through, which means visiting the same place several times in a row. Incidentally, if you complete an N7 mission without noticing a hidden item for a fetchquest, you can also buy it from the Spectre Requisitions after said mission is complete.

Yup, one is BAD END though, so be careful about that... Also, some of the time their conversation will restart or ignore the thing you did for them, which is too bad.

I assume you've bought the upgrades up to V before the comparison? I haven't gotten the chance to use those myself (outside of MP).

I hear you can upgrade them to X on the second playthrough, although I don't know if that means a New Game+ or any second playthrough even with a new character

I'm hoping it's the latter. As nigh-perfect as the game was for me, Shepard's finale was fairly definitively the finale, and to its credit I feel going back for a New Game+ would diminish the feeling. No qualms about starting with a new character and class, though.

Always fun to explore new playstyles.

Yep. Black Widow is still powerful, and I've stuck with using it for now, because it's the most powerful semi-auto sniper rifle available, but it's really tempting to switch back to the harder hitting Mantis, even with its slower firing rate due to reload.

Unfortunately, it's the former. Guns are only upgradeable to X on new game plus.

Indeed. And there's another where, if you authorize what they were talking about, it has a negative impact on your war assets. The BAD END one does too, but it's more obvious that you shouldn't do it.

This post has been edited by Random Wanderer on Mar 26 2012, 08:35 AM

Shepard calls the reapers out on being mysterious.

Hmm. Okay, Lift Grenade is surprisingly powerful and effective against unshielded cannibals and Cerberus troopers. Anyone have suggestions for how I should upgrade it at tiers 4 and 6? At 4 I can increase damage, or increase radius of effect. At 6 I can have the thing slam the enemies into the ground when lift wears off, or I can increase both damage and radius.

This post has been edited by Random Wanderer on Mar 26 2012, 06:09 PM

I'd go damage and radius. In singleplayer it seems to make enemies float quite a ways away from the blast, over edges and drops alot of the time.

Edit: Ah, the cupcake equivalent of beating someone with an olive branch. . .

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/320429/201...ns-cupcakes.htm

This post has been edited by RedWolf4 on Mar 27 2012, 10:23 PM

bought it today so that i could multi with friends... am NEVER going to use real money. Played three missions and failed all three cause we were all noobs and wave 10 sucks (even on bronze). but, got plenty of levels and a few credits... still a while away from 60k for a spectre pack, but having fun.

Okay guys, remember how i talked about the angry joe show in an earlier post. well here's another one with some interesting tidbits. Yes he's parroting the whole indoc theory (and he fucks up once on the facts of the timing of one of the events), we've heard that all before. But he also screencapped some of the bioware twitter feeds, one in particular is interesting to me, to quote the reply "I want people to make up their own minds right now, then when more people have played we'll talk"

Whether it's the indoc theory or not is still up in the air, BUT i think i've got a clue about what they are doing. They're doing that BS that Call of Duty did, wait till they get such and such amount of players played through the game (think about it, the EMS is in the game can connect to the multiplayer function thus online connectivity, so they can monitor how many players have gotten the EMS requirement) THEN they are going to release the epilogue to explain everything.

Anyhow, you're all intelligient people so i'll link the vid and let you come to your own conclusion. if you wanna skip another indoc theory vid just jump ahead to 18:30, that's where he starts showing the screencaps.

http://angryjoeshow.com/2012/03/indoctrina...me3-ending-dlc/

@errantrogue, try soloing a few hordes offline, you won't get far (i only maxed at the fourth wave alone) But it'll help you fine tune your character to your play style and help you practice essential skills you'll need when you work with a team. Also if all else fails you still get a bit of XP and creds so you can build towards one of the packs, which are bloody essential even the recruit pack is a big help.

This post has been edited by strider0075 on Mar 28 2012, 06:12 AM

Or just play with pubbies. Since it's co-op and there's no friendly fire, it's actually pretty pleasant for the most part. You can even specify that you want it to be easy mode (to train up a new character) and it'll find you a group that's doing that.

Don't think I'll bother with offline mode... I wasn't really having trouble with tactics and the like. Just learning the maps and modes and leveling up. Can't decide whether I should save for a Spectre pack or play 1-2 more possible losses and buy the 20k one.

Yeah unless there are some assholes on the Internet who unfortunately have access to voice-chat during the game, playing some low-level Bronze public is fairly inoffensive, even though failure tends to be frequent.

On a different note, I'd rather not spend my time speculating about Bioware's development processes, and just wait for their official statements to explain everything come April.
As comprehensive and cool as the indoctrination theory is, it's been established in a few places that it's not what the writers had designed in mind.

Operation Raptor this weekend. Save up your Level 20's and promote them during the event to get the special packs on Tuesday.

All my classes are at 20 so I'm set =)

(Tip: Save your money until the weekend. After you promote your characters, spend it all on the Spectre packs. Odds are you will get lots of character cards and it'll level right up again)

This post has been edited by ChronoReverse on Mar 28 2012, 04:16 PM

Wait, wait, wait. There's an offline mode for the multiplayer? Is this like a patch or something, or am I jumping to conclusions?

I spammed the crap out of recruit packs initially. You get some basic level V mods and a bunch of level X guns along with the benefit of a smaller chance of getting crap when you buy more expensive packs. Because it's totally awesome when you open a spectre pack to see 'male human vanguard 12.5k xp and you get to change the color of their lights!'

Uhhh, kind of. What i was talking about was essentially changing your settings to private and starting a game without anyone else joining (solo horde match). I'm not 100% sure if it's an offline mode as i don't know if you can access the multiplayer section of the game without online connectivity as i've never tested it with my internet disconnected from my 360.

How do you play offline mode? The best I've managed is to set the game to private and just not invite anyone.

There is none.

And here I thought people said there was. Like so:

Okay, everyone, i whole heartedly apologize for misuse of terminology. I just tested further and now can see that you can't get into multi without connecting to the internet (a-hole move if you ask me). So i apologize, what i mentioned is not an offline mode, it's merely a solo horde mode.

...It's multiplayer. They made it so that losing your teammate in a 2 player game doesn't immediately kill your session, but playing it offline? I don't see it as necessary and they were probably worried about some offline cheating method (which matters when the packs can be worth real money).

(And please don't compare this to Diablo 3, lest you embarass yourself).