Mass Effect 3, Ah yes, "Reapers"

Well you DO get support in your single player game when you promote, right? So why not flood the field with lvl 20s~ +galactic readiness!

I was initially wary of levelling up Proximity mine for my Turian Soldier, but it turns out its a pretty cool power to have!

Pros:
Easy way to kick enemies out of cover, knockback delays attacks which is neat
Infinite cookies of doooooom
Infinitely ranged cookies of dooooooom

Cons:
They move like the ones from Mass Effect 1 ie. Really slow. Normally I wouldnt have a problem with that, but it's taking a while to place them effectively.
Also, they don't seem to be quite so pinpoint accurate at closer ranges. They seem to launch from the hip, which is a markedly different angle from where things like Concussion Shot fire from the gun. I've lost count of the times that I've tried to pop one over the top of a crouching enemy and it's just stuck to the wall in front of it.
A good portion of the ones I launch end up... not exploding at all. It's probably due to lag or something, but there are occasions that I've fired one at a moving enemies feet and it doesn't even acknowledge its existence. That's really irritating, because...
The cooldown is actually kinda long. Maybe not compared to Marksman, which takes a bajillion years for me to reset, but compared to, say, Concussion Shot which I can loose one off every second or two as opposed to the 3-4 seconds it takes between proximity mines. It wouldn't be such an issue if...
The damage wasn't so poor. The fact that there is an infinite quantity somewhat balances things out, but even for those Cannibals, regular Troopers and whatnot I'm barely taking off half health. And considering that's me trying it out on Bronze, I can't imagine how poor the damage would be on Silver and Gold.

All that said, it's a really neat crowd-control skill, and I'm not calling for an improvement in all those aspects because it would probably bork the game. Might just want to fix the lag issues with the dud grenades, because it's already a difficult power to handle as it is without successful placements not actually giving results.

Concussion shot can be pretty damned impressive if you drop its cooldown as low as possible. Just to test out my Turian soldier build I ran through a private multiplayer game by myself, and for the first several waves I didn't even have to take cover once. I just kept spamming concussion shot and shooting, and nothing could stay on its feet long enough to take my shields down. Obviously it won't do much good against brutes, banshees, atlases, or primes, but it can be astoundingly effective at clearing out the cannon fodder.

This is an important PSA!

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/20/concern...e-news-network/

Hmm... sounds like some people are not being team-players. Remember folks, your squadmates give the enemy something else to shoot at, so it's to your benefit to keep them standing.

Ha ha ha, that was outstanding. Especially the totally positive and not all backhanded attack by the Admiral. They wish to rack up casualties, and we owe them that chance.

Also, flamethrowers don't charge Batarian shields? Dang, now my Batarian soldier's luster has worn off...

Oh, I missed this the first time. The admiral they mentioned, Admiral Peter Mikhailovich, is the xenophobic admiral who showed up in ME1 at the Citadel docking bay. He did a short inspection of the Normandy (short enough that, if his comments hadn't already made it clear, revealed that he'd already made up his mind ahead of time as to what he felt about the ship) and then proceeded to yell at you about all sorts of things, including ones that were in no way under your control. You could, of course, use persuade to make him see the reasons behind everything, but most of those reasons were things that would have been decided above your paygrade by other admirals and whoever was on the design board for the ship. The closest he got to a valid complaint was objecting to you letting all sorts of aliens aboard your ship, seeing them as a threat to the security of the project. And even then, the one he objected to the most was the Turian, showing that he'd apparently forgotten that the Turian government had helped design the thing.

He never spoke about Batarians, but I'm not at all surprised to see him making not-very-well-hidden insults towards them.

This post has been edited by Random Wanderer on Apr 20 2012, 03:22 PM

Batarians should be enabled to receive friendly fire.

"I’ll be sure to use that medigel on our new friends from Khar’shan. Just as soon as I’m done helping any injured salarians, turians, drell, asari, krogan, quarians, or geth."

I too would use medigel uselessly on geth before batarians.

Addendum to Proximity Mines: they seem to explode through light cover. So slightly less problematic when trying to place them against enemies behind cover. However, they do not explode through Guardian shields.

Balance reasons aside, my mind boggles.

They also tend to stick to preset locations, by which I mean aiming one just shy of a corner often results in it actually sticking to that corner. Which may be a neat mechanic in that you can stick a proximity mine to any surface, but annoying for precision work where you're firing ineffectively from what should be the perfect angle but are continuously sticking the mine to a wall a couple meters away from your intended target.

This post has been edited by Project J on Apr 21 2012, 04:26 AM

I use prox mines as a launched grenade, not as a prox mine. I just aim at their ankles and fire against small enemies or I shoot them straight on at banshees/brutes/primes/atlas.

Yeah that is the way to go. It just takes really good positioning on a map to actually use them effectively.

It's a shame because if it were actually viable as, you know, a gaddang proximity mine there could be so many more map control possibilities.

Someone uploaded the entire Padok Wiks storyline on youtube. Link
There's also who accompanies you on the deadnought if tali dies:
Link
And the geth VI:
Link

Who survived the previous games really dictates how much this game differed. In a way it's unfortunate how many people went into the game with perfect imports, as they all saw pretty much the same story.

EDIT: Also, more dialog from the crippling engineer banter disabling bug is popping up:
Tali and Garrus
Quarian husks

EDIT2:
Tali-less rannoch results:
Pro-quarian
Pro-geth

This post has been edited by 3Power on Apr 23 2012, 12:47 AM

She's pretty crazy too, hacking into the Geth platforms that attack her while you're separated and making them perform for her amusement.

It's more unfortunate that the ending killed my desire for a rerun through the game with the imports I had that weren't perfect

Thanks for the links, definitely worth watching through.

Archer matches up with Renegade Shepard quite nicely. 2. 3.

More deleted dialog. This one comes from a conversation with a geth prime before the final mission: link

This post has been edited by 3Power on Apr 25 2012, 03:08 PM

Funny, I've been playing through my second Shepard (Male Vanguard) and I've been having a blast through the story despite knowing what comes at the end.

Depends on how open your mind is, I guess.

I'm honestly more disappointed by the Vanguard gameplay. Charge used to be a calculated risk-return power to use strategically. Now that it synergises with Nova absurdly well, there's very little calculation involved besides "who do I use it on next".
It was an awesome thing in Mass Effect 2, and being able to loose one off every second or two diminishes that awesome by several factors.

This post has been edited by Project J on Apr 26 2012, 07:49 AM

Or it just brings Vanguards up to the level of not being a suicide class on high difficulties. We needed something to keep up with the power and invincibility of Infiltrators, the combos of the Adepts, the... boringness of Soldiers (lol Soldiers suck), and so on. I'm more disappointed by the Sentry nerf. Hey you know your unique ability (armor) and your class focus (versatility of biotic/tech)? Well we're going to make armor not protect for shit, not explode when you're in the danger zone, and completely fuck your power use if you choose to use your class power at all. Because fuck you, that's why.

The worse thing is that they did this for all armor/extra layer protection abilities. Which is why in singleplayer I never put any points in those abilities.

Edit: Which makes me wonder since the armor abilities are actually useful in multiplayer. (Krogan Sent (for protection+Blood Rage melee bonuses since you should be just shooting and charging as a Krogan period), Blade Armor (hurts targets that melee/grab you and makes them studder/flinch), and Barrier (can pop when you are getting instant killed for the target to drop you))

Final note: Only awesome soldier is Batarian soldier cause they rape face with their explosive blades and melee. Battlefield soldier doesn't count he is just a Krogan soldier that can dodge pretty much.

This post has been edited by Genshie on Apr 26 2012, 03:09 PM

Here, have a different ending.

Counterpoint: Mass Effect 2's combat was pretty lame.

I don't think it's that bad. If you're a power using sentinel, you're going to be using guns that give you +200% anyway and then you spec tech armor for power usage. In the end you're still a lot more durable and your powers hit a little harder to compensate for the cooldown difference. And if you're using a bullet hose sentinel who cares what your cooldowns are. I also prefer the damage reduction->self detonation model.

Anyone using a Batarian melee soldier when they could be a melee geth infiltrator or a Murder Train are doing it wrong.

Sorry I can't hear you over the sound of my explosive blades o' rape combined with my inferno grenades. I bet your geth infiltrator can't go toe to toe (face to face) with a Phantom, Banshee, or a Brute solo without dying on silver or gold. All geth characters are glass cannons anyway. Although I do love my geth engineer so much. (Overload chain spam with shield restoring turret)

This post has been edited by Genshie on Apr 27 2012, 02:14 AM

lol looks like Bioware guilted Sony into getting their shit together. About 1 week after outing them as the root problem behind Ps3 players not getting invited to the operations, SUDDENLY Ps3 players can participate in Operation Exorcist for this weekend. That'll make the 1,000,000 goal substantially easier.

Speaking of, anyone with the 360 version and a good character is welcomed to hit me up for an attempt at the squad goal. I do have time limitations, but let me know if you're interested.

FINALLY! I want my special events!

Consensus has been reached. Your preference for space terrorists confirms your lack of intellect.

Face to face with banshees though? D:

Yeah (I forgot the map though but it was the gas tank level where you had to move the boxes to proceed forward in the single player campaign) I ended up soloing a few banshees by kiting them around a pillar at the entrance of the level. Explosive blades make all targets stutter/flinch (including atlases) and while the target flinches I hit them with a heavy melee. A single phantom is a joke to a Batarian soldier.


Besides that I hate how people think they can farm waves on Firebase White like they can with Geth. It doesn't work that way. All other enemy waves throw gernades which force you to move also Phantoms will flank you. I kept telling groups that I was in that hiding in the room at the bottom of White won't work on Cerberus after wave 4/5 cause you will get swarmed by Phantoms. Funny thing is that in that game we got over runned by Engineers placing their turrets down since they all seemed so hell bent on taking down an Atlas whenever it appeared.