Hello you two. I've decided to change my blog URL and title to be more search engine friendly so that more people will be able to find this site. Hopefully they'll find it helpful.
I will be changing the URL to me3multiplayer.blogspot.com this week. I will wait until Wednesday so that any subscribers will have a chance to read this update before I change the URL. Hopefully this doesn't cause any inconveniences.
Monday, July 30, 2012
ME3 Character Guide: N7 Demolisher
I wanted to go over the older characters first, but in light of my experience with Platinum PuGs (I probably shouldn't complain since they are PuGs...), I think the community could use some guidance. I will go over what I consider an essential part of an optimal Platinum team: the N7 Demolisher.
N7 Demolisher Grenadier (15 November 2012)
Supply Pylon: 4-resupply frequency, 5-power damage, 6-extra grenade
Arc Grenade: 4-damage, 5-max grenades, 6-shield overload
Homing Grenade: 4-damage, 5-fire damage, 6-armor damage
N7 Demolisher: 4-damage & max grenades, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage & max grenades
Fitness: N/A
First, let's go over the evolutions. Your supply pylon is just that: an endless supply of ammo and grenades. This is vital on Platinum, since it allows you to stay in a fortified position without having to venture out for ammo. The pylon also gives a decent shield and damage buff to teammates within the radius. I generally choose weapon damage as opposed to power damage in order to buff teammate DPS. On a side note, the Demolisher works well in conjunction with a weapon specialist (i.e. N7 Destroyer, Turian soldier, Geth), which I will refer to as the Destroyer for simplicity's sake. Supply Pylon now gives a 10% weapon damage bonus, not 15%.
The grenades are self-explanatory. The Arc Grenade is spec'd for shield damage, and the Homing Grenade is spec'd for armor damage. Damage over time is nice if you have Grenade Capacity V, but if you're using the Grenadier build, you just want to deal massive initial damage, so take max grenades. In case you need to refill your grenades instantly, you can use a thermal clip pack consumable. One final note on grenades: evolution 6 of Homing Grenade is the key to synergy with the Destroyer. It debuffs enemy armor by 50%, making Brutes, Ravagers, Geth Primes, Banshees, and Atlases noticeably more vulnerable to weapon damage. Unfortunately, Banshees sometimes use their power negating ability when hit by a grenade, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. At the very least, this forces them to sit still for a short time, allowing you to line up headshots.
Now on to strategy. Set up your pylon in your "base" where you and the Destroyer can easily access it. Consider that the Destroyer will want to camp in it to take advantage of the weapon damage buff. Your teammates should be putting out heavy weapon damage, so try not to eat up all the thermal clips from your pylon -- your teammates need it more than you do. However, as designated grenadier, let your teammates know that you get priority for grenade drops. If you need a quick resupply, just reset your pylon. It will instantly drop ammo and grenades. Just try to keep it in your base -- otherwise if you die your team will need to run around for ammo, which sucks.
Support your teammates by spamming grenades to debuff enemies, especially shielded mobs and bosses. A great tactic for bosses (i.e. Primes, Atlases, Banshees) is to use an Arc Grenade followed by a Homing Grenade, which creates a powerful tech burst that can kill or at least damage nearby mobs. Phantoms are tricky since they can block your grenades. Try stunning them first then following up with an Arc Grenade.
For this reason, I [used to] like to use the Falcon (capacity and damage mods) with the Demolisher. It lets me stagger on demand, which is especially useful against Phantoms and Geth Hunters and Pyros. The Falcon works because while it doesn't kill quickly, it reliably stuns enemies for your grenades or teammates to finish off. It's particularly nice when your team has to move into the open for an objective wave. While I'm always open to new strategies and personal preferences, I believe that the Falcon is one of the best weapons for this class. Giving the Falcon/stunlocking role to a Destroyer would waste their capabilities, and similarly the Typhoon and Piranha would be wasted on a Demolisher. Try putting Cryo, Incendiary, or Disruptor rounds on the Falcon and following it up with an Arc Grenade. This class is a master of tech bursts, especially post-balance changes. Apply an ammo effect with your weapon and lob a grenade to trigger the tech burst/fire explosion/cryo explosion.
Edit: The Falcon still works well since Bioware reduced the weight, but now I prefer to use the Scorpion or Acolyte. Both are effective against Phantoms, and both are lightweight, which means that you can reset your Supply Pylon more often. Cooldown does matter if you want to spam grenades, which is probably the most effective way to use this character. Again, the Acolyte and Scorpion pistols work well.
There you have it. I hope this guide helps all you aspiring Demolishers out there. I plan on making more Gold and Platinum character guides soon, so stay tuned. As always, I am open to suggestions, requests, etc. Leave it in the comments below. Aight, chill...
-MACave11i
Video by zHHk
N7 Demolisher Grenadier (15 November 2012)
Supply Pylon: 4-resupply frequency, 5-power damage, 6-extra grenade
Arc Grenade: 4-damage, 5-max grenades, 6-shield overload
Homing Grenade: 4-damage, 5-fire damage, 6-armor damage
N7 Demolisher: 4-damage & max grenades, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage & max grenades
Fitness: N/A
First, let's go over the evolutions. Your supply pylon is just that: an endless supply of ammo and grenades. This is vital on Platinum, since it allows you to stay in a fortified position without having to venture out for ammo. The pylon also gives a decent shield and damage buff to teammates within the radius. I generally choose weapon damage as opposed to power damage in order to buff teammate DPS. On a side note, the Demolisher works well in conjunction with a weapon specialist (i.e. N7 Destroyer, Turian soldier, Geth), which I will refer to as the Destroyer for simplicity's sake. Supply Pylon now gives a 10% weapon damage bonus, not 15%.
The grenades are self-explanatory. The Arc Grenade is spec'd for shield damage, and the Homing Grenade is spec'd for armor damage. Damage over time is nice if you have Grenade Capacity V, but if you're using the Grenadier build, you just want to deal massive initial damage, so take max grenades. In case you need to refill your grenades instantly, you can use a thermal clip pack consumable. One final note on grenades: evolution 6 of Homing Grenade is the key to synergy with the Destroyer. It debuffs enemy armor by 50%, making Brutes, Ravagers, Geth Primes, Banshees, and Atlases noticeably more vulnerable to weapon damage. Unfortunately, Banshees sometimes use their power negating ability when hit by a grenade, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. At the very least, this forces them to sit still for a short time, allowing you to line up headshots.
Now on to strategy. Set up your pylon in your "base" where you and the Destroyer can easily access it. Consider that the Destroyer will want to camp in it to take advantage of the weapon damage buff. Your teammates should be putting out heavy weapon damage, so try not to eat up all the thermal clips from your pylon -- your teammates need it more than you do. However, as designated grenadier, let your teammates know that you get priority for grenade drops. If you need a quick resupply, just reset your pylon. It will instantly drop ammo and grenades. Just try to keep it in your base -- otherwise if you die your team will need to run around for ammo, which sucks.
Support your teammates by spamming grenades to debuff enemies, especially shielded mobs and bosses. A great tactic for bosses (i.e. Primes, Atlases, Banshees) is to use an Arc Grenade followed by a Homing Grenade, which creates a powerful tech burst that can kill or at least damage nearby mobs. Phantoms are tricky since they can block your grenades. Try stunning them first then following up with an Arc Grenade.
For this reason, I [used to] like to use the Falcon (capacity and damage mods) with the Demolisher. It lets me stagger on demand, which is especially useful against Phantoms and Geth Hunters and Pyros. The Falcon works because while it doesn't kill quickly, it reliably stuns enemies for your grenades or teammates to finish off. It's particularly nice when your team has to move into the open for an objective wave. While I'm always open to new strategies and personal preferences, I believe that the Falcon is one of the best weapons for this class. Giving the Falcon/stunlocking role to a Destroyer would waste their capabilities, and similarly the Typhoon and Piranha would be wasted on a Demolisher. Try putting Cryo, Incendiary, or Disruptor rounds on the Falcon and following it up with an Arc Grenade. This class is a master of tech bursts, especially post-balance changes. Apply an ammo effect with your weapon and lob a grenade to trigger the tech burst/fire explosion/cryo explosion.
Edit: The Falcon still works well since Bioware reduced the weight, but now I prefer to use the Scorpion or Acolyte. Both are effective against Phantoms, and both are lightweight, which means that you can reset your Supply Pylon more often. Cooldown does matter if you want to spam grenades, which is probably the most effective way to use this character. Again, the Acolyte and Scorpion pistols work well.
There you have it. I hope this guide helps all you aspiring Demolishers out there. I plan on making more Gold and Platinum character guides soon, so stay tuned. As always, I am open to suggestions, requests, etc. Leave it in the comments below. Aight, chill...
-MACave11i
Video by zHHk
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
ME3: Problems With Platinum
I've been somewhat busy in real life recently, so I haven't been on ME3 for the past few days. That being said, I was thoroughly disappointed when I returned to the Platinum scene today. If you can stomach a (pretty civil and reasonable, imo) rant, then read on.
Though I doubt that the Platinum experience has decayed within the few days that I was gone -- the seeds were already sewn the day the Earth DLC came out, maybe even before -- things only seem to be getting worse. The first several PuGs that I was dumped into generally consisted of randoms under N7 200. Even a few under N7 100 had the audacity to attempt Platinum. Then of course there were the missile glitchers with their Strikers, who are arguably the worst of the bunch. I'll get to that later.
I do believe that N7 doesn't equate with skill. This much is obvious. I've played with N7 120s who have level X URs and can use them correctly, so I get it, some people just don't promote. But these were people whose experience mostly equated with their rank, e.g. N7 60-something with an Avenger II. Granted, the game has changed since the first days of multiplayer. I couldn't beat Bronze my first few games, much less Platinum. Now you have people who can carry the team through Bronze, and even Gold. But what makes these new players think that they can skip to Platinum?
I don't like to make judgements about people, especially those that I don't know. But the only logical conclusion is that these people are freeloaders, piggy-backers, boosters...whatever you want to call them. Unless they are entering into their first match ever, and are therefore unfamiliar with the difficulty settings, there is no reason why inexperienced players should be in a Platinum lobby for more than 10 seconds. They are in it for the credits, and by extension the rare and UR weapons, characters, and equipment that the veterans have.
But...but... there's nothing wrong with that, right? Isn't it better if the new players get better weapons and equipment so that they can contribute?
Here's what's wrong with that: in the meantime (and the meantime is a very long time indeed), these players are not contributing by playing on Platinum. Tagging along doesn't do anyone any good. It just ruins the game for everyone else. In addition, if these boosters do finally end up with a good weapon or character, they likely won't have the actual experience to put it to good use. That is assuming that they have spent their hours performing repetitive, skill-less farming rather than testing their skills legitimately. So what I want to say is that I don't hate new players. We've all been noobs at one point. But please, be honest with yourself when it comes to picking difficulty.
And don't think I forgot about the missile glitchers.I've got a few missiles of my own to launch at these dumb-bombs (forced laughter). Ahem. These are the people who embolden the inexperienced players to venture into Platinum. Without the cheaters, how far would they get? Maybe wave 2. A veteran, and even a intermediate player guided by a veteran, have no need for such cheating. So when cheaters wonder why they have a bad rep, why people report them, or why people vote to kick them, it's because they are ruining the game for everyone else. The End. I understand that Bioware is working on glitches based on priority, and there are a lot of glitches that may not be fixed at all. But this one is possibly the worst glitch of them all. It's absolutely game-breaking. I hope it's at the top of the list.
Edit: Incidentally, today was the day that Bioware rolled out the fix for the missile glitch. How convenient.
What's the solution to the decaying ME3 community? Don't cheat. Play on a difficulty that you can handle legitimately. I thoroughly enjoy playing on Platinum with similarly skilled players, especially when we reach extraction legitimately. There's a sense of accomplishment that you don't get by cheating. And if I promote, I take that character to Bronze. There's no shame in playing on lower difficulties. My personal rule is as follows:
Bronze: 1-8
Silver: 9-16
Gold: 17-20
Platinum: 20
Again, I don't mean to give the impression that I hate new players. If that's what you got out of this post, then you aren't seeing the main point. I just want to see people being honest about their capabilities. Would you play professional sports if you just picked it up a month ago? If you think of Platinum as the "professional" level of ME3, have you sharpened your skills enough?
Though I doubt that the Platinum experience has decayed within the few days that I was gone -- the seeds were already sewn the day the Earth DLC came out, maybe even before -- things only seem to be getting worse. The first several PuGs that I was dumped into generally consisted of randoms under N7 200. Even a few under N7 100 had the audacity to attempt Platinum. Then of course there were the missile glitchers with their Strikers, who are arguably the worst of the bunch. I'll get to that later.
I do believe that N7 doesn't equate with skill. This much is obvious. I've played with N7 120s who have level X URs and can use them correctly, so I get it, some people just don't promote. But these were people whose experience mostly equated with their rank, e.g. N7 60-something with an Avenger II. Granted, the game has changed since the first days of multiplayer. I couldn't beat Bronze my first few games, much less Platinum. Now you have people who can carry the team through Bronze, and even Gold. But what makes these new players think that they can skip to Platinum?
I don't like to make judgements about people, especially those that I don't know. But the only logical conclusion is that these people are freeloaders, piggy-backers, boosters...whatever you want to call them. Unless they are entering into their first match ever, and are therefore unfamiliar with the difficulty settings, there is no reason why inexperienced players should be in a Platinum lobby for more than 10 seconds. They are in it for the credits, and by extension the rare and UR weapons, characters, and equipment that the veterans have.
But...but... there's nothing wrong with that, right? Isn't it better if the new players get better weapons and equipment so that they can contribute?
Here's what's wrong with that: in the meantime (and the meantime is a very long time indeed), these players are not contributing by playing on Platinum. Tagging along doesn't do anyone any good. It just ruins the game for everyone else. In addition, if these boosters do finally end up with a good weapon or character, they likely won't have the actual experience to put it to good use. That is assuming that they have spent their hours performing repetitive, skill-less farming rather than testing their skills legitimately. So what I want to say is that I don't hate new players. We've all been noobs at one point. But please, be honest with yourself when it comes to picking difficulty.
And don't think I forgot about the missile glitchers.
Edit: Incidentally, today was the day that Bioware rolled out the fix for the missile glitch. How convenient.
What's the solution to the decaying ME3 community? Don't cheat. Play on a difficulty that you can handle legitimately. I thoroughly enjoy playing on Platinum with similarly skilled players, especially when we reach extraction legitimately. There's a sense of accomplishment that you don't get by cheating. And if I promote, I take that character to Bronze. There's no shame in playing on lower difficulties. My personal rule is as follows:
Bronze: 1-8
Silver: 9-16
Gold: 17-20
Platinum: 20
Again, I don't mean to give the impression that I hate new players. If that's what you got out of this post, then you aren't seeing the main point. I just want to see people being honest about their capabilities. Would you play professional sports if you just picked it up a month ago? If you think of Platinum as the "professional" level of ME3, have you sharpened your skills enough?
Friday, July 20, 2012
ME3: Second Opinions on the Earth DLC
Given some time to analyze the new content, some of my initial opinions have changed. I will address those and offer a more comprehensive analysis of the new weapons, characters, and Platinum.
The Piranha shotgun, with the right class/spec combination and mods, is appropriately named. This thing shreds. With the increased rate of fire and accuracy offered by a few classes, the Piranha is essentially an auto-shotty. Obviously, it's not the most powerful shotgun, but the DPS is incredible. Characters such as the N7 Destroyer, Turian soldier, or Geth will greatly magnify the strengths of this weapon, whereas less weapon-centric classes are probably better off with a different weapon. For some perspective, there's a Youtube video of a GI with the Piranha vs. a Banshee (of course, GI makes any weapon 10x better than it usually is, but still).
I stand by the Acolyte as the best shield-draining weapon in the game, Reager's DPS notwithstanding, and its capabilities should not be ignored, especially on Platinum. It can one-shot a Phantom's barriers even on Platinum, and takes a few bars off Atlas shields. Akin to Halo's Plasma Pistol on Legendary.
Continuing on the Typhoon, which everybody asks about: it shreds. I don't know what the DPS is, since the ME3 weapons spreadsheet with that information is not up-to-date yet, but I would guess that its somewhat less than the Harrier. Of course, this is offset by the 100 round mag (without specs or gear) and warm-up rate of fire. It's a minigun, basically. It's obviously made for the N7 Destroyer, who becomes a human turret with this thing. I don't know if I'd be more scared of a Cerberus turret or an N7 Destroyer with a Typhoon lumbering towards me. Probably the latter.
I'm also appreciating the new gear and weapon mods. I've read that much of the new mods were bugged, so they were not released, which is unfortunate. The ones that I have now are the assault rifle omni-blade attachment, SMG stability and high-velocity barrel mods, and pistol light-weight materials and "cranial trauma" mods. People are gonna have a hey-day with that last one. Asari-->stasis Phantom-->headshot with Talon-->headless Phantom. The really notable one in my opinion is the high-velocity barrel mod, which ignores a greater portion of enemy armor than AP mod if I'm correct. I have it at level II or III and it ignores something like 70% of armor, which is ridiculous. It appears as if it could ignore up to 80% or more of armor by level V. Obviously you can't have high-caliber barrel with your high-velocity barrel. That would be great though. I also hope to level up the new Barrage gear, which offers mag size and weapon stability bonuses. I can already imagine it with the Hurricane or Typhoon. *drools*
Then there's Platinum. It's pretty cool and I'm glad that Bioware listened to the fans on this one. The difficult, multi-faction nature in conjunction with the synergy offered by some of the new classes creates a sense of teamwork that the other difficulties lack. On Gold, you can run around by yourself because bosses are less frequent. On Platinum, most of the enemies are bosses, and you need to work together to eliminate them efficiently. When you can use up your ammo a quarter of the way through a round, you need that supply pylon. When running around the map for the hack objective means certain death, you need that Infiltrator spec'd for duration. There are always exceptions of course. RedJohn of Bioware forums fame has a video in which he soloed Platinum, which I think deserves some congratulations. Overall, the potential for teamwork is refreshing.
Of course, as was the case with Gold, there are farmers and cheaters who are only out for the credits. I entered a PuG in which the host had an N7 rank under 100 with an Avenger. It makes me wonder what those people are thinking, but more likely they aren't thinking at all. I entered another PuG with three people of N7 ~ 100, all with explosive projectile weapons--the telltale sign of missile glitchers. One invited me to their party chat, and I had to tell him that I don't play with missile glitchers. For every good aspect of this game, there is a problem that goes with it, unfortunately.
Finally, some general impressions on the new characters. They all have potential, but for now, some are obviously better than others, namely the Destroyer and Demolisher. But from what I've seen, the others have some good powers as well. The Fury's Annihilation Field is incredible against Phantoms. I wish the Paladin was tankier, but it's still a well-rounded class in terms of powers. Snap Freeze is superior to Cryo Blast (since Bioware can't seem to fix the 100% chilled bonus on Incinerate, they gave Snap Freeze a 100% tech burst bonus as one evolution). The Shadow has the potential to be the best pure melee build. And the Slayer? I've read that Phase Disruptor is bugged, so for now the best part is that he looks like Kai Leng. I'm not a big fan of Vanguards in general, anyway.
I hope that this review will encourage people to take a second look at a weapon or class that they might have dismissed after the first try. I know I will be taking the Fury and Paladin for another spin since I've been using the Destroyer and Demolisher a lot more. So thanks for reading. Questions? Comment. Maybe subscribe if you feel like it. I'm not one of those sociopaths that gets high off of my subscriber number, but as of now I don't know if anyone is reading this and it would encourage me to keep writing when people appreciate this stuff. So that's all for now. I'll try to get some builds up later. As always, I'm open to requests. Peace.
The Piranha shotgun, with the right class/spec combination and mods, is appropriately named. This thing shreds. With the increased rate of fire and accuracy offered by a few classes, the Piranha is essentially an auto-shotty. Obviously, it's not the most powerful shotgun, but the DPS is incredible. Characters such as the N7 Destroyer, Turian soldier, or Geth will greatly magnify the strengths of this weapon, whereas less weapon-centric classes are probably better off with a different weapon. For some perspective, there's a Youtube video of a GI with the Piranha vs. a Banshee (of course, GI makes any weapon 10x better than it usually is, but still).
I stand by the Acolyte as the best shield-draining weapon in the game, Reager's DPS notwithstanding, and its capabilities should not be ignored, especially on Platinum. It can one-shot a Phantom's barriers even on Platinum, and takes a few bars off Atlas shields. Akin to Halo's Plasma Pistol on Legendary.
Continuing on the Typhoon, which everybody asks about: it shreds. I don't know what the DPS is, since the ME3 weapons spreadsheet with that information is not up-to-date yet, but I would guess that its somewhat less than the Harrier. Of course, this is offset by the 100 round mag (without specs or gear) and warm-up rate of fire. It's a minigun, basically. It's obviously made for the N7 Destroyer, who becomes a human turret with this thing. I don't know if I'd be more scared of a Cerberus turret or an N7 Destroyer with a Typhoon lumbering towards me. Probably the latter.
I'm also appreciating the new gear and weapon mods. I've read that much of the new mods were bugged, so they were not released, which is unfortunate. The ones that I have now are the assault rifle omni-blade attachment, SMG stability and high-velocity barrel mods, and pistol light-weight materials and "cranial trauma" mods. People are gonna have a hey-day with that last one. Asari-->stasis Phantom-->headshot with Talon-->headless Phantom. The really notable one in my opinion is the high-velocity barrel mod, which ignores a greater portion of enemy armor than AP mod if I'm correct. I have it at level II or III and it ignores something like 70% of armor, which is ridiculous. It appears as if it could ignore up to 80% or more of armor by level V. Obviously you can't have high-caliber barrel with your high-velocity barrel. That would be great though. I also hope to level up the new Barrage gear, which offers mag size and weapon stability bonuses. I can already imagine it with the Hurricane or Typhoon. *drools*
Then there's Platinum. It's pretty cool and I'm glad that Bioware listened to the fans on this one. The difficult, multi-faction nature in conjunction with the synergy offered by some of the new classes creates a sense of teamwork that the other difficulties lack. On Gold, you can run around by yourself because bosses are less frequent. On Platinum, most of the enemies are bosses, and you need to work together to eliminate them efficiently. When you can use up your ammo a quarter of the way through a round, you need that supply pylon. When running around the map for the hack objective means certain death, you need that Infiltrator spec'd for duration. There are always exceptions of course. RedJohn of Bioware forums fame has a video in which he soloed Platinum, which I think deserves some congratulations. Overall, the potential for teamwork is refreshing.
Of course, as was the case with Gold, there are farmers and cheaters who are only out for the credits. I entered a PuG in which the host had an N7 rank under 100 with an Avenger. It makes me wonder what those people are thinking, but more likely they aren't thinking at all. I entered another PuG with three people of N7 ~ 100, all with explosive projectile weapons--the telltale sign of missile glitchers. One invited me to their party chat, and I had to tell him that I don't play with missile glitchers. For every good aspect of this game, there is a problem that goes with it, unfortunately.
Finally, some general impressions on the new characters. They all have potential, but for now, some are obviously better than others, namely the Destroyer and Demolisher. But from what I've seen, the others have some good powers as well. The Fury's Annihilation Field is incredible against Phantoms. I wish the Paladin was tankier, but it's still a well-rounded class in terms of powers. Snap Freeze is superior to Cryo Blast (since Bioware can't seem to fix the 100% chilled bonus on Incinerate, they gave Snap Freeze a 100% tech burst bonus as one evolution). The Shadow has the potential to be the best pure melee build. And the Slayer? I've read that Phase Disruptor is bugged, so for now the best part is that he looks like Kai Leng. I'm not a big fan of Vanguards in general, anyway.
I hope that this review will encourage people to take a second look at a weapon or class that they might have dismissed after the first try. I know I will be taking the Fury and Paladin for another spin since I've been using the Destroyer and Demolisher a lot more. So thanks for reading. Questions? Comment. Maybe subscribe if you feel like it. I'm not one of those sociopaths that gets high off of my subscriber number, but as of now I don't know if anyone is reading this and it would encourage me to keep writing when people appreciate this stuff. So that's all for now. I'll try to get some builds up later. As always, I'm open to requests. Peace.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
ME3: Earth DLC First Impressions
Hello my two readers, welcome to the blog. Today is a big day because we get to play the new Earth DLC. I was a little late to the party, but I've been anticipating this one since I found out about it. Like three days before it came out. And it delivers.
I won't go over the basics of the DLC because you can always find that elsewhere on the internet. I'm here to offer opinions and strategy, not facts. I think Shakespeare said that.
Anyway, let's go over the new weapons and characters. I had almost 2 million credits saved up prior to the DLC, which allowed me to get much of the new content right from the beginning. First, there's the Piranha shotgun. I got it up to level X, tried it out a few times... I don't think it's anything special. It fills the niche of the Scimitar; it's a lightweight, low-damage, high-fire rate shotgun. Quite inaccurate as well. Next!
The Acolyte pistol... not what I expected. It's a strange pistol that's good against shields and barriers and shoots an arcing, bouncing projectile, and I think it has some splash damage. Think of the Falcon in pistol form. What stops it from being a grenade launcher is that you have to charge it for a second or so before you can fire. Once you get used to it, I think it's quite good. I tried it on a bronze solo run since I was afraid it would be a Disciple in pistol form, so it performed better than expected. It even did well against Phantoms and Atlases. Phantoms were hard to hit, but the splash damage seemed to work since I got a few delayed kills. It took down Atlas shields in two shots. Given it was on bronze, but still. I expect you would have to get pretty good with it to use it on Gold or Platinum. But hey, this could be Mass Effect's plasma pistol, since it makes for a great shield-draining sidearm.
The last weapon is the Typhoon LMG. I only got it to level I since it's an Ultra-rare, but I can already tell that this is a great gun. I think Bioware is getting the hint that the assault rifle class is laughably subpar on higher difficulties. The only good ones were the Falcon and Saber, and neither one is a "true" assault rifle. So they gave us the Harrier, which is a personal favorite of mine, and now they've blessed us with the Typhoon, which is what the Revenant wants to be when it grows up. While I don't like the gradually increasing rate of fire -- I would prefer a steady rate of fire like the Harrier -- I like the addition of an LMG type weapon. It's not as accurate or powerful as the Harrier, but the high fire rate and capacity allow you to shred boss-level enemies. It even seems to have an inherent wall-piercing ability like the Black Widow. Now complement this with a supply pylon. Yes.
I won't go into too much depth with the new characters, since I'll probably be writing up some builds for them later. I'll just say that they seem to be designed with Platinum in consideration. The new characters have some really good powers (Devastator Mode, Supply Pylon) that I'm sure would be considered OP for most people based on the Gold standard. I haven't tried Platinum yet, partly because I don't have a team to work with and partly because I don't know if I'm equipped for it. Personally, I'll take any OP powers I can for Platinum. I'm good, but I'm no soloist. This is what I get for playing public games...
So there it is. I probably forgot something, but they don't pay me enough to do this anyway. Thanks for reading, you two. Questions? Comment. Don't like. Don't subscribe. I hate those Youtube subscribe whores.
I won't go over the basics of the DLC because you can always find that elsewhere on the internet. I'm here to offer opinions and strategy, not facts. I think Shakespeare said that.
Anyway, let's go over the new weapons and characters. I had almost 2 million credits saved up prior to the DLC, which allowed me to get much of the new content right from the beginning. First, there's the Piranha shotgun. I got it up to level X, tried it out a few times... I don't think it's anything special. It fills the niche of the Scimitar; it's a lightweight, low-damage, high-fire rate shotgun. Quite inaccurate as well. Next!
The Acolyte pistol... not what I expected. It's a strange pistol that's good against shields and barriers and shoots an arcing, bouncing projectile, and I think it has some splash damage. Think of the Falcon in pistol form. What stops it from being a grenade launcher is that you have to charge it for a second or so before you can fire. Once you get used to it, I think it's quite good. I tried it on a bronze solo run since I was afraid it would be a Disciple in pistol form, so it performed better than expected. It even did well against Phantoms and Atlases. Phantoms were hard to hit, but the splash damage seemed to work since I got a few delayed kills. It took down Atlas shields in two shots. Given it was on bronze, but still. I expect you would have to get pretty good with it to use it on Gold or Platinum. But hey, this could be Mass Effect's plasma pistol, since it makes for a great shield-draining sidearm.
The last weapon is the Typhoon LMG. I only got it to level I since it's an Ultra-rare, but I can already tell that this is a great gun. I think Bioware is getting the hint that the assault rifle class is laughably subpar on higher difficulties. The only good ones were the Falcon and Saber, and neither one is a "true" assault rifle. So they gave us the Harrier, which is a personal favorite of mine, and now they've blessed us with the Typhoon, which is what the Revenant wants to be when it grows up. While I don't like the gradually increasing rate of fire -- I would prefer a steady rate of fire like the Harrier -- I like the addition of an LMG type weapon. It's not as accurate or powerful as the Harrier, but the high fire rate and capacity allow you to shred boss-level enemies. It even seems to have an inherent wall-piercing ability like the Black Widow. Now complement this with a supply pylon. Yes.
I won't go into too much depth with the new characters, since I'll probably be writing up some builds for them later. I'll just say that they seem to be designed with Platinum in consideration. The new characters have some really good powers (Devastator Mode, Supply Pylon) that I'm sure would be considered OP for most people based on the Gold standard. I haven't tried Platinum yet, partly because I don't have a team to work with and partly because I don't know if I'm equipped for it. Personally, I'll take any OP powers I can for Platinum. I'm good, but I'm no soloist. This is what I get for playing public games...
So there it is. I probably forgot something, but they don't pay me enough to do this anyway. Thanks for reading, you two. Questions? Comment. Don't like. Don't subscribe. I hate those Youtube subscribe whores.
Monday, July 16, 2012
ME3 Character Guide: Human Engineer
As promised, here is the first character guide. I decided to do a build for the human engineer. Why? Well, there are several reasons. I wanted to choose a class that is friendly to inexperienced players, but also one that is viable on Gold difficulty, which is what all my builds will be balanced around (I don't know much about Platinum yet, so we'll see how that changes things). Someone who is new to the game can start multiplayer right out of the box with the human engineer and still be of some assistance to the team, theoretically even on gold with the right build. I don't think that was the case prior to the buffs Bioware bestowed upon the human engineer, but since then the combat drone is actually useful.
Obviously a good weapon helps, but since it will take a long time to level up those rares, and especially ultra-rares, this class can make due with a basic arsenal. In my opinion this is one of the few classes that can be an effective team member using only powers.The others that I can think of would be the Asari adept because she has great powers, either Ex-Cerberus class because Smash is very good, the Salarian engineer simply because of decoy, and the human vanguard. Most of these require unlocking (though I suppose most people have them all by now), and the human vanguard is a... special class. I'll cover them later.
So... my take on the human engineer is as follows: I use two different builds. One uses incinerate, which is generally better against Reapers. The other uses overload, which works against all factions, but I spec it to deal with Cerberus. For today, I will be covering the overload build:
Human Engineer (30 Oct 2012)
Combat Drone: 4-detonate, 5-shock, 6-chain lightning
Incinerate: N/A
Overload: 4-chain overload, 5-neural shock*, 6-shield damage*
Alliance Training: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage*
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert
*These powers are more flexible. Obviously, neural shock doesn't affect Geth. Shield damage is less important against Reapers. Finally, if you like heavy weapons or 2 weapon load outs, consider weapon weight.
Personally, I use the Claymore X with Smart Choke and either High-Caliber Barrel or Shredder Mod (for pesky Guardians). All your weapons, equipment, and gear are optional. I would recommend that you take a high-damage weapon for tougher enemies though, since combat drone and overload are great crowd-control for grunts and lieutenants.
Which brings me to what I believe is this character's greatest strength: crowd control. Combat drone is highly spam-able. The detonate evolution ensures that your short-lived drone goes out with a bang that does pretty good damage over 5m. Not bad. The shock effect does moderate damage, but the most important part is that it stuns up to 4 enemies at a time. The buff also increased the force and radius of the effect. If I remember correctly, it does something like 1000N of force, which can stun Phantoms. To emphasize: this thing can stun an entire mob of Phantoms. Your teammates will thank you. I will thank you. Your government leaders will thank you for saving us from the Phantom Menace. Because that movie was terrible. But I digress.
I pass on incinerate in favor of fitness. It's optional, I guess, but incinerate is really limited against non-Reapers. It's feasible against Phantoms when it works, but in my opinion it's not worth forgoing durability. Overload is such a great power. It does it all: puts grunts to sleep, crowd control, drains shields. Enough said. And fitness is self-explanatory, so there you have it.
On another note, I would like to credit Stardusk and his Youtube videos for insight on the human engineer class. I would also like to thank my two readers. Questions? Comment. Thank you!
Edit: Balance changes a while ago cause "pets" to be much less effective at distracting enemies, especially melee enemies. Unfortunately, this directly affects the Human Engineer's viability on higher difficulties.
-MACave11i
Obviously a good weapon helps, but since it will take a long time to level up those rares, and especially ultra-rares, this class can make due with a basic arsenal. In my opinion this is one of the few classes that can be an effective team member using only powers.
So... my take on the human engineer is as follows: I use two different builds. One uses incinerate, which is generally better against Reapers. The other uses overload, which works against all factions, but I spec it to deal with Cerberus. For today, I will be covering the overload build:
Human Engineer (30 Oct 2012)
Combat Drone: 4-detonate, 5-shock, 6-chain lightning
Incinerate: N/A
Overload: 4-chain overload, 5-neural shock*, 6-shield damage*
Alliance Training: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage*
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert
*These powers are more flexible. Obviously, neural shock doesn't affect Geth. Shield damage is less important against Reapers. Finally, if you like heavy weapons or 2 weapon load outs, consider weapon weight.
Personally, I use the Claymore X with Smart Choke and either High-Caliber Barrel or Shredder Mod (for pesky Guardians). All your weapons, equipment, and gear are optional. I would recommend that you take a high-damage weapon for tougher enemies though, since combat drone and overload are great crowd-control for grunts and lieutenants.
Which brings me to what I believe is this character's greatest strength: crowd control. Combat drone is highly spam-able. The detonate evolution ensures that your short-lived drone goes out with a bang that does pretty good damage over 5m. Not bad. The shock effect does moderate damage, but the most important part is that it stuns up to 4 enemies at a time. The buff also increased the force and radius of the effect. If I remember correctly, it does something like 1000N of force, which can stun Phantoms. To emphasize: this thing can stun an entire mob of Phantoms. Your teammates will thank you. I will thank you. Your government leaders will thank you for saving us from the Phantom Menace. Because that movie was terrible. But I digress.
I pass on incinerate in favor of fitness. It's optional, I guess, but incinerate is really limited against non-Reapers. It's feasible against Phantoms when it works, but in my opinion it's not worth forgoing durability. Overload is such a great power. It does it all: puts grunts to sleep, crowd control, drains shields. Enough said. And fitness is self-explanatory, so there you have it.
On another note, I would like to credit Stardusk and his Youtube videos for insight on the human engineer class. I would also like to thank my two readers. Questions? Comment. Thank you!
Edit: Balance changes a while ago cause "pets" to be much less effective at distracting enemies, especially melee enemies. Unfortunately, this directly affects the Human Engineer's viability on higher difficulties.
-MACave11i
Welcome
Hello readers, and welcome to Stra7egies of War. I'll use this first post to go over my plans for this blog and maybe to give a little background as well.
Currently, I envision this blog as a sort of gamer's strategy guide, hence the name. I will be focusing on quality over quantity: games that I deem to be worth putting the time into. Specifically, I will be focusing on Mass Effect 3's multiplayer component for the foreseeable future.
Now a little bit about myself. I'm a multi-platform gamer, and as such I hope to make this a cross-platform community. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cross-platform games that I would be interested in analyzing, and they are Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, and Skyrim. As for exclusives, I might make an exception for the Halo franchise if number 4 turns out to be any good. Or I might do Reach, but considering that the game is already 2 years old, that is unlikely. I probably will look into Halo as I've always considered it to be a well-rounded game franchise that never fails in the "fun department", but I have to say that I'm a little skeptical of Halo 4, considering that Microsoft is obviously milking the franchise like Activision is milking COD. But I digress.
If you would be interested in reading about Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, I invite you to stay tuned for future posts, especially considering that the Earth DLC is out tomorrow. I am also open to any suggestions or requests, because the purpose of this blog for me at the moment is to1) get some readers, and 2) serve the ME3 community and create the next "generation" of veterans. Obviously there are a lot of good games out at the moment and I wish I could build up my expertise in all of them but I've really only got the time and will to focus on one game at a time, and for now that would be ME3.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I plan on posting a character build later today and hopefully a first impression of the Earth DLC tomorrow. And remember, I'm open to requests such as specific character builds. Bye.
Currently, I envision this blog as a sort of gamer's strategy guide, hence the name. I will be focusing on quality over quantity: games that I deem to be worth putting the time into. Specifically, I will be focusing on Mass Effect 3's multiplayer component for the foreseeable future.
Now a little bit about myself. I'm a multi-platform gamer, and as such I hope to make this a cross-platform community. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cross-platform games that I would be interested in analyzing, and they are Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, and Skyrim. As for exclusives, I might make an exception for the Halo franchise if number 4 turns out to be any good. Or I might do Reach, but considering that the game is already 2 years old, that is unlikely. I probably will look into Halo as I've always considered it to be a well-rounded game franchise that never fails in the "fun department", but I have to say that I'm a little skeptical of Halo 4, considering that Microsoft is obviously milking the franchise like Activision is milking COD. But I digress.
If you would be interested in reading about Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, I invite you to stay tuned for future posts, especially considering that the Earth DLC is out tomorrow. I am also open to any suggestions or requests, because the purpose of this blog for me at the moment is to
Anyway, thanks for reading. I plan on posting a character build later today and hopefully a first impression of the Earth DLC tomorrow. And remember, I'm open to requests such as specific character builds. Bye.
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