I Never Thought I'd See This Day... Maxed Manifest

That day has come. I've maxed my manifest after about 700 hours, which I understand is pretty average, though some of my friends have played over 1000 hours and still haven't maxed their URs. biower plz.

Now to unlock that Best of the Best banner. LOL who needs it? 

By The Claymore! 100,000 Pageviews!

Well, we just passed 100,000 views today. Now you all know I'm just some regular gamer with a blog. I don't write for a living. I don't do this for my health. I'm doing this to help out the ME3 community because I was once a newbie myself and I realize that there's a lot of learning involved. So the fact that people are reading this blog and coming back to read more is just great. It's great to know that I'm not just writing to thin air. It's great to know that maybe I'm helping some people step up their game.

So with that, I want to thank all the readers, all the regulars and subscribers. I wouldn't be doing this without you all. Stay classy.

-Grun7mas7er

Celebrate!

ME3 Character Guide: Ex-Cerberus Phoenix Vanguard

Greetings, readers. This weekend I was playing with all kinds of different builds (taking a break from the Geth Infiltrator LOL). One of them was the Phoenix Vanguard (aka The Smashguard). I was never much of a fan of the Ex-Cerberus characters, and in my opinion the Phoenix Adept is still one of the weaker characters in the game. That said, I watched a Smashguard platinum solo one day that changed my perspective on the character. I tried it out for myself and it is pretty good, so I'm giving it Grunt's Stamp of Approval and sharing it here.

I used to use a melee build since the whips are pretty good/cool, and for the sake of variety I wouldn't rule out that build, but I've had much more success with the following:

Ex-Cerberus Vanguard
Biotic Charge: 4-radius, 5-power synergy, 6-barrier
Lash: N/A
Smash: 4-biotic combo, 5-force & damage, 6-armor damage
Phoenix Training: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-pistols & shotguns
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert

Acolyte: the key to this character, as with any caster, is weapon choice. Finding a complementary weapon isn't hard, just examine the strengths/weaknesses of your character and select an appropriate weapon. Also, look for potential combos. In this case, the Acolyte does both; it mitigates the Smashguard's weakness against shields and it applies ammo effects reliably. If you prefer, the Talon is also a good weapon for this guy. As with any Vanguard, Incendiary ammo goes a long way.

I take a Hurricane with ULM and HVB just as a sidearm for Guardians. Anything lightweight and armor piercing will do, though.

Biotic Charge: an excellent biotic/tech combo trigger, but not so great against shields. Acolyte solves this problem. Take radius for better crowd control. Then take power synergy to amp up Biotic Charge and Smash. Finally, I don't think bonus power is necessary because the Acolyte-Biotic Charge combo has a good rhythm without it. Barrier doesn't make a huge difference though, so I suppose it's up to you.

Lash: skiiiiiiip.

Smash: I take biotic combo to prime biotic explosions, and force & damage for more direct damage. Then I take armor damage. Smash has an inherent bonus of 150% against armor, shields, and barriers. With the armor damage evolution, that bonus increases to 262.5% damage against armor and barriers. With all those stacking power damage bonuses, you're looking at well over 5000 damage against armor and barriers per cast. That's not insignificant.

Phoenix Training: You want all power damage bonuses to boost your powers even more. This is very much a power-centric build. I take pistols & shotguns for the final evolution so that I can carry a heavy barrel Acolyte, a lightweight sidearm, and still keep a 200% cooldown bonus. The 10% weapon damage bonus isn't much anyway.

Fitness: all bottom row for maximum durability.

Strategy: I rate this character mostly for Gold, though he can be used well on Platinum.

Use Biotic Charge on unshielded mooks. Dead.

Keep your Acolyte charged. When you come across a shielded mook (Marauder, Centurion, etc.), release the shot to drain their shields and prime them with Incendiary ammo. Charge and boom. Fire explosion. Dead.

Same strategy for Phantoms, except they are tougher and may or may not need a follow-up shot or Charge or Smash. Whichever you prefer. Dead.

For Pyros, Acolyte for shields, Smash for armor. Fire explosion. Dead.

Same for Dragoons. Acolyte to prime for fire explosion, then Smash. Dead.

Against Brutes, hit them with Incendiary ammo, Smash for the fire explosion, Smash again (always keep cover between you and the Brute if possible, so it won't charge at you) until it's down to one or two bars of armor, then Charge for the biotic explosion. Dead.

Ravagers are tricky because if you Charge, you get covered in Swarmers. Smash only hits up to two targets, so it's possible that it will only hit the Swarmers. So use your Acolyte to mop them up and prime the Ravager for a fire explosion, then Smash until it's dead.

You have enough force to Charge bosses and stagger them, but don't continuously Charge them. After their melee animation, they can sync-kill you, so be cautious. Smash from behind cover, if possible.

Yeah... that's about it. So thanks for reading, have fun with the build. Stay classy.

-Grun7mas7er

Check out some gameplay by Master Reefa.

ME3: The Best Team for Platinum + Speedrun Tactics

Hello readers. In the wake of rampant missile glitching that's been going on recently, I'm going to attempt to explain Platinum speedrun strategy. This strategy is just about as effective as missile glitching but it won't get you banned.

I understand the need for farming because you need a ridiculous amount of credits to buy premium spectre packs or arsenal packs, and you need a ridiculous amount of those to unlock an ultra-rare card, and there are 21 ultra-rare weapons. That's 210 ultra-rare cards, not including characters. If you have decent luck you'll get about 1 ultra-rare card out of 14 rare cards. That's 7 premium spectre packs, which costs 693,000 credits. Now multiply that by 210, you get 145,530,000 credits. Obviously this is an over-simplified calculation, but you get the point.

Despite this, people shouldn't missile glitch to achieve this sum. Not only can you get banned, but it ruins the game for the people who just want to play. Speedrunning, however, is 100% legal. It gets you the same amount of credits in the same amount of time. The only thing is that it still requires some degree of player skill, team coordination, and equipment (guns, gear, consumables).

Here is a video by HardcoreSalmon that demonstrates the general idea of the speedrun.



Now that you've seen the video, let's look at the tactics and team play.

Obviously, you'll want to play on Firebase Glacier for the fastest time, since it is the smallest map. I recommend choosing Cerberus as the enemy because of their spawn patterns. Atlases are easier to take down than Primes and Banshees.

The first character is optional but preferably an N7 Demolisher Engineer. As the Demolisher, your job is to set up a Supply Pylon in the Hallway to resupply the Talon's Trip Mines. Also, you are responsible for blocking the spawns on the Landing Pad and the Balcony by standing on the Balcony and looking towards the Talon in the Hallway (as seen in the first video). Have your missile at the ready in case a Banshee or Phantom slips through the Talon's defenses. Also be prepared to help clean up near the end of each wave after the objective is completed and/or the enemies stop respawning.

Note that on objective waves, enemies will continue to respawn until the credits pop up on your screen. If possible, save your missiles until you see the credits, then clean up the stragglers. However, don't be afraid to use a missile to clear the hack circle even if it is 3/4 of the way finished. Better to use a missile than to fail the wave.

It is required to have two Talon Mercenary Engineers on the team. One of the Talons is responsible for blocking off the Dark Room spawn and shooting Trip Mines down the stairs into the Basement. He will not see as much action as the Talon in the Hallway, whose strategy is highlighted in the video below. Basically, the other Talon's job is to stand in the Hallway overlooking the Basement and spam Trip Mines into the Basement, clearing out the majority of spawning enemies. When you run out of Trip Mines, use a Thermal Clip pack to replenish your supply. If a Banshee slips past you, call it out and have the Demolisher cover your back.



In case the Talon in the Hallway runs out of Thermal Clip packs, usually after Wave 5, then the two Talons should switch posts after the Wave 6 Objective. Don't forget to call it out!

In theory, a no Fitness Talon with the Assault Loadout for extra Thermal Clip packs would have the best grenade capacity. However, with a Demolisher on your team supplying extra grenades, you have the flexibility to max Fitness instead of Concussive Arrows and compensate with a Grenade Capacity mod. Thermal Clip packs only resupply up to 10 grenades, so you don't gain much from maxing your capacity above 12.

Finally, you want one Drell Assassin Infiltrator, though a Volus Engineer can do the job in a pinch. This guy's job is to set up a Recon Mine in the Basement to debuff and slow down all the enemies as they spawn down there. He is responsible for blocking The Nook, which is the cavity in the wall between the Balcony and the Dark Room. He needs to be able to move quickly around the map to help clean up stragglers near the end of each wave, using missiles if necessary, and run back to his post before the next wave. He is also responsible for delivery objectives, especially if he is using an adrenaline module to boost his speed even more.

I hope that covers everything. So if you were missile glitching or thinking of missile glitching, consider this as an alternative and find a team to do speedruns with. There are even speedrun groups on BSN for all platforms, so if you need teammates you can always join one of those groups.

Good luck everyone, and may the RNG store smile upon you.

-Grun7mas7er