http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/20/operation-prophecy/

OPERATION: PROPHECY

POSTED ON DECEMBER 20, 2012 BY BIOWARE

Operation: PROPHECY (December 21st-23rd)

Event Description:

Our successes on Earth have given us the capability to land materiel in several war zones. However, in order to conceal shipments to the resistance, each delivery needs corresponding strikes on Reaper targets to create a screening distraction. The operations to deliberately gain Reaper attention are extremely high-risk and will require increased numbers to spread thin Reaper reaction forces. For this mission, N7 commanders, wherever possible, will recruit and command supplemental volunteer units: recent graduates of our N7 program and soldiers who bring experience from other branches.

Challenge Goal 1: Extract once on each Earth map (London, Vancouver, and Rio).

Challenge Goal 2: Score 100,000 cumulative points against Reaper enemies.

Challenges can be completed at any difficulty.

Completion of both goals awards the player a Commendation Pack.
Completion of both goals also awards the player a banner, “Hero of the Last Days.”



[Bioware surprised us by starting the operation a day early]
Happy holidays!

-MACave11i

December 18th Balance Changes

Happy holidays, all!

December 18th

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 18, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There will be no balance updates for the next 3 weeks due to the Christmas holidays Two new packs added to the store: - Reserves Pack - for players who want character unlocks and upgrades - Arsenal Pack - for players who want weapon unlocks and upgrades Unlocking Volus Protector Vanguard and challenge Unlocking Batarian Slasher Adept and challenge Unlocking Drell Assassin Infiltrator and challenge All hazard maps are now unlocked for the Christmas holidays Acolyte Pistol - Reverting pistol to original state before the attempted rocket glitch fix since the change did not curb the use of the glitch Sabotage Power - Base cooldown decreased from 14 to 10 seconds - Base backfire damage decreased 300 to 250

PSA: I anticipate that I will post and/or update several guides this week and over the holidays. Hopefully these will include the new characters, but it's too early to say for sure. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

-MACave11i

Operation: ALAMO

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/13/operation-alamo/

Operation: ALAMO (Dec 14^th-16^th)

Event Description: The Reapers are taking advantage of our forces being spread thin and are making a push for Menae. Alliance Intelligence predicts that the Reapers are luring us into committing large-scale defenses to the moon that they will wipe out. Our counter-strategy is to insert small, stealthy units to conduct disruptive offensives and hold the firebase during their hopefully weakened attacks.

Team Goal: Earn the “Survived 5 Waves” medal on the Firebase Condor map at any difficulty. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

First Impressions: Turian Saboteur Engineer

So I tried out the Saboteur today. Right now I don't have enough experience to make a build or a complete guide yet. I didn't have a lot of time to play today, so these are just my first impressions.

For my initial build, I took all powers, no fitness, as I sometimes do with new characters. I mainly wanted to test the synergy between his powers. I found some decent combos unintentionally, but for the most part I think that the Saboteur will be a combat engineer. That is, he will be using powers more for utility than for damage. Though I specced my powers for damage, I found that my gun was doing most of the work. Turians are weapon specialists, after all.

I took the shock evolution for Sentry Turret. I found this was mostly killing Swarmers and stunning Husks. Not a big deal, but I think it stuns most other enemies, including Phantoms. Again, not sure about this, I'll verify it in when I finish the guide. Would then take AP ammo and flamethrower evolutions.

For Homing Grenades, I took damage and max grenades. I had intended on taking armor damage but didn't have enough points as I had recently promoted. This would have been useful for quickly taking down armored targets. Also, I'm probably going to go with fire damage.

One unintentional combo I found was to launch a Homing Grenade at a group of enemies and then use Sabotage to stun them all in place. More often than not, the Homing Grenade hit multiple targets thanks to this.

For Sabotage, I took backfire and recharge speed. I didn't have the points to put into Tech Vulnerability. But apparently, this doesn't have much effect on the TSE anyway. Proof. To reiterate, Tech Vulnerability does not affect Homing Grenades, Sentry Turret, or TSE light melee. However, it does affect TSE heavy melee and tech combos (i.e. tech bursts, fire explosions, etc).

I didn't notice backfire all that much, but Sabotage is very effective against mid-tier enemies (Marauders, Centurions, Collector Captains, and obviously Geth). It staggers them when hit and shocks them when they fire their weapon.

I took all weapon & stability bonuses. I used the Piranha as a trial weapon because it does good damage, is useful in many situations, and benefits from stability bonuses. I used a low level cyclonic modulator and Shock Trooper V gear.

That's my brief first impression of the Saboteur. I'll get a full guide up later, hopefully in the near future. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.

Update: Lord Narida added the Saboturian to the site. So here's the build:

Turian Saboteur
Sabotage: 4-backfire, 5-recharge speed, 6-tech vulnerability
Sentry Turret: 4-shock, 5-armor-piercing ammo, 6-flamethrower
Homing Grenade: 4-damage, 5-fire damage, 6-armor damage
Armiger Legion: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-damage & stability
Fitness: N/A

Think 'tech bursts and fire explosions' when playing this build. Sabotage + Homing Grenade = tech burst, plus the tech burst and the grenade do 50% more damage with the tech vulnerability evolution. Throw your Sentry Turret into groups of enemies to stun and flame them, then zap them with Sabotage, then launch a grenade at them. Bam. Fire explosions for everyone. For big bosses, zap them with Sabotage and launch a grenade at them. Use your gun as necessary. This combo works especially well against Primes and Atlases. Not as effective against Banshees and Praetorians. But that's why you carry a good gun.

I will continue to update this post as necessary.

-MACave11i

Krogan Soldier: 200 Waves Edition

Hello esteemed readers. So I'm trying out a new thing where I make "200 Waves Edition" guides for characters after completing the 200 wave challenge with them (or approximately that many waves if there is no such challenge for the character). This way I have a very solid understanding of the character and how to play them effectively. It takes a little longer but I think that it will improve the quality of these guides. I do play the characters before making the guides of course, usually pretty extensively, but this way I have a greater sense of experience with the individual characters that I didn't have before the challenges were introduced. And of course I will continue to update old builds as time permits.

Krogan Soldier (Fire Explosions build)
Fortification: 4-durability, 5-power synergy
Carnage: 4-damage, 5-incapacitate, 6-armor damage*
Inferno Grenade: 4-damage, 5-damage, 6-radius & shrapnel
Krogan Berserker: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Rage: 3*

*Alternatively, put 3 in Carnage and max out Rage.

Recommended weapons:
ARs: Falcon, Harrier
Shotguns: Geth Plasma, Wraith, Graal, Reegar, Piranha

Recommended ammo bonus: Incendiary, Disruptor (especially if against Geth)

Now I'll explain the build because when I first saw it I was a little skeptical. It does look a little strange on paper (A Krogan without maxed Fitness? This is blasphemy!!!). But I assure you it is quite good in actual gameplay. First, let's look at Fortification. Evolution 4 is obvious because this is not a melee build. Evolution 5 is obvious too, since this is a grenadier build, and grenades benefit from power damage bonuses. What's not so obvious is why we choose 3 ranks of Rage over evolution 6 durability. It's all about the math.

Using an approximate DR formula (since the real one is complicated):

Health/Shields with 40% damage reduction, no Rage
1250/1667
Health/Shields with 30% DR, 3 ranks of Rage
1446/1929
Health/Shields with 40% DR, no Rage, Cyclonic Mod IV
1250/4167
Health/Shields with 30% DR, 3 ranks of Rage, Cyclonic Mod IV
1446/4071

As you can see, the Krogan Soldier is more durable with 3 ranks in Rage over rank 6 of Fortification in all cases. So do yourself a favor and take this advice. Whether or not you take a Cyclonic Mod is up to you.

Since it was buffed, Carnage is reasonably good. When you take Fortification power synergy into account, Carnage does massive damage to armored targets. It's still quite weak against shielded targets, however. It can also incapacitate unprotected mooks, such as Husks,  which is quite useful. But these powers are just bonuses. The main purpose of Carnage on this build will be to trigger fire explosions from your Inferno Grenades. With this combo, you will be able to annihilate spawn points and a well-thrown grenade will net you a killstreak medal.

Your Inferno Grenades are your bread and Carnage is your butter. With the appropriate damage bonuses, you can make an entire spawn zone go up in flames, killing all but the toughest of enemies with a single grenade. Thanks to its inherent armor damage bonus, even Brutes and Scions don't stand a chance. With the massive damage over time potential (nearly 670 dps with the above build), the last thing you want is for a Phantom, Banshee, or Praetorian to cancel that damage with their space magic bubble. Generally this means that you don't want to use Carnage on them until the damage over time has finished.

For Krogan Berserker, I took all power damage bonuses and weapon damage at the end. You'll have great weight capacity and decent weapon damage bonuses. This is primarily a power-based build though, despite it being a soldier (and a Krogan one at that). Rage has been explained above.

That's about it for this build. Try it out and if you like it, I encourage you to check the 'like' box below. If you really like it, feel free to subscribe to future builds. Thanks for reading.

-Grun7mas7er

Here's a video guide by Stardusk, which I found very helpful and inspiring.

Powers and Their Hidden Attributes

Today I found a very useful post on BSN by Cyonan. If you have the time, I recommend giving it a read. It could seriously improve your gameplay. Powers and their hidden attributes

-MACave11i

Operation: ONSLAUGHT

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/06/operation-onslaught/

Event Description: Losses of industrial capacity have caused shortages of specialized weapons on several fronts. Population centers must be reclaimed for us to rebuild munitions factories, and N7s will lead recon and assault teams to prep the way for regular infantry to take the territory.

Individual Goal: Earn 75,000 points of damage using an assault rifle on any map at any difficulty. Points are cumulative across matches. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

Looks like a pretty easy challenge this weekend. Too bad I already did the assault rifle challenge. Bioware, can I has Hurricane? 

-MACave11i

First Impressions: Quarian Marksman Soldier

Quarian Marksman (locust headshot build) [kind of for teh lulz but also kind of serious]
Marksman: 4-firing rate, 5-headshots, 6-accuracy & firing rate
Tactical Scan: 4-weapon damage, 5-headshots, 6-damage
Sabotage: N/A
Quarian Defender: 4-weapon damage, 5-headshots, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert

Recommended: AP Ammo, but others work too.

I'm currently in a discussion on BSN regarding the Quarian Marksman vs. the Turian Soldier. I'm looking for more interesting ways to play this character. I think Eric Fagnan, Lord of Nerfs and Buffs, commented on the QM's apparent Fitness deficiency and said that they will likely buff his offensive capabilities. I'm very interested to see what these balance changes will be, and whether or not they can successfully differentiate the character from the TS (to a greater degree, anyway). For now, I am running this build. I played a few quick games with the QM (Locust headshot build). It's not very creative admittedly, but hey, the character just came out today.

Stay tuned for future updates (and hopefully a more interesting QM build).

Update: Quarian Marksman weapon damage bonus for passive rank 1 increased from 2.5% to 7.5%. Weapon damage bonus from evolution 6b increased from 10% to 12.5%.

-MACave11i

Operation: DETONATOR

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/29/operation-detonator/

Event Description: Recent setbacks have prompted changes in unit composition. Turian cabal theory is now dominant training paradigm. N7 units will now be deployed with pairs or higher percentages of biotics wherever available to maximize effectiveness.

Individual Goal: Earn 20,000 Biotic Explosion points on any map at any difficulty. You will need to kill the enemy with the explosion for the points to count. Points are cumulative across matches. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

Looks interesting. I wonder if this means they're adding a Turian Cabal character?

-MACave11i

Asari Huntress: 200 Waves Edition

What's going on, everyone? I've noticed that a lot of people are wondering how to play the Asari Huntress. It's been my second most viewed post for quite a while now, so I thought I'd take the time to update the old guide (if you could call it that). My first impressions were totally flawed at the time, but now that I've learned the tricks of the trade, well... as our Volus friends say, *kssshhh* "Let's get paid!"

Asari Huntress (melee)
Tactical Cloak: 4-damage, 5-melee damage, 6-power damage
Dark Channel: 4-damage, 5-slow, 6-pierce
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Asari Adept: N/A
Fitness: 4-melee damage, 5-martial artist, 6-power synergy

As this is a melee build, I recommend bringing a shotgun with an omni-blade attachment. This will greatly increase your melee damage. As cooldown isn't too much of an issue with this build, feel free to bring any shotgun you desire. *cough* Claymore *cough*. Ahem. And Warp ammo.

The most important thing that you need to know about the Huntress is that her version of Tactical Cloak does not give a damage bonus to weapons, only powers and melee. Initially, this was a bug, and Bioware has confirmed this. However, some members of the BSN community saw this as an opportunity to create a truly unique infiltrator. Apparently, the balance team at Bioware concurred, and they buffed the TC damage evolutions to compensate for the lack of a weapon damage bonus. Now it is a 'feature'.

You're still going to want the damage evolutions for TC. Even though they don't boost your weapon, they provide massive bonuses to your power and melee attacks. All in all, you're getting a 170% melee damage bonus and 160% power damage bonus. In terms of damage per melee, area of effect, etc. I think that the Huntress may be the most powerful. She deals over 5000 (!!!) damage to shields, barriers, and armor with her heavy melee. And she is certainly one of the most powerful DPS casters.

Another important thing that people often ask about: does the entire duration of Dark Channel benefit from the TC bonus? The answer is yes. With the above build, DC does hundreds of damage per second to most defense types, except for its penalty against shields. Let's do some rough math (because it's more interesting than regular math). A gold Banshee has approximately 16875 armor and 10125 barriers. If you were to max out power damage and use the appropriate power amps, you could kill a gold Banshee in a single cloaked Dark Channel cast. Although this build sacrifices some power damage for some melee damage, you can still leave a Banshee severely crippled after one cast, easy to finish off with a weapon, melee, or a biotic explosion. Phantoms? Not even an issue.

DC also persists even after a Banshee, Phantom or Praetorian raise their biotic shields, and also after a biotic explosion. You can use this as a slow but reliable fire-and-forget boss killer while you concentrate on lesser enemies. It's also great for staggering/killing mooks and priming biotic explosions.

I max out Warp because the passive power/weapon damage bonuses are negligible on this build. Warp weakens enemy armor and debuffs them, making it just as useful as the the weapon damage bonuses. Next to that, you can trigger biotic explosions off of DC. It's just the standard Warp, nothing to explain besides that, really.

As this is a melee build, maxing Fitness for melee damage is obvious. In addition, the melee synergy evolution gives you a 25% power damage bonus after you kill an enemy with a heavy melee. This somewhat compensates for skipping the passive. I intended this build to be the best of both worlds, power and melee damage. At the end of the day, it's not the best for power damage and it definitely lacks weapon damage, but it's still reasonably good at all three types of combat.

Watch as Annomander demonstrates the power of the melee Asari Huntress.  

Asari Huntress (caster)
Tactical Cloak: 4-damage, 5-recharge speed, 6-power damage
Dark Channel: 4-damage, 5-slow, 6-pierce
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Asari Adept: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: N/A

This is another build I have tried during my 200 waves, and it is extremely effective and a more reliable build for higher difficulties. It's more or less the same as the melee build except taking power & weapon damage over melee damage. This build works especially well with Warp ammo, which will dramatically increase your weapon damage. If you have the guns, focus less on biotic explosions and more on sheer weapon damage.

For example, Phantoms will fall quickly to your cloaked Dark Channel followed by a blast from a Warp ammo Claymore. Brutes and Ravagers are trivialized with your cloaked debuff Warp and a Hurricane equipped with Warp rounds. Gold Banshees slowly bleed to death from a single cloaked Dark Channel cast. Even Praetorians will be crippled by a cloaked Dark Channel.

Biotics are not as effective against shields, so I recommend using an Acolyte as a sidearm for Atlas and Prime shields. Debuff with Warp first. After their shields are dealt with, use Dark Channel or another Warp and finish them with Warp rounds.

So that's about it for the build. Hope this helps and thanks for reading.

-Grun7mas7er