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So I just started this game and skimming this post am not seeing a lot of Soldier spec talk. I imported a ME2 save so I started at level 30 and pretty much maxed out the Mastery (Rep/Weight Bonus), Fitness (Health/Shield Bonus) and Adrenaline Rush (Time Dilation, Headshots, Shield Boost) powers. No idea whether that's a good setup yet. I think I have 1 point in everything else right now. I never used Concussive Shot much in the other games, how does it fare in ME3? Also do Grenades get useful, their inaccuracy plus the fact that you only get a handful seems kind of wonky. I'm running around with an AR and a pistol (to keep power recharge at 200%) on Insanity just basically going Commando on guys in slo-mo and it's pretty awesome.  I guess for a bonus power since I have a bunch of ammo one locked in I'll end up using some sort of defensive/barrier type thing. Probably a tech-based one since I'm a big gay sperglord and SoldierFemShep doesn't use biotics~
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Mar 27, 2012 17:33
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Burning Mustache posted:I didn't mind the cooldown penalty you get while having it active, mostly because I hardly ever used Concussive Shot anyway. It's not that it's inherently bad or anything, but I just didn't use it much for some reason. Wouldn't that also slow down AR's cooldown? Right now with it maxed and 200% recharge it's up in like 2 seconds, I use it all the time. Can you go through the game just using one or two guns, or will I need to lose some recharge to bring a shotgun/smg/SR along? How does the 'use another power during AR' evolution thing work? Or hell, do I really need the HP/Shield/Weight/Rep stuff or should I go full damage? I'm gonna stick to Soldier because to me that's what Shep is; she's not a special snowflake, just another grunt in the right place at the right time that refuses to give up. 
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Mar 27, 2012 17:51
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N7 Cerberus Base mission (the one you get after Mars): Can you only grab 2 artifacts? After I grabbed the second one, Cortez had to bug out and I had to hold the line until he came back, is it just waves of infinite Cerberus grunts until you fight your way back to the shuttle or is there a way to grab all of the reaper things? I was kind of disappointed that upgrading the M-8 AR didn't add much damage, but I don't want to use the M-15 because its accuracy sucks. And the Prothean Particle AR is way too loving heavy jesus.
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Mar 28, 2012 06:46
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What's the money situation like in this one? Can I waste some respeccing and still have enough to buy all the various junk you find in stores? Because if so I might try respeccing into an all-damage build.
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Mar 28, 2012 07:07
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404notfound posted:They explain it in the codex (same entry for ME2 and ME3) as observing how the geth have determined that whoever shoots the most tends to win, so they switched to disposable heatsinks instead of having to wait for cooldowns. It would've fit in nicely (canon-wise) as an alternative alongside cooldowns instead of replacing them, and supposedly such a hybrid system was the original plan, but I'm completely satisfied with ejecting hot heatsinks after watching the renegade ending to Zaeed's loyalty mission in ME2. I didn't like heat sinks at first, but really they're pretty neat conceptually and ME1 really suffered from being able to mod your guns to be cold as ice and simply hold down the button for 5 minutes at a time. Game mechanics wise they were definitely an improvement. How many missions do you have to do before Javik gets over his freezer burn? I just did Palaven this morning (third mission, after From Ashes and N7 Cerberus Base) and I want to bring him along.  Also ffffuck Brutes.
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Mar 28, 2012 19:39
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Just so I've got this straight: You can only find random poo poo/floating space gas in clusters actually being attacked by the Reapers (Reaper icon on the galaxy map)? Clusters that don't have a Reaper icon/aren't red never have anything to find?
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Mar 28, 2012 21:26
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skoolmunkee posted:you'll have a few seconds before the reapers show up again to pick anything up. I've just been scanning like mad and if the Reapers show up I let them catch me. You can 'resume' from the point you entered the system with 0 penalty, it seems like. Also it's really neat how characters move around, I just talked with Cortez on the Citadel after I persuaded him to take some time off. Is there any sort of rhyme or reason to these things (like, they 'update' after each mission, or whatever) or am I doomed to running around the Normandy/Citadel forever trying to catch all of these moments? edit: Also, I've found a bunch of weapon mods on missions, do I still need to buy ones from vendors or are there enough to max out just from finding them (ie, can you find 5x a particular mod or is it more of a 'you can find 2 pistol barrels + there are 3 to buy from vendors' thing)?  I just listened to Blasto 6. "Badassfully, seriously, don't be like that with my sister."
WarLocke fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Mar 28, 2012 |
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Mar 28, 2012 22:31
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Ugh, the quest tracking in ME3 is poo poo. How/where do I find artifacts for the Presidium Commons black market salarian so he'll sell weapons to General Oraka so he'll let up on Eclipse so Aria will throw in with me?
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Mar 28, 2012 23:58
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Doing the Grissom Academy mission: 1: Holy hell I love the Mattock, even if it's only at rank 1. 420 scope in and pop heads erryday 2: Jack is awesome as always 3: Holy gently caress some of the grinder fights on Insanity are, well, insane. I'ma try the fight after you unlock the big door (big ramp up to the right, mech pressuring from below-left and guys rushing you from left and down the ramp) again tomorrow, fuuuuck
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Mar 29, 2012 04:08
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Oxxidation posted:That atrium battle was one of the toughest in the game for me. Enemies just have so many entry points and your cover opportunities are limited once you move past the outer ring. I think I'm going to have to re-learn how to handle big fights. In ME2 my go-to tactic was to find a defensive position and bunker up, and then just mow down guys as they came until they ran out of dudes to throw at me. That doesn't work as well in ME3, both because enemies seem more aggressive in general and they have new toys to flush you out (gently caress grenades  )
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Mar 29, 2012 04:16
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Banjodark posted:the combination of turrets, guardians coming down from your right flank, grenades, smoke grenades, atlases and very little room is just rough. I think I boned myself by bring Liara and Javik. Plenty of biotic power and control, but they're both squishy (even though I tend to spec everyone's passive along the hp/shield branch instead of damage when possible). Javik's a beast with the particle AR though. Turrets are really annoying as a Soldier (but I imagine fun as an Engineer with Sabotage), Guardians are cake as long as I can have Liara Singularity them (Adrenaline Rush + Scoped Mattock = ded), it's the combination of all that poo poo at once and not being able to see poo poo due to smoke and having to constantly dodge grenades and fffffff
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Mar 29, 2012 05:06
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losonti tokash posted:Something you can try to get a extra boost of damage on those turrets is to stasis the engineer when he's right next to it and then trigger a detonation. Usually fucks the turret right up. That brings up a question, is there any way to keep an engineer dude form dropping a turret once the turret-box is actually in his hands? I'm pretty sure I've managed to stasis or just kill the dude at that point but the box just drops to the ground and deploys anyway.
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Mar 29, 2012 05:14
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magimix posted:Man, thats giving me ME3 SP Demo flashbacks. Why are my Adept's cooldowns so awful?! I'm running around with a Mattock and Predator right now and my recharge is at +189% or something. Then again I do have the "+50 weight limit" Soldier evolution, so not sure how much that's helping. But I would imagine if an AR is the ONLY weapon you're carrying it shouldn't gimp you too much even without that. edit: I only carry the AR and pistol on my ME3 Soldier, ammo conservation can be a bit tight at times but it just means I have to aim (rush + headshots whee) better and worst case I spam conc shot every 3 seconds or so while scrambling for clips because my power recharge is so fast since I carry only two guns. Also in some missions there are ammo caches that respawn every couple minutes. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Mar 29, 2012 |
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Mar 29, 2012 17:00
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Having only played talent-focused classes (in SP and MP), I'm used to just running with pistol and SMG - if I can refrain from an NG+ Insanity Adept for my third playthrough, I should mix things up and go gun-centric.
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Fag Boy Jim posted:on Insanity, a shitload of times. It's actually kind of cool I just finished Grissom Academy. That atrium fight, gently caress I was completely dry on ammo at least twice. Thank god for respawning thermal clips, but gently caress dashing out to grab one while a turret spins up. I was kind of disappointed there was no squad banter (Liara/Javik) though. And the last fight I just stomped around in a mech and blew guys to poo poo, it was kind of anticlimactic.
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Mar 29, 2012 18:14
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magimix posted:Really?! After the trauma of the Atrium fights (on my first playthrough at least), being given a whole Atlus Mech was tremendously cathartic Oh no, it was fun as hell being invulnerable and just pushing Cerberus poo poo in, don't get me wrong. But after two (halves, I guess) really drat tough and frenetic fights, ending the mission with a 'fight' where I basically couldn't die felt kind of off.
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Mar 29, 2012 19:05
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AngryBooch posted:Is 50% not average? In gaming reviews? No. 'Average' would be 80-85%. How does the narrative setting work? The one where conversations play out automatically? Does it default to paragon responses or what?
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Mar 29, 2012 19:27
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magimix posted:Also, it very much was a late-bloomer for me, but Flamethrower Turret is worth every point I had to spend to get it I tried an Engineer in ME3, and the drone and turret seemed really meh up to level 35ish. Must be really late-blooming. Will have to give it another try, since my 'headcanon' ManShep is an Earthborn, Ruthless Engineer who carries a big-rear end pistol and is Renegade as hell and tapped Ashley. Then after that maybe I'll do EffortShep, set combat to Narrative mode and turn on the auto-conversation stuff and just... go with the flow.  edit: Going back to the turret, it seemed like it only fired every 10 seconds or so, and the drone died constantly, it didn't seem as effective at stunning/knocking dudes out of cover as it was in ME2.
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Mar 29, 2012 20:12
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Nucular Carmul posted:Isn't Defense Drone a bonus power? Haha, I was thinking an ammo power for bonus, but if you can get ANOTHER drone power, then the light is green for PetShep. 
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Mar 29, 2012 20:19
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Snicker-Snack posted:You should try the Mattock, it's only weakness is that it doesn't have a lot of ammo, but it's more than enough for power using classes. You should easily be able to use an upgraded Mattock V and keep a 200%CD reduction if you have the + weight capacity upgrade. Mattock V plus Predator V (no ultralight materials) = 200% power recharge with the +Weight Soldier evolution. Adding a Shuriken 1 (with ultralight 1 I think) brings it down to 197% IIRC. magimix posted:My main reason for not using the Mattock is its semi-automatic nature (assuming it works the same as the ME2 Mattock). I suck at shooting in real-time, so I favour spray-n-pray weapons, or burst-firing ones. The Vindicator is a good fit; decent damage, burst firing. Mattock + scope = poor man's semi-auto sniper rifle.  Then again Mattock + scope + Adrenalin Rush = gently caress you, you're dead. Might not be quite as effective with classes that can't go slo-mo.
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Mar 29, 2012 20:36
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^^^: I'll keep that in mind. I'm on my first playthrough and at Priority: Sur'Kesh, so not sure where/when I'll get one of those. But my MO tends to be to pop out of cover with Rush going, scope in on some fools and pop-pop-pop take off their heads. Basically I get around the low ammo for the Mattock by abusing slo-mo to get headshots. I'm not the only person seeing the irony in destroying a genophage cure in ME1 and then having to come up with one in ME3? WarLocke fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Mar 29, 2012 |
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Mar 29, 2012 20:41
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Every time I start thinking all the callbacks are going to start feeling all fanwanky, another one pops up and  .
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Mar 29, 2012 20:48
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dwazegek posted:I think the only callbacks that felt overdone to me are the four or so mentions of Garrus' calibrations. If you didn't at least chuckle at Joker's "... and who knows, maybe we'll need something calibrated" you are a bad person. 
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Mar 29, 2012 20:57
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magimix posted:If it improves EMS, I can take the hit. But yeah, I haven't heard VO that insipid in a game since Sean Bean's portrayal of Martin Septim in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Her face is also all weird. Something about the fat cheeks. I know this isn't the ending thread, but I'm 11k posts behind there and no way am I catching up on that. I want DLC that ends with Shepard seeing the star kid, then you hear a voice go "That is some stupid stuff, change the vid" and then the screen pans out to two guys sitting in the Citadel and they watch the last 5 minutes of Blasto 6, commenting on how much better the ending to that is and how the companny that made Mass Effect 3 must hate their fanbase. See? It's meta. 
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Mar 29, 2012 21:24
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Transmetropolitan posted:Hey guys, so now that I am close to finishing my NG+ with a vanguard, I am considering trying a Soldier because I never managed to finish a playthrough in ME2 with that class and I am also looking to revive the glory days of ME1 tanking against thresher maws I guess it'll depend on what difficulty you play on, but there's really no way to be 'tanky' on Insanity. IIRC the N7 armor you start with gives you the most health bonus (everything else is 'lose some health for another bonus') and the Soldier HP/Shield passive isn't that much better than other classes' (may be identical numbers actually). The only real 'tanky' power you get is you can evolve Adrenaline Rush to give you damage resistance while it's on or to boost your shields by 50% when activated. Even with all of that, though, if you're out of cover for more than a second or two you're gonna be hurt/dead. I really don't think there's any way to recreate the ME1 "Haha I am Ahnold from Commando I eat rockets and poo poo nails" invincible Soldier experience. ME2/3 Soldier is really more of a 'peace through superior firepower' class than a tank. Although it does get a LOT of melee bonuses, maybe you could do a slo-mo martial arts dude, hrmm... Webman posted:Can I play ME3 without playing the first two in the series, or will I be lost? ME1's gameplay didn't age very well. I'd almost suggest just reading a plot summary or finding a lets play video or something instead of actually playing it. ME2 is a very different game, mechanics wise (for the better) and you can sort of jump in there without missing out on too much stuff. It's also a kicking rad game you should play. You can just go to masseffect2saves.com to get ME1 saves to import into ME2 (and ME2 saves for ME3) so you don't miss out on the variables that get tracked between games (if you start a totally new file in 2/3 the game just assumes people are dead/never got met/whatever to minimize confusing new players). Also there's masseffectfaces.com if you're lazy like me and don't like to fiddle with face sliders. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Mar 30, 2012 |
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Mar 30, 2012 04:11
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Regarding Garrus and flags carried over in save files: What actually changes based on whether you influenced him Paragon or Renegade in ME1? In ME2 he always has the speech about how red tape on the Citadel was getting to him and so he struck out on his own and blah blah, right?
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Mar 30, 2012 18:06
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I can't tell if I'm reading the description for Fortification correctly. When it says 'purge the armor to get +X% recharge" or whatever, is that just fluff and you get the bonus when you melee, or do you have to actually turn the power off to get it?
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Mar 30, 2012 18:54
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Cbouncerrun posted:EDIT: Is running out of ammo as big of an issue to an Infiltrator as it was in ME2? I'm playing the class that gets almost nothing but guns (conc shot damage is ) and I only carry two (AR + pisrol) and ammo isn't a problem. It can be tight in big setpiece fights but that just means you have to scramble to grab more clips. There's almost always 2 or 3 places where they respawn.
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Mar 31, 2012 01:59
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Had a thought last night as I was going to sleep. If the codex says that only one big reaper gets made each cycle (from the 'primary' species) and in ME2 the Collectors were almost done with a Reaper after harvesting a few million people (I got the impression that the colonies they grabbed were all frontier, small new ones) then what are the Reapers in ME3 going to do with the other 11 billion people on Earth (codex lists pop at 11.4 billion)?
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Mar 31, 2012 15:12
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^^^: Does autonarrative Shep lean P or R? Or what? I kind of want to try that out, it sounds interesting that it's an option.Sylphosaurus posted:That reminds me, what do Reaper troops count as? Are they labeled as synthetics or organical in terms of gameplay? I don't think Sabotage will 'control' them, so I guess organic? I just use inferno ammo and shoot them a lot.
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Mar 31, 2012 15:51
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Elysiume posted:Is there any downside to having a split renegade/paragon? I'm finishing up ME1 with a full paragon bar (I have something like 40-60 paragon on top of that, too), but the issue is that I've been playing for paragon rather than the decision I want. Will I gimp my character if I get some renegade and paragon points? I'll be starting with a hefty chunk of paragon this time around in ME2. No, decision points in ME3 are based on your 'Reputation' and Reputation is (Paragon + Renegade). It's a much better and organic-feeling system, you are not 'locked in' to going P or R, you just need enough combined P+R for any particular check. edit: Nevermind, ME2 uses the ME1 system of separated bars, so yeah, you either balance them out or get 'locked in' to one. But you really kind of have to concentrate on one (unless you're awesome at min-maxing to get both whenever possible) if you want to succeed at end-game checks. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Mar 31, 2012 |
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Mar 31, 2012 15:56
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Caufman posted:They're going to need a lot of new biogoop to replace the reapers lost in the harvest, and maybe they'll want to build some new ones. The human-reaper was just the heart of one of those large, capital-sized reaper ships. Goop is like omnigel, you can never have too much. But omnigel was made redundant in a patch. I was more poking fun at the fleet of hundreds of Reapers and OMG only one gets made per cycle yet unless every alien race but us never fucks they could make like 500 per cycle from one race alone. edit: Krogan-goo Reapers 
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Mar 31, 2012 16:08
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dwazegek posted:The codex mentions that 3 or 4 dreadnoughts are capable of taking down a capital ship. A reaper destroyer is about as strong as a cruiser. So I think it's almost certain that any number of previous civilizations would have been able to at least inflict some damage. However, that's 3 or 4 dreadnoughts equipped with Thanix Cannons and whatever other Reaper tech reverse-engineered from Sovereign's corpse. Presumably earlier cycles wouldn't have had that advantage (what with this being the only cycle so far where the Reapers haven't been able to jump straight in, kill everything on the Citadel, turn off the relays and basically just mop up individual systems/clusters). It seemed pretty obvious to me that the Reapers aren't THAT much technologically better than the rest of the galaxy, they just play dirty and never had to have a 'real' fight before now. Which makes the ending even worse.
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Mar 31, 2012 19:20
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magimix posted:Eh. Like I'm moved to take anything that little fucker says at face value (Ending spoilers) Game ends at the TIM discussion. Shepard sguffles over, hits a button, the Crucible does A Thing, then Shep sits down with Anderson and watches as the fleet(s) blow the Reapers the hell up. With enough EMS she and Anderson get rescued before they bleed out, if you're a complete fuckup then Shep dies. edit: wow, derp a derp, fixed. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 16:21
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The problem I have with 'control' is that it *completely* backslides on very key aspects of what I perceive as 'in character' for all my Shepards. Similar with 'synthesis', really. Those two endings are just out of character for all my Shepards.
Edit: I should try not to drag this debate on for too long, as its not really germane to my original question, and makes the thread look like a partially redacted CIA document.
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So, um, I just finished Priority: Citadel II and my Reputation bar is nearly maxed (at about 97% it looks like). I imported an ME2 save so I started with maybe 17-18% but still, drat, already full.
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Apr 3, 2012 05:06
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twistedmentat posted:Entire Blasto run. I want DLC that's nothing but 2 hours of you playing Blasto 6 The Game.
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Apr 3, 2012 05:23
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Wow, tempted to try that graphics mod, I wonder if my piece of poo poo computer can hack it. Thinking about starting a second career. No import, to see what
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Apr 3, 2012 19:49
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dwazegek posted:You also start at level 1 and only get 2 skill points per level instead of 4. Which could be interesting to do, come to think of it. You'd have to either focus on a few talents (no more than 3 or 4), or deal with low ranking talents. Wow, seriously? I get starting at level 1 instead of 30 would be a handicap, but why in the flying gently caress would they arbitrarily cut your skill points in half like that? gently caress that, I'll go download an ME2 save to import. (I wish I still had all my old saves, RIP my old hard drive )edit: I've also decided that taking the Reputation/Weight options in your Mastery ability is a waste of points. Having completed Priority: Citadel II and Jacob's mission my rep bar is almost maxed with the minimum 12% bonus you can get. And the weight thing isn't that much of a problem if you only carry two guns. Revenant + SMG or Mattock + pistol still gives me ~160-180% recharge. Meanwhile I put all those points into more damage which is actually kind of useful on Insanity. WarLocke fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 3, 2012 23:45
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Why is there a section for female saves having romanced Miranda on masseffect2saves.com when she's strictly hetero? Or did I miss something? 
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Apr 4, 2012 00:32
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Vigilance posted:Oh man in the Palaven moon mission I was in the General Victus fight where you fight several brutes and a bunch of those Turian Zombies which I forget the name of and I was sprinting and dodging and generally barely staying alive with all that coming at me and I finally won despite using several medigel. I then was looking around and found a heavy weapon sitting right next to where I was fighting that probably could have handily taken care of the fight That happens again on a Tuchanka side mission at the setpiece fight were a Harvester keeps dropping off waves of Cannibals and Marauders until you manage to kill it I was so pissed at finding a Blackstar AFTER going through all of that.
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Apr 4, 2012 00:38
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Banjodark posted:Youre doing something wrong if vega isn't using the particle rifle and melting everything in sight with it Idunno, Vega seems to really fit with a big rear end shotgun and the blade melee attachment. The only person using the Particle Rifle in my game is Javik. I figure he probably only had one in that pod. I'm kind of disappointed in the special N7 weapons, the Eagle is meh (no way am I dropping the Carnifex for that) and the Argus/Valkyrie are okay I guess, just drat heavy. Back to my trusty Mattock I guess.  Does the piercing mod even work? I don't think I've ever noticed being able to shoot through cover even with it on a gun. And why can I never get my Shepards to look this good ingame?  
WarLocke fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Apr 4, 2012 |
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Apr 4, 2012 06:03
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