Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Discussion

[Sturmhaubitze]

Yup, in theory you can get everything from Recruit packs, but it's a long process of eliminating all the commons and uncommons first. The Veteran and Spectre packs just allow you to skip ahead a bit and grab a few rare and ultra rare items ahead of time. One drawback of saving up for Spectre packs is that you will not have a steady flow of medi-gel and cobra missiles, where as buying 12 Recruit packs instead would give you a ton of those one-use items.


I'm still having a lot of fun experimenting with different builds. This is something you really can't do in single-player as easily, due to the massive time investment to get Shepard to higher levels. You can also goof around with fun tactics and try out oddball combinations.

While playing my Quarian Infiltrator, I had a lot of evil fun using sabotage. I would walk towards a Nemesis sniper, in the open, and when they aimed their rifle at me I'd sabotage it. While they tried to fix their overheated weapon, I'd omni-tool them in the face. My next infiltrator will be a melee build, for fun and experimentation. Take a shotgun with bayonet, take the Tactical Cloak talents that improve melee damage while cloaked, and max out Fitness for more melee damage bonuses. Sneak up on enemies, assassinate them.

[dd14]

Geth do not Infiltrate.

The Geth Hunter would like a word with you: "Stealth troops armed with shotguns and shielding. They possess tactical cloaking devices."

Personally I just want to play as a Geth anything, they're very cool looking. That and their back-story is actually one of the more interesting in the ME series.

[Sturmhaubitze]

He was quoting Legion from ME2.

[Fish Of Doom]

team killing needs to be implemented, so people learn to get the fuck out of my fucking line of fire when i'm trying to aim a headshot ¬_¬

also fuck people who try to kill guardians with small arms while i'l trying to aim a headshot, making their shield jolt all over the place.

[Sturmhaubitze]

Just tried out a shotgun/melee Infilitrator. It actually works really well, but it's sometimes very hard to land backstabs with heavy melee because your teammates will be shooting the same target and making them flinch or roll to the side. The up-side is that you can dance around a fight without taking any major damage, and you can conserve on ammo when assassinating weaker enemies. Stealth + Shotgun to head kills most enemies on Bronze.

[Fish Of Doom]

"I want a Hanar or an Elcor. Just strap a rocket launcher to it or something."

hanar, riding an elcor, with a gun that shoots thresher maws.

"I was using the incisor in a game vs reapers yesterday, and, no joke, after unloading over 100 shots into a brute, I got something like a 150 point kill assist. The weapon does no damage and has the most insane kickback ever."

brutes (as well as a few other enemies) have armored sections that literally take no damage from small arms fire. you have to shoot them in fleshy areas like the head or the ass. also applies to ravagers, who are soft on the sides, so they are better attacked directly from the side.

[Caeltos]

Reaper on Gold..

My god, I can't I pulled it off. It was the damnest hardest shit ever. Fucking banshees X_________X

[Mantaray]

im burning through recruit packs at the moment for more assault rifle mods... seriously ive got almost all the base level N7 weapons to lvl 'x' but ive only got a lvl1 assault rifle barrel. pah.
the revenant is made of awesome. 60 round clip + adrenaline rush. SHOOT BIG BULLETS FOREVER

[Sturmhaubitze]

The MP lose-everything bug just wiped out everything I've collected. I misclicked when trying to check my character's equipment, and went to the store instead, and while it was (slowly) loading up the store the last player hit Ready and the game started. Now all I have is the experience my classes have accrued, but all the extra weapons, mods, and characters are gone.

[Ewokz]

Happened to me too Sturm, I spent 1600 bioware points too which made it a killer. I'm currently on an ever increasingly long "case" with the EA customer support to get the stuff back, Need my widow back!

[Starblade]

Now all I have is the experience my classes have accrued, but all the extra weapons, mods, and characters are gone.

Don't post rage comics or other terrible image macros.

[Logic_Bomb]

So as long as you don't enter the store when you yourself are on ready, the bug can't hit you (as the game can't start)? You can't purchase anything while on ready anyway.

[Sturmhaubitze]

Looks like your characters can keep their gear, even if it was wiped. My Human Male Engineer had the Mattock and some mods equipped, and I was able to keep on using the Mattock after the wipe. On another character I had the Scimitar equipped with some mods, and made the mistake of going into the Weapons menu; the Scimitar got removed when the menu updated. One of my Vanguards was using the Katana with some mods, and since the Katana is the starter shotgun, it was still there. Also the mods were still there too, even though those had been wiped, but the Modify button was missing as the database obviously thinks I have none. In-game my mods were still active (i.e. bayonet).

So your characters are a curious mix of local and server data. The local data only updates when the game needs to load data from the server, such as when you enter a menu to make choices. Until you do that, it uses the local data. No wonder the game is so easy to hack.

[Someguy]

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to.../index/9993278 --> Weekend Challenge. Get Silver vs the Reapers.

[Sturmhaubitze]

Salarian Engineers make Banshee fights very easy. The Banshee will always move over to the Decoy and just stand there. She won't even attack it, so the Decoy won't disappear until the power duration runs out. As long as your teammates don't get too close, causing her to scream and damage them (and the Decoy), she'll happily just stand there and take every hit you throw at her. This made doing the Silver Reaper challenge a lot easier on the harder waves.

[DoomKnights]

Just a heads up I just blew the recruiter pack theory out of the water. DON'T TRY IT. It does not work.
I have unlocked all common and all human appearance options. I still just keep getting human packs instead of now uncommon stuff. Example I bought ten recruiter packs and got one uncommon, all the rest 5000 XP and +appearance unlock(already had all of them for all of the humans already..) all other times. So 1/10 uncommon while all the rest junk. Yes it gives you missiles which is great, but still...

Gold is good, way way better then Silver for credits. You just need a good team. Gold nets you 75,000 each run. So that's one specter pack each run for the same amount of time as a Silver run. Found a team and we did it literally 10 times in a row. Just keep gold running none stop. I was sad I kept getting the bottom of the list, I did help the most though.

Good helpful hint for gold runs. Three people clear one side, while the last person holds the monsters off till the othersides cleared. That's how we kept doing it. Decoy, distract, while the rest of the team cleared their section and then just finish up. At one point I had three brutes and two banshees just looking at a Decoy while my the rest of the team dealt with the other three brutes and two banshees.

Oh and don't even bother joining gold unless your lvl 20. 1-18 your going to get kicked. Hell even at 19 I was told to "man up" or get out lol.

Still having a blast with the Multi.

[Starblade]

If you're playing with pubbies you're going to lose anyway. Feel free to join me if you'd like and you're on the 360. Gamertag is RBA Starblade.

[DoomKnights]

Edit:

Oh a helpful hint. Gold the fights difficulty is reversed.

Easy Reaper, Mid Geth, Hard Cerb.

Reasons are here.

Reapers you are consistent with what you face. 2 Banshees, three brutes on each side. Husk are still easy, Canabiles will eat you fast in groups but range helps, Marauders will spam armour on everything else none stop till you kill them.

Geth you have four Primes each side each prime shot takes your full shield down second shot you have a sliver left, this is for those with max health and shields by the way. They also are homing shots and do curve when you move. The second problem? Geth Hunters in groups of 8 in each side. Plus flame geth will incap you in two seconds flat.

Now the irony of life. Cerb is the hardest on gold. The reasons can be odd. First, Phantoms. You are going to deal with 12 on each side. They can A bug and fall over dead yet still kill you half a room away or B instant death you from a room away with their magic growing sword attacks. Also their palm pistols? Have the same damage as a Prime shot, first shot takes all your shields, second shot you have a sliver of life. Then add in Nemissis which on one hit takes you to half hp left with no shields and they come in groups of 5 as well. You think before the shield troops had been anoying? Well they come in groups of five, by themselves fine, but dealing with three shields a phantom, two nemissis and then five troops at once? Now that is a nightmare.

Alas PC here ^^

[Starblade]

Cerberus are the only ones I've ever beaten on Gold, but that was back in the demo. Though as a Vanguard, I get my own set of "things which destroy me".

Alas PC here ^^

Bluh. Well, good luck finding dudes anyway.

[DoomKnights]

Yea demo vs release are different. With the Phantom bug they can kill litteraly the whole group if you are around the same spot. The instant kill action is done even those shes "dead" hehe.

[Sturmhaubitze]

People keep on rage-quitting in Silver games, steadily reducing the team size until it's unwinnable. We'll start off with 4 level 18+ players, someone will run off and get killed, and simply rage-quit rather than wait for the wave to end. Then with 3 players it gets even harder to stay alive, and inevitably two of us get incapacitated and the third has no chance to revive us. Game over. Getting really annoying.

[Fish Of Doom]

statement: if my survivability in MP games were a number, it'd be negative

i wonder how much swearing was directed at me this evening because of it

[DoomKnights]

Helpful hint. The body count of players equals the body count of the baddies. So 4 plays gives you the most monsters and baddies, while 3 gives a far less amount. Although, 2 is do able and can be done, it's very very hard. (Silver with 2 is possible, gold good luck!)

[Starblade]

A level 1 Vanguard can, with a good team, keep pace with a team of 18-20s on silver against the Reapers. I only fell over two-three times.

[DoomKnights]

There is a mind set you need to understand. There are two main player setups. LvL+abilities VS Weapons.

A lvl 1 Character with a fully upgraded good gun can do as much as a lvl 20 character using his abilities. It all depends on the setup.
When I see a LVL 20 player who's decked out on two heavy weapons I KNOW they are not setting up their character for skill usage.

If I see a lvl 1 Character with light weapon and nothing else. KICK as fast as can be possible. You have a pistol, you have no abliities take a second heavy weapon!

It's a balance. Weapon vs abilities. That's the run down.

I should never see a lvl 1-9 character have anything but two weapons that are their best. It's wasteful and useless.

Sorry that seems like a rant. It also is helpful information ^^



@ Starblade, yes any lvl1 with a good upgraded weapon can still hold his own, it still means your more squishy then a normal higher lvl player. It also comes down to player skill vs dumb players. I had a game last night where my teammate was standing nearly on top of me and kept shooting while he could have ressed me... enough said kicked after we lost.

[Starblade]

My guns are trash, that's why I'm proud of myself.

[Codex]

For any PC players my Origin tag is Codexhel. I only got ME3 on Friday but I've had a few games now and gotten some decent levels on my Adept and Soldier, although I have to say I'm in love with my Viper on Bronze right now. Played Silver for the first time today with pubs who weren't great. Viper is amazing on Bronze at least because it's quite easy to just chain headshots. Usually I'm only getting outdone by allies with much better weapons, much higher levels or Vanguards. Especially Vanguards when they shake the screen. Damn them.

The biggest surprise for me is how different the Vindicator is in ME3. Its burst accuracy is worse than the Incisor which I used to limited success. (Before I got the Viper the Incisor was a much superior choice to the Mantis, and you're able to control the burst to a degree unlike with the vindicator. HOWEVER. The Vindicator rifle has got incredible burst accuracy from cover, which I discovered today (I only got the weapon in MP yday). I've found it to be my favourite weapon with the Adept, just carrying a lone Vindicator and spamming abilities when I need to, but obviously I have many more weapons to unlock first.

[DoomKnights]

I have a great deal of the weapons and all the classes unlocked. If you have any questions drop them here. I also have played a heck of alot of silver and gold games.

DoomKnights is my PC handle. I'm at 240 N7 lvl now?

I normally run my fresh troops LV1-14 bronze, 15-18 silver, 19-20 gold.

The Vindicator is helpless on silver though. Mantis is a must, what you are looking for is instant kill headshots. Take em down fast.

Weapons that can instant kill are: Mantis, Window, Black Widow, Javalin and carnafix.

Now for mass damage output odd as it seems the Falcon just out damages everything.


@Codex Wait till you have a Adapt Drell the rage you will have from that sound driving you mad. The enemy will sound nice after that. (Bug where the ability sound goes on none-stop in your ear until the end of the round until the person does the skill again"

@Starblade You are also on a controller. I can't for the life of me do that, mouse and keyboard for me all the way. Kudos for being able to handle that. ^^

[Codex]

Thanks for the offer. So, one question: why is the Vanguard so powerful? Why do I see players with good N7 scores but relatively low levels raping everything in sight? It means I have to playing last hit like in DotA instead of playing it the way I want to play it- like SP but in co-op. Low accuracy high fire rate weapons are terrible for this reason- everyone just killsteals you after you did 80% damage.

Yesterday I had a game with a particularly annoying Vanguard who was level 18 when I was level 3 Adept. Got the second highest score out of 4 in the first game but didn't even come close to the Vanguard's score, having him tailing me while I was using my Phaeston (seriously, what a terrible weapon) and killstealing me with biotic charge+ Nova. Every frickin time. Then I decided I had had enough and completely changed up my play for the next game. I tailed him instead and timed my abilities so I was always using my warp after he used biotic charge. I was satisfied when I came a little behind him, but he still came top place. Very annoying that I feel I have to play in such a selfish manner.

Level tips are very helpful, thanks.

EDIT: Uh Mantis I haven't found useful yet. But the strength of weapons change with difficulty of course. The same is true of SP: in lower difficulties the repeater sniper rifles are rarely going to waste dps and you can stand out in the open taking fire, whereas on higher difficulties spike damage is going to be favoured thanks to being squishy and also enemy durability.

On Bronze, when I'm doing well I can get 4/6 headshots per Viper clip, where I rarely miss 2 shots a clip. This vastly outperforms the Mantis for dps and scoring. This will change on Silver/Gold, I imagine.

[DoomKnights]

Vanguard's ability is great for bronze, BUT silver and such you be dead.

The bionic charge has an ability in it which does an instant refresh, so done right you can do it none stop. The problem is that on silver and gold, you do a bionic charge to a banshee or brute? It instand kills you with it's instant move. Bonze you can pull off the charge fast enough to kill them, Silver ans Gold they have too much HP and pawn you.

Remember there is no kill steal. It's damage output on the person with assists. Example Someone does 990 damage out of a 1000 damage on a brute, you do the last 10 damage? You get the assist for exp. It's all damage output on fast scale. They can do it very fast on bronze, but on silver and gold? Vanguards are very hard to find. I litterally laughed my butt of the last time I saw a Silver game with a Vanguard attacking an Atlis, it curb stombed him. He didn't do that again.

The fastest way to lvl up is silver, but you need to be in a lvl that will help or have the weapons to help. I would say I don't mind people lvl 14 on silver. As long as they are decked out with the right weapons and if they use equipment I am even more willing to let by.

Funny thing? Gold is the best for LVL, but you normally you should not be at that lvl. If we get a group we can fast lvl you in gold.
A full run on gold nets you 100,0000 exp and 75,000 credits. Even a fail after second mission gets you 40,000 credits. As well a fail after the first mission? 25,000.

Yea the irony playing 10 games of gold and being at lvl 20 means that exp is just going down the drain=\

Much rage as well when I get a gold character card and the class is at 20 heh.

[Codex]

What do you mean by there is no kill steal? :S (So confused) I'm pretty sure it's the last hit that counts (after all, I've gotten kills +30 score on hardened baddies, as long as I last hit). The thing is, I'm aiming for medals. I'm not aiming for assists. I'm aiming for weapon (assault rifle/sniper rifle)/ biotics (if applicable) and headshot medals. Kills can contribute to multiple medals- e.g. 25 kills, 25 sniper rifle kills and 25 headshots can be achieved at around the same time. Assists only contribute to one medal- assists. If I'm putting in all my time to get an assist, then that's a rather inefficient way to play. Or shall I say, I haven't got much time these days and I'm just aiming to farm xp as quickly as possible.

I'll be switching over the silver soon I imagine. Hopefully my experience will be better there. Sounds like it'll be completely different anyway. I need a better loadout :P

[DoomKnights]

The medals themselves don't contribute as much as the mid missions and winning the mission. Trust me on this, it will save you a lot of headaches.

The medals themselves only add a little bit in compared to the total.

For example I had a score of 5000 on one silver game(Stop guy? had 14000), was on the last of the line, I was trying a new build. I still got the same exp and credits even though I didn't contribute as much as the other guys. I still got max exp and max credits. Yes he might have gotten a bit more, but the total exp output in the long run is still balanced out alot. On silver and gold you are more worried about keeping alive and just getting the job done that "who got what" doens't matter as much.

Bronze all baddies have an ok amount of HP. Silver double or triple the baddies and triple their HP(and shield). On gold? Five times the baddies and six times the HP(shields are times three or four).

Prime? Bronze will take one person who can solo them with a good setup. Silver, two people good setup. Gold? It takes all four a great deal of time to take one prime out.

Bronze Exp output about 10,000-30,000; Silver Exp output 60,000-75,000; gold XP output 100,000 to 120,000.

In truth I HATE bronze just because you are screwing yourself over on credits a great deal.

Bronze 10,000ish, Silver 20-35K, Gold 60K-80ish(seen personally only 79K)

[Langy]

I regularly get way over 100k XP in bronze. That's the final total, though, not the individual point score - in that, you're about right.

[Sturmhaubitze]

The Drell Reave bug is unfortunate, since it's such a powerful ability. On bronze you can safely melee a group of enemies as long as you have level 6 Reave currently active and providing damage protection. The stunning effect of the Drell's kicks also helps a lot. On silver, it's generally not a good idea; better to Reave and use firearms instead.

I'm consistently finding the Salarian Engineer to be ideal in Silver. Energy Drain knocks down shields and barriers, and it stuns the enemy long enough for you to get in a headshot with a Mantis. Decoy keeps enemies distracted from you and your teammates. You don't even need the other ability, it would just distract you from draining, decoying, and shooting.

[Logic_Bomb]

Salarian Engineer seems inferior to the others. The example you gave, you could do the same with Overload but then have an actual combat drone causing damage and disruption as well as distracting instead of a lame decoy just distracting.
Actually nvm - didn't read further up decoy's tree - you can upgrade it with electrical and explosive damage as well.

[Akranadas]

Decoy is OP to the max, makes the heavy units just sit there while you pop them off from a distance.

[Codex]

Surely that's a bug?

[Starblade]

No, it's what you're supposed to use it for. Salarian Engineer owns bones, especially against the Geth.

[Sturmhaubitze]

On the extraction wave, a large chunk of enemies spawns immediately. I've noticed that it's sometimes possible to force them to spawn in a certain spot, if you spread the team out, especially on the laboratory map. There's that one main room upstairs, which has a little hallway with a dead-end that faces the ramp. If everyone's spread out, and no one is within sight of that dead-end, there's a very high chance that that huge clump will show up there. Someone just has to run over and fire a missile into it, when they're still tightly packed together, and they'll kill off a heavy or two, and a ton of weaker enemies. After that, the game spawns in enemies at a steady rate which is more manageable.

[IcyPenguin]

Anyone having weird issues with shockwave as a human Adept? Sometimes the ability just fizzles out for me and passes harmlessly through enemies. Especially aggravating when you're blocked by like, two or three centurions and you need to run past them or score quick headshots.

It kinda sucks because it feels like you're restricted to two abilities only... while the other's just a fancy WUB-WUB-WUB-WUB waste.

(I'm on PC by the way)

[Starblade]

Shockwave is bugged and stops hurting or affecting people after a certain number of shocks.

[Codex]

No, it's what you're supposed to use it for. Salarian Engineer owns bones, especially against the Geth.

From what I've seen Banshees stand around and don't attack the Decoy. Now, I've not used Decoy myself (nor in SP from EDI's training, but I've read that the Decoy ranks give the Decoy extra shields. Surely this implies it's meant to be a punchbag. If the lack of Banshee raping that Decoy is not a bug, that is simply OP beyond belief.

[Starblade]

They don't always fall for it. If Cerberus sees you throw it down they'll usually ignore it entirely, actually.

[Codex]

Okay, thanks.

[DoomKnights]

Banshees while close up use their instant death move, decoys are immune to it, as such they stand there. If a player is close enough they will do the scream which will in two hits kill the decoy and they will then start teleporting towards you. If you are far enough away they will stand there. This is the only way in gold a team really can live. One guy with decoy slows down one side while the other three players deal with the other side. Brutes will sometimes stand there as well as they got too close and are trying their instand death move as well. They stand there too, BUT brutes standing there causes damage over time and will blow the decoy.

There is a very good chance if the enemy sees you drop the decoy they will ignore it and just keep going at you. BUT if for example you drop the decoy while running back fast enough or turning a corner they will get tricked. Even then sometimes they will ignore it. A huge risk is if you put it behind them, they have a nearly 90% chance of ignoring it then and just keep running at you.

If you can melee a brute or banshee you are too stupidly close. lol The very same reason when I see a Vanguard in silver or gold I either leave or kick. Unfortunately they are only good for bronze, bionic charge is a suicide jump to death.

The game tries to spawn enemies on the opposite side of you. This is why I'm pissed when teammates spread out way too much, if everyones on one corner of the map it forces the computer to drop them randomly. You think that would be fine, but having a brute spawn ON TOP of you is not fun. Or two Geth Primes. A good team will spread in the right locations, forcing the computer to spawn them in specific locations. Locations which allow for ranged combat at long range.

A very good team composition is one infiltrator, one eng, and two of anything else. This combo on gold will be alot easier. I don't know about anyone else but if there is an infiltrator on the team, they are the medics of the game. cloak and res fallen guys at any location. Truthfully they should call em medics? ^^

[Codex]

Yeah Cloak revive is very useful. Played Silver today again, beat it twice. It's completely different from Bronze. Think I need a better weapon than my Mantis for Silver, might stop playing Infiltrator on Silver till I get something else. The Mantis is simply too slow, and even if I get one hit kills they're only on basic enemies.

[Starblade]

Unfortunately they are only good for bronze, bionic charge is a suicide jump to death.

You've been playing with some really shitty Vanguards then. A vanguard properly set up with a Half Blast or Full Shields charge is almost unstoppable until a bit of lag means whoops you're not charging again and the banshee is staring at you (Banshees can't instant kill unless both of you are not moving). In general I only ever die to instant kills from Banshees, Geth Primes (their rockets can stun lock you and prevent a charge), turrets, or a phantom I didn't see coming. Guardians and Marauders are a nuisance at times too, if only because of how strong the Marauder is.

[DoomKnights]

I have played load of games and every single Vanguard who tried to bionic charge will get in one to two hits and then get capped. Banshee's and Brutes both have instant death moves, so does the Atlas as well as the Phantom. I still stand by my case that Vans are pretty much worked like a poor wooden toy in anything but Bronze. On gold they shouldn't even try bionic charge unless it's a basic trooper.

A brute does require it standing still, but a banshee only requires a split second stand still before it triggers its kill move even IF you move away.

The rule of thumb for Silver and Gold(A MUST for gold) is keep your distance vs Atlas, Banshees, Brutes and Phantoms. If you get close for any reason, you are in fact risking weakening your team but you being DEAD.

[Starblade]

Why...why aren't they using nova? You can use it immediately then charge again!

On gold they shouldn't even try bionic charge unless it's a basic trooper.

Charge is literally the vanguard's life support. They're invincible during it and they regenerate shields to half or full (full if you're not an idiot). With an avenger and a predator I've got 200% recharge speed, which means I charge every 1.5 seconds. If I charge (to get full shields), heavy melee, then nova (which has invincibility frames), I can immediately charge again. You kill vanguards in the downtime between charges or by staggering them, and the only things which do that are missiles or heavy melees from Brutes, in general. On Silver I broke 106,000 points with a vanguard, and on another game I survived it at level 1. Vanguards are nearly immortal due to charge, but they're not supposed to be charging in, then shooting their guns nonstop. You get like one shot off, then you're charging again. Guns are those things you use when your team is yelling at you to stop getting points and hack the point already. Phantoms are trivial to Vanguards if I can target them. I can kill them in a charge/nova/charge.

A brute does require it standing still, but a banshee only requires a split second stand still before it triggers its kill move even IF you move away.

It only seems that way due to lag. Atlas are the same way. They can't instant-kill if you're moving (with minimal lag). It's also why it appears to grab vanguards mid nova sometimes to crush them. As far as the server is concerned you never used it. Though on heavy guys you shouldn't nova unless you're behind them or certain you cannot possibly get hit by the time you recharge charge.

Vanguards play completely differently from any other class in the game, it's great.

[DoomKnights]

You are talking about one Phantom though, in most points on Gold it's four at a time. Or eight if your unlucky.

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Of course we are talking about two different plantforms too. PC vs Console.