Mass Effect Multiplayer thread 5: Please be Phantoms, Please be Phantom

Take a projectile weapon (striker being the most popular and/or "best" to do it with.) From what I understand it does not work if you're the host, and the more lag you have, the better it would work:

Pull out your Cobra. Hold the fire button+switch weapon button at the same time. Your gun now fires Cobra missiles instead!

Also I presume that game was the one you started telling me about before you joined me?

Oh man oh man

The cobra has like NO time lag before shooting now

It is glorious.

yeah, and I had a couple more before I logged out after we ended our party, wanted to try and get enough cash for another PSP, urgh.

No, actually, we've never met. We just tend to log onto XBL at around the same time and end up gaming together a lot.

EDIT: Also, just ran a pubby match on Silver. Ended up Firebase Goddess with Reapers. 2 Demolishers = Banshees dead very quickly under barrage of Homing Grenades.

So, after some tweaking and practice, I have revised my option on the Fury.


IT IS AMAZING.


It's an adept that can get away with carrying heavy weapons and not giving a damn. Annihilation Field and/or Dark Channel as primers, both of which are persistent effects, and Throw specced for no-cooldown-on-detonate. Dark Channel murders Ravagers in the face and AF's shield-recharge-on-damage applies to all forms of damage. You cause a BE, you get shields back.

Speaking of revised opinions, I've made one about the Shadow.

Its really good, but not what i would call truly great.

Basically its a Cerbgaurd with tactical cloak instead of lash, and longer reach and for less damage and being pulled out of cover on its smash equivalent. Damage between the biotic charge equivalents is offset by the cerbgaurd being able to hit multiple targets and less time over all stuck in the animation. The deal maker here is tactical cloak. It allows the shadow to crank the damage, and survive its charge. Alternatively, it can get off the all powerful cloaked heavy melee to finish off its target.

The big thing that keeps her from being great is that she relies far to much on being mobile. Hack objectives crush her output and her survivability if you stick to the circle. Escort is much the same deal, except that you don't have the benefit of being able to stay behind cover. Delivery is horrible because you can't use two of your three moves or you lose the package... and it slows you right down. Devices she is good for due to cloak, and kill objectives are EZ mode. two of five is not very good. Now none of that hurts if you have a competent team, but unless you are grouping with friends you can't assume that.

I do see why so many people love it though. It is the best class at what it does. My issue is that the class is only really good at one thing. Player skill can offset that of course (player skill can make anything work.) but yeah.

Something just "clicked" with me and the Shadow, I just find it all-around amazing. The package isn't that bad, I just cloak to keep out of fire, then SS something or duck into cover when my cloak is about to wear off (if need be.)

On both escort objectives though I do agree that she can't really "hold" in the circle. So I outright tell my team that I'm going to clear the perimeter around the objective - and that's exactly what I do; jump from target to target in the immediate are around the hack circle, prioritizing the biggest threats to the team first (I tell them to deal with the super-heavies and I'll keep the others off their back.) That's been working for me quite well. On Gold.

She does rely heavily on mobility (Adrenaline Mod III is excellent on her.) You need to be able to flip around and get yourself out of bad spots (I noticed that her flips cause a lot of incoming fire to just outright miss.) And again, all geared up, I'm OHKing everything on Gold but heavies, hunters, and turrets. Many of them only take two (except of course the super-heavies.)

Finally I got a N7 class, the paladin. Would've prefered the shadow, or destroyer but I'll take him. And I'm gonna assume its just a coincidence that I got it in the first PSP I bought after I installed the Extended Cut DLC.

Any ideas on how I should spec him?

Has anyone here attempted to solo Platinum yet?

Yeah a bunch of people have passed.

Here's one of them.

Exactly. You click with it because it fits your play style, you generally have a team that you can work with, and you can compensate for the weaknesses. That makes everything much MUCH easier to work with. Difficulty doesn't even come in to it unless you are ONLY able to play higher difficulties with the character.

Imagine how much of a pain in the ass it would be if your group didn't communicate or deal with objectives because they are too busty score whoring. Its still doable, but it becomes an absolute nightmare right? I'm pretty sure that is my big reason I'm not such a fan of it because i have issues with other classes that work on the same principles. I might be a team player, but very seldom to i ever play with team players so i had better be able to get shit done on my own.

I don't like Vanguards other then slayer and Cerb, which break the general mold, Shadow, Krogan, and unfortunately Vorcha. I'm having some issues with the Fury too, but that is more because i don't like the close range play on my adepts. All of the classes either rely on mobility, are heavily slanted towards CQC, or both. The Shadow just embodies basically every bit of play I'm less happy with and basically forces you to play that way if you want to be effective. Its fun and all until i have to do something that she's not suited for. Then i wonder why i didn't go something else.

Here's the funny bit: For the life of me I could not do melee builds/characters before the Shadow at all. Shadow is the only one I've been able to be successful with melee (and tremendously successful at that.)

That would be due to using the opposite tactic from other melee builds. For the shadow, getting in close is the easy part, its getting out that is the trick. Other classes need to work to get in close, and HAVE to kill everything in order to survive. Shadow can pick off one, then bug out.

The key for the Shadow is taking bonus power use on cloak. It makes everything so much easier.

....I can't go back to being a Batarian anymore. Vorcha health regen...too addicting in a game where your shield is always collasping.

Next operation is up: Operation Overwatch

This time they finally got really clear about the requirements. Extraction times are extended due to the previous operational failure. Guaranteed Earth character if allied goal succeeds, and it should be easy to complete.

Hell I was doing good without it, but adding it made it godly.

Though some enemies are excruciatingly annoying about just ignoring the cloak. If Ravagers are not in the middle of firing on another target, it does not matter if you were completely out of LOS behind 5 walls, cloaked, and then SS'd to them, they will detonate all their sacks before the strike hits, wiping out your shield and leaving you in a pile of acid and swarmers.

Brutes seem to have a habit of flailing around to get you if not attacking something else already, even though there was no way they were aware of you before. Banshees are actually one of the easiest heavies to SS - do it while they're teleporting and you end up where they were, deal your damage, and are safely outside of sync-kill range. Also found out last night it does plenty of damage to break a teammate out of being sync killed.

While on the subject, I'm going to be thrown off for a while with the no charge time on Cobra missiles. On top of it, the very first one I launched since the update hit the ground, exploded... and did zero damage to the legion of targets in the immediate vicinity.

I agree - just unlocked the N7 Fury yesterday, and was lucky enough to get the Acolyte pistol. Playing defensively, I use the Acolyte to strip shields away from my targets, then start using Dark Channel to prime and Throw to detonate. So far, it's working out very well.

Luckily I have both the Fury and the Shadow. Shadow is really fun, but I'm not comfortable using her on anything other than Bronze at the moment - I'm going to need a lot of practice to be able to run with her and do so well.

The Shadow actually works better at higher difficulties, because that way your targets are less likely to be shot before you get there.


It's stupidly overkill for Bronze and makes Silver a stroll.


Also, with the Fury, if you're gonna shield strip with gunfire, take the Tempest or Hurricane. Huge DPS, no wind up time, lots of ammo, and can be made to pierce.I'd lead with Dark Channel, follow up with gunfire until the cooldown is over, and then start spamming throw.

Taking my build I posted before, here's some general tips:

At the beginning of a wave, SS the weakest mook you can find first to get your 50% melee damage for 20s proc activated - try to do so any time you are sure it has expired. You will be able to OHK all non-heavies on silver without taking the consumables.

Like a vanguard, be careful not to charge into the middle of a tightly bunched up group of enemies. Note that if you're fast on using her flips, the flips seem to cause a lot incoming fire to just plain miss (seen it a lot with rockets) and/or apply a huge DR bonus. Being able to maintain cloak due to bonus power helps with your escape. I've jumped into some ridiculous clusterfucks and flipped my way out taking minimal damage (80% shields remaining.)

Most of the time I do SS twice, after the first you always want to back off a bit to get out of cloak detection range (about 3m due to sound, etc.) Be sure to include some lateral motion as enemies will spray the last known area you were in. Proceed to SS your next target. Always employ standard vangaurd tactics of escape (SSing a distant and/or lone target near your teammates or on your escape route.) Be aware that you need to hit a target with shields and/or barriers up to recharge yours (provided you took the evolution for it.)

If you're being fired on, cloak and/or move out of LOS before SSing your target or they have a high chance of shooting and/or meleeing you before SS even lands.

ES is obviously for crowd control, and heavies you want to be cautious with - be sure to stay behind walls any time you can. Note also that with the DoT on SS, you can hit them with ES afterwards to trigger a tech-burst (with 100% bonus damage.)

Try to SS Brutes only when they start charging at something (even you) - like Banshees you will end up where they were, and deal your damage anyway. Due to their size, they only have to make the slightest movements to snag you with their arms or something and stagger you out of SS.

I try to jump around and take out all the most "annoying" support fire that the enemy is laying down on your team - Nemesis, Rocket Troopers, Marauders, etc. I try to pick out the ones that my teammates would have the hardest time dealing with (at a distance behind cover, etc) so that my team isn't pinned to cover and/or can focus on a heavy without getting shot in the back. I'll then come help with the heavy once I've wiped out all the support in the area.

I'd really prefer a 'one of the new guns' as a reward. Since I've already maxxed the acolyte and pirraaaaaahna, that'd mean i'd get at least 1 Typhoon

Ok, you guys are probably going to hate me for this, but i wish i'd stop getting black widows. The only URs I've been getting in quantity have been that, the wraith and the Talon. Of the three i use only the wraith regularly. Why can't i get something useful to me, like a new gun, or upgrades to my harrier?

At least you got a black widow. I still haven't got one. I keep getting new classes, which is great an all (as if I'm going to use them for a long while) I never, ever seem to get that sweet looking ultra rare weapon machine gun or whatever.

Its not like i have too too much else to get up.

All i have left is basically gear.

My first 3 URs in a row were all Javelin - the sniper I don't care for at all.

I did recently get my BW up to II but... you bastard! You have the Typhoon as well! *knifes IronFox in the back for it*