Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Catch-All – Shepards with Jobs

MannishBoy wrote:
Luggage wrote:

So should I get a class to level 20 before trying silver? I am somewhat wary with my Vanguard, since I am only level 16 and am still rocking a Mk. 1 pistol due to horrible luck with the veteran packs.

Also, it would be nice if we had a little summary of the differences between bronze, silver and gold for the OP.

Silver is doable mid teens. Hard still. Partly depends on how well equipped you go in.

And how good of a team you have. Gah, I need to get everyone in the Google Docs 360 section on to my friends list.

Have I mentioned I have unlocked all the Races/Classes except the two I enjoyed playing most in the Demo? (Cries for lack of an Asari adept.)

Just Curious, Has anyone seen a respec card yet?

My QInfil and human engineer use a Mantis, think its a VI right now. The heavy punch at range is needed, you don't want to be in close at first. Also, the return fire from the geth gets pretty thick, some silver runs I can't pop up long enough to toss a Sabotage/Overload and a snipe without losing my shields. Even with the headshots, you can't take down two Geth Primes (at the same time) before the Sabotage no longer works on them. Hate to see how many Prime you'd be staring at on Gold.

A Grab kill works across any cover thin enough to vault over. If you can't vault over it, then you can't reach over it to grab the git by the scruff of the neck. My Krogan 'vanguard' (i.e. tanked up sentinel) always sounds so joy filled when he does one.

Going from Bronze to Silver on a team depends on how good the team is. On a pub, I want to see mid teens with IV+ weapons, a bunch of 10s and 12s with mark Is is going to fail. Also depends on the team make up, some classes work better earlier than others. Your typical pub vanguard, for example, is going to be a liability. My personal rule of thumb, I didn't start looking for silver until I was 15, and had a solid attack routine.

Nevin, be prepared to be disappointed with the Revenant when you get it, its not the Mass Effect 2 gun we loved. The ME3 version has lousy accuracy, its okay out to medium range, but forget slapping a scope on it and hosing down anything at real range. It was spraying rounds all over the landscape. Good rate of fire, but I was happier putting a Tempest in the hands of my Turian solder. The RoF boost from Marksman plus a Tempest empties a 90 round clip sooo damn quick.

LtWarhound wrote:

Going from Bronze to Silver on a team depends on how good the team is. On a pub, I want to see mid teens with IV+ weapons, a bunch of 10s and 12s with mark Is is going to fail. Also depends on the team make up, some classes work better earlier than others. Your typical pub vanguard, for example, is going to be a liability. My personal rule of thumb, I didn't start looking for silver until I was 15, and had a solid attack routine.

If you are talking about base weapons you are right, but uncommons and rares are of course more effective.

My Asari Vanguard tends to use the Statis Bubble to set up kills for the team more than Biotic charge, wich I use more as a finisher or a quick way to recharde shields. That being said most of the human vanguards, played in the same way they could play on bronze are a liability.

Nevin, be prepared to be disappointed with the Revenant when you get it, its not the Mass Effect 2 gun we loved. The ME3 version has lousy accuracy, its okay out to medium range, but forget slapping a scope on it and hosing down anything at real range. It was spraying rounds all over the landscape. Good rate of fire, but I was happier putting a Tempest in the hands of my Turian solder. The RoF boost from Marksman plus a Tempest empties a 90 round clip sooo damn quick.

I disagree completely, Full auto up to medium, short burst firing at long range with a scope on my Turian Sentenel works just fine, especially with opponents stunned with Overload or frozen with stasis or the engineer's freezing ability.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I've unlocked full customization for Krogan Soldier. I think that means I got it something like 5 times. Hopefully this means I'll never get it again (because it would suck to get a rare that's nothing but a wad of XP).

If you're looking for a good Vanguard weapon, try something that charges like the Arc Pistol, Geth Plasma Shotgun, or my personal favorite, the Graal Spike Thrower. You can charge up your gun before you do your biotic charge.

Clemenstation wrote:

Anyone playing a Quarian Infiltrator? Quarfiltrators absolutely murder all forms of geth. I imagine four well-leveled ones (sabotage and cloak) could do gold pretty easily, but haven't had the chance to try.

As LtWarhound pointed out, the only problem with that is that geth eventually become immune to Sabotage, and without anyone dedicated to dealing damage, the squad would be entirely dependent upon hacked geth to fight for them. Sniper rifles might help but their weight could be an issue (my Mantis VII does almost as much damage as my Widow I but is far, far lighter). Since the Quarian Infiltrators can cloak it might be better just to stick to shotguns.

I have a level 20 Quarian Infiltrator and would be willing to give it a go.

I'm rocking a lvl 19 Quarfiltator, but I have a pretty good distance weapon for attacking out of cloak with (the M 98 Sabre -- it's technically an assault rifle but hits heavy, like a semi-auto sniper rifle). Most people seem to pair cloak with shotguns. That's a good point about diminishing returns (as I think he put it) on sabotage -- works real well with one or two full-time saboteurs, though!

I got a Reset Powers... uh... card? Good for one use only.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I got a Reset Powers... uh... card? Good for one use only.

I really want to get that to make one change to my Krogan (fully level Carnage).

LtWarhound wrote:

Hate to see how many Prime you'd be staring at on Gold.

It's ridiculous! They just keep spawning and spawning. That's really where the difficulty gets amped from silver to gold.

Tenebrous wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

I got a Reset Powers... uh... card? Good for one use only.

What is it called?

Reset Powers.

Thin_J wrote:
LtWarhound wrote:

The problem I find with multiple quarian infiltrators trying to handle geth on silver difficulty is killing everything before the diminishing returns on Sabotage kick in. A QInfil and an engineer running multi-target Overload and two decent range DPS makes for a fairly smooth silver run.
On gold, make sure your team understands spawn control, too many players don't.

Sniper rifles man. It's the way to go. Sabotage usually freezes them in place for a couple seconds at least giving one free kill, and I find Geth to be easier headshots than pretty much anything else. They even put a nice glowy light right where you're supposed to shoot them :P

My favorite is using Stasis and then popping heads with a sniper rifle.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I got a Reset Powers... uh... card? Good for one use only.

What is it called? I thought it was card.

I'm still hoping for another rare weapon. I only have the Geth shotgun right now and while awesome, its really really heavy. Also I have had the worst luck trying to get weapon mods.

I'll just leave this right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0TR...

friend from another forum doing an all Krogan gold run on the demo.

emyln wrote:

I'm still hoping for another rare weapon. I only have the Geth shotgun right now and while awesome, its really really heavy. Also I have had the worst luck trying to get weapon mods.

Just got my first alternate shotgun and it applies DoTs. Very weird.

nel e nel wrote:

I'll just leave this right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0TR...

friend from another forum doing an all Krogan gold run on the demo.

Now that I figured out how to play a Krogan, I'm not surprised that works. Carnage + Raptor makes for a great medium to long range character. Then of course, you are great up close with melee and carnage.

I just need a respec card to fully level up carnage because I screwed that up.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
nel e nel wrote:

I'll just leave this right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0TR...

friend from another forum doing an all Krogan gold run on the demo.

Now that I figured out how to play a Krogan, I'm not surprised that works. Carnage + Raptor makes for a great medium to long range character. Then of course, you are great up close with melee and carnage.

I just need a respec card to fully level up carnage because I screwed that up.

I kept saying that Krogan soldier was designed for melee in the demo but people here were disagreeing.

Sounds like with the rarity of the respec cards, it's probably almost easier to just restart a character. Leveling one to 20 isn't that bad.

MannishBoy wrote:

Sounds like with the rarity of the respec cards, it's probably almost easier to just restart a character. Leveling one to 20 isn't that bad.

It's way easier to just restart if you don't have any respec cards, but yeah, it seems like a silly thing to make a random drop. It'd be nice if we only had to rely on the packs for unlocking classes, weapons and mods, and once unlocked we could buy upgrades with credits.

Our even also give you a potential respec if you get another of the class/race combo?

BTW, one more reason grabs are awesome: You're invincible during the animation.

Luggage wrote:

So should I get a class to level 20 before trying silver?

You definitely should be in double digits, but you don't have to get all the way to 20 before doing silver. I'd say 12-15 is a good range to get to in order to start playing silver with GWJers or other good teammates - you wouldn't want a team of all 12s, but if your teammates are higher you can be a bit lower. For public matches though, probably a bit higher as LtWarhound says.

Teamwork is key more than anything else, though levels and equipment certainly help. I've seen someone somewhere summarize the key to success (might even be in this thread :)) as: on bronze, you can do whatever the **** you want. Silver, you need to stick together in at least teams of two. Gold, everyone needs to stick to each other like glue.

Haven't tried gold yet, but that sounds accurate as regards bronze and silver. (At high levels. At lower levels, you also need teamwork for Bronze. :))

Luggage wrote:

Also, it would be nice if we had a little summary of the differences between bronze, silver and gold for the OP.

I don't know the differences exhaustively, but heavier/special troops definitely show up earlier, and in greater numbers. I've seen 5 Phantoms in a single later wave on Silver.

You get a lot more credits on higher levels. A full silver round seems to net nearly twice the credits a full bronze one does. XP is higher too, though I'd say not nearly by as much - more like 125% of bronze.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I've unlocked full customization for Krogan Soldier. I think that means I got it something like 5 times. Hopefully this means I'll never get it again (because it would suck to get a rare that's nothing but a wad of XP).

I'm afraid you can always get class cards. Which is at least useful for XP if you haven't leveled the class out yet. But if it's at 20, all customization unlocked, and you have no desire to Promote, it is just a waste as far as I can tell.

Tenebrous wrote:

Just Curious, Has anyone seen a respec card yet?

Yep, I got one. It was gold (=Rare, I believe?)

Stele wrote:

I kept saying that Krogan soldier was designed for melee in the demo but people here were disagreeing. :?

Krogan seems like the only class designed for Melee. (Though I've seen a claim that the Asari Vanguard does decently with Heavy Melee as a replacement for the human's Nova. I can see that, though in some ways it sounds riskier than the human vanguard - Asari gets to keep her shields, but doesn't get invincibility while charging up that AoE melee.)

I was debating whether to use the Krogan Soldier or Sentinel as my Melee build. Looking at Fortification vs. Tech Armor, the Sentinel looks slightly better to me: The soldier is based around "purging" Fortification for a temporary melee bonus, which doesn't sound good for higher levels, whereas the Sentinel can get a small melee bonus that applies so long as Tech Armor is active. So, I went for a weapon-based build with the Soldier - still waiting to unlock the Krogan Sentinel.

Bioware are idiots, there's no doubt about that. Dying so much because of stupid Space bar doing EVERYTHING. Everyone complained throughout the series about this and instead of fixing it they kept adding more functions to one key. So frustrating.

Yeah, Revive really needs its own keybind.

They were trying to emulate GoW cover. Maybe Gears changed GoW3 too late for them to realize they should not make run/cover the same button, either?

For SP, I actually still prefer the default binds of ME1 where space is the pause button and shift is run.

emyln wrote:

I'm still hoping for another rare weapon. I only have the Geth shotgun right now and while awesome, its really really heavy. Also I have had the worst luck trying to get weapon mods.

It's incredibly accurate and powerful. If it didn't weigh as much as a baby elephant (a problem for my Adept), I'd be rocking that thing all night long (aaall niiiight).

Well I've played and won enough bronze that I think it's time for some more silver fun. I've got 55K saved so I just need 5 more for a Spectre Box. Hopefully it's decent. Have to agree with the comments about the BF3 soldier being awesome. I pretty much just use the viper and carnage. Might change on silver though, but so far it works exceptionally well.

BlackSabre wrote:

Well I've played and won enough bronze that I think it's time for some more silver fun. I've got 55K saved so I just need 5 more for a Spectre Box. Hopefully it's decent. Have to agree with the comments about the BF3 soldier being awesome. I pretty much just use the viper and carnage. Might change on silver though, but so far it works exceptionally well.

It will change on Silver. The Soldier class in general is very, very situational on Silver. I have Carnage maxed out on the BF3 soldier and it's borderline useless on Silver on all but the most basic of enemies.

Okay, I'm apparently an idiot. How do you unlock new weapons? I've levelled up two characters past 20 but still have the same weapons as I started with and nothing to mod them with. Considering how everyone seems to do damage a lot easier than me there must be something I'm missing.

Having the most fun on silver alternating between Cerberus and Geth. F those Banshee Reapers. :p Just over 30k credits for each run, so a spectre pack after every 2 works out pretty well.

Still, even with my 1st Spectre pack today I got another human class I obviously already had, but I did get a shiny new sniper rifle. Then the 2nd Spectre pack today I got another Drell Adept, and another gun I already had. My rare was a Geth Pulse Rifle, but I already have the Phaeston, so I don't need any more ARs ever.

Hopefully better luck on the next round. Still no Asari for me, after dozens of Vet packs and 3 Spectres now. Oddly enough I've gotten more duplicates of the 4 race/classes I do have unlocked than races total. 2-5 of each that I've already got.

kuddles wrote:

Okay, I'm apparently an idiot. How do you unlock new weapons? I've levelled up two characters past 20 but still have the same weapons as I started with and nothing to mod them with. Considering how everyone seems to do damage a lot easier than me there must be something I'm missing.

Buy the packs from the store and take your chances on what's in them.

Yeah, banshees are the most annoying thing in the game after the space bar-god button. Especially their 1-shot kill move, it sucks when you can't really get away because of clunky controls and suddenly a second one appears in your back and grabs you.

I'm having a lot of trouble playing with certian people. I can always play with tuffalobuffalo and Rebel hosting, but anyone else is problematic. Forwarded ports, but I think it's just EA's sh*tty DRM. Do they not realize that Origin is the DRM? We don't need 18 other layers in the game. The disconnects were getting to me , and I can't even join some people. When I do join I can't hear Larrs. I guess any system more complecated than a 360 is too much work for Bioware.

Starting to wish EA would quit buying devs.

MannishBoy wrote:

They were trying to emulate GoW cover. Maybe Gears changed GoW3 too late for them to realize they should not make run/cover the same button, either?

For SP, I actually still prefer the default binds of ME1 where space is the pause button and shift is run.

The first things I did after starting the game was change those keys. It just felt right, totally forgot that ME1 had that key setup.