Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Catch-All – Shepards with Jobs

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MEWikia[/url]]Cooperative multiplayer is a game mode that will be featured in Mass Effect 3, and marks the debut of multiplayer in the Mass Effect series. In this mode, up to four players can join together online and customize characters to fight on the front lines of the galaxy-wide war against the Reapers. Progress in co-op earns the player rewards in Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War that can be used to influence the outcome of Mass Effect 3's single-player mode.

Playing the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode requires an Online Pass. (Which is included when purchasing a new game.)

BioWare apparently did a really good job with the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. Reason enough to have a separate Catch-All to discuss all the different classes, races, maps, strategies and rewards.

Note: there is no competitive multiplayer in ME3.

A couple of helpful links
Shepards With Jobs – Our Steam group
GWJ Google Doc – Make sure to add your name and Origin ID to the tab “Logins per platform” and your name to either the 360 or PC tab
ME3 Multiplayer @ MEWikia – A nice overview of the classes, races, powers, weapons and other unlockable stuff.
Shepards With Jobs – Special Forces Multiplayer Trailer (YT)
WTF Is...: Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer? – TotalBiscuit takes a look at ME3 multiplayer mode (YT)

[size=24]Multiplayer hints and and pointers[/size]

Levels and skill points

  • The maximum level in multiplayer is 20.
  • You'll gain more skill points per level, leaving you with a maximum of 84 at level 20 and half of that at level 13.
  • This gives you several options to build your character, e.g. 4 skills on upgraded to 6 or 1 skill at 6 and the remaining ones at 5.
  • All your characters of the same class share an experience bar, meaning if your Human Soldier levels up, so will your Krogan or Turian one.
  • Even races unlocked a later point will start at the level of the other characters of the same class.
  • You can reset the talents of a character by either using a rare item from the Spectre packs or promoting it once it reaches level 20. This will reset all available characters of that class back to level 1.

Weapons and other equipment

  • Save your special Equipment for Silver and gold Runs. You will really need them there.
  • Engineers, Vanguards and Adepts trend to perform better when they can access their powers quicker. Many only Equip a Pistol because of this.

Enemies and combat

  • "Stun and Gun" Seems to be a particularly effective tatic in MP. Stasis, Overload, Shield Drain, and Cyroblast all Stun to some extent.
  • If a mob is going to melee you, use a quick melee attack to disrupt their wind up, following up with a heavy melee or other attack.
  • Krogran have a powerful melee attack that charges forward. It is a one shot kill for most regular enemies.
  • Keep your eyes open for turrets when fighting Cerberus! They can take characters down very quickly (I am looking at you Vanguards) and sit low to the ground. BTW. they can see through the Infiltrator's Tactical Cloak
  • Cerberus Guardians: The most common way to take out a Guardian is by shooting them through their shield's eyeslot or by flanking them. Some skills like Concussive Shot will cause them to stagger, but others like Pull and Stasis will cause them to drop their shield entirely. Alternatively, the uncommon "penetration" mod will allow you to damage them through their shields, but this tactic is generally impractical until you've upgraded the mod a few times as it greatly reduces damage to all targets.
  • Cerberus Phantoms: Never let an unrestrained Phantom get close as they have a one-hit kill with sufficient range to hit you through cover. An Asari Adept's Stasis skill can freeze them in place, and cold-based skills can slow them down significantly. If they can't find a nearby target they will often take cover for long periods, especially when they've lost their barrier: easy pickings for a sniper, provided they have an angle.
  • When dealing with Brutes and Banshees, try to move perpendicularly to the direction they are pointed (Strafe) and keep your distance, that tends to be the basis for keeping yourself alive in those encounters.

Skills

  • If you want to have any chance of completing or even farming the Silver and Gold difficuty levels, you will need Biotic and Tech combos. There's a nice overview of these on the BioWare forum.
  • The Sabotage skill (Quarian Infiltrator) temporarily converts enemies to your side, after which you can either let them fight for you or get in a few free shots. It works on ALL Geth, Cerberus Atlus mechs, and Cerberus engineer turrets. Each successive use against the same enemy wears off faster, until the skill no longer works against that target.
  • The Stasis skill (Asari Adept/Vanguard) will freeze any enemy that doesn't have armor, including Cerberus Phantoms. It does a small amount of damage as well, which is sufficient to kill swarmers instantly. When faced with an armored enemy, an Asari Adept should use Warp instead, and follow it up with Throw to trigger a biotic explosion.
  • With Stasis skill (Asari Adept/Vanguard), Max it out in its AOE/Bubble form. It is infinitely more useful that way. It will trap people that walk into it. You can put it on a corner to trap Enemies taking cover on the other side, etc. It also helps with getting groups together for Biotic Explosions.
  • Charging weapons interact oddly with Tactical Cloak (all Infiltrators), in that they register a "shot" when you start charging but not when you actually fire. That means if you start charging while cloaked you will uncloak, but if you cloak while you're already charging you can fire your shot without losing stealth. I have no idea how Tactical Cloak damage bonuses play into that.

Upgrade packs or RNG, thou art a heartless wench

  • Recruit packs: There are people who tell you to never buy these. The reality is, all weapon unlocks, weapon upgrades, weapon mods and class unlocks are given out in randomly mixed booster packs. Anyone who has tried getting into a TCG knows that while seemingly everyone will find a Moxen in their first booster, while you desperately try to trade in a hundred mountain cards for another booster. When you start out, you want a good staple of guns and mods. After about 20 rounds of Bronze (about 1 character to level 20 and a second one to level 13ish), you will have made 300k credits, enough for 60 recruit boosters (instead of 5 Spectre packs), which will bring pretty most of your weapons to their maximum level of 10. With those, you will be equipped to jump in with every new class you want. Your alternative is shamefully staying in bronze with your level 20 Vanguard, because the highest weapon you have is a level 3 Katana (shotgun).
  • Veteran packs: Once you've gotten a feel for your two or three favorite classes, jump into Silver difficulty and start buying these (even with the money you make with your new low level characters, there’s nothing more to gain from Recruit packs). Buy these until you have a decent selection of mods and uncommon weapons, or at least the ones you see yourself using. That way you'll be able to adequately equip any class, and you're likely to still get one or two rare items just by chance.
  • Spectre Packs: When you can handle Silver difficulty well enough that you reliably complete the third and final objective (whether you can survive to extraction after that isn't as important). Alternately, when you are looking for rare or ultra-rare unlocks (see list below), these are the smarter investment.
  • All packs contain 5 random items or characters, most of which will be common (consumables for dire situations and higher difficulties). Recruit packs have a small chance for an uncommon or better. Veteran packs always have 1 unlock of at least uncommon quality. Spectre packs always contain 1 unlock of at least rare quality. So while it is possible to score a Black Widow in your first recruit pack, it's not probable. For what constitutes as common, uncommon and rare, see list below.
  • Consumable Common (Blue)
    • Cobra Missile Launcher (more in Veteran/Spectre packs.)
    • Thermal Clip Pack (more in Veteran/Spectre packs.)
    • Ops Survival Pack (more in Veteran/Spectre packs.)
    • Medi-Gel (more in Veteran/Spectre packs.)
    • Ammo Bonus Items (Level 1 in Recruit/Level 2 in Veteran/Level 3 in Spectre)
    • Weapon Bonus Items (Level 1 in Recruit/Level 2 in Veteran/Level 3 in Spectre)
    • Armor Bonus Items (Level 1 in Recruit/Level 2 in Veteran/Level 3 in Spectre)
  • Common (Blue)
    • M-3 Predator
    • M-23 Katana
    • M-4 Shuriken
    • M-92 Mantis
    • M-8 Avenger
    • SMG Scope
    • Pistol Scope
    • Pistol High-Caliber Barrel
    • Assault Rifle Percision Scope
    • Assault Rifle Magazine Upgrade
    • Assault Rifle Stability Damper
    • Assault Rifle Extended Barrel
    • Sniper Rifle Spare Thermal Clip
    • Shotgun Smart Choke
    • Shotgun High Caliber Barrel
    • Shotgun Blade Attachment
    • Human Characters
  • Uncommon (Silver)
    • M-5 Phalanx
    • M-22 Eviscerator
    • M-9 Tempest
    • M-12 Locust
    • M-13 Raptor
    • M-27 Scimitar
    • M-97 Viper
    • M-29 Incisor
    • M-96 Mattock
    • M-15 Vindicator
    • Phaeston
    • SMG Ultralight Materials
    • Pistol Piercing Mod
    • Pistol Melee Stun
    • Assault Rifle Penetration
    • Sniper Rifle Extended Barrel
    • Sniper Rifle Enhanced Scope
    • Shotgun Shredder Mod
    • Shotgun Spare Thermal Clips
    • Turian Soldier
    • Salarian Engineer
    • Turian Sentinel
    • Quarian Infiltrator
    • Asari Vanguard
    • Drell Adept
  • Rare (Gold)
    • Consumable Item Capacity Increases
    • Respec Card
    • M-25 Hornet
    • M-6 Carnifex
    • Geth Pulse Rifle
    • Geth Pulse Shotgun
    • M-300 Claymore
    • M-98 Widow
    • Arc Pistol
    • Disciple
    • Graal Spike Thrower
    • M-37 Falcon
    • M-76 Revenant
    • Collector Assault Rifle* (color is gold, but you have to have a code to unlock)
    • Asari Adept
    • Krogan Soldier
    • Krogan Sentinel
    • Quarian Engineer
    • Salarian Infiltrator
    • Drell Vanguard
  • Ultra Rare (Black/N7)
    • Black Widow
    • M-358 Talon
    • M-99 Saber
    • M-77 Paladin
    • M-11 Wraith
    • Javelin
    • Scorpion
  • On character unlocks: if you unlock a class race combination you already have, you will unlock additional appearance options for that character and gain a small amount of experience (12,500 for common, 25,000 for uncommon, 50,000 for rare).

More coming soon.

I’ll try to keep the OP up to date, but due to the post explosion nature of multiplayer threads on GWJ, this may be a tough task. Let me know (preferably by PM) if anything needs to be added.

Added!

I didn't play too much of the demo (didn't want to burn myself out) but I've really enjoyed playing Infiltrator. I upgraded my sticky grenades to proximity mines (you can throw them while cloaked even without buying the "use one skill" upgrade) and usually carry a Viper (with appropriate upgrades to the rifle and class you can still get one-hit headshot kills but it's much more flexible than a single-shot sniper rifle) and a shotgun. Pretty much any shotgun.

I really want to stress how awesome a shotgun is for an Infiltrator. I heard a few surprised comments when people saw me using one, but they benefit from the decloaking damage bonus and open up a whole new way to use an Infiltrator. It is very satisfying to cloak, move around behind an enemy, and decloak with a shotgun blast to the back of his head. I'm hoping to get my hands on an M-300 Claymore in the full version so I can make the most of that strategy.

Aside from that, I've had a lot of fun with the Krogan soldier's "Carnage" ability. If you upgrade it enough it's like an infinite-use, enemy-seeking missile with a fast cooldown. Not quite enough to knock a Guardian off his feet, but more than enough to reduce even a lightly damaged enemy to a red smear.

Added as well! I'm getting it for both platforms, since I'm working on my FemShep on the PC version, but since she's nowhere near ready for ME3, I will be playing MP on 360. I haven't played too much of the demo, trying to keep myself on lockout, but I am looking forward to the MP component.

Can't wait to spend some time playing as a Quarian Engineer. Should be fun

Anyone playing this on Xbox instead of PC here? If you want add me as a friend (Xbox live ID: Hiriri) with a note that you are with GWJ.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I really want to stress how awesome a shotgun is for an Infiltrator. I heard a few surprised comments when people saw me using one, but they benefit from the decloaking damage bonus and open up a whole new way to use an Infiltrator. It is very satisfying to cloak, move around behind an enemy, and decloak with a shotgun blast to the back of his head. I'm hoping to get my hands on an M-300 Claymore in the full version so I can make the most of that strategy.

I played for a while as a Solarian Infiltrator with a Claymore and a Carniflex pistol for longer range/backup. It was awsome. A cloaked shot took out gobs of health was was pretty much an insta kill for most mobs up to silver (did not play gold as the Solarian).

BTW I would love to make a song set to "Girlfirend in a Coma" by the Smiths called "Solarian with a Shotgun".

Quick add me to the steam group.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/i38warhawk

Tenebrous wrote:

BTW I would love to make a song set to "Girlfirend in a Coma" by the Smiths called "Solarian with a Shotgun".

Too many syllables. "Krogan with a Shotgun" would work (and would be really serious).

Not sure how long the legs will be with the MP, but I've really enjoyed the demo for some light fluff MP shooting.

Loved the demo. Playing on 360. Adjectives unnecessary. Channeling Hemingway.

Please add me to the Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/id/rallick

Signed.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Loved the demo. Playing on 360. Adjectives unnecessary. Channeling Mordin.

*sniff* Fixed that for you.

LobsterMobster wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Loved the demo. Playing on 360. Adjectives unnecessary. Channeling Mordin.

*sniff* Fixed that for you.

You know, I was hoping, after ME2 was over, that Mordin would be the Dr. Drew of the ME universe.

Added myself to the gdoc. Please add me to the Steam group. Link in sig.

Thanks for the topic Luggage.

Demo was way more fun than it had any right to be, especially with 2 maps and one enemy type. Can't wait to play some more of this with you guys.

Please add me into the steam group as well =)

http://steamcommunity.com/id/koshnika

Never in a million years would I have expected to be tempted to do anything but dig right in to single player for this game first after installing it.

Uncountable hours with both the PC and Xbox demo have changed that. Tough decisions will have to be made tomorrow evening.

I was shocked and surprised by how hard the demo sucked me in, even though I never got the gun I wanted. This will be weird, though--I usually finish SP and then play MP, but it seems the two are much more closely entwined. At the very, very least, I try to spend an hour on my bike trainer a night, and have been playing games while I do so I don't get bored out of my skull, so I'll be using ME3 for that.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I really want to stress how awesome a shotgun is for an Infiltrator. I heard a few surprised comments when people saw me using one, but they benefit from the decloaking damage bonus and open up a whole new way to use an Infiltrator. It is very satisfying to cloak, move around behind an enemy, and decloak with a shotgun blast to the back of his head. I'm hoping to get my hands on an M-300 Claymore in the full version so I can make the most of that strategy.

I heard a lot of odd attitudes about weapons in the demo. I was running a Quarian Engineer with a sniper rifle--throw out the sentry turret, let baddies get distracted by it, snipe, it worked great. Yet, that build got comments, and sadly I got disconnected so I couldn't show them they were wrong.

zeroKFE wrote:

Never in a million years would I have expected to be tempted to do anything but dig right in to single player for this game first after installing it.

I feel conflicted too now. But, once I get the actual game in my hands with the whole story waiting for my Shepard, I'm not sure I'll be so torn.

Definitely no way I'll be playing more MP than SP to start, even if I start wading in.

Tomorrow night? Tonight! Slightly over 12 hours from now I expect some goodjer games!

Tagged. I played some last night as a human soldier and totally sucked the bag. I had one proud moment where I single-handedly restarted all the generators in one wave, but my whole team wiped regardless.

Seems different from Gears horde in that you need to be moving your defensible position about a bit -- staying put results in being overwhelmed. Is this yes?

Clemenstation wrote:

Seems different from Gears horde in that you need to be moving your defensible position about a bit -- staying put results in being overwhelmed. Is this yes?

Pretty much.

There are a couple spots on the two demo maps, in the corners with ammo, where you can hold up almost indefinitely. But either an Atlas or a grenade can mess up your world pretty quickly.

I soloed maybe 7 or 8 waves as an Asari Adept on Bronze, mostly camped in the corner of the one map (white?). I'm sure someone has pulled off some solo rounds, but I can't quite do it.

Clemenstation wrote:

Tagged. I played some last night as a human soldier and totally sucked the bag. I had one proud moment where I single-handedly restarted all the generators in one wave, but my whole team wiped regardless.

Seems different from Gears horde in that you need to be moving your defensible position about a bit -- staying put results in being overwhelmed. Is this yes?

The enemies come in from different locations, so most definitely. There seem to be enough possible entrance points for the bad guys that you can't just hunker down in one spot and defend, plus those waves where you have to go and get the targets/hack/whatever pretty much keep you moving.

I was so incredibly dubious when they announced ME3 multiplayer, but I'm more stoked for it than the SP campaign, and ME2 is one of my favorite games ever. I had a shockingly good time with the demo, and will be playing the heck out of the multiplayer. Totally pumped, taking the day off tomorrow.

Don' know how much I'll wind up playing MP (I'm a giant MP flake), but just in case I wind up getting into it:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/chazali...

Please add me to the Steam group. Hypatian

Any thoughts on good class / race combos? I know you guys have probably talked this out on the other ME3 thread already, but it's so much to read back through...

:firstworldproblems:

I thought Adrenaline Rush in particular was pretty disappointing.

Clemenstation wrote:

Any thoughts on good class / race combos? I know you guys have probably talked this out on the other ME3 thread already, but it's so much to read back through...

It's odd, because there aren't really class/race combos, they're just sort of classes that are races too, if that makes sense. Anyway, I thought the Krogan Soldier, Asari Adept, Salarian Infiltrator, and Quarian Engineer were awesome fun. The Drell Vanguard was a little too glass jawed for how I play that class, and the Turian Sentinel is a fine, fine thing to play, but I've always felt sentinel is too utilitarian a class to count as "fun"--it's like a minivan, it's very functional and efficient, but not very sexy.

Please add me to the Steam group. Would probably be easier to open it up and kick random people.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:
Clemenstation wrote:

Any thoughts on good class / race combos? I know you guys have probably talked this out on the other ME3 thread already, but it's so much to read back through...

It's odd, because there aren't really class/race combos, they're just sort of classes that are races too, if that makes sense. Anyway, I thought the Krogan Soldier, Asari Adept, Salarian Infiltrator, and Quarian Engineer were awesome fun. The Drell Vanguard was a little too glass jawed for how I play that class, and the Turian Sentinel is a fine, fine thing to play, but I've always felt sentinel is too utilitarian a class to count as "fun"--it's like a minivan, it's very functional and efficient, but not very sexy.

I am intrested to see the Turian Soldier, Asari Vangard in full. The Quarian infiltrator in particular has some intersting powers in decoy and sabotage. Krogan Sentinel should also be a potential winner.

Though I agree with everything said in the quote, keep your eyes on the Krogan Soldier and Asari Adept though. Those seemed to be the real AAA powerhouses in the demo, both fun and really effective.

Yeah I was doing Statis-Throw detonations on my Asari Adept and it was glorious. I think throw still has the shortest recharge of any biotic power.

Here is something interesting.

I had noticed that more things could set off biotic combo detonations (i.e., I definitely noticed vanguards doing it with their charges), but apparently the combo detonation system has been expanded even more than I thought. More or less every ability sets up combos now, and everything but stasis, singularity, and pull detonate something. What's more, tech abilities now set up combo detonations that can be set off by ANY damage dealing power (combat, tech, or biotic), although fire and ice detonations only happen when you kill an affected enemy with a power.

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