[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Oerba Yun Fang]

I choose to save Kaidan

I knew I liked you. :P

[CrossNgen]

"go against everything Mass Effect stands for."

I never understood that myself, they give you 4 choices right at the end to a series based on making decisions.

[Deleted]

Ashley is a beast at stripping shields with her disruptor ammo and if you give her a typhoon she is able to kill brutes in a matter of seconds on insanity. I pair her with James or Garrus (Garrus with Overload and James with Carnage) depending on enemies (Garrus and Ashley vs Cerberus and Ash plus James vs Reapers)

Concussive Shot is useless in SP. Adrenaline rush is the only ability you need as soldier and I prefer grenades over CS.

BTW: I used that soldier build in 7 NG+ games and each of them on insanity (every mission and DLC). It's amazing.

[Deleted]

That's the build I use. I found it a few months ago.

Shock Trooper Build
Adrenaline Rush: Hardening / Duration / Shield Boost
Concussive Shot: Force & Damage (Only leveled to rank 4)
Frag Grenade: Damage / Bleed Damage / Armor-Piercing
Cryo Ammo: Squad Bonus / Headshots / Freeze Chance
Disruptor Ammo: Damage / Ammo Capacity / Damage
Incendiary Ammo: Damage / Ammo Capacity / Explosive Burst
Combat Mastery: Influence & Duration / Squad Bonus / Weapon Master
Fitness: Durability / Shield Recharge / Fitness Expert
Defense Matrix (Bonus Power): Durability / Recharge Speed / Power Recharge


Description: This durable build is good for using the Typhoon or Revenant, popping Adrenaline Rush, and getting up in the face of enemies. You want to minimize your CD with this build in order to maximize AR uptime, so only use one additional weapon. I like the Carnifex and Paladin, but the Viper is a lightweight sniper rifle that can work for long range engagements too. You could substitute Weapon Master for Weigh Capacity to get a lower AR CD, but Weapon Master is just too good to give up. Similarly, you could forsake Defense Matrix's Power Recharge for more durability, but for me it shaves like a second off my AR CD, and the more you have AR up the more you're benefitting from the Hardening Bonus anyway.

[Adam Jensen]

I never understood that myself, they give you 4 choices right at the end to a series based on making decisions.

And I always felt your previous choices DID matter. They mattered at Tuchanka. They mattered at Rannoch. Who cares if they didn't matter if the last 10 minutes?

[Deleted]

^

Weapon: Venom X
- 200% CDs, 3-4 shots to kill an atlas in insane.

I hope to never see that weapon in MP.

Yeah Venom is insanely good in SP same goes for the Typhoon.

Typhoon so powerful that Ashley and Garrus could do insanity alone.

They should totally add another difficulty to SP. Something that is 10 times harder than insanity is now.

[Adam Jensen]

Yeah Venom is insanely good in SP same goes for the Typhoon.

Typhoon so powerful that Ashley and Garrus could do insanity alone.

They should totally add another difficulty to SP. Something that is 10 times harder than insanity is now.

The only class I have difficulty with on Insanity is Vanguard, and that's entirely because I stupidly charge into shit without thinking.

Insanity is easy on an Infiltrator.

[Nerraw]

And I always felt your previous choices DID matter. They mattered at Tuchanka. They mattered at Rannoch. Who cares if they didn't matter if the last 10 minutes?

The CoD generation. *dons flame-repellant*

[Deleted]

Doing it with my Evil Shep Destoyer of Worlds ~
With a Venom X it's like playing it in easy =/

I have a Venom X on my soldier but never actually used it. Maybe I'm gonna try it out.

[CrossNgen]

And I always felt your previous choices DID matter. They mattered at Tuchanka. They mattered at Rannoch. Who cares if they didn't matter if the last 10 minutes?

My opinion exactly.

[Statix]

And I always felt your previous choices DID matter. They mattered at Tuchanka. They mattered at Rannoch. Who cares if they didn't matter if the last 10 minutes?

That's exactly my point! I also felt like they mattered, up to and including the massive final battle. After that, your choices simply don't matter at all. Paragon or Renegade, the final choices are the same. That's what bothers me the most.

Maybe the final choices should have had a Paragon and Renegade choice within them. For example:

• Control: the Paragon choice would let Shepard help rebuild after choosing Control -- the Renegade choice would let Shepard immediately order all Reapers to leave.
• Destroy: the Paragon option would severely damage the Citadel and the Mass Relays, but spare all synthetics from destruction -- the Renegade option would spare the Citadel and the Mass Relays, but destroy all synthetics.
• Refusal: the Paragon choice shows Shepard falling down and give up -- the Renegade choice would make Shepard use his/her omni-tool to destroy the StarChild.
• Synthesis: Choosing the Paragon option would cause Shepard sacrifice him-/herself for synthesis -- choosing the Renegade option would cause Shepard to cut of his/her hand and throw that into the beam.

[CrossNgen]

That's exactly my point! I also felt like they mattered, up to and including the massive final battle. After that, your choices simply don't matter at all. Paragon or Renegade, the final choices are the same. That's what bothers me the most.

The final choices are absolutely not the same.

[Deleted]

The final choices are absolutely not the same.

Yeah the final choices differ. If you have low EMS and destroyed the collector base in ME2 you only have the destroy option and if you preserved it you only have control.

Also the aftermath differs. If you are renegade your control Shepard talks about protecting the galaxy with iron fist and a paragon one is mich more benelovent and wants to protect the galaxy and be a good leader.

They would have to create 100 different endings if they had to consider every choice that could affect the outcom. That's simply not possible.

[Deleted]

That's simply not possible.

I for one would had preferred a DA/Fallout 3 style ending.
You complete the mission (firing crucible, wiping out all mechanics), epilogue starts with a scene for how each of your decisions and actions affected the time to come afterwards.

[Elim Garak]

They would have to create 100 different endings if they had to consider every choice that could affect the outcom. That's simply not possible.

Nope. They would have to create 100 different slides to show in Extended Cut DLC. Not Endings. And then combine slides on the fly - just how they do it anyway. That is possible and very simple to do.
We have 3 choices, 3 reputations (R/N/P), 3 EMS modes. That gives us just 27 Endings for the story. Now there would be a lot of slides but hey - It's A DLC that added them in the first place. Before that we had NOTHING at all in the end.

[Deleted]

Before that we had NOTHING at all in the end.

Thats not true.
We got anger and sorrow

[CrossNgen]

Nope. They would have to create 100 different slides to show in Extended Cut DLC. Not Endings. And then combine slides on the fly - just how they do it anyway. That is possible and very simple to do.
We have 3 choices, 3 reputations (R/N/P), 3 EMS modes. That gives us just 27 Endings for the story. Now there would be a lot of slides but hey - It's A DLC that added them in the first place. Before that we had NOTHING at all in the end.

Oh, you've also forgot every other choice you've made through the 3 games.

It's by no means "Simple".

[Deleted]

Oh, you've also forgot every other choice you've made through the 3 games.

It's by no means "Simple".

Of course I meant epilogue and not ending but as you said it would not be easy to add that many different outcomes to the epilogue.

All those descisions throughout the series would extend the epilogue by 1 hour and who wants to see it every time?

I was never butthurt even after I saw the original endings and so I really hate to see that this is still being discussed after that much time.

[Elim Garak]

Thats not true.
We got anger and sorrow

That was ours to begin with!

Oh, you've also forgot every other choice you've made through the 3 games.

It's by no means "Simple".

That's not required. They do not depend on the endings. You know what you did already.
These choices though affect EMS and Paragon/Renegade standing.

[Deleted]

That was ours to begin with!

But the explosive addition certainly was... delicious.