Is the general consensus for vanguard insanity to go for area charge or heavy charge?
I'm pretty sure it's Heavy? Does area charge even give the bullet time?
Heavy all the way, sir. Takes a while to get used to not fleeing back to cover, but circle-strafing enemies until your charge is ready again and using that to replenish your shields.
I don't understand why someone hasn't taken Garrus's beer commercial and dubbed it over in game footage. I would do this if I had the software or the skill.
It's a pain in the ass finding matching footage.
Just for you though
Fucking Batarians.
That beer is laced with the Batarian plague. Shepard's all over this.
Is the general consensus for vanguard insanity to go for area charge or heavy charge?
I'm pretty sure it's Heavy? Does area charge even give the bullet time?
Heavy all the way, sir. Takes a while to get used to not fleeing back to cover, but circle-strafing enemies until your charge is ready again and using that to replenish your shields.
area charge is shit except for easier difficulties where your choices hardly matter anyway
on insanity, enemies barely group together, shoot hard and fast, and have lots of health
this means you need the slow-mo and the high power and fast shield regen of heavy charge, not area charge
So, I'm still on my first playthrough, so I've been avoiding this thread for the most part, but I just cracked up laughing when I had this conversation last night. Minor spoilers just for squad members (I don't know how much you guys are spoilering anymore).
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
so can someone give me a quick rundown of what to do as a Vanguard in combat?
Charge in as combat starts, or wait till my shields are down? Charge enemies regardless of health/armor/barrier level? Use warp ammo or incendiary ammo? If not warp ammo, what bonus power should I take instead? Or do both ammo types have uses?
My previous two insanity runs were as Soldier and Infiltrator neither of which play anything like the Vanguard.
so can someone give me a quick rundown of what to do as a Vanguard in combat?
Charge in as combat starts, or wait till my shields are down? Charge enemies regardless of health/armor/barrier level? Use warp ammo or incendiary ammo? If not warp ammo, what bonus power should I take instead? Or do both ammo types have uses?
My previous two insanity runs were as Soldier and Infiltrator neither of which play anything like the Vanguard.
so can someone give me a quick rundown of what to do as a Vanguard in combat?
Charge in as combat starts, or wait till my shields are down? Charge enemies regardless of health/armor/barrier level? Use warp ammo or incendiary ammo? If not warp ammo, what bonus power should I take instead? Or do both ammo types have uses?
My previous two insanity runs were as Soldier and Infiltrator neither of which play anything like the Vanguard.
Right, playing as a Vanguard on insanity (at least how I did it):
Charge in, fire shotgun at point blank, elbow (slow-mo should just be ending as the elbow lands) fire again, keep moving, charge target again (or new target) when charge is ready.
Keep an eye out for stragglers, and single them out. You'll need awareness of everything going on around you, as opposed to say an Infiltrator or Soldier who can sit at the back of the battlefield and do their thing without worries of being snuck up on. Personally I found charging targets with armour/shields/barriers more productive than vulnerable ones - the charge will knock them out of prime shotgun range, but only stagger protected targets.
Do NOT charge Pyros or flamer-enemies who have shields or armour. Klixen aren't recommended either. Harbinger doesn't seem to get stunned, and neither do scions, but you can usually strafe around them, firing a shotgun, and pop Charge when they're going for their shockwave, or ground-based AoE.
Warp Ammo is fine, if not pretty great, to cover your lack of options against barriers. You'll be a bit screwed when it comes to shields, so bring Garrus/Miranda/Zaeed to help out with those. I usually rolled with Grunt and Thane, and towards the end Samara and Thane (so basically someone to compensate for your range).
If you can get your hands on it, grab the DLC 3-round Shotgun. It's a beast and you'll never have a better friend.
Man you'd think quarians with all their techno prowess would be walkin' around in badass monster mech suits fully armored with cannons and chainsaw arms n' shit.
You know. Man.
I imagine they spend most of their time trying to not starve to death and keep their ships running.
And complaining. Don't forget complaining.
and picking pockets. I mean, Tali COULD have stolen my credit chit.
Man I want some problem in ME3 to be solved because it turns out she can actually pickpockets fairly well.
plus: be used to seeing those veins a whole lot, but don't be overly concerned about them. you should be more concerned about how you are going to recharge your shields (not health) by charging headlong into an enemy
Nuzak on
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DunxcoShould get a suitNever skips breakfastRegistered Userregular
plus: be used to seeing those veins a whole lot, but don't be overly concerned about them. you should be more concerned about how you are going to recharge your shields (not health) by charging headlong into an enemy
That's pretty damn accurate too. Those veins don't disappear if you go down to, say, half-health, charge something, and get back up to 50-100% shields. You get used to it.
So two things always kind of bothered me about Miranda's loyalty mission:
I kinda felt like there was a great chance for a morally ambiguous decision in that mission. I mean we only have Miranda's word that her father is the worst guy ever (I mean, yeah, genetically engineering your daughters is pretty weird I guess, but she makes him sound like a total monster), and she did basically take choice away from her sister. It would've been cool if Enyala had been more like "I'm the one in the right here" as opposed to basically being portrayed as a psychopath (killing the innocent dock worker and Niket)
The second thing, which admittedly is super minor, is that Enyala seems to be using the krogan shotgun (I think Wasea also uses it on Samara's recruitment mission). The description on that thing is all "the recoil would break a human's arms". I mean we accept that Shepard can use it because she's all cyborg now, so are Asari just made of stronger stuff than humans?
Don't forget that you don't HAVE to Charge. There's many places where the correct move is to hang back and use squad powers
And remember that you have weapons other than the Shotgun. The Tempest SMG does roughly the same amount of damage in the same time (though the shotgun has the advantage/disadvantage of it all being front-loaded).
A good example is the platforms on the Collector Ship. If you hang back, use the SMG on Harbinger, and use the Pistol on the Scions and you'll find it much easier than people make it out to be.
Also, take Reave. Half the time I wouldn't charge because the cooldown was better spent on Reave.
gjaustin on
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
So two things always kind of bothered me about Miranda's loyalty mission:
I kinda felt like there was a great chance for a morally ambiguous decision in that mission. I mean we only have Miranda's word that her father is the worst guy ever (I mean, yeah, genetically engineering your daughters is pretty weird I guess, but she makes him sound like a total monster), and she did basically take choice away from her sister. It would've been cool if Enyala had been more like "I'm the one in the right here" as opposed to basically being portrayed as a psychopath (killing the innocent dock worker and Niket)
The second thing, which admittedly is super minor, is that Enyala seems to be using the krogan shotgun (I think Wasea also uses it on Samara's recruitment mission). The description on that thing is all "the recoil would break a human's arms". I mean we accept that Shepard can use it because she's all cyborg now, so are Asari just made of stronger stuff than humans?
It's a safe bet to assume that any sort of combat uniform like those worn by the mercs includes hard weave and strength augmentation technology.
So two things always kind of bothered me about Miranda's loyalty mission:
I kinda felt like there was a great chance for a morally ambiguous decision in that mission. I mean we only have Miranda's word that her father is the worst guy ever (I mean, yeah, genetically engineering your daughters is pretty weird I guess, but she makes him sound like a total monster), and she did basically take choice away from her sister. It would've been cool if Enyala had been more like "I'm the one in the right here" as opposed to basically being portrayed as a psychopath (killing the innocent dock worker and Niket)
The second thing, which admittedly is super minor, is that Enyala seems to be using the krogan shotgun (I think Wasea also uses it on Samara's recruitment mission). The description on that thing is all "the recoil would break a human's arms". I mean we accept that Shepard can use it because she's all cyborg now, so are Asari just made of stronger stuff than humans?
It's a safe bet to assume that any sort of combat uniform like those worn by the mercs includes hard weave and strength augmentation technology.
I guess that's fair. I suppose your squad not being able to use it (aside from Grunt) is more a gameplay balancing decision. Either that or Shepard needs to invest in some better armor augmentation for his crew.
So two things always kind of bothered me about Miranda's loyalty mission:
I kinda felt like there was a great chance for a morally ambiguous decision in that mission. I mean we only have Miranda's word that her father is the worst guy ever (I mean, yeah, genetically engineering your daughters is pretty weird I guess, but she makes him sound like a total monster), and she did basically take choice away from her sister. It would've been cool if Enyala had been more like "I'm the one in the right here" as opposed to basically being portrayed as a psychopath (killing the innocent dock worker and Niket)
There's nothing wrong with genetically engineering
your daughters. Yeah, that's weird but Miranda isn't blaming him just for that. She mentions "I wasn't the first one he made, only the first one he kept". Doesn't that make him sound monstrous enough to justify why Miranda would want to take her sister away?
Some moral ambiguity comes in with regards to whether kidnapping a young child and taking her away from her biological father is justified if you're convinced that the environment is detrimental to her well-being. If you for example, know from your personal experience that your parent is abusive, should you take your little sibling away? Even if your household was a place of wealth and privilege?
I found Niket's justifications rather weak actually. He does nothing to justify why Miranda's father provides a better home except point out that he has a lot of money. And it's not as if Miranda's sending her sister to live in poverty.
Finished ME2 last night. Overall the game was fantastic, I did find the ending a little lacking though. The first ending was goddamn epic, so it had a lot to live up to.
So two things always kind of bothered me about Miranda's loyalty mission:
I kinda felt like there was a great chance for a morally ambiguous decision in that mission. I mean we only have Miranda's word that her father is the worst guy ever (I mean, yeah, genetically engineering your daughters is pretty weird I guess, but she makes him sound like a total monster), and she did basically take choice away from her sister. It would've been cool if Enyala had been more like "I'm the one in the right here" as opposed to basically being portrayed as a psychopath (killing the innocent dock worker and Niket)
There's nothing wrong with genetically engineering
your daughters. Yeah, that's weird but Miranda isn't blaming him just for that. She mentions "I wasn't the first one he made, only the first one he kept". Doesn't that make him sound monstrous enough to justify why Miranda would want to take her sister away?
Some moral ambiguity comes in with regards to whether kidnapping a young child and taking her away from her biological father is justified if you're convinced that the environment is detrimental to her well-being. If you for example, know from your personal experience that your parent is abusive, should you take your little sibling away? Even if your household was a place of wealth and privilege?
I found Niket's justifications rather weak actually. He does nothing to justify why Miranda's father provides a better home except point out that he has a lot of money. And it's not as if Miranda's sending her sister to live in poverty.
I mean I guess part of my problem was that we just have to take Miranda's word for all of this. Normally we accept what our squadmates say as being the truth, but we might have reason to doubt Miranda since she wasn't entirely forthcoming about the exact circumstances prior to actually embarking on the mission.
I think you're basically right, and that we're meant to accept Miranda's statements as the truth. I guess I just think it would've been cool to have a bit more ambiguity there (maybe even make it a loyalty mission you can fail if you elected to side against her).
Ethereal on
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
I don't understand why someone hasn't taken Garrus's beer commercial and dubbed it over in game footage. I would do this if I had the software or the skill.
It's a pain in the ass finding matching footage.
Just for you though
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. A glass of ryncol in your honor.
I mean I guess part of my problem was that we just have to take Miranda's word for all of this. Normally we accept what our squadmates say as being the truth, but we might have reason to doubt Miranda since she wasn't entirely forthcoming about the exact circumstances prior to actually embarking on the mission.
I think you're basically right, and that we're meant to accept Miranda's statements as the truth. I guess I just think it would've been cool to have a bit more ambiguity there (maybe even make it a loyalty mission you can fail if you elected to side against her).
I do get what you're saying about about the apparent lack of morality ambiguity. I think her loyalty mission feels a bit odd in that it's structured somewhat differently from many of the others.
With Garrus, Jack, Mordin or Tali, there's more-or-less a realisation or discovery at the end that proves everything is not as it should be. The structure is similar. In Miranda's case, the bigger discovery and moral question comes right at the beginning when you confront the first mercenary captain and he reveals Miranda kidnapped a little girl.
But you're almost expecting some bigger revelation to come at the end of the mission. Niket's betrayal and his justification feel like something of a letdown because you don't really learn anything new. Niket neither rebukes or agrees with Miranda about her father. It's not moral ambiguity. It's just plain old ambiguity.
(It is late over here and I might be rambling a little)
Enbot on
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
I do get what you're saying about about the apparent lack of morality ambiguity. I think her loyalty mission feels a bit odd in that it's structured somewhat differently from many of the others.
With Garrus, Jack, Mordin or Tali, there's more-or-less a realisation or discovery at the end that proves everything is not as it should be. The structure is similar. In Miranda's case, the bigger discovery and moral question comes right at the beginning when you confront the first mercenary captain and he reveals Miranda kidnapped a little girl.
But you're almost expecting some bigger revelation to come at the end of the mission. Niket's betrayal and his justification feel like something of a letdown because you don't really learn anything new. Niket neither rebukes or agrees with Miranda about her father. It's not moral ambiguity. It's just plain old ambiguity.
(It is late over here and I might be rambling a little)
Y'all are right on target. A consistent theme of ME2 is that individual perceptions are not always correct, that the "truth" often lies deeper or, in some cases such as the genophage, there may not be a perfect answer.
Samara, who I think frequently operates as a stand-in for the the writers, warns Shepard specifically to not trust the perceptions of others.
At the end of Garrus' loyalty mission he says this, which I think is meant to represent the entire storyline: "Black and white I can handle. It's the gray that I have trouble with."
Yeah, one of the big problems in ME1 is that all the DLC had to be played somewhere mid-game, since you could no longer play after completing the game.
Bioware figured that out for ME2 and fixed it, which is really nice and convenient.
I found Niket's justifications rather weak actually. He does nothing to justify why Miranda's father provides a better home except point out that he has a lot of money. And it's not as if Miranda's sending her sister to live in poverty.
I bought Niket's explanation, myself:
Miranda told him that she helped her twin sister escape her father. But it turns out, it was less "helping her twin sister escape" and more of "kidnapping her baby sister and giving her to strangers". He called Miranda's father when he found out about it, but atoning for being a baby-thief was his motivation, not money.
How can shepherd die at the end and what actions cause this to happen?
If you don't have more than two party members alive at the end, Shepard dies too. So basically, you have to get most of your crew dead...which is harder than it sounds, really.
Dragkonias on
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
edited March 2010
Woah, heavy. Time to lighten the mood.
Sweetwater: "Who goes to war wearing a cowboy hat ?"
Haggard: "The Cowboys go to war every Sunday. Sometimes Monday."
The new lightning gun kinda strikes me as a gun out of District 9. Except it's always pointing downwards. You look at the picture and you wonder why they're aiming it down, but then you realize it's just designed that way. Feels a little wonky to look at.
The new lightning gun kinda strikes me as a gun out of District 9. Except it's always pointing downwards. You look at the picture and you wonder why they're aiming it down, but then you realize it's just designed that way. Feels a little wonky to look at.
Yeah it looks more than a little strange. I hope that at some point down the line they release more modular parts for the N7 armor (or complete armor sets that don't feature a helmet).
Posts
Heavy all the way, sir. Takes a while to get used to not fleeing back to cover, but circle-strafing enemies until your charge is ready again and using that to replenish your shields.
Crazy but true.
area charge is shit except for easier difficulties where your choices hardly matter anyway
on insanity, enemies barely group together, shoot hard and fast, and have lots of health
this means you need the slow-mo and the high power and fast shield regen of heavy charge, not area charge
Charge in as combat starts, or wait till my shields are down? Charge enemies regardless of health/armor/barrier level? Use warp ammo or incendiary ammo? If not warp ammo, what bonus power should I take instead? Or do both ammo types have uses?
My previous two insanity runs were as Soldier and Infiltrator neither of which play anything like the Vanguard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UH_EuBHeys
Right, playing as a Vanguard on insanity (at least how I did it):
Charge in, fire shotgun at point blank, elbow (slow-mo should just be ending as the elbow lands) fire again, keep moving, charge target again (or new target) when charge is ready.
Keep an eye out for stragglers, and single them out. You'll need awareness of everything going on around you, as opposed to say an Infiltrator or Soldier who can sit at the back of the battlefield and do their thing without worries of being snuck up on. Personally I found charging targets with armour/shields/barriers more productive than vulnerable ones - the charge will knock them out of prime shotgun range, but only stagger protected targets.
Do NOT charge Pyros or flamer-enemies who have shields or armour. Klixen aren't recommended either. Harbinger doesn't seem to get stunned, and neither do scions, but you can usually strafe around them, firing a shotgun, and pop Charge when they're going for their shockwave, or ground-based AoE.
Warp Ammo is fine, if not pretty great, to cover your lack of options against barriers. You'll be a bit screwed when it comes to shields, so bring Garrus/Miranda/Zaeed to help out with those. I usually rolled with Grunt and Thane, and towards the end Samara and Thane (so basically someone to compensate for your range).
If you can get your hands on it, grab the DLC 3-round Shotgun. It's a beast and you'll never have a better friend.
Man I want some problem in ME3 to be solved because it turns out she can actually pickpockets fairly well.
oh, and real men take the claymore to see it punch straight through a krogan's armour and health in a single shot
That's pretty damn accurate too. Those veins don't disappear if you go down to, say, half-health, charge something, and get back up to 50-100% shields. You get used to it.
it's kinda weird with the screen screaming at you to get in cover by you have full shields
The second thing, which admittedly is super minor, is that Enyala seems to be using the krogan shotgun (I think Wasea also uses it on Samara's recruitment mission). The description on that thing is all "the recoil would break a human's arms". I mean we accept that Shepard can use it because she's all cyborg now, so are Asari just made of stronger stuff than humans?
Don't forget that you don't HAVE to Charge. There's many places where the correct move is to hang back and use squad powers
And remember that you have weapons other than the Shotgun. The Tempest SMG does roughly the same amount of damage in the same time (though the shotgun has the advantage/disadvantage of it all being front-loaded).
A good example is the platforms on the Collector Ship. If you hang back, use the SMG on Harbinger, and use the Pistol on the Scions and you'll find it much easier than people make it out to be.
Also, take Reave. Half the time I wouldn't charge because the cooldown was better spent on Reave.
C-Sec Officer: "Yeah, yeah, spare me the civics lecture, sister. I've got things to do."
Reave is better, Dominate is more fun
Guess I'd better do something different this time
I guess that's fair. I suppose your squad not being able to use it (aside from Grunt) is more a gameplay balancing decision. Either that or Shepard needs to invest in some better armor augmentation for his crew.
There's nothing wrong with genetically engineering
Some moral ambiguity comes in with regards to whether kidnapping a young child and taking her away from her biological father is justified if you're convinced that the environment is detrimental to her well-being. If you for example, know from your personal experience that your parent is abusive, should you take your little sibling away? Even if your household was a place of wealth and privilege?
I found Niket's justifications rather weak actually. He does nothing to justify why Miranda's father provides a better home except point out that he has a lot of money. And it's not as if Miranda's sending her sister to live in poverty.
I think you're basically right, and that we're meant to accept Miranda's statements as the truth. I guess I just think it would've been cool to have a bit more ambiguity there (maybe even make it a loyalty mission you can fail if you elected to side against her).
I accidentally opened it up in two windows.
Worst echo effect ever.
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. A glass of ryncol in your honor.
I do get what you're saying about about the apparent lack of morality ambiguity. I think her loyalty mission feels a bit odd in that it's structured somewhat differently from many of the others.
But you're almost expecting some bigger revelation to come at the end of the mission. Niket's betrayal and his justification feel like something of a letdown because you don't really learn anything new. Niket neither rebukes or agrees with Miranda about her father. It's not moral ambiguity. It's just plain old ambiguity.
(It is late over here and I might be rambling a little)
Samara, who I think frequently operates as a stand-in for the the writers, warns Shepard specifically to not trust the perceptions of others.
At the end of Garrus' loyalty mission he says this, which I think is meant to represent the entire storyline: "Black and white I can handle. It's the gray that I have trouble with."
Considering you can do all the N7 side-missions after, I don't see why not.
Bioware figured that out for ME2 and fixed it, which is really nice and convenient.
I bought Niket's explanation, myself:
Sweetwater: "Who goes to war wearing a cowboy hat ?"
Haggard: "The Cowboys go to war every Sunday. Sometimes Monday."
Oops, sorry, wrong game.
Logically then it would make good escape music.
It's always handy to have good escape music.
Yeah it looks more than a little strange. I hope that at some point down the line they release more modular parts for the N7 armor (or complete armor sets that don't feature a helmet).