Mass Effect 2 Discussion - Fight for the Lost

[quote name='Dasflikko']It is pretty ridiculous just how good singularity is once you power it up isn't it? Armoured husks were a complete JOKE with singularity dropped at choke points.[/QUOTE]

LOL.

Everything (Scions, Harbingers, Husks - Everything) becomes a joke sans bosses on Insanity when it comes to Singularity. The only limit aside from cooling down is your imagination. I'm impressed they've managed to evolve the ability to almost exactly how it was described in the Ascension novel in terms of destructive capability, tactical opportunity, utter chaos and pandemonium left in its wake.
 
I'm really, really surprised with how well my Engineer class is doing on Hardcore/Insanity. YMIR Mechs, Scions, Harbinger all prefer to show me their backs during combat (thanks to my handy combat drone) and Krogan and common mercenaries are lucky to live longer than 10 seconds. The Engineer is quickly turning into my 2nd or 3rd favorite class, and I'm only on level 14 with him :cool:

I can't wait to roll with my Tali and Legion Combat Drone dream team later.
 
I figured drone spam was the ideal way to go when I finally got to my Engineer profile so thanks for testing that out for me, X! I can already imagine how quickly you'll breeze through Geth missions when you get Tali. Add Legion to the mix and his loyalty mission is going to be embarrassingly easy. >_>
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']I figured drone spam was the ideal way to go when I finally got to my Engineer profile so thanks for testing that out for me, X! I can already imagine how quickly you'll breeze through Geth missions when you get Tali. Add Legion to the mix and his loyalty mission is going to be embarrassingly easy. >_>[/QUOTE]Drone spam is the way to go for the ridiculously overpowered people. When you're fighting everyone else, you just waste away their shields/armor is one fatal swoop and let your squadmates eat through their health. It really is a bloodbath.

The build I used is for an aggressive/attack Engineer, though it is easy to use the class as a debuffer. There's no way I could just sit around, though, seeing how much damage this class can do. Reave is pretty much the perfect choice for my playstyle. In all honesty it feels like the Sentinel class, with Tech Armor being exchanged for a Combat Drone :cool:

Edit (I felt this was worth noting, also): No one ever talks about the research discount you get with the Engineer class. All research costs are 25% less than normal when you level up the Engineer.
 
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I have Reave as my additional ability (juiced all the way up to Area Reave) and I don't get much use out of it (or I should say I use it all the time but it doesn't seem to have much effect). What is it best to use on?
 
[quote name='io']I have Reave as my additional ability (juiced all the way up to Area Reave) and I don't get much use out of it (or I should say I use it all the time but it doesn't seem to have much effect). What is it best to use on?[/QUOTE]If you use it on Armor/Barrier, it has a huge effect. If you use it on an unshielded enemy, it will drain their health and some of that will fill your health back up. It's basically a better form of Warp.

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Just thought I'd share a breakdown of the weapon statistics that a user on GameFAQs compiled, if anyone is interested in that kind of thing.
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']If you use it on Armor/Barrier, it has a huge effect. If you use it on an unshielded enemy, it will drain their health and some of that will fill your health back up. It's basically a better form of Warp.

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Just thought I'd share a breakdown of the weapon statistics that a user on GameFAQs compiled, if anyone is interested in that kind of thing.[/QUOTE]

OK, I just don't get it then. I try using it on armor/barriers and it seems to do almost nothing. I notice the effect on an unshielded enemy: they get stunned for a few seconds and their health drains. While they are stunned you or your teammates can finish them off them pretty easily.

Interesting info there - is that Geth Pulse Rifle worth using at all? It doesn't seem that great but then it says you only get it from hardcore or insanity difficulty. I didn't know there was anything like that. I guess I'll be getting it soon then.

What is everyone's choice for heavy weapons? I've been using the Collector Particle Beam exclusively since the moment I found it. I just assumed it was the best one but looking at that chart it doesn't have near the damage some of the others do. But I like being able to focus in on one guy and take his barrier/armor out with it, and having a fairly large ammo capacity. It seems when I used the low-ammo ones I'd always miss because they fire so slowly (the guys would move). They might be useful for things like the Scions/Harbinger/large mechs though.
 
[quote name='io']OK, I just don't get it then. I try using it on armor/barriers and it seems to do almost nothing. I notice the effect on an unshielded enemy: they get stunned for a few seconds and their health drains. While they are stunned you or your teammates can finish them off them pretty easily.[/QUOTE]You'll notice the increase more and more once you are to the point where you have 3/5 or 4/5 Biotic Damage increase, I hope. It is really nasty when it has it's power boosted by upgrades. I've been using it all day (just got my first Biotic Damage upgrade, and I've been wearing the Blood Dragon Armor - 15% damage increase) with much success.
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']You'll notice the increase more and more once you are to the point where you have 3/5 or 4/5 Biotic Damage increase, I hope. It is really nasty when it has it's power boosted by upgrades. I've been using it all day (just got my first Biotic Damage upgrade, and I've been wearing the Blood Dragon Armor - 15% damage increase) with much success.[/QUOTE]

Well, I just got one biotic power upgrade from Horizon so that will help. I guess I should put that Blood Dragon armor back on. I was using some of the individual bits for my Insanity play but use the Blood Dragon armor all through my normal playthrough.

Is there a nice list like the one you posted for weapons that shows where all the upgrades are? I might use that to plan out who I recruit next and which loyalty missions to do first.

Well, this one:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/944907/58998

shows the shop upgrades, anyway...
 
[quote name='io']Well, I just got one biotic power upgrade from Horizon so that will help. I guess I should put that Blood Dragon armor back on. I was using some of the individual bits for my Insanity play but use the Blood Dragon armor all through my normal playthrough.

Is there a nice list like the one you posted for weapons that shows where all the upgrades are? I might use that to plan out who I recruit next and which loyalty missions to do first.

Well, this one:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/944907/58998

shows the shop upgrades, anyway...[/QUOTE]
Here's the perfect Upgrade Locations List that you are looking for. (Maybe not perfect since it's not in a neat, table format - but I love it)
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']Here's the perfect Upgrade Locations List that you are looking for. (Maybe not perfect since it's not in a neat, table format - but I love it)[/QUOTE]

Perfect enough! Thanks. I see an assault rifle upgrade in Tali's recruitment, a biotic upgrade in Samara's (and also in Jack's loyalty which I haven't unlocked yet), a damage protection (key upgrade!) in that Geth climate mission (random planet scan there).

So it looks like I should definitely do Tali's recruitment next as there are two upgrades that are useful to me there. Though maybe I'll try that Geth climate control device first.

And it looks like I need to save up my money for the shops on Tuchanka - some good stuff there!
 
[quote name='io']Perfect enough! Thanks. I see an assault rifle upgrade in Tali's recruitment, a biotic upgrade in Samara's (and also in Jack's loyalty which I haven't unlocked yet), a damage protection (key upgrade!) in that Geth climate mission (random planet scan there).

So it looks like I should definitely do Tali's recruitment next as there are two upgrades that are useful to me there. Though maybe I'll try that Geth climate control device first.

And it looks like I need to save up my money for the shops on Tuchanka - some good stuff there![/QUOTE]
Don't forget about getting the Geth Pulse Rifle when you finish Tali's recruitment mission (in the last room). It's an Assault Rifle you only get on the Hardcore/Insanity difficulties.
 
[quote name='seanr1221']Is probing basically just scanning until you see a spike, and then hitting the R trigger?[/QUOTE]Yes. Whenever you see a spike, though, be sure to move the scanner around a tiny bit to see if you can get more. Researching the Advanced Mineral Scanner (Miranda) makes life a lot easier while scanning.
 
6 playthroughs Xecutioner? I am officially jealous. I wish I had the time to do that. :(

Still thinking about finishing off some stuff in ME1 I never did to kill time and see if they announce more DLC soon for ME2. But I find myself speed skipping some dialogue and such in ME1 since I just did the full playthrough prior to ME2. Crap...just skipped a "get to know you" chat, I hope I can get that back.

Anyway, back to business.

Anyone have a good strategy for having enough money to buy all the upgrades in ME2? Even with my level 50 imported character and doing all the side missions I was still way short. I was toying around with the glitch to double hack, but I'm fairly inconsistent with pulling it off. Will bringing in a level 60 character get me significantly more?

I'm still considering picking up Dragon Age at some point, and I was wondering about the armor code inside. Are those still being packed with new copies or have an expiration date on them? I've been on the fence about the game for awhile but figured the next $35-40 sale might get me.
 
Well I finally beat the game. The whole scanning thing really sucked the life out of the last stretch of it for me. Thankfully the last few story missions were awesome. The final stage was very intense and simply amazing.

If you continue the game can you still import your character later?
 
[quote name='seanr1221']Is probing basically just scanning until you see a spike, and then hitting the R trigger?[/QUOTE]
And don't over-scan! You only need to hit, like, 75% of the "rich" worlds to get enough to carry you through the game.

EDIT: The game throws a number of very high-cost upgrades at you very early on, most notably the totally optional 50,000 platinum med bay upgrade. Based on that, it's pretty easy to... overestimate your future resource needs.
 
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So would you guys say that this is worth $50 now? (Cerberus and Pre-order codes included)

Or should I wait for a price drop? I don't want to just play through it once and be done with it. I did play through the first ME 3 times though.
 
[quote name='Yamato']So would you guys say that this is worth $50 now? (Cerberus and Pre-order codes included)

Or should I wait for a price drop? I don't want to just play through it once and be done with it. I did play through the first ME 3 times though.[/QUOTE]
Definitely worth it. I spent 70 for the CE and it was worth it.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']And don't over-scan! You only need to hit, like, 75% of the "rich" worlds to get enough to carry you through the game.[/QUOTE]

Yep, I over scanned the first time as noted before and ended with like 60K element zero and 300-400K of the others left over. Inflated my play time to 43 hours, but probably a minimum of 5 of those was scanning, likely more.
 
[quote name='Blackout']
If you continue the game can you still import your character later?[/QUOTE]

Yep. And I think IO said it will import the level of the character if you level up after beating the end game and doing more as well--so it doesn't just import the end game character at the level you were when you beat the game.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']And don't over-scan! You only need to hit, like, 75% of the "rich" worlds to get enough to carry you through the game.

EDIT: The game throws a number of very high-cost upgrades at you very early on, most notably the totally optional 50,000 platinum med bay upgrade. Based on that, it's pretty easy to... overestimate your future resource needs.[/QUOTE]

Definitely. I learned my lesson after having waaaaaaaaaay too many resources by the end of the game. At least, now we know not to waste our time on future runs.
 
[quote name='Dasflikko']It is pretty ridiculous just how good singularity is once you power it up isn't it? Armoured husks were a complete JOKE with singularity dropped at choke points.

Not sure I am going to have such an easy time with them on my insanity Vanguard game though! :bomb:[/QUOTE]

I used wide Shockwave religiously in the later levels of the game with my Vanguard character; it can really wipe out a long path of enemies or disrupt them so you have a fighting chance.
 
[quote name='Lord_Kefka']6 playthroughs Xecutioner? I am officially jealous. I wish I had the time to do that. :([/QUOTE]You'd probably be the first (and only) person I've heard say that you're jealous of someone dropping ~175 hours into a game in 20 days. The key to reaching any similar goal is not having the time, per se, it's making the time :lol:

For me, it's an ode to how great I think the game is. I'm still having nearly as much fun as my initial playthrough and I love learning new things each time I play, as well as everything I can about each class. The fact that there seems to be a solid DLC plan for the future makes me think that the game will never really run it's course with me, and that there will be a steady stream of new content to keep me coming back to the game. I know for ME1 I logged in close to 500 hours, and this game is out to destroy that amount. Plus, I'm supposed to live up to my semi-reputation as CAG's Official Mass Effect Historian/Human Encyclopedia, so I need all the research and information that I can get out of this game :cool:
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']Mine, mine, mine. Pre-orders are supposed to ship tomorrow so get one while you still can. >_>[/QUOTE]

I recall seeing this on the Bioware message board when they said how quickly it sold out. Very tempting, but I don't think I can justify dropping $60 on another hoody.

But y'know CAG, my birthday is just around the corner in May. Just saying..... ;)
 
[quote name='The Crotch']
Just wish I could redo my build right now so I could switch over to hardened adrenaline instead of heightened.[/QUOTE]
You haven't noticed the retrain powers option at the upgrade terminal?
 
Just have to say, this is a GREAT game. I just recently played through ME1 for the first time, and while I had a lot of fun, the vehicle sections were tedious and I basically zoomed through the main story because the sidequests seemed boring and I had no interest in them. ME2, I am enjoying every minute of it and I want to do as many quests as possible just because every aspect of the game is so much fun.
 
[quote name='Allnatural']You haven't noticed the retrain powers option at the upgrade terminal?[/QUOTE]
Key words there were right now. It's not open from the start, apparently.
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']Mine, mine, mine. Pre-orders are supposed to ship tomorrow so get one while you still can. >_>[/QUOTE]

Already ordered a few days ago, but thanks for the heads up for people that didn't know they re-stocked. :cool:
 
Yep, and Crotch is right on the money. The Retrain Powers research project isn't available until either sometime after Horizon (or at least after you've completed a certain amount of missions) hence why I've already scrapped and restarted my Vanguard Insanity play-through just so I could reallocate points appropriately.
 
God damn, Horizon's comin' up on me soon. It'll be my first time fighting husks on insanity, and I'm friggin' terrified. I took the widow rifle! I'm a long-range specialist! And I'm a soldier, so I don't have any interesting powers aside from adrenaline rush.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']God damn, Horizon's comin' up on me soon. It'll be my first time fighting husks on insanity, and I'm friggin' terrified. I took the widow rifle! I'm a long-range specialist! And I'm a soldier, so I don't have any interesting powers aside from adrenaline rush.[/QUOTE]My best advice (at least for the beginning) would be: keep moving. I seriously doubt you'll have much time to sit still and snipe with the Soldier class.
 
Horizon honestly isn't that bad on Insanity until you've reached the boss fight. Right then and there is where you'll most likely want to commit suicide or orchestrate mass genocide on the entire human race. Depending on your class and collective squad-mate IQ you WILL get your ass handed to you repeatedly. My party was demolished by a sea of armored husks in less than 10 seconds whenever I chose to place my survival above and beyond their own. It certainly didn't help they refused to follow orders, stopped shooting at random, switched weapons on the fly or got stuck on the environment. All the while I was stuck marathoning from one part of the map to the next for my dear life blinded by tears and shouting out obscenities while spamming Singularity and Warp.

Soon after I lost count of the replays I gave up on reviving them and directed my attention to the boss while evading husks. Once I picked up enough momentum I was able to clear enough of a path to safely revive my useless insubordinate team to provide enough of a distraction for me to zone in on the boss. It worked but my god were the first couple of replays infuriating.
 
Yeah, I'm not worried too much about anything on Horizon save for the whole "recalibrate the gun" battle. I survived it on veteran by holing up in the closest thing resembling a choke point, but I get the feeling that shit ain't gonna fly on insanity.
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']My best advice (at least for the beginning) would be: keep moving. I seriously doubt you'll have much time to sit still and snipe with the Soldier class.[/QUOTE]
Hey, the widow has provided the vast majority of my kills so far. Hell, on my first run, it did more damage to the final boss than my heavy weapon did.
 
I really wouldn't shit yourself too much over Horizon. I will admit that the final fight there is your first real test on Insanity, but there are much bigger tests that await you later on in the game.

Keep your teammates bunkered down in a spot that they can defend themselves and just start harassing the Scions while seamlessly evading the husks. With the Soldier you're able to use the Adrenaline Rush to avoid the Shockwave bursts from the Scions or get out of a tough spot if you get caught between a few Husks, so use that to your advantage. Keep chipping away at the Scions and the Husks should be no problem. The whole fight is a test of patience, especially when you get to fight the Praetorian.

[quote name='The Crotch']Hey, the widow has provided the vast majority of my kills so far. Hell, on my first run, it did more damage to the final boss than my heavy weapon did.[/QUOTE]I wasn't trying to say that the sniper is useless, as much as I was trying to say that your window of time to use it will be much, much smaller than you're probably accustomed to.
 
[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']All the while I was stuck marathoning from one part of the map to the next for my dear life blinded by tears and shouting out obscenities while spamming Singularity and Warp.
[/QUOTE]

:applause:

That is probably the most hilarious and most accurate description I've read about that section on Insanity. :lol:
 
I honestly think the classic New York motto applies specifically to that boss fight. If you make out alive in less than five retries on a low level profile then you can survive anything - anywhere - anytime on Insanity. After Horizon everything else was literally a cake walk. I immediately swung by Illium to pick up Thane so could always have access to Heavy Warp between him and Miranda then upgraded to Heavy Warp Ammo. Extra Warps then allowed me to shift focus entirely to abusing Heavy Singularity's 45 second durations via spam. Between Miranda's squad boosts, SMG damage and cool down mods, Warp Ammo and my own Heavy Warp I rarely had anything to complain about outside of the usual suicidal tendencies of my party.

I've already made plans to main Area Charge specifically for that damn fight with my Vanguard. I don't trust the morons I'm stuck with and have never used it until now so rolling with Zaeed & Grunt to really pack on the difficulty. Time to find out if it is worth my time. Besides... using those two should make things interesting or equally as traumatic as the initial play-through. ^_^
 
I still say that the Collector Ship is the make or break point for Insanity players. Granted, it's not as early as Horizon (I'd say it's about halfway through, give-or-take), but I've seen/read about more people quitting because of that fight than everything else combined. When I did my Soldier Insanity playthrough, it was the hardest part for me by a mile. However, after trying it today with my Engineer, I did it first try no problem. It all boils down to what your comfortable with and how well you are (tactically) under fire.
 
Yeah... after a while it all boils down to a combination of play style, class, familiarity with your surroundings, enemies, squadmates and your available arsenal of abilities. Sometimes it is also a matter of knowing when to ditch your squad for breathing room and better cover even if that means turning tail and backtracking to find it. I'm just thankful you don't have to worry about area respawns in this game.

The most challenging parts for me on the Collector Ship are always the Praetorian fight (mainly the scattered Collectors and occasional Harbinger which distract your party from assisting you) and sometimes the final Husk rush before you escape depending on squad AI (because they just seem to spawn indefinitely but at least you have the option of clearing a path then making a mad dash to the shuttle to end the fight with or without your party). Everything else before those two points is simply routine. If you plant yourself in a decent enough piece of cover with full ammo most of the time you'll never have to move in some parts.

The best thing you can do throughout an Insanity play-through before anything else is always study and pay attention to your surroundings and keep your squad in check whenever possible.
 
To supplement that, I'd also say that Insanity really fleshes out the importance of good squadmate leveling and selection for each mission. On Normal, it's perfectly fine to just roll with your favorite two personalities and dominate the enemies. On Insanity, though, squad selection is vital to getting through the tougher parts of the game. Bringing someone along who can equip your squad with a certain ammo type or bring another Warp/Overload to the table takes so much frustration out of the game. Just like character class builds, there's never a perfect lineup of teammates to go with you. It's something you have to spend time experimenting with.
 
Woot, just finished Insanity for my last achievement! What a wild ride. Insanity takes much more planning and squad management than the other modes, but I feel like I got the full Mass Effect 2 experience.

Back to finish up Dragon Age!
 
I'm up to around 11 hours into it, and I'm starting to get more and more hooked and wanting to play more.

Just completed the
loyalty missions for Miranda and Jacob, I really liked how the one for Jacob progressed and ended. With Miranda, I thought I screwed up when Niket died, turns out it was okay.

I'm not usually into RPGs (haven't been since I had all that free time as a kid), but I'm strongly considering a second playthrough on Insanity with all Renegade actions.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']God damn, Horizon's comin' up on me soon. It'll be my first time fighting husks on insanity, and I'm friggin' terrified. I took the widow rifle! I'm a long-range specialist! And I'm a soldier, so I don't have any interesting powers aside from adrenaline rush.[/QUOTE]
How'd you choose the widow rifle before Horizon? New Game+?
 
[quote name='Tha Xecutioner']To supplement that, I'd also say that Insanity really fleshes out the importance of good squadmate leveling and selection for each mission. On Normal, it's perfectly fine to just roll with your favorite two personalities and dominate the enemies. On Insanity, though, squad selection is vital to getting through the tougher parts of the game. Bringing someone along who can equip your squad with a certain ammo type or bring another Warp/Overload to the table takes so much frustration out of the game. Just like character class builds, there's never a perfect lineup of teammates to go with you. It's something you have to spend time experimenting with.[/QUOTE]

The same can be said for your Shepard as well. Experimentation breeds its own rewards and anyone would serve themselves a further injustice by letting the near limitless amount of Zero minerals you gain from completing a play-through go to waste. You can alleviate a whole lot of stress by retraining your profiles accordingly before heading out once the option is available to you.
 
Biggest problem with insanity so far has been getting my squadmates to get to cover. Initially they'll go where I tell them to, then I'll go spam some debuffs, turn back around and see my squadmates standing up behind the box I told them to use for cover. Finding it quite annoying. Or they'll start randomly charging forward and get mowed down. Then when they finally listen and stay behind cover they like popping out to shoot when there's a horde shooting right back at them. :wall:

Having a lot more fun though so far than with the normal runs.
 
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