Mass Effect 2 - Arrival DLC Available Now $7

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Everybody Ive talked to says that if you can make it through Horizon on Insanity then you can handle anything, so I have to say that makes me feel somewhat better.

I haven't heard that yet, but now I have, so I feel better

I suspect that using Mordin and Miranda as my squadmates wasnt the best choice. I should have brought someone with more firepower. I just like using Mordin because of his Incinerate ability.

Mordin's a funny choice. Icemage suggested Kasumi could be useful. I used Miranda and Jack. She was gone in short order. Miranda survived, though, and having at least one squadmate was essential to my strategy.

I gather it did not take you 20 tries to succeed. You're home free, now.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

I haven't heard that yet, but now I have, so I feel better

Mordin's a funny choice. Icemage suggested Kasumi could be useful. I used Miranda and Jack. She was gone in short order. Miranda survived, though, and having at least one squadmate was essential to my strategy.

I gather it did not take you 20 tries to succeed. You're home free, now.

It didn't take 20 tries but each enemy encounter resulted in a quick squad death and it was just a bunch of ridiculously tedious dink and dunk, pop in and out of cover, use warp, dominate and a pistol shot here and there. I should have used Zaeed instead of Mordin. But I suspect I made it much harder than it needed to be. I probably just wasnt finding the ideal place to put my squadmates.

It wasn't 20 tries but it was in many ways just as frustrating and annoying. The one GOOD thing about it was that I never felt like it was impossible odds like I did for the final part of the

[Show spoiler]Okeer/Grunt recruitment

[Icemage]

Mordin is the worst squadmate, period. His abilities are pretty close to useless on Insanity. Ice attacks in general suck on Insanity; no bonus damage, and only works when enemies are already defenseless. His only useful ability is Incinerate, and for that I'd rather use Miranda for Warp and have her ability to boost squad health / damage as icing on the cake.

I have no idea why you're using him to be quite honest. He's terrible.

[Show spoiler]Grunt

is your big winner on Horizon, as he's tougher than the rest of your team mates. Plus he can learn Incendiary Ammo.

[Mr. J]

I agree with Mordin being terrible.

[Beefbowl]

Vanguard is a blast! Pretty damn satisfying to go face to face with a Krogan.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Mordin is the worst squadmate, period. His abilities are pretty close to useless on Insanity. Ice attacks in general suck on Insanity; no bonus damage, and only works when enemies are already defenseless. His only useful ability is Incinerate, and for that I'd rather use Miranda for Warp and have her ability to boost squad health / damage as icing on the cake.

I have no idea why you're using him to be quite honest. He's terrible.

[Show spoiler]Grunt

is your big winner on Horizon, as he's tougher than the rest of your team mates. Plus he can learn Incendiary Ammo.

So does a Grunt/Miranda combo form a nice "when in doubt combo on Insanity" ?

Of course, all I am doing all the loyalty and recruitment missions so its kind of a moot point.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by merrick97

So does a Grunt/Miranda combo form a nice "when in doubt combo on Insanity" ?

Of course, all I am doing all the loyalty and recruitment missions so its kind of a moot point.

Griunt's a powerhouse, period. He is your toughest squadmate. His Fortification loyalty ability combines with his extra-fast regeneration to allow him to sustain damage that would quickly KO any other character. Putting up his Fortification armor lets him regenerate unmolested while enemies try to burn through his armor, and he's quite effective at mid range with assault rifles (and absolutely deadly at short range with his shotgun).

For ranged attackers,

[Show spoiler]Legion

is your best bet. His shield boost can be upgraded to give him +10% additional damage, and he gets access to the absurdly powerful Widow sniper rifle, and he gets a +50% shield tech upgrade all his own, above and beyond what everyone gets from Damage Protection bonuses.

For the suicide mission I always bring those two. They're very effective attackers who are hard to kill and require the least babysitting (or at least will give you time to realize that they DO need to be moved out of harm's way).

Miranda is always a great choice for missions, but her fragility is sometimes a liability.

"In general" bringing Grunt + Zaeed or Grunt + Miranda or Zaeed + Miranda solves 99% of your situations unless you're playing a specialized class like Adept that wants something extra. Zaeed's Disrupter Ammo power is the best defensive ammo in the game; it lets your weapons shred shields, overheats enemy weapons, and stuns synthetic enemies. Grunt's Incendiary Ammo takes more points to access than Jacob's, but Grunt is just a tougher squadmate and has better weaponry than Jacob does.

There are of course exceptions; I bring Jacob to Grunt's loyalty mission (always do Jacob's loyalty first - that gives him Barrier to survive). At that point in the game, Jacob is your toughest teammate, and you need that on that mission.

[Snake_XRS]

Icemage,

do you consider Zaeed a better squadmate than Thane? For some reason I use mostly Miranda + Thane, Thane has heavy throw and sniper, Miranda with area overload and squad boost. Would Zaeed be a better replacement to Thane?

BTW, i'm playing as soldier class

[Mr. J]

Zaeed and Thane are totally different and I guess it depends on the situation that you find yourself in, but I'd choose Thane any day over Zaeed.

Zaeed was a waste of a DLC in my opinion. Kasumi was a much better choice.

[Denoku]

Damn this is game is so awesome

I need to stop seeing the Illusive Man when he's waiting for me. I wanted to upgrade/shop/scan but I went to see him and got stuck on a mission

So about how long is this game the first playthrough? I'm about 15 hours in and hoping there is much more.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Snake_XRS

Icemage,

do you consider Zaeed a better squadmate than Thane? For some reason I use mostly Miranda + Thane, Thane has heavy throw and sniper, Miranda with area overload and squad boost. Would Zaeed be a better replacement to Thane?

BTW, i'm playing as soldier class

Thane is only really useful if you're an Adept, since he has Warp. Throw is useful, but tactically not much different from Pull and only marginally superior to Concussive Shot. His Shredder ammo is pretty useless IMO - you have any number of powers at your disposal that will knock defenseless enemies out.

He does do an impressive amount of damage with a sniper rifle - but so does Zaeed.

Granted, as a Soldier you have the innate ability to use Disrupter Ammo, so Zaeed isn't as useful to the Soldier as other classes.

For the Soldier, I like Grunt + Miranda for nearly all situations. Miranda makes you harder to kill and hit harder, Grunt can help you avoid getting flanked by keeping chargers at bay. You've got your own sniper rifle and Adrenaline Rush to make sure it lands, so there's not much need for a sniper teammate as a Soldier, IMO.

I'll also disagree with Mr. J's assessment of Kasumi and Zaeed. Zaeed is a solid teammate with a useful power (Disrupter Ammo) that has a wide array of uses. Kasumi is a paper tiger. The only reason to really use her is for her Flashbang Grenade since hers doesn't miss (unlike Shepard's...). Her Shadow Strike is cool, but on the higher difficulties also leaves her KO'd afterward because it forces her out of cover and exposed after the attack - and even after that she "forgets" about your waypoint instructions so she'll often just wander toward the nearest available cover - which isn't always a good place to be.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Denoku

Damn this is game is so awesome

I need to stop seeing the Illusive Man when he's waiting for me. I wanted to upgrade/shop/scan but I went to see him and got stuck on a mission

So about how long is this game the first playthrough? I'm about 15 hours in and hoping there is much more.

I don't think you can avoid him when he summons. He got me by surprise the first time, and the second time I tried to not go see him, but I was not allowed to open the navigator panel.

[Show spoiler]Five missions (of any sort) after that first time, you will be sent on another one.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Icemage

He does do an impressive amount of damage with a sniper rifle - but so does Zaeed.

Granted, as a Soldier you have the innate ability to use Disrupter Ammo, so Zaeed isn't as useful to the Soldier as other classes.

For the Soldier, I like Grunt + Miranda for nearly all situations. Miranda makes you harder to kill and hit harder, Grunt can help you avoid getting flanked by keeping chargers at bay. You've got your own sniper rifle and Adrenaline Rush to make sure it lands, so there's not much need for a sniper teammate as a Soldier, IMO.

I have never used Grunt on a mission, but after this discussion, I think he will make and excellent complement for Infiltrator. A durable decoy to absorb damage while cloaked.

[Denoku]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

I don't think you can avoid him when he summons. He got me by surprise the first time, and the second time I tried to not go see him, but I was not allowed to open the navigator panel.

[Show spoiler]Five missions (of any sort) after that first time, you will be sent on another one.

That was my second time as well. It's good to know you can't avoid it. I was worried about advancing too far into the story. I wanted to explore more, visit some planets and just see what I could find. I still have one more person to recruit I believe then a good amount of the loyalty missions. I just want to explore some planets when I have the time and see what I can find. Thanks

[Mr. J]

Originally Posted by Icemage

I'll also disagree with Mr. J's assessment of Kasumi and Zaeed. Zaeed is a solid teammate with a useful power (Disrupter Ammo) that has a wide array of uses. Kasumi is a paper tiger. The only reason to really use her is for her Flashbang Grenade since hers doesn't miss (unlike Shepard's...). Her Shadow Strike is cool, but on the higher difficulties also leaves her KO'd afterward because it forces her out of cover and exposed after the attack - and even after that she "forgets" about your waypoint instructions so she'll often just wander toward the nearest available cover - which isn't always a good place to be.

Kasumi's Shadow Strike I find more useful than the Flashbang Grenade.

[Beefbowl]

Originally Posted by Denoku

Damn this is game is so awesome

I need to stop seeing the Illusive Man when he's waiting for me. I wanted to upgrade/shop/scan but I went to see him and got stuck on a mission

So about how long is this game the first playthrough? I'm about 15 hours in and hoping there is much more.

quite a bite more I think I hit 50+ hrs.

I got my plat! Didn't take take for me to get the brawler trophy with the vanguard.

[Denoku]

Originally Posted by Beefbowl

quite a bite more I think I hit 50+ hrs.

I got my plat! Didn't take take for me to get the brawler trophy with the vanguard.

Awesome! Congrats as well on the Plat, I'm looking forward to getting mine.

I've been using Thane and Miranda and been dealing some massive damage with Biotics. Finally getting the Tactician kills. I don't know how I wasn't getting it before. I was combining Warp with Singularity but now I'm using Singularity and Throw/Slam and getting it Just picked up the

[Show spoiler]Justicar and started the next mission on the Abandoned Collector Ship

So excited I have a 3 day weekend I'll finally have some time to get into this game

[Beefbowl]

yea, Thane and Miranda is a vicious combo with an Adept. Wait till you play a certain mission


so...it seems your exp pts gets bumped up on your 2nd playthrough. This means every new game I play will hit level 30 at the end of the game.

[MerrickG]

Originally Posted by Beefbowl

yea, Thane and Miranda is a vicious combo with an Adept. Wait till you play a certain mission


so...it seems your exp pts gets bumped up on your 2nd playthrough. This means every new game I play will hit level 30 at the end of the game.

You should hit 30 WELL before the end of the game. I kinda wish they made the level cap higher since you are required two playthroughs to get it all. More powers. Oh YEAH!!

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Mr. J

Kasumi's Shadow Strike I find more useful than the Flashbang Grenade.

Flashbang Grenade has no range requirement and works on everything regardless of what armor/shields/barriers it has. Shadow Strike can only be used if the target is within a certain range of Kasumi. She cloaks to get up to the target, which is nice, but then uncloaks after the attack, which means if the attack isn't immediately fatal (not often the case on Insanity), she's a sitting duck. Afterwards, as I mentioned, she completely forgets about where you told her to plant herself, and you have to manually order her back into cover or else she'll choose a cozy spot of her own choice; sometimes that works, and sometimes she just dies.

I would much rather have a reliable and usable Flashbang Grenade that doesn't miss than have Kasumi dealing some extra damage.

On the lower difficulties, yeah, Kasumi's a better choice because her fragility is less of an issue. On Insanity, she is almost guaranteed to be KO'd after a hit if she's attacking into traffic.

Let me put it another way: If you're so lightly pressured that she can safely KO someone in range with Shadow Strike, you didn't really need her to do that anyway. And if you are under heavy attack, ordering her out there is just asking for her to be KO'd.