ME3: Multiplayer

[rhoenix]

I decided to make this thread since work is actually quiet tonight, and because I still play this game with friends fairly often.

In this thread, I'll share some build and playstyle advice. Mind you, I am by no means a ME3 Coop godling descended from on high to enlighten the unwashed mortals, but at least to highlight some of the things I've found while playing.

[rhoenix]

So, for the first entry, I'll detail what has recently become my favorite class: the N7 Slayer Vanguard.

General Overview: The Vanguard class, in general, is great at getting itself into great amounts of trouble, courtesy of Charge. All variants of this class are found Charging often across the map, and usually dying surrounded by enemies they've managed to piss off.

Class Overview: The N7 Slayer variant of the Vanguard is setup in much the same way, though its abilities are more finely-focused for close to medium-range combat than most of the other variants of the Vanguard, in my opinion. These are as follows:

- The various Krogan classes, in their Fitness skills, all have Blood Rage equivalents where if they manage to kill 2-3 enemies with heavy melee attacks within 30 seconds, they get a damage boost and a boost to damage reduction for a short time. The N7 Slayer has a similar setup, but will activate after only a single heavy melee kill.

- The N7 Slayer teleports a short distance instead of rolling, at a small cost to their barrier (or life, if you don't have any barriers left - and yes, this means you can commit suicide by sidestepping). Not only can this quickly get one out of a bad situation (even allowing you to travel through walls), this aspect alone makes using Charge less suicidal at higher difficulties.

- The N7 Slayer has an equivalent of Shockwave, called Biotic Slash. Like with Shockwave, if you use it next to a sniper, you'll immediately hear the sniper complaining about the room shaking. Like with Shockwave, it makes for a great close to medium range AoE attack. Unlike Shockwave however, Biotic Slash travels through walls completely unhindered, though it has a longer casting time to make up for it.

Build Overview: In researching more about this class, I've seen several variants, and heard valid reasoning for most of them. I'll include those as well, to compare and contrast. The N7 Slayer gets the following skills: Phase Disruptor, Biotic Charge, Biotic Slash, the N7 Slayer passive skill, and Fitness.

Phase Disruptor is a long-range power (note that it's NOT a biotic power) that does not have a cooldown. Even better, it can hit multiple enemies in a small area. The downside? It eats half your barrier with every shot. Even if you pick the Efficient Blast upgrade for it at Rank 5, despite what the skill description says, it'll give you one extra shot, not two - e.g. it'll drain your barrier by 33% per shot instead of 50%, as opposed to the 25% that's listed for the skill. This is a strong power, and can stagger strong enemies (such as Phantoms), but the facts that it uses your barrier to fire, and that it's role can easily be replaced with a proper shotgun eliminates this as a viable power in my mind. Besides - it doesn't synergize as well with the other powers (more on this later).

Biotic Charge for this class is the same as for the other Vanguards. For this specific build, I make sure to get the Force & Damage upgrade at rank 4 (instead of being able to hit multiple targets), the Power Damage at rank 5 (getting the weapon damage upgrade is very tempting, but I only seem to use a gun against Guardians, Atlases, Brutes, Praetorians, and Banshees), and the full barrier restore at rank 6 to turn Charge into a full barrier refill.

Biotic Slash is my go-to ability for weakening swaths of enemies at once (through walls, of course), and for helping to defend teammates during missions. It's wind-up time takes a while (nearly 2 seconds, which can be a very long time), but the tradeoff is the massive damage this power inflicts in an area in front of you. With further ranks, you get the options to increase the radius (from 2 meters to 2.6), and the range (from 20 meters to 30) - however, both those upgrades come at the cost of damage boosts. To me, Biotic Slash has a good range and a good area without any upgrades, and upgrading for pure damage will serve you well. Note that Biotic Slash can detonate biotic effects, but the N7 Slayer has no way of setting up a biotic detonation on its own. Additionally, unlike with Shockwave, the blast from a Biotic Blast will not roll down ramps - it will simply travel directly ahead in a straight line.

Fitness for this character is where things get very interesting. Looking closely at the final three upgrades for Fitness for this character are very revealing for how I play this class. I picked the 15% buff to health and barriers instead of +30% melee damage at rank 4, as doing so in the past made this character too glassy. However, I chose the rank 5 upgrade to increase all melee damage by 75% for 30 seconds after an enemy is killed with a heavy melee, and the rank 6 increase to buff biotic power damage by 30%, also triggered by a heavy melee kill (and a +30% bonus to melee damage).

So, with all this in mind, this build comes down to melee attacks, Charge, Biotic Slash, and using a shotgun on people on rare occasions. The Charge fully refills your barriers, a heavy melee kill boosts your melee and power damage for 30 seconds, and Biotic Slash works very well for AoE, especially after buffed by a heavy melee.

Weapons: For reasons of having the highest power recharge speed possible, I currently use the Disciple shotgun. I don't use it because I like how it fires or looks (believe me) - I use it because at rank 8, it gives me a +194% recharge speed, as opposed to the 190% for the Eviscerator X. In either case, I use the blade attachment for additional melee damage, and the piercing mod to go through armor more easily (because Guardians are irritating otherwise).

I could have these numbers slightly better, in all honesty - I chose the rank 6 N7 Slayer upgrade for weapon damage, rather than reducing weapon weight. Given how often I actually use a shotgun nowadays, the next time I respec, I'll probably go for reduced weapon weight instead of a weapon damage boost.

Melee: For this character, melee definitely gets its own section. Similar to the rolling maneuvers this character can do, the N7 Slayer also teleports when using a melee (whether light or heavy), which can be disorienting at first. However, once you get used to this, it offers several advantages.

Firstly, using a rapid light melee strikes (ending up as a three-hit combo before the character will pause slightly) makes you invulnerable while you're swinging - as long as you're not staggered (or Husk-hugged). Enemies that cannot stagger you with a melee attack get blenderized with a series of rapid slashes, as well as making you immune to most attacks sent at you by your target's friends. However, the instant the third slash finishes, you're no longer invulnerable, which can leave you trying to explain how you died there of all places to the people you're playing with. However, if you time a Biotic Charge right after you hear the sound for the third slash, you'll immediately enter a Charge without having to wait. Otherwise, you'll have to wait about a second before you can Charge again.

Second, a heavy melee can teleport you up to about 10 meters to connect your blade with your target's neck, even around and through cover and walls. As long as you can see the outline of your enemy along with their health (and they're close enough), a heavy melee will teleport you next to your opponent and give a vicious slash that can nearly kill a Centurion in one shot on Silver. If you've already buffed your melee damage with another heavy melee within the past 30 seconds, it will one-shot a Centurion on Silver.

Playing Tips: This character is a bit glassier than other Vanguards, despite the immense amounts of damage the Slayer can dish out. To that end, Charging into a group of enemies blindly is a great way to feel embarrassed and ask a friend for a revive three seconds later. Instead, play to the role of Hit & Run - hit enemies that are a bit too far away from their fellows for immediate support, harass them with Biotic Slashes through walls to soften them up, cutting enemies apart with melee, and teleporting back through walls or onto ledges to avoid counterattacks.

Because of this character's teleport-rolling, Charge becomes far more survivable than with other Vanguard variants. Charge your target, and immediately after you land your Charge, perform a teleport-roll backwards. It gives you a bit of breathing room, still leaves you in range for good shotgun damage or a heavy melee to that enemy, and lets you get a much better view of the situation before you begin performing your very best Magic Blender impression for an unwilling audience.

[Josh]

I know it's bad ju-ju to just biotic charge blindly into the enemy ranks.

But it's so fun.

Slayer variant is probably my fave I've played so far, along with Krogan soldiers. I'm soooooooo much better at it than I am with infiltrators and other sniper-type classes.

Also, be damn sure the feckin' banshee is near death before you biotic charge. Trust me on that.

[rhoenix]

Also, be damn sure the feckin' banshee is near death before you biotic charge.

Actually, just make sure she doesn't have an aura at the time - if a Banshee doesn't have an aura, she cannot sync-kill you. She can melee and Reave, but not sync-kill. Even so, I wouldn't ever get into a melee duel with a Banshee, despite the heavy emphasis my build of the Slayer has with melee.

My current strategy on Silver & Gold against Banshees is to use Biotic Slash on them through walls until their auras are gone (and they don't have support), and then Charge + backstep, shotgun blast x3, and repeat.

[rhoenix]

As a more general note, one of my difficulties with all games is with situational and tactical awareness. It's always been a weak point of mine in games to be honest, which first became noticeable ever since I started playing proper multiplayer games (in the form of LotRO). I'm aware that it can irritate people I play with, because normally I prefer cleaving an area of enemies apart instead of hunting down enemies on the periphery.

However, despite this being a sore point for me, this is something I did want to address, because it is a weakness in how I play.

To that end, I've been playing solo Silver matches for practice. The reason I do so is to help reinforce how to engage quickly and fade away before getting surrounded, and to reinforce the importance of hunting down priority targets.

As an example that was brought up last night in conversation about this, let's have a hypothetical game against Geth. Though jumping into the middle of four Pyros and two Troopers and turning into a blender is highly tempting (not least of which because killing Pyros with melee to me is spitefully hilarious), there's a rocket trooper off on the side, lining up a shot. That rocket trooper would nail me with a rocket while I was in the middle of melee'ing, and stagger my character at exactly the wrong time, leading to my corpse surrounded by Pyros.

Though I think I'll always have the strong urge to Charge into a group of enemies and cleave them apart with this character, practicing restraint for my bloodlust and being more tactical is my next step of progression.

[rhoenix]

Additional videos for reference:

First, a breakdown of how the triple light melee hit + well-timed Charge can allow you to tank. This technique is difficult to pull off reliably on a keyboard, but well-worth practicing for when you really need to keep some enemies' attention on you, and be able to survive the process: [youtube][/youtube]

And a demonstration of the same technique on Platinum: [youtube][/youtube]

Note though, that as both videos demonstrate, if you try to rely on this technique when surrounded on Gold or Platinum, you'll most likely die, as if you mis-time the Charge just one time, you'll be left toothless for about a second, which can be a very long time.

[rhoenix]

Sidenote - the whole "Slayer Vanguard is invincible when light melee'ing lol" thing is no longer the case, as of today apparently. Melee with the N7 Slayer is still certainly fun, and a heavy melee still teleports you next to a now-staggered enemy, but you're no longer invincible during any part of any animation.

Moreover, the teleport-dodge maneuver the Fury Adept and Slayer Vanguard share now has a similar flaw - you're no longer invincible during all frames of it. It still lets you dodge through walls and still costs a small portion of your barrier, but you can still be targeted as you leave and as you arrive, such as by Banshee attempts at snuggles.

These two factors make a tanking melee build, as much fun as it was for a while, not as viable anymore. Playing as a more assassin's mindset similar to the Shadow Infiltrator style would still work, using the heavy melee either to stagger enemies for a headshot (and not using it to warm up one's melee & power damage). In theory one could use light melee strikes to dance around a group of light infantry troops of any faction and shred them apart, since you can hit more than one enemy per strike, but it doesn't really work out well in practice.

[rhoenix]

For reference: Power Combo (Full List)

Also, the N7 Shadow Infiltrator is tremendous malicious fun, even though there's... weirdness with Shadow Strike that I'm hoping will get bugfixed.

I mean, when running against Collectors, I can't Shadow Strike a roughly humanoid-sized Scion, but I can Shadow Strike a big, angry, crab-like Praetorian? Yes, that makes perfect sense.

Also, for comparison. The N7 Shadow Infiltrator and the N7 Slayer Vanguard both use swords for melee, and for an ability or two. Both of them can strike multiple adjacent targets with a melee (and stagger them for every hit). Both of them have a three-hit combo with light melee, both of them are acrobatic when using rolls, and both of them have a nasty heavy melee.

The differences between the two are interesting. The Slayer can repeatedly stagger enemies because of how fast his melee strikes are, and his heavy melee can teleport him to his target, up to a distance of about ten meters. The Shadow is slower comparatively with melee, as the light melee strikes don't occur fast enough to keep a target stagger-locked, especially above Silver. However, the Shadow gets more bonuses to melee damage, and so can inflict more damage per hit with melee. Additionally, the Shadow's melee damage can get a 30 second buff for killing an enemy with a melee attack (for which Shadow Strike counts), not just a heavy melee attack.

The Slayer gets fewer bonuses to melee damage (since only Fitness adds to melee damage for him), and only his heavy melee can buff him when used, if setup properly with Fitness. However, it can be a self-buff to inflict 75% more melee damage for 30 seconds, and 30% more power damage (e.g. Charge, Phase Disruptor, and Biotic Slash) after a heavy melee kill.

Neither one is "better" than they other, for they have different roles, even if both are found in the same team. The Slayer is a bit better at clearing out the rank and file enemies en masse, and the Shadow is better at removing priority targets. Honestly, I like both.