I've mentioned before that I love the multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. While not actually a competitive mode, there is enough depth for a player to get lost. And I often find myself in matches with people who like to do wacky things. So I figured I'd put together a little guide! Mostly this is just for getting started, but there is some theory here to offer insight to anyone interested.
Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Strategy Guide!
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| Playing as the other races is awesome by itself. There's so much more! |
People are smart. So I won't cover ever little detail and menu item. For instance, the random objectives that show up? You'll figure those out right away. This is all stuff you might not notice and could use a wise old man such as myself to elaborate to you. Hopefully. Enjoy!
Starting off!
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| "Any challenge?" This screen is drunk. |
-Change the difficulty!
For some reason when you first turn on the game and try to search for a match, it will use a randomized difficulty option instead of just starting you on Bronze.
SET IT TO BRONZE!
This difficulty meter is NOT meant just as a measurement for your skill and familiarity because it makes the enemies crazy strong! And there's simply no way a level one newbie can go up against gold or even silver monsters. Think of it as starting a new RPG and trying to fight the last boss right away. Yeah. Its numbers will be too high and yours will be too low. And if you don't change the difficulty? Prepare to get vote kicked... A LOT.
-Starting Classes
There are six class categories available with several different types of each class under them. In the beginning, you only have "human male" and "human female" available to you. There are no statistical advantages between the two genders. I think the point is simply to give the player a do-over should you be unhappy with how you spent your skill points on the first one (you can still reset points later by promoting a class or using a Respec card, but those take time to acquire).
All classes come with three active abilities, and two passives. The three active ones change from character to character, while the passives are generally very similar (they are actually identical for all classes listed below) so I'll stick to talking about their actives.
-Adept: This used to be a rather weak starting class, but as time went on this has become a much more viable build due to game patches. The basic gist of this fellow is to be a kind of tricky spellcaster. His Singularity ability lasts a long time, so you can leave it around like a trap that also damages fools. His Warp ability is both a hard hitting single-target spell AND a decent debuff. And lastly, Shockwave was buffed at some point to give him a spammable ability that allows him to wildly throw damage around- even through walls! Being power-based and not gun-based, this is a workable choice for a beginning class and even gives you a lot to learn as you master his nuances and biotic combos (see "Combos" below).
-Soldier: Regrettably, most players will opt to use this guy as their first class. I do NOT recommend this. First of all, he's clearly meant to be gun-based. And when you start off, all you have is JUNK for gear. His abilities have been buffed a few times, so I've found that he kind of works as a powers build. But that required me to promote the soldier class so I could get a full refund on his points (when you first start, one point is automatically spent on his Adrenaline Rush ability, which is specifically a gun usage ability). Adrenaline Rush looks good on paper, but the damage boost just isn't significant enough. And once you get better guns? Well, you can use those better guns with a better CLASS, as well. Concussive Shot has been buffed at least once, as well as tech combos (see "Combos" below). But it still is a mediocre ability in light of all the others out there. His Fragmentation Grenade hits hard, but those can be a little tricky to manage as knowledge of ammo box placement per level is required to be most effective (along with the problem of stepping on the toes of other grenade users). I'd recommend avoiding this guy ... pretty much regardless of your progression in the game. Try him out as some point if you like, but definitely not a good first choice.
-Engineer: Don't let the name fool you, you won't be baby-sitting turrets or spending tons of time building defenses. No sir, this Engineer has all kinds of tools to be quite an action hero! Unfortunately his Combat Drone ability has been nerfed along the way (it's much much harder to get enemies stuck on it), but it can still be of use. Spec' it to use chain lightning and explode, and it'll annoy plenty of bad guys. Just remember that it has a VERY low cooldown AND will appear on top of what you target so don't be afraid to recast it. Sometimes you can even hitch it to something that's behind cover! Overload is also very useful. It is very effective at destroying both shields and barriers and it will stun weak enemies (basically anything human-sized). The fact that it hits instantly also means you can stop an enemy before he gets a chance to hit you, so it's very good at dealing with speed demons who dodge around a lot. Incinerate feels less useful at times, but it is good for setting up tech combos (see below) and can ding a chunk of damage against armor. Good choice for a starting class!
-Sentinel: Another strong choice for a starting class. The usefulness of Tech Armor is debatable, but it can be spec'ed to buff the damage of your abilities so that's not too shabby. It's supposed to give you some damage mitigation, which is sort of noticeable on Bronze. You can also cast it a second time to cause it to explode, but this requires you to be very close and will only provide the same amount of stagger to enemies as ANY kind of damage would. And exploding it not only means you lose those two buffs I just mentioned, but you also get placed on cooldown so you cannot use your other abilities until that's back up. However, the other abilities are both good. Warp is the same spell the Adept has. And Throw is basically like Concussive Shot, except that it has more force and can be used to detonate Warp (see "Combos" below). Ergo, it is much better than that dumb Solider ability.
-Infiltrator: Another gun-based class, but this one is much more viable. You see, the ability to turn invisible with Tactical Cloak has some obvious advantages to it. More specifically, it will allow you to revive a downed teammate or click on one of the nodes in what I call the "Four Points" objective. It also gives you a damage boost for one shot (possibly more if you shoot fast enough), so this makes her more than ideal for being a sniper. And guess what? The starting sniper rifle is a hard-hitting, one shot weapon so it works out great... for Bronze. Her other two abilities are significantly less useful. Cryo Blast does no damage and is just a way to stun weak enemies. It does debuff stronger ones, so you can try that out. Her Sticky Grenade is pretty terrible. It hits harder than the Frag Grenade of the Soldier, but the blast radius is so tiny that it is too impractical most of the time. A good starting class if you like being a sneaky sneak.
-Vanguard: You only get to call yourself a noob once, so the class generally regarded as the noob class is yours! Her combination of Biotic Charge and Nova allows her to teleport into the middle of a group of enemies and explode them all to death instantly. That first ability will recharge her shields, though, so if you're careful you can avoid dying yourself. This doesn't take too much to learn, and is pretty fun for a while. For some reason the targeting of Biotic Charge seems to be wonky at times, so expect a good deal of frustration as you mash the button while she just stands there. Her third ability, Shockwave, is the same one the Adept uses. Generally skipped if you want a pure kamikaze build, but it can give you a strategic option should you decide to help your team during an objective instead of running around like a crazy person. This is a questionable choice for starting, but is quick to learn.
-Combos
There are four types of ability combos in this game: Biotic Explosion, Tech Burst, Fire Explosion, and Cryo Explosion.
Biotic Explosion seems to be the most powerful, and also has several abilities in-game that specifically allow it to become more so. For it to work, you need one ability to set it up (like Singularity or Warp) and then another to set it off (like Throw or Warp). Note that some abilities can both be used to set up and set off, but you cannot use the same ability twice to make a combo.
Tech Bursts occur when there is a shock ability present on a target and you can set it off with a large number of abilities in-game (from things like Concussive Shot to Incinerate or Throw). This combo is basically like hitting the target with a free Overload.
Fire Explosions now are second most prominent next to Biotic Explosions due to changes in patches over the months. It used to require the target to die or something, but now it's like Tech Burst: set them on fire and then hit them with an ability. The effect is very similar to Biotic Explosion, but seems to be much weaker.
Cryo Explosions are identical to Fire Explosions in design (including a change from requiring a kill to just requiring a hit), but these are different as the resulting explosion will freeze or chill targets caught in the radius. It also seems to be less damaging than Fire Explosion.
All of these are useful, so keep an eye out for using a character who can exploit them! Just be aware that there seems to be some kind of in-game delay that prevents players from using them too often.
-Starting Weapons
Not all guns are created equal. You're given five- one of each type- at the start. Some of these notes might surprise you.
-Predator: Just a pistol, but my favorite of the starting weapons. It's super light, super accurate, reloads fast, and lets you pull the trigger crazy fast! Definitely gets the job done if you rely more on powers than weapons.
-Katana: This underperforming weapon highlights the problems shotguns have in this game. Its spread is too wide, its damage is too low, and it's too heavy! You have to be extremely close to make this weapon effective. And most of the time that will mean certain death just to be marginally better than another gun. Considering all these things, I don't feel like it gives the player an edge in close-quarters combat. Shotguns require a lot of upgrades and specific builds to work well, just avoid them for now.
-Shuriken: Another weapon of questionable usefulness. At least this SMG is super light. So if you've got room in your pack, this basically will allow you to carry more bullets for free (see "Weapon Weight" below). The damage and recoil on this thing are terrible, so it certainly can't hold your character on its own.
-Avenger: This Assault Rifle has its merits. It's relatively light, it has the fastest reload in the game... well, that's it, actually. The damage and accuracy on this thing are not good enough to steer me away from the lighter Predator. But I know some players like it, so it must not be totally worthless.
-Mantis: A very acceptable starting Sniper Rifle. It hits hard and isn't too heavy. Definitely replaceable with many of the other choices you will come by later, but it holds its own! Some snipers have a hard time moving up from this to the Gold-level Widow that is its heavier replacement. Still, the reload speed and single shot nature of this weapon might be turn offs to anyone not fully dedicated to patient sniping.
-Weapon Weight
This is critical!
I'm not sure what it is, but I feel like some players don't understand this concept at all: how much weight you are carrying affects how slow your cooldowns are. And your cooldowns are very very valuable!
First of all, the game doesn't force you to carry two weapons. If you REALLY want to use a heavy weapon, think about going out with only one gun. Heck, once you get up in level you'll notice that quite a lot of people only use one weapon.
Secondly, don't automatically assume that because a weapon is heavy that it is good. Try stuff out. And if you are playing a class that relies closely on powers- which is actually most of them- then you should probably think about keeping your weight as low as possible.
-Recruit Packs
Who taught kids these days how to play RPG's? It's common sense that you have to work your way up! The game will let you spend your hard-earned points on even the most expensive packs that it has to offer right away, but DON'T DO IT!
Use Recruit Packs to build yourself a foundation. One completed Bronze match will yield close to 15000 credits; almost enough to buy three packs. You can max out all your basic gear and attachments much quicker this way. And now the game has like a million more unlockables than when it started.
So get yourself a Predator X or Mantis X or whatever. It'll give you the moxie you need to work on unlocking that Carnifex I or Widow I by making you ready for Silver matches. Maybe even Gold... if you're brave, heh.
Enemies
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| Collectors are jerks! |
Now that you've got your head in the game, let's see what you're up against!
-Grabs
While the player can perform a super cheesy instant kill on weak enemies by melee'ing them from behind cover, some enemies can instantly take down the player whenever the heck they feel like it. And it doesn't just knock you down, oh no, you automatically bleed out. That's right, a grab from an enemy prevents you from being revived until the round ends.
Personally, I think this aspect of the game needs to be removed. This is because it not only feels "unfair" but it also feels like it invalidates several melee-oriented builds. But when they added Collectors to the game in a free DLC, they came with some grabs. So I don't expect them to be going anywhere any time soon.
Here's the list of enemy types that can one-shot you:
Collectors- Praetorian, Scion
Geth- None!
Reapers- Banshee, Brute
Cerberus- Phantom, Atlas
-Enemy Tiers
You may notice players running matches will choose a specific enemy to fight. This may have to do with completing weekend or other kinds of challenges, but sometimes it's because they are trying to tune the difficulty down. Just so you know, here's my list of hardest to easiest and my thoughts on why:
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| The Collector Praetorian |
1. Collectors- These guys seem faster and stronger than the others. And the combination of Insect Swarms and Abominations make them incredibly effective at rushing the players. They also will randomly become possessed, which turns the unit into a more powerful version of itself. Finally, the Praetorian is just a piece of work. Super fast, grabby, sometimes hits you through cover, and a ridiculous amount of health.
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| The Reaper Banshee |
2. Reapers- This is close to the third place. The reason is that the majority of Reaper units are kind of ineffective. Ravagers hit hard and have annoying swarmers and acid, but are manageable. Brutes are just plain losers. But the Banshee remains an obnoxiously powerful super unit. She darts across the entire battlefield in the blink of an eye and loves to grab people. Everything else she does isn't so bad, but the combination of speed, health, and grabs make her lethal.
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| The Cerberus Phantom |
3. Cerberus- I really have a hard time with these guys sometimes. Usually for stupid reasons, though. Many times, I'm the only player who knows how to deal with a Guardian. I see a lot of players just shooting into his shield impotently, not knowing to go around it or just use a penetration mod. And the Engineers leave those dang turrets everywhere. They're so powerful! I will say that the Atlas is pretty useless due to how slow it is. But the Phantom takes the cake. She has a sword, but the lasers she shoots out of her hands are far worse. She just skips about, killing players in a matter of seconds and then corpse camping them! She also has a knack for sneaking up and grabbing distracted players, and about a dozen other annoying powers including being immune to a large number of stuns. Agh!
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| The Geth Hunter |
4. Geth- Oh, these guys. They're so cute. The only faction that can't perform grabs. The only unit they have that really seems to break players down is their Hunter, which is like a middle level guy. They walk around with invisibility, but that actually isn't the problem. It's their uncanny stunlocking ability. Once they start hitting you, your character won't even be able to pull the trigger! They also strangely have the ability to keep shooting with 100% accuracy despite being knocked down. Um, bug? Been around for a while now.
-Map Notes
There are a lot of maps out there now. And I don't have something to say for all of them, but I'll give a tidbit here and there.
-Firebase White: This used to the the map people would fight Geth on Gold to get easy money on. After some patching, the map has additional hallways and such to allow the players to get easily flanked. Still a good map, just don't let some noob hustle you into thinking it'll make things easier.
-Firebase Glacier: The tiniest map! And it only has three ammo crates in it, each with only one grenade. If you want to be a melee guy, this is the place to do it.
-Firebase London: So dark, so open. Very easy to get lost and die in as a noob. Might be good to hang near buddies as much as possible.
-Firebase Condor: Pretty cool being on a moon and seeing all that cool stuff in the sky. But this map is oddly shaped and really dark. And the high ground offers some of the worst cover in the game. Think on your feet here, you can force the enemy to walk long distances to find you.
-Firebase Rio: For some reason there is ammo everywhere! And most of the crates hold two grenades for some reason. There's a little maze at one of the ends of the map that can be a great place to dance around with enemies, but the fact that this map is just one long line makes objectives really hard at times.
-Firebase Dagger: Really good level for sniping. Really hard for objectives.
-Firebase Giant: Pretty well-rounded map. Lots of space and oddly shaped, but offers plenty of tactics in each of its sections.
-Firebase Hydra: Another open map. Not that great for sniping, though. There's a room with a glowing sphere in it that seems to be the most defensible location, as well as being close to the most common spawn point of enemies.
Building Up!
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| The Acolyte: it's sooo good. |
Hey, you don't want to be a beginner forever! I'm sure you'll quickly develop your own agenda for what you want to unlock, and I hope you get creative in the wacky builds you make. But here's some stuff I think is worth pointing out!
-Notable Classes
These aren't actually the best classes, mostly. Just some cool dudes that really make the game click!
-Turian Soldier: At first glance, this character seems entirely underwhelming. His ability, Marksman, looks like it's even worse than Adrenaline Rush. And he has Concussive Shot, too. Commence eye-rolling, el oh el. But he becomes extremely good depending specifically on what weapons you have. Why? Well, he has a ton of hidden stats that boost his accuracy and stability along with passives that add more to that. Throw in a maxed out Marksman, and this guy can turn a clumsy weapon into a fine death machine. The best example of this are shotguns. He can literally hit things across the map with a shotgun (equipped with a Smart Choke and using cover since that, too, increases accuracy). So once you find this guy and something like the N7 Hurricane or Piranha you are set for the best gun-user in the 'verse!
-Geth Infiltrator: Okay, so this one might just be the best class in the game. He just stacks so much damage together that he wipes stuff out! He's also one of the most versatile. You can build him as a sniper, a melee guy, or a bomber using his Proximity Mine. Or a sneaky shotgun guy. There's no limit to what he can do! Er, well he can't take a punch. So he can't tank much.
-Krogan Battlemaster (Vanguard): But if tanking if your thing, then this guy has you covered! With his high health and the mitigation from his Barrier ability, this guy is the most undying fellow around since he can recharge his shields with a simple Biotic Charge. Because of this, he is one of the favorites for solo'ing matches.
-Weapons to Vie For
There are an astounding number of weapons in this game. Too bad a lot of them suck. I found one from each category that definitely serves a purpose.
-Acolyte: The pistol pictured at the beginning of this section. This thing is awkward as all get out: it can only fire when charged, the bullets arc, and the bullets move super slow. But it absolutely destroys shields and barriers! As an added bonus, it is extremely effective at killing Phantoms. This completely light-weight weapon all but removes a large part of the game!
-Cerberus Harrier: This Assault Rifle is sort of heavy, has a bit of a kick, and has extremely low ammo, but it is absolutely devastating. It just does a lot of damage in a short amount of time in a tight grouping, that's what it's all about! Unfortunately this one is an "ultra-rare" so it will be hard to find and even harder to level up.
-Reegar Carbine: Many of the shotguns have the same problems as the Katana, mentioned above. But this one is more like a flamethrower with electricity. Because it shoots a constant stream and does consistent high damage right on target, this weapon finally gives the player the close quarters advantage that I want out of a short range weapon.
-N7 Hurricane: The problem with SMG's is that there isn't enough attention for them. There are roughly half as many as the other types of guns, and only one of them is a "Rare." So this is not just an "ultra-rare", but it is also only available from Commendation Packs from weekend challenges. This thing pours laser bullets out... and it pours them out everywhere. A very powerful weapon but also very hard to get and maybe even harder to use.
-Widow: There are a lot of sniper rifles. In fact, there are a lot of one-shot sniper rifles. This isn't the best sniper rifle out there, but it's only a "rare" weapon. For many snipers, this thing is like a rite of passage. Or something. Whatever. It hits really hard but doesn't have the insane weight and charge up of the Javelin, nor does it have the weirdness of the Kishock. The Black Widow is better overall (more shots but less damage) but this one is much easier to come by.
-Penetration (as well as other attachments)
One of the most useful things to come by in this game is penetration. That is, the ability to cause bullets to pierce through objects and still do damage to enemies on the other side. Many weapons have mods that allow this, but you can also use consumables on the equipment screen to achieve the same effect.
If you've ever played Call of Duty and paid attention to challenges to kill enemies with bullet penetration, you've probably also noticed how infrequently this happens. Sure, it's a nice feature to prevent camping and give a level of tactics into the game, but it's not something many bank on.
But this is not competitive. These are NPC's and you can predict their routes. You can widen the range of cover available to you by shooting through windows, walls, and thin cover. This is especially useful against Cerberus as they not only have the most units who use cover but also have a unit that is ALWAYS in cover (the Guardian, who walks around behind a tower shield).
ALSO, every type of penetration improves damage against armored units. As in, all the strongest units in the game. So think about that!
Knowing this, the attachments become very straight-forward since one almost always wants "+damage" and then "+penetration." Use the equipment consumable in place of the attachment if you want, but try to think about how each weapon works in each build. Does a scope really do anything? Can you manage the stability by simply aiming down? How often do you melee things? Seriously, I see "+melee damage" mods on all sorts of non-melee builds. What gives!
Mastery
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| Volus were like a joke but now they're ultra-rare cards? Okay... |
At some point, you'll want to know that you're the guy carrying everyone else and NOT the other way around!
-Kite!
A tactic in many video games, but is especially relevant here. While it may be unwise to drag monsters around and mess up the spawn points for your teammates, it is invaluable during objectives!
It's actually very simple. If a teammate is clicking on a node, try to attract enemies AWAY from him. Don't just kill them, they will only respawn! And definitely don't look at your teammate while he does his work. Look around him, see what's coming after him. I have no idea why people do this. It's like their only plan is to watch the person doing the objective die so they can immediately pick up where they left off. Dying is not a good plan! Also, the game is in third person. So if you want to visually see them, for some reason, just keep them in your peripheral vision.
And the best time to do this is for extraction. Just run around the level until the last second and step in the circle. There is no bonus for waiting in the circle the whole time, it only matters if you are there at the end.
-Two Grenade Users Are a Crowd
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| The icon for the "Grenade Capacity" gear bonus. |
When you are in a matchmaking room waiting for the game to start, take a look at your teammates. Many people are good at spotting a troublesome player on higher difficulties. While it may seem "sucky" to vote kick someone, you really can't take some random level one with you on Gold. The same goes for once you start spotting those little things that make for bad players.
Without getting into that, though, one thing that becomes more relevant in higher difficulties is group composition. True of any RPG, you generally don't want a bunch of the same thing. Most notably are grenade users. Some players might not use those grenades in their build, but you can tell if they have a "+grenades" equipment bonus on that they probably plan to use them. Scavenging for grenades becomes very strained with just two grenade users in a group, so keep that in mind (on an added note, the ability "Stimulant Pack" actually uses grenades).
Other things to look out for are having too many meleers. Really, any melee can become unwelcome in higher difficulties but a bunch of them together will just step on each other's toes. Another thing would be classes that hit slow and hard; like an Infiltrator with a Widow equipped. Those guys can deal a lot of damage, but their speed will make the team easily overrun. And compensating by having everyone kite at all times will be very hectic.
-Consumables
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| Left four are applied pre-match, right four are used in-match on command. |
As the name suggests, these things run out! Being judicious should be obvious, but here is the importance of the "Supply" consumables based on my own usage levels:
Medi-Gel > Ops Survival Pack > Cobra Missile Launcher > Thermal Clip Pack
I would say that the Missile Launcher is more useful than any of them, but that's only because you can use a well-placed shot to save yourself from using any of the others as well as being able to save your team. Well, hindsight is always 20:20 you'll find and those Medi-Gels are the only thing that let you keep playing once everything's gone down the tubes. The Ops Survival Pack probably only is there because it's so dang hard to get it to work that you might use two or even three in a single instance. And usually it's to save an objective from failing or to save precious Medi-Gel.
And Thermal Clips just suck. Their best use is if you are a grenade user because you can spam a whole mess of grenades by burning through them. Never be afraid to use Thermal Clip Packs. You won't run out.
-N7 Rating and Challenges
When you first see these you'll think they mean something special. And then you'll realize they mean nothing and are both just pointless score systems.
And then you'll get to a point where you have high numbers in both categories and you'll start judging other players for either how high or low their scores are. How do they play so much? Oh, no, not a noob! Stuff like that.
Don't worry, though. Ultimately neither of these things mean anything. N7 rating just comes from leveling and promoting characters. So if you just level all the classes to 20 and leave them there, your score will be 120 forever.
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| One of the Weekend Challenge splash screens. |
However! Challenges can be important. Specifically the weekend challenges. Completing those will give you a Commendation Pack which will have an "ultra-rare" weapon in it (but only the Commendation weapons). In addition, the other challenges are how you acquire titles. So... that.
-Gold Requires Your "A" Game!
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| Don't give up! |
Gold is difficult. Don't listen to the power gamers who say it's garbage. Those same people generally avoid playing with anyone but friends, and also have really good gear. It's not impossible, though. Just something you'll have to earn a few levels for before you're ready for it.
The only reason I'm being so serious is because I tend to see such wide-eyed, hopeful neophytes walk in to these matches. They drag the whole team down and- I can only imagine- they hate when everyone stops reviving them for dying so much. Why do they do it? Why do they think they can take their terrible gear into a match and do such low damage and expect to be a positive contribution?
Don't be that guy. Be a pro! Save your pre-match equipment consumables and use them all here!
Oh, and I know there's a Platinum setting now. I don't have the patience for that. Good luck if you do!
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