MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[AxB]

OK then, Biotic Mastery, Combat Mastery, and Tech Mastery are all completed. My Apex rating is 2011th in the (Sony) world, but my Challenge rating is top 600. Now if I'm chasing challenges it's just weapons and Bonus Stats. Which are all level 2, except Health is still level 1, and power recharge is level 4. Only 10 Million XP to level 5 though.

[J.T.]

Got quite a bit done in Campaign Mode over the weekend in bits and pieces:

• RIP Sloane Kelly.  To say that I am not good with the way that duel went down is an understatement but hey, there's a proxy Angaran fronting leadership for the Collective and Dr. Nakamoto is healing peeps at the new outpost.  I can live with that outcome.
• Took out the Kadara Architect.  My crafted N7 Eagle with Disruptor Ammo and Kinetic Coil augmentations ripped the shit out that thing and Disruptor Ammo consumables made the fight even faster.  The fight took slightly longer than the Voeld one because Zap kept hovering in the AOE field of the Architect and got nuked a couple of times by the nanobot dragon breath dealie.
• Opted to roll to the former Habitat 5 now an asteroid belt.  Busted up the Outlaw's He-3 Operation. 
• Knocked out Vetra's Loyalty Mission. Again I am disappointed with my protagonist as far as Renegade / Paragon Interrupts go.  My quick action allowed me to shoot the grenade out of Merryweather's hand.  Renegade Shep would've put a bullet right through her dome and her death grip would've exerted enough pressure around the 'nade that it wouldn't have exploded.
• So the reason this scientist involved in the ZX Tracker stuff left the Nexus is because she wanted to have a kid?  Addison has added eugenics to her list of things that piss me off about her.
• Next up is to investigate this Remnant Tiller thing and then comically attempt to unlock the Hang Time achievement.  After that I'll head back to Kadara to push Peebee's Loyalty mission along, look into the Turian Ark situation, and then I will finally set foot on Elaaden.

I have over 1K in Mission Funds since there has been nothing new in the store for me to buy for the past two weeks or so.  I am not sure if I will get to the Weekend APEX mission.  I may very well be spending the afternoon installing Destiny 2.

My APEX rating is closing in on 19K now and my CR is near 15K.  I am ranked higher globally for CR than I am for APEX rating.

[Robert C]

Got on long enough for the daily challenges.  Took 3 matches with the Juggernaut, and I nearly have him to 20.  I think I'll have 6 more characters to get to 20 after he's done.  Disappointment pack for the day had 2 N7 characters, so I can't complain.

I was expecting this to be completely dead with Destiny 2 out now, but I'm not sure it got any worse than it already was.  Joined one match at the end of wave 3, and still ended up high scorer.  That's a sure sign of mediocre teammates.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, Robert C said:

I was expecting this to be completely dead with Destiny 2 out now, but I'm not sure it got any worse than it already was.  Joined one match at the end of wave 3, and still ended up high scorer.  That's a sure sign of mediocre teammates.

Yeah, this happened to me when I played a bit on Sunday.  I came in at the end of Wave 2, but I took out two of three targets on Challenge Wave 3 (Assassination) and was left to fetch all of the Retrieval Items on Challenge Wave 6 since it appeared that no one was making a move to go get the objects.

Since I was running the Batarian Vanguard, I was also getting bonus points for Biotic Combo detonations, so I was in first by 2K points when Extraction Wave 7 started and I was still on top of the leaderboard at the end of the match.

[Eivion]

7 hours ago, J.T. said:

Knocked out Vetra's Loyalty Mission. Again I am disappointed with my protagonist as far as Renegade / Paragon Interrupts go.  My quick action allowed me to shoot the grenade out of Merryweather's hand.  Renegade Shep would've put a bullet right through her dome and her death grip would've exerted enough pressure around the 'nade that it wouldn't have exploded

I think its supposed to be less renegade/paragon and more impulse.

[AxB]

The new item store item is a Shotgun Amp. Bronze items are not much cop, generally.

100% Equalizer points gives me 7/8ths of Silver Pistol Mastery, and I'm using the Ushior as my 8th. Now running the Angaran Exemplar because he was level 1, and Power Recharge is his bonus.

[jstout]

Kinda rough finding teammates last night. That'll teach me for finishing Slime Rancher.

Generally, I had to start 1-2 men down and wait on people to join in.

Got the Juggernaut up to IV-20. He's been in every reserves pack I've bought since he came out. I know have all my ultra-rares at at least X, so I can start getting those again.

Juggernaut is hard to spec out - several of the A-B choices are both bad, honestly. I don't really care for any build I've seen on the Internet, either.

Bronze and Silver are fun but don't pay shit. Gold pays better, but feels like it takes forever.

[J.T.]

Progress is progressing..

• Remnant Tiller is activated.  Fuel for days.  Since there was Remnant shit involved, I went in with Peebee and brought Cora along for kicks.  I shoulda picked someone a bit beefier to team with Cora.  The Progenator tore Peebee's ass out of the frame every time it fired in her direction.  I spent most of the time making revive runs while Cora and Zap held off the Observers.  For the first time in Campaign Mode, I had to use a Cobra to stay ahead of the game and the Progenator was still more than a handful even with the turrets out of commission.   We finally killed the thing after many many uses of Incendiary Round and Distruptor Round consumables.  It took me a while to get accustomed to the layout and figure out what I needed to do to progress in the Remnant facility.  The lighting was shit so it was hard to make out what I could interact with in order to get doors open and generate the Observers I needed to activate some of the consoles. 
• Hang Time achievement is unlocked and on the first attempt no less.  Peebee was all, "RYDER, LOOK OUT~!" and I was like LOL DUKE BOYS, MOTHER FUCKERS~! and I actually fucking Evel Kineviled the fucking canyon and made it to another ledge after unlocking the achievement.  How? I have no idea.  Wonky game physics, man.  I'd never duplicate that feat on purpose in a million years.
• Peebee and I went drinking with her contact in Kadara Port.  Naturally, Poc is being held on Elaaden. 
• I answered my e-mail in regards to the intel on the Turian Ark.  I am told that there might be evidence on Elaaden.
• When I checked my map upon arrival on Elaaden, I noticed that the fucking medical supplies Additional Task I have been carrying around since I first left the Nexus is also based out of this planet.
• I am beginning to sense a pattern.  All roads lead to the desert planet.
• But first, let's roll with Liam's guilt trip and take time out to play Footie on Eos.  How in the fuck do Angarans already know how to play Soccer?
• We met up with Drack's Krogan contact.  He does not like Drack's homegirl, Morda, one bit and his crew thinks he should be in charge of New Tuchanka.  We will probably end up having to kill this asshole once the shit hits the fan.
• The Angaran merchant really pisses me off.  I am looking forward to putting her punk ass out of the water price gouging business after I turn the vault on.  I hope it fucking rains hard enough to form rivers on this goddamn planet just to spite her.
• I am not sure how I feel about Lexi's Phase One Clinical Trial for this mysterious serum she's developed.  If the Exiles's behavioral patterns are a result of some weird brain chemistry social control conspiracy, then we need to settle that shit.  However, I am not quite good with coaxing people into ingesting experimental pharmaceuticals.  Free will.
• Two out of three monoliths on Elaaden are up and running.  Had to bounce to the office before I could activate the third.  After I turn on the planetary AC, I will find this dude's missing sister, rescue Poc, and help Drack deal with Spender's bullshit.  Once my entire crew is LOYAL, I will take care of these other fetchits and hopefully get more intel on the Salarian Ark.

After much gamesmanship, I finally got Biotic Mastery Gold.  My APEX rating is over 19K and my CR is over 16K.  I am closing in on the Global 1000 rankings in both categories.  I bought the Shotgun Amp for collection's sake and will probably never use it; I've got far better shotty bonus mods to use than that one.

[J.T.]

13 hours ago, jstout said:

Juggernaut is hard to spec out - several of the A-B choices are both bad, honestly. I don't really care for any build I've seen on the Internet, either.

Power-wise, I'd focus on Snap Freeze and Fortify.  I hate the movement penalty associated with Fortify and since I am investing in that power up to Four, I may as well take it out to Six. 

I don't really use Shockwave as anything other than a Detonator, so taking Snap Freeze out to Six to capitalize on the armor and movement debuffs is the logical conclusion.

I'd probably take the Explosive Purge for Fortify Six just to have an interesting way to detonate Cryo Combos.

Not really sure how I'd handle the Passives.  I'm inclined to take Ammo & Targeting for APEX Trainng 3 since I like to use Remnant weapons with my Juggernaut and a bigger ammo pool means more shots before overheating.  At long last, I am finally putting the Sweeper through its paces.

[Robert C]

Got the Juggernaut to 20 now, I can move on to the rest.  Next up is the Huntress, who's about level 17.  I think all I have after that are three Infiltrators and the Batarian Vanguard.

Finding a group was very hit and miss.  Wound up joining several people that were running solo.  Ran one silver match with a level 1-1 guy.  I was all set to vote to kick him, but figured we might never find a fourth.  He wound up doing a lot better than I did.

[jstout]

Turning off Fortify to trigger a combo seems backward. It also sucks that two of the Level 5 powers help you with that hovering, firing crap while providing you with something kinda useful. The 1.5 seconds of invinciblity is fairly useless, and the ramping bonuses with the armor are so hard to get going and keep going.

More thought needed.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Seeing Stout posting about Fortifying triggering combos and and what not makes me kinda grin. Just a random note.

 

Holy Fuck, this made me check out the Apex Rating scores. Jesus guys.

[AxB]

Was doing dailies this morning with a random Krogan Engineer 11XX. He had good guns. When the first mission was over, and we were back in the lobby, I could see his APEX rating. it seemed little high, 65K+. And then I checked the leaderboard and he's the number one guy in the World. Of course.

[jstout]

On 9/8/2017 at 7:01 PM, El Dragon said:

Seeing Stout posting about Fortifying triggering combos and and what not makes me kinda grin. Just a random note.

 

Holy Fuck, this made me check out the Apex Rating scores. Jesus guys.

Fortify should be turn it on, forget it (until killed), not something turned off and on as an offensive weapon. I do think there's a Platinum-level spec out there, but I'm not sure what it is.

When you get the Avenger leveled up and get the gameplay down, Gold becomes kinda routine, so a high APEX is no big deal. Plus there's less competition.

I kept meaning to go on last night and peer into the juggernaut further, but I got engrossed in slime ranching.

I also wanna re-spec the Avenger for Platinum (less emphasis on melee, more on guns), 'cause all that warping around meleeing will get you in trouble. Gotta stay stationary more. Gotta pick your spots more carefully.

 

[J.T.]

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 3:19 PM, AxB said:

Was doing dailies this morning with a random Krogan Engineer 11XX. He had good guns. When the first mission was over, and we were back in the lobby, I could see his APEX rating. it seemed little high, 65K+. And then I checked the leaderboard and he's the number one guy in the World. Of course.

Yeah, the #1 guy in the world in APEX Rating for Xbox Land has a rating of over 65K.  My rating is pushing 20K, but my CR is barely 15K and I am close to breaking the Top 1K in the world in both stats.

Got in some Campaign Mode on Saturday after the Ladies US Open Final.  Goofed around until the UFC Prelims.

• Elaaden vault is a wrap.  Only took two attempts to nab both Rem-tech chests before the Purge Wave kicked in.  Also acquired the Data Core.  I'm at 7 of 9 for those things now.  It took almost and hour for me to solve the puzzle.  I actually had to use scratch paper.
• Drack is Loyal.  Liam's mission is still the best, but it felt good to put Spender's ass in jail.  I decided not to needle Addison this time and she actually cowgirled up and accepted her role in the Colonial Affairs mismanagement debacle.  Drack bitching about kids today not respecting tradition fucking ruled.  I may have to nuke New Tuchanka from orbit if Morda figures out how to weaponize this fucking paralysis pollen that Vorn developed.
• The bar fight in Kadara Port was fucking tremendous.
• So, Nexus security dude.  Your sister is a gun runner for the gangs.  Awkward....
• I'm at Level 50-ish now.  I like my power load out as it is, so I'm pretty much putting points into stuff to raise the rankings for my other profiles and get them all to 6.  I don't think I have the patience to unlock the Kitted Out achievement via leveling up a Multiplayer Bonus Stat up to 6.
• I played it tough in New Tuchanka and managed to impress the guards by threatening to headbutt them if I didn't get an audience with Morda.  I tried to be a little diplomatic when talking to Morda herself and came off a bit too whiny for my liking, but I don't think I pissed her off as much as I could have.
• I'm in orbit over the planet where Peebee's Loyalty Mission takes place.   I'll go back and finish up on Elaaden after my entire crew is 100% Loyal.
• I marked out for the Dr. Okeer callback.  it also made me angry since there will be no more DLC.  I will probably be done with this game for keeps before there is a tank-bred Krogan character in Multiplayer to give a shit ahout.
• Well, fuck.  Cora somehow discovered that Scott and Peebee went at it in the escape pod.  Hopefully that will not jeopardize the future love connection.  I think she and Scott are still good to do the do as long as I stop flirting with Peebee, which I have.  If Cora finds out I also intend to knock boots with Keri and Avela, I will be in the doghouse for sure.

My life's mission now seems to be to Platinum this game as fast as I can and use the trade in credit to get myself a copy of Destiny 2 or Watch Dogs 2.  Depends on how strong my bitterness is with Bungie by the time I kick the Archon's ass.

[jstout]

Mass Effect: Andromeda trade-in credit: "Sir, you owe us $3 for taking that one."

[RIPPA]

As of this moment - Gamestop is giving $8 for Andromeda if you are a member. $6.50 if you are not.

The base price is down to $39.99 permanently and you can get it for $20 from Amazon (at least for the moment)

If you are going to get value - I would do it before the month ends

[J.T.]

40 minutes ago, jstout said:

Mass Effect: Andromeda trade-in credit: "Sir, you owe us $3 for taking that one."

Well, with Bungie and EA / Bioware in the doghouse with me, Rockstar has a grand opportunity to be first in my heart if RDR2 is really good and if they finally decide to set the next GTA game in Vice City.

33 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

As of this moment - Gamestop is giving $8 for Andromeda if you are a member. $6.50 if you are not.

The base price is down to $39.99 permanently and you can get it for $20 from Amazon (at least for the moment)

If you are going to get value - I would do it before the month ends.

I think I will be happy no matter what the store credit is as long as the game is Platinumed and out of my stack for good.

I'm now shoving Skill Points into all Masteries so that I can level up all of the Profiles to Rank 6 because it appears to be faster to get the Kitted Out achievement through Campaign Mode than it is through Multiplayer.

I don't even give a shit whether or not I have a completed collection of multiplayer mods nor do I care about any future classes that are added to multiplayer..  Once I knock out all achievements; that's it.

That is how put off I am about the decision to kill Campaign Mode.

[Robert C]

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

Well, with Bungie and EA / Bioware in the doghouse with me, Rockstar has a grand opportunity to be first in my heart if RDR2 is really good and if they finally decide to set the next GTA game in Vice City.

Looks like we've reached the point in the Andromeda thread where I mention that Rockstar can have all my money if they give me a Vice City followup.  I think I'm required to do that in all video game threads that go over 100 pages.

Melraz, Stout and I must've played about 15 runs of the weekly strike team last night.  Got both human Infiltrators to 20, and the Salarian version from 10 to 15.  I'm about cleared out of progression mods, so I'll have to go buy a few with mission funds.  Duelist got leveled up to 20 earlier in the weekend, so it's down to that Salarian and the Batarian Vanguard, who's about level 13.  Dunno how much I'll bother after that.  Might be time to revisit Los Santos.

It was kinda relaxing to play a bunch of games where there was no threat of failing, and very little chance of even dying.  Closest we came to failing one was on a device wave.  Melraz had taken off to grab some icewater or something, so it was down to me, Stout and some Fox Mulder, or whatever his name was.  About the time we got to the third device Stout mentioned something about how he really ought to be helping out with the devices, which was the first inkling I got that we were even doing devices.  Fortunately Foxy Boxing had it under control.  

Most of the entertainment came from laughing at our procession of low level teammates.  Best part was inevitably at the start of wave 7, when it was all Run, Forrest, Run watching head towards extraction.

[J.T.]

22 minutes ago, Robert C said:

It was kinda relaxing to play a bunch of games where there was no threat of failing, and very little chance of even dying.  Closest we came to failing one was on a device wave.

I was involved with two mission failure over the weekend where I was the experienced guy in a squad full of newbies.

The first time I incorrectly assumed that my teammates were smart enough to pay attention to the death clock and be proactive about disarming devices and the second failure saw me bleed out on purpose because no one else on my squad was smart enough to focus on killing the Boss.

It is getting to the point where I don't vote to kick lowbies anymore.  I see them as guaranteed opportunities to earn a Revive medal.

[jstout]

We finally got a decent teammate right at the very end, a low-level Avenger who could pop the Black Widow. We could've easily done it with three of us, but having someone else's name to laugh at is always fun.

Playing Bronze is almost relaxing.

Oh yeah, it was always entertaining to watch the lowbies constantly revive. We'd be two steps away from them with absolutely nothing to do but revive them, and they'd revive themselves. Gotta be stingier than that, given the situation.

Here these guys were with 400 APEX ratings and the lowest one of us is almost at 21,000, and we're like "play ball, Foxy. Just stand back and watch the show. We got this shit."

[J.T.]

Milestones, man.  Milestones.

• Peebee's Loyalty Mission is finito.  I've been generally Paragonish so far, so I didn't have it in me to kack Kalinda while she was dangling over the edge of the platform.  That and Peebee wanted to save her anyway.  I thought this mission was pretty fun.  Being an infiltrator actually counted for something as scouting ahead while cloaked and activating Turrets and Observer nodes made fights go a lot smoother. 
• I felt a little like a douchebag giving Poc the proxy friend zone deal meant for Peebee.  She poured her soul out to Scott.  It was a cute and honest expression of her feelings and I shut her down.  I am a horrible person.
• I still plan on sleeping with Cora, Avela, and Keri, though.
• All of my crew have max skills and powers.  Now it's time to see if their builds need tweaking.   I've got over 100K creds that I will probably never spend on items or gear, so may as well burn a few on respecs.
• Delivered the Elaaden star map to Avela.  Still no play.  What a tease, she is.
• Angaran Antibiotics bought for Kadara,  One more fetchit to go for the Turian shuttle pilot on Aya.
• HITTING ROCKS FOR SCIENCE IS A FUCKING WRAP~!  I haven't been that happy to complete a task since I knocked out Cultvation last week.  All fetchits for the Nexus Science Team are DONE~!
• Medical Supplies retrieved.  I love the tasks that wrap up on world and don't require a return trip to another planet to chat with the mission giver.
• These two Krogan and I smoked three Fiends without anyone getting dropped during this Rite of Union.  I could use them on my squad.  The Krogan Shaman is happy, so I am happy.  In the proper Krogan tradition, a rite of passage isn't proper without either killing or being eaten by a creature several times larger than yourself.  The strong survive and the weak are meat for the beast.  Good riddance to bad genetics.
• I will never get to see whether or not Rorik and Ljeta are the new Charr and Ereba because Bioware is dumb and won't make a new fucking DLC.  Thanks, assholes.
• Scott, Liam, and Drack are parked near the Flophouse and that is where I will pick up this afternoon.
• I have reached the 100% Viability rating on all of the Habitat planets.  Happiness is unlocking a 90 point achievement.
• I have no idea how Bioware came to the conclusion that Jaal's sexuality is "fluid."  He's told two stories now where he's pined over a female Angaran and the Angaran ladies near the Tavertaan cannot wait to bang the guy.  Peebee also wants a taste, it seems.  Bioware should've just patched it so that you could proposition that gay human engineer at the Nexus that Gil dumped.  At least it would've been a hook-up that had some logic to it.  That guy, Reyes the Omnisexual Charlatan, and Gil is your Gay Scott homoerotic trifecta.
• Time to start dumping AVP into Science so that I can enable the perks that add an additional augmentation slot to my crafted items.  So far, I've put the majority of my points into Military and Trade to unlock Consumable Slots, boost my inventory capacity, and keep the raw materials rolling in.  Between AVP Perks and Pathfinder Rewards, I've barely spent a credit on anything.

And now some Multiplayer news:

I am the Numero Uno Hombre on the DVDVR Xbox One Leaderboard for Challenge Rating now.  My score is close to 18K and I am just shy of breaking the Top 1K Global.  APEX ranking is 19.5K-ish and Robert, Melraz, and Stout are still light years away.

The game still refuses to gift me a Carnifax or the Shorty, but this Disciple I (Concussive) that I armed my Asari Sentinel with last night is fucking beast!

I only have to finish up the Barricade challenge to get Combat Mastery Gold.  I finished the Avenger Strike challenge last night while boosting points for the Combat Mastery Daily Challenge. I still have 28% to go, so there is some MP in my future this afternoon before I revert back to the grind in Campaign Mode.

I don't see much progress in the passive power challenges for Stealth Grid, Shield Boost, or Barricade, but I use those powers all of the time.  Not sure if I need to be around more players to score Support points or if the shit is just broken?

[AxB]

The best way to get Support points is to have Energy Drain set up to restore allies shields as well, and then use it a lot while standing near people. Or Shield Boost spamming. 

Got my Silver Pistol Mastery. Medals, Ushior, Carnifex, Hurricane, Charger, Equalizer, Hornet and Rozerad are my 8 completed. You need 14 to get the Gold though, and I don't even have every gun to do that yet. My Challenge rating of 21370 puts me 581st in the World, whilst my Apex of 15936 has me 1846th.

[J.T.]

Well, I'm not so much worried about figuring out how to earn Support points as I am trying to discover out how to quickly advance in the challenges for the more passive powers like Stealth Grid, Barricade, and Shield Boost.

I spam Shield Boost and Stealth Grid during Hacks and Uploads when the squad is bunkered down and I always follow the player working on Devices so that I can pop Stealth Grid and cloak us both while he's working or buff his Shields with Shield Boost.

I do all of those things and I still don't see much progress in those particular challenges.

I could probably stand to use Barricade more often, though.

[J.T.]

Oh, and I have got three more of those annoying fetchits in Campaign Mode that require me to hit the camps and pray for random progress. 

Now I have to comb Elaaden looking for Scav sites and Remnant enclaves to smash.

The person that designed these no waypoint tasks needs to die in a structure fire.