MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[J.T.]

16 hours ago, jstout said:

Going to work, but thanks anyway.

Breachers don't damage you 1/4th as much as nullifiers. I was trying to duel with the first one and didn't think it'd be so deadly. The second snuck up behind me, never saw him coming.

I gave up until tonight. I kept trying to get games going and the guys who joined were not ready for any silver, much less this one.

Yeah, you were nowhere to be found when I got online.

It probably won't make you feel good that I beat the mission on the first try with three randoms.  We only had one dipshit and the other two players were pretty sold.  I played my Level 15 Salarian Operator III, one player was a Level 12 Human Female Soldier XX, one was a Level 18 Turian Soldier XI, and the dipshit was a Level 10 Human Male Sentinel I.

Things ran pretty smoothly.  Dipshit unsurprisingly went down on Extraction Wave trying to solo something he shouldn't have, so I and the other two bunkered down and then made a run for the LZ when the clock hit 20 seconds to go. 

We could've used dipshit's Barricade in the last fifteen seconds, but I spammed Shield Boost enough times to keep us all alive.

I've been running into lots of players with near zero APEX ratings lately.  Either this game is on sale or there are a lot of new players buying used copies.

Activated the Eos Vault and settled Prodromos on the remix replay.  I actually remembered the solution to the Remnant Sudoku puzzle on the locked chest..  Overload / Energy Drain generated Tech Combos and my trusty Four Mod Slot / Disruptor Ammo augmented Avenger VIII assault rifle continues to win against Remnant.  If only I'd been this effective during my first playthrough, but that's the whole point, I guess..

I talked to Bradley and am headed back to the Nexus for the AVP tutorial and to re-experience Tann's bullshit.

I will keep things above board with Keri this time (and Avela if it gets that far), not that it matters since I will be firing up Biotic Sara the second that I hear the plink and chimes of the High Performance rare achievement unlocking.  I even have Ryder wearing Intiative Spearpoint Armor during this New Game+ playthrough in order to get the EXP bonus and hasten the leveling up process.

I'm bummed that AVP perks don't carry over.  I miss the one that lowers the debuff penalty for Fusion Mods.  I got a Fusion Mod of Shielding from the Rem-tech chest that buffs Shields by 50% but debuffs health by 50%.  Holy fuck, that's a huge redbar drop!.

[jstout]

I failed it 5 times before me and Melraz put our heads together and I changed tactics to back off the melee and do more shooting. 

I put on a huge disruptor (?) ammo boost and a huge shotgun amp, fired the shotgun once, then changed over to a pistol. I waited out extraction without firing a shot.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, jstout said:

I failed it 5 times before me and Melraz put our heads together and I changed tactics to back off the melee and do more shooting. 

I put on a huge disruptor (?) ammo boost and a huge shotgun amp, fired the shotgun once, then changed over to a pistol. I waited out extraction without firing a shot.

Yeah, my play becomes extremely conservative on the missions with a No Revive or a Glass Jaw penalty. Under no circumstances do I use a Vanguard or a Krogan.  It tends to end badly for me when I get in range for close quarters combat.

I didn't have my Angaran Exemplar leveled up enough to play him, otherwise I'd have gone with the electricity based offense against the Remnant and never fired my gun at all.  I may put him more through the paces this afternoon in prep for future Remnant opposition matches..

It'd have been nice if the Bioware assholes would've fixed the Status HUD so that squad members stop accumulating Skill Points after their Powers are maxed out.  And of course, I finally received enough Codex updates towards the endgame of Playthrough #1 to discover that it is the entry on the Scourge that is bugged so that it stays marked as unread and (urgh!) it will never be patched.

The more I play this game, the more I find stuff to bitch about.  I kinda hope Anthem sucks now.

[AxB]

I couldn't get past it until I gave up on the 20-III Exemplar and used the 20-XX Sentinel instead.

[Robert C]

I got past it on my first run, but that was mainly due to Melraz and Stout I died when I got farted on by a Nullifier on my way to extraction.

28 minutes ago, J.T. said:

It'd have been nice if the Bioware assholes would've fixed the Status HUD so that squad members stop accumulating Skill Points after their Powers are maxed out.  The more I play this game, the more I find stuff to bitch about.  I kinda hope Anthem sucks now.

I doubt I'll ever find out.  General grumpiness about Andromeda, plus lingering "Fuck Destiny.  And fuck Destiny Lite."  sentiment, plus Red Dead probably means no buy for me.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

I couldn't get past it until I gave up on the 20-III Exemplar and used the 20-XX Sentinel instead.

I had the good fortune to have at least two players who knew what they were doing even though they played Silver level characters. 

The Human Soldier kept detonating my Overloads with Concussive Shot in order to to generate Tech Combos on Assemblers and Observers and we put priority on murdering Breachers before they got too close.  Both of the Soldiers had high ROF ARs so there was plenty of Turbocharged anti air firepower to go around.

I spammed Shield Boost for protection and finished off anything not immediately killed by Frags with Invasion or I just used the Venom shotty and carpet bombed them with charged shots. 

When I ran dry on shotty ammo (using a charged shot to fire a spread with the Venom consumes multiple rounds), I changed over to the Scorpion.

We had a very good plan.

Firefights got intense but no one got dropped during the mission except for Dipshit who only managed to survive Wave 4 without going down.  He failed to fully embrace the bullet stopping power of hard cover.

[J.T.]

1 minute ago, Robert C said:

I got past it on my first run, but that was mainly due to Melraz and Stout I died when I got farted on by a Nullifier on my way to extraction.

I doubt I'll ever find out.  General grumpiness about Andromeda, plus lingering "Fuck Destiny.  And fuck Destiny Lite."  sentiment, plus Red Dead probably means no buy for me.

Yeah, I think I will be a cowboy before I am a Guardian or a dude flying around in power armor.

[RIPPA]

8 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Yeah, I think I will be a cowboy before I am a Guardian or a dude flying around in power armor.

Again - your time tables are wacky

RDR 2 being out before Xmas 2018 would be shocking.

You hate playing Andromeda till then just because you don't want to play Destiny 2 makes me sad

[J.T.]

Yeah, I am being stubborn and OCD has kicked in. I am within spitting distance of a 1000 gamer score for Andromeda so no reason to quit just now.

Watch Dogs 2 is on the cheap, so I will probably be a hacker before I am a Guardian or a guy flying around in power armor.

The hate for Destiny and more specifically Bungie is still very strong.

It has also dawned on me that I haven't played Fallout 4 yet, but I don't think I am ready to tackle another game that will take months to beat.

[jstout]

Last disappointment pack I bought: Three assault rifle variations I'll never use, a first aid pack and a biotic powers enhancer that I'll never use.

So, I paid 100,000 credits for a first aid pack, something I could've gotten 50 of by buying 100,000 worth of jumbo supply packs. Along with 50 RPGs, revives and ammo packs. Single-player was dead on arrival, unfortunately, but they outright killed multiplayer.

[RUkered]

Who told all these fucking level 6s and shit to join silvers????

Bless their hearts.

[Robert C]

1 hour ago, RUkered said:

Who told all these fucking level 6s and shit to join silvers????

Bless their hearts.

I joined a gold today where the other three were level 6, 7 and 1.  I joined purely for the comedy.  Unfortunately the game knew better and did a room dump at the start of wave 1.

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, Robert C said:

I joined a gold today where the other three were level 6, 7 and 1.  I joined purely for the comedy.  Unfortunately the game knew better and did a room dump at the start of wave 1.

I ran the Bronze APEX mission this morning as a Level 15 Human Male Soldier XX and my squaddies consisted of a Level 2 Human Female Adept I, a Level 1 Human Male Sentinel I, and a Level 1 Human Male Vangard I. 

The Level Ones had a combined APEX rating of Zero Point Zero.  The same as Bluto's GPA in Animal House.

So here we go, rolling out with three noobs during that special time known as....

The Kett were rougher than usual and Hyper Shields did not help given that your health tanks when that mission criteria is added.  I didn't have my mic turned on, so at least they were spared my barking of orders and harsh criticism of their tactics.

USE THE FUCKING BLAST SHIELDS FOR COVER~!  THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE THERE FOR, GODDAMMIT~!

Unsurprisingly, I earned one of the few Gold Medals for Revives I've ever received due to the sheer amount of injury going on.  Those guys were not ready for a match with debuffs attached.

Bless their hearts..

I got three Friends List requests after I made sure they survived Extraction.  Probably none of those players were American.  They were just grateful.  I will probably have a nightmare tonight about how that match would've turned out if the mission criteria had been One Life To Live or Weakened Assault Team, rather than Hyper Shields.

I was originally going to play as my Level 20 Asari Huntress XII and spam Stealth Grid, but I thought better of it since bad things would start happening to the other players once I started popping Power Cells and shedding aggro.

Remix Campaign saw something new.  I must've never bothered to talk to Technician Danny Messier at all in Prodromos during my first and extremely drawn out journey through the Mass Effect Land of Sadness. 

This kid has taken my mandate to explore Eos and turned it into a suicide mission.  I've pulled his ass out of a Remnant Enclave and a Kett Camp and from the looks of the dialogue, I will find him near death and surrounded by kaerkyn or something later on.

I did not think I would find a more annoying Mass Effect character than Conrad Verner, but here he is.

Scott V.2.0 is Level 69 now.  Engineer and Soldier profiles are at Rank 5 now.  Adept is still at Rank 2 and the Biotic hybrid classes are around 3 or 4 because I barely have any Skill Points in Biotics  Why does it feel like it will take an entire playthrough to unlock the High Performance rare achievement? 

[J.T.]

14 hours ago, jstout said:

Last disappointment pack I bought: Three assault rifle variations I'll never use, a first aid pack and a biotic powers enhancer that I'll never use.

I finally got a Rozerad in a Premier Pack I bought last night.

Still no Carnifax.

I have gotten four upgrades straight for the Zalkin now and it is up to X.  I have never fired a shot in anger with the Zalkin; not even in Campaign Mode.

The M-80 Indra SR challenge is beaten.  I have one more challenge to go to get the Bronze award for Sniper Rifle Mastery. 

I'll probably get that nameplate very soon now that the Vanquisher challenge is about 90% done.  I've been using It with my Asari Huntress and spamming Stealth Grid so that I can inch a bit closer to Tech Mastery Gold.

[Robert C]

4 hours ago, J.T. said:

I finally got a Rozerad in a Premier Pack I bought last night.

Still no Carnifax.

I have gotten four upgrades straight for the Zalkin now and it is up to X.  I have never fired a shot in anger with the Zalkin; not even in Campaign Mode.

The M-80 Indra SR challenge is beaten.  I have one more challenge to go to get the Bronze award for Sniper Rifle Mastery. 

I'll probably get that nameplate very soon now that the Vanquisher challenge is about 90% done.  I've been using It with my Asari Huntress and spamming Stealth Grid so that I can inch a bit closer to Tech Mastery Gold.

Do you only buy disappointment packs?  I'm barely above you in Apex points, and I've got Rozerads and Carnifaxs coming out of my ears.

[jstout]

That's wild. A carnifax is an uncommon gun, by all rights you should have one. I've played a lot more than you guys, but I've got the regular carnifax at X, bulwark at 3, concussive at 7 and siphon at 2. And I mainly get rare weapon variants because I buy reserves packs and have all my rare characters up to 20.

Now the Rozerad is an ultra-rare, so that's much tougher. I have it at 2.

Played a match with a guy yesterday who had a 44,000 APEX and had a siphon Hurricane (ultra-rare). I'm still on 3. I still lack two ultra-rare guns.

[Robert C]

22 minutes ago, jstout said:

That's wild. A carnifax is an uncommon gun, by all rights you should have one. I've played a lot more than you guys, but I've got the regular carnifax at X, bulwark at 3, concussive at 7 and siphon at 2. And I mainly get rare weapon variants because I buy reserves packs and have all my rare characters up to 20.

Now the Rozerad is an ultra-rare, so that's much tougher. I have it at 2.

Played a match with a guy yesterday who had a 44,000 APEX and had a siphon Hurricane (ultra-rare). I'm still on 3. I still lack two ultra-rare guns.

Aw crap.  I confused Rozerad and Ruzad.  Being up all night with a grumpy 2 year old doesn't help my reading comprehension.

[jstout]

Hey, just got a disappointment pack with TWO N7s! That calls for an unveiling liveblog~!

A character respec (yay!); Inferno V sniper rifle (N7) - yawn; Human Kineticist XIII (N7 - don't care for her); a Cobra RPG; and a Sniper Rifle Rail Amp 2 (don't use sniper rifles). So I paid 100,000, got two N7s and still wound up spending 100K on a RPG. And as before, could've had 50 of those, along with 50 of three other useful supplies and 50 low-level consumables, for the same price.

Had to bust my ass to make the last 50 grand too, as I refereed a dying contest between two of my teammates. 

EDIT: And just 'cause I can, let's Liveblog another one:

No N7s. That means lots of gun variants I don't want. Case in point - Lanat concussive 8; Disruptor Ammo 3 (may come in handy at some point); Equalizer siphon 3 (yawn); First Aid Pack; Biotic Power Amp 3 (don't play biotic characters much at all). So that's a first aid pack and one consumable I can see me maybe using at some point or another. Better than last time.

People on Reddit have suggested to Bioware (developers read the forums) that they at least remove supplies like first aid packs from non-supply packs to increase the chances of getting something useful that can't be gotten cheaply somewhere else. I say they make N7s at least twice as easy to get - game's dead anyway - so people can get the higher-ranked stuff.  But I suppose they still have the fantasy of selling Andromeda points to their gamer base of 15 at this point.

 

[melraz09]

On 9/23/2017 at 2:18 PM, RUkered said:

I just ran two silvers with the Batarian Vanguard and came in first both times, and the team of randoms was pretty dalm good. Shocked me - that shit never happens.

Anyway, finally able to afford another Disappointment Pack and all I got out of it was an assault rifle, which I hate. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because it was called the Sweeper, and it reminded of something I need to share.

Despite Melraz's strict love of country music, he DOES know the words to Nelly's "Country Grammar" and will rap it for you if asked. Hearing him sing "Streeeeeet sweeeeeper baaaaaaby, cocked ready to let it gooooo, shimmy shimmy coco whaaaaaat" is something you all need in your lives.

And now I'm gonna go sign up for witness protection because he'll be on the Harley on his way up here to kill my ass in a few minutes.

Cant forget about the bloodhound gang, mane!!!

Anybody know when the next character roll out is? Bout to throw in the towel. Need somethin to make me stick around. 

 

[jstout]

New weekend APEX is a hoot. Kett, silver, magma, 11 waves, ammo boxes don't refill, dampened powers, shields and health. Very doable first try, even with crappy teammates.

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, jstout said:

New weekend APEX is a hoot. Kett, silver, magma, 11 waves, ammo boxes don't refill, dampened powers, shields and health. Very doable first try, even with crappy teammates.

I wish the players I teamed with got this memo.  The first squad I rolled with wiped on Wave 8.

Second time lucky, though.

[odessasteps]

Welcome back to third shift.

[J.T.]

The same to you, fellow graveyarder.

[odessasteps]

6 minutes ago, J.T. said:

The same to you, fellow graveyarder.

But I don't leave. I just go to sleep earlier (0200) on my off days.

[J.T.]

And fuck.

Got to Level 71 and decided to craft some Tier IX items for myself.

I totally forgot that you lose all of your AVP perks for New Game+, so none of my newly crafted IX weapons and armor have the extra Augmentation Slot you get from AVP benefits.

My guns now only have the Double Mod Extender and a Kinetic Coil to boost base damage and my armor is stuffed with Medi-Gel Regulators, Shield Boosters, and Shield Regenerators to give my health and kinetic barrier stats a bump. 

So now my AVP priorities are now set on unlocking all of my consumable slots, expanding my inventory, easing the Fusion Mod penalty, and gaining those Augmentation slots back. 

I'm holding onto my Tech Damage / Duration, Combo Damage, Incendiary Ammo, Disrupter Ammo, and Battlefield Assistance augmentations so that I can put them back into my gear once I re-earn the +1 Augmentation Slot AVP perk.