MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[odessasteps]

I tried out the Asari Huntress with JT after Phil had left. Not bad, but she probably works best in a wired up party, so you can coordinate her stelath power. 

I did okay a couple times with the Angaran Insurgent. Helped to play on a familiar map so I knew where to best put the mines.

Would still probably say my "best" characters are the Krogan Mercenary and the Salarian architect.

And we played Firebase Magma in the last match. I was right that I had not done it before. Also, it's "waves completed," for progress, not completed missions. So, I went from 0 to 7, not 0 to 1.

---

Prob won't play again until Thursday, work the next two nights.

[odessasteps]

Cross posting

 

[jstout]

I just got done getting a full extraction on a Gold APEX match (sniper rifle battle vs. outlaw). I used 5 first aid packs, 5 revives and 5 RPGs and regret nothing.

The third wave was the toughest I've seen in weeks (hack caused all the enemies to pool on us), and by 4, I said "no way we get though 5." By 5, I said "no way we get through 6." We had to just pool up so somebody was always close when one of us died and another of us died trying to revive the first guy.

When we finished, I let out this whoop like I'd just climbed Mount Everest. I felt like getting the other guys' names and addresses so we could have a reunion at a Holiday Inn 20 years from now and talk about the Battle on Derelict Ship Hill.

[odessasteps]

We did the map last night that looks like a vault.

No Fun.

 

[AxB]

See if a guy has an Apex rating of 134, that means he's done one mission, right? Or maybe just the tutorial. Because I did a mission with a guy with that, who was playing with a Turian Soldier. Level 1, of course.

Yes, we were playing on Silver. Yes, he didn't know what he was doing. And he wasn't a guy inclined to revive teammates either. He was in fact, bloody useless.

[jstout]

I'm surprised he remained alive long enough to not revive anyone.

[J.T.]

On 5/15/2017 at 4:10 PM, Robert C said:

I should mention that all three had an Apex rating of between 6K and 13K, and that two of them immediately ran to the extraction point on round seven, like they'd never got that far before.  Add in that I had to do all the devices by myself, and I was more than happy to have extra legroom on the shuttle while their corpses were left to rot.

Okay, so what are their gamer tags so that I know to never go to rescue their punk asses?

[J.T.]

5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

We did the map last night that looks like a vault.

No Fun.

It was no fun because we really didn't think things through. 

We went in with pure Biotics because were all OH SHIT, SON~! BONUS COMBO DAMAGE, BITCHES~! and didn't quite see the wisdom of one guy bringing in a primer class and another guy a detonator class with and just coordinating attacks..

We could've brought in a couple of Engineers or an Engineer and a Soldier.  Anybody with beefier shields would've been a better choice.

To our immediate dismay, we were reminded rather quickly in that match that most pure Biotics have Barriers made of Kleenex but hey, at least we extracted.

[J.T.]

I'm on Midnight to 0800 for the next couple of days. I got in some multiplayer (started on getting Uncommons up to 10) and also futzed around Havarl a bit.

Beat the Eos Architect "officially" now.  I had to get in a do over because I forgot to loot the container the first time around.  Fight was a bit harder for some reason.  Not sure if the game was glitched, but the Architect seemed to show his weak points less frequently than the first time. 

I had to use a workaround I found on YouTube and hike up to the Forward Station to buff myself, which caused the ammo and health containers at the site of the boss fight to reconstitute and then haul ass back down the hill back to the boss.

That appeared to have pushed the scenario along since you can only damage the Architect when one of your squaddies makes a attack call out.  "GO FOR THE LEGS~!"

Disruptor Ammo and Shield Capacitors were still my best friends for fighting a mech the size of a skyscraper.

[odessasteps]

I was wondering why you were on this afternoon. I was doing story mode, since I was waiting to hear from the hospital.

I did everything available on eos , so I will move on. 

Best dialogue driving around:

Drack: "you're tougher than you look."

Jaal: "and you're smarter than you look."

[J.T.]

21 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I was wondering why you were on this afternoon. I was doing story mode, since I was waiting to hear from the hospital.

My thoughts are with your family, man.

On 5/15/2017 at 10:05 PM, odessasteps said:

And we played Firebase Magma in the last match. I was right that I had not done it before. Also, it's "waves completed," for progress, not completed missions. So, I went from 0 to 7, not 0 to 1.

That's really weird because my first match after beating the Tutorial Challenge was on Firebase Magma.  I've been there more times than I'd like to admit.

[odessasteps]

Seems like I have done Paradox more than all the others combined. And usually vs outlaws.

Maybe a disproportionate number of bronze ST missions use that combo? 

[J.T.]

As far as the side mission went, I decided to tap the natural gas deposit and initiate trade with Advent. 

I went with my first inclination and saw no sense in fussing over the decision since the writers at Bioware will probably fuck me over no matter what.

If Advent mines the gas, they'll end up polluting the region and if I shift the water table in favor of Prodromos, that will start a fucking war over natural resources and I will regret making the outpost a scientific colony rather than a military base that can defend itself.

[odessasteps]

Have they ever explained what the deal is with the apparently drunk woman in Prodromos?

[J.T.]

8 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Have they ever explained what the deal is with the apparently drunk woman in Prodromos?

I don't think I've ever seen this woman.  I have noticed the weird person in that one habitat making really large hand gestures, but I've never really made note of gender.

[odessasteps]

This is the woman wobbling around outside, I think near one of the launch pads. 

 

[J.T.]

There is also what appears to be a male of Asian decent who exhibits the same behavior in the habitat closest to the Forward Station near the Tempest on Eos.

 

[AxB]

Don't you just love it when you run halfway across the map to revive someone, die as  soon as they get up (because they didn't run for cover while low on health), and then they run off and leave you to be executed?

I tried to equip two XP bonus consumables at the same time. You can't do it, it de-equips the first one.

[RIPPA]

Yeah - you can only do one of a type at a time

I am also 99% sure that you can't double up on like ammo (like use cryo and disrupter) at the same time

[AxB]

You know what's annoying? When you're a Krogan, and you need melee kills to get into Rage mode, so you can regenerate health. But every time you get something trapped in a corner and start headbutting it to death, the bloody Kineticist Pulls your victim away and throws them off the map. And then you die because you weren't in rage mode.

[J.T.]

You can only equip one category of booster at a time. 

Ask the man who wanted to use a Biotic Power I and a Power Efficiency II at the same time.

[J.T.]

17 hours ago, AxB said:

You know what's annoying? When you're a Krogan, and you need melee kills to get into Rage mode, so you can regenerate health. But every time you get something trapped in a corner and start headbutting it to death, the bloody Kineticist Pulls your victim away and throws them off the map. And then you die because you weren't in rage mode.

Yeah, I was experimenting with Dan's proposed Chargeless KroGuard build today and found it be a bit counterproductive.

Killing batches of enemies with Nova is fine and dandy, but Biotic power murders do not fuel the Blood Rage passive skill's health regen timer. 

Your Charge and weapon attacks should be used to soften up enemies for a death dealing Headbutt to help your Blood Rage health regen timer along. 

In that regard, I recommend using the Juggie Shield rather than the Adaptive War Amp to increase the lethality of your melee attack and shore up your shitty kinetic barrier.

I do owe Dan some major props for his assessment of the new Asari Sentinel, though.  My initial misgivings were definitely fueled by the rather worthless ME3 Asari Vakyrie.  The ME:A Asari Sentinel is light years better. 

Getting an Anointed Kett to weaken his own shields via deflecting his chain gun bullets back on him with Backlash, knocking him on his ass with Throw, and then administering a coup de grace with a Jet Jump powered Biotic Punch was the highlight of yesterday's mutlplayer run.

I also loved detonating my own Power Combos by shooting things with my Elemental Ammo boosted Disciple and then following up with Throw.

 

[odessasteps]

I think I was only on long enough today to cash in my strike team missions and set my new ones.

[J.T.]

I have about 250 in Mission Funds now, so I'm ready if a new mod goes on sale after the Store restocks.

No new class unlocks today (my Asari Huntress is now a II), but I did manage to get the Thokin assault rifle.  I'll take it for a whirl as soon as I can. 

I'm headed back to MD tomorrow morning after shift to take my common law wife to the gastrologist's today and then we're going to spend some QT before I go back to normal dayfshift on Friday and then creep back to Odenton for the weekend.  Gaming opportunities will be few and far between.

I lucked out and pulled day duty between 22 May and 3 June / 5 June and 17 June  for another training exercise / readiness drill so plenty of afternoons of catching up in Campaign Mode await while I am at the 'rents, but the downside is that I have to work on Memorial Day weekend because the Project Officer in charge of the drill is a freshly minted, gung ho Company Commander with something to prove. *sigh*

I will comfort myself with the idea of earning holiday pay while everyone else is enjoying a couple days off.

One of those weekends is my custody weekend.  I'm bummed about not being off, but my kid and I will bounce a couple of afternoons for dinner and the movies.  I still have to see Guardians Vol 2 and I am sure I will get dragged to a showing of Everything, Everything.

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

I think I was only on long enough today to cash in my strike team missions and set my new ones.

I sent out both of my Strike Teams just before arriving on site.

I'll check on them at the end of my shift with the APEX HQ phone app.

[RIPPA]

Yup - I'm so gonna catch JT