MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA (Here be Spoilers)

[odessasteps]

Having done both, saving the Krogan scouts felt better

 

[jstout]

I gotta admit, I was scared Drack would kick my ass.

[J.T.]

I'm more inclined to rescue Krogans than I am Salarians because nearly every Salarian not named Mordin has progressively gotten on my bad side since ME2 with the worst offenses being in ME3, and I am sympathetic to the Krogan since are always getting fucked over and haven't been given the opportunity to rise above their past.

I am sorta bummed about the potential Codex hit I'll take for Kallo even though there are no real consequences since there will be no DLC for this fucking game.

"Remember when I said I'd make sure the Salarians got back home, Kallo.  I kinda sorta lied to you, buddy."

Anyway, I didn't get to play much Campaign Mode since there was lots and lots of MP going on last night.  I had Ryder deal with some asshole Angaran smuggler, found another Memory Trigger and set up the radio transceiver for Nexus News Service.

Ryder is parked at the Forward Station at the new outpost and he is finally going to chat with the mayor about these missing scientists..

The last bits of Earn Your Badge and a few other mission waypoints are stacked at the main Kett Base, so I'll be able to knock a lot of stuff out of the park in one big push.  The only out of the way mission point so far is the lost Angaran scout that may or may not have blown herself up.

I knocked out the Bronze APEX mission this morning.  Stout and I finished up the 14 Waves on Firebase Derelict last night and the Gaming Gods saw fit to punish me for dissing yesterday's Combat Mastery DC by bringing it back today.

Thankfully enough I was rolling with my Angaran Avenger and Batarian Scrapper for a bit after dudes logged off, so I was about 75-ish% done with the Combat Mastery DC without even realizing it.  Three more Bronze matches should do it since things die faster and I can one shot most redbars with a power..

I'll finish that up out this afternoon when I get home from work and then see what is for sale today at the Item Store. 

If no one is on for MP, I will push on with grindy Voeld crap, take out this Kett base, and try to move on to Kadara, but not before getting a new XB1 controller on the way home since my left thumbstick seems to be sticking. 

I was wondering what was causing me to wander out from cover during that Gold APEX match we did last night.

[jstout]

Potentially useful stuff in the equipment section.

11-wave gold strike team is back, and it's a bear. Three randoms and I barely got through it because we were coordinating movements over the mics. That was awesome.

Also awesome - last night, me and a 25,000 APEX duoed six waves of gold Kett before being joined by someone in the seventh. And of course, I lost my connection somehow and got booted out of the game. He was slick with that Avenger - gave me some ideas.

[odessasteps]

Did i see right? 3 new things in the item store. I only had enough funds to buy one today. 

Saw JT was in campaign mode when i got on. Figured He was prob knee deep on ice planet voeld and didnt bother him. 

[jstout]

"I swear to God, if you die one more time, I'm reaching through the Internet and strangling you."

[RIPPA]

Thank God you can buy stuff via the app because I would have been pissed if I missed 4 things because I am in NY

[J.T.]

On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 3:40 PM, jstout said:

11-wave gold strike team is back, and it's a bear. Three randoms and I barely got through it because we were coordinating movements over the mics. That was awesome..

Same here.  I rolled with three randos who definitely knew what they were doing and we were all micced up and talking to each other.  It was great!

The balconies on Firebase Nimbus are relatively easy to defend, but the Challenge Waves were a fucking beast.  Our last Challenge was a hack on the lowest level of the map and everything with a gun had line of sight and high ground on us.  It was fucking awful and everyone got dropped at least once, but we didn't team wipe.

I ran with my Level 20 Turian Soldier VIII and my job was to prime enemies with Cryo Ammo III and throw the occasional grenade while the guy running the Level 20 Human Male Sentinel XX detonated the enemies I froze. That worked really well on the Fiends.

The other part of my job was not to die a lot.

Extraction Wave was almost comically simple since we had a female gamer on our team running a Level 20 Asari Huntress X who had Stealth Grids that lasted forever.  She burned two of her Ammo Packs for the Power Cells (Empty Resupply, remember?) and cloaked the entire squad for almost two minutes. 

Once we got to the LZ, she kept us hidden the entire time and we got the Full Extraction.

I got around the Jammed Weapons stip by using Turbocharge a lot and packing a really high ROF weapon (Revenant VI) and the damage resistance from Fortify helped my survival odds.  I didn't get dropped as much as I thought and I would and I made a lot of revive saves, but I was definitely not the damage dealer of the group. 

That honor belonged to the Human Male Sentinel and the Asari Huntress since they were doing nearly all of the combo detonating.

The reason they worked so well together is (you guessed it) they were husband and wife!   Aww....  I can't even get my woman to attempt to play a video game, much less sit in the same room with me when I am gaming.

I finished last in points but I was only 600 away from the guy in third, so I didn't feel like I was being carried. 

We probably would've wiped four times over if that mission had been on the old patch.  Everyone in the squad got one shotted at least twice, but Ascendant death globes and Fiend barshing does not auto-kill you anymore, thank God. 

We just waited for revives or popped if we were all clear.

We kept the group together long enough to knock out the 14 Waves On Gold / 14 Waves on Firebase Zero daily challenges, exchanged Friend List invites, and bounced.  Best group of people I've met online in a while. 

None of them plan on getting Destiny 2, though.  No new recruits for Clan DVDVR.

I noticed that a Silver APEX mission in my queue that showed up later was also on Firebase Nimbus.  I ran it with my Level 14 Turian Agent VIII armed with a Viper X.  Almost too easy.

On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 9:47 PM, odessasteps said:

Saw JT was in campaign mode when i got on. Figured He was prob knee deep on ice planet voeld and didnt bother him. 

Yeah, I finished up the Lost Scout (torture, ugh..) and Earn Your Badge missions and collected enough Memory Triggers to get sent off on a murder mystery tangent after returning to the Nexus to check on Peebee's secret project (REMNANT VI, FUCK YEAH~!) and collecting my props from the Angaran spec ops dude at the Cultural Exchange.

I guess we all knew that the Initiative was some sort of mass evacuation plan in case the Reaper War went south and now I have to figure out this dumb conspiracy.

Good ol' Bioware.  They actually put in a side mission at The Vortex to meta explain why you can't proxy seduce Natalie Dormer no matter how much you flirt with Lexi.  After that I talked to the bartender to see what he was doing with the new ingredients I was bringing back from other planets.

I tried his new concoction, the Lucky Leprechaun, and subsequently passed out.  I have no idea how long I was unconscious and lying down face first on the karaoke stage in the bar.

I was so thrilled about unlocking a new skill and pissed off that Kalinda was being such a bitch to Peebee that I began flirting with Peebee in a misguided moment of hasty esprit du corps. 

Peebee was a bit too receptive of my suggestive banter and her Codex profile immediately changed to "Your relationship has turned flirty." 

Fuck.....  What have I done?

I was stoked yet bummed that I now had a Remnant VI at my disposal.  I had no points to put into my new skill and I needed to get Sparky up and murdering Remnant as soon as possible for this rare achievement, so once again my OCD causes me to suffer build angst.

I repecced myself so that I can use Energy Drain to Tech Combo the enemies my robo helper targets with its Electric Ray of Doom and I can still cloak and shoot things in the head as per the usual. 

Remnant enemies and bluebars die obscenely fast now.  I am happy again.  I just need to remember that the achievement also requires me to sic the VI on an Architect as well as the other Remnant variants.

Now I have to go back to Voeld to find these scientists, take out the main Kett base, and find this relic for my purple Angaran bae back on Aya. 

I think I also have one final Forward Station left to deploy.

Kadara is looking like a next week kinda thing since we have to babysit this weekend and the big Jon Jones / Daniel Cormier fight is on Saturday night.

There is also this new side mission that I just got as a result of Liam being a dumbass.  Oh, well.  More EXP and a new star system to map.

One more Outlaw scan and I am finally done with Aid APEX.  I'm kinda tired of getting my ass shot off while collecting enemy combatant profile data for the good Lieutenant Sajax.

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 8:30 AM, RIPPA said:

Thank God you can buy stuff via the app because I would have been pissed if I missed 4 things because I am in NY.

I bought my stuff via the app when I went to pick up the carry our order my folks phoned in.

I was actually using the Survivor Mod (Bonus to Shield Strength and Combat Power damage) on my Turian Soldier in the 11 Wave Marathon Gold APEX mission.  It was a fucking lifesaver.

[J.T.]

I also got a new gun this morning; a Charger S SMG.

The game refuses to give me the Carnifax.

[Eivion]

you being flirty with Peebee shouldn't be a problem. Just don't go any further if you want to be serious with someone else.

[odessasteps]

1 minute ago, Eivion said:

you being flirty with Peebee shouldn't be a problem. Just don't go any further if you want to be serious with someone else.

I fooled around with peebee all the time but still got super romance with Jaal, including sex on the beach and/or by the waterfall. 

[Eivion]

I think it depends on who you are with.

[RIPPA]

You can flirt with Peebee - heck you can sleep with her in the escape pod and still be fine.

You will know when it is the point of no return with Peebee

[odessasteps]

Yeah, I did the pod thing a few times.

[odessasteps]

Got on to get some mission funds and do daily stuff.

Ended up with anagaran avenger and batarain scrapper from some packs. Not used them yet

[jstout]

The Avenger, when leveled up and spec-ed out right, is a complete beast.

Anyone else look at the suggested builds on Reddit's ME:A multiplayer group? I built my Avenger from a post there ("Janice the Ripper") and it worked out well.

[Gonzo]

On 7/26/2017 at 7:07 AM, J.T. said:

I'm also happy that I'm finally rumbling with more Outlaw enemies so I can eventually stop fucking scanning bad guys for APEX's scouting report during gun battles and get back to returning hostile fire.

I hate sorting through my locked achievements sometimes.  When I get to the part where I have to choose between the Salarian Pathfinder and the Krogan scouts, I am going to be angry, aren't I?

Who flies the ship after I ventilate Kallo's skull? Dr. Anwar?

Krogan v anything is a really easy choice, because Krogan > all the other races.

That's just my opinion.

[Gonzo]

Also, new TV arriving on Tuesday, so the world's slowest Mass Effect: Andromeda playthrough can resume!

[jstout]

"11 waves of Kett on gold on an unfamiliar map? We got this shit! ... OK, maybe we don't have this shit. ... Hey, we somehow all extracted! I told you we had this shit!"

[odessasteps]

I had a guy yesterday die in the LZ on wave 7 and clock ended as I was reviving him. 

Played twice as Batarian. Got him up to level 7 or 8. 

[jstout]

I don't much care for the Batarian for some reason. I like his melee attack - THE BLENDERFIST OF DOOM~! - but I don't care for flak cannon on anybody.

Batarians are the new hot characters for people to play gold with who are really underpowered and unsuited for gold, but screw it, he looks tough, he'll be alright.

I know if there's a random Batarian in my gold game, I shall be doing more reviving than I care to.

[odessasteps]

The snap freeze is fun, once you figure out its attack radius. 

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, odessasteps said:

The snap freeze is fun, once you figure out its attack radius. 

Batarian Scrapper is a Cryo Combo machine. 

Just remember to keep your weight in the safe zone or chose Recharge Speed in order to keep your Cooldown Rate at a manageable level.

Also remember that the melee attack also works as a detonator so you can Snap Freeze a group of targets, detonate one combo with your Concussive Shot, and then punch any other frozen victims with your Batarian Gauntlet for additional combos.

If you are going to ride the class to 20, I'd recommend putting points into Snap Freeze and Concussive Shot and leave Flak Cannon at Level One.  FC will be enhanced as you put points into the passive skills that favor Power Damage over Weapon Damage. 

You want to do that if intend on relying on detonations to see you through rather than gunfire.

[J.T.]

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 8:47 PM, jstout said:

The Avenger, when leveled up and spec-ed out right, is a complete beast.

There are quite a few excellent builds out there and anyone who liked the N7 Shadow will probably love the AA.

They did gimp the AA somewhat by giving her Stealth Grid so she can't cloak at will like the Shadow can but on the plus side, she doesn't have to worry about weight inhibiting most of her abilities since Stealth Grid and Sticky Grenades works on Power Cells,.

Any mod that increases her Power Cell capacity (Armored Compartments, Grenade Capacity mody, Shock Trooper mod) should compliment her power load-out nicely.

Didn't play much Campaign Mode over the weekend. Had the proxy grandkid over at my crib from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. 

I know the Finger Family song by heart now and am well versed in nearly all things BabyFirst TV.

I had no idea that early child development television programming was such a cutthroat enterprise..

I got in just enough MP early on Sunday morning to finish off the DCs from Saturday night.   Mark PMed me while I was AFK.  My beloved domestic partner and I took the kid to the park and I left my profile logged on.

I'll be online this afternoon to knock out the DCs from yesterday's change over as well as the new APEX missions, and then I'll be flipping over to Campaign Mode and dealing with this bullshit that Liam has gotten me involved in.

[jstout]

The Avenger's go-to move, the Avenger Strike, is on a timer, and you don't want it slowed down by carrying too much crap. Especially since it's rare to even shoot a gun at all, much less two guns. Just get a light shotgun, equip with melee mod, and start knifing stuff.