Rachni, Pyjak, Salarian - Mass Effect 3 Coop

[Nalano]

The N7 sniper, the Valiant, kicks ass. I've been using it more recently on Gold with my infiltrators. I've unlocked the Black Widow too and whilst it does more damage, the speed and accuracy of the Valiant feels better to use.

Firing speed, reloading speed and kickback are all far superior on the Valiant, but the Black Widow has the far better sound. :P

[The JG Man]

It's that tough decision that only games can create. Do you be more beneficial to your team, or do you let them hear a sweet-ass sound? Toughy, no questions.

[QuantaCat]

does anyone have a higher level black widow then? how does it compare to the entry level?

[Ravelle]

I only have the M-Widow or whatever it's called, lot's of walking back and forth between ammo boxes but it packs a lot of power. Nailing two enemies with one bullet is wonderful.

[The JG Man]

Put on the armour-piercing mod and you can do that with any sniper rifle. And it's magnificent.

I tried out the Viper semi-auto sniper rifle earlier. It's at mark 6. It's poor. It packs too much recoil for too little damage. The reload time is about the same as the Valiant, but the re-fire time is slower. This gets compounded if you're in the midst of action and everything is shaking. It makes it rather hard to actually land an accurate shot. By the end of one White Geth Gold, I had the medal for 5 headshots. Now I'm not the best shooter in the world, but it seemed rather telling to me.

It also bugs me that some classes combos are clearly far superior to others. The Krogans are almost useless at the higher levels due to their inherent ability to die the only way they're effective - through melee. Other things too - why would you pick a human infiltrator against the geth if you have a quarian or salarian? Hell, even a geth one is better because they can move quicker! I can see them nerfing gold difficulty along the line to make the other classes more viable. As it stands, you need to be a de-facto set-up otherwise you make it harder for yourself than necessary. Sure, maybe some classes are too powerful, but nerfing them still leaves those weaker combos weak.

[Nalano]

By the end of one White Geth Gold, I had the medal for 5 headshots. Now I'm not the best shooter in the world, but it seemed rather telling to me.

Yeah, if you're not hitting Bronze for headshots in the first one or two rounds, you're doing something wrong. That said, Valiant > Black Widow > Viper > Widow > Kishock > Mantis.

As for Krogan melee (and, vicariously, all vanguards and sentinels), I'm not sure even game designers can balance bringing a knife to a gunfight.

[The JG Man]

I'm a bit confused - are you saying the Mantis, the starter 'bolt-action' sniper rifle is worse than the Viper, or have you got the names mixed up? I know that seems a tad facetious, but I struggle to think why of all the semi-auto rifles, anyone would think that was good. I forget the name of the Salarian one, the one that's basically a slow firing assault rifle, but I'm led to believe that's alright for what it is. Othewise, I won't argue with you over the weapon order. I'm having a blast with the Valiant.

As for the melee, well they need to do *something*. I don't know if it's a case of boosting shields or what. Korgans specced for it will do a significant amount of damage at melee and have decent shields, but you can't go running off battering things away because you'll just get picked off and killed in gold. I don't envy their task.

[Nalano]

I'm a bit confused - are you saying the Mantis, the starter 'bolt-action' sniper rifle is worse than the Viper, or have you got the names mixed up? I know that seems a tad facetious, but I struggle to think why of all the semi-auto rifles, anyone would think that was good. I forget the name of the Salarian one, the one that's basically a slow firing assault rifle, but I'm led to believe that's alright for what it is. Othewise, I won't argue with you over the weapon order. I'm having a blast with the Valiant.

Because semi-auto > bolt action. Viper is a poor man's Valiant. A lot of fights aren't about pure punch but about sending bullets downrange.

[The JG Man]

True, to an extent, but you still need weapons with a good punch. The Viper handles like crap - I'd much rather take the Mantis if given the choice. Of course, you'll be hard pressed to pry the Valiant out of my hands now.

[DarthBenedict]

As for Krogan melee (and, vicariously, all vanguards and sentinels), I'm not sure even game designers can balance bringing a knife to a gunfight.

Human vanguards can work pretty well even on gold if you have a few biotics putting reave or warp on everything. Nova works really well for detonating combos, plus you can help out a lot if your squishy caster teammates get overrun.

[Drayk]

Won my first gold fight yesterday. Tricky.

I have really bad luck on the packs. Still no good weapon, no Krogan Vanguard or sentinel no Geth.

They should have put an exchange system...

[Heliocentric]

I have all if the classic characters unlocked, but no sentinel, what's that about?

[QuantaCat]

sniper rifles: I took a liking to the mantis now, the almost fully upgraded one. I know its only one shot, but it doesnt weigh much, and my adept can really pack a punch, as Im sure Ravelle, Tail and Sceptrum can attest to.

But what really annoys the FUCK out of me is how useless my turian soldier is. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
I mean, ok, I just gave him the geth pulse rifle to play with, especially with the GIGANTIC ammo clip, but even with the revenant hes not doing any damage. seriously, whats up with that?

[QuantaCat]

OK. Fixed it. I respecced, and put all his points towards rate of fire, and etc. made some stupid choices.

[The JG Man]

Don't bring a gun to a space magic fight :P

[QuantaCat]

Don't bring a gun to a space magic fight :P

Oh but now it kicks arse. Bigtime. It also helps to have a good position from which to defend your team :D
(also, I set my mine skill to "vulnerability" instead of damage, which makes a difference.)

Looking forward to the next gold!

[westyfield]

I forget the name of the Salarian one, the one that's basically a slow firing assault rifle, but I'm led to believe that's alright for what it is.

The Raptor, maybe? The Turian/human semi-automatic sniper rifle?

[Kadayi]

I reckon we can do Cerberus Gold on Hydra. Myself, JG & Sceptum did Silver twice with just 3 of us last night (stupid Randoms dropping a couple of stages in) without much trouble, using 2 Asari adepts and a Geth infiltrator. You have to be prepared to use some rockets towards the end stages, but I figure it's entirely possible if you hold the control room end.

[deano2099]

Really annoyed by this as I tend to get chucked out of any game I don't host at some point (although when I host, it seems to work fine for everyone else). But I anytime I invite people they can never join the game properly.

I'm not a huge online gamer but never had such problems with online before and have what's generally a ridiculously stable connection.

So annoying as really want to try some Gold with some of you guys.

[Kadayi]

Really annoyed by this as I tend to get chucked out of any game I don't host at some point (although when I host, it seems to work fine for everyone else). But I anytime I invite people they can never join the game properly.

I'm not a huge online gamer but never had such problems with online before and have what's generally a ridiculously stable connection.

So annoying as really want to try some Gold with some of you guys.

Jumping on the mumble is a good idea Dean, even if you don't have a working mic as we do a lot of 'Phantom incoming towards ramp' type chat, that can be the difference between survival and flatlining. The ingame VOIP isn't great tbh.