201 réponses à ce sujet

[Lynx7725]

vasht: Sorry to hear that man. I've been there, can't remember whether silver or lower. (I did play a few games of silver.) Hard fought match, got all the way to the screen, but before the system could commit my results the host departed/ disconnected. Zero...

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Tonight, 3 games. Bought Spectre+ and got, finally, the Black Widow. So first game was to try it out.

White/ Cerberus. Clownguards. 2 of them, one not so bad. The other.. not using brain. A lot of "around that corner" fights but thankfully he also managed to cap the spawn point by being not-good at picking camping spots. So ended up a lot of Cerberus coming up from the landing pad, which is ok by me...

Black Widow I, doesn't feel right. Not enough single-round stopping power, have to double tap or work towards headshots even on mooks. Or cloaking, which I'm not sure how effective that would be, have to try some more. Otherwise, it's nice, good ammo load even without the ammo mod. Put AP mod on it to work on armoured opponents.

Still need to get used to having more than one round in scoping. But getting there. Late game, the worse Clownguard tried to solo the Atlas. Indoors. No room to roll, so inevitable that he catches a rocket and dies. One of us was trying to distract the Atlas from the top of the stairs, the other two were killing mobs on the landing pad. I eventually circled behind and help kill the Atlas with a few shots from the Black Widow.

I never understood the mentality that Clownguards have about trying to solo bosses. Mid game, single boss, low spawns, I can understand. Late game, multiples, high spawns? Assuming the support would be there is a fast way to get killed.

Extraction was uneventful. Full, everyone got out. 

Second game, I took the Turian Grenadier out for fun. Got a Falcon V recently too, better; that 1 extra ammo helps. Team was a Krogan, and I think one infiltrator and one other. Got White/ Cerberus.

Man I'm starting to hate White.<_< Not because the map is bad, but because so many people had farmed on it that they have so many different interpretation of how to fight it. At least this one no Vanguards. In this case, early match frustration as the Krogan went charging around the corner. But worked out ok once the Krogan player realised the rest of us aren't keen to follow.. (think a Salarian and a Quarian. Not built for that kind of abuse.)

So we settled into a nice routine. Cerbies shows up we locked them down. Grenade practice in this place is good because you learn to gauge the bounce and open enough to see the effect. There was a hacking objective in the far room, and we bunkered down and the Falcon showed its worth by bank-shotting troopers out of doorways for easy removal.

One Wave, had the misfortunate to turn around to see my teammate on the ground and the Phantom standing over him and waaaaay too close for comfort. Panicked grenading pushed the Phantom back enough that the rest of the team mangled her.. I did have my share of grenading Phantoms later.

There was one wave, I can't remember which game, but Wave 10 and an Atlas spawned in the small room next to the sniper's perch. I was surprised, but yanked out the Cobra. One rocket away, and I was quite surprised I nailed a Phantom along with the Atlas and killstreaks. Never even saw her, ain't going to complain.

Extraction was just tossing grenades from the Falcon downstream, as well as a nice Cobra for the Atlas. Got a killstreak for that one too. Full extraction. I think I got top place for this one, quite surprised as I honestly didn't think I was doing that much damage.. Grenade bounces are random.

Last game was Giant/ Cerberus. Don't know why Cerberus was so active tonight, but I ain't going to complain. As the last match, I took in a Cryo II ammo.. Icing on cake. Couldn't quite get the Promixity Mines to work right on Giant yet, since it's dependent on mob pathing and Giant's more open.

Cryo is fun. AOE Cryo is Icing-on-cake fun! 

Made an early rookie mistake by engaging the enemy out of sight of my support infiltrators (2 big snipers). Cryo ammo meant they froze and died out of LOS from my gunners, so once I realised that I started to pull back to let them take frozen kills (like I give a crap about kills, let them have 'em while I locked down more. Clockwork to see ice sculptures shatter under Mantis fire).

Another rookie mistake, I think it's a human Sentinel.. camped wrong spot, ended up the Infiltrators got flanked. Thankfully I was at the bottom of the ramp, ran up and grenades flew everywhere. Room clearance with AOE Cryo. Think I slapped a Phantom on the nose with a grenade too -- she didn't have one after that.

Later, Capping Wave, ran solo down to #4 (capped #2 and #3, Infiltrators seems to like shooting things... <_<). Turned the corner, see a Trooper, slapped him off with a Concussive Shot, then I see the Phantom. Panicked shooting, nailed her with enough Cryo to slow her down and then got her killed. Capped the point, then see a big nasty Atlas coming down... eek. Got flanked by Engineer and Trooper too, but I think teammates got the Atlas and I froze off the Engineer and Trooper. Hectic. 

Extraction was busy. Snipers apparently never heard of the "Giant Turkey Shoot" theory and retired early. Atlas came marching up, Cobra up and into the torso. Then became a matter to clean up the garbage, include a few banked shots into the rock area and good "no-sight" kills. Promixity mines work great here as the enemy is predictable and walked right over it.

Somehow though, a pair of Guardians got behind us at the last few seconds and it became very hectic. Somehow managed to clear with the team still intact for a Full Extraction. Got #2 behind one of the snipers by about 400 points, which is interesting because I don't think I actually went about killing too many things.

[Chromako]

Random matchup on Silver. Me, Asari Adept, and a Drell Adept. No Mic. Drell sends Pull. Half second later, I warp. BOOM! Depending on the situation, we also used Warp>Reave. We followed each other around the map doing exactly this, and kicked butt. Thought it was really cool that a PUG with no Mic worked out so well.

Modifié par Chromako, 05 avril 2012 - 08:37 .

[Lynx7725]

Yeah, it's really nice when a PUG had someone who has played your class long enough to know how to work with it. Usually quite smooth going.

I did all the Rannoch missions on SP today, so it's a bit exhausted. Geth are nasty in the amounts spawned in SP game -- mass rocket troopers are irritating. Got in two games, both with the Turian Grenadier, just to keep the Galatic Readiness up.

First was Reactor/ Geth. Reactor's a bad map to use Falcon on, the angles are too many and odd, you can't get decent bounces. Team was alright, although a bit too mobile for my liking. Kept up with the run-and-gun, though Hunters proved to be problematic.

Extraction was crazy. Prime was Cobra'ed away early -- I was slow and wasted mine -- but later, the mid-tier bosses swarmed the area. AOE effects kept them off but one guy got downed at the last seconds. Partial.

Second game was Glacier/ Reaper. Much more fun. Good team, think 4 soldiers, one a Krogan and I think 2 other humans. We got used to each other's rhythm and worked out quite ok. I held the upramp near the hub most of the time, works out good as I could promixity mine down and just go ape happy with the Falcon around that corner. Cannibals' habit of stopping for lunch didn't help when they are right under a grenade launcher's eye.

One wave, I was busy deciminating the Cannibals and I went "hmm, why is there a Brute shadow on the wall to my left? :crying:" Turns out, a Brute and a Banshee had spawn in the alcove in the lab because someone left it uncapped.. so they snuck up on me. No, I wasn't crushed under.. dodged out from the Brute-Hug, managed to get the Cobra up, nailed the Banshee with a groundburst, circled around the central wall to see the Brute's naked ass, and shot it up with the team's help.

... and if you think that's bad, one Wave had a Brute coming up the ramp, so I rained AP grenades down on him. He still managed to charge up and by mistake I got caught between it and the console there. Nope, didn't die (yet), hopped over the console so he can't get to me again, shot him up, got caught against another console, hopped over it.. bloody like a hurdles race. <_< <_< Teammates were on the scene and dropped him.

... and if you think that's bad, Wave 10 hacking, corridor's end. Gods it was a zoo. Got Cannibals to stop for lunch and rained grenades on them, but Ravagers were another problem. Thankfully they never got into the corridor proper, instead was half on the stairs to the basement, so we just popped them there.

Banshee and Brute shows up, Cobra up and missed the Banshee.
Did hit the Brute IIRC, so that's not bad. Banshee locked onto a teammate and followed him into the landing pad. I don't know how he did it but he managed to dance away from the Banshee long enough for her to make a leisurely circle and come back to us.

So I saw her coming and rained grenades on her. Somehow, that got her attention and she locked onto me. Got her down to one bar when she grabbed me and started to sync kill. Nope, didn't die from THAT one either. Teammates killed her just before she stabbed and I dropped onto the console that we were hacking. The Turian was thanking whatever gods he believed in at that point. :innocent:

Extraction. just at the end of Wave 10 one guy dropped.. too bad, would have been nice for all to be extracted. Banshee up, Cobra up, dead Banshee. Not too sure if I nailed the Brute but one got in -- killed him conventionally. Otherwise, very quiet Full Extraction.

Reviewing the story, I think the Turian Grenadier just about used up his store of good luck. Think I'll promote him shortly, since he's 19 now. Also getting a bit bored with the Falcon, it's good but only really great with Cryo on it, to act as crowd control for the team. I got a Revenant X in the armoury, maybe it's time to break that out.

Modifié par Lynx7725, 06 avril 2012 - 07:44 .

[Lynx7725]

After 12 straight hours of connectivity problems with EA Servers, I finally got games completed. Yes, it was very frustrating.

3 games. 1st, I got the Turian Grenadier out. Reactor/ Geth, not one of my favourite combinations, and for some reason the system has been giving me a lot of Reactors today in disconnected games. Good team, knew their stuff and generally good on their feet. Waves came fast and we knocked them down.

10th Wave, hacking in the Reactor. I was first in, started the hack. Then the Geth Prime and his gang showed up... and I introduced them to Mr. Cobra. Good one there because shortly after that, more Pyros and Hunters showed, we would have been swamped if I hadn't done that.

Extraction was nominal; Full extraction. I had a good time lobbing grenades to suppress the Geth. At the end, I realised we just scored a Gold 10 Waves Survived medal. First time I ever saw that in my time here.. and I remembered we never got anyone floored during the match. Good team there.

Turian Grenadier hit 20, so I promoted him. Seriously, after yesterday's game with the Reapers, I figured his karma is about up. Best to get him out of the way. I'll probably go with a Human Soldier with the Falcon next time -- I miss the rolling. I'll miss the Proximity Mines though.. unless the Batarian also has Proximity Mine.

Opened a Vet Pack, got a 5th Cobra. Good, now I can spam Cobras.

Second was Giant/ Cerberus, and I took the Infilitrator with the Widow out. Human Vanguard, Salarian Infiltrator, Drell Adept. The Vanguard was ok. Not a team player, but took the usual vanguard stuff to the other side of the map and was good enough to survive it. At least he's considerate. The rest of us set up normally, and it went decently well.

Base Black Widow I isn't as great as people make it out to be. Even with a Barrel V extension, it can't OHK a basic trooper reliably; Even Cerberus Troopers can suvive a body hit. Not reliable against Guardians either, have to cloak. It's a good gun, just not quite great yet -- probably need to level at least to BW III for it to be that reliable. Did manage to nail a shieldless Atlas with 3 shots, that was good (and because of the AP mod too).

Extraction went ok, I stayed behind to act as support, but for some reason the shots don't seem to be registering.. ah well. Retreated at 30secs, managed to still get a few kills before the shuttle came in. Full Extraction.

Opened another Vet Pack. IIRC, chara cards. Ah well.. Too bad the new chara cards aren't out yet. Yup, those things will be clogging your packs too. <_<

Last match, Glacier/ Geth. Oookie.. Glacier's decent for snipers but only just. Krogan Soldier, Human Engineer, an Quarian Infiltrator (IIRC). Started out camping the top of the ramp, but to my annoyance found that the BW could not bodyshot a Geth Trooper -- the last buff put them up higher. Embarassing.

Not sure if Krogan knew what he was doing. Spawn-capped the downstairs spawn a couple of time, driving the Geth to the landing pad (harder to work with). Got floored a couple of times -- once after not being able to kill a Hunter target and got sandwiched between it and a pair of Pyros. Came in dead last, but still contributed.. live and learn.

Game proceeded until the Primes started showing up. One of the Primes spawned in the basement and came up the ramp where I was waiting. Black Widow shots rained down, but it still managed to get up. Dodged out of the way, picked up ammo, and killed it. Took longer than I'd liked but the tradeoffs were good.

One thing I suddenly realised this game was that in an earlier game, I found out that AP rounds go through Glacier glass windows just fine (with the usual damage reduction). As I was sprinting to assist the other infiltrator at the doorway to the landing pad, I asked myself: "Why am I rushing to the doorway... when I can just shoot through this huge window... and they can't hit me in return?"

Cue manic laughter.

And it works. The glass is frosty but you can still see targets well enough to hit them. Black Widow, Cloak, AP mod still produce enough damage to drop normal troopers and they have nothing that can touch you in return. Not to mention the glass is perfectly placed to be flanking the advance and facing the spawn point on the landing pad. Perfert enfilade fire. Tried it on a Geth Prime, don't bother --
not effective.

Wave 10, assassination. Target #1, Prime. With his usual crowd. At Basement, coming up ramp. "You know what to do." Cobra Up, Cobra Out, Prime Down.

Extraction Wave. Prime shows up. Cobra Up, Cobra Out, Prime Down. After that was quite anticlimatic, except for an idiot Krogan trying to crowd our area and leaving the other doorway being held by the poor Quarian. Thankfully I was parked at the correct spot and could support her with a couple of shots. Nearly missed the timer, but got there in time for Full Extraction. Ended up #2, I guess the killstreaks worked.

Last pack for the night, a Raptor III. That's nice, I like the Raptor, but it needs to be levelled. Probably will put it on a soldier eventually.

[seedubya85]

melee killing an atlas on silver

[Lynx7725]

Oh yeah. Melee kill on Atlas are always a sight to see.

Finished my SP over the Easter Weekend, and suddenly there's no urgency to promoting MP operatives..

Anyway, came back just to keep the Galactic Readiness up, and to take a look at the new stuff. Not impressed.. yet.

Three games, all Infiltrator/ BW. Glacier/ Reaper, Reactor/ Geth, Hydra/ Geth.

Glacier/ Reaper, I was half awake so kept to my side of the map (ramp area). Didn't do so hot, basically never saw the Banshee, saw a couple of Brutes, a couple of Ravagers.. mainly potting Cannibals and Marauders. Had to dodge around a Brute when a Husk grabbed me just as it started to come up, the dance around that central wall is starting to become a norm..

Started to warm up during the Extraction Wave, nearly missed the timer, but got out with Full Extraction.

Reactor/ Geth is annoying, due more to the map. Dropped to 3 on Wave 1, Level 20 Vanguard.. predictable. Guy was good enough and map was cluttered enough so that he wasn't too disruptive. Had to use more Cobras than usual because...

1. Missed a Geth Prime at point blank range. <_< Caught the rest of his clowns, but had to do a second to kill him.

2. During Extraction Wave we got floored and the Hunters/ Pyros overwhelmed -- I just swept the area clean with a Cobra strike. Partial Extraction, because the Vanguard charged, backpedalled, and got nailed at the last seconds.

Hydra/ Geth. New map , interesting. Map is deceptive, it's smaller than it looks. Haven't figured out all the spawn points yet, but it's really open.. better than Dagger in some aspects for snipers, if you know you're going into this map bring something long ranged. 2 Asaris (Adepts I think), 1 Human carrying a Widow (Soldier I think). So two CC and two snipers, it's not too bad a combo.

How good? Well, killed at least 2 Primes with just cloaking/ BW. That's how good the map is for snipers. Seems the spawn locations drove the Primes along the bottom and that gives a huge advantage. Quick sniping killed the Primes, and then all those mid-tiers stuck in the open...

The open area to the side near an ammo point makes for a good sniping post because it allows a sniper to cover both the tunnels and the bunker side. I was able to support our lone Asari flank-protection due to good angles on the upramp there, killed quite a few there as she bubbled and delayed them.

Sun does make it harder to spot Hunters. Still, Extraction Wave, I was in the right place and racked up an incredible kill score, because I was just killing Pyros/ Hunters and Troopers as they came out into the passageway. Between myself and a (late) Asari, we basically cleaned that spawn's clock.

And then rapidly got swamped somehow, haven't figured out how. Think I used a Cobra to sweep the area clean again. Think I got a melee kill on a Hunter that everyone else overlooked.. it crept it, got knocked about, then I just melee'd it down for keeps.

Hydra looks to be a bright clean map, certainly less cluttered than Reactor, more open than Giant, and no nasty back door like Dagger. I like it, would need to play more on it to figure it out, but looks to be good for sniping classes, something I always liked.

[Lynx7725]

Back to the grind.

4 matches tonight. The first, I trotted out my infiltrator because of all the discussion today on Widows. I've gotten it up to Widow III, with Barrel and Mag mods. 17+1, so without the Mag should be about 9 or 10 shot.. not quite a comfortable round, still need to level it, probably to Widow V, before I can swap the Mag mod out.

So Infiltrator goes in, Dagger/ Reaper. Not too bad. Team is good. Nailed a couple of Brutes and I think a Banshee. Didn't use a Cobra, the team is that coordinated. Full extraction. It's nice to see a team on the ball, constantly checking to avoid getting flanked.

After that, randomly bought some Premium Spectre, hoping to get a few new races. Got Batarian Soldier and Asari Justicar. Not the Krogan Vanguard that I want to build but both are races I want to try.

Went with Barak the Batarian. class cards means I start at Level 6, a bit uncomfortable as it's neither here nor there. Barak the Batarian is probably a low luck fellow.. numerous games fell apart before he finally PUG'ed into Reactor/ Reaper, not my favourite map, not my favourite enemy. But team was good, a bit noisy, but we hung as a group and stomped anything that came near.

Group's a bit Cobra happy though. Didn't really see Banshees, just remains. I think I impressed the crew a bit by leaning into a Ravager or two with Revenant X firepower (AP mod, no problem). And promptly unimpressed them when I stepped into Ravager poo and got floored.   Had spec'ed into Blades as I hear things about it, but it's surprisingly braindead -- slow to activate, no tracking. Gotta get close to use it right. The Incinderary Grenades were easy to use, but still not that accurate.

Full extraction -- guys had a funny way to defend the Extraction Zone by running AT the Banshee. Ran past, lured her back into the reactor, then Cobra'ed her.. I just cleaned up the Brute after them.

Next match, Dagger/ Cerberus. I snorted when I saw it's Cerbies I'm facing. Group had two snipers and a vanguard, so it was a good mix and the Vanguard had his head screwed on. (Drell, so that's expected.) As expected, stomped the Cerbies down. Nailed one Atlas with a Cobra (after missing the first.. ), another with Grenades and Revenant fire. Also splattered a Phantom all over the place with Revenant fire.. the trick is to lure her into the tunnel where she's got not much place to hide. Full extraction, good crew there.

Last match, just to test out the Blades evolution I was working on. White/ Geth. Sigh. Two Human Vanguards (Lvl 17s) and a Quarian Engineer (Lvl 11). Correction. Two Human Lvl 17 Clownguards.

As Clownguards go they weren't too bad. Zoomed around the corner on the first go, I ended up supporting them from the bottom of the ladder, at the corner pillar. Easier to splatter rounds out, but I left them to it as I was looking to just ease my way through. Turned out hectic as they couldn't quite do the job, always a few leakers like Hunters and Pyros.. thankfully I wasn't playing a sniper, would have been frustrated at the way they just kept going around.

As I said they weren't too bad, nor too good since both got floored in an early Wave.. got too into the building, probable couldn't do Nova-cancel, and just got hammered. Picked one up, the Quarian picked up the other. So I just stuck at the pillar and supported them while they go ape happy. Turns out the Blades were pretty powerful in close, a few Hunters had the unfortunate experience of finding out.

So we got to Wave 10, where it sort of fell apart. Objective cap wave, so I went for #1, got disturbed by a lone Geth Trooper.. fair enough. cap the point and then off'ed the stupid Trooper. Capped #2, all quiet... too quiet. Opps, one guy got floored. Moved on to #3... Yikes! Hunters and Pyros are in the Building! And the Vanguards all got floored! What were they doing??!? <_<

One lone Batarian can't hold against 2 Pyros in close. Duck out, one of the Vanguard got back up and came charging, trying to cap #3. Pyro snuck up and killed him and started roasting me. Floored, Medi-geled, Floored, Medi-geled. <_< Prime moving in, yanked out the Cobra, ground strike cleared most of the clowns. Missed the Prime, second Cobra wiped him out. Still got floored again, decided that enough is enough and I just let a Trooper stomp me out.

Insult to injury, I was third on the table, about 10K IIRC behind the leader. The Quarian was last. When I got back to the lobby, the two Vanguards have voted to kick the Quarian. <_< <_< Had no intention to have another match, so I did the Quarian a favour by quitting the lobby and getting him kicked.. the two Clownguards aren't doing anyone any favours. <_<

Batarian-wise.. Not sure if Revenant is the right gun. Feels wrong. Going to try a Saber, then maybe a Raptor on him tomorrow. Blades are looking better now that I've levelled it and the Grenades are as usual useful. Will push it a bit more tomorrow to see how it works out.

[Lynx7725]

Extra frustrating day. Lots of broken connections. Some is definitely due to my connection, but really..

Barak the Batarian is really a down-on-his-luck guy. So many games, so little counts. Ran him in a few tests with the new AR, Striker? and also Mattlocks. Tried Talon the other day. Not really keen on any of them. Talon, too much work as a Soldier to Run-and-Gun. Mattlock, never really got into them, feels very strange to have to feather a AR. Striker, I don't mind it too much but the explosives makes it really hard to see things. Prefer the Falcon, to be honest.

Managed to sneak in a completed game earlier, It was Reactor/ eh.. Reaper I think. Crew was good, stomped over the enemy. My connection held long enough for a Full Extraction and then fell apart.. thankfully the credits and XP registered. :innocent:

After that was a long wait for connection and server to stablized. Finally got back into the scoreboard with a Condor/ Cerberus game. First few times on a Condor map, was interesting, starting to get the hang of it. Concept is fresh though it's starting to become quite apparently where are the "good" spots. Team was ok but IIRC we wiped on Wave 10; Just too many turrets and I took two targets (can't remember if they were assassination or objectives) before getting floored (by a Phantom IIRC). The others weren't exactly going for the targets. I think initially they got distracted, but after I died, they were sort of pinned by turrets and no good idea how to get out of it.

Next game was.. grit teeth-ish. White/ Cerberus. 2 Krogan Vanguards. 1 Salarian.. Melee Artist. <_< Yeah you hear me. The Salarian was very keen to get into melee range. Kept swinging at Cerbies.

The Krogans weren't very good. First they took up so much space they just weren't quick enough. Second they stuck together. Couldn't do jack. Third not the most situation-aware. I ended up having to deal with Atlases, Engineers, Guardians, Turrets, Phantoms.. I even Heavy Melee a Phantom.

Yes you heard correctly. I Batarian Freight Train Punched a Phantom in the face.

She was climbing up the ladder. I was on top of it. Timed it right, fist met face, she crumbled off the ladder. Also got another Phantom with the blades. Yeah that's how much leaked past the Krogan Brothers.

Shot up most of one Atlas, Inferno Grenade and shot up another, this was in front of a Krogan Vanguard with a Widow -- what was he doing? <_< Salarian (I think) was quick to get the Cobra on the Extraction Atlas. Can't remember if Full or Partial Extraction. I recall one game that a Vanguard was dangling outside, but can't remember if it was this one.

Next was Hydra/ Cerberus. Not that great a crew. A Asari Adept who left the game midway, then the Wave 10 objective cap just fell apart. Failed on Wave 10. 

Finally, Giant/ Cerberus. Yes I was doing randoms. Seems like Cerberus is the new crowd favourite. 2 Human Vanguards and one something sniper. Didn't matter what something was, left in Wave 1 or 2. So 2 Vanguards and a Batarian..

Surprisingly, the more experienced Vanguard wasn't too bad. Knew his job, since this was a Vanguard heavy team he cut a bit looser. I didn't mind too much. The other Vanguard is decidedly more clownish. Dropped in Wave 1, that's a big sign. Constantly dropping, usually somewhere I wasn't at.. Can't say much of the game, got my kills in, think I cut a bit loose with the Cobras since I know Vanguards will take too long with Atlases. Managed to kill my share of Phantoms, at least one, maybe two with blades. Useful, those, especially with the Explosives evolution. Wave 10 hack was good, both Vanguards demonstrated brains and went for the Engineers first. Thankfully the Cerbies got channeled, so Inferno grenades toned things down.

End of the wave, I saw a Cerbie trooper drop off the edge as I punched his buddy into the air. Turns out that Trooper didn't die, instead was stuck under the map. Tossed a grenade after him but didn't work. Elder Vanguard demonstrated that Nova was a 3D effect by triggering it on top and killing him.

Extraction, one of the Vanguards beat me to the Cobra draw on the Atlas. Was quite quiet after that, the usual Revenant and Nova beatdown. Full Extraction.

Barak the Batarian is now Level 15. To be honest, find him a bit dull. He brings more ammo to the party, but his powers are a bit sub-par. Blades is useful but non-tracking, limited in ability. Grenades are fun but are grenades with all the inherent problems. Didn't spec blade armour. In terms of weapons, emphasis is on SR and Shotties -- Both SR and shotties. So are they supposed to bring both to the party? Not too sure how to make him interesting...

[Lynx7725]

So Barak the Batarian went out again...

One match tonight. Correction: One completed match tonight. So many wasted trips...

Anyway, Condor/ Cerberus. Didn't feel like working too hard tonight so went with Cerberus. Also respec'ed Barak to be more Ballistic Blade centric, with the Cone effect, much better. Also settled on Shotgunning, initally with a Claymore but switched to a Scimitar for more RoF.

Condor is a confused and confusing map. Had a good team, or at least a team that knew what to do. Barak's respec'ed Inferno Grenades came in very useful as the Spawn points are close and it's possible to drop a grenade on a whole bunch at one go. Cone-blades also makes it possible to AOE spam, and backed with a shottie it's good.

Punched the lights out on a Turret and then went hunting after the Engineer. Bladed, Infernoed and Shotgun one Phantom -- think I exploded another with blades. Managed to shotgun another Phantom off my teammate -- that one was lucky, she was about to sync-kill I think. Also, punched an Atlas in the groin, but alas, someone else claimed it (with a Shuriken too).

Had a Hack on the evac zone. I see why people are complaining; that area's bad, too easy to sneak up on the team and not closed off enough to prevent random grenade rain. Easy to get overran. I actually had to clear the zone with 2 missiles prior to starting the hack IIRC -- once because I aimed too low and hit a ramp (killed a bunch of Engineers and Guardians so ain't too wasted), the other to scrape the Atlas off my landing pad.

Parital Extraction -- a Soldier got out of the zone by a meter or so. Distracted killing Cerbies.

[Lynx7725]

Quick games to up my Galatic Readiness. Not for any real reason...

Barak the Batarian is really hard luck. Kicked from the first game. Got switched to Silver for the second. Got into Silver for the third. Dropped for the fourth... you get the idea. <_<

Finally, Reactor/ Cerberus. Dropped in on Wave 3 so no idea who I'm working with. Good team, knows the wetwork. Batarian Blade Spam in Reactor is always entertaining what with the blood and gore from explosive blades. With an Asari Bubbles around it becomes much easier. Full extraction.

Condor/ Cerberus. Urgh. Team was decent to good, Quarian Infiltrator, Human Soldier, one other who joined us later. Initial few waves are ok. Stuck behind the mid-tier bunker, lobbed Infernos whenever the upper tier spawned. Nabbed a good number of kills, my first 75 kills medal IIRC. Got TWO Hacking Waves, 3 and 6 - Urgh, the zone is just lousy with open air. No real place to hide. Still, a bit of creative work and we got through.

Wave 10 Objective Cap. Good Gods which idiot design this map? Phantom killed two teammates within minutes and Turret placements were vicious -- someone at Bioware had a field day with Turrets plotting there. <_< <_< I popped one Phantom with Explosive Blades early, then the Human Soldier and I played musical chairs with the ground until we were able to kill the other Phantom. Then it was a mad rush to cap the objectives before we got overwhelmed, just basically ran past everyone, I capped, he covered (his Phaeston's better for this).

We finally got #4, and I damn near walked into a turret.. luckily saw the armour bar and instinctively took a look first. Reversed direction pretty damn quick and my teammate nearly ran into it too. We both got into cover and nailed the turret, then the engineer. Shortly later, we killed the last mobs and man it was a lot of hard work.

After that kind of Wave 10 I'm not going for anything other than Full Extraction. Take THAT, game! Messy zone, too easy for the enemy to creep up. But someone obviously felt annoyed with the AI, somebody spent a Cobra on an Atlas. Nobody got dropped, Full Extraction.

[Lynx7725]

2 quick games to up the Galatic Readiness.

First is Dagger/ Geth. Took a Revenant out. Scimitar is nice but felt overly assault focussed -- not my style. Team looked alright on paper but turns out mildly out-of-tune. Sentinel or Vanguard got taken down first turn.. Barak's eyebrows, had he had them, rose. And then he got down to business. Far end spawn, Inferno out, Revenant suppress. Kills start to stack. We even managed a Killstreak with no Cobras -- ended with 2 in the mission. Geth is a bit squishy once the Explosive Blades start to work. Somehow managed a clean miss on a Prime.. huh. Full Extraction, and topped the table. 

Barak the Batarian is now Sweet Eighteen.. eh no. That's just wrong. Anyway, started the Blade Armour evolution, not too keen since it slows down Explosive Blades but what the heck. Gotta try it.

Went back in for another game. Giant/ Geth. Interesting break from breaking Cerberus and the maps to do that on are nice. Vanguards, Infiltrators and 'ittle ole Barak. New team playstyle -- start at the top and Vanguard your way down. Wasn't too bad. Got a Killstreak by lobbing an Inferno all the way down and catching IIRC 5 Geths.. and burning them to a crisp together. Sychronized Dying. Don't often get that.

Blade armour works nicely I think. Barak didn't die much, just once from a Pyro Revive that I remembered. Got the Prime this time on the ramp with a Cobra groundstrike, and later tagged the Evac Prime with another Cobra. Revenant and Inferno worked wonders in crowded environments. The Blades stagger proved very effective against Pyros and Hunters. Full evac on this one.

Now that I've gotten more used to the Batarian Soldier, I think the optimal mix for me is 6/6/6/5/3.. don't really need the extra ammo when you are lugging a Revenant, and 30% DR is nice. Inferno should be maxed and Cone Explosive Blades are very fun. Fitness is less of an issue when you have 30% DR.

Now to get Barak promoted and then to start on something new. Huh. my Sentinel class is at level 17 already -- and I've never touched the Sentinels. Maybe that. Krogan, if I don't unlock the Battlemaster first. Or Asari Justicar. It'll be nice to be able to roll again.

[Lynx7725]

2 more games to up the Readiness and grind Barak up.

Had to go through Barak's Luck -- dropped connection, server drops, Never Ready Lobby, etc.

Ghost/ Cerberus: Good team. Salarian Engineer, Krogan Battlemaster, myself. One other started, dropped halfway. Realised today that Inferno Grenades are a Towering Pillar effect: if you lobbed it at the ground beneath the Ghost upstairs spawn points, the enemies yet to descend can get Incinerated too. So I happily did that.

Phantom rounds, I killed one Phantom with a combination of Inferno, Blades and Revenant rounds. The other I offed accidentally with a loose Revenant round while rushing to pick up the Salarian (who I think got floored by her). Other than that, we cut a bit loose with the Cobra so the Atlas never got into play.

Extraction we were forward, so it was substantially easier -- caught many Cerbies in the flank/ rear so it was a turkey shoot. Full Extraction.

Next round was Giant/ Cerberus. Geth Infiltrator, Asari Adept, Human something.. Sentinel? Geth Infiltrator was after kills; he walked straight past an activated objective with his Mantis. Got a lot of kills but really.. I ended up capping 3 of 4 that round.

Had some issues with Cerbie Engineers because we weren't really set up to deal with them. Had to hide a bit while waiting for the turret to get distracted. One wave, we also got a hung Trooper below the sniping perch.. nobody could get a lock and no powers. I finally found that I could bounce an Inferno Grenade off the side wall to catch him, and we managed to move on.

Didn't see any Phantoms this game -- was always somewhere else. Managed to spawncamp the far end tunnel spawn on one wave and Inferno'ed 2 Nemesis at one go -- quite rare to get two to spawn together.

Wave 9, Atlas showed up in the Landing Zone and we were on the other side of the wall. Started by killing an Engineer before he got too far, then this fat Atlas loomed around the corner. Cobra into the faceplate, mop up was anti-climatic.

Wave 10 hacking in the LZ. Hack was crowded, and no good sightlines. After the Hack, an Engineer got behind us and THREE of us punched him off the ledge at the same time. Guess we all just wanted to go home.

Extraction wave, another Cobra into an Atlas, clean hit from across the room as it was firing a missile at someone else. Also caught a grouping of 4 or 5 with a grenade.. getting better with the tossing. Full Extraction.

Barak's going to go up in another day or two. Level 19, usually takes a couple of games to get him finally up. After that, I have a choice of Sentinel or Adept, both high levels. Sentinel, I probably go with Krogan. Adept, the Justicar. Have to toss a coin later.

[Lynx7725]

Frustrating night.

Well it started good, got my Raptor Commendation finally, and pulled a Valiant out. Nice.

Pulled Barak out, trying to level him. First game, Condor/ Cerberus. Pretty decent, good team. Got the middle tier hack point, interesting to see the hack circle hover above my head. Getting more used to Condor so could roughly tell where the spawn points are.. and not much issue with ammo boxes, I usually fight intending to resupply anyway. A bit laggy but still within acceptable bounds.

Found a trick with the extraction -- keep the top clear as long as you can. I suppressed the top spawn and it became much easier. Full Extraction.

Giant/ Cerberus next. Pretty good. Good team, but with a Geth that's a bit lone wolf. Kept suppressing the far end spawn, which was.. a new take. It's good for assaulty teams as it forces the spawn over to the Control building and the LZ, but I not sure if it's a good approach for the current team. At any rate we could do it and Barak came out good with a royal stomping of the Cerberus.

Pulled a leaf out of the Geth's book and camped that spawn during Extraction. Allowed me to sneak up on the Atlas and cap him with a Cobra, and then hung around in the mid room cleaning house. Full Extraction.

Decided to take the Valiant out and broke my Level 20 Infiltrator out of cold storage. First: White/ Geth. Good grief it was terrible. Either my connection, or someone on the team (there was a Falcon in play and a very suspicious Batarian who kept lagging) dragging me down. It was all I could do to snipe, don't bother talking about moving around. Valiant was good enough to compensate and I managed to pull my own weight somehow. Full extraction but good grief if I had to watch the Batarian drift through the air again...

Tried again. Dagger/ Reaper. Had three Adepts, two humans and an Asari. The Asari was great, Level 20, Bubbles. Watched my back as I sniped, helped to stasis and crowd control, we did well together. Too bad I didn't add her to my friendlist -- think she did a great job.

The other two? Not great. Got floored early and often, trying to Rambo Reapers. Halfway through -- after one Wave where the two of us just dominated -- they started to spawncamp the central pad spawns, which just forced the Reapers to start spawning in flanking positions.

Which is just stupid, because instead of the whole team putting converging fire on the pad, the two of us in the Control Room now have to fight off flankers, while the two of them just wilted without support fire. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And I was still fighting lag. And they can't seem to deal with Brutes or Ravagers very well. Does decently against Banshees but they are Adepts.

Picked up a few Brute kills, at least 2 to 3 Ravager kills, and 2 Banshees at least. Full Extraction -- somehow. I ended up in the middle with the Asari, the two Adepts split the set. It's not one of the more enjoyable games I had, rare for Adepts to try to act like Clownguards. <_<

Last match, I didn't complete. White/ Cerberus. Lag was incredible, every match I was watching a dancing team as they slid around the map. Couldn't complete, but the highlight of this was a clean, confirmed long range Headshot on a Phantom -- one of the rare few that I was able to aim very precisely for the head. Other than that, it was a complete wash. Lagged so bad I couldn't do it right.

So, Barak is about to Promote, I think I'll promote this Infiltrator too and start on a Salarian Infilitrator -- my first run with him. But the Asari Justicar and Krogan Sentinel/ Soldier also calls....

[Peer of the Empire]

Gold Reaper Condor

[Lynx7725]

Gold Reaper Condor? Tough setup.

Anyway, Weekend without an event, good time to do some playing around.

Took Barak the Batarian out for his final two missions. As it turns out, both are Ghost/ Cerberus. Both teams are good, the latter game had a Krogan Sentinel that set up usually at the corner of the backstreet. In the later parts of the game I set up on the far end so we end up doing staring contests at each other between waves.

Krogans.

Second team was particularly good. A bit happy with the Cobra though, I only caught a tiny glimpse of a pair of Atlas in two different waves before they got blown away -- didn't even land a shot. Wasn't idle either, because I was busy playing with a whole squad of Cerbies. Barak the Batarian with his Cone Blades and Inferno grenades slaughtered them happily.

Full Extractions on both, the latter being a lot more interesting because we had forward defence and pulled back gradually. Worked well, bulk of the infantry were channeled elsewhere and we could piecemeal take them apart.

As fun as Barak the Batarian was, he hit 20 and it's time to go. I like his powers, the setup, but it just was a bit boring to gun down the masses with a Revenant.. the last buff went over, wasn't necessary, made other ARs largely unnecessary if you have a Revenant X (and I did). Also promoted my Female Human Infiltrator, traded her in for a Salarian Infiltrator. Started at Level 1... long road.

Started in Glacier/ Geth; had someone who dropped early, a Human Sentinel (I think) and a Quarian Infiltrator. Who had a serious melee fixation. Look, you're a Quarian. You carry a long rifle. Please use the correct end of the rifle at the enemy, and don't be so eager to go in close to buttstroke the enemy with a loaded rifle!

Was so bad that on Wave 10, the Quarian got floored early, the Sentinel and I were so overran, I eventually had to groundstrike with Cobras (I think twice) to survive the wave. A Level 1 Salarian Infiltrator had to groundstrike. Sheesh. Full Extraction. Unsurprisingly, I got top position ahead of all the rest. Unsatisfying game, to be honest. <_<

Went into Condor/ Cerberus; Think we lost one guy along the game, d/ced. Ended with one Quarian Infiltrator and I think a Geth Engineer -- didn't look carefully but remember a friendly turret and the Quarian cloaking. Quarian wasn't so bad this time round, we had early problems with double camping spawn and you really don't want that on Condor. So I swap sides and we reached an agreement on who covers where.

This was the first time I used long rifle in Condor so needed to figure out the sightlines. Turned out the area -- right of the hill was much better, since there is a spot to crossfire all the way to the left of the middle tier. Managed to assist/ kill on a couple of Atlas this way. Team was a bit mal-coordinated, but early waves are ok. Also clear headshot on a Phantom, nice to achieve.

Wave 10, urgh. Objective cap. Separated early, thinking the two of them could deal with the first objective while I delay some Cerbies. Turned out they capped two before they got murderized by Cerbies -- I ended up soloing the last two objectives and then running away so to survive the last ten or so Cerbies. Managed to kill them and then on to the Extraction, which was remarkably easy. Full Extraction. 2nd on table, Engineer had done more for the team.

Last game was on Hydra/ Geth. Batarian Soldier, Geth Infiltrator, Asari something that dropped and was replaced by another Batarian later in the game. Overall not the greatest of teams, as we had mismatch of ideas on how to handle the map. We did ok but think Wave 6 we got overwhelmed and the Batarian had to take up the slack and soloed a number of mid-tier Geths. He too had to groundstrike with a pair of Cobras to make it out of Wave 6.

After that we got a bit better and started to clear Waves more efficiently. I started to get a hang of how to maximize the Salarian Infiltrator and got better at it. Wave 10 was assassination and I actually ran the magazine dry, plinking away at mid tiers to clear a path. Full Extraction.

Overall, I was running the Salarian Infiltrator with a Valiant I and it's a nice gun. Unfortunately heavy, which meant the recharge on ED was a bit slow. I'm thinking an SI may actually work better with a Mantis X than a Valiant I, certainly something to try.

[Lynx7725]

Only managed to get in one game.

Brought Twinkles the Salarian Infiltrator out. Yesterday I field-tested the Valiant. It was good but not quite what I was looking for, too heavy, not enough take down firepower (though the latter would change with levelling of Twinkles). So I swapped in a Mantis, brought all the CD down to around 3s, good for me.

Reactor/ Reaper. With 3 Vanguards. Ah well.. First few waves, did nothing much, offed a few offending Cannibals. Vanguards do what Vanguards do. Bet they were privately laughing at the 'ittle ole Salarian totting his oversized rifle.

Annnnd then the Brutes start showing up, and they suddenly became very respectful towards Twinkles. Well, to the Mantis, really. Does a proper number tunnelling up a Brute's backside, I tell ya. Twinkles' still a little squishy since I didn't insist on his Fitness, but with two Krogans and a Human Vanguard? Not that bad a problem, especially in Reactor where it's hard for them to get good charge lanes.

Nailed many Brutes, a few Banshees -- three I think. I got lucky with a groundstrike because the Banshee jumped beyond me and the Brute charged another direction, but the blast got both. I know a Krogan melee'd one after I brought it down to one bar. Ravagers too, oh my. Extraction Wave, and I introduced a new concept to the infiltrator lineup -- the stealth Cobra delivery system.

Happened that at the end of Wave 10, the Vanguards all ended up above the Reactor, while I was at the bottom. Since the Vanguards were camping the upper spawn I knew the Banshee gang won't spawn there, and was guessing she'll show up at the small alcove near the Extraction Zone. Turns out I was right, think she locked onto me but I cloaked and she turned stupid -- didn't teleport. That left her nicely in line with the Brute and I snuck in closer to be sure of a shot -- a Cobra groundstrike took care of that bunch of ****s. Turns out one of the Krogans had hurried back and must have been a sight to see a "Ghost" Cobra groundstrike from out of nowhere.

Extraction turned out quite peaceful without it. Lots of husks and I found that ED is good for burning husks off hugged teammates. A bit of judicious sniping and that got us all home. Turns out even with my slow start I got 2nd place, pretty much neck-and-neck with one of the Krogans. All of us scored pretty evenly, which was a surprise, but I guess Vanguards get into the way of other Vanguards too.

[Lynx7725]

4 games tonight, all with Twinkle the Salarian Infiltrator.

• Ghost/ Cerberus (18 min)
• Reactor/ Geth (17 min)
• Dagger/ Geth (17 min)
• Ghost/ Reaper (18 min)

All good teams, tonight is a good night for PUG. Nobody did extra heroics, I even got decent Vanguards.

Ghost/ Cerberus: Very Cobra happy team. Didn't even get to see most Atlases.. mostly blown away very quickly. A bit annoyed by how my Mantis X couldn't frontally kill Guardians -- likely rectified now that I levelled. Didn't even get to kill Phantoms either. Full Extraction.

Reactor/ Geth: Laugh a minute. Good team, Geth against a Salarian? ED frenzy. In Reactor where they all bunched up? ED Frenzy II. Reactor Hack objectives at the top? ED Frenzy Maximus... They were so bunched up I was hitting 3, 4 Hunters/ Pyros at the same time. One guy even bothered to set himself up for the Grab attack. Was very confusing what with Rocket Troopers dropping in on top of you, but was able to clear fairly fast. Didn't get to kill many Primes -- just never got set up properly before the thing got killed. Full Extraction -- very quiet because the Prime went the wrong way. Was able to snipe the long passageway and kept it clear.

One interesting thing: Had a Human Infiltrator with a Widow. He scored at the bottom, I at second IIRC. Felt that the choice of Mantis to keep the CD was relevant to this, because I could afford to spam ED.. and he can't do Cold to keep up with my damage curve, and Grenades just can't keep up. Mantis kills just as hard as a Widow, so I wasn't disadvantaged there.

Dagger/ Geth: Good gods. The best pairing possible. Initial Waves were a sniper paradise and quick ED meant groups of Geth frozen. Two Objective Waves were assassinations, meaning I get to sit at the same spot and kill relentlessly. One silly spawn camp mistake by one guy nearly cost us but we got back into the game. Full Extraction.

Ghost/ Reapers: Overreached here and upstairs slapped me for it. I worked for this mission, and still got bottom place. Lots of fighting, Cannibals, more husks, and plenty of Brutes and Banshees. A Geth Engineer who knew his stuff, Turret and Geth Plasma SMG, runaway top place simply because his turret could get kills on all the small guys (and I helped by ED them a lot).

Meanwhile, in the later waves I was busy running between the back street and the front lawn killing Brutes, and skewering Ravagers. Got two Banshees down low but nicked by the Geth -- the GP(S)MG ROF is really high! I recall he had heat sinks and extra ammo. Good combi there. Think I got maybe two Banshees, most of the Brutes, and most of the Ravagers, but I wasn't going for Headshots so the scoring was pretty low.

(Just an aside: I'm not so particular about the scoring, just two things -- want to make sure I'm pulling my own weight, and that I'm really curious how Bioware implemented the scoring mechanism.)

Extraction Wave, Geth and I stayed in the back street for forward defense. Ripped a Brute and Banshee apart; The other two (Asari Vanguard and someone eles) ripped a Brute apart. Things quieten down and we were given a relatively tame extraction. Full Extraction.

One of the better evenings. Good connection, great crews. Knew their business and didn't do odd things. If only more nights were like this...

[Lynx7725]

Two quick games tonight with Twinkles the Salarian Infiltrator.. after many disconnects. For some reason, the system kept giving me Condor (and one Glacier today) and I kept d/cing. It's probably not the map but it's getting spooky.

First was Dagger/ Geth. 2 Engineers, 2 Infiltrators. Should have been an easy walk, but the Geth Engineer turned out to be a AFKer. At least, he was awake to toss a turret and woke up from time to time, but it added to the workload. <_<

Still, ED locked down many Geth and was able to cope. The other Infiltrator (human) wasn't too good -- kept crowding the left window, not watching the right. I was on the left window to snipe down the platform but that left the right side unguarded, had to shift from time to time to take care of things. The Salarian Engineer played a good role by staying on the bottom and picking up the slack. He did messed a spawn which luckily I already started getting into position of when it spilled over the ramp at us.

Still, the lack of an awake rearguard meant the Control Room got overran from time to time. By now I sort of developed an internal clock to know roughly when to turn around to check the back door, which combined with ED on Geth meant a safety margin. Sanded down quite a number of Primes but don't think I actually killed any, other than the target on Wave 10 -- but that's more because the Pyro/ Hunter wave had breached the short end and I was just clearing the deck with a Cobra wallstrike.

Extraction, the other jokers spread out, and I was at the wrong evac point. Turned to run back through the Control Room, and was too late -- a pair of Pyros already were coming through, so no way I was taking the short way. Sprint down the long passageway to meet the Geth Engineer coming the other way.. bet he was wondering why I was taking the long way to the evac. Well he soon found out.. no reason to tango with Pyros at short range.

Ran to the Evac zone, plenty of time and because of the odd ass way we went about scattering, the Geth were all wrong-footed and came piecemeal. Even the Prime was more than a bit confused. That meant we picked them apart and got Full Evac.

You generally know that you score well when you felt like you worked for it. Top of table, with the Salarian Engineer behind on #2.

Next game was Glacier/ Geth. Hmm. Anyway, decent team, Geth Infiltrator, Asari Justicar, one other guy.. can't remember what class. The Asari and "other guy" was good, the Geth had a melee fixation. Wasn't much use and was bottom of table IIRC.

Anyway, kept to my "Suppress Hub Spawn, kill everything coming up the ramp" tactic. Worked quite well, killed a Prime by just backing out of LOS, cloak, snipe, repeat. Having just gotten Level 6 and +40% SR damage makes a big difference here. Two hacking waves, in both cases tight quarters meant ED was deadly. Should really build a Salarian Shotfiltrator for Geth Farming in either White or Glacier.

Extraction, I stayed behind in the hub to try to catch the Geth in the flank. I was coming out of the Hub, and caught a Geth Prime as it was coming out from the doorway to the right. It didn't see me so I groundstruck and gave it a Cobra Hernia. That cleared the way and I went through the long corridor to catch the rest of the Geth in a crossfire. Nearly got caught by Pyros and Hunters but managed to sprint free to the Evac. Once regrouped, we didn't have any serious problems and Full Extraction.

Again, I know I worked for this game, so not surprised to be #2; the Asari got top spot, I think at most 5K above me. I was 15K above IIRC the last, the Geth Meleefiltrator. Didn't think he was very effective in the game, but hey have fun.. just make sure to help the rest of us to the Extraction.

Twinkles is now Level 17, but pretty much fully developed. Not really interested in Proximity Mine -- I've used it before in the Turian and roughly know what it's like. Not thinking of using that for this build. So now is just to get in enough games to promote him, then I'll probably go towards Justicar or Sentinel... or Krogan Battlemaster if I unlock him.

Modifié par Lynx7725, 24 avril 2012 - 07:19 .

[Lynx7725]

Three games tonight, with Twinkles the Salarian Infiltrator. Glacier/ Geth, Condor/ Geth, Reactor/ Cerberus.

Glacier/ Geth starts off with an Asari Justicar, IIRC a Human with a Widow, and one other; can't remember. I have a SOP in Glacier now, in that I'll go to the Hub and stare at the alcove near the doorway to the landing pad -- some new info I got. Intent is to suppress both spawn points. Once the wave starts, move on to the ramp and clean up.

Works decently well. Killed a Geth Prime on his way up. Caught many mid-tiers too. Had to cap most of an Objective Wave because the rest were too busy shooting. <_< Not very confident of the team since they seem to take an extraordinary time to clear enemies. Extraction Wave, caught the Prime coming into the room, again it didn't see me so I gave him a Cobra groundstrike, in time to clean off a Hunter that did see me. Oddly, this was IIRC the only Cobra fired tonight. Full Extraction, think I scored at the top -- I knew I was working for the round.

Condor/ Geth was breathtaking. I wasn't able to sync with the team early -- went to camp at the top of the hill but they prefer to fight in the mid-tiers. Eventually I worked out a working pattern -- stayed in the mid-tier bunker and sniped everywhere I can. Also started to develop a new SOP based on new information I got digging through some PC files (I play on xBox, so not modifying anything).

Ended up, I was in a good position to see and personally picked off 2 Primes with Cloaked Bugshots (and playing hide-and-seek with them; Infiltrators bully Primes that way.. ), and took most of a third down. Found plenty of sightlines at that place but it's very tight "holes" -- not much time to snipe in these channels. Getting really good at killing Pyros from far away but I really need to keep an eye on the Hunters; got picked off by them a few times.

Getting to know the map, getting to know how to kill there. Good.

Extraction Wave, fairly tame. Prime got killed early (sniped and an Engineer took it down with a GP(S)MG) and stuck around long enough to clear most of the mid-tiers out. Uneventful Full Extraction. What was surprising is that we cleared Condor in 16+ mins, which is fast ; I was second, the Engineer had pulled miles ahead of me already, I think his turret was well emplaced.

Third game was reaching, it was late and I needed sleep. Reactor/ Cerberus -- Reactor's a demanding map. The team is weird, Krogan and 2 other Humans, maybe a Turian. Thing was again I didn't sync with the team fast; these guys are assaulters out and out, more appropriate to call them Chaos Incarnate. :devil:There wasn't a plan, usually just a big ball of armour and bullets flying left and right.

And worked quite well too. Once I sync'ed with the team it became a roller-coaster. Wave 6 Hacking in the Reactor. Four guys inside. I was spinning around so much that it was confusing. Incredible how the four of us just went doorway to doorway spitting death at the poor Cerberus.

Next Wave an Atlas showed up. Killed it with the Mantis. Next wave another Atlas showed up. Sanded it down with a Mantis and someone else knocked it out. Also saw the Krogan headbutt a Phantom to death. Dropped down a ladder to pick up a teammate (succeeded) but didn't see the turret -- threw the ED at the Engineer instead. Krogan picked me up and we blew the turret to shreds. Then the three of us rounded on the Engineer and heckled him to death.

Extraction Wave, I got to a nice sightline and started blowing things apart. Sanded the Atlas down -- I was robbed. Just kept on popping Centurions and Guardians. Partial Extraction, someone was outside the circle at the end. Dead last -- long rifles aren't so good in CQC. Awesome game, but not really the way I usually fight.

Twinkle's 18 now, and pretty much developed all the way he needed to. It's clear why SI are that well regarded. I do find it a bit ironic that in a class with the most accurate weapons dealing tremendously high damage, I no longer bother to go for headshots. Takes too long, it's better for the team to go for the killing bodyshot on the mooks, and the big bosses have few vulnerabilities that need to aim for.

Another thing I realised flipping through Twinkles' powers. His Cloak-shoot CD is 3s. His full Cloak CD is 3.17s. WOW. Big Difference. ED CD is just under 3s, and this is with 160% with the Mantis X, so in theory it can go down further.

[Lynx7725]

Last night I took a break -- too tired. Grabbed an early night. So 6 games tonight.

Twinkle the Salarian Infiltrator. He's my greatest hope for this weekend's challenge (though I'm not going to shed tears if I miss it...), so I have to get used to the gear. Broke out the Black Widow II, slapped (the wrong) mods on it, and went out..

... to Reaper/ Geth. Ugh. Got the wrong mods. <_< BWII need ammo mod, I put Scope mod. Wasn't useful. Team was the "assaulty" type, so my hang back and shoot style wasn't as useful. There was a Human Infiltrator with Widow at Twinkle's level. Ended up scoring above him, but just a bit more. BWII is really an upgrade over the Widow. Full Extraction -- never in doubt.

Next was Hydra/ Geth; this was a "I HAVE A BLACK WIDOW AND I KNOW HOW TO USE IT! " match. Had great positions throughout and the Geth just walked into the sights. Geth Primes are easy kills when approached right -- picked off at least 2, and contributed to all of them. End of game, I was #2 behind the Engineer -- again, turret seems to have helped a lot there. Full Extraction. Was quite fun with a Geth Prime in the midst before I took it out (after getting down.. squishy Twinkles...).

Next was Giant/ Reaper. Team wasn't the old style sniper firebase type, nowadays it's more fashionable to be "center square assault". Worked out ok. Still able to contribute, but not happy with BW performance against Ravager. Tagged at least one Banshee with the gun, and Brutes.. ah well. Quite memorable because I had to run a bit to get one objective wave done. Couldn't remember whether Full Extraction or Partial; might have missed one gun.

Finally for Twinkles, Hydra/ Cerberus. This I'm not happy, if only becaue of one player -- the Asari Justicar. Kept putting up the Barrier.. which one, I didn't need, and two, made it harder for me to see where my sights are. As a sniper that sorts of irritates to no end. Team also had different ideas of spawn capping, so it ended up quite a zoo. Not even sure if I managed to tag a Phantom, since it was quite confused with people running around like headless chickens. I'm definitely not syncing with the team here. Also, very Cobra happy, I think every Atlas was dealt with by a Cobra. I don't mind people using it, I just don't like the idea of wasting it on something that's already contained. Didn't score well here -- too much interference, too little team-sync. Full Extraction IIRC.

Twinkles is by now a sliver from 20, so not much point to continue grinding -- the point was to get refamiliarized with the BW on a powers build. Since the Asari annoyed me greatly during the game, I picked up a Justicar to try it out. In steps Dinah the Justicar.

First game Dinah got into (at level 15 or 16) was White/ Cerberus. It was ok. Human Vanguard, Asari Vanguard or Justicar, I distinctly recall a Krogan but might be the later match. Still trying to figure out the class. Ended up not using the Revenant much.. Reave Reave Reave. Couldn't reliably trigger bioplosions, had to go read it up later. Since there were plenty of Vanguards, detonation wasn't a problem.. really. Got myself a few Reaved Phantoms, I think this class won't really have a problem with Phantoms given the DoT and DR effects. Not surprised to be dead bottom, but still Full Extraction.

One thing got pointed out to me -- the Revenant is nice but ultimately deadweight. Might as well go for better CD. So in goes the Revenant, out comes the Carnifex. Slapped ammo and barrel on it and out we go again...

,,, and back to White/ Reaper. Two Krogans, one Asari Vanguard I think. Not bad, know the class better, still couldn't reliably get things to blow up. This team wasn't the best; Wave 10 nearly fell apart because the Banshee jumped on the Asari, and sync-killed her, and the team sync was off, never had an idea who will grab the ball. Ended up I did, and floored a few times for it. DR from Reave is good but when you run smack into 4 or 6 Cannibals around the cap point it's hopeless. Eventually a Krogan showed up and we got it done.

Not terrible since I managed to get a few Reaved Banshees, Brutes and Ravagers. Still no good solution for Ravagers yet, for Dinah. Need to think of something.

Overall, Barrier was as I felt, very situational and not very useful. Pull was ok, but not used to it yet. Reave is still the most important item, but without a way to set off the Explosion without putting in Pull first it's a bit tricky. Got to level Pull a lot more to get it to work properly. Overall, still adapting to the Justicar, but feels like the class has less synergy with itself than usual, quite odd for a occupation that by necessity has to be self-sufficient.

[Lynx7725]

To the World (or whoever cares): I have successfully completed my first Gold game.

Thanks to the White/ Cerberus/ Gold team that helped me. I was dead last, we took 28+ minutes.. but it was done. Thank you.

Too many Phantoms and Atlas. It's all a blur.

Also, thanks to the Ghost/ Cerberus/ Gold team, we wiped on Wave 7 but I felt we could have gone all the way.. Server glitched me into the sky, then the underground, then everywhere. Sorry folks.

Also, thanks to the Dagger/ Cerberus/ Gold team. Had a sweet thing going, 2 Black Widow snipers and great flank protection. Too bad the Server dropped me again. Felt we would have gone all the way too.

Thanks all. I'm headed back to Bronze now to level Dinah the Justicar.

[Lynx7725]

So Twinkles' 20, have a Gold chip on his board, and due for promotion... just forgot to do it tonight. :innocent:

Dinah the Justicar OTOH.. Three games tonight (on top of the 7 or so Gold failures before the one Gold(en) moment. My shoulders are aching...). Can only remember two: Reactor/ Cerberus, White/ Cerberus.

Reactor Cerberus was a wash. First there were 4. Then host up and went, down to 3. Then somehow #3 disappeared, down to two.. uh ok. Quarian Infiltrator. This forced packaging got me to learn the value of the Justicar -- paired with the infiltrator, any objective I throw up a bubble and then while the infiltrator is capping, I wander off so as to not draw attention. Bubble's there to give DR (I think I spec'ed to 40%), and mobs are programmed to avoid the bubble in their pathing, so that helps a bit I think.

Not to bad a game. With only two of us, neither of us bothered to exchange gunfire with the Cerberus very much. I remember running right past a very surprised Atlas. Another wave, an Atlas managed to tag the Quarian, letting me win the foot race.

Extraction -- the Quarian was I think expecting to run to the Extraction Zone immediately. I had different ideas; two of us can't hold the zone anyway. So I waited at the top of the Reactor until the Quarian came to look for me.. meantimes, I lobbed a Cobra into the Reactor after the Atlas smoked it. Enough of an outline to land the shot and kill it good. After that, a casual stroll for the two of us into the EZ. Full Extraction.

White/ Cerberus was a bit odd. Krogan, Turian, Human, Asari. The Human caught on quickly that I was a "Pull" Adept especially after I marked my camping spot with a Bubble. Both of us dropped biotics and tech on the on-rushing Cerbies while the Krogan and Turian generally took care of the flanks and rear. Widened Pull is very useful for grabbing multiple enemies and makes it easier to Bioplosion them in the air later if I needed it.

Both Turian and Krogan are a bit too keen to shoot guns so it ended up the Human and Asari who went for the objective. Same drill -- rush, bubble, protect. Not the way I like to use the Asari Adept class but quite useful.

Extraction was a bit odd. I stayed up top to drop biotics over everybody coming in. Did decently until about 50~40 seconds, which I popped over to the EZ to put up a bubble. Krogan got lost and dropped. Turian and I popped up to get him but he bled out... on the way back, Turian got caught, floored with 2 secs. Not going to pop my head out for that one. Partial Extraction.

Overall, Dinah the Justicar is working out ok. Swapped from a Carnifex to a Phalanx. Ended up not using the gun anyway, just have a decent sized plinker would do. Once I worked out that the Justicar is a "Pull" Adept it became easier -- spec'ed Dinah to maximize the Pull field, would get the Detonation evolution.

SOP is now to use Pull as first response; the CD is less than 2 seconds and that should have been a big clue. Pull makes the floaters harder targets but is a crowd control tool, quite useful if the Adept can get good sightlines and start floating whole gardens. Reave in to get the DR and Bioplosion, plus Reave is great against Phantoms, works through their Barrier -- seems like Asaris are natural predators of Phantoms.

BioBall's been spec'ed to be protective; 40% DR IIRC. I don't use BioBall that much as it's a highly defensive power in my evolution. Don't consider it as very useful offensively since it's hard to set up properly, hard to get the enemy to cooperate through it.

[Lynx7725]

Hmm seems to have overran the grey background on the forums here...

Anyway, 2 quick games. I mean really quick.

Giant/ Cerberus wasn't that quick. But honestly? Hadn't had so much fun in a long time. Dinah the Justicar took a look into the mission lobby, shook her head -- all relative newcomers. Ah well, Bronze Cerberus, can't get too terrible.

And wasn't. Had great fun just tossing Pull around, Troopers, Guardians, whoever.. a lot of floating bodies. Vanguard on the team so detonation heavy; didn't had to use Reave as often. This Vanguard's fairly decent, didn't really run off that much, at least not before I put Pull or Reave on something for him to blow up.

Wave 10 was capping. First two were ok but I noticed the Infiltrator wasn't around. Third, I got separated from the team, team went mob hunting while I diverted for #3. Imagine my surprise when I came out of the control room to be greeted by a Atlas... Speaks volumes about the abilities of the other three that it survived 3 caps. <_< Out came the Cobra, down came the Atlas. Reaved a Phantom dead next, but got caught up on Engineers and lots of mobs.

Got floored, up, floored again.. grimly laughing as the Phantom that just floored me got Reaved to death right by my body. :devil:Forgot about #4, actually, thankfully the Infiltrator got on the case. #4 capped, the two of us broke out -- Vanguard and Krogan floored -- and then regroup, tore the Engineers apart.

Wave 10, everybody else running for the evac zone. I was stationary outside. Three of them must be wondering what I'm up to. Cerbies started showing up, Pulled a few of them, then the Atlas showed up. Cobra went into the wall behind it and blew the pack up. Lull, but eventually the Vanguard got overwhelmed and floored. Ran past and picked him up, everyone got into the Evac for a Full Extraction.

Worked hard but had a lot of fun. Was #2, trailing the Infiltrator by a bit. Fact that #1 and #2 were both support classes was interesting.

Was a bit underwhelmed by my Phalanx, so swapped it for a newly levelled Scimitar. Went back out, this time Glacier/ Geth.

This was quick. 16+ minutes, but not fun IMO. Team knew how to kill, but not really that great at staying alive. <_< A statistically higher number of floors than usual. Also, not great at capping spawns... got flanked a few times, short quarters and shotgun meant I worked out ok. Did maybe 3 or all the Objective points while the boys were playing with their guns. Always a bit too eager to hold ground, couldn't get to medic some floored teammates that way.

Killed two Primes with biotics and shotties -- help from the rest, obvously. There should be at least one more Prime so the rest probably got it. My third Prime in Evac wave was by a Cobra to the shins -- he didn't spot me again. Good thing, gibwave killed the Hunters who did spot me.

Evac wave continued to be chaotic as the mid-tiers start pouring through. We managed to keep them in the far end of the building through brute firepower, then fell back in time to the landing pad -- good thing I kept an eye on the timer and rush back to put up a bubble. Full Extraction.. no surprise, I came in dead last on this one.

Overall, not too happy with the Scimitar. Gun's fine. Just don't like the way Dinah handled. Went back to Phalanx, which got maxed out with the last purchase. One more mission before she maxes out Pull with the Detonation evo, that should be fun.

[Lynx7725]

So a few matches with Dinah the Justicar tonight. Making up for last night when I was too beat to play.

Got dropped into Dagger/ Cerberus in Wave 2. No big deal, team was decent. Good time Bioplosioning stuff up, easier with Cerberus. It was rather relaxing really, since Dinah could handle herself fine. Full Extraction.

So out she went again. White/ Geth/ Gold. I wanted Bronze and they threw me to Gold. Good Grief. Floored on Wave 9 before I realised it was Gold. Watched in spectator as the rest took the job. Counter Grabber in action, first time I've seen it. So they passed Level 9, and I revived.. Wave 10 Hack. Ok, she's a Justicar, she got a shield.. up it goes, then when the hack finished everyone suddenly just got dropped. Well one lone Justicar can't handle it... luckily I remembered it was standard practice for farmers to drop dead on 10 after the Objective. So I didn't spam a medigel. Got out, nice credits..

Then, Hydra/ Geth. Geth isn't funny any more, seems a bit harder-hitting. Team is a bit disjointed but works ok. Had to use the pistol this time round because of Geth Primes -- Bioplosion doesn't quite seem to trigger. Worked a bit for it but wasn't terrible. Full Extration.

Giant/ Geth -- last for Dinah, since she is hitting 20. Oddball team, looks to be a half-afker Geth sniper, Turian Sentinel, Quarian Infiltrator. Not too bad, this time was able to trigger more Bioplosion. Extraction wave, I manage to ambush the Prime with a Cobra -- hmm found my ambush spot for non-snipers I think. Full Extraction.

Dinah hit 20 and I promoted her. She's fun, but having to work Pull/ Reave just not quite the same as Warp/ Throw. Stasis is also more versatile than Bubbles. So I promoted Dinah, and Twinkles whom I kept forgetting and pulled out... Conan the Krogan Sentinel.

Level 17 out of box. Sigh. Don't even know how to work him. Spec'ed Conan for Melee/ DR, grabbed a shottie and the Falcon. Mistake, should have just gone with the Falcon....

Hydra/ Cerberus. Couldn't work Conan properly, there was a Krogan Vanguard and an Asari Vanguard, so both can get to the enemy faster than I can. Hard to compete for melee kills this way.

But still had my moments. Managed to hit a Nemesis with a Lift Grenade, which slowed her down enough for me to Heavy Melee her in the ass and shoved her flying, arms and legs spread, through the window for a bath...

Then later, somehow managed to overrun a Phantom in full melee rush.. *squish* Went beat down on an Atlas, only to get it yoinked under me by the Krogan Vanguard.

And Conan -- soon to rename Konan -- is surprising good at taking out Turrets. With the Tech Armour on, he's very good at overrunning the turret with heavy melee and squishing it under him.

Overall, bringing a shottie in was fairly pointless. The Falcon is a lot more fun and with pair of Lift Grenades fairly decent. Still need to figure out a way to get into Melee better though.

[Lynx7725]

Missed last night because I heard MP had issues. So went 4 matches tonight.

Reactor/ Geth: Sigh. Konan the Krogan (Sentinel) had a Falcon with him. Reactor is not a good map for Falcon, and I'm still trying to figure out what to do with an angry Krogan. So didn't enjoy this much. <_< Full Extraction.

Condor/ Cerberus: Swapped to a Revenant. The more open map should have benefitted this but trying to balance melee-oriented and mid-range shooting isn't cutting it. An unsatisfactory run, Full Extraction but not enjoying it. <_< <_<

Reactor/ Cerberus: Gave up on the Revenant, swap to a Claymore. Not cutting it either. Fine as a stopper, but consistently trailing behind others. In Hack waves and Extraction I did much better, inlcuding flattening a Phantom into the ground, and a particularly fine cross-Reactor Cobra shot into an Atlas. Extraction Wave was particularly brutal as I camped the alcove and just kept killing for a bit. That pushed me up to #2 (IIRC), so I knew I was doing something right. Looking at the medals, I knew I was going to get the 15 Melee award, so I might as well pick on something that'll give me a few more medals.

So went and swapped the Claymore for a Carnifex -- biggest pistol I got. Went out again.

White/ Reapers. Now this one is interesting. The Carnifex turned out to be a good fit, accurate enough for me to get headshots, and good enough damage to whittle the mobs down while I closed for melee, and good enough RoF and damage type to keep staggering enemies. First wave was a bit anti-climatic as I simply just stood above and sniped the Cannibals away.

Later waves turned out more dramatic. Generally rested between waves on the staircase down to the rooms, then proceed downwards to clear the rooms. First Brute to show up -- Meleed away. Same for second Brute IIRC, and third or fourth. First Banshee the team took out, but I got the attention of the second, skipped around her, and after she got cut down a bit more I melee'd her into the ground.

Yeah, I melee'd a Banshee. To be honest, I hit her from the rear so sync-kill was a low risk. Trampling her into the ground is a good feeling.

Ravagers had to be dealt with more carefully, but in Wave 10, 3 showed up and I basically.. shot them up then Melee'd them dead. Have to backpedal quickly to avoid Ravager Poo, but all three died on the staircase where they couldn't put their rockets to work.

Extraction Wave was a bit hectic. Melee'd another Brute, but nearly got swamped by Husks and Cannibals. Another teammate came to help me out and I fell back in good order. Ran the gun nearly dry -- 10 rounds total left and nearly got hung up getting back to the EZ. But all in good time, Full Extraction.

I'm finding the Krogan a bit bulky and difficult to get pointed in the right direction. Melee and Heavy Melee is difficult to aim right and it's hard to get the chain going. Weapons choice turned out more crucial than I thought. ARs turned out too distracting for me, while a Shottie left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. Heavy Pistol turned out to be just right.

Looking at the way I ended up playing, I think I should try to get the Krogan Vanguard, or play a weapons-focused Krogan Soldier. The Krogan Sentinel's not really working out for me.