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[Lynx7725]

Short night for MP. I was doing my Insanity run, so only got in 2 games, both with my Human Infiltrator.

Giant/ Geth. DIG into Wave 1. Host d/c'ed on Wave 2. Eh. 2 Infiltrator (GI and HI), a Soldier with a SR, and an Asari Vanguard (IIRC). Team was decent, fairly fast.

Wave 10 hacking in the courtyard. We put down the Prime quick -- recently spec'ed the stickies for AP -- but let a whole swarm of Hunters and Pyros get in. I got downed, bled out. Checked the scoreboard while downed, I was ahead by 4k or so.. didn't bothered too much, figured by Wave 11 I'd have been displaced.

Wave 11, quickly killed the Geth Prime, then just started punishing the Pyros and whatever Hunters I could find. Full Extraction, checked tables and I was still #1.. sheesh.

Second game just to close off. Goddess/ Cerberus. Team had an Engineer, a Krogan, one other and little ole me. Good team, fast and aside from a tendency to block my LOS, pretty decent.

Wave 1, was puzzled as to where the Cerbies are, turned out they were behind me on the balcony area. Started doing twirls as I ducked their shots, killing as I go. Got most of the Wave there, just doing circles around that balcony area...

Wave 6, Hack in the Main Hall. Busy. SpawnMaker kept spawning Engineers in the Elevator access room, I kept having to clear them out. By now I know the team is not well setup to kill Guardians, so I ended up double duty -- very hectic. Hack was successful, mopped up.

Atlas started showing up, even on plain ammo, a Valiant with help from the team rip through shields and armour very quickly. Phantoms started to show up, I had a clean hit on a Phantom that made her stagger, but lost track of her in the team push -- didn't get her.

Wave 10 Hack in the LZ. Was a bit tardy getting to the circle, but was rewarded with seeing a Phantom hiding behind cover behind the rest of my team, which was blissfully unaware of the Phantom behind them. Deliberate, aimed headshot at a fully Barrier'ed Phantom -- one of the few truly and most aimed headshots I've ever made against Phantoms. Dead in one shot, rejoined the team.

Extraction Wave, Atlas spawned behind me, quickly taken care of; then got lost in the science lab room, with Guardians and Centurions oh my.. got dicey there but managed to stay alive. 75-kill marker popped up, was surprised -- I usually don't earn that. Popped a Trooper, the 75-SR kills marker popped up -- oh right, I punched a Nemesis dead earlier in the game. Full Extraction, #1 on the list by about 9k. Good run.

I hate to say it, but I'm starting to suspect I'm killing just a bit too fast with the Human Infiltrator. Wasn't the first time a host d/c'ed on me while I was playing the HI.. and today's two #1 performance, including a 75 kill marker, is starting to convince me that my HI shouldn't be playing on Bronze. She fits well into my playstyle, so I guess I synergize well with her.

[Lynx7725]

Didn't felt like playing on Friday night, and kept putting off the challenge until Sat night. Yes, Gold games are a chore. <_<

Finally got off my ass. Dusted off the Human Infiltrator; of the lot, she's the one I'm most comfortable with in Gold. The Drell Adept can get the job done and I have a sneaking suspicion my Soldier will do ok, but when I want something to be done, I reach for the Human Infiltrator -- she is a great comfort to me.

Ghost/ Reaper/ Gold. PUG. Blackknightx3 the Krogan Sentinel, waijzan the Drell Vanguard, Smoke900 the Female Quarian Engineer accompanied my Human Infiltrator in. First few wave we got a working strategy; Krogan and Drell camp both sides of the Back Street, while Quarian and Human takes the Main Street. Works ok, we got through the first few waves generally standing. Brutes were a bit messy but a Valiant with AP can work it.

Then the Banshees started showing up. One by itself is ok, the problem is there's usually a pair or more.. think we saw 4 on the field at one go. Usually they pair off to go after someone. Early on it's not so bad but later it got extremely messy.

We got lucky in that all or most of our objective waves are Assassinations; that simplified things. I remember shooting between the Krogan legs in the Central Pod to get at a targetted Marauder on the Main Street... don't think he's too happy at having high-velocity ordnance flying so close to his quads, redundancy or not.

I got sync-killed quite a bit; I know I can't kill Banshees fast so I concentrated on knocking out Ravagers and Brutes, but occassionally the Banshees got to us before we pulled out. I spent 3 or 4 waves on the floor that way. I did use my Op Survival Packs, Medigel and Rockets -- got one wave where the Banshee and Brute was pushing just a bit too hard, so I groundburst them away.

Extraction Wave, 2 Banshees popped. By this time I know I can't kill one fast enough, let alone two... so I took them on a kiting expedition down the Back Street, hoping to delay long enough. Works ok. I go down the street, drawing them, then doubling back. Twice. Got the timer down and then made a break for the EZ. Got there in time, we got a Full Extraction on a Gold/ Reaper map, so objective done.

Was glad to see I've climbed out of the #4 slot into #3, amused that I got it over the Krogan Sentinel -- he was up more than I was and more effective IMO. Just goes to show how accurate the board is.

Thanks to the three for a good Gold game. Not that I want to do it again -- my arm muscles were locked up by the end of it.

Did another game to relax the arms. Coincidentally, Ghost/ Reapers/ Bronze. The game didn't have much memorable stuff, just the lack of many, many Banshees.

Had a massive Cannibal spawn on an Objective Wave right beside me at the Main Street pods. Cannibals just kept spawning at that doorway and I just kept killing.. odd one there. Also did Cobra two Ravagers away -- I think it was a retrieval job, those two got too close to the LZ. Could kill one but not two, so decided to just blow them away together. Full Extraction, almost didn't had that because one guy decided to stay outside till literally the last second. Turned out the System decided he was in and we got the Full Extraction.

Took a break, then came back later to level Lynette the Grenadier. Only today, she was trying out other weapons...Tried a Saber V, out the door, only to DIG into Wave 6 Glacier/ Geth/ Silver.. Silver is not ideal for weapons-testing but I gave it a go.

Turned out terrible. Team isn't bad, just a bit misfit. Spent quite a bit of time on the floor, but that's not unusual. Just had a hard time adjusting to the Saber, I used it briefly before, didn't like it, and still don't. Wave 10, Hack at the corner near the small room. Got caught between a Pyro and a Geth Prime while trying to get there. Got floored, Prime got Cobra'ed away, and I got picked up. Hopped over the counter and deliberately positioned myself to be against the counter running in from the door.

Cheeky thing was, every time a Pyro came in through the door and leaned against the counter to flame, I'll grab it and flip it over the counter. Got up to three grabs, before a Geth Prime coming from the other direction put paid to our hack.. Group just fell apart, everyone didn't feel like getting back up, Fail on Wave 10.

Went back, chunked the Saber back into the cupboard, remembered my connection is now better, so went with a Striker to get a feel again. Hydra/ Reapers. someone else had a Krysae and a Reegar... and a AR Amp.

Anyway, first wave, had a scope on the Striker so could hit the Cannibals from the usual platform. Later, realised that even with a high ROF, the stupid gun just jumps all over the place.. at range, the explosions are just far enough apart to be able to miss everything. Realised I got the wrong mods on the gun, but it wasn't too bad, because Wave 6 was Retrieval.. and yes, the object fell through the grate. Wave 6 failure.

Decided to stay with the team, so we ended up in Reactor/ Geth. Swapped out Barrel and Scope for Ammo and Stability, so the Striker is a bit more tamed. Still not qutie what I looking for. Highlights include expending 21 rounds into a Prime's ground as it came down the Reactor.. hit with most, and was chewing readily through its defenses.Still, not accurate enough for my liking...

Reactor doesn't have a grill for the object to fall through, so my package got delivered. The other got picked up by a Quarian... who has butter fingers, because she kept dropping it. Annoying. Extraction was a bit noisy because I decided that rocket-propelled grenade suppression fire is the correct thing to do, so camped over the ammo box and started going at it. Eventually, Full Extraction.

Last game, decided to go back to Lynette's roots. Falcon came out, the team went into Goddess/ Reapers. So this one will count towards the community.. Started ok, Team camped the inside spawn, so of course the Cannibals started showing up on the LZ spawn.. Entertaining because I got a good line on them and started teaching them the grenade dance. Pretty much that spawn got destroyed by Concussive and Falcon fire. 

Banshees had a fixation on me it seems. Kept coming after me. Gotten quite good at dodging them here.. their performance is degraded compared to Gold Banshees. Luckily I packed a Phalanx with AP to deal with these situations, so mostly worked out ok.

Wave 10, Main Hall Hack.. in the water. Got there early, saw two Ravagers setting up in the main hallway. Tossed a couple of grenades there to make sure they die. turned around, Elevator access had a pair too. Two more Grenades out, dead Ravagers.. turned around again, main entrance, one more Ravager. Last grenade went out, dead Ravagers plenty.

Then the Brute showed up. Luckily got used to swapping weapons, so while my teammate softened him up I plinked away with the Phalanx.. think I got the kill.

Then  I turned around and the Banshee was still alive... Phalanx was out anyway so I started plinking. She died. Her warp (IIRC) floored me shortly after. Yes, I was VERY BUSY for that hack. Mopped out, we Full Extractioned easily.

Very busy night. Going off to catch some shuteye...

[Lynx7725]

Went out wth Lynette the Grenadier again. This time just to level her out.

Goddess/ Reaper. Not a bad crew, had the Falcon out so it was fairly routine. Had the misfortune of getting floored after killing a Brute... embarassingly, the Brute fell over my body. Grr. Get this pest off me.

Wave 10 Main Hall hack. Banshee tried to join the party. My grenade said no.. along with the Brute and Ravager behind. It's gotten to the point where "See a Ravager, chuck a grenade"... it was odd to see 3 or 4 grenades sailing through the air from the Drell and myself towards a Ravager park. With the heavy artillery gone, the job got a lot simplier. Mopped up and Extracted, Full Extraction, so at +4 from me.

White/ Cerberus. Could only remember that I put a Falcon round into a Phantom's face, killing her. Did kill Atlases, but they did more damage to me then the other way round.

Ghost/ Reaper. Took the Raptor out to see if it was as good as I remembered. It wasn't. Semiauto is a bit dated.. but frag grenades are good stand-ins. Nothing particular stands out, so it was a quiet Extraction. Can't remember the result.. should be a Full Extraction also, but not sure. Best not to count.

Hydra/ Reaper. Pulled out a Revenant to experienced the good old days. Wasn't too bad. AR Revenant does a decent number on Ravagers, takes about one clip to kill them. Had a Brute charging me when I killed it dead -- it reached me just as I emptied the clip and killed it. Overall the Extraction was quiet and we got a Full Extraction from this. So, +5.

Lynette hit 20 and I looked for a new class to play. Settled on Yasmin the Female Quarian Engineer. Never played FQE, time to learn it.

Condor/ Geth. I learnt that while the FQE isn't squishy, her personal damage output is.... limited. The turret is a big deal. I didn't get the placement right initially, but over the game got it better. Got killed on Extraction when I got corned by a Prime, was too lazy to Medigel.. Partial Extraction. The Turian Sentinel only got in by the slimmest of margins.

Giant/ Reaper. Better game. Got the placement more correct, and generally had an easier time. Learnt to use the Incinerate more correctly, targetting Ravagers and Brutes more. Husks were a problem.. maybe time to invest in Cryo.

Wave 10 hack, in the Courtyard. Ravagers on both ends, thankfully not together. Managed to kill the Ravagers early -- got lucky with the HUD and Incinerated one early, before the Banshee and Brute got to us. It was hectic but without heavy artillery, it was a matter of time. Extraction Wave was non-descript; with two turrets out it wasn't too difficult. Full Extraction, so a +6.

[Shad Croly]

Was attempting to do the Reaper Gold squad goal for Broadside. Wasn't having ANY luck for the entire first day; every mission we ran we all died on Wave 10 or earlier. It was incredibly frustrating, but there definitely was a strong highlight of the time.

In a few of the runs I did to try and get the Squad Goal complete, I was in a group with this guy (who we later shared friend requests with) who was an amazing Asari Justicar. On Firebase Giant (or whatever the Tuchunka one is called), we camped out in the control room with the other two team members, and with him providing bubble support on the main door, it was pretty easy fighting and killing near anything that tried to come at us. We'd both setup and detonate biotic explosions off each other and I always kept a quick trigger-finger on Overload to strip the shields off anything that tried to attack us (can't remember what ammo mod he was using, but I know Adepts aren't so good at blasting through shields). We still didn't get past Wave 10 on any run we did and I had to leave early, but he's an amazing player.

The one Reaper Gold mission I did win was with a rockin' group with a Drell Adept, Asari Adept, and an Asari Justicar (again me on the Turian Sentinel). No one really talked over mics, but we fought really well together and, in the end, we managed to get two people extracted that mission to complete the squad goal (the other two, sadly, got Banshee killed).

However, I'd have to say my favorite moment this week had to be a FBWGG farming run. It was kinda rough at first, as a FQI didn't quite get that you were supposed to hang out downstairs to bottle-neck all the enemies into that one corridor, but she figured it out quick and we got a full extraction. The funnest part about all that was just sitting there, everyone throwing out enough Overloads and Tech Bursts to power a 10 story building, and just pressing the melee button over and over and watching my Turian casually reach over the desk to stab a Geth in the face, and all of them neatly lining up to come get killed. I seriously must have racked up about 20 grab kills that fight and I think my best streak was 5 grab kills in the same 10 second window. It was really hilarious.

Modifié par Shad Croly, 15 juillet 2012 - 09:50 .

[Lynx7725]

Shad Croly: Hah! yeah Grab kills are great when you set it up. Pyro walks in, flame a bit, lean over to see whether you're properly done.. then you grab his collar and flip him over the counter. Really cute when set up properly.

Rest of this afternoon was done levelling Yasmin the FQE. She's turning out to be a regular terror now..

Jade/ Reaper. Kept tossing the turret down into the Pillars. Worked a charm, and caught multiple Brutes with AP Incinerate... I'm not even giving them face anymore. Full Extraction, so +7.

Condor/ Cerberus. This one was ok. By this time I upgraded my Turret to have rockets, so a lot of kills were beyond my vision. I think the turret sent something up a Phantom's ass.. Definitely feeling the Carnifex was a bit light. Full Extraction.

White/ Reaper. There were fun points. Dropping the turret in front of Banshees and Brute could grab their attention -- it's not 100% foolproof, but it does work if you do it right. So there was this big traffic jam in front of the doorway where I dropped the turret, and we were all gleefully shooting up the crowd there... there's no way a round could be wasted, what didn't hit the Banshee is going to hit the Brute, and what didn't hit the two was going to hit the poor Cannibals!

Incinerate on Ravagers quickly whitted them down to Carnifex-disposal level, but I still felt was too slow.. Carnifex had to get a replacement.

One Wave, Banshee came up from the rooms, I happened to be in the small room, so I tossed a turret on the stairs and she obligingly stopped for rockets to the face. I followed up with Incinerates and Carnifex round, and got a clean kill from her. Extraction was quite, and Full Extraction. +8

I was quite surprised at the end of the match because I was #1.. by 16k or so. Yes, petted classes have an advantage, but I didn't expect that big an advantage. Especially since all 3 teammates were a bit gung-ho about things...

Went back out, White/ Geth. Heh. Same tactics, but Geth are tougher if only because their mid-tiers work better together. We had a few hairy moments with Hunters, and I got very used to tossing the turret out to save my own bacon. Wish there's a way to keep an eye on the turret's shields though. Again, Full Extraction -- Extraction on White isn't a big problem when you can use a turret to slow the enemy down.

Last match, just to test out a power evo. Dagger/ Reaper. Finally a Dagger match and me stuck with no sniper rifle. Also, swapped to a Talon.. up my passive to have a weight capacity increase, so the Talon is now more acceptable.

Managed to target Ravagers with consistency; now I'm bring Cryo into the game, plus Incinerate, while my Turret is there distracting it. Works pretty well. Brute also falls for this, but Banshee moves a bit fast -- have to learn to shorten the throw. Still got Banshees mesmerized by the turret so it works out.

One Retrieval Wave, the second objective was in the pipeworks by the ramp up to the pads, 3 or 4 Cannibals have spawned and were walking around the area. Tossed the turret into their midst, and rushed for objective. By the time I turned around to head back for the EZ, 3 were dead.. nice turret, good turret.  

Wave 10 cap, got rid of the Brutes and Ravagers early, but missed the Banshee.. that one ran off somewhere. So we were capping #3 and #4, which happened to be in the long Array Control corridor. Took a peek over on the Dark Side, turns out the Banshee was wailing pitieously on that side. Tossed her a turret to keep her company, and when she finally charged up enough to move, she ported up just to get killed off fairly fast.

Extraction wasn't a problem. Full Extraction, so +9.

Overall, the FQE is shaping up to be quite fearsome. Paired with a Talon with Ammo and AP mods, she's quite good at burning things down and dispatching them.. I'm seeing Cannibals getting taken down on single body shots with the Talon.

I'll probably game a bit more tonight. Just to get +10 to the Community Goal... can't say I didn't push for it. :innocent:

[Lynx7725]

Ending off my weekend run...

Yasmin the FQE went into Giant/ Geth to level. Was a good match. Getting good at tossing the turret. Couldn't help a smirk when, on the Extraction Wave, I tossed a turret up into the Control Room and was immediately rewarded with a Geth Trooper Kill. Paranoia will out. Wasn't a real problem in the Extraction, so Full Extraction.

Went into Hydra/ Reapers next. Not sure about the timing, if this would get into the Operation, but basically.. my FQE was lazing. Tossed a Turret out where it can see the enemy, and just wandered around. Wasn't really pushing it, but got the job done. Full Extraction, +10.

Put aside the FQE to go back to the HI -- a farewell promotion game, since I recently got the MQI and wants to try it out. Hydra/ Reapers, with mostly the same crew but they swapped things up. Wasn't too bad, didn't have to compete with the SI on the previous game, so had a quiet, and nice snipe fest. Had a pair of Hack Waves in the open, a few close calls when the environment prevented us from seeing the enemy, but good thing is Ravagers don't shoot well when they are going upslope.

One particular close call is when a Banshee teleported right into the Hack Circle. It was graticulous to see the entire team quickly scatter from the circle before coming back to hammer the Banshee into the ground.

Extraction Wave, the Banshee came along the bottom area, and we gratefully tore its barrier down. Once that was gone, it was a quick execution for her. Her Brute escorts didn't fare much better. Full Extraction, +11.

A bit unwilling to promote the HI as I was very good with her, but she's due for some R&R. Meanwhile, trying out a MQI build.. let's see how that works out.

[m4sterch3f]

after a couple gold games made sure I had a few full extractions went into silver for the rest of the night and man was the Indra putting in its due work

[Lynx7725]

m4sterch3f: had used the Indra before, it is good for some purposes but personally, I'll stick with the Valiant.

Anyway, on leave today, coincidentally Earth DLC released.. really, it's a coincidence.

So I d/led the DLC but was in no rush (and have no money) for a buying binge. At any rate, my MQI still needs to be levelled..

So, Vancouver/ Reapers, for my fresh MQI at level 1. He wasn't very effective, but that's to be expected.

Vancouver is a rooftop map, squarish, easy to memorize. You start off in a sunlit roof with an ammo point and it's basically a circuit. One corner has an office with an ammo point, I don't recommend you fight in there -- a lot of obstacles, so easy to get caught up. Next to it is a nice elevated patch that overlooks a spawn point, an obvious sniping spot. Then the circuit links back to the LZ, so not particularly a big map, but a lot of verticals, joined by ramps. a central pillar with a staircase I think, but didn't explore yet. Decent sniping map, not great but nice.

I like the map, it's fairly open, have good blocking obstacles, has unconventional veritcals.. don't expect too much cover ability, get the heck out of LOS. Ammo points look to be ok, if a bit exposed. Still need to find a few.

My MQI was of course not equipped to snipe. No, he had a Talon on him... (which could hit decently well at range...) Too early to be fully developed but at least I am grateful to note that I still cut through armour decently fast. Had a fun occassion when a Ravager was going uphill and we happen to be below it.. was tickling its bottom. Of course it couldn't shoot back, that would be unfair now, won't it?

Full Extraction, not too bad for a PUG, against Reapers, a totally new map, and a level 1 noob.

Next game is Rio/ Geth. Now this is weird.. Rio is a long map. VERY long.. it's more a container yard than anything. One end is a maze of boxes, with quite a number of ammo points; I don't recommend fighting in there unless you are equipped to CQB, it's tight and easy to get flanked. Entrance to the yard is a choke point though, in my fourth game I'll explain why.

Central structure, where you start, has about 5 lanes passing through or under it.. I was flanked by Geth from the left and right extremes, thought there were only 3. This means enemy can easily pass through and with line of sight blocked, it's very hard to choke them. The two extremes also is vertically sunken, so I only had a momentary warning before the Pyro got me.

Other end is some sort of platform with gates. It's a bit odd, but the gates choke the enemy and they have to either go straight (underneath the central structure), or slow, turn left or right to mount up to the passageways to the central structure. Either way they get slowed quite badly.

Was still figuring out the MQI so not much to say on this one. I did get an escort mission. Good grief that drone is annoying. I don't like that four of us were clustered so closely together though, one Rocket Trooper or Geth Prime strike and we'd be in trouble. This game, Full Extraction.

London/ Reapers was next. This is a conventional square map, but each corner is blocked off by buildings (you can go in but there's not much there. On one side is a staircase to go up to the second storey for sniping; it's not great because of the exposure. Scattered throughout the street were vehicles which you can take cover behind, including one nice fallen pillar leaning with a triangle left open -- I stood there trading fire with a Cannibal and friends there. (Actually killed a Ravager there I think.)

I don't like the London map. Not much to do but butt heads. And we butted hard.. Brutes and Banshees, TacScan to slow and kill. Ravagers are less an issue because of the lack of LOS, I suspect Geth would be quite painful on this map. Ammo points are a bit exposed and due to the colour palette a bit hidden.

Had to do an Escort wave twice, as the Host quit and the wave restarted. The silly ball is annoying. The pathing it chose wasn't too bad, went through covered areas. Other than that it wasn't too bad, so Full Extraction.

Took stock, bought a PSP.. new ULW for pistol, Acolyte, Pirahna.. didn't bothered to use them. Pulled the Falcon out instead; MQI was specced to be support, so the Talon was a bit off. Went back in, Rio/ Geth again.

Synergy is better. Understood the map better, so camped at the central structure a bit more.. Entrance to yard is a deathtrap for the geth, since the elevated position allowed you to see over the walls, and observe the movement. By now I've evolved Tact Scan to be Area Scan, so I'll hit the scan, let everyone see what is coming, then start to bombard with the Falcon. Works well, held up I think two spawns and a Geth Prime there that way.

Works the other side too. A lot of visual clutter, so Tact Scan makes it much easier to work. I suspect Geth with Hunter Mode on will be good on these maps. Extraction Wave is interesting as once we are bunkered in the LZ (which is different from my earlier one), I can now use Tactical Scan to help reveal what is coming. With a particular turn just in front of the area, that meant Geth could sneak up.. .no longer. Full Extraction, no problems.

Overall, I like Vancouver most, for it's a compact, multidimensional map. Rio for the sniping potential. London's a bit too compact for my liking.

MQI is shaping up quite nicely along the concept. Still need to work on it a bit more.

[Lynx7725]

So two more games in..

Vancouver/ Reapers. There is a central "well" of sorts but really, because you tend to fall into the well then have to climb either a ladder or stairs, it's rather slow.. running around is faster.

Anyhow, the QMI "Spotter" concept works fairly ok. Get close, area scan.. suddenly the team's fire picks up quite a bit. the 30~35% speed decrease really helps to mark the targets out for killing. Tagged Brutes and Ravagers really, the only things I don't like are the "warm up" animation, and the need to have the HUD brackets. Wish I have a scope to do range targetting. Falcon compliments this fairly well, but may switch over to a shottie -- want the take down firepower.

Full Extraction on Vancouver. I really like the map, small and compact. One Hack wave in the office and as expected, it's a zoo.. too small, too constricted. But interestingly, I didn't know I can kill things with Tact Scan.. Dropship got here, everything dies, I got a nice killfeed telling me I killed something with the Tactical Scan. 

Next out is London/ Cerberus. By this time I've evolved TacCloak 6 to power friendly, so it came into use.. got where the Cerbes are quietly, then tag their position for fire. Not as often as I like as London is damn small, so a lot of time we were getting into each other's way.

The 30~35% speed decrease is significant. I tagged a moving Phantom with it and she immediate started to crawl. Easy kill at this point.

Extraction. I cloaked and managed to sneak behind the main Cerbie push as well as the Atlas. Tact Scan the Atlas to slow him down and the best part is the whole Cerberus force just ignored me. Even after my cloak came down. So I just walked behind the Atlas feeding its exhaust Falcon rounds.. killed the only Cerberus (a Centurion) who could have spotted me with grenades to the back.

Managed to kill the Atlas with help from a teammate, cloaked and duck back around a transport, only to come face to face with another Centurion. He didn't see me, so I cheekily tagged him with a Tact Scan before ducking back. Of course he came after me, but by then my Falcon is already aiming at him.

Unfortunately another teammate was downed about this time, and as I was trying to get to him I realise another bad feature of London -- too many pillars and obstacles. You can't get from Point A to Point B quickly. Teammate bled out and I beat a hasty retreat back to the EZ, 20 seconds left. Partial Extraction.

[Lynx7725]

Hey hey! Another 3 games. MQI getting a workout.

Vancouver/ Geth (IIRC). This one was so so. I DIG in, Wave 2 I think. Started to get a sense of the map, now I'm convinced to always circle clockwise, due to the big drop/ ramp on one side. Easier and faster to do ramps then stairs or ladders, and speed counts.

Swapped out to a Piranha. Hey, at Level I it's not too bad as it is.. Good RoF, decent damage, good mag size. Not perfect fit with mission profit, but good enough. Decently good with a choke too, at range.

Doing spotting work takes a bit of getting used to. I'm too used to my Infilitrators hitting the Cloak for damage, so often forget to cloak for hiding. Wave 10 hack is in the middle of the ventilation stacks, which is a pain because you don't have good LoS. Which is where the silly Tact Scan proved its worth by letting everyone know what's coming up. I think it made all our lives a lot easier knowing the stupid Pyro is coming up.

Funny thing was in the middle of a Wave I heard someone asking about the funny grid graphics. Seems like not everyone is aware of Tact Scan.. heh. Partial Extraction IIRC. Some joker was just outside the circle.

Rio/ Geth next. This one, had a Batarian that was just too good at getting underfoot. I need to pass through the passageway and he's usually standing there shooting.. Game need a virtual boot to kick teammates out of the way.

Otherwise, 'Filly-shotgunning-scout works out ok here. The "yard" area is filthy with LOS blocker and there's a Hack there. During this hack I kept Tac Scanning, so at least we have some idea who is coming where. That kept things to an easier pace. Since Rio has a lot of blind corners, using it when a Geth Trooper shows up usually is smart.

This one is simple. Geth doesn't have much places to hide, especially when you're a Geth Prime and too damn big to duck. Tact Scan, Cloak shotgunning.. works out. Extraction, just needed to keep things locked up and we're out. Full Extraction.

Last game for some credits for a PSP. Goddess/ Reaper. FINALLY a non-Earth map. Really busy as a scout, since I'll cloak while in the Main Hallway, and sneak over to the Elevator Room to do a quick scout. Usually, a good size spawn.. I'm quite caught out by the number of enemies a few times. Still, with the right info, it became cleared very fast, Teammates are faster than me at the draw which is fine by me.

Wave 6 IIRC, Hack in the main hall. Got there early, enemies spilling out the Elevator Access. Tact Scan, started lobbing grenades. Seems to be popular point as the enemy kept spawning there. Then had to turn around towards the Main Hallway as things crept up, again Tact Scan gave us an advantage as we know their strength and positioning.

Towards the end, happen to get a couple of Husks coming at me. Piranha lived up to its purpose, taking down the closer Husk quickly. The second Husk I shot it off the balcony as it scaled down (instead of jumping)... weird, think this is new?

Extraction Wave, caught the Brute's attention, and got crushed between wall and Brute.. sigh. Partial Extraction.

Got enough credits for a PSP. Got Acolyte II, and the Devastator. Promoted my Level 20 Soldier to take a look at it, quite interesting, so probably will run one soon.

[Lynx7725]

So another day, but a new chara. Meet Bronco the Devastator.

Trotted him out to London/ Cerberus. Promptly fell on the face, Wave 3 wipe. Switched on Devastator mode. Immediate disorientation. Went everywhere, couldn't find the damn crosshair in that sea of blue and red. Turned it off but turns out the Harrier doesn't quite have enough ammo for the class.

To quote the poor sod who has to see me stumble around like an idiot: "Oh, REALLY?"... yeah facepalm moment.

Did another 2 Vancouver games, one against Geth, one against.. Reaper I think. Neither were good. Trying to move around in Devastator mode felt like being a pregnant Krogan. MALE Krogan. With TWINS. It's a whale I tell ya. Couldn't get it to work right, ended up switching it off. Better, but the Missile Launcher is also another odd duck. Switched that off too. So ended up with what? Revenant against the Geth, and Multi-frag against the Reapers.

Multi-frag at least got my respect. Even mildly evolved it was doing a nice splash. Just need to get used to the arc. Thought the Falcon would compliment better, so went with that into Goddess/ Reapers.

Good grief. Wave 1, came across a tight cluster of Cannibals in the entranceway. Lined up the Multifrag. Fragged everything there. All Cannibals downed immediately.

My jaw dropped.

Now we're talking.

Simply started storming the spawns. Everywhere my teammates didn't go immediately became a suspicious area. One Cannibal pokes its head out, I drop either a Falcon round on it or 5 multi-frags into it. It was so good that I had to rein it in a bit... otherwise the teammates would get really pissed with me.

Wave 5, IIRC. Brute shows up. Shoved a multifrag into its face, it didn't die. Shoved a second and third load.. it blew.

Wave 7 or 8. Banshee showed up. I introduced her to the multifrag (at a discrete distance). She didn't blow, but enough damage that she was easier to take down.

Another Banshee took the Main Hallway to the hall. I managed to get behind her, reload my grenades along the way... then hit her ass with enough munition to down her and her consort Brute.

Predictably, Full Extraction.

Multi-frag's performance is a bit off the charts if you use it right. After some thought, I respec'ed the class, did away with the Devastator Mode and the ML, and just poured the points into Multi-frag and Battlesuit Piloting (or whatever it is).

Rio/ Reapers. Works a charm. Now I'm a stormtrooper with only one button to press... Also, swapped out the Falcon for a Talon. Realised I'm not really hitting anything in close, prefer to swap for something a little more accurate.

First wave, got lost, so was too close to the hack area. Cannibals started coming out. Grenades went in and quickly cleared. Rio has lots of crates in those areas so it's a quick reload. Wave 2, Cannibals started coming out from the container side.. multifrag in those area is just nasty, nasty stuff, and a Talon didn't need to aim too much.

Fast forward to Wave 5, Brute started showing up. Was up on the west bridge, camping the yard entrance. 2 loads and the Brute was down. Turned around from the other side, and a Brute was trying to sneak up. 2 more loads in close, dead Brute.

Ravagers started showing up and they are extremely vulnerable due to their large size and squishiness. One shot, and followup with a Talon is usually enough.

Wave 10, Hack at the AA guns. Sprinted down the west bridge, flanking the Ravagers. First frag overshot and I actually killed the far end Ravager when I shot with the Talon (AP, maybe gone straight through the near one). Quick followup killed the other, but the Banshee showed up and grabbed me...

... somehow, my teammates managed to stagger her and she dropped me (and is not dead). I rewarded her by backing up and showering her and the Brute with Grenades; kills but a random Cannibal round floored me.

Got picked up, and got up seeing a Ravager. No ammo for the Grenades, shot it up with the Talon. Then ran -- and got splattered on the floor -- repeatedly for the ammo box. Finally the Hack got done and we moved out.

... only to get called back there for the Extraction Wave. Anyway, we just wandered around a bit, Banshee and Brute got there early so we disposed of them. As the seconds ticked away, I just shot off all 6 frag loads over the East Bridge, hoping to get random kills. Didn't seem to work, but is a good fireworks display.

Quite surprising that I simply couldn't get the Devastator mode to work. But damn, that Multifrag is good. Can we get it on a Vanguard class please?

[Lynx7725]

Short night tonight. Feeling a bit flu-y so best to cut it back a bit.

Bronco the Devastator. Glacier/ Cerberus. He laughs. Cruelly.

It's a massacare. He'd wait in the Hub room, then stomp down to the basement and unleash grenades upon the poor unsuspecting Cerberus. Entire generations were reduced to warm bodies that way. The close confines of the Glacier facilities just made things easier. When a teammate was downed and 2 Guardians, a Trooper and I think a Nemesis were gloating over her body, a snap decision launched a storm of grenades into them, fragging them all in one go to join the teammate on the ground.

Pretty decent to resolve turrets too, but you have to be brave enough and fast enough to close the distance so that the arc doesn't spread the damage out.

Even when Atlases showed up, Bronco would use the smoke screen the Atlases deploy to simply close to short and minimize the spread of grenades. Within 2 launches, an shieldless Atlas would be ready for a Talon finisher. Shields just doubled the load needed and easily accomplished. Full Extraction, of course... Avenging one part of the first failed Devastator mission.

Second part, London/ Reapers. The open air meant grenades are somewhat less effective but still good. Good teammates meant the mooks are kept down, while Brutes took a bit more grenades than usual -- not warmed up to the arc so some overshot. I started to compensate for it, and one Wave 2 Ravagers came out from the corner near the LZ. I flanked them and rained grenades down on them, quickly killing them. Then I proceeded to help the Krogan with the Brute, but he really didn't need it.

Banshees were harder for the grenades to hit since she's a thin thing. I had many fly over and around her, but usually there's a mook ready to catch it for her. Eventually I got used to the arc and started nailing Banshees more regularly. Helps when a Brute backstops her.

Extraction was Full, quick and somewhat messy. Nothing a quick storm of grenades won't resolve, and thankfully enough ammo are strewed around to make such wanton use of explosives less of a concern. So, part 2 of the first failure is avenged tonight too.

[Lynx7725]

2 games early. Might have a later part.

Bronco the Destroyer heads out. First stop: Dagger/ Geth.

At first I was a bit puzzled. How's a Multi-Frag Destroyer going to play Dagger? I just shrugged and moved into the usual sniping position. Here's a place where I can use Devastator mode, not going to need to move much.

First wave.. Shadow's playing downstairs, so I didn't get much done. Second Wave -- Spawn Frag Shower! One problem is that the engagement range of Dagger is a bit suboptimal for the frag launcher -- I can have good spread at the ramp but beyond that it's more hit-and-miss. So usually just wait till the enemy get into position then hit them with a massive shower of frags. Nice thing is even Primes get staggered, so it's a good tactic. Overall, nothing too stand-out, fraggy Full Extraction. Top of table, not too surprising given the amount of grenades I was tossing around. Each launch was 5, I can run the mag of 6 dry in later Waves.. I typically reload as often as possible. So it's like 25 to 30 grenades per wave...

Second game, went out to White/ Reaper. DIG'ed in, second encounter with a Demolisher.. her placement of the plyon at the sniper point makes it such that I had to steal grenades from her. I tried to minimize it, faster to just take from the crate behind her.

As expected, Fragastator takes out the straggling Cannibals from the far end rather easily. In this case the sub-optimal range actually works out because the grenades would spread and catch the entire line. Killed 4 Cannibals in one go that way.

Found a good use for the Devastator Mode. Any cap objective, just run to it and turn on the mode. The added shields and shield gen -- the way I spec it -- makes it quite survivable if you even have a bit of team support. One cap wave, Wave 6 I think, I was winging it out to the back Launch Ramp to cap something.. some Cannibals spawned when I wasn't aware, but they didn't spot me. Once capped, I stood up, saw something like 6 Cannibals there, and quickly fragged them all and Talon'ed the remains.

One Wave, it was so quiet, all of us were wondering where the Reapers went. Turned out, the entire Brute/ Ravagers pack was travelling through the room, so when we went down to investigate, the whole pack of us ran into them at the doorway..

Brute and Ravagers were so densely packed that Frags can't miss.

Rapid-fire frags turned that area into a puddle. Not even Swarmers left, IIRC.

Wave 10, Assassination. Banshee and Brute came down the same passageway, with predictable results -- the entire team crapped on top of them, and grenade storms just wiped them out. Followed through and caught a pair of Ravagers as they were turning into the room from the outside -- they squeezed off a shot or two but basically too many things flying their way; both gibbed within seconds.

Extraction Wave works as expected. Full Extraction, I shot off the whole remaining load at the end, over the wall at the lower passageway, just to try to catch anything coming. As expected, top of board, but not by much. Wasn't too aggressive on this match.

Overall.. if you're trying to play Destroyer as a turret, it doesn't feel right to me. Can't get it to work. But spec'ing it as a stormtrooper, relying on the multifrag to clear entire waves, and using the Devastator Mode to tank some of the tougher rounds (like Hack or Capping, or just Escort and Retrieval) looks to be a better idea.

Heck my DevMode is still not maxed out, I'm going for Shield Regen and +40%.. I think I'll get over 3000 shields and health at that point. If it wasn't for the fact that I prefer to have more grenades, I'll probably use Stronghold and Cyclonic to boost the shields to inane levels.

[Lynx7725]

Back half. 2 games again.

Glacier/ Cerberus. Took a Black Widow in.. hadn't used it in a very long time, so not as hot with it. Not nearly as fun because a Vorcha is using the same strategy as me, so we were competing. Eventually -- especially when bigger things showed up -- the Black Widow and Frag Grenades made me more flexible.. especially Wave 10 Assassination, a constant stream of targets tagged in the Lower Basement. Great fun taking those out.

Extraction Wave, Solo'ed the Atlas with the frags and Black Widow. Then kept an eye on the corridor while the teammates flush the lab clean. Eventually had to frag the corridor, but by then the timer's down. Still a Partial -- someone else was too busy having fun.

Black Widow, I no longer am "hot" with it, so I swapped to a Valiant.

White/ Geth. game was set to Random/ Random so.. meh. Team had a Krogan, an Asari Adept, an Asari Vanguard. I was the only "sniper", so I put on the DevMode and set up for sniping. First couple of Waves, the rest played... then I got serious.

Wave 3, Escort. This was from small room (IIRC) to Launch Ramp, turns out quite ok as the ball took the covered route. I just dislike the small radius that made 4 idiots cramp in together.. it's nice if it's 2 Asari and a Human (male), but there's a Krogan involved....

Wave 6, Cap. Fun. Help hold off the crowd for #1, took #2 which was in the small room. #3 was out on the lower passageway; on the way there the Krogan led the charge out from the upper passageway through the ladder. Shocking thing was that there was a huge crowd of Geth clustering in the corner at the ladder... all nicely tucked into one small area. Multifrag from above! I must have cleared out 5 to 8 Geth from that corner with just 2 or 3 launches.

Somewhere in between I was tripping down the stairs to the small room when a Pyro and gang ambushed me. Learning from Cobra fire, I looked down and fired a Frag GroundBurst... FTW. Instance room clearance.

Wave 10 was another Escort, but this time from the Launch Ramp to the ammo box near the landing pad... and this ball decide to take the scenic route. Activated, but along with one of the Asari, stopped to give the Geth Prime his pills... Took his entourage out quickly, that left it fairly safe, but the ball is just slow. Took four of us to roll it into place quickly, then we just mopped up.

Extraction Wave, we quickly messed the Prime up -- lots of grenades flying, then I fired a burst down the stairs to clear the blockage. Fell back in good order, but the Krogan was trying for too much fun. Partial.

#1 was sort of expected after I blew a whole Geth squad up in that corner, but I was shocked to see I had 72K... vs. #2's 49K. While I did use a gun I'm very comfortable with (Valiant IV), I think it's the Destroyer's innate Fragastator that gave me that edge. I have this feeling Multi-frag is headed for a nerf.. it's great, maybe too great.

As it is, I'm very comfortable with the Valiant on the Destroyer, and was in fact using DevMode pretty much all the way. White, you don't need to dodge. With 1600+ shields and 800+ health before DevMode, my Destroyer can tank a bit. Enough to snap off rounds from the Valiant.. it's odd having 4 rounds per mag. Next level, I'm going for that +40% shield.. That should be interesting to see.

[Lynx7725]

Lost a day of notes. Played many games.. but didn't really feeling like typing that much.

Anyway, highlights.. Giant/ Something with Yasmin the FQE. Was trying to use the Acolyte. Not working out.. entire match was just using Turret, Incinerate and Cryo. Especially Cryo. Can't get the Acolyte to work properly. The charging is the problem, at Bronze, people kill things so fast that having a charged weapon that isn't a OHKer is a bit pointless.

Started using the Shadow, wasn't great at it initially, but there was one memorable Rio/ Reaper game.. whatever I hit, dies. Unless it's a Banshee, Brute, Ravager or sometimes Marauder, then it takes a couple more hit. It was overpowered in a ridiculous way and that's when it was sub-Level 10.

Today, really started building Helena the Shadow for kills.

Jade/ Cerberus: Hilarious. I'd start by camping the pillars, wait on the upper balcony and then run down to the pillars and shred everything there. Assassination Waves, and I sneak in with the spawn before targetting the victim and stabbing them dead.

Wave 10, capping. Spotted a Phantom and stabbed her dead through full Barriers -- odd one there. Got brought down by a Trooper, bled out, only to realise how terrible the team was.. two were down, the other two, a Destroyer and a Vanguard, were going about killing things only... badly, because they got pinned by two or three turrets eventually. The Dynamic Duo didn't really go for the objective till late, and even then was kind of close. Didn't understand why the Destroyer prefer to stomp Engineers dead... then again, he was using a GP(S)MG.

Extraction, Partial. Someone was just out of the circle, I remember visually checking that everyone was in. Could have been the Jade extraction bug.

White/ Reapers: Reapers are usually hard for Shadows. Bosses are tough and melee specialists, while the Ravagers have nasty acid and swarmers. I got brought down a few times by acid and swarmers as I prioritize Ravagers to kill.

One Hacking Wave, Brute and Ravagers were trying to come up the stairs.. I foolishly Shadow Struck in. Bad mistake. Lessons learnt -- Shadow Strike is powerful but you need to remember to see if you can get away. Getting cosy with Brutes isn't conducive to long life.

Managed to kill at least one Banshee, maybe two. Stabbed enough Brutes through their rear end to not want to think about it any more. Found that with the 50% bonus to melee after a melee kill, I can actually OHK Marauders with full shields (as melee ignores Shield Gate). That makes engaging Marauders.. interesting. Had a couple where the Marauders came up on the landing platform rim, and I promptly jumped over and kicked them off the rim, dead.

Extraction is a bit odd.. I got floored a few times, thanks to Shadow Strike in Cloak so no shield regen. In turn I picked up one of the teammates, but we only got a Partial IIRC.. someone was out of the circle.

Glacier/ Cerberus: Really pushing it.. Usual tactics is to bounce downstairs and start slaughtering. Usually, even on Objective Waves, I was too busy getting into the midst of the enemy to do the objective.. sadly. On both Escort Wave, I ended up "infiltrating" the end zone and clearing out the enemy before the team rolled the ball into place.

On one late wave, I spotted the Phantom coming up, and let her go past... then stabbed her. Once. Satisfaction. The other Phantom on the Wave was being flailed to death by a teammate when I intercepted her. Phantom #3 of the game got killed off somehow, but spotted Phantom #4 as she went into cover, so Shadow Struck and stabbed her -- once. When you can One-Stab-Kill a fully Barrier Phantom... (and this was about level 13, 14...)

Atlases weren't an issue either. Shields are annoying but stepped in, stab, jump out, repeat. Melee'd a couple of them to death too. Extraction was a bit hairy, but doable. Sentinel or Engineer got downed at 2 sec, picked her/ him up but ended up with a Partial.

I find the Shadow a bit slow at the kill -- the animation is slow enough that I can see myself appear next to the target from my previous POV! -- so she's not actually very top-tier material, at least on my build. But the ability to take almost all mid-tier and some high-end bosses down with one strike is very intoxicating.. and her tactics requires proper "infiltrating", so she in fact does play according to trope.

She's not very good in Hack, Escort or Retrieval objectives, as those don't allow her to use her strengths.. Assassination is her forte, as I've infiltrated entire spawn to kill the target -- and walked away, thanks to the "Bonus Power" evolution of Tactical Cloak. Cap Objective is only because I spec'ed into duration, which IMO makes her more useful.

She's actually terribly useless during Extraction Wave, especially towards the end; she can't jump out because she might not make it in, so she's reduced to using the weapon... which practically I may have fired one clip's worth throughout the mission.

[Lynx7725]

Continued levelling Helena, the N7 Shadow...

1st Game was Glacier/ Cerberus. Fairly new team, so they don't really know the "good" way to run Glacier. Not that it matters.. A good run, mixture of good work and good luck. Team was too good at defending the landing pad but not so keen to travel out. I was running up and down the basement a lot. Solo'ed an Atlas or two, can't remembered if I stabbed any Phantoms. Full Extraction.

DIG into half a match in Rio/ Cerberus. This was the most fun, though I realised I was competing against Kroguard. A number of times we'll hit the same target. I tried to minimize, but it still ends up that way.

Spent a lot of time flirting in and out of hack zones (partially because host dropped during Wave 6's hack, which we had completed). Turns out that's probably the best way for the Shadow to contribute to a Hack; one more Phalanx isn't going to help, not when I can help to stab Guardians and Engineers in the back.

Full Extraction. Extraction Wave went much the same as a Hack wave, I just dodged in between the stacks and columns and picked my kills.

Jade/ Cerberus. A frustrating game. Human Soldier, Geth something. One has a GPS, the other the Indra. Very frustrating, because when they work on a target, such as endless hitting the front of a Guardian, they are stagging the enemy so much that sometimes my Shadow Strike misses. And the Soldier's worse -- with the GPS and frag, he's doing a lot of knockbacks and kills which makes my attack miss.

So I was running around doing a lot of nothing, and incurring CD at the same time. Oddly, the most productive time was when the three of them were in a hack and I could safely operate to remove threats. And oddly, all of them are poor against Turrets, leaving me as the turret removal member.

Did kill a Phantom, ironically saving the Soldier from a sync-kill; she had gotten behind him, within 2 meters. Did solo at least one Atlas, managed to get it downed. Full Extraction.

Still, a tremendously frustrating game; when you get teammates who are good, but you're not sync'ed into the team, it becomes very hard for the Shadow to contribute.

[Lynx7725]

Skipped Monday night as I had a Tues morning meeting, Tues a bit sick, so only 2 games.

Helena the Shadow came out first. Giant/ Cerberus. Team had a Human Engineer, a Quarian sniper, and an Asari. All are quite decent, and the mission went smoothly.

Recently spec'ed into ES, so gave it a try. Hmm. Nice, but animation is really too long. Kept forgetting to use it, I'll get used to it.

Now that I know the SS' vulnerability, I took care to minimize it. Striking only pre-occupied targets minized the risk and a little bit of spread meant less "opps, kill steal..." moments. Still managed to kill at least 2 Phantoms that I remembered, one full, one slightly ding'ed.

SS'ing turrets seems to be the job description now though. Unfortunately a misstep got one of my teammates killed and I couldn't get to her in time to revive. Got to get better there.

Extraction was fun. SS behind the Atlas -- second time actually in this game at that spot -- and killed it there. Forgot I could try for Tech Burst, just melee'd its ass away. Then remembered I got ES and used it, useful there. Toyed with the Cerberus outside, then at 20s ran in and idled. Full Extraction... and never fired a shot from my Phalanx. Pleasantly surprised to see myself at #2, my Shadow usually end up #3 or worse. ES helped but I'm fairly sure it's more that I grown used to Helena.

Second game, missed my Human Infiltrator, so I brought her out of retirement. Spec'ed for pure damage, slapped the Valiant on her. Dagger/ Cerberus.

Damn, I was right to bring her out of retirement. My sniping skill's degraded! Gotta practice more. Sloppy sniping in the first few waves (and I missed Wave 1), then warmed up. Nice shot of the day -- double Trooper, dead in one shot at close range. Tagged a Phantom but didn't kill, but ripped through multiple Atlases.

Full Extraction, realised that I had been wasting a bit of previous Dagger experience since there's a nice long tunnel there to funnel people into the Valiant's barrel... #1 on table but only just, there was a "Walk the Dog" mission that I sat out just clearing the Atlases and mooks from the Array Control. I need to practice a lot more with her before I can get "hot" with her in game again.. really shouldn't have retired her.

So, warmed up to the Shadow, and brought the Valiant Sniper back. Coupled with the Missile Glitch patch, a good evening.

[Lynx7725]

Still not well and it's laundry night, so not many games.

Miss the Sniper, so brought her out again. Need to improve on the sniping anyway.

Jade/ Geth. Finally a non-Cerberus game. MatchMaker has been putting me into Cerberus game almost non-stop. Geth is something of a refreshing wind, if tougher.

Took a bit of time to settle into a sniping routine with the team. Ended up doing Upper Balcony/ Pillars. Trapped a good number of Geth, including an upskirt on a Geth Prime. In this match I ended up killing most of the Prime but not necessarily doing the most damage. I've spec'ed into Cryo Blast for a change and the armour debuff came in very useful; most of the Primes died cold.

Wave 10 Hack on the Lower Balcony, sunlit side. It's a bit cute, but I never noticed this. At the angle we were looking up to the LZ, it's just perfectly aligned to get headshots if you are patient. So just sat there and killed, while my teammates took care of the other approaches.

Extraction was straightforward, if a bit pushed by the Hunters.. an unusually heavy concentration of Geth pushing from the Upper Balcony. Of course that just frees us up to counter, so it became quite a horizontal light show. End up with Full Extraction; #1 on the board but not by much, seems like I did a bit more damage than I thought.

Next game, White/ Cerberus. A bit of an odd duck as we moved in, a N7 Level 6 newbie Battlefield 3, plus a QFI with an odd loadout -- SMG and pistol. A GE joined us later IIRC. Was a little bit too busy for things to be right, was quite surprised.

Wave 3 was a Retrieval, IIRC -- too busy to do it. Wave 6 was an Escort, that one had to do together. Drone took the scenic route, sigh. Wasn't too bad.

Phantoms showed up, tagged one dead at range, a bit scrappy due to the large mob she came with. Another one made the mistake of opening her flank to me in close -- she got onto the sniper perch -- so I killed her for it, quick. Think I got a third, but can't remember how.

Had fun with Atlas but the first, someone was Cobra happy. Somehow the GE managed to take down a later Atlas VERY fast.. I think I debuffed it, was distracted when a Trooper squad came in from the left, by the time I turned back the Atlas blew.

Wave 10, Retrieval. BF3 guy took the first, got it delivered. I provided cover fire. Second package was in the small room to the left of the perch, so I saw him go in and pick it up... and then promptly dropped it as he made for the LZ. I was wondering what he was doing when he made a beeline for the LZ and stayed there... Took up the package and delivered myself.

Later, as the Wave ended, he was brought down by a Turret between waves, so I had to go down, kill the Turret and then revive him. Oddly, the FQI tried to do that, but didn't do the Turret as fast as I thought she could.

As a result, as Extraction started I was out of position and the Cerbies took the opportunity to drop off that high spawn point above. Had a group of high angle snap shots as I shot them dead from the base of the ladder, and after I climbed up another squad came in through the room. After dealing with them, had to turn around to deal with the Atlas.. hectic. By then, it was down to about 25s, so we made a quick dash to the EZ. Full Extraction.

Was quite surprised to see I was #1,, well not quite as I did work for the game, but there was a GE, and Engineers usually have an advantage. Turns out I was 1000 or so above him. Both of us scored double of what #3 and #4 did. Given that the BF3 guy was new, that's fine; hopefully he learnt not to go in front of a turret.

The QFI though, was a surprise. Decent gear (Locust IIRC), decent level (can't remember), but not very obviously able to use abilities (other than cloak), and not doing very much damage. I think I may be seeing one of the Missile Glitcher returning to Bronze for games..

It's nice to have the Human Infiltrator back. Now to practice till she gets hot with the Valiant again.

[Lynx7725]

A few games tonight.

Took the Human Infiltrator out to warm up.

Vancouver/ Reaper: This one's nothing spectacular. DIG'ed in, set about the running routine. Unfortunately, there's a PA. Who's smashing and lashing. It gets poor for sniping classes. He's good, but too impatient. Not much fun, though I did get enough Cryo'ed Brutes, Banshees and Husks. Looks like Cryo was the right thing to spec into. Full Extraction.

Warmed up, so went to build a new Asari Adept, to test out new gears on Bioplosion classes. Selene the Asari Adept stepped up, Warp/ Throw set to BE, Bubble Stasis. Went into Londen/ Geth. Wasn't a pleasant game. Had at least 2 N7 classes, a Slayer, IIRC, and possibly a Shadow too. The two classes were able to move very quickly to engage, leaving my Asari poorly positioned.. I not having fun with N7 classes in general.

Still, managed to Bioplosion a Geth Prime by myself. Caught him in the upper storey alone, while I'm protected by the overhang. Just blew it away.

Extraction Wave, got downed while trying to kill the Prime. Bled out. It grimly amused me that the team was not able to kill the Prime until quite late in the game, even though I already burnt down to the armour when I was floored.. had I been revived I believed the Prime would be dead. As it is, it goes that way.. Partial Extraction.

Jade/ Reaper next with Selene the Asari. This one was good. Team was solid, knew their job and we synced well. Selene handled the Pillars again, and lots of BE there. Turns out spec'ing armour piercing on the Warp is good, one BE tears about half of a Brute apart. Didn't get to target Ravagers that much, but did set Banshees alit. Overall, this was a good game. Think this one got Partial Extraction -- someone was in cover against the wall.

Switched back to the Human Infiltrator to close the night. Hydra/ Geth. Lobby: Geth Infiltrator with Javelin, Geth Engineer, Human Soldier with Mantis.. very "sniper" group. Shrug, went in.

Before Wave 1, noted the GI was in the bunker -- poor sniping position, not enough leeway on the sides. HS with the Mantis was roaming, a bit odd. GE parked.

Game on.

Valiant proved very fast at taking down mooks. That's a plus point, especially against Geth. Managed to keep up, running warm.

Wave 3 was a hack near the sniping ammo box. Turned out, SpawnMaker decide to send most of the wave through the tunnel... making it an extreme turkey shoot. I ran the Valiant dry, TWICE.. Like shooting fish in a barrel really, just point the barrel somewhat down and keep shooting. GE kept a turret there, which made it safer. A bit hectic, but not terrible.. noticed the GI kept his Bunker position.

Noticed that the HS tends to get into trouble, had to pick him up 2 or 3 times. Picked up a 5-revive medal off the last time I had to pick him up.

Wave 6, Retrieval. Caught a spawn in the open and both GI and myself started tearing the ground wave apart. HS went for the package, GE covered. We got VERY warm sniping here, mental image of spent heat sinks littering around comes to mind. Managed to keep the heat off the deliveryman, even took a Pyro off his back (IIRC). Many good clean kills.

GI got ambushed somewhere in this segment, got hit by Hunters. I got onto the scene too late to stop him getting floored, but took out the Hunters quickly. Picked the GI up.

Wave 10, Hack in the ball room. Had to go through a whole pack of Geth to get to the room, but eventually manged.. only to have another pack sneak in the back while the Geth Prime came by the front. Had to clear the back row first, while under slight fire by the Prime -- Cover in the room deflected his shots. Came back later and pretty much solo'ed the Prime, Cryo undercut his armour and made it much simpler. When the Hack ran out, I had to go out for ammo, ran into another Geth pack.. somehow dodged around, but the GE got downed once.. happens. Picked up, cleaned out.

Extraction Wave. Prime came down the back tunnel. I was the only guy there. Solo'ed the Prime, no problem as I was ducking in and out cover. Once the shields are gone, Cryo applied, Prime became very vulnerable. Quick kill. Then worked on the courtyard and cleared the mess -- good shooting practice. Full Extraction.

[Lynx7725]

Ok, Op Night. Open with Bronco the Destroyer.

DIG'ed into Vancouver/ Cerberus. Team was mostly N7, to be expected.. a bit overdone IMO but ok. FWIW, had Grenade V on, so you know what to expect. Had Retrieval, Escort, Retrieval.. a bit off, but actually the Destroyer's well built for this. Already slow, not going to go much slower, shields up the wazoo, and a fist full of grenades to clear the route....

So Round 3, that one I picked up both IIRC. Round 6, we were clustered so tightly together in walking the drone that I couldn't see jack to shoot. Annoying pudz of a drone kept going in front of me.. can't see much to shoot.

Round 8, Phantoms showed. I blew one apart with grenades, helped with the other with a lucky tag with the Valiant. Round 9 -- deliberately closed and killed an Atlas by going close and concentrating the grenade spread. Atlas never stood a chance.

Round 10, Retrieval. I was close to the end zone and decided to help keep it clear so that the runner can have a clear in. Then waited. And waited. Somehow, they just weren't moving.  Eventually they started moving again, so I was quite puzzled... Probably Phantoms or Atlas, I know the Atlas didn't get killed until late. Whenever I tried to investigate, some mook would pop out randomly to intercept me.

Extraction Wave -- didn't notice any extra length. Just kept running around killing. Last few seconds, showered the office area with grenades.. picked up a few kills that way. Full Extraction, so that's 4 for the goal. #1 on board, not surprised since I was gunning for the Atlases and have the capability to take them down fairly quickly.

Next game, Glacier/ Cerberus. Originally was thinking to swap to the Human Infiltrator, but decided at the last minute to keep the Destroyer.. Glacier's a compact map, easy to grenade things. Team had a Slayer, a Shadow IIRC, and some other.

Turned out, team wasn't that hot.. they were ok. Some waves capped the basement, some waves left things wide open. We had a few nasty spawns that way.

Didn't recall killing any Phantoms -- probably did hit one -- but was tons of fun, running around in Devastator mode, what, 1600+ shields? With grenades aplenty.. Caught multiple Atlases at spawn, the accompanying Cerberus probably didn't like me very much as I grenaded on them.

Extraction was fun. Extra time, but the team ran for the EZ mostly. I took a stroll down to the basement, cracked the Atlas. But Cerberus infantry had time to mass in the main room, so I ended up making a detour around to crack through their cases. Fell back in good order and good time, so Full Extraction.. 4 more, #1 on the board, by a narrow margin. Slayer or Shadow was doing his job.

Last game, decided to break the Human Infiltrator out. DIG into Ghost/ Geth, Wave.. 5 IIRC, the next wave was a Hack objective. Nasty, down in the EZ. Managed to get a good hidey hole and sniped away.

Geth Primes showed up and I manage to get decent kills. Once the shields are stripped, Cryo debuff very nicely and Primes became easy kills. Realised the team wasn't that good as the members didn't check each other's position. Left spawns uncapped. Nearly ran into a Geth Prime that way as I was rushing to cap the corner of Back Street/ Back Alley.

Wave 10, Retrieval. Was closest to package so took it. Emerged onto the LZ just in time to be greeted by Geth Prime. Quickly delivered then got the heck out of dodge. Debuff, clear Prime, and had to run for #2 as the rest of the team was a bit off. Grabbed and retrieved, only one Hunter tried to intercept but the Turian Sentinel was fast with the Overload. Punched its clock with a hip-Valiant shot. Delivered and Wrapped.

Extraction was fun. Cleared the Geth Prime fairly fast, then got into good positions to snipe away the various incoming. Vantage point was good and I ended up covering 3, 4 avenue. Was so busy, ran the Valiant dry, and nearly missed Extraction. Looked up at the clock at 9sec, and beat a quick retreat. Full Extraction, +4. #3 on the board, think that was mostly because I missed the front end.

Overall, I'm actually finding the extra time in Extraction fun. Not ideal for higher levels of course.. Getting the hang of the Infiltrator again, she's a comfort to me.

[Lynx7725]

2 games so far, both with Human Infiltrator, both with N7 teammates, so counts for the weekend.

Can't actually recall much of the first game.. So on to the second.

White/ Cerberus. DIG'ed on Wave 2. Got shot at by Troopers on the landing pad immediately. This should have been a big sign that the team has problems...

Turns out the Demolisher kept going to the counters to camp, which screws the spawn point there, while the rest of us were waiting up top. That moved most of the spawn to the landing pad and small catwalk outside.

Lessons for the kids: Know where your teammates are. That gives you a big hint to team strategy. You lone wolf out there and you are screwing with the team.

Besides that, a big Krogan, a Drell Adept with a GP(S)MG. Didn't hear many BE, so that's strange, but both like to crowd the sniper spot even when their weapons aren't built to take the range.. so end up is my little Human Infiltrator trapped by the bulk of the Krogan and outshot by a GP(S)MG. Sheesh.

Full Extraction, never saw a Phantom. Killed my share of Atlas and during the Extraction Wave the SpawnMaker made it up to me by sending a lot of spawns through the staircase up, so I was just killing there. 19s, fell back to EZ. +4 for the Community.

[Lynx7725]

Last two games of the night. Decided to try out the Paladin. So out strode Tony Stark the Paladin.

... ok, I'm not terribly original. But dang that suit looks good in Red and Gold.

Anyway, Goddess/ Cerberus. Heh I was missing Goddess on my Infiltrator.. tough break for her.

First impressions of Paladin. Damn I feel like a fireman. Wooosh. "FIRE OUT, SARH!"... damn if it isn't effective too. The deadly ladder of Goddess? Not that bad if you spray up to freeze anything waiting for you, then climb up. Quite safe due to the AOE effect.

Sometimes catch two or more Troopers in the mix. One would freeze and one would chill, either becomes dead meat to a Piranha. Didn't see any Phantoms -- my teammates are fast -- but did freeze the pants off Atlases. Quite effective, since I spec'ed for armour undercut.

Extraction Wave, made a mistake, got downed by the Atlas' pack, had to spend a medigel. But got safely away; Full Extraction, +4. #2 on the board, quite impressive for a class I've never played before.

Next game, swapped to Human Infiltrator to end the night, but in lobby, saw that there was no N7 character, so pulled out the Paladin again. Condor/ Geth. I laugh -- had spec'ed into ED and there's a SI on the scene.. this should be fun.

No surprise, ED took most of the work. Piranha is useful for sanding the enemy away after the ED shook them up. Never really felt at risk. There were a few situations where I had to Snap Freeze, especially a particularly hairy situation on Extraction when a Hunter and 2 Pyro got up the ramp, but essentially it was ED And Piranha at work.

Geth Prime had a bad day today. Our spawn cap strategy usually meant the Prime spawn at the LZ, and I was usually quick enough on the middle building to start ED'ing its shields. Once its shields came down, I pot with the Piranha until it is close enough, then Snap Freeze comes out, undercut his armour, and rapid fire on the Piranha usually cleaned his clock. Relatively safely too, since I'm up top behind the rampants.. except Hunters like to ambush me there. Had two try to crowd me. Piranha and ED to the rescue.

Extraction was ok. Aside from the aforemention scare, which I ended up at the ramp 4 sec from extraction. Managed to get in, Full Extraction but we lost one guy somewhere, so only +3. #1 on the board, very impressive class for only the second outing.

Modifié par Lynx7725, 28 juillet 2012 - 06:35 .

[Lynx7725]

So, as I start writing this it's 10 minutes to Operation end.. 2 more games that counts.

Was sick and busy yesterday and today, so only got in an hour ago. Took out the Human Infiltrator. Didn't feel like running Tony Stark.

First game: Reactor/ Cerberus. Hmm. Team had 3 N7s, so not a problem -- a Demolisher and 2 Destroyers. mostly mid to high level. Reactor being the cramp space, I expected the Destroyers to dominate.

Except that they took a sniper camping strategy instead of a stormtrooper strategy... ok. Works for my Valiant. Had two hacks in the reactor, which was a bit of a sigh moment. Never saw a Phantom, I think the Destroyer pulped them, and Atlas.. plenty. Valiant's good on these, even managed to get an accidental Atlas kill.

Extraction Wave was a bit odd. Was a bit messed up because the team had different ideas on how to do the Extraction. One Destroyer went Rambo, the other SR-equipped went into the EZ immediately. Me, was hanging out on the lower decks but decided to go into the EZ once it's clear we were too spread out. Lots of smoke; Centurion started throwing early and kept it up, but given the narrow passageway I was working I just randomly pot shot.. got 3 or 4 kills from there. Eventually, Full Extraction, +4. #1 on the board, heh.. odd since I didn't feel I was working too hard there.

Went out again, DIG into White/ Cerberus on Wave 2 IIRC. Was feeling sicker, disoriented, so first two rounds was crap... couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Team had a N7 Paladin -- caught sight of its shield and snap freeze effect, a Asari Justicar and a Batarian Sentinel.

Game went ok but Wave 3 was troublesome.. we still hadn't sync, so we kept getting into each other's way. Wave 6 was an Escort, and.. the Sentinels didn't bother. I was sniping, then realised the Drone wasn't moving, and got down to the catwalks to help the Justicar... of course the Sentinels kept killing.

Rolled the ball to the Launch Ramp, and had an excellent shot where I killed an Engineer coming round the corner with snap shots.. wasn't exactly aiming. One of those cool moments.

Atlases start showing up but we got a very Cobra happy guy. Boom Boom Boom. Caught a Phantom on the way down the ladder, managed to kill her fairly quickly. Think I killed another one in CQB, but memory is hazy. I do know the third was trying to kill the Batarian, but I managed to distract and down her barrier, then auto targetting decided a Trooper was more important and lost the kill.

Extraction Wave: Was happy to see the Atlas not go boom immediately, but got distracted by a whole platoon of Troopers, Guardians and Centurions landing behind me or coming up from the room. Was very busy killing there, didn't see the Atlas go. Teammates finally showed up at the tail end of the killing spree. Fell back to the LZ at 20s, only to see the Batarian get trapped by a squad of about 4 Cerberus. Managed to snipe them away quickly, and the Batarian reached the LZ. Full Extraction, +4.

Was surprised to see myself at #1. Really wasn't pushing, and the Sentinels were busy killing during an Objective Wave.. ah well.

Modifié par Lynx7725, 30 juillet 2012 - 12:10 .

[Lynx7725]

2 Games tonight, both on the Human Infiltrator.

Jade/ Cerberus. DIG in on 2. Paladin, Demolisher, an Infiltrator.. Quarian. Team's not terrible, just not synergistic. Spawn cap a bit strangely, Pillars is capped though that's a great place for the Quarian to toss an Arc grenade down. He certainly was tossing into the room.. A queer bit of lag is disturbing my sniping, a fairly frustrating game, between odd teammates, lag, and missile happy joker. Not to mention teammates who don't do escort missions and rely on the Infiltrator to do the job..

Frustration mounts as the Paladin went into Shield mode. In front of a Trooper. I went... nevermind.

Later in the game, Phantom shows up, Paladin went into Shield mode against her.. I kept trying to go around the shield to get at the Phantom and he kept moving back into me to block me into a corner. It's not helping Paladin! Finally managed to tag her. Good grief.

Had a good Extraction shooting things up. Full Extraction. #2 on the board, not bad considering the lag, grenade and missile happy teammates, and a.. nevermind.

Frustrated, so went out for a second round. Giant/ Reaper, DIG on 4. I can live with that. I think I came in with a Geth.. something, with a Krysae. Hurmph. Didn't catch the other two's classes, one had a Harrier, but never really see them use powers.

Come to think of it I never saw the Geth cloak OR deploy Turret, that's why I can't tell the class. He was just shooting the Krysae.

Krysae proved to be just as irritating as ever, the flash of explosion and gibbing is very distracting.. it's just that it's now shooting a lot slower. Still, he's not shooting it very great.. Cannibals gib quickly, but his target selection when Ravagers showed is not very good. 

Made it a point to ice over every Brute and Banshee, and if time permits, Ravagers. Turns out that makes them very easy to take out. Got my share, and a particularly tricky escort on Wave 10.. 3 Ravagers and a Brute came out from the power bunker's side room. Managed to deal with 2 early so our dog walk to the Control Room wasn't too bad, the last Ravager was taken out as we crossed the courtyard.

Extraction Wave was hectic. Ran the Valiant dry but started with 28 rounds only.. went to reload, only to see the Geth go down, came back to see a full stormtrooper platoon of Reapers. Quick firing -- and with the aid of the Krysae -- put most of them down quickly. Full Extraction. #3 on the board -- no surprise DIG on 4 -- but the shocker is 8+k above #4, the Krysae Geth. I thought he got a lot more with the gun, but seems like I was mistaken.

Paladin in the first game was particularly galling. I have a Paladin in the stable, I know aggressive play with the Paladin makes it a good class. Hiding behind the shield doesn't do much.. I see why Bioware didn't let the player shoot a weapon, the temptation to bunker and hide is too great.

[Lynx7725]

Two games tonight, one each with the Human Infiltrator and Tony Stark, the Paladin. (snort), both good runs.

Human Infiltrator to warm up. Jade/ Geth. Starting wasn't good, cold start and I'm still twitchy.. not great. All the rest are good N7 levels, but mid to low level characters. Krogan Vanguard, Shadow, Male Quarian Infiltrator.. odd, now I realise I didn't see any tact scan coming up.

Eventually warmed up and got the Geth Primes. Snipe the shield, Cryo Blast to brittle the armour, then let the AP mod do the heavy lifting. Works well enough.

Did end up sniping a couple of kills away from the Shadow.. think he got annoyed. Tried to stay away.. not so simple when you can't tell what the Shadow is targetting.

Full Extraction, #1 by a narrow margin. I was going to stick with the group, swapping to the Paladin to level him, but the Kroguard suddenly unreadied, and a kick vote appeared against me. 

Oh well, their loss.

Joined another group. Turian (Sentinel IIRC), Geth Engineer, and IIRC a Human. Went into Jade/ Reaper.

Sur'kesh must be having a baaaad day.

Anyway, it's against Reapers, which I hadn't fought for some time. And I do like Jade. And Tony Stark, Paladin turned it up.

My Paladin is tuned more for CQC; Snap Freeze maxed, ED, not relying on the shield, and a Piranha with Shredder and Choke. Structural Ergonomics to crank the Snap Freeze a bit faster, but nothing else.

On Jade, my usual MO is to start capping the mid-Upper Balcony spawn, then move into the Pillars to clear it out -- the Pillars being a common spawn. So that's what Tony did. And cleared it out he did.

3 Cannibals clustered by the back stairs, 2 in the front leading to the courtyard. 15m Snap Freeze caught all of them, and they all went down or were chilled. Piranha snapped up and cleaned house. Second application of Snap Freeze came online just as they recovered from the stun, and another cloud laid down. Before the other 3 managed to kill the rest of the Wave, I've wiped out most of the Wave in one spawn point. Way to go, Tony.

Wave 2, similar, just throw in ED to stun Marauders. Wave 3, IIRC was package.. too busy killing spawns. Wave 5, Brute came up and I entertained it. Solo'ed and kill, managed to duck his first charge, Snap Freezed to undercut his armour, Full Auto Rock and Roll with the Piranha, and pretty much over.

Wave 6, capping. Killed the Brute by much the same technique and caught some Ravagers out in the open. Freeze and Feed to Piranha works, but then the Team got caught in a bad position with the third Piranha. We broke out, and I ended up capping #2, #3, #4 while the rest kept happy killing.

Wave 7's Banshee got killed early by the rest of the team.. was hoping to test on her. Ah well. Wave 8, got the Banshee; she was coming up into the LZ, I planted the shield but moved it too early. Still, usual Frozen Piranha works on her too, clean kill on her with assists.

Wave 10, Escort. Got down to the Drone near the LZ early but spotted a Ravager coming down from the Pillars into the Courtyard. Tripped over the potted plants -- damn Salarians... -- and the Ravager tagged me nicely. Turian picked me up, nice of him, then I ran towards the Ravager -- oblique so that it couldn't track me well. Snap-freeze, Piranha, dead Ravager.. wish it would freeze the acid also.

Think I ran up the Pillars and was treated to the bare backside of a Brute. Of course it's full auto to the backside. Caught the Banshee at the LZ, clean kill.. LZ seems to be a Banshee graveyard.

Extraction Wave, was hustling towards the Pillar -- Banshee and Brute spawned in the room opposite. Saw the Banshee coming, tried to be funny, planted shield to block the stairs... only for her to teleport behind me. Turned in time to catch her melee (I think) on the shield, staggering me back and breaking the Shield Stance.

At this point, it seems a bit weird.. I think she tried to sync-kill me, but light melee poked her face enough that she dropped me.. then a teammate distracted her, while I dealt with a random husk from nowhere. Groundburst Snap Freeze did the job and I then Piranha the Banshee, only to run dry. A second Husk ran up, I Snap Freeze again, reloaded and polished off the Banshee.

Hectic.

Then the thawing Husk came back, and a new random Husk, AND a Brute joined the party.

Good Grief.

Snap Freeze, Piranha. Apply to Brute in copious quanities, share with Husks. Urgh.

Got out of that one marginally well. Ran over to the LZ to help a bit with the other Brute, then just hunkered down. Full Extraction. #1 by about 3K IIRC, so it wasn't as heroic as I make it out to sound.

There are no bad classes, just bad players.

As for the Piranha, yes, it does sound a bit powerful, but I reviewed what I did:

• I set it up to cut through armour and choke down to get more pellets on target.
  
• I synergized it always with a Snap-Freeze evolved to undercut more armour.
  
• I fought in an enclosed space in a map with many such areas. When I try to go out in the open, it wasn't as good.
  
• I fought in a manner that explicitly took advantage of the gun. It doesn't take much to shoot a frozen Cannibal, and I'm typically within Brute charge range so that all the pellets would hit it.

So yes, it's powerful, maybe just a tad over, but you have to specifically set it up to be powerful, and fight in a certain manner. The unfortunate part is that certain maps -- like Jade, but Glacier would certainly be similar -- works extremely well with it.