When can Banshees, Atlases, Brutes, and Phantoms, sometimes called "elites" or "bosses", use their one-hit kill (OHK) moves in Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer? When is it safe to be near them, engaging them in close or melee combat, and when is it not?
I encourage and welcome any input or insight - and I've stuck TL;DR summaries at the end of each individual enemy’s segment.
Table of Contents
i. Introduction
1. An Important Fact about Instant Kills (Instakills, One-Hit Kills, OHK moves)
2. Banshees
2a. Banshee Summary
3. Atlases
3a. Atlas Summary
4. Brutes
4a. Brute Summary
5. Phantoms
5a. Phantom Summary
6. Final Notes
i. Introduction: This is a topic about which I’ve found very little has been written – and indeed, what has been recorded is scattered across different pages and is particularly difficult to find. Yet I was curious, since it seemed to me a worthwhile line of inquiry for one who plays on Gold; and so I decided to assemble what I’ve found, adding to it my own experience, with the hopes that the ideas here will be informative to others, and that others will fill in the gaps where my information is incomplete.
Getting right into it: From the information I've gathered, both over on the Mass Effect Wiki and in my own experience playing, it seems that the instakill moves of the Banshee, the Atlas, the Brute, and the Phantom are not executed at entirely random times, but can only be used under certain conditions - that is to say, there are visible and predictable windows of time in which the player may confidently assume that the Banshee or Atlas, or (to a slightly less degree of predictability) the Brute or Phantom which he or she is fighting will NOT use its one-hit kill move, even if the player is within the enemy’s melee range. Knowing this, reliable and relatively safe tactics for engaging ALL of the game’s instakilling enemies in melee and close-quarters combat can be formed that severely reduce the player’s odds of being caught by a one-hit kill move.
So when is it a good time for your Vanguards, Krogan, Batarians, or other shotgunners/melee classes to get up close and personal with the four enemies with instakills? Hopefully this thread will lead to some good answers and viable strategies. And I suppose it's worth noting now: we're talking within the framework of Gold-level strategies here, though of course the information about the timing of Instakills is the same across all difficulties. It's just much easier to scale a strategy down than it is to scale one up - that is to say, Gold-level strategies will work on Bronze, but Bronze-level strategies are unlikely to work on Gold, and thus are much less useful to debate.
1. An Important Fact about Instant Kills: First of all (and this is important, if perhaps debatable), it is worthy of note that it appears that ALL enemies who possess an insta-kill move (Banshees, Atlases, Brutes and Phantoms) will only use their OHK abilities when they themselves are standing still (i.e. not walking/running). Phantoms and Brutes, being capable of quick movement, may sometimes appear to perform their insta-kills on the move - in fact, however, they only do this when you are in their wheelhouse (melee range) and they are performing no other action, including movement. These enemies, however, do appear to chain their moves together on occasion; thus, a brute might parlay its charge into a quick instakill, seeming to the player as though it had killed him or her on the move, when in fact the Brute had actually come to a complete (if brief) stop after charging and before instakilling. Therefore, strictly speaking, a player within melee range of a moving Banshee, Atlas, Brute or Phantom is at no risk of being instakilled by him/her/it: however, these enemies can stop, turn, and perform their instakills quite rapidly and often unpredictably, and therefore, it is no sound strategy to attempt close combat with any of these foes simply on the grounds that they are moving.
2. Banshees: In the case of the Banshee, it appears that she will not impale you with her saladfingers when her blue biotic shielding/aura is down. It does not appear to matter whether her Barrier is still up or not: whether her health bar is yellow or purple the important thing to watch out for on Banshees is whether she herself is glowing blue. When her blue shields are down, a Banshee cannot teleport, nor can she Nova (scream) for AOE damage, nor can she perform her instakill move. She will discharge her blue biotic shields in using her Nova-esque scream; after she has done this and when she is naked of her nefarious aura, then is the best time for Vanguards and other melee/shotgun classes to get bold and get close to her, for indeed, her most effective power at this point will be her ranged energy ball anyway.
It is also worth noting that the Banshee's instakill is the slowest to execute and easiest to foil in the game: the animation takes a few seconds (though not enough time to whip out and use a rocket launcher, unfortunately), and a Banshee will drop the player if his or her teammates manages to kill or even simply stagger her before she completes the heinous deed. Thus, if you see a teammate in the clutches of a Banshee, don't just shoot her (unless she'll actually go down from the bullets in time), but use grenades, Biotic Charge, heavy melee, or something that has a chance to stagger her. For the record, however: if one is instakilled by a Banshee, one shouldn't blame one's team, even if they were right there - sometimes the stagger simply doesn't come, and again, a Cobra Missile only works in time if its already in a squadmate's hands when the player is picked up.
The only thing a Krogan Vanguard (for example) need worry about when confronting a shield-free, non-glowy Banshee is her shield recharge move - she will bend down low to the ground and let out a pained sort of shriek. The animation is distinctive, and thus hard to miss, but watch out - she will have her shielding back up before she is even standing fully erect again, and she can easily chain this maneuver into an instakill in what might look to the player like a single, fluid animation. Players melee-ing a Banshee with a class that cannot quickly dodge-roll backwards from her when she screams and recovers her shields (such as the Krogan Vanguard) will often get caught in this trap, finding themselves unable to distance themselves from her in time, and meeting their doom at the tips of her scarecrow hands. One way to offset the inability to roll may be to quickly Biotic Charge a distant target - other than that, the best thing to do when a Banshee restores her blue shields is to run, run, run away and keep out of melee range until her aura is gone once again.
I’ll address the opposition now: There has been some debate online, I have seen, where some say that Banshees still can OHK when their blue shield is down. After much testing, either I have gotten very unusually lucky, or they were mistaken in believing the Banshee’s shields were down, a mistake that is not difficult to make on a busy screen. Lag can also contribute to this illusion, of course, since even when the player is hosting, the Banshee can bend over screaming and come up with the player in her hands, restoring her shields only half a second before beginning her instakill animation. My best evidence for my case is how recklessly I got in Banshees faces when their shields were down: it’s really surprising and pretty amusing that once you know her dark secret - that she’s pretty damn weak when she’s not glowing blue - you can totally rock a Banshee’s face in the sort of way that makes your team both nervous and shocked if they don’t understand that you’re not just nuking her, but that you’re actually watching and appreciating her behavior more closely than they. Don’t get too self-satisfied though: it seems pretty random, or rather, very much based in the circumstances of the surrounding environment when a Banshee will finally scream her shields back. Honestly, if she does it when you’re nearby, she can probably kill you – your escape, when made, will often be due in some part to luck. This means you won’t always be able to get away, and that no matter how good you are, luck (or at least factors far beyond your reasonable ability to predict) still has some sway over the situation. Some people will never be convinced a Banshee should be engaged up close on the basis that it is even remotely possible to be killed in one hit – while they obviously have a good point, it seems to me these people are missing the operating philosophy behind these tactics: they are valid because they do work, but more importantly, they are intriguing because they’re different. You’ve got 6 x 5 = 30 characters to make – might as well try lots of tactics, at least on occasion, even ones you know you won’t top the charts with as often, or whatever. But I digress.
2a. Banshee Summary: Don't get in melee range with a Banshee until her visible blue biotic shield (not her purple Barrier health-bar) is gone, at which point, feel free to get up close - but be ready to quickly dodge/roll/charge/run away again when she bends down to scream her shields back up, as this (instantly) restores her instakilling ability. Also note that headshots do no extra damage to Banshees: whenever firing upon one, aim instead for her center of mass, a larger target.
3. Atlases: The Atlas is another enemy whose use of its instakill move can be easily predicted. To quote the Mass Effect Wiki's "Atlas" page: "The Atlas can only use its instant kill Grab attack shortly after performing a ground slam. Consequently, although recovering from the slam seems like an opening to close in for a melee attack, it is the worst time to do so." In my experience, this statement holds true. Atlases will only pick you up and instakill you immediately following their slow-to-deploy and easily dodgable ground-punching move, which, like the Banshee's Nova-scream, does AOE damage around the caster. This means that Atlases can in fact be readily and rapidly engaged in melee - the best strategy is simply to dodge away from the Atlas' ground slam (a thing, again, fairly easily done), and then not to immediately reengage the Atlas in melee, but to shoot it at range until it returns fire with at least one of its other attacks again. Once it has used either its gun or its rockets, the Atlas appears unable to perform its instakill before once again slamming the ground in its “normal” melee attack.
Of course, the danger with the strategy lies in failing to dodge the ground pound - doing so will leave the player staggered and exposed in the mech's wheelhouse, putting him or her at very high risk of becoming ker-boned. It might also be mentioned here that Atlases are persistent foes - once they’ve picked you up and begun the killing-you animation, there's no stopping them but with your teammates outright killing them (they appear to become immune to stagger during the animation). This problem is exacerbated on Turian, Krogan, and Batarian characters: none of these characters, as we know, is able to dodge roll, and all of them are fairly slow. In addition, Krogan and Batarians are staggered much more easily, a trade-off for their enormous health and shields - melee-ing an Atlas to death by one of these characters becomes much more dangerous, therefore, when the player is exposed to the fire of other enemies, such as Assault Troopers, Guardians, etc., as these can stagger the player and leave him or her vulnerable to a Real Steel choke-out. Once again, Biotic charging away is a very handy tactic, and one I've brought up twice now because it's not something one often sees the average Vanguard doing - most only use their charge to acquire and kill targets, and think little of its ability to teleport them out of the sort of danger a ground-pounding Atlas exposes one to. But I suppose that's a different topic for another day.
3a. Atlas Summary: The Atlas' instakill is perhaps the easiest to see coming: just make sure you can get outta dodge when you see the Atlas begin its distinctive ground-pounding melee move (the animation takes a second or two to complete), because this is the sure sign of a coming instakill attempt. If the last move the Atlas used was not its melee ground pound, then it cannot use its instakill. Therefore, when you drop back to avoid the ground smash, give the Atlas a bit of space until it starts to shoot at you again with its rockets or heavy guns; at which point, close the gap again if you dare, but always be aware of other enemies that could stagger you and mess up your quick escapes.
4. Brutes: In a way, Brutes are the most frustrating elite enemy in regards to its OHK move. The reason for this is not because it necessarily happens so frequently, but rather, because it seems to be so occasional. I think a lot of us know what it's like to have taken out ten Brutes in a row in melee/close range (whether we liked it or not) across a couple of games no problem - they're not really all that hard to dodge if you can keep barriers or mere boxes from the environment between the two of you. But then, on the eleventh Brute, right at the beginning of the 10th wave, the first hit you take is a Brute picking you up and smashing you back to earth (or moon, or whatever), killing you instantly. So how does one predict when a Brute is going to try to instakill, and avoid it?
Good question. The above information, that enemies will only attempt their OHK moves when they are otherwise unoccupied and stationary, seems to be most useful when applied to Brutes. Think of it: when you do see a Brute do its OHK animation, or when it does happen to you, more often than not, it is because the player rushed headlong into the face of a non-moving Brute. This happens so often partly because, as the wiki noted in the case of Atlases and their ground-pounds, players who don't know any better will see the "cooldown" of a second or two after a Brute has used its Charge and when it is sitting motionless as a perfect window to strike, when in reality, this is the worst time to do so. I cannot say with certainty if this is because Brutes can only instakill immediately after having charged - this would perhaps form a pattern with Atlases, who also have to "set up" their instakills with their "normal" melee move - though honestly, I don't think this is the case, as I'm pretty sure I've been rocked by a Brute right when it spawned and was standing there, still motionless.
Perhaps it is the case that Brutes, slow moving (when not charging) as they are, stop and remain in one place more often than the other three instakillers (except perhaps the Atlas, but its OHK move is readily predictable). They certainly do seem to momentarily hover without attacking around players who manage to get near them but not directly in front of them, especially when two Brutes are in close quarters and cannot maneuver around one another very well. This brings up another exploitable feature of the Brute: since all of the Brutes normal attacks involve his massive hands and require the Brute to be fully facing his enemy in order for them to land, it appears to be the case that a Brute must be fully facing the player in order to execute a OHK move. Therefore, a player standing behind a Brute is at no risk of being instakilled. This works out well for the player, since the Brute seems to have the least armored plating on its back, and since the Brute actually performs an attack with its dying animation that can kill unshielded players in front of it when it falls (one of those little things that far too few players seem to realize). What’s more, the Brute can indeed be staggered, perhaps even with greater ease than the Banshee or the Atlas; by getting a little lucky and using moves that can stagger, the player can keep a Brute from turning to face him or her by not permitting the Brute to escape at all. Luckily, positioning oneself behind a Brute is often not the most difficult feat to achieve, since Brutes apparently have poor vision over their rippling cyber muscles, and consequently are easily kited (lead-around without being able to make contact, for those who never visited Azeroth) around a given space, especially when that space is free of other foes. The question, therefore, is whether a Brute can about-face on the player fast enough to instakill him or her without the player being able to escape in time, and the answer unfortunately appears to be “yes it can”. Brutes, especially when otherwise unoccupied, sometimes seem able to turn around and focus their attentions on the player so rapidly that there isn't even time to run before the player is grabbed up and smashed. For this reason, it is always better to attempt engaging Brutes from behind, with the help of your squadmates, a decoy, a drone, or a turret drawing his ire in front of him and away from you. A final note: The Brute, like the Atlas, won't put you down once he's picked you up until one of you is dead. What’s more, the Brute may have the fastest instakill animation, so the odds of your team saving you once you've been snatched up are very slim indeed.
4a. Brute Summary: It seems a bad idea to confront a non-moving Brute such as one who has recently spawned or one who is coming out of a charge, despite how counterintuitive this may seem. The only safe place to engage a Brute may be from behind, where it cannot hit you, where it has less protective armor, and where it wont hurt you during its death animation; decoys, turrets, drones, and one's teammates can keep the Brute distracted while you beat up on its back and pray that your aggro doesn't get so high that you pull his attention and swiftly become flattened.
5. Phantoms: These can either be the hardest or the easiest of the instakiller enemies. The Phantom can be Stasis'd even through her Barrier, and because there lies a red Health bar under that purple Barrier of hers, she is susceptible to moves like Pull and the full force of Throw (once her Barrier is gone, of course). On the other hand, if you don't happen to have an Asari on your team, Phantoms become much bigger nuisances. One of the game's loading screen recommendations (I'm sure you've all seen it) informs us that we can actually shoot the sword out of a Phantom's hand, thus depriving her of her instakill and melee abilities. Personally, I've never done this (at least I've never been aware I did it, not in multiplayer anyway), and I don't remember ever seeing it happen, either. Maybe it happens incidentally sometimes when players are using shotguns or other spray-type weapons. In any case, to aim for the sword is laughably difficult and simply not worth deliberately attempting, considering that headshots are easier and much more effective. So while Phantoms have the condition that they require their sword to instakill, this hardly ever seems to present a problem for our enemies to-be-exorcised (good luck out there this weekend!).
Stillness, again, is a prerequisite for the Phantom to pull off its OHK; however, Phantoms differ from the other three instakillers in one very significant way: they seem to want to instakill you. The Atlas only uses its instakill when provoked - its intention is not to corner players and melee them. Granted, Phantoms and Brutes can quickly close gaps between themselves and players - yet even still, they usually seem more hellbent on charging (Brutes) or Nova-screaming (Banshees) than they are on instakilling, only using their OHK moves if they happen to be handy or the player simply makes no attempt to avoid them. There can be no such illusions about the Phantoms; clearly, their tactic is to get as close as possible to the player, with the ultimate goal of either taking them out with their normal sword melee or with their instakill stab. Their hand cannons are their secondary weapons - they want to use their swords on you. This means that fighting Phantoms in melee range is fighting them on their preferred turf (presuming they have their sword, that is - I assume swordless Phantoms just try to use their hand cannons, which are almost as deadly and annoying as their blades), and for this reason, most players, even when running melee classes, make the calculated decision to keep their distance from Phantoms, firing instead at as much range as they can achieve.
It is difficult to say whether there are any telltale signs that can predict with certainty that a Phantom is about to use her instakill. But if there is any move that she must perform before being able to insta-stab the player, it is her normal sword attack: indeed, most instakills from Phantoms come in the form of a) normal sword slash
player is staggered c) instakill before the player can recover. This could be seen as part of a pattern, consistent with the Atlas’ need to normal melee before it can instakill. Sometimes it seems that the first strike suffered from a Phantom is her fatal one-hit kill: perhaps the Phantom, like the Atlas, doesn't need to actually connect with her melee attack, but merely needs to use it, in order to line up and enable her to use her instakill. However, I cannot say for sure that she can't simply skip the normal sword attack and launch right into her OHK. Part of why it is so hard to tell is because of the Phantom's cloak: she often comes out of it using a move, popping up on your screen only after you’ve been whacked by her blade. It can be hard to track the patterns of her movements; thus, even if she has telltale signs of preparing to instakill, they may be difficult to reliably pick up. In any event, it doesn't seem that the cloak or her Barrier have anything to do with the instakill; she certainly doesn't need either of them on to perform the move, at least.There is one close-combat strategy that I have enough understanding on the subject of Phantoms to recommend, and it is one that I think is already quite popular. The Phantom is much more easily staggered than the other instakillers; she can even be chain-staggered, effectively keeping her incapacitated until she is killed. One highly effective tactic that can be used on Phantoms (or indeed, to varying degrees of success, on any instakilling enemy) is for Vanguards with near 200% cooldown and Biotic Charge to continuously charge the Phantom every time their cooldown is up, backing/rolling away from her as soon as the charge is complete (the player should just hold the button/stick to run away while in the Charge animation), opening fire on her while backing off, and then charging again as soon as the cooldown is up. If done correctly, this can keep a Phantom staggered ad infinitum, making her incredibly easy to solo - messing this up, however, or failing to stagger her (make sure you don't charge again before she's finished being staggered the first time) can quickly get one killed. Alternatively, I suppose any other move that reliably chain-stuns her could be used in the same way against a Phantom - Biotic Charge just seems to work uncannily well, since she can't dodge it like she will most spells that require traveling through the air to hit their target.
5a. Phantom Summary: The Phantom is a very tricky instakiller due to her incredible agility and dogged desire to stab you. If she still has her sword (and she probably does), then the only way to ensure safety in her melee wheelhouse (her range is bigger than you might think, since she likes to twirl around into position) is to keep her staggered. Luckily, this is not too difficult to achieve. In any case, if she manages to strike you with her sword at all, then you're doing it wrong, you've been caught off-guard, and she is going to win the duel unless you RUN. Don't be tempted to finish her off with just one more Claymore shot, or grenade, or whatever it may be - resist the urge! - Phantoms are as good at staggering you as you are at staggering them, and nine times out of ten, you'll just be cut down on the spot via an instakill or a second normal slash, clicking / pulling RT (or whatever those PS3 things I keep hearing about have) for several seconds in complete vain, having lost your only opportunity at flight and survival. Phantoms are either the hardest or the easiest instakillers, depending on a whole number of factors, not least of which being your understanding of how they move up-close. The more you know!
6. Final Notes: It is my conclusion that there is no enemy for which there is only one good tactic of defeating it - even the Phantom may be taken on by a brave and skilled Vanguard. What's more, I think there's no reason that melee/shotguns builds need inherently be deemed nooby and unrefined or generally less useful in a fight with an instakilling elite, but that indeed, there are many strategies that make close combat with even the scariest of enemies possible, even on Gold difficulty. Of course, I can already imagine the chorus of people complaining about how they hate when their teammates get killed doing something stupid, like getting in a Phantom's face. I'm not posting this in defense of bad decision making. If everything postulated in this post is true, then these tactics will help anyone who decides to get up close and personal with any of the four instakiller Elite/Boss-type enemies, Banshees, Atlases, Brutes and Phantoms - but these maneuvers certainly don't guarantee immunity to occasional instant death. Mobility and awareness of one's surroundings are the keys to these tactics. In short, remember: thou art mortal.
To those who think that melee-ing "bosses" or "elites" with instakilling capabilities in Gold is simply something that should never be done, here is the case I make: While it may be much more risky, and at times even tougher to take on a Phantom or another instakiller up close as opposed to at range, classes who are well equipped for the challenge (such as the Krogan Vanguard or one of the Batarians, for example) can potentially get the job done much quicker and more effectively than with conventional means. Sure, others, with enough skill, can utterly dominate at super-long range with their sniping headshots - but they are as useless in melee as others are at such range. Thus, it’s fun to play both styles for different reasons. In the end, it isn't about the "best" way to kill an Atlas or a Phantom - it's about doing it effectively in as many ways as possible. Variety is the spice of life in a wave-based game such as the multiplayer of ME3 - some classes like to stay away, others get down and dirty. I personally don't understand those people who only play a single class - get outta the box a bit, try something new! I always played Vanguard in the Single Player (though I rarely used Biotic Charge, being as it wasn't in Mass Effect 1 and that in general I preferred to keep my distance and primarily use Pull), but the Multiplayer is a chance to try a bunch of new combat styles.
To conclude (and if you've read this far, I'll add that I'm flattered), go on out there, get in an Atlas' face, punch a Banshee in her gut, take a Brute from behind and lay out a Phantom with a charge! One needs only to know the system well to thrive within it.
Modifié par Chompythebeast, 26 avril 2012 - 08:45 .
Retour en haut
