To succeed in platinum difficulty you need to be able to deal a lot of damage, as well as avoid or survive a lot of incoming damage. Usual FPS skills are helpful here - headshots deal a lot more damage than bodyshots, and dodging rockets is better than getting hit by rockets. I can't help you with developing these skills, but if you practise they'll come naturally over time. What I can help you with is understanding some quirks of the ME3 engine (cover, reload cancelling, wave budgets, etc), and optimal class/weapon selection. Note that this guide assumes the user has played ME3 multiplayer before and has a basic understanding of how things function/has unlocked at least a few solid classes/weapons. The goal is to promote small improvements that eventually add up to make a big difference to your firepower/survivability.
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On fun/disclaimer:
I think that a lot of different people find different things fun. A friend of mine very much enjoys using a vorcha with a carnifex and the flamer. I very much enjoy competitive/smooth games where we're trying to get the fastest clear time possible and compete with each other for the highest score. This guide is written more with my philosophy in mind and tends to focus on the best classes/weapons. With that said, there are a lot of viable classes/weapons (I actually think you could beat platinum using any class in the game if you were a particularly good player), and I'm not trying to say people *should* adopt the playstyle I talk about here, just provide more information for those that are interested.
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Gameplay tips:
Cover: Cover gives you 40% listed damage reduction (though the DR formula is quite strange - 100% listed DR = 75% in game DR, and a further 33% listed DR = 100% in game DR). It also gives you an accuracy bonus. This means you should try to use cover as much as possible - you don't have to stay in one place all the time, but if you're moving around try to move from cover to cover.
edit: A lot of people responded talking about the importance of soft cover. This is also important - if you can put terrain between yourself and an enemy without taking cover it's obviously also good. I think that there are a lot of situations in which actually ducking into normal cover is just fine, though.
Target prioritization: Every wave of enemies in ME3 is drawn from a limited budget (e.g., a guardian is 40 points, an atlas is 100 points, and wave 1 gold has 600 total points available). This means that, generally, you should try to kill small targets before larger targets. Killing 5 guardians is a lot easier than killing 2 atlas.
Reload cancelling: Reloading in ME3 functions in 3 steps after pressing R: begin reload animation -> ammo in your gun updates -> finish reload animation. You don't need to wait for the reload animation to finish before you can fire (just for the ammo to update), but before you can fire you need to cancel the 'finish reload animation' step. There are many ways to do this (cloak, dodge, etc), but in my opinion the easiest way to do it is to tap the medi-gel key [also see: rebinding keys] - this instantly cancels the reload and has no negative consequences. You can practise this very easily using an infiltrator with a claymore - you should be able to cloak, fire the claymore, cancel a reload with medigel, fire again, cancel that reload with cloak, fire again, et cetera. Once mastered, this technique will significantly increase your damage output (though how much varies depending on the weapon you're using).
edit: This is on PC - I'm not sure you can medigel to reload cancel on consoles?
Power debuff layering: If you are playing a biotic combo based class (say, using warp and then detonating warp with throw), sometimes people will use powers on the target you are attacking after your warp has hit but before you have detonated it with throw. The way the game handles this is with layering - if you warp a target, and an infiltrator energy drains the same target, the target will have both warp and energy drain debuffs active. Your first throw will detonate the energy drain debuff as a tech burst (this is a lot less noticeable than a biotic explosion), and your second throw will detonate warp as a biotic explosion. Always try to pay attention to this and get the maximum amount of bursts/explosions possible.
Rebinding keys: If you're playing on PC, rebinding keys will make you able to function more efficiently. I have a power on Q (e.g., biotic charge), ops survival pack on E, thermal clip on C, and medi-gel on G. This makes using ops survival packs especially very easy, and can often save your life when you'd otherwise be fumbling around trying to hit 678~.
Avoiding executions: You can stand on stairs to avoid being executed (sync killed). More info at: http://social.biowar...13448033-1.html (you must be at a different height to the banshee/etc, not same step).
Score: This will probably be the most contentious of the points here, but you can track your progress to some degree using your score. When I began to play I was very often third or fourth on score, whereas playing public games now I'm usually #1. There's obviously some randomness here - you might end up in a group of exceptional players, you might just happen to miss all of the kills, etc. Generally though, if you are improving you should notice your average score increasing over time. The thing is that score generally rewards good behaviour - if you're staying alive for long periods of time you're likely to put out more damage, so your score goes up. If you're depleting enemy wave budget faster by hunting down guardians, nemesis, etc your score goes up. If you're able to put out a lot of damage and clear waves faster, your score goes up. If you avoid getting executed for an entire game, your score goes up. If you're using medi-gel/ops survival packs to stay in the fight, thermal clips to restore your grenades, and missile launchers to clear out spawns in later waves, your score goes up. If you're reload cancelling you get more shots out, so your score goes up.
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Equipment usage tips:
Medi-gel: If you die in the open, you should wait until enemies have left the immediate area before using medi-gel. It's especially dangerous to revive when a banshee is near as they can pull you out of the revive animation into an execute.
Missile launcher: Generally, you should save these for objective waves - we often use 15~ missiles over the 3 objective waves and it makes them a lot easier. As the waves drag on it's also quite useful to clear a spawn out with them on waves 8-9 (this should hit a bunch of enemies just after they've respawned and generally give you a killstreak).
Ops-survival pack: Essentially, any time you would die while your team is under pressure/you're in an unsafe location you should use an ops-survival pack to not die. If you're in cover with a friend and the incoming pressure is light, just ask for a revive instead.
Thermal clip: On later waves in platinum you'll often end up holding an area against waves of banshees/brutes/etc, and running to an ammo crate can often be the difference between holding and getting overrun. Thermal clips make these situations a lot easier to deal with. They also restore your grenades, which helps to make classes like the destroyer even deadlier - you can often use a thermal clip to throw a few grenades into a spawn and totally clear it out.
Armor enhancement: Think carefully about what classes you are using these on. Cyclonic modulators can make krogan vanguards near invincible as they already have high shields and refresh these shields very often. Shield power cells are excellent on a justicar who already has a shorter shield refresh time than other classes -- play to existing strengths.
Ammo enhancement: Disruptor ammo can be used to set up tech bursts (i.e., human sentinel with a light smg/disruptor spamming throw at everything it electrifies). If you use armor piercing ammo do not also use a shredder mod on your weapon (switch it out for damage or accuracy). Generally it's best to use disruptor ammo on caster classes with light SMGs, and armor piercing ammo on classes that use weapons to deal high damage, but obviously this is not always possible.
Gear: If you're a grenade using class pick up extra grenades. If you're a weapon using class pick up a stronghold package if you have problems surviving, or weapon damage of some kind if you don't (stability/extra clip size is also good on some weapons). If you're a biotic using class, +power damage does not change the damage your combos deal, and also gives you less damage than a comparable +weapon damage modifier (i.e., electric slash base damage is 500, increased to 1100 by power evolutions - a r5 mental focuser will only increase this 1100 to 1166 - you get +12% of the 500 base damage, not +12% of the 1100 total damage), so I'd recommend going with -power recharge or +shields/shield recharge.
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Weapon selection/usage tips:
If you only use strong weapons it should make a big difference to your success rates - there are a lot of 'trap' weapons in ME3. These are not mentioned. classes that rely on active powers should almost always aim for 200% cdr - the claymore is good, but using it would totally cripple an asari adept.
Pistols:
Good: The carnifex was the usual go-to weapon on casters. At rank X you can have 200% cdr. Recently it has been outclassed by the Piranha/160% cdr.
Okay: No other pistols seem worth using unless you don't have a rank X carnifex, in which case you probably want to run the phalanx or predator on your casters.
Ultra rare/promotional: I hear that at rank X the talon/paladin are both excellent, but I have no personal experience with them.
Sniper Rifles:
Good: I'm not sure if any non-ultra rare sniper rifles are even worth using. The krysae used to be excellent but was reduced in power by 30%~ or so recently. I suspect it's still a good choice, though.
Ultra rare/promotional: The black widow and the valiant are both excellent.
Shotguns:
Good: The claymore (with reload cancelling), and the reegar carbine (on a krogan vanguard) are both good. The piranha is still good after nerfs (9th august) - probably better than the claymore on a GI or similar.
Okay: The geth plasma shotgun and the graal are both okay choices. The GPS is easier to use, while the graal is better if you're good at aiming.
Ultra rare/promotional: I hear that the wraith is okay. No personal experience, though.
SMGs:
Good: Any with disruptor ammo on a caster class (Disruptor ammo can be used to set up tech bursts, so if you have throw you can get a lot of extra damage out of this).
Okay: None, really.
Ultra rare/promotional: The hurricane is okay to good, but requires stability/damage/armor piercing from a combination of ammo/mods/gear before it shines.
Assault Rifles:
Good: None, really.
Other options: The mattock with an autofire macro? I have no personal experience with this though.
Ultra rare/promotional: I hear the harrier and the typhoon are both excellent. No personal experience, though.
edit: BjornDaDwarf chips in on weapon advice with the following interesting stuff, though right now I still think using a piranha [or high rank hurricane with disruptor ammo, as a caster] is the most sensible choice available:
BjornDaDwarf wrote...
On Pistols and SMGs:
Carrying 2 weapons on Platinum can be very
important, given the low ammo available. With the recently discovered
bug that ULM works on SMGs and Pistols when they are equipped at the
same time, there are now a ton of 200 percent CD options for casters
that far outsrip the Carnifex. If you have the Hurricane, an entire
world of possiblity opens up to a player. Hurricane with ULM + Piercing
for armored targets and Guardians. Then add in the gun that fits your
playstyle best. The Paladin, Talon, Scorpion and Acolyte all serve
different playstyles and are excellent choices. Given the metric ton of
shielded opponents on Plat, the Acolyte supports the whole team well.
Laying down a carpet of Scorpion bombs still wipes out mobs (of which
there are plenty). And the Paladin and Talon put out great single
target damage for their weight.
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class selection/usage tips:
There are a lot of weak classes in ME3. Some of these have core issues that make the class very difficult to use on platinum (e.g., drell vanguard), while some of them are simply overshadowed by better options (e.g., batarian soldier < n7 destroyer). Of the remaining good classes, some of them require specific team setups (e.g., asari justicar) while others work anywhere (e.g., salarian infiltrator). This section will give a brief rundown on what makes a class good, when specific classes are especially good, and examples of especially powerful builds.
What makes a class good? - notable offensive traits:
Multiplicative damage modifiers (e.g., +% damage on cloak, r5 prox mine evolution)
RoF increases (e.g., hunter mode)
Accuracy increases (e.g., marksman)
Clip size increases (e.g., devastator mode)
Damage increases above passive (e.g., weapon synergy on biotic charge, adrenaline rush)
Grenades (especially with grenade capacity gear)
Ability to participate in tech bursts/biotic combos, especially with large +detonation bonuses (e.g., a shadow with maxed e-slash in a game with a cerberus adept with tech DoT smash and/or energy drain/overload users)
Sabotage
High force multipliers (e.g., krogan vanguard biotic charge, multi-frag)
What makes a class good? - notable defensive traits:
Innate high shields/health (e.g., krogan)
-% damage taken (e.g., tech armor, e. drain)
Ability to restore shields (e.g., biotic charge)
Regeneration (e.g., vorcha)
Stagger immunity/high threshhold (e.g., devastator mode, krogan vanguard)
Hunter mode (knowing where enemies is = excellent, no surprises)
Combat roll
Phase through wall dodge (e.g., fury)
Stasis
Decoy
Choosing the right class for the job:
Some classes (generally those who have strong powers but no ability to detonate or prime a target (e.g., n7 shadow or asari justicar)) require specific teams to do well in - a shadow with 6p electric slash is excellent when in a game with an overload user and an energy drain user, but relatively mediocre when in a game with 3 destroyers. Often these classes will excel in relatively static games (like FBW geth plat) where they can just defend a position and spam powers again and again to trigger a chain of tech bursts or biotic combos. I'll refer to these classes as combo-based classes.
Meanwhile, salarian infiltrator and similar classes can be picked in any team and expect to do well. In the case of the salarian infiltrator it has remarkably high weapon damage, can set up tech bursts with energy drain (but doesn't care a great deal if no one exploits that), and sufficient utility/mobility/survivability to function independently. I'll refer to these classes as standalone classes.
Excellent standalone classes/builds:
Note: classes like batarian soldier can do well on platinum (especially with grenade capacity 5) - it's just that there are other classes (the destroyer in this case) that will consistently do better. This is the main reason for classes not being mentioned here.
Soldier:
N7 destroyer: http://narida.pytalh...0@0@A@@@0@0@0@0
Why is it good?: Extremely high weapon damage thanks to devastator mode's damage/rof/clip size/accuracy increases, multi-frag grenades, and high base shields/stagger immunity make it very able to deal and survive damage.
How to play?: See enemy, kill enemy. Tears through extremely high shield/armor targets remarkably fast with a piranha or similar. Multi-frag grenades are excellent for clearing out weaker enemies near you/at a spawn.
Notes: I like to use adrenaline armor mod to make up for the movement speed penalty devastator mode applies. Grenade capacity upgrade is important here.
Infiltrator:
Salarian: http://narida.pytalh...0@0@A@@@0@0@0@0 - exact spec varies depending on weapon choice (sniper or shotgun) and survivability vs damage preferences of the user.
Why is it good?: It's a perfect balance of survivability, damage, and utility. It can deal massive damage with damage-cloak/prox mine debuff, survive far more than most classes with energy drain shield refresh/-40% damage taken
How to play?: Cloak -> edrain -> shoot. Cloak allows you to reposition at will, energy drain gives you a lot of survivability, and the combination of cloak/power/piranha, claymore or BW gives you a lot of damage.
Notes: A 6/0/6/6/6 salarian infiltrator (with cylonic modulator) is the only class I've ever beaten plat on without going down. The survivability is excellent and while losing the damage from r5 prox mine sucks it's still remarkably high damage overall.
Quarian: http://narida.pytalh...42IDNPR@0@0@A@@ - can trade fitness for prox. mine and/or sniper damage if required.
Why is it good?: Sabotage and cloak are both excellent.
How to play?: Sabotage something big and scary, then usual cloak -> shoot rotations.
Notes: This class was nothing special on gold, but on plat there's a prime, atlas, pyro or cerberus turret in every wave. It really shines in these conditions.
Geth: http://narida.pytalh...0@0@A@@@0@0@0@0 - can lose points in hunter mode/prox mine r6 to max fitness if required.
Why is it good?: Extremely high damage from hunter mode, cloak, and proximity mine r5.
How to play?: Cloak -> prox mine -> shoot. Things should melt remarkably fast. Be very careful with how you position yourself and check rooms for enemies with hunter mode before dashing in.
Notes: This class is difficult to play well - it's very, very fragile and I'd be hesitant to recommend it to anyone who is not very good at the game.
edit: Quarian Male: http://narida.pytalhost.com/me3/classes/#44FMNLF@0@0@A@@@0@0@0@0 - can lose points in tac scan to max cloak if using a sniper rifle.
Why is it good?: High weapon damage from cloak, tac scan (you only really have time to use this on banshee, atlas, and primes). Amazing ability to clear spawns with arc grenade spam.
How to play?: Try to be aware of spawns and cloak -> throw a bunch of arc grenades at a group of enemies when they spawn. Otherwise it's just a normal infiltrator. Cloak -> tac scan if efficient -> shoot.
Notes: Grenade capacity upgrade/thermal clip use for grenades is important here. I've played this less than the other characters I recommend but I think I hit all the important bases with this post.
Vanguard:
Krogan: http://narida.pytalh...53PAROR@0@0@A@@
Why is it good?: A lot of strong defensive traits that combine to allow it to stay in the open dealing damage much longer than other classes can.
How to play?: Charge and then kill things with a reegar carbine or piranha. Do not charge banshee (stair-abuse aside). Be very careful charging atlas, brutes, and phantoms. Don't just use charge whenever it is off cooldown - sometimes it's more beneficial to wait and get a later shield recharge/dodge rockets/stagger a phantom, etc (depends on incoming damage).
Notes: Cyclonic modulators are excellent here. I like the reegar more than the piranha, but both are excellent.
Engineer:
N7 demolisher: http://narida.pytalhost.com/me3/classes/#25KNRID@0@0@A@@
Why is it good?: Tech bursts (damage), and pylon (utility).
How to play?: Using arc grenade + homing grenade = tech burst (bursts, sometimes, with split homing grenade). This means you can totally devastate spawns, rooms, et cetera. Recast pylon on cooldown for +2 grenades if needed.
Notes: Grenade capacity upgrade/thermal clip use for grenades is important here.
Excellent combo-based classes/builds:
Infiltrator:
N7 shadow: http://narida.pytalh...45KKDIJ@0@0@A@@ - the final shadow evolve depends on weapon choice.
Why is it good? Able to detonate +100% damage tech bursts using electric slash. Cloak with duration gives it a lot of utility (objectives, resurrects).
How to play?: Cloak -> eslash x2. Shoot anything very close with piranha if you're using one.
Notes: This is probably the best of the combo-based classes at performing standalone. If a wave goes wrong you can often solo the remnants of it just by running away/cloaking/spamming eslash. Shadow strike is just there because nothing else does anything - usage is highly situational and basically only as a positioning tool.
Vanguard:
Cerberus: http://narida.pytalh...54NPAOR@0@0@A@@
Why is it good?: High damage biotic/tech combos.
How to play?: Stand behind walls and spam smash through the wall. I hear the electric damage evolve stacks and is thus amazing, but haven't tested this myself.
Notes: Shotgun weight reduction is so you can pick up a piranha. Biotic charge makes it somewhat more able to play a standalone role than the cerberus adept, but is not used often in this role (basically just if a hunter sneaks up on you, or similar).
Adept:
Cerberus: http://narida.pytalh...04APROR@0@0@A@@
Why is it good?: High damage biotic/tech combos.
How to play?: Stand behind walls and spam smash through the wall. I hear the electric damage evolve stacks and is thus amazing, but haven't tested this myself.
Notes: Shotgun weight reduction is so you can pick up a piranha.
Asari justicar: http://narida.pytalhost.com/me3/classes/#03LPAPR@0@0@A@@
Why is it good?: Reave is excellent for setting up multiple biotic combos at the same time. Bubble is great for defending an area (e.g., FBW geth plat)
How to play?: Spam reave while someone else is spamming a skill that can detonate it. If anything gets very close to you (into bubble), detonate it.
Notes: I usually use a piranha on this class, and shoot between reave spam. It has remarkably high survivability with defensive bubble.
Notable exceptions:
N7 fury, asari adept, and human sentinel: All of these are good classes that are capable of self detonating strong biotic explosions, but as lone wolves I think they're worse than infiltrators/destroyers and as group based classes I think they're worse than cerberus adept/vanguard, n7 shadow, and asari justicar. They're all completely viable, I just don't think they are optimal.
Engineers as combo-based classes: (Some) engineers are clearly good combo-based classes. I just think they are worse than the shadow, cerberus adept/vanguard, asari justicar adept, etc. I may be wrong about salarian/geth engineer (they might be top tier).
Drell adept: Excellent if played perfectly, but to do so requires a level of skill (especially with regard to avoiding damage) that I have not yet seen.
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Further thoughts on classes - a tier list:
edit: Note: Most combo-based classes can also function as standalone, but they are less beneficial to average teams as standalone classes than combo-based classes.
edit: Updated list, moved QMI to t1. Arc grenade spam to clear spawns + cloak is good and I think I was underrating the whole package. Added a build too.
edit: Moved HA/BS to tier 2. Shockwave is worse than biotic slash (they're clearly some of the worst in t2), but they're closer to the slayer than the QFE, so...
edit: I star'd (*) a couple of things in t2 to indicate they're the best of t2.
edit: Updated tierlist based on some recent balance changes (6th Aug 2012)
Standalone Tier 1 (excellent):
N7 destroyer soldier
Salarian infiltrator
Quarian female infiltrator
Geth infiltrator (req. a highly skilled user)
Quarian male infiltrator (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)
N7 demolisher engineer
Krogan vanguard (must use stairs to avoid execution)
Combo-based Tier 1 (excellent if able to work with teammates effectively):
N7 shadow infiltrator
Cerberus vanguard
Cerberus adept
AJ adept
Standalone Tier 2 (good):
Human soldier
Bf3 soldier
Turian soldier*
Krogan soldier (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)
Batarian soldier (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)
Human infiltrator
Asari adept
Drell adept (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips and a highly skilled user)
N7 fury adept
Human sentinel
Combo based Tier 2 (good if able to work with teammates effectively):
N7 slayer vanguard*
Human vanguard
Human adept
Salarian engineer
Geth engineer
Quarian male engineer (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)*
Human engineer
Turian sentinel
Batarian sentinel
N7 paladin
Tier 3 (mediocre):
Vorcha soldier
Drell vanguard
*Asari vanguard (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)
Krogan sentinel
Vorcha sentinel (req. grenade capacity/thermal clips)
Quarian engineer
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Additional reading (not required, but interesting):
http://social.biowar.../index/12853150 (Game Mechanics Clarifications and Information)
https://docs.google....d=0&output=html (Consumeables stats)
https://docs.google....AzX1B3NlE#gid=3 (Grimy's weapon damage spreadsheet)
http://narida.pytalh...45BAAAA@0@0@A@@ (class skill calculator)
http://social.biowar...-9822648-1.html (Gameplay data and mechanics)
http://social.biowar...13448033-1.html (Immunity to sync kills)
Modifié par Ehrgeix, 06 septembre 2012 - 01:45 .
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Why would you not want to survive longer?
