66 ответов в этой теме

[Kacynski]

 Hi there,

i was playing mostly vanguard in ME2, but have a soldier Shepard since ME1 as well. After finishing ME3 with my vanguard, I did an insanity run with the soldier and it was ... Insane!

with the vanguard I more or less breezed through insanity (classic vanguard style, no nova), but with the soldier i kept dying and dying.

The major problem I had was that I got consistently outflanked or purged from cover with grenades. This made sniping much less useful for me. In close combat I felt that the ARs didn't have enough damage to quickly dispose enemies (as a fresh ME2 import I could only level to V). With the feeling of constant pressure on me, I couldn't utilize grenades as much as I would have liked, and generally it felt more like a chorenthan fun in the end.

what am I doing wrong with the Soldier? how did you beat insanity with it?

[Drayce333]

Marksman + Fast Assault Rifle + Explosive Incendiary Ammo.

Sniper + Adrenaline Rush.

Adrenaline Rush also helps in a pinch when you need to move spot to spot.

I never really used Frag Grenades since they are limited, and didn't bother with Concusive shot.

Squadmates help a lot too.

Stack as much weapon damage as you can.

Сообщение изменено: Drayce333, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 12:06 .

[Drakios8]

AR specced for damage reduction, incendiary ammo + conc shot = constant fire explosions = win

[known_hero]

Lol at "purged from cover with grenades".

Anyway if you're playing a Sniper Solider: take all of the defensive upgrade for Adrenaline Rush: this will regen %25-50 of your shields(not sure on exact amount) as well as increase your defense. Use it as a panic button for those moment when you feel like the enemies are flanking you.

How many weapons are you using? It sounds like you're carrying too much. You really only need two at the most. You're cooldown shouldn't be lower than 90%

[RedCaesar97]

A few things: 
1) Most of the rapid-fire weapons are terrible, especially Assault Rifles. You need DLC weapons such as the Cerberus Harrier or Punisher SMG to have some really good rapid-fire weapons.

2) The Soldier lacks a lot what the Vanguard had in your first playthrough, namely a get-out-of-jail free card (Charge) and the ability to explode everything with two of the most overpowered squadmates in the game (Liara and Javik).

3) The Soldier relies a lot more on its bonus power than other classes (at least in my opinion).

A lot of people consider the Soldier to be the weakest class in the game, probably because you have to be more thoughtful with it than the other classes. Or maybe because it was the only class in the game that required you to use weapons to win; other classes do not even have to fire a shot to beat a level.

But the Soldier is now a lot better with the recent changes in patch 1.04, namely that you no longer have to kill the target to detonate a fire explosion. So Concussive Shot with rank 6 Amplification + Incendiary Ammo followed by a detonation power (Proximity Mine is good) = fire explosions.

Slow-firing weapons also seem to activate ammo powers extremely well, so say the Viper with Disruptor Ammo + Concussive Shot can detonate tech bursts fairly often, about once every 2 seconds.

I did create a thread about using the Claymore with a Soldier. For one-shot Sniper Rfiles I would spec the Soldier the same way and use roughly the same tactics. Namely, shoot > Adrenaline Rush to reload > shoot again.

Сообщение изменено: RedCaesar97, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 12:50 .

[Kacynski]

Actually I did use the Valian as SR and Revenant as AR, no other weapons. Cooldowwn was at ~15%.
I usually had problems with fast advanncing enemies, hated Banshees for example. I always got the feeling, that I am not killing fast enough, but probably I am just a too bad shot.

I never used C-shot, maybe I should give a try for the fire explosions or tech bursts.

[known_hero]

The rev is actually a heavy SMG; good luck trying to hit anything with that thing without Marksman. Ditch it. Your cooldown is ridiculously low. You'd be better off with the Hornet or the DLC weapons(if you have them).

Banshees are a sniper's worst nightmare, especially when accompanied by Marauders. I suggest taking energy drain as a bonus power and/or bring Tali/EDI/Garrus for barrier stripping duty. Once her barrier is stripped, use armor damaging attacks like Garrus, proxy mine or EDI's Incinerate along with your sniper rifle. Soldier may be the weakest class but it's far from weak.

Сообщение изменено: known_hero, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 07:01 .

[Abraham_uk]

You might want to think about getting a bonus power.

Energy drain is really useful. When you're in trouble, snatch the shields/barriers of other enemies. This is also useful for a little bit of hardening, killing geth and as a substitute for rapid fire weapons (which you don't seem to like much).


Fortification will grant you extra hardening and is really useful for melee strikes.

Defence matrix is probably the best of the defensive powers. When you purge it, you get your shields back. Spam this power to your hearts content.

Inferno Grenades are also useful. I'm told they increase your grenade capacity.

Proximity Mine is a good choice if you want a solid crowd control ability that is similiar to a grenade but can be spammed. This is reliant on cooldowns though.

Defense Drone  is a useful power for anyone who wants to be a sniper. This drone will protect you against any enemy that tries to flank you whilst you're sniping.

Decoy I'm not a big decoy fan. It sometimes works well, and when it does, enemies will actually confuse the holographic image of yourself as, well yourself. But very often, enemies will ignore the decoy altogether. If you use this power well, you can do wonders on the battlefield, if not, you're better off with the other options available.

Marksman is a fine alternative to adrenaline rush, but it doesn't slow down time or increase your hardening. It will make your weapons more accurate whilst increasing their rate of fire. I'd recommend this to adepts, engineers, infiltrators, vanguards and sentinels, who wish to combine gunplay with their tech/biotic powers. But for soldiers, there's adrenaline rush.

Armour Piercing Ammo I'd recommend this to any class that isn't a soldier or a vanguard. You have incendiary ammo, no need for armour piercing ammo. That said, it's very useful for enemies hiding behind light cover and riot shields. Guardians are no match for this ammo type. But you can do away with this, by having certain kinds of mods on your guns.

Carnage is not "an" alternative to concussive shot. Carnage is "the" alternative to concussive shot. It's much better when it comes to combos. It deciminates armour, burns through health and with the right evolution will even knock enemies back with great force. It has very slow cooldowns. So do you want a slow recharging power that does very good damage (carnage) or do you want a quick recharging power that is an okay detonator for tech/incendiary/cryo combos? If you choose carnage, forgo all points into concussive shot.



Any biotic bonus power is going to be useful. But you may not want to delve into this territory for "lore" reasons. 

Warp Ammo You might want to avoid this one for "lore" reasons. Here is another reason why you'd want to avoid it. You already have incendiary ammo. I'd recommend this for adepts, sentinels, infiltrators and engineers.

Reave is great if you've brought Liara and Javik. Chain it with warp or dark channel and you'll have some biotic explosions.

Stasis is great for dealing with those pesky phantoms (and guardians if you've brought bubble evolution).

Barrier is pretty useful for it's shockwave when you purge it.

Slam has a fun little annimation, will setup and detonate biotic combos and does okay damage. Since lots of enemies have no protections, slam will ravage those trash mobs.

Dark channel is great if you've brought Liara and Kaidan. Chain it with warp or reave and you'll have some biotic explosions. But unlike reave, dark channel can only setup explosions. Can't detonate them.

Dominate isn't a bad idea since most enemies are organics. Organic enemies will briefly become allies with this one (banshees being the exception).



OMEGA bonus powers. Omega DLC isn't out yet, but there are some pretty cool new power (if you're not dead set against breaking the "lore")



Flare is a biotic explosion! No need for biotic combos, Javik/Liara/Kaidan. You're the one pulling these off. Assuming this becomes a bonus power, use it!

Lash might be introduced and if it is, it's a nice way of ripping away guardian shields. It's a more damaging version of warp.

Biotic Protector is that power that you saw students at the Grissom Academy using. It was also that power that an asari used when you were on Thessia. A bubble surrounds you making you very well defended against all attacks.

Сообщение изменено: Abraham_uk, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 07:00 .

[DJ CAVE SLAVE]

Most important thing is having a good AR like the Cerberus Harrier, Typhoon, Geth Plasma Rifle, ect. Adrenaline Rush automatically reload your gun so it works really well with fully automatic ARs if you just spam it before using up your thermal clip. For Adrenaline Rush go: Damage Reduction > Melee Damage (to keep the duration down so you can spam it more frequently) > Shields restored.

[Nightmare137]

PPR + Explosive Incendiary ammo + Adren rush = all you need

Also for a bonus power I generally always take defense matrix on my soldier. Take the 100% shield restore on purge for it.

[HTTP 404]

spam your squadmate powers. As a soldier on insanity I used fortification as a bonus power. The AR is the gun of choice for me for soldier. You just need to focus fire on one enemy at a time. Even use your squadmates to focus fire with you on tougher enemies.

For the grenades being tossed at you, you need to constantly move from left to right for cover or in cover.

Ammo power plus Adren rush really is all you need with the Assault rifle. you will do enough damage. I wouldn't worry too much about the CDs when picking weapons.

You need patience when playing this character and use cover.

[All-a-Mort]

DJCS wrote...

Most important thing is having a good AR like the Cerberus Harrier, Typhoon, Geth Plasma Rifle, ect. Adrenaline Rush automatically reload your gun so it works really well with fully automatic ARs if you just spam it before using up your thermal clip. For Adrenaline Rush go: Damage Reduction > Melee Damage (to keep the duration down so you can spam it more frequently) > Shields restored.

I wouldn't bother using Typhoon. Too heavy and the increasing recoil per weapon level bug makes it more inaccurate than the Rev. Harrier, Punisher or maybe look at a shotty for close range (prefer Piranha myself now).

[capn233]

Kacynski wrote...

Actually I did use the Valian as SR and Revenant as AR, no other weapons. Cooldowwn was at ~15%.
I usually had problems with fast advanncing enemies, hated Banshees for example. I always got the feeling, that I am not killing fast enough, but probably I am just a too bad shot.

I never used C-shot, maybe I should give a try for the fire explosions or tech bursts.

I have run several different iterations of soldier through the campaign.  Including games with the Revenant, which is certainly adequate on Insanity at Level V, as long as you support it correctly with the build.  Vindicator is also fine damage wise, again as long as it is supported correctly.

What is your build?  And what level are your weapons?  Did you take Weight Capacity in Combat Mastery?  If you aren't in NG+ and want to use decent weapons it makes sense to go weight capacity.

Incendiary Ammo is basically a must have if you want to use the Revenant.  You also need to put the AR Scope on the Revenant to increase the accuracy.  It is a better mod than the Stability Damper.  You can aim down while firing to counter the recoil, but there is no mouse or controller movement that you can do increase accuracty of the weapon.  If the recoil is still too much for you, go Stability, otherwise AR Piercing is a better second mod so that you can do better against armor.  How you level Incendiary Ammo at Rank 4 and 5 is preference, but make sure that at Rank 6 you go Explosive Burst.  The Revenant with Explosive Burst incendiary is more than a match for Insanity, so you do not need to drop it for magic DLC guns necessarily.  Alternate base game guns that work well with Incendiary are any of the rapid fire weapons really, but Hornet and Geth Plasma Rifle are solid.

Spec Adrenaline Rush for Hardening (some DR, it should be more but whatever), Melee (so you get more AR cycles in the same period of time), and Bonus Power.  You can consider Shield Boost, but I don't find it is all that effective in SP relative to the alternatives.

With the "Bonus Power" evolution of AR you need to find an active power worth using.  Since Fire Explosions were changed, you can use Concussive Shot to set them off.  Light targets on fire with Revenant, fire CS to set off Fire Explosion.  Evolutions of Concussive Shot are up to you.  Amplification is only worthwhile if you are using Incendiary or Cryo Ammo... in this case you are using Incendiary so I recommend it.  You can fire it at unprotected targets to set them on fire and panic them (if organic).  That CC is worthwhile.

Now you need Shepard's bonus power.  The easiest one to use would be Energy Drain.  You could then fire it during an Adrenaline Rush cycle to refill your shields if need be, strip shields from enemies, or stun some enemies.  Overall a good power.  Only downside is that it is tech, so you won't have a pure class if that matters to you.  But overall a very good and safe choice.

If you are still struggling with taking too much damage, you could consider going Fortification.  This you can set and forget and you will get some more Damage Reduction (which will stack with Hardening when AR is active), and some bonus power damage.  I personally don't like it all that much, but it is certainly worth considering.

My actual favorite bonus for the Soldier is Proximity Mine.  It can detonate elemental combos, and importantly at Rank 5 it has the "Damage Taken" evolution that will increase damage to the target from all sources.  It is also stackable with Garrus's Proxi Mine for even more damage taken, and other debuffs like Liara's Warp (Expose evolution) so that you can kill armored targets a lot faster.  It is also a combat power, so the class stays pure.

Likely the most powerful soldier would take Reave as a bonus power though.  It is instant cast (can't be dodged), has bonus to armor, staggers organics, can prime and detonate biotic combos, and provides damage protection for its duration.  Using this to potential would require at least one other biotic in the squad (Liara or Javik... Kaidan would be no help) for biotic combos.

Marksman isn't necessarily a bad choice for a bonus, but it has two downsides.  The function overlaps with Adrenaline Rush somewhat, which on the whole is a more useful power.  And importantly, it can't be used under the "Bonus Power" of Adrenaline Rush, unlike how it can be used under Tactical Cloak's bonus.  This is of course massively lame, but that is just how it works.  Since Marksman doesn't allow any power use during its duration, and unlike Adrenaline Rush, it isn't quite as good as a power you spam.

Сообщение изменено: capn233, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 05:19 .

[DJ CAVE SLAVE]

All-a-Mort wrote...

DJCS wrote...

Most important thing is having a good AR like the Cerberus Harrier, Typhoon, Geth Plasma Rifle, ect. Adrenaline Rush automatically reload your gun so it works really well with fully automatic ARs if you just spam it before using up your thermal clip. For Adrenaline Rush go: Damage Reduction > Melee Damage (to keep the duration down so you can spam it more frequently) > Shields restored.

I wouldn't bother using Typhoon. Too heavy and the increasing recoil per weapon level bug makes it more inaccurate than the Rev. Harrier, Punisher or maybe look at a shotty for close range (prefer Piranha myself now).

It was just an example, I don't use the Typhoon either.

[Abraham_uk]

Imagine if you could use marksman during adrenaline rush and the damage bonuses stacked?

That would be incredibly over powered!

[capn233]

Abraham_uk wrote...

That would be incredibly over powered!

Would it be as overpowered as using it during Cloak, which is something you can do?

Or stacking Defensive Matrix or Barrier on top of Tech Armor?

[Deathsaurer]

Buy the Adas, use the Adas, love the Adas. Laugh as you kill entire Cerberus squads before they jump out of the shuttle. Carry a good anti armor sidearm though, Adas hates armor.

[AVPen]

capn233 wrote...

Spec Adrenaline Rush for Hardening (some DR, it should be more but whatever), Melee (so you get more AR cycles in the same period of time), and Bonus Power.  You can consider Shield Boost, but I don't find it is all that effective in SP relative to the alternatives.

I disagree heavily with that - on Hardcore and Insanity, the Shield Boost evolution can seriously save your a**, cause if your shields go down you can activate AR to instantly bring a portion of your shields back up just long enough for you to get out of danger (especially if also taken with Rank 4 "Hardening"). 

Сообщение изменено: AVPen, 23 Ноябрь 2012 - 09:50 .

[Abraham_uk]

capn233 wrote...

Abraham_uk wrote...

That would be incredibly over powered!

Would it be as overpowered as using it during Cloak, which is something you can do?

Or stacking Defensive Matrix or Barrier on top of Tech Armor?

Damn. I've been missing all the really overpowered tricks in this game.

[Binary_Helix 1]

Soldier is the worst class in the game because his main power (adrenaline rush) was massively nerfed from ME2. The dilation and damage is barely half of what it used to be. The weight system also crippled the soldier's performance and enjoyability.

The removal of ME2 weapon damage modifiers was the nail in the coffin for a lot of guns. Unless you have DLC weapons there really isn't any point to play soldier when every other class can do what he does and often better. Take sniping for example you'd be much better served switching to infiltrator if you enjoy that playstyle. If you prefer tanking sentinel with tech armor plus defense matrix/fortification enables you to carry all the guns plus have a whopping 70% damage resistance. The grenades you're having trouble with now will barely scratch you. The only reason to play soldier is out of class loyalty.

Сообщение изменено: Binary_Helix 1, 24 Ноябрь 2012 - 08:09 .

[Nitrocuban]

A soldier with Energy Drain as bonus power and the allmighty Harrier as main weapon has a pretty easy time through the whole game.
Shoot stuff and set it on fire with Incendiary Ammo, spam CS to stun near by enemies and detonate Fire Explosions, use Energy Drain to restore shields. Grenades are best used on groups of enemies and on bosses, dont hesitate to throw all nades you have at once, high peak damage output is the point about grenades.
Adrenalin Rush isn't that important with this setup

[capn233]

Nitrocuban wrote...

Adrenalin Rush isn't that important with this setup

But putting Energy Drain on him really makes him an ME1 Infiltrator.

[Kacynski]

Thank you for all the answers, I will give it a second try with the Soldier. In ME2 I did really like tyhe soldier class for its Adrenalin Rush. Was great to maw through husks with the Revenant. But that style of play doesn't seem to work anymore, as most of yoy suggest to use AR for fast reloading only and not for its time dilation - which I liked most.
I was sporting Marksman as my bonus power ad spammed it with AR together mostly, but I guess that was more or less a waste.
I will try a set up with Incendiary+AR+CS to get lots of fire explosions - these combos do scale with enemy health and should help a lot.
But as I love the Revenant out of sentimentality I will give it a second try and see which mods could make it work.

[Drayce333]

Kacynski wrote...

Thank you for all the answers, I will give it a second try with the Soldier. In ME2 I did really like tyhe soldier class for its Adrenalin Rush. Was great to maw through husks with the Revenant. But that style of play doesn't seem to work anymore, as most of yoy suggest to use AR for fast reloading only and not for its time dilation - which I liked most.
I was sporting Marksman as my bonus power ad spammed it with AR together mostly, but I guess that was more or less a waste.
I will try a set up with Incendiary+AR+CS to get lots of fire explosions - these combos do scale with enemy health and should help a lot.
But as I love the Revenant out of sentimentality I will give it a second try and see which mods could make it work.

Stability + Armor Piercing mod on revenant. Use Incediary and Marksman on it and the revenant will be very fun to use. Again stack weapon damage on the soldier. Weapon Damage is very important. Also If you like using Adrenaline Rush wait till you get your hands on the Saber it has amazing synergy with that gun, just know the saber is a missable weapon, otherwise use adrenaline for the boost in shields and with snipers/Pistols.

Сообщение изменено: Drayce333, 24 Ноябрь 2012 - 11:30 .

[RedCaesar97]

Binary_Helix 1 wrote...

Soldier is the worst class in the game because his main power (adrenaline rush) was massively nerfed from ME2. The dilation and damage is barely half of what it used to be. The weight system also crippled the soldier's performance and enjoyability.

The removal of ME2 weapon damage modifiers was the nail in the coffin for a lot of guns. Unless you have DLC weapons there really isn't any point to play soldier when every other class can do what he does and often better. Take sniping for example you'd be much better served switching to infiltrator if you enjoy that playstyle. If you prefer tanking sentinel with tech armor plus defense matrix/fortification enables you to carry all the guns plus have a whopping 70% damage resistance. The grenades you're having trouble with now will barely scratch you. The only reason to play soldier is out of class loyalty.

Not sure I agree with this assessment. My thoughts:

1) Calling the Soldier the worst class in the game is like calling someone the world's poorest billionaire. The Soldier has a lot of tools that can you can use to power your way through the game.

2) I disagree with this statement:

Soldier is the worst class in the game because his main power (adrenaline rush) was massively nerfed from ME2. 

I disagree because I do not think that is the reason. I think the reason is that the Soldier is the only class in the game that--excluding bonus powers--is the only class that actually needs to shoot guns to beat the game. All other classes can get by using just powers.

Now with the changes to patch 1.04, if you were to use Concussive Shot with Amplification evolution and Incendiary Ammo, and then use say Proximity Mine or Carnage as a bonus power, then you can fire explode your way through the game without firing a shot. That was simply not possible before the patch.

3) As for this statement:

 The dilation and damage [of Adrenaline Rush] is barely half of what it used to be. 

True statement.

Personally I miss the dilation, but not the damage. In fact I think all weapon damage bonuses should have been removed completely from Adrenanline Rush. And before you complain, I think all weapon damage bonuses should be removed from all class powers, passives, and intel bonuses. 

4) I will only somewhat agree with this statement:

 The weight system also crippled the soldier's performance and enjoyability.

Yes and no. The weight system as it is currently implemented is garbage in my opinion. On paper it has potential, in practice it completely falls apart. There are a few reasons for this:
 - Soldier lacks a really good weight capacity
 - The stupid weapon upgrade system is stupid. You cannot upgrade weapons past level V on a first playthrough, and some weapons are utterly useless at level 1 (hello 8-shot Claymore I). 

I think Curunen's weapon encumbrance idea was better. Simply put, all weapons had an encumbrance value, for example, the Shuriken would have an encumbrance of 1 while the Claymore would have an encumbrance of 4. Each class had a maximum weapon encumbrance they could carry, with the Soldier being able to carry the most and the Adept/Engineer the least. 

As for the weight system crippling the Soldier's performance and enjoyability? If you enjoyed switching weapons a lot then sure, it is terrible. But I would ask the question, why are you using more than 2 weapons? Even without DLC weapons and mods, 3 or more weapons is overkill.

5) I agree whole-heartedly with this statement:

The removal of ME2 weapon damage modifiers was the nail in the coffin for a lot of guns.

Cannot agree more. I think that was a really interesting and fun mechanic. And yet some weapons--even non-DLC weapons--do have damage modifiers. It is completely nonsensical.

6) I find this statement interesting: 

Unless you have DLC weapons there really isn't any point to play soldier when every other class can do what he does and often better. Take sniping for example you'd be much better served switching to infiltrator if you enjoy that playstyle. If you prefer tanking sentinel with tech armor plus defense matrix/fortification enables you to carry all the guns plus have a whopping 70% damage resistance. The grenades you're having trouble with now will barely scratch you.

The Soldier could tank in ME1 but could not really tank in ME2. Adrenaline Rush merely slowed down time around you so you got hit with less bullets. And allowing the Sentinel to have two shield powers activated at the same time was either never considered or thought out properly.

As for sniping, the Soldier is not worse than the Infiltrator, just different. All single-shot rifles suffer from the shieldgate mechanic on Insanity, which hits all classes equally. The Infiltrator gains natural time dilation and a damage bonus from cloak. The Soldier has time dilation in Adrenaline Rush and Adrenaline Rush will instantly reload your weapon, so you can effectively two-shot with the single-shot sniper rifles to kill elite enemies. You also have time dilation mods for sniper rifles.

6) And as for this statement:

The only reason to play soldier is out of class loyalty.

Please clarify "out of loyalty"? I may need some background on that statement. Did you only ever play Soldier throughout the series? did you play all classes and the Soldier happened to be your favority both times?

The issue with "out of loyalty" is that it implies you MUST play and like the Soldier, which seems kind of dumb. I have played all classes in all three games (except Adept in ME3 yet). My most-favorite and least-favorite classes have changed throughout the series. I hated the Engineer in ME1, loved it in ME2. Hated the Sentinel in both games. Really liked the Soldier in ME1 for some reason, liked it in ME2 but thought it was a bit bland at times.

The classes and mechanics have changed throughout the series; no idea why "class loyalty" should enter into the equation. But then like I said earllier, I think you need to explain that to me so I understand it better.

Сообщение изменено: RedCaesar97, 24 Ноябрь 2012 - 11:58 .