17 Antworten in diesem Thema

[RedCaesar97]

For whatever reason, this question has been nibbling at the back of my mind for the past few days.

 

Every so often, someone asks the question: What is the best bonus power for _____? (This thread links to a few of those topics. I even replied to some of those questions; some of my answers are terrible in hindsight.)

 

But I got to thinking, what is the worst bonus power in the game?

 

 

At first, I thought the worst bonus power was Decoy. Decoy is probably the worst of the 'pets', castable only in front of you, making it useless as soon as you move up (which i do almost constantly). It works best if you can plant it in the middle of enemies, then run back, but at that point you can do so much more with other powers. 

 

But Decoy is at least unique and works differently from other powers so that it is not taking up a role that you already have with other powers. You cannot really build a playstyle around it, but it can add a new dimension to your existing power set and can at least complement your other existing powers.

 

 

Then I thought it might be Barrier, since Fortification has better damage protection plus a lesser cooldown penalty, and can provide more power damage at rank 5; and Defense Matrix can restore shields when purged, even if its power damage bonus at rank 5 is only for tech powers. But Barrier has a unique purge mechanic (damages enemies in a radius and can lift unprotected enemies, setting them up for a biotic detonation), even if it is rather lackluster and hard to build a playstyle around it. Trust me, I tried.

 

 

But after thinking about it some more, I think the worst bonus power in the game is Carnage. What can you do with Carnage that you cannot already do with the other powers on each class? 

• Soldier can detonate with Concussive Shot and prime for fire explosion with Incendiary Ammo.
• Adept can detonate with Throw (and Warp, and Shockwave, and Cluster Grenades). Adept cannot prime for fire explosions, but why bother? Against armor you have Warp and Throw which is quicker and can deal more damage anyway.
• Sentinel is pretty much the same as Adept. You have Warp and Throw.
• Infiltrator and Engineer have Incinerate, which has a shorter cooldown and also benefits from Sabotage's Tech Vulnerabilty at rank 6.
• Vanguard has Incendiary Ammo for priming, and can detonate with Charge, Nova, and Shockwave. And Carnage just gets in the way of Charge's cooldown if you like charging. And if you are charging you have no time for other powers that take up a cooldown anyway.

The only way I can see anyone taking Carnage is for some off-the-wall crazy build just for fun, and not because it actually provides any sort of unique benefit to a class.

 

 

What are your thoughts? Is Carnage the worst bonus power in the game, or do you think another bonus power is the worst bonus power in the game?

[KrrKs]

Carnage can be useful on an Infiltrator with <20% Cooldown speed (I believe that was the threshold where using of 'cloak + whatever power' becomes faster than incinerate + cooldown alone.

 

Unlike Incinerate it can knock enemies down and has a higher rank6 multiplier against armour. This should turn it into a better finisher move. (+Mooks explode, which is always fun!)

So it has at least one potential usecase.

 

Personally I find Sub-net to be more useless (did a playthrough with that recently), but that is not a standard bonus power.

There is also the Defense Drone, which I never tried, but Tali's version has a short range, poor damage, and has to be constantly reactivated.

So my vote goes to Defense Drone for being the worst.

[Vazgen]

I'd go for either Slam or Marksman. Slam can detonate biotic explosions but so can Reave. Both hit instantly and Reave has added bonus of working against armored enemies. I have also tried building around Marksman but it's really not that useful. It simply enhances the weapons you have and on Insanity you still don't spend that much time out of cover to really benefit from it.

[themikefest]

I haven't used them all.  Of the one's I've used whether it was for one mission or the whole game, it would be decoy

[KrrKs]

I did a marksman Infiltrator w Scimitar playthrough a year or so ago. That setup has an surprisingly high (not to say insane) damage output.

(Yeah, I played Infiltrator way too often, recently. Blame the power of dice)

 

I think the main difference between Slam and Reave is, that reave gives DR, while slam has a faster cooldown. Imo there are too few armoured enemies in sp to factor their anti-armour behaviour into this, especially since every class has at least one form of aa-power anyway.

 

About Decoy: Did the SP version also receive the 'patch' that lets melee enemies completely ignore it? Using it to stop Banshees in MP was awesome while it worked.

[RedCaesar97]

About Decoy: Did the SP version also receive the 'patch' that lets melee enemies completely ignore it? Using it to stop Banshees in MP was awesome while it worked.

 

I believe it did. I know Brutes ignore the Combat Drone, and I believe that patch applied to all 'pets' (turrets, drones, and decoys). 

 

Of course, the Sentry Turret, Combat Drone, and Decoy were never that good to begin with, especially in single player when you had much better options already.

 

And let's not forget Decoy versus the Geth in MP... and grabbing Geth Pyros on the old Firebase White.

[Vazgen]

Decoy works great on Kai Leng But then again, everything works on him...

[Reorte]

Decoy works great on Kai Leng But then again, everything works on him...

Decoy on Kai Leng:

"He's behind you!" "Oh no he isn't!" "Oh yes he is!"

[capn233]

Interesting topic.

 

Carnage is pretty underwhelming, although it was a little better in the olden days when you had to kill the target to get an FE, so the extra punch was helpful on someone like Soldier.  Balance changes altered the metagame enough that this didn't matter, so amplified CS made more sense.  It at least does damage, so I think it is more useful than some of the more defensive powers.

 

Likewise with the balance changes, Defense Matrix was completely left behind.  The purge is particularly beneficial, and largely Fortification can provide more benefit while it is active anyway.  It's up there.

 

Defense Drone is at least relatively unique I guess.  I would nominate it for a slot in the top three of worst powers.

 

I would probably go Dominate to round out the list of worst 3.  It is different from other bonuses, but CC is not as valuable in ME3 as in the previous games.

[cap and gown]

 

I would probably go Dominate to round out the list of worst 3.  It is different from other bonuses, but CC is not as valuable in ME3 as in the previous games.

 

Dominate may be situational, but is still a good power. It is my go-to bonus power for the Citadel mission. I also think it works well on the final Leviathan mission. On that mission it can work like Stasis against Brutes in that they will no longer be a threat while affected by the power. Plus Dominate works on armored targets and it can be evolved to cause a good deal of damage to the target for the duration of the power, neither of which Stasis does.

[sentinel_87]

As a bonus power for Shepard I would say Defense drone.  In concept I like the idea, and find it mildly useful as a power on Tali.  On Shepard not so much. 

 

I rarely find myself being flanked by an enemy.  If I am I can pause and use one of Shepard's, or preferably a teammate off camera, powers to deal with it quickly and get away.

[capn233]

Dominate may be situational, but is still a good power. It is my go-to bonus power for the Citadel mission. I also think it works well on the final Leviathan mission. On that mission it can work like Stasis against Brutes in that they will no longer be a threat while affected by the power. Plus Dominate works on armored targets and it can be evolved to cause a good deal of damage to the target for the duration of the power, neither of which Stasis does.

 

Not a huge fan of Stasis myself, but it is more conducive to combo spam.

 

For the most part CC is devalued in ME3 given that you usually face the enemy in too few numbers, and the party damage is high enough that targets don't last very long.

 

Stasis has a higher potential debuff, although I would prefer Proxi Mine for debuff just for hitting multiple targets (or even TV if tech).

 

*shrug* Might be a fun power but I don't really see it synergizing that well with builds I like to run and powers I like to use.

[Vazgen]

I have found a way to use Decoy effectively - pair it with Tactical Cloak. Makes the enemies forget about you and focus on the decoy. With shield focus, you can flank them in the meantime.

[The One True Nobody]

I go for a Vanguard with Stasis, myself, mostly because it's a bonus power I can use in all three games and that makes for a consistent version of Shepard throughout the trilogy. Vanguard doesn't really need an additional attack, since it makes for a destructive class all on its own. Stasis gives the Vanguard something to moderate enemy crowds prior to closing distance and can also render larger enemies briefly vulnerable when Stasis ends, making it a good starting move against enemies that don't die as quickly as others. I still prefer Singularity for general crowd control, but alas, that's exclusive to the Adept.

 

Gonna go for Decoy as my least favorite. That one seems best-suited to just being used by EDI herself, not by Shepard, and isn't as useful for escaping a tough situation as some other more basic abilities.

[aoibhealfae]

I'm thinking up a Melee Infiltrator build using decoy and basically tweak it like a caster class.... kinda like Kasumi in ME2 or SWTOR's Operative.

 

I haven't force myself to use all bonus powers to know which ones I didn't like most and I have the MP bonus mod. Reave and Energy Drain is probably the only two that I bother.

 

The only gripes I have about Mass Effect was the inability to mod additional abilities to squads. I hate the limited two or three powers in ME2. The AI can be unreliable and I learn to avoid upgrading certain abilities because of this.

[MichaelN7]

I think I'd have to agree with RedCaeser97 on Carnage.

 

The only class I can see that would really benefit from Carnage is the Sentinel (since they have no native fire-based abilities)

But my thinking is parallel with RedCaeser97:

 

Warp/Throw is just as effective and faster

Plus, you can just bring James as a squadmate; his passive specced for squad-health/shield increase combined with yours makes your whole squad nigh-invulnerable.  Make his Incendiary Ammo squad-based as well and your whole team can turn up the heat with ease.

 

My "ideal" setup with my Sentinel is to have Kaidan and James as my squadmates.  Since Kaidan has a parallel powerset to my own we've got everything covered twice over.

Kaiden's passive grants bonus to both tech and biotic damage, mine and James' combined grants the whole squad +50% health/shields, so all three of us have 1100 or so health/shields each.  Put it all together with James' Squad Incendiary Ammo and Carnage, and we're all set for anything.

 

Basically, since James already covers my fire needs, the one reason I would have for taking Carnage is gone.

It's a great power, sure, but I'd rather have Fortification or Warp Ammo.

[Vazgen]

Carnage can be good on a Soldier who can bypass long cooldown with Adrenaline Rush and use the power to both set up and detonate power combos. Concussive Shot with Incendiary ammo will accomplish the same but it takes a full skill tree maxed out and at least one point in the other skill to get it to work. Carnage with AR can work from level 1. In the end you can use, say, Disruptor Ammo, AR and Carnage for powers and end up with quite an effective build that can deal both with shields and armor effectively.
On the other hand, you can use Concussive Shot and Incendiary Ammo and go through the entire game without firing a shot (shown by RedCaesar in his Bulletless Soldier build)

[The One True Nobody]

Well, the cool thing about singleplayer is it doesn't really matter what the "better" power is, since you're not dragging anyone down if you play sub-optimal for the sake of a character having an identity. I first started playing a Vanguard with Stasis because it fit who my Shepard was. In-your face powerful and aggressive in a fight but with a power that could stop you in your tracks without killing you if that's what the situation called for. Made sense for an Earthborn War Hero to me.