Mass Effect 3: Multiplayer: Is anyone playing it? I'm just starting.

[Basement Cat]

In keeping with being able to play popular games only years after they came out because only now is my PC able to play it I came into the Mass Effect series about 14 months ago.

I've never played multiplayer anywhere aside from a few failed attempts to multiplay Dragon Age Inquisition (where I always have to play alone and die swiftly).

Now I'm curious about ME3's multiplayer. First and foremost I'm curious if anyone else plays it.

Secondly: Tips would be nice! As I've never MP'd before I don't know what is considered proper/common sense, etc, and while I've read a tutorial on ME3 MP'ing I'd enjoy hearing from others. Particularly since most of the threads I've managed to scrounge up are 4 years old at the least.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

5 years old? Doubt it at this point. Maybe the odd game once a week or so, but I doubt you'll get more than that.

 

[Asita]

Can't speak to who's playing it now. Haven't played ME3 for a good long while now. Presuming that it's still active enough to be viable, however, much of it you'll learn as you go. Trying to give you "tips for a new player" is an exercise in futility due to the lootbox system making it so hard to predict what you have available to you. A turian cabal vanguard, for instance, plays completely different from a human vanguard.

Simple things to remember though: Each enemy type (except the Geth, IIRC) has an enemy that can one-shot you in melee range. For Cerberus it's the phantom, for Reapers its the Banshee, for Collectors it's the Praetorian. Unless your character and build are specced for truly massive melee damage (Krogan Warlord Sentinel, for instance), you're best served trying to keep them at distance.

Learn your limitations. Not every character has melee capabilities, not every character can hide behind cover, and not every character is well suited for a given enemy. Figure out what works, and play to your strengths.

Early game you can keep largely to yourself, but as the waves go on, you'll want to get closer to your comrades. Always remember two things, however: 1) There is ALWAYS a route that allows the enemy to sneak up on you if you aren't paying attention. 2) If you're downed and an ally can't take down the enemy before they get to you, that enemy can and will smash your head in, instantly bringing you from incapacitated to dead.

Pay attention to your environment. A good number of maps have environmental effects that force you to adjust your strategy. Some have acid rain that quickly saps your shields, some have a roving damage effect that will quickly kill anything caught in it, some have sandstorms that make it harder to see. Pay attention and be ready to adapt.

 

[Dr.Susse]

I played through the 3 games last year and there was no one online when I tried a couple of times.
But the servers are still up so you may get lucky.

 

[Trunkage]

The only multiplayer I've enjoyed being a pug. While it's sad to see, I understand. Micro transactions made it was easy for some people and many got left behind

 

[doomtaker]

Can't speak to who's playing it now. Haven't played ME3 for a good long while now. Presuming that it's still active enough to be viable, however, much of it you'll learn as you go. Trying to give you "tips for a new player" is an exercise in futility due to the lootbox system making it so hard to predict what you have available to you. A turian cabal vanguard, for instance, plays completely different from a human vanguard.

Simple things to remember though: Each enemy type (except the Geth, IIRC) has an enemy that can one-shot you in melee range. For Cerberus it's the phantom, for Reapers its the Banshee, for Collectors it's the Praetorian. Unless your character and build are specced for truly massive melee damage (Krogan Warlord Sentinel, for instance), you're best served trying to keep them at distance.

Learn your limitations. Not every character has melee capabilities, not every character can hide behind cover, and not every character is well suited for a given enemy. Figure out what works, and play to your strengths.

Early game you can keep largely to yourself, but as the waves go on, you'll want to get closer to your comrades. Always remember two things, however: 1) There is ALWAYS a route that allows the enemy to sneak up on you if you aren't paying attention. 2) If you're downed and an ally can't take down the enemy before they get to you, that enemy can and will smash your head in, instantly bringing you from incapacitated to dead.

Pay attention to your environment. A good number of maps have environmental effects that force you to adjust your strategy. Some have acid rain that quickly saps your shields, some have a roving damage effect that will quickly kill anything caught in it, some have sandstorms that make it harder to see. Pay attention and be ready to adapt.

every faction except geth actually has 2 that can instant kill, cerberus has the phantom and the giant mech, Reapers have the brute and the banshee, and Collectors have the praetorian and the scion. the scion, mech, and Brute have a much lower chance of doing the one hit kill, but the chance is still there, as an aside allt he ones that show up can also do it to you in single player if you're not careful. This guys advice is on point for everything though.



Also I might be willing to party up and play the multiplayer with you (if I ever have free time), I just have to reinstall the game on origin

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I played the ME3 MP a lot way back when it came out. I booted it up back like a year ago and there were still people playing on PS3. When you start out you don't have any characters leveled (which doesn't take long) or any good weapons so you'll have to play bronze and silver for a bit. From when I played getting needed weapons wasn't hard, the one that was hard to get were new characters I wanted to try out. Awhile back I recall someone replied to a post of mine about ME3 MP saying it was pay-to-win, which I never felt like that at all (they may have changed stuff around though). I stopped playing because I really wanted to try certain new characters and I found I was just playing to earn credits to buy packs to hopefully get a new character to try out. But anyways, I think the MP is a blast to play and really challenging on the higher difficulties. There's so many different characters and playstyles. You can just play an adept (not even need a gun or at most carry the best pistol, the carnifex) and basically just spam your powers, doing constant biotic explosions. A character with warp and throw is amazing. With most adepts though you do need to work with someone else on the team to work in tandem setting up each other with your biotics. I remember the salarian infiltrator was the best sniper (with my trusty widow) because he could get past "shield-gate" with energy blast and one shot just about any enemy that isn't big (even phantoms can be one-shotted). Shield-gate basically means if an enemy has 200 total hp with (100 shield hp and 100 normal hp), you can't kill them with a shot that deals 200 damage because the first shot will break the shield and any further damage on that one shot is negated.

Unless your character and build are specced for truly massive melee damage (Krogan Warlord Sentinel, for instance), you're best served trying to keep them at distance.

I recall when I played, the geth infiltrator had the best melee bar none. Phantoms would melt before me, I loved the geth infiltrator so much fun.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

A character with warp and throw is amazing.

Yeah, classes that can set up their own biotic explosions are pretty damn awesome. Effective against everything, generally not reliant on having rare weapons or upgrades, and stays viable through the higher difficulties. With experience and practice, you can even do solo runs.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Not really after Andromeda screwed the pooch. Just from personal experience I was able to scrape together a game or two on occasion, but then when Andromeda dropped and the multiplayer for that was horrifically broken and buggy, there was a knock on effect and everyone vanished from the ME3 servers too. Kinda weird, but oh well, shit happens.

Though, given power creep over time you could still probably solo some matches if you get lucky with a character unlock like a Krogan Warlord, Geth Colossus or N7 Engineer (forget the name, the one with the Infinite Grenade Towers, I did a lot of Gold matches just chain-spamming with her and 200% ability cooldown).

 

[CaitSeith]

In keeping with being able to play popular games only years after they came out because only now is my PC able to play it I came into the Mass Effect series about 14 months ago.

I've never played multiplayer anywhere aside from a few failed attempts to multiplay Dragon Age Inquisition (where I always have to play alone and die swiftly).

Now I'm curious about ME3's multiplayer. First and foremost I'm curious if anyone else plays it.

Secondly: Tips would be nice! As I've never MP'd before I don't know what is considered proper/common sense, etc, and while I've read a tutorial on ME3 MP'ing I'd enjoy hearing from others. Particularly since most of the threads I've managed to scrounge up are 4 years old at the least.

Don't tempt me to go back to ME3 multiplayer... the lootboxes never gave me the Evicerator shotgun for my Vangard character, and that left me heartbroken.

Anyways, one tip I give is to learn your power combos. When a special attack or special ammo leaves an enemy with a strange glow (usually once their shields and armor are depleted), if you attack it with a compatible attack, it detonates in a nice explosion, doing extra damage and damaging nearby foes.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Combos

Usually it requires different classes to combine their attacks to create a combo in multiplayer.

 

[Souplex]

A character with warp and throw is amazing.

Yeah, classes that can set up their own biotic explosions are pretty damn awesome. Effective against everything, generally not reliant on having rare weapons or upgrades, and stays viable through the higher difficulties. With experience and practice, you can even do solo runs.

I could solo Gold vs. Geth with my Krogan Vanguard. T'was badass.

 

[jedisensei]

Regarding the sync-kills (one-shot), they can't be performed on an incline. So find a staircase and stay lower/higher to neutralize that attack if you're being charged down by a Banshee (for example). Also, the Geth Juggernaut class is immune to sync-kills.

Stick with bronze/silver while you're building up your characters/equipment.

POINTS DON'T MATTER, really. You aren't competing: everyone gets the same experience/credits at the end of the match. So don't worry about "kill stealing." Credits are awarded after the 3rd, 6th(?) and final waves, regardless of extraction.

Infiltrator cloak damage bonuses last for ~1sec after de-cloaking. Along the same lines, the cloak cooldown is only 3sec if you break the cloak immediately, regardless of weight penalties. (ie. cloak>fire allows you to re-cloak again in about 3sec)

Turian Sentinel is one of the best all-around kits, and I highly recommend for newbies. Turian Ghost Infiltrator is one of the best DPS kits, period. I prefer Krogan Vangauard for tanking, but Geth Juggernaut is popular too (immune to one-hit kills). The N7 Engineer was my favorite kit, though...arc grenades are godly...

If you're going to play the Vanguard class, HOST THE MATCH. Seriously. Don't even bother, otherwise.

If you've got questions about specific map strategies or objective waves, let me know, but generally: stick together, especially on hacks and pizza deliveries, and kite enemies if you are last standing in a wave.

Stop making me want to get back into ME3 multiplayer....

 

[sanquin]

1: Don't underestimate the power of cover. Standing out in the open while shooting can get you killed really fast.
2: Don't be afraid to run away to get some breathing room or get to a better position. Even on timed objectives, as they're usually very lenient with the time.
3: Stick with your team. Going solo you get overrun far more easily. Plus team members might not be able to get to you, to get you on your feet again if you're far away.
4: For biotic and tech classes, Pick a fighting strategy and stick with it. Either go heavy on guns and have long cooldowns or go with only one light gun and have super short cooldowns. Don't try to go 50/50 as you'll probably kinda suck at both gun damage and power damage.
5: Vanguard is an awesome class to start out with. Easy to learn, powerful in lower difficulties. (charge + nova or shotgun has a lot of damage and fairly good survivability) But on higher difficulties expect your shields to be gone VERY quickly.