My one problem with Mass Effect 2...

[Jandau]

Anyway, as a Vanguard I can confirm there's a special shotgun you can get, though that one is kind of funny since...

Spoiler

...it's the custom claymore you can build for Grunt, which specifically states in it's description that while it's made by humans "only Krogan can use this", given the recoil from a shot will break a human's arm. Shepard must really be a badass.

I think the version Shepard gets is "toned down" a bit. The Widow can also be acquired for a certain party member and his version is also not useable by regular humans due to recoil. Also, remember that Shepard got a few cyber upgrades during his treatment in the Lazarus Project. I wouldn't be suprised if tougher bones and greater physical strenght were a part of the package.

Admittedly this was on Normal as it was my first run, not tried it on Insanity yet. The increased health/damage reduction/defensive upgrades (barriers, armour, shields) might make it less useful than it otherwise would be.

Well, I just started a Renegade Infiltrator on Hardcore and the starter sniper blows through a Vorcha in a single headshot even with Armor active. It still remains to be seen how it'll scale later on, but it looks promising.

What annoys me about snipers is the low ammo count together with clips only giving you 1-2 shots. I'm having trouble replenishing my ammo after fights, something I never had to worry about as a Sentinel.

 

[Alkestes]

Ah yes... inside the first

Spoiler

collector ship

, isn't it? Just after a large plot twist?

Yep, that's it. I'd suggest doing that mission as soon as it comes up.

Also, I did some checking just now, there are also special Snipers and Shotguns for the classes that have access to those skills already, so Infiltrators can get an otherwise unavailable Sniper rifle at that point (or an extra weapon type).

As someone who did his first runthrough as an Infiltrator and chose to get the Widow Sniper rifle (same kind which Legion gets as his special upgrade) I have to say: It's fucking awesome. They weren't kidding when they called it an Anti-Material Rifle.

13 rounds total, reload after each shot, but with a max'd Tactical Cloak and all the other weapon damage buff skills it's insane.

Bring along a squadwide Warp Ammo (Jack) and squadwide buffs (Miranda) for extra kicks and giggles.

Admittedly this was on Normal as it was my first run, not tried it on Insanity yet. The increased health/damage reduction/defensive upgrades (barriers, armour, shields) might make it less useful than it otherwise would be.

God, I love the Widow. I really wonder what BioWare were smoking when they came up with the second rifle (Viper?). I find it actually laugh out loud funny, seeing as it specifically says it is an upgrade to the first (Mantis?). I was looking forwards to finding a new rifle, and when I did I used it for the remainder of that mission, until I got to the weapon locker. What a joke.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Ah yes... inside the first

Spoiler

collector ship

, isn't it? Just after a large plot twist?

Yep, that's it. I'd suggest doing that mission as soon as it comes up.

Also, I did some checking just now, there are also special Snipers and Shotguns for the classes that have access to those skills already, so Infiltrators can get an otherwise unavailable Sniper rifle at that point (or an extra weapon type).

As someone who did his first runthrough as an Infiltrator and chose to get the Widow Sniper rifle (same kind which Legion gets as his special upgrade) I have to say: It's fucking awesome. They weren't kidding when they called it an Anti-Material Rifle.

13 rounds total, reload after each shot, but with a max'd Tactical Cloak and all the other weapon damage buff skills it's insane.

Bring along a squadwide Warp Ammo (Jack) and squadwide buffs (Miranda) for extra kicks and giggles.

Admittedly this was on Normal as it was my first run, not tried it on Insanity yet. The increased health/damage reduction/defensive upgrades (barriers, armour, shields) might make it less useful than it otherwise would be.

I was about to say that Miranda doesn't have any squad-wide buffs, then I realized that she does and I knew what you were talking about. I found her to be one of the most useful squadmates with Warp, Overload, and her passive buffs. Her unlockable ability is also pretty cool, but not that useful in practice. I gave it to my Vanguard as a way to tie up weaker enemies, but it was a second choice behind Shockwave. That ability was by far the most useful thing I've seen in the game, at least for large mobs.

Did anyone else find Charge to be largely useless? It gets you around, but is only useful when only one enemy is left since you always end up out in the open and vulnerable. You can knock some people down and finish with either a shotgun or a melee attack, but at the same time you get peppered with rounds from all directions. Basically, the only time you can use it is when its not needed.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Also, remember that Shepard got a few cyber upgrades during his treatment in the Lazarus Project. I wouldn't be suprised if tougher bones and greater physical strenght were a part of the package.

Reinforced bones and augmented muscle strength are actually several of the various cybernetics upgrades you can research.

 

[ModsDeleteThisAccountPlease]

And no, it's not the planet-scanning. That's a little grindy, but I still kinda like it--hey, it's a huge step up from the freaking Mako.

No, the problem is that when you use one power, you have to wait for all of them to cool down. It hasn't been more than a minor annoyance with my Vanguard or my Infiltrator, but it makes playing an Adept (you know, the class that's supposed to be able to "kill enemies without firing a shot") pretty damned awkward. I'm only a few levels in on that one--does anyone know if it gets better once you put more points into it?

Well, it's off set by massively short recharge time. 10 seconds or less compared to a minute+ in the original.

Just stay behind cover and spam you're powers.

 

[ModsDeleteThisAccountPlease]

Ah yes... inside the first

Spoiler

collector ship

, isn't it? Just after a large plot twist?

Yep, that's it. I'd suggest doing that mission as soon as it comes up.

Also, I did some checking just now, there are also special Snipers and Shotguns for the classes that have access to those skills already, so Infiltrators can get an otherwise unavailable Sniper rifle at that point (or an extra weapon type).

As someone who did his first runthrough as an Infiltrator and chose to get the Widow Sniper rifle (same kind which Legion gets as his special upgrade) I have to say: It's fucking awesome. They weren't kidding when they called it an Anti-Material Rifle.

13 rounds total, reload after each shot, but with a max'd Tactical Cloak and all the other weapon damage buff skills it's insane.

Bring along a squadwide Warp Ammo (Jack) and squadwide buffs (Miranda) for extra kicks and giggles.

Admittedly this was on Normal as it was my first run, not tried it on Insanity yet. The increased health/damage reduction/defensive upgrades (barriers, armour, shields) might make it less useful than it otherwise would be.

God, I love the Widow. I really wonder what BioWare were smoking when they came up with the second rifle (Viper?). I find it actually laugh out loud funny, seeing as it specifically says it is an upgrade to the first (Mantis?). I was looking forwards to finding a new rifle, and when I did I used it for the remainder of that mission, until I got to the weapon locker. What a joke.

I actually love the viper. It's way weaker, yes, but if you're accurate enough to land head shots, then it very few shots for a kill. Krogan Battle master took me 7 shots. I got all 7 out before in a single adrenaline rush.

It works great with Adrenaline Rush. Hit Y and use up all 12 shots to take out 4-5 grunts with ease.

 

[Fappy]

Once you get to like 15ish Adept is insanely fun. My level 28 Adept can pull field -> push field hordes of guys in under four seconds.

 

[Nerexor]

God, I love the Widow. I really wonder what BioWare were smoking when they came up with the second rifle (Viper?). I find it actually laugh out loud funny, seeing as it specifically says it is an upgrade to the first (Mantis?). I was looking forwards to finding a new rifle, and when I did I used it for the remainder of that mission, until I got to the weapon locker. What a joke.

I actually found the Viper to be a good rifle when combined with Adrenaline rush. Since you don't have to reload every time you can get several headshots in the time limit of that power. And by the endgame you can pretty much use it every 5 seconds or so, so it lets you enjoy a nice sniping frenzy

 

[Alkestes]

God, I love the Widow. I really wonder what BioWare were smoking when they came up with the second rifle (Viper?). I find it actually laugh out loud funny, seeing as it specifically says it is an upgrade to the first (Mantis?). I was looking forwards to finding a new rifle, and when I did I used it for the remainder of that mission, until I got to the weapon locker. What a joke.

I actually found the Viper to be a good rifle when combined with Adrenaline rush. Since you don't have to reload every time you can get several headshots in the time limit of that power. And by the endgame you can pretty much use it every 5 seconds or so, so it lets you enjoy a nice sniping frenzy

Not tried it with Adrenaline Rush, so yeah that might work. To be honest, I haven't even played a Soldier yet. xD I guess I'll give it a go after I finish with my Renegade Sentinel. <3

 

[Amnestic]

I actually love the viper. It's way weaker, yes, but if you're accurate enough to land head shots, then it very few shots for a kill. Krogan Battle master took me 7 shots. I got all 7 out before in a single adrenaline rush.

It works great with Adrenaline Rush. Hit Y and use up all 12 shots to take out 4-5 grunts with ease.

I can see it being more useful for a Soldier with Adrenaline Rush than an Infiltrator with Tac Cloak. For an Infiltrator, the Viper is worse than the Mantis. It was for me, anyway.

Did anyone else find Charge to be largely useless? It gets you around, but is only useful when only one enemy is left since you always end up out in the open and vulnerable. You can knock some people down and finish with either a shotgun or a melee attack, but at the same time you get peppered with rounds from all directions. Basically, the only time you can use it is when its not needed.

I wouldn't even want to think about using Charge on a difficulty above Normal. You'd get torn apart faster than you could say "Ow my spleen."

What annoys me about snipers is the low ammo count together with clips only giving you 1-2 shots. I'm having trouble replenishing my ammo after fights, something I never had to worry about as a Sentinel.

Yeah, I've had that issue at times. Thankfully I discovered how to modify the game files to give me extra ammo per thermal clip which is an absolute treat for things like the Handcannon and the sniper rifles. Not as necessary for the SMG or Assault Rifles, but I found myself repeatedly falling back to the SMG as an Infiltrator which wasn't exactly hunky dorey.

Being able to tweak issues you have with the game makes it more fun I've found. Might need to looking at buffing Charge to make it a viable skill on anything that's not Casual

 

[mickey711]

Then you'd just spam biotic powers incessantly and the game would be extremely easy. Does anyone else find Soldier to be the most challenging class to play? Unless you research Advanced Training, you don't have access to any biotic powers and combat usually comprises simply shooting at enemies and issuing orders to your squad without the benefit of any powers yourself to keep enemies at bay.

By the way, am I the only person that finds the game to be too short? I've completed all the missions and assignments, explored every single planet in the game, researched and completed pretty much every project except for the dermal regeneration unit twice. And the level cap is absurdly low; I was level 30 by the first playthrough. There's also nothing to do once you've progressed this far, save for revisiting Omega, Illium, the Citadel and Tuchanka, and talking to your squad members.

 

[CmdrGoob]

And no, it's not the planet-scanning. That's a little grindy, but I still kinda like it--hey, it's a huge step up from the freaking Mako.

No, the problem is that when you use one power, you have to wait for all of them to cool down. It hasn't been more than a minor annoyance with my Vanguard or my Infiltrator, but it makes playing an Adept (you know, the class that's supposed to be able to "kill enemies without firing a shot") pretty damned awkward. I'm only a few levels in on that one--does anyone know if it gets better once you put more points into it?

It gets better once you have the -20% biotic cooldown and the cooldown reductions from the passive tree.

I agree though, I'd prefer it didn't have global cooldowns even if that meant all the cooldowns had to be slightly longer for balance.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

As you go up through the levels, your cooldowns become reletivly lower as you purchase upgrades.

And I got to agree with the Planet Scanning, although better then what we had in the first one, it's still annoying. Especially when you find vast amounts of a metal you don't need.

 

[Shepard's Shadow]

It hasn't been a problem for me. The cooldown times are faster then the first game which is good enough for me.