Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been going through the ME trilogy again, and I've found out a few things.
First off, ME1 romances. There is a way to cut off both romances for your gender and NOT carry one into ME2 if you choose your gender specific romance option as the Virmire Survivor. There's a point in the romances where you have to be very, very harsh in your dismissal of them. For Liara, you have to choose the bottom choice when she asks if you and her could share anything. But make sure you reject Liara first, because if you reject her second, she locks in no matter what you say to her. For Kaidan, it's when he talks about the BAaT program and initially brings up Vyrnnus. You have to tell him that "this is a battlefield thing", which is the most "Renegade" option for the final line. For Ashley, it's the conversation where she talks about her grandfather and Shanxi. You have to get to the point where she starts ranting about aliens, and "kowtowing to the Council".
Essentially, you have to have the tone that "I don't need this high school bullshit" in order to outright reject them. You'll know you rejected them because Liara won't talk about the asari joining, Ashley won't bring up the fact that "there's a reason for everything", and Kaidan won't talk about "getting the Council on our side"; in other words, they won't talk about the future with you. It's harsh, yes, but it is the only way to reject both Liara and the Virmire survivor without killing the opposite gender romance. And a reminder that, if you want to reject both, reject Liara first. If you reject the human romance option first, Liara will lock in, regardless of whether you reject her or not. This is more important when playing a female character, as you have to reject both Liara and Kaidan at the same time, where as with a male, you reject Ashley one conversation after Liara.
Second, updates to my ME3 loadout. Due to a playlist by a youtuber known as D4nnyB0y1066, I've been able to check out the weapon capabilities without going in and testing them all myself, and I found I like different weapons than I had before. And here is the list, along with the upgrades for the weapons, as well as when you get them, and whether or not they require DLC or not.
Assault Rifles
Cerberus Harrier-Start-Firefight pack. Shepard gets the magazine mod and extended barrel, and companions get the scope in place of the magazine.
M-8 Avenger-Start. Since this is for a power focused build, this gets ultralight material and an extended barrel.
Shotguns (Companions get choke and barrel. Shepard's load out is as follows.)
M-22 Eviscerator- Grissom Academy. Choke and Barrel
M-300 Claymore- the Rachni Mission. This gun is Wrex, Vega and Grunt only, above mods apply.
Graal Spike Thrower- Priority: Tuchanka. Soldier and Vanguard Shepard Only. Magazine and barrel. While heavy, this one has a charged shot that uses no extra ammo.
Sniper Rifle (Scope and barrel for all)
M-92 Mantis - Infiltrator start, or on Priority Mars.
M-98 Widow- Priority: Thessia.
SMG (Companions scope and barrel)
M-9 Tempest - Turian Platoon. Companion gun only.
M-12 Locust- Priority: Horizon. Ultralight material and barrel.
Pistol (Companions get scope and barrel, Shepard switches magazine or ultralight material for scope)
M-5 Phalanx - Priority: Tuchanka.
M-6 Carnifax - Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists
M-358 Talon - Priority: Citadel 2. This is essentially a shotgun in range and power, so give this to someone that can tank, like EDI or Kaidan. All else, go with the other 2.
The reason I advocate scopes and barrels on companions is 2 fold; they aren't bothered by weight, and they don't run out of ammo, so anything that doesn't boost accuracy or damage output (either ranged or melee, if you prefer melee. I don't, so I don't recommend it.) are wasted.
My preferred loadout on Shepard is as follows, in order of weapon appearance;
Soldier- Cerberus Harrier, Mantis/Widow, Eviscerator/Spike Thrower, Phalanx/Carnifax
Vanguard-Avenger//Locust, Eviscerator/Spike thrower
Sentinel-Avenger, Mantis
Infiltrator-Avenger/Locust, Mantis/Widow
Engineer-Avenger/Locust, Mantis
Adept-Avenger/Locust, Mantis
This shows a bit about my playstyle, too. I prefer to fight from mid-far range, unless a Vanguard, and I try to balance frequency of power use with the damage output of my guns, so I tend toward light weapons for the power focus classes. The Soldier isn't power focused, so heavy weapons don't matter, and the Vanguard and Infiltrator get on really heavy one and one really light one, since those are their signature weapons. I've seen some pretty good builds with a shotgun instead of a sniper rifle online, so if you are into that, change out the Mantis/Widow for the Eviscerator/Spike thrower.
You'll also notice I forgo a pistol for all but the Soldier. Again, it comes down to weight. The only reason I take a pistol along as a Soldier is that I have something back on if I ever run out of ammo.
Finally, Vega's "I'm the new player avatar" thing; I read on the ME wiki and saw that, if you take him with you on certain missions, he DOES prompt exposition from those who have been with you for the last two games on the shuttle rides down. I tested this on my most recent playthrough, saving just before the shuttle ride down on every mission and then reloading to compare with the party I normally take, and I found that yes, he does prompt for more information. I guess I would have noticed this quicker if I actually used him in combat, but I digress.
As for everything else, nothing has changed. Everything else I've said in the previous 9 entries remains true, for now.
So until next time, stay beautiful freaks!
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