Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[Polysorbate80]

I say ME3 will be UTTER FAILURE if they don't let me drag both Liara and Kelly up to the cabin for a little fem-shep threesome 

I never bought the orignal ME (just rented it instead) so I've never gone back and tried a full renegade playthrough, but my ME2 runs I pretty consistently just do what feels right and wind up about 2/3 paragon, 1/3 renegade.

[Ingmar]

Aw fuck, I stayed true to Liara with DUDESHEPBRO and haven't played through any of the DLCs... Are they that worth it?

Shadow Broker and the 2 companion DLCs (Kasumi, Zaeed) are worth playing. I liked Overlord too but not everyone did.

Shadow Broker may be the best DLC I've ever played, really.

EDIT: Also I never really got why you people like Kelly so much.

[Sky]

I really, really hate being a renegade except in certain situations (I renegade all over the place when dealing with krogan, for example). I guess I'm just not renegade material.  

Sounds like you need a hawk nose and overbite, is all.

u can always let Jack do it 'with no strings attached' right after her loyalty. But considering what Jack looks like...I don't know why anyone wants to.

What's wrong with hot bald chick + tatts? Trust me, you'd enjoy it (and I'm not talking about Jack   )

Also would have rather had the doctor than anyone else on board. Sexay! My Mr. Shep figured Liara left him behind so finally got some of that Tali action.

[Morat20]

Aw fuck, I stayed true to Liara with DUDESHEPBRO and haven't played through any of the DLCs... Are they that worth it?

Shadow Broker and the 2 companion DLCs (Kasumi, Zaeed) are worth playing. I liked Overlord too but not everyone did.

Shadow Broker may be the best DLC I've ever played, really.

Overlord got on my nerves with that burst of static all the time. I blew up all the cameras on the fond hopes that it'd stop it. Plus the final fight annoyed me.

I did find that you could start Overlord without first getting the Hammerhead tank, which was amusing.

EDIT: Also I never really got why you people like Kelly so much.

She fed the fish. I don't know what fucking moron coded in "Your decorative fish die unless you go feed them after every mission", or what he was thinking, but I can tell you he's owed a good slap to the side of the head for sheer stupidity.

[Reg]

The fish dying was annoying. Thank God Boo could handle being neglected more than that.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, all my Shepards are sexual harrassers in order to get their fish fed. I like her fine as a character, and I would feel bad if she got turned into goo, but I don't feel as sisterly-protective of her like I do for Tali.

As for DLC, Zaaed's mission I did the renegade way on renegade LadyShep and I am fucking traumatized. But! I liked it anyway (I've paragon'd it as well, much less horrible). Kasumi's is ... okay. I don't actually like Kasumi herself that much, and the bad guy in her mission's accent makes my head hurt (it's like an Australian trying to do a Scottish and Russian accent at the same time), but her mission is pretty fun. I really liked Overlord even though it scarred me for life and made me hate Cerberus even more. And Lair of the Shadowbroker is pretty rad, especially if you were a Liara romancer. I didn't actually like Liara that much until I did Shadowbroker. :P

[Surlyboi]

Kasumi's villain's accent is a bad South African one, I'm pretty sure. Still made me want to put several rounds in his face.

I actually liked Kasumi, with the exception of, even when you were making out with the supposed love of your life, you were wearing a hood? Really?

Never let the colonists die on the Zaeed mission, because even as a renegade, my stated aim was to save them, I'll find Vido again later and put a mag or two of hot shit in his face as well.

[UnSub]

The fish dying was annoying.

Oh, the Illusive Man could have installed an automatic fish feeder OF THE FUTURE in the giant fish tanks OF THE FUTURE, but no, he enjoys forcing Shepherd to go to his cabin and press a button.

Dance, puppet, dance!

[Bandit]

As far as the DLC go, I would highly recommend the Shadow Broker as well.  I was extremely satisfied with the purchase. Kasumi pack is interesting, and she is a solid character to take out enemies under deep cover (the pack also comes with a pretty good sub machine gun). Overlord is so-so and would be the last DLC I would pick up. 

If you have the extra points left over for the weapon/armour packs, I would say that the Firepower Pack>Aegis Pack>Equalizer Pack.  The phalanx heavy pistol from the Firepower pack is an interesting mechanic as it uses a laser-sight, and the Mattock assault rifle is devastating and sounds pretty bad-ass (single click fire).

I am not a sci-fi guy, but Mass Effect has really grabbed me.  I am on my second run through using an infiltrator on hardcore and contemplating an insanity run after this.  The higher difficulty levels make each encounter pretty epic.  The shadow broker was tough as hell and took me like 10-15 minutes to take down.

I actually picked up the first novel "Ascension" through Kindle yesterday just to see if the series was any good.

[Surlyboi]

Oh. And I want to make Aria's arrogant ass dead too.

[Morat20]

As far as the DLC go, I would highly recommend the Shadow Broker as well.  I was extremely satisfied with the purchase. Kasumi pack is interesting, and she is a solid character to take out enemies under deep cover (the pack also comes with a pretty good sub machine gun). Overlord is so-so and would be the last DLC I would pick up. 

I'm not sure if any of the other SMG's are any better, and you can get the Locust (the one from Kasumi's mission) really early. It's the one I tended to use through the whole game, at least.

If you have the extra points left over for the weapon/armour packs, I would say that the Firepower Pack>Aegis Pack>Equalizer Pack.  The phalanx heavy pistol from the Firepower pack is an interesting mechanic as it uses a laser-sight, and the Mattock assault rifle is devastating and sounds pretty bad-ass (single click fire).

My son LOVES the DLC shotgun. I've watched him more or less destroy shielded, heavily armored Krogans with it as a Vanguard. (The pack wasn't out when I played my Vanguard, and I haven't had a shotgun user since -- I tend to snag 'sniper rifle' as my second). The charged fire (uses more rounds) is freaking devestating.

The triple shot sniper rifle is decent, but eats ammo way too fast unless you've done the upgrades for sniper rifles and carry the extra ammo bag.

[Lantyssa]

Is there a mod to remove ammo use yet?  I'm fine popping clips, but the ammo limit still grates on me.

[Fabricated]

Later on you get ammo-capacity upgrades for the SMG and Shotgun, and there's an armor module that gives you more ammo for all weapons. If you use assault rifles, the ridiculously overpowered one from the collector ship holds a shitload of ammo and has a mile deep clip by default.

As for the hand-cannon which is arguably the most useful pistol, yeah that thing goes dry in 2-3 reloads for the rest of the game pretty much. Annoying but since the fully upgraded pistol pretty much one-shots regular mooks and can blow 2 levels of shields off the tougher mooks on a crit, I'd say it's pretty balanced.

[Lantyssa]

Later on you get ammo-capacity upgrades for the SMG and Shotgun, and there's an armor module that gives you more ammo for all weapons. If you use assault rifles, the ridiculously overpowered one from the collector ship holds a shitload of ammo and has a mile deep clip by default.

I've beaten the game.  Still hatin' the ammo limits.

[Morat20]

Using a pistol, I'm constantly scrounging for ammo. Using the SMG, I rarely if ever have ammo problems in a fight. I can't stay with sniper rifles long enough.

Shotguns and assault rifles I just don't use much. (Vanguard, adept, and just started a Sentinel. Sniper, sniper, and possibly shotgun for the bonus guns).

[Koyasha]

Some of the mods here: http://www.masseffectsaves.com/coalmods.php will change ammo use in a variety of ways, from switching it to regen like in ME1 to giving a cheat button that refills all your ammo each time you press it.  I don't remember anymore which one I preferred to use, but some of the regen mods will screw up your ability to manually reload.  Regen also doesn't scale well across different types of guns - guns with lots of ammo like SMG's regen pretty fast, guns with only a few rounds of max capacity (like the sniper rifle) regen REALLY SLOWLY.

I think I wound up using one of the buttonpress ones, and then using the button to refill ammo whenever I had a moment to take cover.

[Sjofn]

The only gun I've used where ammo is an issue has been the sniper rifle, and even that isn't a big deal. It took some getting used to, but in the end I like it more than the overheating thing. But! Here is a thread talking about a mod that puts the original hybrid system back in or some shit (reload for instant gratification, wait out the overheat in low ammo situations). No idea if it works well or not, though, and I suspect some guns are broken by this, since they were balanced around ammo and only ammo in the end.

[Sky]

The fish dying was annoying. Thank God Boo could handle being neglected more than that.

Yeah, my fish died. I just didn't bother with fish after that.

[Bandit]

The only gun I've used where ammo is an issue has been the sniper rifle, and even that isn't a big deal. It took some getting used to, but in the end I like it more than the overheating thing. But! Here is a thread talking about a mod that puts the original hybrid system back in or some shit (reload for instant gratification, wait out the overheat in low ammo situations). No idea if it works well or not, though, and I suspect some guns are broken by this, since they were balanced around ammo and only ammo in the end.

Yeah the sniper is the only gun I have ammo issues with really (It gets a bit tougher on harder difficulties, always need more than one gun to finish). I am playing infiltrator, and set most my armour up for headshot bonuses.  Infiltrator has a time distort when you first aim which is pretty cool.  However, I have learned that is just easiest to start in with the sniper rifle (incisor) and severely soften up the wave until ammo is out and move on to another gun.  Otherwise the sniper rifle would be easy mode using infiltrator.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, this last playthrough I did was an infiltrator too. It was a lot of fun! I was only on normal difficulty I think though? Nothing too hard, certainly. I want to do a hardcore one but every time I think about Goddamn Husks I'm not as certain.

[Shrike]

Hardcore and insane husks are a nuisance, but bringing Jack, Tali, and/or Grunt usually keeps them in line. Mostly. Going vanguard and imp. shockwave yourself also eases the pain there, but nowhere else particularly. I still prefer soldier for the harder difficulties. Group...umm...freezy ammo-whatever helps quite a bit on those and with varren.

[Lantyssa]

The real fun is insane and that stupid boss fight right before you meet Kaiden or Ashley.  I ran out of ammo...

[Sjofn]

That fight does involve Goddamn Husks! 

I usually take Jack if I'm going to be dealing with husks, maybe I'll give Grunt a try at it sometime since he's sturdier.

[Ingmar]

Arc projector = godsend for husks.

[Shrike]

Arc projector = godsend for husks.

The projector hammers them pretty well, but biotics are what really settle their hash. Or just let Grunt go postal on them. Exploding drones are pretty amusing as well, and are nice for setting up a biotic beatdown.

[Morat20]

That fight does involve Goddamn Husks! 

I usually take Jack if I'm going to be dealing with husks, maybe I'll give Grunt a try at it sometime since he's sturdier.

Vanguard + Jack if you both have shockwave maxed is just evil. I tended to go back and forth on the third -- Miranda is annoying, but she really boosts the team.

For that damn fight at horizon, Miranda and Moridin are excellent, especially if you have warp. Two heavy warps on the stupid sucker and an incinerate....I think that's what I used on my Adept playthrough, plus I had warp ammo up. Just shredded it.

But yeah, if I know I'm facing husks, I take Jack. It was a lot easier when I had shockwave. It's almost worth it to respec to give youself shockwave if you know you're going to face them.

[Sjofn]

I tend to shy away from the various biotic classes ... I just don't like them. I think deep down, I know they're mages. And I hates mages.

[Morat20]

I tend to shy away from the various biotic classes ... I just don't like them. I think deep down, I know they're mages. And I hates mages.

I can grasp that. (And mage on Dragon Age is just horribly unbalanced, and I only tried it the "Waves of Elemental Death" fashion. The curses and anti-boss stuff looked even worse).

My adept playthrough, though, not only did I learn to love "pull" and "singularity" and "throw" but it's been about the ONLY time evolving a power to "Area" instead of "heavy" made any sense. Singularity and pulls would tend to get them clustered, so area powers actually hit multiple people.

I hear Infiltrator is fun...

[Merusk]

My Femshep was an Infiltrator.  Early on you felt a little squishy, and in any areas where there's insufficient cover, but the sniper rifle was love.  Combine their anti-shield and anti-health abilities with Mordin's anti-armor and you would 3 shot Harbinger's stupid ass whenever he'd show up.  I didn't realize he was supposed to be difficult until I started reading around.

You have to be willing to backpedal a lot and be quick on the elbow key to avoid being swarmed with the fucking Husks, though.  Your pistol choices don't chew them up enough and the biotic/ techs I was using weren't sufficient to eat them alive, either.  It's the class I got the "kill <# of npcs> in melee" unlock on for that reason.

[Morat20]

Hmm. With the locust SMG for close up, that would be nasty, nasty, nasty. Disrupter and Cryo ammo, tactical cloak, incinterate for armor...

What bonus power did you pick?

The Geth shield looks good, but Warp Ammo is hard to forgo...it shreds barriers.

[Shrike]

The Locust shreds barriers period.

With an infiltrator, I'd be thinking fortification personally. Hmmm, my infiltrator didn't get anywhere, but that was on the 360. On the PC...has some possiblities.

[Merusk]

I took the incendiary grenades.    It was my first play through and I didn't know they'd suck, suck, suck compared to what others would offer me.

[Sjofn]

I used warp ammo on my infiltrator because I am lazy. And yeah, once I got a mean SMG, it was pretty nice, although I did get a lot of points towards the melee achievement on him (but didn't quite finish it like Merusk did  ). I should probably branch out and try something else (I did try incendiary grenades, actually, and they do totally suck. Zaeed can throw his a lot further than I can throw mine. :( ), probably one of the shield type things if I'm going to be on a harder difficulty.

I really loved my engineer too. The little I've played soldier has been sort of boring, but I haven't been abusing adrenaline rush and I didn't get very far in before I told myself I have to finish my other playthrough before I start a new one for real. Thinking about it, that playthrough I'm putting off finishing is one of my rare biotic-y classes ... I forget what she actually is, it's the dual class that has tech armor and not the suicide charge. Sentinel maybe?

My super duper ultra paragon canon LadyShep is waiting for them to finish the bridging DLC before I play her. Infiltrator PigShep grew on me so much he might elbow original MANSHEP out of the way for being my canon guy, so maybe I'll do my GRR HARD playthrough on him.

[Tannhauser]

Finished my first PC game as goody Manshep Engineer.  Engineer was fun, Overload, Combat Drone and Incinerate were better than I thought they'd be.  The drone was great for distracting enemies while we burnt them down.  Incinerate was quite useful against enemies who were in cover, I got really good at curving it.

I lost Jack and Thane, my only two non-loyal members.  Oddly enough, I've lost Thane three times now and all three times he was pulled into the air by the black swarm at the end.  I did their missions, but somehow goofed up and didn't get their loyalty.

My romance with Chambers was going well, then she was captured and I had to watch her dissolve in the tube.   Is there a strategy guide for a broken heart? 

Anyway, really loved ME2 on the PC, but I doubt I'll do evil goatee Shep. 

[cironian]

My romance with Chambers was going well, then she was captured and I had to watch her dissolve in the tube.   Is there a strategy guide for a broken heart? 

You could adopt Baby-Reaper, seeing as how it contains bits and pieces of Kelly.

Anyway, really loved ME2 on the PC, but I doubt I'll do evil goatee Shep. 

No goatee necessary. With the right face, those renegade answers just choose themselves: http://www.masseffect2faces.com/index.php?faceID=1325