Some Thoughts on the Mass Effect Classes

Unlike your typical RPG, Mass Effect has some very unique, and kind of strange, class types to play as.  There is no obvious fire/ice spells.  There is no obvious support class (none of them are actually).  There kind of is an obvious tank class but it sucks.  Here are some thoughts.

Soldier

"In this Sci-Fi future, my power is shooting dudes"

But, why tho?

This is the most popular class even though it has none of the unique gifts that playing Mass Effect can offer.  OH!  This classes' main power is slowing down time so you can shoot better? Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat.  That has only been done dozens of times.

This is one of two tank classes.  Soldiers can take more damage than any other class which makes them sound very appealing to newbies.  They also are strong against NOTHING.  Every battle is a war of attrition.

To be fair, I can see why somebody might play this class if they are a coward.  To a newbie, what the hell does Warp do?  "Is it like teleportation or something?"  Lift/Pull and Throw sound lame, like they are powers that can't do any actual damage but can be used as distractions.  The opposite is sort of true too though, with something like Shockwave sounding awesome, but pretty useless except against husks.

What I played:  Like, 2 hours of this class just to see what it's about.  Yeah, battles take forever until you get better guns, and even then, meh.  Turns out the "argument from popularity" fallacy is still a fallacy.

Infiltrator

"Infiltrator" is also a mobile game because EA

This class is about stealth and sniping...which is sort of like telling your squadmates to be the leaders.  I dunno, this class always seemed too "ninja" for me and didn't fit the Shepard character.  And this is coming from somebody who LOVES many stealth heavy games....but also hates them too.  I'm very picky on stealth.

What I played: NEVER....which is why this entry is so short. This seems like it would be in my wheelhouse as a stealth game fan, but the rest of the game isn't built for it.  Also, Shepard as a common character (as in, the stuff you have no decision over) is so NOT this.

Engineer

Ohhh.  It's so good

This is the least played class yet I have absolutely NO IDEA why.  This class can destroy almost any defense.

The two most common defenses are armor and/or shields.  The Engineer can Incinerate armor and Overload shields.  This class is weak against Biotic Barriers, but bring some Biotics with Shep and it's no problem.

My favorite part of this class is leveling the playing field.  The Engineer gets a Combat Drone, which isn't good for killing enemies but great at distracting them as it charges enemy positions.  Then you have Sentry Turrets in ME3 that can also be great at distracting plus help deal damage when you are setting up defenses.  But, the class gets even better with AI Hacking.  Turn Geth against themselves.  Get Tali and/or Legion in there and you can really create havoc behind enemy lines.  Also, those annoying Cereberus turrets?  You can hack those too.  The panic and confusion from Cerberus forces is fantastic (when they notice. Sometimes they don't notice...until they're dead).

What I played:  My 2nd favorite class.  More people should give it a try.  It's a tad gun heavy but those tech skills absolutely OWN enemy defenses.  And while I didn't use Cryo Blast much, I did use it in multiplayer on ME3 and it is great too.  This class might be slightly overpowered.

Sentinel

Sooooo, we doing Tron now or......

I really don't understand this class.  It's a mix between biotics and tech, making it okay at both but not great at either.  A jack-of-all-trades class, this is also the 2nd heaviest tank class with a class specific skill called Tech Shield.  It's okay.  I never quite figured out how to detonate the Tech Shield with any sort of consistency.  I mean, I knew HOW to do it, but what is its range?  And how much damage does it do compared to the expense of not having an extra shield anymore?

The Engineer has better tech skills.  The Adept (see below) has better biotic skills.  Why pick this class?  Just for the Tech Shield?

What I played:  I played through ME2 once as a Sentinel, realized I didn't like it, then started over.

Adept

Blue Splinter Cell?

Sort of the mage class of Mass Effect, Adepts can fling enemies all over the goddamn place and in the last 2 games, "prime" enemies with a biotic attack and follow it up with another biotic attack for what is called a biotic explosion and it's goddamn awesome.  It does massive damage and if done right, is the most powerful attack in the game other than a headshot from the Black Widow sniper rifle.

Adepts are great at taking down biotic barriers and even shields with it's Warp ability.  Adepts are pretty squishy though.  They cannot take a lot of damage so you absolutely need to be adept (LOL) at using cover effectively. They are also weak against armor so bring heavy hitters with Shep.

Also, playing as this class....what is guns?  Just throw biotics everywhere.  Get the Locust, a lightweight SMG introduced in a ME2 DLC, which does significant damage and has a high shot rate, and yeah.  Golden.

What I played:  Most of the time, with advice from AJ *brofist*.  It's my favorite class.  I don't play the "mage" class often but this one is great.  Cannot stress how much I love the Locust though.  That gun makes this class.  In ME1, this class is pretty tough though.

Vanguard

Yeah, things go boom.

I'm gonna cut straight to the chase, sorry Chase.  This class is absolutely overpowered in ME3.  Charge has a cooldown time of roughly 2 seconds but recharges your shields.  Nova uses up the shield but has 0 cooldown.  So...Charge-Nova-Charge-Nova-win.   You are basically invincible in ME3.  It's stupid.

This class is mostly the tank version of a biotic.  I know I said earlier that the Infiltrator is the "ninja" class but this one makes far more sense.  They can't take too much damage even though it SEEMS better than an Adept.  One vanguard character in multiplayer, the N7 Slayer, is an ACTUAL ninja.  Sword and all.  (It's basically like playing as Kai Leng).

What I played:  I played as a Vanguard my first time through.  It sort of ruined me on ME3 when I found the OP exploit early but ME3 was a lot better with every other class I played.

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A bit off topic, but Mass Effect was never very balanced.  By the time ME3 rolled around, each class was so into their own thing, that some broke the game while others, like the Adept, made things more difficult than they needed to be.  This is okay though because many players could have drastically different opinions just on the gameplay, forget story for a second.  Once ME3 hit, the combat was basically a Gears of War clone but with space magic.  I am, 100%, okay with this.

Also, the unbalanced nature of the classes would have been a HUGE problem if multiplayer was competitive.  Multiplayer was co-op horde mode only though, so it didn't really matter EXCEPT when some idiot Vanguard keeps charging off to the other side of the map and getting him/herself killed.  "We are supposed to defend this point idiot. Why are you getting mad nobody came to revive you when you're fucking around in bum-fuck Egypt?"

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What do you think of the classes?  One you love?  One you hate?  Hit me up on Twitter.