Mass Effect 2: The Casual Shootist - A Guide to the Infiltrator class (by khevan)
Oct 22, 2016 16:56:06 GMT
Post by RedCaesar97 on Oct 22, 2016 16:56:06 GMT
ATTENTION: This guide was originally posted by khevan on the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. I am copying it here so it does not disappear when the old BSN forums shut down.
This guide is not for elite gamers with excellent quick twitch aiming skills. There are plenty of other quality guides to the Infiltrator for that crowd. I, however, am not in that crowd. Mass Effect 1 was an easier game for me in this respect, but several changes to the combat system have made ME2 much harder.
While I like the ammo system, and the combat itself is much smoother with better enemy AI (they'll flank if they have the chance, they move around the battlefield more, etc.), these elements have made it a harder game for me. You'd think that I'd gravitate towards the "caster" classes of ME2, but I fell in love with Cloak on my first playthru, and now I can't really get into other classes without it. While I'm not good at aiming and shooting, I will say that I think I'm pretty good at tactics, and I'll be touching on general tactics in this guide.
First, a disclaimer: This is all based on my personal playstyle and opinion. There are lots of ways to play the Infiltrator, and it's up to you to decide which works best for you. I'm merely offering my playstyle for others to consider.
And now, on to the meat of the guide! I'll be breaking this down into sections so it's easier to read and understand.
Skills and build:
Disruptor Ammo: If you have good aiming and shooting skills, this ammo power is probably the second best ammo power in the game, right behind Incindiary ammo. It absolutely destroys shields. However, since I'm not the best shot, I leave this power at level 2 for much of the game. I rely alot more on powers to strip defenses.
Cryo Ammo: Great CC ability, and if an enemy is frozen, it gives a huge damage bonus. I personally suggest getting this to level 4 fairly quickly, and I'd evolve it to Squad Cryo. Dropping out of sniper zoom and seeing a couple of enemies frozen from squad fire is definitely worth the points. There are other skills that I get maxed first, though.
Cloak: The ultimate in utility skills. With this skill, you can set up a sniper shot with no enemy interference, move to a more advantageous position, or flank your enemy if the battlefield allows it. More on this later in the tactics section.
Incinerate: Hands down, the best armor stripping power in the game. It has a 2.4X modifier to armor, it sets organic enemies ablaze (if they're down to health), giving you some minor CC, and it stops Krogan and vorcha health regeneration. I tend to get this power to at least level 3 quickly.
AI Hacking: Very situational power, and the situations where it's useful are few and far between, but when they come, it's an invaluable power on the higher difficulties. Being able to hack a charging Geth Hunter is much faster and safer than killing it (for me, at least), and that Geth Hunter becomes a 3rd squadmember, helping to whittle down the enemy numbers. But for most of the game, this power is useless. My advice is to leave this skill alone, but for geth missions, retrain your powers to put at least two ranks into this power, preferably 3. It's not necessary to evolve this power, in my opinion.
Passive: If you're like me, and can't hit the proverbial side of a barn, then you definitely want to evolve this into the Agent specialization. The bonuses to skill cooldown and duration are key to my playstyle, and the bonuses to Paragon/Renegade don't hurt none either.
Bonus Power: For much of the game, I recommend Energy Drain. Since I rely more on powers than shooting, Energy Drain makes for a great shield stripper. It doesn't have Overload's CC ability to overheat enemy weapons, but it does refill your own shields, which has saved my butt more times than I can count. I don't rely on that part of the power, and mostly use it for shield stripping, but it's definately a point worth mentioning.
Build Progression: I try to start with at least a point in Disruptor Ammo, Cloak, Passive, and Energy Drain, while taking Incinerate to at least level 2 to start. You face alot of armored enemies on Omega, and shield stripping can wait a bit. After that, I get cloak, passive and energy drain to level 2, and incinerate to level 3. To finish off the build, I get passive/cloak/energy drain to 3, Incinerate to 4, then max passive, then cloak, then energy drain. Once those skills are maxed, I work on my ammo powers.
-Also, one point to remember: Retrain your skills!! If you know what you're going to be facing, enemy-wise, retrain to give yourself the best advantage you can. Max Energy Drain and a few points into AI Hacking for Geth missions, Max Incinerate for Blood Pack and husk missions, etc. The infiltrator is probably one of the most diverse classes in ME2, so specialize for what you need, and change up as you go.
Weapons and Armor:
Even though I'm not a shooter, by any means, I recommend taking the Widow as your "bonus" weapon on the disabled Collector ship. As an infiltrator, unless you're going for a CQC Infiltrator (for which there are other great guides), you generally want to keep the enemies as far from you as possible. I'll go into that a bit more during the tactics section of this, but in short, the Widow is the strongest Sniper Rifle in the game, and can do some serious damage.
Armor, however, is totally up to you. The Off-Hand Ammo pack sounds like a good idea, but it really isn't that useful. It gives a whopping one extra shot for the Widow, which is useful, of course, but not as great as "10% extra ammo!" sounds. I do, however, use this armor piece, because it looks cool. I also use the Kuwashii Visor (+10% headshot damage), mainly because it looks cool, but because I do manage a headshot now and then, and any damage boost is a good thing, in my opinion.
Tactics:
Everything I wrote above is pretty much common knowledge, but I added it for completeness (and because my OCDishness wouldn't let me omit it). This section, however, is the main reason I decided to write this down. In this section, I'll lay out my personal playstyle, give some general combat tips, and try to show how I get the most out of my infiltrator.
First and foremost, remember the four "F's" of infantry combat: Find 'em, Fix 'em, Flank 'em, Finish 'em. To expand on this a bit more, I'll take each "F" one at a time.
Find 'em: In ME2, you don't need to find your enemies, they'll be there when you get there. But, it's important to note that you should try to meet the enemies on your terms. Pause the game, take a look around the battlefield. Is the battlefield open, or crowded and confined? Are there multiple avenues of approach to the enemy that you can use (or that they can come at you from?) Are there any good, strong looking cover positions within easy reach? Use the battlefield, it can seriously affect how easy or hard a fight is.
Fix 'em: There's no such thing as suppression fire in this game, so it's hard to fix enemies in one location so you can flank, but you also need to keep the enemy from flanking you. Set your squad to cover your flanks if you can, and keep a close eye on how the enemy is moving. Enemies charging up the middle can make you focus on them, leaving that one guy to sneak around the side and cap you when you least expect it. Use abilities to disrupt enemy movements. Kasumi's Flashbang is great for this, as it staggers enemies even when protected, disrupts their weapons, and knocks 'em down if they're in health. It's here that I "thin the herd," so to speak, by using powers to strip defenses, taking out a couple of enemies to make it safer to move around, etc. I usually use the Locust SMG at this point, because it's accurate, has more ammo than the sniper rifle, and because I'm a poor shot, I'm not out of cover for a long time trying to line up a headshot. Once the enemy's numbers are down a bit, we go to the next section.
Flank 'em: When the opportunity presents itself, and the battlefield allows it, do what you can to move so that the enemy is facing fire from two different directions. Even if they all focus on you, and they usually will, they'll generally expose themselves to your squadmate's gunfire. Not to mention that if you use Cloak to flank (and you should) they won't adjust to your movement until after Cloak ends, giving you time to take out an enemy or two while they shuffle around looking for cover from your current position. Anything you can do to disrupt the enemy's movements is worth doing. Here is where I generally pull out my Sniper Rifle. The enemy's numbers are down to the point where it's safer for me to poke my head out of cover, and the SR makes short work of much of the remaining enemy.
Finish 'em: Here you have a couple of options, depending on how you want to play. You can either stay and use the SR to finish off the battle, or pull out your SMG and cloak-rush the last couple of enemies to get that visceral close combat rush. It's a coin toss to me which I do, but the option is there for you to take.
I mentioned earlier that, generally speaking, you want to keep the enemies at longish range. The reason for this is that the farther away they are, the longer I have to line up a shot, whether with the SR or anything else. The more distance you have between you and the enemy, again, generally speaking, the more time you have to see a flanking enemy and neutralize them before they get to you, and the same for a charging Krogan, etc. There are battlefields where this isn't possible, though, so do what you can, and pay very close attention to what the enemy is doing.
Don't get so focused on one enemy, or one section of the battlefield, that you lose sight of what's going on. Keep your head on a swivel, pause every so often and look around. Is there an enemy trying to sneak up on you that you missed? Glad you paused and found him! Is there an opportunity to flank that suddenly presented itself? Good thing you paused to see what's going on, so you can take advantage of it! Yes, the elite players can play without pausing, and that works for them. I try not to pause too often, but it's there, and I use it.
Squadmate selection:
Personally, I tend to roll with Miranda and Kasumi. With my Shep and Miranda providing good defense stripping abilities, Kasumi has great CC with her Flashbang, and she does great damage with her Shadow Strike. I generally don't put any points into her Overload ability with this squad setup, because I have Energy Drain, and Miranda has Overload, so it's redundant. Her other abilities are just too good.
Really, though, your squad setup is totally up to you. Just remember that you don't have anything to strip barriers with, so you should have someone with warp or reave. Grunt is also a great choice on husk missions, and as a general tank to send up the middle to disrupt the enemy. Yes, he'll generally get knocked out if you do this, so I don't recommend it in the initial stages of a battle, but it's a great distraction when you want to try to flank. Send him foward a bit, the enemy will shift focus to him somewhat, and you can cloak and flank.
Those are my suggestions, but who you use is up to you. Just try to pick squaddies that compliment your playstyle, and fill any gaps in your offensive arsenal.
Conclusion:
Hope this helps someone. It took me a long time to figure out that the guides out there for the infiltrator really didn't work for me, because of how I play the game. The guides themselves are great, don't think for a second that I'm trying to knock 'em. I actually picked up a few tips here and there that I was able to adapt to how I play. I just had to figure out how I best play, and I thought that I can't be the only one with trouble on the higher difficulties. So, here's my guide. Again, I hope it helps, and good luck!
This guide is not for elite gamers with excellent quick twitch aiming skills. There are plenty of other quality guides to the Infiltrator for that crowd. I, however, am not in that crowd. Mass Effect 1 was an easier game for me in this respect, but several changes to the combat system have made ME2 much harder.
While I like the ammo system, and the combat itself is much smoother with better enemy AI (they'll flank if they have the chance, they move around the battlefield more, etc.), these elements have made it a harder game for me. You'd think that I'd gravitate towards the "caster" classes of ME2, but I fell in love with Cloak on my first playthru, and now I can't really get into other classes without it. While I'm not good at aiming and shooting, I will say that I think I'm pretty good at tactics, and I'll be touching on general tactics in this guide.
First, a disclaimer: This is all based on my personal playstyle and opinion. There are lots of ways to play the Infiltrator, and it's up to you to decide which works best for you. I'm merely offering my playstyle for others to consider.
And now, on to the meat of the guide! I'll be breaking this down into sections so it's easier to read and understand.
Skills and build:
Disruptor Ammo: If you have good aiming and shooting skills, this ammo power is probably the second best ammo power in the game, right behind Incindiary ammo. It absolutely destroys shields. However, since I'm not the best shot, I leave this power at level 2 for much of the game. I rely alot more on powers to strip defenses.
Cryo Ammo: Great CC ability, and if an enemy is frozen, it gives a huge damage bonus. I personally suggest getting this to level 4 fairly quickly, and I'd evolve it to Squad Cryo. Dropping out of sniper zoom and seeing a couple of enemies frozen from squad fire is definitely worth the points. There are other skills that I get maxed first, though.
Cloak: The ultimate in utility skills. With this skill, you can set up a sniper shot with no enemy interference, move to a more advantageous position, or flank your enemy if the battlefield allows it. More on this later in the tactics section.
Incinerate: Hands down, the best armor stripping power in the game. It has a 2.4X modifier to armor, it sets organic enemies ablaze (if they're down to health), giving you some minor CC, and it stops Krogan and vorcha health regeneration. I tend to get this power to at least level 3 quickly.
AI Hacking: Very situational power, and the situations where it's useful are few and far between, but when they come, it's an invaluable power on the higher difficulties. Being able to hack a charging Geth Hunter is much faster and safer than killing it (for me, at least), and that Geth Hunter becomes a 3rd squadmember, helping to whittle down the enemy numbers. But for most of the game, this power is useless. My advice is to leave this skill alone, but for geth missions, retrain your powers to put at least two ranks into this power, preferably 3. It's not necessary to evolve this power, in my opinion.
Passive: If you're like me, and can't hit the proverbial side of a barn, then you definitely want to evolve this into the Agent specialization. The bonuses to skill cooldown and duration are key to my playstyle, and the bonuses to Paragon/Renegade don't hurt none either.
Bonus Power: For much of the game, I recommend Energy Drain. Since I rely more on powers than shooting, Energy Drain makes for a great shield stripper. It doesn't have Overload's CC ability to overheat enemy weapons, but it does refill your own shields, which has saved my butt more times than I can count. I don't rely on that part of the power, and mostly use it for shield stripping, but it's definately a point worth mentioning.
Build Progression: I try to start with at least a point in Disruptor Ammo, Cloak, Passive, and Energy Drain, while taking Incinerate to at least level 2 to start. You face alot of armored enemies on Omega, and shield stripping can wait a bit. After that, I get cloak, passive and energy drain to level 2, and incinerate to level 3. To finish off the build, I get passive/cloak/energy drain to 3, Incinerate to 4, then max passive, then cloak, then energy drain. Once those skills are maxed, I work on my ammo powers.
-Also, one point to remember: Retrain your skills!! If you know what you're going to be facing, enemy-wise, retrain to give yourself the best advantage you can. Max Energy Drain and a few points into AI Hacking for Geth missions, Max Incinerate for Blood Pack and husk missions, etc. The infiltrator is probably one of the most diverse classes in ME2, so specialize for what you need, and change up as you go.
Weapons and Armor:
Even though I'm not a shooter, by any means, I recommend taking the Widow as your "bonus" weapon on the disabled Collector ship. As an infiltrator, unless you're going for a CQC Infiltrator (for which there are other great guides), you generally want to keep the enemies as far from you as possible. I'll go into that a bit more during the tactics section of this, but in short, the Widow is the strongest Sniper Rifle in the game, and can do some serious damage.
Armor, however, is totally up to you. The Off-Hand Ammo pack sounds like a good idea, but it really isn't that useful. It gives a whopping one extra shot for the Widow, which is useful, of course, but not as great as "10% extra ammo!" sounds. I do, however, use this armor piece, because it looks cool. I also use the Kuwashii Visor (+10% headshot damage), mainly because it looks cool, but because I do manage a headshot now and then, and any damage boost is a good thing, in my opinion.
Tactics:
Everything I wrote above is pretty much common knowledge, but I added it for completeness (and because my OCDishness wouldn't let me omit it). This section, however, is the main reason I decided to write this down. In this section, I'll lay out my personal playstyle, give some general combat tips, and try to show how I get the most out of my infiltrator.
First and foremost, remember the four "F's" of infantry combat: Find 'em, Fix 'em, Flank 'em, Finish 'em. To expand on this a bit more, I'll take each "F" one at a time.
Find 'em: In ME2, you don't need to find your enemies, they'll be there when you get there. But, it's important to note that you should try to meet the enemies on your terms. Pause the game, take a look around the battlefield. Is the battlefield open, or crowded and confined? Are there multiple avenues of approach to the enemy that you can use (or that they can come at you from?) Are there any good, strong looking cover positions within easy reach? Use the battlefield, it can seriously affect how easy or hard a fight is.
Fix 'em: There's no such thing as suppression fire in this game, so it's hard to fix enemies in one location so you can flank, but you also need to keep the enemy from flanking you. Set your squad to cover your flanks if you can, and keep a close eye on how the enemy is moving. Enemies charging up the middle can make you focus on them, leaving that one guy to sneak around the side and cap you when you least expect it. Use abilities to disrupt enemy movements. Kasumi's Flashbang is great for this, as it staggers enemies even when protected, disrupts their weapons, and knocks 'em down if they're in health. It's here that I "thin the herd," so to speak, by using powers to strip defenses, taking out a couple of enemies to make it safer to move around, etc. I usually use the Locust SMG at this point, because it's accurate, has more ammo than the sniper rifle, and because I'm a poor shot, I'm not out of cover for a long time trying to line up a headshot. Once the enemy's numbers are down a bit, we go to the next section.
Flank 'em: When the opportunity presents itself, and the battlefield allows it, do what you can to move so that the enemy is facing fire from two different directions. Even if they all focus on you, and they usually will, they'll generally expose themselves to your squadmate's gunfire. Not to mention that if you use Cloak to flank (and you should) they won't adjust to your movement until after Cloak ends, giving you time to take out an enemy or two while they shuffle around looking for cover from your current position. Anything you can do to disrupt the enemy's movements is worth doing. Here is where I generally pull out my Sniper Rifle. The enemy's numbers are down to the point where it's safer for me to poke my head out of cover, and the SR makes short work of much of the remaining enemy.
Finish 'em: Here you have a couple of options, depending on how you want to play. You can either stay and use the SR to finish off the battle, or pull out your SMG and cloak-rush the last couple of enemies to get that visceral close combat rush. It's a coin toss to me which I do, but the option is there for you to take.
I mentioned earlier that, generally speaking, you want to keep the enemies at longish range. The reason for this is that the farther away they are, the longer I have to line up a shot, whether with the SR or anything else. The more distance you have between you and the enemy, again, generally speaking, the more time you have to see a flanking enemy and neutralize them before they get to you, and the same for a charging Krogan, etc. There are battlefields where this isn't possible, though, so do what you can, and pay very close attention to what the enemy is doing.
Don't get so focused on one enemy, or one section of the battlefield, that you lose sight of what's going on. Keep your head on a swivel, pause every so often and look around. Is there an enemy trying to sneak up on you that you missed? Glad you paused and found him! Is there an opportunity to flank that suddenly presented itself? Good thing you paused to see what's going on, so you can take advantage of it! Yes, the elite players can play without pausing, and that works for them. I try not to pause too often, but it's there, and I use it.
Squadmate selection:
Personally, I tend to roll with Miranda and Kasumi. With my Shep and Miranda providing good defense stripping abilities, Kasumi has great CC with her Flashbang, and she does great damage with her Shadow Strike. I generally don't put any points into her Overload ability with this squad setup, because I have Energy Drain, and Miranda has Overload, so it's redundant. Her other abilities are just too good.
Really, though, your squad setup is totally up to you. Just remember that you don't have anything to strip barriers with, so you should have someone with warp or reave. Grunt is also a great choice on husk missions, and as a general tank to send up the middle to disrupt the enemy. Yes, he'll generally get knocked out if you do this, so I don't recommend it in the initial stages of a battle, but it's a great distraction when you want to try to flank. Send him foward a bit, the enemy will shift focus to him somewhat, and you can cloak and flank.
Those are my suggestions, but who you use is up to you. Just try to pick squaddies that compliment your playstyle, and fill any gaps in your offensive arsenal.
Conclusion:
Hope this helps someone. It took me a long time to figure out that the guides out there for the infiltrator really didn't work for me, because of how I play the game. The guides themselves are great, don't think for a second that I'm trying to knock 'em. I actually picked up a few tips here and there that I was able to adapt to how I play. I just had to figure out how I best play, and I thought that I can't be the only one with trouble on the higher difficulties. So, here's my guide. Again, I hope it helps, and good luck!