Your preferred Character Progression in the next future Mass Effect game

In part because you run out of powers to take before your even a quarter of the way through the game. 

I can play through ME1 something like 3 times before I max out a single class, how far can you get in MEA, just putting points in 3 class abilities and passives before you reach your effective level cap, 17-19 something like that?   IIRC by the time I was on Kadara i had 3 profiles with 3 maxed powers, my main class passives all full up and about 8 level points I couldn't be arsed to assign.   If the game isn't designed for single class play, it isn't balanced or paced for single class play.  

Don't have the game installed at the minute, but isn't it something like 21 points to max out a tree 1+2+3+4+5+6 and 5 character points a level?  Ignoring the points you start with, to max out 3 skills is only level 13.  2 passives makes for another 8 levels?

The profile system seemed ok at first, but after a while I came to dislike it. The class is useful to help forge a sense of identity, especially if the game recognizes it through unique dialogue as past BioWare games have sometimes done. It also gives people more of a reason to replay the game, something I think MEA failed at in multiple ways (lack of diverging paths, lack of dialogue variety, no class system, no choices who joins squad / remains in squad / lives / dies).

Nope, you are getting me wrong. I just showed that you can play without going to a fourth power till level 54 - if you want. Let's say you want to play a ME3 Adept. 7 active powers, 2 passives. In MEA you also level up gun abilities again (like in ME1), so that's one more and only in the Biotic tree alone you have three passives, another one more. So that's 11x21 points before you would have to do something that's "out of class" in comparison to ME3 - and even that wouldn't be true because there are more biotic abilities.

11x21=231 points. So you need to get to level 44 (gives you 234 points) to be able to max your adept out. That's more than enough to play through most of the game (well past the main arc for subsequent playthroughs). If you count the additional 2 biotic abilities available, you could easily level up further in your biotic class (and ironically we are nearly back at my 14x21 example from before). The highest rank I ever got to was 55 and the last few runs I finished the main arc between level 20-30 because I like the pacing that way much more.

I think the new system has a lot of charm, mixing and matching how one wants, and because I played a lot of ME3MP the last four to five years, it was easy for me to a) pick combinations that sync well and be fine with only three active powers. In any one combat situation I don't think you need more than three powers, but depending on the ones you choose, you might need other powers in other situations - which is where the favorites come into place. So I think that the MEA team responsible for the combat did an extremely well job.

But: I understand that compared to the SP in the trilogy, no class restrictions, only three active powers at any time (when you for example could control ten plus if you count the squadmates as an Adept in ME3), no power wheel, no squadmate control is a lot of change at once.

So maybe they could put some restrictions back in (though storywise it doesn't make much sense to change a lot if we see Ryder again). I'm not a fan of no level cap and I also wouldn't have a problem if someone who starts with say a Soldier specialization can't pick every (or any) biotic ability. But as an Engineer or Sentinel type player I would like to pick and choose between all powers that could be associated with these or for example the transition between Adept and Vanguard should be flawless. I mean, why shouldn't an Adept be able to train the main Vanguard ability biotic charge? Maybe there is a lore reason I'm not aware of, but that seemed always strange to me.

I am aware of the idea behind the classes, but I'm saying that I don't see a lore (story) reason why an Adept protagonist shouldn't be able to train to become a Vanguard, so I wouldn't want such a restriction in future games.

We are talking about future games here. But you may be right - that I'm lucky - because going back to the strict class systems seems like too much backwards thinking for a developer.

Maybe a flawless transition between the classes that have common denominators could be a compromise - if they want to change something.

Understood. I don't have a solution of the top of my head right now (how to combine both systems into a better one for the future), but I'll think about it. The main problem to fit both in a meaningful way together of course is that they went basically to a live action combat system from the let's call it "pause and plan"-system we had before. In a live action combat system to also have squadmate control probably seemed like too much to do at the same time.

I think you hit the nail on the head there Traks with a lot of this being routed in the fast paced game play, but sadly I think this sort of thing is intractable.  

Either the levelling system, enemies and the companions are designed and balanced around a single class protagonist with a limited pool of powerful abilities, or a multi-class protagonist with a large pool of weaker powers.   The same holds true for the tactical controls, either the AI decision making and overall difficulty is designed  to counter a powerful player, or a less powerful player backed up by a highly coordinated team.  If you left the difficulty/AI where it is now and gave us full squad control over their movement, attacks and power usage (and outfitting?), the game would be laughably easy, if you upped the AI to deal with a MET style squad, players who don't use them fully would be quickly overwhelmed.  

It would be great if they could find the best of both worlds, but it doesn't look likely to me and given that the one positive they seem to be taking away from MEA is the combat and character customisation (even if that's not what the polls here are showing)... I am doubtful over it returning to the way it was. 

Well that "backwards thinking" class system combined with control of squadmate powers is what set ME apart from other FPS shooters.

Some people really value the ability to play a game that supports and rewards them for strategic, tactical decision-making in combat instead of pure reactive action gaming.

If this poll is any indication, quite a few players also prefer that "backwards thinking", because returning to the MET class system is ahead by quite a wide margin.