Andromeda MP?

In the good ole days you could just run right up and punch/headbutt everything to death. None could stand in your way. I think ME: A was originally made to be a fighting game....especially seeing how the guns didn't move health bars.

Only the first ten character cards really matter. After that, the boosts only really benefit certain kinds of characters; Vanguards benefit the most.

And yes, the 'lootpocalypse' is utter crap. We didn't need all the single player weapon mods in the multiplayer game, nor did we need three extra variants of every weapon, all of which are extremely out of place with the way technology works.

The Asari Adept (uncommon) and Human Commando (Rare) give the closest experience to ME3MP, but that's not really saying much, other than both being horde mode tps, the actual gameplay/playstyle is massively different. Too much changed for ME3 vets. Most of the "positive" (towards) MEAMP camp are not ME3BSNers, but a totally new breed, all the ME3MPBSNers have gone back to ME3, with little actual cross-over, I think this in itself tells a lot about how different the games actually are.

 Ok, lets see, yes, the majority of ME3MP BSNers are PC players (or multi-platform PC convertees), surprisingly enough, they tend to make alt accounts and re-grind the manifest, so no, I don't feel that the manifest grind would significantly change their opinion of MEAMP, the problem is the underlying changes to the way the game itself plays. EDIT: In fact, it's quite often been said by ME3MP players that "they wouldn't even mind the manifest bloating if the game itself was fun to play" which I find is quite telling, MEAMP players complain about the manifest bloating, and praise the game itself, where ME3MP players see it in reverse.

I'm not trying to turn anybody against either, I agree with you with them chosing what they want, though it is unfair to compare MEAMP to ME3MP as they are quite different to play.

I mostly play ME:A MP, on PC only. I still play ME3 MP occasionally. It is still fun, and the powers on each character are well balanced. I have a maxed manifest in ME3 MP, and over 1,400 hrs in each ME3 and ME:A MP game. I also play Warframe and Rocket League regularly, and I have played a number of other coop/PVE/PVP games over the years.

I like ME:A MP better than ME3 MP overall. It is not as glitchy, and the parkour is a little smoother (on PC). Having said that, neither game meets my expectations for a good multiplayer coop game. They both have connection issues related to the Frostbite and the Origin network. Both games can become unplayable if one of the 4 team members has a bad connection, especially if they are the host. As others have mentioned, the grind in ME:A MP sucks, especially when the RNG gives you variants of weapons you will never use.

Currently I am playing more Warframe than ME:A MP. Warframe is a much better coop MP game; the parkour is great, there are hundreds of frame and weapon choices, and connection issues are minimal. Warframe now has an open world component (Plains of Eidolon) as well as standard missions in many different locations. To tell the truth, though, I am bored with all of these games; I would love to find a new coop game that was fun to play.

TL;DR I am looking for something better than any of the games mentioned so far...

The Asari Adept is the MEAMP version of the ME3MP N7 Fury. Annihilation, Throw, and Lance. She is indeed a kit that can self-detonate biotic explosions.

On the very rare character end of things, you have the Human Kineticist, who not only has Pull, Throw, and Lance, she gets a massive power up from killing things with biotic explosions.

How's that?

Not true. Try Havoc and Infiltrator with double Incinerate, Stickies and Frags.
They benefit only from power damage bonus, true, but for kits that have those powers it's enough.
Test it your self.

Okay but "certain characters benefit the most" is something quite different than "really only benefits certain characters" imho...

I don't disagree, but there's a saying quite pertinent to this, "Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, and tell me which one fills up first."

And perhaps we shouldn't forget that powers are powers. By this I mean that for - say - HSol, Concussive Shot and Frag Grenade both get significant damage increases between X and XX. The same goes for Concussive Shot's detonation values. As for melee damage, which HSol obviously also receives bonuses for, I would say that - although I've never done so - HSol can be specced for melee in both Munitions Training and Combat Fitness.

So all in all, my bet is that Veteran Bonuses more or less benefit all characters in the game, with maybe a few characters benefiting a little more...

exactly - as soon as frag grenades got that last buff I made a frag grenade human soldier powers based and that thing wrecks on plat especially on the right map and/or with the right team strat (camping to funnel enemies so frag grenade can do the most possible work, murder alley on zero, etc).

Veteran ranks in that build really make that thing a beast but again people think "Soldier" and then automatically spec it to max out weapon damage which is perfectly reasonable.  To me this is why we have 2 humans: I can make 1 weapon based and the other powers based and get some variety.