Is Ryder a more powerful biotic than Shepard?

My impression was floating was more a artifact of control than power. I mean shepard or ryder can lift some crazy heavy crap with biotics far heavier than themselves. For this particular point though its really just more of a reality of MEA added jetpacks to game play than anything else, if they added a ME4 with jetpacks with Shepard you can bet the biotic shepard would have biotic jetpacks.

It is because of Sam.

But RoboShepard would still kick Ryder's ass. Ryder can't even fire the real man's Claymore.

Yeah I wouldn't say it's Ryder being a more powerful biotic moer SAM enhancing Ryder's abilities and powers because as he tells you his true capabilities when yo ubecome Pathfinder he has the ability to enhance your powers and abilities as well as provide a quick analysis of the situation. For example the Asar i could only jump and fly around withtheir biotics is because they've learned and harnessed the ability to do so Humanity on the other hand in general hasn't yet but Sam has the ability to tap into that potential and help give Ryder these extra talents.  At least that's how I see it. Would Ryder eventually be able to learn to do these things for themselves possibly but it's as SAM says in the beginning he's there to provide an enhancement to the pathfinders abilities which after Habitat 7 is you which is why he calls you into the SAM node to explain.

Yes, I agree.  However, I'd like ot point out that Shepard is a powerful biotic because of the nature of his/her implant as well.  All human biotics rely on an implant in order to use their biotics.  The Asari can, apparently, use their biotics without the need of an implant.  I say, apparently, because Liara states this but is still equipped with a Biotic Amp in ME1 and her powers increase as you upgrade the Amp.  I'm not sure, if she has no implant, what the amp is interacting with to increase her abilities. IMO, SAM is merely part of a superior implant to the L5 one and he functions much like an amp.  The implant created by Ellen Ryder is superior BECAUSE it can make use of an AI, like SAM (as opposed to a regular amp), to enhance the subject's biotic abilities... in addition to enhancing tech and basic combat abilities at the same time.

Yeah. It’s just game systems. Was Shepard a more powerful biotic because he got 200% recharge rate boosts with light weapons. Was he more powerful because he had more active powers. Was he more powerful because level scaling allowed him to kill enemies with one biotic explosion where as with Ryder at high levels it takes 2.

If ME3 was open world with jet packs Shepard would be biotic jet packing as an adept just like how his shields were barriers as an adept.

Shepard was a soldier not a kid. MEA targeted teenagers.
Thats y it failed

Shepard is a cyborg zombie with optional ceramic bones, plastic-kinetic skin, and weave-integrated muscles. Because damnit, those upgrades in 2 are fun. Shepard also has top of the line alliance implants and gene therapy.

What I'm saying is neither of them are doing what they do without help.

...Anyway, my only reliable metric is that the best thing Shepard could punch to death was a harvester, whereas Ryder can punch an architect to death.

MISSED YOUR SHOT NOT LETTING ME VANGUARD CHARGE A REAPER BIOWARE

ME 1 DID, in fact, have cybernetics. They're Alliance Spec Force baseline. Not to the extent of ME2 Shep, obviously. But the implants and the interfaces are cybernetic in nature. As well as the gene therapy. Probably better stuff than Ryder, because Ryder is SIGNIFICANTLY younger and lower ranked than ME1 Shepard.

Now, Ryder may have hit their top potential as a biotic right in Andromeda, thanks to SAM. And Shepard may have continued improving throughout their life.

We don't know.

What I do know is that VanguardRyder was scarier than VanguardShepard. But I mean, what it comes down to is gameplay mechanics and speculation as to what Shepard could be capable of if in Andromeda.

...I, for one, vote for the return of the chair-whirlwind-singularity.

Yes?

Shepard has fancy bleeding-edge military hardware in his/her head, and Ryder has the AI buddy-brain.

And if we're comparing how they'd do biotically, without any enhancements, the answer is "Nothing." Because humans need a technological solution to rock the blue glow.

But with the toys they both have, Ryder can charge bigger things than Shepard can. We never really see Ryder OR Shepard pull off too many biotic feats in cut-scenes as opposed to gameplay, so eh.

I'm just saying.

If the question is "Who is the better biotic without hardware", the answer is Jack's varren.

Because Shepard and Ryder can do exactly the same thing without their respective implants. Which is bupkis. Now, if you want to throw caveats around like "Well, we can include Shepard's amps, but not Ryder's brain-buddy, oh, and gameplay doesn't count" to the point where you get the answer you want, peachy.

And since we never see Ryder Jr without SAM, and don't know what biotic implant they had before and how it stacks up against Shepard's Special Forces hardware, it's not like we have a baseline to measure against.

So I'm fairly happy with my "But what can I biotically punch to death" metric.

By any rational metric in that regard Shepard wins again. His charges, punches, biotic explosions had more impact in the game. Targeting capabilities due to open world design is not a metric of Ryder’s power. How effective it is vs enemies makes more sense. How quickly Shepard biotics would take out shielded merc, brutes etc was far faster than what Ryder could do against equivalent enemies. Add in Shepard’s biotic punch was hilariously awesome.

All of which is still silly because it’s just different game mechanics. Biotic explosions scaled far better in ME3 than andromeda. Not just Shepard’s but rando mp adept. 200% recharge rate vs 100%. You just had your biotic punch you didn’t equip a crap melee weapon without a heavy melee option. Everyone in the MW used global cool downs after ME1 andromeda individual cool downs. Open world Shepard would biotic charge a thresher maw. Just like you could foolishly try to melee one in ME1. Linear MW Ryder would have 200% cool downs but be on a global cool down and couldn’t charge anything off the “map”.