Active abilities in ME:A (Updated)

I've never been a huge fan of playing magic users, but some people really enjoy DD's magic - maybe you didn't get far enough to unlock the really big spells.



DD Sorcerors are very powerful, but they're also a little slow and it takes some time to cast the really big spells.

You know it's strange, but after all of the play I have done for consoles, which has those limits to about 6-8 abilities per game for the most part, I just don't notice it.

I also don't see it as forgetting something to use something else, really. You still "know" the ability, you are simply choosing not to use it at a given time.

More like you're forced to.

For every page this thread achieves, I still can’t comprehend the reason why, with let’s say 50 powers to unlock, you should be forced to use only 3 at a time. I mean, what’s the point in having so many to unlock then?
Wouldn’t have been better to have abilities with multiple branch in which to invest? It would have been quite more enjoyable, simpler and less confusing: let’s say the turret power has one branch for shield replenishing, one branch for flamethrower, one branch for passive damage bonus, one branch for rocket launcher and one branch for a short-range overload. Decide where to prioritize, invest points and build a turret that from tissue paper becomes a bastion.
This could have been interesting and wouldn’t have caused the sh*storm growing in this thread.
A 3 power system, if confirmed, seems detrimental for the enjoyment of combat in ME:A and in any case would be a gigantic step back from the combat system of ME trilogy. It would force you to focus on the most faceplanting combos, killing variety and number of possible builds: it would make gameplay grow stale faster and also, after achieving the most faceplanting combos, you would have zero motivation in unlocking more powers.

I’m all for the challenge and the grow of the character: if in ME:A, we must “earn” our powers slots via passives or particular objectives in the story, I would be ok with that! It would be fine: you grow more powerful the more you play. This would make sense: something like the specializations in DAII, where you obtained new classes progressing the adventure.
Again, I would be ok with something like that…
Being forced to play with 3 powers at a time over 40/50 because of a game mechanic which makes at the moment zero sense, would pisses me off.

Your numbers there are a little... hyperbolic.

Throughout the trilogy, you really never had more than 5-6 powers per class, anyway (excluding bonus powers and places you could sink talent points that would provide other bonuses). There will probably still be some passive skill point sinks. And I think I saw somewhere that types of ammo won't be considered "powers" anymore, but will be available via some other control mechanism.

Add the new mobility capabilities (jet packs, non-sticky cover), and it might not feel like we've lost very much.

I mean 40/50 powers to be unlocked across all classes in total.
Noone would be able to map 40/50 powers even on a keyboard, xD
In ME3, we have 50 powers across all classes (passive powers for every class included), with 8 slots to be assigned for character + unity power. I really don’t understand why, having I suppose more or less the same number of powers in ME:A, should we be forced to only 3 slots at the same time.
Let's even remove the slots for ammo powers and unity for discussion sake (we know ammo powers will not be available in ME:A) : it still makes 5/6 slots of useful powers to be used…

I'm nitpicking here but there has never been any difference between gamepad and k+m in in terms of available abilities in ME or DA. The only difference was in the number of abilities you could hotkey, which is obviously higher on a keyboard. On console you still had access to all of your abilities via the power wheel.

DAI was the first game in which you couldn't access all of your unlocked abilities during combat, and that was the same on gamepad as it was on k+m. It's a deliberate gameplay design that Bioware seems to be implementing in MEA, despite the complaints about that aspect of DAI.

About the whole power forgetting thing, it appears you can swap out powers on the fly, going by the latest video. Likely not in combat, but that's to be expected. That mitigates it, I think. I feared being locked to three powers per mission with only being able to swap on the ship. That would've moronic. As it stands it's not terrible. A profile quickswap a la GW2 would also mitigate the rest of it but I'm not sure if that'll be the case.

Funny, I saw a lot of people bitching in the youtube comments of the video how swapping profiles on the fly was OP.  Birds go chirp, cows go moo, youtube comments are retarded.

yeah I've seen that too.

I just hope that I'm wrong about the Mouse 1 being mapped to Power 1, mouse 2 - power 2, mouse 3 power 3.

Which would mean that now everyone is essentially a soldier.   Or rather, no more complex than a soldier.  I have a problem with that.

I'm at a solid "meh" about it. I'm actually thinking back to ME1- I only effectively have 3 offensive powers as an Infiltrator anyway. The fourth is weapon based (Assassinate/Marksman) and the other three are defensive (shield boost, immunity, unity). The defensives could be streamlined/put in passives and the weapon power could be a separate thing as well.

We'll see how it flows. MP managed to work out and we all know this is because everyone loves MP but it's debatable they know why.

The video also answered my question about how class bonuses were going to apply. I rather like my dynamic idea a bit more than just choosing a profile but this way's fine too.

Fair enough. But if you want my casters, we'll have to go to MP since I only have the one infilShep.

Fav class (probably even more than MP infiltrators) is Fury. Three powers, I feel like a god, unless there's lag. Justicar- a little slower but still awesome. The only one that's a little stilted out of my regular lineup is the Collector because of the orbs. That's what I mean about flow.

Would my Fury be that much more awesome with singularity and shockwave? Ehh, not really. It'd be nice to have. But it's not ruined.

That being said, I think the real difference is the MP classes are prepackaged combos of powers that work really well one or two ways. If I was building an adept from scratch would I build a Fury, if I didn't know what that is? Maybe not, and maybe then I might feel restricted.