Powers, Skill Trees and Active Abilities (Official Thread)

That's why all this pre-game stuff is fun - because we can theory craft all we want.

From what I have seen in videos, I'll probably be making an ME1 style Biotic:

Maximum assault rifle damage + accuracy
Throw + pull + singularity
Biotic passives.
(And maybe some melee weapon skill)

Though I haven't looked into the skill tree in detail. This is just what popped in my head when I glanced it.

That's what I am taking the assault rifle damage + accuraccy for, but if that's not enough I might skip on throw or pull and get a grenade power instead.

Theorycrafting is done!

I'll probably switch between 2 profiles. The first profile is designed to strip away shields and focus on power, while the second is designed for f*cking sh*t up. I don't like having too many profiles, as then I'd have to spread out my points way too much, and it'll be difficult to switch to the appropriate profile.

Explorer: Overload (detonator), incinerate (primer AND detonator), annihilation field (primer)
The combination of these skills should allow me to strip enemy defenses and perform some combos from a safe distance. I don't know if i'll go with explorer, but I'm looking for a profile which boosts cooldowns and combo explosions.

Infiltrator: Charge, Nova and turbocharge
A weird combination, I know, but hear me out. I'm using the revenant. If I invest heavily in assault rifles, mod for accuracy and use the infiltrator profile which boosts stability, the revenant should be a lethal weapon from short to long range. And if someone is at an even longer range, I'll just charge, nova, and shotgun them. Turbocharge is there to help any situation from short range shotgun frenzy to long range sustained fire. I should be zip-zooping around everywhere on the field until my other powers have recharged and the switching between profiles begins anew.



I COULD make more profiles, as there are a LOT of very very interesting powers this time around. But as I said, I don't like to spread out my points too much. I like having a simple but effective battle plan, which is useable for any situation, instead of a bunch of battle plans for every situation.

No matter how you look at it, MEA really seems to have outdone itself in terms of combat options. I can honestly say I'm genuinely excited for the game! Bring on 23/03! (And the next combat video... Has it been confirmed when we can expect the profile gameplay teaser?)

I believe Annihilation slows you down and the speed boast upgrade nullifies some of that speed lost. I could totally be wrong though so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I think maybe you misread the text. You can look it up here: imgur.com/a/BZJ19

Basically Annihilation slows down the recharge speed of powers used while Annihilation is active. Annihilation can also be upgraded to boost running speed by 25%.

It looks like powers take much longer to recharge now so it's doubtful that you'll be able to spam that combo over and over to the same degree as you could in ME3, especially as Annihilation has a 'Power Recharge Penalty' attached to it as well.

Yes, we know that it slows down power recharge, but not to what degree that can be negated. See here imgur.com/a/BZJ19 or check out the gameplay video.

We also know that the cooldowns are longer across the board (e.g., Singularity is 24 seconds, Overload 15 sec baseline), and that weight reduction only provides a max of 100% cooldown bonus, not 200% like in ME3. To me this means that they're intentionally taking steps to reduce power spam -- even if we include inevitable reduction boosts from things like passives, armor, and profiles.

I do like that we're able to change abilities on the fly, or so I saw in the CES 2017 trailer.

through careful analysis of the video, i noticed a lot of the powers can become both primers and detonators if you evolve them further.
The following can become both, insofar that i've noticed:
- shield drain (originally detonator)
- incinerate (originally primer)
- shockwave (originally detonator)
- throw (originally detonator)
- overload (originally detonator)
- flamethrower (originally nothing, not 100% certain of this one)

while the following are (can become) primers:
- nova
- singularity
- annihilation field
- barricade (not originally)
- pull
- cryo beam (and trap)
- assault turret (not originally)

and these are (can become) detonators:
- charge
- concussive shot
- trip mine (not originally)
- lance


I'm not claiming this to be 100% accurate, I'm just writing what I saw in the video(s)  Enjoy!

Let's face it, for those who have issue with the 3 powers, each has an individual cool down and we'd be too OP.

If they are showing abilities in an abilities and weapons gameplay video, they better damn well be finalized.