Powers, Skill Trees and Active Abilities (Official Thread)

Six Classes were a good idea in theory but didn't fit all that well in the lore of the game. For instance, which class do Kaidan, Tali, Jacob, Legion, Jack, Javik, Samara and even ME1 Liara plus so many other NPCs fit in? They may have some Biotics, some Tech and some Combat but without respecting the restriction of the Six Classes. For this reason I don't really mind having this system abolished altogether.

Having said that, what I truly would like to see is a Role System. It doesn't matter how Biotic, Tech or Combat oriented you are; you should have a certain role to fulfill in the Squad. If there are no clear roles in the game, then eventually there is no true role other than the damage dealer, since all that counts is doing damage. In the campaign that may work, yet poorly so. Some characters are naturally designed to do more damage than others. In a cooperative Multiplayer mode it doesn't work at all. There is no reason not to play the very best in terms of damage and to inflict as much damage as possible.

I criticized Dragon Age Inquisition Multiplayer quite a bit, but I have to agree that having three basic roles, different approaches to perform each role as well as proper rewards to each one was a massive step in the right direction, coming from the DPS race that ME3 Multiplayer was. There are several Role-oriented Co-op shooters that the ME franchise could learn something from (Evolve in my opinion being the best example) and I hope they did learn something from.

Good pickups, it does look like a biotic sphere with 4 anchor points that traps the enemy, drags them to you and allows you to hold them suspended.

As a side note, the green turret symbol seems to indicate that it is currently in use.

I like the weight to effect the ability to run for more than whatever time. It was hilarious seeing Shepard with the forever run in ME3. I like to have done that when I was in the military.

What is this talk about 3 active power limit? Where did they say that they are applying something like that? Is it relevant to KB+M PC? The 8 power limit in DA:I was bullshit, no reason to limit the player like that except limitations of the crappy FB3. Limiting to 3 powers will make my blood boil, especially after in ME3 where I used the entire 8 hotkeys for Shepard only.

Was... this absent in ME3?

Indeed let's hope they do so again as that would worry me too.

I wouldn't be too sure about that... if remapping your powers on consoles is relatively simple and can be done at will, then they might as well cut it out on PC, and give players access to more powers right away. If, however, characters are limited to 3 active powers in general? Well, that would be a real step back from previous games.

The assault turret and the portable shield both have a dot, I don't see how these two can be "combo primers" though. :/

I just realized that we didn't try to put the skills into one of the tree categories: biotic, combat and tech.

Biotic: 1, 2, 12, 18
13 - the icon makes me think force push
9 - there is way too many tech skills, and this doesn't look like a combat skill.

Combat: 3, 4, 5, 17, 20
19 - there is way too many tech skills, and this doesn't look like a biotic skill.

Tech: 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16
14 - I don't see combat or biotic deal with a biohazard.

Going by the amount of tech skills and the fact that Overload, Sabotage and Combat Drone* haven't been shown despite being staple of Tech powers, I think we might get more than 10 skills per category. O_O

*Kinda shown, just not from the player.

You were using 8 skills in ME3 because the game granted you exactly 8 skills. All the classes had 6 actives, to which you had a bonus power and the Unity skill (medi-gel/revive). It was the same in ME1 might I add (it did allow you to hotkey squad powers though), ME2 had one less active skill per class though.

Also, some of those skills were ammo powers and ammo powers don't go in one of those 3 active skill slots in MEA. The other toggle skills (like Tech Armor), might also work differently, if they are even back. The Unity/medi-gel skills wasn't shown in the trailer, it probably has its own button now too (unless it is gone).

The PC will probably get to hotkey the ammo powers though.

The weight restriction was largely successful at allowing the player choice as to play style.  The only big problem I had with it was that it was too punishing for carrying multiple weapons.  I'd suggest that we should be able to buy into a passive that reduces weight by a flat amount per weapon so that Soldiers can go back to being the walking armouries we know and love if they want to.

I'm confident Omni-Shield will be in the game.

Generic enemies have omni-armor ffs