What did you do today in ME?

Early game, each class is about in the same situation: poor equipment, few powers, long cooldowns. It's more noticeable on the higher difficulties.

Early game weapon-focused classes tend to use their best abilities right away and as often as possible (Immunity, weapon-specific powers). For the powers-focused classes, you need to use your powers more situationally instead of spamming them.

Adept especially is kind of weird early, since you start with Warp, Throw, Barrier, and possibly a bonus talent. Warp can be useful, but is not seemingly as useful as Throw. And Throw is kind of weak compared to Lift and Singularity although it still has its uses.

Generally on Eden Prime, you will mostly just use your Pistol to shoot and kill, occasionally use Throw when some enemies (mostly husks) get too close, and use Warp to debuff some tougher enemies like Geth Shock Trooper or the one Geth Destroyer. Barrier is best as a quick shield boost early. Later game, you can spam Barrier like you would Immunity.

My recommended outline:
1. Eden Prime (of course)

2. Citadel priority missions: (a) See Harkin, if you don't mind dealing with the two assassins (otherwise go see Barla Von and get Wrex first), ( Med clinic fight, (c) Chora's Den/Fist/Tali.

Enter Chora's Den by staying at the door and pistol-snipe everything; you probably do this anyway with most classes. Exit Chora's Den with the same strategy; you should have plenty of time and no Krogan to worry about. Tali's fight is the hardest since you can get sabotaged. Just stay behind the left-hand box and take your time since there is no time limit. 

3. Do all the extra Citadel missions. If you have all XP bonuses for completing the game already, you should be able to leave at level 11 or 12 (I forget which).

4. Go to Edolus to look for Kahoku's men. Kill the Thresher Maw. You earn -50% XP if you kill in the Mako, so if you want to squeek out a little more XP early, step out of the Mako to finish off enemies on foot.

5. Go to Gemini Sigma and do the mission on the freighter with the life support guy and his crazy biotic girlfriend (I forget if it's in the Han or Ming system). It's only one enemy so more easy XP.

6. Go to Hawking Eta and deal with Major Kyle. If you have been spending points into Charm or Intimidate, you should have enough by this point to resolve it peacefully. So easy XP. There is also a Thresher Maw (more easy XP) and some scavengers. Scavengers should be easy if you just kill them with the Mako guns and cannon. Again, easy XP.

7. If you really want more XP before you head to recruit Liara (which I recommend you do first before Feros or Noveria), then you can do the following:
- scan/survey all clusters for stuff (planets and asteroids for minerals, medalians, data discs, and writings)
- 3 of the Armstrong Cluster planets (Geth Incursion); since you can do 3 of the first 4 planets without getting out of the Mako, that's some good XP with less death risk. The 4th planet (with husks) is not good early; best to save it until you have better equipment and more talent points.
-Argos Rho > Hydra(?) > Metgos. Geth Ambush, don't need to get out of the Mako, so fairly easy XP.

8. Therum (recruit Liara).
a. First half is mostly in the Mako. As mentioned earlier, you can boost your XP a little by getting out of the Mako to finish enemies off. You don't have to do it with all enemies.

b. Second half is on foot. Save your game when you first get on foot, and after every enemy encounter. Don't be afraid to take it slow. Snipers will kill you and you are not safe behind all cover.

c. Armature fight: At the very beginning, order your squadmates to the left (to the other side of the structure on your left) and run there yourself. The Armature and Geth snipers cannot hit you from here, and the Geth hoppers are forced to move into your line of sight to shoot at you.

Pick off the hoppers one at a time. If they aim at you (green or red laser lines), aim at them and use a power (your power(s) or a squadmate's power) to stop them.

When you finish with the hoppers, move back to the big box. Take crouching cover on the box and take out the snipers first. Move to the center of the box if the Armature or Geth starts to fire at you (big blue energy buildup on the Armature, or red laser from a sniper). You can be killed if you are sticking to one side instead of the middle when they fire at you.

d. Inside the mines: either take it slow, or run fast to deal with the first Geth. From there, try to stay out of the line of sight from the other Geth. In the next part, take cover from the drones. 

e. The next fight after talking with Liara can be sometimes be hard. Basically, you can kill a few guys will still staying up on the scaffolding. If you go down below, take out the Shock Trooper(s) first. They will advance on you. Use Throw or Singularity/Pull (if you have it) to keep them from killing you. If you see red lasers, that is sniper so take cover. Keep moving in a circular motion to avoid rockets from Rocket Troopers.

f. Krogan Battlemaster fight: I saw someone point out once that the Krogan Battlemaster will run and hide out of the way if you do not attack him right away. So if you avoid hitting him, you can take out all the Geth first (try to avoid using some powers right away, just in case), then you can deal with just him. If he gets close, he will try to melee you like other Krogan do, so keep backing up if you need to survive.

The Krogan Battlemaster is immune to Basic Throw, and I think Basic Singularity? So Lift (yours and/or Kaiden's) and Neural Shock (Kaiden) is good for keeping him under control. Warp will also debuff him (he will take more damage), so try to use that when his shields are gone. 


* * *
I recommend Therum before Feros or Noveria since you need more and better powers to deal with Rachni and Benezia fights, and the Thorian Creeper zombie rush more easily. Plus Feros is best left later if you want to persuade Jeong (requires 12 Charm, 10 Intimidate).

Adept is weakest against the drone on Luna (Rogue VI mission). Take tech squadmates there. Run in, shoot, then back to the door and deal with them from the end of a long hallway. Overload, Sabotage, and AI Hacking work best on this mission.

Other than that, you will get used to it and you will get better as you level up and get better equipment.

It still boggles my mind I am still learning that there are scenes I have never even thought were a possibility even after so many playthroughs. The second video in particular, impressed me about Kaidan.

As far as I know, Firewalker has been there since the beginning, free with the Cerberus Network.  Maybe you didn't have it downloaded / weren't logged in to the network on your previous playthrough(s)?

Maybe he blotted it out of his mind.  Kind of a crap mission, though it's important for the role play of my current run.

I was seriously worried I had completely forgotten this mission somehow but now I can see its 3 or 4 missions and the Firewalker armour turned up in my inventory for the first time I am not so worried that I am going crazy 

I saw online that others have had issues with it not showing up and it was mostly to do with registering DLC or old BSN accounts. My only guess is that I must have only ever have played it from disc and somehow not "activated" the DLC but I am just guessing. 

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Citadel: Silversun Strip - Party Like It's 2199



Horsehead Nebula: Cronos Station

I am guessing it has something to do with me playing ME2 from disc when it was released and then not playing it again till I after I had bought the game on Origin which must have come with the DLC. Been chatting with some people and they were all how did you do Overlord if you didn't do Firewalker to get the Hammerhead, simple answer was it was just there in the garage of the first building you go to IIRC !!!!!!

William Shepard started the day shutting down a facility that had been taken over by an insane VI, another step in discovering the source of the rogue mech's we found with the crashed spaceship a couple of days ago. It was pretty straight forward with a few puzzles to solve but the dead bodies everywhere were a bit disconcerting.

Then off to recruit The Krogan Okeer with Garrus and Zaeed, discovered a Blue Suns training camp that were using Krogan created by Okeer for live fire training. They quickly realised we were there and got organised but a group of merc's and the some crazy Krogan weren't going to stop Will, Zaeed and Garrus. When we finally got to Okeer he explained and showed us a "pefect" Krogan soldier he created but as we were planning to leave "Jadore" the mercenary leader decided to flood the lab with toxic gas. Whilst we took Jadore and the rest of her merc's out of the game Okeer gave his life to secure the pod containing his super soldier for transport.

Then got a call from TIM who said he'd identified the next human colony to be hit by the Collectors Horizon. Unknown to Will at the time TIM had leaked to the council that Shepard was alive and heading there so that they'd send Kaidan as an ex crew mate there and that would lure the Collectors there.

So off to Horizon, where Will took Garrus and Mordin with him. He figured Mordin should be accountable for his experimental new armour mod for stopping the Seeker swarms. When we arrived there was a huge Collector ship and a large Collector presence, the squad fought through to the tower controlling the non-functioning Anti-ship guns and asked EDI to get to work recalibrating them but the squad then had to fight off new waves of Collectors which they did until the guns were online and hitting the collector ship. The ship left and Kaidan arrived!!!!!!

It was great to see Kaidan again but he was clearly alarmed that Will was with Cerberus, the discussion didn't end well and Will was quite distressed by it. Back on The Normandy Will debriefed with TIM and then went and had a chat with Jack who has decided she wants to Nuke the Cerberus facility she was raised in, Will was onboard, he's always liked some fireworks

Got a call from Admiral Hackett about doing a solo rescue of a long time colleague and friend of Hackett's from some Batarians. Will was uncertain about going alone into a Batarian compound but confident in his abilities and with an opportunity to help and hopefully help Admiral Hackett he was eager for the challenge. Will decided to continue his recruitment tour first though and headed off to recruit Tali and found her in a dire situation on a planet whose sun melts your shields and surrounded by Geth. This was (finally) a challenging combat scenario and Garrus and a newly awakened Grunt had fun taking down a huge assortment of Geth, finally fighting there way to Tali who agreed to join Will reluctantly on his Cerberus mission to stop the Collectors.

Today Will needs to go through all the outstanding missions he has and prioritise what to do next having had both Miranda and Jacob also drop personal mission requests on him on top of Hackett and Jack's requests. Never a dull day in Commander Shepard's life!!!!!

Couple of Pic's

Our new squad mate



This guy and his ship





My two favourite Quarian's

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 cont'd:

Normandy

Shepard went around the ship and checked in with everyone, seeing if they needed anything before the final battle. Everyone realized that the end was in sight, so there was some reminiscing to go along with the pep talks. Diana Allers revealed that Bekenstein, her home colony, had been destroyed by the Reapers when captured the Citadel. Tali was in the main battery visiting Garrus. Shepard had suspected those two had been growing closer and was happy for them.

Admiral Hackett came aboard to discuss tactics with the commander, after broadcasting a speech to the fleets to rally the troops.

Admiral Anderson joined by vidcom. The plan was that Shepard would lead ground forces to the location of some sort of beam in London that the Reapers had set up to transport people to the Citadel. Meanwhile, the fleets would screen the Crucible long enough to get into position, ready to attach to the Citadel when Shepard's forces reached the station and opened the ward arms.

Local Cluster: Earth - Stand Strong. Stand Fast. Stand Together.

The fleets came through the Sol relay and punched a hole through Reaper defences so that the ground forces could reach Earth. As always, Shepard took Liara and Tali in her squad. They destroyed ground based cannons that were guarding London so that the remaining troops could land and rendezvous at Anderson's forward operations base. There was a close call as Steve tried to provide air support and was forced into a crash landing, but he survived and got to safety.

They met up with Anderson and headed for the FOB.

At the base, Shepard checked in with each member of her squad. Everyone could sense that the end was close, and Shepard knew that they would do her proud, no matter what happened. She was also able to communicate by vidcom with friends fighting elsewhere – Jack and her students, Samara, Grunt and the rest of the old crew.

Liara said she had a “gift” for Shepard, and they joined minds, like they had back when chasing Saren.

Anderson briefed everyone on the mission to reach the “beam”. The long and short of it was they'd have to fight past an army of Reaper ground forces and a Destroyer. Missile batteries would assist with taking out the Destroyer – it was hoped – but they'd be fighting the rest on foot.

Shepard gave her crew one last pep talk, reminding them that they'd made it this far together, and they could depend on each other to get them rest of the way.

Shepard took Liara and Tali in her squad. They battled what felt like hundreds of husks, cannibals, marauders, brutes, banshees (and one harvester) across the no-mans land of what was left of London.

They reached the missile batteries, and the Reaper Destroyer which stood between them and the beam. The first two – of four total – missiles missed due to interference from the beam. In what was a hellish fight, they managed to draw the Destroyer away from the beam, dodging fire from it's main gun while also fighting Reaper ground troops.

They were finally able to fire the remaining missiles, which hit the target and finished off the Destroyer. Anderson arrived in a Mako shortly after (perfect timing, Admiral).

They received word that a group of Sovereign class Reapers – including Harbinger – had broken off from the battle in Earth orbit and were heading to the site of the beam. They'd have to hurry. The Mako crashed short of the beam, and they were faced with a wide open field that they'd have to cross on foot while trying to avoid fire from Harbinger, who'd joined the party and was defending the beam.

They made a run for the beam, but halfway across Liara was wounded and Shepard called the Normandy to evacuate her and Tali. They didn't want to leave – Shepard knew they both would have stuck by her side no matter what, but she wanted them to get to safety.

Shepard resumed her run to the beam, but before she reached it she was hit by a shot from Harbinger. She was able to stand, barely, and saw Harbinger leave the battle. Did it think the job was done? Everything seemed to have a surreal, dream-like quality. The effect of her wounds, presumably.

She staggered to the beam, taking out a few husks and a marauder that tried to stop her, using a pistol she'd picked up off the ground (she lost her weapons when she was hit by Harbinger). She entered the beam, and re-emerged in some dark dark. She heard Anderson's voice calling her over the radio; evidently he'd followed her to wherever they were – the Citadel, they assumed, but Anderson pointed out it looked more like Shepard's description of the Collector base. They'd have to try and find a way to open the ward arms so the Crucible could attach.

To be continued...

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME3 conclusion:

Citadel – The “Catalyst”



Epilogue - “Did that all really happen?”

So yesterday William went to Illium, main motivation AR upgrades and there is just so much to do there he thought it better to get on with it.

So Will arrived and was pleasantly surprised Liara had taken care of port fees etc. Will then headed straight to the bar and had several drinks with Tali and Garrus, listened to an Asari and Turian talk reltionships, need to ask Tali if she has the stimulation upgrade installed in her suit Spoke at length to the Asari matriarch (she really reminds of someone ) then wandered over and listened to salarian protesting that he wss being given a bucks party.

Then off to see Liara, did a quest hacking terminals for her and eventually helped her discover her assistant was spying on her. Then headed off to recruit Thane which was fun (pushed the merc out the window for the first time ) but I really wish Tali would stop saying "Poop" in combat!!!!!

Then headed off to recruit Samara, shot Elnora point blank my but concern is Will's renegade streak is starting to really show out. Took care of all the Eclipse merc's. and their gunship then took out Wasea and found the ship name for Samara.

I really like the detective in this story, Annea I think it is. She is quite down to earth and a bit rough around the edges which is at odds with most Asari characters. Anyway stuffed and chose the wrong response to Anneaa and had to go back and do the final mission again so I could hand over the evidence to her for re Elnora and Pitne For.

Also helped out a resident of Feros, got a message from The Rachni Queen which was kinda weird and helped an indentured servant (Quarian) get a better job to get out of debt.

A few pic's

Illium



Recruited this guy and told Jacob to "Back Off"



Met a Biotic God



Samara takes her vows seriously