What did you do today in ME?

Cmdr. Commander Shepard did some more shenanigans than just falling down the bottomless pit of a... perfectly sturdy support beam.

He got himself a bungalow on Intei'sei which the sequel will forget about.
He gave batarian terrorists free bullets until they died. Also some miners blew up sadly.
He was a jerk to Ashley because he wants to get with the racist three-fingered engineer instead. He heard she pounces.
He didn't kill Wrex. Every other krogan did though.
Thresher Maws are best circlestrafed. Tanks are a liability. Surprisingly, neither Shepard nor Wrex bring that up to Uvenk.
Obligatory lava baths were had on Therum. I guess Garrus does get a chance to be hot.
He didn't save the Council, he saved the civilians who had the misfortune to be trapped in that tin with them.
And finally...
He realised too late that his absurd facetanking abilities were retconned out of existence as a Collector ship put him in a two-year long coma.

Now he waits for... my 360 to connect to Xbox Live. Probably a server-side error on hardware. The XB1's emulator doesn't let you grab the save files, and I want that Paragon Conrad scene.

From the past few days:

- On Omega, signed up as cannon fodder in order to recruit the next squad mate. Elly stopped a young man from making a mistake, hacked some mech and Cathka took a little nap.
- Picked up a turian vigilante called Archangel, who - to Elly's surprise - was none other than Garrus. Even though she starts to like the Cerberus crew on the ship, she's happy there's someone she can trust. Too bad Garrus took a rocket to the face.
- Went to a prison ship called Purgatory and picked up the meanest biotic ever, Jack. She wanted files on Cerberus and Elly promised she'd get access, much to Miranda's dismay.
- Next up was saving a Cerberus operative, but he was already dead. Elly uploaded the data she found to the Alliance.
- Gave Aria a datapad and became krantt for the Patriarch afterwards.
- Went to recruit another team member for the cause, but didn't leave with Okeer, as planned. Instead, his tank-bred perfect krogan was brought to the Normandy. Despite the warnings from Miranda and Jacob, Elly opened the tank and welcomed Grunt to the team after a small hassle.
- Was sent to Horizon by the Illusive Man. Collectors abducted the majority of the colony, and Kaidan was also there. Elly was scared he was taken too, but fortunately, that was not the case. He appeared after a huge Collector fight and Elly was so happy to see him. To her disappointment, things did not go as well as she'd expected and Kaidan mistrusted her a great deal. Elly was hurt, and back on the Normandy retreated to her cabin to think about what had happened while looking at Kaidan's picture. Then she had a couple drinks in the lounge (Kasumi didn't seem to mind ). Elly might have thrown up behind the scenes before she sank into her bed completely exhausted.

Pics


For once Horizon actually went very well. The spaceport fight is one of my biggest nemeses, but everything was fine! Even the idiotic squad mates didn't die! I ran around in big circles dealing with the husks while every now and then I sent a drone towards the Scions to keep them busy, it was pretty funny

Commander logging back in.

The krogan he wanted to recruit poisoned himself to save his vat-grown son, who named himself Grunt.
Grunt was persuaded to join up because Collectors are apparently a strong enemy.
It's been a busy time, so the cliff notes.
Some scared little girl playing at all-powerful bitch reluctantly joined up. She misinterpreted Commander's attempts at earnest friendship as courtship, and got a bit envious of the quarian.
Harbinger is the biggest simp for Kasumi. The biggest simp. Even bigger of a simp than she is for Jacob. All she needs to do is flash him and he'll stand there and let himself be shot. (seriously, flashbang grenades are so broken against Harbinger that if ME3MP had them the Collectors would be the easiest enemy.)

Jacob's dad is a nutter and a predator. He got mauled by the savages he created.
Adam Baldwin put on a suit and shot missiles at a giant enemy robot. It was not in the weak point, so Commander needed to do the massive damage instead.
Commander took the old mercenary and the baby krogan and killed a giant woooooorrrrmmm! Aside from impressing Marcus Fenix, it also impressed a lot of krogan. Commander had a few words with Wrex for not mentioning all the other Maws they killed on foot.
Tali was accused of treason. Captain Shepard absolutely did not care for that, and killed more robots before shouting at politicians. Don't trust the Intergalactic Economic Forum, kids! She decided right then and there she was going to get her Kirk on with this human. She always preferred aliens anyway.
Commander meets up with his original blueberry friend who saved his life, goes on an escapade where he kills a Spectre and makes his friend the Shadow Broker. The fare meter domed Tela with a 20th century penny - even in death, Queen Elizabeth II is immortal.
Mordin found a guy named Maelon who was doing science stuff. He killed all of Maelon's friends, stole his notes, and blew up his lab.
The crazy biotic lady was all traumatised and stuff. Commander wanted any excuse to blow up Cerberus' stuff. It was a match made in Mordin's best guess. Salarians don't generally understand pairbonding unless asari are involved.
Harbinger is still a gigantic simp for Kasumi, and refuses to attack when flashed by her. Her OnlyReapers account is now more profitable than Cerberus. Commander gets a better sniper rifle that actually kills people in one hit when he clicks on their heads.

Miranda has a twin clone sister. This twin doesn't share her unique facial model, instead using the same generic engine that custom FemSheps and most other female humans use. Weird.
A shapely Justicar can be seen defeating many mercenaries who would have beat her handily if it wasn't a cutscene. At least she's helpful in combat, with a solid assault rifle/biotic crowd control combo.
The world's worst assassin joins the team for no reason other than Commander wanted more space petrol for his ship. Despite the cutscene's billing, it is in fact the thief who can sneak up and assassinate people, while the assassin has no hand-to-hand ability whatsoever. Shredder rounds also suck fat throbbing veiny ones: Incendiaries do the same thing better, also work on armour, stun unprotected organics too, and can be used by Soldiers, Vanguards, Jacob, and Grunt. This guy managed to trouble Kai Leng? Seriously? I call bullshit. At least he can prime and detonate biotic explosions and has a good passive. Still not an assassin's skillset. (If Thane's character wasn't so good, I would unironically leave him to be killed by Nassana Dantius... he's tailor-built to be a lower difficulty crutch who drops off hard on Hardcore and Insanity. Kind of like a meta-Jagen.)
The Justicar's daughter is actually a space succubus. Commander has her loyalty power. Him knowing it makes no sense in-universe, but he does anyway. Because he's Commander Shepard. The space succubus dies, because her mum's way more interesting a character in the sequel.
Techno Turian is the hardest boss in the entire game, and his very presence makes saving Kolyat harder than a Platinum solo. I somehow manage to do it without loading my save. He's almost as cool as Dancing Vorcha.

Turns out that not all robots are evil. A not-evil robot with 1183 geth running inside it joins the Normandy crew. Together, they make an individual, and his name is Legion, for he is many. As fitting as it is ironic.
Many many evil robots are blown up. Kirk'Zorah vas Normandy considers legally changing her Christian name to fit her mentality around hot alien blokes with stupid Christian names.
The squad wisely escape the Normandy in time for the Collectors to attack. While rescuing most of your squad during the suicide mission would have been a fun idea, there's no lore reason for the Collectors to let the aliens live, so it wouldn't work.
Commander goes to see Liara for a bit to respec his team, copies his sniper for his new robot buddy to use, and then humiliates the Collectors with a thief and a frightened super-biotic.
Second-in-command Garrus Vakarian finally managed to master Splitting Up, and successfully Splits Up to flank the enemy on two separate occassions, before finishing with a masterful Split Up to defend the exfil route while Kasumi gets her simp to let Commander blow up the Reaper baby.
Tali was a bit sick, sleepy and lightheaded, so she got the easy job of walking through a pipe and then taking the team back to base. Her drunken extranet ramblings would become a copypasta about quarian females and BHCs in a matter of days.

Now I'm halfway through the game. Time to enjoy my full team for a good while.

Yeah that works fine in my opinion.

Another way to look at it: Soldier with a biotic talent is already a Vanguard, just more heavily focused on the combat side of things. Switching to the actual biotic class adds more focus to the biotic side of things. You lean into this angle in your own post.

Another idea: Soldier with a biotic talent is already a Vanguard, just more heavily focused on the combat side of things. Post-ME1 and pre-ME2, Shepard started honing her biotics more. ME2 picks up after Shepard has improved her biotics, including figuring out "Biotic Charge".

In this scenario, Shepard is always a biotic. The difference is in the "supporting" combat and tech talents. Basically Shepard is changing the talents used to support her biotics, based on tech or armor abilities. Different tactical approaches to deal with different threats.

You could also see it as an Alliance > Cerberus > back to Alliance thing based on the priorities of those organizations at the time.

I am rushed for time; I may reply again later with more thoughts.

The thing is, in my scenario (Vanguard>Soldier>Infiltrator), which I completed, I had this idea of "loss" in mind for ME2. In ME1, she was a powerful biotic, and in a relationship with Liara. She had everything going for her. Then when she died and came back to life, she was no longer the same powerful biotic from ME1, and now working with Cerberus in a more savage part of the Galaxy. Everything and everyone has change, including herself, friends, and even loved ones. One life ends, another begins. I feel like the Soldier>Vanguard>Vanguard Scenario doesn't connect well with that context, and I like that sense of loss, and having to sort of start over in ME2.

The problem is that f**king heavy armor. It's like mind can't handle that she wear medium armor in ME1, then for some reason heavy armor during the Normandy attack at the beginning of ME2. What was BioWare trying to pull with that????

Anyway, I'm going to tap out on the Soldier>Vanguard>Vanguard scenario and stick with what I already have (Vanguard>Soldier>Infiltrator), which proves to be more interesting.

Vanguard:

Soldier:

Infiltrator:

Decided to stay with the Vanguard>Soldier>Infiltrator story/playthrough. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Also, my Shep will be wearing light armor in ME1 from now on. She looks great in it...*Ahem* you know, because she's a Vanguard with biotics, so the armor gives her a more "agile" look. >_>

Uh, anyway, this is brought to you by New Game Plus.







It also connects well with the plausible details not seen in the in-game context of her story, and why she has to rely more on heavier armor in ME2 & ME3.

ME3, crew on shore leave, they deserved it, everyone - before the final battle for Earth.


Mass Effect 3: Shore Leave - The Purgetory


Mass Effect 3: Shore Leave - Silversun Fun


Mass Effect 3: Shore Leave - The Party


Mass Effect 3: Shore Leave - Silversun After Party Fun

Elly did some more stuff the last few days.

- Had multiple things to take care of on Illium, but first Elly bumped into an asari with a message from the rachni queen, then she helped out Gianna Parasini again and found Conrad Verner in the bar. He's a nutter, but Shepard convinced him to leave the fighting business to her. She also met Shiala again and brought together an asari and a krogan.
- Liara had totally changed from last time Elly and she spoke, but she was after the Shadow Broker because he held her friend. Liara wanted nothing more to get him back and Elly thought it'd be best to help her right away, together with Garrus for old times' sake. After a wild chase they confronted the Shadow Broker and saved Liara's friend Feron. Elly was happy she could now respec Jacob help her friend become the new Broker. She spied a bit on her crew mates and learned some interesting things (like Grunt being into sharks?!).
- Back on Illium she took a look at Liara's terminal to get information on her next recruitments, but for the time being there was a more pressing matter - getting Miranda's twin sister to safety. Well, her genetic twin anyway. Miranda lost her friend Niket in the process, who was shot by an asari merc, but they were able to keep Miranda's sister safe. After a little nudging Miranda even went to talk with her. Then Elly had to break up a fight between Miranda and Jack, both setting their differences aside for the time being.
- Next up was recruiting an assassin. Elly, Jacob and Miranda had to go through dozens of mercs of Nassana Dantius, Thane's target. Their paths eventually aligned and they were just having a talk with Nassana when Thane dropped from the ceiling and killed his target.
From everything Elly knew about Nassana, she wasn't sad to see her go.
- Their final task on Illium was to recruit Samara, an asari justicar. As it turned out, Samara is looking for an extremely dangerous criminal on Illium, but in order for her to join the crew, Samara had to find the ship name with which the criminal had been smuggled off-world. Elly took care of it and Samara pledged herself into Elly's service. Elnora and the Biotic God lived.
- Upon returning, Kelly and Elly had some dinner and a very good time. The Cerberus crew is alright in Elly's book, even though she still despises the Illusive Man and everything Cerberus is doing.
- They are en route to the Citadel now, taking care of some personal stuff for Garrus and Thane. The more she resolves other people's business, the more Elly feels her own loose ends, and lonely whenever she returns to her cabin and Kaidan smiles at her in the picture frame. She misses him, but she has to move on from her feelings, for both of their sakes. Elly thus went to talk some more to Jacob and they had a lovely time together. He might just be the perfect distraction she was looking for...

Pics


The Broker fight was a joke with the drone Also got through Miri's LM very well.
Otherwise, a couple deaths here and there, but I also started to play more aggressively now that my build is final and I feel more comfortable with it (got the last few points needed for the drone ). There were one or two hilarious deaths just because I rushed in like an idiot Other times my team mates were being mean again and not following their orders at all. One time Miranda glitched out and froze behind cover, not doing anything anymore. It was the bridge part during Thane's RM. I wasn't in the mood to replay the section, so I just moved on with Jacob only. It even worked, haha.
At least this time I did not have issues with ammo drops on Thane's and Samara's RM, that was a first with the LE

Okay, what the hell was I thinking last night????

I changed my mind. I slept on my idea from last night, and what seemed like a great idea then, was not so great in the morning. It was the best custom face I made in a long time, but there was something...off, or wrong. I've gotten so used to the default face that any custom face pales in comparison. It's like seeing the wrong actor in a specific role. A miscast. If this were the original version of the Trilogy, then I would be using a custom face. That is not the case for the Legendary Edition, since her ME3 face has been remastered for all three. She's fine the way she is.

Anyway, from yesterday, I stopped the Batarians on X57, saved the colonists on Feros, and traveled to other places.


Husks, monsters that were once people. When you encounter them, do not hesitate to fire. You'll be doing them a favor...

Played a bit of my current Infiltrator in ME2. I made a somewhat unorthodox choice by taking Reave as a "one-point wonder" power. I'm quite enjoying it. It stuns enemies (as the other one-point wonders do) and you get some health regen from it.