Why are the squadmates so weak? And please shut SAM up.........

They are a lot better than the squadmates from previous games.

But i agree that SAM talks too much.

Mass Effect has made a habit out of systematically nerfing our squadmates every game. I might have said these ones were better than they were in ME3, but I can't give them direct orders to use abilities which kind of fucks over comboing off of them which was the only real use for them after BioWare decided they should do a fraction of the weapon damage of the PC in ME2.

The thing I found funny about the constant warnings of temperature dropping is that it was only like -40 to -50C, which if you include wind chill are temperatures we've had here in Alberta in January plenty of times before. My car heater was more than enough to keep me warm as long as the car was running.

and you're telling me that in a few hundred years they haven't invented a personal heater that doesn't run out of energy in like 5 minutes? My old junker of a car that I drove in college had a better heater than the Nomad does in 2819.

I agree that the Nomad itself should have been made immune to environmental hazards, like the Mako in ME1. I could sit on Noveria for as long as I wanted; I just couldn't walk outside for too long.

SAM definitely needs to shut up or at least talk less and he should never interrupt banter or story-related dialogue with his unimportant "This area can be mined" or "Temperature decreasing" lines. As far as squadmates go, yeah they're not the greatest. Except for Drack. At least for me, Drack seems to definitely hold his own in battle.

I think my entire (hardcore) playthrough (insanity next! weeeeeeeeee) Peebee went down like...three times? Drack once? Cora maybe 4 or 5? I don't remember any other squad mate dying during the run.

And I don't know if it's just me or what, but the squadmates in this game felt WAAAAAAAAY more useful on their own than in the original trilogy. Obviously, controlling which power to use when is a huge leg up for the trilogy squad, but I was constantly having Peebee detonate combos, or set 'em up with pull, Drack, Cora and Vetra with their ammo types set up other combos...

Jaal with his energy drain and his cloak-and-knife-em-in-the-back move, Cora with her Charge...

No, I wasn't controlling them directly, but I can't recall how many times some breacher or other asshole snuck up around my flank, and one of my squadmates took him out and saved my bacon. I can honestly say that I really prefer this new squad over the original trilogy. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't replace Wrex with Drack or Liara with Peebee, the OT's squad was perfect for Shepard's story, but this new crew? I've never liked a squad more after only one game with them.

They tend to have way more Shields and Health than Ryder for some reason though.

Also ya right ? The environmental hazards are so dumb. 50 celsius is pretty damn hot for like, a summer day, but it wouldn't kill you in minutes. And -50 isn't super deadly either, a good coat will protect you from that. Also also, 50 celsius will kill you in minutes but you can stand a foot away from *lava* indefinitely. And -50 will kill you through your hardsuit, which we know from other games will protect you from space, which is more than 5 times colder.

SAM makes me want to take a screwdriver to my skull to dig that awful implant out. I want to kill it, perhaps worse than I want to kill addison and that is saying something.

I never looked at the skill trees of the sibling. I just went to town with the trusty pea shooter.

Cant even tell them to get the fuck off my ship.

Looking at you, Liam.

As a combat sidekick, Jaal and Drack are probably my favorites. More often than not, when I'm in cover fighting a bullet sponge, he's usually in cover next or behind me taking pot shots with his modified kett rifle and using energy drain everywhere. And Drack, well. I love Drack. Cora's not bad though. Two vanguards charging it up are better than one.

It doesn't take long to max out a functional build, or two. If you intend to create numerous builds, though, of course you're going to be investing in skills you aren't currently using.

My Ryder is currently Level 96, and I'm topping off the last skill (Charge) for a Vanguard-style build. To this point, my mains have been an "Adept", a caster Engineer (using Sentinel Profile), and an occassional Tac-Cloak Infiltrator (with Turbocharge and Energy Drain). Swapping Favorites, and playstyles, isn't just of mechanical benefit. It also keeps gameplay varied. There are still several builds I've yet to try without being overly creative. I'm sure I'll think of additional builds, in time. This wouldn't be possible without the uncapped, unrestricted character advancement.

As to the main topic, regarding companions, I find that they only drop in really tough fights against heavy opponents. (I play Insanity difficulty.) In general, they're pretty good at soaking damage, priming combos, and keeping themselves in the fight. I think these companions are mechanically much better than ME2/3 companions. The only points in which they're weaker are that we can't hand them OP, DLC weapons to beat the game for us; and we can't directly control their power usage.