Were Profiles the Right Way To Go?

Nope, I don't replay to try different classes, i replay because i like it, in OT i had 30 soldier playtroughs and never touched another class, this time around i can still use soldier profile all the time but mix abilities, so to answer the question, i love profiles

With profiles you basically have 4 gimped classes instead of one fleshed out class. With the old system you learned to actually rely on your squad mates and you had to adapt to the game instead of the game adapting to you. This meant each playthrough required you to change up your playstyle. You had to actually consider which squad mates you took with based on the enemy you were facing as well as how their abilities complimented our own. It was both more tactical and replayable. It also gave my Shepard a sense of identity whether they were a soldier armed to the teeth, an infiltrator you never saw coming, or a vanguard who destroyed everything in their path using their biotics and claymore shotgun making me feel like a krogan.

Profiles were not the right way to go, but they did not kill replayability for me.

The question that arises is... why are the profiles here in the first place? Maybe to compensate for only 3 active skill slots? Which lead to another question, why are there only 3 active skill slots? Because we have 4 consumables? Well, I only use shields, so that is 3 more slots to use for skills? The problem with profiles is, as shown in the "tutorial" (habitat 7, alec using it on the fly)... it only affects weapon skills and some passives. Active skills are disabled for 8 seconds. Now that is realy usefull for engineers and adepts. Changing profiles midfight is pretty much worthless... 8 damn seconds before you can use your skills, by that time any fight is over like 2 times, except for some bosses and who want to change skill sets and profiles anyway during a boss fight? Most people go in there with the right profile anyway. We can not even use different skills... like cloaking... or construct... or barricade, once you switch to a profile that does not have that particular skill, it goes off (no more cloak, construct/barrier just disappear). What is the point? I see it to some degree for multiplayer, to limit the player to 3 active skills per class, but singleplayer? That is just so pointless. Yet another "design" that is highly flawed and not well thought out, yet there are players who still think everything is perfect. Is the limination to 3 skills gamebreaking? No, it is stupid and pointless anyway. Forgot about profiles on 1st playthrough, remembered it on my 2nd... made some profiles and found out about the skill recharge delays, so now I have 4 different profiles and sitll using 99,9% of the time just the one. Replayin with different classes was never motivational to me (20x ME2 as infiltrator), tried biotics etc, never liked it. However, different decisions and taking diferent squadmates were interesting... there are other tactics and how you finish engagement with Cora+Peebee or Vetra+Jaal. Whatever. Do not like the profiles, it is only good for skipping classes. Not the "on the fly swap 10x during one fight" Alec shows us.

The main reason that I'm ok with 3 active powers at a time is the fact that I got used to doing just that in ME2/ME3. With the global cooldown mechanic, it didn't matter which power you used, ALL of your powers went on cooldown. Why bother using Shockwave, when pull/singularity/warp are generally better options depending on the situation? At best it was less efficient, and at worst it was a waste of a cooldown.

I generally used between 2-4 powers pretty much exclusively, depending on the class I was playing at the time. I imagine quite a few of the developers working on ME:A did something similar. So when they decided that SP gameplay would more closely match MP gameplay (I'm guessing to streamline the design process) they picked having 3 active powers at a time. But they also wanted access to more powers, so the 3X4 system was born.

Depending on your passives, gear and profile, powers cool down fast enough that switching profiles really isn't a problem, at least for me. I generally have a "generalist" build that's good for most situations, and 1 or 2 "specialist" favorites for dealing with specific enemy types. I can see how people would prefer a different system, but I disliked the switch to a global cooldown in ME2 vs ME1, but got used to it. I was leery on this change, but I've gotten used to it, and it works quite well.

I would say to really just kinda dive into the whole thing, really give it a good solid shot and see what it can do. If you've already done that and still don't like it, more power to you. This system just isn't your thing. Some people who've complained about this, though, might (and I emphasize MIGHT) find that they enjoy the system if they give it a proper chance, or at least come to a place where it works for them, even if they'd prefer something different.

You think this kind of self control is easy? Not everyone has your willpower of steel, my friend. 

I didn't vote in the poll because it wasn't simple yes / no.

As pointed out above, strictly speaking the Favorites and the Profile system are separate, and I would lump the 3 power limit in with favorites. Also want to mention that switching Profiles only doesn't incur cooldowns, that only happens if you change Favorites. Favorites are only a thing because of controllers.

Now as far as just Profiles go, I would say the system as implemented is largely superfluous at best, even on Insanity. They are really just sort of nice bonuses, and let you pretend like you are changing something. For instance, my current character has Annihilation Field, Charge and Lance. Adept and Vanguard profiles are barely different in practical application, it is just that Adept has slightly larger AField and VG gets melee force and a little better cooldown. Actual effectiveness is practically the same. For fun I even switched to Engineer profile without any tech powers, and it wasn't really much less effective. I haven't bothered to try Explorer on him, but it might be better due to weapon damage bonus.

So basically as far as Profiles themselves are concerned, they aren't something that I feel really limits my replay-ability, but switching between them doesn't really wow me in a single game either. It is just something that is sort of there. What does hurt replay value for me is the current state of balance, whether it be the powers and passives or weapons. Add to that the bizarre decisions made with respect to squadmate, player character, and enemy leveling and you have some big problems with NG+.

If I were king of Mass Effect I would of course be a malevolent sovereign and would have limited trademark powers to the specific profiles, and perhaps made you choose a single profile at start, then unlock more at certain levels. Of course I would have also continued to call Marksman "Marksman," and called the bonus in Soldier "Adrenaline Rush" as well... of and there would be the Claymore, but I digress...

Are you talking about NG+? It sounds like you do.

Yeah, even as insignificant a change as a different LI is enough for me to want to do another playthrough.

Speaking of which, does anyone else change up their class for who they're planning on romance, so that, if they're squadmates, they can be used in combat and they can compliment you? Like, for example, if I'm romancing Liara, in 3 I'll go Sentinel so we can create endless biotic detonations. If I'm romancing Garrus, I'll go Vanguard so that he's watching my back as I'm wrecking fools with my shotgun.

I wonder if a good way to kind of make that easier is if you're transfering from one favorites to another, the cooltimes of each power is cut in half--so a power that normally has 12 seconds of cooldown only has 6. While I switched up the profiles a fair amount of times for the very hard fights, that would have helped make it easier to decide "okay, I really do need to switch things up."

I think an easy one would have flipped it so that the favorites wheel came up before the weapons/consumables wheel when you press  that button. Or better yet, condense the two into one window.

Because even though the game has it's fair share of actual problems, some people feel the need to make any excuse possible to make it THE WORST EVAH to satisfy their own feeling of superority. Basically. 

Quoted for truth. This issue is compounded because Ryder's dialogue choices are very similar (only few exceptions), so replaying the game feels like playing the same character all over again.
 Different classes, backgrounds, races, etc. helps add to replayability by creating DIFFERENT characters each playthrough, DAO is imo the best example, but the ME trilogy had classes, pre-service history (abandoned after ME1, i admit) and...

Actual different dialogue choices; Renegade/Paragon, despite it's problems, were different things - not the same sentence reworded more politely, casually, logically, etc.

I personally love them. I switch regularly between Infiltrator, Vanguard, and Grenadespam profiles, and it's just pure fun for me. I'm in the middle of Insanity at level 75, and I've got more than enough points that I don't feel particularly gimped (since Vanguard and Infi profiles are both at lvl 6). Replay is still fun for me, but I get why some folks don't like the new setup.