Poll: Mass Effect Series: Adept or Vanguard

[Bara_no_Hime]

I am planning to play through the Mass Effect series again. I'm starting with one and working my way on. So far I've only played as a solider but I want to change things up in my next playthough and play as a character with biotic powers. But I'm not sure if I should play as an Adept or a Vanguard. Which one do you think is better to play as?

Adept is the biggest contrast to soldier.

My first play through, I played soldier. It was kinda meh.

Then I played Adept. Much better. Enough that I changed my soldier (in later games) to an infiltrator (since I was a Sniper soldier anyway).

Vanguard is a great class, but I'd save it for your Third play through. Vanguard is a complex class to get used to - playing Adept (the polar opposite of Soldier) first will make your Vanguard experience more enriching.

 

[DRTJR]

Infiltrator, Boom headshot.

It's great for killing those Blue squid-head freaks.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Really depends on which game we're talking about and how broken you want it to be.

For ME1, go Adept for maximum fun/cheese. The extra powers let you DOMINATE the game.

For ME2 and 3, I would go Vanguard simply because the Charge ability is so insanely fun, it seems like a mechanic you could build an entire game around.

Though if you build your class out correctly, Vanguard is obscenely strong in ME3.

It also all depends on your difficulty. If you're going for an Insanity playthrough, drop your dreams of playing Vanguard as you'll be absolutely violated after every single Charge.

 

[tofulove]

not an option in the poll, but i would say my favorite so far is engineer, i was adept soldier and eng for 1 and 2, and i just started playing the 3 as eng.

 

[CleverCover]

I've played all of them...except soldier because my aim sucks.
In Vanguard, it was the most adrenalin-pushing because you have to play constantly in the heat of battle. Playing safe doesn't work at all as a Vanguard. This class involves as much blind luck as strategy. My favorite biotic class. Roleplay: Suicidal Shepard .

Adept, especially with another adept, makes you feel like a god. Mows down anything quickly with a few singularities and warp. Consistently one of the best classes in the trilogy. Roleplay Shepard: A Chessmaster (withing game reasoning).

For ME1: Adept rules all.
For ME2: Adept has a slight advantage over Vanguard. Charge isn't an intelligent move here and there's little else to fall back on compared to the Adept.
For ME3: Vanguard all the things if you're into crazy battles. Adept for those who want a little more strategy.

 

[Xdeser2]

I am planning to play through the Mass Effect series again. I'm starting with one and working my way on. So far I've only played as a solider but I want to change things up in my next playthough and play as a character with biotic powers. But I'm not sure if I should play as an Adept or a Vanguard. Which one do you think is better to play as?

Concerning the first Mass Effect, I would choose the vanguard class, as ME1 is far batter played with a mix of Guns and powers, rather than as a straight 3rd person shooter (Or even just with powers).

ME2, however, Is a bit different as both the Powers and the shooting was overhauled enough to make them both exciting enough to use together or on their own.

 

[romxxii]

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

The Adept is a great class in Mass Effect 1 but the changes in ME2 and ME3 mean that more often than not you are restricted to spamming biotic explosions.

Which are by no means a bad thing. Biotic combo explosions are great for blasting groups of weak enemies.

Just make sure you have a teammate or both of them who can strip shields. Garrus is always a good choice due to his versatility as a combatant and his tech abilities. Tali is acceptable in the first game for tech skill plus close quarters firepower, and she becomes a hell of a tank if you focus on her class talent. She's less suitable in the second game.. You want someone who can either set up biotic detonations or detonate for your set up. Miranda is a the best choice I can think of for a second teammate in the 2nd game.

I never played an adept in ME3 so I couldn't advise you there.

 

[PFCboom]

I remember the moment when I was convinced to buy Mass Effect 3. Someone on Escapist had played a beta preview version, and gave us some impressions. One of the things mentioned was the new heavy melee attacks. Engineers get a flaming backhand. Soldiers have omni-tool blades. The person described the Vanguard heavy melee as "a sort of biotic Falcon Punch." Yes, I was familiar with the controversy prior to the release, and all the yada yada biotic Falcon Punch!
Anyway, that's why I'm a Vanguard. There's just so much about it that appeals. The only way it could get better is if there were an option to use fist weapons, something to make melee and biotic powers stronger. Fus Ro Dah, Shining Finger, Infinite Mass Punch, Biotic Falcon Punch Vanguard America Fuck Yeah.
Okay, I'm biased. Eat me and my biotic Falcon Punch.

 

[mrhappy1489]

I've always had a lot of love for the adept and I definitely think that you should give it a play. If I had to say my favourite, it's the infiltrator. Played that class since the first one all the way through to the third one. I think you've inspired me to take up the game again.

 

[Souplex]

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

Vanguards didn't work in 2 because you were more fragile in 2 than any other point in the series. Leaving cover causes you to die, and you can't charge often enough to keep your shields up.

 

[J Tyran]

Vanguard is awesome but its a mixed bag over the series, in ME1 you can create an invincible juggernaut after level 40-50 and nothing can stop it. Regenerating barriers are a little OP and its a beast of a tank and can soak up almost anything, even more than a Soldier with maxed out immunity in some situations.

In ME2 its much better, its a real do or die class. Much more satisfying on insanity difficulty because when you get it right you got it right, its not an OP ability. Its a hard class to master in ME2 and if you get it wrong you die in seconds.

In ME3 we are back to OP again, charge regenerates your barrier and nova wipes out anything near by. If you set your char up for faster cool downs rather than outright damage you can chain attacks over and over again, its still satisfying to get the execution right but the powers do feel slightly OP.

Vanguards a fun class, Adept is OP in ME1 and ME3 but weaker in ME2. Bioware seemed to realize that tech powers where weaker in the first game and biotics where more powerful but they over balanced it, biotics got quite a nerf in ME2 and tech got a huge boost. ME3 finally got the balance right.

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

This, in ME2 Vanguards where really satisfying. The trick is not to try and stack damage bonuses, get faster cooldowns instead. Charge away from damage and get the upgrade that recharges barriers when you charge, charge in get some shotgun blasts then charge out. Do not always go for the biggest shotgun either, the M-27 has more DPS than any other shotgun because of its rate of fire. When facing larger hardened enemies greater DPS can be better than burst damage, you cannot kill tough enemies with a single high powered shotgun blast its better to get more rounds on target than one big boom. High burst damage is better against weaker stuff, use your fast cooldowns to spring around and blow their heads off.

 

[TallestGargoyle]

All I remember of Vanguard in ME2 was charging at an enemy on a distant strip of floor that then had me totally stuck there, with no other enemies to charge back at. Took a long while trying to direct my teammates in the right way to bring some enemies down close enough for me to charge into.

 

[Casual Shinji]

ME1; Adept.

ME2 and 3; Vanguard. Also pick Slam as bonus power in ME2, it kicks ass.

Especially in ME3 the Vanguard is almost invicible. You basically don't even need your teammates - With Biotic Charge and Nova combo attacks you'll clear the area before your squad even has a chance to fire one shot.

 

[romxxii]

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

Vanguards didn't work in 2 because you were more fragile in 2 than any other point in the series. Leaving cover causes you to die, and you can't charge often enough to keep your shields up.

For a class that "didn't" work, they worked well enough for me. On Insanity difficulty. And IIRC, I'm not the only one who's made a viable Vanguard go through an Insanity run in Mass Effect 2.

Perhaps your problems with using the Vanguard has more to do with your own tactics and skill choice than any inherent weakness in the class itself.

 

[romxxii]

Spoiler: snip

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

This, in ME2 Vanguards where really satisfying. The trick is not to try and stack damage bonuses, get faster cooldowns instead. Charge away from damage and get the upgrade that recharges barriers when you charge, charge in get some shotgun blasts then charge out. Do not always go for the biggest shotgun either, the M-27 has more DPS than any other shotgun because of its rate of fire. When facing larger hardened enemies greater DPS can be better than burst damage, you cannot kill tough enemies with a single high powered shotgun blast its better to get more rounds on target than one big boom. High burst damage is better against weaker stuff, use your fast cooldowns to spring around and blow their heads off.

I did my Insanity run using the biggest of the big-ass shotguns, the Claymore. I had to use the melee reload glitch in order to make DPS viable, though.

 

[J Tyran]

Spoiler: snip

In 2 Vangaurds are absolutely worthless, and Adepts are not so good.

I have to disagree. I played Vanguard on Insanity on 2, and pretty much coasted on Charge+shotgun to the face. The trick is to use charge to reposition yourself away from overwhelming odds. It's fun, it's risky, it gets the blood pumping, but most importantly, you're no longer playing a bloody duck-under-cover shooting gallery, but something more akin to late 90's FPSes.

This, in ME2 Vanguards where really satisfying. The trick is not to try and stack damage bonuses, get faster cooldowns instead. Charge away from damage and get the upgrade that recharges barriers when you charge, charge in get some shotgun blasts then charge out. Do not always go for the biggest shotgun either, the M-27 has more DPS than any other shotgun because of its rate of fire. When facing larger hardened enemies greater DPS can be better than burst damage, you cannot kill tough enemies with a single high powered shotgun blast its better to get more rounds on target than one big boom. High burst damage is better against weaker stuff, use your fast cooldowns to spring around and blow their heads off.

I did my Insanity run using the biggest of the big-ass shotguns, the Claymore. I had to use the melee reload glitch in order to make DPS viable, though.

It comes down to whatever suits a player and their build best, thats the great thing with such deep mechanics you can get different things to work. The Claymore was great to chew threw armour but I found that a lot of time it only took a fraction of shield/armour/health and only had once shot, the Eviscerator was better with its three rounds I found. Still nice to see another ME2 Vanguard player, its really underrated for some reason.

 

[suitepee7]

gotta say adept, mainly because on higher difficulties vanguard requires a lot more positional awareness or you die a lot. more so, i found bigger enemies easier to take down in cover with biotic abilities. in the third game i got by with usually only 1 weapon, and my god powers. i also didn't really care for vanguard much until ME3, despite him being my first class

 

[votemarvel]

The Adept is a great class in Mass Effect 1 but the changes in ME2 and ME3 mean that more often than not you are restricted to spamming biotic explosions.

Which are by no means a bad thing. Biotic combo explosions are great for blasting groups of weak enemies.

Just make sure you have a teammate or both of them who can strip shields. Garrus is always a good choice due to his versatility as a combatant and his tech abilities. Tali is acceptable in the first game for tech skill plus close quarters firepower, and she becomes a hell of a tank if you focus on her class talent. She's less suitable in the second game.. You want someone who can either set up biotic detonations or detonate for your set up. Miranda is a the best choice I can think of for a second teammate in the 2nd game.

I never played an adept in ME3 so I couldn't advise you there.

I feel weird arguing against the Adept since it is the class I mainly play as .

The problem is that biotic explosion are great at blasting groups of enemies but when you start going up the difficulty levels even Husks have protection and they stop being 'weak'.

Personally in ME2 I favoured Thane. He can set off biotic explosions for you and with the Incisor in his hands he was a demon at making sure things didn't get close.

The problem with the Adept is that in 2 and 3 I don't feel as if I am doing much, it is just repeating biotic explosions.

 

[Chris Tian]

Vanguards are awesome.

I played a Vanguard through all three Games multiple times on Insanity.

In ME1 he has a good combination of powers and with Tactical Armor plus Barrier plus Adrenaline Rush you are able to keep your shield at 100% all the time, even under heavy fire.

And in ME2 the fun really starts with Biotic Charge, in my book that is the coolest power in the ME Universe. It is just super rewarding to charge your enemy and shoot his face of with your shotgun. You just have to learn to use it right, that takes a little practice, since a charge at the wrong time to the wrong place means instant death.

And when you reach ME3 it just keeps getting better. With Nova and the super fast cooldowns you can get, you can just charge from enemy to enemy and blast them out of existence so hard even their immediate family will feel it.