The Mass Effect 2 Insanity difficulty thread

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Steampunk Viking

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MiracleOfSound said:
Steampunk Viking said:
MiracleOfSound said:
Nice tactics. Must try these. I found runnning in circles the only effective tactic on Horizon too.

How do you stay in that spot and shoot the Preatorian without it's lazer beam getting to you?
The only way I found was to duck whilst it's shooting the lasers, then when it stops bob up and let loose. If it doesn't stop, warp it with Miranda/Thane (if they're in your squad) or concussive shot (if Zaeed, Grunt or Garrus are in your squad). If you don't have any of those people in your squad... uhhhh... improvise, lol.

Also remember if it circles your cover, move round where possible.
Ok, so I guess you were circling the walls to stop it gaining on you?
Sort of, I don't circle all the way around, the Praetorian generally stayed in the same sort of area for me. I was also an Infiltrator so I did take advantage of my cloak to stop it seeing me, but the tactic should work for all classes in theory...
 

MiracleOfSound

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OK, there's this part on Horizon that is kicking my ass so bad and I have no idea what to do...

It's right after you meet the mechanic and come out into the large courtyard. You get assaulted by husks, Harbinger and Collectors all at once.

No matter where I put them or what I do, Miranda and Grunt die straight away and I am left to deal with husks, Harbinger on one side of the large crates and another collector flanking me to the right, I don't have a hope in hell and get annihalated.

I'm starting to get pissed with it, it seems a bit cheap and the friendly AI is giving me a hernia...

Please help.
 

Amnestic

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Aug 22, 2008
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MiracleOfSound said:
OK, there's this part on Horizon that is kicking my ass so bad and I have no idea what to do...

It's right after you meet the mechanic and come out into the large courtyard. You get assaulted by husks, Harbinger and Collectors all at once.

No matter where I put them or what I do, Miranda and Grunt die straight away and I am left to deal with husks, Harbinger on one side of the large crates and another collector flanking me to the right, I don't have a hope in hell and get annihalated.

I'm starting to get pissed with it, it seems a bit cheap and the friendly AI is giving me a hernia...

Please help.
There's also a Scion there as I recall, just to make you feel better.

To start off: What class? Second: Rape the Husks first. If you're at the part I'm thinking of (just before you get to the two scions+MANY HUSKS fight?) then you should be able to walk backwards to kite the husks while you smash into their legs.

Prioritise: Husks first, Collectors second, Harbinger third, Scion last.

Also if you are under fire from a Scion and you're in cover, keep away from your allies. While you can't be hit directly, if they get hit by a Scion's attack it'll splash damage and knock you out of cover as well.

And also: Don't blink. KEEP MOVING. A lot of people bunker down at the start of that courtyard, but you really shouldn't due to the Husks, Collector fire, Harbinger and the Scion all charging at you. You have to stay on the move.

Doubly so as a Vanguard.
 

MiracleOfSound

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Jan 3, 2009
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Amnestic said:
MiracleOfSound said:
OK, there's this part on Horizon that is kicking my ass so bad and I have no idea what to do...

It's right after you meet the mechanic and come out into the large courtyard. You get assaulted by husks, Harbinger and Collectors all at once.

No matter where I put them or what I do, Miranda and Grunt die straight away and I am left to deal with husks, Harbinger on one side of the large crates and another collector flanking me to the right, I don't have a hope in hell and get annihalated.

I'm starting to get pissed with it, it seems a bit cheap and the friendly AI is giving me a hernia...

Please help.
There's also a Scion there as I recall, just to make you feel better.

To start off: What class? Second: Rape the Husks first. If you're at the part I'm thinking of (just before you get to the two scions+MANY HUSKS fight?) then you should be able to walk backwards to kite the husks while you smash into their legs.

Prioritise: Husks first, Collectors second, Harbinger third, Scion last.

Also if you are under fire from a Scion and you're in cover, keep away from your allies. While you can't be hit directly, if they get hit by a Scion's attack it'll splash damage and knock you out of cover as well.

And also: Don't blink. KEEP MOVING. A lot of people bunker down at the start of that courtyard, but you really shouldn't due to the Husks, Collector fire, Harbinger and the Scion all charging at you. You have to stay on the move.

Doubly so as a Vanguard.
I'm sentinel, have full Warp and Warp ammo, and Grunt using incendiary ammo.

It just always seems that by the time I get rid of the husks harbinger is already on top of me, and the other two morons are lying dead in a corner...
 

Amnestic

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MiracleOfSound said:
I'm sentinel, have full Warp and Warp ammo, and Grunt using incendiary ammo.

It just always seems that by the time I get rid of the husks harbinger is already on top of me, and the other two morons are lying dead in a corner...
Assuming I'm thinking of the right encounter, there should only be two or three husks which you should be able to bring down in no short time if you're focus firing a double Warp from you and Miranda. Even if it doesn't knock them over while they still have armour, Concussive shot should stun them though I haven't played with it enough.

You might want to consider manual firing Concussive blast onto Harbinger to stun him and keep him away from you while you and Miranda whittle down the Husks.

I get the feeling having Mordin (Incinerate>Husks/Praetorian/Scions/Harbinger's armour) or Garrus (Sniper riflesluls) would be a better choice than Grunt if you don't mind reloading to a pre-Horizon save to change your team.

Oh hey, just a sidenote because I just got the message: My uni network has decided not to bother unblocking the Cerberus Network for me after I sent in a request which means I can't use any of my legally purchased DLC until I move into my own place in...6-8 months.

Fucking wonderful.
 

MiracleOfSound

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Jan 3, 2009
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Amnestic said:
MiracleOfSound said:
I'm sentinel, have full Warp and Warp ammo, and Grunt using incendiary ammo.

It just always seems that by the time I get rid of the husks harbinger is already on top of me, and the other two morons are lying dead in a corner...
Assuming I'm thinking of the right encounter, there should only be two or three husks which you should be able to bring down in no short time if you're focus firing a double Warp from you and Miranda. Even if it doesn't knock them over while they still have armour, Concussive shot should stun them though I haven't played with it enough.

You might want to consider manual firing Concussive blast onto Harbinger to stun him and keep him away from you while you and Miranda whittle down the Husks.

I get the feeling having Mordin (Incinerate>Husks/Praetorian/Scions/Harbinger's armour) or Garrus (Sniper riflesluls) would be a better choice than Grunt if you don't mind reloading to a pre-Horizon save to change your team.

Oh hey, just a sidenote because I just got the message: My uni network has decided not to bother unblocking the Cerberus Network for me after I sent in a request which means I can't use any of my legally purchased DLC until I move into my own place in...6-8 months.

Fucking wonderful.
Fuck... are you sure? cerberus is down on my system today too man. It's generally quite dodgy.

I beat the section. Ran around like a pussy and used the buildings to hide.
 

Lim3

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orannis62 said:
minignu said:
orannis62 said:
Yeah, if you want no one to die, you need a leader (Miranda or Garrus) leading the strike team, a tech expert (Tali or Legion) in the vents, a strong biotic (Jack or Samara/Morinth) for the barrier and, due to a random glitch that means Mordin dies otherwise, you need to bring him with you or send him back to the Normandy with your crew. Also, whichever characters you select need to be loyal, but that goes without saying.
Side note: The Mordin thing is not a glitch according to Bioware. If you do not have enough soldier types (e.g. Grunt, Garrus) staying behind during the Hold The Line segment, you get casulties. Since Mordin is the weakest character at this bit, he tends to die pretty often. Leave behind some tough characters on your way to the end then.
Oh, that makes sense. Good to know, though I'll still send Mordin back to the Normandy. I was so pissed when I did everything right and he still died on my first playthrough.
I sent Zaeed back to the Normandy the first time since he was a soldier type, and he died. What chance does Mordin have? Send Grunt with your crew and take Mordin with you.

Neuroshock and Incinerate are good against collector fodder anyway so he isn't that bad a choice.
 

CmdrGoob

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ChipSandwich said:
Doing a second insanity playthrough as an Adept, choosing the shotgun specialization. I also did the Collector ship mission using mostly the default SMG, it was pretty fun :), probably because I had Grunt and Thane to back me up. Grunt had Incendiary Ammo and concussive blast, Thane has shredders, a sniper and warp and I had AP ammo, so the collectors actually went down pretty easily. Sniper characters are VERY handy. Use them.

In all seriousness though, Adepts and Vanguards get the short end of the stick at the start of the game, and, hell, their powers are pretty terrible on Insanity due to 100% of enemies having damage protection. The Shuriken is bad until you learn how to rapid fire. Press the trigger at the end of each burst instead of just holding it, and you can effectively fire full auto and get about twice as much DPS. The Tempest is still a little better in terms of accuracy and sustainibility though, so get it ASAP. As for vanguards, the Katana is meh, and the DLC Eviscerator is only slightly better. I like the Scimitar, and I've never tried the Claymore. For powers, I just use Pull followed by some other power, it's really only "for the lulz" as they say.

Will probably try it as a soldier next, if only because I want to try the Revenant.
Uszi said:
Amnestic said:
Soldier, Sentinel or Engineer are probably your best bet. Vanguard requires you to learn a new playstyle which will make the beginning bits more difficult than perhaps they should be. ... Infiltrator is good, no doubt, and having a Widow makes it all the easier - but Soldiers with Adrenaline Rush are superior for pure efficiency.

Not that I prefer Soldiers mind. I'm an Infiltrator through and through, but AR is just broken.
He Vangaurd sucks totally in Insanity. I played my Vangaurd through Hardcore, and on my second play through attempted it on Insanity. I wound up quitting after dying a bunch of times on the boss battle on Purgatory--infinitely spawning blue suns commanders? No thanks.

I would up changing the difficulty down to normal and laughing through the rest of the play through.

I'm trying it again as a soldier. Once I'm done beating this Vangaurd play through.

BTW, does anyone else feel the Vangaurd is totally broken in Hardcore/Insanity? If you charge more than one or two enemies, you're going to die, but charging one enemy is pointless because you could just as quickly mop them up 3vs1 without charging.

IMHO, The Geth Colossus should always be one Mini-Nuke away from completion. I've beaten it once where I nuked it, once where I didn't, and I don't see the point in saving power cells for other enemies.
Vanguard looks fine to me :) It ain't easy, but no class is really easy on insanity.
 

MiracleOfSound

Fight like a Krogan
Jan 3, 2009
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Beat Horizon! Woop!

The husks/scions part isn't too bad if you keep running in circles and sprint every time you hear the ground pound attack.

Bring on the collector ship...
 

Amnestic

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Aug 22, 2008
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MiracleOfSound said:
Fuck... are you sure? cerberus is down on my system today too man. It's generally quite dodgy.

I beat the section. Ran around like a pussy and used the buildings to hide.
Yeah, it's been unable to connect (times out) since I installed it on (European) release day.

And I told you, running around is the way to go.

Just don't run into a Praetorian :(
 

Uszi

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CmdrGoob said:
Vanguard looks fine to me :) It ain't easy, but no class is really easy on insanity.
Meh, I call bullshit.
I was NEVER able to absorb that much damage as a vanguard. Charging into all those collectors, especially in the second video when he charges Harbinger and like 4 drones, that is instant suicide.

Maybe it's because it's at a lower level or something. But in my experience, being exposed to direct fire for more than two seconds meant that you were instantly burnt toast.

Or maybe he's just really good or something. I don't understand how it's possible.
 

Amnestic

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Aug 22, 2008
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Uszi said:
Or maybe he's just really good or something. I don't understand how it's possible.
It's a careful balance of being out in the open, charging and hiding in cover, along with the stun from headshots/melee that makes Vanguard survivable on Insanity.

If you get the balance slightly wrong, you can expect to get blown up in no short order. It's a lot less forgiving than the Sentinel or Soldier. The guy did get lucky at the start of video two when the Scion shot hit him and wiped out a sliver of his remaining shields rather than eradicating all of his health. His anti-Scion tactic as a whole was very well done.
 

MiracleOfSound

Fight like a Krogan
Jan 3, 2009
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Amnestic said:
MiracleOfSound said:
Fuck... are you sure? cerberus is down on my system today too man. It's generally quite dodgy.

I beat the section. Ran around like a pussy and used the buildings to hide.
Yeah, it's been unable to connect (times out) since I installed it on (European) release day.

And I told you, running around is the way to go.

Just don't run into a Praetorian :(
That sucks man.

It's a silly, fiddly system anyway, I'd prefer to just download stuff from Live.

I beat Horizon afterwards, the Praetorian was easy enough as he was alone.

I then got stuck in an autosave on a fucking impossible side mission. The one where the entire Batarian population of the galaxy attacks you as you race to shut down the missile launch.

Stupidly, I saved over my previous slot and the only save I had before it was a half hour earlier.

Died 7 times, 3 of those due to my stupid squad AI and one due to the cover system screwing me over and popping me out of cover for no apparent reason.

Finally made it to the end having wasted all my Cain ammo on fucking Batarians, uploaded the code to te Batarian computer and...

Game froze. Had to reboot the 360.

Time for a break I think...

(punches wall)
 

MiracleOfSound

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Jan 3, 2009
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Sooo....

Finally beat Insanity difficulty.

If anyone would like any tips or strategies either PM me or post here and I'll do my best to help you out, as I'm sure will the other members who've done it.

The good news is, the guys are right: after the Collector Ship there's nothing nearly as bad as it, apart from one part of Tali's mission where you get swarmed in an ambush and you're stuck in the little building with the explosive charge.
 

Alarien

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MiracleOfSound said:
Sooo....

Finally beat Insanity difficulty.

If anyone would like any tips or strategies either PM me or post here and I'll do my best to help you out, as I'm sure will the other members who've done it.

The good news is, the guys are right: after the Collector Ship there's nothing nearly as bad as it, apart from one part of Tali's mission where you get swarmed in an ambush and you're stuck in the little building with the explosive charge.
Is that the part where you first see a Geth Prime in the game? I think I knew it was coming so I was prepared for it before they started shooting.
 

MiracleOfSound

Fight like a Krogan
Jan 3, 2009
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Alarien said:
MiracleOfSound said:
Sooo....

Finally beat Insanity difficulty.

If anyone would like any tips or strategies either PM me or post here and I'll do my best to help you out, as I'm sure will the other members who've done it.

The good news is, the guys are right: after the Collector Ship there's nothing nearly as bad as it, apart from one part of Tali's mission where you get swarmed in an ambush and you're stuck in the little building with the explosive charge.
Is that the part where you first see a Geth Prime in the game? I think I knew it was coming so I was prepared for it before they started shooting.
I'm not sure... I think it was.

It was just after you pick up the first of the two charges to blow your way into the lab.

There's a Prime and around 5 troopers and they storm the building you're in really quickly.

It wouldn't have been so bad if Garrus hadn't kept on being a complete idiot and running out into the crossfire.
 
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Shoes said:
All this talk only makes me love Vanguard that much more and want to play insanity that much more.
Vanguard is a very fun class, but the trouble on Hardcore/Insanity is that all enemies have at a minimum, armour and/or shields/barriers. Charge won't knockback a target if he has any of these defenses, shockwave only does a little damage and no knockup and pull is ineffective (so no pull/warp combos either). Without the ability to disable some opponents while dealing with others, the vanguard is left up close, surrounded by enemies continually firing. Death comes soon after :\ To make matters harder, the scimitar shotgun isn't available until Samira's mission IIRC, approx 50% of the way thru. You'd enjoy this class much more on veteran or below.

I'd strongly recommend Infiltrator for an easier time of Insanity. Cloak, Widow (when available) and head-shots work well throughout the whole game (though it does make it feel like a modern day Whack-a-Mole).

Bonus skills...most folks, including myself would probably recommend Warp Ammo for the straight-up damage bonus. Barrier might be useful, but cooldown is a pain...and Barrier is recommended over Geth Shield as Vanguards get bonuses for biotics, not for tech skills. Reave or Energy Drain might be useful, try them and see.
 

Volafortis

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I've tried Insanity twice, and I did it knowing I picked the hardest classes for Insanity because they're the highest risk classes (Adept and Vanguard). Trying this is only for the masochistic, I swear. I'm going to try out sentinel though.
 

Chardan

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Reave is a very good ability to have when playing as a Vanguard on Insanity. Bear in mind you have to have done Samamra's loyalty mission at least once. Upgrade it as much as you can as it was all I used to take out the geth collossus because I had no ammo left.
 

Amnestic

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MiracleOfSound said:
I'm not sure... I think it was.

It was just after you pick up the first of the two charges to blow your way into the lab.

There's a Prime and around 5 troopers and they storm the building you're in really quickly.

It wouldn't have been so bad if Garrus hadn't kept on being a complete idiot and running out into the crossfire.
I find such moments are often made far easier with a Combat Drone. Alas, unless you mod in to get Legion early or are playing an Engineer, you're plum out of luck for that one.

Chardan said:
Reave is a very good ability to have when playing as a Vanguard on Insanity. Bear in mind you have to have done Samamra's loyalty mission at least once. Upgrade it as much as you can as it was all I used to take out the geth collossus because I had no ammo left.
Indeed. I highly recommend Reave as a bonus power for Vanguards as it gives you a little extra *oomph* against big enemies like the Colossus or the Praetorian which aren't really chargeable if you want to survive.

Plus it tears the shit out of Barriers.