The ME3 weight system...

[Setrus]

I agree with this. The system is really cool. I thought they said that Shepard in single player will be able to carry more weapons based on class though. They said Soldiers can take everything at once while the other classes had to find what they liked. Did that change?

My Infiltrator can carry a Mantis + Shuriken SMG or any pistol and still have her cloak finish charging just a little after the Mantis finishes reloading. I also have cloak upgraded so I can fire Cryo while staying invisible so the damage bonus still applies. I've been using the Widow lately and it's been dealing hell to my recharges. I love being able to front shot Guardians and getting 2-for-1 kills though. It wrecks every enemy when I'm cloaked too, including the Atlas (on Bronze at lease). I've been wondering if I should go back to the Mantis.

My Adept only carries a single pistol, SMG, or Avenger rifle to maximize recharge time. The SMG or Avenger is for shield breaking and the pistol is for maximum spamming depending on the mood I'm in. I have to be less Rambo on Silver or higher though. It doesn't work quite so well.

Hmmm...not sure, in the later part of the demo Shepard carries more then two guns, so it's possible s/he is has a large weight capacity, as to soldiers carrying more...I'm guessing they have even more of it. (they do in multiplayer, the only class where I feel I can get away with carrying an assault rifle and a sniper, really.) So yes, you can probably load up on weapons as a soldier Shepard, not sure if it'll be worth it though...

Yes, the weight is really a thing to consider...you might remove the shuriken to load off a bit, like JDLY, or go back to the mantis for more recharge. Do you have the Salarian infiltrator btw? Energy drain while still cloakes is monstrously effective in making you stay alive! (You can still front-shoot guardians without the widow, you aim for the slit in their shields for a headshot, or simply nail them a couple of times in the arm, if you're worried about hitting the shield)

Rambo only really works in bronze yes, after that you kind of have to team up, if nothing else but being able to revive one another when the phantoms and Centurions box you in. Have you unlocked the Asari Adept? It's the only one of those avaible I haven't managed to get...they do really well with a team since the stasis ability can lock down phantoms while other classes dish out the damage.

I have been shooting through the eye slits with the Mantis, but body shots with the Widow are much more foolproof and take less time. They always seem to move when I'm trying to line up a shot through the eyes. I have seen at least one person running with only a Widow, but I see a few problems with that. I personally prefer to have options when I run out of shots since Cryo Blast won't save me from everything and overly relying on my heavy-melee build will eventually get me killed. One would expect that the Infiltrator's wide swing could catch more than one person, but no.

My fem Infiltrator is the only one I have. I don't think I have any other Adepts either.

Which really is why I like the viper, six shots means six chanses. Anyway, as I said, there's still the arm. Wait, if you have a heavy melee build, why don't you exchange the sniper for the scimitar shotgun or something and give them a trashing up close? Heck, give say the phalanx a scope and you can pour shots into the slit of the Guardian's shield anyway. (that's how my soldier does it.)

Ah, have you tried engineer then? Deploy a combat drone behind the guardian and he will turn around to face it, meaning you can shoot it with the mantis or whatever as much as you want.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Snip of doom

I did run a shotgun build for a while, but I feel having a Shotgun makes melee redundant. I should probably try it again though. Open up with Cloaked Heavy Melee to give my shotgun a damage bonus. I can freeze my next target before I kill the first one to have him take even more damage if necessary.
I don't like the Viper because I'm more a one-shot-one-kill guy. I might use it if I was using a class that didn't use a damage bonus for one shot. The Viper isn't quite fast enough to take advantage of the lingering boost.
I haven't tried Engineer yet. I used one for the first two games, but I want to branch out a little.

 

[JDLY]

Snip of doom

Another snip

Well I can tell you a little bit about the Widow.

With it you can one-shot Guardians even on Gold, without having to aim through their viewing slit. Just a shot central-shield will still punch trough and kill them.

With my power and weapon upgrades (I don't know what you have), I can headshot a phantom/nemesis/combat engineer with full health and shields on Silver and kill them.

Also, while I haven't used it on Bronze, I can take down an Atlas on Silver with 4 shots to the yellow "head" thingy. And one on Gold with 6 or 7 shots.

However, it's probably unlikely that we have the exact same power upgrades, so I don't know if you'd have the same success. As I've said, with just the Widow my recharge time is perfectly lined up with my reload time. And I have no problem with running around without a secondary, although I realize that's not for everyone.

I just thought I'd let you know some specifics about how powerful it is, so you can decide if it's worth it for you or not.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I really like the weight system, it really expands the options people can take into battle.

I'll never us a sniper rifle that isn't able to fire multiple shots before reloading, sure, you can one shot kill nearly everything, but you can easily become overwhelmed if you miss even once.

 

[angry_flashlight]

I think it's a good system. Makes your weapon choice much more important in that it makes you juggle weapons and powers in your choices.

As for the Widow, Salarian Infiltrator: use energy drain on shields/barriers, 1-shot to the torso. Reload. Rinse repeat. Killing Guardians with a wrist shot is also entertaining. Even Atlases aren't that much of a problem since energy drain will take 1-1 1/2 bars of shield away, then you use your cloak to blast its armour. All you need is a distraction, that's where your teammates come in. Hehehe... >

Oh, I so want to unlock the Krogan Sentinel. Extra shields while I'm power charging fools FTW.

 

[Valanthe]

I've been loving the weight system, I personally play a soldier using an Avenger with stability and an extended mag (I call her Jesse), and a scoped Phalanx. I'm a pretty boring build, but I find that I can lay down an impressive amount of suppressive fire, even more so once I discovered that my concussive shot will stagger anything, including the Atlas.

My only real complaint is the random packs, I would love to see something a little less random, even if it was more expensive than the current packs, anything that would stop me getting weapons I don't use, characters I don't want, and upgrades for both that I'll never need.

 

[White-Death]

I play as a Male Human Infiltrator, with a Mantis with extended capacity, & a Phalanx with..err..Extended capacity.
I can kill most things easily,I only use the Mantis when Nemesis,Phantoms, or Guardians show up.I use the Phalanx all the time.
Its a bit buggy though, I can fire a shot & have to wait one or two seconds for the enemy's head to explode & their body to be catapulted back.
Its very funny.
I really like the weight system, it actually makes you think about your weapons selection.
I don't really like the random packs,I would prefer a 'Weapon pack','Emergency pack'(Ammo bonuses,Medi-Gel,spec-ops survival pack etc..) & 'Bonus pack' categorization.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

...is awesome!

Agreed! I'm loving it.

I have my Engineer kitted out with a Viper sniper rifle (and nothing else) because I can recharge my powers super fast and the Viper has enough shots that I don't run out of bullets.

Likewise, my Vanguard and Krogan Soldier only carry a single shotgun. Keeps the recharge times much more reasonable.

 

[Captain Epic]

I play as a Male Human Infiltrator, with a Mantis with extended capacity, & a Phalanx with..err..Extended capacity.
I can kill most things easily,I only use the Mantis when Nemesis,Phantoms, or Guardians show up.I use the Phalanx all the time.
Its a bit buggy though, I can fire a shot & have to wait one or two seconds for the enemy's head to explode & their body to be catapulted back.
Its very funny.
I really like the weight system, it actually makes you think about your weapons selection.
I don't really like the random packs,I would prefer a 'Weapon pack','Emergency pack'(Ammo bonuses,Medi-Gel,spec-ops survival pack etc..) & 'Bonus pack' categorization.

Yeah that would help for those who can't get anything they want out of those packs. Anyway i love the weight system I'm a drell vangaurd who rolls with only a katana shotgun. It's very fun.

 

[Jesse Willadson]

I am loving the system as well. I also like how they brought back the leveling system for gear, similar to what they had in the first mass effect

 

[Setrus]

Snip of doom

I don't like the Viper because I'm more a one-shot-one-kill guy. I might use it if I was using a class that didn't use a damage bonus for one shot. The Viper isn't quite fast enough to take advantage of the lingering boost.

B-but the viper is...oh right, I keep forgetting you usually play the Salarian infiltrator and I the Turian sentinel. My Salarian has a 15% damage bonus to weapons while my Turian has 30%...add 20% for headshots and the viper can headshot anything unshielded but the atlas in one shot. (and with a maxed out overload everything IS unshielded to you) At silver, that is, not sure about gold...
Huh...just one more proof that weapon choice depends on what you play as, because I can understand the idea of using stealth with a heavy rifle to blast the enemy and then move away hidden, my Turian can't do that and is usually at the frontline or just behind it, and as such needs a more rapid-firing weapon.

...is awesome!

Agreed! I'm loving it.

I have my Engineer kitted out with a Viper sniper rifle (and nothing else) because I can recharge my powers super fast and the Viper has enough shots that I don't run out of bullets.

Likewise, my Vanguard and Krogan Soldier only carry a single shotgun. Keeps the recharge times much more reasonable.

Yes, I see this more and more, it's really neat to see. :-D And you engineers are so spoilt for powers, combat drone, incinerate and overload are all excellent powers, I also have the Quarian, and I sort of miss the overload power, though I suppose the defense turret can be kind of fun at times.

I don't really like the random packs,I would prefer a 'Weapon pack','Emergency pack'(Ammo bonuses,Medi-Gel,spec-ops survival pack etc..) & 'Bonus pack' categorization.

Then you'll be glad to know Bioware claims there will be more packs which are less random in the real game, I wager.

Oh, I so want to unlock the Krogan Sentinel. Extra shields while I'm power charging fools FTW.

Sadly, you can't in the demo. :-( Asari vanguard, Quarian infiltrator, Turian soldier, drell adept and Salarian engineer are also locked, or so I've been lead to believe.

Anyway, does anyone seem to notice that the heavier the gun is, the more it benefits from using cover? I swear I loathed the tempest SMG at first because it was so innaccurate compared to the shuriken, then I tried to shoot with it from cover and it was even better then the shuriken at range.
And don't even get me started on the revenant from cover compared to when not...

 

[Zydrate]

I've dealt with weight systems since Morrowind, so they're not new to me.

As long as it's not annoying as Deus Ex's.

 

[Smiley Face]

Personally I'm more of a one-shot-one-kill sorta guy. And the Widow allows me to do that. I have no issue with reloading after every shot. I've got my recharge timed perfectly, so after I take a shot, I'm back in cover by the time I lose my invisibility, and the amount of time it takes to reload is the same it takes for invisibility to recharge. So by the time I reload, I'm all ready to go invisible again and take another shot.

That's probably what I'd do on higher difficulties, but as it is, if I get a headshot, my Viper gets that one-shot, one-kill, without the problem of a long reload, and I keep my Overload/Energy Drain high enough to let that happen, which means I can get more kills, faster. And even if I don't get the headshots, I can snap off 3 torso-shots in the time a Mantis fires, enough to kill anything de-shielded. Also, that works for your infiltrator who can invisible away, and get a super, one-shot boost - for other folks, if you need to stop a bunch of guys, you want rate of fire. And for some groups, it works for combos - like my Asari Adept, I can stasis a bunch of folks, then take their heads off one at a time while they just stand there, and even with non-bubble stasis, the recharge time is so fast that a long reload would slow me down tremendously.

 

[JimmyC99]

On the Subject of the ME3 Multiplayer, and probably the single player slightly , the Vanguard still seams increasingly powerful, its super high risk if you play it "properly", which is (in my opinion) Pistol/SMG and Shotgun (can drop the pistol if you want yo be crazy) the handguns are intergangable, but you really want the Scimitar shotgun, and this is usually what i do, CHARGE into someone then Nova, so i'm in the middle and have no shields, but they should be stunned or on the floor and use incineration ammo and shotgun all the things, and your recharge is shortish, as you have no heavier weapons, it has killed me several times but its fun as hell, the atlas poses a problem though 'cus pistols just arn't good enought, and getting close isn't a good idea but thats what the scrubs playing soldiers are for , 'cus son i dont need no fancy guns i got biotics (please note i'm not insulting soldiers and there biotic-less-ness, you guys aite)

 

[Setrus]

Personally I'm more of a one-shot-one-kill sorta guy. And the Widow allows me to do that. I have no issue with reloading after every shot. I've got my recharge timed perfectly, so after I take a shot, I'm back in cover by the time I lose my invisibility, and the amount of time it takes to reload is the same it takes for invisibility to recharge. So by the time I reload, I'm all ready to go invisible again and take another shot.

That's probably what I'd do on higher difficulties, but as it is, if I get a headshot, my Viper gets that one-shot, one-kill, without the problem of a long reload, and I keep my Overload/Energy Drain high enough to let that happen, which means I can get more kills, faster. And even if I don't get the headshots, I can snap off 3 torso-shots in the time a Mantis fires, enough to kill anything de-shielded. Also, that works for your infiltrator who can invisible away, and get a super, one-shot boost - for other folks, if you need to stop a bunch of guys, you want rate of fire. And for some groups, it works for combos - like my Asari Adept, I can stasis a bunch of folks, then take their heads off one at a time while they just stand there, and even with non-bubble stasis, the recharge time is so fast that a long reload would slow me down tremendously.

I also like the fact that say you in one clip kill 2 assault troopers with headshots along with a centurion you de-shielded, then just injure a third trooper, you'll still get the assist for him being injured when one of your buddies shoot him, it really helps in adding up the points. (which might be a bit pointless since everyone shares the xp from the combined points, but still, it's nice to see your name at the top of the score board. )
Heh, I saw an asari player do that with a mantis, stasis an enemy and then take aim and blow their heads off...at a distance of five feet! *snickers*

 

[Zen Toombs]

...is awesome!

I really like it too, but I dislike how it encourages a person to only use one gun, and only the low weight ones unless one has a good reason[footnote]Like the Widowmaker[/footnote] - pretty much all of my characters in the multiplayer focus on powers, even my Soldier. I've found that it's much more effective to spam Carnage than to have a "gun for each limb" as Wrex proposed.

 

[Zen Toombs]

On the Subject of the ME3 Multiplayer, and probably the single player slightly , the Vanguard still seams increasingly powerful, its super high risk if you play it "properly", which is (in my opinion) Pistol/SMG and Shotgun (can drop the pistol if you want yo be crazy)

To be honest, the best Vanguard I've seen only had a pistol. He just ran around charging and novaing the living daylights out of everything, and could pull it off because he had +200% recharge. You can't really pull that off while holding a shotgun in hand, and the guy got a lot more damage off of Nova-combo than with a shotgun.

EDIT: Note! This guy was mid level, and you can't pull the above off without being a mid level vanguard.