Mass Effect 2

[Deejay]

Just finished my Infiltrator run on Insanity. Me, Legion, and Thane are fucking boss on the collector levels. Throw out Legions pet to distract everyone and snipe snipe snipe. The Collector's go down in 1-2 hits and the Harbinger in like 3-4.

And for the Husk portions:Thane's Warp/Throw Field + Incinerate + SMG's/Assault Rifles = pwn.

I seriously think that setup is the best in the game.

[Moss]

Not sure why people are having a problem with this part, even on the harder difficulties I've never had a serious problem on that fight, there's hardly any pressure on you except for the collector general, and even that isn't too bad typically, just keep your head down to avoid getting hit by the Scions.

Just finished my Sentinel playthrough, favorite class yet. Used Armor Piercing rounds as bonus power, didn't level up throw or warp.

The problem is the Scions wiping out the party members in 2 seconds and then having to take out the Harbinger while having shockwaves coming at you from 2 Scions. The Harbinger uses that move that knocks you out of cover and then you get raped. When I finally beat it I was playing really aggressively with the shotty+Vanguard Charge.

[Thulius]

I don't recall ever fighting 2 scions at a time during that section. I'm pretty sure the second doesn't come until halfway through the fight there should be enough time to take out the first scion while it's flying in. There's cover all over the place anyway, so scions should be the least of your worries. Harbinger will miss pretty often if you just shuffle back and forth behind cover. You should be sticking your squad behind cover too, so scions shouldn't be killing them too often.

Every once in a while you'll get knocked out of cover by harbinger and go down before you get a chance to do anything, but as long as you keep your squad alive they should draw enough attention that that doesn't happen. As long as you take advantage of the brief lull and take out the first scion before the second shows up it really isn't that hard. Certainly not the hardest part in the game, at least not for adept.

[Moss]

I am playing as a vanguard, was with Grunt and Miranda. The first platform drops down with 3 collectors, one of which gets possessed, and a 2nd platform drops simultaneously with a scion - this platform moves back and forth. With no sniper rifle it isn't plausible to take out the scion before the collectors, it takes way too long.

[Thulius]

Yeah, that's not what I meant. You completely ignore the first scion until the collectors are dead. After the first wave or two of collectors there's a pause, then a second scion comes down with the next wave. That's the time you should be using to take out the scion. If you're having trouble with only one scion out then I don't know what to say, it was never a problem for me.

I can see how it's more of an issue without a sniper rifle though. I had Grunt and Mordin along so you shouldn't have any less firepower as far as abilities go, but it'd probably take a bit of repositioning to do anything significant with a pistol.

[Charismatic]

Yeah, that's not what I meant. You completely ignore the first scion until the collectors are dead. After the first wave or two of collectors there's a pause, then a second scion comes down with the next wave. That's the time you should be using to take out the scion. If you're having trouble with only one scion out then I don't know what to say, it was never a problem for me.

I can see how it's more of an issue without a sniper rifle though. I had Grunt and Mordin along so you shouldn't have any less firepower as far as abilities go, but it'd probably take a bit of repositioning to do anything significant with a pistol.

The fight's not easy, don't pretend it is.
On Insanity the Scions rape your Squad members because they are too dumb to stay down when the shockwaves are coming through so don't even pretend you have some super special strat for that. They're gonna die unless you're lucky.

And then solo with Harbinger, a Scion and some collectors backing him up.
Impossible, no. Hard? Yeah... definitely.

That's probably one of the hardest spots in the entire game.

[Thulius]

I'm not saying it's easy, but I had a lot more trouble at other points in the game, specifically Garrus and Mordin's Recruitment missions, Zaeed's loyalty mission and the collector fight on Horizon. I really didn't have that much trouble on the collector ship. Maybe adept is better fighting from a fairly stationary position, or maybe I was just bad near the beginning. I don't know.

My squad was definitely not getting taken down by shockwaves that often; Mordin died on occasion but Grunt is Grunt, and you really shouldn't have any problems with him as long as you tell him to go to one place and stay there. With other squads, yeah, I can see scions being a problem.

[Moss]

Are you playing on Insanity? Grunt dies just as fast as Miranda, granted I didn't do his loyalty mission first for fortification but I don't think that would make too much of a difference.

As for that fight, after the first wave of collectors+scion, there is another wave of collectors+scion iirc. When I finally got through it I got to the point where everyone was dead but the two scions, whittled one down to a sliver of health then killed the other, then revived my dudes since they just die immediately against scions. It didn't help that I only had 2 medi-gels going in, although when I finally beat it I only used one of them.

[Thulius]

Yes, I was playing on insanity. I had Grunt's fortification at rank 3 along with krogan pureblood, so that explains a lot. It makes more of a difference than you'd think; unless he does something stupid like charge into a group of enemies he just doesn't die.

[Moss]

Yeah I can see it making a difference at rank 3. It annoys me how it locks you into the Collector missions.

[Deejay]

You guys talking about the Collecter trap or the final mission? The trap mission was the only fight that took me 20 tries to beat. I think I tried it with Jack and Garrus originally, but had to switch to Thane + Garrus because Jack was pretty much useless and kept getting killed.

The Harbinger's shockwave fucks you up if you don't handle it properly. I had an easier time with the fight when I realized you could completely dodge the shockwave orb if you just strafed a couple feet to the side right before it makes contact with whatever you're hiding behind.

[Moss]

Yeah we were talking about the trap. The Harbinger alone wasn't too bad, it's just 2 scions and a harbinger at the same time.

[Albatross]

When I did that part on my Adapt, you pretty much just have to solo that area. Ignore the Scions and focus on taking out Harbinger whenever he comes out if he is near you asap. When the first platform comes in at the very start I really just had my other 2 people target a single collector with me, take out any collectors that aren't harbinger if he is at a distance so he can't possess them later on, and if he got within a certain range I focused on him.

I didn't bother medi-geling my people during that portion because they would just immediately die, you just gotta take out of the collectors as fast as you can and then you can deal with the 2 Scions shooting shockwaves at you. Once it's down to just the 2 Scions take one down to nearly dead then take the other one down, kill them both right next to one another so they're out of the picture then i think the last platform comes in.

Edit* On another note, I finished my Soldier play through on insanity just the other day. Compared to Adapt it felt like I was going through on easy mode, the revenant rifle is so ridiculously overpowered, tears through everything. Revenant + Hardened Adrenaline Rush.

[Lbelle]

fffffffffuck I saved EVERYONE on my team except the ONE PERSON I didn't want to die: Miranda. God damn it. She died to a fucking beam hitting her on the face on the way out of the collector ship too lol. Fun game! Playing through again choosing all renegade options.

[BRP]

I want to make a Michael Jordan Shepard, then take a sceenshot(or gif) of when he is jumping on the normandy, then shop a basketball in his hand(and maybe a hoop and court)

[Deejay]

I want to make a Michael Jordan Shepard, then take a sceenshot(or gif) of when he is jumping on the normandy, then shop a basketball in his hand(and maybe a hoop and court)

LOL I would love this.

[mightyg]

I gotta say I'm enjoying sentinel. if you manage to freeze some of the smaller enemies, hit em with throw and watch em fly, bounce off wall to wall, then shatter. Picked shotgun on my previous playthrough. Really wish I'd grabbed assault rifle for insanity but it does come in handy for YMIR mechs in your face, can pop out and fire a shot really fast with shotguns.

[noblemountain]

Odd question...I've seen a lot of discussion about how you can get Shepard killed at the end of ME2. How does that work? I didn't really see any dialogue options that seemed like they would lead that way. I saw an interview with one of the devs where he said that if you die at the end of ME2 that your character won't port into ME3 and you'll have to start over with a new Shep. Just curious what leads to the death...I'm on my renegade playthrough now and don't want to accidentally do this.

[BRP]

Shepard will die if he has no one left to help him.

[noblemountain]

Shepard will die if he has no one left to help him.

Ahhh...thank you sir. Guess I'll have to keep one person alive.