I (*HEART*) The N7 Shadow | Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer

YES I KNOW!! Mass Effect 3 came out almost 2 years ago. In that time I played the shit out of the multiplayer even tho it was just a basic horde mode type of multiplayer. I have recently picked it up again and it is just as fun as it was when I was playing it back then. If your familiar with the multiplayer of Mass Effect 3 you get different classes Adept, Solider, Sentinel, Infiltrator and Vanguard (I think that's all of it.). For the longest time I was rolling with the vanilla human sentinel a very solid class. With the amount of multiplayer DLC that came with the game came new character classes. When the Earth DLC came out I manage to get my hands on The N7 Shadow...

I was not disappointed. Yes At first I was trying to figure her out in term of powers and skills. Then I was talking to some people in a lobby during a game and one of them told me she can be very powerful with melee. This is tied to her power called shadow strike where she can cloak and go right behind an opponent and deliver a very powerful melee attack. So I did a little research and from that made a new build for the Shadow. The melee build.

In this build I have centered all my skills to augment my melee damage. The Key things about this build is having bonus power during cloak and martial artist where I can gain additional melee damage after a successful melee attack. That in combination of shadow strike which counts as a melee attack gave my shadow unparalleled mobility in the battlefield. Where I cloak + shadow strike..rinse and repeat. It was soo powerful at times I can kill phantoms in one hit!!

For the longest time I was rolling with that build and was content with that. Then the Retaliation came out...
Now this DLC was a bit of a game changer in that they introduced a new enemies for the different factions but also a returning enemy the Collectors.

With this new enemy I brought my Shadow as usual in the game on gold. Now something was different I was holding my own well against them but it seem a whole lot harder to beat them. There were several time we did not get full extract. Maybe it was just the fact we needed to get used to them but durring that time playing against the collectors I notice one big flaw with my build.

Yes it may be powerful at close range in dealing the smaller tier enemies but against bosses that can insta-kill you like banshees and praetorians it is no longer an option. You may shadow strike into a group of enemies that can kill you the instant you appear especially against collectors who are close range specialists. It lacked any long range capabilities.

So I went back and did a little research on this character and then I saw vid where this person was using a Shadow but using her as a sniper! That person was dealing soo much damage with this build. I almost forgot that the Shadow is an infiltrator and can get sniper rifle bonuses from that From that basis I made my new build which was a shadow sniper.

This build I completely did away with the electric slash and focused point in maxing out the other skills. First one is Shadow strike. The major difference is in the last tier instead of damage its shield drain so if there was any situation my health is low I can shadow strike a shielded enemy and take their shields for myself thus increasing survivalbility. For tactical cloak I added points to recharge speed and sniper rifle damage. For the passive skills such as N7 Shadow I maxed that out putting points into power damage for the added bonus damage when you are cloaked and for sword mastery points into durability.

Now getting used to this new build was the hard part especially as a person who is not well known for sniping. The primary weapon I used was the widow which was powerful but had a long reload time so I practiced reload cancelling with my vanilla infiltrator. When playing with this build it required a little more thinking than the melee build I needed to be aware of my surroundings as well distance with my enemies as well when to reload cancel.

I took a while but I eventually got used to it and my N7 shadow somewhat undergone a massive transformation to the Shadow Sniper!! A formidable character that is powerful at now both long and short range. To the point when I jump into random lobbies after a match people end up asking how are you doing soo much damage with the N7 shadow haha.

Recently I upgraded my Shadow to the Black Widow and with the 3 shots from the Black Widow she is even more powerful than she was before.

 

Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag | Multiplayer Thoughts

Since Assassin's Creed Brotherhood there has been a multiplayer. A multiplayer which I LOVE!! It is a kind multiplayer that comes once in a while. A multiplayer that has a surprisingly deep psychological and strategic feel that you don't get with the other standard multiplayers like Halo or COD. A multiplayer that requires you to think a little more. Its a game where "the crowd is your jungle and behavior is your camouflage" (I got that from an article way back in 2010 talking about the Revelations Multiplayer). Speaking of which I got into Assassins Creed multiplayer durring Revelations and have been playing the multiplayer ever since.

Now we are here with AC4: Black Flag Multiplayer. What do I think? Actually I think its really good! Just a note that I mainly play free for all types Deathmatch and Wanted so I will be discussing it from that perspective.

When I started playing AC4 multiplayer for the first time. It took a while for me to adjust to it longer than the previous games. It was probably due to me not playing in a long while with the new scoring system, the changes to some of the abilities such as knife stuns and with previous game I played pretty aggressive. AC4 puts more emphasis on patience and stealth  especially on deathmatch this is due to the new scoring system. In the previous the bonus like hidden or bench kills add on to your detection meter score like +200. In this game the bonuses are score multipliers. So a hidden would be x2 of your original score.

So in previous AC games say your detection meter is at 350 and you get a hidden kill it will be
350 + 200 = 550 pts.

With AC4 if you get a hidden it will be.
350 x 2 = 700 pts.

On the flip side if you get into a contested kill or honorable death it will halve your score as well your opponent's. In a high level lobby if your careless or too impatient your target spot you which 90% of the time. There goes your 700pts out the window.

With that it has become more beneficial to use your blend groups and think of your bonuses. It forces you to become patient and observe the field to see what kind of kill I can pull off. Can I go for a bench kill or will it be better for me to stick with a hidden.  Its a risk vs. reward system that where you can see the consequences or benefits of your choices.

Another result of the new scoring system is the score spread is a lot closer. There were a lot of games where anybody from 4th-8th could have taken first place. I myself have manage to sneak into 2nd from 7th and was in contention for 1st place. This brings in a lot of things. First I think its a way for players who is not as experience or high level as others in the same lobby to feel like they had a chance of at least making in the to the top 3. Thus brings the motivation to actually play and learn more about the game and to see what they can do to be better that can have them coming back. Another thing is that it brings the tension level even higher where right at the last moment you can win or  loose...I LOVE THAT!! I never felt that kind of intense competition in previous games or not as much. Its not like who ever is in first place can keep that spot for the whole match.

Which brings me to to another topic is defense. Now a little while ago I watched a video discussing the lack of hard stun abilities (meaning: an ability that can guarantee a stun when you use it) and thus the lack of defense and how it hinders the multiplayer. I can kinda see where they were coming from. They like to beast it out in a match when they are in first place and if your in first place you would want to keep that first place spot. Right? When you are in first place you have multiple pursuers after you and you would want something to defend yourself from them. But in the previous games defense was a little OP. In Revelations just slap on mute and smoke and your good to go. It got to the point where EVERYBODY was using it. No variation and nothing unique. In AC4 they manage to balance the abilities better than the previous games. Now I see people using a wide variety of abilities and thus you having to bring in a different set of strategies to deal with the different players.

They also said that there is no incentive to be in 1st place any more because there is no abilities to defend yourself effectively. Now they are looking at it from the perspective of a veteran AC player where they want to a beast in a match all the time. I try looking at it from a player who sucks or just starting. If I'm starting out and go to a lobby with a high level players I would get my ass kicked over and over again to the point where I will not play this anymore.  I see this with a friend of mine who sucks at the multiplayer but he tried hard to get better at it but in the end he just gave up which is sad. So when you are in 1st place you are top dog and everybody will want that top spot so it makes sense for them to have multiple pursuers and you should not keep the 1st place spot so easily.

Another thing the most people often overlook or ignore is that with AC4 for the most part its not all about your abilities. Its about your strategy, your play style on how you can use the environment, behavior, misdirection, sub defuse to throw off your opponent. Its about getting inside your opponents head and be 3 steps ahead of them. Your abilities work to compliment them not replace them. So when you are in 1st place and you have 5 pursuers don't think to yourself this is bullshit this game sucks. Think to yourself what can I do to outwit them or what shall I do so when I act it will in the long run benefit me more than my persuers. That's where the challenge is.  

In conclusion this multiplayer I am enjoying a lot but I also understand that its not perfect and with any multiplayer it is an iterative process. So I can look pass some of the issues that come up, adapt to the changes and enjoy it like any other video game.

Choosing A New Path | Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag

This is more or less a free form ramble talking about Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag. These are just the pure raw thoughts I had about the game so please excuse the bad grammar and spelling :) and spoilers.

So I have officially finished the single player campaign of Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag and HOLY SHIT what an amazing game. Almost a year before when Ubisoft first announced the game I was some trepidations about the idea and having still going through Assassins Creed 3. But this game has eased all that by delivering a great story, fun gameplay and an ending that really hits you here (I am pointing at my chest).

Now for me a judge of a great Assassins Creed game is when you the player end up getting lost in the world for hours on end. I haven't did that since AC2!!! In AC2 I spent soo many hours in Venice Just ridding the gonala listening to Dreams of Venice by Jyper Kid. In AC4 the first city you arrive in, Havana, I immediately got immersed in the world taking in the sights sound and atmosphere. First 6 hours of me playing was just me walking around doing random stuff and with the soundtrack....usted esta en la habana!!!!

Gameplay wise there is nothing much to say other than Ubisoft always deliver. Combat is solid similar to AC3 same goes with the freerunning. I like they put an effort to have more stealth options into the game since I myself is more of a stealth style gamer. For example I was sailing in the Jackdaw and saw in the distance a very high level man o' war (I didint know I can do this) instead of fighting him head on I decided to swim to the ship and capture it myself with out killing any of my crew. That was amazing!!

Now the Assassins Creed franchise has always been known for great storytelling. The story of Edward Kenway was no exception. With Edward through a series of circumstances he ends up being embroiled into the secret war of the Assassins and Templar. But the real meat with the Edward story is his motivations. His motivations stems from his desire to have a good life for his wife Caroline as we see in his flashbacks and it is that what drives him to seek wealth and fortune as a pirate and how it conflicts with the ideals of both Templars and Assassins. 90% of the story you are not an Assassin which is a refreshing take on the franchise. As you play the game you end up having this 3rd party perspective that brings in those shades of grey and the Templar Assassin conflict is not all black and white. 

Edward's blind and selfish motivations to pursue the observatory and its power is what ultimately led to the deaths of many friends around him from his pirate accolades to the Assassins. My favorite part of the story is when Mary (a.k.a Kidd) died and that when the hammer fell on Edward. As her death lead him to a deep drunken depression and hallucinations seeing all the people who had suffered because of him. Now here is where you get a great use of the phoenix metaphors personified. After going through his depression he finally realized the consequence of his actions and now vows to right his wrong and reforge him self choosing a new path and thus becoming a true Assassin earning the respect of both Assassins and Templars.

The ending was a sweet, sweet ending with having learned his wife Caroline died 2 years prior. Edward was greeted with his daughter now for him to raise her and take care of her. It may be short but that scene alone you can see how much the character of Edward have grown as he meets her daughter for the first time. With combination with the song Anne Bonny sung made it a nice heart warming ending. (Not going to lie I had Man Tears!!!). As we near the end it comes full circle as we are then taken back to the Theater Royal as shown in the beginning of AC3 as we are introduced to a young Haytham Kenway.

Concluding this ramble Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag has taken its place for me as one of the best AC games I had played second to AC2. It offered a satisfying chapter to the Kenway family saga it offered a nice swan song for Desmond in the modern day (Yes I know did not talk about modern day that much). You can see this game as a transitional period as we move from the Desmond era to the Juno era and as I anticipate what will be the next chapter in the Assassins Creed universe.  

Borderlands 2

So I have been playing Borderlands 2 a lot and I decided to consolidate all my builds for all my characters. What I love about this game the most it the level of customization you can do with your character skills how each build will bring a different strategy. Borderlands 2, in my opinion, is not all about the guns and equipment. It is the skills and actually knowing how those skills work that can bring interesting synergy with the guns and equipment so you can become an unstoppable force in the battlefield. So lets get on with it.

MAYA THE SIREN

GOD MODE

This is the standard build I use most of the time for both solo and team play with one point into res. The idea with this build is pure damage and survivability.  By putting in points into minds eye, wreck and reaper coupled with converge and sub-sequence I can control enemies in the battlefield and increases Maya's firepower and damage per second greatly, which can be used in two situations. I can either Phaselock a stronger enemy and kill him in the duration of the Phaselock, or lock a random opponent, kill them and sub-sequence will move to the next enemy and I can rinse and repeat, granting her an extremely fast killing speed.

With survivability part this is where the gear comes in normally I see people running with the Bee shield which gives you a high amp damage to your guns. It is powerful but only when your shields are fully charged and when there is a lot of enemies shooting at you it is kinda hard keeping that Bee shield up. So instead of the Bee I use the Sham which is an amazing shield which can absorb bullets and add them my own with absorb chances ranging from 80%-95%. With the Bee shield I do use it on higher difficulties and against Raid Bosses, but most of the time for mobbing I go with the Sham. With these two shields I see it as either wanting to be a godly killing machine only when your shields are fully up or be a killing machine consistently while staying alive.

Along with the shield there are class mods I use to help amplify her skills.  I use a number of different mods for her the main ones are the Legendary Siren mod, Legendary Binder mod and the Legendary Cat mod. Each Legendary Class mod will give you +5 points on 5 different skill depending on the class mod. But the main one I use is the Legendary Cat mod as it gives +5 on accelerate, minds eye, wreck, foresight and reaper as well an added bonus of additional high SMG damage.

Now this is where the guns come in to play. With the siren she is the most proficient, if not the best, user of sub machine guns. With the added Legendary Cat mod it can have damage bonuses up to +129%!! There is a lot of good sub machine guns out there from the Lascaux to the Bitch. But to truly see her power with SMGs it is with the Sandhawk. The Sandhawk is a unique gun in that is fires a spread of about 8 bullets in a pattern similar to a hawk flying at the cost of 1 and the damage is applied to all 8 bullets instead of being spread out. This gives the Sandhawk a x8 damage multiplier.

Speed Run / Deal with the Devil

This build serves two purposes the first one being the speed run build. The build is very similar to the God Mode Build but added points to Fleet. It is a very basic skill when the shields are down you gain an increased movement speed. With 5 points into that skill you gain 50% movement speed. It is fast but when you add a Breakneck Banshee Class mod it will give you +6 into fleet giving the siren 110% movement speed!! As well if you add the Rough Rider shield which is a unique shield as it gives you 0 shield capacity granting the siren that 110% movement speed all the time. This works well when you are trying to do a speed run where you can just run past enemies to the objectives and/or bosses at a shorter amount of time.

The second part of this build is the deal with the devil build. In this build I have also put in 5 points into Immolate what that does it give the siren 50% fire damage to your guns when you are in fight for your life. If you combine that with an Unyielding Banshee Class mod with +6 points into Immolate it will give the siren 110% burn damage. It doesn't end there!!! The Unyielding Banshee Class has a second purpose as it decreases the siren's health significantly and if combined with the Hoplite shield it can further decrease your health to 0. Now you might be asking why would I want to have 0 health?! What that does it tricks the game in thinking you are in fight for your life thus giving you that 110% bonus. Once its 0 you can switch to the Bee and to a fire weapon and you gain a huge boost in fire damage as high as 1 Billion!!!! 1 BILLION!!!!!!! This is the ultimate glass cannon you get an insane amount of power but at the price of your health. Hmm...Faust should be proud!

Digistruct Peak Build

This was a recent build I made in the wake of going through Digistruct Peak. Digistruct peak is a challenging course for both solo and team play. In team play I usually team up with a Commando, Gunzerker and another Siren. As powerful as all of us were getting through ultimate bad ass level enemies after ultimate bad ass level enemies was extremely difficult. So there was one skill in the very end of the Ward tree that I did not consider, Thoughtlock. What that does is that whenever I Phaselock an enemy it now causes them to switch sides and turn against their allies durring the duration of the Phaselock. It does not sound much but when you are in a situation where your fighting 2 scorchs or fighting the 4 assassins all at once having one of them fight for us gave our team the short bit of respite and time for us to quickly regroup and counter attack. As with the other skills I have kept full points into cataclysm for the extra damage and when combined with converge and suspension it is great in drawing agro away from us as enemies will converge into the Thoughtlock target and thus having all of them fighting each other in one area.

I WILL DRAW THE AGRO!!!!!!!!!

I am taking a page out of my psycho krieg and thought of a crazy idea of Maya dealing with the agro. This is build is survivability at its fullest. This build puts full points into kinetic reflection, recompence and chain reaction. Kinetic reflection is a kill skill where every time you score a kill you gain the ability to deflect bullets back to the attacker and with 5 points into that you gain a 100% deflection chance as well as 50% damage reduction. Recompence is Harmony based skill where if you take health damage you have a 50% chance of dealing equal damage to your attacker. With chain reaction its a skill where you have a 40% chance of having bullet ricochet and hit nearby enemies and as with drawing agro this is very helpful. In order to make this build to work you are going to need 2 shields the Sham or the Antagonist. The Sham as discussed before has a high absorb chance making great for agro dealing but the Antagonist is where you get the most synergy with your skills. The Antagonist is a seraph shield that deflects with increased damage towards nearby enemies, increased damage reduction and to top it of it launches homing slag balls to its attackers. This is an amazing shield with deflection damage up to 800% and damage reduction up to 50% combined with kinetic reflection and recompense and with the added slag damage you can kill nearby guys with out shooting your gun.

As amazing this may all sound this is a more skilled based build and that you need to constantly scoring kill to gain those kill skills. You will need gear and guns that are high damage such as the Legendary Cat mod, Florentine SMG which has both slag and shock damage,  the Bitch SMG, and last but not least the Grogg Nozzle or the Rubi pistols for its healing properties.

That does it for Maya soon I will post all my builds for Zer0 and Krieg later on.