Current Events > About to start ME trilogy for 1st time, what specialization y'all recommend?

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Just got mass effect legendary edition, what specialization do yall recommend? Ive been sitting here staring at the different choices for like 20 min lol

I HAVE NEVER PLAYED THIS SERIES BEFORE. i kinda want to be shooty and use biotic but I dunno if vanguard is the right choice pls help CE!

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Adepts are great fun, especially when you get to 3

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Vanguard is very meh for the first game but becomes amazing fun in 2 and 3 so wait to change until one of those if you want to. Otherwise for the first one do whatever really, biotics/tech are still fun in 1 but not as good in the later parts of the game and the more "shooty" classes like soldier/infiltrator perform great throughout the whole game.

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hmm hadnt considered infiltrator but that might be a good choice for first game. any other recs?

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Anything but soldier.

Personally I've always found vanguard to be the most fun.

If I'm playing male Paragon Shepherd, I'm going soldier. If I'm playing FemShep Renegade, whichever one is the biotic hybrid.

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You shouldn't feel bound to one class through all three games as they are very differently balanced. Vanguard in 2 plays completely differently than it does in 1 (and also plays worse). In 1 it's pretty strong though, but it doesn't feel that much different from a soldier who uses shotguns, IMO. Adept, the biotic expert class is really good in ME1, and probably one of the more fun to play with, but in 2 it's the worst class because everything resists biotics. ME1 Infiltrator has some good tech skills to use, but it's a sniper rifle expert in a game where sniper rifles are just awful.

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Infiltrator is hella fun in 1. Sniper Rifle can pick off mooks from across the screen. Tech abilities to trash enemy shields and disable mechs. And when all else fails, the pistol still does a lot of work.

The Sniper play is a lot better in 2, but they lose all their cool tech skills in exchange for other more direct combat abilities.

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damn y'all aint making this decision easy lol so many conflicting opinions... hmm. i think the only classes im NOT considering right now would be engineer and sentinel. They just dont really seem like my style. im thinking maybe adept for 1, vanguard for 2 and 3?

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i went with adept

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Vanguard.

In the first game, its basically a hybrid between Soldier and Adept. Got some biotic spells, but also a bit beefier.

In the second and third games, its a more aggressive, front line blitz machine. All about charging from one enemy to another and blasting them point-blank with your shotgun.

Doesn't matter too much in 1. Generally speaking combat classes deal more damage (mainly due to them being able to use more than just the pistol, which while still good isn't as good as the other weapons in the hands of the combat classes) + being tankier, tech classes provide debuffs (with engineers + sentinels having a skill that increases the amount of HP healed with omnigel), and biotics providing CC. That said none of them really make an big impact on your playstyle.

ME2 (and 3, which just takes the changes from 2 and expands on them) is when the specializations really begin to impact how you decide to play. Each class gets their own unique ability that the others can't get, and said ability will pretty much dictate how you want to play.

Soldier - Gets Adreneline Rush, which temporarily boosts their damage + reduces the damage they take. IIRC it also slows down time.

Adept - Gets Singularity, which does the same thing it does in ME1 (creates it's namesake which will toss around enemies in its AOE and prevents them from doing anything). However it's not that good in 2 since enemies get protections (shield, barriers, or armor) that prevents CC from working until you strip them.

Engineer - Gets a Combat Drone that will go around attacking enemies. It doesn't do much damage, but it can distract enemies + IIRC it can also briefly stun/stagger enemies if they don't have protections.

Infiltrator- Gets Cloak, which turns you invisible and gives you a damage buff on the 1st shot you take (which will also break the invisibilty). Which as you expect pairs very well with the sniper rifles that they specialize in (that said there's also a way to get shotguns with them, and Cloak goes well with shottys as well)

Vanguard - Gets Biotic Charge, which rushes you towards your target and gets you right in their face, also knocking them down if they don't have protections (and staggering them if they do IIRC). Works very well with shotguns, though on high difficulties it can be very high risk, high reward.

Sentinel - Gets Tech Armor, which reduces the damage they take and can be manually exploded to deal damage in an AOE (I think it also staggers enemies as well)

There's other abilities they get access too of course (like sentinels getting warp + overload, which is a strong combo in 2 since it let's you pretty much decimate any protection), but it's the class specific ability that are the primary draw to each of the classes.

Wow thank you for such a detailed reply!

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ME1: Adept - once you specialize, its impossible to die. Get a Carnifex pistol and youre now a powerhouse.

ME2: Soldier is likely the strongest class, but also the most boring since youre only using ammo powers in conjunction with a power that slows down time. Shared cooldowns also kill taking any other bonus power beyond warp ammo because you want to be spamming the slow down as much as possible.

ME3: Adept again. Warp ensures you can still combo shielded and armored enemies. For everyone else, pull/throw is your bread and butter. Nukes everyone not protected by shields/armor and the cooldowns are super low once specced right. You rarely ever need to use a gun.

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