1561

Literally just finished an insanity run with a soldier. Shooting the shit out of Geth Primes with the Revenant (equipped with the heavy anti-shield/synthetic ammo) seemed to work just fine for me, especially when I had Miranda dropping Overloads and Zaeed supporting with a Geth rifle (and likewise using heavy anti-shield ammo). Though by the time I tackled Overlord I think I must have been around level 25 or so and sitting on a hefty stack of upgrades, so that helped a bit.

1562

Shooting the shit out of stuff is all the soldier CAN do :)

1563

I should have given more information, sorry guys. I’m paired up with Mordin and Kasumi as usual. I’m using them for the bulk of my Insanity missions because a.) Mordin makes me laugh and b.) I didn’t get to group with Kasumi after I bought the DLC initially. I’m a soldier and between all of us we can usually cut through defenses and we have a good amount of crowd control if we need it.

Anyhow, I was mostly talking about the Geth Prime’s that spawn when we’re taking down the satellite link on Hermes Station. You have three structures to blow up before the whole thing comes down, right? So first I’d go around the entire satellite killing the rocket guys because they spawn independently of the Prime and Destroyer geth.

Then when I interact with the console and/or shoot out the structure itself a Prime and Destroyer spawn either clockwise or counter-clockwise from my position. Sometimes I get lucky and the Destroyer heads off and tries to flank us by coming around the other side, which gives my squad time to (comparatively) safely pick off the Prime. If both come at us and I take up position on the same third of the circle as them, then I die 90% of the time. Either the Prime’s drones will knock me out of cover and they’ll finish me off or they circle around and kill me outright because I can’t knock down their defenses.

I still feel like it’s hit or miss because each encounter can be very different. Rimbo’s advice to shoot the shit out of them did help some. :) I went from heavy reaving to using adrenline rush from range, and that paired with my Mattock assault rifle did some significant damage. But this was on one of those quirky spawns where a Destroyer wasn’t in the mix and a second Prime didn’t spawn so it felt a bit like cheating!

I’m only level 12 which could be part of the problem. I have a single point in disrupter ammo and only two points in adrenaline rush. I went straight for heavy reave because it’s so versatile and it could be that’s hurting me here.

tl;dr I should probably move on but I’m a bit of a masochist.

1564

I played this on Insanity with a soldier, Kasumi and… maybe Tali? I don’t recall having to do much beyond staying at range, spamming adrenaline and shooting a lot. Kasumi I focused on her Shadow Strike power while Tali would keep sending out her drone.

However, I had finished by the game twice by the time the DLC was out, so this was my second play-through and I had a lot of powers.

Honestly though, keep in cover and just shoot the shit out of them at range, and keep them at range. Maybe order your squad into the line of fire as a distraction if it’s really that bad.

I don’t get Reave, doesn’t it only affect health? So you get a temporary health boost (and if you’re down to health you should be in cover anyway) and it only works against organics. IMO you’re much better investing those points in disruption and adrenaline.

I’ll be in there with my Adept soon, so maybe I’ll be able to see what you’re up against.

1565

Reave does damage against shields. IIRC, its secondary effect only works if their defenses are stripped. I’m sure hong can correct me if I’m wrong.

1566

That really sounds like you’re just under-leveled for that content. I ran into that issue on a few encounters on my first Insanity play-through, too. I usually do these missions much later and so have lots of weapon upgrade goodies and such, which makes a world of difference.

1567

He will correct you even if you are right.

1568

Yeah, I’d go into battles with the revenant and paired with a good biotic (either Jack or Samara) and someone with Overload. Although going into battle as a soldier paired with Jack and Legion is just unfair on the normal levels. I went with the “give everyone cool ammo” ability, and that … it just wasn’t fair on Normal.

I haven’t tried a harder level yet, though, so let me get back to you in a few months. :)

1569

I’m surprised you’re having trouble with the satellite. The geth all spawn a fair distance away, giving you plenty of time to snipe them down. Try knocking down their shields with the AR, then switch to the sniper rifle to strip their armour. (SRs get a whacking big bonus against armour.) It goes without saying that you should be in Adren Rush non-stop.

Also, the geth all spawn at the same time, when you knock out the first support. Try killing them all before taking out the other supports, that way you don’t have to worry about the screen shaking each time.

1570

Oh, and FWIW, I found the Mattock better even than the Vindicator, if you have that DLC pack.

1571

Soldier shouldn’t really use Reave since Adrenaline Rush provides a massive damage boost and has mitigation qualities if you upgrade it (or you just dodge a lot.) On my insanity run I did find Reave useful starting out but it was far easier to just max out Adrenaline Rush with the 50% damage taken during the duration and spam it every time it came up, freeing up the bonus slot for AP/Warp ammo depending on the missions I was doing.

1572

Doesn’t warp do bonus armour damage? Why take armour piercing too?

1573

If you’ve got AP isn’t disruptor ammo a more effective secondary choice than warp? Collectors have barriers, sure, but shields are far more common, right? Plus disruptor gives you a bigger bonus than warp.

1574

The Bioware forum aspies crunched the numbers and it was actually better to use AP in all instances. It was my own personal preference to use Warp in certain areas because it was prettier.

1575

Huh, interesting. So does AP get some bonus damage vs shields and barriers then? I didn’t do much research into ammo types and mostly just went with the occasionally vague descriptions, but incendiary vs armour, disruptor vs shields/synthetics and warp vs collectors seemed to do me okay.

1576

Well I don’t have all the data (feel free to browse forum hell at bioware to find it) but Disruptor is easy… once you drop shields you still have a biotic or armor barrier to deal with and then health which makes disruptor a poor choice for ammo. I usually had Garrus and Miranda with me anyway which made at least one layer of protection moot on most hostiles.

1577

Thus far I find it rare for anything to have more than one protection. Collectors have barrier, mercs and geth have shield and husks have armour. Only “mega creatures” have multiple layers and they’re pretty rare.

I’ll try and find it, but you’re right, the Bioware forums aren’t great.

1578

Well the most dangerous enemies on Insanity are Husks and Collectors so you are better off with AP. And Disruptor ammo does absolutely nothing for health damage remember. For a nothing but geth mission you can bring Zaeed specced for squad disruptor ammo and have him apply it to your other teammate while you do the killshots with AP ammo.

1579

That means inviting Zaeed along, though. :(

We stuffed him down in the trash compactor room for a reason.

Oh, and apparently Jennifer Hale is voicing the female trooper in SWTOR.

1580

Don’t forget that disruptor ammo has a couple of very nice features:

  • It does extra health damage vs synthetics and stuns them at level 2

  • It overheats weapons at level 3, against organics and synthetics