Heyhello, wonderful blog! I love your masterposts with links and I was wondering if you have any helpfull links for bards? It was the only class not covered in one of the posts with literally Everything, and maybe there is a reason for that that I just missed. Anyway, have a nice day!
That post of my 5e bookmarks was done over two (maybe even three!) years ago, and at that time, none of my D&D group had shown any interest in playing a bard. That’s the only reason, honestly.
A lot of those bookmark links aren’t valid any more, I really need to post an updated version some day soon. In the meantime:
A Basic College of Lore Bard Guide by ZardnarPlayers Gonna Play by EvilAnagramA party without music is lame by Mellored
It is late and I can't sleep, so as permitted by awesome swaps55 (everyone who is or ever was a Mass Effect fan should read her incredible fanfic, Exorduim. Seriously, go read it, do not pass go, I rarely ever truly *like* any fanfics, but this one is as-fucking-tounding), I'm making a contribution to her collection of ME3 Multiplayer class guides.
CLASS GUIDE: QUARIAN INFILTRATOR – MALE
I’m gonna be completely upfront about this: the major reason why I love Quarian male classes so much is that I find them indecently sexy. If the Vorcha are the funniest multiplayer characters, male Quarians are definitely the sexiest.Really, when they yell “LET’S MOOOVE!” on the objective waves, I’m like Yeah!!! Let’s move indeed!!! In your pants!!!
… ahem.
Build
Tactical Cloak – If you don’t build your QMI as a sniper (like I don’t) the last 2 ranks in TC are useless - take that 40% damage boost and put the rest in fitness. If you DO build him as a sniper, take melee damage -> sniper rifle damage (of course). Melee damage will serve as an additional safety net in tight situations. The recharge speed is irrelevant to infiltrators for reasons swaps explained in her guide, and bonus power is only worth taking, of all infiltrators, on the N7 Shadow (if that).
Tactical Scan – this is, arguably, the best debuff in the game. Take weapon damage (because on gold or higher you and everyone else will be doing the bulk of damage with your weapons) -> movement speed which slows the target (bonus headshot damage sounds good, but it’s bugged and doesn’t always apply correctly, if at all) -> damage. Area scan was useful in the older days, but now everyone has geth scanners, and 10% to all damage is way more appealing, imo.
Arc Grenades – ah, sweet, sweet Arc Grenades. Second best grenades in the game after clusters, and when applied liberally from cloak, can wipe out a spawn in a matter of seconds. My advice is, take damage (arcs have decent base radius of 8 m, which is more than enough, imo) - > max grenades (because no one should, ideally, stay alive long enough to take bleed damage) -> shield overload (arc grenades’ greatest weakness is that they’re almost entirely ineffectual against armor, and almost entirely ineffectual with a bonus applied is still pretty damn ineffectual). With the shield overload evo you will destroy shields and barriers; for the armor, consider using your gun. If you go for a sniper build, I recommend taking only four evos in arcs – you will have less grenades as a result, so use them only as an “oh shit” button for cases when that phantom creeps inappropriately close. Another great thing about the Arcs is that they stun on impact, so you can throw one or two in a pinch to buy yourself time to gtfo.
Quarian Defender (Male) – this is where it gets tricky. For snipers, it’s a no brainer – take weapon damage all the time. If you go for a shotgunner/grenadier build (as I do), you will really be torn between taking weapon damage and power damage, because, as I said, grenades count as a power. Personally, I take the middle road: weapon damage -> power damage -> weapon damage, but there’s really no right answer. Try and see what works for you.
Fitness – You’ll have 4 ranks left to spend in it. Take durability and be done with it.
Weapons. Depend, of course, on whether you’re a sniper or not. For a sniper, take your favorite sniper rifle. For others, take whatever you have or prefer. My personal favorite on him is the AT-12 Raider – a gun very much underappreciated by the general public, if you ask me. Like the QMI himself, one of the main attractions of the Raider for me is its sound – it really sounds like a double bark of some hellish dog. I love it. Besides, it really is an excellent gun – there are people who say that it doesn’t have enough range, and they’re mostly correct – you’ll have to stay like 4-5 meters from the enemy to be the most efficient with it, but at that range faces will get wrecked. FACES. Use a smart choke, like you should on any shotgun save the Crusader, and a high velocity barrel, and together with Infiltrator’s insane damage bonuses, you’ll get more than decent damage even at mid range. Besides, if you playing off-host with a noticeable lag, you’ll sometimes get to make 3 shots instead of 2 before reloading – each shot doing the full, proper Raider damage (which is considerable indeed).
If you’re not a close quarters person, you can’t go wrong with the Wraith. Or the Eviscerator, if your ultra rares are really low level. Or Claymore, for those who like to be truly extreme.
Basically, I’m a big fan of shotguns on this guy.
Equipment:
Permanent Gear: Grenade Capacity is a no brainer for non-snipers. Snipers, I think, should consider taking it as well; if not, Operative Package or Sniper Amp.
Weapon Amp: Use whatever goes with your weapon of choice. Targeting VI also works very well with most shotguns as well as with most sniper rifles.
Armor Module: Can’t go wrong with a Cyclonic Mod or Shield Power Cells. If you’re confident about your ability to stay alive and want to improve your DPS, take a Power Amplifier Module to boost your grenades even higher.
Ammo: Ideally take something that does tech damage – Incendiary or Disruptor rounds. Those will set up fire explosions/tech bursts respectively, which you will subsequently detonate with grenades.
General Tactics: Following from the above, Arc Grenades are a detonator of technical/elemental damage, so if you have someone with those kinds of powers on your team (i.e snap freeze, flamer, overload, incinerate, inferno grenades, etc.), don’t be selfish and detonate those when possible. Use Tactical Scan sparingly, generally only on bosses and semi-bosses like Scions, Brutes, etc., because the animation is very long and it’s simply not worth the time spent to use it on mooks (yes, even on phantoms). Scan priority targets - those you need to eliminate on objective waves. It softens them up and points to your teammates where to focus fire.
Best Maps: He can work with anything, but obviously prefers grenade-rich ones like Rio, White or Jade.
Best Difficuly: Any
Best Opponent: Grenades don’t discriminate. The easiest for him are probably Geth and Cerberus, Reapers and Collectors are a tad harder because of the plethora of armored, un-stunnable units.
I found these the other night, and I think they're neat enough to share with my followers.
Examples include standard stuff (Battlemage, Mystic, Thief), lore-friendly stuff (Dunmers of the various Great Houses), various types of Thalmor sympathizers/Aldmeri purists, a few vampire-related ones (both being a vampire or being a vampire hunter), Disciples of various Divines and Daedra, and a few random others.
