What does everyone think of Thane Krios?
I only used Thane once and that was during the suicide mission for the last fight… I kind of regret not using him more often. As a Vanguard, my team always consisted of Mordin and Miranda.
Mordin has to be by far my favorite character… hilarious. He’s the very model of a scientist Salarian. Contemplating playing through on Insanity this time with my Vanguard or starting an Infiltrator and seeing what the fuss is.
As an Infiltrator, I arguably don’t need anyone else, but my favorite pairs to bring along are Miranda and Zaeed, Garrus and Thane, or Grunt and Legion. That last one isn’t very good, but I’m very fond of both of those characters, so I use them. The same applies to Jack, who I take with me sometimes.
The reason I asked about Thane is because I’m of two minds about him. His mannerisms make him seem like a character from a J-RPG…not that that’s a bad thing in and of itself, but the “warrior monk” archetype seems a tiny bit out of place in the Mass Effect mythos. On the other hand, I think it might be an effort to make the Mass Effect universe seem a bit more diverse, and Thane is certainly diverse.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but it looks like the next DLC has recently been announced:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/info/cerberus
Five new missions featuring the Hammerhead, coming out in late March, and FREE for all Cerberus network members. Free ninety-nine is always good.
Any thoughts on companion tiers? Here are my thoughts (I don’t have Zaeed so I can’t comment on him):
Top Tier:
Miranda - 15% Squad Weapon damage that stacks with ammo powers. Access to Warp and Overload. She uses submachine guns, which is incredibly good since the vast majority of PC classes have that as the main weapon that you will be upgrading the most. Soldier is the only real exception since it uses assault rifles.
Garrus - Overload, Sniper Rifle, and a very useful squad ammo power that’s unfortunately locked up until around the half-way point of the game. Concussive shot is subpar, but it can get chargers off you if you get them in the red. Unfortunately, you can’t max out his class power, overload, AND armor piercing ammo. You end up having to choose between them, and I usually opt to keep the class power unevolved. Garrus becomes especially deadly when playing with the infiltrator or the soldier, since you can upgrade to the widow sniper rifle that does really good damage on companion characters.
Grunt - The most durable companion and he comes with an ammo power. He’s great if you don’t want to invest in your own ammo power early on, or if you don’t want to waste an extra power on one. His main drawback is that he lacks damage dealing abilities, and sometimes he’ll charge at the worst possible times.
Second Tier:
Jack - She has a great ammo power and a class power with cool down. Unfortunately, stuff like pull and shockwave aren’t all that useful in higher difficulties. Further, she can only use pistols or shotguns. If she had an SMG or Warp she’d probably be tops, but for now I don’t see how she’s any higher.
Samara - The only companion in the game who has a damage dealing power (reave) and a class power with additional cool down. Unfortunately, I think she uses assault rifles, which is great when you’re a soldier but pretty much sucks for everyone else who will be upgrading SMG damage.
Jacob - Essentially the same as Grunt except he has a lot less life in exchange for Pull. A staple in early parties, since squad incendiary really helps while you build up your other powers. If it weren’t for the Krogan Vitality upgrades I’d probably put Grunt in the second tier.
Thane - He has a lot of pluses. +50% weapon damage, warp, and access to sniper rifles make him really dangerous, especially if you have a class that gets access to the widow sniper rifle. He’s great on missions against the collectors, but is somewhat subpar outside of that. His frog ammo is worthless on higher difficulties, but can be really devasting on Veteran and below. What I like most about him is that he’s another SMG companion, which again is what you want if you’re playing almost any non-soldier class.
Mordin Solus - SMG access and incinerate make him a solid companion. Lack of an ammo power keeps him from being any higher.
Third Tier:
Tali - You can’t use Energy Drain until late in the game. Combat Drone has insanely long cool down time (30 seconds) and AI Hacking is near worthless outside of geth missions. I think she gets heavy pistols and shotguns, no SMG. She was incredibly good in ME1, it’s sad to see her like this in ME2.
Legion - The yin to Tali’s yang. He gets a sniper rifle instead of a shotgun, which is good. He still has a lot of the same problems Tali has. You also get him way too late in the game. Lastly, Energy Drain > Geth Shield Boost.
spoiler that everyone should know by now
Morinth - I’d put her in the second tier. She comes in handy on collector missions, but her utility is limited on Insanity difficulty.
Jack is a nasty ho
“Not now, trying to discover how scale-itch infected the Normandy. Sexually transmitted, only carried by Varren, implications…disturbing” - Mordin only AFTER Jack joins your ship.
hahah yeah i didnt notice that was after jack joins your squad. too funny.
oh shit, guess i shouldn’t have fucked her with my infiltrator in my run through, watch him die of aids between 2 and 3.
Actually, signs point to Kelly fucking a varren, not Jack. Also, I did squad mate tiers in the ‘tiers for non-fighting games’ thread.
You had BETTER not say that about my g/f, bro.
Don’t shoot the messenger. She’s the one who claims to “love all aliens” and admits to owning a pet varren. Put two and two together, buckaroo.
SHE’S A PEOPLE PERSON!
Not a dog-fucking person.
Hey, man, look…it’s 2185. I ain’t judgin’ anybody.
When did she admit owning a pet varren? :o Trying to go through her conversation wheels but can’t find it
At one point on Tuchanka you can have your own pet Varren, chances are just as likely that Shepard or Grunt could’ve brought the disease on.
Signs mostly point to Jack because of her blatant promiscuity and admittance of having several partners throughout her past though.
Urz is so adorable. <3
Kelly is the prime suspect.
For tier…
Miranda is top tier no question.
Samara, Mordin should be High Tier, Area Reave destroy barrier and armor, Incinerate melts armor(2.4 x damage) like butter and double damage against shields, both Reave and Incinerate stuns organic.
Thane and Garrus are high tier also, Garrus have the best ammo power and Thane got warp + high weapon damage. Grunt is the freaking tank.
Tali & Legion are tech specialist; No one handles Mech & Geth better than Tali, Legion can use the freaking Widow. Combat drones are very good even with the long CD.
Jack & Jacob…great on Veteran & below, overshadow by others when Hardcore or higher.
AP ammo> Warp ammo. Hell I would take Inferno ammo over those if the class have it. All shield boost ain’t worth it.
HAHAHA…yea thats why her bitch ass didnt survive. No space std’s for this guy
If we’re gonna do tiers it has to be based off insanity were the difference between skills matters. No doubt Miranda is S+ and Garrus is S. Grunt and Zaeed are probably A+ for their damage output on weapons alone w/ special ammo, plus they’re pretty tough. I’d say Tali gets her own bottom teir, not a single thing she does has any use, especially on her loyalty mission and she takes bullets like a sponge. Jacob has a special spot right above her because incendiary ammo and pull can be useful. Everyone else sits inbetween. Jack could sit with Jacob, however shockwave is super usefull against Husk & Varren rushes and Warp ammo alone is enough to bump her to mid tier.
This is my personal tier list for ME 2 companions:
Top tier:
Miranda is definitely one of the best companions. Having both warp and overload is incredibly useful on insanity, and her stat buff is simply amazing. Her damage output isn’t that great, but the damage and health that you and your other companion receive from her buff is well worth the trade off. Just about any type of Shepard can benefit from having Miranda in his or her squad.
Zaeed has extremely powerful weapon damage, can take out shields with disruptor ammo, can take out barriers and/or crowd control with concussive shot, and has inferno grenade to deal with mobs of targets. Almost necessary companion if you’re using a class that lacks in combat skills (i.e., biotic, engineer, sentinel), but still really useful for the other classes as well.
Garrus is another great companion to have. Like Zaeed, he can take care of shields (with overload), and he can take care of barriers and crowd control with concussive shot. Finally, having armor-piercing ammo really makes him tear up targets on insanity, since many enemies on that difficulty level have armor.
Grunt doesn’t provide as much damage as Zaeed or Garrus, but he is a freaking tank. He’s pretty nice to have if you’re an infiltrator, because he can distract enemies and soak up damage while you pick enemies off at a safe distance.
Mid tier:
Samara is good because she provides decent weapon damage, but more importantly, she has reave, an amazing ability. If your character has area reave and you evolve Samara’s reave into the area version as well, you’ll be stripping a ton of defenses off of multiple targets. Very nice. However, if your Shepard is a biotic (or even a sentinel), she isn’t as beneficial.
Mordin is very underrated in this game. I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but he is an organic killer. Incinerate is great for melting armor, and Neural Shock is really nice for crowd control. His damage output is low though, so you’ll need to have someone else to provide more firepower for your squad (either yourself and/or your other companion).
Legion is pretty good, but “their” abilities seem at odds with each other. On one hand, Legion can use the Widow, so “they” have good long-range damage. However, Geth Shield Boost makes Legion sort of like a tank, which would make “them” suited for close-range combat. In essence, Legion is more-or-less a durable sniper. although I think they would be much better off with a defense-weakening ability rather than geth shield (although geth shield boost is more inline with the story). Combat Drone (and to a lesser extent AI Hack) is also decent crowd control, but unfortunately only single target (if I’m recalling correctly).
Jacob is basically a weaker version of Grunt. Instead of fortification and krogan vitality, he has barrier. He also has decent crowd control with pull and incendiary ammo. Overall, Jacob is pretty decent.
Bottom tier:
Morinth is similar to Samara, but I’m not really a big fan of dominate, at least on insanity.
Thane’s usefulness largely depends on the difficulty level that you are playing the game on. For the lower difficulties, his damage output is amazing, because enemies have fewer defenses, which lets shredder ammo shine. On higher difficulties, however, his damage isn’t nearly as great (since enemies have more defenses).
Jack is similar to Thane in that she loses her effectiveness in the higher difficulties. On the lower difficulties, her biotic abilities provide a ton of crowd control. Her warp ammo gives her some edge at the higher difficulties, but since her strongest weapon is a shotgun, you don’t really get as much use from her ammo. The only character that can use shotguns effectively in ME 2 is a vanguard Shepard (and sometimes Grunt). Jack, on the other hand, doesn’t have the survivability to make use of her shotgun to its fullest.
Tali is like Legion, providing similar crowd control options, but she’s a little worse off, in my opinion. Energy Drain is nice on higher difficulty levels because it helps weaken enemy defenses and recharges her shields at the same time, which gives her an edge over Legion in this department. However, her weapon selection is her major weakness. I think that Tali and Legion would be so much better if they switched weapon specializations, since Legion seems more tank-oriented, and Tali is better suited for long-range combat.