Rebuilding From Scratch...

[Synthetic Frost]

Hey all.

Let me just start by saying that I'm not new to Mass Effect. I've played through the games on every class, gotten every achievement on my Xbox 360 copies of the games, and gone through so many playthroughs of each game that I was even able to distribute my talent points in ME1 "optimally", never putting points into charm or intimidate because they filled up naturally every time I became a spectre on each subsequent playthrough anyway.

Once I ground out all the achievements and bonus talents, I then did a 100% "canon" playthrough on my FemShep "Renegon" Infiltrator in the best possible equipment and gear, who chose Renagade options on the vast majority of choices, only choosing the Paragon options when saving Wrex, the Rachni Queen, and the Council. I essentially made all of the exact Paragon and Renegade choices I wanted to carry into the following games, and then proceeded to do the same on the next two games. I also romanced Liara. A choice I was extremely happy with once her story was fleshed out in Lair of The Shadow Broker and in ME3.

In the end, I've probably spent multiple thousands of hours playing Mass Effect across the trilogy. Just before my Xbox 360 died of old age, I did manage to transfer my Xbox saves to the PC versions of the games, but over the years they've sadly been lost to time.

Long story short, I want to do it all over again with the Legendary Edition. I'm aware there are save editors and console commands I could use to easily recreate my saves, but I don't want to do that. I want to "go legit" and redo it all without save edits or cheats, even just to save time. I'm aware a lot of the game's original level cap restrictions and achievements were eased up, which should help a lot anyway. I can do in 2-3 playthroughs what used to take 6, etc.

But here's my problem, and why I'm making this post. I don't know if I want to commit all that time to the Infiltrator again. Remember, I've beaten all of the games on Insanity with every class at least once. I'm familiar with all of the classes and their respective changes across each game, and in the past I always went back to the Infiltrator as my "canon" character.

But now, on PC in the Legendary Edition, I'm convinced that, with access to a mouse as opposed to the Xbox controller, sniping is just going to be boring and too easy. And even though I've played every class, I've never given biotics a real chance to grab me, as it were.

For the last few days I've been stuck trying to make a decision on what class to take through multiple playthroughs of the entire trilogy again. The Vanguard always tempts me as the antitheses of the Infiltrator, but every time I play the class I end up being more frustrated and stressed than anything else because I just don't find close-up combat to be very fun. I like being tactical. But to be fair, I haven't played a Vanguard on a mouse and keyboard yet either. So I might like it a lot better on PC.

As an Infiltrator, I never got to bring some of my favorite squadmates with me, like Garrus, Tali, Mordin, or Legion either. Opting instead for biotic users like Liara, Wrex, or Miranda, to balance out my squad. I'd like to pick a class where I could instead bring some of my favorite characters that I haven't gotten to before.

With all of these factors in mind, I'd like some outside opinions. Help me chose a class to take through multiple playthroughs of the Legendary Edition to end with an "optimal" "golden" character with all of the best possible choices and gear. Because I'm just OCD like that.

[Emmental]

Sentinel is pretty cool as you get access to tech and biotics and by ME3 you have no real weapon restrictions either. In ME1 you'll be able to do your own decryption, freeing up who you can take with you on missions.

You'll be able to synergise with pretty much any combination of squadmates allowing you more freedom to manipulate the story without worrying about any kind of combat effectiveness. Tech armour is over powered as a nice cherry on top.

[WhateverWorks]

Infiltrator is my favorite playthrough personally, especially in ME2. Legendary Edition is worth it though 1000% unless you have a meltdown and return a game the moment you think you have a problem. A lot of people cry about the EA app. I've done 3 playthroughs this year, I've never once had any trouble running the game. People that have issues are having user error problems. Running on a Ryzen 7 and an RTX 3060 and the game runs flawless.

Anyways, if you don't want to necessarily do infiltrator again, Sentinel is also EXTREMELY fun and a bit broke in ME3. If you're doing multiple playthroughs anyways, why not do a variety of classes? My very first time playing I did the standard BroShep Soldier. I had a good time with it, particularly in 3. Next go of it, I'm doing Adept. You could also switch it up between 1 and 2 on the premise that Shepherd actually was tweaked a bit after taking his 2 year long nap.

[Synthetic Frost]

Thanks for the feedback guys. And yeah. Sentinel is definitely a lot of fun. I was so indecisive that I ended up starting three separate playthroughs. Infiltrator, Vanguard, *and* Sentinel, each with differing morality choices, and will just play each of them concurrently, running through each at a third of the original pace. Just because I'm planning on working on this as a long-term hobby over the next few months anyway.

Needed something to fill my time.

[N7_Shadow]

For exhilaration, nothing beats the Vanguard. I love Biotic Charge. Makes the game more fast paced.