Class choices

[YaNoahGuy]

I have never played mass effect what are best class? infiltratror sounded cool

[Jimmy McGill]

All of them are pretty good. Just don't go Adept. Full Biotics are quite difficult and uterly useless sometimes.

[Puzzlemint]

Soldier: Shoot things until they die.
Effectiveness: Very High
Learning Curve: Very Low
Fun Factor: Low

Engineer: Sit behind cover and spam powers.
Effectiveness: Average
Learning Curve: Low
Fun Factor: Average

Adept: Throw dudes around like ragdolls. Only effective against enemies with no Armor/Shields/Barriers
Effectiveness: High (low difficulties), Very Low (Hardcore, Insanity)
Learning Curve: Average
Fun Factor: High (low difficulties), Very Low (Hardcore, Insanity)

Infiltrator: Snipe dudes.
Effectiveness: Average
Learning Curve: Low
Fun Factor: Average

Sentinel: Destroy everything with all the powers.
Effectiveness: High
Learning Curve: High
Fun Factor: High

Vanguard: Charge.
Effectiveness: Ranges from Suicidal to Very High depending on player skill level
Learning Curve: Extreme
Fun Factor: Ranges from Frustrating as Hell to Yeehaw depending on player skill level

[SwobyJ]

First off, try ME1 first. Just saying..

In ME2 things are more Combat (as opposed to Tech and Biotic types of abilities) oriented.

So classes like Vanguard and Infiltrator are pretty powerful.
But Soldier is also particularly good.

But note that in ME3, Soldier feels particularly nerfed and not as good as it was in ME2. I mean they're all playable and enjoyable, but the balance does get changed.

[SwobyJ]

Puzzlemint generally had it I think.

Though I know some try to challenge themselves as an Adept on Insanity mode. You just need to make sure your squadmates are there with good Tech and maybe Warp/Biotic powers too, and you'll be actually fine.

I am normally Vanguard, but a careful one. I'll charge into the enemy when it seems safe enough, but otherwise pistol/assault rifle (you get it later as an option) from a medium distance.

[voehringer_nitron]

When I started Mass Effect 1, I went with soldier to get a handle for how the game played, kind of like taking a fighther/warrior in fantasy RPG's. Back when fighters did nothing but swing a sword or axe and had no real skills or special abilities, I found this to be extremely boring. Mages can do a lot of damage, but tend to be squishy and arent too useful when they run out of mana/memorized spells. Fighter/mages became my favorite play style, so my plan was to switch to Vangaurd once I got a handle for the game.
Vanguard was the first class I beat both games with. Right now I'm playing a Vanguard on Hardcore difficulty in part one with plans to import to part 2 for Hardcore playthrough.on My Infilitrator, I unlocked sniper rifles for part one, so my Hardcore Vanguard is training in them. And I took the Sniper Rifle from the advanced training in my first run through part 2.

[ÄmJii]

Originally posted by SwobyJ:

Though I know some try to challenge themselves as an Adept on Insanity mode. You just need to make sure your squadmates are there with good Tech and maybe Warp/Biotic powers too, and you'll be actually fine.

People like to exaggerate "Adepts on Insanity", I've cleared Insanity several times with Adept with little effort (and without any DLCs, mind you). Things got a whole lot easier once I unlocked Dominate power, that thing makes Insanity easy for any class (once you reach Enhanced Dominate).

Most people are having difficulties with enemy protections, but so what if you don't have all the powers to remove Barriers/Shields/Armors? That's what weapons are for!

Furthermore:
- Singularity stunlock staggers anything that gets caught in it, including Scions and Harbinger Collectors (and depleted B/S/A over time).
- Warp still does damage against Shields, not much as Overload but the damage is still there.
- Protected enemies refuse to lean out of cover? Use Shockwave, it staggers enemies backwards out of cover even if protected.
-Krogan or Geth Prime closing in on you? Throw & Pull briefly staggers them (even with protections on), combined with low cooldown & squadmate powers you can slow their advance considerably with bit of practice.

[Silvaren]

I recommend you playing as soldier. t'Is deffault class for Shepard, simple and powerfull in combat with great survival ability (but in my opinion most borring gameplay style).

My first character in ME1 was inflitrator, because of hacking, sniping and other things what thief/rouge do in RPG. Then I recruited Wrex and - wow I want to be vanguard! Next I met Liara and saw what singularity does and I was just - wow I want to be adept! But I finished game as Vanguard for first time. Anyway, my favourite class is adept. I wonder why I didn't choose adept for my first playthrough (I choose mage in any RPG). Since few years I play only on insanity.

I think adept in ME1 is too powerful. They just balanced this class in ME2 and ME3. The main problem is: on normal difficulty you don't need use biotic combos because anything can be killed just by warp. On higher difficulty most players hate that every enemy has protection. Squad disruptor ammo (Zaeed) or overload (Garrus, Miranda, Kasumi), drain shield (Tali), warp (Thane, Miranda), warp ammo (Jack) is more than enough to destroy all protections. Just strip one enemy and then make biotic explosion which probably remove all shields of nearby enemies. Adept is just tactical god. Drop singularity and throw enemies to it, then detonate. Pull and throw enemies into space, drop them from edges. Lot of fun.

I like playing each class using only this particular class powers. Sometimes I pick up additional bonus power which this class had in ME1 (like stasis/barier for adepts/vanguards).

List in order from most popular class:
- Soldier: shoot them to death (often changing cover and flanking with squadmates could be fun)
- Vanguard: insane close combat experiences (be aware of surroundings, squad cryo ammo could be fun)
- Infiltrator: one hit, one kill, no skill ;D (headshots are enjoyable, but first you have to remove shields)
- Sentinel: diehard, versatile combat-power specialist (pick up shotgun, some crowd control and powers to remove all protection types)
- Adept: crowd control wizard of dark energy, very powerfull biotic explosions (very tactical combat)
- Engineer: high damage powers to quickly strip enemies from protections, little crowd control (cryoblast, AI hacking, Combat Drone)

I remember funny playthrough as enigneer with Tali and Legion. Triple combat drone is awesome.

[SwobyJ]

Vanguard can be either kinda Red/Offensive, or more Blue/Defensive from my experience. Or a mix. Up to you! (though it is a largely offensively focused class in itself)

Red - Focus on firepower with weapons, Charging whenever possible, Incendiary Ammo, maybe Cryo Ammo
Blue - Focus on smaller arms and hanging back from cover and Pulling/Shockwaving, Charging when it seems safe to do, Cryo Ammo, maybe Incendiary Ammo

If there was a canon class that wasn't Soldier (which is the obvious main canon class), it'd probably be Vanguard, followed by Infiltrator. The rest might have their day in the sun in future games imo :) (more about biotics and tech focus I hope; in the story I mean)

[Silvaren]

I agree about vanguard in case of canon class other than soldier. Vanguard was in every dlc trailer for ME2. I think BioWare is proud of biotic charge.

[Dragonborn_N7]

Depends on the difficulty you're playing on and how experienced you are in the game itself. I usually use Vanguard because I'm aggresive and I take everything down quickly and effectively (a team of Miranda & Garrus/Thane/Mordin are your best bests for Vanguard, I would say). Sentinel and Solider are better for beginners, I would say.

[Nikolai_Von_Imhof]

Love adept but when I play I go from the first game till the end, adept can be rather hard in the first game. But if you want to first learn how to play and understand the game, be a solider.

[SusN]

Sentinel is the best calss hands down, BUT NAMELY after the collector ship mission where you can get assault rifle training.

sentinel combines the most effective biotics with the most effective tech abilities. with adept/ engineer you are only ever good at taking down certain types of defensives.

in order of effectiveness:

Engineer: shields, armor, health(well sorta) (from overload and incinerate)

Adept: health, armor, biotic barriers, (from warp or possibly reave)


adept is the no doubt the best for weaker enemy crowd control, being that husks are too dumb to avoid singularities, and Engineer is the best for fighting any kind of synthetic or enemy with a bigass gun.

but sentinel is different. you can take down any type of enemy without relying on squadmates to pick up the slack. bring a biotic and a tech squadmate with you and you can perform both kinds of explosions. PLUS the throw power recharges amazingly quick, blows husks in half on contact, and can be used to toss enemies lightning quick by just pressing a hotkey.

you also get warp and overload.

warp: most effective agianst armor, biotic barriers, health, armor, and setting up biotic detonations

overload: most effective agianst shields or any synthetics' health, and setting up OR initiating tech explosions. also NOTE it has an instant travel time.

boom. you have the potential to kill any kind of enemy you want... by yourself.
oh... and tech armor... it makes you look badass, and also makes you practically invincible.

vanguard may be my next choice, and soldier is hardly a class worth mentioning outside of ME1.

[SwobyJ]

The more Combat related classes (Soldier, maybe Vanguard and Infiltrator) start off being the best in ME1, but as you go to the end of ME3 they can get increasingly meh for enjoyment.
I say this

The more Biotic related classes (Adept, maybe Vanguard and Sentinel) start off being really clinky in ME1, but as you go to the end of ME3 they can be some of the most enjoyable.

The Tech classes (Engineer, maybe Sentinel and Infiltrator) are never bad choices, but not always the best.

~~~

All of this is because the gunplay gets better for all classes throughout the series. This means that the Soldier loses its relative/exclusive fun (ME1) over time. The more Biotic and Tech classes however, get more and more options to play with in less-clunky ways compared to ME1.

So for example, playing a Soldier in ME1 will be the best, but ME2 will make it more mixed, and in ME3 you may feel kinda nerfed.
But then for Adept in ME1 it'll feel weak, but ME2 will make it more useful (but tricky on higher difficulties), yet in ME3 you'll feel pretty damn strong.

You don't lose out in most cases. ME1 can be weird in that some classes (like Sentinel) are wonky, but ME2 and ME3 work towards making the classes more even in enjoyability. The next game should really work on Engineers though, as they don't have much unique uses (they just send out drones and maybe turrets, I forget).

[Steel Bear]

Extremely late, but I play ME1 now as an engineer with a bonus assault rifle skill and it's fun. Basically any class is good, though if you're limited to pistol only it does kinda lower the level of fun, even with all the abilities. If you wanna be able to do cool stuff and still shoot a lot, then Vanguard is your choice, shotguns in ME1 are very good. As for ME2 I personally choose soldier because without assault rifles it's pretty meh for my taste, though any class can get those after beating like half of the game. And in ME3 it doesn't matter, you can use any guns as any class.

[Dethlane]

Vanguard is the most fun one (and the most "critical mission failure" one on insanity).