Sentinel for me for my first playthrough (which is also my insanity run) since I like having warp + overload; throw is useful as well since a lot of enemies won't have any protection even in insanity difficulty. They've kinda nerfed Tech Armor compared to ME2 but it's still useful. I ended up carrying only two weapons (pistol + assault rifle) to maintain a +196% recharge bonus. I considered Vanguard as I played as Vanguard for my first PC playthrough of ME2 but decided against it since I felt Sentinel was probably the best class to go with for my insanity run.

So just curious what everyone decided to go with this time around.

I just got the game in the mail today, and figured I'd go with my Sentinel I had from 2. But it seems like they toned it down a bit; you don't get extra Shields from Tech Armor, now it's just straight up damage reduction. And the shield detonate is now active as well, instead of passive when your shields run out. Minor changes really, but I still wasn't as awe-inspired as I was in 2.

A few hours later, I decided to reroll, and also import my character (I wasn't sure of everything that would happen if I did, but gave it a shot anyway). After seeing how much fun Tali and Legion were to have around in 2, I went with Engineer, and so far it's a blast, although I'm still working out how to "aim" the damn sentry turret.

Anyway, what did everyone else go with?

Infiltraitor for my mainshep, femshep will probably continue as vanguard for my second playthrough. The updated Black Widow sniper rifle is AMAZING, I feel so overpowered.

I went with Vanguard in ME2 so I figured I would stick with that in 3.  I like the force dash ability and the pull is nice against the shielded enemies.  My next playthrough might be with an infiltrator though since I've never played that class in a ME game before.  Seems really fun.

Sentinel. I like being a jack of all trades.

Im probably going to be soldier

Adept, rocking the smg, pistol and sniper.
Love the weapon choices.

Female Sentinel (Biotec), and I'm loving it.

Is there any weapon drawbacks to different classes besides weight?  I remember in previous games, Vanguards could only use pistols and shotguns.  In this one, I'm using an assault rifle.  I modded it so I don't see any disadvantages, but I was wondering if there were any?  

I never knew vanguard was so popular. They're a lot of fun. Started playing MP as an adept recently, and that's pretty awesome too.

Vanguard, always Vanguard. Although I did pick Soldier for ME1 as I had no idea what to expect.
 
My brother chose Infiltrator for ME1/2 and holy shit was he powerful. I remember watching him take Saren down in 2-3 hits with his Pistol whereas it took almost all of my ammo from my guns.

@ttocs said:

Is there any weapon drawbacks to different classes besides weight? I remember in previous games, Vanguards could only use pistols and shotguns. In this one, I'm using an assault rifle. I modded it so I don't see any disadvantages, but I was wondering if there were any?

No, the only thing holding you back is the weight of your weapons.

Infiltrator. I played a soldier in ME and ME2. I needed a change. On my second run I’ll probably play as a Sentinel (insanity).

The tactical cloak is awesome. Sniping is awesome. MAIL SLOT!

So close to getting mail slot. Oh, a shield. I'm sooooo scared. Bang!

Sentinel! Every enemy encounter usually goes: overload, overload, overload, SHIIELDS DOWN, warp, warp, warp, dead.

Sentinel on my paragon playthrough, which I'll use for my insanity run. Only carrying an assault rifle with 200% power recharge and launching warp, overload, and throw all damn day.

Infiltrator. Though I'm super lost, to be honest. In 2, Infiltrator was a piece of cake due to the ways levels were structured and what enemies you faced. It was pretty much "pop Tactical Cloak and ice fools in the head with a Widow, Warp Ammo active".

Now, the levels have more space, there are more guns and options and you face tons of Husks, so that tactic ain't so crazy anymore - there's a lot more running around and relying on the COMPLETELY OVERPOWERED Incinerate. At the same time, I can't effectively play a shotgun Infiltrator, like I do in multiplayer, since I don't have Cryo Blast and the maps aren't THAT big, apart from N7 missions, so I can't run around that much.

Been playing as Engineer on Hardcore, mostly with an SMG and Heavy Pistol, but I've also been trying out some Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles. Just throwing out a turret and drone and having them murder small sqauds of enemies without firing a single shot is incredibly satisfying. As is freezing them and killing them with a single Incinerate, which causes a huge freezing explosion due to the power combo system.

Really, the Engineer might be kind of broken. You can do basically everything.

Incinerate burns armor, stuns enemies, does good health damage.

Overload destroys shields and barriers, kills synthetics dead.

Cryoblast is a hard disable on unprotected foes, and a significant debuff on protected ones. Recharges almost instantly.

Sabotage damages and stuns organics when they try to fire, and turns any non-organic into a temporary ally regardless of any protection.

Drone and Turret can be specced to do huge amounts of damage and be extremely durable. You can also give the turret cryo ammo so that it'll freeze targets for you too.

Adept because space majik is awesome. Pull/Warp = vital

i did a sentinel. i really like that class because its sort of a jack of all trades type class. throw as my standard move, set up warpbombs on bigger enemies, overload against shields. i pretty much completely ignored tech armor as i didnt see it being useful at all and only made my cooldowns longer (plus it looks stupid). grabbed warp ammo as my bonus power and i was set

and holy crap, the throw evolution that lets you throw two "throws" at once. its so awesome, easily the coolest move int he game imo. seeing them swirl around each other till they hit their targets is awesome. sometimes both will hit hte same guy and make him skid across the ground rofl.

can't really imagine playing a different class now, since there was never a moment that i felt "out of my element" since i was well equiped for any situation. in ME2 on my vanguard i'd feel out of place alot when there was unchargable enemies and such. plus charge spam got boring in ME2 so i changed it up and picked sentinel, so glad i did.

Soldier, really? Come on people why do you want to play gears and not mass effect? I am trying to carry only an SMG and power spamming with my Vanguard.

Next run will be adept. Cuz I love warp detentions like my my first born. So satisfying. I would think with heavy melee in play I will def go infiltrator third.

But SOLDIER? Come on you don't even need that class to use Assault rifles anymore. Needless to say i'm flabbergasted. Grow up, the real crazies go engineer.

Multiplayer showed me that Adepts are super badass. In ME1+2 I always used Infiltrator and didn't bother with anything else. I am having so much fun and am doing my first ever Insanity run in a Mass Effect game with my Adept and it is going quite well.

I imported my character from ME2, and he was an solider, so I went with that. If I decide to do another run I might go with Vanguard.

I have changed each time. I went with the Soldier in ME1, Infiltrator in ME2, and now Vanguard in ME3. I have been wanting to try adept since the end of ME1 but I feel like if I get into any action later in the game where people swarm me that it will be very hard to defend myself with my powers having to recharge and basically you can only use a pistol, right?

Vanguard. Because I like being completely invincible. Died one time the entire game, and for spoiler reasons I wont say why.

soldier. I ain't one of them biotic freaks.

My two main Shepard's are Vanguard and Adept.

My main version of Shepard from ME1 has always been infiltrator though glad to be able to use assault rifles in the last few games when you need to shoot more things. I usually make another (that's an adept) from scratch in ME2 & will in ME3 to see how it is without importing a character and how they handle that.

It really shocks me that soldier is the most popular class. Well, I'm not surprised, but it is by far the most conventional and boring. Having some kind of biotics makes the game so much more interesting.

@WickedCobra03 said:

I have changed each time. I went with the Soldier in ME1, Infiltrator in ME2, and now Vanguard in ME3. I have been wanting to try adept since the end of ME1 but I feel like if I get into any action later in the game where people swarm me that it will be very hard to defend myself with my powers having to recharge and basically you can only use a pistol, right?

No, in Mass Effect 3 any class can use any weapon. I played as an Adept with only one of the lighter assault rifles, and my power recharge was at 200%. I was throwing out singularities nonstop. I think like 80% of my kills were from biotic detonations, you don't even need a gun as an Adept.

@morrelloman said:

Soldier, really? Come on people why do you want to play gears and not mass effect? I am trying to carry only an SMG and power spamming with my Vanguard.

Next run will be adept. Cuz I love warp detentions like my my first born. So satisfying. I would think with heavy melee in play I will def go infiltrator third.

But SOLDIER? Come on you don't even need that class to use Assault rifles anymore. Needless to say i'm flabbergasted. Grow up, the real crazies go engineer.

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. I respect Jeff's opinion, but he says in his review that he thinks Mass Effects combat is lackluster, and then admits in the quick look to playing as a soldier. Normally I am open to people playing games however they want, but playing as a soldier is playing the game wrong. With any class being able to use assault rifles, there is absolutely no reason to ever play as a soldier. What makes Mass Effect's combat so awesome is the powers and the rock/paper/scissors mechanic with shields, barrier, and armor. Playing as a soldier removes all of that.

I'd rather play as a soldier and have control of two powers people instead of playing as a powers person and having little control over a combat squadmate. The powers don't benefit as much from first person control. I went infiltrator though as a bit of a compromise.

@EToaster: Yay, another Engineer! I'm guessing we're pretty the only two votes for that. I'm having trouble figuring out how to best aim the turret though, any suggestions? I find myself mostly using my Drone while spamming cryo and incinerate, or cryo + headshot with the Mantis.

I'm surprised at so many soldiers too. Then again I'm not big on most of the guns in these games anyway; biotics and techs are just so much fun.

@Ulain said:

@EToaster: Yay, another Engineer! I'm guessing we're pretty the only two votes for that. I'm having trouble figuring out how to best aim the turret though, any suggestions? I find myself mostly using my Drone while spamming cryo and incinerate, or cryo + headshot with the Mantis.

I'm surprised at so many soldiers too. Then again I'm not big on most of the guns in these games anyway; biotics and techs are just so much fun.

The turret pretty much lands where you point your cursor, unless you're throwing it really far, then I just look up and chuck it, hoping for the best. It's really good if you give it the flamethrower upgrade and toss it behind cover of several enemies. The flamethrower does probably 2/3 of the health of a Cerberus Assault Trooper per blast (on Hardcore) if you spec yourself for max drone/turret damage, can hit multiple targets, distracts enemies from you, and stuns them by setting them on fire.

Vanguard and vanguard only. I can clear out a room easily with charge and nova plus the tempest smg (modded to weigh next to nothing) with incendiary ammo upgraded all the way. My modded claymore shotgun instantly melts away shields and biotic barriers.

@EToaster: Okay good, at least I got that part right. Might have to ramp up the difficulty if it's that awesome. For the drone, do you mean the "pulse at 3 targets" one? Haven't maxed it yet but I was debating between that and the rockets one.

I just wish the turret was a little easier to see, or had the blue ring/shield indicator that the drone has.

@Ulain:

I took rockets for the drone. They seem really effective, but I haven't played around with the other version, so I can't be sure how they compare. I'll say that it doesn't tend to move in on enemies if it has line of sight on any. It'll just stand still and fire rockets at them. Other than that, I mostly took the straight damage and shield upgrades, so it probably does more damage by staying back than by getting it right next to enemies. The turret also does have a ring around it, but it's a lot smaller than the one for the drone, and can sometimes not appear if it's really far away.

I played through the first two games as a soldier, but i switched to adept for ME3. Soldier is just so mindless and boring, using all the biotic powers made the combat way more interesting i thought.

Lotta love for the soldier, I did not expect that

Vanguard from the start!!!

VANGUARD ON INSANITY IN ME2(Thanks Sniper Rifle training)

VANGUARD UNTIL I DIE!!!!!

I have Nate Shepard as a soldier for now, but I have five more Shepards in the other classes ready to go. I have been surprised at how much fun I am having with the combat in this, it took a while but it has really grown on me. Same can be said of the game, at first I thought it would be a letdown after the first 2 but now the game has become my drug of choice. Infiltrator next!

I played Vanguard in ME2, but really didn't like it since I'd just charge/hit, and get myself in trouble. Trying Adept w/my first run through ME3. Looks like Sentinel might've been a better choice.

@EToaster said:

@Ulain:

I took rockets for the drone. They seem really effective, but I haven't played around with the other version, so I can't be sure how they compare. I'll say that it doesn't tend to move in on enemies if it has line of sight on any. It'll just stand still and fire rockets at them. Other than that, I mostly took the straight damage and shield upgrades, so it probably does more damage by staying back than by getting it right next to enemies. The turret also does have a ring around it, but it's a lot smaller than the one for the drone, and can sometimes not appear if it's really far away.

I respecced and took the other one (hit 3 targets) and so far it seems pretty effective, especially with the chance to stun, my tech skills and 2 squad members shooting at everything. And after playing today, I did notice the ring when I looked closer, but like you said it's really small, and doesn't help when you're far away.

@seanord said:

I played Vanguard in ME2, but really didn't like it since I'd just charge/hit, and get myself in trouble. Trying Adept w/my first run through ME3. Looks like Sentinel might've been a better choice.

If enemies have Shields or Armor, a lot of your biotic powers won't work until those have been depleted, it's what kept me from trying an Adept in 2; it's a nerf from 1 where you could powers on everything, but that's what squad members and creative thinking are for :P

Sentinel, same as Mass Effect 2.

I wonder why so many people dislike engineer.

I was vanguard in all three games, not that it really mattered much because I was using guns most of the time. :p

I choose sentinel because i was always one, the new shield isnt as good as the one in 2 but its still pretty good for the extra power bonus and damage reduction.

I regret this though because the engineer seems like a much more fun class this time around.

I played Adept in the previous ones and this time it's better but still not as crazy as ME1 adepts were. Honestly I never understood why they nerfed adepts so bad for ME2 since I assumed the series is all about biotics and mass effect fields. In ME3 Warp is no longer borderline useless and singularity is pretty good from the very start but you're still basically fucked if anyone has shields and the Push/Pull powers aren't as powerful as ME1.

I played Adept in the previous ones and this time it's better but still not as crazy as ME1 adepts were. Honestly I never understood why they nerfed adepts so bad for ME2 since I assumed the series is all about biotics and mass effect fields. In ME3 Warp is no longer borderline useless and singularity is pretty good from the very start but you're still basically fucked if anyone has shields and the Push/Pull powers aren't as powerful as ME1.