(Coming from multiplayer, haven't tried powers in singleplayer really). Having been experimenting with power classes, I have found them extremely lack luster. Warp especially, gave power classes means to deal with armored targets and support their team, and setup for detonations (everyone knows detonations suck now but that horse has been dead for a while). It seems like powers are only really effective for slight utility on mooks. Most cc utility doesn't affect shields/armor, and most don't do any damage either, AND their cooldowns severely limit their effectiveness. Were truly power focused classes not supposed to exist? In 3 they were good and competitive with gun classes, but I don't think they were over powered by any stretch, why such a severe downgrade this time around? I couldn't imagine only using my powers to kill things on a human adept on bronze even, but in 3 you could easily do that. Such a shame to see that they got massacred with the nerf stick and hope that they get severely buffed (rip throwing mooks around every 1.5 seconds).

Probably for metagaming reasons. Meaning the developers wanted to at least simulate change and mixing it up and there wasn't like a story reason for it. I doubt it's much beyond that personally. But who knows for sure? Oh right, BioWare would. But outside of that, who would know?

If that's true, this change was surely for the worst :/ Powers just feel soooo bad

I asked the lead designer once on Twitter and he said power stripping abilities were included in certain biotic upgrades. I haven't found one that strips armor, but biotic pull can be upgraded to take away shields. I think the main reason is because there are no defined class borders anymore. Warp was useful against armor and for combo detonations, but you also have access to fire powers and other detonators, so maybe it felt redundant.

Mid new game, yeah, biotics such as pull throw, and singularity are great....once you start getting up 60 level they start fading fast. I started out playing a pure biotic caster for about 30 levels then transitioned over to Vanguard/Infiltrator with minors in biotic casting. Why did I transition, because while sure you can still do ok, I was having to pull throw/explode standard mooks multiple times to kill them....I am talking they are flying HIGH HIGH and still come down, get up and go back to shooting me....it was just easier, quicker and more effective to charge them, gain a shield back, nova/shotgun blast, throw a pull, charge again, than to try and do any kind of prime and detonate combos from a distance. The combos at later levels also didn't seem to do much especially with all the armor and shields around(though shields seemed to be easier to deal with). In combat you have 3 working powers, and Adept style of play doesn't stay as effective later, and I have heard as you progress even higher it gets worse too, as enemies continue to level up. Last game, I was playing Infiltrator....fighting Remanent in the end battle, you know the standard builders and observers, hit them with a full Overload, character level 61, and it didn't even seem to faze them, hit them with a tech explosion and barely see any damage......and it was getting worse the longer I went over level 40...hate to think about what I would face at level 80 as enemies keep leveling. Having something on an Adept to weaken armor, prime it, or explode it would be great...but I honestly think since they went with 3 active powers(foolishly in my opinion) they tried to combine powers and effects and made them all ok, but not great. I think they needed to have expanded the usable power amount from 3 to 6 and keep the power specialization of things such as warp and make powers less Jack of All Trades....

Yeah I don't get why they straight up removed it either. There are still good builds that can effectively replace it of course. Hopefully they will bring it back in DLC for either MP or both down the line though. Wishful thinking.

Why was Warp (and other effective powers) not brought over?

20 Replies

Anonymous
9 years ago
Probably for metagaming reasons. Meaning the developers wanted to at least simulate change and mixing it up and there wasn't like a story reason for it. I doubt it's much beyond that personally.

But who knows for sure? Oh right, BioWare would. But outside of that, who would know?
GigaChadEnhance
9 years ago
If that's true, this change was surely for the worst :/ Powers just feel soooo bad
mcsupersport
Hero+
9 years ago
--Snarky reply---

Cause effective powers took away from the COD feel of MP........

__Real reply....

Cause Bioware probably wanted "Change" and they couldn't think of a better way to "balance" an Adept in single player so they nuked the real effective skills.....
GigaChadEnhance
9 years ago
The snarky reply wouldn't surprise me a bit, given how effective guns are in singleplayer, most of em are worthless in MP but that can be fixed. Powers just not being useful can too, but we don't have any really cool/satisfying powers, all the powers in ME3 sounded really damn cool and were effective in their own ways. Now they don't look cool, sound cool, or do anything, but guns sound great and do work (in singleplayer).
ensiform
9 years ago
Yeah I don't get why they straight up removed it either. There are still good builds that can effectively replace it of course.

Hopefully they will bring it back in DLC for either MP or both down the line though. Wishful thinking.
GigaChadEnhance
9 years ago
No idea, would love to see it introduced to atleast singleplayer. They would have to rework entire MP classes to add it in there so that's a no go :/ They can remove pull, worthless ability and give us warp in it's place!
Fred_vdp
Hero+
9 years ago
I asked the lead designer once on Twitter and he said power stripping abilities were included in certain biotic upgrades. I haven't found one that strips armor, but biotic pull can be upgraded to take away shields.

I think the main reason is because there are no defined class borders anymore. Warp was useful against armor and for combo detonations, but you also have access to fire powers and other detonators, so maybe it felt redundant.
Anonymous
9 years ago
I have a powers build in campaign that uses incinerate and energy drain with the skills that make them both prime and both detonate, and the engineer profile. All I do is fire detonate anything without shields and tech detonate anything with them, and very little survives more than one or two.
Powers builds are still totally viable, you just haven't found one that's good yet.
Crowwalker100
9 years ago
If you think the Biotics in the game are under powered you are not using them right etc.. I have no issue with them.. Not trying to be an *. I love lifting someone holding them and watching my team mate tear them apart, or pulling them to me and melee them and a shotgun to the face..
ensiform
9 years ago
You are right, I use Overload and Incinerate mostly. But those are Tech skills. The pure biotics skills are less effective than they used to be with a lack of Warp.