Insanity is insane

[Suporex]

Playing ME2 on Insanity and in comparison to ME1 it is tough.
Playing Sentinel Shepard. For now using Morbius and Miranda because of the skills that complement and Morbid freezing help me kill enemies because health regen in ME2 is insane.

Any advice on build or what teammates to use for easier times? Or maybe what upgrade/research to get fast?

Anything to help guys...

 

[EDIT] To help others. After finishing ME2 on Insanity playing as Sentinel here are my thoughts:

Sentinel is easy mode for insanity but huge pain until level 10-11 (U really need Tech Armor to 4 and Defender to 4)

I used Miranda and Morbid for most missions (reason. they have good skills and every time you reapply TA they reset for your squad)

Get Warp to 4 over Overload. at the end there is more armored enemies/bosses.

got warp ammo as bonus skill and maxed it for extra damage.

didn't use heavy weapons at all with exception of Maw that you need to kill in short amount of time and last boss (used Cain in both cases)

Edited December 28, 2022 by Suporex
Help others

[majob]

Really? Insanity on ME2 was probably the easiest for me. Regardless, Sentinel on insanity quite honestly is making the game harder for yourself, Soldier would have been a better choice because Adrenaline Rush will kill most mobs quick even on Insanity. Miranda and Mordin are quite honestly terrible squadmates because Mordin is quite weak and will die easily and Miranda isn't much better. Garrus and grunt are probably your most solid squad options since grunt is a tank and can still dish out damage and Garrus with the right equipment and build can do excellent damage. Play conservatively, use cover, keep as much distance between yourself and the mobs but never stay in the same spot for long as they will rush you given the opportunity. The Particle Rifle is quite frankly the best special weapon to use as it has a large ammo capacity and will melt through tougher enemies when you're in a pinch. Don't tempted by the rest as they suffer either from poor damage or poor ammo capacity. It'll also get easier as you level up and get your upgrades so you only need to persevere through the beginning.

[Suporex]

I was playing soldier in first one and wanted to play something else. Sentinel was proposed by many when I did research as it can deal with shields armor and barriers easily but possibly later as you mentioned.

I don't have much choice yet. I just saved Garrus. I use Mordin and Miranda as they have tools to destroy all the protections and as  I mentioned atm cryo helps me stop health regeneration.

Problem is I don't do much damage with anything yet. and my tech armor gets destroyed with just few hits from enemies.

[SnowxSakura]

I found sentinel to be the easiest class to clear insanity with. Tech armor is just straight up broken and had to be nerfed in ME3 due to being able to re-cast it as soon as it breaks

[HardModeTrophies]

10 minutes ago, Suporex said:

I was playing soldier in first one and wanted to play something else. Sentinel was proposed by many when I did research as it can deal with shields armor and barriers easily but possibly later as you mentioned.

I don't have much choice yet. I just saved Garrus. I use Mordin and Miranda as they have tools to destroy all the protections and as  I mentioned atm cryo helps me stop health regeneration.

Problem is I don't do much damage with anything yet. and my tech armor gets destroyed with just few hits from enemies.

 

Don't mind my account, I platted ME2 on my previous one.

 

In general, if you're struggling that much at this point of the game with your current class, I'd suggest you restart the game altogether. You haven't reached the actual first major roadblock on your way to the platinum, which is

Spoiler

Horizon

 

I can personally attest to Soldier being a solid class. As for my squad, I'd usually run Miranda + Grunt or Garrus + Grunt. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by HardModeTrophies

[Woopa777]

15 minutes ago, HardModeTrophies said:

In general, if you're struggling that much at this point of the game with your current class, I'd suggest you restart the game altogether. You haven't reached the actual first major roadblock on your way to the platinum, which is

  Hide contents

Horizon

 

I have basically given up on beating ME2 on insanity after i got to that place. The fight with two Scions seems impossible.

 

I'm lvl 8, sentinel and haven't even gotten one of the Scions down, let alone both of them and all the husks. I've tried standing in the door to damage one of the Scions with the beam before i enter the arena, but it is still at almost 50% hp when im out of power ammo.

 

Also, i agree that ME2 is much harder. ME1 insanity was not a problem and i didn't even control my squads level ups and power uses there.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Woopa777

[HuntingFever]

I don't remember the build I used for this difficulty but when you get to Horizon, there's an exploit that makes the final fight much easier and less stressful. If I remember right, you have to stand in a specific spot outside the main area then snipe the enemies inside. Once you get past Horizon, the game is still tough but it loses a lot of the overt difficulty and irritations that made the first half of the game such a pain.

Edited December 21, 2022 by HuntingFever
Fixed typo.

[SnowxSakura]

39 minutes ago, Woopa777 said:

I have basically given up on beating ME2 on insanity after i got to that place. The fight with two Scions seems impossible.

 

I'm lvl 8, sentinel and haven't even gotten one of the Scions down, let alone both of them and all the husks. I've tried standing in the door to damage one of the Scions with the beam before i enter the arena, but it is still at almost 50% hp when im out of power ammo.

 

Also, i agree that ME2 is much harder. ME1 insanity was not a problem and i didn't even control my squads level ups and power uses there.

You can skip that scion fight on horizon, once the computer is ready to be interacted with when the scions spawn in, you can interact with it through the wall on the other side. It instantly kills all enemies still alive

[Suporex]

It is hard but going forward. Im level 10 Sentinel. Have Mordin,Jacob, Miranda, Garrus, Kasumi, Zaeed, Jack to choose from. Atm flying around and getting as many upgrades as I can.

 

PS. I platinum it on PS3 10 years ago with just one go on insanity but I have no clue what class I was playing...

1 hour ago, SnowxSakura said:

I found sentinel to be the easiest class to clear insanity with. Tech armor is just straight up broken and had to be nerfed in ME3 due to being able to re-cast it as soon as it breaks

Yeah, I got it to lev 3 straight away. Long cooldown for now. I guess I need to get to decent level to start feeling good with that class and do some damage.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Suporex

[wackt1]

Understandable, The hardest parts were the collector ship, Horizon, and the collector ship on Insanity. The strongest weapons IMO in your loadout should be the Cain, Carnifex or Phalanx (the phalanx hits harder but slower, while the carnifex hits not as hard but has higher DPS), Collector rifle, and the mattock.

As for team mates: IMO Garrus and Jack 

[Suporex]

12 hours ago, wackt1 said:

Understandable, The hardest parts were the collector ship, Horizon, and the collector ship on Insanity. The strongest weapons IMO in your loadout should be the Cain, Carnifex or Phalanx (the phalanx hits harder but slower, while the carnifex hits not as hard but has higher DPS), Collector rifle, and the mattock.

As for team mates: IMO Garrus and Jack 

Thanks for that. I struggle a bit with weapons. SMG is weird (maybe because I only have the standard one for now) and I use pistol mostly, the one I got early in a game. Has good damage but very limited ammo. I heard Garrus is good but apparently needs certain setup so I need to google that and I just got Jack was not able to use her yet, probably need to check build for her.

 

BTW. is it possible to reset skill points for Shepard and team mates?

[wackt1]

8 hours ago, Suporex said:

 

BTW. is it possible to reset skill points for Shepard and team mates?

There is a Respec option but it'll be only for Shepard. You need to first complete the Horizon mission, then an option on the research terminal should appear where you need to pay 2500 Element Zero to Respec Shepard.

For your companions, you need to beat the Shadow Broker DLC and there will be a terminal at the end of the DLC which you have to pay 1000 Element 0
 

Also, remeber that biotics and fire damage are good at stunning enemies and burning through armor and health

Edited December 21, 2022 by wackt1

[Guardian_owl]

Space wizard is love, space wizard is life. I played Soldier for my first run back in the day and was kind of bored to tears, but had a literal blast blowing shit up with an Adept on my Insanity run. Never tried a Sentinel or a Vanguard in a ME game, I like to stay back and attack from cover.

[majob]

23 hours ago, SnowxSakura said:

I found sentinel to be the easiest class to clear insanity with. Tech armor is just straight up broken and had to be nerfed in ME3 due to being able to re-cast it as soon as it breaks

Big issue with Sentinel at least in my opinion is their abysmal offensive options. Tech armor can be a life saver but they're severely lacking in damage until the collector ship bonus weapon training and I've found Insanity is more about killing things as quickly as possible than surviving as long as possible.

23 hours ago, Suporex said:

I was playing soldier in first one and wanted to play something else. Sentinel was proposed by many when I did research as it can deal with shields armor and barriers easily but possibly later as you mentioned.

I don't have much choice yet. I just saved Garrus. I use Mordin and Miranda as they have tools to destroy all the protections and as  I mentioned atm cryo helps me stop health regeneration.

Problem is I don't do much damage with anything yet. and my tech armor gets destroyed with just few hits from enemies.

If you want to finish Insanity more than trying a new class I'd really suggest starting from scratch with a different class if you're finding Sentinel too difficult. Protections in Mass Effect are not worth taking into consideration over overall squad member effectiveness and Garrus and Grunt both have access to disrupter and inferno ammo respectively. Health regeneration is quite honestly only an issue with Vorcha but the trade off is their weaker defense. You should try for more headshots against vorcha with pistols to offset the regen. Mordin and Miranda are simply too weak and not worth the trouble on Insanity, especially later in the game when many bosses and tougher enemies can dispatch both of them easily.

Edited December 21, 2022 by majob

[Guardian_owl]

Your main problem is you have no way to self set-up to detonate your own Warp. If you were an Adept you could flip between Pull and Singularity and then detonate with Warp, Throw, or the biotics of a squad mate. I found Miranda was a great workhorse to pair with an Adept as she could destroy shields with Overload and then all the rest of her powers detonate biotics. With the fast cooldowns of the Adept you can be locking and popping off like crazy. A Sentinel has a way to take down shields and a reliable finisher, but you need the set-up.

 

So you really need at least one squad mate with Pull as the starter in the biotic combo. Unfortunately a squadmate Pull has a  3x longer cooldown than a Shepherd Pull, 9 sec vs. 3 sec. Jacob's class skill does not reduce the cooldown of his biotic powers so that's a pretty big strike against him unless you are constantly detonating your Tech Armor to reset squadmate power cooldowns to zero (a rank 3 benefit of Tech Armor), Though Jacob does have inferno ammo which is good vs. armor, stopping HP regen, and panicking organics. Samara and Jack both can be class spec'd to reduce the cooldown by 1/4th. I would probably lean toward Jack since she can also give the Group Warp Ammo eventually if you go for that branch at rank 4. Though Samara has the benefit of shutting down HP regen with Reave. Then for your other squad mate perhaps someone tougher like Grunt or Garrus, their ammo type powers are both excellent against armor, with Grunt's Inferno armor also stopping HP regen.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Guardian_owl

[coldspectre]

Giving your squad N7 Typhoons in ME3 breaks the game (especially with Garrus), I'm assuming the same guns are in ME2 and are just as overpowered but it has been a while since I played ME

[Redgrave]

As the saying goes, knowing is half the battle, so you will want squadmates based on what you expect to fight in a level. If you go in a level to fight machines or Geth then you want to take Tali and/or whoever else is good against machine enemies. If they are heavily armored then bring at least one companion that is good at taking down armor quickly with either armor piercing ammo or can use Inferno. Another thing to probably do is to have a backup save before doing the mandatory missions in case you feel like you could have used a better squad. I remember having backup saves before certain missions anyway just in case.

[Checho-73]

Make sure to complete Kasumi's loyalty mission as soon as possible if you want an usable SMG

[Suporex]

On 12/22/2022 at 3:54 AM, Checho-73 said:

Make sure to complete Kasumi's loyalty mission as soon as possible if you want an usable SMG

Is it better then M-9 Tempest? I roll with that now

[Checho-73]

On 12/24/2022 at 3:08 AM, Suporex said:

Is it better then M-9 Tempest? I roll with that now

Way better, the M-12 Locust can actually hit targets at a distance

[Suporex]

1 hour ago, Checho-73 said:

Way better, the M-12 Locust can actually hit targets at a distance

Interesting. I maxed Tech Armor and Defender and game switch from hard to easy mode. As companions I still cant let go of Miranda and Mordin. Her Heavy Overload and his Incinerate are just to good to pass I think. Plus I was buying upgrades that would benefit tech, biotics and SMG and pistol so it is usefull to those 2 but they die middle of harder fights if I don't micro manage their positions.

Any compelling arguments to use other companions now?

 

[EDIT] I tried Garus but I didn't find much use for his concusive shot and his damage was OK but nothing to write home about (but I didn't invest in sniper research)

I tried Jack but her skills are weird, although after loyality her warp ammo should add a lot) and I tried Kasumi but only at start of the game and she was great as regeneration of HP is issue but her shadow strike was killing enemies.

Edited December 25, 2022 by Suporex
add content

[Guardian_owl]

Agreed, the Locust is fabulous. Maybe you should try pairing Jacob and Miranda for Vorcha and Krogan missions. Inferno ammo is not a loyalty power for Jacob so you can max out squad inferno ammo (for extra damage and help against HP regen) and Pull Field (as the starter for you and Miranda detonating warp). Once you do his loyalty mission, his Barrier should let him survive more punishment.

Edited December 25, 2022 by Guardian_owl

[Suporex]

OK finally got Locust, I like the accuracy but it is so small on ammo for insanity have to move a lot during battle to pick up ammo drops

[Gryfter]

Adrenaline Rush on Soldier is truly broken in this game (ME2). It slows down everything so much sniping/landing headshots is a piece of cake. Bought the Mattock and grabbed the sniper rifle on the Collector ship; didnt even need squadmates after that. Scions go down with 4-5 headshots from that sniper rifle. Harbinger goes down with Adrenaline Rush and 1 mag from the Mattock, provided you land all headshots. 

 

If you're not too far into the game, I'd suggest you swap.

 

Adrenaline Rush is garbage on ME3 though.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Gryfter

[Winds-of-Neptune]

I'm starting this game soon.  Does it make sense if I playthrough first on normal to get some of the trophies that would be harder on insanity; to level up a bit for an easier start with insanity.   People suggest starting the game on insanity.  Is the big issue here trying to get the plat with only 1 playthrough on insanity?  I would imagine the ps3 version was harder.. I managed to beat insanity with 2 playthroughs there.  I used to be able to beat these games without such worry lol.. Now that I am almost 50 I'm getting some anxiety before even starting the games haha..  It's not easy being a completionist and a semi-senior citizen at the same time. ? Thanks!