Mass Effect 3 Co-op, ID exchange in first post, (No singleplayer discussion, please!)

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

I think the biggest issue with those three maps is there are lots of angles for enemies to approach, and some rather big blindspots, so it's easy to get overwhelmed. I've been working on completing 200 waves for the Drell Assassin and Volus Engineer, so the recon mine helps alleviate those problems. I place the mine directly opposite the direction that everyone runs when a wave starts, so that helps cut down on getting surprised.

Just a few more waves to go with the Volus Engineer and I'll be done with Outsider. Then it's ten extracts with a Vorcha Soldier, One Silver/Two Gold solos, and a bunch of promotes and I'll have BotB done. 30 grabs (or so), but I'll get those done easily soloing Vancouver.

 

[LodeRunner]

Condor, London, and Goddess seem to me to have a similar vibe. But I like them in exponentially increasing order. I love how difficult goddess is, I don't mind how difficult London is, and Condor is probably my least favorite map of the all. I have been trying to put my finger on why I feel that way with no success. A lot of similarities between those three maps, yet I have very different feelings about them.

For me, it works out like this for those maps:
Goddess has great flow if you like to fight moving battles and generally good cover in almost any position you choose to make a stand. If you try to fort up, or lose awareness, you're in for a rough time. The problem is more one of communication and coordinate movement than anything else.

London's a cruciform shape, decent sight lines for sniping, and mostly good cover, save for the center hack circle. And even in the long sight line areas, it has plenty of stuff you can use to block long range enemy fire.

Condor tries to mix the long lines of London with the circular flow of Goddess, while failing at both, and generally having not very great cover. It could have been a great map, as it is, it's barely mediocre. Aside from the overlook to the initial spawn area, where you can dominate some enemy spawns, there are not really any good hold points (or rather, the places that might be good hold points lack adequate cover). You can try to bunker up, then end up getting hit from widely divergent angles (and often from the high ground), or you can try to roam as a squad, mostly to have the same issue.

 

[Arbelac]

Condor, London, and Goddess seem to me to have a similar vibe. But I like them in exponentially increasing order. I love how difficult goddess is, I don't mind how difficult London is, and Condor is probably my least favorite map of the all. I have been trying to put my finger on why I feel that way with no success. A lot of similarities between those three maps, yet I have very different feelings about them.

For me, it works out like this for those maps:
Goddess has great flow if you like to fight moving battles and generally good cover in almost any position you choose to make a stand. If you try to fort up, or lose awareness, you're in for a rough time. The problem is more one of communication and coordinate movement than anything else.

London's a cruciform shape, decent sight lines for sniping, and mostly good cover, save for the center hack circle. And even in the long sight line areas, it has plenty of stuff you can use to block long range enemy fire.

Condor tries to mix the long lines of London with the circular flow of Goddess, while failing at both, and generally having not very great cover. It could have been a great map, as it is, it's barely mediocre. Aside from the overlook to the initial spawn area, where you can dominate some enemy spawns, there are not really any good hold points (or rather, the places that might be good hold points lack adequate cover). You can try to bunker up, then end up getting hit from widely divergent angles (and often from the high ground), or you can try to roam as a squad, mostly to have the same issue.

++ my thoughts exactly, and pretty much what I wrote in the survey.

 

[Draxlith]

Condor, London, and Goddess seem to me to have a similar vibe. But I like them in exponentially increasing order. I love how difficult goddess is, I don't mind how difficult London is, and Condor is probably my least favorite map of the all. I have been trying to put my finger on why I feel that way with no success. A lot of similarities between those three maps, yet I have very different feelings about them.

For me, it works out like this for those maps:
Goddess has great flow if you like to fight moving battles and generally good cover in almost any position you choose to make a stand. If you try to fort up, or lose awareness, you're in for a rough time. The problem is more one of communication and coordinate movement than anything else.

London's a cruciform shape, decent sight lines for sniping, and mostly good cover, save for the center hack circle. And even in the long sight line areas, it has plenty of stuff you can use to block long range enemy fire.

Condor tries to mix the long lines of London with the circular flow of Goddess, while failing at both, and generally having not very great cover. It could have been a great map, as it is, it's barely mediocre. Aside from the overlook to the initial spawn area, where you can dominate some enemy spawns, there are not really any good hold points (or rather, the places that might be good hold points lack adequate cover). You can try to bunker up, then end up getting hit from widely divergent angles (and often from the high ground), or you can try to roam as a squad, mostly to have the same issue.

++ my thoughts exactly, and pretty much what I wrote in the survey.

Full agreement here, I also added that it seems like there's too many little 'pockets' that clutter the map and don't have a good tactical uses (minimal cover, bad sightlines for you, good sightlines for them, awkward shapes or some combination of those). I think there are also too many vertical differences, too, which provide non-obvious sightlines for the enemies that feel 'cheap' when you get caught off guard by them.

 

[Wraith]

Today i learnt that it is possible to play a full round as a juggernaught using nothing but siege pulse. I also learnt that doing so is immensly annoying and that you should not do so because it makes your teammates wish there was a way to kill you.

 

[LodeRunner]

Today i learnt that it is possible to play a full round as a juggernaught using nothing but siege pulse. I also learnt that doing so is immensly annoying and that you should not do so because it makes your teammates wish there was a way to kill you.

Provided the difficulty is low enough and the rest of the team is really dishing out the DPS, sure, you can spam Siege Pulse all you want. Of course, you forgo the DR for when the team gets annoyed enough to let you die, but whatevs. I R GETH PRME!

Disclaimer: IMO, if you're not using the Jugg as a tank, and spamming Hex Shield and/or Turret (preference and playstyle dependent), while rarely, if ever firing Siege Pulse (incidental stagger or maybe to detonate something), you're doing it wrong.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Disclaimer: IMO, if you're not using the Jugg as a tank, and spamming Hex Shield and/or Turret (preference and playstyle dependent), while rarely, if ever firing Siege Pulse (incidental stagger or maybe to detonate something), you're doing it wrong.

Most PUGs are doing it wrong.

 

[That PJ]

Condor, London, and Goddess seem to me to have a similar vibe. But I like them in exponentially increasing order. I love how difficult goddess is, I don't mind how difficult London is, and Condor is probably my least favorite map of the all. I have been trying to put my finger on why I feel that way with no success. A lot of similarities between those three maps, yet I have very different feelings about them.

For me, it works out like this for those maps:
Goddess has great flow if you like to fight moving battles and generally good cover in almost any position you choose to make a stand. If you try to fort up, or lose awareness, you're in for a rough time. The problem is more one of communication and coordinate movement than anything else.

London's a cruciform shape, decent sight lines for sniping, and mostly good cover, save for the center hack circle. And even in the long sight line areas, it has plenty of stuff you can use to block long range enemy fire.

Condor tries to mix the long lines of London with the circular flow of Goddess, while failing at both, and generally having not very great cover. It could have been a great map, as it is, it's barely mediocre. Aside from the overlook to the initial spawn area, where you can dominate some enemy spawns, there are not really any good hold points (or rather, the places that might be good hold points lack adequate cover). You can try to bunker up, then end up getting hit from widely divergent angles (and often from the high ground), or you can try to roam as a squad, mostly to have the same issue.

++ my thoughts exactly, and pretty much what I wrote in the survey.

Full agreement here, I also added that it seems like there's too many little 'pockets' that clutter the map and don't have a good tactical uses (minimal cover, bad sightlines for you, good sightlines for them, awkward shapes or some combination of those). I think there are also too many vertical differences, too, which provide non-obvious sightlines for the enemies that feel 'cheap' when you get caught off guard by them.

My thoughts as well, except that I hate London for its shape. It's a smaller, less interesting Rio (which is also basically built like a line rather than a circle/square).

My least favorite maps were London, Condor, and Jade. London's shape and size is atrocious and its intuitive sniper perch kind of buggy, Condor has no good hold point and poorly designed/implemented ammo bins (and the whole 'close-but-open' thing), and Jade has too many cheap shots. Or feels like it does, maybe. But the levels I thought were cool turned out to be super annoying.

Rio is annoying to me, too, but that's more of a player issue. I love Goddess and Reactor ever since I figured out how good mobile teams work. Goddess is still challenging, but it doesn't feel unfair.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

My least favorite map is Glacier. I friggin hate that map ... I like Glacier Hazard more than the standard version, because it makes it more fun/challenging. But in general, I despise Glacier.

 

[LodeRunner]

[...] Jade has too many cheap shots. Or feels like it does, maybe. But the levels I thought were cool turned out to be super annoying.

If you can get your team to split 2 and 2 to hold the lower side of the map (2 at bridge, 2 in lower lab), then everything spawns in the far right hall way or the upper lab room. Makes it easy to dominate. Objectives can be a little iffy sometimes, but it's one of the few (only?) times where holding the low-ground is the better solution.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Working on my Vorcha Soldier 10 extracts ... I can't count how many times his stupid "I'm Alive!!!" routine has cost me cover, precious seconds of inaction, or cancelled my flamer.

 

[Captainpuke]

[...] Jade has too many cheap shots. Or feels like it does, maybe. But the levels I thought were cool turned out to be super annoying.

If you can get your team to split 2 and 2 to hold the lower side of the map (2 at bridge, 2 in lower lab), then everything spawns in the far right hall way or the upper lab room. Makes it easy to dominate. Objectives can be a little iffy sometimes, but it's one of the few (only?) times where holding the low-ground is the better solution.

This doesn't work if one of your team mates has the scorpion and is on the bridge. I actually think I was playing with some ars people and I had a hell of a time because I couldn't actually place explosive at the feet of enemies. I could only hit them with the scorpion explosives.

Just make sure that bridge side people don't have weapons/abilities that need to stick to the floor.

 

[Captainpuke]

Working on my Vorcha Soldier 10 extracts ... I can't count how many times his stupid "I'm Alive!!!" routine has cost me cover, precious seconds of inaction, or cancelled my flamer.

I have been working on the vorcha waves... oh so many waves. At first his hilarious garbling noises are amusing, along with his bloodlust and revive noises. Eventually, you just want to mute him. Definitely a character you shouldn't do all 200 waves with consecutively. One would probably experience their own bloodlust by the end. Computer technology beware.

 

[Wraith]

I did 400 vorcha waves closely followed by 600 volus. As you can see if you look back in the thread i didn't enjoy it a whole lot. Interestingly though i can now top the scoreboard as a volus. I managed to solo kill (not a solo game, my teammates were just tied up looking at something shiny) a praetorian using a locust yesterday.

 

[Viridis]

I, for one, don't really mind the Vorcha's noises. Yes, the bloodlust cheer taking you out of cover is ridiculous, but otherwise it's just another background noise as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Dracorat]

I just came back this weekend after having not played in more than a year.

Wow. The amount of additional "stuff" added since then is mindboggling. Hell, the even added crap to the original maps like dust storms and praetorian bug swarms.

I was very pleasantly surprised by all of it.

(And I was still owning with my Widow 7)

But ... What's with all the people screaming about not having equipment equipped? Especially in Silver. I don't need it. =/

 

[Captainpuke]

Question: do all packs yield character cards at the same rate? Also, I assume character cards from a recruit pack are significantly less xp than those from spectre pack or better. I am trying to minimize the pain of n7 mastery. I have 40 promotes (with a bunch ready to turn over again) - so I still need like 20 more.

My general plan was to get everyone to twenty, save up a truckload of money, promote everyone, and then splurge so I can get back into harder difficulties a.s.a.p. Should I be buring vetran/spectre/premium spectre/reserve packs?



Also, damn you Type IV weapons consumables! 6 sp's and a couple arsenal packs and not a single piece of gear or weapons mod. Although I now have almost a dozen more type IV consumables.

 

[Captainpuke]

Dracorat[/url]":3l4vv7sw]I just came back this weekend after having not played in more than a year.

Wow. The amount of additional "stuff" added since then is mindboggling. Hell, the even added crap to the original maps like dust storms and praetorian bug swarms.

I was very pleasantly surprised by all of it.

(And I was still owning with my Widow 7)

But ... What's with all the people screaming about not having equipment equipped? Especially in Silver. I don't need it. =/

The only thing I can imagine that they are complaining about is if you don't equip something in the 'gear' slot. I can't remember exactly when they added gear, maybe it was after you stopped playing. If you did this... I have no idea. I don't use consumables on gold half the time, let alone silver. If you don't know, gear is under the 'equipment' slot but is not a consumable. So you can use it every match without penalty.

--edit to add--
Honestly, I actually find it kind of annoying when people use missile launchers prematurely or consumables in silver. They are stealing all MY points.

 

[neuromaster]

Dracorat[/url]":1y8y5pdj]But ... What's with all the people screaming about not having equipment equipped? Especially in Silver. I don't need it. =/

They created a new, non-consumable gear slot. Crap like Juggernaut Shields (+X% shields/+X%melee). Unlike armor/weapon/ammo mods, equipment doesn't get used up so not equipping anything in that slot is frequently the mark of an... "inexperienced" player. Or in your case, one who's been away long enough not to have picked 'em up yet.

Edit: Damn, u so fast Captainpuke

 

[Captainpuke]

I am at work and am clearly busy.

 

[Wraith]

I get irritated with people using missiles for much apart from clearing crowded hack circles. It's bronze ffs and i could use the points, stop being greedy or stupid!

Conversely i see people equipping things in all the consumably slots and think it's a waste. You don't need level 3 anything in the games i'm playing. Especially if you've got ~20k n7 points you should be able to walk it pretty easily.

 

[Dracorat]

I don't have any of those since I just came back. That must be it.

Thanks!

I did see it - I didn't realize it was not-consumed-on-use but it doesn't matter - I don't have any yet.

I've been doing the 99000 packs that give characters - I can get equipment for that slot from them right?

 

[Wraith]

You can. The best advice i've seen it to buy 20k packs until you've mostly or fully leveled your common items (weapons, gear, chars, the lot). Once you've got a lot of the common stuff out of the way you move to getting the 60K packs which will level your commons, then once they're out of the way you'll have a few rares so go to 99K psp's which will start filling your rares and occasionally ultra-rares. The psp i think has a slightly higher chance of UR than the other two similarly priced packs.

 

[Captainpuke]

So, there is a nasty game of rng going on with the 'gear' in particular. You can get silver gear from a veteran pack, but will probably actually get more of it from regular spectre packs. Iirc, the third card (or is it second?) of a spectre pack may roll an uncommon gear rather than another consumable. For gold gear, you can get it in either spectre or 99k packs. But again, I think you get more gold gear from 99k packs than SP's. This was my experience anyway.

It is a second card item, and if you are lucky, a third card item as well (Going from right to left). The rightmost card is more or less always going to be a gold weapon or character (or ultra-rare weapon or character).

--edit--
clarity

 

[Psion]

I get irritated with people using missiles for much apart from clearing crowded hack circles. It's bronze ffs and i could use the points, stop being greedy or stupid!

Conversely i see people equipping things in all the consumably slots and think it's a waste. You don't need level 3 anything in the games i'm playing. Especially if you've got ~20k n7 points you should be able to walk it pretty easily.

1: points are shared, let 'em waste the things. Hell I'm just amused to see people actually fire missiles, you know, ever

2: when you have as many consumables as I do, and my N7 is like 1/10th that, there's no reason not to use them every game just to get rid of them. my biggest regret in playing MP in this game was not using more consumables.

You can. The best advice i've seen it to buy 20k packs until you've mostly or fully leveled your common items (weapons, gear, chars, the lot). Once you've got a lot of the common stuff out of the way you move to getting the 60K packs which will level your commons, then once they're out of the way you'll have a few rares so go to 99K psp's which will start filling your rares and occasionally ultra-rares. The psp i think has a slightly higher chance of UR than the other two similarly priced packs.

As a counterpoint, I suggest to buy the 5k packs until you've maxed your commons, then move on to whatever the hell you want else. 5ks give you character XP, common guns, and consumables, all of which are super great to a new/inexperienced player. Use all those level 1 things, always.

Spending a 60k pack to level a common is a total waste.

 

[Viridis]

Wraith[/url]":2z7jvugw]You can. The best advice i've seen it to buy 20k packs until you've mostly or fully leveled your common items (weapons, gear, chars, the lot). Once you've got a lot of the common stuff out of the way you move to getting the 60K packs which will level your commons, then once they're out of the way you'll have a few rares so go to 99K psp's which will start filling your rares and occasionally ultra-rares. The psp i think has a slightly higher chance of UR than the other two similarly priced packs.

I don't really see the point of "mostly or fully leveling" things before moving up to the next level. Mods, yes, but mods are easy to level. Some weapons, yes, but that depends on what types of weapon you like. Chars, definitely not. Gear, sorta.

 

[neuromaster]

I don't mind overzealous consumable users. I like anything that makes silvers go faster. Only reason to run silver in the first place is to get your waves/extractions or level up after promotion. Besides, ME3 multiplayer works on the "Whose Line" principle anyway

And I've been running a lot of silvers. I don't know if it's optimal, but I've been executing the following strategy for the last few months:
1) Pick a class that I need waves/extractions for for a challenge.
2) If lv15 or under, play silver. If >=lv16 (and its a good day), play gold.
3) Spend credits immediately. If anything gets to lv20, promote immediately.
4) If current challenge done, goto 1 else goto 2.

I know I make less money and therefore less characters/gear than I would doing golds with a roster of 20s. I think I rack up challenge points (esp. the elusive promotion challenge) more quickly this way. I hit 48 promotions last night, which is more than some friends of mine who've put a lot more hours in than me.

 

[Captainpuke]

I share a similar philosophy to Neuro, playing silver (except 'weapons classes' which I use much lower) until the mid teens and then switch to gold until promote.

That being said, Xp is shared but chievo points aren't. So that was my complaint about silver consumable use. And I haven't played a silver match recently that took over 18 minutes. I spend more time sprinting around looking for something to kill than killing until wave 7 or 8. Seems like a waste and they are gonna kill all the things. Consumables don't really seem to help it go that much faster. Gold is a different story obviously.

Seriously, I have played silver with destroyers + typhoons + armor piercing III + assault rifle III amp.... That liquefies things on gold/platinum, let alone silver. TGI + harrier + same. Both of those configs are solo gold territory of awesome.

 

[Wraith]

If it works then carry on. I stick with my nice easy games, less cash and it takes longer to do some challenges but it's what i enjoy. Once i'm done with promotions i may venture up a bit more but i'm on the same sort of course as you; level to 20 then promote rinse and repeat.

I must remember to try out a typhooon on the juggernaught at some point. That may be amusing.

 

[Dracorat]

You can. The best advice i've seen it to buy 20k packs until you've mostly or fully leveled your common items (weapons, gear, chars, the lot). Once you've got a lot of the common stuff out of the way you move to getting the 60K packs which will level your commons, then once they're out of the way you'll have a few rares so go to 99K psp's which will start filling your rares and occasionally ultra-rares. The psp i think has a slightly higher chance of UR than the other two similarly priced packs.

At the moment, I'm not looking to level them - I just want the characters. Is this advice the same?

 

[Wraith]

If you just want characters you may want the 99k pack with higher character chances. The RNG is quite irritatingly random though so a higher chance may not help a lot.

 

[Captainpuke]

Dracorat[/url]":36l43fnt]

You can. The best advice i've seen it to buy 20k packs until you've mostly or fully leveled your common items (weapons, gear, chars, the lot). Once you've got a lot of the common stuff out of the way you move to getting the 60K packs which will level your commons, then once they're out of the way you'll have a few rares so go to 99K psp's which will start filling your rares and occasionally ultra-rares. The psp i think has a slightly higher chance of UR than the other two similarly priced packs.

At the moment, I'm not looking to level them - I just want the characters. Is this advice the same?

The reserve pack is the way to go for just characters. I usually got 2 when purchasing it. Once in a while, I only got one. But I always got at least 1 character card from it.

A useful tip if you are patient and think you may want to partake in the chievos is to save up a nice hoard of cash, promote all your characters, and buy a half dozen or dozen reserve packs. Your newly promoted characters will be back up to the mid teens - so you don't have to slum it if you want to jump back in gold right away. I believe it is 4 gold character cards to go from 1 to 16.

 

[Grayrest]

For gear specifically, I basically didn't get any gear until I maxed out my rares and then all the gear filled in in like a week (about 10 hours of play).

 

[Psion]

neuromaster[/url]":3jjmp651]
I know I make less money and therefore less characters/gear than I would doing golds with a roster of 20s. I think I rack up challenge points (esp. the elusive promotion challenge) more quickly this way. I hit 48 promotions last night, which is more than some friends of mine who've put a lot more hours in than me.

When I did this I spent all my spacebux on 5k packs because you get character cards. Even when I was clearing golds. More level 1 consumables to throw on everything to speed things up, and 12500 or 62500 xp per card does add up when you're buying 16 packs after a gold game.

It's not exactly fun, and you do lose out on spacebux/chance at URs for the time you do this, but it's the fastest way I've seen to grind through sixty promotes. Always promote, always buy 5ks for character cards, play the highest difficulty you can complete quickly based on what you're playing. If it's bronze or silver, it's bronze or silver. If it's gold, it's gold.

And once you're done you have literally zero incentive to ever, ever promote again, and can stay playing 100% golds/plats for spacebux with guaranteed level 20s. You'll make it up in the long run.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Viridis[/url]":2b293lb9]I, for one, don't really mind the Vorcha's noises. Yes, the bloodlust cheer taking you out of cover is ridiculous,

That, and the fact that it interrupts whatever action you're engaged in. It's majorly annoying to have your bloodlust stack cheer cancel the flamer you have on a Phantom and end up having her standing over you gloating after she shoots you in the face with her palm gun.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Captainpuke[/url]":2932ege1]Question: do all packs yield character cards at the same rate? Also, I assume character cards from a recruit pack are significantly less xp than those from spectre pack or better. I am trying to minimize the pain of n7 mastery. I have 40 promotes (with a bunch ready to turn over again) - so I still need like 20 more.

My general plan was to get everyone to twenty, save up a truckload of money, promote everyone, and then splurge so I can get back into harder difficulties a.s.a.p. Should I be buring vetran/spectre/premium spectre/reserve packs?

The Spectre pack cards yield 250,000 XP, while recruit packs yield character cards in one of two values: 12,500 XP or 65,000 XP. It's kind of a dice roll which you get. Assuming you get an even distribution of 12.5k and 65k cards in recruit packs, that's the cheaper way to level characters. But it's kind of a pain in the ass, not to mention you only get L1 ammo/amps/armor gear, and your consumables are two counts of 1 item each, oh, and no chance for a Rare/UR card.

Also, damn you Type IV weapons consumables! 6 sp's and a couple arsenal packs and not a single piece of gear or weapons mod. Although I now have almost a dozen more type IV consumables.

I have 49 Incendiary IV, 48 Disruptor IV, 27 AP IV, 39 Warp IV, 47 Cryo IV, 34 Cylonic Modulator IV, and 42 Power Amp IV. I doubt I will ever use all of them, since I tend to hoard them for Platinum runs.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Wraith[/url]":du88qo09]I get irritated with people using missiles for much apart from clearing crowded hack circles. It's bronze ffs and i could use the points, stop being greedy or stupid!

Conversely i see people equipping things in all the consumably slots and think it's a waste. You don't need level 3 anything in the games i'm playing. Especially if you've got ~20k n7 points you should be able to walk it pretty easily.

The problem is you're still playing Bronze.

 

[LodeRunner]

Josh A.K.A CLF[/url]":2gnqmp6f]

Wraith[/url]":2gnqmp6f]I get irritated with people using missiles for much apart from clearing crowded hack circles. It's bronze ffs and i could use the points, stop being greedy or stupid!

Conversely i see people equipping things in all the consumably slots and think it's a waste. You don't need level 3 anything in the games i'm playing. Especially if you've got ~20k n7 points you should be able to walk it pretty easily.

The problem is you're still playing Bronze.

Difficulty aside, if I think I can get a Kill Streak out of it, there goes a missile.

 

[Psion]

Short, repeated flamer stacks are the best way to go. If you're holding it down and get killed by a Phantom that was your fault for not applying a short stack and repositioning with the pretty-good Vorcha dodge. So theeeeeeeeeere.

also spec your bloodlust for survivability and become Basically Invincible. then you won't care about the yell breaking your flamer.

 

[Josh A.K.A CLF]

Psion[/url]":2eb0bjg8]Short, repeated flamer stacks are the best way to go. If you're holding it down and get killed by a Phantom that was your fault for not applying a short stack and repositioning with the pretty-good Vorcha dodge. So theeeeeeeeeere.

I usually apply flamer, cancel with a dodge, and detonate fire explosions with carnage. A phantom has gotten me at least once when the bloodlust stack cheer cancelled flamer when the DoT from flamer (or perhaps incendiary ammo) killed a mook when I'd turned to face the Phantom.

also spec your bloodlust for survivability and become Basically Invincible. then you won't care about the yell breaking your flamer.

I have my Vorcha soldier spec'd for 6/6/6/0/6 with Bloodlust configured for survivability. Usually the only times I go down is when I am backed into a corner and the dodge doesn't take me out of the line of fire. The other somewhat annoying issue is lag ... I am weaning myself of the bad habit of mashing the flamer hotkey when it doesn't come on instantly ... because the multiple button presses eventually register with the host, and you're wondering why flamer isn't activating! It's because you've turned it off! Twice!