User blog:Kallenovsky/Listmania! Ranking Your Squad

Lists, some love to make them and others absolutely hate them. If you're like me you've probably been debating over and over in your own mind where you would rank your favorite teammates throughout the series.

The idea
We all prefer some characters over others, not just for their individual skills and powers, but also weighing in on personal feelings. We can all debate on who is better than who in effectiveness and/or reliability when it comes down to it, but the reality is that all of the characters have their ups and downs based on different mission situations. The rest simply falls into personal preference.

So how do you rank your top 10? Better yet, where do you rank all of Shepard's possible teammates? There are 20 to choose from all-in-all, though some of which we may not have even played with depending on our choices or content. Two examples being whether or not you were able to play the first game with Urdnot Wrex or whether you sided with Samara or her daughter Morinth.

You don't need to be specific about every decision you've made, but at the least provide an idea of why you chose some of your favorites. However, you can be as detailed as you want. I know most of us like sharing our favorite moments.

The list

 * 1) Liara T'Soni
 * 2) Garrus Vakarian
 * 3) Thane Krios
 * 4) Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
 * 5) Legion
 * 6) Mordin Solus
 * 7) Urdnot Wrex
 * 8) Samara
 * 9) Javik
 * 10) Grunt
 * 11) EDI
 * 12) Miranda Lawson
 * 13) Jacob Taylor
 * 14) James Vega
 * 15) Kaidan Alenko
 * 16) Ashley Williams
 * 17) Kasumi Goto
 * 18) Jack
 * 19) Zaeed Massani
 * 20) Morinth

The details
Honestly, my first Mass Effect game was the third. When I was introduced to James Vega and Ashley Williams for the first time I thought, "oh great, another game with stereotypical characters. While my opinion of both of characters has changed a bit, my interest in the series really started to kick in when Liara was introduced. Everything about the character was interesting, from her biotic abilities to her personality. After playing for a while I thought to myself, "It would cool if my character could get with her." Little did I know that he actually could—hilarious when I found that out, sad when I finally got to the ending romance scene. My only disappointment was having so little dialog at the Shadow Broker base with her.

Garrus isn't a first or second choice when it comes to squad selection, but he gives off that best buds vibe. I really enjoyed most of the dialog between him and my Shepard, minus using the calibrations excuse to brush me off nicely. "Talk to ya' later Garrus!" Thane is simply a really interesting character and unlike anyone else. I think I enjoyed his dialog more than any other in ME2, which made him my favorite debut of that particular game. During any following play through I didn't skip any of his dialog. When I killed Kai Leng, I mostly thought about avenging Thane.

Tali and Legion are about equal to be honest. On my first play through ME3 I made the decision to side with Legion on Rannoch as I could not understand the Quarian problem with the Geth. When Tali killed herself, I felt pretty bad, even more so when I went back and played through the first two games. I found her to be very charming and cute, which is odd considering that we never see her face (sorry, I don't count that bad Photoshop job). Legion on the other hand is just interesting, I wished there were more scenes involving it, perhaps giving it more time to be a part of Shepard's squad in ME3.

Mordin changed my whole perspective on video gaming. What I mean is that on my first play through, when he went up to cure the Genophage and there was nothing I could do about it except kill him, I was pretty upset! I ended up going back to an early save to build up as much paragon as I could to let him live. I liked him even more in the second game.

I didn't get to see Urdnot Wrex at all until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine let me borrow his 360 while he went on vacation. I like Wrex's attitude, which really altered my interest in the Krogan. After I finished the game I went back to my copy of ME2 and made changes to let him live. Samara's story is quite interesting and one of my favorites of ME2. She also makes a great teammate. When I went back to side with Morinth, I felt pretty bad betraying her. I liked Morinth's special ability, but for me it wasn't worth killing Samara. Javik's honesty and negativity in his dialog is hilarious at times. He also makes an incredible teammate. Perhaps they could have come up with a better accent though ... Grunt on the other hand only had decent dialog, but he was my favorite teammate in ME2 during missions. Playing on higher difficulties, I often have him with me.

Getting down to the lower ranks—I actually don't care much for EDI on my squad in ME3, but I like the character throughout the series. I'm not sure why I don't rank Miranda higher. I liked her powers and her story is pretty interesting. I guess I just never got into her. Same goes for Jacob, only I didn't care as much for him on my squad at all. James Vega kind of rubbed off on me eventually, but like with Kaidan and Ashley I never really got into them.

Like with Zaeed, I didn't really get into Kasumi. I wanted more dialog from both characters. I rank Kasumi higher since I really enjoyed her loyalty mission in ME2. Jack on other hand was just irritating. Her personality reminds me of a girl I knew in high school. I absolutely cannot stand those "life sucks" kind of people in real life, so I can't imagine why I would like one in a game. I just wanted to tell her off every time. Still, I ranked Morinth and Zaeed below her, the latter on account of looking so incredibly stupid and being so boring. Sorry Zaeed fans.

The response
This is where you come in. Where do you rank your squad through the series? I'd like to make note of everyone's list and put together an overall Wiki ranking.