Forum:Insanity squadmates

So I decided to boot my copy of Mass Effect 2 back up and start on an Insanity playthrough (having only completed Hardcore before). I'm having a hard time deciding in skill point distribution and squadmates though. Here's what I've decided so far.

Class: Infiltrator

Enhanced Cloak (cloak is more for getting around and escaping from gun fire, I rarely use it for damage purposes, see below)

Improved AI Hacking (highly unlikely that there would be more than 1 unarmored enemy at any given time, 1 is good enough for drawing fire and doing damage)

Incinerate 2 (required for AI Hacking)

Power: Enhanced Dominate (same reason as AI Hacking)

Squadmates so far:

Miranda (No question here, her biotic abilities are incredibly useful in every situation, not to mention the enhanced squad damage)

Weapon upgrade choice: M-98 Widow (It's so powerful that even on Hardcore it's pretty much a novelty for me to take it out, only the most powerful enemies deserve this weapon, although it is a life saver at times)

You guys can probably guess what I am going at here, heavily relying on removing shields/armor on a single target then use Dominate and AI Hacking. While Cloak allows me to escape when things get hairy. So far it's carried me through Hardcore easily and it's worked pretty decently for the first few missions and Kasumi's Loyalty mission in Insanity. Armor easy to deal with with Heavy Incinerate and the M-98. However, shields and barriers have given me alot of trouble.

So here are my questions: 1. I still have 7 points left on Shepard, I can either go for max Incinerate and level 1 Disruptor Ammo or level 3 Disruptor Ammo & level 1 Cryo Ammo. However I've noticed both has their disadvantages. I tried Heavy Incinerate and although it's incredibly powerful against armor but it does render having heavy pistols and the M-98 somewhat redundant (it does conserve M-98 ammo though), on top of that it cuts into my ability to spam Dominate/AI-Hacking AND sometimes causes deaths when I couldn't use Cloak in time.

On the other hand, Disruptor Ammo will assist in solving my shield problem. But it's only going to be level 3 and 1 skill point will go to waste on Cryo Ammo. I've tried it in Hardcore and I can't say that it has helped me at all, the 40% extra damage (20% actually because if I go for Incinerate I will still have level 1 Disruptor Ammo), isn't noticeable at all. Not to mention it does nothing against barriers.

2. Other squadmate? I've tried the recommended ones such as Grunt and Legion, but none of them stands out in helping my strategy. Most of the suggestions seem to be focused in the ability to tank damage and delivering some back since Miranda covers the Biotics department. However my main focus is stripping an enemy down to its health quickly, then that enemy can tank and deliver excellent damage and my squad will receive no fire in return. Another Biotic could possibly help my squad out here.

P.S. Due to how easy Hardcore is for this incredibly powerful strategy, I'm considering challenging myself to do a no weapons Insanity runthrough (not a single bullet fired from Shepard) after my current playthrough. Although the Shield/Barrier problem needs to be solved.-- 22:53, September 5, 2011 (UTC) excuse the sig, I need to import it from another wiki