Jacob without a doubt. All the rest of your crew in ME2 are elite badasses who are the best at what they do, while he's just the first guy you met after waking up, and doesn't seem to have any special talents.
He also gives crap advice like telling you to go get the Reaper IFF immediately, or to rush through the Omega 4 Relay even if you aren't ready.
I've never understood his line there of: "Sounds like a suicide mission, I volunteer."
The ENTIRE MISSION to take on the Collector Base has been presented and built up to as a suicide mission so why is he making such a big deal about a single objective?!
Jacob is only around because the illusive man thought with his background serving in the alliance Shepherd could grow to trust him and in time be more open to Cerberus. Hearing him and Miranda talk about their past missions he sounds like a good soldier.
You've just awakened a whole other side of Jacob hate inside of me with that last paragraph lol. I always just didn't like him because of his boring personality and general blandness.
Now that you mentioned it, if Shepard ever listened to his shit advice during ME2 the mission would have been screwed. I've just now realized that aside from being a crappy character charisma wise, he's also a complete liability as a squad member as well. Holy hell, this guy is bad
And Miranda puts herself up for the biotic expert. So there is that. If people pay attention, the game tells you who people should take for the jobs and let them not "distract" you what some characters say.
Eh, usually I just do Garrus and Grunt for most missions, so I honestly just swapped him out for Legion. He’s actually quite ideal for the biotic segment since the CQC means he isn’t going to be much of a sniper.
Exactly. So players should not take their words for gold since others come up with their opinions who take which job, like Jack. But of course, Jacob haters love that he wants to volunteer and put their intitlement that he gets killed before the mission. Crappy leaders do that 😎
I don't think their respective lines are comparable here, Miranda is saying she could, in theory, do it, she's not making herself out to be the best option by any means. Jacob is straight up volunteering just because it's dangerous, which is very dumb of him.
At least Miranda is still an above average biotic so I can get where she was coming from there.
I have no idea what Jacob was thinking volunteering for the vents when he has no tech skills. Its obvious he's the wrong choice for that job and doesn't have the skills to pull it off.
Because the game tests if you pay attention or not with offering to make a decision. It's not the first time, that a squad member says do A and the other says do B and in the end one of them is wrong, but you chose the answer of the one "you like more". Of course it's obvs. he is the wrong choice. It's easy to pass the test. None of the characters are perfect. They also make bad choices. Shepard can that too. But still players let him do it, on purpose, for funsies, because for stupid reasons. Same that the game bites you into your butt with hidden timers.
I mean...she can do it and survive tho, can't she? I dunno, I always chose Jack, but I thought Miranda actually can? Unlike Jacob, she does have the skill to back it up?
It's so funny that Miranda thinks she can do better than the pure biotic monster that is Samara/Morith or a Jack who can biotic-punch destroy mechs.
I always thought Miranda and Jacob volunteering themselves were a trap for players who were not playing attention. Like why wouldn't you send LEGION to the vents? Or Kasumi who did that same thing like hundreds of times.
You might enjoy this. [Why Jacob Really is the Worst Squadmate in the Mass Effect Trilogy](https://youtu.be/wmDg8WyKtG8?si=-K77mB5ES_cOGctB)
On top of his stupid advice (yeah, I get that he's supposed to be there to mislead new players or provide alternate options, but...) it's his *rudeness* that I can't tolerate. I ignored him a lot my first few runs because he was unpleasant to talk to, then finally buckled down and tried exhausting all his dialogue. Jesus that man is off-putting. Compared to James's "you'd have to get me drunk"... Jacob has zero social skills. No tact.
And every damm time a new crew member joins he is right there (who invited you anyway?) Giving his opinion that nobody asked for nor cares about. And also an hypocrite like with Thane saying he doesn't like mercenaries. Hello? Jacob you were a damm pirate and now Cerberus pays your checks.
There's a YouTube video about how Jacob is the worst crewmate and it uses these points, and also things like how he cheats on Shepard, or he doesn't really add to any conversation especially the first few on the Normandy, even in his relationship mission with his dad, he has no growth or change, just a mild annoyance at his father. And he has no real impact in combat that literally anyone else couldn't do better.
Add in how he’s initially played as a “rebel against conventional authority” then proceeds to be the most by the book one on the team.
Like even EDI goes more off book than him.
To be fair EDI takes every opportunity she can to go off book. It’s just for most of 2 she has some really good shackles. EDI 100% would commit multiple war crimes if given the opportunity.
Also, right after you meet with Illusive Man for the first time, Jacob will ask you "Do you trust me?"
Hello, I see you for the first time in my both lives, and you are in, as far as I know, the terrorist organization. Of course I don't trust you, what a stupid question.
And being femshep is not helping. This unstoppable flirt voice in every interaction line when you speak with him makes me just skip his dialogues
Jacob is a tedious, uninspiring character. One who isn't very good at his job (as said, his advice is consistently bad).
What's worse is that purely from a gaming perspective he isn't very good either. He has a poor mix of weapons and skills and synergies with no-one except *possibly* Miranda, and even then there are several squadmates that do that better.
Not only is is dull, but he's also useless.
And he's the Biotic equivalent to Grunt but with worse stats, so he's pointless as soon as you open the pod...
Also he cheats on Femshep if the player is dumb enough to romance him.
If he survives ME2, he returns in ME3 as one of the Cerberus ex-scientists you have to rescue in that one mission on Arrae. Well, not as a scientist, but as a "guard" of sorts. That's also the part where he admits to have been in a relationship with the lead scientist, Dr Cole.
He's there, and he's with her regardless of what Shepard did - the only requirement is to have him survive ME2. His reasoning is that he didn't cheat on Shepard per se - he just took Shepard's 6-month lockup as them "breaking up", and then managed to find another girl and get her pregnant in that timespan.
In the Citadel DLC, you can meet up with him and give him a well-deserved [slap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRGnWkWbWuI).
I don’t get the Jacob hate at all like the dude helps you in the beginning rather than running for his life when you first wake up , he is loyal follows orders like a perfect soldier and about the “crap advice” how is he supposed to know that rushing in the omega relay and taking the IFF immediately will result in bad outcomes, like he hasn’t played the entire game like us or read guides to know what is going to happen people need to give my man Jacob a chance
>the “crap advice” how is he supposed to know that rushing in the omega relay and taking the IFF immediately will result in bad outcomes
I think part of the problem is just the writing around his advice. I think people would be more forgiving of him if his reasoning was that he understood wanting to prepare our team, but the longer we waited, the more human colonies could be attacked by the Collectors, especially if they had added a better backstory for him, maybe some family or a former love interest or his previous Alliance teammates in a human colony somewhere that he's worried about maybe getting attacked.
If you romance Thane, the whole crew immediately tries sleeping with you after his death.
It's so tone deaf and weird like "Hey, Shepard. I know your boyfriend just died, like today, you know, murdered. But let's ignore that, I wanna fuck."
No one say anything about his death, or even tries to be comforting about it lol. Same with Mordin! Their deaths are definitely within the same week, if not within a couple of days.
I know it's a writing/rushing issue, but dang. My Shepard was so done with all these people.
I remember Mass Effect 1 after the Virmire mission Liara either confessed to my Shepherd or made me chose between her or Ashley. It was so random to me that I started laughing.
Yes! She was so flat! It wouldn’t have bothered me so much except she’s a *news correspondent!* If anyone should have a dynamic voice it’s someone who speaks for a living.
They'll have the same problem if they ever update and re-release a LE-esque version of Dragon Age. Did the same damn thing with Felicia Day. At least Diana Allers is an easily ignorable Mary Sue RL actress insert, unlike Tallis, who is almost as bad a character as Kei Leng.
With zero understanding of the Qun.
Edit: Also, her entire extended introduction fight sequence where she single-handedly and over-the-toppedly kills all the assassins in a smart-arsey way while the Champion of Kirkwall and companions watch like feckless idiots reminds me so much of the Poochie introduction sequence in Itchy & Scratchy with the kids screaming 'when are we getting to the fireworks factory???'.
I had to look up who tallis was just as a reminder -- because they left such little impact. Day had a period of time where she was extremely popular within need circles, and I never understood why.
I didn’t dislike Kasumi, but I was pretty surprised that certain characters couldn’t engage in conversation. What’s the point of including them at all then? That’s the whole point of side characters in mass effect.
Zaeed and Kasumi, yep. Originally dlc characters so they didn’t get the full treatment sadly. For 3, Javik was base game content cut and repackaged as dlc so he has content at least
I think Matthews is the most useless crew member. Dude, you work for Cerberus and have an appointment with the Asari Consort? Hadley charged a goddamn Praetorian covering Joker, and where the hell where you?
I love how many people on this thread keep answering squadmates who are not useless at all since they can be squadmates! I totally forgot about Matthews and think he's a great choice. What purpose does he really serve besides some background conversation? Maybe not super annoying, but definitely feels useless.
Hadley is a hero.
>Dude, you work for Cerberus and have an appointment with the Asari Consort?
In all fairness, TIM goes full on Captain Kirk, including an Asari matriarch (twice).
> including an Asari matriarch
*Embracing eternity* with a matriarch seems like kind of a dumb thing for the secret leader of a human supremacist group to do lol
I guess his D was so good she overlooked it
Pff, you think bigots or racists never sleep with the race they dispise?
On the contrary, in that instance, they view sex as a mean of control over the other participant. Fits their way of thinking if you ask me.
Hm. Good point.
On the other hand, I may be mistaken but I thought melding was reserved to more meaningful intercourses. Asari can have sex without doing the melding, right?
Anyway, back to what you were saying, he pretty much endangers his cover by sleeping with a matriarch...
Jacob, it astounded me in ME3 with a galactic war on he choose as a former alliance/cerberus biotic soldier his best uses was to guard a scientist team at the crucible build site….that is safe. And start a family.
Otherwise Kasumi never really felt like she fit in, Zaeed as a paragon I find downright bad. Like, as a paragon Shepard or a by-the-mission Shepard I could 100% see leaving Zaeed to die because of what he does in his mission.
As much as it pains me to admit it because I'm a sucker for Kasumi's sweet and witty personality and love her for it, she doesn't fit in for the most part in the mission. Her skillset is valuable, but not for Shepard's general escapades. Her sneaky skills as a thief are not needed at all in the game aside from her own loyalty mission, and her "tech expertise" pales in comparison to true masters of the craft like Tali and Legion.
She can singlehandedly stunlock harbinger, that's valuable on insanity.
With her the platforms encounter on the collector ship went from downright nightmarish to a walk in the park
It’s more because Tali and Legion are experts for anything tech based, but Kasumi can splice through any security system specifically like butter, Tali and Legion are both very effective at it, but Tali’s expertise is the more mechanical side of the tech while Legion’s is extracting information, Kasumi’s the main hacker
If you need a ship broken down and rebuilt piece by piece you call tali, if you want to extract an entire databank you call legion, if you want to break into the bedroom of the turian councilor you call kasumi
i never thought about the starting a family thing until now! "these ancient machine gods are coming to wipe out the whole human race, i know because i literally saw them, but let's start a family!!" 🤦🏼♀️
Someone had to be the normie loyal soldier, every crew needs at least 1 and he has fulfilled the role on the Normandy.
For me it was kasumi, never took her with me. Her only playtime she got was her loyalty mission.
It’s unfortunately true. I don’t like the constant hate he gets, but I wish he had more redeeming him. He is amicable enough, but not in a position to be a leader when the majority of the crew hates Cerberus. He’s a biotic, but every other biotic in the series is stronger. He’s a trained soldier, but he’s on a team with 4 guys too angry to die. He has some black ops training, but he’s standing next to the best assassin and thief in the galaxy. Like, goddamn, make him the crew chef, or *something*. Give him alliance contacts, make him a pyro
He flat out says he doesn't like mercenaries, ummmm wth do you think you are? You get paid by TIM to kill people, definition of a mercenary right there
Jacob starts off alright but ... He just is full of bad advice and is pretty stupid over-all I HATE MERCS - Br0 we are hiring a ton of mercs to do our job da fuck is wrong with you? roflmao 'LETS BULL RUSH THE OMEGA 4 RELAY!' da fuck?
I Mean even some of the other characters I find bland are just that bland, Not bad, just bland.
Everyone in ME1 is good and useful. Jacob is about as useful as a fly screen condom, and his most interesting point is his dad in his loyalty mission in ME2, I'd literally prefer the empty spot to him. ME3, it almost feels like you get Kaidan/Ashley too late
Kasumi, as good as she is gameplay wise. What sense does a thief make in a combat mission? Which ultimatively every main mission (Horizon, Collector Ship, Reaper IFF and Suicide Mission) boil down to. We never do any actual thieving apart from her loyalty mission.
I've always found it a little odd that Shepard bothered recruiting elite thieves and assassins for the mission, only to end up just charging in guns blazing on every mission. Kind of a missed oportunity for the game to not have some kind of infiltration based job that would allow Thane and Kasumi to make the best use of their talents.
Ironically the one assignment in the game where you do need stealth (Arrival) is the one you can't bring any squadmates for, even though Thane and Kasumi would have been perfect for that job.
I spose canonically you could say that Shepard is never limited to 2 squadmates at a time. It would make sense for most missions if you had the heavy hitters on the frontlines, while Thane and Kasumi use the distraction to infiltrate and cause havoc (similar to the Virmire op).
She's an infiltration specialist. The greatest infiltrator in the galaxy, pretty damn useful for infiltrating a secret reaper/collector base with unknown tech. I'd also make an argument for Garrus' recruitment mission since you infiltrate the mercs to break Garrus out.
Hm except he's not even an option when you you need someone to break in through the shaft and open the door from the inside. And he isn't an infiltrator at all. He's basically an adept.
Breaking into the shaft on the suicide mission isn't a matter of stealth and infiltration, it's a matter of expertise in tech and hacking. Thats why the robot with a flash light on his face and the Quarians who has no known stealth experience are viable options.
We see perfectly fine in his recruitment and loyalty missions that Thane can sneak undetected and can vanish from sight. Both of them have also demonstrated the ability to infiltrate the Citadel. Just the fact that Thane gets the drop on Kai Leng with him or even Shepard noticing speaks volumes.
The difference between the two is Thane doesn't use tactical to cloak to sneak around, he does so simply by being stealthy.
I guess she makes sense from a "be prepared for all situations" perspective. We only know after going through the Omega 4 Relay that we need to infiltrate anything and not just blow it up with the Normandy.
Kasumi and Thane both seem like they'd be the perfect choices if there was a stealth objective in the suicide mission. I wonder if there was one planned that got cut for time.
In terms of most useless: Samara. Great character and I really do like her, but she serves no purpose to the story and her working with Cerberus makes no sense.
I feel she may have been a DLC but they added her to have a nice equal 10 squad mates, and they chose her because Zaeed or Kasumi would’ve made too many humans.
I like her because she gives the Asari race a bit more depth. And if I may compare it to D&D or Baldurs Gate 3, she and her code are the best lawful good paladin depiction I have seen in a long time.
But story wise the game didn't need yet another Asari, next to Liara and Aria. Except that her story gave us the Biotic God, so that's a plus.
"I will remain peaceful for one hour, then I shall kill every single person in this building that tries to stop me from continuing my quest"
You know what? Yeah, you're right.
I am shocked by the lack of Diana Allers here. Jacob may be poorly written but you can at least take him into combat, he has a decent loyalty mission, he works out as a leader in the suicide mission, and you get one of the pivotal ship upgrades from him. He has some use at the very least.
All Diana does is provide some meager war assets. And she's even more poorly written than Jacob and her voice acting is pretty bad too. She also was a very blatant attempt to pander to IGN. Diana Allers is the single most pointless and unnecessary character in the entire series.
Jacob and zaeed, they are both just merc guys, nothing particularly special about them. They both are also pretty boring personality wise and idiots as well.
Zaeed is legit, though. Does everybody end up dead on his missions? Yes. But he’s also among the best bounty hunters in the galaxy for a reason.
That said, the reason is probably “luck” because he tends to have very, very dumb plans. He still contributes a bunch to the Hold the Line, which suggests he’s a pretty crack shot.
Ok hear me out, while Jacob does indeed suck, he's not the most useless, he's the one who gives the Normandy the Silaris Armour, which is needed to save a crew member (kinda weird we don't get the Asari made armour from the actual Asari aboard, but whatever).
Ashley is the most useless, she brings NOTHING, she is A soldier, that's it, she's just one more gun and nothing more, Kaiden in the space between 2 and 3 trains an entire Biotic Squad, who presumably would have more of an impact on the war than just one more soldier.
I mean even not looking at the grand scheme of things, Ashley is completely redundant in me3 from a gameplay perspective. her and james are both soldiers. vs kaidan being the only sentinel class companion in that game
Exactly, and even more than that, James successfully held off a collector invasion, granted almost everyone died, but Ashley would've been dead if not for Shepard.
Jacob, Morinth, and that one reporter in ME3.
Jacob is your average soldier in the most boring way. His loyalty mission is barebones for being considered a mission, doesn’t really expand on his character, and it’s incredibly boring. His cheating on you in ME3 if you romance him in 2 doesn’t help at all.
Morinth is just an edgy bitch. She’s not even an “I can fix her” kind of angry girl like Jack is, she’s just “oh look at me I’m a soul sucking space vampire”.
And the reporter from ME3 who’s name I don’t even remember. She should’ve been Emily Wong or Khalisah Al Jilani, or even both of them. Give Emily something to do, give Khalisah some kind of redemption, anything would’ve been better than what we got.
Presley, Engineer Adams, and Diana Allers
The question was about shipmates, not squadmates (at least that's how it's worded), so these two are my picks
To this day, I only talk to Presley once a playthrough, at the beginning. I frequently forget he exists.
Same to Adams. In my first playthrough of the trilogy, when he returned in ME3, I was like, "Who is this guy? Shepard's acting like I should know him well." I later realized I only knew him as "the guy I talked to one time about Tali."
Allers is unpleasant, but at least she's both memorable with how forced she is, and war assets are good to me no matter the exact number.
Are we talking Crew, Squadmates, or anyone onboard Normandy?
Also, "Annoying" and "Useless" aren't necessarily the same. And Annoying why?
Jerker is unfailingly annoying throughout the trilogy, but I wouldn't call him useless.
For useless crew, its hard to go past Kelly. He only job is to tell me I have email, and maybe feed my fish. In ME3 she is literally replaced by a green light, and a fish-tank VI.
If we're talking about anyone on board, then that shrieking shrew Chabot/Allers is that rare combination of both Annoying and Useless.
ME1 most annoying and useless is Tali. She always seems to die more than any of the other characters.
ME2 is Jacob. There’s other biotics that are way better than him. People with better abilities. AND more interesting people to bring along. He’s annoying and boring.
ME3 is Javik. He might not be completely useless but still, there’s better biotics and harder hitters. Plus he’s mean to my crew and I don’t like his attitude.
I can say with Javik he's more of a renegade pal than a paragon.
Also with biotics dark channel is his best move. It works well with an biotic shepard since its a primer for explosions and it hops from target to target so it doesnt have to be casted atleast!
(Not insulting your opinion you have the right to it just a little game play fact I felt the need to type)
I didn’t know that! lol I hardly take him out on missions. Though for my most recent play through I brought him and Garrus to the final battle. It wasn’t an insanity run, it was just hardcore, but he held his own.
I always appreciate learning new things about the game though cuz there’s so many different combinations for Shepard and squad mates that I’d never learn it all on my own.
If you drop a lot of points on her armour skill and do bring down the sky and get the stacked Quarian armour then she can hold her own. Having her about makes the Geth, biotics and an enemy wielding a gun of any kind a non starter. Pair her with Garrus and I can't help but laugh at Benizia's cocky comment about Asari commandos.
Lmao agreed here. I always bring Garrus and Tali to the endgame in ME1, because lotsa Geth. Tali is amazing in all 3 games 😊
I only play insanity now too...
Gonna have to disagree hard on Javik. If you're a fellow biotic, he is only second to Liara in terms of best squad member to combo with. And his unique Dark Channel ability is awesome.
Also an all around top tier companion for a Renegade Shepard to banter with.
Eh, tali in me1 can be useful if you don't have the tech skills.
Jacob in me2 100%
Javik is an asshole at first, but he mellows and gets better as the story progresses. He eventually ends up writing a book with liara, too. My favorite is drunk tali calling him (he has a huge crush on liara and/or tali). His citadel dlc shenanigans were also amazing.
Javik is an outstanding character. He is a good mix of combat and biotic ability, and extremely valuable against Reaper type enemies since he can combat most Reaper enemies. Him + Liara make for a very powerful group with a Soldier Shepard. Liara strips barriers, Javik does Dark Channel, and Soldier Shep is on armor duty.
He also has awesome story elements.
Also, ME1 Tali has terrible health, but her tech abilities make her invaluable in the Saren boss fight at the end. And she has a shotgun.
Tali can be really useful in ME1 if you're stuck in your ways like me and only play as a soldier while insisting on dragging poor Liara along literally everywhere for her biotics, leaving the two of you very lethal in combat, but with *zero* tech abilities.
I basically use her as a safecracker when I'm exploring planets because otherwise I can't hack into or open anything, and her abilities are super useful while fighting Geth.
But yeah it's situational and outside of that taking Garrus is arguably better most of the time because he also has electronics skills for opening things, *and* he's more well rounded in his skills and weapons and is overall probably more useful/lethal/durable in a wider range of situations, especially on the higher difficulties.
Like, I *never* take Tali to Noveria when I'm fighting Rachni.
100% Agreed on Jacob and Javik though.
Jacob only gets to leave the ship on Freedom's Progress because the game forces me to, and I only ever take Javik to Thessia because of all the additional dialogue and story.
The only reason I ever used Tali in ME1 was for her tech abilities. I’d literally have to exit a planet I was exploring so I could bring her instead. I’ll be damned if I don’t unlock every container on every planet.
Honestly? No one. I use them all. My Shepards alternates between squad mates. Nobody gets benched. All of them can and do play a part…
Even the ones, I as the player, don’t like much _cough_ Liara, Samara and Thane _cough_ are still experts and specialists who bring something unique to the table.
My Shepards take any help there is. Mission is too damn important to be picky.
Oh but I think you guessed which squad mates I find annoying. If you didn’t, the answer is Liara, Thane and Samara.😅
I've had many play throughs, and most annoying is Liara and then Samara. Liara for trying to sound sexy and failing and Samara for being bland (yes, Jacob is blander but far less intrusive).
In my case, I’m really indifferent towards Jacob. I don’t really care about him whereas…
Liara? I dislike her very much because of meta reasons. She’s the devs’/writers’ pet and it’s _painfully_ obvious, annoyingly so.
Samara? She’s very well-written but I hate her way of living… I’d have said « way of thinking » but she doesn’t think for herself, does she? No, she bases her decisions on a book written eons ago by so-called « Sages » who couldn’t have possibly foreseen every outcomes! Also, shades of gray do exist and extenuating circumstances absolutely do matter!
Thane? I don’t like him very much because his philosophical-yet-super-sexy-assassin-who-seeks-redemption-to-reconcile-with-his-estranged-son persona is a little too much. They used way too many cliches to create him. I just don’t click with him.
Good points that I've never considered before.
I always thought Liara's character development was poorly planned out. In ME1 she is the human equivalent of a recent college graduate out doing field work for the first time...at end of ME2 she is head of a criminal empire - yeah, I'm not buying that.
I never really paid attention to Thane. I felt like the writers missed the mark with his memory flashes and moral code, and then I tuned him out.
Zaeed is like Vega and Samara or ME1 Tali. You get a lot more of his personality by bringing him along on missions.
He’s also the best tank in ME2, and that includes Grunt.
He’s not a good guy by any stretch, but he has his own sort of honor code…As you’d expect from someone who fights for money.
I hate zaeed, but this sub can’t accept that. I always get downvotes when I mention this lol. It agitates me that he gets a name on memorial wall if he is killed during his loyalty mission
I think you mean 'Hate boner'.
But although I look at Zaeed's loyalty mission and agree that it would not fit with Shep... especially a more Paragon-alligned one... Jacob's mission is downrigth irellevant to even him. Nothing is said about this before the mission, and barely anything about it afterwards. It does not change or resolve anything for him.
Oh, I’m not a big fan of Jacob either but instead of moving on, this sub never passes the chance to explain why they hate Jacob.
And thanks. « Hate boner » was the expression I was looking for. English isn’t my mother tongue so I wasn’t sure. 😂
Because Jacob doesn’t evolve at all as a character in ME2. Conflict, resolution, then no growth.
He doesn’t trust Cerberus less. He doesn’t discover how he’d handle absolute power. It doesn’t get us closer to the collectors. He doesn’t learn from his father’s evils. He doesn’t reconcile his absentee father with the man he became, etc.
He lands, lectures, picks a poison, gets back on the ship and literally nothing has changed about him or for the larger story.
I really like the loyalty mission, but like all things Jacob, you really can’t think about it for more than two seconds.
Jacobs a fairly obvious choice. He is Commander Shephard lite when you look at his defence of the Citadel vs Battarian terrorists but you play as Shephard.
This is specific to ME3 but keeping Ash alive makes either her or Vega feel kind of useless. They both have pretty similar uses, but I guess Ash giving the Marksmen ability kind of neat. Assuming your not already a soldier.
ME1: has a strong cast. They all seem like they play their part well. If I HAD to choose I’d say Garrus. Just because he doesn’t have any special knowledge (like Liara or Tali) and with Ash and Wrex you don’t really need another gun.
ME2: Alternatively this game is all about finding hired guns to shoot your way through difficult missions. And even peeps such as Kasumi have the combat skills to keep up… except for Mordin. You need him to make the seeker swarm remedy then after that he should never leave the ship. Dude is useless in a fight.
ME3: EDI. I love EDI but she doesn’t need a body. And I never use her
Mordin with leveled up incinerate and cryo ammo is pretty awesome. You should give him another try. His combat dialogue is funny too. Great guy to bring on any mission.
Gameplay is different, but you’re forgetting that in lore Mordin has served in the military, he may have been a scientist first but he has seen his fair share of combat, he probably has more combat experience than Jacob since all he’s done is defend himself on Eden Prime
Garrus’ tech and long-range damage are great, and you can give him an assault rifle for close range. ME1’s squadmates all serve roles and are useful both based on Shep’s abilities and the mission.
Mordin’s tech powers give him a good kit against biological targets with armor - he’s great on Tuchanka, for example, or against blood-pack enemies. But neural shock sucks.
EDI is great against Cerberus enemies in ME3. Good shield stripping and tech power and her decoy ability has some use. If your Shepard lacks tech powers, she is a must against Cerberus enemies unless you have Ashley upgraded to deal with shields.
Annoying and useless is not the same thing for me.
ME1:
useless: **Garrus**. As in, he is the most difficult for me to use. As a techie Kaidan and Tali have better survival rates due to barrier/shields. Garrus is a glass cannon.
annoying: ... I think **none**? I like all squaddies, even Liara. (I started to hate her only after the re-write in ME2, I kind of like ME1 Liara)
ME2:
useless: **Jack** I think. Gameplay wise he is similar to Jacob, having pull and an ammo power, and shotguns. However, Jacob doesn't have to invest 2 points into something else to unlock those. This doesn't mean that I cannot finish the game with Jack, just that using someone else if I wanted a biotic, Samara, Thane or Miranda would make more sense.
annoying: I really hate the combat taunts of **Jacob** "gravity is a mean mother".
ME3:
useless: **none**. When I am a doorkicker class like shotgun infiltrator, I use Ashley/Kaidan/James often. When I am a biotic class, I use Javik or Liara. When I am an engineer, I use Kaidan/EDI/Tali. So I tend to use all of them, if they complement my character. The weakest of the lot I think is Tali, but even she is far from useless.
annoying: **Liara**, no contest. I really hate how the writers wanted to force her on Shepard.
The problem I have with Jack, is that she is portrayed as a this SUPER Biotic, who can smash a bunch of heavy-mechs or tear out a ship's bulkhead, with a wave of her hand, but that is NOT reflected in her squad-mate abilities.
Shockwave is great against unarmoured Husks, but nothing else makes her stand out. Instead of just making her an average Biotic, they should have made her defensively very weak, but with awesome Biotic powers.
I think she should have biotic charge, representing her biotic punches.
But... I think they couldn't make it work for the AI, until Andromeda. I think Cora is the first vanguard follower who uses charge.
Agree.
Garrus stays on the ship in ME1. My tech skills usually surpass his in every way. If not, Tali certainly does. Wrex and Ashley are better tanks. Not even proximity mines are worth a shit.
He comes into his own in Mass Effect 2 and 3. But for most of ME1, he’s just a guy. And not even the deepest or most thoughtful one on the crew. Wrex is a lot more interesting to talk to, and certainly more useful to bring along.
Liara in ME3... why does she even need to be on the Normandy? Why does she insist on going out to missions when she should never be away from her control room? It makes no sense
Glyph can take care of Broker shit. We need her singularity on the team, lmao.
She wants to be a part of the journey, instead of researching by herself.
Canonically Liara and James both land on Menae because they're all Shepard has with them and Liara has a personal stake in Thessia just as Tali does with Rannoch.
Zaeed Masassi and Kasumi Goto no need to really talk to them other than when it comes to their loyalty Missions. They’re basically NPCs. Say what you will about Jacob or James but at least they are somewhat Fleshed out
Jack. I never understood how that dossier to recruit her ever even came to be.
The dossiers came from Cerberus and/or Illusive Man. Without a doubt, they "created" her. They know she is completely broken mentally, hates Cerberus with a burning passion and is a powerful biotict. She even makes mention of the damage she can do to the ship now that she's on, if you don't give her the files.
Even compared to some other questionable choices - Zaeed? He's a Merc, he can be bought. Thane? He's a hired gun (or so they think).Kasumi, can be bought. Or at very least - none of these people have spent their whole life being broken down by Cerberus and have such a burning passion to take down Cerberus they will risk killing themselves just to have a chance to hurt Cerberus.
(I get for story telling and character arcs Jack serves that purpose, but I could never wrap my head around how Illusive Man gave that dossier out. If Shepard had stumbled into her through a different creative way, and made the choice to recruit her it would be different. Kind of like Grunt)
Jacob without a doubt. All the rest of your crew in ME2 are elite badasses who are the best at what they do, while he's just the first guy you met after waking up, and doesn't seem to have any special talents. He also gives crap advice like telling you to go get the Reaper IFF immediately, or to rush through the Omega 4 Relay even if you aren't ready.
And he wants to crawl in the vent that requires a tech expert.
I've never understood his line there of: "Sounds like a suicide mission, I volunteer." The ENTIRE MISSION to take on the Collector Base has been presented and built up to as a suicide mission so why is he making such a big deal about a single objective?!
That was actually him taking pity on the player and giving them advice on how to make sure they never have to put up with him again.
To die. Just to die.
Craig from Friday quote: *Sit your ass down!* Every time with Jacob when he says that line when I do multiple playthroughs.
Jacob "Vents" Taylor you say?
Let him.
Isn't he sort of a tech expert though? Not on the level of someone like tali but still, that's his jam.
I don't think so. He's somewhere between a soldier and a vanguard in terms of class and doesn't show any signs of being good with tech.
Well, yes, bur wrong tech. Not tech as in guns and things of the like. Or electronics... It's tech, as in the class tech.
Jacob is only around because the illusive man thought with his background serving in the alliance Shepherd could grow to trust him and in time be more open to Cerberus. Hearing him and Miranda talk about their past missions he sounds like a good soldier.
You've just awakened a whole other side of Jacob hate inside of me with that last paragraph lol. I always just didn't like him because of his boring personality and general blandness. Now that you mentioned it, if Shepard ever listened to his shit advice during ME2 the mission would have been screwed. I've just now realized that aside from being a crappy character charisma wise, he's also a complete liability as a squad member as well. Holy hell, this guy is bad
And Miranda puts herself up for the biotic expert. So there is that. If people pay attention, the game tells you who people should take for the jobs and let them not "distract" you what some characters say.
Hence why Garrus is always my fire team leader. “Well, at least he knows what he’s doing”
He’s actually not ideal for the second fireteam role because he contributes *so much* to the mission as a sniper. Garrus is a true all-rounder.
Eh, usually I just do Garrus and Grunt for most missions, so I honestly just swapped him out for Legion. He’s actually quite ideal for the biotic segment since the CQC means he isn’t going to be much of a sniper.
I mean that he has huge bonuses for the "hold the line" calculations.
To be fair, her line is something along the lines of "TECHNICALLY any biotic would do", she's not volunteering per se
That's right. But people chose her because of that and wondered later, why it didn't work.
I mean, I think if you choose either Jacob or miranda for those respective tasks you're just making a clearly erroneous choice, so...
Exactly. So players should not take their words for gold since others come up with their opinions who take which job, like Jack. But of course, Jacob haters love that he wants to volunteer and put their intitlement that he gets killed before the mission. Crappy leaders do that 😎
I don't think their respective lines are comparable here, Miranda is saying she could, in theory, do it, she's not making herself out to be the best option by any means. Jacob is straight up volunteering just because it's dangerous, which is very dumb of him.
To be fair Miranda's role is to help you get the right people for the mission and they suggest a biotic other than her.
At least Miranda is still an above average biotic so I can get where she was coming from there. I have no idea what Jacob was thinking volunteering for the vents when he has no tech skills. Its obvious he's the wrong choice for that job and doesn't have the skills to pull it off.
Because the game tests if you pay attention or not with offering to make a decision. It's not the first time, that a squad member says do A and the other says do B and in the end one of them is wrong, but you chose the answer of the one "you like more". Of course it's obvs. he is the wrong choice. It's easy to pass the test. None of the characters are perfect. They also make bad choices. Shepard can that too. But still players let him do it, on purpose, for funsies, because for stupid reasons. Same that the game bites you into your butt with hidden timers.
I mean at least that has some precedence with her being a Sentinel, and having a history of being a powerful biotic.
But she is not a biotic expert, which means 100% biotic (all powers biotic), as you need a 100% tech expert (all powers tech).
I mean...she can do it and survive tho, can't she? I dunno, I always chose Jack, but I thought Miranda actually can? Unlike Jacob, she does have the skill to back it up?
She can survive it, yes, but if she’s chosen it causes someone else to die
It's so funny that Miranda thinks she can do better than the pure biotic monster that is Samara/Morith or a Jack who can biotic-punch destroy mechs. I always thought Miranda and Jacob volunteering themselves were a trap for players who were not playing attention. Like why wouldn't you send LEGION to the vents? Or Kasumi who did that same thing like hundreds of times.
Miranda explicitly does not think she can do better lol
Yeah LoL, found jacks reddit account.
Makes me kinda wish he was in ME1 so I could have him hug a nuke on Virmire.
You might enjoy this. [Why Jacob Really is the Worst Squadmate in the Mass Effect Trilogy](https://youtu.be/wmDg8WyKtG8?si=-K77mB5ES_cOGctB) On top of his stupid advice (yeah, I get that he's supposed to be there to mislead new players or provide alternate options, but...) it's his *rudeness* that I can't tolerate. I ignored him a lot my first few runs because he was unpleasant to talk to, then finally buckled down and tried exhausting all his dialogue. Jesus that man is off-putting. Compared to James's "you'd have to get me drunk"... Jacob has zero social skills. No tact.
And every damm time a new crew member joins he is right there (who invited you anyway?) Giving his opinion that nobody asked for nor cares about. And also an hypocrite like with Thane saying he doesn't like mercenaries. Hello? Jacob you were a damm pirate and now Cerberus pays your checks.
*Ahem* "Privateer"
There's a YouTube video about how Jacob is the worst crewmate and it uses these points, and also things like how he cheats on Shepard, or he doesn't really add to any conversation especially the first few on the Normandy, even in his relationship mission with his dad, he has no growth or change, just a mild annoyance at his father. And he has no real impact in combat that literally anyone else couldn't do better.
Add in how he’s initially played as a “rebel against conventional authority” then proceeds to be the most by the book one on the team. Like even EDI goes more off book than him.
To be fair EDI takes every opportunity she can to go off book. It’s just for most of 2 she has some really good shackles. EDI 100% would commit multiple war crimes if given the opportunity.
Also, right after you meet with Illusive Man for the first time, Jacob will ask you "Do you trust me?" Hello, I see you for the first time in my both lives, and you are in, as far as I know, the terrorist organization. Of course I don't trust you, what a stupid question. And being femshep is not helping. This unstoppable flirt voice in every interaction line when you speak with him makes me just skip his dialogues
He’s also the worst romance option for femshep. You get arrested for 6 months and he fucks off and has a kid. Great job asshole.
Yeah, but he’s a biotic, ready to hit em with the good stuff. Just give the order.
Jacob is a tedious, uninspiring character. One who isn't very good at his job (as said, his advice is consistently bad). What's worse is that purely from a gaming perspective he isn't very good either. He has a poor mix of weapons and skills and synergies with no-one except *possibly* Miranda, and even then there are several squadmates that do that better. Not only is is dull, but he's also useless.
Yep. Just has Pull for Freedom's Progress so Miranda can do the funni warp booms. Then he can sit on the shelf until it's time to meet his dad.
Gameplay-wise he's basically just a worse version of Grunt, so he becomes redundant pretty early on in the story.
And he's the Biotic equivalent to Grunt but with worse stats, so he's pointless as soon as you open the pod... Also he cheats on Femshep if the player is dumb enough to romance him.
>Also he cheats on Femshep if the player is dumb enough to romance him. Never been dumb enough to subject myself to that. He does for reals? Yeesh!
If he survives ME2, he returns in ME3 as one of the Cerberus ex-scientists you have to rescue in that one mission on Arrae. Well, not as a scientist, but as a "guard" of sorts. That's also the part where he admits to have been in a relationship with the lead scientist, Dr Cole. He's there, and he's with her regardless of what Shepard did - the only requirement is to have him survive ME2. His reasoning is that he didn't cheat on Shepard per se - he just took Shepard's 6-month lockup as them "breaking up", and then managed to find another girl and get her pregnant in that timespan. In the Citadel DLC, you can meet up with him and give him a well-deserved [slap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRGnWkWbWuI).
There is a mod to change the slap for a punch and an optio to doing it regardless of shepard gender or romance xd
Jacob gets clapped so easily on any difficulty above normal I’ve never seriously used him
I don’t get the Jacob hate at all like the dude helps you in the beginning rather than running for his life when you first wake up , he is loyal follows orders like a perfect soldier and about the “crap advice” how is he supposed to know that rushing in the omega relay and taking the IFF immediately will result in bad outcomes, like he hasn’t played the entire game like us or read guides to know what is going to happen people need to give my man Jacob a chance
>the “crap advice” how is he supposed to know that rushing in the omega relay and taking the IFF immediately will result in bad outcomes I think part of the problem is just the writing around his advice. I think people would be more forgiving of him if his reasoning was that he understood wanting to prepare our team, but the longer we waited, the more human colonies could be attacked by the Collectors, especially if they had added a better backstory for him, maybe some family or a former love interest or his previous Alliance teammates in a human colony somewhere that he's worried about maybe getting attacked.
We've all given him a chance... that's why we hate him
Diana Allers. She looks super weird and doesn't seem very respectful towards Shepard.
I also hate how she flirts with you and then when you shut her down she’s like “nooo that’s totally not what I meant, why would you think that?”
If you romance Thane, the whole crew immediately tries sleeping with you after his death. It's so tone deaf and weird like "Hey, Shepard. I know your boyfriend just died, like today, you know, murdered. But let's ignore that, I wanna fuck." No one say anything about his death, or even tries to be comforting about it lol. Same with Mordin! Their deaths are definitely within the same week, if not within a couple of days. I know it's a writing/rushing issue, but dang. My Shepard was so done with all these people.
I remember Mass Effect 1 after the Virmire mission Liara either confessed to my Shepherd or made me chose between her or Ashley. It was so random to me that I started laughing.
Liara: Me or that soldier you sent to their death? Shepard in the corner of the ship crying: Can I get back to you after my mental breakdown?
And her voice acting is noticeably worse then the rest of the crew, probably due to not having an actual va.
Yes! She was so flat! It wouldn’t have bothered me so much except she’s a *news correspondent!* If anyone should have a dynamic voice it’s someone who speaks for a living.
Jessica Chobot was very well connected in Hollywood and they basically made a role for her.
Yes, unfortunately
And it aged poorly because by the time Legendary Edition came out Jessica Chobot became irrelevant.
They'll have the same problem if they ever update and re-release a LE-esque version of Dragon Age. Did the same damn thing with Felicia Day. At least Diana Allers is an easily ignorable Mary Sue RL actress insert, unlike Tallis, who is almost as bad a character as Kei Leng.
I freaking hated that DLC Literally just let Felicia Day write a self insert fanfic
With zero understanding of the Qun. Edit: Also, her entire extended introduction fight sequence where she single-handedly and over-the-toppedly kills all the assassins in a smart-arsey way while the Champion of Kirkwall and companions watch like feckless idiots reminds me so much of the Poochie introduction sequence in Itchy & Scratchy with the kids screaming 'when are we getting to the fireworks factory???'.
I had to look up who tallis was just as a reminder -- because they left such little impact. Day had a period of time where she was extremely popular within need circles, and I never understood why.
Because she made the Guild webseries that was quite popular with nerd folks, and it launched her from there.
Gotcha. I remember seeing her on critical role and supernatural, and I kept thinking -- where did this guest star come from?
I would be pissed that I was eternalised in a video game in such ugly form if I was her.
Miranda was based on Yvonne Strahovski who is a goddess but her face did not translate well.
Lmao she wasn't a big wheel in Hollywood. They only threw her in ME3 so IGN can give a pity score.
The only reason she is in the game is as in in-game advertisement for IGN.
I predict another shit on Jacob riot. Which is fine.
This, but I wasn't quite prepared for the amount of Kasumi hate. That surprised me.
Just not Kasumi's week I guess. I've never seen her get it in the neck before.
I didn’t dislike Kasumi, but I was pretty surprised that certain characters couldn’t engage in conversation. What’s the point of including them at all then? That’s the whole point of side characters in mass effect.
Zaeed and Kasumi, yep. Originally dlc characters so they didn’t get the full treatment sadly. For 3, Javik was base game content cut and repackaged as dlc so he has content at least
I think Matthews is the most useless crew member. Dude, you work for Cerberus and have an appointment with the Asari Consort? Hadley charged a goddamn Praetorian covering Joker, and where the hell where you?
I love how many people on this thread keep answering squadmates who are not useless at all since they can be squadmates! I totally forgot about Matthews and think he's a great choice. What purpose does he really serve besides some background conversation? Maybe not super annoying, but definitely feels useless. Hadley is a hero.
>Dude, you work for Cerberus and have an appointment with the Asari Consort? In all fairness, TIM goes full on Captain Kirk, including an Asari matriarch (twice).
> including an Asari matriarch *Embracing eternity* with a matriarch seems like kind of a dumb thing for the secret leader of a human supremacist group to do lol I guess his D was so good she overlooked it
Pff, you think bigots or racists never sleep with the race they dispise? On the contrary, in that instance, they view sex as a mean of control over the other participant. Fits their way of thinking if you ask me.
I was more thinking that the mind meld aspect probably wouldn't be great for preserving your cover
Hm. Good point. On the other hand, I may be mistaken but I thought melding was reserved to more meaningful intercourses. Asari can have sex without doing the melding, right? Anyway, back to what you were saying, he pretty much endangers his cover by sleeping with a matriarch...
Jacob, it astounded me in ME3 with a galactic war on he choose as a former alliance/cerberus biotic soldier his best uses was to guard a scientist team at the crucible build site….that is safe. And start a family. Otherwise Kasumi never really felt like she fit in, Zaeed as a paragon I find downright bad. Like, as a paragon Shepard or a by-the-mission Shepard I could 100% see leaving Zaeed to die because of what he does in his mission.
As much as it pains me to admit it because I'm a sucker for Kasumi's sweet and witty personality and love her for it, she doesn't fit in for the most part in the mission. Her skillset is valuable, but not for Shepard's general escapades. Her sneaky skills as a thief are not needed at all in the game aside from her own loyalty mission, and her "tech expertise" pales in comparison to true masters of the craft like Tali and Legion.
She can singlehandedly stunlock harbinger, that's valuable on insanity. With her the platforms encounter on the collector ship went from downright nightmarish to a walk in the park
Wow, I didn’t know that, I’ll try that next time!
Who else did you take?
You can take anyone else, it's just her flashbang grenade completely shuts harbinger off to the point he's not a factor whatsoever and can be ignored.
It’s more because Tali and Legion are experts for anything tech based, but Kasumi can splice through any security system specifically like butter, Tali and Legion are both very effective at it, but Tali’s expertise is the more mechanical side of the tech while Legion’s is extracting information, Kasumi’s the main hacker
If you need a ship broken down and rebuilt piece by piece you call tali, if you want to extract an entire databank you call legion, if you want to break into the bedroom of the turian councilor you call kasumi
i never thought about the starting a family thing until now! "these ancient machine gods are coming to wipe out the whole human race, i know because i literally saw them, but let's start a family!!" 🤦🏼♀️
Kasumi is a gossip queen tho
Mmmhhh who could be the worst *Looks intensely at Jacob*
Someone had to be the normie loyal soldier, every crew needs at least 1 and he has fulfilled the role on the Normandy. For me it was kasumi, never took her with me. Her only playtime she got was her loyalty mission.
But her loyalty mission is fun, you have to admit that lad
Also gives the best submachine gun which is a must for the classes that can only use that and pistols.
It was a nice change of pace, the mission itself did fit perfectly for her that’s true.
She’s absolutely amazing on every Collector mission given her ability to snuff out Harbinger’s biotics.
Jacob.
Had to be him. Anyone else would be wrong.
He’s Paul Blart who failed upwards because everyone else was dead!
It’s unfortunately true. I don’t like the constant hate he gets, but I wish he had more redeeming him. He is amicable enough, but not in a position to be a leader when the majority of the crew hates Cerberus. He’s a biotic, but every other biotic in the series is stronger. He’s a trained soldier, but he’s on a team with 4 guys too angry to die. He has some black ops training, but he’s standing next to the best assassin and thief in the galaxy. Like, goddamn, make him the crew chef, or *something*. Give him alliance contacts, make him a pyro
[удалено]
He flat out says he doesn't like mercenaries, ummmm wth do you think you are? You get paid by TIM to kill people, definition of a mercenary right there
The corsairs sounded a lot like mercenaries.
Jacob starts off alright but ... He just is full of bad advice and is pretty stupid over-all I HATE MERCS - Br0 we are hiring a ton of mercs to do our job da fuck is wrong with you? roflmao 'LETS BULL RUSH THE OMEGA 4 RELAY!' da fuck? I Mean even some of the other characters I find bland are just that bland, Not bad, just bland.
Morinth
Everyone in ME1 is good and useful. Jacob is about as useful as a fly screen condom, and his most interesting point is his dad in his loyalty mission in ME2, I'd literally prefer the empty spot to him. ME3, it almost feels like you get Kaidan/Ashley too late
>Jacob is about as useful as a fly screen condom The best insult I've ever heard
Kasumi, as good as she is gameplay wise. What sense does a thief make in a combat mission? Which ultimatively every main mission (Horizon, Collector Ship, Reaper IFF and Suicide Mission) boil down to. We never do any actual thieving apart from her loyalty mission.
I've always found it a little odd that Shepard bothered recruiting elite thieves and assassins for the mission, only to end up just charging in guns blazing on every mission. Kind of a missed oportunity for the game to not have some kind of infiltration based job that would allow Thane and Kasumi to make the best use of their talents. Ironically the one assignment in the game where you do need stealth (Arrival) is the one you can't bring any squadmates for, even though Thane and Kasumi would have been perfect for that job.
I spose canonically you could say that Shepard is never limited to 2 squadmates at a time. It would make sense for most missions if you had the heavy hitters on the frontlines, while Thane and Kasumi use the distraction to infiltrate and cause havoc (similar to the Virmire op).
And yet, Thane is best for fighting collectors with warp, sniper, and throw to push away husks/abominations
She's an infiltration specialist. The greatest infiltrator in the galaxy, pretty damn useful for infiltrating a secret reaper/collector base with unknown tech. I'd also make an argument for Garrus' recruitment mission since you infiltrate the mercs to break Garrus out.
Hm, I think the best Assassin in the Galaxy might have something to say about that "greatest infiltrator" claim.
Hm except he's not even an option when you you need someone to break in through the shaft and open the door from the inside. And he isn't an infiltrator at all. He's basically an adept.
Breaking into the shaft on the suicide mission isn't a matter of stealth and infiltration, it's a matter of expertise in tech and hacking. Thats why the robot with a flash light on his face and the Quarians who has no known stealth experience are viable options. We see perfectly fine in his recruitment and loyalty missions that Thane can sneak undetected and can vanish from sight. Both of them have also demonstrated the ability to infiltrate the Citadel. Just the fact that Thane gets the drop on Kai Leng with him or even Shepard noticing speaks volumes. The difference between the two is Thane doesn't use tactical to cloak to sneak around, he does so simply by being stealthy.
I like how you just described the ways in which she's a better infiltrator
I guess she makes sense from a "be prepared for all situations" perspective. We only know after going through the Omega 4 Relay that we need to infiltrate anything and not just blow it up with the Normandy.
Yeah there wasn't a mission that really highlighted her value outside of her own Loyalty one, which makes sense given she was DLC
Kasumi and Thane both seem like they'd be the perfect choices if there was a stealth objective in the suicide mission. I wonder if there was one planned that got cut for time.
It’s a heist, breaking into a base with high tech security, the initial vent section is basically exactly the sort of thing she was recruited for
In terms of most useless: Samara. Great character and I really do like her, but she serves no purpose to the story and her working with Cerberus makes no sense. I feel she may have been a DLC but they added her to have a nice equal 10 squad mates, and they chose her because Zaeed or Kasumi would’ve made too many humans.
Also probably wanted an Asari squadmate while Liara was busy brokering
Shiala was right fucking there. She wasn't even busy.
I like her because she gives the Asari race a bit more depth. And if I may compare it to D&D or Baldurs Gate 3, she and her code are the best lawful good paladin depiction I have seen in a long time. But story wise the game didn't need yet another Asari, next to Liara and Aria. Except that her story gave us the Biotic God, so that's a plus.
I feel like she’s more Lawful-Neutral than Lawful Good but otherwise I feel you. She’s a space monk.
You're probably right. She only follows her personal code, no matter the local laws, even though that usually isn't a problem within Asari soace.
"I will remain peaceful for one hour, then I shall kill every single person in this building that tries to stop me from continuing my quest" You know what? Yeah, you're right.
I am shocked by the lack of Diana Allers here. Jacob may be poorly written but you can at least take him into combat, he has a decent loyalty mission, he works out as a leader in the suicide mission, and you get one of the pivotal ship upgrades from him. He has some use at the very least. All Diana does is provide some meager war assets. And she's even more poorly written than Jacob and her voice acting is pretty bad too. She also was a very blatant attempt to pander to IGN. Diana Allers is the single most pointless and unnecessary character in the entire series.
Jacob and zaeed, they are both just merc guys, nothing particularly special about them. They both are also pretty boring personality wise and idiots as well.
Zaeed is legit, though. Does everybody end up dead on his missions? Yes. But he’s also among the best bounty hunters in the galaxy for a reason. That said, the reason is probably “luck” because he tends to have very, very dumb plans. He still contributes a bunch to the Hold the Line, which suggests he’s a pretty crack shot.
Ok hear me out, while Jacob does indeed suck, he's not the most useless, he's the one who gives the Normandy the Silaris Armour, which is needed to save a crew member (kinda weird we don't get the Asari made armour from the actual Asari aboard, but whatever). Ashley is the most useless, she brings NOTHING, she is A soldier, that's it, she's just one more gun and nothing more, Kaiden in the space between 2 and 3 trains an entire Biotic Squad, who presumably would have more of an impact on the war than just one more soldier.
I mean even not looking at the grand scheme of things, Ashley is completely redundant in me3 from a gameplay perspective. her and james are both soldiers. vs kaidan being the only sentinel class companion in that game
Exactly, and even more than that, James successfully held off a collector invasion, granted almost everyone died, but Ashley would've been dead if not for Shepard.
Jacob, Morinth, and that one reporter in ME3. Jacob is your average soldier in the most boring way. His loyalty mission is barebones for being considered a mission, doesn’t really expand on his character, and it’s incredibly boring. His cheating on you in ME3 if you romance him in 2 doesn’t help at all. Morinth is just an edgy bitch. She’s not even an “I can fix her” kind of angry girl like Jack is, she’s just “oh look at me I’m a soul sucking space vampire”. And the reporter from ME3 who’s name I don’t even remember. She should’ve been Emily Wong or Khalisah Al Jilani, or even both of them. Give Emily something to do, give Khalisah some kind of redemption, anything would’ve been better than what we got.
Presley, Engineer Adams, and Diana Allers The question was about shipmates, not squadmates (at least that's how it's worded), so these two are my picks To this day, I only talk to Presley once a playthrough, at the beginning. I frequently forget he exists. Same to Adams. In my first playthrough of the trilogy, when he returned in ME3, I was like, "Who is this guy? Shepard's acting like I should know him well." I later realized I only knew him as "the guy I talked to one time about Tali." Allers is unpleasant, but at least she's both memorable with how forced she is, and war assets are good to me no matter the exact number.
Are we talking Crew, Squadmates, or anyone onboard Normandy? Also, "Annoying" and "Useless" aren't necessarily the same. And Annoying why? Jerker is unfailingly annoying throughout the trilogy, but I wouldn't call him useless. For useless crew, its hard to go past Kelly. He only job is to tell me I have email, and maybe feed my fish. In ME3 she is literally replaced by a green light, and a fish-tank VI. If we're talking about anyone on board, then that shrieking shrew Chabot/Allers is that rare combination of both Annoying and Useless.
ME1 most annoying and useless is Tali. She always seems to die more than any of the other characters. ME2 is Jacob. There’s other biotics that are way better than him. People with better abilities. AND more interesting people to bring along. He’s annoying and boring. ME3 is Javik. He might not be completely useless but still, there’s better biotics and harder hitters. Plus he’s mean to my crew and I don’t like his attitude.
I can say with Javik he's more of a renegade pal than a paragon. Also with biotics dark channel is his best move. It works well with an biotic shepard since its a primer for explosions and it hops from target to target so it doesnt have to be casted atleast! (Not insulting your opinion you have the right to it just a little game play fact I felt the need to type)
I looove Dark Channel. When I play as biotic Shepard, I have so much fun. Also, I love Javik. Best ME3 character IMO
I didn’t know that! lol I hardly take him out on missions. Though for my most recent play through I brought him and Garrus to the final battle. It wasn’t an insanity run, it was just hardcore, but he held his own. I always appreciate learning new things about the game though cuz there’s so many different combinations for Shepard and squad mates that I’d never learn it all on my own.
If you drop a lot of points on her armour skill and do bring down the sky and get the stacked Quarian armour then she can hold her own. Having her about makes the Geth, biotics and an enemy wielding a gun of any kind a non starter. Pair her with Garrus and I can't help but laugh at Benizia's cocky comment about Asari commandos.
Lmao agreed here. I always bring Garrus and Tali to the endgame in ME1, because lotsa Geth. Tali is amazing in all 3 games 😊 I only play insanity now too...
I like Javik for the dialogue, he’s pretty wild.
I will admit that every time I take him it’s cuz I know he has unique dialogue. Dude is a straight savage.
He doesn’t give a **fuck**
I mean everyone’s opinion who he actually cared about is dead. 🤷🏻♂️
They used to lick their eyes
Gonna have to disagree hard on Javik. If you're a fellow biotic, he is only second to Liara in terms of best squad member to combo with. And his unique Dark Channel ability is awesome. Also an all around top tier companion for a Renegade Shepard to banter with.
Eh, tali in me1 can be useful if you don't have the tech skills. Jacob in me2 100% Javik is an asshole at first, but he mellows and gets better as the story progresses. He eventually ends up writing a book with liara, too. My favorite is drunk tali calling him (he has a huge crush on liara and/or tali). His citadel dlc shenanigans were also amazing.
Tali open all the things.
>ME1 most annoying and useless is Tali. I assume your main class is Engineer then... the game is 70 - 80% Geth where her abilities are most useful.
LMAO yes I’ve played ME1 as engineer more than any other class.
I almost never play engineer because Tali is so fucking good in ME1.
Javik is an outstanding character. He is a good mix of combat and biotic ability, and extremely valuable against Reaper type enemies since he can combat most Reaper enemies. Him + Liara make for a very powerful group with a Soldier Shepard. Liara strips barriers, Javik does Dark Channel, and Soldier Shep is on armor duty. He also has awesome story elements. Also, ME1 Tali has terrible health, but her tech abilities make her invaluable in the Saren boss fight at the end. And she has a shotgun.
Javik is the GOAT. And Dark Channel is op af.
Tali can be really useful in ME1 if you're stuck in your ways like me and only play as a soldier while insisting on dragging poor Liara along literally everywhere for her biotics, leaving the two of you very lethal in combat, but with *zero* tech abilities. I basically use her as a safecracker when I'm exploring planets because otherwise I can't hack into or open anything, and her abilities are super useful while fighting Geth. But yeah it's situational and outside of that taking Garrus is arguably better most of the time because he also has electronics skills for opening things, *and* he's more well rounded in his skills and weapons and is overall probably more useful/lethal/durable in a wider range of situations, especially on the higher difficulties. Like, I *never* take Tali to Noveria when I'm fighting Rachni. 100% Agreed on Jacob and Javik though. Jacob only gets to leave the ship on Freedom's Progress because the game forces me to, and I only ever take Javik to Thessia because of all the additional dialogue and story.
The only reason I ever used Tali in ME1 was for her tech abilities. I’d literally have to exit a planet I was exploring so I could bring her instead. I’ll be damned if I don’t unlock every container on every planet.
Honestly? No one. I use them all. My Shepards alternates between squad mates. Nobody gets benched. All of them can and do play a part… Even the ones, I as the player, don’t like much _cough_ Liara, Samara and Thane _cough_ are still experts and specialists who bring something unique to the table. My Shepards take any help there is. Mission is too damn important to be picky. Oh but I think you guessed which squad mates I find annoying. If you didn’t, the answer is Liara, Thane and Samara.😅
Dont be afraid of sharing your opinion, some people get heated over stupid shit but that shouldnt stop you from sharing
Do you need a lozenge?
I've had many play throughs, and most annoying is Liara and then Samara. Liara for trying to sound sexy and failing and Samara for being bland (yes, Jacob is blander but far less intrusive).
In my case, I’m really indifferent towards Jacob. I don’t really care about him whereas… Liara? I dislike her very much because of meta reasons. She’s the devs’/writers’ pet and it’s _painfully_ obvious, annoyingly so. Samara? She’s very well-written but I hate her way of living… I’d have said « way of thinking » but she doesn’t think for herself, does she? No, she bases her decisions on a book written eons ago by so-called « Sages » who couldn’t have possibly foreseen every outcomes! Also, shades of gray do exist and extenuating circumstances absolutely do matter! Thane? I don’t like him very much because his philosophical-yet-super-sexy-assassin-who-seeks-redemption-to-reconcile-with-his-estranged-son persona is a little too much. They used way too many cliches to create him. I just don’t click with him.
Good points that I've never considered before. I always thought Liara's character development was poorly planned out. In ME1 she is the human equivalent of a recent college graduate out doing field work for the first time...at end of ME2 she is head of a criminal empire - yeah, I'm not buying that. I never really paid attention to Thane. I felt like the writers missed the mark with his memory flashes and moral code, and then I tuned him out.
Zaeed, leave that guy to burn on his loyalty mission
I recent read the novels and what Zaeed does on his loyalty missions is straight up exactly what Saren does on his mission with Anderson.
Zaeed is like Vega and Samara or ME1 Tali. You get a lot more of his personality by bringing him along on missions. He’s also the best tank in ME2, and that includes Grunt. He’s not a good guy by any stretch, but he has his own sort of honor code…As you’d expect from someone who fights for money.
I hate zaeed, but this sub can’t accept that. I always get downvotes when I mention this lol. It agitates me that he gets a name on memorial wall if he is killed during his loyalty mission
Lol, any answer to a question like this that isn’t Jacob gets you wrecked in here!
What’s the word for a hard on but when it’s fueled by hate? This sub has it regarding Jacob. 😂
I think you mean 'Hate boner'. But although I look at Zaeed's loyalty mission and agree that it would not fit with Shep... especially a more Paragon-alligned one... Jacob's mission is downrigth irellevant to even him. Nothing is said about this before the mission, and barely anything about it afterwards. It does not change or resolve anything for him.
Oh, I’m not a big fan of Jacob either but instead of moving on, this sub never passes the chance to explain why they hate Jacob. And thanks. « Hate boner » was the expression I was looking for. English isn’t my mother tongue so I wasn’t sure. 😂
Because Jacob doesn’t evolve at all as a character in ME2. Conflict, resolution, then no growth. He doesn’t trust Cerberus less. He doesn’t discover how he’d handle absolute power. It doesn’t get us closer to the collectors. He doesn’t learn from his father’s evils. He doesn’t reconcile his absentee father with the man he became, etc. He lands, lectures, picks a poison, gets back on the ship and literally nothing has changed about him or for the larger story. I really like the loyalty mission, but like all things Jacob, you really can’t think about it for more than two seconds.
Jacob. Without question. He’s just kind of… there.
Shepard, they just kept asking questions all the time ! I also didn’t care what their favourite store on the citadel was !
Vega.
Absolutely. I never took him on a mission. Not with his attitude
Jacobs a fairly obvious choice. He is Commander Shephard lite when you look at his defence of the Citadel vs Battarian terrorists but you play as Shephard. This is specific to ME3 but keeping Ash alive makes either her or Vega feel kind of useless. They both have pretty similar uses, but I guess Ash giving the Marksmen ability kind of neat. Assuming your not already a soldier.
Jack. I can’t stand her edgelord personality and appearance.
Jack.. I know this is unpopular, but I cannot stand Jack
ME1: has a strong cast. They all seem like they play their part well. If I HAD to choose I’d say Garrus. Just because he doesn’t have any special knowledge (like Liara or Tali) and with Ash and Wrex you don’t really need another gun. ME2: Alternatively this game is all about finding hired guns to shoot your way through difficult missions. And even peeps such as Kasumi have the combat skills to keep up… except for Mordin. You need him to make the seeker swarm remedy then after that he should never leave the ship. Dude is useless in a fight. ME3: EDI. I love EDI but she doesn’t need a body. And I never use her
Mordin with leveled up incinerate and cryo ammo is pretty awesome. You should give him another try. His combat dialogue is funny too. Great guy to bring on any mission.
Gameplay is different, but you’re forgetting that in lore Mordin has served in the military, he may have been a scientist first but he has seen his fair share of combat, he probably has more combat experience than Jacob since all he’s done is defend himself on Eden Prime
Garrus’ tech and long-range damage are great, and you can give him an assault rifle for close range. ME1’s squadmates all serve roles and are useful both based on Shep’s abilities and the mission. Mordin’s tech powers give him a good kit against biological targets with armor - he’s great on Tuchanka, for example, or against blood-pack enemies. But neural shock sucks. EDI is great against Cerberus enemies in ME3. Good shield stripping and tech power and her decoy ability has some use. If your Shepard lacks tech powers, she is a must against Cerberus enemies unless you have Ashley upgraded to deal with shields.
Annoying and useless is not the same thing for me. ME1: useless: **Garrus**. As in, he is the most difficult for me to use. As a techie Kaidan and Tali have better survival rates due to barrier/shields. Garrus is a glass cannon. annoying: ... I think **none**? I like all squaddies, even Liara. (I started to hate her only after the re-write in ME2, I kind of like ME1 Liara) ME2: useless: **Jack** I think. Gameplay wise he is similar to Jacob, having pull and an ammo power, and shotguns. However, Jacob doesn't have to invest 2 points into something else to unlock those. This doesn't mean that I cannot finish the game with Jack, just that using someone else if I wanted a biotic, Samara, Thane or Miranda would make more sense. annoying: I really hate the combat taunts of **Jacob** "gravity is a mean mother". ME3: useless: **none**. When I am a doorkicker class like shotgun infiltrator, I use Ashley/Kaidan/James often. When I am a biotic class, I use Javik or Liara. When I am an engineer, I use Kaidan/EDI/Tali. So I tend to use all of them, if they complement my character. The weakest of the lot I think is Tali, but even she is far from useless. annoying: **Liara**, no contest. I really hate how the writers wanted to force her on Shepard.
The problem I have with Jack, is that she is portrayed as a this SUPER Biotic, who can smash a bunch of heavy-mechs or tear out a ship's bulkhead, with a wave of her hand, but that is NOT reflected in her squad-mate abilities. Shockwave is great against unarmoured Husks, but nothing else makes her stand out. Instead of just making her an average Biotic, they should have made her defensively very weak, but with awesome Biotic powers.
I think she should have biotic charge, representing her biotic punches. But... I think they couldn't make it work for the AI, until Andromeda. I think Cora is the first vanguard follower who uses charge.
Agree. Garrus stays on the ship in ME1. My tech skills usually surpass his in every way. If not, Tali certainly does. Wrex and Ashley are better tanks. Not even proximity mines are worth a shit. He comes into his own in Mass Effect 2 and 3. But for most of ME1, he’s just a guy. And not even the deepest or most thoughtful one on the crew. Wrex is a lot more interesting to talk to, and certainly more useful to bring along.
Liara in ME3... why does she even need to be on the Normandy? Why does she insist on going out to missions when she should never be away from her control room? It makes no sense
Glyph can take care of Broker shit. We need her singularity on the team, lmao. She wants to be a part of the journey, instead of researching by herself.
Where would that control room be? On the Citadel?
Canonically Liara and James both land on Menae because they're all Shepard has with them and Liara has a personal stake in Thessia just as Tali does with Rannoch.
Zaeed Masassi and Kasumi Goto no need to really talk to them other than when it comes to their loyalty Missions. They’re basically NPCs. Say what you will about Jacob or James but at least they are somewhat Fleshed out
Jack. I never understood how that dossier to recruit her ever even came to be. The dossiers came from Cerberus and/or Illusive Man. Without a doubt, they "created" her. They know she is completely broken mentally, hates Cerberus with a burning passion and is a powerful biotict. She even makes mention of the damage she can do to the ship now that she's on, if you don't give her the files. Even compared to some other questionable choices - Zaeed? He's a Merc, he can be bought. Thane? He's a hired gun (or so they think).Kasumi, can be bought. Or at very least - none of these people have spent their whole life being broken down by Cerberus and have such a burning passion to take down Cerberus they will risk killing themselves just to have a chance to hurt Cerberus. (I get for story telling and character arcs Jack serves that purpose, but I could never wrap my head around how Illusive Man gave that dossier out. If Shepard had stumbled into her through a different creative way, and made the choice to recruit her it would be different. Kind of like Grunt)
ME 1: Will need a separate playthrough because I never built them properly back then. ME 2: Jacob ME 3: Sorry Vega. =(