User blog comment:Drayco90/Drayco's Summer Sci-Fi Special: The Guardians of the Galaxy vs. Shepard's Team/@comment-5465602-20140821163630

Beastman14's "Dance off, bro!" edges

The Leaders:
 * Weapons: Commander Shepard. While both warriors are wielding deadly weaponry, I feel as though Shepard has two major advantages here. One, Shepard has arguably superior armor in the form of his N7 armor combined with his kinetic barriers, which have shown in the past to require heavy fire to bring down. Two, he's wielding more versatile weaponry, as while Star-Lord's SMG's and Element Gun pack dangerous options at mid-range, Shepard has an extremely strong pistol, an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a grenade launcher. Ultimately, Shepard packs harder hitting and versatile weaponry and superior armor.
 * Powers: Commander Shepard. For starters, Quill doesn't really have powers, so Shepard really cinches the category. But I feel as though I cannot stress how important Biotics are in this battle. With them, Shepard can close the distance on Quill, and leave him a floating, easy target for everyone else.
 * Overall: Commander Shepard. Shepard takes this not only because he has superior weapons, abilities, and armor, but because he's also a superior leader who has earned the respect of each and every member of his squad, meaning his orders will be followed without question.

The Lancers:
 * Weapons: Rocket Raccoon. While Garrus brings good weapons to the fray, and he's by far the best marksman in this match, I don't think his guns cab stack up against Rocket's massive and powerful arsenal. The only real chance Garrus has is by staying in long-range, but I just don't think that he'll be able to stay that far away.
 * Equipment\Abilities: Even. While Rocket has jet boots that greatly increase his mobility, Garrus has Overload, which could be a nasty (and explosive) surprise for Rocket, which leaves Concussive Shot, an ability most effective in close-range. The problem is, I doubt that Garrus would be willing to get that close, meaning it's effectiveness is reduced somewhat.
 * Overall: Rocket Raccoon. Rocket takes this one due to his both his superior weapons and tactical skill, which is ironically the reasons why Shepard beat Star-Lord. While Garrus has some tactical experience from both his time as leader of a vigilante time and as a fireteam leader during the Omega-9 Relay mission, he vastly prefers to take orders from other people, while Rocket has large experience leading teams like the Guardians, meaning he'll be a valuable asset in the battle.

The Brutes:
 * Weapons: Drax the Destroyer. While Grunt has a decent range advantage, he prefers to close the distance and pound things. Drax has a major edge in that range, in that he's a superior melee fighter wielding actual melee weapons. Another thing to note is the Disintegration rifle. If it can knock Thanos on his ass, it can easily tear through Grunt.
 * Abilities: Drax. Grunt and Drax are fairly even, Drax gets a major boost thanks to his Aura, which enables him to boost his already incredible strength and durability to even more insane levels.
 * Overall: Drax the Destroyer. Grunt's largest edge in combat is that he's usually the biggest guy on the field. Sadly for him, Drax outclasses him in just about every way possible, enabling him to take a massive edge.

The Assassins:
 * Weapons: Thane Krios. Gamora is a highly dangerous warrior up-close, but Thane brings versatility. He's a stealth master and skilled marksman, meaning he might not have to get up close to worry about Godslayer, and he's a brutally skilled fighter up-close, meaning he might be able to disarm Gamora if it comes down to it.
 * Abilities: Thane Krios. Why the hell is everyone talking about Gamora's healing factor, but completely ignoring Warp, which has the specific ability to cancel out healing factors. Without a healing factor, all it will take is Throw and a clean headshot to bring Gamora down.
 * Overall: Thane Krios. Thane takes this because he's the smarter, stealthier with the ability to counter everything Gamora brings to the table, and in turn, take her down. Not much else to say about it.

Aliens Among Aliens:
 * Weapon: Groot. Groot may not use guns, but he doesn't need them. He towers over everyone in this fight, and can pretty much shrug off anything Legion throws at him. Legion, for all of his skills, is rather fragile. In Mass Effect 3, one shotgun blast is enough to bring him down, while Groot can shrug off machine gun turrets like nothing, alongside being able to make himself bigger and stronger as the fight goes on.
 * Overall: Groot. Simply put, Legion can't really bring down bring down Groot, while Groot can easily swat Legion aside and move on to other targets.

Space Wizards:
 * Overall: Samara. Wait, hear me out. While Warlock has superior powers, he can't use them to their full effectiveness. Meanwhile, Samara is a Justicar, and has had hundreds of years of experience with her powers, meaning she'll be able to barely overpower Space Jesus.

Support:
 * Weapons/Abilities: Mantis. Mantis brings a variety of powers to the field, from telepathy, to control of the environment, to kung-fu, while Tali only brings a mildly strong drone and weaponry. Nor will her tech powers be of much use, as there's no real technology to hack or kinetic barriers to sap.
 * Overall: Mantis. As much as everyone, me included, loves Tali, Mantis simply out outclasses her as both a warrior and support to her team.

Broken Aces:
 * Weapons: Even. This is an interesting comparison, and one that seems to be a recurring theme. Power vs Versatility and Range. Miranda's guns will enable her to control her fight with Phylla at a distance, but if the half-Kree can close the distance with a sword that cuts through starships, Miranda is royally screwed.
 * Abilities: Miranda. While Phylla's flight is a massive mobility boost and her energy blast could be harmful against Kinetic Barriers, Miranda's biotics are lock-on, enabling her to work around flight by suspending Phylla and leaving her floating helplessly on the field, or using Reave to cancel Phylla's superhuman durability.
 * Overall: Miranda. While Miranda has good weapons and superior powers, her largest advantage is her superior skill as a tactician. Miranda is a gifted thinker and leader, and she would be leading the team if not for Shepard's charisma and leadership. She'll use this intelligence to barely triumph over Phylla.

Lesser Wizards:
 * Weapons/Abilities: Even. Both characters being devastating and powerful powers to the fight, but while Jack's biotics are more powerful short-term, Moondragon's are certainly stronger but require more concentration. It's even for me.
 * Overall: Moondragon. This is one of the closer match-ups, but Moondragon brings stronger powers and a cooler head, enabling her to outsmart and take down the psychotic biotic.

The Soldier:
 * Weapons: Jack Flagg. While Jacob has a range advantage with his weapons, Jack takes a minor edge due to his superior skill up-close. If Jacob can't keep his distance, he won't be able to deal with the more agile, stronger Flagg.
 * Abilities: Jacob Taylor. Jacob takes a solid edge here. While Jack may be more agile and stronger, Jacob can use Barrier to shrug off the majority of the damage, then use Pull to render Jack immobile and helpless, and then take him down. Also, the Lift Grenades could be used against the Guardians as a whole.
 * Overall: Jacob Taylor. Jacob takes this not only because of his biotics, but because of his worth to the team. Jack is more of a solo player, and he'll focus less on backing up the Guardians and more on doing his own thing, while Jacob is a smart tactician and loyal soldier, meaning he'll follow Shepard's orders and support his team more effectively than Flag will.

The Veterans:
 * Weapons: Weapons: Zaeed Massani. While Vance's shield and superior strength will make him a tough foe to triumph over up-close, Zaeed should be able more than capable of keeping his distance and wearing down the Man out of Time with a well-placed sniper round or inferno grenade. Once again, versatility vs strength.
 * Abilities: Zaeed Massani. Like Las said, Psychokinesis doesn't sound like a particularly damaging ability, and will at best hamper Zaeed, who can just fire back with Carnage, which will do some form of damage to Vance.
 * Overall: Zaeed "Goddamn" Massini. Zaeed's superior range and versatility wins out over Vance's superior strength and hand-to-hand skill here. Another major advantage of Zaeed's is his abilities like Carnage and Inferno Grenade, which can use to assist the group as a whole after he defeats Astro.

The Twitchy One:
 * Weapons/Equipment: Bug. While Mordin and Bug are fairly even at range, Bug's mobility and glider will enable him to close the distance and take the good doctor down at melee range, an area Mordin won't be able to hold his own in.
 * Abilities: Mordin Solus. While Bug has major advantages with his wall-crawling and danger sense, Mordin's Omni abilities are lock-on, meaning Bug will be hard pressed to avoid them, which will leave him open to gunfire from Mordin.
 * Overall: Mordin Solus. Going against the grain here and voting Mordin. While Bug is more agile and stronger, Mordin is smarter, and wielding abilities that can stop the Kakkilak dead in his tracks, enabling him to narrowly triumph here.

Surprise:
 * Abilities: Cosmo. While Kasumi's Cloak and Decoy will make her a dangerous and unpredictable foe for the Guardians, Cosmo just brings so much more to the fight. He can detect Kasumi, stop her dead in her tracks, or even misdirect her with illusions. I can especially see Cosmo confusing Kasumi with visions of Keiji, and taking her out with Mental Paralysis.
 * Overall: Cosmo. Cosmo may be a dog, but he's one of the Guardian's most powerful members. His mind powers completely outclass Kasumi's stealth and guns in every way, and he'll be able to assist his team far more than Kasumi will.

Deadliest Team: Shepard's Team. This is brutal close, and I've flip-flopped a few times on who wins. Ultimately, Shepard and his crew win out over the Guardians. While the Guardians may bring more varied and dangerous powers, they're not a team as skilled at working together or as loyal to their leader as Shepard's team is to Shepard. They'll follow their leader's orders and work together to bring down the tougher Guardians, enabling them to triumph in this epic cosmic clash. Overall: 503-497