http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/20/operation-prophecy/

OPERATION: PROPHECY

POSTED ON DECEMBER 20, 2012 BY BIOWARE

Operation: PROPHECY (December 21st-23rd)

Event Description:

Our successes on Earth have given us the capability to land materiel in several war zones. However, in order to conceal shipments to the resistance, each delivery needs corresponding strikes on Reaper targets to create a screening distraction. The operations to deliberately gain Reaper attention are extremely high-risk and will require increased numbers to spread thin Reaper reaction forces. For this mission, N7 commanders, wherever possible, will recruit and command supplemental volunteer units: recent graduates of our N7 program and soldiers who bring experience from other branches.

Challenge Goal 1: Extract once on each Earth map (London, Vancouver, and Rio).

Challenge Goal 2: Score 100,000 cumulative points against Reaper enemies.

Challenges can be completed at any difficulty.

Completion of both goals awards the player a Commendation Pack.
Completion of both goals also awards the player a banner, “Hero of the Last Days.”



[Bioware surprised us by starting the operation a day early]
Happy holidays!

-MACave11i

December 18th Balance Changes

Happy holidays, all!

December 18th

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 18, 2012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There will be no balance updates for the next 3 weeks due to the Christmas holidays Two new packs added to the store: - Reserves Pack - for players who want character unlocks and upgrades - Arsenal Pack - for players who want weapon unlocks and upgrades Unlocking Volus Protector Vanguard and challenge Unlocking Batarian Slasher Adept and challenge Unlocking Drell Assassin Infiltrator and challenge All hazard maps are now unlocked for the Christmas holidays Acolyte Pistol - Reverting pistol to original state before the attempted rocket glitch fix since the change did not curb the use of the glitch Sabotage Power - Base cooldown decreased from 14 to 10 seconds - Base backfire damage decreased 300 to 250

PSA: I anticipate that I will post and/or update several guides this week and over the holidays. Hopefully these will include the new characters, but it's too early to say for sure. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading.

-MACave11i

Operation: ALAMO

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/13/operation-alamo/

Operation: ALAMO (Dec 14^th-16^th)

Event Description: The Reapers are taking advantage of our forces being spread thin and are making a push for Menae. Alliance Intelligence predicts that the Reapers are luring us into committing large-scale defenses to the moon that they will wipe out. Our counter-strategy is to insert small, stealthy units to conduct disruptive offensives and hold the firebase during their hopefully weakened attacks.

Team Goal: Earn the “Survived 5 Waves” medal on the Firebase Condor map at any difficulty. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

First Impressions: Turian Saboteur Engineer

So I tried out the Saboteur today. Right now I don't have enough experience to make a build or a complete guide yet. I didn't have a lot of time to play today, so these are just my first impressions.

For my initial build, I took all powers, no fitness, as I sometimes do with new characters. I mainly wanted to test the synergy between his powers. I found some decent combos unintentionally, but for the most part I think that the Saboteur will be a combat engineer. That is, he will be using powers more for utility than for damage. Though I specced my powers for damage, I found that my gun was doing most of the work. Turians are weapon specialists, after all.

I took the shock evolution for Sentry Turret. I found this was mostly killing Swarmers and stunning Husks. Not a big deal, but I think it stuns most other enemies, including Phantoms. Again, not sure about this, I'll verify it in when I finish the guide. Would then take AP ammo and flamethrower evolutions.

For Homing Grenades, I took damage and max grenades. I had intended on taking armor damage but didn't have enough points as I had recently promoted. This would have been useful for quickly taking down armored targets. Also, I'm probably going to go with fire damage.

One unintentional combo I found was to launch a Homing Grenade at a group of enemies and then use Sabotage to stun them all in place. More often than not, the Homing Grenade hit multiple targets thanks to this.

For Sabotage, I took backfire and recharge speed. I didn't have the points to put into Tech Vulnerability. But apparently, this doesn't have much effect on the TSE anyway. Proof. To reiterate, Tech Vulnerability does not affect Homing Grenades, Sentry Turret, or TSE light melee. However, it does affect TSE heavy melee and tech combos (i.e. tech bursts, fire explosions, etc).

I didn't notice backfire all that much, but Sabotage is very effective against mid-tier enemies (Marauders, Centurions, Collector Captains, and obviously Geth). It staggers them when hit and shocks them when they fire their weapon.

I took all weapon & stability bonuses. I used the Piranha as a trial weapon because it does good damage, is useful in many situations, and benefits from stability bonuses. I used a low level cyclonic modulator and Shock Trooper V gear.

That's my brief first impression of the Saboteur. I'll get a full guide up later, hopefully in the near future. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned.

Update: Lord Narida added the Saboturian to the site. So here's the build:

Turian Saboteur
Sabotage: 4-backfire, 5-recharge speed, 6-tech vulnerability
Sentry Turret: 4-shock, 5-armor-piercing ammo, 6-flamethrower
Homing Grenade: 4-damage, 5-fire damage, 6-armor damage
Armiger Legion: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-damage & stability
Fitness: N/A

Think 'tech bursts and fire explosions' when playing this build. Sabotage + Homing Grenade = tech burst, plus the tech burst and the grenade do 50% more damage with the tech vulnerability evolution. Throw your Sentry Turret into groups of enemies to stun and flame them, then zap them with Sabotage, then launch a grenade at them. Bam. Fire explosions for everyone. For big bosses, zap them with Sabotage and launch a grenade at them. Use your gun as necessary. This combo works especially well against Primes and Atlases. Not as effective against Banshees and Praetorians. But that's why you carry a good gun.

I will continue to update this post as necessary.

-MACave11i

Krogan Soldier: 200 Waves Edition

Hello esteemed readers. So I'm trying out a new thing where I make "200 Waves Edition" guides for characters after completing the 200 wave challenge with them (or approximately that many waves if there is no such challenge for the character). This way I have a very solid understanding of the character and how to play them effectively. It takes a little longer but I think that it will improve the quality of these guides. I do play the characters before making the guides of course, usually pretty extensively, but this way I have a greater sense of experience with the individual characters that I didn't have before the challenges were introduced. And of course I will continue to update old builds as time permits.

Krogan Soldier (Fire Explosions build)
Fortification: 4-durability, 5-power synergy
Carnage: 4-damage, 5-incapacitate, 6-armor damage*
Inferno Grenade: 4-damage, 5-damage, 6-radius & shrapnel
Krogan Berserker: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Rage: 3*

*Alternatively, put 3 in Carnage and max out Rage.

Recommended weapons:
ARs: Falcon, Harrier
Shotguns: Geth Plasma, Wraith, Graal, Reegar, Piranha

Recommended ammo bonus: Incendiary, Disruptor (especially if against Geth)

Now I'll explain the build because when I first saw it I was a little skeptical. It does look a little strange on paper (A Krogan without maxed Fitness? This is blasphemy!!!). But I assure you it is quite good in actual gameplay. First, let's look at Fortification. Evolution 4 is obvious because this is not a melee build. Evolution 5 is obvious too, since this is a grenadier build, and grenades benefit from power damage bonuses. What's not so obvious is why we choose 3 ranks of Rage over evolution 6 durability. It's all about the math.

Using an approximate DR formula (since the real one is complicated):

Health/Shields with 40% damage reduction, no Rage
1250/1667
Health/Shields with 30% DR, 3 ranks of Rage
1446/1929
Health/Shields with 40% DR, no Rage, Cyclonic Mod IV
1250/4167
Health/Shields with 30% DR, 3 ranks of Rage, Cyclonic Mod IV
1446/4071

As you can see, the Krogan Soldier is more durable with 3 ranks in Rage over rank 6 of Fortification in all cases. So do yourself a favor and take this advice. Whether or not you take a Cyclonic Mod is up to you.

Since it was buffed, Carnage is reasonably good. When you take Fortification power synergy into account, Carnage does massive damage to armored targets. It's still quite weak against shielded targets, however. It can also incapacitate unprotected mooks, such as Husks,  which is quite useful. But these powers are just bonuses. The main purpose of Carnage on this build will be to trigger fire explosions from your Inferno Grenades. With this combo, you will be able to annihilate spawn points and a well-thrown grenade will net you a killstreak medal.

Your Inferno Grenades are your bread and Carnage is your butter. With the appropriate damage bonuses, you can make an entire spawn zone go up in flames, killing all but the toughest of enemies with a single grenade. Thanks to its inherent armor damage bonus, even Brutes and Scions don't stand a chance. With the massive damage over time potential (nearly 670 dps with the above build), the last thing you want is for a Phantom, Banshee, or Praetorian to cancel that damage with their space magic bubble. Generally this means that you don't want to use Carnage on them until the damage over time has finished.

For Krogan Berserker, I took all power damage bonuses and weapon damage at the end. You'll have great weight capacity and decent weapon damage bonuses. This is primarily a power-based build though, despite it being a soldier (and a Krogan one at that). Rage has been explained above.

That's about it for this build. Try it out and if you like it, I encourage you to check the 'like' box below. If you really like it, feel free to subscribe to future builds. Thanks for reading.

-Grun7mas7er

Here's a video guide by Stardusk, which I found very helpful and inspiring.

Powers and Their Hidden Attributes

Today I found a very useful post on BSN by Cyonan. If you have the time, I recommend giving it a read. It could seriously improve your gameplay. Powers and their hidden attributes

-MACave11i

Operation: ONSLAUGHT

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/12/06/operation-onslaught/

Event Description: Losses of industrial capacity have caused shortages of specialized weapons on several fronts. Population centers must be reclaimed for us to rebuild munitions factories, and N7s will lead recon and assault teams to prep the way for regular infantry to take the territory.

Individual Goal: Earn 75,000 points of damage using an assault rifle on any map at any difficulty. Points are cumulative across matches. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

Looks like a pretty easy challenge this weekend. Too bad I already did the assault rifle challenge. Bioware, can I has Hurricane? 

-MACave11i

First Impressions: Quarian Marksman Soldier

Quarian Marksman (locust headshot build) [kind of for teh lulz but also kind of serious]
Marksman: 4-firing rate, 5-headshots, 6-accuracy & firing rate
Tactical Scan: 4-weapon damage, 5-headshots, 6-damage
Sabotage: N/A
Quarian Defender: 4-weapon damage, 5-headshots, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert

Recommended: AP Ammo, but others work too.

I'm currently in a discussion on BSN regarding the Quarian Marksman vs. the Turian Soldier. I'm looking for more interesting ways to play this character. I think Eric Fagnan, Lord of Nerfs and Buffs, commented on the QM's apparent Fitness deficiency and said that they will likely buff his offensive capabilities. I'm very interested to see what these balance changes will be, and whether or not they can successfully differentiate the character from the TS (to a greater degree, anyway). For now, I am running this build. I played a few quick games with the QM (Locust headshot build). It's not very creative admittedly, but hey, the character just came out today.

Stay tuned for future updates (and hopefully a more interesting QM build).

Update: Quarian Marksman weapon damage bonus for passive rank 1 increased from 2.5% to 7.5%. Weapon damage bonus from evolution 6b increased from 10% to 12.5%.

-MACave11i

Operation: DETONATOR

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/29/operation-detonator/

Event Description: Recent setbacks have prompted changes in unit composition. Turian cabal theory is now dominant training paradigm. N7 units will now be deployed with pairs or higher percentages of biotics wherever available to maximize effectiveness.

Individual Goal: Earn 20,000 Biotic Explosion points on any map at any difficulty. You will need to kill the enemy with the explosion for the points to count. Points are cumulative across matches. Extraction not required.

Reward: Commendation Pack

Looks interesting. I wonder if this means they're adding a Turian Cabal character?

-MACave11i

Asari Huntress: 200 Waves Edition

What's going on, everyone? I've noticed that a lot of people are wondering how to play the Asari Huntress. It's been my second most viewed post for quite a while now, so I thought I'd take the time to update the old guide (if you could call it that). My first impressions were totally flawed at the time, but now that I've learned the tricks of the trade, well... as our Volus friends say, *kssshhh* "Let's get paid!"

Asari Huntress (melee)
Tactical Cloak: 4-damage, 5-melee damage, 6-power damage
Dark Channel: 4-damage, 5-slow, 6-pierce
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Asari Adept: N/A
Fitness: 4-melee damage, 5-martial artist, 6-power synergy

As this is a melee build, I recommend bringing a shotgun with an omni-blade attachment. This will greatly increase your melee damage. As cooldown isn't too much of an issue with this build, feel free to bring any shotgun you desire. *cough* Claymore *cough*. Ahem. And Warp ammo.

The most important thing that you need to know about the Huntress is that her version of Tactical Cloak does not give a damage bonus to weapons, only powers and melee. Initially, this was a bug, and Bioware has confirmed this. However, some members of the BSN community saw this as an opportunity to create a truly unique infiltrator. Apparently, the balance team at Bioware concurred, and they buffed the TC damage evolutions to compensate for the lack of a weapon damage bonus. Now it is a 'feature'.

You're still going to want the damage evolutions for TC. Even though they don't boost your weapon, they provide massive bonuses to your power and melee attacks. All in all, you're getting a 170% melee damage bonus and 160% power damage bonus. In terms of damage per melee, area of effect, etc. I think that the Huntress may be the most powerful. She deals over 5000 (!!!) damage to shields, barriers, and armor with her heavy melee. And she is certainly one of the most powerful DPS casters.

Another important thing that people often ask about: does the entire duration of Dark Channel benefit from the TC bonus? The answer is yes. With the above build, DC does hundreds of damage per second to most defense types, except for its penalty against shields. Let's do some rough math (because it's more interesting than regular math). A gold Banshee has approximately 16875 armor and 10125 barriers. If you were to max out power damage and use the appropriate power amps, you could kill a gold Banshee in a single cloaked Dark Channel cast. Although this build sacrifices some power damage for some melee damage, you can still leave a Banshee severely crippled after one cast, easy to finish off with a weapon, melee, or a biotic explosion. Phantoms? Not even an issue.

DC also persists even after a Banshee, Phantom or Praetorian raise their biotic shields, and also after a biotic explosion. You can use this as a slow but reliable fire-and-forget boss killer while you concentrate on lesser enemies. It's also great for staggering/killing mooks and priming biotic explosions.

I max out Warp because the passive power/weapon damage bonuses are negligible on this build. Warp weakens enemy armor and debuffs them, making it just as useful as the the weapon damage bonuses. Next to that, you can trigger biotic explosions off of DC. It's just the standard Warp, nothing to explain besides that, really.

As this is a melee build, maxing Fitness for melee damage is obvious. In addition, the melee synergy evolution gives you a 25% power damage bonus after you kill an enemy with a heavy melee. This somewhat compensates for skipping the passive. I intended this build to be the best of both worlds, power and melee damage. At the end of the day, it's not the best for power damage and it definitely lacks weapon damage, but it's still reasonably good at all three types of combat.

Watch as Annomander demonstrates the power of the melee Asari Huntress.  

Asari Huntress (caster)
Tactical Cloak: 4-damage, 5-recharge speed, 6-power damage
Dark Channel: 4-damage, 5-slow, 6-pierce
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Asari Adept: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: N/A

This is another build I have tried during my 200 waves, and it is extremely effective and a more reliable build for higher difficulties. It's more or less the same as the melee build except taking power & weapon damage over melee damage. This build works especially well with Warp ammo, which will dramatically increase your weapon damage. If you have the guns, focus less on biotic explosions and more on sheer weapon damage.

For example, Phantoms will fall quickly to your cloaked Dark Channel followed by a blast from a Warp ammo Claymore. Brutes and Ravagers are trivialized with your cloaked debuff Warp and a Hurricane equipped with Warp rounds. Gold Banshees slowly bleed to death from a single cloaked Dark Channel cast. Even Praetorians will be crippled by a cloaked Dark Channel.

Biotics are not as effective against shields, so I recommend using an Acolyte as a sidearm for Atlas and Prime shields. Debuff with Warp first. After their shields are dealt with, use Dark Channel or another Warp and finish them with Warp rounds.

So that's about it for the build. Hope this helps and thanks for reading.

-Grun7mas7er

Omega DLC Trailer

Looks pretty cool. I wonder if and how this will affect the multiplayer side.

Check it out.

ME3 Character Guide: Vorcha Hunter Engineer

What's up everyone. Crunch week is winding down for me, so I thought I'd get around to this guide. I don't really know why Bioware made the new Vorcha with this skill set. It's not an utterly terrible kit as some people say, but I'm not prepared to call it a good kit either. It works well enough, but I'm probably not going to use this on Platinum as Bloodlust relies heavily on quick, consecutive kills. If you can maintain your momentum as a Vorcha, you're good to go.

Other than that, I don't think there's a big secret to this character. I imagine that a lot of players won't know how to play this kit effectively when the simple fact is that this character just wasn't that effective to begin with. Unfortunately, it doesn't stand out relative to other new characters like the Ghost, Valkyrie or Geth Trooper. However, don't let this discourage you from using the Hunter. He's a fun character, just don't expect a major departure from the other Vorcha kits.

Vorcha Hunter
Submission Net: 4-incapacitate, 5-damage & slow, 6-electric field
Incinerate: 4-damage, 5-burning damage, 6-armor damage
Bloodlust: 4-health regeneration, 5-weapon damage, 6-health regeneration
Vorcha Resilience: 4-damage & capacity
Fitness: 4-durability

Recommended Inferno rounds, or Cryo rounds to a lesser extent.

I wasn't sure how to make this build at first. Should I go with massive power damage bonuses? Should I skip Submission Net? Or Incinerate? Do I dare skip Bloodlust? Ha ha ha NO... I'm going to take them all. The genius of Bloodlust is that it more than compensates for your deficiencies in the Passive and Fitness branches if you can maintain your stacks.

Let's talk about Submission Net (SN). It is no Stasis, and that's something that our technologically crude Vorcha "Engineer" will have to live with. Fifty percent of the enemies in the game will evade SN ninety percent of the time. Long story short: it kinda sucks. Unless you can trick the system by staggering enemies with your weapon. Whether you choose the GPS, Graal, Falcon, or even the Scorpion, attempt to stagger evade-happy enemies first before ensnaring them. This works most consistently at close range. Once they are trapped in the net, if you're a Blood Pack enthusiast, feel free to slow roast them over a fire and feast on their flesh (or metal alloy if you're facing Geth). The rest of you who aren't bloodthirsty freaks, go for the easy headshot or an Incinerate tech burst. I do recommend the Graal since it has a 3x headshot multiplier, making it pretty lethal to enemies with... heads, which I think includes everything but Atlases and maybe Pretorians (?). I do say 'pretty lethal' because sometimes enemies will take about five 6-inch spikes to the face and manage to walk away. Probably will need an eyepatch or two, though. Anyway...

Incinerate is a nice power to have on higher difficulties. Peep Lord Narida's class builder and see how much damage Incinerate can do with all the bonuses. And you don't even have to aim! Those of you having trouble with Dragoons: problem solved. Oh, and Incendiary ammo --> Incinerate fire explosions are nice.

The Vorcha's signature power, Bloodlust, is your gin and juice bread and butter (sorry, I was listening to Snoop Dogg earlier today). We mostly care about the health regeneration and the weapon damage stacks. Once you get the hang of the character, you'll be running around on a killing spree like a rabid schizophrenic wolf with a shotgun. If that didn't make sense, well, it won't make sense when you outscore your Geth Infiltrator teammates. But if you do top the scoreboard with the Vorcha Hunter, then congratulations, you must understand the key to Bloodlust. But in all seriousness, you need to focus on low-to-mid tier enemies in order to keep your Bloodlust stacks at a maximum. This will increase your damage output and survivability.

For passive, I go with the extra capacity and power damage just to give a small boost to Incinerate and to mitigate the recharge penalties a little. Bloodlust gives you up to 15% weapon damage bonus, which should be sufficient for most enemies.

Finally for Fitness, I go for the extra health and shields. The health is what really matters since it actually regenerates faster than your shields. Don't play this character like the Flamer Vorcha, since you probably don't have as large of a health pool to tank enemies. The strategy is hit-and-run.

That's about it, I think. Enjoy the build guys. Thanks for reading.

-MACave11i

ME3 Character Guide: Geth Trooper Soldier

Hello everyone. Well I've been playing around with the Geth Trooper for Operation Blast Furnace, and I have to say, this platform is awesome. I can see why it was such a highly requested character. What strikes me the most is the flexibility of this build. I have heard of two popular builds: the Weapons Platform and the Flamer build. I will be covering the latter, and even then there are many possible sub-builds. For example, you can prioritize Flamer damage, melee damage, durability, speed, or a combination of all of those. As a result, I would recommend tailoring the build to suit your play style.

Geth Pyro (what I used for the challenge)
Flamer: 4-damage, 5-damage, 6-armor damage
Fortification: 4-durability, 5-power synergy, 6-durability
Hunter Mode: 4-power recharge, 5-power damage, 6-damage
Network AI: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage
Advanced Hardware: 3

I want to note that this is not the Flamer build, this is a Flamer build. I focused primarily on damage for my evolutions and used equipment to compensate for durability. Typically I would go over why I chose each evolution, but the Flamer build is very versatile. I believe that the only way that you can go wrong with this build is by neglecting durability. I tried a Gold PuG where I had nothing but Fortification in terms of durability (I was a level 16 or something and I didn't have all my evolutions filled out) and I was constantly getting dropped like a fly. Eventually I had to turn off Hunter Mode for the rest of the game. So don't do what I did. It's not fun.

Let's take a look at Flamer. You have a choice between damage and reach for evolution 4. Both are good, but I'm leaning towards reach for the simple fact that it increases your range to 15m, which is incredible. It lets you stay back a little more while you toast your enemies, indirectly improving your survivability. For evolution 5, I always take damage because I rarely exhaust Flamer's default duration. There's really no need to increase the duration unless you want to make an Ironman-esque tank that shoots flames everywhere for no reason other than for the spectacle. Finally, evolution 6 is a choice between shield and armor damage. This is also subject to preference. I like to carry a Reegar or Acolyte with this build, so I always go for armor damage, which results in extremely good reduction of all enemy defenses. However, Flamer already has an inherent 50% damage bonus against armor, so taking shield damage evens it out, making Flamer effective against all types of defenses. I would take shield damage if you want to carry a weapon without a shield damage multiplier or Disruptor rounds.

Fortification is fairly straightforward in terms of evolutions. For the Flamer build, you want to go with all durability and power synergy. One thing that you may want to consider, depending on your build, is evolution 6 of Fortification vs. 3 ranks of Advanced Hardware. Fortification 6b gives you an additional 10% damage reduction (effectively about 10% bonus health and shields), while 3 ranks in Advanced Hardware gives you 25% bonus to health and shields. The difference is that Advanced Hardware is derived from your base health and shields (250/1000), while Fortification is derived from your max shields and health -- including any gear and equipment you might have. Thus, a Geth with maxed Fortification and a Cyclonic Modulator is a walking tank. Without a Cyclonic Modulator... not so much.

I think Hunter Mode is entirely optional for this build. For example, depending on your play style, you might opt for maxed Advanced Hardware and a Power Amp rather than Hunter Mode and a Cyclonic Modulator. This also depends on your weapon of choice. If your weapon gets reasonable benefits from Hunter Mode then take it. If you want to use just a Reegar, though, then don't bother with the accuracy and rate of fire bonuses. There's also the movement speed bonus to consider. I find it pretty useful since you have to be able to get in close as well as make a quick getaway.

Networked AI is a simple choice between weapon damage and power damage, which will be completely up to you and your play style. Also, you might want to consider choosing between rank 6 weapon damage or 3 ranks of Advanced Hardware. Again, this depends on what equipment you will be using. A Cyclonic Modulator can more than compensate for lack of durability, so weapon-dependent classes can take weapon damage instead of fitness. I like to use my stockpile of Power Amps, so I take the three ranks of Advanced Hardware and shield-boosting gear to compensate for lack of durability.

In general, I recommend having at least 1500 shields so you'll have 1000 to spare when using Hunter Mode. Along with maxed Fortification, you'll have 1667 effective shields.
An approximate damage reduction formula (not the real formula):
Max Shields x 1/(1-damage reduction)
ex. 1000 x 1/(1-0.40) = 1000/0.60 = 1666.6
On Platinum though, I recommend using a Cyclonic Modulator IV, which gives you incredible durability. For example, if you have a build like this you'll have just over 2000 shields with HM on, along with 40% damage reduction, effectively boosting your shield strength to 3417 (2050/0.60 = 3416.6). With most characters, damage output trumps durability. However, since the Flamer forces you to move slowly and be at relatively close range, durability is a requirement for effective use of this build.

So I hope that this guide was helpful to your understanding of the Geth Trooper. Thanks for reading, everyone, and have fun with the build. Take care.

-Grun7mas7er

Here is a video guide to the Geth Trooper by Lord Stardusk. Enjoy.

Happy N7 Day!

Welcome, esteemed readers. As you know, today is November 7th, hence N7 day. There are a couple points that I would like to make in this post.

First, a link to November 7th balance changes.

Second, make sure you log onto ME3 for the free N7 Loyalty Pack, which must be collected today! I believe it includes a guaranteed Ultra-rare. I got a Collector SMG II. I'm not complaining because it was free, but alas the random number gods troll me even on the sacred N7 day.

Third, the Geth Trooper, which is possibly the most highly requested Retaliation character, is now available for unlock. Sweet. I do plan on making a guide for this guy (or "platform", rather) by the end of the weekend.

Which brings me to my final point. As I am the sole administrator of this blog, it is highly subject to my personal time constraints in real life. Not only that, but I have acquired a copy of Halo 4 and I plan on maintaining a separate blog for it. As of now, I have not posted anything, but if you are interested I will leave the link for future reference: My (currently under construction) Halo 4 blog. Don't worry, I do plan on maintaining this blog, probably for as long as Bioware continues to support the ME3 community.

Oh, and a final final note: we're now over 15,000 page views! I just want to thank all the readers, and especially the regular readers and subscribers, for all the support. Special thanks to those on XBL who friended me, as well. Couldn't have done it without all of you. I really appreciate your readership and I look forward to your continued support. Peace.

-MACave11i

ME3 Character Guide: Batarian Brawler Vanguard

Hello much-appreciated readers. I thought I'd finally get around to posting a Batarian Brawler build although it's a somewhat obvious and unadventurous one. I suppose I should have known that it would be the next character after the Asari Valkyrie since we had gotten new characters in every class but the Vanguard, and it was a rather highly-requested character as well. I have to say that while I like Batarians, the Batguard just isn't my cup of tea, even though it is a well-made character for the purpose of melee combat. I haven't used it as extensively as I have the Asari Valkyrie, whom I am currently having a love affair with whom I am using quite often for Platinum games. If only she had Liara's face different features than the other Asari. Anyway...

Batarian Brawler
Biotic Charge: 4-radius, 5-weapon synergy, 6-barrier
Lash: N/A
Blade Armor: 4-melee damage, 5-damage returned*, 6-durability
Batarian Enforcer: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-damage & ammo*
Fitness: 4-melee damage, 5-martial artist, 6-melee synergy

I think that the build and gameplay is fairly obvious, but I have seen some builds on BSN that I am doubtful of. I do welcome new play styles and builds generally but my build in particular makes use of the Batarian's strengths, which just seems like common sense to me, and this is probably the case with other players as well. Nevertheless, I will go over everything, at least to some extent.

Biotic Charge is fairly straightforward as always. It is recommended that you have at least 1000N of force to stagger Phantoms. Since I take power damage bonuses in the passive tree, I still meet this recommendation even with the radius evolution, allowing me greater crowd control. Very useful. I recommend weapon synergy as opposed to power synergy. Unlike most Vanguards, you will not be using grenades or other powers as your primary weapon -- you will be using your fiery fists of fury against human-sized opponents and your Reegar (or other weapon) against large bosses. Therefore, weapon synergy is there to make up for the Batguard's relatively low passive bonus. I have to wonder why Bioware didn't give the Batguard melee synergy instead of power synergy, but no matter. Weapon synergy will do. Finally, I take barrier as a general rule. Recharging your shields to full capacity is a lifesaver.

Lash is an all or nothing power. If you don't have the points to get the shield penetration evolution, it's pretty much useless. And if you look at your other powers, well, they're just more useful.

Blade Armor is very nice for a couple of reasons. First off, you get the 40% melee damage bonus. Second, it damages anything dumb enough to get into a fistfight with a Batarian. Finally, it gives you some nice damage protection, which is great for when things get up close and personal. Along with 50% damage reduction after Biotic charge you get another 50% DR during your heavy melee (for the full damage reduction formula, check the Links sidebar). Now, Blade Armor is reported to be bugged, doing greater damage return than it is supposed to on bronze and silver, and doing less damage return than it is supposed to on gold and platinum. For the purposes of the build, I will assume that the bug has been fixed.

For the passive bonuses, I take all power damage bonuses that I can. They increase the force on Biotic Charge and increase weight capacity, which is essential with the relatively heavy Reegar (with omni-blade) and Blade Armor. Evolution 6 I leave up to you. The weight reduction is certainly nice, but it only takes off just under half a second of recharge time from Biotic Charge. Weapon damage and ammo capacity are definitely useful, especially since the Reegar is capacity-challenged, but you'll have to live with a pretty hefty recharge time.

Finally for Fitness, I take all melee damage bonuses. The Batarian is a sturdy fellow, especially with Biotic Charge and Blade Armor, so he can take a few hits without maxed shields and health. You can opt to take durability for evolution 4, but I would not recommend skipping Martial Artist and Melee Synergy. These greatly increase your melee damage and weapon damage respectively. Melee Synergy in particular is useful for giving you a much-needed weapon damage boost. You can easily charge, falcon punch a mook, and then proceed to melt a Banshee with your brief 25% + 25% weapon damage boosts.

That just about covers everything. Hopefully this guide covers some not-so-obvious stuff, but then again, there are many ways to build every character and I suppose that the Batguard is no exception. Enjoy the new character, have fun, peace.

-Grun7mas7er

Video guide by INVADERONE

PSA: Edited old builds

Hello appreciated readers. I took the liberty of updating some of the old builds to adjust to the balance changes of the past month or so. I hope they are not too confusing with all these conflicting information and all that, so I apologize in advance. I attempted to separate the old information from the new by crossing out the old stuff, as you may have noticed. The reason I don't just outright delete it is because some of it might be useful and I don't really have time to go through the whole thing and edit it just right. But at the same time I don't want to create a whole new page for the same build because that would just create unnecessary clutter on the blog and that is undesirable.

So if you're feeling nostalgic, consider taking a look at some of the old builds. Hopefully they're not too unreadable.

-MACave11i

Asari Valkyrie Sentinel: 200 Waves Edition

Hello appreciated readers. So apparently the balance changes were delayed yesterday and for some reason that also delayed the new character. So turns out that the new "highly requested" character is the Asari Valkyrie Sentinel. Coincidentally, that was the one that I made a reference to in my Krogan Shaman guide. Hmm.

This is an updated guide to the Asari Valkyrie Sentinel. I've noticed that my Valkyrie guide has grown to be my most-searched and most-viewed post, and I suspect that this is because the Valkyrie is still an enigma for many players, even some of the experts. So I looked around, and after browsing for Valkyrie guides by some prominent ME3 players, I haven't found any of them to be particularly agreeable except for Ashen Earth's Valkyrie post on BSN. From what I see, Ashen showcases a high-risk high-reward play style that emphasizes the Valkyrie as a close-range fighter, using Warp and Annihilation Field debuffs (30% total) to melt bosses, in this case a Banshee. This is what I consider to be a masterful way to use the Valkyrie's strengths, and I would not recommend forgoing this capability.

Asari Valkyrie
Tech Armor: 4-durability
Annihilation Field: 4-impact radius, 5-damage taken, 6-drain
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Asari Adept: 4-damage & capacity*, 5-headshots, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: 4-durability

I recommend using Warp ammo. You can also use Incendiary ammo if you wish to take advantage of the Warp-Incendiary exploit.

It is necessary to have a weapon capable of sustained high damage-per-second. This includes the Harrier, Reegar, Piranha, and Hurricane. Unfortunately, if you lack these weapons this build will not be nearly as effective. Since these weapons tend to have restrictions (range and/or spare ammo), you may choose to take a sidearm for ranged combat if your cooldown permits. A good pistol or SMG should do the trick.

It's acceptable to mix-and-match this build a little to suit your play style, but I would refrain from speccing Annihilation Field and Warp differently, since they suit virtually any build. What I have attempted to achieve with this build is a) maximize damage output, and b) improve durability. By replacing evolution 5 and 6 of Tech armor with 4 ranks in Fitness, the Valkyrie gains some durability at the cost of some power damage. Since this is a close-range, weapon-based build, I think that this is a fair trade. With durability in rank 4, you still get 40% damage reduction.

I find that I have had the most success with Annihilation Field specced as above. The impact radius evolution allows you to prime biotic explosions from further away. It also allows you to incapacitate unprotected enemies from farther away, rendering them harmless at close range. Finally, it has synergy with the damage taken and drain evolutions, allowing you to debuff enemies and leech their shields from slightly greater distances. In some cases, this can be a lifesaver. And if you get backed into a corner by Phantoms, you can detonate AF to stagger them, giving you a chance to get out of there.

This build uses the 'standard Warp'. Detonate is useful for your own AF-Warp combos, as well as for priming/triggering a teammate's BE. Expose is key to success with this build, since it offers an additional 15% debuff against warped targets. Combined with Annihilation Field, affected targets take 30% additional damage. Finally, pierce is useful against armored targets, making their armor damage reduction less of an issue.

Depending on your load out, you have a choice between weapon damage or damage & capacity. If you want to have a sidearm for ranged combat, or simply just have one heavy weapon, I recommend taking capacity to keep a reasonable cooldown (preferably around 100%). Otherwise, take the additional weapon damage. I take headshots for even more damage output. Finally, I take weapon damage for rank 6 because this is a weapon build, after all.

Then for Fitness, I take 4 ranks of durability, which gives you roughly 1167 health/1167 shields with Tech Armor active, or 1167/2417 with a Cyclonic Mod IV. Along with the drain evolution to keep your shields up, this Asari is durable enough for close quarters combat.

Basically, your strategy is to first throw a Warp to debuff the enemy, get up close and further debuff the enemy with Annihilation Field, then let loose with your high-dps weapon. Note that using Warp to trigger a biotic explosion will not give you the Warp debuff, which is why it is important to use Warp before you get in range. If you're using Warp ammo, you'll do even more damage against targets affected by biotics. If you're using Incendiary ammo, warped targets take exponentially more damage over time from burning damage. Either way, you'll be dropping even the toughest of enemies like flies.

You aren't as durable as other characters, though, so use drain to keep yourself alive. If it's too dangerous to get up close, use your sidearm if you have one. There's no need to bum-rush every enemy you see. Pro-tip: if you're on an incline, don't be afraid of sync-kills. As long as you're not on an even level as the enemy (Banshee, Phantom, etc), they cannot sync-kill you. For example, if you are on a staircase and a Banshee is above or below you, you cannot be grabbed unless you are side-by-side on the same stair. Use this trick to your advantage against bosses whenever possible.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that this guide helps with your game. If you did find it helpful, consider leaving a 'like' below. If you've gotten help from several guides on this blog, consider subscribing and all that jazz. Have fun with the build and take care.

-Grun7mas7er

Watch Feneckus demonstrate the power of the Valkyrie.

Krogan Shaman Adept: 200 Waves Edition

What's up everyone. So I've spent a decent amount of time with the Krogan Shaman. In fact, I actually sat down with him for a brief interview. Here's how it went.

MACave11i: Hello Mr. Krogan Shaman. Welcome to ME3 multiplayer.

Krogan Shaman: Thanks. It's good to be here.

M: So tell us a little about yourself.

KS: I like to make things explode.

M: I see. Is that why you prefer Warp and Shockwave?

KS: Yeah. They make really good explosions.

M: There's some discussion on BSN about why you like Warp instead of Reave. Can you comment on this?

KS: Reave is for Drell.

M: Yes, but it can prime multiple targets for shockwave detonations and gives you additional damage reduction on top of Barrier.

KS: I'm Krogan. I don't need more damage reduction.

M: Fair enough. But Reave would make for really good synergy with the Krogan Vanguard. Reave and Biotic Charge would be awesome for crowd control.

KS: We're Krogan. We just kill things. Doesn't matter how.

M: Well that answers that. You heard it right here, folks. Thanks for being here with us on ME3 multiplayer, Mr. Krogan Shaman.

KS: Yeah, yeah. You humans talk too much. Now where's the free food you told me about?

And that's why the Krogan Shaman has Warp instead of Reave. Now... the glorious build.

Krogan Shaman
Barrier: 4-blast effect, 5-power synergy*
Shockwave: 4-radius, 5-detonate, 6-recharge speed
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Krogan Battlemaster: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Rage: 3*

*You can replace power synergy with durability if preferred. You can even take 5 ranks in Rage and 3 ranks in Barrier for faster shield regeneration. I've used that build on Platinum and I approve.

I recommend Warp Ammo or Incendiary Ammo
For your weapon, anything that is relatively lightweight. Preferably it is effective against shielded targets from Marauders to Preatorians, as your Warp-Shockwave combo is either inefficient or negated by their shield.


As you can see, this build is all about Biotics. The Krogan Shaman actually has really good potential in terms of available powers. He's arguably the most well-rounded Adept in the game right now and I'll explain. If I were to make a custom Biotic character, I would pick Barrier (or Tech armor) for durability and power damage bonus, Warp for debuffing, and some kind of Biotic trigger, either Throw or Shockwave. Since Shockwave is generally better, this really is about as powerful as you can make an Adept. The other option is to take another debuffer instead of a detonator. This brings Annihilation Field to mind. And as you may have noticed, that would be the same power set as the upcoming Asari Valkyrie Sentinel, which I think will be more powerful than a lot of people realize.

Now that I've spent a good deal of time playing the Krogan Shaman, I've settled on the build above. As you can see, it's a power-oriented build rather than a pure weapons build. I have no qualms with a pure weapon build, but I like to play different characters...well...differently. I feel like the weapon build would be rather boring, but if that's your thing go ahead.

The question I sometimes have to ask myself is: why do I take Barrier if it slows down your biotic explosion combos? There are a few reasons and I think they justify the slightly slower recharge speed. One is the Barrier detonation, which is useful for CQC and compensates for your lack of mobility. When a Phantom gets up close and you can't get away, don't hesitate to detonate your Barrier and create some space between you and that Phantom while she is staggered. Shockwave can achieve this as well, but is not nearly as reliable. The second reason is the useful power synergy evolution, which boosts the damage & force of all your powers, including the Barrier detonation (I am told). Finally, the most obvious reason is the damage reduction. For this build, the math says you'll have 1800/1800 health/shields, which is essentially the same as if you had maxed Rage, but with the added power damage bonus. With a Cyclonic IV, you'll have 1800/3800. I'm reasonably sure that 3 ranks of Rage trumps 10% DR for the final evolution of Barrier. It is a whopping 35% health/shield bonus, after all.

Shockwave is just your standard detonator and mook killer. With all the power bonuses, Shockwave has rather good damage and force. It's also fairly spam-able. Apart from that, use it to detonate Warped targets. Remember that the power of your biotic explosions are determined by the rank of the powers used and any evolutions that specifically increase the damage & force of biotic explosions. For example, rank 6 Warp with detonate + rank 6 Shockwave with detonate does more damage & force per explosion than if Warp and Shockwave were only at rank 5. Currently, this is the most powerful biotic combo available.

I use the 'standard Warp' for this character. Rank 4 is detonate for obvious reasons. Next, I choose expose to debuff enemies and deal more weapon damage. Finally, I take pierce to weaken armored targets for even greater weapon damage. Nothing new here. I should note that using Warp ammo on targets affected by biotics gives you a significant weapon damage bonus, depending on the level of your ammo mod. Or you can use Incendiary ammo to set targets on fire, then trigger fire explosions with your biotics. Using these ammo mods can increase your damage output significantly.

For the passive bonuses, I take all power damage & force evolutions. Even though they don't affect biotic explosions, they give your biotics a decent boost in addition to Barrier's power synergy. Then I take weapon damage for the final evolution. When you step back and examine all of the offensive capabilities of this Krogan, you can see that this is a very diverse, very powerful character.

Last but not least, you have three ranks in Rage to give you a little bit of added durability. Believe me, the added health bonuses are quite useful. If you need some more health & shields, consider replacing rank 5 of Barrier for rank 4 of Rage. This is the closest to an Adept tank that you can get.

I hope you all found this guide somewhat helpful. Remember, if you like this you can check the like box. If you really like these guides you can subscribe. Either way, thanks for reading and have fun with the new builds. Peace.

-MACave11i
Grun7mas7er

Below is Stardusk's guide to the Krogan Shaman. Watch and learn.

Volus Engineer: 200 Waves Edition

Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of my 200 Waves guides. This is a guide for our favorite short and spherical suit-wearing character, the Volus Engineer. Here's the build:
Volus Engineer
Recon Mine: 4-radius, 5-recharge speed, 6-invasive scan
Proximity Mine: 4-radius, 5-damage taken, 6-recharge speed
Shield Boost: 4-radius, 5-recharge speed, 6-protection
Volus Training: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: N/A

I recommend a lightweight weapon that does decent to good damage. I think that the Collector SMG is the ideal weapon since it is light, accurate, and does not need to be reloaded. Since I know not everyone has it, you can substitute it with the Hurricane, Hornet, Tempest, or Locust. Most pistols also work if you prefer to use one of those. The goal is a 170%+ recharge speed, but 200% is optimal of course, especially if you're not using a Power Efficiency Module.

For your ammo mod, I recommend using Incendiary Ammo to prime Fire Explosions. This will greatly increase your damage output.

Let's go over the Volus Engineer's signature power: Recon Mine. This is your passive, primary weapon. You want to set it in a high-traffic area to debuff as many enemies as possible. If you take invasive scan, as I do in this build, the radius evolution is a non-negotiable. I find that the debuffing function is much more useful on higher difficulties than using Recon Mine as a remote detonator. Since I don't detonate it very often, only to move it to another location, I skip damage for recharge speed. When I recast Recon Mine, I want to be able to get back to casting my other powers as soon as possible. So recharge speed is actually very important in this case.

Along with your gun, Proximity Mine is your active secondary weapon. Get in a rhythm of shooting your target with Incendiary rounds and then triggering Fire Explosions with your Proxy Mine. You want the radius and damage taken evolutions to debuff as many enemies as possible. Then you want recharge speed so you can get back to casting your other powers. When your target is in range of Recon Mine, you're getting a 25% damage bonus and then another 20% damage bonus from Proxy Mine. Your Fire Explosions will do a surprising amount of damage with all the debuffing. This isn't a shield-spamming support Volus that we're building. Don't be surprised if you top the scoreboards with this guy.

Shield Boost is your lifeline and you always want to have a fast cooldown so you can use this when you need it. I take radius to help out nearby teammates. Then I take recharge speed so I can spam Shield Boost if needed. Finally, I take protection because the 50% damage reduction is very useful on higher difficulties, and also helps out my teammates. Shield Boost gives your Volus 1.5 seconds of damage immunity, so use it before you get hit by a Banshee Warp ball. Use it before you get hit by an Atlas missile. Use it before you get hit by any major damage and you'll greatly increase your survivability. You never want to be caught with your shields down as a Volus.

Use Shield Boost in conjunction with your tactical cloak, which is activated by your light melee button, in case you didn't know. Your tactical cloak has a separate cooldown from your other powers, so manage this wisely. You can shoot and cast powers while in tactical cloak without breaking it, so use this to your advantage. When confronted with a group of enemies, use cloak and shoot them with your gun and Proxy Mine. When cloak breaks, use Shield Boost for brief invulnerability and take cover until your cloak recharges. If you are against a single target, you can simply use Shield Boost and attack them while you are invulnerable.

For Volus Training, I take all power damage to maximize damage from Proxy Mine, as well as for the extra carrying capacity. For evolution 6, weapon damage is always preferable. But say you have a Hurricane I and you really don't want to replace one of your attachments for Ultralight Materials, you might consider taking weapon weight (along with a weightless Acolyte). Finally, I skip Fitness because it makes so little difference that it's just not worth the points.

So there is your master level guide to the Volus Engineer. Now you can actually contribute to your team instead of spamming Shield Boost and locking up your teammates' controls! (No seriously, Shield Boost is glitchy and it does lock up your teammates'  weapons and powers sometimes. Heavy melee to unlock yourself if this happens). Have fun with the mighty Volus Engineer and thanks for reading!

-MACave11i
Grun7mas7er

Below is a guide to the Volus Engineer by Stardusk. You may skip the intro if you wish.

Turian Ghost Infiltrator: 200 Waves Edition

What's up everyone? I've had my 200 waves done for the Turian Ghost Infiltrator for a while now, as he is the perfect character for the assault rifle challenge. I'm not an anti-Infiltrator as I know many BSN-ers are, but I do prefer to give the other classes their fair share of play, so I have to consciously avoid playing Infiltrators often because otherwise I probably would. That said, we all know what happens to over-played and easily-used characters (often Infiltrator characters): they get nerfed, and the TGI was no exception. Stim Pack was nerfed pretty significantly, and a weakened Havoc was collateral damage.

For the first day or two, I was running the TGI with a Harrier, and I would agree with anyone saying that this is an 'easy button' build. If you have trouble playing Gold or Platinum with other builds, I won't demonize you for using that build, but if you're confident on higher difficulties, there's no reason to use that build when you could be using other more 'dynamic' characters. In my humble opinion.

Turian Ghost Infiltrator
Tactical Cloak: 4-damage, 5-recharge speed, 6-assault rifle damage
Stimulant Pack: 4-max shields, 5-pack capacity, 6-survival*
Overload: 4-chain overload, 5-neural shock, 6-shield damage
Armiger Legion: 4-damage & stability, 5-headshots, 6-damage & stability
Fitness: N/A*

*Alternatively, you can take 4 ranks in Stim Pack and 4 ranks in Fitness for better all-around durability.

Recommended ammo: Incendiary or Warp. AP and Disruptor work well too, depending on the enemy type. Generally you want armor-killing ammo since you have Overload.

I recommend using Grenade Capacity mod since it gives you the most additional Stim Packs, which are the key to your survival. You always want to have these in stock.

Your key weapons will be the Saber, Particle Rifle, and Harrier. The Mattock, Revenant, and Typhoon are also good. Other assault rifles could work too, but I haven't used them extensively enough to give a recommendation.

When you fire from Tactical Cloak, you're getting a brief 80% damage bonus plus a 20% multiplicative damage bonus for assault rifles. Always fire from TC when possible. Other than that, there's not much to explain.

Your Stim Packs are basically free Survival Ops Packs. Use them to regenerate your shields. Use them before going into a dangerous situation. Use them if you get hit with Warp. Use them all the time. This is why I recommend taking a Grenade Capacity mod because it lets you hold up to 8 Stim Packs at a time. This is crucial to your survival since you have no Fitness. Make sure that you coordinate with your teammates if they are using grenades or stim packs. You want to be able to reliably resupply your Stims. Consider dividing the supply boxes up between players. Since Stims were nerfed, I have chosen to take all shield-boosting evolutions. You get enough of a damage boost from TC, so there's no real need for a little more damage from Stims.

I've changed my mind on Overload from my initial build. Since the shield damage evolution is multiplicative, it gives you a massive damage boost to shields/barriers, especially while using TC. This can greatly improve your boss-killing capabilities (even more). I chose a hybrid Overload with one chain and neural shock for some crowd control. Then I took shield damage since it is much more powerful than a third chain. You can choose damage for evolution 4 if you want even more shield-draining capability. Only take recharge speed if you don't want enemies falling to the floor when you shock them. I know some people avoid neural shock simply because it messes up headshots. Either way, recharge speed is practically useless if you cast while under TC. And as always, you should always use TC prior to casting Overload. It makes a huge difference against shields/barriers.

Armiger Legion is specced for all weapon damage & stability. No surprise there. Turians will be Turians. And if you're confident in your abilities, this build works well even without Fitness, mostly thanks to Stim Packs. Cyclonic Modulators do work well for this build, however. So you can compensate somewhat.

That's it for the build. If you like these guides, I encourage you to check the 'like' box below. If you really like these guides, I invite you to subscribe. Either way, I thank you for reading and look forward to your continued readership.

-MACave11i
Grun7mas7er

The video below is not Turian Ghost gameplay, but the strategy is the same. Use TC, melt things. I just want everyone to see and understand what the TGI is capable of in the hands of a skilled player. Video is by Lord Sirian featuring Jay Hoxtatron, who was using a TGI (and I wish he posted this video from his POV).

 

Turian Havoc Soldier: 200 Waves Edition + Stim Pack Discussion

Greetings everyone. This is an updated Turian Havoc Soldier guide as well as something of a response to the Stimulant Pack nerf that happened a while ago. What happened was Bioware heard the cries of some members of the community that the Turian Ghost Infiltrator was overpowered. One source of this power was Stimulant Pack, which made him essentially invincible while dealing extra-insane amounts of damage. Why Bioware gave the Turian Ghost Stim Packs but not the Turian Saboteur is beyond me. Just that simple switch would make the TGI less powerful while giving the Saboteur a fair shot, but I'll try not to cry over spilled milk.

The balance changes were:
Simulant Pack Power
- base damage bonus decreased from 10% to 5%
- base max shield bonus decreased from 2000 to 1200
- evolution 5 weapon damage bonus decreased from 10% to 8%

Havoc Strike Power
- base cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
- base damage increased from 500 to 600

So Stim Pack got nerfed which did weaken the Ghost, if only slightly, while neutering the Havoc to a much greater extent. Why? Because the Ghost has Tactical Cloak, giving him a brief 100% damage bonus for assault rifles. Do you think a 7% damage reduction to his assault rifle makes much of a difference? To compensate for the collateral damage to the Havoc, Bioware buffed Havoc Strike to a level that it probably should have been at on launch. At the end of the day the Havoc loses a potential 1600 shields from Stim Pack, which gives him the considerable durability necessary to use Havoc Strike in the first place. The Ghost, however, can still use Tactical Cloak and Stim Pack to get away from any situation unscathed more or less the same as before.

To wrap up this rant, I propose that Bioware improve the viability of Havoc Strike by doing one or both of the following: a) rebuff Stim Pack, b) buff Havoc Strike base damage & force. My vision is a Havoc that can use both Cryo Blast and Havoc Strike for massive damage bonuses and Stim Pack for survivability, plus a slight damage bonus for the cherry on top. Havoc Strike should have enough damage and force to take the Incendiary Strike evolution and still rival Biotic Charge. The player would be able to use a 6/6/6/4/4 build, having both decent passive damage and shields. However, the greatness of the build would be in the active powers.

For now, I'm using a pretty generic and non-dynamic build. Nevertheless, it's a good one and definitely Platinum worthy, if a little boring.

Turian Havoc
Stimulant Pack: 4-max shields, 5-pack capacity, 6-survival
Cryo Blast: 4-radius, 5-cryo explosion, 6-frozen vulnerability
Havoc Strike: N/A
Armiger Legion: 4-damage & stability, 5-headshots, 6-damage & stability
Fitness: 4-durabilty, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert

I recommend using AP ammo with this setup. It's just the best for dealing with armored targets. Accept no substitutes!

For weapons, this guy is great with just about anything (Turian passives yo!). The reason I take the Harrier is that it has great all-around specs. It's accurate and has great DPS. It's recoil is mitigated by your stability bonuses. Then I take the Talon for shield-stripping duty and as a sidearm in case I run out of Harrier ammo. Sure you could take the Acolyte, but it's slower and not as good in general combat. It's a tradeoff. The Talon with the magazine upgrade is sort of like the new Piranha (though nothing could ever really replace our beloved Piranha). I've generally used the Talon as a lightweight weapon with decent damage, so it's cool to have a chance to use it more like an actual shotgun.

Stimulant Pack: the hallmark of the Armiger Legion Turians. Great tool for survivability and as a bonus you some get additional damage. Sort of like a mix between a Survival Ops Pack and Adrenaline Rush. For this build, I take all shield bonuses because this is just like a refillable Ops Pack. The base duration is already pretty good, and the more the better. It's a real lifesaver, especially on Platinum when you're often forced out of cover and your shields take forever to recharge. In case you didn't know, Stim Packs count as grenades in the sense that using a Grenade Capacity Mod will give you extra Stim Packs. you're the only character using grenades in the game, then use these liberally. If there's another person running around taking grenades, then you can't tank as often. Either way, it's really awesome how much fire this guy can soak up with Stim Packs.

I use the standard Cryo Blast on this character. All debuff evolutions and radius to debuff more enemies. As Garrus himself once told me, "debuff all the things". Throwing a snowball at an enemy is just about as effective as charging into them headfirst, even if it's not as spectacular.

Skip Havoc Strike until they buff it more. It does give you a brief 50% damage reduction bonus, though, so it's not totally suicidal if you decide to spec into this power. What's cool about Havoc Strike is the synergy with Cryo Blast. It does 3x force to frozen enemies, so you can see how it could be really good for decimating lesser enemies. Also, using weapon synergy on top of the debuff is a very powerful combination. This is why I have high hopes for the future of the Havoc.

For the passive power, I take all weapon damage bonuses since this is a weapons build. Cooldown isn't  really an issue with this build as long as you don't drop into a negative penalty. And lastly I take all durability evolutions for Fitness. Tankiness is the Havoc's strong suit.

Thanks for reading everyone, and don't forget to calibrate your weapons.

-Grun7mas7er