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.