ME3 Character Guide: Batarian Slasher Adept

What's up gamers? It's been a while since I posted a guide for the Retaliation characters. I haven't had much time to test out the last few so I'm just posting some first impressions for them and posting any tips that I've come across in my travels. I hope to update it to a full 200 Waves guide later on, but for now this will have to do. Also I'll take this opportunity to make a public service announcement. I'm going to be less active on the blog for a while as spring semester begins. I'll try to keep up with new content but I can't make any promises. Anyway, let's look at the build.

Batarian Slasher
Warp: 4-detonate, 5-expose, 6-pierce
Lash: N/A
Cluster Grenades: 4-damage & force, 5-damage combo, 6-shrapnel
Batarian Enforcer: 4-weapon damage, 5-headshots, 6-damage & ammo
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge, 6-fitness expert

Definitely use Warp ammo on this build. Any target primed with a biotic power takes extra damage from Warp rounds, so this is going to give you a massive damage bonus.

Generally shotguns work well on Batarians, but especially so with this build because you will be working in close quarters. The Claymore is a classic because it is unrivaled in terms of damage per shot. The Wraith also does great damage. The reason you want damage per shot instead of damage per second is because you want to execute your combos as quickly as possible. This build isn't about sustained fire.

For just about any build, you're going to want the 'standard Warp'. That is, detonate, expose, and pierce. You get biotic explosions, a general debuff, and the armor debuff. Very useful on a weapon build.

Lash is an all or nothing power because you need shield penetration for higher difficulties. It's difficult to skip Lash since the Batarian cannot dodge and you need something to protect you from Phantoms and melee creatures in general. Since we're skipping Lash with this build, just be wary of Phantoms and keep your distance when possible.

Many players don't know the warning signs that a Phantom is primed for a sync-kill, so I'll go over what I know. A Phantom is primed for a sync-kill after her regular melee slash. This is when you want to keep your distance (unfortunately as a Batarian, there's not much you can do to get away but back up or shoot her). When she uses her palm cannon or tactical cloak, she is un-primed from her sync-kill. I'd have to double-check how her bubble shield affects her sync-kill but I think it also un-primes it. If you're cornered by a Phantom and don't have Lash, use Warp and blast her with your Claymore and hope for the best.

This build is about damage, damage, and more damage. When spec-ing Cluster Grenades we have to take into account different things like biotic priming and shrapnel. Damage & force for the first one is pretty obvious. Damage combo is skipped over too often because of poor description; the damage combo applies to all biotic-primed targets, not just lifted targets. I've read that only one shrapnel gets the damage bonus though, but it's still worth it. Then I take shrapnel because more grenades thrown equals more overall damage, assuming they all hit.

Looking at Batarian Enforcer, you may wonder why I take weapon damage and headshots if this is a power build. As you'll see later on, much of your damage will be from your weapon. Additionally, you're not using Warp and Cluster Grenades on everything, mostly hard targets. Your gun is still going to be your primary weapon for this build. For Fitness it's simply all health and shields to give you enough durability for close quarters combat. Voila.

-Grun7mas7er

Now that we've covered all the powers, let's look at the main combos for this build. You know what, I'm not even going to spoil it by explaining it. Just watch and learn. (Much thanks to Feneckus for the demonstration video, which pretty much inspired me to this whole build).



Also, check out Xcal's video guide.