ME3 Character Guide: Cabal Vanguard

Hello everyone, welcome to another Mass Effect 3 multiplayer guide. When the Reckoning DLC came out, there were some characters that were, for the most part, pretty easy to build. Then there were some that no matter how you built them, they just didn't seem to click. For me, that was the Turian Cabal, and frankly I didn't even have the patience or willingness to test out every nuance of this amazing character.

Then I came across a Cabal build on BSN that wasn't just another weapons platform build. It was unique; it had character. I tried it out, liked it, and tweaked it to suit my own preferences. I can't say it's the "best" build, because I suppose you could slap on a Hurricane/Acolyte combo and max out Nightshade Blades and use a grenade capacity mod, but that would be boring. So without further ado, the build:

Cabal Vanguard
Poison Strike: 4-range
Nightshade Blades: 4-capacity
Biotic Focus: 4-damage taken, 5-melee damage, 6-heightened focus
Turian Veteran: 4-damage & stability, 5-headshots, 6-damage & stability
Fitness: 4-melee damage, 5-martial artist, 6-melee synergy

First of all, you really need the shotgun omni-blade attachment since this is a melee build. I've tried it on the Raider, Piranha, and Wraith on this character. My favorite is the Wraith, but any one of them would be a good selection. The main thing is that it does solid damage to bosses. On higher difficulties, you may just want to equip a Hurricane as a sidearm.

I usually go with AP ammo to help deal with bosses (and Guardian shields). I think Disruptor ammo would be great for shields and stunning mooks, but you would be sacrificing armor-piercing since you need both the smart choke and omni-blade.

Then finally, I highly recommend the Geth Scanner. Although it would be great to have the berserker package or grenade capacity, wall-hacking completely changes the experience. I said that this build is unique and has character, and that has a lot to do with Geth Scanner. So don't skip out on it.

Poison Strike: It gets you from A to B. And the invulnerability frames are nice. Other than that, there's not much to write home about. I take range for rank 4 because it makes a pretty big difference, whereas rank 5 of Nightshade Blades doesn't make that much difference to me. But the main reason you want this is to get away from sync-killers. The other important use is to tank through enemy attacks like Banshee Warp/scream, Atlas missiles, etc.

Nightshade Blades: offer limited crowd control. They do good damage, but unfortunately this build sacrifices a lot of potential damage from NBs. I mostly use them to stagger groups of mooks, especially Marauders and their elbows. It is also capable of paralyzing one unprotected enemy (I believe this includes unshielded Phantoms). It should be noted that your heavy melee has trouble tracking a paralyzed target, so go for the other enemies while one is incapacitated.

Biotic Focus: This is the power that I had the most difficulty with when choosing what to take and what to sacrifice, because all the evolutions are great. Too much Biotic Focus goodness to handle! In the end, this is a melee build, and you need to be able to deal damage up close while shrugging off enemy attacks. With that in mind, you'll want to take all the melee damage bonuses available, as well as the damage reduction bonuses. So you get enough of a speed bonus to quickly close in on enemies, nearly as much damage reduction as Tech Armor, and a significant melee damage bonus.

Sure you can't regenerate shields, but that's only useful for DOT attacks, since it doesn't necessarily recharge your shield gate. You have to use regeneration after you've taken damage, and you can still be shot down once the invulnerability wears off. With 45% damage reduction and Poison Strike invulnerability frames, you can easily tank through most attacks and get away before you've taken any real damage. With practice, you will rarely ever get into a position where you would need shield regeneration. And if you slip up, you have Ops Packs.

Turian Veteran: The Cabal gets the vanilla Turian passives, which are far superior to the Armiger Legion passives. I recommend against skipping this, especially since you need that weapon damage for bosses. Honestly, even if you maxed Nightshade Blades and used a grenade capacity mod, I don't think that it would help as much as weapon damage.

Fitness: All melee damage here. One thing that is disappointing is that the Armiger Legion melee synergy evolution is actually better because it gets a 30% weapon damage bonus instead of 25%. The Turian Veteran Fitness was buffed in the health/shields branch, but not the melee branch. I think this was probably a design oversight on Bioware's part. While it would be great if the Cabal could get a 30% or even 35% weapon damage bonus from melee synergy, no use crying over spilled milk.

With melee synergy, you get that extra weapon damage needed for boss enemies. It's not as much as Tactical Cloak, but it's a noticeable improvement on your weapon damage without melee synergy.

Strategy: (on Gold)
Husks and other unprotected troopers- heavy melee to get those succulent martial artist and melee synergy bonuses. When martial artist is active, one light melee will do.

Abominations- heavy melee to decapitate them, preventing any explosions. For possessed a-bombs, make sure that the initial melee kills them and not the poison DOT.

Marauders and other shielded troopers- shoot them to weaken their shields (the Wraith is great for this because it has good accuracy), then heavy melee if you want the bonuses. Otherwise, heavy melee followed by a light melee, or vice-versa. For crowds of troopers, use one or two Nightshade Blades and shoot. Finish off the stragglers with melee.

Phantoms- do not heavy melee unless you know it will kill her immediately. Instead, spam light melee to keep her stagger locked. Otherwise she could stagger you first and any mistake could get you sync-killed.

Dragoons- melee is less effective vs. armor but you can stagger lock them similar to Phantoms. They don't care about stagger lock during their animations though for some reason. Maybe because expert character design on Bioware's part, buggy post-release tacked-on new enemies. Looking at you, Geth Bomber.

Brutes, Ravagers, Scions- I don't recommend using melee on them, except as a finishing move if you desperately need those bonuses. Otherwise, acquire melee synergy bonus and blast with shotgun.

Bosses- These are a PITA for the Cabal because you can't melee them and you don't have enough weapon bonuses. I usually run past them and let my team handle them. But when you have to face them, make use of Poison Strike invulnerability frames. Keep your Biotic Focus active for DR. If you're impatient, you could take a Hurricane as your secondary and use it exclusively for bosses.

Or Cobra Missile.

So that's about it, I think. Be nimble and you shall be victorious. BE LIKE WATER GRASSHOPPER.

-Grun7mas7er

Gameplay by Peddroelmz.




Video guide by Caineghis and Megabeast.