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.

Batarian Soldier: 200 Waves Edition

Greetings everyone, and welcome to another edition of my 200 Waves guides. Today is the Batarian Soldier, one of the old characters that still holds up to the new ones. It's not a new build, but it gets the job done. Then there's always the melee build, but now that we have the Broguard (Batarian Vanguard) it's redundant if not inferior. As such, I opted for the grenadier build.

Batarian Soldier
Ballistic Blades: 4-cone spread, 5-range, 6-explosive blades
Blade Armor: 3
Inferno grenade: 4-damage, 5-damage, 6-radius & shrapnel
Batarian Enforcer: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-damage & ammo
Fitness: 4-durability, 5-shield recharge

I recommend a medium weight, high-damage weapon for bosses, as this character can take on pretty much everything else from basic troopers to Phantoms just by using his powers. Such weapons include the Harrier, Piranha, Wraith, and Hurricane. Some weapons like the Raider, Claymore, Geth Plasma Shotgun, Graal, and Reegar work but are a little heavy. Consider replacing Blade Armor with rank 6 of Fitness if you want a better cooldown.

Your ammo mod really depends on what enemy you are facing, as you can't trigger your own tech explosions with this character (as far as I'm aware). He's excellent for priming fire explosions, though.

Blades and grenades: the meat and (hot) potatoes of this build. This combo will annihilate crowds, save for boss-level enemies. I spec Ballistic Blades for maximum crowd control. The important evolution is explosive blades, which lets you double-stagger enemies. This is very useful against Phantoms and such, allowing you to hit them with your Inferno Grenades. Basically, stun lock all the things.

The 25% DR from Blade Armor brings you to approximately 1600/1600. Cooldown isn't a big deal with this character, but you still don't want your Ballistic Blades to take too long. As I said, adjust your build to achieve a cooldown that meets your needs.

The grenadier playstyle of this build brings the Krogan Soldier to mind, and the strategy is similar. Use Inferno Grenades against groups of lesser enemies as well as armored targets. If you don't have a high-level grenade capacity mod, you may want to take extra grenades for evolution 5 instead. Otherwise, take all damage evolutions to deal massive damage over time. Evolution 6 is not prescriptive, I just prefer radius and shrapnel for better crowd control. You're more likely to get killstreak medals if you can hit more enemies at once. Try staggering an entire enemy spawn with Ballistic Blades and then lobbing an Inferno Grenade in the middle of them.

For Batarian Enforcer, I take all power damage bonuses and weapon damage, which is pretty typical for any caster/grenadier build. Finally, I take durability and shield recharge in Fitness. If you can deal with the longer cooldown, taking 3 ranks in Blade Armor for 25% DR is better than 30% health and shields. I find that 15% shield recharge delay is superior to and additional 5% DR from Blade Armor, though that is an option. Remember that shield recharge delay varies by difficulty, so this evolution is somewhat more useful on Platinum.

I think that's about it for the build. I know the Batarian Soldier is old, I'm a little late to the party, etc etc. Irrelevant, as long as some people get some use from this guide. Thanks for reading everyone. I know it's been a while since I've made a new post. I've mostly been editing old ones and perfecting some of the 200 Wave guides. Plus Bioware is on vacation so there's not much in the way of updates. I've been on vacation as well, as I'm sure many of you have, and so I'm just getting back to my day-to-day schedule. Anyway, I hope you all had a happy new year.

-Grun7mas7er

Also, check out RedJohn's Guide to the Batarian Soldier on BSN. He's sort of the resident Batarian Soldier expert. You should listen to him, not me.

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