Category Archives: Ex-Cerberus Vanguard

Floats like a Butterfly – by Trevtar

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Build Title:
Floats like a Butterfly – by Trevtar

Class:
Ex-Cerberus Vanguard

Power Evolutions:
Biotic Charge: Radius (4), Power Synergy (5), Barrier (6)
Smash: Biotic Combo (4), Force & Damage (5), Impact Radius (6)
Lash: Detonate (4), Recharge Speed (5), Shield Penetration (6)
Phoenix Training: Damage and Capacity (4), Power Damage (5)
Fitness: (1), (2), (3)

Weapons:
Carnifex X (Damage and scope mods) and Tempest X (Ultralight and damage mods). That, or run with a Disciple X instead of the pistol. It only matter that you have a 200% cool-down so I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Gear:
For the gear bonus, I would go with the commando pack, if you are using the pistol. If not, the shield boost will get you used to the build. If neither, the mental enhancer is always nice since you will be focusing on using your biotic powers.

Strategy:
Sidebar: I actually really wanted the ex-Cerberus adept, but I got the vanguard instead. Boy, am I glad I did! You can tell from the build that I was trying to play him more as an adept, which I think I have succeeded in. With only 3 points in fitness he comes to 625/625, but that isn’t too shabby, especially compared to the Drell.

Your main strategy should be to play him like an adept. What I mean by this is spam lash, set up and trigger biotic explosions with smash, and use biotic charge only to pick off wanderers and refill those barriers. So play DEFENSIVELY. You will get your face shot off if you try to Rambo in like your typical vanguard. You don’t have the barriers for it and it’s just not how this build was set up to work.

I have found that one of your best role during the regular rounds is a support role. Lash those phantoms, marauders, and rocket geth so that they don’t get the drop on your teammates. Be advised- phantoms can be a little tricky since they can block biotic attacks. I usually lay down some distraction fire, lash, smash and then heavy melee. If they are still up after this I suggest lashing/shooting again quickly. Even though you are more effective against the weaker enemies you can still help with the boss types. Just mind your boundaries and charge sparingly so as not to trigger the one-hit kills. Important Note: smash works through the walls, cover, etc. Use this to your advantage as a group approaches a corner. Smash will set up an explosion and then (depending on the situation) you can use lash or charge to finish them off.

I would recommend running with another adept to help with biotic explosions. You can still detonate explosions alone, but the enemies will die much more quickly when you work in synergy with an adept. I have been using this build on gold cerberus and geth runs with relatively high success. It just takes some practice and foresight in order to be effective. Remember to stick with your group or at least one pal. When enemies get too close, you should be there to clean house.

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
4. The strategy and play style can be hard to get used to, especially with such low barriers and health. Just concentrate on playing defensively, being supportive, and learning your boundaries. If you do this, I promise you will become more and more successful.

-edits by PunxsatownyPhil

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Rebirth of the Phoenix – by Matthew R.

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Build Title:
Rebirth of the Phoenix – by Matthew R.

Class:
Ex-Cerberus Vanguard

Power Evolutions:
Biotic Charge: Radius (4), Power Synergy (5), Barrier (6)
Smash: Biotic Combo (4), Force & Damage (5), Impact Radius (6)
Lash: N/A
Phoenix Training: Damage & Capacity (4), Power Damage (5), Pistols & Shotguns (6)
Fitness: Melee Damage (4), Martial Artist (5), Power Synergy (6)

Weapons:
Reegar Carbine X (if you have level X) OR any lightweight shotgun that leaves you as close to +200% as possible, and the M-3 Predator X (weight=0) Mod the gun however you like although I prefer Shredder mod and Melee Boost.

Gear:
Anything that increases effectiveness of powers or melee.

Strategy:
FIRST OF ALL, unlike some of his counterparts, the phoenix vanguard should not be treated like a tank, and should only be played like novaguard on bronze difficulty. He is a bit fragile, but can mess up the enemy team horribly if you can master his raw damage output and stunning abilities.
After much experimentation, I found lash to be inefficient on Gold difficulty, and almost completely useless if not leveled up to “shield penetration (6)” So, for this build, we’re going to skip it all-together.

The principal ideas behind this build are:
- Biotic charge as a defensive power
- Frequent, but careful, calculated use of Smash
- Utilization of cancelling and combos

Main Combos: These are the bread and butter for this build (I will number them for easy reference.)
(1) Smash -> Cancel into Heavy Melee
(2) Heavy Melee -> Smash
(3) Biotic Charge -> Shotgun -> Heavy Melee -> Smash

Biotic charge should not be used to as a fast travel to take on a mob of enemies. You should stick with your team mostly, only breaking away for lone or weak targets. Utilizing Smash, with biotic charge primarily being used to recover your barrier will raise this characters survivability. Hence the title: “rebirth of the phoenix.”

Using Smash:
Smash is the primary means of dealing damage for this build. It is the most powerful biotic attack, and with Rank 6 spec’d for Impact Radius, it also has decent range. But to use Smash effectively, one must always keep in mind the following facts:
- Smash has a significant initial delay, with no invincibility frames
- Smash stuns enemies quite reliably (1057.50 N force)
- Smash can hit through walls
- You can change the direction you’re facing (and move a tiny bit) during the delay
**NOTE: if the team you play with mostly engineers I recommend electrical damage at level (4) so you can get ‘tech bursts’ rather than biotic explosions. **

Smash can be used relatively safely, as long as you anticipate your targets’ movements. Enemy stalking you from behind? Turn a corner and hit Smash through the wall. Banshee coming at you? Initiate Smash before she’s here so that it lands just when she teleports right in front of you (then roll back and repeat). See a huge group of enemies? Gtfo and re-engage with your team. Being a short-ranged melee fighter does not mean the Phoenix vanguard should be right in the middle of large brawls. Instead thinking of gradually skimming off enemies from the outskirt, slowly working your way towards the middle.

In trying to hit your target, thinking mostly in terms of distance from you, and don’t worry too much about aim. As long as the target is within 2.25m, cast Smash immediately and adjust your aim during the initial delay. Often I find it safer to run to be beside the enemy instead of in front of it, and only change direction after calling Smash. Also useful when your target tries to dodge your imminent strike.

Almost always, Smash should be followed by Heavy Melee (combo 1). Because Smash stuns, unless you have enemies sniping at you from a distance, you can usually get away with the Heavy Melee for free. In practice, the entire combo 1 should look like one smooth motion. With Fitness spec’d as above, the damage of the Heavy Melee is very respectable, and will easily get you many melee kills.

The reverse combo (2), Heavy Melee -> Smash is also very useful. The Heavy Melee initiate faster than Smash, hits a wide radius, and also stuns quite well. In general this is the go-to move after you’ve charged and are waiting for the cooldown.This is particularly useful as part of combo 3. Charging a fully protected mid-tier enemy (e.g. Marauder) won’t kill them, but the charge will stun them. Now fire a round of shotgun, followed by a Heavy Melee to stun again (you won’t stun if the Heavy Melee follows the charge immediately, as the enemy is still in the previous stunned animation). By this time the power cooldown should be finished, allowing you to finish with Smash.

(Still confused how to use Smash effectively? Check out JumpinProductions on YouTube for a gameplay commentary that greatly helped me in forming this build)

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
4. This guy can decimate ALL enemies, but he is, however, very delicate. Expect to die if you make a mistake.

Appearance:
Make this guy look like Ironman, he’s Badass.

-edits by Lucien Midnight

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Fiery Whips of Pain – by NightBringar

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Build Title:
Fiery Whips of Pain – by NightBringar

Class:
Ex-Cerberus Vanguard

Power Evolutions:
Biotic Charge: Radius (4), Power Synergy (5), Barrier (6)
Smash:(1), (2), (3)
Lash: Damage (4), Recharge Speed (5), Shield Penetration (6)
Phoenix Training: Damage and Capacity (4), Power Damage (5)
Fitness:Melee Damage (4), Martial Artist (5), Power Synergy (6)

Weapons:
Any weapon that leaves you at +%200 power recharge speed

Strategy:
After playing with smash and last trying to use biotic explosions, I
tended to take alot of damage waiting for timers to recharge. I had
much better results using Biotic Charge and then Heavy Melee. The Heavy
Melee for this vanguard is a double whip attack that seems to be AOE.
I rebuilt this for max melee damage and this is the result. This is
played similar to a NovaGuard. Use Biotic Charge to damage your enemies
and recharge your shields. Once you have charged, do a heavy
melee attack. You are already at +95% damage increase to your melee
attacks then get the +75% increase for 30 seconds after doing a
successful heavy melee which you are doing all the time. You can
decimate an entire room full of mobs.

The strategy works well on most things up until Banshees and Brutes
and Mechs, the boss type mobs that can execute you, but thats nothing
new for a vanguard. I didnt put phantoms on the list because 2 jumps
and 2 heavy melee will take them out. I may have just been lucky so
far. If you are going to go after boss mobs make sure to have recently
done a heavy melee before you start as to have that damage increase
right from the start.

The build works great on Bronze, might adjust the fitness to add more
shields but leave the martial expert on for the damage burst.

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
3.

-edits by Lucien Midnight

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