Tag Archives: Glass Cannon

Turian Hellion – by Muffinator

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Build: Turian Hellion

Class: Turian Ghost Infiltrator

Map Diffiuclty Rating: This build has the potential for Platinum gameplay

Power Evolutions:
Tactical Cloak: (4) Damage, (5) Recharge Speed, (6) Assault Rifle Damage
Stimulant Pack: (4) Max Shields, (5) Duration, (6) Weapon Damage
Overload: (4) Damage, (5) Neural Shock
Armiger Legion: (4) Damage & Stability, (5) Headshots, (6) Damage & Stability
Fitness: (1), (2), (3)

 

Weapons:
Cerberus Harrier with Extended Magazine and Extended Barrel; other Assault Rifles include the M-99 Saber with Extended Magazine and Extended Barrel but the Harrier is by far the best option. Sidearms are optional.

 

Gear:
Warfighter Package for Assault Rifle Damage and Stimulant Pack Capacity (because the loosely count as “grenades”), or Grenade Capacity for additional Stimulant Packs. It depends on how many you think you’ll need.

 

Strategy:
Move over Geth Infiltrator, the new king of direct damage is in town. With a stimpack active, coming out of cloak and aiming for the head, this bad boy can deal just over 10,000 damage in a single clip; enough to completely wipe a banshee’s barrier on gold difficulty! The procedure couldn’t be simpler: stimpack, cloak, hold down the trigger until it goes click.
Stimpacks are great both as a weapon buff and a survival aid. I like to keep mine versatile but it’s really a matter of taste. I’d recommend at least one evolution put into shields- you’re paper thin for a Turian and that boost can go a long way.
Here comes the big downside- combining the harrier with stimpacks means you’re going to have to be constantly tethered to an ammo box. Cloak + jetpack movement makes reaching one easy in a pinch but be very careful not to stray too far from home without a full ammo reserve. Words can’t describe how quickly you’ll burn through it. Thankfully, the candle that burns short also burns bright- that small ammo pool equals a lot of dead enemies.
The jetpack movement can be difficult to get the hang of. Your dodges carry you much further than usual and if you’re not prepared for that, you can overshoot cover and get yourself shot. Try a bronze game or two first, just to get used to the way he moves.
Finally, overload. You all know how it works. Good for stripping shields and giving you some breathing room. If you stick disruptor ammo on the harrier, you can tech burst for some CC capability. You can choose to spec out of it but it’s nice to have another tool on hand and stimpacks mean your effective shields work out ok without dumping a huge amount into fitness.

 

N00b Rating:
3 – Much like the Geth Infiltrator, limited health/shields do a lot to offset your massive damage output. Once you’ve figured out how to negate that with stimpacks, cloaking and massive dodges, the sky’s the limit.
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Say Goodnight! – by CoreyImperia

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Build Title: Say Goodnight!

Class: Male Quarian Infiltrator

Map Difficulty Rating: This build has the potential for Platinum gameplay

Power Evolutions:
Tactical Cloak: (4) Damage, (5) Recharge, (6) Bonus Power
Tactical Scan*: (4) Weapon Damage, (5) Movement Speed**, (6) Damage
Arc Grenade: (4) Radius, (5) Electrical Damage, (6) Shield Overload
Quarian Defender: (4) Weapon Damage, (5) Power Damage, (6) Weapon Damage
Fitness*: N/A

 

*The alternative spec involves sacrificing both Ranks 5 and 6 in Tactical Scan for Rank 4 in Fitness (Durability). I only recommend this if you’re having difficulty with the class without Fitness and using it without the aid of Cyclonic Modulators. On Gold and Platnium, you should be using Cyclonic Modulators however and therefore can forego the extra Fitness. Personally, I like the build without Fitness better–there just isn’t enought points to go around.

 

**Movement Speed is to slow down those bosses, Headshots is also a viable option. Your preference really, but getting headshots consistently with the Claymore isn’t always easy. Especially if you have screen shake.

 

Weapons:
A high-leveled M-300 Claymore; not the hardest thing in the world to get but the store in the Multiplayer can be quite unkind. Use the Smart Choke on it; without it the Claymore’s effectiveness degenerates to just close-range. WIth it, you can practically snipe with it (sort of, aim for the head). I recommend High Velocity Barrel, for extra damage and armor ignore. Currently, there is a bug where if you put one of the Retaliation DLC mods onto a non-DLC weapon (weapons available before any DLC) like the M-300 Claymore, it adds no weight but still gives the bonuses. So, M-300 Claymore with Smart Choke and High Velocity Barrel. If you don’t have the High Velocity Barrel, just use High Caliber.

 

Gear:
You’ll want to use the best of the best for this guy. Armor-Piercing rounds for ammo, this compliments Arc Grenades well. You’ll use Arc Grenades to remove shields and the Claymore to kill everything else. You can substitute for Warp Rounds but I must say it works better with Armor-Piercing, as Warp Rounds is more team-based, as the debuff to armor is exploitable by all of your squad. Armor-Piercing for Randoms, and Warp Rounds if you’re short of AP or playing with a strong team. Shotgun Rail Amps for weapon bonus and Cyclonic Modulators when it comes to armor bonus. You’ll want to use Grenade Capacity for this guy, having seven Arc Grenades makes a big difference, and you’ll want that more than an extra 12% Claymore damage in the long run (no matter how tempted you may be).

 

Strategy:
The Quarian Males are both powerful characters because they have two powerful abilities: Arc Grenade and Tactical Scan. If you skip out on either, you’re doing it wrong. Both Quarian Males have 3 really good powers that work well together but unfortunately, this means his Fitness suffers. I’ll hit the powers, then the enemies and then the limitations.
Tactical Cloak has been evolved for damage. Without taking into account the damage bonus from Armo-Piercing Ammo, a cloaked Claymore shot with Shotgun Rail Amp III and High Velocity Barrel deals 4243.6 damage to a target. A headshot will deal 250% more damage to minions and 40% more damage to bosses (this includes Phantoms, Pyros and Dragoons). Arc Grenades also receive the 80% damage bonus, dealing 940 damage to Health and Armor, 1880 damage to Barriers and 3290 damage to Shields. Recharge Speed helps mitigate the damage to your cooldown the Claymore causes and Bonus Power allows you to set of Tactical Scan in cloak and then shoot or throw grenades. Tactical Scan is used effectively in cloak because it has a higher cooldown than normal due to the Claymore. For it, you want Weapon Damage because of the Claymore, Movement Speed because it slows bosses by 30% and Damage Taken so it becomes a constant Proximity Mine (25% damage taken). Arc Grenade is evolved for max damage to shields because you have the Claymore for Armor. You want Radius because 10.8m is massive! You could clear out a whole room of shields in one or two or three grenades nearly every time. Electrical Damage gives Arc Grenade the chance to set up tech bursts for your team to detonate. You want Weapon Damage and Power Damage and Weapon Damage for the passive. This gives the Claymore 22.5% more damage and gives Arc Grenades 35% more damage.
The Quarian Male Infiltrator is viable for Unknown/Unknown (Gold, I wouldn’t do Unknown/Unknown Platinum–you’re better to plan that to your team’s strengths) because he is effective against all factions. He has more difficuty with Reapers and Collectors because they have more armored targets but you have the Claymore for that. He shines best against Geth but will suffer greatly if stunlocked. He is all-round good against Cerberus.
Minions will lose their shields really quickly, it’ll only take a few grenades if that to remove their shields and a cloaked Claymore X shot with the suggested gear (III at least) will one shot most minions. Phantoms aren’t very difficult because you have Arc Grenades to stun or prime their barrier. Either will leave them in place long enough to kill it with the Claymore. Be aware you must learn how to reload cancel for this build to be effective; on consoles you can cancel reloads during the animation by trying to activate a power that’s cooling down or by activating a power. If timed right, it’ll reload instantly. Hunters will only cause grief if you miss your shots, stay on target or Arc Grenade them away. Big Armored targets like Ravagers, Scions and Brutes will suffer from Cloaked Claymore shots, especially if Tactical Scan is on them. Armor-Piercing Claymores munch through them. Even the big bosses aren’t tough. Two-Three Grenades will take down the Barriers/Shields of them (Four-Five for Possessed Praetorians) and it only takes 3-4 shots to kill Geth Primes on Gold/Platinum with Armor-Piercing rounds IV, Shotgun Rail Amp III, M-300 Claymore X with Smart Choke V and High Velocity Barrel V. It does more damage the closer, but still does good damage at mid-range.
The only limitations of this build are his frailty and his Tactical Cloak. 500 Health and 600 Shields isn’t much to be taking into Gold/Platinum, and Cyclonic III only bumps that to 1200 so you still need to be careful, even with Cyclonic IV its only 1500, so play smartly and don’t move into situations that will leave you killed in 2 seconds. You aren’t invincible, just powerful. The only reason I say Tactical Cloak is a limitation is because he cannot do Device objectives efficiently with it as it runs out half way through, its the cost you pay–damage or team play. But taking Duration instead weakens the Claymore by 40%, and that’s a lot of damage to miss out on, especially on this weapon.

 

N00b Rating:
3 - Getting him and the Claymore is probably harder than playing this character. He deals massive amounts of damage, especially against… Well any faction really. Be aware your shields are 600 at base, which means you have 1200 with Cyclonic III or 1500 with Cylonic IV. You’re more of a glass cannon, but a really, really big and powerful cannon. And note that without Duration spec Cloak you only have enough cloak for just less than half of a Device Objective, but just enough time to revive teammates or set of a Tactical Scan on a boss and get of a Claymore shot or a few Arc Grenades which get the 80% damage bonus. The only other thing is Reload Cancelling, and that should come with practice.
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Asari Pls

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Build Title:
Asari Pls

Class:
Asari Adept

Power Evolutions:
Stasis:(4) Duration, (5) Recharge Speed, (6) Bubble
Warp: (4) Detonate, (5) Expose, (6) Pierce
Throw: (4) Force, (5) Detonate, (6) Force and Damage
Asari Justicar: (4) Damage and Capacity, (5) Power Damage, (6) Weapon Damage *
Fitness: N/A *(You could drop the last evolution of Asari Justicar in favour the first 3 in fitness)

Weapons:
Anything that gives you at least 150% recharge. The faster your recharge, the more efficient you will be. Carrying a weapon is more of a formality than a necessity. However, I do run a Carnifex X with Extended Barrel V and Piercing V. The only other useful mod would be Ultralight Materials for lower-level, heavier weapons. The Carnifex suits this build perfectly with its decent accuracy and range but still remaining effective at close range.

Gear:
For a gear bonus I tend to use Stronghold Package for some extra survivability and because I don’t run any points in fitness. However, if you place 3 points in fitness, anything that boosts your Biotic effectiveness such as Commando, Mental Focuser or Structural Ergonomics will work a charm.

As far as weapon, ammo or armour mods go, I rarely use any even on Gold but an Adrenaline Module works well as do Disrupter and Warp Rounds for enemy shields which will resist your biotic explosions.

Strategy:

Stasis: The way in which the Stasis damage calculations work are not inherently obvious. Damage done to Shields and Barriers does not count as actual damage whereas any damage done to Health does. The amount of damage an enemy can take whilst under Stasis is incredibly small so buffing it by 150% will make no difference. However, extending the duration to 10 seconds will help nullify the threat of Phantoms and Geth Hunters for a few more vital seconds. The cool-down on Stasis can also be unforgiving, especially given how easy it is to miss, thereby leaving you completely vulnerable for a few seconds. The Bubble evolution helps with this as enemies will just waltz right into its effect field, allowing you to shoot off their shields and then detonate them with a Throw. Effective use of Stasis can be a useful crowd control tool as well as making Phantoms vulnerable for sniper head-shots. Furthermore, it can be used to hold a choke-point and to stop enemies from flanking your group as well as freezing certain threats and allowing you to revive an ally. However, it is very important to remember that the more to use Stasis on the same enemy, the shorter the period it will remain frozen and the less damage it will take before the effects wear off. After using it 3 times on the same enemy, said enemy will become immune so be sure to make it count.

Warp: The evolution of Warp serves two primary purposes. First of all, to maximise your Biotic Explosion damage and the Area of Effect. By setting off Biotic Explosions, especially on Altas’, you can hold choke-points, terminate large groups of enemies and quickly deal with substantial threats such as Brutes, Ravagers, Engineers, Phantoms etc. In fact, it only takes 2 Biotic Explosions and a few shots from your gun of choice to neutralise a Brute on Gold. The second reason for the chosen Warp evolution is as a utility. The Expose and Pierce evolutions act as a de-buff and allow your team to do increased damage to large threats such as Banshee’s, Atlas’ and Geth Primes.

Throw: Throw has been maximised for damage and force, allowing you to catapult weaker enemies into the sky box, briefly stun Atlas Mechs and do incredibly high damage with Biotic Explosions. The cool down on Throw is incredibly low and investing in shortening it is unnoticeable so it is best to invest in damage.

Asari Justicar: As as AsarI Adept, you will not be using your weapon a whole lot and so it’s best to put all of your points in Power Damage. There is no need to choose the final evolution that allows for increased weight capacity because as your weapons reach a higher level, they will become lighter and the points will be wasted. If you choose to drop any points in favour of fitness, the final evolution of Justicar is by far the most expendable.

Fitness: As stated above, you can possibly spare enough points for 3 levels. The Asari Adept is incredibly fragile and is the very definition of a Glass Cannon (excuse the cliché). However, even on Gold, I have found that the frailty of the character isn’t too much of an issue. Stasis allows you to get out of sticky situations and Biotic Explosions will decimate any large groups baring down on you.

The frailty of this class means that it is best to stick with the pack and preferably play with a well coordinated team. However, teaming up with one friend, either another Adept or a Sniper, will allow you to work together to quickly and efficiently deal with large groups, “Bosses” and agile enemies such as Phantoms and Nemesis’.

The Asari Adept is very effective against all three enemies. However, the effectiveness of Stasis against Cerberus will really allow you to excel as both a top scorer and a valuable team member. With Reapers, you will rarely find cause to use Stasis given the prevalence of Armour but your Biotic Explosions can tear through every level of enemy that you will come across, even on Gold. The Geth is definitely where the Asari Adept’s effectiveness begins to wane. The Geth Pyro is your worst enemy because it can quickly kill you and its shields are resistant to your explosions and its Armour makes it immune to Stasis. However, by using Stasis on Hunters and Rocket Troopers and spamming Warp -> Throw, you can still prove to be a valuable asset to your team, clearing out whole rooms in a matter if seconds and keeping large threats off your team. Brutes and Banshees can be easily kited providing that your team is taking the rest of the heat from other enemies in the area. Kiting leaves you exposed but a good awareness of your surroundings and clever dodging and Biotic Explosions will help you smash your opponents and stop a Brute from steam rolling your team.

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
5. As an Asari Adept you can expect to die a lot whilst still getting used to the finer points of this class. It will take some time to fully understand to the machinations of how it works and how to use it to its maximum potential. You will be playing a very fragile character that can really excel on Gold but getting to grips with how Stasis acts will cost you your life on more than one occasion when you misfire at a crucial moment. Furthermore, going toe to toe with Brutes, Banshees and Phantoms (which you will have to do a lot on Gold as your team may rely on you to handle them) often involves kiting rather than staying in cover, Even when you’ve mastered the class, it is still a very difficult one to use but being able to tear apart anything that stands in your way is well worth it.

Appearance: Black and Teal – A16 A10 A10 1:A11 B3

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