Tag Archives: Shotguns

Hawkeye – by JayneCobb88

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Build Title: Hawkeye

 

Class: Talon Mercenary

 

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

 

Power Evolutions:
Cain Trip Mine: (4) Damage, (5) Armor Damage, (6) Damage
Concussive Arrow: N/A
Armor-Piercing Arrows: (4) Damage, (5) Armor Damage, (6) Arrow Count
Elite Mercenary: (4) Power Damage, (5) Power Damage, (6) Power Regeneration
Fitness: (4) Omni-Bow Damage, (5) Shield Recharge, (6) Omni-Bow Damage

 

Weapons:
Primary: Acolyte with Melee Stunner and Power Magnifier
Secondary: A shotgun with Omni-Blade and High Caliber Barrel

 

Gear:
There’s a huge game play choice to be made here. Take Grenade Capacity or Shocktrooper for the ability to spam Cain Trip Mine on bosses. Use Geth Scanner to place Trip Mines more tactically on the fly. Hydraulic Joints or Juggernaut Shield allow you to one shot Dragoons using Armor-Piercing Arrows. Stronghold Package in conjunction with Shield Power cells can greatly increase survivability.
If a weapon enhancement is used, equip Strength Enhancers.

 

Strategy:
The Talon Merc has been greatly improved since being rebalanced. His heavy melee is now just as fast as his light melee, Killing Spree (5) is no longer a necessity for a melee build, AP Arrows now get 3 arrows per quiver, his grenade regeneration time has been cut by more than half and shooting his bow from left handed cover no longer has such serious hit detection issues. With all that being said, we simply must play him as a melee character since he’s just so unique.
Cain Trip Mine – It’s your crowd control and defensive ability. Instead of using it to destroy enemies coming straight at you I recommend using your limit of 3 mines to fortify a piece of terrain. Place the mines so their beams cross hallways, doorways, ramps, ladders and any other choke points that provide access to where you are. A single mine will kill ANY foot soldier, warn you of approaching enemies and give you the opportunity to replace the mine. Eventually you’ll be overrun. Simply fall back through the unexploded mines and head for another location you can fortify. Enemies will hit the rest of your mines as they pursue you, providing you with enough time to set up the next deathtrap. Another effective way to employ Trip Mines is to shoot them in the path of or at the feet of bosses. Wait for the 3 second arm time and BOOM or keep on shooting more than 3 mines. Deploying more than 3 mines at a time will cause your mines to start exploding one at a time, starting with the oldest.
Concussive Arrow – While it is great fun to launch enemies out of the map with a single shot, ultimately this ability is a gimmick. Armor-Piercing Arrows will kill infantry just the same while weakening armor and doing WAY more damage to bosses.
Armor-Piercing Arrows – Your bread and butter. Always refresh your stock of arrows at the beginning of a wave. Don’t forget that shooting an armored target lowers its damage reduction by 50%. With an Omni-Blade equipped, both melee damage and AP arrow damage is increased by 50%, allowing Hawkeye to one shot nearly any mook. But the heavy melee still takes a second to employ and at close range we need a way to buy that time. The Disciple will stagger anything but the biggest boss, fires quickly, has respectable damage, is the lightest shotgun and is decently accurate. Attaching the High Caliber Barrel increases the likelihood of the Disciple staggering its target. The Acolyte adds 25% melee damage, buffs power damage, is super light, trashes boss shielding and stuns infantry while stripping their protection, which sets them up for a one shot follow up from the AP arrow enhanced Omni-Bow. AP arrows’ one shortfall is they don’t penetrate cover making Guardians a bit of a pain. Counter this with either level 1 AP Rounds, level 1 Drill Rounds, cryo ammo and aim for the feet or lure the slow moving enemy into a trip mine.
Elite Mercenary – Hawkeye dishes out his damage mostly with his powers so focus on Power Damage. Maintaining a light weapons load and taking Power Regeneration (6) permits a very fast 17 second grenade recharge. That’s 1 AP arrow every 6 seconds. This makes his grenade supply nearly endless, without taking trips to ammo boxes. The biggest tactical edge this gives Hawkeye is his ability to strongpoint anywhere on any map. Freed of the need to tether himself to an ammo box or run wildly about the map bouncing from box to box, Hawkeye can focus on setting up and maintaining his defensive perimeter. This increases his survivability immensely.
Fitness – Omni-Bow Damage is a no brainer but be sure to skip Killing Spree. You’ll still one shot mooks with the Omni-bow and anything bigger is going to take 2 or 3 shots anyhow. Shield Recharge reduces the recharge time to almost 3 seconds which is the time it takes for the shield gate to reactivate. Other than trip mines, the shield gate mechanic is your biggest defense but it requires at least 1 point of shields to work so getting that gate back up sooner is far better than 25% additive damage that amounts to nothing.

 

N00b Rating:
3 – He’s very easy to use because there is no need to think about power combos. But he’s hard to use because he is pretty squishy. But then he stands up pretty well when he remains in cover and Trip Mines are used as a defense instead of an offense. Just know where some good strongpoint locations are on every map.
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Flash of Greatness – by CoreyImperia

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Build Title: Flash of Greatness

Class: Alliance Infiltration Unit Infiltrator

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

Power Evolutions:
Tactical Cloak: (4) Damage, (5) Recharge Speed, (6) Shotgun Damage
Snap Freeze: (4) Reach, (5) Cryo Explosion, (6) Damage & Weakness
Repair Matrix: (4) Survivability, (5) Duration, (6) Enhanced Repair
Unshackled A.I: (4) Weapon Damage, (5) Headshots, (6) Weapon Damage
Fitness: N/A

 

Weapons:
You’ll want to utilize the M-300 Claymore, M-11 Wraith or the AT-12 Raider. For each of them, you’ll want High Velocity Barrel and Smart Choke. Recharge Speeds aren’t a pressing concern on this character. My personal favourite is the M-300 Claymore, but any are acceptable. The M-22 Eviscerator is a suitable substitute provided you don’t have any of these weapons.

 

Gear:
Armor-Piercing or Warp Rounds for your ammo bonus. Both apply high damage and either ignore or weaken armor. Shotgun Rail Amp for weapon bonus, Adrenaline Module or Cyclonic Modulator for armor bonus. Use Grenade Capacity or Shock Trooper Upgrade for gear. The choice comes down to how many Repair Matrices you think you’ll need.

 

Strategy:
I wasn’t impressed with EDI in the single player mode… but this Alliance Infiltration Unit is incredible. Finally! An infiltrator tailored to shotguns! This makes her so unbelievably powerful but we have to skip out on Fitness because of her talents. Fortunately, with Repair Matrix, she has so high survivability that a lack of fitness is normally not an issue, but you still shouldn’t be careless. She isn’t a Geth Juggernaut after all. I’ll go over the powers, then the enemies and then some issues you may experience.
I adore her Tactical Cloak; we final have Shotgun Damage which skyrockets her damage output. With Shotgun Rail Amp III, M-300 Claymore X with High Velocity Barrel V and a cloaked point-blank shot, you’ll cause a massive 6,081.12 damage! Rank 4 for Damage, recharge at 5 to mitigate the lack of weight and Shotgun Damage at rank 6. If you PuG a lot, perhaps Duration is better but without Damage you’ll deal 40.00% less damage. This is how I normally use Snap Freeze, it’s basically just for weakening targets. So many people argue about whether or not Tech Combo is bugged so I play it safe and choose Damage & Weakness at Rank 6 which, I swear is better. Especially since you’re focusing on weakening and not explosons. Reach allows you to maintain some distance (and your shotgun will still deal high damage due to Smart Choke), and Cryo Explosion weakens enemies you have used Snap Freeze on. Win and win. Repair Matrix is like Stimulant Pack, but in my personal opinion, much better. In addition to massive and constant shield regeneration, if you’re down while it’s active, it’ll revive you too! Survivability at rank 4 is handier than the shield option, as it gives you a chance to flee with the movement speed bonus and that damage reduction is great as long as you can keep those shields up during it. Duration is superior at rank 5 as security in case you get downed and Enhanced Repair Matrix gives you better bonuses in this case because you’re not focusing on it being a second medi-gel, you’re focusing on not going down when it’s attack. Standard weapon’s platform spec for the class passive and no points for fitness.
The class itself has little trouble against any faction because the strategy doesn’t change regardless. Snap Freeze is your tool for disabling annoy minions like abominations, husks, cannibals, collector troopers and so on. It’s other utilization is armor weakening which is specifically for any boss-tier enemy. Tactical Cloak is your key to getting around undetected and skyrockets the damage of your weapon. If you’re quick, you can pull of a Snap Freeze and a shotgun shot during the second it takes Tactical Cloak to fade. Repair Matrix is your backup, use it generously but remember to keep stock. If possible, play grenade maps. On Hazard Ghost, Repair Matrix will completely mitigate the damage from the acid rain. She has the most difficulty with minions and flanking, so don’t bite of more than you can chew. In saying this, her cloaked shotgun strike should kill most minions, usually including Phantoms or armored minions (Pyros or Dragoons) and bosses will take only a few shots. Be cautious of sync-kills also, that’s why we’ve got Smart Choke so you can maintain some distance and still be effective.
The Alliance Infiltration Unit is tailored to killing, not objectives. Her functionality with Escorts and Uploads improves as long as you can keep Defence Matrix up just purely because she is frail. Her better objectives are Devices because of Tactical Cloak and Delivery because of the movement speed bonus Repair Matrix supplies. The only issues you may face are been surrounded by umpteen Mauraders so the damage output is strong enough to overcome Repair Matrix, and having Repair Matrix revive you, only to be sync-killed a second later (trust me, Phantoms are evil). Take care to ensure her health stays high, as Repair Matrix won’t save you from much if you’re surrounded on low shields and low health. Overall she is a powerful and versatile class but if she’s caught in the wrong place at the wrong time or you bite of more than you can chew, she will go down and its then you’ll hope you’ve got Repair Matrix. After all, this is no Geth Juggernaut.

 

N00b Rating:
2.5 – This character has an intense amount of survivability especially with the way Repair Matrix is evolved. Her shields restore at an insane pace and the bonuses to movement speed coupled with Adrenaline Module means she can fire her Claymore right in someones face and run off before any of the other enemies realise she’s been there. In saying all this, she is vulnerable to stagger and is weak defensively which is why you can’t be stingy with your Repair Matrices. If you learn the tricks, you can get through gold games easily without using any medi-gel or ops packs.
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Brawlguard – by Invaderone

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Build Title:
Brawlguard – by Invaderone

Class:
Batarian Brawler Vanguard

Power Evolutions:

Biotic Charge: Radius (4), Weapon Synergy (5), Barrier (6)
Lash: N/A
Blade Armor: Melee Damage (4), Damage Returned (5), Durability (6)
Batarian Enforcer: Damage & Capacity (4), Power Damage (5), Damage & Ammo (6)
Fitness: Melee Damage (4), Martial Artist (5), Melee Synergy (6)

Weapons:
Wraith, Reegar, Harrier, Talon, Carnifex, Paladin, Piranha, Geth Plasma Shotgun, Graal.

In general all shotguns can work on this guy, if you want something a lit bit more long range you can try the harrier, or the talon, carnifex or paladin. Try to keep your cooldowns high, since you’ll be charging a lot.

Gear:

Juggernaut Shields for a boost in shields and more boost of melee damage. Also, in the weapon you are using always use melee upgrader such as the melee stunter or the omni-blade. You can use any ammo you want, but i would recommend incendiary ammo, and when they are burning, try charge and they’ll explode. Also, go for efficiency module, you want that recharge to go as fast as possible.

Strategy:

This character has a very easy strategy. Charge and melee, charge and melee. That’s it. With the insane ammount of melee damage this guy produces you will kill (almost) everything in one shot. Only banshees, brutes, scions or pretorians will resist your falcon punch, the rest, as soon as you are charging the punch they are as good as death.

Your precautions should be on insta-kills. Watch out on charging those banshees or phantoms. Also use caution when you are charging a group, on higher difficulties they can surround you and kill you, your weapon of choice should get you out of that situation. Stay mobile and you will do fine.

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
2. This is easy and deadly.

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Hack and Slash – by G. J.

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Build Title:
Hack and Slash – by G. J.

Class:
N7 Slayer Vanguard

Power Evolutions:
Biotic charge: (1), (2), (3)
Phase disruptor: Damage(4), Knockdown(5), Armour damage(6)
Biotic slash: Radius(4), Detonate(5), Damage(6)
N7 slayer: Damage and capacity(4), Power damage(5)
Fitness: Durability(4), Shield recharge(5), Fitness expert(6)

Weapons:
Anything that keeps a cooldown close to 200% (you could even go with a
weapon that keeps it above 150%, but ideally try and be as close to
200%). i usually use a paladin, talon, wraith, katana, or disciple,
depending on the mood.

Gear:
Since i usually use a heavy pistol, i use the commando package, but
you could also go with the mental focuser package, that works well
enough.

Strategy:
This is the first class that i truly feel that doesnt need to rely on
biotic charge. the biotic slash is extremely powerful, has a good
range (20m, 30m with evolution), hits like a truck (1180 approx with
my skill tree ^) and goes through walls. the only downside is the
slightly long windup time, but if you’re behind cover its a non issue
anyway. by the looks of it, the slash hits any targets in front of it,
so isnt limited to the total number of enemies it will affect, which
is amazing to just stunlock/kill groups of enemies at a time.

The slayer cannot setup biotic explosions,. but can detonate them
using both the disruptor and biotic slash, which does a tonne of
damage. the phase disruptor is the kind of power whether you like it
or you dont. It’s very useful that it does alot of damage, (explodes
in a 7m radius) and can be useful to stunlock/knockdown enemies if you
get overwhelmed

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
4. This build requires a bit of experimentation and a
bit of experience to pull off, and alot of situational awareness. the
long windup time of the biotic slash does not have any invincibility
frames, so you CAN be shot down before you can do it. as you’re a
human as well, you’re pretty weak compared to some other classes, so
cover is your best friend here. small maps with cover would be best
for this class, and can even be used as a detonating gold farmer
character (be the host).

-edits by Lucien Midnight

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COME OVER HERE – by Frozenballz

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Build Title:
COME OVER HERE- *scorpion voice* – by Frozenballz

Class:
Ex-Cerberus Adept

Power Evolutions:
Singularity: N/A
Smash: Biotic combo (4), force and radius (5), impact radius (6)
Lash: Detonate (4), recharge (5), shield penetration (6)
Phoenix training: Damage and capacity (4), power damage (5), Pistols
and shotguns (6)
Fitness: Durability, Shield recharge

Weapons:
Your choice of weapons can range from anything such as the paladin,
carnifex and talon to the katana, eviscerator, reegar, disciple or if
you fancy it, the wraith/GPS/graal. (they have around 140-150% power
recharge). personally i prefer to be near max recharge so i use the
katana/paladin. use either or, not both since you want to be as close
to max recharge as possible.

Strategy:
Okay, the strategy with this build is that its more of a support build
that deals (very effectively) with foot soldiers (including phantoms)
than the elites such as brutes, atlases banshees and primes. With the
shield penetration, you can basically have massive crowd control
capabilities with the lash power, since you can pull troopers/phantoms
etc toward you, and render them incapacitated for a short duration,
during which you can either finish them off with a shot from your
weapon, or use a smash + heavy melee (to cancel smash animation early)
to initiate the biotic explosion as well (since lash as well as smash
both give biotic effects to targets, for smash you use the biotic
evolution)

any foot soldiers you see, you lash them all. any of them that get
pulled toward you and are not dead yet, you use the smash + heavy
melee combo to instakill them. this even works on phantoms, though be
wary with phantoms. I had a game where i used a lash, she used her
foot boosters to correct herself in mid air and proceeded to slash me
whilst in midair and assassinate me (i wasn’t host though, so was
prolly because of bad lag)

in terms of gear, you can use either the beserker package (damage
bonus to shotguns and melee, and you’ll be using heavy melee to cancel
the smash animation and its AOE as well), or the commando package if
you’re using a pistol (since that gives a bonus to pistol damage +
biotics damage).

N00b Rating: (scale 1-5, 1 is easy for everybody!)
3.5. Takes a bit of getting used to the animation lengths of smash and
lash, and how the mechanics work, but once you find a rhythm, its
pretty smooth thereafter.

-edits by Lucien Midnight

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