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#1
The Grey Ranger

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Since there seem to be a lot of threads on the board asking for build help, tactical advice or more general question.  I thought I'd compile some of it in one place.  Hope this helps some one.


Either you or one of your squad mates will need 9 points in decryption and electronics to open all locked objects, so if you’re not playing an engineer, sentinel or infiltrator, you’ll need Tali, Garrus, or Kaiden.[/list] 
Don’t forget your grenades.  Yes they are not that useful, but they can help.[/list] 
Always make a save before you land on a planet.  Keep it until you finish the planet.  That way if you hit a bug, or it’s too tough. you have a save and can reload and try again or come back later[/list] 
You can’t make it to 60 in one play through.  You can get to 57, maybe 58, provided it isn’t your very first play through, which is limited to 50.[/list] 
You lose experience killing things in the Mako.  It will cost you around 50% of your experience per kill.[/list] 
Pistol with Master Marksman active is the most damaging weapon in the game.[/list] 
When playing on higher difficulties, don’t sabotage krogan.  They’ll just charge and try and give you a shotgun butt to the face.
 
Since there have been multiple help-me-with-my-build threads, here are some good builds.  I take no credit for them.  Most came out of discussion on the old Bioware forums.  All are level 60 builds that take advantage of the free charm/intimidate points from multiple play throughs.[/list] 
 
Adept
Armor 5 (just enough to unlock pistol)
Pistol 12
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 7
Stasis 12
Adept/Bastion 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Shotgun 0 (just because it is occasionally useful)
 
Engineer
Pistol 12
Armor 8
Decryption 9
Hacking 12
Electronics 9
Damping 12
First Aid 5
Medicine 12
Engineer/Operative 12  (could very easily swap medic for operative)
Spectre 4
(bonus)Barrier 7 (mostly since engi's are a bit squishy)
 
Vanguard (pistol)
Pistol 12
Shotgun 0
Assault Training 12
Armor 7
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Barrier 7
Vanguard/Shock trooper 12
Spectre 4
(bonus)Singularity 12
 
Vanguard (shotgun)
Pistol 6
Shotgun 12
Assault Training 12
Armor 7
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 6
Barrier 7
Vanguard/Shock Trooper 12
Spectre 4
(bonus)Singularity 12
 
Infiltrator
Pistol 12
Sniper 12
Armor 8
Fitness 12
Electronics 9
Damping 12
Decryption 9
First Aid 0
Infiltrator/Commando 12
Spectre 4
(bonus)Hacking 12
 
Sentinel (bastion)
Throw 12
Lift 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 12
Decryption 9
Electronics 9
First Aid 6
Medicine 0 (skipped to avoid the power wheel bug)
Sentinel/Bastion 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Singularity 12
 
Sentinel (medic) (this one is more for, just the difference than power)
Throw 12
Lift 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 0
Decryption 9
Electronics 9
First Aid 12
Medicine 12 (can use medigel to revive fallen squad mates)
Sentinel/Medic 12
Spectre 0 (not a mistake)
(bonus)Hacking 12
 
Soldier
Pistol 4
Shotgun 12
Assault Rifle 12
Sniper 12
Armor 8
First Aid 0
Assault Training 12
Fitness 12
Soldier 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Lift 12 (this is just a personal preference, singularity or warp is also solid)

Also if you want to play around with builds, the talent point calculator is useful
http://masseffect.ma...Calculator.aspx

For more general stuff the Mass Effect wiki is very helpful. 
http://masseffect.wi...ass_Effect_Wiki

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 22 Апрель 2010 - 06:15 .


#2
Pacifien

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The Grey Ranger wrote...
Either you or one of your squad mates will need 9 points in decryption and electronics to open all locked objects, so if you’re not playing an engineer, sentinel or infiltrator, you’ll need Tali, Garrus, or Kaiden.

Technically, Liara can do electronics. I don't know of very many people who do that, though.
 

Don’t forget your grenades.  Yes they are not that useful, but they can help.

Hey, they can be very useful. In some... one... mission.

You lose experience killing things in the Mako.  It will cost you around 50% of your experience per kill.

I wouldn't phrase it this way. You don't lose experience when you kill things with the Mako, you just gain less experience than you would have gotten if you killed the same enemy on foot.
 

When playing on higher difficulties, don’t sabotage krogan.  They’ll just charge and try and give you a shotgun butt to the face.

Neural shock, however, is gold.
 
Nice list, though. Can't think of what else you could add, because I should have been asleep two hours ago and I'm not entirely sure if my brain is working.

#3
Jetpackshark

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Wish this was here before I started Mass Effect! Anyways, nice simple guide. I think you gain less experience when killings things in the Mako on higher difficulties.

#4
Devos

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That's a good set of builds. There are a couple of tweaks I would make.

The Grey Ranger wrote...
 
Adept
Armor 5 (just enough to unlock pistol)
Pistol 12
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 7
Stasis 12
Adept/Bastion 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Shotgun 0 (just because it is occasionally useful)


Nothing I would change here, this is how I run a "vanilla" Adept (though I find Sniper Adept more enjoyable, vanilla is better). There is an interesting point to be highlighted here, a gun talent with 0 points still does something: it allows you to enter aim mode with the gun. This is only very marginally useful though, AR is usually pointless if you have a pistol, snipers are still difficult to use and shotguns don't especially need to be aimed. Marginally I prefer untrained sniper. It's tricky to use but there are few places early game where it's useful. So if you are going to zero a bonus pick a gun.
 

Engineer
Pistol 12
Armor 8
Decryption 9
Hacking 12
Electronics 9
Damping 12
First Aid 5
Medicine 12
Engineer/Operative 12  (could very easily swap medic for operative)
Spectre 4
(bonus)Barrier 7 (mostly since engi's are a bit squishy)


A couple of thoughts on this. It's worth pushing barrier to 12 on any character without the specialization. This is of extra importance on an engineer lacking an amp as well. Master Barrier , with MedExs can be permanent. I would pull the points out of armor. Shield Boost interacts nicely with barrier but the extra 5 points in barrier is more useful and you still have basic barrier boost.

Also I have found that Medic is the significantly better spec on insanity. Tech Mine refresh is already very good with the Hacking bonus and their specializations aren't missed. Medic gives a bump to Neural shock which is much more useful. so that ends up as.

Pistol - 12
Basic Armor - 3
Decryption-  9
Hacking - 12
Electronics - 9
Damping - 12
First Aid - 5
Medicine - 12
Medic - 12
Spectre Training - 4
Barrier - 12

That was my final best Engineer. I'm not sure if I ever posted that build before but in terms of performance, while engie is still the weakest class its not out of place among good builds.
 
 

Sentinel (medic) (this one is more for, just the difference than power)
Throw 12
Lift 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 0
Decryption 9
Electronics 9
First Aid 12
Medicine 12 (can use medigel to revive fallen squad mates)
Sentinel/Medic 12
Spectre 0 (not a mistake)
(bonus)Hacking 12


This is my preferred Sentinel/Medic.

Throw - 12
Lift - 12
Barrier - 12
Stasis - 0
Decryption - 9
Electronics - 9
First Aid - 8
Medicine - 12
Medic - 12
Spectre Training - 4
Singularity - 12

Biggest difference are Spectre 4 at the expense of 4 points from first aid and singularity in the place of hacking. Spectre Training 4 because it is essentially free, with the Medic first aid specialization unity is a lot less useful but it's an extra revive which doesn't use medi-gel and its on it's own timer. First aid adds up across your party up to 12, a team mates score even applies when they are incapacitated. You are pretty likely to be able to make up those four points on team mates without sacrificing anything on them.

Hacking I find its active power is not especially useful on a Sentinel. It doesn't stop its target attacking you. For causing distraction its fine but singularity is better and not limited to synthetics. The passive tech mine boost is not that great either, sentinels only have two tech mines.

Taking Singularity does beg the question why not just go Bastion? Unlike with engineers I find on a Sentinel Medic is the duff option.

Сообщение изменено: Devos, 23 Апрель 2010 - 12:47 .


#5
The Grey Ranger

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I tend to use barrier more as a panic skill on an engineer, just so I can maybe get to some cover, but that is a valid point.

As for weapons on the adept the shotgun is a matter of personal preference for me, I have a hard time hitting anything with 0 in sniper and find the shotgun effective, more a matter of personal play style than anything. Mostly it doesn't really see much use, just if my pistol gets overheated, in say BTDS, since there I've been sabotaged and damped and find another close range weapon to be useful.  I also tend to carry tungsten or shredder in my pistol and specialty ammo in the shotgun, say hammerhead, sledgehammer or HE.  Tap F2 and I have a different ammo load out that can be of some situational use.

I would agree that singularity is a more powerful choice for the medic sentinel and I put the AI hacking build together because I had played a lot of singularity/bastion sentinels and wanted something different. It felt enough different to be enjoyable.

I also thought having a build or two for every class in one place might give people some ideas on where start for an effective build and hopefully give them the enjoyment of another play through or two.

So if anybody else has any helpful advice or fun builds feel free to pitch in.

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 23 Апрель 2010 - 01:21 .


#6
Pacifien

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I usually picked assault rifle as my bonus ability over shotgun. Never put any points into it as it was solely used for backup if an enemy used sabotage on me. Tended to carry the Geth Pulse Rifle because it its ridiculous accuracy as well, which helps if you're not putting any points into the skill.

Also took the Operative route with Infiltrators. I imagine this is a preference for playing style because I was a sabotaging, overloading, damping fool.

Since my builds are based on, at best, two playthroughs, a good deal of my points did go into the Charm/Intimidate skills. Fitness took the hit with my Infiltrator. Stasis took the hit with my Adept. Really can't remember what my Sentinel and Vanguard builds were.

Сообщение изменено: Pacifien, 23 Апрель 2010 - 04:27 .


#7
Jsmith0730

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I'm just curious: as a soldier, why only six points in Spectre training?

#8
The Grey Ranger

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I don't really see a need for more than 4 generally. It's just with that particular build I had a couple of extra points and figured it would push up the damage slightly. As a starting point to mod its a solid build. If you prefer higher, rob 3 or 4 off of assault rifle and 1 off of armor. I just prefer to have the advance shield boost and master overkill to run a high heat AR build.

#9
Pacifien

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I do tend to put points into spectre training, but I can see how one would find the benefits minimal. Plus, had a bad habit of letting my squadmates die on me. Pretty stingy with the medi-gel...

#10
The Grey Ranger

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Yep here's a little on my basic soldier build philosophy. There are only a few really required things. They are max assault training, max fitness, max class skill, at least 7 points in armor for heavy, and at least 4 into spectre. With those in place everything else can be placed however you'd want and you'll have a solid soldier build. I prefer commando to shock trooper, but that is a personal preference and not really any critism of shock trooper.

So I'd say a good soldier build starts with around 47 of 102 talent points spent.

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 24 Апрель 2010 - 03:30 .


#11
Akinra

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The Grey Ranger wrote...
 
Adept
Armor 5 (just enough to unlock pistol)
Pistol 12
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 7
Stasis 12
Adept/Bastion 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Shotgun 0 (just because it is occasionally useful)
 


My adept build from ME1 was slightly different,

Armour 0
Pistol 0
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 12
Bastion 12
Spectre 10
Assault Rifle 8

First, take assault rifles as your bonus. The most important aspect of this build is to max out Bastion and 10 points in Spectre. The bonuses you get to power recharge/cooldown mean Barrier can be kept up permanently (and singularity will also be pretty much constantly available) and enemies in stasis can be damaged. Taking assault rifles also means you don't need to waste any points in Armour to get Pistols. For this build it is unecessary to put points in Armour as you have Barrier permanently up.

Сообщение изменено: Akinra, 24 Апрель 2010 - 03:00 .


#12
The Grey Ranger

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Actually the pistol build can have permanent barrier as well. And it can use shield boost to recharge barrier. What your build will do is have very slightly improved recharge times, times and a little bit of health (2.5%) Try this it will probably work a little better. You also give up damage using AR over master marksman pistol.

Armor 3
Pistol 0
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 12
Bastion 12
Spectre 6
AR 9

That way you give up 1.5% on the percentages on recharge and health, but you pick up a half percent on AR damage, and can still use shield boost to recharge damage taken.  It will also give you a five point bonus to your dr if you're using colossus x light armor.  So you'll take less damage, once your shields are down or from damage that will bleed past your shields (rockets, meleeing krogan, geth siege pulses ect.)

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 24 Апрель 2010 - 04:19 .


#13
Jetpackshark

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Kind of deviated from what you had posted. I found out about the glitch that lets you wear any armor, so I opted out on using points in armor (and Assault Training I think) and put them all into Pistol. That leaves me with 2 (or 3) leftover points to allocate anywhere, but the points aren't enough to give me the advance version of some stuff (i think I need to put more in Barrier).

Vanguard (shotgun)
Pistol 12
Shotgun 12
Assault Training (i forgot, 3?)
Armor 0
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 6
Barrier 3 or 4
Vanguard/Shock Trooper 12
Spectre 6 
(bonus)Singularity 12

I did put in points into Charm, enough so that I was 2 points away from max (did 2 playthroughs for the free charm points).

Сообщение изменено: Jetpackshark, 24 Апрель 2010 - 07:06 .


#14
Akinra

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The Grey Ranger wrote...

Actually the pistol build can have permanent barrier as well. And it can use shield boost to recharge barrier. What your build will do is have very slightly improved recharge times, times and a little bit of health (2.5%) Try this it will probably work a little better. You also give up damage using AR over master marksman pistol.

Armor 3
Pistol 0
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 12
Bastion 12
Spectre 6
AR 9

That way you give up 1.5% on the percentages on recharge and health, but you pick up a half percent on AR damage, and can still use shield boost to recharge damage taken.  It will also give you a five point bonus to your dr if you're using colossus x light armor.  So you'll take less damage, once your shields are down or from damage that will bleed past your shields (rockets, meleeing krogan, geth siege pulses ect.)


Interesting, I'd never considered something like that. It does look like a stronger build.

#15
DarthCyclopsRLZ

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Nice

Gotta say, I agree on not maxing Spectre Training. Nice of you to not promote the notion of a pistol-wielding soldier, too. Not so sure about not bothering to dump a point in First Aid, though. Most squadmates that aren't Garrus can't exactly spare the points to invest in it/max it early on...

On that note, there should be a discussion devoted to Garrus, lol.

Have two weeks off before finals, and am planning on going through both games, so I just started a ME1 run this morning. This guy is such a pain to build. There's that annoying First Aid requirement before you can start pumping his weak shields, and you simply can't put nearly enough point in Sniper Rifles to reflect his canon prowess...

Сообщение изменено: DarthCyclopsRLZ, 25 Апрель 2010 - 04:09 .


#16
Devos

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AR adepts there are a few good options:

Pistols - 0
Assault Rifles - 11
Basic Armor - 0
Throw - 12
Lift - 12
Warp - 12
Singularity - 12
Barrier - 7
Stasis - 12
Bastion - 12
Spectre Training - 12

I think IMNWME came up with that one and the one posted by The Grey Ranger I think is SonsofNorthWind's build. Dropping barrier down to 7 on a Bastion/Shocktrooper really is the right thing to do, with the exception of Sentinels due to not being pressured enough for points to make it worth while.  You can still maintain barrier permanently and you end up only about 300 points of barrier worse off which is literally one moderate hit . IMNWME's build as compared with Sons' exploits the points saved in barrier to gain master unity and bump AR up to 11. It's also easy to tweak for Sniper Rifles or Shot Guns by swapping them for AR, dropping a point from Spectre Training and bumping the gun up to 12. What IMNWME's build misses out on is the barrier/shield boost synergy.

I have done an insanity play through working towards IMNWME's build (I never got that character to 60 though) and I found he is basically right both on Barrier and on not needing Shield boost. However as a pure optimization exercise I don't quite agree with his build for guns other than AR. My Sniper/Shotgun Bastion Adept build is.:

Pistols - 0
Bonus Gun - 12
Basic Armor - 3
Throw - 12
Lift - 12
Warp - 12
Singularity - 12
Barrier - 7
Stasis - 12
Bastion - 12
Spectre Training - 8

The reason being while you certainly don't need shield boost in combination with barrier it is very useful and much larger power bump than pushing Spectre Training to 11. For AR though it's not so clear cut, would be trading the bump from advanced to master Unity in exchange for basic shield boost and are left with a point left floating loose from having AR at 11 as opposed to 12 but no where worth spending the point.

But I don't really rate AR adepts among the best options any more any way. I'm not sure if I was the first to post that point distribution on the Pistol Adept but I did come up with independently of seeing anyone else post it a towards the end of th old forum. My reasoning was pretty simple, the damage gain from going pistol was well worth the hit to either barrier or spectre training depending how you look at it and you still have the shield/boost barrier option.

If you really must have Barrier at 12 Son's AR adept is the way to go. If you want Master Unity then IMNWME's AR is for you. You want another bonus gun, then the build I just posted. But in my opinion the Pistol Adept is the best option.

Jsmith0730 wrote...



I'm just curious: as a soldier, why only six points in Spectre training?




Spectre Training is never worth prioritising for its passive bonus
alone. Regardless of the quirks of how damage bonuses stack making it
slightly better it's still a small bonus. Its only worth raising to get
unity or you have no where else worth while to spend the points (for
example with the Bastion Sentinel I would skip the six points of first
aid to get master unity). In the case of the Adept the last two points
are free floating but the passive bonus gain while small is still just
about the best deal.

#17
The Grey Ranger

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I've done one or two passes with a soldier using pistol. It works fine. I just like use the sniper rifle for a soldier, and since it requires 7 points in ar to unlock, I choose to avoid the overlap. Since ar and pistol cover the same weapon need.

As far as first aid goes,  There are several characters that can afford to spend points on it.  Kaiden needs points in it to unlock Neural shock.  Ash can afford to easily.  Liara can spare a few points and even has a class bonus to it.  Garrus needs to allocate points to it to unlock electronics.

Here are the level 60 companion builds I sometimes use.

Ash
Pistol 4
Shotgun 4
AR 11
Sniper 12
Combat Armor 7
First Aid 12
Assault Training 12
Fitness 12
Soldier 6

Kaiden
Throw 12
Lift 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 3 (these can be moved to first aid without to much pain since he lacks the bastion bonus)
Decryption 9
Electronics 9
First Aid 5
Medicine 12
Sentinel 6

Wrex
AR 9
Shotgun 12
Armor 7
Fitness 12
Warp 12
Throw 12
Barrier 7
Stasis 3
Battlemaster 6

Tali
Pistol 12
Shotgun 8
Armor 8
First Aid 4
Electronics 9
Damping 12
Decryption 9
Hacking 12
Machinist 6

Liara
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 7
Singularity 12
Barrier 12
Stasis 0 (to avoid power wheel bug and I find overload useful)
First Aid 10
Electronics 9
Scientist 6

Garrus
AR 11
Sniper 12
Armor 8
Asault Training 12
Decryption 12
Damping 6
First Aid 7
Electronics 9
Agent 6

As can be seen from my builds the only one lacking first aid is Wrex.  I also find that at higher levels, I have less need of first aid.  Healing needs are generally taken  care of with 2 medical exos per person. I find these to be the most useful since they also provide a cool down bonus for powers..  With two level 10's everyone heals 9 points a second, plus one more point from the Krogan Ally achievement for 10.  So everyone will heal 600 health points a minute, even without using medigel.

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 26 Апрель 2010 - 05:31 .


#18
Simbacca

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Good builds, here's some others I remember being discussed and tested on the older forums:

Nemesis Adept, tested by IMNWME
05    Basic Armor
12    Pistols
12    Throw
12    Lift
12    Barrier
00    Stasis
12    Warp
12    Singularity
09    Decryption
12    Nemesis
04    Spectre Training


Another unique feature of the above build is that it allows for a squad of this Adept Shepard, Liara, and Wrex/Ashley while still having all unlocking needs covered (Shep has Decryp, Liara has Elec) even without a tech squadmate.

IMNWME wrote...

The Adept/Nemesis/Decrypt build is excellent against mixed mobs of organics and synthetics. In this respect, it is superior to the Adept/Bastion/AR because he can just use Sabotage against a mob of synthetics and reserve Singularity/Lift for organic enemies. He also has a AoE disable against turrets and drones which the Bastion doesn't.

Against just organics, it's pretty close. The Nemesis/Adept/Decrypt can kill large numbers of enemies very, very quickly (usually in the minute and a half range for base raids), but if he misses with one of his biotics, the battle will drag on. The Bastion is more consistent, although he will spend more of his time disabling and less time shooting due to the lower radius.

So a tightly played Adept/Nemesis/Decrypt will beat out the Adept/Bastion/AR if nothing goes wrong. However, if things go unexpectedly south, the Bastion has more flexibility. Larger margin of error = more powerful, so I feel the Bastion has the slight advantage here.

In the end, I call a draw. I feel the Adept/Nemesis/Decrypt build is equally powerful as the Adept/Bastion/AR build. It's better against mixed and synthetic mobs, which is largely what you'll face in the story missions. However, the Bastion Adept is slightly more flexible when facing just organics, which make up most of the uncharted world instances.



CC Engineer, tested by samuraiwahoo
12    Pistols
08    Basic Armor
05    First Aid
07    Medicine
09    Decryption
09    Electronics
12    AI Hacking
12    Damping
12    Singularity
12    Operative
04    Spectre Training


In the linked thread for this build, samuraiwahoo also has a Medic variant listed and tested.

samuraiwahoo wrote...

I am trying to put together an optimal Engineer build and I am not digging the Barrier build. It is what I used for my first runthrough with the Eng. It felt like a really weak Infiltrator.

So with the Sing build I am thinking big time CC and some separation from the big brother Inf.



Now for some variants I myself preferred using.

Vanguard
06     Pistols           
12     Shotguns       
05     Assault Training   
07     Tactical Armor       
08     Throw
12     Lift           
12     Warp           
12     Barrier           
12     Singularity       
12     Shock Trooper       
04     Spectre Training


My primary Shepard from ME1 was always going to be a Vanguard.  This build is not the one I built, but it is the one I wish I built.  The build my current Lvl 60 ME1 Vanguard has is exactly the same as the build TheGreyRanger has listed for the Shotgun Vanguard in the first post. 

The differences between that old standard I built and this one here I wish I built are Master Adrenaline Burst, Master Throw, Advanced Barrier, and Advanced Warp, versus, Basic Adrenaline Burst, Advanced Throw, Master Barrier, and Master Warp.  Reason is while playing through Insanity with my Vanguard I noticed something; I hardly ever needed to use Adrenaline Burst at all, and even when I did, I'd only use it once in such a fight.  My biotic cooldowns were already fast enough with a Savant X Bio-Amp, 2 Med Exo X armor upgrades, and the bonus from already having all the squad-mate achievements.  Those 7 points to take Assault Training from 5 to 12 didn't add anything but quicker cooldown for Adrenaline Burst (which as I stated, I never needed repeat castings of it) and melee damage (which I rarely used). 

The other thing I noticed is that I really wished I had Master Barrier instead of Advanced, for both boosted survivability and to avoid the annoying Carnage/Barrier glitch (using Carnage will cancel your Basic or Advanced Barrier but not Master).  So after deciding I should have left Assault Training at 5, that would of freed up enough points to bring Barrier to Master, with 2 points left over.  I could have just stuck those 2 points in Pistols for Advanced Marksman, but I was a Shotgun Vanguard through and through.  Then I realized that if I had left Throw at Advanced (since I also realized I never needed anything Master offered over Adv), that would of brought left over points to 6, enough to get Master Warp.  With all the humanoid enemies that spam Immunity on Insanity, the extra 15% damage reduction of Master Warp along with the faster cooldown would definitely have helped with cleaning up some of the more tedious areas.  You can't always get every enemy in an area floating in a Singularity or Lift before they cast Immunity.

Coincidently, this would probably make a good Nemesis Vanguard build, if you took all the points out of Shotguns, maxed out Pistols, and spread the remaining 6 points where you felt necessary.


Lift Commando Soldier
12  Pistols
00  Shotguns
11  Assault Rifles
12  Sniper Rifles
08  Combat Armor
00  First Aid
12  Assault Training
12  Fitness
12  Lift
12  Commando
11  Spectre Training


Singularity Shock Trooper Soldier
04  Pistols
12  Shotguns
07  Assault Rifles
12  Sniper Rifles
08  Combat Armor
00  First Aid
12  Assault Training
12  Fitness
12  Singularity
12  Shock Trooper
11  Spectre Training


And those are just how I liked building my Soldiers.  Both have a crowd control biotic to take advantage of Adrenaline Burst, both have three viable weapon choices to use (Sniper for range, plus two other weapons for mid-close in case one gets enemy Sabotaged), and both have as much added damage as possible from Spectre Training.

The first takes advantaged of Commando's weapon damage boosts plus the buffs to both Marksman and Assassination.  Lift is used for it's longer duration and ease of shooting a target moving just up.

The second takes advantaged of Shock Trooper's boosts to defenses by not being afraid to get in close with a Shotgun.  Singularity was taken for it's stronger crowd control capabilities, the shorter duration (when compared to Lift) isn't as much of an issue with Shock Trooper's buff to Adrenaline Burst's cooldown.

Сообщение изменено: Simbacca, 11 Май 2010 - 10:56 .


#19
Devos

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When it comes to soldiers there are two point distributions I use,

Pistols - 12
Shotguns - 0
Assault Rifles - 7
Sniper Rifles - 12
Combat Armor - 11
Assault Training - 12
Fitness - 12
Commando/Shock Trooper - 12
Spectre Training - 12
Bonus Talent - 12

Pistols - 12
Shotguns - 12
Assault Rifles - 7
Sniper Rifles - 12
Combat Armor - 7
Assault Training - 12
Fitness - 12
Commando/Shock Trooper - 12
Spectre Training - 4
Bonus Talent - 12

I have found in practice there is basically no difference between Commandos and shock troopers. Their passive bonuses make so little difference in the face of much larger bonuses available, marksman both can chain. For double assassinates the shock trooper has to wait for Assassinate to repop but the commando has to wait for AB (in practice commandos can do it slightly quicker). Shock Trooper has a quicker cycle for double carnages though. I lean shock trooper now but mostly for the Bonus Talent/AB combo working better.

For bonus talents, I found warp massively over rated, you have a squad for that and disabling a target before they can use immunity is also an option. Lift and Singularity are the best options as they add a fast disable which soldiers normally lack. Lift has a better duration and works on more things, it does glitch to being single target often though. Singularity has a wider area but shorter duration which is a problem without an amp. Again it's close but I prefer singularity. The only way a soldier should be able to be killed is being stun locked (groups of biotics or even melee types), Singularity is a much better defence in those situations so Singularity improves the soldiers potential more.

#20
DarthCyclopsRLZ

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The Grey Ranger wrote...
Ash
Pistol 4
Shotgun 4
AR 11
Sniper 12
Combat Armor 7
First Aid 12
Assault Training 12
Fitness 12
Soldier 6


I'm currently going through a new character playthrough and I for the life of me can't find any use for Ash besides tanking (not as good as Wrex) and using Carnage. Assassination just takes way too long and the enemies that need to be sniped often use rocket launchers. Not exactly NPC-friendly.

Any reason why there are so little points in Shotguns?

#21
Gerza71

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Adept
Armor 5 (just enough to unlock pistol)
Pistol 12
Throw 12
Lift 12
Warp 12
Singularity 12
Barrier 7
Stasis 12
Adept/Bastion 12
Spectre 6
(bonus)Shotgun 0 (just because it is occasionally useful)


Thanks for the tip. Its my first time I'm playing adept.
 

#22
Pacifien

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DarthCyclopsRLZ wrote...
*snip Grey Ranger's ash build*
I'm currently going through a new character playthrough and I for the life of me can't find any use for Ash besides tanking (not as good as Wrex) and using Carnage. Assassination just takes way too long and the enemies that need to be sniped often use rocket launchers. Not exactly NPC-friendly.

Any reason why there are so little points in Shotguns?


I almost never used Ashley because I was never one for relying on tanks to keep me alive. However, a friend of mine played a sniper-only Infiltrator where he brought Ash and Wrex with him almost exclusively. He depended on their tank status to keep him alive while he set up sniper shot after sniper shot. In which case, Ash had her shotguns maxed so that she could get closer to the enemy and keep them away from Shepard.

I imagine you'd put fewer points into Ashley's shotguns if you used her has a compliment to Wrex. Ash for distance, Wrex for close quarters.

#23
DarthCyclopsRLZ

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It's not so much range as the fact that Carnage is by far the best combat skill on a squad member. Ash has very little else going on for her and she's the one who can max it the fastest without sacrificing much, if anything.

For the first time, I brought Ash/Kaiden on Therum. First mission after being inducted as a Spectre. Playing as a shotgun-addicted soldier. I don't recall the planet ever being that easy.

Granted, I mostly use Liara/Tali, but there are many of those "merc/whatever" bases in which an instant kill is a lot more useful than using a biotic talent that will itake longer to recharge early on and most likely won't affect that many enemies.

Granted, both Wrex and Tali can eventually use Carnage too, but it takes longer (much much much longer for Tali) before they can spare the points..

Сообщение изменено: DarthCyclopsRLZ, 04 Май 2010 - 02:06 .


#24
The Grey Ranger

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DarthCyclopsRLZ wrote...

The Grey Ranger wrote...
Ash
Pistol 4
Shotgun 4
AR 11
Sniper 12
Combat Armor 7
First Aid 12
Assault Training 12
Fitness 12
Soldier 6


I'm currently going through a new character playthrough and I for the life of me can't find any use for Ash besides tanking (not as good as Wrex) and using Carnage. Assassination just takes way too long and the enemies that need to be sniped often use rocket launchers. Not exactly NPC-friendly.

Any reason why there are so little points in Shotguns?


No real reason aside from personal preference.  If you want more shotgun pull 6 from first aid and 2 from assault rifle.  I posted that originally in a response to a first aid question.  But I think I first used that build on an all sniper team play through, Infiltrator Shepard, Garrus and Ash.

Сообщение изменено: The Grey Ranger, 04 Май 2010 - 04:12 .


#25
Simbacca

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Too great of a thread to let fall by the wayside. Also with the new forum titles, I wonder if this is even still in the correct forum...