59 réponses à ce sujet

[Liliandra Nadiar]

Working a vanguard character through ME1 now so there's no real rush to decide, but for the ME2 game I've been wondering what to get for the bonus. Been leaning toward trying out one of the armoring powers.
I hear that Barrior will be effected by the passives bonuses which make it leading contender, but I also am curious about the Geth Shield Boost with the weapon damage enhancement. Anyone know if it's worth it? Or should I concider Fortification or just ignore the armors entirely?

[Kronner]

Fortification is clearly worse than Barrier and GSB, because it does not get biotic/tech cooldown reduction. Barrier can be activated at any time, even when you are stunned by a rocket or flame (Vorcha, geth Destroyer). Improved GSB gives 10% damage bonus, which is not as good as it sounds (10% base weapon damage), but it's still better than nothing. If I had to choose, I'd pick Barrier.

IMHO Barrier/GSB is not a very good bonus power for Vanguard, because Charge replenishes your shields and has shorter cooldown as well.

Modifié par Kronner, 16 janvier 2011 - 08:22 .

[Bozorgmehr]

I recommend Slam. Great power on a short cooldown and you can setup warp bombs. This makes Pull pretty redundant so you can spent your skill points in ammo powers instead.

Cryo Ammo is great for your squadmates and Inferno Ammo is the best ammo type for Vanguards - it can ignite multiple enemies ignoring defenses, they'll all do the fire-dance

Heavy Charge, Champion, Inferno Ammo, Squad Cryo Ammo and Slam is my favorite Vanguard build.

[DaVanguard]

I'd go for reave its good all around





(off topic: is it wrong to play as a vanguard and only use the locust?)

[Praetor Knight]

DaVanguard wrote...

I'd go for reave its good all around


(off topic: is it wrong to play as a vanguard and only use the locust?)

No, it's not wrong. The beauty of ME2 is that there are so many ways to play with all of the classes.

[mcsupersport]

Stasis is also a good contender for a Vanguard, but then again, it is always a good contender. The shield powers are a second choice always for Vanguard, because as stated above Charge recharges your shields, and the cooldowns for all the Shield powers takes away from Charge because of the long times. Slam, neural shock, are quick and though longer CD Stasis locks down an enemy taking it out of the fight. Since I got Stasis, I always take that one, Slam for me what just meh.

[Zahe]

Slam for Warp combos, Reave if you like some long range alternative or Statis as per usual. I prefer Slam.

[harleyflames20000]

ive tried slam, reave, GSB, neural shock and concussive blast, keep going back to reave though, that, and charging around with a hand cannon/krogan shotgun combo has saved my ass on many occasions, apparantly charging into a group of collector drones and assasins with an angry harbinger looming too is a baaaad idea, but reave was my friend that time

[Liliandra Nadiar]

Played with Reave on prior characters. The HP regen function is nice, but otherwise it's usually struck me as a bit redundant to Inferno Ammo. The bonus vs Barriers and HP the only thing it brings to the table. The lock up on unshielded foe is not much different the panic from Inferno's lighting them on fire.

I'm somewhat picky in that I don't really like to constantly trade out bonus powers in my games, and I tend to want to keep 'themes' going (Tech powers on Infs/Sents, FB on the solider, biotics on adapt/van/sent) so there's that too.

I'll admit to not really playing around with either slam or stasis as well as the armors. Current build I'm looking to make is: Heavy Charge, Champion, Inferno, Squad Cryo, Shockwave 1 and Bonus 4.

[Aynien]

Energy Drain is a nice bonus power on most shields based missions, especially against synthetics.

[Omega-202]

I'd personally go 1-point-Stasis or 10-point-Area Reave if you're looking for a biotic power. But seeing as you're not taking Pull, Slam is also a viable alternative.

I personally can't seem to play a Vanguard without some method of setting up Warp-bombs anymore. It just feels like I'm wasting potential if I skip Pull or Slam because it means that I can't effectively use a Miranda/Thane team.

[jwalker]

At low levels, I take Slam.

Once I have enough skill points (to waste on useless Shockwave) I take Pull and, as BP, Stasis.

[Robhuzz]

As a vanguard you already have the Heavy Pistol, SMG and the Shotgun. Combined with incendiary ammo you have enough of a damage output. SMG (I prefer the locust smg) is great against shields and will destroy just about everything when coupled with incendiary ammo. Again with shockwave and charge you have more than enough offensive powers.



I only recently started a ME2 vanguard and I chose Barrier as a bonus power. I'm using charge and shockwave extensively so another offensive power is useless (can only use one at a time). I prefer barrier over geth shield boost and fortification because only barrier is improved by biotic upgrades (Fortification and geth shield boost can't be upgraded). The 60 second lvl 4 barrier (if I remember it right) has a cooldown of only 12 seconds allowing you to use offensive powers a lot while you're being protected by the barrier.



But obviously there are many other ways to build your vanguard. Personally I don't mind having my battles last a minute longer which is why I focus my vanguard on accurate strikes and defence.

[Omega-202]

^ you must be playing on a lower difficulty level, otherwise you wouldn't be talking about Shockwave as an offensive power.

On Veteran and below, Shockwave is great, maybe even one of the Vanguard's best powers. But as soon as you get to Hardcore or Insanity, it is easily the worst power in the Vanguard's set.

But this brings up a good point in the discussion: What difficulty is the OP planning on playing at?

[Robhuzz]

Omega-202 wrote...

^ you must be playing on a lower difficulty level, otherwise you wouldn't be talking about Shockwave as an offensive power.
On Veteran and below, Shockwave is great, maybe even one of the Vanguard's best powers. But as soon as you get to Hardcore or Insanity, it is easily the worst power in the Vanguard's set.
But this brings up a good point in the discussion: What difficulty is the OP planning on playing at?

I'm still playing on veteran, that's why I don't have any trouble using shockwave atm. On my current difficulty I find it usefull, not to really damage an enemy, that's what my gun is for, but I think shockwave has it's uses. When playing on a higher difficulty, what powers would you recommend using? Standard combos like pull and concussive shot are usefull on lower difficulties but I can't imagine any power really doing proper damage on higher difficulties.

[Sailears]

Stasis or slam in general. Depends on the mission.

[Liliandra Nadiar]

I'm probably going with Veteran or Hardcore, I've done my Insanity run for the badge this is one of my four 'cannon' runs to import to ME3. The much lower effectiveness of most biotic powers is one of the determining factors of diff setting yes. Solider and Engineer will likely be Insanity's. Vanguard and Adept won't go higher then Hard.

[Aynien]

Liliandra Nadiar wrote...
Vanguard and Adept won't go higher then Hard.

IMHO vanguards really shine on insanity. It's not like shockwave would matter on a vanguard anyway '-'

[tonnactus]

Its not that Mass Effect 2 dont allow to test out all bonus powers in one playthrough because respeccing that becomes availble after Freedoms Progress. Stasis actually gives the vanguard a real crowd control biotic power that even affects ymirs and geth primes.

[Liliandra Nadiar]

I know, just a thing about me. I don't like changing things around after I make a choice. I chose X as a bonus power so I keep that power for the whole game. It's not the min/max way, or even the most efficient one, but it's how I RP it.

[xXSnak3Eat3rXx]

Not only is Reave a MUST for a Vanguard but the upgraded version, Area Reave is one of the best biotic powers in general (at least on higher difficulties).

It can drop barrier on multiple enemies at once and not to mention that it is highly effective against armor. I cannot stress how useful that is on higher difficulties. Also it counters the only weakness that Vanguards have and that is inflicting damage on enemies during ranged combat. You'll encounter multiple occasions where you cannot get close to the enemy because they're on an isolated platform or there are just too many of them.

Slam, Shockwave, Pull etc are worthless for Vanguards on higher difficulties because they first require the barrier/armor/shields to be stripped off the enemies. The thing is, if you've done all the hard work and stripped off the barrier/armor/shields, you shouldn't be using any of the biotic powers in the first place but instead you should be charging into the enemies using the shotgun to quickly finish them off.

And finally Barrier and Geth Shield Boost is redundant for the Vanguard. Using Biotic Charge restores your shields! I sometimes charge into an enemy that is isolated from the rest of the group just to restore my shields and then running for cover (hell, once you have all the upgrades you can even finish the enemy off before running for cover). Also, using Barrier means you have to wait for your powers to cool down which means you cannot use Charge until.

Modifié par xXSnak3Eat3rXx, 18 janvier 2011 - 01:06 .

[lazuli]

xXSnak3Eat3rXx wrote...

Not only is Reave a MUST for a Vanguard but the upgraded version, Area Reave is one of the best biotic powers in general (at least on higher difficulties).

It can drop barrier on multiple enemies at once and not to mention that it is highly effective against armor. I cannot stress how useful that is on higher difficulties. Also it counters the only weakness that Vanguards have and that is inflicting damage on enemies during ranged combat. You'll encounter multiple occasions where you cannot get close to the enemy because they're on an isolated platform or there are just too many of them.

Slam, Shockwave, Pull etc are worthless for Vanguards on higher difficulties because they first require the barrier/armor/shields to be stripped off the enemies. The thing is, if you've done all the hard work and stripped off the barrier/armor/shields, you shouldn't be using any of the biotic powers in the first place but instead you should be charging into the enemies using the shotgun to quickly finish them off.

And finally Barrier and Geth Shield Boost is redundant for the Vanguard. Using Biotic Charge restores your shields! I sometimes charge into an enemy that is isolated from the rest of the group just to restore my shields and then running for cover (hell, once you have all the upgrades you can even finish the enemy off before running for cover). Also, using Barrier means you have to wait for your powers to cool down which means you cannot use Charge until.

Reave's cooldown is prohibitive and interferes too much with Charge for my taste.  Additionally, it's blatantly overpowered, so I avoid using it.  That's a matter of personal preference, though.  I do recognize that it is a highly useful skill, and I can see why many people use it.

I prefer Slam.  It lets me start a Warp bomb for Miranda, Thane, or Liara to finish.  All classes benefit from the massive area damage of a Warp explosion.  Defenseless enemies shouldn't always be looked at as something to quickly kill.  I like to think of them as opportunities for Warp explosions, especially if they have allies with defenses near them.

Barrier is a fine bonus power for a Vanguard.  Activate it in between encounters.  It will bolster your first Charge (or more, if you're careful).

You won't get any argument from me on how useless Shockwave is on higher difficulty levels, though.

Modifié par lazuli, 18 janvier 2011 - 06:15 .

[sinosleep]

Slam, and it's not really all that close IMO. In combination with a warping squadmate it makes killing the very few ranged enemies you can't charge a joke and it's INVALUABLE for non NG+ builds where it's available from level 1 as opposed to pull which won't be coming for quite a few levels due to the waste of points in shockwave and the fact that most players go charge/passive/ammo first.

As for the other powers, I can't stand reave and a defense stripping vanguard is kinda missing the point IMO (charge is more effective against mobs that HAVE their defenses since they don't go flying right out of the shotgun range you just got into), stasis is more useful as an exploit on a CQC class, charge is a shield power on a shorter CD, inferno ammo is the best, etc, etc, etc.

Modifié par sinosleep, 18 janvier 2011 - 08:06 .

[Kronner]

xXSnak3Eat3rXx wrote...

Not only is Reave a MUST for a Vanguard but the upgraded version, Area Reave is one of the best biotic powers in general (at least on higher difficulties).

It can drop barrier on multiple enemies at once and not to mention that it is highly effective against armor. I cannot stress how useful that is on higher difficulties. Also it counters the only weakness that Vanguards have and that is inflicting damage on enemies during ranged combat. You'll encounter multiple occasions where you cannot get close to the enemy because they're on an isolated platform or there are just too many of them.

Slam, Shockwave, Pull etc are worthless for Vanguards on higher difficulties because they first require the barrier/armor/shields to be stripped off the enemies. The thing is, if you've done all the hard work and stripped off the barrier/armor/shields, you shouldn't be using any of the biotic powers in the first place but instead you should be charging into the enemies using the shotgun to quickly finish them off.

That's just not true. You can use squad to strip defense and then your own biotic power, like Slam, with a shorter cooldown to set up a warp bomb..this is awesome against enemies you can't Charge.

Charging defenseless enemies? Why? I prefer charging enemies with defenses so they don't fly around. I can one-shot them anyway.

[Sandbox47]

Use engineer. That'll save you the trouble of being weak.