19 odpowiedzi w tym temacie

[Abraham_uk]

Looking solely at their abilities in Mass Effect 3, I look at each squadmate (tempoary squadmates included) and judge how they perform.
Feel free to disagree. I encourage disagrement here.

[Abraham_uk]

__________________________________________________________________________________________________


Admiral Anderson: Soldier (Tempoary Character)

Truth be told, you won't get much millage out of this character. He is only with you during the very first mission. He is nevertheless a very useful character.

He has incendiary ammo, a frag grenade, additional surviability with fortification and concussive shot. He is the same as James Vega in terms of abilities, except Vega has Carnage instead of concussive shot. Also Anderson doesn't actually have any grenades in supply (which makes putting points into frags a bit pointless). Then on top of this, he only has access to a predator pistol.

Rating: 6/10 (It's nice to have him as a squadmate, but Vega is much better).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

James Vega: Soldier


James Vega is this game's version of Udnot Grunt. He has fortification so that he can take more damage. He has incendiary ammo (the most useful ammo power in my opinion) but instead of having Grunt's concussive shot, he has carnage (a fireball of destruction). James also has frag grenades. They're useful.

His incendiary ammo can turn underperforming assault rifles into killing machines. He also has shotguns that can really turn the tide in battle. Use his incendiary ammo against armour and health for best results.


Rating: 8/10 (Pick James Vega for squad incendiary ammo, if you play as Adept, Sentinel, Engineer or Infiltrator)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ashley Williams: Soldier

In terms of abilities, Ashley Williams is the character I want to bring to all of the Geth missions and is also a neat choice versus Cerberus and Reapers.

Ashley Williams is a great complement to your squad. She has inferno grenades to take out armour and health, she has concussive shot for crowd control (wiht a quick recharge), she has disruptor ammo for dealing with synthetics, shields and barriers and she has marksman for improved rate of fire and accuracy.

It is really difficult to tell if Marksman makes Ashley significantly more effective with weapons. In addition marksman can get in the way of using concussive shot (which is useful for detonating tech bursts, incendiary explosions and cryo explosions).

Ashley has access to sniper rifles and assault rifles. Some decent AI with guns (though not always reliable) makes her a formidible choice for a team mate.

Rating: 8/10 (She is a great choice against Geth. If you play as an Adept, Sentinel, Engineer or Vanguard, bring her for squad disruptor ammo)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kaidan Alenko: Sentinel

If you kept him alive, you'll find him to be a useful character. He has amazing damage protection. Get him to wear his barrier whilst getting him to cast reave repeatedly and you have someone who can take a lot of punishment. Bring overload for dealing with synthetics, shields and barriers. If you want to weaken armour or freeze an unprotected foe cryo blast is a good choice.

Kaidan is also one of three characters who can setup biotic explosions. Reave is both a setup and detonator of those explosions. This makes him useful when pared with Liara, Javik, Adept Shepard, Vanguard Shepard, Sentinel Shepard or Shepard with biotic bonus power.

Kaidan has access to assault rifles and pistols. In Mass Effect 3, pistols are actually quite powerful as are a handfull of the assault rifles. So equip him with a pistol early on and then when you finally get a powerful assault rifle give that to him.

Rating: 8/10. A highly useful character. Especially if you play as an adept, sentinel or vanguard.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Liara T'Soni: Adept (or vanguard if you feel that adepts shouldn't have ammo powers)

Liara is a highly useful character to have, for detonating all combos with warp and seting up biotic combos with warp, stasis and singularity. She can rag doll foes and remove riot shields with her singularity, she can hold targets in place with stasis (as long as they don't have armour) and in addition has warp ammo that boosts her damage against targets affected by biotics, barriers, armour and health.

Liara has access to SMGs (which are not that spectacular unless you have weapon DLC) and Pistols. My advice is to keep her pistol equipped at all times.

Rating: 9/10 (Her stasis is essencial when fighting phantoms later on). Highly useful for adepts, sentinels or vanguards).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Garrus Vakarian: Infiltrator? (Not really infiltrator. Is a soldier with 1 tech ability).

Garrus is a very powerful soldier. He sports amazing weapon based damage, with great proficiency with sniper rifles and decent proficiency with assault rifles to boost. His armour piercing ammo does a lot of damage against health and armour though can't setup combos like James' incendiary ammo.

Overload is Garrus' only tech power and is actually very useful. You can spec it for multiple chain shocks, neural shock which causes organics to scream in pain and shield/barrier damage. All possible specs of overload are useful.

Concussive shot is used for crowd control and detonating combos.
As for proximity mine, when you spec it for radius and vulnerabilty, the affected targets will take more damage from all sources.

Rating: 9/10 (An all purpose squadmate worth bringing on every mission with any class).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Enhanced Defence Intelligence [EDI]: Engineer.

You have two of the most useful tech abilities on one character. Incinerate for health damage, armour damage, crowd control and fire combos. Overload for shield damage, crowd control and tech combos. EDI has can send a decoy to distract enemies and can boost the amount of hits she can take with defence matrix (which will slow her already slow cooldowns).

Trouble is that some players won't find decoy and defence matrix to be particularly useful.
Like Liara, EDI has SMG's and Pistols.

Rating: 7/10 (Max out incinerate and overload. Like Garrus, EDI is an all purpose squadmate worth bringing on every mission, But millage of defence matrix and decoy can vary based on player preferences).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tali Zorah: Engineer

Tali is great against synthetics, shielded enemies and a good supplement to a team reliant on tech bursts. Her distraction abilities work reasonably well too. Add to this proficiency in shotguns and pistols and you have a very useful squadmate.

Sabotage is good for turning synthetic foes into tempoary allies. On organics, sabotage can cause weapons to backfire and make a foe more vulnerable against all tech powers. Add tech vulnerability to sabotage's inate ability to setup tech bursts and you have a very powerful tool (if used to fullest potential).

Combat Drone. There are 2 ways to spec this power. Close range drone (detonate, shock, chain lightning) and mid range drone (shields and damage, shields and damage, rockets). Do not mix close ranged and mid range evolutions.

Energy Drain is similiar to overload except it doesn't have neural shock evolution and it restores the caster's shields every time it's used.

Defense Drone is a drone designed to protect the caster by attacking foes nearby. It works okay against low level targets but not so much against armoured targets.

Rating: 7/10 (Possibly better than EDI, but lacks any ability to deal with armour. Useful for engineers, infiltrators and sentinels. Highly recommended against Geth and Cerberus).

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Javik: Adept or Vanguard? Not sure. (DLC squadmate)

Has assult rifles and pistols just like Kaidan.

Javik has a unique ability called dark channel. This slowly drains hitpoints from the target then once target is dead, dark channel will jump to another foe. You can also prime targets with dark channel.

Pull will remove pesky guardian riot shields. Slam lifts enemies into the air and then slams them to the ground for serious damage. Lift grenade is a grenade that lifts targets into the air.

Rating: 9/10 (Highly recommended for adepts, vanguards and sentinels)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aria T'loak: Vanguard (Tempoary Squadmate)

Aria has some very useful abilities. Lash removes riot shields, pulls enemies with greater force than pull, and does some shield damage priming and detonating both biotic explosions and tech bursts. Reave setups and detonates biotic explosions and boosts her hardening. In addtion we have flare which is a HUGE BIOTIC EXPLOSION! Flare can also detonate other biotic explosions.

Carnage is very useful, but somewhat redundant, given her other powers.

Aria is very proficient with pistols and shotguns just like Tali.

Rating: 9/10. (Flare spam is always fun. Biotic classes really benefit from Aria being on the team)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nyreen Kandros:  Sentinel (Tempoary Squadmate)

Has assault rifles and pistols just like Kaidan.

Like EDI, she has incinerate and overload. She has lift grenades too.
Her unique ability (which isn't a bonus power that Shepard can adopt) is biotic protector which creates a sphere around Nyreen protecting her from damage. (I personally rarely use this ability).

Rating: 8/10 (Useful assortment of powers. All purpose squadmate that synergises well with any class.).
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Użytkownik Abraham_uk edytował ten post 17 luty 2013 - 01:17

[MrStoob]

Nice work.

I only need my girl squad, me (femShep) Liara and Ashley, just for warm fuzzy feelings of ME1.   

[Abraham_uk]

I'm glad you enjoyed this thread.
I was wondering how you rate all the squadmates in ME 3.

I also did a similiar thread. I review all 6 classes
I'm hoping to do a I review all weapon classes thread soon.

[Pressedcat]

Just a couple of my pointers on a few of the characters:

Garrus: Although his proximity mine acts as an excellent de-buffer, it can have some pathing issues. As anyone who has used pm themselves will be aware, it has a tendency to stick to any cover close to its line of flight. This is also the case for Garrus' pm, so you have to be careful that his line of sight to the target is clear before using his power. Also, although his shredder ammo is good, if playing a soldier, infiltrator or vanguard I'd recommend using squad cryo ammo. Even if only taken to level 4, it works very well, and opens up the option of taking amplified area concussive shot for Garrus. In my experience, this will freeze unshielded (ie health only and non-phantom) enemies 100% of the time on a fast cooldown.

Ashley: Much like Garrus, Ashley's amplified area cryo concussive shots can prove very useful. Coupled with inferno grenades, you can have a lot of fire/cryo explosions going off.

EDI: Dont underestimate the power of EDI's tech powers: due to the large tech damage bonuses EDI can get in her passives (+110% and then a further 10% for other squad-members), she can pump out a lot of damage. Without defense matrix active, her area incinerate deals 840pts of damage plus damage over time, and this could go up to 930 if you went for the single target evolution; that's close to 1500 if you take the bonus against armour, closer to 2000 if you're using squad cryo ammo and take the double-dam vs frozen/chilled targets. After all that, fire burst are now activated if you use any other damage dealing power afterwards. She doesn't hit too often, but when she does it's hard.

Tali: If sabotage is specced for tech vulnerability, all subsequent tech powers cast at that target do 100% extra damage for a short while. Coupled together Tali and EDI can hit like a wrecking-ball. Since you get a free re-spec for each character, it is well worthwhile to initially build Tali for anti-geth usage (ie improved hacking), then after that story arc is over, changing her for a tech amplifying build. Also, for basic mooks the combat drone has a fast turnaround and can offer good distraction.

Biotic characters: Well they pretty much play themselves - set up or detonate bio-explosion ad infinitum. Singly they have some decent crowd-control powers, but they really come in to their own when part of an all biotic team, at which point they just steam-roller all opposition.

Użytkownik Pressedcat edytował ten post 17 luty 2013 - 02:29

[Abraham_uk]

Pressedcat wrote...

Just a couple of my pointers on a few of the characters:

Garrus: Although his proximity mine acts as an excellent de-buffer, it can have some pathing issues. As anyone who has used pm themselves will be aware, it has a tendency to stick to any cover close to its line of flight. This is also the case for Garrus' pm, so you have to be careful that his line of sight to the target is clear before using his power. Also, although his shredder ammo is good, if playing a soldier, infiltrator or vanguard I'd recommend using squad cryo ammo. Even if only taken to level 4, it works very well, and opens up the option of taking amplified area concussive shot for Garrus. In my experience, this will freeze unshielded (ie health only and non-phantom) enemies 100% of the time on a fast cooldown.

Ashley: Much like Garrus, Ashley's amplified area cryo concussive shots can prove very useful. Coupled with inferno grenades, you can have a lot of fire/cryo explosions going off.

EDI: Dont underestimate the power of EDI's tech powers: due to the large tech damage bonuses EDI can get in her passives (+110% and then a further 10% for other squad-members), she can pump out a lot of damage. Without defense matrix active, her area incinerate deals 840pts of damage plus damage over time, and this could go up to 930 if you went for the single target evolution; that's close to 1500 if you take the bonus against armour, closer to 2000 if you're using squad cryo ammo and take the double-dam vs frozen/chilled targets. After all that, fire burst are now activated if you use any other damage dealing power afterwards. She doesn't hit too often, but when she does it's hard.

Tali: If sabotage is specced for tech vulnerability, all subsequent tech powers cast at that target do 100% extra damage for a short while. Coupled together Tali and EDI can hit like a wrecking-ball. Since you get a free re-spec for each character, it is well worthwhile to initially build Tali for anti-geth usage (ie improved hacking), then after that story arc is over, changing her for a tech amplifying build. Also, for basic mooks the combat drone has a fast turnaround and can offer good distraction.

Biotic characters: Well they pretty much play themselves - set up or detonate bio-explosion ad infinitum. Singly they have some decent crowd-control powers, but they really come in to their own when part of an all biotic team, at which point they just steam-roller all opposition.

All very true:happy:

[Tupari]

I agree with these rankings.

Just for laughs and because I apparently have too much time on my hands, I tested all my squadmates against a geth prime and a banshee individually, using save edit to delete the other squad mate and hiding in the corner as an infiltrator Shepard, only intervening to give them commands or revive them.

Based on how they performed, I'd agree that Javik, Garrus, and Liara are all top tier squadmates, though I think Liara might be the best. While they all managed to solo the banshee, Liara is the only one who managed to take down the prime all on her own before I ran out of medigel. Garrus did well against both. Of course, I've got DLC and Liara had the acolyte, which gave her the edge over Javik in terms of taking down the prime's shields.

Granted, Liara and Garrus are my favorite characters so there's no way I'm not completely biased.

[JaegerBane]

Excellent reviews. The only thing I'll say is that I think Liara deserves a bonus point when playing as an Adept.

The Adept is already an absolute juggernaut in ME3 thanks to the explosion spam + cluster bombs, so having Liara along to function as what is basically a second cooldown pool basically makes Shepard into a biotic Chuck Norris.

The interesting thing with EDI is that she looks like a much more effective character than she actually is. Defensive Matrix and Decoy really don't do much on a squaddie, so yes, 7/10 is a fair judgement... since she still has Overload and Incinerate

[Plutar]

Pressedcat wrote...

Also, although [Garrus'] shredder ammo is good, if playing a soldier, infiltrator or vanguard I'd recommend using squad cryo ammo. Even if only taken to level 4, it works very well, and opens up the option of taking amplified area concussive shot for Garrus. In my experience, this will freeze unshielded (ie health only and non-phantom) enemies 100% of the time on a fast cooldown.

Ashley: Much like Garrus, Ashley's amplified area cryo concussive shots can prove very useful. Coupled with inferno grenades, you can have a lot of fire/cryo explosions going off.

Does the Amplification evolution (rank 6) of Concussive Shot actually work now? Cause when I last played the main game months ago, people were complaining about how the Amplification evolution was bugged and didn't seem to work.

Użytkownik Plutar edytował ten post 17 luty 2013 - 10:45

[RedCaesar97]

Plutar wrote...
Does the Amplification evolution (rank 6) of Concussive Shot actually work now? Cause when I last played the main game months ago, people were complaining about how the Amplification evolution was bugged and didn't seem to work.

Amplification always worked in single player. 
It never worked in multiplayer and patch 1.04 changed Amplification to Hammer (multiplayer only).

[brad2240]

I can only give my opinions of the squadmates in the base game as I don't yet have any DLC. Hopefully will soon, though.

Vega - 9/10
Vega is my buddy, one of my most-used squadmates. He's an excellent tank and requires little micromanagement. I always take squad Incendiary if I'm playing a Shep without my own ammo powers. Carnage and Frags (specced for anti-shield) let him handle any defenses. I also like his personality and dialogue. Wish he had a different haircut.

Garrus - 10/10
My single-most used teammate. It's a rare mission when Garrus isn't in my party, regardless of what class I'm playing. Exceptional weapon damage, Overload which is one of the best powers in the game, a great detonator power in Concussion Shot and a great debuff in Proxy Mine. Garrus does it all and always deserves his place at Shep's side.

Liara - 8/10
Liara is probably too good. So why only an 8? Because she's squishy and she thinks she's Rambo if you don't place her carefully. She has excellent power synergy and can quickly do her own combos with Singularity and Warp, plus Stasis locks down annoying enemies like Phantoms and Engineers. I actually don't use her too often because she is so good that she can take the spotlight from Shep. I never use her when playing Adept (call me crazy) except when forced to. Also, the game tries to hard to put her centerstage regardless of who my prefered romance is.

Ashley - 9/10 
Everytime I start a new male Shep I know my hardest decision will not be Control or Destroy, but Ashley or Miranda. I've been a huge Ash fanboy since ME1. In addition to her fantastic weapon damage, she brings a lot of great powers to the table (not counting bugged Marksmanship). She has excellent synery and can quickly perform her own Tech Bursts with Disruptor Ammo + Concussive Shot and her own Fire Explosions with Inferno Grenades + Conc Shot.
 
Kaiden - 9/10
A great teammate, regardless of Shep's class. He's always been better than most people give him credit for, going back to ME1. You can't really go wrong with Reave, Overload and an assault rifle. Utility vs all defenses, can help with biotic or tech combos and can tank very well. If I'm playing FemShep, Kaiden is on my team no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

EDI - 5/10
Let me get this out of the way: I don't like having EDI as a squadmate. I don't care for her appearance nor her storyline. So I'm biased. I only use her on Chronos Station. I would give her a 1/10 if she didn't have my two favorite tech powers in Overload and Incinerate. Decoy and Defense Matrix are dead weight, though.

Tali - 7/10
I wish we got Tali earlier in the game. She's a solid pick for any mission vs. any opponent, even if she's never the most optimal. Anti-shield ability, CC and a shotgun makes for a powerful package. Sabotage is fantastic for any tech Shepard or teammate. Very much improved from her ME2 self, IMO.

My most favorite team combo is Garrus + Ashley especially wth an Adept Shep. They've carried me through ME1 many a time and perform even better in ME3. Shields have no chance, armor has no chance, and mooks die by the hundreds to their weapons. I'm fairly certain these two could beat the Reapers without me.

[AVPen]

Something else to keep in mind with Tali now - with the newly released patch, her Energy Drain can be spec'd at Rank 6 to give her 40% damage reduction for 13 or so seconds (as opposed to the previous 15% reduction), which now can put her on a level similar to Kaidan, James, or EDI in terms of survivability.

[known_hero]

Nice list but Liara should be 20/10. She's ridiculously OP...

Extremely fast CD
Can set off both tech and biotic explosions
Can set off her own biotic explosions
Warp Ammo
Stasis for the lulz

Geth, Cerbs, Reaps: doesn't matter. Liara annihilates everything.

[Asch Lavigne]

Soldier type characters (Garrus, James, Ash) rank significantly lower for me. I like characters with "abilities" and not just ammo powers or a blast type attack. They have increased weapon damage but I'd rather see characters fling powers around and be more useful (to me) than just pew, pew, pew. Yeah, they have some good ammo powers but I like giving them my squad incendiary and just don't have a use for Armor Piercing or Warp Ammo. Though Warp Ammo seems better in 3 than in 2.

Garrus' AI likes to place his mines in stupid places making them useless unless you deploy them yourself.

James would be better if he threw his grenades. He's pretty good at staying alive which is nice.

EDI's decoy has to be the worst ability in the game. It gets in the way and the short range abilities are pointless as it's always at a distance.

I also find Tali pretty useless after Rannoch. She's one of the characters I never ever use unless the game makes me (and thats all 3 games) Energy Drain is good but I like Overload far better. Sabotage drops in usefulness a lot after dealing with the Geth. Defense Drone isn't anything great.

Kaidan has to be the best squadmate hands down. Reave, Overload and Cryo Blast (yeah Incinerate is better) and he has Barrier to help make him tank like.

Garrus - 5/10
Kaidan - 9/10
Liara - 8/10
James - 5/10
EDI - 7/10
Tali - 6/10

Użytkownik Asch Lavigne edytował ten post 17 luty 2013 - 08:23

[capn233]

In order from my least favorite to favorite (sort of).  With usefulness score:

James Vega

He has one decent power in Incendiary Ammo.  If you are a Soldier or a Vanguard that means he is redundant.  Frag grenades are the weakest grenade type in that they can only detonate one sort of combo, and they do not set up any combos.  Carnage does middling damage and is mediocre for CC, compounded by the fact that it has a relatively long cooldown.  Fortification is not really useful for the squad.  Only other things worth mentioning are his squad bonuses in Arms Master, which may be ok with certain builds.  Shotguns usually aren't particularly great on squad members.  Assault rifles are good though with Particle, Harrier, Typhoon, or Falcon.  Overall an unbalanced squad member best against organics, and most useful with non-combat player classes.

5/10

Kaidan Alenko

I actually like his skillset, but he is invariably dead in my games so that limits my ability to use him as a squad member.  Overload is a good squad power to have for detonating combos and shield / barrier stripping, as well as for CC.  Reave is good setting up and detonating biotic combos, although it doesn't have the greatest damage or CC.  Cryo Blast is somewhat below average for CC and debuff.  Barrier isn't going to help you tremendously.  Stick with Reave and Overload if you are going to use him.  Pair with Liara or Javik.  Has Assault Rifle training, so that is good weapon talent.  Overall well rounded and potentially useful with any class.

7/10

EDI

Two good powers, one below average power, and another potentially useless power.  I spec into Incinerate first since you will most likely have a squad member with Overload.  Then go Overload.  Most of the time I level her passive and just forget Defensive Matrix and Decoy.  It makes using her easier since she will use Overload on shielded targets, and basically Incinerate otherwise when I use the squad command.  If you put points in Decoy, she will spam it and her usefulness drops.  If you give her Defensive Matrix, her cooldowns lengthen for a minimally appreciable gain in durability and power damage.  SMGs and pistols, both of which are decent with the right one.  Although SMG's aren't great unless you equip the Hurricane or better yet the Punisher.  Pistols are adequate, although Scorpion for CC is ok.  Balanced tech squad member useful against organics and synthetics.

6/10

Nyreen

She is basically EDI.  But with one useless power traded for another one, namely Biotic Protector.  Invest in Overload OR Incinerate and Lift Grenades.  Then get the other tech power.  The grenades actually make her superior to EDI as she can detonate any class of combo, and can grenade spam large targets.  Get passive next.  Then you can go Biotic Protector, but I could not find any situation where it was a better option than the other powers.  Has Assault Rifles.  Very good balance and is useful against organics and synthetics.  Too bad her time is limited.

7/10

Aria

Flare and Lash.  She can CC protected targets with Lash, and that is unusual for a squad member.  You can also get the double biotic detonations with Slam.  Flare is pretty good, but limited somewhat by cooldown.  Reave is still solid, but you are usually better served by one of the other powers.  Skip Carnage.  Get her passive before Reave.  She will be reasonably tanky.  Equip the Punisher or Hurricane.  If you don't have that, then maybe GPS.  Good biotic squad member

8/10

Tali

I like Tali, she is sweet.  But her skillset is fairly lacking outside of the Rannoch arc.  She has a pair of somewhat useful powers, one mediocre power, and one questionable power.  Sabotage would be the hero power if it wasn't for the long cooldown.  Energy Drain is good versus shields and synthetics, but is limited against unprotected organics.  Combat Drone is mediocre for CC and damage.  Defense Drone is a "huh?" power.  Shotgun and pistol training is not the best weapon training.  Get her the GPS if possible.  Or maybe Crusader if you have it.  Overall, good versus synthetics, poor to below average against organics. 

6/10

Javik

Set for Pull spam if you are a biotic class.  Make sure to also get Lift Grenades and Dark Channel.  Slam is less useful, unless you have Lash as a bonus power, then it might make sense.  Or just for fun.  This is the only squad member I equip the Particle Rifle on.  Overall he is powerful versus any enemy type and when paired with another biotic squad member.

9/10

Ash

While James is fairly organic centric, Ashley is a much more well rounded combat squad member.  She also differs in that most of her powers are superior than James's with the exception of Disruptor over Incendiary, but it is fairly close.  Disruptor works well enough against all enemy types although it lacks the pure damage of Incendiary.  Concussive Shot is superior to Carnage in the current state of the game because its cooldown is so much more rapid, and it is therefore better at CC.  Incendiary Grenades are solid, can detonate any tech combo, but also set up fire explosions and panic organics.  Marksman isn't too useful, and it is buggered currently, so I tend to skip it.  She has good weapon training in assault rifles and sniper rifles.  Good all around combat squad member.

8/10

Liara

Liara is one of the best offensive squad members as she fairly rapidly sets up and detonates biotic explosions on protected and unprotected targets (Singularity, Warp), can rapidly CC unprotected targets (Singularity), can CC protected targets (Stasis), and can debuff armor (Warp).  She is not very durable, which is the tradeoff.  I recommend getting Singularity and Warp first, then putting 1 point in Stasis prior to Citadel Coup.  Then make sure Singularity, Warp, and Passive are leveled before investing any more in Stasis.  Weapon should be Punisher or Hurricane, or probably a decent pistol early if you do not have those.  Scorpion is adequate.  Overall powerful squad memeber against all enemies, but the most squishy.

9/10

Garrus

Overall my favorite squad member throughout the trilogy, but not really for skillset necessarily.  But he does bring decent powers to bear in this game.  Concussive Shot and Overload described above.  Proximity Mine is a good debuff power, but it is more of a mid-late game investment and should be used against large targets predominantly.  Use Overload or Concussive Shot on smaller targets.  Keep in mind that once you invest in Proxi Mine, he will use it sometimes unwisely when you use auto-squad commands, so you may need to hotkey all his powers.  AP ammo may be situationally useful depending on squad type, but typically you want a CC ammo power on him in conjunction with an assault rifle, or sniper rifle.  I prefer going single shot sniper on Garrus for lore reasons, but he is good with various assault rifles and CC ammo.  Consider single point investment in AP ammo early for cover penetration if  you do not have piercing mods, or a different squad ammo available for him.  Overall a solid tech-combat squad member (he is a Turian Rebel... or an Infiltrator if you are using classic classes).

9/10

Użytkownik capn233 edytował ten post 18 luty 2013 - 12:53

[Abraham_uk]

Very good guide capn233.

About your review of Aria.
I know you meant Flare when you said slam. (You're probably giving yourself a face palm right now).
Otherwise great reviews.

[capn233]

Abraham_uk wrote...

Very good guide capn233.

About your review of Aria.
I know you meant Flare when you said slam. (You're probably giving yourself a face palm right now).
Otherwise great reviews.

I was talking about Lash being able to CC protected enemies, and it also allows double biotic detonations if you use it in combination with Slam (which would have to be Shep's bonus power).

[Abraham_uk]

capn233 wrote...

Abraham_uk wrote...

Very good guide capn233.

About your review of Aria.
I know you meant Flare when you said slam. (You're probably giving yourself a face palm right now).
Otherwise great reviews.

I was talking about Lash being able to CC protected enemies, and it also allows double biotic detonations if you use it in combination with Slam (which would have to be Shep's bonus power).

Sorry then.
Major misunderstanding

[DuskWanderer]

 Hey, do you mind if I contribute my thoughts on this topic? I've done a number of Insanity runs, and played all the characters, and I have a decent handle on how effective they can be. 

James - James is a solid choice and requires very little maintenance in order to function. Having access to Assault Rifles and Incindiary Ammo makes him a good choice on any mission, since the increased damage will work on anyone. The only real problem with James is that he fits under the definition of "Master of None". He is a defensive juggernaut, but Kaidan is a tougher one. He has decent weapon damage, but he is outclassed by both Garrus and Ashley. 

James can be very effective against all types of higher level opponents, since they all have armor. Phantoms, in addition, can be easily knocked down by Carnage and Concussive Shot, so James can be very effective against them. His lack of options against shields and barriers can hurt him. 

Ranking - 
vs. Cerberus - 8/10
vs. Geth - 6/10 
vs. Reapers - 7/10


Liara - Liara's main usage is crowd control, having access to Singularity and Stasis (the latter of which has the advantage of neutralizing any unarmored target). She also has Warp, which has the double effect of weakening armor and either priming or detonating the very useful biotic detonations

Unfortunately, as the difficulty goes up, Liara's low health becomes a massive liability. Missions with siege-type weapons: Ravagers on Reaper misions, turrets on Cerberus, she tends to die very quickly. She requires an excessive amount of micro-management to be effective, which the other squad doesn't need. Her crowd control is great for random mooks, but Singularity doesn't work on shielded foes (making it almost useless on geth missions) and Stasis leaves much to be desired, simply because it locks foes in place. Further, while Warp can detonate all other powers, her inability to prime armored foes to detonate with Warp (as Warp cannot detonate another Warp, Stasis cannot lock them, and Singularity cannot lift them) requires a specific build tailored around it, requiring either Kaidan, Javik, or a biotic Shepard.  

In short, Liara is good against one type of foe: Phantoms, who can be locked in place with Stasis safely at a distance, and killed at leisure. Other than that, she's pretty ineffective. 

Ranking-
vs. Reapers - 4/10, Veteran/Insanity - 2/10
vs. Geth - 5/10, Veteran/Insanity - 3/10
vs. Cerberus - 5/10, Veteran/Insanity - 4/10


Garrus - Garrus packs unprecedented firepower, having the highest squad weapon damage of the group. He also possesses minor tech powers with Overload (although not much in the way of passive tech power to make it stronger), an ammo mod that does extra damage to armor and health, and minor crowd control with Proximity Mine.

Garrus's high weapon damage and ease of use makes him a good character to take regardless of Shepard's class or abilities: Guns are perfect to fall back on. His Armor-Piercing Ammo is great against Reapers, since their strongest opponents are armored, and his Overload is good against shields: It is weaker than EDI or Kaidan, or Disruptor Ammo on Garrus's gun, but it still gets the job down.

Ranking: 

vs. Reapers - 10/10
vs. Geth - 9/10
vs. Cerberus - 9/10



EDI - When it comes to tech, EDI does the most damage bar anyone, and she posseses the talents to use her powers against any foe: Overload for shields and geth, Incinerate for armor and organic. I find Decoy doesn't distract opponents as much as I'd like it to, but Defense Matrix gives EDI enough staying power to do all right against most foes. However, rachni do seem to hurt her more than they hurt everyone else. 

Her powers, if need be, can also be evolved to provide crowd control with radius upgrades, which works especially well for Overload, since it will always jump to a nearby target without fail.

SMG and Pistols aren't very effective weapons, but EDI can use power boosting mods to help her primary method of combat. 

Ranking

vs. Reapers - 7/10
vs. Cerberus - 8/10
vs, Geth - 8/10


Javik - Javik posesses biotic damage, the most out of the whole squad. This is less useful than one might think, since his biotic skills either do low base damage to modify (Dark Channel) or will pretty much neutralize a target without it (Slam, Lift Grenade). In addition, extra biotic power does not modify detonations. However, even without being spec-ed to detonate, Dark Channel can be detonated multiple times because it lasts so long and jumps to new foes when the current target dies. This is very useful to a biotic Shepard with Throw. 

Javik doesn't gain any defensive or weapon boosts, but he does gain the ability to use an assault rifle, and has a high base defense, so his survivability is a non-issue, and he'll put out decent, if not great, weapon damage.

Without biotics, though, Javik doesn't bring a whole lot to the table. He can soften up foes, but not as good as someone with weapons, and he possesses some crowd control, but not on the level of EDI or Liara.

Ranking:
With a biotic Shepard: 9/10
Without a biotic Shepard: 5/10


Ashley - Much like Garrus, Ashley is a plug and play character: Her damage is done by weapons, weapons, and more weapons. Her Inferno Grenade is a very handy tool since her Concussive Shot can detonate it (grenades not having cooldown times), and Disruptor Ammo has a nifty stunning ability which can really provide some breathing room, particularly when her weapons are modified properly, and will completely shred the geth almost immediately. Garrus will do slightly more weapon damage, but it's almost negligible since assault rifles carry a low base damage (so the percentage increase is less) and sniper rifles are powerful enough that it's not a problem. 

Ranking: 
vs. Geth - 10/10
vs. Reapers - 8/10
vs. Cerberus - 9/10

Kaidan - Kaidan is ultimately the most amorphous squad member, and works well with any class Shepard has, or whoever he could be partnered with. Possessing a very high tech and biotic power, coupled with his assault rifle and some crowd control with Cryo Blast (even a slowed foe is significantly easier to defeat). He's great against organic foes since his Reave power affords him even more durability, making him near impossible to kill. High damage Overload allows him to lay waste to Geth and Cerberus turrets, and Banshees and Brutes can be worn down from a distance with Reave, and detonated very easily by a biotic. 

Ranking
vs. Geth - 9/10
vs. Cerberus - 10/10
vs. Reapers - 9/10

Tali - Tali's an odd bird whose talents are best used against synthetics. Much like Ashley, but a more specialized version of her, without the added weapon damage. Her Energy Drain makes her more survivable than her low health would indicate, but it only works on certain foes (geth, fortunately, never have this problem, and higher level Cerberus can also be attacked). Her drones can distract foes, but that always chancey.

Ranking 

vs. Geth - 9/10
vs. Cerberus - 6/10
vs. Reapers - 4/10

If I had to rank them in complete order, it would be:

Garrus
Kaidan
Ashley
EDI
James
Javik
Tali
Liara