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[Vazgen]

Melee Infiltrator

 

Jane Shepard learned the basics of the melee combat on the streets of Earth and further honed her skills during Alliance military training, including a special course at Interplanetary Combatives Academy where she received her N7 rank. However, her fierce temper and impatience hindered her progress, not allowing her to achieve the true mastery of hand-to-hand combat in the age of modern technologies. Only after working and conversing with Thane had she learned to control her rage and keep her mind cool during even the fiercest battles. Six months of meditation and exercises helped to cement her resolve in carving her way through the Reaper forces in a way of the ancients.

 

The Build

 

Tactical assessment of the battlefield, speed and agility are the name of the game here. Stay in one place long enough and enemies converge on your position making it difficult to execute melee takedowns. You should be constantly on the move, flanking and distracting enemies, separating them and taking them out one by one. This is what you need to become a Melee Infiltrator

 

Tactical Cloak: Damage, Melee Damage, Bonus Power

 

Tactical Cloak allows for a free movement around the battlefield, getting behind enemy lines and execute separate enemies with powerful melee strikes. With bonus power evolution you can combine your heavy melee attack with Sabotage to create a boss-killer move that can almost kill a Brute in one hit!

 

Sticky Grenade: Damage, Armor-Piercing, Damage

 

Sticky Grenades are reserved for the toughest enemies like Geth Primes and Banshees. They can detonate tech power combos, make good use of that. You can set them up yourself, by using Sabotage and following it up with a Sticky Grenade. The result is a highly damaging explosion that also damages the shields and health of nearby enemies. Note that grenades don't break your cloak and they do even more damage if used from cloak!

 

Sabotage: Backfire, Recharge Speed, Tech Vulnerability

 

Sabotage is the glue that keeps first two skills together. Tech Vulnerability is your focus here. Not only it boosts Infiltrator's heavy melee attack, but it also boosts the Backfire effect of the skill itself. It is boosted to the point that nearly takes down Marauder's Shields, serving as a substitute for Overload.

 

Operational Mastery: Weapon Damage (gives power damage boost), Squad Bonus, Damage and Duration

 

Operational Mastery focuses on power damage. The Damage & Duration evolution at rank 6 gives quite a lot of freedom with Tactical Cloak since you can cover more distance without breaking it.

 

Fitness: Melee Damage, Shield Recharge, Melee Synergy

 

You may ask, why Shield Recharge and not Melee Spree? The answer is simple, on Insanity, 95% of a time you only manage one strike before becoming a target. Attack an enemy without cloak while there are other enemies around and you can prepare for a reload. Shield Recharge, on the other hand, combined with Intel bonus from Geth Server, Fortification, class powers of Kaidan and Javik, makes your shields to recharge almost instantly, minimizing the time spent behind cover.

 

Fortification: Melee Damage, Recharge Speed, Power Recharge 

 

Fortification provides quite useful boost that makes the difference between having your shields destroyed or not. Purging the armor allows for a 100% boost for melee attacks for a high-risk, high-reward move. I didn't use it often but when I did, it was helpful. Shield Recharge is the main reason for this bonus power.

 

Squadmates

 

Javik and Kaidan are an ideal team for this character. Not only both their class powers improve shield recharge but they also work well together. Kaidan detonates Javik's biotic combos and tech combos you set up with Sabotage. Javik's Lift Grenades can clear entire clusters of enemies and Kaidan's Reave will give him more survivability.

 

Javik

Dark Channel: Damage, Recharge Speed, Pierce

Lift Grenade: Damage, Max Grenades, Damage & Radius

Vengeful Ancient: Power Damage, Power Damage, Squad Bonus (Shield Recharge)

 

Kaidan

Reave: Radius, Recharge Speed, Barriers & Armor

Overload: Damage, Recharge Speed, Shield Damage

Alliance Officer: Durability, Biotic Damage, Squad Bonus (Shield Recharge)

 

Equipment

 

Despite never shooting enemies with your gun, it is used quite a lot to beat enemies to death. I used M-3 Predator pistol with a Melee Stunner mod which gives +25% melee damage at rank V. It also works well in cutscenes, where Shepard is forced to equip the Predator, regardless of whether it's present in the current loadout or not.

 

For armor I used full Ariake Technologies set along with Death Mask, resulting in +50% melee damage.

 

Gameplay videos

(full playthrough of the vanilla game starting from level 1)

Priority: Mars

N7: Cerberus Lab

Priority: Palaven

Priority: Eden Prime

Priority: Sur'Kesh

N7: Cerberus Attack

Tuchanka: Turian Platoon

Tuchanka: Bomb

N7: Cerberus Abductions

Attican Traverse: Krogan Team

Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation

Priority: Tuchanka

N7: Cerberus Fighter Base

Priority: The Citadel II

Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery

Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists

Priority: Geth Dreadnought

Rannoch: Admiral Koris

Priority: Rannoch

N7: Fuel Reactors

Priority: Thessia

N7: Communication Hub

Priority: Horizon

Priority: Cerberus Headquarters

Priority: Earth

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

I would play through SP again if I could do it as a Shadow.

 

I would even be happy with just the 3 powers (but I would probably need to be able to SS Atlases...)

[Vazgen]

It requires some tactical thinking and patience but it is possible. I had a little trouble because of non-optimal build (ME2 import) but as soon as I'm able to respec, it should become much more powerful

[Vazgen]

This is the build I'm aiming at:

Tactical Cloak - Damage, Melee Damage, Bonus Power

Sticky Grenade - Damage, Armor-Piercing, Damage

Sabotage - Backfire, Recharge Speed, Tech Vulnerability

Operational Mastery - Influence and Duration, Squad Bonus, Damage and Duration

Fitness - Melee Damage, Melee Spree, Melee Synergy

Fortification - Melee Damage, Recharge Speed, Power Recharge

 

Armor - full Ariake Technologies + Death Mask

Weapon - M11-Suppressor with Power Magnifier and Melee Stunner mods

 

Squadmates - Tali and EDI to provide alternate distractions via drone and decoy correspondingly

[Vazgen]

Finished N7 Cerberus Lab, Menae, Sur'Kesh missions without firing my gun once. Shepard feels like an agile ninja rolling around cloaking and using melee. With Sabotage as the only direct action power you have to rely more on melee and positioning and surprisingly it works. Mostly it's enemy AI when you're cloaked. When you get behind enemy lines that way, enemies close to you start to move away separating themselves from the group. After that it's just catch and slay game. Vega is a great companion to this character, his survivability is priceless. I put points in his class power for shield and health bonuses and Fortification for damage protection. He's like M29 Grizzly tank 

[capn233]

Sounds like fun.  Like the Suppressor on there.  Could name the character "Snake."

[Antmarch456]

If you feel more feisty and dn't mind using a gun a couple of times, Cryo Ammo and Disciple works wonders to stagger & chill/freeze enemies.

[Antmarch456]

Feeling even more feisty?

Become a Phantom with...
-Tactical Cloak
-Barrier
-Warp Ammo (provided by Liara)
-A Cerberus Armour
-Talon (heavy pistol)

[Vazgen]

Update: finished Eden Prime, Grissom Academy, Tuchanka bomb, Turian platoon and Shroud, Rachni mission, Citadel coup, Geth Dreadnought, Save Admiral Korris, Rannoch base, Thessia missions.

Was forced to shoot a gun twice - machine guns 1) when saving civilians on Rannoch 2) when protecting the barrier on Thessia (would've managed without it if my squadmates helped instead of staring on an asari commando's backside)

Geth Primes are hard, took me a few tries to deal with those three on Rannoch. Grissom Academy was surprisingly easy, Sabotage is just amazing

Edit: completely forgot about Ardat-Yakshi Monastery mission!  Probably because it was quite easy

[Antmarch456]

Update: finished Eden Prime, Grissom Academy, Tuchanka bomb, Turian platoon and Shroud, Rachni mission, Citadel coup, Geth Dreadnought, Save Admiral Korris, Rannoch base, Thessia missions.
Was forced to shoot a gun twice - machine guns 1) when saving civilians on Rannoch 2) when protecting the barrier on Thessia (would've managed without it if my squadmates helped instead of staring on an asari commando's backside)
Geth Primes are hard, took me a few tries to deal with those three on Rannoch. Grissom Academy was surprisingly easy, Sabotage is just amazing
Edit: completely forgot about Ardat-Yakshi Monastery mission!  Probably because it was quite easy

What difficulity is this in? Because meleeing like a madman can be quite dangerous on higher difficulities.

[Vazgen]

What difficulity is this in? Because meleeing like a madman can be quite dangerous on higher difficulities.

Insanity. Cloak works wonders, enemy AI takes a few moments to register you and these moments are used to get into cover. You stay in cover for about 1 sec and your cloak is ready again. Of course, charging enemies head-on is suicadal, you always have to stay out of line of fire. It requires one heavy melee to kill a weaker enemy (Cannibal, Assault Trooper, Marauder, Centurion, Guardian, Geth Trooper, Geth Rocket Trooper, Engineer). Husks are not worth it, regular melee works faster. Tougher enemies like Brutes and Ravagers take two hits with Sabotage. Extra tough enemies like Banshees and Geth Primes require coordinated team efforts.

[Antmarch456]

Insanity. Cloak works wonders, enemy AI takes a few moments to register you and these moments are used to get into cover. You stay in cover for about 1 sec and your cloak is ready again. Of course, charging enemies head-on is suicadal, you always have to stay out of line of fire. It requires one heavy melee to kill a weaker enemy (Cannibal, Assault Trooper, Marauder, Centurion, Guardian, Geth Trooper, Geth Rocket Trooper, Engineer). Husks are not worth it, regular melee works faster. Tougher enemies like Brutes and Ravagers take two hits with Sabotage. Extra tough enemies like Banshees and Geth Primes require coordinated team efforts.

One more question before I go (after talking so much today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday): how exactly does sabotage seem to give a massive effect in this? The damage of the weapon backfire doesn't seem too great.

[RedCaesar97]

One more question before I go (after talking so much today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday): how exactly does sabotage seem to give a massive effect in this? The damage of the weapon backfire doesn't seem too great.

 

Tech Vulnerability (rank 6 evolution) increases the damage of Sabotage's backfire. 

 

Insanity. Cloak works wonders, enemy AI takes a few moments to register you and these moments are used to get into cover. You stay in cover for about 1 sec and your cloak is ready again. Of course, charging enemies head-on is suicadal, you always have to stay out of line of fire. It requires one heavy melee to kill a weaker enemy (Cannibal, Assault Trooper, Marauder, Centurion, Guardian, Geth Trooper, Geth Rocket Trooper, Engineer). Husks are not worth it, regular melee works faster. Tougher enemies like Brutes and Ravagers take two hits with Sabotage. Extra tough enemies like Banshees and Geth Primes require coordinated team efforts.

 

 

One more question before I go (after talking so much today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday): how exactly does sabotage seem to give a massive effect in this? The damage of the weapon backfire doesn't seem too great.

 

Tech Vulnerability (rank 6 evolution) also affects the backfire damage of Sabotage. Husks have very little health. Infiltrators can also get a nice +90% power damage boost from Cloak, as well as +10 to +35% power damage from passive, depending on evolutions chosen.

 

Tech Vulnerability also increases the damage of Infiltrator's heavy melee (and Engineer's heavy melee).

 

Tech Vulnerability is just awesome all around. Best skill on the Engineer, and second-best skill on the Infiltrator.

[Vazgen]

One more question before I go (after talking so much today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday): how exactly does sabotage seem to give a massive effect in this? The damage of the weapon backfire doesn't seem too great.

Tech Vulnerability evolution at rank 6 affects Infiltrator's heavy melee. RedCaesar made a video on that, he nearly killed a brute with one hit and still had room to improve damage.

[themikefest]

I haven't done it as an infiltrator, but as a soldier. I did this on normal.

 

What difficulty are playing on?

[Vazgen]

Insanity

 

Insanity. Cloak works wonders, enemy AI takes a few moments to register you and these moments are used to get into cover. You stay in cover for about 1 sec and your cloak is ready again. Of course, charging enemies head-on is suicadal, you always have to stay out of line of fire. It requires one heavy melee to kill a weaker enemy (Cannibal, Assault Trooper, Marauder, Centurion, Guardian, Geth Trooper, Geth Rocket Trooper, Engineer). Husks are not worth it, regular melee works faster. Tougher enemies like Brutes and Ravagers take two hits with Sabotage. Extra tough enemies like Banshees and Geth Primes require coordinated team efforts.

 

[Vazgen]

First video is up

 

Also edited the thread to reflect the final version of the build

[Farangbaa]

A brand new character?

Have never done that 

Except in ME1

[Antmarch456]

Finally managed to try this a bit on saving Admiral Koris. It's almost the same, except I put points in cryo ammo and used disciple shotgun (great for staggering enemies, still 200% power recharge speed bonus).

[Vazgen]

A brand new character?

Have never done that 

Except in ME1

This is actually my first try for both Femshep and non-imported character I wanted to see how this build will work on a level 1 character and it's surprisingly effective. I'll probably do the Cerberus Lab mission next for more leveling, final fight on Menae can be brutal without Sabotage

 

Finally managed to try this a bit on saving Admiral Koris. It's almost the same, except I put points in cryo ammo and used disciple shotgun (great for staggering enemies, still 200% power recharge speed bonus).

I like pistol melee animations more Are you able to have 200% cooldown reduction with Shotgun Omni-Blade mod? It increases weight by 50% if wiki is correct. It also gives up to 50% bonus melee damage though, two times more than any other weapon. 

[Farangbaa]

Of course it's effective, the enemies scale according to your level.

[Vazgen]

Of course it's effective, the enemies scale according to your level.

What do you mean? They are as hard as they were for my imported characters

[capn233]

What do you mean? They are as hard as they were for my imported characters

 

What he means is that enemy HP scales with Shepard's level.  For instance, at Level 1 a CAT would have 1125 health, and at level 60 they have 1687.5.

 

The enemy damage multiplier also moves a bit from level 1 to level 60.

 

Personally I think Level 1 start is a little harder than a Level 30 import because of the lack of talent points.  By level 30 you can invest in most all the core powers, and or have advanced evoutions of the best powers.  I also find leveling up the character through the game more interesting than starting halfway leveled, so I tend to import the character, save at the first opportunity in the Prologue, then edit the save with Gibbed to set level to 1 and change XP to 0.  As an aside, I like to also set the NG+ counter to 1 so that I can level weapons all the way to X (although it is pretty expensive).

[Vazgen]

What he means is that enemy HP scales with Shepard's level. For instance, at Level 1 a CAT would have 1125 health, and at level 60 they have 1687.5.

The enemy damage multiplier also moves a bit from level 1 to level 60.

Personally I think Level 1 start is a little harder than a Level 30 import because of the lack of talent points. By level 30 you can invest in most all the core powers, and or have advanced evoutions of the best powers. I also find leveling up the character through the game more interesting than starting halfway leveled, so I tend to import the character, save at the first opportunity in the Prologue, then edit the save with Gibbed to set level to 1 and change XP to 0. As an aside, I like to also set the NG+ counter to 1 so that I can level weapons all the way to X (although it is pretty expensive).

Huh, never noticed that. On one of my recent playthroughs I used Predator V and Scimitar V through the entire game and spent gradually less time killing enemies. The only place where the combat was noticeably harder was the final mission where all Cannibals were already reinforced. I find level 1 start more challenging because you don't have as many options for different combat situations as imported characters. Also, your squadmates are weaker and die more often.

[capn233]

That is because regardless of which level you start the game at, Shepard will naturally become more powerful as the game progresses.  The only way not to gain power is to avoid any Intel upgrades, and avoid leveling powers, weapons, and weapon mods.

 

The enemy health scaling is supposed to somewhat counter Shepard's natural power gain.

 

As I said above, I find Level 1 starts a little more difficult early game than imports at 30 because Shepard is fairly weak at very low level.  Around Level 50 is where Shepard is probably the most powerful due to the number of talents that can be maxed, although because of enemy scaling I tend to think around level 30-40 is where you are relatively more powerful compared to the enemies if you are careful with your build (ie not rely on the "import build" which puts 4 ranks in a bunch of powers).