Mass Effect 3 single player: Commander Shepard, the honorary Krogan Battlemaster guide (by Kronner)

ATTENTION: This guide was originally created by Kronner on the old BioWare Social Network (BSN) forums. I am recreating it here so it does not disappear when the old BSN forums shut down. Note that this guide was written before the ME3 patch that changed some game mechanics and improved some single player powers like Fortification.


What you get:
- ~4250 effective shield/health points (assuming your base values are ~850; 850/0.2 is 4250).
- The opportunity to engage in close combat and kill enemies using your weapon of choice, and you will not take health damage unless you screw up™

What you need:
- Vanguard Shepard
- Barrier/Defense Matrix/Fortification bonus power specced for maximum damage resistance (30%)

How it works:
Biotic Charge has a hidden perk - 50% damage resistance that lasts 4 seconds. Combined with Barrier, it nets you a whopping 80% damage resistance for the duration of 4 seconds. As long as you keep your Charge cooldown at (or slighlty under) 4 seconds, you are good to go.

I rolled with Claymore X (+145% recharge speed bonus) and Inferno Armor (+30% recharge speed bonus). Barrier comes with 60% recharge speed penalty.
Charge cooldown was exactly 4 seconds using this setup. Any weapon loadout is fine (I tried Claymore, Raider, and Graal), but I'd not recommend going for Charge cooldown significantly shorter than 4 seconds. Otherwise you will be tempted to Charge when you can just shoot stuff


Needless to say, you are virtually invincible after every Charge, and thanks to slightly longer cooldown (~4s), you have enough time to deal a ton of weapon damage. That said, you will die real quick if you do not find your next Charge target immedietaly.

I think this is viable, weapon-oriented alternative to the NovaGuard. Barrier could also be used by NovaGuards, but that is for another thread.

This video shows Claymore Vanguard specced for 80% DR. Charge CD at 4s is ideal for Claymore reload cancelling.


Update:
My current build is this:

Incendiary Ammo: rank 4 - Damage, rank 5 - Headshots, rank 6 - Explosive Burst
-Best ammo in the game

Charge: rank 4 - Force and Damage, rank 5 - Weapon Synergy, rank 6 - Barrier
-Maximum weapon damage and barrier replenishement upgrade

Assault Mastery: rank 4 - Damage, rank 5 - Weight Capacity, rank 6 - Shotgun Damage
-Maximum weapon damage

Fitness: Max. shields and health

Barrier: rank 4 - Barrier Strength, rank 5 - Power Synergy, rank 6 - Barrier Strength
-Greatly increases Shepards effective shields between Charges, making him very hard to kill by standard enemy fire

Nova: rank 4 - Force and Damage, rank 5 - Power Recharge, rank 6 - Pierce
-Nova is used only rarely, but since we get so many points, it might as well be maxed out.

Shockwave: rank 4 - Radius, rank 5 - Reach, rank 6 - Recharge Speed

Pull: rank 4 - Radius, rank 5 - Expose, rank 6 - Double Pull
-Combined, these two powers allow Shepard to create his own biotic bombs - useful if you don't take two biotic squadmates

Cryo Ammo: rank 4 - Squad
-Extremely effective passive buff that greatly increases squadmates' survavibility


Videos:
Grissom Academy - Making way to the shuttles
Eden Prime - Stasis Pod Defense