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Post by themikefest on Mar 28, 2017 14:26:53 GMT
I'm nearly halfway through my second playthrough as a vanguard.
Using charge, nova and singularity. Weapons are the krogan hammer and shotgun. I rarely use the shotgun, but I use the hammer a lot. It deals a lot of damage.
What's fun is having Cora with you. There has been many times where her and I have charged the same enemy at the same time making for nice kills. Bring Drack along as well and the fighting is even more fun.
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Post by peligrad on Mar 28, 2017 14:42:38 GMT
Highly recommend against Nova. It is really not worth using.
Get yourself a pair of crafted arms with the +50% jump melee and elemental effect augment and spec your charge to deal +30% melee damage.
Now you have a better version of nova that deals more damage and it didn't cost you any of your skill slots/skill points.
I'm 2 shotting enemies on the highest difficulties with this.
With that extra biotic slot you can pick up singularity or backlash (or whatever else you fancy) and have way more damage/control or survivability respectively.
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spacebeetle
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy
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Post by spacebeetle on Mar 28, 2017 15:20:21 GMT
In the Helios cluster, in the 7th decade, when the Scourge shadows lengthened, one stood. Marred by the starless Void, his body blistered by the Remnant and tainted beyond exaltation, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the stars, seeking vengeance against the Archon who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the N7, and those who faced him in battle named him… the Doom Rider.
I really loved the vanguard class in ME trilogy, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered how… underwhelming the very same abilities are in Andromeda (at least by comparison). Especially on Insanity (that thrice damned Kett base on Eos!). Charge doesn’t throw unshielded enemies around? Nova isn’t a detonator anymore and doesn’t throw people around by default? Melee has only 2 animations (short weapon, long weapon) and it doesn’t necessarily stagger? HERESY! At first, I admit I raged and felt a little betrayed: it seemed a unjustified nerf to a pace I really enjoyed. BUT, after a while, I took it as an opportunity to re-learn the grim role of the vanguard archetype in Andromeda. I think I succeeded, and I hope my discoveries can be useful to others. First, and make no mistake, the vanguard role in Andromeda imo is one of undivided chaos and I strived to be as hard hitting and as fast as possible on the battlefield, while keeping the pace of an adrenaline junkie with a bad attitude. The best way to achieve all of the above is the following set up for me: Profile: Adept Abilities: Charge / Throw / Annihilation Amour: N7 (best shield and power damage bonuses overall, afaik) Weapon: Crusader (best compromise imo between reach, damage and accuracy) + SR or HP or SMG (these threes to be used eventually only vs Architects) Hows and whys: The adept profile serves to 2 purposes: stronger biotic explosions and, way more important, secondary biotic explosions (why blow up the enemy once, when you can blow him up multiple times?). I think the force of these secondary explosions scale only with the “profile level” not with passive power damage bonuses. Never the less, these explosions CAN blow unshielded mobs up, thrashing them all over the place. Which is Fracking Bueno! Charge: the main difference from the trilogy for charge lays in the way it can be used. Because charge doesn’t send mobs flying anymore, it is meant (I suppose) to be used as a panic button to recharge your shield and to initiate an attack, not to really contribute to the overall damage dealt. Abuse dodge or jump between attacks chains, and wait for the CD to refresh, so to begin again: remember though, charge isn’t your second best DPS ability anymore, but the best possible defense (like a second wind with short recharge). Throw & Annihilation: the bread and butter of any berserker. Personally, I’ve focused both to maximize damage against a single target in the smallest area possible. This because with biotic passive the area interested by annihilation becomes quite wide never the less: also, keeping it as small as possible doesn’t cause any overlap of priming. This way, dodging and charging again prime the target anew. Evolve annihilation to recharge shields for every enemy that dies inside your field, and you will have a biotic primer which sustains too (great on higher difficulties). As for throw, I picked it (instead of lance) because it can be evolved to maximize explosion damage, which on paper should be better than raw damage and synergize quite well with the adept profile. It also has a shorter CD than lance. How to: Deploy annihilation. Pick the shielded enemy with more mobs near it. Charge him, then throw for the first biotic explosion. You have time enough to finish the shields of your target with a couple of fast shotgun’s slugs. Dodge, dodge: cool guys don’t look at explosions, but immediately search for other victims! In the meantime, the secondary biotic detonations should lay waste of your first target. Go at it again and again: you shall be a plague for your enemies, an untouchable wraith, a cruel blue star created only to scatter them to the winds. Act like one, without fear, pity or remorse! Rip and tear! The only two enemies who should makes you falter are Architects and Destroyers: more in particular, pay attention to the Architects’ gatling gun attack. If you want to charge the 30 meters metal octopus, do it after it has already emptied half of its bullets. Otherwise, at higher difficulties, you will be killed before reaching the nearest cover by the sheer damage of it. Everything else is game though: charge it even in the mouth while it is shooting its wave motion gun, and punch the monster in the throat. Take its skull as trophy! Choke it with your shotgun! Something similar holds true for destroyers too: as much as it pains me, the best way to kill them as a vanguard is to destroy both of their turrets first, to level up the field. Their fire rate is simply too high to tank, even with charge (a secondary profile with both singularity and throw is quite useful here). Only after the destroyer is armless (literally), charge it, throw, dodge its area attack and shoot until it’s dead: it will not take much at that point.
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Post by peligrad on Mar 28, 2017 18:29:16 GMT
vanguard is not tanky, soldier or sentinel are tanky anyway, dont use nova it depletes your shield This honestly doesn't even make sense. It's like you are saying that certain profiles make a character substantially more sturdy... even high level profiles only give you moderate stat bonuses. Appreciable? Yes Defining? No Honestly the most defining parts of a character build are what you put in your three active "skill" slots. And two of the most powerful defensive activated skills are in the biotics tree. Namely, "Charge" and "Backlash". If you want to be a "tank" then these skill are very viable options. Choose them makes your playstyle inherently very similar to the "Vanguard" class in previous ME titles. So is a Vanguard tanky? Well... he's as tanky as he chooses to be. You could be a Vanguard with push, pull, and omigrenade and be very glass cannon. Or you could be a Vanguard with charge, backlash, and combat fitness and be the tankiest character possible.
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Atila
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Atila on Mar 28, 2017 19:40:21 GMT
Take the passives such as Barrier & Combat Fitness. Don't forget to set profile to Vanguard.
If you want him to be really tanky, make Charge spammable with a lot of Biotic Recharge stat from the passives & don't bring too many weapons, every charge recovers 50% shield or 100% + damage resist if you spec it like that.
Honestly I find using Explorer profile with Barrier, Combat Fitness, Weapon Skills, Energy Drain/Tech Armor, Charge, Nova/Shockwave is really tanky & deals tons of damage with combos instead of weapons or melee.
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