(Guide)The Asari Duelist: Bring Justice to Andromeda

IDK if you play on PC or console. But on xbox I find the melee to be Godly garbage. What do I mean by that? It is a very powerful melee especially with all her bonuses you can rank into for it. But it is so unreliable. 50% of the time I miss. And when I do connect the camera is facing the ground or in a weird position. I really wish I could use her as a melee class but I cant. Probably a l2p I know but that is my experience. I just built her for full weapon damage and put my piranha on her and use her more as a hit and run class.

I play on PC, and it's extremely reliable; I rarely whiff if I am not experimenting. I don't have experience with her on consoles however, but I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble on the Xbox. When I get time, I'll expand the guide with additional melee tips and demonstrations.

I played around with it a ton on my Asari Sentinel, and 6b just didn't impress me. You only get the bonus after you release Backlash. That bonus is dependent on the amount of damage you absorbed prior. From my testing, it seems you need to be well into half the Aegis's hp to get the full bonus and it only last 3 seconds. Regardless, I'll be revisiting it eventually. Glad it's working out for you though. 

The shield restoration is also based on the amount your Backlash absorbed and only lasts 3 seconds.

Not sure why you feel it's so much better than stacking another 30% melee damage during Biotic Warrior windows (which are also 3 seconds).

This allows you to have 3 seconds of huge damage after both charge and backlash, instead of just charge.

Not saying that shield restore isn't nice, but the drawbacks you keep mentioning for Backlash 6b also exist for 6a.

Honestly, I feel they both synergize well with her kit, depending on if you want to play more aggressively or defensively, which is the real beauty of the Duelist; flexibility with her powers.

You wont get 3 seconds of Aftermath bonus after Charging. As soon as you release the Aegis, the timer starts and Charge has at least a 1 second animation. Your best follow up in this scenario would be a melee attack, and the timing would still be extremely tight to the point where if you are off host, you'll most likely get inconsistent results. Without using Charge as a follow up - you'd have to be in a scenario where you'd not want to Charge, but still engage. Looking at my previous matches, this scenario doesn't come up too often post Backlash. I suppose the argument there is that maybe I need to adjust my play style, and I am not using Backlash optimally to accommodate Aftermath. That's a fair argument, and again, I'll be revisiting Aftermath in the future to further evaluate it. I do know however, that regardless of whether I decide to Charge, retreat, etc., Shield Resurgence will be giving me back shields regardless after absorbing any type of damage. The counter argument here is that it's entirely possible I wont need the shielding over time - hell after a Charge, your shields reset to full anyway. However, the scenarios where I am still underfire after a Charge, and thus taking damage come up more often than not. Not to mention the oh sh*t scenarios where your Aegis gets bursted down and you're underfire in the stagger animation.

Regardless, there's good arguments for both - I just feel that the arguments for 6a are stronger and apply to more scenarios than 6b at the moment. If you are getting better results with 6b, please let me know. Even if you're not...more scenarios where it provided you value would be great. I'll be certain to add them to the guide.

I actually meant to alternate the bonuses, not to use backlash and then charge. That would be a waste.

Ideally, you'd want to charge (Biotic Warrior proc) shoot, melee (bio warrior ends)

Backlash (bio warrior proc), shoot, melee (bio warrior ends).

Lance for more bio warrior procs or detonations.

I was really just pointing out that both rank 6 evos have the same damage absorbed drawback, so you're really just choosing a weak shield buff or a weak damage buff.

I go damage, since bio warrior is already up when I use backlash anyway, so it's a bigger damage boost.

I don't generally have issues surviving with her kit, but with how slow her bread and butter melee swings is, I want it to hit as hard as possible.

Quick query, I only have her at I so I cant max out more than 2 powers, I currently have both passives maxed and when i hit 20 will be able to get Charge to 5 (for the melee boost).

Should i leave her at this or should I sacrifice one of the maxed passives for maxed Charge?

Obviously this is only until the RNG gods see fit to bless me.