Ever wondered why Flare sucked against armor in ME3?

Default (un-modded) Flare has a bonus damage to Shields and Barrier, but not Armor. It is the only biotic power with a bonus to shields.

I do not know the exact damage multipliers of Flare. I have not been able to find them after some quick searching. (The developers never provided it and I do not see it posted anywhere else online that I have been able to see after some basic searching.)

Flare's biggest problems were never its armor damage. It's biggest problems were:
- its cooldown
- it only detonated biotic combos

Flare's radius + slightly higher base damage was meant to be offset by a longer cooldown, but that cooldown was way too large. Sentinel and Adept were better off using Warp + Throw combos, and other classes had better powers or playstyles.

My opinion, better options for re-balancing Flare:
1. Shorter base cooldown. Base cooldown of 8 or 10 to bring it inline with Warp or Reave/Dark Channel.

2. Smaller base radius.
- Default Flare has base radius of 6m.
- Rank 4 Radius evolution has +30% radius
- Rank 6 Radius evolution has +50% radius

Reduce base radius to 3m.
Increase rank 4 Radius evolution bonus to +50%.

3. Allow it to detonate non-biotic combos (possible with modding?)


Other possible suggestions:
1. If you want to give it damage modifiers more in line with Warp, Reave, and Dark Channel, then you would need to decrease its Shield damage modifier to compensate for increased Armor damage. Warp, Reave, and Dark Channel defense multipliers:
- Armor=150%
- Barrier=200%
- Shields=50%

2. Increase base damage.
If you give it defense multipliers like Warp, Reave, and Dark Channel, it should probably have a slightly higher base damage. Up from 400 to 500 or 600. I'm spitballing here.