Quick tips on evolving squadmates abils for ME3

ME3 Squadmate build suggestions here:
Squadmate Build Compendium: Mass Effect 3 Edition, by sageoflife (and a post by me).

Since I usually start with a level 30 import, I have more to work with starting in ME3.

For Liara:
1. I usually max her Singularity (Radius- Recharge Speed - Expand) and get her passive to rank 4 Recharge Speed. For new players, maxing her passive first may be better.
2. From there, I like to get her Warp to at least rank 4 Detonate.
3. I rarely, if ever, use Stasis, but you can at least put one point into it as soon as you want. I max this last.
4. After that, I usually finish maxing her passive, then Warp. Alternatively, you can finish maxing her Warp, then passive. Up to you.
5. I never use Warp Ammo on her since I typically am rarely shooting as an Adept. It is mostly just biotic detonations.

For a more balanced Liara, I would take Squad Bonus on her passive; her squad bonus affects all her powers. If you only care about Singularity on her, then take Singularity Recharge. I usually take squad bonus myself.


For Javik:
1. I usually max his Pull first (Radius - Expose - Recharge Speed).
2. I max his Dark Channel second. (Damage - Recharge speed - Pierce)
3. Then I max his passive: Durability (power damage) - Power Damage, Squad Bonus (power damage).
4. Lift grenades last (Damage - Grenade Count - Damage). I play on Xbox, so I have to pause to use his grenades so I end up never using them but they are nice to have. On PC, you can use them more often, so you may want to max them first before his passive.

For EDI and Garrus's Overload: I prefer single target since protections are more rare, and you can always combo off it for a tech burst that deals shield damage to everyone around the target so chain overload is less useful. Chain Overload is more needed for multiplayer.


Hope that helps.

I don't find that it matters too much. By the end of the game (particularly if you have the DLC), you'll have enough points to max out all but one skill for every squad mate, if the unmaxed skill is left at Rank 3. Since I generally import a fully leveled character from ME2, I usually max out in ME3 whenever I do the Omega DLC. The exact choice of evolution really hasn't seemed to make a whole lot of difference to me and I've never found myself wishing I had evolved a squadmate differently just to get through a mission even on insanity. In general, I never put points to Ashley's marksman skill or EDI's defense matrix skills due to bugs, so that leaves those two with unassigned points at the end of the game.

Reave for a bonus power.

As an Adept, if you bring Liara with you, you'll have a lot of overlap in biotics, namely Singularity and Warp.  Liara's Singularity and overall recharge time can rival yours, so it might be worth giving her Singularity the options you need on the battlefield most, since hers is hit-scan.

I argue that Warp is the best biotic ability, in that it does damage, primes, detonates, and has a fast recharge time. If you're going to use Warp for combos, then get the Expose evolution and the option that increases combo damage-n-radius.
Use Throw liberally. It is, in my opinion, the best detonator this side of the Milky Way with one of the fastest recharge times.

For bonus powers, I recommend Warp Ammo, UNLESS you decide to squad out Liara's Warp Ammo. If you take it, it's a more powerful version (even squaddied-out), but if you take Liara's instead, you get a less powerful version, with the option to take a different bonus power for yourself. In which case I recommend Barrier. The penalty isn't too harsh, and as a powers-focused class, you shouldn't be taking too many weapons anyway.

For Javik, I find his Dark Channel the first power I max out, the chain-effect on kill combined with the priming regardless of protection useful, and the green glow it gives off is handy in the heat of battle for easy identification. His Lift Grenades are great to have for instant-damage, and as a biotic-heavy team, you have plenty of lifting effects, so max out radius and damage instead.

Again, I highly recommend Warp Ammo.  Even at just Rank 1, your guns deal more damage to armor, barriers, health, lifted targets, and you weaken armor.
A critical thing to understand, "Damage to Lifted Targets" doesn't just mean targets that are in the air, it means any target affected by biotics.
You have Warp.  Taking that "Expose" evolution with Warp, combined with a Warp Ammo maxed for lifted target damage means you are dealing INSANE damage to anything glowing blue.

Your lack of Overload becomes a non-issue because you can use Warp on anything and capitalize on Warp Ammo's bonus damage to "lifted" targets.
To be fair, if you want to go that route, I would recommend going as a Sentinel.  You have both Warp and Throw, but the added bonus of Overload and Tech Armor, and you can still take Warp Ammo for your bonus, but I digress.

Especially if you import a game from ME2. You start out at level thirty already. Which has the unfortunate problem of making a a second plathrough with that character (ME3 new game plus) less appealing since you start out at level sixty and it is kinda boring since you don't have anything to upgrade.

1. Regarding a second squadmate: I recommend Javik, or Kaiden later if you want. As I stated earlier, I like using both Liara and Javik since I can alternate their Singularity and Pull for health-only enemies (which is the norm), and they also have Warp and Dark Channel for protected enemies. Basically, you are a Throw-bot most of the game, pulling out your Warp and maybe Cluster grenades on occasion.

You can always swap out Javik for Kaiden later you want since his Reave can be both a primer and detonator on anything.


2. Regarding bonus powers, the best bonus powers for the Adept are probably Fortification (or Barrier or Defense Matrix), Warp Ammo, and Energy Drain

Of Fortification/Barrier/Defense Matrix, Fortification has both the best power damage (+30%) and damage reduction (+40%) bonuses. You can swap out Fortification for Defense Matrix if you want the shield boost on purge ability, or use Barrier if you are a stickler for class-based powers. Barrier's purge ability -- lift enemies if they are hit in by the purge radius -- is not very good. I have tried a couple of times to try to build a playstyle out of it, but it just sucks too bad to be useful.

Warp Ammo is good for the extra damage you can do to enemies affected by other biotic powers, although it does not work on all biotic powers. (Someone tested it once and discovered it does not work with Dark Channel? I cannot remember; I don't think that information is on these new forums.) It should work with Warp and Reave.

Energy Drain is good if you want your own anti-shield power instead of relying on a squadmate with Energy Drain or Overload.

Reave can also work if you want to use it instead of Warp.

Thanks for the extra input. I didn't realize that having Liara might be a detriment to me as a Biotic myself. Obviously her Singularity that insta-appears where u want is better than mine.

Question: How do I determine to use throw or warp as a finisher? I admit I'm used to using Warp (i have it mapped on my controller.) I only get 3 choices - right now that are Singularity, Warp and Pull.

How much better is Javik than Kaidan? As I said, I think I am over-valuing his Overload.

I have been using Liara's warp-ammo as squad-based for now. I may dump that and spec into it myself once I can.

For detonating combos:
- Detonate biotic explosions with Throw.
- Detonate tech (cryo/electric/fire) explosions with Warp, since Warp will then prime for a biotic explosion which you can then detonate with another biotic power such as your throw. For example: Overload > Warp (tech burst/electrical explosion) > Throw (biotic explosion).

* further regarding chaining explosions: Some powers -- such as Overload, Incinerate, Warp, and Reave -- can both prime and detonate explosions. If you detonate an explosions with one of these powers, they will then immediately prime the target (if the target is still alive) for another explosion. However, you can only dual detonate+prime if the detonating power primes for a different type of explosion. For example, you can detonate Incinerate with Overload (fire explosion) and prime for a tech burst, but if you detonate Energy Drain with Overload, it will create a tech burst but not prime for another tech burst since they are both electric. This allows you to go tech primer > biotic detonator (tech explosion) > biotic detonator (biotic explosion). The Engineer can alternate Incinerate and Overload for alternating fire explosions and tech bursts.

On a controller, I would map: Throw, Singularity/Pull, and Throw

As for Javik versus Kaiden with an Adept Shepard:
- Javik's Pull is greater than anything Kaiden has for health-only enemies.
- Kaiden's Reave is better than Javik's Dark Channel. Reave can both prime and detonate biotic explosions; Dark Channel can only prime. Kaiden get get a quicker cooldown with Reave than Javik can with Dark Channel. Reave can hit multiple enemies at once (with rank 4 Radius), whereas Dark Channel is single-target. Dark Channel can jump to a new target when the first target dies, but in practice it does not happen all that often.

Since single player has mostly health-only targets, Javik tends to get more use than Kaiden. But you start to see more protected enemies in the later missions, so Kaiden can be more use there.

Thanks guys, just finished the coup attempt at the Citadel. Unless I'm stupid, in general I can take care of everything somewhat easily. It's still exciting, though. Had been running with Liara/James so far. I am guessing I'll try out Kaidan and spec him into Cryo maybe, perhaps Tali later on. So far, the only actual hard enemies are Nemesis who can one-shot you and Phantoms who rush you. Anything where I'm forced out of cover makes things interesting. Brutes are on a clock so if I tunnel them I usually am fine.

Even though Insanity is easier in ME3, I still find it enjoyable and still have to work for it. Next time I'll try out Vanguard for something totally different. I have a ton of the game more to go - still haven't faced the Geth yet, Banshees, etc.

Vega and Liara are awesome at taking down harvesters.  Detonating his carnage with a warp followed by a throw and another warp just devastates them.

Enjoy. I love that fight.

I know, I just like Flare's animation and op-ness. It's not really useful