Casimeer "Incredibly Useful Trick Against Phantoms (& to a lesser degree, Banshees)"

First things first, I must apologize if this is widely known amongst the people who frequent here. However, since I lurk a fair bit in these forums I can say with confidence that this useful tip isn't known to many, or if it is then people definitely haven't been very talkative about it. Hell, I've never seen this particular tip mentioned (in one form or another) by some of the better ME3 players that upload videos, such as Stardusk, Zhk3r, Specter, Xcal, etc., but I digress.

Now onto the topic at hand.

As from the title, one can safely say that this particular enemy, Phantom(s), can be a definite pain in the ass if for nothing else because of her ability to block via barriers the damage from both powers & grenades. I've seen countless teammates needlessly & unsuccessfully spam either their powers or grenades at a Phantom and have it been all for nothing, & with the Phantom then continuing their kamikaze death-charge at said teammates without so much as a scratch.

And I'm here to advertise that such will no longer be the case after utilizing this trick that I learned a fair while ago.

But (yes, there is always a "but") this will only work with a certain amount of abilities, particulary those deal direct damage, do not "need to be locked on a target" to be of any utility, & are regularly blocked by Phantoms (& Banshees, as well). Such abilities are:

Any type of grenade(s)
Ex-Cerberus's Smash
N7 Shadow's Electric Slash
N7 Slayer's Biotic Slash
Proximity Mine (admittedly, this one is fairly challenging and the radius evolution is something of a must)

Now if one had noticed that I had said "need to be locked on a target," you might ask yourself, "What exactly does that even mean?"

To explain this, whenever one is facing an enemy, the enemy will have those orange-brownish brackets around the four corners of their body and one will be able to see exactly how much health, shields, armor, etc. they have. This is what I mean by being "locked on." Continuing on, if you then shift your POV to the right, left, up or down and both the brackets and enemy's health information disappear then you are "not locked on" to the target.

I explain this so that the rest of the subject matter will be clearer.

To perform the Phantom trick with the abilities listed above, what you want to do is to trigger those powers while NOT INITIALLY LOCKED ON THE PHANTOM, and then once the abilities animation is in motion you can then turn back to the Phantom (i.e. locked on her) and SHE WILL NOT PUT UP HER BARRIER NOR WILL SHE BLOCK THE DAMAGE, and she will also be staggered in addition to taking the damage.

To illustrate this, I will use the N7 Demolisher as an example:

So, I'm playing against Cerberus and I, as the Demolisher, see a Phantom coming towards my direction. What I personally do is look to the right of her (doesn't matter which direction) so that I am NOT LOCKED ON her, trigger the Arc Grenade's throwing animation, then turn left so that I'm facing her (it doesn't matter if I'm targeting her as long as it's after the animation has started; or in other words, if I don't initially target her) and she will take the full brunt of the damage, be staggered, and will not throw up her barriers.

Same instance but in bullet-point format:

See a Phantom charging my N7 Demolisher-self
look to the right so that I'm not locked on her
trigger the Arc Grenade's throwing animation
turn left, facing the Phantom so I can land said Arc Grenade square on her dome
Said Phantom takes full damage
Chuck another Arc Grenade at her using the same tactic
Finish her off with the Harrier
Rinse and repeat with any other Phantoms

It seems the way the game mechanics work in this particular manner is that the Phantom (and again, Banshee's, too) will only put damage-absorbing barriers when they're targeted or are locked on by a power or grenade. Such is also the case when one targets another enemy (e.g. Assault Trooper, Marauder, Geth Trooper) and they then proceed to perform their dodge.

Now I apologize for the length of this post, for I have no reasonable means of recording and I wanted to be as clear as possible. If, however, someone is willing to record this method and upload it to YouTube, I would be more than glad to append this post with the footage.:happy:


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[*]TL;DR: Follow this example and insert the powers listed in one of the bullet-points:


[*]See a Phantom charging my N7 Demolisher-self[*]look to the right so that I'm not locked on her[*]trigger the Arc Grenade's throwing animation[*]turn left, facing the Phantom so I can land said Arc Grenade square on her dome[*]Said Phantom takes full damage
[*]Chuck another Arc Grenade at her using the same tactic[*]Finish her off with the Harrier[*]Rinse and repeat with any other Phantoms[/list]