Indepth Volus Mercenary Sentinel
Jan 4, 2017 11:15:21 GMT
MPApr2012, Abramsrunner, and 4 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2017 11:15:21 GMT
I've been wanting to make something like this for a while and I want to give my insight on one of my favourite characters also because I got bored one night and felt like making this thread about the VMS.
First off the volus mercenary sentinel, is part of the sentinel branch of characters and owns the following powers, decoy, shield boost and combat drone. He's frail in the health and shields department, has the combat roll dodge, light melee that activates a temporary cloak, and his heavy melee acts as a bubble that shield himself and damage nearby enemies. His set of powers are more on the defensive side, therefore the VMS is a weapon platform character (A character who outputs damage predominately through weapons rather than powers).
Powers
This is where I explain the powers.
Note: This is not the only way to spec for these powers, spec it for however you see fit.
Decoy
This is self explanatory, you summon an exact image of the same character model that will soak up damage and aggro from enemy units that are susceptible to it. Decoy does have a cap of how many enemies it can attract.
Things to note: Decoy takes half damage when hit (IIRC from an old BSN thread about special properties of certain powers), also most attacks can't properly target the decoy meaning the only few enemies from what I notice that can damage the decoy are geth bombers, geth rocket troopers and ravager sack explosion (when the sack explodes near the decoy).
In terms of speccing for decoy, you can't go too wrong with decoy.
3 ranks into decoy:
I've seen someone only spec 3 ranks into decoy, which is viable and still allows decoy to do it's job, however you may want to consider the factions you face, more notably with the geth because you really don't want to babysit the decoy because of the low shields it will be easily taken out by geth bombers and geth rocket trooper. Unless you're fine with a less durable decoy then go for it.
Full duration spec'd decoy:
This is really good because it will allow the decoy to suck up more aggro for longer periods of time.
Full durability spec'd decoy:
This is self explanatory it will be able to absorb more damage.
Overall it depends what you need out of decoy so for me personally I don't really utilise the shock or exploding decoy evolutions.
Combat Drone
There's nothing much to say about this power, it's pet a power that take off aggro of your teammates and can output damage either in close quarters or from range depending how you spec'd for it.
Suicide combat drone
This is no surprise, this combat drone spec puts this in close quarters by using the exploding combat drone evo, shock evo and chain lightning evo.
Rocket drone
Here you spec for full durability and take the rocket evo at rank 6. This changes the combat drone's AI to target enemies from range and will avoid close confrontation with enemies.
Note: When going for the rocket drone spec you will have to look after it in terms of making sure it's in good targeting range and won't instead shoot a rocket and end up hitting a wall.
Shield boost
Shield boost oh boy this is the volus's trademark power and what makes him quite tanky. You restore your own and your teammates shields/barriers, and gives a short heal over time in the form of healing your shields for 3 secs default and can be spec'd damage reduction.
Radius or increased shield restore
Nothing much to say radius is good for team play and shield restore for more shields to be restored. I usually go with the increased shield restore.
Recharge speed or regeneration
Regeneration is not bad if you're aiming for a fast shield recharge build but I usually go for recharge speed most of the time.
Protection rank 6
No much to explain besides giving damage reduction to you and your teammates. The damage reduction is really good for surviving burst damage.
Duration rank 6
A lot of people like to dismiss duration but in my opinion it's just as useful in it's own right. Duration means you extend the shield restore duration allowing you to heal more shields over time. This is useful for surviving damage over time effects from attacks like the atlas rockets and banshee warps. Also because of the extended shield duration of 6 seconds, when you're taking damage, you're also restoring shields allowing you keep your shields up to prevent damage being done to your health.
Overall it depends, I usually die mostly from burst damage, so protection works for me best overall than with duration.
Note: You get invincibility frames after using shield boost, meaning you can survive attacks briefly for a few seconds after using shield boost. Also you get these invincibility frames with either evolutions on rank 6. And IIRC this doesn't apply to teammates, only to the user.
Light/Heavy melee
Light melee
Light melee puts the volus in cloak similarly to that of the infiltrator when they use tactical cloak, except what makes the volus cloak different from TC is that it doesn't get a damage bonus but the volus can still shoot whilst in cloak whereas with tactical cloak, the cloak effect will fade as soon as you shoot and melee (I think).
Heavy melee
Heavy melee puts the volus into defensive bubble stance that can be used for invincibility frames briefly after putting the volus into the bubble stance, the bubble also damages nearby enemies and restores small amounts of your shields whilst in the defensive bubble.
Volus training
I recommend weapon damage, because that's the only reliable damage source the VMS has although I wouldn't blame you if you wanted increased weapon weight capacity for faster cooldowns.
Rank 5 I pick shield boost although power damage also works to increase damage on your combat drone or decoy and the initial amount of shields restored.
Tips, tricks and advice
If you cast decoy on top of crates or anywhere that puts the decoy on higher elevation means the geth bomber can't do anything to damage the decoy.
With the rocket combat drone you can get creative and put it in interesting places if casted near a solid vertical surface like a wall, for example the support beams in firebase white when go up the stairs and you look up, you can place the combat drone up there and will target enemies below.
The heavy melee can give invincibility frames to survive attacks for example, praetorian lasers, atlas rockets, banshee scream + warps, brute charge, etc
The volus has 2 cloaks on separate cooldowns, one is through the light melee and another is while running you can activate cloak.
You can reload cancel off of the light melee.
Decoy is good for blocking off choke points to make hacking circles easier for you and your teammates.
When casting the suicide combat drone or decoy near a banshee during warp casting mode will force out her banshee scream which is better to allow power casters to do damage to the banshee.
The decoy can act as a wall and block damage from the banshee warps, although I wouldn't count on this since it's usually better to just shield boost through the banshee warps.
The heavy melee bubble stance is good for staggering dragoons for easy kills, I usually do this after dragoons miss their lunge attack.
Builds
For builds you can no fitness 66660, no combat drone 60666, no decoy 06666, no passives 66606 or a mix that utilises all powers and fitness.
Overall please spec to however you see fit, I’m perfectly fine with however you wish to spec your VMS.
An example of a VMS build you can use or make your own through this website.
Weapon recommendations:
These are what I've used in the past, if you find see a weapon that you like and it's not on the list then by all means use that particular weapon don't let my list of weapons discourage whatever current weapon you rock on the VMS.
Assault rifles
Plasma particle rifle
Cerberus harrier
M-7 Lancer
M-99 Saber
Pistols
Arc pistol
Acolyte - For obvious reasons like phantoms and barrier/shield stripping or ragdoll shenanarys
M-358 Talon
N7 Eagle - Believe me I've used this before and it's not too bad actually on the VMS
SMGs
N7 Hurricane
Collector SMG
Shotguns
Reegar carbine
M-11 wraith
Gear recommendations
Just like with the weapon recommendations if you see a gear that you like to you and it's not on this list then by all means use that gear.
Assault rifle amp
Pistol amp
Multicapacitor
SMG amp
Shotgun amp
Thermal clip storage
Armored Compartments
Assault loadout
Barrage Upgrade (Obviously to use for weapons that need stability)
Geth Scanner
Medi-gel transmitter
Responder Loadout
Stronghold package
Survivor loadout
For now this is pretty much all things VMS, he's not the flashiest of characters but he's super useful and fits well into any kind of team composition. He's literally a pain in the ass for enemies to deal with overall by going invisible, drawing aggro away from teammates with the decoy and combat drone and having shield boost there to heal the damage for you and your teammates.
I'll edit this later if I see anything that needs to be added.
Introduction
First off the volus mercenary sentinel, is part of the sentinel branch of characters and owns the following powers, decoy, shield boost and combat drone. He's frail in the health and shields department, has the combat roll dodge, light melee that activates a temporary cloak, and his heavy melee acts as a bubble that shield himself and damage nearby enemies. His set of powers are more on the defensive side, therefore the VMS is a weapon platform character (A character who outputs damage predominately through weapons rather than powers).
Powers
This is where I explain the powers.
Note: This is not the only way to spec for these powers, spec it for however you see fit.
Decoy
This is self explanatory, you summon an exact image of the same character model that will soak up damage and aggro from enemy units that are susceptible to it. Decoy does have a cap of how many enemies it can attract.
Things to note: Decoy takes half damage when hit (IIRC from an old BSN thread about special properties of certain powers), also most attacks can't properly target the decoy meaning the only few enemies from what I notice that can damage the decoy are geth bombers, geth rocket troopers and ravager sack explosion (when the sack explodes near the decoy).
In terms of speccing for decoy, you can't go too wrong with decoy.
3 ranks into decoy:
I've seen someone only spec 3 ranks into decoy, which is viable and still allows decoy to do it's job, however you may want to consider the factions you face, more notably with the geth because you really don't want to babysit the decoy because of the low shields it will be easily taken out by geth bombers and geth rocket trooper. Unless you're fine with a less durable decoy then go for it.
Full duration spec'd decoy:
This is really good because it will allow the decoy to suck up more aggro for longer periods of time.
Full durability spec'd decoy:
This is self explanatory it will be able to absorb more damage.
Overall it depends what you need out of decoy so for me personally I don't really utilise the shock or exploding decoy evolutions.
Combat Drone
There's nothing much to say about this power, it's pet a power that take off aggro of your teammates and can output damage either in close quarters or from range depending how you spec'd for it.
Suicide combat drone
This is no surprise, this combat drone spec puts this in close quarters by using the exploding combat drone evo, shock evo and chain lightning evo.
Rocket drone
Here you spec for full durability and take the rocket evo at rank 6. This changes the combat drone's AI to target enemies from range and will avoid close confrontation with enemies.
Note: When going for the rocket drone spec you will have to look after it in terms of making sure it's in good targeting range and won't instead shoot a rocket and end up hitting a wall.
Shield boost
Shield boost oh boy this is the volus's trademark power and what makes him quite tanky. You restore your own and your teammates shields/barriers, and gives a short heal over time in the form of healing your shields for 3 secs default and can be spec'd damage reduction.
Radius or increased shield restore
Nothing much to say radius is good for team play and shield restore for more shields to be restored. I usually go with the increased shield restore.
Recharge speed or regeneration
Regeneration is not bad if you're aiming for a fast shield recharge build but I usually go for recharge speed most of the time.
Protection rank 6
No much to explain besides giving damage reduction to you and your teammates. The damage reduction is really good for surviving burst damage.
Duration rank 6
A lot of people like to dismiss duration but in my opinion it's just as useful in it's own right. Duration means you extend the shield restore duration allowing you to heal more shields over time. This is useful for surviving damage over time effects from attacks like the atlas rockets and banshee warps. Also because of the extended shield duration of 6 seconds, when you're taking damage, you're also restoring shields allowing you keep your shields up to prevent damage being done to your health.
Overall it depends, I usually die mostly from burst damage, so protection works for me best overall than with duration.
Note: You get invincibility frames after using shield boost, meaning you can survive attacks briefly for a few seconds after using shield boost. Also you get these invincibility frames with either evolutions on rank 6. And IIRC this doesn't apply to teammates, only to the user.
Light/Heavy melee
Light melee
Light melee puts the volus in cloak similarly to that of the infiltrator when they use tactical cloak, except what makes the volus cloak different from TC is that it doesn't get a damage bonus but the volus can still shoot whilst in cloak whereas with tactical cloak, the cloak effect will fade as soon as you shoot and melee (I think).
Heavy melee
Heavy melee puts the volus into defensive bubble stance that can be used for invincibility frames briefly after putting the volus into the bubble stance, the bubble also damages nearby enemies and restores small amounts of your shields whilst in the defensive bubble.
Volus training
I recommend weapon damage, because that's the only reliable damage source the VMS has although I wouldn't blame you if you wanted increased weapon weight capacity for faster cooldowns.
Rank 5 I pick shield boost although power damage also works to increase damage on your combat drone or decoy and the initial amount of shields restored.
Tips, tricks and advice
If you cast decoy on top of crates or anywhere that puts the decoy on higher elevation means the geth bomber can't do anything to damage the decoy.
With the rocket combat drone you can get creative and put it in interesting places if casted near a solid vertical surface like a wall, for example the support beams in firebase white when go up the stairs and you look up, you can place the combat drone up there and will target enemies below.
The heavy melee can give invincibility frames to survive attacks for example, praetorian lasers, atlas rockets, banshee scream + warps, brute charge, etc
The volus has 2 cloaks on separate cooldowns, one is through the light melee and another is while running you can activate cloak.
You can reload cancel off of the light melee.
Decoy is good for blocking off choke points to make hacking circles easier for you and your teammates.
When casting the suicide combat drone or decoy near a banshee during warp casting mode will force out her banshee scream which is better to allow power casters to do damage to the banshee.
The decoy can act as a wall and block damage from the banshee warps, although I wouldn't count on this since it's usually better to just shield boost through the banshee warps.
The heavy melee bubble stance is good for staggering dragoons for easy kills, I usually do this after dragoons miss their lunge attack.
Builds
For builds you can no fitness 66660, no combat drone 60666, no decoy 06666, no passives 66606 or a mix that utilises all powers and fitness.
Overall please spec to however you see fit, I’m perfectly fine with however you wish to spec your VMS.
An example of a VMS build you can use or make your own through this website.
Weapon recommendations:
These are what I've used in the past, if you find see a weapon that you like and it's not on the list then by all means use that particular weapon don't let my list of weapons discourage whatever current weapon you rock on the VMS.
Assault rifles
Plasma particle rifle
Cerberus harrier
M-7 Lancer
M-99 Saber
Pistols
Arc pistol
Acolyte - For obvious reasons like phantoms and barrier/shield stripping or ragdoll shenanarys
M-358 Talon
N7 Eagle - Believe me I've used this before and it's not too bad actually on the VMS
SMGs
N7 Hurricane
Collector SMG
Shotguns
Reegar carbine
M-11 wraith
Gear recommendations
Just like with the weapon recommendations if you see a gear that you like to you and it's not on this list then by all means use that gear.
Assault rifle amp
Pistol amp
Multicapacitor
SMG amp
Shotgun amp
Thermal clip storage
Armored Compartments
Assault loadout
Barrage Upgrade (Obviously to use for weapons that need stability)
Geth Scanner
Medi-gel transmitter
Responder Loadout
Stronghold package
Survivor loadout
For now this is pretty much all things VMS, he's not the flashiest of characters but he's super useful and fits well into any kind of team composition. He's literally a pain in the ass for enemies to deal with overall by going invisible, drawing aggro away from teammates with the decoy and combat drone and having shield boost there to heal the damage for you and your teammates.
I'll edit this later if I see anything that needs to be added.
