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Character Build: The Artillery Adept (ME3)

  • Member
    April 27, 2016

     

    The Artillery Adept

     

           The Artillery Adept, or as I call it the overly adeptly Adept, has only one strategy during fights: “Hit them hard and hit them fast!”. It uses biotic explosions detonated by Warp to inflict massive damage and weapons with a high rate of fire to finish the fight as fast as possible. The most experienced Adepts can kill every hostile npc in a room without firing a gun once. Let's get to it!

     

     Gameplay 

    “Stand fast, stand strong, stand together!”

           Playing the Artillery Adept is all about teamwork. The gameplay revolves around using powers at mid-to-long range from both Shepard and squad members. The goal is to disable enemies hiding behind cover and perform fast yet deadly area of effect biotic explosions. The Artillery Adept relies on amplified biotics with small cooldowns and uses weapons with a high rate of fire to wreak havoc. In order to reach the maximum biotic potential, Liara must always be part of the squad. She has two awesome abilities with very low cooldowns capable of temporarily neutralizing groups of enemies and priming them for biotic detonations: Singularity and the Stasis Bubble. These coupled with Warp, Energy Drain or grenades from the Artillery Adept result in massive damage on stronger foes and one-hit kills on weaker enemies. That said, this character can meet difficulty when fighting against armored foes. As a result, I advise taking EDI, Tali, Kaidan or James as the second squad member.

     

    Shepard

    Role: Biotic Detonator, Disabler.

    Description: Shepard built as an Artillery Adept represents the equivalent of a biotic sniper shooting bullets, in the form of Warps, with Area of Effect consequences. The key to succeeding in battle is having a good awareness of the surroundings and then syncronizing Warp with Liara's Singularity or Stasis Bubble. The Artillery Adept can draw enemies out of their cover from long range and effectively kill-shoot them using only biotic explosions. When hostiles are closing in, powers like Energy Drain and Cluster Grenade come in handy. Energy Drain is great for protection disabling and extra survivability while Cluster Grenade is the ow-shit button.

    Warp ( Spot 1 in the Abilities Bar ): The Artillery Adept uses Warp most often for biotic detonations. Used on its own, the power is fairly weak, but it still packs a decent punch against armored foes. When shot at a biotic primed npc with no protection, it causes an explosion that instantly kills the poor fellow. In addition to this, all the nearby npcs are thrown away and knocked out for a brief period of time. Simply put, the Artillery Adept uses Warp more often than all of the equipped weapons combined.

    Energy Drain ( Spot 3 in the Abilities Bar ): The Artillery Adept uses Energy Drain for three purposes. The first one is removing an npc's shield or barrier and paving the way for a biotic prime. The second one is survivability by filling the Adept's barrier to 100%. The third is damaging an Atlas's or a Banshee's first layer of protection.

    Cluster Grenade ( Spot 6 in the Abilities Bar ): The Artillery Adept increases the Area of Effect capabilities and number of equipped Cluster Grenades as much as possible. It's a great ability to use when enemy npcs are scattered or when something as dangerous as a Brute starts charging. Careful aim when throwing the grenades is recommended!

    Biotic Mastery: When it comes to Biotic Mastery, the Artillery Adept focuses everything on increasing the damage of powers such as Warp and improving the recharge time as well as the carrying capacity. Hit them hard and hit them fast!

     

    Liara T’Soni

    Role: Biotic Primer, Disabler.

    Description: Liara is the main biotic primer of the squad. Her most often used abilities are Singularity and the Stasis Bubble. Each one is capable of disabling entire groups of enemies - lifting them into the air or stopping them in their tracks. These powers also have the awesome effect of priming foes for biotic detonations. Her very low upgraded Singularity cooldown is essential to Warp combos. The Stasis Bubble on the other hand, while having a slightly higher recharge time, makes up by acting as a temporary Area of Effect disabler and crowd controller. Her third most used ability is Warp, which is very useful when encountering armored npcs. Liara is fairly weak and in consequence cautious manual positioning on the battleground is highly recommended. Her best spot is always as far as possible from the enemy.

    Singularity ( Spot 2 in the Abilities Bar ): Why use Liara's Singularity and not the Artillery Adept's? It's very simple. First of all, Liara's Singularity can be upgraded to have a very short cooldown. Second, the power is instantly activated at the targeted location. It does not travel there from Liara's position. Third, it can be triggered behind Cerberus Guardians, helplessly lifting the into the air without their shields. And fourth, it disables unprotected hostile npcs while priming them for a biotic detonation.

    Stasis ( Spot 4 in the Abilities Bar ): The Stasis Bubble is by far one of the best Area of Effect powers that can disable foes. Simply put, it creates a spherical biotic field at a targeted area that temporarily stops in place pretty much anything that passes through. The only npcs that are immune to it are those that have armor protection. That's the beauty of it, npcs with shields and barries are vulnerable to its effects. To top it off, the power also primes biotic detonations. Using Warp after will blast away protection layers leaving weapons to do the rest of the job.

    Warp: Liara's Warp is never used for detonating biotic explosions. It is used only against npcs with armor like the Atlas, Brute and Banshee. Because of this, the power is upgraded for maximum damage and not for biotic combos. This is the reason why it hasn't got any place in the abilities bar.

    Pure Biotic: The last upgrade in Liara's Pure Biotic tree is insanely useful! It reduces the cooldown of her Singularity by 100%. This translates to more biotic explosions and in turn more Area of Effect damage. Among others, this is a very good reason to use Liara's Singularity and not the Artillery Adept's for biotic primes.

     

    The Second Squad Member

    The Artillery Adept can struggle against hostile npcs protected by armor, barriers or shields: the Atlas, the Brute and the Banshee. This is where the second squad member becomes useful. He or she brings to the battlefield anti-armor/shield/barrier powers to turn the scale in the Adept's favor. My personal recommendations are EDI, Tali'Zorah, Kaidan and James.

    • EDI: EDI has Incinerate. Any fire based power is great against armored foes. In addition to this, she also has Overload which can be upgraded to do 100% more damage to shields and barriers.
    • Tali'Zorah vas Normandy: Tali is best used when fighting multiple enemies protected by shields and barriers. In these scenarios her Energy Drain and Overload are priceless.
    • Kaidan Alenko: Kaidan has a very effective ability, Reave. Reave primes armored targets for biotic detonations. This power can be used to inflict sever damage on Atlases, Brutes and Banshees.
    • James Vega: James is very useful against armored targets because of the Incendiary Ammo and Carnage abilities. Incendiary Ammo can be upgraded to share the effects with the rest of the squad while Carnage can deal a lot of damage on armor.

     

     Weapons 

    The Artillery Adept uses weapons so rarely in a fight that it is very unlikely to ever run out of thermal clips. That said, there are still situations when guns are preferable to using powers.

    • M-15 Vindicator: The Vindicator is the Artillery Adept's main weapon. For maximum efficiency it is upgraded with Assault Rifle Extended Barrel and Assault Rifle Stability Damper.
    • M-6 Carnifex: The Artillery Adept uses the Carnifx only when dealing with armored npcs. It is upgraded with Pistol High-Caliber Barrel and Pistol Magazine Upgrade.
    • M-9 Tempest (Optional): An alternative to the Vindicator is the Tempest. It is upgraded with SMG Ultra Light Materials and SMG High Caliber Barrel.

     

     Armor 

    When it comes to armor, the Artillery Adept needs something that increases Power Damage and improves Power Recharge.

    • Head: Umbra Visor (Power Damage +5%)
    • Chest: Serrice Council (Power Damage +10%)
    • Shoulders: Rosenkov Materials (Power Recharge +10%)
    • Arms: Rosenkov Materials (Power Recharge +10%)
    • Legs: Rosenkov Materials (Power Recharge +10%)

     

    Closing Notes

    That's about it. I would like to credit all the authors whose pictures I've used in this build:

    http://stevegoadart.com/?page_id=884#foobox-1/22/commission___greywalker_by_stevegoad.jpg
    http://jocker909.deviantart.com/art/Mass-Effect-James-Vega-378990042
    http://keldoun.deviantart.com/art/Mass-Effect-N7-Wallpaper-299607768
    http://andrewryanart.deviantart.com/art/Kaidan-Alenko-307058469
    http://brinx-ii.deviantart.com/art/Tali-Zorah-vas-Normandy-288423806

     

    If you want to check out my Fallout 4 character builds, click on any of the posters below! 

          

    If you want to check out my Skyrim character builds, click on any of the posters below! 

        

          

        

         

  • April 29, 2016

    Nice presentation for a class that really shine in Mass Effect 3. I think warp and prothean rifle with incendiary will kill a Banshee easier than biotic explosions, while Inferno Armor is a good choice for power based avatars.

  • Member
    September 17, 2017

    I had almost forgotten about this one. What a treat!