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ME blather- Since one of my obsessions in RPG-type games is making sure things are spec-ed right, I actually spend a lot of time going over how my characters are built. Like I was looking through old forum posts the other day for opinions on how to spec certain squadmates, I saw someone post "auto-level, Shepard's good enough on his own." I'm sorry, but that is G-D friggin insane. Its like if you're not even bothering with your squadmates, why the eff are you playing this game?
In any case, since I hadn't played for a long while before picking the game back up again a few weeks ago, it was like having fresh eyes. So just putting my notes down for future reference: (I think I'll spread this out over multiple posts rather than having one ridiculously long post)
Javik- Let's start with him because you need to get him right the first time around, since unlike the rest of the regular squadmates, you can't reset his powers in the med bay:
Weapons:
Assault rifle- PPR, the best AR for squadmates, bar none. Since its being used by the computer, it knows how to manage the cooldown just fine. And because of the continuous beam, it works incredibly well for ammo powers, especially incendiary and cryo ammo. I still prefer the Typhoon for the Alliance folks (Ashley, Kaiden, Vega) but Javik and Garrus always get the PPR. Don't forget, the AR extended clip is a MUST. While squadmates have infinite ammo, the more capacity they have, the longer they can fire it before having to reload, giving you a higher DPS. (I mean, the PPR already has infinite ammo anyways, but again the purpose is to let them fire longer)
Pistol- Carnifex. You'll never use it because the PPR is his best weapon, but I guess if you had to the Carnifex has a good damage and fire rate. The only reason to use this is if you for some reason wanted more power damage from the pistol power magnifier.
Powers:
Vengeful Ancient- Yeah, he gets 40% power damage bonuses at 4 and 5, like I'm not going to take that? Go big or go home! As for the squad bonus at 6, the power/force/damage one. I'm not sure if that actually affects him (thus giving him 150% power damage), but even if it doesn't, its still better than increase shield recharge rate. The best defense is a good offense!
Dark Channel- His most important power. Duration for the evolution at 4, no question. I mean, you end up with more DoT (24 for 42 seconds vs 30 for 30 seconds you get with the damage evolution), plus you want it going as long as possible since 1) it will jump to other enemies after it kills the one its currently on (making it great against Ravagers, since it will just jump to the swarmers that pop out when you kill them and work its way through the swarm) and 2) on "big" enemies like Brutes and Banshees, that leaves them open for biotic explosions for a good while. Slow over Recharge at 5. Pierce at 6, as whenever you get bonuses against defenses like armor and barriers, you take it.
Lift Grenade- Normally I'm not too keen on grenades because they're a limited resource, but since its his best detonator. Radius at 4 and Damage/Radius at 6 to get as large a radius as possible to detonate primed as many enemies you can. Max grenades so you can have as many as possible- I mean, since you're using them more to detonate, duration is not as important.
Pull- Radius at 4, again so you can prime as many enemies as possible. Expose at 5, because whenever you get evolutions that increase damage from other sources, its always better than the damage it itself causes. Double pull at 6 again, because you want to prime as many enemies as possible.
Slam- this doesn't have as much utility as his other powers (or at the very least his other powers work in better concert together), hence its the one that gets left at 3.
Vega-
Weapons:
Assault rifle- N7 Typhoon (if you have it, otherwise the Revenant). It already has inherent piercing, it gets a 2x damage multiplier once it cycles up to its full firing rate, and does an additional 50% damage against any sort of protection (shields, armor, barriers). Since squadmates don't have to worry about weight, you can throw the high velocity barrel on there for the combo of increased damage and penetration. They're also perfectly accurate with it and are unaffected by recoil, so no need to waste a slot on a stability damper. Again, the extended capacity is a must, as that will allow them to fire longer between reloads. The Typhoon is especially good on Vega, as it works well with his incendiary ammo.
Shotgun- Wraith. Prolly the best shotgun in terms of damage and fire rate? Besides, the explosive burst chance from incendiary ammo is off of each individual pellet of a shot, so you want one of the normal shotguns as opposed to things that fire a single projectile like the Graal/Crusader/GPS.
Powers:
Arms Master- Durability at 4, because his whole purpose is to be a tank. Even though he has less offensive powers than other squadmates, power damage at 5, since the power damage increase from a character's passive ability actually does affect ammo powers. And since incendiary ammo is so great, you'll want that. (more on incendiary ammo later. Fortification at 6, because the other evolution is bugged so it doesn't affect your squad anyways. So if you took the other one, you'd be increasing Vega's health and shields by 20%, but not his squadmates, while fortification increases his health and shields by 40% plus gives him a melee bonus to boot. So basically it boils down to increase his health/shields by 20% or 40%. The choice is obvious.
Fortification- Durability at 4 for the tankiness. Power synergy at 5. Again, even though he's not really a powers guy, since its one of the few power damage bonuses that actually affects incendiary ammo, its prolly better than the increased shield charge rate. Durability at 6. Again, tank.
Incendiary Ammo- His bread and butter. Incendiary ammo is bugged, but in a good way. Fire based DoT is normally combined additively. That is definitely not the case here, where it interacts with itself for way higher damage. Even better is its interactions with warp. Shooting a warped enemy, or warping an enemy lit aflame by incendiary ammo will also cause this crazy damage boost. Plus, for some reason incendiary ammo will also take up warp's properties. Normally fire damage won't work on barriers, but if an enemy with barriers is under the effect of warp, it will. So yeah, damage at 4.
Capacity at 5. I don't think your squadmates can purposely make headshots so I'm not sure increasing headshot damage is all that effective. I mean, they may randomly hit an enemy in the head, but your best bet is capacity, since like the extended clip it will allow him to fire longer.
Explosive burst at 6. Explosive burst has a 50% of going off per shot, so obviously its good for a high rate of fire weapon like the Typhoon or Revenant. And it definitely goes off when penetrating cover, which the Typhoon can do inherently. But yeah, that explosive damage is much higher than the normal damage of each individual shot. So again, with high fire rate weapons, that increases the DPS by a lot.
Carnage- Its not the greatest power in the game, but its his best detonator. Especially on all those guys he's set ablaze with his incendiary firing typhoon. Damage at 4, as the increase in radius doesn't seem as significant. Incapacitate at 5, as the decrease in recharge time doesn't seem as significant either, so the knockdown effect is prolly more useful. Though that's also kinda moot since again you're using it as a detonator, whatever you hit is toast anyways, and the things that would survive (Brutes, Banshees, Atlases) aren't the kinda things you can knock down anyways. For the sixth evolution, armor damage. Again, if you increase damage vs a defense, its better than a straight damage increase.
Frag Grenades- Sorry, but you're the lousiest of the grenades, so its the obvious choice to leave at 3.
In any case, since I hadn't played for a long while before picking the game back up again a few weeks ago, it was like having fresh eyes. So just putting my notes down for future reference: (I think I'll spread this out over multiple posts rather than having one ridiculously long post)
Javik- Let's start with him because you need to get him right the first time around, since unlike the rest of the regular squadmates, you can't reset his powers in the med bay:
Weapons:
Assault rifle- PPR, the best AR for squadmates, bar none. Since its being used by the computer, it knows how to manage the cooldown just fine. And because of the continuous beam, it works incredibly well for ammo powers, especially incendiary and cryo ammo. I still prefer the Typhoon for the Alliance folks (Ashley, Kaiden, Vega) but Javik and Garrus always get the PPR. Don't forget, the AR extended clip is a MUST. While squadmates have infinite ammo, the more capacity they have, the longer they can fire it before having to reload, giving you a higher DPS. (I mean, the PPR already has infinite ammo anyways, but again the purpose is to let them fire longer)
Pistol- Carnifex. You'll never use it because the PPR is his best weapon, but I guess if you had to the Carnifex has a good damage and fire rate. The only reason to use this is if you for some reason wanted more power damage from the pistol power magnifier.
Powers:
Vengeful Ancient- Yeah, he gets 40% power damage bonuses at 4 and 5, like I'm not going to take that? Go big or go home! As for the squad bonus at 6, the power/force/damage one. I'm not sure if that actually affects him (thus giving him 150% power damage), but even if it doesn't, its still better than increase shield recharge rate. The best defense is a good offense!
Dark Channel- His most important power. Duration for the evolution at 4, no question. I mean, you end up with more DoT (24 for 42 seconds vs 30 for 30 seconds you get with the damage evolution), plus you want it going as long as possible since 1) it will jump to other enemies after it kills the one its currently on (making it great against Ravagers, since it will just jump to the swarmers that pop out when you kill them and work its way through the swarm) and 2) on "big" enemies like Brutes and Banshees, that leaves them open for biotic explosions for a good while. Slow over Recharge at 5. Pierce at 6, as whenever you get bonuses against defenses like armor and barriers, you take it.
Lift Grenade- Normally I'm not too keen on grenades because they're a limited resource, but since its his best detonator. Radius at 4 and Damage/Radius at 6 to get as large a radius as possible to detonate primed as many enemies you can. Max grenades so you can have as many as possible- I mean, since you're using them more to detonate, duration is not as important.
Pull- Radius at 4, again so you can prime as many enemies as possible. Expose at 5, because whenever you get evolutions that increase damage from other sources, its always better than the damage it itself causes. Double pull at 6 again, because you want to prime as many enemies as possible.
Slam- this doesn't have as much utility as his other powers (or at the very least his other powers work in better concert together), hence its the one that gets left at 3.
Vega-
Weapons:
Assault rifle- N7 Typhoon (if you have it, otherwise the Revenant). It already has inherent piercing, it gets a 2x damage multiplier once it cycles up to its full firing rate, and does an additional 50% damage against any sort of protection (shields, armor, barriers). Since squadmates don't have to worry about weight, you can throw the high velocity barrel on there for the combo of increased damage and penetration. They're also perfectly accurate with it and are unaffected by recoil, so no need to waste a slot on a stability damper. Again, the extended capacity is a must, as that will allow them to fire longer between reloads. The Typhoon is especially good on Vega, as it works well with his incendiary ammo.
Shotgun- Wraith. Prolly the best shotgun in terms of damage and fire rate? Besides, the explosive burst chance from incendiary ammo is off of each individual pellet of a shot, so you want one of the normal shotguns as opposed to things that fire a single projectile like the Graal/Crusader/GPS.
Powers:
Arms Master- Durability at 4, because his whole purpose is to be a tank. Even though he has less offensive powers than other squadmates, power damage at 5, since the power damage increase from a character's passive ability actually does affect ammo powers. And since incendiary ammo is so great, you'll want that. (more on incendiary ammo later. Fortification at 6, because the other evolution is bugged so it doesn't affect your squad anyways. So if you took the other one, you'd be increasing Vega's health and shields by 20%, but not his squadmates, while fortification increases his health and shields by 40% plus gives him a melee bonus to boot. So basically it boils down to increase his health/shields by 20% or 40%. The choice is obvious.
Fortification- Durability at 4 for the tankiness. Power synergy at 5. Again, even though he's not really a powers guy, since its one of the few power damage bonuses that actually affects incendiary ammo, its prolly better than the increased shield charge rate. Durability at 6. Again, tank.
Incendiary Ammo- His bread and butter. Incendiary ammo is bugged, but in a good way. Fire based DoT is normally combined additively. That is definitely not the case here, where it interacts with itself for way higher damage. Even better is its interactions with warp. Shooting a warped enemy, or warping an enemy lit aflame by incendiary ammo will also cause this crazy damage boost. Plus, for some reason incendiary ammo will also take up warp's properties. Normally fire damage won't work on barriers, but if an enemy with barriers is under the effect of warp, it will. So yeah, damage at 4.
Capacity at 5. I don't think your squadmates can purposely make headshots so I'm not sure increasing headshot damage is all that effective. I mean, they may randomly hit an enemy in the head, but your best bet is capacity, since like the extended clip it will allow him to fire longer.
Explosive burst at 6. Explosive burst has a 50% of going off per shot, so obviously its good for a high rate of fire weapon like the Typhoon or Revenant. And it definitely goes off when penetrating cover, which the Typhoon can do inherently. But yeah, that explosive damage is much higher than the normal damage of each individual shot. So again, with high fire rate weapons, that increases the DPS by a lot.
Carnage- Its not the greatest power in the game, but its his best detonator. Especially on all those guys he's set ablaze with his incendiary firing typhoon. Damage at 4, as the increase in radius doesn't seem as significant. Incapacitate at 5, as the decrease in recharge time doesn't seem as significant either, so the knockdown effect is prolly more useful. Though that's also kinda moot since again you're using it as a detonator, whatever you hit is toast anyways, and the things that would survive (Brutes, Banshees, Atlases) aren't the kinda things you can knock down anyways. For the sixth evolution, armor damage. Again, if you increase damage vs a defense, its better than a straight damage increase.
Frag Grenades- Sorry, but you're the lousiest of the grenades, so its the obvious choice to leave at 3.