Asari Valkyrie (vs. N7 Fury) - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Asari Valkyrie

Earlier this week Bioware released another one of the new multiplayer characters; the Asari Valkyrie. As a fan of biotic characters (who doesn't like the biotic BOOM?!), I was quite looking forward to trying out this character when the full list of new characters was released a few weeks ago. For those that don't know, she is classified as a Sentinel and her powers comprise of Tech Armour, Annihilation Field and Warp. 

At first thought I imagined her to be a sturdier version of my beloved N7 Fury and after a couple matches (on Gold) with the Valkyrie, i was proved half right. Assuming you spec into tech armour and have it turned on, she can take a little bit more punishment than the Fury before getting downed but as with all Biotics, you're not really meant to be lingering in front of enemy fire for prolonged periods anyway, so it's nice but not amazing.

N7 Fury

The biggest difference between the Valkyrie and the Fury is the biotic explosions themselves. With the Fury i can rush a group of base level troops i.e. cannibals, prime one target with my AF and detonate with Throw, this usually kills it outright and severely injures any other enemies within the vicinity, if not killing them too. But when i tried this with the Valkyrie (against all the factions), her BEs from AF and Warp, did not kill the base level troops and most (if not all) were able to get back up after being flattened. 

This therefore leads me to believe that the BEs of the Valkyrie are slightly weaker than that of the Fury's and i believe the reason for these weaker BEs is the detonator being used. The Throw power alone does some damage when it knocks an enemy along the ground or flying into the air and it can even do extra immediate damage upon impact, when specced for it in it's final evolution. I don't know if Throw causes a more damaging BE but it definitely adds that little bit of extra damage that is needed to kill basic level troops in a single boom.

Another reason that Warp is not a very good detonator, is that it has a much slower recharge time than Throw but the biggest draw back of Warp being used a detonator, is it's travel time. A lot of the enemies are pretty agile and most will try and dodge the power you throw at them, so if you miss with your first shot, you've got an anxious wait for your next attempt. This might not be such an issue if you're going up against a single enemy unit but if you stumble across a group and/or get jumped by one, you can find yourself in a spot of bother, if you need to need to set off a few BEs.

The other very noticeable difference between the Valkyrie and Fury, is that the former has no means of setting off her own BEs from a distance. That is to say, unlike the Fury who has Dark Channel, the Valkyrie must get in close and prime with her AF in order to set off a biotic boom. For tougher enemies and in particular bosses that have sync kills, this is definitely not ideal or safe to do and that's why you need to carry a decent weapon into combat.

So, moving onto the final point of discussion, what weapon should you slap in her hands? Well, at first i tried the Hurricane, as that's what i usually use on a heavy power user but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Due to the weaker BEs of the Valkyrie, i found myself having to shoot a lot more than i would normally do with another biotic character. That's when i decided to pull out the Piranah and that seemed to suit her play style much better. It seems you need a decent weapon to either soften up/finish off most enemies before/after a BE and of course to tackle bosses, whom you should always hit with Warp for it's de-buffing.

The Valkyrie is an interesting character, her powers indicate a biotic power house similar to the N7 Fury but in practice, not quite. By all means, set off BEs when you can but definitely bring along a decent weapon that you won't mind using all game, cus you'll be needing it. You can't teleport like the N7 Fury but the Asari slide is more than adequate for dodging opponents, arguably better in some cases. Having Tech Armour means you can take point occasionally but having slower and weaker BEs will mean you need to take greater caution when doing so.

The Valkyrie is a nice rounded character and being a bit sturdier than the average biotic, means you can get stuck into more gun fights on the front line, though I don't think she was exactly designed for rushing the enemy (but that's not to say she can't). I think her main strength lies in supporting a team, you can use Warp to weaken tougher enemies and/or prime/detonate other players powers, while putting in some weapon damage. In summary; the Valkyrie is a good mix of power use and gun play but if you're looking for a character that excels in either field, you might want to try elsewhere. 

Edit - 8th January 2013:
In recent weeks a particular playstyle has emerged for the Asari Valkyrie, i've noticed quite a lot of players using Warp for it's de-buffing benefits and then melting enemies with the Reegar Carbine shotgun. I've actually tried this tactic out a few times for myself and it seems to work rather well, you can run out of ammo quite fast but that's because you're taking out quite a few enemies in the process. The Reegar is a somewhat heavy weapon, even at level X, so you're not going to be able to use your powers that often but if you try and set off a Biotic explosion just as you're moving in to attack (i.e. AF & Warp), you can stagger enemies while also softening them up. On basic and low level troops this tactic works a treat but you'll really start to notice it's true potential when you begin attacking bosses.