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| Batarian Brawler |
I quite like the other Batarian characters; the Sentinel with his Submission net is like a sturdier version of my beloved Asari Adept (though less agile) and the Soldier can destroy crowds with his Ballistic Blades/Inferno grenades. So when i heard the new character was going to be the Batarian Vanguard, i was intrigued as to what his powers were going to be and then i found out it was Blade Amour and Lash. I guessed Blade Armour and that's fine but Lash, really? Anyway, i decided to reserve judgement until I'd played a couple games (on Gold) with him but unfortunately my sceptical views on Lash being the third, was merely confirmed. I don't need to say anything about the Biotic charge because it's basically the same as for any other Vanguard character and likewise for Blade Armour, there are no new evolutions here either.
Generally speaking Lash is a very weak offensive power, you'll struggle to kill even basic level troops unless you have it maxed out but maxing it out at the expense of another offensive powers or even Fitness, is not something i can approve of. The other use for Lash is to set off Biotic Explosions, which is arguably more useful than trying to kill something outright with it, though it's still one of the weaker detonators. Having said this, the Batarian can't prime for his own BEs so that's pretty much useless here and with BC available for closing in on a target, there isn't any real reason to use it, at all. As you can tell i was quite disappointed with this third power but it does mean, that should you be inclined, you can chose to skip Lash entirely and max out the rest.
You're probably wondering right now, so why should i use him over any other Vanguard? Well power wise there isn't much reason to BUT he does have one redeeming feature and that is the Batarian "wind up" heavy melee. When i first started using the Batarian characters, the heavy melee really annoyed me, i often found it quicker and much more efficient to drop a target by just shooting it in the face. I later found out (via Narida's ME3 mp class builder) that the Batarians heavy melee is incredibly powerful, in fact it's the highest damage dealing heavy melee, hence the reason for the slow build up. I also found out (from the BSN forums) that while you're in the heavy melee animation, you gain a momentary damage reduction from all enemy fire, which means the long wind up is not an automatic death sentence but could actually keep you alive.
If you think this class is beginning to sound a lot like another existing Vanguard class, then you'd be right; if we discount the Lash power, we're basically looking at a variant of the Krogan Battlemaster. Looks like we have another vs. situation on our hands, so let's get down to business. First off a quick overview of what's similar about the two characters, well they both have damage reduction power (remains active until manually disabled) that can be specced to reduce damage taken by up to 40%. There are however differences between the two and the most obvious one is that the Krogans Barrier can increase power damage, whereas the Batarians Blade Armour can only return damage to an enemy trying to melee you. The other difference is that Barrier can be detonated to cause an area of effect damage surrounding the Krogan, whereas the Batarian gains some extra damage to his melee, which as i already mentioned is already very high.
Moving onto the offensive power, well the Krogan has Carnage and the Batarian has Lash, at base level Carnage does nearly twice as much damage as Lash but don't forget that enemies pulled along the ground by Lash suffer additional damage (how much depends on the distance they are pulled). Personally i don't think either is worth maxing out on the Vanguards, not when you have Biotic Charge at your disposal, which damages and staggers enemies, while also putting you within range to perform a melee attack. Next let's cover the Fitness evolutions, well at base values the Krogan has about 33% more health and shields than the Batarian, so if you're going for durability alone, the Krogan is who you want. But if we move onto melee damages, well the Batarians heavy melee is about 33% more powerful than the Krogans but his light melee is about 50% weaker. It's worth noting here that while both heavy melees are high damage dealing, they both have drawbacks; the Batarian can be interrupted while winding up his punch, which can be problematic and the Krogan can miss entirely with his mini charge, which can also be quite annoying.
OK, so as you can see, the Batarian Brawler is pretty similar to the Krogan Battlemaster but does he play differently or not? Well, i specced my Brawler pretty much identically to the Battlemaster i.e. max health with the intention of using melee quite often, usually after a charge. I'm not sure if I'm making this up but movement wise the Brawler seems a bit faster than the Battlemaster, which is nice but not a major reason to pick one or the other. The Brawler has a slightly quicker light melee, so while it is weaker than the Battlemasters, you could chain more together in the same amount of time. The Brawlers heavy melee takes longer to carry out but there is a tiny bit of enemy tracking while it follows through, so you're much less likely to miss as opposed to using the Battlemasters heavy melee. Having said this, the Brawlers heavy melee can be interrupted, while i don't think the Battlemasters can; being left defenceless for a second on higher difficulties could spell death. Another point to mention here is that, if you are intending to use melee as your main form of attack, the Krogan can activate Rage after chaining together a few melee kills, this offers increased melee damage and additional damage reduction (the Batarian does not have this).
The next question is, what weapon to equip on these characters? Well, if you're intending to use the melee attack more than a few times in a match, my suggestion would be any weapon with a mod to increase melee damage i.e. heavy pistol, assault rifle or a shotgun. I personally use shotguns on my Krogan Battlemaster because he's all about the CQC but i find the Batarian not quite as easy to pigeon hole. He's slightly more vulnerable than the Krogan but that doesn't mean he never ventures into CQC, so a shotgun could work but definitely bring a back up for those ranged encounters or you could just stick with an assault rifle/heavy pistol, it's really all down to personal taste and play style.
The Batarian Brawler is a pretty sturdy character with a deadly melee and yes he is pretty similar to the Krogan Battlemaster, though there are slight difference between the two. The Brawler can spec his Blade Armour to increase all melee damage, whereas the Krogan can earn Rage (that also offers additional protection) but which only lasts temporarily. In summary; if you're only concern is durability then the Krogan is your man (or beast) but if you want the strongest melee, the Brawler is your guy (or whatever). Neither of the characters offensive powers are all that great (Lash / Carnage) and could be skipped entirely, though it might be useful to invest the basic six point, you know just in case. However, i think the biggest deciding factor in your decision making is which melee you prefer to use, the slower but more deadly (and slightly more accurate) Batarian super punch or the faster but somewhat hit and miss, Krogan mini charge. As much as i sometimes struggle to control the Krogans erratic heavy melee, i think I'd still call on him for when i need to dish out beat downs with a tanky character.
Generally speaking Lash is a very weak offensive power, you'll struggle to kill even basic level troops unless you have it maxed out but maxing it out at the expense of another offensive powers or even Fitness, is not something i can approve of. The other use for Lash is to set off Biotic Explosions, which is arguably more useful than trying to kill something outright with it, though it's still one of the weaker detonators. Having said this, the Batarian can't prime for his own BEs so that's pretty much useless here and with BC available for closing in on a target, there isn't any real reason to use it, at all. As you can tell i was quite disappointed with this third power but it does mean, that should you be inclined, you can chose to skip Lash entirely and max out the rest.
You're probably wondering right now, so why should i use him over any other Vanguard? Well power wise there isn't much reason to BUT he does have one redeeming feature and that is the Batarian "wind up" heavy melee. When i first started using the Batarian characters, the heavy melee really annoyed me, i often found it quicker and much more efficient to drop a target by just shooting it in the face. I later found out (via Narida's ME3 mp class builder) that the Batarians heavy melee is incredibly powerful, in fact it's the highest damage dealing heavy melee, hence the reason for the slow build up. I also found out (from the BSN forums) that while you're in the heavy melee animation, you gain a momentary damage reduction from all enemy fire, which means the long wind up is not an automatic death sentence but could actually keep you alive.
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| Krogan Battlemaster |
Moving onto the offensive power, well the Krogan has Carnage and the Batarian has Lash, at base level Carnage does nearly twice as much damage as Lash but don't forget that enemies pulled along the ground by Lash suffer additional damage (how much depends on the distance they are pulled). Personally i don't think either is worth maxing out on the Vanguards, not when you have Biotic Charge at your disposal, which damages and staggers enemies, while also putting you within range to perform a melee attack. Next let's cover the Fitness evolutions, well at base values the Krogan has about 33% more health and shields than the Batarian, so if you're going for durability alone, the Krogan is who you want. But if we move onto melee damages, well the Batarians heavy melee is about 33% more powerful than the Krogans but his light melee is about 50% weaker. It's worth noting here that while both heavy melees are high damage dealing, they both have drawbacks; the Batarian can be interrupted while winding up his punch, which can be problematic and the Krogan can miss entirely with his mini charge, which can also be quite annoying.
OK, so as you can see, the Batarian Brawler is pretty similar to the Krogan Battlemaster but does he play differently or not? Well, i specced my Brawler pretty much identically to the Battlemaster i.e. max health with the intention of using melee quite often, usually after a charge. I'm not sure if I'm making this up but movement wise the Brawler seems a bit faster than the Battlemaster, which is nice but not a major reason to pick one or the other. The Brawler has a slightly quicker light melee, so while it is weaker than the Battlemasters, you could chain more together in the same amount of time. The Brawlers heavy melee takes longer to carry out but there is a tiny bit of enemy tracking while it follows through, so you're much less likely to miss as opposed to using the Battlemasters heavy melee. Having said this, the Brawlers heavy melee can be interrupted, while i don't think the Battlemasters can; being left defenceless for a second on higher difficulties could spell death. Another point to mention here is that, if you are intending to use melee as your main form of attack, the Krogan can activate Rage after chaining together a few melee kills, this offers increased melee damage and additional damage reduction (the Batarian does not have this).
The next question is, what weapon to equip on these characters? Well, if you're intending to use the melee attack more than a few times in a match, my suggestion would be any weapon with a mod to increase melee damage i.e. heavy pistol, assault rifle or a shotgun. I personally use shotguns on my Krogan Battlemaster because he's all about the CQC but i find the Batarian not quite as easy to pigeon hole. He's slightly more vulnerable than the Krogan but that doesn't mean he never ventures into CQC, so a shotgun could work but definitely bring a back up for those ranged encounters or you could just stick with an assault rifle/heavy pistol, it's really all down to personal taste and play style.
The Batarian Brawler is a pretty sturdy character with a deadly melee and yes he is pretty similar to the Krogan Battlemaster, though there are slight difference between the two. The Brawler can spec his Blade Armour to increase all melee damage, whereas the Krogan can earn Rage (that also offers additional protection) but which only lasts temporarily. In summary; if you're only concern is durability then the Krogan is your man (or beast) but if you want the strongest melee, the Brawler is your guy (or whatever). Neither of the characters offensive powers are all that great (Lash / Carnage) and could be skipped entirely, though it might be useful to invest the basic six point, you know just in case. However, i think the biggest deciding factor in your decision making is which melee you prefer to use, the slower but more deadly (and slightly more accurate) Batarian super punch or the faster but somewhat hit and miss, Krogan mini charge. As much as i sometimes struggle to control the Krogans erratic heavy melee, i think I'd still call on him for when i need to dish out beat downs with a tanky character.
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