Volus Mercenary - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Volus Mercenary

It's typical isn't it, the one week when I couldn't careless whether Bioware release their weekly update and new character on time or not (because I'm busy with Black Ops 2), that they decide to finally get their act together *rolls eyes*. Anyways, this weeks character was the Volus Mercenary (see last weeks article for my review of the Vorcha Hunter), he's classified as a Sentinel and comes stocked with Decoy and Combat Drone, as well as the Volus standard of Shield Boost. There was mixed feelings when Bioware first announced the Volus race as new playable characters in multiplayer but i think that most people warmed to the new characters once they actually unlocked them. I was personally indifferent about the situation but will admit that i was pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed playing as the Volus characters, once i got lucky enough to unlock them. When i first heard that the new character was going to be a Volus, my interest peaked slightly but my biggest question was, would it fill a role that already exists or bring an entirely different playstyle via a new power?

I think that generally Volus characters are considered as "support" characters, while i don't disagree with this idea, i don't think it's entirely accurate all the time. How you choose to spec the powers and then how you actually play the character is what i believe, determines the role you take in a match. I for one, could not spend an entire match just shadowing teammates and spamming Shield Boost (though i do if i'm not using my other powers), true it can be a pretty effective tactic but it's not the only thing the Volus characters can do. I play very offensively (my prefered gameplay style) with my Volus Engineer, using the Recon Mine to provide enemy locations and then hitting them with a Proximity Mine for debuffing, before putting them down with a storm of bullets from my Hurricane. The Volus Adept on the other hand, i tend to play a bit more reservedly because i can't seem to kill as fast; my usual tactic is to use Stasis Bubble to take care of crowds of basic troops and then weakening bosses with the Biotic Orbs.

So as you can probably guess, i was disappointed when i found out about the Volus Mercenarys powers, for starters none of them are new (the other two characters had new powers) but worst of all, none of the powers are offensive. My original thought is that this Volus character would be the ultimate support character and after playing a couple matches, i think my assumption was pretty accurate. Out of all the current Volus characters the Sentinel kills the slowest and the main reason for this is that he doesn't have any debuffing powers, instead he has what i like to call "distraction" powers in the form of Decoy and Combat Drone. Decoy operates just like it does the for the Salarian Engineer, upon being cast, a hologram of your character appears and has the chance to fool enemies into thinking it's the real you. The Combat Drone is the same as it is for the Human Engineers, it can be spawned at your side or right next to an enemy unit, harassing them out of cover and then drawing their fire while you return some of your own.

In a lot of ways both powers are very similar, hence why i'm a bit confused as to why Bioware felt the need to give the Volus Mercenary both? For example both can be specced to shock enemies within range, both can be specced to explode upon destruction, both draw enemy fire and both can distract enemies for a set amount of time. I suppose one way of looking at it is that, if you have both the Decoy and Combat Drone active at the same time, it's another two targets that the enemy can shoot at besides you. Don't get my wrong, it's great not being shot at (especially at the higher difficulties), i'm just saying it would've been nice to have one power that can actually do some damage while said enemy is distracted. I chose shocking evolutions for both the decoy and drone, this seems to keep enemies occupied for a good while, allowing yourself and fellow teammates to stick the boot in. Another strategy, though i can't vouch for it's effectiveness, is to spec the drone for rockets and have it shoot at enemies trying to attack your decoy. Though if i'm being quite honest you're probably going to be doing more damage with a gun, than waiting for the rockets to do their thing.

This leads me nicely onto weapon choices for the VM, well the way i see it, is that there are two routes you can take and choosing one or the other, will dictate how you play the character. The first tactic is to go full on support, pack a light weapon such as an SMG or a Heavy Pistol, then simply spam decoy/drone for distraction purposes and shield boost to keep your crew fighting fit. As i mentioned earlier i rolled with a Hurricane and this worked fairly well but requires you to be uncomfortably close to the enemy, in order to do major damage. The second option is to take a heavier weapon (or if you want, a really heavy weapon) and only occasionally spawn a decoy/drone but using the cooldown period to dispatch of any enemies (from afar) that are distracted, before moving onto your next prey. I suppose a sniper or assault rifle would work well to, giving you a nice balance between cooldowns and weapon damage but you'd have to find out what works for you. I don't really recommend a shotgun because this will usually have you involved in constant CQC, which is not ideal for a character that has low health/shield values, not to mention one lacking in offensive/debuffing powers.

For regular readers, you might be wondering when i'll be getting around to comparing the VM to another character like i've done in previous new character reviews. I'm afraid i'm going to have to skip that bit this week, the main reason being i feel that the VM is pretty unique, the lack of offensive powers and the fact that he has all the benefit/drawbacks exclusive to the Voli race i.e. light melee = cloak and not being able to take cover. I will however say that the only other current character with Decoy, is the Salarian Engineer and if you ask me, if it wasn't for Shield Boost, i'd probably say the SE was a better character to use, if you wanted someone with Decoy. Reasons being, he has an offensive power in the form of Incinerate, which is able detonate Tech Burst when used with Energy Drain (useful for keeping you alive) and of course he is much more durable than the VM.

So onto my summary of the Volus Mercenary, well as i mentioned, his lack of offensive/debuffing powers makes him one for the back lines as opposed to taking point. Shield Boost as always is a very useful power but when you have two other Volus characters with the same ability, while also having better offensive powers, i can't see why you'd use the VM, especially if you actually want to get stuck into the fighting. As for Decoy and Combat Drone, well both the Humans and Salarian Engineer can distract enemies and still hit them with an offensive power, while having more mobilty and extra health/shields, so again i'm not sure why you'd prefer the VM. All things considered though, if you want a character to provide nothing but support for your teammates, then i can't think of anyone better than the Volus Mercenary. Distracting enemies with Decoy and harrassing them with Combat Drone is a potent combination, one that will certainly give your team a noticeable edge. In addition to this, the unique light melee cloaking ability and Shield Boost power, will mean that as a healer/medic, the VM is again unrivaled. Having said all this, if you're looking for someone to kick ass with (and not just be a support player), you're better off with another chracter and even if you still want the benefits of playing as a Volus, you should probably still choose one of the other two.