Asari Huntress - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Asari Huntress

Two weeks running now that Bioware have actually released their new character on time *gasp*, albeit this weeks balance changes were cancelled altogether *rolls eyes*. Apologies again for the delay in this weeks character review, if you read last weeks review of the Volus Mercenary, you'll know that I'm very much in Call Of Duty mode at the moment. This means that I'll generally write up my review at the weekend, once I've completed the Challenge Operation and of course had a bit of a play around with the new character. Anyway, this weeks new character kit is the Asari Huntress, classified as an Infiltrator and comes to battle equipped with Dark Channel and Warp, along with Tactical Cloak as standard. For those who've read some of my earlier character reviews, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Biotics, there's just something about blowing enemies away with that resounding BOOM, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :P Couple this with the fact that i think the Infiltrator class is probably the most versatile and it's needless to say that i was very much looking forward to trying out this new character.

In previous weeks we were introduced to some pretty lack luster kits, boring and recycled, might be a fair assessment of most of them, so would this week bring anything new or be just yet another disappointment? Well my first thoughts were this is definitely an interesting character, i mean Biotics are generally best when they're rushing enemies head on, hitting them hard with Biotic Explosions and then mopping up any survivors. In contrast the general tactic for Infiltrators, at least for my characters anyway, is to keep a relatively safe distance and drop enemies with long ranged weapons when popping out of Tactical Cloak, taking advantage of both the damage bonus and the element of surprise. It's because of this conflict in ideas that i was initially struggling to spec to my Asari Huntress, however in the end i decided to go for the damage bonus and bonus power in Tactical Cloak and then maxing out both Warp and Dark Channel, while leaving my Fitness and Passive at mid level. I'll explain a bit more about my play style and tactics for this choice of speccing later on but first I'll just an overview of the powers at hand, just in case you're not too familiar with them.

First off, we have Dark Channel and as of the moment, only one other character has this power, the Biotic powerhouse known as the N7 Fury, again reader of previous articles will know i adore this character quite a bit. Definitely one of my favourite powers, amazing as a primer (though i should say it can't detonate other powers anyway) for BEs because if you manage to kill an enemy, Dark Channel will automatically transfer to a nearby target (if there is one obviously), meaning you can just fire off a chain of Throws and have explosions everywhere! It's great not just for basic troops but for bosses too; hit them with DC and it'll just viciously eat away at health and armour while you add some bullets to the mix. Alternatively you can simply hit an enemy with DC and then go off and deal with other targets, then come back later when said enemy has been weakened (if DC didn't kill them outright) and just put the final few rounds in their face. Granted enemies take a bit longer to die on Gold+ difficulty but it can still work seeing as DC lasts a pretty long time when compared to other Biotic Powers; at mid way you've got 30 seconds, which can then be specced for further duration or increased damage per second.

Next we have Warp, unlike DC, it can act as a primer as well as detonating other powers but having said this, anything that can detonate Warp can detonate DC, so I'm not really sure why you'd use Warp over DC as a primer for the Huntress (as DC can't detonate Warp). Warp also does some damage over time but much less than DC, the bulk of it's damage is delivered up front i.e. when it first makes contact with it's intended target, with the rest of it's damage being delivered over a short period after. As i discussed in my review of the Asari Valkyrie, i don't think Warp is the best detonator, a slow travel time means it's quite easily dodged by enemies, not to mention it's trajectory can be severely hindered by lag, causing it to miss in those games when the connection is less than ideal. Warp can be specced to cause more damaging combo detonations, as well as making targets more vulnerable to incoming fire both of which are incredibly useful if you're planning on spamming the power (whether for BEs or just general de-buffing). A quick mention of Tactical Cloak to round off this section, it's pretty much exactly the same as TC for other Infiltrator kits, the only difference being instead of having extra weapon damage in the final evolution, you can opt for an increase in power damage.

OK, so I've covered the powers, now it's time to talk about how the character plays in game. Well as i said earlier, i was slightly unsure how to go about using the Huntress; at first i was basically just setting off BEs using DC and Warp but then i realised i might as well be using an Adept if that was all i was going to do. So then i decided to make use of the bonus power evolution of TC, changing my game plan to become: cloak, hit an enemy with DC and then fire off a Warp to set off a BE. I specced for the extra damage over duration in TC and this seemed to work out really well, assuming you're carrying a fairly light weapon, you can get a cool down of about 3 seconds on both DC and Warp. This meant that as long as i didn't accidentally cloak too early, i could use DC, wait for the cool down and then launch my Warp just before the cloak duration ended. Additionally if you start shooting as soon as Warp has been dispatched, i think you can still get a damage bonus on the first couple rounds fired, which is great for dealing with tougher troops and bosses. The best thing about this tactic is that you're basically continuously ambushing the enemy while under the cover of TC, so as long as you plan your attacks well, you should be relatively safe for an entire match.

Moving onto weapon selection now, well if your aim is to set of BEs all game long (as per my game plan above) then it goes without saying that you'll want something light to keep your cool down times as low as possible. I started out by using the Hurricane because that's what i normally stick on a rushing character and while it worked pretty well, i just felt that something was a little bit off. It occurred to me after a couple games that in order to get the best of the damage bonus from Tactical Cloak it would make more sense to use a heavy hitting weapon, more specifically something that does a lot of damage per single shot. So then i tried a shotgun, the Piranha of course was my first choice and again it worked pretty well but still didn't quite feel perfect, mainly because all your engagements are then confined to CQC. Unfortunately all my decent assault rifles generated too big a cool down time, so i had to rule those out, which left sniper rifles and heavy pistols. I think it's a silly waste if you stick a sniper on the Huntress because let's face it, there are enough characters in the Infiltrator class that would make a much better choice, thus it fell to the heavy pistols. The obvious choices are the Carnifex, the Paladin and the Talon, i guess it's personal preference which one you'd prefer to use but seeing as neither my Paladin or Talon are at level X, i decided to equip the Carnifex. I slapped on the Armour Piercing mod along with the Heavy Barrel for extra oomph and finally i was happy with my set up; manageable cool down times, decent damage output and the ability to engage from all ranges. [When i tried the Talon and Paladin, i did so without the Heavy Barrrel because of the cool down times but i imagine at level X they would be amazing with it]

I feel that the Asari Huntress is a pretty unique character so i won't be doing a comparison this week but there are a few things that i think warrant a mention. For starters if you compare her to any other Biotic character i think she has much better survivability simply because of the Tactical Cloak, so if you enjoy using Biotic characters but struggle to handle their low health on higher difficulties, then she's your girl. The other thing i want to add is that, just because the Huntress can set up and detonate her own Biotic Explosions, it doesn't mean you have to do nothing but that. Both Warp and Dark Channel can do a lot of damage alone, even more so if fired from and/or used under Tactical Cloak; something i found quite fun to do (just to mix things up) was running around and hitting individual enemies with either DC or Warp, then simply letting the powers eat away at enemies health/armour. If you spec each for max damage and stay under cloak, you'll be surprised how effective this is against basic troops, add to this the de-buffing options that are available for each power and you can just take it easy, while your teammates finish off the enemy. This leads me onto another point, if you wanted you could choose to play the Asari Huntress like the Geth Infiltrator and by this i mean using Warp like Proximity Mine i.e. as a de-buffing power and then shooting the enemy to death. Don't get me wrong, the GI does what he does better than anyone else but if you haven't got him unlocked yet or simply fancy using a Biotic, you can achieve pretty similar results if you spec her the same way. 

In summary, i think the Asari Huntress is a very interesting character, true she doesn't bring new powers to the game but her Biotic abilities coupled with the availability of Tactical Cloak, opens the door for different play styles, which is definitely a nice breath of fresh air. Whether you want to set off Biotic Explosions from the safety of Tactical Cloak or use her powers to weaken hardened enemies, i think this character has the potential to appeal to pretty much everyone. Oh and just in case you didn't know, the damage bonus you get while being under/breaking from cloak, applies not only to your weapon but also to your powers, so even if you're not planning on rushing head first into an enemy spawn point, you can still do some hefty damage from the back lines. Personally i still wouldn't choose the Asari Huntress over the N7 Fury if i wanted to create loud BOOMs all game long, simply because i don't like using Warp as a detonator but if i ever fancy a change of pace, I'd definitely consider using her. I'm glad to say that while it has taken a while, Bioware have finally released a decent character :)

Edit/Update 12th Dec 2012: Bioware have stated that, what we originally thought was a bug/glitch which causes the Huntresses tactical cloak to not give a damage bonus to weapons, is apparently "intentional". So to clarify, tactical cloak only gives a damage bonus to the Huntresses powers i.e. DC, Warp and also i believe the melees. I'm not sure if they're telling the truth or are just too lazy/can't find a solution to the problem, guess we'll never know for sure, it's a real shame but as with most things ME3 related, you learn to live with the disappointment.