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| Turian Saboteur |
As per usual, we'll start off with the powers. At the risk of repeating part of last weeks article, I think it's best if you refer to that review if you wish to know a bit more about Sabotage [see the link above], I will however continue to go into detail about the other two powers. Before this weeks release, Homing Grenades were exclusive to the N7 Demolisher and if you have this character, you'll know they're pretty devastating to the enemy. One of the better powers in the game, fantastic for dealing with armoured units; when utilised the player fires a grenade that flies towards its target (even if they're moving) and smashes them with a hefty amount of damage. Specced correctly, your Homing Grenades will literally 'track and whack' [Mafia terminology] basic troops but they can seriously injure bosses too. I particularly like the Fire Damage evolution, which creates a damage over time effect on the target, doing a further 50% of the grenades base damage over a period of a few seconds. The lingering fire damage allows you to set off and prime power combos, something that you should definitely take advantage of, especially when playing with other power users. The other benefit of using grenades as your main form of attack is that they have no cool down time, which means you can fire off a string of them, with practically no delay between each launch, excellent for taking out multiple enemies and/or a single boss fairly quickly.
Onto the Sentry Turret now, again currently only one other character has this version of the power, the Quarian Female Engineer. Both turrets work exactly the same way, with identical evolutions available in the tree. Just in case you don't know how it works, basically you toss out a small turret, which then activates upon settling and hovers a few feet off the ground, it can't move from that location but it can spin around on the spot to hit enemies. You can only ever have one turret active at any time but it will remain at the deployed location indefinitely, that is until you chose to re-deploy it elsewhere or if it is shot down by enemy fire. The turret does have health and shields just like players and enemies do but the values are much lower and on higher difficulties the turret can be taken out pretty quick, if not instantly by certain units. By default it shoots enemies every couple seconds, there is no minimum or maximum range for this attack but you'll most likely have to re-deploy it quite often, in order to get the best out of its basic attack, seeing as it will occasionally try and shoot targets through walls, which of course it can't do. My preferred evolutions for the turret are to go with Armour Piercing ammo and Flame-Thrower (close range attack only), the AP ammo helps to deal with hardened bosses, while the flame-thrower cleans up basic troops very well.
When I first started playing with the Turian Saboteur, i assumed it would be a simple case of spamming Homing 'nades all match long, the reality however was slightly different. For starters, as with any heavy grenade use character the first problem is the supply available, certain maps like Firebase Glacier can be a nightmare while others like Firebase Rio are much more pleasant for grenade spamming. I found out very quickly that once you're out of Homing Grenades, the Turian Saboteur becomes a very average character to play as because both Sabotage and the Sentry Turret don't do a great deal of damage and thus can't be used as your primary form of attack for an entire game. To make it worse, Sabotage by default has a high cool down time, which seriously limits the amount of times you can use it against enemies in any given wave. There was however one half decent thing that I noticed while playing and that was the synergy between the Sentry Turret and Sabotage, which had been specced for Tech Vulnerability. This meant that any target i had hit with Sabotage would take 50% more damage from tech powers, such as the Sentry Turret and if like me you'd chosen the Flame-Thrower evolution, you could do some serious damage to the enemies in question.
A problem with this game plan however is that you have to deploy the Sentry Turret very close to the enemy, where it will be very vulnerable to enemy fire but assuming it survives long enough, will allow you to capitalise on the Flame-Throwers high damage output. Another problem is that in order to get the extra damage bonus, you will need to hit every enemy (either beforehand or after deploying the turret) with Sabotage but as i said earlier, the cool down times are pretty high so you won't be able to repeat the tactic every couple seconds. Sabotage does have a impact radius, so you could open up a few targets to the additional turret damage but when you're playing on larger maps where enemies can be spread far and wide, the tactic further diminishes in potential. I'm not sure if Homing Grenades count as a tech power but if it does, then using Sabotage on a hardened target i.e. bosses, followed up immediately with a couple 'nades (which aren't affected by cool downs) is a good plan for putting them down fast. I should say, that despite all this talk about the powers available to the TS, in game i constantly found myself resorting to just shooting the enemies dead with my weapon alone i.e. not even bothering with Sabotage/Turret, once my grenade supply was at zero.
This leads me nicely onto weapon selection for the Turian Saboteur. At first i thought a light weapon would be the best way to go because i wanted to keep Sabotages cool down time as low as possible but in the end this proved a moot point because i still couldn't work with the times i got. I then decided on a slightly heavier weapon, one that also dished out a bit more damage because as i said above, i think in any given game you're going to have to shoot a lot. I decided it was toss up between an Assault Rifle and a Shotgun, my reason being that both have equipment that will increase grenade capacity and the weapons damage, which i thought was better than just increasing grenade count, seeing as you might get plonked on a grenade dry map (if you select to play unknown maps). It goes without saying that using a shottie means lots of CQC but this is not something i believe the TS would excel at, simply because none of his powers offer any sort of distraction or the ability to safely get you in close to the enemy. So I tried a couple ARs and in doing so, i realised that using a shotgun wouldn't suit the character very well at all, at least not for me and my play style anyway. As for recommending a particular AR, i think this is very much down to personal choice and whether or not you want to use Sabotage more often than just once or twice a wave, I'd definitely say you'll want something that can efficiently kill enemies but how heavy or light you go is something you will need to decide for yourself.
I debated with myself whether or not the Turian Saboteur was similar enough to another existing character to warrant a comparative discussion and in the end I decided that he is sort of unique. Despite Homing Grenades, Sabotage and the Sentry Turret being available other characters, the TS just doesn't seem to play like any of the existing characters. There was one character i thought might make a nice choice for comparison, the Quarian Female Infiltrator, who like the Turian Saboteur also has Sabotage and access to grenades but of course she has Tactical Cloak instead of the Sentry Turret. But as it transpires, similar powers do not equate to similar play styles. Both characters will be using their weapons to rack up the majority of their kills, while occasionally tossing out grenades if they have any in their inventory, however the main difference is that the QFI can attack and escape from enemies more effectively because she has her TC. It also provides a very welcome damage bonus to her weapon as well as the Sticky Grenades but the best thing is that by utilising the cloaking-then-firing-power trick, she can pretty much negate the long cool down times of Sabotage altogether, regardless of what weapon she's using. The Turian Saboteur cannot offset the cool down times of Sabotage in any way and as a result will definitely end up using his powers a lot less overall. As Turians go the TS is actually pretty mobile because of his jet pack but it doesn't stop enemies from seeing and/or shooting you before you can carry out your attack.
I think the most limiting thing about the Turian Saboteur is not being able to create a window of opportunity that allows you to attack the enemy, without being attacked in return, this was something that i found to be incredibly frustrating when playing. Sabotage and the Sentry Turret just don't have the area of effect capability that other powers have, which can distract crowds of enemies and allow you to effectively utilise your Homing Grenades. This is all assuming you even have a supply of grenades to use in the first place because if you don't (and you're bound to run out eventually), that's a big part of your game plan that you can't even put into effect. If I want to use Homing Grenades I'd definitely stick with my N7 Demolisher, if i want to use Sabotage I'll select my Quarian Female Infiltrator and if want to use the Sentry Turret I'd go with either the Female Quarian Engineer or Geth Engineer. The N7 Demolisher has her supply pylon and therefore doesn't have to worry about running out of grenades, this is something that makes her much more suited to grenade spamming. The QFI has all the benefits I mentioned earlier and both the FQE and GE have access to powers which can not only distract enemies but also do damage, as well as setting off power combinations and on top of all this they all have cool down times which can be managed for constant use.
So in summary, despite my earlier assessment of a potential offensive character, I think the Turian Saboteur Engineer is actually a below average, his powers while on paper might seem pretty good, in actual fact they aren't that great. Homing Grenades have a surprising slow travel time, something that i never really noticed during those times when i used the N7 Demolisher and so are susceptible to missing targets due to lag. Another thing that struck me was how weak they are when used by themselves (especially against enemies with shields/barriers), again this was something I didn't spot when using the Demolisher because I guess I always toss out a couple Arc Grenades first (to set off Tech Bursts). I don't use Sabotage that often and when I was playing as the Turian Saboteur, it reminded me exactly why, the damage done just does not justify the long cool down times and to use it outside of an Infiltrator based character, I just can't see the appeal. I think the Sentry Turret is probably the best power on the TS, which is a little sad if you ask me because by default it's the weakest of the three, however if you chose the Flame-Thrower evolution, it can do some decent damage to enemies. It's quick cool down times and the range at which it can be deployed make it really useful for engaging enemies from a safe distance and even if it's shot down, you can simply just toss out another. Having said this, it's not reason enough to use the Turian Saboteur and if I'm being honest, I doubt I'll pick up this character again, at least not in the near future. I hate to say it Bioware but you've released a dud this week.
Onto the Sentry Turret now, again currently only one other character has this version of the power, the Quarian Female Engineer. Both turrets work exactly the same way, with identical evolutions available in the tree. Just in case you don't know how it works, basically you toss out a small turret, which then activates upon settling and hovers a few feet off the ground, it can't move from that location but it can spin around on the spot to hit enemies. You can only ever have one turret active at any time but it will remain at the deployed location indefinitely, that is until you chose to re-deploy it elsewhere or if it is shot down by enemy fire. The turret does have health and shields just like players and enemies do but the values are much lower and on higher difficulties the turret can be taken out pretty quick, if not instantly by certain units. By default it shoots enemies every couple seconds, there is no minimum or maximum range for this attack but you'll most likely have to re-deploy it quite often, in order to get the best out of its basic attack, seeing as it will occasionally try and shoot targets through walls, which of course it can't do. My preferred evolutions for the turret are to go with Armour Piercing ammo and Flame-Thrower (close range attack only), the AP ammo helps to deal with hardened bosses, while the flame-thrower cleans up basic troops very well.
When I first started playing with the Turian Saboteur, i assumed it would be a simple case of spamming Homing 'nades all match long, the reality however was slightly different. For starters, as with any heavy grenade use character the first problem is the supply available, certain maps like Firebase Glacier can be a nightmare while others like Firebase Rio are much more pleasant for grenade spamming. I found out very quickly that once you're out of Homing Grenades, the Turian Saboteur becomes a very average character to play as because both Sabotage and the Sentry Turret don't do a great deal of damage and thus can't be used as your primary form of attack for an entire game. To make it worse, Sabotage by default has a high cool down time, which seriously limits the amount of times you can use it against enemies in any given wave. There was however one half decent thing that I noticed while playing and that was the synergy between the Sentry Turret and Sabotage, which had been specced for Tech Vulnerability. This meant that any target i had hit with Sabotage would take 50% more damage from tech powers, such as the Sentry Turret and if like me you'd chosen the Flame-Thrower evolution, you could do some serious damage to the enemies in question.
A problem with this game plan however is that you have to deploy the Sentry Turret very close to the enemy, where it will be very vulnerable to enemy fire but assuming it survives long enough, will allow you to capitalise on the Flame-Throwers high damage output. Another problem is that in order to get the extra damage bonus, you will need to hit every enemy (either beforehand or after deploying the turret) with Sabotage but as i said earlier, the cool down times are pretty high so you won't be able to repeat the tactic every couple seconds. Sabotage does have a impact radius, so you could open up a few targets to the additional turret damage but when you're playing on larger maps where enemies can be spread far and wide, the tactic further diminishes in potential. I'm not sure if Homing Grenades count as a tech power but if it does, then using Sabotage on a hardened target i.e. bosses, followed up immediately with a couple 'nades (which aren't affected by cool downs) is a good plan for putting them down fast. I should say, that despite all this talk about the powers available to the TS, in game i constantly found myself resorting to just shooting the enemies dead with my weapon alone i.e. not even bothering with Sabotage/Turret, once my grenade supply was at zero.
This leads me nicely onto weapon selection for the Turian Saboteur. At first i thought a light weapon would be the best way to go because i wanted to keep Sabotages cool down time as low as possible but in the end this proved a moot point because i still couldn't work with the times i got. I then decided on a slightly heavier weapon, one that also dished out a bit more damage because as i said above, i think in any given game you're going to have to shoot a lot. I decided it was toss up between an Assault Rifle and a Shotgun, my reason being that both have equipment that will increase grenade capacity and the weapons damage, which i thought was better than just increasing grenade count, seeing as you might get plonked on a grenade dry map (if you select to play unknown maps). It goes without saying that using a shottie means lots of CQC but this is not something i believe the TS would excel at, simply because none of his powers offer any sort of distraction or the ability to safely get you in close to the enemy. So I tried a couple ARs and in doing so, i realised that using a shotgun wouldn't suit the character very well at all, at least not for me and my play style anyway. As for recommending a particular AR, i think this is very much down to personal choice and whether or not you want to use Sabotage more often than just once or twice a wave, I'd definitely say you'll want something that can efficiently kill enemies but how heavy or light you go is something you will need to decide for yourself.
I debated with myself whether or not the Turian Saboteur was similar enough to another existing character to warrant a comparative discussion and in the end I decided that he is sort of unique. Despite Homing Grenades, Sabotage and the Sentry Turret being available other characters, the TS just doesn't seem to play like any of the existing characters. There was one character i thought might make a nice choice for comparison, the Quarian Female Infiltrator, who like the Turian Saboteur also has Sabotage and access to grenades but of course she has Tactical Cloak instead of the Sentry Turret. But as it transpires, similar powers do not equate to similar play styles. Both characters will be using their weapons to rack up the majority of their kills, while occasionally tossing out grenades if they have any in their inventory, however the main difference is that the QFI can attack and escape from enemies more effectively because she has her TC. It also provides a very welcome damage bonus to her weapon as well as the Sticky Grenades but the best thing is that by utilising the cloaking-then-firing-power trick, she can pretty much negate the long cool down times of Sabotage altogether, regardless of what weapon she's using. The Turian Saboteur cannot offset the cool down times of Sabotage in any way and as a result will definitely end up using his powers a lot less overall. As Turians go the TS is actually pretty mobile because of his jet pack but it doesn't stop enemies from seeing and/or shooting you before you can carry out your attack.
I think the most limiting thing about the Turian Saboteur is not being able to create a window of opportunity that allows you to attack the enemy, without being attacked in return, this was something that i found to be incredibly frustrating when playing. Sabotage and the Sentry Turret just don't have the area of effect capability that other powers have, which can distract crowds of enemies and allow you to effectively utilise your Homing Grenades. This is all assuming you even have a supply of grenades to use in the first place because if you don't (and you're bound to run out eventually), that's a big part of your game plan that you can't even put into effect. If I want to use Homing Grenades I'd definitely stick with my N7 Demolisher, if i want to use Sabotage I'll select my Quarian Female Infiltrator and if want to use the Sentry Turret I'd go with either the Female Quarian Engineer or Geth Engineer. The N7 Demolisher has her supply pylon and therefore doesn't have to worry about running out of grenades, this is something that makes her much more suited to grenade spamming. The QFI has all the benefits I mentioned earlier and both the FQE and GE have access to powers which can not only distract enemies but also do damage, as well as setting off power combinations and on top of all this they all have cool down times which can be managed for constant use.
So in summary, despite my earlier assessment of a potential offensive character, I think the Turian Saboteur Engineer is actually a below average, his powers while on paper might seem pretty good, in actual fact they aren't that great. Homing Grenades have a surprising slow travel time, something that i never really noticed during those times when i used the N7 Demolisher and so are susceptible to missing targets due to lag. Another thing that struck me was how weak they are when used by themselves (especially against enemies with shields/barriers), again this was something I didn't spot when using the Demolisher because I guess I always toss out a couple Arc Grenades first (to set off Tech Bursts). I don't use Sabotage that often and when I was playing as the Turian Saboteur, it reminded me exactly why, the damage done just does not justify the long cool down times and to use it outside of an Infiltrator based character, I just can't see the appeal. I think the Sentry Turret is probably the best power on the TS, which is a little sad if you ask me because by default it's the weakest of the three, however if you chose the Flame-Thrower evolution, it can do some decent damage to enemies. It's quick cool down times and the range at which it can be deployed make it really useful for engaging enemies from a safe distance and even if it's shot down, you can simply just toss out another. Having said this, it's not reason enough to use the Turian Saboteur and if I'm being honest, I doubt I'll pick up this character again, at least not in the near future. I hate to say it Bioware but you've released a dud this week.
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