 |
| Geth Juggernaut |
The penultimate new kit from the
Reckoning DLC is the Geth Juggernaut and he might just be the most unique character ever to be introduced to the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. If you've played online at all since said DLC went live, I'm willing to bet that you've already seen quite a few Geth Juggernauts in action and will know what makes him soo "special". On the off chance you're one of the very few people who don't yet know, the GJ is the only character in the game that
can not be sync-killed! This means he won't be picked up by Banshees/Atlases, stabbed by Phantoms, eaten by Praetorians or slammed by Brutes/Scions. Funnily enough the title "Juggernaut" is actually a pretty accurate description of the character itself, he's nearly twice as tall as any of the human kits and moves as slow as an elderly Krogan, the only discrepancy is the fact that depending on how you spec him, he's not really that tanky. Speaking of Krogans, the GJ moves even slower than the
Krogan Warlord and also can't vault or use cover. The Geth Juggernaut brings two new powers to the game: Hex Shield and Siege Pulse, with the existing Geth Turret making up the third. Unfortunately like last weeks character, the
Talon Mercenary, the Geth Juggernaut is one of those kits that the majority of players (that I've witnessed), don't quite seem to know how to effectively utilise his skill sets. Readers of previous reviews will know my views on slow moving characters but it might surprise you to hear that despite the fact the GJ moves at a snails pace, I managed to have a bit of fun while testing him out.
I'll get around to explaining in more detail later on but as always, I'll begin by covering the powers. First off is the Hex Shield, as the name suggests it's a deployable shield that takes the shape of a hexagon (i.e. it's six sided), I believe it's based on the ones that were in ME1 campaign. By default it's pretty durable (at 2000 health points) and will soak up a fair amount of damage before it break, it's as tall as the Geth Juggernaut and is just wide enough to block any shots fired directly at him. The Hex Shield should block all incoming enemy ordinance, whether it's small arms fire from foot soldiers or power attacks from bosses, I think it also stops grenades but those tend to bounce around after landing, so there's always the chance it can still hit you. Currently I've specced my Hex Shield with: Pulse, Duration and Damage Synergy. I think picking Shield Strength is unnecessary because the cooldown time is pretty fast, so if I need another it's not that big a deal to plonk a new one down. While the Pulse evolution might not be really damaging (400 at base value), it does have it's uses, for example if you start to get swarmed you can back up and place the shield, the electric pulse that is then generated can stun several enemies and buy you that extra second or so to recover. On smaller maps and in particular at choke points, you could spam the Hex Shield to take advantage of the electric pulse, if you've got a low enough cooldown time it's actually pretty good for keeping small crowds of enemies pinned down.
