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| Krogan Warlord |
So let's get started, first up as per usual, a breakdown of the powers. Well the Tech Armour is nothing special, it's the same as any TA for any of the other Sentinels, once activated it stays on until you decide other wise. While it's active you get a damage reduction from all incoming enemy fire but at the cost of your power's recharging at a slower rate, by default these figures are -35% and +50%, respectively. For the most part I never detonate TA once I activate it, even though it has a pretty wide blast radius and can do a decent bit of damage if you choose to invest extra points into it. A little known fact about detonating TA, is that the force generated by the explosion is usually enough to stagger a Phantom, which can be a life saver if you get caught by surprise. Having said this, if you're reckless enough to get close to an enemy unit that can sync kill, you're either prepared to deal with the threat or have a death wish. Until the Krogan Warlord, I've not really had a reason to invest any further than into the first three ranks of TA but I found that the bonus power damage at rank 5 is very complimentary to the kits offensive powers.
The next power is the Biotic Hammer and it works slightly differently to other offensive powers in the game. Basically when you use the power, it doesn't actually do anything immediately, instead it charges up your hammer with "Biotic energy" (via a short on-screen animation). This energy is then stored as a "charge" on your hammer, indicated by a small blue ball of light and will be expelled when you carry out a heavy melee attack (slightly annoying because it means you need to hit two buttons in order to carry out the attack). At base values this attack is already pretty deadly, doing 750 points of damage to all types of defences but once fully upgraded, you can comfortably take out basic troops on Gold in one hit. If you decide to increase the number of charges that can be stored on the hammer (max of two), you'll find that by using some melee mods, amps and gear (more on this in the tactics section later), most units up to none top tier bosses status can be killed in two hits. The force generated when the hammer smashes an enemy unit is also very high, easily enough to stagger anything that isn't considered a boss, assuming they aren't already dead after the first strike. BH can do a ludicrous amount of additional damage to armour when upgraded (which I do recommend) and barriers but usually enemies that have these types of defences are capable of sync kills, so it's best to make sure your attack will be the final blow. I think the Biotic Combos and Power Hammer evolutions are redundant on the KW because for one he can't prime his own Biotic Explosions and two, why would you need to knock an enemy unit on it's ass in one forceful strike, when you can kill it in two?
The last power is the Electrical Hammer and the way it operates is exactly the same as the Biotic Hammer, except when you activate the power it charges up your hammer "Electric energy". Like BH, these charges will be released during a heavy melee attack (though, still only one charge per heavy melee) but unlike the BH, EH can store two charges by default, which can later be further upgraded to four. Now before you get too excited, it's worth noting that you can only store a single type of charge at any one time on your hammer, i.e. if you've currently got some Biotic energy stored and decide to activate EH, those charges will be overwritten. While BH is very damaging, EH is considerably less so, doing only 250 points by default. The upside to EH however, is that it has a very large area of effect capable of affecting multiple targets (while BH is restricted to one at a time) and is highly devastating to Shields and Barriers. It can also be upgraded to add a "chill" or "fire" effect to the enemies caught in its impact radius, via the evolutions at rank 5. These effects can be self detonated by the KW by quickly using the BH after initially striking with the EH but in my experience, unless it's a hardened boss you're dealing with, it's not really worth the effort. In my opinion, I don't think either of the final evolutions of EH ("Radius & Combo" and "Number of Charges") is necessary to take because even at rank 3 it's already got a large enough area of effect and the extra charges are more often than not, surplus to requirements.
I actually learnt something very illuminating the other day on the ME3 MP forums, according to this thread created by BSN member corlist both hammer attacks apply the damage from heavy melee before the stored charges are expelled. This means that while Electric Hammer might be super damaging to shields and barriers, you've already significantly dented it with your heavy melee before the charges do their work. Now for all you smart cookies out there, you'll immediately see why this is somewhat ironic. For everyone else, don't worry I'll break it down for you, basically if you're using the EH to strip shields (as is its intended purpose), you're effectively losing out on it's full damage potential because you already softened up the shields/barriers. That being the case, what's the point in using EH to strip said shields/barriers, when your heavy melee is already doing the majority of the work? Hence, you're probably going to be better off just sticking with the Biotic Hammer for all situations. This is because for most non-boss units, a heavy melee pimped out out with amps/gear/mods will most likely have already destroyed all the shields, leaving these now defenceless enemies to then be squished to death under the BH's lethal damage. As for any enemies that have barriers and armour, you would already have been attacking them with BH, so again it means you have even less use for EH.
Now we move onto tactics, well if it wasn't brutally obvious to you, your goal is smash more or less everything with either one of your hammer powers. In practice I found myself beating everything to death with just the Biotic Hammer and practically never used the Electric Hammer (i.e. no Power Combos), even when it came to bosses but obviously I'd seriously softened them up with gunfire first. The Krogan Warlord moves stupidly slow and to exacerbate the problem, the animation for his heavy melee is not exactly speedy either, so reaching targets and successfully smacking them over the head with your hammer before teammates have already cleaned up, is a real challenge and one that increases with their skill level. I therefore highly recommend using an Adrenaline module to give yourself a fighting chance of getting some kills, it's also particularly useful for outrunning bosses that are just itching to put you out of the wave permanently. Most non-bosses will die in two hits of BH but if you're finding this isn't the case, slapping on a Strength Enhancer amp should make it so. The charges stored on your hammer (after activating either power) will last until they are expelled or you overwrite them with another, so it's a good idea to keep your hammer charged as and when you have a free moment. Mainly so that when you do rush a group of enemies, you've got charges ready to be used and if need be, you can charge it up again and expel additional charges with minimum delay, as opposed to charging the hammer upon attacking and then having to wait out the cooldown in the middle of a skirmish. If you're planning on detonating the Electric Hammer by using the Biotic Hammer immediately after, you'll have to follow this plan of action, if you want to make the 5 second window.
That's the game plan covered, it's now time to talk weapons and as you'll soon see, it appears that the KW didn't get the memo about not bring a knife to a gun fight ;) Well, given the Krogan Warlords offensive powers are based on him waving a massive hammer all over the place, I think it makes sense that you bring along something that will either help you out in CQC or something that will let you kill enemies that are outside of bashing range (and of course those with sync kills). To boost your melee damage, a shotgun with the Omni-Blade mod is what you should be using, there's a lot of choices but it's something you're going to have to experiment with. I like the Reegar because it can decimate enemies but you will run out of ammo quickly and it's range is very limited, so unless you're playing on small map with access to an ammo box at every other turn, you might want to try something else. I used the Wraith for a while, it's got decent damage per shot for it's weight and the accuracy over range is better than most other shotguns (even without the smart choke) but I seriously dislike the rate of fire. The Raider is a very strong contender, it does great damage per second at point blank range but any targets further away simply aren't worth shooting, unless you've equipped the smart choke (but even then, it can be very hit and miss). I think the Piranha is another pretty good option, each single shot is weaker than the Raider's but it does have a larger clip, it's also got slightly better range than the Reegar and won't run out of ammo as quickly but like the Raider, even using the smart choke doesn't make it perfectly accurate.
Like I said there's no clear cut winner, the map you're playing on and to some extent the faction you're playing against, can be influential in your decision making. Some people won't mind not having a powerful shotgun as long as they can keep the cooldown times as low as possible, I toyed with this concept and used the Disciple as simply a platform for my Omni-Blade but on the bigger maps and in particular when it came to dealing with bosses from a safe distance, it was soo frustrating. Hence my suggestion to carry another weapon for these situations, heavy pistols and SMGs are less appealing because your primary is a shotgun, which leaves snipers and assault rifles. I think it's silly to equip a weapon designed for purely long range engagements, on a character kit that is meant to be used in CQC, so I turned to the assault rifles. Again, lots of choices to pick from here but there are some that stand out above others, the new light weight materials mod can make a few of the heavier ones more viable but things like the Mattock, Lancer and Phaeston are light enough at max level to be equipped with other mods. If you find all your ARs too heavy, an SMG or heavy pistol with a high rate of fire, could take it's place but bear in mind you need to be able to use them comfortably at medium to large distances. I have the Eagle at X and it's a great back up weapon because it's light, accurate, does decent damage per shot and best of all, is fully automatic. If your aim is really good, a Hurricane could work well but if you miss more shots than you land, you'll quickly be out of ammo having dished out very little damage in return (likewise with the Tempest).
If you recall earlier, I mentioned that the Krogan Warlord has quite a few annoying traits, there are however a couple redeeming factors, which I haven't yet mentioned. One, the KW is the first non-Vorcha kit that is capable of regenerating his own health. This is achieved once he's entered "Warlord Rage" mode, which offers the exact same benefits of a standard Krogans "Rage" mode (i.e. damage reduction and extra melee damage) but with health regeneration thrown in on top. Activating Warlord Rage is the same as normal Rage mode, you just need to get two melee kills within 45 seconds, this can be further reduced to one kill if you decide to select the "Pure Rage" evolution, in rank 6 of the final tree. I personally go full health with the KW because you can't take cover, so I'll take all the regeneration I can get my hands on, not to mention he'll be getting enough melee kills anyway so minus one is a moot point to be honest. The second thing that makes the KW unique is the addition of a new melee attack, to go along with the existing Krogan mini-charge and head-butt and this comes in the form of a triple-hit-combo. This unique melee can be triggered by rapidly tapping the melee button, when within range of an enemy unit, if done successfully the KW will swing his hammer back and fourth, hitting the victim up to three times in quick succession. It's not particularly deadly but if used immediately after a Hammer attack, it could mean the difference between an enemy still breathing and one that is no longer a threat. I like to select the "Martial Artist" evolution instead of "Shield Recharge" in the Warlord Rage tree because as I said, this kit is mostly about the melee kills, so any damage boost to them is warmly welcomed.
In summary, the Krogan Warlord is as big as he is slow and while he can be highly lethal in CQC engagements, the fact he can't take cover or vault it, is a serious issue in my book. Granted he can regenerate his own health but on higher difficulties like Gold+, the rate of regeneration rarely feels adequate, especially when you come across a group of enemies with no tall cover in between you and them. The additional protection from Tech Armour is useful but won't stop the fast swarming and heavy hitting enemies from putting you down in short order i.e. Dragoons/Phantoms, Ravagers/Brutes and the entire Geth faction. Not forgetting the ever present threat of being sync killed by a boss, even if you play it cautiously, there's always a chance that a Banshee can pop through a wall or a Phantom jump out from behind a counter. If you've used top level amps/gear/weapon mods, there's always the option to stand your ground and fight but in my experience, the results usually don't end the way you want them to. Your best bet regarding bosses with sync kills is to leave them till last and/or make sure the entire team is gunning for the same target, this means you're more likely to kill said enemy unit before they grab you (but it is still risky). Furthermore, it really doesn't help that if you play on console, you need to take your thumb/finger off the right stick/dash button, in order to carry out a heavy melee attack. This idiotic button mapping makes it incredibly frustrating when you're trying to slap a moving target and it also doesn't help that the Hammer animations aren't exactly fast either, to be fair it's not such a problem with EH because it has an AoE but BH is a single target attack.
In light of this, I think the Krogan Warlord is best played against the Geth because they have no units capable of sync kills (and are relatively slow movers) but as I said above, if you get swarmed and can't deal with the situation, you will still get downed quickly. The KW can be a fun character to play, even if it's just once in a while, I mean it never gets old rushing small groups of enemies and beating the poop out of them, then hearing him let out a loud "ROAR" or "HaHa!". If you're in a lobby of decent players, don't expect to top the score board but don't let that put you off, you might not get the most kills or drop enemies as quickly but you can be useful in other ways. When I was playing with him, I'd purposely take point and made sure that when we as a team were rushing spawns, I'd soak up as much of the enemy fire as possible and generally just keep them occupied, this then gave the rest of the team the opportunity to freely mop up anything I hadn't yet smashed to bits. When it comes to objectives, the KW is probably the best bodyguard you could ask for, as he's basically a huge walking piece of cover (a meat shield if you prefer :P ). Generally speaking I don't dislike the Krogan Warlord per se, it's more the fact he just doesn't suit my style of play but overall I don't think he's that great a kit because being incredibly slow and still vulnerable to sync kills is a massive downfall. So all in all, I highly doubt I'll be using him regularly; if I want to melee everything to death, the N7 Shadow is still my girl and if I want an indestructible Krogan, the Battlemaster will still get the call.
The last power is the Electrical Hammer and the way it operates is exactly the same as the Biotic Hammer, except when you activate the power it charges up your hammer "Electric energy". Like BH, these charges will be released during a heavy melee attack (though, still only one charge per heavy melee) but unlike the BH, EH can store two charges by default, which can later be further upgraded to four. Now before you get too excited, it's worth noting that you can only store a single type of charge at any one time on your hammer, i.e. if you've currently got some Biotic energy stored and decide to activate EH, those charges will be overwritten. While BH is very damaging, EH is considerably less so, doing only 250 points by default. The upside to EH however, is that it has a very large area of effect capable of affecting multiple targets (while BH is restricted to one at a time) and is highly devastating to Shields and Barriers. It can also be upgraded to add a "chill" or "fire" effect to the enemies caught in its impact radius, via the evolutions at rank 5. These effects can be self detonated by the KW by quickly using the BH after initially striking with the EH but in my experience, unless it's a hardened boss you're dealing with, it's not really worth the effort. In my opinion, I don't think either of the final evolutions of EH ("Radius & Combo" and "Number of Charges") is necessary to take because even at rank 3 it's already got a large enough area of effect and the extra charges are more often than not, surplus to requirements.
I actually learnt something very illuminating the other day on the ME3 MP forums, according to this thread created by BSN member corlist both hammer attacks apply the damage from heavy melee before the stored charges are expelled. This means that while Electric Hammer might be super damaging to shields and barriers, you've already significantly dented it with your heavy melee before the charges do their work. Now for all you smart cookies out there, you'll immediately see why this is somewhat ironic. For everyone else, don't worry I'll break it down for you, basically if you're using the EH to strip shields (as is its intended purpose), you're effectively losing out on it's full damage potential because you already softened up the shields/barriers. That being the case, what's the point in using EH to strip said shields/barriers, when your heavy melee is already doing the majority of the work? Hence, you're probably going to be better off just sticking with the Biotic Hammer for all situations. This is because for most non-boss units, a heavy melee pimped out out with amps/gear/mods will most likely have already destroyed all the shields, leaving these now defenceless enemies to then be squished to death under the BH's lethal damage. As for any enemies that have barriers and armour, you would already have been attacking them with BH, so again it means you have even less use for EH.
Now we move onto tactics, well if it wasn't brutally obvious to you, your goal is smash more or less everything with either one of your hammer powers. In practice I found myself beating everything to death with just the Biotic Hammer and practically never used the Electric Hammer (i.e. no Power Combos), even when it came to bosses but obviously I'd seriously softened them up with gunfire first. The Krogan Warlord moves stupidly slow and to exacerbate the problem, the animation for his heavy melee is not exactly speedy either, so reaching targets and successfully smacking them over the head with your hammer before teammates have already cleaned up, is a real challenge and one that increases with their skill level. I therefore highly recommend using an Adrenaline module to give yourself a fighting chance of getting some kills, it's also particularly useful for outrunning bosses that are just itching to put you out of the wave permanently. Most non-bosses will die in two hits of BH but if you're finding this isn't the case, slapping on a Strength Enhancer amp should make it so. The charges stored on your hammer (after activating either power) will last until they are expelled or you overwrite them with another, so it's a good idea to keep your hammer charged as and when you have a free moment. Mainly so that when you do rush a group of enemies, you've got charges ready to be used and if need be, you can charge it up again and expel additional charges with minimum delay, as opposed to charging the hammer upon attacking and then having to wait out the cooldown in the middle of a skirmish. If you're planning on detonating the Electric Hammer by using the Biotic Hammer immediately after, you'll have to follow this plan of action, if you want to make the 5 second window.
That's the game plan covered, it's now time to talk weapons and as you'll soon see, it appears that the KW didn't get the memo about not bring a knife to a gun fight ;) Well, given the Krogan Warlords offensive powers are based on him waving a massive hammer all over the place, I think it makes sense that you bring along something that will either help you out in CQC or something that will let you kill enemies that are outside of bashing range (and of course those with sync kills). To boost your melee damage, a shotgun with the Omni-Blade mod is what you should be using, there's a lot of choices but it's something you're going to have to experiment with. I like the Reegar because it can decimate enemies but you will run out of ammo quickly and it's range is very limited, so unless you're playing on small map with access to an ammo box at every other turn, you might want to try something else. I used the Wraith for a while, it's got decent damage per shot for it's weight and the accuracy over range is better than most other shotguns (even without the smart choke) but I seriously dislike the rate of fire. The Raider is a very strong contender, it does great damage per second at point blank range but any targets further away simply aren't worth shooting, unless you've equipped the smart choke (but even then, it can be very hit and miss). I think the Piranha is another pretty good option, each single shot is weaker than the Raider's but it does have a larger clip, it's also got slightly better range than the Reegar and won't run out of ammo as quickly but like the Raider, even using the smart choke doesn't make it perfectly accurate.
Like I said there's no clear cut winner, the map you're playing on and to some extent the faction you're playing against, can be influential in your decision making. Some people won't mind not having a powerful shotgun as long as they can keep the cooldown times as low as possible, I toyed with this concept and used the Disciple as simply a platform for my Omni-Blade but on the bigger maps and in particular when it came to dealing with bosses from a safe distance, it was soo frustrating. Hence my suggestion to carry another weapon for these situations, heavy pistols and SMGs are less appealing because your primary is a shotgun, which leaves snipers and assault rifles. I think it's silly to equip a weapon designed for purely long range engagements, on a character kit that is meant to be used in CQC, so I turned to the assault rifles. Again, lots of choices to pick from here but there are some that stand out above others, the new light weight materials mod can make a few of the heavier ones more viable but things like the Mattock, Lancer and Phaeston are light enough at max level to be equipped with other mods. If you find all your ARs too heavy, an SMG or heavy pistol with a high rate of fire, could take it's place but bear in mind you need to be able to use them comfortably at medium to large distances. I have the Eagle at X and it's a great back up weapon because it's light, accurate, does decent damage per shot and best of all, is fully automatic. If your aim is really good, a Hurricane could work well but if you miss more shots than you land, you'll quickly be out of ammo having dished out very little damage in return (likewise with the Tempest).
If you recall earlier, I mentioned that the Krogan Warlord has quite a few annoying traits, there are however a couple redeeming factors, which I haven't yet mentioned. One, the KW is the first non-Vorcha kit that is capable of regenerating his own health. This is achieved once he's entered "Warlord Rage" mode, which offers the exact same benefits of a standard Krogans "Rage" mode (i.e. damage reduction and extra melee damage) but with health regeneration thrown in on top. Activating Warlord Rage is the same as normal Rage mode, you just need to get two melee kills within 45 seconds, this can be further reduced to one kill if you decide to select the "Pure Rage" evolution, in rank 6 of the final tree. I personally go full health with the KW because you can't take cover, so I'll take all the regeneration I can get my hands on, not to mention he'll be getting enough melee kills anyway so minus one is a moot point to be honest. The second thing that makes the KW unique is the addition of a new melee attack, to go along with the existing Krogan mini-charge and head-butt and this comes in the form of a triple-hit-combo. This unique melee can be triggered by rapidly tapping the melee button, when within range of an enemy unit, if done successfully the KW will swing his hammer back and fourth, hitting the victim up to three times in quick succession. It's not particularly deadly but if used immediately after a Hammer attack, it could mean the difference between an enemy still breathing and one that is no longer a threat. I like to select the "Martial Artist" evolution instead of "Shield Recharge" in the Warlord Rage tree because as I said, this kit is mostly about the melee kills, so any damage boost to them is warmly welcomed.
In summary, the Krogan Warlord is as big as he is slow and while he can be highly lethal in CQC engagements, the fact he can't take cover or vault it, is a serious issue in my book. Granted he can regenerate his own health but on higher difficulties like Gold+, the rate of regeneration rarely feels adequate, especially when you come across a group of enemies with no tall cover in between you and them. The additional protection from Tech Armour is useful but won't stop the fast swarming and heavy hitting enemies from putting you down in short order i.e. Dragoons/Phantoms, Ravagers/Brutes and the entire Geth faction. Not forgetting the ever present threat of being sync killed by a boss, even if you play it cautiously, there's always a chance that a Banshee can pop through a wall or a Phantom jump out from behind a counter. If you've used top level amps/gear/weapon mods, there's always the option to stand your ground and fight but in my experience, the results usually don't end the way you want them to. Your best bet regarding bosses with sync kills is to leave them till last and/or make sure the entire team is gunning for the same target, this means you're more likely to kill said enemy unit before they grab you (but it is still risky). Furthermore, it really doesn't help that if you play on console, you need to take your thumb/finger off the right stick/dash button, in order to carry out a heavy melee attack. This idiotic button mapping makes it incredibly frustrating when you're trying to slap a moving target and it also doesn't help that the Hammer animations aren't exactly fast either, to be fair it's not such a problem with EH because it has an AoE but BH is a single target attack.
In light of this, I think the Krogan Warlord is best played against the Geth because they have no units capable of sync kills (and are relatively slow movers) but as I said above, if you get swarmed and can't deal with the situation, you will still get downed quickly. The KW can be a fun character to play, even if it's just once in a while, I mean it never gets old rushing small groups of enemies and beating the poop out of them, then hearing him let out a loud "ROAR" or "HaHa!". If you're in a lobby of decent players, don't expect to top the score board but don't let that put you off, you might not get the most kills or drop enemies as quickly but you can be useful in other ways. When I was playing with him, I'd purposely take point and made sure that when we as a team were rushing spawns, I'd soak up as much of the enemy fire as possible and generally just keep them occupied, this then gave the rest of the team the opportunity to freely mop up anything I hadn't yet smashed to bits. When it comes to objectives, the KW is probably the best bodyguard you could ask for, as he's basically a huge walking piece of cover (a meat shield if you prefer :P ). Generally speaking I don't dislike the Krogan Warlord per se, it's more the fact he just doesn't suit my style of play but overall I don't think he's that great a kit because being incredibly slow and still vulnerable to sync kills is a massive downfall. So all in all, I highly doubt I'll be using him regularly; if I want to melee everything to death, the N7 Shadow is still my girl and if I want an indestructible Krogan, the Battlemaster will still get the call.
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