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JanePhoenix's avatar
JanePhoenix
Seasoned Veteran
8 years ago

JanePhoenix insanity soldier build

@EA_Ataashi Here it is! Haven't started a third playthrough, but just messing around on Kadara after my second playthrough and trying out soldier stuff. Although I haven't spent as much time on this one yet, it feels quite solid. DPS seems even higher than I was able to get with either of my previous builds, and this one is quite fun to play.

The base build is centered around the following 10 skills:

1. Concussive Shot

Rank 4 Repeat Concussion. Rank 5 Damage & Force. Rank 6 Anti-Armor.

2. Barricade

Rank 4 Duration. Rank 5 Weapon Feedback. Rank 6 Electric Defense.

3. Turbocharge

Rank 4 Duration. Rank 5 Damage & Force. Rank 6 Supercharge.

4. Assault Rifles

Rank 4 Spare Ammo. Rank 5 Clip Size. Rank 6 Shatter Defenses.

5. Shotguns

Rank 4 Spare Ammo. Rank 5 Clip Size. Rank 6 Damage & Force.

6. Sniper Rifles

Rank 4 Spare Ammo. Rank 5 Clip Size. Rank 6 Damage & Force.

7. Combat Fitness

Rank 4 Regeneration. Rank 5 Heavy Lifting. Rank 6 In The Trenches.

8. Combat Tools

Rank 4 Hover. Rank 5 Detonators. Rank 6 Aerial Combat.

9. Barrier

Rank 4 Recuperative Barrier. Rank 5 Biotic Alacrity. Rank 6 Saving Barrier.

10. Team Support

Rank 4 Squad Offense. Rank 5 Team Recovery. Rank 6 Defense Grid.

Once these 10 skills are all at rank 6 just drop points into any other skills to further boost the bonuses received from passive skills, with Combat being top priority, then Tech and finally Biotics if Combat & Tech are both maxed out.

Loadout

Krogan Hammer augmented with 5x Duration Boost Module. X5 Ghost assault rifle augmented with Double Mod Extension & 2x Kinetic Coil*, and modded with Heavy Stock, Long Barrel, Quick Receiver & Recon Scope. Isharay sniper rifle augmented with Double Mod Extension & 3x Kinetic Coil, and modded with Calibrated Receiver, Heavy Spare Clip, Reinforced Barrel & Tactical Scope. N7 Piranha shotgun augmented with Double Mod Extension & 3x Kinetic Coil, and modded with Asymmetric Spare Clip, Calibrated Receiver, Heavy Melee & Short Barrel. Armor is Kett Fusion set from Heleus research, chest augmented with 5x Kinetic Coil and modded with Fusion Mod of Shielding, and the rest all augmented with 3x Duration Boost Module each.

*Think there's a bug on the X5 Ghost that prevents it from receiving the extra augment slot from cryo pod points.

Mechanics

Don't actually have a lot of detail to go into here either, as I haven't had a lot of time to experience all the nuances of this build yet. The idea was to make the weapons themselves as strong as possible, and choose powers that would further complement them. From my limited time fooling around (primarily with the assault rifle), I can tell that this build deals damage hard & fast. The X5 Ghost gets sniper accurate while scoped, and has enormous clip size. Commanding teammates to attack the same target just makes enemies melt thanks to the debuff from Shatter Defenses.

This build allows you to sit behind cover and drop your own cover even where there is none, getting big bonuses to damage resistance & shield recharge while doing so, and even extra gun damage from Barricade. Turbocharge is excellent for further boosting rate of fire & clip size, and incidentally also gives you a full clip if your current clip wasn't already full, so it helps to make your spare ammo last longer. Barricades are electrified and primes any enemies that might get close, which can then be detonated with Concussive Shot.

Enemies behind cover can be taken out with hover attacks or even by firing right through the cover. Mild base damage resistance even allows for some running & gunning outside of cover.

The Krogan Hammer is mostly for the fun factor, while it's more utilitarian in this case for its augment slots to boost the duration of Barricade & Turbocharge. There's a quite annoying bug with the extended duration of Barricade though, since it graphically fades out several seconds before the effect has actually ended, and making it appear for those final seconds that you are sitting in the open while you are in fact still in cover.

I was a bit unimaginative when it came to augmenting the weapons, but so far I don't see any need for pimping any of them out with beams, grenades or plasma. If anyone has some nice augment combinations to share for the above weapons I would certainly like to try them out. As always, would like to hear your thoughts on this or any of my other builds I've posted.

2 Replies

  • JanePhoenix's avatar
    JanePhoenix
    Seasoned Veteran
    8 years ago

    I should add that on my previous builds I went for infinite/recharging ammo on the gun, while here I decided to stick with limited ammo. Having extra spare ammo seemed more useful than to carry a fourth gun, but I haven't tested extensively to see if ammo problems creep up. It does seem however that this build carries quite a lot of ammo, and should be able to last between the one ammo pickup and the next. If any ammo issues do arise though, I would likely drop one Kinetic Coil from the X5 Ghost and go for Vintage Heat Sink, and perhaps substitute one of the mods for an extended clip size to compensate for the 60% reduction from Vintage Heat Sink.

  • EA_Ataashi's avatar
    EA_Ataashi
    Icon for EA Staff (Retired) rankEA Staff (Retired)
    8 years ago

    @JanePhoenix

    That build looks pretty awesome! 😃 Tbh, my past Soldier builds were focused mostly around abilities like Trip Mine or Omni Grenade (kinda weird, I know, but worked for me), so I will save your suggestions for my next run on highest difficulty for sure  🙂 And I'm happy to see my favourite X5 Ghost here!

    Thank you for sharing it ❤️

    /Ataashi

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