Vanguard Guide



The Vanguard is a close-combat specialist. In addition to a variety of biotic abilities useful in disabling enemies they are equipped with a shotgun and a pistol. This allows them the fun prospect of using biotics to disable enemies for a few seconds, then sprint in and make short work of them with the shotgun.

Class Abilities
A useful talent for the vanguard, as many of the Shotguns are ineffective at medium range. The staple offensive weapon of the Vanguard. It is very effective when combined with Barrier, Warp and an aggressive combat style. The Shotgun is useful against organic opponents such as Rachni, Husks and Thorian Creepers that attempt to close in on the player to do damage. Tactical Armor provides the Vanguard with a high physical defense, which is invaluable to protect from melee at short range and from shield bypassing attacks. At level 7 medium armor becomes available. This talent unlocks Tactical armor and the adrenaline burst abilities. Adrenaline burst can be used to immediately re-activate the player's barrier, which is important if damage protection is low. Additional points add bonuses to weapon and melee damage. Throw pushes enemies away and knocks them to the floor. While this may seem unhelpful for the Vanguard that specialises in short range, it is useful when overwhelmed by many close-range combatants. Lift raises targets in its effective range into the air, effectively immobilising them. When combined with Throw, an enemy can be thrown a great distance. Warp is a useful debuffing offensive move that decreases an opponents damage protection. However, its main benefit is that it unlocks Barrier at level 4. Barrier is essential to an effective Vanguard as it provides the protection needed to close in to an opponent with the Shotgun, and greatly increases the player's survivability.
 * Pistols
 * Shotguns
 * Tactical Armor
 * Assault Training
 * Throw
 * Lift
 * Warp
 * Barrier
 * Specialization Class: Shock Trooper / Nemesis
 * Charm
 * Intimidate
 * Spectre Training

Vanguard Specialization Classes
After the UNC: Rogue VI mission, you'll have the choice between:


 * Shock Trooper - Improved damage reduction and greater health.
 * Nemesis - Enhanced biotic damage.

Using a Vanguard in Combat
Using a Vanguard in combat is rather straightforward, and very rewarding. Once you receive the "Rich" achievement by obtaining 1,000,000 credits, you'll gain access to Spectre - Master Gear equipment. The Spectre shotgun is accurate enough to provide decent mid-range coverage, along with devastating close-range abilities. The general strategy with the Vanguard class is to utilize your biotics, such as Lift and Warp, to render your enemies helpless against your combat weaponry. Warp becomes especially useful on the more difficult settings, where enemies tend to become more resistant to your weapons and abilities.

The Vanguard is not the most durable of all available classes (although the Shock Trooper specialization class does alleviate this setback) so don't be afraid to use cover when needed. If you find yourself up against a charging enemy, use your biotics to relocate them, and if unable to do so, use your Carnage ability to drop some heavy damage upon them. While the Vanguard's class description claims it's a close-combat specialist, it may also be sufficiently powerful at longer distances if you deposit skill points in the pistol talent, which is highly recommended due to the advantage of having Marksman.

The Adrenaline Burst ability is your ace-in-the-hole, as it allows you to refresh all your biotic powers and combat talents at once, and the Vanguard is the only biotic class to have it. Defensively it can be used to restore Barrier or Shield Boost (as well as Unity and medi-gel access) after taking too many hits, while offensively it allows you to continuously push enemies out of the way with Throw or Lift while using Warp, Marksman, and Carnage to rack up damage.

Party Characters
The Vanguard's primary concern will be to gain the tech talents Electronics and Decryption. Without them, many containers cannot be unlocked, computer stations hacked, etc. A character with tech specialization (Kaidan, Garrus or Tali) will therefore be required. Kaidan is a useful support character, and combined with Wrex or Ashley will give you a well rounded team. Garrus or Tali with Wrex or Ashley are also quite balanced. Kaidan and Garrus can be used together, but if they both have both tech abilities, you will be wasting talent points.

Another consideration will be ranged combat. The Vanguard is best at short range, and is not trained with Assault Rifles. Garrus, who can make up for this with the Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles talents, is complementary to the Vanguard in this respect. Ashley can also be made into an effective ranged fighter. Alternatively, the player can develop his party into support characters that debuff enemies and heal the party as Shepard closes the distance to opponents.

Liara is not particularly useful to the Vanguard, who already has some biotic ability. Although she has Electronics available, Decryption is more important. One of the other characters with tech ability will make up for this. Liara's biotic strength will mean that a Vanguard keen to use her should not focus too much on biotic powers other than barrier.

Biotic
As Vanguards already start with a variety of biotic abilities and Biotic Amp access, Singularity is highly regarded as the best option for a bonus talent since it contributes to the class's close-combat excellence by improving crowd control. Adding Singularity also gives you most of the abilities of an Adept, with the added advantages of medium armor and better weapons.

Tech
Electronics is also an excellent option. It gives a large passive boost to shielding and is used to unlock some containers. This adds greatly to a Vanguard's survivability, and lessens dependency on Barrier. Moreover, having Shepard take care of the locks with Electronics frees up points for party members to spend on other skills. It also grants the Overload ability, which causes significant damage to enemy shields, allowing more efficient use of weapons fire to take enemies down.

Decryption is also a good, albeit uncommon choice for Vanguards, as it allows the player access to Sabotage and the choice of forgoing a tech-based party member for unlocking containers in favor of a more combat oriented ally such as Ashley or Liara (the latter being an especially good choice given her Singularity, Electronics, and First Aid talents). Sabotage is an excellent addition to the Vanguard's repetoire as it allows the player to close the distance to enemies when biotics or cover aren't viable options. A high enough Decryption skill, coupled with biotics and Adrenaline Burst, allows Vanguards to tackle enemies such as Colossi on foot without fear of retalliation.

Another option is Hacking, but this has its pluses and minuses. Because the Vanguard will not gain any of the cooldown bonuses due to a complete lack of tech abilities, a lot of stat points will go to waste, but high level AI Hacking gives a Vanguard an instant edge in any battle involving drones, turrets or geth (i.e. most of them) and frees you to use those close-combat abilities to devastating effect, especially if you're carrying Tungsten Ammunition.

Combat
For combat, the Vanguard already has access to Pistols and Shotguns, so there is little need to add extra weapon proficiencies. However, because the Vanguard is a primarily close-range class, taking Sniper Rifle access as a bonus talent is a good choice, as it gives you long-range capability that the regular Vanguard doesn't have. This also works well in tandem with immobilizing biotic skills like Throw or Lift.