Vanguard Guide (Mass Effect 3)

Vanguards are feared for their high-risk, high-reward combat style, closing quickly on enemies and destroying them at short range with weapons and biotic abilities. They are outfitted with L5n implants, enabling them to perform a biotic charge that strikes the opponent with incredible force while bringing the Vanguard in for close-range combat.

Overview
Many of the vanguard's powers are offensively-oriented, utilizing a high-risk, high-reward system. Vanguards can specialize in close ranged weapons or faster, harder hitting biotic powers.

While a solid weapon helps, one of the better ideas for a Vanguard is to keep recharge times low. Much of a Vanguard's success is contingent upon the ability to use powers in rapid succession, stringing various moves together to produce devastating effects.

It should be kept in mind that the Vanguard has no easy way to reduce shields aside from shooting them down or using a specific Nova evolution. An enemy protected by shields will mitigate most of the Vanguard's powers. As such, the Vanguard should coordinate with squad mates in order to deal with shields, with Overload being one of the easier ways of counteracting it.

Additionally, while the Vanguard is based on close-ranged ferocity and rapid usage of powers, charging into a disadvantageous position will often leave the Vanguard vulnerable to enemy fire. As such, the Vanguard must be cognizant of where a charge will leave them positioned in terms of their enemy's location.

However, despite the aforementioned shortcomings, a Vanguard with sufficient awareness and ability can become a devastating damage dealer on the battlefield, capable of annihilating large groups of enemies instantaneously in a ferocious, fantastic, flurry of biotic explosions and close ranged weapon blasts.

Biotic Charge
As the Vanguard's signature attack, Biotic Charge acts as a core ability, managing a great portion of both the Vanguard's offense and defense. The Charge itself inflicts a great deal of damage, capable of knocking enemies several meters back. More importantly, the Vanguard becomes completely immune to all forms of damage while charging, and upon a successful hit, barriers are restored, the amount contingent upon specialization. Considering the aforementioned reasons, minimal power recharge times are highly recommended. On lower difficulties, standard ground troops simply lack the damage to destroy the Vanguard's barriers and health in time for the next Charge to be off cooldown.

Even on insanity, if Biotic Charge is used every time it is off cooldown, the Vanguard will be more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Brutes and Atlases, provided the auto-executes are dodged.

Cryo Ammo
Cryo Ammo is an excellent ammo power to use if applied to a fast-firing SMG or assault rifle. Firing the weapon's frozen payload onto enemies will apply a snare effect, slowing their movements and making it much harder for the afflicted to target you. This makes charging marginally safer. The main attraction however, is the ammo's ability to freeze an enemy entirely. If an enemy is completely frozen, a Biotic Charge used in follow up will shatter the enemy, instantly killing them, regardless of health. If you so desire, you can take Squad Cryo Ammo and equip it on your team, giving you great crowd control and lots of frozen targets to charge. Even on Insanity, enemies will be frozen, greatly increasing your survivability.

Incendiary Ammo
Incendiary ammo burns away armor, inflicts a fiery damage-over-time time effect, and has a chance to cause organic enemies to panic. The damage itself is capable of finishing off wounded targets, and the panic the ammo induces makes charging safer. For Vanguards reliant on SMGs or not specialized in Pierce-Nova, Incendiary Ammo is one of the better ways to deal with enemies protected by armor.

Nova
Nova acts as the Vanguard's replacement for traditional grenades. Nova utilizes the Vanguard's high-risk, high-reward combat system, briefly turning the player into a living bomb. The Nova itself is a close range shock wave power. Activating Nova will detonate and expend the Vanguard's remaining biotic barrier, causing damage and knocking enemies within its radius back. It is important to note that the damage and force-intensity of Nova is derived from the amount of the Vanguard's remaining barrier. When used at full-barrier strength, Nova becomes a devastating attack capable of killing most enemies outright, and grievously wounding them on higher difficulties.

Considering that Biotic Charge restores barriers, and Nova expends barriers, both moves when used in tandem with each other synergize amazingly. As such, Nova is a brilliant way to finish a Biotic Charge, if it is not being used such for defensive purposes, or escape. The Charge will stun or kill the first enemy hit, and the following Nova annihilates other enemies not caught in the original blast.

The reverse is also highly effective. When in close proximity, Nova can be used to stun opponents and followed up by a biotic charge, which replenishes your shields, takes out some of the risk out of using the Nova. In addition, it also opens up the option for unleashing a second Nova, which can have a devastating effect on remaining enemies.

In keeping with the Vanguard's high-risk style, Nova can leave a player vulnerable after use, since it expends all of the Vanguard's shields. Protected enemies will only be stunned by a Nova, and without proper recharge-boosting evolutions and armor, a player can be attacked before he has the opportunity to charge again and restore his barriers.

Ideal upgrades for Nova include Pierce, which allows the power to ignore most of an enemy's protections, increasing the chances that enemies will be killed outright by the blast. Vanguards wishing to minimize their risk might consider the Double Blast upgrade, which allows them to use Nova twice in a row, only depleting 50% of their Barrier instead of the entire thing, at the cost of reduced damage. This can give them more time to roll out of danger following a Nova, or use it a second time should the enemies not be killed in the first strike.

It is important to note that during nova's animation, the player is invulnerable to non-execute attacks. If charge is not off cooldown yet, and you have enough barriers to cast another nova, you can dodge cancel it to buy time for charge to come up.

Pull
Through the use of mass-lowering fields, Pull renders enemy helpless as they float through the air. Using Biotic Charge on an enemy that has been pulled will cause a Biotic Explosion, dealing massive damage to the charged enemy and any other enemy within close proximity.

It is important to note that Pull has an extremely short recharge time, as does Biotic Charge when factoring in time dilation. This makes Pull and Biotic Charge an extremely popular combo, as the massive amounts of damage the explosion incurs will finish off any unprotected enemy on any difficulty.

Shockwave
Shockwave throws enemies, knocking them back, and travels through cover. This effectively makes Shockwave a cover breaker, capable of displacing entrenched enemies. If enemies are protected by shielding or armor, Shockwave is still capable of stunning them, allowing squad mates to shoot them while exposed.

Shockwave is also an excellent way of dealing with groups of swarming husks, as it knocks them off their feet, effectively disabling them. This makes it much easier to finish off large groups and can give the player time to reorient themselves in cover.

Fitness
Fitness is a passive talent which increases the Vanguard's health, barriers, and melee damage. The increased survivability is especially important for Vanguards, as the extra barriers and health will often be the few fractions of a second that will be needed to survive until the next Biotic Charge is off cooldown, should the player find themselves in a disadvantageous position.

Assault Mastery
Assault Mastery is the Vanguard's passive stat bonus talent. It increases weapon damage, power damage, force, reputation, and carrying capacity. In short, it provides massive buffs to the core components of the Vanguard, and should be maxed out to the player's personal preference as soon as possible.

Reave
Reave makes an excellent addition to vanguards who rely on powers rather than weapons. If specialized for damage protection, a vanguard who relies on the charge-nova combo will be able to mitigate a lot of incoming damage from this close-quarters style. Reave can also be used for biotic explosions. Reave both detonates Pull on unshielded targets to destroy them, and can be detonated by abilities such as Shockwave, Biotic Charge, and Nova. With area reave, nova can set off multiple detonations, making area reave, charge, and nova a very powerful combination for clusters of strong enemies. Since reave can be detonated on shielded enemies, this makes reave combos a better alternative to pull combos for those enemy types. You aren't quite the adept because you don't have the raw speed of the pull/throw combo, but with proper squadmate choice and weight management, you can be proficient enough with biotic explosions to quickly take down even banshees, even on insanity.

Energy Drain
Energy Drain is all about minimising your weaknesses. Vanguards have no direct way of dealing with shielded foes like Centurions, Atlas Mechs, or Geth Primes, besides the the Charge/shoot combo. Energy Drain simply eliminates this hole in the Vanguard's abilities. Since a lot of enemies have shielding, Energy Drain can be extremely useful in weakening said enemies, even in groups if one gets their timing right. Energy Drain can also make any Vanguard into a tech bursting machine. You can simply Energy Drain, Charge or Nova, and then watch the show.

More importantly, Energy Drain's ability to replenish shields enables the player to spam Nova even more, especially when combined with smart choices in regards to charge.

Defense Drone
Defense Drone gives you effectively free damage against any target stupid enough to get into close range while it is running. Of course most classes don't often find themselves in melee combat so this power isn't that useful to them. You on the other hand charge. And keep charging to restore your barrier.

Defense Matrix
Damage reduction helps the close quarter specialist to survive for long enough to do significant damage. Purging your damage reduction power also has a beneficial effect, Defense Matrix instantly restores shield in the heat of the battle without needing charge to recharge. There is 60% cooldown penalty, which can be mitigated by choosing a proper load out, armor, and/or choosing one of the 6th evolution that reduces penalty to 30%.

Weapons and Equipment
Mass Effect 3 opens up additional weapon possibilities beyond the Shotgun/SMG/pistol combination available for most of Mass Effect 2, but since the Vanguard class is built around close combat and use of powers, a good Shotgun and a lightweight overall loadout are both important.

Assault Rifles
Though most Assault Rifles are generally quite heavy and thus make a difficult choice for a Vanguard committed to packing a Shotgun while staying light and retaining a rapid recharge rate, an Assault Rifle can cover for both an SMG and a Heavy Pistol, giving Vanguards the ability to fight at range when closing in using Biotic Charge is too risky a tactic, all the while retaining a fairly high stopping power and rate of fire. For a powers-based vanguard though, assault rifles is one of the strongest weapon choices since they lack the tools for dealing with enemies at range.

The trick is in choosing the right model and upgrades to complement the Vanguard's fighting style, filling in for the deficiencies of a Shotgun. In this case a rifle with a high rate of fire and large ammo capacity is best. The M-8 Avenger, Phaeston, and Geth Pulse Rifle all fit these criteria, with the former two available very early on in the game. Though lacking in pure stopping power, all three guns can put out long bursts with minimal recoil and a short time between reloads, enabling the Vanguard to "hose down" a target with fire before charging in with a Shotgun to finish the job. This is useful for taking down enemy shields and barriers when complementary squadmates are unavailable. Vindicator is another strong choice for its excellent weight and damage balance, and is also available very early in the game.

When combined with Cryo/Incendiary ammo powers, a high rate of fire also maximizes the chances of freezing or panicking an enemy and allowing for the Vanguard to set up a shattering charge or fire detonation.

Best of all, the Avenger, Vindicator, Phaeston and Geth Pulse Rifle are among the lightest Assault Rifles in the game, and make only a small impact on power recharge time. With the right mods, armor, upgrades and power evolutions, Vanguards can increase their flexibility and charge as often as they want, all the while minimizing the need to carry too many extra weapons.

Another great rifle choice for the Vangaurd is the Adas Anti-Synthetic Rifle. It does good damage, has a high rate of fire, and covers the Vangaurd's weakness in the shield department. Aside from that, if you equip the Piercing Mod and Incendiary Ammo, you can strip away BOTH shields and armor with relative ease, exposing the meaty health bar inside. Best of all the bullets home in slightly making missing with this rifle even less likely. The main draw back is the weight, but if you max out your carry capacity, fully upgrade the rifle, and carry it as your only weapon, your recharge time will still be at 170% or higher. This allows you to have a gun that handles everything at any range and still use powers heavily. While not having a back up weapon can be limiting at times, the versatility of this gun makes it well worth it. I highly recommend this gun, it makes Insanity a joke for the Vangaurd.

Heavy Pistols
The Heavy Pistol is the Vanguard's classic answer to enemies at long range. There are a variety of effective Heavy Pistols in the game, but some of the more exotic ones such as the Scorpion or the Arc Pistol are also quite heavy. The starting M-3 Predator is fairly effective and very lightweight; notable later weapons include the M-5 Phalanx, which is essentially a more powerful version of the Predator, and the M-6 Carnifex, which is extremely powerful but has only six shots per clip; the M-77 Paladin has higher damage than any of the conventional Heavy Pistols, and is limited only by its low magazine capacity of 4 rounds.

Since a Vanguard will mostly be using Heavy Pistols at long ranges, a very useful upgrade is the Heavy Pistol Scope Upgrade, which turns the pistol into a sort of jury-rigged Sniper Rifle. The magnification and accuracy improvement are very useful at long range, especially with powerful pistols with small magazines, such as the Carnifex. Other upgrades are a matter of preference, though if you primarily use the pistol at long ranges the melee stunner will probably not see much use.

For a weapons-based Vanguard, Heavy Pistols are somewhat cumbersome, but this can be mitigated by equipping an Ultralight Pistol Materials mod (requires Mass Effect 3: Leviathan for single-player, Mass Effect 3: Earth for multiplayer). Upgrading their level should be a second-tier priority, after heavier weapons such as Shotguns.

Shotguns
Up close, personal, brutal and deadly, the Shotgun is the signature weapon of a weapons-based Vanguard. Though each player's style will be different, it's useful to have a gun that is quick to fire, able to take advantage of split-second opportunities available after Charge, and lightweight, in order to keep power recharge times quick, all of which are provided by most Shotguns.

The M-22 Eviscerator is an excellent choice because of its balance in terms of decent damage output, shot capacity per clip, and manageable weight. It is available early in the game on the mission Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation, which makes it an excellent choice for starting Vanguards to pick up.

The M-11 Wraith is also a potent choice. The Wraith is based on the design of the Eviscerator, but handles differently. The Wraith is lighter, has a faster reload time, and deals higher damage. These attributes come at the trade of holding only two shots per clip instead of three. It is important to note that the Wraith is a relatively light Shotgun, only beaten in weight by the Disciple.

The Disciple is arguably the best Shotgun early-on for Vanguards that wish to use their powers as often as possible without sacrificing their damage output at close range. It is the lightest Shotgun with high damage and good accuracy.

It is important to note that when both the Wraith and Disciple are fully upgraded, both become extremely lightweight, allowing for additional weapons to be used without compromising a 200% cooldown reduction. The only major differences between a fully upgraded Wraith and Disciple are that the Wraith has higher end damage, quicker reload times, and fewer shots per clip, while the Disciple has more shots per clip and a longer reload time.

For weapon upgrades, a Shotgun-reliant Vanguard particularly benefits from the Shotgun Spare Thermal Clip upgrade, to avoid having to worry about ammunition.

The High Caliber Barrel upgrade is also useful if you rely on weapon damage, or the Blade Attachment if you melee frequently.

It's a good idea to prioritize upgrading your Shotgun to level 5 over upgrades to other weapons, as most Shotguns are heavy, making weight reduction important. Moreover, upgrading provides extra damage and greater ammunition capacity, both of which are highly desirable traits.

A wide pellet spread can be useful if you have trouble with fast-moving enemies at close range, so for Vanguards who mainly use shotguns at extremely close range, a smart choke upgrade may be counterproductive. It can, however, be useful for play styles that use the shotgun for mid-range combat, or for players who are feeling like particularly good shots.

Sniper Rifles
Sniper Rifles are an unconventional choice for Vanguards, given they are the close quarter combat specialists; however, sporting a lightweight, rapid-firing, and fully-upgraded Sniper Rifle like a Level X M-90 Indra or M-13 Raptor can make a very versatile Vanguard. These snipers enable the Vanguard to safely pick off enemies from afar when charging at them would be suicidal, especially on higher difficulties. Combined with proper ammo upgrade the Level X M-90 Indra can have almost 45 shots and it also can be fired without the scope similar to an Assault Rifle with very low muzzle climb. Just by carrying a Level X M-90 Indra and Level X Disciple, one could have a versatile Vanguard who can adapt to any situation even on higher difficulties, while also making sure the power recharge cooldown delay stays to a minimum.

Submachine Guns
Compact and lightweight, the SMG is unparalleled in its ability to send fusillades of fire down the battlefield.

A Submachine Gun is typically used at medium ranges weapon where a Shotgun cannot reach. However, while not as directly useful for following up a charge in terms of the raw damage output and power of a Shotgun, the SMG, when used properly, provides a wider spectrum of tactics the Vanguard may employ.

The main attraction to using an SMG over a Shotgun is its ability to stagger multiple enemies and apply the effects of ammo powers at an alarming rate, along with the nearly universal feature of incredibly fast reload times. Following a charge, if the player finds themselves in a precarious position, a few short bursts of fire from an SMG will cause nearly any opponent hit to recoil in response. Any enemy left unscathed by a Charge or Nova can easily be crowd-controlled by brief bursts, and this effect only increases with ammo powers.

Applying Incendiary Ammo will set any enemy caught within the SMG's fire ablaze, panicking them. This renders the enemies once a threat completely harmless, allowing the Vanguard to reorient themselves for another charge and recover while multiple enemies are busy with putting out the ammo-induced fire. Applying Cryo Ammo to an SMG will allow the Vanguard to freeze nearly any enemy after a few, controlled bursts. This causes enemies to be unable to react quickly, and gives the Vanguard ample time to shatter frozen targets.

The M-4 Shuriken is a surprisingly capable SMG for the early game, with decent accuracy and damage. Later on, the M-9 Tempest improves on the Shuriken's damage output, at the cost of long-range accuracy. Additionally, the M-25 Hornet has a relatively long range for a Submachine Gun, but comes at the cost of lower accuracy. Finally the M-12 Locust has the longest range, with the steadiest aim, but sacrifices damage.

Any Vanguard carrying an SMG will benefit greatly from the SMG Ultralight Materials upgrade, which can reduce the weight of the gun by up to 90%, allowing faster power cooldown. Other upgrades are very dependent on the particular gun and play style, though most SMGs have too much recoil to benefit from the SMG Scope.

If an SMG is used exclusively at short ranges, opting for increased clip size and Thermal Heat Sinks will allow weapons like the N7 Hurricane to fire for unprecedented lengths of time. If used with some level of control, an SMG will be unrivaled in its ability to inflict severe damage in marathons of close-ranged combat, keeping in mind the extremely quick reload times of most SMGs.

Combat Guide
Because of the changes to the biotic explosion mechanics in Mass Effect 3, the Vanguard can benefit greatly from using two biotic squadmates with the "set-up" powers Reave, Warp, or Dark Channel. Because these powers can adhere to targets through armor, shields, and barriers, you can produce serial biotic detonations on many targets. The tactic benefits if cooldown times are kept low on all powers involved, as well as from upgrades to powers' detonation potency. You should use the first squadmate's set-up power, followed by charging the target to detonate. Then, use the second squadmate's set-up power, followed by Nova, to produce a second detonation. By this time, the cooldowns for the first set-up power and biotic charge should be over, or almost over, and the process can be repeated. Because detonations stagger nearby enemies, you are somewhat protected from retaliation. Charge can also detonate other powers, such as Overload.

The addition of Nova makes the Vanguard a much more effective force than before, both in close combat and in general engagements at medium range. With Nova, a Vanguard can quickly disperse groups of enemies that, in Mass Effect 2, would simply kill him as he recovered from a Charge. This can still happen, of course (especially on high difficulties), so a Vanguard with long cooldown times should make sure that any groups to be attacked are stripped of shields or barriers before charging.

With a lightweight weapon loadout and an emphasis on cooldown-reducing upgrades and armor pieces, the cooldown on Charge may be extremely short, allowing an extremely aggressive play style. Especially with cooldown speed bonuses of +100% or greater, a Vanguard can charge one enemy in a group (optionally detonating another squadmate's power), kill a few enemies with Nova or their shotgun, then charge again to replenish their barrier, then either evading or holding their own long enough to charge yet again and repeat. However, if you're able to obtain a very high cooldown speed bonus, such as 200% along with additional bonuses from squadmates, research upgrades, or armor pieces, charge will be back up by the time nova is finished, allowing you to endlessly refresh and expend your barriers. If cooldowns are not fast enough to allow for charge and nova to be used back to back, you can opt for nova half blast. Since you're immune to non-execution damage during nova animation, you can use the second nova for added damage and invulnerability, or simply dodge cancel out of the second nova in preparation for another charge. Be careful with this strategy though, as the key to survival is finding another target to quickly charge. If you fail to quickly find a target to charge, either because they're behind cover or you can't find them in time, your death is likely to follow.

This sort of tactic is extremely effective, even on insanity (however you may need to focus more on faster cooldowns than what would be enough on Normal difficulty), and can allow a Vanguard to destroy an enemy force with great speed; the only time it becomes problematic is when facing tough opponents with powerful close-range attacks, such as Banshees or Brutes, although it can still be feasible if you make sure to dive away from the enemy immediately after coming out of Charge. Alternatively, you can chain biotic explosions at range with your squadmates if you took reave. With your high cooldown bonus and two biotic squadmates, you should be able to reave combo with each of your squadmates back to back, quickly taking care of any foe, on any difficulty.

Depending on the difficulty, the Vanguard's combat approach in multiplayer can be different from singleplayer. On silver and bronze, a human nova-based vanguard is still played the same way. However, because you can not obtain as high of a cooldown bonus as you can in single player, mastery of either dodging as a filler between novas and charges, or dodge cancelling a second half blast nova becomes crucial. Even the slightest mistake can result in death. However, if done properly, a nova-vanguard can solo entire waves, besides atlases, turrets, brutes, and banshees. It would be wise to have your teammates deal with the enemies you can't face while you deal with the grunts. However, on higher difficulties or stronger waves, only charge groups that are within line of sight of your teammates. Alternatively, you can treat your vanguard as rear-guard class, charging enemies that try to flank your team. That way, they can focus on the bulk of the enemy army without having to look over their shoulder. This style is also applicable to the other vanguards. If not playing a nova-based vanguard, it is important to resist the urge to charge every enemy in sight and to instead plan out your attack and (more importantly) escape route if things go sour. As funny as it sounds, the Vanguard is a thinking man's (or woman's) class for those that want to use it the most effectively.

It is important to note that on multiplayer, all vanguard races play differently from each other.

Squad Members
Biotic squadmates, such as Kaidan Alenko, Liara T'Soni, or Javik synergize well with Vanguards, because of their ability to set up biotic detonations.

Liara's Singularity is unparalleled at setting up large numbers of unprotected enemies close to each other, and her warp can adhere to targets through protections. These powers allow vanguards to maximize the potential of their signature charge. Alternatively, if you upgrade Stasis to Bubble, it can be used the same way. In exchange for the longer cooldown of stasis, you're able to set up on shielded un-armored enemies. If you have your squadmates set to auto-power usage, you will have to unlearn singularity if you favor stasis, as Liara's AI will always default to singularity.

Similarly to Liara's Warp, Reave, possessed by Kaidan, will adhere to a target through protections and soften them up for a charge. In addition, Reave can be upgraded with a radius upgrade to affect multiple targets, allowing for multiple simultaneous detonations when coupled with Nova.

If you have downloaded the From Ashes DLC, Javik is a great squadmate because of his unique Dark Channel power. Because the channel will leap to the closest enemy when its current target dies, the Vanguard can use it for serial detonations on low-level enemies.

Vanguards notably lack methods of dealing effectively with shields. For this reason, squadmates such as Garrus Vakarian, EDI, and Kaidan Alenko are useful for their access to Overload. Ashley Williams and Tali'Zorah are effective too, contributing Disruptor Ammo and Energy Drain respectively.