Talk:Vanguard Guide (Mass Effect 3)

My experience
I've finished the game with Vanguard, done almost every mission except 1, on Normal. Should I start a Vanguard Guide? Or should I wait 'til I conquer higher difficulties?

For the curious, the strategy ends up boiling down to:

1) Use SMG and shotgun only. SMG is for far-off engagements, but full-auto models make it OK for close-up: good to finish an enemy after a charge when it only has a bit of health left and is flying away from you.. 2) Shotgun is great, mostly because of the spread (it's harder to be accurate in ME3 than ME2 was) and the fact it can have hard-hitting melee-enhancing attachments. 3) Also the best ammo in most situations seems to be incendiary, because again, accuracy can be low, and by the time you're sending something flying, it is down to health-only, and a few hits are killer 4) Nova is fun and useful but in reality you should put your points into charge and fitness and mastery: a good vanguard is primarily a melee wielder. The only enemies that cannot be melee'd successfully are Cerberus turrets and Harvesters; squad mates will help with the turrets (see below). 5) Recharge speed, melee power, shield power. 6) It is possible to melee 5 brutes at the same time (did it in the ending rush) successfully though having a squad mate with fast-recharging warp helped a lot. 7) In intense situations Nova should only be used BEFORE a charge, so that you recharge your shields immediately 8) If possible, the best tactic is to pick an enemy with protection, charge them, heavy melee as you come out, wait for power recharge (with the right perks, since that enemy is invariably dead, it will be fast!), nova, then charge to a new one. 9) With brutes, you charge, heavy melee, immediately back off shooting until charge is refilled. This can also be used on Cerberus mechs with higher-level abilities. 10) Even Banshees can be melee'd. Use almost the same tactic as brutes. With the Banshee you don't heavy melee, skip back immediately shooting as fast as you can until you can charge. She will either reach for you and miss or be busy doing something else. Every now and then one will one-shot you but it's very, very rare even when fighting two. 11) The biggest downside is that your squad selection is a bit inflexible: you need every extra percent of shield or recharge speed strength

That's the essence, although there is a lot more to it. 96.39.118.124 18:15, March 11, 2012 (UTC)