Adept Guide (Mass Effect 3)

Specializing in crowd control, Adepts are an essential asset on the field, allowing for a wide range of combat options which otherwise would not be available.

Overview
With the new sped up combat system in Mass Effect 3, BioWare has made Adept a true powerhouse. With a low cooldown build, utilizing Heavy Pistols and SMGs with Ultra Light Materials, an adept can often kill two or more enemies before they even start firing back.

One of your most powerful tools as Adept is the Biotic Burst, which occurs when combining a control spell with a offensive spell. These control spells, Singularity, Pull, Dark Channel, Slam, and in some occasions Shockwave (With proper upgrades) allow you to one-shot weaker enemies even on Insanity.

The Adept's great weakness is its inability to deal with Shields by default, so its important to address this with your squadmates, or your bonus power.

Solid choices for your Bonus Power include: Energy Drain (To Combat Shields and improve survivability), Warp Ammo (To deal increased damage to weightless enemies and improve squad damage output), Fortification (For improved power damage and better shields, be careful with the cooldown increase though. Its fairly negligible with light weapons and proper upgrades), and Dark Channel.

Singularity
The bread and butter of any decent Adept's repertoire, Singularity is used firstly as a crowd control power and secondly (often in succession) as a setup for other biotic powers, usually Throw or Warp. It should be high of the Adept's list of prioritized active powers to level up besides Warp. Unprotected enemies are suspended helplessly, but even protected enemies are periodically staggered while within a singularity field. Singularity's utility also comes from how it can be set up as a trap by targeting the ground when using the power so that enemies walking into the field are caught.

Singularity is a good setup for most combos as it disables unprotected enemies. Paired with lightweight weaponry, armor that reduces power cooldown and a leveled up warp, that spells quick damage - even around corners! Also works well with shockwave for a quick detonation whilst taking out multiple foes at once.

Singularity will also "Stun" enemies with defenses like shields, this can allow you to lock a Marauder or Centurion while you deal with their shields. With the Damage/Second upgrade this feature is further enhanced. Essentially locking them in, sometimes for the duration of the Singularity.

Pull
Pull is best used on Guardian as it will remove their shield and stagger them, leaving them vulnerable to another power, as Pull has one of the lowest cooldowns. The quick cooldown time can also be useful with the double throw evolution, allowing the Adept to quickly dispatch pairs of unprotected enemies.

Shockwave
Shockwave is a very useful tool for fighting from a protected area. On some maps you'll find areas that allow you to see the enemy but not physically effect them, such as unbreakable glass or high blockades. Shockwave isn't stopped by these obstacles and can effectively allow you to attack whilst still benefitting from the cover these places provide.

Another benefit of shockwave is that it detonates active warps. Warp effects persist on shielded enemies, so a warp-shockwave combo detonates for a lot of damage without needing to remove the shield first.

One of the upgrades for Shockwave allows you to add a Lift effect to it. This effect can be detonated by other powers as well.

Throw
Key to the adept's arsenal is physically controlling enemy movement -- often at high velocity, towards a sturdy object.

A weightless target is affected by Throw to a much greater degree than one with their feet on the ground. Coupled with Pull or Singularity, Throw can be used to devastating effect, to the point where targets can be hurled out of the arena entirely. Even if your target isn't floating, throwing an enemy with their sights on you can buy you valuable time for a quick escape.

The direction at which the Throw field hits an enemy affects which direction it will be sent. For instance, hitting a target from below will send it upward, and hitting from above will very quickly introduce them to the floor.

The double throw upgrade with a low cooldown can effectively get rid of nearly any threat a group of Husks presents, by simply hitting them with it repeatedly to keep them back. With a low enough cooldown, enemies can't even start to stand up before you hit them with another Throw.

Warp
Warp is a projectile power that has the ability to bend around corners and over/under obstacles if angled correctly. Use of this power on an enemy currently caught in a singularity will cause it to detonate, causing additional damage. It also leaves the enemy more vulernable to damage for a period of time - useful when working with high-damage allies to batter them with weaponry.

Use Warp on armor at every opportunity. It chews through it like crazy, on some enemies it's invaluable. Notable examples of this are Sentry Turrets, which are almost completely destroyed when down to just armor and hit by warp.

Warp is your most powerful Biotic Burst power also, so utilizing squad setups and power combinations that allow you to burst with Warp helps immensely on bigger enemies.

Cluster Grenade
A grenade that splits into 3 (or 4 if later upgraded) smaller grenades in a forked pattern in front of you - good damage dealer. Useful for groups of enemies and crowd control.

In particular you may find it useful on enemies with larger 'bulk' such Brutes. It's easy to land all three/four grenades directly on target since they are so large, and the combined damage can assist in taking them down quickly.

Fitness
One rank in fitness for 15% shields and armour may be a good investment. Two ranks for three points for 25% might be. But beyond that, the Adept works best with two sets of combos - for unarmoured foes, pull or singularity to set up and throw to detonate is on an absurdly short recharge, and for armoured foes you need warp to set up then shockwave to detonate. These, biotic mastery, and your bonus power are all far more integral to the adept than melee damage or even shields.

Warp Ammo
Warp Ammo is recommended for Adepts who prefer to lift their targets and shoot them, rather than detonate them. This allows your squadmates to spend points elsewhere (not their ammo powers), as well as the Adept to upgrade their powers for other uses, like pure damage for Warp instead of detonation. Additionally it won't tie up time for you to cast your other powers.

Barrier
Barrier will help protect you and keep you alive, something Adepts can struggle with, and its lift effect can help you if you get swarmed. Additionally the rank 5 Power Synergy upgrade will make all of your powers more potent. Taking the rank 6 evolution to reduce the cooldown penalty will make it so that armor pieces that further reduce cooldown can eliminate the penalty entirely. This strategy works best with a high-level or imported character, which gives you more points to play with.

Reave
Reave is a damage over time power similar to Warp. However if used on an organic enemy, and leveled for damage reduction, it provides more damage reduction that Barrier without the recharge speed penalty of Barrier. Like Warp it can detonate and be detonated. This makes area reave a particularly strong specialization, as it can set up multiple targets to be detonated in succession. Reave also goes through a Guardian's shield.

Stasis
For the purposes of setting up detonations or crowd-controlling, Stasis can be a viable alternative to singularity if the bubble specialization is taken. Stasis has the benefit if working against shielded un-armored targets, and if bubble is taken, can even strip off the shields of a Guardians from the front. The cooldown for stasis is slightly longer than singularity though.

Weapons and Equipment
Because Adepts are almost entirely power-based characters, players should equip weapons that weigh as little as possible, in order to minimize cooldown periods.

Heavy Pistols
The Scorpion and Carnifex Pistols are a viable option, with their ability to knock enemies out of cover, and high damage output.

Submachine Guns
With Ultra-Lightweight Materials mods, SMGs can weigh almost nothing, permitting rapid cooldown; pair this with a slow and accurate weapon to cover for SMG shortcomings.

Combat Guide
In any difficulty, even Insanity, Adept can make quick work of any enemy, especially with the changes to biotic explosion mechanic in Mass Effect 3, without firing a single bullet.

Groups of unshielded enemies can be wiped out almost instantly with any biotic explosion, such as a well-placed Singularity detonated by a Warp, especially if you choose Warp evolution which makes biotic detonations even more powerful. Guardians are also easy to defeat for Adept as using Pull or Stasis bubble makes them lose their shield, making them as vulnerable as common Troopers.

For armored and shielded enemies, approach is a bit different. Abilties such as singularity and pull can not be used to initiate biotic explosions. However, warp, reave, and dark channel can set up biotic explosions on any target. Stasis can also set up a biotic explosion on shielded un-armored targets, and can be used in place of singularity for crowd-control. However, the biotic explosion produced is weaker.

Units, such as Centurions, Geth Rocket Troopers, Engineer Turrets or bigger enemies, like Atlas, Brute or even Harvester, can go down fairly quickly with just using Warp and following it with Throw, repeating it until the target is down. Explosion will stagger even the bigger enemies (with exception of Harvester), which will give Adept some time to put another Warp without putting them to big risk. For groups of enemies like that, one of the best combinations is Warp followed by Cluster Grenades. This combo will explode for great damage, but the problem might be the accuracy of the grenades, as it needs some practice to aim them right. Cluster Grenades can also be substituted with Shockwave for targets that are closer.

Squad Members
The Adept specializes in biotics, so it is highly recommended to bring biotic squadmates to capitalize on the Adept's ability to create biotic explosions. Liara has many moves that are similar to the Adept, but because biotic explosions can be triggered by any two different biotic skills, Liara can easily bulk her Singularity for effective crowd control, using her Pure Biotic passive power to make it come out extremely quickly, leaving the Adept free to spend points on other skills such as Warp. Kaidan Alenko can use Reave, which provides extra damage to opponents with armor and barriers, creating massive damage when combined with the Adept's Warp, which will do extra damage as well, making him an effective partner when dealing with Brutes or Banshees. Javik's Dark Channel is also an effective starter for biotic combos, as it will shift to another enemy if the first target dies, allowing the Adept to constantly have a target for detonation.

Adepts lack any skills to deal with opponents that have shields, so taking a squadmate who can deal damage to them is recommended. Overload works effectively, and is possessed by Kaidan, EDI and Garrus, while Ashley Williams provides Disruptor Ammo and Tali'Zorah can provide Energy Drain. They also lack the ability to do a high amount of damage with weapons.