96 replies to this topic

[Shampoohorn]

Edit: It turns out that the QFI's heavy melee can exceed 6000! (thanks tyhw for testing.) 

Previous recommendation:
Cloak: Duration/Melee/Bonus  (You can choose duration and still kill a phantom)
Stickies: 1st Three Ranks
Sabotage: Backfire/Explosive/TechVulnerability
QD: Dam&Capacity/Power Damge
Fitness: Melee/Melee/Melee

12/18/12 Update to a 5/5/6/4/6 build.  More TC damage, no more bonus power, two more ranks in sticky nades.  The extra grenades give you 4 without any grenade gear.
Cloak: Damage/Melee
Stickies: Damage/ExtraNades
Sabotage: Backfire/Explosive/TechVulnerability
QD: Dam&Capacity
Fitness: Melee/Melee/Melee


Here is the summary of her maximun melee potential:
Fitness Tree: +95% Base Damage  (15+20+30+30)
Cloak: +130% Base Damage (40+40+50)
StrEnh III: +30% Base Damage (testing has shown it's 30 not 100%)
Hydraulic Joints: +20% Base Damage
Martial Artist:+75% Base Damage
Weapon Melee Mod: +50% Total Damage from SG omniblade.
Sabotage: +50% Vulnerability to Melee!  Essentially a 50% boost to Total Damage.


Here is the damage for some likely combinations.  Assume  she's cloaked and the target is primed with sabotage.
Maxed:  6075 = (600*(1+.95+.8+.5+.75+.3+.2))*1.5*1.5
 Maxed w/o Martial Artist's +75%: 5062.5
 No Gear exc SG Omniblade: 5400 (down to 4388 w/o Martial Artist's +75%)
 
 These numbers are nerfed by 25% vs armor.

Check out the nice video made by DisturbedPsic0.  Great example of gameplay vs Cerberus.

Weapons:
Shotguns are the best since the Omniblade's bonus is 50%.  A sabo/melee combo is sufficient to kill just about every humanoid in the game outright so choose your shotgun based on whatever other features it has.  I wish I could recommend the Graal or GPSG because their stagger is very helpful for a close range setup like this, but off-host they tend to cancel your cloak randomly and get you killed.

Here are some weapons and weapon combos that I favor.
Shotguns: Wraith, Piranha, Claymore, Raider
AR: Saber, Falcon(+Hurricane), Adas
Pistols: Talon, Eagle or Scorpion w/ Indra.



Tactic:Cloak / Sabotage / Heavy Melee. 
Cloaked sabotage can do around 1500+ damage in addition to priming for your heavy melee.  Note that you are able to target heavy melee from very far away.  Use this to your advantage, but be careful of smoke, stasissed targets or some ramps as these will mess with your targetting.
Regarding phantoms:  A single phantom is an easy melee target, with some exceptions.  If you're in a laggy game, she can interrupt your melee even when you're cloaked.  She seems to get DR during her slash melee which is double bad since you won't kill her and she'll be set up to kill or sync kill you.  Unlikely but possible.
Also regarding phantoms: She will 'never' dodge your heavy melee unless she is also being targetted by your teammates.  If she's flipping, she will survive your melee.


Some other notes:
-Power Amps are great for getting more damage out of your sabotage.
-Wraith X + Omniblade my current favorite.
-Juggernaut Pack is a good choice as well.
-Be aware that mauraders are pretty quick with that elbow.
-Don't expect to melee much vs geth.  Their tendency to group makes stickies and sabotage a much safer strategy.
- updated some of the build info 12/21/12
- updated Hydraulic Joints (+5% balance buff).  Note, new Bat Gauntlet gear does not get TV boost.
- updated with a link to DisturbedPsic0's video.

tl;dr  mQFI FTW

Edited by Shampoohorn, 21 August 2013 - 03:35 AM.

[Morning Elf]

Lol.

Can you make a video of you killing some Phantoms? I'd love to see that.

[Inabstract]

tl;dr but try this build.

TC with that added duration helps you become more versatile with your QFI.

I know you probably don't like the nade, but trust me it's a great offensive attribute. If you use Sabotage with the added Tech Vulnerability, you're able to prime a target for the sticky grenade. The grenades damage w/ it's added aoe from Tech Burst does some serious damage (especially against Reapers and Cerberus).

The weapon damage passives work nicely for your Saber (sorry didn't look at manifest ) and should help well with mooks of course and bosses. Your an infiltrator; health isn't so necessary, simply use hit and run tactics with Sabotage and Sticky (maybe a few saber shots if necessary) and you have a pretty nice build.

You can also of course stand back and pop shots of course if you want, making this build a close-range to long-range class. Hope this helps.

[Shampoohorn]

Morning Elf wrote...

Lol.

Can you make a video of you killing some Phantoms? I'd love to see that.

Never made a vid of gameplay before.  Best advice is not too expect one, but I'll look into it.

[Sihmm]

Haha beautiful. Nice job. Would love to see a video. I reckon you could probably find a way to incorporate stickies though, even if you just drop a rank or two out of the racial for them - might help make melee a more reliable option on more enemies?

[Edolix]

I suddenly really want to try this build now...

[Shampoohorn]

Sihmm wrote...

Haha beautiful. Nice job. Would love to see a video. I reckon you could probably find a way to incorporate stickies though, even if you just drop a rank or two out of the racial for them - might help make melee a more reliable option on more enemies?

Hey thanks.

I'm sure I could drop Bonus Power or QD rank 6 and get three easy ranks in stickies.  That and Warfighter gear would immediately up her damage potential.  But really, my motivation for the build less about DPS and much more about sneaky melee.  She currently plays like a slayer without the tactical mobility.  That's okay with me, at least for now.

If I want to fiddle with stickies, I'd probably try this human inf build.  Almost the same melee damage plus grenades galore.

Edited by Shampoohorn, 20 August 2012 - 11:56 PM.

[Shampoohorn]

Inabstract wrote...

tl;dr but try this build.

TC with that added duration helps you become more versatile with your QFI.

I know you probably don't like the nade, but trust me it's a great offensive attribute. If you use Sabotage with the added Tech Vulnerability, you're able to prime a target for the sticky grenade. The grenades damage w/ it's added aoe from Tech Burst does some serious damage (especially against Reapers and Cerberus).

The weapon damage passives work nicely for your Saber (sorry didn't look at manifest ) and should help well with mooks of course and bosses. Your an infiltrator; health isn't so necessary, simply use hit and run tactics with Sabotage and Sticky (maybe a few saber shots if necessary) and you have a pretty nice build.

You can also of course stand back and pop shots of course if you want, making this build a close-range to long-range class. Hope this helps.

Lol, hey thanks for the help, but like I said in my OP (tl:dr really?) , I intentionally left out stickies -- and not just because they're the worst grenades at the moment.  As is, the build is perfectly viable on a Gold team and can solo the occasional wave when everybody else goes down to phantoms etc.  The only problem I had with her is when I equipped the GPS and her cloak started failing 3 seconds in.  Not doing that again.

[Holy-Hamster]

Sticky Grenades suck. Like horribly.

Pretty much the worst grenade.

[Inabstract]

Shampoohorn wrote...

Inabstract wrote...

tl;dr but try this build.

TC with that added duration helps you become more versatile with your QFI.

I know you probably don't like the nade, but trust me it's a great offensive attribute. If you use Sabotage with the added Tech Vulnerability, you're able to prime a target for the sticky grenade. The grenades damage w/ it's added aoe from Tech Burst does some serious damage (especially against Reapers and Cerberus).

The weapon damage passives work nicely for your Saber (sorry didn't look at manifest ) and should help well with mooks of course and bosses. Your an infiltrator; health isn't so necessary, simply use hit and run tactics with Sabotage and Sticky (maybe a few saber shots if necessary) and you have a pretty nice build.

You can also of course stand back and pop shots of course if you want, making this build a close-range to long-range class. Hope this helps.

Lol, hey thanks for the help, but like I said in my OP (tl:dr really?) , I intentionally left out stickies -- and not just because they're the worst grenades at the moment.  As is, the build is perfectly viable on a Gold team and can solo the occasional wave when everybody else goes down to phantoms etc.  The only problem I had with her is when I equipped the GPS and her cloak started failing 3 seconds in.  Not doing that again.

Sorry bro read it this time. I respect how you read over mine and I apologize for the mistake of not reading yours.

I actually like this melee build and may try it sometime (if I can get a respec ). It seems pretty effective in the way you describe how it works and probably does work wonders against Phantoms and other weaker enemies.

Like I said i'll definitely give it a try, thanks.

[Inabstract]

Holy-Hamster wrote...

Sticky Grenades suck. Like horribly.

Pretty much the worst grenade.

That's honestly not true to tell you the truth. if you went with it's sixth passive, it gains the added benefit of ammo powers (can help set off Tech bursts, Cryo and Fire explosions) and usually wrecks bosses and close-knitted mobs.
 
Sticky Grenade can trigger QFI Sabotage for a nice Tech burst hurting any enemies within it's range and immensely damaging the target you threw it on.

The HI with Cryo blast, could freeze an enemy (once shields are down) and simply throw a sticky causing a Cryo Explosion. No grenade is terrible, it just depends on how you use them.

[Shampoohorn]

Inabstract wrote...

Shampoohorn wrote...

Inabstract wrote...

tl;dr but try this build.

snip

Lol, hey thanks for the help, but like I said in my OP (tl:dr really?) ,

snip

Sorry bro read it this time. I respect how you read over mine and I apologize for the mistake of not reading yours.

I actually like this melee build and may try it sometime (if I can get a respec ). It seems pretty effective in the way you describe how it works and probably does work wonders against Phantoms and other weaker enemies.

Like I said i'll definitely give it a try, thanks.

No worries, chief.  It you do get to respec, come back an share your thoughts.  She's fun to play and one of the few 'duration' builds that I've seen lately.  As a result, I've gotten silver or gold revive medals in most of the games I played with her.  (Shampoohorn = TeamPlayer):innocent:

edit: So stickies get an boost from ammo gear?  I had not idea.  I'll look into when I spec out my human inf.

Edited by Shampoohorn, 21 August 2012 - 12:47 AM.

[ThelLastTruePatriot]

Inabstract wrote...

tl;dr but try this build.

 If you considered the opening post too long to read, I'd have hated to see how you performed in school.

[Holy-Hamster]

Inabstract wrote...

Holy-Hamster wrote...

Sticky Grenades suck. Like horribly.

Pretty much the worst grenade.

That's honestly not true to tell you the truth. if you went with it's sixth passive, it gains the added benefit of ammo powers (can help set off Tech bursts, Cryo and Fire explosions) and usually wrecks bosses and close-knitted mobs.
 
Sticky Grenade can trigger QFI Sabotage for a nice Tech burst hurting any enemies within it's range and immensely damaging the target you threw it on.

The HI with Cryo blast, could freeze an enemy (once shields are down) and simply throw a sticky causing a Cryo Explosion. No grenade is terrible, it just depends on how you use them.

Compared to the rest of the grenades? They're horrible.  

Except when you take sticky grenades all the way to 6 you give up either a lot of weapon damage or a lot of health / shields.  It's not even close to worth the trade off for the weak damage they do.  Especially considering they are a limited amount.  If you have to share with other grenade users like demolisher, male quarian, destroyer, then their usefulness drops even further.  

[Invader Nemesis]

The quarian female infi is an unconventional character. I never see them in random matches anymore. I don't worry about grenades because a lot of the time your going to be fighting over them with someone else and I rather put points it into weapon damage anyway.

[Shampoohorn]

I played about four pug games with her yesterday. I rarely have issues with lobbies and dropped games but last night was terrible. I didn't get through a single match. I'll blame the impending server maintenance.

tl;dr Quarian heavy melee takes too long. Don't play on nights when the servers are going down. Please don't camp by the waterfall for the whole effing match.
...

First game I got dumped into wave 9, Cerb, Glacier. Melee killed three phantoms on wave 10, but somehow got instakilled on the fourth. I was trying out the Revenant and was sure she was staggered, but she interrupted her own stagger and my melee to gut me. Team finished the wave and these were the only credits I got all night.

10 minutes of pug lobby searching and lost connections. Started one lobby and had 3 people jump in and out. No love for the QFI?

Next game was Reapers on Hydra. Tried the Talon with AP ammo. Marauders were a challenge: the QFI's melee animation takes long enough for marauders to target her and hit her with their melee just before dying. Even cloaked, I took damage from them as I delivered the killing blow. I'm going to blame some of that on lag, but it's worth keeping an eye on. Quit the game at the end of wave 5. I'd noticed around wave 3 that the host and his demolisher friend were camping/griefing at the waterfall in back. They were still there through wave 5 even though I'd asked a few times for them to come out and play. Wave 6 was a hack, which made me grin a bit as I quit out.

10 more minutes of lobby fail again.

Cerberus, Condor with my Saber. Dumped into wave 8! Not too much lag. I figured I would make the most of it and then wave 9 starts and the rest of the squad immediately kills themselves off between two turrets at the player spawn point. I tried to revive a few of them but the entire wave spawn was on the bottom half of the map and after two medigels I abandoned them and moved to the top. Killed a few phantoms, sabotaged Atlases and burned a third medigel. Finally ran into trouble with a phantom when a bit of low cover blocked my melee attack. Soloing 80% of the waves spawn budget seemed daunting so I bleed out. Fairly sure I was kicked out of the lobby when all was said and done.

More lobby annoyance. Got dumped back into the Condor group twice. Switched to reapers and finally found an game.

Last game. White, Reapers. Me with my Wraith III and Inferno IV. Two players were camping down at the geth farm. I was ranging and having a great match aside from banshee warps making epic journeys to find me from across that map. Wraith +Inferno was working better than the talon +AP vs marauders. Soloed one wave and otherwise was double the score of the other players (i.e. not camping, not dying). Lot's of revives. Two excellent missile moments. Wave 7, servers go off line. Oh well.

Edited by Shampoohorn, 21 August 2012 - 04:21 PM.

[Alijah Green]

Holy-Hamster wrote...

Sticky Grenades suck. Like horribly.

Pretty much the worst grenade.

doesn't matter they are the strongest now

[Shampoohorn]

Alijah Green wrote...

Holy-Hamster wrote...

Sticky Grenades suck. Like horribly.

Pretty much the worst grenade.

doesn't matter they are the strongest now

It was nice to see stickies got a buff, but I'm still going to stick with my current build.

Played a few more games with her last night, mostly with the wraith.  I'd been thinking that she plays a bit like a B grade Shadow.  This was confirmed when I played a reaper game with a kroguard and shadow.  In the time I took to run up to a target and melee, one or the other had already took them out.  I got most of my melee kills during 1/2 wave solos or vs. banshees on stairs.  :happy: 

Played one game with the indra+scorpion (Cerb / London) and ripped though all things.  Great map for sniping and sabotaging turrets.  To many phantoms taking my shields down before even turning to face me though.

...

Since her heavy melee is so slow, I'm going to see what her max range is for initiating it.  Marauders react way too fast to her footsteps.

[Shampoohorn]

Still haven't made a video yet, but tyhw did some testing and showed that sabotage gives a huge boost to the QFI's melee.  This means a cloak / sabotage / heavy melee cycle can do over 6000 damage to a single target. 

Original post has been edited with a clearer strategy and damage numbers.

Edited by Shampoohorn, 18 September 2012 - 04:48 PM.

[Happy Shepard]

Sounds like fun.

But the Infiltrators heavy melee animations are (except from Geth and Shadow, of course) really boring. Just my opinion, though.

Btw, my QFI is currently occupied with another biuld, but my QMI would be open to suggestions. Could TacScan be used as a debuff for melee?

Edited by Happy Shepard, 18 September 2012 - 04:58 PM.

[tictactucrac]

Sabotage: +50% Vulnerability to Melee! Essentially a 50% boost to Total Damage.

... What ? Am i the only one shocked ?

[Shampoohorn]

Happy Shepard wrote...

Sounds like fun.

But the Infiltrators heavy melee animations are (except from Geth and Shadow, of course) really boring. Just my opinion, though.

Btw, my QFI is currently occupied with another biuld, but my QMI would be open to suggestions. Could TacScan be used as a debuff for melee?

Yeah, I agree that the animation is not great.  If she didn't have a slow lead in to her heavy melee she would be even more deadly.

Tac Scan wouldn't get the same damage bonus.  For some reason sabotage boosts your total melee by 1.5x.  That's really huge.  The other infiltrator debuffs powers are lower: cryoblast, PM, tac scan.

[RNG God]

Heh, who needs Shadow Strike?

[Red the Aloof]

I tried something like this once with the Salarian infiltrator.... it did not end so well.

The melee sequence is long :\\ If there is more then one enemy, you kind of get screwed I only tried this once with the geth unfortunately, might have to try it again with a different faction D: I think I killed hunters but pyros survived

[llandwynwyn]

Your build is really interesting.

tictactucrac wrote...

Sabotage: +50% Vulnerability to Melee! Essentially a 50% boost to Total Damage.

... What ? Am i the only one shocked ?

I never knew either.