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General Volus Tips
- Shield Boost gives you 1.5 seconds of invulnerability, as does the Volus heavy melee shield bubble (Defensive Stance). On top of this, the Defensive Stance grants you roughly 50% DR, which when stacked with a Protection spec'd Shield Boost, gives you some hefty DR, not even counting the combined 3 seconds of invulnerability.
- All Volus are immune to movement speed penalties associated with shooting a weapon (I.E. Reegar Carbine, Revenent, etc)
- Defensive Stance has a high force rating, or at least enough to STAGGER anything in the game except for Phantoms. Use it if you're surrounded or need to temporarily stun an enemy.
- Do NOT spam Shield Boost in order to keep allies alive. One, you're better off running around and murdering stuff instead of being some sort've White Mage that no one wants, and two, there's a glitch that causes players who're hit with Shield Boost to be unable to shoot or use powers, and it is only fixable by doing a heavy melee (Unless the glitched party is a fellow Volus, in which case, you have to go get shot/killed to get it fixed). If you DO use Shield Boost for the benefit of your team, only do it during Hacks, Escorts, and Devices objectives, and even then, don't use it unless you visually see a team mate get hit, or you hear their character say "Shields down!" or something similar.
The VanGOD
This is my favorite Volus, and in my opinion, the best.
Build (The build is flexible and can be changed how you want, just pay attention to the strategy)
Biotic Charge - Radius, Weapon Synergy, Bonus Power
Biotic Orbs - 3 points (Just use them for cooldown)
Shield Boost - Shields, Recharge Speed, Protection
Volus Training - Weapon Damage, Power Damage, Weapon Damage
Fitness - 5 points (The extra Shield Recharge comes in handy if you're fighting Collectors and get Seeker Swarmed)
Weapon(s) of choice - The Reegar is the absolute best choice, as it is with many classes who are designed around CQB, but you can use just about any close quarters weapon, like a Hurricane, Piranha, or Talon.
Strategy - He is the best Vanguard to use with Bonus Power except for maybe the Phoenix, because you can Biotic Charge straight into Shield Boost, which'll temporarily give you 90% DR and 1.5 seconds of invulnerability. However, make sure you try to ALWAYS cloak before charging, because one, you're invisible and will draw less aggro, and two, because your Bonus Power isn't going to work 100% of the time. Outside of that, just play him like a Kroguard that can turn invisible.
The Engineering God
My second favorite Volus, and also, in my opinion, the second best Volus. This is the class that most everyone agrees is good, even if they themselves dislike Volus on sheer principle.
Build
Recon Mine - Radius, Recharge OR Damage, Invasive Scan
Proximity Mine - Radius, Damage Taken
Shield Boost - Shields, Recharge, Protection
Volus Training - Weapon Damage OR Power Damage and Capacity, Power Damage, Weapon Damage
Fitness - 3 points (You can skip out entirely on this if you want)
Weapon(s) of choice - Just about anything, really. I've had success using alot of different weapons, including the Hurricane, Typhoon, PPR, and Harrier. Anything and everything works on this guy.
Strategy - Try to preemptively get Recon Mine into spawn points, and then when the wave starts, rush the spawn. Chuck a Proximity Mine into the enemies, and bam, you now do 45% extra damage. Lay into them with your weapon of choice, and detonate Recon Mine when the last few enemies are low enough for the explosion to finish them off. Then, repeat the process. Make sure to use cloak and heavy melee liberally, since Recon Mine and Proxy Mine will be taking up alot of your recharge time. Also, both Recon Mine and Proxy Mine detonate FEs, TBs, and CEs, so feel free to pack some Disruptor, Incendiary, or Cryo ammo. Also note that Recon Mine's Invasive Scan evolution slows down enemies, which is very useful on objective waves, especially hacks and escorts.
The Adept (AKA the watered down VanGOD)
The Adept is obsolete as soon as you get the VanGOD, but not everyone does, and he's still good character regardless.
Build
Stasis - Either put 3 points into it and take 1 point outta fitness, or skip fitness entirely and max this out. Evolutions 4 and 5 don't matter, but go for Bubble on the 6th, provided you take it that high.
Biotic Orbs - Radius, Recharge, Extra Orb OR Debuff. If you go for Extra Orb, you'll be more tanky because Shield Boost's cooldown will be faster, but Debuff orbs will grant you better boss killing capabilities. Just be aware, if you go for Debuff orbs, that each stack does NOT reset the debuff timer, which means that if you hit a target with all three orbs, you're only getting the huge 45% debuff for about 3-4 seconds before the first orb wears off.
Shield Boost - Shields, Recharge, Protection
Volus Training - Weapon Damage, Shield Boost, Weapon Damage
Fitness - All Shields/Health (Unless you take Stasis, in which case you'll either take 1 point outta fitness, or skip it entirely)
Weapon(s) of choice - Like the VanGOD, I find the best choice to be the Reegar, though he can rock any weapon just like the Engineer. the 45-60% cooldown bonus from Biotic Orbs means he can carry some REALLY heavy loadouts and still have a decent cooldown.
Strategy - Same as the VanGOD, except without Biotic Charge. Just turn on the Orbs, and charge into battle while spamming Shield Boost to keep yourself alive, and occasionally turning invisible/heavy meleeing for increases survivability. He's arguably tankier than the VanGOD, since you don't have to worry about Bonus Power not activating. If you went for Debuff orbs, then only use them on boss units. If you're not fighting a boss, you'd better have those things activated for the cooldown.
The Mercenary (AKA the Vorcha Hunter/Turian Saboteur of the Volus)
I won't even argue it, this class is bad. The only thing not making him the worst in the game is his ability to turn Geth, and to a lesser extent Cerberus, into comatose zombies ripe to be shot in the face, and his Volus cloak/Shield Boost/Heavy Melee survivability.
Build (Which can be changed up drastically depending on your preference)
Decoy - 3 points, or 4 points (Duration OR Durability)
Combat Drone (Option A) - Detonate, Shock, Chain Lightning
Combat Drone (Option
- Shields & Damage, Shields & Damage, RocketsShield Boost - Shields, Recharge Speed, Protection
Volus Training - Weapon Damage, Power Damage, Weapon Damage
Fitness - All Shields and Health (4-6 points)
Weapon(s) of choice - If you're fighting Cerberus or Geth, you can choose a shotgun because they'll be too busy staring at your shiny Decoy and Combat Drone to notice you, but if you're fighting Reapers or Collectors, I recommend something a bit more distance oriented, like a Harrier.
Strategy - Depending on how you spec'd Combat Drone, you can either deploy it on top of enemies to try and stunlock them/use it as a suicide bomb, or you can deploy it as a distraction with some mediocre damage via Rockets. Regardless, just throw out Decoy where the enemies are, then throw out Combat Drone, and start shooting stuff. Use the assorted Volus tips i've provided in the prior character descriptions (Use cloak and heavy melee liberally, etc) and stuff and you'll do fine. Again, he's the worst of the lot, but he DOES have cloak, defensive stance, and Shield Boost, so you can make him work even if you're just playing him as a watered down Adept/Engineer.
Builds for poops 'n' grins
The Invisible Nutcracker - Volus VanGOD with a Batarian Gauntlet. The build is up to you, but just go for full melee on the fitness tree, cloak, Biotic Charge, and melee. Unlike the regular Defensive Stance, which can't be used while cloaked, you're free to shin/testicle punch stuff while invisible, hence the name.
The Terrorist - Volus Sentinel with a Combat Drone spec'd for Shields & Damage and either Rocket or Suicide Detonation, then toss on ALL the Power boosting stuff you have (Passives, Power Magnifier on Pistols and SMGs, Power Amplifiers, etc) and you'll be able to dish out over 1k damage with either Rockets or Drone Detonation. Combine all of this with a melee build to acquire the power damage boost from a heavy melee kill for even MOAR explosion.
The Gladiator - Volus Engineer melee build. Wait for stuff to walk into your Recon Mine, then punch it in the face. Nifty thing is, you get the power damage boost from the heavy melee kill, which'll boost the damage of Proxy Mine and Recon Mine.
Edited by ToLazy4Name, 06 July 2013 - 01:41 AM.
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