Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer

The guide is going to be divided by class and in rarity order within the class, I'm going to avoid rating the characters as it's pretty subjective what people find good amongst the balanced characters, but I will not the blatantly OP'd characters that are just meant for people who want to mindlessly win the game with little effort. I'll also try to note if a character is difficult to use. In the guide I'll include my personal recommendations for both skill point distribution and the recommended evolution if the skill is above Rank 3. I'll also mention specific weapons of note if applicable, but outside of that it should be obvious if a class is a weapons character or a powers character so you should take the appropriate weighted weapons accordingly.

General tips:
-You don't need two weapons in most cases, most characters even weapon based characters can benefit from a light(er) load-out even if you're taking an extremely heavy primary weapon not taking that secondary weapon can make a difference.
-Higher bullet damage pierces armor better. While there is a minimum damage a weapon can deal to armor it's quite low so taking a slower stronger weapon will deal with armor better than a high DPS gun that achieves it's DPS through it's rate of fire though consumable equipment can render weapon choice nearly moot since high level Ammo equipment can turn any weapon into one easily capable of dealing with even the sturdiest enemy.
-You don't always need to take cover, staying in a single spot is often hazardous to your health so even though taking cover improves the accuracy of weapons and reduces recoil of them keeping your mobility has it's own advantages.
-Unless you're using high level equipment or an OP'd character don't assume you can deal with threats when you're getting surrounded. Balanced characters simply don't have the damage capable of dealing with a large mass of enemies, however proper team coordination can deal with swarms of enemies without consumables or the need to use the OP'd characters.
-Barriers and Shields on your own character are basically synonyms

Adept
Human - Common
Singularity Rank 6 - Radius > Recharge Speed > Detonate
Warp Rank 6 - Detonate > Expose > Pierce
Shockwave Rank 6 - Force & Damage > Detonate > Recharge Speed
Alliance Training Rank 5 - Damage & Capacity > Power Damage
Fitness Rank 3

Shockwave is a good power but vibrates those around you causing their weapons to miss often so if you're going to use it you have to be aware that if you use it around your team they will hate you for it. Shockwave is short range, but fairly quick use, it's powerful for the recharge time, and it can detonate either Warp or Singularity for strong Biotic Explosions with the Detonate evolution. Singularity primes all targets in multiplayer so you can use it's low cooldown as a universal primer for Shockwave or Warp whatever you range may be, despite losing Expand at Rank 6 the overall utility has improved and detonate can trigger Biotic Explosions and since the damage over time is pretty insignificant you might as well. Radius over Duration on Rank 4 is mainly for the reason that you're using it as a quick biotic primer so you need to throw it back out after detonating protected targets anyway and without Expand you're already sacrificing a lot of area which it affects that you simply can't give up if you want to seal entire choke points. Warp is your bread and butter for Armored targets, by itself it does fair damage to Armor and weakens armor for additional damage from other sources, when detonated with Shockwave the Biotic Explosion does much more damage as Detonate adds damage even when used as a Biotic Primer. Alliance Training is spec'd to increase Power Damage making Shockwave your main source of attack. Fitness just being at Rank 3 coupled with the relatively low 500 base Barrier means you have largely below average survivability.

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Drell - Uncommon
Reave Rank 6 - Radius > Damage Reduction > Damage & Duration
Pull Rank 3
Cluster Grenades Rank 6 - Force & Damage > Damage Combo > Shrapnel
Drell Assassin  Rank 5 - Damage & Capacity > Power Damage
Fitness Rank 6 - Durability > Barrier Recharge > Fitness Expert

Reave can setup Biotic explosions on any target and provides some damage over time which synergizes exceptionally well with the Drell's need to stay mobile due to his pitiable 250 base Barriers. The Damage Reduction is minimal considering how little survivability you actually have, but it still helps and you don't really need the faster Recharge from Rank 5. Radius is the most important evolution since each individual Cluster Grenade Shrapnel can detonate a separate biotic explosion so it's not uncommon to get 2 or 3 Biotic Explosions when you hit multiple enemies with 1 Reave. Pull at Rank 3 is to remove unprotected enemies quickly before they become a threat to your extremely low shields, an enemy affected by Pull can be detonated with Reave instead of Cluster Grenades to save your limited grenades. Cluster Grenades is the jewel of the Drell Adept as mentioned before each shrapnel piece can detonate it's separate explosion and the grenades themselves are strong enough to wipe out mobs groups of mobs with a direct hit. Damage Combo is a little deceptive it doesn't just work with lifted enemies it works with any enemy Primed for a Biotic Explosion. It's worth noting not all maps have grenades at the ammo dumps leaving the Drell Adept extremely weak since without grenades he really has nothing going for him, but with grenades he's capable of creating instant extremely powerful Biotic Explosions. Drell Assassin is pretty straightforward boosting Power Damage for your Cluster Grenades and to a much lesser degree Reave. Fitness Expert on the Drell offers increased movement speed which helps you run between ammo caches to refill your grenades but also means you can use weapons that empty ammo with impunity since you should always be on the run, for this reason I'd recommend the Hurricane or Harrier. It is worth mentioning that the Drell's Melee attack while weak is extremely quick and can stagger enemies at close range, but it's not worth investing added damage into. The Hurricane has incredibly high DPS and is fairly lightweight, but also consumes 2 bullets per shot and has incredibly high recoil that can be a bit hard to control if you're not used to it, it also has decent spread you can't account for making it a close range weapon for if you turn the corner and something is there. The Harrier is a longer range heavier option that can be boosted by the Warfighter Package along with your grenades. For your gear since you opted for Damage over extra grenades it's wise to take Grenade Capacity, but if you can't handle the Hurricane you take the heavier Cerberus Harrier you should take the Warfighter Package for the extra grenades and weapon damage. The downside of the Drell Adept is that you're extremely frail if you don't use your increased mobility to dodge attacks and you are completely level dependent, if you have a team that takes the Grenades then you're entirely sub-par in damage and have no survivability to speak of.

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Engineer
Human - Common
Overload Rank 6 - Chain Overload > Recharge Speed > Chain Overload
Incinerate Rank 6 - Radius > Burning Damage > Armor Damage
Combat Drone Rank 0
Alliance Training Rank 6 - Damage & Capacity > Power Damage > Weapon Damage
Fitness Rank 6 - Durability > Shield Recharge > Fitness Expert

Chain Overload hitting 3 targets is your bread and butter, but keep in mind it screws up Biotic Explosions, so be weary out of consideration for your team considering Biotic Explosions are much better than Tech Bursts. You want to avoid Neural Shock at Rank 5 because it knocks targets completely down (when applicable) instead of stunning them, this means they're incapacitated longer, but less exposed and leaving them exposed to follow up damage to kill them is the better option. With Incinerate Rank 4's Radius over damage is simply to let you set off Tech Bursts easier or prime for a Fire Explosion easier, remember that Overload followed by Incinerate is a Tech Burst and Incinerate followed by Overload is a Fire Explosion, a Fire Explosion doesn't cancel the burning damage from Incinerate and just serves a massive damage buff compared to just spamming Incinerate versus armored targets so that Radius doesn't affect much in the long run damage wise. Burning Damage increases the length of time an affected unit panics for, but you still only have the standard amount of priming time. (3 seconds) Increasing the Burning Damage to 8 seconds means you have more time to flee without letting Shields or Barriers recharge so that's another large plus. Armor Damage actually causes Incinerate to do 2.25x the listed damage (remember only some of the damage is instantaneous) to Armored targets which can be a fairly hefty amount for a single power even without the Damage evolution at Rank 4. The Drone is near worthless even when maxed so there is little reason to use any points there so taking either Weapon Weight or Weapon Damage is preferred, I'd say Weapon Damage usually outweighs the benefits of a slightly heavier weapon since you have good options to keep 200% Power Regen with, but if you do take Weapon Weight note that it's reducing the weapon's weight stat not giving you an extra 20 weight so this means it's actually up to 40 since it applies to both your weapons and is enough to make the Predator completely weightless barring weight increasing attachments, which means that you can take an SMG and a Pistol with a Power Enhancer if you so choose.

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Salarian - Uncommon
Incinerate Rank 6 - Radius > Burning Damage > Armor Damage
Energy Drain Rank 6 - Radius > Drain > Armor Boost
Decoy Rank 3
Salarian Operative Rank 5 - Damage & Capacity > Power Damage
Fitness Rank 6 - Durability > Shield Recharge > Fitness Expert

The Salarian is kind of like much more durable Human Engineer, where Energy Drain acts as a modified Overload. Radius allows Energy Drain to hit clusters of enemies. With Drain you restore 100% of the damage you deal to Shields, Barriers, or Synthetics which makes you virtually unkillable against the Geth since you can Drain all their units for shields and Energy Drain itself does increased damage. Taking Armor Boost lets you further double down into durability by giving you a substantial temporary Damage Reduction buff when you successfully drain energy. (Meaning Shields, Barriers, or Synthetics) Decoy at Rank 3 is more than enough since now Melee units ignore the decoy completely and it can be killed unlike before, it's very useful against the Geth and still has utility if the enemy doesn't see you place it, it can still distract other factions and be used to stall by absorbing some damage. Standard Power build for Salarian Operative and Fitness spec'd for max durability so your Energy Drain doesn't go to waste.

Infiltrator
Human - Common
Sticky Grenade Rank 6 - Damage > Armor-Piercing > Damage
Tactical Cloak Rank 6 - Duration > Recharge Speed > Sniper Damage
Cryo Blast Rank 6 - Radius > Cry Explosion > Frozen Vulnerability
Alliance Training Rank 6 - Weapon Damage > Headshots > Weapon Damage
Fitness Rank 0

The Human Infiltrator is a bit of a support Infiltrator not having any standout powers that helps itself so you can manage without taking any ranks of Fitness. Sticky Grenade is a very weird power, they get imbued with the selected ammo consumable you're using if any and the damage is calculated based on the weapon's damage that you're using and Shotguns that use the hit-scan system suffer from this making the Human Infiltrator ideal for actual Sniper combat something a majority of Infiltrators don't use. Sticky Grenade is spec'd for damage to get the most out of them since they're limited and without the right combination of weapon and ammo consumable they're pretty bad and you shouldn't have to rely on consumable items to have something that has a purpose. Tactical Cloak is spec'd for Duration so you can carry a heavier weapon more easily since the recharge is a percent of what is left out of your duration to a minimum of 3 seconds. Recharge Speed helps ease the burden further and Melee Damage is a bit of a dead upgrade. Finally Sniper Damage locks you into using sniper rifles which is all fine and well with your 500 Shields and Bonus Power tends to do more harm than help since you have a window after using a power that your shot gets the damage buff from Tactical Cloak still.  Cryo Blast is a pure debuff, it's spec'd for maximum debuffing goodness damage-wise to aid your team or your Sticky Grenades deal with armored targets mostly, but you can use it before every shot with Tactical Cloak for a quick debuff and potential area of effect freeze. Alliance Training is spec'd for weapon damage of course. When selecting your weapon it's important to know that due to the mechanics of Sticky Grenade the hip-fire penalty of sniper rifles is applied so for maximum damage you need to aim down the scope, you also should pick a high damage low clip weapon for maximum damage such as the Javelin or Widow, but my favorite weapon that works well with Stick Grenades is the Kishock Harpoon Gun, it's fast firing for a single clip weapon and can bypass the shield gate as an added bonus it completely ignores armor and since you have nothing to deal with Armor that in and of itself is a boon worthy of taking, but I also personally prefer the much lower zoom on it's scope. If you want a secondary weapon the Crusader works well with Sticky Grenades and is more or less a second sniper rifle without the scope and will benefit from Tactical Cloak. If you take the Kishock Harpoon Gun, the Sniper Rifle Amp is a great choice since it increases the velocity of the Harpoons outside of that you should take the Vulnerability VI for maximum damage on both your weapons if you chose to take two.

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Quarian - Uncommon
Sticky Grenade Rank 3
Tactical Cloak Rank 6 - Duration > Recharge Speed > Sniper Damage
Sabotage Rank 6 - Backfire > Explosive Hack > Tech Vulnerability
Quarian Defender Rank 6 - Weapon Damage > Headshots > Weapon Damage
Fitness Rank 5 - Durability > Shield Recharge

If you're using the Quarian Defender you're probably playing the Geth specifically and you're doing it for Sabotage, there's nothing else going for it so I'll just focus on Sabotage and assume you're fighting the Geth. Backfire increases damage pretty straight forward, this technically works on all armies and Duration benefits against the synthetic heavy Geth, but 800 damage from Tech Vulnerability is no laughing matter considering with the Geth the person about to explode isn't even shooting at you. Explosive Hack is purely for the Geth combines with the 800 damage from Backfire you can usually kill groups of Geth Troopers and thanks to their pack mentality you should at least deal some damage to whatever Geth are in the area. Since you're pretty much only at an advantage against the Geth the Anti-Synthetic Rifle is the perfect choice for a main gun, as a back-up the Kishock Harpoon Gun for armor makes a very solid choice.

Sentinel
Human - Common
Throw Rank 6 - Force > Detonate > Force & Damage
Warp Rank 6 - Detonate > Expose > Pierce
Tech Armor Rank 3
Alliance Training Rank 5 - Damage & Capacity > Power Damage
Fitness Rank 6 - Durability > Shield Recharge > Fitness Expert

The Human Sentinel is easily a top tier contender among Sentinels. Throw and Warp make for strong and quick Biotic Explosions with Throw by itself being a solid enough power to use as your 'gun'. Tech Armor is there for objectives, it doesn't offer much extra durability, but it can sometimes mean the difference between getting an objective and dying right before you finish, it's not like you need Weapon Damage or the extra weight since you'd spend your time using Throw or detonating Biotic Explosions. Fitness is there for added Durability. You're basically an Asari Adept taking Tech Armor in exchange for Stasis, but since you don't have 3 outstanding powers you end up being more durable than your closest match at the cost of the extremely useful utility power that is Stasis. Since you're going to be using Biotics taking a Pistol with a Power Amplifier is key, taking the Acolyte to get rid of shields is just gravy on an already great character.

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Turian - Uncommon
Warp Rank 6 - Detonate > Expose > Pierce
Overload Rank 6 - Chain Overload > Recharge Speed > Chain Overload
Tech Armor Rank 4 - Durability
Turian Veteran Rank 4 - Damage and Stability
Fitness Rank 6 - Durability > Shield Recharge > Fitness Expert

At being average there is no class that is incredibly average at everything. Overload is a good Tech Power, Warp is a good Biotic Power, Tech Armor with the Turian's Shields is pretty good survivability, Increased Weapon Stability option lets you take high recoil weapons with impunity effectively extended the viable arsenal or making the class easier to use at least. The problem with the Turian Sentinel is he is the definition of the Jack of all Trades and unfortunately he is certainly a Master of None. The advantage to all this is adaptability, in a Tech Heavy group you have Overload, in a group with Biotics if you want to be a team player you have Warp, if you're by yourself you can make your own tech explosions with the powers given, you have 1 anti-armor power and 1 anti-soldier power, Tech Armor being active increases durability for completing objectives or general survivability where pushing damage isn't an issue and finally the increased stability and weapon damage of being able to take Rank 4 Turian Veteran for weapons means that you can take the very lightweight Tempest and use it at moderate range negating it's only real weakness all while coupling it with an Expert Package Gear or a Power Amp attachment being an SMG to improve both of your Powers despite being two different classes of Powers.

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Soldier
Human - Common


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