Ballistic Blades is a power in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer mode.
Power Ranks
Rank 1: Ballistic Blades
Fire a salvo of blades to impale your enemies, inflicting massive bleed damage.
The closer your target is the more damage you deal.
- Recharge Speed: 8 sec
- Damage: 900
- Duration: 10 sec
- Radius: 12 m
Rank 2: Recharge Speed
Increase recharge speed by 25%.
- Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
- Damage: 900
- Duration: 10 sec
- Radius: 12 m
Rank 3: Damage
Increase damage by 20%.
- Recharge Speed: 6.40 sec
- Damage: 1080
- Duration: 10 sec
- Radius: 12 m
Rank 4: Damage/Cone Spread
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Damage Increase damage bonus by 30%.
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Cone Spread Increase cone spread by 20 degrees. |
Rank 5: Range/Recharge Speed
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Range Increase attack range by 50%.
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Recharge Speed Increase recharge speed by 35%.
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Rank 6: Damage & Bleed/Explosive Blades
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Damage & Bleed Increase damage by 50%.
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Explosive Blades Blades explode after 3 seconds, doing 400 damage but ending the bleed effect. |
Player Notes
- The player shouldn't use Ballistic Blades while crouched behind short cover. The blades will bounce harmlessly off of the cover in front of the player instead of hitting enemies (even when there is a clear line of sight to the enemies). If the player stands up, and is out of short cover, the blades will be able to hit enemies.
- This power should be used like a shotgun with a cooldown timer (and unlimited ammo). At close range the blades are horrifyingly powerful, being more than capable of inflicting grievous or fatal injuries to almost any kind of foot-soldier.
- The cone effect is very wide - once upgraded for width, you can sometimes hit enemies off the sides of your screen.
- The blades have immense potential for staggering enemies. A short-range blast can even reliably stagger heavy enemies like Atlases, Geth Primes and even Banshees (allowing you to save a comrade from their insta-kill move).
- The blades' stagger synergizes extremely well with the batarian's slow but powerful heavy melee.
- This combination is very effective against Phantoms, allowing a properly built batarian soldier to safely and reliably deal a lot of damage against these elusive opponents in close quarters. Care must be taken, however, that the Phantom does not have her barrier up, or she will shrug the blades off and is likely to counter with her own powerful melee attacks.
- The blades lose significant damage over range, but can hit multiple targets if aimed correctly (or with a little luck).
- When the blades are launched, the closer the targeting reticle is to the enemy, the more damage will be dealt.
- Explosive Blades can, with a piece of luck and good timing, cancel Phantom's instant kill attack.
- Explosive Blades stagger enemies. The player can stagger the enemies with the first hit, then the explosion staggers them again, making Ballistic Blades with Explosive Blades evolution a very excellent close range crowd control power. Explosive Blades with Rank 5 Attack Range evolution is a great tool to keep Geth Pyro groups easily away from the player since the 18 m range is larger than the range of their flamer.
Availability
- Single-player: N/A
- Multiplayer: Batarian Enforcer Soldier