Tactical Scan is a power in Mass Effect 3. It is available only to the Male Quarian Infiltrator, Engineer and Marksman DLC characters in the multiplayer mode.

Power Ranks Edit

Rank 1: Tactical ScanEdit

Reveal weaknesses in defenses, increasing all damage done to the target and slowing its movement speed. Provide the entire squad with a tactical readout. Only one scan can be active on a target.

• Recharge Speed: 4 Sec
• Duration: 20 sec
• Movement Speed Penalty: 15%
• Damage Taken Bonus: 15%

Rank 2: Recharge SpeedEdit

Increase Recharge speed by 50%

• Recharge Speed: 2.67 Sec

Rank 3: DurationEdit

Increase Duration by 30%

• Duration: 26 Sec

Rank 4: Weapon Damage/Power Damage Edit

Weapon Damage Increase all weapon damage done to the target by 7.5%

Power Damage Increase all power damage done to the target by 7.5%

Rank 5: Headshots/Movement Speed Edit

Headshots Increase all Headshot damage by 25%.

Movement Speed Increase the target's movement speed penalty by 15%. Movement Speed Penalty: 30% Recharge Speed: 2.28 Sec

Rank 6: Damage/Area Scan Edit

Damage Increase all damage done to the target by 10% Damage Taken Bonus: 25%

Area Scan Increase scan duration by 100%. Momentarily reveal enemies within 20 meters of the target with an initial scanning pulse Duration: 46 sec

Player Notes Edit

Mechanics

• Tactical Scan has a lengthy activation time, but does not need line of sight and can be done without breaking cover.
  • With the Area Scan evolution, Tactical Scan can be used without even a target, if only to get the brief area scan.
• A hologram of the scanned target will appear on the player's omni-tool, allowing the player to see what the target is doing even if they don't have a visual, along with the distance to the scanned target measured in meters.
• The colored semi-circles around the target and the hologram represent Health/Armor (left side) and Shield/Barriers (right side). This allows everyone to see the Hit Points remaining on the target even when outside lock-on range or invisible.
• If used against Swarmers, Geth Turrets, or Geth Drones, Tactical Scan will kill them instead of causing its normal effects.
• The rank 5 Movement Speed evolution also increases the recharge speed by 25%.

Strategies

• Due to the length of activation, it can be risky if the player wants to activate the scan (e. g. for the damage bonus) when coming face to face with an enemy.
• You can even activate Tactical Scan while reloading in cover, however it doesn't "cancel" the reloading process like a combat roll would. This means that you can activate this power without breaking cover or use it against an enemy that is in cover. However, you cannot use this power against an enemy that doesn't have its name displayed, like a Geth Hunter that's currently cloaked. To counter this, fire a shot at the enemy, and then use Tactical Scan as soon as the targetting reticle appears.
• Tactical Scan with the Area Scan evolution does not need a target lock. It can be used to reveal enemies while behind cover that would otherwise obscure a player's vision. It does not confer any effects of the power to enemies revealed, nor will it continue to track specific enemies. This can be done in rapid succession to continually track enemies as Tactical Scan wears off.
• It should be noted that Tactical Scan cooldown time is very short (even without the recharge speed bonus of Rank 5 Movement Speed evolution) and normally it shouldn't be used again within a couple of seconds (or within the cooldown period). This allows Quarian Male Engineer characters to use heavier weapons if they don't want to use Incinerate and they stick only to Arc Grenade.
• A tactic for the Male Quarian Infiltrator is to choose the rank six evolution of Tactical Cloak that allows the use of an offensive power without breaking cloak. This way, the maximum damage can be done to the target whilst in cloak.
  • For added lethality, this can be combined with the ability to charge a weapon before cloaking, which makes it possible to fire one shot without breaking the cloak, that several weapons have, most notably the Geth Plasma Shotgun.
• The rank 6 Area Scan combined with Arc Grenade is an effective way to spot and reveal group of stealthed enemies.
  • The 'highlight' effect of Area Scan makes it very easy to get headshots on enemies whose heads are not visible, such as Guardians.

Availability Edit

• Single Player: N/A
• Multiplayer: Quarian Male Engineer, Quarian Male Infiltrator, Quarian Marksman Soldier