Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition: Good squadmates builds (All Games)

• Throw: 12
• Lift: 12
• Barrier: 12
• Stasis: 1
• Decryption: 9
• Electronics: 12
• First Aid: 6
• Medicine: 12
• Sentinel: 6

If you want his First Aid higher you can take away points from Medicine and even few last points from Electronics since he has max Barrier.

• Pistols: 4
• Shotguns: 0
• Assault Rifles: 12
• Sniper Rifles: 12
• Combat Armor: 12
• First Aid: 12
• Assault Training: 12
• Fitness: 12
• Soldier: 6

On the other hand, if you have First Aid on yourself or some other teammate, you can exchange that for Shotguns and Carange instead.

• Assault Rifles: 12
• Sniper Rifles: 0
• Tactical Armor: 8
• Assault Training: 12
• Decryption: 9
• Damping: 12
• First Aid: 7
• Electronics: 12
• Turian Agent: 6

I feel like Garrus tremendously needs a max survivability build on Insanity.
You could go max Sniper Rifle Garrus by stealing 6 points from Assault Rifle, 4 from Armor, and 2 from Electronics.

• Assault Rifles: 5
• Shotguns: 12
• Combat Armor: 11
• Fitness: 12
• Warp: 12
• Throw: 12
• Barrier: 12
• Stasis: 0
• Krogan Battlemaster: 6

This is shotgun build for Wrex. He’s probably better with Assault Rifles since Overkill in Legendary Edition is better, but it doesn’t feel right having Wrex use ARs.
Also 11 points in combat armor because It already gives max damage resistance and Master Shield Boost doesn’t make a notable diffrence.

• Pistols: 12
• Shotguns: 0
• Basic Armor: 12
• First Aid: 4
• Electronics: 12
• Damping: 12
• Decryption: 12
• Hacking: 12
• Quarian Machinist: 6

Tali is all about maxing out her Tech abilities and survivability.

• Throw: 12
• Lift: 12
• Warp: 12
• Singularity: 12
• Barrier: 12
• Stasis: 0
• First Aid: 4
• Electronics: 12
• Asari Scientist: 6

Liara’s build is most obvious one.
Her First Aid is stronger because of Asari Scientist. You also avoid stasis altogether because it’s useless af, and max out her Electronics for Overload.

Remember, the AI performs the best with fast firing, full auto weapons with large clips. You generally want Tempest SMG, Vindicator AR, Incisor Sniper Rifle, etc. equipped in most circumstances.

On insanity tech/biotic Area upgrades are enough to strip regular enemies of shields/armor/barriers, but the heavy versions aren’t enough to fully strip the elite enemy troops.

• Pull Field
• Squad Incendiary Ammo
• Cerberus Specialist

If you are bringing Jacob it’s because of his Pull Field and Incendiary ammo – Simply put, you know when you need him.

• Area Overload
• Unstable Warp
• Cerberus Leader
• Slam (1 level, acquired after her Loyalty mission)

Increasing the entire squad’s weapon damage as much as possible is the obvious choice here.

• Concussive Shot (2nd level)
• Disruptor Ammo (3rd level)
• Mercenary Warlord
• Heavy Inferno Grenade

There’s a lot of Zaeed build out there, and most of them aren’t wrong.
This one is for maxing out his Incisior sniper rifle damage, which you should be doing.

• Concussive Shot (2nd level)
• Area Overload
• Turian Rebel (3rd level)
• Squad AP Ammo

This is build made assuming if you want Squad ammo.
If not, reduce his ammo to 3rd level, and put the available points towards Turian Rebel for maximized weapon damage.

• Incineration Blast
• Full Cryo Blast
• Salarian Genius

Mordin is very obvious build as well. Cryo blast basically invalidates Neural shock.
The Salarian scientist bonus is pretty much insignificant but, I prefer additional 7% shields.

• Rapid Shadow Strike
• Master Infiltrator
• Improved Flashbang Grenade

Kasumi, albeit fragile, is very powerful. Improved Flashbang will incapacitate anything stripped to health and those still protected will have all of their abilities blocked and their weapons overheated.
Master Infiltrator will lower Flashbang’s cooldown from 9 seconds to 6.75 seconds.
But you could also drop Infiltrator altogether and max out Overload instead of it.

Concussive Shot (2nd level)
Squad Incendiary Ammo
Krogan Pureblood
Fortification (3rd level)

Or you could get maxed Concussive shot instead of Squad ammo.

• Improved Shockwave
• Primal Adept
• Pull Field

While Warp Ammo is strong and you can change to it at will, I belive it’s just better to have it as Shepard’s bonus power and give Jack Pull field, because she isn’t really a good choice to take on missions.

• Throw Field
• Sapiens Justicar
• Area Reave

Remember, always reduce cooldowns on teammates whenever possible.

• Attack Drone
• AI Hacking (2nd level)
• Quarian Machinist (3rd level)
• Area Drain

You could also skip AI hacking for Quarian Engineer if you wish, but I find it useful.

• Throw (2nd level)
• Unstable Warp
• Drell Assassin
• Shredder Ammo (3rd level)

People who tell you that Shredder ammo is worthless, are just wrong. Thane will simply melt enemies within the first second of engagement. There are a lot of biotics, but Thane straight up shreds through Collectors and mercs when you know what you’re up against.

• AI Hacking (2nd level)
• Combat Drone (3rd level)
• Geth Assassin
• Improved Geth Shield Boost

Not much to say about Legion. I belvie He works best with Widow sniper rifle.

In the third game, Squad weapon damage is much more noticable. Anyone who gets damage buffs will usually be a terrific help.
Powers, similar to previous game, are best at low cooldown-wide area of effect, because you want them to be able prime and detonte as much as possible.

• Inferno Grenade: Radius – Max Grenades – Radius and Shrapnel
• Disruptor Ammo: Damage – Headshots – Stun
• Concussive Shot: leave at 3 rank
• Marksman: Firing Rate – Duration – Recharge or Firing Rate
• Alliance Officer: Weapon Damage – Power Damage – Assault Rifles

You’ll probably also want to give her +25% weapon damage outfit.
Disruptor ammo also primes enemies for tech explosions.
Inferno Grenades can detonate her ammo while also priming for fire explosions, which can be detonated by Concussive shot.
Ashley is a monster.

• Barrier: Skip altogether
• Reave: Radius – Recharge – Power and Duration
• Overload: Chain – Recharge – Chain
• Cryo Blast: Radius – Cryo Explosion – Frozen Vulnerability
• Alliance Officer: Weapon Damage – Tech – Squad Powers

Kaidan is all about maximizng synergy and combos, It’s what he’s best at.
If you want to go with Barrier, drop the last half of Cryo Blast and go for Strength – Synergy – Recharge. Kaidan is great fun to use with a max cooldown Shepard.

Fortification: leave at 3 ranks
Incendiary Ammo: Damage – Headshots – Explosive Burst
Frag Grenade: Radius – Max Grenades – Shield Overload
Carnage: Radius, Recharge Speed, Armor or Damage
Arms Master: Weapon Damage – Power Damage – Squad Bonus

James works very similarily to Ash, although his Explosive Burst evolution is a little different. And like Ashley he primes by shooting. His pure weapon damage isn’t as high and can’t chain as well, but damage from Explosive Burst makes up for that.
He has higher cooldowns and better survivability, all in all he’s actually decent addition to your team.

• Singularity: Duration – Lift Damage – Expand
• Stasis: Duration – Bonus Power – Bubble
• Warp Ammo: leave at 3 ranks
• Warp: Detonate – Expose – Pierce
• Pure Biotic: Recharge – Duration & Force – Singularity

Liara’s passive is so powerful that you don’t even have to take power recharge upgrades. Everything about the build maximizes her crowd control, which is why you want to bring her along.
Her warp is set up for maximum explosions, as it should be. And you probably want to tak her power damage outfit.

• Incinerate: Radius – Recharge – Armor Damage
• Overload: Chain – Recharge – Chain
• Defense Matrix – Skip
• Decoy: Duration – Recharge – Shields/Duration
• Unshackled AI: Power Damage – Tech Damage – Squad Bonus

EDI works similar to Kaidan, except less weapon damage but more power damage.
Like his Barrier, her Defense Matrix is rather unnecessary. But if that’s what you want, you’ll want to take Durability – Power Synergy – Recharge while taking the points away from Decoy.
Her the power cooldown reducing outfit is a must because her passives don’t reduce them at all.

• Slam: leave at 3 ranks
• Dark Channel: Duration – Recharge – Damage
• Lift Grenade: Radius – Max Grenades – Damage/Radius
• Pull: Radius – Expose – Double Pull
• Vengeful Ancient: Damage – Weapon Damage – Squad Powers

Javik wants to chain biotic explosions with his Dark Channel, but his assault rifle also gives him some solid weapon damage. Pull is great for general crowd control, while any squadmate who has Grenades will be able to quickly prime and detonate enemies on their own.

• Energy Drain: Radius – Drain – Armor Boost
• Combat Drone: Shields/Damage – Shields/Damage – Rockets
• Defense Drone: leave at 3 ranks
• Sabotage: Backfire – Recharge Speed – Tech Vulnerability
• Quarian Machinist: Recharge Speed – Tech Upgrade – Drone Specialist

Tali is all about her rocket drone. Power damage will also increase the drone’s damage, so that’s why you should take power damage outfit. Sabotage is a nice spin on AI hacking, being allowing the power to do something in a game lacking synthetic enemies for most of the game.

I’ve put Garrus as last for this very reason.
Everyone and their grandma seen it.
And If somehow you haven’t… Here it is…

• Concussive Shot: (Either one) – Recharge Speed – Amplification
• Overload: Chain – Recharge – Chain
• Turian Rebel: Weapon Damage – Assault Rifles – Squad Bonus
• Proximity Mine: I prefer to skip for Concussive shot.
• Armor Piercing Ammo: Damage – Headshots – Pierce

+25% Weapon Damage and N7 Typhoon with barrel and extended capacity is a must.

Alternatively, you can leave Concussive shot at 3rd rank and take
Radius – Damage Taken – Recharge Speed in proximity mine.
Works either way but the mine takes long to recharge so it’ll see limited use.