Adept - Best build Guide - Mass Effect 1 (ME1) | LE

In this post, I will cover all that you need to know for effective Adept Build in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition.

Adepts focus on using biotic powers to crowd control and overwhelm their enemies. Adept also can specialize with a Pistol allowing to deal high damage for a short period of time.

So let us get into the detail

Talents and skills

In this section, I will go through recommended ability point allocation for the Adept build.

Here is a sum-up of all the abilities that should be taken close to the end game:

• Basic Armor: 5
• Pistols: 12
• Throw: 6
• Lift: 12
• Warp: 7
• Singularity: 12
• Barrier: 12
• Stasis: 0
• Nemesis: 12
• Charm/Intimidate: 12
• Spectre Training: 4

Level 1-20 or 1-10 Legendary Edition

Important: always invest in Charm/Intimidate when available.

Here is how I suggest leveling your skills during these levels:

1. Basic Armor: 5 – this will give you Shield Boost, which will restore 30% of your shields. More importantly, it will unlock pistols.
2. Pistols: 8 – I suggest getting Pistol weapon talent as early as possible. The problem being is that you will have long cooldowns on your biotic abilities and having decent weapon damage will go long way throughout the game. Moreover, you will get Master Marksman skill which will increase your damage by 50% and headshot damage by 75%
3. Barrier: 1 – get this tree just to unlock Barrier ability. It will give you additional 400 shield points to survive. This is extremely important early in the game when you also play on Insanity difficulty
4. Throw: 6 – this is an extremely good ability when enemies are standing close to the edges, as you can throw enemies off of them. Moreover, you will also unlock Lift.
5. Lift: 7 – get this ability as it will be one of your main ones used throughout the game. You will lift all the enemies into the air that will be standing in the radius of the ability.
6. Spectre Training: 4 – you will unlock Unity. This will allow you to resurrect your party members during the combat. This investment should be enough for the whole game
7. Warp: 8 – the ability by itself has two purposes: deal damage over time and lower enemies defenses. Due to this, I recommend using it against strong enemies like Rachni, Geth Primes, or Krogans. Then you can utilize its full potential. Moreover, this tree will unlock your signature ability: Singularity.

Level 21-40 or 11-20 Legendary Edition

At this point in the game, it is important to finish the quest: UNC: Rogue VI. It starts at level 11 when Hackett informs that he needs your help with disabling a VI. By finishing this quest you will unlock Nemesis specialization which will power up your Adept further.

Here is how you should continue leveling your abilities

1. Singularity: 12 – powerful ability allowing to lift enemies that enter the specified radius. It is similar to lift but enemies clunk together in the center, where you can use shotgun or tech explosion skills.
2. Nemesis: 12 – this can be leveled in parallel with Singularity. This will provide passive bonuses to all your biotic abilities: Throw, Lift, Singularity, etc. Moreover, it will reduce the recharge times which is one of the most important stats for you
3. Pistols: 12 – finish leveling Pistols to unlock Master Marksman. Although you will mostly use your abilities, having a weapon when you need to deal concentrated damage against bosses helps immensely
4. Lift: 12 – as Lift is boosted by Nemesis, finish investing into this tree
5. Barrier: 12 – finish leveling Barrier. It will now allow you to soak up 1000 damage, before your health will be reached.

With this, I think the core of the build is covered.

Additional options

You will still have many points left late in the game. I suggest allocating into one of these skill trees:

• Finish leveling Throw – will deal more damage to enemies and can throw away larger enemies.
• Maximize Warp. If you see that you use this ability during each encounter I recommend putting 12 points into it.
• Basic Armor: 12. With the maximum investment, you will increase your damage reduction and also get Master Shield Boost. This will restore all of your shields in 2 seconds.

Equipment and Gear for Adept

This section will cover what gear you should use to build Adept in Mass Effect 1.

Weapons

Although Adept should concentrate on using only Biotics, it can also utilize Pistol. This is important as your skills may be on cooldown or you have an enemy close to you. Pistol is extremely good at dealing large amounts of damage in a short period of time thanks to Marksman ability.

Due to this, the best Pistol that I recommend is from Spectre – Master Gear: HMWP. Get the best tier that is available for you at the game either: VII or X. You can buy this weapon in C-Sec Headquarters in Citadel.

For upgrades here is my recommended ammo:

• Inferno Rounds - will put enemies on fire and deal damage over time.
• Sledgehammer Rounds – will knockdown enemies, great for crowd control. However, it generates additional heat.
• Shredder Rounds – deal additional damage to Organic enemies. Tier VII, adds 40% damage
• Tungsten Rounds – deal additional damage to synthetic enemies like Geth. Tier VII gives additional 40% damage

For Weapon upgrade here is what I recommend:

• Scram Rail – gives large damage boost, but increases heat generation
• Frictionless Material – gives additional damage, but lower compared to Scram Rail. Moreover, decreases heat generation.

Armors

Unfortunately, Adept can wear only Light Armor. Due to this, your priority is to maximize the damage that you take as you can die easily on harder difficulties.

My best recommendation is Colossus Light Armor for Human. This is the best armor in the game. However, it may be hard to obtain it as it appears randomly in containers and requisition officer shop.

There are alternatives that you can use: Titan, Hoplite, Hazard or Gladiator

Here are recommended armor upgrades:

• Medical Exoskeleton – gives health regeneration and reduces power cool down
• Energized Plating – increases damage protection.

Medical Exoskeleton should be your main upgrade. It will reduce your power cooldown allowing to use biotic abilities more often.

Biotic Amp

This item directly impacts your cooldowns, power bonuses, and duration. Due to this, it is important to get the best one that is available to you. For this Savant type, Biotic Amps are the best.

However, they can be rare to find, but totally worth it. One can be obtained during the ending mission of Bring Down the Sky.

Tactics and Squad

In this section, I will go through non-item-related topics that will help you to better play Adept.

Squad

For this Adept build I recommend this composition:

• Have one party member that has Decryption and Electronics skill tree: Kaidan, Garrus, or Tali
• Another party member that has large amounts of hp or can do large amounts of damage: Wrex, Garrus, or Ashley

Unfortunately, I do not recommend Liara. You already have the same talents and she does not deal as much damage to justify double biotic abilities.

Tactics

Adept tactics are quite simple in my opinion. Here are the main points to have in mind

• Avoid direct encounters with the enemy as you have low armor.
• In case you are being attacked or have to get close to the enemies while under fire activate Barrier.
• Try to keep at least one of your biotic abilities always ready. So for example use Throw, Lift and leave Singularity in case any enemies appear. Once one of the two resets, use Singularity. And continue this way.
• Use Warp on enemies that have large pools of HP like Geth Prime or Krogans.

Conclusion

I hope this guide will help you to better understand how to play Adept class in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition.

Feel free to leave a comment or feedback down in the comments below!