Samara Best build - Biotic Justicar - Mass Effect 2 (ME2)

In this post, I will go through how to best build Samara in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition. This will include squad points allocation, tactics, and equipment to best utilize her.

Samara is Asari Justicar who follows an ancient code to deliver justice. After Shepard meets her and starts working closely with her, you will learn about her mission. At a certain point in the game, she may turn to another character Morinth, which I will not spoil too much. But this is an alternative version of Samara with one different skill.

So let's go through the build

Samara Build - Biotic Justicar

This Samara build will concentrate on setting up Biotic Explosions with Warp and using Reave to tear down enemy shields

Squad points allocation

This build will concentrate on using Samara's two main abilities: Reave and Pull.

Power name	Evolution	Level (Squad Points)
Throw	-	2 (3)
Pull	-	3 (6)
Asari Justicar	Sapiens Justicar	4 (10)
Reave	Area Reave	4 (10)

Unfortunately, I think Samara becomes a great group member after she gets Reave. Before that, there are better companions like Jack that do the same things.

Samara level 1-10, early game

Sadly, there is nothing much to say here you will probably not have her by this time as she is only accessible in the mid-game. However, your first  squad points should be spent like this:

Level	Ability	Description
5	Throw Lv 2 Pull Lv 1	We take Throw mainly to unlock Pull. Of course, you can still use Throw against enemies stripped of their defenses. But that is not the priority. We take Pull so that Samara could set up Warp explosions. Unfortunately, she cannot create them by herself so you will need a companion with Warp ability.
6	Asari Justicar Lv 2	Improves Samara's Health and Weapon Damage, while reducing her Power Recharge Time
7	Asari Justicar Lv 3	Further improves Samara's stats
8	-
9	-
10	-

Samara level 11-20, mid-game

At this point in time, you should be able to finish her loyalty mission. Otherwise, I suggest saving any Squad points as you will want to spend them on Reave.

Level	Ability	Description
11	Asari Justicar Lv 4	Take Sapiens Justicar upgrade. With this passive ability, Samara will have 25% shorter cooldowns making her an extremely strong biotics user.
12	Reave Lv 1	This is an extremely strong ability that works on any type of defense. Moreover, it does double damage to barriers and armors.
13	Reave Lv 2	Further improves the ability by increasing its duration
14	-
15	-
16	-
17	Reave Lv 3	Further improves the ability by increasing its duration
18	-
19	-
20	-

Samara Level 21-30, late game

At this point in time, Samra will not get large improvements to the overall setup.

Level	Ability	Description
21	Reave Lv 4	Take Area Reave upgrade. With it, Samara will affect groups of enemies making it easier to deal with
22	-
23	-
24	-
25	Pull Lv 2	We further improve Pull to increase its duration.
26	-
27	-
28	-
29	Pull Lv 3	Upgrade Pull to give some breathing room to make Biotic Explosions. This is useful when the companion's Warp is under cooldown. Unfortunately, it does not have a large impact as Samara will use it against protected enemies.
30	-

Of course, if you do not prefer using Pull you can invest 3 points to Throw. This will allow you to take down enemies from the ledges. However, I prefer a higher chance of creating biotic explosions.

Equipment

In this section, I will go through the best equipment that Samara can use to keep her damage to the maximum. She can equip Assault Rifle and Submachine Gun

Submachine Guns

I recommend the M-9 Tempest. It looks like AI is fairly good at using it as they can spray a lot of shots. For me, it is better than the other alternatives

Weapon Name	Effective against	Description
M-9 Tempest	Shields Barriers	AI is quite effective at using this weapon and doing numerous spray shots.

Assault Rifles

For Samara, I suggest M-96 Mattock. It is the most well-optimized Assault Rifle.

Weapon Name	Effective against	Description
M-96 Mattock	Shields Barriers Armor	This is probably the most optimized assault rifle in the game. It comes with good multipliers against defenses, high damage, and good accuracy. Moreover, it has low recoil making it effective at long range.
Geth Pulse Rifle	Armor Shields Barrier	This rifle is better suited against Barriers and Shields with a 1.35x multiplier. It is also extremely accurate.

Geth Pulse Rifle fast fire rate and is effective against shields and Barriers, I recommend it for Samar build on Insanity difficulty. Have in mind she can easily deal with armors using Reave with its double damage bonus.

Tactics

It is important to understand how to best use Samara. Here are my tips:

• If you are maximizing your party damage, I suggest taking Samara only when she has Reave ability.
• Samara cannot set up Biotic Explosions by herself. Due to this, I suggest taking a companion like Miranda, Thane, or Shepard that can use Warp
• In my opinion, she may be a bit weaker than Jack if you mostly use Biotic explosions.
• As with all groups if you play on Insanity I suggest taking a character with high health like Soldier Shepard, Grunt, or Jacob.
• However, you can also take someone like Jack with Pull Field to lift all enemies after Samara users the Area Reave.

Conclusion

I hope this build post helped you understand how to best prepare Samara for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 2 Legendary Edition.

Feel free to leave any feedback below.