The Krogan is one of the manliest races in the Mass Effect universe. From head-butting an Atlas to death to charging straight into a group of enemies there really isn’t much a Krogan won’t dare do. I found myself really enjoying playing as the Krogan and I walked away feeling like tough guy. Maybe it is the heavy footsteps or the way the he holds his pistol.

Krogan Soldier Combat Techniques

The soldier class is one of the weaker class in Mass Effect 3. In Mass Effect 2 the guns were the most important asset of your successful completion of a mission, that isn’t so in Mass Effect 3. Now the powers and abilities are much more important. Some of the best abilities are the biotic charge of the vanguard that recharges your barrier and the energy drain ability of the infiltrator that steals an enemy’s shield and gives it to you. These abilities that give you an instant recharge of your shield/barrier are very powerful in aggressive gameplay, but the excellent cover system allows for more passive but effective gameplay.

As any soldier it is deadly to walk out in the open. I was used to the vanguard who can do whatever they want, and I kept charging into large groups of enemies which just ended up in a death. As a soldier you either need somebody backing you up with stasis and other powers that immobilizes enemies so that you can go out and clean up, or you need to go for the flank move.

In a one on one situation the soldier is very effective, especially with a shotgun. About half way to leveling the Krogan to 20 I unlocked the claymore which is a very powerful weapon, even at long ranges. I was getting one shot kills across half the map whilst aiming on the basic enemies and up close you can easily pop a centurions head even if he has his shield up. However, when faced with a phantom there is little that you can do except to run away. However, the Krogan redeems itself by downing Atlases very quickly. One shot of the claymore sometimes took 2 bars of the shield and armor off.

Leveling the Krogan Soldier Effectively

From the way that the skills are set up it is very clear that the Krogan was designed to be a melee character. Especially because if you get 3 melee kills in 30 seconds you enter a rage mode which changes the way everything looks and gives you a buff for a while.

This does make you feel much more powerful than you are and it caused me a few downs when I charged to my death. The way that melee works in mass effect 3 isn’t very forgiving. If you have pressed the button to charge and you are running towards a target often times I missed and was stuck in the animation whilst getting shot. Also, unless you specialize into melee, often times your charge won’t kill an opponent instantly so you are left standing vulnerable for some very long seconds.

So I decided to specialize into using weapons, in particular shotguns. You are still a tank when doing this so you will want to make sure you get every shield and health bonus you can get whilst leveling Rage and Fortification. I tried out carnage and it wasn’t very useful especially when you use a shotgun which will put carnage on a 10 second cool down.