Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide: Adept (Mass Effect 1)

In this Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide I’m going to cover my Adept Build for Mass Effect 1, which is an Adept Build meant for mid-range encounters. I’ll be sharing the best Talents to prioritize, what it means to choose the Bastion Specialization for your Adept, the optimal Weapons, Armor, and Mods to equip, and the Squadmates to take with you on Missions and Assignments. If you’ve been looking for a way to optimally play as an Adept then this Guide is for you.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition Build Guide: Adept (Mass Effect 1)

The Adept Class, like the Engineer, specializes in dealing excellent damage at mid-range distances due to their Pistol Proficiency. Since they are not well-trained to use other Weapons, Adepts rely on their Biotic Abilities to do the heavy lifting in combat.

What makes this Class extremely effective is how easily they manipulate mass effect fields to their advantage in order to control enemies. They have Lift, which suspends foes up in the air, thereby making them vulnerable to attacks. They can even use Throw to hurl enemies as far away as possible, inflicting Force Damage in the process.

The Bastion Adept Build greatly enhances durability, which is highly beneficial to this Class since they can only equip Light Armor. Additionally, this improves the Stasis Ability so they can immobilize tougher enemies while heavily damaging them as well.

Adept Talents and Abilities (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’ll talk about the different Weapon, Biotic, and Combat Talents that you should focus on to make the most out of your Bastion Adept Build. Note that the number of Talent Points I’ve allocated is based on reaching Level 50 in Mass Effect 1 Legendary Edition, or 25 if you’ve selected the Legendary Mode.

Weapon Talent and Ability

There is only one Weapon Talent that you’ll have to put sufficient points into because this will help you tackle enemies by increasing the accuracy of your shots and the damage you deal.

Pistols

This Talent becomes available after reaching Basic Armor Rank 5. Since the Pistol is the only Weapon the Adept is proficient with, it’s imperative to start investing 3 points at earlier levels in order to unlock the Marksman Ability, thereby enhancing its performance. Marksman significantly boosts the Pistol’s accuracy, overall damage, and headshot damage.

Moreover, this Weapon should be used in combination with Biotic Abilities right after immobilizing enemies in order to take advantage of their vulnerability. As your level increases, you’ll have to follow through with 9 additional Talent Points, a total of 12, to maximize the firepower damage you inflict.

Biotic Talents and Abilities

There are 6 Biotic Talents that you’ll have to put sufficient points into in order to effectively control enemies. These are Throw, Lift, Warp, Singularity, Barrier and Stasis.

Throw

Throw is a great offensive and defensive Talent because it allows you to toss enemies away from your Squad while inflicting Force Damage. The Throw Ability is so strong that at higher ranks, you can even kill targets by using it together with Lift or Singularity in order to push them off balconies and ledges. Note that airborne and heavy creatures like Geth Rocket Drones and Geth Armatures are resistant to the knock back effect of this Ability.

Since the first few ranks of this Talent are readily available, you ought to invest points into it right from the very beginning. Throw is essential at earlier levels when your Weapon Damage hasn’t reached it maximum potential. You should aim to reach Advanced Throw at Rank 8 to hurl enemies farther away from you and to significantly boost Force Damage.

Lift

At Rank 1, you immediately unlock Lift, which is an AoE Ability that lets you immobilize enemies by lifting them off the ground to render them useless in the battlefield and to make them susceptible to additional damage. They stay afloat for a longer duration when you sufficiently rank up this Talent. As soon as the time expires, affected enemies fall to the ground and take extra damage.

Since Throw will have to reach Rank 6 to unlock Lift, you’ll be allocating points into this Talent midway into the game. This shouldn’t be a problem since you can utilize other Biotic Abilities in the meantime. Ideally, it’s best to reach Advanced Lift at Rank 7 in order to widen its scope and to impact more enemies.

Warp

Warp is highly effective because of how it weakens Shields, thereby making enemies easier to kill, while inflicting massive damage over time.  At higher ranks, you can even eliminate them within a few seconds of activating this Ability.

Since Warp is available at the beginning, I recommend investing as many Talent Points as you can. It’s best to reach Rank 12 to gain access to Master Warp, which greatly boosts damage while severely lowering the enemy’s Shield Strength. At Rank 7, you also unlock Singularity, which I’ll discuss next.

Singularity

Singularity, which is only available to the Adept, is an incredible crowd control technique because it creates a huge ball of energy to pull enemies together in order to suspend them in the air. This makes them vulnerable, and provides open easy target for you and your squad. Furthermore, Singularity can be used in combination with Throw or Warp to eliminate targets quickly. What makes this even better is you can lure targets from their hiding places.

At Rank 12, which is what you ought to aim for, you’ll unlock Master Singularity that maximizes the Ability’s radius and the time enemies remain afloat. Compared to Advanced Lift, Master Singularity’s duration is only shorter by a second but with a much wider range.

Barrier

Barrier acts as an enhancement to your Shields by boosting its capacity to absorb damage before impacting your HP. Note however that a few Ammo Mods like Proton Rounds can pierce through Shields and Barrier. Despite this, I suggest investing points into this Talent as early as possible to improve your survivability, especially since you can only equip Light Armor. Reaching Rank 7 to unlock Advanced Barrier is sufficient for the Adept.

Stasis

Stasis lets you stun a single enemy in place. Because of this, they cannot move nor use any of their Weapons and Abilities to harm you. However, the affected target will be immune to direct damage, which means that they will just stay frozen for a period of time. The good news is that the Bastion Specialization enables you to damage them.

Stasis can be used on any enemy even when they’re flying. Note that Squadmates will not automatically attack the affected target even if you’ve already unlocked Bastion so you’ll have to command them to do so. Since you’ll be waiting to reach Level 20+ to choose the appropriate Specialization, there’s no rush in putting points into this Talent. Ideally, you’ll want to reach Rank 6 to gain access to Advanced Stasis, which improves its duration and shortens its recharge time, thereby allowing you to activate this Ability against multiple enemies in long combat encounters.

Combat Talents and Abilities

There are 2 Combat Talents that will make your Bastion Adept Build resilient in mid-range combat. These are Basic Armor and Spectre Training. I’ll explain why these are essential and how they integrate well with your Build.

Basic Armor

This Talent makes you durable in combat by protecting you from incoming Melee and Weapon Damage, as well as Tech and Biotic Attacks. Its corresponding stats, namely damage reduction and Hardening, are increased every time you rank up Basic Armor. At Rank 3, you unlock the Shield Boost Ability, which restores 30% of your depleted Shields per second. At Rank 12, which is what you’ll be aiming for, you gain access to the Master Shield Boost Ability to restore 50% of your Shields per second.

Spectre Training

This Talent can be unlocked after you become a Spectre when you complete a Citadel Mission within 2 hours of playing. Spectre Training makes your character stronger by raising the accuracy and damage of your Pistol, improves your Abilities, and raises your max HP.

At Rank 4, which is enough for the Adept, you’ll gain access to the Unity Ability, which lets you revive dead Squadmates. You can restore 30% of your downed Squad’s HP and 50% of their Shields, immediately protecting them from any form of damage.

Bastion Specialization (Mass Effect 1)

In this section, I’m going to discuss the Unique Class Talent for this Build as well as its evolved form or Specialization upon completing a certain quest.