Similar to the Medic Shepard Build in Mass Effect 1, this build is designed to be the ultimate support character. Mass Effect 2 streamlined a lot of the RPG elements from the first game, so instead of using healing to support our team, we're going to be using the Sentinel's unique ability Tech Armor. Tech Armor has a somewhat hidden effect in that, upon reaching level 3, resetting your Tech Armor has an additional benefit of resetting the cooldown times of your squadmates.

This allows Shepard to act as both a tank and a supporting character. His increased durability from Tech Armor makes him ideal for the front lines. In my experience, I find that using a squadmate as a tank in any of the three Mass Effect games doesn't provide much value as the AI typically will focus their attacks on Shepard regardless. Having Shepard act as the point man allows your squadmates to focus on weapon damage and spamming their active powers via the use of Tech Armor.

Since we will be reactivating Tech Armor as often as possible, I suggest evolving Tech Armor with the Assault Armor variant at level 4. Assault Armor creates a powerful area-of-effect explosion that staggers protected enemies and knocks back unprotected ones while also giving you 50% of your shields back immediately upon detonation. It may appear to some that the Power Armor variant is the more durable variant as it provides +100% Shields strength as opposed to the +75% of Assault Armor, but the additional +50% upon detonation gives you a larger durability bonus overall. In combat, draw enemy fire to trigger the Tech Armor detonation, use all your squadmates' abilities, than reset Tech armor to use squadmate abilities again.

Level 5: Tech Armor 3, Defender 1
Level 6: Assault Armor
Level 7: Defender 2
Level 8: Overload 1
Level 9: Defender 3
Level 10: Throw 2
Level 11: Warp 1
Level 12: Skip
Level 13: Guardian
Level 14: Skip
Level 15: Skip
Level 16: Skip
Level 17: Squad Warp Ammo
Level 18: Warp 2
Level 19: Skip
Level 20: Warp 3
Level 21: Skip
Level 22: Skip
Level 23: Heavy Warp
Level 24: Skip
Level 25: Overload 2
Level 26: Skip
Level 27: Skip
Level 28: Overload 3
Level 29: Cryo Blast 1

If you're importing Shepard from Mass Effect 1 you should be able to start at Level 5. This allows you to secure Level 3 of Tech Armor immediately and the Assault Armor variant upon the first level up. Once Assault Armor is secured you'll want to focus on the passive Defender power to increase durability and power recharge time, allowing you to be able to refresh Assault Armor frequently. I recommend picking up a single point in Overload and Warp early on so you have an effective way to strip enemy protections. This is particularly important if you plan to follow the recommended quest order and as you'll need Overload against the Geth Shields during the Overload Mission and Warp against the final Boss in Katsumi's loyalty mission.

After securing Guardian at level 13, I recommend refraining from spending further points until Act 2, when you begin doing the loyalty missions and gain access to a bonus power. As Shepard's primary goal is to support his team, choosing an ammo power and selecting Squad ammo is an ideal choice. Warp Ammo is recommended over Armor Piercing Ammo as Warp Ammo is more effective against the most powerful enemy in the game, the Collectors.

Loadout

Head: Archon Visor
Chest: Shield Harness
Shoulders: Kestral Shoulder Pieces
Arms: Heavy Damping Gauntlets
Legs: Kestral Power Pack

I select the Archon Visor as headgear so that you can have a lower cooldown and use Assault Armor frequently, while the rest of the items increase your shields. The extra shields give you more value when you trigger Assault Armor detonations or when reapplying Assault Armor.

Miranda

Miranda is a AAA squadmate, who I recommend bringing along on almost every mission (the only exceptions are Jack's, Tali's, and Legion's Loyalty Missions). Spend her first talent points leveling her Cerberus Officer talent and choosing the offensive variant Cerberus Leader, giving a large bonus to weapon damage for the whole squad with a moderate bonus to the squad's health. Further, because she has both Overload and Warp, she always has the right power to use, which can be spammed via the use of Assault Armor. Choose Unstable Warp and Area Overload, biotic explosions are helpful in the early game and having a lower cool down it's easier just to shoot unprotected enemies as opposed to disabling them.

Jacob

Jacob is a good squadmate for the early game before you get access to Warp Ammo. He provides a source of Squad ammo and can prime enemies for biotic explosions with Pull. Incendiary Ammo is very effective in the early game as it causes organic enemies to panic and is one of the few early-game sources of squad ammo available. Pull is helpful in the early game when your DPS is lower, as you'll want to have a way to prevent unprotected enemies from refreshing their shields/barriers, while also priming them for a biotic explosion. Once you get Squad Warp Ammo as a bonus power, you can retire Jacob for higher damage-dealing squadmates.

Zaeed

Zaeed is among the top damage dealers in the game, as his passive ability. Mercenary Veteran, can be upgraded to provide +50% weapon damage. This in combination with Miranda's squad weapon damage bonus provides a total bonus of +65%, which is the highest possible damage for a squadmate. Zaeed is the only squadmate with access to the very powerful Disruptor Ammo. Disruptor Ammo is vastly superior to Warp Ammo when facing the Geth. I highly recommend using Zaeed whenever you face the Geth and using Squad Disruptor Ammo to increase the entire squad's DPS against synthetic enemies.

Thane

Thane is the other contender for top damage dealer as his passive ability Drell Assassin is comparable to Mercenary Veteran and is also able to provide +50% weapon damage. While Zaeed works best against Geth, you'll want to use Thane against organic targets. Don't use Thane's Shedder Ammo power as it is inferior to Warp Ammo. Thane and Miranda work best against the Collectors as they both can frequently cast Warp against their Barriers, especially while spamming Tech Armor

Prologue Awakening
Freedom's Progress
Omega:
- Dossier: The Veteran
- The Batarian Bartender
- Struggling Quarian
- Serrice Ice Brandy
- FBA Couplings
Normandy Crash Site - Omega Nebula
MSV Estevanico - Hourglass Nebula
Project Firewalker: Rosalie Lost - Ismar Frontier
Citadel:
- Captain Bailey
- Dossier: the Master Thief
- Crime in Progress
- Krogan Sushi
- Special Ingredients
Project Firewalker: Volcano Station - Caleston Rift
Project Firewalker: Prothean Site - Hades Nexus
Project Firewalker: Geth Incursion - Phoenix Massing
Project Firewalker: Survey Sites Located - Hawking Eta
Omega:
- Dossier: The Professor
- Missing Assistant
- The Patriarch
Dossier: The Convict
Dossier: The Warlord
Zaeed: Price of Revenge
Katsumi: Stolen Memory
Wrecked Merchant Freighter - Eagle Nebula
Abandoned Research Station - Eagle Nebula
Overlord
Omega
- Dossier: Archangel
Horizon


Omega:
- Package for Ish Part 1
- Archangel: Datapad Recovered
Illum:
- Liara: The Observer
- Conrad Verner
- Blue Rose of Illum
- Gianna Parasini
- Medical Scans
- Indentured Servitude
- Package for Ish Part 2
Jacob: The Gift of Greatness
Jack: Subject Zero
Tuchunka:
- Killing Pyjaks
Illum:
- Dossier: The Assassin
- Salarian Family Data
- Miranda: The Prodigal
- Lost Locket Found
Tunchunka
- Mordin: Old Blood
- Missing Scout
- Combustion Manifold
Grunt: The Rite of Passage
Collector Ship


Citadel:
- Thane: Sins of the Father
- False Positives
Dossier: The Justicar
- Smuggling Evidence
- Stolen Goods Found
Dossier: Tali
Omega:
- Package for Ish Part 3
- Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi
Citadel
- Garrus: An Eye for an Eye
Tali: Treason
Lost Operative - Omegle Nubla
Mining the Canyon - Caleston Rift
Endangered Research Station - Caleston Rift
Quarian Crash Site - Hades Nexus
Imminent Ship Crash - Pylos Nebula
Anomalous Weather Detected - Pylos Nebula
Archeological Dig Site - Rosetta Nebula
MSV Strontium Mule - Omega Nebula
Blue Suns Base - Sigurd’s Cradle
Javelin Missiles Launched - Sigurd’s Cradle
Hahne-Kedar Facility - Titan Nebula
Eclipse Smuggling Depot - Hourglass Nebula
Captured Mining Facility - Crescent Nebula
Blood Pack Communications Relay - Crescent Nebula
Blood Pack Base - The Shrike Abyssal
Abandoned Mine - Minos Wasteland
Acquire Reaper IFF


Legion: A House Divided
Suicide Mission


In Act 1 you can gain quite a bit of experience before you actually have to start engaging in ground combat. Doing side quests and the Normandy Crash Site DLC and Firewalk DLC allow you to get a few early upgrades and levels. You should also do the MSV Estevanico sidequest early as there is no combat. Once all quests are done you can begin to recruit squadmates. The game recommends that you recruit Mordin first to unlock the use of research to upgrade your squad, so he should be the first combat mission of the run. Once you recruit the fourth initial squadmate the game's main plot progresses so hold off on doing Archangel until you've completed all other quests. I recommend saving Archangel for last as it is the most difficult of the early missions. Do the interim two recruitment missions first, then the DLC squadmates loyalty missions, before doing Wrecked Merchant Freighter and Abandoned Research Station to get an additional level up before the difficult Overlord Mission. Then go back to Omega to recruit Archangel. This will put us at the highest level possible before the Horizon mission triggers while still avoiding the most challenging sidequests available in Act 1.

After Horizon, we are in Act 2 and the game will progress after we've done 5 missions or combat assignments and boarded the Normandy, so it's important to select the missions carefully to get the most value before facing the Collector Ship. I'd start out with Jacob's mission first while we still don't have a bonus power and his squad incendiary ammo is still useful. After one mission Jack's loyalty mission will unlock, allowing you to complete it and secure Warp Ammo as a bonus power. Next head to Illum secure Thane as a squadmate so we can take advantage of his high weapon damage, then before leaving do Miranda's loyalty mission to unlock Slam. Now that we've done 4 missions you might believe we have one mission left before the game advances, but if we choose two loyalty missions on one planet, we can avoid going back onto the Normandy between missions and triggering the progression of the plot. So head over to Tunchunka and do Mordin and Grunt's loyalty mission.

After the Collector Ship simply do the remaining Dossier and Loyalty missions. At which point you'll want to complete the remaining side quests. Some people prefer to do the DLC missions Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival after the Suicide Mission for story purposes but I suggest doing them first so that your Shepard has every advantage and resource possible before the final boss fight.

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