The Blue Bomber: Asari Adept with a Stinger

A common attitude towards the mighty Asari Adept is that she has been surpassed by newer Adepts. The original Queen caster and controller; at one time it was considered optimal to run her as 6/6/6/x/y, and yet, due to balance changes wrought upon Stasis, these days her new optimal is considered to be 3/6/6/x/y. Personally I used to shy away from pure casters, due to my tendency to play overly aggressive, so perhaps I've never given the blue bombshell a fair shake... until now.

When first revisiting the Asari Adept, I wanted to find an effective build and play style that included a maxed out Stasis but didn't leave behind the devastating biotic detonations she is capable of. Stasis is what makes her unique among the Adepts, and if I had wanted to play a 3/6/6/x/y Warp-Thrower, I'd play my Human Sentinel. After observing the ways I've seen Stasis utilized on the class lately, if at all, I noticed it was largely dependent upon her weapon load out. Makes sense, since Throw is paired with Warp, the slow cooling Stasis needs to be paired with weapon fire.

• Stasis is used to set up easy headshots for those that like to carry accurate lightweight weapons, such as Paladin, Talon, Carnifex, etc.
• Otherwise Stasis is an afterthought, given just three ranks and used only as a panic button against problem enemies, such as Phantoms, Guardians, Hunters, etc.

Neither of those options satisfies me, the latter for reasons already stated plus weaker detonations on targets of Stasis, which surprisingly occurs often (between dealing with other mooks or often biotic allies). While the Paladin can turn into a mini-sniper when combined with Stasis, I found it lackluster outside that specific situation.

Still if I was going to effectively pair a maxed Stasis with her already powerful biotic detonating capabilities, I knew it would only come from finding the right weapon.

Enter her stinger, a Scorpion.

I think you see what can happen here; Stasis an enemy, use the Scorpion to decorate the poor SOB like a Xmas tree, then do the whole ‘walk away, too cool to watch my own explosions’ thing (though it actually serves a purpose here, namely priming the next target).

Oh the fun I'm having with the Scorpion and the Asari Adept's biotics. I've run this through a few Gold missions, both PUGs and solo, and this bomber is absolutely capable of clutching. The Queen of control is back in form:

• Stasis can lock down all but Armored targets
• Throw can stagger (near) anything
• The Scorpion staggers near anything

Not to mention every attack she has either goes around or works through cover. This Asari can absolutely abuse right hand advantage or high ground.

The little explosive globules pair so well with her abilities:

• Big Bads and Armored foes –> Warp, fire, fire, fire, Throw –> …BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
• Barriered/Shielded mooks –> Stasis, fire, fire, fire, fire –> …BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
• Health-only fodder –> fire, Throw –> SMACK… BOOM

That last one in particular is a ton of fun. Stick a globule on a mook then send them flying with Throw and a second later as their trying to stand back up, they burst into a bloody mess. Makes great hit and runs while traversing a map, and can turn a mook into a little proximity bomb you can Throw into his buddies.

The middle could also go another way if multiple enemies are near – Stasis, now fire at other foes until your cooldown timer is almost up, fire one or two globules at the guy in Stasis, then Throw to biotic detonate.

And the first one, talk about testing your sound system’s woofer. Atlases in particular, even from across the map.

The Blue Bomber

Stasis (6): Duration, see the discussion with I_pity_the_fool below. Recharge Speed, her cooldowns are already low enough to not warrant a gamble. Bubble, and let me tell you, everyone will remember the security of having a smart bubbler around again.

Warp (6): Detonate, Expose, Recharge. Most players like Pierce but on this build it's near useless. The Scorpion already ignores Armor so the Weakening does not help, and Warp is never used for it's damage so the Barrier & Armor damage isn't significant. This build's primary source of damage versus big boss enemies are quick Warp-Throw biotic detonations, so we want Warp to cooldown quickly.

Throw (6): Radius, Detonate, Force & Damage.

Asari Adept (x): recommend 0 or 4, depending on player cooldown preference. Go 6 for more weapon damage if you’re some kind of beast ninja at avoiding all incoming attacks.

Fitness (y): bottom row with what’s left.

Her Mega Buster: Scorpion with Extended Magazine and Heavy Barrel.

Here are my current and preferred specs:

When using Shield Power Cells IIIs

When running out of Shield Power Cells IIIs

The first build has quite a bit faster Shield Recharge rate (helpful due to the nature of the Asari Dodge, which you should be using often as it is the best Dodge in the game for avoiding all kinds of incoming damage), whereas the second build only has slightly better Health and Shields. However since I typically have a far greater surplus of Power Efficiency Modules than Shield Power Cells, the second build is what I am forced to run more often.

With either of these loadouts a Warp-primed biotic detonation takes 2.37 seconds, Stasis-primed takes 2.96. That is if you even need to detonate Stasis after all the ornaments pop.

If you have a Scorpion X instead of VI, you could also bring along a Tempest X (without ULM, and add Warp Ammo) and not affect the cooldowns much.

FIN

edit removed references to warp ammo. apparently there's some debate as to whether ammo mods can even add damage to Scorpion orbs (social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/343/index/15736531). it would seem the only ammo mods that are at all useful with the Scorpion are for the non-damage effects, disruptor (stun), cryo (slow), and explosive (stagger), and even then only on direct shots not proximity bursts.

edit two reworked the build, move it to second and added a new primary build, changed the final paragraphs, and changed Warp's details.