The Sunder (Krogan Shaman Adept)

Introduction

The Krogan Shaman is quite an underrated kit. I wish I saw it more in public games, but that's my opinion. The Krogan Shaman is one of the few kits that can do everything. It has speed, it can tank with Barriers and Krogan Rage Fitness, it can slay minions and bosses alike with ease by having the two solid biotic powers Warp and Shockwave, and can carry a decent weapon due to Krogan weight capacity being exceptionally high. He can either act as a heavy tank in an all biotic team, or as a powerful close range biotic in a non-biotic team (there's overlap between the two roles).

Anyways, the Shaman is a heavy hitter but also quite nimble for his size much like the Sunder mech. The Shaman can unleash exceptional damage and is the tankiest of all the Adepts (and tankier than most of the Vanguards too), yet his Krogan speed and some quick thinking with powers and weapons can help him fit into any team composition. To maximize versatility while still maintaining strength, a 4/6/6/4/6 build should be taken along with a high powered caster weapon. Both the powers and weapon are important to this kit, so skimping out on one or the other hurts it a lot.

Defenses (Barrier, Rage and related equipment)

The main strength of a normal Shaman is that he is one tanky biotic. With 1850 Health/Barriers, even his Rage Fitness tree gives him a huge edge over nearly every other biotic. Add Barrier to give damage reduction and you have a nearly immortal biotic by your side. I say 'nearly immortal' because of sync killing, but a smart player can avoid most of them. If you attack intelligently (as in don't be a guts and glory hero), death should hardly come about to a Shaman. Even at short range, the Shaman has a few tricks up his sleeve.

While typical biotics (sans Vangaurds, but they run the risk of being sync killed and focused fired at a much higher rate) have a tough time at point blank range combat, the Shaman as two tricks to help him. The first is Shockwave, but that can easily miss if aimed improperly and will be discussed more in the Biotic Destruction section. The second is Barrier, which can be detonated to send a shockwave in all directions, through walls, and will lift Health-only enemies. It also has some kick behind it along with a 1.5x multiplier vs Barriers. Having this ability available on hand is a great reason to keep Barrier up at all times in addition the the damage reduction it gives as well.

For armor modules, I highly recommend Cyclonic Modulators (although the short supply in these is understandable), Shield Power Cells, and Power Efficiency Modules. All three of these help out in their own way, whether it be additional tanking ability or faster power cooldowns. As far as gear is concerned, I lean towards Shield Booster to give even more tanking ability with Barrier.

Biotic Destruction (Warp, Shockwave, and Biotic Explosions (BE))

Warp is one of the best biotic powers capable of powerful BEs and strong debuffs when properly evolved. Warp is also a projectile power, which means that enemies can either dodge Warp or eat Warp when it is thrown. Both are useful when trying to aim with projectile weapons (like the Graal). Warp can also both prime and detonate BEs, which makes it useful in nearly every biotic scenario. Considering most hybrid caster weapons do some decent damage/shot, the extra 25% armor weakening in Pierce doesn't do all that much compared to Recharge Speed.

Shockwave is also a strong power to complement Warp. My inner ego says that someone at BW like my Biotic Terrorist build (from a dark era in my writing) and ran with it. Shockwave is an amazing power as it can go through walls, stagger nearly everything, hit two targets for multiple BEs, and has the highest BE detonating modifier at 65%. Can't go wrong with Shockwave when not going for a BE. Make sure that you aren't interfering with a sniper on your team due to Shockwaves wobbling effect.

Combined they make a supercharged BE. Shockwave tends to deal with minions better as they get easily staggered by its force and that stagger can be followed up by hot metal to the face from the Graal or other weapon. If the team has a Reave user on board, Shockwave spamming will work well with it as exploding multiple BEs does hideous damage. On bosses, definitely go for your own Warp + Shockwave BE to get that 15% debuff with Expose. The downside of having such awesome BE detonators is that both also detonate Tech Explosions, which can hinder your damage output. Consider other priming effects before charging in to land some BEs.

Heavy Weapons (Graal, other hybrid caster weapons, and related equipment)

In my opinion, the Graal is the best gun to use here. Not only is it a Krogan gun, it also benefits heavily from Warp and Shockwave setting up enemies either by staggering or a forced dodge. The Graal can also be charged for 2x damage (affects ammo damage too) after ~.8 seconds of charging , can double tap for quick burst damage, and has a 3x headshot multiplier instead of the normal 2.5x (does not affect bosses, but BEs take care of that). The Graal is also of decent weight, quite accurate, will always apply the ammo effect (although here it's actually a burden with the three priming ammos because they take away from BEs) and ignores shield gate due to it being a projectile. The only weaknesses this gun has is that it is a projectile (susceptible to latency, can be mitigated) and thus cannot penetrate cover (countered by mail slotting and knocking back with Shockwave), and it has a small magazine capacity of 3 shots before reloading. Overall it's easily one of the best weapons in the game, rivalling the likes of the Harrier, Piranha, Carnifex/Paladin, Saber, CSR, and Wraith. All those previously mentioned weapons, along with the Argus, Valkyrie, Revenant, Raider, and Talon, work well with this build. Personal recommendation is carry strong weapons to a weight capacity of ~130% to ~80% to keep power cooldowns from going overboard.

For weapon amps, take the appropriate weapon amp or Targetting VI. Take the Targetting VI if you feel that you can headshot fairly often with the gun in question. Otherwise, just leave it with the appropriate weapon amp. As far as ammo is concerned with the Graal, you have three main choices. The first goes for all biotics and that is Warp Ammo. Warp Ammo will wreck enemies primed by Warp and at IV it can take chunks of Armor off of bosses. Failing Warp Ammo, there is Phasic Ammo. This will whittle enemies down to Armor and Health, where they will either take a BE damage multiplier in the case of Armor or be ragdolled into oblivion by a BE in the case of Heatlh. Failing Phasic Ammo, I'd recommend Explosive Rounds to check for the ~.8 second 2x damage charge and do get a free flinch when they explode on a target. The other ammo powers either prime targets that override BEs (Cryo, Disruptor, and Incendiary) or don't help the Graal all too much (Drill and AP).

Conclusion

The Krogan Shaman is a close range BE tank that can shred opponents in between a barrage of supercharged BEs and hot metallic knives shot at high velocity. Take advantage of the strong defenses by being in the front line and unleashing relentless attacks by using both powers and weapons. You should only stop attacking when your Barriers are down and/or if you need to reload. Keeping up the attack will earn you the respect of your peers as this is an excellent carry kit any way you slice it. The sky is the limit here and I hope you enjoy this kit as much as I do.