BE Solo Help

[Klez]

Hey folks,

Just wondering, I'm a lvl 41 BE and having difficulty playing through the game solo. I only used this char online but figured I could use him to actually beat the game. Unfortunately, I get absolutely destroyed. Anyway, I've gone down the right path on the skill tree for both and chose Cybernetics. Any recommendations would be appreaciated.

Cheers,

[rumble83]

The right path is very bad in my opinion. Your best bet is the middle, fellowed by the left path. They both relie on combo meter to refill health, instead of your spider. Plus, the shield spider down the middle path is a life saver of used properly. All-in-all you really shouldn't be having a hard time soloing as BE is the best class to do so in my opinion. Just change your skill set, I promise you won't be disappointed.
P. S. Air juggle a lot. Not to just stay out of reach from mobs but to build up meter as it is the source for healing.

[too human]

yeah after trying all three path , I decided that middle path is the only viable one.
Right path MAY seem like the damage build but relying on a spider to heal instead of combo meter does not justify the slight increase in damage ( if any , since I cant tell the difference ) of this path.
As the above poster stated , middle path is best , especially when we are suppose to fight best using two handers.
I suggest using a two hand hammer for multiple/easier air launching of mobs.
I also went with cyber so using my cannon , I always target the polarities first from afar.
They seem to act like little bombs for me which helps quite a bit.

[jar]

^
Yup!

Spam that shield spider and always keep a combo point for your heal. Other than that, get a good weapon and play like a champ!

[Klez]

Sweet dealy, I'll give that a go when I get home from work. I really like my BE and have a lot of good stuff for him. So if anyone wants to do some co-op add me on live GT: Klez_187

Cheers,

[CEAF]

Middle path BioE, right path human FTW

Here is the build for you:



5
7 2
0 10 0 10
0 10 0 0 6
0 10 0 0 6
0 8 0 0 10
1 10

[Klez]

I certainly will look at changing my specs. Just wondering tho, if I go down the middle path of the skill tree, what path should I choose on the Cybernetic tree? Any recommendations?

[K1RB]

First of all, the right tree definatley helps increase your damge output. I can play through any level solo and co-op down the right tree with the spider heal. You just have to make use of everything at your disposal. Fierce attacks can be more useful than any rifle or cannon at range. After you weaken them and start meleeing, start doing a lot of juggling or ping ponging. I'm specced with the mobility actuators so I personally like to slide rather than juggle every mob. Its also more difficult to try to juggle everybody with a staff. If you ever start getting in a tight bind and getting chased by a lot of melee mobs, you can dive roll backwards, slide in, roll back, slide in, rinse and repeat. Never be afraid to pop off a ruiner if you get surrrounded, since you aint using it for a heal you don't really need to conserve the combo lvl too much. You just gotta adapt to the situation and play your cards right.

The right BE path is something I only specced to at 50 (you can see my build in the BE Builds thread). Until lvl 50 I was down the middle path like most but now I much more prefer being able to put down some damage than trying to tank/heal. If I wanted to to take damage I would of been a defender.

[ravare]

You know whats entirely funny to me, I just beat the game last night on my 29 BioE, and I didnt even know there was a separate skill tree for Cybernetics/Humans, I just thought the three sided class tree was all we have.

Lol, epic fail for me.

[Klez]

Nice one ravare, though don't feel bad. My brother in-law and I did the same thing when we first played through.

Cheers,

[Saint]

Hey, I was thinking about posting a guide about Bio Engineer soloing at some point.. thinking it might help some people. Anyway, as people said before - the middle path really seems to be your best option. Personally, I chose cybernetic, and like it due to the spread of ruiner damage (when you don't need to save combo's for battle cry heal) and also for the increased spider deployment time. What I find works out really well is actually staves, if you practice at the fierce attack, it makes clearing things a breeze. Simply roll around to avoid people, cluster them and use the fierce attack. It somewhat resembles bowling actually.. which is kind of funny. Each fierce attack hit does around 8000 damage for me, I'm using The Architect's Flesh Incisor, epic staff. Works well even with a decent orange though, and you get the +dmg for it being 2 handed and going down the middle tree.

[poizon]

Middle tree as has been stated many times by others. If you're turned off by the battle cry taking longer, keep in mind that you can throw up the shield and heal at the same time which will save you from the brink of death. The shield is also just insane for running into what could be impossible situations for other trees.

I went with Cyber because of the spider duration. I did not even take any of the armor bonus (too expensive for a small boost, imho) or the bonus damage for combos above what was required. How often do bios consistently stay above 25, 50, etc. combos? I did max out the proc skill on a whim, but with the elite cyber weapon's traits it's actually worth it, I think.

Use fierce attacks! A lot! They are very powerful especially when you get good at aiming them, but also keep your combo meter up because relying solely on fierce attacks won't help it much. As Saint said, the fierce attack for staves is very good, 2nd to perhaps a sword. Staves are better because they still knock multiple people in the air, and the fierce attack for hammers is pretty awful except when you're surrounded at a certain distance. Definitely try to get your hands on a good staff.

As for a gun you are probably better off with plasma, but you should probably keep the best version of each type of gun just in case. Stick with rifles for the secondary fire or cannons for the increased ammo. Low damage dual slug pistols wouldn't hurt either. Get a very low level one and you can rack up insane combo points easily.
Slugs = Great for completing charm quests.
Laser = Almost useless? Not bad against enemies that you can keep a constant bead on, but I'd rather go with slugs or plasma.
Plasma = Splash damage is great, especially vs trolls. Non-polarity trolls lose their hammer/cannon arm before the chest piece blows up, then you can target their right leg to splash the other leg and arm if you want.

Basically, play like you're a mix between a commando and champion. Stay back whenever you can and fire away, but if you have to jump in the middle then use air combos to your advantage.

[lagster]

Middle path BioE, right path human FTW

Here is the build for you:



5
7 2
0 10 0 10
0 10 0 0 6
0 10 0 0 6
0 8 0 0 10
1 10


quick question on your build, why only 6 in quicker spider? surely you wanna get that bad boy up as much as possible for survivability?

[CEAF]

Quicker spider (spirit renewal) is the right node one up from the bottom in the human tree. It has 10 points in it.

[EA_Cru_2002]

Just adding another voice to the choir but yeah, I went down the middle path too.The left path seems to be status effect oriented with turning the enemy on each other and a spider that immobilizes. The right path is attack oriented. The middle seems to the the purest "healer" of the three.

That may make it sound like it is more of a supporting role for another co op partner but I found the ability to heal 80% of your health (battle cry) and put on 30+ seconds of invulnerability (spider) plus adding the most HP and two handed damage (and the Epic weapon for a bio engineer, at least cybernetic, is a two handed staff) make you most suited for support AND most suited for solo play, because you can sustain yourself the best.

Also, as another poster said, remember to do a bit of air juggling to build up that combo meter. The best way to do that is to launch them, jump up after them and execute a finisher in the air. 90% of enemies will die from that instantly, besides really strong Elites. Doing that, you can sometimes get 1/4 of a combo bar from one enemy. Not to mention you're out of reach from most enemies during that time so you're safe for the most part.

You always want to have at least one spare combo level, you never know when you (or your partner) might need it. It might be tempting to use a ruiner when mobbed, but try to save that thing up and use it only when you have at least level 2 so you'll have one left over even if you do use it. Plus a level 2 ruiner is 10x than level 1 anyway. If you're mobbed and need a way out, just drop your spider and whack away at the people around you.

I would agree with what someone else said about using two handed hammers. The launcher is really useful because it launches everyone around you, giving you room to breathe. I used a two handed hammer until I found my epic weapon, which was a two handed staff. You want to replace your hammer with that staff when you get it as it is very powerful. You lose that area launcher attack, but the weapon is so strong now that you can afford to stand there and whack people instead of launching and running away. Also the Fierce attack is way better than the hammer and that's also another skill you'll want to get really good at.

I saw two different Epic staffs for bio. One was suited for the right path. It has Necrotized on it which brings up a pool of acid below the enemy 5% of the time. Really cool looking. The staff that's suited for the middle path (+1 bonus to the extra health node) doesn't have something as cool as that as its status effect. It only has lightning induction which can be useful sometimes, but I usually find I'm killing the enemy in a hit or two anyway so it doesn't matter much. BUT the reason I'm killing them so fast is because that staff has +40 Strength on it (which the other staff doesn't) so that's the trade off. I personally use the +40 strength staff because it is really strong. Elites go down in 2 or 3 hits.

Oh, also really important, but I'd recommend upping your Attack Speed with runes as much as you can. It helps ALOT in terms of melee combat as otherwise the bio is pretty slow with his staff attack. Don't have to max it out but having it in the mid 20s at least is a good place to be.

For ranged weapons, I prefer rifles. Pistols aren't worth it for a bio engineer (or most any class besides Champion). I chose cybernetic so I have access to cannons but generally, I don't use them much. I keep a cannon in my inventory and I use it when I'm going up against a boss as that is where they are best at. But during regular combat with enemies, I'd rather have the rifle, mostly for the grenade launcher. I think the grenade launcher is the most under appreciated weapon in the game. When I played my Commando, I fricking lit up the screen with grenade launchers and only used regular fire when needed. You wont be nearly as effective a grenadier as a Commando but you can do respectable carnage. The grenade is good because it hits an area of enemies, often lauching a bunch in the air. Also it stuns enemies hit by it which can be really good when you have two rocket goblins near each other. Hit one and both are stunned and wont fire their rockets while you can run up to them and finish them off.

Also the rifle grenade is really REALLY good for melee combat. SERIOUSLY! I've been doing this strategy and I haven't seen a lot of other people doing this. If I seen a group of 4 or 5 enemies near me, I'll Slide Attack towards one of them, hit them, and then immediately hit left trigger and blow a grenade in their face. If I'm lucky, it'll kill or at least heavily damage everyone in the group and most of the time, the entire group flies away! Or at least most of them, leaving just one or two weakened enemies in front of you that just require 1 more hit with your staff to kill. Then I'll continue melee fighting in the mix while the rifle ammo automatically recharges and once it goes past yellow into green, boom, another grenade in the middle of the next tight group of enemies. In a way, I almost consider this as a "Mini-Ruiner" attack.

Doing this has allowed me to play my Bio as more of a melee fighter than most people are used to seeing. I remember I played with a Defender dude and he was commenting that I'm in the mix of the fight more than even he was and I was consistently always higher health than he was (and we were the same level). The great thing is, if I want to play ranged combat, I can easily do that too. Just sit back and pop some rounds into the enemy.

Last point is I'd avoid laser rifles as they're not as useful against regular groups of enemies. It takes too long to charge up to do decent damage that a slug or plasma can do in it's first round. And if you're like me and mostly sticking to the grenades anyway, the slug and plasma grenades are in my opinion better. A laser cannon could be good against bosses and trolls. I have one just for them. But 90% of the game, a slug or plasma rifle is better in my opinion.