Hi All,

I read many topics about how good is Verena, but I have problem to make her shine, I guess I don't understand how to play her well.

A) ABILITIES

She has combat momentum + 4x to use . What to take next? I read about Point blank shot is a must buy, other says Combat mastery is OP, other says is better to go for Master Operative for a great CQ attack.

B) WEAPONS

She has DL-44 + Tac Display + Marksman barrel . Is it better to look for Deathhammer now, or just for Spread barrel or Plasma cell and remain with DL-44?

I read she has to take a Cleave 2 weapon (vibroblade?), why is it so important? I can't see why switching weapon from DL-44 to a Cleave weapon for an attack.

c) HOW TO PLAY HER.

Well, I Struggle. usually I go adjacent to a weak imperiale (Like ST), if I am lucky I defeat him with 1 shot, usually with 2, then i make a weak CQ attack to another ST, that will remain with 1 hp. What can I do to improve my strategy? I would like to make more "area damage" to wipe a group of ST, or Hired gun in one activation.

Thanks for the help.

There are a lot of options here, so I'm sorry if I'm all over the place with this response:

A) All of those are good abilities. I typically would recommend against Combat Mastery just because of the required resources (credits) to arm her with two decent weapons, but it's certainly an option. Personally I think the added endurance and a free focused CQ attack make Master Operative her best skill.

B) She's meant to be played up close to the enemy, so the marksmenship barrel might not be the best choice here, it would be better served on a character who will be shooting from long range. In the last core campaign I played she was still using the DL-44 and tac display in the finale (I don't recall her second mod). Although, I suppose if you want Point Blank Shot, the marksmanship barrel will be helpful in that case. The added accuracy will let you freely roll red-yellow.

Any melee character is improved with cleave. Verena is brilliant with it. If you're next to two stormtroopers you can attack and kill one with a melee weapon, cleave 2 to the second stormtrooper, CQ off the first to finish the second, CQ for a third attack.

The things to consider are 1) whether or not there is another melee character on the team, she may have to compete for weapons; and 2) do you want point blank shot, it doesn't work with melee (or CQ for that matter).

C) Swap out the marksmanship barrel for something that let you add some damage (or keep it and get PBS). Or switch to melee and add cleave to your abilities. You're on the right track, but Verena should be close enough that range shouldn't be an issue. Also don't forget you can use CQ when it's not your activation, and any number of times per round provided you can suffer the strain cost.

I hope that helps, good luck.

You shouldn't have gotten a marksmen's barrel for her, waste of credits.

Your goal with Verena is to be triggering Close Quarters as often as possible. This means you want to hit targets so hard they die while also having a surge left over to pull strain off of as Close Quarters is strain intensive, AND be positioned adjacent to enemies the other heroes will be killing during the round to trigger off those too.

Cleave CAN help with this as weaker enemies die more easily, but generally it's not as good for her as other heroes. It's still good, but where many other heroes should focus on getting cleave and then reach as their highest priorities, she needs to focus more on getting in kills in any manner that also leave a free surge so she can use Close Quarters as often as possible.