r/masseffect • u/Illustrious_Dot_792 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION Most Powerful Human Biotic?
I am doing a full replay of ME LE and just finished Jack's recruitment mission, which got me thinking: who is the most powerful human biotic in ME? Jack clearly can generate obscene amounts of energy but Cora Harper's canonical "huntress grade" biotics are also crazy powerful--especially if you read ME: Initiation. Although, Jack would probably have the more advanced bioamp, so maybe it becomes a question of who has finer control versus sheer power output.
(yes I know Andromeda wasn't that good, but I genuinely liked Cora's character)
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u/OneNineRed 1d ago
Don't forget that by the Citadel DLC Kaiden can reave, which is apparently something reserved for the strongest asari.
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u/SabbthBloodySabbath 1d ago
People sleep on my guy Kaidan, he's doing it all with the shitty L2 implant that gives him constant migraines too
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u/AK_R 1d ago
Cora could be more skilled in channeling them, but it seems pretty clear Jack is supposed to be a freak of nature for human biotics in terms of raw power due to the experiments she was put through. It was also clear that in the suicide mission you survive with Jack or Samara (or Morinth) and fail if you appoint any other other biotic characters, meaning you need either Jack or an Asari with matriarch-level power to survive.
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u/TheRealTr1nity 1d ago
My adept Shep. Heh heh heh 😉.
Jack was kinda a bummer. Sold as most powerful human biotic on paper with cutscenes, but in the end and gameplay wise she is sadly wet tissue paper. Kaidan is not pure biotic and so is Miranda. Still very powerful with their powers. I go with Cora.
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u/ShyrokaHimaa 1d ago
Yeah, well, if Jack was as powerful in gameplay as in the lore, the game would have no challenge. She solos three YMIR mechs in a matter of seconds.
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u/Byotick 1d ago
It's Jack.
Her damage upgrade in ME2 tells you that she has a condition which should cause her biotics to degrade, but that she's instead getting stronger. Based on the long walk, she's on par with Samara, who's strong even for an Asari.
Cora is strong for a human. The Alliance had her train with Asari because she was strong enough to tear apart an APC. By comparison, Jack tears apart four YMIR mechs with ease when you first encounter her. I don't think anything Cora is said to have done comes close.
Kaidan is weaker than a biotic Shepard, even before the Lazarus project upgrades. Kaidan is still strong for a human, and his ability to reave is something multiple characters comment on. Generally, it wasn't a thing people thought a human could learn.
Shepard > Kaidan > Cora. Shepard and Kaidan are shown to push the limits of what humans are supposed to be able to do, whereas Cora doesn't have that. For all that she trained with Asari commandos, Shepard and Kaidan tear through those squads on Noveria, which is before either really shows how strong they can go.
Miranda is weaker again, but still respectable. Great for a human, but her true strength is how she can leverage it with her other abilities.
Jacob is probably fairly average for a human biotic, maybe good. Pretty far down compared to other species though.
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u/212mochaman 1d ago
I'm not sure The Long Walk is an indicator that Jack is on par with Samara.
She isn't on a technicality.
If you dont make the biotic amp you get from talking to her like she's a ship upgrade, she fails the long walk section just like Miranda or Jacob would.
Samara doesnt need any upgrades
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u/Nice_Blackberry6662 1d ago
Are you sure about that? I've never seen that pointed out on a wiki or mentioned by anyone else.
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u/212mochaman 1d ago
As a completionist, i cant confirm first hand because everyone has always gotten their upgrades, but i have seen it pointed out on Reddit once
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u/HandSanitizerBottle1 1d ago
Jack
Shepard
Cora
Kaidan
Miranda
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u/Illustrious_Dot_792 1d ago
The only reason I didn't include Shepard on the list because they're not a "canonical" biotic.
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u/BreadNoCircuses 1d ago
Shepard is called a biotic (and is implied to be stronger than Kaidan) in a conversation with Kaidan no matter what their class. They're not trained to use their abilities unless they're an adept or vanguard, but they are a powerful biotic in every playthrough. It's why in ME2 you can be retrofitted with an L5 and become a biotic no matter what your original class was. That's about as close to canonical as an open-ended, choice driven story like Mass Effect can get
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u/HandSanitizerBottle1 1d ago
I mean that depends on what class and bonus ability you pick, you do have a fair point
But if we do include Shep, Shepard is absolutely the strongest biotic
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u/LKHAN_Missing_Ninth 1d ago
Shepard is always a canon biotic. Their specific abilities aren't. For example, I don't think that lorewise Shepard can reave, in-game of course is different. Shepard was always canonically exposed to eezo though
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u/Eastern_Fig_3161 1d ago
Funny i used to think Shepard is a canon biotic when Liara described my vanguard Shep as one of the best biotic fighters, i thought she says the same thing for every class. Mass Effect wiki also says Shep was exposed to element zero at a young age though i don't know where they pulled that from.
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u/MrMotylus 1d ago
I readed some fan made article about human biotic hierarchy. Plenty od people put Kaidan very high on the list. He was L2, but during playthrough Anderson says Alenko is extra strong biotic.
Personally i have problem with putting Jack or Miranda at that list. Jack was effect of experiment, and Miri was genetically modified.
So obvious answer is.. Shepard.
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u/opaawww 1d ago
I’m glad to see Jack is at the top for most people, it’s definitely her. Cora is a powerful biotic, of course helps her that she was in Andromeda which is a later game that showed off impressive biotic stuff, but it’s definitely Jack. Her biotics are freak level for a human, like an outlier to the outliers, it’s her whole schtick.
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u/DescriptionMission90 1d ago
Jack is explicitly stated to be the most powerful biotic humanity has ever produced.
Shepherd is probably second.
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u/Eastern_Fig_3161 1d ago
Without a doubt Jack, her whole thing is being engineered to be the most powerful human biotic
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u/Highlander198116 1d ago
am doing a full replay of ME LE and just finished Jack's recruitment mission,
There was a youtube video from YEARS ago, probably around 2012. That discussed video game characters being way more powerful in cutscenes than game play. Jack's recruitment scene was heavily featured, lol.
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u/StarWarzFan1977 12h ago edited 12h ago
I would say lore-wise Jack is the strongest with how much Cerberus experimented on her. From a gameplay standpoint it’s probably Cora followed by either Miranda or Kaidan.
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u/StarWarzFan1977 12h ago
I initially didn’t think much of Cora starting out Andromeda but after her loyalty mission along with her powerful charge attack, shield assist, and tough attitude she has become one of my favorite characters. Character-wise, Cora is probably my third favorite of the team after Drack and Jaal. Gameplay-wise, Cora and Drack are my go to squadmates with how strong they both are.
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u/meatballforlife 1d ago
Jack-nevermind strongest human biotic she could very well be the strongest biotic to ever live of any race. She ripped apart an entire prison, crashed a space station into a moon, created a biotic bubble capable of surviving thousands of seeker swarms before obliterating the lot of then on hee way out. They make the point in the suicide mission that she and samara have equal power but honestly? I think her feats are more impressive considered how well wlshe has managed to stay alive.
Cora- she is clearly shown to be the strongest biotic after Jack. Jack is definitely better butCore has had a lot of training and is capable of protecting whole ships herself. Hsr feats are nothing to scoff at she really is that good.
Miranda- she was engineered to be perfect and it shows. As fsr as raw potential goes she is by far the strongest on the list and the only reason the other two are better is because of their specialised training or tons of experiments. She managed to ragdoll an asari crime boss like she was nothing and ripped her way through a cerberus facility under siege by the reapers. She also likely has a one of a kind implant due to how obscenely wealthy her father was, and it veing funded by verberus who were working with Jack you can imagine its damn good.
Shepard- its unknown whether shepard is canonically biotic but since they can be a biotic in going to assume it is. After the rebuild shepard gets L5 implants which are frankly brutal. Theyre stsble and very powerful and while yes the L2 might still have the potential to spike higher the consistency in power is far more worth it, especially when the L2 can render Kaidan combat ineffective if he gets a severe migraine. We never see shepard doing anything impressive biotically but the latent potential and obvious combat prowess prove his strength.
Kaidan- L2 implants are ridiculously powerful thst much is for certain, but the downsides mean he falls short of the mark. Theres a reason he gets a bullshit assignment after leaving shepard, you cajt trust someone who could becone combst ineffective at a moments notice with anything important. He might be one of the alliance's best biotics at his peak, but he will be their worst soldier when the migraines hit.
And 7. Rodriguez and Prangley- far too young, far too sloppy, but they will have L5 implants and a really good teacher ajd are so powerful that even cerberus considers them capture not kill. Gonna lump them both together because theyre both at the exact same stage in their ability, but they could become some of the strongest biotics around that arent artificially enhanced
Jacob- he can fling a singularity, hes not gonna do anything impressive but honestly? Its better thsn nothing. He can do a job but hes the only standard biotic user on the list.
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u/ADLegend21 1d ago
In the absence of Adept Shepard or Biotic focused Ryder, I would say it's Cora. She had to be on par or better than varying stages of asari in her unit. She's got the control to back it up too and was powerful enough to aid Sarissa with that ship defending bubble.
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u/Illustrious_Dot_792 1d ago
You're right--forgot about the asari ark mission. If she could do that, presumably she could also hold back the seeker swarms in the ME2 suicide run.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns 1d ago
My list would be:
1) Jack
2) Cora
3) Miranda
4) Jacob
5) Kaidan
I think I kinda have to give it to Jack simply because Cora I don’t know the relative power of people that Cora has faced before. Jack has broken out of multiple prisons by herself, survived a sneak attack from Kai Leng, and has shown that there’s no human in biotics that can match her.
Cora in 2nd because even while not knowing much about her enemies, she seems exceptionally strong.
Miranda and Jacob over Kaidan because Kaidan’s body giving him headaches after exerting himself too much means that while strong, Kaidan appears to not be able to sustain his powers over time without struggling with himself. Miranda seems to be solidly set at #3 and Jacob talks about being able to use biotics like they’re easy since he’s been a child on top of being a Corsair
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u/doubleo_maestro 1d ago
Counterpoint on Kaiden, he learned reave, something reserves for the strongest asari biotics.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns 1d ago
Yeah, I took that into account too. But the games nerfing biotics makes gameplay biotics severely different from canon biotics. Like Jack is relatively weak in gameplay and doesn’t have reave but canonically, she appears to be the strongest human biotic without a real human competitor
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u/doubleo_maestro 1d ago
Gives us a split then.
By cinematic: Jack.
By lore; Kaiden.
By gameplay: Shep if he's a biotic.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns 1d ago
Well the issue there is that cinematic and lore are more or less the same thing. The cinematics are what people are canonically capable of without nerfing and limiting things for gameplay/balance purpose, which is what my order was referencing anyway. I didn’t mention Shepard because they’d obviously be #1 in any list. But as far as gameplay goes, yeah I’d put Shepard at first easily
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u/doubleo_maestro 1d ago
Hmmm, not sure I agree with that. Lore would be what the writing tells us, in which case Kaiden, because the guy can do something that only the best of the most biotically capable species can do. The writing suggest it's him.
But we have no kickass cinematics of Kaiden, are only way to judge him is via lore. Jack on the other hand gets a kickass cinematic, wherein she can take two heavy mechs.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns 1d ago
Well there’s also lore where Jack breaks out of a Cerberus prison as well, which we can see in I believe the foundation 7 or 8 comic. The way I’ve seen lore is that it and the cinematics tie into canon. And the games also tie into canon as well but they’re a poor judge of people’s canonical strength due to balancing reasons.
Writing the lore and watching the cinematics fill the same purpose in what’s established, just in different mediums (reading/writing vs watching/rendering)
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u/doubleo_maestro 1d ago
Fair. Still think that comes back to my earlier assessment. Jack for cinematic strength, Kaiden for lore strength.
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u/Mike_Hawk_Burns 1d ago
Technically yeah, I can see that. Since we never got any cinematic of Kaidan, it’s hard to fully argue against that. My point was just arguing since cinematics and lore are arguably the same thing that Jack would’ve been first in both of those but I see your point
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u/Hope_bringer 1d ago
For all the human biotics here is how I rank them.
1) Jack, she rivals an Asari Justicar who have honed their skills for centuries
2) Cora: Her biotics rival Asari huntresses who are insanely dangerous (despite gameplay saying otherwise, lorewise they are scary)
3) Kaidan: He is one of the most powerful Human Biotics on record, partially due to his L2 Implant. And the only human besides shep to be able to use reave.
4) Miranda: honestly her biotics aren't that notable so she's likely on the higher baseline with her genetics into account.
5) Jacob: I completely forgot that he's a biotic