This page will show you some of the best builds for your squad mate Jacob Taylor in Mass Effect 2. Here, you’ll find details on the best abilities to pick, and the best weapons to equip.

Jacob Taylor Overview¶

Jacob Taylor was originally part of a clandestine Alliance group called the Corsairs, who would take the missions falling outside of official Alliance jurisdiction, which could give the Alliance plausible deniability. He left the Alliance after the war with the Geth, and enlisted with Cerberus, unlike Miranda, he’s not as committed to their cause as she is. When you come to after the incident on the Normandy, he’ll be one of the first faces you’ll see.

When do you get Jacob¶

Jacob becomes available early in the game during Freedom’s Progress alongside Miranda.

Pull Field Build¶

This build revolves around maxing out Jacob’s Pull, and choosing the Pull Field so he can hit as many enemies as possible with it. We then max out Incendiary Ammo, and choose the Inferno Ammo evolution to increase his damage output, you could choose Squad Incendiary Ammo if no-one else has Ammo Powers equipped. Finally, we max out his passive skill line Cerberus Operative to increase his Health and Weapon Damage. The idea around this build is to prime enemies with Pull Field, so you can detonate the combo with Warp from either you or another squad mate like Miranda.

Powers¶

This section will go into more detail on why the Powers are chosen for this particular build.

Pull¶

Pull is one of the best disabling powers in the game, and when maxed, it can render multiple enemies helpless. The only negative is that the enemies’ protection will need to be stripped before it can affect them. We take the Pull Field evolution, so it can hit more enemies. This power is best followed up with Warp, Throw, Charge or Warp Ammo for some potent combo damage.

Incendiary Ammo¶

Incendiary Ammo will cause your equipped weapon to cause fire damage, this is especially useful again armored enemies. It also has the chance to panic enemies when they’re being burned, although this only happens on unprotected sentient enemies. We choose the Inferno Ammo evolution as this spreads the effect to multiple enemies, having this and a squad mate with Area Overload is extremely potent.

Cerberus Operative¶

Cerberus Operative is Jacob’s passive skill line, which’ll increase his Health and Weapon Damage. We choose the Cerberus Specialist evolution to increase his Weapon Damage even further, reaching +25% when maxed.

Barrier¶

Barrier is pretty useless for Jacob as he will spend most of his cooldowns using this instead of using Pull. We throw one point into it because we can.

Best Weapons¶

This section will talk about what weapons are best for this particular build. Jacob has access to Shotguns and Heavy Pistols

Shotgun¶

The Geth Plasma Shotgun originally a DLC weapon in the base game can be purchased in Omega in the Legendary Edition.

Although it isn’t the best Shotgun in the game, it works better for squad mates due to the way they use their weapons in the game. With Shotguns they tend to fire from a distance, which is why the Geth Plasma Shotgun is taken. If you’ll micro-manage Jacob, you can opt for a better shotgun.

Or

The M-22 Eviscerator is another one of those originally a DLC weapon, it can be researched as soon as Mordin is recruited in the Legendary Edition.

If you plan on micro-managing Jacob or you leave him at choke points, you can go for the much better M-22 Eviscerator, which shines at close range.

Heavy Pistol¶

The M-5 Phalanx was originally added as DLC in the original Mass Effect 2, in the Legendary Edition, it can be purchased from Ratch, who resides on Tuchanka.

What makes the M-5 Phalanx so effective, is that it’s highly accurate due to its built in laser, and it hits like a truck with 109 base damage. Like most handguns, it’s better to use against enemies with armor, or as a weapon to fall back on if you run out of ammo in your primary.