Once More Unto the Breach!

Or, A Young Vanguard's Primer on the Proper Disregard for Personal Safety

The first lesson to properly using Charge is to Upgrade Charge. The ability really feels very weak at low ranks because it's not until you've upgraded it that you get the tools you need to survive its usage. At low levels, Charge is basically a finishing move. You can use it to pick off isolated foes who have cut themselves off from their allies, or to reposition Shepard into a new strategic spot from which to take cover. Both of those are very good ways to use Charge throughout the game, but it's not until you've picked up a couple of ranks that you can use Charge with abandon. In particular, Rank 2, which reduces the recharge time by 25%, and Rank 6, which gives Charge a 25% chance to not trigger a cooldown, or adds a substantial boost to your shields after charging are really really important.

The second lesson to properly using Charge is, like Alec Baldwin says, to A. B. C. Always Be Charging. If Charge isn't on cooldown, and you aren't in cover, you're dead. If Charge is on cooldown, it's because you've just charged, which reset your shields to full and knocked whatever you charged at into the air. Your goal, in the time between Charging and the cooldown on Charge ending, is to kill whatever you charged at, and then either get to cover, or pick a new target to Charge at. This is where upgrading to Rank 2 comes in, as does managing your weight capacity. Travel light to minimize your power recharge time. As a Vanguard, you'll primarily be relying on your Biotic Powers, your Melee attacks, and a trusty Shotgun - don't bother trying to haul around an Assault or Sniper Rifle, and you could make a convincing case for even skipping an SMG or Pistol once you get the hang of things - who needs more ways to shoot things when you can ram your fist into their face at the speed of sound?

The third lesson to properly using Charge is Pick Your Targets. As noted above, early on, you'll primarily want to use Charge on three types of targets: Enemies occupying strong defensive positions that you would rather have for yourself; Enemies that have cut themselves off from their allies and whom you can pick off while your squad mates keep their friends busy; and the last few enemies from a large group once you've thinned their ranks a bit. As you get better at Charging, you'll learn to spot enemies standing on the 'wrong' side of cover which you can use while waiting on your Charge cooldown, as well as which enemies can be killed within the stagger of a well placed Charge->Nova->Melee or Charge->Shotgun to the Face combo.

The fourth lesson to getting the most out of getting up in your opponents' faces is Combine Your Powers. Like the Planeteers, you are at your best when your squad uses their powers to support you. A well placed Singularity from Liara can present you with a field of unwitting chumps to Charge into and punch repeatedly into submission. A properly timed Sabotage can leave a clump of Synthetic foes fighting amongst themselves while you wreak havoc. Other squadmates can send out Decoys or Combat Drones that can draw fire while you Charge in. The longer it takes your opponents to realize that you are what they need to be shooting at, the less time they will spend shooting you before Charge comes off cooldown and you can recharge your shields.

The fifth lesson is Detonate! Charge is a universal Detonator. What does that mean? That means that if you can land a killing blow with Charge on a target suffering from any debuff, it will cause an explosion doing massive damage to nearby enemies. Better yet, if you do it to a frozen foe, or one that's on fire, you'll cause everyone nearby to freeze or catch fire. And when a Cerberus Merc is on fire, he isn't shooting at you. When a Geth Trooper is frozen, he'll shatter from the next shot he takes. Charging into a target stunned by Overload or Disruptor ammo will do large amounts of damage to other shielded foes in the area. Comboing with other biotic and tech powers is particularly handy for two reasons; first off, Biotic + Biotic and Biotic + Tech combos don't need to be a killing blow to detonate. Even better, as a Vanguard, you can invest one talent point into Pull to start the chain reaction yourself, meaning you don't even need to rely on your squad. Still, don't rule out the value of Cryo and Fire explosions - the former is quite easy to set up yourself thanks to Cryo Ammo. Better yet, take the Squad Ammo upgrade, and let your allies set up Cryo explosions for you. Every frozen opponent you kill with charge will freeze all of it's allies nearby!

The sixth lesson is Get in Fast. One of the biggest disadvantages of Charge is that it sends you right into the enemies face, all the way on the opposite side of the battlefield. Unfortunately, if they've fortified themselves, taken cover, and spread out, getting in one bad dudes face means there's probably six others taking potshots at your back. But!, One of the biggest advantages of Charge is that it sends you right into the enemies face, all the way on the opposite side of the battlefield. And if you do it before they have a chance to take cover, you can wreak havoc. Groups of AI enemies do tend to start out with a 'plan' - the game tends to give them pretty good defensive positions to work with, and the AI knows about them. But no plan survives contact with the enemy, and what is Charge but very forceful contact with the enemy? Combined with a well placed primer like Singularity or Overload from an ally, you can hit an entire squad of opponents as they come down from a dropship or in a narrow chokepoint before they reach cover. This is devastating.

The final lesson you need to learn with Charge is to Finish What You Start. Very few foes should be able to survive a Charge combo. If most of your foes are surviving it, you should probably work on softening them up a bit more from range before Charging in. Whether you prefer to follow up your Charges with Shotgun blasts, Melee attacks, or Biotic Powers (particularly Nova) is up to you, and will determine how you upgrade the power, but the key is that after Charging at an opponent (or group of opponents), you should have a plan in place to dispose of them or get to safety after having done your damage. I find it's really helpful to slam on the Shift key just as my Charge makes impact to take a moment to aim, assess my available targets and cover opportunities, and plan my next few seconds of action until Charge comes off cooldown again.

Beyond that, it's really just a matter of practice, levelling up for more Charge upgrades, and buying whatever passive defense upgrades - particularly to shield strength - you can get your hands on. The stronger your barrier, the stronger your Novas, and the longer you'll last between Charges, so anything that improves Shepard's Shields is a very good investment for a Vanguard.

Me soloing Bronze as a Human infiltrator, all my points in everything but cryo blast, using Black widow and M-3 Predator. I used no equipment but had to use medi-gels and rockets becuase lucky me had 3 hacking missions on my solo..sigh

There are many factors that would come into play that will assist you in completeing a Bronze mission solo:

• Being level ~20 is going to be almost necessary as you are gonna need every available power upgraded as much as possible to give you the advantages you will need.
• The right weapons per your class that you use and the know how when it comes to using your powers.
• Playing a map you are definately familiar with, making sure you know all the ammo locations and every important choke point on the map so you can grab ammo without delay as you move to the next choking point to funnel the enemies through.
• Not being afraid to use your rockets and medi-gels as well as making sure you dont waste them unecessarily, saving your rockets for the 10th and 11th waves where you will find yourself overwhelmed by heavy units and really no way to retreat.
• Plan ahead, dont run around finding a good spot to setup shop. Have a plan, when you feel like you are being make sure you know where you are going next and what path to take to avoid enemies.
• Never be without ammo, having to rely on powers works for a lot of classes but have no ammo can be deadly.
• Know the class you are playing, there is nothing more deadly then playing a character you only have the basic grasp of.
• Fight against the enemy your class has advantages against, i.e. dont bring Sabotage to a Reaper fight.

Adept: Crowd control from stasis (make sure you get Rank 6:Bubble) or singularity and a little bit of combination from warp you will have a serious advantage over a multitude of solders. Using warp and throw in combination on units such as Ravagers, Brutes, Banshees, Atlas', and Geth Primes to create a biotic explosion and you will tear through their armored health. if you use the weapons M-12 locust with the mod SMG Ultralight Material and the M-3 Predator the weight of the weapons will not affect your power recharge percentage allowing you the ability to lay down some fire on the little guys.

Infiltrator: Having a semi-automatic sniper rifle is desirable in this case, allowing you to headshot multiple enemies and thinning the crowds. Make sure that your tactical cloak is specced Rank 4 damage Increase damage bonus by 30%, Rank 5 Recharge Speed Increase recharge speed by 30%, Rank 6 Sniper Damage Increase sniper rifle damage by 40% while cloaked. As well as speccing into sheilds and health bonuses. bringing along a light pistol will come in handy for close quarters as you race to each position, putting distance between your enemies.

Vanguard: Vanguards obviously rely completely on their powers to inflict massive damage to their enemies. Ultimately this character is incredible powerful but extremely risky when you are alone and dont have allies to lay down covering fire. I would suggest constantly having caution and never stay out of cover for more then a couple hits before rushing to safety. Dont be afraid to fire a couple quick headshots to remove a couple of the stray buggers that get back up after your wave of destruction.

Engineer: Another power class that only excels with constant casting of powers. stay behind cover while always having your drone/turret/decoy up to distract them from firing upon you as you launch power after power into the crowds. Make sure you have a high power recharge and only carry light weapons as you will not be needing them extensively. Keeping in mind all the strategy tips i mentioned before you shall survive.

Sentinal: These guys are great at surviving and have an amazing panic button when you get surrounded. Have your tech armor upgraded to increase damage reduction so you can continuously lay down heavy fire on your enemies so they dont get the upper hand on you. These guys you dont have to worry so much about power recharge so you get to pick any number of weapon combinations to keep up the heavy damage.

Soldier: An incredibly versatile character with a decent survivability. The races for soldiers are incredibly different from eachother and obviously have their advantages. Krogans have increased defensive capabilites and Turians have increased fire rate. Use whatever weapons you are comfortable with and you will be fine.

little update for you, I found a couple videos for you they completed bronze solo. sentinals , vanguards , Engineers and Infiltrator