Miranda - The Battlemage (Sentinel):

For Miranda, I wanted to designate her class as a Warlock type class. Someone on the Fextralife Forums suggested this type of Warlock build for Mass Effect 3. So I adapted it for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, but made some decisions to try to keep it a Battlemage/Warlock type build, while still retaining usefulness on both games.

So I wanted to try to make Miranda a 'magic' like user. We've also changed her weapons to a Assault Rifle/Sniper Rifle and the reason for this is Battlemage's are very offensive oriented. Usually they could wield swords and other weapons, as well as rely on both offensive/defensive magic.

Power 1 (Warp): One of the best powers in the game. It can strip armor, and can allow for biotic combinations to occur. It makes no sense to get rid of this power, so we kept it. Considering biotics are like magic, it fits the class anyways.

Power 2 (Overload): An extremely useful power on Insanity for taking out shields, consider it an electric type power.

Power 3 (Incinerate): A power she had in ME3. You can use it to take out the armor on a group of husks then cast pull field to insta-kill all of them. This also will pair extremely well with anyone who uses Incendiary Ammo in the early blood pack mission on Insanity. It is also by far the most damaging anti-armor ability. Consider it part of her fire magic build for the Warlock class

Power 4 (Cryo Blast): A power that gives her an ice attack for Mass Effect 2 that helps to round up the magic idea or class build.

Power 5 (Singularity): Singularity is an extremely good power in Mass Effect 2 that can damage various protections. It could also be considered a "dark" power for her Warlock build.

Power 6 (Tech Armor): Squad members who rely more on their biotic/tech powers in combat instead of their weapons tend to spend less time shooting. These characters tend to have the lowest health bonuses. Miranda is a character who excels at bringing down defenses but is less adept at crowd control or taking/returning fire than the other squad members. This improves her survivability (her one weakness on Insanity), so she is a much more versatile squadmate.

Consider it her "Magic Armor" that a Battlemage could cast to boost their defenses.

I'd recommend a shared cooldown mod, otherwise Miranda (and every other squadmate with a defensive power) will automatically cast Barrier/Tech Armor/etc. which will prevent you from using their other powers.

This boosts her potential weaknesses on Insanity to make her a much more versatile pick (not that she was a bad pick to begin with considering she's one of the best squadmates to take on Insanity). All of these powers are also tech or biotic type powers, which make it extremely lore friendly to the game/her class.

Miranda now becomes your caster type squadmate, who can still survive some tough situations. Her abilities make her extremely versatile.

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Jacob - The Technomancer (Vanguard -> Sentinel):

The issues with Jacob on insanity are numerous:

• Shotguns/Pistols are a crappy loadout on squadmates as they don’t put enough rounds downrange.
• Alternatives like Samara (Pull + Assault Rifles/Reave) and Grunt (Has a Defensive Power + Assault Rifle)
• His vanilla powers suck
  
  

Jacob is also another Soldier type character in the vanilla game (he has some biotics, but they don’t do much on Insanity). To fix Jacob, we are going to change his class from Vanguard to Sentinel. This also makes sense lore-wise since Jacob is a candidate for the ‘tech expert’ which means he has some tech knowledge

For Jacob, we want him to work in tandem with Miranda. So he has gotten an Assault Rifle (which he used in Mass Effect Galaxy) and a Shotgun. Compared to Miranda, he is more close range-mid range focused with his weapons. It also could be seen as a way for him to have some defense as a 'magic-user' if enemies got too close.

We've made his class a "Technomancer" type class (aka a caster type class of biotics and tech) so that he can work alongside Miranda nicely/compliment her.

Power 1 (Warp): A power that provides armor/barrier stripping which makes him a much more useful candidate on Insanity and makes him a much more reliable pick. Warp now gives Jacob on ability to strip all types of protections, making him a worthwhile pick. It also is a very "magic" like ability.

Power 2 (Pull): Pull is required to get past the prologue, and it has some uses on Insanity especially to bring enemies closer for Jacob to shotgun. Consider it a magic telekinesis type ability.

Power 3 (Incinerate): Incinerate is godly against the early Blood Pack enemies. Combining incinerate + inferno grenade/inferno ammo = Blood Pack Warrior's armor is gone. Then it is all about killing it. This actually makes Jacob a viable pick early on and makes him extremely useful with Miranda since you now have two fire users very early on. It also gives him an active power to use on armored foes (since Pull doesn’t really do much on Insanity with all the barriers) while also providing a crowd control option like Pull (so he still has the ability to provide crowd control support). At least now he has another attack he can use no matter the protection available (previously he only had Pull which was pretty much useless on Insanity).

It also could be considered a "fire" spell for a mage user.

Power 4 (Energy Drain): A power that allows him to strip barrier/shields. It can also be seen as a blood magic or lifestealing power, so it seemed like a good power to give a mage type class.

Power 5 (Combat Drone): A power that helps to take out shields/barriers in Mass Effect 2 and that adds nicely to the Technomancer idea of his class.

Power 6 (Barrier): Jacob’s unique power, and an alternative to Miranda’s Tech Armor, I thought about changing it but this does give him some more survivability on Insanity. It also fits a Sentinel class. Mages also have defensive barriers, so it makes sense to keep it for him.

Jacob now is actually useful and feels like a magic user/caster alongside Miranda. They both have elemental abilities and actually seem like they could work in tandem together/trained together for two years.

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Mordin - The Cryogenicist (Engineer):

For Mordin, I wanted to make him your go to Cryo user/squadmate as I felt that would be a unique position he held. It also makes him very scientific, which matches his skillset as we have seen in game. Thus, I have set up his class as The Cryogenicist which focuses on a bunch of ice abilities.

Power 1 (Cryo Blast): A nice power for crowd control and the likes, it also goes hand-in-hand with his Cryo Ammo ability.

Power 2 (Overload):Gives him a viable method to deal with shields/barriers and overall compensates his kit nicely allowing him to be a very versatile pick early on. Overload is one of the best abilities in the game and it allows for him to deal with armor (Incinerate) and shields/barrier. It also is extremely nice to use against synthetic enemies. This allows him to be much more useful later on in the game by providing nice options to deal with more enemies and he was sorely needing a way to damage shielded enemies.

It also makes sense that he would have knowledge on how to deal with technology since his class focuses on ice-tech now.

Power 3 (Incinerate): Super useful for dealing with armour, and makes him viable early on in Omega missions. I know what you're thinking: "but he's supposed to be an ice powered squadmate!" That is true, but you could argue with his specialization in ice-powers and the likes, he also knows how to counter any other type of ice powered enemy who would try to hurt him. Thus he developed incinerate as a countermeasure against enemies who might have a similar power to his.

Power 4 (AI Hacking): A power that allows him to control AI and technology. It fits his class nicely as someone who would be handling technology all day (a cryogenicist would have a lot of programming knowledge)

Power 5 (Combat Drone): A power that helps to take out shields/barriers and also builds upon him being this technologically savvy companion.

Power 6 (Cryo Ammo): An ammo power that allows a lot of versatility on an insanity run and lets you do a lot of crowd control abilities. It is one of the best ammo powers in the game and it now gives you a unique reason to bring Mordin on a variety of missions.

This upgraded kit allows Mordin to be more versatile in taking out enemies. Overall, this makes him a much better candidate for putting him on the squad in an insanity playthrough. The reason I did not use Tech Armor is because 1. He’s not a Sentinel 2. We have never seen him use this power in the game (ME2/ME3). 3. His class is an engineer, who does not get this ability.

I think building him as a "Cryogenicist" class was nice, and it really made him a unique squadmate among the rest of your squadmates. I wanted him to be very technology focused in this build and I feel like this powerset accomplishes that.

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Garrus - The Aviator (Infiltrator):

For Garrus I wanted to make him your fighter pilot type squadmate, making a lot of his abilities related to that of a fighter pilot. This means he has a lot of firepower/fire-related abilities that allow him to become a foil to Mordin (Mordin focuses a lot on ice, whereas Garrus focuses a lot on fire. A Cryogenicist would be in the lab doing stuff, whereas A Fighter Pilot would be on the front lines).

With all those calibrations, it seemed like a good 'roleplay' type build for him (to be a fighter pilot type class).

Power  1 (Incinerate): A solid power that deals a ton of damage to armor. Some airplanes can fire explosive bullets (also known as high-explosive incendiary or HEI). This seemed like a great ability for him to have within such a designated class.

Power 2 (Overload): An extremely useful power on Insanity for shield stripping. Aviators can engage in electronic warfare so this fits well within his class.

Power 3 (Inferno Grenade): Aircrafts can have grenade launchers equipped to them, and I wanted Garrus to have another great ability to deal with armor. I also wanted a ton of explosions for Garrus' kit (and to make him fire oriented). So this ability seemed like a no brainer.

Power 5 (AI Hacking): Another power that really helps to build out his Aviator class kit. Aviators engage in electronic warfare so this made sense to give him (and gives him another nice power to pair him with Tali).

Power 5 (Fortification): A power that allows Garrus to survive longer, and makes it so Grunt doesn't automatically get a point invested in it after his loyalty mission. Airplanes are also usually fortified against enemy attacks, and Aviators would be in these type of places.

Power 6 (Incendiary Ammo): The best ammo power in Mass Effect 2 and something I felt worked really well with a fire-powered kit. Fighter planes can also have incendiary ammo so it made sense for such a class.

Now Garrus is not only an extremely powerful squadmate on an insanity playthrough but he also has abilities that fit an aviator/fighter pilot type class.

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Jack - The Criminal (Vanguard):

Jack is extremely bad an vanilla insanity, so a lot of her powers were changed/modified to make her better on an Insanity playthrough. I tried to fit Jack's class into a 'criminal' type class while still retaining a usefulness on an insanity playthrough.

I've changed her weapons to an SMG/Shotgun so she is more close-quarter combat oriented (which is how a criminal would behave).

Power 1 (Warp): Warp allows her to do massive damage to armor and barriers. This is very much needed as she’s useless on insanity due to her lack of protection stripping powers. She also had warp in ME3 so it is also very lore-friendly for her to have.

Power 2 (Pull): Jack keeps Pull to give her a bit of a difference from Samara/Jacob/Morinth, while providing her with some utility on Insanity with it's uses (it factors as a crowd control power). You could also argue a criminal would be able to pull off great heists or even pull people into their organization so she can literally pull them into her (which also makes it nice to be able to shotgun them).

Power 3 (Concussive Shot): An okay power on Insanity that has some uses. I like it for a criminal type class as a criminal would be very rough in how they handle people. A criminal also would not be afraid to give someone a concussion.

Power 4 (Flashbang Grenade): A useful power that is one of the best powers in Mass Effect 2. The idea of criminals also having flashbangs makes sense (and she gets a grenade power in Mass Effect 3).

Power 5 (Shockwave): Why keep Shockwave? Shockwave is an awesome interrupter power. It is the single largest range biotic power (even more useful than pull field in terms of potential number of enemies affected). It will stagger all humanoid size enemies even when they're armored or shielded. This can be a lifesaver when stun locked or to give you a chance to get a shield recovery power off or get into cover. This at least makes it have some uses on Insanity where it can save your life.

Also if you're going to be a criminal, you are going to shock a lot of people so it makes sense to keep.

Power 6 (Disruptor Ammo): A power that fixes a major weakness of Jack's on an Insanity run which is she has no way to strip shields/barriers. This gives her a way to do so. A criminal would also need to be able to disable electronics and gadgets so they could get whatever loot they wanted.

This addition to her kit atleast makes her a suitable choice for an insanity playthrough and allows her to become a viable option as she goes from one of the worst squadmates to a solid choice.

I felt like these powers tried to keep a blend of her original powerset, made her useful on an Insanity playthrough, and still fit within her 'criminal' class/archtype that I wanted to kind of dig into.

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Grunt - The Ammo Bearer (Soldier):

An Ammo Bearer is someone who carries a lot of ammo for the squad or even gear. I wanted Grunt to really be focused on a variety of ammo powers, and to be this type of support character who could allow for a variety of ammo-switching on the fly.

Power 1 (Concussive Shot): A soldier power that is okay on Insanity, but provides a way to deal with enemies. With the limited amount of soldier powers it is worth keeping. It can do damage to armor and/or knock down unprotected enemies which gives him some utility when using it.

Power 2 (Flashbang Grenade): Flashbang Grenade has been added to his kit. This provides him a way to deal with enemies and is a good alternative Soldier power for him to take. It also provides another aggressive power for him  to use so you aren't just bored with Concussive Shot. He also had Frag Grenades in ME3, so this is keeping with the lore-friendly option of him having used grenades.

Power 3 (Incendiary Grenade): A useful power to give him, and one of the few powers left to give him with so little soldier powers available.

Power 4 (Incendiary Ammo): The best ammo power in Mass Effect 2 that also allows him to deal with armor.

Power 5 (Disruptor Ammo): Allows for him to deal with shields/barriers. It is one of the other best ammo powers in Mass Effect 2.

Power 6 (Armor-Piercing Ammo): Gives him a unique ammo power and allows for him to have another ammo power that you can choose from (it does more damage than Incendiary Ammo to armor so if an enemy can't be panicked or isn't organic it may be more optimal to use).

All the powers added make Grunt even better, and it stays loyal to his Soldier class. He becomes a character who has x3 ammo powers in the game (which is unique to him). He becomes very similar to Zaeed but I wanted to take away Fortification from him so you don't automatically have a point invested in it after his loyalty mission.

Also some people may not have Zaeed, so I wanted them to be similar so you didn't "lose out" on an ammo ability or flashbang grenade ability if you didn't have Zaeed. This was one of the only options I could do for him as I has very limited abilities to give a Soldier class in Mass Effect 2 sadly.

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Samara - The Pure Adept (Adept):

For Samara, her class is really just "The Adept" (I know, very creative). The problem for Mass Effect 2 is that there are very limited powers especially for a character that can only have one type of ability.

Power 1 (Warp): A staple of any biotic kit, and an extremely good power in Mass Effect 2.

Power 2 (Pull): A power that Samara keeps in ME3, and it has some utility on Insanity.

Power 3 (Reave): One of the best powers in Mass Effect 2, and her loyalty power. It made no sense to get rid of this.

Power 4 (Slam): With few powers left to give a pure biotic character, this was really the only option left.

Power 5 (Throw): A power that is extremely useful on collector missions and is another staple Adept power.

Power 6 (Warp Ammo): A power that provides Samara with an ammo power and provides her with some support utility among the squad. It rounds her out more nicely.

Realistically, Samara has a good weapon kit and good powers. As I said, with the limited amount of powers I had to really keep her selection limited. She really comes off as a "Pure Adept" where all her powers are extremely lore-friendly for an Adept class/character.

Morinth - The Imposter (Adept):

I wanted Morinth to be extremely similar to Samara as her role should be that of The Imposter. She has very few differences as to not raise an alarm that she could not be Samara to the crew.

Power 1 (Warp): A useful power on Insanity that Samara has.

Power 2 (Pull): A power that provides the same usefulness of Samara should you take Morinth instead. It gives her some utility on Collector missions.

Power 3 (Reave): One of the best powers in Mass Effect 2 and that also makes her seem like a legitimate Samara.

Power 4 (Slam): A power Samara now has, and makes Morinth also more legit as an imposter.

Power 5 (Singularity): One power that makes her different from Samara, but that Samara could technically cast as she is powerful enough to do so. So having this power would not raise any alarms to anyone on the team as its a power an Adept would have.

Power 6 (Warp Ammo): Another power Samara has and that provides a nice ammo ability should you want to use it.

These powers work well that you don't lose anything if you take Samara or Morinth, but allows them to still play differently. It also fits the class idea of her being an imposter.

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Tali - The Saboteur (Engineer):

Tali basically was just me trying to keep Engineer powers for her role and trying to keep her somewhat different from Legion while also still making her useful for an Insanity run. This led to the powers below:

Power 1 (Cryo Blast): A nice crowd control power that lets her have some more versatility on Insanity

Power 2 (Energy Drain): Her loyalty power that is an alternative to Overload as it provides shield stripping. It makes it redundant for her to have Overload with this ability.

Power 2 (Incinerate): A tech power which devastates armour for the most part and incinerate  also stops health regen which will get annoying. Incinerate is available to engineer classes so it makes sense for her to have it. Although Mordin has this ability, Tali is very weak in ME2 when it comes to armor and she doesn't serve lot of function for missions that don’t revolve around Geth. This allows her to be a much more suitable pick   for a variety of missions for players who want to bring her along.

Power 4 (AI Hacking): AI Hacking is useful for a fair amount of the second game even though you aren't focused on Geth. Many of the missions against mercs will have mechs supporting them and it is nice to hack them, although obviously it's not completely necessary.

Power 5 (Neural Shock): A power that isn't really great, but she needed a unique power for an Insanity playthrough and it plays to the idea of her being a Saboteur.

Power 6 (Combat Drone): Gives her another way to deal with shields if you don't want to invest in Energy Drain and/or if you just want more options. The Combat Drone in ME2 is also not a damage dealer, but it is a fantastic crowd-control power with the ability to lock down a single target very reliably. Because of how the ME enemy A.I. works, the enemy you spawn it on will focus on the drone almost immediately which takes one enemy out of the fight very quickly.

Basically for Tali, I wanted to make her a class that really focused on sabotage and causing enemies to not be able to function.

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Thane - The Vampire (Adept -> Sentinel):

Although Thane is an assassin and could be considered an Infiltrator most of his powers seem to match up with the Adept class. He has no tech powers at all, and we’ve never seen him really use Tactical Cloak. Not to mention, Shredder Ammo + Throw is almost useless on Insanity because  neither work until all protections are stripped (but at least throw can be used against collectors to throw them off cliffs). This would leave him most likely class as a Vanguard (a mix of soldier skills and biotic skills with his weapon set). However he is also an option for the Tech Specialist role.
To make things simple: the majority of his powers are Adept powers while his weapon kit screams Infiltrator. This makes it extremely hard to know what his intended class is. Let's assume he's a Adept in the vanilla game since he has mostly Adept powers (similar to Samara with having a different weapon kit than normal adepts). However, I decided to change Thane to a Sentinel to be more consistent lore-wise.

I wanted Thane to be built very differently from how I might usually build him. So I wanted him to be a Vampire class, focusing on mind-control, stealing health, and stealth (but still keeping him useful on an Insanity playthrough).

Power 1 (Warp): An amazing power to keep on Insanity. It really made no sense to get rid of this and some vampires in games/mythology can have magic abilities.

Power 2 (Energy): Provides him with a much needed ability to strip shields, doubling his usefulness from the base game and making him an extremely capable squadmate. It also drains them and gives them back to Thane which can be seen as very Vampire-like so it made a lot of sense to give him this ability.

Power 3 (Dominate): Vampires can mind-control, and makes him extremely lethal on Collector missions or missions with organics. Now Thane really should be feared.

Power 4 (Slam): A power that can leave someone crippled (much like how a Vampire can leave someone very tired/fatigued if they drank too much)

Power 5 (Throw): Provides an alternative to Samara/Morinth and is useful on collector missions. You could also argue Vampire's have super strength and could throw people around/very far because of this.

Power 6 (Tactical Cloak): Allows him to blend in/out of the night. An obviously good ability that matches the idea of him being a vampire-like creature. It also was highly requested on his power kit so I wanted to include it.

Thane becomes what I call the "Vampire" squadmate with his power kit working nicely to act like such a creature. I also gave him an SMG and Sniper Rifle as vampires would be deadly in close-quarters combat but also watch their target from a distance before striking.

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Legion - The Mech (Infiltrator):

Like Tali, I mainly wanted on focusing on making Legion good for an Insanity run. So a lot of his powers are less focused on a designated class and more so on making him more useful on an Insanity run. However, since he has Geth Shield Boost and a powerful ammo power I wanted to classify him as a bulky "mech" class.

Power 1 (Overload): A mech could damage other electronics and participate in electronic warfare. Also it is an insanely useful ability in Mass Effect 2.

Power 2 (Incinerate): A power that allows him to take out armored foes, allowing him to be an extremely highly versatile pick among squadmates.

Power 3 (AI Hacking): A way for him to control enemy geth, and a useful power to have. See the above Tali/Garrus section on why it is good.

Power 4 (Combat Drone): A power that adds nicely to his kit and one that made sense to give him.

Power 5 (Geth Shield Boost): An option that allows for Legion to survive longer and to put him on par with soldiers, it's worth keeping since it is unique to him (and gives him a unique role among other Infiltrators or among Engineers who he is competing with).

Power 6 (Disruptor Ammo): A power that allows him to provide squadmates with the abilities to deal with shields + provides himself with a unique ammo power. It is also one of the best ammo powers in the game.

Legion is now much more different than Tali. He becomes way more useful on an Insanity playthrough and a lot of his abilities fit that of a giant mecha or mech. Mechs usually have electronic warfare technology against other mechs and can launch explosives. So these abilities fit him quite nicely for his intended role.

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Kasumi - The Ninja (Infiltrator):

Kasumi basically just becomes our go-to fire ninja. She barely needed any new powers in Mass Effect 2 as she had one of the best kits in the game.

Power 1 (Shadow Strike): One of the best powers in the game, no reason to get rid of it.

Power 2 (Overload): An extremely useful power on Insanity for shield stripping, and it would also make no sense to get rid of it. Modern ninjas would also be able to get past electronics.

Power 3 (Flashbang Grenade): Another amazing power to keep that provides an insane amount of crowd control in Mass Effect 2. Ninjas also would have smoke bombs or other flash type grenades to get away.

Power 4 (AI Hacking): With Kasumi being a ninja, it makes sense she would be able to get past electronic locks and barriers, so this fit her kit nicely.

Power 5 (Tactical Cloak): Now Kasumi is actually a ninja as she can go invisible and become very stealthy.

Power 6 (Incendiary Ammo): Ninjas usually deal with fire weapons/tools or even have fire magic abilities in media. So this is a nice addition to her kit that also gives her the best ammo power in the game.

Realistically, Kasumi didn't need much in the way of upgrades to her kit. She (alongside Miranda) is one of the best squadmates in Mass Effect 2. I could have provided her with AP Ammo (she has it in ME3) but I felt like giving her Incendiary Ammo would make her even more of a potential threat to take on missions in Mass Effect 2.

it also fit the idea of her being a ninja.

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Zaeed - The Mercenary (Soldier): 

Zaeed (like Grunt) has a very limited amount of powers to choose from so his class is just being a mercenary (much like in the original game). I wanted him to be similar to Grunt with a few differences that players weren't punished if they did not have Zaeed in Mass Effect 2.

Power  1 (Concussive Shot): A soldier power that is okay on Insanity, but provides a way to deal with enemies. With the limited amount of soldier powers it is worth keeping.

Power 2 (Carnage): A power that lets him deal with any type of protection on Insanity.

Power 3 (Inferno Grenade): A power that he had originally and really one of the only options for how few Soldier powers there are in Mass Effect 2.

Power 4 (Flashbang Grenade): An extremely useful power on Insanity.

Power 5 (Incendiary Ammo): Provides a way for Zaeed to deal with armor and it is one of the best ammo powers in the game.

Power 6 (Disruptor Ammo): Provides a way for Zaeed to deal with shields and it is one of the best ammo powers in the game.

Zaeed/Grunt play very similarly now with them sharing 4 of their powers (Carnage/AP Ammo being the difference). In the ME3 version of this mod, they'll be much more different but this was the best I could do to keep some unique powers in ME2/ME3 for each squadmate and build them in a really cool and different way.

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I won't go into temp squadmates as much, but I gave Wilson actual powers (so he's actually seen as a threat) and gave Liara an equal amount of powers to your original squadmates.

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