Which Javelin You Should Choose First in Anthem
Towards the beginning of Anthem you’re faced with a very Pokemon-like choice. You have a choice of four Javelins to pick from to be your first “main.” You can only have one at the start, so which Javelin should you choose? There’s no wrong answer, but allow us to help you make an informed decision.
First, it’s very important that you know that you’ll eventually unlock all the suits through the course of the game. This isn’t like Destiny where you have to start a whole new character to play as a different class, or Pokemon where the ones you didn’t choose are gone forever.
Once you’re a high enough level, you’ll be able to switch suits out to your heart’s content. Still, you’re probably going to feel extra attached to this first choice, and might end up sticking with it anyway since you’re playing with it through your formative levels AKA the early part of the game where you’re still learning the ropes.
Here’s a quick and dirty explanation of each suit, and how they fit into the paradigm of traditional party member roles so you can help yourself figure out which javelin you should choose.
Colossus
The Colossus is your “tank” class in Anthem. It’s heavily armored, comes with a riot shield, and its abilities are designed for you to get up close and personal with your enemies.
It has very high damage potential as long as you’re comfortable navigating the front lines of a fight, and with support abilities that encourage you to draw enemy fire to yourself instead of your teammates, you’ll be helping your more fragile teammates survive and do their thing.
The main drawback of the Colossus is that it’s a lot slower than the other Javelin suits, and if you have a hard time with surviving when the enemies are right in your face, it can be a difficult class to play. If you like taking advantage of speed and flying around in combat, the Colossus doesn’t really excel here.
You’ll need to keep enemies in front of you to make use of the shield properly and do your best to mix in your powerful short-range attacks.
Interceptor
The Interceptor is your traditional “assassin” class in Anthem. In other words, it’s the high-risk, high-reward damage dealing Javelin.
Unlike the slow, powerful movements of the Colossus, as an Interceptor you can zip into combat and slice and dice through enemies with extreme quickness non-stop.
By design, you should be using your speed to fly into the action, hit enemies up with high-damage abilities souped up ninja stars, bombs, and other gadgets and then zooming back out of danger when it gets too dicey.
If being a mech ninja sounds appealing to you, and you’re careful about not sticking around in an area for too long after you’ve worn out your welcome, then you can probably be a pretty good Interceptor in Anthem.
Ranger
The Ranger is kind of your jack of all trades Javelin suit and probably best fits into a “Soldier” archetype. If you don’t want to be constricted to a specific playstyle and want to be able to do a little bit of everything well, the Ranger is a solid choice.
That isn’t to say though that the Ranger lacks an identity, however. It’s the best Javelin suit for people that like stay within medium range, use their weapons, and take advantage of a lot of powerful, but safe mid-range abilities such as grenades and missiles.
It’s not as quick as the Interceptor, but it’s not slow like the Colossus either, and it also has an Ultimate that allows it drop a missile barrage from the sky covering a large swath of the battlefield.
Storm
The Storm is very obviously designed to be as close to a “Mage” class as you can get in a world of flying mechs. The Storm Javelin is all about using elemental attacks and helping to trigger combination blasts which will add damage.
Also, these elemental attacks can have devastating additional effects. For example, frost abilities can freeze in place, setting them up for a Colossus to barge through. Fire attacks can burn, dealing additional damage over time, and Lightning blasts can hit multiple enemies at once.
However, Storm is vulnerable and defensively lacking compared to the other classes. To be an effective Storm player you’ll want to make sure you’re coordinating with your team so you’re probably using primers and detonators the right way and making use of proper additional effects from your attacks. See our guide for a detailed explanation of the combo system.
Hopefully, that gives you a clearer picture of which Javelin you should choose in Anthem. For more tips, tricks, and helpful guides such as how to customize your Javelin once you’ve selected one, be sure to check out our wiki guide for Anthem, chock full of all that good stuff.
