What does Fortification do?

This power is a bonus power from importing a Soldier from ME2.

The description is as follows:

Reinforce armor using protective Foucault currents. Purge the current and send its charge to your gauntlets for increased melee damage.

Slow down power use.

Not entirely sure what this power is doing. It is an active ability (akin to ammo mods) but it seems when I use Adrenaline Rush, it does not do anything at all. Melee damage seems to be the same to me as well.

Anyone have a comprehensive idea what this power is actually supposed to be doing and how to effectively use it?

3 Answers

Fortification is, as the wiki describes, an alternative Barrier skill that gives an Armor bonus.

Fortification reinforces armor with a non-Newtonian fluid that hardens when struck, providing a brief, huge bonus. Reinforce armor using protective Foucault currents.
Purge the current and send its charge to your gauntlets for increase melee damage.

• Slows power usage by 60%.
• Damage Reduction: 15%
• Melee Damage Bonus: 50%
• Melee Damage Duration: 20 sec

You can see the Power Ranks for Fortification at the Wiki too.

3

Fortification and Tech Armor are similar powers - both have a 2-stage activation.

When you first activate the power, you gain the defensive bonuses. This allows you to charge an enemy position. Once you've gotten into melee range, you can press the button again to (in Fortification's case) channel the power of the defensive bonus into a melee bonus.

The drawback of having the defensive bonus is that your power cooldowns will be increased. This is to keep you from just leaving the barrier up continuously.

Tech Armor has similar effects, except that unlike Fortification's melee bonus, Tech Armor detonates a small shockwave around you when you set it off instead.

2

It probably makes it so you don't get hurt as much.