Bonus power evo of cloak doesnt work

No, it would be an even bigger waste of my time than this discussion, as he's using a build and weapons that I hate with a passion, so his views on the Shadow are irrelevant to me. There's nothing more I need to learn about her at this stage as I know what I like. I know it works, up to and including soloing Gold easily, and am amused by your insistence that it doesn't. 

Who's being a hater now?

By win I mean not only by score (cos that's a given), but also by being more useful in nearly everything.

1. She can stick with the team all the time if need be and be effective while doing so. She will not die as often as SS Shadow and will not waste as many Ops packs, that means the teammates won't have to rez her and go through half the map to pick her up. 

2. She's way better at hacks or escorts or at covering people who are doing objectives (if they got there quicker than you could) because she can engage the enemies at a distance. 3 goons will not start Smashing your ass because 2 of them got their heads blown off 2 seconds after spawning and the third has 2 bars of armor left, before he reaches the hack/escort. You know what I'm saying? You will pick off Hunters and Pyros and Bombers and Seeker swarms before they get into their range. You will take out Ravagers before they become a problem. And if some Phantom slips through, then you can SS her. 

3. Sniper Shadow is way better at handling bosses. Not only at killing them, but at making them stop advancing. Shoot an Atlas in the crotch a few times with a Sniper and it will stagger as plates come off, shoot the Praetorian in the mouth to make it flip. Shoot the Prime in head to make it squeal, shoot the Banshee to make her stop teleporting. Which means they are not advancing as fast and do not overwhelm you at once. They do not block escape routes.  And if you don't kill them, you soften them up for teammates to finish off. 

4. You will not fuck up spawns. When I play Platinum with PUGS - 3 of them often stick together. I dunno, cos of fear or because it's easier or if one of them goes down, the other is right there, whatever the case may be, they stick around. And if I'm SS'ing stuff on my own to the side or on the other side of the map, it will screw up spawns for them AND for me. Then enemies are scattered all over the place, it turns into a clusterfuck. I'm not saying that I like to do FBW camping, far from it. But some control over spawns is necessary. 

That leaves two possibilities:

1 - No, you haven't.

2 - Despite such experience, you still demonstrably lack understanding of how the kit works every time you attempt to describe it.

Good points, well made. As you've raised the discussion threshold to Plat I must bow before your superior knowledge. I've used my build quite successfully in Plat, but have been more cautious than I would like.

Back in the real world in Gold pugs, however, I pretty much disagree, primarily for the reason you originally claimed - variety. What you've described is imo an inferior version of every other Infiltrator. Do we really need another one of those? If you indulge me for a moment and imagine that David Carradine has been resurrected, what I'm advocating is a unique character and playstyle - a true ninja, and the way I believe she should be played, given her sword. The idea that she is less effective that way comes from the dogmatic fundamental obsession regarding MOAR DAMAGE, and makes you fail to see that clever damage is at least its equal. If I was welded to Damage Cloak I would undoubtedly use a Sniper build as well, because it would make absolute sense, but thankfully I discovered the mathematical perfection (on Gold at least) of the build I posted earlier. I enjoy it immensely. It bothers me not one iota if I don't top the scoreboard, but I know that with one other decent player alongside me the game will be smooth and quick.

In short: it works, and it's beautiful. I almost feel like the Illusive Man, wishing you could see what I see.... 

I think you've got me wrong, Gruntkitterhand. What I'm saying is that if you do drop Shield Drain for Damage in The SS tree, then you're gonna have problems with striking a Cerberus Turret because should you do-so you'll be left weakened to the point where a nasty look from another enemy will quickly finish you.

My preference - handy as the extra 50% Damage evolution is -  is nowadays to take Shield Drain. And I don't bother with shield-boosting Gear: I like to take the Geth Scanner (cos enhanced tactical awareness is IMO helpful to the Shadow's progress), a Strength Enhancer and Shield Power Cells. I put pity points (taken from the last evolution in her passives) into the first three ranks of Electric Slash, not that I use it much, if at all, in Gold.

By the by, I don't take my N7 Shadow above Gold.

I use Paladin/Hurricane. But the Hurricane is used as an ULM sidearm (with power damage mod) and is essentially for Atlases, Praetorians and Ravagers. Banshees are pretty easy to Shadow Strike safely.

Paladin gets melee stunner (one of the most under-appreciated mods) and Power Damage. Both bonuses apply to Shadow Strike, and of course ES benefits from the power damage bonus, as well. Melee stunner turns pretty much all kits' light melee attack into an infinite-cycle stunlock attack that works on any humanoid unit, and makes for a great get-out-of-jail card answer for Marauder/Hunter elbows.

Ammo is Armour Piercing IV, which is required because of all the mods being dedicated to power/melee.

Weapon is Strength III.

Armour Mod is Power Damage IV (this is a big one for ES and Shadow Strike.)

Gear is Hydraulics.

The philosophy there is to maximize melee and power damage in a way that frees up the build to be more versatile. With the 50% damage bonus for sword kills (I was wrong about it being 75% earlier) applying to Shadow Strike, it is somewhat important to mix sword kills in regularly to keep all the bonuses in play (but not difficult once you're used to it.)

Most of the time I'm running with the Paladin, but I don't spend much time shooting it. It's important to have it in my hands most of the time because the Hurricane only returns a power damage bonus. The rare occasions where I need it I'm only shooting once or twice to finish off an enemy between cycling power and melee attacks. I pick the Paladin mostly to maximize ranged single-shot damage. Anything closer than mid-range is operating in my melee/power range, and using a gun typically just slows down the time it takes to kill things in that range.

63656

TC 4A 5B and 6A, which is no surprise, obviously.
ES benefits from Power damage IV and both weapons' PD mod, making it quite beefy for a three-rank ability.
SS 4A 5A and 6B
Power damage bonuses in the N7 Tree (helps ES and SS)
Fitness 4A and 5A obviously. For Rank 6 I take armour damage, because I tend to use shielded enemies as a way to recover shields while in cloak, if necessary.

For melee attacks and ES, I tend to cloak a second or two before I attack, because it allows for better positioning to maximize damage (or minimize being in a bad situation afterwards.)

The build and loadout essentially minimizes everything's cooldown, giving a 3-second cd for TC even if full duration expires. That actually allows the build to maintain TC damage bonus through virtually every possible combination. I could theoretically spend as little as 3 seconds uncloaked out of every 5 enemy targeting cycles (about 15 seconds) but I try not to do that just to avoid constantly dumping aggro on my teammates. I cancel TC after a second or two if I don't have a target. Unless I'm in the middle of enemies, in which case, you're on yer own, pugs!

Everything might arguably work better with an Acolyte, but I've been using the Paladin for 5 years, and it would be like losing a limb to try and play her without it.

Generally, I run around like a chicken with its head cut off charging into enemies and chopping them to bits. 4 out of 5 times, I get away with it. 1 out of 5 times, I use an ops pack. About half the time, the ops pack works. I usually run out by Wave 6.


Edit: I think I got an invite from Distigious Forest while I was typing that up, but I was too distracted by what I was doing to answer before it disappeared! :o

Crusader is best sniper anyway. AF Magazine gave it 10 AFs!


With the Crusader, the Shadow can do it all. OHK melees/SSes (on Gold) or soften targets first with Crusader, and you can spec for weapon damage and ES up to 4. Crusader's weight doesn't hurt cooldowns if you always cloak right before attacking with whatever. When I bring the Shadow, I usually try for 50 melee kills--not in the linked video, of course, which was another animal--and if I have any time left I try to squeeze in 20 headshots during the final waves. Choosing to melee is gimping yourself with the Crusader's DPS, so you can always fall back to it if the melee approach is going badly. Also, you don't need to fight snipers' unnecessary zoom and reduced FoV/awareness. Really, the Crusader probably qualifies as "OP", but it makes this class work so whatever.

I would bring this build to Gold. I found that I die suicide less with Geth Scanner and Cyclonic, even though I would rather bring Berserker and Adrenaline.

Why are people talking about meleeing/SSing Cerberus Turrets? lol. That's something you do when you're desperate. Don't plan your builds around corner cases, unless that's something life-saving like Phantom/Dragoon force stagger. What even. The problem with SS is aggro can lock enemies onto you in an instant, so every SS comes with a chance that you will get hit or die. Better to run up to enemies and heavy melee them. Avoid approaching them from the front if possible, and don't SS enemies if you would decloak in front of them (i.e., they are looking away) or when you know they are already aggro'd to you. Disassemble groups of enemies by picking off the most exposed mooks on the perimeter first and keep shaving away at the pack in the same fashion. Calculate if heavy melee is enough to OHK or if SS should be worked in.

SS is a good gap-closer/initiator/escape/stomp-rescue power. I like teleporting out of the occasional jam I find myself in. Why run past or fight through a boss and company when you can just SS to that mook in cover on the other side of the death zone? You can also SS charging Brutes and Dragoons for a free hit and maybe a stylish kill, and the same for Banshees that are teleporting toward someone else. Great for taking out enemies, especially Dragoons and Phantoms, that are flushing your teammates out of the pocket. In those situations, merely "stunning" the enemy with your animation gives even borderline competent teammates enough time to finish the enemy off. Cloak's second power and power duration evolutions are absolutely not required, although they are helpful. You just need to avoid SSing into bad situations, which will probably happen at least a few times every match if you really use SS no matter how good you are. Still, most bad teleports can be avoided with forethought and Geth Scanner's instant awareness.

ES is a nice option to have for softening or slowing groups of enemies and for conserving Crusader's ammo. Occasionally, it's preferable to your other options, but not often. Decent if you want to hold ground, reveal cloaked enemies when you don't have Geth Scanner, or damage enemies through geometry thicker than your penetration. Ideally, ES softens up a group of mooks and Crusader finishes them all off with one four-shot clip.

I've written fanfics about an N7 Shadow that kissed a tiny green frog then afterwards it turned into a big green frog

The targeting cycle is three seconds, yes, but that's when they select a target. They "peek behind the curtain" when they have been unable to select a target for multiple targeting cycles. You're confusing two separate mechanics.

If they actually "peeked behind the curtain" every three seconds Tactical Cloak would have virtually no effect at all, defensively.

They do, yes, but if you watch them, they take two targeting cycles to find you. A husk for example, you can actually see that it will stop for three seconds, then start running again. That's because it has to go through more than one targeting cycle before it can "peek behind the curtain."

Edit: No, I am wrong. I just played a quick solo and a husk followed me with no difficulty for several targeting cycles in a row. I apologize, I hadn't solo'd in a long time and if they have no other target, they will just cycle right back to you, apparently.