Screenshots/videos

The playstyle I've adopted is to run around the map like mad with the Acolyte charged, pick a "safe" mook or also Phantom or Ravager, hit the target with the Acolyte shot, and activate Poison Strike once the target's shield/barrier is down. Hopefully, the Incendiary Ammo proc'd on the target for a Fire Explosion. If not, hopefully the Acolyte stunned the target or triggered some animation. If neither happened, Poison Strike will still paralyze (knock prone) enemies that were down to their health. If none of that happened and you had a bad engage, you can still dodge-teleport or heavy melee-teleport away if you can't wait for your cooldown. You can also seek brief cover (soft or hard) while your cooldown finishes to then activate Biotic Focus, for the instant barrier panic button, and while you're regrouping, ready your Acolyte, and plan how to go back into the fray.

Nightshade Blades has been an afterthought or third option when I don't want to Poison Strike or Acolyte an enemy but also don't want to bother pulling out the CSMG. I've been instructed to use Nightshade Blades on tight clusters of enemies, like downstairs in Glacier, but I'm usually too focused on planning a Poison Strike engage to do that. An optional power for how I've been playing the class.

Biotic Focus is pretty nifty with its damage reduction and movement speed bonus on a class that is already fast and has lots of barrier. "You should always have it on", to the best of your ability. The only time you shouldn't use it is as you're rushing up to a target to "pre-buff" yourself for the fight because you will likely reach the target before your cooldown is finished to activate Poison Strike, so you'd be stuck waiting and lose the initiative from blitzing your target. In that dead time, you're just asking for a melee, burst fire, salvo, or immolation. To pre-buff, use it between fights when you haven't picked out your next target or don't have an enemy on your screen. And there's also the panic button use as mentioned before.

Geth Scanner is very important for planning out engages. Cyclonic on top of all the other survivability options makes the Cabal very difficult to kill, but for that reason it could be considered optional. The Acolyte's magazine upgrade could also be considered optional. Power Amp and Power Magnifier would probably be the substitutions. Level III consumables (or less) can be used for Gold.

It's very important to understand that, while this build has great survivability, it takes a while to kill most enemies with straight damage, and doing so is a very involved process. I recommend against attacking Brutes or tankier enemies solo. Either help your teammates or seek out weaker, isolated targets.