Human adepts?

I've just started leveling one of them up after getting it to X to start with 24 points. They get the Fitness Evo 6 trait of auto recharging shields on low health, which is already a huge advantage to survivability (and maybe the best Fitness passive in the game). Take the debuff of 20 percent extra damage from the weapon/power tree, and you've got a solid weapon user as well when you've got Singularity out.

I'm looking forward to maxxing Pull on the other Human Adept and giving it a try though. My first one is going with Singularity and Shockwave instead.

What exactly do you get for raising a character's ranking? (I to II, and so on)

In ME3 it was just armor color options.

Skill points. Pretty much 1/4 of what was in ME3 is now locked behind cards.

It scores well and you get a ton of assist points with three primers (if you spec shockwave to prime which I suggest since biotic damage is pitiful and 50% more against armor isn't noticeable.). I'd leave Pull at one point personally the shield strip skill is like half a shield on Silver IIRC and maxing pull means you lose out on one of the passives and both are really good. It's a supportive kit at least until biotic detonations are buffed. Singularity is really really good and carries the kit. Shockwave is okay and Pull does its job with just one point. I'd use an SMG and an ammo power of your choice (I prefer inferno or disruptor depending on enemies) to quickly prime enemies for detonations via ammo power, so you can save Singularity for chokepoints/bosses. 

I use her pretty frequently, she is great at crowd control honestly skipping pull on her entirely is the best way to go. Singularity is such a good power and the explosion does noticeable damage. Also each enemy caught in singularity is primed for individual explosions and shockwave can hit multiple enemies, so it has good synergy. Pull is great for clearing out the final mooks of the wave or pulling pesky grunts out of cover. She shines in doorways and wherever enemies are funneled.

Well, when (biotic) powers don't deal much damage you have to figure out something else to kill stuff. Not that there is a lot to figure out, most weapons are utter crap so all that's left is melee and a handful of guns (assuming you have had more luck than I had with the RNG demons and actually have one of them).

I'd much rather play a designated biotic, but if it takes multiple (maxed out) biotic combos to kill a single mook you know there is something terribly wrong with the way they balanced the game.