Melee Shadow help

Sihmm, I'm sure you know this, but Shadow is just too slow and too vulnerable in her Shadow Strike animation. Plus if you take that Duration Cloak - you're gimping your weapon and sword damage.

The enemies can often see you coming (and no - cloaking out of sight explanation doesn't cut it, don't give me that, the enemies still "peek" through)

Ravagers will puke on you instantly on arrival, the Banshees will scream, Atlas rockets will follow you in SS. It's a disaster.

So I don't use the SS Shadow anymore. I respecced to sniper and use a Valiant on her. This way I can take Damage Cloak and still use SS to relocate and kill Phantoms in one hit (at least on Gold)

Build (of course the BW is better)

So yeah, sorry, but I can't really help you as in my experience the melee, Shadow Striking Shadow simply doesn't work really effectively or efficiently (and I was expecting for this class the most when Earth DLC came out)

Normally I run my melee Shadow with the Crusader (because omni-blade for melee and pinpoint accuracy for long range), but since the problem is specifically Hazard Glacier you might as well go with the Claymore - you still get the omni-blade, and the pellet spread is great for the small map with narrow hallways.  Both guns are heavy, but lolCloak.

lolduration

Since it's a tech power, sabotage makes SS completely bonkers. I've used the QFI with a melee/SS focused N7 Shadow in the group and it obliterated everything. It would take a banshee to about 2/3 to 3/4 armor from full barrier/armor. It was one of the easiest matches ever as there was a flamer character in the group too.

I will explain why I don't like melee Shadow Strike build:

1. You have to sacrifice too much:

a. If you take duration cloak, your weapon damage AND SS/melee damage will suffer greatly.
b. if you take shotgun omni-blade or pistol stunner mod - you lose on a mod slot, so your weapon damage/accuracy/capacity/piercing will suffer even more
c. If you take Martial Artist - no shield regen or speed for you and you want to be tanky/fast
d. You want to have Geth Scanner equipped to see potential dangers when SS'ing. That means no extra damage/survivability or melee damage for you from something like Juggernaut Shield
e. You pretty much have to take Cyclonic modulator, because you're extra squishy and many things can go wrong - so no Adrenaline mod/Power damage for you.
f. You have to take Strength Enhancer mod - so EVEN less weapon damage for you

2. Enemies know and "peek" trough cloak to where you are an melee you out of cloak, puke on you, track you with missiles and etc

a. SS is too slow. if you have a teammate with say a Harrier - he will mow down 3 enemies before you SS 1.
b. If someone triggers Phantom bubble, Banshee block - you do no damage to them and end up in a position near a dangerous enemy that can kill you. If someone triggers Phantom dodge - you will do only a fraction of the damage - and you're in position to be palmed blasted/synced. If someone targets the same enemy you're about to SS - he will most likely kill it before you arrive - thus you will be slashing at air, no shield restore and you just wasted your time.
c. Can't SS Atlases that would be walking batteries for you.
d. Targeting is finicky and you often may SS to a target you don't want to be anywhere near. You will often SS Prime Drones/Turrets when you wanted to SS the Prime.
e. The damage of SS to armor is not that great and isn't worth the risk most of the time as weapons simply do more and faster
f. SS doesn't detonate anything and a shitty tech-burst isn't worth it.

Now compare it to Sniper Shadow - you slap a sniper on , take damage cloak, take sniper damage and shoot. You can take Geth Scanner, you can now take Adrenaline mod, because sniping will be the biggest source of your damage. Now you can take shield regen/speed in Fitness tree and you can still use SS from time to time for relocation, to kill those pesky Nemesis that you don't want to snipe and so on. You can also have all the damage/piercing mods on your sniper rifle. You can take all the damage consumables to supplement it too.

And you generally kill MUCH faster and safer. And you can be of use when in hacks/escorts/large maps.

^ The shotgun doesn't benefit from Shadow's cloak tree. Now if she had SexBot's cloak

One final point.

If you die after SS, you are likely to die in a shitstorm and most likely get gunned down again/synced after getting up. And your teammates will have trouble reaching you. When you die as a sniper - chances are you will be able to get up/revived and get away, because there was distance between you and the enemy.

^ I agree, but Sihmm is mainly talking about Platinum.

It's not only shield recharge - it's also 10% extra speed which helps ALL THE TIME. SS speed bonus only works after you de-cloak, so if you take duration cloak, you will only get the speed boost after the second SS. 

And  to go into hard cover, cloak out of LOS and then SS a single target while your teammate is some Turricane mowing enemies down like weed   Also, if you solo or if you're left to solo a round when everyone is dead - the enemy will "peek" trough your cloak to know where you are. So they will melee you in SS, stagger you and some dumbass trooper will down you with a half-burst of his Hornet. 

They don't hear you approaching. It's because in game you are instantly transported next to them WHILE you watch SS animation. So in actuality you were standing next to an enemy for a good second, before you "see" it. Spectate some Shadows or Vanguards and you'll see what I mean. You'll see the camera instantly cutting to the enemy when a Vanguard performs a Charge.

Thanks for the input so far everyone, plenty of food for thought and some new stuff to try.

@ Darth Volus - your objections to a melee Shadow are fair, but of course (as Ronik82 said) I'm not so much interested in efficiency as I am in fun. As you say, in concept the melee Shadow is a great character, and that's why I've always wanted to make her work.

Years back when I did my old guide videos (don't laugh, I was l33t back then OK?), I managed to develop a playstyle which makes her useful even on Platinum with my current build and loadout - the folks I used to play with loved having her on their team because they'd generally take boss-killing kits while the shadow flickered around killing all the mooks, unrestricted by where they were on the level.

I also found this video of someone soloing Platinum with her using a very similar build to me. Interestingly he keeps the Duration/Bonus Power cloak and gets the extra damage needed to one-shot Platinum Phantoms from the Shotgun Omni-Blade plus the damage evo in SS 6a, and, I suspect the shield damage evo in Sword Mastery 6a. So she's clearly viable on Platinum. The real issue is whether your teammates kill everything before you can Shadow Strike it

(Although just to confuse matters, in my OP I was really thinking of Gold, given that anything which improved her on Gold would also be an improvement on Platinum.)

So I've been pondering what's been said and doing some theorycrafting. I've found that, using the Acolyte charge strategy to deal with shields, you can actually get away with very little melee damage boosts on her and still kill even a Platinum-level Phantom. This incomplete build is enough to do it, despite taking very few melee/power damage boosts. (The DoT on SS 5a is what finishes her off.)

All out Shadow Strike one-shots for Platinum-level Phantoms, as seen in the video above, require something much more limiting like this. (Again it's the SS 5a DoT that finishes her off.) This is pretty much the maximum melee damage she can do.

My old build tried to max out melee damage even against things like Brutes and Banshees - it's very satisfying slashing a Banshee to death with a sword - but perhaps it's a waste of effort. The only bonus with the extra melee damage was that after the first kill to proc Martial Artist the Acolyte often wasn't necessary, so I could SS twice in a row from one Cloak.

This build, then, uses the Acolyte sidearm to strip shields, has both the survivability options in Shadow Strike, and will still kill any shieldless non-armored mook on Gold in one SS hit from cloak. It only requires the addition of a Pistol Melee Stunner plus a Juggernaut Shield to do the same on Platinum. Like my current build it can self-detonate fire explosions or tech bursts with Electric Slash, but unlike my current build it can also carry a big primary weapon with damage attachments, rail amps etc for better boss damage (complete with 27.5% buff from the passive). It would play exactly the same way as in my video above, except leaving anything with armor for the primary weapon to kill instead of SS. The remaining point could go into either ES or SM.

Interestingly this is really similar to how I play my Cabal Vanguard, who has just enough points in melee to massacre mooks, but uses her Hurricane complete with all the weapon-damage boosting passives to melt bosses and supermooks.

I've not had a chance to try this out yet, but I'll see if I can further incorporate some of the above suggestions (particularly re: weapons) and report back. Thanks again for all the input

My favourite Shadow is almost identical to the one linked by Ronik82, with the only difference being 6a Sword Mastery and my Pirahna. I've never taken it to Plat and I probably never will, and in that light I accept everything Darth Volus says about efficiency. It's kinda depressing to read though, as it's in relation to a playstyle I find to be among the very most relaxing fun Gold experiences, and the best on-host Phantom-killer in the game. See Phantom: Kill Phantom. Repeat. I'm not giving that up so I can take her to Plat when there are better options for Sniper Infiltrators at that level. But good luck in your quest, OP!

i m pretty sure u can make it work and occasional problems are pretty fine by me.
I run a full damage melee build (except shield drain maybe), and end up struggling a lot more, but that s the way i like it

Wraith allows me 2 strikes in one damage clock with smtg like .2 .4 s to retarget

You would be told to feel the bloodrage
I can't believe that you are playing a typically melee character in a less melee way :S
Oddly onough, I also respecced my KroSent for melee today. Would've been fine, if I hadn't lost patience with the PUGs.