User blog comment:Sperez2012/Earth DLC Characters/@comment-3570755-20120722130311/@comment-3325589-20120726131057

I haven't played much platinum, but the Shadow performs very well on gold. Yeah, she's made of wet tissue paper, but with an optimized build and a skilled player she should very rarely take damage at all. With the duration and bonus power upgrades for tactical cloak, and a light weapon loadout, the Shadow can remain cloaked the majority of the time and still do substantial damage with shadow strike and electric slash. So long as you're still cloaked when shadow strike resolves (especially if you dodge immediately after), enemies very rarely counterattack you. If you're willing to forego some killing power, shadow strike also becomes the poor man's biotic charge, since any enemy with shields/barriers will generally have enough to top you off with the drain upgrade (not quite as safe as a salarian's energy drain, either, but much stronger on offense). Admittedly, the utility of straight-up melee attacks is pretty limited: they can stun-lock weaker individual enemies, and make good codas to shadow strikes against enemy stragglers, but against groups or armor they're suicide.

Still...zipping around the battlefield wounding and killing things with very little chance of retaliation is both fun and effective, and while slash-spamming through walls and cover may not be the most exciting way to play the game, it's a valuable tool for winning matches on higher difficulties. And like other infiltrators, the Shadow is hands down the best 'medic' class.

That said, I agree with you about the Slayer. If I wanted to play a melee vanguard, I'd go krogan, because they can at least survive being shot at for a second or two on higher difficulties.