Dragoon

The Dragoon is a Cerberus unit encountered in Mass Effect 3. Dragoons are heavily armored soldiers capable of lunging toward their enemies with considerable speed and biotic lashes.

Capabilities
Offensive

Cerberus Dragoons are equipped with the M-25 Hornet SMG and biotic lashes, which they can use to lunge toward the player or slam the ground with them for a circular melee attack. They can instantly kill downed players with a stomp execution.

Defensive

While they possess powerful armour, Dragoons are devoid of any shields or barriers whatsoever. Given their nature as an armored enemy, Dragoons cannot be grabbed over-cover for instant-kills. However, headshots will still deal 40% more damage.

Tactics

 * Dragoons are geared towards close-quarters-combat; their biotic lashes ignore cover, and they lunge considerable distances in order to engage the player while performing their Smash attack. They tend to avoid taking cover, instead opting to charge directly into close range, pushing players out of their cover. Most players should maintain their distance and only engage them from afar.
 * With a timing precise enough, one can easily dodge the Dragoon's lunge attacks using combat rolls. However, it should be noted that player attacks can end up hitting the space behind a Dragoon. For example, when using Biotic Charge against a Dragoon who is already initiated in a lunge, the player will most likely phase through the target and end up behind them, dealing no damage whatsoever.
 * Anti-armor weapons/powers are effective ways of eliminating Dragoons.
 * Using a mixture of Armor-Piercing Rounds, Carnage, Flamer, Incinerate, Homing Grenades, Reave and Warp can help immensely against them. Annihilation Field and Dark Channel can also be very useful in conjunction with the latter.
 * Dragoons can be stunned repeatedly with Overload's "Neural Shock" evolution. Properly timed Overloads, with a recharge speed at around 3 seconds, can be used to neutralize Dragoons indefinitely.
 * The following weapons deal 150% more damage vs. armored foes: Krysae Sniper Rifle, N7 Typhoon, and Collector SMG.
 * On harder difficulties, Dragoons can be a serious threat, since they can flush you out of cover or cause chaos within the ranks. This can be especially fatal on Gold or Platinum difficulties where said foes will be harder to kill, hit harder, and all its allies will stack on damage extremely quickly. If a Cerberus Trooper throws a grenade while the player sees an approaching Dragoon coming their way, chances are it's time to get out of there, otherwise the player may end up dropped by the sheer damage.
 * Dragoons almost always travel in groups of 2 or 3. On higher difficulties, it's not uncommon to find them lunging at isolated players in coordinated assaults that down the player almost instantly. Try not to get separated from your squad, as Dragoons have deceptive range with their lashes and are much quicker than their playable defector counterparts.
 * In addition to their viciousness in higher difficulties, Dragoons tend to act in conjunction with Phantoms, easily surrounding players and flanking them.
 * Rather than hopping over low cover, Dragoons will attempt to hit you with their whips - and miss, strangely enough. You can use this to your advantage and have your teammates sideswipe the Dragoon in question while you sit back and relax. Watch out for other enemies, though, as the Dragoons can pin you down while allies flank you if you are not careful.
 * A high-powered sniper rifle, combined with an effective class build, mods, equipment, ammo, or powers is perfect for taking down Dragoons. One well-placed shot to the head and it's lights out for your foe. The M-300 Claymore, M-6 Carnifex, and M-77 Paladin can also accomplish this.
 * Inferno Grenades are particularly useful against Dragoons. One grenade is sufficient enough to kill them outright and quite quickly on Bronze and Silver difficulties, while bringing them near death on Gold and Platinum, where they can be finished off with another grenade or something else.
 * It should be noted that Dragoons are completely immune to being staggered while in their lunge and lash animations. This can be especially troublesome with classes that rely on staggering enemies (ex. classes that use tech powers over firearms).
 * Despite being built as melee enemies, their ranged capabilities are not to be underestimated. Their Hornets are immensely powerful, and on Gold difficulty two quick bursts are enough to take down almost every class's shields.  Combined with their aggressive nature, their guns can actually become more of a threat than their biotic whips, especially if they attack in groups or flank the player.
 * Ironically, some classes may actually benefit from fighting Dragoons in close range. Their whip animations are lengthy, and subsequently can be quite easy to dodge with a simple side-step/dodge-roll.

Trivia

 * The term dragoon originally referred to mounted infantry with training in both regular infantry fighting skills as well as in horseback riding.
 * Dragoons may have been the end-result of Project Phoenix, since both ex-Cerberus Phoenix operatives and Dragoons share the similar lash biotic armament, not to mention being equipped with the same design of armor.