I spoke too strongly. I'll concede the 25-40% melee bonus is useful but it's not as impactful on this character, specifically. You could take a shotgun omni blade and/or spec fitness for melee to more than compensate for dismissing blade armor (taken together you can still KO most mooks). As for the damage protection, native Batarian traits render blade armor a luxury, if not redundant. Cyclonics, shield cells and adrenaline also can provide sufficient additional defense for him. Crowd control and stagger, which he has, are some of the best forms of avoiding critical damage intake (other than magic healing grenades). I'm operating under the assumption that this Batsent would be used as a (heavy) weapons platform with power support. Not a melee kill medal machine or spongetank. He carries something like a claymore/kishock/raider/widow perhaps also with a sidearm.
Shockwave can replace the blade armor stagger, especially at range, and you don't have to take any damage to access it. The shockwave recharge evolution is a bonus but also useful when carrying heavy weapons as I do. It allows x+6 combo detonations for all 4 primer sources. Electric field on the net is fantastic crowd control. Armor speed reduction is a nice tactical advantage. And the mo damage the mo bettah. Additionally, 6+6 tech bursts slay against 3/4 factions (those with shielded enemies).
Even if you were to drop a couple ranks of each (or off passive/fitness) and admittedly maintain much of their efficacy, the points spent in blade armor notably impact their cooldowns. When pursued by multiple husks/abombs or after missing submission net on a phantom, an extra second or two off the cooldown can make a huge difference. Fast shockwave recharge also better enables successive detonations of multiple combo types in a mixed squad.
Generally speaking, I understand the utility of skipping blade armor on him for certain playstyles. It's completely justifiable. Personally, I feel 0/6/6/6/6 is the most effective build.
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