A drell without another biotic is just a worse asari adept or human sentinel. Who gives a shit about shields, its the high armored opponents that are a problem on gold. Drell can chuck 3 grenades at them, which might take down a brute, then you are out of nades. Its the same reason human adept is relatively weak, despite even having a self combo.
Best drell is offensive support with disruptor or warp rounds and a vanguard. Add in a falcon for more aoe. I've only had the pleasure of it once sadly. I wish i could find a good vanguard player to play with.
Sorry, you're using it wrong. Do you not use grenades? In my earlier post, I mentioned that the Drell Adept is (IMO) the highest DPS class in the game... yes, outpacing Asari Adept, Human Engineer and is a very close race between it and the Salarian Infiltrator (although the SI is much more heavily dependent on the weapon and the player's actual sniping skill).
And this analysis is wholly based on an
independent Drell Adept. It does not need the help of any other biotics or classes. Why? Because Reave -> Cluster Grenades is probably the most powerful biotic explosion in the game. And a big plus is that the two skills don't share the same timer (unlike most other biotic explosions in the game).
You mention the larger enemies as the bigger issue on Gold... yes, of course they are. And Reave -> Clusters make very, very short work of them. I've mentioned ammo box cycling for grenades many, many times in this thread because people often don't realize just how many grenades you can throw in a wave and still have stock for the next wave (note that this is without using the thermal clip consumable). Absolutely no other class has the inherent (unreliant on weapon) room clearing ability that the Drell Adept has, in large part due to Cluster Grenades.
The Drell Adept requires a more complex playstyle than most other classes because a) it's super squishy and b) its heavy reliance on grenades. But once you figure it out, you'll understand the incredible DPS it has (this is anecdotal, but on Gold I rarely get outpointed and if I do it's usually a Salarian Infiltrator).
For comparison's sake, the Asari Adept is more versatile and a lot easier to use. You either go Stasis -> headshot, or Warp -> Throw. Stay in cover and you're good to go. Amazing class, and easily top tier... but it does not have the same clearing power as the Drell.
Stasis is incredible but it sets up a weak biotic detonation, forcing you to add shots from your weapon. Warp -> Throw is powerful and can be used on large enemies but is a bit slower (both skills also have travel time, which allow enemies to evade).
Pull -> Reave can only be used against unshielded enemies but it can affect a group of them at once (if you spec for it) and is also faster than either of the Asari's combos. Reave has the added bonus of doing damage over time so if an enemy isn't killed outright, it often soon will. And since Reave can affect multiple enemies, it's the perfect setup for Cluster Grenade. It's the speed of the first combo combined with the sheer power of the second that makes the Drell Adept the class with unparalleled DPS ability.
