Where to even start...
Yes, no Pull whatsover. Yes, you rely on other players to get maximum effectiveness; it's a team game after all. A Drell Adept who doesn't combo with another biotic is a mid-tier class; a Drell Adept who does combo with another biotic is god-tier. Go lookup 17-minute Gold speed farming. Zero Pull is the standard Drell Adept build for these runs.
However, you'll notice I recommended 3-4 Pull; this way you don't rely on another biotic. Honestly though, a Reave AoE stun followed by a few Carnifex headshots deals with basic enemies just fine.
Yes, it's a team game but most people don't have the luxury of playing with dedicated groups that run 2 Asari Adepts and 2 Drell Adepts. And hey, I do agree with your points that speccing a no-Pull Drell Adept is ideal in this very, very limited situation. But using a no-pull Drell Adept in your typical pick up game is very, very gimped.
My discussion on the Drell Adept is predicated on the notion of the class standing up by itself, independent of teammates and weapons. Yours obviously doesn't. It doesn't mean that either of us are wrong, it just means that these are two very different prisms we're evaluating the class with.
You don't even know how biotic detonations work. Detonations scale with difficulty and enemy health, so it doesn't matter whether you're playing on Bronze, Silver, or Gold; if it's strong enough for Bronze it's strong enough for Gold. I have 4 Pull on my Drell Adept; my detonations deal plenty of damage to deal with unprotected enemies, regardless of difficulty. On top of that, it's questionable whether the 25% more damage even applies to detonations. There's debate on that topic, and I haven't seen a definitive answer.
If this is truly the case then hey, I take back what I said before. With that said though, level 6 pull still gives you increased detonation damage and duration. These are worth maxing out the skill, regardless of the controversial benefits of level 5.
1) How do you miss with Reave against a helpless floating target, unless you're intentionally trying?
2) Rank 3/4 Pull works just as well as Rank 6 for hitting targets behind cover.
Not sure what platform you're on but I'm on the 360. Reave is the Y button, which means I have to move my thumb from the right stick to hit Reave (sacrificing aim). Besides the controller mechanics, there are plenty of ways to miss with Reave:
- Pull brings the enemy behind cover
- Pulling in a crowd and the crosshairs land on a non-pulled enemy
- Pulling at an extreme distance and the crosshairs for Reave are tiny
All of these happen with regularity that Reave on the target isn't always a given (still probably a 90-95% success rate though). In those rare instances when it's a miss, Pull duration gives you the time to get it right the second time.
It's true that "we all know Drells are squish." However, what "we all know" and what's actually true are often very, very different things. Fitness gives Drell a higher % increase than it does other races; this happened in the launch day balance changes. Because of this, Drell gain almost as much health/shields as humans and Asari do. (650 health/shields for humans/Asari, 600 health/shields for Drell.) However, these numbers only matter if you get caught with Reave down. With Reave up, Fitness actually provides more effective health/shields to the Drell Adept than most other classes. I'm specced for 40% damage reduction on my Reave; as such, that 600 bonus health/shields effectively becomes 1000 bonus health/shields as long as I maintain my Reaves.
These are very good points and this moves into "arguable" territory for me, but is still heavily dependent on if you're playing a pickup game or with a dedicated group running with all Asaris and Drells.
In the pickup game, being able to get maxed Fitness means no Pull... this absolutely gimps the class and should never even be considered. In a dedicated group, then absolutely maxed Fitness becomes far more viable, and at that point I would guess it's a matter of playstyle preference on the player of whether or not they want to go with or without Pull.
On top of all that, max Fitness provides an additional 10% movement speed. I like how you conveniently ignore that perk, while simultaneously trumpeting the value of Drell mobility.
I didn't ignore the perk at all, I just felt it wasn't relevant. If someone wanted to put a few points in Fitness, I would recommend not maxing Drell Assassin, not Pull (which is the exact build I suggested several pages back on the Drell Adept. 6/6/6/5/3, and this is the same build I have on my own Adept). You get the 10% movement bonus at both level 1 and level 6, but sacrificing Pull entirely is *not* worth the additional shields/health/movement bonus you get from maximizing Fitness.
Singularity/Warp is also blisteringly fast, but no one cares. Mowing down unprotected targets simply isn't all that important; it's the elite units which matter. And no, the Drell's ability to drop things fast has almost nothing to do with Pull; it's Reave+Cluster Grenades which do that. If a large group including basic enemies actually looks like a threat, you should be using Reave+Cluster Grenades, not Pull+Reave.
Singularity/Warp is also a combo only on the Human Adept... considering that class also has Shockwave (and isn't a part of this discussion at all) then it's entirely irrelevant. And I do agree with you that the elite units matter... again, that's the high-level consideration that comes with playing with dedicated groups, not the pickup games that comprise the vast, vast majority of games played (and the vast majority of this thread's posters fall into that category, not the ones looking for 17 minute Gold speed runs).
And I do agree with you that the ability to drop big things fast is based on Reave/Cluster Grenades. But Pull is absolutely key in dealing with the swarms of basic enemies that Reave/CG cannot deal with.
Again, my build tips are based on the notion of evaluating the class as it stands on its own... not in a very narrow situation.
In ME2 it was your tank, now it's a piece of shit. Guess I'll stick to Decoy.