For the rest of my skills, it went into assault mastery and fitness, primarily focused on boosting power damage where I could and increasing barrier strength where I couldn't.I carry around the minimum weapons required to maintain 200% recharge rate.I maxed out nova for the boost to power cooldown and increased radius/chance of not expending shields.I maxed out my biotic charge for the most single target damage I can get.After using the advice of some answers in this question, I quickly became an unstoppable killing machine while playing hardcore difficulty. My first character was a vanguard (imported Shep though, so I started at level 30).