What skills, weapon combinations and tactics have you been using?

I've been using an Assassin with all my points in the Bloodshed (melee) tree. I've got 5 points in Killing Blow (increased damage to low health enemies) and I'm one point away from maxing Grim (increased shield regen and skill cooldown after a kill). After that, I'll put one point in Execute (dash melee), then max out FollowThrough (increased movement speed, gun/melee damage after a kill). Tons of fun, and I love high risk high reward builds.

Some early tips if you're going this route:

- You still need long range support. Sniper rifle is almost a must, and the good thing is that taking one out from far means that enemies will typically emerge all at once and group together... basically the ideal situation to start the cycle of backstabbing and shotgunning.

- If you're not sacrificing too much on base damage/clip size/scope/etc., I HIGHLY recommend shotguns with explosive damage for this build. Even if you miss with some of the pellet spread, they'll hit nearby terrain and still give you a chance to deal damage.

- Not all enemies take increased backstab damage, it looks like. Nomad Pyros in particular (I think because of the flamethrower pack on their back) take almost no melee damage from the back, but you CAN blow those packs up.

- Don't forget to use Deception to improve your position, whether it's to escape or to flank their whole position. Also, if you're in the right spot go ahead and shoot early to break out of Deception sooner. For this build it's more important to reduce the cooldown ASAP instead of gaining more damage from waiting.