Our shields will be pretty sturdy, but in intense cases that crush it, having a plan B is always welcome. The fifth level gives us Crisis Management. We skip over Grenadier because we'll be using Chain Lightning, which regenerates it's own ammo, making points in this a total waste. This immediately increases the effectiveness of our lil' darlin', helping her keep up in late game firefights. We need to stack up as much damage as possible, so increasing damage while maneuvering faster into optimal range is both necessary and fun to use. The third level unlocks two more abilities. We avoid Able because health recovery will be safely covered by Preparation and our zap n' sap, along with the Siren that your group ought to have. The second reason is it's needed to reach higher stages without wasting points in Ready and Able. The first is it's ability to hit fast targets like Surveyors and Rakks. This is a debatable choice, but it's handy for two reasons.
While it does set Crisis Management back a little, the increase in your survivability is more than worth it, to me. The first is Willing, which makes your shield significantly more effective. We avoid Ready because, while reload speed is nice, it's just not worth five points. This may not sound like much, but this also means an extra ten seconds of free slag and Battlefront. Longer burst cycles mean more damage output, but more importantly, it's duration is extended by ten seconds. The bottom of the tree opens with Sentry.
