here's what NOT to do:
-raise brawl. at all. just because enforcers use tango dirks, it doesn't mean we should. if you want to use the tds at low level, just use the brawl expertise. you won't want to use them later, i promise.
-raise dodge ranged or duck explosives if you plan to level on sl. we never saw any mobs other than melee for the most part, and ip will be tight. if this changes when sl goes live, my bad. at least i didn't tell you to spend it somewhere else.
-max multi wield. we get pretty good multi wield buffs, so maxing this is probably not a total necessity unless you've already calculated what you want to equip next.
-neglect runspeed. this is really for everyone in sl. put some points into this baby. you'll see why if you haven't guessed already.
-hold on to your dimach. it recycles pretty fast, so let 'er rip. but wait until you have lost at least a little health.
-go redeemed/clan. come on. i will personally sic the koga on any clan shade i see. jk, there's no real benefit to either one. except armor colour.
-neglect parry/riposte. have a look at shade-specific piercers if you don't believe me. a lot of them require both, to more of a degree than dimach, even, i believe. we can complain about that later if we need to (hopefully riposte will be good now), but it's a fact of shade life. did i mention that ip was tight?
-fail to max pm/si. most of our buffs use these two, and you want to use these buffs. they're good, but they're also very expensive. so max pm/si.
-forget to read aelynn's and gwend's posts. i've run into both of them in game (they didn't know it), and they're very good at this shade business.
i think that should kick you off. i'm sure there are other things NOT to do, but someone else can throw those in.
aelynn, looking forward to your updated guide!