My first launch is a jav shadow, and I very much enjoy it's gameplay style. In many games, shadow carries me through on its own, but it also serves as a great capper/spotter/pre-damahe and cleanup. I think the important thing to remember is the game isn't really setup for this mech to be viable for many; it is very squishy and with so much "miss and kill" splash damage and no physic, point and click sniping, shadow tends to fall short in comparison to whatever meta is on sale.

shadow can be a very effective assasin against mortar campers, equip some dual arc torrent or dual SG8 and go wild.

I dont use it because its not my priority rn but I will get it eventually.

@UgotFdintheA is pretty spot-on in their analysis.

I've got mine maxed, but that was because it used to be the mech to hunt down RM campers before Surge got buffed. Now it is a much less popular mech. Shadow has low HP and it's pretty vulnerable to Disc Launchers. But it's also fun for CPC and works nicely with Jav6s. I'd say if A-Coins aren't much of an issue then yeah it's worth taking to 12 just for the fun of it. But if you're scrimping and saving then don't bother.