I decided to try Malicious Blades on Ao100. I'm doing it on Medium (HNTR).
I picked Malicious Blades because you get some nice resistances almost for free (not exactly, ammo chains and boxes become just bigger ammo slots). It is a very under-powered build at the beginning, what with no Eagle Eye and really late access to SoB/SoG/Rel (depending on the main weapon). On the other hand, Technician tends to just get Whizkid (I usually have to take one before Malicious Blades, if only for hyperblaster). Later on, I pump SoB and Triggerhappy to make up for that.
Since I started this as an experiment I did save-scum a few times - just before and just after taking Malicious Blades. Unfortunately, the trait comes late enough, so Revenants already appear before you get that nifty fire resistance. Cured to a degree by a fireproof red armor, but not nearly enough. The main reason for save-scumming was trying to get 100% kill rate (obscessive-compulsive?). If you are ready to skip some levels where you hear dangerous noises (Revenants/Mancubi/Viles, even Barons), you'll be in fine shape. And I totally stopped restoring from saves after level 30 or so - by then the character can do much more without getting killed.
I had a goal of creating some cerberus armor. Eventually I did it - around level 49 (ATT for hyperblaster, TT for micro launcher, then some rotten luck never getting to it before an explosive attack wiped that T away). By then I had both Malek's Armor and Lava Armor - both with some nice plasma resists, even though not enough acid. Still, I dropped Lava Armor after finally assembling cerberus. Malek's is a different story, I love it and I'm still keeping it.
Anyway - having an 80%+ fire resistance is great! Revenants and Mancubi become a joke (don't forget to put on your grappling or gothic boots - an almost guaranteed find - to reduce knockback). And I'm falling back to two bulky knives (no luck with power mods yet!) quite often - dodgemaster + phaseshift boots let you close on even Arachnotrons taking very little damage! And those spiders take double from my melee weapons!
I found a sniper weapon pack at some point and quickly assembled an always-hitting but less powerful energy pistol. I started using it to lure the enemies to a crate / a door where I'm hiding just behind the corner with two blades for the ready. However, I noticed that I'm killing better with it than with hyperblaster, even with Triggerhappy(2)! I guess I'll try to pump SoaG next and start using it more. The insane knockback alone should prove useful.
Anyway - I can keep you posted if anyone is interested. After completing it I'll try a clean run.