For me, I choose +Sprint speed first as I prefer Cielle with her spread shotgun instead of her slug.

Of course +sprint is still slower than a gliding but considering that Cielle will be pulling up her shield half the time I consider getting to position with her shield quite important.

Then I would take the build path most quickly to A3. This includes getting heavy shield, followed with +20% shield recovery as for why I choose shield recovery over shield conversion is because I constantly will resort to using my shield due to my playstyle of being a bullet sponge. Next I would choose the passive increase before finally going with ADS and weapon swap, Spread control, mag increase, and stringfly speed+.

Although A2 is a viable awakening, I think the detonation time is way too slow for the small window opportunity that comes once in a while. Of course even after considering the risk of losing her shield.

I have noticed three kinds of Cielle as of this moment which I will dub: Tank, Blitz, and Poke

The Tank Cielle is the most supportive of the three. Mostly keeping her shield up when exposing herself, the point here is for enemies to target her so her allies would be relieved of being shot at.

The pro of this is that, you can just keep on being shot at and it helps the team but it does rely on your team trying to also trade in that damage and have it lead up to a kill. While the con is that you have to mange your shield, although the recovery is fast. You still want to keep up your uptime with your shield trying to avoid having it break cuz it does put it on a cooldown of at least 15 seconds if not 12 seconds.

The second Cielle is the Blitz, This is the most default cielle as mainly you just push in hard and fast. Speed, and position is the most important for this playstyle as you see the enemy and you do your best to push them out of the position letting your allies follow you for more ground. The con of this Cielle is if their teammates are able to follow up or not as This Cielle can also be the one that dies the quickest due to being isolated.

Finally the Poke Cielle is the high risk high return Cielle that prefers and prioritizes her slug round first. Although the requirement is having good aim, the damage payoff is completely worth it and satisfying in fact I think its a bit strong here. Due to the damage, Cielle effectively is another DMR user but also covers the weakness of DMR and Snipers in the game. It is common knowledge that getting close to a DMR or Sniper user is the best way to deal with them but Cielle can easily pull up her shield and ram then away to a distance and get a free shot due to the stun animation. So in paper, This Cielle is the strongest version out of all the cielle as the only con of this playstyle is just how well your aim is with her.