I personally like to portray biotics specifically more like in ME 1/the lore. That is to say, slightly longer cast time, much longer 'cooldown' and a much more significant effect.

I tend to portray tech more like in ME3, with quickish cooldowns and less extreme effects. That said, I never really spam powers in combat here, nor do I assign a really specific number of powers to any given post... I just go with what feels right and balanced.

Another thing to note is that typically enemies will have the same things we do, unlike in the game where the enemies all get a specialized and usually weaker set of abilities comparative to shep.