I just got a traditional Avenger defense mission (with no dark events!) with near max force level (I saw my first Gatekeeper) and I got creamed. I took out the A-team (some were slightly wounded but oh well) and the Reaper and started moving up the reaper while putting my sniper in an elevated position. The enemy pods moved forward, no problem, six Chryssalids are not too difficult with half-Plasma half Mag weapons. Then the Gatekeeper pod moves up and accidentally reveals my Reaper, and I trigger 3 pods, and get my first reinforcement warning, on that turn. I lost 3 people (only one actually useful guy, plus a couple Squaddies Bradford thought would be useful in November for god knows what reason) and barely avoided losing more.
XCOM 2
- Thread starter thecrazyscot
- Start date
I just got a traditional Avenger defense mission (with no dark events!) with near max force level (I saw my first Gatekeeper) and I got creamed. I took out the A-team (some were slightly wounded but oh well) and the Reaper and started moving up the reaper while putting my sniper in an elevated position. The enemy pods moved forward, no problem, six Chryssalids are not too difficult with half-Plasma half Mag weapons. Then the Gatekeeper pod moves up and accidentally reveals my Reaper, and I trigger 3 pods, and get my first reinforcement warning, on that turn. I lost 3 people (only one actually useful guy, plus a couple Squaddies Bradford thought would be useful in November for god knows what reason) and barely avoided losing more.
I find this can also be an occupational hazard of using the reaper. Sometimes, especially with mechs and berserkers, they can get revealed and end up triggering multiple pods.
Im almost done with my game now. I restarted as i kind of messed up the build order and i have a terrible habit of restarting games when i feel i have not done things optimally. Killed 2 chosen before they got their power bar filled, killed the viper king. Now im just sort of waiting for my research to complete whilst i get the last 2 spots on the map. I also want all the chosen weapons. Not because i really need them, i just want to check them out. I will also go hunting for the berserker queen and the archon king.
I still think the pacing is a bit off on this game. I get towards the end and spend most of my time worrying about whether i will get all my soldiers levelled up to colonel rank. Grenadiers are my main problem. I think because i rarely kill units with them. They either strip armour via grenades or strip armour and shoot first. So i dont really do a great deal of killing with them. And their XP threshold is one of the highest. I have the least trouble with specialists. Again, probably because i use the bolt caster with them, which can instakill most things. And also combat protocol is a finisher. So they get a lot of kills despite not being kitted out for heavy combat.
i can't bring myself to finish the game, just a boring easy grind on commander difficulty.
once the chosen are dead, most of your soldiers are at col. rank the game becomes very stale.
-you don't get ability points with col. rank
-psi troops are trained, no experience in the field needed
-so many classes, but still only 6 slots for missions
overall wotc is a nice addition especially all the new tile sets etc. but the end game is pointless. my suggestions:
-larger/more pods in the end game
-psi soldier advancement should be tied to field missions in some way
i really like what LW2 did with different infiltration squads, psi soldier training and produceable pcs and weapon upgrades and deem it superior to wotc.
the class balance between the 4 major classes is better in wotc although the specialist still lacks behind. grenadiers were brought in line a bit with the lost and sharpshooters and rangers got a big boost with the chosen weapons.
psi soldiers are still the best class by far and my conclusion on the spark is that it is a good class, but far from essential. a combo of spark with sacrifice and intimidate + specialist with aid protocol is really incredible defensive wise, sadly you don't need defences in this game. the old adage kill first ask questions later sadly holds true.
i may come back once LW2 adopts wotc but until then, the end game is too much of a snore-fest.
edit:
the difference in difficulty between early and late game is just staggering. it was bad in vanilla, but in wotc it is really horrendous.
once the chosen are dead, most of your soldiers are at col. rank the game becomes very stale.
-you don't get ability points with col. rank
-psi troops are trained, no experience in the field needed
-so many classes, but still only 6 slots for missions
overall wotc is a nice addition especially all the new tile sets etc. but the end game is pointless. my suggestions:
-larger/more pods in the end game
-psi soldier advancement should be tied to field missions in some way
i really like what LW2 did with different infiltration squads, psi soldier training and produceable pcs and weapon upgrades and deem it superior to wotc.
the class balance between the 4 major classes is better in wotc although the specialist still lacks behind. grenadiers were brought in line a bit with the lost and sharpshooters and rangers got a big boost with the chosen weapons.
psi soldiers are still the best class by far and my conclusion on the spark is that it is a good class, but far from essential. a combo of spark with sacrifice and intimidate + specialist with aid protocol is really incredible defensive wise, sadly you don't need defences in this game. the old adage kill first ask questions later sadly holds true.
i may come back once LW2 adopts wotc but until then, the end game is too much of a snore-fest.
edit:
the difference in difficulty between early and late game is just staggering. it was bad in vanilla, but in wotc it is really horrendous.
Being nearly at the end now, I have to say that I agree with you. I think WOTC does some nice bits that really help the early game and the mid game. But whats missing is something at the end. The end degenerates into what you rightly term as a bit of a snore fest.
I also think my view is coloured slightly by Long War. And LW did do some really nice things. I like the whole squad and infiltration idea. But I think there were bits in the tactical area that were less than great. And the meta game was poorly implemented and communicated to the player. Rather than have enemies that always hit and/or were impossible to actually target (gatekeepers), larger pods would be a better idea.
I think to do something late game they should do more with the story arcs of the three factions. Quite what this should be, I am not too sure. But I did (or will) leave WOTC without really knowing a great deal about any of the three factions. Mox is an interesting character. So is Draganova. But Geist I know almost nothing about other than the fact he is a Templar. Maybe you could limit the use of these central characters in a sort of story based way. You could combine this with the resistance ring and the infiltration mechanic in long war. Where you send a number of special characters (including even the likes of Bradford, Shen and Tygan) on special missions that provide unique benefits. The changes also need to be made to the meta game. XCOM2 is much better than the first one (satellite spam FTW). But some more meaningful tactical decisions on the geoscape that incorporate the 3 factions in some sort of strategic way is needed I feel for the series to move on in the future.
BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
I don’t think XCom 2 is weighted well towards having mostly colonels and full boat psychics. But I’m not sure if it was ever intended to be that way. Many of my pre-WotC games ended with having a few colonels. I feel like deciding to get mostly colonels is a decision the player makes that sits outside how the game was balanced to be played.
In any case, I like WotC quite a lot. The improvements are leaps and bounds ahead of what XCom 2 was (and I really liked that game too).
SupremacyKing2
Deity
I don't find the Chosen to be all that tough, more like a nuisance. When they show up, they basically daze a soldier or two but that is it. That is easy to fix. And if I concentrate my firepower on them, I can get rid of them pretty easily. In one case, one Chosen had a weakness to close attacks and the Reapers, so I moved Dragunov to point blank range and dealt like 17 damage which one-shot killed the Chosen. On the strategic map, the Chosen sabotage the Avenger but that is just a minor setback that does not really hurt that much. In one case, I just got a wounded scientist for 10 days. No big deal. I actually find the Alien Ruler more difficult to deal with since they take an action after every action and can do some real damage to your squad if you are not prepared.
The most annoying one is the assassin, followed by the hunter, followed by the warlock IMO. The assassin can be a real ***** if she gets the perk that allows her to teleport after every hit, plus she can cloak so unless you have battle scanners its hard to find her. The hunter deals more damage due to his insane grapple. And the warlock is only really dangerous at early levels if he mind controls one of your key soldiers early. The strongholds become quite easy when you have a well promoted team. Its relatively easy to kill them on the first turn, destroy the sarcophagus on the second turn, and finish them off on the third turn.
The weapons you get are pretty sweet from them. The warlocks is really rather good if you manage to get a specialist with kill zone, guardian and serial. It comes with elite scope, elite hair trigger, elite expanded mag and elite stock. The hunters sniper rifle is also pretty good as it effectively gives you a snapshot sniper. Although i think i would have preferred an elite expanded mag instead as with plentiful access to a grapple (or the Icharus armour) being able to move and shoot is not really that much of a big deal. The shotgun and sword from the assassin are probably the least useful (although still good).
the assassin in not cloaked but concealed, so you can spot her if you flank her, e.g. a reaper in concealment is a very good spotter and revealer of the assassin if the reaper herself is concealed. i agree that the assassin is the most dangerous of the trio. i never had issues with the other two.
So as we mostly have consensus by agreeing which chosen is the most difficult/problematic. Which of the new classes - the skirmisher, the templar and the reaper are the best/worst? I think this is a tough one. Because it is more dependent on map type.
The reaper is very useful. Remote start, sting and the claymore are a great way to whittle down initial pods which makes the rest of the map much easier. Their ability to reconceal is also good, and later perks like banish mitigate their poor damage output. That said, you wont want to take them on any stronghold missions or the final mission. And later game their damage output isnt really good enough. So they are better at the start of the game.
The templar can be a highly resilient finisher. If you get lucky with the perks you can buy on top, reaper and bladestorm are excellent picks and that make the templar fairly godly on lost missions. And with the right cards in the Resistance ring you can rack up almost unlimited kills. They can end up revealing too much of the map though. And there are not actually that many uses for focus until quite late in the tree. And it seems a bit underwhelming that you cant follow up with volt after a rend kill.
The skirmisher is like a jack of all trades but master of none. The grapple is really useful, particularly for chosen and rulers. And with either venom or dragon rounds the bull pup can be a great way to spray out damage and debuffs. Particularly with a helpful team mate. But, their aim is not amazing, and their damage output not spectacular. Their GTS upgrade is pretty naff too and their higher level abilities are also less good than the others.
I must say im a bit undecided. For me its probably between the skirmisher and the reaper. the reaper start is great. But i also love the skirmisher with special ammo and their ability to grapple, flank, and then chuck a mimic beacon.
The reaper is very useful. Remote start, sting and the claymore are a great way to whittle down initial pods which makes the rest of the map much easier. Their ability to reconceal is also good, and later perks like banish mitigate their poor damage output. That said, you wont want to take them on any stronghold missions or the final mission. And later game their damage output isnt really good enough. So they are better at the start of the game.
The templar can be a highly resilient finisher. If you get lucky with the perks you can buy on top, reaper and bladestorm are excellent picks and that make the templar fairly godly on lost missions. And with the right cards in the Resistance ring you can rack up almost unlimited kills. They can end up revealing too much of the map though. And there are not actually that many uses for focus until quite late in the tree. And it seems a bit underwhelming that you cant follow up with volt after a rend kill.
The skirmisher is like a jack of all trades but master of none. The grapple is really useful, particularly for chosen and rulers. And with either venom or dragon rounds the bull pup can be a great way to spray out damage and debuffs. Particularly with a helpful team mate. But, their aim is not amazing, and their damage output not spectacular. Their GTS upgrade is pretty naff too and their higher level abilities are also less good than the others.
I must say im a bit undecided. For me its probably between the skirmisher and the reaper. the reaper start is great. But i also love the skirmisher with special ammo and their ability to grapple, flank, and then chuck a mimic beacon.
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 9,408
Consensus ? That the Assassin the toughest ?
I don't think so. She was very difficult before I knew what I was doing, but Battle Scanners, Scanning Protocol, or a scouting Reaper make her much easier.
I find the Warlock much more dangerous, Most enemies that have mind control can be killed in one turn. That's far more difficult with the Warlock. I lost a Spark to a mind controlled Skirmisher with AP rounds. I had to abort a mission because the Lost were there, the Warlock kept throwing Spectral Zombies at me, and every time they exploded more Lost appeared.
The Hunter is just a minor nuisance until you get close. Then his grappling hoor and flanking shots become a problem.
As for the hero classes: Yeah, the Reaper is probably the best one early on. Their damage output is small, but they're excellent scouts and spotters for Snipers and they're good at finishing off injured units. Also pretty good at revealing the Assassin.
Templars start strong, but enemies quickly become too tough to fall to one rend attack and the Templar's relative damage potential falls behind the rest of the squad. Still a good support unit if you take the skill that makes units hit by Volt easier to hit, or use Parry to make the enemy waste an attack. They become very dangerous again at high levels after overcoming the slump, but for most of the game they're a support unit and opportunistic finisher. Never got one with Bladestorm and I don't think Reaper is that good with their low single target damage, but I had one with Lightning Hands and being able to injure an enemy before Rend is very useful.
I'll never again make the mistake of taking a Templar on the third Retaliation mission. They're amost useless against Mutons and rarely get the opportunity to finish off a Berserker.
Skirmishers are always pretty good but need weapon mods and ammo to really shine. How useful their grapple depends on the map, but it doesn't cost an action and you can use it to flank and shoot twice. Whiplash is marginally useful because it's so inaccurate, but a free action is a free action. True, their weapon is a bit crap, but they can fire twice or more on their turn which makes their average fire power pretty high. Weapon mods and ammo can make them very reliable killers.I think they don't start as strong as Templars but overtake them around late month two.
So, what to we think about Sparks ? I didn't use them much in the base game (because I only got the DLC during the last Steam sale), but right now they're very good. The ability to use weapon mods is a significant upgrade, and their aim now seems to be really, really good. That they can't form bonds osn't raly a problem. Who needs Teamwork if you have Overdrive and can use it multiple times per mission. Their only downside is that you can't get extra abilities with AP and I think they should really be able to carry items. That still leaves them as excellent tanks and damage dealers who never get tired and can be taken on every mission (barring the low profile sit-rep).
I don't think so. She was very difficult before I knew what I was doing, but Battle Scanners, Scanning Protocol, or a scouting Reaper make her much easier.
I find the Warlock much more dangerous, Most enemies that have mind control can be killed in one turn. That's far more difficult with the Warlock. I lost a Spark to a mind controlled Skirmisher with AP rounds. I had to abort a mission because the Lost were there, the Warlock kept throwing Spectral Zombies at me, and every time they exploded more Lost appeared.
The Hunter is just a minor nuisance until you get close. Then his grappling hoor and flanking shots become a problem.
As for the hero classes: Yeah, the Reaper is probably the best one early on. Their damage output is small, but they're excellent scouts and spotters for Snipers and they're good at finishing off injured units. Also pretty good at revealing the Assassin.
Templars start strong, but enemies quickly become too tough to fall to one rend attack and the Templar's relative damage potential falls behind the rest of the squad. Still a good support unit if you take the skill that makes units hit by Volt easier to hit, or use Parry to make the enemy waste an attack. They become very dangerous again at high levels after overcoming the slump, but for most of the game they're a support unit and opportunistic finisher. Never got one with Bladestorm and I don't think Reaper is that good with their low single target damage, but I had one with Lightning Hands and being able to injure an enemy before Rend is very useful.
I'll never again make the mistake of taking a Templar on the third Retaliation mission. They're amost useless against Mutons and rarely get the opportunity to finish off a Berserker.
Skirmishers are always pretty good but need weapon mods and ammo to really shine. How useful their grapple depends on the map, but it doesn't cost an action and you can use it to flank and shoot twice. Whiplash is marginally useful because it's so inaccurate, but a free action is a free action. True, their weapon is a bit crap, but they can fire twice or more on their turn which makes their average fire power pretty high. Weapon mods and ammo can make them very reliable killers.I think they don't start as strong as Templars but overtake them around late month two.
So, what to we think about Sparks ? I didn't use them much in the base game (because I only got the DLC during the last Steam sale), but right now they're very good. The ability to use weapon mods is a significant upgrade, and their aim now seems to be really, really good. That they can't form bonds osn't raly a problem. Who needs Teamwork if you have Overdrive and can use it multiple times per mission. Their only downside is that you can't get extra abilities with AP and I think they should really be able to carry items. That still leaves them as excellent tanks and damage dealers who never get tired and can be taken on every mission (barring the low profile sit-rep).
I think Sparks are pretty good. They are highly versatile and sort of combine the best of both sides of the grenadier skill tree. You really need to get proving grounds early though to make best use of them. And they are quite expensive. Which can mean you have to make a choice between them or plated armour. But as a filler unit even at low levels they do a capable job. They are also immune to psionics and poison, which is pretty handy in some instances.
SupremacyKing2
Deity
Of the 3 resistance factions, I am finding the Skirmisher to be my least favorite. I am having trouble using them right, probably because they don't fit my style well (My favorite soldier classes are the sniper and the ranger). I know they are very flexible with their actions and the grapple can be very useful. The Skirmishers are ideal for dealing with enemies that are difficult to reach. With the Skirmisher, you can pull them out of cover or use the grapple to get a flanking shot. So I can definitely see their utility. But their firepower seems pretty weak for most of the game. Mox misses shots a lot. Even his justice ability misses a lot too. But, once you get the plasma gun, the Skirmisher's firepower improves a lot.
I do love the Reaper and the Templar. The Reaper is an outstanding scout. Knowing where the enemies are in advance is very powerful. And shadow concealment is fantastic. It is very useful, particularly when you need to sabotage an avatar facility. You can sneak your Reaper all the way into the facility, plant the X4 and evac your squad on the next turn. Being able to shoot while staying hidden is great. The claymore attack is also great. The Reaper is also excellent against the Assassin since she has a weakness to them.
The Templar starts off a bit weak but I am loving him when you get the celestial gauntlet. The melee damage is quite good and the parry attack is great at blocking an attack. You can basically get in close, finish off an enemy with immunity from the next attack. Yes, please!
I do love the Reaper and the Templar. The Reaper is an outstanding scout. Knowing where the enemies are in advance is very powerful. And shadow concealment is fantastic. It is very useful, particularly when you need to sabotage an avatar facility. You can sneak your Reaper all the way into the facility, plant the X4 and evac your squad on the next turn. Being able to shoot while staying hidden is great. The claymore attack is also great. The Reaper is also excellent against the Assassin since she has a weakness to them.
The Templar starts off a bit weak but I am loving him when you get the celestial gauntlet. The melee damage is quite good and the parry attack is great at blocking an attack. You can basically get in close, finish off an enemy with immunity from the next attack. Yes, please!
Ailedhoo
wonderer
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2012
- Messages
- 7,809
On the three classes:
Reapers are great thanks to their stealth, remote start, the potential with Molotov cocktails and the ease to flank enemies, though they do suffer if they used their cocktail and are dealing with multiple foes.
Templars are crazy with their melee damage, while parry allows early protection for them. Their switch ability is perhaps one of the best moves against the Assassin and when you have a Templar with Reaper skill...
Skirmishers I find quite handy for their mobility, the two shots per turn potential (with extended magazine) as a handy in Lost missions, the fact justice essentially a shield-bearer/general/officer slayer and the glory that is battlelord.
Reapers are great thanks to their stealth, remote start, the potential with Molotov cocktails and the ease to flank enemies, though they do suffer if they used their cocktail and are dealing with multiple foes.
Templars are crazy with their melee damage, while parry allows early protection for them. Their switch ability is perhaps one of the best moves against the Assassin and when you have a Templar with Reaper skill...
Skirmishers I find quite handy for their mobility, the two shots per turn potential (with extended magazine) as a handy in Lost missions, the fact justice essentially a shield-bearer/general/officer slayer and the glory that is battlelord.
Reapers:
excellent early game scouts and demolitions experts. can have high burst damage with banish, special ammo and sup. magazines. however in the late game they are not needed.
skirmishers:
they are mediocre through and through (support, firepower, burst damage). no place in the late game. high mobility
templars:
the weakest of the bunch, their damage falls off and while they are good with blademaster against the lost, sharpshooters are better. they always felt like a liability to me throughout the game. they are good at aoe damage, but xcom2 is more about few, but very tough and dangerous enemies so single target and control is king.
my ideal squad:
===mandatory===
1+2) psi ops:
important abilities: all
equipment: mimic beacon + blue screen rounds
==> best support class with stasis, domination and inspire
==> reliable psi damage
==> reliable mechanical unit killers
3) ranger:
important abilities: run and gun + rapid fire
equipment: talon rounds + wraith suit + sup. laser sight + sup. mobility pcs
==> insane burst damage, insane mobility, can kill anything
4) sharpshooter:
important abilities: lightning hands, quick draw, face off, fan fire.
equipment: venom rounds + sup. scope
==> long range damage, high burst medium range damage, kills all the lost (you need the reaper order, between the eyes though), good pseudo aoe with face off
=== optional ==
5) spark:
important abilities: adaptive aim, intimidate, repair, sacrifice
equipment: sup. mag + sup. scope
==> shreds armour, good burst damage, aoe heavy weapon, can protect the whole squad with sacrifice (intimidate panics ~50% of all organic enemies, has insane tanking capabilities )
6) specialist (this one is debatable):
important abilities: they are all mediocre at best, you just need a remote hacker on some missions
equipment: medkit + skulljack
==> ranged hacker, use aid protocol on spark with sacrifice ==> spark has 60 defence,5 armour and panics 50% of all organic enemies that shoot at your squad
how to remove cover: no need to, psi dmg is independent and the other classes either have 100+ aim or enough mobility to gain flanking shots
concealment/scouting: no need to, if you trigger one squad stasis 2 enemies and kill/dominate the remaining ones. if you trigger too many enemies: use sacrifice on your spark + aid protocol
weaknesses: burrowed chrysalids
i can't see any of the new prestige classes in this squad. you could replace the optional soldiers, but you will loose the sparks ability to save your whole squad if you triggered too many enemies and your psi soldiers are for some reason unable to control them.
what would chance this setup:
-more enemies: psi ops are to insanly good because pod sizes are small, 2 psi ops can remove 4 enemies in one turn (stasis + dominate). when was the last time you encountered a pod with 5+ enemies and the last few could not be dealt with 4 soldiers?
-some sort of traps that would force you to scout ahead (you can just use some ability points to spec the ranger into a scout as well)
excellent early game scouts and demolitions experts. can have high burst damage with banish, special ammo and sup. magazines. however in the late game they are not needed.
skirmishers:
they are mediocre through and through (support, firepower, burst damage). no place in the late game. high mobility
templars:
the weakest of the bunch, their damage falls off and while they are good with blademaster against the lost, sharpshooters are better. they always felt like a liability to me throughout the game. they are good at aoe damage, but xcom2 is more about few, but very tough and dangerous enemies so single target and control is king.
my ideal squad:
===mandatory===
1+2) psi ops:
important abilities: all
equipment: mimic beacon + blue screen rounds
==> best support class with stasis, domination and inspire
==> reliable psi damage
==> reliable mechanical unit killers
3) ranger:
important abilities: run and gun + rapid fire
equipment: talon rounds + wraith suit + sup. laser sight + sup. mobility pcs
==> insane burst damage, insane mobility, can kill anything
4) sharpshooter:
important abilities: lightning hands, quick draw, face off, fan fire.
equipment: venom rounds + sup. scope
==> long range damage, high burst medium range damage, kills all the lost (you need the reaper order, between the eyes though), good pseudo aoe with face off
=== optional ==
5) spark:
important abilities: adaptive aim, intimidate, repair, sacrifice
equipment: sup. mag + sup. scope
==> shreds armour, good burst damage, aoe heavy weapon, can protect the whole squad with sacrifice (intimidate panics ~50% of all organic enemies, has insane tanking capabilities )
6) specialist (this one is debatable):
important abilities: they are all mediocre at best, you just need a remote hacker on some missions
equipment: medkit + skulljack
==> ranged hacker, use aid protocol on spark with sacrifice ==> spark has 60 defence,5 armour and panics 50% of all organic enemies that shoot at your squad
how to remove cover: no need to, psi dmg is independent and the other classes either have 100+ aim or enough mobility to gain flanking shots
concealment/scouting: no need to, if you trigger one squad stasis 2 enemies and kill/dominate the remaining ones. if you trigger too many enemies: use sacrifice on your spark + aid protocol
weaknesses: burrowed chrysalids
i can't see any of the new prestige classes in this squad. you could replace the optional soldiers, but you will loose the sparks ability to save your whole squad if you triggered too many enemies and your psi soldiers are for some reason unable to control them.
what would chance this setup:
-more enemies: psi ops are to insanly good because pod sizes are small, 2 psi ops can remove 4 enemies in one turn (stasis + dominate). when was the last time you encountered a pod with 5+ enemies and the last few could not be dealt with 4 soldiers?
-some sort of traps that would force you to scout ahead (you can just use some ability points to spec the ranger into a scout as well)
I would change this slightly. Give both psi ops WAR suits instead and a mimic beacon. Bluescreen should be on the sharpshooter. Its a bit of a waste on the psi op. The boltcaster also works well on the psi op. As they dont often shoot so the 1 ammo isnt much of a deal.
I would also take a specialist. Purely for the ability to heal, but they are also great hackers so for any mission where you need to hack they are almost mandatory. They were always a bit meh in the original because you could either take a hacker or a medic. But now you can get both with the training centre so they are super useful and it frees up equipment slots on your other soldiers as you will only need 1 med kit. With the warlock gun, guardian, capacitator discharge and combat protocol they exonerate themselves quite well in combat.
A grenadier is also a good pick for the initial ambush IMO. The best opening you can make in any game is a proximity mine on a grenadier with salvo, and then follow it up with an acid bomb or other grenade/heavy weapon. That kills everything apart from the toughest enemies, and severely damages them. The rest can just mop up.
If i could only pick one squad for the whole game it would probably be:
1 psi op with WAR suit + mimic beacon
1 specialist with med kit & skulljack
1 Grenadier with WAR suit, acid bomb and proximity mine
1 Sharpshooter with either serpent or Icharus armour and bluescreen
1 Ranger with berseker armour & talon rounds
1 SPARK
Ailedhoo
wonderer
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2012
- Messages
- 7,809
Just playing my impossible game and...
SHE FOUND ME!
SHE HAS A GUN!
ITS A GREAT ONE!
Mission of defence set for a 10 member team.
This is going to be crazy.
Loaded and saved: will conduct a most awe of missions!
SHE FOUND ME!
Spoiler How are you, XCOM? :
SHE HAS A GUN!
Spoiler Someone has set up the gun :
ITS A GREAT ONE!
Spoiler what a cool load screen :
Mission of defence set for a 10 member team.
This is going to be crazy.
Loaded and saved: will conduct a most awe of missions!
i would agree if it weren't for the priests. you need a reliable dot source (i.e. venom/dragon rounds with a high aim soldier) to kill priests. (apply dot, trigger sustain and in their turn they get out of sustain and die from the dot). also with psi ops i found myself mainly using guns against mechanical enemies, whereas against organic enemies you have a lot of other psi options. also organic enemies are usually harder to hit (higher defence or cover).
i don't have the alien hunter dlc so i can't comment.
i barely used any medkits and most of the uses were in the early and mid game, i never used them in the late game. the problem i have with specialists and also with war suits/heavy weapons is a dislike of abilities and items that have limited use per mission. the only exception is the mimic beacon because it is simply that good. i usually bring 3 mimic beacons to any mission and use it maybe once every 3 missions, but the point is that if you need them they do their job really well.
even if the specialist would have no limits on his abilities he would still be a bad class especially compared to psi ops who has more reliable damage, better control and better assist abilities. he/she just can't hack remotely.
there are many good classes, but i picked the team above because almost every ability is cooldown based, so i don't really have to think about item/ability limitations. in vanilla my goto squad was 1 specialist and 5 grenadiers. you just flatten the map XD
in wotc i can see that you might lack in single target damage/utility with such a setup also you run into problems with the lost if you have 5 grens.
edit: i should alos note that i play with the second wave option that reduces grenade damage the further you are from the blast which is has a big impact in the decision making of bringing grens.
i don't doubt that this is a good team that gets the job done, but what we can agree on: none of the prestige classes make the cut.
i think our difference in team composition is mainly because i place more emphasis on battlefield control and cooldown based abilities. especially in the last mission grenadiers fall off hard because there are too many enemies.
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