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sincx posted:Heh is there a reason the viper king is (south park) Canadian? Guava is Canadian. The Viper King is Canadian. It just makes sense.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 02:47 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 14:01 |
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Wasn't the facility they found the Viper King based out of Canada, anyway?
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 02:48 |
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Andromedons, with their piss-poor Will stat, were pretty much my favorite enemy to run into early in a mission because I rushed Psionics. A dominated Andromedon makes for a VERY nice buddy and it saves you the hassle of having to deal with it.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 02:48 |
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HiHo ChiRho posted:Wasn't the facility they found the Viper King based out of Canada, anyway?
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 02:49 |
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If you are talking about what I think you talking about in regard to cubes, I would start crying if one of those things had a ruler version of it.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 02:51 |
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I forgot: Was there a time when your drink of the day was Tentacle Grape, Jade?
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 03:31 |
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Clearing up a point of confusion from Jade in the video: the basic shieldbearer does indeed make a 3-point barrier. The elite shieldbearer makes a 5-point shield.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 03:43 |
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I'm pretty sure you've always needed to get Skullmining to get the hacking boost. It's the actual reason to get it.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 03:51 |
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Andromedon's are my favourite new dudes in Xcom2, they're really dangerous but they're so easy to push around like you're the schoolyard bully. It feels really good being a prick to them. Plus MCing them is literally the best thing to do in this game, always MC them and use them as a meat shield to end all meat shields.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 04:34 |
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Does Guava just never keep his dudes remotely close together? Because i'm also a victim of "always get mech missled syndrome" and i've noticed that the mechs will always use their missiles if your dudes are within like 2-4 or maybe 5 squares of each other and if AOE damage is guaranteed.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 04:46 |
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Something like that Andromedon glitch happened to me while dealing with the Archon ruler. He fired off his barrage and knocked my Support unconscious, while taking out the roof she was standing on, and it wouldn't let my team pick her up even after I chased him off. I did a lot of prodding around and experimenting, and judging from her gremlin position and how people could walk all around where she actually should have been it seems like the physics engine had her still up on the roof. The engine doesn't seem to understand the concept of 'gravity' on more than a superficial level sometimes.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 05:23 |
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Andromedons are notable in another way, too - you do not want to kill them on the alien turn. When they die and turn into the mech suit, it counts as a new unit with an entirely new set of actions. I've killed them in an overwatch trap/concealment ambush, only to find they suddenly have two extra actions with which to charge up into my face and beat the snot out of my dudes with.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 05:28 |
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I love Andromedon's design. Some alien that's totally different from any other lifeform we've seen so far, piloting some sort of crazy Big Daddy style diving suit. Coming across them for the first time is a hell of an unpleasant surprise for a new player though when you don't know about the mech form. It's another one of those things that's just a gently caress you surprise to a new player, thinking you've safely eliminated a dangerous new enemy, and then surprise! It just gets back up like some kind of mechanical zombie and starts spraying acid everywhere. Like when you first skulljack an Officer and a Codex pops out; you just have no idea it's going to happen and screw you if you weren't prepared for something you had no way of knowing to be prepared for. Also, in another Jake Fix Your Game moment, Andromedons are annoying in that if you debuff one and kill it, the mech form doesn't keep any of the debuffs. I assume because behind the scenes it just spawns a new enemy when the Andromedon dies, and the new enemy doesn't keep any info like debuffs from the original.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 05:59 |
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sincx posted:Heh is there a reason the viper king is (south park) Canadian? At this timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOeLwgQUBU4&t=2807s HOOLY BOOLY posted:Does Guava just never keep his dudes remotely close together? I guess not. Aside from obvious skill choice reasons, I would NEVER use my SPARK as high cover since you'd have two units next to each other. You're asking for a grenading that way.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 06:03 |
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You can usually fix LOS glitches like that by saving and reloading the game.
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# ? Dec 30, 2016 17:37 |
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That Andromedon clearly just had the ability "Conceal", which is how he was hiding in plain sight.
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 03:03 |
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Wouldn't it be an Andromedon Queen, then the Cube King?
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 04:05 |
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Has anybody made a mod that replaces the Viper suit's grapple with its scarf?
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# ? Dec 31, 2016 15:18 |
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Brunom1 posted:Andromedons, with their piss-poor Will stat, were pretty much my favorite enemy to run into early in a mission because I rushed Psionics. A dominated Andromedon makes for a VERY nice buddy and it saves you the hassle of having to deal with it. My favorite X-Com 2 moment was when my dominated 'Cube' raised a dead avatar as a zombie in the final mission. I had no idea that was even possible.
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# ? Jan 4, 2017 01:23 |
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Operation Lune's a top agent and an even better shot The push into Europe begins! Finally with some time, supplies, and intel I can push into Europe to secure its continent bonus, income, and more importantly access to ADVENT facilities in eastern Europe and then beyond. Tech continues to plod away and make some nice new gear available, but at a huge cost of supplies so it'll be a while before everyone gets fully kitted out. Also the Spokesman is a dick. Seriously. 1 unavoidable Avatar project tick up in the ocean, 1 alien facility constructed, and 1 dark event goes off and he calls my performance mediocre? It's not like I could do anything to stop any of those things. Eat a dick spokesman. Did you see that Archon King die two missions ago? No? Well how about you one shot an alien with 104hp huh? What a dick. Okay more seriously new and cool poo poo shows up in this mission. Starting with the beginnings of plasma weapons. It's about what you'd expect, more damage per gun, but the slow but steady increase in enemy health means we need the extra damage from the weapon upgrade to keep up with them. It keeps aliens in the range of 2-3 shots to down versus 4 or more. That makes a huge difference. The supplies cost is really steep though, and beyond basic rifles and the Spark cannon it's going to be a while before we get plasmas online for everyone else. We will get around to some of the other toys like bluescreen rounds when we can afford the supply costs. Right now though I need supplies of the basic weapon upgrades and to keep a small stash of supplies on hand to build radio towers to continue my expansion. New enemy type! I bet you thought Faceless were the new Retaliation Mission Thing huh? Yeah they show up in the first retaliation mission and you get this far into the game with out seeing chrysalids that you might have forgot about them. They were the first cutscene enemy reveal in the first game, and then Faceless stole that this time around so maybe players got complacent and forgot these guys were out there, waiting for you. They aren't terribly more powerful that the first time around. Bradford makes some remarks that they seem smaller, which might hint at small changes to them. Such as they seem to move a lot farther than before, and seem to have gotten around the limitations of only being able to attack if they could single move into a spot adjacent to their target. Now they can behave like rangers or stun lancers to cover a lot of distance before striking on the same turn. They can cover an alarming amount of distance before attacking in fact. A bullshittingly large amount of distance. On top of that they can now burrow beneath the ground to wait for you and trigger a sort of melee charge overwatch. Scanning items are a big plus in dealing with this. The last big problem from them is Jake's focus on turn limits, or in retaliation missions civilian deaths. Most of the time you are not afforded the luxury of slowly creeping around with overwatch on all your men every turn. You need to move and save civilians and that will often end up with some Chrysalids in your face. Aside from that though they are largely the same, a few more HP put them safely outside of 1 hit kill range even with plasma weapons (not counting critical hits), though just barely. They still are melee only and will cause poison on attack. Dying while poisoned is still very bad, though it has changed from a zombie for 3 turns to turning into a cocoon. The cocoon that forms has a large pool of HP, I believe around 30, and if it is not killed quickly it will spawn another chrysalid. That's a lot of HP to chew through to deal with it, but the upside is that its a turn where it's not doing anything, unlike the previous game where someone killed could get up as a zombie and punch you the very next turn. The typical ways of dealing with chrysalids still remain from the first game. Typically on pod reveal they will move in a bunch straight at you, they don't use cover so they don't spread out and thus can usually be a easy target for explosives. Rangers no longer have the close combat free reaction shot at something within 4 tiles skill access from the first game, but Blade Storm can work much the same way. Keep in mind a sword strike is unlikely to kill a full HP chrysalid. Scanning beacons or scan protocol will flush chrysalids out of subterranean hiding and are good calls to help mitigate unwanted surprises. Chrysalid attacks are also not armor penetrating so heavily armored soldiers or a SPARK can mitigate a fair amount of damage received, though the poison is still a serious problem that needs to be dealt with ASAP. Bring medkits to deal with poison and wounds to keep them on the map and fighting. Or be like Guavamoment and evac poisoned soldiers cause Firebrand must keep medkits in the back of the Skyranger. Doing that leaves you shorter on manpower, of course. Support Colonel rank - Restoration vs Capacitor Discharge Like most of the other support choices this one is probably already determined for you by your other choices. Do you want a medic or an anti-mechanical operative? Restoration is a wonderful panic button to hit in case things go poorly in a hurry. For a single action a support can have the Gremlin fly to every injured soldier and either heal them or cute stat/unconsciousness as needed. This is an amazing recovery ability that can help recover your troops and keep you in the fight and reverse a situation which might otherwise look at a retreat or risk of death. Capacitor Discharge is a once per mission area of effect attack with the potential to stun enemies and deals extra damage to robotic units. This is a pretty hefty nuke option, and it can lay out a lot of hurt at once. While best used against robotics, normally it's unlikely to find more than two robots close enough together to really make use of its extra anti-mechanical properties. It will still seriously damage or debilitate the one mech and wound any advent nearby. A solid choice for when the giant robotic crab of the mission shows up. Winner: Like so many support choices, it's about Medic vs Combat Support. Take your pick Ranger Colonel Rank - Rapid Fire vs Reaper Both skills are damage dealing in nature and so they don't separate as nicely into Scout vs Assault choices. However the clear choice is Rapid Fire for it's ability to double your damage output on tough targets and to be used every single turn. No cooldown. If Rapid Fire had a cooldown, and Reaper's cooldown was shorter there may be a discussion here, but that's not the case. Get Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire works the same as in the first game. Giving a soldier two shots for one action cost. Each shot suffers a -15% aim penalty, but as people who have done the math and plotted the graphs has shown you are always better off rapid firing if your shot is in the 35-95% range. The only times to not Rapid Fire is essentially when you're conserving ammo for the next turn, don't have two rounds loaded, or have a 100% shot that will kill if it hits. Always be rapid firing. Reaper is a cool skill in theory, it just doesn't quite work out as well as I think it was intended. Reaper gives a ranger the ability to chain sword strikes one after another as long as the sword strikes are killing blows. Mechanically that's done by refunding the action cost it takes to dash, so after a sword strike you can make a regular move and blast someone with a shotgun if you like to end a Reaper chain. With a 4 turn cooldown, diminishing damage dealt after each attack, and requiring a killing blow after each hit to continue going, Reaper has some strong draw backs. Full value of Reaper would require set up, leaving a number of enemies at low health explicitly so the Reaper could finish them off. Winner: Rapid Fire. ABRF. SPARK Paladin Rank - Channeling Field vs Hunter Protocol At first glance both of these skills seem underwhelming to me. Channeling Field sounds nifty, but a +1 damage for one turn isn't really going to make a huge different in a firefight by the time you have a Paladin SPARK. Hunter Protocol relies on low percentage chances to activate and I am never in favor of counting on things with one in three odds. Guava makes good cases for both of these skills since I'm not fond of either. With Bulwark and Intimidate selected previously Channeling Field looks a little more attractive. With two skills that boost the SPARK's performance in relation to being shot at a third would synergize pretty well. A Bulwark SPARK is out there to draw fire anyway, why not give it the ability to return fire with a little more power behind its shot? Still the single point of added damage, for one turn, seems very underwhelming to me. Hunter Protocol has potential to be a big swing hit, seriously weakening a just revealed pod of aliens. The problem for me is the 33% chance to activate per alien. As Guava rightfully mentions that is statistically a free shot on a pod of 3 aliens. I think he however overstates how much good that will do, as it still relies on a SPARK with their mediocre aim hitting an overwatch shot. Still it has potential to be pretty impactful during a mission and may wipe out or weaken a member of a fresh pod. Winner: I am not enthusiastic either way. However I am leaning toward Hunter Protocol because it has potential to be meaningful. Where Channeling Field will likely only translate to 3 or 4 extra damage dealt over the course of a mission at best, a single activation of Hunter Protocol that hits it's target is looking at 8-10 damage dealt. Jade Star fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jan 12, 2017 |
# ? Jan 9, 2017 13:42 |
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Good work, commander, this is gonna look great on your record...WHEN THE ALIENS GET A HOLD OF THE AVENGER
Lunethex fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Jan 9, 2017 |
# ? Jan 9, 2017 13:50 |
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Alessandra probably would have been a godsend on this mission with her shredding sniper rifle.
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 14:14 |
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The main issue I recall with Capacitor Discharge is that unlike Combat Protocol it doesn't ignore armour?
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 18:40 |
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You're right, the tier 3 spark weapon fires some kind of... science foam? at targets. It certainly isn't the coherent plasma beams that most of the other weapons fire.
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 19:04 |
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I can confirm, for the record, that Stasis works on Rulers, and freezes them for a full turn!
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 20:26 |
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Moar Guavacat!
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 23:24 |
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Well I wound up buying this for cheap off the Humble Subscription. THANKS JADE STAR.
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 23:31 |
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Kwyndig posted:You're right, the tier 3 spark weapon fires some kind of... science foam? at targets. It certainly isn't the coherent plasma beams that most of the other weapons fire.
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# ? Jan 9, 2017 23:41 |
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I continue to agree with the choices for my psi training.
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# ? Jan 10, 2017 07:29 |
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I feel like this game really ups the 'sorry player, we hate you' bullshit to 11 compared to the last game and its expansion. I bought this during the Steam sale but I sure as hell wasn't paying for the DLC that will allow me to get murdered by the rulers. The base game throws enough crap at you already.
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# ? Jan 10, 2017 14:18 |
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It's difficult to make a game that is hard but fair, especially when has become a kind of catchphrase.
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# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:38 |
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Wheany posted:It's difficult to make a game that is hard but fair, especially when has become a kind of catchphrase. Just look at Long War. There's a certain strain of player who relishes games being as hard as possible, and X-COM has a reputation for attracting that type of person.
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# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:41 |
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I guess, but if a game tries to do that it usually has a separate mode like say Fallout NV/4 had the survival mode or whatever it was that had no fast travel and you had to regularly eat and drink
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# ? Jan 10, 2017 15:52 |
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I also bought XCOM 2 on the Humble thing, and have therefore started watching this LP Compared to XCOM 1, it seems like I'm much better at loving up completely, so I'm glad I have your videos to help me get a feel for enemy behaviors in my downtime.
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# ? Jan 11, 2017 21:04 |
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I forgot skill selection talk from the last video! Oops. Support Colonel rank - Restoration vs Capacitor Discharge Like most of the other support choices this one is probably already determined for you by your other choices. Do you want a medic or an anti-mechanical operative? Restoration is a wonderful panic button to hit in case things go poorly in a hurry. For a single action a support can have the Gremlin fly to every injured soldier and either heal them or cute stat/unconsciousness as needed. This is an amazing recovery ability that can help recover your troops and keep you in the fight and reverse a situation which might otherwise look at a retreat or risk of death. Capacitor Discharge is a once per mission area of effect attack with the potential to stun enemies and deals extra damage to robotic units. This is a pretty hefty nuke option, and it can lay out a lot of hurt at once. While best used against robotics, normally it's unlikely to find more than two robots close enough together to really make use of its extra anti-mechanical properties. It will still seriously damage or debilitate the one mech and wound any advent nearby. A solid choice for when the giant robotic crab of the mission shows up. Winner: Like so many support choices, it's about Medic vs Combat Support. Take your pick Ranger Colonel Rank - Rapid Fire vs Reaper Both skills are damage dealing in nature and so they don't separate as nicely into Scout vs Assault choices. However the clear choice is Rapid Fire for it's ability to double your damage output on tough targets and to be used every single turn. No cooldown. If Rapid Fire had a cooldown, and Reaper's cooldown was shorter there may be a discussion here, but that's not the case. Get Rapid Fire. Rapid Fire works the same as in the first game. Giving a soldier two shots for one action cost. Each shot suffers a -15% aim penalty, but as people who have done the math and plotted the graphs has shown you are always better off rapid firing if your shot is in the 35-95% range. The only times to not Rapid Fire is essentially when you're conserving ammo for the next turn, don't have two rounds loaded, or have a 100% shot that will kill if it hits. Always be rapid firing. Reaper is a cool skill in theory, it just doesn't quite work out as well as I think it was intended. Reaper gives a ranger the ability to chain sword strikes one after another as long as the sword strikes are killing blows. Mechanically that's done by refunding the action cost it takes to dash, so after a sword strike you can make a regular move and blast someone with a shotgun if you like to end a Reaper chain. With a 4 turn cooldown, diminishing damage dealt after each attack, and requiring a killing blow after each hit to continue going, Reaper has some strong draw backs. Full value of Reaper would require set up, leaving a number of enemies at low health explicitly so the Reaper could finish them off. Winner: Rapid Fire. ABRF. SPARK Paladin Rank - Channeling Field vs Hunter Protocol At first glance both of these skills seem underwhelming to me. Channeling Field sounds nifty, but a +1 damage for one turn isn't really going to make a huge different in a firefight by the time you have a Paladin SPARK. Hunter Protocol relies on low percentage chances to activate and I am never in favor of counting on things with one in three odds. Guava makes good cases for both of these skills since I'm not fond of either. With Bulwark and Intimidate selected previously Channeling Field looks a little more attractive. With two skills that boost the SPARK's performance in relation to being shot at a third would synergize pretty well. A Bulwark SPARK is out there to draw fire anyway, why not give it the ability to return fire with a little more power behind its shot? Still the single point of added damage, for one turn, seems very underwhelming to me. Hunter Protocol has potential to be a big swing hit, seriously weakening a just revealed pod of aliens. The problem for me is the 33% chance to activate per alien. As Guava rightfully mentions that is statistically a free shot on a pod of 3 aliens. I think he however overstates how much good that will do, as it still relies on a SPARK with their mediocre aim hitting an overwatch shot. Still it has potential to be pretty impactful during a mission and may wipe out or weaken a member of a fresh pod. Winner: I am not enthusiastic either way. However I am leaning toward Hunter Protocol because it has potential to be meaningful. Where Channeling Field will likely only translate to 3 or 4 extra damage dealt over the course of a mission at best, a single activation of Hunter Protocol that hits it's target is looking at 8-10 damage dealt.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 01:57 |
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According to the wiki, Channeling Field procs each time the spark is targeted, so if Julian gets shot twice he gets 2 more damage.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:11 |
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Still, I'm not a fan of any perk or build where "get shot" is part of how it works.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:17 |
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Cythereal posted:Still, I'm not a fan of any perk or build where "get shot" is part of how it works. Yeah, all the other active response stuff in game works specifically if you don't get hit as well. Still, anything which relies on the enemy taking a turn (that isn't overwatch related) is a bad pick.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:31 |
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overlordbunny posted:According to the wiki, Channeling Field procs each time the spark is targeted, so if Julian gets shot twice he gets 2 more damage. Right, if he gets shot twice in one turn. The bonus does not accumulate over the course of the mission. It's 1 damage for 1 shot, for the next turn.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 02:54 |
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# ? May 30, 2024 14:01 |
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If you're planning on building a second SPARK, I really hope you spec it like Guava does just so we can see if Hunter+WreckingBall lives up to the hype.
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# ? Jan 12, 2017 04:42 |