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I thought you couldn't level up twice in a mission, it pools the xp for the next mission for a 'free' levelup? Maybe this is a hero-unit thing?
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Mar 19, 2019 09:33
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| # ? May 30, 2024 23:37 |
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Serephina posted:I thought you couldn't level up twice in a mission, it pools the xp for the next mission for a 'free' levelup? Maybe this is a hero-unit thing? Hero units start at squaddie
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Mar 19, 2019 10:28
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Well dang, that makes a lot of sense. I also have an image of a what a rookie templar might look like. "No, you don't get psi blades until you level up. Now here, take this grenade and go be useful, whydontcha?"
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Mar 19, 2019 11:14
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Skirmishers seriously needed a buff.
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Mar 19, 2019 11:53
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I just send mine on covert ops until they’re at least a lieutenant, if not a captain. They need to learn, but I don’t have the time or patience to be a teacher 
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Mar 19, 2019 12:07
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Zomborgon posted:Skirmishers seriously needed a buff. The mod that changes a few abilities to have cooldowns instead of charges helps a ton.
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Mar 19, 2019 12:32
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Ravenfood posted:The mod that changes a few abilities to have cooldowns instead of charges helps a ton. I use that mod. They still need a buff. Reapers break the game over their knee, Templar mobility and ability to draw enemy fire away from your other troops is invaluable. Skirmishes.... Can take two low-damage low-aim shots in a row? Their best ability is pulling enemies out of cover, but only working on basic troops cuts out all the actually scary enemies in the game, and it has a cool down measured in eons, and it has garbage aim until your skirmisher is near max rank. Beyond that I basically bring one out to hand out action points on missions where a chosen is weak to skirmishers. In every other situation every other class is just way stronger.
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Mar 19, 2019 15:56
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Is the complaint about skirmishers something specific to legendary difficulty that fundamentally makes them worse because they are absolutely fantastic on commander
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Mar 19, 2019 16:02
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Taffer posted:I use that mod. They still need a buff. I think I had a mod at one point that allows their abilities to crit and whiplash one-shot a sectopod
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Mar 19, 2019 16:05
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Taffer posted:I use that mod. They still need a buff. Justice, Wrath, Whiplash and Retribution are legitimately very strong abilities and used to be insanely broken before they nerfed the Ripjack stun chance. I usually do a personal re-balance for the Skirmisher which fixes Battlelord, gets rid of the charges for Whiplash and the other abilities with the baffling 1/mission restriction and buffs their damage by 1 point for both the Ripjack and the Bullpup. This makes them probably my favorite Faction Soldier and has them able to do a lot on basically any mission. This is coupled with playing on Legendary and with ABA though, in vanilla I think people undersell their value a bit.
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Mar 19, 2019 16:08
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In my experience, skirmishers are great with extended mags / autoloaders and some special ammo. They can move for free and then shoot twice per turn, why not leverage the hell out of that?
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Mar 19, 2019 16:19
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Yea my skirmisher always got the best magazine upgrade available, along with a scope and a repeater. If you’ve got a 6-round mag and a superior repeater, your odds of outright executing an alien are close to once per full magazine, as long as you can land the shot. My last skirmisher had a fun habit of executing sectopods once I had his gun set up just right.
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Mar 19, 2019 16:29
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Skirmishers dont get a lot of love because they're less flashy than the other two and need to be carried for a while, but they can put out an absolutely incredible amount of damage per turn once you're getting plasma tech
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Mar 19, 2019 16:32
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Skirmishers are fine, they have their niche, any class with cooldown based Inspire and a free action attack can't be that bad.
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Mar 19, 2019 16:33
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Skirmishers are almost fine, their colonel level skills are junk as are several other skills. Its honestly just best to take the AP from colonel and invest it in several smaller skills.
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Mar 19, 2019 16:52
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If there was a skill that was just "Justice 2 Justice Harder" and gave you a second justice skill with it's own individual cooldown I'd legit pay 50 AP for it on every skirmisher I have. It's the rudest move and I adore it
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Mar 19, 2019 16:56
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Backhand posted:In my experience, skirmishers are great with extended mags / autoloaders and some special ammo. They can move for free and then shoot twice per turn, why not leverage the hell out of that? Yeah I should have put the caveat in my post that the GTS upgrade for them is actually insane. I often forget about GTS upgrades till late in the game because most of them give relatively small benefits (compared to things like weapon and armor upgrades, anyway), but the skirmisher one practically makes them a new class.
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Mar 19, 2019 17:32
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Oh my god I forgot the GTS exists I have everything researched and have only ever bought the squad size upgrades 
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Mar 19, 2019 17:52
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I think skirmishers are A++ for the whole game and reapers are the ones who have to be babysat at the start. You have to give your skirmisher the best scope and best free reloader you have. Then you need to try to play around getting 2 attacks every turn (and hey they have grapple for free so you can often do that with no thinking required). Get Zero In and their aim is fine, and then with special ammo you can do filthy things like double bluescreen a sectopod.
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Mar 19, 2019 18:04
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yeah i'm not getting the skirmisher hate, skirmishers own and the thing that makes them not as good as reapers is as simple as 'does not literally break the game directly in two' templars are the redheaded stepchildren of the faction classes for sure.
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Mar 19, 2019 18:18
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The only downside with Templars is that they make every other class look like a tiny stupid baby as they drop the bass and blend every Lost and whatever dipshit chosen decided to show up on the map
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Mar 19, 2019 18:25
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The main problem with Templars are that they are a very Win More class. There's very few situations where things have gone to poo poo where I feel like I would have been better off with a Templar. If you can feed them the kills to use their good abilities the chances are you are in control of the situation anyway. Whereas if you are in over your head bringing a Templar is very risky. Legacy missions especially illustrate this.
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Mar 19, 2019 18:30
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Yeah their mobility and versatility are both great. Grapple to two flank shots, or pull yourself to an enemy (don't forget they get a version of Bladestorm so they can basically attack twice with this if the target survives the first) and then shoot another enemy you've now flanked, or use Wrath and Justice to set up for a total of 4 melee attacks in one round, etc. Plus the mod that makes Whiplash cooldown based let's them gently caress up robotic enemies a lot as a free action, which is always nice. They aren't really flashy, and they're not utterly gamebreaking like high level Reapers, but they're basically always solid. Shame about their Colonel level skills, I guess, but you can't have everything. If Reapers and Darklance didn't exist they'd probably be the best class, and even without that they're the most fun and my favorite. Using them feels a bit like playing Into the Breach, and I like it. E: yeah, Templar just don't quite do it for me. They've got an interesting skill set with all of their mobility options, but never quite good enough imo, and they need to be fed kills. They start off strong as a "gently caress sectoids" button and fall off hard. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 18:33
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Danaru posted:The only downside with Templars is that they make every other class look like a tiny stupid baby as they drop the bass and blend every Lost and whatever dipshit chosen decided to show up on the map Their loyalty to the xcom project is truly admirable in the face of how many you get killed. Fangz posted:The main problem with Templars are that they are a very Win More class. There's very few situations where things have gone to poo poo where I feel like I would have been better off with a Templar. Do you not use the ability that makes enemies sometimes drop psi power on death? My templar tend to be at full strength after the first pack. FoolyCharged fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 18:35
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If your Skirmisher is walking instead of grappling everywhere and then taking double shots, you’re doing it wrong. In a game of action economy, Skirms are king, especially if you get something like Salvo to destroy cover and then shoot the exposed Advent after.
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Mar 19, 2019 18:56
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I've only been able to beat gatecrasher on legendary with no injuries or deaths by using a skirmisher. Everyone else someone usually dies. I then installed a mod to cheat past it because lmao gently caress trying to do that again and lord knows my lovely rookies aren't surviving the second mission when the lost inevitably show up and they bumble every shot. I don't feel bad at all about it because I know I can do it it's just a matter of the rookies not loving every three shots up and I'm not waiting around for that  quote:If your Skirmisher is walking instead of grappling everywhere and then taking double shots, you’re doing it wrong. In a game of action economy, Skirms are king, especially if you get something like Salvo to destroy cover and then shoot the exposed Advent after. The LOS bugs generally don't permit this without you immediately regretting it like the time I grappled a skirmisher to the top of the level in the sewers which triggered about 20 aliens versus 4 squaddies. They didn't make it. RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 19:09
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FoolyCharged posted:Do you not use the ability that makes enemies sometimes drop psi power on death? My templar tend to be at full strength after the first pack. No, because it's a lot of points, and because collecting the psi power usually amounts to wasting the Templar's turn. I don't think that having that skill makes the templar less of a Win More, also. Just feels like a lot of the time the Templar feels like a worse Ranger. Fangz fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 19:52
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It probably just comes down to how you play and what perks they luck into because a Templar parry blademaster reaper is impossibly good and the reaper's "warcrime the entire map in one shot" ability combined with "alpha strike anything to death" and "see everything everywhere" also is unless you care about not warcriming civilian collaborators Skirmishers moving a billion times, giving everyone else moves or acting like an alien ruler is also good but not immediately so to me, but they're also good out the door while Templars can easily trigger a pod if you're not extra careful and wipe you and reapers are sneakier, shittier rangers until they level up.
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Mar 19, 2019 20:33
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skirmishers are probably a good class, it's just the other two can kill like sooooo many dudes all in one go that 'versatility' really doesn't shine. shooting twice after a free move? sure, that's nice, but there's a reaper over there who just demolished an entire city block, two pods, six civilians and a chosen, all without breaking stealth. there's probably a style of gameplay where niche tactical manouvering is totally rewarding, but I'm just gonna nuke the map and raze it to rubble.
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Mar 19, 2019 20:49
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For what it's worth, I think it's complete madness to start out at the Templar or Skirmisher HQ on Hard or Hardest (whatever they're called, I always get em confused. Ironman Impossible.). The Reaper lets you choose your engagements far beyond what the Skirmisher can mitigate with two shots, and is the opposite of the Templar in that they don't have to sprint forward and activate the rest of the map. (sidebar, you only grapple to places you're pretty sure are safe. )
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Mar 19, 2019 20:59
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IMO Templars should always, always have the skill that causes things to drop psionic energy, because it has a pretty good chance to instantly give them a free energy pickup on every kill they get, on top of allowing them to run around recharging when you use up their brain mana. Volt and the other Focus-consuming powers are actually extremely strong situational abilities - but most players hesitate to use them because of that little instinct saying "no, Rend (with Parry) is the best ability, don't do anything that makes Rend weaker." Once you get past that and start playing them a little more fast and loose and really using their whole toolkit, they become way more interesting and tactically valuable. Having more consistent access to ready Focus recovery makes it a lot easier to do that. Simply put, Templars are at their best when used to round off all the rough edges of your team - guaranteed finishing attacks on wounded enemies, deployable full cover, the ability to knock enemies out of cover, multi-hit lightning attacks that can pull off zany banking trick shots and also put a beefy holotarget bonus on everything they hit, a psionic Rupture-style debuff, loving teleport powers? Templars are completely loving insane at higher levels, but only if you're really trying to think cleverly about how you use them. They're rarely going to be single-handed death machines (except, of course, where Bladestorm/Reaper/etc become involved), but they're extremely potent force multipliers if you really put some forethought into how they can maximize the rest of the team's safety and lethality.
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Mar 19, 2019 21:03
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Bogart posted:For what it's worth, I think it's complete madness to start out at the Templar or Skirmisher HQ on Hard or Hardest (whatever they're called, I always get em confused. Ironman Impossible.). The Reaper lets you choose your engagements far beyond what the Skirmisher can mitigate with two shots, and is the opposite of the Templar in that they don't have to sprint forward and activate the rest of the map. (sidebar, you only grapple to places you're pretty sure are safe. My problem with that is on gatecrasher I can pick my engagements with the reaper, but my lovely rookies are not going to take on the squad with the sectoid and win without the reaper attacking, which leads to doing the entire thing normally past the first pod anyway except someone has a shittier gun Gatecrasher is hard 
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Mar 19, 2019 21:39
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Use a claymore and have someone else detonate it with a grenade. That’s two shots free for mopping up the sectoid or officer.
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Mar 19, 2019 21:55
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if you have a reaper on gatecrasher you should be able to dumpster one pod with the reaper all by themself. throwing the claymore does not end the turn, so you can effectively just keep the reaper cooling their heels near a pod until they patrol into range. then the reaper's 2 actions are throw claymore -> shoot claymore and an entire pod straight up evaporates. this doesn't even blow your concealment if the whole pod dies in the blast.
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Mar 19, 2019 22:23
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I don't think I like focus giving additional damage. It means that actually using powers feels bad even if actually using them is by far the best option. I honestly think Templar are the weakest of the three faction classes and would probably be fine if they had Rend damage just set to full Focus (maybe one less than full) at all times so that they could be free to use their powers without hurting their damage output. Another option is to make them able to use abilities with Momentum instead of just movement or Parry, but I like the first better. E: could always peg damage to maximum focus gained during a mission to the current values too. The other option could be to make it so that Templar gain half the current damage they do, but are basically uncapped with how much they gain. Two separate scales, usable, spendable Focus and just damage bonuses gained on Focus pickup. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Mar 19, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 22:44
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Coolguye posted:if you have a reaper on gatecrasher you should be able to dumpster one pod with the reaper all by themself. throwing the claymore does not end the turn, so you can effectively just keep the reaper cooling their heels near a pod until they patrol into range. then the reaper's 2 actions are throw claymore -> shoot claymore and an entire pod straight up evaporates. Right but then I'm back to "the rookies are missing God help me"
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Mar 19, 2019 23:02
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Ravenfood posted:I don't think I like focus giving additional damage. It means that actually using powers feels bad even if actually using them is by far the best option. I honestly think Templar are the weakest of the three faction classes and would probably be fine if they had Rend damage just set to full Focus (maybe one less than full) at all times so that they could be free to use their powers without hurting their damage output. I actually think that another great compromise would be simply changing Momentum to fire off of all Templar-specific psionics. People would be a lot more likely to sling Volt around or use the various cool brainspells if they also got to make the Templar move or Parry afterwards. That would really cement them as the wildly versatile Batman class, too, since you could pull some seriously weird, clever, situational poo poo with them. Plus, you could occasionally spend Focus to shoot lightning or teleport around or whatever, then immediately run and grab some psionic energy to top up on the same turn. e: hell, that would even let them move -> Pillar -> Momentum move to the full cover created by Pillar for an extremely effective "oh god this isn't going well" rapid retreat in any direction. There's all sorts of interesting things you could do with that kind of action flexibility. Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Mar 20, 2019 |
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Mar 19, 2019 23:57
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According to an Instagram post I just saw. XCOM 2 will be free to play on Steam from March 21-25.
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Mar 21, 2019 11:41
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A Templar of mine came down with a case of Compulsive Reloader. It would still be a problem if she came down with a second negative trait and prolonged her therapy sessions, but I thought it was funny.
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Mar 21, 2019 22:08
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| # ? May 30, 2024 23:37 |
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So I just did a legendary run with self imposed ironman. And I juuuust pull myself out of a real tailspin where I just took snipers and rookies on a mission and actually beat it (lost heavy map, psi storm sitrep and I had the order for one shotting lost) because all my good troops were injured only to realise comm stations take forever to build and the next black site is way far away. My build order was also shot to poo poo obviously because for some reason I was trying to get down to a power coupling instead of building the aforementioned commstation... Anyway. I have one blip left on the project and one regions I need to contact before a blacksite , resistance comms take 16 days ish. Doable or restart? How long is the doomsday timer? (I thought I would have covert ops to help reduce avatar progress  )
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Mar 22, 2019 07:44
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