The Commander's Field Manual to the XCOM 2 Resistance

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Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Cythereal posted:

And a nice second mission for Alessandra, picking up an officer and sectoid kill.

As beefy as sectoids have gotten, would I be wrong to say they sound like they were more dangerous in Enemy Unknown?

Honestly they give the same type of feeling of threat level as Berserkers did in the first game. As in they are easy enough to deal with as long as you can retain control of the situation, but should poo poo start hitting the fan then they can do a lot of damage.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2016 14:51

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 06:21

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Obviously it is a sectoid tradition to present themselves to worthy warriors who are able to overcome them in battle like Amazons. This explains why Lobstar went straight for the taint as he really didn't want to put up with any of that nonsense.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2016 03:04

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

MechaCrash posted:

Yeah, this doesn't make any sense. If Julian needs Lily so badly, why is he deploying a bunch of robots with orders to shoot her?

Also something which I hadn't noticed until just now is that there are no SHIVs or equivalent in this game. There's the Sparks, sure, but those are DLC, and they also gain experience. Were SHIVs shelved for shittiness? As I recall, they were expensive in the first game, and by the time you could reliably afford them, they couldn't keep up with actual trained soldiers.

Late game shivs were quite useful due to all having plasma cannons and the ability to fly. Fielding a full squad of them was great as you could just laugh at concepts such as cover or self preservation.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 05:24

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

I am surprised how harshly Reaper is viewed. Yes the drop off in damage is a pain and there is always a chance that the sword strike will miss and thus break the chain, however there are ways to get around that. The free ax throw can be used in the middle of a reaper chain without ending it, and if you set up the chain just right, you can end it with the shotgun to take care of the toughest enemy in a group. That and it is great in timed missions as it is a way for a single soldier to clean up an encounter and push forward at the same time.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2016 17:18

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

ulmont posted:

Reaper is a very nice ability, and if it was up against almost any other Ranger ability I'd take Reaper.

Unfortunately, Reaper is against Rapid Fire.

Fair enough. I suppose i just never felt the need for Rapid Fire as gunslinger with face off can handle most of my high damage needs.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2016 17:31

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

I had no idea you could get seriel as a bonus skill. That does make it kind of a shame that a ranger didn't get it as that would allow that character with the right gear to clear out an entire map worth of enemies in one turn by themselves.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2016 15:59

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Try using an acid grenade on the berserker queen as it has a chance on glitching it and making the queen just stand still and take the damage.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2016 03:08

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

I like ChristopherOdds Xcom2 lp stuff. He did a decent breakdown of each class ability and overall he seemed very to the point with his videos.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2016 13:05

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Face Off adds to the toolkit that a gunslinger brings to the table. It works as a great way to either start a turn by activating a pod by doing o.k. damage and applying status effects on the enemies, allowing you to start writing off enemies once they only have a couple of health, or as a solid closer by killing a bunch of enemies that are just clinging on to life.

Jade star: What is your view on Fan fire?

# ¿ Nov 19, 2016 16:57

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

CJacobs posted:

Every new enemy type we meet makes this game look less fun to play.

None of the enemies are too bad on Commander difficulty that we have seen so far. Hell, even the Sectopod is a lot more manageable now then in the last game with the right skills and ammo types. Of course the final regular enemy is a complete nightmare to fight.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 03:39

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

You committed the biggest mistake you could for the ruler archon and you did not lose anybody.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 15:10

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Green Intern posted:

I have never seen the Archon King do that level of bullshit. What the hell?

Jade got kind of unlucky, but from when I did something like that, he got three actions in a row.

Edit: Also the worst place to fight an Archon is in a certain mission we have not seen yet. Watching your units get jammed on the roof whilst the rest of your squad is unable to do anything about the rear end in a top hat is a nightmare.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 17:24

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

The trick with repeaters is to throw it on to people who have the chance to take multiple shots a turn. For example a repeater on a sharpshooter works great as skills such as Kill Zone mean that you increase the chance of the repeater activating.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 02:20

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

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.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 02:51

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

InwardChaos posted:

I've had a nice happy spot in my heart for Psi Operatives ever since I first used Void Rift.

I used it on a pod of 3 Sectoids, knocking them all down to 2-3 health. Then, the insanity check occurred, and MIND CONTROLLED ALL 3 OF THEM!

I've never had a mind control from Rift result since...

I have had it mind control berserkers and even the last normal rear end in a top hat enemy we have not seen yet.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 03:45

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

My mvp of the last time I did that mission was a mind controlled Andromicon. He basically tanked the Archon king without dying before pulling a cool-aid man to both reach the tube and to get out of the facility. I also ended up taking care of another story mission at the same time but that can be discussed at a later point.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 20:22

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Grizzwold posted:

Does the RAGE suit increase the damage your melee weapons do? It feels like it should.

It has a special melee attack that does not cost any action points to be used. What makes it fun is that it can be used in the middle of a reaper chain to help keep it going.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 09:03

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

vdate posted:

I might have whispered 'Rules of Nature' to myself at the end of this mission when Hulk went on his little axing spree. Still didn't redeem himself for the farce that was that ambush, but we can't have it all!

Also, congratulations on your Giant Robotic Crab syndrome going into remission, Jade Star!

Rules of nature is a ranger with the reaper ability butchering entire pods by themselves. Of note the rage suit and reaper work great together as you can use the smash ability without breaking the chain of attacks.

Edit: The best gunslinger I ever had got salvo as their random ability.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2017 16:58

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Mzbundifund posted:

I've killed 7 targets in one round with Serial before, and I'm not even good at this game. Serial is incredible. Fan Fire is a dumb skill for dummies that does mediocre damage, less than a grenadier's chain shot. At absolutely optimal conditions (bluescreen rounds vs. a sectopod with all armor shredded off) it's going to do a lot, sure, but most of the time all the bluescreen damage is going to be wasted on overkill since that robot is already going to be damaged by your grenadier shredding its armor off. Fan Fire has an absolutely stratospheric opportunity cost of being unable to instantly murder everyone under 10 health anywhere in squadsight.

Obviously that is the case as you left 7 guys with under 10hp alive until almost the end of a turn. Also damage worries? With a single weapon mod like dragonfire rounds or whatever fanfare does 12-21 damage, more then enough to put almost anything down. If that is not enough then using the rest of the gunslinger tree you can add another two shots to the mix. Also a gunslinger can use face off to help deal with massed enemies with no ammo cost and can be used more often the serial.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 10:14

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Mzbundifund posted:

Yeah I left 7 guys at under 10hp because I knew I had 100% odds to kill all of them.

Wow, 20 damage! Spending an action to deal 20 damage to one target isn't anything special. Chain Shot, Rapid Fire, and Overdrive can all do 20 damage to a single target, and Chain Shot will be shredding armor at the same time (and loses less damage when shooting armored targets since armor is applied twice to it instead of three times), while Rapid Fire will almost certainly do tons more than 20, and proc Implacable and Untouchable at the same time. Doing 20 damage to a single target isn't unique or exceptional. Heck, even sharpshooters can almost deal 20 damage to a single target just by using lightning hands and a normal sniper rifle shot, and they don't need their colonel-level perk to do it. What no other class can do is pour damage into so many enemies regardless of the distance between them. That's 100% unique.

As for Face Off, it's a poor comparison to Serial. It does way less damage per target (so is weaker vs. armor and is more likely to just clone a Codex instead of killing it) and doesn't work through Squadsight (so you're likely to either have fewer targets you can shoot or else not be able to benefit from the height advantage bonus). It's true Serial needs an expanded magazine to really shine, but sharpshooters already benefit heavily from bigger clips for Kill Zone and general sniping anyway, so it's not like you're unlikely to have expanded mags on your sharpshooter already.

I should have been more precise. Using fan fire consumes a single action point. Meaning that a Gunslinger can activate it first and then shoot again. Another point of note, if we are comparing damage from a Gunslinger doing all they can to kill a target the damage is actually 20-35 by using both Lightning Hands and Quick Draw.

In terms of Face Off vs. Serial I don't think you want to bring Codexes into the equation as Face Off is an excellent tool to use to deal with surviving clones. More crucially though, a single dodge or min damage roll and the entire chain is broken whilst Face Off ensures that almost every enemy in range is shot.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 22:27

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

All the fucks are reserved for Gatekeepers.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 00:44

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Just a heads up that the link is to the wrong video.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2017 05:23

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Funnily enough the last time I did this mission the Archon King did show up. Of course this was the third time I saw him his campaign and at this point he was all but dead. One upgraded axe throw later which set him on fire and he had one hp left. So I get the satisfaction of getting him to kill himself with a reload.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2017 09:36

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Tylana posted:

Or, if you really care about the AWC abilities, prioritize it's construction. Though I forget how it works with reward/purchased soldiers who start at a higher rank?

A higher rank soldier is often going to be better than a lower one with an extra abilty, but in some ways it can be a catch-up mechanic meaning you are less screwed if you do have to stop using your normal dream team.

It depends on what ability they get. For example a ranger who gets aim does not radically change much. On the other hand if they get serial you now have the single most broken combo in the game.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2017 13:15

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

This is why I prefer to hack the codex in a story mission and only as the first action of the turn to ensure that I can kill it in one turns.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 16:30

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

I am surprised we haven't seen the bolt caster on Shellshock. With the amount of powers psy troops get they can get by entire encounters without making a shot. So even with one shot it is not as though it matters as chances are they will only shoot one or two times the entire mission.

# ¿ May 5, 2017 17:54

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpLcPIWqK18

A video that gives more technical details on the upcoming expansion.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2017 00:54

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

All that talk about the ethereals really being on your side made more sense in the first game when it was clear that the aliens could have just obliterated you from the start.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 06:51

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

The final room is why I like having two rangers on the final mission. One with rapid fire to help butcher the really tough enemies and a second one with reaper who can help keep the numbers down as a way of cleaning up after the rest of the squad.

In terms of enemy placement there is no rhyme or reason about it as the very first time I did this mission I ran into a sectopod in the very first area.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 16:50

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

And commit all the atrocities that Guava desires.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2017 05:45

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 06:21

Hunt11: Jul 24, 2013; Grimey Drawer

Isn't there a setting where humans are kept on earth because everything else is scared about how insane we are?

# ¿ Jul 16, 2017 06:15

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