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I'm happy the Rend shockwave was actually useful for once!
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Oct 19, 2020 07:06
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good job commander, Aside from the last mission and research the gamebreaking sniper rifle, what's even left to accomplish? Also, cmooon, let me out of the tube.
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Oct 19, 2020 22:27
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cambrian obelus posted:good job commander, Still gotta kill the Warlock at some point before the last mission.
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Oct 19, 2020 23:20
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The rifle is insanely good, but don't discount the pistol either. It seems modest but boy oh boy oh, it's probably my favorite weapon in the game because of how much it empowers gunslinger snipers.
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Oct 20, 2020 11:03
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Run and gun sniper with a grapple (or another special armour) and either of the Hunter's weapons and Face Off or Serial = fun times
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Oct 20, 2020 16:06
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Oct 25, 2020 18:01
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I am excited for this!
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Oct 25, 2020 18:12
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At this rate, the game might end and I'll still be in bad trait recovery. It seems like you could use another spark, but it also seems that only one spark can be repaired at a time. Do you think there is special voice/text if you use weapons from the other two chosen on a chosen?
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Oct 26, 2020 02:02
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SugarAddict posted:At this rate, the game might end and I'll still be in bad trait recovery. It seems like you could use another spark, but it also seems that only one spark can be repaired at a time. Do you think there is special voice/text if you use weapons from the other two chosen on a chosen? I don't think they have a unique line for each weapon, but each of them does have a line or two if they're hit with any of the other Chosen's weapons. It's usually just various flavors of 'That weapon wasn't made for you.'
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Oct 26, 2020 03:15
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I really wonder if the blaster bomb was added as an intentional 'easy mode'. It's just so ridiculous.
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Oct 26, 2020 07:36
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Chuu posted:I really wonder if the blaster bomb was added as an intentional 'easy mode'. It's just so ridiculous. And we haven't even seen the utterly debased poo poo you can get up to with endgame Psi Operatives. C'mon, FairGame, let them out to play.
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Oct 26, 2020 09:24
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Yeah, I was wondering what the chances were that the chosen would show up on the resistance mission anyway. C'mon, Tygan, hurry up on your research so I can try out that sweet looking rifle... provided I don't bite it this mission, gulp
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Oct 26, 2020 11:15
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Dead Reckoning posted:Blaster Bomb x Rainmaker is powerful, but so is everything else at this stage of the game. It's a once-per-mission nuke, but I don't think it's as game breaking as, say, the Chosen weapons or Tactical Analysis. Sure, it's flashy, but things you can use any time which ignore armor or always hit or eat enemy actions cause far more damage in the long run. I think random construction of grenades/ammo/bombs/vests is dumb (like, wtf is Shen doing?) as a play mechanic, but it does neuter blaster bombs somewhat. We just happened to get a random set of orders that takes the teeth out of that balancing effort. Dead Reckoning posted:
https://twitter.com/dril/status/922321981 FairGame fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Oct 26, 2020 |
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Oct 26, 2020 20:18
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Honestly, despite how good a showing FairGame has made with the Blaster Launcher, I still think the Shredstorm Cannon is better. At least better for the way I played, which typically used heavy weapons mostly to bust open hardened targets that my snipers couldn't easily pick apart in a round.
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Oct 26, 2020 21:48
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 Also since we hit 1 hour on the previous video, just watch this after you get done with the above. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu1zhlnxW44
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Oct 26, 2020 22:07
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Does spirits conjured by the warlock count for things killed? Also what loot did he drop and is it any good?
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Oct 27, 2020 06:34
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Good job, Fair. SugarAddict posted:Does spirits conjured by the warlock count for things killed? Also what loot did he drop and is it any good?
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Oct 27, 2020 07:12
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Dead Reckoning posted:Good job, Fair. It's..meh. I wouldn't be surprised if Fair skips researching it. Honestly it's not even entirely the weapon's fault. Assault Rifle is only used by the Specialist and Psi-Op classes, neither of which focuses on dealing damage with its weapon.
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Oct 27, 2020 07:17
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I mean, it's objectively better than any other assault rifle you have, and double damage against two of the biggest threats in the game is nothing to sneeze at. Add in bluescreen rounds, and it's doing double damage to all the most annoying enemies.
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Oct 27, 2020 07:44
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Also Fair, you don't use gunslinger Sharpshooters nearly as much as I do in my games, but that mission really showed off why I love them so much. You were doing some amazing work with the Gunslinger traits.
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Oct 27, 2020 11:43
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Aww yeah, that's me wrecking face and then missing a 79% shot when the pressure is on
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Oct 27, 2020 13:13
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 I hope you are thoroughly convinced that there's not much the aliens can throw at me I can't handle really easily based on this video. Because, uh...had some recording problems with the next one and I'm probably gonna have to borrow someone else's LP to show a story mission.
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Oct 27, 2020 19:19
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FairGame posted:
Yeah, the story missions aren't really huge threats for the most part, and I think at this point it's clear that a max-level squad can steamroll the aliens pretty effectively, only requiring a bit of creativity when things go really wrong (although if that stunlancer had hit, this one might have gone very differently!)
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Oct 27, 2020 21:54
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Another thing I forgot to ask, you aren't even looking at what there is to hack. There were two lampposts in a previous mission that you had all the time in the world to attempt to hack and you didn't even look at them. Is hacking not worth it anymore or is it a bother for you?
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Oct 27, 2020 22:29
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SugarAddict posted:Another thing I forgot to ask, you aren't even looking at what there is to hack. There were two lampposts in a previous mission that you had all the time in the world to attempt to hack and you didn't even look at them. Is hacking not worth it anymore or is it a bother for you? While I got pretty lucky with a lot of randomness in this campaign, one thing I didn't get was any of the +20 hack permanent bonuses on the guerilla ops. The only REALLY good hack bonus that's not a guerilla op objective (unlocking a prison door, hacking a cache of data, etc.) is "get all your turns back" which is quite frankly obscene and we saw that in one of the missions. Everything else is just kinda OK, and at this point I'd rather my specialists be shooting things with their bluescreen rounds and multiple overwatch shots via the Guardian perk. (and probably I forgot tbh)
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Oct 27, 2020 22:45
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FairGame posted:
Oh my god rend was useful for once 
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Oct 28, 2020 00:00
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Grapplejack posted:Oh my god rend was useful for once It was also useful in the mission where he killed the Warlock!
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Oct 28, 2020 00:30
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Grapplejack posted:Oh my god rend was useful for once I keep saying it's good as long as you're willing to play around it. What makes it ridiculous is if you roll Reaper on a Templar who has it. E: Also, the AI made some really sub-optimal plays this mission. No lt focusing fire or attacking in order. Also, secotopods would probably be *more* lethal without wrath cannon. Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Oct 28, 2020 |
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Oct 28, 2020 01:28
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Dead Reckoning posted:I keep saying it's good as long as you're willing to play around it. What makes it ridiculous is if you roll Reaper on a Templar who has it. Yep. In the grand scheme of things, Donkringel or MACHINE getting killed wouldn't matter that much (I'm probably only bringing 1 SPARK to the final mission, and Donkringel is basically only around to give the more advanced rangers some time to rest). I've got plenty of soldiers at this point and I hope you're not getting bored watching me humiliate the aliens but they're really not remotely a threat now that the Chosen are dead. The final 2 missions are potentially horrible, and if by some bizarre twist of fate I have to face the Archon King that could go bad. But there's no drama right now, I think, and the AI choosing not to punish me for bad activations (admittedly I've gotten a lot more aggressive given that tactical analysis bails me out of a lot) takes some of the teeth out of things.
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Oct 28, 2020 02:34
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Personally I'm just glad that, being a grenadier (a class you hate) means that I will be spared from going on the horrible final mission
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Oct 28, 2020 02:59
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Grapplejack posted:Personally I'm just glad that, being a grenadier (a class you hate) means that I will be spared from going on the horrible final mission Let's talk a bit about that, shall we? Early on in the game (this is true of XCOM1 as well) your soldiers can't hit the broad side of a barn, and the only way to get halfway decent chances to hit are to use rangers (shotguns don't really need aim) or blowing up cover with a grenadier. That's really useful! Grenadiers can remove cover. 3 times per mission, potentially. More if you include their "demolition" skill, though I'm kinda loathe to use it since it was bugged in the original release of XCOM2 and I'm never quite willing to trust that it's properly fixed. But by late game, your soldiers have much better aim--a function of levels ups, aim PCSs, and access to scopes. So cover removal isn't quite as important--you'll be able to shoot through cover a decent amount of time. The most dangerous things the aliens can throw at you then are "a ton of targets" and "armored targets." Grenadiers don't have a skill that lets them hit multiple targets. A grenadier at his best can only shoot 1 thing per turn. You can maybe make the case that if they take the "Salvo" skill, they can launch a grenade and fire in the same turn. That's not bad, but think about what other classes offer: 1.) SPARKs can shoot 3 times per turn with overdrive. They also can absolutely clear the entire field of cover with a blaster launcher + rainmaker, which as you've seen is enormously handy. I find it handier than the grenadier being able to clear a smaller area maybe 3 times per mission. Your mileage may vary, admittedly. But SPARKs can also go on every drat mission and self repair and have a ton of armor. Grenadiers don't. 2.) Sharpshooters can shoot things all day between lightning hands, quick draw, and face off. As we'll see when we get access to the Hunter's sniper rifle, they can do even more nonsense, too. And if we need massive burst damage on a single target, fan fire does the trick. Oh, and they get serial, too, though it's actually a better skill on rangers or specialists. 3.) Rangers get access to reaper, which allows them to take out all the softened targets that a faceoff or a rainmaker blaster launcher creates. They also can use run and gun and rapid fire to get in and absolutely wreck something with a flank, and then just kinda stand there and dodge thanks to the "untouchable" ability. As we've seen, a ranger with serial is truly obscene, but I'm not counting that in favor of the ranger since it's not really part of their vanilla kit. 4.) Specialists get access to Guardian, giving them a 50% chance to shoot again after they successfully connect on overwatch, and since their captain-level GTS skill removes the overwatch penalty, that's pretty strong. Thanks to the "threat assessment" ability, they can put *themselves* on overwatch and then shoot, guaranteeing at least 2 shots in a turn. 5.) Psi Ops can't shoot multiple times in a turn but they get a ton of abilities that are on cooldown rather than consumable that let them hit multiple targets at once, or get a target to switch side. I haven't used 'em and I've pretty much wasted all the resources I've devoted to developing them. At this point I think it's kind of funny that Shepard and Cambrian Obelus are just in the tube forever without seeing action despite being 10-ringers or whatever. Anyway, they're certainly better than grenadiers. That just leaves the grenadier's ability to shred armor. Which is pretty useful, but the SPARK does it too. And other than the andromedon, heavily armored targets tend to be robotic, so they get wrecked by units that can fire multiple times with bluescreen rounds. A lot of these setups are contingent upon taking both skills in the tree on a level up, a thing that wasn't available in XCOM2 vanilla--WotC added it. It also added the ability to equip mods on SPARK guns, which didn't used to be a thing, I think. Grenadiers were very powerful in vanilla; I think I had 2 in my final party. But by the time you hit WotC, grenadiers lag pretty significantly behind their other counterparts. They have a use early on, but after that there's just not really much point to them in my opinion.
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Oct 28, 2020 03:21
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It also doesn't help that Grenadiers are the only non-SPARK, non-faction class that doesn't have access to one of the Chosens' super broken weapons; Sharpshooters get both the Hunter's rifle and pistol, Rangers get the Assassin's shotgun and Hanzo steel, and your Specialists (and Psi-ops if you use them) can get the Warlock's assault rifle, which while not as busted as the other two guns, is still decent. About the only real benefit to having a Grenadier late game is being able to carry around two Frost Bombs per mission, which is moot since Fair Game isn't using the Frost Bomb after losing the soldier carrying it on that one mission.
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Oct 28, 2020 05:13
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Counterpoint: The Case For Grenadiers Off the bat: Sparks have some huge plusses. Overdrive is the best ability in the game, and it isn't close. Rainmaker is great. Their guns are one level higher than everyone else. They're immune to mental effects. You've completely convinced me of the utility of their healing ability for managing roster fatigue. They got huge buffs in WotC. That said, let me make the case for Grenadiers. -They can use items and special ammunition. AP ammo, bluescreen, and incendiary rounds can be an edge against certain enemies, as good or better than the Spark bonus depending on how long they stay on fire. -Using Sparks over grenadiers means completely foregoing the soldier bond mechanic. Dual strike and teamwork are huge tools for action economy in the endgame. -Rainmaker blaster bomb can clear cover, but it's once per mission. Grenades can usually clear two enemies' cover at once, and that's usually all you need. If you need more, Grenadiers can get the same effect with salvo. Blaster bombs can hit lots of enemies at once, but as you demonstrated, Rangers and Sharpshooters can capably fill that role too. -Grenadiers' ability to use two Grenades and a powered weapon per mission lets you be more granular in your special weapon use, instead of being committed to all or nothing with a super blaster bomb. This is great for longer missions. -Hail of bullets and rupture are really good endgame abilities. Hail of bullets is guaranteed damage that is cool down rather than per mission, and it procs holo-targeting, shred, and ammo effects. On enemies with planeswalker, or that have high innate defense like Gatekeepers, being able to guarantee a hit on anything you can see can be a lifesaver. Similarly, rupture can put a high HP enemy within 1-2 hits of death, and make those hits easier to get with holo-targeting, meaning you improve your action economy and don't have to chase planeswalkers around the map as much. The Major/Colonel spark abilities are solidly meh by comparison. -Grenadiers can stack on bonuses from covert ops and PCS that can cover their low aim. Bottom line: I think Sparks have a solid case for being a stronger individual soldier, but Grenadiers have powerful synergies with other units that make them a better pick for longer missions or missions where you have to put down a priority target. W.T. Fits posted:Fair Game isn't using the Frost Bomb after losing the soldier carrying it on that one mission. 
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Oct 28, 2020 05:48
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I'm definitely not the best XCOM 2 player around, but I tended to use my late-game grenadiers for the special effects of grenades. Fire and acid grenades cause some good secondary effects, flashbangs can hit a huge area and are insanely useful, especially in the midgame for shutting down Codexes if you weren't lucky enough to roll the effect that lets you ignore them and have them kill themselves trying to mess with you. Sonic Lures were really helpful for me too in one particular mission type that never really came up for you but seemed to come up every other damned mission for me, which is the one where you have to run around the entire map collecting loot crates on random timers while you were endlessly savaged by Lost hordes. And of course you aren't using Mimic Beacons because they're too effective.
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Oct 28, 2020 08:11
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I found double Frost Bombs to be worth their weight in gold, and the increased blast radius for Acid Bomb also makes it a great way to remove armor from an entire pod. I also really liked Salvo, and Holo-Targeting solidified them as a great support class for me. So I dunno, I liked my Grenadiers all the way to the end of my run, and brought them regularly to endgame missions, but then again I did notice that by the end I didn't need to use my Frost Bombs on many of the missions (Acid Bombs remained great, though). I also didn't use a SPARK, though, so I don't know if using them would've changed my opinion.  Not sure I can agree that Grenadiers are worse than Specialists, though. I hated relying on Overwatch because I cannot adapt to missed Overwatch shots the way I can with normal shots, potentially letting the enemy get some shots in (and the injury penalties were pretty brutal on Legend), so Specialists were mostly just a safety net character to me. I brought them to boss fights and hack missions but otherwise they felt a bit like a handicap. I only had one high-leveled Specialist for the whole run, and even then that's mostly for sentimental reasons since he's one of my original four.
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Oct 28, 2020 08:58
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Dead Reckoning posted:Counterpoint: The Case For Grenadiers All extremely good points! Dead Reckoning posted:He had a name, Fits Yeah, but I was tired and didn't feel like going back through the LP to find the mission in question and remind myself what it was. 
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Oct 28, 2020 12:29
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Yeah grenadiers have an interesting change from big damage to control and support.
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Oct 28, 2020 16:09
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W.T. Fits posted:Yeah, but I was tired and didn't feel like going back through the LP to find the mission in question and remind myself what it was.  (It was me. But such is the fate of all Grenadiers with Alien Hunters installed: to be reduced to "the guy carrying the Frost Bomb.")
Dead Reckoning fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Oct 28, 2020 |
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Oct 28, 2020 17:29
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Dead Reckoning posted:
To be fair, that's a pretty important guy.
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Oct 28, 2020 22:37
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| # ? May 22, 2024 07:18 |
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Oct 29, 2020 03:03
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