XCOM 2

hodj

hodj

Vox Populi Jihadi
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There are stages where snipers excel.

There are stages where they are useless.

Its hard to tell which is which before you go into a board, which is why I didn't rely on snipers as much as I could have.

I found them most useful on boards set in the woods/outside of urban areas, where you would have like a high platform near the starting location that you could set a sniper up at and draw enemies out to places he could hit them, he was extremely useful.

But it absolutely boils down to play style and the team you've built, what its strengths are, etc.
 
Mist

Mist

Eeyore Enthusiast
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Bluescreen ammo + 15% aim scope + 21% Aim PCS + Chain Shot on a grenadier = some really fucking dead robots.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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I haven't gotten far enough in my legend playthrough to see any end game robotic units yet, is it really worth the equipment slot when you could just have an acid bomb?

Lightning hands + quick draw + fan fire would be pretty amazing with blue screen rounds, although I can't remember if you can quick draw and fan fire in the same turn.
 
Woolygimp

Woolygimp

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I'm learning the hard way you can't rush things in this game. I got a really good start, was able to hack a tower on the second level and get 20 alloys. That let me tech into plate like RIGHT off the bat.

First retaliation mission...stun lancer knocks my medic unconscious and the rest die. I end up taking out the last alien with my sniper who was a couple screens away. Then the god damn faceless spawns and he starts charging across the map...I had 100% hit rate and landed two hits. But faceless heal. He ends up making it to my sniper, and I put it on overwatch hoping to finish him off with the last hit as he got close. I figured I could survive one hit.

Well he goes below me, swings, AOE's the building and I fall through the floor and take fall damage and die. Mission lost.

I've gotten pretty far with absolutely no medkits/flashbangs or tech... but fuck me. That was the hardest retaliation mission I've ever done... there were 3 camps of mobs in the building at the end of the map, and I had to rush up to it because all but 4 of the hostages were inside getting owned. I blow a hole in the wall to shoot inside and end up getting massive aggro.

There's definitely a little luck and RNG winning, but that's what makes it fun. It's almost like gambling. You could be doing a mission, and use a car for cover. A faceless spawns, runs up, hits you and the car explodes and instant 12 damage, etc. My last play through I got through the first 5-6 missions without a single wounded soldier.
 
I

intelnavi_sl

shitlord
162
1
I'll never stand near exploding cars or gas stations now. I don't need cover that badly lol.

EDIT: Ok, you can't turn off "stop wasting my time" mod because it won't let you load your save game without it. GG.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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Mist_sl said:
Bluescreen ammo + 15% aim scope + 21% Aim PCS + Chain Shot on a grenadier = some really fucking dead robots.
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This is what I really like about the game. Normally chain shot is a garbage skill. However, there are items in the game that can turn it into one of the most beastly skills in the game if you build it right. How you set your team up, items, matters a huge amount.


hodj_sl said:
There are stages where snipers excel.

There are stages where they are useless.
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Honestly, I found the boards where they have difficulty end up fading with my grenadier leveling up and with them getting lightning hands. Larger radius on explosives, and 3 nades+exo suit explosive means I can reliably knock down cover from buildings for every pod I encounter. But even if I do need to reposition, they can still take a double pistol shot in a pinch.



Denaut_sl said:
One of my Grenadiers got Run & Gun... MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
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My one ranger got hail of bullets--it is ridiculously powerful on a ranger with a shot gun.
 
SorrowsEnd

SorrowsEnd

Trakanon Raider
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I know this won't be a popular option but I downloaded two mods that disable the turn counter for missions and removed the avatar project.

Now I can enjoy a proper ironman game without bullshit time limits. I played up to the end without mods originally and didn't like how you have to race to an objective instead of properly advancing like in the previous games. Now my little strike force can actually use tactics instead of a blind run to finish whatever stupid objective Bradford is bitching about this week.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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SorrowsEnd_sl said:
I know this won't be a popular option but I downloaded two mods that disable the turn counter for missions and removed the avatar project.

Now I can enjoy a proper ironman game without bullshit time limits. I played up to the end without mods originally and didn't like how you have to race to an objective instead of properly advancing like in the previous games. Now my little strike force can actually use tactics instead of a blind run to finish whatever stupid objective Bradford is bitching about this week.
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Enjoy your game that isn't XCom.
 
Seananigans

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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From the little I understand about the mod system thus far, even though your save games won't load w/o the mods they had in them enabled, you can still "gut" the mod and leave it enabled only in name, I believe. Just requires some .ini tweaks to comment out what you don't like, etc.

Again, from the little I understand.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I just had a thought. Can you imagine a sniper who got shadowstrike from the AWC? Good god.
 
Raes

Raes

Vyemm Raider
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Gavinmad_sl said:
I haven't gotten far enough in my legend playthrough to see any end game robotic units yet, is it really worth the equipment slot when you could just have an acid bomb?

Lightning hands + quick draw + fan fire would be pretty amazing with blue screen rounds, although I can't remember if you can quick draw and fan fire in the same turn.
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I'm not positive, but I think Lightning hands uses/negates Quick draw. Which sucks, it should be its own thing.


Edit: I think there's a mod that let's you play with after disabling/removing a mod, if you don't want to deal with the ini stuff.
 
Lithose

Lithose

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You know, they get overlooked, but honestly, specialists are enormously powerful. Gremlins only taking one action, and things like healing not ending the turn make them able to deal damage and play defense in one round. Combined with Haywire protocol reliably being able to stun robotic enemies from mid game on and my specialist is pretty ridiculous.

Btw, for every hack success on your specialist, they get +5 hacking (Once more per mission). Combined with the increased hacking from skulljack, and later tier gremlins, it makes hacking very powerful late game. As said, almost always a 100% to disable any robotic enemy, including sectopods. Which makes all mech pods a lot easier.

And for organics they have Capacitor Discharge, which effectively lets you bring one less flash bang (It always applies disorient on organic enemies)...Plus with the last tier gremlin it does 10 damage, in a radius about equal to a grenadier with all the explosive perks. Against robotic enemies it does a shit ton, too. (That is unless you're just breezing with Mimetic beacons heh--I'm only letting myself use one, so disorient is still a massively good debuff.)

Plus if you do medical protocol and medic (And the rest in the hacking tree) you get 4 remote heals per match, that cost one action (So you can do two per turn). I know most people say "just don't get hit", but having the capability to heal people up is still pretty big. (Not to mention their +aid protocol at Gremlin three gives +40 defense, or full cover. It is enormous for when your ranger misses). The final medic skill though, I can't imagine why anyone would pick it when the two lower tier skills give you more than enough healing. I mean yeah there is a lot of AE damage later and being able to get it all in one swoop is nice, but if you're entire squad is getting shit on healing probably won't help.
 
Gavinmad

Gavinmad

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Supposedly the +5 skill bonus is limited to 4 times or something? The discussion on reddit wasn't very clear. I only used one specialist for the majority of my first campaign and if she got +5 hacking for every mission she successfully ahcked, her skill should have been 50-60 poitns higher

Don't forget combat protocol finishing off wounded aliens and cancelling overwatch.
 
Seananigans

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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So does anyone know the various expiration timers for scanning sites, and missions? Scanning sites seem to have a long timer, but I haven't managed to nail it down. Perhaps 22 days from discovery, similar to the Supply Drop interval?

Missions though, I'm too scared (Ironman) to test it out. Guerilla Ops, Supply Raids, and Terror(Retaliation) missions all seem to operate differently. Guerilla Ops and Supply Raids definitely seem to stick around for at least a day or two (I've bravely tried to finish a scan site before moving off to one of them, but when I tried the same thing with a Retal mission, it immediately gave me a "Do you really want to ignore this? (NOT RECOMMENDED!!)" So I didn't risk it. Frustrating thing is I had no more than 3-5 hours left on my scan site, argh.

Anyone have actual data?
 
V

VariaVespasa_sl

shitlord
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Lithose_sl said:
Btw, for every hack success on your specialist, they get +5 hacking (Once more per mission).
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One of the hacking rewards I got for a successful hack was a permanent +20 on hacking for that specialist. I was not unhappy...
smile.png



Diddly- It might just cap at 100% or it might keep improving your chances of success for the reward choices from hacking, I dont know yet. Does anyone?
 
Raes

Raes

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In both my completed play-throughs I've come across 2 of the +20 hack rewards, so it's at least 120.
 
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