Whoever decided that every other mission needs a timer can go straight to hell. I've restarted 2 VIP extraction missions now because I was one turn short of reaching the evac zone and thus got fucked. The aliens already make it difficult enough, I don't need some stupid time limit fucking me over as well.
[editline]23rd January 2018[/editline]
On a funnier note, I put me and my brothers into my character pool. My older brother got made into a specialist and he's my healing machine with 5 medkit uses per op. My younger brother...on the last mission, he was on top of a building and got a face full of laser from an ADVENT agent, causing him to panic. He dropped down from the building, got in cover and killed the ADVENT agent with a crit.
This is not the first time he's done this.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;53072474]Did the devs ever mention how they wanted to adopt a sort of Civ 5 model where new big expansion packs are added for a while instead of sequels, or am I misremembering?[/QUOTE]
closest ive found
[media]https://twitter.com/SolomonJake/status/954150269897539584[/media]
I've been streaming Xcom 2 again, so I figured I'd post some of the characters. These are all chat members and viewers. They generated many photoshops. This is also why Xcom 2 is fun with an audience because you create stupid characters more so than usual.
Chaos Longshot, basically Super Sand.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/w7poPMb.png[/img]
Mintz, the sentient tin of mintz in the shape of a man. He used to have [url=https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/912408628486174593/A11013B35F4122ADC2C0C56E5F0748A79E77109E/]the blowout hairstyle, but lost it in an unfortunate blade accident. it's now regrowing.[/url]
[t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/927047796104342476/670B76DDD330BB434BB6965E66B93C324F45380F/[/t]
Swoliolios, he's got the biggest arms around.
[t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/927047796104342597/D1B20521A4A88B5CB02B51A7EA5065AF2F527338/[/t]
Mediph, the master of Warcrimes. Over 35 confirmed civilian kills, per mission. His beard grows as his power increases.
[t]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/912408557606672843/6200382ACA8DFB00F9F9C04966AA30425116D6E4/[/t]
And a bonus. Lost world was active when the warlock showed up. he was beaten to death by Lost. THis eventually turned into lost riding Chrysalid.
[t]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/385162078471847938/397512443775156224/XCOM2_Chryssalid_rider.png[/t]
[QUOTE=Mmrnmhrm;53073580]Personally I found the Skirmishers as the least useful of the three new classes. I found Reapers to be super useful for scouting ahead and with a few levels they can do a surprising amount of damage from stealth. Maybe it's just a matter of playstyle which one you find the most useful.[/QUOTE]
Dunno how they're the least useful when they're easily the most versatile. Grappling alone gives you so many options for easy flanks, nabbing high ground, and getting away quickly.
I got XCOM 2 on friday and I already have 31 hours clocked in.
As you can guess, this one sucked me in a lot more than its predecessor.
[QUOTE=Wealth + Taste;53075583]Dunno how they're the least useful when they're easily the most versatile. Grappling alone gives you so many options for easy flanks, nabbing high ground, and getting away quickly.[/QUOTE]
Skirmishers are a blessing and a curse.
I went on a mission with only lost and no advent, which should be a cakewalk because my skirmisher has retribution (skirmisher bladestorm) and an ionic ripjack, and should theoretically be invincible to a degree. Therefore, I stacked all my troops up on a wall and put the skirmisher in the middle of them in such a way that anything trying to attack or move past my squad gets wiped out.
And then the chosen warlock shows up and specifically mind-controls him. Now half my squad can't move because they'll get bladestorm'd and the other half needs to take the long way around just to go through the door they were next to.
Motherfucker played me like a goddamn fiddle.
Bladestorm Templar, Retribution Skirmisher and a bladestorm ranger. Say goodbye to the Lost.
I took my templar out onto one, she promptly kills over 30 lost in one turn (insert a thousand I WILL TEAR YOU APART).
However, anytime she panics or gets mind controlled, things og badly, because moving near her is deadly.
I never found the appeal of bladestorm, I'm sure you can get mileage out of it with the lost but the lost usually aren't much of a threat anyway. Against anybody else it's a melee attack with overwatch penalties, that you can only make use of if you put yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation (within melee range but letting them live at the end of your turn). With the chosen katana or a templar I could see the appeal, since it's always 100% to hit, but in the base game I can't think of any possible reason to pick it over untouchable. Why risk your ranger's life for a 60% chance to deal extra damage?
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;53076006]I never found the appeal of bladestorm, I'm sure you can get mileage out of it with the lost but the lost usually aren't much of a threat anyway. Against anybody else it's a melee attack with overwatch penalties, that you can only make use of if you put yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation (within melee range but letting them live at the end of your turn). With the chosen katana or a templar I could see the appeal, since it's always 100% to hit, but in the base game I can't think of any possible reason to pick it over untouchable. [B]Why risk your ranger's life for a 60% chance to deal extra damage?[/B][/QUOTE]
Because a viper once grappled a ranger with bladestorm into a room with line of sight to every enemy on the map. By the end of that turn the ranger destroyed every single one of them as well as the building. Everything was also on fire.
It was incredible. I wish I recorded it.
Bladestorm combined with Blademaster basically turns Stunlancers and Vipers into non-threats if you position right, add to that any other situation where enemies have to get close to the ranger. It is also fun to place them under a reinforcement drop point and watch them delete the pod.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;53076006]I never found the appeal of bladestorm, I'm sure you can get mileage out of it with the lost but the lost usually aren't much of a threat anyway. Against anybody else it's a melee attack with overwatch penalties, that you can only make use of if you put yourself in an incredibly dangerous situation (within melee range but letting them live at the end of your turn). With the chosen katana or a templar I could see the appeal, since it's always 100% to hit, but in the base game I can't think of any possible reason to pick it over untouchable. Why risk your ranger's life for a 60% chance to deal extra damage?[/QUOTE]
why would I be risking his life in order to try and abuse bladestorm somehow? it's more of an insurance against threats you're already facing as a frontline soldier?
maybe it's because I'm only playing on 'hard' but if I keep my ranger towards the front of the pack it seems to completely invalidate stunners and archons because they constantly waltz up to their doom trying to going after him
is it really only a 60% chance to hit though? that would sort of sour me on it if my rangers had ever missed bladestorm a single time in my entire (first) campaign (they haven't)
[QUOTE=krail9;53076239]why would I be risking his life in order to try and abuse bladestorm somehow? it's more of an insurance against threats you're already facing as a frontline soldier?
maybe it's because I'm only playing on 'hard' but if I keep my ranger towards the front of the pack it seems to completely invalidate stunners and archons because they constantly waltz up to their doom trying to going after him
is it really only a 60% chance to hit though? that would sort of sour me on it if my rangers had ever missed bladestorm a single time in my entire (first) campaign (they haven't)[/QUOTE]
It has the overwatch penalty to your swings, which brings it into the 70-60% range afaik. It's going to be a lot more reliable if you choose blademaster over phantom but if you choose blademaster over phantom you need to rethink your life choices.
I just don't see enemy melee as a very big threat, I'm usually relieved to see an archon or muton going for a swing instead actually using an attack with decent hitchance or damage.
[editline]23rd January 2018[/editline]
But of course any playstyle can be made far more viable with the right speccing in wotc, melee ranger makes much more sense when you can grab blademaster AND phantom instead of getting rid of the most important ability in the game for something as situational as melee
With the Training Center, why would you ever have to [i]choose[/i] between Phantom and Blademaster?
Same goes for Combat and Medical protocol
[QUOTE=Gunner th;53075287]I've been streaming Xcom 2 again, so I figured I'd post some of the characters. These are all chat members and viewers. They generated many photoshops. This is also why Xcom 2 is fun with an audience because you create stupid characters more so than usual.
Chaos Longshot, basically Super Sand.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/w7poPMb.png[/img]
[/QUOTE]
That's a minion, you're not fooling me.
Can't speak for WOTC but for the base game I ended up prefering Bladestorm over Implaceable on all my Phantom Conceal Rangers because I always take untouchable at Major, and when untouchable proc's I'd like to make use of it if i need to.
90% of a mission my rangers will be hidden, only attacking something if they abslutely have to or if I can put them back into concealment. Invaribly I'll get them a kill or 2 every mission but for me, the power of the ranger comes from what it allows the rest of the team to do. As such, I don't actively make use of Bladestorm, but the amount of things iv'e cut down with it cause the AI has yellow moved next to the ranger for one reason or another has been far greater than the number of times Iv'e used Implaceable to any actual advantage, Also running a ranger into the centre of an Advent reinforcement flare had become standard practice for me (in confirmed safe territory of course).
I'd consider using Implaceable again if it gave a free action rather than a free yellow move but the balance implications of that is potentially OP as hell.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;53073356]Real talk how long do any reapers last in the early game for ANYBODY? I lose so many reapers in my campaigns because they're always going to be really far forward because scouting is their main appeal, and invariably end up getting flanked by some bullshit even with their tiny radius for reveal.[/QUOTE]
I play with Grimy's, so it took some time, but I eventually made my Reaper into a big-game hunter through modding out her weapon. Stacked a bunch of damage and crit inducing mods that limited aim and mobility, and now she can hit for like 14+ damage with armor penetration and shredding from one of the mods. Her aim suffers but you can just walk up to almost any enemy two tiles away and remove them entirely without breaking concealment.
Without mods, I just play them carefully and clean up enemies from behind while my team engages from the front.
Also, in regards to Bladestorm, it'll never miss with Templars because they always have 100% chance to hit. Phantom is basically useless in my eyes because my rangers don't ever scout and Blademaster's damage and aim is way too useful against a lot of enemies. I don't ever really overwatch trap anymore either because I'd rather engage with like a grenade or something and then mop up the rest.
[QUOTE=Mort Stroodle;53076521]It has the overwatch penalty to your swings, which brings it into the 70-60% range afaik. It's going to be a lot more reliable if you choose blademaster over phantom but if you choose blademaster over phantom you need to rethink your life choices.[/QUOTE]
Blademaster has a hidden bonus to your melee hit % bringing it close to if not 100%, its fucking awsome early game since you can OHK sectoids.
at the end of the day rangers kill ayys, not hide from them. leave that to the Reapers.
[T]https://i.imgur.com/gBPiOrN.png[/T]
first squad wipe on the blacksite mission because of *teleports behind u* assassin
she instakilled my specialist on her first turn after teleporting in, what bullshit. if you're out of grenades you're totally fucked when fighting them
[QUOTE=Turnips5;53078587]first squad wipe on the blacksite mission because of *teleports behind u* assassin
she instakilled my specialist on her first turn after teleporting in, what bullshit. [B]if you're out of grenades you're totally fucked when fighting them[/B][/QUOTE]
I've been having lots of [I]fun[/I] in my current campaign fighting a Warlock who can mind control two of my guys at once with no way to counter it because Blast Shield makes him immune to flashbangs too.
so what's the strategy with concealment based rangers? I don't see the benefit in it
[QUOTE=krail9;53081706]so what's the strategy with concealment based rangers? I don't see the benefit in it[/QUOTE]
All I can think of is to use it as the first strike from concealment for ambush but that's it
[QUOTE=krail9;53081706]so what's the strategy with concealment based rangers? I don't see the benefit in it[/QUOTE]
The basic gist of it is to use them as a scout for planning your moves and finding all pods without activating them. This technically lets you be better prepared for engagements, though I personally prefer the raw additional damage that you gain from a combat-spec'd ranger.
[QUOTE=krail9;53081706]so what's the strategy with concealment based rangers? I don't see the benefit in it[/QUOTE]
As Robinate said the main advantage is reconnaissance. You find their pods and you stop yourself from being surprised, ambushed and then wiped by one or more enemy pods you might otherwise have not been prepared for. If you know where an enemy pod is, that also means you can figure out where the ideal positions for your marksmen and grenadiers are going to be in advance, which is important considering the movement constraint and the range constraint of those units respectively.
[QUOTE=krail9;53081706]so what's the strategy with concealment based rangers? I don't see the benefit in it[/QUOTE]
How about never activating two pods in the same turn again, ever? Activating too many pods at once is literally the biggest threat to you in XCOM, and phantom rangers basically negate that. You can use it to make sure that every single engagement is done on your own terms. Instead of walking forward into two pods, you can send your scout forward (ranger in base game, or choose between reaper/ranger in WOTC) and plan how you want to take down each pod one by one. You can make sure you take the best route to put yourself in a tactically advantagous position when you activate them. You can line everybody up just outside of their visual range the turn before you attack and have people on overwatch to get a good chance of activating on THEIR turn and getting effectively two turns of shots in on the enemy. This tactic is much more reliable with a Long Watch sniper too, because if they move at all you get an entire ambush turn AND your turn afterwards before the enemy can shoot. You can take a route that ensures you activate pods one at a time instead of both, which is absolutely vital. It lets you be far more aggressive, dashing up your whole squad because your ranger has made sure that there aren't any pods to activate. In base game it's a complete no brainer, you HAVE to choose phantom over blademaster, you're gimping yourself so much if you don't. The sword is a risky situational substitute for run and gun early game, phantom is a massive boost to your entire squad's mobility and safety. In wotc it's definitely worthwhile to get both though, that sword attack still useful on occasion.
In base game I actually rarely go for the "Conceal" ability though because of how strong run and gun is. You could conceivably buy a pre-trained ranger and give them blademaster and conceal, giving you effectively a better version of phantom as well as blademaster, but then you have to give up run and gun, which is a better version of slash anyway (albeit with an ammo cost and a cooldown)
the other big thing about concealment rangers that people overlook is the crit bonus/crit builds. they become your squad's sledgehammer.
with only a basic laser sight they can essentially vaporize the highest threat on any turn and then disappear twice per mission. by the time they hit captain and then colonel, they can:
1) crit the lead alien in a pod (usually twice) with rapid fire
2) move
3) take no damage from direct fire out of cover the next turn (from untouchable)
4) disappear and do it again to next pod
which means in addition to outright killing the toughest alien in most pods, they can essentially guarantee that at least one other enemy in the pod will waste its turn the next round
Being able to re-conceal is one of the strongest abilities in the game IMO. When you know the exact composition of the next pod, which direction they are patrolling, and how spaced out they are, it's pretty easy to wipe it out.
The concealment also helps get your ranger close enough to blast any motherfucker silly with a shotgun, with added crit chance from the tree and concealment.
Chosen weapons are ridiculously OP
I gave the katana to my blade-spec'd ranger Colonel, he killed 4 mutons in one turn with reaper
Assassin in general is just a fucking headache, at least with Hunter and Warlock you can count on half of their turns being bullshit gimmick moves like Tracking Shot or Spectral zombie, the Assassain pops out of nowhere and does guaranteed damage on one of your guys, then runs away to a spot you can't even see half the time.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
XCOM V5: Grazed shots still count as hits
