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Does anyone actually get all the skills on a single tree with any class?
I use a sniper spec sharpshooter but I have lightning hands. LH is absolutely incredible at all stages of the game.
My specialist has Medical Protocol + Ever vigilant from Medic tree. My ranger has shadowstep. Grenadiers, outside of getting heavy ordinance and volatile mix (I think you're crazy if you don't take those), everything else they have is really a wash either way.
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On February 11 2016 11:02 Xafnia wrote: Does anyone actually get all the skills on a single tree with any class?
I use a sniper spec sharpshooter but I have lightning hands. LH is absolutely incredible at all stages of the game.
My specialist has Medical Protocol + Ever vigilant from Medic tree. My ranger has shadowstep. Grenadiers, outside of getting heavy ordinance and volatile mix (I think you're crazy if you don't take those), everything else they have is really a wash either way. My main ranger is pure sword.
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On February 11 2016 07:56 Godwrath wrote:Not really, gunslinger falls flat in lategame  With some ammo upgrade they are absolutely viable lategame
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50120 Posts
I love it when those MLG squadsight shots hit, from downtown.
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Both Gunslingers and Snipers have their places. I think that Gunslingers are little more comp-dependent. You're really going to need extra explosives to clear cover to let your Gunslingers do their thing. You can run pretty much anything with Snipers. If anything, I feel like I can play a little faster with Snipers because they don't have to move as much to cover the rest of the squad, letting me aggressively advance with my Rangers. That said, late game Gunslingers are the kings of single target damage. If you really need to drop someone, Gunslinger is going to do it better than anyone else. The only catch is that you gotta put your Gunslinger in range to do it.
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Yeah, but not the mvp's for sure. I always used ammo upgrades. Dragon or venom adds regular damage to most of your attacks, but not against robotics, which are plenty in lategame, so you must either switch to EM or AP. AP is good, but your damage is subpar compared to the damage that either heavy gunners or rangers can put. The first has a problem with aim that is easilly solved by, and the second is simply the best single target damage dealer.
EM only works against robotics, but it is by far the best ammo you can get for a gunslinger on lategame, as it scales very well with the amount of shots they can put out, and that's the way they can remain useful. EM gives +5 damage, that means that a plasma EM powered pistol deals 24-33 damage pre armor, the top damage would be LH + pistol + fanfire, that is actually the biggest damage dealer single target in the game. Too bad some armor can lower its output by a lot lol, but good thing is that you can also spread some of its damage.
Talon round rangers vs organics, gunslinger vs robotics, heavy gunners just work on everything, i put tracers on them, but i can see thee merits of using AP rounds (extra free damage as you remove armor plus damage).
Sniper rifle suffers from the same problem specialists do, they lack ranged skills that amplify their damage (ie fanfire, chain shot, rupture, shredder, rapid fire). Deadeye carries a massive burden to it with the *0.25 penalty. Even with 120 accuracy, you won't have a 100% shot, and late game enemies have defense ranging from 20 to 40. That's a 65% shot even with holo target on a Gatekeeper, and a 50% damage increase just means 15 damage per one shot. A ranger does double the damage. I think i will just remove the penalty from it and be done with it, seriously.
The thing that a sniper can do objectively better is to finish off groups of wounded enemies while remaining action efficient, because they can't keep up doing as much damage per round as their counterparts if they are only shooting one target at a turn. Gunslinger is great at that too with face off, but requires to move up most of the time (losing a lot of damage when fanfire and LH is on cd). That's very useful early and midgame, don't lie to ourselves, but not as useful in late game,as there are not so many enemies on cover to force us to blow it up. Not bad tho, and the reason why i will always bring a gunslinger or sniper anyways.
Lategame doesn't matter much, but how to reach it, so it doesn't mean they are bad, just both my sniper in my first attempts, and my gunslinger in the latest, were the MVPs most of the game, until lategame in case of gunslinger (dunno about the sniper but i can "theorycraft" a little).
Ammo choices for me
Early/mid game - Dragon rounds (it stops melee attacks and some ability use, it is great against 'lids, useless against robotics). - Poison (too many immune enemies, but i saw that the movement penalty started even when they are in movement, leaving enemies in the open sometimes) - Talon rounds (good, as you will be hitting flanked enemies you get the +1, and extra +20% on those flank shots, which are very likely due to grenades clearing cover, bad for a regular sniper because you would be either overkilling by a lot, or not taking advantadge of your ammo for kill zone).
Mid game/ early late game - Dragon rounds (any mission involving 'lids, overwatch so you can get those that unburrow and stop them before they attack you, even if you don't kill them with the shot. At this point of the game you are still removing cover so it's a generalist option). - AP (you are playing a sniper with kill zone and there are no 'lids)
Lategame - EM (robotics ownage) - Dragon rounds (Mix, or pure organics) - AP (regular sniper)
Of course this relies a lot on personal preference, roster layout, etc. I had only done my first playthrough and i need to play more.
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On February 11 2016 12:26 xDaunt wrote: Both Gunslingers and Snipers have their places. I think that Gunslingers are little more comp-dependent. You're really going to need extra explosives to clear cover to let your Gunslingers do their thing. You can run pretty much anything with Snipers. If anything, I feel like I can play a little faster with Snipers because they don't have to move as much to cover the rest of the squad, letting me aggressively advance with my Rangers. That said, late game Gunslingers are the kings of single target damage. If you really need to drop someone, Gunslinger is going to do it better than anyone else. The only catch is that you gotta put your Gunslinger in range to do it. The fact that your pistol does not have an ammo count is what makes gunslingers so strong if you ask me. Versus a single target you can fire your pistol up to five times (Lightning hands, normal pistol shot w/ quickdraw, fan fire) with can be really good single-point damage. And vs. larger group of enemies, Faceoff is so fun to use.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50120 Posts
XCOM 2 does have better naming than EU/EW.
just got Operation Half-Eaten Shield
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Snipers are still really good simply because there's usually not enough good cover at medium range, so being able to leave your sniper back at squadsight range results in less akward encounters where you simply run out of cover.
Grenadiers are mvp.
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why would people use ap ammo over bluescreen or dragon/venom rounds? the only enemies where ap ammo is much better are shieldbearer with their 3 to 4 armor. the big mecs only have 6 armor so you win 1 damage for unshredded enemies. organic targets with armor often only have 1 armor so bluescreen loses only 1 point of damage. i think ap ammo is in a really weird place.
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Why would people use anything but EMP rounds. Only robotic enemies come with lots of life (except Berserkers). Everything else dies fast even without any special rounds.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
Because burning enemies cannot use some skills so you can skip the enemy and kill something else. And poisoned enemies have decreased aim. With plasma weapons it's not so big deal, but with T1 or T2 it's much valuable to just set on fire someone than to have to kill it.
Also, I already had a mission where I met 2 Big Daddies and a Sectopod from the other pod(I don't count advent trash). They really don't die THAT fast. Sometimes the generator and pathing is a bitch 
Edit> Also that +crit ammunition for rangers. I. Love. It. So. Much. AWESOMENESS!!!!!
Edit2> Also you can set on fire a building. Then it's even funnier(not sure whether it's the dragon rounds or just hitting something critical).
Anyway, I love setting things on fire. I may have a problem
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So I haven't had my Avatar progress bar filled yet. I read that after the bar is full you don't get a game over but rather a countdown to game over.
Should I do blacksites before or after the countdown shows up? Or does it even matter?
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
When my Avatar bar filled up I received a 12-hour countdown to do something otherwise the game is over(that's what Central said). Since I was just waiting on my medic I just said fuck it and did both missions lowering the threat down for 4 pieces.
Not sure what happen when you won't do anything(or cannot do anything). I didn't want to fail my 1st campaign
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the countdown is in days and not hours though. i dont know exactly how long you have or if it is even fixed, but i had 27 days to remove an avatar point. i think the most efficient way is to let the avatar bar fill up and make contact with alien facilities and story missions. once you are on the lower end of the timer you can do those missions.
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On February 11 2016 13:20 BLinD-RawR wrote: XCOM 2 does have better naming than EU/EW.
just got Operation Half-Eaten Shield
Some of the mission names have been just awesome.
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Czech Republic12129 Posts
On February 11 2016 17:53 hfglgg wrote: the countdown is in days and not hours though. i dont know exactly how long you have or if it is even fixed, but i had 27 days to remove an avatar point. i think the most efficient way is to let the avatar bar fill up and make contact with alien facilities and story missions. once you are on the lower end of the timer you can do those missions. Hmm, I think I had 12 hours, because I started the mission in 11:something and I just flew there. Avenger isn't that slow to fly there 24 hours.
Though it was 1 AM, so maybe it was 12 days, who knows.
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On February 11 2016 17:53 hfglgg wrote: the countdown is in days and not hours though. i dont know exactly how long you have or if it is even fixed, but i had 27 days to remove an avatar point. i think the most efficient way is to let the avatar bar fill up and make contact with alien facilities and story missions. once you are on the lower end of the timer you can do those missions. Shouldn't it be better to not let the meter fill up in the first place if possible? So in case bad things happen you have more time to play with. And since you can overwatch creep on story missions, they should not be to hard to deal with even if you don't have your A-squad ready (save for the final ones)
I remember doing two story things in one mission (+ Show Spoiler +Skulljacking a codex at the Psi-gate mission ) and instantly lost 5 progress bars. I felt a lot more comfortable with time after that
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i dont know exactly how the avatar progress works. i assume that each facility has either an independent progress meter and once its filled it adds +1 to the overall progress or it is chance based and every x days there is a chance for each facility to add +1. when you are on the timer the progress should either hold or maybe is even wasted. so once the countdown has started you should have "free" days that dont put you under extra pressure. you can use this time to finish gathering supplies for the next critical upgrade or wait for the one research. its a bit riskier of course because there is less room for error but sabotage missions are probably the easiest in the game and because you only do them late you should have a roster that is broad enough to deal with one failed attempt.
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Maybe you guys play on different difficulties, on Veteran I had 20 days to do something about the Avatar project.
Also I took down a faciltiy that removed 3 progress bars but also one that removed 1. I believe you remove the amount of progress bars that the facility has attributed to the bar.
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