X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Space Satan]

I always go for GTS first because 5th soldier during Chosen introduction retaliation is so much important. Plus, leveling sergeant is not that hard, especially with Templars with their guaranteed hit.
As for Reaper - they are godsend. It is almost impossible to activate a pod with their 3x3 detection range and I always use them for scouting to prevent activating 2 or 3 pods and teamwiping.

 

[Fedora Master]

Does the Reaper's "Enemies remain visible once spotted" ability work on the Assassin?

 

[ArchAngel]

I always go for GTS first because 5th soldier during Chosen introduction retaliation is so much important. Plus, leveling sergeant is not that hard, especially with Templars with their guaranteed hit.
As for Reaper - they are godsend. It is almost impossible to activate a pod with their 3x3 detection range and I always use them for scouting to prevent activating 2 or 3 pods and teamwiping.

I found them useful when you got 5 or 6 squad members but only in early game (claymore and early start can be useful) but in midgame they are pretty bad. As soon as you got a training center you can have concealed rangers instead and they are way more useful for murdering enemies when needed.
I read Reapers are good again at high levels but I never got one that far so I don't know.
Compared to them Skirmishers are kind of useful but lackluster early game but really powerful and useful mid game with a whole range of offensive, defensive, cc and utility abilities.

 

[Galdred]

I always go for GTS first because 5th soldier during Chosen introduction retaliation is so much important. Plus, leveling sergeant is not that hard, especially with Templars with their guaranteed hit.
As for Reaper - they are godsend. It is almost impossible to activate a pod with their 3x3 detection range and I always use them for scouting to prevent activating 2 or 3 pods and teamwiping.

I found them useful when you got 5 or 6 squad members but only in early game (claymore and early start can be useful) but in midgame they are pretty bad. As soon as you got a training center you can have concealed rangers instead and they are way more useful for murdering enemies when needed.
I read Reapers are good again at high levels but I never got one that far so I don't know.
Compared to them Skirmishers are kind of useful but lackluster early game but really powerful and useful mid game with a whole range of offensive, defensive, cc and utility abilities.

Conceal rangers are worse than Reapers at scouting, and worse than murder rangers at killing. Reapers ability to remain concealed after a kill also allows them contribute and scout at the same time.
Banish also trivializes bosses with superior expanded magazine (and you can cheese with repeater on top of it...).

 

[ArchAngel]

I always go for GTS first because 5th soldier during Chosen introduction retaliation is so much important. Plus, leveling sergeant is not that hard, especially with Templars with their guaranteed hit.
As for Reaper - they are godsend. It is almost impossible to activate a pod with their 3x3 detection range and I always use them for scouting to prevent activating 2 or 3 pods and teamwiping.

I found them useful when you got 5 or 6 squad members but only in early game (claymore and early start can be useful) but in midgame they are pretty bad. As soon as you got a training center you can have concealed rangers instead and they are way more useful for murdering enemies when needed.
I read Reapers are good again at high levels but I never got one that far so I don't know.
Compared to them Skirmishers are kind of useful but lackluster early game but really powerful and useful mid game with a whole range of offensive, defensive, cc and utility abilities.

Conceal rangers are worse than Reapers at scouting, and worse than murder rangers at killing. Reapers ability to remain concealed after a kill also allows them contribute and scout at the same time.
Banish also trivializes bosses with superior expanded magazine (and you can cheese with repeater on top of it...).

Conceal rangers are murder rangers as all it takes is 10 points in Training Center that you get in mid game where Reaper usefulness starts falling off. You can also get Conceal if you want if the ranger is above average in combat intelligence.
Reaper ability to stay concealed and fire is pure RNG and you cannot depend on it and their damage is pathetic.

I read banish is pretty good but you need to suffer a Reaper until then. And still I would rather have a crit based Rapid Shot Ranger instead with Talon Rounds (or Bluescreen if facing dangerous mechs). That Ranger murders everything with only 2 ammo used and does that every round. And can also Reaper with a sword to kill bigger packs with use of Training Center (you probably should give your Ranger every possible ability for endgame)

 

[Galdred]

Reaper concealment is 100% guaranteed if you kill the target with the relevant perk(silent killer) at Lieutenant. Given that you can flank and go almost point blank without being discovered, it is pretty reliable.

The ability is badly worded, but it makes you remain concealed as long as you always kill your target (because you had 0% chance of being discovered before taking the shot).

 

[Space Satan]

I killed Avatars and Codexes with Banish - it's insane how powerful this ability is. It can wipe entire areas of enemies. And Remote detonation can blast three pods to ashes

 

[ArchAngel]

Reaper concealment is 100% guaranteed if you kill the target with the relevant perk(silent killer) at Lieutenant. Given that you can flank and go almost point blank without being discovered, it is pretty reliable.

The ability is badly worded, but it makes you remain concealed as long as you always kill your targets.

Ah I wondered about that. It said kills with its rifle do not increase chance to get revealed, I thought that meant it always stays at 50%..
Still, the damage is not good enough. All you do is finish some kills.

 

[Space Satan]

Yeah, with +damage bullets you can wipe half the alien force from shadow and in missions without timer you can kill them ALL. Especially robots with bluescreens.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, with +damage bullets you can wipe half the alien force from shadow and in missions without timer you can kill them ALL. Especially robots with bluescreens.

You are talking about plasma tier weapons and probably some other bonuses on the rifle. I am talking about mid game Reaper mostly. And maybe end game Reaper is overall more useful than a Ranger, I don't really know. I know Rangers rule, with Training building they rule even more now. I have yet to see Reaper in action. And vs Robots, I doubt you can one shot them, they got lots of life unless you mean using Banish on all of them. What is the cooldown of banish?

 

[Space Satan]

banish is a 1-per mission ability so I use it on Sectopods, avatars, gatekeepers and other big threats. Given Reapers' supreme aim most of the time big enemies are guaranteed to take 5-6 shots from powerful rifle. It could be a 1-shot sectopod. As for mid game usefulness, preventing accidental pod aggro overweights anything ranger can offer.

 

[ArchAngel]

banish is a 1-per mission ability so I use it on Sectopods, avatars, gatekeepers and other big threats. Given Reapers' supreme aim most of the time big enemies are guaranteed to take 5-6 shots from powerful rifle. It could be a 1-shot sectopod. As for mid game usefulness, preventing accidental pod aggro overweights anything ranger can offer.

They certainly are more useful with being able to kill enemies and stay in stealth. I will try out that gameplay with them. Without that perk they were too often dead weight during my missions.

 

[Alienman]

Wondering if someone can help me figure this one out, but with a controller (yes yes) how do I check traits and what they do? I can see that some of guys have gotten some traits from wounds, but I can't for the love of god find how to check what they do in the menu!

 

[Fedora Master]

Fuck me, I started a Legendary campaign and got a convoy with Venom Rounds and Gas Grenades right away. I feel like this campaign is going to go well.

 

[Galdred]

Any thoughts on bond synergies? I'm thinking Reaper + Sharpshooter, where the reaper is the concealed spotter and gives the unused action to the sharpshooter, who can either snipe from range or move in for gunslinging and use the extra move to fall back into cover. Reaper and Ranger or Templar also work well for the same reason. Specialist + pretty much anyone else is a no brainer, but I think Skirmisher is a good combination since his grapple attacks are always front line and specialist can use his first action to aid protocol.

I guess in the early game you kinda have to just leave it to the RNG and make it work with whichever classes get bonds, but it seems like a nice plan for end game to GTS train the right rookies with the right bonds.

Reapers and specialists into anyone else is more or less what I do too.
Sharpshooters can also be in a good position to give action when they don't have LoS.

 

[Space Satan]

For Chosen so far Hunter is the easiest. Lots of L\I plays gamble until they get Hunter for home region Chosen. He have pretty much only one attack that deals damage - his rifle. tracking shot could be easily avoided and everything else is daze grenades. Warlock is worse because his kamikaze zombies force you torelocate and potentially trigger new pods. Assassin is the abslolute worst. The bitch can fuck you team up generally and get away with that. With her going on a mission withoutscanners is bordering suicide. I would better face 2 hunter on a mission that one assassin. Plus,sometimes she and a damn idea to flank your soldiers and shoot her shotgun for 15-20 damage.

 

[Jaedar]

Agree assassin is worst, has a tendency to go in, hit hard and then sprint far enough away that it is hard or impossible to follow. Mine got overwatch immunity too, so quite tricky.

Imo warlock is easy too, very easy to kill his zombies with overwatch and it's not like you need to move more than a few tiles anyway. I also think he is the worst at real combat, can barely do anything.

 

[ArchAngel]

With Assassin you know it is coming for you unlike others that hang back. If you got a Reaper, scan or Lost on map you can detect her before she gets to attack.

 

[Galdred]

I eventually got my first rulers. These are really bullshit simulators. But now, with the nerf, if one is active and out of LoS of everyone, he won't do anything at all, so it makes cheesing even stronger in timed mission (I had my whole squad move away to extraction for 2 turns while he was hiding inside the building doing exactly nothing).

I too find the Assassin the hardest, but the Hunter is brutal when he gets close with his grapple as his rifle attack can OS your guys early on.
Tracking shot is a joke, though, and he doesn't seem to know it, so letting him hangback makes things much easier, but it is not always possible on some maps if he hs close to your objective during a timed mission.

 

[ArchAngel]

I eventually got my first rulers. These are really bullshit simulators. But now, with the nerf, if one is active and out of LoS of everyone, he won't do anything at all, so it makes cheesing even stronger in timed mission (I had my whole squad move away to extraction for 2 turns while he was hiding inside the building doing exactly nothing).

I too find the Assassin the hardest, but the Hunter is brutal when he gets close with his grapple as his rifle attack can OS your guys early on.
Tracking shot is a joke, though, and he doesn't seem to know it, so letting him hangback makes things much easier, but it is not always possible on some maps if he hs close to your objective during a timed mission.

Not only that but you can now reload a weapon without giving them an action. I had a Berserker in one mission where I barely got out alive.

How they were implemented makes it so it is now worth more to go for Blacksite first as your Avatar reducing facility destruction because before you can access alien facilities they will have Ruler guardians which then get activated. And you probably want to avoid activating them as long as possible.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Assassin was my first, thankfuly she had brittle con. so my rangers coupled with reapers made short work of her. But even like that she was a pain in the ass thanks to her wave and will reducing attacks. Found her lair and eliminated her quickly.
To my suprise the other 2 was just pushovers. Warlock was so easy to be considered a threat.

 

[Galdred]

Any thoughts on bond synergies? I'm thinking Reaper + Sharpshooter, where the reaper is the concealed spotter and gives the unused action to the sharpshooter, who can either snipe from range or move in for gunslinging and use the extra move to fall back into cover. Reaper and Ranger or Templar also work well for the same reason. Specialist + pretty much anyone else is a no brainer, but I think Skirmisher is a good combination since his grapple attacks are always front line and specialist can use his first action to aid protocol.

I guess in the early game you kinda have to just leave it to the RNG and make it work with whichever classes get bonds, but it seems like a nice plan for end game to GTS train the right rookies with the right bonds.

Anything into sharpshooter is not that great as it only gives a pistol action (maybe not if the Sharpie has the chosen sniper rifle).
I think the sharpshooter works better as an action provider when he needs to reload or reposition, but I'd rather give the action to a ranger or grenadier most of the time.

 

[Alienman]

So I went into this picking commander, but damn, getting my ass handed to me. It's fun but that game went to game over rather quick. Restarted on veteran, but it's kinda easy so far. I'm wondering, do veteran get harder later on or is it best to start over to get a challenge?

 

[Space Satan]

Yeah, a single health bar for troopers on commander difficulty makes such a tremendous change. Where 3-health troopers were less of a problem, damage RNG of 3-4 makes each mission on commander end up with lots of wounded at best. Had shitload of situations where troopers and officers with 1 health bar massacred my team.
On the bright side, even on commander you can hold Avatar project almost indifinetely due to covert missions. But early Gatkeepers can still turn victorious game into a pile of misery

 

[Fedora Master]

The trick is to start on Legendary and get used to the 4 HP troopers right away.