XCOM 2

*knock knock*

Hi, do you have a few moments to talk about our Lord and Savior, Bladestorm?

Gavinmad_sl said:

*knock knock*

Hi, do you have a few moments to talk about our Lord and Savior, Bladestorm?

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Bladestorm is goddamn amazing - I never got to see what a Andro Shell does in melee because of that. Heh. So many failed "kills" on one that didn't matter as it charged my Rangers.

Gavinmad_sl said:

*knock knock*

Hi, do you have a few moments to talk about our Lord and Savior, Bladestorm?

Click to expand...

I always skipped it on my Vet run through. Going to have to really consider it on higher difficulties.

Although it hasn't happened to me yet, I suppose inevitably I will get totally fucked over by bladestorm when a viper grabs me, bladestorm interrupts the constrict, and then another alien shoots and kills my now flanked ranger.

Yeah I had a ranger bug out after falling when the roof of the camper she was standing on collapsed on the enemy turn, but she just refused to do animations at all.

Gavinmad_sl said:

Although it hasn't happened to me yet, I suppose inevitably I will get totally fucked over by bladestorm when a viper grabs me, bladestorm interrupts the constrict, and then another alien shoots and kills my now flanked ranger.

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Eh, I've not even had them try in such a long time - one of the primary reasons I always carry some flashbangs. Hate their stupid abilities.

Free reload needs to be a separate option from reload instead of replacing it entirely. I'd like to be able to save my free reload(s) for the heat of combat if I get a brief lull to reload safely

Never took blade storm on my Commander/Ironman play through, Implacable+Untouchable are just such a brutally effective combo at colonel. But there are tons of cases where Bladestorm would be pretty awesome before colonel, I think.

Once you get colonel and you can get double tap or reaper, though, I think implacable really out shines it. With Talon rounds+Shotgun accuracy for close range and laser sight, if I move my ranger into 3 tiles he gets 90%+ hit (After double shot negative) with 100% crit and two shots, usually can count on him to do 30+ damage (With the GTS perk). Then he slips away to heavy cover and the first shot of the next round auto-misses him.

I was thinking about putting him in a wraith suit for extra mobility, but armor on a war suit is so good for suitability. Ended up splitting the difference and put a movement PCS on him (+4, with the GTS perk) and put him in a war suit for the extra armor since he's always played so aggressively. (It's too bad the extra inventory armors all kind of suck. I mean, they are pretty amazing, but none of them are worth giving up a heavy weapon for, a war suit is almost always better. This might be balanced if you could just build them, but they are proving ground items too so you have to spend cores on them. The inventory armors should really all be +1 armor, +2 HP and then their special effect, with plated inventory armor being +4hp, or some dodge.)

I will say, for PCS--it's hard deciding between movement and aim. Both are so fucking powerful on the tactical map. An extra 4 blue line movement is MASSIVE, and it lets all your guys flank so easily (Except snipers, they always get aim for me.) But having +20 aim is essentially a fuck you to cover for many classes too, so they don't need to re-position as much (But they also can't retreat into my sniper kill zone traps as well, either.)

hodj_sl said:

There are stages where snipers rape.

There are stages where they rape everything.

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Just my 2cp on how my play through went. I was huge on just using the ranger to scout and concealed overwatch instagib anything fast that crossed the middle of the playing field. I had one sniper hit colonel really fast, the other just got stuck at like captain or major and nothing would get him up.


Oh and I finished, thoughts:

khalid_sl said:

Just started this. Having serious difficulties early on with the timers. Does it relax a bit once you get your guys trained a bit?

Seems much harder at the start than the original.

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Yes, timers get much easier once you get your guys up a little. Armor actually lets you handle a mistake, so you can be a bit more aggressive. It also gives you an extra inventory slot, so you get a lot more versatility. In addition, with better aim, you're not so restricted on positioning to get favorable odds. Lastly, when you can, get a ranger with Phantom or scanning beacons, both come very early in the game and they make timers much easier (Your 5th member, once you get it from the GTS, should be another range IMO, just for phantom. Early game nothing comes close; but late game it matters less because you have tons more options).

The scanning beacon can be thrown super far, much, much farther than a grenade even with a grenade launcher. It's an extremely powerful item (But like all items, it is out shined by the mimetic beacon. However, if you're not playing with 4 mim beacons, I suggest one of these). The phantom ranger is even better though. You lose a squad mate fighting the first pod, but that pod is USUALLY one you can set up on using concealment so it's typically easy. Then run your ranger ahead and find the next pod, and use your sniper to lure them in (Or if you can get close enough, grenade them without your grenadier being seen), the ranger gets an easy flank and it becomes another easy pod. (After which you only have to worry about one more on most maps, even on the higher difficulty).


(Not sure if you noticed this yes, sorry if it is something you have). When using these two methods, just pay attention to the target symbol next to the enemies name. That tells you if you have line of sight on the enemy. When moving your non-concealed guys, it will let you know how close you can move before the enemy spots you (And it shows up as you're moving your cursor before you commit to the move, so you can check your path. You can also tell if a location will let you shoot before you waste a move, too--it's probably the best addition to the game). Get all your guys as close as possible, then open up on them with whatever your biggest attack is (Either sniper or grenade). The phantom ranger or that beacon makes this all possible by giving you vision on them. Just pay attention to that little symbol as you move your revealed squad.

The problem is that heavy weapons (mostly just the shredder/shredstorm) are way too goddamn powerful, not that the default armors are weak. Both versions of the shredder could stand to have their damage halved and they'd still be really good. The straight line weapon is completely terrible, needs some kind of buff. Blaster launcher damage is pretty weak, but the ability to place it anywhere within its enormous range, completely ignoring LoS, makes it balanced imo.

Also had another idea. Make shadow projects take longer to complete, but no longer put your main research project on hold. As it stands now it's optimal to put off the shadow projects until you've completely teched up, unless you absolutely need to run one to knock off some avatar progress. Kinda weird for there to be almost zero story progress, then all of the sudden all of the story unfolds in a month. Although I suppose my earlier idea of giving you a finite amount of time at max avatar progress would change that up already.

*edit*

Also holy shit, never seen the Show of Force dark event before. Either the dark event pool is really big, or some dark events are unique to specific difficulties. Show of Force is serious business, probably even worse than Vigilance.

Wraith suit also having the grappling hook was the decider for me. I mean the hook is literally a potential massive free move.

And proximity mine not breaking conceal was damn awesome with wraith suit setup.

Gavinmad_sl said:

The problem is that heavy weapons (mostly just the shredder/shredstorm) are way too goddamn powerful, not that the default armors are weak. Both versions of the shredder could stand to have their damage halved and they'd still be really good. The straight line weapon is completely terrible, needs some kind of buff. Blaster launcher damage is pretty weak, but the ability to place it anywhere within its enormous range, completely ignoring LoS, makes it balanced imo.

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Well, this is true, but if they weren't this powerful--I'd never use the WAR suit, ever. That second inventory slot is extremely powerful. You'd never trade that for +1 armor and a mediocre heavy weapon for an inventory slot, I don't think. The versaility of that second slot is big given many grenades would quickly outshine the heavy weapon, not only doing more damage but also more special effects. (That's even assuming you only use one mimetic beacon, too. Honestly though, with Mim beacon it is really pointless to do any special suits, the optimal strat should always be all Warden armors with special Ammo+Mim beacons for defense on anyone aside your specialist.)

If WAR suits were garbage, and you weren't cheesing with Mimetic, thenmaybethose secondary armors might get some play for my rangers; but even then, would you take those armors over a grenade? I don't think I would, given how powerful some of the experimental grenades are (If I had 3 extra inventory slots, I'd for sure take an Acid and Emp nade at least, it gives you so extra utility with a broad range of enemies). The armors do give you some survivability but they are just lack luster compared to the utility of the special grenades. (But I agree, heavy weapons are OP enough to be a default choice. Not Mimemetic make the game trivial OP, but they are a clear choice in most cases, especially give how many things have armor later and how environment destruction is one of the most powerful things in game. The long range, AE damage, plus environment destruction and armor removal gives them way too much utility combined with their damage. Grenades utility just doesn't make up for the extra range from powered weapons.)

Honestly, I think the most OP thing about heavy weapons, especially shredder cannon is that they can be fired with the second move action. They should operate more like the EW, and only be fired from the first action. It would make them a lot more situational.

Lithose_sl said:

Honestly, I think the most OP thing about heavy weapons, especially shredder cannon is that they can be fired with the second move action. They should operate more like the EW, and only be fired from the first action. It would make them a lot more situational.

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I wouldn't object to that. Maybe redo Salvo so it allows Grenadiers to fire it with their second move, to reinforce that they are the heavy class.

Anyway I just had the funniest goddamn one in a million sequence of events that will ever happen. Had a ranger up on a rooftop overwatched, waiting for reinforcements to land. He takes his overwatch shot and misses, hitting the roof. Under his target. Who then plummets 2 stories to his death.

I fucking lost it.

Anyone know if reloading with a free auto-loader interrupts serial? I originally gave my snipers extended magazines for kill zone. But it is uber rare if my kill zone gets more than three shots, and it seems like the free reloads are much better (I have 2 spare advanced reloads, so 9 bullets before I have to spend an action vs 6, the only benefit of the six is, as far as I can see, kill zone.)

Got super lucky this play through with superior reloaders. IMO, they are the best lower weapon upgrade. (Upper is divided by class, scopes for snipers/heavy, Lasers for rangers.) I use stocks on my specialist, trade off I made to get medical protocol but still have a for sure damage.

Case can be made for repeaters, execution has helped me 4-5 times in the campaign, but aside from one also on my specialist for that lucky hit, I don't like relying on such rare luck (Reloaders are consistently useful). Same problem with hair triggers.

well when you have 6 soldiers, plus however many reserves for when you have wounded in your front 6, you won't have optimal weapon upgrades on everyone. Granted, if you get the third upgrade slot in your campaign it changes things pretty dramatically. God that's such a crazy continent bonus. I got a lot of work done with hair triggers though, and a guardian specialist can sometimes chain together an absolute assload of overwatch fire, and that instakill chance adds up quickly. Repeaters are good on pistoliers too, and I honestly think a pistol sharpshooter is better than a sniper until Colonel. Face Off with a repeater and maybe even venom/dragon rounds is really strong, especially when you break concealment with it.

Too bad stock probably doesn't stack with repeater.