Top tier talents

[Rhapsody]

This is an unofficial, bootleg, unlicensed spinoff of the recent thread about top tier mercs, except with some actual explanation. :^)

I'm rating talents based on their power or effectiveness, scalability and reliability. I'll edit the post to add additional clarification if needed. We're not looking at stats, traits or default perks here unless it's of immediate concern to use of the talent. Unique items are considered alongside the talent if relevant.

Additional evaluation is needed especially for mercs marked with an * asterisk.

"Super"

These mercs are, more or less, imbalanced or overpowered, and it's mostly thanks to their talents. They are game-changers or cheese-makers, sometimes both.

Livewire - Inside Dope, a.k.a. wallhack, is unsurprisingly powerful everywhere and for every strategy. Only places it won't do its job is underground where you cannot gain intel normally or at all. She also provides more intel from hacking, which translates into more money when all nearby intel is collected, and vastly saved time from scouting operations.

Blood - Flying Daggers stealth kills, repositions and ultimately makes minced meat out of anything. Throwing knives count as melee weapon and will always crit when True Strike is unlocked. He also has infinite knives.

Reaper - Grim Fate suits its user perfectly, is usable in every situation, and is one of the few effects in the game that doubles as both damaging ability as well as crowd control.
Shadow - Fleeting Shadow opens a lot of new and sneaky possibilities like using Run and Gun or Mobile Shot while maintaining stealth. It also lets you be more aggressive with sneaking around which helps break monotony of long range stealth tactics.
Fauda - Heavy Duty has a lot of effects crammed in it, for both offense and defense. Its owner's inability to develop crucial stats like explosives holds its potential back, but the talent itself is 5/5.

"Great"

These talents are effectively flawless, but their effects on regular gameplay are slightly below the top. This should be considered the baseline, not the tier at the top. Most of these mercs are worth hiring simply for the sake of their talent and enjoying putting it to use.

Barry - Boutique Explosives provides 2 shaped charges a week. Their cone-shaped effective radius and high damage makes our favorite Christian extremely valuable in most situations. There seems to be a bug that prevents them from being crafted at repair shops however.
Igor - Vashe Zdorovye! lets Igor do what he does best. Free grit is generally very useful to have, but it's particularly helpful in often risky close combat which the talent is geared for.

Thor - Nature's Bounty produces herbal medicine every two days. They stack up to 20 pieces, and can be used by anyone - for just 2 AP - for 30 grit and a random side effect, which is very often Well Rested. This would make Igor's talent look poor if it weren't for the damage increase he gets.
Fidel - Double Toss can be little tricky to aim, but it's ridiculously effective at causing mayhem and perhaps more importantly letting Fidel maintain higher kill count and stay in Grand Chien for longer. The only downside is that the grenades need to be of same type.

Ivan - You See, Igor... grants 3 AP after each kill. At best, you can secure a kill by effectively spending only 1-2 AP if you kill with each hit. It's universally useful passive and a powerful boost that scales with merc power and with most builds and teams.

Gus - Tango Down is a great equalizer for almost any squad. It's worth considering even when other grit sources are available.
Sidney - Smug helps illustrate how much a few extra AP can bring to battlefield. In smart use he can easily maintain it through battles and do his utmost best in almost any way of your choosing.

Flay - Make Them Bleed is one of the better talents among free hires. It's pretty easy for anyone to make enemies bleed by using right ammunition and weapons like shotguns. Bonus damage is always useful and the effect stacks. It's got everything a unique talent should have and is usable in both melee and at range, unlike most talents.

"Good"

This is the tier for talents which typically won't or cannot change your game, but which still do exactly what it says on the tin while providing useful and/or fun effects. Most of these are baseline quality talents, just like the tier above, but only because the merc who possesses them brings more to the table than just the talent.

Mouse - Light-footed lets her ignore enemy overwatch. Many enemies (but not most of them or the most dangerous ones) use overwatch, but you'll need to plan ahead a little to get most out of it.
Kalyna - Inevitable Strike lets you ignore armor, letting you use HP ammo without penalties, which in turn helps a bit with ammo economy and can enable crit-based builds without using weapon mods.
Grizzly - Off the Hip reduces penalties of firing machineguns from the hip. You'll probably want to make use of it with RPK-74 or Minimi since they are not cumbersome. But similar effects can probably be achieved with Auto Weapons and/or CQC Training.

Meltdown - Vengeance lets her become Inspired easily, which can bring the most out of AP-intense builds and tactics. Retaliation attacks can proc this talent.
Raven - Top Spotter marks all enemies in line of sight within the overwatch area. She doesn't have the best build to make use of it, but free mark on many enemies opens a lot of possibilities for the more agile members of her squad.
Wolf - Jack of All Trades is not the most interesting or powerful effect, but it can really save your skin by speeding up crucial or lengthy operation times like militia training and really plays to the merc's strengths.
Ice* - Ice Storm is a talent I have not yet had chance to test or research in practice, so if you can provide feedback on it, feel free to do so.
Buns - Anything You Can Do... should make her work well alongside militia or in basically any squad that doesn't contain the likes of Fidel, Ivan or Gus who want to secure kills for themselves.
Grunty* - Überraschung is another talent I've not yet been able to test in practice. It requires some setting up but can help turn the tables in a team built for ambushing opponents, such as alongside Fox.

Tex - Dance For Me is an interesting talent which both promotes unique approach to battles but also kind of locks him down in overwatch roles. Fortunately there's nothing really wrong with that.
Dr. Q - Exploding Palm inflicts a rare condition on its victim. It's a bit risky to make use of but worthwhile when well executed and also quite fun and unconventional.
Vicki - Elbow Grease is a timer-saver and build-enabler for small arms and crit perks.
Raider - Tag Team works with adequate synergy when, obviously, paired with Raven, but in most cases you set up an overwatch for incoming enemies who are out of sight or so you can have rest of your team focus elsewhere.
Nails - Nailed It provides free damage, and doesn't require you to hog all the kills for him alone. So it's good, especially in conjunction with his many perks, but not a game-changer.
Hitman - Smarter, Not Harder is the thing that makes Frank stand out as a marksman, comfortably sitting with a low-AP, long range and high capacity assault rifle. I'm not sure if Opportunistic Killer enables free reload without removing the buff.

Magic - Second Story Work is a powerful but relatively situational bonus. I've found that the hardest battles in the game involve fighting from low or equal ground, which would limit this talent's overall benefits.
Scully - Shoulder the Shoulder provides free grit, so it's almost upper-tier talent... but staying close together can be risky especially in late game against assault and rocket troops. He needs further development and gear to bring most out of it, but that's how the game works so it's not an issue.
Len - On My Lead can provide crucial extra attacks, but as with most talents it recharges on kill with another ability, and Len isn't exactly made for securing kills... However, this is probably one of the coolest talents in the game in the sense of making for good "war stories" material, so do share them if you have made epic use out of this talent.

Larry - Danger Close is a talent I don't have much experience in using, but at least the game will inform you when it's taking effect and it's really valuable to get more damage out of any kind of ammunition, especially rare ones like explosives. The talent is the same before and after treatment, which is a bit boring.
Spike - Bullet Hell is a once-per-conflict ability, and can only be used with automatic weapons, but the animation and effects are pretty spectacular. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to cause any damage.

"B-tier"

These talents are not very useful because they are too situational, not powerful enough or just plain unreliable. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't hire the merc if you wish and they all have more than just the talent. If you're read through the list all the way up here, you should already know exactly what I'm talking about.

Fox - Striking Looks does not function reliably in entirey, as combat can sometimes begin by the enemy noticing something that was only indirectly caused by Fox, and as a result the surprise advantage can become negated. You'll know this happened if the enemy gets to reposition immediate after her opener. But the AP refund should work reliably and is very valuable effect.
Omryn - Eyes On The Back provides circular overwatch, which is only situationally useful in most engagements. There are a couple of fights where it shines, especially when he's fully developed with perks and training. He also has a useless knife blocking his weapon slots which degrades his flexibility.

Red* - Have At Ye provides, to my knowledge, free grenades by means of retaliation. I've been unable to test it in practice, but collateral damage and having the feature proc by being hit by attacks instead of merely being attacked regardless of the attack's success makes this B-tier in my eyes.

Scope - Eagle Eye gives you biscuits, but little else. Pin Down is easily the least useful of weapon type special attacks and nothing this talent does makes it any better. There's so many other, better ways of using AP or attacking or exposing enemies that having something like this on legendary roster seems a bit insulting. But I am sure someone will disagree with my assessment.

Pierre - Glory Hog is probably the most situational talent in the game and it doesn't help that the merc has numerous other downsides. We don't have much expectations from free hires, but I think they should be above this.
Smiley* - ? I have not and will not recruit him in foreseeable future so feel free to fill in this gap. But based on other free fires, I'm guessing it is not amazing. Please prove me wrong. :)

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Do you give explosives to Livewire or Mouse or Omryn or Kalyna? Only if you want to see that merc blow their own hands off.

There is no critical fail mechanic to bomb yourself like in fallout. At worst, you throw somewhere else.

Poetic license. Even so, misthrowing into someone else or a car or something isn't good. Just missing is bad, a waste of ammo and that turn. I like the reliabile kill.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

If Striking Looks always worked as it says, it'd be great.

What doesn't work about it for you? She has been in my combat squad every mission for 3 games now. TBH I liked her so much as a T1 merc I didn't pay too much attention to her unique until my 2nd play through.

I'm in exactly same boat as you.

The AP return works flawlessly and it's of immense use. That ability alone would warrant the talent to be rated in the average/baseline tier, but I do consider it imperfect as a whole because enemies are not always surprised when Fox opens combat.

In case it's not well known, there's a considerable negative stealth kill multiplier difference between aware and surprised states (and not negative multiplier if unaware ofc). The talent usually works in its entirety, but not always and it's very frustrating to have two (or more) perfect stealth kills downgraded to just one.

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

I do agree with your Livewire rank...early game that is a huge impact. I eventually replace her with Magic though, at some point money becomes meaningless and he is a vastly superior combat merc and a great mechanic.

I'd really like to hire Magic for late game as well but currently I'm tight on income on my iron mode playthrough. I have not been able to take control of Pantagruel's mine despite reaching 100% loyalty...

Originally posted by Dark:

The value of Omryn's ability depends strongly on what weapons you give him.

His Auto Weapons trait will cause most players to give him automatic weapons, and his ability won't do much with them since they already have wide overwatch cones.

Now sniper rifles, they have small overwatch cones and long range. His ability becomes way more powerful when he has an M82, firing .50 cal rounds at anything moving within range 40.

Yes, it's very clear on paper and partially in practice too... I don't consider the talent interesting or of baseline effectiveness because he has his other weapon slot half-locked which prevents the kind of dual-purpose role you're (incidentally?) describing. If he didn't have that knife blocking the other slot, it'd be possible to make full use of both his talent and his very useful trait.

[osubaker33]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

Only if you want to see that merc blow their own hands off.

Haha, now I want that as a feature in the game.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

I'm not going to quote myself again for your trolling.

If you created this thread without expecting pushback from people with different opinions you're dreaming.

Recommend you unsubscribe and let people with other opinions fight amongst themselves.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

I'm not going to quote myself again for your trolling.

If you created this thread without expecting pushback from people with different opinions you're dreaming.

Recommend you unsubscribe and let people with other opinions fight amongst themselves.

Not at all. But if someone fails to

1) actually read the post
2) comprehend what they were supposed to read
3) argues back without understanding what the OP was about

they do deserve to be ignored.

Everyone else's feedback is more than welcome because at my current rate of play I'm simply not able to test all mercs and synergies in practice. I've already added or edited several notes about objects of feedback, but there's always more work to be done.

[HozzMidnight]

Fox and Barry are the two best values in the game, IMO. There's arguably no one better than Barry at his role and he's dirt cheap.

Fox is one of the best combat capable medics, if not the best. Yes there are people better than her in combat with a 70+ medicine but maybe 1-2? And how much do they cost? By mid game Fox can be your main doctor as well as a very competent sniper or LMG. She can get kill zone at level 5 I think? She's also the best Dex trainer in the game. On top of that she's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ always in character and I love it.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by HozzMidnight:

On top of that she's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ always in character and I love it.

Yeah, and I'd also say the same about Thor. You'd think a gamer could lose their mind about a hippie constantly talking about their mindfulness practice and veganism or whatever, or everything that comes out of Fox's mouth (pun not intended, ew), but... It's not happening? JA3 is a strange game in this regard. There's zero character development except when it's completely parodied as in Larry's case, and yet these teams we can make are just really appealing. I don't understand it.

[HozzMidnight]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

I have not been able to take control of Pantagruel's mine despite reaching 100% loyalty...

Just FYI this can bug out on you. If you do A8 before reaching 100% with Pantagruel, Chimichanga will disappear you will have a note to meet him at D8 but he won't ever be there. In this case you have to take the mine by force if you want it. This happened to me my first game.

[KAMJAH]

You are playing in iron man !
how do you know if you need an explosives expert or a meca to disarm that fridge ?
I had tested ice trait, i build him around this trait, " increase dmg to leg... and ammo for the corresponding region to shoot ( if there are kevlar or not i switch weapon... ) .
I tought he would be cool for "bosses", to "debuff" them. anyway ice does more dmg with FN FAL and a 6 AP headshot.

I used Buns for an entire campain, she can shot without aiming, so she can fire rifles twice and rarely miss.

And for thoses who like Barry, yes he is awesome, and thoses grenades are very powerfull, i earn a "succes" 1000 pts of dmg in a single throw ( against a full packed squad of the army when them counter attakc, on the bridge behind the church ). But Larry do more dmg, and he is funny.

[sooshon]

Originally posted by KAMJAH:

You are playing in iron man !
how do you know if you need an explosives expert or a meca to disarm that fridge ?

explosives traps will say "disarm", mechanical traps will say "disable"

[KAMJAH]

Thanks, i hadn't notice ( i play in french but it would do).

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by KAMJAH:

You are playing in iron man !
how do you know if you need an explosives expert or a meca to disarm that fridge ?

Most of the time (literally) the explosive disarming icon will come up when the trap is of explosive nature. If it's electrical, it will use the hacking icon. But there are like 2 or 3 traps in the game where this is not the case.

Solution? Have Barry do it. You could train him in mechanics until 80 or so to have virtually guaranteed chance to disarm basically anything.

If for some reason a highly trained explosives expert is not available for disarming, you should remember to go prone before attempting, to reduce explosion damage taken.

[KAMJAH]

... Barry again, this guy is a gem.

[BuffTucker]

Rating Fox's ability so low, claiming it's "not very useful because they are too situational, not powerful enough or just plain unreliable", is the weirdest hill I've seen people die on for a long time. It works in literally all but a handful of combats throughout the game, often multiple times per sector. It's very reliable and gaining ~10 AP alone is very good, even without the surprise effect.

Ranking it below the likes of Grunti's, Buns' and Q's ability is just a massive blunder and there is no way to sugarcoat it.

Seems to me like you should conduct some more testing and refine your tier list. You'll find Fox's ability very useful.

[madh]

Gosh, this thread has convinced me that I've been using Fox completely wrong. I specced her into a light armor, run and gun, frog leaping "fly across the map and desert eagle something in the face" but see how damn good that free fully aimed snipe could be.