What are the best Level-Up perks for different mercs/roles?

[someguywithasword]

I'm curious how people have been levelling up their various mercs to fit different roles. I'm have a hard time making decisions.

[Keith 'Blood' Hanson]

For me, Blood was the most interesting with what options to pick. Do I get more movement after hitting someone or just...more movement in general? Get the Health perks to stack more grit or start to rank up Strength to get that great 'Melee attacks always crit'?

Grizzly I made into my heavy weapons guy, so while getting some strength to make him move more with cumbersome armor is good, better is to go up Health, that has great damage reduction for when he's setting up overwatch with the MG.

Livewire I played into her high Wisdom, giving her the perk to raise morale after hitting someone with at least 50+ damage with a sniper rifle is easy, gives free AP.

Barry is a bit harder, he has pretty low stats (70's but no 80s besides Wisdom). I got stuff to make him better as a shotgunner/grenadier, but am I getting everything...?

Fox I've got...no clue with. I gave her two of the Dex perks for overwatch efficiency. (The Dex tree is kinda boring to me)

I try to keep quite a few characters wearing light armor, giving them the perk that gives them more free movement, great for snipers. And the follow up to give them Lightning reflexes or more free AP when they were in cover was also nice.

[Trolleur_Durden]

It's a complex topic to cover since perks are tiered, which means that you sometimes must take subpar perks in order to have access to better perks in the higher tiers, which makes it much harder to rate them for what they are worth in a vacuum. I've experimented a lot with the Dex/Agi/Wis perks so far, and here are my opinion:

-Wisdom perks seems to be the worst of all. Most are either RNG-based, too situational or reactive (triggering when you are in trouble, instead of helping you avoid trouble in the first place). Inspiring strike is probably the best one to take, despite being only tier 2, while Shock and awe is close second. Everything else seems subpar compared to other perk lines. I would probably avoid this perk line completely in my future playthroughs, except maybe for one single merc farming morale with Inspiring strike and a good single-hit high damage weapon.

-Agility perks are overall pretty solid and geared towards mobile characters operating close to the danger.

The first tier is a bit weak, with nothing really outstanding. Fast runner is a trap because it locks you into light armors, which is pretty dangerous for characters meant to go close and personal. It's good early game since you won't have access to medium/heavy armor before a while, but when you do, you will regret taking it. Flanker is situational since it's not always possible to flank enemies, and splitting your team in 2 can lead to other problems. Hit and run is probably the best one in the long run, especially on characters already geared towards melee combat.

The second tier is extremely good. Vantage point is decent but situational, since you don't always have higher ground available, and even when it's the case, it's not necessarily the best spot to take nonetheless, making this perk a potential trap incentivizing you to go in dangerous places. Frogleaping is simply excellent, since there's cover available pretty much everywhere and you always want to stay in cover. Lightning reactions is also very good as a very much needed safeguard for close-combat characters, which tend to take the most risks.

Regarding the last tier, Lucky streak is a bit hard to trigger, except if you have Raven in your team, because she can set up Marked on a group of enemies with her overwatch, allowing you to rake 2 crits per turn with ease. However, the whole process doesn't feel very rewarding, since it only gives you 4 AP. Anatomical precision seems a bit overkill, since most critical hits are lethal to begin with, but can gain relevance later on as you face more tougher enemies. Finally, Total concentration is probably the best t3 agility perk, since it's pretty easy to both get a kill and not miss afterwards if you know what you are doing.

In summary, the main issue of the Agility perks is the overall meta, which heavily favors the opposite playstyle (long-range stealth), so I tend to only go for them with characters already geared towards close-range combat and mobility, like Blood or Nails.


-Dexterity perks are probably the best in the game atm, with pretty solid choices supporting the best playstyle in the game at the moment. They are separated into two sub-categories, stealth combat+sniping and reactive shots+overwatch, and both are very solid choices.

In the first tier, Deadeye is probably the best perk to take among the 3 available, since aiming is pretty desirable to begin with. However, for a character wanting to go the overwatch route, Opportunistic killer is obviously better. The last one, Untraceable, is mostly a requirement for higher tiers for sniper builds.

In the second tier, Ambusher is the obvious choice for a sniper, while Fire routine is destined to overwatch characters. Reactive fire isn't as good as it seems, since you tend to almost never suffer enemy fire as a long-range character, and you want to use Take cover whenever possible in order to save AP for the next turn, which disables Reactive fire.

Finally, in the third tier, Killzone if the obvious choice for overwatch characters, while both other options are decent for a sniper. Since the tooltip doesn't say how much Assassination actually increases the chance of a stealth kill, it makes it pretty hard to compare it to Sharpshooter, whose numbers are known. I would go for both and be done with it.

I haven't tried enough the Strength and Health perks to have an advice on them, but on paper, both lines seems to have decent options, but nothing as interesting as Agility or Dexterity.

[Mechanique]

Free movement when starting in cover, frogleaping I think, is S tier perk and goes on everyone who has stats for it

Snipers get untraceable/ambushes/assassination to guarantee stealth kills

Everyone on frontline gets hit the deck, and those with access to 2 tier also get vanguard and/or lightning reactions

Those with 90+ health get calm under fire, another S tier perk

Everything else is situational, Igor and Vicky specifically need a lot for perks but will become unstoppable once you get all melee and crit perks respectively

Damage bonus or damage resistance (but not grit) perks are a waste, as well as reactive fire or overwatch perks as you are effectively setting yourself up to fail

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by Mechanique:

Free movement when starting in cover, frogleaping I think, is S tier perk and goes on everyone who has stats for it

Snipers get untraceable/ambushes/assassination to guarantee stealth kills

Everyone on frontline gets hit the deck, and those with access to 2 tier also get vanguard and/or lightning reactions

Those with 90+ health get calm under fire, another S tier perk

Everything else is situational, Igor and Vicky specifically need a lot for perks but will become unstoppable once you get all melee and crit perks respectively

Damage bonus or damage resistance (but not grit) perks are a waste, as well as reactive fire or overwatch perks as you are effectively setting yourself up to fail

I don't share your distaste for overwatch, which is quite effective in this game if used properly, especially on higher difficulties where melee enemies have like 10 free movement and can reach you in melee from very far away. The most efficient way to use overwatch is to avoid going for the full length cone and instead set up kill zones much closer to your team in order to intercept melee enemies coming close.

[['w']]

reactive fire is great, you'll fire back at someone shooting at you.

and I like deadeye a lot, more crit for more aim, "recoil management" for every attack on the same target accuracy raises.

Just at the bronze and silver perks so far

[Yuri Kossori]

Fast runner Barry. thank me later,
better explanation: grenadier/shotgunner. grab breach & clear + Fast runner & wear light armor.
may need to train agi.

machinegunner (grizzly) beef up, vanguard, hit the deck and calm underfire. ironclad is optional
unsure about collateral damage working with lmgs if cover is made of metal or stone.

(Gunty) heavy bipod sniper: in stealth he can kill 1 guy and if the other dude in range gets alerted he will shoot that guy too with the possibility of killing him. 2 kills at the price of 1 aimed shot worth of AP.
reason for the bipod is make sure his blue perk hits coz its a reaction shot not aimed.
this only works out of combat. in combat he can use lmgs. rocket launchers or just use the sniper.

experimental
tank smg: beef up, vanguard, hit the deck and hold position. ironclad is optional
how to: get in position to shoot or run & gun then try to hide behind cover but not lean on it. prone then overwatch.
still building this. created my IMP too late.

[Mechanique]

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

I don't share your distaste for overwatch, which is quite effective in this game if used properly, especially on higher difficulties where melee enemies have like 10 free movement and can reach you in melee from very far away. The most efficient way to use overwatch is to avoid going for the full length cone and instead set up kill zones much closer to your team in order to intercept melee enemies coming close.

I am not saying using overwatch is ineffective, I am saying perks related to overwatch are useless. HK21 Grunty carried me through the toughest fights, but there is nothing in perks list that improves the performance in any meaningful way (and some, like killzone, actually decrease it) and are better spent elsewhere

[Cornuthaum]

build a merc like Ice or Ivan for full overwatch (up to the tier 3 fingerguns perk) and give them one of the better MGs - RPK, Minimi/M249 or particularly the HK-21

Just as in real life, an accurate gunner with a fully kitted out machine gun swiftly becomes the cornerstone for your squad action, which is a pretty great divergence from the silenced sniper creeping

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by |wilb|:

reactive fire is great, you'll fire back at someone shooting at you.

and I like deadeye a lot, more crit for more aim, "recoil management" for every attack on the same target accuracy raises.

Just at the bronze and silver perks so far

First, you won't always fire back. There's a dexterity check in opposition made in order to trigger Reactive fire. Second, the characters going for the dexterity perks tend to avoid getting shot at to begin with, by staying stealthy and at long range. And finally, Reactive fire doesn't trigger when you use Take cover, which is very desirable for a sharpshooter style character, because it allows you to transfer 5 AP to the next turn and be able to shoot+aim twice one out of two turns. I've tried Reactive fire on 3 of my mercs and for me, it's definitely a trap perk.

[Keith 'Blood' Hanson]

For extra interrupt attacks, Revenge is superior to Reactive Fire. Revenge will proc just if you take enough damage...which while not ideal, is still a free attack. Especially for a shotgunner. Reactive fire *might* be alright on a sniper, but honestly....A lot of enemies have ARs, and even a grazing shot will negate this proccing. Typically snipers are the one who will miss, but then you're...trying to hit a sniper from far away.

I found it to be a *must* to nab Sudden strike on my melee char (Blood). You can straight up run through an enemies overwatch and stab them to negate it, this *also* makes it so that they will survive attacks from other enemy melee units.

Breach and Clear should not be underestimated for shotgunners/grenadiers, you can gain free movement *each* time you use them. So at 12 AP using a shotgun that only uses 4, you could dance around the battlefield just on your free movement. Or move twice if you lob two grenades.

Health is just a strong line of perks overall, especially the 90+ tier. Getting Hold Position or Vanguard for your MG user is also great, due to their weapon they are almost always placing overwatch and out of cover anyways.

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

First, you won't always fire back. There's a dexterity check in opposition made in order to trigger Reactive fire. Second, the characters going for the dexterity perks tend to avoid getting shot at to begin with, by staying stealthy and at long range. And finally, Reactive fire doesn't trigger when you use Take cover, which is very desirable for a sharpshooter style character, because it allows you to transfer 5 AP to the next turn and be able to shoot+aim twice one out of two turns. I've tried Reactive fire on 3 of my mercs and for me, it's definitely a trap perk.

It's good with other interrupt perks, common ammo weaponry, and especially Opportunistic Killer for automatic overwatch reloads, but nothing special on its own, even with 100 Dex. It's not a trap perk in a proper build. There's just one or two completely non-functioning ones and some utterly bad ones.

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by Mechanique:

Originally posted by Trolleur_Durden:

I don't share your distaste for overwatch, which is quite effective in this game if used properly, especially on higher difficulties where melee enemies have like 10 free movement and can reach you in melee from very far away. The most efficient way to use overwatch is to avoid going for the full length cone and instead set up kill zones much closer to your team in order to intercept melee enemies coming close.

I am not saying using overwatch is ineffective, I am saying perks related to overwatch are useless. HK21 Grunty carried me through the toughest fights, but there is nothing in perks list that improves the performance in any meaningful way (and some, like killzone, actually decrease it) and are better spent elsewhere

Opportunistic killer is a bit weak, granted. Being able to crit on overwatch isn't really strong since the chances to crit are quite low if you don't use Aim. Reloading after an overwatch is also situational, but tends to scale better in the long run, since better snipers tend to have lower clip sizes (5 on M24 and PSG1, upgradable to 8 through modding) while your character tend to make more overwatch attacks, especially once he has Killzone, wich makes him fire twice per overwatch attack, resulting easily in 6 shots per turn.

Fire routine isn't really flashy, 4 bonus AP is decent but far from being broken, but the trigger condition is extremely easy to perform, so why not?

Last but not least, Killzone is the epitome of overwatch, allowing you to do 2 shots per overwatch attack. It's far from useless IMO.

[Econ]

Pretty much everyone gets distracting shot - it just seems so useful.

Most of my mercs seem to head down the wisdom road as they have high wisdom. Arterial shot also has good utility, as often torsos and heads are armored or in cover. Dire warning is good CC (made that Fleatown boss run from a fight). Shock and awe seems solid - morale is often high so you can often get 10% damage.

Wisdom is good for medics (or at least MD) as a tier 3 talent gives grit to bandaged mercs.

Dexterity seems the best tree for snipers - deadeye, ambusher, sharpshooter, assassin etc.

Dexterity also seems solid for machine gunners - opportunistic killer, fire routine and killzone.

[FatalException]

I see three main routes through the perk tree

The Unseen Killer: Untraceable, Deadeye. Ambusher, Assasination, Sharpshooter

For the Sniper Variant of this, you'll want Flanker, Vantage Point, Lightning Reactions and Total Concentration.
For the Commando Variant wielding an SMG: Fast Runner, Frog Leaping, flanker and anatomical precision.

The Overseer: Opportunistic Killer, Fire Routine, Untraceable, Killzone, Flanker, Fast Runner, Frog Leaping

The Psychopath: Full Body Contact, Hit and Run, Breach and Clear, Schock Assault, Sudden Strike, Vanguard, True Strike, Line Breaker