Overwatch

[KAMJAH]

Would like to understand how it really work;

1 ) Does there is a particular "spot" for the landing of bullets, or it could be the chest or the limbs ? ( in that case artérial shot or trick shot could be usefull ).

2 ) Does auto weapon trait is usefull in overwatch with automatic weapons ?

3 ) If you use hollow point in overwatch versus a kevlar chest/helmet/pants army does it worth it ?

[Rhapsody]

1) Center of body, from what I've seen. So if your target becomes visible before the center of body, the shots can be obstructed. There seems to be a small delay in this that sometimes helps in allowing the shots to land correctly.

2) It should be, if the overwatch weapon fires bursts.

3) Depends on weapon. Enemy armor can actually be shred by hits just like the player's, so when you fire enough at a target, with a machine gun for example, their body armor can break, leaving them exposed and negating the drawback of HP ammo. The bleeding is always applied even if shots don't penetrate IIRC.

[LuckyDude]

Mostly overwatch not useful, avoid using it until really necessary. If you can’t kill enemy in overwatch mode, he will shoot you anyway. It’s better to take cover instead and get +5 AP bonus for next turn and additional bonus to defence.

In JA2 overwatch was automatic and depends how many AP you spend in the last turn. Spend zero AP – high chance to interrupt turn. If you hit an enemy in interrupt mode, he will lose energy and lose AP. That was more useful implementation than in JA3.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by LuckyDude:

Mostly overwatch not useful

Yeah - IF there was any way to adjust the cone it might be slightly more useful but as it is your mercs are either engaging someone right as they come around a corner (usually hitting the corner instead of the target) or (for MGs) engaging at max range and wasting all the rounds on low-probability shots.

[KAMJAH]

Thank you for those answer, and two last questions, have you seen dire warning proc during overwatch ? and in case you'll have reactive fire, do you feel recoil management would be usefull to pair with ( not sure, overwatch is not an attack ) ?

[Rhapsody]

Overwatch can be just as devastating as any other build based on crits or aiming, if not more so, even with the machine gun nerf.

Originally posted by KAMJAH:

Thank you for those answer, and two last questions, have you seen dire warning proc during overwatch ? and in case you'll have reactive fire, do you feel recoil management would be usefull to pair with ( not sure, overwatch is not an attack ) ?

Overwatch and other interrupts and weapon type abilities like Mobile Shot and Run and Gun seem to have some inherent accuracy bonuses. Dire Warning can trigger with any attack; it's most useful with actions that allow multiple hits, and will also work with explosives. One of my favorite things to do in my iron mode playthrough was to use SMG's Run and Gun to both shred enemy armor and also set them fleeing with Dire Warning proc. But I wouldn't prioritize it for overwatch build because you can get much more benefit from Health and Dexterity perks.

So, personally, I wouldn't unlock either Dire Warning nor Recoil Management for an overwatch build, but it doesn't mean the perk is wasted if your merc has it by default and you want to make them overwatch.

[Dorok]

Originally posted by LuckyDude:

Mostly overwatch not useful,
...If you can’t kill enemy in overwatch mode, he will shoot you anyway.

Not right:
- With stealth overwatch (TB mode) well placed you'll get 2 attacks without enemy fire back, one in overwatch, then turn after.
- Overwatch with multiple weapons a same area well setup is quite powerful just to disturb enemies moving to attack.
- MG overwatch despite nerfed is still powerful if you can manage the ammo.
- One merc tag enemies with overwatch.
- More.

It can be powerful and sometimes can allow setup a powerful strategy, but good use cases aren't that common that's clear, and often it requires plan the combat to create better overwatch cases. There are easier tools.

[KAMJAH]

You made me change my mind, i'll give a try to Run and Gun/dire warning/ smg/autoweapon/CqC, i'm sure it will be fun to play.

[Concerned West Virginia Resident]

You can get some potentially free shots out of overwatch but there are significant limitations to it, particularly dealing with ground cover (set the cone carefully), since it will take impossible chest shots when only arms or head is exposed.

[Twelvefield]

The big plus to overwatch is that you can often catch the enemy out in the open. If you're just shooting at them in your turn, odds are they've taken cover.

Rifles are great for overwatch, since they have single-shot as their default. Also, the extended range helps, as anything in the wider half of the cone may be a lower percentage shot than the narrower half. Put another way, expect to get good hits in the near half of the cone and it's spray-and-pray for the far half.

I've been noticing, but I haven't really tested this yet, that if the bad guy is running directly into your cone, i.e. towards your gun barrel, it's an easier shot. If they run across the cone, i.e. perpendicular to the barrel, shots miss a lot more. It's like the merc has trouble leading the target. More to that, though, if the bad guy runs across a wide cone, the merc will likely miss, but if the bad guy runs across a narrow cone you can still get a hit.

I think SMG gun battles are the most fun in JA3. The AI seems to try its hardest in those. Unfortunately, ammo scarcity - not to mention that SMGs can have problems against armoured opponents - making this tactic wasteful.

[KAMJAH]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

One of my favorite things to do in my iron mode playthrough was to use SMG's Run and Gun to both shred enemy armor and also set them fleeing with Dire Warning proc. But I wouldn't prioritize it for overwatch build because you can get much more benefit from Health and Dexterity perks.

Look; Fauda deal 63 dmg on her second shot ( inspiring strike ), then Raven go for a SMG's Run & Gun from the side with an upgraded UZI ( dire warning ), thoses guys start panicking and run into Fauda RPK set up

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024166876

[Rufert]

Overwatch can be completely broken. Near the end of my playthrough I rarely took shots at the enemies outside overwatch.

Give assault rifle wider overwatch cone, make it so every attack against the same target is more likely to hit.

Now get the perks that let you crit with overwatch, and finally the one that lets you fire twice in overwatch.

That last one means your guy attacks TWICE on EACH overwatch attack.
This won't eat into the number of times you can do do an overwatch attack that round. So if your overwatch tooltip says you can shoot 3 times, it's actually 6.

I tend to prefer using assault rifles for this as machine guns require you to be prone. They're really good at it, but due to your low point of attack they have a bad tendency to shoot into walls if you don't get a very good position with them.

Also assault rifles let you decide how long the cone is so they don't take shots at max range all the time.

In two of the final big fights I had multiple turns where one guy would mow down 3 enemies from full health in overwatch. I had 4 people doing that every turn.

The main drawback is weapons getting broken pretty fast sadly.

[KAMJAH]

Originally posted by Rufert:

The main drawback is weapons getting broken pretty fast sadly.

AR-15 don't have this problem

[KAMJAH]

I wonder if the same thing happen to you guys ?
I set some overwatch, the soldier run inside, die, then his quote/voice trigger two second later : " i have a plan, follow me ! " my setting are wrong or something ?

[SirHawk]

Nah, it's a bug, happened to me quite a lot of times, most likely triggers priority issue, where premature death caused by overwatch doesn't disable future actions or at least voice lines.

[uncle nick]

Game Devs gave a masterclass on overwatch. Who would have thought that Raven's overwatch can be so much more effective, when she is not shooting? Raven's ravens FTW!