Repair perk - Long War - useful?

[Bullett00th]

It says it gives +2 Arc Thrower charges, but does that mean the engie gets the arc thrower by default with the perk or do I have to equip him with an Arc thrower which then has additional charges with the Repair ability?

I'm only contemplating this because I started building MECs and they've been taking heavy fire lately, I'd use it for repairs. I stun aliens only with my assault and scout guys anyways. Thanks in advance

[Dies Fourth]

You still have to equip an arc thrower, also if you use shivs alot it lets that guy use med kits to repair them in battle

[Milk]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

It says it gives +2 Arc Thrower charges, but does that mean the engie gets the arc thrower by default with the perk or do I have to equip him with an Arc thrower which then has additional charges with the Repair ability?

I'm only contemplating this because I started building MECs and they've been taking heavy fire lately, I'd use it for repairs. I stun aliens only with my assault and scout guys anyways. Thanks in advance

I believe you have to equip the arc thrower to make use of the perk. However, it may be worth your while to capture drones with it rather than use it to heal your MECs. It's a 100% success chance, you gain a little scout that can repair indefinitely, and if you find one of those boss drones with like 50+ HP, you can just capture it. They do some sick damage too (the boss ones) so capturing one is better (for your health, and for doing damage to the enemy) than trying to kill it.

[Bullett00th]

wow I did not know about healing SHIVs and capping drones. a bit of a bummer though since I'm used to loading my engies with 4 nades, which I almost always use... well, I shall try and see how it goes.

can I only capture drones with the engie rapair perk or will a simple arc thrower do?

[Milk]

Originally posted by Bullett00th:

wow I did not know about healing SHIVs and capping drones. a bit of a bummer though since I'm used to loading my engies with 4 nades, which I almost always use... well, I shall try and see how it goes.

can I only capture drones with the engie rapair perk or will a simple arc thrower do?

All you need is an arc thrower. But you have to get drone capture as a foundry project. I don't remember the research tree for it.

[Dranak]

Any arc thrower can capture one (with the tech upgrades), the perk just gives more charges.

[hghwolf]

I was never really that fond of Repair. My engineers have better stuff to do than cart around a -2 mobility item with 1 charge.

Like say... carrying 9 grenades and tossing them everywhere.

[Incunabulum]

Its great, early, when you're still capturing aliens. I've outfitted 2 Engineers with this and captured as many as 4 at a time on a mission.

Later - its only good if you run a lot of SHIV/MECs. You can repair their armor in mission with arcthrowers, its basically another Medikit for mechanical units.

Capturing Drones - not so much. The chance is small enough that I don't think its worth it. You've got to get the drone down to 1HP, capture it (which will take 1-3 tries depending on your luck) and then heal it up for it to be worth anything as a scout.

[Michaelus]

Drone hack is 100%, with 4 charges you can get as many of them and keep reparing your MECs for free. It's so useful during base assaults.

[Bullett00th]

Sounds well and swell but trying to cap a drone seems like a recipe for disaster, considering the fact that they are always around other mechanized units and I try to just blow them up collectively. Even if I manage to drop the mechtoid they are assisting before them, they still fly. I have my first archangel armor in development so that may help...

Originally posted by hghwolf, 25/7 misanthrope:

I was never really that fond of Repair. My engineers have better stuff to do than cart around a -2 mobility item with 1 charge.
Like say... carrying 9 grenades and tossing them everywhere.

this is my point exactly. I just had a terror ship landing mission with 43 bloody aliens. I save scummed like crazy and I used up all 4 rockets and 6 grenades I had, and still had to finish off the remaining group as is. Those explosives are indispensable.

[Nebhead]

I don't know if Repair is truly useful in Beta 14, as most of my experience comes from Beta 13, in which I think the Repair perk was up against Smoke and Mirrors, which I allways chose for the "Toolbox" Engineer, a Soldier who would carry LOTS of utility items like Battlescanners, Smoke Grenades, Flashbangs, Chem Grenades and so on.

As of Beta 14, Repair has been pitted against Ranger and Suppression. Not sure if it's gonna be changed for Beta 15.

As for the Drone Hack, Beaglerush managed to capture a boss Drone once during his Twitch campaign - it managed to do a 28 damage critical to a Heavy Floater that was shredded.

Furthermore, during this same campaign he has recently done a Alien Base Assault and thanks for some patience, he managed to capture 3 standard Drones.

I can tell you one thing for sure, there was no way he would of completed the base assault if he didn't capture them - the Drones must of repaired a combined total of at least 45+ HP on the 3 MEC Troopers throughout the mission.

And yes, the Drone Capture / Drone Hack thing that lets you take control of them has a 100% chance to succeed, regardless of the Drone's health or strength.

[hghwolf]

It`s true that the opportunity cost for Repair is much lower in LW b.14, but... engineers just have much better things to do 90% of the time, and the -1 mobility compared to a sleeve of grenades isn`t doing them any favours either.

I could see it on a true support build engineer in a MEC heavy squad but at the end of the day I don`t field many MECs usually, and I prefer popping heads to popping smoke.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by hghwolf, 25/7 misanthrope:

It`s true that the opportunity cost for Repair is much lower in LW b.14, but... engineers just have much better things to do 90% of the time, and the -1 mobility compared to a sleeve of grenades isn`t doing them any favours either.

I could see it on a true support build engineer in a MEC heavy squad but at the end of the day I don`t field many MECs usually, and I prefer popping heads to popping smoke.

exact same. I have a pair of my engies specced exclusively for smoke but I found these builds less effective overall.

So I usuall pick ranger for that extra DMG since the engie has nothing else to offer after he runs out of nades, and I usually equip them with carbines for that extra running speed to get to good throwing positions

[Milk]

Originally posted by Incunabulum:

Capturing Drones - not so much. The chance is small enough that I don't think its worth it. You've got to get the drone down to 1HP, capture it (which will take 1-3 tries depending on your luck) and then heal it up for it to be worth anything as a scout.

Drones are guaranteed captures, regardless of health. Especially on base assault missions, they are invaluable assets for your squad.

[Dies Fourth]

Dont you need to be super close to catch the drones though ? arent they normally around a very nasty flying frisbee with a tail of death ?

Can you capture them with that stun rifle ? Ive never used that as it says it just disables weapons.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by Dies Fourth:

Dont you need to be super close to catch the drones though ? arent they normally around a very nasty flying frisbee with a tail of death ?

Can you capture them with that stun rifle ? Ive never used that as it says it just disables weapons.

yeah that bothers me as well, guess I'll have to equip my fastest scout with a jetpack and an arc thrower.

As for the stun rifle - no, it does not stun enemies, only gives you the disable perk INSTEAD of the standard shot. A poor tradeoff if you ask me but it really helped me once on a mission with quite a few mechtoids. That said I could have done it with a normal rifle and the disabling shot perk.