Enemy Within Sniper Build?

[Wolfboi3]

Hey folks. Just finished my first game of Enemy Unknown, and now I'm trying Enemy Within. I was doing some reading, and there was an article about a guy concerning Meld and it's uses. He claims that MEC troops are sort of a waste of money and time, as they are essentially big targets on the field which can't take cover. It was his opinion that all meld should be used to augment snipers. Now, I don't know the validity of those opinions, but it does sort of play into my style. I was already planning on running 2 snipers in this game (as the 1 I ran in my first run was just so awesome), so 2 snipers with a bunch of gene mods sounds like my kinda thing. So my question is (as I've just finished researching meld) what sort of mods would be best for my snipers?

[airmikee99]

I have found that snipers in EW are just as powerful as they were in EU. Archangel armor + medal that gives bonus for height advantage + sniper abilities that increase height advantage makes for unstoppable killing machines. Nearly every shot my sniper takes is 100% to hit, I just leave them floating up high on oversight.

[Milk]

Publicado originalmente por airmikee99:

I have found that snipers in EW are just as powerful as they were in EU. Archangel armor + medal that gives bonus for height advantage + sniper abilities that increase height advantage makes for unstoppable killing machines. Nearly every shot my sniper takes is 100% to hit, I just leave them floating up high on oversight.

Objectively, they are somewhat weaker, as squadsight snipers can no longer crit without using headshot.

[Hydra_360ci]

Don't think the loss of criticals for Squadsight applies with secondary choice for Metal of Honor, Depth Perception and the 10% scope improvement (can't remember, though). If it doesn't apply then that's a 5-25% chance that you could acquire onto a squadsight sniper with little effort.

As for SnapShot... Enemy Within has lots of addons that improves the Hit stat. So much so, that after a while even the Support class turn into deadly killers. And more so for Snipers for longer ranged shots paired up with extremely high odd overwatch hits.

Metals:
+5 aim to enemies in cover
+2 Aim per continental Bonus
+1 Aim and Will for each mission completed with no soldier deaths, up to a maximum of +10.
or +10 Aim and Critical Chance if not within 7 tiles of an allied unit.

Gene Mod:
Grants a +10 Aim bonus after missing a shot or Gives additional +5 Aim and +5 Critical Chance bonuses for height advantage.
Grants a Combat Pheromones boost that increases Aim, Crit Chance, and mobility of nearby soldiers when killing an enemy. Can only occur once per 5 turns.

Equipment:
Scope: Confers a +10 Aim Bonus.
Light Plasma Rifle has a +10 Aim bonus (N/A for the Snipers, but pretty awesome for Support class, or Assault) .

As for Forge....
Those Pistol upgrades are a must for your covert mission recovery guys and for your Squad Sight Snipers)
Scope improvement adds 10% to critical, but nothing to hit...

[Wolfboi3]

Which brings up a question I've been asking myself since I started this new playthrough. Namely, is there a point to giving too many of these to a single sniper? Are there negative to hit values applied in the mechanics that make more than 100% aim desirable?

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

Defense is a flat reduction from your aim stat. So, if you have a soldier with 100 aim fire at a Sectoid behind full cover, that's a flat 40 taken away from your to hit chance leaving you with a 60% chance to hit (Since full cover grants 40 defense). If you have a soldier with 120 aim aim at the same Sectoid in full cover, they'll have an 80% chance to hit.

So you can basically never have too much aim, since as you progress through the campaign and fight more advanced aliens, you'll start to encounter aliens who have inherent defense values even outside of cover (special shoutout to Muton Elites who have 30 defense on Classic, giving them a whopping 70 defense if they find full cover).

[PJ]

Publicado originalmente por Tacobandit:

Also MECs should not be frontline troops, they should support your ground troops. They have access to many awesome abilities, such as a flamethrower that auto-panics or a Fist that dramatically increases their movement speed. You should not be standing them out in the open just to shoot with their gun.

I've basically been using my MECs as human shields .-. with their high movement speed and tons of health they're just so good to send sprinting out in front!



Personally I don't use snipers on anything other than Covert Operation pick ups; they shine there because you can just plant them in good positions and just let Exalts come to them. In other maps, I'd rather have an Assault, much more reliable.

That said, my one sniper I actualy use gets Memetic skin and jumpy legs, and has never come close to dying... so there's that.

Publicado originalmente por Hydra_360ci:

Those Pistol upgrades are a must for your covert mission recovery guys and for your Squad Sight Snipers)

My only real must have for covert operatives is Memetic Skin. They can literally go the entire pick up mission never leaving cloak, because hacking communications arrays doesn't break cloak. Having a designated "memetic covert guy" is a fantastic thing to have.

[Stardustfire]

Using mimetic for an operative is waste of Melt, i for myself ever use expandable Soldiers for that Job, without any equipment (only Laser Pistol if i have one left)

[airmikee99]

Publicado originalmente por Tacobandit:

Publicado originalmente por airmikee99:

I have found that snipers in EW are just as powerful as they were in EU. Archangel armor + medal that gives bonus for height advantage + sniper abilities that increase height advantage makes for unstoppable killing machines. Nearly every shot my sniper takes is 100% to hit, I just leave them floating up high on oversight.

Objectively, they are somewhat weaker, as squadsight snipers can no longer crit without using headshot.

I don't use Squadsight on my snipers. I give them the ability that removes the restriction on moving and firing instead. 100% hit rate every time that sniper was in the air, and plenty of crits to go along with hitting every single shot. If that's weaker than the other classes, I must be playing the other classes completely wrong. Just finished my first play through of EW, Archangel sniper had almost twice as many kills as the #2 squaddie, which was my Archangel Support Medic.