Grand Strategist vs Master Tactician.

[Gracey Face]

Master Tactician just seems to do all of the same stuff but better in every way. What is the purpose of Grand Strategist?

[XartaX]

Publicado originalmente por Seswatha:

Publicado originalmente por XartaX:

If your entire party is getting one tapped on turn 1 then your party kinda sucks defensively speaking.

Not the entire party, but I've seen bad rolls down one or two characters before they can even act in the earlier acts on unfair. Being tanky is kind of not a thing until later on on this difficulty and even later on I see people complain about certain fights being too oneshoty, personally I won them without much throuble because my guys always act first and win before anything bad can happen, so can't comment personally what it would be like to play with a lower ini party.

Might give it a go in another playthrough, I'm contemplating a no officer one right now.

No officer is certainly a type of challenge run, at least if you do no officer/no psyker.

[Draken]

Publicado originalmente por Seswatha:

Publicado originalmente por XartaX:

If your entire party is getting one tapped on turn 1 then your party kinda sucks defensively speaking.

Not the entire party, but I've seen bad rolls down one or two characters before they can even act in the earlier acts on unfair. Being tanky is kind of not a thing until later on on this difficulty and even later on I see people complain about certain fights being too oneshoty, personally I won them without much throuble because my guys always act first and win before anything bad can happen, so can't comment personally what it would be like to play with a lower ini party.

One Officer with [Seize the Initiative] using [Bring it Down] on Abelard.
Abelard then uses [Brace for Impact] with the [Get into Cover] and [Do not Falter] talents.
Then he uses [Wall of Rockcrete].

This results in your whole party getting:

- No negative melee superiority for the rest of the fight.
- 3 Temporary Hit points.
- Half damage taken from the next attack, lasting one turn.
- 2/4/6 deflection for one turn.
- No forced movement for one turn.
- No overpenetration for one turn.
- 20% more cover effectiveness for one turn.
- One 0 AP, 3 MP turn to get into a better position.

Then you have your Grand Strategist pop down some nice zones.
Frontline Zone easily gives +20% armor at level 23.
Back Zone gives the same number of Dodge and Cover Effectiveness.
Rear Zone can give lower targeting priority with [Diversion Zone].

So there are definitely some very nice tools to ensure that no one ends up getting one-shot before getting a turn.

Haven't tested that on unfair or the later acts yet though. Should still work as most effects either don't need scaling or do scale pretty well. But it definitely works in the earlier acts.

[Seswatha]

Publicado originalmente por Draken:

Publicado originalmente por Seswatha:

Not the entire party, but I've seen bad rolls down one or two characters before they can even act in the earlier acts on unfair. Being tanky is kind of not a thing until later on on this difficulty and even later on I see people complain about certain fights being too oneshoty, personally I won them without much throuble because my guys always act first and win before anything bad can happen, so can't comment personally what it would be like to play with a lower ini party.

One Officer with [Seize the Initiative] using [Bring it Down] on Abelard.
Abelard then uses [Brace for Impact] with the [Get into Cover] and [Do not Falter] talents.
Then he uses [Wall of Rockcrete].

This results in your whole party getting:

- No negative melee superiority for the rest of the fight.
- 3 Temporary Hit points.
- Half damage taken from the next attack, lasting one turn.
- 2/4/6 deflection for one turn.
- No forced movement for one turn.
- No overpenetration for one turn.
- 20% more cover effectiveness for one turn.
- One 0 AP, 3 MP turn to get into a better position.

Then you have your Grand Strategist pop down some nice zones.
Frontline Zone easily gives +20% armor at level 23.
Back Zone gives the same number of Dodge and Cover Effectiveness.
Rear Zone can give lower targeting priority with [Diversion Zone].

So there are definitely some very nice tools to ensure that no one ends up getting one-shot before getting a turn.

Haven't tested that on unfair or the later acts yet though. Should still work as most effects either don't need scaling or do scale pretty well. But it definitely works in the earlier acts.

With GS and Seize the Initiative sure you can manage, either by buffing up your defenses or simply eliminating threats before they have a turn. My whole point was that allowing enemies to take turns before you on Unfair is generally not a great idea. And i guess making yourself tankier is a fair approach too but in general I feel like this game is about eliminating threats as early as possible, which tbh ain't different from games like XCOM where you also don't really want to be shot at if it can be helped.

So to reiterate again on the topic, GS is very good since it allows you to dictate the flow of the battle on your terms (basic officers do too but GS doubles down on it).