Cant be the only one who hates the Chosen?

[Flavalicious]

Pretty much the title. If i was playing on easy or normal i think they would make a nice addition to difficulty. But trying to do the campaign on Commander level and its pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying all around. Doing the first Advent blacksite mission, trying to play it Honestman mode and just lost my best 5 soliders due to a combination of a bad map and some super sensative mob pods, and then she shows up and does her ninja stab and vanish ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t. I cant be chasing her around the map while im fighting 2 mechs and 3 advent soldiers. She never misses and cant be countered by overwatch. Feels particualrly cheesy, in a game where missing at 90% on clutch shots is common. Just feels like the extra layer of frustrating in an already frustrating at times game. Really sucks because i LIKE alot of the other content WoTC brings, just wish i could toggle that part of the game off at the start of the campaign screen. Dont suppose anyone has a mod that removes them eh? LOL.

[Benkyo]

Sounds like you made the same mistake I did the first time, of going in to the blacksite too far under stealth. I got torn apart by converging patrols and the assassin all at once. For the blacksite, you really need to engage the first patrol you find, in order to find out whether or a Chosen is going to mess with you. No timer, so if a Chosen appears you can fall back and deal with them alone.

[Psyringe]

I liked them in the beginning, but they actually begin to bore me a little now. They are just too easy to deal with. They always have a weakness, and you always know which one that is as soon as you meet them for the first time. I actually found the assassin particularly easy to deal with - she tries to hide, but she isn't very good at it. The camera always shows in which direction she's running off, so I just send a ranger with run'n'gun after her. He'll usually spot her, get a shot in, and then I send in the rest of the squad. Sometimes I need a grenade to remove cover.

If you have a reaper with the Target Definition skill, dealing with the assassin becomes a cakewalk, because you can always see where she's hiding.

She also seems to be pretty stupid. She almost always starts the fight with a melee daze attack. So I just keep my squad in pairs (so that I can immediately revive the dazed soldier), and I keep my people at full health - the daze attack does little damage and won't kill a healthy soldier. Since my people are close together, it would be _much_ smarter for her to start with her wave attack or with the blinding grenade, but apparently she never does. She always uses the one attack that I can counter very easily (the melee daze), and then tries to run away and becomes a sitting duck once spotted.

I still like the Chosen in concept, but I wish they'd pose an actual challenge. But I've only played on Commander so far - I'll go to Legend in my next game, perhaps that fixes it.

[Flambeau200061]

The trick is not to do the blacksite until you have beaten the Chosen. You also should have a better squad by then. You can always reduce the Avatar project progress via resistance orders or skulljacking the Advent officer/codex. This should allow you to tackle the story missions without interference by the chosen.

Apart from that - yes they can be VERY annoying, especially with perks like shodowstep, allseeing and so on. I'm playing them on Legendary right now and I had to savescum a lot and use a eight soldier squad. So yes I'm cheating a little but I'm neither good nor masochistic enough to do it otherwise - at least on Legendary. Nice thing about this game is that there are enough mods to allow you to increase or decrease the difficulty to your personal taste. So everybody can have the challenge he likes best.

[Nu-men von Kryt !!XD]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

I liked them in the beginning, but they actually begin to bore me a little now. They are just too easy to deal with. They always have a weakness, and you always know which one that is as soon as you meet them for the first time. I actually found the assassin particularly easy to deal with - she tries to hide, but she isn't very good at it. The camera always shows in which direction she's running off, so I just send a ranger with run'n'gun after her. He'll usually spot her, get a shot in, and then I send in the rest of the squad. Sometimes I need a grenade to remove cover.

If you play with lost tutorial on then they are boring as hell since with tutorial on the chosen have the same weaknesses and strenghts. Also they appear in very strict order with said option on which is the assassin->Hunter->Warlock and their oppossing factions are always in the same order Reapers->Skirmishers->Templar. As for behaviour i have to say that from my experience on playthoughs on both Commander & Commander Ironman it is RNG without lost mission on. For instance first time assassin does not use melee attack, but goes straight for AoE stun/daze or warlock summons 3 psi zombies and goes straight for the offensive.

[Scrooge McDuck]

Just wanted to open same thread.
I HATE The Chosen cheese.
I hate the Lost.
All they do is slow the game down and make it one-sided. They're easy to kill (some sound tactics above) so after 1-2 times get really boring. Especially on stronghold missions, where all you have to do is kill them again, 3 times and all they do is talk. This is just a chore. Does not feel epic. Just feels good to shut them up.
I miss the old landed UFOs variety. I miss chrysy zombies, surgical mechas from EW. I miss epic missions, like gangplanck. I miss proper geoscape fight and base build/management. I miss lategame play.
IMHO, this is not a good direction the game's going. Feels cheap. Even the Templars did not get any cutscene because the Reapers and Skirms already have demo mission beaten to hype on YT. Deeper, the game still feels unpolished and not quite thought through.
These should be DLCs like the Rulers and Firaxis should instead clean up and fortify core game code integrating some of the most popular mods. The next upgrade probly will be "The Selected" with 5moves/turn.

[GeminiEclipse]

I don't hate them. But I find them to be more obnoxious than interesting now. But that's just a product of playing the game so many times recently.

[Flambeau200061]

Originally posted by Scrooge McDuck:

Just wanted to open same thread.
I HATE The Chosen cheese.
I hate the Lost.
All they do is slow the game down and make it one-sided. They're easy to kill (some sound tactics above) so after 1-2 times get really boring. Especially on stronghold missions, where all you have to do is kill them again, 3 times and all they do is talk. This is just a chore. Does not feel epic. Just feels good to shut them up.
I miss the old landed UFOs variety. I miss chrysy zombies, surgical mechas from EW. I miss epic missions, like gangplanck. I miss proper geoscape fight and base build/management. I miss lategame play.
IMHO, this is not a good direction the game's going. Feels cheap. Even the Templars did not get any cutscene because the Reapers and Skirms already have demo mission beaten to hype on YT. Deeper, the game still feels unpolished and not quite thought through.
These should be DLCs like the Rulers and Firaxis should instead clean up and fortify core game code integrating some of the most popular mods. The next upgrade probly will be "The Selected" with 5moves/turn.

There's a mod that improves the Chosen combat AI. They're pretty tough on Legendary, though their tactics - if unimproved - are forseeable. Stronghold missions are really the easiest up to Commander, on Legendary with a squad of six they can be tough as they heal much faster and you may have to kill them three or four times until they go down for good. The mission layout though is very repetitive (yawn).
Late Game is too easy and gets boring.
Templars are awfull, I never use them.
Everybody talks too much: Central, Tygan, the Chosen, even Lilly Shen ....
Base building!! Ah the good old days of UFO or XCOm Apocalypse!

[Twelvefield]

Originally posted by GeminiEclipse:

I don't hate them. But I find them to be more obnoxious than interesting now. But that's just a product of playing the game so many times recently.

I agree with you, friend. They outstay their welcome, such as it is. It's the limits of videogame narrative.

[Flavalicious]

Yar, i was fighting her fairly early in the game, I only had a pair of LT's and some sargents, so a real pain in the ass all in all. I managed to redo the blacksite and kill her, took about 90 damn turns though because she kept getting stuck on terrain and not moving until i moved my reaper closer and reactivated her. It really IS the talking. All the damn time. And the worst is when it freezes the game so you can listen before doing anything. The hunter was considerably easier but i think in part due to his weaknesses (3 or more people attacking him and he takes loads of damage). I also enjoyed the lost up until last night when doing a supply stealing mission and it was literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wave after wave of lost, and the bastards with more then 4 hp are stupid beyond words. Almost lost a whole squad of vetern soldiers becuase of a pair of bad activiations and the AI shooting up cars and having like 3 swarms spawn all at once. Pretty sure it took me 40 minutes to play that mission through....

[Benkyo]

Surely "almost lost a whole squad of veteran soldiers" describes the only times XCOM actually becomes interesting. Playing 100 excellent/flawless missions in a row becomes pretty boring, even on legendary.

The only missions I find interesting these days are when a timer + chosen/alien ruler/lost combine to make my life difficult.

[Flavalicious]

Originally posted by Benkyo:

Surely "almost lost a whole squad of veteran soldiers" describes the only times XCOM actually becomes interesting. Playing 100 excellent/flawless missions in a row becomes pretty boring, even on legendary.

The only missions I find interesting these days are when a timer + chosen/alien ruler/lost combine to make my life difficult.

Im actually a big fan of the "oh ♥♥♥♥" moment where you gotta really buckle down and attempt to find that creative solution to live. I however dont like firing my LT's sniper rifle 10 times through the animation at 10 100% to hit zombies.... i LIKE the challenge, im doing a mostly honestman commander run, but i could do without the 40 minute derp fest at the same time :)

[Benkyo]

Sure, the lost are boring 99% of the time, I'll grant you that. I have had 2(?) interesting encounters with them involved though, so maybe that justifies their existence.

Edit: They really need the ability to climb any walls as a trait.

[easytarget]

I like them, adds an additional surprise element to missions. And I really like what they drop when you take them out.

[ErikVeland]

I like them and keep them around for the end mission, which even on commander is too damn easy. Looks like I’ll be doing the same for my now half completed legendary run as well.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by easytarget:

I like them, adds an additional surprise element to missions. And I really like what they drop when you take them out.

I found the Chosen's items cool in my first run, but now I think that they make the game a bit formulaic, because they always have the same stats, and I always end up using them. So the game get a bit repetitive and thus slightly boring towards the end, when my soldiers will always have the same gear, in every game.

I would have preferred a bit of randomization with regard to the Chosen's drops. I like how the "experimental gear" stuff in the Proving Grounds works - you never know what you get, so you have to adapt your strategy to the things you do/don't have access to.