How to increase overwatch hit chance?

[The Real GOW]

i think going to a high building is 1 way but what if there are none around? i had 4 people all on overwatch and an advent trooper ran right towards them and all 4 shot but basically shot 10 miles away from the blood unit like they saw a ghost and then he attacked my ranger and they died, any ideas aside from high areas to improve overwatch hit chance?

[Stardustfire]

Gurilla Tactic school gives a training for speciallists to improve there OW shoots.
In general if u do many OW shoots specialists are the way to go, they are the class with most OW modifyer skills without the need for rng luck at noneclass skills

[talemore]

Try one of the many dlcs on workshop. Overwatch is a really bad tactic. Sure you get no penalties when shooting from squadconcealment but who want to waste a whole turn watching your opponent flanking you by sending a single unit to be the dummy who all your soldiers shoot at and on second turn shoot your soldiers from the rear end or throw grenades. Keep a distance because the mechanic doesn't care about rangebonuses.

[TitanShadow12]

I'm running an all specialists squad just for the heck of it, and here's what I've found:

1) Specialists with Guardian have a chance to take an extra shot if their reaction shot hits. Put a stock on their weapons and even misses count as hits, giving you tons more reaction shots

2) Guerrila Tactics school upgrade gives +10% chance to hit on overwatch (helps negate overwatch penalty) and allows critical strike on overwatch (if they're moving they're usually treated as being in the open and you have 40% crit chance, absolutely beastly)

3) Long War 2 Leader mod allows you to train a leader with special skills, one of them giving nearby soldiers a +10% chance to hit on reaction shots

4) Threat Assessment allows the Specialist to use Aid Protocol to grant an ally an Overwatch shot with Covering Fire, and this doesn't end the turn; the specialist can Aid Protocol himself then go into Overwatch for 2 reaction shots (likely more with Guardian).

Put him on high ground, give him a scope and an aim PCS and get a little lucky and he'll kill anything that moves.

Granted there's always a possibility that the trooper runs through 4 overwatch shots, each with 70% hit chance or more and takes no damage, but "That's XCOM baby!"

[red255]

Aside from mods, the only way to increase your overwatch hit chance is to be a captain specialist and by the GTS upgrade.

you can increase your hit chance, Scopes, perception PCS, height advantage. Covert actions to increase aim.

but overwatch is a tool in your bucket, its at -30 with no chance to crit, so if you have a target in low cover which is -20 to hit with a chance to crit you'd rather just shoot him. especially if you can safely flank him or break his cover.

you should not be using just overwatch, and you should not be boned if all your overwatch shots miss.

rookie aim is 65, so an rookie overwatch is 35% chance to hit. 18% of the time, basically 1 in 5, all 4 rookie overwatches will miss. whereas if you were on a building there would be an 9% chance of missing all 4 shots.

it happens. have a plan B.

[Mr. Nice]

Originally posted by red255:

but overwatch is a tool in your bucket, its at -30 with no chance to crit, so if you have a target in low cover which is -20 to hit with a chance to crit you'd rather just shoot him. especially if you can safely flank him or break his cover.

Reaction modifier isn't a flat deduction, it's a multiplier, 0.3 for a blue move, 0.4 against a dash. Pretty sure the AI only dashes as part of a melee move/attack though.
So yes, with a 100% overall Hit, it's 0.3*100=30% penalty, but if say the normal hit chance is 50%, the deduction is only 15%. This is all before "clamping" at 100% btw, so yes, if you're SharpShooter can pull of a overall 142% chance to hit against an enemy in no cover, they will still be 100% to hit after reaction adjustment.

Positioning for Height was mentioned by the Op, but since the fire at the first movement they see, positioning so they don't see the move ultil the enemy is closer will improve overwatch fire, due to a better range adjustment. Only really worth it with Shotgun Rangers though, with their big swing from penalty at distance to big bonus at approaching point blank range....

However, overwatch overall is of dubious value offsensively overall, beyond the very early game when putting one or two of your rookies in overwatch before breaking concealment may be worth it. Of course it's fine if your just moving your squad up once concealment is broken, so you put the soldiers which tactically only blue move in case of a Pod pop into overwatch in case a pod stumbles into range on the Enemy turn, or for that Sharpshooter hanging back who didn't need/couldn't make a clean shot that turn.

[red255]

Overwatch is fine given the conditions no aliens can attack you, and its either overwatch or nothing.

When its not overwatch or nothing

Sometimes I'll use a specialist, I'll dash him to trigger ever vigilant on a flank, thats basically using overwatch to kill something offensively. to get a flank I otherwise would not have been able to achieve.

things can go wrong, a different unit might take the overwatch, the specialist can miss, some unit might shoot the speciallist and cancel the overwatch.

BUT given my options, sometimes its the best option.

but you should only put your whole squad on overwatch if,

1.) there are no activated aliens.
2.) there are no aliens that can attack you, as they are 2 moves away (and your overwatch will peg them if they move twice)
3.) you are a rookie and you got limited tools in your belt. Not a good option but since rookies are replacable ...rookies die.
4.) since missions are time sensitive holing up and overwatching is going to make you lose the objective. so budget your time wisely, some resistance orders give you more time.

always be aware overwatch is merely one tool in your belt. if its your only tool. (Which with rookies, it can be depending on the map) theres a chance people will die.

this is acceptable with rookies because you can buy more.