How to Run Skirmishers and Templars

[Rephath]

I love Reapers, and no team is complete without one. But when it comes to templars, I haven't been able to incorporate them into my strategy too much, other than having them run around and slash people. As for skirmishers, I haven't been able to figure out what they're good at. Not tanky, not accurate, weak damage, no support abilities, no utility skills.

So, my major question is, anyone have any good strategies for using skirmishers or templars? I haven't found a way to make them truly viable within my game.

[Tiasmoon]

Early on, Skirmishers strength is being able to attack twice per turn, having damage without spread, and being able to reposition easier. Later on they aren't really good at much.

Templars offer guaranteed damage early on, as well as the ability to block damage once, but they are very risky to use. Later on they can offer very high damage, but are still risky to use and rely on XCOM abilities to really shine. Their entire last tier of abilities is really good, but it takes a long time to get to Colonel.
Also, they look shiny and flashing.

For Skirmishers, if theres high ground you can use for flanking, you can get some good damage in with their ability to hit twice. Mid and late game they are only useful for cleaning up.

For Templars, you can use them to clean up; but careful of pulling unactivated pods in the fog of war. You can also use them as a tank against something like an Andromedon but letting them parry, as most aliens prefer hitting targets that are close by and flanked.

Once you get the damage buffs and aoe, you can let them kill one alien per group, then after 2-3 kills their aoe cone will be charged and you can run into groups killing one+ dealing damage to others. Much later on you can use their strong aoe (Colonel rank) to deal massive damage to a pod. If you get lucky and they have Bladestorm or Reaper, you can run into groups with them and they require less help.


Overall tho, while both are very good early on, they are kind of lacking in mid, and useless/situational later in the game.

note: Templars are very strong against Chosen, even if dont have the 'Templar Weakness'.

[talemore]

Skirmishers are a hybrid of the templar and a spark unit. That's the best description. Them gain aim and crit with successful hits compared to spark who gain less aim with every hit. Them have the same capabilities of a templar in melee, the only difference is the skirmisher has a cooldown. Templars are good at finishing pods when your ambush failed you can parry the last unit in the pod or against chosen block their attempts to capture with parry or if...lets say there are many " if's" about templars, them either get really lame or overpowered by the end.

[Stardustfire]

Sounds funny to me that someone can only work with the most useless Faction and has no use for the other 2 more usefull ones.

Many ppl that cant use Templars have the Problem that they cant see when to use them for charge in and when better not, to not trigger another Pod (but thats nothing u can describe, it just neeed tactical sense) . Templar deliever good mobility when u dont use parry., so u can hit and run in the true meaning of the saying. There Auto Pistol comes in more than only useful in many situations (specialy when u get lightning hands) and there active PSI Abilitys speak for themself.

Skirmisher is a very good unit too when u know how to use it. Someone lamented that the Bullpup makes not enove dmg, what was ridicoulous, taking in the fact that unit can do the most attacks per Turn of all classes when build and equiped right (not so rare it does 3 attacks per Turn for me) . the Skirmisher Build on his rope skills and the fact that they make him a high mobile and versatile unit for flanking shots and even melee attacks.

[Shining Hector]

I guess it's how you play, but the Skirmisher is my favorite of the three. Early on he's a real lifesaver, and he drops off a bit later but still stays useful with all the unique options. You get the free action grapple to get into flanking position and attack at least twice, and I believe you ignore cover with justice and wrath to polish off something in high cover you managed to weaken but not kill. If you luck out with Saturation Fire it's even better since he's so good at getting to the perfect position to unload. He really needs aim boost, but give him a scope and perception PCS and maybe some aim boosting CO's and he really shines. I found the Reapers to be the weakest personally because they're lacking in a stand-up fight which is what I go for, but if you don't mind sacrificing a slot to have a good spotter I can see the appeal. Templars are fun, but meh, I'd get more use out of another Ranger most of the time past the early game.

[Synavix]

Skirmisher is my favorite too. Probably the most "average" of the 3 though. Templars and Reapers are super strong, but are also situational. In the wrong setups they can be useless.

Since other people have talked about how to play them, I'll just talk about how I build them.

For Skirmishers I like to pick up Reflex (even though the extra action is once per mission, it synergizes with a lot of his later abilities and you shouldn't be getting targetted that much anyway), Zero-In (so strong for focusing down something), and Whiplash (it's a free action....always very strong, and doesn't trigger ruler reactions). I only go back to get Total Combat if I get the bonus perks for Tactical Rigging (and possibly Volatile Mix) because if I'm limited to a single item slot I prefer to take special ammo. I also go back to pick up Wrath when I can. It's another good ability, but I just find Zero-In to be higher priority at that level and Justice is better than Wrath in most cases.

Once you hit Captain rank almost all the abilities are good. I usually get Combat Presence first because it is the ability I use the most often, but Retribution is great if you're upgrading your Ripjack for things like the Lost or Warlock summons. Interrupt is strong if you're having trouble finishing off enemies in a single turn (such as if you're using Beta Strike), but is situationally useless if you're zerging everything down on your first turn.

At Major I go for Waylay first. I don't really make a lot of use of it (for the same reason I don't use Interrupt a lot), but it's a passive upgrade to his Overwatch so it's always available as an option. I usually pick up Reckoning if I can afford it later on because it's an ammo-saver against nearby low health targets.

At Colonel I'm actually not sold on any of the abilities. I think it really just comes down to playstyle. Manual Override works the best with this build focusing on the grapple and melee abilities, but it's usually not necesary.

Try to get them a Perception PCS and put them on 1 or 2 +Aim covert actions early on. You want to raise his base Aim score to increase the chances of hitting Justice/Wratch/melee abilites. A scope is not necessary because it doesnt buff those. A repeater + expanded mag are my favorite mods because they increase his kill chance and give him less downtime from being able to attack twice per turn. An extra +1 mobility reward can be beneficial too because their move speed is awful, but usually you want those on Rangers or Templars more. With good use of Justice, Wrath, Grapple, etc you should be taking 2 high percentage (often flanking) shots or actions every turn. Mine almost never miss and are always able to apply ammo debuffs or pull difficult targets out of high cover.

---

Templars are much less needy. Although there are a few different builds (there are some builds that are more mage-like with ranged utility abilities), for a strong melee build the only things you really need to worry about are Parry, Overcharge, Deep Focus, Arc Wave. Then probably pick up Ionic Storm at Colonel. Abilities like Channel and Reflect are useful, but not mandatory. Hope you get the bonus perks for Bladestorm, Fortress, and situationally Reaper.

For covert Ops try to get them a couple +1 mobility rewards so they can run from one melee kill to the next. I also give them a mobility PCS.

With that build your objective is to feed them one or two killing blows early on to build up their focus and increase their damage, then just have them constantly run in to Rend whenever it's safe. Keep them at full Focus unless you really need to spend it to save someone or if you have a good Ionic Storm group target. With Bladestorm + Parry, you don't even need to kill a target in one hit as long as you get them low enough that Bladestorm will finish them off on your turn. This works amazingly well against any Advent soldier. Run in, do 10 damage to them, leave them alive while the rest of your squad kills the rest of the units, then when they try to move or act on their turn bladestorm will trigger and do a guarunteed kill if they were low enough in HP. You can also place them in the middle of a Reinforcements flare or next to a Chosen and they'll get instant Bladestorm procs on everything as soon as the new stuff is summoned.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

Sounds funny to me that someone can only work with the most useless Faction and has no use for the other 2 more usefull ones.

Many ppl that cant use Templars have the Problem that they cant see when to use them for charge in and when better not, to not trigger another Pod (but thats nothing u can describe, it just neeed tactical sense) . Templar deliever good mobility when u dont use parry., so u can hit and run in the true meaning of the saying. There Auto Pistol comes in more than only useful in many situations (specialy when u get lightning hands) and there active PSI Abilitys speak for themself.

Skirmisher is a very good unit too when u know how to use it. Someone lamented that the Bullpup makes not enove dmg, what was ridicoulous, taking in the fact that unit can do the most attacks per Turn of all classes when build and equiped right (not so rare it does 3 attacks per Turn for me) . the Skirmisher Build on his rope skills and the fact that they make him a high mobile and versatile unit for flanking shots and even melee attacks.

Skirmishers suffer from low damage. Hitting twice per round isn't that great when their damage is lower then regular assault rifles (once you hit magnetic weapons). And that's assuming they don't have to move, as moving means only one shot. Their abilities simply don't deal enough damage to put them on par with regular classes in mid or late game. It would be a different matter if those abilities were free actions with a cd. Or if they could still attack twice even after doing a blue move.

They only get 3 shots if you use a once per battle cd, whereas other classes can get that many shots with a regular cooldown (or in the case of Specialist, with just Overwatching)

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

Many ppl that cant use Templars

Templars requirement of 'holding their hand' is precisely what makes them difficult to use. They aren't weak perse, but they are just too risky too use.

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

Sounds funny to me that someone can only work with the most useless Faction and has no use for the other 2 more usefull ones.

Well, Templars have their uses. And Skirmishers are decent in the early game. But there's really no denying that Reapers are by far the best faction class, and Skirmishers borderline useless.

Used to be that Skirmishers were quite OP with their tier 2 melee weapon, but that was before they fixed its stun rate.

[Rephath]

For me, I don't like the fog of war, and I love setting off pods on my terms. That's why I love Reapers; for reconaissance. I also get a lot of use out of their claymores. It's hard to pull off, but if I can get an entire pod with a claymore, it's a beautiful thing. They're also good for finishing off stragglers.

The way I play, adding a Reaper to the team just makes everything better. That said, one Reaper is awesome. A team full of Reapers is useless. The Inverse Law of Ninja Strength (aka conservation of ninjutsu) applies fully here.

[discodog]

One thing I like about templars is that they are the closest thing to a tank this game has. You have to be very careful, but I do use them to draw fire sometimes.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Early on, Skirmishers strength is being able to attack twice per turn, having damage without spread, and being able to reposition easier. Later on they aren't really good at much.

Yes, I am having trouble finding their defining niche in this game.