Mimic Beacon

[Gimli]

Not once did I use one when I did my playthrough back in vanilla. Boy was I missing out... It totally saved my favorite ranger's *** last night when I assaulted my first chosen fortress. She literally had a hitpoint left.

It saved my squad from a sectopod disaster during a supply raid about an hour ago too. I can't believe I never used these before (Well that plus bluescreen ammo to chew through the bugger)! They are so helpful!

EDIT: Honestly I never really used them before because I didn't realize that enemies would prioritize them first during their turn.

[gimmethegepgun]

They used to be even better before they got nerfed. They used to be able to take cover, so they got hit less than they do now.

[Gimli]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

They used to be even better before they got nerfed. They used to be able to take cover, so they got hit less than they do now.

They were nerfed? I never would have thought lol

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Gimli:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

They used to be even better before they got nerfed. They used to be able to take cover, so they got hit less than they do now.

They were nerfed? I never would have thought lol

Yep. WotC also indirectly nerfs them a bit because the first retaliation mission only has 1 Faceless instead of 2 like in vanilla, so it takes longer for you to get them.

[Create@Review(Ravire)]

Originally posted by Gimli:

Not once did I use one when I did my playthrough back in vanilla. Boy was I missing out... It totally saved my favorite ranger's *** last night when I assaulted my first chosen fortress. She literally had a hitpoint left.

It saved my squad from a sectopod disaster during a supply raid about an hour ago too. I can't believe I never used these before (Well that plus bluescreen ammo to chew through the bugger)! They are so helpful!

EDIT: Honestly I never really used them before because I didn't realize that enemies would prioritize them first during their turn.

they're useful but I rarely use them unless i know im going to take more than one attack in a turn.

[gimmethegepgun]

I don't use them any more because they just completely break the game with how overpowered they are.

[Stardustfire]

maybe in your modded to balance-oblivion game, in vanilla WotC i wont call taking up to 2 attacks (thats the normal max dmg a mimic can take in Legendary) to OP. at the same time you can call a Medkit OP, ok the beacon is a tic better because death soldiers cant be healed, but than you can have up to 4 uses of one Medkit.

[arthum.inglorion]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Yep. WotC also indirectly nerfs them a bit because the first retaliation mission only has 1 Faceless instead of 2 like in vanilla, so it takes longer for you to get them.

Playing vanilla without WotC and I still got 1 Faceless on my first retaliation mission.

[tlowey]

Or you can use domination, and get a really big mimic beacon.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

maybe in your modded to balance-oblivion game, in vanilla WotC i wont call taking up to 2 attacks (thats the normal max dmg a mimic can take in Legendary) to OP. at the same time you can call a Medkit OP, ok the beacon is a tic better because death soldiers cant be healed, but than you can have up to 4 uses of one Medkit.

I don't mod the difficulty. Mimic Beacon is completely OP because it lets you get away with practically anything, while simultaneously pulling a lot of enemies out of cover and letting you slaughter them the next turn, due to their utter insistence on doing whatever it takes to kill that beacon.

[Create@Review(Ravire)]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

I don't use them any more because they just completely break the game with how overpowered they are.

how are they overpowered? They got nerfed to where they only draw fire first turn and they dont take more damage than a standard soldier so they can't soak up more than two maybe three attacks and pods usually have three to four at a time. Sure overpowered in lower difficulty but not in higher difficulties they are used more of draw out aliens to be in bad spots and save a soldier plus your trading explosives for a mimic beacon raw damage that can also destroy cover or a beacon that draws fire for one turn not sure how that can be considered overpowered when it is more of a tactical trade off.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Protocal Alpha:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

I don't use them any more because they just completely break the game with how overpowered they are.

how are they overpowered? They got nerfed to where they only draw fire first turn and they dont take more damage than a standard soldier so they can't soak up more than two maybe three attacks and pods usually have three to four at a time.

So you're saying that they disable most if not all of a pod for an entire turn, without regards to their positioning? That's pretty OP. Functionally it's about the same as succeeding in one of those "restore all actions" hacks or hitting all of them with a frost grenade.

plus your trading explosives for a mimic beacon raw damage that can also destroy cover or a beacon that draws fire for one turn not sure how that can be considered overpowered when it is more of a tactical trade off.

With Predator Armor you can only carry 1 explosive, so using the second slot for it isn't trading away an explosive. Besides which, 1 explosive will hit and help kill 2, maybe 3 aliens on your current turn, while 1 mimic beacon effectively gives you an entire extra turn to work with and often leads to enemies being out of cover anyway.

[talemore]

I don't know. the new mimic beacons dies by the first shot. It's all about the size of the pod or how much damage is done by each enemy. Sometimes the best way is to kill. You delay the turn but with timers you consume a turn.

[red255]

Originally posted by arthum.inglorion:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Yep. WotC also indirectly nerfs them a bit because the first retaliation mission only has 1 Faceless instead of 2 like in vanilla, so it takes longer for you to get them.

Playing vanilla without WotC and I still got 1 Faceless on my first retaliation mission.

not sure what difficulty you play on, he might be speaking about legend but I don't think so.

I think he's just wrong.

mimic beacons aren't something I'm willing to use, sort of like the ghost grenades in XCOM:EW or the concealment genemod.

I just didn't feel the AI responded appropriately to the item.

In XCOM2 I generally run with armor and dodge. the thing is if you have 3 points of armor and dodge an attack, if the attack did 10 damage, the dodge would reduce it to 5 and the armor would reduce it to 2 damage.

believe it or not you don't take much damage unless you get shredded.

on top of that stack some untouchable and your guys can take most of the enemies fire

anyways never tried the beacons. I just use untouchable rangers to draw fire.

[Stardustfire]

for that you need a high enove ranked ranger first.....
its ever again funny how much ppl lean to say the game is easy because xy but forget that xy normaly is first avaible after you got over the difficulty edge in the game...

[red255]

you don't get access to mimic beacons until you autopsy the faceless and get 2 more corpses. which is generally after the second terror mission and maybe some change depending on how much you prioritize it for research.

Generally I'm going to get various other researches first because I don't value the beacons.

mag weapons. plated armor, Psionics.

I find if I have Mag weapons and plated armor nothing is too much of an issue especially if I get the +1 mag weapon breakthru. which I have a greater chance of if I get to them early.

Timing wise psionics happen around the time I get to the third floor. so 5+5+10+10+10+10 days in. 50 days in, third month cycle.

by this time I might not have everything sure, but I've gotten the important things I'd really want/need.

meme beacons just aren't one of those things.