Alien Hunters - loot. Is it overpowered?

[mckracken]

will it make every other gear obsolete early in the game?
should i just do the missions and not use the AH gear?

[Mister Veeg]

Boltcaster: Marginally useful due to single-shot capacity and no weapon mods (barring game mods that do it): The stun and accuracy bonus are nice, tho.

Frost Bomb: Overpowered, but doesn't replace standard explosives (doesn't shred armor or remove cover)

Shadowfall Pistol: OK if you're a gunslinger sniper or a mod-class that uses pistols. Situationally useful in LW2 (with the right perks).

Ruler Armors run the gamut from slightly better than the grapple armor (viper) to outright most overpowered suit in the game (icarus jump)

You only get one copy of each, though, unless you use mods that allow building or duplicates.

[Mook]

The gear is extremely limited, you can't give that gear to everyone. Pretty sure it's only 1 of everything.

[mckracken]

I have an idea...would it be possible to bring Hunter gear only for a boss mission?
Like do you see on the map if its a Hunter mission...What could be the reasoning in terms of game world logic...Hhhmm.

[Rockfire ✘]

Yes, they're intentionally OP to combat the rulers, the problem is, most just get the weapons and ignore the mission.

[Mook]

Originally posted by mckracken:

I have an idea...would it be possible to bring Hunter gear only for a boss mission?
Like do you see on the map if its a Hunter mission...What could be the reasoning in terms of game world logic...Hhhmm.

Nope. But why do you think this equipment is OP? It's not at all since you can only have 1 of each.

[Fel]

The bolt caster is really not great even compared to basic stock weapons (1 shot, no mods, for just a bit of precision and damage).
If you use a mod that allows mods on it, auto reload, ammo capacity and precision can make it into a really decent weapon though.

The grenade is definitely not bad, and the rest are ok, but even if you get those things very early on it would not make the game suddenly unbalanced like having a team wreak enemies without even needing cover.

[Nep Nep]

out of everything the boltcaster and frost nade are the best things if you ignore the armour since you need to kill the rulers for them, boltcaster is nice and pretty powerful but you do only get one shot from it unless you have mods that allow putting ammo clips and stuff on it or you have the alien hunter class that is designed to use that stuff, makes the boltcaster far more useful

frost nade is will...yeah it's op, it's completely taking however many you hit with it out of the fight letting you deal with others or picking them off one by one but as mentioned, it doesn't replace normal nades at all

[Mook]

Originally posted by Professor Nep-Nep:

out of everything the boltcaster and frost nade are the best things if you ignore the armour since you need to kill the rulers for them, boltcaster is nice and pretty powerful but you do only get one shot from it unless you have mods that allow putting ammo clips and stuff on it or you have the alien hunter class that is designed to use that stuff, makes the boltcaster far more useful

frost nade is will...yeah it's op, it's completely taking however many you hit with it out of the fight letting you deal with others or picking them off one by one but as mentioned, it doesn't replace normal nades at all

Maybe it's just Long War, but the frost nade has a tiny range no?

[Nep Nep]

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

Originally posted by Professor Nep-Nep:

out of everything the boltcaster and frost nade are the best things if you ignore the armour since you need to kill the rulers for them, boltcaster is nice and pretty powerful but you do only get one shot from it unless you have mods that allow putting ammo clips and stuff on it or you have the alien hunter class that is designed to use that stuff, makes the boltcaster far more useful

frost nade is will...yeah it's op, it's completely taking however many you hit with it out of the fight letting you deal with others or picking them off one by one but as mentioned, it doesn't replace normal nades at all

Maybe it's just Long War, but the frost nade has a tiny range no?

yeah it does but sometimes you get lucky and hit multiple people with it, more often than not you'll just end up taking out the biggest threat to deal with him later but you get those rare times you hit more than one

[Mook]

Originally posted by Professor Nep-Nep:

Originally posted by ØniKanji:

Maybe it's just Long War, but the frost nade has a tiny range no?

yeah it does but sometimes you get lucky and hit multiple people with it, more often than not you'll just end up taking out the biggest threat to deal with him later but you get those rare times you hit more than one

Yeah, I dont think it is that OP though. Like OP to the point where the OP only wants them on Alien hunter missions lol

Maybe it is just because I am on Long War though

[easytarget]

The answer to this question is quite easy, no.

In fact quite the reverse, the aliens introduced are OP relative to the pathetically underpowered one of a kind weapons provided to deal with them.

Net: you couldn't get this any more backwards if you had tried.

[fewerjungle]

Interesting post. Will try to keep it short.

Bolt caster: discussible wheater it's a replacement or not for normal weapon. I always play with it, and in commander/legendary ironman my specialist was the guy with the most kills the majority of the time.
To put it simply: your specialist stops having the weakest normal shot to have the strongest and most acurate before sniper rifle gets upgrades.
I believe the game is harder in the beggining. If you have some experience, mid-late game is mostly cleaning stuff up before the final mission.
Early on this weapon allows you to hit and kill with certainty even with its huge downside of one bullet, but when you can't aford to miss and have only 4 guys its excelent. Later on it loses value (no upgrades) and forces evervigilant (and I love guardian).

Frost grenade: tactically excelent. Sometimes I even use it to break concealment when playing very cautiously in ironman. If all your overwhatches miss you're screwed, so I tend to not overwatch at all when breaking concealment (maybe 1 overwhatch). If you freeze them from concealment you can usualy freeze the whole pod without forcing your concealed ranger to fire should you miss some shots. Can also freeze a powerfull enemy.
It gives you options.

What puzzles me the most is that most people don't give credit to the hunter's axe. Along with the shadowkeeper the only real downside is when you're playing with more than one ranger or sniper which will have you upgrade two secondary weapons per class.
The times that thing saved my life...
1 free action...
Even though it's only once it compensates for the weakness of the ranger (accuracy) with it's throw.
More damage...

Shadowkeeper was also excelent when my ranger lost concealment or was injured and out of missions.
Sure a scouting sniper isn't ideal but concealment is concealment.
Can also be used for concealment bonus purposes, getting into position without alerting pods or not missing with that one shot.

[Red Bat]

Thought I should point out that these weapons are far better for actually taking on the rulers. You can also upgrade them, but that costs supplies, so it might be better to simply let them fall into disuse.

Boltcaster:
Sidegrade, or possibly even worse than the assualt rifle at times. However its high damage, crit and stun chance make it very good for taking on the rulers, or at least the viper king. Try to get a flanking shot, as the high damage means a lot more if you get a crit. If you can get a stun off on an alien ruler, you'll get 2 free actions to deal with them. This weapon is also very good early on on higher difficulties, as it's your only real chance at one hit killing tougher early enemies like Vipers, and it will take a huge chunk of health off armored enemies like mecs.

Hunter Axe:
It's a flat upgrade over the sword. The free action throw is indespensible vs alien rulers as it doesn't give them an extra move. If you plan to melee an enemy and know it won't kill them, soften them up with an axe first. Probably a good idea to give this to Bradford on the DLC mission. His reaper ability will get more use thanks to the axe's higher damage.

Freeze grenade:
Generally one of the best utility items. The double grenade perk works on it, so give it to a grenadier and you'll be able to reliably take enemies out of the fight. The reduced radius barely matters as the effect is much better. Oh, and with the extra grenade perk, you get 6 free actions vs an alien ruler. In fact this item is almost necessary to fight the alien rulers. Combined with the stun from the boltcaster, you effectively can get 1-2 full turns on a ruler depending on whether you need to reload or reposition.

Shadowkeeper:
It's a flat upgrade over your pistol. The guranteed hit that gives concealment is ridiculous. A gunslinger sniper can get 3 pistol shots on an enemy, and go into concealment right afterwards. Could be wrong, but I think the boost to aim is actually a boost to the character, meaning it works with the sniper rifle.

Overall the DLC does make you stronger and makes the game easier. However the rulers are a pain to fight, and can throw you into a loss on higher difficulties. They are getting nerfed in the next DLC update though, so getting those OP armors will be quite feasable.

[mckracken]

So, if a soldier is carrying the for instance freeze grenade into a fight and he is killed does that mean the freeze grenade is gone for good? If so then I would probably make use of the loot.

(I will have "Ruler Reactions Revised" active as well)

Maybe I'll just treat it as a sort of "Predator Hunters Code" that would let me use those items only on bosses. (that is If you can see the Alien Hunter mission in the command room?)

[Konchuharts]

Originally posted by mckracken:

So, if a soldier is carrying the for instance freeze grenade into a fight and he is killed does that mean the freeze grenade is gone for good? If so then I would probably make use of the loot.

(I will have "Ruler Reactions Revised" active as well)

Maybe I'll just treat it as a sort of "Predator Hunters Code" that would let me use those items only on bosses. (that is If you can see the Alien Hunter mission in the command room?)

Unless you have to evac from the mission where said soldier died you will be able to recover it.