I absolutely hate the Archon King

[Artek [General]]

EDIT: Again. HE DID IT ♥♥♥♥ING AGAIN.
Despite me having tier 3 weaponry...
Despite me having 8 people colonel or near-colonel rank...
Despite me having a mod that prevents him from reacting to my soldiers sneezing and only acting when they actually do something offensive...

He just used devastate, set 2 people on fire and rendered one unconcious.
Guess who he rendered unconcious? THE ONLY ♥♥♥♥ING MEDIC.
Soldiers survived the fire that continued for 2 turns, but one of them has 4 health, and there's still sectopod somewhere.

Oh, and all of this on Ironman too.

I hate him. I absolutely 100% hate him. Even though he's dead now, but STILL.
This golden, red-skin naked abomination of game-design... My hate for him is now rooted deep in my soul for ages.


[ORIGINAL POST]
Sometimes i almost regret having Alien Rulers DLC purchased.
And don't get me wrong - its a fine DLC, the gear it gives is amazing and the idea behind bosses that counter-react to your actions is very interesting but...

Okay, Viper King and Berserker Queen are NOT bad. They are tolerable. They can be a-holes under certain conditions, but tolerable and still somewhat fun.

But Archon King? He's literally THE WORST thing in the whole game.
Especially the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DEVASTATE which he uses 100% the moment he has a chance to, meaning half of your squad is going to get artilery striked after 2 actions.
Not only it does decent damage, but also has chance to do one of the things to your unit:
- stun it;
- render it unconcious;
- light it on fire.
Bonus♥♥♥♥♥points if your units are on the roof of a building, since its going to destroy the floor and make them fall.

The worst thing? He came to us, triggering hell ton of overwatch shots (like 4), but only 1 of them hit, and it was the bolt caster and it didn't stun him.
Also the throwing axe also missed.
Also he ignores mimic beacons.
Also i don't know if flashbang grenades do anything to him, but i'm too afraid to test it since the actions that you take when fighting rulers are too precious to experiment with.

Screw this guy. Just kill him with fire. Or execute him with a repeater, like the others.

[Bindal]

Free actions are pretty useful against the guy. And DoT grenades. Applies to the other rules as well, but his grab is especially weak against that (as the damage triggers before he attacks, resulting him letting go).

Also, against Devistate - Grappling Hook counts as free action. And if you spread your guys, far less should be in danger of getting hit.

And, if you have a Psionic already, Stasis locks him down for the rest of the turn.

So, considering that and that he's the third and final ruler (and the only one that gives you a T3 armor by default), I think he's perfectly fine.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Bindal:

Free actions are pretty useful against the guy. And DoT grenades. Applies to the other rules as well, but his grab is especially weak against that (as the damage triggers before he attacks, resulting him letting go).

Also, against Devistate - Grappling Hook counts as free action. And if you spread your guys, far less should be in danger of getting hit.

And, if you have a Psionic already, Stasis locks him down for the rest of the turn.

So, considering that and that he's the third and final ruler (and the only one that gives you a T3 armor by default), I think he's perfectly fine.

Huh, psionics have something like that?
Its embaracing to say, but after 3 playthroughs i haven't had a SINGLE psionic in my team.
Researching psionics and then building the training center for them has never (and probably will never be) my priority, i find researching and building literally anything else much more useful until the very end of the game when my scientists have nothing better to do and neither do my engineers.

The saddest part? You can only turn rookies into psionics (unlike previous game, where any soldier has a chance of becoming one, even he's already colonel) which means i have no use for them in the late game where i already have 8-10 well-developed experienced soldiers.

[KRON]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Bindal:

Free actions are pretty useful against the guy. And DoT grenades. Applies to the other rules as well, but his grab is especially weak against that (as the damage triggers before he attacks, resulting him letting go).

Also, against Devistate - Grappling Hook counts as free action. And if you spread your guys, far less should be in danger of getting hit.

And, if you have a Psionic already, Stasis locks him down for the rest of the turn.

So, considering that and that he's the third and final ruler (and the only one that gives you a T3 armor by default), I think he's perfectly fine.

Huh, psionics have something like that?
Its embaracing to say, but after 3 playthroughs i haven't had a SINGLE psionic in my team.
Researching psionics and then building the training center for them has never (and probably will never be) my priority, i find researching and building literally anything else much more useful until the very end of the game when my scientists have nothing better to do and neither do my engineers.

The saddest part? You can only turn rookies into psionics (unlike previous game, where any soldier has a chance of becoming one, even he's already colonel) which means i have no use for them in the late game where i already have 8-10 well-developed experienced soldiers.

Well psi-ops are very powerful support units when they're fully trained. And yeah, Stasis disables rulers for a whole turn.

[Bindal]

Psionics are probably the most broken class in the game so getting one, even lategame, is actually worthwhile.

And getting a Rookie is not hard, just hire one for a few supplies, stuff them in the training facility and keep them there to train. Among other things, they can learn "Stasis" (the mentioned complete lockdown until the end of the enemies next turn - even if they can't take damage), a counterpart to protect friendly units, Domination (permanent mindcontrol of an enemy with one charge), the passive bonus of being immune to explosives, fire, poison (all at once in one!), the ability to make them and anyone in a small radius immune to mind affecting status effects like panic,...

So, yes, if the Archon King is such an issue, get a Psionic early and see what you get because the way they are trained means they can
a) get literally every single ability (instead of just one of two on each promotion)
b) can get ANY ability each time they train - and you get to choose between three options.

So, yes, that means a Squaddie Psionic can already run around with Domination, if you're lucky.

[KRON]

Originally posted by Bindal:

So, yes, that means a Squaddie Psionic can already run around with Domination, if you're lucky.

Though squaddie with domination is useless because any viable targets for domination have high will.

[Stormrider464]

have you tried frost grenade? acid or incendiary grenades/bullets? idk mods?

[Bindal]

Originally posted by KRON:

Originally posted by Bindal:

So, yes, that means a Squaddie Psionic can already run around with Domination, if you're lucky.

Though squaddie with domination is useless because any viable targets for domination have high will.

GOOD targets - but most targets are viable and even getting something as boring as a Muton or an ADVENT Soldier isn't a waste as it's still another gun and a guy the enemy can shoot at instead of you.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by stormrider464:

have you tried frost grenade? acid or incendiary grenades/bullets? idk mods?

Freeze grenade - yes, that's the first thing to do in this situation and i do it, but it only freezes him for 1 action, which means i have literally just 1 free action to do something i want to do before he starts destroying my team.
And no, i have no special rounds at all... I mean i have tracer rounds and poisonous rounds, but one is used by my main sniper and the other is used by another sniper who is plan-B.
Everybody else uses all kinds of utility stuff such as mimic beacons, skulljack, yadi-yada.... And almost all of them have special armor that limits them to just 1 utility slot, so...

[Stormrider464]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by stormrider464:

have you tried frost grenade? acid or incendiary grenades/bullets? idk mods?

Freeze grenade - yes, that's the first thing to do in this situation and i do it, but it only freezes him for 1 action, which means i have literally just 1 free action to do something i want to do before he starts destroying my team.
And no, i have no special rounds at all... I mean i have tracer rounds and poisonous rounds, but one is used by my main sniper and the other is used by another sniper who is plan-B.
Everybody else uses all kinds of utility stuff such as mimic beacons, skulljack, yadi-yada.... And almost all of them have special armor that limits them to just 1 utility slot, so...

invest in a healthy supply of special rounds hopefully venom rounds or something that does damage every turn

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Artek General:

And no, i have no special rounds at all... I mean i have tracer rounds and poisonous rounds, but one is used by my main sniper and the other is used by another sniper who is plan-B.
Everybody else uses all kinds of utility stuff such as mimic beacons, skulljack, yadi-yada.... And almost all of them have special armor that limits them to just 1 utility slot, so...

So you don't use PSI OPs. You also don't use DoT rounds. So you are ignoring all the tools you have available to deal with the threat. Why complain then?

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by stormrider464:

invest in a healthy supply of special rounds hopefully venom rounds or something that does damage every turn

Funny enough the cursed wretch run through environment fire when encountering my team, which caused him to steadily take decent damage (like 4-5 per turn) and even caused him to let go of my sniper when he tried to air-drop him.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Lampros:

So you don't use PSI OPs. You also don't use DoT rounds. So you are ignoring all the tools you have available to deal with the threat. Why complain then?

1) I didn't know they are good against them.

2) These things are extremely situational otherwise. My squad is prepared to fight armies of enemies and survive, not to fight one over-sized one (because they are not in every mission, and i don't have a shadow chamber. Woohoo for legendary difficulty and x2 building times.)

3) Psionics are ineffieicnt in a way of getting them. To get the best results you must research and build them ASP ignoring all else, which is a lot:
magnetic weaponry, laboratory, guerilla tactics school, advanced warfare center, power relay, resistance comms, proving grounds...

It might worth it in a long run, but you're sort of gimping yourself in early game trying to get them because you'll have to sacrifice something else from a list above.

Maybe magnetic weaponry could wait, but i don't know, the faster you have it the better.

Oh and you have to take squadies psionics on missions instead of, i dont know, a leiutenant or captain that you will have by this point.

Somehow i just dont feel like i'm winning in this dituation.

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by Stefan:

archon king gave me a serious load of trouble, untill i bombarded it to ♥♥♥♥ with everything i had and slowly struggleproceeded furthe rin my mission :P

i hope he doesn't ressurect his ass somehow..

Thankfully no, once he's dead - he stays dead.
Unless you install a certain mod that clones all alien rulers and makes them appear even after death.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Artek General:

2) These things are extremely situational otherwise. My squad is prepared to fight armies of enemies and survive, not to fight one over-sized one (because they are not in every mission, and i don't have a shadow chamber. Woohoo for legendary difficulty and x2 building times.)

Neither PSI OPs or DoT rounds are really "situational" - and certainly not "extremely situational." PSI OPs are probably the most over-powered soldiers in the game, and there is practically no situation where they are not useful or even optimal. DoT rounds are indeed more situational than PSI OPs, but they are still applicable enough in so many situations that it is advisable to have one of each with every squad.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Artek General:

Originally posted by Lampros:

So you don't use PSI OPs. You also don't use DoT rounds. So you are ignoring all the tools you have available to deal with the threat. Why complain then?

1) I didn't know they are good against them.

2) These things are extremely situational otherwise. My squad is prepared to fight armies of enemies and survive, not to fight one over-sized one (because they are not in every mission, and i don't have a shadow chamber. Woohoo for legendary difficulty and x2 building times.)

3) Psionics are ineffieicnt in a way of getting them. To get the best results you must research and build them ASP ignoring all else, which is a lot:
magnetic weaponry, laboratory, guerilla tactics school, advanced warfare center, power relay, resistance comms, proving grounds...

It might worth it in a long run, but you're sort of gimping yourself in early game trying to get them because you'll have to sacrifice something else from a list above.

Maybe magnetic weaponry could wait, but i don't know, the faster you have it the better.

Oh and you have to take squadies psionics on missions instead of, i dont know, a leiutenant or captain that you will have by this point.

Somehow i just dont feel like i'm winning in this dituation.

1) Yes, they are. Both are extremely useful, as well as DoT Grenades (Acid downright diables the Berzerker Queen, even!)

2) Neither are situational. DoT ammo has a default effect of +1 damage no matter what and unless you're fighting robots or otherwise immune enemies, their effect is always of use. And there aren't that many of those immune ones as even the basic ADVENT will be affected by it.
And Psionics are generally pretty OP.

3) You only need to get them out in time for the Archon, really - if at all. As stated above, the Berzerker Queen is basically useless when hit by an Acid Grenade (because her AI forbids her to walk over acid floor tiles - even when already burning with it. Meaning she'll end up stuck and can't move). And all you really need is Stasis, which is a very easy-to-get ability for a Psionic.