War of the chosen faction soldiers

[David Davidson]

Is it just me or are are the faction soldiers you get for each faction in war of the chosen much less useful than normal soldiers.

For example:
Reaper; rifle is less powerful (I might be wrong but I don't even think there's a pistol) the only bonus is that they get a bonus to movement and have a different (RNG) concealment system.

Skirmishers:
SMG is weak compared to other weapons, physical strikes also do less damage than a ranger, grappling took would be useful if my skirmisher wasn't equipped with a BB gun.

Templars:
These guys seem to be the most useful as their psi abilities allow them to stun and they do somewhat decent melee damage. Not as much as my reaper with dual axes though.

Not to mention I have to spend extra supplies and alloys for their weapons, which; except for the templar I haven't

So am I doing it wrong? Do I need to level them up? I've been sending them on covert missions to level them?

Any help, please?
Or are they inferior to regular our normal supplies mm soldiers?

[K. the Land-Surveyor]

Reapers are a crowd favorite on higher difficulties due to their enhanced concealment and abilities that don't break concealment. Remote Detonation doesn't exactly have 100% uptime but can be pretty nutty in the right circumstances, for example.

I personally like Skirmishers quite a bit due to high action economy and cool repositioning abilities, but I think the general consensus is that they're the weakest.

Templars have high damage attacks with 100% accuracy with all the caveats of melee attacks, but have some really interesting support options later in the tree.

A fully leveled faction soldier is probably going to be slightly weaker than a fully leveled regular soldier, but they bring some variety and you don't have to use them if you don't want to. I don't think the game gets much harder if you ignore them.

But you do need to level them up. If you constantly run Rangers in the late-game that are only Corporals, you'd probably think it's a weak class too.

[KrasnyStrela]

I find it extremly useful to use a concealed reaper as a spotter for a couple of snipers.

[KRON]

Reapers are excellent scouts. They pretty much can hide in plain sight due to 1 tile detection radius. Let me put it this way: in WotC I stopped making phantom rangers because reapers are a far better scouts.
Skirmisher are of limited utility now, yes. I use them primarily for dealing with the lost. But back in day, before patches tier 2 ripjack was OP as hell due guaranteed stun upon hit.
Utility of templars mostly depends on whether they get bladestorm and fortress or not. With them they are excellent melee units outmatched(in terms of raw damage) only by a ranger with katana. With 3 focus and Reflect they will send pretty much every 2nd(50% chance) shot back at enemy, not to mention Parry. With that and if you upgrade their dodge they can tank a lot of hits

[Aranador]

Sure, a skirmisher does less damage per shot, but they can shoot twice a round out of the box. Sure, Reaper is low damage, but they can do their damage with relative immunity. Sure templars are awesome with laser swords, but they, wait, they're awesome with laser swords.

[David Davidson]

As you were saying that rank matters a lot my lowest ranked is my skirmisher at CPL, my reaper is an LT, as is my Templar's is a SGT.
I have my skirmisher on a covert action to level him up that way.
I guess they do have some niche uses, I never thought of, I have a pretty good female LT longshot sniper too (and being an MGS fan I named her Sniper Wolf, made an MGXCOM bio for her and managed a fairly good likeness. I might change my reaper's nickname to "Quiet"; though I don't quite think they have her clothes (or lack thereof) ingame) unfortunately I have a ranger who has phantom rather than blademaster but then I went for shadowstrike and run 'n gun. Captain is still locked out but with my long range sniper I think I might use a reaper as squadmate #6 when I get Captain and can buy another slot.

Oh and what are your opinions when it comes to spark units?


PS: I wish the game tells you that once the avatars project bar fills humanity is not doomed as I cheated and reset the timer by 6 points as I like to take XCOM easy/methodically and not in a blind rushed manner. The way the avatars project bar was explained I thought that a full bar equalled game over.

[LordOfPants]

I think you're using a reaper badly if you are treating them like a sniper. They're the best at scouting with their improved stealth, have a 1-2 shot really high damage explosive weapon that they can easily land on a pod before it spots anyone, and at the high end have a 'fire all of my ammo at one guy' ability that's really damaging. They have various utility things they can do with their shots from stealth, and the remote detonation ability is excessively destructive when it's usable; having a vehicle or tank instantly blow up for double damage at double radius can wipe out a pod, only uses one regular shot, and doesn't even break stealth.

[Martial.Lore]

A reaper is the best scout out of the box and can be covertly positioned for greatly increased damage from flanking shots. And she can blow stuff up. The skirmisher is good at flanking for the same reason, and combined with the right ammo, can greatly improve the odds of taking down a troublesome target. Also an excellent mech killer later on, with whiplash. And the templar becomes an awesome shield once she is leveled up, able to deflect/reflect shots with impunity. You can stand a templar right next to a berserker and just laugh as it tries to hit her.

[David Davidson]

Originally posted by LordOfPants:

I think you're using a reaper badly if you are treating them like a sniper. They're the best at scouting with their improved stealth, have a 1-2 shot really high damage explosive weapon that they can easily land on a pod before it spots anyone, and at the high end have a 'fire all of my ammo at one guy' ability that's really damaging. They have various utility things they can do with their shots from stealth, and the remote detonation ability is excessively destructive when it's usable; having a vehicle or tank instantly blow up for double damage at double radius can wipe out a pod, only uses one regular shot, and doesn't even break stealth.

I would definitely agree, used a reaper as a scout mainly on that last mission Beijing tunnels protect the item, high explosive sitrep along with the blade chosen. Haven't even got the upgraded gun for the reaper but I'm considering throwing the resources at it for when I need to use it. I fired two shots the whole level, one at the blade chosen (weak to reapers, which knocked off more than half her health) and one shot at a purifier as nobody else could easily hit him and he had 1 bar of life.

[The Captain]

Given a choice between a reaper and ranger, I'd have a ranger any day of the week. Much better crit damage, and all round strong abilities and won't die so easily like a reaper will. In the right mission they are good, but you don't know that until your in the mission. Your almost a man down using one imo, trying to keep them concealed and lacking firepower when they join the fight. Reapers for me are what I send on covert missions, because I know they'll come home if ambushed.

Skirmishers are great early to mid game, double shots and whiplash. I'd prob prefer a decent grenadier though.

Templars though pretty weak early on, once levelled they are beasts. That melee strike is excellent, combined with parry, done right they act like a decoy that won't get hit. They are good throughout the game, except the beginning until levelled up a bit. But you are relying on their melee blade not their crappy pistol.

If you playing on lower difficulties I think you would get a lot more use out of any of the hero units. If used right they are all powerful, useful squad members on any difficulty. But I would agree that overall, normal classes with all their abilities would be a stronger squad to use. They are fun to use and make a change. I don't think in a normal campaign there is time to level up, and upgrade all three hero units, usually one or two at most. If however you used some mods to improve them, then that of course makes them far more valuable.

Top tip - if you get your weak hero unit killed, you should pretty soon get a mission to recruit a new one. The further you are into the game, the higher the level recruit. Saves the long road of levelling one up from scratch.

[red255]

Originally posted by Schlomo Shekelshoastein:

So am I doing it wrong? Do I need to level them up? I've been sending them on covert missions to level them?

Any help, please?
Or are they inferior to regular our normal supplies mm soldiers?

Yes. you are doing it wrong.

you don't need to level them up at all. just dismiss them and recruit a new one next month it will be at the rank you get soldiers from from the map. so just wait few months, dismiss, recruit one next month at colonel rank.

doing this you can 'insure' they get decent bonus abilities.

you can also use this mechanic to have expendable soldiers.

we have 3 heroes.

skirmishers, not really the biggest fan of skirmishers, they are my benchwarming unit, I'll use them sure but they have the issue of moving around alot and triggering alot of map contact. but their use is pretty basic, they grapple up and get a height advantage flank, then use their hook to deliver a melee attack then a second hook to pull someone out of cover. solid enough fighter, and if they die...get a new one next month. I'll use them, its just they draw too much contact for me to like them.

Templar. 100% auto hit with growing damage mechanic, good unit. also can switch places with an enemy.

so you trigger 3 enemies, templar switches places with one, to put the templar in melee range of the other two. killing one and deflecting the other ones attack with parry. the rest of your squad has the other unit moved to where the templar was at close range and easily dispatches it.

templar are particularly great with bladestorm and fortress.

And the Reaper. a reaper is a scout unit, damage on the weapon isn't too high but if it kills an enemy one of the perks means it doesn't lose concealment. so its great for doing those last 3 points of damage to kill off an enemy unit. It gets a claymore. it gets remote detonation.

so if an enemy group of aliens finds itself near a car, it could lob a claymore +remote detonation on the car for carx2+8 damage. its alot of damage. hell the remote detonation is usually enough, and neither attack breaks concealment.

later on it gets Banish which allows you to empty its clip into a target. with an expanded magazine it can fire 7 shots. it also gets homing mine, where you can throw your claymore to an enemy. next shot is 100% chance to hit and will also explode the claymore for its 8 damage.

If the Reaper gets Shredder ammo, Tactical Rigging and deadeye it can equip bluescreen rounds, deadeye +Bluescreen round is typically enough damage to one shot an advent mec or codex or something. the shredder ammo is more for Banish and one shotting a large armored target like a sectopod or gatekeeper.

[gimmethegepgun]

Think of it this way: your squad pretty much gets the benefit of concealment at all times while you have a Reaper on it. You won't accidentally activate more enemies, and you know exactly where the enemies are, because the Reaper can flawlessly scout for you. They can also instantly destroy or nearly destroy a pod on their own with Claymore for about half of the game, and once they get Silent Killer they can contribute directly in fights by getting killshots without worrying about losing concealment (which, most of the time, makes their direct contribution to fights equivalent to a normal soldier since SOMEONE would need to spend the time finishing that alien off). And of course when they reach Major they can get Banish, which lets them unload all remaining ammo on one enemy, which will almost always kill them, which is perfect for destroying Chosen or rulers.

[Tamiore]

Reapers are insanely powerful. Their scouting alone makes a HUGE difference if you play on ironman. And with some luck and given enough time a rank 3+ reaper can solo(!) everything on a map without breaking concealment.
Best of all, reapers are basically untouchable if you play your cards right. When worst comes to worst, reapers are the only ones that can consistently just run for evac and escape to fight another day with 0 downtime due to wounds.

[LỜI NHƯ ĐỒN]

Reapers with silent killer ability + special ammo (venom, dragon) = cheat code :)) . Especially late game with enchanced superior upgrade weapon (scope+mags+repeater) can almost guarantee 1 shot a ruler or chosen with banish.

[Liro Raériyo]

I personally prefer talon rounds for my reapers, but then again im doing silly crit build shenanigans with my reapers like so https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1355335765 so its understandable why i might want a crit build.

granted this was most certainly a case of obsurd damage stacking but i mean hey, 1 shot doing 55 damage? i dont think i can do that with other units.

[KRON]

Originally posted by Liro Raériyo:

I personally prefer talon rounds for my reapers, but then again im doing silly crit build shenanigans with my reapers like so https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1355335765 so its understandable why i might want a crit build.

granted this was most certainly a case of obsurd damage stacking but i mean hey, 1 shot doing 55 damage? i dont think i can do that with other units.

Crit build for a reaper is not unreasonable. After all, Vektor rifles have the highest crit damage out of all base weapons. And Talon rounds + Soul harvest + Suprerior laser sight + flank = 100%+ crit chance.