Is Bladestorm useful?

[e11]

I'm faced with deciding between Bladestorm and Implacable for my main ranger. I'm awfully tempted by that free attack on stun lancers and whatnot, but how often does it actually come up, compared to having to dash for cover?

[Eggy]

This depends on whether or not you are playing vanilla or WOTC.

In vanilla I nearly always went for implacable so you could move about the battlefield easier.
Its not guranteed to hit and if your relying on it to kill and it doesnt then your stuck.


In WOTC you can get both skills and bladestorm is one of the most usefull skills in the game for lost, chosen and genraly staying alive, especialy if your lucky and get it on a templar.

[MessiahofMelons]

Personally i always loved bladestorm, i tried to position my assalts in a way that if enemies moved went for my squad it would trigger, it was nice to guard chokes and melee units.

This was only on hard vanilla and normal wotc mind ypu

[ShunBrokuSatsu]

In WOTC the choice is made much easier as A) you can get both and B) The chosen katana makes bladestorm guaranteed to hit as it gives you +100% aim.

[WoodMan]

I love it! You can use it as many times as is needed per turn, so if you get attacked by multiple enemies you get to hit all of them. Later on it oneshots virtually all Lost and also anything that moves AWAY from you gets hit by it too. So you can stand a Bladestormer next to something and since the AI almost always moves you get a free hit. Priests in their Sustain for example.

[Azure]

Bladestorm Bomb: Stand in a Reinforcement drop site and Overwatch if possible aswell

[Messsucher]

It is hell OP, and make me miss a lot XCOM 1 and shotgun close range trooper, with a chance to miss. In XCOM 1 you really had to think carefully your tactics and have backup plans. In XCOM 2 you have a ton of ridiculous special abilities, and the difficulty is on what OP ability to chose.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Even in the base game i'd say it has more mileage to it than implaceable.

Thats largely because the next rank up offers you deep cover or untouchable.

Taking the latter, which I always do, makes implaceable a largely pointless perk.

When untouchable proc's, which it always does when i break a ranger out of concealment, I want the enemy to waste it's time shooting the ranger because the first attack is a guarenteed miss, If I can also drag an enemy into close range for a free sword attack with 100% safety then I'm gonna do it.

It'd have been a harder choice if Implaceable gave you a free action, but because it's just a move I can't remember the last time I used it.

I should also point out that I do not build sword focused rangers at all (don't have WOTC).

[ShunBrokuSatsu]

Originally posted by AzureTerra:

Bladestorm Bomb: Stand in a Reinforcement drop site and Overwatch if possible aswell

Not a good idea when a lot of the RNF drops contain a purifier on them in WotC :P.

[wolfwarrior]

This one time a Viper grabbed me with its tongue and I slashed her when I landed next to her.

[Mors Avis]

Bladestorm is a great ability--for many reasons--not least of which is that it works on the enemy's turn. This is like an extra attack (against multiple targets) and makes for some interesting interactions (i.e., bladestorm vs mutons, lost, rulers, etc).

[.O.]

in vanilla, I sometimes use it, depending on what kind of ranger build I'm going for.

In WotC I get both and use it to destroy entire pods from concealment. It also still works after concealment if you have a dedicated scout and your ranger/templar can run in from outside of the enemy pod's vision range.

It doesn't work so much on tougher pods e.g. Gatekeeper and 3 Archons. But it works very well against the weaker pods e.g. Officer, Lancer, Shieldbearer. This is especially true after you get the Assassin sword since I believe that one cannot miss.

Basically you see a pod, look at how much HP they all have, before Assassin sword, I would do my slash on the weakest member to ensure at least one kill. After Assassin sword I would do the slash on whichever enemy needs two slashes to die, so I slash once, then they scatter and bladestorms slashes all of them again. Just gotta make sure you position your slash so that your ranger is standing in the middle of the pod.

[Azure]

Originally posted by JM001:

Originally posted by AzureTerra:

Bladestorm Bomb: Stand in a Reinforcement drop site and Overwatch if possible aswell

Not a good idea when a lot of the RNF drops contain a purifier on them in WotC :P.

I still do it, Hazmat is a thing and so is healing

[Gin-chan]

Bladestorm is a must have imo. Its a free reinforcement clearing ability for the ranger. Place him near a drop zone and watch those advents get cut down to pieces.

[Martial.Lore]

With Musashi"s RPG Overhaul mod (WotC) you can have everything you want. My rangers are almost as invulnerable to melee attack as Templars.

[e11]

Yeah, okay. I went with Bladestorm,