Ruler Reactions

[Kal]

Holy donkey are Ruler Reactions unbalanced. Reaction after every individual turn?

It's like someone read a dungeons and dragons player handbook and didn't comprehend reactions were once per total round, and then implemented it based off of misreading another games manual.

[RustySentinal]

Yes found it a bit much too.

[Amanoob105]

Fire, acid and (for the non-snake ones) poison. These deal damage on an enemies turn.
As you may have noticed, rulers take a LOT of extra turns.

The frost bomb. When under its effects it cancels out several ruler reactions, a perfect chance to get the above status effects on it.

This is also one of the reasons I like to play with the Alien Rulers DLC selected directly. This way I will fight a giant snake monster (plus all the others) when I want to, not when the game wants me to.

Although it's not a great idea to base a plan around it, they aren't immune to repeaters.

The Bolt Caster has an unlisted effect where it's chance to stun, which will also eat into a rulers reactions the same as being frozen, is far higher on a rulers than other normal targets.

Free actions don't result in ruler reactions.

And finally, the pièce de résistance.
As mentioned above Alien Rulers can only get out of the frost bombs frozen effect (or being stunned) if your people take actions.
So if you do nothing but free actions, then just keep hitting skip turn until your free actions recharge you can cheese your way to victory so hard Parmigiano-Reggiano will feel softer than brie.

[Jack]

They're busted, but you're also busted.

Rulers only get a reaction when they have vision of your guys getting a turn (I understand that wasn't the case at some point but has been for a long time now).

This means you can lob grenades from out of sight without activating reactions, but more importantly snipe with Squadsight. Plink away from 40 tiles with a spotter Reaper and you can lower the Ruler's health until it is just about to flee, then ambush it.

Fun and interesting encounter like that? No one will be writing songs about it. But this is XCOM and we're in the alien exterminating business; If they can't figure out where I'm shooting from, that is their problem.

[judcohan]

I ended up using the Ruler Reactions Revised mod, available in the workshop.

[sick duck]

I felt better about the rulers after I realized that some of the xcom soldiers can eventually become equal to or greater than even the chosen themselves. I was once blessed with a templar who had bladestorm, reaper, shadowstep and fortress. It was like I had a god of death on my team.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Rulers really should come with the warning slapped on the DLC that they are not for new players, with experience they become less of an issue.

[Dallas S]

Once you figure out how they work, you can still easily eliminate a ruler outright within a single turn, even on legendary.

[Zeonista]

Oh yes, the Alien Rulers up the difficulty of the campaign and re-define what "pain" means to you. For the Alien Hunters DLC, imagine James Cameron got to direct some episodes of your ongoing XCOM 2 Net-streaming series, and you know what you're in for. Thanks to Doctor Vahlen, some uber aliens are out there, and they are bosses who can and will beat your squad like a red-headed stepchild if you're not ready. (And maybe if your are.) And they scale up with the Difficulty Level too! The best thing to do is to use the special weapons, which have a chance to stun, and the frost bomb, which will make the rulers spend actions to thaw, giving your squad a chance. They DO take status damage, so using the specialty grenades can really help! Also plan your actions so the alien ruler is the most disadvantaged and your soldiers get the best shots off to do enough damage to make the Ruler flee...or die!

[KRON]

Major Skill Issue. Never really had a problem dealing with them.

BTW, if you use gas grenade on them, they may choose not to move

[x-the-Andy-x]

it not as if the rulers are difficult. learn what you can and cant do to cause the rulers to take a reaction

[󠀡󠀡Sheerkal]

The rulers play by different rules and that makes them a nightmare to adjust to. Very little obvious counters, everything is found either by experimenting in game, or reading out of game. It's really rough.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Originally posted by 󠀡󠀡Sheerkal:

The rulers play by different rules and that makes them a nightmare to adjust to. Very little obvious counters, everything is found either by experimenting in game, or reading out of game. It's really rough.

Which is why posts such as 'they are not hard' are pointless.

They are hard to fight and they remain hard to fight ... till you outgrow them and they are not.

[mk11]

Originally posted by KRON:

Major Skill Issue. Never really had a problem dealing with them.

Really? The very first time you encountered them? They are one, of many, things in XCOM 2 that are easy enough to handle once you know their abilities.

BTW, if you use gas grenade on them, they may choose not to move

[mk11]

If you really want danger try the Sectopod Prime from A Better Advent mod; a Sectopod with ruler reactions.

[KRON]

Originally posted by mk11:

Originally posted by KRON:

Major Skill Issue. Never really had a problem dealing with them.

Really? The very first time you encountered them? They are one, of many, things in XCOM 2 that are easy enough to handle once you know their abilities.

BTW, if you use gas grenade on them, they may choose not to move

The very first time, too. Because I knew what to expect, because I watched the dev interviews. Also back then they were harder, because they reacted on every action, regardless if it was in their LoS or not.