Ranger - covering fire or locked on ?

[Cadelanne]

I have a level 3 ranger so I got to choose between locked on and covering fire. Although locked on is very apealing, I'm not sure that I should take this, as I don't double shoot that often.

Covering fire, on the other hand, doesn't seem that good. Afaik this ability take cover bonus into account in hit calculations, and a -10 aim penalty to target doesn't seem THAT good. Besides that, I don't want my overwatch shot to be triggered by someone shooting from behind a cover if there's an ennemy that'll probably move during this turn.

[frankie60]

Rangers are my favorite class. I used to build only Right side Rangers with a view to Rapid Reactions over-watching, and while it's pretty good once you get it, that build takes a long time to come into its own. Besides, in the late game where many enemies have Lightning Reflexes and Shadow Step, it starts to become way less effective.

So, I've started building Left Side Rangers and their skills are immediately useful. You may not double shoot now, but I guarantee you will in the late game. LEU moving to Rapid Fire gives you three shots and you will want all three most of the time. In my opinion, you should take Locked On and get the aim boost. Eventually you can get to Kill zone which is a way better form of Rapid Reactions.

[Sabaithal]

The right side tree for rangers is solely for overwatch and reaction fire shots, and should be prioritized if that's your goal for that soldier.

The left side tree for rangers is more for infantry purposes, your soldier's ability to hit targets with a standard firing action.

I'd say (with the exception of the suppression perk, which is redundant on the overwatch tree) devote your ranger solely to the left or solely to the right side of the tree to achieve maximum results. Anything in between is kind of meh.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

With the above comments, Locked-On seems like a good choice. But I have never used it. I believe the Covering Fire decreases the aim of ALL enemies in sight of the overwatcher, regardless of whether they hit them or even fire at them. I have found that extremely useful in not getting hit.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Buckaroo Banzai:

With the above comments, Locked-On seems like a good choice. But I have never used it. I believe the Covering Fire decreases the aim of ALL enemies in sight of the overwatcher, regardless of whether they hit them or even fire at them. I have found that extremely useful in not getting hit.

From what I understand covering fire does NOT affect enemy aim score unless suppressed. Suppression does though.

[Zyrrashijn]

CF only affects targets the Ranger takes overwatch shots at. If he takes multiple shots, all are affected. And yes, if an enemy fires out of cover, that is respected.

[Sarger]

Locked On skill is not limited by bonus for the second shot. Ranger can shoot thrice if commanded by officer, not speaking of using Rapid Fire as second or third action which is quite useful for killing big targets like Sectopod.

Covering Fire skill on other hand is also great since reaction shot triggers on any enemy action before enemy action. Just imagine the profit of it with Rapid Reaction(three shots at different targets before target action) or Kill Zone(shot at every target in zone before target action). Additionally reducing aim to 10 for triggered enemy. At the early game when pods are like 3 rookie advent troopers it means little, but later on encountering pods of like 6-8 enemies of all kinds and grades... Rangers must have clips of biggest size and best hair triggers, it is devastating combination.

Just another combo of who knows how much of it in this game

[frankie60]

Originally posted by Buckaroo Banzai:

With the above comments, Locked-On seems like a good choice. But I have never used it. I believe the Covering Fire decreases the aim of ALL enemies in sight of the overwatcher, regardless of whether they hit them or even fire at them. I have found that extremely useful in not getting hit.

I'd suppose, theoretically, that if you have Locked On and set a Kill Zone, all of the shots after the first one will have an aim boost. The big advantage of Kill Zone over RR is that a miss doesn't kill the triggered fire and you get up to 6 shots.The only disadvantage of Kill Zone is the cool down, but I only really use it to ambush large pods so it has usually reset by the time I need it again.

I'm not personally sure whether CF only gives the aim malus to the enemy currently being shot at, or everything the soldier sees. I sort of had the impression that it affected all enemies.

[Definitely NOT A Robot]

Covering Fire gives an aiming malus of -5 to anyone the ranger fired a reaction shot at for the remainder of the turn. It clears at the start of their next turn.

[Sarger]

Not exactly...

Locked On
Gain +10 aim and +10 crit for successive shots at the same enemy unit.

Covering Fire
Overwatch shots can now be triggered by any enemy action, not just movement. Targets of overwatch shots receive -10 aim for the rest of the turn whether or not the shot was triggered because of this ability.

So, Locked On is useful against the ones that need more than one shot to die and is not applicable for any reaction shot since there is only one reaction shot per target

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Ranger_(LW2)
Hovering mouse over yellow ? for more info

[frankie60]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[Buckaroo Banzai]

I have often found a high-aim Specialist with 2-3 overwatch shot capability, a hair-trigger, and additional ammo load gets to take most of his shots each turn, and hits often enough, even through cover. Putting out a higher volume of fire over time, and interfering with enemy actions improves your situation, especially since enemy aim is reduced whether you hit them or not. I wouldn't use the Covering Fire choice unless your designed your soldier around it.

[Cadelanne]

I now pick locked on and find it very good. Stacked with executioner and proper gear Rangers really have crazy aim even at targets behind full cover.

Given the cons of covering fire, and not finding it that useful after a few test, it's a clear yes for locked on. If I want an overwatch specialist I'd rather build a specialist around it anyway, since they get the sentinel perk.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Cadelanne:

I now pick locked on and find it very good. Stacked with executioner and proper gear Rangers really have crazy aim even at targets behind full cover.

Given the cons of covering fire, and not finding it that useful after a few test, it's a clear yes for locked on. If I want an overwatch specialist I'd rather build a specialist around it anyway, since they get the sentinel perk.

Give him a hyper reactive pupils PCS to improve that further btw.

Also, an overwatch ranger could easily be more valueable than an overwatch specialist IF their aim score is high and you invest in hair triggers. The rapid-reaction perk allows up to 3 overwatch shots as opposed to the sentinels 2. The only snag being that with rapid reaction, each prior shot needs to hit something to take the next one (hence the hair trigger and aim investment).

[Sarger]

Well, OW specialist is weaker than ranger in terms of overwatching anyway, he can do max 2 OW shots since Capacitor Discharge is much more preferable perk than Kill Zone despite it is just 1 charge for CD instead of cooldown of KZ. But yeah, i mix specialists middle and right lines these days it make him useful when there is no mechs too.

[Sabaithal]

I mean, OW specialists make great support personnel. I have a squad that consist of 4 specialists, hybrid between middle tree and right tree perks (except one medic), and they are reinforced by 4 sparks of my choosing. They fill OW roles competently, and can hack anything they can see.

Really fun squad to use btw, I recommend trying it out.