Frontline xeno tank build

[Doom Commando X]

I'm still catching up with the changes from the last two years since last time I played. It's time to get a front-line killer. I know I'm looking at high strength and fortitude for the HP, and high Quickness and Wisdom for the INIT. I rolled a guy with 25 Strength, 18 Quickness, 30 Wisdom, 30 Fortitude. Will he do? His first trait is non-CC. Since his quickness and wisdom are both high, can I ignore the low quickness?

[wilky]

I would've done more Quickness, less Strength... but that should be fine.

I'm assuming you picked either Assassin or Zealot, so just put most of your levels into Swordsman. You only need L5 Zealot, for example.

[Tomcat]

Xenos use melee. So you need Parry and Swordsman.

In higher difficulties, you'll need alot of blades to hit against Xenos and high-level rival swordmen. After a certain treshold of difficulty, if this was a recruit and against the strongest melee opponents, you most likely need something to augment your accuracy and/or need an ability to debuff their parry. (Unless you lucked out and got him with bonus levels in blades)

There are two types of swords. Ones that uses Strength and Ones that uses Quickness. The best unique sword uses Strength.

Now as for what else Strength and Quickness does, Strength gives more HP I think. While Quickness gives you more Init. There's probably something I'm missing here like defense rolls.

Your swordsman in the given example will have an easy time using Strength based blades.


Be careful of Snipers.

[Doom Commando X]

Ah I see, I forgot about some blades being quickness based. That's a bit of a wrench. Is any sort of CM viable in the first two ranks against Xeno? Say a CM/Pistoleer/Bodyguard?

[davea]

Against xeno, parry is key. If you had one level in CM and the rest in sword, that would be ok, but I suppose you'd want at least 8 in CM. That makes parry too low.

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by Doom Commando X:

Ah I see, I forgot about some blades being quickness based. That's a bit of a wrench. Is any sort of CM viable in the first two ranks against Xeno? Say a CM/Pistoleer/Bodyguard?

You can get strength based blades now.

[Tomcat]

Honestly, I don't think any of the pistol jobs are good. I would use combat medic only for the abilities then just mass pump Doctor. Put them in the back.

If you are only only doing 8 CM and no doctor, your heals will be weaksauce. If you are just going for buffs, I think other classes have better options but I haven't checked.

Wing Commando and Blade Dancer lets a Sword attack from third position.


Only reason I see you wanting to use bodyguard is for that talent that guards others. Although I felt like it didn't proc correctly with a mainhand sword with the counter ability. I haven't bothered to test to see if that was a bug.

[Doom Commando X]

I can't find any info on how positioning affects being attacked and damage. Especially when facing xeno. Since xeno use melee, is a backline CM/MO type-buffer safe without crazy stats?

[Tomcat]

Xenos can attack positions 1 2 and 3. I never seen them attack 4.

They can cause people to switch positions on their hits.

The crew you start with tends to all have elevated stats. If you want good stats from that point on, you have to use recruiting abilities. I usually reroll the game only for a decent doctor. I don't really care about the Quartermaster or Engineer though.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Originally posted by Tomcat:

Xenos can attack positions 1 2 and 3. I never seen them attack 4.

They can cause people to switch positions on their hits.

The crew you start with tends to all have elevated stats. If you want good stats from that point on, you have to use recruiting abilities. I usually reroll the game only for a decent doctor. I don't really care about the Quartermaster or Engineer though.

They can hit spot 4 it's just rare. Just like the human player with the right config can hit the AI spot 4. It's just rare.

If you are rolling a captain I would go 30 wis, 30 quickness, 30 fortitude, 18 strength.

The easiest play is zealot, swordsman, blade dancer.

Personally I would only go bodyguard if your #2 spot is a pistol or shotgunner so you can block for him. If there is no need to block bodyguard is less important to me.

[Jorg Hammond]

In spot 4, the classic Doctor / Combat Medic / Military Officer is quite safe versus xenos, at least in Hard mode it felt like it.

I've been toying with buffer builds in spot 3, such as Military Officer or Commander / Pistoleer with a splash of Zealot for a parrying off-hand blade and the Unstoppable Force self-buff, but I've not really tried it against xenos.

Even if it ends up being durable enough, I'm afraid only relying on swordsmen in spots 1 and 2 for damage might be insufficient.

But against factions, I'm having fun with my Commander / Pistoleer / Zealot melee captain. My plan was to use Commander buffs, but after leveling all three jobs to rank 2, I went Pistoleer 5 for more Evasion, then Zealot 8 for the Fervor buff, and talent wise I didn't even pick Rallying Aura...

Right now the captain deals decent damage thanks to their high Initiative and the low cost of pistol attacks, but I'm afraid I should after this point only get ranks in Pistoleer lest they become unable to hit foes at higher levels.

[Gilmoy]

Against terrox xenos:
- Blades in #1 and #2 suffice. Give them 3 blades jobs each, for bonus Blades skill levels. Always include Swordsman for your T5 Strength of Steel self-heal and +40% Parry buff.

Their damage output isn't an issue. Mid-game, they can reliably hit terrox melee for 50-80 damage each, which means ~3 hits per kill, which takes about 1.5 rounds. So you can plan to win by round 3, even vs. L45s.

- The shooter in #3 doesn't really need to parry. Rely on heavy armor to soak damage. The problem with an off-hand kukri is that you end up in the 'tweener zone of 18s+10 parry or so, which means nothing at all when L45 terrox are rolling 46s+8 to hit you. You'll get hit regardless, so you might as well go all-in on heavy armor + high damage and kill them faster, without diluting your jobs/skill levels.

- A healer in #4 is unlikely to die, but it can happen. Terrox melee can hit you, even in #4, and pull you forward into #3. [edit] They need to be in positions #a - #c to use that terrox talent. Again, rely on heavy armor to soak damage.

Always have a 2nd crew member take her group-undebuff talent. Don't leave your healer as the sole un-debuffer, in case your healer is the one who gets 50% Stun.

- It follows from all of this that you actually can get away with having a shooter in #2, if you've mastered the 2-blades build. A shooter in #2 will get hit a lot by terrox melee, so he must wear heavy armor and have a self-heal. But he's not intrinsically any less viable than your shooters in #3 or #4.

[Jorg Hammond]

Yup, the 'tweener zone is the issue of my build. If I don't use Unstoppable Force first thing first turn, that character can get focused a lot by enemy attacks. I guess my mistake was thinking a little bit of parry is better than none, but the math of the dice rolls is such that such little bit of parry is almost equal to none.

Fervor is a real good group-undebuff talent though, and it buffs initiative too, granted only for ranks 3 to 1. I guess this talent could go on one of the two frontline blade users instead.

A shooter in #2 against xenos is ballsy. I might try it on Hard difficulty though, I had good success even but sub optimal 2-blades builds.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Originally posted by Rashtek Frites:

Yup, the 'tweener zone is the issue of my build. If I don't use Unstoppable Force first thing first turn, that character can get focused a lot by enemy attacks. I guess my mistake was thinking a little bit of parry is better than none, but the math of the dice rolls is such that such little bit of parry is almost equal to none.

Fervor is a real good group-undebuff talent though, and it buffs initiative too, granted only for ranks 3 to 1. I guess this talent could go on one of the two frontline blade users instead.

A shooter in #2 against xenos is ballsy. I might try it on Hard difficulty though, I had good success even but sub optimal 2-blades builds.

By the time you get fervor it really isn't needed. Kinda over kill I view it as. But lots of ways to slice it.