Captain is a dead weight?

[Kanjejou]

first its not an uber complain but i started a ironman run after doing brutal and thougth that i would like to finish it in ironman since the game is quite fun but the higher i pumped the difficulty the more the captain feel like a pointless member of the squad...

i could replace him by anything and he would be more usefull...

i tried melee captain ranged captain order captain... whathever the choice problem arise

Melee captain:
-low damages compared to other melee templars "void sword"
-no survivability armor choices(at this difficulty level) and highest autoblock shield
-low hit chances with maxed accuracy still 30-40% misses on most melee xenos
-get counter slapped all the time

max str+ a bit of body and 80% melee +20%grenade.

Ranged captain
-low damages decent range range "needler"
-good damages but suicidal range "plasma"
-overheat a lot

dex+ a bit of body max shooting 80%a few in 20%grenade

Order captain
-debuff and buff are gimicky even when maxed, super annoying when you see that the spot weakness debuff isnt enough to allow templar to auto pen late game scritter and other basis xenos
-still overheat super fast
tactic to hit as many target(max 9) as the aoe can and a bit of dex because he use ranged primarily

Another problem high level captain= high level ennemies...so its counter intuitiv becasue higher level =/= better chance to succed.

I guess you wanted him to be like a king at chess, buts since the game is unbalanced (and for good reason) having a deadweight every mission is a bit annoying. I feel like he should have a strong point that no other templar have, like having high heat limits or something like that, somehtign that you can feel right from the start and explain to you what the captain is...
-Neptunes have aoe DAKKA and high pen
-Soldier have good accuracy making them reliable
-Firebug have fire that stick
-Paladin have heal and get tanky very fast
-Berserk have high pen weapons hit hard but dotn take hit that well
-Scout shoot far
-Engineer cap points and do repair and techy stuff.their weak but super usefull to support

Right from the start you can feel what each class do in their name and on the battle field

But right now captain doesnt fit anywhere not even as a speed bump to slow down xenos that rush your neptunes and soldiers.

What you feeling about the captain???

I am interested about captain in higher than brutal difficulty if possibel but all advice are wellcome

[Trese Brothers]

@kanjejou - thanks for the post and interesting feedback! It will be interesting to see what others say as well. The Captain is always a stand out member of my squads, but that is because he generally team-plays with others for maximum effect.

Maybe you could mention what stats / scores you are trying to maximize with each? For example, on melee captain, are you making sure that your Auto-Block locks in at 75%? Are you using the AoE attacks for either melee or ranged? Using grenades effectively? What weapon choices?

Partially, it is by the nature of the Captain -- that death = end of level, that he or she is always a liability. Short of being overpowered and invulnerable, the Captain is always a walking risk. A Templar Lineage of 189 ancestors is a valuable thing, and it must be protected!

EDIT: In other news, we are in the process of working through some major sub-class additions to the tech tree, and the Captain has a few on his list, so that should help give you additional options.

[Kanjejou]

i will edit a bit then thx for the rapid answer

with support captain my mean grief is with the debuff range (not the AOE size pure range) which is short meaning if he debuff he wont shoot ro slash meaning less damages

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by Kanjejou:

i will edit a bit then thx for the rapid answer

with support captain my mean grief is with the debuff range (not the AOE size pure range) which is short meaning if he debuff he wont shoot ro slash meaning less damages

The range is 6 tiles -- does that still seem too short? We have reduced the AP cost for the debuffs to 1 in the next release, I think that will make a huge difference in being able to debuff and then shoot & slash.

[Kanjejou]

ok with reduced ap cost the range will be less of a problem

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by Kanjejou:

ok with reduced ap cost the range will be less of a problem

Awesome. It's already making a big difference in my test squads -- allowing me to feel like the Captain is really able to effect multiple fronts at the same time now with 1 AP cost.