Long War 2 Class Breakdown

This guide is a revised version of a class breakdown I posted on reddit a while ago as an answer to someone seeking advice with Long War 2 classes. After a few remarks about different aspects of Long War 2 I'll weigh the perk choices of each class against each other and outline my favorite class builds. Note that this guide assumes that the reader has some familiarity with the mod, reflects my personal opinion and experience accumulated in 1000 hours of Long War 1 and Long War 2 each and watching youtuber xwynn's series which I highly recommend if you find yourself struggling. The guide is tailored towards Legend difficulty without any gameplay altering mods like commander's choice.

General Remarks about Long War 2

Long War 2 has changed quite a bit over its development period and some people jump into it with outdated information, so I feel like I ought to mention that things like 0% supply raids or 2 man stealth missions are no longer possible. If whatever source you consulted has those, it's outdated. In any given campaign there'll be no more than one or two supply raids with decent infiltration timers (allowing you to bring 6 to 8 guys to have any chance) and 2 man stealth missions should be a last resort thing with the expectation to fail. I would not attempt any mission that I can't get at least four guys to 100% and even those I'd consider risky.

Mission Generation and Haven Management

Talking about it, I feel like it's important to outline how mission generation works: Upon contacting a region or when currently present missions expire (either because they reach their expiration date or you went into tactical for them), new ones spawn but are initially hidden. They already have an expiration date set and need to be revealed via the intel haven job. The time you then have for infiltration is simply what's left before it reaches its expiration date. Every region can have at most two regular missions at the same time and then special ones like liberation missions or Advent activities like the precursor mission for a haven assault.

Taking this into account, a good campaign opener is to put your initial haven on intel, start research on the tech that allows you to contact another region and scan for about four days with the Avenger increasing the haven's intel generation (note that there is a distinction between your intel resource and the intel required to unveil missions, the latter is simply the cumulative time of rebels in that haven spent on intel gathering). If you have not revealed the two initial missions (plus liberation 1 on lower difficulties than Legend; lib1 does not spawn before the first supply drop on Legend) in the region I'd just restart as you won't get decent mission timers then. Otherwise once the four days have passed or you've queued both missions put your haven on recruit and head over to contact the black market and purchase a scientist (sell everything from Gatecrasher, by the time you need the corpses you should have done a Troop Column - but hold on to the Sectoid if you want Psi). By then your research should have finished so start to contact a new region, BUT DO NOT FINISH, let it sit at almost complete or as far as you get before your current infiltrations finish. One day before you have to launch the first mission flip your initial haven back to intel (rebels take a day to adjust) and then scan for the next set of missions in your original haven. After you have them put your haven back on recruit and finish contacting the next region where you then scan for missions there. After that it's all up to where you want to take the campaign. Just keep mission generation in mind and flip your havens between intel and recruit as needed.

Once you spike vigilance high enough by spamming missions in the region Advent will begin to move legions there and more legions in a region means harder missions. If the strength reaches 4 retaliations become possible within the region whenever more than two rebels are working, i.e., advent may ambush your working rebels leading to pretty punishing missions (note that this is different from vanilla Xcom2 haven assaults which also exist). A general rule of thumb for haven management: If the strength is 3 or lower you can pretty much do what you want, however if the haven is small there should be two rebels recruiting. If you want to do missions there put rebels on intel, otherwise supply. On strength 4 or 5 I'd work intel exclusively to look for Troop Columns which are pretty much your only source of corpses and decent timers on regular missions, this however risks intel retaliations, which are the easiest retaliations. You do not want to have to do supply or recruit retaliations. Missions in regions with strength 6 or higher are suicidal so no more than two rebels should work in those at the same time. If the haven is small have them on recruit, otherwise supply. Liberated regions can and should gather supplies with one or two on recruit jobs if the haven isn't full.

Should I get Psi?

Psi are a mixed bag in Long War 2. On the one hand Psi troopers can be immensely powerful, on the other hand they need to go on missions to acquire enough experience and rank up before you can continue to train them in the Psi Lab. You cannot have them sit there for a month and suddenly have a god on your squad like in vanilla Xcom2. As such, you have to get the Psi Lab as early as possible so you can start training on time which is expensive and kinda risky because it needs Sectoid corpses which are hard to come by. If you can't get it early you should skip Psi entirely as low rank Psi troops are fairly terrible against advanced Advent/Aliens and they just won't catch up. Basically, you need to get Psi around May/June or it'll be too late.

Getting Psi early introduces another problem by delaying Coil Guns which you desperately need by August to deal with Elites. For some this is reason enough to not go for Psi at all. However, whenever it does work out your Psi troopers can single-handedly carry missions.

Difficulty Curve

The difficulty curve of Long War 2 is a bit weird. Since you do not get corpses on most missions (basically only on Troop Columns, Supply Raids and HQ Assaults) you can just grenade everything to death early on when you only have Rookies and Specialists, so the first few missions are somewhat easy. Once Snakes and Mutons show up it gets a bit harder, but eventually your soldiers catch up and the mid-game upgrade of Advent is laughable, so the mid-game often gives you time to breath. Just watch out for tier 2 Advent Grenadiers as they get burn grenades. Once late-game units show up difficulty spikes massively because suddenly everything has ridiculous stats, especially aim. Late-game is best spent doing the Golden Path missions (story missions) and skipping all non-essential stuff.

Gear and Facilities

Things you want to get as soon as possible are scientists, the GTS to start officer training, laser weapons, Psi if you opt for it and a research lab. Next milestones should be Predator armor, Exo suits and burn grenades and lastly Goil Guns (I usually skip the magnetic tier). Everything else as you see fit and depending on how the campaign develops. This is pretty much the gear you'll end the game on, you'll rarely get to power armor or plasma unless you drag the game out, which is not a good idea because of the Avatar Timer and because the total number of legions Advent has at their disposal as well as their research (i.e. how nasty the enemy units get) increases each month.

Note that you get Exo suits for their heavy weapons slot and that you want everyone else in Predator armor to prevent freak one-shots. A general rule-of-thumb is that if you get shot at, you did something wrong - never let the enemy take (uncontrolled) actions! Of course sometimes things don't go your way and for these cases you want Predator. There'll be a few dangerous missions between Mutons showing up and you getting Predator on your low HP guys where you cannot allow the Mutons to take a single action or they'll just kill your low HP soldiers. You get lasers first though to be able to actually kill the Mutons. Optimally, you'd want Exo on everyone for the Shredder Canon which unfortunately is prohibitively expensive, so Exo is pretty much limited to Grenadiers and Technicals.

SPARKs

I always found SPARKs awkward to use and to not be worth the investment of resources, so I won't comment any further on them here.

Assault

Squaddie

Run&Gun ++ Stun

Not much to say about Run&Gun except that you can use it to, for example, hack something after double-moving and that you should never Run&Gun into fog (like you should never sprint into it in general), so scout properly using Shinobi.

The stun gun is decent as well. I wouldn't focus the build on it, but I certainly like it as it gives the Assault a ranged combat option. I most often use it if I cannot guarantee a kill this turn, e.g., consider early game and the assault is flanking an officer. You need to crit to kill the officer which isn't guaranteed to happen, so instead you stun (which has 100% to hit point blank) and have the squad finish it off next turn in case you don't get the crit now.

Lance Corporal

Slug Shot -- Electroshock -- Lightning Reflexes

Many consider LR to be the no-brainer choice here, but I've always found it to be overrated. Even though the first shot gets -100 to hit it could still graze and late-game enemies have more than 100 aim. Since CuP shots against LR can still crit any additional shots can and will get your soldier killed. Furthermore, overwatch isn't actually that common in Long War 2 and since damage clears it, there are enough tools to remove it without having to rely on LR.

On of those ways is Electroshock - normally the Assault side-arm stuns or does nothing. With this perk it stuns or disorients, so it will always clear overwatch and disable any nasty abilities. It's not as mobile as LR, but safer and more versatile. I consider Electroshock to be the go-to choice here.

The last option Slug Shot isn't that exciting - removing the range penalty of the shotgun for a single shot is rarely useful in practice, so its really just about two additional armor penetration at a cost of two ammo which only really becomes relevant late-game. I feel like Electroshock offers more bang for your buck throughout a campaign.

Corporal

Trench Gun -- Arc Pulser -- Close and Personal

You need some additional source of crit to reliably get to 100% with a laser sight on your shotgun, and taking CaP does exactly that without sacrificing too much by not taking the other two perks. I've always found Trench Gun awkward to use because it's blocked by cover in wonky and frankly unclear ways. Its only reliable use case is for breaking concealment on a grouped pod that you let patrol into you, but using a flamethrower or grenade is almost always better and safer for that. Arc Pulser letting you hit mechanicals isn't worth it to not take CaP, unless you decide to focus your build on the stun gun, which I would not recommend.

Sergeant

Killer Instinct -- Stun Gunner -- Fortify

Just no to Stun Gunner. It's +20 aim for the starting stun gun, +25 for the next and +30 for the last tier. It's weird because it has anti-synergy with Electroshock and makes it less valuable in a way despite being on the same tree. You're either at range and rely on the disorient from Electroshock, or you're close enough to have 100% to hit. Stun Gunner just cannot compete with Killer Instinct and Fortify.

The choice between Killer Instinct and Fortify is one between more lethality and more survivability. I've found Killer Instinct to be overkill at times and it somewhat forces you into Extra Con at the next rank. Fortify doesn't appear to be very exciting, but it's probably one of the best perks in the game. It allows you to make more risky moves by boosting defense temporarily. It's very good.

Staff Sergeant

Extra Conditioning -- Aggression -- Formidable

If you don't take CaP you have to take Aggression here - which is why we take CaP in the first place, the other options are too good. If you got Killer Instinct you go Extra Con, otherwise Formidable which, similar to Fortify, doesn't sound very exciting but is one of the best perks to have. Two additional ablative HP are huge because you'll only get three via gear (better plating is too expensive) so this almost doubles the amount you'll have and ablative is free damage you can take without suffering wounds. This alone would make taking the perk worthwhile, but you get explosive damage reduction in addition which you can abuse the AI with. The AI, in particular Advent MECs, will almost always use explosives if two or more units are clumped together. So if there's a MEC you cannot kill right now, just take two guys with Formidable and some remaining ablative HP, but them next to each other and laugh as the MEC wastes its turn launching missiles at them. Watch out for destructible cover, though.

Tech Sergeant

Hit and Run -- Rapid Fire -- Close Encounters

You take RF if you've taken Extra Con and on slow soldiers, otherwise CE. Hit&Run is only really useful on a stun gunner build where you use a rifle instead of a shotgun, but... Assaults are more valuable if built around their shotgun, not their side-arm.

Gunnery Sergeant

Bring 'Em On -- Close Combat Specialist -- Untouchable

Since its +1 crit damage per two enemies you see, BeO will rarely net you more than 1 or 2 damage and frankly you never want to be in a situation where it grants you the full +8. CCS used to be my go-to choice here before they made it cost two ammo per shot, now it's outclassed by Untouchable. It's a bit tricky to use, but if you can guarantee that your Assault will kill the target and if you can make sure that only one enemy will get an action against you, then you can expose your Assault to that enemy, prompting it to shoot the Assault and miss, effectively stunning it. With experience, such situations can be engineered quite often.

Master Sergeant

Street Sweeper -- Chain Lightning -- Lethal

Street Sweeper offers ridiculous pod-wipes and is basically just a good version of Trench Gun, whereas the +2 base damage of Lethal is more reliable. This is really up to preference, though I recommend Lethal. Chain Lightning is really only relevant for Stun Gun builds.

Builds

Assaults are pretty much the only class that stays strong and relevant throughout an entire campaign without falling off. I'm ignoring the Stun Gunner build (middle tree, essentially). The two viable builds rely on dealing damage up close with a shotgun and differ in potential damage output and safety. The recommended build is the safer one:

Weapon:	Shotgun + Laser Sight (Priority), Ammo Clip
Upgrading Sidearm:	not important
Items:	Plating
	AP Rounds
	Nanoscale/Hazmat Vest (if mobility permits)
Important Stats:	mobility
PCS:	Speed
Perks:	Electroshock - CaP - Fortify - Formidable - RF/CE - Untouchable - Sweeper/Lethal

RF vs CE depends on the soldier's mobility and the player's preference. Sweeper vs Lethal is up to preference. The glass cannon build which is less reliant on speed uses:
Electroshock - CaP - Killer Instinct - Extra Con - RF - Untouchable - Lethal

Grenadier

Squaddie

Launch Grenade

Well, Grenadiers are about grenades, who would've thought. While they do get some perks improving their shooting capabilities, I don't see any reason to pick them since other classes do the shooting stuff better and Grenadiers are really about grenades.

Lance Corporal

Sapper -- Needle Grenades -- Rapid Deployment

Grenadiers can either be built towards damage grenades or towards support grenades and this is decided here. Needle Grenades are pretty terrible - you won't get corpses in the first few months either way, and that bit of loot you miss out on is not worth passing up Sapper or RD. Most people swear on support grenadiers which I dislike - Sting Grenades, the primary reason to use support grenadiers, got nerfed heavily and many dangerous enemies are immune to the stun chance. Flashbangs themselves fall off late-game - they're good early on because the aim penalty actually cripples Advent and Flashbangs are needed to counter Sectoid Psi stuff, but Sectoids become irrelevant later on and Elites have so much aim that the debuff does not concern them. Support grenadiers are mostly about burn grenades anyway because burning is the strongest form of crowd control right after mind control and death. So why not go the full mile and make burn grenades more potent and pack more punch by improving explosives, which are better in the early game anyway?

Furthermore, Sapper is great once you get the hang of it. Environmental damage is pretty low in Long War 2 and Sapper grenades will not reliably blow out walls of Advent buildings and similar hard cover, which makes people dislike it. But with experience you'll learn which cover can be destroyed by Sapper if the grenade is centered properly. And it's plenty enough to be worthwhile, in particular because removing cover will help out early game Rangers and Sharpshooters. RD will accomplish little early game, it's essentially limited to move - RD - flashbang - move, whereas Sapper helps your inexperienced shooters do their job.

Corporal

Heavy Ordinance -- Center Mass -- Protector

I mentioned that burning is the best CC (behind mind control and death) in the game and this is because it disables every single ability except melee. So someone that burns cannot shoot or use any abilities and even the enemies capable of melee attacks will usually just double move. You therefore want incendiary grenades as early as possible and Heavy Ordinance will give you two for the price of one if put into the special grenade item slot of the grenadier. Always pick HO because of burn grenades. Always.

Sergeant

Boosted Cores -- Formidable -- Bluescreen Bombs

One advantage of support grenadiers I like to ignore is Bluescreen Bombs because it's a tool to lower hack defense which is something you have to do if you hope to hack anything more advanced than basic drones. However, if you really, really want to hack stuff, the best way is to just train your Technicals with a pistol in the AWC until they unlock Fan Fire and give them Redscreen Rounds to lower hack defense on hit. Having to use consumables in the form of flashbangs for this is a tad bit too expensive.

Otherwise, Boosted Cores is absolutely solid (+1 dmg may not sound like much but is really good), however I already explained in the Assault breakdown why I think that Formidable is one of the best perks, even more so on Grenadiers because I tend to not give them any plating item to maximize the number of grenades they carry. Formidable gives them a bit of ablative HP so they don't necessarily have to take a vacation if I make a mistake.

Staff Sergeant

HEAT Warheads -- Tandem Warheads -- Dense Smoke

Dense Smoke for support grenadiers, HEAT for offensive grenadiers. Tandem isn't that good - it does not affect environmental damage (so no synergy with Sapper), it does nothing for incendiary grenades which have a radius of 1 (one tile cross and only if used with the grenade launcher) and acid grenades have pathetic damage. Tandem only really improves frag/plasma grenades, but HEAT is just better because late-game units like to come with a lot of armor.

Staff Sergeant

Biggest Booms -- Chain Shot -- Sting Grenades

Sting Grenades is the bread-and-butter perk of the support grenadier. Or at least used to be. Now the really dangerous stuff - which happens to be what you primarily want to stun - is immune to it and you primarily rely on incendiary grenades anyway. But then why not go for an offensive build in the first place and pick Biggest Booms which enables the Grenadier to outright one-short advanced Advent units with incendiaries.

Never pick Chain Shot. It's probably the worst perk in the game and it doesn't help that Grenadiers should carry SMGs.

Gunnery Sergeant

Volatile Mix -- Bombardier -- Salvo

Balance wise such a brilliant rank because there's no obvious choice, every single perk here is a good pick. I want all three and that's how every rank should look like. Extended range from Volatile Mix? Especially good on incendiary grenades which may now be able to hit two targets from time to time instead of only one. Extra launch range from Bombardier? Always good to have. Better action economy from Salvo? Yes please.

All in all, Salvo wins out for two reasons: It makes giving Grenadiers an Exo suit a no-brainer. Furthermore, burn grenades only have a chance of 75% to actually apply the burning debuff, so with Salvo you can immediately try again if it fails.

Master Sergeant

Combat Engineer -- Full Kit -- Ghost Grenade

Combat Engineer in combination with Sapper will destroy any kind of cover and Ghost Grenade works like the Shinobi's Conceal ability (i.e., unit enters concealment), except on an arbitrary target. But both choices aren't nearly as good as Full Kit. The biggest weakness of the Grenadier is the fact that they sooner or later run out of grenades and are fairly useless then. Full Kit makes it feasible to bring them on longer missions by giving them more grenades.

Builds

Boomer (recommended):

Weapon:	SMG + Suppressor (do not upgrade SMGs)
Upgrading Sidearm:	nice to have (increases range of launcher)
Items:	Exo Suit with Shredder Cannon
	Acid
	Frag/Plasma
	Frag/Plasma
	Incendiary (Grenade slot!)
Important Stats:	none
PCS:	Defense
Perks:	Sapper - HO - Formidable - HEAT - Booms - Salvo - Full Kit

Support Grenadier:

Weapon:	SMG + Suppressor (do not upgrade SMGs)
Upgrading Sidearm:	nice to have
Items:	Exo Suit with Shredder Cannon
	Flashbang
	Smoke
	Flashbang/Smoke
	Incendiary (Grenade slot!)
Important Stats:	none
PCS:	Defense
Perks:	RD - HO - Bluescreen - Smoke - Sting - Salvo - Full Kit

Early game Grenadiers should carry a flashbang and frag grenades.

Gunner

Squaddie

Knife Fighter ++ Suppression ++ Area Suppression

In Long War 1 Gunners were probably my favorite class and they were for a while in Long War 2 until they got nerfed into the ground. Now they're slightly worse Rangers for most of the game and have no good builds if they roll low aim.

Suppression is pretty terrible. It's similar to disorient in that it applies an aim penalty and disables abilities, but it is way too easy for the AI to break the suppression that it's not worthwhile. Late-game enemies will just shoot through the aim penalty because they have 100+ aim, anything else will simply run it. Your Gunner then gets a single regular overwatch shot with applied cover bonuses which also can't crit unless you pick up CuP at Tech Sergeant and is very likely to outright miss. The AI is also very good at spacing out to make Area Suppression clip only one enemy at a time.

Lance Corporal

Center Mass -- Combatives -- Grazing Fire

This is one of those ranks that you ought to love - all three options are very good. +1 damage from Center Mass is akin to an early weapon tier upgrade whereas Grazing Fire helps soldiers that are challenged in the aim department. Due to the cannon's high base damage even grazes hurt. I prefer Combatives though because it allows you to effectively stun regular Mutons - if it's adjacent to one of your soldiers it will always melee, which will be parried by your soldier, effectively wasting the Muton's turn. This requires your soldier to not have negative dodge though to be safe (when the Muton attacks your soldier gets 90 additional dodge and then rolls for that - together with the inherent 10 of the perk that makes 100 for a guaranteed dodge, assuming no further modifiers). Also, higher tier Mutons may decide to just shoot the soldier, although that happens rarely. Ultimately, this rank is up to preference and soldier stats. If the particular Gunner happens to roll Rapid Reaction in the AWC it may be a reasonable idea to retrain into Grazing Fire.

Corporal

Flush -- Formidable -- Lockdown

Flush is just bad (it will often work in the Alien's favor), Lockdown doesn't fix suppression being terrible and I've already outlined why I love Formidable.

Sergeant

Hail of Bullets -- Shredder -- Mayhem

Mayhem suffers from the same problem Lockdown does. HoB certainly isn't bad - it's good to have an "I need guaranteed damage now"-button, but it has very steep ammo requirements. Most of the time you won't have a full ammo clip, so you have to reload into HoB and then reload again next turn, which is bad on a slow soldier on early timed missions. Auto Loaders of course help with that, but they are scarce in the early game where this matters. From experience, Shredder is more useful overall with how prevalent armor gets later on.

Staff Sergeant

Chain Shot -- Iron Curtain -- Demolition

Here's why I think Chain Shot is terrible: You take a shot at -10 aim. If it hits you get another shot. If not you just applied -10 aim to someone that's likely to struggle with hitting anything in the first place. One of the fundamental problems you have to somehow overcome in the tactical layer is the fact that Advent and the Aliens stack insane amounts of defense, effectively nullifying your soldier's aim progression. Rangers, for example, will have 50-60% odds to hit on average throughout the entire campaign. You deal with this by stacking absurd amounts of aim bonuses yourself (Sharpshooters) or by volume of fire (Rangers). Chain Shot does not offer this - you take a bad shot and only if the die happen to fall in your favor you get a second. To make it even worse, there's a cooldown on it. To worsen it further, Rapid Fire can be picked up at Gunnery. So even if you somehow convince yourself to pick this trash perk, two ranks later you get RF and have absolutely no reason to use Chain Shot ever again.

Iron Curtain is decent for breaking concealment. The -8 to mobility will often cause the pod you opened up on to just stand in the open because they can't reach cover. It's useless in every other situation, though, and there are other good openers, like the flamethrower. Demolition suffers from the same problem HoB does - it eats too much ammo - and sometimes fails to actually do its job, i.e., doesn't destroy the cover you targeted. The decision between Iron Curtain and Demolition is one between two ok options.

Tech Sergeant

Cyclic Fire -- Danger Zone -- Cool Under Pressure

Another reason why Area Suppression is bad - it needs both Danger Zone and CuP to be remotely competitive. Cyclic Fire suffers in a similar fashion that Chain Shot does - while it's not completely terrible it gets obsolete at Master Sergeant with Rapid and Traverse Fire. Cyclic does wreck MECs until you hit the final rank and therefore is a reasonable choice here.

Ultimately, CuP is the best pick, even if your soldier didn't roll any overwatch perks in the AWC. You should end your turns on overwatch whenever you're not engaged with a pod and aren't forced to sprint. Hitting enemies as they patrol into you disables their yellow alert action so they don't get to shoot at you for free.

Gunnery Sergeant

Rupture -- Rapid Fire -- Kill Zone

There's certainly some value in Kill Zone, especially if you scout properly and can tell from where pods will patrol into you. Proper usage of Kill Zone makes you independent of whatever perks the AWC offers in terms of overwatch builds. However, it's a bit redundant if you do get overwatch perks, but then there's no synergy with Rupture or RF.

RF is just strictly better than Rupture. Targets that you would want to apply Rupture to are Sectopods and Gatekeepers which you ought to counter with Kubikuri. Against everything else just shooting twice is better than Rupture, especially if you picked up Shredder.

Master Sergeant

Saturation Fire -- Combat Fitness -- Traverse Fire

You want the multi-shot ability of Traverse Fire which in combination with RF turns the Gunner (assuming decent aim) into a Shooty Ranger that trades mobility and a bit of aim for higher base damage. But that's at Master. I find Saturation Fire to be unreliable and unpredictable. Otherwise Combat Fitness for an overwatch build that doesn't really benefit from multi-shot abilities.

Builds

Shooter (needs high aim):

Weapon:	Cannon + Scope, Ammo Clip, Auto Loader
Upgrading Sidearm:	never
Items:	Plating
	AP Rounds
	(keep free for mobility)
Important Stats:	Aim
PCS:	Perception or Mobility
Perks:	CM/Combatives - Formidable - Shredder - Curtain/Demo - CuP - RF - TF

You'll wish you had a Ranger instead for most of the campaign.

Overwatcher (needs reasonable aim):
Gear is the same as Shooter except with Hair Trigger instead of Scope and Venom or Dragon Rounds may be preferable.
CM/Grazing - Formidable - Shredder - Demo - CuP - Killzone - Fitness
AWC training may be a good idea to fish for additional overwatch perks. Takes quite a while to get going and is awkward to use without AWC perks.

Haven Adviser (garbage aim):
Shouldn't really get any additional gear unless you swim in resources.
Grazing - Formidable - HoB - Demo - /
Gets dumped in havens as an advisor. These perks help them on Faceless hunting missions. They'll usually not rank up past Staff Sergeant. Get secondary officer training if you can spare the tube time to increase Faceless detection rate.

Ranger

Squaddie

Point Blank ++ Both Barrels ++ Light 'Em Up

There are essentially three Ranger builds - overwatch, shooty and budget assault. I personally consider overwatch Rangers to be trash (they take until Gunnery to be useful), the budget assault has it's niche and shooty Rangers dominate my soldiers' kill scores. My first Master Sergeant every campaign is without fail a Ranger (and the top 5 consists of Rangers, Grenadiers and Sharpshooters only). LeU gives the class so much flexibility (shoot -> reload, shoot -> move, or fire twice) and the sawn-off sidearm is the bread and butter of the budget assault. It may only be used a limited number of times per mission and only really from adjacent tiles, but it deals insane amounts of damage to the point of being a "delete that particular enemy"-button. It's probably the best side-arm right after the Technical's flamethrower/rocket gauntlet.

Lance Corporal

Walk Fire -- Close and Personal -- Ever Vigilant

CeP for the sawn-off build, it basically guarantees crits for obscene damage. I'll outline why I think the overwatch Ranger is bad, especially compared to the shooty build, on the basis of the perk progression of both. Note that I'm not saying that overwatchers are bad - you certainly want them to shut down yellow alert actions and to kill reinforcements - it's just that the Specialist does the job significantly better in the early and mid-game, and late-game overwatch tends to fall off because LR becomes quite common among the enemy.

The overwatcher gets Ever Vigilant which allows him to sprint and overwatch. While this sound good on paper for early game missions it's not really in practice. You usually ambush the first pod on your terms (so no sprint into overwatch) and the rest of the map tends to pour into you over the rest of the mission, so it's not really useful. Sprinting to flank something just to get a single overwatch shot will also rarely work; it requires that nothing patrols into you and that the flanked target gets its turn first. Before CuP it's also a regular overwatch shot which is terrible. To make matters worse, there's so many random things that prevent EV from triggering (like standing in loot) that it's often more infuriating than anything.

Meanwhile, Walk Fire is immediately useful. Something survived with 1HP? 90+% to execute it with WF. LeU into WF is something that'll be done regularly in the early game. It falls off slightly in the late-game where you'll mostly use LeU into RF, but it's still handy.

Corporal

Locked On -- Pump Action -- Covering Fire

Pump Action so you can delete two enemies per mission for the budget assault. Never, ever pick Covering Fire. It's really, really bad and makes any overwatcher worse. Whenever you get an reaction shot against something that's in cover it retains that cover bonus. Since reaction shots suffer aim penalties, you won't hit and waste ammo (the -10 aim debuff on the target is laughable). It shouldn't even be on the Ranger tree because it effectively breaks Rapid Reaction which requires the soldier to hit shots.

So both builds get Locked On. It's not particularly exciting. Shoot at something and the second shot at it is more accurate. Synergizes nicely with LeU and WF, does nothing for the overwatcher.

Sergeant

Aggression -- Center Mass -- Cool Under Pressure

Congratulations, the single overwatch shot your overwatcher gets per turn may now crit. Meanwhile, the shooty ranger upgrades the weapon tier by picking CM. Aggression only really kicks in late-game and someone calculated once that over the course of an average campaign CM nets more damage. The sawn-off build pickes CM as well because it works with the sawn-off and it's already at 100% crit.

Staff Sergeant

Executioner -- Fortify -- Suppression

Fortify on all three builds. I've already outlined why Suppression is bad and Fortify is more valuable than Executioner, though it's certainly not a bad choice for the shooty build.

Tech Sergeant

Bring 'Em On -- Implacable -- Grazing Fire

The overwatcher is forced to pick GF here which doesn't actually do anything, but is supposed to help keep Rapid Reaction chains going. Shooty and budget assaults get Implacable which is insanely good. I've already talked about BeO in the assault tree and we frankly don't have enough crit on the shooty build.

The benefit of Implacable for the sawn-off build should be obvious: Move in, delete enemy, move out. For the shooty build it has two applications: Either you fire twice (thrice with RF) at the same enemy hopefully killing it and then blue move somewhere else, or you kill something with the first shot (for example something exposed and brought low by a grenade; this is why Executioner is a valid pick at Staff), use the blue move from Implacable to get to a better position or flank, and then shoot (or RF) something else. Implacable turns Rangers into mobile murder machines.

Gunnery Sergeant

Rapid Fire -- Tactical Sense -- Rapid Reaction

The shooty build has been happily murdering Ayys left and right for the past missions and gets even more lethal with RF while the overwatcher only now unlocks its potential. It finally gets to shoot three times on overwatch instead of once thanks to RR - assuming all shots land. Unfortunately, a bunch of enemies have LR by now, often ruining the RR chains. It's not totally bad - overwatch Rangers can mop up a lot of enemies now - the shooty build is just so much better and wasn't a dead weight the previous ranks.

Tac Sense is annoying on Advent, but not worth it here. Even the budget assault will want RF to get some use out of its SMG.

Master Sergeant

Rupture -- Combat Fitness -- Kill Zone

Fitness on all. There's no reason to Rupture when you can RF and Fitness will benefit the overwatcher more than KZ.

Builds

Squaddie Rangers should get SMGs and be treated like Assaults.
Shooty Murder Build (high aim):

Weapon:	Rifle + Scope, Ammo Clip, Auto Loader
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority
Items:	Plating
	Needle Rounds
	(keep free for mobility)
Important Stats:	Aim, Mobility
PCS:	Perception
Perks:	WF - Locked On - CM - Fortify - Implacable - RF - Fitness

Overwatch (don't):
Switch Scope for a Hair Trigger and equip Venom/Dragon rounds.
EV - Locked On - CuP - Fortify - Grazing - RR - Fitness

Sawn-Off Budget Assault (low aim):

Weapon:	SMG (only upgrade if swimming in resources)
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority
Items:	Plating
	AP rounds
	(keep free for mobility)
Important Stats:	Mobility
PCS:	Speed
Perks:	CeP - Pump Action - CM - Fortify - Implacable - RF - Fitness

Get secondary officer training and are your primary haven adviser and troop trainers. I'll even purpose train a few low aim rookies into sawn-off Rangers in the GTS.

Sharpshooter

Squaddie

Holo Targeting ++ Squadsight

Their sidearm is the reason that low aim Sharpshooters aren't complete and utter garbage. The Holo Officer isn't breathtakingly good and it's not coming on the really important missions (unless all of your Sharpshooters can't aim), but it's decent enough for being a haven adviser and for troop training. It further lets Squaddie Sharpshooters do a bit of debuffing instead of being complete dead weight.

I'm not a fan of Snapshot Sharpshooters, in particular because my Rangers already fill the niche. The Death from Above build utilizes the Sharpshooter's strengths better and is required to get Kubikuri to work reliably.

Lance Corporal

Death from Above -- Rapid Targeting -- Snapshot

Here you decide how you want to use the Sharpshooter. RT enables the Holo Officer. Snapshot if you want an inferior shooty Ranger (don't). DfA if you want another murder machine.

High ground is plenty and accessible in Long War 2, so all you need to do is ensure that your Sharpshooter's targets die. Early game you do this with your Grenadiers once you've figured Sapper out. Mid and late-game your Sharpshooter will manage to one-shot enemies on their own. The trick here is that a stock allows the soldier to steady the weapon which confers up to 30 aim and crit on the next turn with an elite stock. So you put the Sharpshooter in a sniper nest, steady, kill something next turn with the aim and crit bonus and then steady again using the extra action from DfA (or reload if the clip is empty). Rinse and repeat. You can clear an entire HQ with nothing but two or three high rank DfA snipers and a concealed Shinobi (search for xwynns on youtube), though I don't recommend you actually try that.

Corporal

Damn Good Ground -- Phantom -- Center Mass

You don't need DGG to get DfA to work reliably, it's better to increase the rifle's damage with CM. Holo Officers can get whatever here, really. Phantom turns them into some sort of incompetent backup scout in case the Shinobi gets revealed. The other two perks make their shooting suck slightly less.

Sergeant

Precision Shot -- HiDef Holo -- Lone Wolf

The reason we can pass DGG is because we pick up Lone Wolf here. We only really need either of them, so the question is which other perks we can pass up on, and the answer is CM > PS. Furthermore, Lone Wolf is independent of having high ground and can be utilized on the rare occasion that you have none. Just remember to not park anyone near your sniper. HiDef Holo for the Holo Officer because Holo.

Staff Sergeant

Long Watch -- Independent Tracking -- Low Profile

An unfortunate rank that does absolutely nothing. Tracking is somewhat useful on the Holo Officers where it allows you to paint a few more enemies before an ambush, but both Long Watch and LP are terrible for the DfA Sharpshooter. We're always steadied so no overwatch, rendering Long Watch useless and the sniper should stay outside the enemy's vision range, so LP does nothing as well. You cannot always avoid that though, so LP is what ends up being chosen.

Tech Sergeant

Deadeye -- Vital Point Targeting -- Aggression

We need all the crit we can get for Kubikuri, so Aggression. VPT for the Holo Officer, obviously.

Gunnery Sergeant

Kubikuri -- Multitargeting -- Hunter's Instincts

Kubikuri is what we use to deal with Sectopods, Gatekeepers and anything else that has way too much health and armor. Being steadied with an elite stock, having an elite laser sight, crit ammo, having high ground and being boosted by either Mind Merge or the Get Some officer perk ought to be enough to have 100% chance to crit. So if the target is missing even a single HP, the Sharpshooter can one-shot kill it. Kubikuri isn't required to deal with Sectopods and similar, it just prevents a lot of headache. Multitargeting for the Holo Officer which allows them occasionally holo entire pods at once.

Master Sergeant

Double Tap -- Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Serial

This one is really up to preference, all three choices are equally good. I personally prefer AMF for maximum consistency, but Serial is a good panic-button working incredibly well with the Technical's Bunker Buster and DT is something in-between.

Builds

Since Sharpshooters should never ever be in a situation where they can be targeted they can wear Kevlar armor for the entire campaign.
DfA Sniper:

Weapon:	Sniper Rifle + Stock (!), Ammo Clip, Scope -> Laser Sight once Kubikuri is picked up
Upgrading Sidearm:	never
Items:	Talon Rounds
	whatever, really
Important Stats:	Aim
PCS:	Depth Perception (needed to reduce enemy Dodge)
Perks:	DfA - CM - Lone Wolf - LP - Aggression - Kubikuri - AMF

Holo Officer:

Weapon:	Sniper Rifle + Stock, Ammo Clip, Scope
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority (they should use it primarily; upgrading their rifle is not important)
Items:	whatever, really
Important Stats:	none
PCS:	whatever
Perks:	RT - Phantom - HiDef - Tracking - VPT - Multi - DT

As the name suggests, Holo officers should get officer training and be used as haven advisers and to train troops, similar to sawn-off rangers.

Shinobi

Squaddie

Phantom ++ Fleche ++ Slash

Shinobi are a fairly special class. They're probably the most lethal early game, have decent killing power mid-game and only fall off late-game, but their true strength is their scouting ability, which is in fact mandatory. It's the only class I'd say that you have to bring on every single mission, especially when you start without concealment.

A Shinobi should only ever break concealment if you are certain you are fighting the last pod and want to finish it in style. The rest of the squad ought to handle the previous pods on their own. The Shinobi should scout out the remaining ones and assist by using officer abilities which do not break concealment (Shinobi should be your primary officers). We of course all now that this is not always going to happen, so the Shinobi can resort to the sword. Fleche is bascially Run&Gun using the sword without a cooldown and its damage increases with the distance of your Shinobi to the target at the beginning of the turn. Early game they can one-shot almost everything (only Officers have a decent chance to survive). In case a Shinobi starts the turn next to an enemy, they can stab with their sword twice thanks to Slash not ending the turn.

Shinobi can be build around shooting a gun, but the sword is so good early and mid-game and still decent late that they should be build around that and stealth.

Lance Corporal

Ghostwalker -- Lone Wolf -- Blademaster

Blademaster for the +1 damage on sword attacks. You should build one or two Shinobi with Ghostwalker for Tower and HQ Assaults where you very much want your Shinobi to stay concealed.

Corporal

Shadowstep -- Executioner -- Combatives

I already mentioned how Combatives can be used to stun Mutons in the Gunner tree. It gets even more ridiculous here once you pick up Bladestorm because then Shinobi get to stab Mutons twice a turn. BUT MAKE SURE TO NEVER INITIATE A MELEE AGAINST A MUTON because they have Combatives themselves.

Being able to effectively (and once you have higher tier swords literally) stun Mutons beats out Shadowstep and Executioner. Of course, using Combatives requires you to break concealment, but sometimes you just have to.

Sergeant

Covert -- Hard Target -- Cutthroat

Covert makes staying concealed so much easier that I consider it almost mandatory here. The other two perks aren't bad, Covert is just better.

Staff Sergeant

Shadowstrike -- Low Profile -- Bladestorm

Bladestorm, hands down. It's ridiculous. Bonus points once you unlock tier 2 swords and manage to stun stupid stuff like Lancers trying to run past the Shinobi. There's a slight technicality when using it, though: It will not trigger if an enemy starts adjacent to the Shinobi and then moves into a tile that is no longer adjacent. It only triggers when the enemy attacks from an adjacent tile or moves onto an adjacent tile.

Tech Sergeant

Hunter's Instincts -- Evasive -- Reaper

Reaper. We don't plan on shooting the gun so no HI and Evasive is deceiving. It sounds good, but all it does is slightly deter the AI from targeting the Shinobi and, in case it does decide to shoot, turn the first hit on the Shinobi into a graze and then disappear. But Shinobi have high inherent dodge anyway, so this is pointless, frankly.

With Reaper be mindful of the rapid decline in damage. It's however still useful to clean up after a big AoE like a rocket. Just keep in mind that the Shinobi needs to be able to actually reach each target from the previous one.

Gunnery Sergeant

Tradecraft -- Hit and Run -- Whirlwind

Tradecraft makes the Shinobi have almost no impact on infiltration time meaning they can tag along "for free". Whirlwind works like Implacable, except it suffices to hit with the sword, making it a really good pick as well. It also let's us do actual hit-and-runs, unlike Hit and Run. Tradecraft vs Whirlwind is mostly up to preference, though I favor Whirlwind.

Master Sergeant

Conceal -- Rapid Fire -- Coup de Grâce

In earlier versions of Long War 2 Conceal appeared earlier in the tree, detection ranges were smaller and solo drone patrols weren't a thing. Using Conceal was further a free action, so you could cheese many missions with a lone Shinobi after you've cheesed them with a Shinobi and Specialist pair. You can at least still try to cheese facilities with the stealth Shinobi you ought to train. All other Shinobi should get Conceal as well so they can return to scouting in case they had to help out. RF doesn't do anything for the Shinobi and Coup de Grâce got nerfed too hard to be worthwhile now.

Build

Weapon:	SMG + Suppressor (do not upgrade unless swimming in resources)
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority, though tier 3 sword are pretty expensive requiring Archon corpses
Items:	Plating
	Nanoscale/Hazmat vest
	whatever
Important Stats:	Mobility
PCS:	Speed or Agility for Combatives
Perks:	Blademaster* - Combatives - Covert - Bladestorm - Reaper - Whirlwind - Conceal

* Build one or two Shinobi with Ghostwalker for missions where it's important that they stay concealed. Every Shinobi should be turned into a primary officer.

Specialist

Squaddie

Aid Protocol ++ Haywire Protocol ++ Hack

The Specialist has three broad builds - medic, overwatcher and hacker - that can be mixed to some degree. I want to start this section by pointing out that the medic build is a trap. Long War 2, in the same vein as XCom2, is primarily about "alpha striking", that is, you seek to control the enemy before they can take action against you, preferably by killing them. As such you want your soldiers to provide tools that can be used proactively. The medic is reactive, it provides utility once things have went south. But the idea is to not let things go wrong in the first place and a medic is dead weight at trying to achieve that.

Lance Corporal

Revival Protocol -- Sentinel -- Combat Protocol

Sentinel is the most valuable perk here. We need an overwatcher and this way we get a unit that can shoot twice from very early on. It helps shutting down yellow alert actions and makes dealing with reinforcements significantly easier. The only downside here is the Specialist's aim progression causing the overwatch build to fall off hard late-game. On Specialists with garbage aim I'd pick Combat Protocol instead to one-shot drones before they get their HP upgrade.

Revival Protocol isn't bad - it's certainly nice to have - but it falls under that reactive category. There's a limited number of enemies that can actually apply CC, so you should make controlling them a priority. If you can't then you've most likely misplayed, and not having Sentinel or Combat Protocol in the first place can be a reason for that.

Corporal

Field Surgeon -- Covering Fire -- Interference

This is such a bad rank overall. CF isn't as bad here as on the Ranger because Sentinel guarantees its second shot (assuming sufficient ammo, of course), but it's still garbage. You also really do not need Interference as a tool to clear overwatch. In an optimal world Field Surgeon should never trigger, but it will prevent wounds if the soldier loses only one HP, so it effectively gives everyone an additional point of ablative armor and thus wins out against the other options.

Sergeant

Medical Protocol -- Scanning Protocol -- Trojan

Trojan is so much better than the other two picking it becomes a no-brainer. It stuns an enemy once the hack runs out and the damage it deals is enough to kill basic drones. That nasty single drone that always patrols near your spawn? Just hack it with Trojan and forget about it. When it dies it will not break your concealment (does not work on advanced drones or other mechanicals though, too many HP). Scanning Protocol is just bad (bring battle scanners if you have reason to assume that there will be Faceless or Chryssalids) and even if medics were required, remote healing wouldn't be worth the perk slot.

Staff Sergeant

Field Medic -- Ever Vigilant -- Airdrop

No to Field Medic. It's a toss-up between Ever Vigilant and Airdrop. I've talked about EV in the Ranger tree and that it has issues, but it's worth a consideration here because Specialists already have Sentinel and tend to be packed item wise struggling with mobility. On the other hand, Airdrop is really good, especially since we're building Grenadiers offensively. The choice boils down to how annoying your Specialist's mobility and how aggressive your use of grenades is.

Tech Sergeant

Savior -- Cool Under Pressure -- Failsafe

CuP, hands down. Skipping Failsafe does hurt (especially for skull mining as it prevents the feedback damage you can't do anything about), but generally you should only take hacks that are (almost) guaranteed to go through anyway. This is of course assuming you took Sentinel, otherwise Failsafe is the clear choice here.

Gunnery Sergeant

Rescue Protocol -- Threat Assessment -- Full Override

Rescue Protocol isn't outright bad, it's certainly nice to have which can be said about half of the Specialist's tree, it's just worse than its competitors. Full Override sounds more exciting then it actually is - it's a special hack where option number one takes control until the end of the mission with reasonable probability and the other option recruits the MEC for the region's haven if it survives, but succeeds with low probability. Haven MECs only show up on missions related to that haven and aren't that helpful. You'll end up using option 1 in almost every case. Threat Assessment can be self-cast to grant three overwatch shots this turn, however onr of them is a Covering Fire one, so Full Override is better than Threat Assessment, overall. Combine it with a Technical with pistol training and Redscreen Rounds to improve hack chances.

Master Sergeant

Restoration -- Kill Zone -- Capacitor Discharge

Restoration is a trap. It doesn't stabilize anyone bleeding out, it doesn't remove unconsciousness and really only heals for a pathetic amount. Since the other two options aren't that exciting it could actually be a viable choice here as a sort of "reset" button in case a mission does go badly, but it's not. It's just terrible.

Kill Zone vs CD is up to preference and I find both underwhelming in practice. CD can help against MEC pods which are common late-game, Kill Zone is probably more versatile overall.

Builds

Specialists are almost mandatory early on - they help against drones, the overwatch build helps against yellow alert actions and reinforcements, remote hacking is always convenient, etc. Late-game they tend to fall off. The overwatch build stops pulling its weight and hacking successfully becomes harder.
Overwatch (go-to):

Weapon:	Rifle + Hair Trigger, Ammo Clip, Auto Loader
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority to increase Hacking stat
Items:	Plating
	Skulljack (after Skullmining upgrade)
	Poison/Dragon Rounds
Important Stats:	Hacking and Aim
PCS:	Hacking
Perks:	Sentinel - Field Surgeon - Trojan - EV/Airdrop - CuP - Full Override - Kill Zone/Capacitor

Hacker (low aim):

Weapon:	SMG + Suppressor (do not upgrade unless swimming in resources)
Upgrading Sidearm:	high priority to increase Hacking stat
Items:	Plating
	Skulljack (after Skullmining upgrade)
	whatever (support grenade, for example)
Important Stats:	Hacking
PCS:	Hacking
Perks:	Combat Protocol - Field Surgeon - Trojan - Airdrop - Failsafe - Full Override - Capacitor Discharge

Hackers should enjoy officer training.

Technical

Squaddie

Heavy Weapons

The poster child of Long War 2, basically. Really strong early game where the flamethrower is the best way to break concealment and will take care of entire pods. Unfortunately falls off late-game. Technicals are good candidates for pistol training in the AWC with Fan Fire plus Redscreen Rounds being the best way to lower hack defense.

Lance Corporal

Fire in the Hole -- Suppression -- Roust

Suppression is bad and absolutely terrible with an SMG. It's FitH vs Roust here. Roust is weird. The strength of the flamethrower is its chance to burn enemies and Roust effectively provides you with a third charge. It comes in a thinner but longer cone which gives it the ability to reach places the regular flamethrower can't. But its Flush-like effect forcing enemies to move will almost always work against you, so I'm not entirely sold on it.

Regular rockets are weak because their scatter can make them land basically anywhere. Enter FitH which makes them accurate enough to be reliable and thus borderline overpowered because rockets are really good at removing cover if they go where you want them to. I'd go so far as viewing FitH as the perk that actually provides you with the rocket launcher because it's completely unusable without FitH. It further enables Technicals to truly carry early game missions which usually have three proper pods and one or two solo drones: The first pod is flamed to death, the second gets a FitH rocket to the face. Third pod is handled by the rest of the team and the remaining flamethrower charge. You can increase FitH's value further by equipping an Exo suit and bringing a second rocket later on.

Corporal

Biggest Booms -- Fortify -- Napalm-X

We don't care about the rocket's damage, only about it's cover destruction, so we can pass over Booms. Napalm-X' chance to disorient or panic enemies is overkill - the chance to burn enemies is high enough to make this overkill, especially with an upgraded gauntlet. Fortify is just more useful, in particular because the Technical may have to move into dangerous positions to use the flamethrower effectively.

Sergeant

Concussion Rocket -- Shredder -- Burnout

Concussion Rocket is weird and very awkward to use effectively, and even if used optimally provides questionable benefits. Burnout effectively provides a free use of Fortify with every flamethrower activation (it's perfectly viable to pick Napalm-X at Corporal and then Burnout here), but we ultimately want Shredder. Shred is hard to come by, direly needed late-game and gives the Technical something to do when facing mechanicals which can't be harmed by fire and don't care about cover.

Staff Sergeant

Tandem Warheads -- Formidable -- Phosphorus

Did I write that mechanicals can't be harmed by fire? Well, Phosphorus enables exactly that, it's just not very good. The flamethrower's damage scales very badly and won't really scratch mechanicals even with Phosphorus. The charges are also too valuable to be used on shredding (sources for burning a rarer than sources for shred), especially when picking the Shredder perk costs us basically nothing.

We can ignore Tandem for the same reason we looked over Booms. I've mention before why Formidable is awesome, so it's the go-to here.

Tech Sergeant

Javelin Rockets -- Fire and Steel -- Incinerator

You'll often find yourself just short of reaching something with the flamethrower. Incinerator fixes that and is absolutely worth passing over Fire and Steel and Javelin Rockets. I never feel like I need more range on the rocket, but the flamethrower is always a tile short.

Gunnery Sergeant

Salvo -- Tactical Sense -- Quickburn

It's Salvo vs Quickburn and this is up to preference. Basically, if you decide to carry an extra rocket go Salvo (which I recommend), if you carry two more flamer charges instead, go Quickburn.

Master Sergeant

Bunker Buster -- Rapid Fire -- Firestorm

Firestorm looks awesome and is probably the most fun perk in the game but it's tactical value is... limited and requires Quickburn for safe usage. Bunker Buster is more reliable (with FitH), safer to use and removes every single piece of cover it comes in contact with without having to run right into the middle of the enemy.

Builds

Weapon:	SMG + Suppressor (do not upgrade unless swimming in resources)
Upgrading Sidearm:	if you can afford it; it's more important to equip an Exo suit
Items:	Plating
	Pistol (with training)
	Redscreen Rounds (with pistol)
Important Stats:	Mobility
PCS:	Speed or Defense
Perks (recommended):	FitH - Fortify - Shredder - Formidable - Incinerator - Salvo - Bunker Buster
(Flamer)	FitH - Napalm-X - Burnout - Formidable/Phosphorus - Incinerator - Quickburn - Firestorm

Officers

To recap, Shinobi get turned into primary officers leading squads, low aim Gunners and sawn-off Rangers into secondary officers advising havens. Holo Sharpshooter and non-overwatch Specialists depend on how you end up using them, they should get secondary officer training and advise havens as well, but you may end up having to turn them into regular squad members where primary officer training may be more useful.

Basic Officer Abilities

Leadership ++ Command ++ Intervention ++ Commissar ++ You'll Need This

Command and Intervention are the reason you want an officer on every mission. Command is self-explanatory (give second action to any squad mate in vision range), Intervention lets you trade Intel for two more turns on the timer which occasionally comes in handy by letting you play safer. Leadership gives stat bonuses to soldiers that have served under this officer in the past, so use the squad manager and try to have the same soldiers stick together but don't make it a priority.

Commissar and You'll Need This require you to give a pistol to the officer which I never do so I don't get to use these perks. But you should never get into a situation where you need to use Commissar to execute a squad mate (seriously) and giving pistols to VIPs you have to escort is pretty useless. It's always better to hide them.

Second Lieutenant

Oscar Mike -- Focus Fire

Oscar Mike on primary officers, Focus Fire on secondary. Oscar Mike is really good because there'll often come a turn where the additional mobility comes in handy, either offensively allowing the Assault or Ranger to blue move next to an enemy, or to reach the evac zone with everyone that isn't a concealed Shinobi. Focus Fire is more helpful on Faceless hunts and on training missions with inexperienced soldiers.

First Lieutenant

Incoming! -- Get Some

Incoming! on secondary officers and Get Some on primary officers. You're going to need Get Some for Kubikuri and Incoming! isn't that useful when you have Formidable to bait explosives. But you don't have Formidable on Faceless hunts where Incoming! lets you bait explosives.

Captain

Trial By Fire -- Jammer

Your first two officers should get Trial By Fire and do troop training then. It is of course beneficial if those happen to be secondary officers, like purpose trained sawn-off Rangers, but you cannot always guarantee that. Having Trial By Fire will massively accelerate your troops overall experience gain.

Otherwise Jammer is the no-brainer on primary officers. If reinforcements are scheduled to arrive next turn use it to delay to the turn after that. Be aware though that if reinforcements happen to be scheduled for that second turn as well you'll get two drops then.

Major

Lead By Example -- Collector

Collector on everyone. Our usual officer candidates will neither have high aim nor high hack so Lead By Example will have very little impact. It's worth a consideration on troop trainers but you're probably still better off with Collector.

Lieutenant Colonel

Fire Discipline -- Defilade

Hitting overwatch shots is important to shut down yellow alert actions, so Fire Discipline is more useful overall.

Colonel

Air Controller -- Infiltrator

Your two best officers (i.e. the first two to undergo Colonel training) should get Infiltrator and lead squads going on HQ assaults and the Golden Path (= story) missions as these take long to infiltrate. The rest get Air Controller to make the Sky Ranger show up faster.

Colonel

Combined Arms -- Scavenger

Combined Arms, hands down. Plus one damage on everything is too good to pass up.

Builds

Primary officers (squad leaders; mostly Shinobi):
Oscar Mike -- Get Some -- Jammer -- Collector -- Fire Discipline -- Air Controller -- Combined Arms
First two primaries should get Infiltrator and first two officers total should get Trial By Fire.

Secondary officers (haven adviser - note that officer ranks increases Faceless detection rate):
Focus Fire -- Incoming! -- Trial By Fire -- Collector -- Fire Discipline -- Air Controller -- Combined Arms
Secondary officers will usually not get past Trial By Fire at Captain.

Squad Composition

The only rule really is to bring a Shinobi on every mission. In the first month you have to reserve your Shinobi for missions without concealment, eventually every single op should have one. Technicals excel at breaking concealment, so you may drop them on missions without. Specialists should come when there's something to hack. Try to have at least one damage dealer on every op, i.e., Assault, Ranger or Sharpshooter, though the latter two should be supported by a Grenadier. I mostly tend to bring "one of everything", excluding Gunners.

Tower assaults are best done with a squad of one Ghostwalker Shinobi, two Assaults, a Technical and a Ranger. Sneak the Shinobi to the objective and stay there, then break concealment with the Technical, taking out the first pod. Fight as long as it's safe and before the Reinforcement timer turns red, then hack with the Shinobi and abuse the two stun turns to clean up.

[Abathur_X]

One thing to factor in regarding the assaults "stun gun" build as well is it does NOT allow you to shoot mechs with chain lightning, which does diminish some of its usefulness here too. However A well utilised chain lightning with a maxed stun gun can just completely shut down the entire enemy map. I will say that much in the stun gun build's defense.

[Wolf]

Dude we need a LWOTC version for templers, skirmishers etc. this guide is solid though cheers!

[Fa1nan]

Arc Pulser enables the Assault to target mechanical enemies with the arc thrower, however, they won't be stunned, they take a small amount of damage and have their hack defense decreased.

In order to increase the stun duration you have to upgrade the Arc Thrower which isn't worth the resources. The basic version will always stun biologicals for 2 actions, i.e., a full turn on most enemy units.

[Shuryanon]

Really nice guide. I have just gotten back to the game and wanted to make sure? does Arc Pulser (Assault) not help stun ennemies for more turn? I tough you needed it now to stun more than the next turn only.

[Fa1nan]

Check the "Gear and Facilities" section again which outlines the must-gets in roughly the correct order. Everything else should be decided based on how the campaign is going.

[Starkfield]

Would you consider expanding on the best order to build please? Just a paragraph of your particular build order. Reading your soldier guide has taken a lot of the worry out 'doing it wrong'. Many thanks!

[Starkfield]

Excellent! I am a Xcom 2 noob - I am on my first campaign and running Long War 2. This stuff is invaluable!! Do you have a YouTube Channel? If not. You should! You have so much to offer new (and I'm sure old) players!

[Sgt. Hobo]

Cool, thanks for the reply.

[Fa1nan]

I wasn't even aware that LWOTC is still being worked on. I will absolutely play it when it comes out and update the guide with my findings.

[Sgt. Hobo]

Hey man, love he guide. Really useful. Are you planning on updating it a bit for LWOTC when thats finished?