X-COM XCOM 2 + War of the Chosen Expansion Thread

[Korgan 2.0]

 

[Zeriel]

^ That's why a strong hacker is mandatory.

Hacker ain't going to do shit when codexes have teleport with no cooldown. With 16 codexes you can teleport to the enemy and kill them instantly before they get to do anything.

I guess I should provide context: that screenshot is from multiplayer.

 

[Talby]

Instant mission failure with all XCOM operatives lost even if you've otherwise completed the objective isn't an interesting consequence to me. I could get behind it if it meant fighting an overwhelming force, or if the mission is just aborted and you have to evac, but the way it works currently just isn't an enjoyable experience. There's also missions where completing the objective and evacuating your squad actually fails the mission because you didn't kill all the aliens first. It was very frustrating to complete a flawless op and be told I "failed" because I only killed 6/8 alien grunts.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm liking the enemy variety and miniboss like enemies in this game. Gate keeper and avatar touched some of my (and my soldiers..) special places.

 

[vdweller]

Hmmm...I wonder if my Dual core / Radeon HD 4870 can handle this.

 

[Zeriel]

Hmmm...I wonder if my Dual core / Radeon HD 4870 can handle this.

Hhahahahahhaha

No.

 

[Daedalos]

Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel

 

[Volrath]

I'll buy the super duper enhanced edition with all DLCs and expansions three years from now...

...on 75% off.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Playing the game for 5 hours or so, I'm profoundly disappointed. I can't even complete a stupid supply drop that I get interrupted by 4 different "critical" mission items, it's infuriating. When I play video games, the last thing I want to do is be overwhelmed with deliverables and having to put out constant fires, I know the first game had some of that too but the pacing of it was perfect. The base building is meh, there's too much stuff that seems to unlock also adding to the mayhem.

Overall, Enemy Within was way better, better combat that had just the right amount of mini-games vs just straight shooting and maneuvering fun, and the overmap stuff had the perfect pacing.

Yeah I noticed that. Scanning takes too long, and events come too quickly.
I just want an engineer. Stop making me do things.
Still pretty fun though. The tactical battles do feel satisfying.
Also, you should kill the support last; for whatever reason, sectoids are programmed to cast necromancy and make themselves useless for a turn instead of being a danger.

 

[Jasede]

Hmmm...I wonder if my Dual core / Radeon HD 4870 can handle this.

I get 5 FPS on my Radeon 6700M with 1.4Ghz AMD quadcore and 8 GB Ram.
Oh, and it takes 3 minutes to load or end a mission.

Hell, it's why I am waiting for the new notebook to ship. (Yeah, bitch all you want, but I need a notebook for work/school/travel.)

 

[FuriousGamer87]

Rangers are love also the game length is the same as the old one. I love the fact you can spend intel on the second final mission to make it vastly easier.
Total Biscuit is terrible in the game to have his squad wiped out so much on veteran so much that he have to play for 70 hours before winning the game.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Rangers are love also the game length is the same as the old one. I love the fact you can spend intel on the second final mission to make it vastly easier.
Total Biscuit is terrible in the game to have his squad wiped out so much on veteran so much that he have to play for 70 hours before winning the game.

Yeah, rangers are awesome.
Its worth having 2 on a squad, one for scouting and one for slicing.

Still debating whether its worth having a dedicated medic and a hacker. I think I screwed up by not taking that skill that allows you to hack robots.
I might have to send someone to the AWC.

 

[Jasede]

For Legendary, slicing is useless, Phantoms and Gunslingers are kings, as are Grenadiers. (Which some of you called not that useful in lower difficulties!) Remember, you can basically not afford to miss. Oh, you will miss many times, but you must absolutely minimize it.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Still debating whether its worth having a dedicated medic and a hacker

Need both in my group at commander difficulty because both of their "ultimate" skills are day savers. Medics are for curing stunned/unconcious members and healing from a far. Hackes are invaluable thanks to hacking bonuses, especially hacking alarm towers have juicy benefits like dissorianting whole aliens on map for 2 rounds or random mind control.
Also skullmining

Melee is really pointless for a shotgun user really, don't know what they were thinking. For anything an archon blade can do shotgun will do better and from a far.

 

[veevoir]

You cant put a laser sight on a sword.

Also: gunslingers face-off with venom/incidentiary rounds is top kek way to start a fight.

With so much emphasis on getting it done in time snipers sniping tree is lackluster - too situational

 

[Zetor]

Sniping seems to be much more useful near the end of the game. The Serial ability is basically an on-demand ITZ with a cooldown (DFA is the ghetto version of it... still worthwhile though) -- it combines well with Deadeye too. Also, Kill Zone is ridiculous for opening vs a pod: spot with Phantom ranger, set up killzone to cover the pod, open with grenade launched into clump, watch sniper murder everything as they scatter. Still, I think one sniper per team should be enough (ditto with rangers, unless you want a blademaster for some masochistic reason).

Specialists are very much necessary, if only for Haywire Protocol. Combat Protocol and the overload ability are nice too... plus you won't ever have to carry battle scanners if you have two specialists.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Oh yeah, grenadiers are amazing.
Heavies were my favorite class in EU, and grenadiers are even better as they can move and launch grenades.
The fact they can launch any grenade makes them really powerful; heavily armored targets? Launch an acid. Group of enemies? Fire a flashbang from the safety of your back line, etc etc.

On the contrary, I found slicing to be good for when you really want to kill a fucker.
This is on commander. I do admit that phantom is the better choice, as the ability to scout ahead of the main squad and see what's ahead is powerful.
Early game blade master is useful though, as a soldier with that skill can 1hko most targets.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Still debating whether its worth having a dedicated medic and a hacker

Need both in my group at commander difficulty because both of their "ultimate" skills are day savers. Medics are for curing stunned/unconcious members and healing from a far. Hackes are invaluable thanks to hacking bonuses, especially hacking alarm towers have juicy benefits like dissorianting whole aliens on map for 2 rounds or random mind control.
Also skullmining

Melee is really pointless for a shotgun user really, don't know what they were thinking. For anything an archon blade can do shotgun will do better and from a far.

Swords ignore cover though, and you can always use them after dashing. It synegizes pretty well with reaper, as you can dash from enemy to enemy, cutting them apart like Sanjuro

 

[Jasede]

On Legendary the thing is that slicing does too little damage and has a chance to miss. You would be safer with better scouting (Phantom), more utility (Gunslinger) or 100% guaranteed damage (Grenadier.) You can't afford to miss. Well, you can, but not with a slice. Not to mention it can trigger pods.

Blades would need to do about twice the damage and never miss to be viable, I'd say. Or maybe just twice the damage.


Then again, maybe they work for you. Maybe you are playing in a way that uses them better than I am able to. In that case, kudos.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I use them when I can't get into position to get a nice shot off with a shotgun at something that really needs to die, or if I really need to advance to a position due to time constraints.
Sometimes they do miss, but they usually get the job done.
Blademaster is needed though; that +2 damage goes a long way.
The arc blade upgrade is pretty handy as well, due to the stun chance; you can make an enemy useless for a turn with that thing.

Concealment is a pretty good choice for a blademaster; what I like to do is do the overwatch ambush without the blademaster, use him to gut any stragglers, and go back into concealment if I need to scout, steal the objective, ect.

Well, on commander anyway. Might be different on legendary.

 

[Korgan 2.0]

On guerrilla missions with a hack target, the hack bonuses for it can be amazing. I once got a 2x scanning speed increase for a month. Get a hacker with skulljack + skullmining ASAP, and protect them.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

On guerrilla missions with a hack target, the hack bonuses for it can be amazing. I once got a 2x scanning speed increase for a month. Get a hacker with skulljack + skullmining ASAP, and protect them.

Yeah, I keep forgetting I can hack the objective remotely. Like a dumbass.

 

[veevoir]

Accidentally triggering other pods is the biggest drawback of swords. Seriously, this shit alone makes it not worth it.
As a bonus they sometimes damage cover even on miss, so your ranger can be left there butt naked. Being able to re-conceal and bonus aim and crit chance from concealment beats it any day. Add to that the fact swords have to be separately researched and built.

I consider sword a backup when you are absolutely, positively desperate and without shotgun ammo.
As for that skilltree the skill that makes you attack of opportunity with sword is pretty useful though against viper tongue or lancers or anyone who just walked through the door youre camping.

 

[Zetor]

On guerrilla missions with a hack target, the hack bonuses for it can be amazing. I once got a 2x scanning speed increase for a month. Get a hacker with skulljack + skullmining ASAP, and protect them.

Not to mention Alien Facility intel. If you get one of those early and use it when the only alien facilities are like 3-4 regions away, you can immediately hit one of them, allowing you to build contacts towards the other and hit that as well. This can fuck the momentum of the Avatar Project pretty badly...

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

On guerrilla missions with a hack target, the hack bonuses for it can be amazing. I once got a 2x scanning speed increase for a month. Get a hacker with skulljack + skullmining ASAP, and protect them.

Not to mention Alien Facility intel. If you get one of those early and use it when the only alien facilities are like 3-4 regions away, you can immediately hit one of them, allowing you to build contacts towards the other and hit that as well. This can fuck the momentum of the Avatar Project pretty badly...

How do you find facilities? Is it random?