|
I haven't played a blade focused ranger since the buff to Blademaster but prior to that I found that the usefulness of swords tapered off quite a bit as the game went on. Early game they deal really solid damage at passable accuracy but once Run and Gun and Hunter's Instinct become a thing swords can't keep up and being able to use them every turn doesn't really help since you probably don't want to use them every turn and Run and Gun has a fairly short cooldown. It also doesn't help that the best sword focused skill is mutually exclusive with the skill that makes it much, much safer to run directly into an enemy's face. It's definitely possible that swords are more useful than I think and I'd like to see how they get used in the LP.
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 07:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 07:02 |
|
|
Zomborgon posted:I think we've covered that topic. Funnily enough I DON'T have that mod. The same stuff must be built into another one that I use.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 07:59
|
|
|
Best part about swords early on will always be how they don't take ammo. Sometimes you don't have shots in your gun and absolultly need an alien murdered.WrightOfWay posted:It also doesn't help that the best sword focused skill is mutually exclusive with the skill that makes it much, much safer to run directly into an enemy's face. Assuming you mean Implacable and Bladestorm, the former is great for swording and shotgunning. The latter is a useful defensive skill, but not to the point of being the best sword skill for a machete monster. Also count me in for the "Never liked using Phantom" group. Never saw the point of leaving one person in concealment when there are aliens to be killed.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 08:14
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:The ability to make a full dash and still get to make an attack on a target is a big deal. Before you get run+gun, you have to make do with dash+slash. It has its uses, especially with Blademaster, which makes the sword a guaranteed kill against those 4-HP troopers and even 8-HP sectoids. I really do mean "guaranteed", because Blademsaster gives an aim bonus to swords. I'm not a huge fan of Phantom, and I'd never put it on my first ranger. A skill that prevents the ranger from participating in overwatch ambushes? No thanks. However, on non-timed missions, a squadsight sniper and a concealed ranger can completely cheese the game. It's almost as abusive as the squadsight-sniper+mimetic-skin-spotter combo in the previous XCOM. I think there's a case for Phantom later in the game. One trick you didn't demonstrate on this mission: hacking a lamp post with the intention of failing, and setting an overwatch trap for the reinforcements. I think there was time to try it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 08:42
|
|
|
I have never hacked a lamp post with the intention of failing. That's simply not a thing that's crossed my mind. It would be dependent on the effect of the failure I suppose. One of the more common failed hack results is an entirely new pod of aliens dropping onto the map. There's never been a point where I thought to myself 'hey, this mission needs more aliens'. That is an interesting idea, because I suppose as intended you trigger ADVENT to run into an overwatch trap, and as a 'failure' you get the best hack reward the lamp post had to offer. Kind of a strange situation.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 09:07
|
|
|
Jade Star posted:I have never hacked a lamp post with the intention of failing. That's simply not a thing that's crossed my mind. It would be dependent on the effect of the failure I suppose. One of the more common failed hack results is an entirely new pod of aliens dropping onto the map. There's never been a point where I thought to myself 'hey, this mission needs more aliens'. That is an interesting idea, because I suppose as intended you trigger ADVENT to run into an overwatch trap, and as a 'failure' you get the best hack reward the lamp post had to offer. Kind of a strange situation. I guess it's for people with supreme confidence in their ability to win extra pod or not, but who want to pad out their squads rank with the 3 bonus kills.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 09:25
|
|
|
Gridlocked posted:I guess it's for people with supreme confidence in their ability to win extra pod or not, but who want to pad out their squads rank with the 3 bonus kills. It's mostly a move for when you've nearly won already, on missions where you get the loot after. A few more bodies can nicely help with the monthly budget.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 10:17
|
|
|
I hope all operations names are as good as this one. A shame Chiaphas didn't get the hacking bonus, but I can't complain too much anyway, I shooted a sectoid in the junk, so great success.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 10:52
|
|
|
Keanu Reeves in Hackers, Jade? Really?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 11:40
|
|
|
Gridlocked posted:Funnily enough I DON'T have that mod. Probably Perfect Information, given how the workshop page for the linked mod says that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 12:33
|
|
|
Lunethex posted:A mod does in fact exist that shows you what the hacks are and your chance just from the hack tooltip on the target. This is actually more than just a convenience tool. If a Gremlin passes through enemy awareness squares while you're concealed, it will count as breaking concealment. Not having to move to see what a hack is removes that risk. It might only break concealment if you go through with the hack attempt though? Green Intern fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Jul 19, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 12:38
|
|
|
Add me to the list of the players that swears by Phantom: being able to maneuver a soldier around relatively safely to scout or get a flank off can be invaluable, especially on missions where the squad would normally start revealed, allowing me to be more aggressive with my movements since I can have my Phantom Ranger lead the way unseen. That and I had way too many sword strikes miss that I don't find it reliable enough to bother using unless there are absolutely no better options avaiable or if I have a backup to guarantee the kill if(when) it misses. Though I haven't played in quite a few months, so that was before Blademasters got their sword accuracy buffed.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 13:05
|
|
|
Speaking of zombies, there's a sort of game breaking mod that gives an extra psi class that raises psi zombies and poo poo. But they also have broken 'do damage and set everyone on loving fire in a grenade launcher radius.' Wee bit overpowered
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 13:24
|
|
|
Green Intern posted:This is actually more than just a convenience tool. If a Gremlin passes through enemy awareness squares while you're concealed, it will count as breaking concealment. Not having to move to see what a hack is removes that risk. It might only break concealment if you go through with the hack attempt though? The lamppost itself has awareness squares and I've never seen this happen. Do you have proof handy?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:23
|
|
|
Failing a hack breaks concealment, if the failed hack result is "The enemy gains awareness of your location" and you're already in full kill mode there's basically no reason not to try to hack it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:27
|
|
|
Phantom - wooo! Blade - booo! The sheer power of an invisible scout is amazing all the way through the game. Knowing where pods are without being seen even after breaking stealth is like cheating. Even more so in missions where you aren't concealed because you can move a lot faster with a hidden pointman that just dashes right up. Sure, you kinda remove one attacker from your squad in a sense but I never got in trouble with it especially when you get a bigger squad and run two phantoms in exo suits. Spot pod, set up, have scout rocket pod and clean up. Repeat with the other scout if needed  But tbf, I never liked blade rangers since the aoe skill is so niche and shotgun blasts do the trick just as well as swords Bruceski posted:The lamppost itself has awareness squares and I've never seen this happen. Do you have proof handy?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:31
|
|
|
When it comes to phantom or blade master for me, I don't take phantom until the second promoted ranger. I take it then for security for if I get a start detected council mission. You need the blade master's extra force for ambushes early, and what a phantom ranger is really good for needs some buildup done anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:33
|
|
|
TomBosleyExp posted:Keanu Reeves in Hackers, Jade? Really? He was probably thinking of Johnny Mnemonic and the classic "I want to get online, I NEED a COMPUTER!" line, I'm guessing. Hackers is the young Angelina Jolie. But Sneakers is the superior hacker movie.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:33
|
|
|
And a nice second mission for Alessandra, picking up an officer and sectoid kill. As beefy as sectoids have gotten, would I be wrong to say they sound like they were more dangerous in Enemy Unknown?
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:40
|
|
|
Commander sectoids definitely were. And if you aren't leaving a trail of corpses around for them to reanimate they can mindspin someone and that's not exactly ideal.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:46
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:And a nice second mission for Alessandra, picking up an officer and sectoid kill. Honestly they give the same type of feeling of threat level as Berserkers did in the first game. As in they are easy enough to deal with as long as you can retain control of the situation, but should poo poo start hitting the fan then they can do a lot of damage.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:51
|
|
|
Bruceski posted:The lamppost itself has awareness squares and I've never seen this happen. Do you have proof handy? I've only had it happen when there is also an enemy squad nearby. I've never seen it happen when it's only a scanner post. Sadly, I have no proof. It has occurred for me on both failed and successful hacks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:53
|
|
|
Green Intern posted:I've only had it happen when there is also an enemy squad nearby. I've never seen it happen when it's only a scanner post. Sadly, I have no proof.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 14:59
|
|
|
Oh good, it wasn't just me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 15:04
|
|
|
There's also the fact that the Gremlin can and will path through windows, smashing them and alerting the enemy. As for the Phantom vs. Blademaster Ranger discussion, it's really up to preference (especially with the Blademaster buffs in the latest patches). However what people seem to be forgetting is the fact that the Phantom side of the tree gets a skill that gives a massive pile of bonus Aim and Crit when the Ranger is concealed. Mix that with the ability to re-conceal once a mission and your scouting Ranger basically gets two chances to shout "SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!" before removing an enemy piece from the board. My first game my Phantom Ranger was given Bluescreen ammo and basically used to remove a certain really annoying enemy whenever it popped up. (Not saying which one since we haven't seen it in gameplay yet)
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 15:23
|
|
|
Anyone in this thread who hasn't seen Hackers yet really should do that soon; it's the fun kind of bad 90's movie.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 15:27
|
|
|
Hackers is this, but with added Matthew Lillard
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 15:32
|
|
|
radintorov posted:I've had that happen to me as well: the Gremlin is supposed to be invisible but sometimes when the pathing takes it near an enemy squad they will spot it and Reveal the whole squad, though I've found it to be inconsistent (fix your game Jake!). The real XCOM starts when you find a bug few others have encountered. Cythereal posted:As beefy as sectoids have gotten, would I be wrong to say they sound like they were more dangerous in Enemy Unknown? You would be very wrong. Pectoids are easy to bait out certain actions, but they possess double the health, more aim, and more psi abilities. The little greys showed up in greater numbers, but between the mind meld allowing you to take out several at once and them being weak enough to kill with a single grenade on everything but legendary, they are weaker in every way.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 17:45
|
|
|
The greatest gift a sectoid can give you is panicking a trooper into taking a shot at them, and summarily dying while being the last enemy on the map.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 18:11
|
|
|
Sectoids in XCOM were the chaff, the ADVENT troopers. Pectoids are a force multiplier; if other things require your attention, they can and will make a bunch of complications.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 18:24
|
|
|
Bruceski posted:Pectoids are a force multiplier; if other things require your attention, they can and will make a bunch of complications. That's true of most of the aliens. Aliens have all kinds of strange abilities, but they are mostly suited for a support role. Advent grunts don't have all those fancy powers - which limits them to doing boring things like tossing grenades and shooting at you. Usually in that order.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 18:45
|
|
|
The Advent Troopers are pretty lovely shots as well, they have a max of 65 aim (at least for now) so if you are behind any cover you cripple their chances of actually hitting anyone. (Outside bullshit  perfect aim crits on your dudes)
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:08
|
|
|
Sectoids in XCOM 2 are easier because there's less of them around. You'll get just the one in the first mission in 2 compared to the 8 you faced in 1. Also Phantom Rangers are amazing and when you use them effectively you can activate all the pods on the map when you want to. If you lose your concealment, then that's why you give them Battle Scanners and be amazing that way. With just how meh Blade Rangers are, espeically on Legendary, it makes them a harder sell. And even on Legendary, you can very easily take out a pod with three guys if you activate them on your terms, but having Squad Size 1 does make it much more consistent.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:12
|
|
|
I was probably thinking of Keanu in Johnny Mnemonic. People should just be surprised I remember anything from the 90's.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
If anyone is waiting for a sale on Xcom 2, it's on sale for about $30 on green man gaming.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:28
|
|
|
Still too rich for my blood, especially since EDF 4.1 came out yesterday.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:30
|
|
|
InfinityComplex posted:Still too rich for my blood, especially since EDF 4.1 came out yesterday. And WoW: Legion's prepatch hit today, meaning I've got some serious pretty princess to attend to.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:35
|
|
|
Pyroi posted:If anyone is waiting for a sale on Xcom 2, it's on sale for about $30 on green man gaming. FFFFFFF-I just bought it on Steam the other day  Ah well, I really wanted it during the summer sale and not being able to afford it then made it so hard to resist, especially with the LP starting.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:40
|
|
|
Alkydere posted:However what people seem to be forgetting is the fact that the Phantom side of the tree gets a skill that gives a massive pile of bonus Aim and Crit when the Ranger is concealed. Mix that with the ability to re-conceal once a mission and your scouting Ranger basically gets two chances to shout "SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!" before removing an enemy piece from the board.  skill. The way I play my phantoms is that they ideally don't break stealth before there's like 2 pods left, so I would very rarely have a use for the skill. Especially since I aim for 2 phantoms so one breaking stealth early on isn't a big deal. Ultimately I think that the position and information advantage phantoms give you is incredible, and only is matched by grenadiers generally being broken as hell.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 07:02 |
|
|
InfinityComplex posted:Still too rich for my blood, especially since EDF 4.1 came out yesterday. EDF! EDF! EDF! *ahem* Sorry, couldn't resist. Although that might be a game I'll pick up on a sale in the future because I've always wanted to play them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:58
|
|
