Tuning Feedback + The Mod That Most Improves My LW2 Experience

[lilyophelia]

Tuning Feedback

I'm fortunate to have started a two week vacation just as LW2 dropped; I currently have ~150 hours of play time into Long War 2 atm.

I absolutely love LW2, and most of it is flat out amazing!

There is one big place where I'm really a bit disappointed in vanilla LW2 tuning, however.

When it comes to shots against enemies in cover, I feel like the game is really rough on distance shooters of any kind. I find that I really have to rely on point-blank characters (primarily Shinobis or Assaults) who can reliably rush forward to flank for most of my kills. Almost every other character ends up being support (or I simply avoid using certain classes), because they just aren't effective at making shots and getting kills.

I've tried literally everything at this point. Shinobis spotting for sharpshooters. Technicals with flamethrower. Gunners with suppression. Holo Targeting support snipers. Pistol perks. Etc. Etc.

Shooting matches just tend to devolve into unfun, slog-fests. By the time the aliens have Vipers, Mutons and Mechs, it just becomes unbearably rough.

You either default to explosives, or run up and try to flank (usually activating more pods in the process and putting your soldiers in crazy danger).

GnaRs LW2 Tactical Submod

So I stumbled on GnaRs LW2 Tactical Submod today, and it restores a lot of the aim bonuses for flanking and good angles, and I immediately noticed that it fixed a lot of my fun/QOL issues right out of the gate. It's very subjective, but it works really well for me.

Yes, it does make the experience a lot easier. Shots are often in the 40-60% range, where before they would be closer to 20-40%. When you get into flanking range, hits become almost guaranteed (but there's still a lot of dodging going on).

However, I find that it makes shooters fun and viable again for me. Instead of running 2-3 Shinobi and an Assault (plus Sharpshooter, Grenadier and Specialists for support), now I can also add Gunners, Rangers, DD Sharpshooters, and even Technicals back in to my squads, and they can actually score some hits/kills with their weapons and pull their weight again.

I have the option of slowly advancing, and not activating 3-4 pods all at once anymore.

It's a lot of fun for me.

I think a lot of the missions that felt horribly overtuned (esp. Avenger defense) will feel perfectly fine and playable now.

Final Thoughts

So thank you for LW2! I love it. I appreciate the new 1.1 update. I can't wait to get back to my game (after this post) and play some more.

If anyone else finds themselves struggling with some of my concerns, I encourage you to give the mod above a try. See if you enjoy the way it feels.

Be well!

[Devon_v]

Terrain removal is what you want. Sapper, Demolition, Concussion Rockets. Out of cover Rangers tear things up. You also need their volume of fire against MECs and Berserkers.

There's also Walk Fire, Hail of Bullets, Iron Curtian, the accuracy booster and auto-hit abilities.

The thing you don't want to do is get into cover to cover firefights.

[speedmaster]

This has been a problem for me as well. At least as far as sharpshooters, rangers, and technicals go. Sharpshooters are too slow and while they can become useful as they hit 4-5 levels in, I find even that difficult because there isn't a spot for them on early game infiltration squads, thus leaving them considerably weaker than my assaults, grenadiers, gunners, and shinobis come midgame. Technicals were incredibly useful in the early game, but quickly became a liability as enemy pods became larger and tankier. Even with their rocket accuracy upgrade the scatter is too RNG to risk over a solid grenadier, even though the damage is higher. Once the rocket is used they essentially become deadweight and marginally more useful than a rookie due to leveling. I haven't tried the flamethrower tree yet in 1.1, but I could never find a way to use them consistently in 1.0. The range is low so usage would often require advancing the technical up, which is dangerous and could activate pods. Compare the flamethrower to a shinobi or gunner flèche and the damage and range limitations of the flamethrower become painfully obvious and don't really make sense. It has AoE but I doubt many players have found a consistent way to find that zone. Rangers are better but I was surprised they weren't the core troops I thought they'd be. Gunners filled that role much better, with a significant damage advantage and much, much more utility.

I didn't really play Long War 1, but I did watch some LPs back in the day, and the mechanics and overall philosophy is consistent with that in Long War 2, I think. However, the particular mechanics of concealment and mission timers in XCOM 2 makes mobility and reliable damage an absolute must, in my opinion. That means sharps and techs are almost always leave-behinds and rangers risky to take, since if the map and pod placements are prohibitive, rangers essentially become rookies again.

I could never go back to vanilla after experiencing LW2, but the class balance still needs some tweaking I think. Namely on the issue of consistency vs power. I can't stress enough just how insane gunners are relative to these other classes on those two metrics. Their damage and utility advantage plus the incredible hail of bullets skill at rank 2 with a center massed machine gun makes my snipers and technicals blush with shame.

[Arcalane]

Gunners got a lot of power loaded into their guns because they have the least useful/flexible secondary compared to all the other classes - Sharpshooters can light enemies up for teammates, Assaults can stun/disorient enemes, Grenadiers are Grenadiers, Techs can blow shit up/set things on fire, and so on.

[speedmaster]

I understand but from my personal experience I'm saying that I wouldn't take a sharpshooter or technical over an additional gunner. Infiltration times would be the biggest factor but I find that manageable with setting resistance to Intel and spending Intel to boost infiltration. The issue is that technicals can blow things up and sharps can holo target enemies, but gunners will put enemies down when I need them to. I have no issues with assaults. They are balanced and I find consistent, powerful uses for the arc thrower.

[lilyophelia]

I think that support classes are really fun and can be very powerful.

Unfortunately, when you have pod after pod after pod, and there are +3 enemies coming in each turn, you need a way to kill them almost as fast as they spawn.

Until you get to Vipers (and their high dodge), 6 Shinobis or 6 Assaults (with run and gun up) can pretty much take out 6 enemies each turn.

A specialist, sharpshooter, and grenadier team might be able to do a lot of support, but it's going to be tough for them to keep up. Timers, reinforcements, large numbers of pods (that are also large in number), and the super overtuned encounters that are meant to be scary really discourage a lot of "for fun" strategies.

Just my opinion. I'm having a great time atm.