Crippling RNG, no agency.

[Phaseless]

@Phaseless

I admit that you were right from the start - it really depends on which difficulty you are playing on how you view the graze band. On Commander and Legendary where the aliens get huge advantages in stats and numbers, that extra RNG feels at times like the aliens are cheating.

I can only assume that on lower difficulties you can make it in your favour somewhat as you can easily manage pods and alien numbers.

You really do not want to check how much Dodge the aliens have on Legendary. And your tools have limited number of uses per mission. On the second or third pod you will be out of tools and completely at the mercy of the RNG.

Which, as Tac1 can attest, is not clement at all.

I don't think I'll ever play legend but I'm pretty certain I'll start my next campaign on commander.

[Tac1]

Most of the way through March, few rough patches, but my luck seems to have changed a bit. Still running into consistent issues of Advent Officers and Sectoids nailing 5% shots, but at least I've stopped missing everything. I've resorted to using Rangers Light'Em'Up! to double-fire into cover for the sake of grazing targets to death. Walk Fire is helping, too, but I'm debating between it and Ever Vigilant. Though Overwatch penalties honestly have me wondering how useful that trait even is.

Roughly five missions deep, only had one that ended without a severe injury, but nobody is dead yet. Drones have stopped giving me issue, now that I have more people with armour piercing rounds, and a Grenadier carrying enough explosives to put me on a watch list.

[LordYanaek]

Walk Fire is helping, too, but I'm debating between it and Ever Vigilant. Though Overwatch penalties honestly have me wondering how useful that trait even is.

A bit off topic but it's your topic so i guess it's fine if i go off topic to answer you.

EV is a great ability if you plan to have that soldier be part of a squad doing many timed missions and spend most of his time running. Being able to fire on an unexpected pod even after you double moved is great, especially when you can fire up to 3 times. OW penalties are quite manageable if you build the soldier for OW (Hair Trigger, CuP) and even more if he gets help from his officer. It's actually possible to have better odds of hitting on OW shots than regular ones (thought i don't remember the break-even point).
EV also allows you to pull some interesting stunts such as dashing behind the enemy to flank them and then fire when they try to get back to cover. Be sure to also take Covering Fire if you plan on doing that : i've lost a ranger to a Muton Elite who stayed in his flanked position and shot me rather than move.

Walk fire OTOH works great for rangers who will stay in place and fight a "trench war" against the enemy, especially combined with Locked On. Usually you don't want to fight a trench war because it increases the risk of attracting more pods (who can be dangerous with Yellow Alert) and doesn't allow you to progress towards the objective but in some missions and with the right squad setup a "stationary ranger" can be very strong.

This all depends a lot on how you play thought. What works nicely for some players won't for others and i find it says a lot how well LW2 is balanced.

[Tac1]

I know EV would be better later on, with a dedicated build, but I'm concerned if anyone I have will even live that long. Walk Fire is helping me now, on the other hand, and is definitely helping me mitigate the '88% to hit but still miss' problem. Even with cover, +30 to aim is damn fine. Add in +10 from a good scope, +10 holotarget, Light'Em'Up with Locked On and I start feeling actually confident in hitting something for a change.

A shame it's effectively a glorified Graze per turn.

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I managed to snap a screenshot of my glorious luck, this time.

[Phaseless]

An almost secure 2 damage is worth a lot in very many situations, though it's importance is somewhat diminished if you got red fog activated.
I gave ever vigilant to my first ranger but since then always went with walk fire. I use it several times each mission and in 90% of cases it doesn't let me down.
Last mission I had real bad luck and minrolled 2 times consecutively on a 3 hp sergeant, letting him survive 2 walk fires with 1 hp when I finally decided he is going to die by my shinobi's sword because I've really had enough of this garbage.