Need some help with Assault and Ranger classes

[redscare]

Hi there!

Loving LW2 so far. I had not used any of the new classes here before. I like the redesign very much but I'm struggling with Assault and Ranger. I'm 99% sure I'm using them wrong so I thought to ask. I'm still using kevlar and have just researched magnetic weapons (though no cash to build them XD), for reference.

Assault seems like a bullet magnet. The poor guys performs decently but always ends up mauled and out of action for a whole month or so. Even if I always place the guy in full cover. Should I use a rifle on low level Assaults and keep more distance? Do they start to shine after some particular rank? Am I missing some critical perk? So far Shinobis seem to outperform Assaults in their "go in their faces" role, and Shinobis are also great scouts.

Ranger seems fine on paper, but I find the class a underwhelming. Maybe it's just cos I got a bit of bad luck and got under-average mobility rangers. So same question: Does the ranger only shine after reaching some level? Some particular build you guys find useful? Any other class seems more useful than Ranger.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

[Arcalane]

For Assaults, I recommend sticking with the rifle and try focusing on the arc thrower perks.

My stungun assaults are actually surprisingly formidable, and also an extremely hard counter to ADVENT mechanized units. The 'damage synthetics with stungun' perk is just... well, the basic stungun is 2-4 armour-ignoring damage; the Mk2 is 4-9 or something like that. I assume the Mk3 continues this trend and does like 8-12 or something.

Initially I thought it was going to be this dumb little gimmick, but my lead assault has actually pulled off several 'clutch' shots, even occasionally stunning enemies in high cover. Simply augmenting the thing with the 'disorients even if it misses' perk makes it a pretty vicious counter to any ability-using enemy like sectoids.

[GavinRuneblade]

Disorient on miss is something I find amazingly useful. So useful that I can't imagine ever using the other two options. There are very few ways to get true reliability in long war, so I hold onto anything that is 100% certain with a white knuckled grip. ^.^

[mattprice516]

Assaults: Best in the game at "I need this specific thing to die RIGHT NOW" due to the "run n gun" and "rapid fire" and "I have a shotgun" combo. If you're still using Kevlar by the time you have Mag, I might recommend researching better armor though. Arc thrower build is also fun, I tend to do a nice variety of builds among my assaults.

Rangers: Get high aim on one of these guys and go to town, either with crit perks (left side) or OW (right side). They start out being able to shoot twice (!!) and pick up all sorts of perks for shooting things better. When I get one with low aim I typically give them the more sawed-off ammo perk and stick them in a Haven.

[Arcalane]

Rangers: Get high aim on one of these guys and go to town, either with crit perks (left side) or OW (right side). They start out being able to shoot twice (!!) and pick up all sorts of perks for shooting things better. When I get one with low aim I typically give them the more sawed-off ammo perk and stick them in a Haven.

One of my MVP soldiers is an OW/standard shot Officer-Ranger; I got a Sidearm Holster from Grimy's Loot Mod that significantly reduces mobility but gives an extra action point. Doesn't move very far*, but once he catches up he puts out shots like nobody's business. 3 from the rifle and a free pistol shot every few rounds via Lightning Hands. Great for those limited squad size missions.

*Especially when poisoned. At one point I think he was only able to move all of ~4 tiles using all 3 AP.

[8wayz]

The idea behind Assault is to get close and personal with the aliens, but always have someone watching your back.

I have my Shotgun-totting Assault teamed with a Melee Shinobi and they can easily take down two targets per turn. You can always have someone with Overwatch/ Area Suppression covering them.

Using the Arc Thrower as a main weapon might be interesting, but I prefer the classic Assault which can pack some heavy punch.

I use mostly Rangers for Overwatch and they are pretty good at it. Having the sawed-off shotgun as a finishing weapon for big guys is also very convenient.

The critical chance Ranger needs some extra ammo and good aim, but it can fire up to 3 times on your turn. A duo of Crirtical Chance + Overwatch Rangers is a pretty fine combo - 4 shots on your turn + Overwatch from the second Ranger.

The main thing about these classes is that you have to have them paired with someone that compliments their abilities.

[Devon_v]

IMO Assaults compliment Shinobi. They finish the fight, never start it. Let them skirmish mid-range with Slug Shot, then Run and Gun for the shotgun kill on the last guy.

Rangers want someone else to be doing cover destruction. They just want to sit in their foxhole and shoot all day long. Their damage output is really high so long as they don't have to move.

[trihero]

Since enemies hide in high cover so often due to the AI update, I find one strategy that helps is to slowly creep towards them in an attempt to flank. I actually hunker down quite a bit (enemies rarely run your overwatch traps unless you are literally out of their range, and even then sometimes they just overwatch themselves); they would rather stand behind high cover and shoot at you). So what this means is with the assault class I advance him and hunker down, in order to get good flanking shots on the next turn. Assaults with shotguns are very good at flanking and reliably smashing enemy troops with point blank shots, but you need to try not to trigger extra pods and you need to make sure they don't die the next turn. There's a learning curve here; I definitely share your experience with assaults and shinobis being wounded/getting killed much more often than everyone else because I use them recklessly.

I find generally if you have 2 "close range guys" like 2 assaults or assault + shinobi that you can generally end fights quickly and safely on demand. Going with 1 you risk him getting rekt on the enemy's turn, and going more might be an interesting strategy but there are limited slots and there are a lot of other troops you probably want to bring.

Rangers - remember to equip them with ammo, they need it more than perhaps any other class since all they can really do is shoot. Tracer rounds (comes from Hybrid Materials research) are cheap $5 for +5% aim, and stick scopes/repeaters( or whatever those things are called that increase aim on overwatch). Laser weaponry has a +5% aim bonus. It shouldn't be hard to get them to +15% and since they attack twice you might even consider shooting through high cover sometimes if it's safer than moving up. Consider removing cover with Sapper grenadiers, technical rockets, or using sharpshooters to holo target enemies to make the most of the ranger's double shots.

I know it's super annoying in general to deal with enemies hiding in high cover. Remember to use flashbangs if need be to reduce their damage as you get in for flanking shots. High cover is just so powerful (-45% aim and no flank crits) that you want to try not to shoot through it, especially with the turn timers meaning you don't have all day to exchange shots from behind high cover.

[jztemple]

I actually hunker down quite a bit (enemies rarely run your overwatch traps unless you are literally out of their range, and even then sometimes they just overwatch themselves); they would rather stand behind high cover and shoot at you). So what this means is with the assault class I advance him and hunker down, in order to get good flanking shots on the next turn.

Thanks for posting this. I find myself wasting shots on lower percentages or setting up Overwatch that never gets triggered. I'm assuming that the AI can't tell whether you have active Overwatch or not? Or doesn't care?

[trihero]

Thanks for posting this. I find myself wasting shots on lower percentages or setting up Overwatch that never gets triggered. I'm assuming that the AI can't tell whether you have active Overwatch or not? Or doesn't care?

I think the AI does care, and it tries to avoid it if it can (mechs/lancers don't care very much I think). I'm definitely with you on many times the AI won't trigger overwatch. In fact I'm not entirely sure when you can count on them running into it; my guess is if they are literally out of firing range of your troops they try to move towards your position or if they're in half cover they will try to move to high cover if it means triggering overwatch, but I have also noticed sometimes they just feel like sitting still and overwatching themselves if you're out of range. Overwatch is much less useful than in vanilla due to the AI upgrades. That's why I feel hunkering down is sometimes very much the right answer since you don't really want to shoot at them in high cover or risk taking damage yourself.

They will try to stay behind high cover and they don't care if it means taking 20% or lower shots. They even hunker down if you reduce their aim to zero (through suppression, flashbang, etc).

I wish I knew the mechanics more precisely behind how to know what move they will take next, it's something I could really improve on. I was getting good at it in vanilla but now the AI is different. I guess I could try to force myself to write down what I think each troop will do next and see if it matches up and think about why it doesn't if I mess up.

Specifically I don't know when the enemy will overwatch or when they will run overwatch, except for very obvious conditions like they walked into your overwatch to begin with on patrol or your blew their cover entirely.

[redscare]

Thanks for your replies!

I'll definitely give the Arc-Thrower-Assault a spin. And giving my rangers some extended clips so they can fire non-stop does indeed help. I'm not a fan of overwatch, though. I prefer to kill everything on my turn, on my terms, and flashbang/suppress what I cannot kill.

Disorient on miss is something I find amazingly useful. So useful that I can't imagine ever using the other two options. There are very few ways to get true reliability in long war, so I hold onto anything that is 100% certain with a white knuckled grip. ^.^

So true!! Also love Hail of Bullets

[Arizael]

The Shinobi are sort of glass cannons. Their offensive capability comes primarily from their sword and the situation often does not allow you to use it effectively without endangering the shinobi. If they get pinned down, there is little what they can do by themselves. This is especially true if you go for high mobility build, so they carry the SMG and no grenades.

Assaults advance into flanking position slower than shinobis and run and gun has cooldown. But they don't expose themselves as much and can protect themselves better. Arc thrower is very useful tool (mind control). Shotgun on overwatch will protect you from hostiles flankers, the SMG will not.

Overall I find assaults better for the job when enemy is clustered, while shinobis shine against lone targets. I would also nearly always take assault+shinobi over 2 shinobis or 2 assaults.

The ranger is one of the few classes that don't suffer from low mobility as much. Their job is to pin down the enemy and hold the line so other classes can do their job. These are the guys who will take the shots after you destroyed enemy cover or overwatch for your flankers. Being able to shoot twice is huge, not only from damage output perspective, but these 30% shots become much more appealing if you can overwatch, hunker down or throw a flashbang afterwards.

[Arcalane]

The Shinobi are sort of glass cannons. Their offensive capability comes primarily from their sword and the situation often does not allow you to use it effectively without endangering the shinobi. If they get pinned down, there is little what they can do by themselves. This is especially true if you go for high mobility build, so they carry the SMG and no grenades.

One thing that was a huge gamechanger for one of my Shinobi was that he rolled Rapid Deployment as an AWC perk.

Now he always carries flashbangs. It's not quite a ninja smokebomb, but it's close enough.