Officer Strategy

[Jacke]

My current Legendary campaign is still in early days, so I was thinking (yet again) about Officer strategy, which class to make Officers and what skills to give them, when I've got a tossup.

The most common Officer perk choices I'm planning to take are these.

Focus Fire - Incoming! - Jammer - Lead by Example - Fire Discipline - Air Controller - Combined Arms

Common alternates would be two or three 2Lt Shinobis with Oscar Mike instead of Focus Fire to help get VIPs to the evac. And depending on resource need, at least one Officer with Scavenger instead of Combined Arms. Or maybe all of them, not sure.

For Haven Advisors, I'm thinking of going with Technicals, who'll get at least to LCpl or Cpl and 2Lt, maybe higher.

Shinobis and Holotarget Sharpshooters are squad Officer possibilities, likely having spare actions for Officer perks that need them. But the Shinobi may not be within Command Range of many or most of the squad, that being 8.1 tiles (maybe 9.1?) for 2Lt and going up to 15.1 (16.1?).

So I was thinking for each squad have a Shinobi trained to 2Lt with Oscar Mike. And a Holotarget Sharpshooter (with Pistol) as the main Officer with Focus Fire, at least Lt. That way I'd have Shinobi for the small squad stealth missions where Oscar Mike is very useful. And for the larger squad fighting missions, take the Holotarget Sharpshooter, who'd outrank the Shinobi.

But what about those 5-6 troop missions, where fitting in a Holotarget Sharpshooter may serious cut combat power? But having another class as Officer means using most Officer perks will cut into its firepower.

And for when I don't want to take either, I could have a Blade Shinobi with Focus Fire. But that soldier should be busy cutting and not commanding. And would likely still have the Command Range issue.

After Shinobi and Holotarget Sharpshooter, what is the usual best class for Officer? Specialist? Medic Specialist?

[trihero]

Specialist makes sense, although recently I'm trying out a Ranger with combat fitness. Rangers have very high aim, and they spread combatness fitness quite well with "lead by example." Ranger tends to be right in the middle of the combat, and offers firepower on his own.

Psi ops/technical officers also make sense since they have little to do in between their cooldowns/limited skills.

Shinobi command range is less of an issue than you may think, try it out. Your shinobi shouldn't be THAT far away from the team, except when scouting for squadsight, and in that case you have plenty of time to run back to the team.

Not sure why you pick Air Controller. It doesn't work on retal missions; how often is the evac timer an issue? Infiltration can be a factor however to squeeze in an extra man or two.

[Jacke]

Specialist makes sense...

Except when they outrank a Shinobi Officer when paired with them, especially on stealth missions, which I remember from previous Officer discussion.

...although recently I'm trying out a Ranger with combat fitness. Rangers have very high aim, and they spread combatness fitness quite well with "lead by example." Ranger tends to be right in the middle of the combat, and offers firepower on his own.

Been thinking about that too.

Psi ops/technical officers also make sense since they have little to do in between their cooldowns/limited skills.

I'm a way off from checking out Psi, but I'm making Tech Officers for Haven Advisors.

Shinobi command range is less of an issue than you may think, try it out. Your shinobi shouldn't be THAT far away from the team, except when scouting for squadsight, and in that case you have plenty of time to run back to the team.

I think what I'm going to do is try out as many as possible. I already have a Shinobi who's got Focus Fire and now training for Incoming! Have a Holotarget Sharpshooter in my Alpha squad who's Shinobi I can train to 2Lt with Oscar Mike for independent stealthing. Will try out a Ranger and a Technical (and eventually a Psi Op) as other squad Officers.

Not sure why you pick Air Controller. It doesn't work on retal missions; how often is the evac timer an issue? Infiltration can be a factor however to squeeze in an extra man or two.

That's a good point. And it's interesting that Air Controller and Infiltrator are set against each other. Using Infiltrator could likely overinfiltrate and get the evac turn count decreased by at least 1, or alternately bring in extra troops. Will go with that in my squad Officer build.

Focus Fire - Incoming! - Jammer - Lead by Example - Fire Discipline - Infiltrator - Combined Arms

[Elder_Basilisk]

I've been rather happy using a combination of specialist line officers and shinobi infiltration commanders for my run through.

I only make a few of my shinobi into officers (and then only my stealth spec shinobi) so I don't have issues with my the officer I want to use in a mission. (I guess I'd have issues if I wanted to drag specialists on stealth missions under the shinobi command, but unless I get ghostwalker or other stealth abilities through the AWC I've found them to be a liability rather than an asset so I'd rather just give a shinobi a skull Jack and hacking pcs to get hack rewards)

Also, I became much happier when I split out the stealth teams into their own squads. Why keep your whole shinobi infiltration team in a squad when you're probably only going to use one of them (if that) on a nonstealth mission? Split them into their own squad and you can manage your infiltration bonuses better and keep a minimum of fuss in your squad selection.

[Jacke]

Not sure why you pick Air Controller. It doesn't work on retal missions; how often is the evac timer an issue? Infiltration can be a factor however to squeeze in an extra man or two.

I just saw xwynns LW2 Legend #48 video ("Wounds & Stories") where he does what is labeled by the UFOpaedia page for Missions (LW2) a Haven Defend mission, which has the Countdown Exit, as does the Recruit Raid mission. Does Air Controller affect that timer?

Looking further down the UFOpaedia page, it appears that Haven Defend mission is a retaliation mission, so maybe Air Controller won't help there.

I don't like how the terms for the missions are inconsistent. Partly this is due to stock XCOM 2 having mission names and those being adapted by Pavonis in LW2, but I really wish there was a regular nomenclature as it gets confusing. Is that mission in xwynns video #48 a retaliation or not? By the first table on the UFOpaedia page, it is not. Reading further down, it is.

[Jadiel]

I just saw xwynns LW2 Legend #48 video ("Wounds & Stories") where he does what is labeled by the UFOpaedia page for Missions (LW2) a Haven Defend mission, which has the Countdown Exit, as does the Recruit Raid mission. Does Air Controller affect that timer?

No, it doesn't. Air Controller only works on missions where you use an EVAC flare.

[trihero]

If you read air controller's ? button, it specifically says only works on missions where you toss the evac flare. By wording alone, it will not work in haven defense missions or mini-retaliations of any type, since you are not the one casting the evac flare.

If you are not convinced by wording, I tested this in 1.0. I was so sure air controller would work in retals/miniretals and wouldn't that be the best thing ever? But no, I brought an air controller officer and I saw the same timers as the ones without an air controller.

[LordYanaek]

Specialist makes sense, although recently I'm trying out a Ranger with combat fitness. Rangers have very high aim, and they spread combatness fitness quite well with "lead by example." Ranger tends to be right in the middle of the combat, and offers firepower on his own.

I have to add my voice to the Ranger officer. It's really not as bad as some players implied. I have one in my current run (Jane Kelly because she was so good in my very first campaign that i try to give her an important role every game and she became a Ranger). She can still shot once and then use command or use Get Some then Rapid Fire. Of course i loose a bit of her firepower when i use an officer ability but usually i use those because a normal (or double) shot from her Coil Rifle won't be enough anyway. Command on the Serial Sharpshooter who just reloaded or on the Grenadier for another boom, Get Some just before some alpha strike where a single shot isn't as important as 100% crit on the sniper or very high crit for my Aggression-Saturation Fire Gunner. She finally reached a very good Aim with Combat Fitness + Perception PCS (it's added to the stat in the armory so i guess it's counted) so Lead by Example gives a nice bonus to the non-snipers of the squad. The Holotargetter is probably still a better idea for a dedicated combat leader but a Ranger is probably a better alternative than i first thought.

A specialist is more fitted to take Collector and might make sense in squads doing limited fighting missions such as non full stealth guerilla and high infiltration Ambushes, giving you some added Intel, especially in a squad with troops that don't need much aim (Shotgun Assaults, Flamer Techs, Grenadiers) or already have higher aim (Snipers). A 3Sniper+Shinobi ambush squad could probably benefit from a Medical Specialist officer as the 5th men to keep them in perfect fighting conditions.

Also i took Scavenger on my other Field Commander for the heavy duty squad doing most of those low infiltration raids and 18h left "Destroy the Relay" as i think the added resources can be really useful. Alloy is the bottleneck for me late in the game.