SPARK Builds

[Ithuriel]

[A side note- can we sticky the class build threads? They're quite useful and I keep having to search for them]

What are people's thoughts for builds on the SPARKs? I almost feel like Bulwark is just so good you have to take it every time. I currently have a high-aim SPARK build for Overwatch, which he does terrifyingly well; however, I have no idea what to take at Paladin rank (Channeling Field/Wrecking Ball/Holotargeting) as Channeling Field is just crap and neither of the other two synergize with the build at all... similarly, if I'm making my SPARK non-shooty I have no idea what to take at the very first rank; both Shredder and Combat Awareness assume the SPARK can hit targets... Iron Skin seems incredibly situational though. Anybody have any advice?

[stefan3iii]

I build my SPARK as a tank, because I think they're the only class in the game suited for it, they can go back into the field even while damaged.

Shredder/Iron Skin, whichever. I chose Iron Skin in my current campaign just to fish for Chrysallids in the Psi Gate mission, but that's probably not really worth it, Shredder is likely better. Combat Awareness is right out, you want your SPARK to be shot instead of your other troops.

Bulwark, formidable, repair. Core perks to make the SPARK tanky.

Wrecking ball, which I always forget to actually use, it's pretty finicky, but the other perks at that tier are mediocre, don't think it really matters.

Bombard. This perk is amazing, from what I can tell it has infinite range, and no line of sight requirement. You can just plop it ANYWHERE. I think it destroys cover 100% of the time, or close to it, and does good damage. It also doesn't destroy loot, for some reason.

Last campaign I took Nova as my final perk, but was disappointed. Tiny range and it's blocked by cover. This campaign I took Sacrifice, but haven't used it yet. No idea how the mechanics of it work, does it redirect explosives damage? Psi?

[Tuhalu]

For a Tank build I went with:

Combat Awareness - Bulwark - Formidable - Repair - Channeling Field - Damage Control - Sacrifice

The trick is to just put him on Overwatch at the end of each turn to activate Combat Awareness. Ideally, you want him to run with a Psi-Ops with Bastion, a Specialist for Aid Protocol and a Support Grenadier for Dense Smoke. You'll have something to make yourself very hard to hit every turn (Combat Awareness supplemented by Sacrifice, Aid Protocol or Dense Smoke) and anything that tries to shoot you just ups your overwatch damage. Sacrifice even forces things to try and shoot you instead of anyone nearby.

[Dwarfling]

I build my SPARK either as an Assault Tank (to be played as such), or a Hybrid Tank-Overwatcher.

Tank: C. Awareness - Bulwark - Formidable - Repair - Wrecking Ball - Damage Control - Sacrifice

Overwatch-Tank: C. Awareness - Bulwark - Cool Under Pressure - Guardian -Wrecking Ball - D. Control - Sacrifice

I much prefer the full Tank build tho, to be thrown straight thru and into the enemy pod like you would with an Assault (with prior scouting), blasting a flanked Ayy and sitting there looking pretty with its armor and ablative points. Overdrive acts pretty much as Run & Gun would and can run over enemy cover along the way.

My current SPARK is that overwatch-tank hybrid. I don't like that it's not super reliable in its shooting, but has yet to be repaired and it's a champion already (I'm @ Coils and Powered) .

[LordYanaek]

I currently have a high-aim SPARK build for Overwatch, which he does terrifyingly well

Are sparks affected by NCE? I never noticed this but didn't build new ones after the free Spark from Lost Towers as i got this mission late and didn't really bothered with more soldiers at that point.
Anyway, in my 2 runs (one abandoned when 1.1 was released, the other now finished) i used 2 builds.

• Shredder - Rainmaker - Strike - Intimidate - Channeling Field - Hunter Protocol - (didn't reach Templar level). I didn't really put much thoughts on this, i didn't have Shredder on other soldiers so i thought it would help, Rainmaker is fun (if limited in use) as is Strike. I Intimidate and Channeling field would be nice on a big target in the open but Intimidate rarely procced and Channeling field was often wasted due to poor accuracy in 1.0. Hunter Protocol was fun often resulting in 2-3 shots each time a pod activated due to the large number of enemies and would be better with better aim.
• Combat Awareness - Bulwark - Formidable - Repair - Wrecking Ball - Bombard - Sacrifice. This one was better planned, i wanted a tank that would protect the rest of the squad so i mostly went for armor, providing cover and self healing (repair). I never actually used wrecking ball as it doesn't combine well with a guardian build and each time i used overdrive it was to trigger several abilities like move into Heavy Weapon into Bombard or attack and finish with Sacrifice. Bombard was here as a very efficient cover removal at any range, often used to open LoS on relays for my snipers as he was in the squad doing risky missions including 0% infiltration "prevent data leak". Sacrifice is the ultimate defender perk.

I can see several other builds being useful, to me the most obvious choice is at Vanguard with Intimidate being rather lame (very low proc chance) and Guardian way too unreliable to be included in any build (i had a soldier with Guardian from the AWC this campaign and she never had a second shot the entire campaign!)

[Ithuriel]

I currently have a high-aim SPARK build for Overwatch, which he does terrifyingly well

Are sparks affected by NCE? I never noticed this but didn't build new ones after the free Spark from Lost Towers as i got this mission late and didn't really bothered with more soldiers at that point.[/list]
From what I can tell, they are affected by NCE but this only shows up after the Lost Towers mission; my SPARK initially showed as having 65 aim and all the default stats, but after one mission NCE had kicked in. I can definitely confirm NCE Sparks, because I have two SPARKS that are the same rank and have different Aim and HP.

I can see several other builds being useful, to me the most obvious choice is at Vanguard with Intimidate being rather lame (very low proc chance) and Guardian way too unreliable to be included in any build (i had a soldier with Guardian from the AWC this campaign and she never had a second shot the entire campaign!)

Huh, maybe I'm lucky as all hells? I've had my SPARK take three shots in one turn and get three kills, and honestly I basically expect him to take two shots at this point. It helps he has ~78 aim as a SPARK.


Everybody keeps touting SPARKS as tanks, but can you really do that? Are damage values not just too high? Out of my three SPARKs, I've never had a SPARK that I had to repair outside combat; mostly they've dodged the shots against them or had them eaten by ablative armor. The one SPARK that I did lose took 16 damage in a single turn- two Muton shots, two hits, plus a glancing hit from a grenade. (If you're going to tell me I should never have that many enemies that aren't CC'd, I killed a Berserker Queen that turn which took most of my squad).

[Ithuriel]

Also- is it just me or is the SPARK perk tree... badly designed? There are so many perks that seem like they'll literally never be taken. I can't seen any circumstance where I would take Rainmaker or Adaptive Aim; the former is a once-a-mission minor buff, the latter assumes that you can afford to sit still and take three shots in a row, that you'll have the ammo to do so- plus you can only do this once every five turns. But the real issue is the opportunity cost- in what situation am I not taking Bulwark? You get a bonus point of armor for tank builds, and you now are mobile heavy cover for your allies. On similar notes, organized by rank:

• Aspirant: Iron Skin is worthless. It's far too situational and not even potent enough for that situation.
• Knight: Rainmaker, Adaptive Aim are useless as specified earlier; opportunity cost is too high.
• Cavalier: Rank has three compelling options.
• Vanguard: I'm honestly not sure about this one; Repair is obviously very good, but I don't think either of the other options is useless?
• Paladin: Channeling Field, Holo Targeting are both completely worthless. The former adds perhaps a few points of damage to your next shot- which is lost if you miss, and the shot is already dealing at least 8-12 damage, so it's barely much of an increase; the latter doesn't scale unlike Sharpshooters and only works if your SPARK takes a direct shot at a target- but in that case you'd expect the target to be dead. It doesn't work if the SPARK Overwatches for Combat Awareness or takes any other of a great variety of actions.
• Champion: All seem probably useful? Tbh I haven't hit this rank.
• Templar: See above.

Thoughts?

[LordYanaek]

Everybody keeps touting SPARKS as tanks, but can you really do that? Are damage values not just too high? Out of my three SPARKs, I've never had a SPARK that I had to repair outside combat; mostly they've dodged the shots against them or had them eaten by ablative armor. The one SPARK that I did lose took 16 damage in a single turn- two Muton shots, two hits, plus a glancing hit from a grenade. (If you're going to tell me I should never have that many enemies that aren't CC'd, I killed a Berserker Queen that turn which took most of my squad).

Well, there is a limit to how much you can tank of course but they tank pretty well. They can stack an impressive amount of Armor and their built-in defense helps avoid a few shots. being shredded is particularly bad of course. Sacrifice not only forces shots on you rather than your allies but also gives you more armor.

[trihero]

Rainmaker is insanely good!! Extra radius means you can easily catch 8 enemies with it, and the +2 damage is noticeable. It turns your shredder gun into an "I win" button.

I agree iron skin is maybe a little lackluster, but on the other hand shredder isn't that necessary either if your team has a lot of grenades. Against melee units, +3 armor is quite a lot, so I don't understand what you mean by "not good when the situation arises." The overwatch perk can be not that good either, since it might cause units to attack your other guys instead of the spark.

Holo targeting is fine. I mean what's not to like about a +10% aim buff? When the enemies get to MKIII, you won't be one shotting them anymore and they get annoying defense upgrades, and this counters it. It also helps a bunch on overwatch turns.

[hewhoispale]

...
[*]Knight: Rainmaker, Adaptive Aim are useless as specified earlier; opportunity cost is too high.
[*]Cavalier: Rank has three compelling options.
...

As a PSA, don't take Strike with Bulwark, you've give enemies high cover as you melee them.

[zozj]

Since you mentioned spark's wrecking ball,I just want to ask you guys about it

last time I checked， in vanila Xcom2 this ability is some kind buged.While being activated , it did't just destory the cover in it's path. aslo destory a line of cover some point alone it's path

This can cause some squad wipe situation: a Avenger defense mission, I forgot my spark had this skill ,so I ovedrive ,then I thought :"Oh，I gonna punch a hole in my line of cover." Instead, it wrecked my hole metal barrier and the trees along with it. My whole squad were left wide open!!

so you guys still use it? Am I the only one had this problem?

[LordYanaek]

last time I checked， in vanila Xcom2 this ability is some kind buged.While being activated , it did't just destory the cover in it's path. aslo destory a line of cover some point alone it's path

Well, some covers are actually a single multi-tile object and if you destroy on tile, you destroy the entire object (whither you destroy it with a grenade, demolition the spark ...)
Others (usually walls) allow you to break a hole in the cover and leaves the remaining intact.

The trick to get the most of this ability is to use control-click to set a precise path that will destroy enemy cover and not yours. It basically changes Overdrive from "take 3 actions" to "run around and remove cover".

[zozj]

The trick to get the most of this ability is to use control-click to set a precise path that will destroy enemy cover and not yours. It basically changes Overdrive from "take 3 actions" to "run around and remove cover".

Yeah,I tried. So many times I tried to bypass my own cover with specific routes，it still strip my entire/half squad wide open most time.

I didn't find a easy way to identify which cover is multi-tile. so I figured, spark choose this skill must take a different tactic position.

for instant ,lone wolf or squad lead such far away position to ensure others have their cover intact.

you guys choose this skill played same way or you have a better way?

[LordYanaek]

I usually had the spark in front of my troops (since he provided cover).
When i planned to use Overdrive for multi actions (usually move once then fire and use the shredder gun or shredder + bombard or shredder + sacrifice at the end) i would move him first (also allowed me to visualize the blue move) then activate overdrive to avoid destroying cover.
If i wanted to remove cover i would eventually move him once first then activate overdrive and use the remaining 2 moves to destroy enemy cover (usually it was enough). I never activated overdrive while he was behind my soldiers then moved him with cover destruction active through my ranks (learned no to do this in previous vanilla XCom games )

Note that sometimes planning the correct movement path is difficult as the pathfinding algorithm can be stubborn

[Fizzwick]

...
[*]Knight: Rainmaker, Adaptive Aim are useless as specified earlier; opportunity cost is too high.
[*]Cavalier: Rank has three compelling options.
...

As a PSA, don't take Strike with Bulwark, you've give enemies high cover as you melee them.

I have that combo and it's not an issue if you plan properly. Either be sure the strike will kill or at least position the SPARK so it won't provide cover against your soldiers if the strike misses or fails to kill. I've had more issues with the occasional Lancer running into melee a soldier next to the SPARK and getting (temporary) cover that way than having a striking SPARK go give cover to an enemy.

[LordYanaek]

But it's always extremely fun when an enemy takes you spark for cover and then you just move away and they are like "WTF happened to my cover"

[hewhoispale]

...
[*]Knight: Rainmaker, Adaptive Aim are useless as specified earlier; opportunity cost is too high.
[*]Cavalier: Rank has three compelling options.
...

As a PSA, don't take Strike with Bulwark, you've give enemies high cover as you melee them.

I have that combo and it's not an issue if you plan properly. Either be sure the strike will kill or at least position the SPARK so it won't provide cover against your soldiers if the strike misses or fails to kill. I've had more issues with the occasional Lancer running into melee a soldier next to the SPARK and getting (temporary) cover that way than having a striking SPARK go give cover to an enemy.

Last time I tried to blue move into punch action (i.e. two separate moves, not a charge), the guy I wanted to punch had cover, from the spark that was trying to melee him. It is possible to plan around, but there definitely is some anti-synergy there.

[Fizzwick]

The fact enemies get cover at all from a SPARK is rather unusual to my mind. I figure the whole thing of soldiers getting it is partly because the SPARK is actively cooperating to hide the soldier behind it, blocking enemy aim. Enemies wouldn't have that advantage since the SPARK wouldn't be so cooperative for them.

[LordYanaek]

Shortcuts in the code. Bulwark was coded so the Spark counts as a cover object and cover ignores camps. To have it differentiate XCom from Alien would require a condition before applying the cover that checks who is adjacent to the Spark, or rather four conditions (1 for each side in case an XCom and Alien are both adjacent on different sides of the Spark). Firaxis decided it was too much troubles probably considering aliens would rarely go adjacent to an enemy on purpose

[seananigans]

As a PSA, don't take Strike with Bulwark, you've give enemies high cover as you melee them.

I have that combo and it's not an issue if you plan properly. Either be sure the strike will kill or at least position the SPARK so it won't provide cover against your soldiers if the strike misses or fails to kill. I've had more issues with the occasional Lancer running into melee a soldier next to the SPARK and getting (temporary) cover that way than having a striking SPARK go give cover to an enemy.

Last time I tried to blue move into punch action (i.e. two separate moves, not a charge), the guy I wanted to punch had cover, from the spark that was trying to melee him. It is possible to plan around, but there definitely is some anti-synergy there.

On the subject of enemies oddly having cover against your SPARK, I don't even have smite and I have this weird issue sometimes. I'll move my spark literally adjacent to an enemy who has cover from another direction (not between him and the SPARK), and the SPARK's gun attack is subject to the enemy's cover for some inexplicable reason. Occasionally the game will bug out with LOS stuff and you can save/exit and come back in and it'll be fixed, like those "wtf I should be flanking this guy" times, but in these SPARK cases, nothing seems to help. I haven't figured out exactly when this behavior will happen, has seemed intermittent thus far.

Come to think about it, perhaps it's because he does have bulwark. Maybe the fact that bulwark gives cover to enemies, and thus the SPARK itself would be shooting across its own cover it's giving the enemy, creates this problem. Which ultimately sort of makes Bulwark annoying in that you have to make sure you don't move adjacent to enemies before you attack them, despite that being a desirable thing to do for aim bonus etc.

[hewhoispale]

On the subject of enemies oddly having cover against your SPARK, I don't even have smite and I have this weird issue sometimes. I'll move my spark literally adjacent to an enemy who has cover from another direction (not between him and the SPARK), and the SPARK's gun attack is subject to the enemy's cover for some inexplicable reason. Occasionally the game will bug out with LOS stuff and you can save/exit and come back in and it'll be fixed, like those "wtf I should be flanking this guy" times, but in these SPARK cases, nothing seems to help. I haven't figured out exactly when this behavior will happen, has seemed intermittent thus far.

Come to think about it, perhaps it's because he does have bulwark. Maybe the fact that bulwark gives cover to enemies, and thus the SPARK itself would be shooting across its own cover it's giving the enemy, creates this problem. Which ultimately sort of makes Bulwark annoying in that you have to make sure you don't move adjacent to enemies before you attack them, despite that being a desirable thing to do for aim bonus etc.

That is totally what is happening. Bulwark makes the sides of a SPARK non-sight blocking high cover. This also applies to ADVENT. This includes ADVENT that the SPARK moves adjacent to. Much like if you have a solider and an ADVENT sitting on opposite sides of the same half-cover fence, there is now cover between the gun and the target.