Saph7 wrote:I'm really not sure how anybody can think that Sharpshooters are underpowered and need Serial to pull their weight. Jo has already explained why Squadsight is so powerful, but here's some data to back it up.
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Sharpshooters are quite deadly enough already.
There is another way to look at this. The game process can be described as a fight between chaos and order, there players task is to instill a favorable order on things while the game keeps throwing at him more and more rng. From this perspective ability to project power beyond given soldiers visual range only have meaning if it translates into ability to project order.
For example in LW1 it was possible for a sniper to damage an enemy unit for 1 and disable its weapon, very weak power projection, but reasonable order projection. Now in LW2 sharpshooters, unlike say assaults, are left with only one method of projecting order, - they make one particular piece of rng disappear, completely. The obvious problem here is what this approach, while in many ways preferable to any other form of controlling the battlefield, has a downside - you have to be reasonably sure in the outcome, otherwise you are fighting random with random, and that's usually how KIA list grows longer. Luckily Sharpshooters have skills allowing them to have +(30-40) to hit near every turn. Not so luckily, random have a final say in either you will have the opportunity to utilize this boon.
Now, i don't know what kind of SS builds you are using for your current campaign, DFA, Snapshot or this hybrid which seems to be so popular among legend testers, but that time-frame of early summer and GSGT ranks is exactly the time when SS are at their best, not because of some overpowered, broken ability, but because nobody else have theirs overpowered, broken abilities.. Later on SS would cease to be such an indispensable problem-solver then you can simply BunkerBust, CombatEngener or Shredderstorm away your problems. Now your ranger can shoot 'em with 100% to-hit too! Its not what SS are too weak or too powerful, gameplay changes drastically after last two tiers came into play, and SS without Serial on MSGT are basically the same as on SQ just with more damage now.
So, what changes could be made to SS. Mine idea would be to reduce reliance on random early game by making DFA giving free steady after kill instead of free action, but providing it regardless of elevation. Serial can be altered to be free action, charges based, similar to Reaper. Meaning, player will use Serial to mark targets, a la normal holo, but with n free action charges, and then shooting any of marked targets with a skill of SS preference will activate consecutive standard shots at rest marked targets in the order they were marked.